New US missile defense may include PH - report

MANILA, Philippines - The United States (US) is already planning an expansion of its missile defense in Asia, including the Philippines.

In a report from the Wall Street Journal, the buildup will supposedly be used to counter threats from North Korea and China.

The report said: “The expansion comes at a time when the U.S. and its allies in the region voice growing alarm about a North Korean missile threat. They are also increasingly worried about China's aggressive stance in disputed waters such the South China Sea, where Asian rivals are vying for control of oil and mineral rights.”

The report quoted Congressional Research Service missile-defense expert Steven Hildreth, who said that the US is looking “longer term at the elephant in the room, which is China.”

The report added that the expansion includes the deployment of an early-warning radar in the southern part of Japan.

The deployment of the so-called X-Band radar there is still being discussed, however. Earlier, both the allies already ruled out the deployment in Okinawa because of disapproval from residents.

As such, “Some U.S. defense officials have focused on the Philippines as the potential site for the third X-Band, which is manufactured by Raytheon Co. Pentagon officials said a location has yet to be determined and that discussions are at an early stage,” the report added.

The Philippines have lodged several protests against China for its incursion in several disputed areas, including the Scarborough Shoal.

China earlier rebuked a senior diplomat of the US there after he raised concerns over the tensions in the disputed West Philippine Sea.

The US embassy’s deputy chief of mission was even summoned to explain.

ABS-CBNnews.com

90-pct of Philippines' small-scale gold lost to smuggling, end up in China

Miners roll out sacks of boulders out of a tunnel, after a 24-hour shift at one of the hundreds of small mines on the rugged slopes of Mount Diwata in southern Philippines.

The boulders will be crushed and reduced to gold inggots. The miners are exhausted, but eager to cash in their labour's reward.

Camilo Landa, father of eight, has 18 grams of gold in his hand. His share of the day's output, after splitting with four other miners, is 5,400 pesos (125 US dollars). That's more than 10 times what a manual labourer earns daily in Manila.

"I'll be able to buy rice. I can pay our loans. I'm happy," Landa said.

High gold prices are raking in profits for miners, but the Philippine government is losing out.

In all likelihood, Landa's gold will find its way through middlemen and into the luggage of a tourist or Chinese-Filipino trader, or on a ship leaving through one the archipelago's dozens of unmanned ports - not to its only legal destination, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas or the central bank.

Up to 90 percent of small-scale Philippine gold production is being smuggled out of the Southeast Asian country, with much of it going to China, Reuters learned on a visit to this mining region in Mindanao, combined with interviews with miners, traders, and officials as well as a review of gold trade data.

The potential revenue being lost is considerable: The Philippines is the world's 18th largest gold producer, according to precious metals consultancy Thomson Reuters GFMS. It produced just over 1 million troy ounces of gold in 2011 - worth 1.6 billion U.S. dollars at current prices - and about 56 percent of that came from small-scale miners.

While production did not slow down, the volume of legal purchases plummeted.

This year, the amount of gold sold by small-scale miners and traders to the central bank in the second quarter fell 98 percent from a year earlier

The Mines and Geosciences Bureau, which regulates mining activities in the country, could only come up with one conclusion.

"The same amount of gold, but they went to underground. Our suspicion is that it' either black market or smuggled out of the country. So 80 percent of gold lost," said Leo Jasareno, director of the Mines and Geosciences Bureau.

Jasareno said miners were telling them that traders sell the gold to foreign buyers.

"There are unconfirmed reports, that gold is going to, this is unconfirmed-is going to Hong kong, Malaysia, and China," Jasareno said.

He added that they would look into the involvement of organized crime groups in the loss of gold from the legal market, estimated to reach about 24 tonnes.

Traders and officials say the biggest factor behind the spike in the gold smuggling trend the past year are newly imposed taxes. Since 2011, every sale of gold has been subject to a 2 percent excise tax, and a 5 percent withholding tax, usually borne by traders.

Opposing the tax, many traders have turned to the black market, officials say.

