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The bitter side of sugary-drinks tax W

By VG Cabuag

hen schools started to ban soft drinks in their respective canteens some three years ago, the teachers themselves started to smuggle in and hoard in their respective drawers the very thing that they ask their students not to consume. tax-reform package, called Tax Reform and Acceleration and Inclusion Act (TRAIN), a House bill has been filed to slap tax on these sugary drinks as part of the revenuegeneration initiatives.

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They need the sugar to teach, some of them say, not minding their school administration’s policies that also affected them, as they cannot purchase soda drinks anymore within the school premises. This time around, as the Duterte administration makes headway into its comprehensive

‘Antipoor’

A bill filed by Sultan Kudarat Rep.

Horacio Suansing Jr. and Nueva Ecija Rep. Estrellita Suasing seeks to impose a P10 tax on sugarsweetened beverages, the rate of which will be increased every year by 4 percent. That caught the attention of many corporate chief executives, many of whom were previously silent whenever the government plans to introduce new taxes. Some of these corporate top honchos even called the move as antipoor. “We have many concerns. First of all…it affects the masses most. The proposed tax increase here is six times what was proposed in Mexico. At the end, who are the primary consumers of ready-to-drink beverages, it’s the masses of the Filipino people. Just imagine if I drink one coffee a day and I have to pay P3 or P4 more times 365, that’s P1,500 a year. That’s the breakfast of the masses,” said Lance Gokongwei, president and CEO of food group

Universal Robina Corp. (URC). Gokongwei, also president and COO of the family’s holding firm JG Summit Holdings Inc., was referring to Mexico’s same plans on sugar tax, but at a much lower rate. “The effective increase we’re looking at is P10 a liter in a per capita basis. The average capita per income here is $3,000. We always cite Mexico. The effective tax there was P1.45 per liter in a country where capita per income was $10,000,” Gokongwei said. URC sells products such as C2 iced-tea beverages, which at one time outsold Coke in the Philippines, and Great Taste coffee mixes, among other sugary products. Its products are now being sold across Southeast Asia, including in Vietnam, where it has a manufacturing plant. Sugar-sweetened beverages refer to nonalcoholic drinks that contain caloric sweeteners, added Continued on A2

Govt campaign in Marawi City goes deeper, farther beyond the battlefield

Crushing the Maute-IS ‘ideology’

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By Rene Acosta

he ongoing quest by the military and the police to clear Marawi City of the MauteIslamic State (IS) group, which tried to wrest control of the city from the government, has brought into focus how the Moros, especially those who have been radicalized, have devised means—including one that is extreme—to pursue their violent Islamic ideology. While the Islamic caliphate of Mindanao, in particular, and initially of Lanao del Sur, which is being pushed and espoused by the

group under Southeast Asia’s ISrecognized leader Isnilon Hapilon, may have already lost its cause, it has, however, also forced the gov-

PESO exchange rates n US 50.6350

ernment to ponder on and address the ideology that is fueling what has already morphed into an “Islamic terrorism”. A lost cause because, other than the being waged with physical extermination of the leaders and followers of the Maute-IS group by the Armed Forces through its ongoing massive operation, the group has also permanently lost what is supposed to be its mass base of support—the people of Marawi—whom it may unlikely win over. As the battle for the city unfolds and crackles to its end, the episode has also unleashed and unearthed the fury of the terror-

ists through their killings of Moros and Christians alike, their taking of hostages and their attempt to further wedge the long-held notion of division between the Moros and Christians by attacking and burning a Roman Catholic cathedral in the heart of Marawi.

Rape

Revealing harrowing tales by those who have been rescued or have managed to escape from the captivity of the group, the military, through Lt. Col. Jo-ar Herrera, spokesman of the Joint Task Force Marawi, had disclosed that women hostages have been turned See “Maute,” A2

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CHIEF EXECUTIVES SPEAK OUT VS PROPOSED TAX ON SUGAR-SWEETENED BEVERAGES

President Duterte gestures while addressing Filipino Muslim leaders during a reception at the Presidential Palace to celebrate the end of the Holy Month of Ramadan, known as Eid al-Fitr, in Manila on June 27. Duterte promised to rebuild Marawi City, as the siege by Muslim militants continues for over a month now. AP/Bullit Marquez

n japan 0.4473 n UK 65.6888 n HK 6.4834 n CHINA 7.4425 n singapore 36.6389 n australia 38.4066 n EU 57.8454 n SAUDI arabia 13.5030

Source: BSP (7 July 2017 )

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The bitter side of sugary-drinks tax Continued from a1

sugar, or artificial or noncaloric sweeteners. It may be in liquid form, syrup, concentrates, or solid mixture added to liquids.

Revenue figures

Estimates of the Department of Finance (DOF) foresee that a liter of Coke, now priced at P31 per bottle and rival Pepsi 1.5 liters, being sold at P46.50, will go up by an average of 36 percent. A can of regular 330 milliliters of Coke, for instance, contains some 34.5 grams of sugar and 136 calories, which teachers say they can easily burn as they teach. Although debatable, the amount of sugar in a single drink can lead to obesity and some of the noncommunicable diseases, such as Type-2 diabetes, blood sugar disorders and other related illnesses. The DOF, keen on passing the new tax measure on health concerns rather than to generate additional cash, estimates a revenue of between P40 billion and P47 billion after the bill is passed into law. The group Action for Economic Reform, a non-governmental organization that helped lobby to pass

Maute…

the sin-tax law, said it has not initiated a coalition yet on the sugartax issue like what it did with the tobacco excise tax, but its allied organization, such as the Philippine College of Physicians, has a stand on the issue. It said, however, the bill needs more study on how the P10-perliter tax came about, but generally the group has not yet moved significantly to push for the proposal, which is posing more questions than answers to the industry. For one, there are some concerns if the government can really collect such amount when demand naturally drops when a new tax is passed, then recover soon after.

Feasibility question

A study of the World Health Organization (WHO) said taxing sugary drinks can lower consumption. The study said fiscal policies that lead to at least a 20-percent increase in the retail price of sugary drinks would result in proportional reductions in consumption of such products, citing its report, titled “Fiscal policies for Diet and Prevention of Noncommunicable Diseases”, published late last year. The Beverage Industry Association of the Philippines, mean-

Continued from a1

into sex slaves, or were forced to marry their captors. The hostages, including the women, were also forced to take up arms and loot houses and business establishments of cash and jewelry, with the haul estimated to have already exceeded more than P500 million as of this week. “These are evil personalities,” Herrera said of the Maute-IS leaders and their band, who have indoctrinated their captives by sheer force for their conversion into their

own brand and beliefs of Islam. The siege of the city that left it in ruins, which coincided with the holy month of Ramadan, and the killings done by the Maute-IS group, have drawn the ire of Moro officials and civilians in Mindanao, who spoke of despicable language against the terrorists. Officials even feared that after the battle, Marawi may go into a clan war, with the kin of the civilians killed going after the Maute members and their relatives.

while, said such move can lead to a P20-billion decline in sales of sugar-sweetened beverages as demand declines. According to the Philippine Association of Stores and Carinderia Owners, 80 percent of the consumers of these products are low-income earners and 30 percent to 40 percent of the income of sari-sari store owners comes from the sale of coffee, juice and carbonated drinks. There are also concerns on how the government—the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR)—can monitor and administer such new measure. According to the bill, the sugar-excise tax will not be levied on the raw sugar production itself, but on the products. An excise tax, which is an indirect tax charged on the sale of a particular good, is normally being collected at the source of product. The excise tax on oil products and vehicles, for instance, is being collected at the port of entry where it will be discharged. For tobacco and alcohol products, the tax is being collected at the manufacturing plants before these are shipped out to the distributors or to the retailers.

Too high

Metamorphosis

dom Fighters (BIFF) and the Abu Sayyaf Group (ASG), which are pushing for a purely Islamic state; and the Maute Group, whose call is for the establishment of a caliphate. While the government has managed to politically contain the MNLF and the MILF, and even the BIFF with force, it is still working to fully cope with the ASG and learning the ropes with the Maute, as both the last two groups have the propensity to wage and carry out their causes by all means, especially by way of terrorism. The terrorism was brought by the radicalized indoctrination to

Over the past decades, Mindanao has seen the emergence and growth of different Moro groups with different aspirations for the region, although their end zeal is for Islam. All were also carried out with the aid of guns. These groups are the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF), which originally espoused for an independent Mindanao, but settled for an autonomy; the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) which pushed for a Bangsamoro republic, but is working for a semi-independent state; the Bangsamoro Islamic Free-

Michael Tan, president and CEO of the LT Group Inc., said not only is the rate too high, but it will be impossible to administer such new tax measure at its current state. “What will happen on the post mix in the restaurants or in Starbucks or in carinderia, how do you tax that? They’ll put a coffee, they’ll put a sugar and sell it over the counter. By definition, that’s excise-taxable. In microbreweries, you brew in a pub and sell it to the customer, that carries a tax. There should be a tax by their current definition and to be consistent on the existing policies on alcohol,” Tan said. The LT Group holds most of the businesses of tycoon Lucio Tan, including PMFTC Inc., the combined company of Philip Morris Philippines and Fortune Tobacco, and Asia Brewery, which holds a stable of local and international beer brands and alcohol-laced pop drinks such as Tanduay Ice. When the new excise tax on the so-called sin products was implemented during the Aquino administration, Tan was vocal on his smuggling allegations against one of the players, Mighty Corp., which

is now being sued for smuggling and tax evasion. “So from the manufacturing side, cigarette factories, there are six cigarette manufacturing, they cannot even manage to stop one. So this will be hundreds of beverage facilities and I don’t think the BIR has the manpower to police it,” Tan said. “So you will end up with the bigger companies complying, and the smaller ones not complying. That’s only at the factory level. What more at the retail level, at the post mix, like the restaurants and bar,” he said. The sugar planters, meanwhile, are backing the increase to double the excise tax to P20 per liter on the imported high fructose corn syrup (HFCS), a product also being used by beverage companies to sweeten their drinks.

WTO issue

That proposal, meanwhile, has other repercussions, especially on the possible allegations of protecting local farmers, as the county is a signatory to the World Trade Organization (WTO). “We’re putting up an HFCS plant. It will be operational soon and the input is corn. So how can

Islam by the leaders and members of the two groups, giving way to militancy and extremism.

Rooting out the radical dogma

While the military has had programs in addressing the extreme Islamic ideology—or the way it is carried out—as admitted by military spokesman Brig. Gen. Restituto Padilla, the trend in Mindanao, particularly the events unfolding in Marawi City, has forced the Armed Forces to give focus to this ideology. “We have programs to counter various violent ideologies. We have developed quite a good competency

you tax it higher? There are more corn farmers in the Philippines than sugar farmers. It’s a nonlocal gain. That’s an issue [for] WTO there. You cannot discriminate, [otherwise] people will discriminate our pineapples and banana if we do that,” Tan said. Former Ambassador Alfredo Yao, now chairman of Macay Holdings Inc., which owns the family’s carbonated business that manufactures RC Cola and Zest-O drinks, the government should instead tax the raw sugar itself and not the products. “Then it’s a fair sharing; everybody shares. Everybody shares and it will not be as abrupt as now and only result to a peso [increase] per liter on specific industries only,” Yao said. “We have conveyed a message to the congressmen. Now we are talking to the Senate. I hope they understand. I think the government side will understand. We know where they’re coming from. They need the taxes and all,” he said. For now, the chief executives are still studying their next moves if indeed the Duterte administration’s TRAIN, which includes the sugar tax, can railroad their otherwise sweet business.

against those of the New People’s Army [NPA], but it is only now that we have focused on those related to radicalism and violent extremism,” he said. Part of the program has been incorporated into the “Development Support and Security Plan Kapaya­ paan”, the six-year operational plan of the Duterte administration in dealing with all threat groups. “Kapayapaan is not merely a strategy that calls for combat only, but allows a broad range of best practices such as consultations, support to development, dialogues and confidence-building measures. These all complement the government peace initiatives,” Padilla. However, the military spokesman said countering the radical ideology, including the campaign against terrorism, do not rest solely upon the shoulders of soldiers, but must involve the whole country. “The campaign against terrorism requires the cooperation of the government and people. I call on the people to be vigilant and have security consciousness and bayanihan spirit to defeat terrorist infiltration,” Padilla said. President Duterte has in part blamed some officials and residents of Marawi on why the Maute-IS group has managed to stock up arms and smuggle fighters within their midst. It was as if they allowed it or took a “no one cares” stand. But the Maute and the ASG are just a small parcel of the whole Moro community in Mindanao, according to Padilla. “Like in any religion, there are small extremist elements who try to hijack causes and grievances existing in Muslim communities in the Philippines. These small groups are collectively put in one category as terrorists together with the NPA,” he said. Padilla added the military, in tandem with the government, is also working to address the factors that propel the violent ideology in Mindanao, foremost of which is the poor social condition in the region, as admitted not only by the government but even by international aid agencies. “Given that these social problems have existed for generations in Mindanao, we cannot solve this overnight and it has been a continuous step-by-step process to solve it. The military remains committed to the government in support of these initiatives,” he said. “The best strategy has always been a whole of government approach with broad sectoral consultation among our Muslim brothers and sisters. The military will always be committed to such a strategy,” he added.

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Quake damages power plant, causes landslides Manny Pacquiao of the Philippines reacts after his loss to Jeff Horn of Australia, during their WBO world welterweight title fight in Brisbane, Australia on July 2. AP/Tertius Pickard

WBO says it will re-score Pacquiao fight, result stands

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he World Boxing Organization (WBO) will re-score the Manny Pacquiao-Jeff Horn welterweight title fight because of the contentious unanimous decision awarded to the Australian challenger, but there is no plan to change the result. The WBO was responding to a Philippines government department’s request to review the fight after Pacquiao said the decision against him last Sunday was unfair. The Philippines’s Games and Amusements Board (GAB) said it based the request on protecting boxing’s integrity, citing possible miscalls by the referee and judges. But the WBO reiterated its only hope of revoking the fight judges’ decision rests on proving fraud in match officiating. “I would be very grateful if the GAB can provide any evidence indicating fraud or violation of law,” WBO President Francisco Valcarcel said in a letter to the GAB dated Thursday. “The purpose of this review is to be able to give the fans certainty of who was the winner of the bout, even though we do not have the power to reverse the decision of the judges.” The fight at Brisbane’s Suncorp Stadium was scored 117-111 by Waleksa Roldan and 115-113 each by Chris Flores and Ramon Cerdan, with Roldan’s score coming in for most criticism.

In Manila, Philippines, GAB Chairman Abraham Kahlil Mitra welcomed the WBO’s decision to carry out a review, saying that even if that won’t change the outcome of the contentious bout, it will send a strong signal that any sign of leniency, abuse of authority or wrongdoing would not be tolerated. “We’re happy with that,” Mitra told The Associated Press. “Our feeling is, if you’re quiet you’ll get abused, but if you complain, they’ll be careful...Manny is a senator, a champion, but was like wrestled there, abused by them. If it can be done to him, it can be done to any other Filipino boxer.” Valcarcel said five anonymous judges will review the bout, assigning their own scores to rounds. “Then, we will tabulate the results to ascertain clearly which rounds each fighter won using an average scale based on 60, 80 and 100 percent,” Valcarcel said. “This means that three of the five officials have to agree to determine which fighter won the round.” Valcarcel supported the judges, who have each scored hundreds of fights. “The officials who participated in this fight are all professional, distinguished, honest and honorable human beings,” he said. The 38-year-old Pacquiao and 29-year-old Horn have a rematch clause in their contract. AP

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strong earthquake damaged a power plant, caused landslides and cracked buildings and roads in the central Philippines, injuring scores of people and cutting off outlying villages. An east-central area of the archipelago was without power on Friday, and the Army sent soldiers and engineers to villages where roads were reportedly impassable.

