Facebook Instagram Linkedin X Youtube
Home Blog Page 5411

Manchester City exit League Cup after shock loss at Southampton

SOUTHAMPTON, England — Champions Manchester City crashed out of the League Cup after suffering a shock 2-0 defeat at struggling Southampton in the quarter-finals on Wednesday.

Southampton, bottom of the Premier League table, scored twice in the first half through Sekou Mara and Moussa Djenepo and City never seriously threatened to get back into the match.

Mr. Mara scored his first goal for Southampton in the 23rd minute as he connected well with a whipped cross by Mr. Lyanco and the hosts doubled the lead five minutes later when Mr. Djenepo spotted City goalkeeper Stefan Ortega off of his line and curled a stunning effort into the top corner.

City, who have won the League Cup six times since 2014, failed to register a shot on target as the second-half introduction of substitutes Kevin de Bruyne and Erling Haaland failed to spark a revival for Pep Guardiola’s side.

Southampton captain James Ward-Prowse told Sky Sports that his side played without fear.

“(It is) a special night. These games are special to play in especially when you’re struggling in the league. We knew this was a distraction from the league and a great showcase. We showed no fear.

City came into the game off the back of a 4-0 demolition of Chelsea in the FA Cup on Sunday but failed to replicate the free-scoring form.

Manager Pep Guardiola named a strong side with Joao Cancelo, Jack Grealish, Ilkay Gundogan and Kalvin Phillips among the starters, yet apart from an early shot dragged wide by Gundogan they made little impression on the game.

It was Mr. Grealish who had made the error which led to the hosts’ opening goal, giving away possession to Lycano who raced up the wing before providing the cross for Mara.

Mr. Jones has failed to halt Southampton’s poor Premier League form since taking over in November, but has won all three of his team’s games in cup competitions — against Lincoln City, Crystal Palace and now City. — Reuters

James on accolades

LeBron James is in the news again. Not that he is ever really absent from conversations about the National Basketball Association. He has long been, and — even at 38, in his 20th year as a professional — continues to be the face of the league. It’s why he’s currently leading the voting for the All-Star Game, and why every single utterance he makes generates buzz, both positive and negative. Sometimes, it’s simply an offshoot of his status.  At other times, it’s because he looks for the opportunity to make waves — for one reason or another.

Take, for example, Sam Amick’s article published in The Athletic. The journalist noted James’ desire for the Lakers’ front office to make roster moves that would improve the competitiveness of the purple and gold, as accentuated by the quote, “Y’all know what the f— should be happening.” Never mind the surefire Hall of Famer’s other pronouncements that his focus is on his game and how it impacts what happens in the court.

Certainly, there’s a huge disconnect between what James has repeatedly pointed out, and what he delivered as a parting shot to Amick. On one hand, he says he will do his job, and that he’s ready to work with the teammates he has. On the other, he mutters, practically under his breath, that all and sundry cannot be deaf to the call for the Lakers to pull the trigger on a deal that makes them better immediately — even at the expense of the medium term.

James cannot be blamed for wanting change in the here and now. After all, he’s on the downside of a distinguished career, and far be it for him to see his remaining time in the sport’s grandest stage scraping the bottom of the barrel. He still aims to do battle for the hardware, to put some semblance of meaning to his exertions with the ball in his hands. And although he keeps on rewriting the record books, he’s keen on making the accolades count.

Make no mistake. The Lakers are under no obligation to sacrifice their future for little more than marginal improvements in the present. Then again, they must know the price of having James in the fold. Why is he headlining their cause? For what purpose? The answers clearly align with the need for them to at least put him in position to be relevant for them as he is to the NBA. Else, they’ll be wasting the chance to capitalize on the influence he wields.

 

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.

GCash, BSP, DILG join hands to launch PalengQR-PH in Bohol

(Left to right) GCash Chief Compliance Officer Atty Cef Sison, Tagbilaran City Administrator Cathelyn Torrecmocha, BSP Deputy Governor Berna Romulo-Puyat, GCash President and CEO, Martha Sazon, VP for Commercial Sales and Operations, Luigi Reyes and Tagbilaran Vice Mayor Adam Jala at the GCash booth offering the crowd favorite, “GCash Piso Treats” during the event.

Launches with over 280 market stalls/TODAs in Tagbilaran City

Leading mobile wallet GCash has partnered with the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP), Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG), and the local government of Tagbilaran City for the rollout of the Paleng-QR Ph program in the Bohol capital.

The Paleng-QR Ph program, jointly developed by BSP and DILG, aims to build the digital payments ecosystem in the country by promoting cashless QR payments in public markets and local transportation, particularly tricycles.

“Under this partnership, our merchants at the Dao Public Market and the rest of the micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs) in Tagbilaran City are enjoined to display their GCash QR code at their stores with the statement ‘We accept GCash here’. This way, we are empowering our small vendors to adopt cashless transactions in our efforts to boost digitalization in how they do business,” Martha Sazon, chief executive officer of GCash, said during the launch of the Paleng-QR Ph in the city on Jan. 10, 2023.

The launch gathered key officials from GCash, BSP, DILG, Tagbilaran local government unit (LGU), and market stakeholders.

