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Enrique Iglesias sues label over streaming revenue

MIAMI — Pop star Enrique Iglesias on Wednesday accused his former label Universal of short-changing artists while benefitting from the soaring growth of streaming as he filed a lawsuit for breach of contract. “Universal has been systematically underpaying Iglesias’ streaming royalties by calculating those royalties at a small fraction of the contractually required 50% royalty rate,” said the lawsuit filed in Miami, where Iglesias lives. The lawsuit alleged that the 42-year-old heartthrob has lost millions of dollars “even though Iglesias has generated sales of a magnitude rarely attained in the music industry.” Iglesias said that the Universal Music Group, which is the world’s largest record label conglomerate, refused his requests to inspect its records. The son of legendary Spanish crooner Julio Iglesias, Enrique has achieved a booming international career with his fusion of ballads, reggaeton, and pop as well as his onstage sex appeal. He is among the few artists to achieve major hits in both Spanish and English, scoring major success with songs such as “Hero,” “Tonight (I’m Loving You),” and “Be With You.” The boom in on-demand streaming services such as Spotify has rapidly transformed the music business, bringing solid growth to the industry for the first time in two decades. Many artists have complained that they see little of the money, although they have generally aimed their fire at streaming companies rather than their own labels. Universal did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Iglesias bolted Universal in 2015 when he signed to rival Sony Music. The complaint relates in part to streams of Iglesias’ 2014 album Sex and Love which features the hit “Bailando,” which won three Latin Grammy Awards and was that year’s most played song in both Mexico and Spain. — AFP

Rising star Hong Chau makes impact with Downsizing

By Angela Dawson,
Front Row Features

HOLLYWOOD — 2017 was quite the year for Hong Chau. The daughter of refugees who fled war-torn Vietnam for the US in the late 1970s, is now the female star of two-time Oscar winning filmmaker Alexander Payne’s Downsizing. In it, she plays a Vietnamese dissident who was forcibly reduced to a mere five inches tall to serve the well-off residents of a community of similarly sized people in America. Her performance already is receiving positive notices from her peers as well as critics — she is Golden Globes and a Screen Actors Guild nominee for her performance.

Chau, a youthful 38, is keeping it all in perspective.

“I started my career as a background actor in New York. When I moved to Los Angeles, I was worried casting directors wouldn’t think much of me because I hadn’t booked a Law & Order. (Getting the part in Downsizing) was a once in a lifetime dream job that has made all the lean years worth it.”

Chau previously had a recurring role on the New Orleans-set TV series Treme, and Paul Thomas Anderson’s quirky 2014 comedy Inherent Vice, opposite Joaquin Phoenix, among other roles.

In Downsizing, she stars opposite Oscar winner Matt Damon who plays an occupational therapist that undergoes a voluntary medical procedure in which he is reduced to the size of a human hand in order to help preserve the world’s shrinking natural resources while maintaining a comfortable middle-class lifestyle, where everything is miniaturized. Damon’s Paul Safranek meets Ngoc Lan (Chau) who has been brought to that self-contained tiny world after she and other dissidents were forced to be downsized. In the new world, Ngoc operates a housekeeping service and, in her spare time, helps the poor and disaffected people of the community. She enlists Damon’s help in her philanthropic work and gives him a broader perspective about humanity.

Born in a Thailand refugee camp to Vietnamese refugees, Chau emigrated with her parents and older brother to New Orleans when she was a baby. She grew up bilingual in the multicultural Big Easy, and developed a passion for writing and acting. After graduation from Boston University, she relocated to Los Angeles where it didn’t take long for her to land the Treme role. During an interview, the gracious, thoughtful actress spoke about her leading lady role, discovering her Vietnamese roots and living in a changing Hollywood environment.

Tell me about your background?
My parents left in 1979. They were part of the boat people who left. They were on the water for three days until they ended up at a refugee camp in Thailand and that’s where I was born. That same year, we ended up in Louisiana because we had a sponsor family who was also a Vietnamese family but we were not related to them. It was organized through the Vietnamese Catholic Church in New Orleans and we lived with them for the first, I think, year or two until we got our own apartment. So my parents did not speak any English (and) didn’t really know anyone, not a soul when they came over.