Arthur Uy, who looks after Mount Diwata as governor of Compostela Valley province in southern Philippines, the top small-scale gold mining province in the Philippines, said the black market in gold is mainly based in the capital, Manila.

"The black market now is flourishing, so they would send their produce now to the black market; because the businessmen doing those black market activities, they would only impose, let's say less 2 or 3 percent only," Uy said.

Uy, a two-term governor whose family of Chinese descent partly owns one of the four most productive small-scale mines on Mount Diwata, said 90 percent of gold produced is going to the black market and mostly ends up smuggled to Hong Kong.

If the 1991 small-scale mining law were being followed, all the gold produced by miners in the Philippines would be sold to the central bank, which buys it at around world market prices.

Small-scale gold mines, accounting for more than two-thirds of the Philippines' total output, are the main source of the central bank's gold reserves, which hit a record high of 10.4 billion U.S. dollars early this year

With most of the gold production from these mines now illegally exiting the country, the Philippine central bank is losing its cheapest source of gold reserves.

The problem extends beyond gold to other minerals, which are being smuggled out of the porous and inadequately policed borders of this archipelago of more than 7,100 islands.

The Philippines is believed to hold reserves of gold, copper, nickel, chromite, manganese, silver and iron worth a total of around 1 trillion U.S. dollars.

Traders and officials say it looks like much of the gold is going instead to Hong Kong, the main conduit for gold flows into China.

A discrepancy between statistics between Hong Kong's and Philippines has left officials stumped.

Hong Kong's top source of gold imports from 2005 to 2010 was the Philippines, official data from the Chinese territory shows. Philippines gold shipments to Hong Kong hit a peak of 81,471 kilograms in 2010, way above imports of just 11 kilos nine years earlier, and were steady at 81,192 kilos in 2011.

But official statistics in the Philippines, reflecting legal exports, show gold exports to Hong Kong in 2010 and 2011 at just around 3 percent of the total volume recorded by Hong Kong authorities.

The Philippine customs data represent only shipments by big mining firms with supply contracts, as exports of gold from small-scale mines are banned.

Gold prices, which have been trending at or near historic highs for several years, have spurred illegal gold mining around the world. Illegal mining now accounts for up to 15 percent of the global gold output, according to Canada-based Artisanal Gold Council.

Purchase of new presidential aircraft pushed

MANILA, Philippines - The House opposition bloc pressed yesterday for the acquisition of new aircraft for President Aquino to replace the aging airplanes in the presidential fleet. “You cannot put a price tag on the President’s security,” House Minority Leader and Quezon Rep. Danilo Suarez said.

“If they (administration lawmakers) don’t want to be criticized, then we in the opposition will push for this (purchase of new presidential aircraft).”

“If the President is worried about possible criticism, these (aircraft) will be used by his successors and succeeding Cabinet officials as well,” he said.

Suarez said the opposition has proposed the re-fleeting of the presidential wing in the past and the death of Interior Secretary Jesse Robredo in a plane crash prompted them to revive their proposal.

The 250th Presidential Airlift Wing based in Villamor Air Base in Pasay City handles the air transport of the President. 

The presidential fleet is comprised of two Fokker planes – one turboprop and one jet – and about three to four aging and repainted Bell helicopters. 

“The airplanes are nearly half a century old and Fokker has closed down so there are no more spareparts,” Suarez said.

Several officials died when a helicopter crashed during the Arroyo administration.

Suarez suggested that Malacañang buy four planes – two jets and two turboprops – and two helicopters.

The entire package could cost about $80 million, he said.

“They’re cheap... we can just include that in the budget,” he said.

The two propeller-driven aircraft can be used for local sorties while the two jets would be flown for both local and regional flights.

He said the pairing of the aircraft are necessary since there would be downtime or periodic maintenance work on the aircraft and at any time, at least two planes must be ready for presidential use.

Navy divers saluted as Robredo body hoisted up

MASBATE CITY—Navy technical divers Roger Brizuela and Edgar Vergara raised their hands in salute as Interior Secretary Jesse Robredo’s body was slowly being raised to the surface from the plane wreckage at the bottom of the Masbate Pass early Tuesday.

