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Power sector in limbo

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By Lenie Lectura

he suspension of four commissioners of the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) came as a surprise to many, leaving a vacuum of leadership within the agency responsible for approving vital power contracts, certificates and other permits needed before a power project is cleared for commercial operation.

Only ERC Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Agnes VST Devanadera was left to man the supposedly five-member commission until Malacañang appoints new or interim commissioners. But even the ERC chairman, who was appointed in November 2017 and will serve the unexpired term of former ERC Chairman Jose Vicente Salazar until July 2022, could not act alone to decide on pending applications.

As a collegial body, the presence of at least three ERC commissioners is needed to constitute a quorum to enable the commission

to adopt any ruling, order, resolution, or decision in the exercise of its quasi-judicial and quasi-legislative functions.

“The vacuum of leadership in the ERC could result in a standstill in the operations of the collegial body. This will, in turn, have an effect on our future power supply, resulting in the possibility of blackouts. In this light, I’m urging Malacañang to appoint acting commissioners to perform the duties of the suspended commissioners as soon as possible,” Senate Energy Committee Chairman Sherwin T. Gatchalian said.

Energy Secretary Alfonso G. Cusi, likewise, raised to Malacañang the same recommendation.

However, the Palace has yet to act on the request of Cusi to appoint four members of the ERC on a temporary basis and to put the agency under the administrative supervision of the Department of Energy (DOE).

The ERC is the electric-power industry regulator composed of four commissioners and one chairman. The collegial body requires the presence of three members to issue orders, decisions and resolutions. In this situation, accord-

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Suspension of 4 commissioners threatens to paralyze ERC operations heading to critical dry months

ing to Gatchalian, the absence of four of its members leaves the body “powerless in making decisions critical to the energy sector.”

Executive Order 292, or the Administrative Code of 1987, states that the President has the power to temporarily designate a competent person or any official currently in active government service to perform the functions of an official working in the Executive branch who is unable to perform his duties. In which case, the President’s temporary designation should not exceed a period of one year.

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PNP launches ‘more responsible’ version of ‘Operation Tokhang’

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By Rene Acosta

ays after relaunching its “Oplan Tokhang,” the Philippine National Police (PNP) reported that it has yet to receive any report of abuse or violation by any of its men on the ground, prompting Director General Ronald de la Rosa to initially declare that, finally, the organization may have come up with the correct formula that hopefully would become its template in its sustained antiillegal-drugs operation.

“It will go on so that it would be thoroughly fine-tuned, and they all know what to do,” said de la Rosa of

the anti-illegal-drugs drive and of the police personnel he dubbed as tokhangers, who were deployed to

PESO exchange rates n US 51.4910

the forefront of the operations.

For the chief of the PNP, there should be no reason the much-vaunted and previously controversial and bloody police campaign should not succeed this time. After all, it has gone through the almost two years of a “trial and error” period.

The campaign was also like a chameleon until it found its apt and correct color. The anti-illegaldrugs drive of the PNP was first known as Oplan Tokhang (knock and plead) until it was shelved, forced by the kidnapping and killing of Korean Jee Ick Joo. After a brief hiatus, it returned as “Oplan Tokhang Reloaded,” until it was scrapped because it was mired with questionable operations.

On the occasion of the 27th anniversary of the PNP on Monday, the anti-drugs campaign returned as a plain and simple See “Tokhang,” A2

Policemen talk to residents as they conduct a visit to a poor community as part of a government antidrug crackdown in Manila on January 29, 2018. The Philippine police chief said his force will resume visits to the homes of drug suspects to encourage them to reform, despite his acknowledgement that corrupt police have abused the program. AP/Aaron Favila

n japan 0.4711 n UK 73.4931 n HK 6.5849 n CHINA 8.1777 n singapore 39.3722 n australia 41.4091 n EU 64.4461 n SAUDI arabia 13.7313

Source: BSP (February 2, 2018 )

NewsSunday BusinessMirror

A2 Sunday, February 4, 2018

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Power sector in limbo Continued from A1

Similarly, the Supreme Court, in a 2011 case, General v. Urro, ruled that the President has the power to make acting or temporary appointments, as long as he is not prohibited by the Constitution or by the law in order to prevent a hiatus in the discharge of official functions.

‘Debilitating impact’

Devanadera wrote to Duterte to seek guidance on the implementation of the Office of the Ombudsman’s decision that resulted in the suspension of the four ERC commissioners for one year.

“The debilitating impact of the Ombudsman’s decision to suspend the four incumbent ERC commissioners will render the operations of the agency in severe paralysis. The Ombudsman’s decision will have a substantial impact for the whole country and presents a dangerous regulatory risk that will severely affect the economic and financial environment of the country. That is contrary to the President’s pro-poor policy, as the 73.6 million Filipinos will be adversely affected by any nonaction on the part of the ERC,” Devanadera stated.

The absence of a quorum in the ERC will make it unable to perform any of its quasi-judicial and quasilegislative functions, such as:

• Hearings will not be conducted, as notices and schedules are set by the commission;

• No deliberations on applications for approval of power supply agreements (PSAs), capital expenditure projects of the distribution utilities and the National Grid Corp. of the Philippines (NGCP), rate adjustments, pass-on charges;

• Consumer complaints will not be acted upon;

• Violations of industry players of existing laws, rules and regulations will not be acted upon;

• Certificates of compliance (COCs) or provisional authorities to operate power plants will not be issued or renewed;

• Market suspension will not be declared when warranted;

• Decisions and resolutions cannot be promulgated and released;

• Operations of the ERC will be affected, as personnel actions could not be undertaken; and

• Procurements could not be

awarded, especially the ERC meter seals and stickers being placed on electric meters of the distribution utilities, among others.

There are 162 petitions for approval of PSAs pending at the agency. Of these, 132 cases involve electric cooperatives and the 30 involve private distribution utilities.

The total value of all pending applications for ERC approval is close to P1.6 trillion.

“This P1.588 trillion—not just millions, but trillions—includes investments from both local and foreign entities. Without ERC action, the projects cannot proceed.

The investors may get discouraged,” Devenadera said.

No disruption

Cusi, however, assured that he would not allow any disruption in the country’s power supply as a result of the delay in the processing of applications, including COC applications, before the ERC.

As such, the Department of Energy and the Wholesale Electricity Spot Market (WESM) agreed to allow power-generation companies with expired COCs, or with pending COC applications with the ERC, to operate and trade in the WESM.

“The move aims to protect electricity consumers by preventing disruptions in WESM transactions, while the ERC issue is being sorted out,” Cusi said, after approving the resolution on the agreement with the board of directors of the Philippine Electricity Market Corp. (PEMC), the operator of the WESM.

“The paramount consideration is the overall protection of public interest and the security of the supply of power. This is needed for the Philippines to meet its economic targets. This should take precedence over administrative issuances, especially when an administrative body is unable to act,” Cusi emphasized.

Cusi also directed PEMC and the DOE to work closely with the ERC to ensure the continuing operations of existing plants and to allow power generation from new plants that will be completed.

Under the DOE-PEMC resolution, power-generation companies with expired COCs can continue trading upon proof of submission of their application for the renewal of their COC with the ERC.

“New plants will also be per-

‘T

he debilitating impact of the Ombudsman’s decision to suspend the four incumbent ERC commissioners will render the operations of the agency in severe paralysis. The Ombudsman’s decision will have a substantial impact for the whole country and presents a dangerous regulatory risk that will severely affect the economic and financial environment of the country.”

—Devanadera mitted to trade or submit offers to the WESM upon proof of completion of testing and commissioning and other requirements for the issuance of a COC.”

Cusi explained: “The COC is a requirement for the registration and continuing participation of generation companies in the WESM. About 26 generation companies with a total of 3,314.60 megawatts [MW] generator capacities have expired or have expiring COCs in 2018.”

“Additional new capacities of at least 720 MWs are also expected to go on commercial operations within the next few months. If not allowed to participate in the WESM, the available electricity supply in the market will be curtailed, which can result in higher market clearing prices,” the energy chief said.

“As the summer months draw near, the use of electricity is anticipated to increase. The DOE is monitoring the situation to ensure the sufficiency of supply to meet the rising demand,” Cusi concluded.

The DOE and the NGCP are closely monitoring the power situation in the country.

“For the plants that are on scheduled shutdown, we have no problem with that. There is no impact on power interruption because these scheduled shutdown of plants are being coordinated with the system operator and other industry stakeholders,” Energy Undersecretary Felix William Fuentebella said in an interview.

The NGCP expects the total Luzon power supply to face constraints in April, due to the expected rise in demand brought about by rising temperatures.

Moreover, power reserve in Luzon will be “thinnest” around May at

Tokhang...

“Oplan Tokhang,” thus, finding its right pace and correct tempo.

Command responsibility

In putting the “once bloody campaign” back on the streets, de la Rosa has ensured that its previous “errors” will not come back to haunt the operation again by giving emphasis to responsibility—one that is totally and equally shared by policemen on the ground and their sitting commanders.

For the police superiors, it is command responsibility, something that had been amiss in the first two implementations of Tokhang, which contributed to their perceived failures.

The command responsibility was strictly spelled out in the “supplemental operational guidelines” covering Tokhang that was issued by the PNP chief, which also included other salient points for the conduct of the operations.

The guidelines mandated that any policeman involved in the anti-drugs operation would be relieved for any violation along with his supervisor.

1,432 MW.

Still, the NGCP assured the public that there are sufficient power reserves based on current capacity, which includes power plants that are expected to come online within the year.

“We breached the 10,000-MW demand in power for the first time this year. With an average growth rate of around 5 percent from 2014 to 2017, we are expecting Luzon’s peak demand in 2018 to remain in that growth rate, also in May. The trend is reflected in the DOE’s 2018 forecast peak of 10,561 MW from 2017 actual demand of 10,054 MW, pegging growth rate at 5.04 percent. NGCP’s System Operations continues its coordination with power-generating plants to ensure that all maintenance shutdowns are timed not to coincide with peak periods, particularly at the height of summer,” NGCP stated.

NGCP’s forecast, according to its spokesman lawyer Cynthia Alabanza, was mainly based on DOE data, committed capacity from new power plants and scheduled maintenance shutdown of existing power plants.

Based on these, Alabanza said, “there’s no outage ” expected because there is enough supply. However, barring unforeseen circumstances, NGCP could not guarantee that there won’t be any blackout incidents.

If and when forced outage happens at a time when a number of power plants are on scheduled shutdown, Fuentebella said, the government could rely on the Malaya power plant. “We have Malaya to count on; that’s 420 MW. We are okay, but no one can guarantee that there will be no brownouts

since the projection for this year took into consideration many factors, but not forced outage because no one can predict that,” Fuentebella said.

Effect on power supply

While the DOE is confident that the impasse at the ERC will not affect the country’s power supply, the power producers, for their part, are singing a different tune.

“For now, we can still say that it is not a critical concern today.

We are okay until 2021 to 2022.

But we have to start building more power plants for these to come on line beyond 2022, and given the regulatory issues, the question is ‘Will there be enough time for the PSA approvals to enable the next batch of power plants to operate on time?’ That’s the next uncertainty,” AC Energy President Eric Francia said.

It takes at least three years before a power plant is put online.

In most cases, permitting process consumes the three-year period.

The entire process could even take more than five years.

Separately, Aboitiz Power Corp. also appealed to the Duterte administration.

“We are appealing to the national leadership to resolve the ERC issue as soon as possible so the commission can get back to work and act on many pending issues awaiting their decision,” AboitizPower President Antonio Moraza said.

In a text message, Moraza said the power group appeals for the issuance of COCs, among others, for projects that will be completed soon. “We will be needing COCs for the projects that will be completed soon, plus PSA for TVI, and as soon as possible for TMI.”

He stressed that a working regulatory body balances the welfare of the paying consumers, interests of the private investors, and the government’s desire for reliable and ample power.

The Manila Electric Co. (Meralco), meanwhile, said the country’s power supply and security of supply could be put at risk if the ERC could not perform its mandate.

“We are particularly concerned that absent that ability, it may put at risk the capability of the industry to assure, not only supply to customers, but security of supply moving forward,” Meralco President Oscar Reyes said.

“The power industry is a very heavily regulated industry. Its operations and its service to customers are largely affected by the ability of its regulator, ERC, to function effectively,” he added.

He commented that the coun-

try is “very well positioned in terms of its growth trajectory” and “we don’t want to lose that sort of momentum and confidence.”

Semirara Mining and Power Corp. Chairman Isidro Consunji also shared the same concern. “We hope ERC issues are resolved so it can function properly. So much has to be done. Otherwise another crisis in the next five years or so,” Consunji said in a text message.

The Philippine Independent Power Producers Association Inc. (Pippa) has also elevated to the Office of the President its concern over the delay of processing various applications.

In a letter dated January 24, Pippa President and Executive Director Anne Estorco Macias told the President that the energy industry needs a fully functional ERC to effectively implement its mandate.

“Without a working commission and putting a pause on the important work of the ERC, we will find ourselves without the needed approvals for PSAs, connection agreements, price determination regulation, compliance certificates and licenses,” Macias stated in her letter, which was received by Malacañang on January 29.

