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President Duterte listens to questions from reporters as he arrives at Manila’s international airport on May 24. AP/Aaron Favila
AS PROMISED, DUTERTE FOCUSED ON ILLEGAL DRUGS, CRIMES, CORRUPTION IN FIRST 365 DAYS IN OFfiCe
Year 1: Sticking to
Fundamentals By Elijah Felice E. Rosales
I
t has been a year since President Duterte took his oath as the 16th President of the Philippines after a landslide victory in the 2016 polls against candidates earlier favored by pundits. The former Davao City mayor, known for his tough-talking rhetoric and “unforgiving” language, promised to bring change upon the Filipino nation. His famous “change is coming” slogan during the campaign period has indeed caused an epidemic of change across the archipelago,
earning him supporters and critics alike. Much has been said about the unorthodox Chief Executive and more is expected to come, but
President Duterte takes the oath during the inauguration ceremony in Malacañang on June 30, 2016. Radio Television Malacanang via AP Video
‘O
n the first year of this administration, the President acted on the fundamentals regarding the war against illegal drugs, corruption and criminality, including now the war against terrorism with the martial-law declaration in the islands of Mindanao, Basilan, Sulu and Tawi-Tawi.”—Andanar
Duterte is dead set to implement his policies without compromise. With blood spilled on the streets, terrorism rearing its ugly head in southern Philippines, infrastructure rolled out in major urban centers and alleged corrupt officials sacked, among others, Duterte marked his first year in office with mixed signals that earned the interest—many times ire—of the international community. He was referred to as “Durerte Harry”, his followers called “Duterdards”, likened at times to the North Korean leader, but is the “Mahal na Pangulong Digong” to most Filipinos based on surveys. Communications Secretary Martin M. Andanar said the Chief Executive is simply fulfilling his promise to the people, which is to rid the country of illegal drugs, crime and corruption. “On the first year of this administration, the President acted
on the fundamentals regarding the war against illegal drugs, corruption and criminality, including now the war against terrorism with the martial-law declaration in the islands of Mindanao, Basilan, Sulu and Tawi-Tawi,” Andanar told reporters in a text message. “As he said, the fight would be relentless and sustained, and we have commenced with policies and programs already in place, moving and evidently supported by the people in continuing programs that bring back the faith and trust in the government,” Andanar added.
Stable enough
For Maria Fe Villamejor-Mendoza, dean of the University of the Philippines National College for Public Administration and Governance, Duterte has maintained an administration stable enough to See “Duterte,” A2
Why are we not a tea-drinking country?
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By Roger Pe
offee, tea or…chances are, you’ll choose the first.
You probably know the reason. Centuries of Spanish colonization introduced us to “tsokolate eh” and “tsokolate ah”. Decades of American rule made us love coffee, espresso, decaf, americano, instant and other ways of preparing it. We relegated tea as medicine and for its other curative powers. Some even have a condescending thing about it. So it never prospered. But did you know that 2 billion people around the world drink tea every morning? Here are more facts and they are startling:
Three billion tons of leaves of tea are produced around the world for global consumption. The US imports 519 million pounds of tea every year and 1.42 million pounds of tea are consumed by Americans every single day. Turkey leads the world in tea consumption per person, (7 pounds of tea every year) roughly about 1,400 tea servings. Tea is also largely known as an antioxidant, elixir for healthy skin, slimming and can help fight colon cancer. According to global tea export
PESO exchange rates n US 50.4660
index as of 2016, China is, by far, the world’s largest consumer of tea, at 1.6 billion pounds a year. Kenya remains the global export leader with a 25-percent share of exports (mainly black tea). China is second with 18 percent (mainly green tea). Sri Lanka is in third place at 17 percent, with India at 13 percent and Vietnam at 7 percent. Argentina rounds out the top 5 with 4 percent. Indonesia continues to slide at 3 percent as tea growers in the country are switching to other cash crops, primarily palm oil. For thousand years, Chinese people have consumed tea and drinking the beverage has become synonymous to its culture. As written in history books, drinking tea began during the
time of Han Dynasty emperors in 2nd century BC. Recent findings conclude that tea originated in southwest China and an early credible record of tea drinking dates back to the 3rd century AD. Tea was then introduced to Portuguese priests and merchants in China during the 16th century. It then became popular in Great Britain in the 17th century. The British then introduced tea production, as well as tea consumption to India, in order to arrest China’s domination of the world’s tea market.
How it all began
In 2737 AD legendary Chinese Emperor Shennong ordered his Continued on A2
The mountains of Anxi produce the besttasting and aromatic tea in China.
n japan 0.4500 n UK 65.6462 n HK 6.4655 n CHINA 7.4378 n singapore 36.5935 n australia 38.7680 n EU 57.7432 n SAUDI arabia 13.4580
Source: BSP (30 June 2017 )
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Why are we not a tea-drinking country? Continued from a1
subjects to boil water before drinking it to help contain an epidemic. He was said to be drinking a bowl of boiled water one day when leaves from a nearby tree got blown into his water, changing its color. He took a sip of the brew and was delighted by its flavor and restorative effects. He subsequently tested medical properties of various herbs, some of them poisonous, and found the tea to have worked quite well. A similar Chinese legend goes that Emperor Shennong and other gods of agriculture would chew the leaves, stems and roots of various plants to discover medicinal herbs. If they consumed a poisonous plant, they would chew leaves of tea to counteract the poison.
Anxi, China’s tea capital
Though I have been to China (only by a stopover in Guangzhou airport), I have never seen the real beauty of the mainland. Fast forward after 10 years, I finally set foot on one of its most beautiful cities, where I was to meet my brother whom I have never seen in my entire life. It was serendipity that brought me to Anxi, a small city in Fujian province, famous for its worldclass Tieguanyin tea. A nephew’s colleague in the civil government
Duterte…
is also one of the city’s most recognized Tea Masters, Chen Liang Gu, who himself cultivates a vast tea plantation and exports high-grade tea to the world. Anxi’s fame stretches throughout China, as well as around the world. Because of its high-altitude geography, incredibly rich soil, moderate subtropical climate and plentiful rainfall, it is perfect for growing the best tea in China. “Long before India and Sri Lanka started growing tea, the emperors of China were already enjoying it for centuries,” Chen told me through an interpreter. I came to know Chen when my nephew brought me to his tea saloon where he showed us how to prepare and serve tea, reminiscent of the emperor days. The drinking ceremony lasted cup after cup after cup, a cordial ritual with plenty of smiles, stories and handshakes after. Before calling it a day, Chen told us to get ready the following day with our thick coats as we will climb the hills of Yunzhongshan Mountain Reserve, a long 90-kilometer drive from the city proper. This was supposed to be China’s famous tea-plantation attraction. If we have the Ifugao Rice Terraces circled by rice paddies, the mountains in this area are all covered with hectares upon hectares of refreshing tea
Continued from a1
neutralize threats against the public and the government. “His longstanding alliance with the left, the communist rebels and the Muslim separatists had given him the political stability he needs. Due to his government’s engagement in the peace table, although at times on and off, he was
able to build and maintain a bridge with opposing forces that formerly caused social unrest to previous administrations,” Villamejor-Mendoza told the BusinessMirror. Villamejor-Mendoza added the Chief Executive was “genius enough” to frame himself as a leader who is not directly aligned with
shrubs and trees, with farmers tending to their lush gardens. The breathtaking trip took us to rural China. We passed through magnificent mountain tunnels I lost track counting them. As we snaked through several vertigo-causing highland skyways, we arrived in Gan De, the gateway to Anxi’s jaw-dropping tea plantation. We had lunch in a roadside café that served us native chicken prepared like adobo (swimming in tea oil when served to us), and a dish similar to our tinola.
We trekked up a mountain full of tea trees, a knee and lung-busting challenge. The view was simply gorgeous and exhilarating. The experience was punctuated by weird sounds coming from the other side of the mountain. I was told that they were tigers growling. On our way home way past sunset, we made a stopover in a mountain café. We had a feast of boiled duck (with meat falling off its bones), stewed mutton, pungent steamed rice and lots more cups of tea.
The best thing about Anxi is that it is a small county, population density is low, and it has lots of mountains covered with green forests, which means you will be able to find peace and quiet to accompany your hot cup of tea. Many tourists come to Anxi to learn the history of tea, visit its tea factories and its tea gardens are open to the public. The city has the world’s largest teapot, a sculpture located at the plaza overlooking many tea-drinking shops. It is here where the most famous teatrading hall is located, called China Tea Capital, located on Hebin North Road. Within this complex, you will find countless shops, booths and independent vendors with bags full of dried tea leaves for those who want to take a part of Chinese tea culture home. The prices here are lower than elsewhere in China since you will be purchasing straight from suppliers. Tea gardens are also popular stops where you may enjoy a beautiful setting surrounded by natural scenery and lovely music, all while tasting top selections of tea from each garden’s specific menu. Some are family-owned, others are owned by private clubs and tea plantations. Tea harvested between midSeptember and mid-May in Anxi are the tastiest. The most popular
any political color. “He has rightwing military men in his Cabinet. He has appointed left-leaning secretaries. I think that’s populist, but it worked to the regime’s advantage,” she said.
els. “The administration has made great strides in resuming the peace process with the National Democratic Front [NDF]. The President’s action of resuming the talks based on previously signed agreements, releasing key NDF leaders and consultants for the talks and appointing a number of NDF nominees to his Cabinet and other high posts, have done well to establish confidence and goodwill on both sides,”
the statement read. However, Bayan lamented the lack of substantial socioeconomic and constitutional reforms discussed on the negotiating table, as the group believed the government panel is so insistent to agree on a bilateral cease-fire. “Despite government’s failure to release 400 or so remaining political prisoners and its insistence on a bilateral cease-fire as a
With Anxi’s famous Tea Master Chen Liang Gu, in front of a stone marker that says, “This is where China’s tea was born.”
Wise moves
The Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan), for its part, has lauded Duterte’s commitment to pursuing peace with the communist reb-
type is called Tieguanyin, with references the “Iron Goddess of Mercy”, grown and produced in Anxi since the 18th century, and today, ranks among the most expensive teas in the word. Tieguanyin is a variation of oolong tea with a fresh and smooth taste. Oolong tea is characterized by its unique production process: Leaves are picked, dried under hot sun and oxidized until they curl up, sometimes followed with a light roasting period. They have a wide array of flavors, but always come with rich aromas and complex essences. Other types of tea (including more than 12 types of Oolongs) you will find as you explore Anxi County are Ruan Zhi, Ben Shan Green Dragon, Huangdan, Benshan, Maoxie, Daye Wulong and Meizhan, and Golden Cassia (also known as Golden Osmanthus). Elsewhere in Fujian Province, you will find production of jasmine tea. The traditional Chinese way of preparation is to put a small amount of leaves in your cup, hot water, and then cover to steep for a few minutes. Soon the leaves will release their aromas and sink to the bottom when it is ready to drink. Just add more hot water to your cup to the same leaves when you want more to drink. This method allows more efficient use of each dose of leaves.
requirement for the talks to prosper, four rounds of formal negotiations have been held, resulting in unprecedented accomplishments in the effort to forge substantial agreements on social and economic reforms, political and constitutional reforms and the cessation of hostilities and disposition of forces,” Bayan said.
