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Funding approved for first quarter crop insurance

NEDA

THE Department of Budget and Management said it has approved the release of first quarter funding for crop insurance to compensate for agricultural damage.

“In light of the escalating challenges posed by climate change, which heightens the risks to both our economy and food security, it becomes imperative to prioritize the provision of financial security and insurance to empower our farmers and fishermen,” Budget Secretary Amenah F. Pangandaman said in a statement on Sunday. 

On March 19, Ms. Pangandaman affirmed the release of a Special Allotment Release Order amounting to P4.5 billion and a Notice of Cash Allocation worth P900 million for the Philippine Crop Insurance Corp. (PCIC).

“This assistance is intended to help them safeguard their means of living, ensuring they can continue their activities despite unforeseen events,” Ms. Pangandaman said.

The PCIC has been allocated funding of P4.5 billion under the 2024 national budget to cover the crop insurance premiums of more than 2 million farmers.

Apart from losses due to natural calamities, pest infections, and plant diseases, the PCIC also provides assistance in the event of the loss or damage of non-crop assets like equipment, transport facilities, and infrastructure.

El Niño has caused agricultural damage worth P2.63 billion, affecting 54,203 farmers and 53,879 hectares of farmland, the Department of Agriculture said last week.

Damage to the rice crop, which accounted for about 65% or P1.7 billion worth of agricultural losses, was also one of the main drivers of this month’s uptick in rice inflation at 24.4%. This was the highest reading since the 24.6% recorded in February 2009.

The National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council reported that 17 areas nationwide declared a state of calamity due to El Niño. — Beatriz Marie D. Cruz

Malnutrition and the Agency Problem

In business education, there is a subject called “The Agency Problem.”

Modern corporations are owned by numerous stockholders who have neither the time nor the talent nor the inclination to manage the corporation. The solution is to hire professionals called management who will manage the corporation in the best interest of the stockholders. The problem is that the management (the Agent) may not act in the best interest of the stockholders (the Principal), hence “The Agency Problem.” For clearly the interests of the agent do not always align with the interests of the principal. Thus, in matters of executive compensation the interest of the principal is to frugally pay the agent based on the performance of the company while the interest of the agent is to be lavishly paid no matter how well or badly the company performs.

As with the private sector, so too with the public sector, with greater complexity. We the citizens (the Principal) elect politicians (the Agent) who are expected to act in our best interest. Due to the complexity of modern governments, the politicians will in turn appoint unelected officials called bureaucrats (the Agent’s Agent) who will administer the government machinery on their behalf. The Agency Problem arises when our interests (the Principal) conflict with the diverse interests of the politicians (the Agent) and the bureaucrats (the Agent’s Agent).

Contrary to popular belief, politicians, not bureaucrats, are more likely to act in the best interests of citizens as they must be elected while career bureaucrats have security of tenure. Thus, in the case of our traffic problem, we can rely more on our political leaders rather than our transportation bureaucrats who seem to define their interest as stifling the private sector initiatives such as Grab and Angkas to solve our traffic problem. (By the way, they cannot even deliver our car plates on time)

As with our traffic problem, so too with our malnutrition problem.

The World Bank report on patterns of nutrition in the Philippines noted that for nearly 30 years, rates of both wasting and stunting have been nearly flat. Figure 2.1 shows under-nutrition trends in the Philippines for children under age five. Wasting indicates that a child has low weight for his or her age and is a sign of acute, short-term malnutrition. The prevalence of wasting in 2019 (5.8%) was similar to what it was 20 years previously. Stunting, meanwhile, indicates that a child is, loosely speaking, short for his or her age. The rate of stunting fell through the early 2000s but has remained almost flat since then. The rate of stunting recorded for 2019 (28.8%) was only slightly lower than the 2008 level.

The Agent’s Agent designated to deal with our malnutrition problem is the National Nutrition Council chaired by the Secretary of Health. The primary function of the council is to prepare the Philippine Plan of Action for Nutrition (PPAN 2023-2028).

To implement this plan requires a chain of agents who must follow the plan. Any break in the chain will mean that the plan will fail. Most often failure occurs at the last link, in this particular case the barangay, which is either unable or unwilling to provide the necessary healthcare for the person in most need of it, the poor or near-poor mothers.

