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Love, peace, rock ‘n’ roll: Rep stages Hair in November

HAIR, the first true rock musical on Broadway, is the year-end musical of Repertory Philippines’ (Rep) 2017 season. It will run from Nov. 17 to Dec. 17 at the Onstage Theater, Greenbelt 1, Makati City.

Set in the tumultuous 1960s, the story follows native Oklahoma farm boy Claude, who meets the energetic, irrepressible tribe of Central Park hippies on his way to enlist in the US Army. This free-spirited tribe, led by the charismatic Berger, inspires Claude to rebel against the war, his parents, and society, and to assert love, peace and freedom.

From its groundbreaking use of rock music in theater to its fearless depiction of the decade’s stark realities – from the bohemian underground, the sexual revolution, and the violent anti-war movement – Hair is an iconic product of its time, and continues to be a relevant piece of theater up to today.

Hair – whose classic hits include “Let the Sun Shine In,” “Aquarius,” and “Good Morning Starshine” – won the 1969 Grammy Award for Best Score from An Original Cast Show Album, while its 2009 Broadway revival earned the Tony Award for Best Revival of a Musical.

In Rep’s production, Markki Stroem alternates with Topper Fabregas as Claude with George Schulze as Berger, Caisa Borromeo as Sheila, and a stellar cast of young performers. Chris Millado directs the grand musicale with Ejay Yatco as musical director.

Tickets are available through Rep (843-3570) or TicketWorld (891-9999, www.ticketworld.com.ph).

How PSEi member stocks performed — September 5, 2017

Here’s a quick glance at how PSEi stocks fared on Tuesday, September 5, 2017.

Nation at a glance — (09/06/17)

News stories from across the nation. Visit www.bworldonline.com (section: The Nation) to read more national and regional news from the Philippines.

Headline inflation rates in the Philippines, all items

HIGHER food, oil and electricity costs spurred prices of widely used goods and services in August at the fastest clip in three months, according to government data, but the fact the pace fell within expectation led the central bank to say it retains “flexibility” in its monetary policy options. Read the full story.

Food, oil, electricity spur Aug. inflation

Citi to hire 100 wealth advisers in Australia in millionaire push

CITIGROUP Inc. is planning to hire 100 wealth advisers in Australia over the next three years as it seeks to triple its number of wealthy customers in the nation.

Citi is targeting Australians with more than A$1 million ($797,000) to invest, the New York-based bank said in a statement Tuesday.  Citi’s Australian wealth arm posted a 14% rise in assets under management last year, according to the statement.

Australia has the third-largest pool of high-net worth individuals in Asia-Pacific, with more than 230,000 people with A$1 million or more to invest, Citigroup’s Head of Asia-Pacific Retail Banking Gonzalo Luchetti said in the statement.  The bank will use its global reach to attract clients looking to invest overseas, he said.

Citi’s plans come as Australia’s A$2.8 trillion funds industry expands through a combination of compulsory retirement savings and individual investments. The nation is home to the world’s fourth-largest pension pool with A$2.3 trillion in assets, which includes more than A$600 billion self-managed by mom and pop savers.

Citi’s Australian expansion strategy follow similar plans in Asia-Pacific. The company, which manages $218 billion in the region, is seeking “mid-teen growth” of its high-net worth client base, it said.

Citigroup reported second-quarter profit of $3.87 billion, or $1.28 a share, beating analysts’ $1.21 average estimate, as revenue from bond trading fell less than expected and investment banking brought in the most fees in seven years. — Bloomberg

Tobacco regulator to set floor price this week

THE National Tobacco Administration (NTA) is set to decide new floor prices for tobacco for the next crop season.

In a statement on Tuesday, the government through the NTA will convene the Tripartite Consultative Conference on Sept. 6 and 7 at the NTA Central Office in Quezon City.

The biennial tripartite conference sets the stage for stakeholders to evaluate and negotiate the floor prices for unprocessed tobacco leaves.

“Upon consultation with their members at a pre-tripartite meeting in Candon City last month, we are ready with the consolidated unified cost of production per tobacco type, which we will bring to the negotiating table,” Mario E. Cabasal, president of National Association of Tobacco Farmers Associations and Cooperatives was quoted in the statement as saying. 