Cabinet appointees
Villamejor-Mendoza agreed on this, describing the President as someone who would talk peace with you today and then declare war against you tomorrow. “Not only against the communists, he did this to many of his critics, especially those vocal against his war against drugs,” the public-governance expert said. Villamejor-Mendoza added Duterte’s Cabinet seems not to make sense at all. “There are too many military men in his Cabinet. It simply nailed the accusation against him that he appoints either military men or longtime friends,” she said. This goes the same for foreign relations, Villamejor-Mendoza said, as Duterte is turning out to be black and white in engaging bilateral partners. She said that while Duterte’s move to distance himselffrom the United States is commendable, his step to pivot to China is condemnable. Bayan agreed to the observation. As a vocal critic of US intervention, the group lauded Duterte’s intention to separate the Philippines from the Western superpower. However, it warned the administration of the trap it might be falling into now that it is engaging China with head bowed down. “China has committed to pour in billions in private investments in the country and fund various infrastructure projects. All these in exchange for Duterte’s nonassertion of the Philippines’s sovereign rights in the disputed areas where China’s continues its military buildup and reclamation activities,” Bayan said. Whether Duterte did a fairly excellent on his first year, one thing is sure: The roller-coasterlike regime will carry on its policies, as Duterte himself said in a recent interview. “I only make an assessment after my term. It’s a roller coaster, actually. While you are there, it’s a roller coaster. It should be at the end of the ride [that the public should assess my presidency],” he said.
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CanadaDay A BusinessMirror Special Feature
Saturday, July 1, 2017
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Canada’s 150th birthday celebrated in the Philippines
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HE Canadian Chamber of Commerce in the Philippines (CanCham) led celebrations in the Philippines, marking Canada’s 150th birthday. CanCham held events in Davao City on June 23, in Cebu on June 27, and in the National Capital on June 29. The final event, a grand outdoors party at Circuit City in Makati, was attended by over 600 guests and featured a mass singing of “Happy Birthday Canada,” followed by a majestic fireworks display. A recording of the mass singing will be sent to the Prime Minister of Canada, Justin Trudeau. A copy of the official Guest Book with greetings from those who attended will be sent to the National Archives of Canada to be part of Canada’s historical records. The official birthday cake was six feet high with 13 layers, each layer representing one of the 10 provinces and three territories that constitute the Canadian federation. CanCham President, Julian Payne, welcomed guests. “Canada’s 150th birthday is an important one for the Philippines, given the increasing number of Filipinos who have made Canada their home. There are now family ties stretching across the Pacific between all parts of Canada and all parts of the Philippines. Filipinos have made many great contributions to Canada’s economy and its multicultural society since the first recorded Filipino landed in Canada in 1890.
Filipinos now constitute over two percent of Canada’s total population with Filipino as the fastest growing language. The Ambassador of Canada to the Philippines, HE Mr. John Holmes, who attended as Guest of Honor, said that “… the mutual respect that the two countries have held for each other over many years has been and remains the foundation of warm relations and constructive cooperation. Historic highlights have included the initial establishment of a major Canadian life insurance company here over a hundred years ago, the role of FilipinoCanadian priests in setting up educational institutions across Mindanao in the late 1930s, and the wave of Filipino immigration starting in the 1970s, first to Winnipeg and later to Toronto, Vancouver and other cities. The road ahead for Canada-Philippines relations is a bright one for both countries with the Canada Day celebration another milestone along that road.” Other highlights at the party included a pick-up floor hockey match between teams representing CanCham and the Canadian Embassy, live music by the Voice of the Philippines Season 2 semi-finalist Rita Martinez and the Ten Tens performing hits of Canadian pop stars such as Bryan Ad-
PHOTOS BY REY MONDEZ
ams, Alanis Morisette, Rush, Jann Arden, Nelly Furtado, Neil Young, Justin Bieber. Guests dined on authentic Canadian specialties including smoked meat from Montreal, poutine, blueberry desserts, and a Beaver Tail-inspired pastry. They also sampled Canadian beer, wine and whiskey, including the Labatt 150 beer, especially crafted for Canada’s sesquicentennial. Lucky guests won prizes including a round-trip ticket for two to Toronto sponsored by B2B Gold and CanCham, and a round-trip ticket for one to Vancouver sponsored by TELUS, as well as overnight stays in various luxurious hotels and resorts including Busuanga Bay, Discovery Primea, Fairmont Hotel Manila, IM Hotel, Kandaya Resort, Marriott Resorts World Hotel, and
GLOBE FUTURE MAKERS PROGRAM ATTRACTS 135 START-UPS, INDIVIDUALS WHO WANT TO SOLVE POVERTY IN PH
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NE hundred thirty-five start-ups and individuals have joined Globe Telecom’s Future Makers Program (GFM) which aims to address various issues contributing to poverty in the Philippines such as climate change and displacement, peace and security, health and wellness, and education and learning through the use of technology. “We were happy with the level of interest on the program among tech innovators, seeing that this is the first time for Globe to do a project of this nature. The diversity of concepts and programs showed us that many people are actually using ICT to help address various social issues. Through the GFM, we would like to encourage more people to participate in social innovation,” said Yoly Crisanto, Globe SVP for Corporate Communications. Since its launch in March, the program drew the interest of individuals and startups based in various cities and provinces nationwide such as Cagayan, Bulacan, Nueva Ecija, Cebu, Davao, and Cagayan de Oro, among others who submitted a working prototype of their tech-
nological or innovative solution. Of the four focus areas, learning and education received majority of the entries with 49 percent, followed by health and wellbeing, 20 percent; climate change and displace, 21 percent; and peace and security, 10 percent. From the 135 participants, Globe will trim down the number to 10 who will pitch their solutions to a distinguished set of judges composed of executives from Globe and its social innovation partner Ashoka and its venture capital arm Kickstart Ventures, Inc. The two-week process will also involve interviews and site visits for further validation and assessment. Netizens may also vote online for their "My Future Maker” favourite. The Top 10 will be further cut to the Final 5 who will be of-
ficially announced on July 14, 2017 to coincide with the celebration of Social Innovation Day. The top five teams will be provided with expert mentorship from Globe, Ashoka, and Singtel Group. On the other hand, the Portfolio Development team of Kickstart will facilitate access to relevant startup workshops or clinics, introductions to potential partners, mentors, advisers, and investors via Kickstart’s broad network as well as provide free Semaphore web-toSMS API credits. Such support will allow the five teams to build their products faster and launch sooner to benefit the communities they aim to serve. GFM Candidates will be selected on a merit-basis in terms of business solutions and social impact. The Globe Future Makers program, aligned to the social innovation program of the Singtel Group of Companies for Asia Pacific, was developed in order to influence and build a whole ecosystem of social innovators. They, in turn, will help create a positive impact on society with the help of technology, and the program will also serve as a platform to enable emerging social innovators to receive coaching and mentorship from some of the best social innovators around the world.
Shangri-La Fort Hotel. Payne stressed that Canada’s 150th Birthday Party was made possible not only by ticket sales but also through generous support by the Title Sponsor, Manulife, as well as by many other Major Sponsors and Event Patrons with cash and/or in-kind contribu-
tions including Accralaw, AMJ Campbell, Ayala Land, BDO, British Columbia International Trade and Investments Office, Canadian-American School, CanAsean Link, the Canadian Embassy in Manila, Country Style Donuts, Enclosure Systems, Gold Seas, I-Remit, Mill Street Brewing-Labatt
Beer, Manulife Data Services, Miracle Soybean, Oceana Gold, OmniPay, Philippine Retirements Authority, Primer Group-Herschel, RD Corp, Steveston Pizza, SGV & Co., Silver Valley Farms, SSI-Joe Fresh, Sunlife, Supersonic, and Tim Hortons Philippines as well as many other Support Sponsors.
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DENR to embark on offshore mineral exploration in PHL Rise, Celebes Sea
Tapping the sea’s mineral bounty T By Jonathan L. Mayuga
@jonlmayuga
he Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) is eyeing to spend an initial P100 million for an ambitious offshore mineral exploration project in the Philippine Rise and Celebes Sea in the next three years.
Initially, a P30-million budget has already been approved in principle, setting the proposed project in motion for next year’s offshore exploration activities. The proposal to explore the Philippine Rise was made three years ago, but it was only now that a proposed budget has finally been approved. Environment Undersecretary for Mining Mario Luis J. Jacinto, also concurrent director of the Mines and Geosciences Board (MGB), said the proposed budget for 2019 is P33 million, and for 2020, P37 million. Given the task at hand, the government will be spending at least P500 million in the next three years, including the acquisition of equipment for the deep-water mineral exploration and repair of the DENR’s research vessel, although only the requested budget of P30 million for 2018 has been approved by Environment Secretary Roy A. Cimatu, so far. The P30-million budget for next year’s exploration will be equally divided, with exploration activities for Philippine Rise and Celebes Sea each getting a P15 million allocation.
Not so fast
Environmental groups, this early, are stiff ly opposing the plan and chided the DENR-MGB for coming up with the proposal. Gloria Estenzo-R amos, vice
₧100M The initial budget for the offshore projects
president of Ocea n a Ph i l ip pines, an ocean-conser vationadvocacy group, described the proposal as “alarming”. “I hope the fund goes to biodiversity protection instead to help make our oceans healthy to boost food security. Coming from the DENR, which is also tasked by our laws to mainstream environmental protection, that is really alarming,” Ramos said. “You know, I am not sure if they even consulted the Biodiversity Management Bureau [BMB]. We know that the Philippines is part of the Coral Triangle so we are host to the most diverse marine and coral ecosystem. If you do exploration, the most likely victims are the marine ecosystem,” she said. “The MGB should start with its own backyard. Consult the BMB. They have already mapped out what are the marine key biodiversity areas [MKBAs],” she said. Oceana joined the 2015 expedition in the Benham Bank where the beauty and abundance of corals were captured on film by divers.
The area has a 100-percent coral cover, perhaps the only remaining perfectly intact coral reefs in the Philippines, and “now they want to destroy it?” Ramos said. “This compels all stakeholders to push for the protection of the Philippine Rise,” she added. In December last year R amos said 196 countries adopted the Philippine Rise as an Ecologically, Biologically Significant Area because it is a known spawning ground of the Pacific bluefin tuna. “If you are going to do offshore mining, it will surely somehow destroy the ecosystems. Please, lay off Benham Rise,” she said. An environmental lawyer, Ramos said environmental groups won’t not hesitate to take legal action to stop the project. Ramos, along with another lawyer, Liza Eisma-Osorio, filed and won a petition before the Supreme Court to stop further offshore oiland -gas explorations by the Japan Exploration Philippines Inc. in the Tañon Strait. “The people will not hesitate to take this battle to court. This early, news about Beham Rise’s natural beauty and bounty has [gone viral] and there is a growing sense of ownership of Benham Rise. They want to protect it,” she said.
Mineral exploration
The Geologic Mapping–Coastal and Offshore Geological Studies and Mineral Exploration project (Philippine Seas, especially the Benham Rise and Celebes Sea) is a five-year project that will conduct research and exploration to determine the economic potential of the marine areas in the Philippines. It aims to delineate areas with placer mineral deposits particularly gold, platinum, titanium, iron, scandium and other rare earth minerals and ferromanganese nodules and determine the occurrence, concentration, genesis and ore reserves of polymetallic sulphides and other deep-sea mineral deposits.
T his w il l be the first time that the DENR-MGB w il l conduct an offshore mineral exploration in the Philippine R ise and Celebes Sea. In the past, the DENR-MGB ex plored minera ls, par ticu larly mag netite sand deposits in the Ilocos region and placer gold deposits in Ley te and Hinatuan Passage. Jacinto said Cimatu is “very interested to know what minerals and rocks are present in the Philippine Rise”. The Philippine Rise could be a source of huge revenue for the country, he said. A lso, Cimat u wa nts to dig deep into the Philippine Deep for deuterium and hydrogen and is keen on having new sources of fuel in case the country’s current sources are depleted. The conduct of the geological investigation and exploration for minerals, particularly polymetallic sulfide, at the Philippine Rise and Celebes Sea was approved by Cimatu himself. Yolanda M. Aguilar, MGB Central Office Marine Geological Survey Division officer in chargechief, said they are now in the process of planning the exploration surveys at the Philippine Rise. “It will likely happen between April and May,” Aguilar said.
