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Fish sauce makes Vietnam billionaire’s fortune

FOR VIETNAMESE consumer tycoon Nguyen Dang Quang, placing his fish sauce and other “must-have” condiments in the kitchen shelves of just about every home in the country has helped make him a billionaire.

Shares of Masan Group, which produces the sauce made from fermented fish that’s widely used in Vietnamese cuisine, have more than doubled in the past six months, compared with the 37% gain in Vietnam’s benchmark VN Index. That lifted the net worth of Quang, the company’s chairman and founder, to $1.2 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.

“Masan serves consumers with ‘must-have’ ones like fish sauce, instant noodles, to ‘nice-to-have’ items like chili sauce, rice soup or sausage,” said David Anjoubault, general manager at Kantar Worldpanel Vietnam, a research firm that estimates about 95 percent of households in the country uses at least one Masan consumer product. “Local food manufacturers like Masan have a good and deep understanding of shoppers’ needs and behaviors in the country where localization is a vital success factor.”

Quang controls the Ho Chi Minh City-based company through Masan Corp., a closely held entity, as well as its wholly owned subsidiary Sunflower Construction Co., according to company filings with the Ministry of Planning and Investment. Quang and his wife have a 49% stake in the holding company, the filings show.

Quang’s cofounder, Ho Hung Anh, who’s Masan Group’s vice-chairman, owned 47.6% of the holding company as of September 2015, according to the latest available filings. Anh “contributed to the early stages of Masan Group’s development,” the company Web site said. His net worth isn’t calculated because his current stake can’t be verified.

Masan Group, which makes other food products including instant noodles and animal feed, declined to comment on the two founders’ net worth.

Masan Group’s shares surged as it recovered from a setback last year following a plunge in pork prices, which it referred to as “the most severe pig price crisis” in history. Pork prices fell after China stopped imports from Vietnam in 2016. The drop in demand for pork drove the group’s consolidated revenue 9% lower to 27.5 trillion dong in the first nine months of 2017, according to the company’s presentation.

“Pork prices have rebounded as China resumed the imports of Vietnamese pigs, raising expectations for better performance from Masan Group this year,” said Vu Xuan Tho, a senior analyst at Korea Investment & Securities in Seoul.

Quang started his business in the 1990s after years of studying in Russia, where he has an MBA from the Plekhanov Russian Economic University. He also received a doctorate in technical sciences from the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus, according to Masan Group’s Web site.

The billionaire saw an opportunity as Russia was going through a period of economic transition at the time, and started selling instant noodles to Vietnamese living in the country. He eventually built a factory to produce 30 million packages a month, and expanded to soy, fish and chili sauces, according to Masan’s Web site. Following the success in Russia, he returned to Vietnam in 2001 and shifted the business focus back on his home market.

Kantar Worldpanel, which tracks shoppers’ behavior, ranked Masan Consumer among Vietnam’s top three food brand owners last year, along with Unilever NV and Vietnam Dairy Products or Vinamilk.

Masan Group is best-known for its fish sauce under brands including Chin-Su and Nam Ngu. Other than meat and packaged food, Masan Group also owns more than a third of Vietnam Technological & Commercial Joint-Stock Bank, commonly known as Techcombank, through an equity stake and convertible bonds, according to its presentation.

The possible listing of the bank has also contributed to the jump in Masan Group’s shares, Tho from Korea Investment & Securities said.

Masan Group drew a $250-million investment from KKR & Co. last year, with $150 million going into its meat-producing business, Masan Nutri-Science. That’s the third round of investments in Masan Group from the New York buyout firm, which began in 2011 with a $159-million investment in what was then Vietnam’s biggest private-equity deal.