T he 6. 5 - m a g n it ude qu a ke on T hu rsd ay a f te r no on w a s centered in Leyte province at a shallow depth, which often can cause greater surface damage. The US Geological Survey measured its depth at 6.5 kilometers (4 miles), while Filipino seismologists said it was 2 kilometers (1.2 miles) deep and caused by movement of the Philippine Fault. Two deaths were reported, and four people were missing from the quake most strongly felt in the Leyte town of Kananga. A building with a grocery store and other businesses collapsed from the shaking, killing one person, injuring more than 20 others and trapping six people who were later rescued, Kananga Mayor Rowena Codilla told The Associated Press by cell phone. “I can see that the child looks pale and weak, but the others are OK,” Codilla said, as she watched med ics treating the victims. She added many people managed to dash out when the building started to sway, but those stuck inside guided the

6.5

The magnitude of the quake that hit Leyte on Thursday

rescuers by cell phone to where they were trapped. A big chunk of the eastern side of the central Philippines was without electricity because a geothermal power plant in the tow n of Jaro sustained damage, said Romina Marasigan, s p ok e s m a n o f t he Nat io n a l Disaster R isk Reduction and Management Council. She said some houses in upland villages, mostly made of light materials, have been totally damaged. More than 241 aftershocks were recorded up to early Friday, Marasigan said, warning that they could trigger landslides in upland areas, especially in areas

where it has also been raining. Mayor Richard Gomez of Ormoc City, about 30 kilometers (17 miles) from Kananga, told dzMM radio that a landslide hit a house and killed a young woman. More than 100 others were injured in the area, including many who were “traumatized and hysterical ”, he said. Ormoc’s airport was closed after the qua ke damaged its runway, Gomez added. Maj. Gen. Raul Farnacio, an Army commander in the area, said local officials in outlying villages of Kananga and Ormoc on Friday reported at least four people missing in landslides. Sold iers and ar my eng ineers have been dispatched to the villages, where some roads are reportedly not passable to vehicles, he added. Delia Vilbar, the treasurer of Ormoc, said she was attending a meeting on the second floor of City Hall when the earthquake struck. “It was very strong, and the building was shaking,” she said. “I sat down while others in the room went under the table.” W hen she went outside to the street, she saw people crying and embracing each other, she said. The quake struck in a region that was devastated in 2013 by Typhoon Haiyan, which left more than 7,300 people dead or missing, leveled entire villages and displaced more than 5 mil lion v il lagers. Tacloban City, which was hard-hit by Haiyan, lost electrical power after Thursday’s earthquake. T he Phi lippines sits on t he Pacif ic “R ing of Fire”, where ear t hqua kes and volcanoes are common. A 7.7-mag nitude qua ke k i l led nearly 2,000 peo ple in the northern Philippines in 1990. AP

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BOI okays registration of two new SMFI plants

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he Board of Investments (BOI) has approved San Miguel Foods Inc.’s (SMFI) application for registration as a producer of whole dressed chicken and further processed chicken parts (marinated and deboned) for its two proposed meat-processing plants in Santa Cruz, Davao del Sur and Pagbilao, Quezon. SMFI is a subsidiary of San Miguel Pure Foods Co. Inc. (SMPFC), the food division of San Miguel Corp., which is one of the country’s largest conglomerates. SMFI has diversified products in the agro-industrial sector, with businesses ranging commercial feeds, poultry to pork and beef. The P1.3-billion Davao del Sur and P1.1billion Quezon projects will be fully mechanized, integrated processing facilities by utilizing the technology of electric stimulation in carcasses. According to SMFI, the technology will improve the quality of chicken by enhancing bleeding capability of carcass and meat tenderness even without maturation by chilling process. Both facilities will be constructed as “AAA” plants in compliance with the standards set by the National Meat Inspection Service. Trade Undersecretary and BOI Managing Head Ceferino Rodolfo welcomed the approval of the project, saying, “The finished products will boost the domestic market demand with further processed chicken parts targeted for established fastfood brands like Jollibee, McDonald’s and KFC within Mindanao, South Luzon and GMA areas.” The plants will have blast freezers, chilled holding rooms, cold storage for frozen products and corresponding utilities. It will be also be equipped with cutting-edge wastewatertreatment facilities in accordance with the Clean Air Act and the presence of rendering plants to convert solid waste into poultry meals for its feed-milling activities. Rendering plants will be complemented with bio-filters to weed out any foul odors within the facilities. Both plants are scheduled to be operational by January 2018 and are expected to employ around 1,127 personnel. The Davao del Sur plant is expected to produce 17,215 metric tons (MT) of dressed chicken and 16,892 MT of further processed chicken parts annually; the Quezon plant with annual production of 10,009 MT of processed chicken and 22,972 MT of further processed chicken parts. Broilers will come from SMFI’s contract growers.

Is Indonesia’s ‘pious democracy’ safe from Islamic extremism?

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n May the governor of Jakarta, Indonesia—a Christian— was convicted for blasphemy against religion and sentenced to two years in prison. The conviction has shocked obser vers a rou nd t he g lobe. Since the countr y’s democratic transition in 1998, American politicians on both sides of the aisle, from Democrat Hillar y Clinton to Trump’s Vice President Mike Pence, have praised Indonesia as a model Muslimmajority democracy. Governor Basuki “Ahok ” Tjahaja Pur nama was conv icted based on comments he made on the campaign trail in September 2016. He had stated that Islamists who cited a Koran verse to support their view that Christians should not hold high office were being deceitful. A n ed ited t ra nscr ipt of h is speec h, wh ic h made it appea r as though A hok was cr iticizing t he Kora n itsel f, was posted o n l i n e . T h e v i d e o w e nt v i ra l. Isl a m ist v ig i l a nte g roups s e i z e d t he mome nt to r a l ly aga inst t he inc u mbent C hr is tian governor and in support of A hok ’s opponents in t he Apr i l 19 elect ion. It was a winning strategy. They held the largest rally in Indonesian history “ in defense of Islam”. Their movement propelled Ahok ’s opponent into the governor’s mansion and Ahok into prison. Some observers saw Ahok ’s 16-point defeat as a victory for Islamists, and a sign of the inf luence of an intolerant strain of Islam. Since Indonesia’s democratization in 1998, it has been

widely seen as a model of religious tolerance and pluralism in the Muslim world. Is Indonesia’s tradition of religious tolerance a thing of the past? Will Indonesia backslide into author it a r i a n ism l i ke its neighbors Thailand and the Philippines, or be taken over by Islamists like Turkey, Iran and Saudi Arabia? Or, might militant groups like the Islamic State (IS), which has already gained a foothold in the Philippines, make further inroads into Indonesia? Draw ing on more than 24 months of field work in Indonesia, I tackled these questions in my book on Islam and tolerance in this massive Muslimmajority democracy.

Neither secular nor theocratic

Indonesia is the world ’s largest Muslim-major it y countr y, a democrac y and the largest countr y in Southeast A sia. It faces many of the same prob lems as other developing count r ies, i nc lud i ng wea k i n f rastr ucture, low-qua lit y education and high levels of cor r up tion. Composed of over 17,000 islands, Indonesia is also one of the world ’s most diverse countr ies, which means that protecting minor it y groups is an especia l ly impor tant concer n. Now, to be clear: in my v iew, I n d o n e s i a’s l aw p r o h i b it i n g blasphemy or the defamation of re l ig ion i s oppressive. It suppresses free speech and individual rights. It invites abuse and enforcement by v ig ilante groups. But that does not mean Indonesian democrac y is destined to become a theocrac y

in which gover nment polic y is div inely inspired. It is one of a body of laws that, as my research revealed, have been on the books for decades. Contrar y to what some observers have suggested, these laws are not a result of Islamic extremism from Saudi Arabia or IS. Instead, they ref lect the views of Islamic civil-society organizations. These organizations run thousands of schools, health clinics and universities, and provide the backbone for the civil society that helps make democracy work. For example, the Indonesian gover n ment m a kes re l ig iou s education mandatory. Students can choose from Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, Confucianism, Roman Catholicism or Protestant Christianity. All six religions are recognized and celebrated by the state. The Indonesian government obliges citizens to declare adherence to one of those recognized religions, restricts interfaith marriage and limits activities that it sees as interfering with communal rights, such as interfaith proselytizing (attempting to convert people) and blasphemy. Americans have a hard time understanding this nonsecular form of democracy. Based on our own Constitution, we tend to assume that democracy requires a secular state in order to protect relig ious minor ities, who wou ld suffocate under religious rule. But there are many examples of democracies that, like Indonesia, are neither fully secular nor theocratic.

Take Greece, a consolidated democracy. The Eastern Orthodox Church of Christ plays a prominent role in Greek state ceremonies, the education system and even the conferring of building per mits. In fact, the salaries of clergy are paid by the state. According to the Greek Constitution, alterations or translations of the Bible from Greek are prohibited without per mission from the church. And, although infrequent, blasphemy cases can be brought before civil and criminal courts. In India, another democrac y, a l l relig ions are defined as equal, and major religious communities enjoy state patronage. Religious holidays from several religions are obser ved as public holidays. Relig ious affiliation is noted on bir th cer tificates. T he st ate subsid i zes Hi ndu, Sik h and Muslim pilgr images. A nd blasphemy is prohibited by the pena l code. Greece, India and Indonesia are examples of democracies that are not quite secu lar. We might ca l l them “pious democracies”. They promote religious va lues while tr y ing to sy nthesize libera l indiv idua l r ights and group r ights. T hese states are not unusua l. Globa l ly, major ities in more than 20 countr ies say that belief in God is necessar y for a person to have good values. These views shape public policies.

Moderates and militants

In Indonesia the emergence of militant Islamists like Hizbut Tahrir Indonesia and the Islamic State has made it difficult for

moderate Muslims to implement their vision for a pious democracy. The high profile of militants makes it difficult for the American public to understand the difference between militants and moderate Muslims. They are similar in that neither militants nor moderates want a secular state. But they are different in that moderates do not want to live in an Islamic state. Data from a global network of social scientists, the World Va lues Su r vey, show t hat in 2006 the overwhelming majority of Indonesians did not want a government in which religious leaders tell people how to vote. More recent data suggest not much has changed. A poll conducted in May 2017 shows most Indonesi a ns oppose repl ace ment of the constitution with a caliphate. More than 80 percent oppose IS, and less than 3 percent support the goals of IS, according to recent data from a research and consulting firm based in Jakarta. In other words, most Indonesians, a majority of whom are Muslim, do not want to live in a caliphate. But they do want mandator y re l i g iou s e duc at ion , le ade r s who believe in God and a societ y in which relig ion is va lued by the state. A s I discovered t h rou g h hu nd re d s of i nt e r v iews, most Indonesian Muslims seek a state and societ y that promotes relig ious va lues and the rights of religious communities a longside indiv idua l r ights and relig ious plura lism. As my interviewees explained, their goal is a society in which individuals, organizations and the

state are partly responsible for one another’s moral condition. Putting that vision into practice is exceedingly difficult at a time when secularism is often equated with tolerance, and religion is synonymous with extremists like IS. Whether in India, Greece or Indonesia, group rights are challenging to enforce in a just manner—just look at Native American control over their land in the US. But, as India and Greece demonstrate, it is possible. And in that respect, Indonesian Muslims’ war against blasphemy and Ahok ’s prosecution is simply another moment in a long struggle to develop a pious democracy while avoiding the templates of secularism or theocracy. Jeremy Menchik, Boston University/AP

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Merkel girds for G-20 discord as Trump-Putin meeting looms

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Arrival of the Chinese warship CNS Liaoning in Hong Kong on Friday escorted by other vessels.

China’s soft power has hard edge as warship visits Hong Kong

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hina’s bid to display some soft power in Hong Kong—with a visit by the country’s first aircraft carrier—has also showcased its heavy-handed approach to security. The CNS Liaoning sailed into Hong Kong’s harbor on Friday for its first port call outside the mainland since becoming the pride of China’s budding bluewater f leet in 2012. The diesel warship—w ith a complement of advanced J-15 fighter jets— will host unprecedented public tours this weekend to mark the 20th anniversary of Hong Kong’s return to Chinese sovereignty. While the aircraft carrier is among the most impressive symbols of China’s rise, its arrival in Hong Kong also underscores the challenges of converting its industrial and military might into soft power. T he por t v i sit i s for f ive days. Dur ing that time, around 3,60 0 of t he 7. 3 m i l l ion resident s of t he for mer Br it i sh colony—where dissatisfaction w it h Beijing’s r u le has f ueled protests in recent yea rs—w i l l be a l lowed aboa rd. The limited access may hinder the Liaoning’s usefulness in softening perceptions of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA), which is seen by pro-democracy advocates as a check on the city’s “high degree of autonomy”. Pregnant women, the disabled and

children younger than 11 are being excluded for safety reasons. “They really should double the number of tickets, so that more Hong Kong people can have a chance,” said Cheung Kin-fai, a retiree who was taking pictures of the distant warship from a pier on Friday. He said a friend was upset after arriving at the PLA barracks at 3 a.m. only to be denied a ticket. “It’s a symbol of the strength of the motherland,” said Cheung, 62. “Many young people nowadays have little knowledge of history.”

Flights restricted

Cameras and the media have been banned from the Liaoning. Flights were restricted over the ship, moored about 10 kilometers (6 miles) from Hong Kong’s airport. Willy Lam, an adjunct political professor at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, said the port call was designed to support the theme of President Xi Jinping’s visit last week to commemorate the handover. Xi attended the PLA garrison’s largest-ever military parade and urged residents to “believe in the country”. “The Liaoning visit gives them an opportunity to feel more patriotic and identif y w ith the

achievements of the military,” said Lam, who wrote Chinese Politics in the Era of Xi Jinping: Renaissance, Reform, or Retrogression? It also served “to remind Hong Kong people that the PLA is here, not just as a symbol of sovereignty, but can be a potential actor if things here ever get out of hand,” he said. A spokesman for the PLA’s Hong Kong garrison cited “security concerns” and “sensitive material” for excluding the media from the ship. Allowing journalists onboard would “run the risk of leaking state secrets”, said the spokesman, who only gave his surname, Tang. Local newspapers, such as the South China Morning Post, have carried stories in recent days about elderly residents denied access to the ship or how Chinese sailors won’t be allowed the shore leave privileges of their foreign counterparts. “I don’t feel particularly proud, I just want to take a look because I’ve never seen the aircraft carrier before,” said one woman who only gave her surname, Wang. “It’s a marvelous thing it visits Hong Kong. And do you know this: mainlanders haven’t got a chance to view it yet.”

Xi’s security

In contrast, the US Navy has given media tours and allowed children aboard their aircraft carriers during past visits to Hong Kong. Both China and the US have let each other’s officers visit their ships. Secur it y has been intense throughout the handover, with more than a third of the city’s

29,000-member police force deployed. Pens, newspapers and mobile-phone chargers were among 14 categories of items banned from Xi’s visit to the PLA garrison. The Liaoning, a 32-year-old refurbished Soviet vessel, was escorted into Hong Kong by a full carrier battle group. Three ships, the destroyers Jinan and Yinchuan and the frigate Yantai, can be visited by those with tickets to the garrison’s annual open-house events on Saturday and Sunday.

Ski-jump deck

Such symbolic missions may be among the most valuable uses of the Liaoning. A lthough the ship’s political commissar declared the carrier combat ready in November, it is hamstrung by a ski-jump deck, diesel propulsion systems and limited access to overseas bases. Still, the ship has provided a signal of Chinese naval ambitions when sailing through the strategic “ first-island chain”— stretching from Japan to the Philippines—or completing a circuit around rival Taiwan. “Part of this is the PLA Navy methodically going through the steps of learning how to operate a carrier, but part is also starting to use the carrier’s deployments and exercises as political signals,” said Phillip Saunders, director of the National Defense University’s Center for the Study of Chinese Military Affairs in Washington. “It can be used as a tool to demonstrate Chinese power and intimidate smaller countries.” Bloomberg News

orld leaders meet in Hamburg on Fr id ay for one of the most highly anticipated summits in years, as div isions rage over ever ything from trade and climate change to handling North Korea’s provocations. German Chancellor A ngela Merkel will chair the summit of Group of 20 nations, which has already been overshadowed by violent clashes between police and anti-globalization protesters. The talks are due to start at 10:30 a.m. with an informal session on terrorism. The event will also see the first official meeting between US President Donald J. Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin, which will take place around 3:45 p.m. The summit will highlight the tensions that are reshaping global politics as the world adjusts to Trump’s election last year. The U.S. will be represented for the first time in decades by a president who embraces protectionism, forcing Germany and China into an informal alliance pushing the merits of free trade. Leaders also face a US leader much more unpredictable than his predecessors, which may concern the Chinese as tempers fray on how best to curtail North Korea’s nuclear ambitions. “We won’t paper over discord, but rather recognize when there is discord and different views on various topics,” Merkel said on Thursday. So far, the summit in the port city has been dominated by clashes between protesters and police. The police used water cannon and pepper spray on Thursday as they targeted a group of about 1,000 people seeking to march to the summit site. While the march was canceled, police could be seen chasing some members of the Black Bloc, a group of black-clad militant anarchists, into the evening. The two-day meeting’s official agenda will be dominated by discussions about terror financing, global trade and climate. But the real highlight will be the first meeting between Trump and Putin. The US president’s initial months in office have been dominated by the fallout from Russia’s

meddling in the US election and allegations about collusion between his campaign officials and the Kremlin. Issues between the nations include Russian sanctions, halting North Korea’s nuclear weapons program and managing frictions over Syria and Iran. It’s still not clear whether Trump will raise the hacking issue. Both sides played down expectations, portraying the meeting mostly as a chance for the leaders to take the measure of each other. The goal of improved ties has met fierce resistance in Washington. Trump’s meeting with Xi, scheduled for Saturday, is also one to watch. Chinese officials have struck an optimistic tone—even going so far as to single out the Art of the Deal as a book to be read “with respect”, in a press conference on Thursday. But there are signs the friendship struck up between Trump and Xi at Mar-aLago in April is fraying. Trump initially backed off campaign threats to declare China a currency manipulator following his shock election victory in November, seeking China’s help on North Korea. But he has since shown signs of losing patience as Pyongyang tests missile after missile, including its first intercontinental ballistic missile on Tuesday. “So much for China working with us—but we had to give it a try!” Trump said in a tweet on Wednesday. Ultimately, Merkel will have the toughest job at the summit as she tries to steer a path through the divisions and produce a communique everyone can agree to. She is reluctant, for example, for the US to seem too isolated after a G-7 summit in Sicily that was marred by a bitter disagreement between Trump and other leaders over climate change. The president declared his attention to pull out of the Paris Accord just days later. “I will do all I can to find compromises and answers to the questions that are important for shaping globalization,” Merkel said on Thursday. “Naturally climate will also play a role here, and as you can imagine, there will be discussions here that won’t be all that easy.” Bloomberg News