The current floor price for the highest grade of each tobacco type is P81 per kilo for Virginia tobacco, P68 for burley, and P70 for the native variety.

Set based on prevailing market conditions such as production costs plus a reasonable margin of profit for stakeholders and growing conditions, the floor price is the minimum price allowed by the government for the procurement of tobacco from farmers.

Data from the NTA show that floor prices for high to medium grades of tobacco in the past two tripartite conferences in 2013 and 2015 have risen on average by P4.48 per kilo for Virginia, P4.8 for burley, and P3.88 for native varieties.

The new floor prices will be in force during the tobacco trading years 2018 and 2019. — Janina C. Lim

Philippine PMI weakest so far in August

BUSINESS improved for factories in the country but at the weakest pace, so far, in August, according to a monthly survey IHS Markit conducts for Nikkei, Inc. that showed Vietnam, Singapore and Indonesia dislodging the Philippines from the lead in Southeast Asia.

The seasonally adjusted Nikkei Philippines Manufacturing Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) logged 50.6 in August, marking the fourth straight month of slowdown and the weakest improvement since the survey on the country began in January last year.

However, it was still better than the 50.4 reading that month of the seven of 10 members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) covered by the survey (Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam), up from July’s 49.3.

The 50 mark separates readings denoting improvement of factory activity from the preceding month from those spelling erosion.

The manufacturing PMI consists of five sub-indices, with new orders having the biggest weight at 30%, followed by output (25%), employment (20%), suppliers’ delivery times (15%) and stocks of purchases (10%).

“After a subdued start to the third quarter, the Philippines manufacturing economy lost further momentum in August,” the Philippine report read, particularly noting a marked slowdown in growth rates of both output and new orders “[t]hat led to a fall in employment levels.”

“The latest reading signalled only a marginal improvement in the health of the sector, contrasting with the solid growth seen in the first half of the year.”

Philippine PMI weakest so far in August

The report noted “a softening” of sales to both domestic and foreign consumers, with a decline in new export orders that was the second such fall in the Philippine survey’s 20-month history. Foreign orders’ “rate of contraction was moderate, but the reading was the lowest on record,” it noted.

Moreover, respondents cited shortages of raw materials that prompted them to turn away some orders from abroad.

Production increase, the report added, was “the weakest on record.”

“The softer growth in demand led to a fall in employment — the first time in the survey history,” the report quoted IHS Marking Principal Economist Bernard Aw as saying.

The rate of job decline was “modest”, the report said, and “[while] there were some cases of layoffs due to lower production requirements or non-performance, most firms highlighted that voluntary leavers as the main factor.”

Moreover, with the peso weakening to 11-year lows in value against the dollar last month, manufacturing “input cost inflation picked up to the highest recorded by the survey for four months.”

The central bank said last week that it expects August’s headline inflation rate — scheduled to be reported today — to have clocked 2.6-3.4% against July’s 2.8% and August 2016’s 1.8%, while BusinessWorld’s poll of 13 economists last week yielded a median estimate of 3.0%.

“Matching higher costs, firms raised selling prices again in August, passing on some of the increased costs to clients,” the report read.

“The survey showed that average charges rose to the greatest extent since April.”

OUTLOOK
On a brighter note, optimism among survey respondents “remained elevated in August despite the Future Output Index dipping to a 14-month low.”

Survey results coincided with those of the third-quarter Business Expectations Survey which the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) conducted July 3-Aug. 18 among respondents of 1,480 firms nationwide that dragged the overall confidence index to a 37.9% net reading that was the weakest in three years, or since the 34.4% logged in 2014’s third quarter.

Among manufacturers covered by BSP’s survey, 31.8% planned to expand in the “next quarter” — the lowest reading in three quarters — compared to the 34.7% logged in the second-quarter survey.

However, the fourth-quarter outlook improved in BSP’s survey, with volume of business activity index picking up to 49.6% that was the best “next quarter” reading in six quarters or since the 50.7% of 2016’s first quarter, while the employment outlook index improved to 27.3% from the second-quarter survey’s 24.7%.

