Businessmirror July 29, 2018

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CHALLENGE ACCEPTED ‘Build, Build, Build’ fulcrum

DPWH squarely faces burden of high expectations, cashbased budget, labor shortage

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By Lorenz S. Marasigan

HE Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) is now working under a lot of pressure, after President Duterte delivered a mild rebuke to the agency for delivering infrastructure projects at a pace that, despite all the frenzied activity, he deemed as slow. That load is about to get heavier as the Philippines shifts to a cash-based budget in 2019.

PUBLIC Works Secretary Mark A. Villar (right) inspects the badly damaged middle portion of the Otis Bridge in Manila, which was ordered closed last month after government engineers warned of its collapse. Thousands of vehicles— including an average 6,000 heavy trucks from the port area—use the bridge daily. ROY DOMINGO

precisely to ramp up expenditures to keep pace with the timeline for public works.

PARTICIPANTS to the DPWH-Tesda skills accreditation program listen to a mentor in one recent session. CONTRIBUTED PHOTO

Under the sweltering heat of the sun in Silang, Cavite, Secretary Mark A. Villar recently admitted that he expects to handle more pressure next year with the change of fiscal policy in terms of budget allocation.

“With the cash-based budget, we will be under more pressure to disperse more projects out of the pipeline,” he said, wiping beads of sweat from his face, eyes squinted.

Implementing a cash-based budget means that government contracts for projects and programs intended for the fiscal year should be fully delivered, inspected and accepted by the end of the fiscal period.

This means that allocations for projects that will not be started during the fiscal year will be reverted to the National Treasury, and will not be reallocated for the year after—the process being practiced under the obligations-based

Road connectivity budgeting.

Villar’s office has received a total budget allocation of P555.7 billion for 2019, quite a jump from the P441.8-billion budget for 2018.

It is a sum that is understandable, given the huge burden placed on his office, as the fulcrum of the ambitious “Build, Build, Build” infrastructure program.

For all of Villar’s reputation as an action man who began his term at DPWH completing longdelayed projects from past administrations, he received the equivalent of a national tongue lashing from President Duterte earlier this month. The impatient president said he will hold the public works chief accountable for any delay or failure in the delivery of vital infrastructure.

Highest obligation rate

VILLAR noted, however, that the agency has been doing well in

PROVING that the construction sector is gender-neutral, a worker tries her hand at running heavy equipment. CONTRIBUTED PHOTO

terms of obligating projects. Especially in 2017, when his office successfully clocked in a 92-percent obligation rate.

“Our obligation last year reached 92 percent, and we’ve been increasing our disbursements every year,” he said.

Based on the latest 2018 report of the public works depart-

ment, the said obligation rate— reaching P621.9 billion—was the highest in seven years from 2011.

“We know that for this year, we are ahead in terms of infrastructure at 42 percent increase yearon-year—that’s a big increase, but it’s not perfect, so we are still improving the system,” Villar said.

No less than Budget Secretary

Benjamin Diokno also defended the DPWH on Thursday, when he was asked why the agency was getting a huge budget increase despite the perceived “slowness” in the past year. Diokno said, given the formidable challenge to shepherd the entire infrastructure program, it is sheer folly to punish DPWH by cutting its budget when it needs

SINCE the new administration came in to power in 2016, the public works department under Villar’s helm has effectively increased road connectivity, completing road development projects across the Philippines.

It has widened 1,908 kilometers of road, constructed 328 km of by-pass and diversion roads, filled in a gap of 398 km in between national roads, and built 1,316 km of access roads leading to airports, seaports and tourism arteries.

Southern Tagalog took the lion’s share of the roads widened by the agency with a total of 298.33 km of roads, while Northern Mindanao was the top region with the most number of by-pass and diversion roads built at 97.13 km.

Soccsksargen had the highest number of missing gaps filled at 81.89 km, while Western Visayas had the most number of access roads built at 233.61 km.

Continued on A2

BIOPESTICIDES ARE COMING

Prepping PHL farm produce for the world

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By Jasper Emmanuel Y. Arcalas

F the Philippines wants to ensure that its farm produce is robust and meets the pesticide residue limits set by its trading partners, then it should consider using biopesticides. So says the man at the helm of Israel-based bio-agri technology firm STK. PESO EXCHANGE RATES n US 53.3540

According to STK CEO Guy Elitzur, biological solutions would solve not only the efficacy issues of crops, but would also leave produce with much lower chemical content.

“We are in an age where farmers are being concerned [with] other parameters not only in terms of efficacy. [For example] they are now pressed by food companies and supermarkets in the US and in Europe, as well as countries exporting to these countries, to use

less and less chemicals,” Elitzur told the BusinessMirror in an interview. “[They are pressed] to have better MRL [maximum residue limit] performance, better quality produce, and also in terms of improving yield,” Elitzur added.

The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) defines MRL as the maximum concentration of a pesticide residue legally permitted in food commodities and animal feeds.

This means that if a certain chemical compound in pesticides used on any produce exceeds a specific MRL standard (usually measured by parts per million), then the produce will not be allowed to enter the importing country.

MRL is a sanitary and phytosanitary measure imposed by countries to ensure the safety of farm produce sold in their domestic markets.

Continued on A2

STK CEO Guy Elitzur: “We are trying to offer products that are high-performance and science-backed that would be able to face any performance of chemical products.”

n JAPAN 0.4797 n UK 69.9524 n HK 6.7987 n CHINA 7.8641 n SINGAPORE 39.1417 n AUSTRALIA 39.3539 n EU 62.1254 n SAUDI ARABIA 14.2266

Source: BSP (July 27, 2018 )

NewsSunday BusinessMirror

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CHALLENGE ACCEPTED Continued from A1

The agency has also widened 511 bridges with a total length of 23,929 meters, replaced 204 bridges, constructed 127 new ones, rehabilitated 939 bridges, and strengthened 642 others.

In terms of length, Soccsksargen had the most number of bridges widened at 3,276.34 km, Mimaropa had the most number of bridges replaced at 1,139.01 km, Zamboanga Peninsula was the top region in terms of bridges built at 1,035.38 km, Central Visayas was number one in terms of bridges rehabilitated at 7,838.84 km, and Northern Mindanao was listed as the region with the longest strengthened bridges at 6,950.72 km.

The government is also in the process of building and widening new and existing roads and bridges across the Philippines.

Metro bridges

IN Metro Manila, it is currently building, retrofitting, rehabilitating and replacing 36 bridges with a total budget of P1.08 billion to “improve the logistics network” in the metropolis.

It is quite a burden, to be sure, given how rehabilitating one bridge alone—Otis bridge in Manila, where 6,000 trailer trucks pass daily—would take so much time and effort, not to mention disrupt traffic and fuel public resentment.

Villar said the agency is also in the process of building more thoroughfares though the so-called Luzon Spine Expressway Network—a high-standard network of expressways in Luzon with a total length

of 834.72 km, which is about double the existing length 382.26 km.

Under the said spine expressway network are: the extension of the Tarlac-Pangasinan-La Union Expressway (TPLEx), the Central Luzon Link Expressway, Phase I from Tarlac City to Cabanatuan City, Nueva Ecija, Plaridel By-pass Road, Southeast Metro Manila Expressway, C-6 (Phase I), the Connector Road, and Segments 10 and 8.2 of the North Luzon Expressway (Nlex).

Also included are: the Metro Manila Skyway Stage 3, the Naia Expressway Phase II, the Manila Cavite Toll Expressway Project, C-5 South Link Expressway, the Cavite Laguna Expressway, the South Luzon Expressway Road 4, the Quezon-Bicol Expressway, and the Camarines Sur Expressway.

“Once completed, travel time from Metro Manila to San Fernando, La Union, will be reduced from 6 hours and 55 minutes to 3 hours and 10 minutes. Moreover, travel time from Ilocos to Bicol will be reduced from 19 hours and 40 minutes to 8 hours and 15 minutes,” Villar explained.

Some of these projects fall under the Build, Build, Build (BBB) program of the Duterte administration, touted as one of the most ambitious infrastructure programs of the government to date.

Labor shortage

AND with all of these developments ongoing, the Philippines is in the midst of a labor shortage, with the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) Bureau of Local Employment estimating a demand for over 1 million construction employees for the BBB

who are qualified to become trainers and assessors for equipment operators.

The DPWH, on the other hand, is tasked to provide the Motorpool and its network dubbed Base and Area Shops nationwide as practicum and administration venues for expected trainees.

The main goal of the partnership is to assess and certify engineers and operators so they can become trainers and assessors for other construction workers.

Eyeing OFW returnees

SOME of those who passed the hydraulic excavator operations test are seen with their trainor. CONTRIBUTED PHOTO

program alone.

In 2017, jobs in the construction sector reached 3.59 million workers, or about 158,000 more than the 3.31 million construction workers in 2016. Labor shortage that year was at 120,000 employees.

“It will be more challenging for us to look for workers,” Villar admitted. “But this also means that we now have more opportunities for work here in the Philippines.”

The government launched in May an online jobs portal for the BBB program, listing 11,000 vacancies in ongoing projects as of the said month. The portal is expected to post “hundreds of thousands” of employment opportunities through 2022.

Tesda to the rescue

VILLAR said the agency is also

trying to address this shortage through a partnership with the Technical Education and Skills Develoment Authority (Tesda) and DOLE, with full support from the industry group, the Philippine Constructors Association.

“We have a partnership with Tesda and DOLE, wherein we want to match our demand through trainings and certifications from the said agencies,” he said.

Just recently, 81 heavy equipment operators and engineers of the public works agency passed the competency assessment conducted

by Tesda.

Tesda Director General, Secretary Guiling A. Mamondiong noted that this is just the start of the revival and revision of a 2006 memorandum of agreement between his office and Villar’s for the training of skilled workers in the construction sector.

The new agreement requires both agencies to work together to prepare skilled and qualified workers in different construction projects of BBB. Under the said deal, the responsibilities of Tesda will include the training and assessment for Bureau of Equipment engineers

VILLAR added that his group is looking at enticing overseas Filipino workers to come back to the Philippines and work as employees for construction companies that are tapped for the BBB program.

“Now our workers abroad can choose to work here as we now have more opportunities. With the demand now on steady increase, the value will likewise increase— this means that we will now have more high-paying jobs,” he said.

