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The Sunday Times


SUNDAY


D e cember 5, 2010


Edit orials Airport security


P


ROFILING at Israel’s Ben Gurion International Airport starts the moment you walk in the door. How you answer simple questions—your words and your


behavior—determines whether you get treated as a regular air traveler who should be left alone or deserve to be given special treatment. At the check-in counter, friendly young faces, who are expert in behavior analysis, ask you: “Why are you here?” “Who did you meet?” “Where did you stay?” Your answers and your composure decide what sticker number is placed on the back of your passport. Sticker numbers 1 to 3 mean you can keep your shoes on. Numbers 4 and 5 mean you will be subjected to more grilling. Number 6 means you could be detained. Families traveling together comparatively get less screening. The grilling of suspected terrorists happens in interroga- tion rooms. Those who are not profiled happily go their way without incident. Those who are allowed to board the plane but still are a question mark, could have an air marshal for a seatmate. With this system of profiling—which some say even starts at the time you buy your ticket—no unpleasantness is ever experi- enced by the majority of passengers who have not been profiled. Of course, most of those who are subjected to more rigorous and finally, maybe, unpleasant screening are Muslims and people with Arab names or those who answered “Yes” when asked if they had met or dealt with an Arab.


There is racism and religious prejudice. But one has to admit that the terrorists who have been


»what the other papers say Wishful thinking


blowing up planes are mostly Arabs from the Middle East, although there are more and more American citizens, but mostly also ethnic Arabs, who have proved to be as dangerous as the terrorists from Arab countries and Muslim areas of Africa. Because of this security method, Israel’s international airport has not had a terrorist incident. But it cannot be applied in airports, like those of the United States and Western Europe, that are much bigger and more crowded with arrivals and departures than Israel’s. The Israeli security personnel are obviously of a very high mental caliber and have been trained to become experts in behavior and speech analysis. The United States and Western Europe would have to be equipped with tens of thousands of these experts to replicate the safety record of Ben Gurion airport. And they would also have to sanitize their airports into virtual mini police states. So, for most of us, it would have to be the annoyance and humiliation provided by ignorant, insensitive, ill-trained security men—and even the risk of being treated violently by them.


In the remote Sierra Madres, a great story of transitioning T


HE regions and provinces on the eastern side of the coun-


try all have this big dream of catch- ing up with those on the western side, mainly to bridge the huge East-West economic divide. In terms of output and productivity, the western regions and provinces outpace those on the east and the gap, quantified in pesos, is easily billions of pesos yearly. We need to get the exact num- bers out but it is accurate to claim that the gap is huge, immense, humungous etc. Fully aware of this, and ag-


grieved over the unjustness of the divide, the political leaders of the areas on the east—the provinces facing the Pacific—would easily give up a finger or two just to get the national government fund development projects for their lagging areas. For a development project that is life-changing, they will give up everything.


The truth is the political lead- ers on the areas facing the Pacific all live for the day that manna will come, at the scale, compre- hensiveness and funding that they have been dreaming of. This is the context that gave rise


to the law creating the Apeco. The father-and-son team of Senator Edgardo J. Angara and Rep. Juan Edgardo Angara both decided to seize the moment and file a bill creating the economic zone. They knew that the legislative hurdles were great and, Casiguran town, the proposed site the Freeport, was synonymous with remote- ness, isolation and obscurity. We all know what Casiguran is


[Excerpted from the December 2, 2010, editorial of the Korea Herald.]


