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EVEN THE ‘FIREBRAND’ PRESIDENT HAD TO YIELD TO THE PYROTECHNICS INDUSTRY

Let the fireworks begin

IN this December 29, 2008, file photo, a worker places sparklers to dry out in the sun at a makeshift firecraker factory in Bocaue, Bulacan. Despite the hazards both on health and safety, many makeshift factories have sprung around this town, as they cope with the demands of firecrakers that many Filipinos use as noisemakers to usher in the New Year. AP/Aaron Favila

A

By Rene Acosta

BOUT two more weeks before the year ends, the role of fireworks in ushering in the brand new year has again rolled into focus.

For President Duterte, who has even considered in October a nationwide ban on the use of firecrackers and other pyrotechnic devices, fireworks bring nothing other than their debilitating effects on lives, limbs and property, not to mention the harm they do on the environment.

Beyond Duterte’s view, dealers and manufacturers of fireworks,

however, wanted the government to look into the bigger picture, including the industry’s trickling economic effects—from the national coffers down to the street seller—and not simply focus on its “death and destruction” side.

Chief Supt. Cesar Hawthorne Binag, chief of the National Police’s Firearms and Explosives Office (FEO), said the industry, as a

whole, is tricky to handle because, while it is covered by regulations, it involves nearly the whole gamut of the government to run it.

Business entails whole of govt

BINAG said regulating the pyrotechnics business entails the “whole of the government, even the whole of the country, approach…even as the state works to strike a balance between business and safety of Filipinos.”

The FEO is one of the regulatory offices under Republic Act 7183, or the law that regulates the sale, manufacture, distribution and use of firecrackers and other pyrotechnic devices. The FEO is the one that issues permits for manufacturers, dealers and retailers.

technics and controlled chemicals, which are high risk.

Based on the permits issued by the FEO, the owner should store the chemicals, or raw materials, at his storage facility in Santa Maria, while the finished product should be kept in his store in Bocaue; but both were lumped together in Bocaue.

“The terms of the licenses were violated,” Binag said.

He said the two children who died in the Santa Maria explosion, which was triggered by skyrockets, or kwitis, should not have been present at the site, as they were prohibited by the law to be there.

The two tagged along with their mother, who brought food for her husband working in the store.

“We saw panic,” Binag said on

“We implement the law, along with the other agencies of the government,” Binag said, naming the offices under the circular as the Bureau of Fire Protection, Bureau of Customs, Department of Health and, recently, the Department of Labor.

Despite regulation and strict monitoring by the government, accidents involving firecrackers still happen occasionally, such as the explosions at two stores in Bocaue and Santa Maria towns, both in Bulacan, in October and November, respectively, which killed a total of four people and injured 28 others.

However, Binag noted that the explosion in Bocaue happened because the owner violated the conditions of his licenses. He was able to get separate permits for pyro-

the cause of the blast. “It sparked, and it was thrown [into the other] finished products.”

Monitor and implement

WHILE both the Bocaue and the Santa Maria explosions have happened, these were the only incidents in three years, showing that the stricter regulation and monitoring by the government of the fireworks industry is working.

“For the FEO, how effective are we when it comes to measures, in compliance with the issuance of licenses?” Binag asked, as he looked over the record of licenses that he has approved for this year.

Compared with his predecessor, Binag has only approved 133 Continued on A2

S

By Recto Mercene

INCE 2013, the Marinduque Airport has been closed to operations, a victim of the political infighting between an entrenched dynasty and a local contractor, whom the dynasty had been fighting during the past few elections.

The rivalry has persisted until today, depriving the 229,000 inhabitants of the island access to air travel.

When the sea is rough, or when Signal No. 1 is raised over Marinduqe and nearby islands, the roll-on, roll-off (Roro) services are grounded for several days.

Even when the weather is pleasant, the Roro service between

Dalahican Port in Lucena and Balanacan Port in Mogpog town takes three hours to travel the 298-kilometer distance between the ports.

And if the residents are from Gasan or Buenavista, they would take about four hours by Roro to reach Cawit Port, the last town of Boac before Gasan. This port is closed and is reportedly under construction.

This is not counting the close to four to six hours or traveling by bus or car for passengers originating in Metro Manila.

Estimates by those who braved the trip by land and sea said it takes between eight and 10 hours to reach Balanacan in Mogpog or Cawit Port from the bus terminal in Pasay City.

PESO exchange rates n US 49.6490

GOOGLE MAPS

Politics gets in the way of Marinduque Airport’s upgrade

In contrast, a turbo-prop aircraft, like the ones flown by Zest Air, Cebu Pacific and Philippine Airlines (PAL), which take off at the Manila domestic terminal, would cover the distance in under one hour.

The Marinduque Airport is the only airport located on and serving the island-province of Marinduque.

It is in Barangay Masiga in the town of Gasan, near the border with the provincial capital, Boac. It is part

of the Mimaropa (Mindoro, Marinduque, Romblon, Palawan) region.

The airport is classified Class 2 principal (minor domestic) airport by the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines (Caap).

It remains a popular landing point for all commercial and private planes during the Moriones Festival observed during Lent.

Former congressman and now Gov. Carmencita Reyes, according to residents, has been grumbling that the airport should have been in Boac and not in Gasan, a former barrio of the capital town.

Six years ago, Liberal Party Rep. Lord Allan Jay Q. Velasco of Marinduque, in coordination with the Department of Transportation and Communications (DOTC) and

the Caap, undertook the concreting of the runway to the tune of P40 million.

Velasco was defeated in his bid for reelection in 2013 by Regina Ongsiako Reyes, daughter of the incumbent governor, but Velasco disputed Reyes’s victory, claiming that Reyes is a US citizen and ineligible to hold office.

Both the Supreme Court and the Commission on Elections upheld Velasco’s protest.

Despite this, former House Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr. maintained that a decision to remove Reyes from her seat is up to the House Electoral Tribunal, where Velasco’s case was pending at the time.

See “Marinduque,” A2

n japan 0.4356 n UK 62.5031 n HK 6.4021 n CHINA 7.2138 n singapore 34.8977 n australia 36.0332 n EU 57.7123 n SAUDI arabia 13.2408

Source: BSP (9 December 2016 )

NewsSunday Let the fireworks begin BusinessMirror

A2 Sunday, December 11, 2016

www.businessmirror.com.ph

Continued from A1

licenses for dealers against 233 last year; 36 for manufactures as against 58 last year and only more than 700 for retailers’ permits as against 2,704 last year.

Before a permit is issued by the FEO, inspection and approval by the police, BFP, local government and other clearances have to be secured by the applicant. Safety screening is also required, along with the regulations now imposed by the Dole.

Still, the two explosions showed that the government needs to further increase its monitoring and inspections, which the police around the country was already doing, although its efforts have to be complemented by local chief executives by conducting their own visits.

Graft and corruption

THE greatest challenge that undermines the fireworks industry and even threatens its sustainability is graft and corruption by way of smuggling, courtesy of the Bureau of Customs, although the agency was supposed to be a regulatory partner.

This was admitted by Joven Ong, president of the Philippine Fireworks Association (PFA), in a telephone conversation with the BusinessMirror.

Ong said it is this problem that now threatens the life of the industry, which, the Department of Health was moving for the ban-

ning of New Year’s revelry items, citing the record of injuries.

He said most of the injuries were caused by firecrackers that somehow managed to get past the ports, especially during the holiday season.

Binag agreed with Ong, saying piccolo, an imported, but banned, firecracker accounts for at least 56 percent of the injuries as found out by the House of Representatives in one of its hearings.

“Under the law, it is prohibited to import finished products,” Binag said, adding the “hole” lies in smuggling.

“If we can stop the entry of piccolo, we can prevent more than half of the injuries,” Binag said.

“The problem does not lie with us, this is encompassing,” he added.

Under RA 7183, licensed manufacturers, dealers and even retailers are only allowed to sell firecrackers that include baby rocket; bawang; small trianggulo; paper caps; El Diablo; Judah’s belt; sky ticket and watusi.

Pyrotechnics, such as sparklers or luces, fountain, jumbo regular; mabuhay, Roman candle, trompillo, Airwolf, whistle device and butterfly, were also allowed.

Other pyrotechnic devices that contain explosive chemicals that poses risk to life and limb are, however, prohibited and even firecrackers with more than 0.2 grams of explosives.

Binag said that, as an added precaution, the law also requires that a firecracker should not explode “less than three seconds but not more than six seconds” after its wick was lighted.

Ong said it is wrong for the DOH to totally put the blame on the local manufacturers the records of injuries, the reason it is moving for the banning of fireworks, pyrotechnics and firecrackers in the market.

“It is really wrong for the local industry to be wholly blamed. They should address the problem where it exists. We are being caught in the middle,” he said.

‘Matter of will’

ONG believes that the government can address smuggling and all the other problems besetting the fireworks industry, if only it has a “will” to do so.

He said the government should start by stamping out the entry into the country of prohibited firecrackers and other banned pyrotechnics, although he acknowledged that the Bureau of Customs cannot do it alone as he bought Binag’s line of “whole of government approach.”

“They wanted to include us [banning of products] because of the injuries, but why totally blame us? They should run after smugglers, they should arrest them,” Ong said.

Workers place colored paper on firecrackers at a makeshift fireworks factory in Bulacan on December 28, 2010. The government has stepped up its drive calling for merrymakers to avoid the use of firecrackers during the New Year celebration as many incidents have led to numerous injuries. AP/Aaron Favila

“We can celebrate in a safe manner so long as the agencies do their part,” he said.

If the government imposes a total ban on fireworks and pyrotechnics, including firecrackers, then it would be falling into the tactics of smugglers, which is getting rid of both the legal and illegal products, according to the PFA president.

“They [smugglers] really wanted to include the legal local industry into the ban,” Ong said.

He said they fully understand the concern of Duterte over the safety of Filipinos, as it is their primordial consideration too, but the whole industry should not be indicted.

In fact, Ong said, the association is very intense in its education, reeducation and training of those involved in the fireworks industry around the country on safety and the best way on how to handle, manufacture and even store fireworks products.

This is being done in partnership with regulatory offices of the government, including the FEO.

Although there is no exact estimate on how big the industry is, Ong said it could be in the billions of pesos, possibly P4 billion and up per annum.

The products pass through several hands before reaching the consumer and each one puts a mark up on the price.

“From the manufacturer, it goes down to the dealer, to the retailer and down the line up to the ordinary Filipinos who sold them in the streets,” Ong said.

