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Supporters of the underground Communist Party of the Philippines display placards during a brief rally near Malacañang in a show of force two days before the resumption of peace talks with the government on March 31 in Manila. AP/Bullit Marquez

Guns will not be silent during govt, NDFP talks in The Hague

Elusive peace

T

By Rene Acosta

he government and the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) will be negotiating for peace in the Netherlands but, here at home, fighters from both sides will be engaged in the almost half-a-century war with nil possibility of a cease-fire.

Padilla: “Since there’s no specific instruction from the Commander in Chief, it is very clear that we cannot declare a suspension of offensive military operations on our own.”

The military has vowed to continue its conduct of combat operations against the New People’s Army (NPA) around the country, unless it is ordered by President Duterte to halt such, despite the meeting of both sides in The Hague.

Armed Forces Spokesman Brig.

Gen. Restituto C. Padilla Jr. said that, in the absence of a directive from the Commander in Chief, the ongoing operations by soldiers against the rebels will not be stopped.

“Since there’s no specific instruction from the Commander in Chief, it is very clear that we cannot declare a suspension of offensive military operations on our own,” he said.

Just days earlier, the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) said it was set to issue a unilateral cease-fire for its armed wing in preparation for the resumption of the talks scheduled from April 2 to 6 in the European country.

But on the occasion of the 48th anniversary of the NPA on Wednesday, the CPP ordered its armed fighters to intensify its war against the government and beef up its recruitment in the countryside.

‘Failure to deliver’

It noted that, despite his eight months in office, Duterte has failed to deliver his promise of change to Continued on A2

Pay rate next battleground in ‘war’ between sexes

W

By Roderick L. Abad | Contributor

Accenture’s “Getting to Equal 2017” report reveals the urgency to prep up the competency of female undergraduates today to level the playing field—salary-wise—when they enter the “real world” come next three years.

This holds true as they continue to lag behind their male counterparts in terms of managing

their future careers, whereas they less likely aspire for leadership positions than the latter (41 percent versus 51 percent); seek a mentor (45 percent versus 58 percent); and choose an area of study that offers high earning potential (27 percent versus 40 percent).

Other reasons for the divergence are women being outdone

PESO exchange rates n US 50.1940

Nuvolanevicata | Dreamstime.com

ATCH out for Batch 2020.

According to a study, women who finish tertiary education at that time will be the first to close the gender pay gap in their lifetimes.

by men in adopting to new technology quickly (45 percent against 63 percent); continuous learning or acquiring new digital skills (44 percent against 53 percent); and choosing careers that make the most money (50 percent against 100 percent).

“These factors are contributing in terms of decisions being made by women early on. Because these are undergraduates, so the courses that they choose, having a mentor, going to the work force, or raising their ambition are comparable than men,” said Ambe Tierro, senior managing director and lead for Accenture Technology in the Philippines.

Given these observations, it is no doubt that women are found out to be presently underrepresented

in the global work force at only 50 percent, compared with 76 percent of working-age men. On the average, a member of Eve’s tribe in paid employment gets an average $100 for every $140 earned by that of Adam’s clan.

Adding to the imbalance is the “hidden pay gap” apparent in the unemployed sector, wherein for every $100 a woman earns, a man ekes $258. “The future work force must be an equal work force. The gender pay gap is an economic and competitive imperative that matters to everyone, and we must all take action to create significant opportunities for women and close the gap more quickly,” she recommended.

The disparity in salary of female Continued on A2

n japan 0.4486 n UK 62.6070 n HK 6.4604 n CHINA 7.2865 n singapore 35.9042 n australia 38.3482 n EU 53.5921 n SAUDI arabia 13.3854

Source: BSP (31 March 2017 )

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elusive peace Continued from A1

the Filipinos, making him no different from his predecessors.

“This is a sad development granting this is truly their real intent. Why? Because it is an indication of an expansion program that ironically runs counter to the essence of the ongoing peace talks,” Padilla said in reaction to the intensified war by the rebels.

“It also belies the real intent of the group. They really do not desire a long, just and lasting peace for the country,” he added.

Padilla said that, in the absence of orders from Duterte to cease operations, the soldiers will continue their combat operations against the rebels while both parties are meeting in the European state, hoping to hammer out an agreement on social and economic reforms.

Padilla said the previous ceasefire has been used by the NPA to regroup and recruit new members.

“They are just using this as a way to recruit or rest and regroup because they are now having difficulties,” the military spokesman said.

Just two days before its anniversary, the NPA made a show of force by parading its young and new recruits near Camp Aguinaldo, the general headquarters of the military, where the rebels hold a drill and sang the communist anthem.

But Military Public Affairs Office Chief Col. Edgard Arevalo said those who showed up for the parade were merely communist sympathizers and not young fighters.

“Our reports provide that those who pulled out the lightning

rally are paid NPA sympathizers, supporters and front organizations posing as NPAs,” he said.

Arevalo described the NPA as no longer a force to reckon with compared with its previous standing.

“We will decimate their ranks by neutralizing their armed component, help integrate surrenders to mainstream society and relegate the recalcitrants as police matters to deal with,” he said.

Kadamay link

The rebels are not the only concern of the government, however, but even groups that are legal and politically aligned with the CPP, like the Kadamay, whose more than 6,000 urban-poor families have occupied a government housing project in Pandi, Bulacan.

The government, through the National Housing Authority (NHA), has blinked from its earlier threat of evicting the illegal occupants of the government’s socialized housing project, some units of which have been reserved for soldiers and policemen.

Philippine National Police (PNP) Spokesman Senior Supt. Dionardo Carlos said they share the observations that the Kadamay group is being egged for its actions, but they were leaving it up to the NHA to investigate it.

Carlos appealed for fairness in the processing and approval of applications for housing beneficiaries, saying the policemen-beneficiaries were following processes.

Wary

The rebels said that, while they

are willing to engage the government in talks and sign a peace agreement, they are also wary of the dangers of “pacification” as a result of a prolonged cease-fire “without substantial gains for the Filipino people”.

On the occasion of the 48th anniversary of the NPA, the CPP also issued a communiqué about the outcome of its second congress that was held in a guerrilla zone, wherein the constitution of the CPP was amended.

Among others, new provisions were added to allow members of “foreign fraternal parties assigned to work within the scope of the CPP” to become communist members and for party members, who have reached the age of 70, to retire from work, but retain party membership and receive subsistence support and medical assistance.

A new provision was also approved specifying the formation of advisory committees to which cadres who have opted to retire can be organized into.

“To ensure the vigor and vibrancy of the party, a provision was introduced specifying that steps be undertaken to ensure that the Central Committee shall have a balance of young, middleaged and senior cadres,” the communiqué said.

Demographics

The CPP said it also elected new members of its Central Committee for a five-year term during the meeting, wherein more than half of the newly elected Central Committee members are young and

Protest banners form part of the barricade set up around a government mass-housing project for the police and the military, which was occupied by informal settlers in Pandi, Bulacan, on March 22. More than a thousand informal settlers occupied the still-unfinished housing project on March 8 and vowed to resist any attempts by authorities to evict them. AP/Bullit Marquez

middle-aged cadres.

It said that this was made to ensure that the leadership of the party will “remain vibrant, tightly linked with the lower levels of leadership and capable of leading the practical work and day-today tasks of the party, especially in waging revolutionary armed struggle”.

The CPP said it was the first time in its nearly five decades that

the congress was attended by about 70,000 members.

“The second congress was composed of 120 delegates, both attending and nonattending. Of those who attended, around 30 percent were above 60 years old, while around 60 percent were in the 45 to 59 years age bracket, while 15 percent were 44 years and younger. The oldest delegate was 70 years old. The

youngest delegate was 33 years old,” it said.

“Reflecting the relative size of the party’s membership, cadres from five Mindanao regions constituted around 45 percent of the regional delegates; while those from Luzon constituted 40 percent; and the Visayas, 14 percent. The other delegates represented the party’s central leading organs and its commissions,” it added.

Pay rate next battleground in ‘war’ between sexes Continued from A1

employees and their counterparts will be addressed sooner than later if the former leverage on the powerful triumvirate of career accelerators, as per the report.

These include the digital fluency, or the extent to which people use digital technologies to connect, learn and work; career strategy for women to aim high, make informed choices and manage their careers proactively; and tech immersion as the opportunity to acquire greater technology and stronger digital skills to advance as quickly as men.

“These three equalizers, if we’re able to move a needle on each of these strategies, then we think there is hope in terms of closing the gender pay gap,” Tierro said, while citing their potential impact to lessen the pay gap by 35 percent worldwide and add $3.9 trillion to women’s income by 2030.

Another way to achieve equilibrium in the take-home pay of the labor market, according to the research, is the collaborative efforts among the public and private sectors, including academe, to provide critical support.

“Business, government and academia all have an important role to play in closing the gap. Collaboration among these organizations is key to providing the right opportunities, environments and role models to lead the way for change,” said Pierre Nanterme, chairman and CEO of Accenture.

All these initiatives, if taken seriously, will end the difference in pay in developed markets by 2044, or 36 years shorter than 2080 on current trends.

As to developing markets, including the Philippines, on the other hand, it could cut short by over 100 years, achieving the balance by 2066 rather than in 2168 as expected.

“Gender equality is an essential element of an inclusive workplace, and this extends to pay,” the top executive stressed.

On track

PROSPECTS on the “fair share” of both genders in the local labor market, insofar as the basic remuneration is concerned, are encouraging.

“As what’s shown in the global statistics, I think it’s representa-

tive in terms of what the Philippines could look like,” Tierro said, referring to the above-cited time needed to close the stipend parity in developing markets.

She is positive that, being an emerging market noted for its fast-growing economy over the past recent years, it’s “very highly possible” for this country to settle the “battle of both sexes” as regards the pay issue earlier than expected.

To do so, women themselves should embrace lifelong learning, taking full advantage of digital and tech opportunities at their universities and work.

College and universities must raise awareness with the female undergraduates about the impact of the course decisions on future pay and advancement.

“It’s not just about taking STEM [science and technology, engineering and math] programs. But obviously, these should be their focus because that’s what the digital world is telling us. The jobs will be more complex. We have the trend about automation, etc., and so our students need to understand that,” the senior managing director and lead for Accenture Technology in the Philippines said.

She added that the government must encourage educators to make the STEM subjects more appealing and accessible to young women at every grade level. While currently there is a focus already with some bills being passed in the legislative system that are promoting equality for women, she noted the immediacy of the state’s move to provide high-speed Internet access to the people.

“Getting this service to as many communities as possible, especially in a market like the Philippines, will do more to get women working than any single action,” Tierro explained. “So I think if our government can do this, it will really advance more women and actually more people in terms of joining the global work force.”

For the private sector’s contribution, business leaders must understand the dynamics that are attracting nonworking women back into the work force.

“It’s an economic imperative,” she said, while citing that the working environments must prioritize a flexible working experience em-

powered by digital technologies, mentorship programs, lifelong learning and training, as well as transparency and benchmarking around salaries. Fortunately, these are remarkably consistent across industries in the country at present, she observed.

