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GBP highlights optimal power mix to achieve ‘energy security’

Given its anticipated economic growth and its installed energy capacity, the country’s optimal energy mix would be 70% conventional energy, 30% renewable energy, said the top official of Global Business Power Corp. (GBP).

“To achieve energy security, we must optimize the resources available to us whether they’re conventional or renewable,” he said, adding that GBP is working to ensure that its energy portfolio complement each other and readily addresses its customers’ diverse requirements,” said GBP President Jaime T. Azurin in a statement.

He said ancillary services would require a capacity equivalent to 22%, which could be sourced from the Philippines’ optimal energy mix calls for sourcing its requirement from 70% conventional a combination of conventional and renewable energy sources. — Victor V. Saulon

Cobalt, batteries, and TRAIN

Many people are enamored — and rightly so — with consumer electronics and gadgets like smartphones, iPads, laptops, and so on. Then, there is new and huge global demand for electric cars and bikes, even electric buses and trucks.

All these products and equipment need batteries, which, in turn, require large volumes of cobalt, considered by some analysts as the “new oil.”

This is good news for the Philippines.

First, cobalt prices seem to be skyrocketing. Second, the Philippines has the 4th largest cobalt reserves (#1 is Congo) and the projected reserves/production (R/P) ratio is 70, meaning at 2017 estimated production level, it will take 70 years for our cobalt reserves to be depleted.

Another good news for the Philippines is in nickel. First, world prices are also rising high though not as fast as cobalt prices. Second, we have the 5th largest nickel reserves (#1 is Australia) although our R/P ratio for nickel is only 21 years (see table).

battery

Why have cobalt prices risen too fast recently?

According to Darton Commodities projections as cited in a Bloomberg report, cobalt use in electric vehicles and other lithium-ion battery applications was around 55,000 tons in 2017 and this is projected to rise to around 160,000 tons in 2025 and 330,000 tons in 2030.

Mining exploration and drilling technology keeps improving so new reserves for cobalt, nickel, gold, copper, and other metals that the Philippines has will be discovered soon and this will raise the R/P ratio for these commodities.

During the BusinessWorld Stockmarket Roundtable last Feb. 20, at Shangri-La Hotel, about two or three of the four speakers that afternoon (Gus Cosio of First Metro, April Tan of COL Financial, Jun Calaycay of Philstocks Financial, and Mike Gerard Enriquez of Sunlife Financial) mentioned the short- and medium-term potentials of the Philippines mining sector. These finance guys see the trend in global commodity supply and demand and hence, their global prices.

BMI Research also showed optimistic outlook for the sector: metallic mining output 6% growth to $3.98 billion in 2018, 5% growth to $4.18 billion in 2019, $4.34 billion in 2020, $4.47 billion in 2021 and $4.56 billion in 2022.

As of end-2016, estimated Philippines reserves are: 1.854 billion MT of gold, 1.696 billion MT of silver, 1.761 billion MT of copper, 116.136 million MT of nickel, 116.001 million MT of iron and 47.264 million MT of chromite.

Various uncertainties in the sector should be relaxed if not ended soon. The good potentials are there in terms of corporate income, jobs generation, mandatory community development projects, and government (national and local) tax and nontax revenues.

These uncertainties range from (a) resource nationalism (“keep out foreign capital in mining” or “export only processed minerals, not raw ores”), (b) more regulations (“ban open pit mining,” “suspend or close more metallic mining”), and of course, (c) more mining taxes (“raise the mining excise tax from 2% to 4%, 6%…,” “raise mining royalties…”).

The recent Tax law RA 10963 known as Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion (TRAIN) has, out of nowhere, raised the mining excise tax from 2% to 4%. It seems that this was not contained in the original House and Senate versions prior to the Bicameral Committee meetings but were just inserted along the way, along with the coal tax hike and tobacco tax hikes.

Now TRAIN 2 is in Congress and there are moves to further raise the mining excise tax on a per-commodity basis, but without reducing or removing other taxes, royalties and mandatory community expenditures.

There should be a limit to the politics of envy via high and rising taxation. When companies create lots of direct and indirect jobs, give lots of social and economic services to their personnel and community residents who are not even company employees, pay lots of taxes, regulatory fees and royalties to the government, the itch of tax-tax-tax should be tempered.