Time for Republicans to start from scratch on health care I f the halting, messy debate over legislation to overhaul health care has taught us anything so far, it’s that when it comes to health care, Republicans don’t know what they want, much less how to get it. After years of campaigning on the promise of repealing the Affordable Care Act, when it finally came time to act, Republicans put together a plan that looks like a stingier, skimpier version of Obamacare in the individual market, plus a rollback of the law’s Medicaid expansion (delayed until after the next presidential election—long enough that it might not happen). When asked about the status of the health-care bill this week, Sen. Pat Toomey, Republican of Pennsylvania, responded, “I didn’t expect Donald J. Trump to win, I think most of my colleagues didn’t, so we didn’t expect to be in this situation.” In short, Republicans didn’t plan on having to follow through on their promises. Democrats, on the other hand, share a distinct vision of robust universal coverage guaranteed by the government and paid for by a combination of delivery-system efficiencies and higher taxes. What Republicans need, then, is a set of guiding principles—

a health-care vision that should work from the ground up, that imagines a more affordable and more effective system, one that’s fairer and more focused. For starters, it would mean giving up on comprehensive universal coverage. Otherwise, Republicans will just end up bargaining on the terms set by Democrats, as they are now. One might reasonably object that Republicans have already given up on that goal, based on their own plans, which would disrupt coverage for millions in the first year alone and result in far fewer people insured in the long run. The problem for Republicans is that they have not yet backed away from universal coverage rhetorically. Senior Republicans still criticize Obamacare for covering too few people. This disconnect between what Republicans say and what they are willing to do has kept the party from moving in more productive directions. Which brings us to a second principle: unification, not fragmentation. For decades, the health-care system has been broken into several distinct layers: Medicare, Medicaid and employer-provided coverage. The first two are paid for directly by the government. The third is subsidized implicitly

through the tax code, which does not tax health benefits provided by employers as income. This tax break is the original sin of the United States healthcare system. Worth more than $250 billion annually, it has enormously distorted the market, creating an incentive for employers to provide ever-more-generous insurance while insulating individuals from the true cost of care. It discourages job switching and entrepreneurship, and offers an unfair advantage to the comfortably employed. Medicare, meanwhile, offers a huge system of federal benefits to older Americans that ty pically run far beyond what most have paid in. Its introduction was associated with explosive growth in hospital-costs inf lation during the 1970s. Rather than overhauling this fragmented system, both Obamacare and the Senate bill leave its distortions largely in place. Obamacare nibbled at its edges by paring back Medicare to finance new coverage and by applying a tax to high-cost health-insurance plans provided by employers. But President Barack Obama delayed that tax until 2020; the Senate legislation would delay it until 2026, suggesting it may never

take effect at all. The result is an unequal system in which health insurance is understood more as a way of prepaying for medical care than as a protection from financial risk. That’s where the third principle comes in: Health coverage is not the same as health care. Instead, it is a financial product, a backstop against financial ruin. Health-care policy should treat it as one. There is some question about how much programs like Medicaid contribute to measurable physical health outcomes, but there is no arguing that it effectively insulates beneficiaries from financial shocks. Health-care policy that treated insurance as a hedge against financial shock could relieve one of the most salient worries of the middle class—that chance might curse them with unaffordably high medical expenses. For noncatastrophic, nonemergency medical expenses, Republicans ought to promote affordability rather than subsidies. All layers of the nation’s health-care system are subsidized either directly or implicitly, and the subsidies shield individuals from the costs of their decisions and create incentives for providers to deliver more care rather than better care.

Republicans should look for ways to limit cost increases directly. One way to do this is to encourage supply-side innovations in addition to demand-side reforms. The tangle of regulations governing health care can make it difficult for providers to respond to market signals and innovate. Doctor-owned hospitals are restricted by law, for example, and certificate-of-need requirements force medical providers to obtain licenses in a process that effectively requires them to ask permission from competitors to expand. Finally, Republicans should always focus government assistance on the poorest and sickest: This should be obvious, and yet it is not. Our system subsidizes workers with six-figure salaries and wealthy retirees, while sidelining the poor and the sick in Medicaid, a system that many doctors won’t participate in because of low reimbursement rates. No one starting from scratch would design a system that looks like this. And while starting from scratch is not possible, that is, in essence, what a Republican vision should seek to do. This might mean reforming Medicaid, or creating a program with a similar goal of aiding the poor and the sick, but also seek-

ing to make it more effective for those it covers. It might mean widely expanding health savings accounts or a broader system of catastrophic health insurance. It might mean seeking to limit the price-distorting power of hospital monopolies. It would almost certainly mean substantial reforms to both Medicare and the tax treatment of employer-sponsored health insurance. Hopefully, it would mean pursuing ideas that no one has thought of yet. Republicans should have no illusions: Selling this vision would take a significant investment of time, creativity and study, policy entrepreneurship and some difficult political and legislative choices. It would require patience and political salesmanship. And it would not result in an immediately popular bill that could easily pass in the Senate with 51 Republican votes this summer. In the short term, it would mean retreat. But over time it would distinguish Republicans from their Democratic rivals and give them a positive, productive policy pitch to run on, while giving voters better choices for health care. It would also, not incidentally, have the advantage of improving the nation’s health-care system. The New York Times News Service

Sports BusinessMirror

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

Saturday, July 8, 2017

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FLYING ANTS INVASION L

By Howard Fendrich The Associated Press

ONDON—They were buggin’ out at Wimbledon early this week. Hundreds of flying ants swarmed around various courts at the All England Club, distracting players during their matches, as the temperature warmed up considerably, from the low 70s Farenheit (20 degrees Celsius) to nearly 85 degrees (nearly 30 oC). It left the racket-wielders swatting the bugs instead of tennis balls, at times. Steve Johnson, an American seeded 26th, was startled when one of the critters buzzed its way into his right ear at the precise moment that he came up with a forehand winner during what would become a 6-3, 6-3, 4-6, 6-3 victory over Radu Albot of Moldova. Johnson did a little dance while he extracted the invader. “Thankfully, I ended the point right there, because I wouldn’t have run for the next ball. It just got in there. Eventually it got out, but I didn’t want it to get any further than it did,” Johnson said. “They were everywhere,” he added. “It was a mess out there. I’ve never seen that here before.” Local media have reported about a wave of flying ants across Britain this week, a migration of sorts that is a result of just the right combination of heat, humidity and wind. “Well,” Johnson said, “they migrated to Wimbledon.” Especially during the early afternoon on Day Three of the grass-court Grand Slam tournament. Before Johnson headed out to Court 18, 24th-seeded

American Sam Querrey played his match there, and dealt with the same type of issues created by the little winged things. “If it got much worse,” Querrey said after beating Nikoloz Basilashvili of Georgia 6-4, 4-6, 6-3, 6-3, “I almost wanted to stop, because they were hitting you in the face when you were trying to hit balls.” The rules would allow Querrey to ask the chair umpire to consider halting play, at which point a Grand Slam supervisor might head to the court to weigh in. It never reached that point last Wednesday, although things did get particularly bad for about a half hour that included the end of the second set, the only one Querrey dropped. “If I had won that set,” he said, “probably wouldn’t have bugged me as much”. Johanna Konta, Britain’s best chance for its first female champion at Wimbledon in 40 years, fretted about swallowing some of the ants during her 7-6 (4), 4-6, 10-8 victory over Donna Vekic at Centre Court. “I definitely have taken home a few—both in my belly and in my bags,” the No. 6-seeded Konta said. A reporter asked her whether the insects were tasty. “I didn’t think about it,” came the reply. “I’d rather not.” Victoria Azarenka, meanwhile, walked to the baseline, preparing to serve, when a man shouted from the upper reaches of No. 3 Court, “Come on, Mom!” It wasn’t her son, Leo, born in December, but it shows the 27-year-old former No. 1’s return to competition has caught on among the public. Between Azarenka and Serena Williams, who announced in April she is pregnant with her first child,

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according to Valley Golf President Isauro V. San Pedro Jr. The landing area is well lighted at night. Open from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m., the driving range also features a Korean restaurant, members lounge, golf pro shed, tee girls shed and shower areas. Soon to open are the indoor training facility, pro shop, snack bar, al fresco coffee shop, spa and barber shop, according to Valley Golf Vice President Luis “Chito” S. Polintan. All Valley Golf members and the public are assured of very reasonable rates. The driving range will also offer golf pro services with very competitive rates.

MERALCO MEETS MARIKINA M ERALCO Manila and JPV Marikina clash for the No. 1 spot as they face each other for the second time in the Philippines Football League today at the Rizal Memorial Stadium. Manila and Marikina square off at 7 p.m., as Ceres Negros hosts Ilocos United at 4 p.m. at the Panaad Football Stadium in Bacolod City. Ceres lost to Global Cebu, 0-1, last Wednesday at the University of San Carlos Football Stadium in Cebu. The

Busmen are running fifth with 13 points. The Sparks, who scored a 1-0 victory over Ilocos last week to snap out of two straight draws, are on top of the table with 20 points on six wins and those two draws. The Sparks, bannered by brothers Phil and James Younghusband, are seeking to repeat their 1-0 win over JPV Marikina in their first meeting on May 20.

Lance Agcaoili

Lady Warriors seek solo lead P OCARI Sweat tries to keep its hold of the solo lead, while BaliPure seeks payback when they battle separate foes today in the Premier Volleyball League Open Conference at the Filoil Flying V Centre in San Juan City. The Lady Warriors, who won their first two assignments in their quest for a fourth crown, shoot for their third straight win against the Power Smashers at 6:30 p.m. The Water Defenders, on the other hand, will try to redeem themselves from their 20-25, 30-28, 19-25, 29-31 lost to Creamline last Wednesday when they battle University of the Philippines (UP) at 4 p.m. It’s been so far, so good for the Lady Warriors and their new Coach Rico de Guzman after they beat UP, 21-25, 25-20, 25-18, 25-21, in and edged Perlas-BanKo, 25-21, 22-25, 25-19, 27-25, for a 2-0 start. De Guzman has cooked up effective plays involving twotime Finals Most Valuable Player Myla Pablo, spikers Elaine Kasilag and Cai Nepomuceno, middle blockers Jeanette Panaga and Desiree Dadang, as well as setter Gyzelle Sy and libero Mel Gohing. But de Guzman said complacency has always been his wards’ weakness.

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two former Grand Slam winners will attempt to balance their careers with motherhood. Although Azarenka’s second-round victory over Elena Vesnina last Wednesday was only her fourth competitive match since December, she said she has already begun conversations with Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) officials about facilitating arrangements for child care. If needed, the WTA will provide health and well-being support to players who are mothers, as well as other physiotherapy and counseling. “From my own power, I’ll do anything to make that happen because I think it’s really important,” Azarenka said. “The guys do have that luxury of having the nurseries and stuff at every event and I think it’s time for women to have the same benefit.” The travel has been the most difficult part thus far, Azarenka said. Although Leo is “actually a very good traveler”, preparing for flights has been stressful. Carving out time for tennis has also been troublesome. Last week she posted a photo on Instagram of Leo, lying on a blanket and chewing on a plastic credential while she practiced.

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VALLEY GOLF DRIVING RANGE OPENS

HE newly renovated driving range of the Valley Golf and Country Club in Antipolo City opens Saturday, July 8, with members and the golfing public assured of excellent service well into the night. A double-deck hitting area with 16 bays per floor serves as the main attraction of the driving range, with a landing area of 240 yards and a width of 55 yards, making it very friendly to the pros, as well as the newbies. The ground floor hitting area is manually operated and features partitions and swing mirrors so golfers can see how they swing. The second deck also has 16 bays and swing mirrors, plus an automated ball dispenser,

7 teams reach Ginebra 3-on-3 National Finals

“They lose their intensity when we get a big lead,” de Guzman said. “We cannot afford do that in our next games..” The Water Defenders, who downed the Power Smashers, 25-15, 22-25, 20-25, 25-19, 15-6, in their first match, fell prey to Alyssa Valdez, who scored her second career-best of 37 points last Wednesday. The Power Smashers and Lady Maroon are also seeking bounce-back victories in their second game of the conference. In men’s action, Cignal (1-0) tries to force a triple tie at the top with Megabuilders and Air Force when it takes on Sta. Elena (1-1) at 10 a.m. Café Lupe (0-2) and IEM (0-1) square off at 1 p.m. Lance Agcaoili CIGNAL’S Rachel Anne Daquis (13) and Cherry May Vivas (11) defend against F2 Logistics’ Kim Kianna Dy (15) and Ara Galang during their Philippine Superliga All Filipino Conference match on Thursday at the Filoil Flying V Centre in San Juan City. The Cargo Movers won, 25-15, 25-15, 25-14. NONOY LACZA

efending champion San Beda College opens its title-retention campaign against host school San Sebastian College-Recoletos in the curtain-raiser of the National Collegiate Athletic Association Season 93 men’s basketball tournament today at the Mall of Asia Arena in Pasay City. Hostilities begin at 2 p.m., with the Red Lions hoping to kick off their quest for a seventh title in eight seasons against the host Stags. The season will open with festive ceremonies at 1 p.m. In the second seniors play, last year’s runner-up Arellano University battles semifinalist Mapùa at 4 p.m. Bringing his wits back to Mendiola, Head Coach Boyet Fernandez sees a tough field this season as teams remain hungry for the title that San Beda has held for some time now.

STEVE JOHNSON of the US tries to get rid of flying ants during his match against Moldova’s Radu Albot in London. AP

HOWING their never-say-die spirit, seven teams from North Luzon, Greater Manila Area and Visayas have already booked their ticket to the National Finals of the 2017 Ginebra 3-on-3 Basketball Tournament after winning their respective regional tournaments. Team Slaughter—composed of Reynald Ballesteros, Robert Caasi, Mario Torio and Dennis Cuaresma, pipped Team Taha in Barangay Caranglaan, Dagupan City, to reign supreme in the Pangasinan regionals. Team Cruz’s Derick Villafuerte, Jomar Timple, Robert Sinnott and Renzo Dalupang, beat Team Marcelo in Barangay Cabaruan, Cauayan City, to top the Isabela regionals. Carrying Team Ellis, the squad of Angel de Leon, Kenneth Gomez, Mark Reyes and Renato Liangco outlasted Team Tenorio in the Pampanga Finals in Barangay Bulaon, San Fernando. Antipolo, meanwhile, belonged to Team Jaworski, bannered by Christopher Ryan Hosseimi, James Patrick Abugan, Jomar Santos, and Marvin Mercado, as it topped Team Helterbrand in Barangay Santa Cruz, Antipolo City. Team Mariano, composed of Dion Reverente, Ivan Moreno, Mark David Orias and Mark Santos, bested Team Ferrer to top the regional finals in Barangay CAA, Las Piñas City. Tondo was for Team Slaughter, as the squad of Eduard Tubera, Arbel Villanueva, Kleirence Perez and Richmond Gana clipped Team Mariano at Tondo Sports Complex. Finally, Team Thompson, comprised of Matt Aaron Guzman, Johanis Marlu Sison, John Nino Melgar and Leonel Tabornal, downed Team Cone at Teodisio Sports and Cultural Complex in Banga, Aklan. Nine more regional tournaments will be held nationwide to determine the 16 teams that will compete in the National Finals, to be held on August 19. The last four teams standing in the knockout phase will move on to the semifinals and the championship game is on August 20, to be played at halftime of a Ginebra game at Smart Araneta Coliseum, with the 2017 Ginebra 3-on-3 National Champion bringing home the P50,000 cash prize, a trophy and Ginebra San Miguel products. Dave Coros

NCAA SEASON 93 ON “We have a very challenging season ahead. Every team improved a lot. Everybody is against us so we have to prepare and play the game that we wanted to play,” Fernandez said. Fernandez replaced Jamike Jarin, who now coaches National University in the University Athletic Association of the Philippines. The Red Lions remain intact with Javee Mocon, Davon Potts and Robert Bolick remaining as the team’s local gunners. Cameroonian big Donald Tankoua and Arnaud Noah are tasked the shade for San Beda. “The goal of San Beda is to win a championship when I was rehired. We will fight until the end,” Fernandez added. San Sebastian, meanwhile, hopes to bounce back from a disappointing seventh-place finish last season.

Coach Egay Macaraya has nothing in mind but for his Stags to be solid in defense. “When you are up against San Beda, you don’t need to think about many game plans because the only thing you need to do against this team is to play good defense,” said Macaraya, who has holdover players Michael Calisaan and Rk Ilagan leading the team. “We’re working hard for our plan to bring back the glory days of Baste. We’re starting it here,” he added. Arellano University, on the other hand, enters the season without its top gun Jio Jalalon who is now a pro. Kent Salado and Lervin Flores are expected to provide the numbers for the Chiefs against the Cardinals, who also lost two-time Most Valuable Player Allwell Oraeme and guard CJ Isit. Ramon Rafael Bonilla

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BusinessMi

Saturday, July 8, 2017 | Editor: Jun Lomibao

UCI PUTTIN PREMIUM ON WOMEN DIRECTORS L

Wiggins targets gold in ‘20 Olympic rowing

BRADLEY WIGGINS, the 2012 Tour de France winner, has his eyes set on a sixth Olympic gold medal—in rowing.