Capitalizing on the QR Ph initiative, the program, which was launched in June 2022, seeks the policy championship and enjoins LGUs to push for the acceptance of digital payments among market vendors, community shopkeepers, and tricycle operators and drivers (TODA) in all cities and municipalities in the country.

Onboarding of vendors, MSMEs

With the program’s entry to Bohol, Sazon noted that they have so far onboarded a total of 5 public markets, 133 market vendors in Dao, and 155 TODAs to allow payment through GCash.

Currently, there are about 138 active GCash Pera Outlets where GCash users can cash in and cash out.

GCash QR codes deployed as of January 10, 2023 are all operational and widely used by locals and tourists. GCash to GCash transactions continue to remain free of charge ensuring convenience to its patrons.

“We fully support the Paleng-QR initiative of the government because we believe that in order for Filipinos to really adopt cashless transactions, the natural place to introduce this is where they usually spend their money – the wet markets or “palengkes”. We aim to enable more Filipinos to thrive in this digital era,” Sazon explained.

Expressing her optimism on the program’s rollout in Tagbilaran, City Mayor Jane Yap pointed out that this is an important breakthrough in the City’s financial inclusion efforts.

“We welcome this milestone partnership with GCash, especially since we, at the City Government, have been supporting the City’s efforts towards digitalization. This is an important step to achieving that goal. With this collaboration, we are optimistic of the economic benefits that it will bring especially to our Boholano vendors,” Yap said.

By using the GCash app, merchants can easily receive and transfer money securely and conveniently with just a few taps on their smartphone, saving them time and effort. In the same way, it is also convenient for customers who use digital and cashless payment.

“We have definitely made progress in this program. We are on the right track in making financial services easier to access and understand through our GCash app. With this long-term partnership, we aim to create a brighter, more financially-inclusive future for Filipinos,” added Sazon.

Currently, GCash has over 71 million users nationwide, giving Filipinos easy access to savings, loans, investments, and insurance.

 

Spotlight is BusinessWorld’s sponsored section that allows advertisers to amplify their brand and connect with BusinessWorld’s audience by enabling them to publish their stories directly on the BusinessWorld Web site. For more information, send an email to online@bworldonline.com.

Join us on Viber to get more updates from BusinessWorld: https://bit.ly/3hv6bLA.

Investing a mountain of debt?

BW FILE PHOTO

In a sense, it was something to be proud of, that Department of Finance announcement the other day that investors swamped the National Government’s second overseas $3-billion bond sale. The bond sale consisted of three buckets of maturities with interest rate ranging from 4.74% to 5.5%. Oversubscription at $28.2 billion allowed our Treasury to upsize the offering from $2 billion to $3 billion.

This bond sale followed the maiden offering of the Bongbong Administration amounting to $2 billion in October 2022. The pricing was reportedly tighter than expected, with strong support from institutional investors.

In the many times in the past that we participated in similar fund-raising exercises for the Republic, such robust demand would indeed be considered as “a strong vote of confidence by foreign investors.” For National Treasurer Leah de Leon, it was a reaffirmation that Philippine credit is a favored proposition during these uncertain times and dimming global prospects.

But why is a resilient and favored economy like the Philippines borrowing big from the external capital markets?

This is to help finance the budget deficit.

For 2023, the Development Budget Coordination Committee (DBCC) announced that the National Government (NG) is looking at a fiscal deficit of P1.471 trillion or a huge 6.1% of GDP as a result of the large excess of public spending, programmed at P5.177 trillion, over public revenues, expected at P3.707 trillion.

This new borrowing, plus all other prospective borrowings from both local and foreign capital markets, will increase the stock of public debt that will have to be serviced as they fall due. The latest Treasury report put the outstanding NG debt at a record-high P13.644 trillion as of the end of November 2022. The latest bond sale will increase the external debt component that reached P4.22 trillion or 31% while domestic debt ended November 2022 at P9.43 trillion or 69%.

The estimated NG debt-to-GDP ratio as of the end of September 2022 was nearly 64% compared to only 40% prior to the pandemic in 2019. For external debt alone, the estimated ratio with GDP was 20% against 2019’s 13%. While elevated, these debt ratios remain manageable because of the prospects of sustained economic growth for the next six years.

The DBCC also announced the target real GDP growth of 6-7% this year and 6.5-8% for 2024 through 2028. Fiscal deficit is expected to taper off from 6.1% this year down to the pre-pandemic levels of 3% by 2028. With lower fiscal overhang, the propensity to borrow is expected to decline.

From a sustainability perspective, these growth and fiscal deficit projections are highly desirable.

What is also promising is the implementation of the 2022-2028 Medium-Term Fiscal Framework (MTFF) that aims at consolidating the resources of the NG to be better used. This is expected to usher in a high-growth path that is sustainable through 2028 as it ensures consistency of budget programs with the MTFF.

It would certainly bring in a lot of public goods if the top five priorities are pursued and attained: education, public works and infrastructure, health, social welfare, and agriculture.

What are the wild cards, the risks, to this positive scenario for the next six years?

