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A jeepney driver takes in the view in Basco on Batan Island, the second largest among the Batanes Islands, the northernmost islands of the Philippines. Dgmate | Dreamstime.com

Hoteliers say lack of airports, roads drag PHL tourism drive

Still a country less traveled D

By Roderick L. Abad | Contributor

ESPITE the expansion of existing airports or opening of new ones in the pipeline, a group of hoteliers said their number is still not enough to connect both local and foreign tourists throughout the country—a setback that continues to test the local hospitality industry, not to mention the antiquated amenities of some of the hotels and resorts operating nationwide.

“The challenge is really the accessibility,” Hotel Sales and Marketing Association (HSMA) President Margie Munsayac told the BusinessMirror. “No matter how much you want to increase arrivals from a certain area, if access is not available, then it will be impossible for travelers to come in.”

She cited, for instance, the lacking direct flights from Europe.

For the United Kingdom, in particular, it’s only the flag carrier Philippine Airlines that is currently flying straight to London.

“So a lot of your efforts to tap the European market will always be challenged with access because they will always have stopovers somewhere, and it will increase the cost of the

package,” Munsayac said.

It is for this reason that a lot of people, she noted, would say traveling to the Philippines is expensive not because the hotels and resorts are expensive, but due to limited access.

“That’s why the low-cost fare is a great big help to the industry because people can fly in and make the package more attractive,” she said.

While infrastructure will always be a challenge, the roads are not a problem anymore considering there are already expressways to the aviation sites, according to the president of HSMA. She reiterated, “It’s really the insufficient availability of airports or international gateways that we need to address here.”

Expected windfall

GLOBALLY, the wealth that the tourism industry generates is expected to reach unprecedented heights in the next 13 years. But the trillion-dollar question is whether the Philippines can hold a good share of this bounty.

Statistics showed that there have been 1.2 billion travelers internationally since 2015. The World Tourism Organization is anticipating it to grow by 50 percent to 1.8 billion by 2030.

“The demand drivers are basically low-cost [carriers] with basically more efficient operations and the online platform that has made traveling so cheap and more accessible to the people,” said Leechiu Property Consultants See “Travel,” A2

1,784,882 The total number of visitors to the PHL in Q1 2017, up 11.4 percent

New mission: Rebuild Marawi

A

By Rene P. Acosta

bigger task lies ahead as the “war” in Marawi City, which security officials confidently foresee, would punctuate within the next couple of days, at the least, by way of neutralizing the terrorists and the government taking “full control” of the city.

PESO exchange rates n US 49.5250

For the government and the Armed Forces, the end of the war, stirred by the Islamic State (IS)inspired Maute Group, ushers the start of the mammoth task of rebuilding the city from ashes, an undertaking that carries immense meaning for both Marawi and neighboring areas.

The job ensures an extended stay in Marawi for the military, the first and the last one among government agencies to come in and get out of the city, as it would help in the rehabilitation of the See “Marawi,” A2

Black smoke from continuing military air strikes rises above a mosque in Marawi City on June 9. AP/Aaron Favila

n japan 0.4465 n UK 63.1741 n HK 6.3481 n CHINA 7.2724 n singapore 35.7995 n australia 37.5201 n EU 55.2055 n SAUDI arabia 13.2081

Source: BSP (16 June 2017 )

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BusinessMirror

A2 Saturday, June 17, 2017

Travel…

Continued from a1

Chief Executive Office David Leechiu.

He also noted that the new wealth is being generated across the globe not because of the old rich nations, but by the new world.

Hence, most traveling were coming from the emerging markets.

Apparently in the Philippines, Cebu Pacific has allowed travel to be accessible to the middle-class Filipinos. The middle-class families and empty nesters from the West—as they grow older—tend to travel more to cheaper countries where it’s more affordable to do so.

“Of course, there are threats in the industry. Fuel [cost] is at an alltime low globally. But the moment it rises because of geopolitical issues, political instability, the nationalism that’s happening that’s tightening borders and the fluctuation of the currencies, which could constrain travel globally,” he enumerated.

So how much the Philippines is picking up from global tourism business?

“I always say the glass is halffull. Well, actually, it’s very empty because very few people travel to the Philippines even today. While we have the highest foreign tourist arrivals to date, we still are one of the least-traveled countries in the world,” Leechiu said.

