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Well-off Filipinos fast becoming target market for residence, citizenship by investment programs abroad

PHL elite find ‘paradise’

in foreign lands

By Roderick L. Abad | Contributors

ESIDENCE and citizenship planning is gaining momentum worldwide, particularly in Southeast Asia, including the Philippines, as high net-worth individuals or wealthy families are becoming more aware of options abroad that provide better opportunities and security, especially in times of uncertainty in their native lands.

Continued on A2

Dorian2013z | Dreamstime.com

R

BSP: Weaker peso won’t derail inflation path

By Bianca Cuaresma

espite the peso’s loss of value against the US dollar in recent weeks, the weaker currency will not impact much on inflation, the Central Bank said, expressing confidence that the growth of consumer prices will be contained within their 2-percent to 4-percent target range this year.

In the previous weeks, the local currency has lost its strength against the greenback to slump back to the 50-to-a-dollar territory anew.

This week the peso hit a fresh record low, hitting a 10-year low on Wednesday to close trade at 50.50

against the US dollar. This has been the lowest value of the peso against the greenback since 2006, predating the global financial crisis.

Escape hatch

Analysts said despite the local

PESO exchange rates n US 50.4660

economy’s continued vibrancy on the back of strong consumption, foreign investors are seen to slowly head for the exit via equity and bond-market flows, thus, reflecting a negative sentiment to the peso over the dollar.

The widening trade gap has also been blamed as one of the culprits in the weakening of the peso.

Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) officials, meanwhile, blamed the local currency’s performance to the surge of sentiment favoring the dollar.

Central Bank Governor Amando M. Tetangco Jr. said the movement of the peso was in line with the depreciation trend seen in regional currencies, and was a reaction to the recent statements from the Federal Reserve of a positive US economy potentially leading to further rate hikes in the future.

Fed rate-hike factor

In particular, Asian currencies have been reacting to the statement of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York President and CEO William Dudley on the rising inflation path of the US, along with better wages. Such conditions would warrant another round of hikes for their interest rates, a positive development for the US dollar.

While Tetangco said capital flows—such as the recent exit of funds via equity and bond markets—have long influenced foreign-exchange movements, the movement of the peso will have “minimal impact” on the country’s inflation dynamics.

This means that even if a weaker peso causes a rise in the cost of imported goods, such as oil, the overall movement in the prices of consumer goods is not expected

50.50

The peso-dollar exchange rate recorded on Wednesday, a 10year low since the start of the global financial crisis

Keechuan | Dreamstime.com

D

Continued on A2

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 )

NewsSunday BusinessMirror

A2 Sunday, July 2, 2017

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PHL elite find ‘paradise’ in foreign lands Continued from A1

“Certainly, it’s an industry that has a significant growth potential,” said Dominic Volek, managing partner and head for Southeast Asia of Henley & Partners (H&P). “Now that it’s becoming more mainstream, anyone can really have more than one passport.”

The increasing number of international entrepreneurs and investors getting interested in programs that offer residence or citizenship in other countries could be attributed to their desire for travel ability, mobility, independence, quality of life for family, children’s education and investments, Volek said.

The privilege to secure the option to permanently reside or retire in a safe and neutral country is a plus factor for them, he added.

“If you look at a global scale, there’s a lot of geopolitical issues happening, whether it’s the Trump administration’s travel ban for some nationalities, or the Brexit and what’s happening in the European Union. Of course, throughout Southeast Asia, this tension with North Korea and the South China Sea. All of these create some certainties,” Volek cited.

“So what wealthy people want in times of uncertainty are options. And having a second or alternative passports and citizenship, and second or alternative residence that they can become truly global citizens, these are what they want,” he said.

Global, local interests rise

INTERNATIONALLY, China remains the biggest market for H&P in terms of investment migration, followed by Russia and the Middle East, the top executive revealed.

“But in terms of growth, Southeast Asia is certainly where a lot of growth is happening,” he noted. “There’s a lot of interest here [in the Philippines], and it’s our biggest market in the region.”

What’s making the overseas residence and citizenship programs popular here is the dual citizenship that allows natives or naturalized to have two nationalities, with one being a Filipino.

The increasing number of ultrahigh net-worth individuals and wealthy people in the Philippines, likewise, contribute to the growth of the industry and their business.

This is because they always look to diversify their portfolio.

“They either look at investing in stocks, bonds and real estate.

But ideally they also want to do that offshore and onshore. So most of our clients are very cash rich and have lots of cash deposit in the Philippines that it’s a natural progression for them to diversify offshore, as well. Any person that has the financial means to do it certainly wouldn’t have all the eggs in one basket,” he explained.

Citing The H&P Visa Restrictions Index 2017, wherein the Philippines is ranked No. 75, with visa-free access to 61 countries worldwide, Volek said that it’s kind

of limiting the citizens to travel overseas.

“Unfortunately, the passport is not good from a travel perspective. So now that they know these options exist, it’s very possible for these entrepreneurs to become global citizens. From a business or leisure perspective, it enables them to really travel and do what they want and love a lot,” he said.

Going for EU passports

MORE and more elite Filipinos are seeking either residence or citizenship abroad, mostly in Europe, primarily due to travel and settlement freedoms they get to enjoy in this side of the Earth.

Location-wise, Cyprus and Malta are on the top shelf of citizenship by investment program that Philippine passport holdersalso seek to have.

Being full member-states of the EU, their citizens automatically have the right to settle, live, work, study and retire in all the 28 countries that make up the economic bloc.

“So effectively our clients can obtain either a Cypriot or Maltese citizenship to go and live anywhere in Europe. And that’s the real benefit. Nowhere is giving much travel and settlement freedoms like these two countries,” Volek said.

Since wealthy people are all concerned about wealth and succession planning, as well as seeking better opportunities that they can give to second generations, these nations are becoming

the preferred destination among H&P’s local clients.

“By becoming an EU citizen, they can apply along with their family, dependent children and parents. This creates a multitude of opportunities, whether education, work and, of course, healthcare benefits that come along with being an EU citizen,” he said.

Comparing both countries, Cyprus is what most rich locals choose over Malta for propertyacquisition purposes. “It’s more on real-estate investment,” he said of the former’s citizenship program.

“This is what attracts a lot of our Filipino clients.”

Cyprus has a modern, freemarket, service-based economy, with an effective and transparent regulatory and legal framework, giving international investors and businesses confidence to invest, grow and prosper.

This island-nation was ranked No. 16 on the latest visa restrictions list of H&P, with access to 158 countries globally. Also, it’s positioned as the 65th out of 144 countries by the World Economic Forum Global Competitiveness Report 2015-2016.

The Council of Ministers reduced the investment criteria to €2 million for the Cyprus Citizenship-by-Investment Program.

Here, the applicant must make an investment of at least €2 million for the purchase or construction of real estate.

“Since most of our Filipino clients are quite real-estate savvy, owners of a lot of properties and are involved in real-estate development, they prefer to get involved in projects where they buy in real estate in Cyprus as opposed to a program like that of Malta,” Volek noted.

Meanwhile, the Malta Citizenship-by-Investment Program requires a single applicant for a minimum investment or contribution of €650,000 for government fund and €150,000 government bond, which can be availed for five years. These amounts increase incrementally if dependent children, adult dependents, parents or espouses are included in the application.

“So that’s an investment. But again it’s a government bond, so you’re not going to get a big return on it. It’s more of donation rather than investment-oriented program like in Cyprus,” he said, while adding the third requirement is

having a property in the Maltese archipelago. “But still you can invest here, either into real estate for €350,00 in minimum, or lease an apartment for just €16,000 per annum, which 80 percent of our clients usually do.”

Being the most exclusive in the world, Malta—which is ranked 10th in the H&P Visa Restrictions Index 2017, with visa-free access to 167 countries—accepts only 1,800 applications for this program, of which 1,450 have been already received.

“So this is a program that’s not gonna be available forever because there is a quota. We’ve done probably 70 percent to 80 percent of those applications, and the majority of them are just leasing an apartment,” Volek divulged. “The program has been incredibly successful. So there’s a good likelihood that they’ll have another quarter [to offer]. Also, they’ll likely increase the investment amount set or required.”

Setting sights on the Caribbean

KNOWN for luxurious travel and leisure spots, the Caribbean is also luring more Filipino elites, especially to get a much better travel document or passport. This region issued a total of 2,500 passports last year.

The most ideal for them would be Antigua and Barbuda and Saint Kitts and Nevis, where they could get the privilege to travel to 136 countries sans visa. Both countries claimed the No. 30 spot in the visa restrictions index of H&P this year.

“So more than double what you currently get with a Philippine passport, and that includes the entire European region, the United Kingdom and various other countries,” Volek said.

Saint Kitts and Nevis has the oldest citizenship by investment program in the world for over 35 years now. Together with Grenada, the applicants here need not have to set foot on the island, and obtaining a second passport is very fast from three to four months.

Once an individual becomes a citizen of Antigua and Barbuda, on the other hand, he or she needs to visit for five days in the first five years. But it’s the only one in the Caribbean that has visa-free access to Canada.

“Because of that, we see a lot of interests in Antigua from Filipinos. That’s quite a popular destination for citizenship by investment

program here in the Philippines,” he pointed out.

Meanwhile, the managing partner and head for Southeast Asia of H&P noted that Grenada is another Caribbean option that is quite interesting because it has one of very few passports in the world that has visa-free access to China. He said, “A lot of entrepreneurs in the region ergo are attracted to Grenada from a business perspective.”

Just like in Malta, the abovecited Caribbean nations are mostly on donation basis. Saint Lucia, for instance, requires an applicant to donate $100,000 and within three months can have a passport.

With the financial capacities of their clients, Volek said their clients are indeed rich, thus, indicating the residence and citizenship planning industry a lucrative business.

“If you are either donating or investing $300,000 to $500,000 to just get a bit of travel document, the clients that are doing it from a net-worth basis are probably worth anywhere from $8 million to $20 million,” he estimated.

“The guys that are doing Europe—Malta or Cyprus—if you’re gonna be investing $1 million to $2 million just to get a passport, that would sort of be more ultrahigh net worth, like $30 million plus.”

“So if it’s purely a travel document issue, then the Caribbean is obviously what we advise the wealthy Filipino clients to choose because it’s relatively much cheaper than Europe. But if it’s a case of giving the family and kids as much opportunities in terms of work, experience and education, certainly Europe is a better option,” Volek stressed.

Founded in 1997, H&P has been the global leader in residence and citizenship planning for 20 years. The firm runs a leading government advisory practice, which has raised more than $5 billion in foreign direct investment.

Its global presence extends to more than 20 offices globally, including Australia, Antigua and Barbuda, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Dominica, Dubai, Hongkong, Jersey, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, the Philippines, Portugal, Russia, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Singapore, South Africa, South Korea, Switzerland, the United Kingdom and Vietnam.

BSP: Weaker peso won’t derail inflation path Continued from A1

to be derailed in its target path, just because the peso is trading weaker against the dollar.

Tetangco further explained that under the current inflationtargeting regime, inflation would increase by 0.04 percentage points in the short-run and by 0.39 percentage points in the long run for every P1 depreciation against the dollar.

This is a significantly small impact on inflation, as compared to the earlier numbers before the inflation-targeting period, where inflation would increase by 0.27 percentage points in the short-run and by 0.55 percentage points in the long run for every P1 depreciation against the dollar.

“The decline in both shortrun and long-run exchange rate pass-through coefficients provides greater flexibility for monetary authorities in maintaining price stability. In a low pass-through environment, policy-makers can target inflation and simultaneously commit to a floating exchange rate to stabilize the economy against external shocks,” Tetangco said.

Inflation figures

At present, inflation stands at an average of 3.1 percent in the first five months of the year, which means that barring other developments, the peso would still be within the 2-percent to 4-percent target range even if the peso weakens by more than P1 this year.

