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PHL BUSINESSES RIDE THE WAVE OF DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION

Olivier Le Moal | Dreamstime.com

‘DX or bust’

D

By Lorenz S. Marasigan

igital transformation—or DX—according to IDC, is the continuous process by which enterprises adapt to or drive disruptive changes in their customers and markets by leveraging digital competencies to create new business models, products and services. Simply put, DX seamlessly blends “digital and physical business and customer experiences while improving operational efficiencies and organizational performance.”

This is the wave that Philippine companies are getting sucked into today. It has become a do-ordie decision for businesses in the Philippines, where migration to the digital is no longer just a concept, but a reality that should be accepted—the sooner the better.

Enterprises are now on the run to compete with disruptors in their markets, where digitalservices providers are offering far greater ease and comfort of service for consumers.

In the global scale, retail stores and malls have been closing down around the globe as getting groceries, clothes and even medicines is now as easy as tapping icons on a smartphone, paying via electronic money, and waiting for the delivery guy.

Closer to home, disruption brought about by the digital economy has spilled over to all sorts of markets—from transportation, where taxis are competing against Grab and other providers of ride-hailing applications, to lending, where traditional brick-and-mortar banks have seen themselves partnering with digital financial-services providers PayMaya and G-Cash.

This has pushed competition in certain markets to higher levels, hence better services and lower prices.

In order to compete with these companies, businesses in the Philippines must undergo the so-called DX.

“It is grounded on five digital masteries: leadership, omni-ex-

perience, worksource, operational and information. This means that you need these pillars for you to move toward DX,” IDC Philippines Market Analyst Alon Anthony D. Rejano told the BusinessMirror.

In a nutshell, a company “transforms” once its leaders have been given the ability to develop and execute a vision for the company’s digital innovation with focus on developing interactive organizational and customer experiences in different channels.

“Others would define DX as simple as adopting new technologies—like getting a laptop—which is not,” Rejano said.

In the Philippine context, he said, his group has seen organizations marrying one to three pillars and infusing them into their busi-

ness strategies and implement.

“These are mature organizations that are born on cloud or digital native, or those that need to migrate to DX to be more competitive in a hyper-disruptive market,” he explained.

But it is a different case for traditional brick-and-mortar businesses.

While the Philippines is treading on unfamiliar yet not uncharted territories, the country is on the right path toward digital migration and transformation, given that both consumers and enterprises have adopted the digital lifestyle and digital strategies.

“The Philippine market is on the right track as far as adoption and migration to DX are concerned.

Continued on A2

The inevitable ascent of ‘the coffee down South’ to the top

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By Manuel T. Cayon

Bonga1965 | Dreamstime.com

AVAO CITY—Mindanao farmers have figured prominently during the recent 2nd Philippine Coffee Quality Competition in Baguio City, an event that sprang some “surprising” trends in the industry.

None among Mindanao farmers got the top awards, though, for the two popular varieties—the Arabica and Robusta—but soon enough the market showed its appreciation to the quality of the products that the farmers from the region produced.

Lucky Siegfred M. Balleque, provincial director of the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) for Compostela Valley, told the

BusinessMirror that “production has not really went up as hoped, but the quality has improved tremendously at the level of the farms.”

“There have been some improvements in production [in Mindanao], but the increase is slow.

Yet, over the years, the quality in the [harvested coffee] beans has really improved,” he said.

The quality competition itself

PESO exchange rates n US 52.0650

has brought relief to organizations helping Filipino farmers improve their coffee production.

“Generally, the quality has been shown not only by one or some few farmers, but by a big percentage of coffee farmers,” he said.

The winners

For the commonly used Robusta coffee beans, Ilocos Sur snatched the first, third and sixth spots for high quality, while Bukidnon got the second and fourth slots and Compostela Valley the fifth.

The rest of the top 10 highquality Robusta beans were also won by Mindanao growers.

Arabica beans, desired for specialty coffee, were shown to be better produced by Benguet farmers, who were awarded the top, the third and the fifth spots, while Bansalan, Davao del Sur, farmers romped away with the second and sixth spots, and Bukidnon, the fourth slot.

There were no other Mindanao farmers in the remaining top 10 places, but three of them landed in the 10th to 12th places.

The win by Mindanao farmers apparently validated the attention given by coffee industry leaders to “the coffee down South,” citing the differently delicious and aromatic beans grown, especially those in the hinterlands.

The quality competition is a nationwide annual activity “to bring quality of Philippine coffee to greater heights resulting in higher

value,” a briefer of the DTI said.

The coffee competition is being conducted by the DTI and of Agriculture, and the Acdi/Voca, or Agricultural Cooperative Development International/Volunteers in Overseas Cooperative Assistance.

The Acdi/Voca is implementing a Mindanao Productivity in Agricultural Commerce and Trade Project funded by the United States Department of Agriculture.

Some 108 green coffee bean (GCB) samples of Philippine origin were received for grading by both international and local graders invited by the Coffee Quality Institute facilitated by the Acdi/ Voca, including Charlie Habegger of Blue Bottle USA and Asia, and Samuel Gurel of Torch Coffee Co. Local coffee grader Daniel Byron Pantoja of the Davao City-based Coffee for Peace likewise joined the event.

Of the 108 samples, only three Continued on A2

n japan 0.4849 n UK 73.3752 n HK 6.6343 n CHINA 8.2959 n singapore 39.7019 n australia 40.2358 n EU 64.2899 n SAUDI arabia 13.8837

Source: BSP (April 20, 2018 )

NewsSunday BusinessMirror

A2 Sunday, April 22, 2018 Continued from A1

We have seen local organizations partnering with us to help them create a technology road map for the next two to five years,” Rejano said. “This, for us, is a good sign that organizations are acknowledging the need to transform.”

However, digital adoption has its own pace in the local market, he noted.

“Organizations need to see more successful use cases until they join the bandwagon. It’s not a matter of speed in adoption, but it is more about understanding the current business problems, crafting the right strategies, and executing their DX initiatives, which can take time, especially for organizations that are heavily regulated, traditional, and have less spending,” Rejano explained.

Shaking up business strategies, changing business decisions, shifting goals and objectives, may take about half a decade, he added.

“DX is a multiyear effort with specific goals and objectives around markets and customers, revenue, and profit growth. Of course, there should be a strong ecosystem that fosters relationships between enduser, service providers, and regulators,” he said.

Do or die

Rejano underscored the need for companies to undergo digital transformation, as competition in certain markets continues to heat up with the rapid growth of Internet-based companies.

“In this digital economy, it is imperative for every organization to transform; otherwise, they will be left behind. Business threats and ICT complexities are increasingly growing, hence traditional

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‘DX or bust’ organizations can hardly keep up with them,” he said.

Digital transformation, he said, will also improve companies as a whole. It will aid in growing their bottom lines, as investments in new technologies and technology-based business decisions help streamline processes.

Accelerating DX also allows companies to reap the full benefits of their initiatives, and to address the invisible revolution brought about by the mass adoption of artificial intelligence.

“DX is no longer a theoretical topic; it is now an industry term to which organizations are adhering.

DX is important to provide better customer experience, reinvent businesses and grow more profits using technologies, and help organizations find their place in the digital economy,” Rejano said.

Not apples to apples

For 2018, the whole world is expected to spend nearly $1.3 trillion in digital transformation technologies, including hardware, software and services, a 16.8-percent increase from the $1.1 trillion spent in the year prior, according to the Worldwide Semiannual Digital Transformation Spending Guide from the IDC. Majority of DX spending for this year will go toward technologies that support new or expanded operating models, as organizations seek to make their operations more effective and responsive by lever-

aging digitally connected products or services, assets, people and trading partners.

The second largest DX investment area in 2018 will be technologies supporting omni-experience innovations that transform how customers, partners, employees and things communicate with one another, and the products and services created to meet unique and individualized demand.

Information will also be an important DX investment area as organizations strive to obtain and leverage information for competitive advantage through better decisions, optimized operations, and new products and services.

Rejano noted that the Philippines has “its own dynamics” in terms of DX, and cannot be compared apples to apples with any other country.

“However, we study technologies and look after organizations on their DX adoption, which is through Digital Readiness Assessment or Digital MaturityScape. So in terms of readiness, Philippine organizations are mostly at the second stage or what we call Digital Initiators,” he said.

These are organizations that have acknowledged DX as a success factor for the business, but most of them are in trial-and-error stage.

“I think other Asean markets, such as Malaysia, Thailand and Indonesia, are also at the same stage but nearing stage 3, which is Digital Adaptor [i.e., organizations are

consistently using emerging technologies, and digital initiatives are considered as one of the strategic business goals],” he said.

Rejano explained that this is on the back of the growing e-commerce market in Indonesia, fintech in Thailand, and infrastructure players in Malaysia.

“Although it is encouraging to see many large organizations that have already digitally transformed their business, the Philippines still has a long way and more work to do from a cultural, regulatory and technological standpoint,” Rejano said.

Need for regulation

Rejano also noted the need for regulations and legislation on the ICT space, as this could help make DX much easier and bearable for companies.

“For the country to be on a par with the rest of the world, we need to have strong ICT regulations that benefit both end users and providers, excellent ICT skillsets and talents in high-valued services, and a market that promotes competition,” he said.

Today, the most advanced industries in the Philippines in terms of digital migration are financial services, telcos, retail, and utilities,

trade and logistics.

For banking and financial services, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) has adopted a national strategy on digital finance, which aims to promote digital financial services such as mobile loans, wallets, and even insurance.

Good for the market

Migrating to the digital space is seen as a must for every country in the world, as the digital marketplace can pump in billions of dollars in revenues in the economy.

“In the Asean, I’d say we are in the middle pack. But, digital transformation is very important for competitive advantage,” Department of Information and Communications Technology Undersecretary Dennis F. Villorente said in a text message.

In the Philippines, the ecommerce industry alone is seen to make as much as $10 billion in 2025, according to Kantar Retail, double from its 2016 level of $5 billion.

According to Microsoft, by 2021, digital transformation will add an estimated $8 billion to the Philippine GDP, and increase the growth rate by 0.4 percent annually.

In its research, “Unlocking

the Economic Impact of Digital Transformation in Asia-Pacific,” the company predicted a “dramatic acceleration” in the pace of digital transformation across Asia-Pacific economies.

In 2017 about 3 percent of the Philippine GDP was derived from digital products and services created directly through the use of digital technologies, such as mobility, cloud, Internet of Things (IoT), and artificial intelligence (AI).

“The Philippines is clearly on the digital transformation fast track. Within the next four years, we expect to see approximately 40 percent of the Philippines’ GDP to be derived from digital products and services,” Microsoft Philippines Managing Director Hans Bayaborda said.

The same study indicated that while 93 percent of organizations in the Philippines are in the midst of their digital transformation journey, only 7 percent in the entire region can be classified as leaders, which are companies that have full or progressing digital transformation strategies, with at least a third of their revenue derived from digital products and services.

In addition, these companies are seeing between 20 percent and 30 percent improvements in benefits across various business areas from their initiatives.

Villorente noted that the government is supportive of the digital initiatives and transformation endeavors of companies, noting some of the agency’s projects pertaining to connectivity.

The inevitable ascent of ‘the coffee down South’ to the top Continued from A1

were disqualified and the 105 samples accepted and graded.

What amazed the graders and the industry leaders was the increasing high quality of the beans produced by many farmers.

In the March competition in Baguio, both the highest and lowest scores have improved by not less than two percentage points from the first competition held the previous year.

This year’s grade of 87.06 percent sent by topnotch Arabica grower, Oliver Oliem of Caliking, Atok, Benguet province, was up from last year’s 85.75 percent. Robusta’s 85.96 percent in this year’s competition generated by Rodolfo Aciong of Quirino, Ilocos Sur, was higher compared to 83.42 percent from last year.

Gladly for the organizers, the lowest scores were not far from the highest. Arabica posted a lower score of 83.47 percent, but this was higher than the previous year of 80 percent. Robusta’s 85.96 percent was two percentage points higher than the previous year of 83.42 percent.