With all these, the agency is taking things in stride, with its chief vowing to hasten the implementation of infrastructure delivery to improve the lives of Filipinos all over the country.

“We have a lot of projects and we want to fast-track all of them, especially much-needed infrastructure. So I think that’s a challenge, and we accept that challenge,” Villar said.

Prepping PHL farm produce for the world Continued from A1

The STK chief explained that farmers globally are facing more and more stringent MRL policies.

For example, in the US and Europe, regulators are imposing a low MRL but food companies are requiring lower limits than the government’s standards, according to Elitzur.

“In my eyes there are two sets of MRL [to address]: regulatory and food chain. In Europe and the US, the regulatory bodies are pushing to lower MRL to have better quality,” he said.

“But we have seen supermarket chains setting lower [MRL] compared to regulatory [settings] to have a competition edge. So, there are two MRLs competing with one another, which push farmers to grow better and healthier produce,” he added.

Elitzur explained that biopesticides, or farm inputs that contain both biological and chemical ingredients, could resolve these problems.

And these are the products that Elitzur’s company wants to sell in the Philippine market this year.

“We are making sure our solutions, called hybrid, address the needs of the food chain and not just the crop needs, such as efficacy issues. We are trying to offer products that are high-performance and science-backed that would be able to face any performance of chemical products,” he said.

“On top of that—to add sense of value—our products address the needs of the farmers in understanding the pressure of consumer preference,” he added.

November debut

STK, a subsidiary of publicly listed Chinese chemical firm Sichuan Hebang Corp. Ltd., will start selling its biofungicide “STK Regev” in the country by November through its local firm Stockton-Agrimor Philippines Inc. Another person, in the form of the government’s chief regulator for pesticides, shares the sentiment of Elitzur on biopesticides.

“Our approach is basically reducing the effect of chemical pesticides or fungicides. A synergy between biological fungicide and chemical will hasten the reduction of our MRL to corresponding limits,” Fertilizer and Pesticide Authority Executive Director Wilfredo C. Roldan told the BusinessMirror.

“In pesticides application, you are after efficacy and safety, especially in the environment.

I think the trend now should be going into biological pesticide or fungicide [to address those issues],” Roldan added.

STK Regev is the first biofungicide to be sold in the Philippine market, according to Elitzur. This is also the first hybrid solution that STK is bringing to the country.

The biofungicide would be commercially sold first for the utilization of banana growers.

STK Regev would allow banana farmers to have a better integrated pest management (IPM), as the hybrid fungicides would enable better management of chemical application to crops, according to Elitzur.

“This hybrid product contains chemical active ingredients and biological active ingredients in one formula,” he said.

“The advantages of this hybrid solution include better synergy between chemicals and biological ingredients as we chose the right molecules; more effective in terms of efficacy compared to the same chemicals; improve issue of plant resistance; and would greatly reduce the chemicals sprayed by farmers,” he added.

Elitzur is confident that the entry of STK Regev in the Philippine market would allow banana growers to drastically reduce the MRL of their produce. “For sure, for sure,” he said in affirmation.

Elitzur explained that they targeted the local banana market first as it is a top fruit produce and export of the Philippines. Furthermore, Elitzur added that banana growers and companies are becoming more cognizant of the issues surrounding MRL, food and environmental safety.

Elitzur flew to the Philippines last week and went to Davao to meet with local banana growers, especially those belonging to the Pilipino Banana Growers and Exporters Association (PBGEA).

“They have changed their priorities in terms of [pesticides]. Of course, cost is always the issue, but residue and environment issues are becoming more important to them than cost. And they are now looking for more products to address these issues,” he said. “Their targets are now going to environ-

mental aspects and pesticide residues—much more than it used to be the costs.”

Members of the PBGEA are “very, very enthusiastic” on the commercial sale of STK Regev after the firm presented the results of the hybrid solution on banana production, according to STK Philippines Country Manager Arturo Alejar.

Elitzur said it costs them “tens of millions of dollars” to bring STK Regev into the Philippine market. This is also the first biofungicide in the Asian market, according to Alejar.

“The Philippines is an important market for us because of the size and the banana industry,” Elitzur said.

The biofungicide would have a “competitive” price tag, which would play around the “$31 per hectare” quotation, according to the firm.

Alejar explained that banana farmers conduct 60 to 70 cycles of pesticide spraying, which costs about $2,000 per hectare annually.

“We’re really planning to be very competitive in terms of pricing so that we can get early market share,” STK Philippines Business Development Manager Kristle Grace Aguilar-Hawod said.

“We are always thinking about this hybrid product to address the MRL issues of our export crop like bananas, but this product is also registered in rice. We are also making this product available for rice so that it could contribute at least in having a healthy and safe food for all Filipinos,” Aguilar-Hawod added.

Alejar disclosed that they will make STK Regev commercially available for rice farmers by first quarter next year and later on for mango producers.

Roldan said the country’s fungicide market is worth P4.5 billion, comprising at least 30 major companies with 10 multinational. The local pesticide market is valued at around P30 billion, according to Roldan.

“The food chain and the industry is changing,” Elitzur said.

“The stakeholders need to accelerate the adoption of new [agricultural] technology. And we are bringing to the Philippine market a new product that is very innovative and could help a lot of farmers,” Elitzur added.

Editor: Angel R. Calso | www.businessmirror.com.ph

The World BusinessMirror

Sunday, July 29, 2018

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‘Carpocalypse’ descends on Detroit after nightmare day of earnings

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t felt so 2009. First, General Motors Co. and Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV reported weak earnings, with both reining in profit forecasts for the year. That sparked sharp sell-offs of their stocks.

Then it really got ugly. Ford Motor Co. took the stage and projected $11 billion in charges linked to a restructuring plan that will take as long as five years to play out. The already-struggling company that had touted plans to cut $25.5 billion in costs in the coming years left analysts wanting more details and subjecting Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Jim Hackett to harsh questioning.

Not since the financial crisis and Carpocalypse have Detroit automakers had so much bad news in one day. To be clear, all of the companies are solidly profitable and nowhere near the edge of survival like they were in 2009. But what made the headlines all the more confounding was that the down-

beat results and outlook came at a time when the US auto market is solid, the economy is humming and China is buying more cars every month.

“To have a quarter like this is striking,” said James Albertine, an auto equities analyst with Consumer Edge Research. “Every time they turn over a rock, they find more problems.”

GM’s profit issues were mostly caused by external forces, namely, President Donald Trump’s steel and aluminum tariffs and depressed currencies in Argentina and Brazil. Fiat Chrysler will have to sort out slumping sales in China under a CEO after the death of Sergio Marchionne announced early Wednesday. And

Ford’s problems stem from bloat and stale models.

Ford’s China woes

Ford missed estimates by posting adjusted profit of 27 cents a share, less than half what it earned on that basis a year earlier. The Dearborn, Michigan-based company said it will make between $1.30 and $1.50 a share instead of as much as $1.70. It lost a combined $467 million in Asia and Europe in the second quarter.

In China—still a reliable source of growth for many other major automakers—Ford’s sales fell by 25 percent in the first half. Beijing’s retaliatory tariffs against the US that include higher levies on cars will cost the company $200 million to $300 million this year, Chief Financial Officer Bob Shanks said.

Ford’s problems in the market are manifold: models including the Focus and Escort cars are old and will be replaced late this year and into 2019. Its dealers aren’t making adequate profits, burdened by a glut of sedan inventory and not enough sport utility vehicles.

Cagey call

The company has other deep

structural issues. On its earnings call, analysts asked for more detail on the costly and protracted restructuring, and Hackett gave little clarity. The company also said that it will postpone an investor meeting that had been set for September, saying it would be rescheduled for when it had more specifics to share.

That sparked a tense exchange w ith Morgan Stanley analyst Adam Jonas, who criticized Hackett and Shanks for the lack of communication. “I really do hope you can reconsider the communications strategy, because it’s just not good enough, Bob,” Jonas said.

The stock sank below $10 a share in after-hours trading, a level it hasn’t closed at since 2012, when former CEO Alan Mulally was still restructuring the company.

Jeep’s China struggles

Fiat Chrysler isn’t in nearly the bind Ford is, but new CEO Mike Manley has plenty of problems, too. The much-heralded Jeep brand hasn’t caught on in China - a key element of the growth strategy laid out only a matter of weeks ago.

The redesigned Jeep Compass that’s been a hit in the US has

struggled going up against local Chinese brands that are on the ascent in the Country’s mass market segments.

As a result, the company’s Asian operations lost €98 million ($115 million) in the second quarter.

Its luxury brand Maserati also slumped as customers waited for a July duty reduction to take delivery of Levante SUVs. Fiat Chrysler’s US-listed shares plunged 12 percent, their worst one-day drop since June 2016.

Hard luck

GM is telling more of a hard-luck story. Trump’s steel and aluminum tariffs have driven up metals prices and contributed to commodities adding $300 million to costs in the quarter and $500 million in the first half. The company had been expecting that sort of a headwind for the whole year. Instead, it’s now seeing about a $1 billion blow to annual earnings.

Add in a $100 mil lion hit from devalued Argentine peso and Brazilian real and GM had to lower its forecast for adjusted earnings to $6 a share. The company had been expecting to make as much as $6.50.

GM has new pickups going on sale next month, though they won’t be available in substantial supply until the fourth quarter.

And while the China market is getting tough, GM is growing luxury sales with Cadillac and its local Baojun brand is winning over the nation’s new middle class.

Don’t want to hear it

But investors may not be interested in hea r ing t he compa ny ma ke its case for a wh i le, sa id Mor ningst a r Inc. a na lyst Dav id W h iston.

“It was a really bad day,” Whiston said. “There are a lot of factors beyond their control. In addition to all of that, we’re at the top of the auto cycle and investors just aren’t interested.”

Indeed, Ford ’s stock “will be in purgator y for some time,” A lbertine said.

In what was perhaps a sign of just how fed up Wall Street was by the end of the day, the first questioner on Ford’s Wednesday evening earnings call was Jonas, who asked whether Hackett expected to still be in the job once the company is ready to have its investor day. Bloomberg News

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The World BusinessMirror

Sunday, July 29, 2018

Europe to become massive buyer of US LNG–Trump

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urope will build more terminals to import US liquefied natural gas (LNG), the head of the European Commission (EC) told US President Donald J. Trump during a meeting aimed at averting a transatlantic trade war.

