BusinessMirror December 03, 2022

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THE TIRES AND LIGHT THE FIRES’

PAF shifts to multinational training in bid to regain air combat skills superiority

By Rex Anthony Naval

In fact, then 6th Pursuit Squadron commander Capt. Jesus Villamor—after whom Villamor Air Force Base in Pasay City was named—and his band of youth ful Filipino aviators gained im mense fame and glory flying their rickety and antiquated Boeing P-26 “Peashooter” when they went toe-to-toe with the best Japanese fighter pilots flying the legendary Mitsubishi “Zero” in the early days of World War II in the Philippines.

Despite being overwhelmed by the superior Japanese forces, Fili pino fighter pilots showed to the entire world, at the time, that manfor-man, they were equal, if not su perior, against their opponents.

Defying limitations

THROUGH the decades following the end of World War II, pilots of the Philippine Air Force (PAF) have always proven themselves more than capable of defending the air space of the country, despite limi tations brought about by aging and sometimes too few a number of fly able aircraft.

But with more modern and ca pable aircraft now in its inventory like the South Korean-made Mach 1.5-capable FA-50PH light jet fighters, PAF fighter pilots might have a chance to show again their mettle as there is a good possibility that these planes and pilots might be deployed to the next iteration of the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF)’s “Exercise Pitch Black,” which is scheduled in 2024.

The PAF aims to have a more extensive participation in the next iteration of Exercise Pitch Black in 2024 by projecting the involve ment of its FA-50 light combat air craft,” PAF spokesperson Col. Ma. Consuelo Castillo said.

The PAF’s FA-50PH, of which 12 were acquired from 2015 to 2017, is the PAF’s premier fighter jet in its fleet, and is used exten

sively for air defense, attack and other support missions.

Exercise Pitch Black, other than its focus on evaluating inter national air forces’ planning and execution of large force deploy ment, offensive counter air, and air interdiction scenarios in a complex environment, further aims to en hance regional security through multinational interoperability. This presents PAF the opportuni ties to strengthen its relationship and cooperation with other air forces,” Castillo said in an earlier statement.

A round 21 PAF officers with backgrounds in air battle manage ment and planning participated in this year’s “Exercise Pitch Black,” which took place from August 19 to September 8.

These personnel are from the Air Force’s 580th Aircraft Control and Warning Wing (ACWW) of the Air Defense Command.

PAF air battle managers have an “active participation” in the ex ercises as they were deployed there to observe and participate in “air campaign planning and air space and air battle management.”

PAF senior planners observed the exercise to gain “knowledge on how to plan and stage a large force engagement in exercise scenarios and real-world operations.”

E xercise Pitch Black is a bien nial three-week exercise on mul tinational large force deployment conducted by the RAAF. It is the RAAF’s most significant interna tional engagement activity and consists of realistic, simulated threats in a modern battle-space environment.

A bout 2,500 personnel and 100 aircraft from Australia, France, Germany, Indonesia, India, Singapore, Japan, South Korea, the United Kingdom, the Philippines, Thailand, the UAE, Canada, the Netherlands, Malaysia, New Zea

Top Gun is formally known as the US Navy’s elite Fighter Weap ons School. PAF pilots have been doing the same with instructors from the US Air Force Fighter Weapons School since 2016.

F-15 Eagle jet fighters now in PHL MEANWHILE, the Japan Air SelfDefense Force (JASDF) announced that it has deployed two McDon nell Douglas F-15 “Eagle” jet fight ers and 60 personnel for exercises with the PAF from November 27 to December 11. Exchanges and training will be held mainly at Clark Air Base in Pampanga and the surrounding airspace.

Deployed units from both parties will undergo exchange pro grams aimed at promoting mutual understanding and defense coop eration and exchanges,” the Japan Embassy in Manila said in a news statement.

The F-15s are twin-engine, allweather tactical fighters designed initially to meet the United States Air Force’s requirement for a dedi cated air superiority fighter.

‘Exercise

Pitch Black, other than its focus on evaluating international air forces’ planning and execution of large force employment, offensive counter air, and air interdiction scenarios in a complex environment, further aims to enhance regional security through multi-national interoperability. This presents PAF the opportunities to strengthen its relationship and cooperation with other Air Forces.

—PAF spokesperson Col. Ma. Consuelo Castillo

land and the United States have participated in this year’s Exercise Pitch Black.

Not a ‘newbie’

PAF fighter pilots’ skills are con stantly honed, and while Exercise Pitch Black would be a welcome addition to PAF fighter pilots in terms of training, it would not be the first time for them to have such exposure.

A ir-to-air and air-to-ground skills of Filipino aviators have been honed continuously with exercises such as Talon Vision, Bilateral Air Contingent Exercise Philippines

(BACE-P), Balikatan, and soon the Cope Thunder Philippines.

Filipino and American forces carry out these exercises annually.

The PAF, through the 7th Tac tical Fighter Squadron of the 5th Fighter Wing, also has a very ro bust training syllabus for Filipino fighter pilots.

The syllabus is a combination of US and South Korean training methods; PAF also has three fight er weapons instructors trained in South Korea in 2015.

Flying with the ‘best of the best’ ALSO worth noting: PAF fighter

pilots have been flying against US Navy “Top Gun” instructors since 2010 and using all the training and expertise learned from these avia tors to teach other Filipino pilots.

It has a maximum speed of Mach 2.5 and a combat range of 1,061 nautical miles and armed with a 20mm cannon and capable of carrying a variety of air-to-air missiles.

OLEG KACHURA DREAMSTIME.COM

FILIPINO pilots have always proven themselves scrappy fighter pilots regardless of the aircraft they are flying.

LACROIX DREAMSTIME.COM

China loosens grip on Covid exactly three years after first-ever case

By Rachel Chang Bloomberg News

Th e December 1 anniversary of the first Covid infection to be recorded in scientific literature comes as China, under pressure from surging cases and public anger at its punishing regime, is starting to chart a path towards rejoining the rest of the world in living with the virus.

‘New phase’ WHILE the central Chinese leader ship has remained characteristi cally opaque on its intentions, the signs are unmistakable. Authori ties have started downplaying the severity of infections, while avoid ing “dynamic Covid Zero,” a term that refers to wiping out the virus.

C hina’s Covid czar described the country as being in a “new

phase” of the pandemic.

In the capital of Beijing, some low-risk patients are being allowed to isolate at home—allowing them to avoid the controversial quar antine camps that have been a bedrock of China’s playbook since the Wuhan outbreak—while the government is putting more ef fort into bolstering vaccination rates among the elderly and raising booster coverage.

State-backed media, which have spent years demonizing the virus and showcasing the devas tation and death toll in Western countries, are now playing up sto ries of Covid-19 survivors in a bid to reassure the same people they’ve frightened.

The Global Times tabloid ran

an article Thursday morning citing Chinese experts that people don’t need to panic over omicron, as it’s much less deadly.

“As the Omicron variant be comes less pathogenic, more people get vaccinated and our experience in Covid prevention accumulates, our fight against the pandemic is at a new stage and it comes with new tasks,” outgoing Vice Premier Sun Chunlan said at a meeting with the National Health Commission and health experts in Beijing.

Takin’ it to the streets

THE pivot has been accelerated by widespread social unrest, after thousands of citizens took to the streets last weekend to protest fre quent lockdowns and disruptions to normal life. Smaller conflicts, of residents refusing to be locked down or be carted off to the isola tion camps that have been manda tory for any infected person, also proliferated.

Among investors battered by the hit that Covid Zero has had on the world’s second-largest economy, the softer signs and incremental changes have been enough for eu phoria, sparking the best monthly rally in Hong Kong-listed Chinese stocks in November since 2003.

Still, it’ll be a long process before life in China draws closer to the rest of the world, not to mention reverts to pre-pandemic norms. Millions of people are still subject to a web of restrictions right now, with a negative PCR test needed for entry into super markets and other everyday public venues, while a ubiquitous surveil lance system identifies those at high-risk immediately.

International travel, mean while, is still virtually non-exis tent for foreigners and onerous for locals, with at least five days quarantine in a centralized facility required.

Businesses are struggling with supply chains that have been slowed, if not halted, by logistical snarls, Covid curbs, and infection spread among workers, forcing a rethink of their reliance on Chi nese production hubs.

Potential risks THEN there are the very real health risks of China letting the vi rus spread through its population like elsewhere.

Its elderly people are undervaccinated, while health-care facil ities outside of major cities are po rous and insufficient to deal with

critical Covid cases. That means that the relaxations being seen in developed places like Beijing and Guangzhou are unlikely to be rolled out to rural, poorer areas for some time.

H aving held up its low death toll as the chief justification for the Covid Zero policy for years, President Xi Jinping will also be loathe to see widespread fa talities along with reopening. If China can perform like Singapore or South Korea in minimizing deaths through vaccination, it’ll still have to endure hundreds of thousands of lost lives.

The unknowns

ANOTHER unknown is how its vast population will react to the pivot. Even as some took to the streets in unhappiness over the policy, there remains substantial support among ordinary people for Covid Zero, especially as fear of in fection is deeply rooted.

The path that now lies ahead for China to reach a post-pandemic normal will be tortuous and long. Three years after Chinese doctors officially recorded a mysterious pneumonia they had no name for, the country has at least taken the first steps.

EXACTLY three years since the first documented coronavirus patient developed symptoms in the central Chinese city of Wuhan, the country that fought the pathogen first and most fiercely is finally pivoting away from efforts to quash the pandemic.

DEMONSTRATORS hold blank signs during a protest in Beijing on November 27, 2022. BLOOMBERG

RESIDENTS leaving an area with communities in lockdown line up for Covid tests, in Beijing, on November 30, 2022. BLOOMBERG

Hontiveros supports

OPPOSITION Senator Risa Hontiveros, in a rare move, credited a rank ing Marcos administration offi cial, singling out Justice Secre tary Crispin Remulla, for promptly deploying probers of the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) to crack down against human traf ficking syndicates.

“This is, of course, very wel come as we really have to address the problem of trafficking on all fronts,” Hontiveros said.

The senator pointed out that Re mulla, as the lead convenor of the Inter-Agency Council Against Trafficking (IACAT), the DOJ is well positioned to look into this particular “case of Pinoys being

victimized into participating in scamming activities in Myanmar.”

“Dati na nating nakatrabaho ang NBI pagdating sa paglalantad ng mga taong sangkot sa pastillas scam,” Hontiveros recalled, add ing, “Kaya umaasa akong magiging mabunga rin ang pagtutulungan ng ahensya at ng Senate Committee on Women, Children, Family Re lations and Gender Equality sa pagsugpo dito sa bagong modus ng human trafficking.”

At the same time, the sena tor stressed, “We cannot allow or afford the social and psycho logical consequences of lax bor der management, trafficking, and traumatic events endured by our OFWs.” Butch Fernandez

PHL’s next rate increase may be quarter or half-point–BSP gov

THE Philippine central bank will debate the size of an interestrate hike this month with a quarter or a half-point move in the cards, Governor Felipe Medalla said.

“The board members will prob ably be split between doing 25 and 50,” Medalla said in an inter view with Bloomberg Television’s Haslinda Amin on Friday on the sidelines of a central bank confer ence in Bangkok. Bangko Sentral

By Manuel T. Cayon

DAVAO CITY—Sarangani province has opened a halfway house, or tem porary shelter, for former New People’s Army (NPA) guerrillas and members of terror groups who opted to return to the folds of the law.

The halfway house cost P5 mil lion and Gov. Rogelio D. Pacquiao and Rep. Steve Chiongbian Solon led the inauguration last month in the provincial capital of Alabel.

The provincial government said the halfway house would be a temporary home for former rebels “where they will be accom modated while still in the process of reintegration into mainstream society.”

The facility measures 1,475 square meters and was funded by the Department of the In terior and Local Government (DILG) and constructed by the Provincial Engineering Office, with six buildings, including one office and conference room, one quarter for females, one quarter for males, one mess hall and two conjugal rooms for former rebels who could bring with them their family.

The facility would be among the benefits of the E-CLIP, or the En hanced Comprehensive Local Integration Program, which also include livelihood assistance, financial as sistance, reintegration assistance, and firearms remuneration.

The E-CLIP provides a compre hensive, integrated, communitybased national program “that is locally implemented to address the legal status and security of former

rebels, as well as their economic, social, psychosocial rehabilitation needs and provide immediate to long-term interventions,” the pro vincial information office said.

Lizette Lopez, provincial focal person for E-CLIP, said the facility could accommodate a maximum of 30 clients, with 15 males and 15 females. She said that from 2011 to the present, Sarangani has al ready had a total of 573 former rebels, and from 2016 to 2022, a total of 161 rebel returnees have already returned to the folds of law and were given assistance by the government.

Pacquaio and Solon made a quick tour around the facility to check on the status of the building and in order to address the other needs of the facility.

Pacquiao acknowledged his pre decessor, Rep. Solon, “which was during then governor and now Congressman Steve Solon’s term that the government plan had materialized to end insurgency.”

Solon also acknowledged the contribution of then-Congress man and now Governor Pacquiao in the peace development efforts of the province.

“In just a matter of three months, he pushed the programs of Ronda Probinsya and you see how fast people are adapting it,” Solon said.

The Provincial Social Welfare and Development Office turned over P5,000 financial assistance to each 22 former rebels, while the DILG turned over P336,000 reintegration and administra tive assistance to the National Police’s Regional Mobile Force Battalion.

CUSTOMS authorities at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (Naia) have foiled a recent attempt to smuggle wildlife after intercepting 23 tarantulas that were declared as “snacks and other food items.”

In a news statement issued on Friday, Bureau of CustomsNaia District Collector Carmelita Talusan said the parcel that arrived from Hanoi, Vietnam consigned to a claimant in Makati City was seized at the Central Mail Exchange Center in Pasay City on Monday, November 21.

The spiders were concealed in plastic containers labeled as potato chips and were discovered upon examination.

All 23 tarantulas were

immediately turned over to the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) for monitoring and safekeeping.

She added that the illegal shipment violates Section 1113 in relation to Sections 117 and 1401 of RA 10863, the Customs Modernization and Tariff Act, and Section 27 of RA 9147, or the Wildlife Resources Conservation and Protection Act.

