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House resolution vs additional test for driver’s license renewal backed by DoJ

LTO.GOV.PH

A RESOLUTION filed at the House of Representatives that seeks to remove the additional test requirement for driver’s license renewal has received support from the Department of Justice (DoJ), a solon said over the weekend. 

Deputy Speaker and Cagayan de Oro Rep. Rufus B. Rodriguez, who filed House Resolution 2325 which calls on the Transportation department and the Land Transportation Office (LTO) to scrap the recently imposed additional test needed to renew a driver’s license, said the DoJ’s backing helps their bid. 

“We hope that the Department of Transportation and the Land Transportation Office will now finally listen and cease from imposing this requirement,” Mr. Rodriguez said in a statement. 

The DoJ expressed its support in a letter addressed to Samar Rep. Edgar Mary S. Sarmiento, who chairs the transport committee.

“(While) it is a function that is necessary, proper and incidental to the power of the LTO to issue driver’s licenses… it is a function that properly pertains to the LTO and it is not contemplated by EO No. 1101, s. 1985, that said function be performed by an LTO-accredited driving school or institution,” the DoJ said in the letter signed by Undersecretary Emmeline Aglipay-Villar.

“For this reason, we support the adoption of House Resolution No. 2325.”

HR 2325 calls on the transport agencies to “immediately remove the additional requirement of acquiring a certification of completion of the comprehensive driver’s education for people renewing their driver’s licenses”. 

The certificate may be obtained for free through LTO offices or online, or from accredited driving schools, which charge fees ranging from P3,500 to P5,000. 

Mr. Rodriguez said that drivers crowding the LTO for the certification could worsen the spread of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) while paying a private institution is an added financial burden. 

The solon said that the LTO could be accused of corruption if it insists on the requirement. 

He also said LTO should strictly examine first-time applicants for a driver’s license, not those who are renewing. — Jaspearl Emerald G. Tan

Of passports, diasporites and our season in the sun

PCH.VECTOR-FREEPIK

Filipino families continue to relocate to the “land of promise,” so reported the Philippine Daily Inquirer (Feb. 6). The first choice for most seems to be the USA but Canada appears to be easier of entry. The motive is invariably a better tomorrow for the children. So, what’s new?

For one, this exodus is no longer about dirt-poor Ilocano farmers relocating their sacada-ship to Hawaii or California — the denizens of Carlos Bulusan’s cherished must-read biographical novel, America is in the Heart. No longer the struggling newly minted nurses and engineers of the 1960s, those the Philippine upper classes used to look down as “can’t make it here” types. I recall an acquaintance whose graduating electrical engineering class at the University of Santo Tomas was heavily recruited by local agents for the Boeing Aircraft Seattle plant in the 1960s, but he opted to stay. When queried why, he confidently remarked, “Why should I? I can make it here.”   

It was indeed still common for Filipinos to view the Philippines of the 1960s as a diamond in the rough needing only a little more work to become a jackpot.

Randy David’s “The Golden Age I Remember” (Philippine Daily Inquirer, Feb. 6) is a charming poignant paean to the 1960s era for its many now lost genteel adornments. People and government seemed still on the same page and purpose. We had many problems and we disagreed, but it was more to improve our collective lot than to spite our enemies. This contrasted sharply with the claimed “Golden Age” of the Marcos era which nurtured the “cargo cult” financed by an orgy of foreign borrowing. There were, of course, other things on our plate then besides benign politics: students from all over Asia populated our universities and ran experiments in our laboratories; our bright boys were setting up their capital markets and helping prepare their field studies. The seeds of the vaunted green revolution were sourced from Los Baños, Philippines. We were basking in the sun and the Philippine passport was flying high. 

We were then aspirational to our neighbors. Fifty years later, the tables have completely turned. Our Asian neighbors now encounter the Philippines through their house help rather than through their mentors. We have become a cautionary tale on what not to do; our democracy has become a horror story with which to bludgeon democratic aspirations elsewhere. The galloping foreign debt that the Marcos dictatorship behind a phalanx western-educated technocrats inveigled from foreign banks and frittered away made the dollar cheap and that ravaged our manufacturing sector. With manufacturing on the run, the engineers who stayed behind found fewer and fewer engineering jobs. They finally found solace as OFWs. 

Our ship could not leave port for lack of fuel, but much more for lack of courage to ditch the old fear of foreign domination. Investment in infrastructure had to wait for leftovers from debt service and terrible legacies such as the OPSF. “An hour late and a dollar short” went the popular epithet about the Philippines in the 1980s. And when foreign investment in manufacturing became a global tsunami in the wake of the 1987 Plaza Accord, our restive and coup-happy military, the restrictive backward-looking 1987 Constitution, and the heroic but foolish jawboning exercise using the JOBO bills by the central bank to cheapen the dollar, all conspired to ensure that none of the tsunami reached our shores. At the beginning of the 1990s, the diamond in the rough had been turned into muck. And the Philippine passport had crashed.

And now our children are paying the price. They now have to start a few paces back in the global race for jobs or for slots in universities thanks to the passport they hold. Which is why many parents are deciding to trade their low-power passport for high-power ones. You cannot change the color of your skin, but you can change the color of your passport to the vast improvement in your children’s prospects.

A low-power passport always triggers officiousness among immigration and customs officials in the countries you visit and that could mean unpleasant hustle. You can be singled out for a special interview — a courtesy never accorded a Scandinavian or a Japanese passport. Why? The Philippine passport ranks 77th out of 111 country passports in 2022 Henley Passport Power Index which grades passports by the number of countries where the passport holder can travel without a visa or with a visa readily granted at the airport. In the 2022 Arton Capital Index, the Philippine passport is ranked at par with those of sub-Saharan countries Rwanda, Uganda, and Sierra Leone. The top countries in the list, among them the USA and Canada, are of course the most favored destination for economic migrants from lower ranked countries. 