Several NGOs, particularly the Zuellig Family Foundation chaired by Ernesto Garilao, have sought to forge this final chain by programs aimed at developing and institutionalizing the nutritional activities of the lowest Local Government Units, the Barangays.

But another approach is the Indian approach.

In its May 21, 2022 cover story on India, The Economist noted that the Indian government used a direct, real-time, digital welfare system to pay $200 billion over three years to about 950 million people. How did this come about?

In January 2013, the government of India introduced the Direct Benefit Transfer or DBT scheme to streamline the transfer of government-provided subsidies from various Indian welfare schemes directly into the beneficiaries’ bank accounts. This has been one of the most ambitious financial inclusion initiatives ever seen anywhere in the world, bringing over 330 million people into the formal financial sector.

By 2020, 318 subsidy schemes from 53 ministries have been directly transferred to the farmer beneficiaries. And the program is so successful that India is now a wheat and rice exporter.

Using the Indian approach which relies on harnessing the technology of direct access to intended beneficiaries, we could bypass this chain of agents and give aid directly to the poor or near-poor mothers through food stamps, PhilHealth vouchers, or even cash vouchers.

Moreover, we already have the existing framework for successfully bypassing the non-performing agents.

As reported by the World Bank, the conditional cash transfer (CCT) program locally known as Pantawid Pamilya Pilipino Program, or 4Ps, is a government program that provides conditional cash grants to the poorest of the poor in the Philippines. The program aims to break the cycle of poverty by keeping children aged 0-18 healthy and in school, so they can have a better future. The program is implemented by the Department of Social Welfare and Development, with the Departments of Health and Education and the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) as partners.

Households receive cash grants if children stay in school and get regular health check-ups, have their growth monitored, and receive vaccines. Pregnant women must get pre-natal care, with their births attended to by professional health workers. Parents or guardians are required to participate in monthly community-based Family Development Sessions to learn about positive child discipline, disaster preparedness, and women’s rights. Beneficiaries are objectively selected through the National Household Targeting System, also known as Listahanan, which is based on a survey of the physical structure of their houses, the number of rooms and occupants, their access to running water, and other factors affecting their living conditions.

The program has one of the most comprehensive poverty targeting databases in the world today, covering 75% of the country’s population. It has been used extensively to identify poor and near-poor beneficiaries for national and local government programs.

Started in 2007 by then President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo at the advice of then NEDA Director General Romulo L. Neri, the government expanded the program in December 2016 to reach a total of 20 million Filipinos belonging to 4.4 million households. The program benefits about 20% of the population. The majority of the nation’s 9 million poor children are currently benefiting from the program, 1.9 million of whom are in high school. The program has also achieved almost universal enrollment for elementary age children of 4Ps households.

Social protection programs, Pantawid included, have cushioned the poor from the adverse impacts of various shocks the country experienced over the past six years. A study estimates that the program has led to a poverty reduction of 1.4 percentage points per year or 1.5 million less poor Filipinos. The 4Ps is currently the world’s fourth-largest CCT program based on population coverage. It complements the government’s other development priorities such as generating jobs and creating livelihood opportunities for the poor.

All that is needed is to attach to the 4Ps program, which already has access to the poor and near-poor mothers, the programs that are not presently being delivered by the Barangay Nutrition Action Team.

 

Dr. Victor S. Limlingan is a retired professor of the AIM and a fellow of the Foundation for Economic Freedom. He is presently chairman of the Cristina Research Foundation, a public policy adviser of Regina Capital Development Corp., and a member of the Philippine Stock Exchange.

T-bill, bond rates may rise amid market caution

BW FILE PHOTO

RATES of Treasury bills (T-bills) and Treasury bonds (T-bonds) to be auctioned off this week may rise amid weak demand due to market caution following slower-than-expected March inflation.

The Bureau of the Treasury (BTr) will auction off P15 billion in T-bills on Monday, or P5 billion each in 91-, 182-, and 365-day papers.

It will also offer P30 billion in reissued 10-year T-bonds with a remaining life of nine years and nine months.

The T-bond auction was moved to Monday from the usual Tuesday schedule, with the settlement of both T-bills and T-bonds offered that day to be on Thursday, due to non-working days on Tuesday, April 9 (Day of Valor) and Wednesday, April 10 (Eid’l Fitr).

