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HOUSE PANEL READYING MORE WITNESSES TO BOLSTER IMPEACH CASE AGAINST SERENO
LINING UP FOR THE KNOCKOUT PUNCH L
By Jovee Marie N. Dela Cruz
AWYER Lorenzo Gadon likened the impeachment case he filed against Supreme Court (SC) Chief Justice Ma. Lourdes Sereno to a boxing match. And with the recent developments at the House Committee on Justice proceedings seen as telling blows against the chief magistrate, will Gadon score a big knockout in the days to come? Rep. Reynaldo Umali of Oriental Mindoro, chairman of the House Committee on Justice, said the testimony of SC Associate Justice Teresita Leonardo de Castro “solidified” the allegations against Sereno. “We only tackled two issues, and these show that Gadon’s complaint has basis,” the lawmaker said. According to Umali, only the resignation of the Chief Magistrate will stop his committee from conducting hearings on her impeachment complaint. Umali, citing the 1987 Constitution, said, “Impeachment is an extraordinary power granted by the Constitution to the House of Representatives through the Committee on Justice.” “[However,] let us not treat the current proceeding as a full-blown impeachment trial. Let us not deprive the Senate of their constitutional mandate to sit as the im-
peachment court. We are currently [acting as] investigating prosecutors determining whether there is probable cause that an impeachable ground exists to remove the Chief Justice from office,” he said.
‘Grossly unprocedural’
DURING the impeachment proceedings, De Castro backed allegations that Sereno issued a resolution inconsistent with the decision of the court en banc. De Castro said Sereno not only unilaterally issued Administrative Order (AO) 175-2012, but that it was also inconsistent with the Court’s 2006 decisions pertaining to the creation of the Regional Court Administration Office in Region 7 (RCAO-7). The allegation was among the grounds that Gadon cited in support of the charge for culpable violation of the Constitution he mentioned in his impeachment Continued on A2
FORMER Chief Justice María Lourdes Sereno gestures at a news conference in Manila on August 28, 2013. AP/AARON FAVILA
Green financing A
LAWMAKER is pushing for the creation of a Philippine Green Bank (PGB) that would provide financing to projects that seek to preserve the environment and address climate and disaster risks.
POGONICI | DREAMSTIME.COM
LAWMAKER PUSHES CREATION OF PIONEERING BANK FOR ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION, CLIMATE CHANGE
PESO EXCHANGE RATES n US 50.3460
By Jasper Emmanuel Y. Arcalas
Sen. Loren P. Legarda, who chairs both the Committees on Climate Change and Finance, said having a green economy would allow the Philippines to become a climatesmart and climate-resilient nation. “If we want to sustain this path, we need to scale up green financing for adaptation and mitigation measures that will further enable us to protect our environment and our people’s lives and livelihoods. As we go through with our event today, perhaps our discussions should not only focus on how we could enable green financing in all sectors in our country, but also how we can sustain it,” Legarda said in her keynote address during the Green Breakthroughs 2017 at Shangri-La Hotel, Makati City, on November 27.
“Green financing essentially means investing on projects that preserve our environment and address our climate and disaster risks. It supplements existing government-funded projects by encouraging private investments in order to maximize our nation’s capacity to protect the environment and address climate change,” Legarda added. The lady lawmaker has filed Senate Bill 436, which proposes the establishment of environmental units in every banking institution to assess the environmental component of loan projects.
Awareness
UNDER the measure, the environmental unit shall be composed of See “Green,” a2
n JAPAN 0.4474 n UK 68.1081 n HK 6.4464 n CHINA 7.6178 n SINGAPORE 37.3376 n AUSTRALIA 38.0817 n EU 59.9319 n SAUDI ARABIA 13.4253
Source: BSP (December 1, 2017 )
News
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A2 Saturday, December 2, 2017
Lining up for the knockout punch Green… Continued from a1
complaint against Sereno. Also, De Castro said the Chief Justice’s decision issuing a temporary restraining order (TRO) on the proclamation of the Coalition of Association of Senior Citizens party-list was “grossly unprocedural.” For his part, Gadon said: “De Castro’s testimony confirmed everything that I have stated in my complaint.” But lawyer Jojo Lacanilao, member of Sereno’s defense team, said De Castro did not solidify Gadon’s allegations, noting: “[witnesses] have no evidence to prove that the Chief Justice committed an impeachable offense.” Umali admitted that “it’s too early to determine probable cause, as the committee still has to hear several witnesses.” Umali added that other SC justices had expressed willingness to shed light on the allegations of Gadon. “We’re trying to determine now if this would provide us with enough grounds for impeachment. Too soon to weigh in all the testimonies given. There are many other witnesses that we would call in,” Umali said. “I would like to emphasize that the proceedings before this committee is not yet the trial proper. The present proceeding is akin to a preliminary investigation in the determination of probable cause, and not the trial itself. The trial is in the Senate sitting as the impeachment court,” he added.
Resource persons
THE list of invited resource persons of the committee includes: De Castro, Court Administrator Jose Midas Marquez, Clerk of Court Felipa Anama, SC
UMALI: “Let us not treat the current proceeding as a full-blown impeachment trial. Let us not deprive the Senate of their constitutional mandate to sit as the impeachment court. We are currently [acting as the] investigating prosecutors determining whether there is probable cause that an impeachable ground exists to remove the Chief Justice from office.”
Public Information Chief Theodore Te, Deputy Clerk of Court En Banc AnnaLi Gombio, Technical Working Group chairman Jocelyn Fabian, chief judicial staff officer Charlotte Labayani, Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre II, Associate Justice Noel Tijam, UP College of Law President and concurrent Dean Danilo Concepcion, Bureau of Internal Revenue Commissioner Cesar Dulay, Executive Officer of the Judicial Bar Council lawyer Annaliza Ty-Capacite and former Associate Justice Arturo Brion. The complaint filed by Gadon contains four grounds, including corruption, culpable violation of the Constitution, betrayal of public trust and other high crimes. The complaint also alleged 27 acts constituting the offenses charged against the Chief Justice.
Current score
THE committee is now in the process determining probable cause on the impeachment complaint against Sereno. After the determination of probable cause, the articles of impeachment
will be created and will be transmitted to the plenary for approval. The lower chamber needs 196 votes, or two-thirds of all of its members, before the articles could be sent to the Senate that will act as an impeachment court. The justice committee has already covered several allegations under the ground of culpable violation of the Constitution, including: • Falsifying the Resolution of the Supreme Court in Administrative Matter (AM) No. 12119SC, on the creation or revival of the Regional Court Administrative Office, or RCAO, in Region 7; • Falsifying, tampering or altering the TRO of the Supreme Court in the case of the Senior Citizens’ Party List v. Comelec in G.R. No. 20684485; • Falsifying or unilaterally issuing the Resolution of the Supreme Court in AM No. 160804SC, which supposedly directed the Executive Secretary to submit complaint affidavits against four judges allegedly involved in illegal drugs; • Delaying action on the petitions for retirement benefits of justices and judges and their surviving spouses for more than two years; • Manipulating and delaying the resolution in AM No. 170602SC on the request of the Secretary of Justice to transfer the Maute cases outside of Mindanao, after the Chief Justice allegedly realized that she had lost in the voting; • Failing to truthfully disclose her Statement of Assets, Liabilities and Net Worth (SALN); • Manipulating the shortlist of the Judicial and Bar Council to exclude former Solicitor General Francis Jardeleza for personal and political reasons, thereby curtailing the President’s power to appoint him.
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Continued from a1
three functional units, namely, Environmental Review and Assessment Unit, tasked to ensure the environmental soundness of the project and the account’s compliance with environmental laws, thereby avoiding environmental risks; Environmental Policy, Planning and Systems Management Unit, tasked to develop/enhance the lending institutions’ internal policy to effectively implement the corporate environmental policy; and Environmental Program Management Unit tasked to develop/manage grant-assisted environmental programs and assist project management units in developing environmental-related lending facilities that will provide services/support to the bank and its clients. “A Philippine Green Bank, which would have natural bias to finance green projects, could be developed using taxes on coal, other green-financing reserves, or grants from foundations and corporations that support climate investments,” she said. “The government could also provide technical assistance to assist the private sector in addressing regulatory challenges and technical risks. The government may also share the cost and risk in these climate investments,” she added. However, Legarda pointed out that before investments come in for a green economy, there should be a high level of awareness of climatechange impacts among Filipinos. “To encourage investments, we must first increase awareness on the severe impacts of climate change within sectors,” she said. “A national loss and damage registry and vulnerability assessment could help our banks assess the need of a proponent in a particular area for a certain project and realize the urgency of lending funds to finance it,” she added.
Everybody’s duty
LEGARDA said the government should become an enabler in creating a green economy. However, she added that transforming the country into a climate-resilient nation is not just the
government’s job, but everybody’s duty. “Our government certainly cannot do this alone. This would entail greater involvement from the private sector in transitioning our whole nation toward the achievement of our national targets,” she said. “The government has already started ‘greening’ our industries in various sectors, but our financial institutions and private banks could further escalate this green growth to a higher level. A strong partnership among the government, the private sector and financial institutions will be needed to put in place the right conditions to attract domestic and foreign low-carbon investments,” she added. Legarda said there is also the need to overcome challenges that hurdle financial institutions to lend to green-related projects and businesses.
Requirements
“WHILE the demand side faces high capital requirements, green lending institutions also face challenges, such as market gaps, which are heightened because of uncertainties and the lack of large-scale long-term finance,” she said. “For the private banks, long-term lending is constrained by the long-term risks associated with the global financial crisis, liquidity requirements, and sustainability of climate investments, among others,” she added. The Duterte administration’s Philippine Development Plan 2017-2022 stipulated the need for the creation of a green economy to mitigate the negative impacts of climate change to the country. These include the promotion of green technology innovations and climatesmart infrastructure designs as prescribed in the Green Building Code of the Department of Public Works and Highways. “What is important is the commitment from the government, private banks and financial institutions to spur and sustain green financing. All proponents should not wait for each other’s move; rather, we must act harmoniously,” she said.
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Trump donates Q3 pay to health department
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ASHINGTON—President Donald J. Trump has donated his thirdquarter salary to the Department of Health and Human Services to help fight the opioid epidemic. Acting Health Secretary Eric Hargan on Thursday accepted a check from the president in the amount of $100,000. Trump previously donated salary in the amounts of $78,333 and $100,000 to the National Park Service and the Education Department, respectively. Hargan said the donation will be put toward the cost of planning and designing a large-scale public awareness campaign about the dangers of opioid addiction. Trump announced the ad campaign in October, the same time he declared opioid misuse a national public health emergency. The declaration included no new federal funding to combat the epidemic. Hargan said 175 people die every day from drug overdose. As a candidate, Trump had promised not to take a salary, which is $400,000 annually. By law, he must be paid, so he is donating the money. Taxpayers can write off such donations, potentially lowering their income taxes. AP
GM’s self-driving Cars to be ready for ride-sharing in ‘19
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eneral Motors Co. plans to have its self-driving cars ready for a rideshare service within two years, as the automaker looks beyond traditional car ownership for new tech-driven sources of revenue. After spending more than a year putting the pieces in place to launch a robotaxi business, GM said on Thursday it expects to have a fleet of self-driving cars in operation in 2019. The sharing service could be run by the automaker or a partner. The more than a century-old manufacturer is pushing to be a major player in a future robotaxi business at a time when ride-hailing is growing and auto sales in its home market are slowing. GM is trying to position itself to cash in on a potentially lucrative business that could become a major new source of revenue and generate heftier profit margins, especially since going driverless could dramatically reduce costs. “It’s a big opportunity,” GM President Dan Ammann said in an interview in San Francisco this week. “We think it will change the world.” Ride-hailing services on the roads now, including those offered by Uber Technologies Inc. and Lyft Inc., cost consumers about $2 to $3 a mile, with the companies paying their drivers the equivalent of about three quarters of revenue, GM estimates. Take away driver costs and the rates could drop to below $1 a mile, said Kyle Vogt, chief executive officer of Cruise Automation, the San Francisco-based unit that develops the software for GM’s self-driving cars. Ammann told analysts and investors on Thursday that GM’s plan to get self-driving cars to market in large numbers could drop the costs of ride-sharing under $1 a mile by 2025. Once that happens, he said, 75 percent of the miles people drive could be through sharing or hailing services. That’s a $1.6-trillion market, which is 300 times larger than today, he said. To get there, GM is lowering the costs of self-driving cars both by building out its manufacturing capabilities and supply base and finding better technology. Lidar systems that use laser technology to give vehicles a view of the road now cost about $20,000, Vogt said. GM is switching to lidar units developed by Strobe, a company the automaker acquired this year, which will cost $300 apiece, he said. “If we continue on our current rate of change, we will be ready to deploy this technology in dense urban markets in 2019,” Ammann said. The outlook for when GM thinks it’ll have a self-driving service ready roughly coincides with when Uber will begin taking delivery of 24,000 sport-utility vehicles from Volvo Cars expected to be capable of piloting themselves. Waymo, the autonomous car unit of Google parent Alphabet Inc., earlier this month said it’s about to start chauffeuring people in Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV-supplied minivans without safety drivers manning the steering wheel. Bloomberg News
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Opec, Russia extend output curbs, boosting oil alliance
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he Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec) and its allies outside the group agreed to maintain oil-production cuts until the end of 2018, extending their campaign to wrest back control of the global market from America’s shale industry. After a day of talks in Vienna, the decision showed the strength of the unprecedented alliance between the world ’s top two oil producers, Saudi Arabia and Russia, and confounded Wall Street a n a l y s t s w ho’ d p re d i c t e d Moscow would be reluctant to keep going. The deal was even beefed up through the inclusion of Nigeria and Libya, two members of the Opec or ig i n a l ly e xempted f rom the curbs. “We are united, shoulder to shoulder,” Saudi Arabian Energy Minister Khalid Al-Falih said sitting next to his Russian counterpart Alexander Novak at a news conference after the meeting. “We are completely aligned.” Since the pact started a year ago, global inventories have fallen and prices rose by more than $20 a barrel, but in a rare display of unanimity at an Opec meeting, ministers agreed the job wasn’t yet complete. By keeping the 1.8 million barrels a day of cuts in place for a further nine mont hs, t he oi l producers aim to return stockpiles to their five-year average without overheating the market and eliciting a new flood of shale oil.
