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Grammy winners in key categories

• Album of the Year: Bruno Mars, 24K Magic

• Record of the Year (for overall performance of a song): Bruno Mars, “24K Magic”

• Song of the Year (for songwriting): Bruno Mars along with songwriters Brody Brown, James Fauntleroy and Philip Lawrence and production team The Stereotypes, “That’s What I Like”

• Best New Artist: Alessia Cara

• Best Pop Vocal Album: Ed Sheeran, Divide

• Best Pop Solo Performance: Ed Sheeran, “Shape of You”

• Best Rap Album: Kendrick Lamar, DAMN.

• Best Rap Song: Kendrick Lamar, “HUMBLE.”

• Best Rap Performance: Kendrick Lamar, “HUMBLE.”

• Best Rap/Sung Performance: Kendrick Lamar featuring Rihanna, “LOYALTY.”

• Best R&B Album: Bruno Mars, 24K Magic

• Best R&B Song: Bruno Mars, “That’s What I Like”

• Best R&B Performance: Bruno Mars, “That’s What I Like”

• Best Rock Album: The War on Drugs, A Deeper Understanding

• Best Rock Performance: Leonard Cohen, “You Want It Darker”

• Best Alternative Music Album: The National, Sleep Well Beast

• Best World Music Album: Ladysmith Black Mambazo, Shaka Zulu Revisited: 30th Anniversary Celebration

• Best Dance/Electronic Album: Kraftwerk, 3-D The Catalogue

• Best Music Video: Kendrick Lamar, “HUMBLE.”

• Best Country Album: Chris Stapleton, From a Room, Volume 1AFP

ABS-CBN launches its first digital series

ABS-CBN News and Current Affairs is experimenting with a purely digital series, Lakwatsero, which follows television host Robi Domingo as he travels the lesser-known tourist spots in the Philippines.

“The star of the show isn’t me but the places we went to and the causes we want to push. It’s not just a travel show [because] we get to realize that we need to become advocates to protect and conserve [the environment],” said Mr. Domingo during a press conference on Jan. 26 at the network’s headquarters in Quezon City.

Lakwatsero — the Filipino colloquial term meaning someone who likes to be out and about — will see Mr. Domingo tour areas such as Basey and Calbiga in Samar, Malapascua and Bantayan islands in Cebu, Bacolod, and Iloilo in the Visayas, and Mt. Apo in Davao del Sur, Bukidnon, Cagayan de Oro, and Iligan City in Mindanao.

The show is set to premiere on Jan. 29, 6 p.m. It can be viewed on ABS-CBN’s News Web site (under the Life section), and on the network’s Youtube and Facebook pages.

It will air every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.

Mr. Domingo previously hosted the same show in 2014 on ABS-CBN’s English-language news channel, ANC. Back then he toured spots outside the country like Hokkaido in Japan.

Unlike ANC’s show, the digital Lakwatsero series will focus first on Philippine sites before moving on outside the country.

DIGITAL BATTLEGROUND
With the introduction of its first exclusive digital content series, ABS-CBN has joined GMA Network on the digital battlefield.

Earlier this month, GMA Network launched its ONE (Online Exclusive) series with three shows — Adulting, #Goals, and Fact or Fake — with the episodes uploaded weekly on its Youtube channel.

“We’ve been doing digital content for a few years already but this is the first time [we’re doing something] purely digital. And we are exploring more millennial content to reach the widest audience,” Francis Toral, head of ABS-CBN Docu Central, told BusinessWorld shortly after the press conference.

“I think it’s the right time since we’re engaged in the broadcast business but we have been challenged to come up with purely digital offerings,” she added.

Ms. Toral explained that since their digital channels (social media and news Web sites) enjoy millions of views every day, the network wanted to tap the audience “that’s veering away from TV already.”

But ABS-CBN is not letting go of TV just yet as Lakwatsero, aside from having accompanying written articles on its Web site, will also be re-edited and shown on television, although no date has been revealed yet on when it will air.

More digital content is on its way, said Ms. Toral, focusing on “content millennials want and need,” but she assured that they will also be offering content about politics and economy.

