Lionel Messi makes Ligue 1 debut as Mbappé shines for Paris St.-Germain

August 30, 2021 | 6:52 pm

REIMS — Lionel Messi made his much-anticipated Ligue 1 debut for Paris St.-Germain (PSG) on Sunday but it was Kylian Mbappé who shone as the capital club maintained its perfect start to the season with a 2-0 victory at Stade de Reims.

Mbappe gave PSG a taste of what it would be missing if he left for Real Madrid, who has made bids to recruit the France striker since Messi joined on a two-year deal from Barcelona.

The win means PSG tops the table with a maximum 12 points.

All 20,545 tickets available were sold at the Auguste Delaune stadium to see 34-year-old Messi play and the fans, who chanted the Argentina forward’s name, were rewarded in the 66^th minute when he replaced the disappointing Neymar.

Mbappé did not disappoint though in a brilliant performance, seemingly unfazed by the transfer frenzy surrounding him.

Two days before the end of the window, the 22-year-old made the difference with his speed and sense of timing, opening the scoring with a header and rounding off with a clinical finish.

After a stuttering start, PSG got into its groove and Mbappe put it ahead after 15 minutes by heading home from Angel Di Maria’s cross.

But PSG got too comfortable and Reims started to apply some pressure, with Moreto Cassama’s superb strike hitting Keylor Navas’s crossbar three minutes before the break.

Reims celebrated what they thought was a Marshall Munetsi equalizer five minutes into the second half, only for the Zimbabwean’s effort to be ruled out for offside.

MESSI WELCOMED
Messi started to warm up after 57 minutes, drawing applause from the Reims supporters, whom he saluted.

They sang his name just when he was about to come on, shortly after Mbappé had doubled PSG’s advantage from Achraf Hakimi’s cross at the end of a sharp counter attack.

Mbappé combined with Messi, but the former Barcelona striker was not in the same condition as the Frenchman, having not played a competitive game since winning the Copa America with Argentina on July 10.

“It was important that he (Messi) started with a win,” PSG coach Mauricio Pochettino told a news conference.

“He brings serenity to the team. His energy and his optimism trickle down on the rest of the team.”

Reims defender Andrew Gravillon crossed Messi’s path before and after the game.

“He’s impressive. Last year, we were watching him play the Champions League, now it’s a pleasure to have him in our league and it’s also a pleasure to challenge him,” he said.

“I went to see him to get his shirt for my little brother, but he didn’t give it to me. Maybe next time, I’ll get lucky.” — Reuters

Fiduciary duty of diligence of the highest level for corporations vested with public interest

August 30, 2021 | 6:33 pm

handshake-businessmen — PRESSFOTO-FREEPIK

(Second of two parts)

The Court in Professional Services, Inc. overruled the old theory that professionals are considered personally liable for the fault or negligence they commit in the discharge of their duties, and their employer cannot be held liable for such fault or negligence, or more specifically that “a hospital cannot be held liable for the fault or negligence of a physician or surgeon in the treatment or operation of patients,” holding that: “However, the efficacy of the foregoing doctrine has weakened with the significant developments in medical care. Courts came to realize that modern hospitals are increasingly taking active role in supplying and regulating medical care to patients. No longer were a hospital’s functions limited to furnishing room, food, facilities for treatment and operation, and attendants for its patients. … noting that modern hospitals actually do far more than provide facilities for treatment.

“Rather, they regularly employ, on a salaried basis, a large staff of physicians, interns, nurses, administrative and manual workers. They charge patients for medical care and treatment, even collecting for such services through legal action, if necessary. The courts then concluded that there is no reason to exempt hospitals from the universal rule of respondeat superior.” The Court added that “In our shores, the nature of the relationship between the hospital and the physicians is rendered inconsequential in view of our categorical pronouncement in Ramos v. Court of Appeals that for purposes of apportioning responsibility in medical negligence cases, an employer-employee relationship in effect exists between hospitals and their attending and visiting physicians.”

Professional Services, Inc. reiterated the application of the doctrine of apparent authority to make the hospital liable for the negligence of visiting physicians and quoted approvingly the ruling of the trial court, thus: “… regardless of the education and status in life of the patient, he ought not be burdened with the defense of absence of employer-employee relationship between the hospital and the independent physician whose name and competence are certainly to the general public by the hospital’s act of listing him and his specialty in its lobby directory, as in the case herein. The high costs of today’s medical and health care should at least exact on the hospital greater, if not broader, legal responsibility for the conduct of treatment and surgery within its facility by its accredited physician or surgeon, regardless of whether he is independent or employed.”

The Court held that “The wisdom of the foregoing ratiocination [of the trial court] is easy to discern. Corporate entities, like PSI, are capable of acting only through other individuals, such as physicians. If these accredited physicians do their job well, the hospital succeeds in its mission of offering quality medical services and thus profits financially. Logically, where negligence mars to the quality of its services, the hospital should not be allowed to escape liability for the acts of its ostensible agents.”

More significantly, Professional Services evolved separately a new corporate doctrine of responsibility which it termed as “the doctrine of corporate negligence or corporate responsibility,” which provided a legal platform of direct liability of the corporation based on the corporate set-up of a hospital, clearly apart from the doctrine of apparent authority, as explained in this manner:

“Recent years have seen the doctrine of corporate negligence as the judicial answer to the problem of allocating hospital’s liability for the negligent acts of health practitioners, absent facts to support the application of respondeat superior or apparent authority. Its formulation proceeds from the judiciary’s acknowledgment that in these modern times, the duty of providing quality medical service is no longer the sole prerogative and responsibility of the physician. The modern hospitals have changed structure. Hospitals now tend to organize a highly professional medical staff whose competence and performance need to be monitored by the hospitals commensurate with their inherent responsibility to provide quality medical care.”

The doctrine has its genesis in Darling v. Charleston Community Hospital. There, the Supreme Court of Illinois held that “the jury could have found a hospital negligent, inter alia, in failing to have a sufficient number of trained nurses attending the patient; failing to require a consultation with or examination by members of the hospital staff; and failing to review the treatment rendered to the patient.” On the basis of Darling, other jurisdictions held that a hospital’s corporate negligence extends to permitting a physician known to be incompetent to practice at the hospital.