“They want very much to do that, and we have plenty of it,” Trump said, referring to the US shale boom, which has unleashed record supplies of the heating and power-plant fuel.

“They will be a massive buyer, and they will be able to diversify their energy supply.”

The comments were part of a bigger agreement in which Trump and Jean-Claude Juncker, the EC president, said they would suspend new tariffs while negotiating over trade. The two leaders also pledged to expand imports of soybeans, and to lower industrial tariffs, excluding autos.

LNG imports from Europe are poised to rise almost 20 percent by 2040 from 2016 levels, according to International Energy Agency (IEA).

While Russia has long been the region’s top supplier, it’s now facing significant challenges from both the US and Qatar, rivals with vast natural gas reserves.

Trump and Juncker spoke to the media after meeting at the White House. T he comments quic k ly sparked investor reaction for both

Cheniere Energy Inc., America’s largest exporter of LNG, and Tellurian Inc., which is working to get its export project in Louisiana approved.

The Asia Vision LNG carrier ship sits docked at the Cheniere Energy Inc. terminal in this aerial photograph taken over Sabine Pass, Texas, United States.

Cheniere, Tellurian climb

Cheniere climbed as much as 3 percent in late New York trading, while Tellurian gained as much as 2.9 percent. Cheniere and Tellurian weren’t immediately available for comment.

Liquefied Natural Gas Ltd., which has a fully permitted project in Louisiana, currently has a number of active discussions ongoing with potential European customers, according to Spokesman Micah Hirschfield.

Lindsey Janies/Bloomberg

“Any resolution to trade differences is a good thing for dealmaking in the LNG space,” Hirschfield said by telephone. “This is great news today and we hope it leads to even better news moving forward.”

The comments by Trump and

Any resolution to trade differences is a good thing for dealmaking in the LNG space. This is great news today and we hope it leads to even better news moving forward.”—Hirschfield

Juncker come as at least four new US LNG export projects are slated to start-up by 2020. Since early-2016 the US has shipped 41 cargoes of LNG to Europe, according to ship tracking data compiled by Bloomberg. That’s about 10 percent of US LNG exports.

Europe is looking to step up gas imports with its largest production field in the Netherlands slated to shut and France moves toward shutting nuclear power plants.

“There are plenty of supply options here to be able to meet increased European demand,” said Jason Feer, global head of business intelligence at Poten & Partners Inc., in a telephone interview. European demand is rising as domestic production declines.

After Cheniere began shipping gas two years ago from its Sabine Pass terminal in Louisiana—the first to send shale output abroad—the US became a net exporter of the fuel for the first time since the 1950s. This year, Dominion Energy Inc. opened the first export facility on the East Coast, providing a quicker route to European buyers.

Europe is “one of the biggest surprises” in terms of rising demand for gas, Tom Earl, chief commercial officer at US LNG developer Venture Global LNG, said at a conference in Amsterdam in May. Venture Global, which is building an export terminal in Louisiana, has already signed supply deals with BP Plc and Portugal’s Galp Energia SGPS SA. Many of the continent’s buyers, particularly in Eastern Europe, are eager for alternatives to Russian supply. Gas f low to Europe was disrupted twice, in 2006 and 2009, over a pricing dispute between Russia and Ukraine. Meanwhile, Lithuania and Poland have built terminals to import cargoes of LNG from overseas, reducing their reliance on Russia.

But Russia relies on gas exports for its budget revenue and Europe is its biggest customer, meaning the nation will “protect its turf at all costs,” Manas Satapathy, a managing director for energ y at Accenture Strateg y, said in a telephone inter view.

Europeans played a critical role in launching the first wave of US LNG export terminals by signing long-term contracts. Last month Poland Oil & Gas Co. inked separate 20-year deals with Venture Global LNG and Sempra Energy who are developing projects on the Gulf Coast.

“So there clearly is interest and some appetite for US LNG in Europe,” Anastacia Dialynas, an analyst with Bloomberg NEF in New York, said in an e-mail. “The biggest constraints are price—are we competitive with gas from Russia, Qatar, which Trump pointed out also has geopolitical implications—and US-Europe trade relations.”

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SoKor firm backs off ‘treasure ship’ claim amid investigation

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EOUL, South Korea—A South Korean company on Thursday backed off its claim to have found a sunken Russian warship with an enormous cargo of gold as financial regulators began investigating whether the outlandish treasure tale involved stock-market fraud.

The Seoul-based Shinil Group said it doesn’t know if any gold coins and bars would be found inside the sunken ship it identified as the Dmitrii Donskoi, which sank 113 years ago. Company officials previously claimed 200 tons of gold worth 150 trillion won ($133 billion) would likely still be aboard the vessel.

“There’s no way for us to figure out whether there would be gold coins or bars on the Donskoi, and if there is, how large the amount would be,” said Choi Yong-seok, Shinil’s president, in a bizarre news conference in Seoul.

Choi said he was in his first day as the company’s president, following the withdrawal of his predecessor Ryu Sang-mi and other board members who Choi said felt “burdened” by heightened public suspicions that the gold claim masked a financial scam.

Choi denied any wrongdoing.

But he failed to clearly explain why one of Ryu’s relatives was operating a Singapore-based company of the same name that had conduc ted private sales of its cryptocurrencies while reportedly promising dividends from profits created by the gold found on the ship. Ryu didn’t attend the news conference.

Shinil has yet to obtain government permission to raise the ship, which it said divers found more than 400 meters underwater off the eastern island of Ulleung. It’s also unclear whether the company would able to claim ownership of the ship’s assets even if

it manages to retrieve them.

Experts had said it’s unlikely that the 6,000-ton Donskoi, a thickly armored warship with more than 12 artillery pieces, 500 sailors and presumably 1,600 tons of coal, would have had room for 200 tons of gold, which would be double the current gold reserves at South Korea’s central bank. There were also questions about the gold’s worth being estimated at $133 billion—the Bank of Korea’s 104 tons of gold reserves are valued at around $4.8 billion.

Russian officials have said any gold on board likely would have been a small amount, in the form of coins to pay the ships’ crew.

Choi offered a “sincere apology” for the company’s “unverified” claim of 200 tons of gold worth $133 billion possibly being on the ship, saying that it was based on “speculative” materials and media reports. He said Shinil still hopes to find something of “sufficient financial value” and that the teams who studied the wreck reported finding “multiple bundles of boxes firmly fastened with rope.”

However, Jeff Heaton, a Canadian pilot who operated one of the submersibles that discovered the vessel, told reporters later in the news conference that no such boxes were seen.

An official from South Korea’s Financial Supervisory Service said on Thursday that the regulator has started investigating allegations of stock-market fraud surrounding Shinil and another local company, Jeil Steel.

Choi, whose investment company owns 50 percent of Shinil, has recently agreed on a deal to become the majority shareholder of Jeil. If the deal goes through, Ryu would be Jeil’s second-largest shareholder. AP

Questions raised following deadly Laos dam collapse

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ANAMXAY, Lao PDR—Authorities in Lao PDR ordered closer monitoring of hydroelectric facilities as they investigate why a dam in the country’s southeast collapsed earlier this week, killing at least 27 people and leaving 131 missing.

Floodwaters that rose to rooftops were slowly receding on Thursday as evacuees trickled back to villages inundated with mud.

Farmer Kongvilay and his wife Thongla Inthavong returned after spending two nights at a shelter to find their wooden stilt house had been washed 50 meters away into their rice field. The family left the house in a rush as the water level climbed to 2 meters in just one hour after the dam broke late Monday.

“I’m worried the same accident might happen again,” Thongla said as she and her husband scraped mud off their belongings. “But we can’t live anywhere else. We’ve been here our entire lives.”

In a report last Thursday, the staterun Vientiane Times said the Ministry of Energy and Mines had ordered closer monitoring of water levels in reservoirs and of conditions at dam sites.

It said the thousands of people stranded on rooftops and in trees had been rescued by Wednesday. Lao PDR Prime Minister Thongloun Sisoulith described the disaster as the worst in years in the impoverished country, with more than 6,000 people displaced after the auxiliary dam of a joint-venture hydroelectric project gave way after days of torrential rains.

Thongloun said authorities were investigating whether the dam’s collapse was caused by the heav y rainfall or by inadequate construction standards. The South Korean company responsible for building the dam, SK Engineering & Construction, said it also was trying to determine why the dam failed.

The Red Cross, South Korean government and other organizations were rushing water purifiers, food and other aid to shelters crowded with hundreds of displaced families

evacuated from a half-flooded noman’s-land of orange mud and debris.

Initially, state media reported t h a t h u n d re d s o f p e o p l e we re missing and feared dead. Difficult communications and heavy rains, which have hampered rescue efforts, likely contributed to discrepancies in information about casualties.

The exact circumstances of the dam’s collapse remain murky, and local officials said they had formed a committee to “seek common ground on the responsibilities and obligations for the tragic disaster,” the Vientiane Times reported.

SK Engineering & Construction said the dam began failing on Sunday, while Korea Western Power, another partner in the project, said the ear th-fill dam began visibly weakening on Friday.

SK Engineering sent its president and an emergency team to help with the rescue and repair effort. In a news statement issued on Thursday, it said it would help build lodging for those displaced.

“We will find out causes of the incident thoroughly and take necessary actions quickly,” it said in a statement earlier this week.

The Thai partner in the dam project, the Ratchaburi Electricity Generating Holding Public Co., said the joint venture had sent experts to the area to investigate the situation and discuss with the authorities how to resolve the problem.

Monsoon rains clearly contributed to the disaster: A repor t by the intergovernmental Mekong River Commission said storms had caused water levels along the river to rise 9 to 15 feet in the past week.

Continued heavy rain and strong winds forecast for the area could hinder recovery efforts, and risks f ro m f l o o d i n g p e r s i s te d i n t h e mountainous region.