Lakwatsero will be shown on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays starting Jan. 29 at 6 p.m. on the Life Section of ABS-CBN News.com, the official ABS-CBN News Facebook page, and the official YouTube channel. — Zsarlene B. Chua

Good tidings for local club football if Ceres beats Tianjin

LOCAL football club Ceres-Negros FC goes for greater heights today as it shoots for a spot in the AFC Champions League in an away qualifier match against China’s Tianjin Quanjian.

For one football writer and observer, while where Ceres is right now is already groundbreaking for local club football and as is a great achievement, still the possibility of advancing to the group stage of the Champions League could provide more good tidings.

“It is an achievement. No Filipino club has been so near towards the AFC Champions League group stages,” said Lorenzo Del Carmen, who writes and analyze football for local site Tiebreaker Times.

“If they win, then it should be big news because Tianjin is infinitely wealthier than Ceres or probably the rest of the Filipino football community in general,” he added.

Ceres put itself in a position to advance to the group stages when it was able to fashion a major upset over Brisbane Roar, 3-2, last week in their second preliminary round qualifier match in Australia.

Bienvenido Maranon starred in the win, scoring a brace, with Omar Nazari adding another to secure the big win for Ceres.

The “Busmen” said they are going to China determined to make things happen and go for the spot in the Champions League.

But while beating Tianjin is not totally a remote possibility, still Mr. Del Carmen said Ceres has its work out for it against the China club.

“Does Ceres have a chance against Chinese club Tianjin Quanjian? Well, no pressure on the Busmen,” said Mr. Del Carmen.

“They just have to play with no pressure and play their game. A goal will help ease their nerves and strike some questions for Tianjin,” he added.

Meanwhile, as of this writing there has been no word yet whether the game between Ceres and Tianjin would push through as reports have it that the Ceres team was having difficulty securing visas to travel to China.

According to a report in Fox Sports Asia, Ceres applied for visas immediately upon its return from the Philippines on Friday but was told “there wasn’t enough time to process them before the weekend,” and that the earliest they can secure the visas would be yesterday.

Ceres is said to have been asking the AFC Champions League to move the game date if ever so it can compete on an “even” footing.

In the event the game pushes through today, it will be broadcast live over Fox Sports at 3:30 p.m. — Michael Angelo S. Murillo

Government debt ends 2017 at record P6.652 trillion

NATIONAL GOVERNMENT debt ended 2017 at a record P6.652 trillion, up 9.2% from a year earlier, though debt as a proportion of the economy remained steady, the Bureau of the Treasury (BTr) said in a statement.

The year-end total was up 3.34% from the end of November and breached the government’s P6.47 trillion borrowing target laid out in the 2018 Budget of Expenditures and Sources of Financing.

As a proportion of gross domestic product (GDP), debt was equivalent to 42.1%, breaching the 40.7% target set by the Development Budget Coordination Committee (DBCC) in June.

“With full-year GDP growth of 6.7%, the stable performance of the economy has maintained the debt-to-GDP level from a year ago,” the BTr said.

“The difference compared to the program is due to the lower-than-DBCC-target nominal GDP and the successful issuance of RTB (Retail Treasury Bonds) in December to pre-fund some of the 2018 financing requirement,” it added.

Some 67% of the total was owed to domestic creditors while 33% was owed to foreign creditors.

About P4.44 trillion worth of government securities were awarded last year, up 12.9%.

This includes the two RTB issuances in 2017, raising P181 billion in April, and P255.4 billion in December.

Government direct and assumed loans on the other hand grew 58.5% to P948 million.

External debt on the other hand rose 2.6% from 2016 totals, “due to P25.2 billion net issuance for the year and the effect of currency adjustments (P8.2 billion for local currency depreciation and P20.9 billion for third-currency depreciation).”

However, external debt fell 0.8% from P2.23 trillion at the end of November.

“Lower external debt for December was due to peso appreciation against the dollar which reduced the peso value of debt by P17.18 billion alongside net repayments worth P3.40 billion. This was tempered by third-currency appreciation against the dollar amounting to P2.58 billion,” the BTr said.

Government securities issued overseas last year grew 1.7% to P1.36 trillion, while direct loans increased 4% to P847.11 billion.

The government borrowed P1.19 trillion from the US, P44.5 billion from Japan, and P129.68 billion from other countries through peso global bonds.

This year, the government has set a debt target of P6.99 trillion. It also projects overall debt to decline to 37.9% of GDP by 2022. — Elijah Joseph C. Tubayan

TV5 to slash losses by 50% this year

TV5 NETWORK, Inc. is looking to slash its losses by half this year, as it targets to break even by 2019.