These approvals and licenses are dependent on the ERC and will negatively impact everyone—from the generators, distribution utilities and, ultimately, to the consumers.

“We cannot afford any delay on these activities as it will be detrimental, not only to the industry, but to each and every consumer who relies on energy security,” the Pippa official said.

Pippa is composed of 28 generators engaged in power generation and its members have a collective 17,578.85 MW of grid-installed capacity.

Consumer group CitizenWatch, meanwhile, urged the industry players and stakeholders “not to take advantage of the situation and to closely monitor any artificial hike in electricity rates.”

“The stability of supply and price of power are of utmost importance, not only for the consumers but for the entire power industry,” it said.

“Taking into serious consideration the possible power outages and paralysis of the power industry due to the suspension of four commissioners of the ERC, CitizenWatch urges all parties, both government and private sectors alike, to do their part in ensuring that the power supply remains to be uninterrupted, so as not to impede the progress of the entire economy.”

continued from A1

The relief of any operating personnel and his supervisor would automatically result in the relief from the post of the precinct commander.

On the other hand, the chief of police will be relieved if two of his precinct commanders violate the proper conduct of the antidrugs drive.

The relief of two chiefs of police would also result in the relief of the provincial police director, and the relief of two provincial directors or city directors would also result in the sacking of the regional police director.

Eduardo M. Año, the officer in charge of the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG), said the new order of de la Rosa gives premium to and observes the “highest order” of the principle of command responsibility.

DILG supervision

Año said command responsibility forces every unit commander to strictly and closely monitor the activities of his men in every operation.

The guidelines for Tokhang also prohibited policemen from conducting operations or visits to drug suspects at night. Instead, the activity should be carried out from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.

De la Rosa barred policemen from conducting night operations, as he noted that these have resulted in the slew of bodies during the previous implementations of the anti-illegal-drugs campaign.

No weekend work

The PNP said another reason it had set up limitations in the period for which to carry out the operation was the respect for privacy, even for the drug suspects themselves.

The limitations form part of the PNP’s adherence to human rights.

For transparency, de la Rosa ordered policemen, who should be in proper uniform, to wear body cameras to document their operations.

The Tokhang team is also required to be accompanied by a

member of the barangay, municipality or city anti-drug abuse council, a representative from the PNP Human Rights Affairs Office or any human-rights advocate, and at least one from the religious sector and the media.

No more shenanigans

De la Rosa believed that the relaunched Tokhang has a greater chance to succeed, considering that the government has already doubled the salaries of policemen, especially those in the lower ranks, thus, dissuading them from committing any shenanigan.

A candid de la Rosa had previously admitted that some policemen involved in previous antidrugs operations have committed cases of extortion.

He said policemen visited drug suspects supposedly for the Tokhang, only to ask money from their quarries.

De la Rosa added that other than the increased pay, only policemen who have been ingrained with the guidelines were allowed to carry out the Tokhang.

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Hybrids propel surge in Europe alternative-fuel automobile sales

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uropean sa les of ca rs powered by alternative energy sources rose 39 percent last year as Toyota Motor Corp. pushed hybrid models and Renault SA extended the driving range on the latest version of its all-electric Zoe. Customers bought 953,355 autos that run on systems, including batteries, electric-gasoline or -diesel motors, fuel cells or natural gas in 2017, the Brussels-based European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association, or Acea, said on Thursday in a news statement.

Combined demand for full hybrid cars, which can operate on either conventional fuel or selfcharged battery power, and socalled mild hybrids, which use an electric motor to help the combustion engine run more efficiently, surged 52 percent. Sales of allelectric models jumped 49 percent.

The growth far outpaced the European car market’s 3.3-percent gain last year, suggesting consumers are warming to the models added by Toyota, Renault and competitors. Still, the alternative systems powered only 6.1 percent of the 15.6 million autos sold across the region last year, an increase from 4.5 percent in 2016. Battery-powered cars had a

0.9-percent market share in 2017.

European Union regulators are requiring the auto industry to reduce carbon-dioxide emissions from vehicle exhausts to limit greenhouse gases. Countries including Germany, the region’s largest auto market, and Norway have policies in place to encourage purchases of battery-powered or hybrid models. Still, customers have been reluctant to buy allelectric autos because of concerns about how long battery recharging takes and the short distances the cars can travel compared with gasoline or diesel models.

Renault improved the Zoe’s range on a full charge by 67 percent to 400 kilometers. Competitors’ all-electric models going on sale this year an auto from BMW AG’s Mini city-car division and a sportutility vehicle from Volkswagen AG’s luxury Audi nameplate.

Toyota has up to now focused on hybrid technology, and it said in January that sales of the models jumped 38 percent in Europe last year to account for 41 percent of its deliveries there. Daimler AG’s Mercedes-Benz brand outlined a strategy last year to continue developing plug-in hybrids while setting up a battery-powered product line. Bloomberg News

Sunday, February 4, 2018

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Electric buses will take over half the world’s fleet by 2025

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early half of the municipal buses on the road around the world will be electric within seven years, with China expected to dominate the global market as it aims to cut urban pollution and support domestic manufacturers.

The total number of electric buses in service is forecast to more than triple, from 386,000 last year to about 1.2 million in 2025, equal to about 47 percent of the worldwide city bus fleet, according to a report from Bloomberg New Energy Finance (BNEF).

“China will lead this market, due to strong domestic sup port and aggressive city-level t a r g e t s ,” w r o t e A l e k s a n d r a O’Donovan, an analyst for BNEF and author of the study. By 2025,

the report said, the country’s f leet will be 99-percent batterypowered buses.

E lec t r ic bu ses rem a i n more e x pensive up f ront t h a n t hose f ueled by d iesel or compressed n at u r a l g a s, but BN EF fou nd t h at b at t e r y - p o w e re d bu s e s c a n a l ready of fer a lower tot a l cost of ow ne r sh ip w he n f ue l a nd m a i nten a nce e x penses a re con s ide re d .

Projected declines in battery prices will make the upfront costs

of some electric models competitive with a diesel version by 2026, according to the study.

Public buses are a key part of the urban transit infrastructure, and the fact that they serve routine, fixed routes makes them ideal for electrification.

Cities across the globe increasingly see electric buses as a way to reduce local air pollution, and such municipalities as Paris and Amsterdam have set goals to switch to zero-emission buses in the coming years.

Earlier this week, mayors of some of California’s largest cities, including Los Angeles and San

Jose, urged the state’s environmental regulator to introduce incentives and requirements to spur a shift toward electric buses from ones that use diesel or natural gas.

China has set the most aggressive clean-energ y bus-deployment targets. Warren Buffettbacked BYD Co., China’s largest seller of electric vehicles, is wellpositioned to take advantage of this government push. Last year in China, BYD sold 100,183 newenergy vehicles—a category that incudes full electric and hybrids) and the company’s buses now operate in 200 cities around the globe. Bloomberg News

China will lead this [electric bus] market, due to strong domestic support and aggressive city-level targets.”—O’Donovan

Italy’s five-star leader vows Oil jumps as Goldman Sachs boosts price forecast by third to help banks recover assets O

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uigi Di Maio, leader of Italy’s antiestablishment Five Star Movement, promised to make it easier for the country’s ailing banks to recover assets as he sought to win over international investors ahead of the March 4 election.

Nonperforming loans “take too many years to be recovered, we’re talking about seven to 10 years,” Di Maio told Bloomberg Television in an inter view in London on Wednesday. “We must shorten the time it takes to recover them by eliminating a series of Byzantine laws.”

Di Maio, 31, who was in London for a closed-door meeting with some 30 fund managers and analysts from the United States, Britain, France and Switzerland, said they had urged him to speed up the Italian judicial system.

At the same time he pledged to tighten bank supervision, saying the Bank of Italy must be flanked by magistrates and finance police “because what happened to Italian banks must not happen anymore.”

Five Star has lambasted the ruling Democratic Party, or PD, for a government rescue of four lenders in November 2015 which saw stock and subordinated debt holders w iped out. Di Maio’s party is currently leading the PD headed by former premier Matteo Renzi by some 28 percent to 22 percent according to latest polls, though a center-right coalition led by ex-premier Silvio Berlusconi is set to be the biggest bloc with 39 percent of the vote.

That result would leave continental Europe’s third-largest economy with a hung parliament that may struggle to deliver the wide-ranging economic reforms that investors and European Union officials are looking for. Di Maio sought to reassure investors that he was ready to work with other parties to seek out reasonable solutions to problems. “ We w o n’t l e a v e It a l y i n c haos, we’ l l ma ke an appea l to other politica l forces on issues—less bureaucrac y, lower taxes, and investment in justice and infrastr ucture,” he said.

He ruled out forming a coalition with other parties, saying Five Star would seek outside support on specific issues if they got the chance to form a government.

“I think investors treat what he says with a lot of caution, as he f requent ly contrad icts himself,” said Marc Ostwald, a global strategist at ADM Investor Ser vices in London. “R ight now, the focus is more on what sort of coalition emerges out of the election.”

Di Maio also ruled out an alliance with the anti-migrant, euroskeptic Northern League led by Matteo Salvini. “I think Salvini has rejected any idea of an alliance, I do so too.”

Struggling families

Even after making reductions last year, Italian banks are still weighed dow n by more than €270 billion, or $330 billion, of nonperforming loans. Struggling households account for almost a fifth of that total, according to the Bank of Italy.

European authorities are pressuring lenders to sell off bad debts to free up funds for healthy companies to support growth. Di Maio said he was concerned that the cumbersome legal system in Italy would prevent banks from realizing a fair price.

“They risk being under-sold to the market because they are difficult to recover,” he said.

Di Maio said courts should work much harder with more administrative staff and magistrates and 400 “useless laws which are creating bureaucracy and judicial delays” should be abolished. “That way we would make Italy attractive, and foreign funds can come here to invest in our companies, our motorways, our public and private works.”

Plans to govern

With Five Star’s plans for a referendum on abandoning the euro downgraded to “a last resort,” Di Maio said he believed he could negotiate a better deal for Italy with the European Union because the bloc’s main powers have “weaker” governments, citing French President Emmanuel Macron.

“Germany hasn’t yet formed a government, in France traditional parties have been reduced to a minimum by Macron, and Spain and Portugal have a minority government,” he said. “Italy can bring results home.”

Bloomberg News

il jumped after Goldman Sachs Group Inc. boosted a price forecast by a third and said global crude markets have probably rebalanced.

We s t Te x a s I nt e r m e d i at e (WTI) futures added 0.8 percent in New York. Strong fuel demand, output cuts by the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec) and collapsing Venezuelan production have helped clear a glut six months earlier than anticipated, Goldman analysts Damien Courvalin and Jeff Currie said in a report, raising their six-month price expectation to $82.50 a barrel from $62. “ Venezuela pulled Opec production significantly below target in Januar y,” Commerzbank AG said in a note. T he group is “prof it ing considerably f rom the involuntary production outages in Venezuela at present, w ithout which the oil market would be oversupplied.”

WTI for March rose 54 cents to $65.27 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange at 10:37 a.m. London time, after adding 23 cents on Wednesday.

Total volume traded was about 31 percent above the 100-day average. Front-month futures are still down 1.3 percent this week.

Wednesday’s relatively small gain was spurred by the first draw in United States gasoline stockpiles since early-November.

Brent for April settlement was at $69.51 a barrel on the London-based ICE Futures Europe e xc hange, up 46 cents.

T he Ma rc h cont rac t e x pi red Wednesday after rising 3 cents

A gas flare burns as Jim Zumwalt, a driver with Black Hills Trucking, monitors a water tank while loading saltwater from an oil well storage tank near Sidney, Montana, United States. Daniel Acker/Bloomberg

to $69.05. The global benchmark crude traded at a premium of $4.43 to April W TI. Last week US oil output surged above 10 million barrels a day for the first time in more than four decades, while nationwide stockpiles ended 10 consecutive declines, government data showed on Wednesday.

T he r u n of i nventor y de clines—as well as Opec cuts and a weaker dollar—helped send prices to a fifth month of gains in Januar y, the longest such streak since 2011. Still, the gain

was seen spur r ing A mer ican drillers to pump more, prompting fears that stockpiles would once again start to build.

Additionally, inventor y increases were on the horizon due to seasonal refinery maintenance.

US crude stockpiles, meanwhi le, climbed 6.78 mi l lion barrels to 418.4 million barrels last week, according to government data. Contributing to the expansion was a 41,000-barrel increase in daily production, as well as the biggest tranche of imported oil since last August.

US gasoline inventories dropped by 1.98 million barrels, according to the data, helping ease concern over lackluster demand. Royal Dutch Shell Plc said improved exploration and production lifted its quarterly profit to a three-year high, while refining and trading fell short of expectations as margins shrank.

