Businessmirror february 14, 2016

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Sunday, February 14, 2016 Vol. 11 No. 129

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Koreans invest billions in Central Luzon

C

C.A. junks AGHAM plea for writ of kalikasan vs DMCI

By Joey Pavia Correspondent

LARK FREEPORT— A group representing Korean businesspeople operating in Central Luzon said its members have invested billions of pesos in businesses they operate in the region.

About 90 percent of the amount has been invested in the province of Pampanga.

The Korean Community Association Central Luzon Inc. (Kcacli) said its members have established and are

300+

The number of Koreanowned businesses in Central Luzon operating more than 300 business establishments in the region.

Kcacli President K im K iyoung said the two “most prominent” Korean-owned companies in Central Luzon are both based in this free port.

Kim was recently interviewed in his office in Angeles City through an interpreter, Kcacli Vice President Kim Tae-young.

Continued on A2

By Joel San Juan

T

HE Court of Appeals (CA) has turned down with finality the plea of Agham Party-list group for the issuance of a writ of kalikasan to stop the mining operations of DMCI Holdings Inc. (DMCIHI) in Barangay Bolitoc, Santa Cruz, Zambales, to avert possible sea surges similar to those that happened in Tacloban City and claimed more than 6,000 lives.

In a two-page resolution written by Associate Justice Myra Garcia-Fernandez, the CA affirmed its ruling issued in December 2014, which dismissed the petition for writ of kalikasan filed by Agham through its president, Angelo Palmones.

The appellate court held that the group failed to raise new arguments that would warrant the reversal of its ruling.

“A perusal of the motion for reconsideration filed by petitioner of this court’s decision promulgated on December 12, 2014, shows that the issues raised and arguments in support thereof have already been given due consideration and resolved,” the CA said.

“Thus, this court finds no new or substantial matters presented to justify a modification or reversal of the assailed decision,” it added.

It can be recalled that, while it denied Agham’s plea for a writ of kalikasan, the CA directed the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) to closely monitor the mining activities being undertaken by the company to ensure compliance with environmental laws.

It also ordered the contractors and permitees “to technically and biologically rehabilitate the excavated, mined-out and disturbed areas to the condition of environmental safety.”

“To ensure that the laws are observed, this court orders the public respondents to exercise vigilance in closely monitoring the activities and operations being undertaken by DMCIHI and DMCI Mining Corp. in Barangay Bolitoc, Santa Cruz, Zambales,” the CA ruled.

In its petition for a writ of kalikasan, the group accused DMCIHI is undertaking the leveling of the mountain in Bolitoc to put up a port in the area.

See “CA,” A2

HEART-SHAPED FOLIAGE With heart-shaped broad leaves, a slope of giant taros—better known as galiang in Ilocano and gabi in Filipino— dwarfs a tandem of agroforesters manning the 4.5-hectare OceanaGold Sustainable Agro-forestry Inc. nursery at Barangay Tucod, Cabarroguis, Quirino. Aside from massive production forest trees, the nursery, is likewise, propagating organically cultured vegetables. LEONARDO PERANTE II

Employers on alert as Zika threatens workers, customers M

IAMI—As carnival revelers from Haiti to Brazil packed the streets for pre-Lenten extravaganzas this week, raising fears about the transmission of the Zika virus, A&E Networks Latin America decided to put off employee travel in the Americas.

“Travel is part of our lives and it’s the way we become part of our viewers’ lives, but we just have to be smart about it,” said Cesar Sabroso, senior vice president of marketing for the Coral Gables-based company, which brings viewers across Latin America and Brazil channels such as A&E, History, H2 and Lifetime.

So A&E is advising traveling employees to stock up on insect repellant and to avoid densely populated areas and waterfront locations where the Aedes aegypti mosquito, which spreads Zika, might lurk. Keeping up with the latest health advisories on Zika also has become part of the corporate routine.

“We’re traveling as often as always. This is not the first time, nor will it be the last time, that we’ve had to deal with mosquito-borne diseases,” Sabroso said. But he added the company wants to be responsible, so instead of traveling in the Americas during carnival week, employees have been using Skype and the telephone to keep in touch.

South Florida is home to more than 1,400 multinationals, with employees who travel frequently through the Americas—including the 27 South American, Central American and Caribbean nations and territories where Zika is locally transmitted. South Florida also is a hub for regional travel and cargo shipments, and airlines and logistics companies, such as UPS and DHL have had to respond to the new reality of Zika.

So far, 18 cases of Zika have been reported in Florida. All the cases have been associated with travel abroad, rather than locally acquired.

Symptoms are generally mild—fever, rash, joint pain and pink eye – but the virus also has been linked to microcephaly, a condition in which babies are born with unusually small heads and often have smaller brains that might not develop normally. The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and Prevention advises pregnant women to consider postponing travel to areas of active Zika transmission. Because there is no medicine or vaccine to prevent the disease, women in Zika areas also are advised to avoid becoming pregnant.

CDC Director Thomas Frieden said in testimony before Congress on Wednesday that four cases in Brazil—two miscarried fetuses and two babies who died within 24 hours after birth—provided “the strongest evidence to date that Zika is the cause of microcephaly.”

In these cases, the CDC, working with Brazilian scientists, tested the brain tissue and identified the DNA of the Zika virus.

Airlines are responding to the threat by offering refunds to pregnant travelers and airports are posting, or planning to post, information on the virus. The White House also is posting news on its Zika page. TNS

ERC junks request of electric co-ops, power company for CSP exemption

By Lenie Lectura

T

HE Energ y Reg u lator y Commission (ERC) has rejected the request of electr ic cooperatives (ECs) and a power company to be exempted from the implementation of the Competitive Selection Process (CSP).

“They requested for exemption.

These are the ones that haven’t agreed yet on the terms of the

PESO exchange rates n US 47.4310

contract prior to the issuance of the November 6 resolution. There is no exemption to be given because the resolution that we issued last November is very clear,” ERC Commissioner Jose Vicente Salazar said.

The ERC issued last year a resolution that mandates all distribution utilities (DUs) and ECs to conduct a bidding in securing their power requirements instead of entering into a negotiated sale.

This, Salazar said, is aimed at promoting transparency in the purchase of electricity by the DUs from

power generators.

On the list provided by the ERC, the Philippine Rural Electric Cooperative Association Inc. , the Association of Mindanao Rural Electric Cooperatives Inc., Agusan del Nor t e E l e c t r i c C o o p e r at i v e Inc., Negros Occidental Electric Cooperative and Palawan Electric Cooperative have asked for an exemption from the CSP. The list also indicated that SMC Global Power is seeking the same exemption from the CSP. Eastern Visayas ECs, meanwhile, requested to draw power from GN

Power Ltd. Co. “GN Power also asked the same.

Most of them were about to agree on the terms of the contract after the resolution was issued. That’s why they are seeking exemption,” the ERC chief said.

The resolution clearly stated that all power-supply agreements (PSAs) that were filed before November 4 are not subject to the CSP rules.

Salazar reiterated that the commission is not initiating any changes to amend the CSP. “As far as we are concerned, this is our official position. People expect that we will

amend it or fine-tune it. If you look at the rules, it’s very general, but the objective is very clear,” Salazar said.

Salazar added the CSP, which raised numerous concerns among industry players on its implementing guidelines, “assures that such supply is bought and passed on to consumers at the least possible cost.”

The resolution, however, did not endorse the delegation of a third-party to conduct a CSP. The third party role was cited under the Department of Energy (DOE) circular DC 2015-06-0008.

n japan 0.4220 n UK 68.6516 n HK 6.0879 n CHINA 7.2253 n singapore 34.1304 n australia 33.5961 n EU 53.6966 n SAUDI arabia 12.6499

See “ERC,” A2

Source: BSP (12 February 2016 )

NewsSunday A2 Sunday, February 14, 2016

BusinessMirror

news@businessmirror.com.ph

Koreans invest billions in Central Luzon…

Continued from a1

“The majority of the 300 companies are Korean restaurants and stores. We employ more than 5,000 local workers,” Kim said. He said there are between 15,000 and 20,000 Koreans in Central Luzon at any given time. Most are based in Angeles City, this free port and other towns and cities in Pampanga.

The Friendship Highway in Angeles City, which is near the Friendship Gate of Clark, is peppered with Korean restaurants and shops.

“With our huge investments, we appeal for a peaceful and productive coexistence with our host communities,” said Kim, citing the recent murder of a Korean hotel owner in Angeles City and the alleged extortions and robberies on Korean businessmen and tourists.

Phoenix Semiconductor Philippines Corp. (PSPC) has infused at least $1.117 billion, the latest data from the Clark Development Corp. (CDC) Communications Department showed. It has 1,652 workers, added the report released on February 11.

PSPC mainly supplies dynamic random-access memory to global technology giant Samsung, a South Korean multinational conglomerate which dominates the worldwide sales of smartphones.

PSPC is one of the top 3 exporters in Clark.