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RADLEY WIGGINS has his eyes on another Olympic gold medal to go with the five he has already earned in cycling. But this time the 37-year-old winner of the 2012 Tour de France wants to earn it on the water as a rower. The BBC reported on Friday that Wiggins plans to compete this December in the British Indoor Rowing Championships in London with an eye toward participation in the 2020 games.

“I might be being a bit delusional, but the times suggest I’m not,” Wiggins told the BBC, adding that the “numbers are quite good”. Wiggins, who will be 40 in the summer of 2020, is being coached by friend and Olympic rowing gold medalist James Cracknell. “I took up rowing when I retired just to keep fit, but my numbers started getting quite good, so I’ve started taking it up professionally

now and getting coached seven days a week,” he said at a corporate event in Manchester, as reported by the Daily Mail. “I’m going to see how far I can take it. Maybe a sixth Olympic gold?” Wiggins, who won his fifth gold medal in the team pursuit last summer at the Rio Games, has eight Olympic medals in total. He has medaled in every Olympics going back to Sydney in 2000. Cyclingnews

ULRICH REFUSES TO DWELL ON PAST T HE absence of Jan Ulrich from the Grand Depart of the Tour de France in Düsseldorf has sparked huge debate, with Lance Armstrong one of many to highlight the hypocrisy of other former dopers working on the race or attending as VIP guests, while the only German winner of the Tour has not been invited. The 1997 Tour winner was not invited by race organizer ASO and instead marked the 20th anniversary of his historic win by taking part in a charity race in Bocholt, according to his friend and former teammate Andreas Klöden in an interview with the Frankfurter Allgemeine newspaper. Ullrich’s ties to the EPO era of cycling have left him somewhat of a pariah in the German and global cycling community. The Court of Arbitration for Sports (CAS) has banned him for two years in 2012 because of his connections to the Operación Puerto investigation of Spanish doctor Eufemiano Fuentes and he has never fully explained how much he doped during is career and expressed sincere remorse. Speaking to L’Equipe in a long interview, Ullrich explained that has preferred to keep a low profile and remain away from professional races out of choice. He still offers only partial admission of any wrongdoing and still feels he has been overly criticized and targeted by the German media. He is now happy spending time with his young family. He has moved on from his troubled career as a professional athlete and has rediscovered the simple joy of riding a bike. “It’s a personal choice. It’s no longer my

world and I don’t think I have the legitimacy to speak today. My story was what it was, I made mistakes and I paid for it. I chose to turn the page, switch to another life. I didn’t want to dwell on the past. Today, I am happy with my family, I found my way,” he told L’Equipe while in Mallorca, where he often spends time with his wife Sara and three children. “I’m proud of what I achieved, proud of my record, because I won some great races except the Giro. All this belongs to the past and it will never take away the love I have for this sport. Today, when I see a rider dominating against the others, it never comes to my mind to say: ‘Look, he’s surely doped. Never.’” Ullrich describes himself as older and wiser compared to when he was the star of German cycling and considered a national hero. “You cannot imagine how difficult it is to flourish in a country like Germany when you are a champion. You are always observed, solicited, judged and, at the same time, you also have to think about cycling,” he explained, recalling the pressures of his youth after winning the 1997 Tour de France. “I had a very bad time, because I could not refuse interviews like Armstrong. He could afford to pick journalists, give 10 minutes of talk, not one more. I never knew how to do it, which did not always help me. “I think that I remain the No. 1. I am still the only one to have won the Tour de France! The public has not forgotten that,” he said defiantly. “My only regret is that I could not

The aim of offering the scholarships is to increase the number of women participating in the course and the number of women working as sport directors, while, at the same time, increasing even further the professionalism of women’s teams.

bid farewell normally, the events of the time precipitated my withdrawal. That still hurts today.” Ullrich is still critical of the way the German media treated him and the sport after the truth about his doping emerged. “A part of the press refuses to be enthusiastic [about cycling], as if one were still to live with this feeling of guilt, the same one that followed the war. I know that the German public, the cycling fans, would like to see me more but some journalists prefer to hide what could give me a little happiness. “They have enormous power in Germany, even that of having sponsors give up investing in cycling. But I’m convinced today that the German public has understood what I’m really like. You cannot be sentenced to life imprisonment for mistakes made more than ten years ago.” Cyclingnews JAN ULRICH during his competitive days.

IKE last year, the International Cycling Union (UCI) will award seven scholarships to women wishing to attend the Sport Directors course, which will take place this year from November 6 to 12 at the UCI World Cycling Centre in Aigle, Switzerland. The UCI launched the Sport Director training program in 2010. The course is organized once a year at the end of the road racing season, and the final exam is now mandatory for anyone working as a sport director (in French directeur sportif [DS]) for a UCI WorldTeam or UCI Professional Continental Team. Although not yet obligatory for DS’s working for UCI Women’s Teams and UCI Continental Teams, it is highly recommended that they also attend the course and sit the exam. The aim of offering these scholarships is to increase the number of women participating in the course and the number of women working as sport directors, while, at the same time, increasing even further the professionalism of women’s teams. With the exception of travel to and from Aigle, the UCI will cover all costs of the course for successful scholarship applicants, including full board, course fees and material. While priority will be given to women with experience as a DS or rider, scholarship applications are open to any women considering such a career choice. All requests will be studied attentively and receive a reply mid-October. Some women who have already benefited from the scholarship share their experience: Iris Slappendel retired from competitive cycling at the end of the 2016 season. Looking for a new professional challenge, she completed the DS course last year: “Deciding to retire as a professional cyclist was a big decision for me. I was finished with racing, but my passion for women’s cycling is still there. I want to pass on this passion, but also my experience and knowledge. The scholarship gave me the perfect opportunity to really see what it takes to be a sport sirector.

SCHOLARSHIP applications are open to any women consid

“It has given me more of the theoretical knowledge about race rules and team management but also, and I think this is even more important, it has given me some great tools for how to really shape a team and interact with your riders. The course was pretty intense and working together with the other ‘students’ was very inspiring. It has given me the confidence to make the step into a team car someday soon!

‘HUGE SHAME FOR CYCLING’

PETER SAGAN sprints forward as Mark Cavendish crashes in his wake.

‘I think race commissaires should always have raced a bike. Not always professionally but at some level. This is a dangerous sport, and we need the people who are calling the shots to understand it.’

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ORMER Tour de France green-jersey winner Baden Cooke knows his way around a bunch sprint finish and believes Peter Sagan’s exclusion from the race is a “huge shame for the sport”. The world champion was disqualified from the Tour following his involvement in a crash with Mark Cavendish at the end of Stage Four in Vittel. “It would bet that whoever made this decision has never been involved in a big bunch sprint before,” Cooke told Cyclingnews. “I think race commissaires should always have raced a bike. Not always professionally but at some level. This is a dangerous sport, and we need the people who are calling the shots to understand it.” Originally second on the stage behind Arnaud Damare, the race jury made the decision to disqualify Sagan, having first docked him 30 seconds and 80 points in the green-jersey competition. The reaction to the punishment has largely been in favor of the world champion, with Cooke explaining he saw it as no more than a racing incident. “You have 10 blokes all rushing toward the line, I don’t put the blame on anyone in particular, but you

could potentially say there are five blokes who have a little bit of blame, including the race winner Demare who swerved hard to the left,” he said. “I think it was just a regular sprint and bad luck in how it turned out like it did. I don’t think that Sagan deserves to be relegated, let alone kicked out of the race.” Famously put into the barriers by Paolo Bettini at the 2005 Giro d’Italia, an incident which saw the Italian disqualified, Cooke added that there was no sign of intent from Sagan in the sprint. “When there is intent to take someone out, like when Bettini took me out years ago at the Giro he started in the middle of the road, looked down and saw me coming on the left and went all the way to the barrier. That is intentional,” he said. “That is a completely different story. There is no intent here. Sagan was looking straight ahead and following the wheel of Demare. Cav also wanted Demare’s wheel and being fearless, he just keeps going for the gap, but that door was closing. If we start booting sprinters out of the race for stuff like this, there isn’t going to be many sprinters left after about five stages. Every single sprinter takes risks and puts other people

at some sort of risk at some point.” Video replays helped the race jury overturn its original decision and disqualify Sagan. The right elbow of the Slovakian was adjusted culpable in the incident, but Cooke explained Sagan’s actions were “self-perseveration”. “The way I interpret it is when you put your elbows out you are protecting your handlebars because when someone hits your handlebars, you go straight down on your arse,” he said. “Sagan didn’t even hit him [Cavendish] and I think he was just balancing himself. If you use your elbows, it is to make sure someone doesn’t lock handlebars with you most of the time. He sensed someone coming up inside and maybe that they were going to come through and snag his handlebars, taking him out. It’s self-perseveration. I actually think Cav fell off due to bouncing off Sagan’s butt, not his elbow.”

Open green-jersey competition

With Sagan out of the race, his quest for a sixth straight green sprint jersey is also over. Sagan has dominated the competition since his 2012 debut at

t w a t d “ m

irror CYCLING

mirror_sports@yahoo.com.ph | Saturday, July 8, 2017 A7

NG EN RS

MEMBERS of Team Sky train with their skinsuits.

ARE SKY’S SKINSUITS LEGAL? c

dering such a career choice.

“It was also great to see the other women with the same passion and drive, and hopefully soon, we will have more qualified female sport directors and we can keep more former riders connected to this sport.” Ana Vivas works for the Federación Colombiana de Ciclismo and participated in the course in 2016: “I’ve been using that information for improving my work with the national road teams, so we fulfill

their needs the best we can.” Other participants highlight particular sections of the course, such as Patricia Schwager, DS for the UCI Women’s Team Tibco Silicon Valley Bank, who completed the course in 2016: “The DS training program at the UCI World Cycling Centre gave me very good insight on all the UCI rules and regulations. I also really liked the

the Tour and was on track to again claim green and equal Erik Zabel’s six wins. The competition is now wide open with Demare in the lead and one of the many contenders according to Cooke. “It has thrown it wide open but I think they need to have a good look at the commissaires because this is just not right,” he said of the battle for green, sans Sagan. “Sprinting is fearsome and you have to be quite ruthless to win and this was a regular racing incident. For the world champion to be kicked out in disgrace is not on. “There is still a heap of really good sprinters there, so I think it is a bit rude to say it is devalued because there is still Kittel, Greipel, Bouhanni, Demare, Kristoff...”he said of the new dynamic to the classification. “There are still some really fast guys there.” It’s not just the green-jersey competition that has opened up following Sagan’s disqualification. There is now greater opportunity for stage wins and Cooke expects the likes of Michael Matthews to cash in as a result. “Those two are the best sprinting climbers so for sure, Michael Matthews will be licking his chops right now. He wouldn’t wish this on Sagan but I know this certainly opens up the door for him,” he said of the Sunweb rider. “I am not going to say all the sprinters want him gone, but it is always going to be a little bit easier to win a stage now.” Cyclingnews

three days where we learned about leadership. Being a good leader is important for a DS. The knowledge I received at the UCI course is definitely very useful for my DS job and when I’m on the road as DS.” Scholarship applications can be sent to the UCI up until September 25th. The scholarship application form is available here. UCI News

oach Fred Grappe has questioned the legitimacy of the “vortex generator” skinsuits used by Team Sky riders during the Stage One time trial of the Tour de France, but the commissaires have decreed that the skinsuits are legal as the rules stand. Team Sky placed four riders in the top eight of Saturday’s 14-kilometer time trial in Dusseldorf, as Geraint Thomas claimed the first maillot jaune of the race and Chris Froome gained more than half a minute on his principal rivals in a startling display of collective strength. The Sky riders were wearing a new Castelli skinsuit, which featured textured patterns on the shoulders and upper arms, designed to act as vortex generators, which smooth the airflow around the body. On Saturday evening, Grappe took to Twitter to question the legality of Sky’s skinsuits. Citing a study into the use of such vortex generators, Grappe estimated that riders using the skinsuits might have gained between 18 and 25 seconds as result. “We already tested vortex generators three years ago in the wind tunnel and the effects were very advantageous,” Grappe told reporters before Stage Two in Dusseldorf. “I went to see the commissaires and reminded them that this was a rule modified during the winter. The rule said that new materials were now authorized for using skinsuits, so we made a lot of different skinsuits with our partners, modifying the textiles used so as to penetrate the air better. “But in no case would we have been allowed to insert a vortex, because it’s written in the rules that any aerodynamic addition that modifies air resistance is not allowed. That’s written clearly in the rules.” Article 1.3.033 of the UCI rules forbids

the wearing of nonessential items. In a clarification to the regulations issued at the beginning of the season, the UCI stated: “It is also prohibited to wear clothing or skinsuits to which nonessential elements have been added with a view to improving their aerodynamic properties such as, for example, ‘wings’ under the arms or an extension between the helmet and the jersey or skinsuit. It is obligatory for clothing to follow the cyclist’s body shape.” Philip Marien, the head of the race jury, told RTBF that he and his colleagues had examined the Team Sky skinsuits after the stage and decreed that, strictly speaking, there had been no violation of the rule. “We called the team to the race headquarters after the stage,” Marien said. “We examined the skinsuits and it [the vortex generator] is integrated into the fabric, so it’s not really a violation of the UCI rule. I can understand the rationale of other teams, but for the moment, we have no real way of forbidding it.” Unclear rules? Grappe interprets the wording of the regulations differently, and suggested that the UCI needs to provide a clarification of its clarification, so to speak. “The problem isn’t Sky, the problem is that it’s a rule that’s been changed, and everybody needs to know it,” Grappe said. “Everybody is looking for extra percentages. If the rules allow us to do certain things, then we’ll do them, but only within the rules. And this clearly isn’t within the rules as they stand.” Sky sport director Nicolas Portal defended Sky’s skinsuits and suggested their use had already been cleared before the stage. Team Sky reportedly already used

Cyclingnews

THE Specialized S-Works Venge ViAS Disc Marcel Kittel used in winning Stage Two.

Alberto Bettiol makes history as the first rider to race a Tour time trial on disc brakes with his Cannondale Super Slice.

‘Super Slice’ makes historic Tour debut

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LBERTO BETTIOL didn’t win the opening time trial of the Tour de France but he made history as the first rider to race a Tour time trial on disc brakes with his Cannondale Super Slice. Bettiol’s Cannondale-Drapac squad debuted the Super Slice in professional racing at TirrenoAdriatico earlier this year. While hydraulic systems are the standard for top-end disc braking for road and mountain bikes,

earlier iterations of the vortex generators during the Giro d’Italia and the Critérium du Dauphiné. “Everything was approved. We wouldn’t take a risk like that,” Portal said. “We’re looking for performance gains and we’re not the only ones. It’s legal. Everybody knows the rules and it’s up to everybody to adapt to the rules. These aren’t things that make a difference of many seconds, but it’s a small detail it can help.” Asked if the time gained by Sky as a result of using the skinsuits had been, as Grappe suggested, as much as 25 seconds, Portal demurred. “I don’t know exactly, it’s not my job. I’m a sport director, not a coach or a technician, so I’m not going to respond to Fred Grappe,” he said. “I don’t know about aerodynamics. It’s very complex. In the world of cycling there are a lot people better able to talk about it, like [Sky coach] Tim Kerrison.” Asked if the rule could be altered ahead of the Marseille time trial, Marien told RTBF that the commissaires would “reflect on it”. Grappe, meanwhile, warned that the decision to rubberstamp Sky’s skinsuits in the Tour’s opening time trial could lead to the employment of more extreme modifications from other teams in the Marseille time trial on the final weekend of the Tour. “The commissaires should do their jobs and apply the rules. If not, we’ll go to Marseille and we’ll see skinsuits that modify the shape of the back and the shoulders, and they’ll be going quicker,” Grappe said. “You will be able to modify the shape of the body by inserting pads into the skinsuit, and they’ll say that if it’s integrated as part of the skinsuit, then that’s ok.”

Cannondale’s Super Slice bikes use mechanical discs. The reason is fairly straightforward, Cannondale mechanics say: Shimano does not yet make a hydraulic lever for time-trial bikes. Bettiol was the only Cannondale rider on the disc-equipped Super Slice. The rest of his teammates were on the lighter rim-brake Slice models, Cannondale mechanics said. Curiously, some of those racing Slice bikes have Mavic disc rim-brake wheels with

disc-brake hubs. Mavic supplied the team with rim-brake and disc-brake wheels, including a few clincher wheels (instead of the traditional tubulars), because Mavic has a new prototype clincher tire that it claims to be fast and grippy. While the extra weight of the mechanical disc setup didn’t help Bettiol in the Tour de France, he does have something going for him: A sticker of a little pizza slice wearing a heroic red cape hides on the back of his Super Slice fork. Cyclingnews

KITTEL WINS ON DISC BRAKES

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ARCEL KITTEL won Stage Two of the Tour de France riding a Specialized S-Works Venge ViAS Disc, becoming the first rider in history to win a stage of a grand tour on a road bike with disc brakes. The German sprinter beat Arnaud Demare and Andre Greipel in the bunch sprint in Liege, Belgium. Kittel’s win follows a spate of controversies and marks a key moment in the use of disc brakes in the professional peloton.