However, despite the lower impact of a weaker peso on the prices of goods and services in the country, analysts said the Philippines should not be complacent, as more developments in the second half of the year are expected to sway the peso to a potentially weaker note.

“All said, there is little room for complacency. The Philippines is set to enter into a twin [currentaccount and budget] deficit position this year at a time when the Fed is set on a gradual and steady hike path,” the Singapore-based DBS Bank said of the peso for the remainder of this year.

Sentiment reversal

A trader also told the BusinessMirror that the weakness of the peso could continue in the next six months, unless a reversal in sentiment toward the Philippines is seen.

TETANGCO: “The decline in both short-run and long-run exchange rate pass-through coefficients provides greater flexibility for monetary authorities in maintaining price stability.”

“Perhaps, the negative press from the President’s tirades, the protracted war in Marawi and the declaration of martial law have all convinced a good number of investors to troop to our neighbors for the meantime. Indonesia, Vietnam and Thailand may have better prospects for now. We’ll need to do more to convince foreigners that the Philippines is still the brightest star in Southeast Asia,” the trader said.

“Our story apparently has become passe as, yes, growth is strong but unless we take the next step [Build, Build, Build], we may look like a one-trick pony. We’ve sort of hit the rookie wall [or is it the sophomore wall], and we need to show another card to get them interested again,” the trader added.

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Paper billionaires lose fortunes amid small-cap stock rout

T

hree former billionaires who made their fortunes by taking their companies public in Hong Kong shed more than 91 percent of their wealth amid the market rout that’s roiling small-cap stocks in the city.

Huang Wenji suffered the biggest loss when his stake in China Jicheng Holdings Ltd. plunged $1.9 billion since the crash began during trading hours on Tuesday. Shares of the umbrella maker based in Jinjiang in China’s Fujian province tumbled 95 percent, as a series of losses cascaded across a network of companies with crossshareholdings, leaving the former billionaire with a stake in the business that the Bloomberg Billionaires Index values at $115 million.

Wong Wing-wah and Wong Chekwo, two more ex-billionaires whose civil engineering business Luen Wong Group Holdings Ltd. is linked to the same network, lost a combined $1.1 billion in the rout. The declines shrunk the value of their stakes by 91 percent.

Both companies are among more than 131 stocks featured in warnings from Hong Kong’s regulator, the Securities and Futures Commission, about high shareholding concentrations, thin turnover and small public floats. The businesses were flagged along with 48 others by shareholder activist David Webb, who said in a report six weeks ago that the operations were entwined in a complex web of cross-shareholdings that had pushed their valuations to unsustainable levels.

The World BusinessMirror

Sunday, July 2, 2017

A3

Central bankers tell the world borrowing costs are going up G lobal central bankers are coalescing around the message that the cost of money is headed higher—and markets had better get used to it.

Just a week after signaling near-zero interest rates were appropriate, Bank of England (BOE) Governor Mark Carney sug gested on Wednesday the time is nearing for an increase.

His US counterpart, Janet Yellen, said her policy tightening is on track and Canada’s Stephen Poloz reiterated he may be considering a rate hike.

The challenge of following though, after a decade of easy money, was highlighted by European Central Bank (ECB) President Mario Draghi’s attempt to thread the needle. Financial markets whipsawed as Eurosystem officials walked back comments Draghi made on Tuesday that investors had interpreted as signaling an imminent change in monetary policy.

“The market is very sensitive to the idea that a number of central banks are appropriately and belatedly reassessing the need for emergency policy accommodation,” said Alan Ruskin, cohead of foreign-exchange research at Deutsche Bank AG. The euro rose for a third day on Thursday, adding 0.4 percent to trade at $1.1425 as of 9:36 a.m. in London. The currency has gained more than 2 percent this week.

The Federal Reserve (the Fed) has been setting the tone in the trend toward a renormalization of monetary policy and Yellen gave no sign that her plans for tightening were changing, even as she acknowledged that some asset prices could be rising more than warranted by fundamentals.

Fed expectations

“We’ve made very clear that we think it will be appropriate to the attainment of our goals to raise interest rates very gradually,” she said on Tuesday, amid asset valuations that are “somewhat rich if you use some traditional metrics like price-earnings ratios.”

Yel len was the only major central banker from developed economies who didn’t attend t he EC B ’s yea rly con ference in Sintra, Portugal, where her counterparts from the UK and Canada signaled they could soon be following the US on the path of rate hikes.

Carney said on Wednesday that the BOE may need to begin raising interest rates and will debate a move in the next few months. His comments mark a shift in emphasis after he signaled last week that it wasn’t yet the time to start that process, a statement he clarified was his position as of when the officials last met on June 15. The pound jumped the most since April.

Ban k of Canad a Gover nor Poloz reaffirmed his tightening

bias, pushing the Canadian dollar higher and almost doubling the market-implied chance of a hike at the central bank’s next decision on July 12.

Job done

“It does look as though those cuts have done their job,” Poloz said, according to the transcript of an interview with CNBC. “But we’re just approaching a new interest-rate decision so I don’t want to prejudge. But certainly, we need to be at least considering that whole situation now that the excess capacity is being used up steadily.”

And while rate increases are off the table for the ECB until well after it eventua lly ends bond purchases, Draghi got a taste of just how difficult it will be to steer a course out of extraordinary stimulus without unsettling markets. His speech sparked a rally in the euro and bond yields on Tuesday, leading officials familiar with the central bank ’s strategy to try to contain what they saw as an excessive market reaction.

Underpinning Draghi ’s caution in signaling an exit is the fact that, while the euro-area recovery continues to strengthen, inf lation is still weak and wages and investment increases remain subdued. That’s a factor also highlighted by Bank of Japan (BOJ) Governor Haruhiko Kuroda, who unlike his counterparts, is set to keep the foot on the pedal of monetary stimulus.

The BOJ has pushed centralbank activism further than its peers. After more than four years of massive bond buying and with inflation still far from its 2-percent target, the central bank has embraced an active control of the yield curve. Still, Kuroda admitted the liquidity glut hasn’t been enough to spur companies to spend more.

“Since the introduction of qualitative and quantitative easing, economic conditions have improved and firms have experienced record high profits,” Kuroda said. “However, firms are still cautious about increasing spending, including investment.”

Bloomberg News

A4

The World BusinessMirror

Sunday, July 2, 2017

Terror case vs Qatar muddied

by Muslim Brotherhood links

A

s a critical deadline in the boycott of Qatar nears, Egypt’s stake looms larger than it may seem. Bahrain, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) say they are targeting Qatar above all because it funds and supports terrorism. On the list of 59 individuals they have provided as evidence, 26 are Egyptian citizens.

An analysis of those named suggests the dispute is as much about Qatar’s support for the Muslim Brotherhood since the 2011 Arab Spring as it is about its backing of international terrorist organizations, such as alQaeda that target the West. There are no Islamic State members among the names.

The Muslim Brotherhood, a diffuse and divided group that defies easy classification as a militant movement, is not labeled as a terrorist organization in the US or Europe. The Egyptian government, however, has spent the past four years trying to crush it, saying it embodies the dangers of political Islam.

Prominent preachers

Of the Egyptians named, one— Mohammed Shawqi Islambouli, a leader of the Gamaa Islamiyya terror group—is sanctioned by the US. Several others are prominent Muslim Brotherhood preachers who have supported violence, such as Al Jazeera broadcaster Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi and Wagdy Abdelhamid Ghoneim, who left Qatar for Turkey in 2014. Other names are unknown to terrorism experts, but are identified in Egyptian media as Muslim Brotherhood.

“Egypt has been dreaming for this moment, where the Saudis and everyone else is applying pressure on Qatar,” according to Mokhtar Awad, a research fellow at George Washington University’s Program on Extremism, because “Qatar has been consistently undermining the Egyptian regime”.

Qat a r, one of t he world ’s wealthiest nations, was the main financial backer for the Muslim Brot herhood- dominated government that won election in Egypt after the former dictator, President Hosni Mubarak,

was toppled in Febr uar y 2011.

W hen Genera l Abdel Fattah elSisi seized power in a militar y coup t wo years later, he declared the Brotherhood a terror ist organization and jailed it s l e a d e r s . S e c u r it y f o rc e s k il led more than 1,000 Brotherhood suppor ters and impr isoned thousands more.

Offered sanctuary

Some who escaped the crackdown found refuge in Qatar, which also gave them a powerful media platform from which to attack el-Sisi, now Egypt’s president. One of the more concrete demands made of Qatar to end the standoff is to close Al Jazeera, the Arab world’s most watched satellite news channel. A deadline to meet those demands, which include ending alleged sponsorship of extremist groups, expires next week.

Those who financed terror “to destroy our nation and those of others, we won’t forget them and we won’t forgive them”, el-Sisi said in a recent speech. He didn’t specify any nation.

Qatar, whose air, land and sea links with the boycotting nations were severed at the beginning of the month, says it is active in trying to shut down terrorist financing.

The Muslim Brotherhood organization renounced violence in the 1970s, but since Egypt’s July 2013 coup, disaffected former members have formed radical splinter cells that have carried out assassinations and car bomb attacks against security forces and judges in the Sinai peninsula, Cairo and other city centers.

Destabilizing factor

“These actors are embedded in the heart of the country and they are able to destabilize,” Awad

In this file photo released by Kuwait News Agency KUNA, Kuwait’s Emir Sheikh Sabah Al Ahmad Al Sabah (left) holds the hand of Qatar’s Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani in Doha, Qatar.

Acting as a mediator, Kuwait has presented Qatar a long-awaited list of demands from Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates and Egypt, four Arab nations that cut ties with Qatar in early-June. KUNA via AP

said. “They pose a more realistic threat of overthrowing the government than al-Qaeda or Islamic State ever can with their campaigns in the Sinai.”

Qatar also continues to support Hamas, the Muslim Brotherhood offshoot based in the Gaza Strip that has conducted militant campaigns against Israel.

The UAE and Saudi Arabia also fear the destabilizing potential of the Muslim Brotherhood, an organization that has grassroots support and no love for the region’s monarchies. “One of Qatar’s most overt connections to Islamic extremism is its support for the Muslim Brotherhood,” says a fact sheet distributed to journalists by the Saudi embassy in Washington.

“Through the Muslim Brotherhood, Qatar has attempted to undermine Jordan, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Bahrain.”

Saudi A rabia and the UA E have replaced Qatar as Egypt’s principal donors since the coup t hat d islodged t he countr y’s Muslim Brotherhood president, Mohammad Morsi.

Holding back?

Oma r S ai f Ghobash , t he UAE’s ambassador to the UK, acknowledged that the evidence the UAE and its allies have produced against Qatar hasn’t convinced everyone. The most alarming cases alleged are often dated, while the list includes anomalies, such as a Qatari journalist not obviously connected to terrorism.

Ghobash hinted that evidence of direct collusion between the Qatari royal family and US-designated terrorists might have been held back from the list to give the

regime in Doha a chance to back down gracefully first.

“Maybe this is the Gulf way of saying: Turn around now, let’s pull back now, before that kind of infor mation is produced,” said Ghobash, interviewed at a security conference hosted by the Centre for Policy Studies in London this week.

The current list already accuses a senior member of the Qatari royal family’s council and former interior minister, Abdullah bin Khalid Al Thani, of harboring al-Qaeda’s Khalid Sheikh Mohammed in the 1990s. According to the 9/11 Commission Report, “KSM” went on to mastermind the 2011 attacks on the US. Qatar claims to have cracked down on the funding and facilitation of al-Qaeda in recent years.

But the reliance on the Muslim Brotherhood and Qatari-backed militia commanders in Libya for more recent evidence of Doha’s support for Islamist extremism muddies the case, according to Shadi Hamid, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institute and author of Islamic Exceptionalism: How the Struggle Over Islam is Reshaping the World.