Accenture, as a company, is a good example that is committed to gender equality, inclusivity and diversity in the workplace.

In fact, 51 percent of its 45,000 employees spread all over its 22 facilities in the Philippines are women across all levels. Also, 48 percent and 47 percent are female executives and managing directors, respectively.

The leading global professional services firm, likewise, pioneered here the implementation of the 120-day maternal vacation for working mothers.

“We continue to study the plight of our women employees and try to adjust our policies and practices so we can encourage more women back, even after taking maternity leave,” Tierro said. “So our retention of women has really improved. And now, we’re trying to see what else can we do because our intent is to lead in the market.

We just don’t want to be a compliant. We think this is important to provide that ideal environment for women to thrive and want to go back to work.”

The “Getting to Equal 2017” report had Accenture surveying more than 28,000 women and men, including undergraduates, in 29 countries. The sample included equal representation of men and women, representing three generations (millennials, Gen X and baby boomers) across all workforce levels at companies of varying size. The margin of error for the total sample was approximately +/- 0.6 percent.

Countries included in the full study were Argentina, Australia, Austria, Brazil, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greater China (includes Hong Kong and Taiwan), India, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Mexico, the Netherlands, Norway, Singapore, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, the United Kingdom and the United States. Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates also participated in the survey.

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China counters Trump’s trade bluster with regional economic ties that bind

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f President Donald J. Trump gets confrontational with Chinese President Xi Jinping over trade at their Mar-a-Lago summit in Florida in April, the Chinese leader will have potential allies in some surprising places—namely, Austin, Sacramento and Olympia.

The economic ties that bind China to the US are primarily regional and run deep. Now, with a wild card in the White House, the Chinese want even more leverage should bilateral trade relations get hammered. China’s Ministry of Commerce says it’s working to expand various investment agreements with California, Texas, Iowa and other states, deals it estimates

were worth $2.5 billion to US and Chinese businesses in 2016 alone. “‘A good relationship between two nations is based on close connection between their peoples,’” said Sun Jiwen, a spokesman for the ministry, citing an old Chinese saying. “Province-state and intercity economic partnerships provide an important foundation for China-US economic ties.”

While the outreach is a continuation of regional ties promoted for several years by Xi, it’s taken on added urgency as Trump’s economic team weighs whether to follow through on campaign-trail promises of tariffs of as much as 45 percent on Chinese goods.

Part of the thinking is that making more American friends outside Washington could slow the push for protectionist measures, according to a person involved in the ministry’s campaign who asked not to be identified discussing its internal deliberations.

in 2016, almost half of the US total. But China, with its 1.37 billion people, is also among the top three export markets for 33 states.

Te x as oi l and gas producers, Michigan automakers and Georgia paper mills would all suffer if China were to impose import restrictions in response to American tariffs. China has also ramped up its investments in the US —by one estimate, they tripled last year to $45.6 billion—which helps create the jobs Trump has promised.

Binding ties

Bus plant

If such cooperation flourishes, “it will not be easy for anyone to shake,” says He Weiwen, a former ministry official who’s now deputy director of the Beijing-based Center for China and Globalization.

Attention has focused on the massive trade deficit in trade of goods with China—$347 billion

US-China trade ties aren’t solely between Zhongnanhai and the W hite House. They’re forged in places like Moraine, Ohio, where American workers are employed

by Fuyao Glass, a Chinese-owned company that bought part of a shut tered G enera l Motors plant in 2014. Many of China’s

cross-border investments are welcomed locally and aren’t the kind of deals that draw scrutiny from the US government, which reviews foreign purchases for national security concerns.

In Lancaster, California, a desert town north of Los Angeles hit hard by the financial crisis, the Republican mayor, R. Rex Parris, in 2008 began courting the Chinese electric vehicle maker BYD Co., which is part-owned by Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc. “Saved our city,” he says of BYD’s electric bus plant in Lancaster. BYD now employs almost 500 there and anticipates tripling that within three years. “I’m telling people, ‘you’re going to have to not want a job to not have one,’” says Parris, who expects the local unemployment rate to drop to 2 percent.

China’s Ministry of Commerce began formalizing the provincial-state ties in 2012, when Xi

visited the US and talked with governors including Iowa’s Terry Branstad, an old friend from a 1980s cultural exchange, about boosting trade opportunities.

California, Texas, Iowa, Michigan, New York, the state of Washington and the city of Chicago have since signed agreements with the Ministry of Commerce, calling for regular trade visits, business matchmaking and other exchanges. The deals cover 25 Chinese provinces and cities, which sent 22 delegations to the US in 2016, while the US organized 14 trips to China, according to the ministry.

Officials and executives from Shanghai made two visits last year to Chicago, which helped convince the popcorn maker Garrett Popcorn to choose the city for its first store in mainland China, according to a news statement from Shanghai’s commerce commission. Bloomberg News

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Fears grow of terror in America with weaponized civilian drones

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he successful use of small drones as weapons by terrorists in Middle Eastern war zones is raising concerns among US security agencies that homegrown extremists will utilize them for domestic attacks.

A s mil lions of light weight drones flood the consumer market and the federal government struggles with monitoring the devices, counterterror agencies now see a possibility that they could be used in the US to carry explosives or as surveillance platforms, according to officials at a security conference in Washington on Wednesday.

“They are doing all sorts of innovative and ex per imenta l things,” said John Mulligan, deputy director of the US National Counterterrorism Center. “We’ve seen them using them in surveillance. We’ve seen them using them in weapons delivery. We can rest assured that they will continue to fine-tune their capabilities in this regard.”

Terror groups outside the US, including the Islamic State or ISIS, have in just over a year gone from tentative experiments to more successful and deadly uses of drones. An Associated Press reporter earlier this year visited an ISIS warehouse for drones in Mosul, Iraq, the scene of intense

fighting between the group and government troops. Videos on YouTube and other sites show ISIS fighters using drones to drop bombs on opponents.

“Small UAS with a small payload, that can be absolutely deadly,” said Mark Lilly, a civilian employee of the Air Force who is an expert in security threats, referring to drones by the acronym for unmanned aerial systems. Small amounts of explosive compounds could be attached to small com-

A drone before taking flight. Bloomberg

mercial drones that have been sold in this country, Lilly said.

Exploding drones

“Anyone who has ever seen or worked with C-4 knows it doesn’t take much against a high value

They [terrorists] are doing all sorts of innovative and experimental things. We’ve seen them using them in surveillance. We’ve seen them using them in weapons delivery.

We can rest assured that they will continue to fine-tune their capabilities in this regard.”—Mulligan

target, be it a civil 747 or 757 full of passengers or even on the ramp flying into the intake of an engine and exploding it,” he said.

For yea rs, t he t h reat wa s viewed as more theoretical, but the ease of obtaining highly capable small drones combined with the way terror groups in the Middle East have used them have made the concerns real, said William Hewitt, chief of the UAS Threat Integration Cell at the US. Department of Homeland Security. “Now it is a tangible reality,” Hewitt said.

The officials were speaking at a conference sponsored by the Air Line Pilots Association, a union representing about 55,000 crewmembers in North America.

SZ DJI Technology Co., the world’s largest manufacturer of

small consumer drones, builds its devices with automated software that prevents flights in securitysensitive zones, such as around Washington, company spokesman Adam Lisberg said in an e-mail.

“DJI makes our products entirely for peaceful purposes, and we deplore any attempts to do otherwise,” Lisberg said.

DHS, the Federal Aviation Administration and other US agencies are testing systems that can track drones and disable them if they come too close to sensitive sites or airports. The technology ranges from specialized radars and radio-frequency monitoring, to more traditional tools, including shooting rubber bullets at the devices, said Doug Booth, the director of Lockheed Martin Corp.’s efforts to create such tools.

He cautioned that multiple sensors may be needed to adequately detect them, because it’s possible for some unmanned aircraft to fly automatically, which means they aren’t communicating with an operator by radar. Counter-drone measures, such as jamming radio signals, may also run counter to US law, he said.

The government needs to improve cooperation and focus on the issue, said Stephen Alterman, president of the Cargo Airline Association trade group.

“Something is going to slip through the cracks unless we get a hold of this thing,” Alterman added. Bloomberg News

New kind of male contraceptive faces biggest hurdle: Drugmakers

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octors are on the cusp of launching t he f irst new male contraceptive in more than a century. But rather than a Big Pharma lab, the breakthrough is emerging from a university startup in the heart of rural India.

Years of human trials on the injectable, sperm-zapping product are coming to an end, and researchers are preparing to submit it for regulatory approval. Results so far show it’s safe, effective and easy to use—but gaining little traction with drugmakers. That’s frustrating its inventor, who says his technique could play a crucial role in condom-averse populations.

A new birth-control method for men has the potential to win as much as half the $10 billion market for female contraceptives worldwide and cut into the $3.2 billion of annual condom sales, businesses dominated by pharmaceutical giants Bayer AG, Pfizer Inc. and Merck & Co., according to estimates from the last major drug company to explore the area. India’s reversible procedure could cost as little as $10 in poor countries, and may provide males with years-long fertility control, overcoming compliance problems and avoiding ongoing costs associated with condoms and the female birth-control pill, which is usually taken daily.

It could also ease the burden on the 225 million women in developing countries, who the World Health Organization says have an unmet need for contraception.

Yet, so far, only a US non-profit has taken up development of the technology abroad.

For Sujoy Guha; the 76-yearold biomedica l eng ineer who invented the product, the challenge is to now find a company who wants to sell it—even though male contraception is an area Big Pharma has so far shown little interest in.

“The fact that the big companies are run by white, middle-

aged males who have the same feeling—that they would never do it—plays a major role,” said Herjan Coelingh Bennink, a gynecology professor who helped develop the contraceptives Implanon and Cerazette as head of research and development in women’s health for Organon International from 1987 to 2000. “If those companies were run by women, it would be totally different.”

Guha’s technique for impairing male fertility relies on a polymer gel that’s injected into the spermcarrying tubes in the scrotum. The gel, which has the consistency of melted chocolate, carries a positive charge that acts as a buffer on negatively charged sperm, damaging their heads and tails, and rendering them infertile.

The treatment, known as reversible inhibition of sperm under guidance, or Risug, is reversed with a second shot that breaks down the gel, allowing sperm to reach the penis normally.

The expected launch of Risug over the next two years will contribute to the Indian contraceptive market’s 17-percent growth through 2021, according to a report last year from Pharmaion Consultants, based near New Delhi.

The procedure is 98-percent effective at preventing pregnancy— about the same as condoms if they are used every time—and has no major side effects, according to R. S. Sharma, head of reproductive biology and maternal health at the Indian Council of Medical Research. About 540 men have received it in India, where it continues to prevent pregnancies in their partners 13 years after treatment, he said.

A submission to regulators this year will seek approval for Risug as a permanent method of birth control. That will be appended with clinical data supporting reversibility, Sharma said. India has more married women with an unmet need for family planning than any other country, and

social stigma and a lack of privacy in stores has kept condom use to less than 6 percent.

