BusinessMirror August 14, 2021

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By Jonathan L. Mayuga

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HE latest report of the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) continues to draw reactions from Philippine-based nongovernment organizations days after its release.

A broader look at today’s business n

Saturday, August 14, 2021 Vol. 16 No. 304

PHILIPPINE STATISTICS AUTHORITY

DATA CHAMPION

LAWYER Angela Ibay, WWF Climate and Energy Programme head: “We have very little time, so we need to act now.”

to keep using dirty energy if we wish to avert even more unthinkable consequences,” Gerry Arances, convener of P4P, said.

He stressed that no nation in the world has any business introducing more fossil fuels into its energy mix.

“Our country already placed the survival of Filipinos in peril with decades of obsession with coal, and the only responsible way forward is to throw any notion of technology neutrality into the fire. The Department of Energy, assisted by all other government bodies, must completely cancel all remaining coal in the national pipeline while keeping the rise of gas and other fossil fuels at bay,” Arances said.

The clean energy and climate justice advocacy groups also urged authorities to be guided by findings of the report in upcoming climate negotiations in November.

Higher ambition

CLIMATE

WAKE-UP CALL

limiting global warming to 1.5˚C. These include protection of and investing in nature, ramping up the clean-energy transition through renewables and energy efficiency, revamping our food, water, energy, and even finance systems to value nature as part of the life sustainability equation. We can still—and must—change the ending.”

PESO EXCHANGE RATES n US 50.3930

Science-based climate action

THE group issued several recommendations, including the enhancement of science-based approaches in climate action by the 26th Conference of Parties (COP26) to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change by welcoming the IPCC report.

Moreover, the group said developed countries with the highest GHG emissions should increase and deliver their emissions reductions targets in their respective Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) and pay their “climate debt” Continued on A2

aptation strategies and programs that will protect, as well as enable, coastal communities to thrive amid the long-term prospects of higher sea levels,” she said.

Swift coal, fossil fuel exit

‘Need to be proactive’

NAZRIN CASTRO, branch manager of The Climate Reality Project Philippines, commenting on the new IPCC report, noted that every region across the globe is already experiencing the adverse impacts of human-induced climate change.

She said that the Philippines couldn’t afford to be passive in addressing the threat of a sea-level rise in the country.

“It may not be as dramatic as extreme weather events like typhoons, but it will have devastating consequences on our coastal

AKSYON Klima Pilipinas, for its part, said the report could not have come at a more opportune time.

Rodne Galicha, convener of Aksyon Klima Pilipinas, said the calls for higher ambition and climate justice continue to grow stronger globally.

However, he said, current pledges of all governments would only lead to a 1-percent reduction in emissions, falling way short of limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius.

“The onset of the Covid-19 pandemic has provided a living preview of the scale of disruptions and losses that more extreme climate changes can inflict on countries, and lessons that governments, businesses, civil society groups and communities can learn from to avoid any more disasters of this magnitude,” Galicia said.

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WORLD WIDE Fund for NaturePhilippines, for its part, showed that the report card of human response to the climate crisis shows that “We are failing life as we know it unless we act now and we act together.”

“The new report continues to paint an alarming picture of what we are already seeing as impacts of the climate crisis at global warming of around 1.1˚C. For a vulnerable country such as the Philippines, as the temperature needle moves toward 1.5˚C, we will experience increasing dangers to our people and our ecosystems—increasing frequency and the intensity of extreme weather events such as typhoons, floods and drought, sealevel rise, among others,” Executive Director Katherine Custodio said.

Lawyer Angela Ibay, Climate and Energy Programme head, said: “We have very little time, so we need to act now. We have to scale up action in both adaptation and mitigation and to implement our commitments under the Paris Agreement to be consistent with

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PHL groups on IPCC report on climate change: Scale up mitigation efforts, and act now!

Decisive action

‘Change the ending’

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Citing the record-breaking climate change-triggered extreme weather events that threaten the global community, they say the report paints the grim scenario of the future is compelling enough to scale up mitigation efforts, bearing in mind the country’s vulnerability to natural disasters and its lack of capacity to recover quickly from their disastrous impacts.

THE Climate Change Commission (CCC), the lead policy-making body tasked to supervise government programs and ensure mainstreaming of climate change in national, local and sectoral development plans, said the IPCC report “should serve as a wake-up call not only for the Philippines, but also for all countries and world leaders to take decisive action on increasing warming temperatures to protect the planet and future generations from such previously unimaginable scenarios.”

The CCC believes that the substantial and consistent reductions in carbon dioxide and other greenhouse-gas emissions, such as methane, indeed have the capacity to influence the future direction of climate.

“While improvements in air quality would be immediate, global temperature stabilization might take 20 to 30 years,” the CCC pointed out.

According to the CCC, the world must go considerably further to keep the 1.5 challenge alive, adding that such will require a concerted set of policies, including phasing out coal for power generation and committing to not opening or financing any new coal-fired power stations; providing developing countries with better support to deliver clean energy; reforming the global trade in agricultural commodities to help farmers make a better living while forests are protected; and last but not least, for loss and damage policies to be set in place to support adaptation initiatives, in line with mobilizing long-term finance.

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POWER for People Coalition convener Gerry Arances: “Science is clear that our reckless dependence on fossil fuels is to blame for it, and this report invalidates any remaining excuse to keep using dirty energy if we wish to avert even more unthinkable consequences.”

communities—where more than half of the Filipino population is residing,” she said.

“With millions of Filipinos at risk, we must be proactive by putting in place appropriate ad-

ON Tuesday, the Power for People Coalition (P4P) urged Philippine energy policymakers and authorities to heed the latest climate science findings unveiled by IPCC, prioritize the country’s move away from coal and other fossil fuels and transition to renewables in energy planning directions and climate commitments.

“The IPCC’s latest report affirms something climate-vulnerable Filipinos already know: that the climate crisis is upon us. It will continue to impose suffering on communities and life systems globally. Science is clear that our reckless dependence on fossil fuels is to blame for it, and this report invalidates any remaining excuse

n JAPAN 0.4564 n UK 69.6129 n HK 6.4762 n CHINA 7.7778 n SINGAPORE 37.1110 n AUSTRALIA 36.9683 n EU 59.1261 n SAUDI ARABIA 13.4374

Source: BSP (August 13, 2021)

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A2 Saturday, August 14, 2021

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Overwhelmed by Covid-19: A day inside a Louisiana hospital

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By Stacey Plaisance | The Associated Press

said. “Yes, one individual can have coughs or sneezes, but another individual can be on a ventilator.”

EFFERSON, Louisiana — Before the latest surge of the coronavirus, Louisiana neurologist Robin Davis focused on her specialty: treating patients with epilepsy. These days, as virus patients flood her hospital in record numbers, she has taken on the additional duties of nurse, janitor and orderly.

“I was giving bed baths on Sunday, emptying trash cans, changing sheets, rolling patients to MRI,” said Davis, who has been coming in on her days off to provide some relief to overworked nurses at Ochsner Medical Center in the New Orleans suburb of Jefferson.

The rapidly escalating surge in Covid-19 infections across the US is once again overwhelming hospitals, especially in hot spots such as Louisiana, which hit a record number of coronavirus hospitalizations last week. Nearly 2,900 virus patients are currently hospitalized— and state health officials say the number of cases may not peak for several more weeks.

Louisiana has the country’s fourth-lowest vaccination rate, with just a little more than 37 percent of residents fully inoculated.

On a recent day at Ochsner, health-care providers rushed up and down halls, throwing on and taking off protective clothing every time they entered a new area of the building. In dozens of ICU rooms, patients lay pallid and motionless,

tubes down their throats, as beeping machines pumped drugs into their system and ventilators forced air into their weakened lungs.

Health-care contractors brought in from other hospitals quickly familiarized themselves with a new environment as they rushed to ease the load of the overtaxed staff.

“We’re trying to provide the most consistent care we can, but to do that we need more hands,” Davis said. “One of the biggest issues for our nurses is, the volume of patients is such that we’re having to create beds that didn’t previously exist.

We’re having to find providers that weren’t previously put in place.”

An overwhelming caseload

OCHSNER Health is the largest health-care provider in Louisiana, with 40 medical facilities across the state. More than 1,000 people—nearly 40 percent of the state’s currently hospitalized coronavirus patients—are being treated at Ochsner’s facilities. Roughly 200 of those are at the main cam-

Wishing they had been vaccinated

CORONAVIRUS patient Joan Bronson walks across her hospital room with the help of a physical therapist at Ochsner Medical Center in the New Orleans suburb of Jefferson, Louisiana, on Tuesday, August 11, 2021. The rapidly escalating surge in Covid-19 infections is once again overwhelming hospitals across the US. That is especially true in hot spots such as Louisiana, which is hitting record numbers of coronavirus hospitalizations, driven by the highly infectious delta variant and the state’s low vaccination rates. AP

pus in Jefferson, where three floors in the hospital’s West Tower have been built out as care units for coronavirus patients.

Resources have been strained to the limit across the state with hospitals starting to turn away people with other life-threatening emergencies such as heart attacks or strokes. Elective surgeries and other non-urgent care have been suspended.

Davis said there’s no greater need for her help than in Ochsner’s thinly stretched nursing department. She noted that her many recent duties have included

fetching medication for nurses and pushing patients in wheelchairs.

“If it took pressure off a nurse, if it gave her time to do what she needed to do, that’s what we did,” she said. “Sunday was supposed to be my day off with my kids, but we need help here, and one day I want to be able to tell those two little boys I did the thing that was needed at the time it was needed.”

Nurses helping nurses

IN Ochsner Medical Center’s intensive care unit, nurses Joan Blizzard and Arthur Bienvenu try to care for each other along with their coronavirus patients.

They tie each other’s gowns, prep medicines and machines together with barely a word, shuffle in and out of patients’ rooms, their eyes the only part of their faces visible through their protective gear.

For the past year and a half, Bienvenu said, working 50 to 60 hours a week caring for patients and being surrounded by fellow staff has helped him cope with the loss of his father to the virus last year.

He said he shares his father’s story with other grieving families, including how his dad was on a ventilator for more than 20 days in the spring and how his family had to make the difficult decision to take him off it.

“The outcome wouldn’t be what he wanted,” Bienvenu said.

“He wouldn’t want to live with the trach and PEG [feeding tube] and the severity of the situation, so we decided to transition to comfort from progressive measures, and the little bit of dignity and respect my dad had left, we preserved that.”

Bienvenu said working with other families experiencing loss has helped give him purpose during the most tragic time of his life.

“People would ask me, ‘Why are you still coming in?’” he said.

“Because these people need us, you know? We have to put a stop

to this. Everybody has a different path through this. I’m blessed to be around the people I’m around.

That’s the only way I’m here.”

Critical care nurse Mary Lubrano has watched her colleagues running up and down the ICU hallway at Ochsner Medical Center while she lies in a hospital bed with the virus. She has been hospitalized for two weeks and counting, her breathing labored as she suffers from low oxygen.

“That was me,” she said of the other nurses, her voice choking with emotion. “And I wanted to be able to help them.”

Lubrano works in the critical care unit at St. Bernard Parish Hospital, an Ochsner-run facility near her home in Chalmette, where she was initially hospitalized before being transferred to the Jefferson campus.

She said she still checks her emails as often as possible to see how her fellow nurses in Chalmette are holding up.

“They are busting their butts there, and they are full of Covid patients, and it’s the same nurses on the schedule every day. They just go and go,” she said. “As a nurse, it’s all about giving back, so I can’t wait to get back out there.”

It’s worse this time

THE magnitude of this most recent coronavirus surge—largely spurred by the highly contagious Delta variant—is profound, Blizzard said.

“People are getting sick so quickly this time,” she said. “They will be talking to you, and within hours, we’re having multiple people at the bedside” performing emergency procedures. “It is so scary.”

If they survive, many will live with years of impairment, she said.

Bienvenu wants people to understand the severity of the current situation.

“It hits all of us different,” he

JEROME BATISTE, a 26-year-old New Orleans resident, said he so rarely got sick he didn’t think he needed the coronavirus vaccine. He assumed he had a strong immune system, having gone the entire pandemic without getting infected, he said.

As he sat by a window in a recovery room in one of Ochsner’s Covid units, taking in some sunshine from the bench near his hospital bed, he said he’s not only wishing he’d gotten the vaccine but wants everyone he knows to get it, “and I’ll go if they need somebody to go with them.”

Batiste isn’t sure where he contracted the virus but said he had been on a family trip to Disney World and had also visited friends in the weeks before falling ill.

“It just happened,” he said. “It just came out of the blue. I started coughing a lot.”

He said he took over-thecounter cough medicine, hoping it would pass, but “it just got worse and worse, and I started throwing up a lot, and I couldn’t keep anything down.”

Since he was admitted to the hospital last week, he’s been given vitamins, steroids, breathing treatments and shots to prevent blood clots. He’s also developed a rare condition in which his body’s muscle tissue has begun to break down, requiring a kidney flush to prevent further illness.

Batiste said he’s telling family and friends to not get “comfortable” when it comes to the virus and to protect themselves with the shot.

“I just didn’t take it as serious as most young people should,” he said, a port with tubes for his medicine sticking out of his right forearm. “You’re never too safe to go and get vaccinated.”

Mary Lubrano, the critical care nurse now ill with Covid-19, said she had never been hospitalized until this year. She said she had intended to get vaccinated, but a breast cancer diagnosis in February, followed by surgery and radiation to eradicate it, caused her to put off the shot.

She said she was also nervous about jeopardizing her health after a relative suffered a stroke shortly after receiving the vaccine. She knows most people have mild side effects, if any, but she was still hesitant. The vaccines have been proven to be safe in studies and in use in more than half the US population and are far less risky than the virus itself.

“I had my follow-up, getting brave to do my vaccine, and I got Covid instead,” said Lubrano, who called it the scariest time in her life. “You take breathing for granted.… When you sit down and can’t get air in your lungs...that is so fearful, and I don’t want anyone to ever have to feel that way.”

CLIMATE WAKE-UP CALL Continued from A1

to vulnerable nations through the provision of means of implementation, such as climate finance, technology development and transfer, and capacity-building, in forms aligned with upholding climate justice.

The group added that the Philippine government should also finalize the country’s decarbonization pathway toward achieving its NDC goal of reducing GHG emissions by 75 percent within the current decade, including the phaseout of coal-fired power plants and initiating a just transition to renewable energy.

“It is not our intent to sound like a prophet of doom, yet as much as we have experienced the brunt of the climate crisis, the worst could still be coming. We call for urgent, just and effective climate action now,” Galicha said.

A challenge amid Covid

DENISE M. FONTANILLA, Associate for Policy Advocacy Institute for Climate and Sustainable Cities, said the IPCC report is a signal to all countries to do their share to address the climate crisis.

Despite its limited resources further stretched by the impact of the pandemic, the Philippines is nevertheless compelled to squarely face the climate challenge.

“Findings from the IPCC report show that extreme weather events in Southeast Asia will increase in frequency and intensity. The Philippines, apart from weather extremes, will further be threatened by the increase in the sea surface temperatures, sea-level rise, and ocean acidification, which in turn will have adverse effects on agriculture, fisheries, food security, and even health and nutrition,” she said.

Act now!

HOWEVER, she said, there’s time and by acting now, the country can do something.

“It will be a very difficult path for us, especially being in the frontlines of climate impacts. We may already have plans in line, but the lack of fine points on implementation is extremely concerning,” she said.

Finally, she said that with the upcoming elections next year, it is vital that climate action transcend political terms and administrations.

“Our policymakers and economic managers must focus on more inclusive and more responsive programs that meet the challenges of the climate crisis head-on while marshaling scarce resources in order to establish effective strategies that encourage ever greater public participation. Everything counts, everyone matters,” she said.

News BusinessMirror

www.businessmirror.com.ph • Editor: Vittorio V. Vitug

PHL workers suffered largest work-hour losses in SEA in pandemic–ILO report

By Samuel P. Medenilla

F

ILIPINO workers suffered the largest working-hour losses in Southeast Asia during the pandemic, according to a new report from the International Labor Organization (ILO).

In its Covid-19 and the Asean labor market: Impact and Policy Response report, ILO said lost working hours in the country in 2020 reached 13.6 percent, affecting 1.9 million workers.

This was significantly higher compared to its neighboring countries such as Brunei Darussalam, Lao People’s Democratic Republic and Thailand, where hours worked only dropped by 4.3 to 4.5 percent.

Overall working-hour losses last year during the onset of the pandemic was at 8.4 percent, which is equivalent to 24 million fulltime workers.

Christian Viegelahn, one of the lead authors of the study, attributed it to the Philippines’s quarantine lockdown, which was one of the longest and strictest among Asean members.

