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TECHNOLOGICAL EVOLUTION DILEMMA

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NO SOLUTION IN SIGHT FOR E-WASTE PROBLEM

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By Jonathan L. Mayuga

ote, dyaryo kayo dyan! Sirang TV, radyo, electric fan, bumibili,” a man in his 40s repeatedly shouts as he pedals his pedicab along a narrow street, trying to avoid children playing on the road and the parked cars in this densely populated subdivision in Dasmariñas, Cavite, one sunny day in November.

His pedicab overflows with assorted junk, including broken home appliances that he bought from homeowners of the said subdivision. The man, who introduced himself as “Mel,” buys and sells junk, which he delivers to a nearby junk shop that lends him his P1,000 daily capital. Buying and selling junk— from empty bottles, scrap metals, plastic and broken home appliances, electronic equipment or nonfunctioning gadgets—has been his way of life for the last six years. Mel said he decided to

do this kind of livelihood because of the lack of better employment opportunity, and to make quick cash that will put food on the table for the family. “I earn just enough. Sometimes, I earn P400 a day. Sometimes, I earn as much as P600,” he said, speaking in Filipino. “Sometimes, I get to buy a lot of broken TV sets. Sometimes, I get TV sets in good condition. That’s when sellers ask for a higher price because the television set they are trying to dispose is still functioning. They just want to sell it because they bought a new one,”

he told the BusinessMirror. Broken TV sets, electric fans and washing machines are among the common home appliances that Mel buys, which he delivers to the junk shop. He pays from P50 to P100 for broken home appliances. One homeowner sold his 31-inch TV set, which is still working, for P250. “I’ll have it checked and see if I can sell it for P500,” he said. Mel admits that sometimes he sells the broken appliances to repair shops at a marked-up price for a bigger profit. In the same village, enter-

prising vendors offer discounts or exchange deals for new ones with buyers of broken household items like plastic basins, pails or water containers. There are also traders who regularly make the rounds offering to buy broken laptops, tablets or cellular phones, which they repair and sell. “They fix and sell them as reconditioned or secondhand items,” he said. Asked how business is doing, all-around electronic technician Manolo M. Dionela said business is Continued on A2

New energy chief seen giving priority to consumer protection

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By Lenie Lectura

ssuance of landmark policies, court restraining orders and change in leadership. These were the highlights that shaped the energy sector in 2017.

“It’s a bit challenging and, at the same time, we have to work more to ultimately give consumers what they deserve. We have laid down the policies meant to protect consumers, and we will continue to look for ways to keep it going,” said Department of Energy (DOE) Secretary Alfonso Cusi in an interview. The energy chief was referring to the retail competition and open access (RCOA), a landmark policy that should have allowed consumers to choose their own supplier of electricity but was stopped by the Supreme Court (SC) in February 2017.

PESO exchange rates n US 49.9230

Cusi: “Given that energy investors have complete requirements, cutting down the period of issuance of permits will certainly speed up the realization of energy projects.”

Also, it was a relief for the energy sector when Executive Order (EO) 30 was issued. The Malacañang order was meant to fast track energy-related projects. On the average, it takes more than five years to put up one power plant.

RCOA

RCOA, in a nutshell, allows consumers to source power from a licensed retail electricity supplier (RES) to encourage competition in the generation and supply sector. At present, the majority of power consumers are being supplied by Manila Electric Co. (Meralco), the country’s largest distribution utility (DU) firm. It can be recalled that the SC issued on February 21 a temporary restraining order (TRO) against a DOE circular and Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) resolutions days before these were supposed to take effect.

The mandatory switching of consumers with an average peak consumption of 750 kilowatts (kW) to 999 kW, which should have taken effect on June 26, 2017, was among the rules that were halted by the SC. But the mandatory switching of power users consuming an average of at least 1 megawatt (MW) per month is already in effect. Various entities sought clarification on the effects of the TRO, specifically the participation of contestable customers in the RCOA and the issuance of licenses for RES. While the TRO remains in effect, the DOE signed two department circulars that will hopefully pave the way for the resumption of the implementation of the RCOA scheme. The DOE said it was compelled to provide immediate guidelines to affected power industry entities, which sought clarification on the implications and effects of

the TRO on the pre-existing RCOA processes. “The issuance of the circular is necessary to address policy and regulatory gaps resulting from and consistent with the above-mentioned cases and TRO,” said Cusi. The newly issued circular on “Providing Policies on the Implementation of RCOA for Contestable Customers (CC) in the Philippines Electric Power Industry” is meant to implement RCOA on a voluntary basis instead of mandatory. Section 1 of the said draft circular calls for the voluntary participation of CCs with average peak demand of 750 kW and above, for the past 12 months, in the retail market. Section 2, meanwhile, also calls for the voluntary participation of consumers with average peak demand of 500 kW to 749 kW in the retail market by June 2018, or an earlier date specified by the ERC. By December 2018 or an earlier

date, electricity end-users within a contiguous area whose aggregate average peak demand is not less than 500 kW for the preceding 12-month period may aggregate their demand to be part of the contestable market and may voluntarily enter into RSC with aggregators. Aggregators refer to any person or entity engaged in consolidating electric power demand of end-users in the contestable market for the purpose of purchasing and reselling electricity on a group basis. The DOE and the ERC shall annually review and issue policies to achieve the full implementation of RCOA until it reaches the household demand level. The other circular is meant to allow a local RES, or an affiliate of a distribution utility that functions as a RES, to continue serving the captive market under a separate entity.

n japan 0.4423 n UK 67.1165 n HK 6.3882 n CHINA 7.6413 n singapore 37.3228 n australia 38.9050 n EU 59.6131 n SAUDI arabia 13.3121

See “Energy,” A2

Source: BSP (29 December 2017 )

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A2 Sunday, December 31, 2017

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No solution in sight for e-waste problem Continued from A1

not as brisk as it was 20 years ago, when he decided to open his electronic shop. “Matumal na [Business is now slow],” he said. “Unlike before, when a lot of people bring all kinds of appliances to shops for repair. Now, they just buy new ones,” he told the BusinessMirror in an interview. His shop along P. Campos Street in Dasmariñas, Cavite, is filled with broken TV sets and other appliances for repair. It won’t be long when he will dispose of some of the unclaimed appliances after salvaging usable parts. “I dispose them from time to time. I only keep what I can use,” he said. For P50 to P100 per piece, he said he is more than happy to sell them to anyone who will pick them up from his shop. A computer-shop owner said, every year, he also sells old computers that are outdated or obsolete—to people like Mel who is in the business of buying and selling scraps. All kinds of junk bought by junk shops sometimes go to companies in the business of waste recycling and disposal. With the evolution of technology and the unending race by makers to develop brand-new electrical and electronic appliances, or equipment and gadgets with advanced features, more and more home appliances and electronic gadgets are being put up for disposal. Sadly, not all electronic waste end up in recycling facilities. The National Solid Waste Management Commission (NSWMC) said broken home and kitchen appliances, electrical or

Energy...

electronic equipment or gadgets add up to the already burgeoning solid waste-management problem in the Philippines. These are collectively called electronic waste or e-waste. The Global E-waste Monitor 2017 said electronic waste refers to all items of electrical and electronic equipment (EEE) and its parts that have been discarded by the owners as waste without the intent of reuse. The International Telecommunication Union, United Nations University, and the International Solid Waste Association released on December 13 a report showing the rising levels of e-waste and its improper and unsafe treatment and disposal. The report said globally, some 44.7 million metric tons of e-waste were generated in 2016, or about 6.1 kilos per inhabitant on earth. In the Philippines about 2 to 5 kilos of e-waste were produced per inhabitant, according to the report. The global e-waste generation will reach 52.2 million metric tons by 2021, according to the same report. According to the group EcoWaste Coalition, a local waste and pollution watchdog, among the hazardous substances that make up electrical and electronic equipment and their waste are heavy metals, such as cadmium, hexavalent chromium, lead and mercury, and persistent organic pollutants (POPs) such as polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDes) and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), among dozens of other toxic chemical compounds. E-waste includes a wide range of products—almost any household or business item with circuitry or electrical components with

continued from A1

“DUs may provide electricity services to contestable customers within their franchise area as a local RES, upon authorization from the ERC; provided, that the DU shall comply with the unbundling provisions of the RA 9136 and Rule 10 of the rules and regulations to implement RA 9136,” stated the circular “Providing Policies on the Implementation of RCOA for RES in the Philippines Electric Power Industry.” RES are the entities licensed by the ERC to supply electricity to endusers in contestable market. “We had to do something since many are asking for guidance. These two circulars address the voluntary aspect, allowing customers to choose whether they want to remain as captive customers or forge a contract with a RES,” said DOE Undersecretary Felix William Fuentebella. The DOE stressed the need to provide guidance to affected entities and continue the implementation of the key reforms of the Epira pending the resolution of the SC. “Epira is incomplete without RCOA. We can’t say Epira will be a failure if RCOA is not implemented, but rather it will just be incomplete,” Fuentebella pointed out. Since Epira was enacted into law 16 years ago, the power industry’s generation, distribution and transmission sectors were already unbundled. Monopoly no longer exists. “We have unbundled the major sectors. Now, we are at the stage of unbundling further what had been unbundled. RCOA is among the last stages of Epira for the law to be fully implemented,” said Fuentebella. The ERC, for its part, said the TRO would unduly burden consumers. Atty. Rexie Digal, ERC spokesman, explained in a text message that RCOA affords the end-users the ability to choose their supplier of electricity, including the ability to negotiate for the rate that would be charged to them. The scheme, she said, starts with large customers but is expected to reach the household at some point. “Delay in the implementation

would deprive the ordinary consumers from enjoying the fruits of competition sooner. The end-users would remain as captive to their DUs for a long period of time,” she explained.

EO 30

Another policy that benefits both consumers and the private sector investing in the energy sector was issued on June 30. Executive Order 30 states that concerned government agencies shall act upon applications for permits involving Energy Projects of National Significance (EPNS) not exceeding within a 30-day period. If no decision is made within the specified processing timeframe, the application is deemed approved by the concerned agency. This effectively reduced the time to process the permits needed for power projects to take off. “It is the policy of the State to ensure a continuous, adequate and economic supply of energy. Hence, an efficient and effective administrative process for energy projects of national significance should be developed in order to avoid unnecessary delays in the implementation of the Philippine Energy Plan (PEP),” stated the EO. Within the DOE, permits for all energy projects are processed within 25 days. Securing a permit from the DOE, however, is only 10 percent of the entire permitting process. According to Sen. Sherwin Gatchalian, chairman of the Senate Committee on Energy, it takes 1,340 days to secure a permit, 359 signatures needed for the permit, and which involves 74 different agencies, including the DOE. “That’s the amount of complexity. This is only predevelopment stage, which is apart from building the power plant,” said Gatchalian in an interview. DOE Director of Renewable Energy Management Bureau Mario Marasigan said that with or without the EO, the agency has reduced the permitting process from 120 days to 45 days, then to 25 days just recently. “Our concern is energy projects are

power or battery supply. Based on the definition of the Partnership on Measuring ICT for Development, the Global E-waste Monitor 2017 said the definition of e-waste is very broad and covers six waste categories, namely: 1) Temperature exchange equipment, more commonly referred to as cooling and freezing equipment; 2) Screens and monitors, which include televisions, monitors, laptops, notebooks and tablets; 3) Lamps or equipment, which include fluorescent lamps, high-intensity discharge lamps and LED lamps; 4) Large equipment, which include washing machines, clothes dryers, dishwashing machines, electric stoves, large printing machines, copying equipment and photovoltaic panels; 5) Small equipment, which include vacuum cleaners, microwaves, ventilation equipment, toasters, electric kettles, electric shavers, scales, calculators, radio sets, video cameras, electrical and electronic toys, small electrical and electronic tools, small medical devices, small monitoring and control instruments; and 6) Small IT and telecommunication equipment, which include mobile phones, Global Positioning Systems (GPS), pocket calculators, routers, personal computers, printers and telephones. Also referred to as Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment, e-waste is classified in the Philippines as “hazardous waste” that requires special disposal process or system, including recycling. Noting the country’s bad reputation when it comes to solid-waste management despite having a supposedly “perfect law” that should address its garbage woes, the country’s e-waste, which qualify as haz-

ardous waste because of their toxic chemical contents, pose greater health and environment problems that require the government’s immediate attention. Republic Act 9003, or the Ecological Solid Waste Management Act of 2000, defines hazardous waste as solid waste or a combination of solid waste, which, because of its quantity, concentration, or physical, chemical or infectious characteristics, may cause, or significantly contribute to an increase in mortality or an increase in serious irreversible, or incapacitating reversible, illness; or pose a substantial present or potential hazard to human health or the environment when improperly treated, stored, transported, or disposed of, or otherwise managed. The disposal of unsegregated garbage, however, remains a big challenge. This is why the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) is looking at waste-to-energy (WTE) solutions to address the looming garbage crisis. Jonas Leones, the DENR’s undersecretary for policy, planning and international affairs, said with the failure of local government units (LGUs) to enforce RA 9003 on the ground, a possible solution is the introduction of WTE projects through the Public-Private Partnership Program (PPP). However, environmental groups are strongly opposed to waste-to-energy ventures that use incinerators, which are banned in the Philippines. Leones, in previous interviews, maintained that the 3Rs of waste management–reduce, reuse and recycle–will not work in areas with no adequate number of recycling facilities, or junk shops to start with, such as in the Visayas and Mindanao.