TV5 President Vincent “Chot” P. Reyes said the media company already reduced losses by 43% in 2017.

“We had a very good 2017… If we go on the same kind of pace, then we are going to be able to achieve our target,” Mr. Reyes said during a media roundtable on Monday.

He said TV5, the country’s third largest network, is targeting to further cut losses by half this year.

“Always, I’m very optimistic, always more and more. We’re looking at 50%, from what we ended in 2017… That’s the kind of pace that’s going to take us into a good position by 2019 on our target,” Mr. Reyes said.

TV5, the broadcast arm of PLDT, Inc. Beneficiary Trust Fund subsidiary MediaQuest Holdings, Inc., last October partnered with US-based multimedia sports entertainment company ESPN, Inc. to focus more on sports programming.

With the partnership, ESPN5 now airs its local news, sports, and entertainment programs, along with the live sports programs and studio programs of ESPN. The network also airs a Philippine edition of the SportsCenter program of ESPN.

This is the strategy adopted by TV5 to target a specific audience instead of competing in the entertainment segments dominated by ABS-CBN, Inc. and GMA Network, Inc.

Mr. Reyes said TV5 will continue to establish itself as a predominantly sports-oriented network, but will retain the news segments and some entertainment shows.

He added there has been positive feedback from advertisers after TV5’s rebranding.

“We want to cement our position in the minds of the public and the advertisers as well,” he said.

Hastings Holdings, Inc., a unit of PLDT Beneficial Trust Fund subsidiary MediaQuest Holdings, Inc., has a stake in BusinessWorld through the Philippine Star Group, which it controls. — Patrizia Paola C. Marcelo

Sandiganbayan cancels bail bond, orders re-arrest of ex-Palawan governor Reyes

FORMER PALAWAN governor Joel T. Reyes, whom the Court of Appeals recently released over the objections of the family of murdered broadcaster-environmentalist Gerry Ortega, has been ordered re-arrested — but not over the assassination seven years ago. — interaksyon.com

See full story on https://goo.gl/Gd58o9

Jason Day, Alex Noren to decide Torrey Pines title

LA JOLLA — Tiger Woods had taken his bow and left the stage when fierce drama unfolded Sunday at Torrey Pines, with Alex Noren and Jason Day locked in a playoff duel as darkness fell.

The spotlight had been all on Woods as the 14-time major champion wrapped up his first US PGA Tour tournament in a year with an even par 72 for a 72-hole total of 285.

That was good enough for a promising tie for 23rd as Woods launched his latest bid to return to form in the wake of spinal fusion surgery last April.

Woods was never in site of the 10-under par total of 278 that sent Australia’s Day, Sweden’s Noren and American Ryan Palmer into sudden death.

Palmer was eliminated with a par at the first playoff hole, the par-five 18th, where Noren’s third shot into the green spun back toward the pin to leave him a tap-in birdie and Day drained a tough, downhill eight-footer.

The remaining duo returned to 18 and birdied again — both reaching the green in two.

After pars at the par-three 16th, the fourth playoff hole took them to the par-four 17th, where both Day and Noren were in a fairway bunker off the tee.

Both reached the green from there and both two-putted for par, Day’s birdie effort stopping only inches short. — AFP

Raising the Next Generation of Entrepreneurs

What do the world’s seven largest economies (G7 nations) and emerging powerhouses like China, India, and Brazil have in common? All have entrepreneur-driven societies.

At the heart of every wealthy nation is a legion of small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) owned and operated by entrepreneurs. Entrepreneurs are the foundation from which strong economies are built and what keeps them competitive. Not only do SME’s bridge the supply chain gaps of larger companies, they also contribute to national productivity, push innovation, and increase the standard living for all.

For developing nations like the Philippines, entrepreneurship is the most effective way to curb poverty especially in far flung communities. This is because simple cottage industries do not require sophisticated infrastructure to operate — they can be set up anywhere, so long as there is a market with expendable income. Entrepreneurship fast-tracks development in the countryside which, in turn, creates additional employment and prevents migration of people from rural to urban areas. Moreover, entrepreneurship promotes capital formation by utilizing idle assets (capital, land, and unemployed workers) and converting them into something productive.