Last year, the Philippine Institute for Development Studies (PIDS) released an analysis of the 2023 President’s Budget authored by Justine Diokno-Sicat, Robert Palomar, and Mark Ruiz. In this paper, the three authors projected that the Philippines’ debt to GDP ratio would peak at 66.2% in 2024. Henceforth, it would gradually decline. Following another recent PIDS paper on assessing public debt sustainability in the Philippines by Margarita Debuque-Gonzales, Diokno-Sicat herself, and John Paul Corpus, they also identified several risks to the country’s goal to attain fiscal and debt sustainability.

A major risk is the possibility of a policy reversal that “would compromise the previous improvement of Philippine debt.” A good example of policy reversal is the proposed Maharlika Investment Fund because it would effectively deprive the NG of some of its precious revenue sources that include dividends from the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP), LandBank, Development Bank of the Philippines (DBP) and other government-owned and -controlled corporations including the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp. (Pagcor) and other public gambling casinos. Instead of being counted as revenues, their dividends will be earmarked directly to fund the Maharlika fund.

We are not talking of peanuts here.

Between 2016 and 2021, total dividends of corporate public agencies averaged P69 billion. If we add the BSP’s average remittances of nearly P14 billion during the same period, we are looking at over P80-billion foregone revenues that would have to be covered by higher borrowings. In six years, they sum up to around P480 billion. At an exchange rate of P55 to a dollar, that means the NG will have to sell bonds worth more than $8.7 billion.

It is not a stretch but we need to stress that what the Maharlika effectively does is to push NG to borrow money to compensate for that part of its revenues that would be sequestered by Congress to fund Maharlika. The authors of the bill should be able to demonstrate that the fund, under a global recessionary condition, could generate a return to investment higher than, for instance, the all-in cost of the latest bond sale of the Republic.

With all the fundamental objections to its concept, viability, and even governance, it would be difficult to support its potential benefit in mitigating the country’s debt and fiscal deficit. It needs to make a mountain of debt to have the funds to invest. That is the long and short of Maharlika.

The other risk comes from macro-fiscal shocks. We believe the likelihood of this risk materializing is quite high because the pandemic is still around and raging in countries close to the Philippines. The peso-dollar rate remains precarious because the country’s current account and overall balance of payments positions are both in deep negative territory. Policy rates are also likely to continue rising because inflation is entrenched above the 2-4% inflation target. Geopolitical tension remains high because aside from the Ukraine and Russian hostilities, China and the US are engaged in some low-intensity conflict. Aggregate demand could be undermined because inflation remains elevated while the global economy is preparing for a recession.

The implementation of the Supreme Court’s ruling on the Mandanas-Garcia case is also a budget nightmare. As we wrote two years ago in this column, between the goal of helping grow the economy and keeping fiscal sustainability, the Supreme Court’s ruling “threw big rocks at the wheels.” The High Court prescribed that the calculation of the local government’s share or what is now called the National Tax Allotment (NTA) should be changed from 40% of national internal revenue taxes collected by the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) to 40% of “all” national taxes including those coming from import duties and other taxes collected by Customs.

An earlier PIDS paper written by Rosario G. Manasan cited a DBCC estimate that the NTA allocation would increase from P847.4 billion in 2021 to P1.1 trillion in 2022. For 2023, some P820 billion is envisioned for distribution to local government units. That is easily 21% of the P5.268-trillion national budget. This is an incremental expense that would be carved out of the national budget. With all those intelligence, confidential, and pork barrel funds tucked into the budget, the NG would literally squeeze blood from stone. As usual, borrowing is easier done than introducing new tax measures when the population could hardly afford onions, sugar, rice, and corn.

Finally, the PIDS paper identified two additional risks: net losses of PhilHealth (Philippine Health Insurance Corp.) and the military and uniformed personnel pensions. Our own take is that while the alleged net losses of PhilHealth, amounting to as much as P154 billion, has been the subject of controversy, some independent actuarial assessments consider PhilHealth non-viable if all claims are serviced promptly by the state insurance.

On the other hand, the cost of the military and police pension immediately hurts the budget. As it is unfunded and non-contributory, the retirement benefits are indexed to the plantilla position of the incumbent so that the payout literally explodes at some point. If this set-up is not restructured, this pension system would likely incur a P9.6-trillion unfunded reserve deficit. As expected, Congress is now apprehensive that the budget will fail to meet this enormous funding requirement.

This is indeed “an imminent existential threat.”

All up, while the Philippine government currently runs a sustainable fiscal position, the fiscal space might start dwindling. What is worrisome is that the ability of the government to raise revenue, or tax buoyancy, is higher in the short run than the long run which is more relevant for building fiscal sustainability.

While sustained economic growth is quite promising because of the resiliency brought about by past policy and structural reforms, the risks are rather formidable and they are easy to materialize into real challenges. We might end up incurring more debt to keep the momentum of growth, or keep the image of an investing economy in this uncertain and unfriendly new world.

 

Diwa C. Guinigundo is the former deputy governor for the Monetary and Economics Sector, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP). He served the BSP for 41 years. In 2001-2003, he was alternate executive director at the International Monetary Fund in Washington, DC. He is the senior pastor of the Fullness of Christ International Ministries in Mandaluyong.

It isn’t perfect, but…

FREEPIK

The inflation rate remains sky-high. Low productivity is putting the country’s food security at risk. Filipino fisherfolk are unable to fish in much of the Philippines’ own waters. Poverty and hunger are devastating millions. Entire regions are flooded and reeling from the onslaught of climate change. The pandemic is still a problem, and the economy yet to recover.