“They [affected workers] were unable to work given the health restrictions that were put in place or there was no demand and other reasons as well,” Viegelahn said in an online news briefing on Friday.

The affected workers, who include both those permanently displaced or suffered reduced work hours, were mostly from the following sectors: tourism, retail and sales, arts and entertainment, manufacturing and construction.

Slow recovery

This year, ILO expects work job recovery in Asean working-hour losses in the entire regional bloc to be at 7.4 percent in its baseline scenario.

In its “optimistic” scenario, it may improve to 7 percent; and for its “pessimistic” scenario, 7.9 percent.

“The region recorded workinghour losses of 6.1 percent in the first quarter of 2021 and 6.2 percent in the second quarter. In the second half of 2021, labor market conditions are expected to deteriorate further due to the ongoing wave of the Covid-19 pandemic,” ILO said in a news statement.

ILO projects a slow pace recovery in the Asean labor market in 2022 amid the current upward trend in Covid-19 cases and slow vaccine rollout.

Long-term scars

Viegelahn expressed concern over the large number of Filipino employees who will be affected by work-hour losses, since he said this will leave them vulnerable to “scarring,” or the long-term effects of being “detached” from the labor market.

“It is visible potentially in terms of lower wages in the future as they go forward and the quality of job they are actually able to obtain,” the ILO Regional Economic and Social analyst said.

He said the Philippine government may be able to address this if it could be able to keep Covid-19 cases in check and allow more businesses to resume their operations.

Other possible interventions include providing sufficient support to enterprises, especially micro and small and medium enterprises so they could hire high-end workers and giving skills development to affected workers.

ILO noted Asean countries are already implementing these measures by allocating nearly 16 percent of their gross domestic product to the fiscal stimulus response as of the end of May 2021.

“However, further policy action in the realm of social protection, enterprise support and labor protections will be needed to ensure a human-centered recovery from the crisis in the Asean region,” ILO said.

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investment trust funds (UITFs), which expanded by 59 percent during the same period.

BSP Governor Benjamin Diokno said the online accessibility of UITFs contributed to their growth during the period.

“The notable growth in UITFs is a welcome development. The BSP recognizes the importance of UITFs as an avenue for small retail investors to participate in the securities markets,” Diokno said.

The governor also said the

At least half a million doses of Astra, Sputnik Covid vaccines land at Naia

By Recto Mercene

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ome 578,000 doses of AstraZeneca vaccine arrived at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (Naia) on Friday morning from Taipei on board a China Airlines flight.

Vaccine czar and chief implementer Secretary Carlito Galvez Jr., Presidential Adviser for Entrepreneurship and Go Negosyo Founder Joey Concepcion, Department of Health (DOH) Directors Ariel Valencia and Maria Soledad Antonio welcomed the shipment at the airport.

The AstraZeneca vaccine shipment was immediately transported to PharmaServ Express cold storage in Marikina City guarded by Airport Customs personnel after it was cleared and released by the One Stop Shop of the Bureau of Customs-Naia.

Another shipment of 15,000 doses of Sputnik V vaccine also arrived at around 4:50 p.m. from Russia on board Qatar Airways.

On Sunday, August 15, 2021, a shipment of some 469,200 doses of Moderna vaccine from the Covax Facility in Belgium is expected to arrive at around 3:35 p.m. on board Singapore Airlines.

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By Bianca Cuaresma

HE country’s dollar defenses continued to grow in July this year, boosting the country’s foreign exchange cushion against potential external shocks.

The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) reported on Friday that the country’s gross international reserves (GIR) grew by $790 million to $106.55 billion in end-July this year. It is also larger compared to the $98.6-billion GIR level of the country in the same month last year.

The country’s GIR is the level of foreign exchange holdings being

managed by the Central Bank during a given period. The GIR is a crucial component of the economy as it is often used to manage the country’s foreign exchange rate against excess volatility.

The BSP said the latest GIR level represents a “more than adequate external liquidity buffer” for the country as it is now equivalent to

12.1 months’ worth of imports of goods and payments of services and primary income.

It is also about 7.7 times the country’s short-term external debt based on original maturity and 5.1 times based on residual maturity.

The BSP attributed the increase to the inflows from the national government’s (NG) net foreign currency deposits with the BSP, which includes proceeds from its issuance of ROP Global Bonds, and upward adjustment in the value of the BSP’s gold holdings due to the increase in the price of gold in the international market.

These were partly offset, however, by the outflows from the NG’s payments of its foreign currency debt obligations and the BSP’s foreign exchange operations.

International analysts have

lauded the country’s ability to shore up its dollar defenses during the pandemic.

Recently, Fitch Solutions said the country’s substantial GIR level is expected to limit the country’s risks from running a current account deficit through the medium term.

Earlier this year, S&P Global Ratings also said that the strong external position of the country, particularly evidenced by its “hefty” GIR, is one of the major strengths of the economy amid turbulent times.

“A key rating strength for the Philippines is the country’s external position; the peso’s strength and the Philippines’s rising foreign exchange reserves in the current economic and health crisis are testaments to its external resilience,” S&P earlier said.

DTI chief: No ECQ extension talks yet

By Tyrone Jasper C. Piad

T

he Covid-19 Inter-Agency Task Force (IATF) has not yet discussed a possible extension of enhanced community quarantine (ECQ ) in Metro Manila, the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) said on Friday.

Trade Secretary Ramon Lopez the speculations of a five-week ECQ amid the threat of Covid-19 Delta variant, saying the government is still monitoring the current situation.

“Watching data closely,” he told the reporters. Earlier, the government placed Metro Manila under

ECQ for the third time from August 6 to 20.

“If numbers improve until next week, we should go [modified] ECQ and granular lockdown,” Lopez added.

Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry (PCCI), in a news statement, expressed its opposition to the reported five-week ECQ given that it will further curtail economic recovery.

“Mere mention of lockdown strokes greater fear than the infection from Covid-19,” PCCI Acting President Edgardo G. Lacson said.

“It [five-week lockdown] will wipe out the temporary economic gains we earned in between lockdowns

stable growth of the trust industry reflects the “continued confidence of investors in the fund and asset management business in the country.”

Several additional policy reforms are anticipated for the sector, under what is known as the “Trust Business Model Initiative,” the BSP said.

“These amendments aim to rationalize the operations of trust entities, provide an enabling regulatory environment conducive for

financial innovation and growth of the trust industry, and encourage trust entities to be more responsive to the needs of the investing public,” the governor said.

Among the upcoming issuances inc lude comprehensive investment guidelines for trust entities, enhancements to the onboarding and client suitability assessment processes, and guidance to better align the management of UITFs with international standards. Bianca Cuaresma

Private schools to pursue online learning in face of Delta threat

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A3

GIR keeps growth trend, rises $790M to $106.5B in end-July

AUMs grew 41.3% in Q1 despite pandemic–BSP SSETS of trust entities grew in the country in the first quarter of the year, despite the economic disruptions caused by the global health pandemic.

The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) reported that the assets under management (AUM) of trust entities in the Philippines grew 41.3 percent in March 2021, bringing industr y AUM to P4.6 trillion.

The BSP said the growth in the industr y was driven by unit

Saturday, August 14, 2021

he Coordinating Council of Private Educational Associations of the Philippines (COCOPEA) has assured that private schools are committed to continue with online learning to keep both students and teachers safe as the country battles the spread of the Delta variant.

COCOPEA Chairman Dr. Anthony Tamayo said online learning has been their main teaching method during the pandemic as they adapt to a “better normal.”

“COCOPEA memberschools are resolved to continue with online learning for this school year. The presidents of the associations that comprise COCOPEA

agree that the safety of our students and stakeholders at this time of the pandemic is our paramount concern.”

At present, COCOPEA member-schools are devoting their resources to online learning including teacher training and upgrading of their IT infrastructures.

“Online learning allows us to keep both our students and teachers safe while accomplishing our mission of delivering quality education.”

Reports have said that the Delta variant of Covid-19 has spread to nearly all regions of the country with Metro Manila having the highest case count. The spread is occurring just as private

schools are opening the new school year this month and September.

“We are also committed to follow health and safety protocols in the workplace as outlined by the concerned government agencies like the IATF [Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases], Department of Labor and Employment, Department of Health and the Commission on Higher Education. We have been strictly enforcing these protocols since the pandemic began. We continue to be cautious and practice vigilance especially now with the spread of the Delta variant,” COCOPEA added.

and could stop momentum of business from moving forward.”

Lacson stressed that ramping up the vaccination program is the much-needed response in order to curb the spread of infection.

“Covid-19 pandemic is a pharmaceutical problem, while lockdown is a militaristic solution.

Our economy is disfigured after many protracted lockdowns, yet the spread of Covid continues,” he said.

While businesses are against the hard lockdown due to economic repercussions, L acson previously said the sector would comply to avoid the spread of the Covid-19 infection.

Still, PCCI is hoping that the lockdown period is “definitive” and will be “lifted at the earliest possible time.”

“The biggest challenge is to regain the stalled momentum, sustain the recovery trajectory, keep the workers, and meet fixed operating expenses,” Lacson explained.

The National Economic and Development Authority previously reported that the economy may lose around P150 billion per week amid the ECQ in Metro Manila and other areas. In addition, the government agency also expects over 600,000 workers to be affected by the strict lockdown measure.

IATF downgrades Laguna, Cagayan de Oro and Iloilo Cities to MECQ

T

he government has downg raded t he commu nit y quarantine classification in Laguna, Iloilo and Cagayan de Oro Cities.

Presidential spokesman Harry Roque said President Duterte has approved the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF) resolution last Thursday to relax the classification of the said areas—from enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) to modified ECQ (MECQ).

Roque said the classification would take effect from August 16 until August 31, 2021.

The three areas were placed under lockdown after registering an alarming spike in novel coronavirus disease cases.

Other areas, which will remain under MECQ until the end of the month are Apayao; Ilocos Norte; Bulacan; Cavite, Lucena City, and Rizal in Region 4A for Luzon; and Aklan, and Iloilo Province in Region 6, and Lapu-Lapu City, Mandaue City, and Cebu City in Region 7 in the Visayas.

Other classifications

The National Capital Region (NCR) remains under ECQ until August 20, 2021, according to Roque.

Bataan will also be under the strictest quarantine classification, but until August 22, 2021.

Meanwhile, the IATF decided to place the following areas under GCQ with heightened restrictions until August 31, 2021: Ilocos Sur; Cagayan; Quezon and Batangas in Region 4A and Naga City for Luzon; Antique, Bacolod City and Capiz in Region 6; and Negros Oriental and Cebu for the

Visayas; Zamboanga del Sur; Misamis Oriental; Davao City, Davao del Norte, Davao Occidental and Davao de Oro in Region 11 and Butuan City for Mindanao.

Tarlac shall be placed under GCQ beginning August 13 until August 31, 2021.

Also placed under GCQ from August 16 to August 31, 2021 are Baguio City in the Cordillera Administrative Region; Santiago City, Quirino, Isabela and Nueva Vizcaya in Region 2; Puerto Princesa for Luzon; Guimaras and Negros Occidental in Region 6; Zamboanga Sibugay, Zamboanga City and Zamboanga del Norte in Region 9; Davao Oriental and Davao del Sur in Region 11; General Santos City, Sultan Kudarat, Sarangani, North Cotabato and South Cotabato in Region 12; Agusan del Norte, Agusan del Sur, Surigao del Norte, Surigao del Sur and Dinagat Islands in Caraga and Cotabato City in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao.

“All other areas shall be placed under Modified General Community Quarantine [MGCQ ] classification from August 16 to 31, 2021,” Roque said.

COC filing

Roque said the IATF also allowed persons over 65 to leaver their residences to file their certificates of candidacy (COC) in the national office and designated field offices of the Commission on Elections.

“The abovementioned persons shall be recognized as Authorized Persons Outside of Residence from October 1 to 8, 2021, regardless of community quarantine classification and vaccination status,” Roque said. Samuel P. Medenilla

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Saturday, August 14, 2021

The World BusinessMirror

Editor: Angel R. Calso • www.businessmirror.com.ph

Sources: CIA weighs creating special China unit in bid to out-spy Beijing

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he Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) is weighing proposals to create an independent “Mission Center for China” in an escalation of its efforts to gain greater insight into the US’s top strategic rival, according to people familiar with the deliberations.

The proposal, part of a broader re-

view of the agency’s China capabilities

by CIA Director William Burns, would elevate the focus on China within the agency, where China has long been part of a broader “Mission Center for East Asia and Pacific.”

Mission centers are stand-alone entities that utilize resources from across the CIA in line with agency

priorities. In the intelligence bureaucracy, a separate China center would make it easier to secure headcount, funding and high-level attention for China-related activities, according to three current and former officials who spoke about the internal deliberations on condition of anonymity.

Existing mission centers include

those for counterintelligence, counterterrorism and the Near East.

“As Director Burns has said, China is one of his priorities, and CIA is in the process of determining how best to position ourselves to reflect the significance of this priority,” the CIA said in a news statement.

One former CIA officer, who asked

not to be identified discussing his former employer, said that many in the agency have long seen a need to create a separate China center. But at least until now, nobody was willing to pull the trigger to make it happen, the person said.

Although the CIA is intended to provide independent intelligence assessments to presidents, the agency adjusts to reflect the priorities set in each administration.

In 2017, during the Trump administration, the CIA established a new Korea Mission Center aimed at meeting the threat of a nucleararmed North Korea. At the time, the agency said the center would help it to “more purposefully integrate and direct CIA efforts.”

The China proposal reflects the priority Burns laid out during his Senate confirmation hearing in February.

The veteran diplomat called China’s “adversarial, predatory leadership” the biggest threat to the US, saying Beijing’s goal is to “replace the United States as the world’s most powerful and influential nation.”

“For CIA, that will mean intensified focus and urgency—continually strengthening its already impressive cadre of China specialists, expanding its language skills, aligning personnel and resource allocation for the long haul,” Burns told the Senate Intelligence Committee.

The agency’s broader China review is also considering whether to deploy China specialists in locations around the world, following the approach used to counter Soviet influence in the Cold War, Burns said in an interview with NPR last month. He also said the agency was looking into how to deal with the “ubiquitous technical surveillance” and other “very advanced capabilities on the part of the Chinese intelligence service,” which

make it more difficult to conduct espionage overseas.

The review comes after senior officials raised concerns over the scale and ambition of Chinese spying in the US. FBI Director Christopher Wray said last year that Chinese tactics, from cyber espionage to threats against Chinese nationals living in the US, created a situation in which “Americans find themselves held over a barrel by the Chinese Communist Party.”

The CIA and other American intelligence agencies have faced questions about their collection capabilities in China. In 2017, the New York Times reported that the Chinese government had systematically dismantled CIA spying operations inside China starting in 2010. From the final weeks of 2010 through the end of 2012, the Chinese killed at least a dozen CIA sources, the Times reported.

A House Intelligence Committee report released in September 2020 concluded that US spy agencies were failing to meet the multifaceted challenges posed by China and were overly focused on traditional targets such as terrorism or conventional military threats.

More recently, the intelligence community has also been under pressure to assess whether the Covid-19 pandemic was the result of a lab leak in the Chinese city of Wuhan. “The intelligence community does not know exactly where, when or how Covid-19 virus was transmitted initially,” Avril Haines, the director of National Intelligence, said in April.

A House Intelligence Committee official declined to comment on the possible establishment of the mission center but said the committee was pleased that Burns had initiated a review of how the CIA is oriented toward China and looked forward to the results.Bloomberg News

Extra Covid vax OK’d for those with weak immune systems

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ASHINGTON—US regulators say transplant recipients and others with severely weakened immune systems can get an extra dose of the Pfizer or Moderna Covid-19 vaccines to better protect them as the delta variant continues to surge.

T he late-night announcement Thursday by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) applies to several million Americans who are especially vulnerable because of organ transplants, certain cancers or other disorders. Several other countries, including France and Israel, have similar recommendations.

It’s harder for vaccines to rev up an immune system suppressed by certain medications and diseases, so those patients don’t always get the same protection as otherwise healthy people—and small studies suggest for at least some, an extra dose may be the solution.

“Today’s action allows doctors to boost immunity in certain immunocompromised individuals who need extra protection from Covid-19,” Dr. Janet Woodcock, the FDA’s acting commissioner, said in a statement.

The FDA determined that transplant recipients and others with a similar level of compromised immunity can receive a third dose of the vaccines from Pfizer and Moderna at least 28 days after getting their second shot. The FDA made no mention of immune-compromised patients who received the single-dose Johnson & Johnson vaccine.

The announcement comes as the extra-contagious delta version of the coronavirus surges through much of the country, pushing new cases, hospitalizations and deaths to heights not seen since last winter.

