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25-year-old law failed to protect Palawan from destructive devt projects

Environmental ‘politics’

hurting Palawan

El Nido in Palawan is the gateway to the Bacuit archipelago, a group of islands with steep karst cliffs. Roland Nagy | Dreamstime.com

I

By Jonathan L. Mayuga

s Palawan safe from destructive development projects? Apparently not, even with Republic Act (RA) 7611, or the Strategic Environmental Plan (SEP) for Palawan Act, in effect for a quarter of a century now.

Lawyer Gerthie Anda-Mayo, executive director of the Palawanbased Environmental Legal Assistance Center (Elac), said 25 years after the law was signed on June 19, 1992, by the late President Corazon C. Aquino, destructive

development projects continue to threaten Palawan, an island-province described as the Philippines’ “last ecological frontier” and consistent winner in global polls for the best island in the world.

RA 7611, in essence, should

have provided for the adoption of a comprehensive framework for the sustainable development of Palawan.

However, Mayo said 25 years hence, the law failed to prevent the destruction of the province’s rich ecosystem, as she cited the continuous mining operations and conversion of vast tracts of forest lands into agri- and agro-forestry plantations. Lately, Palawan is even being targeted for the construction of an underwater-themed park ostensibly “to promote marine wildlife protection and conservation.”

The same law, which should have extended protection to Palawan’s biodiversity and ecological beauty, was cited by the province’s lawmakers in requesting the removal of some of Palawan’s natural

wonders from a long list of protected areas (PAs) covered by the proposed Expanded-National Integrated Protected Areas System (ENipas) Act.

All about politics

“It is annoying. We are saddened and dismayed that our politicians decided to withdraw our protected areas from E-Nipas,” Mayo said.

The Elac, she said, will come up with a position paper on the issue and appeal to the province’s legislators to reconsider their decision to have the five Palawan PAs “deleted” from the E-Nipas coverage.

She was referring to the El Nido Managed Resource Protected Area, Mount Mantalingahan Protected Landscape, Rasa Island Wildlife

Sanctuary, Malampaya Sound Protected Landscape and Seascape and Puerto Princesa Subterranean River National Park. These were stricken off the list upon the manifestation of Palawan lawmakers led by First District Rep. Chicoy Alvarez.

Mayo said legislators representing Palawan, including some provincial officials, failed to appreciate the fact that E-Nipas can help ensure the benefits of maintaining PAs will go to the province.

Once it becomes a law, the Protected Area Management Boards (PAMB) will have the power to expand the buffer zone of the PA without Congressional approval.

“The buffer zones of these protected areas have not yet been determined,” she said, adding that the es-

tablishment of the buffer zones will require an act of Congress.

Mayo said any existing infrastructure facilities in these PAs, including those within the buffer zone, can be regulated through the PAMB and the Office of the Protected Area Superintendent, which acts as the park manager.

Development activities can be regulated in a manner that it will not put at risk the present and future generations. Non-governmental organizations will also have more seats in the PAMB. This means a broader, transparent and responsible management mechanism, she said.

Mayo also noted that the E-Nipas law will impose stiffer penalties and fines to deter environmental crimes.

Continued on A2

Freebies spice up competition in PHL’s deregulated oil industry

I

By Lenie Lectura

n a bid to keep up with peers in the highly competitive downstream oil industry in the country, service stations nowadays are offering discounts, freebies and even a lifetime supply of fuel.

PESO exchange rates n US 50.6880

Pilipinas Shell Petroleum Corp., for instance, is implementing a P1 per liter discount for public utility vehicles (PUVs) dubbed as the “PUV Lane,” which used to be the DOE (Department of Energy) Lane since this was an initiative of the agency.

Shell’s PUV Lane is not a promo. The company brands it as a market discount. The recent pro-

mo offered by Shell was called the “Summer Promo” in which motorists can avail themselves of free drinks every time they gas up. On their fifth visit, they earn a chance to win a free vacation.

Shell said these are meant to increase awareness on Shell fuels.

“We merely match what the competition is doing so we can defend our areas of responsibilities,” said

a Shell official who asked not to be identified.

Of the nearly 1,000 Shell stations all over the country, 85 sites in Metro Manila extend the discounts to PUVs, 52 in North Luzon, 63 in South Luzon, 62 in the Visayas, and 38 sites in Mindanao, according to company data.

Some dealers of Petron Corp., Continued on A2

n japan 0.4642 n UK 65.7727 n HK 6.4840 n CHINA 7.6240 n singapore 37.1831 n australia 39.9117 n EU 59.6801 n SAUDI arabia 13.5175

Fuentebella: “Deregulation has helped promote healthy competition.

Motorists are benefiting from it.

We now have more players than before.

As a result, motorists have a choice. They would gas up where they want to.”

Source: BSP (11 August 2017 )

NewsSunday BusinessMirror

A2 Sunday, August 13, 2017

www.businessmirror.com.ph

Environmental ‘politics’ hurting Palawan Continued from A1

Sadly, she said this will not happen soon, with the omission of the five Palawan PAs.

Encroachment

“Right now, we noticed the encroachment and expansion of plantations in these protected areas. It would have been okay if it is banana or coconut, as long as it is not in forest lands. Now, we are seeing...palm and rubber plantations expanding,” she lamented.

According to Mayo, once covered by E-Nipas, the Palawan PAs will be covered by strict management regime with a broader participation of civil society organizations (CSOs) who have a slot in the PAMB, the highest policy-making body of a PA.

Without the E-Nipas, the management of these PAs remains with the Palawan Council for Sustainable Development (PCSD), a body independent from any government agency, including the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR).

This means that the PCSD can eventually decide to allow mining, agri or agro-forestry plantation, or even construction of a theme park in these areas that threaten to destroy terrestrial or marine ecosystems.

Mayo said the SEP law, which created the PCSD, should have paved the way for the governance and implementation of, and provision of policy direction to, the regulatory body. Ironically, the SEP law only allowed more businesses to abuse special permits granted in the name of “sustainable develop-

ment,” citing the case of the Ipilan Nickel Corp., a nickel-mining company, which is now the subject of a class suit for alleged illegal cutting of trees covering 25 hectares of old growth and secondary forest in Brooke’s Point, Palawan, in violation of the Forestry Code and the Philippine Mining Act of 1995.

The SEP, which is supposed to promote sustainability and improve the quality of life of present and future generations, is now actually being blamed for the destruction of the province’s rich ecosystem, thereby causing undue injury to people whose way of life is adversely affected by these destructive development projects, Mayo explained.

On August 9 the PCSD eventually revoked a special permit it issued to Ipilan, but not after the damage to old growth and secondary forests within and outside its mining tenement has been done.

No less than former Environment Secretary Regina Paz L. Lopez had appealed to her successor in the DENR, Secretary Roy A. Cimatu, to stop the destruction of the forest in Brooke’s Point.

The revocation of the special permit came a day after Acting Presiding Judge Ramon Chito R. Mendoza of RTC Branch 49 handed a decision granting the application for Temporary Environmental Protection Order filed by a group of farmers.

In its order dated August 7, 2017, Judge Mendoza also ordered Ipilan to implement rehabilitation measures in the said areas.

The plaintiffs filed the case in connection with the clear-

cutting of swaths of forests allegedly undertaken by Ipilan in barangays Maasin and Ipilan in the town of Brooke’s Point sometime April this year.

The plaintiffs are asking the court to order Ipilan to pay P10 million in moral damages, P10 million in exemplary damages, and nominal damages upon the discretion of the court and P500,000 in attorney’s fees, P500,000 in litigation expenses, and the costs of the suit.

The impacts of illegal clearcutting of a 25-hectare forest land by the mining company, Mayo said, are sure to be felt by the people living in the area. Marginalized as they are, the people will further suffer from the loss of 25 hectares of forest.

Members of the Palawan indigenous community, she said, lost their source of herbal plants, rattan and honey, and even their sacred grounds have been desecrated by the massive cutting of trees.

According to Mayo, the PCSD is highly politicized. The PCSD, she said, is predominantly run by local politicians who, in the first place, allowed destructive developments like mining and the environmental destruction experienced in Southern Palawan.

“The fact that we have a SEP law, which is 25 years old, what has happened to Palawan? We have a 60-percent poverty rate. The province is rich in natural resources, but most of the people are very poor. This only means one thing, the law failed to benefit the poorest of the poor,” she said.

Worse, Mayo said, on top of the massive destruction of the for-

est ecosystem, most of the development projects, such as the operation of plantations, did not help improve the living conditions or boost the income of the small farmers.

Mayo said 12 cooperatives in a plantation of palm and rubber are experiencing financial trouble and

Freebies... the country’s largest oil refiner, also offer cheaper gas prices in selected gasoline stations.

The most popular is the P1-P2/ liter discount on some of its petroleum products. A Petron dealer in Sucat, Parañaque City, said the signage of its price offering is large enough to attract the attention of motorists.

“The larger our sign, the better.

As you can see, every gasoline station here offers a promo different from its rival. We must be effective at attracting motorists so they will choose Petron over the others,” said a dealer, who asked not to be named.

Protecting market share

Shell’s PUV Lane enables the country’s second-largest oil company “to defend our site volumes on the commercial driver segment, depending on where it is employed.”

JP Montoya, president of the Association of Pilipinas Shell Dealers Inc. (APSDI), said in an interview that the PUV Lane is not only meant to attract more customers, particularly jeepney drivers, but to protect Shell’s market share as well.

Based on 2016 DOE data, Shell ended 2016 with a market share of 20.3 percent.

“We match the prices of other gas stations to remain competitive. This PUV Lane is really meant to protect our market share against competitors. Sometimes it’s not about if we will earn from it. It’s about protecting your market share,” said Montoya, who noted that motorists, most often than not, proceed to gas stations that offer the lowest price, even if it’s just a few centavos cheaper.

At times, Montoya said, this translates to higher volume. “On profit, it’s relative to volume. Of course, if everyone is doing the same thing in a certain area, then you do the same thing, more or less, to protect your business. That’s how it goes,” he said.

In Marikina City, for instance, Montoya said jeepneys abound.

“This is a good sign to implement the PUV Lane. We observed an increase in the number of PUVs that gas up in Shell. Such discount is effective relative to the site where you will implement it,” he pointed out.

Oil Deregulation Law is working

The Department of Energy (DOE), for its part, welcomed these developments. “This is what the Oil Deregulation Law is all about. It really encourages competition. We have many players now compared to when the industry was regulated,” said the agency’s Undersecretary Felix William Fuentebella in a text message.

Republic Act 8479, or the Oil Deregulation Law, was passed by the 10th Congress in 1998. The law mandates the state to liberalize and deregulate the downstream oil industry, with the aim of boosting the petroleum’s competitive market and promote the influx of more new players in the industry.

“Deregulation has helped promote healthy competition. Motorists are benefiting from it. We now have more players than before. As a result, motorists have a choice.

They would gas up where they want to,” Fuentebella added.

Based on 2016 DOE data, the “Big Three” (Petron, Chevron Philippines and Shell) got a combined 57.8-percent market share, while the other industry players—including PTT Philippine Corp.

(PTTPC), Total Phils., Seaoil Phil.

Inc., TWA Inc., Phoenix, Liquigaz, Petronas, Prycegas, Micro Dragon, Unioil, Isla Gas, Jetti, Eastern Petroleum, JS Union, JS Phils. Corp., Petrotrade, South Pacific, Marube-

huge debts because the plantations are not earning.

Palawan, she said, has a very fragile ecosystem. Unlike before, Mayo said, Palawan is now vulnerable to climate-change impacts like any other islands in the country experiencing flash floods, land-

slides and sea-level rise.

With the SEP law and PCSD deciding the fate of Palawan, it could just be a matter of time before the people in the province would start feeling the brunt of environmental destruction and the ill effects of climate change.

continued from A1 ni, SL Harbour, Perdido and Filoil Logistics Corp., as well as the end users who import directly most of their requirement—captured 42.2 percent of the market.

Meanwhile, the local refiners—Petron and Shell—captured 51 percent of the total market demand, while 49 percent was credited to direct importers.

Melita Obillo, DOE-Energy Oil Industry Management Bureau director, said there’s no need for oil firms to ask for the agency’s approval prior to offering discounts on selected petroleum products.

“On promos, the oil companies can do that as long as they are not selling below cost. They don’t need approval from DOE,” Obillo said.