But a flurry of dam building along the Mekong River and its tributaries, including those affected by this disaster, has raised concerns over environmental impact and other problems. AP

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

Sunday

Sunday, July 29, 2018 A5

Tagle: Church is called Jesus feeds 5,000 to unite, not divide T L 17th Sunday in Ordinary Time: ‘John 6:1-15’

Msgr. Josefino S. Ramirez SUNDAY GOSPEL IN OUR LIFE

uis Antonio Cardinal Tagle of Manila said church people are called to unite people and not create division in society.

Speaking at the end of the Philippine Conference on New Evangelization (PCNE), Tagle said that God wants the “unity of His people” and for them “to be one in spirit of caring.”

“It is not the role of the shepherd to scatter. The role of the shepherd, according to the mind and heart of God, is to gather and that is the root of the word Church, not division,” Tagle said.

According to him, the Church and its leaders should be an earthly reflection of the oneness of God and are called to a type of leadership that would bring people together.

“All of us who have been called to follow Jesus and who have been given positions, calling and responsibility over the others should be mindful of that,” he added.

Reflecting on the various talks and testimonies during the fiveday gathering, the cardinal also warned against instrumentalizing the Gospel for self-interests and “non-evangelical purposes.”

He emphasized that Jesus refuses any attempt to instrumentalize the Good News for worldly goals.

“They say it’s the Gospel, it turns out to be an ambition. They

say it’s aid, it turns out to be media mileage. They say it’s compassion, it turns out to be career,” Tagle said.

The miracle of feeding the multitude is PCNE’s icon for the Year of the Clergy and the Consecrated Persons, which, like the laity, share in the common priesthood.

The gathering ended with a Mass presided over by Archbishop Gabrielle Caccia, the Apostolic Nuncio to the Philippines.

In his message, the archbishop urged the faithful to “move” with compassion and “always think of a person, never a number.”

“When you see that their needs are so many, don’t think you will accomplish that work but say what you can do and give what you have and what you are to Jesus. He will

Luis Antonio Cardinal Tagle gestures while delivering his homily at the closing Mass of the Philippine Conference on New Evangelization at the University of Santo Tomas Quadricentennial Pavilion in Manila on July 22. Martina Summer Dagal

perform miracles,” Caccia said.

The liturgical service ended with the distribution of at least 6,000 pieces of bread shaped into fish.

P C N E D i re c t or Fr. Ja s on Laguerta said the fish reminds everyone of what has been written in the Gospel, where the evangelists underscored the generosity of the boy who shared five loaves of bread and two pieces of fish, which Jesus Christ multiplied

It is not the role of the shepherd to scatter. The role of the shepherd, according to the mind and heart of God, is to gather and that is the root of the word Church, not division.”—Tagle

Action or contemplation

Jesus (center) at the house of Martha (left) and Mary, a painting by Harold Copping. Wikimedia Commons

Saint Martha, Virgin

B

usy is a word that describes everyone. What is man busy of? Money, power, honors, with only a few who serve God. Even during the time of Jesus on earth, man was already busy.

Jesus, too, was busy preaching about love of God and neighbor.

When asked to stay, He did stay.

If forced to leave, He left. He respected man’s will.

Busy is a word that characterizes Jesus’ public life. People followed Him to listen, be healed, fed and marvel at His miracles.

One of His places of recluse is in Bethany, at the house of His best friend Lazarus, and his sisters

Our fears and worries vanish.

The boy’s bread and fish may have appeared to have been worth no more than P500 in today’s economy, but in the hands of Jesus it became priceless. God does not need anything to produce a miracle. After all, He made this whole world out of nothing.

God delights in taking the most insignificant thing to show His greatness.

He looks for a willing and obedient soul. We may not have more than a mustard seed of faith, but He will use it for something wonderful.

Let us never underestimate the small and seemingly insignificant!

Think of the times we refrained from doing something for the Lord because we feel that what we have is insignificant or too little. Little is much when God is in it! He always provides.

The key to real happiness— whether little or much—give it all to God. Our faith and trust in Him will not only add to our happiness but multiply it.

Roy Lagarde and Melo Acuña/CBCPNews

things. There is need of only one thing. Mary has chosen the better part, and it will not be taken from her” (Luke 11:41).

Martha, with her unique spirituality, realized that work sanctifies, and Jesus has called Mary to contemplate on His words.

So six days before Passover, when a dinner was prepared in Bethany for Jesus, Martha responded faithfully. She served quietly while Mary “anointed the feet of Jesus and dried them with her hair” (John 12:2-3).

By Corazon Damo-Santiago

and fed to thousands of believers.

“The fish-shaped bread, which was distributed to the congregation, [was] a symbol of one’s generosity and the power of Jesus to multiply the meager resources they had,” he said.

In Church history, at the time of the persecution of Christians, believers used a symbol of fish, called ichtys, to identify fellow believers. The image was used as a symbol of Christianity.

The priest said one of the reasons they chose the theme was to highlight the mission of the Church “to feed the hungry world with the love of Jesus and highlight the basic identity of every Christian to be bread, broken and shared for all.”

This is also in solidarity with t he poor bec au se bread a nd fish are the fare of the poor, Laguerta said.

here are moments in our life when our faith is tested with challenges to do the impossible.

Philip and the rest of the disciples thought that feeding the multitude was impossible. God often ministers through weakness.

He does not always choose strong people so that He can use their strengths. He does not always select perfect people who always do things right in the eyes of men. He chooses weak and broken people so that He can demonstrate His power through their weakness.

God is not limited by our experience, credentials or resources.

Sometimes, we limit ourselves in our undertakings and think we would rather keep doing what we do because it works and it’s safe.

We often fear and worry.

How would we know if we remain in our comfort zones? Then we would never stop worrying and keep fearing.

But God delights in doing the unexpected. And when He does, a blanket of calm envelopes us.

Martha and Mary. He was always welcomed to rest, be listened to and He enjoyed a good serving of Martha’s culinary delights.

Anxious Martha

In one occasion, Jesus was in the living room with Mary at His feet listening intently, while Martha was overly busy. Annoyed at Mary’s complacency and aware that Jesus knows their humanness, Martha complained: “Lord, do You not care that my sister had left me by myself to do the serving? Tell her to help me” (Luke 10:40). Jesus loved both Martha and Mary (John 11:5).

He said in reply: “Martha, Martha, you are anxious about many

World leaders emphasize the need for productive labor force and technolog y to constantly improve the quality of life for an increasing population.

Church leaders, however, emphasize that the resources of the world can sustain a quality of life for all. What is needed are people who are enlightened on loving others as they love themselves— a spirituality that has to be contemplated on and lived.

In man’s arduous search for peace, comfortable and fulfilled life, and still be entitled to eternal life, what should he do? Is there a specific formula to live the ideal life? How can man be truly human and yet truly divine?

Everyone is created by God for a purpose, perform the tasks of a specific calling, know, love and be with Him forever in heaven.

Although God has destined some people to exclusively serve him like contemplatives, priests and religious, more people are needed to sustain activities and life on earth.

To those who serve Him unselfishly, He promised heaven or sainthood. So the majority of saints declared by Mother Church are from the ranks of the religious, as expected, for they have the luxury of quiet moments. God is

the center of their longings, woven in the fabrics of all activities and apostolate.

Workers in God’s vineyard

However, everyone can bring God to one’s place of work where God is proclaimed through words and actions. And Jesus’ teachings on love and service can be exemplified.

In the words of Saint Escriva, founder of Opus Dei, “To be holy is not easy but it is not difficult either. To be holy is to be a good Christian. The more closely a person resembles Christ’s [action and contemplative life], the more he belongs to Christ, the holier he is.”

Ma n ca n e xempl if y Jesus’ teachings on love and service whatever work he does.

Saint Teresa of Calcutta, who was called the Living Saint, shared her formula on how to combine action and contemplation.

“My day begins with faith, [prayers] and comes alive through service,” the saint was quoted.

G od , i n h i s O m n i sc ience, have destined var ied roles for people—relig ious, mar r ied and t hose who opt for single blessedness. W hichever state o f l i f e , t h e s a c r a m e nt s a r e ava i lable whi le one per for ms his ca l ling for God ’s glor y and love of neighbors.

Holiness is within the grasp of everyone. Holy and saintly people will not only come from the religious sectors but from all walks of life—from those busy in different endeavors.

The feast day of Saint Martha is celebrated on July 29.

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

SM employees receive Confirmation

D

espite the heavy rains, 36 confirmands and their sponsors trooped to the National Shrine of Saint Michael and the Archangels in San Miguel, Manila, on the Feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel for the “Kumpilang SM.” The confirmands are employees of SM Harrison, SM Makati, SM Manila, SM Molino, SM Santa Mesa, SM Sucat and SM North Edsa.

The rite for the Sacrament of Confirmation was sponsored by SM Foundation and the Felicidad T. Sy Foundation, headed by CEO Imelda I. Elido, assisted by Maddette Cruz and Allan Mallari.

Officiating the ceremony was Rev Fr. Genaro Diwa, ALC head. Rev. Fr. Herbert Camacho assisted in giving the Sacrament of Reconciliation.

Pope adds teener to list of those to be named saints

V

ATI C AN — Po p e F r a n c i s a d d e d an Italian teenager to the list of people he will recognize as saints on October 14 during the monthlong meeting of the world Synod of Bishops on young people.

During an “ordinary public consistory” on July 19, Pope Francis announced he would declare Blessed Nunzio Sulprizio a saint the same day he will canonize Blesseds Oscar Romero, Paul VI and four others. An ordinary public consistory is a meeting of the pope, cardinals and promoters of sainthood causes that formally ends the sainthood process.

Sulprizio was born April 13, 1817, in the Abruzzo region near Pescara. Both of his parents died when he was an infant and his maternal grandmother, who raised him, died when he was nine.

An uncle took him under his guardianship and had the young boy work for him in his blacksmith shop. However, the work was too strenuous for a boy his age and he developed a problem in his leg, which became gangrenous.

A military colonel took care of Sulprizio, who was eventually hospitalized in Naples. The young teen faced tremendous

pain with patience and serenity and offered up his sufferings to God. He died in Naples in 1836 at the age of 19. He was declared blessed in 1963

by Blessed Paul VI, who will be canonized together with the teen.