But to some of the allies of President Ferdinand Marcos, Jr., none of these seems as urgent as amending the 1987 Constitution so they can correct its supposed “imperfections.”

The House of Representatives Committee on Constitutional Amendments will begin hearings by Jan. 26 on proposed resolutions calling for constitutional amendments through a constituent assembly of both houses of Congress.

Senator Robin Padilla, the only non-lawyer to chair the Senate counterpart of the House Committee, has repeatedly stressed the “urgency” of amendments that would enable the Constitution to “keep up with the times,” although he has not been clear on the specifics of doing that.

Even Presidential Legal Counsel Juan Ponce Enrile has echoed the call for a constituent assembly, although apparently not to amend, but to totally do away with the 1987 Constitution and to draft a new one.

Many Filipinos are unfamiliar with the particulars of their country’s Constitution, but every opinion poll has found that they oppose amending it because they fear that its proponents will use the opportunity to keep themselves in power.

The behavior of past regimes suggests that it can indeed happen.

Ferdinand Marcos, Sr., for example, initiated the drafting of a new Constitution during his last years in office so he could run for a third term, which, under the provisions of the 1936 Constitution, was not possible. He proclaimed it in force in January 1973, and based his staying in office beyond that year on its provisions.

Amendments to the 1987 Constitution could indeed include extending the terms of office of incumbent officials. But equally possible and as dangerous is that among the possible changes could be the weakening of the Bill of Rights, and the repeal of the limits on the President’s power to declare martial law.

The first proposal to amend the 1987 Constitution was made 10 years after it went into effect. In 1997, the outgoing Ramos administration argued that a parliamentary system and extending the terms of incumbent officials would be more responsive to the demands of development and ensure the continuity of an administration’s policies, beginning with those of Ramos’ own. Because many thought it a shortcut to its advocates’ staying in power beyond 1998, the citizenry rejected the idea.

During the Joseph Estrada administration, its adherents limited their proposed changes to the economic provisions of the Charter that they said discouraged foreign investments. It was again rejected, but the Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo regime, which favored a shift to the parliamentary system, echoed its focus on economic “liberalization.” It was again opposed by various sectors, including much of the business community.

Elected President in 2010, Benigno Aquino III opposed any attempt at amending that document, which, after all, was among his late mother’s legacies. Upon ascending the Presidency in 1986, Corazon Aquino convened the commission that drafted the most liberal Constitution in Philippine history.

Then candidate Rodrigo Duterte proposed during the 2016 presidential campaign the adoption of a federal form of government, and upon his election created a consultative committee to study the 1987 Constitution. That body produced a draft mandating a shift to federalism. But the regime seemed to lose interest in it in the face of its problems with the COVID-19 pandemic and its impact on the economy, and with its failing “war on drugs,” the human costs of which had called the attention of the International Criminal Court.

No constitution is so perfect as to remain unchanged, but once begun by the illiberal wing of the oligarchy currently in power, amending the present one could further endanger whatever remains of Philippine democracy.

Most of its advocates say that they want “only” the economic provisions of the Constitution amended, such as those limiting to Filipinos ownership of land and the mass media and the practice of the professions, as well as those requiring State partnerships in economic enterprises only with corporations that are 60% owned by Filipino citizens.

The provision on professionals, land ownership, and State partnerships are meant to protect and encourage Filipino businesses and such practitioners as doctors and lawyers. The mass media, meanwhile, are not only commercial undertakings; they are also vehicles of information and shapers of opinion. Those responsibilities cannot be left to foreign-owned media enterprises, which, once operating as Philippine-based businesses, would first and last protect the interests of the corporations behind them.

The consequences of amending the economic provisions of the Constitution may not be as purely beneficial as they seem to be — and the process could also open the gates to the amendment or even the abolition of those provisions the ruling oligarchy despises, among them the Charter’s Article II Section 26 mandating a ban on political dynasties, and Article III, the Bill of Rights.

Congress has repeatedly refused to pass the enabling law that will implement the anti-dynasty provision of the Constitution. Its members have instead either denied the existence of those very real dynasties, or, themselves being part of such families, defended their continuing dominance in politics and governance.

They also reject the thesis that dynastic dominance in politics and governance prevents those who may not be as privileged but who are better qualified to run for public office. Access to political power is so limited to a handful of families that it denies the Philippines the services in government of the more competent who can introduce the political, economic, and social changes that are needed for the country to move forward.

Among the atrocities that have been proposed in the past are changes to the Bill of Rights by limiting its application, eliminating parts of it, or adding to Article III Section 4 the phrase “the responsible exercise of,” which would transform its declaration that “No law shall be passed abridging the freedom of speech, of expression, or of the press, or the right of the people peaceably to assemble and petition the Government for redress of grievances” into “No law shall be passed abridging the responsible exercise of the freedom of speech….”

Those were obvious attempts to enable any regime to diminish the freedoms protected by Article III. Nothing can stop their or their variations’ being reintroduced should Congress convene as the constituent assembly the majority — and Juan Ponce Enrile — prefer as the means of amending the Constitution.

