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Eighth successful title defense for Ancajas

INTERNATIONAL Boxing Federation (IBF) super flyweight champion Jerwin “Pretty Boy” Ancajas of the Philippines made it an eighth successful title defense after he defeated Chilean challenger Miguel Gonzalez by technical knockout in the sixth round of their fight in Puebla, Mexico, on Sunday (Manila time).

A rescheduled fight and against a new opponent, Mr. Ancajas, 27, hardly showed any grappling for form as he dominated Mr. Gonzalez at the onset.

The Davao native took control of the fight in the early goings, leading to the sixth round where he eventually put a stop to the fight.

With Mr. Gonzalez proving to be overmatched, the referee made a move to wave off the fight at the 1:53 mark of the sixth round of the scheduled 12-rounder.

The win was the eighth for Mr. Ancajas since winning the IBF title in 2016 over Puerto Rican McJoe Arroyo here in Manila via unanimous decision.

The victory pushed Mr. Ancajas’ record to 32-1-22 with 22 knockouts while Mr. Gonzalez dropped to 31-3.

Mr. Ancajas was supposedly to fight Jonathan Rodriguez of Mexico in November in California but the fight was shelved after the latter failed to get a visa in time for the fight.

The Filipino stayed in the United States after the cancellation to continue his training along with his team. — Michael Angelo S. Murillo

Starting anew

Eli Manning has had an extremely productive career. Since being chosen first overall in the 2004 draft, he has quarterbacked the Giants to 116 regular-season victories and, more importantly, to two successful Super Bowl runs in which he earned Most Valuable Player awards. He has nothing left to prove, as all and sundry will attest — except, that is, to himself. Today, he will start for the first time since being benched in Week 3, and he aims to show that he still belongs in the National Football League. That he will be trekking to Lincoln Financial Field exactly a year to the day he last claimed a win serves as added motivation.

Manning is 38; make that an old 38 in the face of modern-day offenses. Yet, he doesn’t consider himself a candidate for the rocking chair. He accepted his demotion earlier this year, but with reluctance, and he firmly believes he still deserves to be front and center, holding the cowhide and determining the outcomes of set-tos. The Giants don’t, and they’re leaning on him today only because rookie QB Daniel Jones needs to convalesce from an ankle sprain. And they’re bent on getting the latter back on the field as soon as they can. Never mind that they’ve lost their last eight outings.

The Giants aren’t looking back. To be sure, neither is Manning. He’s in the last year of his contract with them, but he refuses to say he won’t be returning next season, and if in another uniform. “You never want to make decisions about the future while you’re living in the present,” he argued. Meanwhile, he’s keen on using his latest opportunity as an audition. He’ll be handicapped, and not just because of his age; in attempting to exceed his pedestrian numbers from his two previous appearances this season, he will be without tight ends Evan Engram and Rhett Ellison.

Then again, Manning seems to work best as an underdog. He has a long history of silencing critics by drawing from his unshakable confidence. He’ll look to do so again today. Whether or not he manages to live up to his heightened expectations is anybody’s guess. What will be clear from the outset is this: If he fails, it won’t be for lack of trying.

 

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.

Makati halts permits to POGO shops

ONE of the Philippines’ central business districts has stopped giving permits to establishments that cater to workers of offshore gaming operators as it tries to curb rising criminality including prostitution in the city.

“We would no longer accept new applications for Philippine Offshore Gaming Operators (POGO) service providers and crack down hard against illegal activities that are catering to POGOs and their employees within Makati,” Mayor Mar-Len Abigail S. Binay said.

Increased demand for housing and workstations in Makati from foreign workers of POGOs — many of them Chinese — has led to a property boom.

The mayor cited “overheating” in the local property sector, where the growth in residential and commercial leasing market has become unsustainable.

In the past two months, the local government shut down two businesses that were used as prostitution dens, and one unsanitary restaurant and catering company, all of which were ran by illegal POGO service providers.

Police also seized P2.5 billion worth of drugs during a raid of an apartment being rented by a Chinese national.

Ms. Binay said the moratorium on business permits was aligned with the government’s thrust to stop illegal activities related to offshore gaming operators.

In August, the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation (Pagcor) stopped issuing new licenses to POGOs cue to national security and economic concerns.

Pagcor Chairwoman and Chief Executive Officer Andrea D. Domingo said the moratorium would also prevent the country from being the “catch basin” of fleeing operators after the ban on online gaming in Cambodia.

The Finance department has ordered the Bureau of Internal Revenue to close down online gaming operators that have failed to pay taxes.

The tax agency has closed down three POGO service providers and collected P1.2 billion in withholding taxes since the start of the crackdown in September. The service providers later reopened after paying taxes.

The House ways and means committee earlier approved a bill that seeks to impose a 5% tax on offshore gaming companies. The tax will replace the 2% gross revenue tax on Pagcor licensees.