Balleque said the general grade for the 105 qualified bean samples were graded a high of 80 percent, where before the beans were virtually of low quality, and therefore generally ungraded.

Payoff

Balleque said the prodding and encouraging actions by industry associations are beginning to pay off.

“Farmers did not shift to other crops and instead stuck to coffee, applying good farm and agricultural practices, like pruning and rehabilitating old trees,” he said.

The government also provided training and planting materials.

Farmers were also beginning to be selective in the beans, adapting the “pick red” practice instead of the traditional stripping of a stem of both red, cherry and green beans.

Where before the farmers were being made to accept the P80 to P110 pricing of their products at farm-gate price, the increased quality production enabled them to command higher prices.

Now, farmers of Balutakay, Bansalan, Davao del Sur, are com-

manding more than double the price, to P250 and P270 per kilo of the red beans. Their winnings in the competition have officially ascertained the quality of their beans.

But the Bagong Silang and Maragusan farmers of Compostela Valley have eye-popping surprise in landing in the top ten spots in the competition.

“They are currently being offered P500 a kilo for their coffee beans,” Balleque said.

Auction

But the DTI and coffee industry leaders said it was time for farmers raising high-quality beans to demand much higher price.

“We are pondering on putting into auction the sale of highquality beans and get the best price for the farmers,” he said. Putting it into auction may likely raise the P500 offer to double, if not triple, the current offer of a Luzon merchant to the Compostela Valley farmers.

Because of the generally observed improvement in quality across different farms nationwide, farmers would likely see also an industry-wide increase in the buying price of coffee. “It would not be P80 to P110 per kilo anymore,” he said.

Balleque said, however, that farmers need to increase their production also to maximize the favorable pricing situation of coffee now.

“We still have to hit the demand level, even locally,” he said.

The International Coffee Organization reported the Philippines with declining exports. On a monthly basis in January, it was still able to export 1,000 60-kilogram bags in 2017, but none last January. And between October 2016 and January 2017, the Philippines exported 7,000 bags but none the following year.

The Philippine Statistics Authority noted this trend when it said the production of dried coffee berries in the last quarter of 2017 decreased by 8.7 percent from 32.17 thousand metric tons for the same period last year to 29.36 thousand metric tons.

The decline was caused by the harvest of less berries, the PSA said, and traded it to: 1. Cutting of old and less productive Arabica coffee trees in the Soccsksargen region, notably in

Sultan Kudarat, and Zamboanga Peninsula, especially in Zamboanga del Norte, and Robusta coffee trees in Davao Region (Davao City and Compostela Valley); 2. Strong winds and heavy rains during flowering and fruit development stage of Robusta coffee trees in Soccsksargen, also in Sultan Kudarat, Caraga (Surigao Sur) and Davao Region (Davao City and Compostela Valley); and 3. Adverse effects of fruit borers on Robusta coffee trees in Sultan Kudarat.

The PSA said the top coffeeproducing region was Soccsksargen, at 10.5 thousand metric tons, contributing 35.9 percent to the national total production. The other major producing regions were the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, Davao Region and Western Visayas, which contributed 21.5 percent, 16.4 percent and 11.8 percent, respectively.

Of total coffee production, Robusta coffee was the top-produced variety at 71.6 percent, followed by Arabica, 23.3 percent; Excelsa, 4.2 percent; and Liberica, 1.0 percent.

Where to?

Two of the more popular coffee species are Arabica and Robusta.

Arabica, which accounts for about 60 percent of the world’s commercial coffee production, prefers to grow in light shade and highlands and is delicate and vulnerable to disease. Robusta, on the other hand, can grow in lowlands and is more resistant to blight, the Acdi/ Voca said.

Its chief of party, Thelonious Trimmell, said on several occasions here that as coffee shops multiply to cater to the growing coffeedrinking population, the demand also grows in high-quality coffees or specialty coffees.

In the farms, the government has to assist the farmers in providing processing facilities, such as central roasting equipment and station for the scattered farms.

Awareness must also be pushed hither into the interior farms to practice good agriculture, Balleque said, “because the unmet local demand alone for coffee should be an incentive enough to have a sustainable livelihood if done well and appropriately to raise both production and quality.”

The World BusinessMirror

www.businessmirror.com.ph

Sunday, April 22, 2018

A3

Farmers warn of GOP losses over Trump’s trade policy

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ASSELTON, North Dakota—Here in the largest soybean-producing county in the country, a snowy winter has left North Dakota fa r mers l i ke Rober t Runc k with time on their hands before spring planting—time they have spent stewing over how much they stand to lose if President Donald J. Trump starts a trade war with China.

“If he doesn’t understand what he’s doing to the nation by doing what he’s doing, he’s going to be a one-term president, plain and simple,” said Runck, a fourth-generation farmer who voted for Trump.

Pausing outside the post office in this town of 2,300, Runck said the repercussions could be more immediate for Rep. Kevin Cramer, a Republican whose bid against Sen. Heidi Heitkamp, a Democrat, has been complicated by the proposed tariffs.

“If it doesn’t get resolved by election time, I would imagine it would cost Kevin Cramer some votes,” he said.

Stern warnings are coming from all over the Midwest about the political peril for Republicans in Trump’s recent course of action, in which the tariffs he slapped on foreign competitors invited retaliatory tariffs on US agriculture. Soybeans are the United States’s second-largest export to China, and that country’s proposed 25-percent duties on the crop would hit hardest in states like Iowa, Kansas and Minnesota—where there are highly competitive House races—as well as Indiana, Missouri and North Dakota, whose Senate contests may determine control of the chamber.

By proposing the tariffs, Trump has moved to fulfill a central promise of his campaign:

confronting those countries he believes are undermining American industry. Yet his goal—to revive the steel and aluminum industries, thereby aiding the Rust Belt states that were crucial to his election—has effectively prioritized one element of the Trump political coalition over another, larger bloc of voters.

That larger segment, the farm belt, is essential to Republican success in the midterm elections and beyond.

From the still-thawing soybean fields of North Dakota and Kansas to the corn and pork farms of Iowa, voters across the political spectrum say the president’s attacks on American economic rivals could do grave damage to an already unstable commodities market.

“They’re not in touch with the reality of the Midwest and the impact that the tariffs would have,” said Bart Bergquist, a biology professor and part-time farmer who lives on 10 acres just south of Waterloo, Iowa.

Bergquist, who voted for Trump in the 2016 election, added that commodities prices had already taken a toll on the area.

“I know my neighbors are not rolling in money—they’re trying to supplement whatever else they can do to keep going,” he said.

Rep. Rod Blum, a Republican, represents much of eastern Iowa and is facing a highly competitive race in what is the second-largest soybean-producing congressional district in the country. He and other politicians are facing a “nervous” farm community across the state, according to Grant Young, an Iowa-based Republican strategist.

“I listen to the farm show over the noon hour on WHO daily,” Young said of Iowa’s leading ra-

dio station. “They are usually a happy-go-lucky bunch promoting industry and holding a twohour infomercial for the Farm Bureau. But the last couple of months I’m wondering if they need to take the sharp objects out of the studio.”

In Kansas Bob Henry, who grows corn and soybeans in another up-for-grabs House district near the Nebraska border, said the country could ill afford to tangle with a market that American farmers rely on.

“For the United States soybea n g rower, C h i n a is t he 800-pound gorilla in the room,” Henry said. He suggested that Beijing is exacting political payback against the Republican heartland: “China knows who got Trump elected.”

After an initial round of tariffs on a modest share of US exports, the Chinese have displayed a more keen awareness of the electoral map and moved to punish those industries whose misfortune will be felt most intensely in states and districts pivotal in 2018.

Karl Rove, the former strategist to President George W. Bush, said a trade clash “would limit Midwestern enthusiasm from our base and limit our ability to hold what we have and pick up more seats.” Rove also grumbled that Trump “has little to no understanding of the farm coalition.”

He may have a slightly better appreciation after a meeting last week in the West Wing with a small group of farm belt Republican senators and governors, during which two of them brought up the adverse effect that tariffs on exports could have in the midterm election, according to officials briefed on the conversation.

NewYork Times News Service

Trade tensions upset world economic peace as IMF spring meetings start

By Enda Curran & Andrew Mayeda

T

Bloomberg News

rade tensions between the US and China risk eroding business and investor confidence, even as global growth enjoys its best upswing in years.

That’s the message being conveyed to finance ministers and central bankers from around the world gathered in Washington for spring meetings of t he I nte r n at ion a l Monet a r y Fund (IMF). Trade is expected to dominate discussions as the world ’s two-biggest economies exchange threats of tariffs and other protectionist measures. “ W hat is e x traord inar i ly meaningful is the questioning of the overall system under which operators have been operating in for decades,” IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde said on Thursday at a news conference. “It’s the confidence that risks being eroded.”

The fund on Tuesday left its forecasts for global growth this year and next at the 3.9 percent

it estimated in Januar y—the world economy’s deepest and broadest upswing since 2011. The US argues China needs to lower its barriers to imports and foreign investments, while Beijing is criticizing President Donald Trump’s threats to levy tariffs on Chinese goods.

US pressure

I n a sig n t h at t he tensions won’t be easing any time soon, W hite House Counci l of Eco nomic Adv isers Chair man Kev in Hassett sa id t he world shou ld put pressure on Beijing and ca l led on ot her countr ies to hold t he A si a n nat ion to task on trade.

“The entire world community needs to urge them to change” their behavior, he said at an event

Shipping containers stand in a terminal in this aerial photograph taken at the Yangshan Deep Water Port in Shanghai. Qilai Shen/Bloomberg

hosted by the Institute of International Finance.

T he hawk ish stance was backed up by US Vice President Mike Pence’s chief economist, Mark Calabria, who urged China to move toward a marketbased economy that plays by international rules.

“We certainly want to avoid a trade war, but you have to credibly signal that you are going to be willing to put some pain both on the other side, as well as yourself,” Calabria said.

Beijing braced

Chinese officia ls, including

People’s Bank of China Governor Yi Gang, have so far kept a low profile during the meetings, though the government in Beijing has already made clear it w ill retaliate to any US protectionism. Commerce Ministr y Spokesman Gao Feng said on T hursday at a briefing in

Beijing that the government is “ready to take necessar y steps” to protect domestic companies.

Ilan Goldfajn, Brazil’s central bank chief, said he’s worried that trade disputes could upset financial markets and derail the steady global expansion.

“I’m concerned these types of conf licts will lead to risk-off in markets, high premiums, less capital f lows and at the end of the day the benign environment that we’ve been enjoying for the last few years will not continue,” Goldfajn said in an interview.

While such a backdrop poses headwinds for confidence, there remains optimism among some officials that a deal will be reached to avoid tensions snowballing into a full-blown trade war.

Australian Finance Minister Mathias Cormann said in an interview that he expects an agreement to be reached. Sri Lanka’s junior Finance Minister Eran Wickramaratne described the dispute as a “ glitch” that will pass.

Chilean Economy Minister Jose Ramon Valente was among those to play down concerns.

“There is a trend toward free trade, opening, and integration of countries, and these are potholes we find along the way,” Valente said in an interview.

A4

Sunday, April 22, 2018

The World BusinessMirror

www.businessmirror.com.ph

Pentagon: Missile strikes unlikely to stop Syria’s chemical attacks

W

ASHINGTON—A barrage of missiles in Syria by US, French and British forces most likely will not stop President Bashar al-Assad’s chemical weapons program, a Pentagon assessment has concluded, despite President Donald J. Trump’s “Mission Accomplished!” declaration hours after last weekend’s strikes.

The military intelligence report, put out less than three days after the attack, said the allied air strikes likely set back Assad’s production of sarin gas.

But it found that the Syrian president is expected to continue researching and developing chemical weapons for potential future use, according to a US intelligence analyst who has seen the document and described it to The New York Times on the condition of anonymity.

