Rappler Newscast | December 19, 2013

Story 1: US PANEL: OVERHAUL NSA SPYING PROGRAM
A review panel appointed by US President Barack Obama recommends 46 measures– part of a sweeping overhaul of surveillance programs.
Among the recommendations– stop the National Security Agency or NSA from storing millions of phone records.
In a report, the panel says, “The current storage by the government of bulk metadata creates potential risks to public trust, personal privacy, and civil liberty.”
The panel asks the US Congress to pass a law that will direct phone companies or a third party to maintain the data.
Any number that the NSA wants to search, based on reasonable suspicion of terrorism, will require a court order.
The review board does not call for outright curbs on intelligence on foreign leaders, but says surveillance must be based on real security threats and be approved at the highest levels.
Obama commissioned the review panel report earlier this year in the wake of revelations by fugitive intelligence contractor Edward Snowden on the scope of the NSA’s operations.
The White House will announce in January the recommendations it will adopt.

Laptop searching numbers image from Shutterstock

Stop mass spying protest image from Shutterstock

Story 2: DRILON: REVIEW EPIRA AFTER ‘APPARENT FAILURE’
After the biggest power rate hike in recent history, Senate President Franklin Drilon backs calls to review the 12-year-old law regulating the power industry.
A day after the Senate began probing the increase in electricity prices, Drilon says it’s clear the Electric Power Industry Reform Act of 2001 or EPIRA failed to achieve its objectives.
In a press briefing Thursday, Drilon says, “The EPIRA law is supposed to promote free competition in order that the consumers can benefit from a lower but efficient power generation system. The opposite apparently happened.”
Calls for reform in the power industry came after the Manila Electric Co. or Meralco raised charges by P4.15 per kilowatt-hour starting this month.
In the Senate probe Wednesday, some senators say they suspected there was collusion among power plants that went on “unscheduled shutdown” coinciding with the maintenance shutdown of the Malampaya natural gas field.
The shutdowns forced Meralco to source power from plants that run on diesel, which is more expensive than natural gas.

Story 3: SAN CARLOS HOSTS LARGEST SOLAR FARM IN PH
A green revolution is happening in San Carlos City in Negros.
A solar farm, a bioethanol plant and a biomass plant will soon help generate clean energy for the power grid.
Pia Ranada reports.

In the sunny fields and mountains of Negros, a revolution is quietly, literally, growing.
In the middle of sugarcane plantations, hectares of reddish soil are being turned for a different kind of crop.
On these lands will rise the largest commercial solar farm in the Philippines.
The solar farm is just one of the three renewable energy plants that will be located in San Carlos City, an hour and a half away from Bacolod.
When these power plants are completed, San Carlos will be the first renewable energy integrated zone in the Philippines.
It’s a green revolution in the making.

XABI ZABALETA, PRESIDENT, SAN CARLOS BIOPOWER: San Carlos is a city that’s always been very dependent on the sugar industry and there’s been a need to introduce new industries and create job employment for the people.

The 35-hectare solar farm is expected to generate 22 megawatts of electricity using sunlight.
That’s enough to power a city with 10,000 households.
The first phase will feed solar energy into the national power grid this March.

XABI ZABALETA, PRESIDENT, SAN CARLOS BIOPOWER: The idea is to avail of the feed in tariff rates that the national government has set up to promote and incentivize renewable energies in the country and so we hope to provide that power in March of the coming year.

San Carlos is particularly ideal for solar power.

DON MARIO DIA, DIRECTOR, BRONZEOAK PHILIPPINES: The Philippines in general has been observed to have a lot of radiation from the sun. This part of San Carlos used to be salt beds so we’re converting the salt beds into solar paneled areas. And because of that, there’s more radiation. It has more exposure to the sun.

Not 20 minutes away by car from the solar farm site is the San Carlos bioethanol plant.
It uses sugarcane that’s abundant in the province to create ethanol, a biofuel added to gasoline used for cars.
The power plant played a key role in the aftermath of Yolanda.

PEDRITO SUMINISTRADO, VP FOR OPERATIONS, SAN CARLOS BIOENERGY INC: Since the typhoon damaged the power lines of the local cooperative, the whole Negros almost had no power. Two days after, with the coordination with the city mayor and other city officials, we were able to supply San Carlos about 1.5 to 1.7 megawatts of electricity for one week.

The third renewable energy plant is a biomass power plant.
It will use waste from sugarcane crops to generate electricity that will feed into the grid.
Sugarcane farmers can sell sugarcane waste they would normally throw away, giving them additional income.
The biomass power plant will be operational in 2015.
The future is shining bright for San Carlos.
Pia Ranada, Rappler, Manila.

Story 4: BINAY AT DASMARIÑAS VILLAGE: WHAT REALLY HAPPENED?
An Inquirer report says Makati Mayor Junjun Binay allegedly ordered the arrest of 3 security guards from the posh Dasmarinas Village in Makati after they stopped his convoy from exiting through one of the gates on November 30.
But Binay spokesman Joey Salgado calls the report –quote– “false and downright malicious.”
On Wednesday, the Inquirer uploaded a 15-minute video taken from CCTV footage from the village.
In the video, Binay is seen stepping out of the car to speak to the guards after they stopped his convoy from exiting the Banyan road exit near midnight.
The Inquirer report quotes him as saying, “Don’t you know me?”
Salgado denies the mayor said this.
After 15 minutes at the entrance and following the arrival of Makati policemen, Binay’s convoy was eventually allowed to exit at the same gate.
The Makati police admitted confiscating the guards’ firearms and bringing them to a police station for “custodial questioning.”
They stayed there for 4 hours.
After issuing a statement, the security guards were reminded about the company’s SOP for VIPs but were not sanctioned.
A resident of nearby Forbes Park says the Banyan gate is not used as an exit past 10 pm.
Salgado says the mayor was “not familiar” with the set-up.
In a statement, Senator Nancy Binay downplays the incident, adding, “No amount of explanation would satisfy those who have never-ending dislike for our family.”
The Binays’ father is Vice President Jejomar Binay, who has declared his intention to run for president in 2016.
The Binays also ruled Makati for more than 2 decades now.