This, however, does not mean that the DENR is abandoning its mandate, particularly to make sure that RA 9003 is implemented, he said. Despite the opportunity of turning garbage into gold, LGUs are not keen on practicing waste recovery or recycling because there are no junk shops or waste-recycling facilities that will buy the recyclable materials. “We do not have enough recycling facilities. That is why waste segregation is not fully implemented in many areas,” he said. However, there is already a growing market for special waste. Such venture, however, will require a huge investment to start with, and the efficient implementation of waste segregation at source to recover recyclable materials produced in a particular area. Eligio Ildefonso, executive director of the National Solid Waste Management Commission (NSWMC) Secretariat, said some components of home appliances, electronic equipment or gadgets are recyclable, which is why they are targets of junk dealers, waste-pickers and even garbage collectors. However, a huge volume of this so-called e-waste still end up being burned in open dumps, backyards or vacant lots. Worse, he added, there is no empirical data on e-waste to suggest “how big” the problem is as far as the Philippines is concerned. The DENR, through the Environmental Management Bureau (EMB), which implements its hazardous waste management program, maintains a list of recycling facilities in the Philippines. The list includes 23 plasticrecycling facilities, 14 paper-recycling facilities; one facility spe-

cializing in car batteries; one for computer electronics; one for tin cans; two for metals; six for container glass; one for flat grass; one for tetrapak and six for car tires. There is no assurance that all these recycling facilities are enough to accommodate the volume of waste that will encourage proper segregation and recycling to prevent the proliferation of ewaste that may eventually lead to air, water and soil pollution. Ildefonso said the NSWMC will have to start from scratch by coordinating with other concerned government agencies, such as the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) and the Bureau of Customs (BOC), and the private sector, if we are to establish a baseline data relevant to e-waste generation. “That is the problem. We do not have sufficient data on ewaste,” he told the BusinessMirror in an interview last week. The problem on e-waste is now a growing global concern because of the technological evolution and race to produce more and more new products to replace those rendered “obsolete,” including the most recent models by home appliances and electronic products manufacturers. The Philippines is currently producing 40,000 tons of waste every day, with around 9,000 metric tons being produced by Metro Manila, the country’s National Capital Region. There are a total of 9,883 materials-recovery facilities (MRFs) serving 13,155 barangays. However, there are over 40,000 barangays in the country. As of December 2016, there are still 403 open dumps, 103 controlled disposal facilities and only 130 landfill.

delayed because of the local permitting process, including those from national and regional offices like the DENR [Department of Environment and Natural Resources] and LGUs [local government units], among others,” he said. Under the existing setup, there is no fixed timeline, that is why permitting process alone takes as long as four years or even more. Add another three to four years for project construction,” said Marasigan. Cusi said the longer the processing of energy projects gets, the more expensive they become, which could also impact on the delivery of energy services and their affordability. “Given that energy investors have complete requirements, cutting down the period of issuance of permits will certainly speed up the realization of energy projects,” Cusi said. In order for an energy project to be considered among the EPNS, power generation and transmission projects must have a capital investment of at least P3.5 billion, significant contribution to the country’s economic development, significant consequential economic impact, significant potential contribution to the country’s balance of payments, significant impact on the environment, complex technical processes and engineering designs, and significant infrastructure requirements.

mittee briefer said the P10 coal excise tax rate has remained unchanged since 1988, while the local industry has been exempted from paying excise tax since 1976. Gatchalian said the excise tax would become a “pure pass-on charge” resulting in an additional P13.2 billion in electricity costs that consumers inevitably would have to shoulder. The two chambers of Congress agreed on a compromise tax rate of P150 per metric ton on coal, divided into tranches over the next three years upon its enactment. This means the excise tax would be P50 per metric ton in 2018, P100 in 2019, and P150 in 2020. The original Senate version proposed a “100-200-300” hike scheme. Gatchalian explained the negative implications of the tax hike: “The tax hike up to P150 after three years will result in an average monthly rate increase of P14.348 for a 200-kWh household served by a 100-percent coal contracted distribution utility. This is equivalent to the price of half a kilo of rice for 2.7 million households.” While proponents of the coal tax increase may downplay it as negligible, Gatchalian said that Filipinos are already struggling through the pain of paying the highest power rates in Southeast Asia. With this, Gatchalian said those who oppose the move “miss the point entirely.” Meralco, the country’s largest power distribution firm, said all it could do for now is to “prepare our consumers”. Company spokesman Joe Zaldarriaga said Meralco has stated in the past its position about the issue. Preparation, he said, includes a massive information campaign on the impact on power rates. “We really need to prepare our consumers for the rate impact, including possible adjustments in the FIT (feed-in-tariff) and universal charges starting next year,” he said when sought for comment. Meanwhile, the National Electrification Administration (NEA) also expressed grave concern. “I believe this will discourage investors in putting up generation facilities that are not friendly to the environment,” said NEA chief Edgardo Masongsong. “With more than 50 percent

of energy source coming from coal, I am afraid we will be paying more for our electricity consumption.” On the other hand, higher excise tax on coal will promote the development of renewable energy (RE) sources. “It should be favorable for RE,” said SN Aboitiz Power President Joseph Yu, who agreed that the tax adjustment will encourage the utilization of RE in the country. He said that for those who are not using coal as fuel, this will “have a lifting effect on profitability, which will then make RE projects more viable.” Gatchalian, meanwhile, called on the DOE to fast-track the implementation of the RCOA circular to mitigate the effects of projected electricity rate hikes. “With the coal tax in place, all the more that we need to implement RCOA to democratize our power sector. The RCOA will help lower costs to protect consumers from the inflationary effects of the coal tax. “Once you give the consumers the power of choice, they can choose whether they want coal, renewable energy or geothermal, whichever is cheaper for them,” said Gatchalian. The senator reiterated the expected impact of the coal tax on consumers. He estimates an increase of P10 in the monthly electricity bills of average households in 2018, P20 by 2019, and P28 by 2020, noting that these estimates are bound to grow as new coal plants come online in the near future. The National Renewable Energy Board (NREB), the advisory body tasked with the effective implementation of RE projects in the Philippines, meanwhile, commented that the government needs to fully implement the mandate of the Renewable Energy Act of 2008, which includes the issuance of the rules on Renewable Portfolio Standards (RPS) for on-grid and off-grid areas and Green Energy Option Program. RPS requires distribution utilities to source a portion of their power supply from eligible RE sources. The Green Energy Option, meanwhile, is a mechanism to provide end-users the option to choose RE as their source of energy. “NREB already endorsed all three draft rules for approval of the DOE. NREB is set to endorse the RE market

rules to DOE for approval by the end of the year after finishing the public consultation,” said NREB Chairman Jose Layug.

TRAIN

Just when the year is about to end, a bill, which seeks to impose higher taxes on fuel, cars, tobacco and sugary beverages, was signed into law. On December 19 President Duterte signed into law the Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion (TRAIN) bill. The TRAIN law or Republic Act 10963 is expected to generate P130 billion in revenues and finance the administration’s “Build, Build, Build” infrastructure program. “I hope it brings development and progress to our country for the benefit of all,” said Cusi. The TRAIN’s initial impact on power rates will reach P0.04 per kWh. It will then increase to P0.07 per kWh if excise tax on coal reaches P150 per metric ton. Overall, the total impact is P13.2 billion worth of pass-on charges to consumers. A Senate Ways and Means Com-

Energized ERC

Finally, internal squabble within the ERC was finally put to rest after its chairman was dismissed and a new one was appointed. Duterte has appointed former Solicitor General and Justice Secretary Agnes Vicenta Devanadera as the new ERC chief. Devanadera, who was appointed on November 22, will serve the ERC until July 10, 2022, replacing the embattled former ERC head Jose Vicente Salazar. Salazar was sacked in October over allegations of corruption in the agency. ERC Commissioners Alfredo J. Non, Gloria Victoria C. Yap-Taruc, Josefina Patricia M. Asirit and Geronimo D. Sta. Ana, with the entire ERC staff, expressed optimism as they welcomed Devanadera on her official assumption of office on December 4. “With all the qualifications, experience and wisdom that she has earned… we can expect a more energized ERC,” Cusi said. Devanadera, for her part, underscored the importance of safeguarding office synergy to help ERC move forward in a faster and more effective manner. “Let us work together, let us work as a team,” she said. She encouraged ERC personnel to adhere to the values of work efficiency, effectiveness and technical or professional competence. “We must not lose sight of the most basic principle of public service: we must put people first.” Industry stakeholders welcomed this development. Aboitiz Power Corp. President Antonio Moraza said, “There is now a clear leader so this can only be good for the industry.” Cusi added that Devanadera is “competent for the post.” Meralco President Oscar Reyes said the utility is hopeful that the agency will be able to focus more on addressing immediate concerns of the industry. “We welcome her and we hope that all will be addressed sooner,” said Reyes.

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China continues construction activities in disputed territories as it pursues diplomacy towards Asean

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By Rene Acosta

hina has been talking about peace and offering assistance in various forms in its bid to establish good relationship with its neighbors in the region. But the spiel, which has carried away the Philippines up to the point that it forgot its dispute with Beijing in the West Philippine Sea, belies a different story in the South China Sea (SCS). China has not stopped its construction activities in the disputed territory, while it showered the Duterte administration with cash, equipment and other forms of assistance. In fact, the Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative (ATMI) of the US-based Center for Strategic and International Studies described 2017 as a “constructive year for Chinese base building” in the SCS. “While pursuing diplomatic outreach toward its Southeast Asian neighbors, Beijing continued substantial construction activities on its dual-use outposts in the Spratlys and Paracel Islands,” it said. The construction activities involved buildings that ranged from underground storage areas and administrative facilities to large radars and arrays of sensors. “The facilities account for 72 acres, or 290,000 square meters of new real estate at Fiery Cross, Subi and Mischief Reefs in the Spratlys and North, Tree and Triton Islands in the Paracels,” the ATMI said. In the Fiery Cross Reef, Beijing worked on structures that were spread in 110, 000 square meters of artificial land and seen as larger hangars alongside an airstrip; underground buildings for munitions and other materiel; a large communication building, radar facilities and missile platforms. The construction of large underground tunnels, which began early this year, has also been completed and “entirely buried.” The tunnels, which were reportedly built for storing ammunition and other war materiel, joined other previously constructed underground facilities, which included for water and fuel. “In the last several months, China has constructed what appears to be a high-frequency

radar array at the north end of the island. It consists of a field of upright poles, similar to those erected at Cuarteron Reef in 2015,” the ATMI noted. In Subi Reef, Beijing worked on buildings dotting 95,000 square meters of land. The construction included buried storage facilities, hangars, missile shelters, radars and a high-frequency antenna for signal intelligence. “Like at Fiery Cross, the new storage tunnels at Subi were completed and covered over in the last few months. They join other buried structures on the islet, including large storage facilities,” the ATMI said. With the construction of the radar facility and the high-frequency antenna, the ATMI believed that China will substantially beef up its intelligence capabilities. In Mischief Reef, Beijing commenced its building of facilities covering 68,500 square meters of artificial land. The facilities included radar and communications systems, and underground storage for ammunition and other war materiel. It has also completed this year its construction of hangars and missile shelters and new radar and communication facilities. “The new storage tunnels at Mischief Reef were completed over the last several months and have been buried, joining previously built underground structures,” according to the ATMI. During the Asean summit recently held in the country, Beijing and Manila have vowed to strengthen their relations by signing cooperation agreements on defense, military and other issues in the security sector, including terrorism. Beijing has also provided the Philippine military with rifles and had promised to deliver more armaments. Meanwhile, China continues building more structures in the disputed territories in the South China Sea.

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Sunday, December 31, 2017

The World BusinessMirror

Editor: Lyn Ressureccion | www.businessmirror.com.ph

In Saudi crackdown

There’s more than Alwaleed’s empire at stake

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lmost two months into it, Saudi Arabia’s crackdown on corruption is yielding at least some of the $100 billion the kingdom is targeting. Dozens of former officials and businessmen have exchanged part of their wealth for freedom.

But in the increasingly drawnout case of Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, the public face of the Saudi royal family to many foreign executives and investors, there’s more at stake than taking over his global business empire and talks on a settlement have hit an impasse. The Saudi crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman, is about to enter a crucial few months that will show his true motives and the scope of his power. How the case unfolds will help investors and diplomats answer a question puzzling them since the nightly raids of November 4: Whether the purge is an effort to root out graft before selling shares in the country’s oil giant, or simply a shakedown to boost state coffers while he asserts himself at home and abroad. People with knowledge of the matter say Alwaleed is balking at demands that could see him relinquish control of Kingdom Holding Co. He also is resisting any suggestion of wrongdoing because of the impact it would have on his reputation, they said. The prince owns the vast majority of the $9 billion conglomerate, which has stakes in household names from Citigroup Inc. to Twitter. “The Alwaleed case will define the crackdown to western investors,” said Emily Hawthorne, Middle East and North Africa

$9B

The value of the conglomerate Kingdom Holding Co., which Prince Alwaleed bin Talal owns and has stakes in household names from Citigroup Inc. to Twitter. analyst at Texas-based advisory firm Stratfor. The longer Alwaleed remains behind closed doors, the more the government “appears the unreasonable actor,” she said. The crushing of opponents fits into a pattern of what Arab and Western diplomats describe as an aggressive policy that is unsettling even some of Saudi Arabia’s allies. Alwaleed and other remaining suspects are held at the RitzCarlton in Riyadh, a palatial hotel that hosted US President Donald J. Trump in May. No official charges have been made public against any of the detainees, who numbered 159 at a count earlier this month. The 62-year-old nephew of King Salman used his royal wealth to invest in industries from banking to aviation, hospitality and real estate.

Saudi Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal at London’s High Court Bloomberg

The Wall Street Journal reported this month that authorities are demanding at least $6 billion to settle his case. His net worth has declined by about $2 billion to $18 billion since his detention, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Prince Miteb, son of the late King Abdullah and the former head of the powerful National Guard Corps, was released after paying the equivalent of more than $1 billion, a senior Saudi official said last month. “Prince Alwaleed is powerful and well connected, but this may not end well given that he is in a battle with an even more powerful group,” said Paul Sullivan, a Middle East specialist at Georgetown University in Washington. The purge is “a harsh way to show that some of the old ways of doing business are over to a great degree,” he said.