“ISIS, for God’s sake, considers the Brotherhood apostates,” said Hamid, adding that if backing bloodthirsty militias in Libya constitutes funding terrorism, then the UAE is guilty, too. Saudi Arabia, meanwhile, funds the spread of its fundamentalist Wahhabi brand of Islam around the world by building mosques and supplying imams to preach in them.

“The question,” Hamid said, “is extreme relative to what?”

Bloomberg News

Japan tobacco chases Marlboro man’s maker in smokeless race

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moker Takumi Itou is an example of how much Japan Tobacco Inc. needs to catch up as international rivals gain ground in a battle to offer the next generation of smoking alternatives.

Itou has been using a ¥9,980, or $89, IQOS device made by Philip Morris International Inc. that heats rather than burns tobacco. He’ll have more choices on Thursday, when Japan Tobacco begins selling a rival ¥4,000 product called Ploom Tech in Tokyo. However, Itou said he’s not interested after trying one that a friend owns.

“It doesn’t feel like tobacco at all,” he said. Instead, the 38-year-old musician is considering switching to British American Tobacco Plc.’s ¥8,000 glo, which he said tastes better. By next week, all three smokeless devices will be sold in Tokyo, vying to dominate the race for nextgeneration tobacco produc ts. Japan Tobacco risks trailing further behind global competitors after it said it expects supply shortages in its launch due to manufacturing constraints. Customers can only make reservations online and won’t be able to purchase its device directly at the two flagship stores opening this week.

“Clearly, they were caught napping and probably underestimated the potential for the heat-not-burn category in Japan,” said Eamonn Ferry, an analyst at Exane BNP Paribas in London.

Japan is a critical market for heated tobacco, the biggest growth opportunity in decades for developed markets, amid falling smoking rates. With sales of the devices forecast to mushroom to $15.4 billion globally in 2021, tobacco companies are rushing to get as many of the new tobacco gadgets out as possible to build brand allegiance.

Ploom Tech’s tobacco capsules require new manufacturing lines, which have created a bottleneck in supply, Suguru Fujiwara, head of emerging products marketing, said in an interview last week.

Japan Tobacco is also waiting to hear users’ opinions before making concrete plans about further expansion, though it aims to be available nationwide by early 2018. “We want to first hear customers’ feedback and decide the next step,” he said.

As the Tokyo-based company plans to set up 100 locations for consumers to pick up the devices ordered online, British American Tobacco (BAT) is set on Monday

to sell its competing glo device in more than 8,000 convenience stores around Tokyo and at its two flagship shops. BAT will also start selling in Osaka and the rest of Miyagi Prefecture, north of Tokyo.

Traditional cigarettes

Globally, Philip Morris has taken the lead, already selling IQOS in more than 25 markets. The Marlboro maker aims to produce the equivalent of 50 billion cigarette sticks by year end. Japan Tobacco expects to manufacture about a 10th of that and plans to test its product in an overseas market within a year.

Heat-not-burn devices, which heat tobacco without combustion to deliver nicotine to the user, have gained traction due to its similarit y to traditional cigarettes and the potential to cause fewer health risks. The growth is expected to reduce the market for traditional cigarettes by $7.7 billion in five years, according to market research group Euromonitor International.

Who wins the race is vital considering smokers are ditching traditional cigarettes for the heated devices, pressuring Japan Tobacco’s dominant 31-percent share of the

combustible cigarette market in its home country in 2016.

Shares of Japan Tobacco have dropped 1.7 percent in the past year, while British American Tobacco stock has gained 14 percent and Philip Morris has increased 21 percent.

Japan Tobacco said it took 120,000 pre-orders online in the first week of June for nationwide delivery. That website is now taking orders on a lottery basis. The device has already been for sale in a test market in Fukuoka.

Meanwhile, Philip Morris said it had sold 3 million IQOS devices in Japan as of last December. The company said April 20 that IQOS grabbed about a 12 percent share of Tokyo’s cigarette market.

“The early success of IQOS and then glo has certainly raised expectations for the proportion of the market that these products can capture,” said Jonathan Fell, director of investment manager Ash Park Capital, which owns shares in Philip Morris, BAT and Japan Tobacco. “Japan Tobacco is such a major cigarette player in Japan so it’s particularly vital for them that they’re able to capture a decent share of the market with their new product.” Bloomberg News

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‘NSA shares culpability in recent cyber attacks’

w

arwice in the past month, National Security Agency (NSA) cyber weapons stolen from its arsenal have been turned against two very different partners of the United States—Britain and Ukraine.

The NSA has kept quiet, not acknowledging its role in developing the weapons. W hite House officials have def lected many questions and responded to others by arguing that the focus should be on the attackers themselves, not on the manufacturer of their weapons.

But the silence is wearing thin for victims of the assaults, as a series of escalating attacks using NSA cyber weapons have hit hospitals, a nuclear site and US businesses. Now there is growing concern that US intelligence agencies have rushed to create digital weapons that they cannot keep safe from adversaries or disable once they fall into the wrong hands.

On Wednesday the calls for the agency to address its role in the latest attacks grew louder, as victims and technology companies cried foul. Rep. Ted Lieu, Democrat-California, a former Air Force officer who serves on the House Judiciary and Foreign Affairs committees, urged the NSA to help stop the attacks and to stop hoarding knowledge of the computer vulnerabilities upon which these weapons rely.

In an e-mail on Wednesday evening, Michael Anton, a spokesman for the National Security Council at the White House, noted that the government “employs a disciplined, high-level interagency decision-making process for disclosure of known vulnerabilities” in software, “unlike any other country in the world”.

Anton said the administration “is committed to responsibly balancing national security interests and public safety and security” but declined to comment “on the origin of any of the code making up this malware”.

Beyond that, the government has blamed others. Two weeks ago, the US—through the Department of Homeland Security—said it had evidence North Korea was responsible for a wave of attacks in May using ransomware called WannaCry that shut down hospitals, rail traffic and production lines.

The attacks on Tuesday against targets in Ukraine, which spread worldwide, appeared more likely to be the work of Russian hackers, although no culprit has been formally identified.

In both cases, the attackers used hacking tools that exploited vulnerabilities in Microsoft software. The tools were stolen from the NSA, and a group called the Shadow Brokers made them public in April. The group first started offering NSA weapons for sale in August and recently even offered to provide NSA exploits to paid monthly subscribers.

Although the identities of the Shadow Brokers remain a mystery, former intelligence officials say there is no question from where the weapons came: a unit deep within the agency that was until recently called “Tailored Access Operations”. While the government has remained quiet, private industry

has not. Brad Smith, the president of Microsoft, said outright that the NSA was the source of the “vulnerabilities” now wreaking havoc and called on the agency to “consider the damage to civilians that comes from hoarding these vulnerabilities and the use of these exploits”.

For the US spy agency, which has invested billions of dollars developing an arsenal of weapons that have been used against the Iranian nuclear program, North Korea’s missile launches and Islamic State militants, what is unfolding across the world amounts to a digital nightmare. It was as if the Air Force lost some of its most sophisticated missiles and discovered an adversary was launching them against US allies—yet refused to respond, or even to acknowledge that the missiles were built for US use.

Officials fret that the potential damage from the Shadow Brokers leaks could go much further and that the NSA’s own weaponry could be used to destroy critical infrastructure in allied nations or in the US. “Whether it’s North Korea, Russia, China, Iran or ISIS, almost all of the flash points out there now involve a cyber element,” Leon E. Panetta, the former defense secretary and Central Intelligence Agency chief, said in a recent interview before the weapons were turned against US interests.

“I’m not sure we understand the full capability of what can happen, that these sophisticated viruses can suddenly mutate into other areas you didn’t intend, more and more,” Panetta said.

“That’s the threat we’re going to face in the near future.”

Using the remnants of US weapons is not entirely new. Elements of Stuxnet, the computer worm that disabled the centrifuges used in Iran’s nuclear weapons program seven years ago, have been incorporated in some attacks.

In the past two months, attackers have retrofitted the NSA’s more recent weapons to steal credentials from US companies. Cyber criminals have used them to pilfer digital currency. North Korean hackers are believed to have used them to obtain badly needed currency from easy hacking targets, like hospitals in England and manufacturing plants in Japan.

And on Tuesday, on the eve of Ukraine’s Constitution Day— which commemorates the country’s first constitution after breaking away from the Soviet Union— attackers used NSA-developed techniques to freeze computers in Ukrainian hospitals and supermarkets and even the systems for radiation monitoring at the old Chernobyl nuclear plant.

T he so -ca l led ransomware that gained the most attention in Ukraine attack is believed to have been a smoke screen for a deeper assault aimed at destroying victims’ computers entirely. And while WannaCry had a kill switch that was used to contain it, the attackers hitting Ukraine made sure there was no such mechanism. They also ensured that their code could infect computers that had received software patches intended to protect them from attack.

New York Times News Service

I’m not sure we understand the full capability of what can happen, that these sophisticated viruses can suddenly mutate into other areas you didn’t intend, more and more. That’s the threat we’re going to face in the near future.”

—Panetta

Sports BusinessMirror

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

Sunday, July 2, 2017

A5

‘TIME’S RIPE TO BRING SPORTS BETTING INTO THE OPEN’ L

By Tim Dahlberg The Associated Press

AS VEGAS—Jimmy Vaccaro has been taking bets in this gambling town for more than 40 years, so there’s not much he won’t put a price on.

That includes the chances of the US Supreme Court opening the door to legalization of sports betting across the country—something Vaccaro couldn’t have imagined in 1976 when he first set up a sports book just off the glittering Las Vegas Strip.

“I make it an 8-5 favorite,” said Vaccaro, who operates the sports book at the South Point resort. “I feel good about it.”

For once there are some things to feel

good about in the push to allow more Americans to do what people in Las Vegas have been doing on a regular basis ever since the point spread was invented—put a few dollars on their favorite team.

What was once no more than a distant fantasy edged a bit closer to reality on Tuesday, when the Supreme Court agreed to hear New Jersey’s bid to allow sports betting at casinos and racetracks in the state. That the court even agreed to weigh in on the case was cheered as a victory from a sportsbetting industry that has long been eager to expand outside Nevada.

“It would be a monster step for us,” Vaccaro said.

Monster step might be an understatement.

The legal sports books in Nevada took in a record $4.5 billion in wagers last year, and it’s

anyone’s guess how many more billions would be in play if some big states like New Jersey or New York get into the act.

And, really, it’s way past time.

Nevada has shown in recent years that sports betting—if properly regulated—is no threat to either Americans with a few bucks in their pocket or the teams they bet on. Even the major sports leagues have come to accept—and even embrace— sports betting, though for some reason they are still fighting New Jersey’s efforts to get a piece of the action.

It’s a far cry from when Vaccaro was making book at the Royal Inn in the 1970s and sports betting was widely seen as both morally wrong and a threat to the country’s sports institutions.

“There’s this black cloud from people who don’t understand the industry that they keep throwing over us,” Vaccaro said. “It’s not fair.

It’s not really fair. They talk about fixed games but my answer is always this: I bet you there’s more politicians in jail than bookmakers.”

The case the Supreme Court will likely hear in the fall is centered around New Jersey’s attempt to save struggling casinos and racetracks by offering single-game sports betting, prohibited everywhere but Nevada under a 1992 federal law. The four major sports leagues and the NCAA sued in 2012 after the state passed a law to allow the betting, and until the Supreme Court unexpectedly agreed to hear the case it looked as if the New Jersey effort was dead.

That hasn’t stopped the American

doing instead of wasting resources on policies of the past is getting together with all interested parties, including the sports betting industry, and helping draft legislation for Congress to allow legal sports betting in states that want it.