Entrepreneurship also promotes a culture of creativity, invention, and business dynamism among the populace. This is due to the fact that small businesses must continue to evolve and innovate in order to compete in the marketplace. They must think outside the box to survive. All these leads to the development of new technologies and/or new business practices.

The more entrepreneurs operate within a society, the less people depend on government subsidies. This is why entrepreneurship is said to be the cornerstones of national self-reliance.

Developing a culture of entrepreneurship was not in the forefront of government’s agenda until Secretary Mon Lopez took the helm of the Department of Trade and Industry last year. Under his baton, programs like Kapatid Mentorship, Shared Services Facilities, Go Lokal and Pondo sa Pagbabago at Pag Asenso were established. All these aim to promote the gospel of entrepreneurship among Filipinos.

Unfortunately, the DTI cannot do it alone. Developing a culture of entrepreneurship starts at home.

ENTREPRENEURSHIP STARTS AT HOME
In Philippine society, parents typically encourage their children to become professionals, whether it be a lawyer, architect, doctor, or even a nurse. The rationale is that professionals earn relatively more than the common corporate man while enjoying a semblance of stability and prestige. The more desperate parents raise their kids to be celebrities, politicians, or both. For them, this offers the fastest way to fame and fortune, a fact I cannot refute, unfortunately.

It is only the business owners who typically train their children to become entrepreneurs. They do so to ensure the proper succession of the family business. As a result, business owners become wealthier by the generation. They are the Sys, Gokongweis, Razons, and Ayalas among us. Sadly, there are only a handful of them.

Of course, there are mavericks in society who start and build their own businesses from the ground, up. They are the unsung heroes of our economy. We need more of them to trail blaze new industries and generate jobs. This is why it is our duty, as parents, to impress upon our children that entrepreneurship is an outstanding career choice, not one to be avoided for its inherent risks.

Entrepreneurs are a rare breed. They are people who are self motivated, have a vision, and possess the ability to lead the people around them toward that vision. An entrepreneur is a motivator, a passionate speaker, an organizer, and a chronic planner. He is able to foretell outcomes of certain acts or courses of action.

Academic performance is not a gauge of entrepreneurial talent.

Studies show that there is no correlation between scholastic grades and one’s probability of succeeding as an entrepreneur.

More often than not, entrepreneurs are those who cheat in examinations, barter toys in the school grounds, and lead gangs. This is because entrepreneurs innately figure out how the world works. They know how to make a profit or get ahead in the fastest, most efficient way. They see needs, wants and sources and figure out a way to bridge them. They are creative and not stymied by rules. More importantly, they are willing to assume the risks and consequences of their actions.

The greatest entrepreneurs of our generation — Steve Jobs, Ted Turner, and even our own Ricky Razon of ICTSI — were all scholastically challenged and kicked out of school for not conforming to the norm.

Children display entrepreneurial characteristics early in life and it is every parent’s duty to hone these traits, not vilify them. Cameron Harold, book author and YALE lecturer, describes some of the characteristics typical of natural entrepreneurs.

Children who don’t take instructions at face value. They question the reasons for such instructions and have the gumption to negotiate its terms; children who are self-empowered to make money. You find them selling door to door, making things with their hands to sell or even collect old junk to resell at second-hand stores; children with the innate knowledge to buy low and sell high. These are the kids who buy toys from wholesalers to sell to their peers on the playground; children who recognize opportunity and take advantage of it. These are the young tykes who supply their father’s company with pens, paper and envelopes, just because his father is in the position to approve the purchase.

More sophisticated young entrepreneurs recognize that recurring income is better than a one-time sale. They are those who peddle meat and vegetables to restaurants or provide cooked lunches to office workers. They also recognize the power of “branding.” They have the ability to create a story (or context) for their products and brand it accordingly to create perceived added value.

What do parents do once they detect entrepreneurial characteristics in their children?

Experts advise that children be allowed to execute their plans.

If they fail, parents must acknowledge the effort and encourage them to try again, this time, using the lessons learned from the first attempt.

At an early age, children must be taught the value of money. Giving out allowance without earning it sends the wrong message, experts say. Allowance should be tied to chores. The more chores are done, the more allowance a child is entitled to. This teaches them that there is no free ticket to life — that money is not an entitlement but needs to be earned. It teaches them that the state of one’s wealth is not dependent on others but on their own hard work and industry. Along with this, parents must teach their children to save at least 20% of their earnings, no questions asked. Savings are every person’s weapon against desperation.