Disc brakes came into the World Tour peloton on a trial basis at the beginning of the 2016 season. But following the injury at Paris-Roubaix of Movistar rider Fran Ventoso that was allegedly caused by a disc, the trial was put on hold until the beginning of the 2017 season. Tom Boonen (Quick-Step Floors) took the first professional victory on disc brakes at the Vuelta a San Juan in January, and then Kittel won on discs at the Dubai Tour the following month. Cyclingnews

OurTime Our Time Cavite’s ‘Masa’ programs benefit nearly 8,000 A8 Saturday, May 13, 2017 • Editor: Efleda P. Campos

A8 Saturday, July 8, 2017 • Editor: Efleda P. Campos

BusinessMirror

BusinessMirror

TSalaries of Manila’s job-order staff

RECE MARTIRES CITY, Cavite— The provincial government of Cavite disbursed more than P28 million for medical, burial and various assistance that benefited 7,772 socially disadvantaged Kabitenyos, a first quarterly disbursement summary report By Rosabel Toledo | disclosed on Monday. BOUT 130 job-order or Provincial Social Welfare DevelopCavite province, which ranks eighth contractual workers of10the ment Office (PSWDO) officer in charge among the country’s top high-perMa. Felipa R. Servanez said the disforming provinces has embarked on Manila City government bursements were in pursuit of Cavite its “6-17 Challenge” thrusts to put up Governormay Jesus Crispin Remulla’s varivital and release necessary social soon expect the ofinfrastrucous programs to uplift the lives and ture to help meet and satisfy the needs their salaries the cityof the council’s well-being of Cavite’s children, youth,after and requirements prospective 6 senior citizens and persons with dismillion Caviteños by 2017. regular session on Burial Tuesday. abilities (PWDs). assistance for senior citizens

garnered the highest, with more than 2,500 persons. PSWDO said under the social-protection program for displaced families, individuals in crisis are those living in hazardous places or victims of fire, delivery of “food to work” for disaster-related activities/events. This category also includes other development services or special cases like the abandoned women and children, or children who have problems witheach the query, law. but struggled to supply Other “help” programs include some of the data requested, such medical assistance in the form of cash as Osca’s staff count and the availor medicines and livelihood training in able balance for the yearly account the food or nonfood categories. of the maintenance and other opPSWDO also provides business erating expenses (MOOE). start-up kits under its self-empowering Council Presiding Officer and assistance for those who wish open Vice Mayor Shiela H. to Lacunaa sari-sari store or a feasible business Pangan interjected, requesting in their barangay. Dionisio to be more prepared and Assistance for children are catego-in bring all necessary documents rized based on their rights. future sessions. She also asked if For “survival” category, thethe proposed budget is to assisbe aptance is inretroactively, the form of supplemental plied to which Diofeeding, for growth nisiofood responded yes.projects and nutritious-food training to parents. “These job-order employees The havePSWDO been infirst-quarter service sincereport Janusaidary, the and development assistance the proposed budgetin-of cludes access support to Alternative P13,926,120 is already for the whole year, January to December 2017,” Dionisio said. This means a number of government staff have been performing

Learning Training System, financial and capability development assistance for out-of-school youth, capability development for child development workers and financial assistance for child laborers. Children who are in conflict with the law are given protection assistance and various projects, such as the governor’s “give-a-gift”, children’s month event and the children’s congress that is held annually. PWDsinare educational duties theextended city government for oralmost learning advancement “sulong-dusix months now, without nong” and capability building trainings certainty of compensation. and seminars, not only for students,her but Lacuna-Pangan manifested also, their teachers. worries about cases of job-order “Applicantsnot may walk indue anytime employees’ receiving comand per the governor’s directive, these pensation in other agencies, and various forms of assistance said she does not want are theopen sameto allsituation Kabitenyos,” Avila said. to befall employees of The amount of assistance the Manila Cityfinancial government. the applicants can avail themselves When Majority Floor Leader ofCasimiro depends C. onSison the evaluation recmotionedand for the ommendation of the social worker asapproval of the resolution, a round signed to the case, said. hall, of applause filledAvila the session The processing time takes to onere-to prompting Lacuna-Pangan two weeks, all financial assistance mind the and audience clapping is not isallowed distributed en the masse at the Provininside hall. cial Gym every Tuesday, added. In the same session,Avila the council Gladys S. also approved the use of thePino/PNA SAFMOOE in the amount of P39,600,000 for the salary of additional manpower to augment the current staff of Manila’s NGO Program Secretariat.

under way after approval of P13.9M Correspondent

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“The provincial government protopped the list of disbursements, with grams ‘Mula sa masa-para masa’ that benefited 1,203conDespite numeroussa initial concernsP2.321 million Chua earlier expressed [from theand people, for the people] are to citizens. queries from District 3 Coun-seniorcerns over the number of the give backcilor to the people the R. service the highest number of peoMary Grace Chuathey regarding Forcurrent staff at Osca, the amount deserve,”the Provincial Social Welfare Ofple who were afforded help, as- pay nuances of the resolution, the of money available forthe their ficer IV Darylvy Avila said. sistance for individuals in crisis P13,926,120 budget allocated for and the qualification of job-order the salary of additional manpower in employees. Manila’s Office of the Senior Citizens’ District 1 Councilor Ernesto Affairs (Osca) for the entire year was G. Dionisio, who discussed the approved on first reading. resolution on the floor, answered

Macao prepares to embrace to of register rapidGroup aging people in localolder population Quezon province

New study finds chocolate helps memory, cognitive function in elderly

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ACAO—Macao’s statistic department on May 6 pubOSCOW—Go on, treat lished the Bello detailed results By John | Correspondent yourself. A recent Italian of 2016 population by census carried study has found that eatout in the special administrative reUCENA CITY, Quezon—Seing chocolate not only helps improve gion (SAR), showing an accelerated nior citizens in Quezon provmemory and cognitive function population growth with ince flexcoupled their aging muscles in the short term, it can even help continued in the their as population they seek toaging strengthen prevent cognitive decline as we age. last fiveranks years. to alleviate their plight in The study, published in May The Statistics and Census their twilight years. Service in the journal Frontiers in Nutrisaid the population of Macao our totaled “We are profiling members tion, focused on cocoa flavanols, 650,834province-wide in August 2016, upto17.8 as a way strengththe chemical compounds in cocoa percent en from our552,503 ranks soinwethe can2011 be recogbeans, and their effect on brain Population Census, a ask nized as anattributable organizationtoand function, both right after ingestsurge in for nonresident living additionalworkers budgetary allocation ing the flavanols and as a result of in Macaoand andother a rebound in birth benefits fromrate. concerned regular consumption. The average annual-growth of Justo government agencies,”rate said Researchers Valentina Socci and Despite his age, farmer Cornelio Sebastian still manages an organic tomato farm right at the border of the the Macao population between federation 2011 Maralit, provincial Michele Ferrara of the University of and agriculture can coexist. and 2016chairman reached 3.3ofpercent, the highthe Office of SeniorOceanaGold Sustainable Agro-forestry Inc. central nursery in Tucod Village, Cabarroguis, Quirino. He believes mining L’Aquila reviewed the available litPERANTE II est in theCitizens past 20 years. Local populaAffairs (Osca) in Quezon erature on a varietyLEONARDO of studies and tion, excluding nonresident workers during their quarterly meeting held found that eating cocoa—which is, and foreign students living in Macao, here at the Bulwagang Kalilayan of course, the foundation of chocototaled 537,018, up by 10.7 percent late—boosts memory performance, on June 29. compared with attention and the speed with which “As 2011. of now, we are going to The result also the SARofpopvisual information is processed. lobby forshowed the passage a resoluulation continued age. The elderly Pantion fromtothe Sangguniang “Regular intake of cocoa and chocpopulation aged 65 and lalawigan forolder the increased establishment olate could indeed provide beneficial substantially byProvincial 48.6 percent from five effects on cognitive functioning over of the Office of Senior years agoCitizens to 59,383, accounting for 9.1 ACOOR CITY, Cavite—Bacoor (Osca) Head Bayani de Leon. age and they physical time,” saiddisability. in a press release. Affairs and ask the help percent of the total population, up by City Mayor Lani MercadoThe Rev. Father Erickson Santos She also reiterated her support for And listen up, ladies: The benof Quezon Gov. David Suarez to 1.9 percentage Revilla led the inauguration of consecrated the new facilities as city them, providedpronounced funds by the realizepoints. it,” said Maralit, the Osca efits who are are especially Moreover, percentage share building for senior citizens and Stillofficials, councilors andherbeneficiaries city government free admisGRANDMOTHER actively involved in managing market enterprise head the in his hometown of of Sariayaa new ENTERPRISING among women,for andtheir even more so selling sugar-coated pop-rice, dressed edible freshwater at the Santiago City wet market, the elderly population to the youth with disabilities (PWDs) on frogs and toured the fishes facilities. sion to movies all theaters in(hi, the with 13,337 members, 1,132 ofpersons for women whoindon’t sleep well 73-year-old Soriano claims her healthy diet comes fromtwo-story the leftover merchandise other population under rose by 15.6 perMonday at theEstelita Bacoor Government The building by has sixvendors ofcity Sunday, whom are14pensioners. newevery moms!). TheMonday, flavanolsTuesday seem for the last 20 years. SUZANNE JUNE G. PERANTE centage points to 76.3 percent. PopulaCenter, Bayanan. fices that will attend to various services and Thursday. Maralit, a retired police seto counteract the damage done by tion agednior 55 toinspector 64 took upin 13.5 percent for the city’s Osca and PWD group’s Shedeprivation: said BacoorAfter Citya bad is the only 2005, said Osca Mercado-Revilla officiated the sleep night’s (87,583) members of the total.in TheSariaya pace of popuribbon-cutting rites with the PWD 66,000 members. local government so far that are asked sleep, women who ate chocolateproor lation aging is expected P300 to accelerate The city mayor also thanked the vides free admission movie houses to contribute each: P270group President Jerwin Bautista, who cocoa were able to to function much further in theDamayang next decade.Pambayan andis also the Panapaan village chief, Osca and PWDs who serve in their for thenormally, elderly and PWDs four days more in terms of work and for The by census found the female respective communities despite their a cognition, week. PNA than those who didn’t. P30 for the passbook. In timeand Office of Senior Citizens Affairs population outnumbered the double male the The elderly are another group well of need, they receive population. Females and males totaled amount they have contributed served by the sweet stuff: The study 336,816 asand 314,018, respectively, member. authors found that consuming cocoa allocated for the programs, projects UEZON CITY Mayor Heraccounting He for said 51.8 5percent and percent of 48.2 their muevery day led to improved attention, and activities of registered senior bert Bautista on Wednesday percent of the total. The gender nicipal budget goes toratio Osca as memory, processing speed and verbal citizens residing in Quezon City, said more than 30 benefiwas 93.2,budgetary corresponding to 93.2 males LMOST of 3 million grandparentswelfare in down a very high fever.” But ice baths can grandchild had negatively affected allocation and that fluency. Elderly people who weretheir alsubject to the availability of funds. ciaries the death-benefit per 100 females. regarding the local who the US are raising theirreceived grandchilspouse relationship. four of As their Osca members readyor showing signs of memory loss hypothermia. Under the provision, legitimate assistance program their cause population, gender ratio dropped dren, butfinancial outdatedassistance health practices The study alsoofrevealed nearly onethe grandparents were interare the over 100 years old have reorMany otherofcognitive decline showed the beneficiaries deceased senior citiP5,000 from the from 92.7 five years ago to 90.2, andas cen-and myths may City be putting some of those the grandparents didn’t knowas ested receiving counseling (43 percent) cently received P100,000 mostinsignificant improvement. zensofshall receive at least P5,000 Quezon Office of Senior Citizens quarter the surplus of females overfrom malesthe was at risk, new research contends. that death-benefit “infants shouldwelfare be putassistance. to sleep on or joining a support group (61 percent), and tennial benefits centralyoungsters “This result suggests the potenAffairs (Osca). more apparent. “When grandparents step up to the their back, not on their stomach or side” those without an adequate support system office of the Department of Sotial of cocoa flavanols to protect To receive the benefits, they Bautista approved City OrdiThe number of households totaled can be wonderful for grandchildren, risk of were less likely to report feeling generally cial Welfare and Development asplate, itnance cognition in vulnerable populations must the be able tosudden presentinfant-death a QC Osca2544, otherwise known as to reduce 188,723,mandated an increasebyoflaw. 10.5 percent but canthe alsoDeath pose challenges in terms of syndrome. happy (54 percent versus 86 percent). over time by improving cognitive issued Senior Citizens ID of the Benefit Welfare Assiscompared toBilly fiveEvallar, years ago. The aver- pro-lifestyle, finances and mental and physical Indeceased, two relatedcertificate studies surveying nearly “In their questionnaires, a fairly senior-citizen performance,” the authors said.large “If of residency tance Ordinance of 2016, on Januage household was 3.07 president persons, andhealth ary to a somewhat older or elderly cosame research teamof sample size of felt they were vincialsize federation you look atgrandparents the underlying mechaissued by thethebarangay, a copy 9, 2017. The assistance serves 800 grandparents, a slight decrease from 3.08ofpersons in saidhort,” senior investigator Andrew Adesfound that one certificate, in 10 grandparents doing a good job, but acknowledged they also Osca head Calauag, nism, the cocoa flavanols have benthe death proof raising of relaas a token of theDr.QC government’s 2011. Analyzed by the size, of allman said. He is chief of developmental and re- theirtionship grandchildren have and any other supdidn’t haveeffects the support often needed they have tohousehold do profiling eficial for they cardiovascular of thedidn’t claimant “sincere gratitude and great three-person pediatrics at Cohen Children’s systems, and another 12 percent said and that their be alienating theirhouseholds members predominatand they need tobehavioral health and role cancould increase cerebralin documents. spect” for senior citizens who are portnecessary ed, accounting for 24.5 percent of the Medical Center in New Hyde Park, New York. their support system didn’t meet their most terms of their own peer group,” Adesman be registered with Securities and blood volume in the dentate gyrus Only registered senior citizens considered as the living link to histotal households, up by 1.3 percentage More than 600 grandparents raising important needs. said in a Northwell Health news release. Exchange Commission so they can of the hippocampus.” of Quezon City whose relatives can tory up to the time of their demise. points from years earlier.ofByfunds con- fromtheir grandchildren completed a quesAlso, percent ofrequirements those grandparhelpisgrandparents availfive themselves Pediatricians The dentatecan gyrus believed to prove71sufficient are The resolution targets about trast, thethe proportion tionnaire for the study. Their answers ents said their grandchild responsibilities raise their grandchildren byof updating them region. of four-person allowed to receive the benefits. help in the formation new mem400,000 recipients. The number of households fell by 1.6 percentage points that 44 percent berestricted their the ability socialize with onories. current health care and parenting methJeremias Ortillan, 70, and Oscarevealed Among firsttobatch of benefi“This structure is particularly beneficiaries couldmistakenly possibly increase to 21.4 percent. baths are a months. good way to bring friends. Nearly one-third said raising ods, he said.by Newaging York Times Newstherefore, Service head ofXinhua the island town of Joma-lieved “ice ciaries was Elsa Ramos, 81, their from affected and, in the coming lig, a sixth-class municipality with University of the Philippines Village. Alberto G. Lucero, Osca adminthe potential source of age-related 7,000 population and more than Ramos received the death benefit in istrative officer, said Ordinance memory decline in humans,” the au500 Osca members, said it’s a good behalf of her deceased husband. 2544-2016 Section 6.1 states the thors said. “Regular intake of cocoa “What I received will go to medithing they are bonding together death benefits, including the sudden and chocolate could indeed provide cine and other needs,” Ramos said in surge thereof, could be taken from so they can have more benefits as beneficial effects on cognitive funcFilipino. PNA 1 percent of the city’s general fund senior citizens. John Bello tioning over time.” Sputnik

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GRANDPA’S CONTOUR FARM

Mayor inaugurates new building for senior citizens, PWDs in Bacoor City

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QC grants aid to first recipients of senior death-benefit program

AreQ grandkids safe when grandparents raise them?