THE US diplomatic cables leaked by the online whistleblower WikiLeaks have caused a serious headache to diplomats in many countries. Seoul officials are no excep- tion. They are at their wit’s end to respond to the embarrass- ing situation they have never faced. Some of the confidential cables have raised suspicion that


the government’s policy toward China and North Korea has been based on a flawed understanding of the relationship between the two allies. According to one cable dated February 22, 2010, Chun


Young-woo, then vice foreign minister and currently na- tional security adviser to President Lee Myung-bak, told US Ambassador Kathleen Stephens that younger generation Chinese leaders no longer regarded North Korea as a useful or reliable ally. Chun was quoted as dismissing “the prospect of a possible


China’s intervention in the event of a North Korean collapse” on the grounds that “North Korea now had little value to China as a buffer state” and that “China’s strategic economic interests now lie with the United States, Japan and South Korea.” He further argued that “China would be comfortable with a reunified Korea controlled by Seoul and anchored to the United States in a ‘benign alliance’ as long as Korea was not hostile to China.” Chun’s view of China’s stance toward North Korea turned out to be nothing more than wishful thinking a month later when the North sank the Cheonan warship. To Seoul’s dismay, China was willing to go to great lengths to defend its isolated ally. As a result, the UN Security Council could not adopt a strongly-worded resolution against the North. China has been doing the same following the North’s shelling of Yeonpyeong Island.


The leaked US documents have exposed the low level of understanding that Seoul’s top diplomats have about China’s policy toward North Korea. Policymakers need to learn more about China and establish policy based on facts rather than wishful thinking. At the same time, they need to enhance their capability to gather intelligence on North Korea. This is not easy, of course. The cables showed that when it comes to information on the North, even China has often been startlingly wrong.


SUNDAY December 5, 2010 The Manila Times DANTE F. M. ANG 2ND, Executive Editor


FRED DE LA ROSA, Chairman Editorial Board RENE Q. BAS, Editor in Chief ROMY P. MARIÑAS, News Editor


ARNOLD S. TENORIO, Business Editor CONRAD M. CARIÑO, National Editor


TESSA MAURICIO-ARRIOLA, Lifestyle Editor ARIS L. SOLIS, Regions Editor


PERRY GIL MALLARI, Acting Sports Editor BRIAN M. AFUANG, Art Director RENE H. DILAN, Photo Editor


 DANTE F. M. ANG 2ND, President and CEO


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THE MANILA TIMES is published daily at 2/F Dante Ang and Associates Building, 409 A. Soriano Avenue, Intramuros, Manila 1002


VOLUME 112 NUMBER 055


B


MARLEN V. RONQUILLO


associated with—and it is threat- ening. It is the town by which the distance of incoming typhoons from the so-called Philippine Area of Responsibility or PAR, is meas- ured. So this is the public reaction to the mention of Casiguran: ei- ther dread or extreme dread. The audacity of the Angaras in filing the bill was admirable enough. The fact that they man- aged to convince both chambers of Congress to enact the bill into law should merit some medals of recognition for the two. Yet, in some grotesque acts of self-flagellation, priests from Aurora are now leading a loose and noisy coalition of supposedly crusaders for good from Aurora province and agitated outsiders to condemn the Apeco.. They have been forum shopping and they found an ally in a certain Felino Palafox, who turned out to be the one who prepared the original designs for the Apeco.—designs which were not even put to use. For that effort, Palafox got P32 million, said Senator Angara, who has publicly described Palafox as a “ boastful and dishonest person.” Question: Why would one in his right mind oppose the


APECO? Sure, there had been minor lapses in the implemen- tation. But even then, the venom and the intensity poured into the opposition to the APECO defy all the benchmarks of right thinking. And what is good and economically liberating for a struggling province. Transitioning provincial econo- mies from old to new is hard enough. You have to convince the government to intervene in a big and dramatic way. First, to provide the funds. Then, provide sustained support, budgetary or otherwise. If the proponents of transitioning are not determined enough, there is a really danger that support may wane along the way. The tougher task is the work of transitioning the economies of provinces as geographically handi- capped as Aurora. Because the scale, scope and magnitude of the intervention would be greater there than in the areas already within the economic mainstream. With Aurora, you have to scratch from the start, and this means enormous investments. This is the background that makes Apeco. a sweeter victory for the people of Aurora. You can even stretch “ sweeter” to “ sweetest.” Why? Because Casiguran is a log- ging town. Even in the OECD countries that are awash with de- velopment funds, moving the economies of logging and mining towns from old to new is an al- most impossible job. How many former mining and logging areas have really and suc- cessfully broken through the curse


to be bust towns forever? Not many, even in the OECD econo- mies. Now, Casiguran is about to break through the curse. I don’t think all the cries and insinuation of “ scams” from the frailes and the angry outsiders would alter its development trajectory. Ten to 15 years from now, Casiguran will be host to fully functioning and economically dynamic Freeport and economic zone. A seaport and an airport, an infrastructure fit for a mod- ern town, a culture looking glo- bally not inward, would be fea- tures of that dynamism. People would speak their minds about issues and community affairs, the inevitable result of eco- nomic empowerment.