Children must be mentored on the dos and don’ts of entrepreneurship and to have an appreciation of good business practices. Experts recommend that parents talk about both good and bad business habits to their children through relatable examples. Perhaps they can tell the story of how Ben Chan grew from a single store in SM City to a retail conglomerate. Conversely, how Texas Chicken failed in the local market. All these make business interesting to our children whilst imparting important business lessons.

Its important, too, to encourage our children to face people and perform. Recitals, declamation contests, and school debates are means to teach our children not to sit in the proverbial back of the bus but to be alphas. The ability to “perform” — to speak publicly, to persuade, to sell, to negotiate, to argue — are all traits they will need in their life as entrepreneurs.

Traits of entrepreneurs are as much a function of nature as it is of nurture.

Parents should do their fair share to breed the next generation of Filipino entrepreneurs. To do so will help the Philippines take its rightful place in the “grown-up table,” along with the G7 nations and new powerhouse economies. It could be our best contribution to nation building.

 

Andrew J. Masigan is an economist.

Fuel prices continue climb

OIL COMPANIES on Monday maintained the five-week upward price movement of fuel products, which takes effect at 6 a.m. today, Jan. 30. PTT Philippines Corp., Eastern Petroleum Corp., TOTAL (Philippines) Corp., Pilipinas Shell Petroleum Corp., and Seaoil Philippines, Inc. have the same increases at P0.45 per liter (/L) for gasoline, and P0.50/L for diesel and kerosene. Seaoil, in its advisory, cited the movements in the international petroleum market as the reason for the price adjustments. — Anna Gabriela A. Mogato

SBS injects more capital into subsidiary LHC

SBS PHILIPPINES Corp. is infusing more capital into its subsidiary to fund the acquisition of warehouse facility owned by a subsidiary of multinational beverage giant The Coca-Cola Corp.

In a disclosure to the stock exchange on Monday, SBS said its board approved the additional subscription to P351.65 million worth of shares of Lence Holdings Corp. (LHC) involving some 52 million shares at P6.7625 apiece.

The shares comprise 65% of LHC’s outstanding shares.

The subscription to additional common shares will be issued from the unissued capital stock of LHC, with the payment of the consideration expected to be made on Feb. 5.

“The additional share subscription is intended as added capital infusion in LHC to partially finance the closing of the acquisition of a warehouse facility property comprising of land, buildings, and fixed assets,” SBS said.

LHC is in the process of completing the P520-million takeover of the facility complex owned by CocaCola Export Corp. — Philippine Branch and its related parties in Laguna. The closing date of the transaction was moved to Feb. 9 instead of Jan. 29.

SBS will use the property for its warehouse and distribution operations that will serve as a key distribution hub for regional market customers south of Metro Manila.

The transaction is expected to result in gains from real estate investments and operational enhancements to be generated from the property acquisition, which will grow and diversify SBS’ income streams in the future.

LHC, which was incorporated in November, is 65% owned by SBS. SBS Holdings and Enterprises Corp. controls 25% and the Sytengco family holds the remaining 10%.

A chemical trader and distributor, SBS diversified into the property and investments business last year to offset some of the fluctuations in the chemical trading business and, at the same time, provide a new income source for the company.

Shares in SBS lost two centavos or 0.35% to end at P5.74 apiece on Monday. — Krista Angela M. Montealegre

Cameron Post wins top prize at Sundance fest

LOS ANGELES — The Miseducation of Cameron Post, a powerful drama about the real-life controversial practice of gay conversion therapy, came away with the top prize as the Sundance Film Festival wrapped Saturday.

Starring Chloe Grace Moretz, it delighted and shocked audiences at its world premiere in the Utah mountains with its story of a teenage girl forced into therapy after being caught having a sexual encounter with the prom queen.

“On behalf of the entire Cameron Post team we want to dedicate this to the LGBTQ survivors of sexual conversion therapy,” said Moretz.

“We just wanted to make this movie to shine a light onto the fact that it is only illegal in nine states out of the 50 states in this country to practice sexual conversion therapy.”

Its director Desiree Akhavan had pre-recorded an acceptance speech for the grand jury prize in Sundance’s “US dramatic competition” section but it could not be played on a night beset by technical difficulties.