The latter day diasporites that have already made it here deserves a closer look. It is not easy for a diasporite to start over again at age fortyish. But as a first generation Filipino migrant, your benchmarks are the millions back in the Philippines who yearn to be in your place rather than your neighbor in Anaheim who may look down on you. Besides, “making it” in the Philippines now seems tainted by a virtual asterisk (*) besides the collapsed passport. Material success in a garbage dump can suggest, mostly falsely, that you are low life feeding on maggots! While not unique to the Philippines, the new diaspora contrasts sharply with the modern reverse diaspora in East Asian miracle economies.

Even among those of us who came back from abroad with the purest of motives — to create a land of milk and honey for our children — many have managed to hedge their bets. Among our educated friends and acquaintances, it is rare when there is not an offspring or two residing and earning money abroad, spared from the morass, but also serving as insurance against the fickleness of home. That makes exit from home easier. Nobel winner Elinor Ostrom of the “anti-tragedy of the commons” fame taught us that collective failure is less galling and more likely when people can easily walk away from the smash-up. 

This reversal of fortune gnawed at the gut of the generation who lived the 1960s — among them National Artist F. Sionil Jose and revered business guru David Sycip, both recently dead — who wore their discomfiture on their sleeves. For many of my generation, among them friends Rene Santiago and Bob Herrera-Lim who worked the Asian consultancy circuit, the memory of that season in the sun is tinged with sadness — sadness for the loss which my generation failed to stem.

 

Raul V. Fabella is a retired professor of the UP School of Economics, a member of the National Academy of Science and Technology, and an honorary professor of the Asian Institute of Management. He gets his dopamine fix from bicycling and tending flowers with wife Teena.

Fiscal recklessness

RAWPIXEL.COM-FREEPIK

Everyone can feel the election season in the air. With recent presidential interviews, platforms and plans are beginning to unveil with each presidential candidate aiming to get the most votes for the most powerful position in the land.

This article will focus on the fiscal policy implications of Marcos Jr.’s platform.

In the Boy Abunda interview, Marcos Jr. promised heavy spending like creating more jobs, increasing benefits and compensation for workers, providing ayuda (help) for people experiencing hunger, boosting agriculture and tourism, paying the debt, etc.

These answers are textbook responses to the usual problems. Also, note that Marcos Jr. said he wants to pay the country’s debt, which has expanded in the wake of pandemic financing. That’s quite a gargantuan task.

The country’s fiscal situation is certainly a cause for concern. Due to the pandemic-induced economic recession, the country could not count on consistent tax revenue at this time and had to primarily rely on borrowings to fund health and economic spending. 

COVID-19 has hit all economies hard, and deficit spending has become inevitable if the government would like to mitigate any long-term economic damage.

According to the latest data available, the government’s average quarterly deficit ratio rose from 6.6% of GDP at the end of 2019 to 9.2% by the third quarter of 2021. The resulting debt burden is remarkable: from an outstanding debt level of P7.7 trillion at the end of 2019 to P11.7 trillion by end-2021. In terms of GDP ratio, debt-to-GDP rose from 39.6% to 60.5% during that timeframe.

These figures, along with the fact that COVID-19 and its variants continue to be a global concern, should not preclude the government from pursuing strategic expansionary fiscal policy, however. The appropriate pandemic response still requires investment in our health sector, as well as necessary stimulus measures to revitalize consumer demand, bring back lost jobs, and regain investor confidence. Maneuvering these constraints will require shrewdly maximizing potential revenue sources, while spending funds as efficiently as possible.

But the unanswered big question Mr. Marcos needs to answer is: Where will he get the money for all his promises?

We do know that the only way spending can be maintained and even increased, as Marcos Jr. promises, is through increasing revenues or increasing borrowing. But borrowing is already stretched or extended. We do not want another debt crisis. Hence, the wise option is to rely principally on increasing the tax effort.

Red flags appear on how Marcos Jr. can create the fiscal space for his promises. His tax policy is not towards increasing revenues; in fact his stance will lead to even lower tax effort.

For example, he has called for the suspension of fuel excise taxes. He even wants to amend the oil deregulation law. In his press release (October 2021), Marcos Jr. said: “Amending the oil deregulation law with the intent of addressing the issue of runaway oil prices will take some time. This move to suspend the excise tax makes sense and will have an immediate positive impact on our people.”

Revenue from petroleum products totaled P42.7 billion in 2019 and because of low demand during the pandemic, dropped to just P27.6 billion in 2020. The importance of this revenue source should not be understated, however. For one, demand is returning to pre-pandemic levels as the economy and revenues are expected to pick up. Petroleum taxes are also in line with larger environmental goals of shifting incentives towards sustainable alternatives.

The populist rhetoric of suspending fuel taxes is an easy temptation for politicians to call. However, simply forgoing an important revenue source would further exacerbate our fiscal problems. Further, it is mostly higher income Filipinos who would benefit from a fuel tax suspension anyway, and the alternative of providing pandemic-related fuel subsidies to jeepney drivers, workers, and poor Filipinos would be much more targeted and efficient.

With billions worth of revenues to be lost because of this policy direction, we again ask: Where would he get the money to finance all his campaign promises related to the pandemic?

Another red flag is Marcos Jr.’s opposition to the sin taxes, which are mainly earmarked for health spending.

In the face of the onslaught of the Omicron variant, everyone knows a family member or friend, or has themselves already caught the virus. Amid the scores of thousands of patients admitted to our hospitals or who got sick, it is a relief that the Sin Tax Law provided funding for the pandemic response.

For the readers who are unfamiliar with this legislative measure, RA 10351 significantly raised the tax rates imposed on cigarette products. After this law was passed, cigarette prices increased by more than 300%, resulting in a significant reduction of smoking prevalence. Moreover, the bulk of government revenues from the sin taxes was earmarked for universal healthcare.