Have you had an opportunity, either through your work, or just on your own to return to Vietnam?
I did go back once with my family. My uncle was getting engaged, and we went back for his engagement party. It also was an opportunity for my family to go back there together. That was nice because I met family that I’d never met before. It was an interesting experience for me because it had been so long since my parents had been back.

There was something a bit sad about it because a lot of the streets had changed and things were so different from when they left. When we were sitting in the car, they’d ask the driver, “What happened to so-and-so,” or “What happened to that place. It used to be over there.” So much had happened in the past 30 or so years. I would have loved for them to go back to the country they remembered but that’s not really possible.

What was your take away from that experience?
Most people who come to the US as refugees left their native country for devastating reasons. Coming here and not having a support system and just having to survive work really hard, most (native) Americans see immigrants as hard working but they don’t really know much else about them. My parents gave me a life so that I could go off and have a better one and because of the way the US culture is, better usually means having nicer things, and I don’t necessarily agree with that.

When I was younger, my mom would rib me and my older brother because we didn’t want nice things. It’s funny, my older brother and I were like hippies. We didn’t aspire to have expensive cars and a fancy house. I still feel that way. I don’t want to drive a luxury car or have the latest electronic gadgets. It’s not important or a priority in my life. It took a little time, but my parents have also come around to my way of thinking. They no longer subscribe that false version of the American Dream. The American Dream doesn’t necessarily mean driving a Range Rover or living in a gigantic mansion. Yet that’s what’s pitched (to immigrant children) as the definition of success. I feel like I’m succeeding even though I’m not a household name. I’m not in a big superhero movie.

But every (actor) has their own desire of the type of material they want to work in. I realize this is a big Paramount (studio) movie starring Matt Damon and has special effects but it still feels like a small movie to me because it’s telling a story and bringing up topics that other big Hollywood studio movies are not. I just want to continue to work on things that I care about. I’m not knocking those big superhero/comic book movies but they don’t really say very much. They’re entertaining, but once you’re done with those two hours of watching those films, you’re done. But Alexander Payne (who directed and co-wrote Downsizing) rewards audiences in repeat viewings. With Downsizing, you can get something different each time you watch it.

Some critics have blasted your character’s accent as a caricature. How do you respond to that?
The Vietnamese refugee community that I grew up with in New Orleans is certainly an inspiration for my character in Downsizing, but, at the end of the day, the character is mine. I feel like people don’t put certain limitations on other actors. When British or Australian actors come to the US and play an American character, we laud them and talk about how great it is that they were able to do this accent that’s not their own. Americans have different relationships with different accents. With the Vietnamese accent, it’s usually because we tend to have service-oriented occupations. That brings up the race and class issue and inequality and discrimination. That’s a lot to unpack so it’s not just about an accent being problematic.

My character, and other minority characters in this story, are not there to prop up the white, male character and show him in this great, positive light. If anything, we’re showing that he’s part of the problem because he’s not paying attention. I don’t see anything wrong with that.

What was your experience like coming to Los Angeles?
I wasn’t here long before I got the role on Treme, and I had to fly back to New Orleans to shoot that show. My parents laughed and said: “You went so far away from home (to become an actor) just to come right back. It’s funny how roles can pop up that draw on your life in an unexpected way. I never would have thought there would be an HBO series that would have a Vietnamese storyline. They recognized the Vietnamese refugee and immigrant community is a large part of the fabric of New Orleans and incorporated it into the show.

US diplomat quits Suu Kyi panel on Rohingya crisis

YANGON — US diplomat Bill Richardson resigned early Thursday from an Aung San Suu Kyi-appointed panel set up to ease communal tensions in Myanmar’s Rakhine State and hit out at the Nobel Laureate for an “absence of moral leadership” over the crisis.

In a statement that pulled few punches, the former US governor and one-time Suu Kyi ally said he could not in “good conscience” serve on the committee that would likely serve only to “whitewash” the causes behind the Rohingya exodus.

Mr. Richardson also accused Ms. Suu Kyi of a “furious response” to his calls to help free two Reuters journalists arrested while reporting on the Rakhine crisis.

