Singapore Animal activists praise Philippines move to stop exporting dolphins to Singapore

Singapore animal rights activists praise Philippines for barring dolphin exports to country.

Singapore animal rights activists have praised a Philippines government decision to bar the export of dolphins to Singapore as a step in the right direction.

"We have been campaigning against this ridiculous treatment of animals by the Singapore government and finally our actions have paid off in the Philippines," said Jayson Chang, an animal advocate in Singapore.

He said the move was "going to show the country that they cannot continue to be cruel to animals for profit."

The Quezon City Regional Trial Court stopped the re-exportation of 25 dolphins to Singapore, local reports said.

At the same time, the court, through Executive Judge Bernelito Fernandez, also prohibited the importation of additional dolphins into the country.

"After a thorough review of the allegations in support of the prayer for the issuance of a TEPO, this office finds that there exists extreme urgency and that the subject 25 captive dolphins and the petitioners will suffer grave injustice and irreparable injury should the re-exporting of the said captive dolphins and the importing of additional dolphins into the country be undertaken at this time…This office hereby rules to grant the prayer for a 72-hour TEPO effective upon receipt of this order by the respondents," the court said.

The dolphins are currently at the Ocean Adventure Park in Subic.

The case stemmed from a petition filed by the Earth Island Institute (EII)-Philippines, Philippine Animal Welfare Society (PAWS), CARA Welfare Philippines and several others against the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR) and the Department of Agriculture (DA) to stop the re-exportation of 25 Solomon Island dolphins to Singapore.

It also comes on the heels of anger over the giant pandas that have arrived in Singapore from China and are set to go on public display this December in the city-state.

"We want all animals to not be in captivity and even more so these two pandas because they are not in their natural habitat," animal rights campaigner Teresa Cho said on Thursday afternoon as she and fellow activists were gathering to plan potential demonstrations against the panda's remaining in Singapore.

Wildlife Reserves Singapore (WRS) on Thursday announced that the pandas successfully completed the one month quarantine on October 6 and would not be prepared for public viewing.

The two pandas, five-year-old male Kai Kai and four-year-old Jia Jia – are expected to be the new stars in a brand new area of the Singapore Zoo.

They will make their public debut in December.

Singapore's government has also begun selling souvenirs, such as panda-inspired bags and toys.

The panda pair, which are on a 10-year loan from the China Wildlife Conservation Association (CWCA) to Singapore, were initially meant to arrive in March, but their arrival was delayed because more changes had to be made to their $8.5 million enclosure.

Director of CWCA Zhong Yi told members of the media in mid-August that representatives made a visit of the 1,225 square meter panda enclosure in June and found everything in order.

Like their fellow animal rights activists in Malaysia, Singapore's growing animal advocate community has condemned the government's decision to accept a pair of pandas from China.

The activists told Bikyamasr.com that the conditions in Singapore "are not appropriate for pandas and the move would cause unnecessary stress for the animals."

Bikyamasr

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United Nation Favored Japan – Pushed back China for Senkaku Islands Disputes – The Lawyer

United Nations Favored Japan – Pushed back China for Senkaku Islands Disputes

The rights stuff in oil islands now

Energy companies should consider the Secure Path Vector Routing (SPV route) in light of the China-Japan island rights disputes (Philippines –China, Vietnam-China, ASEAN-China Sea Disputes)

Images of Chinese citizens overturning a Japanese-manufactured police car are a startling demonstration of the seemingly spontaneous civic anger about Japan's territorial claims to five uninhabited islands and three rocks in the East China Sea (and in a separate row in the West Philippines Sea (South China Sea), known to the Japanese as the Senkaku Islands and to the Chinese as the Diaoyu Islands.

The economic interest at stake is not the barren rocks, but the surrounding hydrocarbon potential. Oil majors contemplating investment need a primer in international law as well as an appreciation of the historical and political background before they venture into this region.

The West Philippines (South China) Sea dispute rose in tempo in 2009 after grumbling along for 30 years. In fact, there was a concrete legal reason: 13 May 2009 was the deadline for states to make claims to extend their rights to exploit the seabed for hydrocarbons under the 1982 UN Convention of the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS).