“Fundamentally, the cuts have worked well,” Patrick Pouyanne, chief executive officer of French oil major Total SA, said at a news briefing in Antwerp. “I’m not surprised they decided to extend.” Opec’s evolv ing v iew of the oil market supported a full-year extension. Until last week, Opec’s internal analysis concluded that stockpiles would be back in line with the five-year average in the third quarter of 2018. At the meeting on Tuesday of the Joint Tec hn ic a l Comm it tee — of ficials from Opec and nonOpec nations that monitor the cuts—that key date was pushed back to the end of the third quarter or the start of the fourth, said people familiar with the deliberations. Libya and Nigeria, previously exempt from cutting production due to internal strife, agreed to a collective cap on their output that exceeds the nations’ current production, accord ing to Iranian Oil Minister Bijan Na md a r Za nga neh. To accommodate the two new entrants, the existing deal will be reset to run for 12 months from January to December, delegates said. “The most positive surprise
Fundamentally, the cuts have worked well. I’m not surprised they decided to extend.”—Pouyanne
Miner’s revenge coming with e-cars–Friedland
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urging de m a nd for metals like copper, nickel and cobalt for use in electric vehicles promises to overturn the balance of power between mining companies and their customers, according to billionaire investor Robert Friedland. Automakers will have to change the way they approach procurement if they want to power their vehicles, said Friedland, who as a student befriended Steve Jobs before a career backing major discoveries from Canada to Mongolia. “Coming soon to a theater near you: this is the revenge of the miner,” Friedland said. “No miner is willing to sell a high-volatility metal to a car manufacturer at a fixed price.”
Friedland’s Ivanhoe Mines Ltd. is developing a large copper deposit in the Democratic Republic of Congo and a platinum project in South Africa. He’s also cochairman of Clean Teq Holdings Ltd., which has a nickel and cobalt sulphate project in Australia. Both metals are used in rechargeablebattery technologies and have surged this year on expectations for rising demand. “Nickel sulphate and cobalt sulphate: these are the sexy commodities that we cannot live with out,” Friedland said. While demand for coal and iron ore will stagnate, copper usage will continue to rise to meet environmental standards and reduce pollution, he said. Bloomberg News
is the inclusion of Libya and Nigeria in the deal and it removes uncertainty about supply in 2018,” said Jan Edelmann, an analyst at HSH Nordbank in Hamburg. Brent, the international benchmark crude, settled up 0.7 percent to $63.57 a barrel on Thursday. West Texas Intermediate, the US benchmark, settled up 0.2 percent to $57.40. Before t he meet i ng , Ru ssi a had sought assurances on how and when the agreement would be phased out, people involved in negotiations said earlier this week. The country needs greater clarity than most Opec members because its economic policy-making is more complex, including a floating exchange rate that fluctuates with the oil price. Those concerns had prompted some Wall Street banks, including Citigroup Inc. and Goldman Sachs Group Inc., to warn the meeting might disappoint oil investors. Despite the success of today’s meeting, Opec was given an immediate sign of the challenges it till faces. The US government
reported a large increase in domestic production in September, bringing the total to 9.48 million barrels a day, the fourthhighest monthly level since the early 1970s. Oil output surged in Texas and New Mexico, home of the prolific Permian shale basin. The Philadelphia Oil Services Index, made up of 15 various drilling and fracking contractors, limbed 1.8 percent in New York, while US shale explorers Pioneer Natural Resources Co. and Continental Resources Inc. each rose more than 2.5 percent on Thursday. Explorers in the US are likely to be seen as more attractive for investors heading into next year, Leo Mariani, an analyst at Natalliance Securities, wrote on Wednesday in a note to investors. “While there is no doubt that non-Opec production growth will be robust in 2018, fears are probably a little overblown as I expect global oil inventories to continue to draw down for most of next year,” he wrote. A lt hou g h A l-Fa l i h s a id t he impact of shale would be muted
by production declines in mature fields elsewhere, he made clear Opec was willing to stay the course. It would be premature to talk about an exit strateg y because Opec and its allies are relying on oil demand in the third quarter of 2018 to finally eliminate the inventory surplus, Al-Falih said before the meeting. But the kingdom is open to discussions about how the group could wind down the cuts “very gradually” once its goals are achieved, he said. Although the final communique said Opec’s meeting in June would review the production limits, ministers were keen to say there was no suggestion that they wanted to back off before the end of next year. “ T he June meeting is not an exit meeting. It is not an exit rev iew,” said Niger ian Oil Minister Emmanuel K achikw u. “It is simply a commonplace ana lysis of what the market is trending for and what we need to do to strengthen the bonds we have set up today.” Bloomberg News
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Haggle for lower drug price, experts urge American govt
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A woman carries shopping bags down Nanjing Road in Shanghai, China, on December 5, 2015. Premier Li Keqiang is facing a precarious balancing act as he eases fiscal policy to meet a target of 6.5-percent annual economic growth for the next five years, while reining in a debt pile that is estimated to be already more than twice the size of the world’s second-largest economy. Qilai Shen/Bloomberg
China gets US rebuke over North Korea, market reforms ‘backslide’
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he Trump administration rebuked China for not being tough enough over North Korea’s nuclear program and said the Asian country is backsliding on market-oriented reforms. The United States wants to work with other major economies to come up with a united response to what America sees as China’s foot dragging on economic changes, ranging from reforming state-owned enterprises to curbing the ruling party’s role in the economy, said David Malpass, the Treasury’s undersecretary of international affairs. T he u nu s u a l l y out s p ok e n criticism comes as the US seeks Beijing’s aid in corralling North Korea’s nuclear ambitions. While President Donald J. Trump has been scaling back his public criticism of China’s trade practices,
his administration is heaping pressure on the Asian nation to cut ties with North Korea after Pyongyang’s recent series of ballistic missile tests. “We are concerned that China’s economic liberalization seems to have slowed or reversed, with the role of the state increasing,” Malpass said at an event in New York on Thursday. “We invite marketoriented economies around the world to work with us to find constructive responses.” The remarks may raise tensions at a time when the world ’s two biggest economies are struggling to find common ground
on economic policy. In separate interview with Bloomberg TV, Malpass said talks have stalled b e t w e e n t h e t w o c o u nt r i e s through their main channel of regular discussions on economic and commercial matters. At the same time, the tougher US tone w i l l be welcomed by those who are concer ned China isn’t l iv ing up to t he promi ses it m ade when it joi ned t he World Trade Orga ni zat ion ( W TO) in 20 01. There’s broad agreement that China’s “path to liberalization has slowed. They are backtracking on some aspects of the financial areas, such as clamping down capital outf lows and monitoring investments of corporations and placing more party officials in the nominally private sector,” said Ted Truman, a senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics in Washington and a former Treasur y official. China should recognize that the US is looking at “two goods at the same time,” in terms of balancing national security concerns with its trade agenda, Malpass said. “China could be doing more and needs to be doing more” to work with the United States in curbing the threat from North Korea, he added. “At the same time, we also want to have a trade relationship that works in a more balanced and reciprocal way.”
‘Critical factor’
Adding to strains in the relationship, the US on Thursday joined the European Union in rejecting China’s claim that, under the terms of its accession to the WTO, it should have graduated last year to market-economy status, which would offer greater protection from anti-dumping duties. The Trump administration has been highly critical of
the international trading body, calling its dispute-settlement system “deficient.” “The World Trade Organization has shown an inability to resolve disputes, limit subsidies or draw China into the market status that was envisioned when China joined the WTO,” Malpass said. “As its proportion of the world’s GDP increases, China’s market liberalization is a critical factor over whether global growth will be sustained into the future.” Malpass called for a fundamental rethink of the multilateral system of global commerce, which he said has exacerbated trade imbalances and undermined US economic growth. “Now is the opportune time to talk about the rapid increase in globalism,” he said. “I want to make a clear distinction between isolation, which we oppose, and our view that multilateralism has gone substantially too far, to the point where it is hurting US and global growth.” W hile there is some evidence that China has slowed the pace of liberalizing its markets, such as state-owned enterprises playing a leading role in the economy, there are more signs of some areas opening up, said David Loevinger, a former China specialist at the US Treasury who now works as an analyst at TCW Group Inc. in Los Angeles. Asset managers can now trade Chinese bonds and other financial assets onshore, he said. China is also opening up foreign direct investment in financial services, according to Loevinger. “We are hemorrhaging soft power in Asia,” he said. “We are creating a vacuum for China and other powers to take advantage of that - China has other avenues and is working aggressively to expand its inf luence in Asia.” Bloomberg News
We are concerned that China’s economic liberalization seems to have slowed or reversed, with the role of th estate increasing. We invite market-oriented economies around the world to work with us to find constructive responses.”—Malpass
he United States government should use its heft to negotiate lower prescription-drug prices, according to a group of independent experts who advise the nation on science and medicine. Congress should authorize the government to use its purchasing power to get better deals on drugs it buys through Medicare, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine said in a report on Thursday. The group also suggested the US discourage direct-to-consumer ads for prescription medications. “Monitoring will be needed, but taking these steps should bring down the cost of prescription drugs while still enabling the continuing development of new drugs,” the advisers said in the 189-page report, called “Making Medicines Affordable: A National Imperative.” The report will likely add fuel to a recurring debate in the US, where unlike most of the rest of the world the government doesn’t directly regulate medicine prices and is prohibited from negotiating prices in the Medicare drugbenefit program for the elderly. Ph a r m aceut ic a l lobbies h ave strongly resisted changes over the years. President Donald J. Trump threatened to force bidding wars early in his presidency, but hasn’t taken any action so far. The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine blames high prices on America’s convoluted drug-supply chain, including intermediaries that privately negotiate discounts on behalf of clients, such as insurers and employers. Some drugmakers took advantage of government policies designed to promote innovation in order to protect their patents and block competition, the group also said.
‘Supremely complex’
“The United States biopharmaceutical enterprise has evolved into a supremely complex amalgam of regulators, developers and manufacturers, retailers, insurers, wholesalers, physicians, employers offering benefits, and intermediaries including organizations referred to as pharmacy benefit managers,” according to the report. “Not surprisingly, the system is rife with potential conflicts of interest.” The group, led by Norman Augustine, former chief executive officer of Lockheed Martin Corp., advised that federal regulators set up a system for better assessing the value of treatments and require more transparency.
The recommendation on price negotiation will likely feature prominently dur ing a Senate health committee hearing on the report on December 12. W hile Republicans have t y pica l ly sided with the pharmaceutical industry and opposed the approach, Democrats have repeatedly pushed for it, including in legislation proposed this year. Speaking at the Forbes Healthcare Summit on Thursday in New York, Seema Verma, the head of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, said the administration is focused on reducing beneficiary drug costs, particularly in Medicare. Echoing others in the administration, she said competition typically is good, and that the problems stem from “bad actors.” “W here the issue is in drug pricing is where there are no compet itors,” she sa id. “ T he market works very well when there are competitors.” The administration is examining the idea of passing on manufacturer rebates in Medicare directly to beneficiaries, Verma said. That would lower the price for individuals, but not necessarily the total cost of the treatments. She wasn’t asked specifically about negotiating prices in Medicare, which has about 55 million beneficiaries. The advisers’ report doesn’t back a controversial proposal Democrats and some Republicans have supported that would allow Americans to import cheaper drugs from other countries. It’s “not clear” how much the proposal would reduce drug prices, the group said. Many of the proposals put forward have been brought up in medical and policy debates over years and would be an uphill battle with the pharmaceutical industry. The Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA), a lobby group for drugmakers, has opposed allowing the government to become involved. On Thursday PhRMA released a report examining the US drug distribution system. It blamed insurers and benefit managers for failing to pass on negotiated drug discounts to patients. They often keep the discounts, leading to higher out-of-pocket costs for patients whose copays and deductibles based on the higher, non-negotiated price, PhRMA said. “Changes made within the current system, even though those changes will be demanding, are likely to better serve the nation,” the advisers wrote in their report. “Simply stated, bitter pills are sometimes necessary for providers as well as for consumers.” Bloomberg News
Women create more new biz, then struggle for financing
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n increasing number of women are starting their own businesses, which should surprise no one given the recent reports of sexual misconduct and discrimination at big companies. But even when women are their own bosses, the playing field isn’t level, according to a report released on Thursday by the Federal Reserve Banks of New York and Kansas City. Only 22 percent of women-owned firms have revenue exceeding $1 million a year, compared with 36 percent of male-owned firms, according to the study. Financing is also awarded unevenly. Women-owned firms applied for business loans at a similar rate to men, but less than half were approved, compared with a 61 percent approval rate for men. The study looked at companies with at least one employee besides the founder, a universe where women make up 20 percent of the total. Some of the gender gap may be a result of the sectors where women focus. Forty percent of women-owned businesses are in areas such as education, health, professional
services and real estate, compared with 31 percent of male-owned firms. Women also reported weaker credit: 53 percent said that they were a medium- to high-credit risk, compared with just 40 percent of men who defined themselves that way. The women also tended to seek smaller amounts of financing, often less than $100,000, the report said.