This year, the Port of Naia has seized several exotic aquatic wildlife species from different countries.

Talusan said the port is also one with the DENR in upholding wildlife protection and its conservation initiatives. PNA

ng Pilipinas (BSP) is close to the peak rate as the Federal Reserve approaches the end of its tight ening cycle, he said.

BSP has leaned on a mix of tools to ward off risks from a depreciating peso to quickening

inflation. It has raised the key policy rate by a total of 300 basis points this year, while interven ing in the currency market and tamping down on speculative currency trades.

The peso’s recent gains against the dollar “will make speculators a lot less aggressive,” Medalla said. There are days when BSP is buying dollars whereas “be fore everyday was a selling day,” he said.

While the peso remains South east Asia’s worst performer this year, it has gained more than 4 percent this quarter. Asked if he’s c omfortable with the currency’s

Senators air caution on proposed creation of wealth fund endorsed by House panel

By Butch Fernandez

EVEN as a House committee endorsed quickly the pro posal to set up a Maharlika Sovereign Wealth Fund, three senators have expressed cau tion in tackling the proposition to avoid the pitfalls of similar funds in other countries.

Minority Senators Koko Pi mentel and Risa Hontiveros said that while the avowed purpose of creating such a facility was note worthy, the painful lessons both in other countries and the Phil

Comedian

ippines’s own experience war rant a more careful deliberation of the proposal when it reaches the Senate.

The Senate leadership, however, vowed thorough deliberations on the proposal, with Senate Presi dent Juan Miguel Zubiri assuring that the chairpersons of relevant committees—Finance, Ways and Means, especially—will be active ly leading the study of the proposal and will consult stakeholders.

For her part, the President’s sister, Sen. Imee Marcos, also aired caution despite reports that

President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. endorsed the idea embodied in a bill filed by House Speaker Martin Romualdez.

Marcos said while she had not read thoroughly the House bill, any facility that touches retire ment funds must be handled with caution.

Among the institutions tapped to provide the P250-billion seed investment for Maharlika are retirement funds—the Govern ment Service Insurance System (GSIS) and the Social Security System (SSS).

level, Medalla said: “Let’s put it this way, we move just like all the other currencies.”

The peso climbed for a sev enth day, poised to advance by 1 percent for a second straight week on Friday.

Medalla flagged on Tuesday that the BSP may halt interestrate increases as early as the first quarter of 2023 if inflation cools closer to the central bank’s 2 percent to 4 percent target. He forecast price gains to peak this month and move near the midpoint of the monetary authority’s goal by July or August. Bloomberg News

Davao Light linemen obtain Tesda skills certification

DAVAO CITY—Fourteen line men from Aboitiz-owned Davao Light and Power Co. Inc. obtained their skills certifica tion from the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (Tesda) after undergoing a two-day competency assessment.

Of the 14, Davao Light’s train ing officer, Leo Claros, also passed Tesda’s Provincial Lead Assessment for Davao City and Davao del Sur and is the first lead assessor of Tesda in the Davao Region. Claros is now qualified to assess other linemen training for national certification in Region 11.

funds and disburse them.

“..[I]t can safely be concluded that he was the author of the falsification or asked somebody else to prepare the falsified docu ments,” the court added.

Paulate was elected as Quezon City councilor in 2010 and was later accused of hiring 30 job or der (JO) workers from July to De cember of the same year. He issued certifications after every 15th and end of the month that the job con tractors rendered services for 40 hours a week.

“Our dream is for you to become a role model with whom Tesda can share its expertise to train, assess, and come up with more qualified workers in [Electric Power Distri bution Line]. We’ve all studied this, we’ve experienced it in our job, and we’d like you to transfer what you have learned to the younger gen eration so that [Davao City] will always have linemen,” said Adonis Culas, the city provincial director of Tesda Region 11.

The two-day assessment was con ducted at Davao Light’s Maa Train ing Center here where Tesda later conferred on the 14 participants the National Certification II for Electric Power Distribution Line.

THE Sandiganbayan has con victed comedian and for mer Quezon City councilor Roderick Paulate for graft and nine counts of falsification of documents in connection with the hiring of “ghost” employees in 2010.

The 7th Division of the Sandi ganbayan sentenced Paulate and his driver Vicente Bajamunde up to 62 years imprisonment for falsifying public records of up to 30 fictitious workers assigned to his office.

“It bears noting that the job

order contracts and general payrolls are deemed falsified documents because the job con tractors subject therein do not exist. Accused [Paulate] main tained their existence and thus, to overcome the prosecution’s claim, accused only need to prove that they exist. Unfortunately, he failed in this respect,” the deci sion penned by Associate Justice Zaldy V. Trespeses, said.

The court said Paulate took ad vantage of his position and used the documents to obligate the

He also designated his then driver, co-accused Bajamunde, as liaison officer and authorized him to receive in bulk the wages of the job contractors.

During those months, Paulate’s office received P125,000 every payday, totaling P1.109 million.

Verifications made on entries in the personal data sheets (PDS) of the hired job contractors later revealed that they have no birth records, National Bureau of Inves tigation clearance application, or school records and their addresses could not be located. PNA

By Claudeth Mocon-Ciriaco

DEPARTMENT of Health (DOH) Officer-in-Charge

Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire on Friday bared that Covid-19 vaccine wastage had increased to 44 million from 31 million for the past week.

“Last week, we reported 31 mil lion wastage. Now, it is already at 44 million based on our inven tories,” Vergeire said in a news briefing, adding that the reports on vaccine wastage is progressive.

There were some 3.8 million

wastage due to “operational wast age,” such as temperature excur sion, discoloration and natural disaster, while some 24 million doses have expired.

“Our inventory is continuously happening,” Vergeire added.  However, she said that the num ber of the wastage is still “within the allowable” rate set by the World Health Organization (WHO), which is 25 to 30 percent. The 44 million is 17.5 percent out of all vaccines in the country.

Earlier, former Health Secre tary and Iloilo Representative

Janet Garin said that the DOH and the Health Technology As sessment Council   (HTAC) should share the blame for the vaccine wastage.

However, Vergeire was quick to disagree, saying it is unfair to pin the blame to the experts.

“I think it’s unfair that we accuse, that the HTAC is to be blamed for this kind of issue that we have right now. Pag tinignan natin sa kabuuan, marami ho ta lagang factors [If we look at the whole picture, there are a lot of factors actually],” Vergeire said.

The linemen took a written ex amination and then demonstrated their skills by erecting a utility pole using a pole pipe. After erecting the utility pole, the linemen installed construction units, transformers, and service wires so that the elec tricity can reach the consumers. At the final stage, the linemen had undergone oral questioning regarding their output, the Davao Light said.

“We performed to the best of our abilities and finally passed the as sessment. There were a few hurdles along the way, but we all continued to perform—we easily adapt and overcome challenges because that is the heart of a lineman,” Claros said.

In 2016, Davao Light and Aboitiz Foundation partnered with Tesda to set up a lineman training facility at Tesda Regional Training CenterKorPhil in Tibungco, 20 kilometers north of downtown. This is the first Tesda lineman training center in Mindanao.

The partnership included the refurbishment and equipping of Tesda’s Electrical Installation and Maintenance Workshop Laboratory.

Davao Light operates as the third largest privately-owned electric distribution utility in the Philippines in terms of customer size and annual kilowatt hour sales. Davao Light’s area covers a population of about 1.8 million with a total of 467,933 custom ers in its franchise area of 3,561 square kilometers. Manuel T. Cayon

Roderick Paulate found guilty of graft, hiring of ‘ghost’ job contractors

BOC intercepts tarantulas declared as snacks at Naia

RODERICK PAULATE FB PAGE

DOJ initiative in crackdown vs human trafficking

Sarangani opens halfway house, temporary home for ex-rebels

DOH says 44-M vax wastage still within WHO’s ‘allowable limit’

More criminal charges lodged against suspects in missing ‘sabungeros’ case

By Glen Jacob Jose

THE Philippine National Police (PNP) probers have filed another case of kidnapping and serious illegal detention charges against two more suspects allegedly responsible in the abduction and disappearance of cockfight aficionado in Laguna.

Named respondents in the com plaint was Julie A. Patidongan also known as “Dondon,” reportedly a staff of a farm in Barangay Palasan, Sta. Cruz, Laguna and a John Doe.

The Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) filed the charges on Thursday before the National Prosecution Service of the Department of Jus tice based on the complaint of the kin of victim Michael Bautista

of Barangay Poblacion 1, Daang Barrio Road, San Jose del Monte, Bulacan who has been missing since April 28, 2021.

“Patidongan and a John Doe were tagged as the persons seen on a video footage obtained by CIDG as the same persons who were holding the handcuffed Bautista outside the farm,” PNP officer-in-charge Lt. Gen. Rhodel Sermonia said.

PNP and ICRC conclude meeting on law enforcement and treatment of detainees

THE International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and the Philippine National Police (PNP) recently hosted the second Asia Pacific Colloquium to provide a better understanding on how to conduct law enforcement operations as humanely as possible.

In a news statement issued on Friday, the PNP Public Information Office said the conference held in Makati City from November 27 to December 1 was joined by local and foreign delegates from police agencies of 12 countries in the Asia Pacific Region.

After being postponed for the past three years due to the pandemic and consequent health restrictions, this year’s humanitarian dialogue was held with the theme, “Law Enforcement and Reducing Humanitarian Risks in the Early Stages of Detention.”

Maj. Gen. Michael John Dubria, acting chief of the PNP directorial staff, represented PNP chief Gen. Rodolfo Azurin, who is attending another international forum in France.

“We have increased the number of scheduled and surprise inspections of PNP

custodial facilities nationwide as part of our anti-torture strategy. This is to ensure that persons under police custody are treated in a humane and dignified manner and to uphold their individual rights pursuant to human rights standards and existing laws,” Dubria said in his message during the opening ceremony.

Dubria said all police personnel has

also been re-oriented on the obligation to inform all persons arrested, detained, or under custodial investigation about their rights under the law, including their inalienable and non-derogable right to be free from torture, cruel, inhumane or degrading treatment.

“More than just responding to the requirements of human rights laws, we are

here to jointly express our firm commitment to uphold the rights of all persons, including persons deprived of liberty, simply because we all need to preserve our inherent dignity and value as human beings,” Dubria added.

Some of the objectives of the event are to increase understanding among senior policymakers of the humanitarian challenges arising during the early stages of detention develop an awareness of the causes of high-risk behavior and look at strategies to reduce this in participants’ own contexts; promote mutual understanding between ICRC colleagues and participants; and to set the conditions for operational and policy dialogue between the ICRC and states to share approaches to reduce humanitarian impact even in sensitive areas.

The five-day event participated in by police organizations from the Asia-Pacific region aims to facilitate a discussion among specialists at a policy or planning level on the risks associated with the early stages of detention, to share policies, existing challenges, practical mitigation strategies, and lessons from the Asia-Pacific region.

Glen Jacob Jose

In a meeting with the CIDG chief Brig. Gen. Ronald O. Lee, the hand cuffed man was positively identified by his wife and brother as Michael Bautista, one of the 34 missing cock fight aficionados as they recognized him from his haircut, body built, up to his personal belongings.

Bautista is among 34 missing sabungeros who are the subject of a massive search and investiga tion that earlier led to the filing

of kidnapping charges last March 18, 2022 against eight persons.

Based on this video evidence, police digital forensics technicians developed computerized facial composites of the two suspects, Sermonia said.

“With these developments, we are confident that the investigation on the ‘missing sabungero’ is gaining solid ground and will find closure in due time,” he said.

BPOs eye further expansion of operations in the regions

By Rizal Raoul S. Reyes

SEVERAL business-process outsourcing (BPOs) are plan ning to expand their opera tions outside Metro Manila and accelerate the establishment of their operations in the provinces.

Tricia Pacete, market analyst, offices-landlord, Colliers Phil ippines, said this is a “win-win” situation for BPO employees and employers. “This development has encouraged many BPOs to expand their office footprint outside Metro Manila, and fast track the setup of operations in the provinces, long been seen as an untapped resource for BPO players talent wise. Now with the mandate to implement WFH [work-from-home] setups, BPOs are chasing after talents who pre fer to settle back in their home towns,” Pacete said.

In its recently concluded Q3 2022 Philippine Property Mar ket Briefing, Colliers Philippines noted a significant increase in provincial office transactions quarter-on-quarter. Pacete added Colliers data indicated that an ad ditional 63,000 square meters of office spaces were transacted in the third quarter of 2022, with total space transacted reaching 145,000 square meters for the first nine months of the year. The figure is 23 percent of total office trans actions recorded. More than half (56 percent) of these transactions were for BPO companies.

She said Cebu remains the top provincial destination favored by BPOs, recording approxi mately 34,000 square meters of office transactions, followed by Davao (21,000 square meters),

and Pampanga (9,000 square meters).

When asked of their motiva tions for choosing provincial lo cations, most of these BPO com panies cited expansions and/or relocation.

Currently, the top 5 IT-BPM employers in the country include Concentrix, Accenture, Teleper formance, Alorica, and the Sitel Group. Out of the 19 BPO players listed, Concentrix showed the big gest employer headcount hiring an additional 10,000 employees in the third quarter of the year.

It was followed by Teleperfor mance (2,534 employees), TaskUs Philippines (8,000 employees), Telus International (7,000 employ ees), and afni Philippines (2,000 employees).

In terms of increase in total of fice space occupied, WNS Global Services embarked on a signifi cant expansion both in Metro Manila and provincial office footprint at 12 percent and 47 percent, respectively.

On the other hand, several BPO companies are diversifying their site portfolio through expansions in the provinces.

Telus International sustained its Metro Manila office footprint, but expanded in the provinces by 23 percent. TTEC’s provincial office footprint also increased by 19 per cent, while retaining its footprint in Metro Manila. Concentrix, the Philippines’s largest BPO company in terms of employee headcount and office space occupied, has also been expanding outside Metro Ma nila. Its provincial office footprint increased by 12 percent in the third quarter of 2022 compared to the previous quarter.

Army chief fetes 11th ID    for gains in fight vs ASG

PHILIPPINE Army (PA)

has commended the 11th In fantry Division (11th ID) for its ef forts in combating the Abu Sayyaf Group (ASG) via intelligence-driven operations as it marked its fourth founding anniversary on Thursday.