In 2020 alone, P93.57 billion out of the P171.91-billion budget of the Department of Health (or 54%) came from sin tax revenues. The amount of P58.73 billion from the sin taxes was used to finance PhilHealth, our National Health Insurance Program. PhilHealth spending and subsidies during this period were mainly used for the pandemic response.

The sin taxes are used to finance the insurance benefits of Filipinos who cannot pay their own monthly contributions (known as indigents). Several health programs such as epidemiology and surveillance, human resources for health, health promotion, and improvement of health facilities get their funding from the sin taxes. These are all critical components of the pandemic response.

It is most ironic that Marcos Jr. would claim that he’s the best candidate to address our health crisis when his position has been to deny the much-needed funding for health. Given the important role of sin taxes in improving our country’s health programs, Marcos Jr.’s opposition to increasing sin taxes, especially higher tobacco taxes, is irresponsible.

In 2012, he was one of the more vociferous senators to opposed the passage of Republic Act 10351, popularly known as the Sin Tax Law of 2012.

The arguments he used during the deliberations were misleading and patently incorrect. Marcos Jr.’s speech can be summarized, as follows:

1) Sin taxes will not lower smoking incidence because smokers will just transition to illicit markets and continue their habit.

2) The government will not generate revenues.

3) The measure will destroy the tobacco industry.

The data from the National Nutrition Survey (NNS) debunk Marcos Jr.’s first argument. After the tax was put in place in 2013, smoking incidence was reduced from 31% in 2008 to 23.3% in 2015. The most recent data show that smoking incidence for Filipinos aged 20 and above is down to 19.9% in 2019.

His second argument has likewise been proven wrong.

According to the Bureau of Internal Revenue, tobacco excise tax collection soared from P32.17 billion in 2012 to P99.5 billion in 2015. By the year 2020, our tobacco excise tax collection grew to P149.6 billion. Consequently, because of the earmarking of sin taxes for health spending, the health budget grew from P53.23 billion in 2013 to P171.91 billion in 2020.

It is thus troubling that the leading candidate in the 2022 presidential elections is also the leading voice against good tax reforms. The future of tax reforms and our national health system will be in jeopardy. Our fiscal health, which has gained tremendously from successive reforms since 2012, will be undermined. This does not bode well for the Philippine economy and our people’s well-being.

 

The authors are senior policy analysts of Action for Economic Reforms.

The sinister schemes of online lenders

VECTORJUICE-FREEPIK

Angelo is humble family man who represents everyday Filipinos. A loving husband and a father of two, the native Bulakeño works as a family driver to a household based in Pasig. He earns a fair wage, according to the going rates of family drivers these days. Angelo’s salary is just enough for his family’s basic needs like rent, food, and transportation. He has no savings. Extraordinary expenses like medical care, tuition fees, or emergencies are enough to throw Angelo into a monetary tailspin. 

Unfortunately, a family emergency occurred last November for which Angelo needed P68,000 to save his family. Desperate, the man tried to borrow from friends and relatives — but to no avail. With the pandemic, everyone was struggling. At his lowest, a friend advised him to explore online lenders who grant emergency loans within 24 hours. Angelo heeded his friend’s advice. This was when his nightmare started.

Working under the radar, numerous online lenders prey on desperate souls like Angelo. They lure innocent victims with text messages, ads on social media and through word of mouth, care of loan brokers. They promise access to cash in as quickly as one day. 

All one has to do is download the lender’s App and apply for a loan by agreeing to their terms and conditions. Approval is immediate and the loan proceeds are sent to the borrower through G-Cash, bank transfer, or other electronic means.

Angelo borrowed a total of P68,000 from 19 different online lenders in denominations of P1,000 to P4,500 each. This is what happened next….

He borrowed P3,000 from a certain online lender on Nov. 24. The loan had a duration of 30 days, maturing on Dec. 24. It carried an eye-watering interest rate of 51.79% per month or 629.41% per annum. The P3,000 Angelo received became a liability of P4,553 in just 30 days! Unfortunately, Angelo was unable to meet his payment on Dec. 24. The online lender immediately slapped a penalty amounting to 20% of the loan proceeds. In addition, interest was made to accrue on a daily basis at a rate of some 2.6% per day. 

Angelo finally paid his loan on Dec. 31. He paid a total of P4,890 for a loan of P3,000. The online lender earned 63% interest in just 37 days from poor Angelo.

His experience with another online lender was just as harrowing. Angelo borrowed P3,500 from lender No. 2. The loan was approved but the lender deducted P1,500 or 43% of the loan proceeds for supposed “Account Management Fees,” “Platform Service Fees,” “Risk Management Fees,” and “Credit Reporting Fees.” Angelo received only P2,000 but had to pay interest of close to 100% per month for a principal of P3,500.

The scandalous fees and interest rates are not even the worst of it. The harassment one receives for late payment is the vilest part. If a borrower is late by even one day, an army of trolls send text messages to berate, embarrass, and threaten the borrower. This is one example of such a message, received by Angelo: 

“Ano, patigasan? Wala ka na bang kahihiyaan sa buhay? Utang ka tapos wala kang planong magbayad ng maaga….. pagkatpos kang pautangin ng kumpanya naming at ipakain sa pamilya mo tapos hindi ka na magbabayad? Etong mga information mo sa selfies mo kasama ang ID mo, asahan no na kakalat ito sa Credit Information Corporation at di ka na pamarisan!!!” (“What, want to see who is tougher? Have you no shame in life? You borrow and then you have no plans to pay early…… after our company lends you and you feed your family, and then you don’t pay? Be assured that the information on your selfies along with your ID will be shared with the Credit Information Corporation so as to prove a bad precedent !!!”)

The trolls would go a step further and call friends, relatives, and the employer of the borrower to expose the loan and the late payment. Again, this is meant to shame the borrower into submission. 