Any or all of the above, and even worse, could happen. One need only recall how, even with the provisions the dynasts are likely to target still as intact as when they were drafted, they have succeeded in violating such rights as those of free expression, press freedom, and due process.

The proposals for a constituent assembly to amend the Constitution suggest that the power elite still needs one that would legitimize what they have been doing and whatever else will redound to their personal, familial, and class interests. Not necessarily would they amend “only” the 1987 Charter’s economic provisions. They could also transform its Bill of Rights into a mockery of its own name, forego the next elections, and complete the country’s ongoing descent into another tyranny.

The 1987 Constitution may not be perfect, but as things stand today, it is all we have.

 

Luis V. Teodoro is on Facebook and Twitter (@luisteodoro).

www.luisteodoro.com

The geoengineers are just winging it

YOSH GINSU-UNSPLASH

THERE is no law or treaty to prevent a private company from tinkering with geoengineering — in this case, releasing sulfur dioxide high in the stratosphere in order to alter the climate.

And so there will be no fines or arrests following the recent news that a startup quietly pulled off such a release last year by launching two balloons over Mexico. This sort of environmental manipulation can alter the energy balance between the sun and Earth. In the upper atmosphere, sulfur dioxide forms suspended particles of sulfuric acid that act to scatter sunlight and cool the planet.

The Clean Air Act isn’t set up to deal with this sort of thing — it’s focused on power plants, cars, and regional air-quality standards, said UCLA environmental law professor Edward Parson.

The startup responsible is called Make Sunsets, and their plan, according to MIT Technology Review, was to use this scheme to counter global warming. They’d make money by selling carbon credits — companies emitting greenhouse gases could pay them to release cooling particles that would allegedly nullify their emissions. According to the plan, each gram of sulfur would cost $10 and offset one ton of CO2.

The main problem is that it wouldn’t work. Sulfuric acid particles can only mask global warming for a year or so. Then they settle out of the atmosphere while the carbon stays up there for thousands of years. And there are likely going to be side effects from doing this at any useful scale. Parson called it a case of “a rogue pseudo-scientist claiming to help the environment.”

Luke Iseman, the chief executive of Make Sunsets, told me he became obsessed with the idea of geoengineering after reading the science fiction novel Termination Shock by Neal Stephenson, in which a Texas billionaire launches sulfur into the stratosphere. He says he understands the scientists’ criticisms that the effects of the sulfur don’t negate emissions, but he believes it’s the only feasible way to buy the time needed to stay below “a catastrophic level of climate change.” He said he plans to make two more launches this month from Mexico, and that his ultimate vision is to spend the next 20 years releasing “as much as I possibly can while doing it safely.”

But there’s no scientific consensus that geoengineering is the only way to avoid catastrophe. Scientists, including several panels assembled by the National Academy of Sciences, have looked at the possibility of using geoengineering to battle global warming, but no field experiments have been carried out.

What we know so far comes from a couple of a natural and unintentional experiments. Volcanic eruptions, such as the one at Mount Pinatubo in the Philippines in 1991, can trigger a year of cool weather, and scientists have calculated that components of smog are holding down the global temperature about 1 degree Celsius, though smog also causes millions of deaths from respiratory illness.

The good news is that the releases from Make Sunsets are too tiny to cause any harm. But the bad news is that it won’t advance science.

For years, scientists have been trying to do a small release they could track. But so far, doing this through official channels has run into resistance. Scientists have tried to run an experiment called SCoPEx from Mexico and Sweden but been blocked by environmental groups.

Carefully monitored scientific experiments might give us useful knowledge about how natural and human-generated sulfur works in the atmosphere and under what circumstances it might be a reasonable thing to release — say, if it gets so hot in India that tens of millions of people are likely to die, a scenario described in Kim Stanley Robinson’s 2020 novel The Ministry for the Future.

Harvard physicist David Keith, who has studied the prospects of geoengineering, said it’s possible to calculate how many lives you could save from heat and extreme weather, balanced with lives that might be lost to geoengineering’s side effects. But of course, there are unknown unknowns, and geoengineering is a very bad substitute for technologies that reduce emissions or capture carbon.

One past incident that vaguely resembles this one happened in 2012, when California businessman Russ George dumped iron into the Pacific Ocean off the coast of British Columbia with the goal of fertilizing an algae bloom that was supposed to absorb carbon and feed salmon. George claimed the iron caused the salmon to rebound the following year, but since it wasn’t a controlled scientific experiment and salmon populations fluctuate normally, there was no way to know if his actions had any effect.

Perhaps this sort of thing comes with the startup culture of the 21st century — the flow of vast quantities of money around Silicon Valley, the hubristic sense that the private sector can solve a problem that has stymied governments, and a fashion for looking like you’re doing good for the planet.

Parson, the environmental lawyer, says the most important thing right now is to make sure this company’s plan to use sulfur releases to sell bogus carbon credits doesn’t get any traction. And after that, we need a rational discussion about geoengineering. “Who gets to say it’s okay to do this, and if it’s done, how much is done and where and under what protections and with whom in charge?” asks Parson. “These are unexplored questions.”

The upper atmosphere has no regional or national boundaries. What happens in one place affects everything. That’s true of many activities now — from cutting down rain forests to activities that risk releasing viruses.