The bill also increases to 25% the tax on foreign POGO employees’ salaries and allowances from 15%.

On Nov. 29, President Rodrigo R. Duterte gave POGOs three days to fix their tax liabilities.

There are 60 accredited online gaming operators in the country with more than 87,000 employees, according to Pagcor. — Genshen L. Espedido

Gov’t expects to beat anti-poverty target for 2022

THE government of President Rodrigo R. Duterte expects to beat its anti-poverty goal of 14% by 2022 as reforms such as universal health care help more poor people, the Finance department said.

“That’s certainly possible,” Finance Secretary Carlos G. Dominguez III told reporters when asked if the poverty incident could be even better than the target.

The poverty incidence dropped to 16.6% in 2018 from the revised 23.3% in 2015, according to the Philippine Statistics Authority.

“We are cutting down the poverty rate by 2.2 percentage points a year, which means that we have enough ammunition to get that poverty rate down further in the future,” Finance Undersecretary Gil S. Beltran told reporters on Friday.

He said several laws have been passed that would further bring down the poverty level.

“Reforms have been put in place by President Duterte to improve the lives of all Filipinos,” Mr. Beltran said, citing tax reform, infrastructure spending, rice tariffication, free college education and cash assistance to poor households.

“These economic reforms have clearly resulted in more money in the pockets of the Filipino people, while reducing inflation and creating more jobs,” he said in a Viber group message.

The government said Filipinos within the poverty threshold stood at 17.6 million in 2018 from 23.5 million in 2015. Poverty incidence among Filipino families also declined to 12.1% in 2018 from 2015’s 17.9%.

Mr. Beltran, who is also the department’s chief economist, said more laws would help the poverty rate to go down further, including the national ID system, which will give the poor more access to financial services.

The Rice Tariffication law has also brought down the poverty rate because of lower rice prices, Mr. Beltran said.

The government will also offer cash assistance, low-interest loans and insurance products to rice farmers affected by plummeting farmgate prices.

The per capita poverty threshold last year was P2,145.36 a month compared with P1,890.44 in 2015. The monthly poverty threshold for a family of five was P10,726.79 in 2018 compared with P9,452.18 in 2015. — Beatrice M. Laforga

Measures seeking to improve education quality filed at House

LAWMAKERS have proposed separate measures to improve the quality of education in the country.

Biñan Rep. Marlyn B. Alonte filed a bill that seeks to lessen the non-teaching workload of teachers.

Her House Bill 5562 provides that qualified administrative personnel will take on non-classroom teaching functions so that teachers can focus on teaching and professional advancement.

Meanwhile, Party-list Rep. Jocelyn P. Tulfo called for an “alternative learning solution” to address the reading challenges of students.

“Reading comprehension is a particularly difficult challenge because of the intense poverty most public school elementary and high school students face everyday,” she said. “Most elementary school graduates are non-readers,” she added.

The congresswoman said students who can barely read should be placed under a special alternative learning system (ALS) “intervention curriculum.”

The Department of Education must hire more teachers with special training on students with reading challenges, Ms. Tulfo said.

The Philippines was at the bottom of 79 countries in terms of reading, Science and Mathematics, according to the 2018 results of the Programme for International Student Assessment. — Genshen L. Espedido

High court approves amendments to rules

THE Supreme Court has approved changes to both the 1997 Revised Rules of Civil Procedure and Revised Rules on Evidence.

The high court approved the amendments in separate resolutions and incorporated “technological advances and developments in law, jurisprudence and international conventions.”

Both changes will take effect on May 1.

The court took into account the reform plans of Chief Justice Lucas P. Bersamin in approving changes to the Civil Procedure rules, it said.

The new rules will pave the way for a just, speedy and inexpensive disposition of cases that will decongest the courts, the court said.

Under the new rules, the clerk of court must summon the defendants in a case within five days unless the complaint is “on its face dismissible.”

In case the sheriff, his deputy, or proper court officer fails to serve the summons, a plaintiff may now serve the summons together with the sheriff.

Under the amended rules, a summons remains valid until duly served unless recalled by the court.

Meanwhile, amendments to the Rules on Evidence were started in 2008 and completed in 2010, but were put on hold] due to technological advances. The changes were approved only in a resolution dated Oct. 8.

The new rules now allow recordings, still pictures, drawings, stored images, X-ray films, motion picture and videos as part of documentary evidence.

The Constitution empowers the Supreme Court to promulgate rules on pleadings, practice and procedure in all courts and admission to the practice of law, among other things. — Vann Marlo M. Villegas

We reach a critical point in rice tariffication

We are ending the last quarter of the year, which is our main harvest season and when palay prices are seasonally at their lowest. Farm prices had fallen at an unprecedented rate since the 1970s during this quarter. Surely, the combined effects of the harvest season and rice import liberalization have caused the decline of palay prices and farm incomes. Have they bottomed out, or are they still falling even now in the major rice producing areas?