“On Monday, both T-bills and the 10-year bond will be auctioned and we think will be poorly received,” a trader said in an e-mail.

“The GS (government securities) market remains anxious amid a slower-than-expected CPI (consumer price index) print at 3.7% year on year versus the expected 3.8%. Rice continues to soar, which is the main driver for the print,” the trader said.

The trader said the T-bonds to be offered this week could fetch rates ranging from 6.35% to 6.5%.

“The BTr’s borrowing appetite will be closely monitored here … A partial award could be expected,” the trader added.

Headline inflation picked up for a second straight month in March as prices of rice continued to surge, the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) reported on Friday.

Preliminary data from the PSA showed the CPI quickened to 3.7% year on year in March from 3.4% in February. This was slower than the 7.6% clip in the same month last year.

March inflation settled within the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas’ (BSP) 3.4-4.2% forecast for the month. This was also slightly below the 3.8% median estimate in a BusinessWorld poll of 17 analysts conducted last week and marked the fourth straight month that inflation was within the BSP’s 2-4% target range.

For the first three months, inflation averaged 3.3%. The BSP expects inflation to average 3.6% this year.

T-bill and T-bond rates may track the mixed movements in secondary market yields last week following signals from US Federal Reserve officials, Rizal Commercial Banking Corp. Chief Economist Michael L. Ricafort said in a Viber message.

At the secondary market on Friday, the 91-day T-bill rose by 2.73 basis points (bp) week on week to 5.7527%, while the 182-day and 364-day T-bills went down by 2.39 bps and 6.83 bps to 5.8942% and 6.0057%, respectively, based on PHP Bloomberg Valuation Service Reference Rates data published on the Philippine Dealing System’s website.

On the other hand, the yield on the 10-year bond rose by 9.91 bps week on week to end at 6.3313% on Friday.

Last week, the BTr raised P17 billion from the T-bills it offered, above the P15-billion plan, as total bids reached P47.75 billion or more than thrice the amount on the auction block.

Broken down, the BTr borrowed P5 billion as programmed from the 91-day T-bills as tenders for the tenor reached P12.928 billion. The average rate for the three-month paper went down by 0.6 bp to 5.704% from the previous week. Accepted rates ranged from 5.655% to 5.75%.

The government likewise made a full P5-billion award of the 182-day securities, with bids reaching P16.26 billion. The average rate for the six-month T-bill stood at 5.865%, down by 1.5 bps, with accepted rates at 5.845 to 5.885%.

Meanwhile, the Treasury raised P7 billion via the 364-day debt papers, more than the P5-billion plan, as tenders for the tenor totaled P18.562 billion. The average rate of the one-year T-bill went down by 1.7 bps to 5.965% from the 5.982% quoted for the previous P5-billion award. Accepted yields were from 5.945% to 5.985%.

On the other hand, the reissued 10-year T-bonds to be offered on Monday were last auctioned off on March 12, where the government raised P30 billion as planned at an average rate of 6.227%.

The BTr is looking to raise P195 billion from the domestic market this month, or P75 billion from T-bills and P120 billion via T-bonds.

The government borrows from local and foreign sources to help fund its budget deficit, which is capped at 5.6% of gross domestic product this year. — A.M.C. Sy

Sunlight Air keen on international flights

SUNLIGHT AIR is targeting to operate international flights in the next two years, its chief executive officer said. 

“There are some current discussions, but it is not this year. (For now) everything is still private. Hopefully, in the next year or two years, we can look at international flights already,” Ryna C. Brito-Garcia, Sunlight Air chief executive officer, told reporters last week. 

The boutique airline is eyeing China, Japan, Korea, and Taiwan for its planned international flights, Ms. Brito-Garcia said.

“If not us serving international flights right away, [maybe] we can look forward to interline collaboration with international airlines. Taking these international travelers to island destinations in the Philippines.” she noted. 

Interline agreements between airlines allows one airline to sell its services to a passenger that are provided by another airline.

Sunlight Air, operated by Sunlight Express Airways, flies to Siargao, San Vicente, and Coron in Palawan, as well as Caticlan, Aklan.

Last week, the company launched its Clark-to-Busuanga flight following its hub relocation to Clark International Airport.