With the passage of time, more duties were expected from hospitals, among them: 1.) the use of reasonable care in the maintenance of safe and adequate facilities and equipment; 2.) the selection and retention of competent physicians; 3.) the overseeing or supervision of all persons who practice medicine within its walls; and, 4.) the formulation, adoption and enforcement of adequate rules and policies that ensure quality care for its patients. Thus, in Tucson Medical Center, Inc. v. Misevich, it was held that a hospital, following the doctrine of corporate responsibility, has the duty to see that it meets the standards of responsibilities for the care of patients. Such duty includes the proper supervision of the members of its medical staff. And in Bost v. Riley, the court concluded that a patient who enters a hospital does so with the reasonable expectation that it will attempt to cure him. The hospital accordingly has the duty to make a reasonable effort to monitor and oversee the treatment prescribed and administered by the physicians practicing in its premises.

Upon discussing the doctrine of corporate responsibility, the Court held “In the present case, it was duly established that PSI operates the Medical City Hospital for the purpose and under the concept of providing comprehensive medical services to the public. Accordingly, it has the duty to exercise reasonable care to protect from harm all patients admitted into its facility for medical treatment. Unfortunately, PSI failed to perform such duty. The findings of the trial court are convincing not only did PSI breach its duties to oversee or supervise all persons who practice medicine within it walls, it also failed to take an active step in fixing the negligence committed.”

The “doctrine of corporate negligence or corporate responsibility” as it began to be evolved in Professional Services provides that every corporation which undertakes to operate a business enterprise which is of the kind and nature that it invites the public to cater to its services, is bound to ensure that those who avail of its services are duly protected and that the corporation has a duty to exercise reasonable care to protect the availing public from harm when he uses its facilities, including the obligation to oversee and supervise all persons who operate such facilities, as well as the obligation to take an active step in remedying the negligence committed within its premises. The doctrine therefore essentially embraces the stakeholder theory.

On determining whether the hospital could be held solidarily liable with the attending physician for the latter’s malpractice, the Court in Professional Services, Inc. held: “Anent the corollary issue of whether PSI is solidarily liable with Dr. Ampil for damages, let it be emphasized that PSI, apart from a general denial of its responsibility, failed to adduce evidence showing that it exercised the diligence of a good father or a family in the accreditation and supervision of the latter. In neglecting to offer such proof, PSI failed to discharge its burden under the last paragraph of Article 2180 cited earlier, and, therefore, must be adjudged solidarily liable with Dr. Ampil. Moreover, as we have discussed, PSI is also directly liable to the Aganas.”

The implication of this particular ruling in Professional Services is that once negligence is shown to have been committed by a physician or an employee within the premises of the hospital, then automatically, the presumption comes into play that the corporation operating the hospital was negligent in accrediting and supervising such a physician or employee, and the burden of proof is on the part of the corporation to prove that it has discharged such duty.

In an unprecedented move, the Supreme Court granted to hear en banc a second motion for reconsideration of PSI, and allowed the intervention of Manila Medical Services, Inc., Asian Hospital, Inc., and the Private Hospital Association of the Philippines, on the ground that “the assailed decision and resolution will jeopardize the financial viability of private hospitals and jack up the cost of health care.” In granting the hearing of the second motion for reconsideration en banc the Court held: “Due to the paramount public interest, the Court en banc accepted the referral and heard the parties on oral arguments on one particular issue: whether a hospital may be held liable for negligence of physicians-consultants allowed to practice in its premises.”

In the 2010 resolution, the Supreme Court held that “After gathering its thoughts on the issues, this Court holds that PSI is liable to the Aganas, not under the principle of respondeat superior for lack of evidence of an employment relationship with Dr. Ampil but under the principle of ostensible agency for the negligence of Dr. Ampil and, pro hac vice, under the principle of corporate negligence for its failure to perform its duties as a hospital.” The Court explained its position in the following manner: “While in theory a hospital as a juridical entity cannot practice medicine, in reality it utilizes doctors, surgeons and medical practitioners in the conduct of its business of facilitating medical and surgical treatment. Within that reality, three legal relationships crisscross: 1.) between the hospital and the doctor practicing within its premises; 2.) between the hospital and the patient being treated or examined within its premises[;] and 3.) between the patient and the doctor. The exact nature of each relationship determines the basis and extent of the liability of the hospital for the negligence of the doctor.”

The Court therefore formally recognized in the 2010 resolution in Professional Services that there exists a “legal relationship” between the hospital and the patient that avails of its facilities, even though the direct professional relationship is really with the attending physician. It explained the two-fold legal obligations of the hospital with the patient thus: “Where an employment relationship exists, the hospital may be held vicariously liable under Article 2176 in relation to Article 2180 of the Civil Code or the principle of respondeat superior. Even when no employment relationship exists but it is shown that the hospital holds out to the patient that the doctor is its agent, the hospital may still be vicariously liable under Article 2176 in relation to Article 1431 and Article 1869 of the Civil Code or the principle of apparent authority. Moreover, regardless of its relationship with the doctor, the hospital may be held liable directly to the patient for its own negligence or failure to follow established standard of conduct to which it should conform as a corporation.”

In the latter portion of the resolution, the Court expounded on this doctrine as follows: “It should be borne in mind that the corporate negligence ascribed to PSI is different from the medical negligence attributed to Dr. Ampil. The duties of the hospital are distinct from those of the doctor-consultant practicing within its premises in relation to the patient; hence, the failure of PSI to fulfill its duties as a hospital corporation gave rise to a direct liability to the Aganas distinct from that of Dr. Ampil.”