And for as long as their petroleum products meet the standards, and the volume dispensed is accurate, Obillo stressed that the agency will not get in their way.

“I think that’s part of their marketing strategy. Such promos are beneficial to the consumers provided that they comply with the standards,” said Obillo in a text message.

‘Giving back to our customers’

One oil firm has caught the ire of the public when it recently offered a P10/ liter price on all its petroleum products, as the areas near its stations turned bad traffic into worse during the duration of the promo.

On its 10th listing anniversary on July 11, Phoenix Petroleum sold from 10 a.m. to 12 noon its fuel at selected stations nationwide for only P10/liter.

The listing marked many firsts: The first company from Davao City to list on the Philippine Stock Exchange; the first oil company to list after the passage of the Oil Deregulation Law in 2008, and the first independent oil company to go public.

From its initial five stations in 2005, Phoenix has grown its retail network to more than 515 stations nationwide, and expanded to serving commercial clients in power, manufacturing, aviation, transportation, marine, fishing, construction and other industries.

Long lines of vehicles waiting to be served at various Phoenix service stations irked motorists and commuters who were stuck in traffic. “This is public service on our part,” said Candy de Guzman, a Phoenix dealer.

“We are giving back what is due to our customers, especially the loyal ones. We have no intention on our part to cause tremendous traffic,” she said in an interview.

The Phoenix dealer, whose stations are located in Santa Rosa, Mall of Asia and Molino 2, said the Phoenix outlet on Macapagal Avenue recorded 287 transactions and generated 12,400 liters in fuel sales in just two hours.

“The second station that generated the most volume is Santa Rosa, in which we served 365 customers for two hours,” said de Guzman. “It was a mix of private and public utility vehicles.”

Phoenix is also providing discounts—P2 per liter on gasoline, P1 per liter on diesel and 20 percent off on all lubricant products—to Uber drivers. Other marketing schemes launched by Phoenix include the Scratch-a-Prize promo, Summer Promo and Weekend Promo.

“These promotional stuff need to be approved by the DTI [Department of Trade and Industry] first.

We thoroughly study each and every area possible where we plan to implement the promo. We do not do this to create a price war. We do this to match other offerings of

gasoline stations. It may not necessarily be the same kind of discount,” the Phoenix dealer said.

Lifetime fuel supply

Seaoil Philippines has likewise joined the fray.

It launched the first raffle promo of its kind in the Philippines that will be giving four lucky motorists their lifetime supply of Seaoil fuels.

Seaoil CEO Glenn Yu said in an interview that this is the company’s own way of thanking its loyal customers. Moreover, he said, this is a wise move to entice motorists who have yet to gas up with the fourth-largest oil player in the country. Yu said that based on DOE figures, Seaoil has a market share of 5.9 percent.

“This is not only to show our appreciation to loyal Seaoil customers, we also would like motorists to take this opportunity to try our fuel products and ultimately become Seaoil believers,” Yu added.

Seaoil wants to highlight its top three qualities, which, Yu said, make the oil firm different from the rest. First, Seaoil’s base fuels are imported from advanced refineries in Japan, South Korea and Singapore, ensuring world-class quality.

Second, its fuels are monitored and tested at least three times daily at the retail stations for consistency.

Third, Seaoil fuels are the only ones in the Philippines that are powered with STP additives, known for superior engine clean-up and keep-clean properties resulting in improved performance.

Better price at the right quality

A consumer group led by a former undersecretary at the Department of Trade and Industry urged the DOE to strictly monitor the quality of the petroleum products regardless if these are sold at a discount or not.

“Competition in promos and discounts are part of any business models to get more consumers to like their respective brands. The permit for sales promotions is easily accessible to all. What I have not observed these days is monitoring on the quality of the products in the market,” said Victor Dimaguiba, president of Laban Konsyumer Inc. He recalled that during his days in the government, his team would usually visit gasoline stations to get samples and have the fuel products tested. “I hardly read and see if it is done at all,” Dimaguiba noted.

The DOE assured that random tests are being conducted.

Dimaguiba, however, urged the agency to make public the results of these tests to inform the consumers. Promos are useless if the fuel products do not meet the standards, he noted.

He also took note of how the retail market is maturing. Most of the independent players have captured a better market share from the “Big Three”.

“One had even a budget to sustain a professional basketball team. The other hosts the preUAAP and NCAA basketball seasons. The retail market is managed by entrepreneurs and former officials of the major oil companies so they have the niche of how to run the operations,” he said.

Indeed, competition has done wonders since the downstream oil industry was deregulated. It has benefited both consumers and industry players.

www.businessmirror.com.ph

The World BusinessMirror

Sunday, August 13, 2017

A3

In debt we trust for American consumers with $12.7-T burden A fter deleveraging in the aftermath of the last US recession, Americans have once again taken on record debt loads that risk holding back the world’s largest economy.

Household debt outstanding— everything from mortgages to credit cards to car loans—reached $12.7 trillion in the first quarter, surpassing the previous peak in 2008 before the effects of the housing market collapse took its toll, Federal Reserve (the Fed) Bank of New York data show. To put the borrowing in perspective, it’s more than the size of China’s economy or almost four times that of Germany’s.

People are borrowing more, not necessarily because they’re confident about their financial prospects.

They’re doing it for necessities like education or transportation and, in many cases, just to get by.

On t he sur face, l iabi l it ies at an all-time high aren’t alarming when the assets side of ledger is

taken into account. Household net worth stands at a record $94.8 trillion, thanks to rebounding home values and soaring stock portfolios. But that increase has primarily benefited the nation’s wealthiest, said Lance Roberts, chief investment strategist at Clarity Financial Llc. in Houston and editor of the Real Investment Advice newsletter.

“When you look at net worth, it’s heavily skewed by the top 10 percent,” Roberts said. “The average family of four is living paycheck to paycheck.”

For most Americans, whose median household income, adjusted for inflation, is lower than it was at its peak in 1999, borrowing has been the answer to maintaining their standard of living. The increase in

debt helps explain why the economy’s main source of fuel is providing less of boost than in the past. Personalspending growth has averaged 2.4 percent since the recession ended in 2009, less than the 3 percent of the previous expansion and 4.3 percent from 1982 to 1990.

A look at worker pay presents a

more dire backdrop for discretionary spending for those without a lot of assets. While the difference between income from wages and household debt has improved since the last recession, it’s been leveling off, and remains at a depressed level. The improvement also reflects less mortgage debt because of increased home foreclosures, rather

than a pickup in earnings. “ This increase in leverage has sapped our ability to spend,” Roberts said. “I think we’re stuck.”

Stocks may be at record highs, but plenty of households aren’t participating, according to a recent Gallup survey. Tapping home equity via lines of credit, which provided more funds

for spending in the years for the last downturn, is less of an option now as well. That’s because home ownership rates are hovering close to the lowest level since the 1960s, and more people rent.

Demographics are also playing a role. Millennials, those born in the early 1980s through the late-1990s, are now the biggest living generation in the US. They’re also more likely to be saddled with student debt.

The New York Fed ’s latest quarterly report on household borrowing and credit shows strains are developing, as 11 percent of educational debt was either 90-plus days delinquent or in default in the first quarter.

Car sales, while recently showing signs of rolling over, have been an economic mainstay over the past several years. But for all those cars rolling off dealer lots, more Americans have car payments. Motor vehicle loan liabilities are at an all-time high.

While the share of late payments remains below the 5.3 percent peak reached oneand a half years after the last recession, they are creeping higher. Credit-card default rates also show some very early signs of stress developing, though they too are very modest. Bloomberg News

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Sunday, August 13, 2017

The World BusinessMirror

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US President’s ‘fire and fury’ threat raises alarm in Asia

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EIJING—President Donald J. Trump’s threat to unleash “fire and fury” against North Korea sent a shudder through Asia this week, raising alarm among allies and adversaries and, to some observers, making the possibility of military conflict over the North’s nuclear program seem more real.

With North Korea responding that it would, if attacked, strike US military forces in Guam, analysts warned that the escalating statements increased, the likelihood of war—perhaps, one based on miscalculation, should one side’s fiery statements be misread by the other.

Some played down Trump’s remark on Tuesday as simply a warning not to attack the US, albeit one whose tone was more typical of North Korean propagandists than it was of past US presidents. Officials in South Korea and Japan said that while the situation was tense, it had not reached a crisis point.

Secretary of State Rex W. Tillerson played down any imminent threat from North Korea, saying on Wednesday, “I think Americans should sleep well at night, have no concerns about this particular rhetoric of the last few days.”

Still, some in the region said the danger of war had not seemed as clear and present in decades. What was unthinkable just years ago no longer seems so, they said.

“We’re going to see a confrontation between the United States and North Korea that will be ferocious and strong and bloody,” said Cheng Xiaohe, an associate professor of international relations at Renmin University of China in Beijing. He called Trump’s language “explosive,” and said the threat and counterthreat had resulted in a new stage of confrontation.

Cheng said that he was puzzled by the timing of Trump’s remark, just days after the United Nations Security Council imposed the toughest economic penalties yet on North Korea for its nuclear and missile programs. That unanimous vote, which overcame China’s historical reluctance to harshly punish its ally, has been widely described as the Trump administration’s greatest diplomatic accomplishment so far.

“Usually, the US government is willing to give more time for a resolution, to see how the resolutions bite,” Cheng said.

Across the region on Wednesday, analysts reacted with concern and even foreboding about the tone of Trump’s comments, as well as about the unimpeded progress that North Korea appears to be making toward becoming a full-f ledged nuclear power, able to strike the US or other far-off adversaries.

While Trump’s warning that North Korea, if it kept threatening the US, would “be met with fire and fury like the world has never seen” clearly reflected growing American frustration over the North’s advances, analysts said it was not clear that he had fully considered the implications of such strong language.

That, they said, raised questions about the administration’s strateg y, and about whet her Trump recognized the price that some staunch allies, especially Japan and South Korea, could pay for carrying out his threat. “ Trump doesn’t seem to understand what an alliance is, and doesn’t seem to consider his ally when he says those things,” said Lee Byong-chul, a senior fellow at the Institute for Peace and Cooperation in Seoul, the South Korean capital. “No American president has mentioned a military option so easily, so off handedly as he has. He unnerves people in South Korea, few of whom want war in Korea.”

Trump’s warning followed a report that US intelligence agencies believe that North Korea has made a nuclear weapon that can fit on the tip of a ballistic missile. Such drastic advances have already led Japan and South Korea to consider deploying new, more powerful

weapons to counter the threat, after decades of relying on US military might for strategic security.

Itsunori Onodera, Japan’s new defense minister, said Wednesday that Japan found it credible that North Korea had succeeded in miniaturizing a nuclear warhead, or that it would do so in the near future.

“At the very least, whether they have them now or will have them soon, it’s reached a level where we have to monitor vigilantly,” he said.

Officials in Asia and beyond have grown used to provocative musings by Trump, particularly on Twitter, and they tend to treat them as inaccurate reflections of US policy. But analysts saw his “fire and fury” remark as dangerous and unlikely to deter North Korea’s leader, Kim Jong Un. “We are used to painting North Korea as ‘unpredictable,’ but increasingly it is the US that is introducing strategic unpredictability into a volatile dynamic,” Euan Graham, an analyst at the Lowy Institute in Sydney, wrote in an e-mail. zHe added that Trump’s warning would not have its desired effect because “the North Koreans have an ear for bluster.”

Cheng of Renmin University said North Korea’s defiance in response to the Security Council’s latest sanctions indicated that it had no intention of slowing its program. He said that nations across the region, including his own, needed to prepare for the consequences of a conflict.

“We are in a very dangerous time, and China is going to need to take notice and prepare for the worst,” he said.

China’s Foreign Ministry, responding on Wednesday to an inquiry about Trump’s threat, restated its position that the North Korean nuclear issue should be resolved by political means and that “all relevant parties” should avoid “remarks and acts that may escalate the conflict.”

T he South Korean gover nme nt sou g ht on We d ne s d ay to ease concer n, say ing that the Nor th ’s recent postur ing, including its threat to attack Guam, appeared to be aimed at tightening solidarity among its own population and causing its neighbors an xiet y.