“So it is really hard to approximate,” he said.

However, in 2010 the industry estimated that it was already a half-a-billion-pesos business.

Beyond the monetary consideration, the business is helping ordinary Filipinos to earn in order for them and their families to have something on the table also during Christmas and New Year.

“All of those selling firecrackers belong to the marginalized. It is a big thing for them to earn money.

They were not asking for money, they were working for it, doing the legal way to earn money,” Ong said.

Multibillion-peso business

Ban lifted

ONG said that, rather than killing the industry, the government should help in reviving it, owing to its benefit not only to the economy, but even to ordinary Filipinos, who merely wanted to “legally earn” during the most opportune time of the year. The best way to do it is to strictly enforce the law.

The DOLE has allowed a total of 48 establishments to continue manufacturing and selling pyrotechnics and firecrackers in Bulacan, after it lifted the Work Stoppage Order (WSO) on these shops issued last month.

According to Labor Secretary Silvestre H. Bello III, the WSO is-

Marinduque...

Velasco was later proclaimed the representative of Marinduque district and assumed office on February 1.

The Marinduque airport runway’s length is 1,400 meters, 500 meters of which need further rehabilitation and 700 meters need to be concreted. In 2009 budget for the construction of the taxiway and apron was approved by the DOTC, but the implementation was marred by bureaucratic delays. However, the Bids and Awards Committee resolution of award has finally been prepared, the CAAP said.

Velasco, who advocates the development of ecotourism in Marinduque, expressed confidence that the faster growth of tourist inflows into the island-province is assured upon the project’s completion.

Concreting of the Marinduque Airport runway has been a DOTC priority project under the administration of former President Benigno S. Aquino III.

“It is hoped that with greater access to Marinduque through larger aircraft, the province’s tourism would take off, coinciding with the opening of the six-star Bellarocca Island Resort and Spa in 2008,” Velasco said in a statement.

“The demand for air transportation has inevitably increased and

sued to these establishments was lifted after they have been found compliant with general labor and occupational safety and health (OSH) standards.

“The 48 establishments were compliant with labor and OSH standards and other pertinent labor laws, rules and regulations,” he said in a statement.

Bello announced the lifting of the WSO to 48 firms engaged in the manufacturing and selling of said products, during the 83rd Anniversary Celebration of the Department at the Occupational Safety and Health Center in Quezon City on Thursday.

The 48 establishments are as follows: 878 Fireworks store; 888 Prosperity Fireworks; A. Mercado Fireworks; A.T. Sayao Fireworks; Alex Fireworks; Analyn Mendoza Fireworks; Arjay’s Fireworks; ASJ Fireworks; ASP Fireworks; CPM Fireworks Store; D’Extacy Fireworks; D.C. De Guzman Fireworks; Diamond Firework; Dong Ding’s Fireworks; Dragon Fireworks; Elsie Fireworks; Elvie Navarro Fireworks; E.M. Fantasy Fireworks; EMHS Fireworks; Global Fireworks-Branch 1; Global Fireworks; Golden J’s Fireworks; Hailey Fireworks; JC Castillo Fireworks (Branch); JC Castillo Fireworks; Josefina Totie Fireworks; Liam Fireworks; Lightning Fireworks; Loufran’s Fireworks; Lucy Fireworks; Majik A.M Fireworks; Minia’s Fireworks; MS Farinas Fireworks; MVD Fireworks; Ni-Anne Fireworks; Night Lights Fireworks; Pyro Haven Enterprises; R&F Fireworks; R.T. Sayo Enterprises; RNN Fireworks; Rosalie Navarro Fireworks; Rose & Leyd Fireworks; SEG Fireworks; Sky Joy Fireworks; SRC Fireworks; Three D’s Fireworks; Top JR Fireworks; and Viva El Toro Fireworks.

They are part of the 88 establishments engaged in manufacture and sale of pyrotechnics and firecrackers in Bulacan, which were inspected by the DOLE Regional Office 3.

Of the total number of establishments, 24 are in the manufacturing and 64 are in retail/selling of firecrackers and pyrotechnics.

Bello explained that there are still 40 establishments that are undergoing assessments from the regional office and are still prohibited from manufacturing and selling the said products. With PNA

continued from A1

could only be satisfied by reopening the airport.”

Because of lack of tourists, Bellarocca Resort is losing heavily and there are talks that it might close shop soon.

The political rivalry, however, continues. After Carmencita Reyes lost to Velasco, she run and won the governorship of the island.

One of the contractors who won the contract to concrete the runway is Melchor Go, one of Reyes’s political opponents.

Go was a three-term board member of the province’s First District. In 2016 he ran for governor against Carmencita Reyes and lost.

Prior to that, in 2010, Go also ran against Reyes for governor and lost.

A resident of Boac, Go has a construction company that won in the bidding for the last part of the upgrading of the Marinduque Airport.

However, since 2013, Go could not proceed with the construction after Reyes reportedly refused to issue permit for Go’s employees to obtain sand and gravel from the nearby Libtangin River, a distance of about 1,000 to 2,000 meters from the project site.

A CAAP employee in Marinduque, Vilma Olivar, said the DOTC fund for Go’s project would revert back to the national coffer if the runway concreting is not fin-

ished before the end of this year.

The Caap washed its hands off the controversy, saying the project in now under the Department of Transportation (DOTr).

Raul Glorioso, chief of the Aerodrome Development and Management Service of Caap, said Go should address his appeal to the DOTr, and not to the Caap, if he wants the project to proceed.

PAL, Zest Air and Cebu Pacific are raring to fly to the island, but politics had intervened to make Marinduque remain a fourth-class province, the same classification since Carmencity Reyes took over the reins of the province in 1978.

Reyes was elected to the Interim Batasang Pambansa in 1978, when President Ferdinand E. Marcos created the Kilusang Bagong Lipunan party, to filter out the Liberals and Nacionalista members loyal to him. That marked the beginning of the Reyes dynasty.

At that time, her husband, Edmundo Reyes, was the immigration commissioner.

Today, the island-province residents hope that in the autumn of her life, Reyes, 90, would find it in her heart to approve the protracted contract in order that flights would resume and allow business to prosper and the island’s tourism sector to boom.

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The World BusinessMirror

Sunday, December 11, 2016

A3

Opec’s historic deal won’t be enough to drain oil stockpiles T

he Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec) is likely to bring the oil market into balance by the middle of next year, but its production cut looks set to fall short of its stated goal of draining the stockpiles that are depressing prices.

The oil market will rebalance “toward the middle of next year,” according to Nigeria’s Minister of State for Petroleum Emmanuel Kachikwu, bringing an end to more than three years when supply exceeded demand. However, Bloomberg News calculations based on Opec data show that across the whole of 2017, there will be little overall reduction in record oil inventories—even i f t he g roup conv i nces nonmembers to join supply curbs at a meeting on Saturday. “Even w ith 100 -percent compliance

from both Opec and non-Opec producers global stocks are unlikely to fall in the first half of 2017,” said Tamas Varga, analyst at brokerage PVM Oil Associates Ltd. in London. “ That should keep oil prices in check.”

Crude prices could rise to $60 to $70 a barrel if the Opec succeeds in bring inventories back to a normal level, Venezuelan Oil Minister Eulogio del Pino said last week, echoing a widely held view within the group, from Saudi Arabia to Iran. The portents for achieving this are mixed.

Opec’s track record shows the group only delivers 80 percent of promised cuts. While Russia has pledged to come to the party and lower output by 300,000 barrels a day in the first half of 2017, other non-Opec producers, such as Mexico, Azerbaijan and Colombia, are likely to dress up involuntary production declines, already factored in by traders, as cuts. That scenario would leave largely unchanged the 300-million-barrel global stockpile surplus del Pino and his colleagues are targeting.

Compliance focus

Opec has said its agreement will accelerate the decline of global stock pi les and an optimistic Bloomberg scenario shows the call

on the group’s supply exceeding its output by 1.2 million barrels a day in third quarter. That depends on full compliance by Opec members, and for Russia to make good on its pledge, even as other non-Opec producers make little contribution.

The analysis of the market rebalancing by Bloomberg News is based on Opec’s own estimates and projections of crude supply and demand adjusted for potential scenarios of cooperation from Russia and other non-Opec countries.

Other consultancies and agencies have different views.

The International Energy Agency expects the rebalancing will happen early next year, while consultants at Rystad Energy expect

Even with 100-percent compliance from both Opec and non-Opec producers, global stocks are unlikely to fall in the first half of 2017.”—Varga

a 1.26million-barrels a-day deficit in the first quarter of next year if Russia is the only non-Opec country to join the effort.

Assuming Opec will stick to its promise could be wishful thinking. Ali Al-Naimi, former Saudi oil minister, said last week that the oil-club members “ tend to cheat”.

As long as Russia makes a genuine output cut, Opec is ready to accept that other non-Opec nations pledge natural declines for a large chunk of their production cuts, according to people familiar with the talks, who asked not to be named because the discussions are private. That will mean the rebalancing will take longer.

Russian pledge

In a less optimistic scenario, in which Opec only delivers 80 percent of its promised cut, the group would need non-Opec rivals to deliver a genuine 600,000-barrel-aday cut to make a significant dent in global oil stocks next year.

Despite Russia’s pledge, Moscow is only willing to reduce output gradually.

“The Russian production cut

will become visible only in spring,” said Christian Boermel, Russia analyst at consultant Wood Mackenzie Ltd. “Just as Russia made its compliance contingent on Opec cutting its share, some countries might get suspicious if in the first months no results are seen.”

Out of 14 non-Opec nations invited to Saturday’s talks in Vienna, only Russia, Mexico, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, Oman said they would attend as of December 7. Kazakhstan said this week it had yet to decide whether it would join in cuts, although it’s unlikely to do so considering its $50-billion Kashagan field just started pumping in October, according to Rystad.

“We don’t think too many nonOpec countries actually have the power and will and influence over the oil companies to actually hold back barrels,” said Per Magnus Nysveen, senior partner and head of analysis at Rystaad. However, Nysveen expects to see natural declines from most of these countries because their production was “extremely strong” in the second half of this year.

Bloomberg News

A4

Sunday, December 11, 2016

The World BusinessMirror

Boeing’s newest 787 prepares to take off as Trump roils trade M

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Draghi: $2.4-trillion stimulus may not be enough for ECB

O

n the day President-elect Donald J. Trump lashed out at Boeing Co. for the cost of replacing Air Force One, mechanics and engineers at the planemaker’s South Carolina factory were focused on another challenge: making the first 787-10 Dreamliner.