Globally, men tend to take a back seat in matters of contraception. Almost 60 percent of women in spousal relationships used the contraceptive pill or some other form of modern contraception worldwide in 2015, according to a UN report. In contrast, 8 percent relied on their male partner using a condom.

A new option for male birth control could garner as much as half the female contraceptives market, according to research

by Organon in the 1990s, when the Dutch drugmaker partnered with Germany’s Schering AG on the last major effort to develop a male birth-control pill. Demand would come from couples in long-term relationships looking to share family-planning responsibilities and single men looking for an alternative to condoms to prevent an unintended pregnancy from casual sex, Coelingh Bennink said.

Still, there were questions at Organon about whether it would be worthwhile financially to develop a new entrant in the lowmargin contraceptives market, and the project was eventually shelved, he said.

Efforts on a hormone-based male contraceptives continued in 2008 in a study cofunded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and UN agencies that was published in October. While the injected regimen’s efficacy was “relatively good” compared to other methods, the study was terminated early after a safety review.

The authors noted a “relatively high” frequency of mild to moderate mood disorders, sparking a media uproar over perceived double standards in the development of contraceptives because the side effects seemed similar to those women experience on the pill.

Bayer, which bought Schering in 2006, stopped all research and

development activities around male fertility control about a decade ago, said Astrid Kranz, a company Spokesman.

Although an earlier clinical trial involving the administration of hormones via injection and an implant was “efficient, with a tolerable side effect profile,” Kranz said, the Leverkusen, a Ger many-based dr ug ma ker wasn’t convinced this “inconvenient” regimen would find sufficient market acceptance.

Male contraception isn’t an area of active research for Pfizer and Merck either, representatives said.

Both companies sell products for female fertility control.

Side effects aside, it would take about $100 million and 10 years to bring a hormone-based male birth-control pill to market—a low-priority undertaking for pharmaceutical executives, Coelingh Bennink said.

“If those companies were run by women, it would be totally different.” That’s now the dilemma Indian inventor Guha faces.

“In doing anything abroad, quite substantial money is required, and that can only come from the pharmaceutical industry,” Guha said, surrounded by dusty stacks of paper, books and prototype inventions that bury every surface in his office at the Indian Institute of Technology in Kharagpur, about 130 kilometers west of Kolkata.

In the face of disinterest from the phar maceutical industr y, Guha licensed the technology to the Parsemus Foundation, a USbased non-profit, to help establish a market for it outside India, he said.

Parsemus is working on its ow n version, called Vasalgel, that it plans to manufacture and distribute at near cost—or potentially $10 to $20 per person in low- and middle-income countries—and $400 to $600 per person in wealthier markets, Elaine Lissner, the foundation’s founder, said in an e-mail.

The foundation, based in Berkeley, California, is seeking donations to fund costly human trials starting next year after, a study in 16 rhesus monkeys published last month showed Vasalgel was successful in preventing conception while the primates fraternized with females for five to 24 months.

Guha, meantime, has registered a startup in India called IcubedG Ideas Pvt. Ltd. through which he is pushing ahead with introducing the technology in his home countr y. He leased space in a New Delhi industrial zone in January after developing a method of mass production using a government grant.

Three couples who participated in the clinical trials gathered in his Kharagpur office in February to attest to the need.

Kinkar Ari, a 39-year-old day laborer from a nearby village, said that when he and his wife Aloka decided they didn’t want more children, they had a choice between tubal ligation for her or vasectomy for him, but neither could afford the time off to recuperate from the surgery.

When a public health worker told the couple about Guha’s promising alternative, Ari decided to enroll in the study. The injection took 15 minutes with some local anesthesia, and after half an hour of observation at the clinic, he said he was able to walk the 2.5 kilometers home. Two days later, he was back at work. Ari was so enthused by the procedure he convinced two other couples to have it done, he said.

Stories like that encourage Guha to persist with the project, he said, even though patents on his invention have long since expired and he won’t see any personal financial gain even if it takes off worldwide. “Why should the burden be borne by the female only?” he said in his office after the three couples had left. “There has to be an equal partnership.” Bloomberg News

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Tillerson’s skill in diplomacy put to major test with visit to Turkey

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S Secretary of State Rex Tillerson sat down with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Ankara on Thursday, in a meeting that will test his diplomatic skills as he navigates one of the US government’s most complex foreign relationships.

Tillerson is spending a day in the Turkish capital seeking to shore up support from a crucial Nato ally in the fight against the Islamic State in Syria and Iraq. The US-led coalition fighting the group is backing Kurdish fighters as it prepares a campaign against the city of Raqqa, despite Turkish opposition.

Speaking to reporters before the trip, a senior State Department official said the Raqqa attack must be “militarily viable” though the US was aware of the Turkish government’s concerns about American support for the Kurdish fighters, whose separatist aspirations Turkey fears. The official spoke on condition of anonymity as part of the ground rules for the call.

Tension over the Raqqa fight is just one of a host of issues Tillerson will confront during the visit. Erdogan has stifled the independent news and the opposition in the wake of a July coup attempt, drawing concern from human rights groups. Turks will hold a referendum next month on whether to grant Erdogan even more power.

Seeks extradition

Erdogan has accused US-based preacher Fethullah Gulen of organizing the coup and has become increasingly impatient with the US for not turning him over. The State Department argues that the courts must handle Turkey’s extradition request. As the trip began, Turkey made another appeal for Gulen to be extradited.

“The Government of the Republic of Turkey and the Turkish people expect from the US the immediate extradition of Fethullah Gulen,” Turkey’s embassy to the US said in a news statement earlier this week.

Tillerson met with Prime Minister Binali Yildirim before his session with Erdogan. After that earlier meeting, Yildirim’s office issued a statement saying they discussed joint efforts in the fight against Islamic State and Turkey’s expectation that the US would send Gulen back home. The State Department, in a statement, said the two men “discussed working to enhance our critical security and economic ties in the region.”

Tillerson, the former chief executive of Exxon Mobil Corp., had no formal diplomatic experience before taking the secretary of state job, though he spent years cultivating relationships with leaders around the world as he sought oil deals.

Crucial ally

Turkey is viewed as a critical Nato ally given its strategic geographic position between Europe and Asia, a bridge that has served as an entryway for refugees fleeing violence in Syria. The country hosts about 1,500 American military personnel and aircraft—as well as troops from Italy, Spain and elsewhereat Incirlik Air Base, a staging point for the fight against Islamic State.

Erdogan has been blunt about his opposition toward the US support for Kurdish fighters, whose separatist aims are shared by a militant Kurdish group that has been fighting for autonomy in Turkey’s southeast for more than three decades. In an interview with Bloomberg last year, he said the US was “doing wrong before the eyes of the world” and endangering Turkey’s future by giving them weapons.

Turkish officials are also expected to protest the arrest in the US of a senior executive at one of Turkey’s largest state-owned banks on charges of conspiring to evade trade sanctions on Iran. Mehmet Hakan Atilla, a deputy chief executive officer at Turkiye Halk Bankasi AS, is accused of conspiring with Reza Zarrab, an Iranian-Turkish gold trader, to launder hundreds of millions of dollars through the US financial system on behalf of Iran and its companies. He was arrested on Monday. Bloomberg News

Editor: Jun Lomibao | mirror_sports@yahoo.com.ph

Sports

BusinessMirror

Sunday, April 2, 2017 A5

HOCKEY’S NEXT FRONTIER

By Stephen Whyno

W

CHINESE players bow to the audience at the end of a match during a youth ice hockey tournament in Beijing. AP

SANTO TOMAS, U.P. FIGHT FOR SURVIVAL U

NIVERSITY of the Philippines (UP) faces University of Santo Tomas (UST) today, with both teams hoping to avoid elimination from the Final Four race in Season 79 University Athletic Association of the Philippines (UAAP) women’s volleyball tournament at the SM Mall of Asia Arena in Pasay City.

The winner of the 4 p.m. would find itself in a better position for the semifinals. UP and UST are toting

identical 7-5 win-loss records.

Ateneo Lady Eagles (10-2), meanwhile, take on University of the East (1-11) at 2 p.m., with the Lady Eagles trying to avoid the upset ax, which the Lady Warriors have been wielding—yet to no success so far— in the second round of eliminations.

Ateneo and De La Salle are assured of the top-two spots for the twice-to-beat advantages in the Final Four.

The Lady Eagles and the Lady Spikers clashed for the No. 1 spot in their second-round clash on Saturday at the Smart Araneta Coliseum.

The Lady Maroons are coming off a morale-boosting 25-14, 25-27, 25-21, 25-12 win over National University last week, while the Tigresses will try to recover from a 23-25, 22-25, 21-25 setback to defending champion De La Salle last Wednesday. Lance Agcaoili

The Associated Press

HEN Andong Song started playing hockey in China at age six, he wore figure skates on his feet and had to use the straight parts of short-track speedskating rinks for practice.

His father brought back equipment from his travels one piece at a time, and his family moved to Canada a few years later so he could pursue a career in the sport. Song, the first Chinese player selected in the National Hockey League (NHL) draft, envisions a day when that sort of cross-global exodus is no longer necessary for kids growing up in China.

That could be coming soon with the NHL looking at China as hockey’s next great frontier. With the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing, China is eager to step up its game and the league is intrigued by the potential of a new nontraditional market with 1.4 billion people that might take to hockey like it did basketball.

“It’s a place that hasn’t had that much of an opportunity to be introduced to what everybody acknowledges is a great game,” commissioner Gary Bettman said. “Because of the size of the market and the fact that lots of sports haven’t been developed there, it’s a good opportunity to expand the sport even further.”

This week Bettman is expected to announce NHL preseason games in China between the Los Angeles Kings and Vancouver Canucks, along with grassroots programs to build a hockey foundation where the National Basketball Association (NBA) has laid one for decades. It’s the first big step toward the NHL making inroads in China, whether or not players participate in the 2018 Olympics in neighboring South Korea.

NHL Players’ Association executive director Don Fehr said showcasing the NHL, running clinics and getting more broadcast coverage all figure into the long-term strategy. Even though Russia’s expansive Kontinental Hockey League now has a team based in Beijing, NHL exhibition games—and potentially regular-season games as early as fall 2018—will have a bigger impact.

“Even with the KHL there, they know it’s not the best league,” said Song, a Beijing native and sixth-round pick of the New York Islanders in 2015, who now plays for the

Madison Capitols of the US Hockey League. “They know it’s not the NHL.” According to the International Ice Hockey Federation, China only has 1,101 registered players and 154 indoor rinks.

Despite having a quarter of China’s population, the US has 543,239 players and 1,800 indoor rinks.

By October, 14 different NBA teams will have played 24 preseason games in greater China since 2004, so the NHL has some catching up to do. The Boston Bruins sent an envoy on a Chinese tour last summer that included players Matt Beleskey and David Pastrnak, and Washington Capitals owner Ted Leonsis recently said his team could be next after hosting youth players from China in January.