Evidently, when one agrees to the conditions of the loan, one gives permission to the online lending company to access all social media contacts. Poor Angelo — as an unsuspecting high school graduate, he had no idea that he was ceding his personal information by agreeing to the lender’s conditions.

Angelo was on the verge of a nervous breakdown by mid-December. Debased and shamed, he sought the help of his employer. Lucky for him, his employer agreed to bail him out.

All things told, Angelo borrowed P68,000 from 19 lenders for which he received only P58,024 due to the excessive processing fees of some. His employer paid off all his debts on Dec. 31. For loans with an average age of some 15 days, the employer paid P32,667 worth of interest. This represents an effective interest rate of 112% per month. 

With the help of his employer, Angelo filed a complaint before the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) and the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI), consumer protection office, and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Angelo requests the BSP, SEC and the DTI to investigate the sinister schemes of online lenders for their opportunistic practices and for their violations of the Usury Laws of the Philippines. 

We count on the BSP, DTI and the SEC for their immediate action towards online lenders who prey on our desperate countrymen.

 

Andrew J. Masigan is an economist

andrew_rs6@yahoo.com

Facebook@AndrewJ. Masigan

Twitter @aj_masigan

Love in the time of COVID

PCH.VECTOR-FREEPIK

This is our second Valentine’s Day in nearly two years of the COVID-19 pandemic. Perhaps two years have changed remembrances of Valentine’s Day in the recent past, of it being a giddy celebration of all kinds of love for a special “other” — legitimate and illegitimate, known and secret, present and past, and even future.

Everyone has to have a Valentine. One’s spouse is de-rigueur, and Mom and Dad are the favorites aside from other family members and close friends. Of course, Valentine’s Day is the big day for boyfriend-girlfriends, or open gay lovers. But the standing joke for Valentine’s Day before COVID was that it was celebrated on Feb. 13 for “forbidden” love. I wonder what happened to those drive-in motels with closed garages (the “biglang-liko” or sudden turn as they call these clandestine trysting places) where secret lovers exhausted and expended themselves in demonstrative declarations of love that cannot be? Many out-of-business motels are now COVID quarantine places for incoming tourists and returnees to the country and from other regions in the country. 

The alienation and isolation that occurs in a pandemic can change the face of love. Gabriel García Márquez set his most famous novel, Love in the Time of Cholera (published in 1985) in Colombia, in 1875 to about 1924, in the time frame of the fifth cholera pandemic that raged fiercest in 1883–1887. The epidemic cost 250,000 lives in Europe and at least 50,000 in the Americas. Cholera claimed 267,890 lives in Russia (1892); 120,000 in Spain; 90,000 in Japan; and over 60,000 in Persia. In Egypt, cholera claimed more than 58,000 lives. The 1892 outbreak in Hamburg killed 8,600 people (from Wikipedia). 

Some critic pointed out that aside from the name of the disease, the term “cholera” in Spanish, “cólera,” can also denote passion or human rage and ire (the English adjective “choleric” has the same meaning). Cholera as the disease; cholera as passion; passion as a disease: is love helped or hindered by extreme passion? Perhaps García-Márquez bares an allegory of maddened passionate love as it is isolated and quarantined until it is unmasked and released to again claim an unfulfilled love in youth. But time will have healed the hot passion of the loins to the comfortable warmth of the passion of the soul. 

The story opens with two deaths: a foreigner has committed suicide; the doctor-friend who proclaims him dead dies soon after from a freak accident, falling off a mango tree while trying to rescue his runaway pet parrot. At the wake for the doctor, two lovers-in-their-youth see each other after “51 years, nine months, and four days” and Florentino Ariza professes, for a second time since, his “eternal fidelity and everlasting love” to the doctor’s widow, Fermina Daza. 

A racy flashback to years of pining for Fermina — not without risqué love affairs deceiving, betraying, and using women, and including molesting a 14-year-old ward — paint Florentino as a flawed tragic hero, caught in the turmoil of hormones and dark thoughts broiling inside him. Angered and driven by the frustration of not getting her to be his wife (Fermina’s father had rejected his proposal to marry her when they were young), Florentino has built himself up to be a very rich man. Possession and property, power and influence are often placebos for the debilitating lack of emotional and spiritual achievement and the peace of the soul. 

But in old age (probably  70 years old) Florentino still obsesses over owning the reluctant Fermina. He relentlessly woos the widow until finally she succumbs to their first-ever lovemaking, cruising down the Magdalena River. (What more obvious simile that the main river in Colombia is named after the supposedly fallen biblical Magdalene?) As the ship nears its last port, Fermina fears having to face society with her perceived stigma of having fallen to base instincts. Florentino orders the ship captain to raise the yellow flag of cholera, which the captain does. There are no passengers onboard but Fermina, Florentino, the Captain, and his lover. No port will allow them to dock because of the supposed cholera outbreak aboard.

Love in the Time of Cholera — tragically ending in the painful ecstasy of García-Márquez’ penetrating strokes presages the seemingly near-hopeless human condition in this time of the long-playing COVID pandemic, like being onboard a ship that cannot yet dock. Today, the second Valentine’s Day in the grip of restrictions and isolations imposed by the pandemic, our values and definitions of love are challenged — is love an obsession with possession, a means to a self-serving love of self? Time enough to ponder and discern.

Possessive love has been romanticized much in literature and the arts, in folklore and common language, and social mores have institutionalized the dubious nobility of jealous protectiveness over the exclusivity of one for the other in a love relationship. A peer-vetted medical website says, “We almost all feel some degree of possessiveness in romantic relationships. After all, it’s at the heart of the phrase ‘be mine’ we hear every Valentine’s Day — that concept of ‘belonging’ to someone… If taken too far, possessiveness can become a serious issue that leads to other relationship problems.” 

“Possessiveness is fundamentally a fear of loss. Possessive people worry that their partners will leave them. They worry that their partners can’t be trusted… and they will lose their ‘possession’” (https://www.webmd.com/sex-relationships/signs-possessiveness, Dec. 3, 2020). 