Kailash, about one man’s crusade to end child slavery, won best US documentary while the US dramatic audience award — the second prize to the grand jury award — went to Andrew Heckler’s Burden.

The US documentary directing prize went to Alexandria Bombach for On Her Shoulders — a portrait of a Yazidi girl who survived sexual slavery at the hands of the Islamic State group — while the US documentary audience award went to The Sentence.

Butterflies came away with the grand jury prize for world drama while Of Fathers and Sons, a study of jihadi radicalization in the home, from celebrated Syrian filmmaker Talal Derki, won the world cinema documentary competition.

The Sundance Film Festival, founded by actor Robert Redford, is considered a showcase for independent and documentary films, and festival winners often go on to receive critical acclaim and Hollywood awards season glory.

Among the titles from the 2017 edition of the festival picking up trophies at Hollywood’s various ceremonies are Jordan Peele’s Get Out, which played out of competition as a midnight screening. The dark comedy has four Oscar nominations, including best film, director and screenplay.

Call Me by Your Name, which director Luca Guadagnino took to last year’s Sundance, also has four Oscar nominations, including best picture.

Dee Rees’s Mudbound, picked up by Netflix for a considerable $12.5 million at last year’s festival, has Academy nods for adapted screenplay, supporting actress, cinematography, and original song.

Here is a full list of prizewinners from Saturday’s awards:

US DRAMA
• Grand Jury Prize: The Miseducation of Cameron Post

• Audience Award: Burden

• Directing: Sara Colangelo, The Kindergarten Teacher

• Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award: Christina Choe, Nancy

• Special Jury Award for Outstanding First Feature: Reinaldo Marcus Green, Monsters and Men

• Special Jury Award for Excellence in Filmmaking: Reed Morano, I Think We’re Alone Now

• Special Jury Award for Acting: Benjamin Dickey, Blaze

US DOCUMENTARY
• Grand Jury Prize: Kailash

• Audience Award: The Sentence

• Directing: Alexandria Bombach, On Her Shoulders

• Special Jury Award for Social Impact Filmmaking: Crime + Punishment

• Special Jury Award for Creative Vision: Hale County This Morning, This Evening

• Special Jury Award for Storytelling: Three Identical Strangers

• Special Jury Award for Breakthrough Filmmaking: Minding the Gap

WORLD CINEMA DRAMA
• Grand Jury Prize: Butterflies

• Audience Award: The Guilty

• Directing Award: Isold Uggadottir, And Breathe Normally

• Special Jury Award for Acting: Valeria Bertuccelli, The Queen of Fear

• Special Jury Award for Screenwriting: Julio Chavezmontes and Sebastian Hofmann, Time Share

• Special Jury Award for Ensemble Acting: Dead Pigs

WORLD CINEMA DOCUMENTARY
• Grand Jury Prize: Of Fathers and Sons

• Audience Award: This is Home

• Directing Award: Sandi Tan, Shirkers

• Special Jury Award for Masterful Storytelling: Steven Loveridge, M.I.A.

• Special Jury Award for Editing: Our New President

• Special Jury Award for Cinematography: Maxim Arbugaev, Peter Indergand Genesis 2.0AFP

Our EEZ is 360 degrees

Scarborough Shoal (also known as Bajo de Masinloc, Panatag, Panacot), Benham Rise (now Philippine Rise) and the Celebes Sea have been making the news in the past week or so.

About two weeks ago, the USS Hopper, an American destroyer grazed past Scarborough Shoal, once a gunnery range for US and Philippine naval forces when America still had its bases in the country, until the 1987 Constitution banned foreign troops based on sovereign soil. This got China hopping mad, accusing the United States of violating its “sovereignty.” Naturally, Filipino patriots gave the spurious claimant the finger.

Scarborough is well within our EEZ. We claim it as part of our regime of islands with a history of actual use without a challenge until China began claiming almost all of the South China Sea (SCS) as part of its territory. It claimed “indisputable sovereignty” based on its fictitious 9-dash line (originally 11-dashes, then down to 9-dashes, now 10-dashes) that the Arbitral Tribunal in The Hague trashed in 2016.