“They do retain a residual capability” to produce chemical weapons, Lt. Gen. Kenneth F. McKenzie Jr., the Joint Staff director, said on Thursday of the Syrian government. He added the chemical weapons are “spread through the country.”

“They still have ability to conduct attacks; I would not rule that out,” McKenzie said.

Planning for the str ike of 105 missiles on three targets— chemical weapons storage and research facilities near Damascus and Homs—took nearly a full week. Staging and final preparations for the attack, which lasted roughly two minutes, took hours to carry out. Trump announced it on Friday night in Washington as the missiles were hitting Syria before dawn Saturday.

Hours later, Trump said on Twitter that the strikes “could not have had a better result.”

Nikki R. Haley, the US ambassador to the United Nations, also told the Security Council on Saturday that the United States is “confident that we have crippled Syria’s chemical weapons program.”

Other Trump administration officials were more circumspect.

A senior administration official

told reporters on Saturday that the Syrian government still possesses sarin, chlorine and weapons able to carry chemicals that could be used for future attacks. Still, the official said, the strikes successfully helped “reestablish the deterrent” by proving that Trump was willing to take military action.

Assad’s government has denied using chemical weapons in the town of Douma, outside Damascus, where more than 40 people were killed, and blames Syrian rebels for staging the April 7 attack.

In the end, last weekend’s operation was a textbook example of how the military can carry out a precision strike, seemingly without incident, despite potential complications. It is unclear if all missiles hit their intended targets.

Russian state news media said on Thursday that Syria found two unexploded cruise missiles after the strikes and has handed them over to Russian officials.

The missiles alone cost at least $100 million in an attack that was nearly twice as large as a similar strike last year. In that assault, missiles from two US warships targeted a Syrian airfield where officials said Assad’s forces had launched warplanes that dropped sarin gas on the rebel-held town of Khan Sheikhoun, killing more than 80 people and sickening hundreds more.

US, British and French aircraft and ships fired cruise missiles from the Mediterranean, the Red Sea and the Persian Gulf. Dozens of refueling, reconnaissance, escort and jamming aircraft were airborne. Some of them primarily focused on monitoring and scrambling communications to stymie any Russian and Syrian counterat-

Lt. Gen. Kenneth McKenzie, the Joint Staff director, with Dana White, assistant to the secretary of defense for public affairs, speak during a news conference regarding joint-coalition air strikes on Syria at the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia, on April 14. “They still have ability to conduct attacks,” General McKenzie said of the Syrian government. The New York Times

tack, whether with surface-to-air missiles or warplanes, according to US military officials.

Senior US officers were not sure how Russia would respond to the air strikes, despite a frequently used deconfliction hotline between the two countries to coordinate continuing military operations in Syria. On April 12 intelligence officers from every US military regional command held a videoconference regarding the potential Russian blowback once the missiles were launched, military officials said.

As the US military planned the strikes, the White House and the Pentagon weighed several Syrian installations and bases that might be targeted.

When it came time to attack, most of the operation was executed and overseen by the US naval base in Bahrain, where the 5th Fleet is based, and the air command center at Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar. There, dozens of US and allied planners huddled in front of banks of computers, maps and giant video screens to manage the flow of aircraft and missiles participating from the United States, Britain and France.

The number of warplanes involved also created some diplomatic sensitivity with other countries in the Middle East.

One senior US officer involved

in the strike planning said Saudi Arabia and Jordan were put in the delicate position of allowing USled fighters and bombers to use sovereign air space—so long as it was not publicly advertised.

With those countries’ permission, the United States flew B-1 bombers from Qatar along with one electronic warfare jet and refueling aircraft, Pentagon officials said. The bombers likely launched cruise missiles from Jordanian territory. The missiles, carrying 1,000-pound warheads, are capable of hitting narrow targets from hundreds of miles away; officials later said they were not aware of any civilian casualties caused by the missiles.

A variety of cruise missiles were used in the strikes to distance allied ships, aircraft and one US submarine from a potential counterattack. Though some of the fighter jets may have been within range of some of the enemy’s more advanced surface-to-air missiles— upgraded in the past three years by the Russian military—their pilots, if shot down, would have been able to parachute into largely friendly territory or waters heavily patrolled by friendly vessels.

The military intelligence report indicated that the Barzeh research and development center in Damascus was destroyed, according to the analyst. Most of the missiles were

aimed at the Barzeh facility, where the Western allies believed the Assad government was rebuilding its chemical weapons program. It has been closely monitored since the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons found precursors for nerve agents there in 2014.

The other two sites—the Him Shinshar chemical weapons bunker and storage facility in Homs—were severely damaged. But the analyst said the report cited surveillance assets that watched a 5-ton truck leave one of those sites the day before it was struck, with a tarp-covered load that could have included equipment or chemical weapons.

Military experts voiced skepticism that the air strikes severely hobbled Assad ’s chemical weapons program.

Claims that the attacks set it back years depend in part on what was inside Barzeh at the time of the strikes, said Jeffrey Lewis, an analyst at the Center for Nonproliferation Studies at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies.

“That might be true if Barzeh was filled with difficult-to-replace equipment or if crucial personnel were killed in the strike,” he said.

“But what we see is just a building.

Are we certain all the important bits were above ground and destroyed in the air strike.”

New York Times News Service

Alabama executes mail bomber, 83, oldest inmate put to death in modern era

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TLANTA—Walter Leroy Moody Jr., who used mail bombs to assassinate a federal appeals court judge and a civil-rights lawyer in 1989, was executed on Thursday night at the Alabama prison where he spent decades denying his guilt.

With his execution by lethal injection, Moody, 83, became the oldest prisoner put to death in the modern era of US capital punishment, according to the Death Penalty Information Center, a research group.

Moody’s reign of terror—deadly bombings and thwarted attacks in three Southern states, as well as menacing letters to judges and the media—raised fears of racial violence and unsettled the federal judiciary. His complex case drew in people who would become household names of US law enforcement: Louis Freeh, a future FBI director; Robert Mueller, the special counsel investigating Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election; and Jeff Sessions, now the US attorney general.

Although Moody was found guilty on scores of federal charges, his execution was punishment for a 1996 state court conviction for the murder of Judge Robert Vance Sr. of the 11th US Circuit Court of Appeals.

Vance’s son, Robert Vance Jr., himself a judge in Alabama, said on Thursday that he had not forgiven Moody because “he has not acknowledged any remorse or any acknowledgment that he was guilty.”

“I’m not a psychiatrist, but if you’re talking about using labels like psychopath, this seems to be the kind of person that would fit that description because of absolute lack of empathy or concern for others,” Vance said.

Moody was pronounced dead on Thursday night inside a south Alabama prison, ending a generations-long legal drama that began in 1972, when he planned a bombing against an automobile dealer who had repossessed his car.

His unsuccessful efforts to have his conviction overturned in that case stirred a protracted rage against the 11th Circuit, which has jurisdiction in Alabama, Florida and Georgia, Moody’s home state. After the 11th Circuit rejected Moody’s appeal in August 1989, the court noted in a subsequent ruling, he began trying to develop “war gases” and prepared what he termed a “Declaration of War” against the appellate court.

In December 1989 Moody mailed a parcel with a bomb—a steel pipe, smokeless powder and 80 finishing nails—to the suburban Birmingham home of Robert Vance Sr., who had only considered Moody’s appeal when it was before the full court. The bomb exploded when Vance opened the package, killing him and gravely injuring his wife.

A bomb two days later killed Robert Robinson, an African-American lawyer in Savannah, Georgia. Officials intercepted a device that was sent to the 11th Circuit’s offices in Atlanta, as well as a bomb that was mailed to a Florida office of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. Prosecutors believed Moody disguised his motive by using the name of a fictitious group when he vowed to kill judges and railed against African-Americans and the Atlantabased 11th Circuit’s treatment of them.

New York Times News Service

Cuba’s new president: A progressive, a hard-liner and an enigma H

AVANA—As soon as Cuba and the Obama administration decided to restore diplomatic relations, decades of bitter stagnation began to give way.

Embassies were being reopened. Americans streamed to the island. The curtain was suddenly pulled back from Cuba, a nation frozen out by the Cold War. But one mystery remained: While nearly everyone knew of Cuba’s president, Raúl Castro, his hand-picked successor, Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez, was virtually unknown. So when members of the US Congress visited Cuba in early 2015, they peppered Díaz-Canel with questions: What did he think of the revolution that defined the island’s politics and its place on the world stage?

“I was born in 1960, after the revolution,” he told the group, according to lawmakers in the meeting. “I’m not the best person to answer your questions on the subject.”

Díaz-Canel, who became Cuba’s new president on Thursday, the day before his 58th birthday, has spent his entire life in the service of a revolution he did not fight.

Born one year after Fidel Castro’s forces took control of the island, DíazCanel is the first person outside the

Castro dynasty to lead Cuba in decades.

He took the helm of government on Thursday morning to a standing ovation from the National Assembly, which elected him in a nearly unanimous vote.

Raúl Castro embraced him, lifting the younger man’s arm in triumph.

Díaz-Canel’s slow and steady climb up the ranks of the bureaucracy has come through unflagging loyalty to the socialist cause—he “is not an upstart nor improvised,” Castro has said—but he largely stayed behind the scenes until recent years.

Now, as leader, Díaz-Canel is suddenly taking on a difficult balancing act. Most expect him to be a president of continuity, especially because he arrives in the shadow of Raúl Castro, who will remain the head of the armed forces and the Communist Party, arguably Cuba’s most powerful institutions.

But Díaz-Canel also has to figure out how to resuscitate the economy at a time when President Donald J. Trump is stepping back from engaging with Cuba. On top of that, Díaz-Canel must find a way to manage the frustrations of a Cuban population impatient with the pace of change on the island—without the heft of his predecessor’s revolutionary credentials.

Such credentials have been the bedrock of political power in Cuba ever since Fidel Castro seized control of the nation in 1959. In the ensuing years, the Castros ruled over Cuba with ironclad control, bolstered by a cadre of loyalists, nearly all of whom had fought alongside them in the revolution.

In the end, the most effective opposition to the Castro brothers was time.

Fidel Castro handed power to Raúl in 2006, then died 10 years later at the age of 90. Raúl then ushered in some of the most substantial reforms in decades, and is now orchestrating yet another one—the passing of the torch to a new generation.

After opening up the economy to private investment and entrepreneurialism, expanding travel in and out of the country and reestablishing ties with the great enemy, the United States, Castro has selected Díaz-Canel to fill his shoes.

But, “he is someone who has very little exposure to US political or cultural figures,” Daniel P. Erikson, a former State Department official, said of Díaz-Canel. “Frankly, he isn’t that well-known in the rest of Latin America, either.”

In his speech before the National Assembly, Díaz-Canel offered many of the same revolutionary talking points of his predecessors, but perhaps with less of the verve or creativity of Fidel Castro or the gravitas of Raúl.

Raúl Castro said Thursday that he thought Díaz-Canel would serve two terms as president, for a total of 10 years. After that, Castro said, he envisioned Díaz-Canel taking over as party leader in 2021, when Castro suggested that he would retire from that post for good. This, to some, is a glimpse of the future leadership structure of Cuba after the Castros.

He [Diaz-Canel] is someone who has very little exposure to US political or cultural figures.”–Erickson

Ever since Díaz-Canel was named first vice president in 2013, Cubans and Cuba watchers alike have scrambled to find out more about the enigmatic heir apparent, combing through his track record as party leader in the provinces of Villa Clara and Holguín, and later as minister of higher education, for clues on how he will lead.

In each position, according to those who knew him at the time, Díaz-Canel has been a quiet but effective leader, seemingly open to change. Many called him a good listener, while others described him as approachable, free of the rigidness and inaccessibility of typical party chiefs.

Through it all, he has also been a relentless defender of the revolution and the principles and politics it brought.