Put in the necessary controls, and establish a way for them to be enforced across different states. Give states the option of opting out, and carve out some restrictions on betting college games in states where betting becomes legal.

Do it right and the leagues will have an ally in the sports-betting industry. Cut them in on a share of the profits, if that is what it’s going to take.

Stop treating sports betting like it is some sort of evil, and you might be surprised just how innocuous it turns out to be.

Marikina, Cebu battle separate rivals in PFL J

Seniors, Mid-Am golf tourney set at Malarayat

PV Marikina tries to preserve its hold of the lead as Global Cebu tries to tighten its grip of third place when they see action in different pitches today in the Philippines Football League (PFL).

JPV Marikina takes on upsetconscious Davao Aguilas at the Rizal Memorial Stadium, while Global Cebu plays Kaya Makati at the University of Makati Stadium. Both matches will kick off at 4 p.m.

Marikina continued to peak as the tournament gets older.

The team has won six of its eight matches capped by a 2-1 victory over Global Cebu last week.

JPV already collected 18 points for the No. 1 spot but

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HE country’s leading golfing elders and mid-ams take center stage next week as they clash in the 2017 Philippine Seniors and Mid-Amateur Open Championships at the Mount Malarayat Golf and Country Club’s composite course in Lipa City.

Ave Avena dominated last year’s staging at Summit Point, winning by 12 strokes over Alan Alegre and 14 over Rolly Viray but this year’s title chase is expected to be fierce with a slew of others joining the hunt in the event held as part of the PLDT Group National Amateur Golf Tour and backed by the MVP Sports Foundation, Cignal and Metro Pacific Investments.

The Seniors Open, for players 55 years old as of June 2017 set from July 5 to 7, is a gross stroke-play competition over 54 holes using the regular men’s blue tees, according to the organizing National Golf Association of the Philippines.

The Seniors age-groupers, meanwhile, are Division I (55-59), Division II (60-65) and Super Seniors (66-and-above) to be played over 36 holes on July 6 and 7.

The Mid-Amateur, on the other hand, is for players 25 years old as of June 2017, with Gerald Katigbak edging Richard Salcedo by two to capture the Open crown last year.

Also up for grabs are Division I (25-54 with a handicap index of not less than 8.0 but not more than 15.0) and Division II (not less than 15.01 but not more than 24.0) titles.

Also on tap is the Open-Elite Amateur (for players with handicap index of 0 to 4.0 as of June 2017), a 54-hole stroke-play competition ruled by Rupert Zaragosa last year.

Also to be disputed are titles in the Seniors class, including the premier Open, and Divisions I and II and the Super Seniors, while the Mid-Amateur side will stake the Open and Divisions I and II crowns.

Gaming Association—a casino industry group—from pushing for federal legislation to legalize sports betting, an idea that has received a lot of new interest in the wake of the explosion of the daily fantasy industry, which is basically sports betting under another name.

What will be interesting as the New Jersey case goes before the Supreme Court are the actions of the plaintiffs themselves.

A lot has changed in the five years since the leagues and the NCAA filed suit, with NBA Commissioner Adam Silver now on record as saying legal betting is good for the league and the National Football League allowing the Raiders to move to a state where sports betting is legal with no restrictions on betting on the team.

What the leagues really should be

it would try to avoid turning complacent against Davao, which ended the five-game winning run by forcing Meralco to a 2-2 draw two weeks ago.

After that major upset, the Aguilas settled for a goalless draw with Ilocos United last week and fell short of beating Global, 1-2, last Wednesday.

Marikina has four points from four draws and as many defeats.

Global Cebu, meanwhile, is currently in third place with 13 points after seven matches. The Cebuanos hope to repeat their 3-1 victory over Kaya on May 24.

Kaya, on the other hand, is stuck at 10 points on three losses against three wins and a draw.

Lance Agcaoili

STALLION Laguna goalkeeper Roland Sadia denies Fernando Rodriguez of Ceres Negros a scoring opportunity, as Stallion teammate Terrence Linatoc looks on, in last Wednesday’s match won by Ceres, 5-1.

Chess meet NCR leg up

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TOP SEED AT WIMBLEDON

World No. 1 Andy Murray, the defending champion, is the top-seeded player at Wimbledon followed by Novak Djokovic, Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal at Wimbledon. Nadal and Djokovic are also in the top four of the Association of Tennis Professionals rankings, but Federer is No. 5. Third-ranked Stan Wawrinka, who has won the other three Grand Slam titles but not Wimbledon, is seeded fifth. AP

Williams sidelined by knee injury

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EW YORK—Former National Basketball Association (NBA) point guard Jason Williams will miss six to eight months after suffering a knee injury in the opening game of the Big 3.

Corey Maggette also won’t be on the court after lower leg surgery, but Ice Cube expects to see more of Allen Iverson on it as his three-onthree league of former NBA players heads to Charlotte, North Carolina, for its second week.

The injuries were announced Wednesday during a conference call with Cube and Big 3 cofounder Jeff Kwatinetz, who argued that the injuries had nothing to do with the league’s use of older players.

“We had four games and in those four games less people were injured than will most likely be injured in any single first game in the NFL this

year,” he said. “People are injured in the NBA all the time, unfortunately. Cars crash in Nascar and these things do happen. We do believe that there was intensity that maybe everybody didn’t expect and there will be an adjustment period as the season goes on.”

Iverson, the former NBA MVP who is the league’s biggest attraction as a player-coach, put himself in for only nine minutes in his team’s victory. He said after the game that at age 42 he didn’t expect to be playing much.

But Cube said Iverson sat mostly because his team was matched up against a taller one, which wouldn’t be the case on Sunday.

“He’s going to get stronger, play more and go after it, because he didn’t really get in this thing to sit down,” Cube said. AP

HE Shell National Youth Active Chess Championships braces for a full-packed field when the second leg of the fivestage regional circuit resumes on July 8 and 9 for the National Capital Region stop at SM Mall of Asia’s Music Hall in Pasay City.

Keen competition is seen as top players and rising stars from the leading Metro Manila schools and nearby cities slug it out for top honors in various divisions of the nine-round Swiss system tournament. The top three and the No. 1 female player from each category will gain berths in the national finals.

Events on tap are the kiddies for players aged 7 to 12 (born between 2004 to 2009), juniors for 13 to 16 years old (born between 2000 to 2003) and seniors for 17 to 20 (born between 1996 to 1999) for boys and girls.

The country’s longest-running talentsearch kicked off its milestone 25th season in Batangas City last month with Philippine Science High School’s Stephen Rome Pangilinan winning the juniors crown, Michael Concio Jr. of Dasmariñas National High School in Cavite snaring the kiddies plum and Lyceum’s Jonathan Jota dominating the seniors play.

Others who advanced in the national finals set on October 7 and 8, also at SM MOA, were runners-up Daniel Quizon (juniors), Mark Jay Bacojo (kiddies) and Romulo Curioso Jr. (seniors), along with top female players Kylen Joy Mordido (juniors), Daren de la Cruz (kiddies) and Venice Vicente (seniors).

Only in the NCR leg will the top three players from each side earn berths in the grand finals.

A6 Sunday, July 2, 2017

Science

BusinessMirror

Sunday

PCIEERD renamed

Innovation Council: For better service

By Rizal Raoul Reyes

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Correspondent

@brownindio

he Philippine Council for Industry, Energy, Emerging Technology Research and Development (PCIEERD) celebrated its seventh anniversary on June 29. Like all milestones where the accomplishments and future plans are laid out, the council opted to be known by a new name in order to highlight its pursuit for innovation.

Thus, PCIEERD will be now known as “Innovation Council”. “ The first reason why we changed it [PCIEERD’s name] to Innovation Council was that the former name was quite long.

The former name did not have a strong recall. At the same time, it embodies not only research and development [R&D] but also advocates the pursuit of innovation on many fronts. It also helps in reducing the layers of procedures in the bureaucracy when we are doing our projects,” said Dr. Carlos Primo C. David, executive director of the Innovation Council, on the sidelines of its anniversary held at the Philippine International Convention Center in Pasay City.

David admitted that working with a small budget is always a challenge for the council, as well as the Department of Science and Technolog y (DOST), but they still remain committed to pursue innovation for the benefit of the society “[The]DOST is a very quite agency of the government with a little funding. But this does not deter us from providing the impact to society in terms of manpower development, making our industries competitive and creating those strategies that will actually have a positive impact to the different sectors of society,” David pointed out.

The Innovation Council has a budget of P700 million for 2017.

P700M

The budget of Innovation Council for 2017

In his keynote address, Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry (PCCI) President George Barcelon said the private sector has an important role in the development of R&D in the country.

He added this is the reason other countries in Southeast Asia have a strong economic foundation.

Barcelon said the government must speed up the development of information and communications technology (ICT) so the Philippines can be on a par with its more progressive neighbors, such as Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand.

He added PCCI could help local industries expand their market by bringing them to foreign roadshows. “We can select some industries that are competitive in the foreign markets,” he said.

“We also need to simplif y science and technolog y to the SMEs [small and medium enter prises] to promote inclusive growth,” he added. Meanwhile, the DOST signed memorandum of agreements with the National Security Council, and with the M i nd a n ao De ve lopme nt Authority to help them in their R&D projects.

Dr. Carlos Primo C. David, executive director of the Department of Science and Technology-Philippine Council for Industry, Energy, Emerging Technology Research and Development (PCIEERD), launches on its seventh anniversary on June 29 the new PCIEERD, as it aspires to be recognized as the Innovation Council. DOST PCIEERD Facebook photo

T his year the Innovation Council broadened its coverage with the addition of four new areas for research.

It now directs 21 areas, namely electronic and semiconductor, mining and minerals, metals and engineering, food processing, energy efficiency, transportation, nanotechnology and/or materials science, biotechnology, genomics, ICT, photonics, space-technology applications, climate-change adaptation, disaster risk reduction and management, environment, a r t if ic ia l intel l igence, data science, creative industries and human security.

David said in his speech during the anniversary celebration that industry competitiveness would center on micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) and would put more emphasis toward countryside development.

“As for the MSMEs, the Innovation Council seeks to empower the tools and assistance so they can develop technology-centric products,” David said.

“We encourage the MSMEs to veer away from traditional businesses, like the sari-sari [variety] store. We want them to upgrade so they can move up higher the value chain,” David added.

To broaden its ser vices and strengthen current policies, the Innovation Council introduced new programs and projects that

will reach wider audience and benef ic i a r ies. T hese a re t he E -gover na nce system, Young I n no v at or s P ro g r a m , G a b ay Probinsiya Prog ra m a nd t he SME Support Program.

The e-governance system is a web-based government solution that will provide automated management, administration and analytics to facilitate and strengthen citizen involvement, and social and economic opportunities through open-source technologies. Furthermore, the system, developed primarily for local government units (LGUs), will include programs that will automate operations across departments of LGUs. The Young Innovators Program initiated by the former PCIEERD seeks to provide funding to students and rising researchers with innovative research direction to pursue pioneering work leading to a publication or product invention.

David said the program seeks to tap potential researchers, as young as high-school students, to conduct independent research to hasten the production of scientific workforce and encourage new and innovative research areas.

“This is the answer to the brain drain happening in the country.

The solution is to keep on producing and producing scientists and researchers,” David explained.

The Gabay Probinsiya Program aims to promote its services in the form of grants-in-aid research projects, technology-business incubation and human-resources development program.

Moreover, David said the Innovation Council R&D managers will be temporarily assigned to selected regional offices to conduct surveys of available raw materials, assessment of competencies of state universities and colleges, consultations with stakeholders, and conduct of lectures on how to prepare R&D proposals.

By forming a partnership with the World Friends Advisor Program of the National Information Technology Industry Promotion Agency of South Korea, the SME support program seeks to improve the productiv it y, quality and overall competitiveness of SMEs in the country, David said.