During the ceremony, Blessed Paul had said, “Nunzio Sulprizio will tell you that the period of youth should not be considered the age of free passions, of inevitable falls, of invincible crises, of decadent pessimism, of harmful selfishness. He will rather tell you how being young is a grace.”

Together with Blesseds Paul and Romero, Sulprizio will be canonized along with Fr. Francesco Spinelli of Italy, founder of the Sisters Adorers of the Blessed Sacrament; Fr. Vincenzo Romano, who worked with the poor of Naples, Italy, until his death in 1831; Mother Catherine Kasper, the German founder of the religious congregation, the Poor Handmaids of Jesus Christ; and Nazaria Ignacia March Mesa, the Spanish founder of the Congregation of the Missionary Crusaders of the Church.

The October 14 date for the canonizations had already been announced during an ordinary public consistory in mid-May. Catholic News Service

A6 Sunday, July 29, 2018

Science

BusinessMirror

Sunday

Strengthening S&T human resources

Science scholarships giving hope to Filipino youth

G

By Stephanie Tumampos & Edwin Galvez

ood news to students who aspire to become scholars of the Department of Science and Technology (DOST). The DOST, through its Science Education Institute (SEI), has announced that there will be additional slots for its scholarships for undergraduate and graduate programs as a result of reformed guidelines and additional funding.

“From 4,000 grants, the DOSTSEI has dramatically increased the number of undergraduate slots to 9,000,” DOST-SEI Director Josette Biyo announced during the National Science and Technology Week. This is the biggest batch since the program started in 1958.

“For the master’s degree, we increased it from 700 to 1,400 [slots], while for the PhD level, we geared it from 250 slots to 700,” Biyo added.

Biyo hopes to increase the number of scholars supported i n a l l DOS T- SEI sc hol a rsh ip programs from 20,618 in 2016 to a target number of 33,256 scholars for 2019.

“This means more S&T [science a nd tec hnolog y] c a reer workers will help contribute to the country’s socioeconomic development,” said Science Secretary Fortunato de la Peña at the same briefing.

Undergraduate scholarships

For the undergraduate degree, three scholarship programs are available. The Republic Act (RA) 2067 is awarded to students with “ high aptitude in science and mathematics.” They are selected through an examination set on October 21 for the 2019 program.

The RA 7687 S&T Scholarship is awarded to poor yet deserving students, whose families have low socioeconomic status. In its reformed guidelines, the DOSTSEI will provide scholarship to students with families who earn below P300,000.

“This is based on the recommendation of the National Economic and Development Authority,” Biyo said. The exam is set on

the same day as that for RA 2067.

R A 10612, the Junior Level Science Scholarship Program, targets college students taking science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) courses. The exam is on October 20.

These undergraduate scholarship programs also offer increased financial support.

While the students who will study in state colleges will have free tuition, those under the RA 2067 will have a P40,000 tuition subsidy.

A P7,000 monthly allowance will be given regardless of the student’s STEM course. The scholar will also receive an annual P10,000 book allowance, annual one roundtrip economy-class fare, uniform allowance worth P1,000, and a graduation allowance of P1,000.

A premium group insurance is also offered.

The deadlines of application for these scholarships are on August 31 for the undergraduate level, and on September 14 for the junior level. Application forms are free.

Graduate level scholarships

In filling in the pool of high-level S&T human resources, the DOSTSEI also offers scholarships to the graduate level in four programs.

Director Josette Biyo of the Department of Science and Technology-Science Education Institute Stephanie Tumampos

These are the Accelerated Science and Technolog y Human Resource Development Program (A STHR DP), Eng ineer ing Research and Development for Technology (ERDT), Capacity Building Program in Science and Mathematics Education (SciEd), and the Science and Technology Regional Alliance of Universities for National Development (Strand).

ASTHRDP scholarship is offerred to master’s and doctoral degree students in select universities in order to develop a continuing supply of scientists and technologists. The ERDT program it aims to provide support for engineering researchers in select institutions.

The SciEd program gives support to graduate students in select universities to help initiate science teaching and education in the country, while the Strand program offers S&T scholarships in regional institutions.

The graduate students will be supported through tuition in full; an increased P25,000 monthly living allowance for master’s degree students and P33,000 for doctoral degree; a P10,000 yearly book allowance; transportation allow-

This means more S&T [science and technology] career workers will help contribute to the country’s socioeconomic development.”

—de la Peña

ance for a one round-trip economy class; thesis or dissertation allowance; and student-research support fund, which includes attendance in conferences and research publications.

Foreign scholarships are also g iven to st udent s who pa ss screening.

Looking at the future

The scholarship programs have already reached the farthest areas of the country with 97-percent coverage out of 1,655 municipalities all over the country.

“Only 46 municipalities don’t have even one DOST scholar,” Biyo added.

DOST-SEI scholarship programs have been a success, providing the country quality graduates.

Biyo said that they have a low dropout rate with “96 percent of scholars graduating on time.”

However, Biyo said there is still a need to do more. “We are already at the 270 [S&T personnel and scientists] per million record and we need 110 more,” Biyo said. “We’d like to achieve the recommended number by the year 2021.”

To meet the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization-recommended number of S&T personnel of 380 researchers and scientists per million, the Department of Budget and Management and Congress were convinced by the DOST-SEI that one of the ways to socioeconomically develop the country is to encourage the Filipino youth to pursue S&T-related courses through financial support.

Duterte links health challenges to climate change; calls to honor Paris pact

D

AVAO CIT Y—A historic meeting bet ween the Philippines and Pacific island nations opened in this city on Friday to tackle urgent health problems in the region and seize opportunities to increase investments in public health and climate resilience.

President Duterte, who also chairs the countr y’s Climate Change Commission (CCC), gave a rousing speech on Thursday night’s welcome dinner of the Asia Pacific Healthy Islands conference.

Duterte framed the region’s health-sector challenges within the context of the climate crisis, calling on all countries to honor the 2015 Paris Agreement and contribute their fair share of global climate action.

“Climate change is not a typhoon that visits your country

once a year. Climate change is a day-to-day problem,” Duterte said, noting that “a 1-degree [Celsius] change in the temperature would be disastrous.”

Pacific island nations, including the Philippines, consider a 2-degree Celsius increase above pre-industr ia l levels nothing short of an existential threat, given their common vulnerability to climate-change impacts— such as sea-level r ise, ocean acidification, and more extreme heat waves and rainfall, such as those currently slamming Japan, Greece and Lao PDR. “The Philippines and its Pacific neighbors fought together to enshrine the 1.5-degree Celsius warming threshold in the Paris Agreement,” said Secretary Emmanuel de Guzman, CCC vice chairman.

De Guzman led the Philippine

presidency of the Climate Vulnerable Forum (CVF), a group of 48 Pacific and other developing nations, during the Paris climate negotiations. Later this year, the Republic of the Marshall Islands will take on the CVF chair.

“Vulnerable countries must stand together in solidarity and lead the call for urgent climate action worldwide. We can only do so much on our own to implement Paris. We must protect not only our islands but our people’s health and well-being not tomorrow but today,” he added.

Health ministers and other high-ranking officials from Pacific island nations graced the conference, which aims to link practical solutions to various public health problems worsened by the impacts of climate change.

“Pacific island nations urgently

need reliable clean energy that can power health centers and produce safe water, more highly trained medical staff, better technology and financing facilities more responsive to their needs,” said Dr. Susan Pineda-Mercado, special envoy of the president for global health initiatives and the firstever woman and developing-country candidate vying for the AsiaPacific directorship of the World Health Organization.

“We need to urgently elevate the investment agenda of the Pacific’s health sector in a way that is sensitive to the worsening impacts of climate change, while also providing funding, capacity building and technology transfer programs that can advance healthier and more resilient island systems across the Pacific,” Pineda-Mercado added.

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

This Nasa scientist proves building ‘Cassini’ spacecraft and having her babies are possible Story & photo by Edd K. Usman Special to the BusinessMirror

I

f there are still women who have doubts about combining motherhood and career, they can put their doubts away.

Motherhood and career can thrive together and be successful in both, at the same time.

A Malaysia-born scientist—Florence Tan—has got it all figured out, no less in the United States National Aeronautics and Space Administration (Nasa). And will continue to do so for many more years.

Of course, she had some doubts in the beginning, she being a human being like all of God’s people with frailties and failings.

But she persevered in raising her two children and while working on her projects in Nasa—challenge of not quite nearimpossible twin tasks of raising children, and as systems engineer, manager and instrument operator for Nasa flight space projects.

In her case, all that she needed was to continue to believe in herself, persevere, never quit and asked her peers.

She likened her fete as being parallel with runners in a synchronized race, she told the B usiness M irror on the side of a news briefing during the opening of the National Science and Technology Week in World Trade Center in Pasay City on July 17. Tan and other Nasa scientists were among the resource speakers at the NSTW that was led by the Department of Science and Technology.

Nasa lead engineer

Her “work” was as lead electrical engineer at Nasa Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) for 32 years had her design multiple space flight mass spectrometers for the space agency.

Under her belt were instruments like the Mars Science Laboratory Rover SAM in 2012 to present; Mven NGIMS, 2014 to present, Ladee NMS, 2014 and ExoMars Moma.

If that’s not enough, she worked as a cognizant engineer and programmer for the Cassini INMS from 1997 to 2017 and CassiniHuygens GCMS from 1997 to 2005 instruments.

These two while carefully balancing her time with motherhood.

The Cassini spacecraft was a collaboration between Nasa, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency to send a probe to study the planet Saturn and its system.

Pregnancy and work

She had her most difficult and happiest times working at Nasa.

“Nine months before [giving birth to my daughter in 1995], I tried to get a lactation room where I can continue nursing the baby and pump my milk so I can have a supply,” she recounted.

“That was pretty much the hardest because I was building Cassini [for its launching in 1997] and I was also getting my master’s degree and I was also having a baby,” Tan said.

The Nasa scientist, who also credits her parents for supporting her career at the space agency, noted that the end of that period “was the most fruitful in one way.”

“I had two babies, between 1995 and 1997, and I got my master’s degree. I was trying to nurse a baby...and I had Cassini and then Huygens and a third one that was canceled,” she recalled.

Tan also built another spacecraft for Mars, describing that span of time as “most intense... I was lucky, my parents helped me with the baby.” Her husband, an engineer, was in school.