Quang adds to the two Vietnamese billionaires on international wealth rankings — real estate developer Vingroup’s Pham Nhat Vuong and Vietjet Aviation Joint Stock Co.’s Nguyen Thi Phuong Thao, who’s Southeast Asia’s first self-made woman billionaire. — Bloomberg

Kentucky school shooting leaves two students dead

WASHINGTON — A teenage boy opened fire with a handgun at a Kentucky high school early Tuesday, killing two fellow students and wounding more than a dozen people in the latest mass shooting to hit the United States. The unnamed 15-year-old student, now in custody, is alleged to have carried out the attack at Marshall County High School in Benton, a small town in western Kentucky. Two students of the same age died of gunshot wounds, while 13 other people were shot and five suffered other injuries during the shooting, Kentucky State Police said, adding that those hurt ranged in age from 14 to 18 years old. Students ran from the scene after hearing shots, local media reported, and the school was placed on lockdown as the incident unfolded. They were later bused to a neighboring school where parents could retrieve them, the Marshall County Tribune-Courier newspaper said. Fourteen of those hurt were male and six were female. Four of them are still in hospital — three in “critical but stable” condition and one in “stable” condition, according to police. The suspected shooter was apprehended in a “non-violent” manner, and will be charged with both two counts of murder and multiple counts of attempted murder, Kentucky Governor Matt Bevin said. One of the students died at the scene and the other after being taken to a hospital. The shooter struck just as the school day was starting. — AFP

Facebook will ‘do better’ to stem abuse — Sandberg

FACEBOOK, INC. promised “to do better” to boost privacy, stem the spread of hate speech and clamp down on the abuse of the social network to influence votes, Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg told a Brussels audience, including a European Union (EU) commissioner.

“We know that tech companies need to do better and that we at Facebook need to do better. We have a lot to improve,” Ms. Sandberg said. “We have not done enough to stop abuse of our technology.”

Facebook and other Internet platforms are facing a wave of legislation across Europe that may force them to do more to stop terrorist content appearing and spreading online. New privacy rules come into force across the EU in May that could levy heavy fines on companies that don’t comply. Regulators are also looking at how some online platforms may have been misused to unfairly swing votes, such as the British poll to leave the EU.

Facebook wants “to help people take control of their data” and will put users’ privacy settings in one place to make it easier to manage, Ms. Sandberg said. The company will also try to explain to users how advertising works. The company is investing in artificial intelligence and in hiring up to 20,000 people by the end of the year to identify and remove harmful content, including hate speech and material that promotes terrorism, she said.

‘EYE CATCHING’
“We remove a lot of content but we can always do better in enforcing policies,” Ms. Sandberg said. Facebook is “never going to be able to stop” fake news entirely but will go after fake accounts and disrupt an ad model that rewards clicks on eye-catching content, she said.

Germany has now begun enforcing Europe’s toughest law aimed at reining in hate speech and fake news on social media, threatening to fine the likes of Facebook, Inc., Twitter, Inc., and Alphabet, Inc.’s YouTube as much as 50 million euros ($61 million) if they refuse to delete illegal posts.

The comments from Ms. Sandberg on Europe’s leadership clash with the thoughts of other Facebook executives. Speaking at the DLD conference in Munich on Sunday, Elliot Schrage, the company’s vice- president of public policy, said Germany’s new law goes too far.

‘BAD IDEA’
“The law places the responsibility for us to be judge and jury and enforcer, determining what is legally required or not, on the private sector, on us as a platform,” he said. “And I think that’s a bad idea.”

Facebook is trying “to move much faster to address concerns,” including European politicians’ call for Internet firms to pay tax in the country where the revenue is made, said Ms. Sandberg. “We heard the debate in Europe around tax and we are voluntarily changing” and will pay tax locally on revenue where it’s earned.

Germany’s new coalition government named Facebook as one Internet firm that should pay “fair taxation” as it called for companies to stop trying to play different EU states off against each other. — Bloomberg

Acting in favor of the people

Finally, after 19 months, the Supreme Court has lifted its temporary restraining order (TRO) on the release of about 700,000 motor vehicle license plates that were previously the subject of a suit filed by two congressmen. By dismissing the suit, car and bike owners — at least 700,000 of them — can hope to receive their new plates within the year.

After all, the plates have already been paid for. I recall having paid for my own plates during registration renewal in 2015. Mind you, this was not for a brand-new car but for an old one. But, the new front and back plates were never delivered. Much like how car owners like me paid for RFIDs years ago during registration renewal, but the project was stopped midway.