The airline said its decision to move its hub from Ninoy Aquino International Airport to Clark is mainly due to the availability of space and the advanced technologies offered by the airport, making it more convenient for passengers. — Ashley Erika O. Jose

AI takes the driver’s seat

Speed of light: A train speeds past a Tokyo station, reflective of how mobility is fast improving — and evolving — amid ‘enabling technology.’ — PHOTO BY KAP MACEDA AGUILA

New technologies are speeding up the future of mobility in ways that go beyond letting car writers use ChatGPT

By Brian M. Afuang

AS THE WAY by which people move around evolves with the transport industry’s transition to voltage-propelled forms of conveyances and to cars that can drive themselves, artificial intelligence (AI) is emerging as the dominant enabling technology speeding up these developments.

In a recent report, the McKinsey Center for Future Mobility analyzes its own research data identifying which technology trends are potentially shaping mobility. The most relevant ones range from cloud and edge computing, to industrialized machine learning, and even Web3, a new form of decentralized internet seen to offer individuals significant practical benefits. All of these, the report notes, are gaining momentum and making the transition to more inclusive and sustainable forms of transportation easier.

But more companies are focusing on the development of AI than on any of the other technologies. McKinsey asserts AI is most “poised to disrupt multiple aspects of the mobility ecosystem” because of the tech’s influence on R&D, manufacturing, marketing, and to driving itself.

For example, AI can let production-line robots do more than merely weld or paint sheetmetal, as these have been doing for decades. Using cameras and advanced radar systems, AI-controlled robots are now proving useful in ensuring quality during manufacturing. They can identify variances in fitment and consistency of finishes, alerting their human counterparts to correct these. And the role AI plays on the factory floor will only get bigger.

Other AI systems can snitch on OEM suppliers. By monitoring mainstream and social media, these gather and process information to red-flag companies that may not have conformed to certain standards — committing a recent emissions-related violation, for instance. Also, AI is able to mark out suppliers with higher environmental, social and governance risks, factors relevant to car makers’ carbon-reduction goals.

Such a capability is doubly significant in global car makers’ transition to EVs. Responsible manufacturers are taking extra steps to make sure their EVs are emissions-free not only when these are driven, but also throughout the models’ entire life cycle. This requires building a supply chain that is as eco-conscientious as the car makers are.

AI can more comprehensively “train” algorithms controlling autonomous driving cars as well. It can repeatedly simulate millions of scenarios and the appropriate responses to these — then add even more to aid in making such cars as safe and functional in the real world as these possibly can. AI allows sensors and systems to better understand the environment and condition where the car is relative to other cars, infrastructure, and pedestrians. It makes the car’s propulsion system manage energy use smartly so that hybrids and full-electrics operate more efficiently. It allows the car to interact with its passengers by understanding natural voice commands for infotainment and navigation functions, or even respond to their current state of health. As development of AI technology progresses, autonomous driving is seen to become seamless and more prevalent.

All this means AI offers vast benefits to mobility in general, going far beyond enabling motoring scribes to churn out work through ChatGPT.

Prestone warns vs fake products

IMAGE FROM PRESTONE

AUTO CARE fluids specialist Prestone, a brand established in 1927, warns against counterfeit products. “If you aim to protect your car and withstand unforeseen accidents or costly repairs, Prestone emphasizes the importance of using genuine products designed specifically to meet your vehicle’s needs,” said Clorox Southeast Asia Marketing Manager Monique Gonzalez.

The company mentions “3Ps” for the protection of consumers. First is the packaging. While counterfeit Prestone products try to mimic the appearance of the genuine items, there are telltale signs to watch for (see images). Second, beware if the price of the product is “significantly cheaper,” Prestone advised. “If they are marketed as discounts, please double-check if Prestone is having a promotional sale. If not, it’s probably fake,” it said. Lastly, customers are requested to buy only from official Prestone partner stores like Blade, Ace, Handyman, TrueValue, and auto-supply shops nationwide.

For more information, visit https://www.prestone.com.ph/ or like and follow the official Facebook account (prestoneofficial).

Inflation rates in the Philippines

Headline inflation quickened for a second straight month in March as prices of rice continued to surge, the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) reported. Read the full story.

 

Inflation rates in the Philippines

Yields on government debt go up on inflation bets

YIELDS on government securities (GS) climbed last week on expectations of faster March headline inflation.