Importantly, the FDA’s decision only applies to this high-risk group, estimated to be no more than 3 percent of US adults. It’s not an opening for booster doses for the general population.

Instead, health authorities con-

sider the extra dose part of the initial prescription for the immune-compromised. For example, France since April has encouraged that such patients get a third dose four weeks after their regular second shot. Israel and Germany also recently began recommending a third dose of two-dose vaccines.

Separately, US health officials are continuing to closely monitor if and when average people’s immunity wanes enough to require boosters for everyone — but for now, the vaccines continue to offer robust protection for the general population.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is expected to formally recommend the extra shots for certain immune-compromised groups after a meeting Friday of its outside advisers.

Transplant recipients and others with suppressed immune systems know they’re at more risk than the average American and some have been seeking out extra doses on their own, even if it means lying about their vaccination status. The change means now the high-risk groups can more easily get another shot — but experts caution it’s not yet clear exactly who should.

“This is all going to be very personalized,” cautioned Dr. Dorry Segev, a transplant surgeon at Johns Hopkins University who is running a major National Institutes of Health study of extra shots for organ recipients. For some people, a third dose “increases their immune response. Yet for some people it does not seem to. We don’t quite know who’s who yet.”

One recent study of more than 650 transplant recipients found just over half harbored virus-fighting antibodies after two doses of the Pfizer or Moderna vaccines—although generally less than in otherwise healthy vaccinated people.

Another study of people with rheumatoid arthritis and similar autoimmune diseases found only those who use particular medications have very poor vaccine responses. AP

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DTI Hong Kong launches drive to promote Pinoy food products CONSUL General Raly L. Tejada and some attendees of the “Philippine” Flavours campaign. PHOTOS COURTESY OF DTI

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HE Philippine Trade and Investment Center Hong Kong (PTIC-HK), in partnership with the Philippine Consulate General in Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, officially launched the “Philippine Flavours” campaign to promote the Philippines as an attractive and reliable source of food products and ingredients for the Hong Kong and Mainland Chinese market on Thursday, August 5, 2021.

The campaign, launched in partnership with PTIC-Beijing, PTICGuangzhou, PTIC-Shanghai, the Office of the Agriculture Counsellor of the Philippines in Beijing, DTI-Export Marketing Bureau, DTI Baguio-Benguet, and the Center for International Trade Expositions and Missions (CITEM), is envisioned to kickstart a conversation around Filipino food and beverage products leading up to the country’s participation in the Hong Kong Trade Development Council’s Food Expo this month.

During the opening remarks,

Atty. Raly L. Tejada, Consul General of the Philippine Consulate General in Hong Kong, emphasized the strong and enduring ties between the Philippines and Hong Kong, adding that Hong Kong is a great platform for Filipino food exporters to test the Mainland China market.

“The relationship between the Philippines and Hong Kong is very important not only because of their proximity but also because they see each other as important trading partners,” said Consul General Tejada.

In 2020, Hong Kong ranked as the country’s fourth trading partner, fourth-largest export market, and 11th import supplier.

“For this campaign, we aim to promote Filipino products to Hong Kong, China, and even other parts of the world and provide a channel for Hong Kong’s general public to know more about the Filipino food and beverage,” he added.

The campaign kicked off with the launch of a cooking video between

Carlo, a local chef from the Philippines and Martin, a popular online influencer in Hong Kong, where they cooked three Filipino-Hong Kong fusion dishes: beef brisket in clear broth, lychee sweet and sour pork, and pancit.

After the video launch, an ensuing panel discussion explored the opportunities for Filipino food products and raw ingredients in Hong Kong.

Moderated by Atty. Roberto B. Mabalot Jr, Vice Consul (Commercial) and Commercial Attache of PTICHong Kong, the panelists included Mr. Billy Wong, Deputy Director of Research of the Hong Kong Trade and Development Council; Ms. Eva Marie C. Mariquina, Officer-inCharge of Overseas Trade Fairs and Buyer Campaign Division, Center

for International Trade Exposition and Missions; and Mr. John Carlo de Guzman, a businessman-chef from Baguio City, Philippines.

“Being a strategic market for Philippine food products, we want to capitalize on our proximity to the market by bringing the best of Philippine flavors through products and ingredients. We want the market to experience unique Philippine flavors in their dishes. So the approach is fusion. We put in the market’s consciousness there are Philippine products which can add another layer of texture and flavor to their usual food,” Mariquina said.

In his closing remarks, Trade Secretary Ramon M. Lopez called on the 200,000-strong overseas Filipino (OF) community in Hong Kong to

champion Filipino food and beverages in their respective households.

“We look forward to our OFs in Hong Kong using more of our Filipino products when providing for the food and beverage requirements of your employers and their families. It is through this simple act of pride and patriotism that you are able to shine a light on Filipino food and beverage products, which indirectly contributes to our homeland’s economic development,” Secretary Lopez said in a video message. “[P]hilippine food is a good representation of our country because, despite the diverse cultures throughout the islands, food also unites us—especially when we share it with others.

We hope that we can share our food with you today,” Lopez said.

PHL joins China investment and trade fair for 2nd straight year

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HE Philippines will once again join the China International Fair for Investment and Trade (CIFIT) 2021 as Guest Country of Honor from September 8 to 11, 2021 in Xiamen, China.

“For the second year in a row, the Philippines is once again given the distinct recognition as CIFIT’s Guest Country of Honor in 2021 to showcase the best of our country as a leading investment destination,” Trade Secretary Ramon M. Lopez said in a video message. “This recognition is not surprising, given that the Philippines and China share a long and rich history steeped in both culture and trade.”

CIFIT is China’s only international investment promotion event aimed at facilitating bilateral investment and the largest global investment approved by the Global Association of the Exhibition Industry. With the theme “Introducing FDI” and “Going Global,” CIFIT 2021 focuses on domestic and international opportunities for trade and investment promotion and cooperation. In 2020, the Philippines organized a National Pavilion to showcase the investment and trade opportunities in the Philippines. With the theme “Partner Philippines,” the pavilion highlighted the inherent capability of the Philippines to adapt to the rapid changes in the global business landscape and emphasized the advantages of partnering with Filipino businesses across all sectors.

Last year, 14 private and public entities from the Philippines participated as exhibitors in CIFIT, including five Investment Promotion Agencies: Bases Conversion and Development Authority; Authority of the Freeport Area of Bataan; Zamboanga City Special Economic Zone Authority; Board of Investments; and the Philippine Economic Zone Authority.

Mondial Medical launches new arm to import anti-virus products amid pandemic

By Roderick L. Abad Contributor

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ONDIAL Medical Technologies (MMT), distributor of quality and cost-efficient medical equipment and supplies, has launched a new arm called Mondial Direct that is engaged in selling imported lifeenhancing and life-support products in health care.

At the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic early last year, when everyone needed to protect themselves from contracting the virulent disease by using sanitizers and wearing face masks and face

AIRWHEEL F3 Smart Mask

shields, the leaders of MMT, through this new division, found an opportunity to protect the consumers from the virus, as well as help and better sustain the lives of their employees.

“When the program was introduced, I was excited! Not just of the extra income I can potentially earn but also because the products we were bringing in were really one-of-a-kind, like the Ozobarrier [from Japan], which is a very portable gadget that helps clean the air around you. My friends and clients really saw its importance during the early days of the pandemic,’’ said Lorenzo de Guzman Jr., warehouse associate

of Mondial Direct.

Mondial Direct introduces Aeris Active, the first powerful and all-purpose surface cleaner and disinfectant from Australia that kills 99.99 percent of bacteria, viruses and fungi continuously for seven days; Airwheel F3 Mask, a smart mask from the United States that has a unique dual option ventilation system and an efficient five-layer filtration technology for better protection; and Maskshield+ Protecting Spray, an innovation from world-renowned Thai company Tigerplast, that helps increase filtration capability of fabric face masks.

Mica F. Tan, head of MFT Group, a private equity firm that operates Mondial Medical Technologies among other entities, finds it very gratifying to witness the birth of Mondial Direct as they continue to actively pitch to bring in more relevant products to the market so Filipinos can achieve better health and quality of living.

MMT and Mondial Direct are now ready to push forward and have their eyes locked on filling the space of innovative wellness, as proven by their collection of products where people can gain access to the future of personal health care today.

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Oldest living Filipino Korean War vet marks 99th birthday

By Ben Cal

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A NIL A—Retired Maj. Max Young, the oldest living Filipino Korean War veteran, celebrated his 99th birthday last July 30, thanking God after he recovered from severe pneumonia, not once, but four times early this year.

Young is concurrently the president of the Philippine Expeditionary Force to Korea (PEFTOK), wherein former President Fidel V. Ramos, now 93, is a member.

From the original 7,420 PEFTOK troopers, only 174 are living as of August 10, 2021, all of them in their late 80s and 90s, Young said.

In an exclusive interview, Young said he was first rushed to the University of the East Medical Center in Quezon City gasping for breath on February 3 and was released a week later.

“But again on Valentine’s Day, February 14, I was back in the hospital, but was discharged a few days later only to be brought again on February 20, and stayed at the hospital for a week,” he said.

“I thought everything was okay, but on March 27, I was again brought to the hospital when I was diagnosed of pneumonia by Dr. Isagani Rodri-

RETIRED Maj. Max Young, the oldest living Filipino Korean War veteran, celebrates his 99th birthday on July 30, 2021. Young thanked God after he recovered from severe pneumonia, not once, but four times early this year.

guez,” Young said.

During the four times that he was in the hospital, Young’s second wife, Mercedes (first wife is Norma), their nine children and their respective families that include 37 grandchildren and great grandchildren, prayed for the healing of Young, a decorated hero of the Korean War as tank commander during the Yultong fierce gun battle that earned him the highest military medal given by the South Korean government to a soldier for gallantry in combat.

“We thank God and the intercession of the Blessed Mother for answering our prayers for the healing of my husband,” said Mercedes, a Marian devotee.

She said the healing is a “miracle at a time that the deadly Covid-19 pandemic is raging.”

Young’s children, all from first wife (Norma), are Walter, 71, the eldest, William, Wilbert, Winston, Wilmar, Wandra, Wilson, May, and Warren, 61, the youngest.

The 99-year-old Young was also a guerrilla fighter during World War II. During the interview, Young said he is looking forward “to celebrate my 100th birthday in 2022 with God’s blessing.” PNA

Hong Kong recovery imperiled by elderly saying no to vaccine

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NLIKE the US where antivaccine fringe groups have fueled resistance to Covid shots, Hong Kong is facing a different challenge. Most of the city’s elderly are reluctant to get inoculated, and some point to an unlikely source for the hesitancy: their doctors.

Almost half a year into the territory’s vaccination program with freely available shots, seniors are still staying away, due in part to advice from ultra-cautious doctors to defer vaccination if they have chronic conditions not yet under control. The physicians appear to have taken their cue from a midMarch government recommendation that came after several postvaccination deaths and cases of adverse reactions were reported in the early days of the rollout, though studies found no links between the fatalities and the shot.

Thanks in part to such doubts

and fears, Hong Kong has one of the lowest vaccination rates among developed economies, hampering efforts to reopen borders and spur a recovery from the pandemic.

Among people aged 65 and above, just an estimated 28 percent have received at least one dose, according to a Bloomberg analysis of government data, compared with 90 percent in the US and 87 percent in Japan. For those above the age of 80 in Hong Kong, the number shrinks to 8 percent.

While a June advisory emphasizing the safety of the vaccines, walkin appointments for the elderly and incentives are helping turn things around, interviews with some of the city’s seniors and experts show most aren’t yet ready to line up in droves at vaccination centers. It may take two years to cover the elderly, University of Hong Kong microbiologist Ho Pak-leung told Radio Television

Hong Kong last week.

“If they are concerned about any side effects, the elderly are referred to their family doctors, who may not want to deal with any issues with liability and are therefore more likely to tell them to be more cautious,” said Ben Cowling, head of epidemiology at the University of Hong Kong.

The Hong Kong Medical Association declined to comment.

With the highly contagious Delta variant of Covid-19 spreading worldwide, including in mainland China, the hesitancy is posing a threat to the Covid defenses Asia’s financial hub has built employing some of the world’s toughest travel curbs and quarantine policies.

Though BioNTech SE’s messenger RNA vaccine and Sinovac Biotech Ltd.’s China-made inactivated shot are free and easily available for anyone over the age of 12, only about a third of the city’s population is fully

Be a blessing

By Nick Tayag

MY SIXTY-ZEN’S WORTH

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WO years in intermittent lockdowns. And you are still here.

Safe at home with your loved ones while names of people you know are being mourned by their families and friends on social media. You can still breathe freely, meaning your lungs are clear. You’re not confined to a hospital bed or in the agony of waiting in the ER for someone to die so a bed could be made available.

These are the many blessings we should keep in mind when we heave a sigh and loudly groan out of boredom and frustration from having to stay at home for the longest time.

While we find ourselves in an uneasy time of rupture and anxiety, it’s also an opportunity for transformative change. Covid-19 is one big wake-up call for human beings.

It is a crisis we should process in-

ternally and not squander, a “good crisis not to be wasted,” as someone put it.

I detect a shift in spending focus to essentials. It’s back to the basics.

Most importantly, this pandemic should bring us closer to the idea of our own death. Now is a good time as any to consider seriously our own mortality, to use life wisely, to appreciate it fully, to love more deeply while we’re still here and we still can.

An ancient adage says: life is the gift of nature, but beautiful living is a gift to yourself. Bless your life by embracing it wholeheartedly. Strive to fill your cup fully to the brim. You want the world to change? Start by being the change you want to see. Open yourself to new possibilities. Tell the future: surprise me!

Abraham Lincoln said that what

counts is not the number of years in your life but “the life that is in your years.” Do you feel a tug at your heart to develop qualities and potentials in yourself too long neglected? Now is the time to express yourself and give way to your creativity. Stop playing second fiddle and start playing your own song.

Spend the time of the pandemic to discover your ikigai, which is a Japanese concept roughly meaning “a reason to get up in the morning.” It can be tending to indoor plants, taking painting lessons, doing crafts, working for a cause, doing something useful for someone you love, or a neighbor, or a stranger. Feel the impulse at this time in your life to find some new way to discover something new about yourself, to reinvest in something.

Just as you want the future to surprise you, surprise the outside world by coming out with a new improved you, after the pandemic. Even in late life, there’s still time and opportunity to be “juicier” as a person, if not in body.

My default for finding inspiration is the arts. The arts are an antidote to stagnation because you

vaccinated, according to the Bloomberg Vaccine Tracker. That compares with 64 percent for Singapore, which has an ambitious plan to soon reach 80 percent and restore some international travel by as early as September.

Hing So, 74, suffers from the “three highs”—blood pressure, blood sugar and cholesterol. She has been holding off on the shot following her family physician’s advice to be “cautious and wary.”

“My doctor won’t tell me outright whether I should take the vaccine or not, but I feel like his attitude is very skeptical,” So said.

Cheng Siu-kum, 67, who gets bouts of dizziness, said she didn’t bother to get the shot after her friends with similar conditions were discouraged by their doctors. “It’s all right not to be vaccinated for now,” the retired waitress said. “The risk of getting Covid now in Hong Kong is not really that high.” Bloomberg News get to live in a world of creative vitality. They will definitely help you feel more joyous and more fulfilled as a person.

Research has shown that art, whether it’s painting, sculpture, music, literature, or cinema, affects the quality of our living by enriching our inner lives. It increases our self-awareness, about what makes us happy and fulfilled. This is because art allows us to have a deeper understanding of our emotions, and also enables us to be open to new ideas and experiences.

Enriched and enlarged by the arts, you become like a cup that is brimming over. With so much more to give, life calls you to share the gift of your “better juicier self” with others.

Remember Shel Silverstein’s “The Giving Tree” story? The tree that gives and gives and gives, giving everything it had, never expecting anything in return, never asking for her due, always there for human beings.

Like that allegorical tree, be a giver, not just a taker. Instead of just counting your blessings, repurpose your life by striving to be a source of “blessings” to benefit others. Note that people will

Editor: Angel R. Calso • Saturday, August 14, 2021 A7

Archaeologists say ancient rock art sheds light on folk migration

By Villamor Visaya Jr.

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UGUEGARAO CITY—A directly-dated rock art created 3,500 years ago and found at the Callao Caves in Peñablanca town is believed to help answer queries on folk migration in Cagayan, archaeologists said.

Dr. Andrea Jalandoni, who heads the Griffith University’s Place, Evolution and Rock Art Heritage Unit, on Tuesday said dated samples from the art rock were taken last year from a black pigment human figure, which was found in Hermoso Tuliao Cave, one of the about 19 included in the Callao Caves.