 

Bienvenido S. Oplas, Jr. is President of Minimal Government Thinkers, a member-institute of Economic Freedom Network (EFN) Asia.

minimalgovernment@gmail.com.

Getting constitutional governance right

Our legislators are busy discussing changing the Constitution — again. Our lawmakers, often with prodding from Malacañang and special interest groups, think that the Constitution is so flawed that changes are badly needed. But before even talking about changing the Constitution, shouldn’t we first ask ourselves how well we’ve done based on the current one and where we need to improve?

A simple way to do this is to look at the nation as being like a cooperative organization. The Constitution will, analogously, express the vision, mission, core values, structure, and strategies of our republican cooperative organization. This is a limited analogy, I admit, but a helpful one.

If we think of ourselves as Philippines Cooperative, Inc., what are our vision and mission? A vision is an ideal future state we all aspire for while a mission is what the State exists to do. Carrying out our mission well and consistently should help us reach our vision. Section 9 under State Policies captures the future we aspire for and what we need to do, through the State, to get there. The vision is “prosperity and independence of the nation and … people [free] from poverty…” and the mission is to “…provide adequate social services, promote full employment, a rising standard of living, and an improved quality of life for all.”

Core values are meant to embody our national culture and character — what we all ultimately should believe in and stand for as Filipinos. Carrying out our mission and reaching our vision would be hollow if, in the process, we conduct ourselves in ways that are un-Filipino. Core values, therefore, serve as our moral compass as a country. Our core values appear in the Preamble and include the common good, truth, justice, freedom, love, equality, and peace.

Now, let’s do a reality check. With respect to the vision: Are we there yet? Definitely not. Thirty years after ratifying the Constitution, our country remains plagued by poverty, with some regions exceeding 50% below the poverty line.

How are we doing on the mission? Not that well either. We have one of the highest unemployment rates in our part of the world.

Moreover, more than 10 million Filipinos work abroad, separated from their families. Economic and productive resources as well as public infrastructure are concentrated in Metro Manila and other urban centers. Wealth and income are concentrated among the top 50 or so families, and productive output is concentrated among the top 50 conglomerates.

What about our national culture? Have we been true to our core values? The concentration of productive capacity, resources, and infrastructure tells us that equality, justice, and the common good are not operative values in our country. On the other hand, our long-running communist and Muslim insurgency problems and the facts-starved and divisive public discourse on issues will make anyone doubt whether truth, freedom, peace, and love reign.

What has happened to us? After the euphoria of the EDSA Revolution and after having been the toast of international media, how could we have gone so astray?

The short answer is a lack of public education and civic engagement combined with the short-term orientation of public leaders. No work went into aligning our public leaders and people around the vision, mission, and core values as expressed in the Constitution. There was no public education program on the Constitution, in general, and on what our core values mean, in particular. The common good principle, for one, is mentioned seven times in the Constitution, but is rarely invoked or explained by public leaders.

Not surprisingly, ordinary citizens would be hard put to explain what our core values mean. Essentially, therefore, we are a country without a moral compass. This explains the low level of civic engagement of most citizens and the winner-take-all attitude of many among the elite.

With few notable exceptions, our public leaders’ planning horizons rarely extend beyond the next election cycle. Hence, programs of long-term benefit for the people, such as infrastructure development, genuine land reform, and the passage of an anti-dynasty law and an anti-trust law, have been delayed or neglected even if we need these to achieve the goals of the Constitution.

These two causes feed on each other.

Since citizens do not understand the Constitution, they do not demand accountability from their leaders to promote the common good. Conversely, public leaders are more than happy to provide expedient fixes to stay in power — a clear case of the blind leading the blind.

The Constitution is a sacred covenant between the government and the people on how the country should be governed for us to achieve our aspirations as a nation. It’s not a plaything for politicians to tinker with when they feel like it. But unless we citizens take the hallowed principles of the Constitution to heart and actively fight for them, we will remain a constitutional democracy only on paper. And we would deserve it.