“While short-term prospects appeared increasingly weak, longer-term expectations remained optimistic,” the Nikkei Philippines Manufacturing PMI report quoted Mr. Aw as saying.

“The majority of surveyed companies continued to anticipate output growth over the next year, suggesting that the recent slowdown could be temporary,” he noted.

“As for job prospects, an ongoing lack of capacity pressure — as signalled by a persistent fall in backlogs — meant that Filipino manufacturers may not be in a hurry to boost hiring.”

VIETNAM REGAINS ASEAN LEAD
The headline Nikkei ASEAN Manufacturing Purchasing Managers’ Index this time showed Vietnam retaking the lead which it lost to the Philippines in May after a three-month run at the helm.

“Vietnam led the PMI rankings in August, displacing the Philippines and was the only nation to see its rate of improvement picking up since July,” the ASEAN report read, adding that “Singapore, Indonesia and Malaysia returned to growth after showing deteriorations in July.”

“After a weak start to the third quarter, the ASEAN manufacturing sector returned to growth in August, with the PMI showing an improvement in overall business conditions,” it noted.

“Encouragingly, the survey highlighted the broad-based nature of the renewed upturn, with five out of seven monitored countries indicating an improvement in manufacturing conditions, up from two in July.”

At the same time, however, ASEAN “business confidence remained below the historical average despite improving from July, suggesting that firms will maintain a cautious approach to staff hiring.”

Big miners move to assure critics

By Janina C. Lim
Reporter

THE Chamber of Mines of the Philippines (CoMP) will investigate complaints against members and invited journalists to visit their sites, in the wake of recent criticism from within and amid uncertainty under the current administration that has threatened to crack down anew on the industry.

File photo of Benjamin Philip G. Romualdez taken in October 2010. — BW FILE PHOTO

“There was consensus that we need to shake things up,” CoMP Executive Director Ronaldo S. Recidoro said in an interview on the sidelines of the group’s press briefing in Makati City yesterday.

“Si Mr. (former CoMP president Benjamin Philip G.) Romualdez na rin nag-decide. Sabi niya, ‘I think the first thing we shake up is leadership. I won’t run for reelection.’ Confluence of events talaga eh nangyari. He has been planning to resign for the last two years,” added Mr. Recidoro, who now also serves as officer-in-charge of the chamber in the absence of a new president.

Benguet Corp. disclosed on Aug. 24 that its board had approved “the early retirement” of Mr. Romualdez — then its president and chief executive officer (CEO) — “for health reasons” after being on leave since Jan. 27, 2014.

“Nakita ni Philip, maybe it’s time to give the chamber a fresh mandate for its membership, renewed direction at saka fresh blood. Sabi niya, “Let’s redefine our direction,” Mr. Recidoro said, recalling his dialogue with the former CoMP president.

Besides Mr. Recidoro, Nelia C. Halcon who remains as executive vice-president, and Gaspar R. Andres who stays as corporate secretary, other members of the group’s board are:

• Nickel Asia Corp. President and CEO Gerard H. Brimo as chairman, replacing Artemio F. Disini;

• OceanaGold (Philippines), Inc. Chairman Jose P. Leviste, Jr. and Sagittarius Mines, Inc. Chairman Gilberto C. Teodoro, Jr. as vice-chairmen;

• and Ramon T. Diokno as treasurer.

In the same press conference, Mr. Brimo denied speculations that the move was triggered by Apex Mining Co. Inc.’s withdrawal of its membership from the group last month after claiming that some members “paid mere lip service to responsible mining.”

Walter W. Brown, Apex Mining’s president and chief executive officer, had then “expressed his disappointment and frustration with CoMP’s response to the President (Rodrigo R. Duterte)’s call for the mining industry to clean up its act.” Big miners had been passing on the blame for damage to the environment to illegal small counterparts.

“This has been in the planning stage for quite some time,” Mr. Brimo said.

Mr. Leviste suggested during the briefing that Apex Mining’s Mr. Brown makes a formal complaint on his “serious allegations” against members concerned. That, Mr. Leviste said, should be Mr. Brown’s “next move… if he truly intends to pursue the issues he raised.”