Kingdom Holding said in a November 6 statement it had the full confidence of the Saudi government. Officials at the company didn’t respond to a request for further comment when contacted by email. The government’s Center for International Communication said it could not comment due to Saudi laws protecting an individual’s right to privacy. The 32-year-old crown prince ditched the traditional Saudi decision-making process that moved at a glacial pace, but preserved consensus among the royals. His domestic efforts have been more successful than his foreign ones. He plunged Saudi Arabia into a costly war against pro-Iranian rebels in Yemen and led efforts to isolate neighboring Qatar. While pro-Saudi forces are gradually gaining ground in Yemen, rebel missiles have reached Riyadh twice in the past two months. The stand-

off with Qatar has gone nowhere. The kingdom was also widely blamed for orchestrating the shock resignation of Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri from Riyadh in November, a claim that Saudi officials denied. It sparked outrage in Lebanon, a chilly reaction from Egypt and the US, and a French intervention that helped Hariri remain in office. At home, the prince, known among journalists and diplomats as MBS, cemented his power by sidelining senior princes. Security forces rounded up government critics before a decision to lift a ban on women driving in September. He is also spearheading an ambitious plan to overhaul an economy too reliant on petrodollars, with the sale of a small stake in monopoly oil producer Saudi Aramco in 2018 underpinning it. “We have reason to be more optimistic about his domestic

projects than his foreign ones,” Hawthorne said. “He has carefully consolidated power domestically whereas each of his foreign forays have so far mostly struck out.” Prince Mohammed’s supporters say he has no option other than to move fast and act decisively to end the economy’s unsustainable oil addiction and prevent Shiiteruled Iran from dominating the Middle East. The corruption probe had to take place without delay so investors “know it’s a level playing field,” Commerce and Investment Minister Majid Al-Qasabi said in an interview on December 13 in Riyadh. “We can’t tolerate the perception that you have to corrupt officials to get into a business in Saudi Arabia,” he said. Asked about Alwaleed, the minister said the billionaire prince was “negotiating his settlement.” For decades, prominent businessmen benefited from close ties with royal princes to win major contracts and help international companies gain a foothold in the country. In a secret 1996 cable published by WikiLeaks, a US diplomat in Riyadh reported that a handful of the most senior princes enriched themselves by skimming from “off-budget” programs that received 12.5 percent of the country’s oil revenues. The diplomat said some royals used their power to confiscate land and resell it at a profit to the government. “Saudi Arabia has an economic and political system based on the privileged position of the royal family,” said Paul Pillar, a former Central Intelligence Agency officer who is now an academic. “MBS’s moves have taken a form that can best be described as a shakedown. And, of course, his political ambition and what appears to be a drive for absolute power cannot be separated from any of this.” Bloomberg News

Unlikely Iranian-Saudi race: Easing restrictions on women B EIRUT—They call each other meddlers, warmongers, religious hypocrites, zealots and sponsors of terrorism. Now Iran and Saudi Arabia, the archrivals of the Middle East, are competing in a surprising new category: gender equality. They appear to be vying over who can be quicker to overhaul their repressive rules for women. Tehran’s police chief announced this week that the so-called morality police who patrol the capital would no longer automatically detain and punish women seen without the proper hijab head-covering in public, an offense commonly called “bad hijab.” They will be given counseling instead. In Saudi Arabia, one of the most restrictive countries for women, the authorities this week allowed female contestants at an international chess tournament to play without the full-body garb known as an abaya. That decision is the latest in a string of liberalizing moves by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the young Saudi ruler, which includes letting women drive. Saudi Arabia and Iran are on opposite sides in many ways—in their divergent branches of Islam, the wars in Syria and Yemen, Lebanese politics and relations with the United States, for example. They have clashed over oil production, religious pilgrimages and who is a terrorist. But both countries are responding to domestic and international pressure over women’s rights. Even with the strict gender sep-

aration rules imposed after Iran’s 1979 Islamic Revolution, Iranian women historically have enjoyed more liberties than their Saudi counterparts. That distinction, however, has become less pronounced with the ascent in Saudi Arabia of Salman, whose agenda includes loosening the severity of religion in everyday life. Under the crown prince, Saudi women will soon be allowed to attend soccer matches at public stadiums. In June, the government says, they will be permitted to drive not only cars, but also trucks and motorcycles. It is unclear whether the changes in Saudi Arabia have led directly to the unintended effect of changes in Iran. But some women’s rights advocates have seen a connection. Roya Hakakian, an IranianAmerican poet and journalist who co-founded the Iran Human Rights Documentation Center in New Haven, Connecticut, wrote in an opinion column published on Wednesday in The New York Times that women in Iran and Saudi Arabia had benefited from “competition between the two regimes to earn the mantle of the modern moderate Islamic alternative.” She quoted Mar iam Mema rsadeghi, a co -founder of Tavaana, a civil education web site about Iran, who now lives in the United States, as saying that she was not only happy for Saudi women, but “thrilled that the Iranian regime’s false moral superiority is punctured, that the Iranian regime’s laws and

Women walk through Valisar Square in Tehran, Iran, on November 7. Iran and Saudi Arabia, the archrivals of the Middle East, are competing in a surprising new arena: which country is less repressive toward women. Arash Khamooshi/The New York Times

actions against women’s rights are made to look backward even by a countr y long seen as the region’s most backward.” Others do not necessarily see a link, attributing the changes in Iran to other causes. They say Iran’s young population has proved far more resistant to the government’s societal restraints compared with their parents. The relaxed enforcement of a women’s dress code in Iran may be partly rooted in the impracticality of prosecuting, fining and imprisoning violators. “Arresting the women and trials in court proved to be too time-con-

suming,” said Nader Karimi Joni, an Iranian journalist in Tehran. The law has not changed, he said, but now, “cash fines and lashes are at times substituted by ‘educational classes.’” Others pointed out that Iran still requires women to wear head coverings in public. Shahrzad Razaghi, a 24-year-old Tehran artist arrested in 2012 for not wearing her hijab properly, said the new enforcement policy “doesn’t mean I can go on the streets without a hijab.” And in Saudi Arabia, the granting of driving privileges to women, while seen as a quantum leap there, is a right long held by women in

Iran, elsewhere in the Middle East and the rest of the world. What women are permitted to wear outside, another issue in Saudi Arabia, is hardly a question in many countries. “I am sorry to say, we are in 2017 and we are still talking about wearing and not wearing,” said Suad Abu-Dayyeh, a Palestinian who is the Middle East and North Africa consultant for Equality Now, a global women’s advocacy group. Still, she said, “we’re hoping that what is going on in Saudi Arabia will be continuing.” While she was cautious about concluding that the changes in Iran

were related to the Saudi relaxation, she said each was obviously watching the other. “Any advancement in any country will really affect the situation in the neighboring countries,” she said. “It will have perhaps an indirect effect on Iran to advance women’s rights, because they don’t want to be seen as an oppressive government to women’s rights, especially in front of the international community.” Muna AbuSulayman, one of Saudi Arabia’s first female television hosts, said she saw the relaxations on women in the country as part of a broader desire by Saudis to embrace a more modern life. Saudi women, she said, do not compare themselves with Iranian women. On the contrary, AbuSulayman said, Saudi women in some parts of the country go without head coverings or wear them loosely, with no fear of punishment or reprimand. Whether the Saudi decision to allow female spectators at soccer matches will lead Iran to do the same is unclear at best. But shortly after the Saudi relaxation was announced in late October, Iran said it would allow female weightlifters to compete in international competitions abroad for the first time. Farideh Farhi, an Iranian scholar and professor of political science at the University of Hawaii, said she did not expect the female-spectator issue to emerge in Iran again until the country hosts a major soccer match. Some Iranian women have risked arrest and imprisonment by defying attendance bans at such events. New York Times News Service

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Last-minute rush to prepay taxes gives way to confusion, anger

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EW YORK—In Hempstead, a Long Island town where the typical property tax bill tops $10,000, residents have lined up all week to prepay those taxes for next year. They have been trying to save thousands of dollars before the new federal tax bill, which goes into effect on New Year’s Day, sharply limits deductions for state and local taxes. But late Wednesday, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) issued new guidance that those people may not be able to save the money after all, because a loophole that they were hoping to exploit might be narrower than thought. So when Donald X. Clavin Jr., Hempstead’s receiver of taxes, showed up to work last Thursday morning, the lines were still there—but residents had fresh questions. Clavin had few answers. “Everybody on line. They’re going, ‘Don, are we going to be able to do this?’” Clavin said. “And I can’t give them a yes or a no.” The new tax bill, and its $10,000 cap on all local and state tax deductions, has generated a variety of strong emotions—including anxiety and frustration—in places like Hempstead. By Thursday, however, that stew of emotions had been replaced by utter confusion, as well as rage, including among people who had shelled out money only to discover that they might not get any benefit. This week’s tax-prepayment roller coaster could be just the beginning. Republicans pushed through their tax overhaul at blistering speed, giving lawyers and accountants only about a week to study the bill before it goes into effect. But already, those people studying the law have uncovered internal conflicts and unintended consequences, as well as broad areas of uncertainty, that the IRS, the Treasury Department and, ultimately, the court system will be left to resolve. “It’s fun if you’re a tax lawyer,” said David Herzig, a professor of tax law at Valparaiso University. “I’m not sure it’s fun if you’re a person going through it.” The confusion this week stems from the provision in the new tax bill that caps the previously unlimited deduction for state and local taxes, and the IRS guidance about the ability of people to prepay property taxes this year. In Hempstead, and in other high-tax, high cost-ofliving communities across the country, tax bills routinely run far above the new $10,000 threshold once state income and local property taxes are taken into account. In Nassau County, which includes Hempstead, the average state and local tax deduction in the county, including property taxes, topped $20,000 in 2015, among the highest in the country, according to data from the IRS. The cap does not take effect until January, however. The tax bill explicitly prevented people from prepaying state income taxes, but it did not address prepayment of property taxes. That gave homeowners a brief window to pay their 2018 property taxes in 2017 and to take the full deduction when they file their federal returns this spring. Officials in Chicago; Washington; Fairfax, Virginia; and other communities reported huge surges of residents prepaying taxes, often showing up in person, checks in hand. Democratic politicians, who have opposed the bill, egged them on, arguing that the bill targeted states that tend to vote for Democrats. Even before President Donald J. Trump signed the bill into law last week, local officials in Washington announced they would accept prepayments in what the city’s mayor, Muriel Bowser, called a bid to “protect Washingtonians from the negative impacts of this devastating legislation.” Gov. Andrew Cuomo of New York last week signed an executive order opening the door for prepayment, a move he freely described as a bid to circumvent the new law. Local officials in Maryland, Virginia and other states made similar moves. Even Chris Christie, the Republican governor of New Jersey and an early supporter of Trump’s, on Wednesday signed an executive order instructing local officials to accept prepayments. The IRS memo, however, threw many of those efforts into question. The memo said that property taxes paid this year would be subject to the old 2017 rules—but only if the taxes were actually assessed in 2017. That means that payments based on estimated assessments, or for years further in the future, probably would not qualify for the deduction. Final answers might not be available anytime soon. The IRS guidance left plenty of room for interpretation and was, in any case, nonbinding. But the memo had an immediate impact. In Prince George’s County, Maryland, the County Council had been planning to hold an emergency session last Thursday to discuss letting residents prepay their taxes, a step already taken by neighboring Montgomery County. But within hours of the memo’s release, the council canceled the meeting. Dannielle M. Glaros, chairman of the Prince George’s County Council, said the IRS guidance left her little choice. The decision to cancel the meeting resolved the immediate uncertainty, but it did little to ease residents’ larger confusion about the effects of the bill. “It’s this sense of unknown,” Glaros said. “That is

It’s fun if you’re a tax lawyer. I’m not sure it’s fun if you’re a person going through it.”—Herzig

what’s creating a lot of this anxiety that we’re seeing.” Anxiety—and also anger. Steve Halliwell, who lives with his wife, Anne, in Irvington, a village in Westchester County, New York, began asking town officials several weeks ago about paying next year’s property taxes this year. Cuomo’s executive order last week was meant to make that possible. But the order came too late for the county’s residents: Officials there said this week that they

would not be able to issue tax assessments by the end of the year. “There are a lot of angry people here because they feel powerless and they are not used to feeling powerless,” Halliwell said. “This shows the venal side of politics.” Other communities happily accepted the money—but offered no guarantees that prepaying would work out for taxpayers. In Clarkstown, in Rockland County, New York, residents began lining up at the tax office before

9 a.m. Thursday. The line snaked down the hall as hundreds of residents waited to get their property tax bill and then pay it. Outside, the parking lot was so crowded that police officers directed traffic. “We brought in extra staff and extended the hours,” said George Hoehmann, the town’s supervisor. “We have gotten thousands of calls. Normally, it would be quiet this time of year, but there is a lot of anxiety because people don’t know what the impact of the tax bill will be.”

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The World BusinessMirror

Fukushima looks to top-tier sake to beat stigma, lift econ

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n an area of Japan still decimated by a nuclear disaster, sake is giving cause for hope.

For the past five years, the sake brewers of Fukushima, on a twodecade quest to develop premium products, have captured the most gold medals in a key national competition and have won numerous international awards. Drinkers worldwide have noticed the rising quality, with the result that sake exports from Fukushima have more than doubled since 2012. Now the prefectural government and local brewers are promoting their success. The hope is that Fukushima’s championship sake—made from local rice and water—will serve as a symbol of the safety of local agricultural and fishery products and of the prospects for the prefecture’s broader revival. “If we can show that Fukushima makes the best sake in the world, surely we can overcome the stigma,” said Hiroyuki Karahashi, the president of Homare Sake Brewery

Co., which won first place in the sake category at the 2015 London International Wine Challenge. Fukushima’s challenge is enormous. The earthquake, tsunami and nuclear meltdown that devastated the region in March 2011 killed 4,000 people in Fukushima alone. Many of the 50,000 people forced to leave their homes have no plans to return. The local economy has been largely propped up by reconstruction spending the years since, but that spending is expected to fall in the years to come. Meanwhile, local companies still struggle with lingering public fears of radiation contamination. Only around 30 percent of businesses in the important fisheries and food processing sectors have seen their sales rise to pre-disaster levels, according to the nation’s reconstruction agency. All agricultural products from Fukushima—including every bag

Fukushima’s award-winning sake Bloomberg

of rice—are tested for radiation using internationally accepted standards before shipment. Since 2015, no rice has registered radiation above the safety level, national broadcaster NHK has reported. Still, 55 countries have some kind of restriction or requirement for additional documentation on imports of Fukushima products, according to Japan’s Foreign Affairs Ministry. Takahiro Ichimura, a director of trade promotion at the Fukushima Prefectural Government, who’s spearheading efforts on the sake promotion efforts,

said the importance of ingredients in the sake should help change people’s perception of Fukushima. “Water and rice are crucial,” he said. “Once Fukushima’s sake gains broader recognition and more people drink it, we think that overall appreciation for Fukushima should also increase.” The surge in sake exports follows a plunge in consumption in Japan—by half over the past 20 years, as consumers broadened their tastes. Fukushima is trying to increase sales in the US and Europe, including with promotional tours, Ichimura said. It has allocated ¥100 million ($880,000) this fiscal year to promote local sake at events in major cities in Japan and abroad, as well as at trade shows and promotional web sites, in a campaign run by a private public relations agency. It plans to increase the budget 10 percent next year. One event near Shimbashi station, a Tokyo business area teeming w it h salaried men, drew 30,000 people this year, up from 20,000 last year, according to the prefecture. Behind the brewers’ recent success lies a shift in strategy toward premium products. Twenty years ago many of Fukushima’s breweries produced cheap sake that included distilled alcohol, earning them a poor reputation in Japan’s northeast, historically a major sake-producing region. T he prefec t u ra l sa ke academy, established in 1992, changed the game. The various breweries’ heirs came together there to pool their secret brewing techniques, raising the bar for the entire prefecture. At one three-century old brewery, the focus is now on using organic rice, while at another an older, more time-consuming technique to create yeast mash—a key ingredient—is being revived to improve flavor. To be sure, changing Fukushima’s image will be a struggle. While Japan’s latest national budget included billions of yen for the purpose, 13 percent of Japanese respondents to a recent survey said they would hesitate before buying produce from Fukushima due to worries about radiation.Ichimura remains optimistic. “ Fu k u sh i m a’s sa ke i s a symbol of its recovery,” he said. “It’s managed to achieve results despite the odds. My hope is that people will see this, and see how Fukushima is moving forward.” Bloomberg News