 

Dr. Benito L. Teehankee is a full professor of management and organization at De La Salle University.

benito.teehankee@dlsu.edu.ph

Get it done, then move on

In many instances in our history, we appear to have stayed in place rather than having moved forward. In some cases, we even slid back, I believe. As one theory goes, doing the same thing over and over for 30 years doesn’t necessarily give one 30-year experience. It could very well just be one-year experience done 30 times. No more, no less. No growth, and not moving on.

Last Sunday, we celebrated the 32nd anniversary of the EDSA Revolt of 1986.

But given the present state of our politics, it doesn’t seem like we have made many significant improvements since that fateful and historic February, when the nation kicked out an overstaying leader who ruled for 21 years. Are we truly better off now? Are we living in a better country?

To date, the Presidential Commission on Good Government (PCGG) — the government agency tasked to recover ill-gotten wealth from the ousted leader, his family, and their allies — continues to exist, its work far from done despite over 30 years passing. Meantime, the ousted leader’s children are back in politics, with his son and namesake having gunned for the second highest position in the land in 2016.

The ousted leader has in fact received a hero’s burial in the national heroes’ cemetery not too long ago, decades after his death, and after five governments.

With this, his heirs all appear to have actually moved on, but the government and PCGG have not. Rumor is, his eldest daughter will run for the Senate in 2019, while his son will continue to pursue his vice-presidential electoral protest in the hope of actually winning it.

And after 32 years, we now have no less than a senior public official seemingly insinuating that the 1986 event was just a figment of our imagination, by questioning online if the EDSA Revolt was just the result of “fake news.” I am uncertain as to what she meant by this, but I believe it to be highly inappropriate for a public official like her to be questioning historical facts without basis, and to be unnecessarily sowing political intrigue.

Meantime, the House Committee on Justice has just terminated its hearings on impeachment complaints against another Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. The magistrate in question has reportedly gone on a 15-day leave, while the Senate has started to order judicial robes, all in anticipation of an impeachment trial by senators in the near future.

Again, the nation is about to get distracted by a new telenovela, a new saga, about to unfold, with the public once again about to be glued to radio and television as well as online and print news services. Social media will likely be abuzz as well — if and when the impeachment trial proceeds, the third for the country and the second against a chief justice.

Impeachment, like in the case of Joseph Estrada as president, and the late Renato Corona as chief justice, is more a political rather than a legal process, in my opinion.

While its mechanics are provided for by law, as with many other things, to impeach is a political rather a legal initiative, with people in Congress making a political rather than a legal or judicial decision.

One can only hope that the trial can get done quickly, to allow all concerned to move on to what I believe to be more important national concerns. South Africa is about to run out of potable water, and the same thing might just happen here as our own Angat Dam is about to reach critical levels. Between impeaching the Chief Justice and fixing our water problem, which should public officials prioritize?

Our traffic congestion problem particularly in Metro Manila has reached epic proportions, resulting in P2-3 billion in economic losses daily, or in an annual basis, an amount equivalent to perhaps a fourth of the entire national budget. And yet, our only mass transit system on the metropolis’ main thoroughfare is operating at perhaps 25% of capacity. What are we doing about this?

People, particularly car owners, and vehicle license holders, are still waiting for license plates and license cards that have long been paid for, and yet, supplies don’t seem to be forthcoming. What is the government doing about this? As if grappling with rising consumer prices is not enough of a concern for most of us.

We need more government people spending more time putting on thinking caps and helping figure out how we can solve our long-term problems. And fewer public officials interested more in politics and sowing intrigue rather actually helping people.

Sadly, in the last 32 years, we always let politics get in the way: the December 1989 coup, the Estrada impeachment, the Oakwood Mutiny, the Marines standoff, two vice-presidential electoral protests, the Corona impeachment, Janet Napoles and the pork barrel scandal, among others.

Congress’ time has been spent on investigation after investigation, Mamasapano and Dengvaxia included — all with the aim of improving our politics, and making our country a better place for Filipinos to live in. But, have we actually succeeded in doing that? Or, have we just allowed our politicians to further weaken our democratic institutions? Are we really better off now, politically than 32 years ago? Or maybe 60 years ago? Enough of us have been alive since the post-war years, and I am sure some of us will have strong opinions about this.