The chamber decided to leave the position of president vacant for now, since it wanted a “person… not beholden to a company.”

“We haven’t quite decided on that yet. We’re certainly thinking about it,” Mr. Brimo said.

The group also announced its plan to form a new oversight committee which will investigate complaints against members.

“If there is an incident from any of us that is serious enough that the board of trustees feels that it should be investigated, that is where the oversight committee steps in,” Mr. Brimo said, explaining that the new body will consist of “third-party experts that are not associated with any of our member-companies.”

“And that is how you ensure that there is no conflict of interest and transparency,” he said, adding that “[o]f course, the member company [subject of a complaint] should be open to these investigations.”

Mr. Recidoro said: “We want to be faster than the MGB (Mines and Geosciences Bureau)” in acting on complaints against CoMP members, adding that members found to have violated environment preservation laws will be stripped of membership.

CoMP itself, Mr. Recidoro said, will file formal complaints with regulatory agencies and courts.

The group is also encouraging its members to adopt sustainability standards observed by the Mining Association of Canada.

Asked on a bill filed in the House of Representatives that seeks to require a legislative franchise of miners and to ban exports of ore, Mr. Brimo said the group received a copy of the proposed measure just recently and was studying it “very carefully.”

CoMP is also encouraging journalists to visit mine sites.

“We don’t want to just show you pictures,” said Mr. Brimo as the members of the group handed reporters flash drives with pictures of rehabilitated mines.

“We would like to organize for you mine tours if you’re open to this… We would be very happy to organize that for you,” he added.

“And I assure you that you will actually go and see a properly run large-scale mine. You will come out with a totally different perspective on large-scale mining.”

The mining industry has been reeling from unfriendly policies since former president Benigno S. C. Aquino III issued Executive Order No. 79 in July 2012 which stopped the approval of new projects pending the enactment of a fresh revenue-sharing scheme that will give the government a bigger slice of industry earnings.

A mining revenue bill was filed shortly before Mr. Aquino and the 16th Congress ended their terms, hence, was left in limbo.

Slowdown-hit Indian economy counts costs of stronger rupee

NEW DELHI — India’s stronger currency has become a threat for its growth aspirations, piling pressure on the central bank to aggressively intervene in the foreign exchange market even at the risk of incurring the wrath of the United States.

The rupee has risen by more than six percent this year against the dollar, snapping six consecutive years of depreciation, with the impact magnified by the decline of many competitors’ currencies against the greenback over the same period.

That is weighing on an economy that is struggling to cope with disruption caused by ambiguous rules of a recently launched Goods and Services Tax (GST), and has yet to fully recover from Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s crackdown on “black money.”

While the rupee’s surge is being driven by strong capital inflows lured by India’s economic and political stability, it is making the country’s exports less competitive and is also driving up imports, prolonging a slump in manufacturing.

An export slowdown dented gross domestic product (GDP) growth by 2.6 percentage points in the last quarter. Overall economic expansion cooled to 5.7% in the June quarter, data released on Thursday showed, its slackest pace in more than three years.

“(The) rupee is now really hurting growth,” said Pronab Sen, the former Chief Statistician of India and now a country director for think tank International Growth Center.

“It is about time India does something about it, else we will have to brace ourselves for an extended spell of weak growth.”

HANDS-OFF APPROACH
Previously, strong rupee appreciation would prompt policy makers to talk down the currency.

But that has been absent under Mr. Modi, as many of his cabinet colleagues are keen to project the rising rupee as an endorsement of the Indian leader’s economic stewardship.

But with slowing export earnings threatening jobs and double-digit imports growth hollowing out Mr. Modi’s signature “Make in India” program, some officials are calling for action.

In its midyear economic survey, the finance ministry last month cited exchange rate appreciation as one of the downside risks for Asia’s third-largest economy.

Thursday’s GDP figures have only reinforced those concerns.

“A call will have to be made sooner rather than later whether the economy can afford the rupee at these levels,” said a senior government official.

Indian policy makers were banking on an improving global economy to lift demand for Indian goods, helping improve capacity utilisation levels at Indian factories, which are running nearly 30% below their capacity

Those hopes, however, have been belied as merchandise exports growth has slumped to 3.9% year-on-year from near 28% growth in March.