We’re going to see a confrontation between the United States and North Korea that will be ferocious and strong and bloody.”—Cheng

“The situation has become more serious on the Korean Peninsula,” a senior official at the presidential Blue House told South Korean reporters, speaking in a briefing on the condition of anonymity. “But we don’t think it has reached a crisis stage, yet.”

Also on Wednesday, Pyongyang released a Canadian pastor, the Rev. Lim Hyeon-soo, who had been sentenced to a life of hard labor.

Nearly two months ago another former prisoner, Otto F. Warmbier, an American college student, died after being freed.

“North Korea appears to signal that it could be flexible amid this standoff with the international community,” said Kim Yong-hyun, a professor of North Korean studies at Dongguk University in Seoul.

He added the freed pastor is Canadian, “so the North may find it easier to release him” than to be perceived as capitulating to a bellicose US president.

In Japan a senior government official sought to frame Trump’s remark as an effort to warn the North’s government that military action remained a possibility, even as the new sanctions begin going into effect.

“He’s saying that the United States is putting all options on the table,” the official, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga, said.

“Our government approves of that stance. It’s extremely important that the Japan-US alliance further strengthens its ability to deter and respond.”

Even so, Trump’s language resonated deeply in Japan, which on Wednesday commemorated the 72nd anniversary of the dropping of an American atomic bomb on Nagasaki, three days after one was dropped on Hiroshima.

“The world has seen American fire and fury in Hiroshima and Nagasaki 72 years ago,” Kiichi Fujiwara, a professor of international politics at Tokyo University, wrote bitingly on Twitter. He added that for Trump to use such language was “reckless and unwise, even as an act of deterrence.”

Tong Zhao, a nuclear-policy expert at the Carnegie-Tsinghua Center for Global Policy in Beijing, said China still believed that a deal to defuse tensions could be reached, with North Korea agreeing to suspend its nuclear and missile tests in exchange for a halt to joint US and South Korean military exercises. China has raised that possibility repeatedly.

“It’s already a fact on the ground that North Korea has a credible nuclear deterrence,” he said. “The best we can do at the moment is to deter North Korea’s use of nuclear weapons and contain the growth of their nuclear and missile capabilities.” New York Times News Service

Brazil tries fixing its messy, discredited, costly politics

A

fter years of crisis that saw some of Brazil’s highest elected officials ousted, imprisoned or charged, the country’s Congress is now discussing ways to fix a deeply discredited political system.

So far, one of the few proposals most lawmakers agree upon is the need for more public money to fund election campaigns. Indeed, a congressional committee on Wednesday approved a text that creates an election fund worth roughly 3.6 billion reais, or $1.2 billion, in taxpayer money, as well as new rules on how candidates win legislative districts, according to Camara Noticias.

The committee convenes again on Thursday to debate amendments to the legislation. Whether legislators agree on new rules to

heighten transparency, accountability and representation may have far-reaching implications for their own political survival and for the 2018 presidential race.

Just 3 percent of Brazilians have much confidence in Congress and the approval of President Michel Temer’s administration ranks just 2 percentage points higher. The armed forces are the most-trusted institution, and former Army Captain Jair Bolsonaro is tied for second place in voter intention for the country’s top job. Unsurprisingly, skepticism abounds as to whether that same discredited political class can lay the foundations for renewal.

“The electoral and political reform needs to be deep,” said Silvana Batini, a professor of electoral law at FGV in Rio de Janeiro. “But

it needs to be done by a Congress with greater legitimacy.”

Brazil’s politics is expensive, messy and seen as self-serving by most of its citizens, who are obliged to vote on pain of a fine. The steady drip of horror stories of kickbacks lining politicians’ pockets that was revealed by the three-year corruption probe Operation Carwash only reinforced deep disaffection. Support for democracy among Brazilians fell 22 percentage points between 2015 and 2016, according to a poll published last September

by Latinobarometro. And yet, the country’s politicians receive some of the highest salaries in the world, according to a 2013 ranking by The Economist. Similarly costly, election campaigns don’t necessarily produce efficiency: 26 parties are represented in the lower house of

Congress alone, massively complicating the process of legislation.

As the debate got underway on Wednesday, it became clear there was only one area of agreement.

“There’s a consensus in the house for public financing of campaigns,” said Marcelo Aro, a congressional deputy from the Humanist Party of Solidarity.

The proposed election fund is a matter of some urgency for politicians after a 2015 Supreme Court ruling banned corporate donations.

Many welcome the decision but the inadvertent impact has been mixed. Those who did particularly well in last year’s municipal elections, the first to be held since the ruling, were millionaires and candidates backed by wealthy taxexempt evangelical groups.

Bloomberg News

Local students take a summer 3D design class at a state-sponsored informationtechnology incubator in Akademgorodok, Russia. Russia’s stated goal of fostering a Silicon Valley-style culture of innovation is frequently undermined by rampant official corruption, scientists here say. The New York newsTimes

Russia wants innovation, but it’s arresting its innovators

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KADEMGORODOK, Russia—Dmitri Trubitsyn is a young physiciste nt re p re n e u r w i t h a p at r i o t i c reputation, seen in this part of Siberia as an exemplar of the talents, dedication and enterprise that President Vladimir Putin has hailed as vital for Russia’s future economic health.

Yet, Trubitsyn faces up to eight years in jail after a recent raid on his home and office here in Akademgorodok, a Soviet-era sanctuary of scientific research that was supposed to showcase how Putin’s Russia can harness its abundance of talent to create a modern economy.

A court on Thursday extended Trubitsyn’s house arrest until at least October, which bars him from leaving his apartment or communicating with anyone other than his immediate family. Trubitsyn, 36, whose company, Tion, manufactures high-tech air-purification systems for homes and hospitals, is accused of risking the lives of hospital patients, and trying to lift profits, by upgrading the purifiers so they would consume less electricity.

Most important, he is accused of doing this without state regulators certifying the changes.

It is a case that highlights the tensions between Putin’s aspirations for a dynamic private sector and his determination to enhance the powers of Russia’s security apparatus. Using a 2014 law meant to protect Russians from counterfeit medicine, investigators from the Federal Security Service, the post-Soviet KGB, and other agencies have accused Trubitsyn of leading a criminal conspiracy to, essentially, innovate too fast and too freely.

The situation has outraged fellow scientists, would-be entrepreneurs and others in Akademgorodok, a freethinking settlement of broad avenues, forested pathways and 35 Soviet-era research institutes near the Siberian city of Novosibirsk. They see it as the Russian government undermining its own stated economic goal—to nurture enterprises that harness Russian brain power instead of sucking oil, gas and minerals out of the ground.

More than 5,000 people have signed a petition appealing to Putin to stop “this shameful example of forceful pressure on a law-abiding business.” Trubitsyn and his company, the petition said, “are, without exaggeration, the pride of Akademgorodok.

They are a strong symbol of a prospering Russia in which real technological business can develop to world standards.”

Aleksei Okunev of Novosibirsk State University in Akademgorodok, who has worked closely with Trubitsyn’s company, called the situation “incomprehensible.” He added, “We have very few success stories in Russia, and this explains why.”

Putin did not respond, but in a statement, his business ombudsman, Boris Titov, called Trubitsyn “a young, energetic representative of the innovation sector, the development of which is most needed for a modern Russia.”

But Titov has made similar statements before, to little effect. Despite official state support for innovation under Putin, the growing power of Russia’s security services and rampant official corruption frequently push in the opposite direction.

The first sign of the storm approaching Akademgorodok came early in 2016, when Trubitsyn and his colleagues began hearing that their competitors were telling hospitals that Tion’s air purifiers were dangerous and were being investigated by Roszdravnadzor, a state agency that regulates medical equipment.

State television then broadcast a report accusing the company of jeopardizing the health of hospital patients. State hospitals began removing Tion devices.

“For years we were praised as a success story and then all these strange things suddenly started happening,” said Mikhail Amelkin, Tion’s chief technical officer.

Amelkin added the company was approached by the regulatory agency and said that it had changed its design and removed a supplementary filtering device that laboratory tests had shown was redundant and wasted electricity. The company then amended its registration documents and thought the matter was over, Amelkin said. But armed police officers showed up in June to arrest Trubitsyn and search for evidence of what later court documents described as a “conspiracy” to produce counterfeit medical supplies.

(No coconspirators have been named, but a conspiracy charge allows prosecutors to seek more jail time.)

N at a l i a Pi n u s, Ak a d e m g o ro d o k ’s elected representative to the regional council, is one of many local residents who see Trubitsyn’s troubles as the fault...of unscrupulous operators able to manipulate law-enforcement agencies to wipe out competitors.

“This is not just about a single company,” she said, but “whether you can conduct honest business in Russia or whether that is impossible.”

The police raids and arrests figure prominently in many Russian business struggles, particularly those involving assets like oil, over which the state has steadily reasserted control under Putin. Private companies that clash with Rosneft, Russia’s state-owned energy giant, for example, often face criminal investigation.

The decline in global oil prices has, however, also meant less money is available for siphoning off by venal officials. That has turned even relatively small companies into attractive targets by the police and the courts operating in partnership with business.

Anton Latkin, a computer programmer who has known Trubitsyn since boyhood science clubs, said Tion had fallen prey to attack by government officials who “don’t understand anything about physics, don’t understand anything about chemistry and don’t understand anything about biology.”

A m e l k i n , T i o n’s c h i e f t e c h n i c a l officer, said he and his staff had been unable to figure out who or what was behind the investigation.

“If you try to find out who is responsible for anything in this system you will only find an echo in the cave,” he said, adding that the Russian state “is not a single organism with one brain” but a sprawling mass of separate and often competing fiefs.

Putin has been a forceful advocate of ending Russia’s long record as an economic also-ran in all spheres other than oil and gas, repeatedly hailing Russia’s technical and scientific prowess as an asset on which it can build a vibrant and diversified economy.

Last month, at a meeting of his Council for Strategic Development, Putin again lectured officials on the need to move Russia’s faltering economy—now smaller than that of Italy and 11 other countries— beyond its reliance on natural resources: “We need a breakthrough, and we must ensure it,” he said.

Trubitsyn’s troubles, though, may help explain why such a breakthrough has proved so elusive: The Russian state, which is Putin’s main vehicle for his plans for the nation’s resurgence, often stifles growth.

A bureaucracy empowered by a steady erosion of democratic checks and balances can often smother new ideas. Grand statedirected projects to promote innovation— like Skolkovo, a Moscow-area technology park set up by Kremlin fiat as Russia’s answer to Silicon Valley—have mostly fallen flat.

New York Times News Service

Science

BusinessMirror

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

Sunday

Sunday, August 13, 2017

A5

Science-based data to secure crops amid uncertain climate

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Façade of the century-old Commission on Audit building in Iloilo City

Forestry experts ID wood to preserve century-old Iloilo City COA bldg

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ome 130 wood items from 14 tree species were identified by forestry experts amid efforts to restore the centuryold Commission on Audit (COA) Building in Iloilo City.

The Department of Science and Technology’s Forest Products Research and Development Institute (DOST-FPRDI) determined the identity of wooden materials found in the COA Building in Iloilo City recently in a collaborative project with the National Historical Commission of the Philippines (NHCP).

T he project aims to identif y t he tree species used in t he str uctura l wooden str uctures and movable woodcrafts in the Old COA building, which is undergoing restoration.

“In order to come up with a feasible and logical restoration plan, the NHCP needs to know the type of materials that make up the wooden structures,” the DOST-FPRDI team said.

“One hundred thir t y items consisting of 14 species were identified by the DOST-FPR DI team w ith relatively high accurac y using the traditiona l, practica l and standard methods in wood str ucture identification,” team leader Dr. Ramiro P. Escobin said.

T he project is par t of the efforts of the NHCP to rev ive the historic building, which used to be a symbol of progressive commerce in Iloilo and now par t of a nationa l her itage zone.

S&T Media Service

Director Gil C. Saguiguit Jr. (right) of Southeast Asian Regional Center for Graduate Study and Research in Agriculture, and Science Secretary Fortunato T. de la Peña

Searca offers tie-up with DOST on climate-change scholarships

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he heads of the Southeast Asian Regional Center for Graduate Study and Research in Agriculture (Searca) and of the Department of Science and Technology (DOST) discussed the possibilities for Searca to collaborate with the DOST on scholarships intended to develop capacities and expertise of Filipinos to address climate change.