“There are about 200 new rinks being built in China, and we would expect China being a very, very formidable force in the Olympics,” said Leonsis, who called China the next great hockey market. “And also we’ll see that China will be producing players, and I would expect that we’ll have NHL players that were born and trained, just like we’ve seen in the NBA, and China will be able to bring players here.”

The NBA gained popularity in China in part due to Yao Ming, the first pick in the 2002 draft. The NHL is going into China hoping to develop homegrown stars. Chinese broadcaster and producer Longmou Li, who has worked the Stanley Cup Final and helped families move to North America for hockey, said 500 to 600 new families are joining the Beijing Hockey Association each year, which could mean churning out an NHL first-round pick every five to six years.

Song said because the sport is still in its infancy in China and centralized in the northeast and in big cities, keeping the best players there instead of seeing them leave for North America is the biggest challenge.

About 200 Chinese hockey families currently live in North America, Li said, and the return of those players, coupled with the KHL’s Kunlun Red Star’s presence and a commitment to skill development, will help the national team grow in preparation for the 2022 Olympics. With a broadcasting deal already in place to air four NHL games on state-owned China Central TV and 10-12 online through Tencent each week, his keys to the growth of Chinese hockey are players reaching the NHL and the national team competing at the top level of the world championships.

A6 Sunday, April 2, 2017

Science

BusinessMirror

Sunday

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

Understanding cloud formations and storms

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Story & photos by Stephanie Tumampos

wind direction that happen in ou r cou nt r y—t he nor t hwest monsoon [hanging amihan] and the southeast monsoon [hanging habagat],” Corona explained.

These two are responsible for the transport of clouds that are formed from afar.

Another factor is that the Philippines is near the equator. “Here in the tropics, our temperature is hotter than in other countries.”

By this, Corona meant that faster evaporation occurs.

he simplest indicator of rain is the presence of clouds. For 42 years, Felion Corona is no stranger to looking up the sky every time he needs to check on the day’s weather.

152 The number of years of National Meteorological Day celebrated by the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration at its headquarters in Quezon City recently

As chief meteorological officer of the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (Pagasa) in Catarman, Samar, Corona had four decades of experience to easily identify clouds.

His talk, “The Importance of Clouds in Meteorological Operations”, was discussed during the scientific forum on clouds at Pagasa’s 152nd National Meteorological Day held recently in its central office in Quezon City. Its theme, “Understanding Clouds”,

is also the theme of the celebration of the World Meteorological Organization this year.

Cumulus, nimbus, cirrus— some of the clouds we have up there—are monitored every three hours, Corona said.

“We check them every three hours by looking outside,” Corona said Filipino in an interview with the BusinessMirror. “At 8 a.m., 11 a.m., 2 p.m., 5 p.m., 8 p.m., 11 p.m., 2 a.m., 5 a.m. and back at 8 in the morning, we send data to the main station here in Manila for meteorologists to consolidate and send these data to Singapore and Tokyo.”

In cases of extreme weather, such as a storm, meteorologists are required to check clouds hourly.

Other countries also send their data respectively to Tokyo and Singapore. The Philippines and the rest of the world follow the coordinated universal time in simultaneously sending data.

Importance of clouds

“It is in the clouds that we see how our weather is performing,” Corona told the BusinessMirror.

A weather forecaster or a meteorologist will be alarmed if a group of clouds is starting to form

Weather vs climate

Clouds are forming above Panglao Island, Bohol.

in the sky. “If clouds are starting to cram, we start to look at them and focus on their activity.”

Corona said clouds are one of the best indicators to determine if a storm is coming.

A storm starts when atmospheric pressure drops, which happens, he said, “when the weight of the wind is very light”.

W hen this happens, clouds start to accumulate, and “when the wind becomes lighter and lighter, it is there that a circulation of the wind forms”. This is how a meteorologist predicts the further formation and direction of the storm.

When clouds don’t form in an area, the day is easily judged as good weather.

Tropical Philippines

Like every country in the world, the Philippines has a story to tell when it comes to clouds, and how its weather and climate are uniquely

different from other places.

Being in the tropics, he or she can easily observe that anywhere he or she goes on any island in the country, always or oftentimes he or she sees thick clouds forming in our sky. Hot or not, the clouds tower and cover the blue sky with huge masses of water and dust.

Eventually, it condenses and water droplets start to fall from it, watering the Earth. “ The biggest factor on why clouds form and move faster in the Philippines is its being an archipelago,” Corona said. “Our country, being an archipelago, is surrounded by a large mass of water. Clouds are formed when the sun heats up the surface and the water. “Water evaporates and when there’s more evaporation, there are more clouds.”

More o ve r, c loud s a re not just present on top of the land area, it is also on top of the

E. Visayas students’ disaster robot wins award

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tudents from the Philippine Science High SchoolEaster n Visayas Campus (PSHS-EVC) were declared the national champions in the robotics Youth Innovation Award by the Department of Science and Technology-Science Education Institute (DOST-SEI).

The students—Johan Castillejos, Kent Marc Kobe Bismark and John Ejie Relente—together with their coach Engr. Vinci Gabumpa, also won the Special Award-Perfect Execution Award at the competition held at Henry Sy Innovation Center in Miriam College in Quezon City last week.

The “I Make, We Make: Create Innovate Collaborate” competition was a robotics-innovation challenge that made use of a specific to help the society in today’s problems.

The PSHS-EVC team developed the Disaster Mitigation Robot, which provides an alert system when a flood or tsunami comes.

It was the team’s first time to join the competition, which incidentally would help prepare t hem for Au st ra l i a Robot ics Challenge in October to develop their concept as well as prototy pes to contribute in presenting solutions for the current problems of society.

The PSHS-EVC team told the BusinessMirror, “We designed a device that sense water levels in times of flood or tsunami, and alert the community. We aim to innovate and collaborate with agencies to achieve the objectives of the DOST-SEI competition.

The DOST-SEI aims that youth from innovate certain solutions for problems in community such as agriculture, disaster, environment, public health and traffic.”

T h e t e a m w i l l r e p r e s e nt the Philippines to the Google G r i f f it h A u s t r a l i a R o b o t i c s Challenge in October at Griffith

Philippine Science High School-Eastern Visayas Campus students win the “I Make, We Make” Youth Innovation and Perfect Execution awards from theDepartment of Science and Tehnology-Science Education Institute.

University, Australia, as young innovators of technology.

The invitation to join the Australia Robotics Challenge came when the PSHS-EVC team competed in an earlier robotics competitions organized by the Department of Education (DepEd).

It became the champion in two categories in the DepEd ’s National Science and Technology Fair called Pinoy Robot Games 2017. They won in the 1-kilogram Legged Sumobot and in Line Tracing at Tagaytay International Convention Center from February 14 to 16. The Pinoy robot games aim to utilize technolog y to solve problems but using technolog y to be fun and productive for students.

In the Pinoy robot games, t he PSHS -EVC tea m sa id its Sumobot was built from Lego blocks w ith platfor ms, but has no wheels and only touches the

ground in severa l points. It is not automated but remote controlled. In the competition, two robots face off and tr y to be first to push off the opponent robot out the platfor m.

The robots also complete challenges, such carry barrels of hypothetically toxic materials that are placed in a container, and rescue people and bring them in rescue areas.

“We managed to be in rank 26 out of 86 teams from various parts of the world in robotics mission challenge in Qatar in 2015,” the PSHS team said.

Director Reynaldo Garnace of PSHS-EVC told the BusinessMirror the catalyst in having creative and innovating ideas among the students is by allowing them to “think, be creative and innovative, as ignited by their classes in advance technology, computer science, physics and math. Their

participation in interdisciplinary studies helps them create something and engage in robotics and other activities.”

The team has developed its skills and, theoretically, through the Robotics Alternative Learning Activities (ALA) under the physics track, where they meet two hours every week.

Their coach told the BusinessMirror the PSHS was able to produce excellent students with aptitude and skills in robotics. Gabumpa said through the school’s constant motivation and support, the team bagged several awards, including the performance award in the 2016 World Robot Games and second place in the 2016 Pinoy Robot Games Gabumpa said the PSHS joined the robotics for the first time in 2009, where they got third in national competition for open categor y.

Before the K to 12 cur r iculum was adopted by the DepEd, t he A L A in Robotics was an elective for second-year students. A L A in Robotics is now par t of the cur r icu lum.

The PSHS-EVC team said robotics stimulate young minds, inspire and capacitate them to become a springboard as future engineers in our country.

“Robotics will solve problems of society by utilizing resources, innovating, collaborating and stimulate critical thinking, problem solving, and isproductive and fun,” PSHS-EVC team said.

The team members hope to take electronics engineering, electrical engineering, biomedical engineering or biotechnology in college.

T he te a m e ncou r a ge s t he youth to engage in robotics and “not to get intimated by robotics, because they help in critical thinking, problem solving and it is fun.” Vanessa M. Puno

Chief meteorological officer Felion Corona of the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (Pagasa) in Catarman, Samar, discusses the importance of clouds during the scientific forum at Pagasa’s 152nd National Meteorological Day celebration at its central office in Quezon City recently.

water bodies. Clouds that are on top of the water bodies are transported through the wind, in which clouds are pushed to over the land area. “ We h ave t wo s y stem s of

A lot of of people are always confused on the difference between the two terms—weather and climate—in meteorology.

According to Corona, “Weather is the condition of the atmosphere for a short period of time,” which means for a day. “What is happening in the atmosphere today, that [involves] the weather.”

Climate, on the other hand, “is the condition of the atmosphere for a long period of time,” which, he explained, involves a continuous data record of at least 30 years, such as El Niño and La Niña.

“In the Philippines we have four types of climate,” Corona said.

Type 1 is the two pronounced season, which is the dry, from November to April; and the wet, during the rest of the year.

The second type is a no dry season, with a pronounced rainfall from November to January, while the third type is relatively dry, from the months November to April, and wet during the rest of the year, wherein the seasons are not very pronounced.

The fourth type is more rainfall or less evenly distributed throughout the year.

Philippines and Thailand ink accord to strengthen S&T cooperation

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cientific and technological activities in the Philippines and Thailand recently got a big push, as science and technology (S&T) leaders in both countries signed a legally binding agreement to work together in promoting the development of S&T cooperation between said countries.

Representing the Philippines and Thailand are of Science and Secretary Fortunato T. de la Peña and Ministry of Science and Technology Minister Atchaka Sibunruang, respectively.

According to the agreement, the Philippines and Thailand shall carry out S&T cooperation in joint research and development; exchange of scientists, s p e c i a l i s t s a n d re p re s e n t at i ve s o f academic, research, industrial and trade organizations; exchange of technical documentation and information; arrangement of bilateral conferences and

symposia on subjects of mutual interest; and other forms of cooperation in the field of S&T. The two governments also concurred to include visits and exchanges of S&T specialists in fields beyond the agreed areas in the current agreement.

According to de la Peña, representatives of both the Philippines and Thailand shall meet as soon as possible to negotiate the programs and approve the areas and terms of S&T cooperation.

They shall also agree on ways and means to accomplish program items and discuss other matters related to the cooperation.