‘Micro credit’
“It’s a micro credit market,” said Claire Kramer Mills, New York Fed assistant vice president and coauthor of the report. Women sought financing from online lenders at about the same rate as men, but resorted to using their credit cards and other personal assets at a higher rate. Women-owned businesses increased b y 4 5 p e rc e n t b e t we e n 2 0 0 7 a n d 2015, according to S mall B usiness Administration data. Small businesses e m p l oy i n g f e we r t h a n 5 0 0 p e o p l e account for about half of private-sector employment in the US and create almost 60 percent of net new jobs, according to the federal agency. Bloomberg News
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Editor: Jun Lomibao | mirror_sports@yahoo.com.ph
Saturday, December 2, 2017
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quiban extends lead to 5 shots J
Zenit’s supporter Ekaterina Babii, 20, poses for a photo with the Saint Petersburg Stadium in the background. AP
RUSSIAN FANS SHOW COLORS
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OSCOW—Scarf-wearing soccer fans in Russia are already getting excited about next year’s World Cup, and some are even expecting quite a lot from the country’s national team despite its poor recent record. Sergei Martyshin, a 34-year-old marketing manager in Moscow sporting a Russian national team scarf, used to be more interested in hockey. But he is becoming more of a soccer fan as the World Cup approaches. “I’m going to be supporting the Russian team,” Martyshin said, “and I expect them to put in 200 percent
effort and at least reach the final.” Mikhail Chernikov, an 18-year-old Spartak Moscow fan, is also confident but is taking a more conservative view of the team’s chances. “We’ll definitely get out of the group. It’s got better under [Russia Coach Stanislav] Cherchesov than it was at the European Championship, the tactics are coming together,” Chernikov said. Russia reached the semifinals at Euro 2008, but has not made it out of the group stage at a major tournament since. AP
ustin Quiban outgunned Clyde Mondilla in a frontside duel then bounced back from a bogey mishap on No. 12 with three birdies to card a 67 and storm ahead by five in the third round of the CAT (Central Azucarera de Tarlac) Open at the Luisita Golf and Country Club here yesterday. Toughened up by Top 6 finishes at Southwoods and Wack Wack the last four weeks where he figured in the title chase but faded when it mattered most, Quiban, 21, thus moved 18 holes away from nailing a breakthrough victory with a 13-under 203, now confident of his shots and iron play. “I feel pretty solid—with my irons doing the most damage which enabled me to attack the pins with precision,” said Quiban, who hit all but one fairway and missed just two greens in hot condition with the format back to summer rules. Mondilla pulled to within two with back-to-back birdies from No. 11 but failed to match Quiban’s strong finishing kick of three birdies in the last six holes. He settled for a 71 and fell behind by five at 208. Still, the 23-year-old winner of four Philippine Golf Tour legs this year, remained confident of his chances for a follow-up to his PGT Asia victory at Riviera in September but stressed the need to come up with a strong start in today’s final round. “It can still be done. I just need to have a good start tomorrow [today],” said Mondilla, who yielded to Quiban’s near-impeccable game that featured six birdies, half of which he drilled inside 7 feet at the front, against one bogey. Just one up on the reigning PGT Order of Merit winner after 36 holes, Quiban birdied the par-3 No. 2 for the second straight day, gained on a two-shot swing on No. 4 (birdie-bogey) and pulled away by five with a birdie on the ninth for a 33. Mondilla, who made the turn with a 37, fought back to within two with birdies on Nos. 11 and 12 coupled with a Quiban three-putt miscue on the 12th but the latter countered with a birdie on the next and
regained a five-stroke lead with birdies on Nos. 15 and 16 for that five-under card and a five-shot lead. Peter Stojanovski of Macedonia, leaning on a hot start of four birdies in the first eight holes, fired a second straight 69 to tie Joenard Rates at third 209, while Swede Oskar Arvidsson (67), Elmer Salvador (70) and Jhonnel Ababa (71) lay a shot farther back at 210. Rates, tied with Mondilla halfway through the $100,000 fifth leg of the PGT Asia put up by ICTSI, also failed to match Quiban’s hot form in the featured flight, although he put up a late charge to save a 34 and a 72. Arvidsson rebounded from a disastrous second-round 76 with an impressive fiveunder round and wheeled back into title contention on his very first try on Justin Quiban cards a 67 the region’s newest in the second round on circuit organized Friday. Roy Domingo by Pilipinas Golf Tournaments Inc. Thai Natchanon Varapornkittirat carded a 70 for a 211 and Wisut Artjanawat, also from Thailand, faltered with a 74 and slipped to joint ninth with Charles Hong, who groped for a 73, at 212. Tony Lascuña, one of the pretournament favorites, birdied two of the first eight holes but made one bogey and stumbled with a double-bogey on No. 11 and bowed out of contention with a 214 in a tie with Aussie Hayden Beard (73), Kris Etter (74), Choo Tze Huang of Singapore (73), Gerald Rosales (69) and Arnold Villacencio (69). They stood behind the 213 group composed of Jay Bayron (69), Malaysian Amir Nazrin (70), Marvin Dumandan (72) and Dutch Guido Van der Valk (73). Other backers of the event are Custom Clubmakers, Meralco, Champion, Summit Mineral Water, K&G Golf Apparel, BDO, Sharp, KZG, PLDT and M.Y. Shokai Technology Inc.
Russia yet to regain trust of sport before World Cup
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OSCOW—Gary Lineker was furious, astonished at how International Football Federation’s (Fifa) executives were handing out the rights to host the 2018 and 2022 World Cups. Leaving the roped off area for dignitaries in Zurich on December 2, 2010, the former England striker provided details of the shocks emerging from a meeting of world football’s leadership. Lineker was stunned that England had been knocked out in the first round of voting, backed by only two Fifa executives. Russia won the voting to stage the 2018 tournament, delivering a coup for leader Vladimir Putin, who jetted into Zurich to celebrate. The 2022 vote sent even greater shockwaves through football as the tiny but wealthy desert nation of Qatar secured the World Cup for the Middle East for the first time. Being part of an England bid team that was so resoundingly humiliated by a committee of voters now largely discredited by bribery, financial misconduct and corruption left a deep impression on Lineker. Far removed from the clean-cut image of a player who avoided controversy, Lineker has turned his ire on Fifa and its executives over the last seven years. “Fifa bidding process created a murky world where favors/bribes were just thrown around,” Lineker tweeted to more than 6 million followers only five months ago after the release of an investigation report. “Stinks.” Still, Lineker accepted an offer to serve as the face of the 2018 World Cup when he hosts the draw at the Kremlin on Friday. A stage will even be shared with Putin at the seat of power in Russia. Hypocritical? Lineker maintains that taking the draw job and working for a former bid rival is not a “political endorsement.” More surprising, perhaps, is that Russia even wants to be so closely associated with Lineker. His trail of tweets adds credence to doubts about Russia’s suitability as a host of the world’s most popular sporting event.
The shadow of the 2014 Winter Olympics and Paralympics in Sochi hangs over the Fifa showpiece as coaches and officials descend on Moscow to discover their World Cup opponents in June. The International Olympic Committee is still working its way through the mass of evidence unearthed about the state-sponsored doping program around the Sochi Games, banning another wave of cheating athletes this week and deciding whether to bar Russia from entering a team at the Pyeongchang Olympics in February. An architect of the elaborate Sochi espionage scheme, which involved intelligence operatives unlocking supposedly tamper-proof drug-sample units and switching bottles through a hole in the wall of the drug-testing lab, remains in office in Russia. Vitaly Mutko, sports minister during the Sochi Olympics, is no longer in that job because he was promoted by Putin to deputy prime minister. Although even the mild-mannered International Olympic Committee denied Mutko access to the 2014 Rio de Janeiro Olympics, he remains head of the local organizing committee for the 2018 World Cup. Fifa has attempted to portray the doping as an Olympic problem. But football was infected by the scheme, with World Anti-Doping Agency investigators saying positive tests were apparently covered up and arrangements were in place to protect players from Russia’s 2014 World Cup squad if they were to test positive in the country before the tournament. Russia’s World Cup squad has not been directly accused of doping, but the documents do include records of alleged drug use among players from youth national teams. They remain under investigation by Fifa as the 2018 tournament looms. According to Mutko this week, Russian players couldn’t have been on drugs because they performed badly in Brazil. “If we play like that while doped, then how would we do without?” Mutko said. “It’s absolute stupidity.”
North Korean missile frustrates South’s Olympic preparations
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EOUL, South Korea—Just when South Korea thought it was finally creating a buzz for February’s Winter Olympics, North Korea fired its most powerful missile yet and re-ignited safety worries about the small mountain town that will host the games not far from the rivals’ anxious border. The Pyeongchang Olympics probably aren’t in jeopardy because of Wednesday’s launch for a number of reasons, including that the North is unlikely to attack the more powerful, United States-backed South. Despite its belligerent neighbor, South Korea is also one of the safest places in the world with a wealth of experience hosting international sporting events. Still, the launch, which followed a 10-week lull, was a frustrating development for Pyeongchang’s organizers,
who have only recently got on track after facing construction delays, controversies over cost overruns and wary sponsors. They can also do little to calm international fears created by North Korea’s accelerating nuclear weapons and missile tests. Shortly after North Korea fired the Hwasong-15 into the sea on Wednesday, South Korean President Moon Jae-in convened a national security meeting where he ordered government officials to closely review whether the launch could hurt South Korea’s efforts to successfully host the Olympics, which begin on February 9. South Korea wants more than a million spectators for the Olympics, which will be held just 80 kilometers from the border, and expects 30 percent of them to be foreign visitors. Organizers have struggled for months to spark enthusiasm
Flying in the face of mounting written evidence, Mutko persists in denying any government role in the doping of athletes. That lack of contrition has contributed to Russia’s sporting credibility disappearing down the drain as quickly as the urine samples from doped-up athletes. Sochi tarnished Russia’s hopes of being seen as a reliable sporting host. The World Cup offers a platform for the Russians to shed their pariah status in sports. AP
PFL finals series come off wraps
T Judge gets 10 votes for New York mayor
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EW YORK—A unanimous winner of the American League Rookie of the Year Award and runner-up in Most Valuable Player voting, Aaron Judge also received ballots in another election: for New York City mayor. The New York Yankees right fielder was listed on 10 ballots as a write-in candidate for mayor, according to final totals released late Tuesday by the New York City Board of Elections. Judge received three votes in New York County (Manhattan and the Marble Hill section of the Bronx), four in Brooklyn, two in Queens and one in Staten Island.
for the games locally, where the national conversation over the past year have been dominated by a massive a massive corruption scandal that toppled and jailed the last president and North Korea’s flurry of weapons tests. Sung Baikyou, an official from Pyeongchang’s organizing committee, on Thursday downplayed worries that North Korea would scare away athletes and visitors to Pyeongchang. Organizers and government officials have held briefings and site inspections for Olympics officials, members and sponsors to reassure them of South Korea’s security readiness. The 92 nations that have so far registered to participate in the Pyeongchang Games represent the largest ever Winter Olympics field. And after a slow start, organizers had managed to sell more than half of the available tickets by
He was far behind Bill de Blasio, who won reelection with 713,634 votes on the Democratic line and 46,478 on the Working Families line. Former Yankees Manager Joe Girardi and former Yankees captain Derek Jeter, now CEO of the Miami Marlins, got two write-in votes apiece. Kristaps Porzingis, a Latvian player on the National Basketball Association’s New York Knicks, received nine write-in votes. There was an additional vote for each of two misspelled variations of his name: Kristaps Porzinais and Kristops Porzingis. New York Giants quarterback Eli Manning, who was benched this week, got one vote. AP the end of November. Sung said there hasn’t been any talk with the International Olympic Committee about moving or canceling the games. “It wouldn’t make sense for anyone to cancel tickets to Pyeongchang because of fears about North Korea,” Sung said. “There’s no war; bombs aren’t being dropped on Pyeongchang.” Hyun Jae-gyung, an official from Gangwon province, which governs Pyeongchang and nearby Gangneung, a coastal city that will host the skating and hockey events during the Olympics, said cancellations at hotels and other accommodation facilities in the areas have been few and sporadic and unlikely linked to security concerns. AP
HE real battle begins in the Philippines Football League (PFL) as top seed Meralco Manila opens its two-leg finals series with No.4 Global Cebu today at the Rizal Memorial Stadium. The first leg duel between Meralco and Global kicks off at 7 p.m., with the winner getting an advantage heading into the second leg. Second-placed Ceres Negros also begin its finals series with Kaya Makati tomorrow at 4 p.m. at the University of Makati Stadium. The four teams will battle it out in the finals series to determine the inaugural PFL champion, which will qualify to the Asian Football Confederation Cup 2018. Meralco topped the elimination round with 58 points on 17 wins, seven draw and four losses, while Ceres fell to second place, only one point behind. Kaya and Global were tied with 47 points apiece with Makati gaining a better position with a superior goal differential seven. The second leg of both duels will be held on December 9 simultaneously at 7 p.m., with Meralco and Global staying at the Rizal Memorial Stadium because the Cebu Sports Complex is not available, and Ceres hosting Kaya at the Panaad Park and Stadium in Bacolod City. The winning teams will advance to the championship round on December 16, while the losers will battle for third place in a venue still to be determined. Philippine Football Federation President Mariano Araneta Jr. is upbeat about the Finals series and wished all four clubs well. “I would like to congratulate the four teams that have qualified to the Philippines Football League Finals Series and, at the same time, wish them good luck,” Araneta said. “What started out as a collective dream then has become a reality; we are near the day where the first professional club of the Philippines Football League will be crowned champions.” Lance Agcaoili
A6 Saturday, December 2, 2017 | Editor: Mike Besa
Trouble in Challenges at The Orchard
BusinessMirror Golf Editor Mike Besa receives Albert Garcia’s seed money for Play it Right as PGA Professional Dan Sais stands witness.