Kim also cited the investments of the Donggwang Clark Corp. (DCC), the operator of the Clark Sunvalley Golf and Country Club and the Clark Ode County. DCC’s 18-hole Sun and Valley Course and the 18-hole Clark Course lie on land with an average altitude of 370 meters above sea level and in a 203-hectare area in Clark.

CDC said DCC’s investments in a 304-hectare property amounted to at least P3.5 billion. It has 700 workers at Sun Valley and 75 employees at Ode Country.

DCC’s upcoming project is the Hilton Hotel, CDC said.

The hotel’s target date of completion is in two years and 100 additional villas will be finished by 2017. The Sun Valley golf course has one clubhouse and 10 villas.

Owners of the Xenia Hotel, a sublessee of DCC, invested nearly $200 million. It is also operated by Korean investors.

Xenia boasts of 200 premium and well-appointed facility rooms. It is on Claro M. Recto Highway and is about

10 kilometers away from the Sun Valley golf course and 3 kilometers from the Clark International Airport.

Son Bong-sam, president of Xenia Hotel Corp., said: “Strongly recognized as one of the most strategic international gateways in the country, Clark Freeport Zone has been positively affecting both local and international and business tourism.” The hotel opened in May 2015.

“The CDC management, headed by President Arthur Tugade, acknowledges the immense contributions of foreign investors like Korean companies to the local and national economies. They help create livelihood, thus, helping a lot of people attain a degree of an assured future with the jobs they get in Clark,” said Noel Tulabut, CDC Communications Department head.

In a statement released late last year, CDC said there are nearly 100 Korean companies inside the free port.

Some of the prominent Korean companies in Clark are the Widus Hotel and Casino, Somang Global Clark and Sambon P&E Philippines Inc. Mabalacat City tourism chief Guy Hilbero, whose office is in Clark, said, “the entry of giant firms, such as Donggwang and PSPC, in Clark convinced other Koreans to also invest in the free port.”

The main zone of Clark is about 4,400 hectares, most of which are part of Mabalacat.

“If Donggwang and PSPC invested billions of pesos, those with lesser capital will certainly locate in Clark due to its viability and great ambiance for business,” Hilberto said. On February 4 a South Korean furniture manufacturer announced the expansion of its operations, infusing an estimated P50 million within a year on a 9,314-square-meter project in Clark.

Tugade and Punta Design Inc. (PDI) President and Chief Executive Officer Byung-mo Lee recently signed the lease agreement. PDI has been a registered sublessee locator in Clark since 2014. The company is engaged in the manufacture and design of furniture and related accessories.

The target operations of the expansion project will be September 2016, and is expected to employ about 100 workers. “The company also envisions to revolutionize the rattan industry by using new machinery and system for small-scale furniture manufacturing,” CDC said.

Comelec fixes glitches in source codes to BSP

T

HE Commission on Elections (Comelec) has escrowed its source codes to the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) in Manila after fixing several “glitches” discovered during the conduct of mock elections.

Comelec Chairman Andres D. Bautista said the glitches were earlier found in the source codes of the Election Management System (EMS), consolidation and canvassing system (CCS) and the vote-counting machines (VCM) and have already been remedied.

“We had an end-to-end demonstration on Thursday at

the Santa Rosa [Laguna] warehouse and I was informed that it was successful. As far as the source codes are concerned, I think we are already okay,” Bautista told reporters.

The Comelec, service provider Smartmatic International and international certifier SLI Global Solutions had to redo the trusted build of the EMS, CCS and VCMs earlier this week after “issues” were found in their respective source codes. After fixing the source codes, the Comelec was already able to escrow the corrected EMS, as well as those of CCS and VCMs on Thursday at the BSP vault. Joel San Juan

CA…

Continued from a1

The petitioner, however, claimed that tha permit given by the Philippine Ports Authority (PPA) to DMCIHI does not authorize the latter to cut trees and flatten a mountain and dump its remnants into the sea for its construction.

It noted that the subject land formation being destroyed by the DMCIHI serves a natural barrier of the residents of Zambales and that of the nearby towns of Pangasinan from tyhoons and sea surges.

But in ruling against Agham, the CA held that it failed to prove that there is environmental damage of great magnitude that merits the issuance of the privilege of the writ.

It noted that the cutting of the land formation and establishment of the port was done in 2007, which was seven years before the petition was filed.

ERC…

Continued from a1

However, Energy Secretary Zenaida Monsada is pushing for the creation of a third party. “We are preparing the implementing guidelines pursuant to the circular issued by [former] Secretary Petilla, which includes the third party [provision] but, it’s really up to the ERC as regulator on how or what they see fit,” she said earlier.

Carlos Jericho Petilla is the former energy secretary that signed the CSP policy. “We are already drafting the guidelines. We are looking at the circular issued by Secretary Petilla,” said Monsada, who added that once the guidelines are completed, these will be submitted to the ERC for final approval.

In reaction to Monsada’s statement, Salazar said the ERC has a “very good relationship with the DOE.” But should there be any changes in the future, Salazar said this would have to be taken up by the ERC, the DOE and the Philippine Electricity Market Corp.

(PEMC), operator of the country’s trading floor for electricity.

“We, at the ERC, have already issued the rules on the CSP. We usually have meetings with the the DOE and PEMC. We will probably take it up during one of the meetings. So far, this is our official position. If this will change, we should be conscious of the needs of the industry, conscious of the position of others,” Salazar said.

Salazar said the ERC resolution “removes all uncertainties on how the CSP will be implemented by the ERC and paves the way for a regime of greater transparency and competition in the power-supply procurement processes in the industry.”

He said the CSP underwent study and consultations with concerned industry players and stakeholders for over two years.

A BusinessMirror Special Feature

Sunday, February 14, 2016 A3

www.businessmirror.com.ph

RED ALERT: FUEL DISCOUNTS IN TOTAL’SV-DAY PROMO

When gay men have an LQ

I

By Vernon Velasco

T’S one thing to investigate whether one is a gay man, and it’s quite another when it occurs to you that you might be caught amid a possible same-sex couple’s lovers’ quarrel.

G

OT anything red in your car? Time to gas up in select Total service stations to avail of discounts on fuel products.

Valentine’s Day will be a redletter day for Total consumers as the oil and gas giant is giving away discounts for gasoline and diesel on February 14. The one-day promo will run from 12 midnight until 12:59 pm in Total service stations in Newport City, Tambo Paranaque, Greenhills, and Naia.

Motorists can get huge discounts at these service stations.

You just need to drive by with your red car or present any red item inside your car to avail of the discount. All you need to do is drive up to any of these four service stations to enjoy the promo.

Total Philippines is a French company that is the local arm of

Total SA, the leading petroleum company in France. With products imported from France, consumers are guaranteed of quality and excellence. It has established a strong presence in over 130 countries, excelling in various fields from oil exploration to marketing and distribution of petroleum products.

Recently, it introduced its latest innovative product to the Philippine market. Total Excellium is a fuel product that cleans and protects engines from the first gas-up, promises fuel efficiency, engine protection, and less emissions for consumers.

The Valentine’s Day promo is the company’s way of continuously treating its Filipino consumers for their continued support to the company.

One of these “lovebirds,” Joshua (the names of the characters have been changed in this story), is my friend, whom I didn’t strike as gay, but rather the kind who is just obsessively and compulsively clean, and inclined to talk about other men’s closeted lives. It used to be that, though, at least until I moved with him and the other guy, James, whom Joshua refers to as a friend, in a one-bedroom apartment.

Under normal circumstances a disagreement between two straight guy “friends” would escalate into something that makes you fear for your life, or demands that you either intervene or call the emergency hotline. But their kind of dustup rather strikes you as sweet, the sulky kind a girl initiates when her boyfriend admits that he thinks she is not beautiful. Here Joshua shuts the door before the guy, here he looks out of sorts and sits panting on the edge of the bed, here I would wrap my arm

on his shoulders and ask him what seems to be the problem, whereupon he would briskly take it off my shoulders and blurt “Don’t touch me!”

I wanted to point out that I was now involved here, but, in truth, all I really wanted to ask was whether or not they were fighting over me, or whether I was a cause for jealousy. If anything I was ready to excuse myself or suggest that I’m better off leaving them altogether if it would do them any good, but then again I saw that Joshua was trying to hide his tears, so that my modest proposal and the inhibition to say it were reduced to a resounding “Fuck, man, are you crying?”

If I didn’t ask to display an air of genuine concern, I did so because I was really curious. But instead of pointblank grilling about when has he decided that he’s gay or, as someone so wittily put it, when has he unequivocally decided that he’s straight, the curiosity translated more empathically if he’s being mugged. “I mean,” I said,

pointing to a bruise on his leg. “Gosh!

Look at that.” Then I would segue a little bit and make a sound as if I were gurgling stones, mustering the courage to ask “Are you together?”