BHP Billiton Ltd., seeking to accelerate the sale of its US shale unit, is prepared to offer the assets in as many as seven packages, including three in the prized Permian Basin, according to people with knowledge of the producer’s plans. BloombergNews

Asia’s newest central bank chief has a formidable record to beat

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hen Yang Chin-long takes the helm of Taiwan’s central bank later this month, he’ll have the legacy of his predecessor Perng Fai-nan as a benchmark. Taiwan’s central bank law mandates the governor with at least three tasks—enhancing financial stability, guiding sound banking practices and maintaining price and currency stability. Meanwhile, the monetary chief should also look to help economic development, if all the above targets are being met.Using those goals as a yardstick, outgoing Governor Perng has done well in his past 20 years. Here’re five charts to show his record:

Stable prices

Consumer price growth will remain moderate in 2018, with inflation running at just over 1 percent, according to the median economist forecast in a Bloomberg survey.

Currency weakens, slightly

Taiwan’s dollar has weakened gently and steadily against its global peers since Perng became governor, keeping the exportoriented economy competitive.

The authority has also reduced overt currency intervention after being named as a potential manipulator on the United States government’s currency watch list in 2016.

Booming reserves

It ’s not d if f ic u lt for a n e xp or t - or ie nt e d e c o no my l i k e Ta iwa n’s to hoa rd foreig n c u r renc y reser ves, a nd it m ight have good reasons to do so, too, g iven t he isl a nd ’s spec i a l pol it ica l st at us a nd t he ensuing d if f ic u lt y to obt a in internat iona l a l l ies.

Taiwan’s foreign currency reserves stood at $451.5 billion by end of last year, the highest level in history. W hile the reserves could offer a cushion during a liquidity crisis, critics accuse Perng of manipulating a weak Taiwan dollar by buying foreign assets.

Economic output

The size of Taiwan’s economy nearly doubled during Perng’s tenure, but its economic influence over other economies in the world has declined, even with its role on the supply chain for Apple Inc.’s products. Still, economic development isn’t the central bank’s primary target.

Profitable business

If the central bank were a company, Perng would be lauded as a profit-bringing CEO. About 10 percent of the Taiwan government’s revenues come from t he m a nagement of foreig nexchange reserves. Bloomberg News

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Sunday, February 4, 2018

The World BusinessMirror

FB says biz stays strong amid news feed changes

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acebook Inc. may be making major changes aimed at fixing its impact on society. But its business is as safe as ever.

That’s the message from executives after an adjustment to the news feed algorithm—the companys biggest moneymaker—prompted investor concerns that user attention could drop off, curbing demand for advertising. Yes, the time spent on Facebook in the quarter declined by 5 percent, but it was by Facebook ’s design, executives said, in order to promote a higher quality experience. Yes, there was a dip in North American user numbers for the first time ever, but only because Facebook is already so dominant in the region.

T he company reported another record quarter of revenue, boosted by mobi le adver t i s ing, and said they don’t see the

North American user decline as an ongoing trend. Executives also said Facebook advertisers have responded positively to the changes so far and predicted an increase in the number of ad impressions this year across the platform.

Facebook’s year was marred by challenges that led CEO Mark Zuckerberg to rethink the company’s main product, the news feed, to focus on “meaningful” social interaction.

He said on Wednesday that changes in the fourth quarter cut the number of viral videos in people’s feeds and reduced time spent on the service by roughly 50 million hours a day.

“The most important driver of

our business has never been time spent by itself, it’s the quality of the conversations and connections,” Zuckerberg said.

Facebook reported 1.4 billion daily active users in the fourth quarter, slightly missing a 1.41 billion average estimate from t h re e a n a l y s t s s u r v e y e d b y Bloomberg. That amounted to the slowest user growth on record. DAUs in the United States and Canada declined from 185 million in the third quarter to 184 million in the period, the company also reported.

Shares of Facebook were up 2.4 percent to $191.52 at 6:12 a.m. in New York on Thursday, after closing at $186.89.

Fourth-quarter revenue rose to $12.97 billion, beating the $12.6-billion average analysts’ est i m ate a nd demonst rat i ng dominance in mobile advertising.

The company reported net income of $4.3 billion, or $1.44 a share, in the period. Recent US tax law changes forced Facebook to set aside more money to pay

taxes, cutting earnings by 77 cents a share, it said. Without that, profit would have been $2.21 a share. Analysts were looking for $1.95 a share, accord ing to d ata compi led by Bloomberg.

Facebook has become more self-critical since revealing a campaign by Russia to spread pol it ic a l d iscord a rou nd t he 2016 presidential election that reached an estimated 150 million United States users on Facebook and Instagram. The company has been cooperating with Congress, while publicly questioning whether social media is good for democracy and mental health.

Russia’s operation—in the US and ahead of other elections around the world—was made easier by incentives on Facebook that reward attention-grabbing content. Zuckerberg is looking to tweak the news feed to emphasize news and advertising from trustworthy sources, local providers and authentic accounts.

Bloomberg News

In San Francisco and San Diego, thousands with pot convictions will find records cleared

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housands of people with misdemeanor convictions for marijuana possession dating back 40 years will have their criminal records cleared, the San Francisco district attorney’s office said on Wednesday. San Diego is also forgiving old convictions.

Recreational marijuana became legal in California this year, and the law allowed those with prior low-level offenses to petition for expungement, a process that can be costly.

But in San Francisco, people need not ask. George Gascón, San Francisco’s district attorney, said his office would automatically erase those convictions, which total about 3,000.

An additional 4,900 felony marijuana charges will be examined by prosecutors to determine if they should be retroactively reduced to misdemeanors.

San Diego has identified 4,700 cases, both felonies and misdemeanors, that will be cleared or downgraded.

California was far from the first state to legalize recreational marijuana but it is at the forefront of offering relief to people convicted of offenses that would not get them in trouble today.

A number of cities even decided to give preference to those who have previous marijuana convictions when giving out licenses to sell it legally. Oakland reserved at least half of its eight annual dispensary licenses for what it calls equity applicants, which include not only those convicted of marijuana-related crimes, but those who live in neighborhoods that had a disproportionately higher number of cannabis-related arrests. On Wednesday, officials there spun a bingo machine to choose the four winners among 36 applicants.

Other places have taken the opposite tack. In Nevada, Gov. Brian Sandoval vetoed legislation last year that would have allowed people convicted of possessing 1 ounce or less of marijuana to have their convictions vacated, even though that is no longer a criminal offense.

And in Colorado it took five years after voters approved recreational marijuana use before

the state passed legislation last year that allows people with pot convictions to apply to have their records cleared. That change did not occur until after California voters approved their law.

The result has been legal limbo: People whose behavior would not now be considered illegal are sometimes unable to find work, get college loans, obtain professional licenses or find decent housing because of the blot on their record.

Those who argue against expunging criminal records say people who violated the law should live with the consequences, regardless of subsequent legal changes.

“In all the other states, the process has been messy. But whether people agree with what they did or not, California at least addressed it, and there’s value in that,” said Robert Mikos, a professor at Vanderbilt University who studies marijuana law and policy.

Even in California, there is significant variation in how counties are handling misdemeanor pot convictions. Some, like Fresno County, are dealing with them on

a case-by-case basis, said Steve E. Wright, the county’s assistant district attorney. Jeff Rosen, district attorney of Santa Clara County, said he was working with the local public defender’s office to identify cases. And prosecutors in San Francisco and San Diego have been more proactive, with both cities planning to automatically dismiss misdemeanor convictions and to reduce felony convictions to misdemeanors.

In San Francisco Gascón said he wanted to avoid putting people through a process that he said violates the spirit of legalization.

“A lot of people don’t even know they qualify, and I don’t think it’s the right thing to do to make people pay lawyers’ fees and jump through a bunch of hoops to get something they should be getting anyway,” he said.

In November 2016 California voters approved Proposition 64, which allowed adults 21 and older to buy or possess 28.5 grams of marijuana—about 1 ounce—or grow up to six plants at a private residence.

The first day of legal recreational marijuana sales at Harborside, a dispensary in Oakland, California on January 1. Thousands of people with misdemeanor pot possession convictions dating back 40 years will have their criminal records automatically cleared, the San Francisco district attorney’s office said on Tuesday. New York Times Service

California, where cannabis shops began opening January 1 was the sixth state to allow recreational marijuana, following Colorado, Washington, Oregon, Alaska and Nevada. Voters in Massachusetts and Maine have approved recreational marijuana, though sales have not started in either state. Vermont legalized pot earlier on January 22.

In Washington, D.C., cannabis use is legal, but it cannot be sold commercially.

In Canada which is moving toward legalization of recreational marijuana this year, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has warned that for now, the police and prosecutors will continue to treat pot sales as a crime.

“We recognize that anyone who is currently purchasing marijuana is participating in illegal activity that is funding criminal organizations and street gangs and, therefore, we do not want to encourage, in any way, people to engage in that behavior until the law has changed,” Trudeau told reporters. New York Times News Service

www.businessmirror.com.ph

Putin touts first gas delivery to US amid sanctions strife

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ven as new threats of sanctions from the United States chill relations, Vladimir Putin teased a longtime ally who was among the first to be hit with the limits for being shy about talking up the latest shipments of Russian natural gas to its Cold War rival.

“The first tanker has already arrived in the United States,” Putin told Gennady Timchenko, coowner of the Russian partner in Yamal LNG, a $27-billion Arctic project that the Kremlin leader has made a personal priority, despite US financial sanctions. “The media has already put out the information but you’re still scared to.”

Timchenko, a billionaire whose ties with Putin go back to the 1990s earned him a spot as one of the first Russian businessmen hit with United States sanctions in 2014 over the Ukraine crisis, said he was reluctant to tout the delivery. “This fact is known to the market, but we’re not screaming about it because we’re a bit afraid,” he told Putin at a meeting with visiting French business

leaders late Wednesday at the presidential residence outside Moscow.

“We’re businessmen.”

“Well, I’m not a businessman, so I think it’s possible to talk about this,” Putin said.

He was referring to the tanker Gaselys, which docked just north of Boston on Sunday, bringing the Siberian gas as prices in the US Northeast have spiked due to unusually cold weather. Putin personally presided over the opening of the Yamal LNG project last December, touting it as “our common victory.”

The “Russian molecules,” as local gas officials call them, took a roundabout route to Boston. Yamal LNG’s first cargo was sold to Malaysia’s Petroliam Nasional Bhd, which took it to a terminal near London where the Gaselys, owned

by France’s Engie SA, later picked up fuel for its trip to the United States.

Engie plans to deliver a second cargo—potentially including some gas from Yamal LNG—to the US later this month. Bloomberg News

Twitter followers vanish amid inquiries into fake accounts

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ore than a million followers have disappeared from the accounts of dozens of prominent Twitter users in recent days as the company faces growing criticism over the proliferation of fake accounts and scrutiny from federal and state inquiries into the shadowy firms that sell fake followers.

The people losing followers include an array of entertainers, entrepreneurs, athletes and media figures, many of whom bought Twitter followers or artificial engagement from a company called Devumi. Its business practices were detailed in a New York Times article on Saturday describing a vast trade in fake followers and fraudulent engagement on Twitter and other social-media sites, often using personal information taken from real users. Twitter said on Saturday it would take action against Devumi ’s practices. A Twitter spokesman on Tuesday declined to comment about whether the company was purging fake accounts.

Singer Clay Aiken, actor John Leguizamo and reality TV star Lisa Rinna have each lost a substantial number of followers, according to a review of their accounts. So has Martha Lane Fox, a British businesswoman and Twitter board member. Other well-known users have taken to Twitter in recent days to complain of lost followers, suggesting that a broad swath of people may be affected, not just Devumi customers.

T he company’s heightened campaign against bots comes as federal lawmakers and law-enforcement officials in two states are scrutinizing Devumi and its competitors online, where numerous websites sell fake followers or engagement on Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, Instagram and other social-media platforms.

On Tuesday,Sens. Jerry Moran, R-Kan., and Richard Blumenthal, Democrat-Connecticut—the chairman and the ranking member, respectively, of the Senate subcommittee on consumer protection and data security—asked the Federal Trade Commission to begin an investigation into the “deceptive and unfair marketing practices” of Devumi and similar companies. While Devumi promises customers “100 Percent Active, English Followers,” virtually all of the followers and retweets the company provides are fake, The Times found. Twitter prohibits buying followers of any kind.

The Florida attorney general, Pam Bondi, a Republican, has also begun an investigation into Devumi, joining Eric T. Schneiderman,

the New York attorney general and a Democrat, who announced on Saturday that he would begin reviewing whether the company had violated state laws against impersonation and commercial deception.

The Times found evidence that the information of Twitter users in every state—including thousands of people in Florida and New York—had been copied onto bots sold by Devumi or rival companies.

Devumi was based in Florida until recently but lists a New York City address on its web site. The company’s owner, German Calas, also lives in Florida.

“Based on the New York Times article, we have opened an investigation into these very serious allegations,” Bondi said in an interview Tuesday. “We would encourage any citizens who believe they have been a victim of this scam to please contact the Florida attorney general’s office immediately.”

Calas did not respond to an email seeking comment. But on Monday, Devumi’s parent company, Bytion, filed paperwork in Florida indicating that it had moved its principal place of business to Colorado. Jared Stark, a lawyer for Calas’ business, said in an email that both companies had relocated to Denver earlier in January, a move he described as “in the works for some time.”

He declined to comment on the investigations into Devumi.