In other words, under the Supreme Court’s 2010 en banc resolution, corporations which undertake business enterprises or public facilities that cater and open their facilities to the public inherently owe a certain duty of care and diligence to members of the public who avail of their services or facilities. Although the resolution held that “All this notwithstanding, we make it clear that PSI’s hospital liability based on ostensible agency and corporate negligence applies only to this case, pro hac vice. It is not intended to set a precedent and should not serve as a basis to hold hospitals liable for every form of negligence of their doctors-consultants under any and all circumstances. The ruling is unique to this case, for the liability of PSI arose from an implied agency with Dr. Ampil and an admitted corporate duty to Natividad [Agana],” nonetheless, Professional Services has indeed established a precedent, although each similar case in the future would always be decided on the basis of the proven facts.

The future of Stakeholder Theory, and the basis for establishing corporate liability for stakeholders based on corporate enterprise is well underway. To paraphrase the opening statement of the Supreme Court held in its 2008 resolution in Professional Services we hold that “As the corporate world changes, so must the laws and jurisprudence governing corporate liability.”

This article reflects the personal opinion of the author and does not reflect the official stand of the Management Association of the Philippines or the MAP.

Attorney Cesar L. Villanueva is Chair of the MAP Corporate Governance Committee, is a Trustee of the Institute of Corporate Directors (ICD), was the first Chair of Governance Commission for GOCCs (2011 to 2016), was Dean of the Ateneo Law School (2004 to 2011), and is a Founding Partner of the Villanueva Gabionza & Dy Law Offices.

map@map.org.ph

cvillanueva@vgslaw.com

http://map.org.ph

Mutual mistrust threatens PHA-PhilHealth partnership

August 30, 2021 | 6:32 pm

Members of the Philippine Hospital Association (PHA) are threatening to disengage from the Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (PhilHealth) over the latter’s issuance of a circular suspending the payment of its obligations to hospitals due to possible fraud and unethical acts on the part of the hospitals and their medical staff.* The PHA members in turn accuse PhilHealth of “arbitrary denial” of their claims for compensation. They suspect the circular is just “another ploy to deny or delay the payment of claims” by hospitals.

The present arrangement is for the hospital and the attending physician to bill the patient net of his PhilHealth benefits and to collect the patient’s benefits from PhilHealth. PHA claims PhilHealth has not been paying them. What PhilHealth owes them is now “in the billions of pesos.” According to Dr. Jose Rene de Grano, president of the PHA, if PhilHealth does not pay what it owes hospitals, it would put the hospitals in a precarious financial situation leading to the suspension of operations of some of them and the permanent closure of small hospitals in the provinces.

Hospitals disengaging from PhilHealth would mean the hospitals and the doctors demanding of the patient full payment of the hospital’s charges and the doctor’s professional fee. The patient will have to be the one to file a claim with PhilHealth for reimbursement of his expenses to the extent of his PhilHealth benefits.

The hospitals’ disengagement from PhilHealth would derail the provision of Republic Act 11223 or the Universal Health Care Act that enrolled all Filipino citizens in the National Health Insurance Program, giving access to the full continuum of health services they need. That is more than 100 million Filipinos spread all over the archipelago, from Batanes to Sulu.

PhilHealth, a government corporation attached to the Department of Health (DoH) for policy coordination and guidance, was mandated to administer the National Health Insurance Program. But PhilHealth was not structured to manage such a complex and far-flung operation.

Its top management team does not include people with formal training and substantial experience in health insurance as to be able to formulate and promulgate policies for the sound administration of the program. The training and work experience of the current president of PhilHealth are not suitable for the job. I venture to say that his investigative mindset is the main cause of the problem.

PhilHealth does not have senior officers with the expertise key to the viability of a health insurance organization: an actuary with formal training in the measurement and management of financial risks in healthcare, a doctor of medicine with experience in hospital administration, and an accredited investment manager. The advance payment of millions of pesos to a number of healthcare facilities is a reflection of the lack of competence in fund management and of knowledge of the concept of insurance.

An insurance company generates additional funds by judicious placement of the enrollees’ aggregate fees in the money market. What the PhilHealth fund manager had done was divert a large portion of the investable funds to non-interest earning placements. Advance payment also goes against the cardinal principle of insurance — to compensate the insured for his loss. The insured person is paid only after he had incurred an expense.

Neither does PhilHealth have the personnel complement required by a health insurance organization with more than 110 million enrollees, who, in this time of the gravest public health emergency in the country’s history, need healthcare services badly.

According to available data from DoH, the 10 leading causes of morbidity are acute respiratory infection, 1,289,168; acute lower respiratory tract infection and pneumonia, 586,186; bronchitis/bronchiolitis, 351,126; hypertension, 345,412; acute watery diarrhea, 326,551; influenza, 272,001; urinary tract infection, 83,569; TB respiratory, 72,516; injuries, 51,201; and diseases of the heart, 37,589.

In plain language, morbidity means “disease, injury, and disability.” The DoH does not provide the morbidity figures for the diseases of the kidneys, intestines, liver, pancreas, reproductive organs, sense organs, nervous system, muscles, bones, blood, the newborn, complications of pregnancy, mental disorders, and many others. It can be validly assumed that the total morbidity caused by these diseases runs in the millions.

Anyway, for the 10 leading causes of morbidity, the total for one year is 3,415,319. That translates into at least 3,415,300 claims for reimbursement. Spread over 250 working days, that is an average of 13,660 claims for PhilHealth benefits each working day. Spread over the 30 offices of PhilHealth all over the country, it means that each office is receiving an average of 450 claims every working day. Validating one claim properly requires examining several documents like the physician’s diagnosis and the hospital or laboratory’s bill. That could take at least eight minutes.

In an eight-hour working day, a claims processor (in the insurance business the term is “adjuster”) has 480 working minutes. That means she can process at most 60 claims a day out of the 450 she is probably given to process that day. To process all 450, each PhilHealth office must have seven claims processors. That is only for claims arising from the 10 leading diseases. During this COVID-19 pandemic, the number of claims must have increased significantly.

A processor of a claim needs to be familiar with the medicine and laboratory/diagnostic tests related to the disease of the claimant for PhilHealth benefits to be able to say that a claim is valid and payable. She need not be a doctor. A registered nurse with two-year’s experience in a general hospital is qualified to be a claims processor.