We all want an end to any saga, any ongoing story, any telenovela. Wakasan, as the old comic strips used to say. Enough with the abangan and susunod. Out with the old, in with the new. Our politics need to change.

In many things, it is truly time for us to move on, as a people, as a nation. To Heaven or to Hell, it makes no difference, I say. As long as we don’t stay in Purgatory for eternity.

We need to minimize distractions that take us away from more important, more urgent, more critical concerns. We need to quickly step up our game, our politics, and by doing so perhaps the country, the economy can also begin to step up. We need to get things done, and fast, and then move on.

 

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

matort@yahoo.com

Xi shouldn’t be the only one to keep working

By Adam Minter

XI JINPING can hold off on retirement planning for a few more years, now that China’s Communist Party has announced a proposal to eliminate a 10-year, two-term limit for China’s presidency. That sets up the powerful 64-year-old Xi to remain in office well into his golden years. He shouldn’t be the only one.

Set aside for a moment the question of whether China is wise to usher in one-man rule — a worrisome development that breaks with decades of institutional norms designed to prevent dangerous, Mao-like consolidations of power. The fact is that retirement age limits for other Chinese — some of the world’s earliest — are a drag on China’s economy and the government’s ability to function effectively.

Those rules might have made sense in a China where life expectancies and employment opportunities were short. In 1978, China enacted laws requiring men in any field to retire at 60 and women to retire at 55 if they were public servants, or 50 if they were engaged in blue-collar labor. At the time, more than 80% of China’s population was focused on agriculture and life expectancy was a few months shy of 66 years.

The inspiration was largely pragmatic. Forcing workers into retirement opened up opportunities for young and ambitious Chinese who might otherwise be idle. Meanwhile, China’s economy and governance benefited from young minds with fresh ideas and youthful bodies capable of doing physical labor. Short life expectancies ensured that China’s pension taxes were more than sufficient to meet the country’s obligations.

Today’s economy is quite different. Most workers live in cities, doing jobs that don’t involve back-breaking labor, and they are living longer. At the same time, China’s labor pool has begun to shrink: As of 2015, each Chinese pensioner was supported by fewer than three workers; in some provinces, the ratio is 1.5 workers per retiree. As China ages — and it’s one of the fastest-aging countries in the world — those ratios will become smaller and more expensive. One estimate says China’s pension shortfall could reach $190 billion by 2019.

retirement
Expanding the pool of workers is the only way to help address China’s looming pension shortfall.

The requirement that women retire five to 10 years earlier than men is particularly discriminatory. In recent years, it’s become a key factor contributing to China’s persistent gender pay gap. It’s also one among many reasons that female labor participation rates in China have declined for several years, depriving employers of some of their most skilled and experienced workers.

The consequences of early retirement on Chinese governance are just as severe. In China, power derives from complex patronage networks that don’t simply collapse when an official is forced into retirement. In many cases, those officials gain even more power once out of office, when they’re no longer subject to official responsibilities and oversight. This can have disruptive consequences. Former president Jiang Zemin, who stepped down as China’s top leader in 2002, has continued to exert a significant and — depending upon how he’s viewed — disruptive influence upon Chinese politics for two decades. In 2015, China’s top communist party newspaper even ran an editorial warning high-ranking retired officials not to emulate such figures.

But the problem’s most corrupting manifestation may arise lower down the hierarchy, where bureaucrats forced to retire often slide into quasi-public trade association jobs or private-sector positions, from which they can influence regulators via their still-intact patronage networks. Unsurprisingly, Xi’s corruption crackdown has aggressively targeted retired as well as serving officials.

Raising or eliminating the mandatory retirement age won’t solve all of these problems, of course. Cadres determined to abuse power will still do so. Within the system, though, especially after Xi’s anti-corruption crackdown, they can be monitored more closely. Likewise, China’s pay gap won’t vanish if men and women are allowed to retire at the same age. But at least employers will have one fewer reason to perpetuate it. And expanding the pool of workers is the only way to help address China’s looming pension shortfall.

Recent efforts to revise retirement limits have faltered because of a lack of political will in Beijing. Now that Xi has achieved more power than any Chinese leader in decades, here’s an opportunity to use it.