What a sad commentary for the highest and noblest act that Man can do, “loving one another as God has loved you.” Trust and faith are the virtues that uphold this covenant between God and Man, between Man and each other. How poignantly Valentine’s Day in a pandemic reminds us that love is not possession of another, but a conscious act of the will and sustained feelings of heart and soul that persist even in the isolation and restrictions of time and distance, in quarantines and health protocols. 

The COVID pandemic has also riveted us from inordinately loving the material possessions and obsessions that had surrounded us in our “past life.” We have been caught in the accoutrements of wealth and power that shackled us in fierce competition with one another — economic status has been the measure of success. “In our day, for many people, life’s meaning is found in possessing, in having an excess of material objects. An insatiable greed marks all human history, even today, when, paradoxically, a few dine luxuriantly while all too many go without the daily bread needed to survive,” Pope Francis said in a Christmas Day homily at St. Peter’s Square in Rome (Reuters, Dec. 25, 2018). 

“Let us ask ourselves: Do I really need all these material objects and complicated recipes for living? Can I manage without all these unnecessary extras and live a life of greater simplicity?” Pope Francis said. 

Can I love without possessing? Must possessions be my measure of happiness? 

Pope Francis prays to God, “it is not the time of Your judgment, but of our judgment: a time to choose what matters and what passes away, a time to separate what is necessary from what is not. It is a time to get our lives back on track with regard to you, Lord, and to others.” (https://www.ncronline.org/, March 27, 2020). 

Amen.

 

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

ahcylagan@yahoo.com

Biden tells Putin Ukraine invasion would bring decisive response

KREMLIN.RU
RUSSIAN President Vladimir Putin is seen during a meeting with French President Emmanuel Macron at the Kremlin in Moscow, Feb. 7. — KREMLIN.RU

WASHINGTON/MOSCOW — US President Joseph R. Biden told Russia’s Vladimir Putin on Saturday that the West would respond decisively to any invasion of Ukraine, adding such a step would produce widespread suffering and isolate Moscow.

In the latest effort to manage growing hostility, the two men spoke by phone for an hour a day after Washington and its allies warned that the Russian military, which has 100,000 troops massed near Ukraine, could invade at any moment. Moscow has dismissed those warnings as “hysteria.”

Neither side said there had been any breakthroughs. A senior Biden administration official said the call was professional and substantive, but that there was no fundamental change.

The Kremlin said Mr. Putin told Mr. Biden Washington has failed to take Russia’s main concerns into account, and it had received no “substantial answer” on key elements including NATO’s expansion and the deployment of offensive forces to Ukraine.

The senior Biden administration official said it was unclear whether Mr. Putin was committed to diplomacy even as he agreed to stay in touch with Biden.

The call took place as Israel, Portugal and Belgium joined the list of countries that have urged their citizens to leave Ukraine immediately.

The US State Department ordered most of its embassy staff to leave Ukraine. The Pentagon said it was withdrawing about 150 military trainers.

Australia said on Sunday it was evacuating its embassy in Kyiv, with Prime Minister Scott Morrison calling on China to speak up for Ukraine and not remain “chillingly silent” as Russia massed military forces on its border.

Mr. Morrison’s comments to a news conference followed criticism by China of a meeting of the US, Australian, Japanese and Indian foreign ministers last week in Melbourne.

“The coalition of autocracies that we are seeing, seeking to bully other countries, is not something that Australia ever takes a light position on,” Mr. Morrison said.

TELEPHONE DIPLOMACY
Mr. Biden was due to compare notes with French President Emmanuel Macron, who spoke with both Mr. Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Saturday, according to the White House. Mr. Biden’s top military and diplomatic officials held calls with their Russian counterparts.

Mr. Putin also spoke with Alexander Lukashenko, leader of Ukraine’s northern neighbor Belarus, which is engaged in major joint military drills with Russia.

After Mr. Macron’s call with Mr. Putin, a French presidency official said there were no indications from what Mr. Putin told Mr. Macron that Russia is preparing an offensive against Ukraine.

“We are nevertheless extremely vigilant and alert to the Russian (military) posture in order to avoid the worst,” the French official said.

Russia said on Saturday that it had decided to “optimize” its diplomatic staff numbers in Ukraine, fearing “provocations” by Kyiv or others. It said its embassy and consulates in Ukraine continued to perform their key functions.

A US official on Saturday said there was no telling what Putin has decided, but that the steps Russia is taking “in plain sight” make them fear the worst.

Mr. Biden told Mr. Putin during their call that the United States is pushing for diplomacy but ready for “other scenarios,” the White House said. In Kyiv, several thousand Ukrainians filed through the center of the city, chanting “Glory to Ukraine” and carrying banners that said “Ukrainians will resist” and “invaders must die.”

Mr. Zelensky, who attended police drills in the southern Kherson region, echoed Washington’s assessment that a Russian attack could happen at any time, but stressed that it was important for Ukrainians to remain calm.

“The best friend of our enemies is panic in our country,” he said.

Mr. Putin, jostling for influence in post-Cold War Europe, is seeking security guarantees from Mr. Biden to block Kyiv’s entry into NATO and missile deployments near Russia’s borders.

Washington regards many of the proposals as non-starters but has pushed the Kremlin to discuss them jointly with Washington and its European allies.

Moscow has repeatedly disputed Washington’s version of events, saying it has massed the troops near the Ukrainian border to maintain its own security against aggression by NATO allies. — Reuters

Era of coronavirus restrictions appears to be coming to an end

A MURAL is dedicated to medical specialists involved in the fight against the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in Odintsovo outside Moscow, Russia May 14, 2020. — REUTERS/EVGENIA NOVOZHENINA

THE ERA of coronavirus restrictions is fading away, but that doesn’t mean coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is gone.