Play it right–always! T
he Play it Right movement started on the 23rd of May in 2014, when an unashamed cheat took the top prize in the Mayor Erap Cup at Club Intramuros. Fortunately, members of the old Pinoygolfer forum behind and in front of him in the tournament witnessed his underhandedness. Then on the 9th of June, a concerned group of golfers met at the Navy Golf Club in Makati City to discuss the situation and determined to do something about the cheating that goes unabated in recreational golf in the country. Thus, the Play it Right movement was born. This is the reason we did so: This is the spirit of the game. Honesty, integrity, courtesy: three words that have come to represent the spirit in which the game of golf is played. Part of that spirit sits beneath the term, “etiquette” and part of it relates to the Rules of Golf. But the Spirit of the Game goes much deeper than just those two tangible terms. It is something that every golfer should develop an innate sense of, something that is born of golf’s unparalleled history, and something which lifts golf, one could argue, above other sports. Whether it’s through divot and pitch-mark repair, or simply through silence on the tee, the spirit of the game dictates that players make sure they give others on the course, often opponents, a fair chance to play the best shot they can. For most of us, the game of golf is selfregulating. There is seldom a referee present, so we are reliant upon our own honest adherence to the Rules in order to enjoy the game. As a result, we are all occasionally forced to call a penalty on ourselves for infringements which, often, will go unnoticed by everyone else. It is this dependency upon honesty and courtesy that has elevated “integrity” to sacrosanct status. Without them, we may as well hang up our clubs. Elaborate plans were made as to how to address the problem. Awareness was key as was a better understanding of the Rules of Golf. Some wanted to shame the cheats by posting their names on social media. A golf summit was to be held to discuss the matter and how to deal with it.
Unfortunately, the plans to address the issue were a bit too ambitious and lacked the focus (and the funding) needed and the movement lost steam. It remained on FB, where the administrators of the page continue to post articles and videos on the Rules of Golf in an attempt to spread awareness and a working knowledge of the rules. Then one of the golfers that witnessed the original incident at Intramuros was invited to join the Federalism Golf Tour. Upon surveying the list of entrants, he noticed the name of the same fellow at the center of the incident at the Erap Cup. This sparked the outrage all over again. This time the conveners of the Play It Right movement are determined to get it right. Megafiber’s Albert Garcia unilaterally donated P20,000 as seed money to get the movement going. He, Professional Golfers’ Association professional Dan Sais and the author met at the Manila Southwoods Golf and Country Club to discuss how best to put the money to good use. As before, the primary goal must be the education of our golfers. One must have an understanding of the rules and their application before he can speak with authority about them. A series of town hall meetings are in the works to educate golfers on the rules in an informal, nonthreatening forum. Work is also being done on merchandise that will identify the golfers that are now proficient in the rules and to spread the word to their friends. Learning from our previous mistakes, the plans are a bit less ambitious and more achievable. It was also agreed that we will need to raise money to keep the movement going forward. This can come in the form of donations from like-minded individuals, as well as the sales of Play It Right merchandise. Whatever form it takes, it is vital to keep Play It Right moving forward. Trust and integrity are the pillars on which the game of golf is built. Without them, there is nothing to distinguish us from the world where individualism and chaos reign. For now, download a copy of the Rules of Golf to your phone. Read it, take it to heart and play by the rules. Play it right.
Mike Besa
The fifth hole on the Player course. The issue with the green surrounds are clearly visible here. The Palmer course was spared the worst and seems well on its way to recovery.
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Story & photos by Mike Besa
he Orchard Golf and Country Club has always been regarded as one of the best run golf clubs in the country today. The courses have always been in the best possible condition, despite the amount of traffic the golf course sees. The club saw fit to hire a professional management team, which saved the club the politicking and enmity that plagues other clubs as the members vie for management control. Things have gone very smoothly until late in 2016. The greens at the Orchard were the first things that indicated that something might be amiss. The club failed to get the Player Course’s greens in truly tournament shape by the 2016 Founders Cup, the Orchard’s big member-guest tournament. The heavy rains and limited sunlight the course had received the months before were cited as the reason for the greens’ decline. Unsatisfied with the explanation, Conrad Benitez, the Orchard GCC president, reached out to Jim Prusa, course superintendent of SKY72 Resorts in Korea, whose five golf courses see in excess of 100,000 rounds of golf each per year but remain in the best possible condition. Prusa is a member of the United States Golf Course Superintendent Association and a university professor of horticulture. He comes to the Orchard annually to lecture on golf-course maintenance at the annual Philippine Golf Course Management Conference hosted by the Orchard. Prusa was on vacation in Puerto Galera when Benitez contacted him and asked if he might
make time to visit the Orchard to consult on what he felt were worrying conditions at the club. Prusa agreed immediately and what he found shocked him. The greens were far from the championship standards that he would expect from a reputed premier golf club in Southeast Asia. His thoughts immediately turned to the credibility of Golf Asia Magazine’s awards program due to Orchard’s appearance and consideration for Asian Golf Awards a few years ago. What he found was nothing short of a major disaster. In Prusa’s words, “What I found at Orchard in December 2016, were unmistakably the results of significantly less than adequate maintenance practices, going on over a long period of time, which permitted root zones of greens to deteriorate.” All turf areas had developed high levels of organic matter and thatch. This was preventing these areas from draining properly and oxygen from reaching the root zone. This was further exacerbated by the compacted state of the soil, which led to even lower levels of aeration. This stunted root development over time and left the turf grasses susceptible to disease. The thatch retained water that served as a breeding ground for the fungi that eventually hit the greens prior to this year’s staging of the Founders Cup and caused an uproar among the members. He also called into question the club’s weed control policies. Particularly with the club’s continued use of monosodium methanearsonate (MSMA), a controversial chemical that has been restricted and banned in the USA as a potent, post-emergent herbicide that can readily cause
n Paradise Golf and Country Club
www.pinoygolfer.com | Saturday, December 2, 2017 A7
Xander Schauffele at the PGA Tour Championship.
Xander Schauffale and the PGA Tour
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By Chuah Choo Chiang
ander Schauffale probably epitomizes best what the PGA Tour is all about these days. Born in La Jolla, California, the 24-year-old has a name which is not typically American, holds a United States passport and has a father who is half-French, halfGerman and mother who is half-Taiwanese. “I have a very international background but I haven’t had the opportunity to travel a whole lot,” said Schauffele, who rose to fame by winning the seasonending Tour Championship in September, which helped him finish third in the FedExCup standings. “My dad’s half-French, half-German. My mom’s Taiwanese, grew up in Japan. It’s cool that golf has kind of allowed me to start here in Malaysia, then Korea, then China. Growing up, it was always a dream of mine to play on the PGA Tour and to kind of use golf as a tool to travel. I’ve never, I have a very international background but I haven’t had the opportunity to travel a whole lot.” Schauffale and the merry band from the PGA Tour should buckle up and prepare for a wild ride in the future after spending three weeks competing in mega PGA Tour events in Asia. After a two-week break, the PGA Tour’s 20172018 season started in full earnest in early October with the Safeway Open in Napa, California, won by Brendan Steele. Then, the Tour headed full steam to the Far East for the eighth staging of the CIMB Classic in Malaysia, followed by the inaugural CJ Cup @ Nine Bridges in South Korea and World Golf Championships-HSBC Champions in China. The three Asian stops are part of the Tour’s expansive 49-leg FedExCup schedule, which will visit five other countries outside of the United States. For a rising star like Shauffale with such a colorful family heritage, the opportunity to expand his horizons is an exhilarating prospect. “I’m just excited to start the year off kind of on
a different foot instead of in the States,” Schauffale said. “If you want to be one of the best players in the world, you have to be a global player. You have to collect fans in different countries and play well in different countries. I’m just really looking forward to the opportunity presented,” he said. While Shauffale is amongst the Class of 2011 that includes Jordan Spieth, Justin Thomas, Emiliano Grillo and Daniel Berger who have burst onto the PGA Tour scene, the old guard are just as equally excited with how the game is growing around the world. Recently inducted World Golf Hall of Fame member, Davis Love III, recalled the old days when he used to fly out to the occasional Tournament in Asia. “In 1985, when I started on the Tour, I never thought I would be playing in Malaysia in between playing at Pebble Beach and then New York, then Malaysia, then back to playing in Mississippi. You know, it really is amazing. They just seemed so far away...and now it’s just part of our Tour,” said the 53-year-old. “It really isn’t the US Tour. It’s the PGA Tour.” A 21-time PGA Tour champion, Love welcomes the global expansion and snapped up the opportunity to compete in the CIMB Classic in Malaysia, which was inaugurated in 2010. “I’ve watched the Tour grow really around the world. With the Canada Tour, the Latin American Tour, playing two events now in Mexico, three over here [in Asia], it’s really growing. It’s an international game,” he said. “We have to embrace that that we’re going to play around the world. Our Tour is going to be kind of the world Tour. Guys are coming from all around the world to play our Tour as the premier place to play, so we have to come over here and play. It’s a great streak. My goal would be to get in all three of them next year, it would be a nice goal.” n Chuah Choo Chiang is senior director of communications of the PGA Tour and is based at TPC Kuala Lumpur.
The best pre-shot routine
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By David MacKenzie
he pre-shot routine is arguably as important as the swing itself. Where you put your focus before a shot will have a huge impact on the swing and the end result. If you don’t have a plan and clear mind, you won’t be able to access your best skills during your swing. THE PRE-SHOT ROUTINE: THE MAKE OR BREAK TIME FOR A GOLF SHOT Over the years I’ve worked with hundreds, if not thousands, of students and I’ve heard pretty much everything that a golfer can think about during the moments before a shot. I’ve also learned how those different thoughts affect how well the shot is played.
significant damage to ultradwarf varieties of bermuda grass species and Paspalum species. The best weed control is to have healthy turf grasses in the first place. That is the first line of defense. The weed infestation issue was another indicator of the golf courses’ poor health. But that was just the start. Probing deeper, Prusa found what he called “systemic failure and neglect of maintenance and proper maintenance procedures.” In fact, it seems that the club had suffered from years of neglect and systemic mismanagement in four key areas: n General agronomic course conditioning n Equipment, machinery, and repair facility maintenance n Irrigation and pump maintenance n Maintenance of the club’s invaluable asset—the golf-course maintenance personnel The extent of the neglect is staggering. Most of the equipment fleet were in disrepair or close to it. Safety devices had been commonly removed and never replaced. This not only compromised golf-course maintenance but also the lives of the men and women that operate the machines. The sprinkler system was a disaster. Sprinkler heads close to the greens and surrounds had been cannibalized for parts, while others were simply inoperable. Only two of the six pumps were working and one of the two was close to a catastrophic failure. All of this points to an inadequately trained maintenance crew that seemed unaware of the correct practices of maintaining the
golf course. We could go on well beyond this section’s physical limits. Prusa’s investigation was most thorough; he filed a condensed 27-page report that was circulated to the members to inform them of what they had found and his recommendations to solve the issues. Unfortunately, it seemed to do little to calm the members. Particularly as this all came to a head just prior to the 2017 Founders Cup. Emergency measures were taken to get the greens ready for the Orchard’s biggest tournament. The Palmer’s greens were less affected and responded to the treatment. The Player’s greens, on the other had, were so diseased that they did not recover in time for the tournament. I spoke to Prusa at length before the Founders Cup and asked him point-blank about the recovery time of the golf courses. In his estimation, it will take roughly five years to bring the golf courses back to the peak of health (given that the club does what is required) but he also said in four years, the golf courses will make the members proud. A good percentage of the members found disfavor with the way that the club handled the crisis. The club is cleaning house of top management, including golf operations, which is not involved in golf-course maintenance. Members allege that this is unfair since Raymond Sangil, the golf director, is universally liked and well regarded by them. The profitability of his department has been key to the club’s financial independence. It went so far that a number of
concerned members contacted club chairman Vicente Santos, who represents developer Sta. Lucia Realty’s interests on the board, to a meeting that was also attended by members of the house committees. There they expressed their displeasure at they way that Benitez had handled the situation and some even put the blame squarely on his shoulders as part of his command responsibility as president of the club. They took issue with the wholesale removal of the club’s top management, the same management, they reasoned, that took the club to the top of the golf-course industry as one of the best managed in the country. Removal of the managers whose departments were not connected to golfcourse management seemed unnecessary and excessive, and served as a red flag that should be further investigated. I might be a new member in the scheme of things, having only joined just two years ago, but I’ve known Conrad Benitez much longer than that. I do know that he is a man that loves the Orchard and everything it stands for most deeply. He was on site for most of the construction and had a hand in shaping a few key holes that added to the shot values while costing the club and the developers a bit more money. Knowing what I do, it is easy to see that he would never knowingly ever do the club and its golf courses any harm. He is incapable of that. If anything, he is probably guilty of trusting his management team a little too implicitly to the point that he had foregone checking on the golf course and
all its component parts in detail over time. Whatever the case, the club is at its tipping point. Where Mr. Benitez takes the club from here is key. As a member, I want what all the members want; we all want our club back. We want it back to its former stature as one of the best golf clubs in Asia with golf courses that are up to and, perhaps, even exceed that standard. We want peace and respectability back without factions or strife to divide us. We want the Orchard whole again. But we will have to accept the ugly state that we find our golf courses in today. As much as we might have liked members of the management team, the condition that we find the golf courses and equipment today is an unmistakable indictment of the mismanagement that it suffered at the hands of the previous team. Benitez did the right thing by bringing in an impartial third party in the person of Jim Prusa, whose impeccable credentials and love for golf make bringing the courses back to respectability his only priority. We will all have to bear the burden of the costs of repair to the irrigation system, the maintenance fleet and the training of our staff to move the club forward and to make sure this never happen again. It is an abject lesson for all golf courses in the country, a tough pill to swallow for the board of directors and the members of the Orchard, but with a good management team in place and given the proper tools and training, I am hopeful that the Orchard will return to its place at the top of the golf industry in the Philippines as one of the best golf clubs in the land.