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The ethical Geriatric nursing:dilemma New attractive job health-care industry of in aged care in PHL Marc A. Daubenbuechel

The Age of Eldercare

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We Sare startingofa acolumn onresiEldercare this Marc arises. the week, new authored need forbynurses operator seniors’ Daubenbuechel who has been based in the Philippines since 2006. He put unDeveloped countries are dence in the Philippines, I is an expert in elderly care and assists in developing the geriatric sector der pressure by aging societies am facing an interesting in the Philippines through international projects. and have a dramatic shortage of problem: The scarcity of nurses Marc earned a bachelor of arts degree in international business geriatric nurses. In Germany, my with geriatric knowledge. We have management from the Cologne Business School. He worked for 4 years country, than 20,000 more than 200,000 registered with the Sozial Betriebe Köln, an operator home of nursing homesmore and homegeriatric nurses are needed nurses in the country who are eicare services in Germany, and has in-depth experience in running res- as of today. And this need is expected ther unemployed orand notwellness working taurants, hotels, spa institutions. to grow rapidly. Recent statistics in their I would have Fromprofession. 2009 to 2016 Marc was the executive director of the Retireforecast Germany will be never imagined thatCoalition, the scarcity ment and Healthcare a project of the European Chamber ofshort of 100,000 geriatric nurses by 2030. ofCommerce qualified nurses will become of the Philippines. a bigSince challenge for the geriatric The Philippines has always 2015 Marc has been an independent health-care consultant for educated more nurses geriatric it needed locally industry. various companies interested to get involved in the Philippine as millions Filipinos RainTree Care is not institutions the only wanting market and for Philippine to learnofmore about are ge- dreamoperator aged-care riatric careofand education facilities in Germany. ing of moving abroad. Becoming a nurse was for decades the “exit facing this dilemma. Nursing COMMON I bring up the topic nursing homes, ticket” outofof the country. homes all over thestatement country, when caring home-care services or geriatric-care services is “We do not need the enOver the last years, for Filipinos and foreigners are in these facilities orAnd services. Our traditioninto is tonursing look aftercourses rollment shortageany of of qualified nurses. our own elderly.” dropped significantly as many those nurses with geriatric knowlheard the comment in different ways fewgiven hundred over to work are anot thetimes chance edgeI have usually leave the country in the last 10 years in the Philippines. Almost every time, there is a fierce abroad and are being forced to a time span of just a few months. reaction from people in the crowd when I talk about the necessity work below minimum pay due to It is time tosome act now, as the need of nursing homes. This might be due to the fact that I am a foreigner, but the massive competition. Univerfor geriatric services is rapidly the same reaction can be seen when fellow Filipinos bring up the same sities are looking for alternatives growing. The Philippines has a topic. So what is leading to this denial? and new programs to keep the population of more than 7 million Why is it okay to have seniors for several months in the most exsenior citizens. Many are in need enrollment high. pensive hospitals of the country (which ruins families financially for I stronglyofbelieve the BS in Nursofyears)? medical attention. Dementia, But the moment you bring up the possibility transferring ing program needs be rewritstroke and long-term care services your parents to a nursing home, you are criticized for “givingtoyour ten. It has been too long are just a few samples of geriatric parents away”, or for “disposing those that loved you all your life”. since the services needed.perception and judgment ofresponsible This common society is thedepartments cause for many have ignored the need for geriatric Clearly, conflicts a new trend canfamilies be seen:and suffering emotional among for the elderly in need nurses in the Philippines abroad. More and more of professional care.assisted-living On one hand, families are in desperate need and for help, This would help us, the operafacilities nursing arehelp as family but on theand other, they fearhomes to seek for members, community of“love aged-care facilities being established. Tenthem yearsforago, and society might blame not beingtors able to and take care of in the no nursing could be found their parentshome as they are supposed to do”. country, to solve the issue of findWhere is geriatricNowadays, or aged care in the Philippines headed? What are the nurses ing competent geriatric in the Philippines. we measures come services for local seniors?the Have we ever and support establishment of have abouttaken 400 to beds inup 20with private asked ourselves why there isManila, a national government mandated in to private geriatricagency departments facilities in Subic, Laguna, attractTagaytay foreign retirees to the Philippines, but there is no hospitals national agency and public all over the Iloilo, and Cebu. looking after the welfare of Filipino seniors and their families? country to give proper holistic The above-mentioned faciliargueasthehospitals Department of Social care Welfare and Development is to seniors. ties,Weascanwell and mandated toproviders do so. Yes, but are “poor, vulnerable home-care areonly in after needthe elderlyIwho believe enrollment in univerdisadvantaged individuals”, leaving seniors families whostudents sitiesand willtheir increase when ofand geriatric nurses. As geriatric are not “poor, and disadvantaged” anyone to turn seewithout a new perspective into. becoming knowledge is vulnerable hardly taught in the To show the urgent need for action, let us look at the statistics from a geriatric nurse. This would also Bachelor of Science in Nursing, Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA). The number of senior citizens is help developed countries, such healthcare workers are very often increasing faster than the growth of the total population in the Philipas Germany, Italy, Japan and the overwhelmed when taking care of pines. In 2000 there were 4.6 million senior citizens, (6 percent of the United States, to address their the elderly, paying attention solely total population). By 2010 this grew to 6.5 million seniors, or about 6.9 shortage geriatric nurses. topercent the medical issues and forgetof the total population. The PSA projects that byof 2030, older people Bilateral agreements ting the holistic-care approach of will make up around 16 million, or 11.5 percent of the total population.between Germany, Japan andcounthe Philipelderly The care. issue of aging previously merited only little attention in the pines have already been While the high quality of the try. For example, it was only since 2014 that Philhealth was mandated to signed. Now coverage is the time to act and start nursing education in the Philcover senior citizens. Prior to this, no health-care was available. capacity building. ippines recognized bythemany Sadly, upis until now, most of private insurers do not cover senior citiHundreds countries, thefamilies geriatric-care conzens, putting under tremendous financial pressure.of retired Filipino nurses with extensive tentWhile is limited to a few hours and improvements are happening, the speed in which the Philip-geriatric gerontopsychiatric approaches knowledge returned over the last pines is aging demands faster action and more geriatric services to ensure dignity growing old. are notinexistent, making Filiyears from abroad. Their potential forfor abandoned seniors, and I saw pressure pinoI visited nursesplaces unfit the work should bethe tapped and on thethe knowledge Whatever the reasons—family conflicts, financial constraints, multiplied to start the new sunrise insystem. aged-care facilities. fear of judgement “burnedwhere out syndromes” among family nursing. memindustry ofthe geriatric This, however,and is exactly

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bers—seniors from all classes of society are being abandoned at a rate faster than new facilities can be established. Other families hide their “difficult” seniors at home because dementia is still a topic of shame, and families do not know who to turn to for help. Thankfully, this is still the exception, but if you visit or volunteer in a place for the abandoned, you can see it with your own eyes. Today, nursing homes in the Philippines are associated with the negative perception that only seniors “given away” by their families are living there. Many people do not consider the possibility that nursing homes ers of the global clothing company AVID Yeung believes meat can be happy places. A home away from home. Places where specialized Tommy Yeung is the new tobacco. But the geriatric nurses, caregivers and dedicated doctors giveBahama. their loving caregraduated from Columbia University longtime vegetarian and to seniors. Some seniors are entirely alone at home as all members of the in 1998 with a degree spent practicing won’t are try stroke to get victims, family are Buddhist working. Others have a form in of engineering, dementia a few years consulting for PwC and you to stop eating meat. He just wants or just simply need assistance in performing the most basic activities of then launched a software start-up you to consider eating less. daily living. In some instances, it is simply not possible to age at home. grew up eating Some That’s whatalso he’sprefer trying doinwith seniors toto age a nursing (now home defunct). to keep theHe “burden” meat, but in 2001, he dove into the of Hong Kong, who coloff citizens of their families. Buddhist a core tenet lectively have the highest per-capita Without a doubt, most of us prefer to grow old in ourphilosophy, own homes toofnot which is possible. the truth of suffering. meat consumption getherand withseafood our family. So do I. This is,inhowever, always Rapid urbanization, increased of living, that 10 amillion Filipinos It wasn’t big leap for Yeung to go the world, according to acost 2015 study the fact areEuromonitor. living abroad, are proofs of the burden thefrom traditional family systems looking inward to looking outby (Surprising, right? are under. To make matters cardiovascular diseases, stroke and ward, and he quickly concluded by We’ll give you a moment toworse, digest.) are mission on the rapid changing his diet, he could stop the dementia His life’s is rise. to get the We should to consider that aged-care servicesof in animals. their various suffering citizens of ourstart planet—particularly forms are acity—to much-needed service and a direct the rapid rise back to response Shortlytobefore moving his home cut out eating of aging of the Philippines. Hong Kong, he read about “Meatanimals at least one day a week. And I do not claim thatinspired nursing homes services are the that urged less Monday”, a campaign it’s working: Menus by hisand geriatric-care ultimate solution. Rather, they should be seen as an option for those in each week Americans to take one day “Green Monday” philosophy appear need of health-care services for the elderly. After all, we wouldn’t refuse off from eating meat. in hundreds of restaurants across health-care services for our children. How much more to our seniors?

HK VEGETARIAN CAMPAIGNS AGAINST HK MEAT ADDICTION

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Hong Kong, and at schools and universities around the world. Though Yeung grew up in Hong Kong, he spent over a decade living in New York. When he was 16, his family moved to nearby New Jersey to be closer to the fashion industry. His father was one of the four found-

“I thought the word meatless was not the best choice. People aren’t going to say, ‘Oh, today let’s go meatless,’” he said. He also figured that regardless of language, ethnicity, geography and gender, “green” was a universally known word. “Monday” too. Bloomberg News

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The Millennials BusinessMirror

Saturday, July 8, 2017

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Malabon business lures 3 generations of consumers

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LONG the stretch of Gov. Pascual Avenue in Malabon sits a business that harkens to the taste of three generations: baby boomer, Gen X and millennial.

Fortunately, it’s not bagoong, the fish paste associated to Malabon in a prewar folk song. Nanay’s Pancit Malabon, indeed, has captured the hearts of locals here for over four decades so much it really enjoys the full support of the city. Take 60-year-old Priscilla Baldonado who lived and was raised in Malabon. According to her, the restaurant’s noodle dish is a must whenever her friends celebrate or visit. “Kung may darating akong panauhin o bisita na nanggagaling sa malayong lugar, ’yan agad ang tinatanong sa akin: ‘Wala ka bang Pancit Malabon?’[Whenever we have v isitors from faraway places, they immediately ask for Pancit Malabon],” Baldonado told the BusinessMirror. It was a habit acquired by her

22-year-old daughter Joanne. She said Pancit Malabon from Nanay’s (mother) has been the go-to food of her relatives and coworkers who come to the city. A paper presented at the 2015 De La Salle University (DLSU) Research Congress traced Pancit Malabon to the Chinese living in the country as pancit or pansit comes from the Hokkien “pian i sit” meaning “something conveniently cooked fast”.

Noodle start

NANAY’S is one of three restaurants the paper said is the oldest business offering the Filipino dish, which is made of eggs, shrimp, pechay (Chinese cabbage), flakes of tinapa (smoked fish), celery, chicharon, pork and special sauce made of cassava. Nanay’s kept traditional ways

MILLENNIAL UNIVERSE

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“Exactly,” he said. “If you are writing this for Tourism [section of the newspaper], your goal is supposedly to reconcile the fact that disaster-hit Tacloban and that tourism is supposed to make people happy.” “They should be sad you mean?” The journalist’s face soured, the way you might when you reprimand children for misbehaving at a holy place. The point, he said, was that one should not forget. We don’t, I said. We don’t forget. Here we stand before this symbol of the human spirit, the essence of it well seared in our memory. But one should also not forget to smile at the camera.

Fyre Festival organizer charged with wire fraud

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of how the dish is served. “Kung ano ’yung naumpisahan, kunwari ’yung toppings: gulay, baboy, hipon, itlog, ayun ganun pa rin. Wala kaming dinadagdag na iba,” said Bernardita Ignacio, the owner of Nanay’s Pancit Malabon. “Kumbaga iniimprub mo ’yung lasa pero ’yung pinaka-itsura, ganun pa rin [It’s just like how we started. For example, our toppings like the vegetables, meat, shrimp and eggs are all the same. We did not add anything new; we just improved the quality of our pancit’s taste. How it looks today when served stayed].” Ignacio was referring to the mid-1970s when her aunt Remedios Cruz, popularly known as Lola Remy, began cooking for her friends. She said Cruz used her own recipe and started ac-

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Vernon Velasco

EW YORK—Billy McFarland, the entrepreneur behind the Fyre Festival, which was sold as an ultra-luxurious music event in the Bahamas but collapsed spectacularly in April, leaving behind angry ticket buyers, investors and workers, was arrested by federal agents at his home in Manhattan last Friday and charged with one count of wire fraud. Federal prosecutors said the charge involves a scheme to defraud investors, which included misrepresenting financial information about McFarland’s company, Fyre Media. His representatives were not immediately available for comment. Joon H. Kim, acting US attorney for the Southern District of New York, said in a statement: “McFarland allegedly presented fake documents to induce investors to put over a million dollars into his company and the fiasco called the Fyre Festival.” If convicted, McFarland could face a maximum of 20 years in

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cepting orders at home from her sister’s colleagues. Ignacio said orders were made two days prior to delivery because they did not have enough kitchen tools and had to buy ingredients fresh from the nearest market. Their neighbors eventually also ordered from Cruz, who sold a single serving for P1.50 ($0.25) each. Baldonado said she was among those who ordered from Lola Remy for her afternoon snack. “Simula pa lang noon talagang bumibili na ako. Sa bahay pa lang sila nagtitinda, bata pa ako,” Baldonado told the BusinessMirror. “Pero ngayon may anak at apo na ako, Nanay’s Pancit pa rin [I have been buying Pancit Malabon even before when they were still selling in their house when I was younger.

AFTER 14 years of selling the Filipino dish from home, Lola Remy’s family opened a full-fledged restaurant on November 8, 1984, on Gov. Pascual Avenue corner Santo Rosario Village, Concepcion, Malabon City. “Sinubukan namin kasi sabi ng mga customers ‘Sige na lumabas na kayo para mas accessible kasi papasok pa kami sa loob ng subdivision [We tried opening our own store because our customers told us ‘You should go out of the subdivision because it would be more accessible’],” Ignacio said. Nanay’s started with only two chairs and eight tables. They even used the freezer at home to store leftover meat and shrimp to conserve power as electric bill for commercial establishments were higher compared to residential rates. “Kaya ganun muna ang setup…kasi [noon] ’di pa namin kayang mag-produce dahil hindi namin alam kung magki-click kami [Our restaurant’s setup is the way it is now because back then, we did not think that the business would click among customers],” Ignacio said. After only over a month of officially opening the restaurant, the family business boomed as they received hundreds of orders when Christmas season arrived. This is how they made their name in the industry. Tod ay Nanay’s a lso ser ves breakfast and lunch to customers.

Support

RECOGNIZING the popularity of Nanay’s, the Malabon City

included the restaurant in the route of its Tricycle Tours, the city government’s project to preserve and introduce its heritage sites and delicacies to people who are not from Malabon. “’Yung tricycle Tours ini-improve din niya ’yung kalakalan dito, ‘yung ekonomiya [ng Malabon], at magdadagdag ng employment ’yon kahit papaano,” Ignacio said. “Ang tricycle tours hindi naman para sa [mga] taga-Malabon ’yan eh, para sa mga taong outside Malabon. Kaya kumbaga, lalong nakikilala ang lugar [Tricycle Tours improved the trade and economy of Malabon and it somehow provides employment for others. Tricycle Tours is not for people who live in Malabon].” She also credits social media as a factor in helping Nanay’s and Malabon become popular. Before, Malabon City was often associated with “flood”. “[D]ati kapag sinabi ’yung word na ‘Malabon’ ang unang papasok sa isip ng tao laging baha diyan. Pero ngayon, ang pumapasok na agad sa isip ng tao ay ‘masarap pancit dyan’ kaya malaking tulong ito sa pag po-promote ng Malabon [Back then, people used to associate Malabon with f lood. Now, they think of how good our pancit tastes like. This helps a lot in promoting the city],” Joanne Baldonado said. For Ignacio, every success and recognition that Nanay’s Pancit Malabon had earned since they started as a home-base business entailed hard work. “Sa kahit anong larangan, it takes patience bago mo ma-achieve ‘yung gusto mo [In every field, it takes patience before you can achieve your goal].” Mikaela Cecille S. Silverio and Vann Marlo M. Villegas

Primers for children court littlest radicals

Lest we forget ACLOBAN City—I took a lesson from a senior reporter, who said that one should write with the heart and not with the mind. This I recalled as we stood and beckoned at the camera from the anterior deck of a supposed shipwreck that run aground on a storm surge and killed scores at the height of Supertyphoon Yolanda four years ago. Refurbished, the ship in question now looks like wax and has been turned into a memorial, one of the many that stand around these parts of Tacloban City, the ground zero of the disaster that somehow turned the place into a tourist spot. The journalist was aghast that tourists huddled grinning for a picture around this totem of history. “That is a memorial,” he said through gritted teeth. “How are you supposed to smile in the face of something that commemorates death and destruction?” “Because they’re happy?” I said. “Proud?” I didn’t know what to say. I wanted to point out that at least I didn’t take a happy picture. I did once he was gone.

Now that I have my own children and grandchildren, It would still be Nanay’s Pancit].”

prison, but is likely to receive a lesser sentence. In addition to the federal charges, McFarland and Ja Rule, his partner in the venture, face more than a dozen lawsuits. Some included accusations that the men and Fyre Media had included fictitious financial information on documents given to prospective investors.