What needs to be understood about UNCLOS are:

Standard issue for coastal states is 12 nautical miles (nm) of territorial water projecting from their low-tide baselines, stretching out to 200nm of an Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ). They must permit submarine cables, maritime passage and overflight, but can bag the hydrocarbon and mineral wealth.

If you can lay claim to an island you get 12 miles around it.

If you can persuade the UN's Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf (CLCS) that yours goes out beyond 200nm into undisputed seabed, you could get extra EEZ. If there is a dispute between states, the commission lacks jurisdiction.

If states do not like the submissions to the CLCS, they put in to the UN secretary-general a document known as 'note verbale'.

States can opt out of UNCLOS dispute resolution, and China did.

If it is a sovereignty dispute over land, Unclos is the wrong set of rules - one is into customary international law and the hand of history.

The UNCLOS template favors Japan's archipelagic geography over China's continental coastline, but there are other states with a dog in the fight - Vietnam, Philippines, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan.

Administration of the islands was handed back to Japan from the US in 1972. Around this time oil was discovered and China advanced its claim on historical grounds going back to the 15th century.

The worry is whether China's growing confidence and economic power, with the West hobbled by recession, may lead to aggression.

The Confucian view sees binding dispute resolution as disharmonious and rejects it. This view is virtually bound to win in these cases, where there is no compulsory dispute resolution mechanism and the question of whose legal arguments are in the right is theoretical.

An astute chief executive of an oil and gas major should get his legal department to seek advice on structuring investments through special purpose vehicles (SPVs) to take advantage of bilateral investment treaties that may give leverage to seek compensation from an international arbitration tribunal if investments become expropriated. (http://goo.gl/Q6znE )

The Lawyer  

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Philippine Minister named Euromoney's Finance Minister 2012

Cesar Purisima, the finance minister of the Philippines, has been named as Euromoney's Finance Minister of the Year for 2012.

Purisima received his award from Euromoney's group publisher Neil Osborn and editor Clive Horwood at a private reception on the fringes of the World Bank/IMF meetings in Tokyo on Thursday.

Euromoney commended Purisima for his careful and successful stewardship of the economy in the Philippines since returning as Finance secretary in 2010. This has led to a shift in perception and positive view of the Philippines' economy, in which Purisima's leadership and decision-making have been a key factor.

Purisima has worked closely with President Benigno Aquino III to champion the idea that "good governance is good economics." Bankers in the country say he has stuck to his guns, and the country is reaping the rewards. Purisima has unleashed an unforgiving strategy to combat tax evasion and maximize revenue from corporates without introducing any new taxes or reforms.

The Philippine growth story stands out against the challenging global macro-economic backdrop. Under Purisima's guidance, and fighting back after storms and flash floods devastated the country in 2011, GDP growth reached 5.9 percent in the second quarter of this year – up from 3.6 percent the previous year – and brought the first-half GDP average growth to 6.1 percent, showing some of the strongest growth rates in Asia.

Purisima has also taken gutsy measures to protect the Philippines' economy, as developed markets in the west crumbled under pressure. In December 2010, he orchestrated the exchange of short- and medium-tenor local government securities for P39.5 billion ($940 million) 10-year peso bonds, and P181 billion 25-year peso bonds. There was a similar exchange in July 2011, when short- and medium-tenor local government securities were exchanged for P67.6 billion 10-year bonds and P255 billion 20-year bonds."

Euromoney also commends Purisima for his initiatives in promoting capital markets, both in the Philippines and across the broader ASEAN region.

Euromoney, the leading global banking and finance publication, has been nominating a Finance Minister of the Year for the past 30 years to coincide with the World Bank/IMF meetings. The previous three winners of the award were Jim Flaherty of Canada in 2009, Russia's Alexei Kudrin in 2010 and Wayne Swan of Australia last year.

Euromoney's decision is based on three factors: the opinions of a committee of Euromoney's senior editors, chaired by the editor; the views of some of the world's leading bankers, which Euromoney's editorial team seeks out in background meetings; and the analysis of the contributors to our service Euromoney Country Risk (ECR), which has more than 400 economists around the world contributing on a regular basis, as well as data sourced and compiled by ECR.

Recent data compiled by ECR highlight that the Philippines' economic fundamentals have improved since the beginning of the year: its score has risen by more than 10%, one of the biggest improvements among global economies.

Euromoney

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