Brawner graced the celebra tion at the unit’s headquarters at the Kuta Heneral Teodulfo Bau tista, Busbos in Jolo town, Sulu province.

The Army chief also recognized the 11th ID, also known as the “Al akdan” Division, for the recovery of assorted high- and low-powered firearms, and facilitation of the implementation of developmen tal projects for the internally dis placed persons through the “Balik Barangay Program” in collabora tion with the provincial and local government units of Patikul and Talipao, Sulu.

“[He] lauded the unit’s effort in maintaining lasting peace and

progress in its areas of responsibil ity since its inception in 2018,” PA spokesperson Col. Xerxes Trinidad said in a news statement issued on Friday.

During the celebration, Brawn er also led the awarding of plaques to the best battalion, officers, enlisted personnel, and stake holders.

“To the gallant servant-sol diers of the Alakdan Division, continue to focus on your primary objective of defeating and elimi nating the remaining elements of local terrorist groups within your area of operations. We shall continue to pursue and promote the Philippine Army’s primordial objectives as enshrined in the acronym, S.E.R.V.E. I am certain that together with the steadfast convergence support of our part ner-stakeholders, we will restore the old glory and facilitate a pros perous future for the people of Sulu,” Brawner said.  PNA

Hungary could be next top OFW destination–PASEI

By Samuel P. Medenilla

AGROUP of local recruit ment agencies are now eyeing Hungary as the next top destination for overseas Filipino workers (OFW) after the Eastern European country piloted a new program this year to stream line the processing for migrant workers.

In an interview on Thursday, Philippine Association of Service Exporters Inc. (PASEI) President Raquel Espina-Bracero said the Philippines was among the few countries selected for the Enter Hungary project.

“They made a study on countries and they found out the Philippines was able to set the policies in pro tecting the workers and the employ ers. That was their driving force [in the selection of the country],” Bracero said.

Under the initiative of the Hun garian government, the processing of OFWs was reduced from 6 to 7 months to just 2 to 3 months.

The pilot project covered an initial 1,000 OFWs for this year. The deployed workers were hired in electronics and automo tive plants.

Bracero said they expect to deploy additional OFWs to Hun gary next year after they passed the assessment conducted by the Hungarian government.

Aside from the fast processing, she said other factors, which may be a competitive destination for OFWs is its location in Europe, as well as pay.

Currently the top destinations for OFWs are the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Qatar, United Arab Emir ates, Kuwait, Hong Kong, Oman, Singapore, Bahrain, United King dom, and Taiwan.

DELEGATES to the second Asia Pacific Colloquium organized by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and the Philippine National Police (PNP) pose for a photo opportunity on Thursday, December 1, 2022. The PNP on Friday said the conference held in Makati City from November 27 to December 1 was joined by local and foreign delegates from police agencies of 12 countries in the Asia Pacific Region. PHOTO COURTESY OF PNP

chief Lt. Gen. Romeo Brawner Jr.

ARMY commander, Lt Gen. Romeo S. Brawner Jr. (Second from left), awards the Commanding General Philippine Army (CGPA) significant accomplishment streamer to the 11th Infantry Division during its fourth founding anniversary celebration at Camp Teodulfo Bautista in Jolo town, Sulu province on Thursday, December 1, 2022. The Army chief also recognized the 11th ID, also known as the “Alakdan” Division, for the recovery of assorted high- and low-powered firearms, and facilitation of the implementation of developmental projects for the internally displaced persons in collaboration with the provincial and local government units of Patikul and Talipao, Sulu. PHOTO COURTESY OF PHILIPPINE ARMY

Eisai Alzheimer’s drug sparks debate over benefits as risks like brain bleeding emerge

By Robert Langreth

EISAI Co. unveiled much-an ticipated findings on its ex perimental Alzheimer’s drug, providing tinder for the hot debate over whether its modest efficacy is worth potential risks that include serious brain bleeding.

L ecanemab, developed with help from collaborator Biogen Inc., pulled large amounts of an Alzheimer’s-linked protein from the brain while slowing decline in mental capabilities and daily activi ties by 27 percent over 18 months, according to a commonly used rat ing scale. Yet this came at the price of side effects including brain swell ing and bleeding that occurred in about 22 percent of people on the drug, compared to 10 percent of those who received a placebo.

T he results are the main event at the often-sleepy Clinical Trials on Al zheimer’s Disease conference in San Francisco, and mark the first time a drug aimed at slowing the brain dis ease has generated unambiguously positive results in a final-stage trial.

Eisai’s shares, after swinging at the open of Tokyo trading Wednes day, were up about 2.5 percent at 10:39 a.m. local time, while Biogen was halted.

Still, the benefits of the drug ap pear modest, said Lon Schneider, a professor of psychiatry and neurosci ence at the University of Southern California Keck School of Medicine.

“ This is a very small effect, and the debate is going to be about whether it is clinically meaningful,” Sch neider said in an e-mail. However, the findings provide an opportunity “to assess subgroups that might have preferentially improved.”

Two deaths

FIVE presentations from researchers at Japan-based Eisai, Yale University and elsewhere will delve into the ben efits and side effects in great detail. While most cases of swelling and bleeding weren’t symptomatic, they sometimes led to headaches, visual disturbances, confusion or worse. There were five large brain hemor rhages in patients who got the drug, compared to just one in the placebo

group, according to results from the trial published in the New England Journal of Medicine

T he journal report doesn’t include two widely publicized patient deaths that occurred in the extension por tion of the trial, when all subjects, including those on placebo, were offered the drug. Both deceased pa tients were taking blood thinners that may have contributed to bleed ing in the brain.

Both cases had significant co morbidities and risk factors includ ing anticoagulation contributing to macrohemorrhage or death,” the company said. “Therefore, it is Eisai’s assessment that the deaths cannot be attributed to lecanemab.”

In an interview before the meet ing, Michael Irizarry, Eisai senior vice president of clinical research, said there were “complicating fac tors” in both cases. In one, a man in his late 80s who had multiple other medical conditions suffered a heart attack following a brain hemorrhage. An examination indicated that the cause was cardiopulmonary, mean ing the doctor’s opinion was that hemorrhage likely wasn’t the main cause of death, Irizarry said.

In the other case, a 65-year-old woman was given the blood thinner tPA after a stroke, leading to a fatal brain bleed. Such hemorrhages are known side effects of tPA, Irizarry said. In the main, placebo-controlled portion of the trial, no difference in death rates was found between those on the drug and those on a dummy treatment. One patient who received only a placebo and had a hemorrhage also died, the company said.

Open questions

ONE unanswered question hovering over the San Francisco meeting is why the Eisai trial succeeded when similar drugs produced ambiguous or negative results. Both lecanemab and Roche Holding AG’s gantenerumab target amyloid, an abnormal protein in the brain linked to Alzheimer’s disease, as a way to slow patients’ mental decline. Roche is slated to report detailed findings from two large, failed studies Wednesday at the conference.  With assistance from Kanoko Matsuyama/Bloomberg News

Out comes the shadow self

Senior citizens urged to get involved in local governance

included in the development plans and eventually funded through the mandatory 1 percent allocation in the budgets of LGUs, he said.

A side from that, Quijano said se nior citizens may also seek additional appropriation through the Gender and Development component, which comprises 5 percent of the budget.

Senior citizens are recognized as pillars in nation-building, so we must assert that and not just con tent ourselves with token tee-shirts during elderly week celebrations,” he said.

NCSC Commissioner Edwin G. Espejo, who also joined the assembly, said it is important for the federation and even other local senior citizens associations to get accredited with the LGUs, so they could take part in the process.

He said local governments mainly recognize and accredit sectoral orga nizations through the barangay, city, municipal and provincial boards or legislative councils.

Once they are already accredited and become members of the local de velopment councils, they can already participate in the planning process and also receive other benefits from the LGUs,” he said.

ZAMBOANGA CITY—Citing they “still have so much to contribute,” officials of the National Commission of Senior Citizens (NCSC) urged senior citizens here on Tuesday to assert their rights and take a more proactive role in local development and governance.

L awyer Franklin M. Quijano, NCSC chairperson and chief ex ecutive officer, said senior citizens should make their voices heard by participating in governance pro cesses in the barangays and even up to the regional level.

Quijano said the elderly, currently

perfect self, we say. In fact, when shocked, angry, or terrified, our instinctive ejaculations and excla mations only serve to give us away, revealing another side of us. Our hidden, dark side. Psychologists call it “Shadow Self.”

By Nick Tayag

MY SIXTY-ZEN’S WORTH

WHEN suddenly confronted by a thing or action that surprises, offends or angers us, many of us impulsively vent out four-letter expletives. Then, of course, we immediately pull back and try to compose ourselves, mumbling excuses for the embarrassing lapse to anyone around who have heard us.

It happened once to a revered spiri tual director, silently causing me to feel second-hand embarrassment because several persons, including ladies, were there.

Did that incident lose my respect for him? Not necessarily. It was to me not surprising or shocking. In fact, I was amused. LOL, he is like me after all.

I also recall another good-looking executive, a heartthrob in fact, who would verbally make fun of gay em ployees. One time when he was giv ing a briefing, from out of the blue, he suddenly let out a girlish shriek and covered his mouth reflexively

when he accidentally dropped his cellphone. Everybody froze in their seats. You could cut the palpable si lent air with a knife.

O ver the years, I keep encoun tering news about well-known and highly respected religious leaders who perorate endlessly and hatefully against the so-called sins of adultery, pedophilia, homosexuality, abortion —only to be “exposed” later that they were doing those very same “sins” in secret all along.

A s the sages say, when you point the finger of accusation at someone, always keep in mind that your other three fingers are pointed towards you. So be careful. Your outward accusation could be a self-confes sion. More often it is a deflection, designed to cover up and distract others from looking in your direc tion. The louder and more strident, the more suspicious.

T hat’s us revealing our human, im

T he term “shadow self” was first conceptualized by Carl Jung, the other pillar of modern psychol ogy, in the mid-1900s.

For Jung, a complete person ality consists of both the positive and negative qualities in every individual, but only the qualities that seem desirable and appeal ing are expressed in what he calls “person,” which is the social mask we wear every day.

Most of the time, he says, we repress those thoughts and feel ings that are labeled as negative or unappealing or even danger ous. They are in fact said to be “sinful” and need to be confessed again and again as we were told as students in exclusive Catholic schools. Remember the sins of hatred, anger, gluttony, greed, lust, and so on?

A s we grew up and became more adulterated and secular ized in our outlook on life, we no longer saw the need or value to confess, period. We ignored them and fought to keep them under the lid. Even now, some of us still refuse to believe that they are a part of us. Lo, in un expected moments, they reveal

estimated at more than 12 million individuals nationwide, are among the most organized sectors and de serves to be properly consulted by local government units (LGUs).

“ We can participate in the gover nance process, starting in our own barangays, by taking part in the lo

themselves, to the surprise of those who know us, and to our embarrassment. No matter what, they have always been there.

In retrospect, ceasing to confess the dark aspects of our shadow self was probably a mistake. Because in my late life, I have been made to realize that confessing or talk ing about our dark desires would have had a salutary effect, in a psychological way.

In their book “Romancing the Shadow: A Guide to Soul Work for a Vital, Authentic Life” therapists C. Zweig & S. Wolf tell us that “the Shadow can be a source of emo tional richness and vitality, and acknowledging it can be a pathway to healing and an authentic life.”

Ju ng believes this acknowl edgement and acceptance is the key to treating not only the mind of man but his Soul as well. More significantly he believes that this Shadow Self is a latent force present in all of us, in many in stances forming a strong source of creative energy.

W hy do you think Pablo Picas so kept creating masterworks till his 70s? I suspect because he had tremendous lust like a radioactive uranium ore, which continued to glow inside and gave him the cre ative energy even in late age.

It is said that no great man is a hero to his butler or psychiatrist. That’s because a butler knows the darkest secrets of his master

cal development councils,” he said during the general assembly of the city’s Federation of Senior Citizens Association of the Philippines (FS CAP) chapters held at the Grand Astoria Hotel.

T his city has more than 100,000 senior citizens and with about 40,000 listed as members of the fed eration in its 98 barangays.

C iting provisions of Republic Act 7160 or the Local Government Code, Quijano said the elderly sec tor plays an integral part in overall governance and should participate in local development planning and related processes.

He said the sector should have proper representation in local de velopment councils, especially in the barangays, cities and municipalities, provinces, and the regional level.

T hey can propose projects, pro grams, and activities that can be

and becomes an absorber of the negative force hidden from the public. By allowing his master’s wild nature to come out in his daily life, the butler helps this shadow to be gradually tamed and become integrated into his master’s whole self and thus en ables him to be stronger, more dynamic, and creative.

I am now in the middle of a book about Winston Churchill written by William Manchester. His atrocious behavior within his inner sanctum will shock the ordinary reader. He could be tactlessly offensive to intimates sometimes. He would go to and fro, literally and unabashedly na ked while crafting or rehearsing his speeches. Yet his butler and confidential coterie of maids and assistants allowed him to indulge himself because they all accepted that it was an inseparable part of him. Churchill would not have been the great Churchill we know and admire if that dark self of his was reined in.

S imilarly, in the relation ship between wife and husband there must be a space in be tween as a neutral field to allow their respective dark natures to emerge and accepted without being judged or suppressed. My wife has frequent dark dreams and I let her tell me about them because they can give both a clue on her fears and anxieties.

T he general assembly was called by the federation to tackle various pressing concerns of the sector and to select the nominees for the next head of the city’s Office for Senior Citizens Affairs (OSCA).

City Mayor John Dalipe, who is set to appoint the new head from at least three nominees from the fed eration, said his office would closely work with the incoming OSCA head to ensure that the needs of the sec tor would be properly addressed.

D alipe said the local govern ment would regularly consult and engage with the sector as he ac knowledged their contribution to the city’s development and prog ress over the years.

“ We will continue to prioritize programs to promote the welfare and development of our senior citizens,” the mayor said in his message during the assembly. PNA

I believe that letting them out in the open helps prevent them from manifesting themselves later on as physical ailments.

Talking about each other’s most intimate desires and hidden im pulses would definitely help but if only both spouses are open and mature enough to understand.