While overseas shipments have been hurt by rising protectionism and the uncertainty created by the GST, a stronger rupee has not helped the cause either.

The Indian currency appreciated by four percent against the dollar during the last quarter, whereas the Chinese yuan and Malaysian ringgit depreciated by 1.9% and 2.9%, respectively.

Ajay Sahai, head of the Federation of Indian Export Organizations, says this price differential of nearly six percentage points made it tougher to compete with Chinese exporters in non-branded segments such as tiles, leather and garments.

“This price gap is good enough for a company like Wal-Mart to shift its orders to other locations,” Mr. Sahai said.

Service exports — a strength of the Indian economy thanks to the success of outsourcing firms such as Infosys Ltd. and Tata Consultancy Services — are more vulnerable to the rupee’s rise.

In a recent report, citing a report by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), DBS Bank said every one percent rise in the rupee would affect the bottom-line of information-technology and outsourcing companies by as much as 40 basis points.

The central bank has so far confined its interventions in the foreign exchange markets to efforts aimed at minimizing volatility rather than capping the currency.

But buoyant capital flows are not only putting appreciation pressure on the rupee, they are also flushing the financial markets with excess liquidity, which could pose challenges for the central bank’s monetary policy.

With inflation way below its medium-term target, the RBI could look to cut interest rates to prevent further currency appreciation. It could also aggressively cap the rupee by buying dollars to build foreign exchange reserves.

Such measures, however, could complicate the RBI’s inflation management and potentially also put India on Washington’s currency watch list. The US Treasury is mandated by law to initiate special currency talks with any country that has “material” current account and “significant” bilateral trade surpluses, and persistent, one-sided intervention in foreign exchange markets. If a country meets two of the three conditions, it will be put on the monitoring list.

India already runs a trade surplus of more than $20 billion with the United States.

The South Asian nation is currently not on the monitoring list, but US President Donald Trump has ordered an investigation into the causes of the US trade deficit with 12 of its trade partners, including India.

“There are no easy options,” said the government official. — Reuters

Military says taking fire from women, children in Marawi

GOVERNMENT TROOPS fighting Islamic State-linked rebels in a southern city have encountered armed resistance by women and children, the military said on Monday, Sept. 4, as troops make a final push to end a conflict that has raged for more than 100 days.

Ground forces were braced for higher casualties amid fierce fighting in Marawi City on the island of Mindanao, where the field of battle has shrank to a small area in a commercial center infested with snipers and littered with booby traps.

“We are now in the final phase of our operations and we are expecting more intense and bloody fighting. We may suffer heavier casualties as the enemy becomes more desperate,” Lt. Gen. Carlito Galvez, who heads the military in Western Mindanao, told reporters.

He said the number of fighters was diminishing and a small number of women and children, most likely family members of the rebels, were now engaged in combat.

“Our troops in the field are seeing women and children shooting at our troops so that’s why it seems they are not running out of fighters.”

FORCED TO TAKE UP ARMS
More than 800 people have been killed in the battle, most of them insurgents, since May 23 when the militants occupied large parts of the predominantly Muslim town.

The battle is the biggest security challenge in years for the mostly Catholic Philippines, even though it has a long history of Muslim separatist rebellion in Mindanao, an island of 22 million people that has been placed under martial law until the end of the year.

The protracted clashes and resilience of the rebels has fanned fears that Philippine groups loyal to Islamic State, and with ties to Indonesian and Malaysian militants, have formed an alliance that is well-organized, funded and armed, and serious about carving out its own territory in Mindanao.

Citing information provided by four hostages who had escaped from the rebels, Mr. Galvez said there were some 56 Christian hostages — most of them women — and about 80 male residents may have been forced to take up arms and fight the military.

The fighting was concentrated in an area around a mosque about a quarter of a square kilometer. He said soldiers were taking control of an average of 35 buildings a day and at that rate, it could be three weeks before the city was under government control. Malacañan Palace on Monday said seven buildings have been cleared at that point, as well as “two critical bridges in the city.”