GS yields rose by 3.7 basis points (bps) on average week on week, based on PHP Bloomberg Valuation Service Reference rates as of April 5 published on the Philippine Dealing System’s website.

Rates at the short end of the curve were mixed, with the 91-day paper going up by 2.73 bps to 5.7527%. Meanwhile, yields on the 182- and 364-day Treasury bills (T-bills) fell by 2.39 bps and 6.83 bps, respectively, to 5.8942% and 6.0057%.

At the belly of the curve, the rates of the two-, three-, four-, five-, and seven-year Treasury bonds (T-bonds) jumped by 5.57 bps (to 6.0982%), 6.55 bps (6.1573%), 7.01 bps (6.2015%), 7.24 bps (6.2554%), and 7.71 bps (6.3133%), respectively.

The 10-year T-bond likewise rose by 9.91 bps to 6.3313%, while the 20- and 25-year papers went up by 1.49 bps and 1.67 bps to 6.2772% and 6.2731%, respectively.

GS volume traded fell to P11.32 billion on Friday from P17.29 billion on March 27.

“Markets were on a defensive mode for the first trading week of April as most players opted to stay on the sidelines ahead of the March CPI (consumer price index) print due on Friday,” ATRAM Trust Corp. Chief Investment Officer Alessandra P. Araullo said in a Viber message.

“Market was expecting a 3.8% inflation rate, but the actual report showed a slightly lower number,” ING Bank N.V. Manila Branch Senior Economist Nicholas Antonio T. Mapa said in an e-mail. “I think the global developments continued to overshadow domestic factors, however.”

Philippine CPI accelerated to 3.7% year on year in March from 3.4% in February. This was slower than the 7.6% clip in the same month last year.

This was within the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas’ (BSP) 3.4-4.2% forecast for the month and was slightly below the 3.8% median estimate in a BusinessWorld poll conducted last week. March also marked the fourth straight month that inflation was within the BSP’s 2-4% target range.

For the first quarter, inflation averaged 3.3%. The BSP expects inflation to average 3.6% this year.

“Sentiment appears to be factoring a potential delay in the Federal Reserve rate cuts while rising energy costs have also fueled concerns about global inflation,” Mr. Mapa said.

“Fed officials still believe that the three cuts for 2024 are still a good baseline projection. But most of them say that the road to the ideal target inflation will be bumpy and that they are not in a rush to cut,” Ms. Araullo likewise said.

The Fed last month kept its target rate at the 5.25%-5.5% range for a fifth straight meeting.

For this week, all eyes will be on the BSP’s policy meeting on April 8, Monday, the analysts said.

Mr. Mapa added that GS yields will likely continue to take their cue from global developments.

“The BSP is already widely expected to pause, and this will undoubtedly be factored into trading,” he said. — K.K.P.D. Mendoza

Flushed with pride, public toilets a tourist draw in Tokyo

REUTERS

TOKYO — Along with taking in temples and cherry blossoms, Tokyo visitors can now join a curated pilgrimage of the city’s more modern wonders: its public toilets.

Penelope Panczuk was inspired to hop on the Tokyo Toilet Shuttle for a two-hour tour of artistically enhanced public conveniences by Perfect Days, the Oscar-nominated film about a toilet cleaner in the city’s Shibuya district.

“In the US or in France where I originally come from, you just don’t go,” Ms. Panczuk said of using public facilities.

“Here in Tokyo you’re really happy to go because they’re extremely clean, they’re very safe and each one is so different it feels like it’s a new discovery each time,” she added.

The shuttle began in March with visitors flocking to Japan at a record pace, drawn by a slide in the yen that’s made it affordable for many superfans of Japanese culture to take in its sights and quirks for the first time.

Among Japan’s most-revered technological exports in recent years are its toilets — manufactured by TOTO, LIXIL, and others — that feature cleansing sprays, heated seats, music, and other functions.

The animated comedy South Park recently devoted an entire episode to them, and hip-hop impresario DJ Khaled gushed on Instagram about a gift of four TOTO bowls from the rapper Drake.

The Tokyo Toilet Project, started in 2020 by The Nippon Foundation non-profit, recruited creators including Pritzker Prize-winning architect Tadao Ando to improve accessibility and artistry in 17 public toilets in the Shibuya district.