T his lack of acknowledgement and acceptance of the shadow self —and the disconnection from our true whole self—can be dangerous. The more our darkness is avoided, the more it grows within us, an in ner demon waiting to burst out at any unexpected moment.

So next time we let out a four letter expletive or exclamation in anger or in frustration, start rum maging into your innermost closet and find the hidden self that you have locked away. Remember, in the same way that a house divid ed against itself cannot stand, we cannot continue having fractioned lives, accepting some parts of our nature but rejecting and ignoring other parts.

A s the ancient book I Ching teaches us, every yang needs a yin. Nothing is purely good or purely bad. The two qualities op pose each other while at the same time complement each other. Unless we learn to first embrace that darkness within ourselves and harness its creative force, we can never attain self-love in a bal anced, healthy way.

NATIONAL Commission of Senior Citizens (NCSC) Chairperson and Chief Executive Officer Franklin Quijano (left), answers various concerns from senior citizens leaders in an open forum during the general assembly of the Federation of Senior Citizens Association of the Philippines chapters in Zamboanga City on November 29, 2022. With Quijano is NCSC Commissioner for Mindanao Edwin Espejo.

BusinessMirror

State U’s Science grads solidify university’s QS ranking in Asia

ONE in every 10 graduates of the “State University” is from its College of Science, contributing significantly to the former’s standing as the country’s premier higher learning institution (HEI).

In 2022 alone, University of the Philippines-Diliman’s College of Sci ence (UPD-CS) accounted for 331, or 9.52 percent, of UPD’s 3,475 gradu ates. This helped the HEI as a whole rank 87th in Asia and 18th in South east Asia in the recently released 2023 Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) Asia University Rankings, ahead of other Philippine universities.

Helping maintain and improve UP’s premiere status, UPD-CS is mandated to produce internation ally recognized graduates, institu tional partnerships and research output.

“The college aims to collaborate with [various nongovernment or ganizations, private entities, stateuniversity colleges, higher education institutions, as well as] local and international institutions in the scientific community to promote and mobilize scientific experts,” ex plained UPD-CS’s Associate Dean for Research, Innovation, Development

TESDA, Accenture Phils., NGOs recommit in Skills to Succeed Acad. learning platform

THE government and various local industry sectors have underscored the need to upskill the Filipino work force and build training partnerships to answer the growing demand for heightened labor efficiencies.

This was based on the National Economic and Development Authority recent report that high lighted the need to “strengthen human capital” t hrough quality education and upskilling.

A key initiative that aims to help equip young Filipinos with their job skills is the Skills to Succeed Academy, or S2S Academy, (https:// s2sacademy.com/) launched by Accenture Phils., Technological Education and Skills Development Authority and several nongovernment organiza tions in 2018.

P art of Accenture’s continuing commitment to build the future national talents in the Phil ippines through digital upskilling, the Accen ture S2S Academy offers free online learning c ourses on soft skills and confidence-building to help young Filipinos obtain the skills needed to secure a job.

Since its launch in the Philippines in 2018, S2S Academy has grown its base to over 145,000 learners, as it added content and enhanced its features. It has more than 100 interactive, “bitesized” modules that include identifying trans ferable skills, creating a great resume, standing o ut in an interview, and building a professional online presence.

The “:mini-courses” also contain innovative simulations allowing learners to try out real-life work scenarios and experience the impact of decisions, a simple online pre-assessment that generates a personalized learning curriculum based on learner needs.

Its “New Skills Now” curriculum focuses on developing the learners’ essential skills to make them “future-ready” through the “Emotional Intelligence” and “Technology at Work” courses.

Accenture Phils.’ Country Managing Director Lito Tayag said that “talent upskilling has always been [our] focus. We believe in the importance of equipping the Filipino talent with the right skills through technology-enablement programs like the S2S Academy.”

Tayag continued: “This is…our commitment as a responsible business; we strive to create value and a meaningful impact among our learners with the help of our partner-organizations. By doing so, we are able to help the Filipino youth kick-start their career journeys and achieve the goals they have set out for themselves.”

and Enterprise Ricky Nellas. “This will serve as a training ground for UP experts, students and staff to fill network engagement between researchers.”

Said college also has 18 active in ternational research collaborations, five of which started just this year, plus another 18 ongoing local part nerships. These were also taken into consideration in UP’s QS score and subsequent ranking.

Moreover, UPD-CS aims to pro duce industry and government leaders as it transforms itself into a leading research institution in Asia. Apart from strengthening the college’s research projects and part nerships, having a multitier sup port system for researchers would help achieve these goals, according to Nellas.

“This system should include not only financial coverage, but also holistic activities for the physical, mental, and psychological well-being

of researchers,” said the associ ate dean. “Moreover, CS and the university should partner with lawmakers to improve taxation for researchers, and lobby for tax exemptions for the researchderived honoraria and financial incentives. Alternatively, an increase in research honoraria can be implemented in lieu of tax breaks.”

Nellas added that the most crucial step UP should take is to improve the procurement process needed to establish, op erate, and maintain scientific infrastructure and facilities. Restructuring the procurement

pipeline for research activities, simplifying requirements, and providing exceptions for spe cialized needs would help reor ganize the procurement process.

“These would greatly ac celerate research and alleviate the administrative workloads of both project staff and the faculty. CS and the university could also allow and lobby for the deregulation of researchrelated contracts to allow our researchers greater flexibility, make procurement efficient, and improve the working con ditions of staff and personnel,” he concluded.

Pinoy students share experiences, dreams in 1st Korean speech contest

THE Ministry of Educa tion of Korea and the Korean Embassy in the Philippines, in cooperation with the Department of Education (DepEd), held its first onlinespeech contest last November 12, where students from each DepEd Special Program for For eign Language (SPFL) Koreanimplementing schools nation wide joined.

The 2022 Online Korean Speech Contest provided an opportunity to the students to share their dreams and experi ences while speaking in Korean, at the same time being moti vated and inspired by fellow contestants.

Grade-10 student Erica Ni tuan of San Bartolome High School in Novaliches, Quezon City bested the competition with her speech: “How did learning Korean influence your life now, and your plans for the future?” as she narrated ways the Korean

language gave her the boost of confidence she needed after the pandemic.

In her speech, Nituan shared that “it affected my future, be cause learning Korean is the reason I developed and improved my confidence. Now that I have trust in myself, I believe that I can do anything in the future without the fear of facing fail ures.” She encouraged viewers to not be afraid to try out new things.

Her school has been offer ing Korean language classes as part of its SPFL implementation since 2017.

Contest runner-up Nyvelle Celorio’s speech: “A good word that leads to a good place” was about someone’s words inspir ing others. She touched viewers’ hearts while narrating a poem from the book: Thank you for making me love you.

The other placer, Roxynne Es peleta, dwelled on her fondness

of hallyu that opened doors for her to learn the Korean language with her speech: “I know, I love you!” She concluded it by sing ing a phrase from Korean singer Joy’s song Je T’aime

The 2022 Online Korean S peech Contest was opened to a representative-student in Grades 7 to 10 from each DepEd SPFL-Korean imple menting school. Currently there are 50 of its kind, with 113 teachers.

The Korean Embassy in the Philippines has been providing training and resources to sup port the teaching of Korean in the Philippines. In line with this effort, the schools of the three winners were provided with a mini-Korean library consisting of various Korean novels and textbooks carefully curated by the deputation. Through the li braries, it hopes that students will feel closer to Korea and its culture.

Editor: Mike Policarpio

Bukas’ student loans hit ₧.5

million mark

OPENING opportunities for learners with meager means to pursue their studies, technology-enabled edu cation financing platform “Bukas” r evealed that it has funded more than P500 million in tuition fees for Filipino students.

Bukas by ErudiFi came into being with a goal of building a brighter future for the youth by extending opportunities through affordable tuition loans. Since its inception four years ago, the “student-first” brand has achieved consistent year-on-year growth, and has aided more than 15,000 learners across its 90 partnercampuses nationwide.

In Metro Manila, Bukas works with De La Salle University, Centro Escolar University, Technological Institute of the Philippines, Ad amson University, Mapua Univer sity, National Teachers College, O ur Lady of Fatima University, Far Eastern University, and FEU Tech, among others.

This year, its tie ups have ex panded to Bacolod and Zambo anga, broadening its reach to help m ore students in need.

“Despite the pandemic the past two years, we’ve managed to continuously grow our port folio. We’re confident that we c an scale the business to help even more students continue their studies for a better tomor row,” Jon Robert Emlano, Bukas’ p resident, said.

Angel Aquino, a nursing gradu ate of Universidad de Dagupan, e xpressed her gratitude to the plat form: “My school recommended Bu kas to me. Thank you very much, B ukas, for the opportunity that you have given to a student-mom like me to finish my studies. Be cause of you, I was able to pursue m y education.”

Beyond academic loans

KNOWING that educational at tainment does not end with hav ing the financial capacity to cover a ll the expenses needed to pursue such, providing a support system is also important to a student’s jour ney to academic success.

W ith this in mind, the platform launched its “Kasama Ka Bukas” initiative ( bukas.ph/kasama-kabukas), which helps students in many ways.

One aspect of this campaign is the “Bukas Blog” ( bukas.ph/blog ) that provides various content: from course, career, and financial literacy that guide learners on ways to cope up with the demands of academic life.

The blog also serves as a “go-to” channel for school tips. The plat form works with learning institu tion partners in mounting online a nd offline events to enable stu dents discover more about their p assions, seek guidance on their chosen paths, and explore new op portunities to enrich their lives.

B ukas Blog is also a community where students uplift one another by sharing inspiring stories and experiences, thus creating valuable linkages among them.

Not sitting on its laurels, the team seeks to add more value to the lives of students and its partnerschools, while further elevating the country’s educational system via academic financing and beyond.

“Our goal next year is to be ag gressive in covering more schools o utside Metro Manila, providing better access to affordable financ ing across the country,” Emlano s hared. “We are also working on expanding our products and ser vices to cater to more students and i mprove the user experience for the school admin and the students.”

Roderick L. Abad

MAPÚA University has led the charge in elevating the country’s financial-tech nology segment with its new “Fintech and Regulatory Innovation (FTRI)” program, with content powered by the Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance (CCAF) of the University of Cambridge Judge Business School, and in partnership with Fintech Al liance.Ph (FTAP).

Mapúa’s FTRI program is the first of its kind off-campus course in the Asean region with localized content tailored to the Philippine setting. The online tutor-led program, which runs for nine weeks, will allow senior policymakers, central bank regula tors, security agencies, and finance officers formulate evidence-based regulatory, supervisory, and policy responses that can manage fintech’s growth and utilization.

“Given the breadth and widespread acceptance of fintech systems in the local and international markets, we… believe that the program…can help senior policymakers, administrative officials, and key leaders more effec tively direct and oversee the fintech sector,” said Dr. Reynaldo B. Vea, president and CEO of Mapúa.

“We hope that through Mapúa’s FTRI program, powered by CCAF of the University of Cambridge Judge Business School, and in partnership with FTAP, we can help enable the administration and business lead ers to create standardized measures, and appropriate safety nets that will safeguard the economy, enterprises, and consumers as fintech continues to evolve and grow,” he added.

Compared with other programs that only teach fintech fundamen tals, the university’s FTRI certificate course tackles hard-hitting regulation concerns such as regulatory responses, innovation offices, regulatory and su

pervisory technologies, regulatory re forms, and international cooperation.

It will also cover essential topics such as fintech innovation, digital assets, digital lending and capital raising, regulatory technologies or “regtech,” insurance technologies or “insurtech,” and a capstone project.

“The idea for this course is an out come of conversations we’ve had with regulators over the past few years about a dilemma we felt they were in creasingly struggling to resolve. They recognize that technological innova tions can introduce new risks within the financial system. A fundamental challenge in resolving this dilemma is a growing knowledge gap between technological innovators and regula tors about the technologies and busi ness models introduced by fintech,” explained Prof. Robert Wardrop, di rector and cofounder of CCAF.

“This program is unique because we bring together industry practitio ners, regulators, policymakers and academics in the field. We will ex plore and gather perspectives from different countries in relation to fin tech-market development, enabling participants to find the answers to challenges they face in their jurisdic tion,” Wardrop added.

The full-online program will have a one-hour synchronous class once a week, and asynchronous lessons for the rest of the week. It will com mence in April 2023 and conclude with capstone project presentations by June 2023.

At the end of the program, success ful graduates will receive a certificate from Mapúa University, bearing the names of CCAF and FTAP. Aside from the application form, interested par ticipants should submit an endorse ment letter from their employers. For inquiries, e-mail ftriprogram@ mapua.edu.ph.

UNIVERSITY of the Philippines-Diliman’s College of Science graduates attend the 2022 Special Recognition Program wearing the iconic sablay sash. FB: UPD-CS

Mapúa, Cambridge Centre ready to advance local fintech industry

BOOK LAUNCH University of Santo Tomas Rector Very Rev. Fr. Richard G. Ang OP, PhD (second from left) converses with Consul General Javier Martín García of the Embassy of Spain (second from right), Director Javier Galván of Instituto Cervantes (rightmost), editor and Prefect of Libraries Rev. Fr. Ángel A. Aparicio OP (leftmost) and UST Secretary-General Rev. Fr. Louie R. Coronel OP (center) at the launch of the book “Ensayodeunasíntesisdelostrabajos realizadosporlasCorporacionesReligiosasEspañolas” (Essay of a synthesis of the works accomplished by the Spanish religious corporations in the Philip pines) by Spanish priest Fr. Valentín Morales Marín. The two-volume book describes the contributions of the Spanish religious corporations in the country, and what transpired during the years between 1521 and 1898. UST PUBLIC AFFAIRS

Tourism&Entertainment

By Benjamin Locsin Layug

The nearly 4-hour journey from Manila to Subic first took us to the DOT-accredited, 4-star Le Charme Suites Subic where we were welcomed by Josephine “Jho” Floresca, the su per hands-on managing director of the hotel, who first toured us around the hotel’s facilities and amenities.

The only “bike-friendly” hotel in town and in Central Luzon, the French-themed Le Charme Suites is a true haven for those who go and visit Subic with their bikes.