Jalandoni, together with Jennifer Baquiran, Cagayan provincial tourism officer, and Noel Hidalgo Tan, a senior specialist in Archaeology of the Southeast Asian Regional Centre for Archaeology and Fine Arts in Bangkok, Thailand, spoke in a virtual media briefing.

Jalandoni, who is the lead author of a paper, entitled “First Directly Dated Rock Art in Southeast Asia and The Archaeological Implications,” said the first-time art rock discovery was earlier published in the Radiocarbon Journal and uncovers a timeline in the human activities at that time such as foraging in Eme and Arku Caves and pottery in the Callao Caves.

Untapped potential for dating similar charcoal rock art figures shows a “holistic view” of the early folks in the countryside, she added.

The rock art was believed to have been created by either early Austronesians, who arrived around 4,000 years ago, or the Agta Negritos who migrated during the Ice Age, Jalandoni said. The groups still live in the area, “so more rock art needs to be dated to determine its origin,” she noted.

“The [3,500 years] date is older than anyone expected it. The discovery marks the beginning of the direct rock art dating revolution in Southeast Asia. Hopefully, this will lead to a better appreciation and more protection for this significant cultural heritage in the Philippines,” Jalandoni told the Philippine News Agency in a virtual interview.

Direct dating rock art involves a process whereby the paint material from the artwork itself is dated, rather than the materials around or on top of the artwork, she explained. “ The black pigment human figure forms part of a gallery of paintings with two other human remember you not for the material stuff you gave them but for how your presence made a difference in a positive way.

Being a blessing to others can be as simple as showing love and respect for others, doing a small act of service, empathizing with others. By doing these things cheerfully, in loving kindness, we each do our part in changing the world in small increments.

Maybe, you don’t need to look beyond the home. Start with your loved ones. The greatest gift you can give is your time, attention, love, and concern. The people who are close to us, who really love and respect us would rather have you than the material things you can give them.

Now is the golden time for them to really know the best of you. For when you give the gift of yourself you’re saying “you’re extremely important to me, I care about you, I love you, you’re valuable.”

Outside your own family, infect those around you with the virus of inspiration and empowerment such as colleagues, your peers, your friends, your partners, and your subordinates. Be an enabler

figures, and a few leaf and circle motifs. Similar motifs have been found in other places in Southeast Asia,” she added.

Tan said black rock art is more recent because it is placed over red art, or because the subjects depicted are quite modern.

The new finding has prompted archaeologists to be more cautious about attributing black rock art as “recent” and to do direct dating for more rock art sites in the region, he added.

Earlier, archaeologists and historians predicted that more fossils of unique animal species are expected to be unearthed after the discovery of three erstwhile unknown species of giant cloud rat fossils, locally known as buot, in Callao Caves.

Baquiran said more fossils are expected to be dug after those of extinct mammals have earlier been discovered in Callao such as an endemic deer, a giant hog, dwarf water buffalo, rhinoceros and other species.

These species include those fossils of Homo luzonensis, believed to be the first species of people in the area some 50,000 to 67,000 years ago.

Fossils of archaic humans, that lived during the Late Pleistocene were first discovered in the cave and documented in 2007 by a team led

by UP’s Armand Mijares and reaffirmed with the discovery of nowextinct human sub-species, Calla, according to studies.

Scientists describe a cache of seven teeth and six bones from the feet, hands and thigh of at least three individuals. They were recovered from Callao Cave in the northern town of Peñablanca in Cagayan province in 2007, 2011, and 2015. Tests on two samples show minimum ages of 50,000 years and 67,000 years, research showed.

Since the 1970s, archaeological diggings have been conducted in Cagayan. Most fossils were unearthed way back in 1979, 2011, and 2019 and were compared to the discoveries from other studies abroad.

The province’s museum, which received replicas of the artifacts from the National Museum with national significance, would also get a replica of the extinct giant cloud rat’s fossil later, Baquiran said.

“The Callao caves resemble a rich biodiversity in the province,” she added, noting that Filipino and American archaeologists have been initiating diggings to find more fossil remains inside caves in Luzon. PNA of talent. Inspire others to dream more, learn more, and do more by your words and actions, as John Quincy Adams said.

Our society still tends to marginalize, ignore, and even revile the elderly. People are always trying to put us in a cage called ageism. Don’t let them. Resist them.

We can’t be dismissed yet. We must summon the energy and desire to give back or “give forward” as someone put it.

Remember, golden oldies have knowledge and wisdom to share with others. Driven by the pull of legacy, the promise of purpose, seniors should use their remaining years to volunteer, to mentor, and to contribute.

Let’s tell our stories, identify our values, share the fruits of our long lives, and pass on our legacies to others, specially our grand children. This “apostolic” work is our lasting gift to them.

As you hunker down and endure more months of the pandemic, count your blessings, yes, but better yet, make your life count by being a better person for others. Wholehearted living is a gift to yourself, coupled with wholehearted giving and sharing with others.

Education BusinessMirror

A8 Saturday, August 14, 2021

InvestEd.ph sets up nursing education fund to secure PHL’s supply of future frontliners

Editor: Mike Policarpio

Education sector hardest hit by ransomware in 2020

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NVESTED.PH has collaborated with the Johnson & Johnson Foundation to expand its Global Nurse Education Finance Initiative in the Philippines.

The partnership aims to provide financing to support the education of 800 qualified nursing students over the next five years.

In addition, the initiative will introduce a “loan forgiveness incentive” for nurses who will graduate and work in the country’s medical facilities.

The initiative is part of the InvestEd-led Alliance for Future Frontliners—a community of education champions, advocates and leaders securing the education of future medical workers. One of its mandates is to address the shortage of health-care workers in the country by removing socioeconomic barriers to their successes.

According to InvestEd, nursing students face tremendous financial burdens just to register and practice their careers, and become registered professionals. Considering school fees, board exam fees and additional accreditation fees, nursing is one of the most expensive courses in the Philippines.

Nursing students, especially those from poor and low-income

households, have limited options to pay for their studies, licensure exam, and work expenses.

Likewise, they tend to take work opportunities in other countries because of better pay and working conditions.

The national pandemic response highlighted the importance of investing in professionals in the medical work force.

Johnson & Johnson Foundation has provided a grant to InvestEd to create a sustainable education finance program and a revolving education fund. This will be used as lending capital to provide concessionary loans to nursing students. Such can be used for tuition, allowances, housing and gadget expenses for undergraduate students, licensure exam expenses for graduated students, and upskilling expenses for earlycareer nurses.

The loans will follow a “study now, pay later” scheme, which allows students to finish their studies and begin repayment when they have found work. In addition, the

A

fund allows for “loan forgiveness” for a part or all of a student’s debt if they choose to work in the country.

Students under this initiative will have access to InvestEd’s innovative Education-to-Adulthood digital coaching program. The online platform allows access to mentors and fellow students, as well as learning modules such as managing their loans and managing stress in the workplace.

“A crucial aspect in the fight against present and future pandemics is that we secure the supply of our future frontliners,” InvestEd CoFounder and CEO Carmina Bayombong said. “The Alliance for Future Frontliners aims to ensure that our future frontliners acquire the financial and psychological support needed to reach gradua-

tion day and succeed in the noble work that they do.”

Bayombong added, “One of the great things about this project is the exploration to do analytics on risk, success, and retention for nursing students.”

Education loans to financially disadvantaged learners are provided at scale. Its suite of financial products cover life-long learning needs spanning traditional and nontraditional tracks. InvestEd eliminates risks in its entire lending process through its proprietary Risk Engine.

A globa l ly awa rded impact business, InvestEd currently has the biggest loan portfolio of lowincome youth in the Philippines, and has raised more than a million dollars of funding.

City of Malabon U earns CHED’s eligibility seal

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AL ABONI AN students are now guaranteed free quality education, courtesy of the City of Malabon University (CMU).

On July 16 the Commission on Higher Education (CHED) issued a “Certificate of Eligibility” to CMU, allowing it to benefit from Republic Act 10931, or the Universal Access to Quality Tertiary Education Act. The law allows state universities, colleges and state-run technicalvocationa l schools to prov ide students with quality education without the need to pay tuition, while they enjoy exemptions from paying other school fees.

With this, Malabonian students would be the ultimate beneficiaries, as they now have the opportunity of a free quality education in all of CMU’s degree programs with the help of the Unified Financial Assistance System for Tertiary (UniFAST) Education Act. Also known as Republic Act 10687, UniFAST reconciles, improves and

MAYOR Antolin Oreta (second from right) accepts the Certificate of Eligibility

brings all government-funded modalities of Student Financial Assistance Programs, or StuFAPs, for tertiary education under one body in both public and private institutions.

“Since the past year, CMU, with the help of UniFAST, has been very enthusiastic in complying with all the requirements needed for the acquisition of the Certification of

Eligibility, [so that all its students] gain access to free education,” said Mayor Antolin “Lenlen” A. Oreta of Malabon City. “This is indeed… welcome news that would have long-term benefits not only for the individual students and their families, but also to the Malabonian community.”

Since 1994 CMU has provided Malabonian students—particu-

larly those from the economically challenged households—with a low-cost method of obtaining higher education customized to the needs of a developing global environment. One of CMU’s goals is to transform its holistic learners into competent work force members.

“Having access to a free education would be a huge support to the City of Malabon in assisting more deserving students,” added the local chief executive. “These students only deserve the best quality education, which would equip them with the necessary skills to find better prospects, and give their families [better lives] in the future.”

He further stated: “We extend our appreciation to CHED, for it has given every Kabataang Malabonian a chance to learn and be fully prepared to excel in the competitive world ahead.”

For more information on CMU, visit cityofmalabonuniversity.edu.ph.

S parts of the Philippines continues to be on lockdown, virtual classes are still the safest option so students can continue to learn. However, digital transformation comes with cyber security risks.

Global leader in next-generation cyber security Sophos recently published the Sophos State of Ransomware in Education 2021 report, which looks at the extent and impact of ransomware attacks on educational institutions worldwide in 2020.

The research findings provide the vulnerability of educational institutions that they should be aware of, review, and act on. They include: n Education, together with retail, faced the highest level of ransomware attacks during 2020, with 44 percent of organizations hit (compared to 37 percent across all industry sectors). n For educational institutions, the financial impact of a ransomware attack in 2020 was crippling.

The total bill for rectifying a ransomware attack in the education sector, considering downtime, people time, device cost, network cost, lost opportunity, ransom paid and more, was, on average, $2.73 million—the highest across all sectors surveyed, and 48 percent above the global average. n More than half (58 percent) of education organizations hit by ransomware said the attackers had succeeded in encrypting their data. n Over a third (35 percent) of those with encrypted data gave in to the attackers’ demands and paid the ransom. Only the energy, oil/ gas, and utilities (43 percent) and local government (42 percent) sectors were more likely to pay. n Average ransom payment was $112,435 (lower than the global average of $170,404). However, those who paid recovered on average only around two-thirds (68 percent) of their data, leaving almost a third inaccessible, and just 11 percent got

all their encrypted data back. n Of those institutions that were not hit with ransomware last year (55 percent of respondents), the majority (61 percent) expect to be targeted in the future. Main reasons for such are that cyber attacks are now extremely sophisticated (46 percent) and prevalent (42 percent) that they are almost impossible to contain.

“The…sector has long been an attractive target for cyber attackers,” Chester Wisniewski, principal research scientist at Sophos, said. “[Budgets for information technology] and cyber security can be very tight, with stretched IT teams battling to protect what is often outdated infrastructure using limited tools and resources, coupled with risky end-user behaviors such as downloading pirated software.”

All these increase exposure to risk in any year. In 2020 however, when the pandemic happened and education establishments had to switch to virtual learning environments on short notice, with very little time to think about security or provide basic cyber security training for all the new remote users. It significantly increased the sector’s vulnerability, and adversaries were quick to seize the opportunity, leaving victims with the substantial financial impact of rebuilding IT infrastructure from scratch. “ To secure [their net works] against ransomware, we advise IT teams to focus resources on three critical areas: building more robust defenses against cyber threats, introducing security skills training for users and, where possible, investing in more resilient infrastructure,” Wisniewski explained.

The Sophos State of Ransomware in Education 2021 survey polled 5,400 IT decision-makers, including 499 education IT managers, in 30 countries across Europe, the Americas, Asia-Pacific, Central Asia, the Middle East, and Africa.

PLM holds graduation ceremony on Aug. 14

Team Europe pledges €1.7B to Global Partnership for Education

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T the Global Education Summit in London on July 30, the European Union (EU) and its member-states, as Team Europe, pledged €1.7 billion to the Global Partnership for Education (GPE) to help transform education systems for more than 1 billion girls and boys in more than 90 countries and territories.

This represents the biggest contribution to the GPE. The EU had already announced its €700-million pledge for 2021 to 2027 in June.

The bloc was represented at the summit by European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and Commissioner for International Partnerships Jutta Ur pilainen.

Their interventions highlighted the impact of the pandemic on children’s education worldwide, as well as the will of the EU and its member-states to act.

“Education is the most basic infrastructure for human development: Reading, writing, math, logic, digital skills [and understand-

ing our life, no matter on which continent you live, are essential],” von der Leyen said. “Education should be a truly universal right.

She added: “That is why the EU invests in international cooperation for education, more than the rest of the world combined. And we are stepping up [our] efforts in these extraordinary times.”

Ur pi lainen commented: “ We h ave com m it ted not to a l low [t he pandemic] to reverse decades of prog ress in improv ing access to education, and our acts fol low words. With €1.7 bil lion pledged to date, Team Europe is proud to be a leading donor of the GPE and suppor ts free, inclusive, equitable and qua lit y education for a l l.”

She further stated: “Education is an accelerator of progress toward all Sustainable Development Goals, and will have a central role in the recovery. Together with all our partners, we can ensure that every child has the chance to learn and succeed.”

For global education

EU support to education is focused on ensuring quality, equality and equity, and on matching skills and jobs. This means in particular: n Investing in well-trained and motivated teachers that can equip children with the right mix of skills needed in the 21st century. At least 69 million new educators will have to be recruited by 2030 for primary and secondary education—including more than 17 million in Africa. n Investing in equality, and in particular promoting girls’ education and leveraging the potential of digital innovations. Educating and empowering girls is a key aspect of the EU Gender Action Plan III, which aims to curb the rise of inequalities in the context of the pandemic, and accelerate progress on gender equality and women’s empowerment. n Investing in skills for the future, to prepare future professionals, business leaders and decision-makers for green and digital transformation.

The Team Europe approach of

the EU and its member-states creates scale, coordination, and focus that help maximize joint impact in providing education opportunities for every child.

Financing GPE 2021-2025

THE Global Education Summit is a replenishment conference for the GPE, the only global partnership for education that brings together representatives of all education stakeholder groups including partner countries, donors, international organizations, civil society groups, foundations and the private sector.

The GPE, hosted by the World Bank, provides financial support to low-income and lower middle-income countries—especially those with high numbers of out-of-school children and significant gender disparities.

Most funding is allocated to SubSaharan Africa.

Between 2014 and 2020, the EU and its member-states accounted for more than half of all contributions to the GPE.

T

HE Pamantasan ng Lungsod ng Maynila invites all graduating students, their family members, faculty and staff to witness its 53rd Commencement Exercises which will be held virtually on Saturday, August 14 at 2 p.m.

This is the second virtual graduation ceremony to be hosted by the university in the midst of the pandemic.

Despite unprecedented challenges of distance learning, PLM students soldiered on to fulfill their class requirements and complete their respective degrees. During its July 21 meeting, the PLM Board of Regents officially conferred the degrees to 433 graduates, composed of 129 undergraduate students and 304 Master’s and Doctorate students. Of them, seven are graduating with cum laude honors.

President Emmanuel Leyco of PLM and Manila Mayor Francisco “Isko Moreno” Domagoso will deliver inspirational messages, while Ana Patricia Non, founder of the

community pantries movement during the pandemic, will be the commencement speaker.

Cum laude graduate Bernadette Canapit from the PLM Business School will convey the valedictory address for undergraduates, while Jenny Lynn Karunungan from the College of Medicine will address the postgraduate and professionaldegree holders.

Strict health protocols such as the wearing of masks and physical distancing were observed during the on-site graduation shoot done over a week, where a very limited number of graduates took part, along with key PLM officials and commencement speakers per day. Filming was done prior to the enhanced community quarantine declaration in Metro Manila.

The online graduation ceremony may be viewed through the PLM Facebook page: @PLM.Haribon, the Office of the PLM President page: @ PoPLMLeyco, and the PLM web site: www.plm.edu.ph.

Tourism&Entertainment BusinessMirror

Editor: Carla Mortel-Baricaua

Saturday, August 14, 2021 A9

Prevailing over Abandonments: Czechia’s Folk Village of Holašovice

Look, no crowd! The village offers a highly pleasant atmosphere making visits enjoyable.