Stories of his Everyman qualities have spread widely in recent years: how he rode his bike to work instead of taking a government vehicle during gas shortages; how he defended the rights of a gay club in Santa Clara in the face of protests; how he patiently listened to academics grouse (sometimes about him) as minister of higher education.

More recently, he was a leading voice in the push for Internet access in Cuba, arguing that the nation could not seal itself off from

the outside world. Though his beliefs remain very much within the party line, those who know him say he does not adhere to the belief that Cuba can exempt itself from the modernization necessary to participate in the global economy.

But in Cuba, the continuum of political thinking is not black and white. Often, conventional definitions of progressives versus hard-liners do not apply. Leaders can be both, and Díaz-Canel is an example of that. While he is seen as open to the ideas of others, as a younger man he led a campaign to stifle students who read and discussed literature that was not approved by the Communist Party, according to those who knew him at the time.

Last year a video was leaked of Díaz-Canel addressing a group of party officials. In it, he lambastes the United States, claiming that Cuba had no responsibility to meet its demands under the reconciliation brokered

by President Barack Obama.

He then went on a diatribe against a web site whose work he considered subversive.

He told fellow officials that the government would shut it down—no matter whether people considered it censorship.

New York Times News Service

Science

BusinessMirror

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

Sunday

Sunday, April 22, 2018

A5

Astrophysicist Dr. Reinabelle Reyes’s ‘simple, but not easy’ adviCe to students

‘You need deliberate focus to master a skill’

By Rizal Raoul Reyes

year of the three-year postdoctoral research fellowship at the University of Chicago, Reyes said she experienced a burnout and decided to go back to the Philippines afterward.

“I lost all motivation to work— or to do much of anything. To be honest, I was depressed. The social isolation and long Chicago winters did not help,” she recalled.

After attending a conference in Tokyo, Reyes grabbed the opportunity to travel to the Philippines and do a silent retreat at the Sacred Heart Novitiate “It was a haven. There, I asked for advice from Fr. Earl Barredo, a kind and wise Jesuit priest. I told him that I was looking forward to coming back to the Philippines and starting my life here. But in the meantime, I needed to muster the motivation to continue my work back in the States and finish writing the paper I’m working on with my colleagues. I felt that it was something that I needed to do.”

Reyes said Father Barredo gave her a life-changing advice, which paved the way for her to stay in the country for good.

“He said, ‘Listen to your heart, Reina. Just come home.’ And just like that, the burden was lifted. He told me that I did not have a duty to stay. And he was right. I had been tied down by my own perceived obligation, which was actually not a real one. I started making plans

to return much sooner, we came back two months after—that was January 2014—and never looked back since,” she said.

“In life, we sometimes make choices out of a feeling of obligation—to other people, our parents, perhaps, and sometimes even to ourselves, and sometimes it turns out to be the right choice. But other times, it turns out to be an unnecessary burden—one that you carry with you because you think you should,” She added.

Reyes urged the students to find the space and the courage to listen to what is in their heart because it will be smooth sailing in the end for them.

“I hope you find someone like Fr. Earl who will listen to your heart and tell you clearly—you don’t have to be miserable. You can just let it go, and in the end, all will be well. Trust me, it will.”

The 34-year-old astrophysicist said she was able to achieve high satisfaction in her various jobs— such as data scientist, consultant, professor, mentor and researcher.

She is currently a part-time lecturer at the Ateneo de Manila University.

The BS Physics summa cum laude graduate of Ateneo de Manila give public talks in science and astronomy and is currently working on an astronomy book, which she hopes to finish by the end of the year.

Science Camp in Siquijor to raise students’ awareness on climate change

documentation of indigenous vegetables in PHL set in motion

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@brownindio

n this age of fast-food and instant gratification, hard work, patience and dedication are still the factors to propel an individual to success.

In her recent commencement speech at the Ateneo de Davao University, Dr. Reinabelle Reyes told the students that they have to master a set of skills to accomplish their tasks or goals.

“How do you master a skill?

There is only one way to do it— it takes deliberate focus over a long period of time. My PhD took five years, deliberately focused in training to become a scientist. The recipe is simple, but not easy: I’ll say it again—you need deliberate focus over a long period of time,” said Reyes, who graduated valedictorian at the Philippine Science High School.

Reyes, who finished her PhD in Astrophysics at Princeton University, said remaining focused is a big challenge for the current generation mainly because of the Internet, stressing that the emergence of Facebook and other apps that are constantly pinging and nonstop updating with new posts take an individual’s time

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or most, the dry season or “summer” time in the Philippines is for art workshops and taekwondo lessons. But for students from various public schools in Siquijor, it’s all about the sea, the atmosphere, science and saving the planet.

Forty students are currently e x per iencing how to become scientists in the 2018 Climate Science Youth Camp, a project organized annually by the Department of Science and Technology-Science Education Institute (DOST-SEI), which started on April 17 and ends on April 22 on the island province. The Science Camp is one of DOST-SEI’s most anticipated projects that aims to encourage the youth to get into science, technolog y,

and disturb one’s attention.

Admitting that she also faces the same challenge, she sympathized with the students, telling them “how hard it must be for you, who grew up with these devices.”

“My hope is that you consider your ability to focus—and find ways to improve it. Meditation worked wonders for me. In meditation, you sit still and focus your attention on your breath. It’s that simple, but not easy. Try it some time. It is an exercise for the mind and it strengthens your focus muscle. Do it enough and you’ll have a superpower,” she pointed out.

Reyes also urged the students to be patient in honing and developing their craft because nobody starts out being good.

She added that constant practice and learning from the mistakes would make them better individuals in the long run.

“You need to be patient. You can add a friend on Facebook instantly, but real friendships take time. You

engineering and mathematics (Stem) courses.

It is also one of the most effective platforms of the institute as many of the camp’s previous participants are now enrolled in Stem fields, while some are now DOST scholars.

Besides the students, 20 teachers from different public schools in Western and Central Visayas will also take part in the series of experiential learning activities about oceanography and climate science. This year’s theme, “Oceans and Climate Toward a Resilient Planet,” emphasizes the interaction of oceans and atmosphere and how climate and weather affect our lives.

This is the camp’s eighth run and the second time in Siquijor,

Syngenta announces new malaria insecticide in early development

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ASEL, Switzerland—Syngenta announced on Wednesday that a new insecticide active ingredient with a novel mode of action to address resistance in the control of malaria vectors is in its early development phase.

The new ingredient was a result of the collaboration between Syngenta and the Innovative Vector Control Consortium (IVCC) to identify and develop new lead areas of novel chemistry suitable for the control of vector mosquitoes. Syngenta and IVCC entered into the collaboration in 2009, the agriculture company said in a news release sent to the B usiness M irror.

The World Health Organization (WHO) estimated that in 2016, there were 216 million malaria cases in over 90 countries around the world. Malaria is responsible for the death of around 445,000 people each year, and many of those impacted are smallholder farmers.

Research shows that when a smallholder is infected with malaria during har vest, crop yields fall by almost 50 percent and income can drop by 50 percent.

While yet to be eradicated from many countries, malaria is preventable and curable. Since 2010 improved prevention and control measures have

led to a significant reduction in malaria mortality rates globally. Success was achieved primarily through the use of insecticide-treated bed-nets and indoor-resid ual sprays containing pyrethroid insecticides.

However, these reductions are under threat due to increasing insecticide re s i s t a n c e , re d u c i n g t h e o ve r a l l effectiveness of vector-control programs To meet this challenge, Syngenta, working with the IVCC, brought Actellic 300CS, a mosquito-control solution, to the market, the news release said.

I n 2 0 1 3 i t re c e i ve d a f o r m a l recommendation for use by the WHO. It is estimated that in 2017 this long-lasting control product protected an estimated 34 million people in malaria endemic countries, Syngenta added.

Erik Fyrwald, Syngenta CEO, said: “With Actellic 300CS, we are achieving remarkable results, but we are fully aware that new solutions are required for sustainable vector control. Our joint effort with IVCC is to discover and develop these solutions, which can help to radically transform public health in regions where people live with the daily threat of malaria and to eradicate malaria by 2040.”

Dr. Reinabelle Reyes delivers a commencement speech at the Ateneo de Davao University.

Screen grab from a video

can get a date on Tinder instantly, but relationships take time. You can download course materials from Coursera instantly, but learning something deeply and becoming good at it—becoming great— takes time,” Reyes pointed out.

She urged students to take their first job seriously—“even if it may not end up being what your heart sings for.”

She added: “If you don’t take it seriously, you honestly wouldn’t know. Give it a fighting chance.

Give yourself a chance to get better at something—at anything,” she said.

Reyes added it is also important to listen to one’s heart. After determining what the heart says, she advised students to focus and work on that until they become good.

“Focus on that—and become better than you were, better and better until you’re actually good— and useful. It is the path to a happy and fulfilled life,” she said.

While she was on her second

Listen to your heart, Reina. Just come home.”—Barredo

University of the Philippines-Marine Science Institute’s Mark Tolentino (right) engages the interest of Science Camp participants in plankton sampling. SEI photo

following last year’s classroombased bootcamp.

For SEI Director Dr. Josette Biyo, the camp’s job in Siquijor

is yet to be completed.

St ud e nt s h ave t he a c t u a l “camp experience” this year as they spend more time in the

ocean with no less than marine scientists from the University of the Philippines-Marine Science Institute and weather forecasters from the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration as camp facilitators.

“We’d like to continue what we’ve started in the province. Siquijor is home to marine sanctuaries, which we need to preserve, especially because of their huge influence on climate change,” Biyo said. “ We hope that through the science camp, we can instill in our participants their role in the changing climate and empower them w ith basic skills to sur v ive the risks they face in their communities,” she added.

S&T Media Service

Study: Urban mice teeming with trouble

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EW YORK—Mice that live in the basements of New York City apartment buildings—even at the most exclusive addresses—carry disease-causing bacteria, antibiotic-resistant bugs and viruses that have never been seen before, a new study from Columbia University finds.

Researchers collected feces from more than 400 mice captured over a year in eight buildings in Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens and the Bronx. The team then analyzed the droppings for bacteria and viruses.

The viruses included nine species that had never been seen before and others that have not been known to cause human disease, according to the study, published last Tuesday in the journal mBio. But in a second study focused on bacteria, the researchers detected some of the most recognizable disease-causing pathogens, including Shigella, Salmonella, Clostridium difficile and E. coli.

The scientists also found antibioticresistant bacteria like those that have become nearly untreatable at area hospitals.

It is unclear whether the bacteria on the mice pose any health threat to people or have caused any human disease. But for centuries, rodents have been linked to illnesses like the Black Death.

“They are a potential source of human infection,” said Dr. W. Ian Lipkin, the epidemiologist at the Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia who was the senior

author on the study. “The real message is that these things are everywhere.”

The mice appeared to be healthy, and Lipkin said he presumes that they are carriers of the bacteria but are not affected by them.

Lipkin said it was not clear whether the mice were getting the antibiotic-resistant bacteria from people—say, by eating food contaminated with the feces of someone taking antibiotics—or whether the bacteria developed resistance after mice ate discarded antibiotics.

It would be nearly impossible to conduct research directly linking a mouse pathogen with a human disease, said Charles Calisher, a professor emeritus at Colorado State University, who was not involved in the new studies.

The source of patients’ infections are rarely investigated, and they are not usually asked about their contact with mice, he said.

“These are not simple things to investigate,” Calisher said.

Peter Daszak, who heads the EcoHealth Alliance, a nonprofit that researches emerging diseases around the world, also described the research as difficult.

It is crucial to identify and trace these microbes, he said, to help understand how they are transmitted and how, if necessary, to protect ourselves from the diseases they may carry.

“If we don’t know where they originate, we can’t identify what’s driving them and

then we can’t control it,” said Daszak, who was not involved in the research.

No one knows, for example, whether antibiotic-resistance genes emerged in hospitals, in cities or in rural areas.

This research is particularly important to do in New York, Daszak said, because the city is a destination for people from all corners of the world.