After checking in at some of the hotel’s 46 beautiful, stylish and spacious rooms, we were treated to lunch at the hotel-owned Teppan 101, where its engaging chef cooked the food on a griddle right in front of us. Next up was a tour prepared by SBMA Tourism Department.  Our first stop was the Pamulaklakin For est Trail, an eco-tourism park, where we met an Aeta tribal elder Domi nador Liwanag, fondly called “Tata

Kasoy,” a renowned instructor of the Jungle Environmental Survival Training (JEST). Wearing his tradi tional red bahag and headscarf, he demonstrated to us how to start a fire, make cooking utensils and cook food using the versatile bamboo.

Our next stop was Subic Bay Yacht Club (SBYC) where we witnessed the Christmas Tree Lighting ceremony graced by Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority (SBMA) Chairman Rolen C. Paulino Sr., Olongapo City Mayor Rolen Paulino Jr. and Bishop Barto lome Gaspar Santos of the Diocese of Iba. Back at Le Charme Suites, we were treated to a showing of “Dr. Strange in the Multiverse of Madness,” while having cocktails, from a giant TV screen  around its world-class 25 m. long, 4 ft. deep, half Olympic-size swimming pool at the rooftop Ibiza Roof Deck. Others, including me, availed of the sooth ing traditional hilot massage at the

hotel’s Tai Chi Wellness Spa.

The next day, we had breakfast at Ibiza Roof Deck where we were again joined by SBMA Chairman Paulino, who narrated how this premier free port has bounced back from the hur dles brought by the pandemic. After checking out of the hotel, we again departed for Subic Bay Yacht Club where we toured its facilities such as the Mistral Bar Music Lounge & Function Hall, Theater, and some of its suites prior to a Mongolian lunch buffet.

From here, we departed, via a coaster, for the nearly one-and-ahalf hour (55-km.) drive, via the J.J. Linao National Rd., to Las Casas Filipina de Acuzar, a 400-hectare cultural heritage resort and openair museum with an 18th century Manila vibe in Bagac, Bataan. Upon

arrival at the resort’s reception cen ter at Casa New Manila (built in 1926, it originally stood in Balete Drive), we were checked in at some of its 128 guest rooms and 63 “elite casas.” Some have swimming pools for guest use.

The resort’s main attraction is its heritage houses which were trans planted here by Jose “Jerry” Acuzar (owner of San Jose Builders), the heritage park’s proponent, in 2003 in order to save the structures from decay and neglect. The houses are disassembled from their original location and reconstructed inside the premise of the Las Casas Filipi nas. For its preservation efforts, the heritage park was lauded by the De partment of Tourism in 2021.

Evaluated for their historical, cultural, and architectural value,

A Season of Lights brings Holiday Cheer at Taal Vista Hotel

TAAL

Christmas Tree Lighting Ceremony at the Main Lobby

most of the notable houses such as Casa Bizantina (1890), Casa Hidal go, Casa Majayjay (the oldest, built in 1744), Casa Jaen I (1901), and Casa Unisan (1839) date back to the Span ish colonial era but some, such as the Casa Lubao (1920), Casa Balanga (1920s), Casa Hagonoy (1936), Casa Meycauayan (1913) and Casa New Manila were built during the Ameri can era.

Trams, jeepneys and kalesas are normally used to go around the re sort but we first toured the complex via a barge along the Umagol River and Estero de Binondo (which recalls the canals of old Manila), making stopovers at Casa San Juan (one of the most beautiful houses in the complex); Casa Balanga, Casa Cand aba 2, and Casa Majayjay the oldest (built in 1744) and one of the most prestigious houses in the complex; it was home to at least four gober nadorcillos of Majayjay, Laguna.

Come evening, we proceeded to Hotel del Oriente, a replica of the hotel originally built in 1889 at Binondo, Manila, which serves as a convention and function venue.  Here, we watched a special cultural show of traditional Philippine folk dances highlighted by the popular tinikling. Later, we were treated to an al fresco dinner of delicious Span ish cuisine, with live folk music, at Café del Rio Tapas Bar in Casa Sta. Rita.  Other restaurants within the

On our last day, after breakfast, we checked out of our rooms, boarded our coaster, and toured other hous es of Las Casas, making a stopover at the stone-paved Plaza Atienza (one of three major plazas) and the 3-story Casa Byzantina. Built in 1890 by Don Lorenzo del Rosario, this floral “bahay na bato” (it used Revivalist styles with influences of several Classical art movements) was originally situated in San Nicolas, Binondo. It is now considered the most expensive hotel in the resort.     The heritage park also houses art works such as sculptures of children playing local games such as palo sebo, patintero, luksong tinik and tum bang preso in open spaces; a beach area with beach bar; the Casa Ma ranao, a torogan or Maranao royal clan house from Lanao in Mindanao built in 1873 by Togoran I Sabino Lakowa; the small Sanctuario de San Jose, a replica of St. Joseph’s Cathedral in Balanga used as a wed ding location, and the Tulay ni Lola Basyang, a bridge that crosses the Umagol River, and a replica of the old Puente de España in Manila.

Cayanga

T HE annual Christmas Tree Light ing Ceremony was inspired by the theme “Season of Lights” which fea tured a handmade Christmas tree made specially

A Night of Music and Wine

co-presented

Vista Hotel

Pampanga craftsmen. The cere mony was led by Regional Director OIC Marites Castro of Department of

IV-A, Elizabeth Sy, Presi dent

Corporation; Peggy Angeles, Execu tive Vice President of SM Hotels and Conventions Corporation, and

G U ESTS w ere entertained to an ex quisite five-course dinner curated by the creative culinary team lead by Executive Jayme Natividad and paired with elegant wines from Don Revy Philippines.

The menu came with delish items such as amuse bouche, a Trio of Tagaytay mushroom crepes with parmigiana cream with caviar

paired with Hahn Estate Chardon nay 2020, USA; salad, cinnamonroasted squash with arugula, ro maine, and barley with citrus vin aigrette paired with Hahn Estate Chardonnay 2020, USA; sorbet, ginger, chamomile, and mint; deux ieme entrée, a fillet of beef roulade sous vide, gratin potatoes, sauce au poivre paired with Maxwell Silver Hammer Shiraz 2018, Australia; and dessert, Panna cotta with Don Papa rum and pineapple-mango compote paired with La Gioiosa Moscato NV, Italy.

For entertainment, joyful Christ mas songs and special renditions were performed by the DLSU-Das mariñas Chorale, under the direc tion of John Angelo Diamos; im pressive and powerful duo Bianca Lopez-Aguila and Keiko Cressida

A section of the Grand Ball room was elegantly adorned with Christmas lights and fresh flower centerpieces by Julius Villamante of Amante Fleurs while Artuz pro vided professional lights and sounds for the event.

The event will not be complete without inspiring messages by MPeggy Angeles, Executive Vice President of SM Hotels and Conven tions Corporation, Regional Direc tor OIC Marites Castro of Depart ment of Tourism IV-A, and Jojo Vega, President and Managing Director of Don Revy Philippines.

Taal Vista Hotel wishes everyone a peaceful and memorable time with your families.

complex include Kusina ni Nanay Maria (Casa Unisan) and La Bella Teodora Italian Restaurant (Casa Binan). The highlight of my eve ning was another traditional hilot massage at the Tai Chi Spa at Casa Majayjay, coincidentally a branch of its namesake in Le Charme Suites.

Editor: Carla Mortel-Baricaua

V ista Hotel welcomes the joyful festive season with the theme “Season of Lights” and jubilant activities such as The Christmas Tree Lighting Ceremony and a Night of Music and Wine.

for Taal

by

Tourism

of SM Hotels and Conventions

Ramon Makilan; General Manager of Taal Vista Hotel.Holiday music by DLSU-Dasmariñas Chorale filled the air. A ceremonial gift giving for the children of Augustinian Sisters Servants of Jesus and Mary, who are the beneficiaries of the celebration, followed immediately after.

by Don Revy Philippines

of The Nightingales, and remarkable solo pianist Jon Joe Ayala Mercado.

For three days, travel agents and members of the media who joined the Subic Bay-Bataan Business Familiarization Tour were treated to a taste of luxury with nostalgia thrown in.

‘A people business that serves coffee’

AS Starbucks Philippines marks its 25th year in the country, the company plans to open more stores and find various ways to connect with its customers.

One of these ways is through the Starbucks Rewards program, which lets you earn 1 point for every P25 spent as long as you pay with a registered Starbucks card or app.

In June, the integration of Starbucks Rewards with Grab and Lazada apps allowed customers to earn one star for every P40 spent on Starbucks orders.

Every 100 stars collected converts to a free Starbucks beverage or food reward, redeemable in stores.

“Soon, you will earn rewards no matter what tender—cash, credit card, or e-wallet—you use to pay. We’re trying to make it effortless for you to earn stars,” said Starbucks Philippines President Noey Lopez during a roundtable discussion with a small group of reporters.

Starbucks Philippines opened its first store in the Philippines at 6750 Ayala in December 1997, and has since grown to a network of 424 stores across the country.

The company also recently introduced eGifting through GLife and GrabGifts. This integration is a key next step for the company in social digital gifting for a more seamless connection and convenience for all its customers. With eGifting, you can digitally send Starbucks favorites to friends and loved ones starting at P100 on GrabGifts, and P300 on GLife. eGifts from GLife can be used to pay in Starbucks stores while eGifts from GrabGifts can be used to purchase from Starbucks on GrabFood.

Innovation, for Lopez and Starbucks Philippines, is not just giving customers what they expect but also looking at giving them what they don’t expect.

“It’s a team effort. Starbucks is global community. We share knowledge about customer behavior and human behavior, and how our customers are changing,” said Lopez.

At the heart of the Starbucks business model is the relationship of Starbucks and its partners (what store employees are called) to the community and the customers.

“For success, there is no formula. We do our best, we do what we can. We feel as a market leader, it’s incumbent on us to stay ahead and we put that pressure on ourselves. We demand excellence from ourselves. Starbucks expects it of us,” said Lopez.

The theme of the 25th anniversary is “fill it forward” and Lopez said it comes naturally to Starbucks. “Something that we try to live by is treat everyone with respect. Every day, I remind myself to be kind to everyone I meet.”

According to Lopez, one of the things he learned from Starbucks is that beyond the business, he is there to help other people’s lives become better.

“I know it sounds corny but there’s a deeper purpose behind everything and if you find something

I always remind myself that Starbucks is not a coffee business. It is a people business where we serve coffee.”

In 1996, Starbucks was already talking about sustainability as part of the company’s values. It was not even called corporate social responsibility then.

If there is one thing that his Starbucks mentors had taught Noey Lopez about doing business, it’s that making a profit is just part of the bigger picture.

“When I met Starbucks founder Howard Schultz in 1996 or 1997, of course he was a legendary figure even then, they had 700 stores and two international markets (Japan and Singapore). Today, they have 35,700 stores. Howard is a force of nature. He would just will things to happen. But he is also a good person. He told us to do business through the lens of humanity,” said Lopez.

Alleviating hunger is also a major concern for Starbucks Philippines. The company works with the Philippine Foodbank Foundation and partners like Grab in donating 300,000 units of food through the Foodshare program. Starbucks also works with Gawad Kalinga’s Kusina ng Kalinga program, which focuses on young children and pregnant women who have no access to food.

Of course, Starbucks Philippines is still a business and the company has not been exempt from challenges.

11.11 generates big sales for Lazada

BY RODERICK L. ABAD Contributor

BEAUTY items, baby essentials, sports wear and gadgets were the most sought-after products in the recently concluded 11.11 Lazada’s Biggest Sale.

The e-commerce pioneer reported that makeup and fragrance orders increased seven and six times compared to normal days, respectively, during this promotional event that kicked off last November 11, timely to the commencement of the holiday shopping season in the country.

Vitamin C serum, retinol, and tinted moisturizer were the best-selling skin-care products, as red, nude and pink lipsticks topped the shades picked by

cosmetic shoppers during the first hour of the sale.

During the time, 11.4 million baby wipes were also already sold, Lazada bared, while citing that this is equivalent to more than a month’s supply for all newborns in a day nationwide.

Activewear was, likewise, a big hit as online buyers purchased such 19 times more during the sale.

What’s more, there was a 230-percent surge in sales of electronics compared to a regular day at the marketplace. Top picks were VR accessories, smart switches, and watches with orders doubling yearover-year.

As shoppers added to cart, close to 1,700 hours of content were streamed on the app via LazLive during the three-day sale that ended on November 13—that’s

reopened in May of that year but because of lockdowns and quarantines, things weren’t so rosy business-wise. But 2022 has been a strong year.

“We have recouped our losses from 2020 and 2021, when we lost quite a bit,” said Lopez.

When Starbucks opened in the Philippines, people looked at it as a treat and they would come in and buy for themselves the most indulgent drink—and that’s a Frappuccino.

“Now, it’s different. It’s now a daily coffee habit. We continue to strengthen the blended beverage category but there are other strong categories now. We can’t be everything to everybody but we want to grow our market as part of doing business,” said Lopez.

So what’s next for Starbucks Philippines? In the pipeline are “lighter” Frappuccinos and sugar level preferences for all drinks.

Lopez said they would open more stores in the country as part of its plan to heighten its local presence. The nationwide expansion means opening an average of 40-45 new Starbucks stores annually. Many of those new stores, possibly half of the annual target, would be drive-thru branches.

Of course, we had to ask Noey Lopez what coffee he drinks. It’s a Grande Cold Brew everyday. Sometimes it’s a Grande and a half. It used to be an Iced Americano until Cold Brew came along. By the way, he carries his coffee in a black Starbucks tumbler. ■

Indian enterprise mgt solutions provider to open PHL office in 2023

BY RIZAL RAOUL S. REYES

MANAGEENGINE, the enterprise IT management division of Chennai, India-based Zoho Corp., on Friday said it plans to establish a Philippine office in 2023. Arun Kumar, regional director of Zoho Corp., said the hiring of the personnel will depend on the growth of the business in the country. “It may actually start with a small team and expand once the business demands it,” Kumar said.

Kumar said the newly hired employees of ManageEngine will start to undergo training on the products, and meet customers and partners.

He said the natural setup of the office will see the gradual expansion of the workforce. As far as choosing the location of the local office is concerned, he said the local standpoint for ManageEngine is to assist customers on their needs and requirements, and guide and support them. “Once we have located our customers, we might hire based on where our customers are located,” he said.