Wa Lone, 31, and Kyaw Soe Oo, 27, were arrested in December and face up to 14 years in jail under the Official Secrets Act over the alleged possession of classified documents, purportedly relating to the army campaign in Rakhine that sparked the exodus.

The resignation deals an embarrassing public blow to Ms. Suu Kyi as her civilian government grapples with a crisis that has sent hundreds of thousands of Rohingya Muslim refugees fleeing into Bangladesh since August — and eviscerated her reputation as a defender of the downtrodden in the process.

The US State Department noted that Mr. Richardson, a retired senior official and former state governor, had joined the Myanmar board as a private citizen, but added that the Washington administration shares many of his concerns.

“Governor Richardson’s decision to resign from the Rakhine Advisory Board, and the reasons he gave for doing so, are cause for concern,” spokeswoman Heather Nauert said.

Ms. Nauert said the board which Mr. Richardson joined was supposed to oversee implementation of recommendations made by a commission led by former UN secretary-general Kofi Annan.

“The recommendations address critical actions needed to address longstanding, serious challenges in Rakhine State, including the underlying sources of recent violence and displacement,” Ms. Nauert said.

“Ultimately, the Burmese government and military have the authority to determine whether the Advisory Board will succeed in its mission.”

Mr. Richardson’s resignation also came after Myanmar and Bangladesh failed to meet a January 23 deadline to begin the complex and contested repatriation of refugees.

Nearly 690,000 Rohingya have fled a Myanmar army crackdown and crossed over to Bangladesh and many do not want to go back to Rakhine.

The UN and US have both accused the army and hardline militant Buddhist mobs of ethnic cleansing against the Muslim minority.

Inside Myanmar, the Rohingya are widely regarded as illegal immigrants from Bangladesh even though many have lived there for generations.

“It is with great disappointment that I announce my resignation from the Advisory Board on Rakhine State,” a statement released by Bill Richardson’s office said after three days of talks in Myanmar.

“It appears that the Board is likely to become a cheerleading squad for government policy as opposed to proposing genuine policy changes that are desperately needed to assure peace, stability, and development in Rakhine State.”

He said he was “taken aback” by the disparagement of the media, the UN, human rights groups and the international community and alarmed by the “lack of sincerity” with which the issue of Rohingya citizenship was discussed.

Rohingya have been denied citizenship for decades in a discriminatory system that heavily restricts their rights and movement within Myanmar.

Mr. Richardson admitted the military still wields significant power but added that “the absence of Daw Suu’s moral leadership on this critical issue is of great concern.”

Tensions have soared in recent days in the overcrowded Bangladeshi camps housing the Rohingya with many refugees refusing to return to Myanmar.

Bangladesh insists the repatriation process will be voluntary and Myanmar has said it “welcomes” back those who can verify that they belong to Rakhine.

But rights groups fear more suffering awaits the Rohingya as they return to a country that does not want them.

On Wednesday, Myanmar authorities put the finishing touches to rudimentary reception camps to process the huge number of returning refugees expected to trickle back.

Myanmar says it will take 1,500 refugees each week, a drop in the ocean of the near 800,000 who are due to be repatriated from two waves of violence.

Rohingya villages have been incinerated raising fears huge numbers will end up in long-term displacement camps. With Rakhine still at boiling point there are also concerns returnees could be subjected to renewed violence. — AFP

BIR’s 2017 tax collection rises to 11.26% of GDP

By Elijah Joseph C. Tubayan,
Reporter

THE Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) said 2017 tax collections as a share of Gross Domestic Product (GDP), also known as “tax effort,” rose to 11.26%, amid improved compliance by taxpayers.

“For the past five years, the (tax effort) average was 10.5% to 10.9%. But for 2017, we hit a tax effort of 11.26%,” BIR Commissioner Caesar R. Dulay told reporters yesterday on the sidelines of the Tax Management Association of the Philippines General membership meeting in Makati city.

“We sought out the help of taxpayers and, we’re very, very happy that they responded, that’s why the figures are there,” Mr. Dulay said.

GDP grew 6.7% in 2017.