The project wasn’t intended as a tourist attraction, but Shibuya’s government saw a chance to broaden the area’s visitor appeal away from its famously chaotic Scramble crossing.

“The highlight for visitors is that they can be driven around the less-visited parts of Shibuya and enjoy the entire district while checking out the toilets,” said Yumiko Nishi, a tourist association manager for the ward.

Shuttle passengers pay ¥4,950 ($32.76) to visit nine distinct toilets, including one with clear walls that turn opaque when users enter and another operated by voice commands.

Takao Karino, visiting from Japan’s western metropolis of Osaka, marveled at the wide, vaulted entranceway of a facility created by British designer Miles Pennington.

“There’s nothing else like this in Japan,” Karino, 69, said about the tour. “It’s unusual, it’s unique, it’s honestly brilliant.” — Reuters

Second mango shipment due for delivery to Australia this month

PHILSTAR FILE PHOTO

THE PHILIPPINES is set to dispatch 3,000 kilograms of mangoes to Australia this month, the second such shipment sent under the terms of a strategic partnership, according to the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI).

“(The) 3,000 kilograms will be sent to Perth and Sydney. An additional shipment will follow two or three weeks later, then possibly another shipment in June,” the DTI said late Saturday. 

“The last shipment for the year will be in August or September, which is before the mango season in Australia starts,” it added.

Trade Secretary Alfredo E. Pascual said that an increase in trade could be expected with market access in Australia, which has strict quarantine rules that Philippine crops have fallen afoul of.

“Our challenge would be on the production side. We will check the status of our mango industry. For DTI, we would like to provide enhanced market access for our exporters to many countries, even non-traditional partners,” Mr. Pascual said.

“For this year, we are working on a free trade agreement (FTA) with the European Union, United Arab Emirates, and Canada under the ASEAN-Canada FTA negotiations,” he added.

Trade between the Philippines and Australia rose 20% to $4.1 billion last year.

“The continued growth in our bilateral trade underscores the vast potential for our products in the Australian market,” Mr. Pascual said.

“The successful export of our mangoes exemplifies the significant strides we’re making in facilitating agricultural trade, which is pivotal for our economic agenda,” he added.

In September 2023, the Philippines and Australia made a joint declaration that elevated their bilateral relationship to a strategic partnership.

FastboxPH, the logistics firm behind the shipment of mangoes, said that there is a surge in demand for Philippine mangoes in Australia, leading to plans for the company to expand its presence in Australia.

“The overwhelmingly positive response to our initial shipment last year has paved the way for a triumphant return of Philippine mangoes to Australian tables this April,” said Miguel Ripoll, managing director of FastboxPH. 

“We are steadfast in our commitment to making Philippine mangoes a household staple in Australia,” he added. — Justine Irish D. Tabile

Too much like Cao Cao: China’s claim for territories

PEGGY AND MARCO LACHMANN-ANKE FROM PIXABAY

Cao Cao was a fiery Chinese warlord and a shrewd politician who strategized his rise to power towards the turbulent end of the Eastern Han dynasty. He effectively became head of the Han central government during that period by holding the young emperor Xian under his control. Cao Cao fought and won several wars purportedly to regain territories of the Han which were threatened to be taken by rebel groups. He expanded territory for himself until it became the state of Cao Wei, established by his son and successor Cao Pi, to whom the Han emperor eventually ceded power and control.

It was Cao Cao’s own lust for power and territory that spearheaded the preliminary partitioning of the divided China into the Three Kingdoms, until all coalesced under the Jin dynasty. These three kingdoms, Wei, Shu, and Wu, battled for control in a long series of wars. This was one of the bloodiest times in Chinese history — according to census data, the population decreased from 50 million to 16 million (lumenlearning.com).

The Romance of the Three Kingdoms is a 14th century historical novel by Luo Guanzhong that romanticizes this period, which ran from 220–280 BCE in China. It is one of the four classics in ancient Chinese literature, along with Journey to the West, Water Margin, and Dream of the Red Chamber.