WHAT YOU THINK ABOUT BEFORE A SHOT DIRECTLY AFFECTS YOUR SWING To strike the ball well to your intended target requires the golf swing to be fluid and tension-free. However, without a proper pre-shot routine, you won’t be able to eliminate conscious thought over the ball, so that fluidity and synchronicity needed is hard to achieve. Players will ask me why they can’t swing on the course as well as they do on the driving range, and this is one of the reasons. On the range, you swing without thinking. You get into a rhythm. On the course, with the addition of pressure, consequences, playing in front of others, etc., there’s interference from doubt, overthinking and “what ifs.” But with a disciplined preshot routine, you can direct your focus to where it needs to be, to access your best swings. THE 3 PHASES OF THE PRE-SHOT ROUTINE n THINKING PHASE—When a player arrives at their ball, the “thinking” or “conscious” phase begins. This is where you decide on the best target and type of shot considering the situation (lie, wind, risk/reward, good/bad miss, etc). By the end of this phase, the player should have a very clear intention for the shot, i.e., distance, club, shot shape and trajectory. The best question to ask is “What does a good shot look like here?” No more thinking is required apart from getting set up correctly. n THE CREATIVE PHASE—“I pull up my sleeves, shrug my shoulders and try to get them relaxed and then I try to remember the best shot I’ve hit in my life with whatever club I’ve got in my hand.”—Fred Couples The next step in your routine is the creative or imagination phase. We need to mentally and physically rehearse the shot we are about to play.
In this phase, I’d like you to get a deeper connection with the shot you are about to hit. How does it look? How does it feel and sound? n THE TRUST PHASE—When you start your walk into the ball, you enter the second phase of the pre-shot routine, which is the “subconscious” or “trust” phase. Since the optimal target and shot type has already been determined, no further “thinking” about it needs to be done. The rest of the shot routine is done, without thinking. It’s time to trust yourself and engage your athletic mind. Determining what you need to focus on to keep your athletic mind engaged is something you can work out during your mental practice for golf, but it will most likely be the mental image or the feel of the shot. The image or feeling will instruct your subconscious mind on how to move your body during the shot, to get as close to the desired outcome as possible. Some elite players say they can still see the image of the shot in their mind’s eye even while they are looking down at the ball. They’re certainly not thinking about where the hazards are or giving themselves technical instruction on how to play the shot. A BETTER WAY TO MEASURE YOUR SUCCESS During your next round, keep a record of how many shots that you successfully achieve your “process goals,” and measure your success by how well you were able to focus on these steps, instead of where the ball went. Try to make your mind as quiet as possible in the trust phase and focus only on the intention for the shot. This is a far better goal to have than shooting a good score. This keeps you focused on what you can control, in the present moment, and steers you away from the anxiety of speculating about your score (which you can’t fully control). n David MacKenzie is a performance coach and the founder of Golf State of Mind. Throughout David’s playing career, he learned quickly how attitude, self-belief and mental toughness affect performance in golf. He knew that was the difference between his average and great rounds. But the question was how did one improve these valuable skills and feel more confident more often? While studying at the University of Saint Andrews in Scotland, David began in-depth research into sport psychology and how elite performers apply their minds to practice and play. He interviewed hundreds of elite golfers and sport psychologists. He shared what he discovered via his web site, Golf State of Mind, and it quickly resonated with golfers of all levels.
OurTime
A8 Saturday, December 2, 2017 • Editor: Efleda P. Campos
BusinessMirror
Christmas arrives early for Makati’s elderly citizens
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By Claudeth Mocon-Ciriaco | Correspondent
HE city government of Makati began bringing joy to senior citizens this holiday season as the Makati Social Welfare Department (MSWD) began distributing their year-end cash gift on November 23.
The MSWD will continue to distribute the cash gift until December 11. In a report to Makati Mayor Abby Binay, MSWD OIC Ryan Barcelo said over 79,000 qualified beneficiaries will receive their cash gift on scheduled dates from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. at designated venues. “We dearly love our elderly Makatizens and we remain committed to giving them a happy life in every way possible. We hope the cash-gift benefit will help defray their expenses for day-to-day needs,” Binay said. Blu Card holders will receive their year-end cash gift corresponding to their age categories: Beneficiaries aged 60 to 69 years will receive P1,500; 70 years to 79 years, P2,000; and 80 to 89 years old, P2,500. This year the city has allocated P326.2 million for the cash gift to seniors and centenarians. The cash gift is given in two equal installments every June and December. The Blu Card Program was launched in 2002 initially to pro-
vide financial assistance amounting to P3,000 to beneficiaries of a Blu Card holder until their demise. It was later expanded in 2003 to include financial assistance in the form of a cash gift to augment their budget for daily needs, like food and medicine through City Ordinance 2003-058. Upon the initiative of Binary, the Makati City Council in December passed City Ordinance 2016-A-043, granting an additional P1,000 to the annual cash gift of Blu Card holders. Barcelo said the distribution began on November 23 for Blu Card holders from barangays Bel-Air, Southside and Santa Cruz who got their cash gift at their respective barangay halls. At the same date the distribution of cash gift for beneficiaries from La Paz and Valenzuela was done at their covered courts. For barangay Kasilawan, the venue was at the covered court of Barangay Carmona. On November 24 the distribution for barangays Pitogo, San Lorenzo,
Pinagkaisahan, Carmona and Singkamas took place at their barangay halls, distribution took place at the Elderly Wellness Center for the beneficiaries from Tejeros. Beneficiaries from barangays Olympia (covered court) and Bangkal (barangay hall) were slated on November 27 and 28, while those from barangays Comembo and East Rembo claimed their cash gift at their respective covered courts on November 29. On December 1 and 2 the distribution was done at the barangay hall of Barangay Rizal and at the covered court of Barangay Poblacion. The distribution of cash gift for Blu Card holders from Barangay Pembo will take place at their covered court on December 4 and 5. Recipients from barangay Guadalupe Nuevo can get their cash gift at their covered court on December 4, while beneficiaries from barangay West Rembo can claim theirs at their covered court on December 5. On December 6 the covered courts of barangays South Cembo and San Antonio will be the venue of the cashgift distribution. The covered court of Barangay Palanan and barangay hall of Barangay Guadalupe Viejo will be the venue of the distribution on December 7. On December 8 the distribution for Barangays Cembo, Dasmariñas and San Isidro will take place at their respective barangay halls. For Barangay Northside, it will be done at the Makati City Hall Building II. Blu Card holders from Barangays Magallanes, Urdaneta and Forbes Park can claim their cash gift at their
respective barangay halls on December 9. Beneficiaries from Barangay Pio del Pilar can get theirs at their covered court on December 9 and December 11. In claiming the cash gift, beneficiaries who are unable to come in person can send their duly authorized representative, whose name appears at the back of the Blu Card to the Cash Division at the third floor of Makati City Hall. The representative should be able to present a medical certificate as proof of the beneficiaries’ condition, whether bedridden, disabled or confined in a hospital. Authorization forms are available at the MSWD office at the fifth floor of Makati City Hall. Senior citizens who are outof-town or abroad during the distribution of the cash gift are not entitled to claim the benefit, and authorization presented by a representative will not be honored by the Cash Division. Blu Card holders who have passed on from November 16 onward will still be entitled to the 2017 year-end cash gift. The Senior Citizen’s National ID card, also known as the White card or any other Senior Citizen’s card, will be honored provided the senior citizen claims their cash gift personally. Beneficiaries or designated representatives who will not be able to claim their cash gifts on the scheduled date will be given four working days to claim the cash gift at the ground floor of the Makati City Hall Building II.
Trudeau apologizes for abuse and ‘profound cultural loss’ at indigenous schools
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TTAWA, Ontario—Prime Minister Justin Trudeau offered a broad and emotional apology to indigenous people in the province of Newfoundland and Labrador, where for much of the 20th century, indigenous children were compelled to attend boarding schools that separated them from their families and cultures and in many cases, subjected them to abuse. In addition to the apology, the Canadian government settled a classaction lawsuit and will provide about Canadian $50 million to about 900 former students of the five schools, which endured until 1980. The decision came after a decadelong controversy over the federal government’s responsibility. In 2008 Trudeau’s predecessor, Stephen Harper, apologized to indigenous people for the rest of Canada for a residential school program the federal government operated from the 19th century until 1996. A national Truth and Reconciliation Commission later condemned that system as a form of “cultural genocide.” Because Newfoundland and Labrador did not join Canada until 1949, its boarding school system had different origins, even if it had a similar legacy. Harper’s government took the view that the abuses committed there in the early 20th century were not the federal government’s fault. But in a ceremony in Happy Valley-Goose Bay, Newfoundland, where victims also spoke, Trudeau said, “It’s time for Canada to acknowledge its history for what it is: Flawed, imperfect and unfinished.” “For far too many students, profound cultural loss led to poverty, family violence, substance abuse and
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Cebuanos celebrate Elderly Filipino Week with protection vs pneumonia
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ROUND 1,500 lolos and lolas from two towns of Cebu province were given shots of pneumococcal polysaccharide vaccine through the collaboration between the Department of Health (DOH), Cebu Provincial Health Office, Office of the Vice President’s Angat Buhay Program and global biopharmaceutical company MSD in the Philippines. The recent vaccination drive targeted senior citizens from the municipalities of San Remigio and Argao and was also in line with the Elderly Filipino Week led by the DOH, Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD), PhilHealth and the Office of Senior Citizen Affairs. The pneumonia immunization program was launched by the DOH in 2013 in an effort to combat pneumonia, which has consistently ranked as a leading cause of morbidity and mortality among elderly Filipinos. Pneumococcal diseases, such as pneumonia, meningitis (an infection of the brain lining) and bacteremia (the presence of bacteria in the blood) are primarily caused by the bacteria Streptococcus pneumoniae. As one of the more invasive forms of pneumococcal diseases, an infection of the lungs caused by the Streptococcus pneumoniae may result in several other complications, such as lung abscess, pleural effusion (water inside the lungs), or sepsis, which is widespread infection leading to inflammation. Dr. Gerard Ysmael, DOH 7 deployment physician and doctor to the barrio, said elders and children are likely the easy targets of pneumonia. He encouraged the elders who engage in smoking to quit and influence their relatives and friends, regardless of age, to do the same. “Chronic smoking would likely reduce the natural defense of your body against diseases. While it’s still early, quit from smoking and encourage your family and other relatives, so that when you grow older, you will live a healthier life,” he said. In his discussion about the risks of pneumonia, Ysmael encouraged the elders to maintain a healthy, hygienic and active lifestyle, in order to ensure they are kept away from the dangers of pneumonia. “Prevention is always cheaper than finding cure to our diseases. Eat right, drink right, rest well. If you do this, your bodies’ natural defense would be stronger,” he said. DOH 7 Local Health Support
Division Chief Dr. Jonathan Neil Erasmo explained to the senior citizens who attended the vaccination how important it is for children and the elderly to be vaccinated against pneumonia, since they are the most vulnerable to pneumococcal diseases. “We think that vaccines are only for children, but you, seniors, actually need it more because your natural health defenses have already lowered down as you age,” Erasmo said. Based on a recent review of clinical trials, the pneumococcal polysaccharide vaccine has been shown to be approximately 74 percent efficacious against invasive pneumococcal diseases in adults. To encourage the elders, Mayor Mariano Martinez of San Remigio volunteered to be vaccinated along with 500 other seniors in his municipality, while Mayor Stanley Caminero of Argao, who is a medical doctor by profession, personally administered the vaccination of two senior citizens. The immunization programs in the two towns were also supported by the Angat Buhay program of the OVP, under its universal healthcare thrust to alleviate the situation of indigent Filipinos. Although the pilot towns in Cebu were only Argao and San Remigio, Angat Buhay Program Officer Ariza Francisco said they look forward to replicate it in other local government units as well. “Through the efforts of the DOH, we knew that these places are likely ideal to pilot the program because of their demographics, the number of senior citizens and their needs,” Francisco said. “The immunization program for the elderly individuals is very timely, since the Elderly Filipino Week was also recently celebrated,” she added. The local chief executives said they were very grateful for the services given their constituents. “This is just one of the Angat Buhay programs and Argao is very grateful for the different benefits that our people have availed from this. That is the very essence of the program—to bring together all stakeholders from the government, civil society, and private sector to come together and synchronize their efforts towards a common target that is to alleviate poverty and its impact on people,” Caminero said. A side f rom pneu mococc a l polysaccharide vaccine, the seniors were also given anti-influenza vaccination.