It is a fact that payments were made by car owners, but no RFIDs were delivered. And payments were never returned nor credited back to car owners during future registration renewals. As far as I am concerned, that was about P350 that went to the Land Transportation Office (LTO), or to the government, properly receipted, but I never got anything for my money.

At least now, I can still hope to get my new plates.

In a news report in Philippine Star, SC spokesman Theodore Te was quoted as saying the court has dismissed the suit filed by congressmen Jonathan dela Cruz of Abakada party-list and Gustavo Tambunting of Parañaque City that questioned the legality of the Bureau of Customs’ donation of the plates to LTO.

Customs had previously seized the plates after their importer failed to pay the taxes and duties on them. Yes, the plates were actually made abroad by LTO’s supplier, and had to be imported into the country for release to car owners. But, the government and its supplier didn’t provide for duties and taxes on the imported plates, resulting in their seizure.

But, instead of just releasing the plates to the people after they were seized, two congressmen questioned the “donation” of the plates by Customs to LTO as illegal, because of a notice of disallowance issued by the Commission on Audit on the LTO’s payment for the imported plates to the supplier. In short, until the audit issue is resolved, the plates could not be released.

In lifting the TRO, the SC reportedly declared as legal the Customs donation, noting that the appropriation of the budget for the plates, and the use of this appropriation or the budget for their payment, were unconstitutional.

As early as 2015, the court already ruled as legal the LTO’s purchase from a supplier new license plates for both old and new vehicles registered.

Admittedly, releasing 700,000 plates is a small win considering that the present backlog of undelivered license plates is reportedly over six million. But, as I had noted in a column in June 2016, all that motorists want is to get the plates that they had paid for with hard-earned money. In my case, I didn’t want new plates, but the government said I should get them and made me pay for them in 2015.

A year had passed after payment and I didn’t get my plates. A lot of other motorists have been waiting longer than I have. Sadly, with the SC TRO in June 2016, which was because of the suit filed by two lawmakers, we all had to wait another 19 months until a decision was rendered finally against withholding the release of the plates.

I can understand that the SC had to stop LTO from releasing any plates already produced “effective immediately and until further orders,” so as not to prejudice the rights and interest of the government in the case. But, at the end of the day, what was instead prejudiced was the interest of the public.

As I had noted previously, what was affected ultimately were the rights and interest of the very people who have paid for these car and bike plates — indirectly through taxes that were disbursed from the budget to pay the plate manufacturer, and directly through additional charges imposed by LTO on motorists who were made to buy replacement plates for old cars.

Recall that these license plates, all made abroad, were seized by Customs after their importer failed to pay around P40-million in taxes and duties. After about a year, instead of auctioning the seized items as required by law, Customs opted to donate them to LTO so that they may be finally released to motorists. But, with the SC order, the release and distribution were stopped.

Two lawmakers reportedly argued that the car plates seized by Customs for unpaid taxes and duties could not be just turned over to LTO because of the notice of disallowance from the Commission on Audit regarding advance payments to the supplier. Then, there was the main allegation that the plate supply project was auctioned in 2013 without sufficient appropriation.

But, the fact remains that the plates have already been manufactured, and had been gathering dust in storage since 2015. And motorists have already paid for these plates through sums collected from them by LTO three years ago. At this point, with the TRO lifted, one can only hope the plates are still intact and still suitable for use, and can be distributed immediately.

If the advance payments by LTO be ruled illegal, then compel the plate maker to reimburse the government for advances to it. LTO should initiate a suit to claim. In the same manner, if the plate maker feels aggrieved, then it can initiate suit against government to claim payment. Then, that would be the end of it.

Moreover, if LTO people are at fault for giving due advantage to the plate supplier, then charge them with graft. If they were incompetent, then penalize them in ways possible. And, if the plate maker is also at fault, then charge it as well. And then, sue to collect from them money owed to the government.