Governments are racing to scrap the last remaining pandemic measures, eager to reset the world after two years of dramatic upheaval. Even slow-mover Germany is planning to unwind curbs next week, despite setting records for infections on a daily basis.

Officials say data and science are behind the decisions, but politics, as well as weariness and frustration, are mixed in too.

While the world has changed since early 2020 and new approaches are justified, health officials warn that the virus remains part of our reality. It’s still circulating, new severe variants could emerge, or next winter could spark another seasonal surge. To them, governments appear to be rushing toward something that isn’t quite the finish line. Soumya Swaminathan, chief scientist at the World Health Organization, says it’s “foolish” now to drop all precautions.

OVER OMICRON
With the exception of China, which is sticking to COVID-zero policies, caution is a hard sell after two years of restrictions that disrupted everything from work to shopping and travel. The most severe measures — economically crippling lockdowns — pushed businesses under water, workers out of jobs and triggered massive government borrowing to shore up economies.

It’s also clearly about much more than money. Almost 6 million people have died, and the grief of mourners was made harder by restrictions that cut loved ones off from each other and curtailed funerals.

The pandemic battle has also pitted politics against science. It fueled protests — like the trucker blockades in Canada over vaccine mandates — and became tangled up with the ideological differences that have deepened divisions in society.

“It was very disappointing to see the attack on scientists and science,” Swaminathan said in an interview on Bloomberg Quicktake. “It got stronger over the course of the pandemic, and it has a potential to do a lot of damage.” 

UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson accelerated easing plans this week, announcing that England’s final curbs would end later in February. Norway and Denmark have already ditched most restrictions. In South Africa, where the Omicron variant was first identified before spreading at light speed around the world, self-isolation rules have been scrapped.

The UK offers a prime example of the multiple factors at play right now, and why some worry that governments are moving too fast.

Yes, the country’s vaccine rate is above 80%, more than half of the population is boosted, and hospitalizations have fallen sharply since their December peak. But tied up with the move to call time on the pandemic are accusations that Mr. Johnson is trying to distract from a scandal about rule-breaking lockdown parties that’s threatening his future as leader.

As governments offer voters the lure of normality — or “freedom” as some like to call it — anger remains, many of it linked to vaccination. France risks being hit with fresh protests this weekend similar to the ones in Canada that have disrupted businesses.

Among public-health experts, there’s concern that politicians have missed the lessons from the crisis, particularly the on again-off again curbs, and will be caught flatfooted if and when a relapse hits.

“For the past two years, we have misused the opportunity of the spring and summer, where behavior limits transmission, not to make good on the hard-earned control from harsh lockdowns,” Stephen Griffin, a virology professor at the University of Leeds. “The promises around there not being a need for further restrictions in the future have proven hollow.”

Given the uncertainty about fresh COVID variants, potential spikes in infections and the risks of future pandemics, authorities will need to be ready, according to Richard Hatchett, who leads the Oslo-based Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations.

“It’s likely the case that the public will be able to enjoy some well-deserved relaxation as omicron subsides, but it’s incumbent on governments not to forget that we don’t know what’s coming next,” Mr. Hatchett, a former White House adviser, said in an interview.

Expanding home-testing, improving ventilation in public buildings, increasing efforts to track mutations and developing better vaccines and drugs that can work against a broad range of variants and other diseases are all part of the toolkit.

“The bottom line is that from a government perspective, from a risk-management perspective, we have to make investments with an assumption that we might have a bad scenario,” even if it’s less likely, Mr. Hatchett said. — Bloomberg

Klay Thompson, Warriors hold off Lakers

KLAY Thompson capped his 33-point performance, a season high, with three late 3-pointers and LeBron James couldn’t take advantage of three free throws that could have tied the game in the final seconds as the Golden State Warriors outlasted the Los Angeles Lakers (117-115) on Saturday night in San Francisco.

Seeking to end a two-game losing streak, the Lakers blew a late six-point lead, then got a final chance to tie when, down 117-114, James was fouled while attempting a 3-pointer with 2.4 seconds left.

But LeBron James, who began the game hitting 75.3% from the foul line and had missed two of his first six of the night from the line, failed to convert the first of his three before making the second.

The veteran intentionally missed the third, and when the Golden Sate Warriors slapped the ball away from the basket, the Los Angeles Lakers never got another shot.

Thompson, who scored 10 more points than he had in a game after his late start this season, went 5-for-9 on 3-pointers.

Three of his treys came in a flurry that began after an Austin Reaves layup had given the Lakers, who trailed by as many as 15 in the second quarter, a 109-103 lead with 3:47 to play.

Thompson’s second of those bombs tied the game at 109-all, and shortly thereafter bombed in a third for a 115-113 advantage with 1:35 to go.

The Lakers had ample opportunity to make up the deficit thereafter, and did get within one when Anthony Davis made a free throw with 1:12 to go.

But Davis missed the second foul shot with a chance to tie, and Russell Westbrook and James missed tip-in attempts.

Stephen Curry made it a three-point game with a short jumper at the 46.2-second mark, and the Lakers never caught up.

Curry finished with 24 points for the Warriors despite missing seven of his eight 3-point attempts. He did add eight assists.

Andrew Wiggins chipped in with 19 points, Jonathan Kuminga 18, Jordan Poole 11 and Kevon Looney with a team-high 12 rebounds for Golden State, which snapped a two-game losing streak, which matched its longest of the season.

James complemented his team-high 26 points with a game-high 15 rebounds and eight assists. The Lakers have dropped both meetings to Golden State this season.

Westbrook had 19 points, seven rebounds and five assists, while Talen Horton-Tucker added 17 points, Davis 16, Reaves 13 and Malik Monk 12. — Reuters

Man City restores 12-point lead; United draws again

LONDON — Manchester City’s relentless pursuit of the Premier League title continued with a thumping 4-0 win at Norwich City but Manchester United’s troubles continued as a 1-1 draw with Southampton further damaged their top-four hopes on Saturday.