Based on the WEF Travel and Tourism Competitiveness Report 2017 of the World Trade and Tourism Council (WTTC), the Philippines only attracted 5.3 million foreign visitors in 2015, as compared to Singapore, with 12 million; Malaysia, 25.7 million; Thailand, 29.9 million; Indonesia, 10.4 million; and Vietnam, 7.9 million.

Arrivals of foreign tourists in the Philippines, though, have increased since last year and early 2017. Data from the Department of Tourism (DOT) showed that

Marawi…

Global boom to local zoom

THE Duterte administration is maximizing the Philippines’s share in the international tourism growth, as seen in the increased investment of the government in the travel sector, according to Leechiu.

“We’re going from a global boom to local zoom,” he said, while citing the robust tourism investments of the administration.

Per the National Tourism Development Plan 2017-2022, the indicative budget for tourism is P2.9 trillion, of which P2.3 trillion will be state-funded and P677 billion to come from the private sector.

With such financial support in place, the DOT targets the 2016 revenues of P2.16 trillion to increase by 86 percent to P3.9 trillion by end of Duterte’s term. Last year’s per-capita tourism receipt of P28,500, likewise, is expected to rise by 53 percent to P43,700 by 2022.

“We have a predominantly domestic tourism today. But, hopefully, by 2022, we will have a bigger portion of that coming from the foreign market,” Leechiu said.

Amid inadequacy in aviation facilities to link local and international visitors to over 1,000 is-

Continued from a1

battered city.

Hard to estimate

the number aggregated to 5.97 million in 2016, or 11.31 percent higher than recorded in 2015. For the first quarter of this year, a total of 1,784,882 visitors came here, or 11.4 percent higher than in the same period last year.

“The best part about for our country is price competitiveness; the worst is security. A lot of people are concerned about it,” he said, while citing that the WTTC report showed that the Philippines is rated 22nd and 126th out of 136 countries in terms of price competitiveness and safety and security, respectively.

Beyond the rising number of deaths, loss of economic and financial opportunities lie the difficult task of physically rising Marawi City from the rubbles of its war, the cost of the reconstruction a difficult one to estimate at this juncture.

Military Public Affairs Office chief Col. Edgard Arevalo said the

Armed Forces could not give any initial assessment yet, as the decisive battle was entering its penultimate end, although he admitted that the cost could run in big numbers.

“I reckon it would cost a lot rebuild,” Arevalo in Filipino, as he justified the military’s use of its firepower, which include combat planes and vehicles and heavy artillery.

“We have to employ combined arms operations, owing to the situation on the ground,” he added,

lands of the Philippines, still, both the public and private sectors are doing their share to add to the national capacity through various development projects, particularly in the aviation segment.

According to Leechiu, there are now more airports put in place or are soon to rise, as well as increased flights, as compared to the previous years.

The expansions of Clark International Airport Terminal 1 and Iloilo International Airport were completed last year, as San Vicente International Airport in Palawan has just been finished this year. Redevelopments are in the pipeline for Kalibo International Airport, El Niño Airport Terminal, Puerto Princesa International Airport; Mactan-Cebu International Airport; Caticlan International Airport; Davao Airport (for bidding), Bacolod Silay International Airport; the Ninoy Aquino International Airport; and Coron Airport. The global gateways to be built are Bicol International Airport, Bohol-Panglao Island International Airport, Sangley Point International Airport, San Fernando Airport and Clark International Airport Terminal 2.

“At least right now, we’re maximizing Clark. In Cebu, hopefully, by 2018 the new airport will be finished and, then, we will be able to accept more international flights. The Puerto Princesa airport will soon open, and we hope that it can also accommodate international flights. We also hope that the Bohol airport will open in the next two years. Davao is an international airport, which can be maximized, as well as Iloilo, since we have more airlines willing to fly to these airports. These projects should be accompanied with other infrastructures like more hotels, resorts and roads,” Munsayac said.

Annually, there is an increasingly larger share of air-passenger traffic into the country’s secondary

destinations, driven by local government units and private efforts, cheaper flights and improved airport infrastructure. In 2016 alone, there were 13 new international routes offered by local carriers.

New direct flights by both foreign and local airlines are also creating 888,056 additional annual seat capacity. For example, the air-service pact between the Philippines and Taiwan was amended two years ago, increasing the airline seats per week from 4,800 to 25,000.

“With the opening of more seats, we can attract and accommodate more passengers from both countries,” Taipei Economic & Cultural Office Economic Division Director Nick Ni told the BusinessMirror.