PhilHealth’s not having at least 210 qualified and super-efficient claims processors most probably accounts for the delay in the validation of claims. The PHA members believe PhilHealth’s inability to process claims within 60 days of filing accounts for PhilHealth issuing the suspension of payment of its obligations to them. They are saying, in effect, that the issuance of the circular was PhilHealth’s excuse for the delay in the payment of its obligations to the hospitals.

PHA officers who are doctors resent their being suspected of unethical practices. But PhilHealth has valid basis for its suspicion, for there have been claims filed for cases where patients who were confined in a hospital for common cold were paid by PhilHealth an amount allotted for incidents of pneumonia. It could mean the fraudulent claims were filed knowingly by the hospital and the physician.

In health insurance there is what is called “moral hazard.” It occurs when the insured person demands more or better services than necessary, thus raising the cost for the insurer since the insured party does not bear the full cost of the services he demanded and was given. In health insurance, “moral hazard” is multiplied threefold as the professional and the healthcare facility may be parties to the irregularity.

An example is the insured with a common cold asking a physician to recommend his confinement in a hospital. The insured gets a valid excuse for his absence from work or school, and the professional and the owner of the facility are paid by the insurer for their token care. According to the DoH, there are 38 million Filipinos who are medically indigent, meaning they cannot afford even the most basic healthcare service. With millions of indigents enrolled in PhilHealth, moral hazard takes on greater magnitude. Faked hospital confinement means free meals and a real bed for the indigent enrollee and revenue for the healthcare providers.

Some doctors, even those practicing in prestigious hospitals, can be greedy. I was confined in one such hospital. The hospital billed me for the services it rendered net of my PhilHealth benefit. The doctor charged me her full professional fee. Her bill didn’t even reflect a senior citizen’s discount.

I filed a claim with PhilHealth for my professional fee benefit. Not having received a check after 60 days, I complained. I was told that PhilHealth had paid the doctor instead of me. That meant she got paid twice for the same service — by me and by PhilHealth. I reported to the president of the hospital the unethical act of the doctor. He summoned the doctor. The doctor wrote me a check to replace the check sent her by PhilHealth. Had I not complained, she would have kept the money due me from PhilHealth. Yes, some doctors in prestigious hospitals can be unethical.

But I say the greater fault lies with PhilHealth. I tend to believe the accusation of PHA members that PhilHealth’s “arbitrary denial” of their claims for compensation is just “another ploy to deny or delay the payment of claims.” PhilHealth, as illustrated above, must be overwhelmed with hundreds of thousands of claims, much more than its claims processors can review within the allotted time. If PhilHealth dispenses with the standard review of claims and accepts all those under review as valid, PhilHealth still cannot lift the suspension of payment because it does not have the billions of pesos with which to pay the hospitals. It does not have the funds due to mismanagement — and fraudulent use — of its funds.

I foresee the breakup of the PHA-PhilHealth partnership. Woe to the PhilHealth enrollees among the poor!

*PhilHealth announced on Aug. 29 that it has temporarily suspended the implementation of the circular — Ed.

Oscar P. Lagman, Jr. is a retired corporate executive, business consultant, and management professor. He has been a politicized citizen since his college days in the late 1950s.

Ten trends in fossil fuel taxation and power generation

August 30, 2021 | 6:32 pm

After food, air, and water, humanity’s second most useful commodities would be fossil fuels. From fishing and sea transport, farming and land transport, storage, air transport and electricity generation, their value and usefulness are beyond question.

Yet fossil fuels are also the most politicized, demonized, most taxed commodities for supposedly causing “environmental damage,” “carbon pollution,” and the “climate crisis.”

I checked revenue data for the P5.024 trillion proposed 2022 budget from the Department of Budget and Management (DBM), Budget of Expenditures and Sources of Financing (BESF) 2022. Seven trends can be inferred from the numbers (see Table 1).

One, excise tax from petroleum products collected by both the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) and Bureau of Customs (BoC) were huge at P97 billion/year in 2019-2020, and projected to rise further to P108.6 billion/year from 2021-2023.

Two, royalties from Malampaya gas are still big — P23.4 billion/year from 2018-2020 — but this is projected to decline to P15.4 billion/year from 2021-2023.

Three, coal royalties plus excise tax on coal was modest at P5.7 billion/year from 2018-2020 but expected to rise to P8.7 billion/year from 2021-2023.

Four, combined taxes plus non-tax/royalties from fossil fuels were huge at P112.5 billion/year from 2018-2020, and estimated to rise to P133.5 billion/year from 2021-2023.

Five, the share of revenues from fossil fuels constituted on average 3.8% of total revenues of the government from 2018-2020, and is seen to rise slightly to 4.1% of total revenues from 2021-2023.

Six, these revenues are on fossil fuel products only and do not include corporate income tax, VAT and non-tax (regulatory fees, fines, etc.) collection from companies that extract, refine, transport, and distribute fossil fuel products. Also, these do not include the personal income taxes of people working in these companies.

Seven, the huge taxes and royalties from fossil fuels were really meant to finance the various spending and bureaucracies, national and local, and have little or nothing to do with the narratives of fighting “carbon pollution/climate crisis.”

Meanwhile last week, the Independent Electricity Market Operator of the Philippines (IEMOP) conducted its monthly media briefing and among the data presented was the power generation mix for the Luzon-Visayas grids until July 2021.

To give further context, I added the national power generation mix in 2020 and 2015, and the Feed-in Tariff Allowance (FiT-All) that was granted starting 2015. Three more trends in fossil fuel contribution to power generation mix cropped up (see Table 2).

So, eight, fossil fuel-based power plants — coal, natural gas and oil — remain the workhorses of the Philippines’ power generation to avoid blackouts. They contributed 74.5% of total electricity production in 2015, which rose to 78.8% in 2020, and 82.5% in May-July 2021.

Nine, the share of conventional renewables — geothermal and hydro — has been declining, from 23.9% of total power generation in 2015, to 17.7% in 2020, and 14.3% in May-July 2021.