If I follow their movement within a given year, rice and palay prices should start climbing up again until they reach their seasonal high in the third quarter of the following year. But I realize the rice import liberalization would leave an important impact on this pattern. Their levels are lower compared to previous years for both rice and palay prices, reflecting the import liberalization and the clipping of the regulatory powers of the NFA.

But it is also possible that the traditional seasonal pattern of rice and palay prices may change for good. The seasonality of palay prices may no longer be as pronounced as when we have the rice QR in the form of the NFA’s monopoly in rice imports. The rises of prices within the year are smoothened by the rice imports that come in. The plunges during the harvest season like what we just had may no longer be as deep because perhaps domestic rice production had been substantially replaced with rice imports.

In the past, we stabilized the penetration of rice imports at about 10 % of local consumption. Secretaries of Agriculture of the past had tried to even suppress the figure with their respective versions of rice self-sufficiency programs. But in the end since doing so would just raise rice prices, hurting our rice consumers, we ended up living with this extent of import penetration.

With the RTL, any of us are free to go into the rice import business. And when rice prices start to go up because of the seasons, some of us may decide to import and derive some income, tapering off the seasonal climb of prices. And if they do so, then increasingly our local rice prices would be tied more closely with the world’s, except for the 35% tariff rate or occasional special safeguard duty that the Secretary of Agriculture may impose following our Safeguards law.

The import penetration of rice in our domestic market would start to rise to levels that remain to be seen. My own reading is that it could go up to 20%, and stabilize there. Or it may stay at 10% depending on how successful we are in our programs designed to increase the productivity of our rice farmers, the increase in rice consumption induced by cheaper rice, or both.

These developments would impact stakeholders differently. Because rice prices would be more stable and lower, rice consumers where ever they are would benefit. And yes, many of our rice farmers, perhaps the bottom 60% of them, who hardly have marketable rice surpluses, and would purchase rice most time in a given year, would benefit too from this regime.

Lower and stable rice prices are among the major benefits of the rice tariffication law. With this reform, the government had weakened the cord between rice prices and inflation. Food costs would tend to be low, which in turn would boost government’s effort to fight poverty in our country.

The rice farmers, whose businesses are primarily tied to the level of palay prices, would be worse off. Those of them who are more productive may survive the ensuing stronger competition with imports. But the rest, or those who had survived in the past because farm prices were raised by the rice import QR precisely to make them stay in rice farming, would tend to be displaced. It should be pointed out that they benefit from lower rice prices as consumers, but they have to find other sources of incomes to replace the income from rice farming, which in the first place was something they could not depend strongly on because their farms are small and their yields low.

The rice millers and rice traders/creditors are similarly situated as the rice farmers. In the past under the rice QR, all these stakeholders are assured of a decent return to their business because of higher rice prices. As a matter of fact, most of the price premium that rice consumers pay because of the import QR, are captured by them. One study by Jandoc and Roumasset in 2017 estimated that only about a fourth of that premium goes to rice farmers. The rest are allocated to millers, traders/creditors, and simply logistics waste.

Like rice farmers, there are millers and traders who may just have survived in the past because of the price premium due to import controls. But with that reduced by import liberalization, and seasonal rise of rice prices that they stock up rice for, dampened, some of them may have to leave the rice milling and trading businesses.

This appears to be the cruel part of the reform: some of us would have to reinvent their businesses, or if they can’t for a long period of time, the poor farmers plunge deeper into poverty. The richer traders and millers may be more likely to succeed and start a new business, or be content with lower earnings from their respective trading and milling businesses.

But this is one lesson we need to hang on: Going back to the past is not the solution. The past is a slow plunge into poverty for our rice farmers, and for most of our poor particularly in urban areas, who are spending at least a fifth of their family spending on rice. The past has larger cost for most of us to pay.

We are this crossroad! We could sustain the benefit of RTL in the form of stable and lower food cost, and get all rice-related businesses more productive, and higher incomes for producers. Or we could have the first benefit, and see more poverty in the countryside.

Is there something we can do to make this reform inclusive?

We are off to a good start with the RTL. Our lawmakers set aside the revenues from rice tariffication for programs to make this reform inclusive. That’s by the way is the easier part of the work.

But this is the challenge. Another lesson we may learn from the past is that increased budget is important but by themselves do not deliver the higher productivity in rice farming, milling and trading. Increasing them even more would still fail to do so.

We had ACEF before and AFMA, which are funds designed to make our farmers in general, and rice farmers in particular more productive. But since we started giving out these higher budgets to the DA, since we became a member of the WTO in 1995, we still are hearing the same concern that farmers are not ready for more import competition. So monies are not the critical inputs to making our agriculture more productive.

The RTL has its own version of a funding program to make our rice farmers more productive and competitive, and earning higher incomes. This is RCEP, which is at least ten billion pesos a year, sourced from the tariff revenues on imported rice. Consumers pay for that, but are still better off because of the lower rice prices that RTL entails.