Editor: Lyn Ressureccion | www.businessmirror.com.ph

Trump: Russia inquiry makes US ‘look very bad’

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EST PALM BEACH, Florida—President Donald Trump said on Thursday that he believes Robert S. Mueller III, the special counsel in the Russia investigation, will treat him fairly, contradicting some members of his party who have waged a weekslong campaign to try to discredit Mueller and the continuing inquiry. D u r i ng a n i mprompt u 30 -minute inter view with The New York Times at his golf club in West Palm Beach, the president did not demand an end to the Russia investigations swirling around his administration, but insisted 16 times that there has been “no collusion” discovered by the inquiry. “ It m a kes t he cou nt r y look very bad, and it puts the country in a very bad position,” Trump said of the investigation. “So the sooner it’s worked out, the better it is for the country.” Mueller’s investigation appears to be moving ahead despite predictions by Trump’s lawyers this year that it would be over by T hanksgiv ing. Trump said that he was not bothered by the fact that he does not know when it will be completed because he has nothing to hide. Trump repeated his assertion that Democrats invented the Russia allegations “as a hoax, as a ruse, as an excuse for losing an election.” He said that “everybody knows” his associates did not collude with the Russians, even as he insisted that the “real stories” are about Democrats who worked with Russians during the 2016 campaign. “There’s been no collusion. But I think he’s going to be fair,” Trump said of Mueller. A sked whether he wou ld order the Justice Depar tment to reopen the investigation into Hil lar y Clinton’s e -m a i ls, Tr u mp ap peared to remain focused on the Russia investigation. “I have absolute right to do what I want to do with the Justice Department,” he said, echoing claims by his supporters that as president he has the power to open or end an investigation. “But for purposes of hopefully thinking I’m going to be treated fairly, I’ve stayed uninvolved with this particular matter.” Hours after he accused the Chinese of secretly shipping oil to North Korea, Trump explicitly said for the first time that he has “ been soft” on China on trade in the hopes that its leaders will pressure North Korea to abandon its nuclear weapons program. He hinted that his patience may soon end, however, signaling his frustration with the reported oil shipments. “Oil is going into North Korea. That wasn’t my deal!” he exclaimed, raising the possibility of aggressive trade actions against China. “If they don’t help us with North Korea, then I can do what I’ve always said I want to do.” Despite saying that when he visited China in November, President X i Jinping “treated me better than anybody’s ever been treated in the history of China,” Trump said that “they have to help us much more.” “We have a nuclear menace

out there, which is no good for China,” he said. Trump gave the interview in the Grill Room at Trump International Golf Club after he ate lunch with his playing partners, including his son Eric and pro golfer Jim Herman. No aides were present for the interview, and the president sat alone with a New York Times reporter at a large round table as club members chatted and ate lunch nearby. A few times, members and friends—including a longtime supporter, Christopher Ruddy, the president and chief executive of the conservative website and TV company Newsmax—came by to speak with Trump. Noting that he had given Herman $50,000 years ago when he worked at the president’s New Jersey golf club and was trying to make the PGA Tour, Trump asked him how much he made playing on the professional circuit. “It’s like $3 million,” Herman said. “Which to him is like making a billion because he doesn’t spend anything,” Trump joked. “Ain’t that a great story?” In the interview, the president touted the strength of his campaign victories and his accomplishments in office, including passage of a tax overhaul this month. But he also expressed frustration and anger at Democrats, who he said refused to negotiate on legislation. “Like Joe Manchin,” Trump said, referring to the Democratic senator from West Virginia. He said Manchin and other Democrats claimed to be centrists but refused to negotiate on health care or taxes. “He talks. But he doesn’t do anything. He doesn’t do,” Trump said. “‘Hey, let’s get together, let’s do bipartisan.’ I say, ‘Good, let’s go.’ Then you don’t hear from him again.” Nonetheless, Trump said he still hoped Democrats would work with him on bipartisan legislation in the coming year to overhaul health care, improve the country’s crumbling infrastructure and help young immigrants brought to the country as children. Trump disputed reports that suggested he does not have a detailed understanding of legislation, saying, “I know the details of taxes better than anybody. Better than the greatest CPA [certified public accountant]. I know the details of health care better than most, better than most.” Later, he added that he knows more about “the big bills” debated in the Congress “than any president that’s ever been in office.” The president also spoke at length about the special election this month in Alabama, where Roy S. Moore, the Republican candidate, lost to a Democrat after being accused of sexual misconduct with young girls, including a minor, when he was in his 30s. Trump said that he suppor ted Moore’s opponent in the Republican primary race because he knew Moore would lose in the general election. And he insisted that he endorsed Moore later only because “I feel that I have to endorse Republicans as the head of the party.” New York Times News Service

Science

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DOST’s hybrid train tests GenSan road Story & photo by Manuel T. Cayon | Mindanao Bureau Chief

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ENERAL SANTOS CITY— The road train manufactured by the Department of Science and Technology (DOST) is taking its third, and probably the last, road test here to push for an acceptable masstransit system to address the spreading road congestion in the cities. The 40-meter train, with five coaches, would run in January next year on a six-month “commodatum” agreement with the city government. Technically the city is borrowing the DOST-designed and fabricated hybrid train to test its public and environmental acceptability based on existing road conditions of the city. For the next six months, commuters would ride on the train for free as the city and DOST technical team monitor its perfor mance for reliabilit y as a mode of public transport and for adaptability and acceptability to run on existing road networks. The road train has been tested first in Clark, Pampanga, in 2016 inside the free-port zone, ferrying workers living farther away from the factories and in Cebu City from December 2016 to June 2017. Depending on the outcome of the road show and test here of the nonrail hybrid road train, the DOST may initiate the formal delegation to the private sector to assemble and manufacture the road train for the rest of the local governments, which would decide to adapt the road traintransit system.

See GenSan

“We might ask them [the LGUs] to come here in Genera l Santos Cit y to see how the train transit system here work s,” sa id Rommel Corona, project staff of the DOST-Meta ls Industr y Research Development Centter Road Train Project. Technically, the General Santos City road test may already complete the road tests the staff have done on different road conditions in Luzon, the Visayas and Mindanao, he added. The Cebu test failed, however, due to the narrow roads of the city. In this city, the tests have been actually done in the eastward direction going to Barangay Tinagakan, some 14 kilometers from the downtown park, where the hybrid electric train would end and begin each route. Councilor Dominador S. Lagare Jr., the council chairman of the committee on transportation, said the tests would be done yet on the westward direction going inside the fishport, where an upward sloping portion of the road is found. “That is why we may ask the DOST to bring in the lighter 30-meter train used in the Clark

The hybrid nonrail road train manufactured by the Department of Science and Technology is parked along General Santos City’s park, the central station of the train, that is scheduled to run to the east and west directions of the city to ferry mostly workers, students and government workers. The train will have a six-month test in the city.

That is exactly what we also want to happen: for the other cities to adapt to the new mode of alternative, nonpollutive masstransport system [hybrid road train].”—de la Peña test to be sure that it can navigate the slope,” he said. There would be no condition to meet to ask for the second train, he said, like if there would be increased traffic for commuters. “We would ask them anytime, if they would also agree.” The initial runs target the workers of the fishport in the west, and the workers, farmers, teachers and

students in Barangay Tinagakan, “who have been disadvantaged by the lack of jeepneys and tricycles at dawn hours,” Lagare said. The jeepneys, which are still few here, are up only at 6 a.m., while fishport operations begin at predawn when deep-sea fishing boats also begin arriving and unloading their tuna catch. To ensure loading capacity,

the city has conferred with barangay officials along the route, especially in the eastward side, which is dominantly rural. “Tinagakan has committed 50 passengers, as well as the next other barangays,” Lagare added. T he road tra in wou ld r un only in t wo round tr ips early in the mor ning and t wo round tr ips at sundow n. It wou ld be parked the rest of the day. “We would also be looking at how commuter traffic would accumulate along the train stations,” he said. Fifteen stations have been selected already along the entire downtown park-Tinagakan-fishport route.

Avoiding conflict

T ric ycle a ssoc i at ions have been also consulted and were assigned their roles, mainly in transporting passengers to the specified train stations. “ We

hope this would avoid conflict and jealousy.” Besides, he said, the city has about 30,000 tricycles, more than the required 9,000 units allowed in its streets. “We have to do something about the operation of these other tricycles,” he added. Representatives of the tricycle associations attended the launching of the train last weekend, indicating their cooperation in the test run of the train. Corona said the train runs on synchronized moving wheels, discarding the previously designed two-coach train running on a guideway, or rail, similar to a lightrail train. It operates on 50-block layer of 12 volts each block for each coach, or a total of 3,000 volts. Solar panels may be installed on the roof, above the air-cond it ioning units. Corona sa id having these other alternative energy sources may help reduce the electricity charging requirement. He said the batteries are also designed to auto-recharge on each stop.

Inspire others

Science Secretar y For tunato T. de la Pena said he hoped Cit y Mayor Ronnel R ivera’s v ision wou ld come tr ue “to inspire other cities, and even the other A sean [A ssociation of Southeast A sian Nations] countr ies wou ld be inspired to copy the move of GenSan.” “That is exactly what we also want to happen: for the other cities to adapt to the new mode of alternative, nonpollutive masstransport system,” he said. R ivera told the launching ceremony that he had no qu a lms at ad apt ing t he new mo d e , s ay i n g he w a nt e d t o trailblaze in the transport system if only to address the traffic congestion now plaguing all cities in the countr y.

Stakeholders strengthen collaboration for Tañon Strait DENR chief lauds regional office for saving injured eagle G

A veterinarian provides initial treatment to the injured Philippine Eagle. DENR-Strategic Communications and Initiative Service photo

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By Jonathan L. Mayuga

NVIRONMENT Secretary Roy A. Cimatu recently lauded the field personnel of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR)-Caraga Region Office for saving the life of an injured Philippine Eagle in Tago town, Surigao del Sur province, on December 10. The members of the DENR-Caraga enforcement division acted with dispatch and provided initial treatment to the raptor after receiving a report of the rescued eagle’s condition. The Philippine Eagle, the Philippines’s national bird, is the largest bird of prey in the world and it is endemic to the Philippines. It can be found in four major islands namely, Eastern Luzon, Samar, Leyte and Mindanao. The DENR-Biodiversity Management Bureau believes there are less than 400 pairs of breeding eagle left in the wild although there are recent reports of sightings of juvenile eagles mostly in Mindanao. Habitat loss, hunting for food and trophy and illegal wildlife trade are among the reasons for the species’ population decline. The rescued eagle was suffering from a broken wing, a potentially fatal injury, after when rescued by residents in the mountainous village of Anahao Daan, it was learned.

“This proves that the DENR personnel even in the local field offices are vigilant in caring and protecting our precious wildlife treasures, such as the Philippine Eagle,” Cimatu said in a statement. The eagle is now being treated at the Philippine Eagle Center (PEC) in Davao City. The PEC is a conservation breeding facility operated by the Philippine Eagle Foundation. DENR-Caraga Officer in Charge Director Charlie Fabre said the raptor was turned over to the PEC, a day after it was rescued. He said the bird’s cartilage bone on its left wing had to be cut off “to save its life.” According to Forester Modesto Lagumbay, chief of the local enforcement and wildlife division, residents found the 4-kilogram eagle limping along the riverbank and turned it over to Barangay Chairman Datu Aralito Enriquez. Enriquez brought the eagle to Mayor Rogelio Pimentel, from whom the DENR team retrieved the raptor. The wounded eagle had to be brought fast to an eagle sanctuary in Davao City, where the veterinarian had immediately performed a surgery on it, Lagumbay said. “Most likely, the eagle must have been caught from a snare and struggled to get free and wounded its wing in the process,” Lagumbay added. The eagle, estimated to be around two years old, will be released once it has fully recovered from injury.

overnment agencies, including local chief executives and fisherfolk a n d n o n p ro f i t o rg a n i z a t i o n s , promised to strengthen their collaboration in protecting the Tañon Strait from illegal and destructive fishing. Last week the Depar tment of Environment and Natural Resources convened the second Enforcement Summit in Cebu City, in partnership with Oceana, an international advocacy organization dedicated to ocean conservation. G ove r n m e nt a g e n c i e s a n d l o c a l governments worked closely with nonprofit organizations and community champions to review the state of enforcement of the management plan and enforcement plan for the sustainable management of the strait over the past year, while identifying solutions to current challenges, especially illegal and destructive fishing. “Despite its status as a protected seascape, the Tañon Strait still faces illicit activities, destroying its ecological integrity and depriving fishermen of their rightful catch. Only through our continued strong collaboration can the fisheries of the Tañon Strait continue to thrive,” said Eduardo Gongona, director of the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources.

Gongona pledged to add more patrol vessels in the area to fight illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing. About 288,000 small-scale fishers rely on the area for sustenance, but competition from commercial fishers who illegally enter the strait, and destructive fishing methods used by small-scale fishers, have led to an overall decline in productivity. From an average of 5 kilograms (kg) of fish per trip, yields have plummeted to 2 kg—and many fisherfolk households earn less than P100 daily. “No Filipino should go hungry in his native land. I believe we can achieve this if we protect our coastal and marine resources,” Negros Occidental Gov. Alfredo Marañon said. Declared a protected area in 1998, Tañon Strait is a 161-kilometer long channel separating the islands of Cebu and Negros, famed not only for being a rich fishing area but as a tourist destination. In the channel lie popular tourist sites, such as Bantayan Isle, Malapascua, Moalboal, the Mantalip Sandbar and Bais—where whales and dolphins abound. Encompassing three provinces, 42 coastal towns and cities, with nearly 300 barangays, overlapping mandates have led to largely inconsistent policies in conserving the area.