It benefits no one, not even the government, to keep the plates longer in storage. I still believe the SC TRO was unnecessary, but that is water under the bridge. Moving forward, LTO and Customs should act quickly. Don’t further penalize motorists for the incompetence and inefficiency of the people who put together and approved that plate supply contract. Release the plates already and give them to their owners.

 

Marvin A. Tort is a former managing editor of BusinessWorld, and a former chairman of the Philippines Press Council.

matort@yahoo.com

Democrats withdraw offer to fund Trump’s border wall

WASHINGTON — Democrats said on Tuesday they had withdrawn an offer to fund US President Donald Trump’s border wall, as tough negotiations over the future of young illegal immigrants known as “Dreamers” resumed in the Senate. A day after the end of a government shutdown linked to wrangling over immigration, Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer said he pulled the offer because of what he said was Trump’s failure to follow through on the outlines of an agreement the two men discussed on Friday. “So we’re going to have to start on a new basis and the wall offer is off the table,” Schumer told reporters. An aide said the offer was withdrawn on Sunday. Trump said on Twitter late on Tuesday night: “Cryin’ Chuck Schumer fully understands, especially after his humiliating defeat, that if there is no Wall, there is no DACA. We must have safety and security, together with a strong Military, for our great people!” The Congressional Hispanic Caucus expressed fears on Tuesday that Republicans in the House of Representatives would pursue a harsh immigration bill written by Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte. The House measure would allow Dreamers to renew their legal status for three years, instead of putting them on a pathway to citizenship, and would call for hiring 10,000 more agents at US borders while shutting down some visa programs and taking other steps to find people who are in the country illegally. With Democrats and many Republicans arguing there are more effective border enforcement tools than a wall, the proposal has become a major sticking point in immigration negotiations, which in turn have complicated talks about funding federal agencies. — Reuters

US sci-fi legend Ursula K. Le Guin, 88

NEW YORK — Ursula K. Le Guin, the award-winning US science fiction and fantasy author, and avowed feminist whose books have sold millions worldwide, has died, her family announced Tuesday. She was 88.

Le Guin is best remembered for global best-selling Earthsea series, translated into many languages and adapted for the screen, in which an apprentice sorcerer fights against the powers of evil, decades before Harry Potter did the same.

In a career that spanned decades, she published more than 20 novels, wrote children’s books, dozens of short stories, volumes of poetry and collections of essays.,

Tributes quickly poured in, with American horror writer Stephen King mourning her as “one of the greats,” after Le Guin’s family announced her death on Monday. “Not just a science fiction writer; a literary icon. Godspeed into the galaxy,” tweeted King.

She was born in October 1929 in Berkeley, California, the daughter of anthropologist Alfred Kroeber, an expert on Native Americans, and Theodora Kroeber, who wrote Ishi in Two Worlds an acclaimed biography of about “the last wild Indian” in North America.

From childhood, she steeped herself in anthropology, mingling with her parents’ guests — fellow academics and visitors from around the world, including Native American friends, spending the summers at a ranch her father had bought in Napa Valley.

Educated at Radcliffe College, Massachusetts, and New York’s Columbia University, Le Guin was a Fulbright Fellow in 1953, traveling to Paris, where she married her husband, the historian Charles Le Guin before the couple returned to the United States.

They settled in Portland, Oregon where they raised three children and Le Guin embarked on her prolific literary career.

“I didn’t want to be a writer and lead the writer’s life and be glamorous and go to New York. I just wanted to do my job writing, and to do it really well,” she told The Paris Review in an interview from her family home in 2013.

‘AIMS OF ART’
Le Guin published her first novel, Rocannon’s World, in 1966 but found breakthrough success with the publication in 1969 of The Left Hand of Darkness, which won a litany of prizes and became a great science fiction classic.

The novel, the beginning of the Hainish Cycle which contains six other titles, broke with the sclerotic patterns of science fiction’s golden age.

The planet on which The Left Hand of Darkness is based is little different from the Earth, except for its glacial climate, but the beings who populate it are radically different: they have only one sex and assume in turn masculine and feminine roles.

In the book she posed questions on sexual identity, and questions what social rules, culture, and inner life such a world could exude.