The manufacturer is counting on the newest and longest Dreamliner to help turn its marquee carbon-fiber jet into a cash machine.

So far, the -10 is meeting deadlines and hitting performance targets, a rarity in an industry where delays are the norm. The question is whether a glutted market will crimp profit and sales—and whether Trump will further dent orders by raising trade tensions with China, a crucial market.

Boeing’s newest widebody is central to a plan to erase $27.5 billion in deferred 787 costs that were accumulated over a decade of losses. The first of three planned flight-test planes was loaded onto the final assembly line in North Charleston over the past week, achieving a production milestone ahead of plan.

“I’m very optimistic,” said Ken Sanger, a Boeing vice president overseeing development of the 787-10, the third Dreamliner model. “Without going into the numbers, the strategy is working very, very well.”

Giant Larva

For now, the first -10 lies in sections on the factory floor as workers inspect its spun-fiber frame.

A white protective coating makes the segments look like giant larva.

Over the next two weeks, mechanics will slide them to the first position on the assembly line, where the longest fuselage barrel will be joined to wings, nose and tail. It will mark the first of five stages of a metamorphosis into a sleek flying machine.

If all goes to plan, Boeing’s most technically advanced jetliner will take its first flight over South Carolina’s wetlands sometime next year—Sanger won’t say when—and will be delivered to initial customer Singapore Airlines in 2018.

Boeing is counting on the -10 to mirror the drama-free development of the 737 Max and 787-9 three years ago, all products of a disciplined process it fashioned for new aircraft following the delay-plagued debut of the 7878 five years ago. The new jet is the most expensive Dreamliner yet, with a list price of $306.1 million, and its market entry should coincide with growing profits for the 787.

Boeing has just started to break even on the jets, and will need to record an average profit of $34.4 million per plane over the next 800 Dreamliners to avoid having to report an accounting loss for the program. Company executives insist they can get there by combining savings from suppliers with higher pricing on the -9 and -10, the Dreamliners wit h the greatest profit potential.

Trump tweet

The effort comes as Boeing’s pricing has been thrust into the national spotlight. On December 6 Trump tweeted that “costs are out of control” for planned planes to serve future presidents’ extensive security and cyber-communications needs. Costs are “more than $4 billion. Cancel order!” he wrote about Air Force One. Later in the day, the president-elect told reporters in the lobby of Trump Tower in New York that “we want Boeing to make a lot of money, but not that much money.”

Trump singled out Boeing days after CEO Dennis Muilenburg called on him and Congress to ensure that US companies have the tools to compete in a global economy. T he C hicago -based planemaker, the nation’s top exporter and a major defense contractor, is under contract to build enhanced 747 jets that can transport presidents for decades.

Market turmoil

With the new Dreamliner, Boeing faces turmoil in the wide-body market that’s already pressuring pricing, and that’s before any collateral damage from the trade war that Trump has threatened with China. A glut of used Boeing 777 and Airbus A330 aircraft, fueled by high production rates and cheap oil, is stifling sales of new longrange jets, said Richard Aboulafia, an aerospace analyst with Teal Group. “The -9 and -10 are fine machines, but there is competition. It’s aggressive, too,” Aboulafia said. “The twin-aisle market is glutted, pure and simple. There are a lot of programs in exactly the same position.”

The -9 and -10 are fine machines, but there is competition. It’s aggressive, too. The twin-aisle market is glutted, pure and simple. There are a lot of programs in exactly the same position.”—Aboulafia

Rio’s Christ statue asking for alms amid recession

I

t’s survived decades of wind, rain and lightning strikes, but now Brazil’s iconic Christ the Redeemer statue is suffering from the same elemental problem as the rest of the country: a lack of cash.

On Thursday the archdiocese of Rio de Janeiro launched the “Friends of the Christ the Redeemer” fund-raising campaign to preserve the landmark, which draws millions of tourists per year to the top of Corcovado mountain. The 13-story statue that looms over the city isn’t only a symbol of Rio, but of Brazil. Both are suffering with a deep recession that has drained government coffers.

“Up until today we’ve counted on the church’s own resources and those of the private sector for maintenance,” Omar Raposo, the priest in charge of the Sanctuary of Christ the Redeemer, told local TV station Globo. “But with this big crisis in which we find ourselves today, we have great concern and need all of society to collaborate.”

Maintenance costs have risen and the economic crisis means the church cannot demand more from its sponsors, which include Mastercard, Samsung, Hyundai and Pirelli, according to Father Marcos William, who is in charge of the archdiocese’s communications. The sanctuary spends nearly 3 million reais ($889,000) annually to maintain the concrete Art-Deco statue, which is often hit by lightning during tropical storms, and another 2 million reais between payroll and social and cultural projects.

Christ the Redeemer was built with donations collected in the 1920s, and construction cost the equivalent of 9.5 million reais in today’s terms, according to its web site. The church doesn’t receive admission fees, which instead are split between transport concessionaires and the environment ministry’s ICMBio biodiversity institute, William said by phone.

“It’s much more than a statue,’’ William said. “We have to maintain it, beautiful and perfect. It’s the postcard of Brazil to the entire world.’’ Bloomberg News

The sun rises behind the Christ the Redeemer statue, above the Guanabara Bay in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on July 19, ahead of the 2016 Summer Olympics. AP/Felipe Dana

While the stretched version has garnered only 154 orders—13 percent of the Dreamliner backlog— Sanger said he is confident that -10 sales will gain steam once airlines see the plane in action.

Early indicators are encouraging: Suppliers are keeping pace and building 787-10 components to the same quality standards as the -9, Sanger said. That’s crucial if Boeing is to build its newest jet without bogging down the two other 787 models, which combined are being built at a record monthly pace.

NYC to Dubai

The newest 787’s weight is on target, also key if Boeing is to deliver the range and fuel-savings it has promised airlines. Workers in North Charleston are already assembling barrels for the second and third test aircraft for a plane whose range of 6,430 nautical miles will be ample to whisk travelers between between Dubai and New York.

“Per for mance is dead on,” Sanger said. “Are we satisfied with where we are? No, but we’re on a good path.”

The -10 is designed to haul 330 passengers in a frame spanning 224 feet (68 meters). That’s 18 feet longer than the -9, which seats 290 people in a two-cabin layout. The two models share about 95 percent of the same design-and-build processes. That means the new jet and its tooling will be familiar to mechanics in North Charleston.

As the first Boeing-designed jetliner built outside the Seattle area, the -10 is also a test of a strategy to diversify the planemaker’s manufacturing base. Boeing has steadily expanded since it acquired the campus from struggling 787 suppliers in 2009, and it has room to grow.

“That’s a vote of confidence that the South Carolina site has the skill, capability, the work force, and the leadership to make that happen,” said Joan Robinson-Berr y, vice president and general manager of Boeing South Carolina. “ They believe we’re ready to do that job.” Bloomberg News

ario Draghi warned that the region’s feeble inflation outlook means European Central Bank (ECB) stimulus won’t end any time soon.

“The presence of the ECB on markets will be there for a long time,” the institution’s president said in Frankfurt after the Governing Council agreed to add more than half a trillion euros to its bond-buying program and extend it until at least the end of 2017. Quantitative easing (QE) is “in a sense open-ended, it’s statecontingent,” he said.

Draghi cited weak underlying price pressures, political uncertainties and inadequate government reforms as he laid out the reasons for expanding the ECB’s asset-purchase plan to at least €2.3 trillion ($2.4 trillion). He and his colleagues have frequently stressed that the euro area’s economic upturn is largely reliant on continued monetary easing as governments fail to play their part.

“I heard a dovish message,” said Holger Sandte, senior European economist at Nordea Markets in Copenhagen. “He’s basically saying the next tapering is coming only in 2018.”

The market reaction suggested confusion among investors, who initially focused on a reduction in bond buying to said €60 billion a month starting in April from €80 billion currently—interpreting the ECB as being hawkish. The euro was down 1.4 percent at $1.0606 at 5:21 p.m. Frankfurt t ime, wh i le Ger m a n 10 -yea r bonds climbed to the highest since January and two-year notes rallied before giving up gains.

Draghi said new staff economic projections showing euro-area inf lation averaging 1.7 percent in 2019 were “not really” close to the central bank ’s goal of just under 2 percent. He also reiterated the ECB’s line that the economic outlook remains subject to downside risks.

Most economists sur veyed

by Bloomberg had predicted QE would be prolonged after March at the current pace for about six months. W hile the Governing Council considered such a scenario, there was “very broad consensus” for the option that prevailed. The ECB kept its main re f i n a nc i n g r ate u nc h a n ge d at zero and the deposit rate at

minus 0.4 percent and didn’t discuss tapering—or a phased reduction of bond purchases to zero.

“The ECB and Mario Draghi did their best to confuse markets by feeding both the hawks and the doves,” said Jim Smigiel, chief investment officer for alternative strategies at SEI Investments. “We see the market’s obsession with a ‘taper’ as being misplaced and view this as a strong commitment to the current extraordinary monetary policy.”

The extension will be accompanied by adjustments to the program’s rules, a move necessary to avoid running out of assets to buy.

Central banks will be allowed to buy debt with a yield below the deposit rate, previously a minimum eligibility requirement. The minimum duration of debt was lowered to one year from two years.

Issue limits

Many economists had also predicted the ECB would increase the share of bonds it could buy to as much as 50 percent. Most issue and issuer limits are set at 33 percent. Draghi cited “an increasing awareness of legal and institutional constraints” for not taking that step.

He reiterated his call for governments to implement structural reforms that can cement the recovery, saying political concerns are no excuse. Germany, France and the Netherlands all have elections in 2017, following on from political upsets in the UK and Italy—as well as the US—this year.

“Countries that need reforms need to undertake them regardless of what is the general political uncertainty,” he said. “The best way to deal with uncertainty is to restore growth, job creation.”

While Draghi said the risk of deflation has largely disappeared, annual price growth is still only 0.6 percent. Inflation hasn’t been in line with the ECB’s goal since early 2013, with forecasts repeatedly being lowered. With that in mind, Draghi said policy-makers haven’t discussed how they would react to better-than-expected economic data.

“We seem to be far away from any such high-class problem.” he said.