Ten, the share of favored renewable energy (RE) — wind, solar, and biomass — hardly improved, from 1.5% of total power generation in 2015, to 3.6% in 2020, and 3.3% in May-July 2021.

Then consider these three recent reports in BusinessWorld: “TransCo proposes FiT-All rate of P0.3320/kWh” (Aug. 18), “RE preferences seen needed to ensure industry takes off” (Aug. 25), “DoE orders Napocor to resolve Mindoro power issues; improvements expected by end of September (Aug. 27).

Higher Fit-All is further proof that the renewables law of 2008 was meant to enrich mainly wind-solar developers whose FiT rates per kwh are nearly double the FiT rates for biomass and run-of-river hydro, make electricity more unstable and more expensive for consumers. And these RE backers want more preferences, more favoritism “to take off.”

And then there is the never-ending financial-technical problems of many provincial electric cooperatives (ECs). Last week the Philippine Rural Electric Cooperatives Assn., Inc. (PhilRECA) issued a statement defending the administrator of the National Electrification Administration (NEA) from corruption charges.

I am not privy to these allegations and counter-allegations, but that big ECs with multi-millions in assets remain under the political protection of a political body called NEA can raise political suspicions. The NEA has a budget of P12.9 billion in 2020, P2.5 billion in 2021, and a proposed budget of P1.8 billion in 2022. We have one-person corporations under the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and yet those huge ECs do not want more transparent rules of SEC to guide them and prefer the political cover by NEA. Not good. All these ECs should become corporations someday.

Bienvenido S. Oplas, Jr. is the Director for Communication and Corporate Affairs, Alas Oplas & Co. CPAs

nonoyoplas@alasoplascpas.com

NK appears to have restarted nuclear reactor — IAEA

August 30, 2021 | 6:20 pm

VIENNA/SEOUL — North Korea (NK) appears to have restarted a nuclear reactor that is widely believed to have produced plutonium for nuclear weapons, the U.N. atomic watchdog said in an annual report, highlighting the isolated nation’s efforts to expand its arsenal.

The signs of operation at the 5-megawatt (MW) reactor, which is seen as capable of producing weapons-grade plutonium, were the first to be spotted since late 2018, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said in the report, dated Friday.

“Since early July 2021, there have been indications, including the discharge of cooling water, consistent with the operation,” the IAEA report said of the reactor at Yongbyon, a nuclear complex at the heart of North Korea’s nuclear program.

The IAEA has had no access to North Korea since Pyongyang expelled its inspectors in 2009. The country subsequently pressed ahead with its nuclear weapons program and soon resumed nuclear testing. Its last nuclear test was in 2017.

The IAEA now monitors North Korea from afar, largely through satellite imagery.

Commercial satellite imagery shows water discharge, supporting the conclusion that the reactor is running again, said Jenny Town, director of the US-based 38 North project, which monitors North Korea.

“No way to know why the reactor wasn’t operating previously — although work has been ongoing on the water reservoir over the past year to ensure sufficient water for the cooling systems,” she said.

“The timing seems a little strange to me, given the tendency for flooding in coming weeks or months that could affect reactor operations.”

Last year 38 North said floods in August may have damaged pump houses linked to Yongbyon, highlighting how vulnerable the nuclear reactor’s cooling systems are to extreme weather events.

Seasonal rains brought floods in some areas this year, state media have said, but there have been no reports yet of threats to the site, the Yongbyon Nuclear Scientific Research Center.

KEY NUCLEAR SITE
At a 2019 summit in Vietnam with then-US President Donald Trump, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un offered to dismantle Yongbyon in exchange for relief from a range of international sanctions over nuclear weapons and ballistic missile programs.

At the time Mr. Trump said he rejected the deal because Yongbyon was only one part of the North’s nuclear program, and was not enough of a concession to warrant loosening so many sanctions.

US President Joseph R. Biden’s administration has said it reached out to the North Koreans to offer talks, but Pyongyang has said it has no interest in negotiating without a change in policy by the United States.

“There has been no agreement governing these facilities for a long time now,” said Joshua Pollack, a researcher at the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies (CNS).

In June, the IAEA flagged indications of possible reprocessing work at Yongbyon to separate plutonium from spent reactor fuel that could be used in nuclear weapons.

In Friday’s report, the agency said the five-month duration of that apparent work, from mid-February to early July, suggested a full batch of spent fuel was handled, in contrast to the shorter time needed for waste treatment or maintenance.

“The new indications of the operation of the 5MW(e) reactor and the radiochemical (reprocessing) laboratory are deeply troubling,” it said in the report, which was issued without notice.

There were also indications of mining and concentration activities at a uranium mine and plant at Pyongsan, and activity at a suspected covert enrichment facility in Kangson, it added.

It is a safe bet that North Korea intends any newly separated plutonium for weapons, Mr. Pollack said, adding that in a speech this year Kim gave a long list of advanced weapons under development, including more nuclear bombs.

“North Korea’s appetite for warheads is not yet sated, it seems.” — Reuters

Afghanistan’s ‘Gen Z’ fears for future and hard-won freedoms

August 30, 2021 | 6:15 pm

Youths take pictures next to an Afghan flag on a hilltop overlooking Kabul, Afghanistan, April 15, 2021. — REUTERS/MOHAMMAD ISMAIL/FILE PHOTO

WHEN 20-year-old Salgy found out last week that she had topped some 200,000 students who took Afghanistan’s university entrance exam this year, she was elated.

For months, she had locked herself away in her room in the capital Kabul to study, sometimes forgetting to eat. With her family crowding round their solar-powered TV as the results came in, she realized her hard work had paid off.

“That was a moment when I felt someone gifted me the whole world,” Ms. Salgy, who like many in the country goes by one name, told Reuters. “My mother cried out of happiness and I cried with her.”

That feeling turned almost immediately to worry when she remembered the events of the previous weeks.

Following the withdrawal of the bulk of the remaining US forces in Afghanistan, the Taliban began a lightning advance across the country, culminating in the fall of Kabul on Aug. 15.