Our lawmakers allocated the fund to farm mechanization, better technology in the form of seeds, improved extension services, and credit access. If the fund exceeds 10 billion, the additional money, the government can use that for farm diversification and conditional cash transfers.

Is there something that we need to do now, so we do not replicate the failed programs in the past? I don’t know, and I want to learn as we move forward.

Yesterday, I was with a small group of friends and two farmers from BARM and Isabela to discuss about the options of our country to make a good difference this time for the sake of our farmers, particularly those who are likely to be displaced because of the reform.

We all agreed that the RTL is wanting of good ideas how to translate RCEP into higher productivity and higher incomes of our farmers and those in the rice-related businesses. The onus is on DA Secretary Dar. He came to the DA at this precise moment that he could potentially make the difference that was not there in the past.

Our discussion among friends and two farmers pointed out the need of a good summing up of the strategies we had pursued in past designed in the name of farmers. We need to validate what went wrong and how we can move on.

The two farmers who were with us yesterday belonged to groups of farmers whose members are ready to collectively take up the challenge of stiffer competition. They appear optimistic, but knowledgeable that there are a lot of challenges that we have to hurdle. There may be more pockets in the farming community, like the groups that our two farmers represent. We need to identify more of them, so we can support them. I should say they may be the future of our rice farming in our country; organized, more productive, with access to markets and inputs, etc. and more importantly applying the technology including mechanization correctly to a wider area of rice farms.

Our group also recognized that Secretary Dar is going into an organization at both the national and local levels where governance and integrity maybe weak. The strong pressure to spend the money is tempting enough to take the road more travelled in the past by other Secretaries: just spend the money for what the law has directed them to do, and worry about results later.

There are many things we need to know about this process. But one thing is clear. The benefits of this reform can be much, much higher if we can make a good difference in translating RCEP into real gains of those this reform appears to have excluded.

 

Ramon L. Clarete is a professor at the University of the Philippines School of Economics.

The worst in math, science and reading

“PHL lags in global education survey,” read BusinessWorld’s front page banner story on Dec. 5. A one-fourth page graph showed the latest results of the education survey by Program for International Student Assessment (PISA), conducted by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).

The country was shamefully at rock-bottom, as the OECD-PISA graph showed the Philippines as 79th of 79 countries in the overall results for the status of secondary education. The PISA study, started in 2000, bases its findings on the triennial survey administered through a two-hour computer-based test given to 600,000 15-year-old students of participating countries. The test is in countries’ medium of instruction which, for the Philippines, is English.

The Philippines is the last among the 79 participating countries in reading, with an average of 340 points — pathetically lower than the global average of 487. Four of out of five Filipino students are at Level 2, or “low performers,” which for the OECD means that these students possess a proficiency that is “too low to enable them to participate effectively and productively in everyday life.” The Philippines had “one of the largest shares of low performers among all PISA-participating countries” in reading, the OECD said in its report.

The country’s average score in math was 353 versus the global average of 489, and was the second lowest score in the subject. In science, the Philippines had an average score of 357, much lower than the global average of 489 and the second lowest among the 79 countries in the survey. Chinese students topped the overall assessment with a score of 555 in reading, 591 in math, and 590 in science.

Department of Education Secretary Leonor M. Briones was quick to react. It is actually to her credit that the country bravely joined PISA just in 2018, ready for the objective evaluation by a respected outside authority on where we are at in the formation and preparation of our youth for participative and inclusive economic development. Briones said that “By participating in PISA, we will be able to establish our baseline in relation to global standards, and benchmark the effectiveness of our reforms moving forward… The PISA results, along with our own assessments and studies, will aid in policy formulation, planning and programming.”

An e-mail from pas.cd@deped.gov.ph emphasized that “The shift of focus from access to quality is part of the Department’s Quality Basic Education reform plan and a step towards globalizing the quality of Philippine basic education.” The “Sulong Edukalidad” campaign focuses on four main areas: updating the K-12 program and curriculum initiated in the term of President Benigno S.C. Aquino by Briones’ predecessor, then DepEd Secretary Bro. Armin Luistro; improving the physical facilities of schools, including laboratories and computers; training the DepEd’s 900,000+ teachers and school heads; and getting the involvement of local governments, parents and alumni associations, NGOs, the private sector and other partners.

“Education already takes the lion’s share of the government’s budget each year, as provided for by the 1987 Constitution,” economist JC Punongbayan noted in Rappler on Dec. 4. Yet he cautioned, “But for the proposed 2020 budget, the Duterte government is pushing for disturbing budget cuts in both basic and higher education.” In the 2018 PISA report, government spending per student was lowest in the Philippines among all participating countries. The Philippines, it said, spent 90% less than what was the average OECD expenditure for education.