“Are we together?” he said, wiping his baby face with a towel. “You are so funny. Do we really look like we’re together?”

“I saw last night with my two eyes that you were touching each other’s willy. Well how about that?”

“It was just one time, just one time for good luck.”

When I was in grade school my classmate Mark, would be bullied by a group of bad boys, cornering him at a nook in the school corridor to remind him that he’s queer. “Just in case you forget,” one of them said, whereupon they would hogtie him on the steps and touch his gay balls. “Pabuenas [just one time for good luck],” each of them would say as they took turns and gone before Mark could even bite his lip and cry.

There were days they would pin Mark down and someone would wedge his feet between his legs so that he could tickle his cojones with it, days he would fight them off and days he would just cry at that corner insisting that he’s not gay. But, gay or not, I don’t see now that I’m older a scintilla of connection between luck and squeezing an endearing someone’s balls because if it really were, why not Feng Shui experts don’t make a testicle necklace and wear it as a charm? I told Joshua this and he cut me off saying, “Queer or not, it’s

none of your business.”

It always satisfies me when someone I call “gay” is pink in the face and gets poised as if he’s going to punch me just to prove otherwise. With Joshua, I would fan it and give him a quiz, with questions such as “Fill in the blanks: You are g _ y” and “Fill in the blanks: Three kinds of gay men— 1.) J_s_u_ 2.) _o_h_a 3.) Josh_ _.”

He would see this and, after minutes worth of contemplation, he’d look up to me and say “You’re shitting me,” and then I would be doubled over and laugh until I’m rolling on my back.

It only works when the supposed gay man in question is not out, though, because putting somebody onto the hot seat isn’t too exciting anymore when he has already owned up to the deed. Because there’s something really fishy about how Joshua and James would sleep at night in the same bed and in each other’s arms, no matter their bed is way smaller than mine, or how would they take a bath together and how they coo and moan whenever they give each other a massage, or how James holds Joshua on the hips like a princess.

I’m all after the thrill of catching them when they kiss each other on the lips. Don’t get me wrong, and I don’t wish to excuse myself. I don’t wish to see so that I could have an item, either. I asked Joshua because I wanted to know what the party is all about, or what the cause for celebration is, so that we could gather 'round all of our friends and drink to that.

A BusinessMirr

A4 Sunday, February 14, 2016 | www.businessmirror.com.ph

FROM POINT A TO B: THE DESIGNER IN LOVE

D

By Brian Tenorio

EAR A, I am writing (and not telling you this personally) because I didn’t want to miss any detail. I might get lost in my emotions while saying these words. Or I might change my mind midsentence every time you do all those micro expressions that you do.

You don’t know you do, but you do. I notice because the intricacies of smiles and tenths of a frown I am trained to see.

It is an interesting friendship, to say the least, and also it is very different. The dynamics are different. There is fire between us every time we are together. It is not something only one of us has. It is its own entity, existing only when both our elements are in varying degrees of proximity.

We should let this fire keep

burning but let us not, ourselves, get consumed by it. Through tempering the nearness and distance between us combustibles is this fire kept alive—powerful and dangerous, burning beautifully.

This energy explains the intensity between us. But if fire, as an analogy, were not material enough, I know of a famous designer who eloquently puts a word to it—palpable.

It is there, in the flesh. What signs are you looking for? It is its own sign! To what does it point, but

I can’t change you or how you think. What I can design is that space around us so that, maybe one day and in that space, we can be and exist—together. itself? Palpable. That is solid. Solid enough to be real in my mind and hopefully in yours, too.

But has it all just been that?

Solid fragments of scenes and stories in my head? I thought that, as a designer, I’d be especially involved with the materiality of things. That, for something to be real, it must have been perceived through my senses.

Did I really get to see you that often? Did we really eat out together that frequently? Did I really hear you laughing at my jokes every time, or was it just all in my head? Were we real? Was I with you? Were you there?

Dream-like, it feels like that most times. When we are out at night, talking, I get lost in the

details of your face when moonlight hits it from above, illuminating only the most persistent and resistant of contours. In those moments, I was just pretending to listen. But, even beyond word forms, our conversations still happen.

You know when I am keeping something to myself. You even gave it a name—Velociraptor. My “Velociraptor look,” when I pout my lips to stop myself from smiling, smirking, or saying something, lifting my cheekbones up, hiding the pupils of my eyes in between skin. When I do this, I try to look away, but you know me well enough to still know.

I would try to keep physical tabs on these things, references from and to reality. I would rarely delete text messages and our SMS conversations. One time in April, you texted me, “The moon is brighter since you’ve arrived.”

To which I replied, “No, it was brighter the month previous—the super moon of March.” And you insisted still and I persisted until finally you agreed, “You are right,” you SMS-ed back. And I said that that is so because we were both looking at the same thing at different times. I confessed then to putting a spell on you.

Every time you see the moon, you will remember me. How’s that for sureness and permanence? At least once a month I shall be there in your skyline, suddenly, never setting, to remind you of feelings of warmth or to softly illuminate your eyes.

Or how you would patiently explain to me why haikus, in their native Japanese, are just so much more soulful than when in English.

Even better, you say, when I cannot understand the words, because then, I would have to rely on the movements of the sounds, the syllabicated thoughts.

That understanding, through knowing and feeling, made me realize the dichotomy that is design: The mind must be able to appreciate the created form, but the heart

has to be moved, as well.

Or how you would look good every time on webcam—after waking up, before falling asleep, fresh out of the shower, back home from a jog—while I, on the other hand, had to make sure that my room-lighting setup was in place, hair blow-dried back, face matte to perfection. That was seriously some production number every time you asked me to go online with you.

Or that time when I asked you why you liked me and you said, “chemistry”. I really wondered then, because, in not seeing each other for five years, the only real chemistry we had was my tears over spending P30,000 on my phone bill on the month I kept on calling Jakarta, or the perfume I put on when we go on webcam.

(I know, right? I am laughing at myself about that, too. Anything to improve the ambiance.)

Or how you explained how Koreans would eat their fruits. Even apples, they would peel. So, in front of me, in my room that night, that apple I served you, you peeled in my presence to demonstrate your point—and only to offer it to me after. You peeled my fruit and let me eat it, too.

Or how you would text me “Wakey, wakey,” every morning for years. But did I ever confess to you how when I was in New York two years since I’ve left Manila, I woke up one time–still half asleep–to a text message on my phone that said the exact same word twice, “Wakey, wakey”? I went back to sleep smiling and was smiling until I woke up again, only to discover that I was just dreaming.

Nevertheless, that was an extremely happy two hours of lucid reality. Now I wonder if my creativity and imagination were just making my reality more interesting. It felt good, but is that wrong to feel?

I think real is real because it is shared reality. I checked the word up on the Net and there really is a “velociraptor”. Or the moon really

was brightest in March of 2011.

Other people laugh at my jokes, so I guess, during those times that you were next to me, there was always this larger probability that you were laughing then, as well!

Palpable, indeed. Real, it must have been, when shared.

But, like all designed things, I must create it to understand it. I can’t just simply “wrap my head around it.” I must be able to contribute to it, work on it, get my hands on it. I must be in it and it must be all around me. Desire happens to me in stereo, you know.

OK, OK, at this point you probably think that I am a nut case. And so is this letter. At least something beautifully creative (or entertaining) must come out of this.

That is what designer love is.

It is a product that should never stay on the shelf. It is perpetually on retail waiting for that one purchase. Auctioned when of high value and a luxury. When the economy is down, on sale.

So, please, breathe through all these words and try to feel them out to understand. I would fall for kindness of heart over sophistication in thought. I am writing to let you know where I am coming from.

There is this rational-irrational world where designers exist in. To be in this world is not wrong, it is not right. It is just like that. From this place, I can’t change you or how you think. What I can design is that space around us so that, maybe one day and in that space, we can be and exist—together.

Yours always, B. Brian Tenorio is Chair of the Philippine LGBT Chamber of Commerce, CEO of KKK Coffee and is also a designer.

Random Valentine musings

By Vernon Velasco n If I were a girl, a bouquet of flowers would never be in my Valentine wishlist. I mean, seriously, what would I do with that? Put the flowers in a water-filled bottle of Coke, look at it 'til kingdom come, and say "Ooh. How sweet"?

This morning, I boarded a jeep and sat across a lady holding a massive bouquet of flowers, so big you'd mistake her for a walking rose plant. I believe she was blushing, no matter how she tried to be nonchalant about it, all the while wondering how girls can still go "kilig" at the old stuff of guys who don't seem to have a unique romantic idea.