The Philippine-Thailand agreement shall also pave the way to link up organizations, agencies, universities and firms in both countries, and conclude implementing arrangements. To run for five years, the program started this March and will end in March 2023. S&T Media Service

A carbon law to protect the climate

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XBRIDGE, Canada—The Carbon Law says human carbon-dioxide (CO 2 ) emissions must be reduced by half each decade starting in 2020. By following this “law”, humanity can achieve net-zero CO2 emissions by midcentury to protect the global climate for current and future generations.

A carbon law is a new concept unveiled on March 23 in the journal Science. It is part of a decarbonization road map that shows how the global economy can rapidly reduce carbon emissions, said coauthor Owen Gaffney of the Stockholm Resilience Centre, one of the members international team of climate experts.

To keep the global temperature rise to well below 2°C, emissions from burning fossil fuels (oil, gas and coal) must peak by 2020 at the latest and fall to around zero by 2050.

This is what the world’s nations agreed to at the UN’s Paris Agreement in 2015. Global temperatures have already increased 1.1 °C. “After the Paris agreement, we began to work on a science-based road map to stay well below 2˚C,” Gaffney told Inter Press Service (IPS). The carbon law is modeled on Moore’s Law, a prediction that computer-processing

power doubles every 24 months. Like Moore’s, the carbon law isn’t a scientific or legal law but a projection of what could happen. Gordon Moore’s 1965 prediction ended up becoming the tech industry’s biannual goal.

A carbon law approach ensures that the greatest efforts to reduce emissions happen sooner not later, which reduces the risk of blowing the remaining global carbon budget, Gaffney said. This means global CO2 emissions must peak by 2020, and then be cut in half by 2030. Emissions in 2016 were 38 billion tons (Gt), about the same as the previous two years. If emissions peak at 40 Gt by 2020, they need to fall to 20 Gt by 2030 under the carbon law. And then halve again in 2040 and 2050.

“Global emissions have stalled the last three years, but it’s too soon to say if they have peaked due largely to China’s incredible efforts,” he said.

The Science paper, “A Roadmap for Rapid Decarbonization”, notes that China’s coal use swung from a 3.7-percent increase in 2013 to a 3.7-percent decline in 2015. Although not noted in the paper China’s wind-energy capacity went from 400 megawatts in 2004 to an astonishing 145,000 MW in 2016. IPS

Tourism&Entertainment BusinessMirror

Editor: Carla Mortel-Baricaua

Sunday, April 2, 2017 A7

The idyllic charms of Romblon R

Story & photos by Joshua Berida

the hum of the wind and the rustling of leaves.

Romblon’s skies and landscape are just as beautiful in the day as they are when the sun sets.

With no man-made structures to obstruct the view, the sky turns from white to orange to red with a hint of violet, with the glass-like waters of its beaches reflecting the last rays of the sun.

omblon is a province that you visit to watch time flitter by.

Its rustic charm and idyllic vibe are much like the slow lapping of the waves on its powdery sand beaches and the slow, controlled movements of the clouds as they turn from white to orange at sunset.

The provincial life

Aglicay Resort is the perfect place to go to in Romblon to disconnect.

The sunrise on the island is just as beautiful as its sunset.

Local craftsmen intricately carve designs on marble to sell to foreign and domestic markets.

I left the resort early to catch the jeep bound for San Agustin to board the last boat bound for Romblon, Romblon. Time passes slowly on the island; the easy and patient demeanor of the locals says it all: there’s no rush, they have all the time they need.

Bonbon Beach sees very few visitors, allowing it to stay pristine.

When I visited Romblon, I was looking for exactly that kind of getaway, even just for a few days.

Slow days

I arrived on Tablas Island late in the afternoon, which in my experience was a bad time to arrive in the province. Since most of the public transportation has either taken or just about to take their last trip for the day. Instead of waiting for the slight chance that I can board a jeepney bound for a bigger town, I decided to rent a tricycle to take me to Aglicay Resort.

Dur ing my stay, there were only a handf u l of g uests, there was no Wi-fi, no T V and no other nearby establishments.

The only noise I could associate with the city was the droning of the tr ic ycle’s eng ine. T he lapping of the waves on the fine, white sa nd a nd t he sway ing of the trees were the common sounds from after noon until sunrise. It was a different exper ience for me, one who is used to stay ing online. I had to disconnect, slow dow n, enjoy the v iew; the simple things.

Idyllic sunsets and beaches

I arrived at the small port town of San Agustin, where fishermen dry their catch by their houses, while children climb a boat and use it as a diving board. I felt time stand still here; there was no hurry for construction and commercialization, no fast food and no highspeed Internet connection.

Romblon, Romblon, was different from the island I just left; it moved a pace faster, more eager to build, more accepting of what was foreign, more willing to reach out. An Italian restaurant, a bar that served European liquors and German dishes stood side-by-side with the local carin-

Creativity, sustainability and learning events at Muni Market 2017

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ince the first Muni Market in 2014, it was always the goal to create an enriching experience and connect a community for mindful living. More than a marketplace for healthy, local or eco-friendly products, the Muni Market allows causedriven creatives of all kinds to meet like-minded individuals, united by a collective goal to build a healthier, more inclusive, more sustainable world. “ We ’v e a l w a y s w a nt e d t o bring together entrepreneurs, designers, communicators, educators and advocates to learn from each other’s unique perspectives and work together to create a better future for the planet,” says Jen Hor n, who leadsthe Muni team, along with K ar Abola and Wanna Cancio.

Now on its si x t h r u n w it h the only Muni Market for 2017, t hey’ve rounded up an impressive l ine up of Mu ni Meet up spea kers a nd moderators on t he fol low ing topics: (Apr i l 8) R e i m a g i n i ng L o c a l Fa sh ion , 11 a.m.-12:30 p.m.; Commun ic at i ng You r C au se, 1:30 - 3 p.m.; Beat ing Ma ni l a Tra f f ic, 4 - 5:30 p.m.; (Apr i l 9) Feed ing

MUNI Meetups aim to connect cause-driven creatives and spark conversation and collaboration.

t he Food R evolut ion, 1-2:30 p.m.; Responsible Travel, 3:30 5 p.m.; and Zero Waste Liv ing , 6 p.m.-7:30 p.m.

Muni event attendee-turnede nt re p re ne u r Ky l ie M i s a o f W VN sh a res, “ I go to Mu n i Meetups and Markets to learn from people who inspire me to make an impact in the world.

T he com mu n it y teac hes you t hat sma l l ind iv idua l t hings we do can go a long way when multiplied—so it’s great to see the community growing.”

The Muni Meetups will be held on April 8 and 9 on the second floor of Estancia Mall North Wing, across the Capitol Commons Park, where merchants of the Muni Market 2017 will be showcasing their products from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m.

Access to the Muni Market is free, while prepaid tickets to Muni Meetups are at P250, inclusive a Muni Market voucher and raffle entry. Payment on site is P350. For more information, visit www.muni. com.ph/munimarket2017 or www. facebook.com/muni.ph.

deria serving inihaw and sisig.

The droning of the tricycles’ engines and the jeeps moving in and out, signs of movement, bustle, a sense of time, of place.

A nd then there was Internet connection, slow but enough to send messages on Facebook, post a few photos, connect to

the world outside this enclave.

The provincial capital was on time warp between the big city and the island I just left; caught somewhere in between.

Unlike its provincial capital, Romblon’s beaches lack the hustle and commercialization of its more famous counterparts in Aklan and Palawan. These are easily accessible by riding a tricycle and alighting at their entrances by the highway.

Two of the popular white-sand beaches on the island are Tiamban and Bonbon. The former is small, but has fine, powdery white sand and mirror-like waters, ideal for swimming. Bonbon shares the same characteristics, but with higher trees and a longer and bigger beach. There are no resorts, fancy restaurants and rowdy crowds to block the views, it was back to basics, just swimming and enjoying nature; the music the lapping of the waves make as it hits the sand,

Romblon is known as the marble capital of the Philippine, having large deposits of this rock, the locals are able to carve a living.

Their skilled hands sculpt small and big decorative items, coffee cups, plates and trinkets that visitors can take home, to large masterpieces, such as lions, Indians and dragons. Their works travel far and wide to China, America and some parts of Europe, selling for thousands, sometimes hundreds of thousands, of pesos.

Life in the province would not be the same without a church; S a i nt Jos e ph ’s C at he d r a l i s where the locals go to to find peace, God and seek answers for their prayers. The church dates back to the 15th century; its Byzantine altar, beautiful and colorful stained-glass windows and religious paintings elicit admiration from visitors.

Romblon’s rustic atmosphere, slow days, beautiful, bone whitesand beaches and sunsets make you stop and stare, and elicit child-like wonder. The province’s attractions and lost-in- time ambiance make it a worthy destination to go to, where you can disappear and disconnect for a few days and simply enjoy nature.

Faith A8 Sunday, April 2, 2017

Sunday

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

Lent, a call to prayer

By Corazon Damo-Santiago

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rayer is to present one’s self in the presence of God who awaits to transform and purify us. For God is the fullness of being, every perfection, without beginning and without end.

“You must make time each day for prayer.... This is important, for we come to know God, to grow into men and women of faith, to see ourselves as members of God’s greater family, the church. And for all our activity, our busy-ness, without prayer we will accomplish very little.”

This was how Pope Francis emphasized the importance of prayer, during his meeting with families in SM MOA Arena on his pastoral visit to the country in 2015. “If we don’t pray, we won’t know God’s will for us.”

Prayer, an actualization of faith

People sing as they attend Sunday worship at the William Carey Baptist Church in Havana, Cuba. Like the Roman Catholic Church, the island’s dominant denomination, evangelical churches have begun providing social services once monopolized by the Communist government. AP/Desmond Boylan

Despite tensions, evangelical churches booming in Cuba

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AVANA—Fidel Castro’s government sent the Rev. Juan Francisco Naranjo to two years of work camp in the 1960s for preaching the Gospel in a Cuba, where atheism was law and the faithful were viewed as suspect. For years, Naranjo’s church was almost abandoned, with just a handful of people daring to attend services.

Naranjo died in 2000 but on a recent Sunday, his William Carey Baptist Church was packed and noisy. Government doctors treated disabled children at a clinic inside.

A Bible study group discussed Scripture in one corner of the building before a service attended by 200 of the faithful.

“In the 1960s, the few brothers and sisters who came here had to hide their Bibles in brown-paper covers,” said Esther Zulueta, a 57-year-old doctor. “It’s night and day.”

Trump administration officials have repeatedly said religious freedom is one of the key demands they will make of Cuba when they finish reviewing former President Barack Obama’s opening with the island.

The administration has never been more specific, but outside groups have accused Cuba of systematically repressing the island’s growing ranks of evangelicals and other Protestants with acts including the seizure of hundreds of churches across the island, followed by the demolition of many.

A n A ssoc i ated P ress ( A P) examination has found a more complicated picture. Pastors and worshippers say Cuba is in the middle of a boom in evangelical worship, with tens of thousands of Cubans worshiping unmolested across the island each week.