But it could probably be that it is not money that holds back the proper handling and feeding of our education programs. There is free primary, secondary, and even selected college-level education provided by law. Yes, the money is there, but can be better managed. Is money still the underhanded mover for action and results in education? How long have we taken for granted that corruption can exist in education — the most pervading and most extended of all government activities, duties, and responsibilities — and the least subjected to monitoring and controlling? At the higher levels and in descending order, those who make “kupit” (petty stealing up to technical malversation and onto high crime) can get away in impunity and permissiveness in ascending order to the ubiquitous “rank-has-its-privileges” of the powers that be. A close friend who was Undersecretary of Education during the Martial Law era said that millions of pesos could have come to him from kickbacks for chalk, paper and pencils, and textbooks distributed nationwide, and up to millions more for big contracts and projects. But that was Martial Law. Maybe that does not happen any more.

But has our culture and attitude towards education, teachers, and learning changed since Martial Law? There is still the “caste system” where the rich kids go to private schools and the poor go to public school. A result of this is that public school teachers are perceived to be of less quality and training than the private school teachers. Ergo, there is less motivation for a B.S. Education graduate to become a public school teacher. Therefore, the 15-year-olds who took the PISA test had varying economic backgrounds and varying luck as to the quality of their teachers, depending on their access to the better schools.

Overseas Foreign Workers (OFWs) have veered their focus now, not necessarily targeting the lower-level jobs like domestic helpers and construction workers — now the targets are higher, with potential OFWs aiming at technical jobs with higher pay. The higher pay of OFWs has increased the opportunities of their children for better education, and better futures in adulthood. It is noticeable that the so-called “exclusive” and formerly elitist private schools now have many students who are children of OFWs. We just have to patiently wait and hope that good quality education will soon be more democratically and inclusively available to the expectedly broadening middle class, in the availability of resources greasing the wheels of supply-and-demand.

Technology seems to have claimed control of the wheel of supply and demand, and our educational system must prepare our youth for their future. The PISA survey that showed our young people to be the worst in reading, science, and math tells us how we have lagged dismally behind in the whirl of technology that has jetted the world to unstoppable progress. Why can’t our students read? How can they learn, when everything the world knows and will yet know is now technology-based? Why do they not know math and science, when math and science now threaten to replace human skills? “Saan tayo dadamputin” (where will we find ourselves) is the despairing question.

Secretary Briones has declared that there will be closer coordination and cooperation with the Commission on Higher Education (ChEd) in the upgrading of the education curricula and its gearing towards modern trends in the teaching profession. Higher education and continuing education will be strictly ordered as a professional requirement for teachers and professors. Evaluation and monitoring of performance will be regularly done and reported, to ensure compliance with syllabi (course content and coverage) and administrative responsibilities, including attendance.

And not only the DepEd or the ChEd, but all of us in our milieu, have the responsibility to deliver a better future for our children.

 

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

ahcylagan@yahoo.com

Credible military capabilities

On the Saturday nearest May 30, Spain celebrates its Armed Forces Day with much pageantry. This year, it was celebrated in the southern city of Seville with no less than King Philip IV and Queen Letizia headlining the ceremonials.

Last week, my wife and I were among those invited to celebrate the Spanish Armed Forces day in Manila. It was held belatedly to take advantage of the cool November weather.

The ceremony started with a holy mass, followed by the laying of floral wreaths at the tomb of Miguel López de Legazpi by Ambassador Jorge Moragas and Colonel Ricardo Pardo. It will be recalled that the Spanish navigator arrived in our shores in 1565 to lead the Spanish settlement in a cluster of islands, later to become the Philippines. The act was meant to pay tribute to both Spanish and Filipino soldiers whose blood were shed in the creation of this country.

We moved to Father Blanco’s gardens behind the San Agustin church for the formal reception. The gardens were magnificent that evening. There, Ambassador Moragas and Colonel Pardo welcomed guests from the Philippine armed forces including Lt. Gen. Erickson Gloria, Deputy Chief of Staff of the Armed Forces of the Philippines. Also present were my fellow members from the Spanish Chamber of Commerce, prominent figures of the Spanish community and the Philippine military.

With rising tension in the West Philippine Sea, it is comforting to know that there are friendly governments in whom we can count on for support. Even without a mutual defence treaty between our countries, Spain has been consistent in helping the Philippine armed forces in its many initiatives.

Ambassador Moragas disclosed that the Philippines is a top priority for Spain’s Defence Diplomacy in the Asia-Pacific region. The Spanish government has been working with the Philippine Armed Forces not only for military education but also in joint initiatives against terrorism and global security.

This year, Spain has hosted visits by the Commanding Generals of the Philippine Army in May, the Navy in October and Air Force in November. These visits served as platforms for talks on cooperation, collaboration and mutual learnings.

As I write this, an important delegation from the Department of National Defence is in Spain to arrange the Joint Defence Activities for the future and to sign a new Memorandum of Understanding on logistics, defense and armaments cooperation. Spain’s commitment to the Philippines has been unwavering.