A reporter visiting Bytion’s Denver office on Tuesday found it largely empty, save for a few boxes against one wall and patio furniture on a balcony. Gerald Sexton, Bytion’s director of people and culture, declined to comment and said that Calas was not available.

A few minutes later, a process server arrived at the office to deliver a subpoena from Schneiderman’s office. A spokesman for Schneiderman declined to comment. The disclosure of dozens of Devumi’s customers in entertainment, politics and business has sparked a renewed debate—often carried out on Twitter itself— about the prevalence of fraud and fakery on social media, where tens of millions of fake users still roam.

T he Chicago Sun-Times a nnounced Monday that it would suspend publishing reviews by the newspaper’s film critic, Richard Roeper, while conducting a review of his social media following. Roeper bought at least 25,000 followers from Devumi, according to records reviewed by The Times, and an analysis of his account indicates that many of his nearly quartermillion Twitter followers are fake accounts. New York Times News Service

Sports ATENEO KICKS OFF CAMPAIGN BusinessMirror

Sunday, February 4, 2018

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

A

TENEO de Manila and Far Eastern University (FEU) begin their campaigns with an explosive collision in Season 80 University Athletic Association of the Philippines women’s volleyball tournament today at the Mall of Asia Arena in Pasay City.

The season is only on its second day, and an early clash of the titans will take place between the Lady Eagles, who were in the Finals for the past six seasons with two titles and four runner-up finishes, and the Lady Tamaraws, the most successful team in the league with 29 titles.

The match is set at 4 p.m., right after the 2 p.m. clash between University of the Philippines (UP) and University of the East (UE).

The Lady Maroons will parade new Head Coach Godfrey Okumu of Kenya againt the Lady Red Warriors mentored by Francis Vicente, who is now on his fourth year with the team seeking to surpass the measly two wins they booked in the past three seasons.

In men’s action, Ateneo opens its campaign for a rare “four-peat” opposite FEU at 10 a.m. UP clashes with UE at 8 p.m.

Ateneo is coming off a dramatic preseason after losing three important players—ace playmaker Jia Morado, who decided to forgo her final playing year; Michelle Morente, because of academic issues and is now completing her residency at De La Salle; and libero Gizelle Tan, who exhausted all her five playing years.

The Lady Eagles also had an issue with the “hard” training under Head Coach Tai Bundit that almost cost him his job..

Newly appointed team captain Maddie Madayag clarified everything’s well with the Lady Eagles.

“It [crisis with Bundit] made us stronger. We already passed that phase. We learned to trust the process and trust the coaches,” Madayag said. “I don’t want anyone to expect anything. The team’s just going to play its game—the usual happy, heart strong.”

Ateneo has a talented rotation composed of spikers led by 6-foot-3 Kat Tolentino, Bea de Leon, Jhoana Maraguinot and setter Deanna Wong.

The Lady Tamaraws, meanwhile, are playing under new Head Coach George Pascua, who is tasked to end a 10-year title drought.

“We will take it one match at a time, but every game will be a championship game—as if it’s our last game,” said Pascua, who already won multiple titles as a player and coach of FEU’s men’s team.

Pascua is hoping that graduating player Bernadeth Pons, Toni Rose Basas, Jerrili Malabanan, Heather Guino-o, setter Kyle Negrito, transferee Celine Domingo (from UE) and libero Buding Duremdes could easily absorb his system and translate their hunger to a success.

Rose Marie Vargas, who played from Season 71 to 75, was supposed to return to the lineup after five years but suffered a ruptured left Achilles tendon.

FEU will also play without the leadership of former skipper Remy Palma.

REINSTATED

Russia’s Alexander Legkov skis past the Olympic rings during the men’s 50K crosscountry race at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Krasnaya Polyana, Russia. The Court of Arbitration for Sport rules on Thursday to reinstate Leskov as gold-medal winner of the event. He was stripped of the medal on doping allegations earlier. AP

Small businesses let sports fans enjoy big games

N

Lance Agcaoili

Maddie Madayag takes over as captain of the Lady Eagles.

WHAT’S IN AN INJURY DESCRIPTION?

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ETERAN Coach Ken Hitchcock struck a nerve earlier this season when he decried the longstanding National Hockey League (NHL) practice of describing injuries in the vaguest terms possible.

An injury can be upper-body, lower-body or undisclosed, except Hitchcock and the Dallas Stars prefer to be more forthright. Defenseman Marc Methot had a knee injury, Martin Hanzal had a hamstring injury and Stephen Johns was dealing with concussion symptoms.

“Rather than go through the dance and play the big game, we just decided let’s get it out there so they can print it, move on, and let’s get on with the subject of what’s going on on the team,” Hitchcock said.

This is a far cry from the world of the National Football League, where teams must reveal specific injuries. Coaches and NHL officials point to gambling and fantasy football as driving forces behind those detailed NFL injury reports, noting hockey has far less of that; one NHL player even joked that it would be foolish for anyone to bet on the sport.

Yet, more people are. Westgate sports book Vice President Jay Kornegay said the addition and success of the Vegas Golden Knights has at least tripled the amount of bets placed on NHL games this season. He said the gambling public isn’t affected much by the information or lack thereof about injuries.

“There’s information out there if you really want to dissect the injury,” Kornegay said. “There’s only maybe a handful of guys that might make a major impact, like [Connor] McDavid or [Auston] Matthews, or someone like that. Could make maybe a 15-cent impact in the line, which is very minimal. Almost everybody else is like zero impact or maybe 5 cents impact.... It wouldn’t be like [Tom] Brady being out.”

The NHL represents less than 5 percent of the total amount bet at the Westgate, and less than 6 percent for online sports book Bovada.

A5

League executives and coaches have little to no appetite to change things.

“I would ask the question, ‘Why is it important that you know everything?’” Los Angeles Kings Coach John Stevens said. “I think, sometimes, it protects the player. Sometimes, a player’s working through an injury. If he’s coming back, opponents might know. If it’s a knee injury, they might try to take advantage of it.”

The collective bargaining agreement doesn’t require any specificity be included in injury announcements. And that means they vary dramatically among the 31 teams.

NHL Injury Viz, which tracks information about player injuries and illnesses, ranks teams on an “evasiveness index” based on how many injuries are called upper- or lower-body, undisclosed or soreness. Through January 20 games, the Winnipeg Jets, Nashville Predators and Philadelphia Flyers were labeled the most evasive, while the New York Rangers, Vancouver Canucks and Minnesota Wild were the most open.

When Washington Capitals winger Andre Burakovsky underwent surgery to repair a broken left thumb last October, the team announced it as such. Upon his return, Burakovsky wore extra padding and worried little about opponents hacking at his thumb to try to reinjure it.

“When I’m playing, I’m playing,” Burakovsky said. “I don’t really focus on if they’re going to go after my thumb or whatever it is.”

The central debate over disclosure comes down to whether revealing specific injuries puts players in danger of being targeted. Hitchcock said “there’s too much respect in the league” for that, but Capitals defenseman Brooks Orpik disagreed.

“I wouldn’t say there’s a lot of guys, but there’s definitely more than a handful of [players] in the league that would target guys if they knew where they were hurt,” Orpik said. “I don’t really see what you gain by releasing it.” AP

EW YORK—While customers are watching the Super Bowl at Boston’s Common Ground Bar and Grill, waiters and bartenders will pause to see key moments, as well. General Manager Jeff John understands his staff wants to see if the New England Patriots can win their third National Football League title in four years.

“Your first focus has to be the guest,” John says. “But we all get caught in the moment from time to time.”

Big sporting events are often a workplace distraction.

But many small business owners and managers are cutting staffers a little slack, as football fans find it hard to resist chatting about last Sunday’s game. The Winter Olympics, the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) basketball tournament and other big events are coming up, and staffers may want to tune in.

Some owners realize that trying to eliminate sports talk or forbidding staffers to watch games is demoralizing and also difficult to achieve. So as long as there isn’t too much Monday morning quarterbacking or time spent in front of the office TV, bosses will go easy on fans. Some companies are even more understanding; it’s OK there for staffers to watch games in break rooms, and some owners even run office pools without cash prizes.

John has noticed that when the games are most exciting, customers want to watch, not order. So, if waiters want to pause and see the play, he doesn’t stop them. Besides, when a waiter high-fives a customer after great play, it increases the bond between Common Ground and its diners.

A flexible attitude is a good management practice for company owners, says Philippe Weiss, an attorney with expertise in employment law at the firm Seyfarth Shaw in Chicago.

“They’re not going to be able to stop people’s excitement,” Weiss adds. “Trying to do so in an unyielding or draconian way is going to backfire.”

If the boss sees productivity slowing, or employees not tending to work that needs to be done, Weiss suggests a firm but friendly approach. For example, if there’s too much watching of NCAA games, tell staffers, “It’s time to do a fast break back to work.”

David Niu doesn’t worry about productivity at TINYpulse, his company that makes software to measure worker satisfaction and morale at other businesses. There’s a TV that will show NCAA games in March, and employees will be able to watch. But they’ll also be held accountable for getting their work done.

“Instead of fighting it, I’m going to treat you as an adult,” says Niu, whose Seattle-based company has 100 employees. He expects staffers to cluster in front of the TV during the last few minutes of some of the games—and he’ll be there with them.

Watching TV during at work was once verboten. But many employers have come to realize a more employeefriendly work atmosphere benefits everyone; when staffers feel relaxed and are allowed to share a little fun, they’re more productive and do better work.

Actualize Consulting used to have a policy about watching and discussing games that managing director Kerry Wekelo now calls rigid. The bosses would end conversations, and “that would burst people’s bubbles when they were excited,” Wekelo says.

The financial consulting firm with offices in New York and Reston, Virginia, has since changed its policy. If employees want to take a couple of hours to watch a game, they can, as long as they make up the time. The bosses also run an NCAA pool in which the winnings can be used for wellness purchases like gym memberships or treadmills.

Owners shouldn’t run pools with pure cash prizes, which are illegal even though employees at many workplaces have them, Weiss says. If a boss runs a pool and staffers feel pressure to take part, it could be raised in a potential lawsuit

against the company. Or, workers who don’t want to take part may resent the boss.

It’s not so easy for people who work in a factory to watch games or spend time away from their work to chat. At Ratchet Straps USA, which makes straps to tie down items like tents or farm equipment, the headsets staffers use to communicate with one another in the warehouse have private channels, and owner Michael Russell is fine with them talking about the game or anything else while they work. He understands sports are important for many at his Belleville, Ohio, company, and they’ll want to gather around the TV in the last 10 minutes of NCAA games.

“Watching the last couple of minutes is something that we definitely even encourage,” Russell says.

Richard Lee is really the only big fan at his Los Angeles law firm, and is likely to be alone watching NCAA games on the conference room TV. He still runs a cashless pool for staffers.

After the tournament, there’s an awards luncheon, and even nonparticipants are eligible for a last-place medal.

“This is a fun morale booster and break from what is often the dead-serious practice of law,” Lee says.

Since it’s pointless to try to ban sports fans from watching or talking, Ross Sapir, owner of Roadway Moving based in the New York City borough of the Bronx, doesn’t even try.

“They don’t have to do it on the sly, on their cell phones or watching it in the background of their computers,” says Sapir, whose moving business has 40 staffers in its office, including many who want to watch the games on company TVs. The big sporting event at his company is the World Cup soccer tournament, which runs from mid-June to mid-July.

The games will be in Russia and many will be broadcast during working hours.

“I actually almost give them complete freedom to watch,” Sapir says. “It’s such a festive environment, you don’t want to take it away from them.” AP

Michigan police ready to apologize to victims

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Jeff John, general manager of Common Ground Bar and Grill in Boston. AP

ETROIT—A police department in the Lansing, Michigan, area missed an opportunity to pursue criminal charges in 2004 against Larry Nassar and will publicly apologize to the victim who accused the doctor of molesting her during treatment for an abnormal spine, an official said on Wednesday.

Meridian Township will make the apology on Thursday to Brianne Randall-Gay and announce changes in how it handles sexual-misconduct investigations, township Manager Frank Walsh said.

Nassar, who was a sports doctor at Michigan State University and USA Gymnastics, convinced police that he had performed a legitimate procedure with his hands and even provided a PowerPoint presentation to explain. The case was dropped, effectively allowing him to continue to molest girls and young women, including Olympians, for years until his arrest in 2016. A total of 265 women and girls have said they were assaulted.

“We missed it. We’re not going to hide it. We were deceived,” Walsh said.

The township released the 2004 police report on Randall-Gay’s allegations against Nassar.

Walsh said the township was told to withhold it from the public until Nassar was sentenced last week to 40 to 175 years in prison for sexually assaulting young women and girls in Ingham County. Another sentencing is underway this week in a similar case in Eaton County.

In 2004 Randall-Gay was 17 when she and her mother visited Nassar to discuss treatment for scoliosis, a curvature of the spine. He sent her to physical therapy but saw her again, this time alone. AP

Science

BusinessMirror

A6 Sunday, Febryary 4, 2018

Sunday

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

Pagasa ready to inspire more people to learn about the cosmos

Lunar phenomena wow Filipinos

‘I

By Stephanie Tumampos

t’s a scary moon, it reminds me of monsters,” said 8-year-old Enzo Estrada, who was with his parents and three younger siblings at the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (Pagasa) Observatory while looking at the rare phenomena— the lunar trifecta—or more commonly known as the super blue blood moon, on January 31.