It wasn't long before she noticed I was looking at her and, still looking detached from her flowers, waved at me a la Miss World. Coyly and demurely, she smiled, probably because she

thought I thought she's as pretty as her roses. And I smiled because I thought she looked like a vase.

how equally hard it was on her part as a woman that I kept her waiting.

n We played doctor and patient because she told me she's heartsick. I put my stethoscope on her chest and I told her what I heard. “Ver-non. Vernon.” I said I had never encountered something as grave as a talking heart and it's beyond me and I would be referring her to another doctor.

n The thing with strangers is that they don't look strange at all. What's rather strange is how we have let strangers we meet walk away as the same strangers that they had been.

n I was smitten by a lovely lady whom I offered a seat beside me on a bus bound home. She greeted me with a pixie smile and I merely smiled back.

All the time I wanted to start a conversation, she was grinning, probably because she knew I was stumping for words, or probably because she wanted to talk, too.

But, you know, I wish I had asked for her name. I wish I told her how hard it is to be a man. I wish that, maybe, just maybe, she felt

n To my girlfriend KC: You told me nobody can tell what the future might be or where this road we're on leads to. No. I don't want to say "I promise." I just want to be with you when you feel most uncertain to give you something to hold on to. And I'll make it a point that the next time you cry, it isn't borne out of pain, but of joy.

For isn't it beautiful, while you and I are unsure of what the future holds for us, we know that we are holding each other's hand? And I'll say, "KC, you maybe can't get hold of the future, but you can get hold of me."

ror Special Feature

www.businessmirror.com.ph | Sunday, February 14, 2016

A5

AN ODE TO MY FUTURE LOVER

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By Cedrix Hay

AM ready to be a part of your life. And I am confessing these clandestine thoughts I have reserved for you.

Who are you? Where are you?

Until when should I wait for you? I wonder if you feel this way, too. How surprising it would be if your mom hadn’t conceived you in her womb, yet, or that your dad hadn’t been in the mood to make love to your mom, or both were reproductively infertile.

If that is the case, maybe I’m living a disastrous and dreadful nightmare.

I haven’t heard of your name, yet. But, if I do, I’ll keep in mind how many vowels and consonants your name would contain. I’d like to see for myself the way your tongue swivels and your mouth sways when I hear the sound of your name.

Or maybe I wouldn’t hear the sound of your name. Maybe this conversation wouldn’t even reach you.

Maybe we are a thousand miles apart and the universe won’t even put us closer to one another. Sooner or later, we’ll never meet halfway, I know. But a faint glare of hope remains to cheer me up. I’ll find a way to your heart.

I need to know more about you.

Who are you? Where are you? Until

when should I wait for you? The clock ticks a little bit faster, and I won’t deprive myself a chance to connect myself to you, no matter how painful this uncertainty might bring me into. Thinking of you every now and then—the warmth of your presence on a day of somber—drives me in bewilderment.

You once brought me to euphoria. How could you even make me feel that I’ve known you for so long?

We are strangers to one another.

You are a lost bullet, strangely shot straight to the core of my existence.

Had we ever met before? How magical it could be if we were lovers in the past, reincarnated to two different souls. But I’m afraid we would never know that we have been gone the same lane for a couple of times, bumping into each other, ridden the same bus, shared the same spot at the coffee shop, seen the passing of the sun at both distance, breathed the same air and cherished a lifetime of memories far from one another.

And you won’t allow me for a

peaceful sight. Who are you? Where are you? Until when should I wait for you? Funny it is to offer you something lyrical, which I don’t even know

how I did. I‘ve emptied myself with these words until you lost control of me, until I’ve realized I have become someone I’d never thought myself to

be. And this is all because of you. You are a wonder to my mind. I was not thinking about you, but with a single snap to your longing, you let me fight the monsters beneath my head.

But, here I am, recounting and recounting hundreds of stars glowing above the sea of darkness; each one is a lifetime memory of our hopes and dreams, finely radiating from the distance and almost at the center, where I lay my eyes every night, where lies the North Star. You are the Polaris—the point that connects the Big Dipper from the end tail of the small one. You are the point in my existence. It is the brightest.

I could not get my eyes off you.

You are my dearest star. You are the luminescence to my silenced night. You steal my breath every now and then.

You are the perfect view in my delightful, starry night. I would not miss every single chance of gazing at your telescopic presence, here in my rocking chair, until the final hours of your light-year. I could not ask for more.

Yet, here I am again, recounting and recounting how many stars have turned into dusts, how many hopes and dreams have died for us. Suddenly, I have surrendered myself in strange darkness.

And I thought you left me in frail hope. But, still, you were there.

I’m insane. I’m foolish. But one thing tor sure is that I believe in you. I believe in your faith. I believe in your love. I don’t need anyone’s validation for you are the reason why I live. This

world may be a tricky playground, but you have taught me to break the bars of impossibilities. You made me believe that a happy and magical fairy-tale ending would come along our way; we’ll never let the wicked triumph a bittersweet memory The universe will always conspire against us, I know; I’m not afraid to contest the supremacy of space and time. You are the heavens.

I am the shore. We are asymptotes.

And I’ll defy the distance. As we move closer, this I’d serve for you: We’ll go together and run the distance, jump to the extremes and dive to the depths of this journey, no matter how many times do we have to fall from the skies and cut our wings with no one to hold on to.

Who are you? Where are you?

Until when should I wait for you?

Let me search you. Let my voice serenade you with the sweetest song I would ever know. Let my eyes be the windows to your soul. Let my smile brighten up your bluest days. Let my lips seal yours in a night of romance.

Let my arms guard you from any harm. Let my feet guide you from this world’s madness. Let me be the person deserving of your affection.

Even after eternity, I’d still choose you. And I wouldn’t give up on you. No hurricanes could flick their thunders, and moves us farther from the grounds on which we stand.

And I must not regret every peril I must undertake so that I become a part of your life.

HEARTS AND ARROWS IN UNO DE 50’S VALENTINE COLLECTION BONNIE&CLYDE leather bracelet with a silver-plated metal arrow.

The leather cord is adjustable through a double knot and a charm with the iconic padlock by UNOde50 hanging from it.

IMAN&BOWINE earrings with the tip and the feather of an arrow piercing a lopsided heart. Made of leather and silver plated metal and the peculiar handmade finishing of UNOde50. All pieces are handmade and created in Spain.

MICHAEL&CAMERON bracelet with a silver-plated metal arrow with a tip that serves as its lock. Among the beads, one can appreciate a charm with the iconic padlock of the brand. This is 100% completely handmade in Spain.

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ECAUSE so many women seek a different way of celebrating Valentine’s Day, UNOde50 is launching a capsule collection of pieces in silver and leather that exudes both a risqué and feminine spirit.

Loyal to its mould breaking and urban spirit, the Spanish jewelry firm is armed to pierce even the most rebellious of hearts with necklaces, bracelets, and earrings in the shape of shooting arrows and pierced hearts.

The brand’s design team has been inspired by the most iconic characters in art and literature, such as Bonnie and Clyde, Thelma and Louise, Tristan and Isolde, or Don Quixote and Dulcinea to name its original creations for Valentine’s Day 2016.

Through its creativity, unique style, bold spirit, and 100% Spanish handcrafted pieces, UNO de 50 truly sets it apart from the rest. Founded in the late 1990s by the group of designers who resolved to establish brand of fashion jewelry and accessories that

DON QUIXOTE&DULCINEA original leather and silver-plated metal earrings with the shape of the tip and the feather of an arrow from UNOde50.

would break all existing moulds, the brand started out with the original and exclusive philosophy of creating only 50 units of each design, thereby supplying the trademark name. This unorthodox approach soon proved an unqualified success.

Today, UNO de 50 has more than fifty shops in Spain and over 25 abroad – in some of the world’s top fashion capitals such as New York, Miami, Las Vegas, Milan, Rome, and Amsterdam. It opened its first store in Southeast Asia in partnership with SM Retail at SM Aura Premier creating excitement with its artisan process.

UNOde50 is located at the Second Level of SM Aura Premier, the Third Floor of SM Megamall’s Mega Fashion Hall, at the Second Level of the SM Mall of Asia ‘s ‘Main Hall, at the Ground Floor of SM Makati, and at the Ground Floor of SM Store’s Branded Accessories Section in SM City Cebu.

Visit and like UNO de 50’s Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/unode50.es.

A6 Sunday, February 14, 2016 • Editor: Angel R. Calso

Opinion BusinessMirror

editorial

Where is the money coming from?

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HEY hit the ground running. On the opening day of the elections on launching sites deemed occupied by supporters, the candidates for the highest position in the land harangued their audiences with what they will do in the event of their election: Increase the Conditional Cash-Transfer Program, broaden medical coverage, widen free education, deepen social-security benefits, provide financial support to small enterprises and increase senior-citizen entitlements.

So what is wrong with those promises? Nothing really, even if it can be argued that they inculcate a dependency syndrome among the people. Where else would you want to spend the people’s money? What can be improper with using public money to uplift the people’s welfare?

What is wrong is that, while the promises all constitute actions on the expenditures side of the budget, nobody is bothering to ask about the revenue side. In other words, nobody is asking where the money will be coming from.