UPLB summa cum laude’s view of agriculture affirmed

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he lone summa cum laude graduate of the University of the Philippines Los Baños (UPLB) this year is a BS Agriculture student, who underscored the role of agriculturists in seeking ways to ensure food security in his valedictory message during the 45th UPLB Commencement Exercises.

Arnel B. Villancio Jr. said farmers, not agriculturists, feed the world, but said that “the responsibility of agriculturists is to continuously find ways for the world to feed itself.”

Director Gil C. Saguiguit Jr. of the UPLB-based Southeast Asian Regional Center for Graduate Study and Research in Agriculture (Searca) affirmed this, noting that agriculture has evolved from the old concept of ox-and-plow farming to a dynamic field that employs modern technologies and business practices, and is one of the most important sectors in

the economy. Among the UPLB graduates were 27 of the 50 master’s degree and PhD scholars of Searca who obtained t h e i r g r a d u a t e d e g re e s i n v a r i o u s specialized fields of agriculture and related disciplines.

T he 23 other Searca scholars completed their graduate programs at universities in Japan, Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand.

Now in its 50th year, Searca carries out its mandate to build the capacities of S outheast Asian individuals and i n s t i t u t i o n s t h ro u g h i n c l u s i ve a n d sustainable agriculture and rural development. Searca is hosted by the Philippine government on the campus of UPLB. The 23 other Searca scholars completed their graduate programs at overseas study posts, namely: Tokyo University of Agriculture; Universiti Putra Malaysia; Universitas Gadjah Mada and Institut

Per tanian Bogor, both in Indonesia; and Kasetsart University, Chiang Mai University and Khon Kaen University, all in Thailand.

The degree programs of all 50 newly graduated Searca scholars were in the various specialized fields of agriculture- and related disciplines. These include agriculture, agronomy, plant breeding, animal science, horticulture, entomology, plant pathology, soil science, agricultural systems management, food, science and technology, agricultural economics, agricultural engineering, forestry, rural-development management, rural sociology, extension education, environmental science, natural-resource conservation and information technology for natural-resources management.

Out of the 35 masters in science and 15 PhD graduates, 25 were supported by the joint collaboration with the

International Development Centre of Canada, while six were supported by the German Academic Exchange Service and one by the University of California-Tokyo Nodai joint scholarship.

During a testimonial program, in which Searca honored its graduating scholars, Dr. Saguiguit enjoined the scholars to put their knowledge and skills to good use for the benefit of their respective families, home institutions and countries.

Saguiguit also asked the new graduate alumni to remember Searca and “take every opportunity to support and contribute to the center’s mandate and development goals”.

T he graduates joined the pool of some 1,400 Searca graduate alumni spread across Southeast Asia. Among them is Philippine Competition Commission Chairman Arsenio M. Balisacan, who was guest speaker at the 2017 UPLB hooding and recognition rites.

Trade fair, lecture to highlight DOST-FPRDI’s 60th anniversary

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n exhibit and trade fair featuring furnitures, handicrafts and other products await guests at the 60th anniversary celebration of the Department of Science and Technology-Forest Products Research and Development Institute (DOST-FPRDI) from July 4 to 6.

Dubbed “Pistahan sa Gubat”, the event to be held at the DOST-FPRDI Compound, Forestr y campus in the University of

the Philippines, Los Baños, celebrates local craftsmanship by bringing in forest products artisans and small and medium enterprises together. It also envisions to be a platform where local ar tists a n d e nt re p re n e u r s co u l d exc h a n g e knowledge, as well as display and sell their products.

Likewise, the institute will showcase some of its technologies and services

through technology demonstrations, laboratory visits and exhibits. Technodemo topics include charcoal briquetting, water-hyacinth processing, handmade p a p e r m a k i n g, e n g i n e e re d b a m b o o, wood bending, finishing and dyeing, and foldable and DIY bamboo shelters.

This year’s milestone anniversary will highlight how DOST-FPRDI—through appropriate technologies and services—

has empowered the country’s forestbased industries and communities over the last six decades. Besides Pistahan sa Gubat, a Research Chair Lecture will be held on July 4 with the topic “Improving the Utilization of Bamboo for Engineered Products Manufacture” by Dr. Rico J. Cabangon of the Engineered Products D e v e l o p m e n t S e c t i o n , Te c h n o l o g y Innovation Division.

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

Coffee industry to get boost from R&D, launch of PHL Coffee Quality Center

Department of Science and Technology-Philippine Council for Agriculture, Aquatic and Natural Resources Research and Development. Acting Executive Director Dr. Reynaldo V. Ebora (fourth from left), assisted by Dr. Jocelyn E. Eusebio (fifth from left), Leilani D. Pelegrina (sixth from left), Program Leader Dr. Alejandro C. Mojica Sr. (third from left), Dr. Julio Alava (second from left) and Dr. Marilyn Escobar (left) in cutting the ribbon during the recent launching of the Philippine Coffee Quality Center at the Cavite State University, Indang, Cavite.

Gabriel Paolo Peralta/CRD-PCAARRD

The Cavite State University gene bank houses various coffee accessions collected from different parts of the Philippines. Gabriel Paolo Peralta/PCAARRD

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he Cavite State University (CvSU) recently launched the Philippine Coffee Quality Center to complement the thrust of its Coffee Research and Development (R&D) Program.

Titled “Creating Growth in the Countryside through the Development of Appropriate Technologies on Coffee Production and Processing”, the program aims to increase farm productivity and improve coffee quality through R&D interventions on varietal selection/ improvement, production of planting materials, site selection and processing/value-adding.

The center, funded by the Philippine Council for Agriculture, Aquatic and Natural Resources Research and Development of the Department of Science and Technology (DOST-PCA ARRD), was built with coffee cupping and processing facilities, Genetics and Tissue Culture Laboratory, and the Remote Sensing and Geographic Information System Office.

Some of the planned initiatives to f ur t her develop t he center include the provision of funds for its operations, hiring of permanent personnel, offering of laboratory and training services, development of coffee blends and other coffee-based products, and strengthening the linkages with farmers, cooperatives, industry players and other stakeholders.

According to DOST-PCAARRD Acting Executive Director Dr. Reynaldo V. Ebora, the Industry Strategic S&T Program for Coffee is one of the programs that received a significant budget from the council. He said it has well-defined programs with clear outcomes, among which is the Philippine Coffee Quality Center.

Coffee R&D Program

Besides the Philippine Coffee Quality Center, the Coffee R&D Program’s outputs are almost ripe for harvest. Cup and roasting profiles of Arabica (Coffea arabica) and Liberica (Coffea liberica) coffee have been developed to enhance the cup quality of Philippine specialty coffee.

More than 250 farmers were trained on proper har vesting and postharvest technology, and a protocol on proper harvesting and postharvest practices will be applied for intellectual property right.

Protocols on the different

phases of somatic embryogenesis are also being optimized. Somatic embryogenesis is a tissue culture method that can produce trueto-type and quality planting materials in a shorter period and in a larger scale compared with conventional methods. To date, the protocol for the callus induction phase has been optimized while the rest are nearly complete.

The widening disparity between coffee production and consumption in the country, among other reasons, inspired the creation of the first gene bank for coffee in the Philippines.

In relation to this, one of the projects is establishing f ield gene banks at the cooperating state universities and colleges, including the Benguet State University, Central Mindanao University and Central Philippines State University.

The project also created a database of genetic resources, known as Coffee Genetic Resource Information Documentation Database.

Suitability maps have been developed for Arabica and Liberica to show the extent of appropriateness of land areas for planting coffee. Standardized maps of elevation, soil pH and texture, annua l precipitation, annua l temperature and road density have also been generated.

The other activities under the program include the development of a training manual on Coffee Seedling Production Management, complete renovation of the tissue culture laboratory at the CvSU and conduct of training for the cooperating agencies on nursery management of tissue-cultured coffee seedlings.

During the coffee R&D review, the technical panel challenged the program team to develop what would be known as the “Filipino Coffee”, with its signature properties and standard in terms of measurable parameters for Arabica and Liberica.

T he y a l so encou raged t he lobby ing on proper har vesting a nd post h a r vest processi ng , a long w ith the for mu lation of an accreditation body.

Other opportunities identified include the certification for seedling/planting material production, further molecular characterization for integrity, and creation of new coffee blends from the developed cup profiles.

S&T Media Service

Tourism&Entertainment BusinessMirror

Editor: Carla Mortel-Baricaua

The 2017 World Street Food Congress

Bringing heritage cuisine into the street-food culture

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Story & Photos by Marky Ramone Go

s soon as the clock stroke the 4 p.m. mark of the opening day of the five-day World Street Food Congress and the gates finally opened, legions of foodies eager to chow down some of the world’s finest culinary delights conceived for the streets quickly came bursting at the SM Mall of Asia Concert Grounds on May 31.

As the savory smoke sizzled the open-air venue with an inviting aroma, fervent diners are then treated to the sight of an assortment of rich-colored cuisines, cut and sliced varyingly, and accompanied by a wide assortment of ingredients bursting with flavor.

It didn’t took long before the vibe turned into notches bustling with hurried activities of customers giving out orders, head chefs barking instructions and servers explaining the various intricacies of their menu.

Making a selection amid the verbal exchanges of animated food discourse soon became part of the experience. It is like a big chunk of the global street-food culture rained down on this part of Manila and everyone present were fortunate enough to consume all of it, literally by chops and figuratively by the rest of their senses and minds.

‘Re-Imagine Possibilities’

Creator and Curator of the World Street Food Congress KF Seetoh (left) joins Chef Sau del Rosario on stage as he shows off his Sisig Paella.

Sisig Paella from the Philippines

With this year’s running theme: “Re-Imagine Possibilities”, the 2017 World Street Food Congress aims to collectively raise awareness about the potential of the industry to become an important part of a country’s culinary character and come up with a better vision for both the festival participants and leading industry players, to create a bigger appetite for heritage street-food opportunities around the world.

“Hawkers, or street-food cooks, today are seen increasingly as vendors of food culture, especially in countries that have a rich history of street food. They lend a culinary brand to a place, offer a dish that is a part of their culture, be it old or progressive,” said KF Seetoh, the creator and curator of the World Street Food Congress and founder of Makansutra, a Singaporean company holding the truncheon in the promotion of street food culture.

World Street Food Dialogue

Chicken Inasal in Coconut Pita Bread from the Philippines

An intimate two-day conference kicked off the 2017 World Street Food Congress and featured an acclaimed roster of speakers, such as celebrity Chef Anthony Bourdain, Seetoh, Chef Sau del Rosario, Chef Claude Tayag, plus other talented chefs, food consultants and social entrepreneurs.

Du r ing t he prog ra m, See toh expressed his desire for the street-food culture to grow more in the Philippines and to mirror

the hawker’s settings of Singapore, where every street-food parks are closely monitored and regulated to guarantee the health aspect of it.

Del Rosario alluded to the importance of infusing heritage cuisines into the street-food culture as it present a good opportunity of showcasing a recipe handed from many generations to more people. He backed up his point by presenting a cooking demo and letting the audience taste his Sisig Paella creation.

Celebrity Chef Anthony Bourdain, who spoke on the second day of the conference, shared an update on his much-awaited Bourdain Market in New York City. The “Parts Unknown” host promises one thing “[Bourdain Market] will not be some Disneyland version of McHawker or HawkerWorld.

We’re talking about the widest selection of the real deal”.

On street-food culture, Bourdain emphasized its importance in generat ing a l ast ing f irst impression and cultural identity of a country. This is also the reason he wanted to feature Filipino street foods in his Bourdain Market in New York.

“Filipino food is definitely underrated worldwide. In New York it doesn’t have hipster credibility yet. But things are changing, and I hope to be a part of that change.” Bourdain said.