Based on the 2017 first-quarter report from the DOT, there were 64,896 Taiwanese visitors who came here, or an increase of 24.6 percent.

“This year we’re expecting 30 percent more [tourists] from the Philippines,” he said of their expectation with the expanded seat capacity in both countries.

Complementing the airports are the seaports. There are many more companies now doing ferrying services throughout the Philippines, especially in the so-called Golden Triangle or Turquose Triangle, comprised of Manila, Boracay and Northern Palawan.

“So infrastructure, safety, investments in marketing and in more hotels, as well as the growth in the economy, are all driving tourism,” Leechiu said.

noting the elaborate defense put up by the terrorists.

The terrorists built fortifications and dug up trenches underneath houses for their defense against assaulting troops. They also occupied vantage positions, including buildings and even mosques, for the use of their snipers and as arms storage.

Away from the battle zones, businessmen in Cagayan de Oro, a city in Misamis Oriental, has complained barely a week after the start of the battle last month that they have already lost at

least P200 million in business and financial income.

The loss was attributed to the imposition of martial law in Mindanao as result of the war.

Price tag

PRICING is always the differentiating factor for hospitality players to survive in tough competition in the market

Munsayac said local operators need to make the cost of their offerings competitive, given the low-cost fare, the trend of the millennials making choices and the

‘Like Aleppo’

As Arevalo said they could not give an estimate on the amount of the destruction until they were “able to assess the damage”, an opportunity that will be provided only upon the conclusion of the war, Mindanao officials, however, likened the battered Marawi to the destroyed city of Aleppo in Syria.

www.businessmirror.com.ph destinations here and abroad.

“So hotels and resorts have to be creative with how they address the price issues. It’s not really about bringing down the rates.

It’s really about putting more values into your hotels and resorts,” she suggested.

For a particular rate, Munsayac said they need to have better facilities, from swimming pools, restaurants and spa facilities, among others.

“You have to put in more values for the tourists because sometimes it’s not about bringing down [the price]. Even if you sell it basically at a little bit higher rate, but if your clients or the consumer or the travelers see that’s it is worth going to your place because you offer so many additional values and more facilities, then they will always pay the price because of these added values that you offer to them,” explained Munsayac, who is also the vice president for Sales and Marketing of Maribago Bluewater Beach Resort.

She also took note of the quality service that influences potential tourists or visitors to come in. Nevertheless, the industry, in general, is now being challenged by the exodus of local talents abroad for greener pastures.

“Because a lot of hotels are not only opening in the Philippines, but also abroad, working overseas is always more attractive, especially for the young ones. This is due to the fact that they will definitely be offered better compensation outside of the country,” the HSMA president said.

To make them stay, they should be better compensated, financial and nonfinancial-wise, according to her.

Munsayac, though, cited that most hotel and resort operators in the country at present realize that sales and marketing is the heart of the business.

“I see that a lot of companies

are taking good care of their marketing people and I think financially they’re better compensated.

We have our service charge. We have our financial incentives if you reach quotas. And a lot of incentives right now for sales and marketing are travels abroad,” she said.

“At the end of the day, it’s just about encouraging them to love their county, serving their country. That if they stay in the county and work here, their ties with their family will be much improved rather than going abroad. At the same time, a lot of hotels here, as well, are already basically of the same level of financial incentives that is offered abroad,” she added.

Despite being faced by these problems, the occupancy rate of hotels and resorts in the country remains at an average level between 70 percent to 80 percent, Munsayac bared.

“I know Manila and Makati are experiencing very good occupancy, as well as the out-oftown destinations, like Cebu and Davao. Revenues are also high when you have increased occupancy inside,” she bared, without citing exact revenue figures. “It’s good to know that there are a lot in the pipeline actually for hotels in Manila and in the provinces.

There are so many hotels coming up in the next few years.”

HSMA is an association of hotels and resorts sales and marketing leaders, which count 85 members of three- to five-star properties in the country. To set the bar of excellence in hospitality service, the group annually honors practitioners with a record of success in integrating creativity and dedication into strategies that deliver benefits to guests and a robust bottom line to their properties. Now on it’s third year, the Virtus Awards 2017 is all set with entries now being accepted until August 15 for the finals on October 23.

Syria’s key financial hub was reduced into smoldering ashes as Syrian forces rqetake the city last year from the control of the IS.

Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao Assemblyman and Lanao del Sur Crisis Management Committee Spokesman Zia Alonto Adiong said the smoldering Marawi City resembled the wartorn Aleppo.