On the side lines, I spoke with Capt. Constancio Reyes of the Philippine Navy and Major General Antonio Parladé of the Civil Military Operations, both of whom appraised me on the modernization program of the Philippine armed forces. I was happy to hear that on the Navals side, the Philippines is soon taking delivery of two missile capable frigates from South Korea; A Spike-ER (extended range) surface-to-surface missile system (which is now installed on three of the newly-acquired multi-purpose attack crafts); Two Agusta Westland AW-159 Wildcat anti-submarine helicopters; Eight Hanwha Techwin amphibious assault vehicles; two corvette warships; 16 Mi-17 medium-lift helicopters; and two French-made diesel-electric Scorpéne submarines, among others.

On the air force side, apart from the two Gulfstream G280 jets which will serve as the airborne command post for the President, the air force is expecting delivery of sixteen Black Hawk Helicopters; a Lockheed C-130 Hercules transport aircraft; Two Bell AF-1 Cobra Attack Helicopters; six additional NC212i aircrafts; six brand-new Embraer A-29 Super Tucanos; and four new aerial systems to support intelligence surveillance and reconnaissance, among others.

On the Army side, delivery is expected for more ground delivery equipment; 155mm Howitzers; Short and Medium range missiles; Multiple launch rocket systems; and armored recovery systems.

All these, along with 125,000 men and women in active service, will enable the Philippines to put up a credible defense (and offense) if and when armed conflict arises.

As an industrial nation, Spain’s military capabilities are formidable. It has its own defense manufacturing industry whose output stood at US$10.2 billion in 2018. Spanish companies like Aernnova Aerospace, Navantia, Tecnobit and Sociadad Anonima de Electrica Submarina have been producing naval and aircraft hardware for the Spanish armed forces and those of its allies. Spain is ranked seventh in the world in defense exports.

The Spanish army consists of 15 active brigades and 6 military regions, all of whom are armed with the latest weapons made in Spain and outside. Its Navy has four areas of commands that cover the Cantabrian zone, the Mediterranean zone, the Canary Islands zone and the Straits (southern) maritime zone. Basically, the four sides of the Spanish peninsula. Its ever increasing fleet consist of three amphibious assault ships which is also used as aircraft carriers, two amphibious transport docks, 12 frigates, 3 submarines, 6 mine countermeasure vessels, 23 patrol vessels and a number of auxiliary ships.

As for its air force, Spain currently has 10 fighter squadrons, each with 18-24 airplanes. Its also has 15 operational air bases around the country. It operates a wide-ranging fleet of aircraft, from fighters jets to transport aircraft and passenger planes to helicopters. It maintains some 522 aircraft in total, of which around 130 are fighter aircraft including the Eurofighter Typhoon and the Airbus A400M Atlas airlifter.

Spain is ranked the 20th most powerful military in the world according to globalfirepower.com with its fleet of fighter aircrafts, naval assets, combat tanks and 121,000 of the best trained military personnel in service.

Apart from protecting the people of Spain and the interest of the Spanish kingdom, its armed forces is committed to maintaining peace in global hotspots, empowering weaker militaries, fighting terrorism and preventing human trafficking.

While it assists the Philippines in many ways as a strong ally, its presence can also be felt in the Baltic region as it helps protect the airspace of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. It has come to the aid of Turkey as it defended its borders against ballistic missiles from Syria. It continues to assist the Somali government by way of training its military personal. This among many other peacekeeping initiatives.

We salute the Spanish armed forces on its day of commemoration and look forward to more areas of cooperation between the Spanish and Philippine militaries.

 

Andrew J. Masigan is an economist.

Business and Human Rights

This week sees Human Rights Day, celebrated globally every 10th December to mark the UN General Assembly’s adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights 61 years ago. The contribution of former Filipino general-turned-diplomat, Carlos P. Romulo, in drafting and negotiating that historic document remains well known at a time when human rights face severe challenges in the Philippines and around the world.

Over the last seven decades, the fate of human rights is no longer defined entirely by governments and international institutions — but increasingly by civil society and private sector actors, who share a responsibility to protect and respect human rights through the range of institutions and instruments, standards and norms, which have been built since Romulo made history in New York.

Two weeks ago, over 2,000 delegates gathered in Geneva for the UN Forum on Business and Human Rights, to discuss once again how the pursuit of profit should not harm the planet or its people. Previous years have seen more corporations participate, making stronger commitments to tackle corporate greed and ensure that business operations improve, rather than harm, the lives of ordinary citizens. Yet, still, every year we hear more gruesome tales of “business gone wrong” and the innocent civilians harmed as they got in its way.

Recently we have seen the killing of Ronaldo Corpuz, an official of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR), and weeks ago, the ambush and murder of Brazilian forest guardian Paulo Paulino Guajajara in Araribóia. In 2018 alone, we saw at least 164 land and environmental defenders killed globally — and many others injured, intimidated, and criminalized, in the name of business at all costs.