“Actually, it’s a beautiful moon,” Enzo’s mother, Kenny Estrada, chuckled as she told the BusinessMirror that the whole family was happy to see a red moon for the first time. “We’re here because we wanted to share this moment to our kids and learn something.”

While the young Estrada was terrified of the red moon, the chief of the Pagasa Space Sciences and Astronomy Section, Engr.

Dario de la Cruz, assured everybody at the observatory that no monsters nor any superstitious impressions and phenomena will happen after the super blue blood moon showed up in the clear night skies of Manila. “ This is just a natural event,” de la Cruz told the BusinessMirror in Filipino. “Every time the sun, Earth and moon align in this order, we will always have a lunar eclipse.”

He added that the event was exceptional, because it was not a lunar eclipse alone but was composed of three events, or trifecta— together with a supermoon and a blue moon—at the same time.

Supermoon

“The supermoon happens when the moon is at its perigee,” expl a i ne d Pa g a s a Obser v ator y Resident Astronomer Lordnico P. Mendoza, while he was helping this journalist install her camera on one of Pagasa’s telescopes so she could get a photo of the start

of the blood moon, the total lunar eclipse and the end of the blood moon.

“Perigee is when the moon is closest to the Earth, making the moon 30 percent brighter and 14 percent bigger than the average moon seen from here on Earth,” Mendoza added.

Furthermore, a supermoon occurs when the distance between the center of the moon is less than 360,000 kilometers from the center of the Earth.

Blue moon

The idiom “once in a blue moon” is said when people would mean something that happens rarely.

This is based on the fact that a blue moon rarely occurs because it is the second full moon within a month. It happens only once every two or three years. The last blue moon occurred on May 21, 2016, while the next blue moon will be on October 31, 2020.

Why it was called “blue moon”?

The term “blue” actually came from the word “blewe,”which is an old English word for betrayer.

When a 13th full moon appears, it was thought that this moon was a “betrayer” of the lunar cycle.

But the moon can actually turn blue if the atmosphere is mixed with dust that can filter the excess red light from the sun.

Total lunar eclipse; blood moon

A total lunar eclipse happens

This photo of the super blue blood moon, which glowed in the skies on January 31, was taken at 9:29 p.m. through the BusinessMirror photographer’s camera attached to a 90-millimeter refracting telescope of the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration Observatory in Quezon City. This rare lunar trifecta was a combination of the supermoon, the blue moon and the blood moon, where the moon turned reddish in color because of a lunar eclipse. A similar phenomena will happen in 2037. Stephanie Tumampos/BusinessMirror and Lordnico P. Mendoza/Pagasa Observatory

when the sun, Earth and moon are in perfect alignment.

The red color of the moon was caused by this alignment and “was a result of the shadow of the Earth that partially blocks the light given by the sun where it should be reflected by the moon.”

Mendoza said the light of the sun is filtered when it goes through the Earth’s atmosphere.

A light is a prism, and it is composed of the seven colors (red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet), wherein each color has different wavelengths.

The Earth’s atmosphere filters the colors with shorter wavelengths, hence, leaving the red and orange—which have longer wavelengths—bathing on the moon’s surface. Thus, the moon is given a reddish color.

Filipino’s perception

At the Pagasa Observatory in Quezon City, four telescopes were lined up for the use of the public who wanted to take a closer look of the lunar phenomena. Others saw the spectacle through a permanently installed 45centimeters telescope at the observatory.

A t hou sa nd of a st ronomy

enthusiasts and organizations f locked the obser vator y with their telescopes for use by people who wanted to witness the rare event.

Of course, millions more Filipinos looked up the sky in different areas in the country.

Many even flooded the social media with their photos of the super blue blood moon.

“I think they [Filipinos] got really excited with this rare phenomena,” de la Cruz told the BusinessMirror. “I think this was caused by the social media,” de la Cruz said, adding that, in the old days people would only rely on the radio for news of lunar events. “We are happy with the outcome.”

Future of Filipino astronomy

While the public’s big interest in the event exceeded Pagasa’s e x pec t at ion, de l a C r u z a nnounced t hat more Fi lipinos will enjoy the cosmic wonders in the future through the projects the agency has lined up.

Through the Pagasa modernization program, the observatory has allotted a budget of P130 million for projects that would entice the public, especially those in the

regions. He disclosed that a planetarium will be installed each in the Visayas and Mindanao.

“Astronomy development here in the Philippines is growing and we have realized that we need to encourage more people to do astronomy with us. So we have secured a budget for the instalment of planetariums in the Visayas and Mindanao,” de la Cruz said.

To reach the farthest regions of the country, the Pagasa has purchased five mobile planetariums, which will be installed in the National Capital Region, Northern Luzon, Southern Luzon, the Visayas and Mindanao.

“We have already hired researchers and we are doing research on variable stars,” de la Cruz added. Variable stars are those whose brightness fluctuates as seen from Earth.

De la Cruz shared that the obser vator y has already purchased a solar telescope, which will aid them in obser vations and research of the sun.

“We also have an on-process purchase of a 5.3-meter radio te lescope, wh ic h w i l l be i nstalled in our station in Tanay,” he added.

Robots could descend into old mines to prevent toxic spills

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ENVER—Crumbling mine tunnels awash with polluted waters perforate the Colorado mountains, and scientists may one day send robots creeping through the pitch-black passages to study the mysterious currents that sometimes burst to the surface with devastating effects.

One such disaster happened at the inactive Gold King Mine in southwestern Colorado in 2015, when the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) accidentally triggered the release of 3 million gallons (11 million liters) of mustard-colored water laden with arsenic, lead and other toxins. The spill tainted rivers in three states.

Now the EPA is considering using robots and other sophisticated technology to help prevent these types of “blowouts” or clean them up if they happen. But first the agency has to find out what’s inside the mines, some of which date to Colorado’s gold rush in the 1860s.

Wastewater laden with toxic heavy metals has been spewing from hundreds of inactive mines nationwide for decades, the product of complicated and sometimes poorly understood subterranean flows.

Mining creates tainted water in steps: Blasting out tunnels and processing ore exposes long-buried, sulfur-bearing rocks to oxygen. The sulfur and oxygen mix with natural underground water flows to create sulfuric acid. The acidic water then leaches heavy metals out of the rocks.

To manage and treat the wastewater, the EPA needs a clear idea of what’s inside the mines, some of which penetrate thousands of feet into the mountains. But many old mines are poorly documented.

Investigating with robots would be cheaper, faster and safer than humans.

“You can send a robot into an area that doesn’t have good air quality. You can send a robot into an area that doesn’t have much space,” said Rebecca Thomas, project manager for the EPA’s newly created Gold King Superfund site, officially known as the Bonita Peak Mining District.

Instruments on the robots could map the mines and analyze pollutants in the water.

They would look more like golf carts than the personable robots from Star Wars movies. Hao Zhang, an assistant professor of computer science at the Colorado School of Mines, envisions a battery-powered robot about 5 feet (1.5 meters) long with wheels or tracks to get through collapsing, rubble-strewn tunnels. Zhang and a team of students demonstrated a smaller robot in a mine west of Denver recently. It purred smoothly along flat tunnel floors but toppled over trying to negotiate a cluttered passage.

“The terrain is pretty rough,” Zhang said.

“It’s hard for even humans to navigate in that environment.” AP

Hot press cuts production time of engineered-bamboo products

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hot press machine has been developed to make life a little easier for producers of engineered bamboo. It helps cut the production time of engineered-bamboo products.

Engineered bamboo is produced by binding together fibers,

particles, strips or slats of bamboo with the right adhesive.

Used worldwide to make attractive panels, floors, furniture and handicrafts, it is often stronger and less prone to warping than the equivalent solid woods.

In the Philippines about 10

The hot press machine developed by the Forest Products Research and Development Institute of the Department of Science and Technology.

companies make engineered bamboo products on a small scale.

“With our newly developed machine, we were able to press bamboo boards in only five minutes to eight minutes, compared to the current cold pressing time of six hours to eight hours,” Engr.

Edward Paul S. Marasigan of Forest Products Research and Development Institute of the Department of Science and Technology which developed the machine.

“The machine can be operated using both electricity and charcoal as heat source, and makes boards with the same quality regardless of heat source and type of glue used. Fabrication cost is around P150,000, comparable to the price of the cold press available in the market,” Marasigan added.

There is currently a big demand for engineered bamboo in the country. It is boosted by Executive Order 879, which mandates that one-fourth of all desks and furniture in public schools be made of the material.

Rizalina K. Araral/S&T Media Service

Innovation Week Benita and Catalino Yap Foundation Chairman Tony Yap (from left), SGV Chairman and Managing Partner Itos Cruz, and Science Secretary Fortunato T. de la Peña share a light moment during the launch of Innovation Week. The event featured the signing of memorandum of agreement between BCYF and SGV, and another one between BCYF and the Department of Science and Technology. The event highlighted the role of innovation in social development. It was recognized by Presidential Proclamation 172, s.2017. NONIE REYES

Tourism&Entertainment BusinessMirror

Editor: Carla Mortel-Baricaua

Sunday, February 4, 2018 A7

Experience an authentic Chinese New Year in Hong Kong Story by Gretchen Filart Dublin

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hen it comes to celebrating Chinese New Year, no place flaunts it better than Hong Kong. This February, as the Year of the Dog begins—a chinese zodiac that embodies adventure and merrymaking—tourists can expect extravagant and colorful festivities in Hong Kong, from eye-candy fireworks and parades to busy markets and outdoor events.

Events worth attending

Kick-starting the series of festivities this year is the International Chinese New Year Night Parade, a world-renowned annual event that showcases local and international entertainers. On February 16, vibrant floats and heart-stopping performances will fill Tsim Sha Tsui, which travelers can take part of.

Following the parade is the Hong Kong Chinese New Year Fireworks Extravaganza, a pyrotechnics display that runs over 20 minutes at the Victoria Harbour. At 8 pm on February 17 spectators will be treated to a whimsical display of lights, which they can view from popular vantage points at the harbour, such as the Tsim Sha Tsui waterfront and Central Harbourfront.

Also at Central Harbourfront is the Great European Carnival. Located on the Harbourfront’s event space, this outdoor amusement park offers thrilling rides for both families and solo thrill-seekers, including a giant swing carousel.

If rides are not your cup of tea, try your hand at any of the game booths, or simply watch the circus on site. The carnival is open from December to February.

For horse-racing enthusiasts, the Chinese New Year Race Day at the Sha Tin Racecourse is a mustsee. Just a short drive from the city, the race is set on February 18 and will feature thousands of horser

acers from across the world. A tribute to the British colonial tradition of horseracing, this New Year’s day race attracts the highest number of visitors in its league. Fun-filled activities and live entertainment await guests, too.

Fortune trees, markets and exhibitions

One of the most famous attractions in Hong Kong is the Lam Tsuen Wishing Trees, which is said to bring good luck. Found in Tai Pos’ Lam Tsuen Village, these auspicious trees can make your dreams come true once you toss joss papers into their branches.

The country is also well-known for its flower markets that boast a wide array of exotic plants, be it home decors or souvenirs. A tourist favorite is the “lucky plants,” each representing an important value.

Buy a kumquat if you wish to attract wealth or peach blossoms for long life. Those in Victoria Park and Mongkok open one week prior to the festival and close on the first day of the Chinese New Year.

If you are bound for Hong Kong Disneyland, drop by its Chinese New Year Night Market. This maiden project rests along Main Street, USA and the Plaza and are lined with festive stalls selling Disneythemed specialties, including egg puffs and Mickey-shaped toasts and bean puddings. Don’t forget to

In Hong Kong, guests will get to enjoy the Chinese New Year with Disney friends.

The biggest miniature exhibition in the world is in Olympian City.

have your photos taken with Mickey and friends as they make their way to the street to greet you Kung Hei Fat Choi!

For art connoiseurs, head to Olympian City to see the biggest miniature exhibition in the world, the “Feature of HK—CNY Miniature Exhibition @ Olympian City.”

The collection boasts over 50 art

pieces from 20 local artists, including brightly lit European-inspired buildings along Lee Tung Avenue and the 19th century Tai O Heritage Hotel in New Territories.

Culinary surprises

A true Chinese New Year celebration is never complete without heartwarming local fare, of course,

and Hong Kong’s vibrant streets are filled with restaurants that cater to such gastronomic pleasure. Worth forking in is Poon Choi, a local term for one-pot casseroles. Comprising the dish are different layers of vegetables and meats—from seafood to poultry—served in a large basin.

Poon Choi is a vital part of traditional Hong Kong dining culture

and is best enjoyed with friends or family.

Auspicious ingredients are an important element of Cantonese fare. Dried oysters—“ho si” in the vernacular—is phonetically similar to “good business,” and it’s not unusual to see hordes of businessmen ordering the same meal. Glutinous rice cake, or neen go, somewhat translates to “tall year,” so go ahead and order one to reach unscaled heights this 2018.