“New York is a major at-risk place for pathogens,” he said. “We’re certainly on the front line for emerging diseases.”

He said that the new research should not make New Yorkers more fearful of mice.

“I’m not worried personally,” said Daszak, who lives in suburban Rockland County but works in the city. “Luckily, this is a species we’re already trying to control.”

Lipkin began researching New York City’s natural pathogens after the terrorist attacks of 9/11, when scientists realized they did not have a baseline to compare any changes. His lab has also studied rats on the New York City subway system and found many of the same infectious bacteria.

Although it is impossible to completely get rid of urban mice, Lipkin said his study suggests that more should be done to control mouse populations and their interactions with people.

Large apartment buildings should fill any gaps in their foundations, and trap and control any rodents found indoors, Calisher said. New York Times News Service

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OS BAÑOS, Laguna—A project to document the indigenous vegetables in different provinces of the Philippines has been set in motion.

Titled, “Documentation of the Indigenous Vegetables in the Philippines,” the project will gather and compile information about several indigenous vegetables in the country.

This initiative could lay the foundation for further research and development work. Prof. Nestor C. Altoveros of the Institute of Crop Science, College of Agriculture and Food Science, University of the Philippines Los Baños (UPLB) is leading the initiative with the Philippine Council for Agriculture, Aquatic and Natural Resources Research and Development of the Department of Science and Technology (DOST-PCAARRD).

Altoveros discussed during the inception meeting about the importance of mainstreaming the production and utilization of indigenous vegetables as healthy alternatives to common vegetables in every Filipino’s food basket.

He added that the team will be gathering available printed or electronically published, as well as unpublished materials in 25 provinces in 17 regions of the country.

They will also source out materials from national and local agencies, as well as public and private institutions, to produce information, education and communication materials.

A database of all the abstracts and indices on indigenous vegetables will be one of the outputs of the project. It will later be made accessible to all researchers and interested individuals.

In line with the targets of the Industry Strategic S&T Program (ISP) for Vegetables, the project will indirectly help increase the consumption of safe vegetables in the country.

The inception meeting was led

by Dr. Jocelyn E. Eusebio, director of the Crops Research Division (CRD) of DOST-PCAARRD; Leilani D. Pelegrina, ISP manager for Vegetables, and other CRD staff to discuss the team’s duties and responsibilities, and refine the implementing strategies to ensure the smooth implementation of the project.

S&T Media Service

Faith

Sunday

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

A6 Sunday, April 22, 2018

4th Sunday of Easter: ‘John 10:11-18’

‘I am the Good Shepherd’ Msgr. Josefino S. Ramirez SUNDAY GOSPEL IN OUR LIFE

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Priests and nuns visit Sister Patricia Fox, NDS, at the Bureau of Immigration in Manila where she was detained for a day on April 16. Roy Lagarde

Church rallies behind Australian nun facing deportation from PHL

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hurch people from around the world have rallied behind Australian Sister Patricia Fox, NDS, who was freed after a day in detention, but still faces deportation.

The arrest simply shows President Duterte “cannot take criticisms,” said Manila Auxiliary Bishop Broderick Pabillo.

“His [Duterte’s] actions and words are not beyond criticism.

A public figure cannot be onion skinned,” he added.

Duterte on Wednesday admitted ordering an investigation against Fox, a 71-year-old missiona r y of t he Sisters of Notre Dame de Sion (NDS), for “ disorderly conduct.”

The president accused the nun of badmouthing his administration in protest rallies, supposedly violating the conditions of her stay in the Philippines.

Fox has denied engaging in “partisan political activities.”

For 27 years, the nun devoted

her missionary work in the Philippines defending the rights of far mers, ind igenous peoples, workers and other victims of social injustice. Duterte said he could take criticisms from Filipinos but not from foreigners, especially those staying in the country because these constitute “a violation of sovereignty.”

For Pabillo, however, “Duterte is lying.”

“He cannot even take criticisms from the Filipinos,” he said, citing the case of Sen. Leila M. de Lima, a vocal critic of Duterte, who was jailed over drug-related charges.

Fox’s confrere in Rome appealed to the Philippine government to spare her from possible deportation just for helping “those in need at the peripheries of society.”

“We ask the government of the Philippines to allow Sister Pat and other fellow church people to continue their missionary work in the Philippines,” said Sister Mary Babic, NDS superior general.

She a l so u rged respec t for c hu rc h people’s r ight s a nd re sponse “to be present a mong

We believe that Sister Pat and other religious and church people like her are a blessing and are blessed be able to work with and be among the Filipino people.”—Babic

t h e p o o r, t h e s i c k a n d t h e pr i soners.”

“We believe that Sister Pat and other religious and church people like her are a blessing and are blessed be able to work with and be among the Filipino people,” Babic said.

The Sisters of Our Lady of Sion in Australia also condemned the arrest and detention of Fox “without due process and respect for her fundamental rights.”

They called on church people to “stand their ground” and assert their rights to preach the Gospel and to be in solidarity with the poor.

The Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) said it would look into the matter to ensure Fox’s rights were not violated during her detention.

In a statement on April 19 the CBCP said it is “very much concerned” with what happened to Fox. A rchbishop Romulo Valles, CBCP president, also assured the nun and her community of the CBCP’s “assistance and support” as she faces investigation.

Roy Lagarde/CBCPNews

Name given at baptism gives sense of identity, belonging—pope

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aming a child is an important task for parents, because it gives children a sense of identity and belonging to their family and to God, Pope Francis said.

“Without a name, we remain unknown, without rights and duties. God calls each one of us by name, loving us individually in the concreteness of our history,” the pope said on April 18 during his weekly general audience.

“Therefore, the name is important. Parents think of the name to give to their child already before birth,” he added. “This, too, is part of the expectation of a child who, in his or her name, will have an original identity, including for the Christian life linked to God.” Continuing his series of Easterseason talks on baptism, the pope said that a person’s name, asked

during the welcoming rite of the sacrament, “takes us out of anonymity” and is the first step in a person’s journey as a Christian.

“Baptism ignites the personal vocation to live as Christians, which will develop throughout one’s life. It implies a personal response and not a borrowed answer that is ‘copied and pasted,’” he said.

Another important designation given to children and adults who receive baptism is the sign of the cross, the pope said.

Making the sign of the cross, he added, “ is the badge that shows who we are: Our way of s pe a k i ng , t h i n k i ng , look i ng and work ing is under the sig n of the cross, that is, the love of Jesus until the end.”

Departing from his prepared remarks, Pope Francis once again

Pope Francis smiles as a papal security guard holds up a baby during his general audience in Saint Peter’s Square at the Vatican on April 18. Paul Haring/CNS

asked parents and grandparents to teach their children how to properly make the sign of the cross, which at times “ is not done well.”

“To make the sign of the cross when we wake up, before eating,

when facing danger, to defend against evil and at night before going to sleep means telling ourselves and others who we belong to, who we want to become,” the pope said.

Junno Arocho Esteves, CNS/CBCPNews

oday the gospel passage presents us with one of the best-loved sayings: “I am the Good Shepherd.”

The popularity of the image goes way back to our childhood days when we would see the churches adorned with stainedglass windows of Jesus with His f lock of sheep, or the abundance of i nst it ut ions n a med Good Shepherd.

In the previous verses, Christ has already told those who are listening: “I am the gate. Whoever enters by me will be saved and find pasture. The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.”

Now, when He speaks of Himself as the Good Shepherd, the image formed is one that is familiar to those who hear Him. True followers, recognize the good shepherd in all its form and meaning.

He introduces Himself as the good shepherd who knows His sheep and whose sheep know him, cares for them and lays down his life for them. He contrasts Himself to hirelings. That

he has other sheep, who do not belong but will be led, and they will know his voice.

Notice how Jesus has called them His own before He even brings them. This is because God has already chosen them.

He emphasizes that He lays down His life, Himself. No one takes His life from Him. The sign of this will be His power to take up His life after He has laid it down.

Dear brothers and sisters, God sent His Son, not only to bring us to a safe and wonderful place but to save us from danger and darkness.

Saving us from the shadows of evil wasn’t easy. The Good Shepherd laid down His life to do it.

He did it because of His commitment to the Father and His great love for us.

Jesus tells us that He is the Gate, and the Shepherd, and even the Gatekeeper—so that we, His sheep, might be kept away from the thieves and bandits. God keeps us and sees beyond who we are.

Let us pray for humility, that with trust and faith, we may be not be distracted from our Shepherd ’s voice.

The Good Shepherd

By Corazon Damo-Santiago

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he sheep is an animal that cannot survive on its own. It is a species with an “intelligence quotient close to the bottom of the scale,” said David Murray in HeadHeartHand.

So demanding that, as soon as it is born, it “violently sucks its mother’s udders for milk” and bleats for it cannot wait to fill its four stomachs.

So stubborn without a sense of direction, the shepherd has to tap a sheep gently and forcefully to make the herd move. Copycats, when one runs, the others follow. It cannot survive the onslaught of an enemy, for it has no claws, horns or fangs to defend itself.

But the sheep is a social animal, trusting, although unattractive, and can be trained to be loyal and devoted in its unique way. Remember the nursery rhyme: “Everywhere that Mary went, her lamb was sure to go.”

Shepherds all

During the time of Jesus, shepherding is not held in esteem as a job. But the shepherds, the first who responded to the angels and were Jesus’ first visitors, were “specially trained and purified.”

They were the caretakers of Passover lambs used as sacrifices, and wrapped newborn lambs in special swaddling clothes” in Migdal Eder or Tower of the Flock (www.patheos/ com....12/was Jesus Born Away in a Manger at Migdal Eder).

D a v i d, t h e yo u n g s h e p h e rd who defeated Goliath, was acknowledged king after the death of Ish-Bosheth, one of the four sons of King Saul of Israel. Acclaimed as Israel’s greatest king, he composed 73 of the canonical psalms.

To S i m o n Pe t e r, t h e m o s t prominent of the twelve apostles, Jesus gave the instruction, “Tend my sheep.... Feed my sheep.” To Saint Peter, too, the first shepherd of Mother Church, Christ entrusted the key to the gate of heaven.

Peter instructed the apostles and leaders of the early Christian churches to be exemplars in s h e p h e rd i n g t h e i r f l o c k : “ Te n d the flock of God in your midst not by co n s t ra i nt b u t w i l l i n g l y. …

And when the chief shepherd is re ve a l e d, yo u w i l l re c e i ve t h e c ro w n , t h e u n f a d i n g c ro w n o f glor y” (1 Peter 5:2,4).

To the 12 disciples, Jesus instructed

them to “go to the last sheep of the house of Israel” rather than go to pagan territory or Samaritan town (Matthew 10:5-6).

The Catholic Church in the past 200 years has remained united because Jesus provides a shepherd to keep watch over the faithful—266 shepherds to date.

Shepherds speak

Expressing concern on the onslaught of materialism, Pope Pius X in 1903 issued an encyclical on modernism, De Modernist Arum (Worldliness of People).

“Things are going badly on the life of Christians,” he said. He even imposed an “antimodernistic oath” for the clergy.

As he predicted, the New Age dawned, which Nicolas Boilenau, a French poet and critique of the latter part of 16th century, attested, saying: “Every age has its pleasures, its style of wit and its own ways.”

Many people feel they can no longer entrust their life to a shepherd.

Shepherds voted into power seemingly failed to be exemplars of goodness.

Even some shepherds of the church fail to inspire their flock to walk on the right paths.

Pope Francis, in his first Chrism Mass on March 28, 2013, in Saint Peter’s Basilica, enjoined priests to be “shepherds living with the odor of sheep.”

And to the faithful flock, he said: “Dear laypeople, be close with affection and prayer that they may always be shepherds according to God’s heart.”

On his homily on the Chrism Mass on March 29, 2018, at the Vatican, the pope expounded on “apostolic closeness,” the great choice of the “Lord, who always comes—erchomenos [in person always].”