A recent investigation from international NGO Global Witness dug deeper into the deaths of four such people in the Philippines, and used a country-wide analysis to demonstrate the impact of irresponsible business on their and their communities’ lives. The report makes for grim reading.

Indigenous leader Renato Anglao, murdered after protesting violent agribusiness land grabs in Bukidnon. Village head Ruben Arzaga killed apprehending illegal loggers profiting off the tourist boom in Palawan. Farmers’ association leader Jimmy Saypan, murdered by hitmen after protesting irregularities around a gold and silver mine. Anti-coal campaigner Gloria Capitan, shot in front of her grandchildren for standing up to a coal-power plant.

Together, these incidents stain the reputation of the companies and investors, raising disturbing issues for consumers and citizens. The report should be studied by companies operating — or considering operating — in the Philippines, and by the international banks and multilateral development agencies who finance their operations and projects.

Since Global Witness began publishing data in 2012, the Philippines has consistently recorded the highest number of killings in Asia of people who oppose illegal logging, destructive mining, or corrupt agribusiness. Few of the perpetrators are ever prosecuted.

By 2018 this trend of spiralling violence reached a disturbing new landmark: the Philippines became the country with the highest total number of such killings in the world, with many others attacked or imprisoned. Many of the victims simply wanted a say on how their land and the country’s natural resources are used.

Of course, it is first and foremost up to the Philippines government to support community leaders and NGOs at risk, and to tackle the root causes of attacks on these activists. In his first State of the Nation Address, President Rodrigo Duterte himself promised to safeguard the country’s rural and indigenous communities, tackle corruption, and protect the environment, using his strength to stand up to big business and powerful vested interests. Yet in practice, Duterte has so far failed to keep his promises as the killings of those protecting their land and our planet in the Philippines have reached record levels.

It is precisely in this context that business must take a stand, especially where governments are unable to protect human rights. The UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights establish the corporate responsibility to respect human rights alongside the state duty to protect human rights; both are necessary but neither is sufficient on its own, nowhere more urgently than in the Philippines.

Filipino business leaders can join with the multinational corporations operating in the agriculture, extractives, and other sectors connected to these attacks to demand both accountability for the perpetrators and action to address their root causes.

If they take action, they will join a growing number of business leaders around the world who are recognizing their responsibilities, from speaking out against the persecution of the Rohingya minority in Myanmar and suppression of freedom of association in Cambodia’s garment industry to taking a stand against racism in the United States and Europe.

There is a growing international recognition that there is a “shared space” of the rule of law, accountable governance and civic freedoms that links civil society and business. Launched in September 2018, the Shared Space Under Pressure: Business Support for Civic Freedoms and Human Rights Defenders report and executive summary responds to the growing pressure on civic freedoms and civil society around the world — and the increasing attacks on human rights defenders.

It offers an analytical and operational framework to guide companies as they determine whether — and if so, how — to act in support of this agenda. It also supports initiatives such as the Business Network for Civic Freedoms and Human Rights Defenders, both a learning forum and action platform for companies around the world.

The Philippines is hardly alone in being home to these kinds of attacks. But this can be a season of hope that Filipino business leaders — and leaders of the multinationals who operate here and those who finance and invest in them — can come together with civil society and take a stand.

 

Bennett Freeman is Chair of the Global Witness Advisory Board and a former US Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Democracy, Human Rights and Labor. He is the principal author of the Shared Space Under Pressure Report on behalf of the Business and Human Rights Resource Center and International Service for Human Rights.

Sports and politics at the SEA Games

By Ariel Nepomuceno

THAT SPORTS is a unifying force and a great purveyor of any country’s heritage and cultural identity is not a matter to be debated. It is a reality. Sports is and has always been an enabler and should be harnessed for binding us closer as a nation rather than breaking us apart.

Hosting an international sports competition like the 2019 SEA Games is a litmus test of how our young and striving republic can demonstrate to the international community that we have the ability to provide a safe, secure, and reliable venue for celebrating sports and humanity.

Before the opening of the competition and as the clock ticked, everyone was holding their breath over to how the current political leadership of President Duterte could bring back the sparkle, the bravura, and a renewed sense of nationalism with the staging of the SEA Games

The excitement and anticipation was doused incredibly when lawmakers, in the normal course of reviewing the proposed budget of the different government agencies, chanced upon the budget for the SEA Games. Then and there, it was revealed that something was not right. The initial findings showed that the whopping original budget of P6 billion given to the Philippine Southeast Asian Games Organizing Committee (Phisgoc) which was augmented by an additional P1.5 billion, was still “housed” under the Department of Foreign Affairs, an agency that does not have the legal mandate to oversee such an activity. The senate investigations were so intense that even the P50 million paid for the Manosa cauldron that Senator Pacquiao lit during the games’ opening ceremony, was shown as shockingly excessive.