Story 5: SANDIGANBAYAN ALLOWS ARROYOS TO SPEND HOLIDAYS WITH GMA
The Sandiganbayan allows former president Gloria Arroyo to spend Christmas and New Year’s Eve with her family at her hospital suite.
The anti-graft court rules favorably on the motion filed by the lawyers of the Pampanga representative, asking for her visitors to stay at the Veterans Memorial Medical Center beyond 9:30 pm.
Arroyo is detained on plunder charges related to alleged misuse of Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office funds.

Story 6: SBMA FIRE AND RESCUE TEAM ON SAVING LIVES
One of the best rescue groups in the country talks about the business of saving lives.
David Lozada reports.

This is the daily routine of the Subic Bay fire and rescue team.
They are ready anytime an emergency strikes.
SBMA fire chief Ranny Magno says they can respond to national and international calamities within a day.
He says training the right people is key.

RANNY MAGNO, FIRE CHIEF: They have the discipline. First and foremost, you need to have the discipline and the passion. You cannot really mobilize in less than 24 hours.

Last October, the team was awarded the top Urban Search and Rescue team for the second time by the country’s top national disaster management recognition program.
They’ve been deployed to Japan for the Fukushima nuclear leak and to the Visayas for super typhoon Haiyan.

DAVID LOZADA, REPORTING: Members of the SBMA fire rescue team regularly train here in the Boton station 4 center to enhance their skills on disaster response. Complete with different risk simulations, this facility has been used to train disaster response teams from local government units, the military and international groups.

Aside from regular trainings, the SBMA rescue team follows the Incident Command System, a tool that helps in managing on-scene, all-hazard disasters and incidents.

RANNY MAGNO, FIRE CHIEF: ICS is a tool in managing on-scene disaster or emergency. It is flexible and modular. It can expand and can shrink depending on the kind of emergency…it is the only way we can really manage no matter how complex the incident is, like in Tacloban, Leyte and Samar.

SBMA deputy fire chief Gerardo Johnson says it’s not just systems that matter, but also funding.

GERARDO JOHNSON, DEPUTY FIRE CHIEF: Adapt tayo nang adapt ng training pero if we don’t have any financial support, walang mangyayari sa atin. (Training is one good way of adapting. But if we don’t have financial support, we  will not get anywhere.)

Magno and Johnson both believe mitigation is still the best approach to disasters.

GERARDO JOHNSON, DEPUTY FIRE CHIEF: Climate change is the business ng bawat isa…Sabihin nating we are fully trained and we have manpower and equipment, kung wala namang participation ng mga tao, mahihirapan tayo. (Climate change everyone’s business. Even if we’re fully trained, even if we have the manpower and equipment, without the participation of the people, disaster response is difficult.)

David Lozada, Rappler Subic.

Story 7: FED DECIDES TO TAPER US STIMULUS IN JANUARY
The US Federal Reserve says Wednesday it will cut its massive stimulus program in January, giving the recovery of the US economy and job market a vote of confidence.
The Fed cuts its monthly bond purchases to $75 billion, down from the $85 billion monthly asset purchases it has made for a year.
Stocks went up to new record highs after the announcement.
The decision surprises analysts, who expected the Fed to wait until the January or March meetings to trim bond purchases.

Story 8: THE wRap: YOUR WORLD IN ONE READ
At number 3, a Zurich-based reinsurance group says disasters caused at least $130 billion in global economic losses in 2013.
On Wednesday, Swiss Re says the economic impact went down from $196 billion in 2012.
But the estimate does not include the impact of Typhoon Haiyan.
Insurance and disaster-risk modeller AIR Worldwide says economic losses for the Philippines are pegged at $14.5 billion.

At number 5, Egypt’s ousted president Mohammed Morsi is charged with conspiracy to commit a terrorist act.
He is accused of forming an alliance with two Islamist groups: the Palestinian Hamas and the Lebanese Hezbollah.
Prosecutors describe the charges as –quote– “the biggest case of conspiracy in the country’s history.”
Ousted in July 2013, Morsi is also accused of inciting murder and violence, but his supporters say the charges are politically motivated.

And at number 6, the oldest gay magazine in the United States names Pope Francis as its Person of the Year.
The Advocate magazine says the Pope is –quote– “still not pro-gay by today’s standard,” but adds he contributed to a “change in rhetoric” on LGBTs.
The Advocate cites an incident, where the Pope was reported as saying, “If someone is gay and seeks the Lord with good will, who am I to judge?’”
The magazine also says the Pope supported same-sex civil unions as the “lesser of two evils” when he was a cardinal.
Instead of denouncing gays, the magazine says the Pope –quote– “spends his time talking about the harm of greed and the lack of focus on fairness and fighting poverty.