While the government now recognizes freedom of religion, it doesn’t grant the right to build churches or other religious structures. It has demolished a handful of churches in recent years,

60%

The percentage of Cuba’s 11 million population who were baptized Catholic

but allowed their members to continue meeting in makeshift home sanctuaries.

And like the Roman Catholic Church, the island ’s dominant denomination, evangelical churches have begun providing social ser vices once monopolized by the Communist government. “ There’s a revival of these churches, of the most diverse denominations in the countr y, and all of them are growing, not just in the number of members, but in their capacity to lead and act in society,” said Presbyterian pastor Joel Ortega Dopica, president of Council of Churches of Cuba, an officially recognized association of 32 Protestant denominations. “ There is religious freedom in Cuba.”

C lerg y a nd ac adem ic s say Cuba’s 11 mi l lion people include some 40,000 Methodists, 100,000 Baptists and 120,000 members of the Assemblies of God, which had roughly 10,000 members in the early 1990s, when Cuba began easing restrictions on public expressions of religious faith.

The church council estimates there are about 25,000 evangelical and other Protestant houses of worship across the country. About 60 percent of the population is baptized Catholic, with many also following Afro-Cuban syncretic traditions, such as Santeria.

Naranjo was part of that opening. After the work camp, he returned to a church whose worshippers were barred from many state jobs. A thaw began in 1984, when visiting American civil-rights activist Jesse Jackson stunned Cuba by taking Fidel Castro to a Protestant church service.

In 1990 Naranjo was among a group of pastors who met with Castro to push for a greater freedom, and his own church worked on building ties between religious groups and the Communist Party.

T he opening c u l m inated in t he 1998 v isit of Pope John Pau l II, wh ic h led to new l ib er t ies for bot h C at hol ic a nd Protest a nt worsh ipers.

The Cuban Constitution now recognizes freedom of religion, but the law is silent on the issue of church construction. In a system where the government has long monopolized public life, virtually all activities are presumed illegal unless the law says otherwise.

Authorities in some areas have prohibited new churches, even as they allow worship in religious buildings erected before Cuba’s 1959 revolution.

The London-based advocacy group Christian Solidarity Worldwide issued a report alleging the Cuban government committed 2,380 violations of religious liberty in 2016, most linked to the declaration of 2,000 Assemblies of God churches as illegal, with 1,400 in process of confiscation.

The group says it based that information on a source inside Cuba whom it would not name.

Juan Whitaker, the Assemblies of God’s treasurer in Cuba, told the AP this month that none of its churches had been declared illegal or were at risk of confiscation.

David Ellis, regional director for Latin America and Caribbean for world missions of the Missouribased General Council of the Assemblies of God, told the AP, “We are in ongoing contact with the

Cuba Assemblies of God leadership and they have not reported any churches being confiscated.

Neither have they reported that churches have been threatened with confiscation.”

Kiri Kankhwende, a spokeswoman for Christian Solidarity Worldwide, said its assessment hadn’t changed and any statement to the contrary could be explained by official pressure on churches in Cuba.

Christian Solidarity has also cited the case of Juan Carlos Nunez, a minister in the Apostolic Movement in the eastern city of Las Tunas, while other re l ig iou s f reedom advoc ates have cited the case of Bernardo de Quesada, in the eastern city of Camaguey, as examples of religious persecution.

Both men told the A P that churches they built in the yards of their homes were demolished b y t he go ve r n me nt b e c au s e they were constr ucted w ithout permits. Both continue leading ser v ices inside t heir homes, where hundreds of worshipers gather each week.

“They tolerate me, but they don’t accept me,” de Quesada said. “I’m not shutting up or leaving. We have passion and no one will stop us.”

Nunez said he was sentenced to a year of house arrest after neighbors complained about speakers he set up to boost the sound of services in his home. He blamed the situation on the vague status of new churches in Cuban law.

“If there were a law on church activities, none of this would happen and everything would be clear,” he said.

Even so, churches are working on projects that once would have been forbidden to them, including efforts on AIDS prevention, sustainable agriculture, renewable energy, medicine distribution, training of farmworkers and disaster relief.

“The Cuban authorities have understood the necessity of our presence and dialogue with the government, which still continues, even if we don’t always agree,” said the Rev. Dorilin Tito, a 38-year-old pastor at William Carey Baptist Church. AP

Man, through reason, has the ability to know for himself that there is God. For God has planted a spark of the divine in everyone’s heart. He can go on living denying His existence, not lifting a finger to be acquainted with his creator and redeemer, but such attitude does not alter God’s presence in everything He made.

Christian science acknowledges that there is an infinite mind, that there is “an incorporeal divine ruling over all as eternal spirit,” all eternal, all knowing, all wise, truly omniscient, omnipotent, omnipresent.

This Being, supreme in power and goodness, acts with power in the history of mankind in carrying out His purpose—the only essence of what is best in every human life.

Leo J. Trese describes Him as “He is, who is, no one created Him, He always was and always will be.”

Saint Martin of Tours, travelling in A lps mountain, was apprehended by robbers. He was calm and unafraid even when a sword was placed over his head. A robber, inter vened to ask, “W hy are you unafraid? ” “God watches over me in life and death,” Martin replied.

A prayerful man, life to him is a grateful affirmation of God’s all-encompassing presence. To live sans worries, preoccupations and self-gratification, because God knows best.

But God, the perfect gentleman, only comes to one who goes to Him, although He longs to commune with men He so dearly loves.

The discipline of prayer life

Man prays to God for wellness in body and spirit. He prays to saints for their intercessions, to guardian angels for protection and to the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Mediatrix of all Graces.

As a conscious effort, prayers can be vocal, our own words or others’. As a prayer of quietude, it can be a presentation of thoughts and feelings or listening to God in our heart or in tears.

Others contemplate on Bible verses, gospel, scenes, spiritual writings while meditating their relevance to one’s life. Or it can be a prayer of adoration, contrition for one’s sins, thanksgiving for blessings or supplications.

A quiet place to pray is preferred because noise can easily disturb one’s f low of thought and any distractions can easily manifest itself and inf luence dispositions. It is in silence that man can best confront his true self—his nothingness.

The early fathers of faith lived in desserts and mountains. To date, monks and their counterparts still prefer the stillness of monasteries.

Innumerable are the graces which God promises to those who pray: “Cry to me and I will hear you.” (Psalm 49.15) “Call upon me and I will deliver you.” (Jeremiah

33.3) “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.

For everyone who asks, receives; and the one who seeks, finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened”. (Matthew 7:7) So the desire to be with God in prayer, should be growing as a guide when all desires to be wordly permeates the self. The hunger for God through prayer can purify man’s conscious and unconscious being.

As the psalmist cried: “Out of the depths, I cry to You, O Lord, Lord, hear my voice! O let Your ears be attentive to the voice of my pleading”. (Psalm 130:1-4) Prayer, though, is not what we alone do. For prayer is the work of the Holy Spirit. To the extent that we are humble, patient and sincere, God will stir awareness in our heart to purify it, illumine the mind and enlighten the soul.

As Soren Kierkegaard says: Prayer does not change God, but changes us.

How sad, though, that others drunk with power and success consider prayer as a weakness, a support cane when one is unable to help the self.

God’s time and way

Man carries the image of God according to his liking. And it is a merciful God who will say yes to one’s pleadings in His own way, at His own time.

And so the saddest reality when one’s prayer requests are thwarted is to feel forsaken, with hopelessness and despair. In these dark moments of aloneness some people commit suicide, perhaps shouting to high heavens, “My God, why have You abandoned me.”

The tragedy of life is when mortal man equates his benchmarks of a desirable life with that of God. Saint Paul to the Corinthians emphasized that no one can ever fathom the mind of God, his mysterious and hidden wisdom, and sometimes, “reduce to nothing those who are something so that no human being can boast before God.” (1 Corinthians 28-29) Although God invites all to partake his blessings, He reminds men: “My thoughts are not your thoughts nor are your ways my ways.” (Isaiah 55:9) Theologians contend that God surely grants what man pray for if it is in consonance with His will. (1 John 5:14-15) Since the beginning of time, God the lawgiver made known his instructions to people. Among the 150 psalms, the majority of which were composed for liturgical worship, Psalm 119 is the longest.

The psalm praises God for t he splend id instr uct ions in the form of “edicts, commands prece pt s, word s, ut tera nces, ways, decrees teachings,” for Christians to follow. “Long have I known from your decrees that you have established them forever.” (Psalm 119:152) Thus, man can never adore a God in the image of his liking. God can share man’s intimate feelings and thoughts but He is God with laws that ought to be followed.

The loving parent that He is, to our prayers, His answer can be yes, no, wait or I have something better for you. God makes ever ything beautiful in His time according to His Ways.

But always, man should remember, when he approaches God in prayer, that he is nothing and good for nothing without God. So, the first foundation of prayer is humility, to realize who we are and to whom we are taking to. n Santiago is a former regional director of the Department of Education National Capital Region. She is currently a faculty member of Mater Redemptoris Collegium in Calauan, Laguna, and Mater Redemptoris College in San Jose City, Nueva Ecija.

RegionsSunday BusinessMirror

Editor: Efleda P. Campos • Sunday, April 2, 2017 A9

Mayor rebrands Narvacan town M Story & photos by Mau victa | Correspondent

ORE than 10 years ago, Mayor Zuriel S. Zaragoza thought of creating a brand for Narvacan town. It was an old town; its parish church, established in 1587, is one of the oldest in the Ilocos region.

Located in a valley, it is also one of the oldest trading centers in the North. Among the goods traded with the Tingguians of Abra and the Ilocanos in upland Ilocos Sur were gold, tobacco, rice and timber.

Zaragoza knew that dwelling on the past would only get the town so far. Although his town is indeed beautiful, he thought of going beyond cultural tourism. Narvacan is a huge valley surrounded by mountains. It is also bounded by the West Philippine Sea on the west, but its beaches, though picturesque, are less swimmer-friendly than the neighboring towns.

Narvacan, however, has Bantay Abot (literally Hole Hill), a hill about 1,000 feet high that has a huge hole from top to who-knowshow-deep. Because of its overpowering presence and its proximity to the beach, Zaragoza decided to

make Bantay Abot the anchor for its ecotourism development.

It was five years later, in 2012, when he decided to shift instead to adventure tourism. The first they did was to call the whole package NOAH, or Narvacan Outdoor Adventure Hub, with its headquarters at Barangay Bulanos.

In October 2012 Zaragoza launched the more than 500-meter zipline that would take more than 45 seconds to traverse. Later, he built “Arko”, using about 30 container vans. Arko has a restaurant, roof deck, huge restrooms, outdoor drinking place, conference room, locker room and bar. Since then, the activities kept on growing.

Part of the Narvacan dunes was remodeled to become a race track for all-terrain vehicles. Via Ferrata was formed as an extreme trail with rock climbing, trail

walking and reconnoitering. A downhill course for mountain bikes was also established and later became part of the Philippine downhill bike circuit, with riders from all over the country participating in the annual event starting last December.