He said ManageEngine will hire mostly technical people who have a good understanding of the capabilities of ManageEngine’s products, and the needs and expectations of customers. “Our first priority is to hire people and later decide to identify the prospective location of the Philippine office.”

To have seamless connection among the different business units of ManageEngine, Kumar said the company is using the hub and spoke model Singapore, which is going to be the center of the operations in the Asean region.

The Philippines and rest of the members of the trading bloc will be the spokes.

He said ManageEngine has evolved in the last 20 years as it started to offer solutions for the small and medium enterprises, and is now offering a suite of products that are scalable. “As we have expanded from small, medium to the enterprise market, we also wanted to expand to the large enterprise market because now we already have a good base of solid customers and a good number of partners. Now is the right time for us to expand in the market,” Kumar said.

Meanwhile, a ManageEngine study conducted in the Philippines revealed that 84 percent of the respondents believe the IT department is more responsible for business innovation than ever before. Additionally, 77 percent of decision makers felt that IT could drive greater innovation if it had a stronger leadership position.

The study, called “IT at Work: 2022 and Beyond,” pointed out that accelerated digital transformation and strategic responsibility, coupled with increased emphasis on business resilience, innovation and agility, have reinvented the role of IT teams.

Moreover, the respondents agreed that IT teams are implementing advanced tech while facilitating business growth. Sixty-five percent of IT decision-makers (ITDMs) said that their organization uses AI and ML to defend systems from cyberattacks. At the same time, 78 percent said that their organization uses advanced data analytics to detect anomalous behavior, and 67 percent said that it is deployed to gain correlation and contextualisation.

TELCO GIANT RAISES P450,000 FOR UNDERPRIVILEGED BREAST CANCER PATIENTS

GLOBE Platinum, in collaboration with street artist Distort Monsters, has raised P450,000 for underprivileged breast cancer patients in a special charity art auction hosted by luxury cosmetics manufacturer Estée Lauder.

The brand participated in the inaugural version of The Pink Ball: Estée Lauder’s Charity Gala for the Breast Cancer Campaign’s 30th Anniversary, which gathered esteemed guests for a great cause. The breast cancer campaign started in 1992 and has since evolved into a global movement dedicated to women’s health through life-saving research, education, and medical services.

One of the event’s highlights was “Monster in Pink,” a commissioned piece by renowned street artist Distort Monsters, an ambassador of Globe Platinum. “Monster in Pink” represents solidarity with all the brave individuals who have fought or continue to fight breast cancer.

equal to seeing the longest film, The Cure for Insomnia (1987), 20 times. True to its fast-shipping commitment, Lazada already delivered the 1,111th item at 11:45 am of its opening day.

The highly anticipated sale of the year offered 90 percent off branded LazFlash deals, fast and free shipping (no cap, no minimum spend), and stacked vouchers for big discounts.

“11.11 has become more than just a shopping tradition; it has become a part of consumers’ lifestyles as we all seek for the best deals and trendiest assortment. Just as importantly, it is also an avenue for brands and sellers to thrive and reach more customers,” Lazada Philippines chief executive officer Carlos Barerra said.

Distort Monsters hopes that his work can give them the same solace they give him when coping with his own anxieties. The special sculpture went from a starting bid of P60,000 to a winning bid of P450,000. The proceeds will be used to support the Philippine Foundation for Breast Care (Kasuso Inc.) in providing free mammograms to Filipino women in need.

“We are very thankful to Distort Monsters for the exceptional artwork. We are also grateful that Monster in Pink has rendered high value for art connoisseurs and allowed us to raise more funds for a good cause,” said Kaisie del Carmen-San Pablo, business unit head for Globe Platinum.

The charity ball raised a total of P9.8 million, surpassing its initial goal of P6 million. The amount will fund over 6,000 mammograms.

More information is available at www.globe.com.ph.

/

ATOM ARAULLO talks to Starbucks Philippines president Noey Lopez about how the business navigated the pandemic and what it plans to do in the future.

Best tech gifts for Yuletide season

HAVING trouble deciding what to give your loved ones this holiday season? Well, worry no more because Huawei wants to make shopping easier and more affordable. Ongoing until December 31, 2022, the IT giant offers exclusive discounts and freebies available at Huawei Experience Stores and Huawei Shopee and Lazada stores.

A person who’s always on the go needs a watch that can keep up with their busy lifestyle. The Huawei Watch Fit 2 is exactly the partner they need to help them manage their daily life. With its 1.74” Huawei FullView Display, the user can take full advantage of the product’s many key features, including Healthy Living Management that can make the most of your day. This season, get it for only P6,499, plus a freebie worth P999.

Another great option is the Huawei Watch GT Runner, which is now on a Yuletide offer at P9,999. Equipped with a 2-week battery life, this is the product for a loved one with a passion for running because it’s equipped with a Scientific Running Program, accurate real-time heart-rate monitoring, and an AI running coach.

Of course, smartphones are essential nowadays and with how quickly time flies, it’s important for us to capture special moments so we can look back at them. With the Huawei nova 9, take pictures whenever you need to with its 66W Huawei SuperCharge that brings your phone to 60 percent in only 18 minutes. From an original SRP of P23,999, it is now on offer at P19,999, with the FreeBuds SE worth P2,499 as a freebie.

The Huawei MatePad 11 is another versatile gift. It comes with a Huawei M-Pencil and can easily connect to your keyboard and mouse for faster and more efficient interactions. This tablet allows its user to multi-task with the multi-window feature, and the Huawei Share option makes the move from tablet to laptop seamless and effortless. This versatile tablet is on offer at P26,999 and comes with an M-Pencil and Keyboard valued at P12,998. These are just some of the holiday gifts offered by the tech giant to make the season memorable for your loved ones. More information is available at www.consumer.huawei.com/ph/offer.

AMAZON CEO SAYS COMPANY WON’T TAKE DOWN ANTISEMITIC FILM

NEW YORK—Amazon CEO Andy Jassy said Wednesday the company does not have plans to stop selling the antisemitic film that gained notoriety recently after Brooklyn Nets guard Kyrie Irving tweeted out an Amazon link to it.

Pressure has been mounting on Amazon to discontinue sale of the film, called Hebrews to Negroes: Wake Up Black America, since Irving shared the link to the documentary with his millions of Twitter followers in October. The synopsis on Amazon says the film “uncovers the true identity of the Children of Israel.”

At The New York Times’s DealBook Summit in New York City, Jassy said it is difficult for the company to determine what content crosses the line to where Amazon doesn’t make it available to customers.

“As a retailer of content to hundreds of millions of customers with a lot of different viewpoints, we have to allow access to those viewpoints, even if they are objectionable—objectionable and they differ from our particular viewpoints,” the Times quoted Jassy as saying. He said making decisions about what content to take down is “more straight forward” in some cases, such as when it “actively incites or promotes violence, or teaches people to do things like pedophilia.”

Dozens of celebrities, public figures as well as Jewish organizations and the Nets have called on the company to take down the film or add a disclaimer offering an explanation as to why the documentary and related book are problematic. Amazon told the newspaper earlier this month that it would look into adding a disclaimer on the documentary’s main page. But that hasn’t happened. AP

Content is king, and this device will help you stake your claim

IN 1996, Bill Gates wrote an essay that changed the course of digital marketing. Titled “Content is King,” he suggested most of the money generated on the Internet would come from content, much like broadcasting.

He wrote: “One of the exciting things about the Internet is that anyone with a PC and a modem can publish whatever content they can create. In a sense, the Internet is the multimedia equivalent of the photocopier.... The Internet also allows information to be distributed worldwide at basically zero marginal cost to the publisher. Opportunities are remarkable, and many companies are laying plans to create content for the Internet.”

But companies weren’t the only ones that created content for the Internet. Today, everyone can be, or already is, a content creator. The challenge is how to make your content stand out, and for that, you need to have a laptop that can execute your ideas and turn them into interesting blogs, photos, videos, or even audio. Call me spoiled, but ever since the ASUS Zenbook, I’ve never wanted to use another laptop that didn’t have an OLED screen. I also received quite a few inquiries after that article from readers who wanted to get an OLED laptop as well but wanted something with a slightly lower price tag.

That’s where the ASUS Vivobooks come in. The lineup is a more practical choice for students and young creative professionals who have found their calling and need a laptop that could help them pursue those dreams—without going bankrupt first.

■ DESIGN: The new ASUS Vivobook S 14 OLED (K3402) has a thin and lightweight design with a side profile of less than 19mm and tips the scale at 1.5kg. The lid is made of aluminum alloy and comes in a Neutral Gray color. It’s not the thinnest or the lightest, but its sleek form factor makes it easy to handle or slip into your backpack.

On the lid is an embossed ASUS Vivobook

branding that protrudes out of the chassis. It’s something new for the series and gives the laptop a bit of flair and looks like some sort of a futuristic badge.

The overall build quality of the chassis is exceptional as you’d expect from an ASUS device. Lift the lid open and you’ll see the narrow bezels around the screen that translates to an 87 percent screen-tobody ratio. Neatly tucked in the top bezel is a 720p

HD camera for video calls and a microphone array. ASUS added a little switch that you slide to cover the camera with a thin bit of orange plastic. This brightcolored cover is a nice touch that makes it easy to tell if the camera is disabled, so you can work peacefully without that feeling of being watched. Taking your video-calling experience to the next level is ASUS 3D Noise Reduction (3DNR) Technology. It significantly upgrades the webcam image clarity, with a unique algorithm that sharpens images and performs real-time de-noising to make sure everything looks crisp and clear during video calls. There are also several useful image-processing features, including background blurring for enhanced privacy; lighting optimization to keep faces out of shadow; motion tracking to always keep you centerframe; and eye tracking.

It offers all the ports you might need including a 3.5mm headset/microphone jack, a USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-A port, 2 Thunderbolt display/power USB type C ports, and 1 HDMI 2.0a port. You can open the screen a full 180 degrees so you can lay it totally flat on the table which is great when presenting your ideas.

As for the keyboard, ASUS added a few splashes of color on the keyboard to make it look more exciting to use. These include a bright red ESC key, a striped strip across Enter, and some ruler markings (for quick measurements) along with the words “Ready to Explore” emblazoned across the bottom edge.

The ASUS ErgoSense keyboard on this Vivobook is large and intuitive with backlit keys to make it usable for typing even in dark environments such as flights. The keys are well-spaced and have a dish-shaped indentation to guide your fingers and provide ample travel and tactile feedback so you can really feel your touch-typing speed when composing those blog posts.

The trackpad is also large measuring 129.7 x 74 mm, making it 53 percent larger than the previous generation, and has an extremely smooth coating that supports multi-gesture.

So far, my only problem with the design/build of this laptop is that it can be quite a smudge magnet. If you are like me who hates seeing fingerprint grease on the keyboard (the touchpad can get much worse), you’d do well to bring a microfiber cloth to constantly wipe it off, otherwise, expect a mosaic of whorls and blotches that’ll make it look like a splotchy mess.

■ DISPLAY: As the name suggests, the headline feature of the Asus Vivobook 14x OLED is its OLED screen, and rightfully so. It has a gorgeous 14-inch, 16:10 OLED display with a 2.8K resolution (2800x1800 pixels), 0.2ms response time, and 90Hz refresh rate to make even the simplest motions appear fluid and smooth. It also comes with solid credentials with certifications like VESA DisplayHDR True Black, TUV, and Pantone. It has a color gamut of 100 percent DCI-P3 and HDR content support, a 1,000,000:1 contrast ratio, 0.2 ms response time, up to 600nit peak brightness, and 0.0005 nits of deep black

brightness, providing users with a brighter and more detailed viewing experience. OLED displays have an ultrafast 0.2 ms response time―50X faster than average laptop LCD displays. This ensures smoother fast-paced action scenes, low-latency gameplay, and subtle details like blur-free text scrolling.

The cinema-grade display is Pantone Validated assuring accurate color and dynamic contrast reproduction. All these translate into vivid, sharp visuals, with razor-sharp text, media that pops, and luxurious blacks. As I said earlier, I have been spoiled by the beauty of my Zenbook OLED and this is no different.

But more than just getting professional-grade true-to-life colors, an OLED display also benefits users who work on their laptops all day. ASUS OLED laptops are able to show great detail at lower brightness settings. This means you can see the content more clearly without having to turn up the brightness; therefore, your eyes are exposed to less harmful blue light. By calibrating the spectrum, ASUS says their OLED laptops emit 70 percent less harmful blue light. It is also certified by TÜV Rhineland to ensure that the device adheres to high safety and quality standards.

Moving on to audio, the ASUS Vivobook S 14 OLED packs Harman Kardon-certified speakers that has been carefully tuned to ensure the very best sound for all kinds of content.

■ POWER AND PERFORMANCE: Another highlight of the ASUS Vivobook S 14 OLED is its performance.

Powered by Intel’s latest 12th Gen H-Series CPUs with Intel Evo, it houses a Core i7-12700H CPU, up to 16 GB DDR4 3200 Mhz RAM, and 512GB speedy SSD storage. This setup means it can easily handle the usual productivity-based tasks, multitasking, browsing through multiple Chrome tabs, or watching streaming videos during breaks. This ASUS Vivobook is cooler, quieter, and faster thanks to ASUS’ IceCool thermal technology. It features a 97-blade built-in fan with dual heat pipes and dual vents, allowing the processor to operate at 45 watts in Performance mode with zero throttling issues.

Finally, there’s battery life. This ASUS Vivobook comes with a 70Wh battery. It’s larger compared to other laptops at this price point and can provide approximately 6 hours of regular use. The bundled 90W Type C charger is a bit bulky but as long as you fully charge your laptop you don’t have to worry about leaving the charger at home.

FINAL WORD: If you are serious about creating a web site, a YouTube channel, or maybe establishing your brand via photos or videos, you’d definitely need a laptop to help you create and curate better content. With prices starting at P59,995, the ASUS Vivobook S 14 OLED is a worthwhile investment as you get an amazing OLED screen, powerful performance, good battery life, and a wide range of useful features that make it an excellent work and entertainment device.

Charts show global inflation peaking near double digits

GLOBAL inflation is showing signs of having peaked, although a likely slow retreat from multi-decade highs means it will remain a bugbear for central banks into 2023.