One of the most beautiful house facades in the village.

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By Bernard Joseph Esposo Guerrero

olašovice is clearly not the town that easily makes it to a travel itinerary in Czech Republic. In fact, it is not even a town— it is just a village! Despite it being off the tourist radar, it is perhaps the most memorable place we have been to in the country, even managing to win over our hearts more than the capital Prague did.

So, how did this largely unheardof rural hamlet in Southern Bohemia find a place in our trip when by just looking at the map, the more popular Cesky Krumlov (only 20 kilometers away) could have been the more obvious choice for a stopover by while driving from Prague to Munich?

First, at that time, my friend and I have been traveling in Central Europe for a few weeks already, and it came to a point where an old town— especially for me—was just like any other old town! While good-looking cities on the way could have been easy and attractive picks, we made the deliberate decision to put some variety into the trip by visiting some places that travel operators still do not bring loads of tourists to. Second, we felt we needed a place that we can conveniently explore and appreciate in an hour.

However, we enjoyed Holašovice’s unspoiled setting and pleasant vibe so much that we ended up hanging around longer than intended. Oftentimes, exceptional villages like it are gravely overlooked in favor

of bigger, more historic towns in Europe.

After two hours of driving from Prague, what greeted us was a modest village with rows of charming farmsteads surrounding a green square, and hardly with any sign of “Disneyfication.” Holašovice has only one guest house, one quaint souvenir shop (a ceramic shop, where I bought a few nice hand-made items), a local museum dedicated to the village’s agricultural beginnings, a small central church beside a large pond, and one pub that unexpectedly served the best home-made style Bohemian food we have ever tasted! There was even backyard honey producer at the far end of the village from whom we bought a jar of honey to take home. Even in fast-paced 21st century, this place evidently has not sustained the negative impacts associated with mass tourism yet.

In fact, all throughout our short stay, there were only four other tourists who also came by to check the place out. It does, nevertheless, have a tourism center already

CZECH goulash with potato dumplings, the best meal in the country, according to the author

Charming folk baroque details of a window.

with an adequate car park, possibly foreseeing the arrival of hordes of tourists in the next couple of years.

O f f i c i a l l y k no w n a s t he Holašovice Historic Village, it has remarkably preserved its 18th to 19th century high-quality vernacular architectural features, as well as its ground layout that dates way back to the Middle Ages. The people who then settled in the village harmoniously blended Bohemian, Bavarian, and Austrian influences in creating what is now known as the South Bohemian Folk Baroque style, which later spread out across the region and influenced many other countryside settlements.

The current appearance of the village is a testament to the time when romanticized landscapes were in fashion in the Germanspeaking world. Everything there is neatly kept without it looking like an open-air museum. The almost uniform picturesque 2-story

Rows of south Bohemian folk baroque style farmhouses.

It is obviously a working farming village with tools used daily on display.

Beautiful hand-made ceramicwares from the only souvenir shop in the village.

The author happy in finding his favourite place in Czech Republic.

gabled houses are vibrantly painted in beige, yellow, orange, blue and maroon colors. These living abodes all bear rudimentary baroque ornamentations such as potted plants, sunrays, volutes, farming implements, and floral motifs, which give them an unusual appeal that is neither underwhelming nor over-

powering.

T here were periods in Holašovice’s history, though, when it was abandoned. The Bubonic plague of the early 16th century saw the first round of desertion, and then again after the World War II when its largely German population was displaced under the Czech

communist regime. It was only in 1990 when the village was once more reestablished and repopulated, and it is now home to some 140 genuinely nice and welcoming residents. Growth was, therefore, slow compared to other nearby settlements. But, on the brighter side, the absence of rapid development also contributed to keeping its originality and historic textures intact. Despite the troubles it had in the past, one cannot deny that Holašovice has always been special. Its redemption was cemented when it was eventually declared as a Unesco World Heritage Site in 1998.

If you are looking to experience something authentic, more rural, and cozier while in Czech Republic, my advice stands: Holašovice ranks as one of the best examples of a first-class traditional central European village there is to find, and going there will certainly not disappoint.

Earn a Mile-A-Minute in Dubai with Emirates Skywards E

mir ates Skywards, the award-winning loyalty program of Emirates and flydubai, has announced a special “Mile-A-Minute” offer in which members can register to earn up to 5,000 Miles during a stopover or holiday stay in Dubai. The offer comes as Emirates’ home and hub, Dubai, gears up to host Expo 2020 and as the UAE celebrates its Golden Jubilee. The offer is applicable on all Emirates flight tickets purchased between August 1, 2021 and March 31, 2022, for travel between October 1, 2021

and March 31, 2022.

Earn 1 Skywards Mile for every 1 minute spent in Dubai between October 2021 and March 2022. Existing and new Emirates Skywards members who sign up for the program before March 31, 2022, can avail the offer on emirates.com. Book a ticket now, experience the best Dubai has to offer, and enjoy earning up to 5,000 Skywards Miles during your stay.

Visit Dubai

Since it safely reopened to international tourists last year, Dubai

Earn a Mile-A-Minute in Dubai with Emirates Skywards.

remains one of the most popular stopover and holiday destinations.

The city is famed for its iconic landmarks, world-class hotels, and pristine beaches. It was one of the world’s first cities to obtain a Safe Travels stamp from the World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC) which endorses Dubai’s comprehensive and effective measures to ensure guest health and safety.

Expo 2020 is set to take place from October 1, 2021 until March 31, 2022. Travelers can expect a safe and unforgettable visit with

live entertainment shows, cultural festivals, culinary experiences, and inspiring workshops. The global event will welcome more than 25 million visitors from more than 190 countries worldwide.

Click here to learn more and book tickets.

Join nationwide festivities until March 31, 2022 as the UAE rings in its Golden Jubilee, “Year of the 50th.” Visitors can expect grand celebrations and exciting activities across the country as residents and visitors celebrate 50 years of the UAE’s historic achievements.

A10 Saturday, August 14, 2021 • Editor: Gerard S. Ramos

BusinessMirror

www.businessmirror.com.ph

2021 is the year of Genshin Impact Facebook bans firm behind Pfizer, AstraZeneca smear campaign

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HERE were over 2 billion tweets about gaming in 2020 and that’s not suprising.

Tweets about gaming are still going strong in 2021. Year on year, there has been an 18-percent increase in tweets about the genre.

This year, Twitter users are talking about eSports leagues like Call of Duty League and Valorant Champions Tour to global gaming events like E3 and Summer Game Fest. From 9th place in 2020, the Philippines has surpassed India, France and the United Kingdom and is now in 6th in eSports.

If people talked the most about Animal Crossing on Twitter in 2020, this is the year of Genshin Impact, at least the first six months, for Twitter users in the Philippines. Globally, Genshin Impact was also the most talked-about game on Twitter.

In 2021, Twitter users in the Philippines are also talking about games, like “Apax Legends,” “Ensemble Stars!,” “Final Fantasy, Fortnite,” and “Minecraft,” among others.

Kyle Jackson, also known as Mongraal, is the most tweeted-about eSports athlete in the first half of 2021.

The 16-year-old Mongraal plays “Fortnite.”

Gaming PCs, laptops, accessories and peripherals did good business in 2020 and the first half of 2021.

Vertux is a new brand of gaming accessories and peripherals that is also creating a buzz online. Their products are well-designed and priced affordably.

They’re also available in major online channels like Shopee, Lazada, GrabMart and Viber.

Vertux has accessories for every gaming budget and the products look as good as they perform. The keyboards, mouse, headsets, microphones, speakers and even the headset stands have customizable RGB LED lights that can be color-coordinated to fit and

TRUE VALUE-FOR-MONEY SMARTPHONE

LEADING global smart device purveyor Oppo launched the latest member of its A Series, the Oppo A54, which promises value-for-money features and capabilities that promises fit every lifestyle. Retailing at P9,499 and available on Shopee and Lazada and other Oppo authorized stores nationwide, the phone comes in Crystal Black and Starry Blue color variants.

The Oppo A54 is a user-friendly smartphone built for an all-around entertainment experience boasting of features which enable users to live a socially active lifestyle. It offers a great mix of stylish and contemporary design combined with competitive phone features and long-lasting battery life that empowers users to truly enjoy their lives without hassle.

“The Oppo A54 was designed to make the smartphone experience of its users fun and easy to use. Its large battery capacity, big storage and good camera features can help get you through your day. With the A54, you’ll also have enough storage and memory to make sure that you’ll enjoy your entertainment without the frustrations of an underperforming smartphone,” said Zen Han, Oppo Philippines vice president for national sales.

To keep you worry-free throughout your day, the Oppo A54 is packed with a 5000 mAh battery. A single charge can last up to 2.2 days and lets you watch 19.9 hours of continuous YouTube video playback or allows you to message friends and family on WhatsApp for 23 hours. When you finally need to charge your phone, the phone’s 18W Fast Charge gets you right back on your feet only after 2 hours and 23 minutes of charging. If you’re in a hurry, all it takes is 10 minutes to juice up to 13% of battery power.

The user also won’t have to miss a moment with the phone’s 13MP triple camera setup capable of shooting good photos and videos for social media content. For those with a penchant for selfies, they will enjoy taking photos thanks to its 16mp front camera. With an ultra-large memory mix of up to 4GB RAM and 128GB ROM, the Oppo A54 won’t be a cause for interruption. It runs on a Mediatek Helio P35 (MT6765) octacore processor.

For those into casual mobile gaming, HyperBoost improves the performance and smoothness of select apps or games by reallocating system resources, depending on how you use your phone. With HyperBoost, you’ll experience less lag, with the phone multitasking handily.

More information about the Oppo A54 smartphone can be found at www.oppo.com/ph or via its official Facebook page (Oppo Philippines).

OPPO A54

BY DAVID KLEPPE� The Associated Press

VERTUX is a brand of gaming accessories and peripherals with products designed for every gaming budget.

personalize gaming setups.

If you’ve never tried any Vertux product yet but are curious about the brand, you should start with the keyboards, which the brand is known for. Vertux Radiance is a high-precision gaming keyboard with ultra-fast tactical feedback and six anti-ghosting keys that allow simultaneous keypress while gaming.

Vertux Tactical is a high-performing mechanical keyboard that provides precision with 100 percent anti-ghosting keys and stylish rainbow backlight featuring 8 LED effects. Vertux Vendetta comes with a mouse, GX rubber dome switches, RGB lighting with 9 modes and 26 anti-ghosting keys.

When it comes to mice, Vertux Kryptonite has the smoothest, most reliable tracking experience with 6-DPI settings up to 10,000 DPI to help flawless speed

changes. Vertux Dominator is a USB-wired gaming mouse with 4 on-the-go DPI settings up to 3,200 and a polling rate of 1,000Hz, the fastest for a wired mouse.

Vertux’s high-definition noise-isolating headsets include Vertux Malaga and Manila which both offer reliable 40mm speaker drivers. Vertux Blitz has 50mm premium drivers so you can hear everything with the greatest clarity. It also has a lightweight overear design. Vertux Extent and Hexarack are all-in-one headset stands with built-in USB ports and LED lights.

Other Vertux accessories include the Streamer-3 mic, which offers standout easy-tilt performance with a cool LED backlight feature; Vertux Vertucharge-Qi, a wireless charging port that charges at 3x faster speeds; and Vertux PowerbasePS5, a dual dock charging hub for controllers. ■

GETTING RID OF COMPANY GARBAGE? THINK BEFORE YOU TOSS THEM OUT FOR cybercriminals, data remains king. So, when targeting a company for an attack, cybercriminals would also turn to the crudest approach—that is, diving into corporate trash for any valuable data. According to cybersecurity specialist Kaspersky, the top 3 carelessly discarded trash that are highly useful for cybercriminals are work documents, envelopes and digital storage media, and whatever info they might extract from these can be monetized or used against your company.

“It’s said that one can learn a lot about a person or a company from the trash they throw away. Cybercriminals know this all too well and finding out that they rummage through company garbage shouldn’t be surprising,” says Yeo Siang Tiong, general manager for Southeast Asia at Kaspersky (www.kaspersky.com).

Even with digitizing, companies would still be handling paper. In a research by a printer company, the average office worker prints as many as 6,000 sheets of paper in a year (25 in a day) and about 3,720 sheets are considered waste (10 per day). Another research says that nearly half of printed documents in a typical office are discarded within 24 hours.

Tossed-out work documents don’t need to have confidential data in it to reveal what your team is doing, your business lingo, or even your current business processes.

Once these are in the hands of a cybercriminal, such information would be handy to impersonate a staff, supplier or client through telephone or email to draw out more information.

In the past few years, cybercriminals have increasingly resorted to business email compromise (BEC) attacks that target corporate correspondence. A real-life example was when a car manufacturer’s European division lost more than $37 million (P1.8 billion in today’s current forex) to cybercriminals as a result of a fake bank transfer instruction that an employee mistook as legitimate.

Another interesting trash for cybercriminals are envelopes from business letters that indicate details of the addressee and the sender. With knowledge of this information, a cybercriminal can contact the recipient with a convincing request for clarification or send a malicious link that appears to confirm receipt of a real physical document.

Not to be ignored as ordinary office trash are digital media which can be a treasure trove of information for anyone with a malicious intent. A broken smartphone can cough up lists of contacts and messages, and can be used to imitate the

former user of the device. Flash drives, hard disk drives or solid state drives hold tons of work documents and personal data.

“More than 80 percent of all cyber-incidents are caused by human error. Cost-wise, a cybersecurity breach could set back a small- to medium-sized business about $101,000 and an enterprise for $1,090,000 on average [as of last year’s statistics from Kaspersk]). So, it’s up to us in the business sector, regardless of position in the company, to be mindful that the security of the business depends directly on our behavior in handling corporate data,” adds Yeo. Below are some tips from Kaspersky on how to minimize or eliminate the use of office supplies for data storage and hopefully not be used by an attacker: ■ First, destroy all paper documents that are related to the work of the company before tossing them in the garbage. That means all of them, not just those containing personal data. Shred them, envelopes included.

■ Digital media (hard drives, flash sticks) do not belong in the trash. You have to render them mechanically unusable and take them to an electronics recycling center. Use pliers to snap disks and flash drives. For hard drives, use an electric drill or hammer. Remember that there is a flash drive inside every phone and a hard drive inside every computer. If you’re throwing any of them out, first make sure their data is unreadable.

■ Before throwing away parcels or food delivery bags, it’s good practice to tear off and destroy any labels with the name and address of the sender and recipient.

Besides proper disposal of corporate garbage, another way businesses can beef up their cybersecurity is by utilizing technologies, like Kaspersky Endpoint Detection and Response Optimum (KEDRO) which delivers straightforward in-depth defense against complex and advanced threats with no additional overheads.

More information can be found at kas.pr/56ne.

PROVIDENCE, Rhode Island—Facebook said on Tuesday that it has removed hundreds of accounts linked to a mysterious advertising agency operating out of Russia that sought to pay social-media influencers to smear Covid-19 vaccines made by Pfizer and AstraZeneca.

A network of 65 Facebook accounts and 243 Instagram accounts was traced back to Fazze, an advertising and marketing firm working in Russia on behalf of an unknown client.

The network used fake accounts to spread misleading claims that disparaged the safety of the Pfizer and AstraZeneca vaccines. One claimed AstraZeneca’s shot would turn a person into a chimpanzee. The fake accounts targeted audiences in India, Latin America and, to a lesser extent, the US, using several social-media platforms including Facebook and Instagram.

Russia has been actively marketing its Covid-19 vaccine, Sputnik V, abroad in what some analysts see as an effort to score geopolitical points. But Facebook representatives did not speculate on the possible motivation behind the smear campaign.

The Fazze network also contacted social-media influencers in several countries with offers to pay them for reposting the misleading content. That ploy backfired when influencers in Germany and France exposed the network’s offer.

Along with removing the network’s accounts, Facebook also banned Fazze from its platforms.

Messages seeking comment from the company were not immediately returned on Tuesday.

Fazze’s effort did not get much traction online, with some posts failing to get even a single response.

But, while the campaign may have fizzled, it’s noteworthy because of its effort to enlist socialmedia influencers, according to Nathaniel Gleicher, Facebook’s head of security policy.

“Although it was sloppy and didn’t have very good reach, it was an elaborate setup,” Gleicher said on a conference call announcing Tuesday’s actions.

As social-media companies have improved their ability to spot and remove fake accounts, disinformation campaigns have had to adjust. Paying social-media influencers to repost their content provides the potential of exposure to the influencer’s audience, but there’s the risk that social-media influencers will refuse or, as happened in this case, call them out.

Facebook investigators say some influencers did post the material, but later deleted it when stories about Fazze’s work began to emerge.