“Move fast and break things” might be a motto that works for startups, but it doesn’t inspire confidence when we’re talking about our one and only planet.

BLOOMBERG OPINION

The year of the return of reason

ANDREW GEORGE-UNSPLASH

Perhaps there is indeed something wrong when perfectly ordinary and commonsensical statements, such as “motivate yourself” to “get back to work” and “be glad you still have a job” are greeted with outright derisively bitter anger.

The point of working is that it’s work. You’re expected to tolerate it. It’d be unsurprising if you hate it. But that’s why you’re paid for it. In this incredibly topsy-turvy social media-dictated world we live in, things that need not be said have to be now explained: you do that work because you agreed to do it for pay. You can always opt out of doing it — quit, so to say — but it’s ridiculous to expect to be paid for quitting. Actually, it’s insane.

But apparently the entitlement mentality is such that it’s now reached derangement levels.

Almost everyone now claims oppressed status. And yet the absurdity and inconsistency grows more bizarre by the day.

Considering that we are being besieged with proposals for divorce and same sex unions, and considering further that annually 57% of newborn Filipinos are born of single mothers, one would think that the deteriorating state of marriage and the family would have a place of prominence in the national consciousness. But no.

Instead, it’s the “marginalized community,” the LGBT+ (with around 1-5% of the population) that does. It has the country celebrating Pride Month, able to command corporations’ structure their marketing and business campaigns around the LGBT+ community, have Congress legislate upholding LGBT+ interests, have local government units hold LGBT+ parades and pageants, make universities adjust their academic policies to accommodate its will, demand churches cower and not teach doctrines that offend the LGBT+, and clear-headed writers have their works censored.

Speaking of doctrines, Pope Benedict XVI died just before the new year. Amidst the many reflections on his life and pontificate, several significant pieces focused on the effect his writings had on the clarification and settling of Church teachings.

The consensus seems to be that many of Benedict’s works seem to have been — at least for now — unraveled the past few years. Your guess is as good as anyone’s as to the cause. A politicized clergy and progressive religious order are possible reasons.

For now, the Catholic Church seems quite obsessed with becoming Protestant: it has lashed out against the faithful that insist on receiving Communion kneeling and on the tongue, and those that prefer praying the Traditional Latin Mass. It continually encourages — by the clergy’s silence or by actions — evangelical practices of the faithful taking the Orans posture (i.e., holding up both hands) while saying the Lord’s Prayer and clapping after the Mass. Many parishes refuse to say the St. Michael Prayer after the Mass, as per tradition.

The fact that some priests see nothing wrong in dancing to the “Ting Ting Tang Ting” song inside the Church and while wearing their priestly vestments, or inviting celebrities into the Sanctuary during Mass is, of course, a whole new level of ludicrous. That it followed two years of the Catholic clergy meekly allowing churches to be closed, depriving the faithful of the Sacraments, and decades of priests preying on children, makes it tragic.

And the Sacraments are certainly what is needed nowadays, what with all those reports of athletes and healthy young adults suddenly dropping dead. But what’s sadder than the deaths is the cavalier attitude with which those deaths are greeted. Nary a call for investigation, no outrage, no suspicion cast on anything. Certainly not the COVID vaccines. Just sheer acceptance of those deaths, even by the very family of those youths that died for no discernable reason.

Suddenly, everything became attributable to the will of Fate.

Interestingly, that perspective would have been more helpful when incredibly inept government officials, with their ever-helpful media lackeys, decided to impose what became the world’s longest continuous lockdown. Then, every life was important. Zero deaths the uncategorical goal.

But now? Apparently, no cost is too dear, all to ensure everyone is jabbed or boosted. Constitutional rights, individual autonomy, and science be damned.

Which leads then to undoubted biggest casualty of this pandemic: science. Like most anything nowadays, that word has become mangled to the point of being meaningless. What used to be understood as the study of the physical world through repeated experimentation (i.e., trial and error, with emphasis on learning from errors), “science” instead was used by COVID narcissists as a bludgeon to bully reasonable people into silence.

So much so that with evidence piling up on reports of healthy young people suddenly dying, of public mask mandates clearly inutile (see Japan), and that lockdowns have been the most devastating public policy ever imposed on nations (see New Zealand), only to see supposed medical experts doubling down and vociferously insisting on vaccines, masks, and lockdowns? That’s not science, that’s a cult.

Hopefully, 2023 is the year that insanity steps out and reason comes back.

 

Jemy Gatdula is a senior fellow of the Philippine Council for Foreign Relations and a Philippine Judicial Academy law lecturer for constitutional philosophy and jurisprudence

https://www.facebook.com/jigatdula/

Twitter @jemygatdula

Suspected state hackers stole military data from Philippines, Malaysia

A broken ethernet cable is seen in front of binary code and words “cyber security” in this illustration taken on March 8, 2022. — REUTERS

A HACKING campaign suspected to be linked to an Asian government breached seven high-profile targets in Southeast Asia and Europe, including government and military agencies, according to the cybersecurity firm Group-IB.