“Where I can get prickly and combative is if I’m just called a sci-fi writer. I’m not. I’m a novelist and poet,” she told The Paris Review.

“Don’t shove me into your damn pigeonhole, where I don’t fit, because I’m all over. My tentacles are coming out of the pigeonhole in all directions.”

In her stories of galactic societies, Le Guin — who was profoundly influenced by Taoism and Buddhism — sought to prove there is no total and permanent solution, either in theology, politics, or human science past or future.

“I draw on the social sciences a great deal,” she told The Paris Review. “Particularly from anthropology. When I create another planet, another world, with a society on it, I try to hint at the complexity of the society I’m creating.”

Awarded the Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters at the 2014 National Book Awards, she urged publishers and writers to put less emphasis on profit.

“The profit motive is often in conflict with the aims of art,” she said. “I have had a long career and a good one, in good company. Now here at the end of it, I really don’t want to watch American literature get sold down the river.” — AFP

Eastern Mindanao suffers P1.4B in damages, other NPA activities

THE WAR waged by the communist New People’s Army (NPA) in the eastern Mindanao area against the government and the private sector has resulted to estimated losses worth P1.4 billion in 2017 alone. “The cost of war in the agriculture, mining, transportation and construction sector amounted to P1,481,418,050,” Lt. Gen. Benjamin R. Madrigal, Jr., head of the Eastern Mindanao Command (EastMinCom), said in an interview at the sidelines of a forum in Davao City on Tuesday. The damage of the NPA’s arson, extortion and other activities are as follows: P543 million to the agriculture sector, P429.9 million in the mining sector and P508 million in the transportation and construction sector. Mr. Madrigal said the biggest damage was the burning of Lapanday Foods Corp.’s facilities and farms. EastMinCom covers the regions of Northern Mindanao, Davao, Soccksargen and Caraga. — Carmencita A. Carillo

Ghana considers pay cut for cocoa farmers as prices stay low

GHANA’S GOVERNMENT will consider cutting the price it pays to cocoa farmers because a slump that started more than a year ago shows little sign of abating, said Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta.

A price cut would signal a policy shift in the world’s second-biggest grower of the beans, which has ruled out changing farmer payments since setting the minimum price at 7,600 cedis ($1,700) per metric ton in October 2016. Over the same period, futures contracts in London have slumped by more than a third to near the lowest in six years on forecasts of a second consecutive bumper crop in West Africa.

In neighboring Ivory Coast, the biggest producer, the cocoa regulator lowered minimum pay for its main harvest that started in October by 36% to the equivalent of $1,247 per ton.

“Cocoa is a problem,” Ofori-Atta said Wednesday on the sidelines of a briefing by President Nana Akufo-Addo in the capital, Accra. Ghana needs “to have a discussion at cabinet level and put out a formula that is similar to that of Ivory Coast.”

Cocoa for March delivery rose 2.2% to £1,443 ($1,985) per ton on Wednesday in London, extending gains for the year to 2.45%. Prices are unlikely to improve significantly as traders remain optimistic over the crop from West Africa, INTL FCStone said in a report.

Ivory Coast produced a record crop of more than 2 million tons in the season through September, while Ghana’s harvest of 970,000 tons was the highest in six years.

Ghana would prefer to pay farmers the equivalent of 70% of freight-on-board prices, Ofori-Atta said. The industry regulator said it was subsidizing producer pay with about 984 million cedis for the annual season that started the previous month, in addition to exhausting the 310 million cedis of a stabilization fund.

Cocoa beans are processed into powder, used in ice cream and cookies, as well as cocoa butter, which accounts for about 20% of a chocolate bar. — Bloomberg

Djokovic woes

A dejected Novak Djokovic faced members of the media in the aftermath of his fourth-round exit from the Australian Open the other day. That he wasn’t even sure of his fitness heading into the year’s first major tournament became irrelevant in light of his straight-sets defeat at the hands of Chung Hyeon. He arrived Down Under with relatively modest expectations; along with his entourage that included Hall of Famer Andre Agassi, he said he looked forward to reaching the second week of the Grand Slam event. And he did, but barely, and when it looked like he was rounding into form, he wound up being exposed as woefully unprepared.