It seems only proper that if politicians are promising increases in consumption, they should tell us about parallel increases in production—the economic activities that give rise to taxes without which commitments to increase consumption cannot be realized. The improvement of the lives of the people is, of course, the ultimate objective of all political action, but the development of the economy is the instrument for attaining it.

It has become commonplace in our country to call for increased employment as a means for eradicating or reducing the poverty that afflicts onefourth of our population. We cannot create employment, however, without harnessing investment.

At this point, we find a call of the Joint Foreign Chambers (JFC) in its Arangkada Philippines program as extremely relevant. The JFC said the next administration should have a clear economic blueprint that will allow the Philippines to attract more foreign direct investments (FDI) and grow faster.

Arangkada Philippines targeted $75 billion in FDI for the period 2010-2020.

From 2011-2015, the Philippines attracted $20 billion in FDI. Additional data on FDI among members of the Asean is instructive. In 2013, the last full year when data was available in the Asian Development Bank’s Key Indicators, the Philippines attracted a total of $3.74 billion in FDI, while Indonesia attracted $23.34 billion; Malaysia, $11.58 billion; Singapore, $64.79 billion; Thailand, $14.3 billion; and Vietnam, $8.9 billion. Clearly, we have a long way to travel in the attraction of FDI to our economy.

Constitutional or not, the need of our economy for increased FDI cannot be denied. Increased FDI is the only way we can augment our extremely inadequate domestic investment to place our economy on the path of rapid growth.

The candidates for the highest position in the land can promise heaven on earth to the electorate, but if they have nothing to say on the economy, specifically on how it can generate the jobs that a great many of the Filipino people need in order to overcome poverty, they are not serving the people well.

Breach of faith Part Two

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HE bitter irony came on November25, 1999, at the announcement in Malacañang of the formal creation of the Commission of the 1986 Edsa Revolution, when President Corazon Aquino warned President Joseph Estrada, by quoting American author George Santayana’s famous line, that: “Those who do not remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”

Database

By Cecilio T. Arillo

Gospel

Sunday, February 14, 2016

She described the quotation as “wise words not just for our children and grandchildren, but for all of us to heed.”

Did she not remember the famous quotation when she was the president for six years and four months?

Obviously, she did not.

Ferdinand E. Marcos in 1972 declared martial law, abolished the Constitution, allegedly jailed his opponents, may have violated human rights and allegedly plundered the treasury and the economy.

Aquino in 1986 also ruled by decree, abolished the 1973 Constitution, violated human rights and betrayed the Filipino people.

By comparison, Aquino may have been worse than Marcos, judging by her own record.

Before the end of 1991, the Aquino administration strangely assumed all the P194-billion liabilities incurred by the Marcos administration in 20 years and unjustly dumped them on the shoulders of the Filipino people.

It meant that, at that time instead of benefiting from Marcos’s alleged purloined wealth, each of the 76 million Filipinos in 1986 ended

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Before the end of 1991, the Aquino administration strangely assumed all the P194-billion liabilities incurred by the Marcos administration in 20 years and unjustly dumped them on the shoulders of the Filipino people. up with an additional liability of P2,421, using the P194 billion as a multiplying variable.

Not only that. By her action or inaction, she may have violated her own Constitution, because 419 accounts of the total assumed liabilities, valued at P147 billion, including 130 fraudulent loans granted on the behest of Marcos and his cronies, were the object of massive recovery operations and prosecutions by her own creation, the Presidential Commission on Good Government.

The Constitution, in Section 24, Article VI, provides that: “All appropriation, revenue or tariff bills, bills authorizing increase of public debt, bills of local application and private bills shall originate exclusively in the House of Representatives, but the Senate may propose or concur with amendments.”

Marcos spent P448 billion in 20 years; Aquino disbursed almost P1.6 trillion in six years and four months.

Aquino built a complex of overpasses in Metro Manila; Marcos

ND Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan, and was led by the Spirit for 40 days in the wilderness, tempted by the devil. And He ate nothing in those days; and when they were ended, He was hungry.

The devil said to Him, “If you are the Son of God, command this stone to become bread.”

And Jesus answered him, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone.’”

And the devil took Him up and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time, and said to Him, “To You, I will give all this authority and their glory; for it has been delivered to me, and I give it to whom I will.

constructed a network of roads and bridges.

It took a revolution to unravel Marcos; there was none in the case of Mrs. Aquino, but her regime left behind a paper trail that revealed its own incompetence, perfidy and misdeeds. Marcos resorted to propaganda hyperbole to obscure his failure; Aquino did the same with her yellow banners and confetti.

For instance, the popular impression that recalcitrant politicians and rebel soldiers were to blame for her government’s failure and economic debacle, as repeatedly dished out by her paid local and international propagandists, deserve a thorough review because neither the rebel soldiers nor the politicians were in charge of the country during her term.

Aquino and her bumbling Cabinet were.

They controlled the currency, contracted debts, shaped the budget, and decided the economic priorities with her hotshot technocrats.

It is easy to understand that Aquino and her Cabinet were indeed responsible if the people would only take a second look at her national budget and flawed economic policies.

For instance, from 1986 to 1991, the Aquino administration budget amounted to more than P1.6 trillion.

Of this enormous amount, Congress (the Senate and the House) got a total appropriation of only P4.4 billion.

In particular, the legislature had a total appropriation of only P1.23 billion to P900 million for the House and P330 million for the Senate.

To be continued To reach the writer, e-mail cecilio.arillo@ gmail.com.

If You then will worship me, it shall all be Yours.”

And Jesus answered him, “It is written, ‘You shall worship the Lord your God, and Him only shall you serve.’”

And the devil took Him to Jerusalem, set Him on the pinnacle of the temple, and said to Him, “If You are the Son of God, throw Yourself down from here; for it is written, ‘He will give His angels charge of You, to guard You,’ and ‘On their hands, they will bear You up, lest You strike your foot against a stone.’”

And Jesus answered him, “It is said, `You shall not tempt the Lord your God.’” And when the devil had ended every temptation, he departed from Jesus until an opportune time.— Luke 4:1-13

Opinion BusinessMirror

opinion@businessmirror.com.ph

Occupied

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HERE is a new TV series on Netflix.

This one is smart. It is called Occupied.

Norway has discovered and developed a clean source of energy called thorium, named after the Norse god Thor.

Free Fire

By Teddy Locsin Jr.

So Norway has stopped oil production and announced it will share its clean-energy technology with the world. Russia, Sweden and the European Union (EU), all major oil producers and dealers (like Royal Dutch Shell), threaten to invade Norway unless it resumes oil production. To make sure, Russian military units occupy parts of Norway.

The Norwegian government submits to what is effectively a Russian-Swedish-EU occupation of Norway. By this time, the US has withdrawn from Nato. The Nor wegian army patriotically plots to overthrow the civilian government. (Remember that Norway was notorious for collaborating with the Nazis under its leader Vidkun Quisling, a name

synonymous with traitor.)

This is what can and should happen here: An external threat, a collaborationist government, an Army revolt to prevent a foreign occupation.

Faced with overwhelming military might next door, with the US so far away, how will the Philippine government respond? Will it fight or surrender? Going by our filthy history, it will collaborate.

Treason is in the blood of elected governments. There is something loathsome about elected choices in moments of crisis. The Japanese occupation proved that. So what should we do now before any of these transpire?

We can hold a referendum today to decide if we will stand and fight in that eventuality, alone or with

Sunday, February 14, 2016 A7

the United States. If we vote to fight with the United States, then who should govern the country in place of the elected government that is sure to capitulate because that is what civilian governments do? The referendum can stipulate that in the event of a foreign invasion, the elected government gives way to a military junta that will include combat generals of the United States.

Will such a referendum result be constitutional? Yes, presumptively so; and it cannot even be challenged because there will be no actual case before the Court unless the silly doctrine of transcendental importance or pure speculation is successfully invoked. And so a challenge is beside the point at this time. And even when the

attack happens, what the referendum stipulates—that the civilian government must give away to a military junta—will be better than constitutional. It will be factual.

And before a fact, no Constitution can stand in the way. In such events, the Constitution dies anyway. The Army will take over; the civilian government will be turned out into the street; and no one will take a challenge to the Court and no Court will accept the challenge.

Democracy, nay, all politics, will evaporate and history will take its place.

The last thing we want is the pretense of a false sovereignty and a fake democracy in a foreign-occupied country. Give this thought your most serious consideration because it is correct.

Lenten season is about discipline and transformation

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By Cynthia M. Allen | Fort Worth Star-Telegram /TNS Forum

OR millions of Catholics, Anglicans and even some Protestants, last Wednesday was a day of prayer, fasting and confession.

So here’s my confession: It’s been a

while since I last made an appearance in a confessional. Unless you’re Catholic, that probably doesn’t mean much.

