BusinessMirror July 04, 2021

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Sunday, July 4, 2021 Vol. 16 No. 263

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‘STEPPING UP’

Autonomous region leaders in the South finally choose path to transparency, public acceptance in governance

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By Manuel T. Cayon

AVAO CITY—The current caretaker of the autonomous region for Filipino Muslims in the South is taking a crack at two trailblazing policy measures on transparency and public acceptance, while awaiting with bated breath the national government’s response to pleas to extend the transition period given them to work out the structures of the autonomy.

One policy measure is adapting geotagging, a wider satellite technology-based tracking of its projects, which only a few other regions in the country have been doing. The other is asking the highest religious policy-making body for Islam in the country to issue an Islamic ruling to guide the conduct of its leaders in the regional autonomous government.

The twin moves appear to demonstrate to the national government and to its constituents its audacity and capability to be transparent and honest, and willingness to continue its path from war to nation building and self-rule.

What’s in geotagging?

AT least seven members of the Bangsamoro Transition Authority (BTA), the interim Parliament of the Bangsamoro Region, filed a bill last week to make it a practice in the region to adapt geotagging for all infrastructure projects.

Geotagging, as described in the proposed bill, is the process of adding metadata and geographical information to the physical or site location of government infrastructure projects and of uploading them to a Web-based application.

“Geotagging of all infrastructure projects in the BARMM [Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao] will allow for more effective policy-making, improve the planning and programming of development projects, cumulative location of development projects, and track and monitor the progress of government projects,” said Engr. Don Mus-

ENGR. Don Mustapha Loong: “Geotagging of all infrastructure projects in the BARMM will allow for more effective policy-making, improve the planning and programming of development projects, cumulative location of development projects, and track and monitor the progress of government projects.”

tapha Loong, one of the authors of the bill. BARMM covers the central Mindanao areas of Maguindanao and Lanao del Sur, and the southwestern island provinces of Basilan, Sulu and Tawi-Tawi.

For a region equated for decades with deep-seated corruption, poverty and conflict, geotagging could be a life-changing course and a complete turnaround. For several years, even third-party evaluators of foreign-funded projects have been complaining of being prevented by local government officials from checking on the status of the projects. They are repeatedly told that a rido, or a clan war, was in progress in the place where the projects are located, in order to discourage them from going there.

Not new

HOWEVER, geotagging is not actually new in the Bangsamoro areas.

PESO EXCHANGE RATES n US 49.0040

COTABATO City, an independent component city in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao GOOGLE EARTH

BARMM Areas Lanao del Sur Maguindanao Basilan Sulu Tawi-Tawi

In March 2018, the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) conducted a second-level training on Procedures for 2018 Geotagging in Cotabato City, and by last year, the PSA followed it up with a top-level discussion with regional directors of the BARMM, map data screeners and key personnel of the provincial offices of the PSA in the region.

Additionally, the PSA said geo-

tagging “is the process of creating vector data by marking building structures in the selected areas as points in the digitized maps. Along with the creation of points for building structures, the association or attribution of geographical information to these points, which include addresses of buildings, building type, and pictures, among others, is also done simultaneously as the Map Data Collector (MDC) marks

the identified building structures.”

It must also include the project’s name, location and cost to allow the public to check the progress of projects in real time.

Still much earlier, when the region was known as Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, or ARMM, the Department of Education-ARMM adopted geotagging for its projects through DepEdARMM Order 53, series of 2014.

Then regional secretary, lawyer Jamar Kulayan, told the DepEdARMM bureaucracy, “Geotagging will now cover selected public elementary and secondary schools [and] the instruction is to cover one district per division and to cover all public elementary and secondary schools in the said covered districts.”

Two years earlier too, in 2012, the Office of Special Concerns (OSC) of the ARMM began touring the areas to take pictures of the place where the projects were supposed to be located and upload pictures into the Quantum Geographical Information System

(GIS) software.

“They would take pictures of existing roads, facilities, marketplaces and boundaries, using a camera with a GPS [Global Positioning System], and when they come back, they load the data into the computer,” GIS specialist Maribeth Casten said.

“Once we discover something anomalous, then we report it to the governor,” said Darwin Rasul, assistant secretary at the ARMM’s OSC. “The wisdom of geotagging is to make the validation more accurate, more effective and faster. This is part of the ARMM government’s reform program to make public servants accountable,” he said.

It was Rasul who bared of “millions of public funds on projects wasted” because of unaccounted and ghost projects. In 2012, he said “irregularities that led to the waste of hundreds of millions of pesos of public funds for nonexistent projects in the ARMM are more massive than previously thought.”

Continued on A2

n JAPAN 0.4394 n UK 67.4589 n HK 6.3104 n CHINA 7.5741 n SINGAPORE 36.3343 n AUSTRALIA 36.5962 n EU 58.0746 n SAUDI ARABIA 13.0663

Source: BSP (July 2, 2021)

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Most European troops exit Afghanistan quietly after 20 years

By Geir Moulson & Kathy Gannon | The Associated Press

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ERLIN—Most European troops have already pulled out of Afghanistan, quietly withdrawing months before the US-led mission was officially expected to end—part of an anticlimactic close to the “forever war” that risks leaving the country on the brink of civil war.

Germany and Italy declared their missions in Afghanistan over on Wednesday and Poland’s last troops returned home, bringing their deployments to a low-key end nearly 20 years after the first Western soldiers were deployed there.

Announcements from several countries analyzed by The Associated Press show that a majority of European troops has now left with little ceremony—a stark contrast to the dramatic and public show of force and unity when Nato allies lined up to back the US invasion to rid the country of al-Qaeda after the September 11, 2001, attacks.

In the ensuing decades, the war went from one mission to another.

Former US President George W. Bush’s administration shied away from nation-building and the United Nations advocated a light footprint.

But with the passing years, Nato and US troops took on greater roles developing Afghanistan’s National Security and Defense Forces and training police. At the war’s peak, the US and Nato military numbers surpassed 150,000.

Nato agreed in April to withdraw its roughly 7,000 non-American forces from Afghanistan to match US President Joe Biden’s decision to pull all American troops from the country, starting May 1.

‘Unceremonious’ exit

BIDEN set a September 11 deadline for the withdrawal of US troops.

But more recently, American officials have said that pullout would most likely be completed by July 4—and many allies have moved to wrap up their own presence by then as well.

Nato declined to give an update Wednesday on how many nations still have troops in its Resolute Support mission. But an analysis of 19 governments’ announcements shows that more than 4,800 of the non-American forces have left.

The US has refused to give troop figures, but when Biden announced the final pullout, between 2,500 and 3,500 troops were deployed. As of February, a total of some 832,000 American troops

SOLDIERS of the German Armed Forces line up in front of an Airbus A400M transport aircraft for the final roll call in Wunstorf, Germany, Wednesday, June 30, 2021. HAUKE-CHRISTIAN DITTRICH/POOL VIA AP

had served in Afghanistan, while about 25,100 Defense Department civilians had also served there.

The US has also refused to give a clear date for a final withdrawal.

White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said Wednesday only that the US withdrawal remains “on the timeline that the president announced...which is to get our troops out of Afghanistan, while having a remaining diplomatic presence on the ground, by September.”

Germany announced the end of its nearly 20-year deployment in a statement and a series of tweets from the defense minister

late Tuesday, shortly after the last plane carrying its troops had left Afghan airspace.

Three transport aircraft landed at the Wunstorf air base in northern Germany on Wednesday afternoon.

The troops, wearing masks, lined up on the tarmac for a brief ceremony, but the military dispensed with a bigger reception because of the coronavirus pandemic.

“We have worked long and hard to stand here today,” said Brig.

Gen. Ansgar Meyer, the last commander of the German contingent.

“As your commander, I can say for you: ‘Mission accomplished.’ You have fulfilled your task.”

Looming civil war?

BUT the top American general in Afghanistan gave a sobering assessment Tuesday, warning about the recent rapid loss of districts to the

Taliban and cautioning the country could descend into civil war.

The German pullout came amid a spate of withdrawals by European nations. Poland’s last departing troops were greeted Wednesday by Defense Minister Mariusz Blaszczak. Some 33,000 Polish troops have served in Afghanistan over the past 20 years.

The last Italian troops from Italy’s base in Herat arrived at the military airport in Pisa late Tuesday. Italy officially declared its mission in Afghanistan over in a statement Wednesday, with Defense Minister Lorenzo Guerini paying tribute to the 53 Italians who died and 723 who were injured over the past two decades.

Going forward, Guerini said Italy’s commitment to Afghanistan would remain, “beginning with the strengthening of development co-

‘STEPPING UP’ Continued from A1

Rasul said across ARMM, officials discovered more than 10 nonexistent school buildings since the OSC assessment was started and estimates could be much higher once it finished auditing all ARMM projects in the five provinces.

‘Halal’ conduct among officials

A PARALLEL move was also taken by the BTA. This time, it asked the Darul-Ifta to issue an Islamic ruling on Halal conduct of BARMM officials and employees. The DarulIfta is Islam’s house of jurisprudence, which issues fatwa or Islamic ruling.

This time, the BTA wanted to know, and be guided “on what constitutes Halal conduct of Bangsa­ moro officials and employees.”

“The concept of Halal is generally considered in legislation as only regarding the permissible food, drinks and goods, and the manner of ‘purity’ of such items.

But Halal also encompasses the permissible actions of an individual, which in the context of this resolution, [are] the permissible actions of the public servant, and the purity of their actions,” said Abdullah Hashim, a member of the Parliament, as members of the BTA are called.

Hashim introduced the resolution in the plenary last week and stated that “moral governance holds politicians accountable not only to the public but also to the Creator.”

“The BARMM officials and staff are khalifa, or stewards of Allah, and must act with the utmost responsibility, integrity, loyalty, and efficiency,” the resolution read.

He said Darul-Ifta “is the best agency to define Halal acts, which will guide the Bangsamoro officials toward serving the public with “integrity, loyalty and efficiency, act with patriotism and justice, and

lead modest lives.”

The Bangsamoro Parliament also encouraged all newly appointed employees to take their “oath of moral governance” before the Office of the Wali.

Welfare actions

ELSEWHERE, BARMM has also moved to grant Civil Service (CS) eligibility to employees who served continuously for at least seven years. Parliament Bill 91, filed by Dr. Saffrullah Dipatuan, intends to cover temporary government employees occupying career posts for seven years.

“While these temporary employees are equipped with the educational requirement, training and experience for the career service position to which they are appointed, they lack the appropriate CS eligibility that will qualify them for the permanent appointment to their current positions,” Dipatuan said.

He said that in 1990, Congress passed Republic Act 6850, which granted CS eligibility to government employees on provisional or temporary status who served for at least seven years.

“If temporary employees covered by RA 6850 were given this opportunity to become permanent, we could not see why the same privilege cannot be extended to temporary employees in BARMM,” he said.

Also last week, the BTA approved a resolution that would protect Moro people outside the BARMM. The resolution was in reaction to the arrests allegedly without warrants of Muslims in Cavite in March. It also came as a reaction to reports of abductions and killings of some 80 Moro residents in Polomolok, South Cotabato, since 2017, on suspicion that they allegedly supported terrorist actions.

House Deputy Speaker Mujiv Hataman, the last governor of

operation and support for Afghan institutions.”

Georgia’s last troops returned home Monday, while Romania brought home its remaining 140 troops Saturday, when Norway also pulled out. Troops from Denmark, Estonia and the Netherlands also returned home last week. Spain withdrew its last troops on May 13, Sweden on May 25, and Belgium on June 14. The small contingents deployed by Portugal, the Czech Republic, Slovenia, Finland, Albania, North Macedonia and Luxembourg have left as well.

The pullout is nearing its end as security in Afghanistan worsens. Since May 1, when the withdrawal began, the Taliban have overrun district after district, including along major transportation routes. Many have fallen after Afghan soldiers surrendered, often convinced to leave their posts by elders. But elsewhere there have been bitter military battles, with Afghan troops sometimes losing when their positions could not be resupplied.

The US military commander in Afghanistan, Gen. Austen S. Miller, meanwhile, expressed concern about the resurrection of militias, which were deployed to help the beleaguered national security forces but have a brutal reputation for widespread killing.

“A civil war is certainly a path that can be visualized if this continues on the trajectory it’s on right now, that should be of concern to the world,” he said.

At a ceremony last week to mark the official end of the Dutch deployment, Dutch Defense Minister Ank Bijleveld-Schouten underscored the uncertain outlook.

“We see reports of the rise of the Taliban, growing violence, also in areas where we were stationed,” she said. “A lot has been achieved but we must be realistic: The results are not irreversible.”

the ARMM before it was reconstituted to become the BARMM, has called for an investigation into these incidents.

Transition

THE BTA, however, has only one more year to complete its mandate to craft the basic laws of the Bangsamoro Region but has so far enacted three of priority legislations on Administrative Code, Civil Service Code and Education Code.

It has yet to enact the other important and basic codes on local government, electoral and revenue, said BTA Speaker Atty. Pangalian Balindong.

The BARMM officialdom, composed of the key leadership of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, has expressed its wish for an extension, citing several instances abroad where autonomous regional governments took more than 10 years to work out a functional autonomous government.