‘Hardest thing I did’

All this time she was trying to get a room for the pregnant women of Nasa, where they can nurse their babies but her difficulties in having a space (no pun intended) for the mothers drove her to quit.

“I finally decided I give up trying to get a room. After I had my first baby and I looked around and I saw all these women who were pregnant. You know, when you are pregnant, everybody is pregnant,” she said.

But that scene rekindled her desire to get a lactation room at Nasa for the women who became pregnant after her. She talked to human resources, architect and legal office to enlist their support. Undaunted, she finally got her wish and got a room for the mothers.

“In 1999 that was the hardest thing I did, from the point of view of ‘why hard,’ because you have to work with all the groups and Nasa people. You have to work with all,” she added.

Behind all this, she pointed out the importance of human interaction to get one’s message across and realize one’s dream, the things one is working on, like the lactation room.

Tan

“It is the human interaction, in my career, when I was working with others, [that spelled] the difference,” she noted.

Happiest time

Her happiest time, Tan said, is every time she looks back and realized what she had accomplished—among them, nursing and raising two children and building Cassini and the other Nasa instruments.

She said it was not really competition; her boss was very supportive, really backing her, which helped her so much.

Doubts as a child

Tan admitted she had some doubts when she was a child. She was scared and almost cried when faced with problems she thought she had no way of solving them.

When she was a student, she had that experience while designing a software with no one teaching her or showing her the way.

“I figured it out by working really hard, testing and over time succeeded that you get [make the struggle worth it],” she said. “The wisdom of age, that’s the fun about success.”

Don’t be shy to ask questions

She said people should not hesitate asking for help, admitting you don’t know something, she said. “They will help you; the key is collaboration, it is team work. It is not about me, it is about ‘I will take my team to lunch.’”

Tan also had some advice for Filipino students. In the US she has been a staple of speaking engagements, where she talked to lots of children—from high school to college level—on building careers.

“I always say it is OK to ask questions. There is no such thing as stupid question. You can always learn, and you can always inform, you can always clarify. So, for kids, don’t wait, ask questions and communicate.

“The thing is, if you don’t ask a questions, chances are somebody else in the room probably has the same problem and is too shy [to ask]. I am sure of that,” she said.

She said one of the things that students always think when they build their career is, “it is too late. I cannot do this anymore.”

“There is no such thing as ‘too late,’” she explained. “If you want to do something, go, do it and don’t let somebody tell you cannot do it.”

Value mathematics

Students, she emphasized, must value mathematics. “If you feel being not sure about a certain equation, you ask and you clarify and many people will help out.”

“If you don’t want to ask a question, you won’t know the answer,” Tan said.

Awards for excellence

At GSFC, she worked at the Women’s Advisory Committee that helped her organize, specify, establish and built GSFC’s first lactation room and established the Goddard lactation program. She’s been president of the Goddard Chinese American Club, and was a member of the Goddard Women Advisory Committee for multiple years.

Among the awards she received for her work included the Nasa Medal for Exceptional Achievement, Robert Goddard Award for Outreach, Solar System Exploration Special Award Act, as well as many Goddard Special Act Awards and Goddard Peer Awards.

Tan grew up in Malaysia and speaks English, Malaysia’s Bahasa and Chinese dialects.

She has a Bachelor of Science degree in Electrical Engineering from Maryland University, a Master’s of Science in Electrical Engineering as well as Master’s in Business Administration in E-Commerce from Johns Hopkins University.

She promotes science, technology, engineering and mathematics in many ways.

Her two children are now in college . Her hobbies include reading, orienteering sport and a volunteer yoga teacher to her fellow workers and neighbors since 2008.

Sports TIGER FUN TO WATCH, BUT...

BusinessMirror

Sunday, July 29, 2018

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

By Doug Ferguson The Associated Press

C

ARNOUSTIE, Scotland—Ryder Cup captain Jim Furyk says it was fun to watch Tiger Woods contend at the British Open and briefly take the lead in the final round. Whether that means Woods is a lock for the US team is still to be determined.

“I’m going to handle him the way I do everyone else,” Furyk said on Monday before boarding a flight for the Canadian Open. “I’ll ask my top 8 guys. The way he’s playing, he might be one of them. I’ll ask the vice captains, collectively, and I think we’ll do the best we can to round out the team. We want the guys playing the best.”

Woods moved from No. 31 to No. 20 in the Ryder Cup standings with two tournaments remaining before the top 8 qualify for the from September 28 to 30 matches in Paris. Points are based on money, and the two events left for Woods—a World Golf Championship and Professional Golfers

A7

Association (PGA) Championship—offer two of the largest purses.

Woods already has been appointed an assistant captain, just as he was at Hazeltine two years ago. He has hinted at being a playing assistant.

He has played just 12 events that offer Ryder Cup points, about half as many tournaments as most American prospects.

Woods had the lead for three holes at Carnoustie until a double bogey at No. 11, and he wound up tied for sixth. It at least moved him to No. 50 in the world ranking, making him eligible for the $10-million Bridgestone Invitational next week at Firestone, where he has won eight times.

Furyk looked at more than just Woods.

Over the weekend at Carnoustie, no fewer than seven players had a chance to move into the top 8 in the standings—Woods, Xander Schauffele, Kevin Kisner, Kevin Chappell, Tony Finau, Zach Johnson and Matt Kuchar.

“We had a lot of guys in pretty good form,” Furyk said. “Flip over to Tiger, you look at him because he’s Tiger, and he’s earned a lot of attention.... I loved seeing him play well. I loved seeing him jump to 20th.

It’s fun to watch. But we’ll handle him like everyone else.”

Furyk was a vice captain under Davis Love III at Hazeltine in 2016 and was under consideration for one of the four captain’s picks. He was involved in frank discussions with the captain, and he sees this situation—if it comes down to that—unfolding the same way.

Furyk said a big part of his decision on captain’s picks would be

matching players with the course at Le Golf National, where the matches will be played. Furyk and a few Americans took a scouting trip on the weekend before the British Open. He said Finau played the course mainly with a 3-iron, and Justin Thomas hit only seven drivers over 72 holes during the French Open.

“It’s a good second-shot golf course,” he said.

GARCIA NEEDS GOOD RESULTS

THREE tournaments remain before the top 8 players qualify for the US Ryder Cup team, including $10 million or more purses from the World Golf Championship at Firestone and the PGA Championship.

Another deadline quickly approaching is the FedEx Cup, and Adam Scott did himself a big favor with his tie for 17th at the British Open.

Scott moved from No. 123 to No. 107 in the FedEx Cup standings.

He should be set, especially being guaranteed points in two weeks at the Bridgestone Invitational. Scott, who has fallen to No. 73 in the world ranking, gets into Firestone because he played in the Presidents Cup last year.

“There’s good stuff in my game,” Scott said. “I didn’t hit it as well as I wanted this week, but there was still plenty of good in that. My short game is really good, I thought. So if I can just get the rhythm of the golf swing going a little better over the next couple weeks, I really feel like I can make a mark at the PGA and try to put a dent in the end of the season.”

Triple Crown winner Justify retires from racing

T

TIGER WOODS’S inclusion on the US Ryder Cup team is still to be determined. AP

JUSTIFY, with jockey Mike Smith up, crosses the finish line to win the 150th running of the Belmont Stakes. AP

RIPLE Crown winner Justify was retired from racing on Wednesday because of fluid in his left front ankle.

Trainer Bob Baffert and Justify’s owners said caution over the horse’s ankle condition made it impossible to tell if he’d be healthy enough to race by the fall.

“What a way to go out: never beaten, won the Triple Crown,” jockey Mike Smith said by phone. “He’s happy, healthy. That’s just beautiful.”

Baffert said Justify wasn’t responding quickly enough to treatment to be able to race in the next few months, so the

decision was made to retire him.

“We all wanted to see Justify run again, but ultimately it is my responsibility to make sure he is perfect,” Baffert said.

“Without 60-90 days, I can’t be definite.”

The goal was for Justify to run in a major race this summer, likely the Travers Stakes at Saratoga, and be pointed toward the $5-million Breeders’ Cup Classic on November 3 at Churchill Downs. Instead, he was taken out of training earlier this month because of swelling in his ankle.

“The timing is bad for another start in 2018, and therefore, we have to retire him,” said Elliott Walden of WinStar Farm, which co-owns Justify. “Like [2015 Triple Crown winner] American Pharoah, we can’t take the risk of running Justify as a 4-year-old.

We all wanted him to finish his career in the Breeders’ Cup Classic, but it was not meant to be.”

Justify won all six career starts, becoming the first horse since Apollo in 1882 to capture the Kentucky Derby after not racing as a 2-year-old. He won the Preakness and Belmont Stakes to become the 13th Triple Crown winner and second in the past four years after Baffert’s American Pharoah.

“I could almost say he made my life,” jockey Mike Smith said. “I’ll forever be grateful for that horse. It takes a great, great horse to do what he did.”

In addition to the Triple Crown, the Kentucky-bred Justify won the Santa Anita Derby and retires with career earnings of almost $3.8 million. AP

A8

BusinessMirror

Sunday, July 29, 2018

www.businessmirror.com.ph

MOUNTAINS

By Prachi Topiwala-Agarwal

“W For Abby and those who struggle daily

By Jade-Ceres Violet Dolor Munoz Woman.

You are an oyster ripening a grain of pain in the pit of your belly until it becomes a globe of tears too round, too heavy for keeping You fold upon yourself under blankets under darkness bearing your cross.

Silently.

A salty, briny flesh coils around that little morsel of suffering turning it this way and that until it is made new.

Your tough shell an unyielding roughness Hiding, protecting your vulnerability No prying eyes can see what you have lovingly grown inside Who knew that pain can be beautiful, too?

Jade-Ceres Violet Dolor Munoz lives in Auckland, New Zealand with her husband and six-year-old daughter. She currently works as a digital marketing consultant specializing in SEO and Content Strategy. Jade has been writing fiction and poetry since her early teens. She studied AB Literature from De La Salle University and been working for over 15 years as a professional writer. She has written for a San Francisco-based broadsheet, several magazines, blogs and websites in Canada, the US, Australia and New Zealand.