 

BLOOMBERG

Infrastructure spending jumps 15.4% in 2017 — Budget chief

Infrastructure spending surged in 2017 to beat the government’s target as work led by the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) picked up, the Budget chief said, placing the country on track with its aggressive spending push.

Budget Secretary Benjamin E. Diokno said the government spent P568.8 billion for infrastructure last year, jumping by 15.4% from the P493 billion released in 2016. The figure likewise shot beyond the P549.4 billion programmed under the 2017 budget.

Mr. Diokno said this placed infrastructure investments for the year at roughly 5.6% of gross domestic product (GDP), higher than the planned 5.4% share and from the previous year’s 5.1%.

In a report, the Budget department attributed the spending surge to the “acceleration” of infrastructure projects implemented by the DPWH.

“The agency also cited the prompt and regular submission of progress billings from contractors; faster and simplified process of approval of plans and programs; and strict implementation of project planning, monitoring and scheduling as among the factors which resulted to their higher-than-programmed disbursements,” the report read. — Melissa Luz T. Lopez

PXP Energy net loss widens to P39 million in 2017

PXP Energy Corp. reported a consolidated net loss of P39.1 million in 2017, bigger than the P22.4 million a year earlier, the company told the stock exchange on Wednesday, Feb. 28.

Including one-off items, reported net loss hit P57.1 million, an expansion over the the P36.4 million previously.

It said the slight higher petroleum revenues at P104.4 million resulting from the 24% improvement in crude oil prices had been offset by the 18% drop in crude production.

Cost and expenses during the period declined by 7.4% to P158.2 million from P170.8 million brought about by lower petroleum production cost and depletion, and continuous cost containment of group overhead, the company said. — Victor V. Saulon

N. Korea leaders used Brazilian passports to apply for visas

LONDON — North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and his late father Kim Jong Il used fraudulently obtained Brazilian passports to apply for visas to visit Western countries in the 1990s, five senior Western European security sources told Reuters.

While North Korea’s ruling family is known to have used travel documents obtained under false pretenses, there are few specific examples. The photocopies of the Brazilian passports seen by Reuters have not been published before.

“They used these Brazilian passports, which clearly show the photographs of Kim Jong Un and Kim Jong Il, to attempt to obtain visas from foreign embassies,” one senior Western security source said on condition of anonymity.

“This shows the desire for travel and points to the ruling family’s attempts to build a possible escape route,” the security source said.

The North Korean embassy in Brazil declined to comment.

Brazil’s foreign ministry said it was investigating.

A Brazilian source, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the two passports in question were legitimate documents when sent out as blanks for consulates to issue.

Four other senior Western European security sources confirmed that the two Brazilian passports with photos of the Kims in the names of Josef Pwag and Ijong Tchoi were used to apply for visas in at least two Western countries.

It was unclear whether any visas were issued.

The passports may also have been used to travel to Brazil, Japan and Hong Kong, the security sources said.

Japanese newspaper Yomiuri Shimbun reported in 2011 that Jong Un visited Tokyo as a child using a Brazilian passport in 1991 — before the issue date on the two Brazilian passports.

JOSEF PWAG
Both 10-year passports carry a stamp saying “Embassy of Brazil in Prague” with a Feb. 26, 1996, issue date. The security sources said facial recognition technology confirmed the photographs were those of Kim Jong Un and his father.

The passport with Jong Un’s photo was issued in the name of Josef Pwag with a date of birth of Feb. 1, 1983.

So little is known about Jong Un that even his birth date is disputed. He would have been 12 to 14 years old when the Brazilian passport was issued.

Jong Un is known to have been educated at an international school in Berne, Switzerland, where he pretended to be the son of an embassy chauffeur.

Jong Il’s passport was issued in the name Ijong Tchoi with a birth date of April 4, 1940. Jong Il died in 2011. His true birth date was in 1941.

Both passports list the holders’ birthplaces as Sao Paulo, Brazil.

The first security source declined to describe how the passport copies had been obtained, citing secrecy rules.