“There are no signs yet of a convincing upward trend in underlying inflation.” Bloomberg News

Biodiversity Sunday BusinessMirror

Asean Champions of Biodiversity Media Category 2014

Sunday, December 11, 2016

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

A5

Healthy ecosystems means resiliency, faster recovery against climate change

S

By Jonathan L. Mayuga

@jonlmayuga

cientists say there is a direct link and evidence that biodiversity boosts the resiliency of ecosystems against the impacts of climate change—a reason the protection and conservation of the country’s rich biodiversity can never be overemphasized.

Experts believe that the country’s strength or resiliency against intense typhoons and extreme weather events, like prolonged wet or dry season, is anchored on natural defense—the diversity of habitat-forming species both in land and in water—which are seriously threatened by destructive activities. The Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) is at the forefront of defending the country’s rich biodiversity against various threats brought about by human pressures.

The unbridled development— pushed by rapid urbanization and expansion, human encroachment of forest and coastal habitats for agriculture, fisheries, residential and commercial purposes, tourism and other development projects, such as mining, quarrying, logging and land reclamation—weakens the country’s natural defense against natural calamities.

While the Philippines remain as one of the 18 most megadiverse countries in the world, it is also a biodiversity hot spot because of the rapid loss of biodiversity.

Illegal wildlife trade, hunting for food and trophy, also contributes to the extinction of species.

Serious threat

In the Philippines the more serious threat to biodiversity is the effects of climate change, which are strongly felt in coastal and marine environment.

Director T heresa Mu nd it a S. Lim of the DENR’s Biodiversity Management Bureau (BMB) underscored the need to protect and conserve the country’s rich biodiversity to strengthen the country’s resiliency against natural calamities and effects of climate change that may hasten the extinction of vulnerable species.

Lim, who is currently in Cancun, Mexico, for the 13th Meeting of the Conference of the Parties (COP13) to the Convention on Biological Diversity, said there is a direct link between climate change and biodiversity loss.

Wit h t he t heme, “Ma instreaming Biodiversity for Wellbeing,”COP13 focuses on biodiversity and ecosystem services,

and their contribution to sustainable development.

Altering animal behavior

Climate-change has strange effects on animal behavior. Various studies suggest that sudden change in temperature alter migration patterns of marine mammals and waterfowls, affecting feeding habits, breeding and reproduction eventually leading to imbalance, or worse, species extinction.

Sightings of animals outside their natural habitats is a sign of change in animal behavior.

Lim cited the behavior of marine mammals—like whales, dolphins and sharks—marine turtles and even migratory birds during the peak of El Niño in 1997 can be attributed to the extremely hot weather. Climate change’s effect on animal behavior, in particular, and life cycles, she said, offer scientists an opportunity to study the effects of climate change in the Philippines and contribute to the global effort to mitigate its adverse impact to biodiversity.

Sea-level rise

Vincent Hilomen, executive director of the DENR-BMB’s Coastal and Marine Division, said climate change affects coastal and marine ecosystems in varying degrees.

Sea-level rise, coral bleaching, ocean-temperature rise and ocean acidification are taking place globally.

Marine scientists have observed these climate-change effects to the country’s coastal and marine environment for decades, Hilomen said.

Sea-grass beds and mangroves are particularly vulnerable to sealevel rise. The deeper the ocean become, the harder it is for sunlight to reach sea-grass beds, preventing photosynthesis.

In such case, sea grass and other plants, such as seaweed, which are food to a wide variety of fish and other marine animals, will eventually die, Hilomen said.

Certain species of mangroves, he added, can only survive on brackish water. Such species will be the first to go in case of sea-level rise.

“If their particular species can tolerate low level of salinity,

Coral reefs of Snake Island are affected by bleaching owing to El Niño early this year. DENR-BMB Director Theresa Mundita S. Lim

then they will die in case of sealevel rise,” he explained.

Threats to corals

Supertyphoons that trigger storm surges, meanwhile, cause massive destr uction of cora l reefs. This, he said, have devastating impact on a wide variety of fish species.

El Niño, or extreme heat, also triggers bleaching that may lead to the death of corals, forcing fishes to migrate and find healthy ecosystems, where they can feed and breed.

“In 1997 and 1998 the Philippines experienced intense El Niño. This caused massive bleaching of corals. Nearly 90 percent of our corals died. In fact, the coral in Bolinao, [Pangasinan], has not yet recovered until now,” he said.

Corals are breeding and feeding ground of spawning fish.

They provide protection to small fish against predators, thus, allowing them to grow and replenish the ocean with fish for people to catch and feed human population.

Ocean acidification

Ocean acidification caused by excessive emission of carbon is the most feared effect of climate change to coastal and marine environment. W hile the ocean is a big carbon sink, its carbonabsorption capacity would soon reach breaking point because of excessive carbon emitted into the atmosphere.

“Ocean acidification weakens all species—from corals, fish,

seaweed and sea grass. This will definitely affect food security,” Hilomen said.

He said the Philippines is on the right track in joining other countries to cut carbon emission under the 2015 Paris Agreement. Limiting the global temperature increase to below 2 degrees Celsius by 2030 means deep cuts on carbon emission.

The Philippines, although not a big emitter of greenhouse gas, committed to reduce by 70 percent its carbon emission by 2030, subject to assistance it gets from developed countries.

Scientists have warned that global-temperature increase of 2˚C would spell not only the extinction of animal and plant species, but the human population, as well. “It is only right to demand accountability from big polluters. But we should also do our part in reducing our own carbon footprint,” he said.

Resiliency, faster recovery

Having healthy ecosystems and rich biodiversity make the ecosystems, whether in land or water, resilient to climate change.

Dr. AA Yaptinchay, director of Mar ine Wild life Watch of the Philippines, said there are various studies that suggest the direct link between biodiversity and climate change.

“Climate change affects everything. Change in temperature, sea level, even the chemistry of the water will impact any living thing in the ocean,”

he said. Water-temperature increase, he said, will change water current. “Certain organisms have specific habitat preferences. There are species that prefer to stay in coral reefs. Change in temperature, say increase in temperature, will drive them away or they will die because they will not survive unless they move to higher latitude,” he said.

Migratory species, he added, will be affected once the food source becomes scarce or vanishes.

“Our problem in the tropics is that fish will not go here because they would go in higher latitude,” he said. Yaptinchay underscored the need to maintain a healthy ecosystem, whether in land or water, to strengthen the resiliency and allow faster recovery in the event of climate-change effects.

The richer the biodiversity, he said, the higher the probability of species surviving, allowing the food chain to have minimum disruption. “ Think of it this way. If you have only three species and lost one, it will be harder for the two other species to survive. W hereas, if you have a thousand species, and you lose one specie, you still have hundreds of species left, allowing a higher chance of survival for other species,” he said.

The diversity of species, he said, also allows faster recovery in case of damage to ecosystem, citing the case of coral bleaching, which will allow faster recovery if coral-reef fish continue to dwell on other parts of the reef. “ The

fish will eat the algae on this coral. Without fish, the algae will grow on the coral. It will later die. Once algae starts engulfing the coral, new coral will not grow,” he explained.

“The diversity of ecosystems allows interaction that makes it healthy and strong. The Philippines is one of the most diverse when it comes to marine biodiversity. What we need is to prevent the threats, protect our biodiversity to maintain the services the ecosystem will provide, to combat climate change,” he said.

Protecting the marine environment

According to Lim, the DENRBMB’s strategy to mitigate the impact of climate change is to strengthen the protection of existing marine protected areas.

That way, she said, habitatforming species from mangroves to sea grass and corals will be protected against destructive human activities, ensuring the survival of fish and other marine life that thrive within.

The DENR, however, is taking a different tack in rehabilitating damaged marine ecosystems, which Hilomen said would cost around P500,000 to P5 million per hectare.

“We don’t have the resources for massive rehabilitation. What we are going to do is to reduce the threat and protect our marine environment against destructive activities to allow natural rehabilitation,” he said.

Experts hold forum on business and biodiversity in COP13 in Cancun T o discuss ways on how businesses can contribute in mainstreaming biodiversity, the Secretariat of the Convention of Biological Diversity (SCBD) and the government of Mexico gathered more than 250 experts from businesses, governments and non- governmental organizations by hosting the 2016 Business and Biodiversity Forum in Cancun, Mexico, on December 2 and 3.

The forum focused on the concept of mainstreaming biodiversity from the business point of view, investment opportunities and legal frameworks that give more certainty to investments, as well as better decisionmaking, which factors in the value of

biodiversity and the services it provides to businesses. Other important issues relevant for businesses that were addressed included natural capital accounting and financing, examining the links between climate change and biodiversity, and supply-chain policies.

“It is from biodiversity that businesses acquire raw materials for their products.

Hence, the business sec tor must be equipped with knowledge on the values of biodiversity for them to come up with science-based decisions in operating their businesses, and to avoid overexploitation of natural resources,” Executive Director lawyer Roberto V. Oliva of Asean Centre for Biodiversity (ACB) said. Oliva served as the

moderator of the first session of the forum.

“When companies place resources sustainability at the core of their brand, they experience long-term revenue and experience positive impact in social and economic space,” International Union for Conservation of Nature Director General Inger Andersen said.

The forum is part of the 13th Meeting of the Conference of Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD COP13). The conference provides a critical opportunity for countries to address strategic actions to enhance implementation of the Strategic Plan for Biodiversit y 2011-2020 and promote the achievement of the Aichi Biodiversity targets.

“Achieving the Strategic Plan for Biodiversity 2011-2020 is not possible without the active participation of the business community. We need to move from a scattered approach in engaging businesses to a truly inclusive one in order to achieve the broad mainstreaming of biodiversity within and across business sectors,” said Dr. Braulio Ferreira de Souza Dias, CBD executive secretary. One of the outcomes of the 2016 event is a Business and Biodiversity Pledge. The pledge provides an opportunity for business leaders to acknowledge the importance of biodiversity and ecosystem services for businesses, and to state their commitment toward taking positive action on biodiversity.

Asean reiterates commitment to biodiversity conservation

Member-states of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) reaffirmed their commitment to biodiversity conservation and reduce global biodiversity loss.

This commitment was contained in their joint resolution at the CBD COP13. The CBD COP13 is ongoing in Cancun, Mexico, with the theme “Mainstreaming Biodiversity for Well-being.”