“We have a very good tax ratio and we have a good growth rate for 2017,” he added.

The BIR collected P1.779 trillion last year, or 97.27% of the target, and up 12.92% from a year earlier.

In 2017, the BIR filed 112 cases under its Run After Tax Evaders program, with overall liabilities estimated at P40.948 billion.

The Oplan Kandado Program closed 125 businesses, producing collections of about P252.14 million from various tax violations including “gross understatement of gross sales/receipts, non-compliance with the value added tax (VAT) law, and non-issuance of the requisite VAT.”

Meanwhile, some 164,062 business establishments’ records were evaluated under the Tax Compliance Verification Drive program, which resulted in collections of P224.8 million.

This year, the BIR is tasked to collect P2.039 trillion.

Mighty Corp., acquired by Japan Tobacco International, paid about P30.4 billion to the government last year to settle its tax liabilities. The Finance department said that tax collections from the cigarette firm increased to about P2.5 billion per month.

Mr. Dulay said he is confident the BIR will meet the target this year, due to efficiencies realized under Republic Act No. 10963, or the Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion Act.

1.8M tourists expected in Iloilo’s golden Dinagyang

ABOUT 1.8 million visitors are expected to flock to Iloilo City this weekend for the 50th anniversary of the Dinagyang Festival. Lea E. Lara, executive director of the Iloilo Business Club and a member of the Iloilo Dinagyang Foundation, Inc. (IDFI), said they expect revelers to double during the highlights of the festival on Jan. 27 and 28. “We’ve been having an estimate of one million but since our street parties have doubled, it should be a record breaker of about 1.5 million to 1.8 million over the weekend,” she said. Some of the activities lined up are the food festival and Tambor Trumpa Martsa Musika from Jan. 25-28; fluvial procession, International Cultural Show with festival performances from South Korea and New Zealand, and DoT Konsiyerto Para sa Turismo on Jan. 26. The main events are the Kasadyahan Regional Festival Competition on Jan. 27; and the Ati Tribe Competition on Jan. 28. A gun ban is in effect on Jan. 23-29, while a mobile phone signal jamming will be implemented on Jan. 27 to 28. — Louine Hope U. Conserva

DoE urged to strictly monitor oil companies’ monthly inventories

THE SENATE COMMITTEE on energy has called on the Department of Energy (DoE) to strictly monitor the inventories of oil companies and to impose penalties on those submitting late or incorrect information.

Senator Sherwin T. Gatchalian, the committee chairman, said there is a need for stiffer penalties for violators in view of the passage of Republic Act 10963 or the Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion (TRAIN) law, which is expected to raise the prices of petroleum products.

He said the TRAIN law “was the only time we seriously reviewed the documents being submitted by the oil companies, requiring them to submit additional information on their inventory levels.”

“With or without TRAIN this should be a normal activity for oil companies,” he told reporters on the sidelines of the ceremonial launch of SN Aboitiz Power-Magat, Inc.’s 8.5-megawatt Maris main canal hydroelectric plant in Isabela province.

Mr. Gatchalian said oil companies are duty-bound to submit their monthly inventories, and that the DoE “should be on top in ensuring their compliance.”

The senator said oil companies should be penalized if they do not submit their inventory reports on time or if they give incomplete or inaccurate information about their stock levels.

Republic Act 8479 or the Downstream Oil Industry Deregulation law mandates oil companies maintain a periodic schedule of present and future total inventory of petroleum products in the country.

As such, oil companies are required to submit a monthly report that details their sales and consumption levels, actual and projected importations, and inventory of oil products.

Mr. Gatchalian has urged the DoE to hasten the validation and analysis of the information it received and start investigating whether oil companies and gasoline stations took advantage of the situation through undue profiteering.