He explained that closeness is a virtue to be “attentive to ourselves and to others,” which is crucial in evangelization.

He enjoined the religious to “walk among people with the closeness and tenderness of a good shepherd in shepherding them.”

Damo-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 of Mater Redemptoris College in San Jose City, Nueva Ecija.

Sports BusinessMirror

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

Sunday, April 22, 2018

A7

DLSU EYES FINALS D

E LA SALLE buckles down to a more serious task toward its quest for a third straight crown as the Green Archers square off with the National University (NU) Lady Bulldogs in the Final Four between

the top-seeded team and the No. 4 squad in Season 80 University Athletic Association of the Philippines (UAAP) volleyball tournament today at the Mall of Asia Arena in Pasay City.

The Green Archers are riding the momentum of an eight-game winning streak that gave them a frontrunning 12-2 won-lost card. And all they have to do to advance to the finals is beat the Lady Bulldogs in the 4 p.m. match.

The Lady Bulldogs, who lost six of their last seven matches, have the disadvantage of needing to beat the Lady Spikers to live another day in the semifinals.

The men’s topnotchers Bulldogs (12-2), on the other hand, shoot for a fifth straight trip to the Finals when they try to eliminate the fourth-seeded University of Santo Tomas (UST) Tiger Spikers at 2 p.m.

JAJA SANTIAGO does not want to end her career at National University on a disappointing note.

The Bulldogs are in high spirits after ending a 13-match losing streak to three-year finals tormentor Ateneo Blue Eagles, 25-23, 21-25, 25-23, 25-19, to clinch the No.1 spot after the eliminations.

NU is facing a UST side that had to survive Adamson University in five sets, 25-20, 25-23, 19-25, 23-25, 15-11, in a do-or-die playoff for the last semifinals berth.

But all eyes will be on the women’s match, with De La Salle hoping to advance to the finals anew.

Lady Spikers Coach Ramil de Jesus, who has won 10 titles in a 20-year tenure with the school, wants his wards, led by graduating players Kianna Dy, reigning Most Valuable Player Majoy Baron and Asia’s second best libero Dawn Macandili, to take NU seriously.

“I’ve always been telling them that our No. 1 finish in the eliminations is not important anymore. What is important now is ‘can we win this semifinals and make it to the Finals again?” de Jesus said.

De La Salle and NU split their matches in the eliminations with the Lady Bulldogs coming from behind, 26-24, 19-25, 22-25, 25-17, 16-14, in the first round and the Lady Spikers bouncing back with some

MAJORS CREATE Boston Marathon weather perfect storm for Linden MEMORIES B

By Doug Ferguson

M

The Associated Press

AJOR champions today create memories for tomorrow.

Some of them, anyway.

Still to be determined is whether the grit Patrick Reed showed at Augusta National—holding off Rory McIlroy, Jordan Spieth and Rickie Fowler in that order—resonates with a junior who is just getting into golf or motivates one of Reed’s peers.

“It’s such a nostalgic game,” McIlroy said last summer.

“People remember when they watched Jack [Nicklaus] win a US Open or Tom Watson chip in at Pebble Beach. Whatever generation it is, that’s what they’re going to remember and that’s their fondest memory.”

McIlroy was among five major champions who were asked about their fondest memory of a major (excluding those they won).

REDEMPTION

“I’M a big redemption person,” McIlroy said. “I’m big on someone winning who deserves it.”

The one major that stands out is Adam Scott winning the Masters in 2013, mainly because it came nine months after one of the most stunning collapses on the back nine in a major, even by Australian standards. Scott had a four-shot lead with four holes to play at Royal Lytham & St. Annes when he closed with four straight bogeys, and Ernie Els won his second British Open.

The next year Scott holed a 20-foot birdie putt on the final hole at Augusta National, and then won with a birdie on the second playoff hole.

“I thought that was awesome,” McIlroy said.

Perhaps he spoke from experience. McIlroy had a fourshot lead going into the final round of the 2011 Masters when he shot 80. He won the very next major, the US Open, by eight shots at Congressional.

There was one another example of redemption: Sergio Garcia, one of McIlroy’s best friends, who went nearly 20 years before winning his first major.

“I cried,” McIlroy said. “I cried! I was so happy for him.”

BIG MOMENTS

JORDAN SPIETH was 11, already honing his putter on a closely mown section of his front yard, when Tiger Woods won the Masters in 2005 for the fourth time. Spieth considers that his favorite major championship victory that wasn’t his own.

“It goes back to when Tiger holed that chip on 16 and ended up going to a playoff with Chris DiMarco,” Spieth said.

“That Masters win because of that shot...when you’re a kid, you want to go out right away and try some kind of similar shot that you saw someone hit.”

Nothing was remotely similar until he played Augusta National for the first time in the fall of 2013.

“The first thing I was interested in was going behind 16, putting the tee down wherever that pin was and hitting that shot,” he said.

Ten years after watching Woods win a fourth green jacket, Spieth won his first. And perhaps it was only fitting that in the final round, Spieth went long on the 16th and wound up in a similar spot from where Woods chipped in.

“I didn’t hit the shot anywhere as good as him,” said Spieth, who had to make an 8-footer for par to keep a four-shot lead.

“He was against the collar of the rough, too. That was the coolest shot I ever witnessed and probably ever will witness.”

EMOTIONS

DAVIS LOVE III has watched a lot of friends win majors, all special occasions. One of them meant so much to him that he stayed behind even after missing the cut in the 2011 British Open at Royal St. George’s.

“Darren Clarke winning made me the happiest,” Love said.

Even on opposite sides of the Atlantic, Love and Clarke were close. Clarke was 42, five years removed from losing his wife to breast cancer. He was no longer among the top 100 in the world and not even eligible for all the majors. And then, finally, he won the claret jug.

Love recalls waiting to see Justin Leonard win at Royal Troon in 1997.

Lance Agcaoili

Fernandez

“2018 might be ‘Run for Shelter,” race director Dave McGillivray said, also comparing it to the year after the finish-line explosions. “I’ve always said the 2014 race was epic, and it was, for obvious reasons. But yesterday’s race was epic, too. Both were about perseverance, and turning a negative into positives.”

OSTON—Desiree Linden thought she did everything right to prepare for last year’s Boston Marathon: the training, the nutrition, the strategy,

even how she slept.

She finished fourth.

And she didn’t know what she could have done better.

“Everyone is looking for that 1 percent.

I did that last year,” Linden said on Tuesday, a day after overcoming headwinds and an icy rain to become the first American woman to win the race in 33 years. “Apparently, my 1 percent was the weather.”

Slogging through a torrential downpour, with temperatures in the 30s and a near-gale gusts that blew the rain into the runners’ faces, Linden made up her mind to drop out after just a few miles. She abandoned her plan, skipping water stations—after all, she wouldn’t be out long enough to get dehydrated—and wasting energy by allowing her fellow Americans to draft off of her.

It was only miles later, when the two-time Olympian and 2011 Boston Marathon runner-up found herself still among the leaders, that she realized she was better suited for the conditions than anyone else on the course.

Better than the other Americans, like hometown favorite and reigning New York City Marathon champion Shalane Flanagan, who finished seventh in what she said would be her last competitive Boston race.

Better than the East Africans, who have dominated the race for the past three decades. Defending champions Geoffrey Kirui and Edna Kiplagat finished second and ninth, but were the only Kenyans to crack the top 10 in their races—the country’s worst performance in decades.

“The conditions were made for me,” said Linden, a native Californian who lives in Michigan. “These are the conditions I train in.”

Linden, who finished second by two seconds in Boston in 2011, held on Monday to break the soggy tape on Boylston Street in two hours, 39 minutes and 54 seconds, the slowest women’s race in 40 years. Yuki Kawauchi of Japan won the men’s division in 2:15:58—the slowest since Jack Fultz overcame temperatures near 100 degrees to win the 1976 race known as the “Run for the Hoses.”

impunity in the second round, 27-25, 27-25, 25-16.

The Lady Bulldogs started the season with a 6-1 card only to lose steam in the second round and won only once to the University of the East Lady Tigers. But with enough victories they piled, they still emerged at the No. 4 spot with a 7-7 card.

NU Head Coach Babes Castillo said the secondround was a trial that makes her wards tougher— despite the second round skid.

“This happened for a reason so we have to go through this [ordeal]. Maybe this is the value we need to learn before getting our goal,” Castillo said. “De La Salle became more consistent, especially in service and passing. We need to match their style. It will be a test of our system.”

Castillo hopes that Jaja Santiago gets more support from fellow graduating player Aiko Urdas, setter Jasmin Nabor, Risa Sato, Jorelle Singh, Roma Doromal and Rose Doria.

An NU victory would result to a rubber match on Wednesday at the Filoil Flying V Centre in San Juan City.

Desiree Linden is the first American woman to win the race since 1985. AP

Despite the weather, race organizers didn’t see much of an uptick in no-shows or runners seeking medical attention.

Only about 300 people who picked up their bibs over the weekend decided not to run. Of the 27,042 showed up in Hopkinton, 25,822 made it to Copley Square—meaning 95.5 percent of those who started the race finished it, an average rate, McGillivray said.

“It should come as no surprise to anyone that people who fight that hard to get to the starting line will fight even harder on the day of the race,” said Tom Grilk, executive director of the Boston Athletic Association. “No matter what the conditions.”

There were 2,785 runners who sought medical attention, with 91 transported to hospitals (most directly from the course). Ten remained hospitalized on Tuesday morning.

Those numbers were all in line with what organizers have seen in other years, with normal weather.

Linden finished 18th in Boston in a nor’easter in 2007 and has two fourths and a fifth on the course. She was the ninth-fastest runner in Monday’s field, based on the personal best of 2:22:38 she ran in Boston in 2011.

“That’s why we race,” Linden said. “Otherwise we would go into a lab, submit our résumés and they would post the results.

“You stub a toe the night before, eat a bad piece of food, it could change everything,” she said. “That’s why we race.”

PSC, Cebu seal PNG partnership

P

HILIPPINE Sports Commission (PSC) Commissioner Ramon Fernandez and Cebu City Mayor Tomas Osmeña officially sealed before the weekend Cebu’s hosting of the 2018 Philippine National Games (PNG) in a memorandum of agreement signing ceremony at the Cebu City Hall.

Fernandez, who oversees the Visayas region for the PSC, shared his excitement for the games and thanked the PSC for the major opportunity to lead the staging of one of the most-awaited sporting events in the country.

“Everything is set. We consider the PNG as the country’s Olympics, that is why we are excited that we get to do it here in Cebu,” Fernandez said.

“It has been 21 years since Cebu hosted the PNG in 1997, so this is a big moment not just for Cebu City but also Cebu Province,” Osmeña said.

The PNG will be cohosted by the province of Cebu and Cebu City. The competition is set from May 19 to 25, and will feature 21 sports.

There will also be 12 other competition venues in Naga City, Tabuelan, Danao City, Mandaue City and LapuLapu City.

An initial coordination meeting was done between Cebu sports coordinators and committee representatives from the PSC early this month.

European leagues oppose plan for 48-team ’22 Cup

By Graham Dunbar The Associated Press

G

ENEVA—Top European leagues are set to oppose Fifa plans for adding more teams and playing days at the 2022 World Cup. Fifa President Gianni Infantino wants to study a 48team tournament plan that would add 16 teams, 16 extra games and at least four days to the scheduled 28-day event kicking off in November 2022 in Qatar.

That schedule would likely take another round of weekend fixtures from the English Premier League, Spain’s La Liga and others which already must shut down in mid-season.

“We are not prepared to make any changes on the calendar for expanding the 2022 World Cup.” Lars-Christer Olsson, CEO of the 32-member European Leagues group, said on Monday.

“We have already been flexible to allow the World Cup to be played in the [Qatari] winter and have agreed the dates,” Olsson said, adding, “we are not prepared for the duration of the World Cup to be any longer.”