S i n ce 2 0 1 5 t h e Pro te c te d Are a Management Board and its executive committee worked hand-in-hand with Site Management Units, the Protected Area Office, plus various stakeholders from the government, private sector and civil society for improved conservation measures. This resulted in the approval of a management plan and enforcement plan for the sustainable management of Tañon Strait. A recent Social Weather Stations survey commissioned by Oceana found that illegal and destructive fishing is the most seriously perceived threat to the oceans, next to pollution. “We have apprehended 656 suspects and over 2000 explosives from January to November this year alone,” Police Regional Office 7 Director Chief Supt. Jose Mario Espino noted. The fight against illegal fishing is high in the priority list of the Philippine National Police. Oceana and its allies reiterated the need for stronger law enforcement to guard the northern and southern entrances or “gates” of the Tañon Strait, while requiring all vessels to comply with the legal directive to install Vessel Monitoring Measures for fishing transparency and safety-at-sea.

Vessel monitoring allows land-based monitoring of all vessels, ensuring they stay in designated fishing zones, while acting as a safeguard in case boats run into accidents. Cebu Gov. Hilario Davide III said: “We still have a long way to go but we need to continue finding ways to improve o u r e n f o rc e m e n t e f f o r t s. We s h a l l continue to work together as a team, where everyone has a stake not just to benefit responsibly from our natural resources but to manage it such that our future generations will have sustainable coastal and marine resources.” Park Superintendent Prospero Lendio announced at the enforcement summit that the Tañon Strait Protected Area Office has an approved allotment of P1 million of their P8.7-million budget for 2018 for seaborne patrols and enforcement activities. All participants pledged to work together to protect the Strait. “The Tañon Strait is an important traditional source of fish for millions of Filipinos. Doing the right thing for Tañon paves the way for the sustainable use and management of our fisheries to address food-security concerns,” Oceana Philippines Vice President Gloria Estenzo Ramos said.

Don’t just throw away your Christmas tree

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he presents are opened, Santa’s cookies are eaten, but the tree remains. Now what? Experts say there are plenty of ways to put Christmas trees to good use after the holidays, so don’t just trash them. “What we always recommend to people is that they recycle it somehow, and there’s a number of different options,” said Bert Cregg, an associate professor of horticulture and forestry at Michigan State University who focuses on nursery crops and Christmas trees. One of the best options, he said, is one that’s already available in many towns and cities: Trees are turned into mulch, which is

distributed on public land or given to those who want to use it. New York City runs one such program, using the resulting chips in parks, institutions and community gardens. “That’s actually a really nice wildlifeerosion control, and it’s an organic nutrient supply to our parks,” said Bill Ulfelder, executive director of The Nature Conservancy, whose mission is to protect ecologically important lands. New Yorkers can even watch the process up close by bringing their trees to certain parks, where they may also choose to take the resulting mulch. New York Times News Service

Discarded Christmas trees support dunes against erosion, in Long Beach, New York, on January 29, 2013. Erosion control is one of a number of ways trees can be put to good use after the holidays. Ozier Muhammad/The New York Times

Faith A8 Sunday, December 31, 2017

Sunday

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

Bethlehem without borders By Teresa R. Tunay, OCDS

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Caritas-Palo members help deliver relief goods to families affected by Tropical Storm Urduja in Biliran. CARITAS PALO

‘Calamities no match for Christian hope, joy’

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ACLOBAN City—Despite the damage brought on by Typhoon Urduja that recently struck Eastern Visayas, including Biliran Island province, Msgr. Rex Ramirez, bishop-elect of Naval, believes Christian hope and joy remain stronger than tragedy. “In this season of Christmas, despite the calamities that happen we could say that there is no darkness that overcomes the light,” he said. Ramirez, who visited Naval few days ago, expressed confidence that the people retain their hope despite the disaster

Keeping hope alive

“Our Christian hope and joy [are] not extinguished by calamities,” he said. He emphasized t hat one thing that keeps man’s hope alive is the support and cooperation of people around him

and the concrete initiatives for disaster-risk reduction. Nava l, t he capita l of Bi l iran, a long w ith other inter ior tow ns, such as A lmer ia, suffered mil lions of pesos wor th of d a mage to inf rast r uct u re due to devastating f lash f loods and landslides. T he non stop moderate to heavy rain brought on by Urduja softened the soil in affected places, creating mudslides that killed a total of 30 persons in Eastern Visayas, of which seven identified fatalities were in Naval and four in Almeria. R a m i re z a l so appea led to

‘Behold, I make all things new’ By Corazon Damo-Santiago

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ew Year’s Day was celebrated on March 25 in the Early Medieval period in Christian Europe. The feast, called Lady Day in England, is the start of the Legal Year until 1752. S ince the B lessed Virgin Mar y ’s pregnancy marked the beginning of a new era in the history of Christianity, many kingdoms also chose March 25 as the start of a new year. It was considered as the “most sublime moment in the history of time.” The second person of the Holy Trinity assumed human nature in the womb of the Blessed Mother. Her yes paved the yes of Jesus. It is the Feast of the Lord and Mary. Could there be a more holy day?

Even when William the Conqueror of Normandy became king of England on December 25,1066, and ordered the return of New Year in January, the Christians commemorated March 25 as New Year. In 1582 Pope Gregory XIII instituted a calendar reform and designated January 1 as New Year’s Day. But several centuries passed before the reformed Gregorian calendar was adopted by world leaders.

Life is a journey

God not only watches but becomes one of His people. Mary’s fiat did not only open her heart to Jesus, but likewise paved the way for Jesus to do so. Every Christmas season, Christianity celebrates Jesus’ coming. And every New Year reminds mankind to take new steps to

t he public for continued a id to families affected by Urduja that left hundreds homeless and thousands more isolated due to collapsed bridges. According to him, at present, the sur v ivors’ immediate needs are for basic household needs, even utensils, but more impor tant, water.

Basic needs

“Water is the most important and immediate need of the survivors, especially that their source of water supply was the one severely affected, making water scarce and contaminated,” the priest added. He foresees relocation of displaced families as the next great need, anticipating that many

survivors will no longer return to their destroyed homes. Caritas-Palo, the humanitarian arm of the Archdiocese of Palo, in collaboration with the Diocese of Biliran, spent Christmas distributing relief goods to survivors of Urduja. Ramirez, will be installed as Bishop of Naval next month following his episcopal ordination on January 9 at the Cathedral of Our Lord’s Transfiguration in Palo, Leyte. Manila A rchbishop and C a r it a s I nter n at ion a l i s P res ident Lu i s A nton io C a rd i n a l Ta g le, Cebu A rc hbi shop Jose Pa l m a a nd Pa lo A rc hbi sho p Joh n D u a re e x pec ted to g race h i s e pi scopa l ord i n at ion. Eileen Ballesteros/CBCPNews

In this season of Christmas, despite the calamities that happen, we could say that there is no darkness that overcomes the light.” —Ramirez a new spirituality, a more vigilant pursuit for a life pleasing to God. If there is an appointed time for everything, the New Year is truly the day to reflect on the past year and plan for the year that is unfolding. It is a time to respond with gratitude to the gifts of another year of life. It is a time, where every Christian should remember life on earth as a journey. It is a time never to lose sight of one’s true destiny—heaven. Since life is a travelogue, a few questions to ponder on may pave for a more glorious new year: What resolutions or desires of your heart were not realized in 2017? Did you honestly have a steadfast spirit to pursue them? What time wasters made you lose sight of your resolutions? January, the month that ushers a new year, was named after Janus, god of pagan Romans, double-faced, back to back. One looks at the past, another of the road ahead. Seemingly, the faces personify man’s

outlook of life—the poverty of a year past and the hope and possibility of a better year ahead. A proof of man’s hopeful outlook of being in the world. Life like clowns are masked. The seasons too are. And when the disguises are removed, man’s heart lay bare for Christ to behold. In his search for God’s decree for man, Saint Augustine, the greatest of the fathers of the church abandoned Manichean, a religious dualism and pleaded to God: “Save me in spite of myself.” And having reflected on new-found spiritual insights but unable to commit himself entirely to God, said: “Please make me chaste, but not yet.”

Life is a choice

From the beginning of time, a day is 24 hours. But, seemingly a day is faster in the 20th century. Perhaps, this can be attributed to the quick pace of life. Man’s worldly pursuits

n my last birthday, I was struck by the cruel truth that I will be celebrating my 73rd Christmas this year. Seventythree! OMG! It’s like ice water thrown at my face! I usually dedicate my birth month to examining my life and meditating on mortality—and it helps that it’s the month of all saints and all souls. Last November turned out to be nostalgic—which confronted me with the fact of aging, because nostalgia is a right most deserved by those coming closer and closer to the grave. Thinking, “God, how many more Christmases will You give me before You finally call me back?” I reviewed my Christmases as far back as memory could take me, and asked myself which of those brought me closest to the Baby Jesus. It’s a no-brainer: the Christmas that did this was that which etched itself earliest in my memory—with the help of the creche in my Uncle Jose Fermin’s house, painstakingly put together by his wife, Tita Chol. This belen (nativity scene) was the highlight of my childhood Christmases—a huge table by the Christmas tree (live pine) covered with sand to contain a miniature Bethlehem, not only Mary, Joseph and the baby in a manger, but also the Three Kings, a caravan of camels, shepherds and sheep, goats, cattle, a rooster (!), and an angel floating over the manger and holding a ribbon that said “Gloria in Excelsis Deo.” These plaster figurines fascinated me endlessly, introduced me to Bethlehem, and fueled my imagination as I fondled them, in the same way that maybe a little boy today would play war games in his mind with plastic soldiers or Star Wars figurines. The belen would since then accompany me through life. When I was a young girl, Christmas decorating was a family affair where everybody had an assignment; I was expected to help make the parol (Christmas lantern). When I reached my teens, I was put in charge of the belen, but my creations were nowhere near Tita Chol’s elaborate tableau—just a few cardboard cut-outs of the most important characters propped up on a bed of hay on top of the television cabinet, or a ready-made figures in escayola (plaster cast) set placed beneath the seven-foot Christmas tree, among the gift-wrapped empty boxes. However, there was one Christmas I was too busy to keep up with the belen tradition—being in the thick of preparations for a wedding. In fact, on Christmas night, my fiancé and I were in Quiapo, ordering flowers for our wedding the next morning. The time came to bring Bethlehem to our own cozy home through a belen for our little son. It was fun to craft my own nativity scene from cardboard cones and crepe paper, at times supplementing the catechesis with an assortment of pretty nativity-themed Christmas cards collected through the years. It was exhausting for me in my 20s to braid together career and homemaking (I was wife, mother, tutor, nurse, yaya, diplomat, psychologist, etc.) so that there were Christmases without any manger scene at all in our house—just a white Christmas tree fashioned from tissue paper and shiny balls, or worse, a foldaway meter-tall plastic evergreen, a mere ghost of the fresh pine Christmas tree of my childhood. (By then it was already a crime of sorts to cut down Baguio pine trees). But what we didn’t have in the house we enjoyed outside of it; we would drive has set the bar of excellence for a good life, wealth and fame in a higher scale. So in the morning, man rushes to work and at sunset is exhausted. But being tired is not an excuse not to enjoy nightlife. The art of how to live a full life, has matched progress, so too the pleasures and leisures of nightlife. How can man, with a fallen nature, readily resist? But man is not left on his own to avoid probable occasions of sin. The Holy Spirit, the sanctifier of life has endowed man with graces of enlightenment to resist sinfulness. Man has been gifted with a free will to decide for the self how to live life. David Powlison in Seeing with New Eyes, paraphrasing John Calvin, wrote: “The evil in our desires often lies not in what we want but in the fact that we want it too much.” Many people no longer make New Year resolutions. They are not followed anyway. “I find it difficult to do them, what for if they are meant to be broken,” they quip.

around to gawk at life-size crèches in town plazas and churches, and the motorized Christmas tableau that was then the pride of COD Department Store in Cubao, and years later, Greenhills. One day we received a Balikbayan box from the United States; inside was— Wow!—a 19-piece ceramic nativity set my mother-in-law Flor de Liz had painted at an arts-and-crafts class for senior citizens! How sweet of her! With lights, décor and props added, it was to become a conversation piece for many many years in our modest home, so gorgeous even Tita Chol would have loved it! But now...what’s left of the set is stashed away in a storeroom; I don’t think I’ll ever want to set it up again. I had lent the whole set to a retreat house, putting it up myself. I was happy to share my joy to so many retreatants and guests, but when it came back to me, the Baby Jesus was missing, and a lamb, and a camel, too! Were they broken? Pocketed by some child who couldn’t resist their cuteness? None of the staff could tell—as though the trio merely vanished into thin air. It saddened me a bit, for what’s a crèche without Baby Jesus? Never mind the sheep and the camel. Now that I’m recalling its glory days, and about to savor my 73rd Christmas, I find that the nativity’s magic can still transport me back to the age of innocence, imagining that the Baby Jesus (after years of being displayed in our living room) had grown tall enough to mount a camel and look for the lost lamb. “That’s why they disappeared,” I tell myself and must, “for all I know I was the lost lamb, with one leg caught in quick sand, slowly being sucked into a system that served many gods but had no time for the One True God.” Irony of ironies, I’d gotten lost while looking frantically for God, unaware that in my meandering He was looking for me. Do I now have a nativity scene at home? No, I don’t. Tell me if it’s due to old age. In the Holy Land where over several years I have escorted pilgrims five times, I have strolled in the Shepherds’ field in Bethlehem, venerated the place of His birth, walked down Via Dolorosa bearing a token cross, done the whole pilgrim route over and over again it’s like the classic “been there, done that”. It matters little to me now whether or I have a crèche in my “hermitage.” But I do seriously wonder how Jesus would feel about the state of Bethlehem today, in the light of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, this endless fight over borders. A carol rings between my ears: “O little town of Bethlehem, how still we see thee lie…” I cannot say Bethlehem today lies still. Peace is elusive in the place where the Prince of Peace was born. Were Jesus to revisit Bethlehem today as man, would He weep over it as He did over Jerusalem before He was crucified? And would He be welcome there? We can outgrow Santa Claus, but we should never outgrow Bethlehem. In spite of all that Bethlehem has been through, we continue to celebrate the fact that our Savior was born there, and pray that one day we can say to the Lord Himself, “I am Bethlehem; come, be born in me.” The carol reverberates inside my head: “O Holy Child of Bethlehem, descend to us, we pray. Cast out our sin and enter in, be born to us today…” As I write this, I pray that each of us may become a Bethlehem without borders, witnessing to the love of God for all mankind.