These developments “are indicative of the decreasing maneuvering space of the rebels and will facilitate their defeat,” Presidential Spokesperson Ernesto C. Abella said in a press briefing on Monday.

Mr. Abella also updated the media about relief efforts, including the provision of sufficient water supplies and transitional shelter sites in neighboring Iligan City and Lanao del Norte province.

AIR STRIKES
Fighting in Marawi was intense on Monday, with heavy gunfire and explosions ringing out across the picturesque, lakeside town, the heart of which has been devastated by near-daily government air strikes.

Helicopters circled above to provide air cover for ground troops as fighting raged, with bursts of smoke rising above the skyline as bombs landed on rebel positions.

Mr. Galvez said intelligence showed the rebels’ military commander, Abdullah Maute, may have been killed last month in an air strike.

Postings on Facebook and chatter over the past two days on Telegram, a messaging application used by Islamic State and its sympathizers, had carried tributes to Abdullah, referring to him by one of his pseudonyms, he said.

“There is no 100% confirmation until we see his cadaver but this is enough to presume he died already,” he said.

Sought for comment by Palace reporters, Mr. Abella said, “We don’t have any updates at this stage.”

The military has contradictory statements about the status of the rebel leaders over the past few months.

Abdullah Maute and brother Omarkhayam are the Middle East-educated leaders of a militant clan known as the Maute group that has gained notoriety in the past two years due to its ability to engage the army for long periods.

Under the name Dawla Islamiya, the Maute group has formed an alliance with Isnilon Hapilon, a leader of a pro-Islamic State faction of another group, Abu Sayyaf.

Mr. Galvez said the army’s intelligence indicated both Omarkhayam and Hapilon, Islamic State’s anointed “emir” in Southeast Asia, were still in the Marawi battle. — main report by Reuters

Police eyed in latest killing of teenager

A GOVERNMENT agency on Monday, Sept. 4, said a murder complaint would be filed against policemen who shot dead a teenager accused of robbery, the second such case in just over a week against police from the same part of the capital, Manila.

carl-arnaiz
File photos of Carl Angelo Arnaiz from his Facebook account and Facebook account of his mother Eva Magat Arnaiz — via InterAksyon

The Public Attorney’s Office (PAO) said an autopsy by its forensic experts indicated that Carl Angelo Arnaiz, 19, was tortured before he was shot in Caloocan City, and the manner of his killing was similar to that of a high-school student shot dead in Caloocan on Aug. 16 by anti-drugs officers.

The death of 17-year-old Kian Loyd delos Santos stirred rare public outrage about President Rodrigo R. Duterte’s ferocious war on drugs, in which thousands of people have been killed.

Mr. Delos Santos was dragged by plainclothes policemen to a dark, trash-filled alley before being shot in the head and left next to a pigsty, witnesses said. Police said he was armed and they killed him in self-defense.

The body of Mr. Arnaiz was found on Aug. 28 by his parents at a morgue.

He was last seen alive on Aug. 17, according to media. Citing a police report, they said Mr. Arnaiz was accused of robbing a taxi driver at gunpoint and died in an ensuing firefight with police. The killing has not been linked to the anti-drugs campaign.

PAO chief Persida V. Rueda-Acosta said Mr. Arnaiz’s eyes were bruised and his wounded wrists showed handcuff marks, and he had four gunshot wounds in the chest and one in the right arm.

“We will go to the Department of Justice to file murder charges. He was killed mercilessly,” Ms. Acosta said. “He was handcuffed, so how could he fight back?”

Oscar D. Albayalde, Metro Manila police chief, promised to investigate the killing of Mr. Arnaiz.

Philippine National Police chief Ronald M. dela Rosa, however, dismissed the similarity of Mr. Arnaiz’s case to that of Mr. delos Santos.

“I would like to caution everyone to please not to be so quick, condemning our policemen. That is a different case,” he told reporters, referring to the Arnaiz killing.

Interviewed by Malacanang reporters on Monday, Presidential Spokesperson Ernesto C. Abella said, “ (W)e will be coming up with a statement soon….It’s something that we still have to verify.” — Reuters

Paolo Duterte, Mans Carpio to attend Senate hearing on drugs

By Mario M. Banzon

THE SENATE blue-ribbon committee has extended its invitation to Davao Vice-Mayor Paolo Z. Duterte and lawyer Manases “Mans” R. Carpio to attend its next hearing on illegal drugs scheduled on Thursday, Sept. 7.