“We are faced with a very uncertain future, thinking what will happen next,” Ms. Salgy told Reuters. “I think I am the luckiest and unluckiest person.”

Almost two third of Afghans are under the age of 25, and an entire generation cannot even remember the Taliban, who ruled Afghanistan from 1996 until it was toppled by Western-backed militia in 2001.

During that time they enforced a strict interpretation of Islamic law, banning girls from school, women from work and carrying out public executions. Since 2001, the militants fought an insurgency in which thousands of Afghans died.

Since re-taking power, the group has been quick to reassure students that their education would not be disrupted, also saying it would respect the rights of women and urging talented professionals not to leave the country.

But used to a life with cellphones, pop music and mixing of genders, Afghanistan’s “Generation Z” — born roughly in the decade around the turn of the millennium — now fears some freedoms will be taken away, according to interviews with half a dozen Afghan students and young professionals.

“I made such big plans, I had all these high reaching goals for myself that stretched to the next 10 years,” said Sosan Nabi, a 21-year-old graduate.

“We had a hope for life, a hope for change. But in just one week, they took over the country and in 24 hours they took all our hopes, dreams snatched from in front of our eyes. It was all for nothing.”

A Taliban spokesperson did not immediately respond to questions for this article.

HARD-WON FREEDOMS
On the morning of Aug. 15, as the Taliban neared Kabul, 26-year-old Javid rushed home from the university where he worked after graduating. He declined to give his full name out of fear of reprisals.

He deleted all emails and social media messages he had shared with foreign organizations and governments, especially the United States.

He took hard copies of certificates given by US-funded development programs to the backyard of his house and set them on fire. He broke a glass trophy received for that work against the floor.

Many Afghans working for overseas organizations have tried to flee the country in the last two weeks.

With little to go on but stories from parents about the Taliban, some young people said they were afraid, whatever the reality of the situation on the ground.

The first time many of them ever saw members of the group was patroling streets after their conquest of Kabul.

Besides safety, young people Reuters spoke with said they worried other hard-won freedoms could be taken away.

Secondary school enrolment rose from 12% in 2001 to 55% in 2018, according to the World Bank.

From a time when a single state-owned radio station broadcast mainly calls to prayer and religious teachings, Afghanistan now has an estimated 170 radio stations, over 100 newspapers and dozens of TV stations.

That’s not to mention smartphones and the Internet — non-existent under Taliban rule — giving young people access to events beyond Afghanistan’s borders, said Elaha Tamim, an 18-year-old who also just passed her university entrance exam.

“It is something we all use at all times,” she said. “We use it for entertainment when we want to relax, it’s our way of discovering what’s happening in the rest of the world. I don’t want to lose that.”

WOMEN’S RIGHTS
Some young women are particularly concerned by the Taliban’s victory.

The number of girls in primary school rose from effectively zero under the Taliban to over 80%, according the World Bank.

The Taliban has said it will respect the rights of girls to go to school this time around, though Mr. Javid said many female students at his university had stopped coming to class out of fear.

“I grew up in an environment where we were free, we could go to school, we could go out and about,” Ms. Tamim said. “My mother tells stories of her bitter time (under the Taliban). Those stories are frightening.”

Ammar Yasir, a member of the Taliban’s political office in Doha, personally congratulated Ms. Salgy — the student who topped the university entrance exams — on Twitter for her results, and for gaining admission to medical school.

She now hopes to fulfill her dream of becoming a doctor, despite the uncertainty.

“If the Taliban allow girls access to higher education and they don’t create barriers for them then that is good, otherwise my whole life’s struggle is at risk,” she said.

Despite the assurances, some people Reuters spoke with said they were desperate to leave, but didn’t know how.

“If I thought me staying here would bring any hope of a positive change then I would be ready, like the thousands of other young people, to give up my life for it,” Nabi said. “But we all know that isn’t a reality.” — Reuters

Israel offers COVID-19 booster shots to all vaccinated people

August 30, 2021 | 6:14 pm

JERUSALEM — Israel on Sunday began offering a COVID-19 booster to children as young as 12, and its prime minister said a campaign that began a month ago among seniors has slowed a rise in severe illness caused by the Delta variant.

Announcing the decision, top Israeli health officials said the effectiveness of the second dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine waned six months after administration, making a booster necessary.

“The third dose brings us to the level of protection achieved by the second dose, when it was fresh,” said Sharon Alroy-Preis, head of public health at Israel’s Health Ministry.

“That means, people are 10 times more protected after the third vaccine dose,” she told a news conference, where the expanded booster drive was announced.

Those eligible for the third shot can receive it provided at least five months have passed since their second jab — a timeframe shorter than an eight-month interval in effect in the United States, which is considering cutting the waiting time.

Hoping to curb the spread of the highly contagious Delta variant, Israel began administering the booster to its older population a month ago and has been gradually lowering the age of eligibility. It stood at 30 before Sunday’s announcement.

So far 2 million people out of a population of 9.3 million have received three doses.

“There are already results: the increase in severe morbidity has begun to slow,” Prime Minister Naftali Bennett said in a statement. “But we have to complete third doses for all of our citizens. I call on those aged 12 and up to go out and immediately take the third shot.”

Israel and other countries have pressed ahead with booster plans despite opposition from the World Health Organization, which said more of the world should be vaccinated with a first dose before people receive a third.

The United States has said it will offer booster doses to all Americans, citing data showing diminishing protection. Canada, France and Germany have also planned booster campaigns. — Reuters

How the pandemic is shaping language

August 30, 2021 | 4:47 pm

By Patricia B. Mirasol

Pandemic-related words kept in their original English form are now a part of the Filipino language, according to the Commission on the Filipino Language (Komisyon sa Wikang Filipino or KWF). The commission also acknowledged that mobilizing people necessitated getting messages across in a language they understand.

“We, the KWF, and other government agencies, initially struggled with words such as ‘PUI’ [person under investigation], ‘frontliner,’ and ‘physical distancing,’” said John Enrico C. Torralba, chief language researcher of KWF’s translation division. “There are no indigenous equivalents for them,” he told BusinessWorld in the vernacular, “so they were retained in their original form.”