Brizuela himself narrated the underwater drama after news broke out that Robredo’s body had been located, positively identified and brought to a Coast Guard vessel.

At a media briefing that day, Transportation Secretary Manuel Roxas cited a Cebu-based team led by British Matt Reed, a volunteer technical diver, for finding the body of the official inside the plane’s fuselage. The twin-engine Piper Seneca was lying belly-up some 800 meters from the shoreline at a depth of 54 meters (180 feet).

Roxas said Reed spotted the body at around 7 a.m. and quickly informed divers waiting on the surface by sending up his waterproof dive slate. President Benigno Aquino was informed of the discovery at 7:50 a.m.

Delicate task

Brizuela and Vergara, both Navy petty officers, performed the delicate task of retrieving the body and bringing it up in less than an hour. “We even saluted him as he slowly went up,” Brizuela said.

Reed’s team declined to be interviewed by journalists until after the retrieval effort is completed. They returned to Malapascua Island in northern Cebu, a few hours after President Aquino and several Cabinet members fetched Robredo’s body at the airport and brought to his hometown in Naga City.

Brizuela told reporters that he and Vergara, who belong to the Navy Special Operations Group, used a surface marker buoy, or SMB, to hook Robredo’s body to a “diver descending line.” The buoy later expanded on its own and slowly rose.

The retrieval operations started soon after Reed found the wreckage, but it took Brizuela and Vergara two to three minutes to reach the fuselage, the diver said.

‘Crash position’

He said he and Vergara found Robredo’s body in a “crash position” near the exit door, his seatbelt unfastened, and the two pilots stuck in the cockpit. After extricating the secretary’s body, they tried but failed to put it in a cadaver bag, and instead “clipped and hooked” it to a descending line tied to the plane’s tail.

In Cebu, Reed’s partner in Evolution Diving, a diving enterprise based in Malapascua, said the group recognized the efforts of all the individuals from the government and the joint forces, as well as civilian volunteers, in the retrieval operations.

“We’re humbled to have been able to play a small part in the search effort, which was run efficiently by all involved, and we will continue to assist in the future if we are needed,” David Joyce, an Irish national, said in an e-mailed statement.

“In light of this national tragedy, we at Evolution Diving choose to show our respect by silence and defer all questions to the official leadership of the search and recovery operations,” Joyce said. With a report from Irene R. Sino Cruz, Inquirer Visayas

PHL should exercise restraint in its territorial disputes with China, said by former Chief of ABC News

The Philippines should exercise restraint in its territorial disputes with China, as a protracted conflict will injure local businessmen, the former Beijing bureau chief of ABC News said on Wednesday.

"The issue of sovereignty put it on the back burner. We should try to normalize our tourism and trade relations," Chito Sta. Romana told members of the Makati Business Club.

Sta. Romana, who spent four decades covering China, said the Philippines must "exercise restraint and resort to quiet, patient diplomacy to prevent armed conflict."

Manila has been engaged in a spat with Beijing over Scarborough Shoal and other areas in the West Philippine Sea that are believed to hold vast reserves of oil and natural gas.

Sta. Romana said both sides should “find a way to have a mutually accepted contract or formula that will allow us to jointly explore” areas such as the Recto Bank, which private companies earlier said hold oil reserves bigger than the Malampaya natural gas field.

While both sides had limited military action to posturing and the deployment of sea vessels, the battle has been engaged in the tourism and trade fronts. Chinese travel agencies had imposed a ban on tour packages to the Philippines, while Beijing has tightened quarantine requirements on Mindanao’s Cavendish bananas.

"The Philippines is considered a hostile country" by many Chinese, Sta. Romana said.

Makati Business Club executive director Peter Angelo Perfecto told InterAksyon.com that businessmen do not want the dispute to go on for a long time.

"Within our membership, there have been concerns raised, but really more for the long-term, because if this continues further and gets prolonged, then the impact will be, of course, quite bad," Perfecto said.