The ambitious and ruthless general Cao Cao, depicted as a thoroughgoing villain, ruled the north. Liu Bei, who is descended from Han emperors but grew up in poverty, is portrayed as virtuous. He becomes emperor of the Shu-Han dynasty and attempts to keep the Han alive after Cao Cao’s son, Cao Pi, is ceded the throne and founds the brief Wei dynasty. Sun Quan controls the south and eventually becomes the first emperor of the Wu dynasty. He is portrayed in Romance of the Three Kingdoms as being marginalized or in shaky alliances with Cao Cao or Liu Bei (according to britannica.com).

Cao Cao is the main antagonist in this classic epic as in history — strategizing and fighting, intimidating and betraying friends and foes alike. He had ordered the execution of hundreds, with no regard for rank or nobility, nor culpability. He personally lopped off the heads of those who betrayed him or even simply disappointed him. His ruthlessness and cruelty were not only folklore but factual history — around this time, Cao Cao had the famous literary scholar Kong Rong put to death along with his family — for “insouciance” (carefree idleness, or in Pilipino, “tamad”). So the story goes.

Annotations to Records of the Three Kingdoms (Chen and Pei, 1977) points out that through to modern times, the Chinese equivalent of the English idiom “speak of the Devil” is “speak of Cao Cao and Cao Cao arrives.”

“After the Communists won the Chinese Civil War in 1949, there were perceived similarities between Mao Zedong and Cao Cao, so propagandists began a long-term and sustained effort to improve Cao Cao’s image in popular culture. In 1959, Peng Dehuai wrote a letter to Mao, in which he compared himself to Zhang Fei (brother of Lu Bei, enemy of Cao Cao). Because of Mao’s popular association with Cao Cao, Peng’s comparison implied that he had an intuitively confrontational relationship with Mao. Mao had the letter widely circulated in order to make Peng’s attitude clear to other party members and proceeded to purge Peng and end his career” (Chen and Pei, op. cit.).

Today, China seems like Cao Cao as it continues to try to expand its territory beyond its boundaries. Since 1947, China has been wanting to own the entire South China Sea and its islands and reefs.

China, under the rule of the nationalist Kuomintang party, demarcated its territorial claims in the South China Sea with an 11-dash line on a map. The claim covers the majority of the area, including the Pratas Islands, the Macclesfield Bank, and the Paracel and Spratly Islands, which China regained from Japan after World War II. The People’s Republic of China (PRC) was established in 1949, and Communist leader Mao Zedong (a.k.a. Cao Cao according to oppositionist Peng Dehuai) reconfirmed the 11-dash line territorial claims. In 1953, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP)-led government removed the portion encompassing the Gulf of Tonkin, simplifying the border to nine dashes. To this day, China invokes the nine-dash line as the historical basis for its territorial claims in the South China Sea.

In 1974, a year after the Paris Peace Accords which ended US involvement in the Vietnam War, China forcibly occupied the western portion of the Paracel Islands, planting flags on several islands and seizing a South Vietnamese garrison. Beijing built a military installation, including an airfield and artificial harbor, on Woody Island, the largest of the Paracels. After the fall of Saigon and the reunification of Vietnam, the newly formed Socialist Republic of Vietnam upheld the South’s former claims to the Spratlys and Paracels. To this day, China maintains around 1,000 troops in the Paracels. (timeline from cfr.org.)

In 1988, after roughly a decade of relative calm in the South China Sea, China and Vietnam clashed on the Johnson Reef, marking China’s first armed conflict over the Spratly archipelago. The Chinese navy sank three Vietnamese vessels, killing 74 sailors in one of the most serious military confrontations in the South China Sea. This was after Beijing, pursuing a more assertive stance in the area, established a physical presence on Fiery Cross Reef in the Spratlys in January 1987.

After three decades of negotiations, the third and final United Nations Conference on the Law of the Sea, or UNCLOS, made a resolution on Nov. 14, 1994, that defined the rights and responsibilities of nations in their use of surrounding waters based on exclusive economic zones (EEZ) and continental shelves. However, UNCLOS does not address sovereignty issues related to the South and East China Seas, and its vague wording has prevented it from serving as a credible body of law in resolving territorial disputes.

China signed the UNCLOS text in 1982 (when it became a member of the United Nations and ratified it in 1996). Yet it continued to transgress the EEZs of other nations in the South China Sea, setting up military structures in reefs and creating islands within its self-serving nine-dash line demarcation.