Along with the side issues and the dark shadow of possible corruption at the SEA Games, more criticism flooded when allegedly some athletes arrived in Manila with some horror stories to tell. Local and international media reports recounted complaints about the long lines in the airport, lack of transport facilities, hotel accommodations, insufficient food, and a lack of appreciation of the dietary requirements of the athletes. One particular embassy, according to the news, had to launch an initiative to feed its own representatives. Even some of the venues of the sports events were described as ill maintained and not fit for the particular sport to be conducted therein. The result is a big red mark on the Philippines’ reputation if one is only to read the press releases and articles that came out left and right, here and abroad. But to be fair to the organizers of this grand event, such allegations of mismanagement and errors are yet to be concretely proven. In fact, it is claimed that perhaps there was a deliberate attempt to sabotage the image of Phisgoc in particular and the entire administration of President Duterte in general for some political ends. Whether these assertions are real or not, or partially correct but extensively exaggerated, the international community probably has already accorded the whole country some doubt and suspicion. We are the collateral damage.

Despite the perceived mess in the way the games were organized, the Philippines conquered and went beyond the “hiccups.” The citizenry focused instead on how the SEA Games can be an opportunity and not a failure. The fact that the Filipino adores sports reigned over the negativity spawned by the early days’ controversies.

And give credit where credit is due. The opening ceremony revealed the indomitable creative and artistic Filipino spirit. Themed around our tribal roots and pre-colonial Philippines, the dances and warrior exercises exhibited the vibrancy, vitality, and vim of our athletes and our people. Demonstrated was the organizers’ objective to promote inclusivity by harnessing the cultural highlights of Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao. Why, even the inherent musicality of the Filipino was emphasized with Filipino singers dishing out OPM songs from the 1960s down to the ’90s. The famed ’70s song by the band Hotdog, “Manila,” transformed the arena into a dancing party for young and old, Filipino and Non-Filipino, all enjoying the good vibes that only sports can bring. Our very own President gleefully clapped his hands and danced to the music, and the rest is history. The controversial cauldron, turned into a glimmering pot of gold for one night for the Filipino.

The country adores sports and the Filipinos love their athletes passionately, VICTORS OR NOT. This love is continuously being reciprocated by our athletes with fantastic results so far. As of Dec. 2, the Philippines won a total of 71 medals: 38 gold, 20 silver, and 13 bronze. Not yet done and more laurels to reap.

So much has been said and done about the ongoing SEA Games. While we revel in our successes, we must harvest lessons from our failures. Our president has assured the public that accountability shall be demanded from the agencies responsible for alleged cases of mismanagement and corruption.

Let the medals flood in but the responsibility for mistakes be accounted for.

BDO Remit advocates financial education

Apart from annually doing the Pamaskong Handog to honor overseas Filipinos and their families, BDO Remit has another advocacy that espouses financial education zeroing on the value of saving and investing.

Genie T. Gloria, senior vice president and head of remittance of BDO Unibank, said financial education is an invaluable gift to give the OF market and their beneficiaries because there will come a point where these workers abroad will return to their home country and choose to become entrepreneurs.

“Raising their financial knowledge should start at the onset, meaning, we teach them what they can do with their hard-earned money by allocating a portion to savings and looking for investments which can serve their long-term goals,” said Gloria.

BDO Remit visits universities to teach young adults, whose parents may be an OF, to take care of the money remitted to them. They also do financial education activities in various barangays to orient people particularly the unbanked the importance of being a part of the formal banking system.

“Apart from these efforts, we also continue to participate in the pre-departure orientation seminars done by the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration, by helping the departing OFs to have a better financial behavior,” noted Gloria.

Since starting the financial education advocacy in 2014, she said BDO Remit has noticed a significant improvement in the saving approach of the OFs as indicated by the growth in their monthly savings.

“They are saving more now and they know their priorities and goals. For us, this improvement is a testament that this advocacy of ours is working well for them, added Gloria.

BDO Remit currently has 2 million BDO Kabayan Savings account holders, a product it introduced in 2006 to encourage OFs and their beneficiaries to save and eventually allow them to qualify for other banking products such as loans, as their lives flourish.

Celebrating the OFs and families

Pamaskong Handog is BDO Remit’s way of giving back and recognizing OFs for their trust and loyalty as BDO Kabayan Savings account holders.

“With many overseas Filipinos coming home during the holiday, we take the season as an opportunity to honor and pay tribute to their hard work and sacrifice to care for their families even if it means being away from them and taking on unique jobs in other countries,” said Gloria.

Now on its 8th year, the Pamaskong Handog will be held separately in Cebu, Davao and Pampanga this month, with SM hosting the venues.

“We are also grateful for our other partners Kultura, Miniso, Jollibee and Goldilocks, as well as WorldRemit, MoneyGram, Western Union and Small World for being one with us in supporting our overseas Filipinos and their families through Pamaskong Handog,” she added.

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