Needed budget
She added that a reconnaissance geological and geophysical survey is currently being planned and more studies and long-term program proposa ls are being prepared, and may depend on the availability and approval of the proposed budget. According to Aguilar, the MGB’s research vessel, the RPS Explorer, will be used. However, she said the vessel would have to undergo repair to make sure that it is sea worthy. “The repair of the RPS Explorer alone will cost around P300 million. We are also planning to buy deep-water equipment, which we will use,” she said. “We are requesting a huge
budget for this. Initially, they are giving P30 million for 2018. We will do the exploration in April and May at the Philippine Rise. After May, we could visit the Celebes Sea,” Ramossaid. She added that the DENRMGB, with the help of expert divers, will conduct geophysical surveys, applying seismic survey, ecosounder and sidescan sonar, to trace the topography of the seamounts in the Philippine Rise. “From there, we will also get samples. We will be doing grab sampling. Rocks, sediments, if possible, near hydrothermal vents, for laboratory tests,” Ramos said. She said since the DENER-MGB will only have a two-month window every year, the first 20 days will be spent do the geophysical surveys. The next 20 days will be spent collecting samples. “We will start at the walls of the Benham Bank. We will be doing grab sampling where there are no corals,” she said. Ramos said the team will get help from expert divers considering the depth of the ocean to be explored. The DENR-MGB, she said, also plans to buy a remotely operated underwater vehicle (ROV) to take photographs and videos underwater. The target is to reach trenches that are 3 kilometers deep. According to Aguilar, the MGB has the expertise to do the exploration. “We have geologists who can do geophysics,” she said. At least 30 people will be needed, working a three-shift 24 hours a day during the exploration.
Not just about mining
Aguilar said she is unfazed by the strong opposition expressed by environmental groups. “Our mandate is to explore minerals. What we want to do is know the minera ls w ithin our ter r itor ies. Even outside the Philippine territory, there are ongoing of fshore mining explorations,” she said. According to Aguilar, even
outside the Philippine territory, the government can conduct an exploration and can benefit evenfrom royalty in case of any significant find. She said she is also exploring the possibility of collaborating with other countries, like Japan or China. “Imagine spending P10 million to P12 million per expedition. We will be doing this for two months. If we can do reconnaissance, we can start this year, but it is dangerous. We can also ask the help of the Philippine Navy to use its research vessel to go to the Philippine Rise if we are unable to make the necessary repair in our research vessel,” Aguilar said. Going to the Philippine Rise alone is a difficult and dangerous task, she said. “It takes around five days to go to the Philippine Rise from Manila with a boat running at 9 knots,” she said. According to Aguiar, the mineral exploration project is not just about mining, defending the wisdom of spending such money for an ambitious project. “We are geologists. We are studying the Earth. We are not all about mining. Our study will identify geological hazards, too,” she said. “We can also help determine its effect to the environment,” Ramos added, saying that part of the activities will study the integrity of the plateau, particularly the thin wall that supports the Benham Rise, the shallowest portion of the Philippine Rise. “Based on the geophysica l survey, we will not only now the shape, but also the integrity of plateau,” she said. Given the financial and technical limitations, Cimatu directed the MGB to create teams to conduct further research on the extraction of deuterium and to coordinate with the departments of Energy and Science and Technology, which both have already started separate explorations in the areas in the past.
China pledges continued KKR targets Asean’s family businesses with record fund assistance to PHL K
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hina’s foreign minister told his Philippine counterpart on Thursday that Beijing is ready to provide more aid to the Southeast Asian country, as ties between the former antagonists continue to improve. The relationship has increasingly overshadowed the Philippines’s long-standing ties with the United States. Beijing this week donated emergency aid, sniper rifles and other weaponry to help the Philippine military drive out Muslim rebels who overran the southern city of Marawi. At a news conference on Thursday in Beijing, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said the sides would “continue to improve our mutual trust and control our differences so as to maintain the peace and stability of the South China Sea”. The two countries have overlapping territorial claims in the strategic waterbody and feuded bitterly under President Duterte’s predecessor, Benigno S. Aquino III. Duterte has pledged to steer Manila closer to Beijing while consistently blasting the US, which has criticized his brutal war against mostly small-time drug dealers and addicts. Beijing has seized on that opportunity and Wang said the relationship “will definitely become
wider and...more solid. The road in the past was a dead end.” Foreign Secretary Alan Peter S. Cayetano also articulated a more Asian-centric approach. “We should think less in national borders, less that we are Chinese, we are Filipino, we are Japanese, we are Korean, we are Thais or Indonesians, and start thinking that we are Asians and that peace and stability in our region will give us the leverage we need to be able to develop our nations and our people.” Separately, Chinese Defense Ministry Spokesman Wu Qian appeared to indicate that the shipment of arms delivered on Wednesday was only a start. “The Chinese side has always opposed firmly any form of terrorism and opposes any person who carries out or supports terrorist activities under any name,” Geng said at a monthly news briefing. “We stand ready to work with reg iona l countr ies, including the Philippines, to step up counterterrorism operations against violent terrorist threats,” he said. Despite Duterte’s criticism of Washington, the US military has been providing intelligence and logistical support for Philippine troops as they fight to clear Marawi of militants aligned with the Islamic State group. AP
KR & Co., fresh off raising a record $9.3-billion fund, is gearing up to invest more in Southeast Asia, as it seeks to capitalize on rising domestic consumption. T he pr ivate-equit y fir m is seeking to invest in companies catering to the region’s expanding middle class, which is demanding higher-quality products, according to Ashish Shastry, KKR’s Southeast Asia head. These demographic changes will fuel long-term growth in indust r ies l i ke bra nded consu mer products, health care, education, healthy foods and leisure, Shastry said in an interview in Singapore this month. K K R sees opportunities as many of the region’s self-made business tycoons get older and begin handing the reins to a new generation of leaders. The transition may lead companies to shed assets to focus on their core operations, according to Shastry. KKR would like to do “a lot more” in the underpenetrated Indonesian market and could also boost investments in Vietnam and the Philippines, he said. “Southeast Asia hasn’t fully realized its potential,” said Shastry, 41, who joined KKR last year after stints at TPG Capital and Nor thstar Group. “Given the family-owned business transformations across Southeast Asia in markets, such as Indonesia
and Malaysia, we see a great opportunity to invest even more in the region.” KKR’s private-equity funds have deployed more than $2 billion in Southeast Asia since the firm started operating in the region in 2005. Its biggest deal so far has been the 2014 buyout of Goodpack Ltd., a Singapore-listed provider of bulk containers, for S$1.4 billion ($1.1 billion). In April KKR said it would spend $250 million buying stakes in Vietnamese conglomerate Masan Group Corp. and its meat business.
since 2013. Half the country’s population is under age 30, and private consumption accounts for a higher proportion of economic output than India or China. McVey said in a report this month he’s confident Indonesia is harnessing its long-term potential into near-term realities, and investors may not be fully up to speed on the compelling macroeconomic backdrop. K K R sees opportunities to invest in Southeast Asia from
its real estate, infrastructure, credit and specia l situations funds, after previously focusing on private equity deals in the region, Shastry said. “Global capital f lows will increasingly migrate toward economies with large domestic consumption,” he said. “We’ve been active in the region, but we have an opportunity to pursue even more opportunities given the attractive investment themes.” Bloomberg News
Fish sauce
That deal came after a previous investment in Masan Group’s consumer unit, which ma kes Chin-su premium soy sauce and Nam Ngu fermented fish sauce, that it finished selling in 2016. KKR has also backed Go-Jek, Indonesia’s first billion-dollar star t-up, whic h star ted as a motorcycle-hailing app before branching out into other ondemand services including food delivery and digital payments. Last year KKR bought a stake in Ja k ar ta-based anima l-feed pro ducer P T Japf a Com fe e d Indonesia T bk. Hen r y McVe y, K K R’s Ne w York-based head of global macro and asset allocation, in June upgraded his investment outlook for Indonesia after traveling there for the first time
Qualitek announces expansion. Qualitek Delta Philippines Inc.,
manufacturer of high-quality soldering products since the 1980s, expands its business further, as it launches the Qualitek Asian Group of Cos. with offices in China, Singapore and the Philippines at the recent Philippine Semiconductor and Electronics Convention and Exhibition 2017 at the SMX MOA, Pasay City. Seen in Photo are Emily Han, Qualitek president and COO, presenting the symbolic Hawaian lei (Maile) to Martin Han, the incoming CEO of Qualitek Asian Group of Cos.
Sports NADAL: I HAVE WORK TO DO BusinessMirror
Saturday, July 1, 2017
Editor: Jun Lomibao | mirror_sports@yahoo.com.ph
By Ben Rothenberg
New York Times News Service
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ALVIÀ, Majorca—It is the time for a familiar summer switch for Rafael Nadal. Each June, he trades claycourt coronations for grass-court consternation. Two weeks ago, Nadal won his 10th French Open title, further cementing his standing as the best clay court player in the history of men’s tennis. Now he must move to less certain footing as the tour shifts to grass, where early career triumphs have given way to challenges. After a week of rest, Nadal commuted from the east side of his home island to the west, to the site of the Mallorca Open, a women’s grass-court event, where he practiced in the mornings before the heat and the tournament took over. “I still have work to do,” Nadal said at the tournament last week. “The level I’m at now is not enough to compete, like I want at Wimbledon.” After an injury-plagued 2016, Nadal, 31, has recaptured the spark of a few years ago. His victory at Roland Garros was his first major tournament win since the 2014 French Open, and it was perhaps the best performance of his 10 titles there. He did not drop a set and lost only 35 games. In recent years, however, his fortunes have quickly shifted with the change in surfaces. At the outset of his career, major successes came more quickly for Nadal on grass than on the hard courts. Before he reached a final at the Australian Open or the US Open, he had already made it to three consecutive finals at Wimbledon. He fell to Roger Federer in 2006 and 2007 before beating him in 2008. After being unable to defend his title in 2009 because of knee problems, Nadal returned to win his second title there in 2010 and reached another final in 2011. But after that run of five finals in six years, Nadal’s acuity on grass was abruptly uprooted. In 2012 he suffered a shocking loss to No. 100 Lukas Rosol in the second round at Wimbledon. The contentious five-setter
ended with Rosol firing aces seemingly at will, a performance that could have been dismissed as an example of a lesser player’s being locked in against a superior foe. Rather than an outlier, however, that match was an omen. What followed for Nadal was an improbable spell of Wimbledon defeats to players with tripledigit rankings: a first-round loss to No. 135 Steve Darcis in 2013 and a fourth-round loss to No. 144 Nick Kyrgios in 2014. While he was struggling on grass, he flourished on other surfaces, winning three straight French Open titles and the US Open in 2013. Then there was a hint of another reversal in 2015, a quarterfinal loss at Roland Garros followed by a title in Stuttgart, Germany, which was Nadal’s first on grass in five years. Two weeks later at Wimbledon, he was handed an early defeat, by No. 102 Dustin Brown in the second round. Because of a wrist injury that curtailed his French Open and limited his subsequent tournament appearances last year—and fatigue from a heavy match load this year that forced him out of the Queen’s Club event last week—Nadal had not played a match on grass since. He will enter Wimbledon next week without having played a competitive match on the surface in two years. For Nadal and his coach and uncle, Toni Nadal, the explanation for the dip in his performance on grass is simple: difficulty bending his knees enough for him to hit the surface’s low-bouncing balls with the force he once did. “When you play on hard court in Australia or USA, you hit the ball up high,” Toni Nadal said. “You don’t need to spend much time low. And also, on grass, the court moves a little. It’s not stable, and when you have problems in your knees, then it’s a problem.” Nadal did not practice at full intensity in Majorca and acknowledged that he was uncertain how his knees would respond when he prepared this week in London. “Then it will be when I have to
force it, and we will really see how my knees hold up,” Nadal said. “But I have the confidence that they can do it. Then, the results will always depend on many factors. I just hope I can train and compete in freedom.” Early returns were not positive, however: At an exhibition match on Wednesday in London, he lost in straight sets, 6-3, 6-2, to 14th-ranked Tomas Berdych. Toni Nadal, who called Federer “the maximum favorite” at Wimbledon, said the tournament was the one where his nephew’s results were most affected by the opponents he faced, particularly in the early rounds, when the lawns are lush and slick. “When you have a bad draw, it is too difficult,” Toni Nadal said. “Playing there the first week is complicated, and if you play against some very good servers you have a big problem.” Toni Nadal said he hoped the successful start to Rafael’s season—he won four titles on clay and reached three finals on hard courts—would both motivate and relax him at Wimbledon. “When you have won, you arrive to the next tournament with these victories, and your confidence is higher,” he said. “You have more possibility to win. And if we will lose early in Wimbledon? OK, we have won Roland Garros—it’s not too bad. This means that you can play better.”