To be fair, Djokovic did try his best. From the outset, even his diehard followers understood the difficulties he faced: he was out of circulation for the last six months due to injury, and it would have been foolhardy to believe he would simply pick up from where he left off. Which, in truth, was, well, underwhelming; prior to shutting down for the remainder of 2017, he appeared to be in a free fall that he attributed to physical, mental, and emotional challenges, on the court and off. Taken in this context, it’s fair to assess his performance over the last week with no small measure of optimism. He is, after all, who he is, and he will improve.

On the other hand, Djokovic did possess the pedigree to go far in the Australian Open, his prolonged absence from the circuit notwithstanding. First, it’s where he has met with success the most. Second, Roger Federer’s astounding showing en route to the title last year proved that the right combine of talent, resolve, and luck of the draw can lead to glory. And he seemed to have all three at the palm of his hands; after his supposed cakewalk against Chung, he looked primed to take advantage of a seemingly softer schedule. Instead, he couldn’t even take care of the task at hand.

True, upsets happen all the time. Then again, the manner in which Djokovic bowed to Chung could not have been anything but troubling; he was behind in every set, and had to rally just to make the numbers close. And though he did have his chances, he wasn’t the better in the big moments; that distinction belonged to his opponent, who was fazed neither by circumstance nor by the gravity of the challenge.

In his presser, Djokovic said he will be reviewing his status, elbow injury and all. Given his advancing age and focus-requiring style, however, his most pressing problem may well be what’s inside his head. And for that, only time will have the answer.

 

Anthony L. Cuaycong has been writing Courtside since BusinessWorld introduced a Sports section in 1994. He is the Senior Vice-President and General Manager of Basic Energy Corp.

Google introduces audiobooks as rivalry with Amazon heats up

SAN FRANCISCO — Alphabet, Inc’s Google introduced audiobooks to its online store on Tuesday, making its smart speakers and virtual assistant more competitive with Amazon.com, Inc’s Echo devices and Alexa voice assistant.

Listening to audiobooks is among the most popular nighttime uses for smart speakers, a burgeoning type of home appliance that provides audio streams of music, news and other data based on user commands to an embedded virtual assistant.

But Google’s Home speakers have lagged Amazon Echo in terms of audiobook features. Amazon-owned Audible, the top provider of audiobooks, has not been supported on Home and other speakers with Google Assistant.

Google launching an audiobooks store widens the battle, which has also seen Google’s YouTube unit stop supporting an Amazon product.

Greg Hartrell, head of product management for Google Play Books, listed subscription-less buying as the top selling point for the new audiobooks store.

“You can buy a single audiobook at an affordable price, with no commitments,” he said in a blog post on Tuesday.

Audible offers one-off purchases, but promotes a $14.95 monthly subscription that includes one free download and 30% off further purchases. Amazon and Audible did not respond to requests to comment.

Google began selling ebooks in 2010. Mr. Hartrell told Reuters in a statement that audiobooks are being added because “our users are asking for them.”

About 16% of US adults own a smart speaker, according to an Edison Research survey conducted in late 2017. The firm in conjunction with Triton Digital also found last spring that 30% of frequent audiobook listeners had used a smart speaker to take in an audiobook in the previous 12 months.

Audiobook sales surged nearly 20% annually for three consecutive years, reaching $2.1 billion in 2016, according to the latest Audio Publishers Association data.

Thad McIlroy, an online book industry consultant, said audiobooks represent the only publishing category with “strong growth” so it makes sense for Google to challenge Amazon despite having a weak ebooks business.

Google-purchased audiobooks can be accessed through Google Play Books on the Web, apps for Android and iOS devices or through Google Assistant in speakers, Android smartphones and “soon” cars with Android Auto, Mr. Hartrell wrote. — Reuters

Bourse pulls back from record high on profit taking

SHARES on Wednesday ended a three-day rally that had seen the main index closing short of 9,000 the day before to mark the year’s sixth peak, as investors pocketed gains.