Citing Bicol poet and cultural advocate Victor Dennis T. Nierva, Mr. Torralba said many individuals who have translated materials from the Department of Health into their local languages practiced keeping these technical terms as well.

Institutions like the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have similarly retained medical concepts like “spike protein” (which protrude from the outside of coronaviruses and allow them to infect cells) in its Filipino-translated resources.

“Medical practitioners, language scholars, and translators need to work together to translate ideas into their respective languages,” said Mr. Torralba, adding that the KWF is developing a registry of technical word translations and building a network of translators. “They also need to be open to modifying translations that aren’t understood by the target audience.”

Public understanding of a concept is an important factor for mobilizing individuals to follow official policy, such as evacuating during a storm.

This need was highlighted during 2013’s super Typhoon Haiyan, Mr. Torralba told BusinessWorld: “A local citizen said he didn’t understand what a ‘storm surge’ meant. Had the authorities used the word daluyong, he would’ve immediately understood what to do.”

Communicating in international lingua francas or national languages makes marginalized people more vulnerable, according to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.

“People need to be more careful [about translations] because people’s lives are at stake,” Mr. Torralba said.

SIDEBAR | Living languages
KWF’s Buwan ng Wika (or Language Month) theme for 2021 is “Filipino and native tongues in Filipino decolonization.” The theme promotes the use of native languages to better reflect Filipino perspectives. It is in line with the 2021 Quincentennial Commemorations in the Philippines (2021 QCP), which commemorates significant events over the nation’s past 500 years.

According to language resource Ethnologue, there are 183 living languages spoken in the Philippines, the majority of which are indigenous tongues. The most utilized languages — according to their order of use — are Tagalog, Cebuano, Pangasinan, Bicol, Hiligaynon, Waray, Kapampangan, Maranao, and Maguindanao, said Patrocinio V. Villafuerte, a poet, author, and retired professor, in an Aug. 12 webinar.

Republic Act No. 7104, which created the KWF, refers to Philippine languages as “the indigenous languages of the Philippines, including the national language and the regional and local languages.”

Hurricane Ida plunges New Orleans into darkness amid Louisiana flooding

August 30, 2021 | 4:44 pm

NEW ORLEANS — Hurricane Ida pounded Louisiana after sweeping ashore from the Gulf of Mexico, flooding wide areas under heavy surf and torrential rains as fierce winds toppled trees and power lines, plunging New Orleans into darkness after nightfall.

The storm, though greatly diminished as it churned inland toward western Mississippi early on Monday, was expected to continue unleashing heavy downpours “likely to result in life-threatening” flooding, the National Hurricane Center said.

Sunday night, the sheriff’s office in Ascension Parish reported the first known US fatality from the storm, a 60-year-old man killed by a tree falling on his home near Baton Rouge, the state capital.

Ida, the first major hurricane to strike the United States this year, made landfall around noon on Sunday as a ferocious Category 4 storm over Port Fourchon, a hub of the Gulf’s offshore oil industry, packing sustained winds of up to 150 miles per hour (240 km per hour).

Its arrival came 16 years to the day after Hurricane Katrina, one of the most catastrophic and deadly U.S. storms on record, struck the Gulf Coast, and about a year after the last Category 4 hurricane, Laura, battered Louisiana.

US President Joseph R. Biden, Jr., declared a major disaster in the state, ordering federal assistance to bolster recovery efforts in more than two-dozen storm-stricken parishes. The full extent of storm damage remained to be seen at daybreak.

Ida crashed ashore as Louisiana was already reeling from a resurgence of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) infections that have strained the state’s healthcare system, with an estimated 2,450 COVID-19 patients hospitalized statewide, many in intensive care units.

A loss of generator power at the Thibodaux Regional Health System hospital in Lafourche Parish, southwest of New Orleans, forced medical workers to manually assist respirator patients with breathing while they were moved to another floor, the state Health Department confirmed to Reuters.

Within 12 hours of landfall, Ida had weakened into a Category 1 hurricane on the five-level Saffir-Simpson scale, with top winds clocked at 85 mph (135 kph) as the storm pushed about 100 miles inland past New Orleans, Louisiana’s largest city, early on Monday.

By then, Ida had plowed a destructive path that submerged much of the state’s coastline under several feet of surf, with flash flooding reported by the National Hurricane Center across southeastern Louisiana.

Nearly all offshore Gulf oil production was suspended in advance of the storm, and major ports along the Louisiana and Mississippi coasts were closed to shipping.

WIDESPREAD OUTAGES
Power was knocked out Sunday night to the entire New Orleans metropolitan area following the failure of all eight transmission lines that deliver electricity to the city, the utility company Entergy Louisiana reported.

One transmission tower collapsed into the Mississippi River, the Jefferson Parish Emergency Management Department said.

More than one million Louisiana homes and businesses in all were without electricity by late Sunday night, according to the tracking site Poweroutage.US.

Residents of the most vulnerable coastal areas were ordered to evacuate days ahead of the storm. Those riding out the storm in their homes in New Orleans braced for the toughest test yet of major upgrades to a levee system constructed following devastating floods in 2005 from Katrina, a hurricane that claimed some 1,800 lives.

“I almost found myself in a panic attack when news announced this was the anniversary of Katrina,” Janet Rucker, a lifelong New Orleans resident and recently retired sales manager who took shelter in a downtown hotel with her dog, Deuce. “This is just not good for our nerves and our psyche.”

The US Army Corps of Engineers said the newly reinforced New Orleans levees were expected to hold, though they said they said the flood walls could be overtopped in some places.

Hundreds of miles of new levees were built around New Orleans after flooding from Katrina inundated much of the low-lying city, especially historically Black neighborhoods.

Inundation from Ida’s storm surge — high surf driven by the hurricane’s winds — was reported to be exceeding predicted levels of 6 feet (1.8 m) along parts of the coast. Videos posted on social media showed storm surge flooding had transformed sections of Highway 90 along the Louisiana and Mississippi coast into a choppy river.