Civil society organizations have gathered more than one million signatures in the first quarter of this year and attached them to a petition to Malacañang, requesting President Duterte to certify as urgent the bills in both chambers of Congress seeking an extension of at least another three years of the transition period for the BTA. President Duterte was yet to issue any certification, but Mary Ann Arnado, secretary general of civil society group Mindanao People’s Caucus, said the President may not have issued the certification yet but she said Malacañang has been in frequent meetings with BARMM officials lately.

“I believe that the President knows that it would be one of his greatest legacies to consolidate the peace gains in Mindanao by granting the BARMM enough working space to work out an autonomous region,” she said.

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Eighty-year-old Japanese company may be key to next-generation chip technology

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By Pavel Alpeyev & Yuki Furukawa

ne Japanese company that got its start making grinding wheels for machinery more than 80 years ago believes it holds the key to helping manufacturers create ever slimmer and more powerful semiconductors to power next-generation mobile phones and advanced computers.

Disco Cor p.’s mac h ines ca n g r i nd a s i l icon w a fe r d o w n to a ne a r - t r a n s pa re nt t h i nness a nd c ut t he t ip of a ha ir into 35 sect ions. T hat k now-

how w i l l a l low c h ipma kers to st ac k i nteg rated c i rc u it s on top of eac h ot her in a process ca l led 3D pac k ag ing , prom i s i n g s m a l l e r c h ip fo ot pr i nt s ,

re du c e d p o w e r con s u mpt ion and higher bandw idth bet w e e n v a r iou s p a r t s .

“Imagine having to cut a croissant cleanly in half,” Disco’s Chief Executive Officer Kazuma Sekiya said in an interview. “That takes a special kind of knife and considerable craftsmanship.”

The semiconductor industry has long relied on Moore’s Law as a model for chip-technology breakthroughs, but makers are now approaching the physical limits of their ability to cram more transistors onto silicon as leaders like Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company migrate to eversmaller nodes such as 3 nanometer s. That’s prompting manufacturers to turn to solutions like 3D packaging to provide an edge. Disco’s technology has been in the making for four to five years and it’s finally

ready for practical use, Sekiya said.

The small number of specialized machines Disco has already shipped has had very high gross margins, the CEO said, without providing details.

Dicers are typically used toward the end of the fabrication process to cut individual chips from a wafer. Slicing more chips earlier in the process, where per-unit prices are higher, resulting in a boost for Disco’s revenues, he added, declining to give a specific timeline.

“Disco has grown at twice the semiconductor industry’s pace because of this need for precision grinding and dicing equipment,” Damian Thong, an analyst at Macquarie Group Ltd., said.

“Over the last 40 years, they have worked on every kind of cutting application imaginable, so they are well positioned for this next shift to 3D integration

and packaging.”

Some memory chips and image sensors—devices that convert light into ones and zeros—already make use of vertical integration.

TSMC has said it will spend about one tenth of its $30-billion capital expenditure budget this year on advanced packaging and masking technologies.

Sekiya’s grandfather founded the company in 1937 to cash in on demand for grinding equipme nt a m i d Ja p a n’s p re - w a r militar y buildup. After the war, Disco’s abrasive wheels found use in g r ind ing mag nets for electricity meters and slitting fountain pen nibs. In 1974, it was tasked by the University of Tokyo with the job of cutting the moon rock brought back by the Apollo 11 mission.

It opened its US of f ice in

1969, a year after Intel Corp. was founded and at the very dawn of the microchip revolution. Disco is now one of a number of littleknown Japanese companies that are indispensable to semiconductor production. It controls 81 percent of the market for grinders and 73 percent for dicers in semiconductors, according to Nomura Securities Co. Disco’s revenue grew 30 percent last fiscal year to 182.9 billion yen ($1.65 billion), while profit jumped almost 46 percent to 53.1 billion yen. Both were at a record high, in part as manufacturers raced to boost supplies in a global chip shortage. Sekiya said there are still no signs of slack in demand and Disco is shopping for land in Hiroshima and Nagano prefectures to expand its factories. Bloomberg News

How offices look after Covid: Wider hallways, fewer desks

By Dee-Ann Durbin

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AP Business Writer

R AND R APIDS, Michiga n—T he coron av i r u s already changed the way we work. Now it’s changing the physical space, too.

Many companies are making adjustments to their offices to help employees feel safer as they return to in-person work, like improving air circulation systems or moving desks further apart. Others are ditching desks and building more conference rooms to accommodate employees who still work remotely but come in for meetings.

Architects and designers say this is a time of experimentation and reflection for employers. Steelcase, an office furniture company based in Grand Rapids, Michigan, says its research indicates half of global companies plan major redesigns to their office space this year.

“This year caused you to think, maybe even more fundamentally than you ever have before, ‘Hey, why do we go to an office?’” said Natalie Engels, a San Jose, California-based design principal at Gensler, an architecture firm.

Not every company is making changes, and Engels stresses that they don’t have to. She tells clients to remember what worked well—and what didn’t—before the pandemic.

But designers say many companies are looking for new ways to make employees feel safe and invigorated at the office, especially as a labor crunch makes hiring more difficult.

That’s what drove food and pharmaceutical company Ajinomoto to overhaul the design of its new North American headquarters outside Chicago last year.

Ajinomoto’s employees returned to in-person work in May to a building with wider hallways

Carcinogens still vex pharmaceutical industry years after recalls started

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By Anna Edney

ears after mi l lions of blood-pressure pills were reca l led for conta ining potent i a l ly c a ncer - c ausi ng chemica ls, US reg u lators are st i l l g rappl i ng w it h c u rbi ng contaminants that keep turning up in tainted drugs.

A task force of Food and Drug Administration chemists, toxicologists and analytical lab staff have been meeting regularly since 2018 to find out how the chemicals, called nitrosamines, get into drugs, how widespread the issue is—and how to eliminate them from medicines.

So far, that target has proved elusive.

“Despite the nearly two and a half years into this contamination issue, we have, still, many ongoing challenges,” Sruthi King, associate director of pharmacology and toxicology in the FDA’s generic drugs office, said at a public meeting involving some members of the task force in March.

While the recalls have slowed, contamination episodes persist. In recent weeks, a nitrosamine was found in a popular smoking-cessation drug and a widely used diabetes treatment. Two tuberculosis therapies were found to be tainted with nitrosamines last year.

To try to prevent shortages, the FDA adopted temporary nitrosamine limits in 2018. It allowed exposure to one of the most common of the class of chemicals, NDMA, of 96 nanograms a day, and set caps for similar agents. The curbs

are based on levels not exceeding a theoretical excess cancer risk of one in 100,000.

If a drug had nitrosamines above the limits, it could be recalled. In September, the agency said those initial thresholds represented its official guidance for nitrosamine levels.

It’s unclear if the agency’s early goal of expunging nitrosamines from pills is attainable. Complicated manufacturing processes and a complex global supply chain for pharmaceutical ingredients are making it difficult to determine all the ways drugs can be contaminated.

While some industries that faced similar problems were able to solve them with production fixes, others have had to accept the possibility that embedded in their products is a remote risk of cancer.

Better screening

Nitrosamines can be reduced or prevented from forming in some pharmaceuticals, said Jeremy Kahn, an FDA spokesman.

“For other drugs, the FDA has determined that the presence of a nitrosamine is due to factors that warrant limiting the amount in the final drug product to levels that will not result in an unacceptable risk over a lifetime of use,” he said.

With better detection techniques, more companies are finding products that contain low levels of nitrosamines, FDA chemists and toxicologists said at the March meeting. Those occurrences often aren’t made public since they don’t

and glass panels between cubicles, to give them more space and try to make them feel more secure.

To improve mental health, the company transformed a planned work area into a spa-like “relaxation room” with reclining chairs and soft music. A test kitchen is wired for virtual presentations in case clients don’t want to travel.

And a cleaning crew comes through twice a day, leaving Post-it notes to show what’s been disinfected.

“Maybe it’s over the top, but maybe it provides comfort to those that have sensitivities to returning to an in-person work environment,” said Ryan Smith, the executive vice president of Ajinomoto North America. Smith estimates 40 percent of the new headquarters design changed due to Covid.

Shobha Surya, an associate manager of projects and sales at Ajinomoto, is energized by the space.

“The office gives you a balance

of work and home life,” she said.

“You are more focused here and don’t have any distractions.”

Surya said she’s also thrilled to be working alongside her coworkers again.

She’s not alone. Surveys show the thing employees miss most about office work is socializing and collaborating with colleagues, said Lise Newman, workplace practice director at architecture firm SmithGroup. Companies are trying to encourage that rapport by building more social hubs for employees. Some mimic coffee houses, with wood floors, booth seating and pendant lamps.

“Companies are trying to create the sense that this is a cool club that people want to come into,” Newman said.

Steelcase has divided one of its lobbies into cozy meeting spaces of varying sizes, separated by plantfilled partitions. Mobile video monitors can be wheeled in so that

people working remotely can be included in discussions.

But after a year of working from home, some employees crave privacy, so Steelcase added more glassed-in booths for private calls and cocoon-like cubicles with small sliding doors.

Mark Bryan, a senior interior designer with Columbus, Ohiobased M+A Architects, expects a more fluid office culture in the future, with different places to work on any given day. Introverts might choose a small, private room; extroverts, a table in the office café.

Some office changes reflect a new commitment to hybrid work.

Valiant Technologies, which provides tech support and other services to businesses, is letting its employees work primarily at home but has them reserve a desk for the days they want to come to the office. The New York company has removed rows of desks

and put more space between the remaining ones. Employees leave their keyboard, mouse and headsets in lockers.

Megan Quick, a sales associate with Valiant, said she appreciated the company allowing her to ease back into office life this month.

“It will take a lot of time for us to readjust,” she said. “Valiant letting us set our pace for returning makes me feel safe.”

Not every design change will stick. Last summer, when Steelcase started bringing back some workers, they pushed tables in the cafeteria far apart from each other and only allowed one person per table. It made the space so depressing that no one wanted to sit there, Steelcase CEO Jim Keane said.

“An important lesson is that, yes, it has to be safe, but also has to be inspiring,” he said. “People are actually going to expect more from offices in the future.”

meet the recall threshold.

Drugmakers are “being surprised quite frequently” by the results of FDA-requested testing of their products, Deborah Johnson, an agency chemist, told the March workshop, while not naming specific companies or medications.

The FDA didn’t respond to questions about which dr ugs have tested positive for nitrosamine levels below the agency’s acceptable limit.

Regulators are weighing the feasibility of eliminating impurities against the medical necessity of a drug, Robert Dorsam, a pharmacologist and toxicologist in the FDA’s Office of Generic Drugs, said at the meeting. “We’re looking more heavily at that riskbenefit scenario for a particular drug and a particular population,” Dorsam said.

be seen as a success story of the brewing industry.”

Nitrosamines also show up in meat. While producers have tried to lower consumers’ exposure, the carcinogens remain. The FDA says a pound of bacon contains as much as 354 nanograms of NDMA, roughly three and a half times the daily limit for drugs. Few people eat a pound of bacon at a sitting, but most who take medication for a chronic disease do so once a day or more for life. Eisenbrand said that while it would be easier to remove nitrosamines from drugs, he would expect it to take time, and the industry could draw on what other businesses have learned.

“If steps can be taken to completely avoid the presence of them, of nitrosamines, I think that’s better for everybody but as we all know that’s not always possible,” Timothy McGovern, associate director for pharmacology and toxicology in the FDA’s drug center, said during the March FDA task force meeting.

it contained NDMA. It was the 17th metformin recall related to NDMA in a year.

Charles W hite, a professor at the University of Connecticut’s School of Pharmacy, wrote a commentary in the Journal of the American Medical Association this year listing drugs he thought had the potential to form NDMA. One was migraine medication sumatriptan, which GlaxoSmithKline Plc sells under the name Imitrex. Testing by the company found levels of nitrosamines below the acceptable limit, a spokesman said. Glaxo hasn’t identified any further action that needs to be taken, she said.

Ten million prescriptions for sumatriptan, both brand and generic, were written last year in the US, according to Bloomberg data.

finding a simple fix, the circumstances under which drugs have become tainted vary.

NDM A showed up in some blood-pressure pills called angiotensin II receptor blockers, or ARBs, because the solvent used to break down ingredients wasn’t properly eliminated, yielding a reaction that formed the carcinogen, the FDA has said.

Johnson, the FDA chemist, said at the March meeting that other routes of formation have also been found, including some that, like malting, involve extracting moisture. She said she doesn’t think “we still truly have a complete understanding of all the possible ways” the impurities could form.

In the case of digestive drug ranitidine, sold under the brand Zantac, the FDA asked companies to take pills off the market last year after they were found to form NDMA over time or in high temperatures. Bloomberg News

Brewing trouble

Drugmakers aren’t the first industry to deal with nitrosamines.

Decades ago, a similar problem jolted brewers.

In 1979, researchers at the German Cancer Research Center discovered that beer contained NDMA, one of the researchers, Gerhard Eisenbrand, said in an interview. NDMA formed when malt, the source of sugar in beer, was dried in high-heat kilns and browned. Natural nitrous oxide in the hot air formed a reaction that created NDMA, Eisenbrand said.