Street-food feast

Almost 30 food stalls participated in this year’s World Street Food Congress and presented street foods from different countries, such as the Philippines, India, the United States, Vietnam, Malaysia, Indonesia, China, Japan, Thailand, Germany and Mexico.

For five days, foodies were treated to a gastronomical experience trying out the numerous street foods from the participating countries and even from the other regions of the Philippines.

Culminating in a gastronomic high and a new set of knowledge that now crests on everyone’s minds—a fact that street food doesn’t always have to be dirty— for it can be as sumptuous and as refined as the gourmet dishes served at expensive restaurants.

With the resounding turnout of the 2017 World Street Food Congress, it is safe to assume that street food have never enjoyed this much positive street cred than ever before.

Sunday, July 2, 2017 A7

Hong Kong summer fun: Shop. Eat. Play.

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ooking for a place to experience another round of summer? Hong Kong offers the ultimate #travelgoals rolled into one—it’s time to shop, eat and play! This year Hong Kong is set to host several thrilling events that will definitely make your summer vacation a break to remember this July and August 2017.

In celebration of its 20th anniversary, Asia’s World City has various activities in store, including the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) Asia e-Sports and Music Festival Hong Kong as one of its main events for the season. It will be a treat of live music, e-sports, food, drinks and more at the Central Harbour front Event Space.

E-sports takes the stage as “The League of Legends” (LOL), the most played e-Sports game around the globe, has invited 20 former pro-players who won major tournaments to return to Hong Kong’s arena to compete for the glory.

The SM Town Live Tour, as part of the festivities, will feature some of the most popular K-pop groups and artists, such as D&E (Super Junior), EXO, Luna from f(x), NCT 127, NCT Dream, Red Velvet, SHINee and Yesung (Super Junior).

Best of all, it’s in Hong Kong

There are a lot of events and activities that can only be experienced in Hong Kong, to include the Hong

Fly Emirates to Dubai, South Africa and Europe for less

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Oyster Omelette from Taiwan

Bánh Bèo from Vietnam

Nasi Lemak from Malaysia

BÁnh Xeo from Vietnam

Kong Light Show, as well as tours and expos, along its cool neighborhoods—all these set against the backdrop of Asia’s World City.

Witness the Hong Kong Light Show, a spectacular multimedia display on the iconic buildings of the Hong Kong Cultural Centre and the Clock Tower, which will feature diverse lighting effects, 3D projection mapping, music and sound effects, presenting Hong Kong as a cosmopolitan city with vibrancy.

This also makes the perfect time to explore Hong Kong’s cool neighborhoods. There are places that will satisfy your hunger for amazing destinations that will not only feed the soul, but also leave the experience tank full of great memories and remembrances. Discover stylish boutiques, local delicacies, nightlife places and living culture at 10 districts with special characteristics.

Get off-the-beaten path, uncover hidden gems, and experience the city like a local. It’s not just fun—it’s Hong Kong summer fun!

You can now get your coupon booklets from the Hong Kong International Airport, HKTB visitor centers and hotels in Hong Kong. Find the list of participating merchants and exact locations on where to collect the booklet at www.discoverhongkong.com/seasia/ plan-your-trip/latest-promotion/ smart-deals.jsp.

mir ates A irline of fers special fares to the Middle East, Europe and South Africa starting from $789 for Economy Class and $2259 for Business Class available until July 5 for travels between June 29, 2017 and March 15, 2018.

With these fares, there’s no better time to book that ticket with the Best Airline in the World according to TripAdvisor Travellers’s Choice Awards for Airlines to satisfy your wanderlust for destinations like Dubai, Vienna, Prague, Barcelona and Johannesburg.

With a direct flight from Manila and a circular flight from Cebu and Clark, Dubai is one of the most accessible vacation places for Filipinos. With various indoor theme parks, luxury hotels, shopping outlets and desert adventure packages, Dubai surely is one of the most family-friendly destinations with activities for everyone.

On the other hand, if you want to explore the beautiful places in Europe, you can f ly to the charming cities of Vienna,

Prague and Barcelona. In these cities, you can enjoy walking around pavement cafés, visiting historical sites and marvelling at century-old buildings.

Meanwhile, if you’ve been wanting to explore South Africa, you can fly to Johannesburg with Emirates.

Here, you can explore historical monuments and museums and make your lifelong dream of going into a safari tour into reality.

You can fly to all these destinations for less with Emirates’s special rates. The airline offers excellent onboard service from an international cabin crew, and an award-winning inf light entertainment system, ice Digital Widescreen, which features more than 2,500 channels of on-demand entertainment. With these features, Emirates provides quality service and value for money.

Emirates currently operates in Manila, Cebu and Clark international airports with 25 flights to Dubai (18 weekly flights from Manila and daily f lights from Cebu/Clark).

Faith A8 Sunday, July 2, 2017

Sunday

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

He denied the accusations; called them ‘relentless character assassination’ in the media

Australian cardinal charged with sexual assault

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YDNEY—Australia’s senior Roman Catholic prelate, and one of Pope Francis’s top advisers, has been charged with sexual assault, the police in the Australian state of Victoria said on Thursday.

Cardinal George Pell, Pope Francis’s chief financial adviser and Australia’s most senior Catholic, said in an early morning appearance at the Vatican that he would take a leave of absence as the Vatican’s finance czar and would return to Australia to fight the charges.

He denied the accusations and denounced what he called a “relentless character assassination” in the media.

The prelate became the highestranking Vatican official in recent years to face criminal charges involving accusations of sexual offenses. The case will test the credibility of Francis’s initiatives to foster greater accountability after abuse scandals that have shaken the church around the world.

“Cardinal Pell has been charged on summons, and he is required to appear at the Melbourne Magistrates’s Court” on July 18, Shane Patton, the deputy police commissioner, said at a news conference.

The charges were served on the cardinal’s legal representatives in Melbourne. Patton said there were multiple complainants, but refused to provide further details about them, including their ages.

“The process and procedures

50

The number of Roman Catholic bishops worldwide who have been accused of sexually abusing children in recent decades

that are being followed in the charging of Cardinal Pell have been the same that have been applied in a whole range of historical sex offenses, whenever we investigate them,” Patton added. “Cardinal Pell has been treated the same as anyone else.”

Pell, the Vatican’s de facto finance chief, had been accused in hearings before Australia’s Royal Commission Into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse of mishandling misconduct cases against clergy members while he

served as the leader of the Archdioceses of Melbourne and Sydney.

Then allegations surfaced that he had sexually abused minors himself beginning early in his priesthood and continuing until he became archbishop of Melbourne.

He has repeatedly denied the accusations.

“I’d just like to restate my innocence,” the cardinal said in Rome last month, after the police in Australia confirmed that they were considering charges against him. “I stand by everything I’ve said at the Royal Commission and in other places,” he said.

In a statement on Thursday morning, the Archdiocese of Sydney said that the cardinal had been informed of the charges and that “he has again strenuously denied all allegations.”

“Cardinal Pell will return to Australia, as soon as possible, to clear his name following advice and approval by his doctors who will also advise on his travel arrangements,” the statement said, adding, “He said he is looking forward to his day in court and will defend the charges vigorously.”

In recent decades, more than 50 Roman Catholic bishops worldwide have been accused of sexually abusing children, according to BishopAccountability.org, an advocacy group in Massachusetts that documents sexual abuse in the church. Few, however, have faced criminal charges.

It is rare for a cardinal, a prince of the church, to be accused of sexual abuse, though one of the most notorious cases involved Cardinal Hans H. Groer of Vienna, who resigned in 1995 over

Vatican Cardinal George Pell meets the media, at the Vatican on June 29. The Catholic Archdiocese of Sydney said Pell will return to Australia to fight sexual-assault charges as soon as possible. AP/Gregorio Borgia

accusations that were deemed credible by his successor.

After Francis became pope in 2013, he brought Pell to the Vatican to oversee changes to a mismanaged and antiquated financial system. Francis also appointed the cardinal, who has a reputation as a theological conservative, to a nine-member advisory council group.

Francis rebuffed calls to remove Pell after the cardinal faced criticism over the way the church responded to abuse cases and after the cardinal came under scrutiny himself, saying he was awaiting the commission’s conclusions.

Last year detectives from the state of Victoria flew to Rome to interview Pell over accusations that he had molested boys, the police said. The detectives were

part of a task force charged with investigating allegations of abuse that arose from a parliamentary inquiry in Victoria into the abuse of children, as well as the Royal Commission’s hearings.

Vivian Waller, a lawyer who has represented abuse victims, said that her firm had been approached by a small number of people who had made allegations involving Pell.

“Either those people have already gone to police, or we’ve referred them to police,” Waller said.

Pell testified via video from a Rome hotel in 2016 to the commission about the church’s handling of the sexual-abuse cases. “I’m not here to defend the indefensible,” he said, calling the abuses a “catastrophe” for the church.

News reports that the Australian police were weighing abuse charges against the cardinal came on May 17, days after the release of a book, Cardinal: The Rise and Fall of George Pell, by Louise Milligan.

Milligan, a reporter for Australia’s ABC network, spent more than two years covering the Royal Commission.

In a statement, the cardinal’s office called the book “an exercise in character assassination”, the news media reported.

Milligan said that she had interviewed the cardinal’s accusers for more than a year and that the accusations covered several decades. Some episodes were said to have occurred at a pool in Ballarat, a city in Victoria where the cardinal was born and where he returned after being ordained as a priest in Rome.

The Blue Knot Foundation, an

Australian support group for adult survivors of childhood abuse, said the decision to charge Pell sent a powerful message to both abuse survivors and society as a whole.

“It upholds that no one is above the law, no matter how high their office, qualifications or standing,” the group’s head of research, Pam Stavropoulos, said in a statement.

The charges put the pope in a thorny position. In 2014 Francis won cautious praise from victims’ advocacy groups when he created a commission of outside experts to advise him and the broader church about “best practices” to fight abuse and protect children.

But the commission has since lost much of its credibility after its two members who were survivors of abuse left. Francis also scrapped the commission’s signature proposal—a tribunal section to hear cases of bishops who covered up for abuse—after Vatican officials objected.

In addition, Francis drew heated criticism for his 2015 appointment of a Chilean bishop accused by victims of helping cover up for Chile’s most notorious pedophile.

The pope was later caught on videotape labeling the parishioners who opposed the nomination of being “leftists” and “stupid”.

Fr a nc i s appoi nted Pe l l i n 2014 to a five-year term to head the Vatican’s new economy secretariat, giving him broad rein to control all economic, administrative, personnel and procurement functions of the Holy See. The mandate has since been restricted to performing more of an oversight role.

New York Times News Service and AP

Saint Thomas More, saint of statesmen and politicians

By Corazon Damo-Santiago

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man who rose by merit to the highest status any com moner i n Eng l a nd c a n e ver at t a i n w a s dec apitated because of his deep and demanding faith. An exemplar of spiritual discipline, he wore in his lifetime “a hair shirt next to the skin”, and subjected himself to occasional flagellation.

Even as a Lord Chancellor of England, he attended daily Mass, sang in the choir, walked in pilgrimages and processions and practiced a strict discipline in his prayer life.

On the scaffold, before he was beheaded on July 6, 1535, he announced, that he is a good servant of the king, “but God’s first”.

Honest public servant

Thomas More was born on February 7, 1478, the second among the six children of Sir Thomas More and Agnes Graunger. He attended Saint Anthony’s School.

The son of an illustrious judge in London, he mingled with scientists, writers, poets and humorists who frequented their home. For two years he served as a household page of John Morton, the Archbishop of Canterbury, who recognized his great potential.

He was sent to Oxford University to study Latin and Greek, then to London for legal training. He lived in the Carthusian Monastery in 1503 and 1504 and seriously considered to be a monk. Ultimately, he decided to be a lawyer.