The Philippines initiated an international arbitration case under UNCLOS over Chinese claims of sovereignty to the Spratly Islands and Scarborough Shoal originating from the April 2012 clashes, acting on decades of stalled attempts at resolution. China rejected the process, forcing the court and its arbitration to continue without its participation. On July 12, 2016, the Arbitral Tribunal in the South China Sea Arbitration (The Republic of the Philippines v. The People’s Republic of China) issued a unanimous award largely favorable to the Philippines. The tribunal found China’s declared “nine-dash line” to have no legal basis for its claims to historic rights to resources in the South China Sea (sections renamed “West Philippine Sea” by the Philippines in 2011). The case marked the first time a country has brought a claim against China under UNCLOS regarding the issue.

Still, skirmishes with Chinese vessels frequently happened in the South China Sea/West Philippine Sea. “In 2020, the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic, Beijing was especially abrasive in the South China Sea — the North Natuna Sea run-in with Indonesia, standoff over the West Capella oil drilling platform with Malaysia off Sarawak, and into early 2021, Whitsun Reef incident with the Philippines then under the helm of a relatively Beijing-friendly Duterte administration” (channelnewsasia.com, Sept. 19, 2023).

At the end of August 2023, China’s Ministry of Natural Resources released an updated official map of the geographical territories that the People’s Republic of China (PRC) now claims. This map, departing from the previous nine-dash line standard, now includes a tenth dash, the placement of which officially encompasses the island of Taiwan into its core territory, reinforcing that and other claims made by the PRC in Southeast Asia (bostonpoliticalreview.org, Dec. 22, 2023).

“I control the world,” the ruthless strategist Cao Cao said in The Romance of the Three Kingdoms. “I’d rather let the world down than to allow the world to let me down.”

 

Amelia H. C. Ylagan is a doctor of Business Administration from the University of the Philippines.

ahcylagan@yahoo.com

More Singapore-based firms eyeing PHL opportunities — InfraAsia

JC GELLIDON-UNSPLASH

MORE Singapore-based companies are keen on exploring investment opportunities in the Philippines, according to Singapore’s project facilitation office Infrastructure Asia (InfraAsia).

“International companies in Singapore have expressed interest to explore more investment opportunities in the Philippines,” Infrastructure Asia Executive Director Lavan Thiru said in an e-mail interview.

“Infrastructure Asia is continuously looking for a window to bring the demand and supply side together,” he added.

The regulatory environment in the Philippines attracts private sector participation, he noted.

The government has taken the lead in creating “a more conducive business environment” for private sector companies to invest in sustainable infrastructure growth, he said.

This includes lifting restrictions on foreign ownership public services and renewable energy assets.

“With the recent government spending on infrastructure projects and heightened interest in renewable energy projects, the Philippines is on track to develop more sustainable infrastructure to benefit the people it serves,” Mr. Thiru said.

The government’s expenditures for infrastructure and other capital outlays rose by 18.7% to P1.2 trillion in 2023, according to the Department of Budget and Management.

Mr. Thiru said that there is a need to ensure that the infrastructure being developed is “the right fit for the people it serves.”

“Sometimes the initial request for a project may be different from what is needed. Dialogue and research are key first steps because it doesn’t matter how much resilience is built into the project if the infrastructure isn’t impactful for the wider communities,” he said.

Citing a report from the Asian Development Bank Institute, over 70% of the infrastructure investments in Asia are still funded by public resources, “which remain a key challenge for many countries with limited budgets and fiscal constraints.”

“We can mitigate this by encouraging public-private partnerships, enhance the attractiveness of investments through blended finance or other innovative financing models like green bonds or other infrastructure impact bonds to promote investments to the project,” Mr. Thiru said.

InfraAsia is a project facilitation office set up by Enterprise Singapore and the Monetary Authority of Singapore “to support Asia’s social and economic growth through infrastructure development.”

It works with both private and public sector organizations in Singapore and the region.

InfraAsia will hold its flagship event called Asia Infrastructure Forum on June 4-5 in Singapore, where its partners, such as in the Philippines, will share more details about their upcoming projects. 

Various officials from the government and private sectors, as well as experts across the infrastructure ecosystem in the region will convene to discuss the opportunities in infrastructure, financing and innovation for sustainable infrastructure development.—Sheldeen Joy Talavera

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