Reuters has only seen photocopies of the passports so was unable to discern if they had been tampered with. — Reuters

World braces for blowback from Xi lifetime power play

BEIJING — President Xi Jinping’s leap toward lifelong rule has largely been met by guarded silence in world capitals as governments try to predict how China’s formidable leader will wield his newfound power on the global stage.

The Communist Party’s move to lift presidential term limits will allow Mr. Xi to reign supreme as he pushes through an ambitious agenda to turn China into a military and economic superpower by mid-century.

“Xi has all this power. But we don’t really know what he wants to use it for,” said Kerry Brown, the director of the Lau China Institute at King’s College London.

“If it’s to address the challenges that need sorting out in China then that will be a good thing. If not, then it will be deeply problematic.”

China is already causing global jitters with its growing assertiveness, from its territorial claims in the South China Sea to the opening of its first overseas military base in the Horn of Africa and its influence in capitals across the Western world.

Mr. Xi has championed one of the largest international infrastructure projects in history, the $1-trillion Belt and Road initiative, which has drawn both interest and suspicion about China’s intentions.

At the same time, it is teetering on the brink of a trade war with the world’s largest economy, the US.

At home, the move has been hailed by state media as a necessary measure to usher in an era of “stability” that will provide a reassuring beacon of hope to countries spooked by the turmoil of American politics.

“In the future, with Xi leading the country for a very long time, it’s guaranteed that foreign relations will be stable and predictable,” Wu Xinbo, a US politics expert at Fudan University, told AFP.

AUTOCRAT FOR LIFE
The Communist Party’s constitutional amendment is certain to be approved by the rubber-stamp National People’s Congress when it begins its annual session next week, which will enable Mr. Xi to remain president beyond 2023.

Where countries stand on the move largely depends on where they sit.

In Russia, whose President Vladimir Putin’s unyielding grasp on power is often cited as a model for Mr. Xi’s rule, the reaction to the abolition was largely positive, according to Alexander Gabuev, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Moscow Center.

Although some China-watchers expressed concern that China could slip back into Mao-style authoritarianism, the government thinks that Mr. Xi “staying in power beyond 2023 is a good thing,” especially as “relations with the West are hitting new lows every month.”

But Mr. Xi’s power play is likely to fuel growing suspicions about China in Western countries.

After the election of Donald J. Trump in the US, China tried to step into the vacuum created by his rapid withdrawal from international trade pacts and environmental agreements.

Mr. Xi’s speech at Davos last year emphasizing the importance of globalization earned rapturous reviews from liberal politicians.

But “getting permission from a rubber stamp legislative branch to become autocrat-for-life only undermines the ability of democratic leaders to afford such respect,” said Orville Schell, director of the Center on US-China Relations at the Asia Society in New York.

It will look particularly bad in Australia, New Zealand and the United States, where concerns about China’s growing power and how it chooses to exercise it have increasingly preoccupied lawmakers.

The White House has avoided criticism of the move, saying the decision was “up to China.”

But “there’s been a lot more concern about China and what it wants abroad,” said Eric Hundman, an international relations expert at NYU Shanghai.

“Everybody’s going to read this as he’s going to become a dictator, which makes China look much more threatening.”

SURROUNDED BY SYCOPHANTS
Mr. Xi’s consolidation of power means that China’s own foreign policy will likely become more assertive, said Bonnie Glaser, a China expert at the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies.

If the term limit repeal is a sign of strength, that could mean that Mr. Xi will increasingly be surrounded by sycophants and yes-men.

“Xi is unlikely to get balanced, objective input and advice. He may be overconfident about what he can achieve,” Mr. Glaser said.

That could mean a China that is “even more aggressive” in its use of economic coercion and its assertion of its territorial rights in places like the East and South China Sea, where it has long-standing disputes with its neighbors.

NYU’s Mr. Hundman warned that if Mr. Xi’s apparent power grab is a sign of weakness, then that “may lead to actions on China’s part that look irrational… but are directed at domestic audiences.”

He could do things such as threatening Taiwan that are aimed at “whipping up popular support. They would look very provocative to us, from a foreign perspective, but they may not be intended that way.” — AFP

Trump son-in-law Kushner loses top security clearance

WASHINGTON — Donald J. Trump’s son-in-law and senior aide Jared Kushner has lost his top-level security clearance, sources familiar with the matter said Tuesday, a decision with potentially profound implications for the US administration.