Director Gil C. Saguiguit Jr. of Searca and Science Secretary Fortunato T. de la Peña held the brief discussion at the opening of the annual Los Baños National Science and Technology Week (NSTW) celebration dubbed “SyenSaya” on August 2.

In the past, Searca has had sporadic collaborations with the DOST, including those with its precursor, the National Science and Development Board (NSDB).

NSDB funded a nationwide program called the Social Laboratory, a strategy for rural and agricultural development carried out in partnership with higher-education institutions to uplift the socioeconomic conditions of rural farming communities.

Saguiguit said, “In view of the changing landscape of agriculture and Searca’s focus on promoting inclusive and sustainable agricultural and rural development it is imperative that we look to S&T in order to produce more from less.”

He underscored that it is toward this end that Searca is exploring possibilities to collaborate with the DOST on agricultural R&D and capacity-building initiatives, including said scholarships for advanced studies on climate change.

Visa and Ateneo partner to award P500,000 to Tulong Dunong scholars

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eading global payments technology company Visa has partnered with Ateneo de Manila University to provide a scholarship to a high-school student until he graduates to college.

This is coursed through the “Tulong Dunong” Scholarship program in high school.

It was part of the Visa employee charitable grant, where Visa employee Jesus Michael (Jay) Tirona submitted a grant proposal to award the scholarship worth $10,000, which is equivalent to more than P500,000.

Stuart Tomlinson, Visa country manager for Philippines, said: “At Visa, we empower our employees to make a difference to the communities they live and work in. Each year, Visa employees are given the opportunity to submit a grant proposal for a nonprofit organization of their choice. The grants are

awarded not only in money, but also a plan to engage employees with volunteering efforts led by the grant winner.

“We are happy that Jay’s proposal was chosen, and one of the beneficiaries from the Tulong Dunong Foundation will receive the grant money to fund his entire high-school education over six years and not have to worry about the cost of education.”

“Tulong Dunong is very grateful to its benefactors. Organizations like Visa allow us to continue to provide talented and financially challenged students and their families with more opportunities for a better life. Their generosity greatly contributes to our joint endeavors to build platforms for social interactions that can help in nation building,” said Norman Dennis Marquez, Tulong Dunong executive director.

ven crop-insurance system must adapt to climate change. In the Philippines, where an average of 20 typhoons occur annually, coupled with flooding and followed by severe drought, crop-damage assessment becomes more complicated.

“As a [disaster-prone] country, we need to take necessary action in preparing for greater uncertainties and risk of climate change.

One way to do this is through innovative crop insurance products from our insurance sectors,” Rep. Arthur C. Yap of Bohol said.

Conventional crop insurance dwells on peril or indemnity-based products through field validation, which take up six months.

“Unfortunately, this system is fraught with moral and adverse selection hazards. There are occasions when assessors will not report the correct amount in damages and the insured not declaring all the relevant information,” Yap said during a national forum on innovative climaterisk strategies held recently in Davao City.

Yap, a former agriculture secretary, added this practice requires a tedious and consuming process fatal to farmers, who need immediate financial aid to save their damaged crops or replant to catch up with the planting season.

“The cumbersome process resulting in high cost of premiums for crop products, turn off farmers in utilizing insurance for their farming activities. It is no wonder that farmers are not interested to understand and know more about insurance,” he said.

With the system’s shortfalls, Yap added farmers, can never get out of the trap as they need to borrow money only to plant and sink into even deeper quicksand of poverty when calamities strike and wipe out their crops.

“The result is poverty from which there is no escape,” he said.

index. You may think Africa is backward but when it comes to protecting their farmers, they are actually advanced,” Yap added.

“Science-based solutions provide safety net for all farmers,” Yap said, referring to the Weather Index-Based Insurance (Wibi), an integrated financing package which assessments are based on scientific data, such as rainfall, wind speed and humidity.

In Wibi an insurer no longer needs to send out assessors to engage in the tedious and timeconsuming assessment, while farmers will no longer be subjected to anomalies.

“When a level of rainfall, windspeed or humidity is breached or stuck, payments will have to be issued considering these factors that significantly affect farm yields,” he said.

In 2014 the Department of Agriculture, through the Philippine Crop Insurance Corp. (PCIC) and United Nation’s Development Program, pilot tested the project to scale-up Wibi in Mindanao, particularly in Davao region and Northern Mindanao.

“Mindanao has been a pilot site, being the country’s food basket,” Wibi National Project coordinator Israel de la Cruz said.

“This project will directly build on the alignment with key baseline development or cofinancing endeavors,” de la Cruz added.

Timely payouts, immediate recovery

The Wibi had been beneficial to PCIC owing to its lower administrative cost because field verification is not required. At the same time, farmers need not file cumbersome documents as weather stations or automatic rain-gauging reading data will serve as basis for damage assessment.

Available data will immediately release payouts to farmers enabling them to restart activity within the cropping season.

“I’m very happy because this is very timely as we are about to buy fertilizer,” Edna Pulanco of Sinangalan village in Malaybalay City said while receiving her payouts from PCIC.

Institutionalizing indexed-based insurance Although the Wibi Mindanao pilot project has just folded up, its initiatives and innovations introduced will, hopefully, be sustained through House Bill 3560 authored by Yap. He said it “will ensure policy and institutionalize its mechanisms”.

“Side by side with infrastructure spending is the need to flush capital from the formal financing sector to farm production. We are characterized to date by informal

lending at stratospheric interest rates unsustainable at a time of climate change,” he said.

“It is the absence of an innovative transfer mechanism for risks which has kept cash releases to victims at a limited sum from the national budget when that amount can be leveraged 10 times over if there is an effective crop insurance in place,” he added.

Yap said agri-insurance system, through strengthened PCIC, will be mandated to do direct and indirect reinsurance and shall be harmonized with an agriculture guarantee fund.

“This bill mandates PCIC and encourage private companies to offer index-based insurance. It will also expand insurance coverage of PCIC to include high-value crops, livestock, aquaculture and fishery products, agroforestry crops and forest plantations,” he said.

“We are now [urging] the Senate to immediately file a counterpart bill to House Bill 3560,” Yap said while urging all stakeholders to help advocate faster passage of his bill. “Many will find this idea abstract or light years away from implementation. Some may think we are still dreaming. However, in an experimental area, thousands of farmers in Mindanao are actually presently enrolled in Wibi,” Yap added.

The Wibi is not a panacea but a promising tool that could play a critical role in transforming v ulnerable agriculture into a more resilient and vibrant sector in the midst of uncertain climate through a science-based system. Noel T. Provido

Science-based solutions

These shortfalls in crop-insurance system can be overcome using science-based tools, which is more accurate and objective.

“In India, the Caribbean and in Africa, crop insurance is offered on the basis of innovative terms.

Instead of being peril based, crop insurance are based on weather

Flooded paddy fields in Carmen, Davao del Norte, in January this year resulted is severe crop losses and affected rice farmers’ income. Noel Provido

Dr. Gelia Castillo, distinguished rural sociologist, 89

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ational Scientist Dr. Gelia T. Castillo, the country’s distinguished rural sociologist, joined our Creator on August 5. Castillo is recognized for her outstanding contributions to agricultural social science, resulting in a body of knowledge about Philippine rural society, which has enabled the Filipino to better understand the social conditions and dynamics of agricultural and rural development.

Her research on leaders and leadership patterns brought her to barrios at different stages of urbanization in Laguna, and she learned about the Filipino family—their composition, number of children and how they are spaced, their exposure to support, conformity to the norm of husband’s superiority, their exposure to printed media and others. With collaborators and students, she studied social and political media, and others.

With collaborators and students, she studied social and political factors involved in rural development. Her report revealed that the Filipino farmer was receptive to technology and that he was interested not only in yield per hectare, but in the cost of labor and inputs; this would determine if he

would continue planting the new variety.

The farmers’ preferences, what practices they can accept and ready to use should be considered even if they do not produce as much as other technologies.

Her research on the Filipino family revealed that the nuclear family was the predominant pattern although close interactions with extended family members are maintained through exchange of work, gifts, loans, moral support and the like.

She, likewise, studied the Filipino woman—her role in the family and society, and analyzed the Green Revolution.

With these projects behind her, she undertook the monumental task of the analysis, review and synthesis of published literature, reports and theses to produce the scholarly books—All in a Grain of Rice, Beyond Manila: Philippine Rural Problems in Perspective and How Participatory is Participatory Development?—all of which are now considered standard references in rural Philippine sociology.

Dr. Castillo obtained her AB Psychology degree magna cum laude from the University of the Philippines (UP) in 1953, Master of Science in Rural Sociology (1953) from the

Castillo

Pennsylvania State University and PhD Rural Sociology (1960) from Cornell University.

She joined the Department of Agricultural Education of UP College of Agriculture at Los Baños (UPLB) as instructor. She became a professor in 1972 and university professor in 1988. Prof. Castillo developed and taught graduate courses in rural sociology, research design, social and cultural change, sociology of development, social psychology and rural

institutions for more than 35 years at UPLB and mentored many PhDs and MS students from the Philippines and other countries.

Upon her retirement in 1993, she was appointed as University Professor Emeritus.

Among of the many awards of Dr. Castillo are: Jose Rizal Pro Patria from the Philippine Government (1966); Ten Outstanding Women in the Philippines from the Federacion International de Damas Abogadas (1968); honorary doctorates— Doctor of Agricultural Sciences from the Agricultural University, Wageningen, the Netherlands; and Doctor of Science Degree from the Ateneo de Manila University; national social scientist, Philippine Social Science Research Council (1993).

She was elected to the National Academy of Science and Technology as academician in 1983. She was conferred the highest honor and rank of National Scientist in 1999.

Castillo was born on March 3, 1928, in Santa Cruz, Laguna.

Her necrological services will be on August 11 at 9 a.m. at the Department of Science and Technology to be followed by a state funeral at 12 noon at the Libingan ng mga Bayani, Fort Bonifacio, Taguig City.

Faith A6 Sunday, August 13, 2017

Sunday

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

Archbishop of Manila Luis Antonio G. Cardinal Tagle (seated, second row, fifth from left), honorary chairman of the Catholic Mass Media Awards (CMMA), meets with members of the board of trustees, panel of judges and officers and members of the secretariat to the 39th CMMA at the Archbishop’s Residence in Intramuros, Manila. This year’s awards has the theme “Fear not, for I am with you (Isaiah 43:5): Communicating hope and trust in our time.” With Tagle and D. Edgard A. Cabangon (seated, second row, fourth from left), chairman of the board of trustees of CMMA, are (from left, standing) Antonio A. Henson, vice chairman; Engr. Feorelio M. Bote, trustee; and Juan P. Dayang, secretary; Fr. Joselito Buenafe (seated, front, left), trustee and chairman of CMMA Production; Fr. Hans D. Magdurulang (seated, front, eighth from left), judges’ coordinator; Atty. Patricia A.O. Bunye (standing, second from right), trustee; Benjamin V. Ramos (standing, third row, right), assistant to the chairman; and Rev. Fr. Rufino C. Sescon Jr. (standing, third row, second from right), trustee and executive director. The others in the photo are the judges in different CMMA categories, and the officers and members of the secretariat. Roy Domingo

Social media as tool for building trust, hope

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By Lizzie Radam Lazo

rchbishop of Manila Luis Antonio G. Cardinal Tagle called on mass-media workers to use social communication as a tool for building trust and hope rather than a vehicle for provoking distrust and conflict among individuals, communities and nations.

“Tempers flare up so easily.

Through words, tweets and social-media messages, war is easily begun. Social communication has to restore trust and hope,”

the cardinal said in a message to the trustees, judges of the different media categories, officers and staff of the Catholic Mass Media Awards (CMMA),

2017’s biggest BEC event focuses on marriage, family

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ORONADAL, South Cotabato—The Diocese of Marbel hosted on August 5 what is, by far, the largest gathering to celebrate the Year of the Parish in the Philippines, setting up an avenue for 7,000 people to share and hear about local communities’ journey with families and couples.

“The sharing focused on the mission based on the CRSP [comprehensive, relevant and systematic program on marriage preparation] and pastoral accompaniment of the newlyweds and Christian families, with emphasis on poverty, dysfunctional family and graft and corruption,” said Joel Fr. Aliligay, who, together with the Diocesan Tricom (Liturgy, Christian Formation and Social Action), spearheaded the event.