Complaint unsealed

STACEY Richman, a lawyer for Ja Rule, whose real name is Jeffrey Atkins, said he had not been arrested. “Mr. Atkins is not under arrest and we don’t perceive him to be a subject of this investigation,” Richman said. A criminal complaint unsealed on June 30 detailed the case, which relies heavily on misrepresentations of financial information to people who invested in Fyre Media— whose main business was a web site that let people book celebrities for special events— and a subsidiary, Fyre Festival Llc. New York Times News Service

’ is for Feminist. For fairness in our pay.” “‘J’ is for Justice! Justicia for all.” “L-GB-T-Q! Love who you choose.” Those sprightly injunctions, sandwiched between bright cardboard covers, are a sampling from A Is for Activist, a popular alphabet primer. The Cat in the Hat for a new generation, it is one in a rash of pointedly topical titles—A Rule Is to Break: A Child’s Guide to Anarchy (Wee Rebels), Global Babies, Feminist Baby— that line the shelves at Book Culture, an indie chain with three stores on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. Toddler tomes, they are meant to resonate most ringingly with progressive millennials and their tiniest charges, some still in onesies, others not yet potty trained. Youngsters like Evans Yaffee, 2, who listened attentively recently at Book Culture’s story hour. The visit was her first. “But I read to her every night,” said her mother, Sari Yaffee, who hopes to instill in Evans the conviction that little girls can do most anything their labile minds can dream. “It’s important to me that she hear not just books about princesses.”

Sense of urgency

SEATED nearby, Eilon Shomron-Atar, a psychoanalyst, was straining to filter out the distractions of some dozen pint-size listeners gurgling and spinning like jacks all around him. Bella, his 2-year-old, sat at his knee as Tehilah Eisenstadt, a childhood educator and activist, read to the group from Emma and the Whale, which touches on themes of empathy and wildlife preservation. Such messages matter, Shomron-Atar said, but so do values like “food justice” or, as he explained, “learning about eating ethically, buying local, organic and pain-free and knowing where your dinner comes from”. They are concerns embraced by the authors of board books like V Is for Vegan and Vegan Is Love. Those books and their reform-minded kin have descended like crickets on indie stores and megachains, their authors, by turns upbeat or admonitory, addressing themes of immigration, climate change, racial and ethnic diversity, feminism and gender identification, all gathered under the rubric of social justice. To booksellers and publishers, such topics are especially timely. “Since the election, there has been a greater sense of urgency about these issues,” said Annie Hedrick, an owner of Book

Culture. “Parents in our area are trying to find ways to take them up with their kids.”

Popular avenue

BOARD books and picture books are proving a popular avenue. “Five or six years ago, A Is for Activist would not have been published,” said Ken Geist, publisher and editorial director for picture books at Scholastic. “I don’t think the trend was mainstream at that point.” Since its release in 2013 by Seven Stories Press, A Is for Activist, by Innosanto Nagara, has become a children’s best-seller, with 125,000 copies in print, according to the publisher. Arguably the book’s unexpected success has given rise to a flurry of such child-friendly primers—among them, My Night in the Planetarium, also by Nagara, which is in part about speaking out against oppression. These and similar offerings seek to captivate a generation still too young and unformed to have acquired a name. Liberally inclined romper-room fare is not entirely novel. “We stand on the shoulders of giants, people who have been pushing this for decades,” said Dhonielle Clayton, the COO of We Need Diversity Books, a group that advocates social justice in children’s literature. “We just took up their work.” A generation ago, books like Abiyoyo, Pete Seeger’s lyrical tall tale set in a multicultural South African village, were popular with forward-thinking parents and their young. More recently, Scholastic resurrected hits like Giraffes Can’t Dance and the picture book Yo! Yes? about a budding friendship between a black boy and a white boy, which are taking their places alongside newer titles and imprints.

Feel underrepresented

ONLY three years ago, the eminent children’s book writer and artist Walter Dean Myers wrote an opinion article in The New York Times lamenting the paucity of children’s books with AfricanAmerican protagonists and themes. His concerns at the time were substantiated in documentation by the Cooperative Children’s Book Center at the University of Wisconsin, which reported that of 3,200 children’s books published in 2013, only 93 were about black people. (The 2016 figures reflect a jump: Out of 3,400 books received at the center, 286 are about black people.) “What is the message,” Myers asked, “when some children are not represented in those books? Where are the future white

children and their parents or nannies gather at Book Culture for story time in New York on June 6. Book Culture, an indie chain with three stores on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, offers activist literature to a young audience. Hilary Swift/The New York Times

personnel managers going to get their ideas of people of color. Where are the future white loan officers and future white politicians going to get their knowledge of people of color? Where are black children going to get a sense of who they are and what they can be?” Today, some children may see themselves reflected in Make Me a World, an imprint from Random House focused on diversity and introduced this year by Myers’s son, Christopher, a children’s book author and illustrator. Others will be mirrored in Jump at the Sun, a new Disney-Hyperion imprint celebrating African-American culture. Or, for that matter, Salaam Reads, a recent imprint from Simon & Schuster that will highlight the experiences of young Muslim Americans. “I know what it’s like to feel really underrepresented,” said Zareen Jaffery, the Muslim American editor of Salaam Reads. Books that mirror the images and experiences of young Muslims give a sense of validation and belonging, she said. Salaam Reads books like Yo Soy Muslim and the forthcoming Salam Alaikum were conceived, in part, in response to a turbulent sociopolitical climate, Jaffery said. “Muslims are part of a daily conversation that focuses on a violent and deviant minority,” she said, “and that ends up defining what Muslims are to most people in the US who haven’t actually met a Muslim.”

Negative examples

EISENSTADT, the director of education and family engagement at the Society for the Advancement of Judaism, has reservations of her own. “Some of these books are a little heavyhanded,” she said. She has a point. Consider some of the more aggressive passages from A is for Activist , which characterize

opponents of alternative energy sources as Silly Selfish Scoundrels Sucking on Dinosaur Sludge and tag corporate chieftains as Vultures. “For me,” Eisenstadt said, “the rule is, ‘Don’t answer the question the child hasn’t asked.’” Shomron-Atar, who in his practice often works with very young children, is concerned that some of these books are written from an adult perspective, building on negative examples to highlight their themes. “But the very young child,” he reasoned, “isn’t able to differentiate between what is a negative example and a positive example.”

Provocative fare

STILL, plenty of people are undaunted. “My kids were hearing books basically from birth, before they could understand language,” said Brooke Welles, whose children are now 5 and 8. A professor of communications at Northeastern University in Boston who teaches a class on children and media, Welles favors gently provocative fare like Click, Clack, Moo, a book focused on cows that stage a protest about living conditions on their farm, and others that highlight diversity. “Because we are a white, heterosexual, cisgender family living in a racially homogeneous area,” she said, “we strove to have people of color in our books, or families, maybe, with two dads or two moms.” Some parents suggest that these small volumes may have an outsize impact. Ashley Stoney, who writes for Romper, a web site for millennial parents, provides her daughter Ava, 3, with books that have black girl protagonists. “She is in a minority at her day care group,” Stoney said. “But when I read to her recently about a little girl with cornrows, she was very excited. ‘Oh,’ she told me, ‘She has hair like mine.’” New York Times News Service

BusinessMirror

A10 Saturday, July 8, 2017

AI, automation threaten PHL BPO sector–experts

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UTOMATION and artificial intelligence (AI) are going to be a future threat to the country’s business-process outsourcing (BPO) industry as these technologies will affect the employment of workers, particularly those belonging to the lower skills category.

In a recent inter view with the BusinessMirror, Thinking Machines Data Science Inc. CEO Stephanie Sy said the country must act fast to address the impact of AI, especially the possible displacement it would create in the BPO sector. Sy said the government must also accelerate in upgrading the skills of Filipinos to become more competitive in the knowledge-process outsourcing (KPO) area. She explained automation and

AI can be “lumped together in terms of losses of jobs”. “It will reduce the low skill jobs in the BPO industry.” Sy expressed the Philippines faces a “huge challenge” to offset the losses from the low skills category. “The number of higher skill jobs is not going to equal to those reduced skilled jobs. It is really bad,” Sy said. “If we gain 100,000 high-skill jobs and lose 400,000 lose-skill jobs, we are still going to experience a big gab. I want

to avoid that situation where we will experience more inequality. So you have to find a way replace those low-skill jobs, give them different things to work on or train them for something up and find ways to use them.” Nevertheless, Sy said the situation is not gloomy as there are lots of opportunities that people can utilize. For instance, she said people, particularly the youth, should study analytics and data science as the global area is going to absorb huge volume of data in the advent of the Internet of Things. “The country is experiencing a dearth in data scientists,” Sy said. “It is hard to find the right talent because we don’t teach it in our schools.” She said she believes the University of the Philippines “produces a lot of good graduates in the College of Engineering”. The Asian Institute of Management recently announced it will introduce a data science program in response to the growing need

for data experts. It is just awaiting the Commission on Higher Education’s approval of the curriculum. In a separate interview, Infor m at io n a nd C om mu n i c a tions Technolog y Undersecretary Monchito Ibrahim said the government has crafted measures to mitigate the impact of AI and automation particularly in the BPO industry. Ibrahim said they are collaborating with the Department of Science and Technology (DOST) to boost the countr y’s research and development road map. He said they are urging BPOs to retrain their people for higher skills to handle knowledge-based jobs. Meanwhile, Science Secretary Fortunato de la Peña said AI is a top priority in the government’s research and development agenda. The DOST-Philippine Council for Industry, Energy and Emerging Technology Research and Development Deputy (now known as the Innovation Council) has included AI in its development agenda, de la Peña added. Rizal Raoul Reyes

Getting to know the CFO of tomorrow I

By Mahadevan Natarajan

N Asia Pacific and around the world, businesses are facing an uncertain future. Macroeconomic events, such as US disengagement from the Trans-Pacific Partnership and China’s slowing economic growth, are making it harder than ever to plan ahead. And what’s more, this uncertainty is being exacerbated by digital disruption. New players are charging into every sector, wielding pioneering digital business models and prising away market share from incumbents. Some 83 percent of executives in Asia Pacific now see digital start-ups as a threat to their business. As enterprises attempt to navigate a course to success in these turbulent times, they are increasingly turning to an unexpected source for guidance—their CFO. Whereas, once upon a time, the CFO was primarily an enterprise’s bookkeeper and accountant, the role is changing beyond recognition. In addition to their traditional activities of managing budgets and producing reports, CFOs are increasingly expected to be a strategic driver for business growth and innovation; tasked to enable digital transformation and extract maximum value from operations. This is the CFO of tomorrow. The CFO of tomorrow is no longer only involved in financial management and reporting. Instead, their role is to ensure the financial, functional and operational aspects of the business are brought together to demonstrated optimal value and performance to shareholders. This change is well under way. Recent research from Oracle on finance leaders reveals that 52 percent of CFOs say their role now predominantly involves advising the business on how it can achieve growth. When it comes to seeing the bigger picture, the importance of data cannot be under-

stated. The CFO of tomorrow will draw on data from a many different sources in order to gain insight and connect business units together. The CFO of tomorrow will rely on data from the Internet of Things (IoT). As a result, they’ll understand the business like never before. Weather sensors, for example, will alert them days in advance that a storm may disrupt the supply chain; Fitbit data will let them know when the work force is stressed; and ambient temperature sensors will let them know when the factory is in danger due to overheating. This external data will help CFOs make predictions and recommendations across the business, exponentially increasing their value to the CEO and board. In order to collect, store and analyze these vast caches of data, the CFO of tomorrow will naturally look to cloud solutions. Cloud-based ERP, EPM and SCM applications can act as the “muscles” of a data-driven, digital approach to business transformation, providing CFOs with the tools to optimize business performance, collaborate and allocate resources effectively. IoT applications in the cloud, meanwhile, can provide CFOs with a new range of senses—allowing them to “see”, “hear” and “smell” what’s happening outside the corporate walls, and providing them with real-time information that enables true agility. Adaptive intelligence cloud software is the new brains, using machine learning to analyze large volumes of data faster. There’s no denying that digital disruption and economic uncertainty present real challenges for Asia-Pacific CFOs and their businesses. But success cannot be achieved by playing it safe. The next generation of CFOs—millennials, as well as new-generation thinkers of all ages who have a solid

Hooq to purchase content via contest

briefs Conduent names new PHL chief

Major business provider Conduent Inc. recently named Jojo Gajitos as CEO for the Conduent’s operations in the Philippines. Previously, Gajitos led Conduent’s operations in the Philippines (formerly Xerox Business Services). Gajitos will assume greater responsibility in his new role for the overall management and direction of Conduent’s activities in the Philippines. Conduent Philippines has a total work force of 8,000 employees, based in Metro Manila and Cebu City, and are engaged in a range of activities, including finance and accounting services, human-resources services, transaction processing and customer-experience services. Rizal Raoul Reyes

Samsung Electronics wins Asia best brand

SAMSUNG Electronics Co. Ltd. announced recently it has been named the best brand in Asia in 2017 on its sixth consecutive year, according to results from “Asia’s Top 1000 Brands” annual online survey conducted by Campaign Asia-Pacific in collaboration with Nielsen. Aside from emerging as the top consumer brand in the region, Samsung also took the No. 1 spot in the Philippines, the company said. In the region, the number one ranking—which aggregates views across 17 major product categories, including automotive, retail, F&B and consumer electronics—is based on consumer insights, and offers a clear measure of the most highly regarded brand names today. Rizal Raoul Reyes

Sophos fetes new firewall

SOPHOS Group Plc. announced on July 6 that NSS Labs has rated its firewall as one of the highest-performing firewalls in the industry in its most recent Next-Generation Firewall Group Test Report. The XG Firewall was “Recommended” as one of the top 3 products for security effectiveness. It passed all stability and reliability tests, offering some of the highest levels of protection and performance at great value, Sophos said. The NSS Labs evaluation included 11 market leading next-generation firewalls, which were rated for security effectiveness, performance, stability and reliability, and total cost of ownership. Oliver Samson

Inmarsat FX bags technology award

THE Fleet Xpress (FX) service from Inmarsat Plc. has secured the Seatrade Award 2017 for Digital Technology, which recognizes technical innovation, Inmarsat said on July 4. Given to acknowledge the most significant contribution to “moving the maritime industry along the digital technology track ”, the Seatrade 2017 Digital Technology Award winner is selected by a special panel of judges, appointed by Seatrade for their knowledge of “Intelligent Shipping”. FX is the first and only globally available, high-speed satellite network owned and managed by a single operator. Inmarsat said the rapid uptake of Inmarsat Maritime’s FX since its launch in March 2016 demonstrated that shipping can participate fully in the digital revolution. Rizal Raoul Reyes

AMD rolls out graphics card for machine-learning devt

ADVANCED Micro Devices (AMD) Inc. announced on June 28 the release of its first product based on its highly anticipated “Vega” graphics processing unit (GPU) architecture: the Radeon Vega Frontier Edition (RVFE). AMD said this GPU is the world’s first graphics card targeting the next generation of data scientists, game designers and visualization professionals, with up to 172-percent faster rendering performance than other competitor cards. AMD said the RVFE expands the capacity of traditional GPU memory to 256 terrabyte, allowing users to tackle massive datasets. AMD added developers can now use the power of the “Vega” architecture for machine-learning algorithm development on the RVFE faster than with any other GPU on the market. Rizal Raoul Reyes

Lenovo introduces workstation, PCaaS

LENOVO Corp. announced recently the launch of the firm’s smallest independent software vendor (ISV)-certified workstation on the market and its Personal Computer-as-a-Service (PCaaS) solution. In a statement, the company said it launched the ThinkStation P320 Tiny, which offers ISV certification “to ensure customers’ most critical applications run reliably in an incredibly small one liter form factor”. Lenovo’s PCaaS offering provides a fully managed, fixed monthly cost subscription model combining hardware and services into a single solution. Designed to eliminate the burden of buying, deploying and managing computing assets, PCaaS increases product lifecycle efficiency and reduce overall total cost of ownership. According to Lenovo, it will make ThinkStation P320 Tiny available in the Philippines next quarter, while the PCaaS is currently available. Rizal Raoul Reyes

Largest Supercomputer unveiled in Barcelona

understand of digital technology—will be the key players in their businesses. Combining vast amounts of data with adaptive intelligence and powerful, enterprise-grade cloud technology, the CFO of tomorrow will break down organizational silos to orchestrate a business that is more agile and more unified than anything in the past. They will be empowered to proactively identify new market opportunities, Story & photo by Rizal Raoul S. Reyes

T This July 3 photo shows director Erik Matti (third from left) with Hooq Digital Pte. Ltd. executives Allison Chew (from left), Jane Cruz-Walker and Jeff Remigio during the announcement of the firm’s search for entries to a filmmaking competition.