Two sources, who could not speak on the record because the status of security clearances is classified, confirmed US media reports that the 37-year-old White House aide will no longer be able to access America’s most closely guarded secrets.

The White House — up to and including the president himself — refused to comment on the record, but officials insisted that the decision would not impact Mr. Kushner’s role.

Still, Mr. Kushner’s loss of access to “Top Secret/SCI (Sensitive Compartmented Information)” data casts serious doubt on his status as a powerbroker inside the White House and his ability to negotiate Middle East peace.

Mr. Kushner had been an integral part of Mr. Trump’s election campaign and, among White House advisors, is seen as something like a first among equals.

The soft-spoken aide is married to the president’s daughter Ivanka and has been a leading figure in efforts to reach a peace deal between Israelis and Palestinians.

He has also been a strong proponent of Washington’s intensified support for the government of embattled Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Politico and CNN first reported that his clearance may have been rescinded late last week.

The decision comes just days before Mr. Netanyahu visits the White House.

RISK OF ‘LOSING CREDIBILITY’
Former US negotiator Aaron David Miller said Mr. Kushner now risks losing “credibility” with interlocutors in the Middle East.

“They know you can’t be reading about them,” he said, and “you can’t possibly know what you don’t know.”

Mr. Kushner’s lawyer had earlier admitted that he has not yet completed the formal clearance procedure, despite reportedly getting access to the most secret material contained in the president’s daily briefing — the crown jewels of US intelligence.

White House Chief of Staff John Kelly ordered changes to the clearance system after a top aide — Rob Porter — worked for months without full clearance because of allegations he abused both his former wives.

“I will not comment on anybody’s specific security clearance,” Mr. Kelly said in a statement.

Mr. Kelly has told Mr. Kushner he had “full confidence in his ability to continue performing his duties in his foreign policy portfolio, including overseeing our Israeli-Palestinian peace effort and serving as an integral part of our relationship with Mexico.”

“Everyone in the White House is grateful for these valuable contributions to furthering the president’s agenda. There is no truth to any suggestion otherwise,” Mr. Kelly added.

Ivanka Trump’s level of security clearance has also been in question. She recently visited South Korea and briefed that country’s president Moon Jae-in on new North Korea sanctions.

For almost any staffer other than Mr. Kushner, his future in the White House would now be under serious doubt.

He had already been forced to repeatedly revise statements to US intelligence and law enforcement about his contacts with foreign officials and his business interests.

He put himself firmly in the sights of special prosecutor Robert Mueller after secretly meeting Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak and Sergei Gorkov, a banker with ties to Vladimir Putin, as well as attending a notorious Trump Tower meeting with a Kremlin-connected lawyer.

BOY WONDER
Even before the security clearance news broke, close Kushner advisor Josh Raffel announced he was leaving the White House and Mr. Kushner was accused of breaking the “Hatch Act,” which forbids, among other things, White House aides from using their official titles in campaign statements.

Later, The Washington Post reported that at least four foreign governments — China, Israel, Mexico and the United Arab Emirates — had considered how to leverage Mr. Kushner’s business and political vulnerabilities.

That sparked several calls from lawmakers for Mr. Kushner to step down.

Congressman Ruben Gallego asked: “what does Jared have to do to get fired?”

The answer to that question remains unclear.

Mr. Kushner’s clearance downgrade “gives new meaning to the term ‘overdue,’” Senator Richard Blumenthal said on Twitter.

The move “raises questions about his entanglements with countries like China and potential conflicts of interests while he holds significant foreign policy responsibilities at the White House,” Mr. Blumenthal said.

Since the first days of this administration, Mr. Trump has hinted there was no challenge too confounding, no conflict too intractable for his son-in-law to tackle.

Beyond resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Mr. Kushner was handed a to-do list that included solving America’s opioid epidemic, prison reform and injecting the nation’s bureaucracy with entrepreneurial spirit.

In person, Mr. Kushner is polite and self-deprecating, offering little of the hubris the president has shown about his abilities.