T he tr ick iest par t of the extreme adventure is paragliding.

The summit of Bantay Abot was set to be the launch pad for paragliding. Buko Raymundo, an Asean Games medalist for precision paragliding, was taken as consultant to establish the Nar vacan f lysite. R ay mundo, who is based in Sarangani, said that, unlike there where paragliding is theoretically available 300 days a year, Narvacan has a smaller window for f lying because of the ty phoon season.

He, however, said the view in Nar vacan is more spectacular because of the beach and the rice fields. In February Zaragoza reopened the NOAH, incor porating earth, wind, water and fire as the guiding symbols.

Jose Cuerdo, the business development manager of NOAH, said, “Earth is the mountain with complete cable-protected climb At all times you can be connected with the cables that can bring you to cliffs, to the stiff side of the mountain, up vertical section and you’re still on the cable, the swift part of this mountain on your way down you will go on a zipline.”

“Wind here is a very safe wind.

Many ocean breezes, at some point the wind is outward and that is dangerous because the wind can blow you in to sea,” he said. “Fire is engine. Its motor sports. Very perfect because there are sands here, off-road adventure and it’s not technical. Hindi nakakatakot to a point na tataob ang sasakyan mo, we can give you a vehicle to drive alone, although the driver is beside you and motor is running.”

And, of course, water is the beach. Windsailers from Anilao Cove in Batangas were hired to teach the natives for two weeks and let them, in turn, become trainers. Aside from windsailing, tourists can try parasailing.

RegionsSunday

A10 Sunday, April 2, 2017 • www.businessmirror.com.ph

BusinessMirror

TWO boys take advantage of a good breeze to fly their kites on a fine summer day.

Central Visayas 2017-2022 economic plan approved Story & photos by Charles R. Pepito | Correspondent

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HE Central Visayas Regional Development Council (RDC) has approved the Regional Development Plan for 2017-2022 in a special meeting held recently in Cebu City.

PUBLIC WORKS Secretary Mark A. Villar (second from left) listens to Cebu City Mayor Tomas Osmeña on how the agency could help improve the water distribution of the Metropolitan Cebu Water District.

LAW enforcers in Cebu City deploy personnel in strategic areas, such as the preparations made by the Special Operations Unit K9 and Aviation Security Group, at the Mactan Cebu International Airport.

CEBU Archbishop Jose Palma supports the campaign on Save Mother Earth, No to Coal Mines. Charles R. Pepito

The meeting was presided by National Economic and Development Author it y-7 Director Efren Carreon.

Du r i ng t he meet i ng , R DC Secret a r y a nd Ned a-7 A ssistant Regional Director Dionisio Ledres Jr. presented before the body an assessment of the region’s performance in terms of gross regional domestic product (GR DP), employ ment and underemployment, income gap and poverty incidence.

Ledres said that, although the region was not able to meet the targets on the growth of the GRDP in the last two years, the region still recorded a respectable average annual GRDP growth rate of 7.2 percent for the past six years.

Employment targets were met while for poverty reduction, poverty-incidence targets were not met, and there was only minimal decrease in the income gap. Ledres explained the development challenges and opportunities in the

region included poverty, despite the high economic growth, vulnerability to disasters, congestion in Metro Cebu investor interest to locate in the region, ongoing and pipelined infrastructure projects, strategic location of the region and the Asean economic integration.

The strategic framework of the plan, adopted from the Philippine Development Plan 20172022, has three pillars: Malasakit, which focuses on enhancing the social fabric; Pagbabago, which targets to reduce inequality; and Kaunlaran, which aims to increase potential growth.

For the next six years, the region targets to have a 7.5-percent to 8-percent GRDP growth, a 93-percent average annual employment rate, and a 21.7-percent poverty incidence rate at the end of the plan period.

Ledres then ex plained the growth drivers of the region.

These are travel and tourism,

LAND Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board Chairman Martin Delgra III explains to transport groups and operators in Cebu the Omnibus Franchising Guidelines during the consultation held at the Rizal Public Library in Cebu City on March 20.

i n for m at ion tec h nolog y a nd business-process management (IT-BPM) and related services, public and private construction, and manufacturing resurgence.

For the travel industry, the M a c t a n C e b u I nt e r n at i o n a l Airport (MCIA) will be a major international gateway. Several new direct f lights to international destinations were already established. Upon completion and operation of the new passenger terminal building of MCIA by mid-2018, the MCIA can accommodate 12 million passengers annually. The New Bohol International Airport and the Siquijor Airport Improvement Project would also pave the way for growth in tourist arrivals in the region.

Other initiatives to be pursued for the improvement of sea travel are improvement of roll-on, rolloff (Roro) ports; construction of a cruise-ship terminal in Bohol; establishment of online booking

system of shipping lines; and harmonization and integration of port fees in boat tickets.

Ledres said with these facilities, the promotion and development of new tourist destinations shall be intensified.

For manufacturing, the development and promotion of industrial estates and economic zones; new investments in shipbuilding allied industries; and promotion of agri-processing industry shall be pursued.

Ledres said the operationalization of the New Cebu International Container Port will be a boon to the manufacturing industry in the region. For the IT-BPM industry, expanding economic opportunities in services shall be done through sustaining the growth of the IT-BPM industry by moving toward nonvoice services, like software design.

The region shall also support the development of the New Bohol Business Park at the existing

site of the Tagbilaran Airport.

For agriculture and fisheries, expanding economic opportunities in agriculture shall be done through pursuing industry clustering; supporting the development of fiber crops; rice and high-value crop production; and livestock development. Efforts shall also be made for research and development, infrastructure, machinery, postharvest financing, and crop and livestock insurance support.

Under infrastructure development, Ledres cited the major proposed infrastructure projects in the region. These included roads and bridges, railways, powertransmission projects, water supply, solid-waste management, airports and sea ports.

Ledres said the crosscutting interventions that shall be implemented, namely, investment in human capital; investment in science, technology and innovation; governance reforms; ensuring livable and resilient communities; ensuring peace and order; and ensuring ecological integrity.

Gordon Alan Joseph, executive committee chairman for research, program and organizational development of the Metro Cebu Development Coordinating Board (MCDCB), noted that under the

Roadmap Study for Sustainable Urban Development in Metro Cebu, there are six bypass projects and three rail projects that they would like to be implemented in Metro Cebu.

The bypass projects include the Carcar Bypass, Basak-Banilad Road, Plaridel-Cansaga Road, V. Rama-Gorordo Bypass, Parallel Road to H. Cortes Avenue and Naga-Lahug Bypass. The rail projects include the Manila Metro Rail Transit System (MRT) North Line, MRT Central Line and MRT South Line.

Carreon instructed that the R DC Infrastr ucture Development Committee to include on the agenda of its succeeding meetings proposals on the conduct of feasibility study for the unfunded bypasses and mass rail-transit projects under the Roadmap Study for Sustainable Urban Development in Metro Cebu.

Carreon acknowledged the inputs from the national government agencies and the assistance from the governors of the three provinces in the region for the conduct of the provincial consultations for the RDP. The RDP would be subjected to an annual assessment to review and update the development targets in the region.

Editor: Efleda P. Campos

RegionsSunday BusinessMirror

Sunday, April 2, 2017

A11

New Lucena City government complex rises to challenge of progress

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Story and photos by John Bello | Correspondent

UCENA CITY, Quezon—The city residents here and even transient visitors transacting business with the city government have to get used from now on to head outside the city proper, as the city has moved to a new home.

The new Lucena City government complex in Barangay Mayao Kanluran

THE Office of the City Treasurer on the third floor of the new City Hall

Ceremonial cutting of ribbon at the inauguration of the new city government complex. (From left) Mayor Roderick Alcala, Ferdinand Sia, CEO of Double Dragon Properties Corp.; Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre II, (at the back) Councilor Benny Brizuela, former Agriculture Secretary Proceso Alcala, Vice Mayor Philip Castillo, Quezon second District Rep. Vicente Alcala and Councilor Vic Paulo.

THE old City Hall annex building in Barangay Isabang, which houses the Sangguniang Panlungsod session hall.

CITY Councilor Nicanor Pedro (left) conducts a public hearing on the accreditation of the city’s non— governmental organizations at one of the Sangguniang Panglungsod offices at the new City Hall.

The old main City Hall building at the city proper

Ground-floor entrance of the new City Hall

From a few hundred square meters of decades-old City Hall building on Tagarao Street in Barangay 5, the city government takes a new residence at a sprawling 3,000-tsquaremeters, four-story brand-new city government complex in a 2-hectare lot in Barangay Mayao Kanluran, more than 6 kilometers away from the city poblacion.

The brand-new City Hall had its inauguration on March 17 and opened its sensor-fitted main glassdoor entrance three days later on March 20, when Mayor Roderick Alcala and Vice Mayor Philip Castillo, along with members of the Sangguniang Panlungsod (SP), led the holding of the first flag ceremony, hosted by the city police, led by Supt.

Arturo Brual.

The city mayor billed the P320million government complex as a one-stop shop, where the city residents can now access the services and transact business with all the various government offices of the city government in just one publicservice center, with all the comfort and convenience of a modern shopping mall, with various department stores catering to the needs of various customers.

“Pinag-isa na rito sa ating bagong Lucena city government complex ang lahat ng mga tanggapan, kaya’t ito’y magpapagaan sa mga pangangailangan ng ating mga mamamayan sa iba’t-ibang serbisyo at transaksiyon na ipinagkakaloob ng iba’t ibang tanggapan ng ating pamahalaang panlungsod,” Alcala said in his speech during the inauguration attended by his two uncles, Quezon Second District Rep. Vicente Alcala and former Agriculture Secretary Proceso Alcala, both of whom the mayor thanked

for their support and assistance in the realization of big infrastructure projects the mayor believes make a big difference for the lives of the residents in the 33 barangays of the city.

Alcala used to joke that the old City Hall is so big that the public has to board a tricycle or jeepney or walk some distance to go from one office to the next to transact their business with the city government.

For example, the City Health Office is in Barangay Zaballero, almost a kilometer away from the old City Hall; City Accounting Office is located almost 50 meters away outside the old City Hall building, while the SP holds its regular sessions at the City Hall annex in Barangay Isabang, almost two kilometers. away.

Now the old City Hall building is left to house just the Traffic Management Office, the city police station, the city library and the post office and the rest have gone to find their rightful places at the new city government complex in Barangay Mayao Kanluran, which is expected to be the new center of action for the city’s march to progress.

Arnel Avila, executive assistant to the city mayor, said the City Public Information Office will be staying put until June at its old location in the old City Hall until its new TV studio and other facilities will be fully installed at the new city government complex. The City Hall annex building vacated by the SP offices will be occupied by the expanded Lucena City College.

Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre II, who graced the inauguration as its guest of honor and speaker, said the construction of the city-government complex means that “nothing is impossible if hearts, minds and

spirits of the people and their officials are ‘marshalled toward one goal’ and challenged the city officials and employees that ‘now that the city has a new house, they have to transform it into a home’ for the benefit of all its residents.”