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OXING fans could catch the Battle of Brisbane between Manny “PacMan” Pacquiao and Australian Jeff “The Hornet” Horn exclusively on free TV via GMA 7 tomorrow at 10 a.m. GMA, in partnership with boxing promoter ALV Events International, will also air realtime blow-by-blow account of the World Boxing Organization welterweight title fight on its flagship AM radio station dzBB 594 and RGMA Super Radyo stations nationwide beginning at 9 a.m. tomorrow. The replay of the “Battle of Brisbane: Pacquiao versus Horn” will also air on GMA on the same day at 11 p.m.
Ceres tries to extend win streak, Meralco hopes to get power back C ERES Negros guns for a third straight win, while Meralco Manila tries to get its energy back when they battle separate foes today in the Philippines Football League. Both games will be played simultaneously at 4 p.m. with the Busmen looking to repeat their 5-1 rout of Stallion Laguna three days ago at the Pana-ad Park and Football Stadium in Bacolod City. The Sparks, on the other hand, will try to snap out of a two-game draw and get full three points as they visit the Ilocos United at the Quirino Stadium in Vigan City.
Meralco Manila had a 5-0 start but absorbed back-to-back draws last week—2-2 with Davao Aguilas and 1-1 draw Stallion Laguna. The Sparks dropped to No. 2 on the table with 17 points, a point behind leader JPV Marikina. Meralco Coach Aris Caslib went back to the drawing board to fix their problems, especially on their failure to score in the second half in their last two matches. Ilocos United, on the other hand, will try to lean on its little momentum after forcing a goalless draw with Davao last week to snap a
INTENSITY
F2 Logistics’s Aby Maraño is all intensity as she dishes out a spike against Generika-Ayala’s Ma. Shaya Adorador (11) and Chlodia Eiriel Ysabel Cortez (3) in their match on Thursday at the Filoil Flying V Centre in San Juan. The Cargo Movers won, 25-14, 25-18, 25-17. The quarterfinals resume today with Petron facing Sta. Lucia at 5 p.m. and Foton battling Cherrylume at 7 p.m. at the Malolos Sports and Convention Center in Bulacan. NONOY LACZA
POCARI, BALIPURE OPEN REINFORCED CONFERENCE Pacquiao fight live on GMA
RAFAEL NADAL hopes to regain past success on Wimbledon’s grass. AP
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five-match skid. Ceres, meanwhile, has been in the groove and won abck-to-back—3-1 over KayaMakati last week and 5-1 over Stallion on Wednesday. The Busmen, powered by hat tricks from Spaniards Bienvenido Maranon and Fernando Rodriguez in both matches, try to add to their 10 points as they stay at No. 6 in the standings, Stallion, which has four losses and three draws for three points, has to contend with a Ceres side that remains undefeated at home.
Lance Agcaoili
OCARI Sweat and BaliPure take on separate opponents to kick off the Premier Volleyball League Open Conference today at the Filoil Flying V Centre in San Juan City. The Lady Warriors, champions of the Reinforced Conference, square off with University of the Philippines (UP) at 4 p.m. The Water Defenders, losers to Pocari Sweat in the previous conference’s finals, meanwhile, face the Power Smashers at 6:30 p.m. Pocari Sweat Head Coach Roger Gorayeb said they are the underdogs in the tournament, although he will have the same roster of star players, led by three-time National Collegiate Athletic Association Most Valuable Player Grethcel Soltones of San Sebastian. “Unlike other teams, we weren’t able to get marquee players. But we’re relying on our familiarity with one another to carry us through this conference,” Gorayeb said. Backing up Soltones are Jerrili Malabanan of Far Eastern University and the vastly improved Risa Sato, Jasmine Nabor, Aiko Urdas and Jorelle Singh from National
University, as well as seasoned libero Lizlee Pantone. Gorayeb and his wards are also facing a young team coached by veteran Nes Pamilar, who will bank on last conference’s Best Opposite Spiker Dimdim Pacres of University of Santo Tomas, Arellano University’s Jovielyn Prado, Regine Arocha, Andrea Marzan and Eunice Galang. Pocari Sweat, meanwhile, will be led by two-time Finals MVP Myla Pablo, Elaine Kasilag, Jeanette Panaga, Desiree Dadang, Jessey De Leon, Gyzelle Sy and Mel Gohing. But they will play under a new head coach, Rico De Guzman, who was promoted from assistant and replaced Rommel Abella, now the team’s consultant. The Lady Maroons are no pushovers. With Isa Molde, Diana Carlos, Arielle Estrañero and Justine Dorog under Coach Jerry Yee, UP has been improving every match. In men’s action, Reinforced Conference champion Cignal opens its grand slam bid against Cafe Lupe at 10 a.m. Instituto Estetico Manila and Sta. Elena take the floor at 1 p.m. Lance Agcaoili
STILL THE KING Usain Bolt starts the European leg of his
final season before retirement with a victory in the 100 meters at the Golden Spike meeting early this week in Ostrava, Czech Republic. At the meet where he has most frequently competed in his career, with nine appearances, Bolt reels in the rest of the field after a trademark slow start to cross the finish line in 10.06 seconds. However, he has to hold off a strong challenge from Yunier Perez of Cuba, edging him by 0.03. Jak Ali Harvey of Turkey finishes third in 10.26. AP
A6 Saturday, July 1, 2017 | Editor: Mike Besa
Arch. Kevin Ramsey samples the contour on M3M’s putting course.
Shadows encroach on the 8th hole at M3M, a new Golfplan project featuring synthetic turf.
Sutijet Kooratanapisan a.k.a. Mr. 59
www.pinoygolfer.com | Saturday, July 1, 2017 A7
A roof-top view of the putting course at M3M
A8 Saturday, July 1, 2017 • Editor: Efleda P. Campos
OurTime BusinessMirror
news@businessmirror.com.ph
4 centenarians in Sarangani get P100K cash gift each
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ENERAL SANTOS CITY— Four residents in the town of Malungon, Sarangani province, each received P100,000 for living beyond 100 years, officials said on June 21. Malungon Mayor Maria Theresa Constantino led the tribute to the town’s centenarians, as she urged their respective families to take care of them. The centenarians also received cakes from the local government to celebrate their longevity. Constantino said the cash gift for the centenarians was intended only for the recipient’s food supplies and medical maintenance and not for distribution to relatives. Sarao Lavena Banes, Department of Social Welfare and Development Region 12 (DSWD-12) focal person on social pension, said the release of P400,000 to the four centenarians was mandated under Republic Act (RA) 10868, or the Centenarians Act of 2016. The act directs the awarding of P100,000 to Filipinos in the country and abroad who reached 100 years old, Banes said. The town’s centenarians are: Tinglo Tali, 107 years old; Teodolfo Conception, 103; Maria Palomo, 103; and Rofu Alipoyo, 102, of Barangays JP Laurel, Datal Batong, Upper Biangan
and Poblacion, respectively. The implementing rules and regulations for RA 10868 took effect after it was jointly signed by Social Welfare Secretary Judy M. Taguiwalo, Health Secretary Paulyn Jean Rosell-Ubial and former Interior Secretary Ismael Sueno on September 26, 2016. The centenarians were accompanied by their close relatives and Association of Barangay Captains (ABC) during the awarding of cash gifts. Yolando Pabualan, head of the local Office of the Senior Citizens Affairs, thanked the government for the cash gifts given to the centenarians and for the other assistance provided to senior citizens in the locality. The distribution of cash gifts were witnessed by: Tita Campana, head of DSWD-12 social-pension unit, May Francis Aquino of the Provincial Social Welfare and Development Office; Ruth Arangote, acting municipal social-welfare officer; Vice Mayor Mariano Escalada Jr.; members of the Sangguniang Bayan; and, ABC members headed by their president, Nagpan Barangay Captain Edna Tuanzon. PNA
Climate change is making it harder to sleep
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LIMATE change is coming for you in the night. That’s the conclusion of scientists who study how heat disturbs sleep—and how projected warming is expected to make bad sleep even worse. Led by Nick Obradovich of Harvard University’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, a team of researchers are the first to document the relationship between rising temperatures and poor sleep. They sorted through how 765,000 Americans responded to Centers for Disease Control surveys from 2002 to 2011. Comparing the answers about sleep with respondents’ local temperatures, they not only found a link between temperature and sleep, but discovered it was three times stronger in summer. Their new study links that most individual of experiences—falling asleep—with a truly planetary phenomenon—global warming. It joins an expanding body of research suggesting that rising temperatures will gradually change even the most mundane aspects of everyday life. The physiology of temperature and sleep has been understood for some time. As the body drifts toward unconsciousness, blood vessels in the skin dilate, which lets heat escape and brings down the core body temperature. Previous research has shown that above-normal ambient air temperature “can prevent core body heat shedding, and that poor sleep is associated with elevated core body temperature,” the authors write. As the world warms, nighttime air temperatures increase at a faster rate than daytime mercury. This seemingly counterintuitive fact has been documented for years by scientists studying the global climate, making it a useful puzzle piece to keep in mind as America (unlike most of the world) struggles to accept climate change as a reality that’s caused by humans. (If the sun causes warming, wouldn’t you expect daytime temperatures
to rise more?) Having established a relationship between sleep and temperature, the researchers then used global-warming projections to see how Americans’ sleep problems may worsen in the second half of the century. Most surprising to Obradovich was that the researchers were able to see a strong effect of heat on sleep at all. The US is a wealthy country, and many people can rely on airconditioning during heat waves. “Even with this short-term adaptation capacity, we still observed effects in the US,” he said. When it comes to suffering through hotter temperatures, though, none are worse off than the elderly and the poor. “Sleep is so fundamental to all aspects of our lives that having the climate disrupt it many more days per month is a real and important cost.” Solomon Hsiang, who studies the effects of climate change on human behavior and economics at the University of California, Berkeley, credits the new study a s t he f i rst to met hod ic a l ly analyze temperature, climate and sleep. The results, he said, “point toward systematic and important effects”. Among them is an increase in the negative consequences that f low from being tired all the time. “People make cognitive errors that matter when they sleep badly, whether crashing vehicles or making poor decisions in the workplace,” Hsiang said. “Students learn poorly when they don’t sleep, and consistent lack of sleep harms people’s health. Sleep is so fundamental to all aspects of our lives that having the climate disrupt it many more days per month is a real and important cost that we now must consider seriously.” The research team chose to run their sleep analysis through the scientific community’s worst-case climate scenario (which has come under some scientific scrutiny for including too much coal-burning, Bloomberg News reported on Wednesday). Bloomberg News
Bright lights, big city, gray hair: Retiring to Manhattan
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BEST FRIENDS Two older men exchange stories while at the People’s Park in Baguio City. MAU VICTA
Study links chronic pain with increased challenge of dementia in older adults
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AN FRANCISCO—Researchers at the University of California, San Francisco, have found that older people with persistent pain show quicker declines in memory as they age and are more likely to have dementia years later. Published this week in JAMA Internal Medicine, findings from their study, which appears to be the first to make this association, indicated chronic pain could somehow be related to changes in the brain that contribute to dementia. The researchers analyzed data from 10,000 participants aged 60 and older over a 12-year period. The participants who said they were persistently troubled by moderate or severe pain in both years 1998 and 2000 declined 9.2 percent faster in tests of memory function over the next 10 years than those who said they were not troubled by pain.