"Right now it's not yet a major issue, but it is a concern because we don't want to prolong it," he said.

"China might start using that economic card more aggressively; that's what we don't want," he added.

AFP to get P20B for modernization program

QUEZON CITY, Aug 21 (PIA) -- The Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) will get over P20 billion for its modernization program. 

In a release, Bases Conversion and Development Authority (BCDA) Executive Vice President Aileen Zosa confirmed the funding for the AFP Modernization Program. 

“This project arose out of the disposition of the 34.5-hectare Joint U.S. Military Assistance Group (JUSMAG) area. The JUSMAG area will generate for the Armed Forces of the Philippines more than P20 billion over the years,” said Zosa during the recent turnover ceremony of the 64 condominium units at Fort Bonifacio, Taguig City. 

According to the BCDA, the housing project is part of the BCDA’s JUSMAG replication program, a P700-million project that aims to provide the AFP with 12 residential condominium buildings. 

Of the10 buildings being constructed in Fort Bonifacio, nine buildings are reserved for the Philippine Army and one building for the Philippine Navy. The two other buildings are located within the retention area of the Philippine Air Force in Villamor Air Base, Pasay City. 

Likewise, BCDA president and chief executive officer Atty. Arnel Paciano D. Casanova said the housing project is their modest contribution to honor and to strengthen the dignity of the soldiers and their families. 

“While our nation’s heroes are protecting our countrymen, their families can enjoy the comfort of having their own condominium units in prime government property,” added Cassanova. 

Meanwhile, AFP chief General Jessie D. Dellosa expressed his appreciation for the continuous assistance and contribution of the BCDA to uplift the morale and welfare of the soldiers. 

“The BCDA does not only help the armed forces expedite the implementation of its modernization and capability upgrade program, but also recognizes the sacrifices made by our soldiers through significant projects that help military dependents live a better quality of life,” said Dellosa. 

In return, he assured that the men and women of the AFP will be more enthused to perform its mandate of protecting the people and the state, more efficiently and effectively. 

Likewise, Philippine Army Commanding General, Lt. Gen. Emmanuel T. Bautista expressed his gratitude to BCDA for its tireless efforts to uplift the soldiers’ morale and welfare. 

“We express our appreciation to our ever-supportive partner in the replication of our old camp facilities,” Bautista added. (AFP-PAO/RJB/JEG-PIA-NCR) 

DND firms up plans to buy 2 Italian warships worth P6B each

Maestrale Class Frigate

MANILA, Philippines - The Department of National Defense (DND) on Wednesday said plans had been firmed up to buy two Italian warships worth US$ 30 million (P6 billion) each to upgrade the Philippines' defense capabilities.

At the hearing of the House of Representatives' appropriations committee of the DND's proposed P121.6-billion budget for next year, Defense Secretary Voltaire Gazmin said the purchase of Italian warships or frigates is part of the DND's modernization plan. 

The proposed budget is P15 billion higher than this year's capital outlay.

Gazmin said the budget increase would be used for big investments aimed at beefing up territorial defense. 

Meanwhile, to ensure the safety of the President and his Cabinet, the House minority bloc said it was in favor of purchasing new planes dedicated for their use. 

House Minority Leader and Quezon Rep. Danilo Suarez, in a press conference, said the government needed at least six new aircraft -- one regional jet, one jet for local travel, two propeller-driven aircraft (1 Queen Air and 1 King Air) and two helicopters. 

Suarez said the new planes would cost about US$ 85 million (roughly P3.6 billion). 

"We should not put a tag price on the security of our leaders. We are expressing our concern for the safety of the President and his family because, as we are all aware, our country does not have a dedicated Presidential plane and he takes chartered flights for official travel," he said. 

Besides, Suarez said the new aircraft would also benefit political leaders after the term of President Benigno S. Aquino III. 

The House minority leader also asked the government to review all modes of public transportation following the death of Interior and Local Government Secretary Jesse Robredo, whose plane crashed off Masbate last Saturday afternoon on the way to Naga City from Cebu City