The industry changed the process by converting to indirect-heat kilns and largely eliminated the carcinogen, Eisenbrand said. German food chemist Dirk Lachenmeier wrote in Brewing Science in 2007 that the “almost complete prevention of NDMA in beer can

Still surfacing

Indeed, ta inted dr ugs keep surfacing. Pfizer Inc. said last week that it halted distribution of smoking-cessation therapy Chantix after detecting elevated nitrosamines. It is recalling an unspecified number of pills.

Pfizer found Chantix that was contaminated with a nitrosamine called N-nitroso-varenicline, the company said. Pfizer said the nitrosamine may form from a chemical reaction involving the drug’s active ingredient, varenicline.

Last month, India-based Cadila Healthcare Ltd. recalled extendedrelease versions of the diabetes drug metformin after finding that

Different circumstances

A dding to the difficu lt y in

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Summer is already off to a wild start

E

By Brian K. Sullivan & Dave Merrill

the Atlantic are above average and typical of what you would see in an active year, Klotzbach said.

Many parts of the Caribbean, Central America and the US are still trying to recover from past hurricane seasons. Louisiana, and Honduras and Nicaragua, were all hit by back-to-back hurricanes in 2020, with hurricanes Iota and Eta leaving hundreds dead in Central America. The storms caused $3 billion in damage to Honduras, Guatemala, and Nicaragua, according to UN and government estimates.

“Climate change is compounding the misery of people living in these vulnerable communities,” Tom Cotter, director of emergency response and preparedness at Project HOPE, a Virginia-based humanitarian organization, said in an interview in May.

xtreme temperatures in China coupled with a lack of hydropower forced blackouts in some of its largest industrial cities last month. A rare and short-lived subtropical storm popped up in the South Atlantic off Argentina and Uruguay. And record heat continues to sear Canada and the Pacific Northwest, while drought crackled the entire western US, leaving it primed to burn.

Summer in the Northern Hemisphere is just days old, but the extremes keep piling up. The conditions driving these events—heat, ocean warming, changes in longstanding weather patterns—aren’t going away anytime soon, meaning the worst may be yet to come.

While forecasters have known for weeks that this summer was going to brutal, that’s done nothing to lessen the shock as the records and casualties mount. More than 60 people have died during the current heat wave in Oregon, and more than 300 have perished in British Columbia. “It’s just a matter of running up the score, at this point,” said Judah Cohen, director of seasonal forecasting at Atmospheric and Environmental Research, part of risk analytics firm Verisk.

The US has led the world in economic losses from climate-related disasters, which totaled $944.8 billion from 1998 to 2017. China was second with $492.2 billion and Japan third with $376.3 billion, according to the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction. Extreme weather cost the US $45.4 billion per year on average from 1980 to 2021, according to the National Centers for Environmental Information. There were nearly two-dozen $1 billion disasters last year, which

killed 262 people and cost a total of $96.4 billion, the fourth most ever.

And the frequency of such events is rising.

The culprit behind these events is increasingly clear and obvious: climate change. In the case of a tornado that ripped across the Czech Republic last week, for instance, a cold and wet spring followed by record June heat transferred latent energy into the atmosphere, which resulted in the extreme weather.

Scientists at Austria’s Central Institute for Meteorology and Geodynamics said hotter temperatures caused by climate change were to blame. The cyclone left five dead.

Even as much of the world is suffering, the US stands to be pu m me led es pec i a l ly h a rd b y severe weather and the f luctuations of a changing climate. A warm pool in the North Pacific is creating a ridge of high pressure that’s bending the jet stream and its wet winter storms away from California, leaving the Southwest dr y, said Jennifer Francis, a senior scientist with the Woodwell Climate Research Center.

Missing Arctic sea ice due to climate change could well be fueling that ridge. The entire mechanism got a boost this year because there

was a La Niña in the Pacific, which tends to favor a drier California and West.

“Losing ice in this area allows the ocean to absorb extra heat during the summer, which is released into the atmosphere during fall and winter,” Francis said in a March interview. “That extra heat is what beefs up the ridge that fuels the drought.”

Across 11 western states, more than 98 percent of the land is abnormally dry, and drought has taken hold across more than 93 percent, according to the US Drought Monitor. Conditions are so dry, the wildfire threat has arrived in many places a month early, Gina Palma, a US Department of Agriculture forecaster said in June.

The threat is forecast to be above normal from the Pacific Northwest down the Rocky Mountains in the east and the coastal and Sierra Nevada ranges in California come July, according to the National Interagency Fire Center. In August that danger zone will spread across Montana and into North Dakota and South Dakota. This comes a year after record fires charred California and Colorado. Through June 29, more than 30,000 wildfires had sparked this year across the US, up 25 percent from this point in 2020.

They’ve burned more than 1.4 million acres, according to the National

Interagency Fire Center, the same amount as last year and less than the average acreage of just under 2.1 million.

The Atlantic hurricane season has already begun On the opposite side of the country, from the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of Maine, people are grappling with what will be another over-active hurricane season. The same goes for populations in the Caribbean, Central America, and Canada. While 2021 isn’t forecast to reach the 30-storm record of 2020, the season will likely produce more than the 14-system average. Five have already spun up in the Atlantic.

“This season is off to a fast start,” said Phil Klotzbach, lead author of the Colorado State University seasonal hurricane forecast. “While in general, early season activity isn’t much of a harbinger of what may come later in the season, if we get storms forming in the eastern and central tropical Atlantic prior to August, that is typically a harbinger of a very active season.”

On Thursday, Tropical Storm Elsa Thursday formed about 700 miles east of the Windward Islands, which include the nations Dominica, Grenada, and Martinique—exactly in Klotzbach’s area of concern.

Overall, water temperatures in

Arctic warming is having a global impact Temperatures may run above normal in much of the western and northern US, across eastern Europe and into the Middle East through August, according to the forecast

by Columbia University’s International Research Institute for Climate and Society. But the biggest deviations toward warming will be in Greenland and along Russia’s Arctic Ocean coastline, a trend long seen by scientists.

That warmth at the Arctic coast is a problem, Cohen said. Research indicates the sharp divide in temperatures between the Arctic Ocean, which still retains some of its ice, and the very warm shoreline drags the jet stream far to the north.

Because the far north is so warm, the contrast between temperatures there and at the equator is less than it used to be, which weakens the weather patterns. In between the pole and the equator is “no man’s land, so these heat domes get trapped in between,” Cohen said.

Heat domes are mountains of high pressure that bring extreme temperatures. It was a heat dome that baked Portland, causing it to break its all-time temperature record three days in a row. In Canada,

Lytton Area in British Columbia posted the nation’s highest temperatures ever on Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday. The final mark reached 121 degrees—warmer than Dallas, Texas has ever been.

“It’s mind-boggling,” said Daniel Swain, a climate scientist at the University of California Los Angeles. “And I say that as a meteorologist, as well as a climate scientist. It is incredible to see these particular places get so hot on so many consecutive days.”

It isn’t just Canada and the US that have cooked in the last few weeks. Moscow posted its warmest June day since the time of Czar Nicholas II. Taiwan faces its worst drought as well, which drove up food prices and threatened chipmakers.

The United Arab Emirates sweltered through a high of 125 degrees Fahrenheit (52 Celsius) only to be bested by a 128-degree reading in California’s Death Valley two weeks ago.

And another heat dome is baking the Caspian Sea, where records are expected to fall.

Harmful effects of heat K imberly McM ahon, public weather services program manager for the US National Weather Service, calls heat “the silent killer. It is not something visual like a tornado or a hurricane.”

Even when it doesn’t kill, it makes life significantly harder. Power lines can’t transmit as much electricity in extremely hot conditions. Airplanes can’t carry as much weight because the air is less dense. Roads buckle, as happened in Oregon and Washington this week, McMahon said.

While there isn’t a completed investigation into the Pacific Northwest heat dome’s provenance, climate change is its likely parent.

“Without human-induced climate change, it would have been a lmost impossible to hit such record-breaking mean June temperatures in the western United States,” said Nikos Christidis, a climate scientist with the UK Met Office. “ The chances of natural occurrence is once in every tens of thousands of years.” Bloomberg News

Where can you fly right now? Big push to bridge the Atlantic divide

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he lucrative North Atlantic flight corridor that links European tourism and business meccas like Paris and London with the US has been starved for traffic for the past 18 months, depriving some of the world’s biggest airlines of revenue from their most profitable journeys.

Now carriers including Emirates, United Airlines Holdings Inc. and British Airways are gearing up again, with plans to boost transatlantic seat capacity by 40 percent collectively in the eight weeks through August 23, according to data from flight tracking firm OAG. It ’s not a sure gamble. T he Delta variant of the coronavirus has spread to more countr ies, clouding the outlook for a further progress toward a reopening of the vital routes.

Since late June, European Union countries including Italy, Spain and Greece have allowed American tourists to enter again if they’ve been vaccinated or meet other conditions like testing Covid-free.

Starting as soon as late July, the UK—home to Europe’s most important transatlantic hub at London Heathrow airport—separately plans to allow arrivals from the US and other countries rated medium for Covid-19 risk to come in without quarantine if they’ve been inoculated.

But the US hasn’t yet reciprocated, so Europeans still aren’t al-

lowed to vacation in New York, Los Angeles or Miami. With the delta variant adding a new layer of risk, hopes are fading that the Biden administration will act before the summer high season is over. Calls are growing to ignore the rising case loads and allow vaccinated people to travel, since health officials are increasingly confident that they are at little risk of serious illness or spreading the disease.

“Our two continents have been kept apart during the pandemic by sometimes justified, sometimes unjustified actions by our political masters,’’ Henrik Hololei, director general for transportation at the European Commission, said at a joint event with US officials this week. “Now, when the vaccination process is well under way on both shores of the Atlantic, there should be no excuse not to open up for people who want to travel, see their relatives and friends, or just new and old places.”

The biggest airlines that ply the North Atlantic are all boosting capacity in anticipation of a surge in demand. British Airways, owned by IAG SA, has set plans to more than quadruple the number of seats it will offer over the coming weeks, according to data from OAG—setting it up for a potential letdown if there’s no breakthrough. The carrier said it continues to review its schedule, and urged the UK “to open up more

low-risk countries, let vaccinated people travel without restriction, and to urgently provide a realistic date for these crucial steps for the industry to work to.”

Carr iers including Deutsche Lufthansa AG, Air France-KLM, American Airlines Group Inc. and Delta Air Lines Inc. also rely on the corridor for profits. In 2019, North Atlantic f lights generated 40 percent more business- and first-class ticket sales than the nearest contender, according to OAG. “The peak of the summer is already here so airlines are pretty desperate to get things moving,” said John Strickland, an aviation consultant.

Globa l av iation capacit y jumped by 3 percentage points in the past week, and stands at 65 percent of 2019 levels, according to Bloomberg’s weekly flight tracker, which uses OAG data to monitor the pulse of the comeback. Further improvement was seen in Germany, the biggest source of visitors within the European Union, as well as Croatia, Greece and Belgium. Each country saw capacity surge by more than 20 percent week-to-week. The bloc has been relaxing border restrictions between member-states, as well as from outside the EU, and is steadily catching up to other regions as its vaccine rollout progresses.

Airlines have increased capacity in Canada by 22 percent as it prepares to implement an easing of

border rules. The US, powered by its huge domestic market, stands at 87 percent of 2019 capacity, even as staffing issues slow its rebound. Pilot shortages there could potentially spread to other countries, said John Grant, chief analyst with OAG. “The key learning for all airlines is that the recovery has been quicker than many had expected, especially in domestic markets where there are limited travel restrictions,” Grant said. “No airline can afford to enter the recovery phase and be cancelling flights,” though with load factors still soft rescheduling passengers shouldn’t be too much of an issue, he said.

In the Middle East, the annual Eid holiday is expected to generate a surge in traffic, with more than 450,000 people moving through Emirates’ Dubai hub in July. The long-distance specialist said this week that it may ramp up transatlantic capacity even further, depending on changes in the feeder markets in its network.

Asia continues to be held back by zero-Covid restrictions and its lagging vaccine rollout, which has left the region vulnerable to the delta variant’s spread.

There is some movement toward targeted reopenings. In Thailand, the government is pushing ahead with plans to jump-start its crucial tourism industry. Starting Thursday, inoculated tourists from lowand medium-risk countries such as

the US and Spain will be allowed to holiday on the popular resort island of Phuket without quarantining. If successful, the experiment could lead to a wider reopening of the Thai tourism industry as soon as October.

At the same time, though, Australia’s strong flight recovery is under threat. Local lockdowns to counter outbreaks have hurt the domestic recovery, while the corridor with New Zealand has now been suspended.

European comeback The degree to which Europe can extend its recovery in July and August hinges on governments’ response to the delta variant, as well as their ability to coordinate on technology.

As of July 1, digital Covid certificates went live across the EU, allowing for ease of movement between member-states for people who can show they’ve been fully vaccinated, recovered or tested negative for Covid-19. But each country has ultimate control of its own borders, and there has been a push led by Germany to close ranks against the delta variant after it spread in the UK Over the past week, Germany imposed quarantine on arrivals from member-state Portugal, after the Iberian country was slow to introduce its own isolation rules on Britons.