In the joint statement, the Asean memberstates (AMS)—Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Indonesia, Lao PDR, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam—reaffirmed their commitment to

implement the Strategic Plan for Biodiversity 2011-2020 and achieve the Aichi Biodiversity Targets; and to the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and its sustainable development goals, particularly Goals 14 and 15 on the conservation and sustainable use of coastal and marine resources, and terrestrial ecosystems, respectively.

The AMS remains committed to biodiversity conservation, as the rich shared natural heritage of the region provides important services—such as food, water, climate regulation, soil formation, recreation and education—which contribute to the region’s socioeconomic well-being and benefit around 618 million Asean nationals.

Faith A6

Sunday, December 11, 2016

Sunday

Editor: Lyn B. Resurreccion

Saint John of the Cross: Doctor of Mystical Theology

By Corazon Damo-Santiago

J

ohn Yepes was born on June 24, 1541, in Fontiveros, between Ávila and Salamanca, Spain. His father, Francisco Gonzalo de Yepes, was a wealthy silk merchant who was disowned by the family for marrying Catalina Alvarez, who was below his social class.

His father died after John’s birth.

Life was difficult. Afraid that John would meet death like his brother Luis, his mother entrusted John to an orphanage in Medina when he was 9 until he was 17.

Austere, simple and devoted to God

Pope Francis closes the Holy Door of Saint Peter’s Basilica at the Vatican on November 20. Francis has pulled shut the Holy Door of Saint Peter’s Basilica, formally ending the Holy Year of Mercy he declared to highlight that virtue. Tiziana Fabi/pool photo via AP

Pope: Drug addiction ‘new form of slavery’ and ‘wound in society’

V

ATICAN—Drug addiction is a “new form of slavery” and a “wound in our society” that should be combatted with education and rehabilitation.

That was Pope Francis’s message to a Vatican conference called “Narcotics: Problems and Solutions of this Global Issue,” which was hosted by the Pontifical Academy of Sciences on November 23 and 24.

Pope Francis told the two-day conference that those who fall into the snares of drugs are victims who have “lost their freedom” in return for “a new form of slavery”.

Reflecting on the causes of drug

addiction, the Holy Father said it results from a variety of factors: “the absence of a family, social pressure, propaganda from traffickers, the desire to live new experiences”.

However, he said, “every addicted person brings with them a distinct personal history, which should be listened to, understood, loved, and, where possible, cured and purified. We cannot fall into the injustice of classifying them

as if they were objects or broken junk; rather, every person should be valued and appreciated in their dignity in order to be cured. They continue to have, more than ever, dignity as persons and children of God.” He said it is no surprise that so many people fall into drug addiction since “mundanity offers us a wide spectrum of possibilities to find a fleeting happiness.”

The pope went on to approach the problem of narcotics from both the supply and demand sides of the equation.

The supply of drugs, he said, is an “important part of organized crime”, and its supply chain must be rooted out and destroyed. Demand for narcotics, he said, needs to be halted through education, social programs and family support.

He said, “Integral human formation is the priority. It gives people the possibility to possess the instruments of discernment, with which they are able to discern various options and help others.

“This formation is principally oriented to the most vulnerable of a society, such as children and young people, but which is also usefully extended to families and those who suffer any type of marginalization.” Prevention and rehabilitation, he repeated, are both important aspects of the problem of drug addiction.

In conclusion, Pope Francis said, “ T he most needy of our brothers and sisters, who seemingly have nothing to g ive, offer us a treasure—the face of God, which spea ks to us and cha l lenges us.” Vatican Radio

From a kingdom on Earth to the kingdom in Heaven

T

By Manuel Mariano Jr.

hey say life is short. How do you want to live life to the fullest? Do you want to live for 969 years like Methuselah, or just a few seconds and die? Why did God allow us to live and die?

There must be a reason. Adam and the first 10 patriarchs in the bible lived for 900 years at the average, but after that, God said men must live on earth only up to 120 years.

Moses did lived that long for the purpose of his mission to bring back God’s people to their land of inheritance he promised to Abraham, otherwise, he should have died in Egypt at 80 years old. All people died except for two men, Enoch and Elijah, who went up to heaven without dying.

As an avid bible reader, my conclusion is that God has a plan and can only be discerned by knowing His timeline from beginning to end.

Fairy tales usually start with a prince charming meeting a beautiful princess, they fell in love with each other, got married and they lived happily ever after.

But in real life, according to the film, Mr. and Mrs. Smith, living happily was just at the beginning of the story. You have to struggle every day to make it happen.

That is the story of Adam and Eve. At the start of their relationship, they lived in a

beautiful garden and directly communicated with God. It was a perfect life with no worries at all. The twist of the story came when Satan, the adversary, came into the scene and introduced sin to them. The first couple fell into the trap and the effect was too disastrous.

The entire human race will now have to struggle in life until death.

Now, God laid down His grand plan to save mankind from the clutches of sin. He declared war against Satan, and man became the center of the struggle between good and evil.

He promised that He will send His Son to deal with Satan.

Up to this day, an unseen war is still raging between God and the devil, and the evidence is seen overtly in the day-to-day lives of man.

As a flashback, story starts with Abraham, an Iraqi from the ancient town of Ur who lived sometime in 2166 BC. From his seed a kingdom, the nation of Israel, was created.

From this nation, the seed of the woman would originate the promised Messiah to save mankind from sin. From the bible, the history of Israel as a people and nation is well documented up to this day.

There were so many twists and turns highlighted in a series of diasporas of this people of God from Ur of Chaldea, to Haran in Turkey, to Egypt, Assyria, Babylon and to all of Europe and the world until the end of World War II in 1945. In 1948,

after 1,900 years, their diaspora finally ended and settled back into their land of promise. This is the gist of the entire bible from Genesis to Revelation.

What is the relevance of this biblical account to the affairs of man today? As we await the return of Jesus Christ for the final showdown with Satan, man will experience more wars and pestilence worldwide, and this is summarized as the tribulation period.

Satan will hasten his agenda to rise above the stars and sit at the mountain of God as he envisioned at the beginning of time.

Obviously, he will never succeed so he will unleash his fiery darts to convert millions of people to his evil scheme and gather many souls to join him in an eternal life of suffering in a lake of burning sulphur.

Spirit beings do not have spiritual death and will live on and on, but man, having both a physical body and a spirit, can die physically but not spiritually. God will dismantle the components of man by returning the dust particle back to dust and judge the spirit to live in eternity with Him in His kingdom in heaven or with Satan in hell.

This is a Judeo-Christian belief, a linear progression of timeline, which is contrary to the oriental religious belief of a circuitous and never-ending cycle of spiritual life, jumping from one form to another.

Was the destructive Supertyphoon Yolanda

an act of God or an act of Satan?

The story of Job was a test for man to endure sufferings from Satan’s hands. He was a rich man with beautiful children, but Satan removed all these blessings from him, and said, “naked I came from my mother’s womb and naked I will depart.”

But in the end, when he passed the test of sufferings, because he was resilient in his belief in God, his blessings doubled and became more prosperous than before. Indeed, Satan is cunning and deceitful and can twist situations in his favor, and if man is not keen and observant enough to understand his sufferings, he becomes frustrated, lose hope and would even curse God. Filipinos can learn lessons from Job and his strong faith in God. Let us hope and pray that our present leaders would deliver us from this quagmire of poverty and hunger and awaken the minds of the rich and powerful to share their blessings to those in need.

Our suffering as a nation of 104 million people will eventually end, but our fate is in our hands. Let us not allow the devil to prevail in our country and the world. As Jesus said, according to John 12:47, “For I did not come to judge the world but to save it.”

Mariano is a retired Philippine Army brigadier general who served in the field as Infantry and Intelligence officer.

John learned the skills of carpentry tailoring, woodcarving and painting but also had to beg on the streets for the upkeep of the orphanage.

At 17, he studied nursing and was employed at a hospital, while attending a Jesuit college at night.

A lthough he opted to join the hospital chaplain, he joined the Car melites in Medina and took the name John of Matthias. He was sent to Sa lamanca for f ur ther studies.

He celebrated his first Mass at Medina del Campo. He met the future Saint Teresa of Ávila, who founded the second convent for Discalced Carmelites.

As one who frequently asked God to suffer something every day, he desired to join the Carthusian Order known for its solitary and silent contemplation.

John, who was 25, and Teresa, 52, talked about reformation, the need to restore the purity of the Carmelite Order’s Primitive Rule of 1209 which was relaxed

by Pope Eugene in 1432 as narrated in the Spirit of Flame, a study of Saint John of the Cross.

John changed his name to John of the Cross and founded the first reformed Monastery of Discalced Carmelite Friars with two companions. Teresa called the monastery she donated Stable at Bethlehem.

Reform movement

Blessed with spiritual affinity, Teresa of Ávila and John of the Cross restored the Discalced Carmelites to a simple lifestyle but deeper spiritual standards. He became her confessor, and when Teresa became a prisoner of the Convent at Ávila, John was invited to be the spiritual director.

But “spiritual innovation was a dangerous matter in 16th centur y Spain.” It was an era of the notorious Spanish Inquisition which “thrived on the detection of heresy and nonconformity,” according to Robert Ellsberg in All Saints.

The reform caused internal divisions over “contradictory orders given by the Apostolic Nuncio, the General of the Order and the general chapter.”

Disagreements between the Mitigated (Calced) and the Reformed (Discalced) Carmelites worsened in 1575. In January 1576 John was arrested in Medina del Campo by Carmelite friars and freed after the intervention of the Papal Nuncio.

With the death of Nuncio Omaneto in June 1577, the radical faction gained positions of power. Stripped of all his offices, John was taken prisoner on December 2, 1577.

Brought before the court in Toledo, the order’s most important monastery in Castile, he was accused of disobeying ordinances of Piacenza when he refused to renounce his reform projects.

Cross in many forms

He was imprisoned in a 10-by-6foot, foul-smelling cell, bitterly cold in winter and unbearably warm in summer. He sustained on bread and water and few

Saint John of the Cross (1656), oil on canvas,

by Francisco de Zurbaran (1598-1664).

Wikimedia Commons

scraps of salted fish, and taken out for regular beatings, with scars he bore the rest of his life.

To read his breviary, he had to stand on a bench for light through a hole in an adjoining room.

For nine months the dark dungeon was his abode. It is in such a pitiful condition that his “spirit was humbled, softened and purified until it becomes so delicate, simple and refined that it can be one with the spirit of God,” according to Dark Night as cited by Fr. Norbert Cummins, OCD, in An Introduction to Saint John of the Cross.