But the act of confessing one’s sins and receiving absolution for them is a central tenet of the faith. Still, for me and many others, it’s also an incredibly difficult, even onerous, part of being Catholic, one that requires not only faith, but discipline to fulfill. I’d liken it to exercising—you know it’s good for you and still you avoid it, although you usually feel better once it’s over. And you also know the more you go to the gym, the track or the

confessional, the healthier you will become physically and spiritually.

Indeed, the same might be said for elements of any devoted spiritual practice, like daily prayer, fasting or meditation. The trick is finding the motivation and the will to begin and then following through with regularity. Mercifully, we have just entered a season that invites us to do exactly that—get back into shape, spiritually speaking—which includes increasing our time spent on prayer, charity and, for some of us, finding our way back into the confessional. Ash Wednesday Mass, the peculiar ritual that sends millions of Christians to their workplaces looking like they’ve just swept their own chimney, marks the beginning of the holiest season on the Church calendar, a time of solemnity, sobriety and self-denial.

Sounds exciting, doesn’t it? In truth, it can be. Our world is full of easy pleasures and instant gratification, so there

is something appealing, even fulfilling, about being part of a tradition that requires everyone to engage in disciplined sacrifice and intentional inconvenience, if only for a short season.

And in the grand scheme, Lent is remarkably brief. It spans only 40 days, stretching from Ash Wednesday until Easter Sunday (excluding Sundays, during which the resurrection of Christ is celebrated), in recognition of the 40 days Jesus Christ spent in the wilderness according to accounts in the Gospels. For Catholics, there are some basic Lenten rules.

With exceptions for the chronically ill, and pregnant or nursing mothers, all Catholics between the ages of 18 and 59 are obligated to abstain from consuming meat every Friday during Lent, and fasting is required on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday.

This usually isn’t much trouble for most of us, but it’s only the begin-

ning. Daily devotions, spiritual reading and regular Mass attendance are also encouraged, especially for those who are not regularly engaging in such disciplines. Like the start of the New Year, many Lenten observers begin strong, but their efforts fade as the season progresses.

Alms giving or charity is another pillar of the season, although charity comes in myriad other forms than simply handing out cash. Many Lenten guides suggest acts of charity instead of material giving. That might include visiting a neighbor in need, taking supplies to a food bank or volunteering at a shelter. Charitable acts that demand time and attention often leave a lasting impact on both the doer and the recipient. Not unlike prayer and even fasting, these are things we often can and should be doing with regularity, but don’t.

Most people who observe the season,

Catholic or not, elect to give up something they enjoy as an additional form of sacrifice. For those who are trying to kill two birds with one stone, that means abstaining from some decadent food item like chocolate or alcohol. It’s also become fashionable to abstain from vacuous activities like using social media or watching television. All of that’s well and good. I’m as guilty as the next person for spending too much time in front of one kind of screen or another.

But Lent isn’t solely an opportunity to temporarily rid us of our vices —it’s meant to be a time of transformation, helping to mold us into the type of people our faith desires us to be all year long.

The word Lent means “lengthen” or “long days.” Indeed, the pathway to spiritual growth and self-improvement is long.

In fact, it’s never-ending. Lent gives us the reason to begin the journey. Faith gives us the courage and the discipline to continue.

Rural youth can be tomorrow’s entrepreneurs

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By Nteranya Sanginga | InterPress Service

BADAN, Nigeria—Bolstering widespread prosperity in Africa is a key necessity if the world is to achieve its commitments to eradicate poverty and hunger by 2030.

The sheer numbers indicate the scale of the challenge, and also strong hints as to the path to pursue.

The continent’s population has doubled in three decades, and while urbanization has moved at a blistering pace, it has not offset the number of people living in rural areas. Agricultural productivity has, in fact, increased faster than the global average, but not fast enough to resolve the paradox of the continent with a majority of the world’s unfarmed arable land remaining a net importer of food.

Those are the facts. And they highlight some basic principles: Africa has huge potential, but progress must include the rural and agricultural sec-

tors. Smallholders contribute around 80 percent of sub-Saharan Africa’s food supply, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, and these are the critical enterprises that must be tapped to produce incomes, jobs and opportunities.

Much work is being done by gover nments a nd inter nat iona l organizations to shore up food security, through social protection and targeted agricultural development programs.

What we at the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) think is essential is that people themselves have to be enabled to truly leverage their own and their continent’s potential.

While there is absolutely a role for public policies and large private-sector initiatives to make this happen, individual empowerment is also essential.

On the surface, that is obvious. While our core mandate is to be the lead research partner facilitating agricultural solutions for hunger and poverty in the tropics, our core vision is based on the idea that the connecting links for the broad array of initiatives around the

land, not always perfectly coordinated, are entrepreneurs.

Family farmers are far and away the world’s largest investors in agriculture.

Likewise, bottom-up business activity is the most efficient way to maximize efficiency. That is why IITA is investing heavily in spreading our Business Incubation Platform, a model closely linked to our Youth Agripreneurs programs and aimed at accelerating the rollout of a series of useful services to be offered along the value chain. Our approach is particularly geared to fostering productive and profitable opportunities for youth, especially rural youth. Not all youth, after all, can permanently migrate to cities; and if they were to do so, the countryside would suffer from an aging work force.

Let me emphasize that the goal here is to make money, not just spend it!

I jest, but only to hammer home the point that real sustainability requires viable networks that can carry research ideas to positive fruition.

Consider NoduMax, one of our Business Incubation Platform’s star developments. This is a legume inoculant for

soybeans that allows them to access more nitrogen from the air—which ultimately also improves soil fertility—and thus lead to up to 450 kilograms of additional yield per hectare.

It’s easy to use and affordable.

The technology was developed in our Business Incubation Platform in Ibadan. Now the time is ripe to produce it in larger quantities and for sales networks to spread the word. All of this is a form of sustainably intensifying agricultural production and creating greater food security, and its driving force does not involve touching a till or needing to own new land.

We’re also developing aflasafe strains to combat the aflatoxins that are such a scourge to major staple crops across Africa. Aflasafe is a natural biological control product developed by IITA and partners to fight aflatoxin contamination. Again, we incubate its development, but it can easily be transferred to the private sector and scaled up in multiple sites, meaning more jobs in construction, manufacturing and as laboratory analysts.

Both products also, of course, in-

The gift of blood this Valentine’s Day

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By Gwendolyn Pang | Secretary General, Philippine Red Cross

OVE is the greatest gift of all, so the song goes. And the best thing about it is that there are many ways to show love to our fellowmen, so many different avenues of expression, and giving love not only benefits the recipient, but also its giver.

At the Philippine Red Cross (PRC),

we celebrate love and Valentine’s Day by giving blood and saving lives. In fact, before the PRC became the country’s

premier humanitarian organization in recent years, we were an organization that was known primarily due to our blood-services program.

Today the PRC has become an organization that is capable of responding to huge multiple disasters simultaneously, but we still take the mission of delivering life-saving blood to those who need it very seriously.

And so in this day of hearts, we once again ask everyone: Why not give a lot of love by giving a little blood?

Over the years, we have partnered with various organizations for mass blood donations, and we will continue to do so in the future. Personally, I find that once organizations are exposed to this activity,

it only adds to their resolution to do more of these events. It eventually becomes a part of their corporate social responsibility programs, probably reflecting their enhanced awareness of its importance.

The benefits to the people who need this blood in order to survive is nothing short of miraculous. It can literally be the difference between life and death. And so we strive to fulfill our duty by enlisting everyone, including media organizations, to spread the word.

All the chapters of the PRC scattered all over the country are open for massblood donations, most especially on Valentine’s Day. Here, at the PRC national headquarters, we will also be partnering with the academe, specifically with the

University of the Philippines College of Law, at the Malcolm Hall Lobby, all day of February 16, as part of our efforts.

Using the hashtag #Typekita, which playfully refers to the celebration of Valentine’s Day, we will be partnering with various organizations, together with our chapters where the Red Cross has a presence in the country, so that there will be a continuous blood supply in our 25 blood centers and 56 blood-collecting units/stations nationwide to fill any gap in supply.

For those who decide to be part of the mass blood donations of the Red Cross, know that you will be saving a human life. Literally. And for doing so, you not only have the privilege of giving the gift

crease the food supply—through yields or reduction of losses—and, thus, catalyze further commercial opportunities.

Projects in the works include an innovative fish-pond system and foodprocessing activities for our mandate crops: cassava, soybean, cowpea, yam, plantain and banana.

Operating our business incubation platform also means individuals naturally network, meeting partners, potential funders and others useful to an array of enterprises, which may range from innovative risk-sharing or credit-supply services to the discovery and establishment of new markets for both inputs and specialty crops. These “externalities” are intrinsic to the whole idea that agriculture is not an ancestral destiny for the poor but an exciting frontier that can be conquered by Africa’s burgeoning demographic group: the youth.

While policy-makers have a lot of work to do to create enabling environments for smallholder farmer families to prosper, those environments must also be populated, and that is what we are trying to do.

of life to another human being, but you will also benefit from it. You see, before you can even give blood, the PRC will give you a free medical checkup and physical exam. Not only that, a study published from the American Journal of Epidemiology found that blood donors are 88 percent less likely to suffer a heart attack.