He said even if the private entities raised prices using their new supply, they should still be audited by the Energy department to assess whether they unduly increased prices without clear basis, “in which case they will have to face the appropriate penalties and fines.” — Victor V. Saulon

Meryl Streep joins HBO’s Big Little Lies season two

NEW YORK — Meryl Streep will join the cast of Big Little Lies season two, US cable network HBO announced Wednesday, generating another boost for a hit drama already basking in awards glory. The triple Oscar winner will star opposite Reese Witherspoon and Nicole Kidman in the second edition of a show that won plaudits for tackling domestic violence at a time when US society is increasingly focused on its treatment of women. Streep will play Mary Louise Wright, the grieving mother of Perry, the character played by Alexander Skarsgard, who died at the end of season one after being unmasked as a wife beater. Streep’s character will search for answers after her son’s death, HBO announced. Best known for her work in cinema, she won an Emmy for her performance in HBO miniseries Angels in America in 2003 and also appeared on Showtime’s Web Therapy. Big Little Lies tells the story of three California mothers in the uber-wealthy enclave of Monterey, California, whose seemingly perfect lives disguise behind-the-scenes jealousy, secrets and drama. A major hit with viewers, it won four Golden Globes, including for best TV movie or limited series and three acting gongs for Kidman as an abused wife, Skarsgard and Laura Dern, who plays a mother trying to find out who is bullying her daughter. It also walked off with eight Emmy awards including Outstanding Limited Series, as well as individual gongs for its Oscar-winning stars Kidman and Witherspoon. — AFP

Officer-in-charge Willie Marcial gets full backing as PBA commissioner in an official capacity

By Michael Angelo S. Murillo
Senior Reporter

THE Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) has a new commissioner as erstwhile officer-in-charge (OIC) and media bureau chief Willie Marcial got the full backing of the league board to assume the post in an official capacity.

In a unanimous vote made yesterday at the board’s first monthly meeting for the year at the PBA office in Libis, Quezon City, Mr. Marcial got a term as commissioner for three years.

Mr. Marcial, who has been part of Asia’s first play-for-pay league in various capacities for a long time now, was installed in an interim capacity after former commissioner Chito Narvasa was asked by a majority of the board members to resign late last year over “loss of confidence.”

As OIC of the league, Mr. Marcial did not waste time showing his capacity to lead the local pro league, which was said to have been greatly considered by the board in making its decision.

Among the changes the new commissioner has installed is giving more leniency for physical plays during games which has been welcomed by many league stakeholders.

Mr. Marcial is now the 10th commissioner in league history after Lito Prieto, Mariano Yenko, Rudy Salud, Rey Marquez, Jun Bernardino, Noli Eala, Sonny Barrio, Chito Salud and Mr. Narvasa.

China goes on tech-hiring binge; wages surge

CHINA’S war for technology talent is intensifying.

Tens of thousands of people are being hired to shore up cybersecurity, help censor online content, and try to make China no. 1 in the application of artificial intelligence (AI), as capital pours into both start-ups and more mature businesses at a time when the government is demanding rapid development.

“Companies are well-funded and are in serious competition for talent,” said Thomas Liang, a former executive at Chinese search giant Baidu who is now running an AI–focused fund. He said that startups in hot sectors like AI often have to offer 50-100% pay raises to attract employees away from established technology firms.

China’s emergence as a global centre for technology, with champions such as Alibaba and Tencent now worth more than a trillion dollars combined, has led to a hiring boom and wage growth that starts to puts salaries for the top talent within striking distance of those offered in Silicon Valley.

And while that should please the Chinese government as it seeks to create higher-paying jobs and move up the value chain, it could also add to income inequality in China as wages in non-tech jobs lag, and as the sector’s recruitment and income gains tend to be concentrated in the biggest cities such as Beijing and Shenzhen.

Technology is certainly a major driver of growth in China. Output in China’s information technology and software sector expanded by 33.8% year on year in the fourth quarter, compared with 29% growth in the third quarter, according to data from the statistics bureau.

In China, top graduates working on AI can command salaries of 300,000 yuan ($47,066) to 600,000 yuan a year, according to tech recruitment Web site 100offer.com, while team leaders with three-to-five years of experience can make more than 1.5 million yuan annually. Many of these jobs are in Beijing or Shenzhen.

Liang estimates salaries in the industry have roughly doubled since 2014.

By comparison, an AI researcher in San Francisco makes an average of $112,659 a year, and a machine learning engineer in the same city an average $150,815, according to job search site Indeed.com.