M a lt a , Spa i n a nd It a ly a re among the EU countries that have also tightened restrictions on Brit-

ish visitors. That’s stunted the UK’s own rebound, and helped to curtail the advantages that were expected to f low from a vaccine rollout that has now reached 67 percent of the population with at least one dose. For now, airlines such as Ryanair Holdings Plc, Wizz Air Holdings Plc and EasyJet Plc have shifted capacity from Britain into the EU. Meanwhile, UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson and his German counterpart Angela Merkel will on Friday discuss opening up travel, including vaccine certification coordination. An issue that caused Brits to be turned back from flights to Malta this week was resolved after the Mediterranean island country said it would recognize the UK’s NHS health app, which stores vaccination records.

Ryanair remains hopeful, amid the reports the UK may loosen quarantine rules for its residents this month. It’s aiming to almost double capacity in July from June’s 5 million passengers, Chief Executive Officer Michael O’Leary said in a Bloomberg TV interview. He said bookings are strengthening as tourists from Germany, the Benelux and Scandinavia head to the beaches of Portugal, Spain, Greece and Italy.

“We expect that to continue into July and August, which should make for a reasonable recovery,” he said.

Bloomberg News

Science

BusinessMirror

www.businessmirror.com.ph • Editor: Lyn Resurreccion

ITDI@120 gearing up for ‘new normal’ and beyond

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he Industrial Technology Development Institute (ITDI) of the Department of Science and Technology (DOST) celebrated its 120th foundation day on July 1—prepared to face the “new challenges it will hurdle under the new normal.”

With the theme, “Paglago at Pagunlad sa Isang Daan at Dalawampung Taon ng ITDI,” the institute is moving forward with its research and development (R&D) initiatives that promote science, technology and innovation as guided by the department’s 4K approach.

These are in “kalusugan, kaayusan, kabuhayan, kinabukasan” (health, order, livelihood and future).

Notable technologies since 1901

Tracing its roots to the Bureau of Science in 1901, DOST-ITDI has developed notable technologies or innovations that are now widely used by industries in the country.

These include the tiki-tiki extract, a significant discovery that helped stop the spread of beri-beri that affected women and children globally. The extract is still being marketed today under the brand United American Tiki-tiki.

Its various innovations also found their way in shopfloors of industries, particularly those of the micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs).

These include technologies on solid waste management, such as the bioreactor and dual-drum composter, fast but natural vinegar-making with the acetator kit and food processing solutions or equipment at the Food Innovation Centers located nationwide.

DOS T-I T DI a l so a ssi sted t he industry, the academe and private individuals through its technical services, such as lab analyses and testing, calibration, trainings, energy audit, technology transfer, and client consultations and visits.

These services helped the stakeholders improve their processes and overall productivity and make them competitive in both the local and international markets.

Health and wellness

For kalusugan (health), DOST-ITDI’s technologies include the ovi-larvicidal trap for dengue prevention; supplements made from local crops, such as guyabano capsules and MOSYMU, a capsulated mix of powdered moringa, duhat and unripe banana that help reduce blood sugar; and dietary fiber from calamansi peels.

Virgin coconut oil (VCO), developed by ITDI’s Food Processing Division, is now used as additive to food and personal care products, such creams and shampoos.

It is reviving the production of VCO for its properties against the Covid-19.

Orderly society

Under kaayusan (order), the institute’s Advanced Device and Materials Testing Laboratory is working with the Advanced Science and Technology Institute and the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency on Intelligent Data Analysis System (IDAS).

A software designed to be a tool in investigating illegal drug trafficking, IDAS can conduct multivariate analyses on methamphetamine-HCI chemical fingerprints and produce kinetic stability models. It is also effective as an IT tool for other fields.

The institute’s innovations and services for disaster risk reduction and mitigation include the development and improvement of its Pack of Hope ready-to-eat foods, mungbean-coconut drink and isotonic drink.

It is also harnessing the life-saving applications of its abaca fiber-reinforced composite, which can be used as an alternative material in building rescue boats and aerial drones.

Business partner

The institute has helped the MSMEs and industries to improve their businesses with its kabuhayan (livelihood) innovations.

DOST-ITDI opened its Modular Multi-Industry Innnovation Center (MMIC) dubbed Innohub sa Pinas this year. It is the country’s first one-stop food and nutraceutical innovation hub.

MMIC uses the backend innovation approach, wherein the last product that comes out from the processing, practically waste, get a new life. Here, waste become new product prototypes, such as tomato pomace sauce, dietary fiber from calamansi rinds and other powder blends made from fruit peels, seeds, cores, rinds and leaves.

These new facilities will soon open their doors to stakeholders: National Metrology Division’s Metrology in Chemistry and Metrology in Biology laboratories and Packaging Technology Division’s Simulated Packaging and Testing Laboratory and Green Packaging Laboratory.

These facilities will offer industries with technical services in the development of reference materials and in the testing and development of smart and eco-friendly packaging solutions, respectively.

Meanwhile, its Technological Services Division has been conducting various trainings and seminars for decades, particularly on livelihood technologies.

During the Covid-19 pandemic, the trainings became virtual, making ITDI technologies and processes more accessible to interested parties through Zoom webinars, e-manuals and instructional videos via Facebook or YouTube.

Moving beyond the new normal

Beyond the current health crisis, the institute continues to build its capability for kinabukasan (future) to address any eventuality and keep on innovating.

T he Advanced Manufactur ing Center, whose Materials Development (Matdev) component is housed at the institute’s Material Science Division, used its 3D printing expertise to design and produce face shields and ear protectors for the medical front liners.

They also designed and produced various parts of hospital equipment such as venturi valves, respirator parts and N95 masks. Matdev continues to develop 3D printing materials for various applications using local resources to reduce cost and be competitive.

DOST-ITDI also plays a critical role in establishing the country’s Virology Science and Technology Institute of the Philippines, where experts on genetic engineering, pathology, biochemistry and other related fields will conduct R&D studies on viruses, disease control and vaccine development. Reginald Roy

U. de la Cruz/S&T Media Service

DOST: ₧532M spent on envi projects, as single-use plastics R&D is underway

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he Department of Science and Technology (DOST) had spent P532 million on 146 projects, supporting innovative technologies, programs and services that addressed env ironmental issues, including solid waste management, over the last decade.

Science Secretary Fortunato T. de la Peña pointed this out in an online news conference on July 1, where the department also announced a new research and development (R&D) project on single-use plastics related to the phase-out of non-environmentally acceptable products (NEAP).

The DOST will conduct the R&D initiative on the “End of Life Cycle Analysis of Single-Use Plastics,” which will look into the economic and life cycle assessment of specific single-use plastic and its alternatives.

“This will help [DOST] in crafting responsive policies to manage the environmental implications from the use of such materials,” DOST Undersecretary for Research and Development Rowena Cristina L. Guevara said during the same briefing.

The NEAP list is one of the key provisions of Republic Act 9003, or the Ecological Solid Waste Management Act of 2000.

The law mandates the National Solid Waste Management Commission (NSWMC) to prepare a NEAP list within a year after the law’s effectivity and update the same list every year. The DOST is a member of the NSWMC.

All-hands-on-deck approach

“These [environmental] projects have been implemented in various parts of the country and the technologies [they] generated have been adopted at various levels,” de la Pena said.

He pointed out that the DOST maintains equal consideration of all sectors in implementing projects and believes in a “whole-of-government” approach in addressing environmental concerns.

“We believe in an all-hands-on-deck science-based approach in our phaseout of non-environmentally acceptable products with utmost consideration to environmental protection, sustainable development, economic viability and social acceptability,” he said.

Sunday

Sunday, July 4, 2021

A5

EU to launch Copernicus space program in PHL in Q3

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he European Union (EU) is pursuing its Copernicus and Galileo space programs in the Philippines to help the country respond to disasters, environmental challenges and even the Covid-19 pandemic.

In a news release, the EU Delegation to the Philippines announced during its recent webinar dubbed, “Beyond the Stars, Reach out to the Skies,” the deployment of the National Copernicus Capacity Support Action Program for the Philippines (CopPhil) in the third quarter of 2021.

Jointly developed by the EU Delegation and the Department of Science and Technology, CopPhil is a €10-million (P580 million) effort, to be implemented by the European Space Agency and the Philippine Space Agency (PhilSA).

Giovanni Serritella, EU Delegation’s cooperation section program manager, said the CopPhil—a pioneering initiative in the Asean—is designed to strengthen the country’s disaster risk preparedness and climate change adaptation.

The webinar presented how the Copernicus and Galileo space programs and other space technologies help in disaster risk prevention in the Philippines, whose location within the ring of fire subject it to volcanic and seismic instability and strong typhoons.

EU's Earth observation program Copernicus offers free information that it draws from the satellite Earth Observation and non-space-based data on the ground and at sea.

Meanwhile, Galileo, its Global Satellite Navigation System or the “European GPS,” provides accurate positioning and timing information.

Related story: https://businessmirror.com.ph/2020/02/09/copernicus-space-program-to-boost-earthobservation-projects-in-phl/

Satellites aid during emergencies The Philippines benefited from the Copernicus Emergency Management Service (EMS) during the Taal Volcano eruption and the onslaught of Typhoons Lando (international code name Koppu), Ompong (Mangkhut) and Rolly (Goni) last year.

Science Secretary Fortunato T. de la Peña said in his keynote speech during the webinar that for years now Filipino scientists and engineers have also been using data and user products from Copernicus satellites through the Sentinel Australasia Regional Access.

These data, he noted, are used for coastal resources management, crop monitoring and food security, among other applications, providing substantial benefits to Filipinos.

“Ca l amit ies cont inue to pose threats to lives and livelihoods of many Filipinos. To address these, we pursue relevant research and development programs and develop innovate and develop [science, technology and innovation]-based solutions to build disaster-resilient communities, while enhancing our coordination and response to these challenges,” de la Peña said.

At the onset of the pandemic, the Copernicus program also provided information on the impact of Covid-19 to the environment and the link between climatic conditions and the spread of the virus.

The EU Delegation said the EMS continues to use satellite imagery and other geospatial data to offer free mapping service during natu-

The panelists at the EU Delegation to the Philippines' recent webinar dubbed, “Beyond the Stars, Reach out to the Skies,” are Dávid Szesztai, head of the Department for Space Activities of Hungary’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs; PhilSA Director-General Joel Joseph S. Marciano Jr.; Miguel Exposito Verdejo, deputy head of unit, Directorate General for International Partnerships of the European Commission; and Giovanni Seritella, programme manager, Cooperation Section of the EU Delegation. The host Stephanie Tumampos is an Erasmus scholar and a BusinessMirror photographer and Science correspondent. Screengrab ral disasters, man-made emergency situations and humanitarian crises throughout the world.

“Our joint action in the field of Earth Observation data is a key deliverable in the context of the EU’s Indo-Pacific Strategy,” said EU Delegation to the Philippines Ambassador Luc Véron.

“It will directly enhance connectivity between Europe and the Asean and respond to the immediate needs of the Philippines [as it is] also an expression of our cooperation to mitigate the economic and human effects of the Covid-19 pandemic and work toward ensuring an inclusive and sustainable socio-economic recovery,” Véron said.

Various applications “Geopositioning data from the Galileo and Earth observation data from the Copernicus can help in many applications,” said Mig uel Exposito Verdejo, deputy head of unit of the Directorate General for International Partnerships of the European Commission.

These include “transport to locate a vehicle without a driver in a specific area; position farming when using fertilizer to determine which crops need more nitrogen; getting medicine to remote areas; and even in the Covid-19 pandemic response.”

Exposito also said the European

Commission will continue to launch five sentinel missions in the next four years, renew sentinels and enhance and increase cooperation to create a more robust ecosystem that provides more reliable data.

Mea nwh i le, Ph i l S A D i rec tor General Joel Joseph S. Marciano Jr. pointed out how the sentinel satellites of the Copernicus program, particularly the Sentinel-1, aided in the f lood-damage assessment in Cagayan after the onslaught of Ty phoons Rolly and Ulysses (international code name Vamco).

These satellites provided data and processing images to detect potentially-flooded areas, he said.

Marciano added that the Sentinel-3 captured images before and after the Taal Volcano eruption last year, which helped determine the extent of damage in nearby areas.

Also among the panelists at the webinar was Dávid Szesztai, head of Department for Space Activities of Hungary’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Hosted by Erasmus scholar Stephanie B. Tumampos, who is specializing in Copernicus technology and is a BusinessMirror photographer and Science correspondent, the webinar was supported by the Manila Observatory, Earth Shaker Philippines, Alliance for Safe, Sustainable and Resilient Environments and Philippine Astronomical Society.

Filipino scientists abroad urged to join Balik Scientist Program

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undreds of Filipino scientists, who have succeeded in their respective professions abroad, have returned to the country and helped in advancing the local science and technology through short- or long-term engagements with the Balik Scientist Program (BSP) of the Department of Science and Technolog y (DOST).

Some of the current BSP awardees invited their fellow Filipino scientists based abroad to become part of the BSP during the BSP online orientation and public consultation titled, "Fostering Collaboration: Balik Scientists as Game-changers Amidst the Covid-19 Pandemic," on June 30.

“BSP is a brain-gain initiative of the DOST, [which] has been instrumental in promoting and implementing science, technology and innovation activities for national development, especially in areas where we have limited local expertise,” Science Secretary Fortunato T. de la Peña said in a news release.