Regular exercise staves off effects of brain aging
‘BELEN’ WOODCARVER Baltaraz Mondiguing, 65, of Barangay Tadiangan in Tuba, Benguet, is busy doing his orders of woodcarving figurines for the Nativity scene this Christmas season. MAU VICTA community breakdown,” Trudeau said. “It led to mental and physical health issues that have impeded their happiness and that of their family. Far too many continue to face adversity today as a result of time spent in residential schools, and for that, we are sorry.” At the arts center where Trudeau spoke, organizers had stacked boxes of facial tissues. They were put to use. Trudeau blotted his eyes and dabbed his nose with a handkerchief, and former students and others in the crowd sobbed. Toby Obed, 45, a former student and one of the leaders of the classaction lawsuit, entered the stage after Trudeau in a jubilant mood, arms
raised and shouting, “We did it.” But Obed was overcome by emotion as well. “We felt left out, forgotten and abandoned,” said Obed, who had testified about being a victim of sexual assault. “Because I come from a patient and forgiving culture, I think it is proper for us to accept an apology from the government of Canada.” Not everyone in the region’s indigenous community was so forgiving. Grand Chief Greg Rich of the Innu Nation, an umbrella organization of indigenous groups, said in a statement that he wanted the apology to also recognize injustices suffered by aboriginal children in day schools,
at an orphanage and in the childwelfare system. “Our elders are not ready to accept an apology that is made for such a small part of our experience,” Rich said in his statement. But Todd Russell, president of NunatuKavut, an organization of Southern Inuit in Labrador, said he believed that the vast majority of former students welcomed the news. “The apology was delivered in absolute sincerity and humility,” Russell, a former member of Parliament, said in an interview from Happy Valley-Goose Bay. “Today, we were brought into the warmth of the cabin.” New York Times News Service
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YDNEY—Regular exercise can increase the size of the human brain, a landmark Australian study found. The research, published by Australia's National Institute of Complementary Medicine (NICM) at Western Sydney University on Tuesday, revealed aerobic exercise can significantly improve the health of the left region of the hippocampus. The hippocampus is the part of the brain responsible for consolidating information from short-term memory to long-term memory. Typically, the size of the brain decreases approximately 5 percent every decade from age 40 onwards. While researchers were unable to prove that exercise increases the volume of the brain, they did find that the health of the region's left side was improved by regular exercise. “When you exercise you produce a chemical called brain-derived neurotrophic factor [BDNF], that may help to prevent age-related decline
by reducing the deterioration of the brain,” lead author Joseph Firth said in a recent media release. “Our data showed that, rather than actually increasing the size of the hippocampus per se, the main ‘brain benefits’ are due to aerobic exercise’s slowing down the deterioration in brain size. In other words, exercise can be seen as a maintenance program for the brain.” In collaboration with the University of Manchester in Britain, Firth’s team analyzed the results of 14 clinical trials that examined the effects of exercise programs on brain size. The brains studied belonged to participants aged between 24 and 76 with an average age of 66 years old. The clinical trials included scans of 737 brain scans from a variety of healthy people, people with mental illnesses and people with cognitive impairment such as Alzheimer’s disease. Xinhua/PNA
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Saturday, December 2, 2017
A9
Young social entrepreneur wins against depression By Rizal Raoul S. Reyes
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@brownindio
XPERIENCING depression in her young life failed to deter Maria Isabela Blancas to make a difference at a young age of 13.
Instead of letting herself wallow in self-pity, Blancas established on August 17 last year the social enterprise she dubbed “One Closet.” It is a gown-rental business that encourages sharing. According to Blancas, she asks donations of “preloved”—euphemism for “used”—gowns and formal dresses (like prom dresses) from the rich and rent them out to the ladies in Butuan. “The clients of One Closet will feel like royalty while doing an act of charity, as half of the profit of the social venture will go to helping poor children in Mindanao with their educational needs,” Blancas told the BusinessMirror. She said one of their beneficiaries
is a convent in Buenavista, the Sisters Disciples of Jesus in the Eucharist, which helps young girls who were victims of abuse. “The other half of the enterprise’s profit will be reinvested in the business to sustain their social mission,” Blancas said.
Maximizing time
ACCORDING to Blancas, now 14, “harsh realities sucked the life out of me.” She was referring to her illness of depression. Blancas said that, with the support of her parents and teachers, she overcame the challenges through the last three excruciating months of the previous school year. To maximize her time, she helped her father
facilitate his social-enterprise leadership workshop in Butuan. “I had an epiphany,” Blancas told the BusinessMirror. She realized she would love to be a social entrepreneur like her father. I told my parents that I am putting up my business with a cause to continue doing their social mission. “I love how my father emphasizes how I got to reach that decision,” she said. “We have to think of business sustainability to make sure we continue our business of doing good, was what he said.”
Not alien
THE concept of entrepreneurship is not alien to the Blancas as parents Myrna, and Fred, a former Integrated Microelectronic Inc. executive, exposed her to the ropes of business. She and younger brother Paolo would help sell organic lechon (roast pig) in Makati and Laguna during school breaks. “It dawned on me that I’d love to be a social entrepreneur. When we visited a local tribe at Lake Sebu, and I played with the kids there, I was fascinated by the rich culture of the Mindanaoans,” Blancas said. “But I
saw poverty. I was intrigued at how they get needed funds for the kids’ education. I wished I could help the kids in my own little way with their educational needs.” Through One Closet, Blancas plans to help indigent children by providing them with school items like notebooks, ballpens and school bags. If there will be sufficient funds, she said sponsoring few scholars is possible. For now, One Closet conducts regular visits to a convent that takes care of girls who survived abusive adults. Blancas said they try to cheer the girls up by providing snacks and giving them the old clothes they have collected.
Values, leadership
WHEN away from cheering the girls in a convent, the father and daughter team up for a values and leadership program for Grade 12 children. This, Blancas said, enables children “to know themselves better, believe in themselves, acquire confidence in dealing with other people and empower themselves to be productive citizens of their community.”
Although there are times she questions her predicament, Blancas considers her religious belief as a strong anchor. Her parents always tell her to pray and, more important, “to contribute in making the world a kinder, better place.” “Sure, I have problems like my depression, but many kids have bigger problems,” Blancas explained. “I take it that the Lord is telling me not to focus too much on my own problems and, instead, help others with theirs.” “God wants us to share and not be selfish. God wants us to think that there’s enough for everyone, and a few should not feel that they are entitled,” she said. “I’m realizing though, that as I help others, I actually get a different kind of high—I am helping myself get healed.” One Closet will start with a gown-rental store and probably expand it to other cities in Mindanao, according to Blancas. She said the grand plan is to venture into a ready-to-wear business that will teach women to simplify their wardrobes, and their lives as well. So far, the call for donations has resulted into a warm response. Pre-
loved gowns and formal wear were donated by famous fashion designers like Rajo Laurel, among others.
Blancas’s wish
Blancas wishes to get donations of prom dresses from students of prestigious schools. She also wants to get donations of gowns from actresses and TV personalities. She said her parents always tell her to be a lady for others. She feels sad whenever she sees people suffering from poverty and the other effects caused by the unjust structures of society. “My parents tell me that it’s normal to feel this way, but I shouldn’t get stuck and, instead, channel my energy to helping others less fortunate than I am,” Blancas said. “Beauty queens would always say, ‘Let’s work together to make this world a better place.’ At the risk of sounding cliché, I ask you to help me make this world a better place. I thank you. One Closet will be holding its launch event on December 17 at Robinson’s Butuan through a fashion show that will feature the donated gowns.
Companies help charities, and themselves, too A
DOPTING a tiger in India, donating yoga classes to disadvantaged children in Los Angeles or building homes for residents of a struggling New Jersey city might seem unrelated. But in corporate philanthropy, they are part of the same trend: a desire by companies to show customers and employees that they are not just interested in profits, but that they care about the state of the world. And saying so is not enough. So determined are they to show impact—the latest buzzword in philanthropy—that they are marshaling metrics to prove it. So important are those metrics, in fact, that the measuring has spawned an industry of its own. Consider Subaru of America. In the first nine months of this year, 512 employees have volunteered their time for 105 events for 46 organizations. Seventy-four employees donated 500 hours to build three Habitat for Humanity homes in Camden, New Jersey, a poor city a few minutes from Subaru’s headquarters in Cherry Hill. On the West Coast, 88 employees have donated 270 hours to assemble wheelchairs that were donated to veterans. Employees have filled 2,000 backpacks for schoolchildren. For a company like Subaru, with a brand image of being outdoors, dependable, inclusive and kind, those metrics help attract great employees. They also help the company’s marketing campaign.
Important numbers
THE numbers are so important, in fact, that Sandy Capell, philanthropy and corporate -esponsibility manager for the company and the Subaru of America Foundation, said she had turned to a software system to track employees who volunteered, tally their time and measure the impact of what they’re doing. “The software puts the efforts in perspective,” Capell said. “We used to report hours and nothing else. After a while, it loses impact. Now, we’re able to put a true impact on those hours.” To do that, Subaru reached out to Blackbaud, a cloud-software company that measures the effect of philanthropic efforts. “They come to us, and to the market in general, because they want to tell their impact story to individuals,” said Kevin McDearis, executive vice president and chief products officer at Blackbaud. “They realize
pages and track their impact. “Cause marketing and corporate social responsibility are buzzwords that are web 2.0,” said James Citron, chief executive of Pledgeling. “The power of impact is to integrate charity into what you’re doing” and track key performance indicators. He added Pledgeling’s strategy is about, “What are you actually doing, and tell your customers the impact you’re having.” The company charges for its service but, generally, 97 percent of the money raised goes to the charity. The company can also track what and how the campaign is doing.
Measurable impact
This undated handout photo shows the Subaru Share the Love Garden at the company’s corporate headquarters. Subaru of America is among the companies that have learned the value of charitable giving and measuring its impact. Subaru of America via The New York Times
part of this is about building their brand and enhancing their brand.” That marketing may also mean as much to employees as to consumers. “It’s getting to be a very competitive market out there, and people will pick a job, and maybe not the highest paid offer, if they feel like they’re part of something bigger than themselves,” he said.
Interesting polarization
IN a study by the CECP, which promotes corporate philanthropy, and The Conference Board this year, a third of employees, on average, participated in corporate volunteerism, and nearly two-thirds of companies offered paid time off for volunteering. But there is no room to fake it. A study on corporate social responsibility found that 65 percent of consumers check to see if a company is being authentic when it takes a stand on a social or environmental issue. That number rises to 76 percent for millennials. The study also found that 78 percent of respondents wanted
companies to take a stand. That’s a double-edged sword in a polarized time. While 87 percent of the people in the study said they would buy a product because of something the company advocated, 76 percent said they would not buy a product from a company they did not agree with. “Everyone loves to feed the hungry and house the homeless,” McDearis said. But companies taking a stand can also “drive some interesting polarization.” In the case of Subaru, it chose well-known, noncontroversial charities, like the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, the Make-A-Wish Foundation and Meals on Wheels.
Impact measurement
MONEY for these charities comes through the company’s Share the Love campaign, in which it donates $250 from each vehicle bought or leased to various charities. (In nine years, the company said it had given $94 million to charity.) Capell said employees had volunteering goals each year, but the
company did not dictate where they could give their time. The hours get logged, and they get credit for them. However, if employees want to volunteer during the workday, they choose among events the company has organized, like Habitat for Humanity. She said about 1,000 employees gave 5,100 hours last year. And this is where impact measurement comes in. “Even if you’re just helping five people, those people know those five people,” she said. “It shows that you’re moving the needle. You want to make sure you’re moving it forward.” Many companies are turning to their own consumers to drive their giving. Discovery Communications began a program in July to protect wild tigers by conserving land for them. The company, which produces programs like “Shark Week,” “Deadliest Catch” and “American Chopper,” aims to double the tiger population by 2022. It now stands at 4,000, compared with 400,000 for elephants.