Raheem Sterling scored a hat-trick with Phil Foden also on target as City restored their 12-point lead over Liverpool who faces bottom club Burnley away on Sunday.

After being held to a draw by Burnley in midweek, United desperately needed a win at home to Southampton, but despite taking the lead when Marcus Rashford set up Jadon Sancho in the 21st minute they were again found wanting.

Southampton, beaten 9-0 on their last trip to Old Trafford, responded three minutes after half time when Che Adams slotted into the corner via the post.

The visitors could even have won the game as Armando Broja forced David de Gea into a save while Stuart Armstrong blazed a good opportunity over the bar.

United moved into fifth spot, level on 40 points with West Ham United, but Arsenal (39) has two games in hand while Tottenham Hotspur (36) has played three games fewer.

Everton claimed a first league win under Frank Lampard to ease their relegation fears, beating Leeds United 3-0 to move five points clear of third-from-bottom Norwich.

Roy Hodgson’s first home game in charge of Watford went badly as a 2-0 home defeat by Brighton and Hove Albion left them one place off the bottom of the table.

Brentford ended a five-match losing run in the league with a 0-0 home draw against Crystal Palace with the only real highlight coming before kickoff as new signing Christian Eriksen was presented to the crowd eight months after he suffered a cardiac arrest at Euro 2020.

Sterling had failed to score in his last five appearances for City but curled home a fine finish to break Norwich’s resistance after 31 minutes at Carrow Road.

When Foden bundled in City’s second in the 48th minute the result was a formality but Sterling provided some gloss with a header and then converted a rebound after his penalty had been kept out by home keeper Angus Gunn.

City has now won 14 of their last 15 Premier League games, drawing the other.

“We need a lot of points. We know what rival we have, the closest one is Liverpool,” Guardiola, whose side have 63 of the 90 plus points he says they will need, said.

“(Liverpool) won’t drop many points for the quality they have. It’s the best squad they have in the last decade. We’ll have to win a lot of games.”

STUCK IN A RUT
While City motors on, United appears to be stuck in a rut under interim manager Ralf Rangnick who will soon have a decision to make about Cristiano Ronaldo.

The Portuguese has now failed to score in any of his last six appearances in all competitions — something he has not endured at club level since January 2009.

“He would have wished to score, I would have too,” Rangnick said. “Today, he had his chances, with one cleared off the line, and had good moments in the second half.

“Again, it is not only Cristiano but as a team we create enough chances but cannot score. It is a major problem.”

Everton’s defeat by Newcastle United in midweek had left Lampard’s team in the relegation battle.

But they responded in resounding fashion on Saturday as goals by captain Seamus Coleman, Michael Keane and Anthony Gordon rewarded them for an impressive display.

“Relief is three points and the table looks slightly better this week but I’m just so proud of the performance,” Lampard said. — Reuters

Havertz’s late penalty seals world club crown for Chelsea

ABU DHABI — Chelsea were crowned FIFA Club World Cup champions for the first time as Kai Havertz struck home a penalty deep into extra time to break the hearts of Brazilian club Palmeiras on Saturday.

Havertz, scorer of the winning goal in last season’s European Champions League final, was as cool as a cucumber as he converted in the 117th minute after Palmeiras’s Luan had conceded the spot kick with a handball.

Palmeiras’s misery was complete when Luan was sent off in stoppage time for a desperate tackle on Havertz.

Chelsea has now won every major club trophy since Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich took control in 2003.

The final in the Mohammed Bin Zayed Stadium, where around 15,000 Palmeiras fans outnumbered Chelsea supporters, took a while to come to life.

Chelsea, who lost the 2012 final to Brazilian side Corinthians, became increasingly dominant though and took the lead in the 55th minute when Romelu Lukaku powered in a header.

Palmeiras hits back shortly afterwards when Thiago Silva was adjudged to have handled the ball and Raphael Veiga converted from the spot to send the Brazilian fans wild.

Chelsea looked stronger in extra time but a penalty shootout loomed until Luan’s raised arm was struck by Cesar Azpilicueta’s volley from close range and after a VAR check referee Chris Beath went to check a pitch-side monitor.

He returned to point to the spot and Havertz did the rest.

Since taking charge little over a year ago Chelsea manager Thomas Tuchel, who was in attendance after missing the semifinal because of a positive coroanvirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) test, has now earned Chelsea the European and world club crowns.

“It never stops. We want to keep on winning trophies,” Tuchel said in a pitch-side interview before his team were given their medals by International Federation of Association Football (FIFA) president Gianni Infantino.

“In the end, if you score late, you need luck to do it but we were relentless and we did not stop trying.”

Palmeiras had been bidding to become the fourth Brazilian club to win the inter-continental tournament since 2000.

The South American club champions worked like Trojans to keep Chelsea in check and Tuchel’s side labored early on.

They were not helped when Mason Mount, one of four changes to the side that started against Al-Hilal in the semifinal on Wednesday, was forced off with an injury.

Palmeiras settled into the game and in Dudu they had a real threat with the midfielder firing narrowly over before flashing another effort wide of Edouard Mendy’s post.

Chelsea rarely threatened in the first half but they took the lead in clinical fashion 10 minutes after half time.

Callum Hudson-Odoi, who had been wasteful, got to the byline and his cross was perfect for Lukaku who headed past Weverton.

The lead did not last long though as Brazilian Thiago went up to clear a cross but the ball struck his raised arm and Veiga fired the spot kick inside Mendy’s left-hand post.

Chelsea moved up a gear with Havertz just missing the target with a thunderous shot from an angle before Christian Pulisic, who replaced Mount, went close with a shot.

The Premier League club continued to turn the screw in extra time with Palmeiras beginning to flag.