Paolo-Mans
Combination of file photos of  Davao Vice-Mayor Paolo Z. Duterte and Manases  “Mans” R. Carpio — Photos from their Facebook accounts

The committee will continue its investigation on the P6.4 billion worth of shabu shipment last May from China and the “tara” system or systematic bribery at the Bureau of Customs. The latter is based on Senator Panfilo M. Lacson’s Aug. 23 privileged speech, which implicated former Customs commissioner Nicanor E. Faeldon and also mentioned a certain Charlie Tan of the Davao Group.

The agenda for this Thursday’s hearing is specified in the invitation to Messrs. Duterte and Carpio, a son and the son-in-law, respectively, of President Rodrigo R. Duterte.

“We duly recognize the coercive powers of the Senate of the Philippines as part of the Legislative branch of government and their authority to conduct an inquiry in aid of legislation. We commit to respect the invitation and attend the hearing,” they said in a joint statement.

Senator Richard J. Gordon, committee chairman, said he had already decided on inviting the two during the Aug. 31 hearing, which was marred by tensions with opposition Senator Antonio F. Trillanes IV. “There’s no second (motion) so sabi ko ipatawag ninyo,” he said. (There’s no second motion so I said go ahead.)

He also said he expects Messrs. Duterte and Carpio “to be on a higher plane than ordinary citizens.”

“It’s their duty to the public. Haharap sila. Kung anong tanungin, tanungin,” Mr. Gordon said. (It’s their duty to the public. They will face the committee. What will be asked will be asked.)

Mr. Gordon had also earlier announced that he will submit a preliminary report on the committee’s investigation, but said on Monday he will have the report signed by his colleagues.

Senate Majority Leader Vicente C. Sotto III said for his part: “Sabi ko nga, walang koneksyon kaya hindi kailangang imbitahan sila d’un dahil hindi nga konektado yung Davao group d’un. Sinasabi naman ng mga importer na hindi involved pero dito sa tara system lahat ng nabanggit ni Senator Lacson dapat imbitahan,” he said. (Like I said before, there’s no connection, that’s why there is no need to invite them regarding the shipment, because the Davao group is not connected to that. The importers are saying no involvement, but with the tara system, everyone mentioned by Senator Lacson should be invited.)

Mr. Trillanes, who had been pushing for the two presidential relatives to be summoned, said for his part: “Nakaramdam lang si Senator Gordon ng public pressure. Bibigay din pala.” (Senator Gordon felt the public pressure. So he gave in, after all.)

“Anyway, regardless whether they would cooperate or not, I will be prepared to confront them on Thursday,” he added.

Mr. Trillanes, on Aug. 31, accused the committee on Mr. Gordon’s watch of having become a “comite de abswelto” (a committee that clears people), prompting Mr. Gordon to threaten an ethics complaint against Mr. Trillanes.

“I don’t need signatories. I had the support of more than 10, more than 12, more than 14,” Mr. Gordon said following a caucus held Monday by his colleagues.

“You do not do that to the chairman. You do not do that to your fellow senators. And say they are a bunch of puppets or that they cannot do anything, that the Senate is already a damaged institution,” he added.

Mr. Trillanes maintained he did not do anything improper or unparliamentary.

“Naiintindihan ko ‘yung political game (I understand the political game). But we shall see. Mahabang proseso ‘yan (It’s a long process). There would be hearing. Eventually it will be presented to the plenary then it would be voted on,” he said.

Mr. Sotto, who also heads the ethics committee, said the Senate will take up Mr. Gordon’s complaint “as soon as possible.”

For his part, Senate President Senator Aquilino Martin L. Pimentel III told reporters: “Hihintayin natin ‘yung investigation ng committee at saka recommendation ng committee. Basta it will be processed normally just like any other complaint,” he said. (We will wait for the committee’s investigation and its recommendation. It will be processed normally just like any other complaint.)

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