Man needs God

New Year resolutions never lessen our dignity. Instead, it makes us remember we are a fallen nature and with all the efforts of the evil one and his minions life is sans standards of goodness. Resolutions should convince people that they need God’s help to respond graciously to His call for holiness. Scriptures tell us that the human being is deceitful, it can never be understood to the core, only God can do so. “I, the Lord, search the minds and test the hearts of people. I treat each of them according to the way they live, according to what they do” (Jeremiah 17:10). Santiago is a former regional director of the Department of Education National Capital Region. She is currently a faculty member of Mater Redemptoris Collegium in Calauan, Laguna, and of Mater Redemptoris College in San Jose City, Nueva Ecija.

Sports TOUGH YEAR, TOUGH TIMES BusinessMirror

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

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Sunday, December 31, 2017

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By Tim Dahlberg

‘COMANCHE’ WINS SYDNEY-HOBART

The Associated Press

T was one of the great Super Bowls ever, a dramatic comeback win that cemented forever the legacies of Tom Brady and the New England Patriots. No one could have predicted February’s game could very well have been the National Football League’s (NFL) last great defining moment. A league that once seemed untouchable is under siege, as the turbulent 2017 regular season draws to a close. A tsunami of troubles—some self-inflicted—have been washing over the NFL, and for the first time in a half century or so the league’s warts are on prominent display. The national anthem controversy has hurt far more than the league is willing to admit, reaching all the way into the White House. And despite measures taken to protect player brains, it’s increasingly clear that there is little anyone can really do about concussions in a very violent sport. Turn on the TV on any given Sunday and there are wide swatches of empty seats in stadiums in some cities. The television audience itself is down, though commissioner Roger Goodell says it is only off about 1 percent for the year. There’s infighting among owners that spilled out in a very public way over Goodell’s new contract extension. And there’s a good chance players won’t be so docile when their 10-year deal expires after the 2020 season and demand guaranteed contracts like players get in almost every other sport. Even the official pizza of the NFL appears to be in trouble. Papa John’s founder John Schnatter blamed “poor leadership” by the NFL in dealing with the anthem controversy for a drop in recent quarterly profits, only to have the company apologize later on Twitter for saying the protests should have been stopped. That the NFL is having issues isn’t anything new. The league has had to deal with other controversies in recent years, ranging from Deflategate to the way it deals with domestic violence accusations against players. But this seems different. These, for the most part,

Super maxi LDV Comanche is awarded line honors in the Sydney to Hobart yacht race before the weekend after its protest against Wild Oats XI is upheld over an incident early in the race. Wild Oats XI is found to have breached race rules over a tacking move at the start on Tuesday in Sydney Harbour. The eight-time winner was penalized one hour after lengthy deliberations by a five-person international jury in Hobart. It was only the third time in the event’s 73-race history that a yacht lost line honors due to a penalty. AP

are systemic issues that seem immune to easy solutions. Basketball great Kareem Abdul-Jabbar was thinking along those lines recently when he wrote an op-ed piece predicting that the National Basketball Association would one day supplant the NFL as America’s favorite sports league. That might be a stretch, but the argument could be made that the very violence that made the league so attractive over the years may end up being part of its eventual undoing. “A broken arm or cracked rib is one thing, the scars that prompt bragging rights, but widespread permanent brain damage that affects players for the rest of their lives is beyond entertainment,” Abdul-Jabbar wrote in

A YEAR that began on a high note with Tom Brady and the Patriots overcoming a 25-point deficit to win the first overtime Super Bowl comes to an end with the National Football League at a crossroads. AP

GOLF DELIVERS PLENTY OF TALES

5 teams in tight race for Serie A trophy

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ILAN—In one of the tightest Serie A title races of recent seasons, there is one noticeable absentee. AC Milan was expected to be back at the top after spending more than €200 million (nearly $250 million) on new players in the off-season. However, it approaches the halfway stage a lowly 11th in the standings, and there have been claims over the financial stability of the Chinese-led consortium that purchased the club from Silvio Berlusconi for $800 million in April. Milan fired coach Vincenzo Montella in November and replaced him with former player Gennaro Gattuso, but there has been little change in fortunes. Gattuso’s first match in charge was a draw against Benevento, which had not picked up a single point until that moment, and he has lost two of his three league matches since then. To make matters worse for the Rossoneri, they have been forced to watch as bitter neighbor Inter Milan has proved itself a surprise contender for the Serie A title. Champions League qualification was seen as the minimum requirement for Milan this season, especially with Italy sending four teams to Europe’s premier club competition next year, but it is 14 points off the final berth. Indeed, Milan is closer to the relegation zone than the top 4 as only nine points separates it from the bottom three of Crotone, Hellas Verona and Benevento—

which still has just that point it earned against the Rossoneri. After 18 of 38 rounds, a closer look at the first half of the season:

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TITLE RACE

rooks Koepka is tweaking his schedule next year to play Pebble Beach, which only makes sense. The US Open champion has become an expert on beaches. That conversation he shared with caddie Ricky Elliott on the 15th fairway of the final round at Erin Hills had nothing to do with club selection to a back pin. They take a fall vacation to the beaches of Asia and were discussing where to go. “We had talked about Vietnam,” Koepka said. “Then he handed me the club and we hit it, and he says, ‘Good shot,’ and then we continued the conversation,” he said. They ended going to Vietnam and Thailand’s Phi Phi Island, adding to a long list of beaches where he has run his toes through the sand, from Bali to Phuket, from Bermuda to the Bahamas. On the bucket list is Costa Rica. What makes a good vacation spot? “Clear water, a nice beach, not too many people, beautiful views,” Koepka said. The next stop is Kapalua on Maui for the Sentry Tournament of Champions, the start of a new year. If next year is anything like this one, golf is sure to deliver up plenty of tales from the tour that go beyond green jackets and claret jugs.

THIS could be the season that Juve’s stranglehold on the Serie A title is ended. Juventus has won the Italian league in each of the last six seasons but there are several challengers to its crown this year, and just nine points between the top five sides. Napoli leads the pack, with 45 points, one ahead of Juventus and five above Inter. Roma has 38 points, two more than Lazio, but both the capital sides have played a match less than the top 3. However, while Juventus undoubtedly has the experience and capability of withstanding a tough title battle, there are question marks over its rivals. Napoli, whose only league defeat was against Juventus, does not have much strength in depth and has already had several players ruled out with long-term injuries. Inter’s problem is its staying power: it was in a similar position last season but collapsed and eventually finished seventh. There are signs a repeat could be on the cards as Inter, which was the last unbeaten team in the league, has lost its past two matches. AP

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AMERICAN AIRLINES APOLOGIZES TO PLAYERS D

ALLAS—American Airlines has apologized to two players on the Memphis Grizzlies’ minor league affiliate who were kicked off a plane in Dallas after a flight attendant wrongfully accused them of stealing blankets, which an assistant coach suggested happened because they are black. Airline spokesman Joshua Freed said on Tuesday that Memphis Hustle guard Marquis Teague and forward Trahson Burrell boarded the Sunday flight from Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport to Sioux Falls, South Dakota. The flight was operated by Envoy Air. Two first-class passengers gave the players their blankets as they headed to their seats in coach. But a flight attendant, who is also black, accused them of theft and the players were asked to leave the plane following an argument. An airline manager apologized to the players and they

later flew first class to Sioux Falls, Freed said. “We take pride in bringing people together, and we know that on this flight we let some of our customers down,” Freed said. “Our team at American, along with Envoy Air, is reviewing what happened, and will be reaching out to them.” Hustle Assistant Coach Darnell Lazare said in a tweet that the flight attendant saw two “young black athletes” with blankets from first class and that his first comment was “did you steal them?” “How about you teach people to get the facts first before jumping to conclusions,” Lazare tweeted last Sunday. Freed declined to say whether race was a factor, explaining that airline officials are still reviewing the matter. Sunday’s incident comes after American CEO Doug Parker told employees last month that American Airlines will implement so-called implicit-bias training. The NAACP issued a “travel advisory” in October warning

the Guardian. “There is nothing sexy about depression and dementia.” No there isn’t, and because we’re now more enlightened about that it’s no longer entertaining to watch players slam head-on into each other. The conundrum facing the league, though, is that without the very violence that is the core of the game football loses much of its appeal. That same violence is also to blame for short career spans, which makes it hard for fans to identify with individual players. While the NBA is built on its superstars, NFL teams for the most part consist of interchangeable players that the average fan wouldn’t recognize if they saw them on the street. The game itself is also unwatchable at times, with way too many stoppages to look at plays in ways never imagined when instant replay first came into existence. No one seems to know just what a catch is anymore, or what causes replay officials in New York to micromanage

things not seen by the naked eye. Still, the NFL continues to draw TV audiences other leagues can only dream of. The Super Bowl gets 100 million viewers, a Sunday night prime-time game might draw 20 million, and even the Thursday night games are, for the most part, competitive in the national ratings. And while there are plenty of empty seats in some markets, there are still sign-up lists for season tickets in others. Americans still like to get their fix of football, but for how long? A year that began on a high note with Brady and the Patriots overcoming a 25-point deficit to win the first overtime Super Bowl comes to an end with the NFL at a crossroads. There are perilous times ahead as the league tries to find a new balance and retain its appeal while, at the same time, court a new generation of fans. The NFL hasn’t killed the golden goose, far from it. That showed when city leaders in Las Vegas agreed to raise $750 million in tourist taxes to bring the Raiders to town beginning with the 2020 season. But the league can no longer afford to take fans for granted. It can no longer afford to alienate entire cities like San Diego, Saint Louis and Oakland simply because there’s more money to be made elsewhere. There’s a long way to go from the top of the mountain to wherever the NFL may end up 50 years from now. But it sure seems like the downhill part of the journey has begun. AP

African-Americans they could face discrimination when flying on American. The alert followed several high-profile incidents, including one involving an organizer of the Women’s March who was booted from a flight after a dispute over her seat. American pledged to hire an outside firm to review its diversity in hiring and promotion, train all 120,000 employees to counteract implicit bias, create a special team to review passengers’ discrimination complaints, and improve resolution of employee complaints about bias. The Memphis Hustle is in the G League, which is the NBA’s minor league and was formerly known as the NBA Development League. Teague played a year at the University of Kentucky before being drafted in the first round of the 2012 NBA draft by the Chicago Bulls. Burrell played two seasons at the University of Memphis. AP

JORDAN SPIETH was on the first tee at Spyglass Hill during the Pebble Beach ProAm, and the wait was longer than usual because Smylie Kaufman in the group ahead couldn’t find his tee shot. When he saw Kaufman trudge back up the hill, Spieth immediately called for a rules official. Could he spot something wrong? No. He just realized that only an official can give a player a ride in the cart, and after Kaufman hit another tee shot, it would speed up the round if someone were around to drive him back. Does the brain ever stop working? “Only when alcohol-induced,” Spieth said. nnn

PADRAIG HARRINGTON was holding court in the clubhouse at Riviera, talking about his ailing shoulder and options for surgery. He stopped in the middle of a sentence, pointed to a reporter and then motioned to the wall. There was a framed photograph of Katherine Hepburn, wearing a skirt past her knees and a smile that made her one of Hollywood’s most revered stars. “This is the difference,” Harrington said. “He’s looked at that and said, ‘Lovely, isn’t she?’ And I’ve looked at that and said, ‘She can play golf.’” The photo showed Hepburn with her wrists cocked as she began to rehearse the swing. That’s what got Harrington’s attention. “If you can waggle like that, you can play golf,” Harrington said. “She’s able to hit the golf ball. That’s how you tell. That’s old-school. That’s what Hogan used to do.” Does every Professional Golfers’ Association Tour player see the same thing? Apparently not. Sergio Garcia came through an hour later. He was asked to study the picture and share the first thing that came to mind. “Her skirt is too long,” Garcia said with a smile. AP

U.S. Open champion Brooks Koepka has become an expert on beaches. AP

DOMINUS A10 Sunday, December 31, 2017

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By Ambrosio “Bong” N. Flores III

on Isidro sat on his chair at his home office, and in front of him where three bottles of singlemalt whiskeys of different brands: a Macallan 1926, a Glenfiddich’s 50-year old, and a Highland Park 50-year old. All three he had been saving for a special occasion, although in earlier years he had opened other lesser but still special and extravagantly-priced whiskeys, to impress his lawyer and political friends during festive gatherings and to toast departed colleagues during somber wakes. Now, it was his turn to toast himself, and he wanted to get a first taste or two (or three) of these delicious liquids before others enjoyed it without him. Actually, he had had already four shots each, and he was feeling a bit tipsy, if not close to blacking out in a drunken stupor. It’s really sad when one drinks whiskey all alone, and whatever emotion one is feeling while drinking is greatly amplified. In his case, it was a deep loneliness. But how could he have any drinking companion? All his friends were dead. Don Isidro was approaching his 101’st birthday, a great feat for himself and all his family and relatives. His stubbornness was legendary and even in facing the end of his life, he was still stubbornly holding on. And some people were not happy about it. He really wasn’t being stubborn, he thought to himself, just competitive. His Father had died when he was 98 years old, and he had promised himself that he would beat that record and live up to 102. Of course, just hitting 99 would have been acceptable already, but he wanted to put a wider gap between his death and his Father’s. Strange that a simple goal would extend one’s life expectancy. He had already made peace with his two wives more than two years ago, and he had reconciled with his bastard son, who had grown into a respected and respectable priest. He buried his first wife last year, a sad event made lighter by the fact that they finally became friends again, but her departure did not bring him any closer to his second wife, with whom he was still estranged. T h rou g h c loud y e ye s a nd somewhat-drooping eyelids he scanned the walls of his office, at all his plaques and trophies and awards, and all the framed pictures where he had posed with famous men and women, politicians, world leaders, shaking hands with business luminaries. All of them, smiling. All of them, eyes gleaming with pride. All of them, already dead. On a small round table to his left, were several neatly-arranged pictures of his wives and children. Their faces in their solo shots and

group cuddles were smiling, but in those where he was with them, their faces were blank. And he was the one smiling broadly. It looked like he had sucked the joy out of all of them, and here was proof. He sighed, and reached for his shot glass for another swig, but it was empty. Enough, he thought. For now. He took two antacids and popped them into his mouth. Then, he poured himself water from a nearby pitcher and drank down the whole glassful. Don Isidro took his cane with the four toes, braced himself, and pushed himself up. He was wearing loose pajamas, so he could easily rub on his knees the ginger-chiligarlic balm that he had bought a lot of in Zambales, at the San Rafael Monastery. It really helped dampen the pain of his joints, now afflicted with osteoarthritis, better than the expensive ointments his doctor kept prescribing. He stepped out the back door and took a slow walk around his garden, in the darkening dusk sky. His garden lights, equipped with timers, had already flicked on slowly with a yellow glow. In a short while, they would be brighter, as the filaments warmed up. He trudged beside the nowempty cages where he used to keep his fighting cocks. He had given them away last year, as feeding and taking care of them had already become difficult. The local village watchmen were very grateful, because they knew the ferocious lineage his cocks came from assured them of victory at every fight. He missed his Matador, his prize fighter. He was his falsum deus, his unspoken avatar. In the end, Matador was decimated by creatures much, much smaller than he was. Ants. And old age, too. And here he was, about to kneel before the same enemy. He looked up at the orange and gray clouds, the blue sky already darkening. He was relishing the cool breeze that blew around his garden, and the soft rustling of leaves brought some comfort to his liquor-drenched awareness. W hat was it that Solomon said? “Everything leads to weariness—a weariness too great for words.” Yes, he was feeling weary. But he was no Ozymandias boasting about his accomplishments because in the spotlight of the human accolades he had received, in his ear whispered the sharp recrimination of his failures as a father, as a husband, as a human being. Now he knew why Alexander the Great had that soldier whisper his reminder in his ear.