“I was raised here all my life and looking at pictures, there was no semblance of Marawi anymore. It’s like looking at Syria and Aleppo. The damage on property is staggering. It’s quite unbelievable,” he earlier said.

The public were given a glimpse of the images of Marawi’s destruction when the government allotted a “peace corridor” for rescue volunteers to take in trapped residents away from the battle zones.

For one, the images of Banggolo, the city’s key barangay, was heart-wrenching.

Even the Saint Mary’s Cathedral, the symbol of Christians coexistence with the predominantly Moro Maranaws in the city, was burned by the terrorists, destroying statues of religious icons.

The war and destruction has forced the evacuation of more than the majority of Marawi’s estimated 200, 000 population.

the conflict.

Arevalo said they would help in the rehabilitation and reconstruction of Marawi City, other than merely ending the war by neutralizing the terrorists.

He said the rehabilitation hinges on the clearing of the city from the Maute-IS group.

P10-billion fund

Vowing that it will not leave the city in its current state once the war ends, the government has recently announced that it will allot P10 billion for the rehabilitation of Marawi, although in the city of Zamboanga, the government is yet to completely resettle the residents affected by the siege carried out by the Moro National Liberation Front in 2013.

However, local officials, including Lanao del Sur Vice Gov. Mamintal Adiong Jr., doubted whether the amount would be enough to bring back the city to its feet, owing to the extent of the damage.

He said the government could just initially look at the destroyed houses, buildings and other property in the city, which even prevents them from immediately resettling the residents at the end of

Focus

The reconstruction and rehabilitation of Marawi were part of the Armed Forces three-core focus in Lanao del Sur.

“Number one is to neutralize the Maute-IS in order to stop their terrorism activities and degrade their capability, and second is to rescue civilians trapped or held hostage by these groups,” Arevalo said.

The third is for the military to set the “condition” for the reconstruction and rehabilitation efforts by the government and assist in the undertaking.

“The rehabilitation cannot be implemented until we have secured Marawi City. After we have secured Marawi, then we will assist in the reconstruction and rehabilitation,” Arevalo said.

Assets and manpower

Arevalo said the military will utilize its assets and manpower for the rebuilding of the city, noting Navy vessels could be used in transporting construction equipment of the Department of Public Works to Marawi.

They could also ferry doctors and other medical and health personnel from both government and private agencies who would help in the recovery efforts of residents affected by the war.

Other assets

Arevalo said the Army could also send in its reactivated engineering brigade, which Army chief Lt. Gen. Glorioso Miranda said, was revived after 72 years of inexistence.

On the other hand, the Navy could utilize its Combat Engineering Brigade.

Other than the assets, the military could also tap the assistance of its reservists from the medical field, engineering and other field of expertise.

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McCann still hopes for ‘sensible resolution’ with DOT on controversial ad

By Ma. Stella F. Arnaldo | Special to the BusinessMirror

M

cCann Worldgroup Philippines on Friday said it regretted the decision of the Department of Tourism (DOT) to terminate its contract for the P650million advertising campaign this year, but added that it still respected the government agency’s decision on the matter.

This developed as fresh allegations from netizens arose about the advertising giant having also “copied” a sequence of its “Vow” Valentine ad (http://bit. ly/2loTDtf) for Jollibee this year from the “Lonely Hearts” ad created by Leo Burnett London for McDonald’s in 2016. The scene in question was a man and woman at the counter ordering their food at the same time and upon realizing they were ordering the same food, they giggled.

In the Leo Burnett ad (http:// bit.ly/2swADvL), the couple are on a date, then after having gone their separate ways, find themselves at a McDonald’s counter ordering the same food. Realizing this, the man turns and recognizes his date, and says, “Hi.” In the McCann ad, the sequence in question happens a few minutes after the film begins, and ends with the woman marrying another man, while the first man is friendzoned.

The said Jollibee ad was supposed to be “inspired by a true story”; similarly, its “Sights” ad for the DOT was said to be based on a Japanese retiree’s experience of living in the Philippines.

McCann Philippines Director for Corporate Affairs Niña Terol failed to respond to this new round of “copycat” allegations.

In a news statement sent on Friday morning, the advertising giant said it had not yet “received formal communication”

from the DOT about the cutting of their partnership, which was announced by the government agency in a hastily called press conference on Thursday.