Some things will be sacrificed, of course. A way of life, mangrove clumps, the vast rice farms, a part of nature’s bounty that had re- mained that way for centuries. The visitors will not be confined to a couple of leggy Russians, who had discovered the white-sand beaches of Casapsapan online. But the offsets would be greater.


When you integrate an area into the global trade, you move that economy into a mainstream of limitless potentials. The benefits would be beyond jobs and income. By that time, the venom ex- pended by the do-gooders out to derail a life-changing develop- ment project for Casiguran would just be footnotes in its amazing and extra-ordinary story of a town’s great leap forward.


mvrong@yahoo.com P100B savings from SICPA expertise


ANKING on its global track record, Sicpa Security Solu- tions S.A. has asserted to Con- gress its financial muscle and technical expertise to implement a state-of-the-art security project that will spell seven dramatic gains for the Philippines. The globally renowned Swiss


company said in a position paper that such major benefits range from additional excise tax revenues that may exceed a whopping P100 billion in just seven years to higher public health spending that will let Manila expand health insurance coverage and meet its commit- ments on the worldwide campaign against smoking.


Sicpa told the House Commit- tee on Ways and Means in a public hearing last week that its proposed cutting-edge technology solution to ensure a foolproof tracking of domestic cigar and cigarette pro- duction would not only boost ex- cise tax collections and plug multibillion-peso tax leakages. It will also allow the country, it said, to reap a social windfall in terms of more jobs for tobacco in- dustry workers, better health insur- ance coverage for ordinary Filipinos, and more livelihood and agro-in- dustrial projects for provinces pro- ducing burley and native tobacco. Moreover, Sicpa stated in the position paper submitted to the House panel that this proposed Sicpa project would empower the Philippine government to comply with its commitments as a signa- tory to the World Health Organi- zation Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (WHO FCTC). As WHO Director General Margaret Chan has noted: “The marketing of tobacco products is the kind of pervasive and devious threat where protection depends on collective action.”


Sicpa stressed before this panel chaired by Batangas Rep. Hermi- lando Mandanas that its proposal is “the most advanced and sophis- ticated technology available” worldwide for cigarette production and distribution control”. It will vastly improve revenue earnings from the industry and at the same time polish the Philip- pines’ image in the global cam- paign to curb illicit tobacco trade and to reduce smoking. The company explained to legis- lators in its position paper that the proposed security project is an-


RANDOM JOTTINGS


chored on the use of strip stamps in all cigarette and cigar packs and non- intrusive sensors in tobacco factories plus the relay of such information to a centralized Data Management System (DMS) for real-time moni- toring and tracking of production. This will enable the Philippine


government to assess the exact amount of taxes that tobacco companies are supposed to pay to the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR), it said. Sicpa is known worldwide for the supply of security paper like bank notes (the American dollar and the Euro); its partnerships with governments on excise tax collection efforts like in Brazil. Turkey and Malaysia; its role as adviser to central banks and na- tional and state governments; and its partnerships on security initiatives with the likes of the U.S. Security Service and Interpol. On the domestic front, Sicpa has partnered for over two decades with the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas. Citing the success of its similar projects in boosting revenues and curbing illicit tobacco trade in such economies as Brazil, Malay- sia, Turkey and California, Sicpa said the InfoTech (IT)-based tech- nology it wants to introduce in the Philippines will let the BIR earn as much as an extra P10.7 billion annually, or P75 billion for the duration of the seven-year project. But this incremental increase in the excise tax take may even go up to as high as P16.5 billion yearly, or P116 billion over the seven-year spread, it said, if the project will be expanded to include the track- ing of imported tobacco products alongside domestically produced cigars and cigarettes.