The Philippine Stock Exchange index (PSEi) closed 78.79 points or 0.87% down at 8,920.23, while the all-shares index shed 8.92 points or 0.17% to 5,205.69.

“After nearly touching 9,000, investors finally resorted to profit taking as investment managers still digest the impact of the underwhelming fourth-quarter 2017 GDP results,” Regina Capital Development Corp. Managing Director Luis A. Limlingan said in a mobile phone message, referring to a 6.6% gross domestic product (GDP) pace that fell short of the market’s 6.7% expectation for those three months.

Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Ernesto M. Pernia on Tuesday had noted, however, that the 6.7% full-year clip that fell within the government’s 6.5-7.5% target for 2017 was “strong,” considering it was achieved after an election year — hence saw weaker household consumption — and still kept the country among Asia’s fastest-growing economies after China (6.9%) and Vietnam (6.8%).

Wednesday saw the list of the 20 most active stocks equally divided between those that gained and those that declined, with the former led by the likes of Ayala Land, Inc.; Bloomberry Resorts Corp. and Metropolitan Bank & Trust Co. that increased by 1.43% to P46.25 apiece, 5.33% to P11.86 and 1.90% to P102 each, respectively, while the latter were led by  BDO Unibank, Inc.; SM Investments Corp.; Ayala Corp.; Bank of the Philippine Islands; SM Prime Holdings, Inc.; LT Group, Inc.; and GT Capital Holdings’ Inc. that fell by 1.003% to P157.90 apiece; 0.64% to P1,088; 0.96% to P1,035; 2.40% to P118.10; 1.52% to P38.90; 4.26% to P22.50 and 2.41% to 1,338 per share.

“It’s just profit taking off the recent high… But if anything, pullbacks are welcome at this point and we would take it as an opportunity to buy,” RCBC Securities, Inc. equity analyst Jeffrey Lucero said in a text message.

Four of the six sectoral indices closed lower, with holding firms falling by 154.74 points or 1.66% to 9,136.44; followed by mining and oil that dropped 157.56 points or 1.31% to 11,810.82; financials which shed 13.27 points or 0.58% to 2,263.75 and industrials that slipped by 3.05 points or 0.02% to 11,936.35.

Services and property gained, by 9.68 points or 0.58% to 1,675.49 and by 4.51 points or 0.11% to 4,077.26, respectively.

Trading thinned slightly to 896.77 million stocks worth P8.46 billion from Tuesday’s 1.19 billion issues worth P8.54 billion. Stocks that declined outnumbered those that gained by 115 to 103, while 40 names were flat. Foreigners ended eight days of net buying, with Wednesday seeing P47.284-million net sales instead. — Arra B. Francia

Holding the citizenry hostage

As I write this, President Donald Trump has just signed a bill representing a continuing resolution that would end the shutdown of the US federal government and allow the Senate and the House of Representatives up to Feb. 8 to craft legislation that will fund the government’s discretionary programs, containing provisions that will relatively satisfy the demands of the Republicans and the Democrats.

The two parties reached an impasse last Friday that triggered a shutdown of the government over the weekend and into Monday.

The principal bone of contention, according to the Democrats was DACA or Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, a policy instituted by President Barack Obama and scuttled by Trump. The policy provided for a renewable two-year period of deferred action from deportation benefiting individuals who entered the US as minors and who remained in the country illegally over the years. These individuals called “the Dreamers” estimated to be over 800,000, have known no other country but the US and have been raised as Americans, except for their legal status.

The Democrats have insisted that DACA should be reinstated and a bill should subsequently be passed based on the DREAM Act (Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors) which provides for a multi-phase process for qualifying Dreamers for conditional residency and, upon meeting further conditions, permanent residency, en route to citizenship.

DACA has bipartisan support, as well as the support of the majority of Americans because of humane considerations. But anti-immigrant hardliners in the Trump White House blocked approval of a bill crafted by a group of Republicans and Democrats and presented to Trump.

Trump, whose initials, DT, are also said to mean Double Talk, lived true to this pejorative by flip-flopping on earlier assurances of approval. He also upset the entire process by asking why it was necessary to allow “people from shithole countries” like Haiti and those in Africa into the US.