For Chinese software engineers who have studied in the US but now worry about the impact of US President Donald Trump’s immigration policies on their chances of retaining visas, returning home is becoming more appealing. Chinese tech firms say they actively recruit Chinese students from US colleges, and many have opened offices in Silicon Valley to attract top talent.

The boom in AI work is prompting some engineers to retrain in China.

“I doubled my salary by making the AI jump,” said Song, a 26-year-old AI-engineer in Beijing who now makes around $55,000 per year after taking AI training courses in his own time.

And as a 26-year-old artificial intelligence engineer working for Beijing Bytedance Technology Co., maker of the Chinese news aggregator app Toutiao, George is pulling down an annual salary of around $60,000 but says he may jump ship if something better comes along.

Both Song and George asked that their full names not be used.

The money is still pouring in. More than $65 billion of venture capital investments were made in Greater China last year, up 35% from a year earlier, according to research firm Preqin, an all-time high and second only to North America, with $77 billion.

President Xi Jinping said at the Communist Party Congress held last year that China will push for the integration of the Internet, big data and AI with the traditional economy.

This is all part of a government drive to move the Chinese economy up the value chain with a particular emphasis on areas such as information technology, robotics and energy saving vehicles.

The government is also behind a massive push to use facial recognition and other technologies to track people on a national scale — the authorities say that it will improve security and reduce crime, while human rights advocates claim it is part of a giant surveillance state and will be used against activists and dissidents.

Among the fastest-growing tech companies is Beijing-based AI start-up Cloudminds. It plans to expand head count by almost 40% this year from its current 400 staffers, human resources director Arina Li told Reuters.

The tech boom has spilled over to inland cities with Alibaba setting up a regional headquarters in Xian in the northwest while American tech giants like Apple and Qualcomm have invested heavily in Guizhou province in the southwest.

The technology hiring and wage rises are starting to show up in the wider economy.

After stagnating for several years, disposable income growth in China accelerated to 7.3% last year, according to official data published last week.

But the gains are much greater for those in the country’s burgeoning tech hubs — Beijing, Shenzhen, Shanghai and Hangzhou — where the disparity with average salaries mirrors trends seen in San Francisco.

But it’s not all roses in China’s labor market as high-paying tech jobs are only available to a tiny slice of the overall work force, and even official surveys show declining employment in both the manufacturing and services industries.

The high salaries in the tech industry far outpace typical income levels in China, where average per capita disposable income was just 25,974 yuan last year, China’s statistics bureau said last week.

“Don’t forget that in 2018, (China) is going to have 8.2 million fresh university graduates. Those guys need a job. So from my point of view the pressure to create enough jobs is still there,” said Qu Hongbin, Greater China Chief Economist at HSBC in Hong Kong. — Reuters

Black Friday: Only the beginning

Any regime that calls itself democratic would have erred on the side of press freedom and free expression if there were any doubts about a media organization’s non-compliance with the law, or would have allowed it to make the necessary corrections.

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Not only are there grave doubts about the Duterte regime’s claims about Rappler news site’s being foreign-owned; it wasn’t allowed to correct whatever errors it may have committed either. Instead, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) rushed to stop its operations.

But the regime doesn’t even claim to be in the democratic category, although one of Mr. Duterte’s closest allies, Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez, did justify as “democratic” his denying opposition congressmen funds for their district’s infrastructure projects. Because they didn’t agree with him, he even announced that he has the right to deny their constituents the benefits the funding and realization of those projects would bring them. The same Alvarez has also threatened to withhold funds from the officials of local governments who’re not supportive of the regime call for a shift to a federal form of government. He says it was a joke. His past acts and statements show it wasn’t.

Every political science freshman knows that Alvarez’s dispensing public funds only to his fellow true believers reeks with the political patronage so characteristic of the scoundrels who infest Philippine officialdom. It also assumes that public funds are his own and not the people’s from whose taxes they’re derived.

Alvarez and company’s autocratic mind-set and claims to entitlement are only among the most recent indications of the perils to which the Philippines and its people have been made vulnerable by the current regime. The country is in fact in the gravest danger since the eve of the declaration of martial law in 1972 because Philippine governance has fallen into the hands of the most reactionary, most vicious, most power-hungry and most violent wing of the dynasties that rule this rumored democracy.