At 26, he was elected to the parliament to represent Great Yammouth. As one of the two u ndersher if fs of L ondon, he earned a reputation as an honest public servant. As a judge known for his scrupulous integrity, he dispatched cases with “unprecedented rapidity”, and was dubbed as the “best friend the poor ever

Sir Thomas More by Hans Holbein the Younger, 1527 Wikimedia Commons

had”. He became a member of King Henry VIII’s Privy Council and Chancellor of England in 1529.

Fame and honor did not change his personhood. He maintained his delightful nature and happy temperament. He would remark: “My Lord went on foot, so I will not follow him in horseback...We may not look to our pleasure to go to heaven in featherbeds.”

He never saved money or lived in luxury but gave it to alleviate the life of the poor and the sick.

To adulation of people, for his achievements, he wrote, “Reputation, honor, fame, what is all that but a breath of air from another person’s mouth.”

Moral conscience

More was asked to sign a letter written by leading English church personalities and aristocrats to Pope Clement VII for the annulment of the king’s marriage

to Catherine of Aragon. K ing Henr y VIII demanded his loyalty—absolute loyalty which he refused. Rome, too, bluntly refused the request. The king was ver y furious and More resigned all his positions.

He retired, lived in the country and continued his passion for writing. A classical scholar with a sense of humor, he wrote Utopia, a brilliant, satire about the political condition of a society that can attain virtues “following natural reason with the aid of revelation”.

He penned Dialogue Concerning Heresies, The Last Four Things, Supplication of Souls, Comfort Against Tribulation, The Sadness of Christ, Dialogue on Conscience, A Treatise on the Passion of Christ, biographies, poems and a collection of correspondences, among others.

On February 1, 1535, the parliament approved the Act of Supremacy, declaring the king as the

only supreme head of the Church of England.

The clergymen and bishops of England signed it except for Bishop John Fisher. T homas More refused to sign, too, holding fast to the supremacy of the pope. The parliament could not overrule the universal church, was his staunch stand.

Convicted for treason, he was jailed in the Tower of London. After 15 months of imprisonment, he was doomed to death. Prematurely bent and aged, he did not loose his wit.

In a letter to his daughter Margaret, he said: “Nothing can come but what God wills. And I am very sure that whatever that be, however bad it may seem, it shall indeed be the best.”

As he ascended his way to the scaffold, he told the guard, “I pray you, master lieutenant, see me safe up, as for my coming down let me shift for myself.”

To the crowd who gathered to watch his decapitation, he remarked: “I die in and for the faith of the Holy Catholic church. Pray for me in this world, and I shall pray for you in that world. Pray for the king that it pleases God to send him good counsellors. I die as the king’s true servant but God’s first.”

Beatified on December 29, 1886, by Pope Leo XIII, More was canonized by Pope Pius XI on May 19, 1936, Pope John Paul II, extolling Saint Thomas More as patron saint of statesmen and politicians on October 2000, said: “He demonstrated in a singular way the value of moral conscience.”

n Santiago is a former regional director of the Department of Education National Capital Region. She is currently a faculty member of Mater Redemptoris Collegium in Calauan, Laguna and Mater Redemptoris College in San Jose City, Nueva Ecija.

Felicidad T. Sy foundation organizes seminar on altar floral arrangement

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seminar on “Sacristy Upkeep and Floral Art at the Service of Liturgy” was organized and sponsored by the Felicidad T. Sy Foundation at the Sunshine Place in Bel Air, Makati City, recently.

Forty-four SM officers and st a f f devoted t hei r rest d ay and vacation leave to attend

the seminar conducted by Sister Mar y Anthony Basa, PDDM and Sister Ruth Nardo, PDDM. Special flower arrangements appropriate for the altar were discussed and demonstrated by the facilitators.

A Eucharistic celebration was presided by Rev. Fr. Rey Reyes, SSP, to culminate the activity.

Mormon church now allows female employees to wear pants

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ALT LAKE CITY—Women who work at Mormon headquarters in Salt Lake City will be allowed to wear pantsuits and dress slacks instead of only skirts or dresses, the church announced on Wednesday in a move that one Mormon women’s group called a step in the right direction.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latterday Saints sent employees a memo on Wednesday about several changes that also include expanded maternity leave and allowing men to remove their suit coats in hot weather. The religion’s leaders made the decision about women’s clothing to help employees feel more comfortable, said church Spokesman Doug Anderson.

He declined to say how many people, or women, the church employs, saying only it’s in the thousands.

The church last year began allowing female missionaries to wear dress pants

in parts of the world with mosquitoborne diseases. The role of women in the conservative religion has been an ongoing debate for years with some members of the faith pushing for more equality and increased visibility and prominence for women.

Women hold leadership positions in the Mormon church but aren’t allowed to be bishops of local congregations or presidents of stakes, which are geographic areas similar to Catholic dioceses. The church’s highest leaders, including the president and his support group called the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, includes only men.

D e b r a J e n s o n , e xe c u t i v e b o a rd member of the Mormon women’s group O rdain Women, called the clothing change a small step toward breaking down rigid gender roles. She said she’s heard complaints for years from women who work for the church. AP

RegionsSunday

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

BusinessMirror

Sunday, July 2, 2017 A9

Ismael F. Esber: Pampanga’s Global Filipino visual artist

The Amen, a large masterwork, 5.5 feet by 7.1 feet. It will soon be released for the public.

A closer look at the The Soulful Trust (2015)

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Story and photos by Joey Pavia Correspondent

anto TOMAS, Pampanga—Visual Artist Ismael Figueroa Esber is virtually unknown in Pampanga.

Esber’s mother is from Pandaras, city of San Fernando, Pampanga. He fluently speaks the Kapampangan language.

“Esber is such a great artist and painter. I love his work. He has been cited in other countries and I guess he must be hailed in his own province of Pampanga, as well,” said former Santo Tomas Mayor Joselito Naguit, who hosted Esber at the Naguit-owned Mula De Victoria resort here last week. He is planning to display some of Esber’s works at his resort and residence.

“Esber is a hidden gem, a pride and joy of Filipinos and an unexposed artist,” Naguit added.

“Professional. His works are magnificent,” said Aldrin Tuazon, a young painter from Bacolor town. He saw some of Esber’s works and he was impressed.

In 1995 Esber joined the leading international advertising agency, J. Walter Thompson, in its offices in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. It’s an American company and among the first and oldest advertising firms in the world. One of Esber’s earliest projects won “Best Visual” category at the 1995 Sword Press Awards, setting the tone for a highly awarded career.

In 2011 Esber’s Bedouin illustration became a Dubai Lynx Award winner.

In 2015 Esber’s large canvas, entitled The Soulful Trust, was recognized by the largest art exhibition ever held in the Middle East. It was featured on 5,000 outdoor billboards all throughout the kingdom of Saudi Arabia and viewed by millions of people.

Esber was the first Filipino to achieve such a feat.

Of late, Esber was appointed as a country representative to the Philippines for the World Contemporary Artists (WCA), a fresh organization acting as a bridge to connect the world with contemporary art. It will hold a meeting in Hong Kong.

Esber’s works are displayed in his gallery, called Esberart, at the third level of Robinsons Metro East along Marcos Highway in Pasig City. The prices of his artwork

range from P30,000 to P400,000 per piece.

“Art has the power to change how we see the world. The things that inspires me most are aesthetic movement, dynamic, space and human energy. That’s why I particularly enjoy working on largeformat canvasses,” Esber said.

“My artistic motivation was born of a need to discover my true self in terms of style and technique. The beauty and craziness I see all around me takes shape in the layers, combinations and colors of the paint.

The creative spark comes from my desire to capture feelings, energy in realistic and hybrid forms. It’s a lifetime process—a personal mission that means I’ll never stop creating,” the 58-yearold contemporary artist said.

“Indeed, Esber is a global Filipino visual artist, waiting to be discovered and deeply admired in Pampanga,” said Naguit, who proudly manifests that he is a friend of the multiawarded Esber.

mutya ng Arayat

The Mutya nymph series, inspired by Esber’s love of Philippine cultural prose.

ismael figueroa Esber stands in front of his work The Soulful Trust, recognized by the largest art exhibition ever held in the Middle East in 1995. It was featured on 5,000 outdoor billboards throughout the kingdom of Saudi Arabia and viewed by millions of people.

Esber shows The Centurion, one of his masterpieces. It’s a large oil painting on canvas.

A10 Sunday, July 2, 2017

RegionsSunday BusinessMirror

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

Vitalis Villas: Splendor in the north

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Story and photos by Mau Victa

HERE are many beautiful resorts in the Philippines, but the one found in quaint Barangay Sabangan in Santiago, Ilocos Sur, exudes class and history combined with Greek Mediterranean design and the unique culture, splendor and natural resources of the Ilocos region.

Once there, you are enticed to prolong your visit and vow to yourself that you will return there over and over.

It is definitely a must-be in a bucket list of places to visit before one calls it a perfect round-up.

Vitalis Villas—named after Ilocano artist Macario Vitalis, who was born in Lapog, Ilocos Sur, in 1898 and flourished as an art painter in France—is found in a cove in Santiago, perched upon a mountain made of local stones, overlooking a wide, breathtaking view of the place’s natural wonders: Open seas, embraced by white, fine sand, and brown and green mountains.

Vitalis Villas is the Santorini of the Greek Islands in Ilocos Sur— with a twist.

No amount of sophistication and creativity was spared in its design that is as clear as Santiago Cove’s waters: From art furnishings made by local and known sculptors and painting commissioned by Hotel Luna in Vigan City, to the line, appliances, facilities and fixtures found in each villa. As in Greece’s most popular destination island, the dominating white and blue colors of Vitalis’s 43 one-bedroom and twobedroom private villas give their

exterior and interior spaces a clean and welcoming ambiance as it pleasantly blends with nature.

But the Santorini of Ilocos Sur is a vacation place anybody would call a home. Surrounded by a community of locals born and bred along the coast, guests could count on warm hospitality and life stories spawned from a typical Ilocano family’s dreams to thrive, using God-given resources through industry and resourcefulness.

In the villas, first-class amenities make every member of a family occupied. First and foremost are the dishes that give guests a taste of both worlds.

Vitalis Villas—like any of the hotels and resort facilities under the wings of Artstream Hospitality Management Group Inc., like Hotel Rembrandt, Le Monet Hotel and Hotel Luna—gives special attention to the dishes it serves by using homegrown ingredients. It has a restaurant and a lounge bar that serve coastal Mediterranean and Ilocano ingredients from the sea and farmlands, prepared by topcaliber cuisine masters and staff.

The resort also has a zip line mounted on opposite mountains, providing guests a one-of-a-kind adventure and breathtaking more-than-a-minute view of the cove while suspended in the air— and over the waters.

Adult and child guests can enjoy the mini zoo with its ponies, donkeys and trained zebras, one-

hump camel and a zonkey (a mix of zebra and donkey), with an attending veterinarian to look after their health and safety.

Guests can also enjoy water sports in jet skis, pedal boats, banana boats and kayaks; as well as beach volleyball, wake board-

ing and aqua play, an inflatable water park. They can go snorkeling, too, and see the underwater riches of the cove, experience and encounter fishes, star fish and sea urchins. Vitalis Villas also has an entertainment room and a viewing deck.

When visiting Vitalis Villas, one also gets a glimpse of an Ilocano’s life and livelihood: Women weaving cloths in front of their house, fishermen throwing nets in the waters or walking along the shore carrying their catch home, children playing or helping their older relatives, or anyone readily giving directions and answering questions of a curious tourist about the place.

The Ilocano hospitality, industry and history make staying and enjoying the Villas’s services an extraordinary experience worth making a habit.

Vitalis Villas is not only a destination, but a lifestyle one could easily get used to. It takes experiential tourism several notches higher than world class, if such was possible.