“From its implementation in 1975 until 2020, we were able to work with 564 Balik Scientists through 716 engagements,” he said.

Meanwhile, DOST Undersecretary for Research and Development Rowena Cristina L. Guevara acknowledged the 34 Balik Scientists who continued to serve the scientific and developmental goals of the program despite the challenges brought about by the Covid-19 pandemic.

Guevara added that the program adopted alternative means of engagement, strengthened by the implementation of the Supplemental Guidelines

Balik Scientists Dr. Anna Karen C. Laserna, Dr. Lawrence A. Limjuco and Dr. Guillermo A. Mendoza. and Risk Management Plan that allowed Balik Scientists to be virtually engaged during the pandemic when there were travel restrictions.

Three Balik Scientist awardees shared their notable engagements in the health, industry and agriculture sectors despite the pandemic.

Dr. Anna Karen C. Laserna, a research fellow at the National University of Singapore and a shortterm Balik Scientist, extended her help to the De La Salle UniversityCentral Instrumentation Facility in becoming a center for research in metabolomics.

The facility also partnered with the Philippine Council for Health Research and Development’s Tuklas Lunas Program.

Asean-Republic of Korea for Excellence in Science Awardee, Dr. Lawrence A. Limjuco, discussed how the DOST—through its sectoral planning councils, research and development institutes, collegial and scientific bodies, and scientific and technologi-

cal services—coordinates science and technology-related projects in the country and formulates policies and projects to support national development, especially the BSP. Limjuco also shared the different practices to promote a research-based Material Science and Engineering subject during his engagement with BSP. These include the shift from experimental research to review of related articles, remote learning via international collaborations, onsite activities with strict compliance to safety precaution measures and continuous learning through remote research.

A se ven-t i me Ba l i k Sc ient i st awardee and a consultant to numerous international institutions, such as the US Agency for International Development and UN For um on Forests, Dr. Guillermo A. Mendoza imparted his diverse areas of expertise—ranging from artificial intelligence to watershed management and hydrologic modelling.

Using geospatial technologies,

Screenshot

Mendoza conducted studies in applying precision agriculture principles in potato production and assessing landslide susceptibility.

Sectors of the industry, agriculture and health gravely suffered during this pandemic, BSP said, as it recognized the importance of increasing the number of Filipino scientists, technologists and experts to “help the country move forward and quickly recover.”

It was also through the pandemic that research and development (R&D) became more relevant and needed.

The program offers new avenues and opportunities for extensive and prolonged R&D for the country.

DOST Region 1 Director Armando Q. Ganal encouraged experts to apply to the program and called for institutions to host Balik Scientists.

“We enjoin you to either be a Balik Scientist and share your learnings and skills to the country or be a host agency for our Balik Scientists. Either way, it will always be Science for the People,” Ganal said.

Faith

Sunday

A6 Sunday, July 4, 2021

Editor: Lyn Resurreccion • www.businessmirror.com.ph

Archbishop asks for prayers for sainthood of Ilocano bishop

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Catholic archbishop has called for prayers to advance the cause of the first Ilocano candidate to sainthood.

Archbishop Marlo Peralta blesses the tomb of the Servant of God Alfredo Verzosa after a Mass offered for his 67th death anniversary on June 27. VIGAN CATHEDRAL

Archbishop Marlo M. Peralta of Nueva Segovia made the call during Mass to mark the 67th death anniversary of the Servant of God Alfredo F. Verzosa, on June 27.

In his homily at the Archdiocesan Cathedral of the Conversion of St. Paul the Apostle in Vigan City, Peralta said that all are called to live a holy life by becoming faith-

ful to the vocation one was called to by God. Bishop Verzosa, he said, gave all he had out of his love for God and the people. Peralta said obedience and humility are among the virtues of the bishop that are worth emulating.

Born in Vigan on December 9, 1877, the Servant of God grew up

and took his early education at the latter part of the Spanish rule.

He started his seminary formation in Vigan and continued it at the Colegio de San Juan de Letrán in Manila. He pursued his Theological studies at the University of Santo Tomás.

The bishop was in Manila when the revolution broke out, making him a witness to the struggle of Filipinos for independence and the schism led by a fellow Vigueño, Isabelo F. de los Reyes.

Amid the confusion caused by the chaotic situation, he remained steadfast and firm in his faith.

Verzosa was among the first native priests to be ordained during the American rule.

His priestly ministry in Nueva Segovia was characterized by his preservation of Roman Catholicism in Ilocos. He was sent as a missionary to the schismatics of Ilocos Norte, and through his efforts, he convinced a number of Ilocanos to return to the faith.

The Servant of God also reestablished Roman Catholicism in the schismatic town of Bantay in Ilocos Sur, where he served as its parish priest for 10 years.

As a priest, he developed a commitment to and a special love for catechism.

A s bi shop of L ipa , he i nvested ef for ts and money in

a wide catechetical campaign throughout his territory, which was comprised of the civil provinces of Batangas, Tayabas (now Quezon), Laguna, Mindoro and Marinduque.

This commitment to catechetical programs led him to found in 1923 a religious congregation for women, the Missionary Catechists of the Sacred Heart.

The bishop’s Cause for Beatification and Canonization was initiated in early 2013. This was affirmed by the subsequent granting of nihil obstat (nothing hinders) by the Vatican’s Congregation for the Causes of Saints.

After the diocesan inquiry in 2016, the cause was brought to the Vatican, and with the issuance of the decree of validity in 2017, the Roman phase of the cause started to roll.

Msgr. Gary Formoso, the cathedral rector and judge-delegate in the diocesan inquiry, said the virtues of the Servant of God are urgently needed in our time.

He thanked in a special way Fr. Samuel Sil lor iquez, OA R , the postu lator of the Cause, bishops, priests and lay faithful who promote the advancement of the cause.

He said that all are in hope that someday the Servant of God will be canonized a saint.

Buena Luz/CBCP News

Unrelenting coal demand poses challenge to world’s climate goals

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oal prices across Asia are surging to records, underscoring a challenge for governments seeking a faster energy transition: the dirtiest of fuels they’re racing to phase out is enjoying booming demand.

Power plants are rushing to secure adequate electricity supplies as a hot summer adds to demand from the region’s post-pandemic industrial revival. On top of that, output in some key producer nations has been hurt, while high natural gas costs mean there’s no cheaper alternative for utilities to turn to.

All that has sparked a coal rally in Asia, the center of demand for the fossil fuel. The price of physical coal cargoes in Australia’s Newcastle and China’s Qinhuangdao ports have soared more than 50 percent this year to their highest ever. Futures are also up, with those in Australia jumping almost 50 percent and prices in China more than doubling.

“Coal prices just keep on punching higher,” said Sydney-based Peter O’Connor, an analyst at Shaw & Partners Ltd. “We’re close to the top in terms of pricing, but I don’t think we’re there yet.”

The rally is highlighting coal’s enduring role in the world’s energy mix, particularly in Asia’s large and growing economies, despite a broader push for more aggressive action to tackle climate change. Coal accounted for more than a third of global electricity generation in 2019, according to BloombergNEF. The top three consumers—China, India and the US—are all forecast to burn more this year.

“We can see fairly robust pricing toward year-end,” Sakkie Swanepoel, group manager of marketing at Exxaro Resources Ltd., the South Africa-based miner and coal producer, said on a Tuesday conference call. “We do not see prices just falling off the cliff.”

Here’s what’s driving the rally in key markets:

to agree to a 60 percent price bump for its annual coal supply through March 2022 from Glencore Plc. Still, the sky-high coal prices are nowhere near the level they would need to be to cause utilities to switch to liquefied natural gas, where prices have risen by 500 percent in the past year.

Even in the middle of summer, buyers are already negotiating October-loading cargoes as they seek to secure supplies ahead of winter.

In this May 27, 2015, file photo, Tibetan spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, greets devotees as he arrives to give a religious talk at the Tibetan Children’s Village School in Dharmsala, India. AP

China

Much of the tightness in the market can be traced back to China, which produces and burns half the world’s supply. Power demand is surging as factories take on orders to supply rebounding economies, and domestic mine output has been slowed by safety inspections after a series of deadly accidents and extra scrutiny because of the Chinese Communist Party’s 100th anniversary celebrations.

Power plants are looking to imports to fill the gap, with June deliveries expected to top 30 million tons for the first time this year before rising again in July and August, according to analysts at Fengkuang Coal Logistics. The country still refuses to allow Australian purchases amid a geopolitical rift.

Even with government efforts to cool the market—such as releasing stockpiles and pressuring state-owned suppliers not to let bidding get out of hand—prices will hold at elevated levels this summer, especially as the spot market is facing a “pretty serious” shortage, said Huatai Futures Ltd. analyst Wang Haitao.

Australia

Producers have shrugged off the loss of a key export market after diplomatic tensions saw China halt Australian coal purchases from late last year. Cargoes of premium thermal coal have quickly

found alternative buyers, while suppliers of mid-quality power station fuel and steel-making coal are poised to benefit as India and parts of Southeast Asia ease Covid-related restrictions, Australia’s government said in a report this week.

Benchmark prices for higherquality physical coal at Australia’s Newcastle port have jumped 66 percent this year to a record of $136.38 a ton, according to China Coal Resource. Newcastle coal futures last week touched the highest since March 2011.

Those gains haven’t translated into advances for some Australian producers. Yancoal Australia Ltd. has declined 18 percent this year to Thursday’s close, while Coronado Global Resources Inc. has slumped 20 percent. “Coal is going up, and yet people don’t want to invest in coal,” O’Connor said. “There is a dislocation between coal prices and equities.” Companies including Whitehaven Coal Ltd. have also faced lengthy legal battles over expansion plans.

Japan

Some Japanese utilities have boosted spot coal purchases after the country’s Ministry of Energy, Trade and Industry ordered them to be prepared for summer demand after winter shortages sent power prices rocketing.

Tohoku Electric Power Co. had

Indonesia

Heavy rains in Indonesia in the beginning of the year curtailed supply in the world’s biggest exporter of power plant coal. The government in April gave miners permission to produce an extra 75 million tons for export, on top of the 550 million tons it had set as a production quota, but so far supplies are behind pace.

“We don’t know yet if the export target can be achieved,” Indonesia Coal Mining Association Executive Director Hendra Sinadia said in an interview. “Even if prices are good it will also depend on demand and economic recovery in buyer countries amid this pandemic situation.”

India

India, the second-biggest coal user, burns the fuel for about 70 percent of its power needs and higher prices could ripple across the economy, accelerating inflation, according to Rupesh Sankhe, vice president at Elara Capital India Pvt. in Mumbai.

Coal India Ltd., the top global producer of the fuel, is seeking to win sales as customers switch to domestic sources from highercost imports. It’s also debating whether to lift prices for long-term contracts to reflect the surge in global benchmark rates, Chairman Pramod Agrawal said last month.

T he producer “ has a great chance to win back customers that had switched to imports,” Sankhe said. Bloomberg News

Bishop-elect Broderick S. Pabillo of Taytay and Bishop-elect Noel P. Pedregosa of Malaybalay. CBCP NEWS

Francis appoints Pabillo as bishop to Palawan; Pedregosa to Malaybalay

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ope Francis has appointed Auxiliary Bishop Broderick S. Pabillo of Manila as the new bishop of the Apostolic Vicariate of Taytay in Palawan province.

In the same announcement in Rome at 12 noon on June 29, the pope also appointed Msgr. Noel P. Pedregosa as the new bishop of the Diocese of Malaybalay in Bukidnon province.

Pabillo, who has been serving as apostolic administrator of the Archdiocese of Manila since February last year, will replace Bishop Edgardo S. Juanich, who resigned in 2018 due to health reasons.

Pedregosa, on the other hand, has been serving as the diocesan administrator of Malaybalay prior to his appointment.

The appointments were announced by Papal Nuncio Archbishop Charles John Brown before the Mass to celebrate the Feast of Saints Peter and Paul at the Manila Cathedral last week.

“I know that you will be sorely missed here in Manila, but the Holy Father is asking you to take on a new and challenging mission in Palawan,” Brown told Pabillo.

Born in 1955, Pabillo was ordained a priest of the Salesians of St. John Bosco by Cardinal Jaime

Sin in 1982.

In 2006, Pope Benedict XVI appointed him Auxiliary Bishop of Manila, a post he held for almost 15 years now.

Palawan is not new to Pabillo.

He served as missionary in the province for several years before he was elevated to episcopacy.

Pabillo currently chairs the Commission on the Laity of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP).

He also previously served as chairman of the CBCP Episcopal Commission on Social ActionJustice and Peace and the Episcopal Commission on Biblical Apostolate.

Pedregosa, on the other hand, was ordained a priest for Malaybalay in 1991.

Since 2017, the 56-year-old bishop-elect has been vicar general of the diocese and rector of the Malaybalay Cathedral.

The diocese has been without a bishop since August 2020 after Pedregosa’s predecessor, Archbishop Jose A. Cabantan formally assumed his post in Cagayan de Oro. “We promise him the support of our prayers as he begins his mission in Bukidnon,” Brown said.