Key inflation gauges released in the US and euro area this week both weakened, while fac tory-gate prices and inflation

expectations among investors are also ebbing.  Supply chains complicated by the pandemic and Russia’s war

in Ukraine are easing, and food and fuel costs have retreated too.

Also likely starting to have an effect, albeit on a lagged basis, are the higher interest rates pursued by central banks after inflation soared faster and for longer than they anticipated.

Such a backdrop helps explain why Bloomberg Economics esti mates worldwide inflation topped out at 9.8 percent year-on-year in the third quarter, and is now headed to 9.5 percent in the final three months of the year and 5.3 percent at the end of 2023.

But risks remain: Supply chains still have yet to fully heal, com modity prices could rise anew if China reopens and workers stung by the high cost of living may con tinue to force up wages.

For policymakers, the recent peak “doesn’t mean the worst is over,” said Tom Orlik, Bloomberg’s chief economist. “Even as they edge down, consumer price read ings will remain way above the comfort zone for central banks, necessitating further tightening even as recession risks loom.”

Bloomberg News

Oil poised for weekly gain with China’s softening on virus curbs

OIL headed for its biggest weekly advance in almost two months as China took more steps to soften its strict virus controls and Washington mulled a pause in sales from strategic reserves.

West Texas Intermediate trad ed above $81 a barrel after a run of four daily gains. Beijing said it would allow some infected people to isolate at home, another soft ening of the Covid Zero policy, which has weighed on economic growth in the world’s biggest oil importer.

Adding to the brightening out look were calls by the Biden ad ministration to stop sales from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve and allow refilling of the coun try’s emergency oil stockpiles. A Bloomberg gauge of the dollar is at the lowest since June, another tailwind for crude that’s priced in the US currency.

Oil has staged a sharp rebound after hitting its lowest level since 2021 on Monday as demand pros pects improved due to the scaling back of China’s crippling CovidZero policy. There were also signs

from Federal Reserve officials that the pace of interest-rate hikes could be slowed after a gauge of US consumer prices came in below estimates.

The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries and allies will meet virtually this weekend, and there are expectations they may hold output steady.

Traders are also watching for further details on the Group of Seven-led price cap on Russian sea borne oil, with the European Union is closing in on a $60 a barrel price cap before a deadline on Monday.

The $60-a-barrel price “is still above the current levels that Rus sia is receiving for its crude oil,” said Warren Patterson, head of com modities strategy at ING Groep NV in Singapore. “If agreed at this level, it will have little impact on Russian oil revenues at the moment.”

Shipping costs for Russian crude are skyrocketing as more tanker owners shun the trade days before the stricter EU sanctions take ef fect. Owners who are still willing to load Russian crude are attempting to charge more for the risk. Bloomberg News

Grimy iron ore ships now being used to carry food crops to Asia

DIRTY bulk ships used to carry iron ore are being scrubbed clean so that they can transport grain to Asia, in an unusual shift of cargoes prompted by a slump in demand for the steelmaking ingredient.

China’s downturn in the hous ing market has weighed on iron ore, driving freight rates for bulk carriers down 50 percent from a year earlier. That’s made it more attractive for some of the world’s biggest agriculture traders to book iron ore vessels for shipments of corn and soybeans.

While the number of such cargo switches are relatively small, it’s the latest shift by traders wres tling with dramatic changes in commodities markets sparked by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and China’s weakening economy. The war created extreme volatility in global grain markets, allowing

trading houses such as Cargill Inc. to post bumper profits.

Large iron ore ships typically stay away from grain as it involves a time-consuming cleaning pro cess to make the vessels safe for carrying food. Washing a huge cargo hold dirty from iron ore is a necessary step to ensure that con sumers of the grain—humans or other animals—don’t ingest rust, metallic sand or dirt.

Before picking up grain, clean ing gangs first have to lower them selves by winch into black-stained cargo holds. They then blast water and chemicals at high pressure against the walls before using brushes to scrub out gunk and then siphon the muddy water away.

The deep-cleaning process can cost between $7,000 and $8,000 and require a few extra days of chartering, according to one trad er. This could extend to a week and

require shipyard workers to sand down and repaint the walls if the dirty coating can’t be removed.

The ships of choice are Baby Capes, the smallest of Capesize vessels with capacity to carry about 100,000 tons. That’s much bigger than Panamax bulk ves sels that normally carry grain and hold about 60,000 tons.

The depressed iron ore trade this year could be pushing Baby Capes to seek “alternative employ ment,” said Ralph Leszczynski, head of research at shipbroker Banchero Costa & Co.

The main allure for switching is price, despite the extra clean ing cost. In the first 10 months of this year, it was cheaper to hire a Capesize vessel than a Panamax by an average of $5,200 per day, the most for that time period since data going back to 1999, accord ing to Arrow Shipbroking Group.

China’s COFCO International Ltd. and US-based Archer-Dan iels-Midland Co. and Cargill have booked about four Baby Capes to deliver grain to Asia next year from South America, said people with knowledge of the matter. ADM declined to comment.

COFCO International said it has recently booked its first Baby Cape vessels to transport soymeal from Brazil to Southeast Asia next year.

“Initially it comes down to sim ple economies of scale—the more we load the cheaper the freight cost is for our customers, and the lower the carbon footprint,” said Alessio La Rosa, global head of freight at COFCO International.

A spokesperson for Cargill said it routinely uses Baby Capes for grain and other shipments, and expects to see more of such ves sels in the future.  Bloomberg News

$100B IN REMITTANCES HEAD TO INDIA IN 2022

MIGRANT workers from India are on track to send home a record amount of money this year, boosting the finances of Asia’s third-largest economy, which is poised to retain its spot as the world’s top recipient of remittances.

Remittance flows to India will rise 12 percent to reach $100 billion this year, according to a World Bank report published Wednesday. That puts its inflows far ahead of countries including Mexico, China and the Philippines.

Highly-skilled Indian migrants living in wealthy nations such as the US, UK, and Singapore were sending more money home, according to the report. Over the years, Indians have moved away from doing lower paid work in places like the Gulf. Wage hikes, record-high employment and a weakening rupee also supported growth.

Inflo ws from the world’s largest diaspora are a key source of cash for India, which lost almost $100 billion of foreign exchange reserves in the past year amid tightening global conditions that weakened currencies including the rupee against the dollar. Remittances, accounting for nearly 3 percent of India’s gross domestic product, are also important for filling fiscal gaps.

Cash transfers to India from high-income countries climbed to more than 36 percent in 2020-21, up from 26 percent in 2016-17. The share from five Gulf countries, including Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, declined to 28 percent from 54 percent in the same period, the World Bank said, citing Reserve Bank of India data. Bloomberg News

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

EU edges closer to $60/barrel Russian oil price cap–envoys

BRUSSELS—The European Union was edging closer to setting a $60-per-barrel price cap on Russian oil—a highly anticipated and complex political and economic maneuver designed to keep Russia’s supplies flowing into global markets, while clamp ing down on President Vladimir Putin’s ability to fund his war in Ukraine.

EU nations sought to push the cap across the finish line after Poland held out to get as low a figure as possible, diplomats said Thursday. “Still waiting for white smoke from Warsaw,” said an EU diplomat, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the talks were still ongoing.

The latest offer, confirmed by three EU diplomats, comes ahead of a deadline to set the price for discounted oil by Monday, when a European embargo on seaborne Russian crude and a ban on ship ping insurance for those supplies take effect. The diplomats also spoke on condition of anonymity because the legal process was still not completed.

The $60 figure would mean a cap near the current price of Rus sia’s crude, which fell this week below $60 per barrel, and is meant to prevent a sudden loss of Russian oil to the world following the new Western sanctions. It is a big dis count to international benchmark Brent, which traded at about $87 per barrel Thursday, but could be high enough for Moscow to keep selling even while rejecting the idea of a cap.

When the final number is in place, a new buyer’s cartel—which is expected to be made up of formal and informal members—will be born. Western allies in the Group of Seven industrial powers led the price cap effort and still need to approve the figure.

One coalition official, who was not authorized to comment publicly and spoke on the condi tion of anonymity, expressed op timism that an agreement could be reached as early as Friday, but cautioned the negotiations would potentially roll into the weekend or perhaps even Monday.

The official added that putting the price cap in place will help end the war faster. On the flipside, the official said failure to put it in place would be “a win for Russia.”

Oil is the Kremlin’s main pil lar of financial revenue and has kept the Russian economy afloat so far despite export bans, sanc tions and the freezing of central bank assets that began with the

February invasion. Russia ex ports roughly 5 million barrels of oil per day.

The risks of the price cap’s failure are immense to the global oil supply. If it fails or Russia re taliates by stopping the export of oil, energy prices worldwide could skyrocket. Putin has said he would not sell oil under a price cap and would retaliate against nations that implement the measure.

US and European consumers could feel the ramifications in more spikes to gasoline prices, and people in developing coun tries could face greater levels of food insecurity.

With the EU and UK banning in surance for Russian oil shipments, the price ceiling allows companies to keep insuring tankers headed for non-EU countries as long as the oil is priced at or under the cap. That would avoid a price spike from the loss of supplies from the world’s No. 2 oil producer and put a ceiling on Russia’s oil income near current levels.

The Treasury Department has released guidance meant to help firms and maritime insurers un derstand how to abide by the price ceiling, saying the price cap could fluctuate depending on market conditions.

Robin Brooks, chief economist at the Institute of International Finance in Washington, said the cap should have been implement ed earlier this year, when oil was hovering around $120 per barrel.

“Since then, obviously oil prices have fallen and global recession is a real thing,” he said. “The reality is that it is unlikely to be binding given where oil prices are now.”

Critics of the price cap measure, including former Treasury Secre tary Steve Mnuchin, have called the plan “ridiculous.”

Mnuchin told CNBC during a panel in November at the Milken Institute’s Middle East and Afri ca Summit that the price cap was “not only not feasible, I think it’s the most ridiculous idea I’ve ever heard.”

Rachel Ziemba, an adjunct se nior fellow at the Center for a New American Security, said that while a worst-case scenario envisions Russia cutting off the global supply of its oil, “the Saudis and Emiratis would boost production.”

“Russia has made is clear the countries that abide by the cap won’t receive their oil and that could result in cuts to natural gas exports as well,” she said. “This will be an interesting few weeks and few months.” AP

ending war

PRESIDENT Joe Biden said he would talk with Russian Presi dent Vladimir Putin about the war in Ukraine if the Russian leader is serious about ending his inva sion, after previously saying only Ukraine’s leaders can decide when to hold peace talks.

“I’m prepared to speak with Mr. Putin, if in fact there is an interest in him deciding he’s looking for a way to end the war,” Biden said Thursday in a joint news conference with French President Emmanuel Macron.

“He hasn’t done that yet,” Biden said. “If that’s the case, in consul tation with my French and NATO friends, I’ll be happy to sit down with Putin to see what he has in mind.”

Biden has previously said that he would not discuss the war in Ukraine with Putin unless Ukraine’s leaders are also involved in the conversation. Though he didn’t repeat that line during the news conference, Biden’s position hasn’t changed, according to a person familiar with the matter.

“The idea that Putin is ever go ing to defeat Ukraine is beyond comprehension,” Biden said.

Continued Russian bombing has battered Ukraine’s electrical grid and critical infrastructure, in what Western officials have said is a move by Moscow to gain an advantage with winter approaching.

The Russians have shown no indi cations they are going to stop or slow military operations, which US offi cials believe will continue through the winter months, John Kirby, a spokesperson for the National Secu rity Council, said Wednesday.

Ukrainian officials have called for more air-defense systems, including US-made Patriot missiles.

Macron said at the news confer ence that only Ukraine can decide when the conditions have been met to start negotiating a peace settlement with Russia.

“We will never urge Ukraini ans to make a compromise that is not acceptable to them,” he said after meeting with Biden as part of a state visit. “We have to let Ukrainians decide the moment and the conditions that they will negotiate.” Bloomberg News

Biden open to talks with Putin if he’s serious about

In face of virus curbs protests, China security forces ready to quash dissent

BEIJING—When

The extent of that lavish spend ing was put on display when the boldest street protests in decades broke out in Beijing and other cit ies, driven by anger over rigid and se emingly unending restrictions to combat Covid-19.

The government has been pre paring for such challenges for de cades, installing the machinery n eeded to quash large-scale up heavals.

A fter an initially muted re sponse, with security personnel u sing pepper spray and tear gas, police and paramilitary troops flooded city streets with jeeps, vans and armored cars in a massive show of force.

The officers fanned out, check ing IDs and searching cellphones for photos, messages or banned apps that might show involvement in or

even just sympathy for the protests. An unknown number of people were detained and it’s unclear if any will face charges. Most protesters focused their anger on the “zeroCovid” policy that seeks to eradi cate the virus through sweeping lo ckdowns, travel restrictions and relentless testing. But some called for the party and its leader Xi Jin ping to step down, speech the party c onsiders subversive and punish able by years in prison.

W hile much smaller in scale, the protests were the most significant since the 1989 student-led prodemocracy movement centered on Beijing’s Tiananmen Square that the regime still views as its great est existential crisis.

W ith leaders and protesters at an impasse, the People’s Liberation Army crushed the demonstrations

with tanks and troops, killing hun dreds, possibly thousands.

A fter the Tiananmen crack down, the party invested in the m eans to deal with unrest without resorting immediately to using deadly force.

During a wave of dissent by un employed workers in the late 1990s a nd early 2000s, the authorities tested that approach, focusing on preventing organizers in different cities from linking up and arresting the leaders while letting rank-andfile protesters go largely untouched.

At times, they’ve been caught by surprise. In 1999, members of the Falun Gong meditation sect, whose membership came to rival the par ty’s in size, surrounded the leader ship compound in Beijing in a show of d efiance that then-leader Jiang Zemin took as a personal affront.

A harsh crackdown followed. Leaders were given heavy prison sentences and members were sub ject to harassment and sometimes s ent to re-education centers.

The government responded with overwhelming force in 2008, when anti-government riots broke out in Tibet’s capital Lhasa and unrest

swept through Tibetan regions in western China, authorities re sponded with overwhelming force.