Elevated iron levels can cause hardening of the arteries leading to heart attacks. Donating blood can lower the iron levels, thus, reduce the risk of suffering heart attacks.

And so, with all the attendant benefits to giving blood, now you know for sure that there is literally no better way of celebrating the day of hearts by giving love on Valentine’s Day.

Sports BusinessMirror

A8 | Sun

day, February 14, 2016 mirror_sports@yahoo.com.ph sports@businessmirror.com.ph Editor: Jun Lomibao

MVP LAVINE, U.S. BEAT WORLD IN RISING STARS DUEL T

ORONTO—Zach LaVine hoisted the Most Valuable Player (MVP) trophy above his head, laughing along with Minnesota Timberwolves teammates Andrew Wiggins and Karl-Anthony Towns as he stood on the podium.

One win down at All-Star weekend. One to go.

LaVine had 30 points and seven rebounds, and the United States team beat the World team 157-154 in the Rising Stars Challenge on Friday night to kick off the weekend festivities.

In the game featuring some of the best rookies and sophomores in the league, LaVine geared up to defend his slam-dunk title on Saturday night by making 13-of-20 shots to beat Wiggins, who took home MVP honors last year in Brooklyn. “I’m excited for tomorrow,” said LaVine, who revived

O’NEAL, IVERSON LEAD H.O.F. FINALISTS

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ORONTO—Shaquille O’Neal was just 9 years old when his stepfather began teaching him basketball with a plan to dominate like Wilt Chamberlain, Bill Russell and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.

Young Shaquille didn’t even know who they were. Now he’s on the verge of joining them in basketball immortality.

“He told me this day would happen and I never believed him,” O’Neal said of Phillip Harrison, who raised Shaq along with his mother and died in 2013.

O’Neal was chosen on Friday as a finalist for induction into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame (HOF), joining Allen Iverson to highlight the potential class.

Yao Ming could accompany them in Springfield, Massachusetts, in September, though he was nominated by the Hall’s International Committee and wasn’t subject to the step O’Neal and Iverson had to clear on Friday.

Former Phoenix Suns point guard Kevin Johnson, college coaches Tom Izzo, Bo Ryan, Lefty Driesell, Eddie Sutton and Muffet McGraw; women’s superstar Sheryl Swoopes, longtime referee Darrel Garretson, high-school coaches Leta Andrews and Robert Hughes, 10-time AAU national champion Wayland Baptist University, and John McClendon, the first African-American coach in a professional league, were also chosen as finalists by the North American or Women’s Committees.

The entire class will be unveiled on April 4 in Houston before the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) championship game and enshrinement ceremonies are set for September 9, in what could be an overcrowded birthplace of basketball if O’Neal, Yao, Iverson and their fans are all there.

“We’re going to go on tour,” joked Jerry Colangelo, chairman of the Hall of Fame board. “It could be a big one.”

O’Neal and Iverson couldn’t be much different as people or players. The 7-foot-1 O’Neal, dressed in business attire wearing a jacket and tie, lived up to his stepfather’s vision by becoming an inside force like Chamberlain, Russell and Abdul-Jabbar on his way to four National Basketball Association (NBA) championships and a Most Valuable Player (MVP) award.

“Later on in my career people started comparing me to them, so I was like if you want to compare me to the greats, I have to represent the game with grace and honor and hopefully I did that,” O’Neal said.

Iverson came casually dressed as he did for most of his career, wearing a T-shirt, Yankees hat and faded jeans with a couple of neck chains as accessories. It was his look that made him as popular with a generation of fans as his game.

“I’m a product of Michael Jordan, Isiah Thomas, Magic Johnson, Charles Barkley, Shaquille O’Neal, all those guys that paved the way for us,” Iverson said. “They might not have no idea of what they did for us as kids wanting to be like them.” And many of today’s small, speedy guards wanted to be like Iverson, a 6-foot, relentless wave of energy who averaged 26.7 points, won four scoring titles and an MVP award.

“I was fast until Allen Iverson. I’m not afraid to admit it,” Kevin Johnson said. “They called me the fastest point guard in the NBA with the basketball, and I knew I had to relinquish that title the moment I saw Allen Iverson play.”

Yao recalled first watching the NBA live in China during the 1994 finals, when Houston won the title. He went on to play for the Rockets after they made the 7’6” center the No. 1 pick in the 2002 draft, and now he could find out he’s a Hall of Famer in that city.

“I feel very peaceful,” Yao said. “I’m glad it all can be connected to Houston.”

He, O’Neal and Iverson all benefited from a recent change in Hall of Fame rules that made a player eligible for candidacy after four full years of retirement. It was previously five, which meant they were actually six years removed from their playing days before they could be enshrined. AP

interest in the dunk contest with an electrifying performance last year. “I’m ready to put on a show.”

Kristaps Porzingis scored 30 points, and Emmanuel Mudiay had 30 points and 10 assists for the World team. Wiggins scored 29 points while playing in front of his hometown fans.

Los Angeles Lakers sophomore Jordan Clarkson added 25 for the Americans.

The Rising Stars game can sometimes take on the feel of a sideshow, something that forces the next generation into a spotlight that they aren’t always ready for. But the court was loaded with talent on Friday night in Toronto, players like Wiggins, Porzingis, Karl-Anthony Towns, Elfrid Payton and Jabari Parker.

The influx of talent has given several long-

suffering franchises—the Timberwolves, Knicks, Bucks—hope that better days are arriving soon.

For most fans in attendance, Wiggins was the star attraction. He has been churning out highlight reels since he was 14 years old, was drafted No. 1 overall last season and won the rookie of the year award. The locals have called him “Maple Jordan” and openly pine for him to one day come home and play for the Raptors.

“It felt great,” Wiggins said. “I got to play in front of a lot of people I haven’t seen in a long time.

My family, friends got to watch it. It was great being back home and playing in front of my hometown.”

Wiggins has stated time and again that he loves it in Minnesota and envisions a long and bright future with Towns, LaVine and the rest of

the Timberwolves’ promising young core. But he has never shied away from his love of Toronto and he said he was looking forward to being back in Canada for an extended stretch this weekend while the rest of the basketball world finally trained its focus on his hometown.

Wiggins received a thunderous ovation upon introduction in the starting lineup and was serenaded with chants of “M-V-P! M-V-P!” late in the game.

“He’s a rock star in his hometown,” LaVine said.

For as much time as the 20-year-old Wiggins has spent in the spotlight in his young life, he is remarkably disinterested in attention. He threw down a few big dunks early in the game—one off of a backboard pass from Mudiay—to get the

crowd on its feet, but was also happy to let his teammates get in on the action until a late flurry that got the World team back in it.

Porzingis, the Latvian who captivated the Big Apple and helped revive the Knicks, hit five-ofeight three-pointers and threw down an alley-oop midway through the second half. And Mudiay, the Nuggets rookie who has struggled with his shot this season, hit five-of-10 from deep.

Phoenix Suns rookie Devin Booker scored 23 points, and Towns had 18 for the US team.

And Wiggins wasn’t mad at all that LaVine walked out of the arena with the MVP trophy.

“I got it last year, he got it this year,” Wiggins said. “[Towns] is going to get it next year. We’re going back-to-back-to-back. That’s the plan.” AP

United States player Zach LaVine holds the Most Valuable Player trophy after the National Basketball Association Rising Stars Challenge in Toronto. AP

TABUENA BAGS CROWN M

IGUEL Tabuena bounced back from a third-day foldup and claimed the International Container Terminal Services Inc. (ICTSI) Anvaya Cove Invitational crown by three over Clyde Mondilla with a 70 as Tony Lascuña bombed out with a 78 in a wacky finish at the windy Anvaya Cove Golf and Sports Club on Saturday in Morong, Bataan.

Tabuena blew an eight-shot lead over Lascuña with a horrendous 77 on Friday but fought back from four strokes down with a gritty backside charge, turning what was expected to be a thriller of an ending into a runaway win as Lascuña blew it all with an uncharacteristic closing pair of 39s. In the end, youth prevailed over experience, as Tabuena capped his final-round brilliance with a solid 33 at the back for that 70, finishing the 72-hole, P3.5-million ICTSI-sponsored championship with a nine-under 279.

“I was confident I can do it and I’m happy I made it,” said Tabuena, 21, who added the crown, worth P650,000, to his growing list of victories in a young career.

After taking the crown in brief rites, Tabuena rushed back to Manila where he is set to share

center stage with fighters Nonito Donaire and Donnie Nietes in the PSA (Philippine Sportswriters Association) Awards Night as Co-Athletes of the Year for his breakthrough season in 2015, capped by his Philippine Open romp. “My driver was a big factor and, unlike in the third round, the wind shifted to my favor,” said Tabuena, referring to his disastrous 77 on Friday that dropped him from eight-up to four-down off Lascuña.