The newly identified hacker group, dubbed Dark Pink, used phishing emails and advanced malware to compromise the defenses of military branches in the Philippines and Malaysia, as well as government organizations in Cambodia, Indonesia, and Bosnia-Herzegovina, from September to December last year. Also targeted were a non-profit, a religious organization, and a European state development agency based in Vietnam, Singapore-based Group-IB said in a report published Wednesday.

The relevant government and military agencies in those countries didn’t immediately respond to emailed requests for comment.

“Dark Pink’s activity is significant, as it is clear that they attempted to steal documentation from compromised networks in order to find sensitive information,” said Andrey Polovinkin, a malware analyst at Group-IB. “Taking into account the group’s modus operandi, its target list that includes mainly government and military bodies, as well as their sophisticated toolset, Dark Pink is most likely a previously undocumented nation-state espionage campaign.”

The cyberattacks that likely originated from the Asia-Pacific region were aimed at corporate espionage, including by stealing documents and recording audio from targeted devices, according to Group-IB. The hackers sent their targets emails containing a website link that could be used to download a malicious file, which would then steal personal information from the infected devices including passwords, browser history, and data from social apps like Viber and Telegram.

Chinese researchers from the Zhejiang-based firm DAS-Security also published a report on WeChat last Friday on the hackers, which it named Saaiwc Group. It said the group had targeted a Vietnamese leadership initiative run by the US State Department, the Philippines military, and Cambodia’s ministry of economy and finance in May, October, and November respectively.

Government and military organizations are frequently prime targets for hackers, given the confidential and sensitive data on their networks, and email continues to be one of the common breach methods. Asia became the region most targeted by cyberattacks, according to IBM Security’s threat intelligence index last year, receiving one in four recorded attacks. — Bloomberg

US FAA has struggled to modernize computer, air traffic operations

STOCK PHOTO | Image by Rudy Dong from Unsplash

WASHINGTON — The breakdown of a key computer system, which resulted in the suspension of US flight departures on Wednesday, is not the first such issue to hinder Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) operations, and happened amid efforts to upgrade technology.

The 90-minute halt, which was caused by a problem with an alerting system that sends safety messages for pilots and others, occurred less than two weeks after a different critical air-traffic control system caused flight delays at major airports in Florida. The latest glitch disrupted more than 11,000 flights on Wednesday.

The FAA has struggled to modernize some long-standing parts of air traffic control. A 2021 Transportation Department Office of Inspection General (OIG) report repeatedly cited challenges in the FAA’s multi-billion-dollar Next Generation Air Transportation System (Next) infrastructure project.

The OIG said its work “has shown that FAA has struggled to integrate key NextGen technologies and capabilities due to extended program delays that caused ripple effect delays with other programs.”

In October, for example, the FAA said it was working to end a long-ridiculed, decades-old practice of air traffic controllers using paper flight strips to keep track of aircraft. But adopting the change at 49 major airports will take the FAA until late 2029.

The FAA has also been trying to modernize the Notices to Air Missions (NOTAM) system “to improve the delivery of safety critical information to aviation stakeholders,” according to its website. The system provides pilots, flight crews, and other users of US airspace with relevant, timely and accurate safety notices.

Last April, the FAA began investing $1 billion, out of $5 billion set aside in the infrastructure package signed into law in 2022, in repairing and replacing key equipment in the air traffic control system, including power systems, navigation and weather equipment, and radar and surveillance systems across the country.

“There’s a great deal of work needed to reduce the backlog of sustainment work, upgrades and replacement of buildings and equipment needed to operate our nation’s airspace safely,” FAA Deputy Administrator Bradley Mims said at the time.

In Florida, a system known as the En Route Automation Modernization (ERAM) used to control air traffic prompted the FAA on Jan. 2 to issue a ground stop order, slowing traffic into airports and snarling hundreds of flights.

The problem with the ERAM system at a major regional air traffic control center in Miami was behind dozens of flight delays at the Miami International Airport and flights into other airports in the southern US state.

ERAM in 2015 replaced the 40-year-old En Route Host computer and backup system used at 20 FAA Air Route Traffic Control Centers nationwide.

House Transportation Committee chair Sam Graves, a Republican, labeled as “inexcusable” FAA’s failure to properly maintain and operate the air traffic control system.

The FAA said in 2020 it was more difficult “for the FAA to hire technical talent as quickly and effectively than in the past”.

The Department of Transportation (DoT), which oversees the FAA, has struggled with information technology. In 2019, a Government Accountability Office report on federal government IT planning found the DoT was one of three major agencies without a modernization plan. — Reuters

Uniqlo owner gives Japan, Inc. a jolt with 40% wage hike

A STAFF MEMBER works at the Uniqlo flagship store in Tokyo in this April 9, 2015 file photo. — REUTERS

TOKYO — Uniqlo parent Fast Retailing Co Ltd. on Wednesday said it would raise wages by as much as 40%, a clear sign that Japan’s rock-bottom salaries may be starting to budge after decades of deflation and cost-cutting.

The move by the casual clothing giant is likely to heighten focus on worker pay ahead of annual spring labor negotiations, although it looks unlikely that the rest of Japan, Inc. will deliver increases on the same scale.

Prime Minister Fumio Kishida has repeatedly called for companies to increase wages, a plea that has gained urgency as prices have surged, leading to once-unthinkable increases in the cost of everything from food to fuel.