The priest also hosted a talk-show segment during the program where two family sharers gave personal testimonies. “[It was] the largest diocesan assembly

so far. There were a lot of people that didn’t get to go inside because the venue was already full!” shared Fr. Amado Picardal, one of the main speakers of the event, which gathered members and leaders from 27 parishes comprising five vicariates. “[The event was] so alive! There were even Lumads, indigenous peoples who attended,” added the Episcopal Committee on Basic Ecclesial Communities (BECs) executive secretary, who gave a talk on “Parish Communities: Agents of Communion, Participation and Mission.”

Held at South Cotabato Gymnasium and Cultural Center, the event aimed “to increase understanding and appreciation of communion, participation and mission and to strengthen unity among parish communities.”

Bishop Dinualdo D. Gutierrez, DD, presided over the closing Mass with Marbel Vicar General Fr. Romeo Buenaobra as concelebrant. Angel Memorando/CBCPNews

Evangelical Trump supporters want meeting with Pope Francis

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EW YORK—Evangelical supporters of President Donald J. Trump recently requested a meeting with Pope Francis over a recent critical article in a Vaticanvetted journal. Johnnie Moore, a leader of Trump’s evangelical advisory board and a spokesman for some of its members, said he sent the request to Rome in response to an article published last month that accused some American Catholics of building an alliance of “hate” with evangelicals who backed the president.

The two authors of the piece are confidants of Francis. They published their article in the Jesuit journal La Civilta Cattolica, which is reviewed by the Vatican Secretariat of State.

Moore said he sought the meeting with the pope and Vatican officials to address “efforts to divide Catholics and Evangelicals.”

“We think it would be of great benefit to sit together and to discuss these things.

Then, when we disagree, we can do it within the context of friendship,” Moore wrote in his letter to the pontiff. AP

who had an audience with him at the Archbishop’s Residence in Intramuros, Manila, on August 8.

It was the first time in three years that Tagle had been able to have an audience with the CMM A st a f f a nd of f icers. A yearly tradition, the audience was not held in 2015 and 2016 because of matters he had to attend to in the Vatican.

T he long-awaited audience with the Cardinal, who is honorary chairman of the CMMA, was meant to give recognition to the almost 60 members of the different panels of judges who evaluate and select the winners of the yearly CMMA ceremonies.

Drawn from the clergy, academe, journalism, communication and other professions, the judges go through hundreds of entries as a “labor of love by the

unsung heroes of the CMMA.” Thus, they should be called “communication apostles,” said Fr. Hans D. Magdurulang, judges’ coordinator and one of the emcees during the meeting with the cardinal.

Leading the board of trustees were D. Edgard A Cabangon, chairman, and Fr. Rufino C. Sescon Jr., executive director.

“Thank you for your continuing mission in the age of communication,” Tagle told the judges.

Citing his recent ex per ience in Indonesia, where he attended the A sian Youth Day conference, he said the young Indonesians said the letters OMG should be referred to as “online missionar ies of the Gospel…

A nd what you’re doing is tr u ly wor thwhile.”

He deplored the negative ways

in which social media is often used to stir up anger and enmity “through the nasty and vulgar exchange of messages.”

He a lso e x pressed d ismay that social media seems to have brought about “a separate world for users of digital communication…. They even have their own words that only they can understand among themselves. Social media seems to have become a world in itself.”

He urged mass-media workers and communication professionals to find ways to offset this trend so that “social media can be a vehicle to help people build and strengthen relationships.”

On a lighter note, he recalled Asian Youth Day conference, as “always an uplifting experience.”

Tagle ex pressed delight that this year’s CMM A theme, “Fear

not, for I am w ith you (Isaiah 4 3: 5): C om mu n ic at i n g ho p e and trust in our time,” is echoed by the Asian Youth Day’s theme of “Finding communion, tr ust and hope in a mu lticu ltura l, mu ltirelig ious world.”

T he C M M A i s a n aw a rd s g iv ing body established in 1978 by t he l ate Ja i me L . C a r d i n a l Si n , t hen a rc hbi shop of M a n i l a , a s a mea n s to honor “t hose who ser ve God t hrough t he m a ss med i a .”

It pays tribute to those who promote Christian values in the most outstanding way in the fields of print, radio, television, advertising, music, the Internet and cinema.

This year’s CMMA Night will be held on October 25 at Star Theater, CCP Complex, Roxas Boulevard, Pasay City.

Saint Hippolytus, priest and martyr; Saint Pontian, pope and martyr

By Corazon Damo-Santiago

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he Lord founded his universal church—the Catholic Church—upon Simon Peter.

“Thou art Peter and upon this rock I will build my church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it,” said in Matthew 16:17-18.

Saint Peter’s supreme authority in the universal church is passed on to the elected pope in a conclave of bishops.

Pope Francis is the 266th pope of the Catholic Church. However, there are more than 40 antipopes in the history of the church. The first was Saint Hippolytus (170235), a learned Roman priest who was antipope for 17 years, during the reign of three popes, the third during the term of Saint Pontian.

Antipope but a saint

Hippolytus was the most important and prolific writer of the third century, according to the Catholic Encyclopedia. He wrote t he Apostolic Tradition which detailed the ritual, liturgy and worship prayers of the early Christians as practiced by the apostles. Dr. Marcelino D. Ambrosio in Crossroads Initiative revealed that the book was only recovered in the early years of the 20th century.

Saint Jerome considered Hippolytus most holy for his austere manner of living. An eloquent

Saints Pontian and Hippolytus

priest, he criticized Pope Zephyrinus (199-217) for not being prompt in denouncing the heresy about the Holy Trinity.

Because he considered the church as just, he denounced Pope C a l i x t u s (217-222) for granting absolution to grave sins, such as adultery. With a large following, he was consecrated as bishop, an antipope and was another pope, too, during the pontificates of Saint Urban 1 (222230) and Saint Pontian (230-235) T he f i rst a nt ipope a mong more than 40 in the history of the church, he was, likewise, the only declared saint among the antipopes.

Reconciliation

Pontian was elected pope of the Catholic Church on July 21, 230.

Aware of Saint Hippolytus, a critique of popes and more “Catholic than the pope,” he devoted much of his time checking on schismatic groups, which supported the eloquent Hippolytus.

Hippolytus was also a writer, whose works included the Refutations of All Heresies, which traced them all to pagan practices, the Book of Daniel, Christ and the AntiChrist and Song of Songs.

An ethical conservative, he was a staunch critique of religious leaders who were lax in implementing strict discipline and austere living in the church.

When Emperor Severus Alexander was replaced by Emperor Maximinus Thracian, who was against Christians, he persecuted the Christian leaders, which included Pontian and Hippolytus,

and banished them to the labor mines in the Island of Sardinia.

It was a sad event for the church, while the enemies of Christianity rejoiced. In the labor camp, a miracle of reconciliation transpired— an eloquent witness to forgiveness, healing and Christian hope.

To ensure continuity in church affairs, Pontian resigned as pope on November 21, 235, and Hippolytus did, too. This facilitated the election of Pope Anterus, whose reign lasted until January 3, 236.

Hippolytus, whose name means “horse turn loose”, was dragged by horses through the woods, over ditches and rocks, while Pontian was drowned in a deep well.

Pope Fabian (236-250) facilitated the transfer of their remains to Rome. Their feasts were celebrated separately; Saint Pontian on November 19 and Saint Hippolytus on August 13.

With the implementation of the General Roman Calendar in 1969, the Holy See combined their feast day on August 13.

Saint Hippolytus is the patron saint of prison officers, guards and personnel.

Santiago is a former regional director of the Department of Education National Capital Region. She is currently a faculty member of Mater Redemptoris Collegium in Calauan, Laguna, and Mater Redemptoris College in San Jose City, Nueva Ecija.

Sports BusinessMirror

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

Sunday, August 13, 2017

A7

ESPORTS IN PARIS 2024?

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By Rob Harris

The Associated Press

ONDON—Video gamers could be competing for Olympic medals by 2024.

Tony Estanguet, copresident of the Paris Olympic bid committee, told The Associated Press (AP) that he will hold talks with esports representatives and the International Olympic Committee (IOC) about the possibility of gaming joining the 2024 program.

The explosion in popularity of esports events, drawing large crowds of youngsters to arenas for tournaments, has already seen gaming embraced by the Asian Games. It will become a full sport by the 2022 edition, although details of which games will be contested are yet to be provided.

Paris will be confirmed as 2024 hosts at an IOC gathering in Lima, Peru, next month after its only competitor, Los Angeles, agreed to take the 2028 Games.

Estanguet believes that a contest of digital prowess should be considered a legitimate sport if the Olympics is to maintain its relevance for new generations of fans.

“We have to look at it because we can’t say, ‘It’s not us. It’s not about Olympics,’” Estanguet said in an interview with the AP in London. “The youth, yes they are interested in esport and this kind of thing. Let’s look at it. Let’s meet them. Let’s try if we can find some bridges.

“I don’t want to say ‘no’ from the beginning. I think it’s interesting to interact with the IOC, with them, the esports family, to better understand what the process is and why it is such a success.”

The 2024 program will start to be shaped in 2019 with a final decision on the addition of sports in Paris to be taken by the IOC after the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.

“There is some time to look at it, to interact, to engage,” Estanguet said. “We will

spend some time after [the IOC meeting in September] Lima to engage with new people and stakeholders. The IOC will have the last... say, if they want esports on the program. Let’s discuss among ourselves.”

Paris is gaining the 2024 hosting rights without the usual dramatic vote. The IOC decided

to award two Summer Games at the same time and LA later abandoned its bid for 2024 during negotiations with the IOC and Paris.

“We feel that we are the winner because we have what we wanted,” said Estanguet, a canoe slalom triple-Olympic champion.

The depleted field vying for the 2024

CURRY VOWS TO DO MORE W

ALNUT CREEK, California—A rich new contract in hand, Stephen Curry is more determined than ever to give back both his time and financial resources wherever he is needed in the Bay Area.

The Golden State Warriors superstar has yet to make a major purchase for himself since finalizing the $201-million, five-year contract late last month.

“I don’t want to get too deep into it, but for the last couple years trying to figure out how I can make the most impact off the court on a consistent and impactful basis,” the 29-year-old Curry said on Monday, going on two months after winning another National Basketball Association (NBA) title.

“Going forward and, obviously, keying in on the Bay Area, specifically to hopefully leave a lasting impact for all the good that has happened in my life and my family here since I’ve been here the last eight years.

“Obviously, over the next five to really impact the community for the better and use my platform, not only just dollars but my platform and connections and ideas to make that happen. The contract puts more of a responsibility to make that happen and I’m obviously aware of that. And I have a great team around me that’s going to help me do that.”

This week, the two-time NBA MVP is hosting his fourth annual SC30 Select Camp with about two dozen of the top high-school players at The John Muir Ultimate Fieldhouse before a showcase event on Tuesday night at Kezar Pavilion in San Francisco. He dazzled the prospects with his shooting routine, provided coaching and even took part in some 3-on-3 right along with the campers.

Curry said not much surprises him anymore when it comes to NBA drama, such as Cavaliers star Kyrie Irving’s request to be

traded and no longer play alongside LeBron James. They won a championship together in 2016 before the Warriors won the June rematch.

“I don’t know the ins and outs of what conversations are going on. It’s obviously surprising, but at the end of day, nothing’s really surprising when it comes to story lines and things like that from year to year,” Curry said. “It’s just kind of the nature of the beast. I’m sure if something does happen I’ll be able to talk about it more but right now he’s still on Cleveland’s team.”

While Curry received his hefty new deal, Warriors General Manager Bob Myers kept nearly the entire title team intact for another championship chase.

“It’s huge because we have great potential and opportunity to do some amazing things and win more championships,” Curry said.

“When you have that chemistry, you don’t want it to end. You don’t want to have to kind of start over. I wouldn’t necessarily say rebuild, just take advantage of the camaraderie and the chemistry and the vibe that we’ve created around the Warriors organization.”

It’s another whirlwind summer for Curry, who made an impressive appearance in last week’s Web.com Ellie Mae Classic golf tournament before missing the cut in the tournament, which is one step below the Professional Golfers’ Association Tour.

Two championships in three years is pretty special, and he never forgets that.