The predatory clique that looks at killing as a necessary part of public policy is focused on remaining in power and restoring a dictatorship through Constitutional amendments that will make a mockery of the Bill of Rights through, among other putrid means, the insertion of the phrase “the responsible exercise” of free expression, free speech and press freedom in Article III, Section 4 of the 1987 Constitution. It is also plotting the extension of the terms of congressmen, senators, and the president, and the suspension of elections during a protracted, 10-year transition from the unitary form of government to a federal one.

In preparation for the achievement of this assault on what little remains of Philippine democracy, these marauders are ravaging the system of government checks and balances by rushing the impeachment of the chief justice and the ombudsman. But they have also have been demonizing, threatening, and intimidating the independent press and media and those courageous journalists who dare report the truth.

As the entire country saw during the Marcos terror regime, the next step in that sordid enterprise is press suppression. Those who foresaw that probability have been proven right by the SEC cancellation of Rappler news site’s certificate of registration, following the order of Solicitor General Jose Calida to that body to investigate the media organization.

The SEC decision should alarm not only the media community but also every other organization and individual engaged in the democratic imperative of monitoring government and holding it to account. The attack on Rappler is only the beginning of the regime assault on press freedom and free expression. Because critical media and their commitment to truth-telling and monitoring government are the arch-enemies of any tyranny, under the same pretext used against Rappler that it is foreign-owned because of the Philippine Depository Receipts (PDR) it has issued to foreign investors, other media organizations that have similarly issued PDRs are likely to be gagged as well.

But the suppression of other media organizations and practitioners the present regime wants to silence is certain to follow through some other pretext. Such news organizations as independent radio and television networks, critical broadsheets, and online news sites and blogs, the community press, student newspapers, and the alternative media, with their honored tradition of combating dictatorship, are among those the regime will inevitably try to silence.

President Rodrigo Duterte’s allegation that he had nothing to do with the suppression of Rappler and its being the first step in the curtailment of press freedom and free expression is true only in a limited, literal sense. He may not have directly ordered Calida and the SEC to do it, but they certainly took their cue from him.

During his June 2017 State of the Nation Address (SONA), in one of his usual tirades Mr. Duterte threatened to have Rappler investigated for its allegedly being foreign-owned. In the wake of the SEC ruling, he has even justified the attack on Rappler for supposedly lying and spreading the “fake news” of which his overpaid and under-qualified (mis)communication hirelings are the true experts. He also said on another occasion that he would cause the non-renewal of the franchise of TV network ABS-CBN.

Together with his proven hostility to the press, and very early on, in 2016, his justifying the killing of journalists on the flawed argument that they’re all corrupt, these suggest that Mr. Duterte is punishing Rappler for discharging the fundamental journalistic responsibilities of truth-telling and holding the powerful to account. His regime will also do the same to other media organizations and practitioners he and his bully cohorts deem equally guilty of exercising their Constitutionally guaranteed right to press freedom and free expression.

Providing the context of events is among the truth-telling responsibilities of the press. Not only is the suppression of Rappler occurring in a situation in which the regime has been waging a nearly two-year campaign against independent media through the tidal wave of harassments, threats, and false information mostly sourced from the government media system and its online trolls and hired hacks in the corporate media. It is also happening during the regime’s orchestration of its by now obvious march to dictatorship via the railroading of Constitutional amendments. The conditions under which Rappler was targeted shows it to be an assault on press freedom. As the novelist Margaret Atwood declares in her The Handmaid’s Tale, context is all.

In these circumstances, only a broad alliance of media, sectoralm and people’s organizations, human rights defenders, journalists and everyone else who understands the imperatives of free expression and press freedom in the democratization and reform of Philippine society and the making of competent and honest governance can frustrate the fascist conspiracy for the return of authoritarian rule.

During the martial law period, tens of thousands of Filipinos — students, professionals, academics, artists, and journalists — together with organized farmers, workers and other progressives, met the challenge to resist and eventually dismantle the Marcos terror regime. They are once more being called upon to defend themselves and the rest of the people in this hour of extreme peril to everyone’s rights and lives.