Infantino’s support last week for a 48-team World Cup ahead of the agreed expansion for the 2026 edition comes more than seven years after Qatar won hosting rights from Fifa’s then-executive committee.

Qatar bid to stage a 32-team, 64-game tournament in June-July 2022 despite the searing desert heat, with a pledge to develop stadium cooling technology.

In 2013 Fifa started consulting soccer officials worldwide in an 18-month process that reached an expected conclusion—to push back the schedule and play in cooler months, with a November 21 to December 18 schedule.

That shorter, 28-day program—instead of the typical 32-day tournament—was a concession to Europe where most World Cup players are employed, and leagues wanted the shortest possible forced shutdown.

Fifa’s calendar for national-team games, which man dates when clubs must release players, has a Monday, November 14, 2022, call-up date for World Cup teams.

An extra four days on the 2022 World Cup program would likely mean moving up the World Cup program, and taking the November 12 and 13 fixture dates away from European leagues.

“Fifa seems to be on an expansion drive,” said Olsson, who this year joined UEFA’s executive committee to represent the leagues. “It’s time people thought about the players—they need time to rest. It cannot just be money deciding how football should be organized.”

European clubs were the most vocal opponents of a November-December tournament before Fifa agreed on the switch to winter three years ago.

Soon after the accord, Fifa and the European Club Association representing more than 200 members signed a new working deal, which guaranteed clubs worldwide a $209 million share of World Cup revenues from each of the 2018 tournament in Russia and the

2022 edition in Qatar.

The money is distributed on a daily rate for players involved in the tournament to each club that employed him during the two previous years.

The ECA declined to comment last week when the 2022 World Cup expansion idea was announced on Thursday in Buenos Aires, Argentina, at a meeting of South American soccer body Conmebol, which was attended by Infantino.

Fifa does not pay a share of World Cup revenues to the European

Leagues group.

The 2022 expansion plan could require Qatar to share hosting duties with some regional neighbors.

The gas-rich emirate is completing eight stadiums for a 64-game tournament, though Fifa’s ideal design for a 48-team, 80-game tournament calls for 12 venues.

Infantino’s suggested feasibility study to look at 2022 tournament expansion could be agreed on at scheduled meetings in Moscow ahead of the World Cup kicking off on June 14.

FIFA President Gianni Infantino wants to study a 48-team tournament plan that would add 16 teams, 16 extra games and at least four days to the scheduled 28-day event kicking off in November 2022 in Qatar. AP

Sunday, April 22, 2018

BusinessMirror

www.businessmirror.com.ph

Rica Espiritu

A8

BusinessMirror

www.businessmirror.com.ph

Sunday, April 22, 2018

A9

The Uber Driver S

By Vicky Chong

henton Way. The financial district of Singapore where the most savvy of the population congregate. Along this expensive stretch of commercial real estate and inside one of these claustrophobic aluminium-clad towers is where Peck’s daughter, Lynn, works as a lawyer.

The evening peak period has officially begun twenty minutes ago, a silent alarm signalled by the jump in the rate on the ERP gantry guarding the enclave. An additional surcharge is now slapped on top of an already expensive taxi fare. Office hour is officially over but the building lights will be lit until past mid-night.

The roads are nearly empty—motorists deterred by the high entrance fee.

Frustrated queues at taxi-stands are a welcomed sight for Peck. She turns on the Uber Driver App on her phone. The high demand means an unusually high fare. Peck relishes this opportunity to recoup the trip into CBD just to deliver home-cooked dinner to Lynn.

In three seconds, she gets a rider.

Without hesitation, she taps to accept the job and drives two minutes to where the rider is waiting. The Caucasian man wants to go to the airport, which is in the opposite direction of Peck’s house in the west. He gets in the front next to Peck and slides the seat all the way to the back. Even then, his legs fold awkwardly against the glove box. Her Toyota Vios has suddenly shrunk in his presence.

They travel in silence, since Peck is not very conversant in English.

The drive to Changi Airport has been worth the thirty dollars. She keeps her Uber App switched on, hoping the next few journeys would eventually bring her closer to home. Unfortunately, the next few pickups circle the north-eastern part of Singapore. She hates the SengkangHougang loop, as she calls it. The riders there never seem to travel off that radar range. Peck is ecstatic when she finally gets a ride into Boat Quay near midnight.

She gives a little prayer—even though she left the church the day she divorced her husband. Please let someone be going to the west. Her next ride is located at a pub nearby.

Peck drives slowly along the one-way street flanked on both sides by three-storey pre-war terrace building. Large neon signs screaming Martell and Hennessy adorn the façades of the buildings, announcing a different kind of commodity business from the rice, coffee beans and tea leaves traded by towkays during the colonial period. Silhouettes now crowd the five-foot walkway. Peck winds down her tinted window and peers out. The towkays are still present, in the form of portly men with large watches and ringed fingers holding cigarettes. Their arms encircle the slim waists of their bored-looking long-haired companions, another transacted commodity imported from the same countries favoured by past colonial towkays.

A couple emerge from one of the units and wave to Peck. The man opens the back door and immediately the leathery-newcar scent of her three-month-old extravagance is supplanted with the sooty-vomit odour of cigarette smoke and hard liquor.

Peck watches the lady as she enters the car. She struggles to pull her red skintight mini down her bare thighs while shifting to make room for the man. She looks young, too young in fact, to be out

at this time of the night, much less exiting from these pubs. But Peck concedes to being an overly-protective mother—the kind of mother who still delivers dinner to their adult children.

The girl’s companion is dressed in a typical executive attire of white longsleeved shirt and black pants. He could be in his thirties, perhaps slightly older than Peck’s eldest son, Leon. Leon, a bank analyst, would not be caught dead in such sleazy places.

Peck taps on the Picked Up button on the app. The next destination is C lement i, her housing est ate. Her prayer has worked.

The Vios drives out of Boat Quay into CTE. Behind, Peck hears giggles and a smattering of conversation. The man nuzzles the girl’s neck. God knows where his hands are. He promises to buy her something from duty-free when he returns from Vietnam. He’s a buildingmaterial salesman entertaining clients on his company’s account at the nightclub, who has snagged a reward for himself.

A shrill ringing interrupts the giggles.

‘Sorry. I need to pick up this call,’ Peck says and answers the phone without waiting for their response.

‘Mom, where are you?’ Lizzy, her youngest daughter’s voice calls out loudly through the speaker.

‘I will be home soon. You sleep first.

Tomorrow you need to wake up early for school.’

‘I’ll wait for you, I can study some more. Bye,’ says Lizzy and the line cuts.

At the back, the giggles stop. Peck hears the gentle snores from the man. In the rear view mirror, his head tilts back on the headrest. The girl is looking out of the window, her face blank.

‘Girl, he your boyfriend is it?’ Peck starts.

‘Auntie, mind you own business.’

‘You look to be my daughter’s age.

Lizzy, who just called. She’s taking her A’levels this year.’

The girl keeps her sight on the passing vehicles without replying. Peck wonders how old she is, and how her mother would allow her out so late, but knows better to keep her mouth shut.

The Vios arrives at the open-air carpark at Block 322. The girl shakes the man. He grunts and continues sleeping.

His breathing shallow and loud.

‘Tony, wake up,’ she tries again, giving him a harder shake. When that fails, she opens the door and steps out.

‘Hey, wait. Where are you going? Your boyfriend is still in my car.’ Peck rushes after her.

‘What boyfriend? He’s just someone I met at the pub. Anyway, this is my house, not his. You try to wake him lah.’

With that, she turns and walks towards the block.

Peck watches as the girl disappears into the lift. She returns to the car. Tony’s head has rolled to his front, hanging on the seat belt as if being strangled by it.

His baggy shirt hides a plump body. He has gone eerily silent. Peck shakes his shoulder and his head rolls back. She

gives his round face a few gentle slaps and calls loudly, ‘Tony! Tony!’ There is no response. She moves closer and almost gags at the odour.

She puts a finger under his nose and could not detect any airflow. She presses two fingers to the side of his neck like how she has seen done in Korean dramas. His pulse at the neck is weak. She gives Tony another few slaps on both sides of his face, harder this time. His alcohol-flushed cheeks glow even redder but he remains motionless.

Peck’s heart palpitates. What if he dies in her car? Her brand new car which she still owes the bank eighty-one more months of instalment. She shakes her head to banish the gruesome thought. She stretches across Tony to the front to retrieve her phone from the holder. Her hands shake as she presses 995.

‘Hello, there is an unconscious man in my car. What? No, I don’t know him. Name? Tony.

I don’t know his surname lah. Address? 322 Clementi. Hurry hurry!’

She turns to the comatose man beside her.

His face has dulled to an ashen in the dim light.

Peck jumps out of the car. She looks around, hoping for someone to come by but there is no one in sight.

‘Oh God, please don’t let him be dead,’ she mutters.

Above head, the sky flashes a few times and a loud clap of thunder follows. Large drops of rain pelt down mercilessly. Peck rushes into the back seat next to Tony. Outside, the sky pours.

The acrid air is suffocating within the closed confinement of her car. She turns on the interior light. Her hand creeps towards Tony’s face and she is relieved to feel some warmth. She tries for his pulse again. Nothing. Perhaps her fingers are in a wrong position. She crouches over and moves her fingers gingerly beneath his jaws. Nothing. She releases his seat belt and shakes him violently. He slides sideway and now lies on the backseat. The windows mist up rapidly, enclosing them in a vehicular tomb.

She curses the slowness of the ambulance. It’s been five minutes since her call.

He mustn’t die in her car. She must do something. W hat if the man lying here is her precious Leon? Her heart aches at the thought and she is now crying. She pulls Tony onto his back and tries to recall what she has seen on television. As if possessed by another spirit, she repeatedly pounds on his chest, alternating with pinching his nose while blowing hard into his mouth.

Suddenly, he coughs and heaves.

In the distance, she hears the siren.

Vicky Chong is doing her MA in Creative Writing at Lasalle College of the Arts in SIngapore. Her works have been published in Readers' Digest, The Graduate and Singapore Marketer. More recently, her short stories were published in two anthologies by Singapore's National Library Board. Her short story, Chun Kia, is one of the ten selected for 2017 George Town literary Festival Fringe Zine.

Tourism&Entertainment BusinessMirror

A10 Sunday, April 22, 2018

Editor: Carla Mortel-Baricaua

Bisikleta Iglesia is the Country’s next big Faith Tourism event

Through pedals and prayers, Batangas takes the lead in the country's faith tourism activities.

Hundred of bikers join Bisikleta Iglesia on its 5th year.

V

By Marane A. Plaza

Photos by Edison Manalo of WOWBatangas.com

isita Iglesia, the Holy Week tradition introduced by Augustinian missionaries in the 1560s, has always been the top-ofmind Lenten activity among Filipinos.

The practice of visiting, praying and reciting the Stations of the Cross in at least seven churches can, indeed, refresh one’s mind, as one can solemnly meditate the gift of gospel.

Lima Park Hotel, one of the topnotch hotels in Batangas loved for its relaxing and exclusive atmosphere matched with modern, chic design, understands how the tradition is close to the hearts of the Filipinos and reinvents this one by incorporating ecotourism, wellness and fitness into the old tradition

through its annual faith tourism activity called “Bisikleta Iglesia.”

As the term suggests, Bisikleta Iglesia participants visit seven churches by pedaling their own bicycles. This year marks the fifth Bisikleta Iglesia event of Lima Park Hotel, wherein around 200 participants joined the organized 52-km bicycle ride around Malvar and Lipa. The participants were led by the “running priest,” Father Robert Reyes, who coined the event’s battle cry, “Padyak Na, Dasal Pa.” The event is an effort to further boost faith tourism in Batangas. Bisikleta

Iglesia is part of Lima Park Hotel’s Bisita Batangas initiative, wherein the hotel encourages tourists from all over the Philippines to visit the province’s attractions.