Jade started a movement in Auckland called Books on the Bus NZ—she and her husband have placed over 3,000 books in buses, trains, ferries, train stations and bus stops around New Zealand since starting it last year. She blogs about their family adventures at www.babyjetsetgo.com.

hat about me? And Lobsang?” Linpa asked Tenzin through tears.

He stared mutely at the handleless earthen teacup in his hand.

“How will I keep the stove burning, Tenzin? If I go to the forest alone to collect wood, and the Dorge men come chasing my skirts, who will protect me?” The anguish in Linpa’s voice and eyes chilled Tenzin’s heart and his dark bitter kahwa before he could take the first sip.

She was wiping their dinner plates with a cloth dipped in hot water in the dark corner, farthest from the stove, in their low-ceilinged hut in rural Ladakh. The space in the center of their limestone-walled hut was the warmest.

The stove sat there, which was the largest thing they possessed. It had to be kept running all through the winter months, which made collecting twigs and wood a neverending job. During the day Linpa cooked there or brewed countless cups of kahwa to keep warm. At night they spread a thick straw mat for their daughter on one side of the stove and a slightly bigger but much thinner one for themselves on the other side. A broad rudimentary chimney rose from just above the stove and ran up to and through the ceiling.

“There is just no work here.”

Tenzin looked over the rim of his cup, sipping the tea as it quickly lost steam. “I can’t sit at home all winter to guard you. Don’t make me sound like a villain.”

He is certainly not a villain, thought Linpa as she finished cleaning up. All the men from their village, and from the neighbouring villages, who depended on agriculture or tourism for a livelihood, were rendered jobless in the harsh unforgiving cold months. But she couldn’t let him put his life in danger working as a loader in the Kashmir valley for the Indian army.

Linpa looked at their five-yearold daughter, asleep on her thick warm mat. That mat was a small fruit of Tenzin’s winter job of the previous year. But to Linpa it didn’t justify the risk her husband was going to take again. She had to find a way to stop him. “Can we not plan a brother for Lobsang?”

“And what will we feed him?”

“You know how much your mother taunts me for not having a son. She called me barren the other day. Like our daughter counts for nothing.”

“We need to start putting money aside for Lobsang’s wedding.”

He handed her the empty cup and she kept it aside for washing in the morning, the water had gone cold now.

“If you are so worried about her, why are you going?”

“Linpa, don’t make it so hard.

By Tapa’s blessings I will return with pockets filled with money,” Tenzin pleaded.

“Pockets filled with money, ha.

I don’t care what you say. I am not letting you go to work like a mule on those treacherous mountains again.”

Tenzin opened his mouth to argue, but shook his head instead.

It was pointless saying anything when she was so angry. His day trousers were hanging on a hook on the wall next to the door. He fumbled in the pocket and pulled out a packet of beedis. Time for his nightly smoke.

The unpaved street outside their hut was deserted. Sporadic barking of stray dogs tore through the silence. Tenzin huddled in his blanket as his eyes adjusted to the darkness. Muted light crept out of the gaps from the closed doors and windows of the huts around.

As Tenzin lit his beedi, he could make out the outline of the mountains around him. He couldn’t see the snow in the dark, but he knew that the gray-brown bodies were topped with a white, icy cap that had started growing in the last few weeks, signaling the arrival of winter. Ladakh is famed for its panoramic beauty. The untouched barren wilderness brimming with mesmerising sights that remain frozen in the eyes and hearts of those who witness them. To Tenzin it meant little more than a home that gave him livelihood as a tourist guide for six-seven months and left him jobless for the rest of the year. He smoked half the beedi. The rest would serve him the next day. As he stubbed it and slid it back into the packet, he heard the cries of a baby from the hut next door. Linpa’s mother and her younger sister Pema lived there. The baby was Pema’s infant son. Last winter, Pema’s husband Shinzu had gone to work with him.

But when they were less than a day away from Kumar Post, the army base camp which was their first unloading destination, he had caught a bullet in enemy crossfire.

Tenzin pushed away the memory of Pema’s distraught face when he had returned alone that March.

He waited for a while, rubbing his palms together, looking at his inlaws’ hut. Did she need help with the baby? When the crying subsided in a few minutes, he opened the door to his own hut as little as he could to slide in. Glad to be out of the cold.

Linpa had stretched out on a straw mat. Tenzin lay down next to her but waited for her weary sobs to subside before relaunching his appeal. She was staring at the thin slice at the bottom of the hut’s door. The wind whistled a shrill tune as it escaped through the crack.

He u nderstood her fea rs, shared them even. Carrying fifteen kilograms of rations on his back and walking more than two hundred and fifty kilometers over weeks to reach the Siachen glacier, the highest point for any army to have an active base, was a back-breaking and inhumane job.

Then there was the risk of enemy gunfire. Siachen was ground Zero in the 1999 Kargil war that was fought between India and Pakistan and the border is an unsettled

one. But Tenzin was thankful for getting work. This was the only employment he could get in the region in winter. Besides, it paid well. Thirty thousand rupees in four months. Much more than he made in the rest of the year. The only reason it was given to men like him was that even mules and horses couldn’t walk at eighteenthousand-eight-hundred feet altitude in temperatures that fell to minus fifty degrees Celsius. They walked in the dark of the night, a steady human ant parade, only the bent back of the burdened man in front for a guide.

Linpa finally turned. “I still can’t look at Pema’s face. What is she going to do when the army compensation gets exhausted? A hundred thousand rupees will not last very long.”

“I told you I will find her some work at the travel office. Right now she has money and the baby needs her.”

“And the baby won’t need her then?”

“Linpa – “ “I don’t want to lose you to the spells of the white mountainwitch hiding in those passes.” Her face was a mess of tears and hair stuck to the wetness.

He put an arm around her and pulled her close, wiping her face and resting her head on his shoulder. “I will be fine, I promise,” he whispered as he kissed her still wet eyes.

“I can live on one meal a day.

Like I did before the war, before these expeditions started.”

“Don’t be so negative. Think about the day I will come back. I will walk in through the door in the uniform from the army, with shoes and warm clothes.”

She clung to him but the sobbing had almost stopped now. He would let her fall asleep on his shoulder. It was only another week till the tempo from the army arrived to take him on his winter expedition. Let her sleep in the nest of his warmth till then. At least one of them was sleeping. He knew he couldn’t fight his own fears and get any rest. The dreaded whizzing sound of enemy bullets as they echoed through the valleys, the muted yells of the loader as he fell into the bottomless crevice from a slipped foot or weak foothold, the frostbite that plagued them all, swollen feet that made the new shoes lose their point. The night when Shinzu was killed, Tenzin hadn’t known who was hit till much later. There were a few men between them and the moonless sky gave no respite.

Perhaps he should borrow a guard dog from his brother. It would keep her safe from those Dorge rascals. ***** The triumphant Ladakhi loaders stood in a line to collect their pay. Thirty-thousand rupees. The reward they had dreamed about through the tough dark days. Tenzin limped to take his envelope, saluted to the army officer and tried his best to march off without putting too much weight on his left foot.

He swung himself into the tempo. The sun was peeping out that morning, from behind the hills and shooing away the fog, like a wind blower scatters away leaves. It was an auspicious sign.

BusinessMirror

www.businessmirror.com.ph

Sunday, July 29 , 2018

A9

OF FEAR, VALLEYS OF HOPE The weather gods were revelling with him in his homecoming.

“Sardarji, can you stop at the market in the next town for a little while?” Someone called out to the driver with a wink.

“You crazy rascals. Risked your life and back for months to earn some money. And now you can’t even wait till you get home to blow it up.” The driver laughed as he pulled off the highway to enter the town.

“We can take the weight on our backs, not in our pockets.” More laughter and back patting.

On the way to the army camp they had been a quiet group of twenty anxious men, cramped and edgy. Now on their way home they sat joking, legs stretched, backs resting against the sides. No one mentioned the extra space in the tempo made by their four fallen friends. The army contractor’s

telegrams would have reached their homes with the news. Their families would have to be faced when they reached home. But till then nothing would take away the victorious feeling.

They got back on their way from the market only after the driver chased them back into the tempo three hours later. One young man was pulled out of the brothel, clothes still in hand. The band got livelier. Bags of goodies for families cramped them now. Tenzin smiled at his hoard. Clothes for Lobsang, bangles for Linpa, rice and spices and a big packet of rubbers. Three half-fed stomachs were better than four hungry ones.

W hen they got to the v illage square, the only street wide enough for vehicles to drive in, it was filled with curious villagers.

As the tempo came to stop near the large Willow tree, the loaders

jumped out to shouts of “Julley”.

Families of the loaders were there to hopefully greet them, the others probably to take count of the returnees. Lobsang left her mother’s hand as soon as she spotted her father and raced into his arms.

He lifted her and made a face in jest. How light she had gotten in the time that he was gone. Wasn’t her mother feeding her?

They walked to Linpa. She was waiting, head covered with her scarf, holding an end in her mouth, hiding her face. Tenzin smiled, she would have to wait until after they got home. With all the village elders watching, he wasn’t going to hug her there.

The loud wails of women broke through. It was Harip’s mother.

And Vishwa’s wife. Linpa looked at Tenzin, questioning, searching, understanding. She rushed to comfort the crying women. The

bereaved families would have received a telegram weeks ago, but as usual they hadn’t told anyone.

Accepting and announcing the death would have taken away the faint hope that there had been some mistake and the telegram had been sent to the wrong family.

Tenzin waited for a while, but he knew Linpa would go to the homes of the grieving women first. There would be rituals for the departed souls to get salvation. Without the bodies to pray over the Tapa couldn’t do much, but the chanting would go on for a couple of hours.

Lobsang talked non-stop as they slowly walked home through the narrow unpaved street. She was holding some of the bags and supporting her father as he limped beside her. “What happened to your leg? What have you brought for me?” There were stories about her friends, the snow games she

had been playing. Tenzin nodded and ‘hmmed’ along. When she told him that her mother cried every night, he creased his brow.

He would have to tell Linpa to not scare the child in his absence. It was one thing to miss him and another to cry every night.

They reached their hut and Tenzin stared at the fresh mound of mud a few feet from the door.

Lobsang followed his gaze.