The poor state of pay has become arguably the greatest problem for the world’s third-largest economy. In dollar terms, average annual pay in Japan was $39,711 in 2021, well below the OECD average of $51,607 and little changed from the early 1990s.

“Fast Retailing aside, there have been a number of companies that up to last year have significantly boosted their rate of pay increases. That’s a positive factor for the Japanese economy,” said Taro Saito, executive research fellow at NLI Research Institute.

Still, he cautioned that Fast Retailing’s case was that of one company with the wherewithal to afford sharp increases, which was not true of many other Japanese companies.

Fast Retailing’s move marked the first time in at least 20 years that the company, which operates more than 3,500 clothing stores worldwide, would revise remuneration across its entire group, said spokesperson Pei Chi Tung.

The change was aimed at making the company’s work style and remuneration more globally competitive, she said, adding that there was an “urgent need” to raise pay in Japan, where it has remained low compared with overseas operations.

From March, new graduate employees would be paid 300,000 yen ($2,300) a month, compared with 255,000 yen now, representing an annual increase of around 18%, the company said. New store managers will see an increase of around 36% to 390,000 yen a month, it said.

PRICE HIKES
The wage announcement comes a year after the company said it would have to raise prices for some products due to higher costs for materials and shipping. This year it increased prices of fleece goods and down jackets in its autumn-winter product lines, in what was seen as something of a turning point for consumers.

Uniqlo’s ability to meet Japanese consumers’ zealous demand for both relatively high quality and low prices has made it known for its cosupa — cost performance — turning the maker of 2,990-yen fleece jackets and 3,990-yen selvedge jeans into a global retailer and making founder Tadashi Yanai Japan’s richest man.

But, like other Japanese companies, it is also grappling with a shrinking labor pool at home.

“We believe this is probably down to inflation and Japan’s tight labor market,” said Oshadhi Kumarsasiri, an analyst at Lightstream Research who publishes on the Smartkarma platform.

“In addition, the company’s aggressive expansion plans in markets such as the US and Europe would mean that they will need to deploy some of the trained senior staff from Japan into those markets.”

Fast Retailing’s overall personnel costs in Japan would rise about 15% from the previous year, taking into account a previous hourly wage hike for part-time workers, with the expense absorbed by productivity improvement, Tung, the spokesperson, said.

Meanwhile, drinks maker Suntory Holdings has said it is looking at raising wages more than 6%, while Honda Motor Co Ltd. has said it wants to tackle wage increases “aggressively”.

The question is whether overall increases will be enough to compensate for recent spikes in food and other consumption items.

“We welcome reports of companies that have announced aggressive wage hike policies,” Hirokazu Matsuno, the government’s top spokesperson, told a news conference.

“We believe that the best way to address the current increase in prices is to realise continuous increases in wages.”  — Reuters

‘Seriously doubt’ imminent invasion of Taiwan by China — Pentagon chief

CHESS PIECES are seen in front of displayed China and Taiwan’s flags in this illustration taken Jan. 25, 2022. — REUTERS

WASHINGTON — US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said on Wednesday he seriously doubted that ramped up Chinese military activities near the Taiwan Strait were a sign of an imminent invasion of the island by Beijing.

“We’ve seen increased aerial activity in the straits, we’ve seen increased surface vessel activity around Taiwan,” Mr. Austin said during a press conference alongside US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and their Japanese counterparts.

“But whether or not that means that an invasion is imminent, you know, I seriously doubt that,” Mr. Austin said. — Reuters

Royal Mail export services severely disrupted after ‘cyber incident’

LONDON — Britain’s Royal Mail said on Wednesday it was facing severe disruption to its international export services following what it described as “a cyber incident”.

“We are temporarily unable to dispatch items to overseas destinations,” Royal Mail, one of the world’s largest post and parcel firms, said in a service update on its website.

It advised customers to temporarily hold any export mail items while it works to resolve the issue. The company says thousands of businesses use it to export around the world.

Royal Mail, part of International Distributions Services, said it was working with external experts to investigate the incident and had also reported it to regulators and security authorities.

Britain’s data protection watchdog, the Information Commissioner’s Office, said it would be making enquiries, while the National Cyber Security Centre said it was working with the company alongside the National Crime Agency to “fully understand the impact”.

The 507-year-old Royal Mail, which was privatized in 2013, had a rocky year last year, losing millions of pounds due to lower mail volumes and hit by a series of staff strikes in a long-running row over pay and conditions.

The Communication Workers Union (CWU), which represents more than 115,000 postal workers at Royal Mail, is planning further industrial action in the ongoing dispute, with a fresh ballot due to open later this month.

The “cyber incident” is the latest in a growing list of high-profile cybersecurity events in Britain.

The Twitter accounts of at least two senior government ministers appeared to have been hacked in recent weeks, while the Guardian newspaper said last month it had been hit by a “serious IT incident” believed to be a ransomware attack.

Royal Mail said its import services remained operational, albeit with minor delays. — Reuters

1...5,4105,4115,412...14,251Page 5,411 of 14,251
ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT
© 2024 BusinessWorld Publishing.
All rights reserved.
Read our privacy guidelines
Facebook Instagram Linkedin X Youtube