He managed to escape nine months later through a small window in a room next to his cell.

In June 22, 1580, Pope Gregory XIII signed Pia Consideratione separating the Calced from the Discalced Carmelites.

John helped establish monasteries for the next five years. He was elected Provincial Vicar of Andalucia in May 1585.

A fter disagreeing w ith leadership changes in the Discalced Ca r mel ite Order, he was re move d b y Fr. Nicol a s Dor i a f rom his post in Segov ia and was sent to a solitar y monaster y in sout her n Spa in.

He fell ill caused by an ulcerous inf lammation of the leg and was transferred to Ubeda for medical care.

Toward the end of his life a voice from the crucifi x asked him what reward he wanted?

His a nswer: “ Endu re su f fer ings, despised and counted as nothing,” recounted Enzo Lodi in Saints of the Roman Calendar.

His major work s inc lude t he D ark Night, t he S p ir it u al Ca nt icle a nd T he Liv ing F la me of L ove, a nd t h re e lo ve p o e m s w it h com me nt a r ie s. H i s m i nor work s a re t he S a y ing s of Light a nd L ove, Ma x im s of L ove a nd R oma nce s; a nd some Coun s el s on Per fec t ion.

From his writings it can be surmised that he had offered himself entirely to God and has attained mystical experiences as gleaned in Stanza 27 of Spiritual Canticle: “There He gave me His breast. There He taught me a sweet and living knowledge.”

Saint John commented that giving one’s breast is extending love and friendship and revealing secrets to him as a friend.

He died at the age of 49 on December 14, 1591.

Beatified on January 25, 1675,

by Pope Clement IX, he was canonized by Pope Benedict XIII on December 27, 1726, and declared Doctor of the Church by Pope Pius XI on November 24, 1926.

Santiago is a former regional director of the Department of Education National Capital Region. She is currently a faculty member of Mater Redemptoris College in Calauan, Laguna.

Sports BusinessMirror

A8

It was the first time Bach has publicly spoken about further changes to the bidding process, which has suffered in recent years as voters rejected bids in referendums, and cities dropped out because of concerns over the costs of the Games.

L

L

IFE has, indeed, changed for this lady, whose weightlifting skills started when her task in the family was to fetch water, carrying pails that approximate her weight.

Hidilyn Diaz, the toast of Philippine sports for her weightlifting silver medal at the Rio de Janeiro Olympics, has earned millions and a house and lot—not to mention endorsements—for her achievement.

N

ATIONAL Hockey League (NHL) Commissioner Gary Bettman said there’s significant opposition among team owners to continuing participation in the Winter Olympics, and the league is running out of time on negotiations to take part in the 2018 Games.

Following a meeting of the league’s Board of Governors on Thursday, Bettman said no decision was made regarding Olympics participation in 2018 in South Korea.

“I think, it’s fair to say that there is some strong negative sentiment in the room,” Bettman said. “But nothing was decided today.”

NHL players have competed in the past five Winter Olympics dating to 1998 and want to continue taking part, but owners are concerned about the midseason interruption and injury risk.

Bettman said his recent proposal to the NHL Players’ Association regarding an extension of the collective bargaining agreement in return for Olympic participation

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

By Stephen Wilson | The Associated Press

AUSANNE, Switzerland— Signaling a potential radical change in the way Olympic host cities are chosen, International Olympic Committee (IOC) President Thomas Bach wants to revise the bidding process, because it “produces too many losers”.

He wouldn’t rule out the possibility of awarding two games at the same time.

Bach’s comments came on Thursday, the same day the IOC executive board cleared all three candidate cities for the 2024 Olympics—Paris, Los Angeles and Budapest, Hungary—to advance to the next stage of the race.

“We have to take into consideration that the procedure, as it is now, produces, too many losers,” Bach said at a news conference. “You can be happy about a strong field in quantity for one day, but you start to regret it the next day.

“It is not the purpose of an Olympic candidate city procedure to produce losers. It is to produce the best possible host for an Olympic Games. We will have to

RIO DE JANEIRO Olympics silver medalist Hidilyn Diaz interacts with students during a recent speaking engagement at the Nangka Elementary School in Marikina City. NONOY LACZA

By Lance Agcaoili

Sunday, December 11, 2016

But the lady from Barangay Mampang in Zamboanga City has other responsibilities, which she comfortably carries out.

Diaz has been visiting schools to give inspirational talks to students, telling them about the hardships she has gone through before her Olympic feat, and stressing on the importance of education even for successful athletes like her.

She plans to enroll at College of Saint Benilde for a Business Management degree and, as important, build a weightlifting gym

was part of a larger discussion about hockey’s international calendar.

“That discussion morphed into, ‘Maybe we should be talking about a long-term international schedule with predictability,’” Bettman said. “If you look at the calendar and you play it out in the logical sequences of the way these events get played, we said if you look at the calendar and get rid of the [CBA] reopeners and you extend by three years, that gets you two Olympics, two World Cups and two Ryder Cups.”

Such an agreement would ensure nine years of labor peace, but players rejected the proposal.

In other matters, the league gave owners a range for next season’s salary cap. Bettman projected it would remain flat or increase by about $2 million.

The NHL does not intend to reconsider the name or logo of the Las Vegas expansion franchise after US patent authorities denied the club’s trademark request, Deputy Commissioner Bill Daly said. AP

look into this.”

It was the first time Bach has publicly spoken about further changes to the bidding process, which has suffered in recent years as voters rejected bids in referendums, and cities dropped out because of concerns over the costs of the Games.

Paris, Los Angeles, and Budapest are in the final nine months of the race for the 2024 Games. The IOC is scheduled to vote on the host city in September in Lima, Peru.

Paris and Los Angeles are viewed as close favorites, with Budapest as an outsider.

Olympic officials in recent months have begun privately discussing the idea of awarding the 2024 and 2028 Games simultaneously, ensuring that

in Mampang to create a lasting legacy from her Olympic medal.

“I see a lot of potential from aspiring weightlifters in Mampang, and even in the whole country. So I can say that the future is bright for the Philippines in weightlifting,” the 25-year-old Diaz said.

“I already bought a lot in Mampang for the gym. Only the minute details are left to be worked out for the gym to be operational,” she added.

Tokyo 2020 is four years away, and Diaz has focused on shooting for the gold medal.

“I’m eyeing to go up to 58 kg,” said Diaz, who competed in her first Olympics in the same weight category in Beijing 2008. In Rio she saw action in the 53 kg class.

“But for now, I don’t want to exhaust myself, since it’s still a long way to go for the 2020 Olympics. There is a right time for that, and I know that if I will sacrifice and start working hard, it should be for the Olympics, because it’s every athlete’s target, because it’s the hardest and biggest competition,” she said.

For the meantime, the holidays beckon and like every other Filipino, Diaz wants to celebrate Christmas with her family.

THOMAS BACH: You can be happy about a strong field in quantity for one day, but you start to regret it the next day. AP

Paris and Los Angeles would get one or the other.

Some officials believe that, because both cities are such strong contenders, it would be a mistake for one to lose out. It would seem unlikely that either loser would bid again for 2028.

Bach repeated several times that the 2024 bidding is already in full swing, and the IOC is “happy” with that process. However, he was asked twice about the possibility of awarding both Games at the Lima meeting, and he didn’t categorically rule it out.

“Let us study this question, which is not an easy one,” he said.

Bach suggested it is more likely

any major change will come for future bidding races.

“We have to think long term,” he said, adding that, for the 2024 race, the IOC advised three unidentified cities during the “invitation phase” not to submit bids, because they failed to meet the requirements.

The IOC has been seeking to fix the bidding process for years amid a sharp downturn in interest from potential host cities, many scared off by the $51-billion price tag associated with the 2014 Sochi Winter Games.

The bid races for the 2020, 2022 and 2024 Olympics were all hit by withdrawals for political or financial reasons. Six

cities pulled out of the contest for the ’22 Winter Games, leaving only two finalists, with Beijing defeating Almaty, Kazakhstan.

Hamburg pulled out of the 2024 race after local residents rejected the bid in a referendum, and Rome’s 2024 bid was scrapped after the new mayor rejected the project over costs.

Bach’s Olympic Agenda 2020 reforms were aimed at making bidding and hosting more flexible and less costly.

But Bach acknowledged on Thursday the reforms hadn’t solved everything, saying they have been affected by “more changes in the decision-making mechanisms in politics.”

“You can see how in many countries, you have populist movements and antiestablishment movements getting stronger and stronger, asking different and new questions,” he said.

While the IOC has traditionally awarded one Olympics at a time, some other major sports bodies have awarded multiple events at a time.

Fifa awarded the 2018 World Cup to Russia and 2022 tournament to Qatar in the same bidding process. Fifa leaders say that was a mistake that will not be repeated. Swiss federal prosecutors are still looking into suspicions of wrongdoing during that contest.

BRONZE MEDALISTS Aby Marano unleashes a killer spike, as she helps

F2 Logistics squeeze a marathon 25-13, 25-20, 20-25, 20-25, 18-16 victory over RC Cola-Army in the battle for the bronze medal in the Asics Philippine Superliga Grand Prix presented by PLDT Home Ultera on Thursday night at the FilOil Flying V Center in San Juan City. In the championship series, Foton beat Petron, 20-25, 21-25, 25-22, 25-17, 15-9, for a 1-0 lead in the best-of-three duel.

S

GLOBE President and CEO Ernest Cu (left) and Coach Chieffy Caligdong (right) with (from left) Mikaela Jacqueline Villacin, Jasmine Cassandra Agustin, Astrid Heiress Ignacio, Ryan Philip Johansson, Lance Lawrence Locsin and Jared Alexander Peña.

IX Filipino kids aged 10 to 12 will fly to Barcelona in Spain for a 12-day Astro Kem Bola Overseas Training Program.

They are Lance Lawrence Locsin, Jared Alexander Peña, Ryan Philip Johansson, Astrid Heiress Ignacio, Mikaela Jacqueline Villacin and Jasmine Cassandra Agustin.

The kids are the products of the twomonth-long TM Football Para sa Bayan (TM FPSB) talent search organized by Globe Telecom in July and August. Globe was tapped by Malaysian media and entertainment firm Astro to be its partner in discovering talented young athletes and helping them harness their craft.

Globe Director for Citizenship Fernando Esguerra expressed elation over the selection of the six players, especially after going through tough competition against other footballers from the Southeast Asian region.