Those who complained about persistent pain also had a small, but significantly increased, likelihood of developing dementia overall. Elizabeth Whitlock, a postdoctoral fellow in the UCSF Department of Anesthesia and Perioperative Care and the first author of the study, said the findings point toward new ways of thinking about how to protect older people from the cognitive insults of aging. “Elderly people need to maintain their cognition to stay independent,” she said. “Up to one in three older people suffer from chronic pain, so understanding the relationship between pain and cognitive decline is an important first step toward finding ways to help this population.” The research suggests three potentially overlapping reasons for t he a ssoc i at ion bet ween chronic pain and dementia: An
increased dementia risk could be caused by painkillers, such as opioids; the experience of pain may somehow compromise the brain’s ability to encode memories and other cognitive functions; and finally, it could be due to some other factor that was not measured in the study. But even if this was the case, W hitlock said, the findings remain clinically relevant, because pain could be used as a marker for increased risk of future cognitive decline even if the biological basis of the association is still unclear. People who suffer from chronic pain tend to have diminished attentional capacity and impaired memory, particularly when pain is severe or causes patients to ruminate, as it could divert enough attention to interfere with the consolidation of memory. Xinhua News
STRIKE A POSE The caretaker of the view-deck area at the Banaue Rice Terraces strikes a pose, wearing his Igorot costume, for the tourist. FAYE PABLO
EW YORK—On a bright weekday morning in 2009, Stephen M. Chaleff, a retired executive, stood outside his home in Rye, New York, and wondered: “Where is everybody? There’s nobody here!” Staring out onto the deserted street, Chaleff decided he needed a change. “When you’re used to doing a lot of different things and you retire, suburbia doesn’t work anymore,” said Chaleff, now 77. “I like being with people and being active. And I hate driving for everything, which is what you have to do in Westchester. If I wanted to see an art movie, I had to drive halfway across the county.” Not long after his epiphany, Chaleff and his wife, Joanna, to Manhattan. They briefly tried out city life as renters, then purchased a large co-op on the upper West Side. Now, the couple spend their days at museums and their evenings at Dizzy’s Club Coca-Cola at Lincoln Center, a jazz bar and restaurant. “I like all the stuff the city has to offer,” Stephen Chaleff said. “I walk to Lincoln Center, and I don’t ever worry about traffic or parking.” He and his wife also walk to JCC Manhattan, the Jewish community center on Amsterdam Avenue, where they volunteer. “Wherever we go, we’re interacting with people,” he said. “That’s good for us. I expect to live longer because we’ve moved here.” Retiring to Manhattan is not for everyone. It is astronomically expensive, for one thing, and then there are all the things that people who don’t like New York list as their reasons: the crowds, the noise, the dirty sidewalks. Retirees who enjoy relaxing at the country club might not be all that happy, say, strolling down Third Avenue to J.G. Melon, the very urban hamburger joint. Yet, the Chaleffs’ experience is a piece of a small, but interesting retirement phenomenon: Seniors from elsewhere who have chosen to live in New York. If the preferred retirement spots for Americans are in the Sun Belt states, then New York City, famous for its harsh winters and high living costs, is an offbeat choice. When Andrew A. Beveridge, a sociology professor at Queens College, analyzed the 2015 census, he found 9,359 Americans older than 60 had relocated to New York City (counting all five boroughs) from other parts of the United States. Another 9,996 had moved to the city from overseas. “This city actually offers older people a lot,” said Lindsay Goodman, director of Healthy Aging at the New York Academy of Medicine, which researches the health aspects of living in cities. “There’s a wealth of arts and cultural opportunities. Social services and health care are a draw, too.” Beth Finkel, director of the New York state office of AARP, noted there are pluses and minuses to moving to the city that never sleeps— primarily pocketbook-related ones. “If you can afford to live in New York City, you can’t beat it,” she said. “But the middle class is being squeezed out, and many seniors are struggling to live here because of the high costs.” Susan D. Fischer, 71, a linguist who had been living in the San Diego area, said she was “extremely fortunate” to be able to afford her upper West Side retirement. “I’ve always been frugal,” she said, “and now it’s paying off.” New York Times News Service
news.businessmirror@gmail.com
The Millennials BusinessMirror
Philanthropist, restaurateur is seen as the ‘Millennial Man’
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ILLENNIALS are always searching for some grand purpose and a greater meaning to live for. It is always an almost epic battle between getting by in the so-called real world and making your grandest passions come alive.
Few people are really able to succeed, as the masses of Millennials settle for the job that pays for the needs of today. The aspiration therefore, is to live in the median: not to compromise passion for purpose but to fulfill all facets of the persona. Entrepreneur, foodie and philanthropist Harvard Uy de Baron, seems to be living the millennial dream. We delve into the many hats he wears to get a picture of what it takes to be walking the talk.
Philanthropist
MOST people plan to give back when they are old and aged. “Kuya Harvard”, as his staff and the thousands of children call him, has already made 959 events in the last eleven years, to help the less fortunate. Uy de Baron has accomplished this through his group, U Happy Events. The organization provides a platform for sponsors and volunteers to provide support and teach values to marginalized children in Metro Manila. These are done through art and dance workshops, field trips and visits to museums. It’s difficult to grasp when you are doing fine and your surroundings are struggling, Uy de Baron said. He believes that living is not just about how one lives, but how one makes others live theirs. When strangers can benefit from us, and then we extend our circle of influence, together we ultimately contribute to the progress of our country, he added. U Happy Events activities are dotted with fun and are always engaging both for the kids and volunteers. The writer knows because she has organized and gone to a few of them herself.
Entrepreneur
UY de Baron is a part owner of a spectrum of favored and upcoming restaurants nowadays. These rest au ra nt s i nc lude Sa n k ap, Splice, Sasa and Sobremesa.
He is part of The Menu Group, which also manages a host of other restaurant brands, like Ryu Ramen and Curry, Peri Peri Cebu and Brasas Latin Street Food. What do all these restaurants have in common? People go out of their way to try them. Uy de Baron credits the secret of these restaurants’ success to the concept. “It’s something familiar done differently” and customized to market preferences, he said. “Location is not as important as concept,” Uy de Baron explained. “If your concept is good, they will come to you.” An insurance broker for almost 20 years now, Uy de Baron went into the restaurant business with his brother, Chef Him. In bed before with Nomama and I Am Kim, Chef Him currently consults for Makansutra, Ping Pong Diplomacy, Cocina Peruvia and East Café restaurants. Uy de Baron said although the restaurant business is considered complicated with staffing, marketing, inventory management, customer service and everything in between, it still has one of the fastest turnover rates. He added the key elements to addressing this include having a good network with which to build a base market, a good chef to make delectable and noteworthy dishes, an experienced staff and a tireless dedication. “Don’t compare yourself with a lot of successful businesses. Start first your own segment and those with the same size or scale as yourself,” Uy de Baron said. “When you can use the strengths of your competitors and get it for yourself, then you grow. When you study their consumers and use that [knowledge] to your advantage, you will grow more.” He is also a food-lover-turnedfood-blogger. Uy de Baron is currently the number one content writer in Zomato, a site that re-
Believer
UY de Baron credits his success to doing homework and good time management. “Doubt is a human element. Take the time to study and learn your craft,” he said. “It should decrease your worries.” He emphasized the importance of preparation for any endeavor. “Just like taking a test, if you are well-prepared, it will show your success. When you are excited with your work, you want to be catapulted forward,” Uy de Baron said. “You can’t wait to show the world what you have.” He also emphasized the importance of time. According to him, time can be a good resource if “you delegate what you can and manage your time in a way where everything is scheduled”. “Major events are scheduled three years before, while others are scheduled a year before.” This is a popular method of breaking down your goals into chunk-sized pieces, which you can now tackle every month or week
to lead you to the bigger successes along the way, Uy de Baron said. He also chose to live near his workplace to save him a lot of time. “Acceleration is not key; efficiency is.” He cited U Happy Events as example. In our first seven years, we saw only 159 events, Uy de Baron said adding the group’s activities only grew traction in the last four years having as much as 800 events. “I think this means it doesn’t matter how fast you get to your dreams. What matters is when you focus on being effective in the process of reaching your goal,” he said. “The big success just comes eventually.”
Fulfillment
UY de Baron is the milennial man fulfilled. “Fulfillment is when you strike an equilibrium between business and an impact on the community,” he said. For entrepreneurs-to-be, he encourages “start learning early”. “You don’t have to make the same mistakes someone already did.” He also noted the importance of not going through the employee stage. “Money is not a deterrent— ideas and dedication are more important than that.” Uy de Baron added that if one has a powerful idea and follows through, he or she can be unstoppable. Maxine Mamba
In pursuit of Millennials, fun in sports; but still no twerking
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ILLENNIALS are forcing us to change the way we think about sports. And it’s a good thing, because the grown-ups have gone plum nuts. Did you hear about the University of Hawaii offering a football scholarship to a fifth-grader? That’s right, an 11-year-old named Titan Lacaden, whose father told ESPN that “when opportunity knocks, you answer the door”. Even if the door still has child locks? Which brings us to the No Fun League (NFL). If NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell was any starchier, he’d be a potato. All those prohibitions on touchdown celebrations. No gathering except in small groups. No demonstrations. No going to the ground. Sometimes it has been difficult to tell the difference between the touchdown rules and martial law. Then, in May, Goodell surprisingly turned the end zone into a dance party. Next season it will be OK to use the football as a prop. To change its diaper. To rattle it like dice. To stand on it and mimic the logo of Captain Morgan rum. Neither the players nor the ball can twerk, it seems, but snow angels are back on the permitted list. Snow angels. And the reason for this relaxation of stuffiness? “I think that part of it is trying to reach the millennial and this new age of fans and having
more fun,” Dean Blandino, the NFL former chief of officiating, told Fox Sports, his new employer.
Proactive manner
SPORTS officials and leagues have been flailing about to get young adults to care about their games. Millennials are the largest population group in the United States, according to census figures. But traditional sports are less urgent to those in the 18 to 34 age bracket than they were to their parents and grandparents. A study of American sports fans published in March by LEK Consulting, a global firm, portrayed a stark generational divide. Cord-cutting millennials are increasingly abandoning cable television and traditional sports for online video-game tournaments and other e-sports, the study said. It noted that ESPN had lost 10 percent of its subscribers in the last three years. “As millennials continue to back away from mainstream media,” the study said, “they are likely to become increasingly disengaged from sports, in terms of viewership and fandom— that is, unless industry heads are able to respond to these changes in a proactive manner.” Sports organizations looking to attract new, younger fans should provide more digital, fantasy and e-sport offerings, the study said.