When it forcibly occupied Scarborough in April 2012 after a Philippine Navy was deputized to apprehend Chinese poachers in the Shoal, in the absence of a Coast Guard vessel in the area at the time, we rushed Coast Guard vessels to confront them. The tense situation prompted the US to broker a deal where both sides would withdraw simultaneously from Scarborough. To make a long story short, we did, China didn’t, and the US was nowhere to be heard after that.

Despite the thawing of relations and the return of Filipino fishermen to Scarborough, China continues to occupy the area and control entry into the Shoal. It’s widely suspected that it will build a forward operating base within Scarborough in rapid fashion like what they did in Subi, Fiery Cross, and five other artificial islands in the Kalayaan island group (KIG). Once that fait accompli is done, it would have total de facto control of the SCS including the EEZs of 5 ASEAN countries.

Last week, Benham Rise hit the headlines when the Chinese said that the Philippines doesn’t have sovereignty over it. Benham, or Philippine Rise, is part of our EEZ and exploitation of its resources is exclusively ours. Allowing joint exploration with Philippine counterparts and sharing its bounty, be it data or minerals, is strictly our sovereign decision to make. No one has to remind us about our exclusive entitlements in our EEZ, much less the one violating it.

The frenzy over that statement brought to mind China’s armed occupation of the SCS and its obvious imperial agenda to dominate the Indo-Pacific theater before conquering the world in due time; after all, China’s a very patient strategist and a master of timing. Its submarines are for certain exploring the depths of Benham to familiarize themselves with critical pathways and hiding places in preparation for future conflict, citing innocent passage to mask their intentions. What else could it be for? And if they control the depths, they will control the surface long before we know it.

A few days ago, social media resurrected a news report about China being invited early last year to help out address piracy in the Sulu Sea and Celebes Sea. I guess it was meant to return the spotlight to an issue that may have been forgotten.

By mid-2017, just after Marawi’s occupation by the Daesh, the Philippines, Indonesia, and Malaysia began their joint operations to deter and defeat lawlessness and terrorism in that area. Singapore, which had been sharing its intelligence date base, was invited to join.

How are the joint patrols coming along? What’s the status of their “jointness?” Do they have a joint headquarters? Are they meeting the objectives? Are there enough redundant ground, sea and air assets, including unmanned aircraft, to cover suspected camps, trails and staging areas 24/7? Why is China needed to help out? What value does it bring in addressing our joint security concerns given its aggressive behavior in the SCS? That’s like jumping from the frying pan to the fire.

The Sulu and Celebes Seas are strategic sea lines of communication. Scarborough is a vital sea line of communication within our EEZ. Benham Rise is a crucial sea line of communication as well. If we have China freely gallivanting in all these areas, we’d be totally surrounded. Have we asked ourselves what the long-term consequences would be to the Philippines, to ASEAN and to the entire Indo-Pacific region should that come to pass?

China’s island fortifications in the SCS are vital components of its imperial agenda. Apart from Woody Island in the Paracels, China has built significant point-defense capabilities — anti-aircraft guns and close-in weapons systems (CIWS) — at each of its outposts in the Spratlys: Fiery Cross, Mischief, Subi, Gaven, Hughes, Johnson, and Cuarteron Reefs. China won’t spend big money building and prepositioning war assets like fighters, bombers and long-range missiles if it doesn’t have a plan to suit its “Kingdom under Heaven.”

Unfettered access in Scarborough, Benham, and Celebes would transform the Philippines into China’s giant fulcrum to deny the US the ability to secure the Pacific Ocean, SCS and Indian Ocean. As Deng Xiao Ping once said: “There can’t be two tigers on the same hill.” The Philippines seems to be that hill which is strategic real estate. No less than US President Donald Trump said so when he visited the country late last year. I’m pretty certain he wasn’t referring to the Trump Tower in Makati City.

Sooner or later there will be a clash in the SCS between the US and China whether anyone likes it or not. Both powers have opposing national interests and we will be at their crosshairs, each one wanting us to side with them. The question to ask ourselves now is: What would be best in OUR national interest? My reply to that is: Build credible deterrence with deliberate speed. It is our constitutional duty to defend ourselves. We cannot, and must not, abdicate that responsibility and the right to remain free.

 

Rafael M. Alunan III served in the Cabinet of President Corazon C. Aquino as Secretary of Tourism, and in the Cabinet of President Fidel V. Ramos as Secretary of Interior and Local Government.

rmalunan@gmail.com

map@map.org.ph

http://map.org.ph