Release valve
OTHER companies are offering customers what could be called a release valve for their giving. Last year, Evite, the online invitation service, created a system in which people could give respondents a way to contribute to charities instead of bringing a gift to the party. “We literally had a birthday party for my 4-year-old, and there was a stack of 30 presents that sat for probably a year,” said Victor Cho, chief executive of Evite. “She opened a few. But then we asked her why she didn’t open all of them. She said, ‘If I open it you’re going to make me write a thank-you card.’” Cho said that, in less than two years of the charity option existing, the company would hit $5 million in donations. People can choose from 150,000 registered charities. “It’s not for everyone in the world,” he said, “but the idea was if it’s Gift 30 on top of other presents, let’s direct that consumer spending to a cause.” The Evite and Discovery efforts are supported by Pledgeling, which allows companies to set up charity
THERE is yet another way for companies to have measurable impact. Companies like Warby Parker, which makes eyeglasses, and Toms, the shoe company, are pioneers among “giveback companies.” Buy a pair of glasses or shoes, and they will give a pair to someone in need. In terms of measuring the impact, the tracking is fairly easy because it is generally one to one. It is simple for the company to do and simple for the individual to understand. Not all companies that want to do this have it so easy. A new subscription yoga-clothes company, YogaClub, wanted to incorporate this giveback model. Just one problem: Giving fancy yoga clothes to needy children is not the same feel-good story as giving them a pair of shoes so they can walk to school or eyeglasses so they can read and learn. So the company came up with a new plan. Its box of yoga clothes, which cost $49 to $79 a shipment, arrive monthly or quarterly like a wine club: You pick the quantity, and the company decides what you get. For every box purchased, YogaClub donates one yoga class to a student from a disadvantaged school in Los Angeles. Since July the company said it had donated more than 163,000 yoga classes to elementary-school children in Los Angeles. “It’s teaching the fundamentals of how you use yoga and meditation to teach the kids how to deal with the stresses in their lives,” said Lindsay McClelland, director of partnership and brand experience at the company. “It makes our customers feel good,” she added. “ They can see their purchase isn’t just getting their two yoga pants. It’s having an impact in the community.” New York Times News Service
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A10 Saturday, December 2, 2017
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Faster Internet from NOW, and how to choose the best provider in your area with an app the technivore ed uy
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f all the memorable quotes and insights Jack Ma shared during his recent trip to the country, almost all the publications shared a favorite line: “Philippine Internet… it’s no good.” The founder of the Alibaba Group made his first business venture in the Philippines with a deal with Globe Telecom Inc., noting the need for improved Internet services in the country as he expressed disappointment over the country’s Internet services. “I arrived late last night and I tried to test the speed of Philippine Internet. It’s no good.” While the spokesmen of both telcos acknowledged there’s still much to be done to improve Internet services in the Philippines, they also emphasized the need for the government’s involvement to help turn slow, costly Internet around. “We know there’s still a lot of room for improvement insofar as Internet services are concerned. However, even a man of stature like Jack Ma understands that government and private sector need to work together to improve services,” Globe Senior Vice President for corporate communications Yolanda Crisanto was quoted in a news article. Ramon Isberto, PLDT spokesman then said, “We have been working very hard and investing heavily to improve the quality of our Internet services. Although we still have much to do, these efforts have started to pay off.” In a report done by Akamai Technologies about the Global State of the Internet Report, the Philippines was found to have slowest average Internet speed in Asia Pacific. Although there was an improvement, the average connection speed is just 5.5 Mbps, falling short of the global average Internet connection speed of 7.2 Mbps. Globe’s Crisanto then urged the government to cut red tape so the telcos could speed up the implementation of its network rollout plan. “We have been calling for government support to ease permitting issues in order to build more infrastructure like cellsites, which we need.”
FAST Internet NOW
But it’s not just the two telcos that are working hard to improve the Internet in the country. NOW Corp., known for its Fiber Air service, recently entered the residential market to provide fast and reliable broadband services. What makes their service unique is that they have a guaranteed and committed minimum speed for highly demanding enterprise clients. The Philippine Stock Exchange-listed technology, media and telecom company decided to expand to the residential areas in response to clamor from enterprise users whose families consume enormous bandwidth for their personal, educational, entertainment and other needs. “One important thing we learned for the past 12 months of operation is that families now require enterprise-grade quality of Internet experience,” said Kristian Pura, head of business development. The delivery of Fiber Air to homes will help deliver overthe-top products, such as movies and television programs that require minimum throughput, and with NOW’s reliable services, absolutely without data cap. Apart from its broadband services, NOW is known as an information-technology (IT) company delivering software systems and IT-managed services to top banks, such as BDO, Philippine National Bank, the industry’s regulator, Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas, as well as other government agencies and branches like the Supreme Court. The company is now implementing the P57-million contract on the e-mail and collaboration system of the Supreme Court. “The strength of our company is our IT competence, which enables us to ensure superior connectivity to highly demanding enterprise customers, who, in turn, want their families to also enjoy the high-quality Internet experience from NOW,” Pura added. The first residential area that has been activated is Corinthian Village in Quezon City, whose residents may now avail themselves of the high-quality Internet services enjoyed by educational institutions, media companies, hospitals, government agencies and buildings with small and medium enterprises and large enterprises as tenants. Because NOW is using wireless technology, new residential areas would be quickly added into its network. A special feature of this business will allow residents to also make money. NOW partners with home buddies who would represent the company in their respective buildings and subdivisions. As sales partners, they will earn money through commissions and enjoy free broadband, as well.
The Huawei Nova2i in Aurora Blue
NOW counts some of the biggest firms in the country as its broadband clients. Among its recently connected broadband customers include the Sogo Hotel Group, which has a chain of hotel establishments in Metro Manila; Marco Polo in Ortigas; WorkHaven, a coworking space in Linden Suites; Manila Broadcasting Corp. in Pasay City; and STI campus in Bonifacio Global City.
ITS ALL ABOUT THE BASS (PH)
If you are wondering just how fast (or slow) your Internet speed really is, there’s now an app, called BASS, which lets you determine the quality of Internet available in your area. BASS PH, or Project Bass, which means “Bandwidth and Signal Statistics,” is an accurate and credible independent Internet-measurement provider. It seeks to provide Internet users the ability to measure Internet bandwidth and other statistics and use a virtual map to help them see which telecommunications provider has the fastest Internet connection where they live or work. To check the speed of Internet, just download BASS PH from Google Play or App Store and simply tap “Begin Test” to measure your connection speed. Then, by viewing the map, users will be able to see the test results of BASS users in a particular area. “With BASS PH, we help empower smartphone users in the Philippines by giving them the tool to measure and, log Internet speeds. We hope this, in turn, will ensure that network providers in the country will efficiently and consistently deliver their advertised Internet speeds and thus, will pave the way to better Internet service nationwide,” explains Wilson Chua of Bass PH. Telecommunications companies benefit from the collected data since they can now make data-driven decisions as to expansion areas to target. They can also reallocate resources, such as bandwidth and frequency to areas that need it most. For phone manufacturers, they can also access information with regards to the performance of their phone units during actual usage and compare these with competitors. This can result to the manufacture of more efficient and betterperforming phones in the future. As for companies with businesses in the digital world, the BASS PH map can help them identify specific target areas with high Internet activity and concentrate their digital product offerings there. Finally, BASS PH can help the government guard and protect the public against any possible fraud using BASS PH’s free, supplemental, third-party data. For more information about BASS PH, visit projectbass.org.
The iPhone X
SHOULD YOU GO FOR A ‘SMART’ IPHONE X?
After weeks of eager anticipation, Smart finally revealed its postpaid plans for the iPhone X, which was scheduled to launch on December 1. You can get the device for free at P3,199 per month for 24 months. This includes your monthly device amortization of P1,700 and Plan 1499, which includes 9 GB data, unlimited texts to all networks, 60 minutes of calls to all networks and free access to the app of your choice every month, plus one month Gadget Shield. It may seem a bit high at first, but you might want to consider these reasons its better to sign up with Smart to get your iPhone X this Christmas: n LOWER MONTHLY CASH OUT—Smart makes it easier for you to own the iPhone X as the P3,199 per month is already inclusive of data, calls and text services. Moreover, you can have your monthly device fee charged to your monthly bill at the get-go for greater convenience. So you don’t have to worry about a huge initial cash-out payment, or produce select credit cards. You can also choose to go with P3,499 per month, which includes a lower monthly device amortization of Php1,400 and Plan 1999, that includes 12 GB data, unlimited texts to all networks, 70 minutes of calls to all networks, and free access to the app of your choice every month, plus 1 month Gadget Shield. n FASTEST LTE IN THE PHL—What’s the use of having an excellent phone if you couldn’t upload your photos because of poor Internet signal. Smart lets you optimize the
From left are Bass PH volunteers Fleire Castro, Big Data Analyst Wilson Chua, tech personality Art Samaniego, Andrew Alegre, A-Ar Andrew Concepcion and Melby Baldove.
iPhone X by delivering the country’s fastest LTE connection (according to independent tech firm OpenSignal). n POWER MAC DISCOUNTS—Since you’d probably be getting some nice accessories for your iPhone X, signing up with Smart will give you a 15-percent discount on select iPhone X accessories at Power Mac. You can avail yourself of this offer if you order from Smart from now until December 31. And you can redeem your discount until March 1, 2018. n FREE WIRELESS CHARGER—You know you want one right? So if your preorder at the Smart Online Store or select Smart Stores is approved, you get a free Belkin Wireless Charger.
HUAWEI NOVA 2I NOW IN BLUE
IPhone X too much for you? Then you might want to get the new Aurora Blue-colored Huawei Nova 2i. Packed with a quadruple camera, a 5.9” Full View display, and a long-lasting battery life for only P14,990, Huawei Nova 2i is your go-to ultra-stylish phone whether you’re a selfie lover, an aspiring photographer or avid gamer. The limited-edition Nova 2i in Aurora Blue will be available in select Huawei Concept Stores nationwide starting on December 2. Tech Thoughts: “We are all now connected by the Internet, like neurons in a giant brain.”—Stephen Hawking
BusinessMirror
www.businessmirror.com.ph
Saturday, December 2, 2017 A11
What is bitcoin? A look at the digital currency
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ONDON—The price of a single bitcoin has pierced the $10,000 level and some experts say it could rise further. The world’s most popular virtual currency allows people to buy goods and services and exchange money without involving banks, credit-card issuers or other third parties. It has a fuzzy history, having been used by hackers to demand ransom and for the purchase of illegal drugs online. But recently it’s become more popular with a different crowd: speculative investors. As its price keeps rising, here’s a brief look at bitcoin.
HOW BITCOINS WORK
Bitcoin is a digital currency that’s not tied to a bank or government and allows users to spend money anonymously. The coins are created by users who “mine” them by lending computing power to verify other users’ transactions. They receive bitcoins in exchange. The coins also can be bought and sold on exchanges with US dollars and other currencies.
HOW MUCH IS IT WORTH?
Bitcoin was trading over $11,000 on Wednesday before dipping to around $9,800 later in the day,
according to coindesk, a web site that monitors the price. That’s about a tenfold increase from the start of the year, when it was worth under $1,000. The value of bitcoins can swing sharply, though. A bitcoin’s value plunged by 22 percent against the dollar in just three days earlier this month.
WHY BITCOINS ARE POPULAR
Bitcoins are basically lines of computer code that are digitally signed each time they travel from one owner to the next. Transactions can be made anonymously, making the currency popular with libertarians, as well as tech enthusiasts, speculators—and criminals.
IS IT REALLY ANONYMOUS?
Yes, to a point. Transactions and accounts can be traced, but the account owners aren’t necessarily known. However, investigators might be able to track down the owners when bitcoins are converted to regular currency.
WHO’S USING BITCOIN?
Some businesses have jumped on the bitcoin bandwagon amid a flurry of media coverage. Overstock.com accepts payments in bitcoin, for example. The US exchange operator CME Group said in October that it plans to open a future market for
the currency before the end of the year if it can get approval from regulators. Still, its popularity is low compared with cash and cards, and many individuals and businesses won’t accept bitcoins for payments. Some high-profile banking executives have spoken against bitcoin, with JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon calling it a “fraud.” That said, JPMorgan is starting to use the underlying technology behind bitcoin, known as blockchain, as a potential way for banks to more accurately track trading and assets.
SHOULD I OWN BITCOIN?
There are basically two reasons why an individual would want to buy bitcoin: to use it as a form of payment, or as an investment to store value. Bitcoin’s usage among mainstream merchants is limited. Microsoft accepts it as a form of payment on its Xbox and Windows Store platforms. Overstock.com accepts it. But, don’t expect to spend it at Wal-Mart or Amazon. The virtual currency is a matter of debate among investors. Some, like Dimon and billionaire Mark Cuban, are strongly against it, while others are enthusiastic about it. Wall Street is starting to build products around it. The more grounded investors see bitcoin as a highly speculative, highly risky investment that a person
should not put all their money into, not unlike gold, commodities or traditional currencies.
HOW BITCOINS ARE KEPT SECURE
The bitcoin network works by harnessing individuals’ greed for the collective good. A network of techsavvy users called miners keep the system honest by pouring their computing power into a blockchain, a global running tally of every bitcoin transaction. The blockchain prevents rogues from spending the same bitcoin twice, and the miners are rewarded for their efforts by being gifted with the occasional bitcoin. As long as miners keep the blockchain secure, counterfeiting shouldn’t be an issue.