“Jared’s done an outstanding job. I think he’s been treated very unfairly,” Mr. Trump said Friday.

But Mr. Trump also indicated the decision on Mr. Kushner’s security clearance would be up to Mr. Kelly, saying: “I have no doubt he’ll make the right decision.” — AFP

Judge dissed by Trump won’t block proposed border wall in California

SAN DIEGO — A federal court judge once accused by President Donald J. Trump of being biased against him because he’s “Mexican” and a “hater” paved the way for construction of a section of Mr. Trump’s proposed wall along the US southern border.

US District Judge Gonzalo Curiel in San Diego sided Tuesday with the Homeland Security department, which asserted authority under federal immigration law to waive compliance with environmental protection statutes because 14 miles of existing fencing near San Diego is “no longer optimal for border patrol operations.”

The government argued in court papers that the law allowing it to sidestep environmental reviews “has been repeatedly upheld in the face of legal challenges.”

California and environmental advocacy groups claimed in court filings that the 1996 immigration law is unconstitutional. They also alleged the lack of environmental reviews would imperil endangered species including the Quino checkerspot butterfly and the Mexican flannel bush and that federal officials failed to consult, as required, with the state and other affected agencies and parties.

MEDIEVAL WALL
California Attorney General Xavier Becerra responded to the ruling by saying “a medieval wall along the US-Mexico border simply does not belong in the 21st century.”

“The administration has violated the rules and we will move forward and proceed with the case as quickly as possible,” he said in an interview while attending a round-table discussion of environmental issues at a meeting of state attorneys general in Washington. “We don’t want the health of the people who would be living by the wall to be affected.”

Mr. Trump, who made border security one of the cornerstones of his presidential campaign, has continued to insist that a border wall be constructed. A Justice department spokesman said the government is pleased the ruling will allow it to move ahead “without delay.”

“Border security is paramount to stemming the flow of illegal immigration that contributes to rising violent crime and to the drug crisis, and undermines national security,” spokesman Devin O’Malley said in an e-mail.

Late Tuesday, Mr. Trump tweeted about a “big legal win today.”

“US judge sided with the Trump administration and rejected the attempt to stop the government from building a great Border Wall on the Southern Border,” Mr. Trump wrote. “Now this important project can go forward!”

Mr. Curiel is the judge in San Diego who presided in 2016 over a $25-million settlement to thousands of students who sued the then-candidate and his Trump University over what they said were false claims and misleading advertising about the benefits of the school, which was not accredited.

During the Trump University litigation Mr. Trump criticized Mr. Curiel’s handling of the case and described him as a “hater” whose Mexican heritage — he was born in Indiana to Mexican immigrants — would prevent a fair outcome. The judge hasn’t responded publicly to the president’s comments.

In Tuesday’s ruling, Mr. Curiel noted his US roots while referring to the wisdom of US Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts, a “fellow Indiana native,” in handling cases “surrounded by political disagreement.”

“Court[s] are vested with the authority to interpret the law; we possess neither the expertise nor the prerogative to make policy judgments,” Mr. Curiel quoted Mr. Roberts saying in a 2012 ruling. “Those decisions are entrusted to our nation’s elected leaders, who can be thrown out of office if the people disagree with them. It is not our job to protect the people from the consequences of their political choices.”

Mr. Curiel had allowed 24 members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus to file a brief in support of the court order sought by California and the environmental groups against the federal government.

Mr. Curiel’s approval of the Trump University settlement was upheld this month by the 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals, which unanimously rejected a challenge to the agreement. Nearly 3,700 class-action plaintiffs will be paid about 90 cents on the dollar of their claims.

The case is Center for Biological Diversity v. U.S. Department of Homeland Security, 17-cv-1215, U.S. District Court, Southern District of California (San Diego). — Bloomberg

PSE removes inactive trading participants

The Philippine Stock Exchange, Inc. (PSE) has removed inactive trading participants as it works on complying with the single-industry cap on exchange ownership.

In a statement issued Wednesday, Feb. 28, the PSE said it has revoked the status of inactive trading participants who also hold about 2.34% of the total outstanding capital stock in the company. The bourse operator has also declared as vacant the trading rights of the dormant brokers. — Arra B. Francia

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