French YouTuber Léo Grasset was among those contacted by Fazze. He told The Associated Press in May that he was asked to post a 45- to 60-second video on Instagram, TikTok or YouTube criticizing the mortality rate of the Pfizer vaccine.

When Grasset asked Fazze to identify their client, the firm declined. Grasset refused the offer and went public with his concerns.

The offer from Fazze urged influencers not to mention that they were being paid, and also suggested they criticize the media’s reporting on vaccines.

“Too many red flags,” Grasset told the AP. “I decided not to do it.”

www.businessmirror.com.ph

BusinessMirror

Editor: Gerard S. Ramos

• Saturday, August 14, 2021 A11

Virtual checkups: The doctor will see you now...online

‘D

O you sleep on your side? That side where you have the rashes on your face?” Doc Claire asked me.

It was at that moment I realized why I’ve been sneezing just before bedtime, and why I would have these flare-ups the more our bedsheets and blankets smell nice.

“It’s the fabric conditioner!” I almost screamed. Or, in our case, our extreme overuse of fabcon.

I’ve had these problems even before the pandemic.

Rashes would suddenly appear on my face and on my eyelids. I thought it was because I’ve had too much chicken or tuna, or maybe if I was too stressed. My skin would also flare up every time I commute, so it could also be pollution.

But there were times when I just couldn’t sleep because the flare-ups were so itchy—and just as I was about to raise my hand to my face, Doc Claire called out: “No don’t scratch it!” already anticipating what I was about to do.

“You better get yourself a stress ball,” she suggested.

I had my very first “teledermatology” appointment or “virtual checkup” last Saturday. Dr. Claire Habito was in Laguna while I was in Quezon City, but thanks to Zoom and fast PLDT Fibr, I was finally able to consult with a dermatologist about my problem. The rashes had been getting bothersome, and as much as I wanted to have them checked-up, going to the hospital and the probability of taking home the virus wasn’t worth the risk.

My online checkup was done via Zoom, which coincidentally was also how I met Doc Claire. It was also during a Zoom event and she was recommended by my good friend Erica Brenz.

B.C. (or Before Covid), Doc Claire’s clinics were

at the Los Baños Doctors Hospital and Asian Hospital. She has a special interest in supportive oncodermatology, an emerging field that deals with skin, hair and nail side effects from cancer treatment. This led her to write the book Staying Beautiful and Hopeful: A Cancer Patient’s Skin Care Guide, and eventually create Skin Care for Hope, a new local skin-care brand that offers mild, safe and moisturizing skin-care products that are dermatologist-approved and specially formulated for sensitive skin.

Since the pandemic, however, like most doctors, she also had to shift online and do most of her teledermatology consultations online, either via Facebook (www.facebook.com/ClaireHabitoMD, where she offers free online teledermatology consultations every Saturday) or Viber.

She had also been trying several apps for her consultations, but I was her first Zoom patient.

She told me she might actually switch to Zoom as the video quality was much clearer and more secure; the only problem is that with the booking of appointments, Facebook is much easier.

Online consultations have become part of the new normal, as it is safer for patients instead of having them to go to hospitals. There are exceptions of course, such as some of Doc Claire’s cancer patients and those with more serious conditions that she needs to see personally. She also warned about “fake doctors” on Facebook that also offer virtual consultations. So, unless you are sure, it would be a better idea to use apps, such as mWell or SeeYouDoc to find real physicians.

While her patients have been receptive to the change, it did present some challenges, especially for the elderly who are not too familiar with using technology. There is also the issue of video quality as she needs to see the skin problem clearly. In my case, I sent her some photos first just to make sure she sees the details better. One positive about doing everything online, she says, is that everyone needs to book an appointment, so she knows exactly how many patients she’d have, allowing her to better manage her time.

According to her, most complaints during the pandemic were usually rashes, eczema, atopic dermatitis, dandruff, fungal infections, noting a rise in cases of tinea versicolor or what is commonly

known as an-an among children because they are stuck in the house.

Each consultation usually lasts 15 to 20 minutes, and prior to my appointment, I received an email with a patient informed consent form that I had to fill up.

In that form, she advises her patients that there may be a difference between the accuracy of clinical care using telemedicine compared to a face-to-face consult.

A few pointers to remember before your virtual checkup. Again, make sure you have a fast, stable internet connection (don’t do this while driving please!). Good lighting also helps a lot. Be ready with your previous examinations, labs and prescriptions, as the doctor may ask about your medical history.

Write down your questions and have someone record your consultation or take notes.

Doc Claire sent me my diagnosis and prescription soon after my check-up.

Her diagnosis was atopic dermatitis, or skin asthma, which may be caused by allergies (fabcon, strong detergent) or food, or be triggered by stress.

Atopic eczema is an on-and-off problem, she noted, and it’s important to find the triggers. “Dust is a major culprit, so to prevent dust, keep your sheets clean, wash your hands, and do not touch your face with dirty hands.” Allergic rhinitis also contributes to eye itchiness, so it’s better to have antihistamine on hand which you should take whenever you get a rhinitis attack, she advised.

She then gave me a prescription for a cream and reminded me again not to touch the rashes because scratching will just make it even worse. I asked her which Skin Care for Hope products I could use, and she suggested the Mild Oatmeal Soap Bar and the Face and Body Lotion twice a day as moisturizing makes the skin integrity better so that skin is stronger and more resilient.

Skin Care for Hope Moisturizing Oatmeal Soap Bar moisturizes by creating a film of colloidal suspension on the skin that attracts water, making the skin smoother and softer. The Face and Body Lotion, on the other hand, hydrates and replenishes skin moisture without blocking pores. It also contains aloe vera, calendula, sunflower and chamomile extract to soothe sensitive skin, and is paraben-free.

You can check out more of their products at www. skincareforhope.com/shop and their official stores on Shopee and Lazada.

MESSAGE-A-MASSAGE

BECAUSE of my carpal tunnel syndrome, I try to get a massage at least twice a month to alleviate the pain, but due to the lockdown, that won’t be possible anytime soon. There’s home service, but booking strangers might not be the best idea.

The beauty-and-wellness sector has been hit hardest by these repeated lockdowns, and businesses have had to come up with ways to adapt or risk closure.

MassageMNL, the first and leading specialized home-service massage brand, uses technology and social media to reach their loyal customers while ensuring the safety of their staff.

In 2020, MassageMNL had to close during the ECQ and since they want to continue to give livelihood to their team, they created a Facebook group called “MassageMNL Riders” to help people with their errands, pabili service and etc. The in-house riders of the company are all in the group and group members can just post to see if anyone is available to help them.

MassageMNL CEO and Founder Janine Khazaie shared that all of the employees are like family and they wanted to make sure they are well-provided despite the lockdown.

Recently they partnered with different SMEs to disseminate information and to tell inspiring stories with MNL Talks. MNL Talks kicks it off with a conversation about motherhood during the pandemic.

Since parenting has drastically changed because of Covid-19, online talk sessions have been helpful for parents to communicate with others and to learn other skills. It also aims to get the community closer and to give platform for stories, businesses and relationships.

The first webisode of MNL Talks is in partnership with TinyBuds, Swaddies, Nurserie and Pink Lemon Wear. The brand partners will provide giveaway prizes to those who will join the conversation during the live sessions.

MassageMNL (www.facebook.com/massageMNL) offers specialized massages including prenatal/ postnatal home service massages, lactation, lymphatic drainage, sports massage for athletes, myofascial release and even baby and kid’s massages.

You could also opt for the more traditional Swedish, combination, foot reflex, deep tissue, ventosa and hot stone. ■

New powerful nova phones arriving soon THE midrange king returns. Huawei Philippines is set to release its “Super Smartphone” Huawei nova 8 and 8i soon in the Philippines, and are now available for preorder until August 26 via the brand’s physical store plus popular ecommerce platforms.

Coming in a premium re-designed aesthetic that adopts the fashionable design sense of the P Series, the Huawei nova 8 and 8i smartphones provide an upgraded AI 64MP quad-camera to help users of all skill levels to create, as well as a Huawei Edgeless Display that delivers an immersive viewing experience. To top this off, the pioneering 66W Huawei SuperCharge technology means users can recharge rapidly to keep up with uninterrupted gaming and entertainment.

The nova 8i has an excellent 6.67” Huawei Edgeless Display for clarity whether for video playback or games. This 1080 x 2376, FHD+ display presents true-to-life colors and vivid details. With an impressive 94.7 percent screen-to-body ratio, it offers unparalleled visual immersion. Moreover, the phone comes with an upgraded Eye Comfort feature that has passed TÜV Rheinland Low Blue Light certification. It can filter out harmful blue lights while minimizing yellow discoloration. The display also supports a 180Hz touch sample rate for maximum responsiveness so you can gain an advantage in games.

The nova 8 features, on the other hand, has a 6.57-inch curved OLED screen that supports a 90Hz refresh rate for smooth content viewing and a 240Hz touch sampling rate that enables lower touch delay.

The display also supports the AI-aided mistouch prevention, making it a great device for webpage browsing, gaming, and video playback.

The company has packed a 64MP AI Quad Camera setup into Huawei nova 8 and 8i, with a highresolution rear camera to help users get the perfect

shots and HD video content. Fitted with a 1/1.7-inch sensor, the 64MP High-Res Main Camera lets you easily capture clear pictures with crisp details and supports direct output of 64 MP high-res photos.

When exploring after dark, the Huawei nova 8i holds up very well with Super Night Shot 2.0 so you can snap standout photos easily when walking through colorful city streets at night.

Huawei nova 8 series runs fast and smooth no matter for browsing social feeds or playing games.

It doesn’t easily get heated either, thanks to the 3D graphene cooling technology. Even when bingewatching, the phone has it covered with its superb heat dissipation capacity.

The 66W Huawei SuperCharge support saves users the trouble of charging the device frequently, especially during games and movies. The nova 8 can be charged to 60 percent in just 15 minutes and 100 percent in 35 minutes, while the nova 8i can be charged to 68 percent in just 20 minutes and fully charged in just 38 minutes.

Plus, power-saving AI algorithms provide battery management for mobile tasks so you can make better use of the battery for games and entertainment that last throughout the day.

Running on the latest EMUI, Huawei nova 8 and 8i smartphones offer a smart and seamless experience. The trusted, innovative, and secure

Huawei AppGallery is available on Huawei nova 8 and 8i, where users can download a wide range of high-quality apps and games including TikTok, GCash, Instagram, Shopee, foodpanda, Lazada, Mobile Legends, Facebook, Zoom, and Netflix.

The Huawei nova 8 and 8i is now available for preorder which brings such freebies as Huawei Band 4, Wireless Charging Lamp, and Huawei Cloud storage.

/

THE Huawei nova 8 and 8i smartphones

Sports BusinessMirror

DON’T EVER, EVER BITE ’EM GOLDS T

OKYO—A Japanese mayor apologized Thursday for biting the Olympic gold medal of a softball player who had paid a courtesy visit after Japan beat the United States in the final.

Nagoya City Mayor Takashi Kawamura had praised pitcher Miu Goto during the August 4 visit, but his eyes were glued to her medal. He asked her to put it around his neck.

Kawamura then pulled down his face mask and bit into it.

“I’m really sorry that I hurt the treasure of the gold medalist,” Kawamura told reporters Thursday.

The mayor said the medal was undamaged, though he offered to pay for the cost of a new one.

Goto, however, has accepted the International Olympic Committee’s offer of a replacement, according to Japanese media reports.

The medal bite has become a staple of Olympic photo-ops—but for

the winners themselves, not others.

The scene broadcast on television prompted thousands of complaints to city hall. Some Olympians said they treat their medals as treasures and that it was outrageous for Kawamura to bite one.

“I would cry if that happened to me,” Naohisa Takato, who won gold for Japan in judo, said in a tweet. “I handle my own gold medal so gently not to scratch it.”

Yuki Ota, a silver-medal winning fencer, said the mayor’s action was disrespectful to athletes and was a bad idea for Covid-19 measures.

Goto reportedly considered keeping the original but eventually accepted the IOC offer of a replacement.

RACE FOR VACCINATION ON THE Tokyo Olympics have ended, but it’s still vacation season in Japan, and many people are ignoring government pleas to avoid travel and

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| Saturday, August 14, 2021 mirror_sports@yahoo.com.ph Editor: Jun Lomibao

I

NAGOYA Mayor Takashi Kawamura (left) bites the Olympic gold medal of Miu Goto of Japan’s softball team. AP

stay away from bars and restaurants even as the coronavirus spikes at record levels.

Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga is pinning his hopes on vaccinations, which started slow but now are making good progress. How this race between shots and disease finishes may determine Suga’s political future, not to mention the health of tens of thousands.

Suga seems optimistic vaccines will win, but with only about 36 percent of the population fully vaccinated, experts say the virus’s highly infectious delta variant is pulling ahead. They are urging the government to put more teeth in its weak state of emergency. Japan has managed the Covid-19 pandemic better than many countries, without the kind of restrictive lockdown used in other nations, but some believe that may now be needed.

Japan’s daily coronavirus cases have topped 10,000 for more than a week, and the total has doubled in the past four months to exceed 1 million.

Tokyo’s daily caseloads tripled during the Games that ended Sunday. And as hospitals fill up, nearly 18,000 infected people are isolating at home, over 10 times more than a month ago.

Suga has stressed the progress of the vaccine rollout despite its late and slow start.

More than 80 percent of Japan’s elderly population of 36 million have completed their vaccinations since they started getting shots in mid-April. Suga says high inoculation rates among seniors have contributed to a significant decline in the number of elderly patients, serious cases and deaths, relieving strain on the medical system.

“This clearly shows the vaccine

efficacy,” Suga said, pledging to accelerate vaccinations among younger people. “The most effective way to slow the infections and minimize serious symptoms would be to give everyone two shots as soon as possible.”

Serious cases are now mostly among people in their 50s or younger, who are still largely unvaccinated. So far, 14 million— less than 20 percent of those aged 12 to 64 who are eligible for shots—have been fully vaccinated, according to Taro Kono, the minister in charge of vaccinations.

Suga said his goal of fully vaccinating all willing elderly people by the end of July has been mostly achieved. As he pushes to inoculate younger people, Suga aims to fully vaccinate 40 percent of all those 12 years and older by the end of August, and to complete shots for all those who wish to do so

by October or November. AP

POC partner vows support for Olympians’ hometowns

M

ILO announced on Friday that the hometowns of all 19 athletes who competed in the recent Tokyo Olympics will be receiving Nestlé products as a gesture of gratitude and appreciation for their outstanding performance that resulted to the country clinching one gold, two silver and one bronze medals.

“We at Miloare extremely proud of every one of our athletes for raising the country’s banner in the biggest sporting event in the world,” said Lester Castillo, assistant vice president of Nestlé Philippines-Milo.

“Their success serves as an inspiration to all Filipinos,” Castillo added.

“We have witnessed from the Games that sports are truly a great life teacher—through grit, perseverance, and discipline, one can reach their dreams and ambitions.”

Throughout the Olympic campaign, Milo worked closely with the Philippine Olympic Committee (POC) to support the country’s representatives.

Milo and POC have been collaborating through the years in uplifting Philippine sports through various programs and initiatives. Earlier this year, they renewed their partnership with a four-year pact to support homegrown athletes and accelerate grassroots sports in the long term.

“The renewed support of Milo is a welcome view,” POC President Abraham “Bambol” Tolentino said in a speech during the Living Archive of Olympians PH virtual launch.

“We are indeed happy and grateful, because it is Milo itself who have been our sports icon since our youth…that is the reason why Milo is the most fitting partner for this endeavor.”

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French league season unfurls, fans await Messi’s PSG debut

ARIS—Negotiations on Lionel Messi’s contract with Paris Saint-Germain took just a few days. Expect a longer wait for his debut.

The 34-year-old Argentina star had just returned from vacation when Barcelona announced it couldn’t afford to keep him, opening the door for PSG. Messi is now under contract for at least two seasons in the French capital.

Messi told a news conference recently that it’s up to PSG coach Mauricio Pochettino when he plays, but noted he’s had “no real training sessions” for a month.

He participated in training on Thursday.

“I hope it will be as soon as possible,” he said at the news conference. “I can’t give you a date.

It will depend on the training and how it feels and when the coaches think I’m ready.”

After spending his career at Barcelona, Messi said he’s looking forward to “discovering new teams and new stadiums” in Ligue 1.

The wait is on. Meanwhile, the French league season enters its second round this weekend.

Messi’s new team hosts Strasbourg on Saturday night at Parc des Princes stadium. Messi is expected to be presented to the 50,000 faithful before kickoff.

PSG striker Mauro Icardi, who could eventually lose playing time to countryman Messi, scored in the season-opening 2-1 win last

Saturday over promoted Troyes.