“I think about it every day and it kind of helps me put things in perspective, how blessed I am to be able to do what I’m able to do on and off the floor, the opportunities I have to even run a camp like this.

Because I used to go to the camps of guys who played before me and learn from them and just be kind of awe-struck and eyes wide open trying to learn as much as I could,” he said. “Fast forward to these last few years and now I’m on the other side of that equation giving back to the next generation of players.

All of that is very surreal but it’s humbling just to be in that position. It actually helps me stay motivated to keep working because I don’t want the ride to end.” AP

Stephen Curry is more determined than ever to give back both his time and financial resources wherever he is needed in the Bay Area. AP

Olympics was the result of withdrawals by Budapest, Hamburg and Rome over a lack of local support, amid concerns about the escalating costs of hosting the sporting extravaganza.

“I have to admit over the last years it was not easy to carry a bid,” Estanguet said, “especially because in Europe you saw what

RUSSIAN JUMPER Russia’s

Darya Klishina makes an attempt in the women’s long-jump qualification round during the World Athletics Championships in London recently. AP

happened to other bid cities.”

Estanguet knows that delivering the Paris Games on budget—as promised—is essential to ensuring that staging the Olympics becomes a more attractive proposition again.

“I don’t want to disappoint...I feel there is an urgency to deliver promises,” Estanguet said. “We feel this responsibility since the beginning when we launched this bid.

“We knew we had to challenge this reputation that the budget of the games can explode. That’s why we built the project based on 95 percent of existing venues to make sure we will be confident to be able to deliver our promises.”

The estimated cost of hosting the Tokyo Games has already doubled to ¥1.4 trillion ($12.6 billion) from the ¥730 billion ($6.6 billion) that was proposed when the Japanese capital won the bid in 2013.

The infrastructure budget in Paris has been estimated at €3 billion ($3 billion), with operational costs of €3.2 billion. But Paris still needs to build an aquatics center close to the Stade de France, a media center and the Olympic Village.

“I am sure this edition of the games will build confidence between the IOC, the rings and the population,” Estanguet said. “This is my mandate now.”

CELEBRATION

Carolina Panthers quarterback Cam Newton celebrates Damiere Byrd’s touchdown with quarterback Joe Webb (14) during the second half of their National Football League preseason game against the Houston Texans in Charlotte, North Carolina, recently. AP

‘No way Conor can beat Mayweather’

L

OS ANGELES—Conor McGregor became known as a fighter with a mystical ability to defy the odds because of his stunning upset victory over Jose Aldo, the former Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) featherweight champion.

Aldo says there’s zero chance McGregor can beat the daunting odds he faces, when he steps into a boxing ring with Floyd Mayweather Jr. “There is no way McGregor can defeat Mayweather,” Aldo said. “Mayweather has done this his entire life, and it’s a different sport.”

The way Aldo sees it, McGregor has obvious motivations for the spectacle that will occur on August 26 in Las Vegas—and those motivations don’t include boxing glory.

“After the Mayweather fight, he’ll get lots of millions of dollars,” Aldo said. “Probably he’ll never fight again.”

Aldo was the most dominant champion in mixed martial arts until McGregor set his sights on the Brazilian star several years ago. McGregor embarrassed and infuriated the champ with his

loquacious showmanship during the buildup to their December 2015 bout—and then McGregor stunned the UFC with a 13-second knockout of Aldo, flattening the feared 145-pound star with one punch.

While McGregor’s win ended Aldo’s 10-year winning streak, nobody found it to be as utterly improbable as a potential victory over Mayweather (49-0), the most successful boxer of his generation.

McGregor worked relentlessly to get under Aldo’s skin during the months before their fight, and Aldo recognizes the similarities in the mental game McGregor is playing against Mayweather.

McGregor calls himself “Mystic Mac” due to his ability to predict the results of his fights. While he has been wrong before—such as in his submission loss to Nate Diaz last year—he has shown a remarkable ability to back up his boasts with results.

McGregor vowed to stop Mayweather within four rounds during their uproarious promotional tour last month, but Aldo is among those who don’t think even McGregor believes it. Aldo saw

the posturing and insult-trading as something else entirely.

“It’s a joke,” Aldo said. “He’s just looking for the money.”

Aldo spoke while in Los Angeles to support Brazilian boxer Esquiva Falcao, who fought on the undercard of Vasyl Lomachenko’s victory over Miguel Marriaga.

McGregor never defended the featherweight belt that he took from Aldo, who reclaimed that 145-pound title last year with a win over Frankie Edgar. Aldo lost the belt again in June to Max Holloway, who stopped him in the third round in Brazil.

Aldo said he doesn’t plan to move up to lightweight, but hopes to reclaim the featherweight belt from Holloway, who received praise from Aldo. The loss to McGregor stings much more. “[McGregor] can say whatever he wants, but he was a lucky guy,” Aldo said. “One punch and he finished it. No skills.” AP

A8

Sunday, August 13, 2017

PAWI BusinessMirror

B

Ang mga naglalako ng isda, puto, tinapay, at mga prutas ay hindi na rin gumalugad sa mga bahay-bahay. Parang mga pato silang buntotbuntot sa paglalakad patungo sa may baybay ng dagat.

Saka ko pa lang narinig ang banayad na hampas ng alon sa baybay. Parang napakatagal na katahimikan iyon. At wala ring gumagalaw sa mga naroroon. Para bang nakonsyensya sila na agad nilang ipinalagay na patay na nga ang mamang iyon.

“Baliw nga. Ganyan din ako noon. Tatlong araw sa dagat. Gutom at uhaw ang nagpabaliw sa akin. Nang makita ninyo ako na lulutang-lutang sa kapirasong katig ng aking bangka ay di ba, tinawag ko kayong mga syokoy?”

Marami pang tanong na hindi ko masagot ang sunod-sunod na nang-usig sa akin. Hindi naman iyon kasi ang ikinuwento sa akin ng mamang iyon isang dapit-hapong nangunguha ako ng panggatong sa may daang palabas ng aming baryo.

Paulit-ulit kong ikinukuwento ang kwentong ito sa aking mga anak, sa mga kaiskwela ng aking mga anak, sa iba pang mga bata, hanggang sa aking mga apo na hindi nakasaksi sa kwentong ito. Inililihim ko nga lamang na ako ang batang binansagan nila ng “Pawikan.

Pawikan.”

www.businessmirror.com.ph

By Jose T. Garcia

aliw daw ‘yon.

Sabi ng aking ama, sabi ng aking ina, sabi ng aking kuya, baliw daw talaga ‘yong mamang ‘yon. Ganoon din ang sabi ng halos buong baryo namin.

Parang pyesta nang umagang ‘yon. Tumigil ang lahat ng gawain sa munting baryo namin.

Hindi nanungkit, nagbiyak, nagpausok ng niyog ang mga nagkokopra.

Hindi naglaba sa sapa o sa poso ang mga nanay. At maging ang aking kuya at ilang binatang hilig nang makiigib dahil may mga dalaga ring laging naglalaba ay wala sa sapa o sa poso.

Nagsara rin ang pondohan ng aking tiya. Pati na ang mahihilig mangutang sa aking tiya ay tumulong pa sa pagsasara ng munting tindahankainan ng aking tiya.

Hindi nakapagsimula ang bingguhan sa ilalim ng trapal na nakasabit sa nabuwal na puno ng mangga.

Ang mga nag-aayos ng kural ng mga baboy ay huminto sa paggawa.

Tatlong baboy ang nakatakas ngunit walang humabol sa mga ito.

Ang mga tauhan ng munispyo na magtatambak sana sa mga lubak ng kalye ay hindi na rin nakapagsimula. Hindi naman nagalit si Kapitan kahit nauntog siya nang malubak ang kanyang owner na jeep. Pinasakay pa nga niya ang ilan sa mga trabahador.

Ang mga naglalako ng isda, puto, tinapay, at mga prutas ay hindi na rin gumalugad sa mga bahay-bahay. Parang mga pato silang buntot-buntot sa paglalakad patungo sa may baybay ng dagat.

Pati na ang kubrador ng huweteng ay nakibuntot. Gayundin ang mga magsusuyod sana ng kanilang pinitak sa gilid ng bundok, ang mga maguuling, at pati na ang mga istambay sa bilyaran ay sa iisang direksyon tumungo.

Ngunit higit sa lahat, ang mga guro namin sa elementarya ay hindi na rin nagklase.

Tanaw ko sa bintana ang aming mga guro. Ang bagong guro namin ay nagsusuklay pa ng kanyang basang buhok. Ang pinakamatanda namang guro namin na halos hindi na makausad dahil laging may maraming dalang libro at notebook ay parang bagong gising na kabayong maliksing hila-hila ang kanyang karitela.

Kaya pati ako noon ay nakibuntot na rin. Nagtatalak ang aking ina dahil hindi pa man lang daw ako nag-aagahan. Ngunit nang makita niya ang animo’y prosesyon ng buong baryo ay ako pa ang hinila papanaog ng bahay.

Sa liit kong iyon ay halos mapipi na ako ng mga nagsisiksikan. Wala na rin akong halos makita sa pinagkukulumpunan ng nagpipistang baryo namin.

Panay salita na lang ang naglalarawan para sa akin; kahit papaano ay nabubuo sa aking isip kung ano nga ba ang itsura ng mamang iyon.

“Nangingintab ang balat.”

“Baka kalisikis ang mga yan.”

“Syokoy!”

Nag-atrasan ang mga kababaryo ko. Sisingit sana ako sa isang siwang na nalikha ng kanilang pag-atras para makita ang mama, ngunit gayunding kabilis ay nagsara ito at lalo akong naipit.

“Ano bagang syokoy.”

Ang Kapitan ang nagsasalita na para bang pinipigil na kumalat ang takot ng ilan.

“Kita na ninyong may mga paa. Walang hasang, walang…”

“Ay bakit po walang saplot?” “’Yan ay para malaman natin kong lalaki o babae ang nilalang na ito.”

Nagtawanan nang labis ang mga naroroon. Sa kanilang pagtawa ay parang mga nag-uumpugang bato ang kanilang mga puwit sa aking mukha.

“Hala, magsiuwi na kayo. Tapos na ang palabas. Tabi kayo riyan at dadalhin na namin sa bayan ito nang maimbalsama.”

Ngunit ayaw umalis ng mga tao. Marami pa silang mga katanungan at mungkahi tulad ng: sino ba siya? saan galing? bakit may tatu? dapat ianunsyo sa radyo, litratuhan muna. Ang daming mga tanong at mga mungkahi.

Hanggang sa may nagtanong. “Patay na nga ba ‘yan?”

Biglang tumahimik ang lahat.

Saka ko pa lang narinig ang banayad na hampas ng alon sa baybay.

Parang napakatagal na katahimikan iyon. At wala ring gumagalaw sa mga naroroon. Para bang nakonsyensya sila na agad nilang ipinalagay na patay na nga ang mamang iyon.

“Hindi humihinga. Hindi kumikilos. E, di patay na nga,” pagmamakatuwiran ng Kapitan. Saka halos makita ko sa aking isip ang sinasabi ng Kapitan.

“At kahit pa itaas ko ang kanyang kamay, at diinan ang kanyang tiyan…”

Nagkagulo na po.

Nagpulasan ang ilan. Nagtilian ang ilan, Niyakap ako ng aking ina.

Nabundol-bundol kami. Nagtalsikan ang mga buhangin.

“Buhay! Buhay pa siya!”

Sumuka raw ng tubig ang mama nang diinan ng Kapitan ang tiyan ng mamang hubad.

Kahit tanghaling tapat na ay nakakulumpong pa rin kaming lahat sa labas ng bahay ng Kapitan. Nagpapahinga na raw ang mama roon. At, nakakain na rin. At, nadamitan na rin. At, nabigyan na rin ng gamot sa konting sinat niya.

Iyon ang mga naririnig kong kwentuhan sa labas ng bahay. May mga nagdala na rin ng kanikaniyang bangko sa kanilang paghihintay ng kung ano pa ang susunod na malalaman nila.

Laking tuwa ng mga naglalako dahil hindi na sila kailangang gumalugad pa sa buong baryo para magtinda. Nandoon na ang buong baryo sa labas ng bahay ni Kapitan.

Laking tuwa rin ng nangungubra ng huweteng.

Doon na rin pumuwesto ang mga nagbibingo.