“It’s Jumbo’s grave Papa. Uncle’s guard dog? Mama said he died because he was old. She had taken him with her when she went to get wood that day. I was at granny’s. I saw a lot of blood on his body when she brought him back.”

Tenzin walked inside, unsettled by what he had heard. As he hung his day trousers on the hook absently, the packet of condoms he had bought at the market slipped out from the pocket. He swiftly

picked up the bright-red box with a seductive picture of an Indian actress. If Lobsang saw it she would ask a dozen questions. He would hide the box at the very back of the top shelf of the cupboard, behind the warm blankets and Linpa’s wedding clothes.

Tenzin kept the chatter on with his daughter as he fumbled to move things around to safely tuck his stash away. Something caught his eye, something that did not belong there, and he pulled it out. Linpa’s blue floral skirt fell out. It was stained red and brown and torn.

Prachi Topiwala-Agarwal is an Indian living in Singapore with her husband and two school-age daughters.

She is completing a Masters of Arts in Creative Writing at the Lasalle College in Singapore.

Tourism&Entertainment BusinessMirror

A10 Sunday, July 29, 2018

Editor: Carla Mortel-Baricaua

Your travel bucket list must include these natural wonders and structural gems

Decoding Mumbai and the Rest of Maharashtra

Today’s look of Victorian Gothic and Art Deco ensemble of Mumbai

Kailasa Temple of the Ellora Caves stands tall and proud

ChhatrapatiShivaji Terminus, formerly Victoria Terminus, is a Unesco World Heritage Site.

Story & photos by Bernard Joseph Esposo Guerrero

M

umbai’s recent victory inspired me to write about India. It is, therefore, fitting to dedicate my last article to Maharashtra, the state that captivated me with its caves, natural terrains, train rides and picturesque cities.

Victorian Gothic and Art Deco Ensemble of Mumbai

This year historic Mumbai secured its rightful place among other Unesco World Heritage Sites, earning it the same prestige that the Taj Mahal enjoys. The city boasts the most magnificent Victorian structures in Asia, as well as one of the largest collections of Art Deco buildings in the world. This exceptional synergy between these two architectural movements created the highest expression of monumental colonial urban developments in British India.

Wandering from the Fort precinct

to the Oval Maidan reveals the face of the city that looks like it was taken directly out of London. What makes it distinct, though, are its Indo-Saracenic textures. In 2017 Mumbai’s four Victorian edifices garnered several recognitions in the Unesco AsiaPacific Awards for Cultural Heritage Conservation. Much earlier, in 2014, the neo-Gothic Saint Thomas Cathedral was also awarded.

The most impressive building, however, is the Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus (CST), formerly Victoria Terminus. It is also a World Heritage Site on its own right since 2004, representing the highest ex-

pression of the Victorian Gothic revival in the Orient. Considered as the most beautiful railway station, this timeless monument is also the ultimate symbol of Mumbai as the British-built city in the subcontinent that evolved into a major global trading port in the late-19th century up to this day.

Reaching Mumbai via the CST was indeed meaningful, and it took me three years to finally claim to have done something special: that I visited a World Heritage Site by arriving at another, entirely separate one.

Mountains and the Matheran Toy Train

Not far from Mumbai is a hill station that afforded then the British an easy escape from the warm Indian climate. To this day, many locals still patronize this charming site. Matheran is in the Western Ghats, a mountain range that almost runs throughout western India. A declared biodiversity hot spot, this landform is older than the Himalayas.

Going up aboard the heritage toy train was a truly unique experience. The two-hour journey offered scenic views of the landscape below. Despite being the shortest mountain railway in India at 20-ki-

lometer long, this 1907-opened two-foot narrow gauge line prides itself in having the most number of curves (221) and the steepest gradients among the only 20 similar railways of its kind in the world still in operation. At 804-meter high, Matheran sports a cooler temperature, evergreen forests and tranquil lakes, several viewpoints such as Echo and Alexander Points, and many endemic bonnet macaques.

Caves of Maharashtra

Aurangabad, an overnight train ride away from Mumbai, is a city held dearly by Mughal Emperor Aurangazeb, Shah Jahan’s son. It is in the Deccan Plateau, a region littered with volcanic features called Deccan traps. Hidden in some of these soaring hardened flood basalts are two engineering marvels that have no parallel elsewhere: the ancient Ellora caves and Ajanta caves.

I have already seen quite a few world wonders, but only a handful has genuinely impressed and intrigued me the way Ellora did. While Ajanta focuses attention on its wellpreserved Buddhist paintings, Ellora, on the other hand, has been described as being capable in dwarf-

ing Petra easily, both in scale and in the level of artistry employed. Composed of 34 rock-hewn cave temples of three religions—Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism—the site illustrates the harmonious coexistence of these faiths between the fifth to the 10th century.

The highlight of Ellora is the Kailasa temple, the largest monolithic structure in the world, which was meticulously carved from the top to the bottom. This complex comprises the two-story main temple, monks’ cells, corridors, animal statues and two monumental pillars. Inside the temple, I was assisted by an Archaeological Survey of India personnel who kindly pointed to me, using a torch, traces of ceiling frescoes and a dozen of erotic carvings that are often left unnoticed in the dark. During the Deccan conquest of Aurangazeb, these caves were ordered to be demolished. Efforts to do so, nevertheless, were futile and the order was abandoned shortly. The Kailasa temple’s construction is so mindblowing that it has been a favorite theory posited by many that it was made using alien technology.

Back in Mumbai, a boat ride crossing the waters of the Sea of

Oman brought me to Elephanta Island. The island is celebrated for its five rock-cut caves that house what are considered as the zenith of the artistic achievements associated with the cult of Shiva. The 7-meter Trimurti Sadashiva statue in Cave 1, which represents the three aspects of Shiva, is regarded as a masterpiece of Indian art.

Constructed during India’s “Golden Age” [fourth to sixth century], little is known as to who created them and as to why they had to be so far away from the mainland.

The City and India to the World

As the return ferry drew closer to the iconic Gateway of India in Mumbai, I could not help then but wonder how Queen Mary must have felt in 1911 when she finally saw first-hand what city her Empire had built in the East, a city that resembled so much those back in Britain, one that was even more beautiful than most she had set foot on before.

Without a doubt, India was a real prize to the British in the past, as it did to the Mughals and other western powers that sought to seize it.

Today, it still remains as a trophy, but this time to the whole of humanity.

Art exhibit celebrates 20 years of Tam-awan Village at The Bellevue Manila Story by Gelyka Dumaraos

Photos by Bernard Supetran

B

aguio City’s artists’ haven Tamawan Village celebrates its 20th anniversary as it pays tribute to local artists’ masterpieces with an art road show.

Entitled Tam-awan @ 20: Celebrating Two Decades of Unwavering Passion for Culture and the Arts, the exhibit showcases the works of over a hundred of local artists from different parts of the country.

In its final leg of the tour, over 55 artworks, all handpicked from the first three phases of the road show, are being exhibited at the Main Lobby of The Bellevue Manila until August 3.

Gretta Apolinar, local artist from Tam-awan Village Artists (TVA) group, said that this exhibition was the largest in terms of series and display area and is in line with Tam-awan Village’s mission to nurture art and spread awareness on the beauty of culture.

“By inviting artists from all over the country and even from different art

groups, the celebration has achieved its aim to foster unity among artists and underscore the importance of art and culture,” she added.

Moreover, Apolinar said that this served as a venue to drum attention to the fact that the Tam-awan Village is not just a destination to visit, but arts and cultural institution, as well.

In the early part of the road show, the artworks have been displayed at Ayala Museum Artist Space, SM City Baguio and at Tam-awan Village in Pinsao Proper, Baguio City.

The Bellevue Hotels and Resorts supports the 20th anniversary of Tamawan Village as Baguio City will soon be home to the Bellevue Baguio in 2020.

Tam-awan Village at 20

Founded by Chanum Foundation Inc. in 1998, the Tam-awan Village, which resembles a traditional Cordillera village, is known to be one of the top attractions at the Summer Capital of the Philippines.

With Chit Asignacion, National Artist Ben Cabrera, Solar Artist Jordan

Mang-oson, Atty. Nestor Mondok, Anne Camdas-Micheal and Jackson Bryan III as founders, the village is home to preserved Ifugao houses from Banga-an, Ifugao, and a haven for local craftsmen and artists.

According to Chanum Foundation Inc. President Jordan Mang-oson, what was-then a two-hut hangout place fondly called Inuman Village turned into an artist space that highlighted the Cordillera indigenous culture.

“The two-decade-old Tam-awan Village has given opportunities to local artists to showcase their work in its two galleries. And for eight consecutive years, the village has conducted the Tam-awan International Arts Festival and countless art workshops not only in the Philippines but around the world,” he told the BusinessMirror.

“There are many changes since Tamawan Village has been established. It has been a top attraction for local and international tourists even since, one of the prides of Baguio City.”

It also helps that in 2017, Baguio proudly became the first-ever Philip-

pine city to make it to the UNESCO Creative Cities Network list under the crafts and folk art category.

This, Mang-oson said, shall bring in more opportunities, such as frequent exhibitions and workshops, with the support of the local government. He added that as part of the network, the village anticipates more international and local visitors joining the workshops conducted by their resident artists. In fact, various works, including that of Mang-oson’s solar art, have been recently featured in local and international media.

Young artists’ haven

The doors of the village are open to young artists who would like to take on the challenge of continuing what the foundation has started in preserving the Cordillera culture through the arts.

For young painter Jessie Marie Esteban, whose work was also featured in the exhibit, being a new member of the TVA is both a privilege and responsibility.

“Tam-awan Village cares about their

The Kikay by Jen Lorenzo

Tagilid by Geofry Ranchez (wire and metal sculpture)

members, that is why I want to be part of it,” she says. “Aside from learning from senior artists, I also get to connect with other artists from other places.”

As a budding artist, one of the senior’s advice has helped Esteban define her own artistic style. “I learned from my seniors to paint what I couldn’t say, to articulate the message I want to convey and to make it unique by creating an artwork only I can make.”

As Tam-awan Village turns two decades, Mang-oson believes that members—the old and the new—shall continue to learn and get inspired from each others’ artworks.

Sangi by Raquel Diokno (mixed media)