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He had already partitioned his large wealth between his two families two years before and kept a comfortable portion for himself. In the past month, he had carefully determined who would receive the last of his material possessions. It brought him some solace to see the smiles of the people who received his “parting gifts”. Even the hundred thousand pesos he received as the City’s Gift for reaching a hundred years old, he had bequeathed to a struggling orphanage in Novaliches. It was an amount he just deposited in his bank account and never touched because he had no use for it (then) as he had already calculated his monthly stipend from the funds he had set aside for himself. He didn’t need to disrupt his expenses by starting some self-gratifying want. At his age, he just wanted to satisfy his needs, and the list was slowly diminishing. As was his habit, he had made around two rounds circling his garden, enjoying the sensations his eyes, ears, and skin still made him enjoy. Once dead, he knew, there would be no more of these sensations. Another blessing he was grateful for. He wanted to do one more round, but he needed to retire to his bedroom. He still stood straight, his back still proudly-erect while walking, but he did hobble with his cane. The screen door closed slowly behind him, the door-closer braking its momentum into a graceful quiet thud on the door frame. He soon found himself in his bedroom, the two lamps beside his headboard glowing a dim yellow. The air-conditioner was already on, switched on earlier by his care-giver who had likewise retired already. He didn’t want any help going to bed. On the table beside his bed on the left was a baby monitor (of all things!) which the care- giver, a light sleeper, relied on to keep tabs on him. On his right was a leather-bound bible, and a rosary blessed by the Pope, and a plastic bottle of holy water from the Grotto in France, given to him by his first wife. She had always been the religious one, and she said she would be watching over him once she died. The pillow was soft and relieving, even if it was a thin one. He allowed his body to relax, and he stared up at the ceiling, now in an incandescent glow from his two lamps. He never slept with the lights off, because the lights were a blessing, and he wanted to enjoy his eyesight as much as he can. Once darkness sets upon him, it would be an eternal darkness. But he had distracted himself long enough. The effect of the three whiskeys (12 shots in all) was making the room spin as he lay there. A pleasant feeling, to be honest. But his loneliness was again slowly engulfing him. His ears focussed on the hum of the AC. Everything he had achieved was pointless, yet he felt there was still something missing in his soul. Could it be the failure to gain the love of his family? He didn’t think

so, he had made peace with them already, a feat he at first thought was impossible. He had already disposed of his idols—his cars, his properties, his jewelry, his paintings and other art pieces, his money. He had proven that he had detached himself from all of these, and that was also a source of pride for him. He had bequeathed quite substantial amounts to charities and he had started a Trust Fund to be managed by a Foundation which he did not egotistically name after himself, despite the protests of some good-intentioned people who really didn’t know the kind of life he had led. And he had chuckled because he went against the grain here, too. He had made his General Confession to his priest-son, who was crying more than he was when he admitted all that he had done. In fact, he felt that he received his Holy Orders six months too early, because here he was still alive and…hobbling? That was another item that he had been able to tick off from his To-DoBefore-You-Die list. So, in the eyes of the people around him, he was ready to go, ready to die, ready to meet the Ants. What was still missing? The room was slowly spinn i ng , a nd i n a w ay, he w a s grateful for this too, as he was starting to feel drowsy. He suddenly remembered that he had forgotten to brush his teeth, but he thought he would let this oversight slide, just once. He smacked his lips and could still taste the whiskey in his mouth, and for that he was again grateful he hadn’t brushed his teeth. And his eyelids slowly closed, and his breathing started to become rhythmic and deep, and he sighed a great sigh, then ever ything was dark. Don Isidro awoke with a start. He was awake but he could see nothing. Was there a power outage? His two lamps were out? He could feel a low rumbling, but it wasn’t his AC. When he touched his arms and his face, he couldn’t feel anything. He tried moving his legs, and felt nothing, too. But he wasn’t lying down in the darkness, he was standing up. At least, that’s how it felt. He looked around, but he really didn’t feel his head was moving around, only his eyes. Oh my goodness, was he dead? Did he die in his sleep? He wasn’t prepared for this. He tried to call out to his caregiver, Mercedes, but he could not speak. He again tried to touch his mouth but he felt his mouth wasn’t there at all. And the rumbling! He could feel it, a low vibration. At least that gave him something to focus on. It definitely was NOT his AC. This one was low, ominous. But focussing on the vibration made him feel that he was in the darkness for a long, long time. He didn’t feel scared nor uncomfortable, but he felt like he was…nothing. Inconsequential. A non-entity. He didn’t feel

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hot nor cold nor happy nor afraid. Like only his awareness remained but could not be aware of anything else, except the rumbling. This sensation lasted for what seemed like an eternity. Then he sensed that something was happening behind him, and he felt he was turning his head to look at what it was. In the distance, he saw a small yellow light, flickering, like a single star in a black sky. Then there was another one, red this time, also flickering. Then another yellow light. And another red light. And STILL another. Soon the blackness in front of him was punctuated by hundreds of these flickering lights in yellow and red. He was mystified by their presence, at the same time grateful that he could see something with which to orient himself, get his bearings. But they were not as many as the stars he remembered seeing in the dark sky, but more like fireflies in the distance. These “fireflies” were suddenly growing bigger, or probably coming closer, and the rumbling had become more discernible, and there was a vibration engulfing his…being? He felt his disembodied self backing away from the growing fireflies. But he felt nothing. No fear. Just a growing curiosity. In a while he could see that they were not fireflies, but fires blazing. Their light was very slowly lightening up the landscape. Don Isidro felt himself tripping over backwards and slammed against an inclined rocky wall. He could now feel hands connected to his being and he felt what he was leaning against: it was a rocky wall, full of loose gravel and moist dirt, but not muddy. As the fires closed in and grew even larger, some where exploding, lightening up the landscape.

Don Isidro realized he was high up on a rocky mountain, surrounded by darkness and the dancing light of the fires. They were actually little cracks on the ground and they were the source of the rumbling, numerous tiny little…volcanoes? “Burping” and splattering red glowing mud and emitting smoke. Some where exploding and he could see molten lava overflowing out of the mouths of the little volcanoes and spreading slowly out, hissing as it touched the earth. He could not explain to himself the physics of the little volcanoes slowly approaching the mountain where he was, other than that the ground was probably shifting, like land masses being moved around like tectonic plates. And he realized, that the more rumblings, the more fires were being created and these new fires or little volcanoes brought about more light that made the landscape come into better view. Embers were rising up amid the black smoke. The rumbling was deafening now and the earth was shaking and moving under his feet. He noticed that there was a sky, after all, above him but no clouds. He heard mournful moans, and he looked down to see there were other people below him, desperately struggling to climb up the slope where he was. They looked naked, hairless, like humanoids but not really people. He looked closely and saw they were all faceless…! Yet he felt no fear, only a sense of wonderment at all the things that were happening. Then there was a different, distant sound. It was a roar—dull and monotonous at first like the early rumblings of the volcanoes, but growing into a crescendo. He saw that the humanoid figures were hearing the sound as well, and frantically clambering over the

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www.businessmirror.com.ph rocks, but the shifting mountain kept pulling them down. One was nearby, being lifted up by a shifting patch of rocky ground, and he was raising his hand towards him, its faceless head seemingly uttering a soundless cry for help. And then he saw it: It was a shifting, shimmering light in the horizon, slowly making its way towards where he was, where all the humanoids were. It was undulating and black, but reflecting the fires in its swells. He realized what it was: a rampaging flood, and the humanoids were really scrambling now. The one reaching out to him was carried by the moving earth, and as Don Isidro turned to his right, he saw that some of the other humanoids were already on the surface of the mountain, climbing over the rocks to get to the top. They knew that the flood was fast approaching, and to add to the confusion and panic, the small volcanoes all erupted, shooting up flames and smoke and the acrid smell of sulphur. It mingled with the roar of the water as it smashed closer and closer. And the ground was still convulsing, still shaking, causing rocks of different sizes to tumble down and splash into the churning waters below. Yet he felt he was in no danger. He could now smell the sulphur as he likewise joined the other faceless ones in climbing up the mountain wall, trying to escape the floodwaters now slowly rising towards him, but his fingers kept slipping because of the loose stones and moist dirt. Stones were hitting his head. The water was hissing as it engulfed the little volcanoes and their fires, but now white smoke was rising out of the churning, foamy water and underneath it, he could see red and yellow lights where the volcanoes were. A wind was starting to blow, but it was not a howling wind, yet it made the rising smoke swirl all around. Don Isidro still felt nothing, other than the need to climb higher, to find solid ground. Finally, he did. He stood up and looked down the craggy mountain side. In the distance he could make out countless humanoids against the mountain, like glistening wriggling worms, clinging to dear life as the ground shifted. He saw the humanoid that was asking for his help: he was holding on to the top of a rock that was being carried away by the swirling currents of the flood. His faceless head was “looking” at him, and as he gazed at this creature, he sensed its fear. The smoke covered him as he drifted farther away, its “face” transfixed at him. He stood and towered above all of them now, above all of it. He saw that the sky was still black, without stars, but the water was glowing because of the continuous under water fires. The sound of water hissing, the rumbling of the mountain and the ground, and roaring of the cascading water filled the air. Water was splashing loudly as it hit the mountain’s side and as rocks continued to roll down unto it. Don Isidro felt alive now: He had sight, he had hearing, he had feeling, he had smell. He realized that the water was receding, but further realized: it was the mountain that was growing, and he was on top of it, being raised higher and higher until

he could see the landscape all around him. The sounds of the water, the hissing volcanoes, the rumbling ground were fading into the background, no longer sharply intruding into his existence, the sharp bite of sulphur no longer in his nostrils. Here, a certain kind of notsilence ruled and a certain lull in the frenzy of earlier. He looked and saw the same conditions all around, but they no longer affected him. He was above it all. He pondered: Was he witnessing the birth of the world, of Creation? From what he remembered, it was something like this primordial scene, and yet he watched it with disaffection. Then something caught his eye, something bright and swirling down below. He realized there was a valley, and somewhere in the middle of the valley, there was a dancing light. It was not a volcano blazing yellow and red: this one had different colors, with greens, blues, purples, and a whole lot of others he couldn’t distinguish. It was… pirouetting! A pillar of light, almost like a spinning lighted Christmas Tree! He decided to go down and investigate. In amazement, he found himself suddenly almost down the valley, without even exerting effort to go down, as he had when he was climbing the mountain’s face. He climbed up a large boulder to get a closer view, and saw that it was…a woman?! A glowing woman, but NOT a full woman. She was a woman only up to her waist but below that, her lower body was made up of sparking, twinkling little stars of different colors. He stood still watching this glowing marvel, until she stopped twirling, and as her hair came to a rest, her eyes and his eyes locked. He saw that the upper body had stopped but her lower part still continued to pirouette, but much more slowly than before. She was the most beautiful woman she had ever seen, with a smile so gentle, and he felt her eyes could see into his soul. She raised her hand towards him and beckoned for him to come closer. He skipped a breath. Don Isidro was around a hundred meters away but his eyes could see every detail on her face. Her skin was radiant, her hair was long, smooth and silky covering her breasts, and she had an aura that pulsated between gold and white and purple. He looked down, took a tentative step forward, the loose dirt crumbling under his foot, and hesitated. He looked again towards the woman, and she again smiled at him, urging him to come forward with a slow gesture of her hand. And so he jumped off the boulder and his descent seemed to be in slow motion. He saw that they were at the bottom of the valley where everything was level. The soft dirt crunched under his toes as he took one studied step after another, and still the beautiful woman kept her hand up, as if waiting for him to put his hand in hers. There was no sound here, except a faint tinkling of little bells. There was a familiar gentle breeze blowing and caressing his cheeks as he came closer, and closer to her. He could also hear the rustling of leaves, but there were no trees in sight around them. A cock crowed in the distance and this made him pause.