The tsunami of rage that came in the wake of that vulgarity left the US legislators scrambling to pick up the pieces. They tried to arrive at some kind of bill that would satisfy both parties as well as the confusing and constantly shifting Trump position (which Democratic Senator Chuck Schumer characterized as negotiating with Jello, a description that GOP leaders privately concede). But they failed to meet the deadline of Friday midnight, thus the shutdown.

Finger-pointing has inevitably followed, with both sides laying the blame on each other and on Trump (Schumer called it the Trump Shutdown while the White House described it as the Schumer Shutdown). In fact, it was THE AMERICAN SHUTDOWN, with the people of the United States being the principal victims “the primary hostages “of the partisan wrangling.

While both sides have sounded self-righteous, the fact is that the reason for the impasse was “and continues to be “the fact that the Republicans and Democrats do not trust each other and the leaders of both parties do not trust Trump.

It is a sad day when the citizens of the US are held hostage by a double-talking president but that has happened and could happen again if no bipartisan deal is arrived at after February and if that deal is not approved by Trump.

Meanwhile, the Philippine House of Representatives, is also threatening its own version of hostage-taking, initiated by Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez . This time, the bone of contention is President Rodrigo Duterte’s vow to institute a change in the country’s form of government “from unitary to federalism.

The broad objectives of federalism are generally positive. Conceptually, it would change the Manila-centric system to one that would provide equal opportunities for governance, along with corresponding economic benefits, to the various regions of the country.

The devil is in the details.

The US has a federal system of government that, in effect, allows autonomy to each of its 50 states.

To this day, debates continue over the interpretation of the concept of power sharing between the federal government and the state governments, with some insisting on more expansive powers for the former and others insisting on greater autonomy and powers for the states.

Fortunately a strong judicial branch, executive branch, and legislative branch, with the states represented in the last, have kept the US on an even keel. Checks and balances ingrained in the Constitution generally work and abuses are exposed by a militant citizenry and a militant press, as well as a militant justice system.

But it has taken America almost 250 years to arrive at this equilibrium. And only after undergoing a bloody civil war in 1861, just 85 years after the Declaration of Independence, where the United States nearly broke up.

Depending on when the pragmatist or the idealistic nationalist reckons the attainment of independence “June 12, 1898 or July 4, 1946” the Philippines is really a young nation and, to this day, it still has not gained full equilibrium. Its leaders are still scrambling to gain or consolidate power in their own respective turfs. The three branches of government, patterned after that of the US, are coequal for all intents and purposes, except when a power-drunk president or power-drunk leaders of the legislature fancy themselves more equal than the other branches. Or when timid leaders of the judicial branch allow themselves to be intimidated.

It may be said that the Philippines is still at that stage described by the late president Manuel Quezon as a government run like hell by Filipinos (which he preferred over one run like heaven by the Americans).

Like the Republicans and the Democrats in the US, the political leaders in the Philippines do not trust each other. They may pretend to, but each one has his or her own selfish agenda, with an eye on political and economic power.

The resistance to any change of governmental system, which will require amendments to or an overhaul of the Philippine Constitution, is based on the suspicion that each proponent of one kind of system over another, or one scheme over another, has a devious agenda. And the prevailing attitude is, “Why them, why not me?”

Thus there is conflict, which the Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez, thinking he has more power than the other branches of government or anybody else for that matter, proposes to resolve by threatening to withhold budgets from leaders, regions, or provinces that do not go along with the proposed change to federalism. That is plain and simple hostage-taking.

So who are the hostages? The poor citizens of the provinces or regions that do not cooperate.

Of course this is nothing new.

Over the years, in Philippine politics, the mantra has been, “What are in power for?”

Did someone say that power is really in the hands of the citizenry? Ideally, yes. But not in a country of over 100 million cowards… or cows, being led along by the nose.

 

Greg B. Macabenta is an advertising and communications man shuttling between San Francisco and Manila and providing unique insights on issues from both perspectives.

gregmacabenta@hotmail.com

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