For dessert, ask for tong yuen dumplings. These bite-size aftermeal staple sounds like “reunion” in Cantonese and is often served during family occasions.

This Chinese New Year, whether you travel for food or culture, with family or singly, there is no better place to experience it like a true local than in Hong Kong. Book a trip now to see it for yourself.

El Nido Resorts offers special deals at Travel Tour Expo 2018

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ven the most traveled global visitors readily accept the El Nido Resorts’s greeting: “Welcome to our little piece of paradise.” The winner of a number of awards bestowed by Trip Advisor, World Boutique Hotels and other global bodies, the four island resorts in Northern Palawan offer the widest range of pristine dive and snorkeling sites, secret lagoons and mangroves for exploration, in addition to its luxury accommodations, in Asia.

To encourage domestic tourists, who spend more conservatively to enjoy these destinations, El Nido Resorts annually offers special packages for local residents at the Philippine Travel Agencies Association’s Travel Tour Expo. The 2018 edition will be at the SMX Convention Center in Pasay City from Feb. 9 to 11. As in the past, strong demand for El Nido Resorts deals is expected.

According to Joey Bernardino, group director of Sales and Marketing, El Nido Resorts will offer best-value packages for Miniloc, Lagen, Pangulasian and Apulit Island Resorts. The first three, all within the municipality of El Nido in Bacuit Bay, hosts 855 species of marine fish, 400 species of coral and five species of marine turtles.

In neighboring Taytay, the less populated Apulit offers the most stunning colorful coral reefs and the unique set of fish that thrive in this habitat.

Apulit, Miniloc and Lagen guests can enjoy a three-day, twonight stay in selected rooms for P21,800 and P23,100 and P29,800

AirAsia celebrates Dinagyang Festival

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per person, respectively. The deals cover all meals served buffet style, complimentary boat transfers from the Lio Airport Terminal to the island resorts and the use of snorkeling, kayaking, paddle boarding and other equipment. Travel period is from February 13 up to May 31.

The top-end Pangulasian Island Resort has won prestigious Condé Naste Traveler’s (CNT) Awards two years in a row. It made it to CNT’s 2018 Gold List of “Favorite Hotels in the World” while the magazine’s readers named it among the “Top Resorts in Asia” in 2017. Accommodations in a Canopy Villa for three days and two nights and breakfast will be offered for P33,000 per person.

Unique to all El Nido Resorts is the inclusion into the room rate of popular tours with boat rides,

tour guides and required equipment. Guests billeted in its Bacuit Bay island resorts enjoy free of charge visits to the iconic Big and Small Lagoons, Snake Island, secret caves, as well as white-sand beach clubs exclusive to its guests.

Apulit guests look forward to tours of Isla Blanca and Nabat Island in addition to the white-sand coves exclusive to them and swimming with baby black tip sharks just a few steps from their rooms.

The island resort’s guest rooms and clubhouse were recently renovated to provide guests more space and wider picture-window views of their pristine surroundings.

Bernardino notes that the convenience of no longer having to calculate costs and arrange for tours once a guest is in the four island resorts more than makes up for

the initial outlay. Guest reviews, nonetheless, tend to single out the service, especially those provided by the tour guides. “Most of our guides count Palawan as their home and have a natural affinity for the area. We further enhance their sense of place by giving them special training in the flora and fauna and natural geological formations of Bacuit Bay,” he explained. “They are trained to make guests fall in love with our piece of paradise.”

With the global rise of ecotourism and a strong preference for nature-based attractions, the stream of both international and local visitors to El Nido Resorts is growing exponentially. This should be a great incentive for Philippine residents to make the most of Travel Tour Expo 2018’s deals from El Nido Resorts this February.

or the first time, AirAsia,the World’s Best Low Cost Carrier for nine straight years running since 2009 by Skytrax, is this year’s official airline partner of Iloilo’s Dinagyang Festival—one of the Philippines’s biggest religious and cultural festivals honoring the Santo Niño or Christ child.

To celebrate, AirAsia is offering promo fares from as low as P1,066 all-in fare for Clark—Iloilo and P1,366 for Manila—Iloilo. Promo fares are available for booking at www.airasia.com until February 18, valid for travel between January 29 to July 31, 2018.

AirAsia Philippines Chief Executive

Cap. Dexter Comendador said, “AirAsia is now painting Iloilo skies red.

We are thrilled to be the official airline partner of this year’s festivities and we are looking forward to many more activities and collaboration with the Department of Tourism, as part of our commitment to better connect secondary cities like Iloilo within the Philippines and beyond.”

AirAsia guests flying to Iloilo today will get special Dinagyang festival discount coupons from AirAsia’s partner establishments. AirAsia guests may also avail themselves of the free shuttle service from Iloilo International Airport to the city.

Faith A8 Sunday, Febryary 4, 2018

Sunday

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

Pope’s briefing system under scrutiny after Chile gaffe

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ATICAN CITY—Just how well informed is Pope Francis about the goings-on in his 1.2-billion strong Catholic Church?

That question is making the rounds after the pope seemed completely unaware of the details of a Chilean sex-abuse scandal, a failing that soured his recent trip there and forced him to do an about-face. It also came up after his abrupt, noexplanation dismissal of a respected Vatican bank manager.

And it rose to the fore when he was accused by a cardinal of not realizing that his own diplomats were “selling out” the underground Catholic Church in China for the sake of political expediency.

Some Vatican observers now wonder if Francis is getting enough of the high-quality briefings one needs to be a world leader, or whether Francis is relying more on his own instincts and informants who slip him unofficial information on the side.

In his five years as pope, Francis has created an informal, parallel information structure that often rubs up against official Vatican channels. That includes a papal kitchen cabinet of nine cardinal advisers who meet every three months at the Vatican and have the pope’s ear, plus the regular briefings he receives from top Vatican brass.

The Vatican this week issued a remarkable defense of Francis’s information flow and his grasp of the delicate China dossier. The Holy See press office insisted that Francis followed the China negotiations closely, was being “faithfully” briefed by his advisers and was in complete agreement with his secretary of state on the topic.

“It is, therefore, surprising and regrettable that the contrary is affirmed by people in the church, thus, fostering confusion and controversy,” Vatican Spokesman Greg Burke said.

Francis lives at the Vatican’s Santa Mar ta hotel rather than at the Apostolic Pa lace, where he can more easi ly keep his door open at a l l hou rs, a nd where a net work of fr iends, infor mants and adv isers prov ide back channels of infor mation to him.

“The problem is he’s the victim of the Santa Marta syndrome,” said Massimo Franco, columnist for the Italian daily Corriere della Sera. “The pope wanted to live there because he didn’t want any filter from the secretary of state.

But the other side of the coin is that he’s condemned to receive quite casual information, and not always very accurate.”

At Santa Marta, the pope sets his own agenda, makes his own phone calls and arranges his own visitors’ schedule, often without the knowledge of the Vatican’s protocol office.

He neither watches TV nor browses the Internet but reads the Rome daily Il Messaggero and a selection of news clippings for his non-Vatican news.

Some of his information arrives in person, some of it on paper, left for him in a red leather-bound folder at the Santa Marta front desk, brought upstairs by a Swiss Guard and handed over to one of the pope’s two private secretaries.

Francis has two main gatekeepers, Msgr. Yoannis Lahzi Gaid, an Egyptian Copt who used to work in the Vatican’s secretariat of state, and Msgr.r Fabian Pedacchio, an Argentine priest who Francis, when he was archbishop of Buenos Aires, dispatched to Rome in 2007.

He also has the prefect of the papal household, Msgr. Georg Gänswein, who arranges official audiences and decides who gets to greet the pope after his weekly Wednesday general audience.

Sometimes popes suffer when t heir gatekeepers fa i l t hem: Pope Bened ict X V I famously lifted the excommunication of a Holoc aust- deny ing bishop, unaware that a simple Google search would have turned up the

Pope Francis arrives for his weekly general audience in Saint Peter’s Square at the Vatican, on January 31. AP/Andrew Medichini

bishop’s belief that the Nazi gas chambers were a myth.

But more than his immediate predecessor Benedict, Francis still relies on a close circle of friends from his days in Argentina and as a high-ranking Jesuit to give him the pulse of what’s going on.

And he can be fiercely stubborn once he has made up his mind based on information that does reach him, such as his recent dismissal of the respected No. 2 at the Vatican bank, Giulio Mattietti, who was fired without explanation at the end of the year.

In his subsequent Christmas address to the Vatican bureaucracy, Francis blasted Vatican staff who have been sidelined, saying “they wrongly declare themselves martyrs of the system, of a ‘pope kept in the dark.’”

But with Chile’s priest sexabuse scandal, Francis was forced to admit he had not only made a mistake, but maybe he was the one in the dark.

The Vatican announced last Tuesday that Francis was sending the Vatican’s top sex-crimes investigator to Chile to look into a bishop accused of covering up for the country’s most notorious pedophile priest.

Francis had staunch ly de fended the bishop, Juan Barros, while in Chile and his about-face came only after “recent information” had reached the Vatican, Burke said.

The problem is he’s [Pope Francis] the victim of the Santa Marta syndrome.”—Franco

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he Catholic parish church of Saint Alphonsus Maria de Liguori, also know n as the Magallanes Church, is soliciting support for the restoration of its Garden Way of the Cross, a project organized by the Ministry of the Extraordinary Ministers of Holy Communion, with the support of Msgr. Claro Matt Garcia, Parochial Vicar Fr. Lorenzo Ruggiero, Barangay Magallanes Chairman Armand Padilla and Magallanes residents and churchgoers.

Created by National Artist for Landscape Architect Ildefonso I.P. Santos, the Garden of the Way of the Cross is a “must visit” during the annual Holy Week tradition of Visita Iglesia.

It is a pilgrimage in itself for art lovers and churchgoers, providing a beautiful spiritual

experience on the passion and death of Jesus. It is also a unique art tour that uses the various sculptures of the country’s esteemed artists to tell the story of the final days of Jesus Christ in a new way to people.

Giving their various interpretations for the 14 Stations of the Cross are: National Artist Napoleon V. Abueva (I. Last Supper); Abdulmari de Leon Imao Jr. (II. Agony in the Garden); Ros Arcilla (III. Jesus is Condemned); Raphael Arcilla (IV. Crowning with Thorns); Tito Sanchez (V. Jesus Carries the Cross); Jose Mendoza (VI. Jesus Falls); Ramon Orlina (VII. Simon of Cyrene Helps Jesus); Juan Sajid (VIII. Jesus Meets the Women of Jerusalem); Francisco Verano (IX. Jesus is Nailed to the Cross); Priscillano Vicaldo Jr. (X. Jesus Forgives a Thief at The Cross); Solomon Saprid (XI. Mary and John at the Foot of the Cross; Eduardo

Castrillo (XII. Jesus Dies); Antonio Mondejar (XIII. Jesus is Laid in the Tomb); and Dominic Galicia (XIV. Resurrection).

Galicia, by the way, is also the architect who designed the rebuilt Magallanes Church after the original 1968 structure (designed by National Artist Leandro Locsin) was burned down on September 9, 2004.

C hu rc h go e r s h av e a l w ay s found an uplifting and interesting approach to contemplating the Way of the Cross in Magallanes Church. Unfortunately, the Station sculptures are highly exposed to unfavorable weather conditions and the elements, which resulted in inevitable damage that necessitates const a nt, c a ref u l a nd cost ly restoration work.

In view of the demanding nature of restoration and upkeep for this unique depiction of the Way

By Corazon Damo-Santiago

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here are children with faces only a mother can love for beauty is in the eyes of the beholder, according to Margaret Hungerford. Too, true beauty consists in purity of heart, Mahatma Gandhi said.

However, Joan de Valois was not loved by her parents. The reason: her features were not pleasing. The second daughter of King Louis XI of France and Queen Charlotte of Savoy, Joan was not only hunchbacked, she walked with a limp and pockmarked.

Her skin had depressed pitmarks akin to depressions caused by smallpox or acne. Besides, the royal couple expected a boy when she was born.

Born in an era where beauty is royalty’s brag, how could she be in court feasts and high solemnities?

Even her husband, King Louis XII, abhorred her ugliness.

Suffered gracefully Francis seemed completely unaware that Chilean abuse victims of the Rev. Fernando Karadima had for years said that Barros knew of Karadima’s perversions, had even witnessed them, and did nothing.

One survivor, Juan Carlos Cruz, even testified to Chilean prosecutors. But apparently, that information never reached the pope—and that led to one of the greatest gaffes of Francis’s five-year papacy. He demanded “proof” that Barros was guilty of covering up for Karadima’s crimes and said without that, such accusations were mere “calumny.”

Francis later issued a partial apology. But even as he flew back to Rome on January 21, Francis was saying he was convinced that Barros was innocent, though he was open to hearing from anyone with other information.

In such a case, the pope would have been receiving information from his ambassador in Chile, who, like other Vatican envoys, writes daily encrypted briefs to the Vatican secretariat of state that the pope reads each morning. He also hears from the local church hierarchy, who visited him en masse in February 2017.