It sounded like…Matador? Is all this a hallucination? Was it wrong to have mixed three kinds of single-malt whiskeys? Finally, he was in front of her, her hand in front of him. She was smiling at him. The bright little lights under her were rotating and the ground around her was glowing because of them. She looked familiar, but she definitely did not look like one of his two wives. He looked at her hand, then at her again. “Who are you?” Don Isidro asked. She only smiled coyly. She moved her hand again, beckoning him. Don Isidro saw her fine, long and slim fingers. He raised his hand and took hers (it was warm), and her fingers closed over his, and he felt each of her fingers gently sqeezing his hand one after the other in a slow rhythm. A bright blinding light enveloped both of them, and he felt he had disintegrated and become one with the woman. He could hear a strong male voice, but couldn’t make out what he was saying, but it seemed like a mantra, repeating and repeating itself. Don Isidro could feel himself breathing, and he could feel his body. He could feel his arms and legs like he normally did now, but more, he felt strong and alive and refreshed. And here he could feel something else: Complete Love. It was a warm kind of love, it was a hug that he could feel all throughout his body, it was a hug that was trying to tell him, You are accepted for what you are, UNCONDITIONALLY. Accept yourself. And the tears came out of his eyes, and out of the whiteness of everything he began to see color and shapes. He found himself in a garden full of flowers and he felt the grass under his feet. There were birds chirping, too, and the sky was blue, white fluffy clouds floated through it. A breeze was in the air, and he could smell sweet fragrances and the grass crushed under his feet. He heard a disembodied voice: it was the woman. “Stay. Be still. Know. Accept.” And Don Isidro knelt down and started sobbing but not because he was sad. It was because he was filled with Joy. And Peace. His hands clutched at the fresh dewy grass. Don Isidro could hear the care-giver, and she sounded worried in his sleep. “Don Isidro! Don Isidro! Are you all right?” It was Mercedes, the care-giver, and she was bent over him as he lay in bed, her hands on his shoulders. It took a while for him to focus, but he mustered an amused smile at her. “Yes, Chedy, I am all right. What’s the matter?” He was still groggy. Mercedes sighed with relief and pulled up a chair and sat beside him near the bed, and made the sign of the cross before speaking. “Madre Mio! You scared me, Don Isidro! Over the monitor, I could hear you calling your first wife and your second wife and your children and your grandchildren, and I thought, ‘oh my, the moment has come!’, so I called all of them up and told them what was happening. I also called Father Romy, and he said he was coming over immediately!” Don Isidro chuckled, dismissing her concern. “Hahaha! You should not have bothered them, Chedy, I was probably just dreaming, or maybe having a

nightmare. I did have a lot to drink last night.” Mercedes had a look of fearful awe in her face. “But there’s more, Don Isidro. There is MORE. And it was what scared me the most!” Puzzled, Don Isidro squinted at her. “Eh? Really? What was it?” Mercedes paused, swallowed, then stammered, “Don Isidro, you were praying the Rosary! All four mysteries!” His eyes widened. “What?!” He had never prayed the Rosary before; perhaps as a child but not as an adult! “It’s true! I brought my cell phone to your bedroom and let them hear you pray! They were as astonished as I was!” A wondrous look came over her face as she looked up to the ceiling, reminiscing that pleasant memory. “And you were praying it so beautifully, Don Isidro, with your voice so clear and crisp and loud! I thought you were awake, but you weren’t.” “Really? How did you know?” “Because I pinched you!” “Really?! I don’t believe you!” Don Isidro bellowed and sat upright on his bed against the headboard. But Mercedes shifted her gaze to his right hand. Don Isidro noticed, and followed her gaze. In his right hand, he was holding the rosary that had been blessed

Sunday, December 31, 2017 A11 by the Pope. Don Isidro gasped, raising his hand still clutching the rosary. His eyes were wide in disbelief. Then he turned to Mercedes. He asked, “What did YOU do then, after pinching me?” “Why, it was the most beautiful thing, Don Isidro, so I prayed the rosary with you!” She was puffed up with pride, smiling and her eyes looking up, still recalling the experience. “When Father Romy heard it, he said he’d call me back. And he did!”“Why? What did he do?” Don Isidro shifted in his bed to absorb what was being told him. “He called up all the others, made a conference call. Then called me up, connected me, and we ALL prayed the rosary with you! It’s a MIRACLE! They are all on their way here now!” She was beaming with a wide smile. EPILOGUE Don Isidro lived up to the age of 105 years old, to everyone’s amazement. (Everyone knew he was just aiming for 102.) He was buried along with his first wife in the family mausoleum in the Memorial Park along Sucat Avenue, Parañaque. Before he died, he was surrounded by his second wife, Monique, and his children, and grandchildren and he was able to give his blessings to all of them. He had a peaceful smile at

home in their loving presence, and everyone noted how light-spirited the event was. Strangely, they heard a cock crow at the moment of his death, and the crowing continued for a full five minutes. When they checked with the village guards, nobody among his neighbors owned a chicken, much more a rooster. In the years leading to his death, Don Isidro suddenly became full of life, his osteoarthritis disappeared overnight, and he travelled a lot, visiting his distant relatives, and methodically distributing the remainder of his wealth. When he was being interred, a lot of people attended, all family and friends of the family and people Don Isidro had helped. There were priests and nuns, and even the Press was there to cover it. It was a big crowd. Several children in attendance who were aged four years and younger pointed to a long- haired woman in the distance who was quietly watching the whole event, although their nannies and mothers and nobody else saw her. The children claimed that the woman was glowing and her hand was raised towards their grandfather until the coffin had been laid. The adults, amused, had simply hushed the children, calling them imaginative.

Tourism&Entertainment A12 Sunday, December 31, 2017

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Editor: Carla Mortel-Baricaua

The Ancient City of Pingyao It was early in the morning and the locals living in the ancient town went about their business.

The old houses along the streets were reminiscent of ancient times, whether they have been restored or not.

Some sections of the ancient town are in a partially restored and ruinous states.

Walking through the old streets of Pingyao will take you back in time.

Faint sunlight shines on the old structures, giving it a golden sheen.

Getting lost in Pingyao is a great way to spend a couple of hours or an afternoon.

D

Story & photos by Joshua Berida

espite China’s skyscrapers reaching for the clouds, its urban and concrete jungle dotted with glitzy shopping districts and the fast-paced, modern lifestyle, the country has managed to preserve its ancient past. And a good example is Pingyao in Shanxi province. Lost in time

I was on my way out of China after I crossed the border from Mon-

golia. I was heading south by bus and train when I decided to include Pingyao in my itinerary. The land-

scapes, both urban and natural, transformed as I moved from one border to the next and from city to city. The arid landscapes of the desert, with its small towns and vast wastelands, gave way to the towering concrete buildings and roads of the metropolis. I wasn’t looking forward to exploring another city; I was searching for a place where I can forget about time. Pingyao was en route to Beijing and Shanghai and that made my decision on where to go easier. I arrived early morning, at around 5:30 a.m., amid the mist and fog that veiled the city, and the cold breeze that wafted through the alleys. It was too early to check-in, so I patiently waited outside the guesthouse, but then after a quick rest, I left my things and eagerly explored the ancient, walled city.

Pingyao played an important part of China’s history, as it served as a regional financial hub in the 16th to the 19th century. At one point, the city had over 20 banking institutions, which totaled more than half of what the entire country had. Unesco listed the ancient city in its World Heritage Site list in the late-1990s. The wall surrounding the old metropolis acted as a physical and metaphorical symbol of the modernization happening outside of it. There were rickety carts, motorcycles and sedans zipping in and out of the main streets, in and out of the past and present. The partly paved, cobblestone and dirt roads and narrow streets acted as time warps into the city’s quirks and wormholes, into a past the Chinese want to recover. The small shops, roadside food

stalls with matching small chairs, centuries-old temples and structures, family-owned restaurants and grocery stores were all reminiscent (or what I thought) an ancient city would be. The main thoroughfares cut through the town, with the towers on each pole serving as visitors’ Polaris, guiding them to quaint alleys and quiet corners, where life unfolded. Maybe the same way they did centuries ago, hanging their clothes on a line, moving goods into their stores, calling out to customers or engaging in small talk with their neighbors. I didn’t have a plan on which parts to visit, I just went where my feet took me. I wandered into alleys far from the main tourist pathway. The old houses were in partially ruinous and restored states characterized by the crum-

bling walls, missing bricks and old wooden doors. The Chinese flags waved and red lanterns danced with each breath of the wind. I found my way back into the center of town after walking in and out of the labyrinthin, narrow passageways. I wasn’t even looking for it; it was a path I stumbled upon. I looked down one street; there was kitsch on display from the souvenir stores, owners and restaurateurs calling out to tourists hoping for a purchase, a man sitting on a stool staring into the distance, a woman peddling photos of people wearing traditional costumes, and a child wandering aimlessly looking at each thing as if it was the first time he saw them. In the middle of it all, I somehow felt I belonged there, and that I was meant to be in Pingyao, and it’s all good.

Six underrated destinations beyond Mayon

Pinamuntogan Island is framed with white sands, coconut trees and sparkling blue waters.

By Celine Reyes

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can be seen looming over the endless sea of valleys and hills.

Photos by Dennis Murillo & Celine Reyes

Jovellar Underground River

ay “Albay”, and “Mayon Volcano” would eventually follow suit. It’s true that the Perfect Cone is hard to ignore when you’re in the province, but take a second and look past it and you’ll find some of the most beautiful destinations in the region. So, go off the beaten path, stray from the hordes of tourists and get to know more of this province with these six less-traveled places.

Pinamuntogan Island

On the edges of the Tabaco Bay lies an islet that goes by the name of Pinamuntogan Island. Sometimes also spelled as Pinamuntugan, this place in Bacacay boasts a length of chalky, cream sands that welcomes clear, blue waters. It’s also fringed with coconut trees and a sprinkling of rock formations. It’s very popular with the locals and is still relatively unheard of to people outside of the region. Come and visit and there’s a good chance you’ll be the only one there.

Vanishing Island

Vanishing Island in Malilipot is a swirl of shoal with white, sparkling sands. This sandbar, known locally as Wara-wara which can be translated as “appearing-disappearing,” is accessible at specific times, particularly when the tide is low. Showcasing fine sands rimmed by the Tabaco Bay’s cobalt waters, Vanishing

Lima Park Hotel is Calabarzon tourism champion

The Mayon looms over Sumlang Lake.

The natural shade of Oras Falls perpetually shields it from the heat of the sun.

Island also plays host to a number of floating cottages along its periphery which guests could rent. This sandbar is also near the Pinamuntogan Island—you can tell your boatman to stop by here.

Oras Falls

Often grossly unnoticed by travelers, Tabaco City is popularly considered as a mere gateway to the nearby province of Catanduanes. Yet, this place holds so much more if you just know where to look. Oras, a relatively unknown waterfall, can be found in the upland village. Tucked in a parcel of forest accessible via 15-minute easy trek through a rutted path, the elegant cascade gathers into a circular ba-

Floating huts surround Vanishing Island.

sin before continuing on to a stream that runs along the barangay. Locals can often be found bathing, even drinking from the tributary since the water is clean and cool.

Quitinday Green Hills

In the quaint town of Camalagi, just about an hour away from the capital Legazpi City, lies what is, perhaps, the province’s best-kept secret: Quitinday Green Hills. This 400-hectare stretch of rolling plains has been compared to Cebu’s Osmeña Peak and Bohol’s Chocolate Hills. Easily reached by a short trek up an established path, Quitinday Green Hills affords a picturesque view—arguably one of the bests in the province. On a clear day, Mayon

If the Quitinday Green Hills is to the Chocolate Hills, the Jovellar Underground River is to Palawan’s subterranean waterway. This watercourse in the town of Jovellar, just a quick ride from Quitinday, may be short but it more than makes up for it in awesomeness. The cave can be accessed by going on a bamboo raft where once can get to see its stunning rock formations, as well as bats zipping in and out. An underground waterfall awaits at the other end. Here, one can bathe in the rocky platform and let the refreshing current wash your worries away. Upstream, the cavern reveals a more peaceful, albeit rockstrewn portion of the river.

Sumlang Lake

The Mayon’s ubiquity in Albay results in a range of possibilities for wonderful backdrops. If you simply can’t get enough of its perfect cone, but doesn’t want to elbow your way through the tourists in Cagsawa Ruins, head out to Sumlang Lake in Camalig. The placid, glittering lake mirrors the volcano, creating a hypnotizing vista you’d find nowhere else. On top of this marvelous view, bamboo rafts adorned with abaca furniture can be rented out for a relaxing cruise. Other activities such as paddle boarding, kayaking and even swimming can be also be done here. Plus, food stalls are also plenty here; a perfect merienda hangout spot.

T

he Department of Tourism (DOT) recently conferred on Lima Park Hotel the Tourism Excellence award during the fourth Calabarzon Tourism Summit. With the theme “Working Toward Sustainable Tourism and Building Partnerships Through Appreciation and Recognition,” the summit was the venue for recognizing the efforts of individuals and companies supporting the tourism sector. Lima Park Hotel was cited for its “valuable contribution in adherence to tourism accreditation, quality standards and services, generation of data and information on tourist arrivals, both for overnight and same-day visitors, and initiating programs aligned to the National Tourism Development Plan of the Department of Tourism.” “Further, for having manifested consistent compliance and innovation, generous support to DOT programs and activities, and continuous effort in the pursuit of excellence for tourism products and services.” Rated by the DOT as the first and only fourstar hotel in the province of Batangas, Lima Park Hotel has been consistently promoting the tourist arrival in the Lakeshore District of Batangas province by creating tour experiences that include the Lake Taal cruises and Marian Orchard pilgrimage site in Balete. The hotel is also involved in numerous annual multisectoral and community activities, such as the Batangas Development Summit, the Batangas Earth, Wind, and Water Festival, Karipasan Run for Wellness, and Bisikleta Iglesia, among others. Currently, Lima Park Hotel serves as home to a big number of expatriates serving multinational companies in Batangas. It is also the lead-

ing convention hub in the province and center for social events. DOT Region 4A Regional Director Rebecca Villanueva-Labit said, “We have everything in the region, we have so many things to offer. The strength of this region is actually the goodness of the spirit of all our partners, the private sectors, the public sectors and the local government units.” Labit, in particular, cited Lima Park Hotel for its innovative approach to tourism that even includes community development and environment protection. “We thank the Department of Tourism for this recognition. We are grateful for the overwhelming support of Regional Director Labit, who, together with her team, has always been with us every step of the way in achieving what we have today,” Lima Park Hotel Resident Manager Edilberto P. Evangelista Jr. said. “We hope that this recognition will inspire other hotel and resort owners and operators in Calabarzon to support our government’s tourism programs by adhering to DOT’s quality standards.” Evangelista also received a plaque of recognition for his dedication to the development of tourism. Labit revealed that DOT-Calabarzon expects an increase in the 26 million same-day tourists recorded in 2016. She remains confident that the region will be able to generate a 20-percent increase for same-day arrivals, and another 20-percent to 25-percent increase for overnight staying visitors. “By next year, we will have more training to improve our human resources. We will be putting our thrust to ecotourism, farm tourism and faith tourism to strengthen emerging and developing destinations,” Labit said.