New defender Achraf Hakimi, who joined from Italian champion Inter Milan for 60 million euros ($70.5 million), also scored.

Pochettino wasn’t happy with his team’s defending last week but Strasbourg doesn’t figure to be a roadblock for a PSG team intent on reclaiming the French title this season.

The second round begins Friday when Lorient hosts Monaco, which was held 1-1 by Nantes last week.

Monaco midfielder Aleksandr

LEGENDS AT WORK It’s legendary trainer Freddie Roach’s turn on Thursday at the Wild Card Gym in Los Angeles to keep Manny Pacquiao in harness

for his World Boxing Association welterweight title fight with Cuba’s Yordenis Ugás on August 22 (Manila time) at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada.

COURTESY OF WENDELL ALINEA

By Josef Ramos

F trash talk kills, Filipino John Riel Casimero and Cuban Guillermo Rigondeaux should be dead by now.

Both boxers traded the usual barbs during the final news conference on Friday ahead of their fight on Sunday (Manila time) at the Dignity Health Sports Park in Carson, California, where Casimero, 32, stakes his World Boxing Organization bantamweight title against the 40-year-old Rigondeaux.

“I have a surprise for [Guillermo] Rigondeaux on Saturday night. He will maybe last three rounds…don’t run,” Casimero (30-4 win-loss record with 21 knockouts) told the Cuban challenger, one of the best counterpuncher and tactical fighter to date.

Rigondeaux (20-1 record with 13 knockouts) threw Casimero a smile during the traditional stare down pointing his finger to the champion’s belt, telling everyone that he’s not scared or intimidated by the Filipino’s knockout prowess.

“All these jokers always talk a lot about making me retire, but they have to do it in the ring,” Rigondeaux, a two-time Olympic gold medalist, said. “Let’s see what you do on Saturday.” Casimero is coming off consecutive thirdround knockout victories over former world champion Zolani Tete of South Africa o n November 30, 2019, in Birmingham and over Duke Micah of Ghana last September 26 in Connecticut.

But the fighter known as “El Jackal” is unperturbed during the news conference organized

by Showtime, Premier Boxing Champions and TGB Promotions.

“He has knocked out six guys in a row, but none of them are in the same class as me. He’s going to have the devil in front of him on Saturday,” said Rigondeaux, telling Casimero that will be his third Filipino victim after Nonito Donaire (2013) and Drian Francisco (2015).

“Everyone is going to see what I’m about on Saturday. I don’t have to tell anyone what’s going to happen now, you’re going to see it all in the ring,” the Cuban said. “I’m not worried about his talking. I always do my best talking with my fists and in the ring.”

Casimero, honed for the fight by Pacquiao’s assistant trainer Nonoy Neri, warned Rigondeaux that he’ll be done on Sunday.

“I know how to manage my game plan against Rigondeaux, but I’ll leave it as a surprise for him,” Casimero said. “I’ve stopped my last six opponents and Rigondeaux is next. He’s ‘finito.’” “If I finish Rigondeaux, then maybe [Nonito ] Donaire or [Naoya] Inoue will be next,” Casimero added.

Another Filipino, Jonas Sultan (16-5 record with 10 knockouts), fights in the Casimero-Rigondeaux undercard American southpaw Sharone Carter (12-4 record with three knockouts) in an eight-round non-title bout.

Muhammad Ali grandson to fight in Oklahoma

N

Golovin will be available after exiting Tuesday night’s game against Sparta Prague with an ankle problem. The Russia international had scored in the 3-1 victory in Champions League qualifying.

“Aleksandr is in good shape and will be available against Lorient,” Monaco coach Niko Kovac told reporters Thursday.

Kovac will need to manage minutes, however, with Monaco facing Shakhtar Donetsk on Tuesday in the Champions League playoffs. AP

A PARIS SAINT-GERMAIN fan poses by jerseys bearing the name of Lionel Messi in an official PSG shop. AP

Casimero eyes 3rd-round win vs Rigondeaux

NICO ALI WALSH won’t be fighting in the same manner as his boxing great grandfather did. AP

O one disputes that boxing is hard, really hard. For Nico Ali Walsh, living up his grandfather’s name might be even harder.

He was, after all, The Greatest.

“He’s just my grandfather and it’s as simple as that,” Ali Walsh said. “So it’s hard for me to see him as anything else.”

The grandfather, if you haven’t figured it out already, is Muhammad Ali. And the grandson is about to set off a journey bordering on the impossible— making a name for himself in the ring while carrying the name of his legendary grandfather.

The 21-year-old fights for the first time as a pro Saturday night in a scheduled fourround middleweight bout in Oklahoma. He’ll do it on national television not because of anything he’s done in boxing but because he descends from greatness.

And he’ll do it in front of Bob Arum, who promoted Ali in some of his biggest fights and is now promoting his grandson. Arum is

honest about Ali Walsh’s potential, but disputes the thought that the bout is likely more of a gimmick than the start of a long career.

“If it was my grandson you’d be on point,’’ Arum said. “But it’s Ali’s grandson and who knows what is in his DNA. You cannot completely discard genetics.”

Ali Walsh himself understands he’s getting a chance because of his name. But the college student fought as an amateur and believes he has the skills to be a top fighter.

And while he doesn’t have the bombastic charisma of his grandfather, he’s an engaging young man in his own right.

“Everyone mentions the pressure but every occupation has pressure of its own,” Ali Walsh said. “Mine may seem a little more significant to others but all boxers feel the pressure of fighting someone, fighting for their lives, basically. And that’s just the way I look at it.”

Growing up in Las Vegas, Ali Walsh and his family regularly made trips to the Phoenix area to visit his grandfather. Ali Walsh said the two formed a bond, even as Ali struggled to communicate in his later years before dying in 2016. AP

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A14 Saturday, August 14, 2021

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Saturday, August 14, 2021 A15

PHL Covid surge spurs worst stocks rout since June ’20

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hilippine stocks tumbled the most in more than a year on fears coronavirus infections will rise further and spur the government to extend a twoweek lockdown affecting the capital and other areas.

The Philippine Stock Exchange Index plunged 3.6 percent to 6,320.19 at 1 p.m. in Manila, its lowest close in more than a year. Investors dumped key blue chips—including SM Investments Corp. and unit SM Prime Holdings Inc.—after the gauge had held a moderate decline for much of the day.

“I was expecting a downward movement, but not this drastic,” said Manny Cruz, strategist at Papa Securities.

“The fear is infections will further escalate, raising prospects the lockdown will run longer.”

Philippine equities are the biggest losers among Asian national benchmarks over the past month after a surge in Covid-19 cases led the government to reimpose a strict lockdown for two

weeks to contain the more infectious delta variant. New daily local infections reached 12,439 on Thursday, the second straight day that cases exceeded 12,000.

The market has also faced headwinds because of a rebalancing of the benchmark index due to take effect on Monday.

“The recomposition of the PSEi is also causing funds to rebalance, adding to the market volatility,” Cruz said.

Stocks may bounce back in the coming week unless the virus outlook deteriorates further, Cruz said. The PSEi is close to the 6,300 level that has attracted a “strong base of support” he said. “Still, any rebound would be limited between 6,500 and 6,600 as sentiment remains weak.” Bloomberg News

Travel restrictions on India, 9 other countries extended

T

By samuel p. Medenilla

he government has extended until the end of the month the travel restriction for inbound travelers in 10 Asian countries with confirmed cases of the Covid-19 Delta variant.

In a news statement issued on Friday, Presidential spokesman Harry Roque said the extension spelled out in a Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF) resolution approved

by President Duterte last Thursday.

The travel restriction, which will last from August 16 to 31, 2021, will cover India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal, United Arab Emirates, Oman, Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia.

The travel restriction was initially scheduled to end on August 15, 2021.

The government imposed the said restriction to prevent the entry of new Covid-19 variants in the country.

Health officials attributed the local community transmission of the Delta variant to the recent spike in cases nationwide.

Transit hub

Roque said the IATF also approved the request of airlines to resume international transit hub operations.

“These international transit hub

operations shall be limited to airside transfers between Terminals 1 and 2, and within Terminal 3 of the Ninoy Aquino International Airport, and further limited for countries/jurisdictions/ territories in the Green list.

The updated “Green list” include the following countries: Albania, American Samoa, Anguilla, Australia, Benin, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Brunei, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Cayman Islands, Chad, China, Comoros, Cote d’ Ivoire (Ivory Coast), Djibouti, Equatorial Guinea, Falkland Islands, Gabon, Grenada, Hong Kong (Special Administrative Region of China), Hungary, Mali, Federated States of Micronesia, Montserrat (British Overseas Territory), New Caledonia, New Zealand, Niger, Nigeria, Northern Mariana Islands, Palau, Poland, Romania, Saint Pierre and Miquelon, Slovakia, Sudan and Taiwan.

Roque said protocols for the controlled movement of passengers and health and safety protocols within the terminals shall be strictly observed.

“Any traveler who may exhibit symptoms shall comply with isolation and quarantine protocols which shall be for the account of the sponsoring airlines,” Roque explained.

The Department of Foreign Affairs, the Bureau of Quarantine, and the Bureau of Immigration will issue the necessary protocols on the said matter.

Duterte accepts DBM chief’s resignation on health reasons

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RESIDENT Duterte has accepted the resignation of Budget Secretary Wendel Avisado.

In a brief statement on Friday, Presidential spokesman Harry Roque confirmed Avisado’s resignation for medical reasons.

He said Budget Undersecretary Tina Rose Marie Canda will serve as DBM officer-in-charge until the President appoints his new budget secretary.

Avisado went on medical leave from August 2 to 13, 2021, following his Covid-19 infection.

His infection left him hospitalized for eight days and quarantined for

over a month. Doctors also sought to do more tests on him, given his cardiovascular-related health issues.

During the said period, Canda already served as the OIC of DBM to ensure its operation remain unhampered, especially with the upcoming budget hearings in Congress, though she assured reporters that Avisado had overseen the preparation of the 2022 National Expenditure Program (NEP), which the President approved recently.

DBM committed to submit the 2022 NEP to Congress on August 23, days ahead of the August 25 constitutional deadline. Samuel P. Medenilla

BusinessMirror

A16 Saturday, August 14, 2021

ESTABLISHMENT / ADDRESS No.

NAME OF FOREIGN NATIONAL , POSITION AND BRIEF DESCRIPTION

ESTABLISHMENT / ADDRESS QUALIFICATION AND SALARY RANGE

8 STONE BUSINESS OUTSOURCING OPC 5/f To 10/f, Tower 4 Pitx #01 Kennedy Road Tambo Parañaque City

CHEN, XIAOBAO Mandarin Customer Service Representative 1.

Brief Job Description: Interact with customer to provide information, support and problem resolution to inquiries and order status

VONG PHU QUAN Mandarin Customer Service Representative 2.

Brief Job Description: Interact with customer to provide information, support and problem resolution to inquiries and order status

BAI, XUEDONG Marketing Staff Mandarin Speaking 3.

Brief Job Description: Monitor, review and report on all marketing activity and result

JIA, BO Marketing Staff Mandarin Speaking 4.

Brief Job Description: Monitor, review and report on all marketing activity and result

No.

5.

Brief Job Description: Monitor, review and report on all marketing activity and result

LIANG, YING Marketing Staff Mandarin Speaking 6.

Brief Job Description: Monitor, review and report on all marketing activity and result

LAOPRASERTSUK, ROMMANEE Seller Support Associate 7.

8.

Brief Job Description: Provide service to Amazon sellers and merchants including escalation of sellers issues

LU, XINFANG Chinese Customer Service Brief Job Description: Managing incoming calls and customer service inquiries

Basic Qualification: Fluent in Mandarin both oral and written Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999

Basic Qualification: Fluent in Mandarin both oral and written Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999

Basic Qualification: Analyse the productivity of the marketing plans and projects recommend to senior management

12.

9.

Brief Job Description: Responsible for leading a cross-functional local team in driving and achieving the financial and operational objectives set for Australia and New Zealand markets

Basic Qualification: Analyse the productivity of the marketing plans and projects recommend to senior management

13.

Brief Job Description: Handles the concerns of the people who buy their company’s products or services.

NGUYEN THI LE Vietnamese Customer Relations Officer 11.

Brief Job Description: Handles the concerns of the people who buy their company’s products or services. x

Brief Job Description: In charge of bank operation and back office

JIANG, YONG Construction Admin Brief Job Description: Arrange project schedules, supervise workers

NAKAKO, JIRO Cost Analyst 14.

NAKAZAKI, HISAO Cost Analyst

Basic Qualification: Analyse the productivity of the marketing plans and projects recommend to senior management Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999

Basic Qualification: Fluency in both English and Thai Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999

Basic Qualification: Able to Speak, Read, and Write Chinese Language

16.

Brief Job Description: Supervision of technical aspects of construction projects

OZAWA, TAKUYA Logistics And Inventory Staff 17.

Brief Job Description: Supervision of technical aspects of construction projects

Basic Qualification: Master’s degree, 10 years banking experience, Bilingual (Mandarin and English), Proficient in MS Office and banking system

22.

18.

Brief Job Description: Assist/help customers, give customers information about product and services

KIM (SPOUSE OF LEE), EUNKYUNG Marketing Manager Brief Job Description: Responsible in getting and maintaining clients

Basic Qualification: Monitoring, Fluent in Mandarin and English, College Graduate

HUANG, JIANBO Chinese Speaking Business Development Associate 23.

Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999

Basic Qualification: Excellent Analytical Skills, Market Trend Analyst

Brief Job Description: The Mandarin Structural Maintenance Analyst will be a strategist and a leader able to steer the company to the most profitable direction while also implementing its vision, mission and long term goals.

Salary Range: Php 60,000 - Php 89,999

Basic Qualification: Excellent Analytical Skills, Market Trend Analyst Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999

PARK, BYOUNGYOUN Corporate Leader Brief Job Description: Manage and lead all teams in each department

COELLO HERNANDEZ, EDWIN JESUS Senior Specialist, AR 25.

Brief Job Description: Daily account management visa disputes and escalated cases, so as to reduce ageing receivables.

Basic Qualification: Monitoring Projects Status, College Graduate Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999

Basic Qualification: Has excellent managerial experience Salary Range: Php 60,000 - Php 89,999

Basic Qualification: Ensures good record management to promote invoicing accuracy and delivery and financial documents.

Salary Range: Php 500,000 and above

MAX INFOTECH ACCENT INC. 18th Flr. Vector 3 Bldg. Northgate Cyberzone Fcc Alabang Muntinlupa City

CHIANG, WEI-DA Customer Service Representative (Mandarin Speaking)

Basic Qualification: With atleast 6 months customer service experience/good in oral communication and written

Brief Job Description: Supports and provide superior service via phones, e-mail and faxes as a receiver and caller

Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999

Basic Qualification: Proven experience as Mandarin Structural Maintenance Analyst, familiarity, knowledge and awareness on machinery and heavy equipment use by company, demonstrable experience in developing strategic business plan.

Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999

MAERSK GLOBAL SERVICE CENTRES (PHILIPPINES) LTD. Levels 5-8 North Wing, Estancia Offices Capitol Commons Meralco Ave. Oranbo Pasig City

Basic Qualification: Monitoring Projects Status, College Graduate Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999

Brief Job Description: assist/help customers, give customers information about product and services

Basic Qualification: with atleast 6 months customer service experience/good in oral communication and written

KEPCO KPS CARABAO CORP. 18/f Pacific Star Bldg. Sen. Gil Puyat Cor. Makati Ave. Bel-air Makati City

Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999

CSCEC STRAIT CONSTRUCTION AND DEVELOPMENT CO., LTD (PHILIPPINES BRANCH OFFICE) Units A&b 20/f Rufino Pacific Tower 6784 Ayala Ave. Cor. V.a. Rufino St. San Lorenzo Makati City

19.

Basic Qualification: Rich experience with major in business management

INFOVINE INC. 8th, 9th, 10th/f Aspire Corporate Plaza Bldg. Macapagal Blvd. St., Zone 10 Barangay 076, District 1 Pasay City

CHIU, HSIN-HUI Customer Service Representative (Mandarin Speaking)

LIN, RONG Mandarin Structural Maintenance Analyst

QUALIFICATION AND SALARY RANGE

Salary Range: Php 150,000 - Php 499,999

26.

CHEN, LINYU Chinese Speaking Customer Service Representative

NAME OF FOREIGN NATIONAL , POSITION AND BRIEF DESCRIPTION

GOLDROAD2020 CORPORATION 1719 Adriatico St. 076 Bgy. 699 Malate Manila

CRONYX INC. No. 4th-10th Flr. Yinhope Bldg. Dela Rama Cor. Zoili Hilario St. Seascape Village, Ccp Complex Subd. Zone 10, Barangay 076, District 1 Pasay City

Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999

Basic Qualification: Degree in business, marketing, or related field.