Pulisic’s low cross was deflected up on to the woodwork as Palmeiras dug deep. But the Brazilians’ resistance was finally pierced as Havertz again showed an appetite for the big occasion to keep Chelsea’s trophy machine rumbling on.

For Palmeiras, there were tears, but no shame.

“I’m going to ban my players from not celebrating second place,” manager Abel Ferreira said. “Woe to them if they get on the plane and don’t have a beer. If you don’t, you’ll have to deal with me. I’m proud of what we did.”

Egyptian side Al Ahly won the third-placed playoff, beating Al Hilal 4-0. — Reuters

Sahith Theegala goes low, leads WM Phoenix Open by two

AFTER finishing up his first round on a sour note early on Friday morning, PGA Tour rookie Sahith Theegala made up for it with a 7-under-par 64 to jump out to a two-shot lead after two rounds of the Waste Management (WM) Phoenix Open in Scottsdale, AZ.

Theegala stood at 7 under through 16 holes on Thursday when play was suspended due to darkness. He returned to TPC Scottsdale on Friday and closed his promising first round with back-to-back bogeys.

However, his second round of eight birdies and just one bogey propelled him to 12-under 130, two strokes ahead of Brooks Koepka and Xander Schauffele. Patrick Cantlay is alone in fourth at 9 under.

“I wasn’t too upset about the way (the day) started,” Theegala said. “Like I had a 15-footer to start the day, so I was like, ‘Okay, I just put a good roll on it and see what happens.’ I put a good roll, just missed.

“And the next tee shot I put it under the lip of the fairway bunker and I’m like, ‘Okay, I can’t do much about that, right?’ And I knew if I kept putting the ball in the fairway I’m going to have scoring opportunities, so it was nice to reset for the 30 or 40 minutes that I had in between the rounds there.”

Theegala, a three-time All-American at Pepperdine University, is playing the event on a sponsor’s exemption arranged by his agent. His only career top-10 finish on tour came last October at the Sanderson Farms Championship, where he tied for eighth.

He is aiming to become the fifth player since the start of the 2014-15 season to win an event after entering on a sponsor’s exemption. The list currently includes Martin Laird (2020 Shriners Children’s Open), Matthew Wolff (2019 3M Open), Billy Hurley III (2016 Quicken Loans National) and Padraig Harrington (2015 Honda Classic).

Koepka carded his second straight 66. He leads the field in greens in regulation through two rounds, hitting 32 of 36.

Schauffele made four birdies on the front nine en route to a bogey-free 65 to move into a tie with Koepka. Cantlay also kept bogeys off his card and shot a 66.

“I drove the ball and putted really well today,” Cantlay said. “I didn’t hit a lot of great iron shots, but I hit a couple close coming down the stretch… When the greens are this good and you can get in a nice rhythm, you can make a bunch of putts out there, and today I did.”

Theegala’s 64 was tied for the low round of the day with Talor Gooch and Sam Ryder. Gooch is tied for fifth with Max Homa (65 on Friday) and Canada’s Adam Hadwin (68) at 8 under. Ryder is tied for 13th at 6 under.

Gooch rolled in four birdies on the front nine and three on the back nine while remaining bogey-free. One of his birdies came at the par-3 16th, famous for its enclosed stadium seating.

“Oh, there’s nothing like it in golf, we all know it,” Gooch said. “It’s such a cliché, but it’s so true, there’s nothing like it and it’s the only time you feel like you’re at Lambeau Field or somewhere that’s not golf. So it’s a fun energy and it gets you hyped up.”

Notables who missed the cut included Harold Varner III (2 over), who won the Saudi International last week, and Norway’s Viktor Hovland (2 over), who has risen to No. 3 in the Official World Golf Ranking. — Reuters

Time running out

Yesterday proved to be yet another disappointment for the flailing Lakers, whose seeming penchant for snatching defeat from the throes of victory had them absorbing their third straight setback and seventh in their last nine outings. For all the credit they deserved for getting out of the gates with purpose following the absence of any roster movement at the trade deadline, the outcome remained the same: long faces at the final buzzer, in acknowledgment of both the immediate past development and the foreseeable future. They have been reduced to misery, scrambling for a play-in spot instead of rubbing elbows at the top of the standings.

The Lakers have, of course, no one to blame but themselves. In the off-season, they dared to roll the dice on the mother of all risks: rolling the red carpet for Russell Westbrook, the National Basketball Association’s most polarizing presence, at the expense of depth. That they gave up a lot for the former Most Valuable Player awardee was apparent then. That they gave up too much is clear now. In between, they weren’t helped by frequent lineup changes due to a cacophony of injuries to vital cogs, leading to an evident failure to establish any identity, consistency, and clarity of pecking order.

So desperate did the Lakers become that they were hoping for a change — any change — to their supposedly powerhouse cast at the trade deadline. The best that they could get was a Westbrook-for-John-Wall offer from the Rockets that made absolutely no sense. A swap of damaged goods benefited no one save for the proponents, who figured to get a first-round pick out of the deal. And if the grapevine is to be believed, they even had the audacity to target Buddy Hield vice their erstwhile prized catch. Given that they left the Kings at the altar nearly seven months ago, it was, if nothing else, proof that irony is lost on them.

All things considered, the manner in which the Lakers lost to the Draymond Green-less Warriors yesterday provides a microcosm of their plight. Top dog LeBron James found himself reaching yet another personal milestone, but fell short of delivering for the collective in the end. He extended his streak of scoring at least 25 markers to 22 matches and moved past Kareem Abdul-Jabbar to the top of the career points list — meaningless in the face of his nine-of-27 showing and inability to can free throws that would have sent the contest to overtime. Too bad, really, because he’s 37, and time is running out on him, however slowly, just as time has run out on the purple and gold.

 

Anthony L. Cuaycong has been writing Courtside since BusinessWorld introduced a Sports section in 1994. He is a consultant on strategic planning, operations and Human Resources management, corporate communications, and business development.

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