Pati nga ‘yong mga baboy na nakawala ay doon na rin gumala. Nakaamoy yata ng pagkain.

Labas-masok ang kanang-kamay ng Kapitan. Sa kada labas-masok niya ay may kung anong umuugong na balita tungkol sa mama.

“Sabi ko na mangingisda rin ‘yan, e?”

“Tiyak ko, inabot ng bagyo ‘yan. Tumaob ang bangka.”

“Bagyo? ‘Ala namang bagyo, a.”

“May bagyo.”

“Saan?

Hindi na nakasagot ang nagmamagaling. Dahil ang sinasabi niyang bagyo ay nasa Kabikulan pa raw.

“Dalawang araw iyon, kung may motor ang iyong bangka.”

“Apat hanggang limang araw naman kung mananagwan ka.”

“At kung maglalangoy ka…”

Hagalpakan na ng kantyaw at tawa ang inabot ng nagmamagaling.

Baka dalawang linggo raw na paglalangoy ‘yon; kung hindi ka napapagod at nagpapahinga.

Kahit sino raw sa kanilang mahuhusay na manlalangoy ay hindi pa nakaranas na maglangoy ng dalawang linggong walang tigil. ‘Yong dalawang

IKAn www.businessmirror.com.ph

oras nga lang na paglalangoy ay napakahirap na.

Nang humapon ang mga manok sa mga sanga ng mga puno ng rimas sa harapan ng bahay ni Kapitan, nandoon pa rin kami.

Ang ilang kalalakihan ay naglabas na ng lambanog at baraha. Nagpalabas na rin si Kapitan ng ekstensyon ng ilaw, kape at assorted na biskwit.

Hindi pa raw nasasapol ng mama ang kanyang pangalan. At kung anoanong kwento raw na nagkakabuhol-buhol ang pinagsasasabi.

“Mga kwarenta raw mahigit siguro.”

“Posibleng pamilyado na.”

“Nakatuntong siguro ng hayskul, pag hindi nagtatagalog ay nag-iingles.”

“How do you do?”

Sabay bunghalit ng tawanan ang mga nag-iinom. Palibahasa’y ‘yong “how do you do” lang daw ang alam nilang iingles. At kung sila raw ang nakalambat sa mamang ‘yon ay tiyak na hindi sila magkakaunawaan.

“Pero matatas sa Bikol.”

Tumingin lahat ang nandoon sa kaninang nagmamatigas ng binagyo sa Bikol ang mamang ito. Biglang tumahik ang lahat; kahit panandalian lamang.

Lumabas ang kanang-kamay ng Kapitan na iiling-iling.

“Baliw. Baliw ang mamang ‘yan.”

Gusto raw ng mamang ‘yon na bumalik sa dagat upang pasalamatan ang isang pawikang may malaking gurlis sa likod.

“Pasalamatan sa ano?”

Ang pawikan daw na ‘yon ang nagligtas sa kanya.

“Baliw nga. Ganyan din ako noon. Tatlong araw sa dagat. Gutom at uhaw ang nagpabaliw sa akin. Nang makita ninyo ako na lulutang-lutang sa kapirasong katig ng aking bangka ay di ba, tinawag ko kayong mga syokoy?”

Pero bumalik din daw ang kanyang katinuan nang makakain at makapagpahinga.

Pero nakakain na ang mama at nakapagpahinga na. Ngunit nababaliw pa rin.

BusinessMirror

Pumasok na naman ang kanang-kamay ng Kapitan. Kasama na ngayon ang hepe ng pulis mula sa kapitolyo.

“Sabi kzo na sa inyo, kriminal ‘yan. May tatu kasi.”

Lumabas na naman ang kanang-kamay ng Kapitan. At pumasok uli.

Kasama naman ang pare.

“Sabi ko na sa inyo, kampon ni Satanas ang mamang iyan. Pitong taon tayong mamalasin. Salot ang mamang iyan.”

Lumabas, pumasok, lumabas… Kasama ang kung sino-sino at kung ano-ano rin ang mga haka-haka nila sa kung anong uri ng nilalang ang mamang iyon.

Isang buwan pang nagpalaboy-laboy ang mamang iyon sa aming baryo.

Ngunit wala nang nais lumapit sa kanya.

Ako, gusto ko; para man lang makita ko ang mamang iyon. Ngunit kahit mula sa malayo, nababanaagan ko pa lamang ang mamang iyon ay…

“Lumayo kayo d’yan, mga bata. Baliw ‘yan.”

Maraming umangal kay Kapitan dahil baka raw manakit ang mamang ito. Nagmungkahi pa sila na iligaw na lang ang mama para mawala ang tinatawag nilang salot sa aming baryo. Lalo pa nang naging kakaunti ang huli ng mga isda. Sa mama nila ibinunton ang dahilan.

Naipanawagan na sa radyo ang itsura at pangyayari sa mamang ito.

Ngunit walang pumasyal sa aming munting baryo para kunin siya. Hanggang noon ay hindi niya matandaan ang kanyang pangalan at tirahan.

Ang tanging natatandaan niya ay ang pawikan na tumulong sa kanya.

At sa tuwing nababanggit niya ang pawikan ay agad nagsisialisan na ang mga tao.

Gusto kong magpaiwan para malaman ang buong kwento niya pero hinahatak kami ng mga nakatatanda sa amin. Mula sa malayo, habol ko siya ng tingin at batid kong habol din niya ako ng tingin habang pinaghihiwalay kami.

Isang araw, naglaho na lang nang basta ang mamang iyon. May nagsasabing bumalik daw sa dagat para hanapin ang kanyang pawikang may malaking gurlis sa likod.

May mga nagsabing, naglakad na lang daw ito nang naglakad palabas ng aming baryo. May nagsabing kinuha na raw ito ng mga demonyo. May nagsabing inaresto na raw ito ng mga pulis.

Marami silang palapalagay na kanilang pinaniniwalaan. At kapag may nagsasabi ng hindi nila pinaniniwalaan ay agad nilang binabara ito at binabansagang: “Para ka namang si Pawikan.” Matunog na tawanan ang susunod sa akusasyong ito.

“Pawikan. Pawikan.”

Iyan ang ibinansag nila sa akin mula nang sumabad ako sa usapan ng mga may kanikaniya nang pinaniniwalaan.

“Bumalik na po ang katinuan ng mamang ‘yon at kusang bumalik sa kanilang bayan sa Bikol.”

“Sinungaling. Kung totoong bumalik ang katinuan ng mamang iyon, bakit hindi man lang nagpasalamat sa atin? Wala ba siyang utang na loob sa ating pagsagip sa kanya?”

“Kung bumalik na ang kanyang katinuan, ano ang kanyang pangalan?”

“Saan siya nakatira?”

“Bakit siya may tatu?”

Marami pang tanong na hindi ko masagot ang sunod-sunod na nangusig sa akin. Hindi naman iyon kasi ang ikinuwento sa akin ng mamang iyon isang dapit-hapong nangunguha ako ng panggatong sa may daang palabas ng aming baryo. Sa kauna-unahang pagkakataon ay nagkaharap kami. At ang tanging ikinuwento niya ay: Mangingisda siyang taga-Bikol. Isang bagyo ang nagpalubog sa kanyang bangka. Dalawang araw siyang palutang-lutang sa tulong ng isang sisidlang plastik. Nang manghina na siya ay nakatulog. Nagising na lang siyang nakasakay sa likod ng pawikang may malaking gurlis sa kanyang likuran. Wala na ang sisidlang plastik. Tuwing nagugutom siya, kinakain niyang paunti-unti ang kanyang damit.

Sa tuwing maiidlip siya, tutuka-tukain siya ng pawikan para magkamalay. Ngunit nang huling pagkatulog at pagkagising niya, nakita niyang nilalambat siya ng mga mangingisda. At, nakatulog uli siya. At, nagising sa baybay ng bayan namin.

Dala-dala ko ang suliraning ito: ano ang gagawin ko sa katotohanang ayaw paniwalaan? Paulit-ulit kong ikinukuwento ang kwentong ito sa aking mga anak, sa mga kaiskwela ng aking mga anak, sa iba pang mga bata, hanggang sa aking mga apo na hindi nakasaksi sa kwentong ito. Inililihim ko nga lamang na ako ang batang binansagan nila ng “Pawikan. Pawikan.”

Hindi na nagbalik ang mamang ‘yon. Hindi ko pa rin nakikita ang pawikang may malaking gurlis sa likod hanggang ngayong isa na akong matandang mangingisda.

Ngunit hanggang ngayon ay naniniwala ako sa kwentong ‘yon ng mamang tinawag nilang baliw. Naniniwala ako dahil nakikita ko pa ang lamlam ng malungkot niyang mga mata noong bago siya biglang naglaho na lang sa aming bayan.

“Dinaramdam ko, bata, na sa iyo ko nasabi ang katotohanan. Ikaw lang kasi ang nagbigay ng pagkakataon sa akin.”

Sapat na iyon para paniwalaan ko siya.

Dala-dala ko ang katotohanang ‘yon. Kaya hanggang ngayon ay ikinukuwento ko ito kaninuman; may maniwala man o wala.

Sunday, August 13, 2017

Ang Sabing Ulan Ni: Karl Isaac Santos

Hinipan ng malamig na hangin ang paligid.

Kinulabutan ang lawas ng parang.

Agad na nangitim ang langit, Nabubulok na marahil ang mundo Kaya nagbakasakali ang kalangitan na hugasa nito.

Kalmot ang bawat patak ng ulan sa lupa, Subalit pinakamasakit ang mga ampiyas: Hindi nababalik ang mahal ko.

Paglalako sa Obando Ni: Karl Isaac Santos

Ekphrasissa Fish Vendor ni Aris Bagtas

Isinasayaw ng ale ang kaniyang mga tindang isda Na parang pista ni Santa Clara.

Ang mga tilapya sabanyera, anaki’y mga batang Nagtatampisawsabatissatuktokngbirhengbundok.

Hindi niya alintana ang bigat ng dinadala.

Panalanginniya, nawa’ymagdalangkasaganahan angpag-indayogsahuningmgaibon, Dahilkailangang may pambilingbigas AngmahiligsumayawsaObando.

Hindi niyaalintanaangbigatnadinadala.

Nakabalanse ang banyera kahit pa gumigewang, Lumilingon-lingon sa paghahanap ng suki, Isinisigaw sa madlaang murang paninda Ng leeg niyang hindi na kinakaya Ang big at ng suot na eskapularyo.

Dingding

Ni: Karl Isaac Santos Ang dingding lang ang nakaaawat Kay tatay kung siya ay galít.

Madalas na abutan ko siya sa kuwarto, madilim Ang mukha, himas-himas Ang gasgas na kamao. Nagbubuntong-hininga Sa di niya maawat na sermon Ng ngumangang plywood.

Hanggang hapón nanaman magpupukpok si tatay, kahit butás pa ang dibdib.

Sa Araw ng Libing Ni: Karl Isaac Santos

Sa araw ng libing ng isang bayani, Nag sabwatan ang paligid at pagkakataon.

Buháy ang langit saka bughawan At ang mga ulap ay mga nag-uunahan na kuneho.

May pangkat ng mayana sama-samang sumalimbay sa amihan. Isa-isang nagsihápon sa mga punong nagkabantay sa hukay At humuni na tila umaawit ng magandang balita.

Malulusog ang mgad amo sa sementeryo, Busog sa sikat nga raw at biyayang mga ibon: Nakayukong nagbibigay-galangang kaluntian Sapag diriwang ng taon.

Sa di kalayuan ay maririnig ang martsang taong-bayan.

Unti-unting na ngingitim ang mga kalsada.

A9

Tourism&Entertainment BusinessMirror

A10 Sunday, August 13, 2017

Editor: Carla Mortel-Baricaua

Skyscrapers cover China’s heavens

C

Story & Photos by Recto Mercene

hina will give you stiff neck ogling at those tall buildings that have sprung up all across the eastern seaboard of this vast country since its economy was opened up to the world some 30 years ago. Thirty years ago the tallest building I saw in Beijing when I first came here was the Friendship store, sort of a duty-free shop for China products. Today, driving Beijing’s main streets, skyscrapers seem to dominate the skyline.

The BusinessMirror’s Amor Maclang and Delfin J. Wenceslao, head of a leading construction company in the Philippines, have agreed that a true sign of a country’s greatness is in its state of infrastructure.