CBCP News

Pope Francis: Saints Peter, Paul found freedom in Christ

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ATICAN—In the largest Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica since the start of the pandemic, Pope Francis celebrated the Solemnity of Sts. Peter and Paul with a message that true freedom is found in Christ.

Speaking from the altar located above the relics of St. Peter, the pope proclaimed that Sts. Peter and Paul were “two great Apostles of the Gospel and two pillars of the Church.”

“Dear brothers and sisters, the Church looks to these two giants of faith and sees two Apostles who set free the power of the Gospel in our world, only because first they themselves had been set free by their encounter with Christ,” Pope Francis said in his homily on June 29.

“Peter and Paul bequeath to us the image of…a Church set free and capable of offering the world the freedom that the world by itself cannot give: freedom from sin and death, from resignation, and from the sense of injustice and the loss of hope that dehumanizes the lives of the women and men of our time,” he said.

Pope Francis ex plained that bot h Peter a nd Pau l e x per ienced t he l iberat ing power of C hr ist before being ent r usted w it h t he m ission to proc l a im t he Gospel.

“Let us take a closer look at these two witnesses of faith,” he said. “At the heart of their story is not their own gifts and abilities, but the encounter with Christ that changed their lives.

They experienced a love that healed them and set them free.

They then became apostles and ministers of freedom for others.”

“Peter, the fisherman from

Galilee, was set free above all from his sense of inadequacy and his bitter experience of failure, thanks to the unconditional love of Jesus,” the pope explained, while Paul, then known as Saul “was set free from the most oppressive form of slavery, which is slavery to self.”

After converting from his life as “a cruel persecutor of Christians,” Pau l came to “rea lize that ‘God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong’ (1 Corinthians 1:27), that we can do all things through him who strengthens us, and that nothing can ever separate us from his love,” the pope said, quoting Paul’s letters.

At the beg inning of the livestreamed Mass, the pope blessed the “palliums,” the white woolen vestments adorned with six black silk crosses that are given to each new metropolitan archbishop. These were made with wool woven by the Benedictine Sisters of St. Cecilia in Trastevere, and were kept near the tomb of St. Peter.

The tradition of the pallium dates back to at least the fifth century. Metropolitan archbishops wear the pallium as a symbol of authority and unity with the Holy See. It serves as a sign of the metropolitan archbishop’s jurisdiction in his own diocese, as well as the other particular dioceses within his ecclesiastical province.

The new metropolitan archbishops of Manila, Dublin, Lyon, Seville, Naples and Hyderabad were among the 34 archbishops received the pallia blessed by the pope. Courtney Mares/Catholic News

Agency via CBCP News

Biodiversity Sunday BusinessMirror

Asean Champions of Biodiversity Media Category 2014

Sunday, July 4, 2021

Editor: Lyn Resurreccion

A7

Lake Sebu women farmers boost income from biodiversity-friendly livelihood

By Jonathan L. Mayuga

to sustainably manage protected areas through livelihood program.

Under t he Biod iversit y-based Products project, ACB promotes BBP to improve livelihoods and protect biodiversity.

BBP is anchored on the belief that Asean’s rich natural resources and biodiversity offer significant potential for the region’s socio-economic development.

“We have honey, black ginger and bamboo [as] we work with communities living in and around selected AHPs,” Lim said, citing some biodiversity-friendly products that generate huge income without harming the environment.

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group of women farmers in Lake Sebu, South Cotabato, weaves and sells uniquely Filipino handicrafts—bags, wallets, hats, baskets, food trays and lampshades—using the dried nito vine.

The craftsmanship of the rice and corn farmer-members of the Kestubong Women’s Association Agrarian Reform Beneficiaries (KeWARB) is now in the spotlight as their biodiversity-friendly livelihood receives a much-needed boost from the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR).

DAR recently granted KeWARB funding for the construction of its processing center, which is expected to increase the income of the women farmers by helping them “process and add value to their products.”

“We want to raise the level of competency of the KeWARB women farmers from mere producers to processors of the raw farm products themselves,” said DAR Provincial Agrarian Reform Program Officer Evangeline Bueno in a statement.

KeWAR B farmer-members use indigenous materials, such as forest vines, for their small but growing livelihood.

They themselves grow and harvest these materials, a sustainable practice that does not affect their environment, particularly the forest surroundings of Lake Sebu from which the town got its name, nor their natural resources or wildlife.

Big help to farmers, communities Besides raising the endemic bamboo and rattan, farmers in Lake Sebu plant nito vine that they process and manufacture into handicrafts.

“This project is a big help to the farmers and nearby farm communities that depend on manufacturing products from [nito as their] source of livelihood,” Bueno said.

Handicraft products made by KeWARB, a women farmers’ group based in Lake Sebu, South Cotobato. SAYNA CAFON DAR Municipal Agrarian Reform Program Officer Frederick Pereyra and Municipal Agriculturist Zaldy A. Artacho led the groundbreaking rites for the construction of the center in Barangay Tasiman.

KeWARB is among the Agrarian Reform Beneficiaries (ARBs) organizations that utilize nito as raw material to produce its biodiversity-friendly products.

Nito, a vine species (Lygodium circinatum) from the fern family, commonly thrives in provinces where rain is evenly distributed throughout the year, such as Southern Tagalog and Mindanao.

Farmers in Oriental Mindoro, Marinduque and Romblon also produce various nito handicrafts. In Southern Tagalog, the indigenous peoples (IPs) of Mindoro are also know n for their craftsmanship in using the indigenous material.

Profitable agricultural product Nito is fast becoming an agricultural product of Lake Sebu farmers that provides them with income-generating activities.

T he children and people of the community help KeWARB manufac-

Animals made out of recycled material are on display at the interactive exhibit about the story of Noah’s Ark at the Jewish Museum in Berlin, Germany. AP/MARKUS SCHREIBER

Jewish Museum in Berlin opens kids’ museum about Noah’s Ark

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ERLIN—Torrential rain pours down, waves break and big pudd les spl ash as v isitors enter the new children’s museum at the Jewish Museum in Berlin. No surprise there because the exhibit is dedicated to the ancient story of Noah’s Ark and begins in the middle of the biblical deluge.

You ng c h i ld ren a re i nv ited to a c t i v e l y p a r t i c i p a t e i n N o a h ’s jou r ne y a s soon a s t he y set foot i n t he newly opened A noh a C h i ldren’s World. T hey can bui ld litt le a rk s t h at t he y c a n f loat on a “ de luge si mu l ator” or he lp resc ue 150 a n i m a l s c reated by over a dozen a r t ist s out of rec yc led m ater i a l suc h a s old spoons, espresso cof fe e m a k e r s, pie ce s of c a r p e t or bi ke fenders. T he y c a n e ven u se the anima ls’ pretend excrement— represented by brow n felt ba l l s — to fer t i l i ze pl a nt s.

They can also cuddle a gigantic sloth, crawl through the serpentine body of an anaconda or take a rest on a yellow-eyed octopus.

The circular, wooden Ark is the center piece of t he museum and spans 7 meters (23 feet) tall and 28 meters (91 feet) wide. At its heart is an empty space where visitors are invited to sit down, linger and think about life’s big universal questions: about God and the world, the past and the future.

At t he end of t he tou r, t here a re g l i mpses of t he ea r t h aga i n, rocks lurk ing out of the retreating f loods and a big ra inbow on which k id s c a n w r ite t he i r t hou g ht s, w i shes or wor r ies.

The Anoha museum was built inside a former f lower market, across the street from the Jewish Museum’s main building on a 2,700 squaremeter (29,000 square-foot) space.

KeWARB’s indigenous products on display. KATE S. PAGAYON/DAR REGION XII

Organic trade ture assorted handicraft products and sell these to different markets.

The KeWARB project is being implemented under the Village Level Farm-focused Enterprise Development, which aims to enhance the products of the ARBs using appropriate facilities and equipment applicable to the agri-business enterprise of the ARBs. Under the project, the farmers will undergo seminars and training on nito cultivation, product development and business marketing to develop their farm enterprise and make their business operations profitable.

Harvesting restriction K ate S. Pagayon of the DAR Regional Information Office X II told the BusinessMirror via Facebook Messenger on June 24 that current ly most n ito suppl ies come from Sarangani prov ince because har vesting from the natural env ironment of Lake Sebu is prohibited.

Lake Sebu is rich in natural resources and its people are naturally very protective of their place, which the travel guide book publisher Lonely Planet said is located in a “ bowl of forests and mountains.”

It was meant to open in May 2020 but was delayed by the coronavirus pandemic.

While the main Jewish Museum’s permanent and temporary exhibitions primarily cater to adults and teenagers, the children’s museum targets the youngest visitors, children between 3 and 10. “ We t r ied to a lways l isten to t he chi ld ren when we created t h i s world ,” A ne K le i ne - E n ge l , t he head of t he c h i ld ren’s museu m, told T he A ssoc i ated P ress. “ From t he beg i n n i ng of t he mus e u m’s d e v e l o p m e n t , c h i l d r e n were i nvolved i n t he process a nd we pl a n to keep t hem on boa rd a s co - c urators in t he f ut ure as wel l.”

Beyond giving the kids ample space for play and creativity, the museum also tries to teach them about the importance of protecting the planet and biodiversity and fighting climate change. “ We want the children to start thinking about big themes, too, when t he y come here,” K le i ne Enge l sa id. “ W hen t he a n i m a l s get on board of the ark, they can’t choose who they like or dislike— ever ybody has to come along in order to sur v ive, nobody should be excluded.”

The museum also educates children about equality and diversity and tries to make them understand that racism, antisemitism and inequality should have no place on the Ark or in real life, Kleine-Engel added.

And thus, in a very hands-on way, children can make sure that the cockroaches, rats and snakes also get a spot-on Noah’s Ark. They can put them on the lap of a huge orangutan who will keep them from falling into the water.

In the end, all animals get a free ride on the Ark—as well as the children and their parents, who also get free entry into the museum. AP

“Nito harvesting is prohibited in Lake Sebu,” Pagayon said.

The supplier from Sarangani, however, has secured a permit to harvest from the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR).

The use of nito, Pagayon said, has its advantage “because they say natural resource materials are ecofriendly.”

“Aside from nito, they also use bamboo and rattan that are abundant in the area compared to other raw materials like plastic,” Pagayon said.

Targeting the export market

in the market.

W hile the group is also being helped by the Department of Trade and Industr y, the distance and difficulty of bringing their products to the market have hampered their production, thus limiting their access to potential buyers.

Nevertheless, in the upland areas, gathering raw materials from the forest to make native products is more than just a tradition. This practice has become a way of life to help their families make ends meet.

KeWARB products are made cur-

Forest-friendly activities

rently for the local market “only when there are orders,” according to Sayna Cafon, the group’s president, in a telephone interview on June 24.

“But we hope to enhance our products as we also wish to target the export market,” Cafon said in Filipino, acknowledging that “some of our buyers are selling them outside the country.”

In Lake Sebu, she said, basketweaving is common, especially among women who make it a source of income.

She said their buyers include tourists, hotels and resorts and even locals who come to buy and sell them

The DENR-Biodiversity Management Bureau (BMB) is promoting forestfriendly activities, encouraging communities to make products that pose less harm to the forests and wildlife.

This is not unique to the Philippines as the practice is also being done by its Southeast Asian neighbors and in other parts of the world.

Asean Centre for Biodiversity (ACB) Executive Director Theresa Mundita S. Lim told the BusinessMirror via Facebook Messenger on June 24 that the intergovernmental institution assists farmers and IPs living in and around Asean Heritage Parks (AHPs)

According to ACB, Asean memberstates (AMS) want to harness the economic potential of the region’s rich biodiversity by further developing trade relations for bio-products or organic trade in the national, regional, and even global level.

Recognizing that the potential of BBP, especially for the indigenous popu l at ion i n t he bu f fer zones of protected areas in the region, has yet to be sufficiently analyzed and is often unknow n, the BBP as an economic source for t he improvement of l ivel i hoods and biodiversity protection project was launched.

The ACB said, however, that “AMS do not get sufficient support in promoting BBP.” “To promote Asean national policies on conservation, particularly within the framework of the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity, Asean established the ACB to address the protection of biodiversit y on a regional level, d e v e l o p a nd d i s s e m i n at e j o i nt strategies and explore win-win opportunities, merging biodiversity protection w ith livelihood,” ACB pointed out.

Groups: Corporate-led model drives unsustainable consumption-production

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ivil society organizations (CSOs) recently launched a three-part webinar series on sustainable consumption and production, or the Sustainable Development Goals-12 (SDG-12), of the UN Agenda 2030, a news release from the Council for People’s Development and Governance (CPDG) said.

The series, which will discuss the nature, situation and the future of sustainability in terms of production and consumption a year after Covid-19 first struck, is spearheaded

by CPDG, Ibon International, People’s Coalition on Food Sovereignty (PCFS) and Climate Change Network for Community-based Initiatives, Dubbed “Beyond Covid-19: Promoting People-Powered Sustainable Consumption and Production,” the first part covered the current state of consumption and production in Asia and identified its root causes.

Azra Sayeed of PCFS explained the unequal power relations and the dominance of multinational and transnational corporations in global trade that ingrains unsustainable production and consumption to poor countries.