Such tax bonanza projections


by Sicpa are based on several prominent studies on tax leakages in the Philippines and the rest of the world, including a joint study by the Bill and Melissa Gates Foundation and Bloomberg Philathropies, two Manila-based studies by Dr. Emilio Antonio Jr.,


and another one by Euromonitor. For instance, the Gates and Bloomberg study listed the Phil- ippines as No. 6 in the 2007 list of Top 10 countries with the greatest illicit trade of tobacco, estimating the local illicit market at 19.4 percent of legal sales amounting to P18.5 billion dur- ing the previous year alone. Under the tax code on the 15- percent share of excise tax collec- tions of tobacco-producing prov- inces, Sicpa pointed out that higher overall collections by the BIR from this industry will result to a higher share or more money for these beneficiary-localities for farm-friendly projects.


These include cooperative projects enhancing the quality of agricultural products, liveli- hood projects for the develop- ment of alternative products for farmers, and agro-industrial projects like postharvest facili- ties for tobacco growers. Sicpa said the Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (PhilHealth) and the Department of Health (DOH) will also benefit greatly from this project because of the projected higher contributions to both agen- cies, which, under RA 9334, are to each get a 2.5-percent share of the incremental increase in excise tax collections from alcohol and to- bacco products. Sicpa said the government’s ad- ditional budgetary outlays for PhilHealth and DOH projects would improve Manila’s compli- ance with its commitments as coun- try-signatory to the WHO FCTC ac- cord on tobacco control and reduc- tion of tobacco consumption. This Sicpa project is the most


advanced and sophisticated tech- nology available in the global mar- ket for cigarette production and dis- tribution control or regulation that “can make real” the Philippines’ commitment under the WHO FCTC, said this Swiss firm, and “will surely improve the international image of the Philippines in combat- ing the illicit trade of tobacco.” Also, this project will create more jobs for Filipinos in the course of the seven-year program, and will elevate the level of tax ad- ministration in the Philippines via the government’s adoption of Sicpa’s state-of-the-art technology on the effective collection of excise tax on tobacco products and the transfer of technology through the


training of local manpower, it said. Sicpa expressed confidence in the position paper that the security of- fered by the project will remain in- tact and the promised monetary and non-monetary benefits will be achieved, if not surpassed in the course of the seven-year program. On top of curtailing the illicit trade in tobacco, Sicpa asserts that its proposed project will help the Philippine government attain a balanced budget from the pro- jected revenue collection hike, and advance the policy of pro- moting the health and general welfare of the public.


It said this Sicpa project is in keeping with Section 8 of the Tax Reform Act of 1997, which man- dates the government’s use of in- ternal revenue stamps, whether with a bar code or fusion design, in each cigar and cigarette pack under a system prescribed by the BIR commissioner and approved by DOF secretary.


Contrary to the trumped-up charges raised by critics, Sicpa said its original proposal had complied with all technical re- quirements of the BIR.


DOF and BIR officials have also assessed, based on financial projections submitted earlier by Sicpa, that this Swiss corporation is financially capable of undertak- ing this project, it added. It further said the Sicpa tech- nology cannot be counterfeited, contrary to the critics’ claim, ow- ing to covert and semi-covert se- curity features, among them a se- curity code or design invisible to the naked eye and that can be read only by BIR-approved in- stalled and hand-held devices as well as a forensic security feature that can be authenticated only by forensic laboratory analysis. Sicpa also said this technology incorporates an InfoTech-based anti-diversion feature that will enable the BIR to track and trace each strip stamp and its security code at each stage of the stamp’s life cycle from its actual printing to deployment to retailers. Hence, Sicpa asserts, this com- bination of material- and infor- mation-based security features will make it “extremely difficult, if not impossible” for counterfeit- ers to breach the security features offered by the project.


rjottings@yahoo.com


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