RegionsSunday Ormoc festival www.businessmirror.com.ph • Editor: Efleda P. Campos

BusinessMirror

Sunday, July 2 , 2017 A11

celebrates bountiful pineapple harvest

PIñA Festival Queen (street dancer in white) is Cherry Mae Duterte during the street dancing.

By Elmer V. Recuerdo | Correspondent

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Photos by Vincent Paulo Cortes

RMOC CITY—The sambalike beat of the canned music blared from a sound system as the kids perfectly executed their street-dance performance.

The audience that started lining the streets before noon enthusiastically cheered for their favorite group. Some could not help, but dance to the tune, as well.

Many members of the audience and the participants came all the way from neighboring towns to share in the celebration. The air was expectedly both festive and celebratory. After all, it was Ormoc’s 420th city fiesta and the return of the well-loved Piña Festival after half a decade of hiatus.

The Piña Festival celebrates the bountiful harvest of pineapple, a product of distinction for the city. It also honors its patron protectors, Saints Peter and Paul.

The actual date of the fiesta is June 29, but was held on June 25 this year, so that the celebration took place on a Sunday.

“This festival is giving honor to Saints Peter and Paul for the good harvest of pineapple the entire year, for the blessings, for the manpower and labor,” said Estrella Serafica-Pangilinan, chairman of the Ormoc Festival and Cultural Foundation, which led the resurrection of the festival.

“The Ormoc Queen pineapple variety is among the sweetest in the world. We would like to celebrate this local produce which we can claim as indigenously

ours. This is one of the foremost considerations when we decided to rename our festival after this truly Ormocanon fruit,” Pangilinan added. ​ “The Piña Festival which coincides with the celebration of the feast of our patron saints, Saint Peter and Saint Paul, is envisioned to be the ultimate cultural program of our city. The festival pays homage to our patron saints, for all the blessings they have bestowed on our city,” she said.

The Piña Festival used to be celebrated in the city during its annual fiesta until 2010, when a new city administration replaced it with the Tugob Festival. Tugob is a Visayan word that means “bountiful” or “abundant”. The Tugob Festival was held as the highlight of the city’s Charter Day on October 20.

Pangilinan added the decision to bring back the Piña Festival was a result of comprehensive consultations with the city government, tourism and heritage experts, the education sector, local dance choreographers and production directors, as well as with other Ormocanons. ​“We felt that by redesigning our festival, we will be able to truly compete with other established festivals all over the country,” she said.

A CHECK of P500,000 is awarded to the grand-prize winner of the Piña Festival held on June 25 in Ormoc City. Present during the awarding are (from left): Councilor Nolito Quilang, STI College Administrator Myra Sia, Vice Mayor Toto Locsin Jr., Rep. Lucy Torres-Gomez, Mayor Richard Gomez, Piña Festival Chairman Estrella Pangilinan, choreographer Victor Cuenca (seated) and Fiesta Execom Chairman Peter Rodriguez.

Movie actor and Ormoc City Mayor Richard Gomez, who promoted the festival in various fora and media, believes the Piña Festival will help bring in tourists to the city. He supports the choice of the local pineapple as the centerpiece of the annual festival.

“The significance of the piña is that Ormoc is known for its great pineapples. For the longest time, this has been recognized. Everywhere you go in the country, they know that one of the best-tasting pineapples can be found in Ormoc City. That’s the reason why we are bringing back the Piña Festival,” he said.

Grandiose celebration

PETER Rodriguez, who has headed the fiesta executive committee for years, said this year’s Piña Festival was the most grandiose festival the city ever had in terms of participation, pageantry and prizes, and where P500,000 awaited the grand winner.

“This fiesta had a lot of firsts.

This was the most challenging I have ever handled,” he said.

Even corporate sponsors lined up to participate in the celebration. The Ormoc Chamber of Commerce and Industry (OCCI) took charge of resource generation for all the activities. Donations from corporations went to the OCCI, which in return allocated the budget for all the activities.

While it was the first attempt to bring back the well-loved festival to the city, there are already plans of sustaining it albeit on a grander scale.

“What we trying to do with the Piña Festival is that locally, we want to make it good, we want to make the best with our limited budget,” Gomez said. “We are hoping that with the kind of festival we came up with, we will be invited to other festivals to showcase our presentation.”

There are plans to register the Piña Festival with the Depart-

ment of Tourism (DOT) and the National Commission on Culture and the Arts (NCCA) to recognize it as the official city fiesta.

“Hopefully, it will be included in the activities of the DoT and NCCA,” Gomez added.

Pangilinan said there is a big chance the festival will be recognized by both government agencies, since festivals are based either on the locals’ religion, history and culture and/or local produce.

She cited the case of Sinulog and Pintados festivals of Cebu and Tacloban, which are both in honor of Señor Santo Niño; and Bacolod’s Maskara Festival to celebrate their resiliency and positive disposition, especially during the sugarcane-industry crisis in the 1980s.

Camiguin has the Lanzones Festival, to celebrate a fruit that closely identifies the province.

Baguio City has its Panagbenga Festival, which showcases the beautiful blooms of the city.

“The Piña Festival seeks to promote not only Ormoc’s very own sweet queen pineapple, but will manifest every Ormocanon’s beautiful and sunshine-y nature—that despite the challenges portrayed by the fruit’s thorny exterior, we are able to overcome these challenges and grow a crown over our heads as symbols of our triumph over all adversities,” she said.

While some critics question the use of the local pineapple as the centerpiece of the festival— sugarcane being the city’s primary agricultural product—festival organizers are quick to defend their choice.

Gomez said that while sugar remains the biggest agricultural product of Ormoc, he said local production could not compare with that of Bacolod, Negros and Pampanga.

“We have to choose where our product creates a mark and that is pineapple. In terms of table pineapple, Ormoc offers the best in the country,” he added.

Ormoc’s reputation of producing the best table pineapple is already known to many. The fruit is even now becoming an emerging export product of the city.

Gomez said one Ormoc businessman is already exporting between three to six containers of pineapple a month to Korea. In support to this, Gomez is requesting the Department of Agriculture to have one quarantine officer to be based on Ormoc to expedite the processing of export documents.

“We hope that the Piña Festival will be a great start to a new and better identity for all Ormocanons—a cultural heritage that will embody our common aspirations, while enriching us as one people desiring to get Ormoc City as one of the top major tourist destinations in the country,” Pangilinan said.

RegionsSunday BusinessMirror

A12 Sunday, July 2, 2017

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

A dream come true: OceanaGold realizes ₧43-M senior high school in Nueva Vizcaya mining village

DAVID Way (center), General Manager of OceanaGold (Philippines) Inc. Didipio Operation, leads the ribbon-cutting ceremony to officially open the P43-million, 18-classroom senior high-school building of Eastern Nueva Vizcaya High School (ENVHS) in Didipio, Kasibu, Nueva Vizcaya,on June 23.

He is flanked by Nueva Vizcaya Vice Gov. Epifanio Lambert Galima (center, left) and Department of Education (DepEd) Assistant Regional Director Dr. Benjamin Paragas (center, right) who did the ribbon cutting. Also present are other DepEd and local government officials of Kasibu town.

J

Story and photos by Leonardo Perante II Correspondent

UST in time for school year 20172018, the construction of a threestory senior high-school (SHS) building at the Eastern Nueva Vizcaya National High School (ENVNHS) campus is now a reality. After one and a half years, the long wait is over.

As part of its Community Investment Program “We Care”, OceanaGold (Philippines) Inc. (OGPI) donated P43 million for the construction of the SHS building at the ENVNHS campus in Barangay Didipio, a town in support of the implementation of the K to 12 curriculum of the Department of Education (DepEd) in the mining village, home to the OGPI Didipio gold-copper project.

In addition, the 18-classroom edifice is expected to be installed with P7 million worth of advanced instructional gadgets and laboratory equipment appropriate for the senior-high curriculum. The symbolic hand-over of the last installment of its financial assistance was a replica check of the Bank of the Philippine Islands amounting to P2.36 million, turned over

by We Care Education Steering Committee Chairman Edgar Rivera, Asset Protection Manager of OceanaGold-Didipio Operation.

Part of a P10-million financial assistance was likewise donated to the DepEd in Region 2 by the mining firm as additional support to the K to 12 curriculum implementation in 45 Nueva Vizcaya schools and 18 schools in Quirino for a total of 63 additional beneficiary schools.

“Previously, essential health care for elementary pupils, construction of daycare facilities and improvement of comfort rooms were the initial educational support programs we have given earlier to our host village and neighboring communities,” OGPI Senior Vice President for Communications and

External Affairs Chito Gozar said.

A number of scholarship grants was also given to deserving students in Didipio and nearby communities, Gozar told BusinessMirror.

To set its objectives into action, multisector and interdisciplinary working committees were organized under a Central Steering Committee composed of General Manager David Way of Didipio Operations, Kasibu Mayor Alberto Bumolo Jr. and Didipio Barangay Chairman Alfredo Pugong Jr. In his message delivered during the inauguration program that officially opened the educational infrastructure, Way recalled that in 2015, the We Care Program was launched with six pillars that included infrastructure, environment and agriculture; business development, employment and training; and health and education.

“It was a community-investment program that was aligned with the needs, values and priorities of our community. And, more important, it was a program that empowered the Didipio community to make decisions together with OceanaGold on how the social-investment program was going to be implemented,” Way said in his message.

The Aussie firm keeps partnership ties with the local communities and educational institutions in Nueva Vizcaya and Quirino province.

“We stand here today as witnesses to the greatness not far from our reach. The building that stands tall before us now is one

of the realizations of that vision.

Our gift to the students here today is not the 3-story building that stands before us, but the possibility of a quality education without compromising family togetherness. Quality education is the foundation of the students’ future.

You are the hope of your nation.

You will be the future leaders of the Philippines,” Way added. Way reported the recent accomplishment of the We Care Program.

“We recently had two groundbreaking ceremonies here in the barangay site, the Didipio Family Health Center and the Didipio Community Water Distribution System. These are basic services we will be providing to more than 3,000 residents of Didipio.

These are milestones that some Didipians, in their lifetime, never thought would be possible. We are meeting society’s needs for minerals, metals and energy products in the most socially, economically and environmentally responsible manner. Structures are not our greatest legacies. Our greatest legacy will be the lives we have touched, your lives,” Way told his audience.

In his message, Nueva Vizcaya Vice Gov. Lambert Galima described OceanaGold as a lifesaver.

“Education receives the biggest budget from the national government. In the province of Nueva Vizcaya, we allocate 50 percent of the real-property tax to education,” Galima said.

The mining firm settled P67 million last year and another P33 million this year for total of P100-million real property tax to the province of Nueva Vizcaya.

Galima acknowledged that the mining firm almost doubled the income of the province from P700 million to P1.3 billion.

OceanaGold is the biggest taxpayer in Nueva Vizcaya, seconded

by Didipio Community Development Corporation, a firm organized by original residents of the mining village that cater services to the Australian firm.

“You have the best campus consisting of 4.1 hectares, the biggest high-school campus in the province of Nueva Vizcaya with a 3-story and 18-classroom building. A dream come true for Di-

SENIOR high-school students of Eastern Nueva Vizcaya National High School stand proud of having their dream P43-million school building realized through OceanaGold (Philippines) Inc.

“We Care” Education Steering Committee Chairman Edgar Rivera (second from left), turns over a eplica check for P2.36 million as the last installment of the P7-million additional financial assistance for the ENVHS senior high school to DepEd officials, on June 23. Donated by OceanaGold (Philippines) Inc., the fund is intended for the purchase of instructional and laboratory equipment of the new school building.

dipio students now realized and made possible by OceanaGold. We hope the mining firm will contin-

ue to help,” the vice governor said in gratitude.

Pugong, likewise, expressed

gratitude to community folks and OceanaGold for “its genuine care for the community”.