For information on Chile, Francis also has one of his nine cardinal advisers, Cardinal Francisco Errazuriz, the retired archbishop of Santiago. Errazuriz has testified that he didn’t believe Karadima’s victims and shelved the investigation until he was forced to reopen it after they went public with their claims.

At any stage, then, anyone who didn’t believe the victims or wanted to protect Barros might have filtered out the victims’ testimony from briefings or cast doubt on it before it ever got to the pope. AP

Churchgoers and art patrons unite for Magallanes Church’s Garden Way of the Cross restoration

By Ruben Cruz Jr. | Online Editor

Saint Joan of Valois, model of virtue

of the Cross and its importance in shaping the image of Magallanes Church, art patrons, churchgoers, village residents and civic leaders have all become involved in raising funds for the purpose.

A number of parish activities have been initiated to obtain enough funds to renovate the Magallanes Church’s Garden Way of the Cross in its entirety.

T hose who w ish to ma ke a contr ibut ion or get involved in any way to offer whatever k ind of suppor t for the restoration work and other parish projects of the Maga l lanes C hu rc h may c hec k out t heir Facebook Page ( htt ps://www. facebook .com /St A lphonsusParishMagallanes/). Or much better, v isit the church and ex per ience for yourself its ar tistic Garden Way of the Cross that is at once a guide to meditation and a path to encounter Christ.

Saint Joan de Valois was born in the Castle of Pierre de Brézé, France, in Nogent-le-Roi on April 23, 1464. King Louis XI and the queen would leave their two daughters, Joan and Anne, with Baron François de Linières and wife, Anne de Culan, when they were saddled with royal duties.

The couple, who were childless and devout Catholics, reared the two princess in faith and virtuous living.

Friar Jean de la Fontaine, guardian and confessor of the Franciscan Friary in Amboise, became Joan’s spiritual confessor.

Her proud father always treated her harshly, but she bore it in silence and complained only to God. Once, when she was so distressed, the Blessed Virgin appeared and said to her: “Be consoled my daughter. A time will come when you will belong to me entirely. A large group of young women consecrated to God will join you in serving me and proclaiming my praise everywhere.”

As she grew up, she spent hours in the chapel to pray, so a paved pathway between the castle and the chapel was built.

In 1476 her marriage to Louis, Duke of Orleans, a second cousin and heir apparent to the throne, was solemnized. Her pleadings against the marriage was answered with scorns, having been betrothed to the duke when she was two months old.

Although treated harshly, she was a dutiful wife and did everything to please her husband. When her father died in 1483, her brother Charles inherited the throne and her sister Anne de Beaujeu became regent.

Her husband waged military attacks against the kingdom and was imprisoned by royal forces in 1488.

Joan worked for his release to end his sufferings and Louis was finally freed in 1491. With the death of his brother, her husband became the new king.

Her husband, King Louis XII, appeared to the pope for the annulment of their marriage. The reasons were two fold: it was an arranged wedding and was never consummated.

Pope A le x a nder V I dec l a red their marriage null and void on December 15, 1498. K ing Louis XII married Anne of Britanny, his brother’s widow.

Joan, who was given the title Duchess of Berry, accepted the declaration of the annulment of the marriage with great humiliation.

With a heart resigned to God’s will, she praised Him and remarked: “God has now detached me from the world and has made it possible for me to serve him better than heretofore.”

Indomitable spirit

Secure in the face of ugliness and as a divorced royalty, she maintained her composure, confidence and carried herself with dignity.

She confided to Friar Gabriel Mary, OFM, her plans to found the Order of Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary, and the rules of life of the order were written in 10 chapters.

It consisted of the 10 virtues of the Blessed Virgin: chastity, prudence, humility, faith, obedience, compassion, devotion, poverty, patience and piety.

Approved on February 12, 1502, 11 postulants became the nucleus of the order. With Joan and Gabriel, they committed themselves publicly and legally to the order on November 21, Feast of the Presentation of Mary.

From the monastic order, the Apostolic Sisters of the Annunciation was formed to teach the children of the poor. They served in Belgium, Burundi, Cameroon, Republic of Congo, Guatemala and France.

Joan died on February 4, 1505, at the age of 40. Her body was buried in the chapel of Annonciade Monastery. People came to venerate her, and many miracles and cures were attributed to her.

In 1562 heretical Huguenots stormed Bourges. They plundered the convent and the church. They opened her grave and saw the incorrupt body of Joan. The vandals tore it apart then pierced it with swords. Blood flowed and her body was burned.

Saint Joan was beatified on April 21, 1742, by Pope Benedict XIV and canonized on May 28, 1950, by Pope Pius XII. Her feast day is February 4.

Capstone of beauty

Subjects of kings often look at royal families with awe. But, those who wear crowns were not always happy nor lived heavenly and carefree lives.

Joan of Valois was despised by her king husband for her repulsive looks in an era where the cult of beauty was flaunted. But never did she wallow on self-pity. Self-assured, the purity of heart was her basis for beauty.

In her journals, she wrote: “The value of a person comes not from the beauty of the body but from the beauty of the soul. There is no ugliness that can annul these values as part of the moral order.”

Prof. Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira, in an essay, extolled the saint’s serenity and peace—a lesson in true human dignity and quoted her: “My conscience tells me there is nothing to reproach in my action. Therefore, before the eyes of God and His angels I can be serene and peaceful, certain that I will never be despised by them.

It does not matter if men despise me.

I have the Catholic faith and I know that I am following the truth taught by the true church. Let others think of what they will, judge what they want. I will not cede one inch of my position to please them.”

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.

CBCP chief calls for end to ‘waste of lives’

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EBU City—As the Philippine National Police (PNP) relaunched its controversial antidrug operations, the head of the Catholic hierarchy appealed that it won’t lead to further “waste” of human lives.

Archbishop Romulo Valles of Davao, Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) president, urged the police operatives to always follow the law in dealing with drug suspects.

“We pray that the police follow the prescribed steps in implementing the law…steps that should be done in exercising their responsibility as policemen,” Valles said.

“Let us inspire them to follow the

necessary steps when they need to apprehend and as much as possible, we make sure that we do not waste any lives,” he added.

The PNP relaunched this week its “Oplan Tokhang” with revamped guidelines, and the chief assured it will be “bloodless” this time.

PNP chief Director General Ronald M. dela Rosa said that the new guidelines and measures would be implemented to prevent human-rights abuses. The CBCP sharply criticized the government’s war on drugs that has left thousands of people dead.

In one of their statements, the bishops appealed for an end to the unabated killings while calling for the country to “start healing.”Roy Lagarde/CBCPNews

RegionsSunday

www.businessmirror.com.ph • Editor: Efleda P. Campos

BusinessMirror

Sunday, February 4, 2018 A9

Santero Festival

of Macabebe, Pampanga

CONTINGENTS of high-school students perform during the first Santero Festival in Macabebe, Pampanga.

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By Joey Pavia | Correspondent Photos by Ric Gonzales

ACABEBE, Pampanga— The first Santero Festival was held to celebrate the 443rd founding anniversary of this town on January 17.

Macabebe, one of the oldest towns in Pampanga, is home to the Santeros, craftsmen who use wood, ivory, cement or fiberglass to produce an ecclesiastical art piece known as santo, usually an image of Jesus Christ, the Blessed Virgin Mary or patron saints.

Macabebe Tourism OfficerCatherine Flores said other residents of Barangays San Gabriel, Santo Rosario, San Roque and Santa Maria benefit from the ecclesiastical art-making industry. They make eyelashes, clothes and hair of the santo.

Most of the Santeros are based in San Gabriel.

Gener Bautista, a 70-year-old Santero, said he had inherited from his parents and grandparents the skills in making the holy images. He said he was able to send all his seven children to college working as a Santero.

Bautista said an image costs between P5,000 and P150,000.

The most expensive stands about 5 feet tall.

He said some of his works were

THE town executives of Macabebe, Pampanga, hold a news conference announcing the holding of the Sentero Festival. Present are Conrad Gueverra (from left), Perlita Calara, Catherine Flores (partly hidden), Mayor Annette Flores-Balgan and Jomel Cruz.

sent to Los Angeles, other states in the United States and Guam.

Macabebe Mayor Annette Flores-Balgan said the Spanish colonizers played a huge role in influencing the first Santeros of the town. They brought to Macabebe holy images from Spain.

“At first, the Santeros were only making ‘Santos’ for their

own. Later, it became an industry,” Balgan said.

“How can you love your own town if you don’t know its history?” she added to explain the holding of the festival.

Eight schools—Colegio de San Lorenzo, Santa Maria High School, San Esteban High School, San Nicolas Academy, Telacsan N ational High School, Caduang Tete High School, SV-SF High School and Macabebe High

School—joined the street dancing and free interpretation competitions. Perlita Calara and Conrad Gueverra were the dance choreographers. “ The steps are based on the making of the holy images,” Calara said.

She added Macabebe National High School was adjudged the overall champion and Santa Maria High School was named first runner-up.

A10 Sunday, February 4, 2018

RegionsSunday BusinessMirror

Editor: Efleda P. Campos • www.businessmirror.com.ph

After 25 years of successful island-hopping...

NATASHA national top-seller Dolly Galdo is assisted by Natasha Regional Manager Jocelyn Guerrero (left) and Natasha Cagayan Valley Branch Manager Mauricio Perez as she cuts the ceremonial ribbon to officially open a Natasha branch in Santiago City, Isabela, on July 7, 2008.

Story and photos By Leonardo Perante II

T

Correspondent

WENTY-FIVE years ago, what started as a boutique at the Robinsons Galleria by the Jardiolin family gave birth to Natasha. The family-owned firm carried mainly shoes, bags and apparel.

THE staff of Natasha in Santiago City, Isabela, process thousands of orders from different parts of Cagayan Valley and the Eastern Cordillera region. The Filipino-owned direct-selling company carries shoes, apparel accessories and personal-care products.

In a phone interview with the BusinessMirror, Jocelyn Guerrero, Natasha operations manager for Luzon and the Visayas, said the firm has been transformed as a direct-selling company, since 1994, that engages in marketing extensive varieties of products from apparel, shoes, bags to cosmetics and personal-care including gadgets.

“We work through a network of dealers who sell our products

person-to-person. Since it started in 1993, it has steadily grown to become one of the leading direct-selling companies in the country. As a wholly Filipino-owned company, Natasha takes pride in the fact that it has become one of the leaders in an industry that has been traditionally dominated by multinational companies,” Guerrero said.

Natasha’s extensive network of dealers makes good-quality products

INVENTORY officer Debbie de la Rosa (left) of Natasha in Isabela leads the distribution of apparel and personalcare products at the Santiago City branch to walk-in dealers, including elderly members of the sales network.

The direct-selling firm provides job and business opportunities to a number of senior citizens nationwide.

of the latest fashion accessible and affordable to people all over the country, from Batanes up north to Tawi-Tawi down south. With the recent efforts to tap overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) as dealers, Natasha products are now also available in more than 20 countries worldwide. The strongest

overseas markets are Hong Kong, Malaysia, Brunei Darussalam and the Middle East.

“Natasha has provided an opportunity for thousands of people to start their own business and fulfill their potential. The dream of becoming a successful fashion professional has become more

attainable. We are very proud of the thousands of Natasha dealers who have made their dreams come true as our partners in business,” Guerrero added.

To answer the demand of many sales-network members and clients mostly in the countryside for health and beauty-

care products, the direct-selling firm has partnered with leading brands engaged in the manufacture of such products.

As a friendly gesture very much appreciated by many costumers, colorful and handy gift bags are made ready to keep gift items in tuck.

RegionsSunday

www.businessmirror.com.ph • Editor: Efleda P. Campos

BusinessMirror

Sunday, Febraury 4, 2018 A11

Natasha direct-selling network goes beyond borders

NATASHA Cagayan Valley Branch Manager Mauricio Perez assists a candidate for Mutya ng Santiago 2013 trying on a pair of high heels.

TO keep the Natasha working crew physically healthy and fit, the company holds “Fun at Work” activities every weekend, including Zumba exercises.

AS part of its promotional strategy, Natasha staff award gift packs to candidates for Miss Buguey, Cagayan, up north.

A FEMALE Natasha sales crew sorts out boxes of multivitamins on a display rack.

As an institution, Natasha gets invited to become the official fashion provider for beauty contests in the provinces, cities or in-campus beauty pageants.

“In this manner, we could showcase our product lines by dressing up beauty contestants from head to foot, where the audience sees wholesome fashion statements,” Perez said.

The first Natasha items were originally sold in malls until it had its own store. At the start, Natasha focused on recruitment and selling until the establishment of its marketing plan. The first Natasha branch was on Park Avenue, Robinsons Galleria in Mandaluyong City. The first branches were mainly within Metro Manila and later expanded to other parts of Luzon, and key cities of the Visayas and Mindanao.

When asked about the poten-

tial of Region 2 (Cagayan Valley), Guerrero said during the first year of operation, there were about 1,000 registered members.

“The Cagayan Valley area— or Region 2—has shown a lot of promise, not just being the second-largest region in the country in terms of area. Its people are known for their hard work and entrepreneurial skills. Another big factor we considered was that known top sellers from other direct-selling companies come from the region,” Guerrero added.