Post-graduate preferred.

Extensive experience as a managing director or in a similar role. Industryrelated experience.

Familiarity with AU/NZ markets.

Brief Job Description: Analyses expenses and cost transactions, ensure the transaction recorded

MOMMA, HIRONORI Logistics And Inventory Staff

Basic Qualification: Analyse the productivity of the marketing plans and projects recommend to senior management Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999

Brief Job Description: Analyses expenses and cost transactions, ensure the transaction recorded

No.

24.

Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999

BIG EMPEROR TECHNOLOGY CORP. Eastfield Center Cbp1, Macapagal Blvd. Brgy. 076 Pasay City

10.

QUALIFICATION AND SALARY RANGE

CHINA INTERNATIONAL WATER AND ELECTRIC CORP. (BRANCH OFFICE) 1350 11/f Suite 1106 Ermita Center Bldg. Roxas Blvd., 072 Bgy. 668 Ermita Manila

Salary Range: Php 150,000 - Php 499,999

DONG, CHEN Mandarin Customer Relations Officer

CHANG, WEN-HUA Assistant Vice President & Assistant General Manager

Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999

BETTZEIT SOUTHEAST ASIA INC. Office Q & R 12th Floor Four/ Neo Building 4th Ave. Corner 30th St. Bgc Fort Bonifacio Taguig City

BAUMGARTEN, SIMON ANDREAS Country Manager, AU/NZ

ESTABLISHMENT / ADDRESS

CHANG HWA COMMERCIAL BANK., LTD., MANILA BRANCH 43/f Philamlife Tower 8767 Paseo De Roxas Bel-air Makati City

15.

LIANG, FAN Marketing Staff Mandarin Speaking

NAME OF FOREIGN NATIONAL , POSITION AND BRIEF DESCRIPTION

www.businessmirror.com.ph

27.

Brief Job Description: Supports and provide superior service via phones, e-mail and faxes as a receiver and caller

HUANG, PO-CHI Customer Service Representative (Mandarin Speaking) 28.

Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999

Brief Job Description: Supports and provide superior service via phones, e-mail and faxes as a receiver and caller

Basic Qualification: Knows how to recommend potential products or service to management by collecting customer information and analyzing customer needs Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999

Basic Qualification: Knows how to recommend potential products or service to management by collecting customer information and analyzing customer needs Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999

Basic Qualification: Knows how to recommend potential products or service to management by collecting customer information and analyzing customer needs Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999

DEXIN INTERNATIONAL IMPORT AND EXPORT CORP. 534 Tomas Mapua St. 029 Bgy. 298 Santa Cruz Manila

Basic Qualification: Has excellent problemsolving and communication skills in Mandarin, with related BPO experience

20.

Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999

Basic Qualification: Handles the concerns of the people who buy their company’s products or services. Has excellent problem-solving and communication skills in VIETNAMESE, with related BPO experience Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999

WU, ZHIFENG Chinese Cargo Office Agent Brief Job Description: Prepare airline and custom documentation

Basic Qualification: Have skills in documentation

LIOU, SHIAU-HUANG Customer Service Representative (Mandarin Speaking) 29.

Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999

Brief Job Description: Supports and provide superior service via phones, e-mail and faxes as a receiver and caller

FLASH EXPRESS SOFTWARE (PH) CO., LTD. INC. 9th Flr. Arthaland Century Pacific Tower 5th Avenue 30th Street Cor. 4th Avenue Fort Bonifacio Taguig City

CUI, ZHAOPENG QAQC Supervisor 21.

Brief Job Description: Responsible for maintaining quality practices and oversee the work of the onsite inspectors, performs routine QA/QC inspections as required

Basic Qualification: 5-10 years work experience in people management, job-relevant degree, multilingual Salary Range: Php 60,000 - Php 89,999

NGO SAI DINH Customer Service Representative (Mandarin Speaking) 30.

Brief Job Description: Supports and provide superior service via phones, e-mail and faxes as a receiver and caller

Basic Qualification: Knows how to recommend potential products or service to management by collecting customer information and analyzing customer needs Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999

Basic Qualification: Knows how to recommend potential products or service to management by collecting customer information and analyzing customer needs Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999

BusinessMirror

www.businessmirror.com.ph

ESTABLISHMENT / ADDRESS No.

NAME OF FOREIGN NATIONAL , POSITION AND BRIEF DESCRIPTION

NGUYEN THI KIM HANH Customer Service Representative (Mandarin Speaking) 31.

Brief Job Description: Supports and provide superior service via phones, e-mail and faxes as a receiver and caller

PENG, YUN-JHU Customer Service Representative (Mandarin Speaking) 32.

Brief Job Description: Supports and provide superior service via phones, e-mail and faxes as a receiver and caller

WEN, HSIAO-JUNG Customer Service Representative (Mandarin Speaking) 33.

Brief Job Description: Supports and provide superior service via phones, e-mail and faxes as a receiver and caller

WU, BO-YI Customer Service Representative (Mandarin Speaking) 34.

Brief Job Description: Supports and provide superior service via phones, e-mail and faxes as a receiver and caller

ESTABLISHMENT / ADDRESS QUALIFICATION AND SALARY RANGE Basic Qualification: Knows how to recommend potential products or service to management by collecting customer information and analyzing customer needs Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999

Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999

35.

Brief Job Description: Managing incoming calls and customer service inquiries

Basic Qualification: Knows how to recommend potential products or service to management by collecting customer information and analyzing customer needs

36.

Brief Job Description: Serves as primary contact for problem resolution and information gathering regarding customer complaints and work assignment

QUALIFICATION AND SALARY RANGE

CHEN, CAIWANG Chinese IT Specialist Brief Job Description: Maintain the operations of electronic gaming devices

Basic Qualification: 200 Vacancy/College Graduate with experience in maintain gaming devices fluent in mandarin and English Speaking

No.

QUALIFICATION AND SALARY RANGE

XINCHUAN INTERNATIONAL ECONOMIC AND TECHNOLOGICAL PHILIPPINE PROJECT LTD CORP. 16/f Tower 6789 6789 Ayala Ave. Bel-air Makati City

Basic Qualification: Proven Experience as Mandarin Account Officer, Familiarity, knowledge and awareness on Machinery and heavy Equipment use by company, Demonstrable experience in developing strategic business plan.

SHEN, YING Mandarin Account Officer 52.

Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999

42.

43.

ZHENG, MEIXIA Chinese IT Specialist Brief Job Description: Maintain the operations of electronic gaming devices

PHAM DINH QUYNH ANH IT Specialist Brief Job Description: Maintain the operations of electronic gaming devices

Basic Qualification: 200 Vacancy/College Graduate with experience in maintain gaming devices fluent in mandarin and English Speaking Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999

Brief Job Description: Will be a strategist and a leader able to steer the company to the most profitable direction while also implementing its vision, mission and long term goals.

Basic Qualification: Proven experience as Mandarin Deputy Project Supervisor, Familiarity, knowledge and awareness on Machinery and heavy Equipment use by company, Demonstrable experience in developing strategic business plan.

LIAO, HONG Mandarin Deputy Project Supervisor 53.

Basic Qualification: 200 Vacancy/College Graduate with experience in maintain gaming devices fluent in mandarin and English Speaking

Brief Job Description: Will be a strategist and a leader able to steer the company to the most profitable direction while also implementing its vision, mission and long term goals.

Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999

Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 LIU, YU Mandarin Deputy Project Supervisor

44.

VO THI MINH NHAT IT Specialist Brief Job Description: Maintain the operations of electronic gaming devices

Basic Qualification: 200 Vacancy/College Graduate with experience in maintain gaming devices fluent in mandarin and English Speaking

54.

Basic Qualification: Able to speak, Read, and Write Chinese language 45.

NAM, GEUNYEONG Marketing Representative Brief Job Description: Facilitate coordination of all marketing activities

Brief Job Description: The Mandarin Deputy Project Supervisor will be a strategist and a leader able to steer the company to the most profitable direction while also implementing its vision, mission and long term goals.

WU, SONGQIAO Mandarin Electrical Commissioning Analyst Basic Qualification: Can communicate in English fluently

55.

Brief Job Description: The Mandarin Electrical Commissioning Analyst will be a strategist and a leader able to steer the company to the most profitable direction while also implementing its vision, mission and long term goals.

Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999

CAO, SHUAI Mandarin Finance Analyst

Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999

HE, CAN Chinese Speaking Customer Service Representative 46.

Brief Job Description: Prepare and maintain company documents and reports and coordinate for daily administrative reports

Basic Qualification: College graduate with atleast 6 months working experience, fluent in Mandarin/English

Basic Qualification: Proven Experience as Mandarin Electrical Commissioning Analyst, Familiarity, Knowledge and awareness on Machinery and heavy Equipment use by company, Demonstrable experience in developing strategic business plan.

Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999

WHEELSTRIP CORP. 40/f Pbcom Tower 6795 Ayala Ave. Cor. V.a Rufino St. Bel-air Makati City Basic Qualification: A native speaker of the Korean Language (spoken and written)

Basic Qualification: Proven Experience as Mandarin Deputy Project Supervisor, Familiarity, Knowledge and awareness on Machinery and heavy Equipment use by company, Demonstrable experience in developing strategic business plan.

Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999

Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999

VTS TRAVEL AND TOURS AGENCY INC. Metrowalk Commercial Complex Meralco Ave. Ugong Pasig City

Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999

NAME OF FOREIGN NATIONAL , POSITION AND BRIEF DESCRIPTION

Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999

Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999

RUNNINGMAN CORPORATION 8/f Techzone Bldg. 213 Sen. Gil Puyat Ave. San Antonio Makati City

KIM, HYE MIN Korean-language Customer Support Staff

41.

Basic Qualification: Knows how to recommend potential products or service to management by collecting customer information and analyzing customer needs Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999

NAME OF FOREIGN NATIONAL , POSITION AND BRIEF DESCRIPTION

A17

ESTABLISHMENT / ADDRESS

VERTEX DIGITAL ENTERTAINMENT TECHNOLOGIES, INC. Dd Dragon Plaza Dd Meridian P Edsa Ext. Cor. Macapagal Ave. Brgy. 076 Pasay City

Basic Qualification: Knows how to recommend potential products or service to management by collecting customer information and analyzing customer needs

MOA CLOUDZONE CORP. 4th-11th Flr. Nexgen Tower C4 Rd. Edsa Ext. Brgy. 076 Pasay City

TAUNG LAN@SOE YU MON Chinese Customer Service

No.

Saturday, August 14, 2021

56.

Brief Job Description: The Mandarin Finance Analyst will be a strategist and a leader able to steer the company to the most profitable direction while also implementing its vision, mission and long term goals.

Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999

Basic Qualification: Proven Experience as Mandarin Finance Analyst, Familiarity, Knowledge and awareness on Machinery and heavy Equipment use by company, Demonstrable experience in developing strategic business plan.

Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999

SITC CONTAINER LINES PHILS., INC. 7/f Tower Two E-com Center Bay Shore Ave. St. Brgy. 076 Pasay City WUHAN FIBERHOME INTERNATIONAL TECHNOLOGIES PHILS., INC. U-19d 19/f Rufino Pacific Tower 6784 Ayala Ave. Cor. V.a. Rufino St. San Lorenzo Makati City YU, YUANYANG Treasurer/finance Director 37.

Brief Job Description: Directing financial planning and strategy create accounting system with English and Chinese version so that both Filipino and foreign employees can use it.

XU, LIANG Mandarin Finance Analyst

Basic Qualification: Proficiency in accounting software, financial management experience, fluent in Mandarin and English Salary Range: Php 60,000 - Php 89,999

CHEN, KEDA Account Director 47.

SNAPPR INC. Unit 1603 Prestige Tower Emerald Avenue, Ortigas Center San Antonio Pasig City

RAMSAY, LYNSEY GAIL Training Specialist 38.

Brief Job Description: Identifying training and development needs within an organization through job analysis, and regular consultation with team members and managers; able to deliver, project and motivate trainees through effective training methodologies both group and individual classroom dynamics

Basic Qualification: Excellent proficiency in written and spoken English; must have native or nearnative American English accent; At least 3 years of experience working as a trainer or a similar role; Experience in designing curriculums, leading training/coaching sessions, and leading a team of trainers a plus

Brief Job Description: The Account Director will be a strategist and a leader able to steer the company to the most profitable direction while also implementing its vision, mission and long term goals.

YAO, WEI Account Manager 48.

Brief Job Description: The Account Manager will be a strategist and a leader able to steer the company to the most profitable direction while also implementing its vision, mission and long term goals.

Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 ZHANG, PANDENG Account Manager TRANSCOSMOS INFORMATION SYSTEMS INC. 11th Floor Commerce And Industry Plaza Bldg. Mckinley Hill Cyberpark Fort Bonifacio Taguig City

CANO HURTADO, KEILA MERCEDES Spanish Customer Service Representative 39.

Brief Job Description: Primarily responsible for providing frontline customer support, technical support and e-commerce after-sales service via phone, chat and/or email.

49.

Basic Qualification: 2years+ customer service experience; excellent communication skills (both English and verbal); Fluent in Spanish Salary Range: Php 60,000 - Php 89,999

Brief Job Description: The Account Manager will be a strategist and a leader able to steer the company to the most profitable direction while also implementing its vision, mission and long term goals.

ZENG, ZHAOLEI Project Manager 50.

Brief Job Description: The Project Manager will be a strategist and a leader able to steer the company to the most profitable direction while also implementing its vision, mission and long term goals.

TRI-PHIL INTERNATIONAL, INC. Rmt Industrial Complex Tunasan Muntinlupa City

TAKAMI, SHUNSUKE Executive Vice-President 40.

Brief Job Description: Responsible for overseeing the organization operations and achieving its financial goals.

Basic Qualification: College graduate with at least 5 years Managerial experience Salary Range: Php 90,000 - Php 149,999

JIANG, XIXI Purchasing Manager 51.

Brief Job Description: The Purchasing Manager will be a strategist and a leader able to steer the company to the most profitable direction while also implementing its vision, mission and long term goals.

Basic Qualification: Proven Experience as Account Director, Familiarity, Knowledge and awareness on Machinery and heavy Equipment use by company, Demonstrable experience in developing strategic business plan.

57.

Brief Job Description: The Mandarin Finance Analyst will be a strategist and a leader able to steer the company to the most profitable direction while also implementing its vision, mission and long term goals.

Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999

Basic Qualification: Proven Experience as Account Manager, Familiarity, Knowledge and awareness on Machinery and heavy Equipment use by company, Demonstrable experience in developing strategic business plan.

Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999

Basic Qualification: Proven Experience as Mandarin Project Planning and Design Supervisor, Familiarity, Knowledge and awareness on Machinery and heavy Equipment use by company, Demonstrable experience in developing strategic business plan.

YANG, ZHE Mandarin Project Planning And Design Supervisor 58.

Basic Qualification: Proven Experience as Mandarin Finance Analyst, Familiarity, Knowledge and awareness on Machinery and heavy Equipment use by company, Demonstrable experience in developing strategic business plan.

Brief Job Description: The Mandarin Project Planning and Design Supervisor will be a strategist and a leader able to steer the company to the most profitable direction while also implementing its vision, mission and long term goals.

Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999

Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999

Basic Qualification: Proven Experience as Account Manager, Familiarity, Knowledge and awareness on Machinery and heavy Equipment use by company, Demonstrable experience in developing strategic business plan.

Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 Basic Qualification: Proven Experience as Project Manager, Familiarity, Knowledge and awareness on Machinery and heavy Equipment use by company, Demonstrable experience in developing strategic business plan.

Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999 Basic Qualification: Proven Experience as Purchasing Manager, Familiarity, Knowledge and awareness on Machinery and heavy Equipment use by company, Demonstrable experience in developing strategic business plan.

Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999

AN, XUEYI Mandarin Technical Supervisor 59.

Brief Job Description: The Mandarin Technical Supervisor will be a strategist and a leader able to steer the company to the most profitable direction while also implementing its vision, mission and long term goals.

Basic Qualification: Proven Experience as Mandarin Technical Supervisor, Familiarity, Knowledge and awareness on Machinery and heavy Equipment use by company, Demonstrable experience in developing strategic business plan.

Salary Range: Php 30,000 - Php 59,999

*Date Generated: Aug 13, 2021 Any person in the Philippines who is competent, able and willing to perform the services for which the foreign national is desired may file an objection at DOLE-NCR Regional Office located at DOLE-NCR Building, 967 Maligaya St., Malate Manila, within 30 days after this publication.

Please inform DOLE-NCR if you have any information on criminal offense committed by the foreign nationals.

ATTY. SARAH BUENA S. MIRASOL REGIONAL DIRECTOR