It was indeed a perfect weekend to the young shotmaker who launched his title drive in this kick-off leg of the 2016 ICTSI Philippine Golf Tour (PGT) with a course-record setting 10-under 62 on Wednesday. He slowed down with a 70 in the second round but kept a six-shot lead over Jay Bayron, but reeled back with an ego-deflating 77 as Lascuña took his turn to shine with a 65 and went from eight-down to four-up.

But in a strange turnaround, Lascuña lost his focus and touch, while Tabuena regained his bearing and rhythm, birdieing Nos. 10 and 11 for the fourth straight day to draw level then gunned down another birdie from close range on No. 14 to wrest back a two-shot lead.

Lascuña still hung on to a two-stroke edge despite a 39 start but bogeyed No. 12 to yield the lead and bowed out with a double bogey on the treacherous par-4 No. 17, which also ruined Tabuena’s third-day stint with a seven. He wound up with a 78 and tumbled down to third at 283 worth P240.000.

“He [Tabuena] played better and I played bad. How can you win with this kind of game?” said Lascuña, who fought off flu-like symptoms all week and sparked hopes of a brilliant comeback with that flawless 65 on Friday only to fold up when the going got tough in the final round.

“I’m just too tired. I just wanted it to finish and take a rest,” Lascuña said.

Two flights ahead, Mondilla rattled off six birdies in the first 11 holes against two bogeys and closed out with a run of pars to fire a 68 and snatch runner-up honors at 282 and pocketed his richest purse to date—P430,000—in the event organized by Pilipinas Golf Tournaments Inc. and backed by adidas, TaylorMade, Pacsports Phils., Custom Clubmakers, KZG, Sharp, and Anvaya Cove Golf and Sports Club.

Dutch Guido van der Valk and Japanese Toru Nakajima finished tied for

fourth at 284 after a 71 and 73, respectively, and split the combined P350,000 purse, while Cassius Casas also rallied with a 69 to claim solo sixth at 286 worth P135,000. Bayron limped home with a 76 and ended up seventh at 287 and received

Miguel Tabuena holds his trophy as he poses with International Container Terminal Services Inc. Public Relations Head Narlene Soriano after claiming the Anvaya Cove Invitational crown.

Bolts trip Texters; Johnson banned, fined P250,000

Siblings dominate NCAA beach volley tourney in Subic

M

ERALCO survived a late-game scare from Talk ‘N Text, holding on for an 88-84 win for its second straight win in the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) Commissioner’s Cup on Saturday at the PhilSports Arena.

But the Bolts’ 2-0 start was overshadowed by the lifetime ban handed by PBA Commissioner Chito Narvasa to Tropang Texters import Ivan Johnson.

Johnson was ejected in the game at the 4:21 mark of the second period after his Flagrant Foul 1 on Meralco’s Bryan Faundo. It was his second technical foul after hitting Kelly Nabong in the face in the first period. But before leaving the court, Johnson threw profanities to Narvasa, who stood up to confront the Talk ‘N Text import, but was restrained by Media Bureau Chief Willy Marcial.

Even before the second half of the match started, the league issued a statement, handing a lifetime ban on Johnson and asking him to pay the P250,000 fine.

Johnson joined the company of Renaldo Balkman and Daniel Orton, who were banned by the league in recent years. Balkman was given the punishment for choking his San Miguel Beer teammate Arwind Santos, while Orton was given the same sanction for issuing comments that were disparaging, disrespectful and offensive to the league.

Orton, then playing for the Star in 2015 Commissioner’s Cup, criticized the officiating and described Manny Pacquiao playing in the PBA a “big joke.” The ban of Balkman and Orton happened under former league Commissioner Chito Salud.

“Wow,” was the reaction of Bolts Head Coach Norman Black upon learning the decision of Narvasa to ban Johnson immediately. Despite playing without Johnson, who just joined the Tropang Texters after serving a one-game suspension for punching Blackwater’s JP Erram and Frank Golla in a tune-up game, Talk ‘N Text managed to stay close behind Jayson Castro.

But the Bolts drew clutch baskets from import Arinze Onuaku and needed a huge defensive stop from Cliff Hodge to seal the win for Meralco.

Hodge led the Bolts with 15 points, while Onuaku and Jared Dillinger added 14 each. Castro had a game-high 25 points for the Tropang Texters, who dropped to 1-1. Joel Orellana

P115,000, while Charles Hong (71-288) and Korean Park Min-ung (77-292) wound up eighth and ninth worth P100,000 and P88,000, respectively.

Rolando Marabe shot a 69 to tie last year’s winner Angelo Que (72), American John Jackson (73), Canadian Rick Gibson (73) and Orlan Sumcad (74) at 10th at 293.

T

La Salle’s Mika Aereen Reyes scores against Maria Erika Gel Alkuino and Mylene Paat of Adamson. NONOY LACZA

LA SALLE PREVAILS D

E LA SALLE vented its ire on Adamson University, scoring an easy 25-13, 2513, 25-16 victory to seize solo hold of second spot of Season 78 University Athletic Association of the Philippines (UAAP) women’s volleyball on Saturday at the Filoil Flying V Arena.

Aching to rebound from its four-set defeat to National University (NU) on Wednesday, the Lady Spikers used their superb blocking and hard service to book their third win in four contests and stay within striking distance of titleholder Ateneo de Manila (3-0).

Mika Reyes accounted four of the Lady Spikers’ 10 blocks, while Majoy Baron and rookie May Luna combined six of the team’s 14 service aces.

“Siguro mas kabisado lang itong arena.

Kapag pamilyar ang venue, malaking bagay

iyon,” Lady Spikers Head Coach Ramil de Jesus said. “Nagpakita rin ng interest ang mga bata na gusto rin nilang makabawi [laban sa Lady Bulldogs]. Happy ako at nag-deliver sila nang maayos, na-execute ang lahat ng pinapagawa nila sa amin,” he added.

In men’s play, Wendel Miguel came through with 19 hits as University of the Philippines (UP) fashioned out a stunning 25-19, 25-20, 31-29 win over NU, dealing the Bulldogs their first loss of the season.

“I told Wendel to grab the opportunity to shine and he delivered,” Coach Rod Palmero said after his Fighting Maroons booked their second win in three starts.

UP’s stunning victory forged a five-way tie in first place along with its victims, defending champion Far Eastern Univesrity, Ateneo and Adamson.

Manuel Medina had 16 hits as University of Santo Tomas (UST) barged into the win column with a 25-21, 26-24, 25-18 over University of the East, in the curtain raiser.

The Lady Spikers used their balanced attack as Ara Galang led the way with 10 hits and five digs, while Baron added nine points.

Aside from tossed in 18 excellent sets, veteran playmaker Kim Fajardo also delivered on offense with nine points, her final one came from a combination play from Reyes midway in the third set. “Napa-practice niya iyun. Alam no naman si Kim, bibigla na lang gagawa ng nakakagulat,” de Jesus said.

Jema Galanza and Mylene Paat struggled big time for the Lady Falcons, finishing only with six and three points, respectively.

May Roque was the only lone bright spot for Adamson with nine hits.

HE brothers and sisters acts continued in the 91st National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) beach volleyball tournament after Taneo siblings Relan and Rey Jr. of Perpetual Help and twins Maria Jeiziela and Maria Nieza Viray of San Beda remained unscathed on Saturday at the Boardwalk in Subic in Zambales City.

The Taneos bounced back from a first-set loss to overcome Letran, 14-21, 21-15, 15-12, and notched their eighth straight victory that ensured them of the top seeding and the twice-to-beat advantage in men’s Final Four.

A win over Emilio Aguinaldo College (EAC), which was being played at press time, would not only complete a nine-game eliminationround sweep but also book the Las Piñasbased school an outright slot in the finals while reducing the Final Four into a stepladder semis.

“We didn’t give up, that really helped us,” the elder Rey in Filipino said.

The Virays, for their part, smashed College of Saint Benilde’s Jannine Navarro and Melanie Torres, 21-11, 21-19, to sweep their way to the finals with a 9-0 (win-loss) record in the women’s division.

Previous to this win, the Lingayen, Pangasinan-based twins downed Arellano University, 21-7, 21-19, and Lyceum of the Philippines University, 21-13, 21-23, 15-7, to complete the historic sweep.

San Sebastian’s Gretchel Soltones and Dangie Encarnacion, the back-to-back champions, are currently at No. 2 while Navarro and Torres are at No. 3 with 7-1 and 7-2 (win-loss) slates, respectively. The fourth and last slot is being contested by Perpetual Help, EAC and Arellano.

In other women’s match, Letran downed JRU, 21-7, 21-18, for its third win in nine games.

In the juniors’ play, defending champion EAC solidify its hold of the top spot in demolishing Letran, 21-19, 21-19, while former titlist Perpetual faltered against San Sebastian, 1821, 22-24.