HOW BITCOIN CAME TO BE
It’s a mystery. Bitcoin was launched in 2009 by a person or group of people operating under the name Satoshi Nakamoto. Bitcoin was then adopted by a small clutch of enthusiasts. Nakamoto dropped off the map as bitcoin began to attract widespread attention. But proponents say that doesn’t matter: The currency obeys its own internal logic. An Australian entrepreneur last year stepped forward and claimed to be the founder of bitcoin, only to say days later that he did not “have the courage” to publish proof that he is. AP
So you want home entertainment?
Urasinee Patarasongkram, Philips Philippines country manager
Bringing home entertainment to a new level is the 77” Sony Bravia OLED Smart TV, shown here with the brand’s new celebrity endorser Anthony Pangilinan.
MOMs empower mothers through the digital way The landscape of TV viewing has changed when Sony Philippines introduced the Sony Bravia OLED in July, with the 65"and 55" A1 models. Now, the consumer electronics giant takes home entertainment further with its 77" A1 model. The Sony Bravia OLED boasts of its Picture Quality, Acoustic Surface technology and One Slate Design which make the newest member of the Bravia lineup a sleek, sophisticated and a classy must-have piece for anyone’s home. With its 8 million self-illuminating pixels, the Bravia OLED brings an enriched visual experience with the unprecedented blacks, authentic colors, blur-less images and a wide viewing angle. The X1 Extreme Processor controls the numerous pixels and extends the capability of the organic LED to deliver the exquisite 4K HDR picture. The Sony Bravia OLED is the world’s first large-screen TV which emits its high quality sound from the screen itself. Taking advantage of the OLED’s backlight-less structure, Sony has found a way to develop a new Acoustic Surface technology which can derive the sound from the screen itself. This allows the perfect unification of picture and sound unattainable by conventional TVs. It’s able to produce wide sound and image synchronization even off to the sides. Together with the wide viewing angle, the A1
series offers unmatched visual and aural experience regardless of the viewing position. The Acoustic Surface technology lends to the cutting-edge design of the A1 series by doing away with conventional speakers usually located around the TV. The result is a unique stand-less form factor with no distraction from the picture. The Sony Bravia OLED is more than just beautiful. It’s designed so that the stand and the speakers virtually disappear. Nothing distracts from the brilliance of the picture—the super slim bezel draws your focus in and maximizes the viewing area—allowing the TV to “float” and blend into your living space. With company continuously committed to delivering the most exceptional television viewing, the Sony Bravia OLED series introduces leading businessman and top brand consultant Anthony Pangilinan as its newest ambassador for Bravia OLED. The busy entrepreneur puts a premium in spending quality time with his family. He shares, “We love to stay in on Sunday evenings and watch a great movie, while eating homemade popcorn. My kids are also busy during the weekday so I have to make sure that we get to spend at least one day with everyone at home. Now that we have the Sony Bravia OLED in our home, there are more reasons to have our family bonding moments right here, where it matters.”
Snapchat seeks to attract more users by redesigning app By Barbara Ortutay The Associated Press
NEW YORK—Snapchat is separating what friends share and what media organizations publish in an attempt to appeal to a broader range of users. Users will now see two separate feeds. Before, the visual-messaging app was mixing posts from friends, publishers, celebrities and others, much the way Twitter, Facebook and other rivals continue to do. Snap Inc. CEO Evan Spiegel took a jab at rivals, writing that social media “fueled ‘fake news’” because of this content mixing. “After all, how many times have you shared something you’ve never bothered to read?” Spiegel wrote on Axios. Snapchat has not been gaining enough users, especially beyond its core of younger people. Instead, rival services have managed to copy Snapchat’s most popular features and make them available to
a broader audience. This includes Stories, a way to show photo and video snippets that disappear after 24 hours; Snapchat pioneered it, while Facebook’s Instagram popularized it. With growth stagnant, parent company Snap’s stock is down sharply since its initial public offering earlier this year. Snap hinted at changes three weeks ago, but didn’t provide details then. Beyond separating feeds, Snapchat will now order posts using a formula to try to appeal to users’ likes, instead of listing them chronologically. Facebook has long done that; Twitter and Instagram followed more recently. Even so, Spiegel seems determined to set Snapchat apart from its bigger rivals. When users open Snapchat, for instance, they will still see the app’s camera first. “Snapchat began as an escape from social media, where people could send photos and videos to their friends without the pressure of likes, comments, and permanence,” Spiegel wrote.
By Rizal Raoul Reyes Just like any typical Third World country, the Philippines is hard pressed in delivering health services to its people for several reasons, such as dearth in resources, burgeoning population and red tape, among others. Nevertheless, the openness to partner with the private sector and the emergence of digital technologies has enabled the government to face the challenges in delivering the vital health services to the people. In response, Royal Philips recently introduced a new campaign to address the rising rates of maternal-mortality cases in the Philippines. According to a research done by the United Nations Children’s Fund (Unicef), the Philippines is one of 68 countries which contribute to 97 percent of maternal-, neonatal- and child-health death worldwide. In response, Philips, a diversified health and well-being company focused on improving people’s lives through meaningful innovation, has launched “Philips MOM [Mobile Obstetrics Monitoring] to facilitate care for pregnant mothers in underserved areas, such as the barrios in the Philippine hinterlands.” Urasinee Patasongkram, country manager for Philips Philippines Inc., said the current campaign aims to encourage Filipinos to be active in promoting maternal health and preventing maternal death. “It also seeks to empower expectant mothers by bringing its telepath solution to rural areas, where there is little access to medication and affordable hospitalization,” she said. In his presentation during the news briefing, Philips Asean Director of Strategy and New Business Development Bruno Occhipinti pointed out that MOM is a mobile-based software solution that allows community or barangay health-care workers to perform antenatal risk stratification, receive diagnostic assistance and assess a patient’s progress via a mobile device to enhance maternal care in community settings for expectant mothers. Occhipinti said the MOM software contains the MOM web app, the MOM caregiver app and the
MOM doctor app. For the health worker, Occhipinti said he or she can use the app in registering a patient, recording a pregnancy data and other vital measurements, collect data offline and update patient records. The app is available in English and Bahasa. The app is available only on the Android system. As far as the doctors are concerned, Occhipinti noted they can review a patient’s record anywhere, anytime. Meanwhile, MOM enables the health centers to record examinations, investigations, management and delivery details; send short messaging services (SMS) to patients, midwives and community health workers; generate reports and availability on a 24 by 7 basis. “As a leading global health-care technology company, Philips strives to make the world healthier and more sustainable through innovation. Our global mission is to improve the lives of 3 billion people a year by 2025, and today, we are acting on that commitment in the Philippines,” Patasongkram said in her remarks during the launch held in Makati City. “Philips Philippines Inc. is committed in making sure that we continue to improve the lives of Filipinos, especially the country’s expectant moms, by creating and improving the existing maternal health care program in the country,” she added.
Bruno Occhipinti, Philips Asean director of Strategy and New Business Development
What is ‘net neutrality’ and why does it matter? »A11
BusinessMirror
A12 Saturday, December 2, 2017
Editor: Gerard S. Ramos • lifestylebusinessmirror@gmail.com
Thailand, Vietnam rule eSports event ❶ Team Next Gen Aorus of Vietnam took top honors in “Dota 2” and won the $2,500 cash prize.
primetime
diNna chan vasquez
❷ Team
@dinnachanvasquez
Signature of Thailand won in “Counter Strike: Global Offensive”ß for $2,500.
luckydinna@gmail.com
B
efore last weekend, my knowledge of “Defense of the Ancients 2” (Dota 2) and CounterStrike was limited to the sights and sounds of overenthusiastic teenage boys playing these games at Internet shops. Some of my friends’ sons would play these while I was visiting their homes and they would be noisy and very excited. Anyway, last week I got to attend the GeForce Esports eXtreme Tournament (GEXT) 2017, an eSports tournament at the Glorietta Activity Center organized by Nvidia. Gamers from different countries— Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Vietnam and the Philippines—battled for supremacy in Dota 2 and “Counter-Strike: Global Offensive” (CS:GO). Over 1,000 teams from these countries had been battling for slots in the finals for the past six months, according to Nvidia Philippines Country Manager Jerome Matti. Teams from Thailand and Vietnam emerged as champions in their respective categories. The tournament kicked off in June in the Philippines and ended with the finals on November 25 and 26. Nvidia designs graphics processing units (GPUs) for the gaming, cryptocurrency and professional markets. It also creates systemon-a-chip units for the mobile computing and automative markets. It is best known for its GPU product called GeForce.
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❶ This is what I know about eSports or gaming: Gamers/players need special personalized and designed computers, which is why Apple computers are never used for gaming. Gaming really tests the capabilities of a computer. In fact, an enduring trend among serious gamers is “overclocking,” which means pushing a normal CPU to its limits. Some methods even use liquid nitrogen to cool the CPU, while this is going on. “Overclocking will void the warranty of your retail CPU. Overclocking may destroy your CPU, your motherboard or your system memory. It may corrupt your hard drive. Be careful when overclocking. You have been warned,” says an article in PCworld.com. Where am I going with this? To prove that eSports or online games isn’t just for hormonal teens. It’s not just a way for them to release aggressive behavior. It’s serious stuff. Some people, apparently, are professional gamers, meaning they do this for a living. So this was the premise of GEXT 2017: That eSports is bigger than we ever imagined it was. Gamers are nerds and/or geniuses, and I use the word “nerd” with the highest
respect here. Gamers need the highest skills to compete. They should have excellent motor skills, good eyesight and hearing and be more than proficient in math. I would imagine that they also know something about computer hardware and software. Organized by Nvidia, Gext 2017 was staged in GeForce Certified iCafes, featuring gaming PCs driven by Nvidia GeForce GPUs in the participating Southeast Asian countries. It was supported by gold sponsors Colorful, Coolermaster and Palit, along with silver sponsors Galax, MSI, Thermaltake and TTesports. The goal of Gext 2017, which was streamed live, was to grow the gaming community in the region by creating more accessible
SM Appliance Rockwell reopens just in time for Christmas ❶
❶ SM Appliance Center President Maria Teresa Cheng with LG Managing Director Inkwon Heo at the reopening of SM Appliance Rockwell
❷ Tessa Prieto-Valdes and Power Plant Mall General Manager Tin Coqueiro graced the reopening. With them are SM Appliance Center’s Stephen Cheng, VP for Operations Tomasito Mendoza and SAVP Adela Mesina. ❸ The cool and hip tech stuff at the Gadgets section of SM Appliance Center Rockwell
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SM Appliance Center (www.smappliance.com) relaunched its new concept store at The Power Plant Mall with a new look, wow deals and exciting promotions. This gives guests and shoppers more reasons for sharing the proud moments of their lives with their loved ones just in time for the Christmas season. A refined, elegant design has been created for the 647-square-meter SM Appliance Store, in keeping with the upmarket Rockwell Center. The newly reopened store is sophisticated with a clean natural palette and modern edge; and at the same, is engaging to ensure customers that their overall experience is warm and embracing. Timber portals in the shop-front frame both the display window and entrance, wrapping through into the store to create a warm, welcoming and enticing ambience upon entry. Slatted timber treatments in the ceiling and entry walls add textural details and a contemporary edge to the space.
Inside the store, the wall displays are designed to frame the products, breaking up departments and creating a pleasurable shopping experience. Curved timber wayfinding signage reflects the overall store design and directs customers seamlessly through the area. The new look highlights the most innovative products to help each Filipino transition into a digital home. These include high-performance Home Entertainment Systems, Home and Kitchen Appliances, Games, Electronic Gadgets and a lot more. SM Appliance Rockwell also leads the way to exciting holiday shopping with an exclusive 5-percent discount for residents of nearby condos and villages by just presenting their SMAC card. Wow Deals also has a promo for the holidays, wherein every P35,000 single receipt purchase until December 31 entitles one to an Avalon Rechargeable Radio with Bluetooth. And then, there is the Libreng Appliances Araw Araw promotion, where every P1,000 spend entitles the customer to a raffle coupon; two raffle coupons when using a BDO credit or debit card for a chance to win one of over 300 appliances, or one of the 30" to 55" Toshiba 4K UHD Android TV or a brand new Volkswagen Jetta 2.0 TDI CL as the grand prize. Shopping for appliances also becomes a breeze with SM Appliance Center’s easy payment options. Merry Christmas Masagana not only assists in holiday financing, but also entitles customers to giveaways from SM Appliance and Home Credit—a free iron for every approved loan from P25,000 to P29,000; and a free kettle for every approved loan of P30,000 and above. There is also a 24-month installment promo with major banks until December 31 at all SM Appliance Center branches.
opportunities for amateur gamers. Matti explained that Nvidia put up the $10,000 prize money with the help of its partners and mounted and organized the tournament. “This was the first Southeast Asian finals and it was held in the Philippines because there’s a fast-growing gaming community here. We also want to build more excitement on electronic sports in the country and the region,” he said. Matti said the logistics of mounting the tournament was huge, citing the fact that
Nvidia’s regional team even came to Manila to support Nvidia Philippines for the event. Gext 2017 being the first event, Nvidia plans to stage it again in 2018. “I am not sure if it will be held in the Philippines again, but it is possible,” Matti said. Most women shop, dine out and meet up with friends during weekends. I, on the other hand, spent it in the presence of some of Southeast Asia’s best gamers. That’s not a bad thing at all. I salute these eSports who are changing the world, one game at a time.