“A very small minority of people have believed that they can actually hold everybody hostage to their desire for profit. It’s not a new system—it’s a class-based paradigm like monarchy and slavery,” she said, cit-

ing the capture of developing countries’ markets and resources by very few rich and developed countries through unequal economic relations.

According to Sayeed, global economic elites are trying to further policies that maintain unsustainable consumption and production processes post-Covid-19. “[The post-Covid-19] policy agenda is dictated by corporations who are responsible for the profit-seeking, blood-seeking paradigm while they control the world ’s resources,” she added.

SDG 12 is among the goals adopted by the UN General Assembly in 2015, which aims to reduce and eliminate waste and pollution and ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns for curbing the adverse effects of climate change and env ironmental degradation.

However, critical CSOs argue that the goal and its indicators are problematic as it does not acknowledge the systematic barriers that hinder sustainability and deprive people of their rights.

“Unsustainable production and consumption are symptoms of systemic, structural barriers that rest on the social, cultural, political, and economic make-up of societies,” Lei Covero of Ibon International said.

The groups attribute the rise of

zoonotic and other types of diseases to unsustainable economic processes.

Hence, they argue that the world must not return to “ business-asu su a l ” a nd i nstead adopt t r u ly transformational alternatives. “ T he current system must be replaced by radically transforming the systems of production and consumption that dismantle inequality and take care of the people and the planet,” Covero said.

The second forum to be held on June 29 will cover people-centered, rights-based practices from countries across Asia, while the third session will tackle ways forward in campaigning and advocacy initiatives, coinciding with the opening of the UN High-Level Political Forum on July 13, where SDG 12 will be reviewed.

The entire webinar series serves as a build-up for the Global People’s Summit on Food Systems, a countersummit led by PCFS and its seventeen allied organizations against t he cor porate-control led United Nations’ Food Systems Summit that the groups denounce.

T he recommend ations f rom these sessions w ill be compiled as advocacy messages to be submitted to the UN High-Level Political Forum and other related advocacy spaces.

Sports BusinessMirror

unday, July 4, 2021 mirror_sports@yahoo.com.ph Editor: Jun Lomibao

JAPAN’S Kokona Hiraki (left) and Britain’s Sky Brown, both 12, are the youngest skateboarders in the games. AP

Fifa confirms roster changes for Olympics

SKATEBOARDING:

ALL FUN, ALL SCARE

F

IFA has confirmed that Olympic soccer rosters can include 22 players, but only 18 can be available for individual matches.

Traditionally, Olympic rosters are 18 players and four alternates.

The alternates can only be used in case of injury, and once replaced, a player cannot return.

The change means that all 22 players are available to the participating teams. It was implemented because of the challenges the coronavirus has posed to teams worldwide.

“The International Olympic Committee [IOC] has made official a more flexible approach towards the participation of the alternate athletes in the Olympic Football Tournaments Tokyo 2020. As a result, the Participating Member Associations will be entitled to reconstitute their teams ahead of every match,” Fifa said in a statement to The Associated Press.

“The number of athletes on the start list will therefore remain at 18, but teams will now have the total of 22 players [18 Athletes + 4 Alternate Athletes] to select their team from for every match.

The IOC has also remarked that this is an exception for the Tokyo 2020 Games and does not create a precedent for future Olympic Games,” the statement said.

Netherlands Coach Sarina Wiegman was among those who advocated for roster expansion.

Fifa, soccer’s international governing body, appealed to the IOC. The expanded rosters should give coaches more flexibility during a tight Olympic schedule with limited rest time between matches, as well as expected heat and humidity in Tokyo.

Olympic rosters differ from those allowed for the World Cup, which include 23 players.

Historically at the Olympics, an alternate could be brought in for an injured player at any time during the tournament, whereas World Cup rosters are set as of the first match and injured players can’t be replaced.

US women’s national team C oach Vlatko Andonovski on Wednesday said the teams were awaiting additional guidance from the IOC. “We’re getting word from the IOC that we will have a little flexibility on the roster. We’re very happy about it, and as of right now we’re just waiting to see a little more details on what all the rules and regulations are going to look like,” Andonovski said.

A8 | S

By John Leicester The Associated Press

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HELLES, France—For skateboarding, a sport where the No. 1 rule is that there are no rules, the straight jacket of the Olympic Games, with its dense thickets of tradition and regulation, may not be a natural or immediate fit.

So at the Tokyo Games, freewheelin’ skaters and Olympic officials are going to learn a lot about each other. Could be quite a ride. Both have plenty to gain from making a splash with their brand-new partnership. Skating is one of four debut Olympic sports, along with karate, surfing and sport climbing.

The spectacle of skaters turning their boards into flying machines, soaring over obstacles, will deliver a rejuvenating injection of youthful energy to the dowdy sporting extravaganza. The youngest, Japan’s Kokona Hiraki and Britain’s

Sky Brown, are just 12.

With its street fashions and “allare-welcome” inclusive culture of all genders, ages and abilities having four-wheeled fun together, skating officials anticipate that the sport will help snag future generations of Olympic fans and viewers that the International Olympic Committee needs to keep making mega-bucks from the Games.

FREEDOM OR FAME

FOR skaters, the powerful Olympic spotlight means global visibility and, with that, possibly better prospects of earning a living from riding and sponsorships. Skaters also hope the Olympic seal of approval will generate more funding for skate parks and bowls to train, land and invent their tricks.

Some skaters fret that Olympic codification will come at a cost for the freedom, spontaneity and soul of their sport born on the streets. They argue that skating is a whole lifestyle, and worry it

will be crimped and compromised by being co-opted. There were similar misgivings within snowboarding—before it went on to become one of the most riotous and popular shows at the Winter Olympics, and three gold medals turned Shaun White into a household name.

SEE THAT FAKEY FIVE-O?

WITH high-adrenaline acrobatics akin to those seen on Olympic snow—so much so that White toyed with the idea of trying to also qualify in skating for Tokyo—skateboarding promises to wow and hook both existing and untapped Olympic audiences.

“The people who watch us in Tokyo are going to say to themselves, ‘This is pretty,’” predicts Madeleine Larcheron, a 15-year-old who’ll compete for France.

“I’m often asked, ‘What’s the scariest trick?’ There isn’t one. In skating, everything is scary,” she said. “You go upside down, you

speed along, there is always a slice of danger.”

THE COMPETITION

FOR its Olympic debut, skateboarding has a custom-built park on the shores of Tokyo Bay to play with.

The 40 men and 40 women will be chasing medals in two events—park, where they skate in a bowl, and street, where they navigate stairs, rails, curbs and other urban furniture.

The street competitions are in the first week, on July 25 and 26.

The park events round out week two, on August 4 and 5.

Because skateboarding is so fluid and inventive, with hundreds of tricks, variants and possibilities to choose from, judging is less codified and more subjective than other sports. Judges will scrutinize the difficulty and execution of tricks and runs, how skaters use and navigate obstacles, and will be looking to reward originality

With Walsh Jennings out, new generation hits beach L

KERRI WALSH JENNINGS sets the ball during the women’s gold medal match between two United States teams at the London 2012 Olympics. AP

ONDON Olympics organizers erected a 25foot statue of two-time defending champion Kerri Walsh Jennings in St. James’ Park, just a short stroll from the venue where she

would win her third beach volleyball title.

Four years later in Rio de Janeiro, Walsh Jennings again climbed onto the podium to claim her fourth Olympic medal—this one bronze.

For two decades, no one loomed larger in the sport than the five-time Olympian known as “Six Feet of Sunshine.” But when the Summer Games begin in Tokyo this month, the 42-year-old Californian won’t be there.

“This is the first Olympics she hasn’t been to in the 21st Century, which is just crazy to think about,” said Sarah Sponcil, who with her partner Kelly Claes won the final two qualifying events to snatch the last US spot in Tokyo from Walsh Jennings and Brooke Sweat.

“She’s such an amazing player, an icon for the sport,” said Sponcil, who taped pictures of Walsh Jennings and Misty May-Treanor, her partner for three Olympic titles, on the wall while growing up. “To be able to knock her out—it’s not just a random opponent. I’m honored to have eliminated her. She’s going to go down as one of the best in history.”

Rivals at Southern California and UCLA, Claes and Sponcil each won back-to-back NCAA beach volleyball titles before teaming up on the international tour in 2018.

They were winless in their first 20 events, leaving them third in the points race for the maximum two American women’s spots in the Olympics.

Then they won the Sochi Open, the second-to-last tournament in the qualifying period. Walsh Jennings and Sweat needed a strong finish in the finale to retake the lead, but they were eliminated in an early round match.

Claes and Sponcil won again.

“It’s crazy the end of the race for the Olympic spot. No one, I think, saw it coming,” said April Ross, who was Walsh Jennings’ partner in Rio but will return to the Olympics with Alix Klineman. “For the longest time, I just assumed Kerri was going to be there.”

Claes, 25, and Sponcil, 24, are

the youngest US beach volleyball team ever to qualify for the Olympics and the first NCAA beach volleyball products to reach the Summer Games. (Tina Graudina, who will compete for Latvia in Tokyo, also played at USC.) Claes resisted the title of “Giant Killer” that has been bestowed on her and Sponcil. “The passing of the baton, or however you want to say that, feels more right.”

“It’s Kerri. She’s an amazing athlete,” Claes said. “I looked up to her and Misty so much. They’ve done so many things for the sport, really paved the way and inspired so many people, me included.

“Kerri’s incredible,” she said.

“But I think it’s really cool to have some new, young blood at the Olympics.”

The older generation isn’t ready to give up just yet.

Ross, who won silver in London and bronze in Rio, is 39 and heading to her third Olympics. The US men’s teams feature 45-year-old Jake Gibb, the oldest volleyball player in Olympic history—beach or indoor—and Beijing gold medalist Phil Dalhausser, 41.

“I never expected at the end of my career to be pushed this hard to compete,” Ross said. “At the same time, I’m really excited for

and variety.

As happened to White with his gold medals in the half-pipe at the Turin (2006), Vancouver (2010) and Pyeongchang (2018) winter games, the Tokyo Olympics could be a first step toward global fame for a skateboarder.

With no-fear stunts and polished messaging that age is irrelevant, Brown is already a very visible 12-year-old, with a rich portfolio of sponsors and array of social-media accounts.

The British phenom is back from a terrifying fall last year—video of which was posted—of course—on an Instagram account managed by her parents. She’ll compete in the park event.

At the other end of the unusually broad age spectrum at the inaugural Olympic skateboarding competition will be Dallas Oberholtzer. The 46-year-old hails from South Africa, where he works on efforts to introduce young South Africans to the sport. our sport, and what they’re doing for our sport.”

BEACH PARTY

FIVE years after the beach volleyball venue bounced to a samba beat at Copacabana Beach, it’s spiritual home, the event moves to Shiokaze Park in Tokyo Bay. There’s no Olympic sport that relies more on a party atmosphere than beach volleyball, and there’s some doubt about what the sport will lose without a full house and a disc jockey to keep them dancing.

“It’s the Olympics, and you want that party atmosphere,” Ross said. “Japanese fans are awesome, so if those are the fans we’re going to have, I think it’s going to be a great atmosphere.”

Beach volleyball has traditionally been one of the prime attractions at the Summer Games. In London, Microsoft billionaire Bill Gates made sure to check it out; in Rio, the US men’s basketball team came to see Walsh Jennings and Ross play.

Ross said fans often come for the party but fall in love with the sport itself.

“I really want people to see and focus on is how tough the sport is, and how athletic the players are,” she said. “That’s still going to be showcased. Hopefully, we reach a lot of people, and for them there’s no distractions.”

Olympic first-timers Claes and Sponcil said they don’t really know any better. AP

BusinessMirror

July 4, 2021

The ‘Queenovator’ When the pandemic halted on-ground events last year, CEO Sharon Yu Ong turned to her college thesis to ensure that the shows go on

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YOUR MUSI

REFLECTIONS OF THE PAST Ex-Spandau Ballet Gary Kemp on his new album, Insolo

A

By Stephanie Joy Ching

S the songwriter and guitarist in one of the most iconic bands of the 80’s, Spandau Ballet, Gary Kemp is considered to be one of the most commercially successful writers of the decade. During their career Spandau notched up 23 hit singles and spent a combined total of more than 500 weeks in the UK charts, achieving over 25 million album sales worldwide.

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: Aldwin M. Tolosa

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: Edwin P. Sallan

As one of the band’s founding members, Kemp wrote the lyrics and music for all 23 of Spandau Ballet’s hit singles, including “True,” “Gold,” and “Only When You Leave.”

Now marching to the beat of his own drum, the now 61-year old Englishman explores the many personas he’s been over the years with his upcoming album, Insolo.

Twenty-five years after the release of his first solo album, Little Bruises, Kemp shared that his approach to songwriting has

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GARY Kemp Photo by Cred Joe Magowan

become immensely different.

“My whole approach to writing feels very different now. I still think ‘Little Bruises’ stands up as a good album, I’m just in a different headspace now. I’ve had the experience of working these past few years with Nick Mason of Pink Floyd and developing much more to the front as a guitar player and as a singer,” he said in a recent interview with Soundstrip and other Philippine media.

Unlike his work with Spandau,

Kemp says Insolo is more lyric and guitar driven, which allowed him to delve more on themes of the past and “to make sense of who I am today.”