T he next year, a police crack down on protests by members of t he Uyghur Muslim minority in the capital of the northwest ern Xinjiang region, Urumqi, l ed to bloody c lashes in which at least 197 were killed, mostly Han Chinese civilians.

In both cases, forces fired into crowds, searched door-to-door and seized an unknown number of sus pects who were either sentenced to h eavy terms or simply not heard from again. Millions of people were interned in camps, placed under surveillance and forbidden from traveling.

China has been able to muster such resources thanks to a mas sive internal security budget that r eportedly has tripled over the past decade, surpassing that for national defense. Xinjiang alone saw a tenfold increase in domestic security spending during the early 2000s, according to Western estimates.

The published figure for inter nal security exceeded the defense b udget for the first time in 2010.

By 2013, China stopped providing a breakdown. The US think tank Jamestown Foundation estimated that internal security spending had already reached 113 percent of de fense spending by 2016.

A nnual increases were about double those for national defense in percentage terms and both grew much faster than the economy.

There’s a less visible but equally intimidating, sprawling system in place to monitor online content for anti-government messages, unap proved news and images. Govern ment censors work furiously to e rase such items, while propaganda teams flood the net with pro-party messages.

Behind the repression is a legal system tailor-made to serve the one-party state. China is a nation ruled by law rather than governed by the rule of law. Laws are suffi ciently malleable to put anyone tar geted by the authorities behind bars o n any number of vague charges.

Those range from simply “spread ing rumors online,” tracked through p ostings on social media, to the allencompassing “picking quarrels and provoking trouble,” punishable by

up to five years in prison.

Charges of “subverting state power” or “incitement to subvert state power” are often used, requir ing little proof other than evidence t he accused expressed a critical atti tude toward the party-state. Those a ccused are usually denied the right to hire their own lawyers. Cases can take years to come to trial and al most always result in convictions.

I n a further disincentive to rebel, people released from prison often face years of monitoring and ha rassment that can ruin careers and d estroy families.

The massive spending and sprawling internal security net work leaves China well prepared to c rackdown on dissent. It also sug gests “China’s internal situation is f ar less stable than the leadership would like the world to believe,” China politics expert Dean Cheng of the Heritage Foundation wrote on the Washington, D.C.-based conservative think tank’s web site. It’s unclear how sustainable it is, he said. “This could have the effect of either changing Chinese priorities or creating greater ten sions among them.” AP

it comes to ensuring the security of their regime, China’s Communist Party rulers don’t skimp.

BACK TO BASICS FOR GERMANY

THE four-time champion Germany is again eliminated from the World Cup’s group stage. AP

AL KHOR, Qatar—

Back-to-back early exits at the  World Cup  have Germany coach Hansi Flick wanting to go back to basics.

The four-time champions were again eliminated from the group stage, four years after their embarrassing display as defending champions in Russia.

S omething has to change, Flick said after a 4-2 victory over Costa Rica on Thursday that still wasn’t enough to secure a spot in the round of 16.

led by Lionel Messi in his prime in the final at the Maracana Stadium. With that victory, Germany became the only European team to win a World Cup in either North or South America.

I n Qatar, it was an opening loss to Japan that set the stage for the disappointing finish this time. Germany was beaten, 2-1, in that match last week, and followed it with a 1-1 draw against Spain.

Arcilla faces Kinaadman in showdown for Brookside Open natl singles crown

JOHNNY ARCILLA and Charles Kinaadman hacked out a pair of three-set victories Friday to arrange a showdown for the Brookside Open National Tennis Championships singles crown at the Brookside Hills courts in Cainta, Rizal.

The top-seeded Arcilla continued to roll back the years, thwarting No. 3 Vicente Anasta, 6-1, 1-6, 6-2, in the semifinals while the fourth-ranked Kinaadman upended second seed and doubles partner Jose Maria Pague, 1-6, 6-4, 6-1, in the lower half of the 64-player draw of the Group A tournament presented by Dunlop.

They dispute the crown Saturday.

A rcilla and Kinaadman will likewise clash for the doubles trophy in the week-long event serving as part of the Palawan Pawnshop-Palawan Express Pera Padala circuit put up by Palawan Pawnshop president and CEO Bobby Castro.

A rcilla and partner Ronard Joven repulsed Nilo Ledama and Noel Damian Jr., 7-5, 3-6, 10-2, while the latter and Pague routed Hilbert San Jose and Kristian Tesorio, 6-1, 6-2, in the semifinals.

A rcilla, the nine-time Philippine Columbian Asociation Open champion seeking a follow-up to his victories in Puerto Princesa and San Carlos City (Negros Occidental) crushed Loucas Fernandez, 6-1, 6-3, in the singles quarters but after routing Anasta in the first set behind a four-game run from a 3-1 lead, he struggled in the next, enabling Anasta to force a decider.

A nasta surprised Arcilla by breaking him in the first game of

4-0 lead.

A rcilla took the fifth at serve but Anasta won the next two games to send the match to a third set.

A fter the duo traded serves, Arcilla re-imposed his will and broke Anasta then came out of a hold-holdhold duel by breaking his rival again in the seventh on his way to victory for another shot at the crown in the event sponsored by Palawan Pawnshop-Palawan Express Pera Padala, Rep. Jack Duavit, BHTC president Allan del Castillo, Ret. PNP Dir. Gen. Oscar Calderon, Ret. Gen. Louizo Ticman and Selective Security Services.

K inaadman, who disposed of Ronard Joven, 6-1, 6-3, in the quarters, fought back from a lopsided opening set loss by breaking Pague in the fourth game of the second set for a 3-1 lead. Pague, winner of the Buglasan Open last Oct. but who retired to injury in the finals against Arcilla in the Pintaflores Festival in San Carlos, struck back in the fifth and the pair traded serves until Kinaadman broke again in the 10th in shutout fashion to force a decider.

The 24-year-old ace from LapuLapu City, who beat Arcilla in the semis then went on to clinch the Gov. Jubahib Cup crown last Sept., held serve then broke Pague to seize a 2-0 lead then after yielding the third game at serve, Kinaadman broke back in the fourth and swept the next three games to complete the comefrom-behind victory.

Globe-ONE partnership eyes new breed of PHL champions

GLOBE Group’s partnership with ONE Championship aims to look for a new breed

G lobe and ONE are bringing to local fight fans ONE 164 on December 3 at the Mall of Asia Arena with nine Filipino mixed martial arts fighters going head to head against international opponents.

The event, which marks ONE’s return to Manila since 2020, will feature Filipino-American Brandon Vera battling Iran’s Amir Aliakbari.

Fighters from Team Lakay, the

ONE founder and CEO Chatri Sityodtong stressed on the organization’s enduring partnership with Globe, including production and airing of the ONE Warrior Series, in a press event at The Theater in Solaire Wednesday night.

S ityodtong called Globe “a very important partner in pursuing the shared goal of producing Filipino world champions from the

I believe for the future of German football we need to do things differently in training,” said Flick, who took over as coach after last year’s European Championship.

“For years we are talking about new goalkeepers and wingbacks, but Germany was always able to defend well. We need the basics.

For the future, for the next 10 years, it is very important to focus on the new generation of players.”

It was only eight years ago that Germany won its fourth World Cup title, beating an Argentina team

Th at gave the Germans a chance in its last match at Al Bayt Stadium, and for a few minutes during the simultaneous final group matches on Thursday, it was enough. At halftime, for example, Germany was beating Costa Rica and Japan was losing to Spain—results that would have put the Germans into the round of 16.

It was Japan’s 2-1 victory over the Spaniards that essentially cost the Germans a chance to play at least one more match in Qatar.

F lick cited Spain as an example for his country to follow.

“ Spain is very good in defense,” he said, even though the 2010 World Cup champions ultimately lost to Japan at the Khalifa International Stadium in

Doha. “It focuses on training young players. They know the tactics well.”

It all started so well for Germany on Thursday with Serge Gnabry scoring a 10th-minute header and Spain taking an early lead against Japan.

B oth matches were turned upside down in the second half.

Yeltsin Tejeda evened the score in the 58th minute and Juan Vargas scrambled another in the 70th, putting Costa Rica ahead 2-1 and all of a sudden on target to advance.

There were a lot of individual mistakes and these are things that make me very angry,” Flick said.

But Germany substitute Kai Havertz made it 2-2 in the 73rd minute and then restored Germany’s lead in the 85th. Another substitute, Niclas Füllkrug, added the fourth.

Costa Rica had lost its opening game against Spain, 7-0. The team then put on a much better display and beat Japan, 1-0.

We are not what we saw in our first game,” Costa Rica coach Luis Fernando Suarez said. “We had to go back to what made us qualify for the World Cup.” AP

GOOD JOB, MADAME FRAPPART

Brazil and Karen Diaz Medina of Mexico—to complete an all-female refereeing team on the field.

K athryn Nesbitt of the United States was also working at the Al Bayt Stadium as the offside specialist in the video review team.

FIFA has two other women, Salima Mukansanga of Rwanda and Yoshimi Yamashita of Japan, on its list to referee games at the tournament in Qatar.

Frappart had been picked previously for duties as the fourth official.

T he 38-year-old Frenchwoman was promoted in the men’s game by European soccer body UEFA and in her home country and she has already refereed men’s games in World Cup qualifying and the Champions League. She also took charge of this year’s men’s French Cup final and the 2019 Women’s World Cup final for FIFA.

also for my family and also for the French referees.”

“ I knew that my life changed after 2019 because most people recognized me in the street,” said Frappart in the same CNN report— when she started refereeing big time in Europe. “So I am like a role model, for women referees but I think it [also] inspired some women in society or in companies to take more and more responsibility.” AP

PBBM wants more successful result in Paris 2024 Olympics

By Josef Ramos

THERE are marching orders and the Philippine Olympic Committee (POC) is more than willing to oblige.

P resident Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr., POC President Rep. Abraham “Bambol” Tolentino said, wants the country to win more medals in the Paris Summer 2024 Olympics.

A nd Tolentino said “Aye, Sir.” The President wants more medals in Paris,” POC

President Rep. Abraham “Bambol” Tolentino said during the POC’s last General Assembly for the year at the East Ocean Seafoods Restaurant in Parañaque City on Thursday. “And that’s an order we would more than happily want to accomplish.”

President Marcos, Tolentino said, is very much aware of the successful campaign last year in Tokyo where weightlifter Hidilyn Diaz Naranjo won for the country its first Olympic gold medal.  And with boxers

Carlo Paalam and Nesthy Petecio delivering silvers and Eumir Felix Marcial clinching bronze, Tokyo went down as the most successful Olympics for the Philippines in almost a century.

I just told the President that we delivered a lot of Olympic medals during the past administration, and he replied that it’s not enough and he wants more,” Tolentino said. “So I answered ‘Yes Mr. President, we’ll do more in the Paris Olympics.”

Tolentino is looking at a minimum of 12 athletes who could qualify for Paris 2024, but would be expecting more and perhaps surpass the 19 Olympians the country sent to Tokyo.

He didn’t name his potential Paris qualifiers though but express optimism to a “bountiful” Paris campaign with the POC enjoying a more harmonious relationship with the Philippine Sports Commission (PSC), Malacañang’s sports arm that funds the country’s sports machinery.

“ That’s the secret, our relationship with the PSC is getting better and better,” Tolentino said.

Buenavista son starts athletics career path

EDUARDO JOSH BUENAVISTA looked prime to follow his champion father’s footsteps as the long distance runner from University of the Philippines (UP) broke a long-standing men’s 10,000 meters record in University Athletic Association of the Philippines (UAAP) athletics action Thursday at the PhilSports oval.

B uenavista clocked 32 minutes and 38.88 seconds to break the old record of 32:38.88 set by Far Eastern University’s (FEU) Nelbert Ducusin in Season 68.

P’s track team made Buenavista’s triumph sweeter as Eduard Flores and Roy Laudit completed the podium.

uenavista’s dad Eduardo owns four gold medals in Southeast Asian Games long distance running, including the 10,000 meters in the Hanoi 2003 edition.

uenavista’s victory anchored UP’s bid to retain the seniors athletics overall title with 140 points with seven-time champion FEU a far second with 117 points.

AL

referee

Frappart also had two women as assistants—Neuza Back of

grassroots.”

G lobe Group President and CEO Ernest Cu shared how Globe has always provided support for Filipino athletes in various sports, from soccer and rugby to tennis, including US Open junior girls champion Alex Eala, who Cu described as “a picture of what Filipino success can be in sports.”

Our partnership is borne out of Globe’s desire to help the Filipino athlete,” Cu said. “We desire to have a Filipino world champion and there’s no other great partnership than with ONE Championship.”

FIFA bared the female referees’ appointments last May and Frappart expressed her surprise.

“ It’s a surprise, you cannot believe it and after two or three minutes, you realize that you are going to the World Cup,” Frappart told CNN Sport. “It’s amazing, not only for me, but

hyan Labita also rose to the occasion by completing a golden double after she won the 200 meters in 22.20 seconds.

P didn’t have an entry in decathlon, allowing FEU to finish 1-2 behind Allen Mationg and John Cresencia. Mationg won gold with 5,797 points while Cresencia clinched silver with 5,383 points.

amaraw John Rafols also took down UP’s Clint Neri in long jump with 7.32 meters, 12 centimeters better than the Fighting Maroon.

aron Arandia of National University helped the Bulldogs to a possible podium finish with 94 points when he ruled the 10,000m walk in 50:19.20.

U P’s Abigail Manzano also won gold with a solid 18:54.90 clocking in the 5000m.

the second frame, held serve then shattered the Davis Cup veteran again in the third before holding serve again for a

REFEREE Stephanie Frappart works the Germany-Costa Rica match. AP

EDUARDO JOSH BUENAVISTA breaks a longstanding league record in the 10,000 meters.

of Filipino champions on the world stage.

fabled martial arts group based in La Trinidad, Benguet, will also take to the circle against foreign rivals with Joshua Pacio defending his world strawweight belt against top-ranked American Jarred Brooks.

ONE founder and CEO Chatri Sityodtong with Globe Group President and CEO Ernest Cu.

IT’S the top-seeded Johnny Arcilla against the No. 4-ranked Charles Kinaadman.

KHOR, Qatar—French

Stéphanie Frappart became the first woman to take charge of a men’s World Cup game on Thursday as she blew her whistle to start Germany’s game against Costa Rica.