That is China today.

China has invited eight journalists from the Philippines representing print, broadcast and online to attend a workshop entitled: “Understanding China for Philippine Media.” We spent the next four days listening to lectures at the Communication University of China, a sprawling compound.

The rest of the week was spent visiting Fuzhou and Xiamen, and after the end of our trip, we concluded that China has “arrived”.

We were impressed by how much China had accomplished so much in three decades, a feat that the Philippines has been trying to do in the last 70 years without much success, by comparison.

China has the most number of skyscrapers, the largest railroad network in the world, the largest seaport in the world, the world’s largest dam and the only country with a commercial magnetic levitation train (Maglev), among others.

T hir t y years ago, when I f irst came here as a member of the med ia cover ing the opening of d iplomatic relations by for mer

President Ferdinand E. Marcos, mi l lions of bic ycles were on the road and only a few cars cou ld be seen. Today, millions of cars vie for space in the metropolis despite its wide boulevards and the five ringroads that surround Beijing. Like the rest of the developed world, China is coping with traffic jams.

“Welcome to the club,” are the only words I could mutter.

T he traf f ic is heav y dur ing pea k travel hours; our tour bus crawls, like the rest of the other vehicles on the street, but lucki ly, we sti l l ar r ived on time at our destinations.

We have often read or told that Communist countries are a police state. I assumed then that the police would be everywhere and on the prowl to arrest any kind of troublemaker.

It might sur prise you to hear that in all of my four days in Beijing, I never saw a single policeman on the streets. I asked our guide, R icky, why this is so. “We have traffic laws in place and violators could easily be seen on closed-circuit television (CCT V ) around the city.” He added that if an accident happened, like a car collision, someone watching the CCTV would dispatch the police to the scene in a matter of minutes to help untangle the situation.

More skyscrapers in Beijing

Ricky added that, in strategic locations on the city, there is a man in blue uniform who is not a policeman but some kind of factotum who stays in a small cubicle. He does some sort of police work, like cleaning his area of assignment.

The real policemen we saw are inside the compounds of huge building where we conducted our inter v iews. T hey are in g reen uniform and stood stiff ly inside their glass enclosures. They salute smartly upon our arrival, looking straight ahead.

The latest news reports said 128 skyscrapers over 200 meters tall were completed last year, 84 of which were in China. “ The annual report from the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat

(CTBUH) has revealed that the number of skyscrapers is greater than ever before—making it the third record-breaking year in a row,” the report said.

In 2016 China built 106 buildings over 200 meters high, which bring the total number of these structures worldwide up to 1,168.

“But China was by far the most active country for skyscraper constr uction in 2016, responsible for 84—two-thirds of the entire worldwide total. This includes the tallest building of the year, the 530-meter-high Guangzhou CTF Finance Centre,” the report said.

Seeing all of these infrastructure I could only conclude that if all of China’s skyscrapers are gathered together, it would not fit

in Manhattan Island, whose tall buildings were once the yardstick by which all skyscrapers are measured against.

The Guangzhou CTF Finance Centre is but one of 14 Chinese skyscrapers that make up the list of the 20 tallest skyscrapers of the year.

It is now the tallest building in its city, the second-tallest building in China and the fifth-tallest building in the world.

Presently, 328 buildings in the 200-plus-meter range are currently under construction in the country.

“It’s safe to say that the role of the tall building in China will never truly fade; the only question that remains is how long it will continue to keep a majority share of tall building completions annually,” reads the report.

“With the closest national contender, the US, in 2016 having only seven completions and China having 84, it’s clear that the gap will take a number of years to close, if it ever does.”

But despite all of these achievements, it seems that China’s airline industry has yet to make its mark in the world. Last Friday our flight to Fuzhou from Beijing was delayed by six hours, allegedly due to “bad weather” at the capital.

We were told that many more flights were delayed that day in Beijing’s international airport, blaming bad weather, although when we left the hotel, there was only a slight rain, and the weather forecast was a rainy and cloudy day.

A f ter t he t hree -hou r f l ight without having lunch in the plane, we arrived in Fuzhou under a blue sky and a very hot weather. This is the same scorching heat we had in Beijing because China is in the grip of the warmest summer it has ever experienced, blaming it on global warming.

We were told that flight delays are a common problem of Air China.

We spent an overnight stay in Fuzhou, capital of Fujian province, “the largest source of tourists that visit the Philippines and where most of the Chinese mig rants from the Philippines came from,” according to Li Lin, director general, Foreign Affairs Office, Fujian People’s Government.

Fujian boast of 1,000 years of

tea planting and is one of China’s producer of tea, and where jasmine tea was invented.

On our arrival at the factory, we were given small packets containing the jasmine flower and when we smelled it, we cried in unison, “sampaguita”.

Since the Chinese claims that thousands of years ago, their seafarers have reached Luzon to trade and taught us farming, I concluded that the sampaguita plant was introduced to us from Fuzhou.

According to Zhang, the master of Chun Lun Tea Co., the flower buds are gathered from May to June and they use 7,000 tons each year making jasmine tea.

Zhang said Fuzhou produces 380 million tons of green, black and jasmine tea, exporting 330 million tons and consuming the rest of the 50 remaining tons of tea. We watched a demonstration how tea—after it was delivered to this warehouse—is dried and winnowed, weighed and packed before it goes to the market, a highly laborious process.

From Fuzhou, we took the bullet train, whizzing along at 200 kph, and arrived in Xiamen in three hours, “which usually takes seven to nine hours by bus,” our guide Mason said. He said a faster train, capable of 300 kph, would be finished in 2020. Indeed, I saw tall concrete columns of what would be the train’s track support, parallel to our track during our journey.

Xiamen is one of the most westernized cities in China we have visited. This is evidenced by the many English channels available in our hotel room, whereas in Beijing, I tuned in only to one English channel, and it is not CNN. Like in Fuzhou, there are more tall buildings here than I care to count. A small city by comparison, Xiamen has a population of 4 million, and its most famous landmark is the Gulangyo Island, just recently named World Heritage Site.

It is said Gulangyo Island has the most number of piano in the whole of China during WWII. What surprised me most was when Mason, the guide, told us the jasmine plant was brought to Fujian from Southeast Asia, “maybe from the Philippines.”

Cebu Pacific tapped to promote Aeta leader feted at Subic ecotourism fest world-class PHL destinations A G et ready for “Japanese invasion” in the days and years to come, as the Department of Tourism and its marketing and promotions arm, Tourism Promotions Board (TPB), have partnered with the leading Philippine carrier Cebu Pacific Air (CEB) to put together “I Travel Philippines 2017 (ITP 2017)”, the largest familiarization tour for Japanese tourism stakeholders in the Pearl of the Orient.

ITP 2017 brought the biggest Japanese contingent in the Philippines on July 2 at a familiarization and networking dinner held at Novotel Hotel in Quezon City.

Coming together were 50 travel agents, incentive planners, tour agents and journalist from Japan who were scheduled to visit five of the finest destinations in the Philippines, including Condé Nast’s best islands in the world: Palawan and Boracay; along with the country’s emerging destinations, namely: Legazpi, Albay; Iloilo and Guimaras; and Tagbilaran, Bohol.

This is to ramp up efforts to promote the key destinations in the Philippines among Japanese tourists and help meet the agency’s target of 1.37 million visitor arrivals from Japan by year 2022.

In May, the DOT reported that 255,819 Japanese tourists visited the Philippines in the first five months of the year, up 14 percent versus the same period in 2016. Last year, the Philippines posted a record of 535,238 tourists from Japan, an 8 percent increase from 2015’s visitors. The DOT attributed the double digit growth to focused initiatives aimed at attracting Japanese tourists to visit the country, as well as the availability of more direct flights between the Philippines

The Department of Tourism, Tourism Promotions Board and Cebu Pacific band together to promote local tourist destinations to Japanese market.

and Japan’s major points such as Nagoya, Fukuoka, Osaka and Tokyo.

According to Tourism Secretary Wanda Corazon T. Teo, it’s high time for the DOT to push and promote new destinations that are consistent with the country’s National Tourism Development Plan goals to spread the benefits of tourism as an inclusive industry that creates equitable opportunities for Filipinos.

“By experiencing the Philippines through ITP 2017, we hope to revitalize tourist interest in the country and strengthen Philippine and Japanese networks. We want to showcase that the Philippines is a safe, fun and beautiful country that makes the journey worth the trip,” Teo said.

Meanwhile, Cebu Pacific boasts of flying to 37 domestic and 26 international destinations, with 109 routes spanning Asia, the Middle East and the USA. The CEB network operates flights out of six strategically placed hubs in the Philippines: Clark, Davao, Kalibo, Cebu, Iloilo and Manila. The 61-strong CEB fleet has an average age of 4.96 years and is comprised of three Airbus A319, 36 Airbus A320 and eight Airbus A330; while the Cebgo fleet is composed of eight ATR 72-

500, and six ATR 72-600 aircraft. Between 2017 and 2022, CEB expects delivery of seven A321CEO (Current Engine Option), 10 ATR 72-600 and 32 Airbus A321NEO (New Engine Option) aircraft.

“We at Cebu Pacific are honored to partner with the DOT and the TPB to spur growth of the Philippine tourism industry. We recognize the vital role of tourism in economic development and the potential it brings to create jobs and pump-prime the economy down to the grassroots level, “said Candice Iyog, vice president for marketing and distribution of Cebu Pacific Air. Cebu Pacific has the most extensive network between Japan and the Philippines, linking Tokyo (Narita), Nagoya, Osaka (Kansai) and Fukuoka to Manila, which is connected to the 37 domestic points in the country.

“Cebu Pacific is the most seamless and efficient way to visit the most exotic and exciting destinations in the Philippines using one of the youngest aircraft fleets in the world. We challenge you to explore the Philippines and experience our brand of hospitality,” CEB Corporate Communications Director Charo Lagamon concluded.

eta tribal elder Dominador Liwanag, more popularly known as Tata Kasoy, was presented with an award and certificate of appreciation for his “lifetime work in preserving the rain forest and culture” at the recent Subic Ecotourism Festival.

The 67-year-old leader of the Pastolan tribe at the Subic free port’s Pamulaklakin Trail serves as instructor of the jungle environmental survival training (JEST) course offered to tourists and American servicemen who undergo military exercises in the former US naval base.

Presenting the citation is International School of Sustainable Tourism President Mina Gabor and Global Ecotourism Network (GEN) board member and Ecolodge planning and design authority Hitesh Mehta. Gabor, who pioneered ecotourism in the country when she was tourism secretary, said that it was the first time such an award had been given to a tribal leader in the Philippines.

The four-day festival featured resource persons from the GEN, the Asian Ecotourism Network, and the country’s leading advocates from both the private and government sectors to discuss the global trends in ecotourism. The first of its kind in the Philippines, the fourday event also discussed highlights of the Indigenous Peoples Rights Act (IPR A) through a presentation from the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples (NCIP) in the practice of ecotourism.

A landmark social legislation

tribal leader Dominador Liwanag (from left), Hitesh Mehta and Dr. Mina T. Gabor.

passed in 1997, the IPR A protects the indigenous peoples’ rights to ancestral lands, self-governance and empowerment, social justice and human rights, and cultural integrity.

Other global ecotourism resource persons included Glenn Jampol and Tony Charters, GEN chairman and vice chairman respectively, and general board members Robert Holmes, Masaru Takayama, Nabil Tarazi, Albert Teo, ASSOB International Australia CEO Paul Niederer, Sapa O’Chau (Vietnam) founder and Director Tan Thi Su, Travel Impact Newswire Executive Editor Imtiaz Muqbil, Mahidol University International College Assistant Dean Kaetwa Muangas-

ame, Bond Asian Ventures Ltd. Chairman Greg Duffel, Indecon Indonesia Director Ary Suhandi, and Global Sustainable Tourism Council CEO Randy Durband.

The event was attended by local government officials and tourism officers, tourism policy-makers, community organizations, tourism establishment owners, the academic community and industry stakeholders. The festival is supported by the Tourism Promotions Board, Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority, Philippine Airlines, PLDT Subictel, Nlex-SCTEx, Steep Coffee, Lighthouse Marina Resort, the Department of the Interior and Local Government, and the Cebu Provincial Tourism Office.