“We are so happy with the turnout,

to think that this is the first time that Globe has partnered with Astro in this international activity. We are looking forward to being part of the Astro Kem Bola program again in the succeeding years,” Esguerra said.

The Filipinos will join 22 kids from Malaysia and four from Singapore to train with coaches from FC Barcelona.

“Astro is committed to championing sports and sportsmanship to aspiring athletes within the region. We continue this commitment through Astro Kem Bola,” said Datuk David Michael Yap, Astro vice president of community affairs.

“Nothing is more rewarding than seeing potential turn into reality. In a special way for these young kids, the experience gives them a unique opportunity to really see how far their talent can develop at such an early age.

I’m sure they will do us proud,” said Ray Guinoo, TM portfolio and brand head.

Tourism&Entertainment BusinessMirror

Editor: Carla Mortel-Baricaua

Sunday, December 11, 2016 A7

Happiness after Yolanda in Eastern Visayas

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Story & photos by Gretchen Filart Dublin

n 2013 Supertyphoon Yolanda—Haiyan to the rest of the world—brought with it a storm surge that swept away over 6,300 people in Eastern Visayas.

In the Palo Metropolitan Cathedral mass grave—just one of many across Leyte—only a few hundred are identified. Many remain missing to this day. Every November 8, as the region commemorates the Yolanda calamity, social media is flooded with messages from loved ones asking the lost to come home.

Conversations with locals often lend themselves to anguish.

But Filipinos are renowned for faith and resilience, a trait that the people of Eastern Visayas carry deeper than others. Despite haunting memories of the deluge, locals find a way to open doors to opportunities that wring beauty from such a bleak tragedy.

Interestingly, tourism in this archipelagic region has risen tremendously since Yolanda happened. Department of Tourism (DOT) Region 8 administrative officer Brett de los Santos recalls how Leyte, particularly Tacloban, suffered from months of no electricity and water, hunger, looting and the stench of the dead—and how it was, ironically, the arrival of Yolanda that put then-unpopular Eastern Visayas on the map.

“Before, we had a really hard time promoting tourism here. But after the international community saw the disaster on the TV, there was an increase of about 300 percent in tourist arrivals,” he said.

Was it hard for Eastern Visayas to rise from the ashes? Not as many would imagine, de los Santos commented. He shares that only a year after the tragic storm, Samar, Leyte, and Biliran have recovered “more than 100 percent from the devastation”.

Into the heart of Eastern Visayas

A 45-minute AirAsia flight to Tacloban—the gateway to the region —showed us how the Waray blitz tragedy. Then, we cruised over the 2.16-kilometer length of San Juanico bridge onward to a humble culinary institution in Samar. Ba-

The island-provinces of Eastern Visayas are all connected by bridges.

THE Palo Metropolitan Cathedral and mass grave has over 300 buried Yolanda victims.

hay Kubo, a family-owned business at the Santa Rita junction, prides itself in serving smoky, coconutinfused native chicken. Their sweet chayote and bananas, paired with salty fish and mango salad, is an amazing introduction to Samar’s cuisine as one overlooks San Juanico bridge. Gastronomy, it turns out, is a pleasure that people take seriously in Eastern Visayas. From Bahay Kubo, we discovered many notable Waray restaurants, like Calle Zaragoza in Leyte, a colonial-style outfit that serves good-for-sharing Filipino and Western meals under P200, such as crispy tenga and bulalo. I cannot imagine disliking any of a dozen dishes served to us in this family favorite.

There is also Jo’s Milagrina in Ormoc, whose economical boodle meals combine the most loved components of Filipino cuisine, such as itlog na maalat at kamatis and inasal na manok at liempo.

Here, patrons can sample the best crispy kangkong in this side of the Visayas and view live chickens in kitschy glass partitions.

If you are craving for artisan coffee and cheesecakes, Lorenzo’s Cafe fronting the Ormoc City pier is worth visiting. For great chops and pie, find Big Roy’s Resto in Pal-

ompon. A celebrity favorite, this streetside Western restaurant offers delectable specials, such as fillet mignon and Angus roast beef.

However, my most memorable dining experience takes place in Canaan Hill Farms and Honey Garden, where we ate blue rice and flowers for lunch. There are plenty others that are grown in the farm, including endangered plant species, like malaigang and lomboy. Organic meals—all homegrown from fowl to garnish—are served in a breezy hut uphill, surrounded by Mount Suiro and Coalargo Bay. Guests also learn the art of planting and harvesting their own plants and mingle with meek sheep.

Eastern Visayas’s off-the-books surprises

Just a few minutes away from Canaan Hill Farms and Honey Garden is Tinago Falls, a relatively unknown 80-feet cascade in Barangay Caibiran. Swimming in its bone-chilling basin, surrounded by tall, vegetated limestones, one cannot help but marvel at the idea that water-loving tourists will never run out of activities to explore here.

Another such activity is the Ulot River Torpedo Extreme Boat Adventure in Paranas, Samar. This exhilarating 10-km ride takes you from Barangay Tenani to Ulot River’s rapids and whirlpools aboard a six-seater torpedo boat—a long wooden canoe without outriggers that is navigated manually by an expert guide.

It was wet and drizzling as the boat buoyed through the current for an hour, leaving us soaked from sole to head. The whole route spans 90 km, passing by small cascades, caves, and an eagle sanctuary (ulot means monkey in Waray, a staple diet for the Philippine MonkeyEating Eagle, the first sighting of which was recorded in Ulot River),

Guitar-shaped Lake Danao in Ormoc

but the ride culminates at Deni’s Point, where you can freefall from the boulders to a torrential stream.

There’s also Lake Danao—previously Lake Imelda—in Ormoc, a tranquil, guitar-shaped lake that rests 650 meters above sea level.

Rich canopies loom over the lake, and the water is fresh and nippy. If the sun gets too hot, there are floating huts for resting.

Heartwarming stays

“Since Yolanda, more and more hotels, restaurants, spas and tourist transport services have been opening their doors,” de los Santos commented.

Indeed, even The Oriental Leyte Hotel on Palo’s Red Beach, which was left derelict after the storm surge, now boasts an elaborate and upscale space, with Asian-themed suites that are risen two floors on the shore. There is no trace of calamity, especially as one watches sunrise and the tides from the seaside lounge or while enjoying a finely crafted Asian buffet in Samsara, its in-house restaurant.

Even in heavily damaged places, such as Tacloban, hotels like the chic XYZ Hotel and family-owned Hotel Estrella, flourish more than ever. Both offer skyline bars that overlook the city as you enjoy bespoke cocktails.

In Ormoc coastal respites, such as Sabin Resort and Ormoc Villa Hotel, share the same vibrance. In both outfits, guests are treated to luxurious pools amid beautifully landscaped gardens. The hotels receive as many business travelers as families, thanks to their capacious meeting rooms.

De los Santos credits Eastern Visayas’s fast recuperation to the communities’ concerted effort to rebuild and help. “There was really bayanihan during Yolanda. Everyone was helping everyone.

Deni's Point at The Ulot River Torpedo Extreme Boat Adventure

Those who have excess relief goods give theirs away to neighbors, so did those who have sarisari stores. Even those who looted shared food without hesitation when asked,” he intimated. It also helped that businesses showed unwavering cooperation to the rehabilitative efforts initiated by local government units, who, along with non-governmental organizations, worked round-the-clock to restore order in Eastern Visayas.

“Apart from relief operations, we at the Department of Tourism are also involved in monitoring and education to ensure all businesses are well-informed of contingency plans in case something like Yolanda happens again. We go across the region with consultants to conduct seminars and workshops on disaster reduction, water conservation, evacuation and environmental changes for hotel owners and their staff so that everyone is well-prepared,” de los Santos added.

Finding happiness after the storm

Exactly three years after Yolanda made Eastern Visayas nearly unsalvageable, we headed to Palo Metropolitan Cathedral’s mass grave.

In the air, elegies resounded along with the jarring reality that on the

cathedral’s grounds, hundreds of Filipinos laid to rest. The air was somber, even if very few cried.

Our bus treaded the streets, where candles sparked against the night all the way to the MacArthur Landing Memorial, where a candle-lighting ceremony was being held to commemorate the departed. At the park, a mass was held, candles were lit and shaped like a cross, and people flew paper lanterns, chanting gleefully as they flew upward to the moon. In a world where it’s often harder to forget pain than to rejoice in happiness, I have expected to see nothing but sadness and pain in Eastern Visayas.

But instead what I saw was hope, and fortitude. I saw how the Waray, like the rest of the Filipinos, are unwavering in their pursuit of happiness even after despair has claimed much of the journey.

“Somehow, the uneasiness and pain will always be here,” said de los Santos placing a hand over his chest. “But the Waray always finds ways to find the positive amid the dark.”

Samar, Biliran and Leyte can be reached by flying into the Tacloban Airport. AirAsia flies three times daily from Manila to Tacloban.

Man Ho opens at Marriott Manila

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hinese banquets for up to 1,800 people have been frequent events at the Marriott Hotel Manila ever since the arrival of Chef Law Wui Wing in 2014. While that may seem lavish, the food served at these banquets takes it to the next level.

Live abalone from Hong Kong, Alaskan king crabs weighing 5 kilos each, braised bird’s nest in a broth simmered with Chinese ham for at least five hours, and buchi stuffed with Ferrero Rocher chocolate —Chef Law has prepared them all (and much more) for weddings, birthdays, corporate events and other festive occasions.

Now, with the opening of Man Ho in Marriott Manila, these exquisite dishes will be available to customers daily, without them having to book an entire banquet. Starting November 29 at 6 p.m., Man Ho will be serving lunch and dinner a la carte.

From the menu, customers can choose familiar Cantonese dishes, such as deep-fried boneless chicken in Japanese style, fried rice with chicken and salted fish, beef fillet and black fungus with ginger and leeks, sautéed porcini mushrooms and braised seafood soup with caviar.

In addition, they can try the more unusual ones, such as the deep-fried bean curd with spicy salt, marinated fungus with black vinegar, the smoked duck breast with mango and the ever popular roasted Peking duck with Chinese pancakes. With Chef Law at the helm, these dishes are guaranteed to be as scrumptious as they sound.

A native of Hong Kong, Law has been cooking

in Chinese kitchens since he was 15 years old. After working in some of the best restaurants in Hong Kong and Japan, he became executive Chinese chef at the JW Marriott Hotel in Shanghai, the Pearl Restaurant at the Beijing Marriott Hotel City Wall and at the Marriott China Hotel in Guangzhou.