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@brownindio

HE loca l operation of Hooq Digital Pte. Ltd. announced it will fund the video of an entry that would win in a film-search competition the Singapore-based firm launched last month. The subsidiary of Hooq Digital Holdings Pte. Ltd. announced a search for entries wherein five would be given a funding of $30,000 (P1.52 million) to be converted into a pilot episode that will debut on Hooq.

and act on them immediately. Mahadevan Natarajan is the senior director for the Asia Pacific enterprise performance management business at Oracle Corp. The views expressed in this abridged column contributed by Natarajan do not necessarily reflect those of the BusinessMirror. The two-year-old entertainment platform operator said it seeks entries from India, the Philippines and six other member-countries of the Asean. The best out of these five pilot episodes would be decided by Hooq subscribers and a panel of judges and converted into a full series produced and aired on the Hooq platform, according to CEO Peter Bithos. According to movie director Erik Matti, Filipino filmmakers must harness the online platform to show their talent for the local audience and the global market. “Going online is the key trend

LENOVO Corp. announced it has completed the delivery and implementation of the world’s largest, next-generation Intel-based Supercomputer at the Barcelona Supercomputing Center. The Supercomputer, called MareNostrum 4, will be housed in the world’s most beautiful data center at the Chapel Torre Girona at the Polytechnic University of Catalonia, Barcelona, Spain, Lenovo said in a statement. The company added the computer will be used to power diverse science from human genome research, bioinformatics and biomechanics to weather forecasting and atmospheric composition. The MareNostrum 4 system is powered by more than 3,400 nodes of Lenovo’s next-generation servers. Alladin S. Diega nowadays,” Matti said on July 3, citing a study that showed “many Filipinos have shifted to online viewing for their entertainment needs”. Matti represents the Philippines in the selection process for the entries. The other two judges are Indonesia’s Mouly Surya and Nicholas Saputra. Surya was featured at the Director’s Fortnight in Cannes, while Saputra is known as an actor and producer of documentary films. “I believe the Philippines still has a lot of undiscovered filmmakers out there just waiting for their big break,” Matti said.

According to Hooq entries would be accepted until August 15. Applicants must be either in film school or working as professionals in the film industry with prior film-production experience. They are to submit the script and treatment for a mini-series or a full series with a maximum of 13 episodes for a single season in order to qualify. W hile there will be no restriction to genre, submissions and productions must be in the language of the applicant’s count r y, doc u ments prov ided by Hooq said.

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Saturday, July 8, 2017

A11

App gives old med practice a new face T HE hospital just got bigger. And better, siblings behind a health-service application hope.

Having a quality care from medical experts takes time and effort, especially in the Philippines where traffic congestions are rampant and long queues in hospitals awaits you, according to Dr. Patrick Bugayong. Bugayong is one of the forces behind the Aide app, which they say is the first one that allows patients to receive medical and health care in the comforts of their homes and without going to the doctor. The app harkens to the old days when physicians lugging leather medical bags cross a flowing river, hike a steep mountain or walk treelined streets to visit a patient. With the Aide app, that is a just a screentouch away, Bugayong added. The concept of home visits or house calls have always been a staple for medical care, he added. Hence, we decided to bring it back to life and give it a new face. “The concept is not new. We just saw a resurgence in other countries, as well as recent studies trying to promote the effectiveness of the old practice,” Bugayong said. “So, we thought, ‘Why not give the old way a hitech face-lift?’ And that’s when we came up with Aide.”

Lola

THE “we” in Bugayong’s statements refer to his brother, Paolo Bugayong, and sisters, Pamela and Patricia. Together, they form the APPPPS Partners Inc., the company behind the Aide app. Patrick, a general physician, said the idea to create the app was hatched last year when they tried to look for a nurse for their grandmother. “Since Patrick is a doctor, we did play around with the idea, ‘What if there is an app for medical professionals?’” Paolo told the BusinessMirror. “If you need a nurse, physical therapists or doctors, [having an app like] that will be very useful. What more if they will go to you?” Patrick said it took them seven months of developer work, validation studies and surveys to build the app. We w a nt e d to m a k e s u re there’s a population demand for the service, he added. “The process went from there; the concept to validation, to actual user interface or the design,” Patrick said. After that, we started recruiting our first medical professionals.” Since it was launched in October last year, the app currently offers the services of 700 nurses, 500 doctors, 500 physical therapists and 400 veterinarians. According to the company’s latest statistics, 57 percent of the medical aides are women.

Inner workings

LIKE other apps on Google Play

“We do efforts in social media and even if we could easily choose [an] audience based in Metro Manila, it is not stopping that post from going viral, so we are not exerting much resources,” Paolo said. W hile the app has covered Davao to Ilocos Norte, the most number of bookings came from Metro Manila, Calabarzon and Central Luzon. “Recently, we had a service where over 30 0 nurses were booked to cover the whole Philippines, and we provided from Mindanao way up to the Northern Luzon,” Patrick said. Making the app available internationally is a big dream to both siblings. However, Paolo thought that the biggest hurdle is to make sure the app can speak the native language. “But it is not difficult actually to start in another country because, business like this, it is really in the cloud. There is a technology already, so it is just replicating there. The challenge is to make it survive there if the ecosystem in that country will take in,” he added. “We would like to be in a country where the needs are the same as the Philippines, with horrible traffic [and people] looking for home care,” Paolo said.

Store and Apple Store, the Aide app is downloaded to a user’s device. The patient chooses a service, inputs the symptoms, sets the time, date, location and selects books and a medical aide for P150 through his credit card. The chosen medical aide reviews the appointment on his feed and may contact the patient via text or call. “If the medical professional is near the location, most probably he could get it. The doctor sets his price and the patient will also have the option to choose,” Paolo said. “So, Aide is a platform where we bridge that two together.” The patient’s information and details of the requested service are delivered to the appropriate medical practitioner. “We say it works with four easy steps: choose, set, book and check-up,” Patrick explained. “It is pretty simple with the four steps, but we are even trying to make it simpler.” According to him, a patient may spend between P500 and P1,000 per appointment. Patients can enjoy a variety of services, including medical and nursing care, physical therapy, diagnostics, labs and even animal care.

e-Commerce challenge

Special features

AMONG the special features Aide offer are adult vaccinations, pediatric vaccinations, pet vaccinations, glutathione injections, and botox injections. For Patrick, vaccinations are the biggest draw. “Not just vaccines [but also] blood tests so, we are tied up with a lab,” Paolo said. “Usually, if you get [a] blood test, you have to fast a day before, so with the home care, you do not have to leave your house.” He added the laboratory staff comes to the patient. “Later on, they just e-mail the results to you.” To access the bookings from the patients, there w il l be a P2,000 subscription fee per quarter and P3,300 and P5,000 for semiannual and annual membership, respectively. A medical practitioner earns an average income of P500 to P1,000 per appointment. Patrick said making adjustments and their customers happy with the service is always the hardest part in the company. “The hardest thing is that in Aide, you are dealing with two customers—the patient and the medical professionals [both need] to be happy,” he added. “When we developed the app, we thought, ‘Okay na ito’, because I am a doctor, and I already know what the medical professionals want [from] their patients. But when we released, we saw that there were things [that] needed to be improved.”

bugayong

Challenges

PAOLO said that challenges came up not in the developing stage but during the start of commercial operation. “I guess you will always have to update, and you will always find bugs. You always have to listen to customers,” he told the BusinessMirror. “We already set up three to four updates, and we are continuously updating.” Likewise, they also need to ensure the security and safety of the patients. Patrick said medical professionals undergo a vetting process. Applying doctors, physicians and other medical specialists go through an intensive series of background checks and submit a set of required documents to make sure they were registered and licensed, according to Patrick. “It is a long process, but it is the only way we can secure that our patients can trust us,” he said. “Having a medical professional come to you, you want to be sure that [he or she] comes from a reputable source.” Currently, there are 2,300 medical practitioners who wish to subscribe to

the app, but only 1,700 of them have been screened. However, Paolo clarified that Aide professionals were not employed under the company. “They subscribe to Aide for them to find work,” he said. “So with Aide, it gives them opportunities outside clinics. It gives them ways other than applying in hospitals to earn.” In spite of a high demand of medical professionals in hospitals, Patrick added the reason why practitioners subscribe to the app. “We do not only allow the professionals who cannot get into hospitals a platform to provide their services but we also allow practitioners from hospitals to get additional work and patients,” Paolo added.

Plans, projects

ACCOR DING to Pat r ic k , t he company will soon offer an ambulance ser v ice and pay ment gateways, such as Paypal. “Our biggest update will be the ambulance service. Emergency system is a different service so we are including that.” He said when they launched

Aide, “we wanted it to be more ambulatory, so our cases are usually colds and coughs.” “ It i s a p p o i nt me nt - b a s e d rather than an emergency,” Patrick added. The app itself prevents emergenc y cases, as on ly l imited symptoms such as sore throat, skin rash, headache, fever and the like appear on the interface. Paolo said they also encourage patients to go to the hospital if there’s an emergency. “If you need machines, definitely, the hospital would have it. If it is an emergency, go to the hospital,” he explained. “We are not competing [them] with hospitals. Actually, we would like to say we are complimenting [them] in any case.” Patrick said the company will be partnering with an ambulance service that will arrive in two months, and they will also include alternative medicine in the app.

Expanding coverage

WITH over 25,000 downloads and 7,000 active users, the company began to operate outside Metro Manila last January.

AS the e-commerce grows rapidly, Paolo sees every day a learning experience. “We are fairly a very young company. We just have to make sure that we are better everyday,” he said. “But there will be another competitor coming, we do not know. Anybody can put it up, but we just have to find our own competitive advantage.” For his brother, keeping up with an innovation will never be easy as they move along. “It is not being ahead of the game, it is just being in the game. Going with it, it is hard to be ahead when your app itself is already a novel to you. It is something that has not been done, so there is no one for us to follow,” Patrick said. “It is looking toward the people who have succeeded in our field and then learning from them. At the same time, learning from each other since we are specialists in our own field.” Pat r ic k a d d e d t he y le a r n things from Patricia, a teacher, and Pamela, who has expertise in corporate and finance. “Someone w ith money can build an app, but the expertise involved in it, like being good in business and being a doctor, you have to have that nice mix with the company because, if not, the app will fail,” he said. “My gurus told us that apps failed not because of the lack of intelligence in the developers. It is because the developers do not know how to run the business, they do not know what the demand is and they do not look at it as the way we should look at it as outsiders.” Maria Eden Dino

Despite PHL fall in BPO index, start-ups upbeat

Akamai alerts business on DNS as security gap

TART-UPS remain upbeat despite the fall of Manila and Cebu in the 2017 Tholons Services Globalization Index (TSGI). In TSGI’s latest list released on June 28, Manila fell from No. 2 to No. 4 as a top global outsourcing destination, while Cebu fell from the global top 10 to top 12. Tina Amper of TechTalks.ph considers the fall as stemming from the shift in the global economy. “The world economy now gives primary importance to digital in-

KAMAI Technologies Inc. has alerted businesses on the Recursive Domain Name Servers (DNS) as a major security gap. Despite the myriad security solutions currently in use to thwart attacks, malicious actors continue to exploit weaknesses and gaps, resulting in a variety of negative consequences for today’s enterprises, Akamai said. Recursive DNS, a critical but often overlooked part of enterprise infrastructure, can be one of these gaps, the company added. Even though a majority of software and clients rely on DNS to communicate with one another, DNS does not have built-in

S

novation,” Amper said during the launch of the 2017 “Geeks on a Beach” (GOAB) conference. “The recent TSGI Global Outsourcing Index tells us we are on the right track.” She explained on July 4 that the fall from the index was due to the introduction by Tholons, for the first time, of digital innovation, start-up ecosystem and digital transformation as primary measures in determining top cities for outsourcing. “However, we expect that our

standing will improve next year, as we currently have many programs in place to spur growth in startups,” Amper said, citing the GOAB, which she said is supported by the Department of Information and Communications Technology. “Call centers will still be there, a lt hough world- c l a ss d ig it a l businesses will look at the whole digital ecosystem,” Amper added. “This means the physical and digital infrastructure, the legislative framework, the manpower and others.” Rizal Raoul Reyes

A

intelligence to determine if a domain being requested by a user is safe or malicious. “Enterprises can’t afford to spend significant time deploying and operationally scaling new security layers given the rate of change of the advanced threat landscape,” Christina Richmond, International Data Corp. (IDC) Security Services program director, was quoted by Akamai as saying. “They need a simple and fast way to add effective security controls. Using a global cloud-based DNS infrastructure simplifies security by giving the enterprise effective protection, against malware and DNS threats, that can be self-integrated

and operates at a global scale.” Citing the Ponemon Institute, Akamai said the average cost of a cyber attack on a company is $9.5 million. The company added even though a majority of software and clients rely on DNS to communicate with one another, DNS does not have built-in intelligence to determine if a domain being requested by a user is safe or malicious. The IDC has identified security as among the fast-growing portions of the information and communications technology market that IDC calls “Innovation Accelerators”. Oliver Samson

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A12 Saturday, July 8, 2017

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Technology stocks boom; some stock pickers wary

S

AN FRANCISCO—Technology stocks had another scorching weeklong run last month, capped off by Amazon’s startling decision to buy Whole Foods for $13.4 billion.

And like many stock pickers these days, the portfolio managers at Parnassus Investments, a mutual-fund company that invests mostly in large American companies, were at their wits’ end as they gathered for the firm’s weekly investment committee meeting. “ T hese stoc k s a re h it t i ng highs—again,” said Todd C. Ahlsten, who oversees the firm’s $15.6-billion core equity fund, pointing out that even low-risk exchange-traded funds (ETFs) were piling into the likes of Facebook, Apple, Google, Netflix and, yes, Amazon. T he ex plosion in low-cost, index-tracking ETFs and soaring technology stocks is generating existential angst among portfolio managers working in traditional mutual-fund companies. Products of a culture where fame and fortune have accrued to those with the skills to pick stoc k-ma rket w inners—fore most among them Warren E. Buffett and Peter Lynch at Fidelity—these brainy stock experts

are now finding it harder than ever to fulfill their core function: investing in stocks that beat the broader market indexes. That is largely because a torrent of money has been pouring into machine-driven tracking f unds, which a l locate money to stocks like Facebook, Apple, Amazon, Netf lix and Google’s parent Alphabet—the so-called Fang stocks—on the basis of how big they have become and where they rank in an index.

Lemminglike

FOR stock pickers like the ones at Parnassus, who pride themselves on their ability to zig where others zag by uncovering undervalued gems, such follow-the-crowd investing is anathema—and it is showing up in the numbers. Making matters even more stressful, Amazon, which they do not own, just agreed to buy Whole Foods—a deal that sent its stock even higher and could threaten a number of companies in the Parnassus portfolio. “This is giving me a flashback

Benjamin Allen (left) and Todd Ahlsten at Parnassus Investments in San Francisco, on June 26. They are skeptical of the recent bull run of the so-called Fang stocks. Jason Henry/The New York Times

to LTCM with all this correlation,” said Benjamin E. Allen, Ahlsten’s partner on the fund, recalling the lemminglike behavior of investors that led to the collapse of Long Term Capital Management in 1998. “It is just mindless buying of these technology names.” Over the past year through May, $263 billion has exited actively managed mutual funds that invest in US stocks while $308 billion has poured into ETFs and index funds. Vanguard and BlackRock have vacuumed up just about all of this cash, according to Morningstar.

‘ETF-ization’

THE Parnassus portfolio managers are not alone in their

fears. Of late, the argument has been made that the rise of machines and passive investing is distorting the broader market. And this week, Bank of America, in a report, called it the “ETFization” of the S&P, warning that passive mutual-fund assets in the US have doubled to 37 percent today since 2009. For the moment, though, be it hedge funds that refuse to chase Amazon because it disdains showing profits, or value investors who bl a nc h at t he thought of buying Netf lix at a price-to-earnings multiple of 360, the frustration is beginning to boil over. Compared with many of its peers, Parnassus has held up

fairly well in terms of outflows. The company was founded in 1984 by Jerome L. Dodson on the notion that buying companies that respect the environment, cultivate harmony in the workplace and have sound governance policies would generate decent investment returns in addition to making investors feel virtuous. It has been a well-timed strategy, one that kicked into high gear after the financial crisis as investors embraced both the fund’s philosophy and its performance. Assets under management shot up to $25 billion today from $1.8 billion at the end of 2008.

Herd mentality

STILL, as technology stocks have skyrocketed, the returns of Parnassus’s bellwether fund have lagged. Some 80 percent of the fund’s peer group has done better over the past year. “It’s stressful—we are competitive people,” Allen said. “I don’t like calling my clients up every quarter and saying ‘Sorry.’” Embracing a deep-value style of investing, Parnassus is no momentum investor. And Allen, who was appointed president earlier this year and is expected to succeed Dodson in running the firm, has made it clear to fund holders that his ultimate aim is to outperform when stocks are tanking—as core equity did in

2008—as opposed to running ahead of a bull market. So instead of chasing Amazon and Facebook, Allen and team have been betting big on healthcare stocks, like Gilead Sciences. “There is a herd mentality out there,” he said. “People are buying stocks irrespective of valuations—if we can’t do the math, we are just not going to own it.”

Threat

LATELY, it has been Amazon filling up their brains, and following the investment committee meeting, the two portfolio managers huddled in Ahlsten’s office. At its current valuation, they agreed the stock was too expensive to buy. But the Whole Foods transaction poses a potential threat to at least five companies that Parnassus owns—from Sysco, the food distributor, to CVS, the pharmacy chain. All five have trailed the index over the past year, and the worry is that the Amazon deal could put further pressure on them. “The threat to these companies has increased,” Allen told his colleague. “It reveals what Jeff Bezos’s ambitions are, which are to disrupt and be part of everything. But the reality is that Amazon is not going to take over the entire world.” At least they hope not. New York Times News Service