Some teams are also using an analog approach.
What’s next
THE New York Yankees have sought to curb plummeting attendance at Yankee Stadium by adding bars and a play area for children—you know, offerings for people who want to go to a baseball game without having to actually sit in their seats and watch the game. No word yet on whether the next enticement for millennials will have Aaron Judge joining the cast of Big Brother on his days off. According to Ad Age, the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro drew the oldest-skewing television audience since 1960, the first year the games were broadcast in the US. The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has grown concerned that there is more silver in the hair of the viewers than in the medals. Referring to the 2012 London Olympics, Thomas Bach, president of the IOC, said, “You could see that the younger generation had no interest in the games anymore. They were not there.” So, for the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea, an appeal to youth will be made with big-air snowboarding. The 2020 Summer Games in Tokyo will add surfing, skateboarding and sports climbing. The IOC always seems a few years behind the curve.
What’s next, soap box derby?
Save us, please
THE New York Times chief fashion critic, Vanessa Friedman, highlighted the latest effect of young adults on sports: the “millennial pink” shirts and pants worn by some golfers at the US Open. According to Friedman, such recent sartorial choices by golfers, celebrities and British royals suggest a “shorthand or symbol of this particular moment in time, from the looser definitions of gender and gender stereotypes to the refusal to be boxed in to a traditional set of dress code mores and expectations.” Young adults, it seems, also are growing reluctant to be boxed in by the spandex imperatives of hobby jogging. Last year The Wall Street Journal noted a decrease in the number of footrace participants and declared: “The running boom is over. Blame Millennials.” Now if we could only declare an end to the boom in offering football scholarships to fifth-graders. Wait, what’s that? Apparently, Illinois has just made an offer to a fourth-grader, and Nevada reportedly made one to a 9 year old. Millennials, please save us. New York Times News Service
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Generation Z Dating Martin Yalung | contributor
MILLENNIAL UNIVERSE
I
’M Marty and I am from the Generation Z. Generation Z is composed of people who came after the millennials and were born mid-1990’s to early 2000’s. People born in this time frame tend to be glued to, wired to and, like me, depend on technology, to have a healthy state of being. We’re also “different” when it comes to dating. The Generation Z’ers would rather text the person they’re attracted to and hope they’d reply back. Once they get a reply, they would take a screenshot and ask for help from their friends. He would then get an endless slew of ideas on how to proceed. This is how people in today’s time court someone they’re attracted to. It’s a balance between technology, peer support and, of course, actual face-to-face interaction. I know this from firsthand experience.
Types
views restaurants and number three in the world. His site went online in May last year and now has almost two thousand restaurants, events and food product reviews. With the growth of his popularity on the web, Uy de Baron will soon pilot a foodie segment in television.
Saturday, July 1, 2017
THERE are several types of Generation Z couples you’ll most likely stumble across. The first one are the “Friends with Benefits”. These couples aren’t looking for true love, romance or anything long term. Instead, they’re the type of people who would rather “Netflix and Chill” and do obscene things together without much feelings shared. These couples are usually just there for pleasure. The second type of couples is composed of the serious ones. These couples are rather rare these days because most teenagers are just looking for love quickly and would end up losing their virginity at a young age—I’d say 12 to 15. I’ve seen some serious couples who have been together for awhile now. They would make you believe that chivalry still exists these days. “Props” to these guys for making it through. The last type is composed of couples who escalate too quickly. They are officially a couple before they even get enough real face-time. They barely really know each other. These are couples who would date each other only through text, phone calls and social media instead of interacting in person. It isn’t that they don’t want to be together,
but they’re just shy when around each other. The girl fawns over her phone for a reply, while the guy might miss out on a game just because his phone is low on juice and he can’t be out of earshot from it, even for a second, because he is also waiting for a reply.
Attitudes
MY say on these relationships are that people should fix their attitude before thinking about being in a commitment with someone who might actually be serious. I, for one, don’t think being in a relationship is bad because it can be an asset to a couple. You can motivate each other to do good. Unless you’re the kind of couple who are just flirting with each other, I can say being in a commitment with someone is fine. As long as they don’t drag you down from your studies, your family or yourself, then great. Couples should take note from people who have had past experiences and who are going long term. Friends with Benefits couples should learn from the tragedies of people getting pregnant and know that whatever they do is on their own and their families’ shoulders, too. Nevertheless, my suggestions are to choose the right person and do the right thing. And all will go well. These are the two cents of wisdom from Generation Z. Martin Yalung, a goalkeeper for a high-school varsity football team, dreams of being a poet.
Giving back tops Third Domingo’s life agenda
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MPLOYERS craft a lot of strategies to ensure their key workers will stay long in their company. Some are forced to think out-of-the box to make their programs “cool” to young employees. Third C. Domingo is one of those employers. Domingo, the founder and CEO of local advertising agency Ideas Ex Machina (IXM) has crafted novel schemes to make his company very appealing to millennials who comprise more than 50 percent of IXM’s workforce. A graduate of integrated marketing communication at the University of Asia and the Pacific (UA&P), Domingo believes his university days and training helped him a lot in producing creative advertisements and also innovations to entice his staff to work in IXM.
ICT use
DOMINGO advocates the use of information and communications technology in developing advertisement for their clients. “Before, there were only two people involved, namely, the creative director and the copywriter,” Domingo said. “Now, the computer programmer is also part of the creative process.” He admits it’s not a walk in the park to combine art and technology. But there is no choice but to bite the bullet to be competitive in the digital age, he added. Moreover, Domingo said digital technology is important not only because millennials are comfortable in using them, but because there are multitude of ways to send a message these days. The latter basically boils down to technology. “Somebody must be knowledgeable in technology in order for you to reach the audience you want.” In IXM, there are programmers who complement the team of creative directors and copywriters. Domingo thinks the millennials are eager to put something in the future as part of their self-fulfillment. To hone their overall personality, IXM provides training to the staff in their areas of competency so they can be equipped with the right tools.
Perks plus
INTERESTINGLY, IXM does not require overtime work to the staff unless it is necessary. “Doing overtime does not mean you are
hardworking in the general sense,” Domingo points out. “It can also mean you are not efficient in your working method.” Aside from the regular benefits provided by the company, Domingo introduced unconventional perks, such as the “love-life benefit” to motivate the staff. Under the program, a staff of IXM can reimburse his or her dating expenses of up to P1,500, six times on an annual basis. “Basically, I urge people to go dates with their boyfriend, girlfriend, wife and even the person they are courting. The rationale is to inspire the staff to develop their creativeness by inspiring and motivating them,” Domingo said. “Based on studies, people who are inspired are more creative in their work.” The staff can also enjoy subsidized Tinder Plus accounts to encourage them to be active in the dating scene. There’s also a “breakup leave” to enable staff to recover from a bad breakup in relationships. To encourage camaraderie, IXM Movie tickets are also given to the staff for movie viewing in a selected cinema near their office in Pasig City. For a staff who will get married, IXM will shoulder the wedding reception with a maximum amount of P150,000.
Giving back
DOMINGO describes the early years of IXM as easy even though it had to compete with older and bigger companies. He adds they had a good break getting political clients during IXM’s rookie year in 2010. Gearing up for expansion, XMI also eyes a presence in the Asean market. It’s a dream for Domingo to showcase the company’s talent in a bigger stage. “I just not want to be the best advertising agency in the Philippines.” Outside of advertising, Domingo organizes learning communities for street kids with a youth club, called “MalakingMunti” (BigSmall). Because of this, MalakingMunti was inducted to the Ten Most Outstanding Citizens of Muntinlupa City. Domingo also gives back to his alma mater, teaches copywriting and art direction at the UA&P. Many up-and-coming young creatives in the industry right now came from his class. Rizal Raoul Reyes
BusinessMirror
A10 Saturday, July 1, 2017
Tim Westergren, founder of Pandora, in the Oakland, California, headquarters of the company, on October 9, 2008. Westergren, the public face of Pandora Media, the company that popularized Internet radio, has resigned as chief executive, a little more than a year after he took over the positions, and is exiting the board, Pandora announced on June 27. Thor Swift/The New York Times
Turmoil at Pandora Media as C.E.O. resigns A
year ago, Pandora Media was full of ambition. The Internet radio pioneer would operate a ticketing company and integrate concert listings with its music streams.
It developed an on-demand subscription service to go head-tohead with Spotify and Apple, and had plans to expand internationally. To lead the charge, the company brought back Tim Westergren, its charismatic cofounder, as CEO. But on Tuesday, Westergren left the company after only 15 months at the helm and, over the past few weeks, many of the company’s boldest plans have been jettisoned or cast into doubt. To raise needed cash, Pandora unloaded Ticketfly, its ticketing service, at a significant loss and accepted a $480-million investment from Sirius XM, giving that company a 19-percent stake and three board seats, including the chairmanship. Roger Faxon, a Pandora board member, said in a statement that the recent moves were meant to “refocus and reinforce” the company and that Pandora was still committed to its new subscription platforms. Yet, as many analysts see it, Westergren’s departure was an inevitable result of the investment from Sirius XM, the satellite radio giant controlled by Liberty Media. Executives at those companies, particularly Gregory B. Maffei, Liberty’s chief, have made it clear that they admire Pandora’s core advertising business but have little interest in the rest. “This is the door being opened wide for the Liberty-Sirius XM team to come in with a new agenda for Pandora,” said Barton Crockett, a media analyst with FBR Capital Markets.
Incredibly proud
IN its announcement on Tuesday Pandora said Naveen Chopra, its CFO, would be interim CEO while the company searches for a new leader, and that Jason Hirschhorn, a former executive at Myspace and MTV Networks who runs a popular news aggregator, had joined the board. Shares in Pandora were flat on Tuesday, rising only 3 cents to close at $8.49. On Monday they had jumped 2 percent after the technology news site Recode reported last Sunday night that Westergren was preparing to leave. The exit of Westergren, a former musician who has been internet radio’s most enthusiastic evangelist, is the most dramatic development in a tumultuous year for the company, full of management departures, a falling stock price and continual pressure from Wall Street to sell. Westergren, who also left his position on the board, did not respond to messages seeking comment. But in a statement issued by Pandora, he said he was “incredibly proud of the company we have built”. “We invented a whole new way of enjoying and discovering music,” Westergren added, “and in doing so, forever changed the listening experience for millions”. Westergren was one of the fou nders of t he compa ny i n 2000, when it was called Savage Beast Technologies and sold music-recommendation services to businesses, like Best Buy. He was CEO of Savage Beast from 2002 to 2004.
Skeptical investors
RENAMED Pandora Media in 2005, the company became by far the most popular Internet radio service, using a proprietary music-genome technology that analyzed the characteristics of songs its users liked and fed them others like it. One of the few digital-music brands to become a household name, Pandora amassed 80 million regular users and built a substantial advertising business, generating more than $1 billion in sales last year. But the company antagonized the music industry along the way and was slow to adapt to the challenges posed by Spotify and Apple. After taking over as CEO in March 2016, Westergren tried to remake the service, striking licensing deals with record companies for a new subscription service, Pandora Premium, that let users listen to any song for $10 a month. Investors were skeptical of those plans and worried about all the cash Pandora was burning through. In the third quarter of last year, for example, Pandora’s new music deals contributed to a $93-million jump in its licensing costs and, by the end of 2016, the company logged a $343-million net loss, double its loss from the year before, according to filings.