Santiago City is at the heart of the Cagayan Valley Region, making it an ideal business center. A regional branch was established in 2008.

To start with, Natasha conducted recruitment rallies and sales caravans all over the Valley.

At present, Natasha Isabela Re-

TOP-PERFORMING Natasha sales network members were awarded certificates of recognition and gift packs during the company’s pre-25th anniversary celebration in Santiago City, Isabela.

gional Branch has 73 sales outlets and has registered a total of 181 stores carrying their products.

“Proven to be an effective marketing tool, a catalogue dubbed Natasha Style Coach

comes out every two months, designed to provide product updates. Likewise, we have de-

veloped a Natasha app where members can browse latest products using their gadgets.

We make sure to provide the best-quality products and the best service that we can,” Cagayan Valley Branch Manager Mauricio Perez said.

As a reward for their working performance, deserving members are entitled to the benefits stated in the company’s marketing plan.

They also get travel incentives and insurance coverage.

Senior citizens are also given the chance to join the marketing network.

“To keep our working crew physically healthy and fit, we hold every weekend what we call ‘Fun at Work’ that includes Zumba exercises,” Perez said. Today, there are 43,228 registered members or dealers in the region, while there are 24 branches nationwide and 1,144 accredited service centers or outlets in the country.

For the past 25 years, Natasha has developed thousands of successful fashion professionals and helped make more dreams come true.

A12 Sunday, Febraury 4, 2018

RegionsSunday BusinessMirror

Editor: Efleda P. Campos • www.businessmirror.com.ph

The Great Pinatubo Chickenjoy Run

B

Story and photos by Henry Empeño Correspondent

OTOLAN, Zambales— What would it take to keep a promise? And what would it take to tell its story?

The author (left) and a fellow hiker pause before taking the final ascent to the Pinatubo crater lake.

Three weeks ago, I joined close to 100 volunteers to the old Ayta village of Villar in the foothills of Mount Pinatubo for an extraordinary mission: to bring Jollibee’s signature Chickenjoy to Ayta kids and their families living in the shadows of the great volcano.

The trip took more than 40 kilometers from Camp Kainomayan at Barangay San Juan near the sprawling Bucao River here where some volunteers spent the previous night, across dusty lahar fields and windswept foothills overgrown with cogon, along trails carved by rain and wind from pyroclastic deposits belched by Pinatubo 26 years ago and, finally, to Sitio Quinagpicangcalahac, where the eroded dirt tracks taken by the sturdy 4x4 trucks surrendered to rocky footpaths. There, more than 100 Ayta folk, most of them children, waited under two makeshift huts roofed over with dried banana leaves—anticipating the gift volunteers were about to give.

It was already 9:03 a.m. when the volunteers reached the Ayta camp, an hour past the appointed time. The 4x4 ride from Kainomayan started at 6:30 a.m., but took one hour more than the one-and-a-half hours advertised in tour packages promoted by the Botolan Tourism Office. The ride was both dusty and bumpy, but the volunteers were in high spirits.

“This is a worthy cause and an adventure rolled into one,” beamed Mara Dumaguing, a volunteer from Castillejos, Zambales, as she helped carry boxes of juice drinks and fried chicken meal. “You get to help others, and you get to visit Pinatubo as a bonus.”

“Right now, my body is already sore from the 4x4 ride,” she added. “But— bring it on—I’m ready for what more is to come.”

The promise

THE volunteers travelled to far Quinagpicangcalahac that windy Saturday morning of January 20 all because of a promise made by Ruffie Nyhl Cruz 15 days before. A travel blogger from San Marcelino, Zambales, Ruffie hiked to Mount Pinatubo on January 5 with some cousins and, on the way up, met some Ayta children on the trail and snapped some pictures with them.

“I wanted to give something to the kids—like candy or something to eat, but I didn’t have any,” Ruffie recalled.

“So I promised them that, when we came back—if ever we came back—I’ll have something for them.”

Then, as Ruffie’s group were leaving, one of the kids shouted after him: “Kuya, when you come back, we want some Chickenjoy!”

Back home, what was initially an offhand remark said simply to be nice

Resting at the Zambales-Tarlac trails junction

Finally, the hauntingly beautiful Pinatubo crater lake

to some kids on the wayside became an idea that racked Ruffie’s imaginings.

Last December Ruffie and blog partner Faye Arceo successfully organized a gift-giving project through their Bisikleta Pilipinas travel web site. They called it the BisikleSANta Project. So, yes, why not make a similar effort to bring the Pinatubo kids some Chickenjoy and grant them their wish?

The next day, Ruffie posted on the Bisikleta Pilipinas site a photo of him taking a selfie with two Ayta kids by his side and six others in the background, grinning atop a huge boulder by the trail. With it, he asked people to tag Jollibee, challenging the giant fast-food chain to prove that it “also had a big heart, not just a huge behind”—a reference to the plump company mascot.

In less than 24 hours, Ruffie’s Jollibee post on the Bisikleta site got almost 2,000 likes, 957 comments and 647 shares. The same message on his personal Facebook account received 296 likes and 139 shares. Two days later, on January 8, Jollibee e-mailed Bisikleta and officially confirmed it would give Chickenjoy for the Ayta kids.

Project Chickenjoy

THE charity hike to Mount Pinatubo soon took shape—and fast. With a pledge from Jollibee for 200 boxes of one-piece Chickenjoy meals and an equal number of fruit juice in tetra packs, the project gained more partners.

Botolan Mayor Bing Maniquiz and Botolan Tourism Office head Iska Cruz provided a 20-seater 4x4 truck to transport the project staff for free, and also gave discounts for paying volunteers who would take two other vehicles. Jake Mactal of Cerana Farms in Botolan offered their place as campsite for volunteers from Manila who had to sleep over the night before the trek, and also provided free camote pandesal, hibiscus juice and locally brewed (and grown) coffee for the campers.

Mayor Jay Khonghun of Subic, Zambales gave 100 bags of groceries that each included 2 kilos of rice and some canned goods and noodles.

Meanwhile, Blue donated 300 bottles of its flavored-water brand; Jackie Lou Ribot of Project Big Books joined in for storytelling and games; and Romina Bocalbos of the Social welfare office in Castillegos, Zambales, set a lecture on women’s and children’s rights.

An anonymous Good Samaritan also gave P5,000 for additional Chickenjoy meals, for a total of 270 boxes; while another donor sent in P3,000 for coffee and more rice, canned goods and noodles for the Ayta families.

The BusinessMirror, of course, volunteered to cover the project, along with the Zambales correspondents

took of what food they grew and captured in the hills and nearby forests, a piece of fried chicken smothered by delicious gravy constituted a feast.

“Ahh, it really inspires you to see the children smiling and all so happy,” Faye said, citing one scene in the shadows of the Quinagpicangcalahac river valley.

“We’re a team who shared our hopes, wanting to put a little smile on their faces,” said photographer Sean Amador, who documented the project.

“We had a few things to give, and plenty of life’s lessons learned to share.”

The race

The Ayta kids enjoying their fried chicken meal

for Manila Bulletin and Remate, and several freelance photographers and bloggers from Manila.

The bulk of the Project Chickenjoy team, however, were “paying volunteers” like Mara and her siblings Marty and Karen, who each shelled out P1,300, the discounted rate for the 4x4 ride that any other tourist on the Mount Pinatubo tour package had to pay. More than 50 other volunteers were in Mara’s category—paying their way to be of service.

The Chickenjoy Run

TWO military-type trucks and five 4x4 sport utility vehicles rolled out of Camp Kainomayan for the trip to Quinagpicangcalahac that morning of January 20. And, because one other 20-seater truck conked out just before the trip, the vehicles were packed like the proverbial sardine cans, with a lot of volunteers sitting on the metal floor, along with boxes of food and drinks. I was perched precariously on the tailgate of Truck No. 2, trying to squeeze in shots on my Nikon with one hand while the other kept balance.

For two and a half hours, with a longish stopover at the Bucao River crossing to wait for the rest of the SUV convoy, and a brief photo-shoot stop at the “Sandcastles” area where the team posed amid backdrops of sculptured lahar hills, we jangled and jingled in a bone-rattling ride that followed

Storytelling time featuring “Rita Marungis”

nondescript trails in the lunar landscape of the Botolan lahar field and along white gashes of exposed sand that cut across cogon-covered hillocks formed by the Mount Pinatubo eruption 26 years ago.

But at the end of this wearying journey was an uplifting sight: volunteers making a beeline to the Ayta camp, carrying their promised gifts, and being welcomed by the shy Ayta folk—eyes smiling and expectant, even longing, yet silent of their wants.

Three other vehicles were already on site—taken by Botolan residents and officials who extended a hand in the project. Faye Arceo, the other half of the Bisikleta blog site couple who organized the project, fought to contain the welling emotions of pride and joy, as volunteers went on with their individual missions.

Under one hut, Mhina Bocalbos was discussing women’s and children’s rights to Ayta couples. Outside, Jackie Lou Ribot was telling the story of “Rita Marungis” and teaching the kids about personal hygiene. The other volunteers were going around, distributing their own personal donations of chocolate candies, clothes, pencils and writing pads and toys. Some played games with the children.

And then, at 9:30 a.m., the volunteers began distributing the coveted Chickenjoy meals. In this mountain setting, where the Ayta tribesmen par-

WITH the promised gift of Chickenjoy distributed, the volunteers set their sights farther to the east, to that mountain that sheltered the Ayta tribes ages ago, but had caused their scattering in 1991. For a lot of volunteers, the chance to trek to Pinatubo and stand on the slope of that historic volcano that changed much of Central Luzon’s topography, as well as the lives of thousands of its people, was one big come-on to the Chickenjoy Project.

On a personal note, visiting Pinatubo was a promise I made to myself as a native of Zambales eons ago. Days before the June 15, 1991, eruption, I was in the mountain barangays of Botolan to cover the Ayta exodus. I know some of the volunteers I was with now were not even born yet when old Pinatubo blew its top.

This was not my first attempt to see Pinatubo, however. In 2014 I joined another 4x4 expedition via San Felipe, Zambales, but the actual hike to the crater was aborted, as there was no more time to make it back to town (and safety) before nightfall.

This was the same problem we faced now with the Botolan approach, where you get almost twice as much the distance and travel time compared to the more commonly taken route from Santa Juliana in Capas, Tarlac.

Under the Project Chickenjoy schedule, we were supposed to leave Camp Kainomayan at 6 a.m., reach the Ayta camp at 8, start the hike to Pinatubo at 9, arrive at 11, have lunch and photo ops at the crater-lake site for two hours, then start the hike back to Quinagpicangcalahac at 1 p.m. for the 4x4 drive to Botolan town at 3 p.m.

But with unexpected delays, the Chickenjoy team started out for the Pinatubo crater at 10:30 a.m., a full 1.5 hours behind schedule. Wanting to see Pinatubo, but also needing to go back to camp while there was still light, turned what was described to us as a “leisurely hike” into a race for time.

The prize

THE path less taken, however, was a

joy. From Quinagpicangcalahac, we followed a meandering river valley that soon narrowed into dry stream beds bounded by small bamboo, cogon grass and giant fern trees. The air here was mountain cool. Soon, a steep wooded slope gave way to a series of cogonal hillocks where some Ayta folk had their patches of gasak or upland farms.

This was the old Barangay Belbel, which I remember was actually a plateau before the Pinatubo eruption. Its residents, as well as those of six other upland communities affected by Pinatubo, had since relocated to the LoobBunga Resettlement Area several kilometers near the town center. But years after, when the Pinatubo foothills had stabilized, people began moving back to their old places, chiefly to farm.

Down the Belbel plateau, we reached the junction where the Capas and Botolan trails met and merged into another river-valley path leading up the Mount Pinatubo slope. At past noon, we met groups of trekkers from the Tarlac side who were already on their way back from the crater. We realized that we were, by now, almost two hours late.

From the junction, the climb reprised the previous pattern: from a river narrowing into stream, to an ascent up a steep, wooded slope, followed by hills of cogon. But after one-and-a-half hours of hiking, we emerged from the woods and sighted the ultimate destination. The Pinatubo crater lake was spectacular. And eerily beautiful.

Fulfillment

WE arrived at the Pinatubo crater-lake camp at about 1:30 p.m., and after just 30 minutes there, had to head back home. The trail we had to take was the exact same route we took on the way up and by now, our muscles were groaning. Still, somehow, the path already looked familiar and seemed shorter.

So, group by weary little group, members of the Project Chickenjoy team struggled back to the camp where the 4x4 vehicles were waiting.

At Quinagpicangcalahac, dusk began setting in at 4:30 p.m., a usual occurrence in a mountain valley like this.

Still, we had to wait for almost an hour before the last hikers arrived, among them a volunteer who sprained his ankle from the trek. When we finally left at around 5:30 p.m., our Ayta friends had since gone back to their mountain abodes. There were no more Ayta kids playing and laughing about. But even in the deepening darkness, memories of their bright, happy faces lingered.

It was a day well spent. Back on the bumpy, dusty 4x4 ride to Botolan town, I almost couldn’t believe the things we did to keep a promise. Or for that matter, to tell the story.

Driving past giant lahar hillocks sculpted by wind and rain