“We’re as prepared as we can be, but we’re worried about those levees,” said Kirk Lepine, president of Plaquemines Parish, and one of the most vulnerable areas along the Gulf Coast.

The parish later issued an alert on Facebook urging residents of one area to seek higher ground after reports of an overtopped levee. — Devika Krishna Kumar/Reuters

Japan’s Gunma prefecture reports contaminant in Moderna COVID-19 vaccine

August 30, 2021 | 3:27 pm

TOKYO — A contaminant was found in Moderna’s coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) vaccine on Sunday in Japan’s Gunma prefecture, near Tokyo, the latest such case in the country involving the US company’s vaccines. A tiny, black substance was found in a Moderna Inc. vaccine vial, prompting the prefecture to suspend inoculation using vaccines from the Moderna lot from which the vial had come, a Gunma prefecture official said.

Japan’s health ministry said on Saturday two people died after receiving Moderna’s vaccine shots that were among lots later suspended following the discovery of contaminants.

The government had said that no safety or efficacy issues had been identified and that the suspension was a precaution. The causes of death are being investigated.

Last week, Japan halted the use of 1.63 million Moderna doses, shipped to 863 vaccination centers nationwide, after the domestic distributor, Takeda Pharmaceutical, received reports of contaminants in some vials.

Moderna and Spanish pharma company Rovi, which bottles Moderna vaccines for markets other than the United States, had said at the time that the contamination could be due to a manufacturing issue in one of Rovi’s production lines.

The vaccine in question in Gunma is from a Moderna lot that is different from those whose use has already been suspended, the Gunma official said.

Vaccines from the same lot have been administered to 4,575 people in Gunma, but the prefecture has heard no reports of ill health, the official said.

Contaminants were found in Moderna vaccines in Japan’s southern prefecture of Okinawa, as well. — Reuters

Chinese foreign minister tells top US diplomat world must ‘positively guide’ Taliban

August 30, 2021 | 2:40 pm

BEIJING — Chinese State Councillor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi told US Secretary of State Antony Blinken in a phone call on Sunday that the international community should engage with Afghanistan’s new Taliban rulers and “positively guide” them, China’s foreign ministry said.

Washington should work with the international community to provide economic and humanitarian aid to Afghanistan, help the new regime run governmental functions normally, maintain social stability, and stop the currency from depreciating and the cost of living from rising, Mr. Wang said, according to a statement.

“While respecting the sovereignty of Afghanistan, the US should take concrete action to help Afghanistan fight terrorism and stop violence, rather than playing double standards or fighting terrorism selectively,” Mr. Wang said, warning that the “hasty withdrawal” could allow terrorist groups to “regroup and come back stronger.”

Chinese state TV said the call was made at the invitation of Washington.

State Department spokesperson Ned Price said in a statement that Messrs. Blinken and Wang spoke about “the importance of the international community holding the Taliban accountable for the public commitments they have made regarding the safe passage and freedom to travel for Afghans and foreign nationals.”

Before the chaos of the past two weeks, US officials had argued that withdrawing from Afghanistan would free up time and attention of senior US political and military leaders, as well as some military assets, to focus on the Indo-Pacific and the challenge posed by China, which the Biden administration has declared its foreign policy priority.

But China’s state-controlled media have seized on the often chaotic pullout, portraying US support for allies as fickle.

China has not officially recognized the Taliban as Afghanistan’s new rulers, but Wang Yi last month hosted Mullah Baradar, chief of the group’s political office, and has said the world should guide and support the country as it transitions to a new government instead of putting more pressure on it.

Mr. Wang earlier told Mr. Blinken in a call on Aug. 16 that the hasty pullout of US troops from Afghanistan had a “serious negative impact,” but pledged to work with Washington to promote stability in the country.

But Mr. Wang said Washington could not expect China’s cooperation if it was also trying to “contain and suppress China and harm China’s legitimate rights and interests,” Chinese state media reported at the time of the earlier call.

The engagement comes as relations between Beijing and Washington are at their lowest point in decades and just after the release of a US intelligence assessment into the origins of COVID-19 that China said “wrongly” claimed that Beijing was hindering the investigation and dismissed as “not scientifically credible.”

The two diplomats also discussed US-China ties on Sunday, according to the Chinese statement.

Mr. Wang said recent communications between the two countries on Afghanistan and climate change show that dialogue and cooperation are better than confrontation, it said.

“China will consider how to engage with the US side based on the US attitude towards China,” Mr. Wang was quoted as saying. — Reuters

Fauci backs COVID-19 vaccine mandate for US school children

August 30, 2021 | 1:58 pm

WASHINGTON — Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, the top US infectious disease expert, said on Sunday he supports coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) vaccine mandates for children attending schools as the highly contagious Delta variant of the coronavirus continues to fuel a surge in cases in the nation.

“I believe that mandating vaccines for children to appear in school is a good idea,” Dr. Fauci told CNN’s State of the Union program. “We’ve done this for decades and decades, requiring polio, measles, mumps, rubella, hepatitis” vaccinations.

Currently, children under 12 are not eligible to receive the COVID-19 vaccine. But Dr. Fauci, in a separate interview on ABC’s This Week program, said there should be enough data by early October for the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to consider whether the shot is safe for children under that age.

“I think there’s a reasonable chance” that the Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna vaccines could get FDA clearance for kids under 12 before the upcoming holiday season, Dr. Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and chief medical adviser to the White House, said last Tuesday.

As schools reopen for the fall, the rise in coronavirus cases is already causing significant disruptions.

Dozens of schools nationwide have had to delay the start of the school year or shut down since opening in August, according to data from tracking website Burbio. Its data shows the impact on schools so far has been heaviest in the South, the epicenter of the current surge in cases and where vaccination rates among those already eligible are generally the lowest in the country.

The reopening of schools is also contributing to a supply shortage of COVID-19 tests in the United States as schools revive surveillance programs that will require tens of millions of tests, according to industry executives and state health officials, Reuters reported last week. — Linda So/Reuters

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