“This album was a process of me coming to a few ideas that were bothering me. One I think was reaching a certain age and thinking how does this man here relate to his past and vice versa. How do I join the dots between those different characters that I’ve been in my life?” he shared.

With that in mind, Insolo becomes an autobiography that chronicles Kemp’s innermost thoughts throughout his life framed in exciting ways. From feeling isolated in a big city as expressed in “In Solo” and “Too Much”, to how he fell in love with music in “Waiting for the Band” to forgiving his past self in “I remember you” and “The Fastest Man in the World”, each song is like a snapshot of Kemp’s most intimate and personal moments that made him. The album’s first single, “Ahead of the Game”, is no different.

A sleek late 70’s esque guitar heavy single with classy and polished guitar playing provided by Kemp himself, the song has a sense of “innocence” and “lost youth” framed fondly through hindsight and self-reflection. While its bright tones accentuate the feeling of being young and invincible, his mature vocal gives the song a feeling of coming from an older, wiser place.

“I don’t have to lie anymore,” he said about the lyrics of the album. “ When you get to my age you’ve experienced highs and lows, you’ve experienced so much. So every song, even songs like ‘Rumor of You’ has elements of me in there. I’ve been that person but I exaggerate it often. When I was writing for Spandau in my 20s, I experienced so little in life, I experienced no failure, and so you make a lot of stuff up and borrow ideas. There’s no truth in what you’re saying.”

Gary Kemp’s Insolo album is now available in major streaming platforms.

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soundstrip.businessmirror@gmail.com | JULY 4, 2021

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BUSINESS

PNOY’S BAND ON THE RUN Former President Noynoy Aquino’s lifelong passion for music almost led to the forming of a band

By Yugel Losorata | Art by Jimbo Docena Albano

T

HE late former President Noynoy Aquino was expressive of his love for music to the point that he informed the public he could have become a singer in a band.

Seven years ago, while speaking to a crowd of music scene personalities and government officials gathered for an event called Pinoy Music Summit, PNoy recalled in an amused tone how he and some of his lifelong friends once welcomed the idea of forming a band amongst themselves.

“Naalala ko lang, noong araw po, may mga kaibigan ako (at) sabi namin, ‘Bakit hindi tayo magtayo ng banda?’” he quipped.

The suggestion sounded like

a random thought that won’t fly, though he revealed that at least one of his pals started buying the necessary equipment needed to put a full band into real action.

PNoy then went ahead for the bigger punchline, hinting a comic twist ensuring that the plan couldn’t play out. Literally, it couldn’t as none of them could play a musical instrument.

“Tapos matanong n’yo siguro, ‘Bakit never namin kayo narinig?’” he teased, before clarifying, “Hindi ho naman sa walang talento; ang

problema ho ‘yong buong grupo ho gusto naming lahat ay lead singer kami.”

Hilariously, PNoy’s “all-lead singers band” was effectively done before it even began. You guess shifting into a boyband outfit was not even an option.

The only son of democracy icons Ninoy and Cory Aquino added that a buddy finally cut himself out of the competition and announced he no longer wanted to be a lead singer like the rest of them. Neither was the dude suggesting he’d be fine just playing along as an instrumentalist. “(So),Iisa lang ho ang hindi magiging lead singer.”

PNoy implied, “(Pero) gusto raw niya maging manager.”

The only bachelor to have served the Philippine republic is fondly remembered for his penchant for leisure singing. I encountered a tribute post that caught him prepping up to sing something with a live band during a post-event gathering.

His good knowledge of music, in particular some revered Filipino songs, appeared to be natural and resulting from years of listening to various music genres or doing, likely, countless videoke-singing.

A friend, in a post on social media, wondered where PNoy’s vinyl collection would end up.

During the same talk the exPresident did back at the said music summit held at Landbank building in Malate, or when he was more than halfway into his administration, he expounded on the attachment of Filipinos to memorable musical strains. He shared, “Mula sa paghehele-hele ng Nanay habang kinakanta ang “Sa Ugoy ng Duyan,” sa pagpapalaki ng mga supling sa awiting “Anak,” hanggang sa pagpasok sa eskwelahan habang pinakikinggan ang “Estudyante Blues”; mula sa tagumpay ng EDSA sa sandaling itinatanghal ang “Bayan Ko,” hanggang sa pagpanaw ng minamahal kung saan ipinapatugtog ang kantang “Hindi Kita Malilimutan”—di po ba, parang laging may nakapares

na soundtrack sa bawat yugto ng buhay nating mga Pilipino.”

PNoy’s equally celebrated sister Kris Aquino reiterated during his wake that he “loved music so much.” His apparent most favorite song, a deep cut originally sung by Celeste Legaspi called “Minsan Ang Minahal Ay Ako” was performed by belter Jaya on the same occasion.

PNoy must have loved that certain songs evoked the efforts of his parents in toppling dictatorship, with the songs “Impossible Dream” (popularized

by Andy Willams) and “Magkaisa” (Virna Lisa) often played or performed to commemorate their deeds.

As keynote speaker for a summit staged to benefit the local music scene which had drastically changed over the years since he left Malacanang, or should we say Bahay Pangarap where he actually stayed, the president who preceded current chief Rody Duterte left music stakeholders with this positive thought: Kaya nating makapaghatid ng positibong pagbabago basta’t nagkakaisa ang ating mga tinig, sa halip na nagsasapawan; basta’t ang lahat ay nagtutulungan, imbes na nagpapaligsahan lang at nag-uunahan.”

As for his band that never was, he joked that he and his friends were thinking of regrouping as senior citizens to finally fulfill their band aspirations. By his own self-deprecating estimation, he said they had to stop arguing who’s going to sing lead, stressing, “Malamang rondalla ho ang lalabas niyan.”

That summed up PNoy’s fun take on music. It was a side of him balancing the weight of the life he lived. On one side he was a son of larger-than-life parents guiding a country to keep the ideals of a peaceful revolution; on another he was a joke-cracking bachelor having fun and singing songs in his free time — spiels and all like what a true blue lead singer in a band does. He must have gotten his friends’ approval.

The ‘Queenovator’

When the pandemic halted on-ground events last year, CEO Sharon Yu Ong turned to her college thesis to ensure that the shows go on

By Pao Vergara

U

sually, one’s undergrad thesis is a one-anddone affair, a rite of passage.

Despite seeming like the whole world, like the plot of college life, despite the extensive, seemingly overnight, expertise following months of reading the same related literature (you did read it, right?), rarely do people think that the actual subject matter of one’s college thesis is something to take further once the diploma arrives.

Such isn’t the case with millennial “Queenovator” Sharon Yu Ong, cofounder and CEO of pioneering events company Waveplay Interactive. When the global pandemic broke out last year and effectively shut down on-ground events, Sharon turned to her undergraduate thesis and led the pivot of her company to launch the country’s first virtual platform called Webplay.

The game-changing concept continues to yield awards and recognitions for Sharon, the latest being the Innovator of the Year in Campaign Asia-Pacific’s Women Leading Change Awards 2021 last month.

Despite the accolades, the decorated innovator chooses to describe her line of work in jest as “an overnight expert.”

Now, this isn’t so much a boast as it is a person’s reflection on learning the fits of many hats across each project. Ask Sharon to calibrate the motion sensor sensitivity of an augmented reality camera attachment, and she can. Ask her which colorway suits a brand’s concept best (red and black or orange and black?) and she’ll likely give an educated, informed suggestion.

All this has to do with her thesis project—using often interactive, sometimes

“I didn’t always play by the rules,” says Waveplay Interactive cofounder and CEO Sharon Yu Ong. augmented, always gamified technology to entice visitors to an event, screening, or exhibit to engage even more with the message or product presented.

An emerging field It was the early 2010s when Sharon entered the events sector after a first job in advertising. Back then, the notion of having interactive booths, games, and exhibits was considered an extraneous, sometimes even unnecessary, expense.

It was taken for granted that in live television, as well as in events, both the studio audience and the attendees were essentially in a more-or-less passive, one-way relationship with the producers. You went to an event, listened to speakers, perhaps signed up for a few promotions, took home a few freebies. The most interactive component was with fellow attendees—networking.

Today, looking at the number of companies big and small who develop both eventspecific and “perennial” brand-related apps and games, it’s increasingly being considered a wasted opportunity if an event didn’t have a component where the audience actively participated.

It is fair to say that Sharon’s Waveplay Interactive led the charge in the country.

The company creates interactive events, experiences, booths, and the like tailored to clients’ needs, often deploying technologies such as motion-sensing, augmented reality.

In just eight months since launching Webplay in May last year, the group has produced over 60 unique virtual venues, powered over 300 event days, accommodated 700,000+ attendees, and created more than 250 custom side activities.

The first client of Webplay was technically Sharon’s thesis subject, the Ayala Museum, and how interactive solutions could be applied in such a setting. A slew of other firsts followed, from launching the first interactive cinema in Asia with SM to the first interactive live TV segment with GMA-7. In a 2011 interview for Full Court Fresh, Sharon shared that she hoped to reach international clients. To date, Waveplay Interactive has worked with brands in the SEA region and beyond.

There was an initial skepticism, too, at the perceived gimmicky nature of games, but a decade of both on-the-ground experience and new research in decision science reveals that gamified marketing indeed taps into innate human competitiveness and desire for rewards.

Decisively relaxed “I didn’t always play by the rules,” Sharon says. She grew up in what she describes as a traditional and conservative home, social, and school environment, where doing something different from what everyone else was doing was viewed as shameful.

In her all-girls Christian school, girls were expected to be demure. Sharon was often called out by teachers. When the class was doing pranks, fingers often went her way when questions were raised. “Looking back, may pagka-creative din ako,” she opines, on how such an environment actually, literally, encouraged thinking out of the box.

Sharon was once a courtside reporter, too, and she still carries the enthusiasm,

resolve, and open-mindedness such an experience gives. You are, as she reveals in said 2011 interview, scrutinized by producers and audiences alike, all while having to stay cheerful and graceful under pressure.

She recalls that even after college, her parents, however well-meaning, initially didn’t understand the concept she wanted to pursue for her business, and suggested she try other, more tried-and-tested industries. They did, however, encourage her to pursue entrepreneurship after 10 months in a desk job.

Now a family woman herself, Sharon has grown more relaxed and decisive. She, her husband, and their daughters share hobbies. If he’s in the mood to test out a new toy in a long drive, he’ll take her, Sharon fondly shares. If it’s a quiet movie night, everyone’s in. It’s honestly reassuring, as the world increasingly trades once shared spaces for individualized screens.

All this, as elements of Sharon’s “school bukol” vibe contribute to her approach to guiding her kids. But don’t get her wrong: while on one hand, she reminds her daughters not to worry about being honor students, she also teaches them about open communication and constructive criticism, as the two go hand-in-hand.

“You want to show them how the world really is,” Sharon shares, adding that “you mustn’t overdo it, however.”

During our e-interview, I get to witness a part of this dynamic when one of her daughters enters the frame, asking if Mom can check out this drawing on a piece of scratch paper. Without any second thoughts, Sharon picks her kid up, asks her to say “Hi to mommy’s friends” (and the girl does, telling me about her drawing, too), and that “mommy will check the drawing later, she’s in a meeting right now.”

No psst, no hoy!, no shouting, no sita.

“That paper,” Sharon beams, laughing, “is actually scratch from the days when we used to do live events.”

Ensuring transparent, reliable corporate sustainability via blockchain

P

lastic Credit Exchange (PCX), the first global nonprofit plastic offset program, recently partnered with Microsoft to develop a blockchainprotected credit registry. The revamped credit registry will ensure the public and relevant stakeholders that all transactions within the exchange are secure, transparent, and reliable.

Established in 2019, PCX partners with sustainably conscious businesses worldwide to responsibly offset their plastic footprints. PCX has built a wide ecosystem of partners to facilitate the recovery, transport, and processing of post-consumer

plastic waste, seeking out the most environmentally sound solutions. To date, PCX has enabled the removal of more than 18 million kilograms of plastic waste from the environment.

“It is important that the credit registry is trustworthy and available to the public,” PCX founder and chairwoman Nanette Medved-Po shares. “By using blockchain technology to not only protect the ledger, but provide transparency around additionality and protect against double counting, stakeholders will know where and how they positively impact the environment.”

4 BusinessMirror

Blockchain technology has the potential to extend digital transformation beyond any organization’s boundaries and into the processes it shares with suppliers, customers, and partners. At its core it is a shared, distributed, secured, immutable ledger which is connected in a peer-to-peer network.

PCX sought Microsoft as a global technology partner for a Microsoft Azure-based blockchain solution. Microsoft prototyped a blockchain-protected ledger through its Microsoft Technology Center to provide confidence, traceability and transparency within the PCX ecosystem.

July 4, 2021

“Sustainability and humanity’s response to it is one of the greatest challenges of our lifetime—a planet-sized challenge that requires a planet-sized response,” Microsoft Philippines Country Manager Andres Ortola said. “Wherever we can apply our strengths as an innovation company, we are committed to bringing the full weight of our platform and technology forward.

At Microsoft, we exist to empower every person and organization on the planet to achieve more—including the planet itself.”

The blockchain-protected credit registry can be viewed on the PCX web site at www. plasticcreditexchange.com.