If history is any guide, the unity media organizations demonstrated during the Black Friday (January 19th) rally for the defense of press freedom and against dictatorship will be, like the suppression of Rappler, only the beginning. Resistance in various forms and means is the tried and tested and only effective response to tyranny and repression.

 

Luis V. Teodoro is on Facebook and Twitter (@luisteodoro). The views expressed in Vantage Point are his own and do not represent the views of the Center for Media Freedom and Responsibility.

www.luisteodoro.com

RCBC ties up with eCurrency for digital money

RIZAL COMMERCIAL Banking Corp. (RCBC) is set to launch a digital money product, in partnership with eCurrency Mint Limited, within the second quarter of the year.

“RCBC digital money is a form of electronic money that is issued and equally backed up by funds in RCBC,” Margarita B. Lopez, RCBC Head of Digital Banking, told BusinessWorld in a mobile phone message.

Digital money, or electronic money, is a type of currency available in digital form and has the same legal tender status such as cash and coins.

In a statement, the Yuchengco-led lender said its digital money product, RCBC Cash, “establishes the capability to transact between existing payments platforms and will be available to hold in all e-money wallets.”

The new digital cash product is in line with the regulatory sandbox initiative introduced by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas, allowing firms to test and offer technologies under its supervision.

“This launch demonstrates our commitment to bringing progressive and trusted financial services to the Philippines,” Gil A. Buenaventura, RCBC president and chief executive officer, was quoted as saying in the statement.

RCBC said its digital money will use Dublin-based eCurrency’s technology, which allows for safe and efficient digital transactions.

“The digital instrument [will use] high-security technology to ensure that the digital payment instrument cannot be counterfeited or compromised. Furthermore, the degree of transparency required by the solution’s interoperability promotes greater governance and effective regulation,” the bank said.

RCBC and eCurrency will work with the BSP to launch RCBC Cash as early as the second quarter.

In February 2016, RCBC was involved in a cyber heist after hackers used the bank to channel the $81 million stolen from the Bangladeshi central bank.

As of end-September 2017, RCBC is the tenth commercial bank in asset terms. It booked a net profit of P3.4 billion in the first nine months of 2017, 2% lower than the previous year.

Shares in RCBC rose by 2.02% or P1.10 to P55.50 apiece on Thursday. – Karl Angelo N. Vidal

Uber Philippines files petition to hike fares

UBER PHILIPPINES (Uber Systems, Inc.) has filed a petition before the Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board (LTFRB) to raise fares, citing rising costs for drivers due to the higher excise tax on petroleum products.

On its Web site, the ride-sharing company said it is seeking to raise fares per kilometer by around 58% to 110%, depending on demand and time of the day.

In its application, Uber wants to raise the fare per kilometer to P9 (for off-peak hours) and P12 (for peak hours) for UberX, the basic Uber ride. Uber’s current fare per kilometer is P5.70.

The base fare is retained at P40, as well as time charge at P2 per minute.

“The costs that driver partners have to bear to maintain their vehicles is projected to increase due to several factors, including requirements under the Omnibus Franchising Guidelines (OFG) to further improve safety and quality of service, increasing fuel prices, and new excise taxes on petroleum,” Uber Philippines said.

In a message to reporters, LTFRB Board Member Aileen Lourdes A. Lizada said they have received the petition filed by Uber Philippines yesterday, Jan. 25.

Rival Grab Philippines (MyTAXI.PH, Inc.) earlier this month filed a petition to increase its P10 to P14 per kilometer charge to P11 to P15 per kilometer, and increase its P2 per minute charge to P2.10 per minute, to compensate Grab drivers for the price increases in fuel and spare parts from higher excise taxes.

Excise taxes under the new tax reform package on petroleum products are estimated to increase by P2.50 per liter for diesel, and P7 per liter for gasoline.

Last week, the LTFRB set its common base supply of transport network company (TNC) vehicles at a cap of 45,000 vehicles in Metro Manila and nearby provinces, 500 for Metro Cebu, and 200 for Pampanga. — Patrizia Paola C. Marcelo

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