Seemed inevitable
THE sale of Ticketfly was another bruising experience. Pandora bought the company, a fast-growing ticket provider for clubs and theaters, in late-2015 for $335 million, and this month sold it to Eventbrite, another ticketing start-up, for just $200 million. W hen he took over last year, Westergren said repeatedly that Pandora was not for sale, despite strong pressure from activist investors and a sagging stock price; since the beginning of the year, its shares are down by a third. But a deal of some
kind seemed inevitable. Since Sirius XM’s investment was announced on June 9, Pandora’s board has faced a conflict between Westergren’s expansive plans for the company and the wishes of its incoming directors. Recruiting a strong new chief executive would have been problematic with Westergren still on the board. “Tim stepped in to be CEO at a critical time for the company,” Timothy J. Leiweke, another board member, said in a statement, “and was quickly able to reset relations with the major labels, launch our on-demand service, reconstitute the management team and refortify our balance sheet by securing an investment from Sirius XM”.
Continual turnover
OVER the past year, there has been continual turnover among Pandora’s executive ranks. Sara Clemens, the COO and a driving force behind its acquisition strategy, resigned in December. In April, just weeks after the company released Pandora Premium, its chief technology officer left. On Tuesday Pandora announced that Michael S. Herring, its president and former CFO, and Nick Bartle, who had joined the company only nine months ago as chief marketing officer, were also leaving. A Pandora spokesman also confirmed that the company would soon be exiting Australia and New Zealand, the only countries where it operated outside the US. With these changes, Pandora will have undergone a nearly complete overhaul of its management in a little more than a year. More moves are expected, although analysts are hoping that the latest changes, and some level of control from Sirius XM, will steady the company. “This is the calm after the storm,” said Amy Yong, a media analyst at Macquarie Securities. New York Times News Service
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Microsoft: Some mobile Pinoy workers remain ‘disconnected’
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study by Microsoft Corp. revealed some employees in the Philippines still do not feel empowered to embrace the demands of the digital workplace. While 79 percent of Philippines respondents consider themselves to be mobile workers and spend at least 20 percent of their time working outside of their offices, only 53 percent of respondents agree their organization is committed at a leadership level to ensure every employee is included in closing the digital-skills gaps within the workforce. The study, which involved close to 4,200 working professionals from 14 markets in Asia, sought to understand shifting employee behaviors and gaps in the workplace when it came to productivity, collaboration and flexiwork practices. This included 312 respondents from Philippines. “As Asia primes itself to become the most connected market, with more than half of all mobile connections originating from the region by 2021, organizations need to rethink how they empower their workforce with the right culture, policy, infrastructure and tools to maximize their potential,” said Cian O’Neill, Microsoft Philippines chief marketing and chief operating officer. “This means enabling collaboration from anywhere, on any device.” An earlier version of Microsoft’s study conducted in 2015 found that 58 out of 100 respondents in Philippines were ready for the “New World of Work”. The latter is comprised of organizations that have the right “People, Place and Technology” principles in place to enable a productive, collaborative and innovative workforce. This year 67 out of 100 respondents
felt so, indicating that organizations in the market are slightly more equipped, although more can be done to move the needle, Microsoft said. Another study by Microsoft conducted in late-2016 found that “Empowering employees” is the No. 2 digital-transformation priority among the Philippines’s business leaders. On the other hand, having a digitally skilled workforce was ranked the third barrier in their digital-transformation journey. A large majority of the respondents (84 percent) value work-life integration today, where the boundaries of work and life have blurred, but have enabled mobile professionals to be able to collaborate and work virtually. The study also found that organizations need to address several structural challenges within the workplace to ready themselves for the digital age, as well as flexiwork practices. However, only 50 percent agree that their organization has invested in culture development through training and development led by the human-resource department. Respondents feel that strong leadership and vision from team leaders (52 percent), access to technology tools (50 percent) and diverse team members across job functions (40 percent) can help build more collaborative teams. “It is critical for business leaders to evaluate and implement changes to counter cultural and management challenges that are hindering employees to work seamlessly from wherever they are, which will, in turn, hinder an organization’s growth and progress in the digital age,” O’Neill was quoted in a statement as saying.
briefs Fil-Am whiz from Silicon Valley to keynote GOAB
FORMER Ernst and Young Llp. Chief Technology Officer Yobie Benjamin will keynote a conference on technology in Palawan in late-August, organizers of the 5th Geeks on a Beach (GOAB) said. “We hope the presence of Benjamin will inspire local start-ups and MSMEs [micro, small and medium enterprises],” GOAB 5 organizer Tina Amper was quoted in a statement as saying. “But more important, we are looking forward to having this global technology leader to interact with industry leaders and the start-up community to drive action for the betterment of the Philippines and the world.” Amper added GOAB continues to aim for measurable impact by facilitating potential projects and business deals not only for individual companies but also for the Philippine start-up ecosystem. Rizal Raoul Reyes
F5 Networks names Breeman as APac VP
F5 Networks Inc. announced on June 19 the expansion of its executive team with the appointment of Gabriel Breeman as vice president, Partner Sales and Alliances, Asia Pacific (Apac). Based in Singapore, Breeman will be working with cross-functional leaders to strategically expand and evolve the F5 sales channels and alliance-partner landscape. He will be reporting directly to Adam Judd, senior vice president of Asia Pacific Sales at F5 Networks. Judd said Breeman will be working very closely with the sales team to help us take advantage of new growth opportunities and further enhance F5’s position as a leader in application-delivery technology. Oliver Samson
BusinessMirror
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Hitachi sees PHL biz boosting sales
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ITACHI Ltd. expressed optimism its local operations would help the Japanese multinational conglomerate company reach its target to increase overseassales ratio to more than 55 percent. “The Philippines will play an instrumental role in helping Hitachi achieve the target by focusing on energy management, railway and urban development solutions,” the Chiyoda, Tokyo, Japan-headquartered firm’s statement read. Hitachi Asia Ltd. Philippine Br a nc h ( H A S - PH ) E xe c ut ive Mitsuhiko Shimizu said in a news conference on June 28 the
company will focus on smartcity technolog y. “For the faster phase today, we have chosen [to focus on technology surrounding] the smart city, because the current, you know, work operation of about 50 percent of the population [is] already living in the cities,” Shimizu, HAS-PH general manager, told reporters. “Here in Manila, we are
[experiencing] very heavy traffic and, also, we are [having the] presence [of] pollution, so that’s why the biggest challenge in the coming 20 or 30 years, is we have to overcome change.” According to Gerald Wang of the International Data Corp. (IDC), “The Smart City momentum is growing extensively in the Asia Pacific [AP] region, as many nations see it as an organic, bottom-up and middle-out innovation growth that will spearhead the next cycle of eGovernment evolutions.” “While at least 90 percent of all AP local governments or smart cities’ growth-leverage funds that are provided by central or federal functions, many of them are notably given the autonomy to create their own unique identity in city governance, strategic operations
and provisioning of effective eServices,” Wang, IDC Asia Pacific Government and Education head, was quoted in a statement as saying. “As such, there is notably a growing prevalence of citizen-directed initiatives and driving local industries, which ultimately contribute back to stimulating domestic, social and economic sustainability. This year’s submissions and winners highlight the impacts of climate change and slowing global trade. This led to the stronger push for environmental sustainability and operational efficiency so as to bring about better living standards and future continuity of the various AP cities.” IDC has declared Hitachi at the third spot in top 3 vendors of worldwide integrated platforms for the first quarter of the year.
A street fight among grocers to deliver your milk, eggs, bananas
Saturday, July 1, 2017
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Google offers free web site to SMBs
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OOGLE Corp. announced on Tuesday the launch of a tool called “Google My Business (GMB) Websites” to help small businesses in the Philippines create free, mobileoptimized web sites in minutes. “Some people may find that building a web site is complex, expensive and time-consuming,” Google said in a statement. “But now, by visiting google.com/business/how-it-works/website/, users are equipped with a simple, free and fast way to build a web site.” Citing its survey, Google added about 67 percent of the Internet population in the Philippines visits a business’s web site on a monthly average. But only 1 percent of small businesses in the Philippines actually have an online presence, and not all of them are web sites. That means missing out on telling many potential customers about your business. GMB a l lows businesses to create a page that contains all relevant information, such as business description, location,
contact information and operation schedules. Once all these information are saved, the website becomes visible on Search and Maps. Aside from increasing online presence, GMB’s web site builder makes it easy to: n Create a well-designed site that looks great and runs smoothly wherever and however people find it; n Stand out online by choosing a design theme, adding your photos and describing what’s unique about your business; n Get a free domain from Google or buy your own with Google Domains right from GMB; n Connect with customers by telling them exactly what you want them to do next, like call your business, book an appointment or sign up for your mailing list; n Manage everything in one place whether you’re on desktop, mobile or the GMP app; and n Earn new business from AdWords Express and your expanded presence online.
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VERY couple of days, Sinclair Browne fights through traffic in New York City’s Times Square, squeezes his delivery truck into a parking spot, walks up four flights of stairs and delivers groceries to a guy whose order he knows by heart. “I’m fast,” Browne said, slicing his hands in the air, ninja style. “In and out, in and out.” Delivering food requires military precision: Bananas can’t get cold. Produce can’t get warm. Eggs, of course, must not get broken. And people expect their food to arrive at specific times. Browne, 40, is a driver for the online grocery business Peapod. He plays the most important role in solving the biggest problem vexing the online grocery industry: moving food, undamaged and unspoiled, from the warehouse to the customer’s house. It’s known as the last-mile problem. Delivering perishables is much trickier than delivering T-shirts, books or pretty much anything else people can buy online. The biggest challenge is that groceries must stay cold for hours at a time. But there are myriad other complications, too. Bananas and apples give off fumes that can hurt loose leaf lettuce, so they can’t be stored too close. Tomatoes lose flavor when they cool to below 55 degrees. Milk always has to be packaged upright. All the complexity adds costs in an industry where profit margins are already thin. Few businesses have attempted these kinds of gastronomic acrobatics on a large scale, and numerous start-ups have failed trying, making groceries the last frontier of online shopping.
The Deliverer
EVEN Amazon, which built a multibillion-dollar business by perfecting its delivery logistics, hasn’t quite mastered the art of profitably delivering perishable food in big metropolitan areas. But it just made a big bet, purchasing Whole Foods in a $13.4-billion deal that will give it access to more than 400 stores concentrated around major population centers—places that may have walk-up apartments, aggressive taxi drivers and other urban obstacles that Browne navigates five days a week. Amazon’s deal sets up a faceoff with Walmart, the nation’s largest grocery store. Walmart itself is struggling to become as dominant in the virtual world as it is in the physical one. Jenn ifer C a r r- Sm it h, Peapod’s CEO, said she hopes Amazon’s purchase of Whole Foods will ultimately encourage more people to shop for groceries online, where about 10 percent of all shopping in the US happens
Sinclair Browne, a driver for the online grocery business Peapod, organizes a delivery at his truck in New York on June 21. Drivers like Browne are the last step in a complicated issue that has largely vexed the grocery industry: the lastmile problem. Bryan Anselm/The New York Times
now. The numbers for food are less than half that, according to data from FMI-Nielsen. As the competition heats up, Amazon and others will be relying on drivers like Browne, who makes $13 an hour, plus tips, to handle the biggest challenges of succeeding in the online grocery business. “What’s up, boss?” Brown greets the doorman at his first building, who tells him he’ll need to take his cart to the service entrance. He takes the elevator down one flight, but it’s the wrong entrance. He tries another floor. No go. When he asks for directions, the man working at the service entrance yells at him: “You don’t know, you should tell me you don’t know!” But rudeness, Browne said, is just one of the things he has to deal with. He’s still got to get in and out, in and out. Nineteen stops to go.