The Man Ho restaurant he opened in Shanghai was named one of the top 10 Cantonese restaurants for three consecutive years by Shanghai Modern Weekly. “I always make sure of the freshness of the ingredients,” Law says. He imports many of the seafood, such as the king prawns and crabs from Hong Kong. On his days off, he goes to Chinatown to check what’s available. One of the ingredients he buys there are the almonds, which he grinds down to dust to make his authentic almond cream dessert. Also imported from China are the pigeons and suckling pigs. The suckling pigs come from Hunan province, where pigs of very good quality are raised, Law says.

One of the items in Man Ho’s menu is a rarity in Manila: roast goose with plum sauce. Law is especially proud of the way they prepare this Hong Kong specialty. “We stuff the goose with Chinese herbs,” he says. “Then we put it in front of a fan for about 10 hours so that the skin will be very dry before we put it in the oven.” The technique makes the goose’s skin very crispy.

But it’s more than just the crisp, mahoganycolored skin that makes the roast goose so appealing. Underneath the skin is a very thin layer

of fat that adds texture and gives the goose a very sensuous flavor. Another must try are the dim sum specialties prepared by Du Wen Bo, an especially trained chef that previously worked at Beijing Marriott Hotel City Wall and was a well- known dim sum chef in town. The dumplings are cooked only upon order and are served steaming hot with chili bean sauce. At this point Man Ho already has bookings for banquets up to January next year.

Some of the bookings are from repeat customers who have been extremely pleased with the delicious cuisine and the excellent service.

“I always talk to the guests because I’m the one who knows everything about the Chinese food we serve,” Chef Law says. “I make sure they’re happy. If they’re happy, then I’m happy.”

While Man Ho aims to provide authenticity in its Chinese food preparation, it also anticipates attracting modern food connoisseurs by incorporating contemporary design touches to its otherwise elegant Chinese-inspired interiors.

Guests will be welcomed by an elegant ambiance of high ceilings, intricate wood-carving details, and floor-to- ceiling windows giving a lush view of the golf course. It has a total of 140 seats and features six private dining rooms that can hold from six to 24 persons. Two private dining rooms can be combined for a larger intimate gathering.

Man Ho is conveniently situated in the new Marriott West Wing with connection to the Main Hotel and the Marriott Grand Ballroom.

Assorted Barbecue of the best Chinese roasts from pork, chicken and duck

Cantonese Classic Fried Boneless Chicken stirred with shallots in black bean sauce

All-time favorite dim sum, Steamed Custard Buns with Egg Yolk, made delicate and flavor-filled.

Have a taste of Italy in Molito C

raving for an Italian food trip in Alabang?

Well, head straight to Parmigiano Ristorante Pizzeria in Molito Commercial Complex for an authentic Italian dining experience that the whole family can enjoy.

Open to the public since November 23, Parmigiano Molito offers 92 Italian delightful menu items, from appetizers to main courses that include a variety of seafood, pork, chicken, beef and lamb dishes that are big on flavors, but are easy on the pocket.

“We would like to be the new dining destination of families here in the South. Whether for regular lunch, dinner or grand reunions, we want families to come together and go to Parmigiano,” said Giulius Iapino, president of Rigatoni Corp. “Our dishes are cooked with the finest, imported ingredients, meticulouslyprepared and served with generous portions that are perfect for feasting with the family.”

Anchored by the success of Parmigiano Ristorante Pizzeria in Newport City Mall, Resorts World Manila, Parmigiano Molito introduces an improved Italian menu that features dishes, such as the Tiella, the Tuscan-style paella cooked in a wood-fire oven with chunks of meat and

shellfish topped with cheese. The two versions available are the Tiella Di Carne, a tomato-based style paella with a variety of meat, and the Tiella Di Pesce, a truffle and cream-based style paella with vegetables and seafood.

Family diners must also try the Parmigiano-Reggiano Wheel for an overload of cheesy goodness on pasta dishes, like Carbonara and Cacio Di Pepe. Said to be the king of cheeses, the cheese wheel is made up of a 45-kilo full round of Parmigiano-Reggiano that is partially hollowed out like a bowl where pasta is prepared while the cheese slowly melts and combines with pasta. To watch the preparation itself is a delightful experience.

Parmigiano’s 26 pasta dishes go perfectly well with the 17 pizza items on its menu. Made with freshly prepared hand-pulled dough, each Parmigiano pizza is brick oven-baked to achieve the “jaguar spots.” These blackened spots of char on the rim of the pizza simply show how perfectly cooked a pizza crust is.

For family members who are meat lovers, they can indulge and have their fill of the Grilled Platters are perfect for big appetites: the Festa platter is filled with special pork ribs, Italian

sausage, and roasted chicken and side dishes, while the Grande platter that comes with grilled marinated chicken, beef and pork tenderloin, rack of lamb and side dishes. “Parmigiano is fast-becoming known for its excellent customer service based on the reviews posted by guests and food bloggers in all of our social-media accounts” Iapino stressed. “Our passion is customer satisfaction and we are thankful and grateful for the positive feedback. We intend to deliver the same kind of service here in Molito.”

Another exciting feature of Parmigiano Molito is its modern Italian interior design that creates an indoor/outdoor ambiance for a more relaxed dining experience. “We created space by putting up a high ceiling and huge glass walls. It’s like walking into a patio with a small garden. The result is a homey feel; welcoming and comfortable,” Iapino added. “In Parmigiano Molito, every day is family day, so we make sure that they will have a fabulous dining experience while sharing good food and memories together.”

Parmigiano Pizzeria Ristorante is at Unit 10, Lifestyle Exit, Molito Commercial Complex, Madrigal Avenue corner Zapote Road, Alabang, Muntinlupa City.

A12 Sunday, December 11, 2016

Wine&Dine BusinessMirror

Editor: Dino Datu • datu.dino@gmail.com Golf at Camp John Hay

Christmas lights at The Manor

(seated from left) BusinessM irro r Publisher Anton Cabangon, CJ Juntereal, Margaux Salcedo and Vladimir Bunoan (standing from left) Dino Dat u, Teddy Montelibano and Che f Billy King Chef Billy King

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Text & photos by Chef Dino Datu

f the Philippines is known for celebrating the longest Christmas season on earth, does it also follow that we celebrate it best? Having been invited to Camp John Hay’s 20th Anniversary celebrations last month, I’d say we do.

The holidays have always been a time for generosity and thanksgiving and on it’s 20th year, Camp John Hay Development Corp. (CJHDevCo) pulled out all the stops. Headed by CJHDevCo Chairman Robert John Sobrepeña, media guests and friends were treated to the best of everything Camp John Hay. Christmas can mean a lot of things to a lot of people, but personally, my favorite things about the holidays are the festive décor and the food, shared with friends and family, of course.

Christmas trees, parols, belen and lights of all colors add to the spirit of the season, something that guests of The Manor at Camp John Hay are sure to enjoy. Our visit to Baguio early in November meant cold mornings and cool breezes throughout the day, adding to the holiday feel. Driving up The Manor’s driveway, guests are greeted with a life-sized belen, with the nativity scene serving as a subtle reminder of what the season is all about. Entering the lobby, the holiday theme continues with the decked-out fireplace and Christmas tree, the beautiful décor tempting guests who’ve come from far and wide to take selfies and pictures even before they check-in.

Our three-day Camp John Hay weekend started with dinner at Le Chef—prepared by The Chef—Billy King. With friends from the media seated and chatting away while enjoying our wines and hors d’oeuvres—plus one of the best bread baskets you could ask for— Chef Billy King started off with a prawn salad with goat cheese drizzled with a creamy balsamic dressing. Providing the crunch was a piece of poppadom, the thin and crispy Indian-spiced flatbread, made the Le Chef way. The main course, Sirloin steak in Sauce Périgueux with Mediterranean Risotto was perfect for us weary travellers. After half a day of driving, checking-in and getting settled, words like steak, rice, black truffles and goose liver are music to our ears. The dinner ended with some more cheese, this time the sweetened cake kind, served with Baguio strawberries, of course. After some more drinks and a few songs from one of our hosts, Margaux Salcedo, at the piano bar, we were more than ready to retire to our rooms.

The second day started very early, around 6:00am, for those of us who joined the golf tournament. Part of the 20th anniversary celebrations was a tournament for members of Camp John Hay Golf Club and guests. I was looking forward to a round of golf at Camp John Hay for a while and as always, the course was in impeccable condition. The rolling terrain, lush pine trees and lightning fast bent grass greens (the only one in the country), makes for one of the most scenic and enjoyable rounds you can have anywhere. After golf and a nice afternoon nap, I was ready for the big event, the grand anniversary party.

Having gone to a recent party at the Forest Lodge hosted by CJHDevCo, I knew I could look forward to a great time at the anniversary party. Even before the party started, guests were serenaded by choirs of all ages, from all around Baguio City.

Describing the food set-up at The Manor during the party as a spread would be a gross understatement. More than a dozen stations: from sushi and sashimi to charcuterie, from the cheese to the teppanyaki station, and our favorite, the grilling station

with…wait for it…Wagyu beef! I almost didn’t get to try the Wagyu beef, being more than happy with the stations I’ve managed to fill my plate from. But as I was about to sit down, Teddy Montelibano, respected editor and writer, was raving about the Wagyu beef from the grill station. I quickly put my plate down and headed to the grill, armed with another empty plate and directions from Mr. Montelibano. I must’ve gone to the Wagyu station three or four times, each time getting a plateful, intended for sharing with everyone at our table but ending up mostly in my belly. It was a night filled with great food, flowing drinks and entertainment, highlighted by a fireworks display and Christmas tree lighting ceremony that lit-up not only the cold mountain sky, but the guests faces too. The occasion also served as a launching of the Camp John Hay coffee table book, a look back at the past while everyone looks forward to what CJHDevCo has in store for the future.

The Manor and Camp John Hay are institutions in our country’s summer capital, and with good reason. From the best in dining from Le Chef and Chef Billy King, to the well-appointed rooms and impeccable service at The Manor and Forest Lodge, to the best greens and views in local golf at Camp John Hay Golf Club and every convenience in dining, shopping and entertainment all around the CJH complex, there are so many reasons to head on up north this season and experience the holiday season at its best at Camp John Hay.

Sirloin steak in Sauce

erranean Risotto Périgueux with Medit

The Manor’s Belen

Prawn and goat cheese salad