“Lipa City in Batangas has been known as the ‘Little Rome of the Philippines’ because of its vast churches, seminaries, retreat houses and convents. Because of the short distance among these prayer sanctuaries, it is perfect to organize Bisikleta Iglesia here,” explained Rosalind Landicho, Lima Park Hotel Marketing and Communications director. “We started with just 20 participants five years ago, led by Lima Park Hotel Resident Manager Bong Evangelista and Lima Park Chef Paul Poblador, who wanted to do something different during Holy Week.

It started with their love for biking, food and travel, and, of course, doing something unique with Visita Iglesia.”

This year the event had been even more polished, as 14 bike-riders were assigned as station leaders, as they carried their own stations of the cross. Prayer booklets were provided as well by Lima Park

Hotel. Fr. Robert Reyes provided prayers and spiritual messages that also compare the challenges of a biker with a Christian’s common hardships in strengthening one’s faith.

“Next year, Lima Park Hotel’s Bisikleta Iglesia will lead the faith tourism efforts in Calabarzon all the more by guiding Luzon areas in organizing its own Bisikleta Iglesia events. Then, the following year, simultaneous Bisikleta Iglesia events nationwide will be held, and it is really exciting that we are taking the lead on that. The Department of Tourism [DOT] has also acknowledged our activities for faith tourism,” Landicho said.

One of the main faith tourism attractions in Batangas that really attracts thousands of visitors recently is the Marian Orchard in Balete. The Marian Orchard started as a private garden in 1988, owned by Lazaro “Ka Larry” Katigbak. Through the years, the place had been transformed into a lovely pilgrimage site, as Ka Larry was a known devotee of Mama Mary. In 2015 Ka Larry decided to partner

Upholding heritage through ‘carinderia’ cooking

O

Story & photos

by Gelyka Ruth R. Dumaraos

ne can never explore what the Philippines has to offer if trying out Filipino home-cooked food is not part of the plan. And where else can a foodie find them than in humble carinderias situated in just about every corner of the streets?

Carinderia, a food stop commonly seen by the road side of a frequented place, came from the word kari, the Tagalog word for curry. Before the term was coined in the 1920s, it was said to be called as karihan, where native Filipino dish karekare is being served. Karehan originated back in the time where Indians, or sepoys, who married Filipinas and resided in Taytay and Cainta, sold curry dishes by the street.

This is why it isn’t a surprise that, before various popular eating hubs carved their names in the food industry; they came from their carinderia roots, which they uphold up until today. After all, what inspired many of these are that they ate and grew up with right in the comforts of their home.

Marylindbert International Inc. has long been an active advocate of upholding the country’s culture and customs through food. In fact, the organization has launched six years ago a groundbreaking event highlighting the carinderias in the country, entitled “Carinderia Fiesta.”

Now repackaged as “Buhay Carinderia...Redefined,” this initiative empowers entrepreneurs in the industry to unleash their unique style of cooking to a wider audience, including foreign tourists.

“The reason we are reviving what we are doing in Buhay Carinderia is that we want them to understand na ito ang heritage natin [this is our heritage],” says Erlinda Legaspi, president and CEO of Marylindbert Intrnational Inc. She adds that this is targeting the local culinary experts to share their skills and the young ones to learn from them and eventually pass it on to the future generation.

Food and tourism

This year the advocacy campaign welcomes the Tourism Promotions Board of the Department of Tourism as its sole presenter. The TBP will participate by eyeing different regions and searching for what they have to offer in terms of home cooked specialties.

TPB COO Cesar Montano notes how the advocacy serves as an avenue to showcase local culinary experts’ cooking styles while giving them a sense of pride and identity. Moreover, Montano believes that the food culture plays an integral part in promoting the country’s destinations through gastronomic ventures.

Thus, Montano extends support for Marylindbert International Inc., by mounting a ‘much bigger and grander’ event.

Regional tour

The Buhay Carinderia...Redefined will kick off its nine-month journey in areas of Northern Luzon, encompassing all of its 15 provinces.

An exposition will happen on June 28 and 29 at Vigan Convention Center, where local culinary experts will have a discussion with chosen students whom they will mentor.

The same series of activities will happen in Central Luzon, Bicol region, the Visayas region and the Mindanao region.

“From these cities and towns, we will identify the best dishes, the individuals that prepare them and the carinderia where they work for,” Legaspi says.

The goal is to pass on their skills and experiences to these students and eventually hail Philippine tourism millennial ambassadors.

She says, “We will start mentoring the students on how to get into cooking, especially those who are interested. At the same time, we will teach them financially literacy.”

Legaspi adds that mentoring is a vital part of the advocacy, which opens opportunities to new businesses and encourages them to become entrepreneurs.

This November all the regional bets will be gathered in a nationwide showcase of their cooking talents.

all-around foodie as a sincere learner.

“The good thing about it is, he’s very sincere.

He has gone to so many places. Inaaral na niya yung mga pagkain ng mga Pilipino [he is learning about Filipino food] and that is a perfect example,” Legaspi notes.

Even before he inked ties with Marylindbert International Inc. for the project, Heussaff has been doing content highlighting the Philippines.

However, for his part, Heussaff, who grew up in Europe, knows that he still needs to learn more about the country he chooses to explore.

“There are so many dishes I still need to discover, but I am curious to keep learning,” Heussaff says.

From local to world class

Legaspi stresses that what Buhay Carinderia wants to impart is that amid all the influence of Western food in the country, the carinderia way of cooking is not a forgotten tradition in every corner of the country.

She also hopes that Buhay Carinderia will open doors to showcase the country’s heritage through the carinderia way of cooking and, eventually, present a one-of-a-kind, Filipino way of dining.

Content-creator partner

Marylindbert International Inc. also taps on the influence of restaurateur and social-media influencer Erwann Heussaff as their official content creator for the campaign.

Heussaff will join the caravan while he learns the heritage and culture behind every carinderia dish.

When asked why Heussaff was picked to the content creator partner, Legaspi underscores the

TBP CEO Cesar Montano and DOT Secretary Wanda Teo grace the launch of “Buhay Carinderia” at Rizal Park Hotel.

with Marian Orchard Faith Foundation Inc., a sister group of Lima Park Hotel, with the vision of maintaining and improving the stunning sanctuary. In 2017 the DOT recognized Marian Orchard as one of the top faith tourism attractions in the country, as it boasted 220,000 visitors.

The Marian Orchard highlights the Sacred Heart Chapel in its 5-hectare area, as well as its clusters of charming gardens. Rosarium Garden takes pride in its huge, beautiful rosary aesthetic, while Villa Cruz is a linear garden that allows visitors to do some minihiking. The private pilgrimage site features various breeds of bougainvilleas, as well as other flowering plants. Recently, the place is famous for its “Instagrammable” features, but more important, for its spiritual, solemn vibe. The Marian Orchard is one of the stops of Lima Park’s Bisikleta Iglesia.

Other stops of the spiritual bike tour include Santo Niño Parish Church, Divino Amor ChapelRedemptorist, Parish of Mary Mediatrix of All Grace, Our Lady of

Mount Carmel Monastery, Metropolitan Cathedral of San Sebastian and Parish Church of Saint Therese of the Child Jesus. Each one has its unique characteristics that truly encourage one to solemnly meditate and commemorate the perfect sacrifice of Christ. The Metropolitan Cathedral of San Sebastian takes pride in its heavenly ceiling artworks and ornate retablo, while Parish Church of Saint Therese of the Child Jesus in Mount Malarayat boasts of its greeneries in the nearby golf course. Divino Amor Chapel-Redemptorist is famous for its tree trunk with the image of Jesus Christ’s face, while Our Lady of Mount Carmel Monastery has been popular for its miracles of the rose petals, wherein devotees claim that the face of Mama Mary can be seen in the church’s rose petals.

“Aside from leading the nationwide Bisikleta Iglesia events nationwide in the coming years, we are looking forward to Fr. Reyes’s customized biker’s prayers next year. It truly is an honor to take the lead in boosting the country’s faith tourism efforts, “ Landicho said.

Intramuros draws 1M visitors, DOT to boost faith tourism

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ome 1 million visitors, local and foreign tourists alike, traveled to the Walled City of Intramuros for the observance of the Holy Week.

The Department of Tourism (DOT) and its attached agency, the Intramuros Administration (IA), welcomed the visitors with a series of events to promote the Walled City as a holistic faith destination in Metro Manila. “For a predominantly Catholic country like the Philippines, the Holy Week or Lenten season is a perfect time to reflect, repent and travel. We congratulate the Intramuros Administration and our Faith Tourism sector for the successful reopening of the Walled City for the Lenten season,” Tourism Secretary Wanda Corazon T. Teo said.

For the first time since World War II, Intramuros has opened its churches and chapels to the faithful pilgrims, aiming to restore the vibrant religious culture prevalent before the war.

The IA, headed by Atty. Guiller Asido, hosted the Visita Iglesia, a pious Roman Catholic Lenten tradition involving visitation to seven churches. The Manila Cathedral, San Agustin Church, San Ignacio Church site, Guadalupe Shrine in Fort Santiago, Knights of Columbus Fr. Willman Chapel, Lyceum of the Philippines University Chapel and Mapua University Chapel are all found within the Walled City.

The installation of Via Crucis stations, or a series of images depicting Jesus Christ on the day of his crucifixion and accompanying prayers, along General Luna Street of the Walled City followed the Vatican II-sanctioned New Way of the Cross.

A modern interpretation of the Senakulo or the dramatic presentation depicting the Passion of Jesus Christ: his trial, suffering and death entitled Martir sa Golgota, by the Tanghalang Santa Ana theater ensemble directed by renowned Lou Veloso, was staged

The Department of Tourism and the Intramuros Administration initiated the revival of the Walled City as a center of faith this year, inviting pilgrims and faithfuls to come together for the Holy Week.

in front of the Palacio del Gobernador.

Meanwhile, the DOT also supported the 2018 Lenten Festival of Cainta, Rizal, whose highlights were the traditional Lenten Grand Parade, Senakulo (Passion Play), Penetencia (Sacrifice) and Ang Pagpapako (The Crucifixion of Jesus).

At least 17 performing groups reenacted a particular scene of the Senakulo in front of the Cainta Plaza during the Lenten Grand Parade.

Among the groups that performed were the Samahang Nazareno Inc., Samahang Hebreo, Samahang Pasang Krus, Samahang Walang Sindak, Cainta Nazareno, Kabataang ng Kalbaryo Inc., Samahang Pieta, Krus Sa Nayon, Samahang Junior Nazareth, Samahang Penitencia and Romans Club.

Teo said the DOT is pushing for more faith-based tourism activities for the Catholic faithfuls catering to both the local and foreign tourists.

“We aim to capitalize on our unique Catholic festivals and Filipino traditions to pursue more Catholic pilgrims or faith tourists from Brazil, Mexico, the United States, Columbia and Spain, among others,” Teo added.

According to the 2017 Annuario Pontificio, or Pontifical Yearbook, and the Vatican Statistical Yearbook, eight

out of ten Filipinos are Catholics accounting for 82,212,678 believers in 2015. The Philippines is also ranked as the third country in the world with most Catholics, following Brazil and Mexico. It remains ins the largest Catholic nation in Asia.

The number of Catholics around the world is projected to grow by an estimated 500 million by 2050 led

by Latin America with a significant boost in developing countries in SubSaharan Africa. The rise of spiritual tourism in the Philippines is anchored on the diversity and richness of the churches and religious sites open to the public. Around 72 dioceses in 16 ecclesiastical provinces, as well as seven apostolic vicariantes and practically a church in every town or village present a wide selection for Catholic devotees.

“We will also highlight the numerous papal visits in the country with the head of the Catholic church as the focal influencer of pilgrimage and faith tourism,” Teo stressed.

Pope Paul VI visited the Philippines in 1970, while Pope John Paul II came in 1981 and 1995. In January 2015 the country made history for the world’s largest papal mass during the visit of Pope Francis with an estimated crowd of 6 million.