On Monday SP member Nicanor Pedro, who chaired the 3 SP committees of labor, oversight and people’s participation and accreditation of non-governmental organizations, stood in his first privilege speech at the new SP session hall on the third floor of the city government complex, and stressed “the bottom line for all the developments in the city is still the welfare and upliftment of the people,” as he urged his colleagues, and the staff and employees manning the various frontline offices of the city government to make the delivery of services more “humane” “Kung nagpalit man tayo ng kubo at ginawa nating bungalow, panatilihin nating tao ang nakatira rito. Gawin din nating higit pang makatao kaysa dati ang paglilingkod-bayan,” said Pedro, a veteran radio broadcaster before he became a city councilor, as he pleaded for the public to understand and to make the necessary adjustment due to the changes

brought about by the developments in the city.

The over two-year-long construction of the new city government complex, which had its groundbreaking in January 2015, is expected to ease the mounting vehicular and pedestrian traffic congestion of this highly urbanized city.

Up to about 300 to 400 cars are said to park most of the time near and around the old main City Hall. This contributed to the huge vehiculartraffic congestion in the city proper.

“Noong ginanap ang aming Executive-Legislative Agenda para sa taong 2013-2016 ay kasama na itong pagtatayo ng new city government complex at ang pagkakaapruba ng ating CLUP [Comprehensive Land Use Plan]. Kasama na ang pagbubukas ng mga bagong developmental routes na inapruban naman ng Land Transportation, Franchising and Regulatory Board,” City Planning and Development Officer Nelson Singson told the BusinessMirror inside his new office, also on the third floor of the new City Hall building.

Singson said the city’s CLUP was approved in October 2016 by Housing Land Use Regulatory Board, then headed by Vice President Maria Leonor G. Robredo.

With the establishment of the new city government complex, Singson said it has necessitated new jeepney routes from the location of the new City Hall building to various points of the city, such as to Bayan (city proper) via GulangGulang (12.63 km route length); to Bayan via Site (12.72 km); to Cotta via Bayan (15.32 km); to Talao-Talao via Mayao (16.21 km); to Salinas via Talim (24.79 km); to Dalahican via Solcomville (16.29 km); to BocohanDomoit via Diversion Road (12.25 km); and to Iyam-Isabang via Maharlika Highway (18.40 km).

He said 25 jeepneys have been designated to ply the route from Bayan to the new city government complex via Grand Central Terminal to take care of the riding public who have to transact business with the city government.

Singson said what Lucena City lacks is a sufficient number of hotels and a spacious convention center befitting a highly urbanized city. He said in anticipation of the coming of more business investors and to accommodate visitors and tourists, the city government plans to construct a Lucena Arena Convention within the new citygovernment complex

sitting inside the 2-hectare lot donated by businessman Manuel Tantoco.

Annie Asnan, officer in charge of the Archive Records Division of the SP, is pleased with their spanking new office, along with other allied SP offices.

They were formerly holed up at the City Hall annex building in Barangay Isabang, where they got transferred in 1995 after the old City Hall burned down in 1985.

With just three employees composed of a bookbinder, an administrative aide and herself, Asnan said they can now make a proper and decent filing system for the approved SP resolutions and ordinances, minutes of SP sessions, verbatim journals and reference books in their new office.

“Ang bagong Lucena City Hall ay patunay lamang na ang administrasyon ng pamahalaang panlungsod ay nangangarap ng isang matiwasay at maayos na pamamahala,” former Agriculture Secretary Proceso Alcala said simply in his speech at the inauguration of the new city government complex. He lauded the city officials, who have joined hands to establish to rise up to the challenge of the city’s future.

A12 | Sunday, April 2, 2017 | Editor: Efleda P. Campos

THE Tacloban Salties join forces with Greenpeace in the “Break Free from Fossil Fuel” campaign on March 25 as part of the observation of Earth Hour. PHOTO COURTESY OF TACLOBAN SALTIES

RegionsSunday BusinessMirror

Tacloban Salties: Paddling to overcome trauma, break addiction to fossil fuel

By Elmer V. Recuerdo

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Correspondent

ACLOBAN CITY—The Tacloban Saltwater Dragon Boat Club (TSDBC)—Tacloban Salties, in short—was organized primarily to help locals cope with the lingering trauma and phobia of the sea, after experiencing the most destructive waves and storm surges to hit a populated land mass in recent years.

It is also an advocacy group that reminds everybody that climate change matters, and that our survival as a race depends on awareness before another disaster of Supertyphoon Yolanda’s magnitude strikes again.

The TSDBC is the very first dragon-boat team in Tacloban City and the province of Leyte. For over a year now, the Tacloban Salties have been making waves on the usually placid waters of Cancabato Bay. Its members, over 60 of them, come from different walks of life— students, office workers, sports enthusiasts and entrepreneurs— bound by a common passion: To settle their personal issues with the sea that has claimed the lives of friends, families and loved ones, and destroyed whatever property they had before Yolanda.

“We introduced dragon boating as a way of bringing back their trust for the sea. Most of our members were victims of Yolanda, and they have been harboring trauma and anger toward the sea,” said Teody Muñoz, a self-confessed avid lover of the sea and cofounder of Tacloban Salties.

For Lyle Jay Arañas, a 14-yearold BMX enthusiast, his exposure to dragon boat has brought back his confidence in Tacloban’s Cancabato Bay. “Before I took up dragon boating, I feared the sea; thinking the water might suddenly rise again,” he said.

Arañas, who is an eighth grader and the youngest member of Tacloban Salties, lost 16 friends to Yolanda; many of them were neighbors in their community along the bay. “I

slowly overcame my trauma, and I am now encouraging my classmates to join our team, as well,” he said. “I can now say that dragon boat, and all watersports, is safe.”

Tacloban Salties trainer Archie Sumalindao finds it challenging to introduce newbies to dragon boat, especially those who experienced trauma during the supertyphoon.

He said the key is to gradually introduce them to the water in a relaxed and fun way.

“To make it comfortable, especially for those with trauma, we just let them enjoy what they are doing.

We only try to absorb their issues and encourage them to express what they have in mind,” Sumalindao said.

“Newbies would usually ask kung hindi ba nakakatakot, because of what they experienced during Yolanda,” he said. They would just usually stay on the shallow part of the sea.

“Hindi namin sila pinipilit na sumakay, but we would ask them to try. They are briefed on what to do to make the boat ride safe, and all paddlers are required to wear a life vest,” he said.

For Shakkalissa Cañas Henderson, 35, and an overseas Filipino worker, paddling with the Tacloban Salties is her way of coping with depression. She lost both her parents and a younger sister to Yolanda.

“If I stay in the house, I will only get depressed,” she said. “I avoid looking at the pictures of my family, because it always makes me cry.”

Her doctor suggested she engage in sports and extreme activities to get her busy and divert her atten-

THE Tacloban Salties launch their dragon boat for their daily practice.

ELMER RECUERDO

THE Tacloban Salties prepare for the Cristina Romualdez Dragon Boat Race on March 17. PHOTO COURTESY OF TACLOBAN SALTIES

tion, prompting her to enroll in muay thai and dragon boat. “I gave up muay thai, because my body cannot handle two extremely taxing physical activities. I preferred dragon boat, because I enjoy it here.

We work as a team and we bond like a family. This is really enjoyable.”

Henderson said she is not angry with what happened because it was a natural disaster, but said everybody must do his or her share to protect the environment to avoid a recurrence of another supertyphoon.

Tacloban’s exposure to dragon boat started in 2009, when thenLeyte Gov. Jericho L. Petilla included a dragon boat race as a sidelight in the hosting of Palarong Pambansa. Paddlers from the Philippine National Team participated regaling locals on the beauty of the water sports.

Dragon-boat clinics were held, participated mostly by students to encourage them into taking the sport.

The interest was not sustained.

“Parang pinatikim lang ng paddle,” Muñoz said, since the visitors brought home with them the boats they used. “Ang mahal kasi ng boat.”

Before Yolanda hit the city, there was already a brewing new interest of promoting dragon boat after a local craftsman and businessman, Abraham Mario Wenceslao II, with funding assistance from a good friend, completed two 10-man boats. He had started working on these boats before Yolanda. After the typhoon, Wenceslao thought of using the boat to help people develop survival skills on water and overcome their fear of

the sea.

In January last year the TSBDC was formally organized. The club has done dragon-boat clinics on different campuses, attracting more than 300 college students helping the young people overcome the trauma brought on by Yolanda’s storm surge.

“The club aims to foster passion and interest in rowing through education and training, promote water safety, and advocate environmental and ecological awareness among its members and in the community,” the club’s page in social media said.

While the team is relatively young compared to other dragon-boat teams in the country, it is already displaying much promise.

Last year the group was able to participate in different competitions, including the 2016 Asian Dragon Boat Championships in Palawan where it took home a silver and two bronze medals.

Muñoz said they reached the semifinals in all events they participated in and came home ninth overall out of 36 teams from nine countries. Tacloban Salties target to surpass this achievement when they compete in the Cebu Dragon Boat Fiesta 2017 from April 28 to 30.

Individually, many of their members are already getting noticed for their, skills like in the case of Arañas, who is being offered by a veteran team in international competitions to join their pool, an offer the kid would like to entertain. This is also evident by the mature leadership he shows, especially to the new mem-

SHAKKALISSA Cañas Henderson joined the Tacloban Salties to overcome depression after losing both her parents and a younger sister to Supertyphoon Yolanda. ELMER RECUERDO

LYLE JAY Arañas, at 14, is the youngest member of Tacloban Salties. He lost 16 friends when Yolanda struck. ELMER RECUERDO

bers of the organization.

The Tacloban Salties stand out among other local sports club for their consistent advocacy for climate-change awareness in all their races. “We paddle for climate-change awareness,” said Sumalindao of their club’s motto. “We are not confrontational in our advocacy; we do not target individuals. We just display our banners for the people to know what we stand for.”

He said, from the start, it was already clear to the members what the group advocates. “Mas maganda ang may advocacy, kasi hindi lang katawan ang binuhay mo kundi ang puso.”

Muñoz believes their advocacy is what binds the group deeper into their commitment to the team, especially that the issue on climate change is near to the hearts of the Taclobanons.

“Tayo ang biktima ng Yolanda. Tayo ang biktima ng grabeng kalamidad dala ng climate change. Our battle cry is

we paddle, so people will be aware to protect the environment. Let’s get out and break free from the use of fossil fuel,” Muñoz said.

The club takes the issue seriously. During their daily practice, the group members would pick up garbage, mostly plastics, that they would find on the bay. They also do coastal cleanups to celebrate some milestones.

If dragons are considered guardians of treasures in some mythical literature, Sumalindao said Tacloban Salties can be considered as dragons of the Cancabato Bay. “We consider the Cancabato Bay as a treasure. We like to think that we are the guardians of the Cancabato Bay,” he said. “We try to save this. We dream that someday there will be no more illegal fishing here and this place will be declared as a marine sanctuary. It will take years before this happens, but hopefully, it will come true.”