The Warehouse
EVERY second counts. Grocery delivery companies like Peapod have to calculate exactly how long each individual order will take, and monitor traffic patterns and car accidents for any disruptions. Browne gets alerts on his phone; On Sunday, he’ll have to avoid crossing Fifth Avenue, because of the Pride parade. Today some of his orders are allotted 10 minutes, others 12. Urban areas tend to take longer per stop: 12 to 20 minutes on average, compared with eight to 14 minutes in the suburbs, where Browne can pull right up to people’s homes. For all 20 of his orders on this day, Peapod has allotted nine hours and 20 minutes. Browne thinks he can do them all in eight. “The first guy slowed me up by having to go through the loading dock. I never really went through there before,” Browne said as he drives to the next stop. “Usually I’d be in and out of that building.” His tr uc k was loaded at Peapod ’s warehouse in Jersey C it y, New Jerse y, a m a ssive 4 0 0,0 0 0 - squ a re -foot fac i l it y
that services New York and New Jersey. About 425 people bustle in and out of the meat room, the produce room, a rotisserie room filled with dozens of rotating chickens. Workers wearing thick freezer suits retrieve frozen foods from the coldest room, loading items into bright, green temperature-controlled bins that workers refer to as “totes”. Anyone who has shopped for groceries online has probably thought to themselves something like, “Who will be squeezing my tomatoes, and will I get the good ones this time, or not?” That’s why, despite the vastness of the industr ia l automation here—there are about 7 miles of conveyor belts in Peapod’s warehouse—people like Amal Afifi are important. As she loads the totes, Afifi personally inspects some of the 14 million bananas Peapod sells each year. Her guidelines are relatively simple: Trust your gut. Literally. “I shop for customers like I shop for myself,” Afifi said, pointing to a box of unappetizing-looking, reject bananas. They may get donated to a local zoo, where the animals are less picky than people are about bruised fruit and smushed bread. Once perishable items make it into the tote, the clock starts ticking. Keeping food cold until it gets to customers is the single most difficult and important thing about delivering groceries. There are many opportunities for things to go wrong.
The City
BROWNE knows which doormen will let him use the bathroom, which customers tip well and which buildings will force him to use the service entrance, even if he’s only carrying a couple of bags. “It’s a lot of traffic, real tight spaces, a lot of people, people will just cross right in front of the truck sometimes,” Browne said. “Working in the city is very difficult, that’s why they say it’s not for everyone.” Browne likes interacting with
customers. He has families, college students, older people who he feels he’s helping, because they can’t easily shop for themselves. There’s the woman who lives directly above a grocery store, but still orders online. There’s the man who orders Froot Loops or cold cuts every couple of days, the woman who tips $20 every time. Today he’ll deliver to a couple of college students who must meet the truck outside. For security reasons, their dorm won’t let delivery drivers upstairs. Younger people are especially important to grocery-delivery companies. Millennials and Generation Y make up about a quarter of Peapod’s customers, but in a few years, those young people will likely begin spending more money on food; maybe they’ll have families, or get a pet or start making a little more money. They have grown up in an environment where everything is available online, and digital grocers want to get them hooked early. Peapod, for example, has added more organic, international and bulk items to its offerings, because those products tend to be popular among its younger customers. Generation X makes up about half of Peapod’s customers, and the remaining 25 percent are older. In total, Peapod’s customers are fairly evenly divided between the city and the suburbs, where Browne prefers to work. There are no horses or walk-ups, and he doesn’t need to walk past the garbage at a service entrance. Browne has lost 15 pounds since he started this job about a year and a half ago. Today he is carrying a gallon of milk, laundry detergent and a couple of bags with his left arm, and holds a carton of eggs in his right hand. He tries to do everything in one trip, if he can. He opens the carton to show the eg gs aren’t broken—eg gs must always be presented to the customer—and heads back downstairs. In and out. New York Times News Service
A musical group entertains guests during the launch of Acer Philippines.
Acer PHL links with Casio in marketing campaign
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CER Philippines Corp. and Casio inked a partnership to ramp up marketing of their products targeting members of the Generation X and millennials. “At Acer, we believe that it’s time to focus on bridging the generation divide,” Sue Ong-Lim, Sales and Marketing director of Acer Philippines, was quoted in a statement as saying. “It’s imperative that we see that, amid the differences between Gen Xers and millennials, they are also a lot alike.”
Central to the campaign is the partnership between Acer Philippines and G-Shock, a subbrand under Casio. G-Shock’s appeal has spanned both the Gen X and millennial generation, and continues to be popular among the youth today. “G-Shock is proud to be Acer’s partner in furthering this cause,” Charlene Hung, marketing officer of Casio Philippines, was quoted in the statement as saying. “With their help, we are optimistic that we will ultimately be able to succeed.”
Don’t let cyber criminals reel you in, PayPal says
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NLINE pay ment pl atfor m PayPa l hinted it st i l l receives c lose to 15,000 phishing reports each day from around the world. A growing number of fraudsters are trying to steal information, such as passwords and personal banking details, using a method known as phishing, in which they impersonate a business through e-mails and fake web sites, PayPal said in a statement on Thursday. “Scammers can impersonate you online, steal money from your bank account, and use your online identity to perpetuate their scams on others,” Rahul Shinghal, general manager for PayPal Southeast Asia, was quoted in the statement as saying. According to Shinghal, PayPal defends against 150 major attack campaigns every day and works constantly with its industry partners to help eradicate fraudulent phishing web sites. According to Daryl Pereira, head of KPMG Singapore’s cybersecurity division, 44 percent of successful cyber attacks involves phishing. Microsoft Corp., which hosted the forum where Pereira spoke, places the number at 77 percent. Pereira added that the end-user judgement results in phishing, which began when electronic mail became the ubiquitous method of electronic communication.
He nc e , PayPa l s a id u s e r s should take certain steps to keep their accounts secure, one of which is scrutinizing the sender of the e-mail. When you get an e-mail from someone asking for personal information, look at the address, according to Shinghal. Fraudsters will often try and make it seem as if a message is coming from a company like PayPal, but something is always a little off, he explained. “Look for red flags such as poor grammar or spelling, and URLs and domains that don’t match the sender,” Shinghal said. “For instance, if there’s a PayPal logo on an e-mail but the message appears to have come from an odd web site rather than paypal.com.” Other warning signs include any e-mail that demands you respond urgently, asks for your social security number or banking information or includes suspicious attachments. “Don’t click on e-mail attachments unless you are sure of its origins, and don’t click on e-mailed links unless you know where the link is going,” Shinghal added. If you see a link in an e-mail, don’t c l ic k on it: It ’s ha rd to determine where that e-mailed link will really take you. In the case of phishing, what you think is a legitimate URL could lead you to a fake web site designed to steal your username and password. Oliver Samson
BusinessMirror
A12 Saturday, July 1, 2017
news.businessmirror@gmail.com
Govt privacy agency hails PHL entry in intl HR group
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HE National Privacy Commission (NPC) is bullish on the gains from the Philippines’s entry as observer in an international human-rights group.
T he Ph i l ippi nes h a s been granted the obser ver status to t he Consu lt at ive Com m it tee of Convention 108 (CCC-108), a n i nter n at ion a l convent ion aimed at protecting individuals
in relation to the automatic processing of their personal data. The CCC-108, in its meeting in Strasbourg, Germany, voted unanimously on June 22 to approve the Philippines’s status.
Convention 108, to note, was a treaty created by the Council of Europe to protect individuals from the automatic processing of personal data, NPC Chairman Raymund Liboro said on Tuesday. The Council of Europe, a distinct entity from the European Union (EU), is an intergovernmental organization that develops conventions and recommendations in support of human rights, democracy and rule of law. Convention 108, or “The Convention of the Council of Europe for the Protection of Individuals with regard to Automatic
Processing of Personal Data”, is said to be the only binding international legal instrument in the field. Liboro said with the granting of the observer status—along with Japan, South Korea and Mex ico —the Phi lippines can have a voice in the ongoing modernization of Convention 108 and thus have a say on the rules shaping data-protection standards. Significantly, the country can have a better chance of achieving “adequacy” for the EU’s own EU General Data Protection Regulation (EU-GDPR) that will come
into force next year. The EUGDPR, in general, is a legislation aimed at harmonizing and streamlining laws on data protection throughout the EU. This was a major reform to a previous EU directive that has already been superseded by innovations on how data is processed, Liboro explained. Data controllers and processors handling any personal data of EU citizens will be the main targets of the GDPR. According to Liboro, the GDPR is of significance to the Philippines’s business-process outsourcing
(BPO) industry. An article of the GDPR states that the European Commission w i l l conduct an adequacy assessment of thirdparty countries, essentially deciding if a country has adequate data protection and allowing the transfer of data. Liboro clarified there are “modalities for meeting the adequacy level”. But regardless, the Philippines’s data-protection law and instruments are robust, he claimed. Liboro added the countr y’s data-protection measures are heavily patterned on the EUGDPR. Catherine Elizamarie N. Pillas
Local cybersecurity firm urges vigilance vs threats Story & photo By Rizal Raoul Reyes @brownindio
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YBER criminals are hastening their attacks against the Philippines at full speed. In 2015 the Philippines was ranked 33 out of the 233 countries prone to cybersecurity threats. Furthermore, the country was ranked 20th globally and third in Asia Pacific for social-media scams. With these disturbing scenarios, an official of Amihan Global Technologies (AGT) Philippines Inc. recently emphasized that Filipinos should now be always on guard against cyber criminals. “Our mind-sets have to change because technology is always changing,” Jerry Rapes,
AGT managing director, said in a roundtable on June 22 in Makati City. Rapes emphasized that an attitude bordering on paranoia must be the mind-set of business leaders whether they belong to the enterprise level or small to medium enterprise (SME) category. In an AGT report, 31 percent of tallied attacks were directed at the SME sector. At the enterprise level, Rapes said 33 percent of 614 recorded cybersecurity incidents involve Internet/automated teller machine fraud or identity theft. “Everybody must assume they can be hacked anytime.” Rapes said costs has been always the main challenge, particularly for SMEs, in putting up a cybersecurity infrastructure. If the SMEs find it expensive, Rapes said the SMEs will just as-
sume the risks and attack the problem later. He pointed to AGT’s subscription-based solution to enable local companies to develop their cyber security network at their own pace. “Our objective at some point is to offer this as a managed service,” Rapes said. “Even smaller companies can get protection now because they can subscribe to our service. If you get to a point that you can operate as a managed service, even the small companies subscribe to it.” Through the Industry Information Sharing and Analysis CyberOps (Isaco), Rapes said AGT can help SMEs detect and prevent the attacks. The Isaco collects, analyzes and disseminates critical threat information to enterprise Security Operations Centers, he explained. Aside from awareness, Rapes added enterprises must deploy big data and ana-
lytics as new weapons to detect, deflect and deter cyber attacks before substantial damage is done. He added deployment of a cybersecurity network requires a comprehensive solution to ensure the business is protected. Edison Dungo, vice president for cybersecurity and data privacy of AGT, also underscored the absence of cybersecurity awareness and data-privacy intelligence in the Philippines. “Security by default should be a way of life in the country,” Dungo said. To start, he said organizations must craft a list of inventory of their assets and familiarize themselves with the process. “Afterward, they can now work on matters, such as the identity of the hacker and the motives of attacking their site,” Dungo said.
This June 22 photo shows executives of Amihan Cybersecurity lawyer Juan Paolo Fajardo (from left), Vice President for Cybersecurity and Data Privacy Edison Dungo and Managing Director Jerry Rapes discussing the cybersecurity situation of the Philippines in a news conference in Makati City.
Juan Paolo Fajardo, AGT legal consultant, pointed out that developing a cybersecurity road map and embarking on a digital transformation, as well, does not only involve a
technological perspective. “Legal issues are also factored in,” Fajardo said. “Moreover, many are still confused what the rationale behind the compliance issues is.”