“While we regret the decision of the DOT to discontinue our partnership, we continue to believe that it is in the best interest of all parties to discuss a sensible resolution to this matter,” McCann Philippines said. “Nevertheless, we respect any decision made by the DOT and, while regrettable, we thank the DOT for the opportunity to serve, and we wish them continued success in their future endeavors.”

Terol declined to answer questions on the company’s contract with the DOT. In a text message to the BusinessMirror, she said: “I’m sorry but I cannot comment further as we will need to respect the confidentiality of the details of our partnership with the DOT, just like we do for all our clients.”

DOT’s termination of its contract with McCann stemmed from the discovery by netizens that the “Sights” ad, premiered by the DOT on June 12, the Philippines’s Independence Day, bore striking

While we regret the decision of the DOT to discontinue our partnership, we continue to believe that it is in the best interest of all parties to discuss a sensible resolution to this matter.”

—McCann Worldgroup Philippines

similarities with a tourism ad for South Africa created in 2014

by Ireland/Davenport, Velocity Films advertising firms. (See, “DOT stops airing of McCann’s ‘Sights’ as unofficial tourism ad reaps praises,” in the BusinessMirror, June 15, 2017.)

On Tuesday the DOT and the advertising agency denied the ad was plagiarized from the South African tourism ad, and that the DOT would still run the ad. McCann also said it took “full responsibility [for the ad], as all ideas and storyboards were conceptualized by [the company]”. (See, “DOT still running ‘copied’ ad despite netizens’ outcry,” in the BusinessMirror, June 13, 2017.)

Terol also said the advertising firm, which made the South Africa tourism ad, was not an affiliate of McCann Worldgroup.

“It is under WPP, a different advertising network.”

Whistle-blowers are PHL’s latest weapon against cartels

T

he Philippines is turning to whistle-blowers to energize its struggling campaign against cartels.

The Philippine Competition Commission (PCC) will recruit whistle-blowers to report ant icompet it ive prac t ices, l i ke price-fixing, Chairman Arsenio M. Balisacan said in an interview. The antitrust body is also investigating the power generation and cement industries following complaints of alleged collusion among the sectors’ few players, he said. He declined to elaborate, citing the sensitivity of the issue.

“We need to coordinate, cooperate and collaborate,” Balisacan sa id on Wed nesd ay in Manila. The PCC plans to grant individuals immunity from prosecution and exempt them from fines in exchange for information on fixing prices and imposing barriers to entry, he said.

Balisacan, the former socioeconomic planning secretary, is taking on the task of dismantling anticompetitive practices in the Philippines, which the World Ba n k h a s out l i ned a s among the countr y’s key challenges. Southeast Asia’s youngest antitrust body is struggling

as it faces off against wealthy, politically connected families t h at dom i n ate t he bu si nes s landscape.

Telecom sale

The commission has been barred by a court from reviewing the sale of San Miguel Corp.’s telecommunication assets. The antitrust body in April asked the Supreme Court to lift the injunction against the review.

T he extent of the amnest y for whistle-blowers will depend on data and documents prov ided and the timing of reporting, Balisacan said. Individuals who

d i sc lose i n for m at ion du r i ng an ongoing investigation w il l receive less of a repr ieve than those f lag g ing details at the onset.Possible anticompetitive practices in shipping, tol l operations, telecommunications, a nd a g r ic u lt u re w i l l b e t he focus in the coming months, Ba lisacan said.

“We’re hoping that businesses w ill recog nize and render respect to the competition authority by complying with the law instead of challenging our acts,” he said. “ They should recognize that it’s in the interest of ever yone.” Bloomberg News

Capas-Botolan connector road to open in November

P

u blic Work s Sec ret a r y Mark A. Villar announced t h at t he C apa s -Botol a n c o n ne c t or ro a d , w h i c h i s a 48.63-kilometer project, is set to be completed by November.

“Currently, there is no direct link between Tarlac and Zambales. The travel time between the provinces is approximately three hours, but upon completion of this project travel time would be reduced by one hour and 20 minutes”, Villar said.

“Before the implementation of this project, motorists either have to pass by the province of Pangasinan or provinces of Bataan and Pampanga since rugged and mountainous terrain separates the two provinces,” he added.

The construction of the CapasBotolan road shall also generate more tourists from Zambales to Capas, since tourist spots in the different provinces will become accessible from Botolan to Capas and vice versa.

“We aim to finish this project by November. This project is expected to complement the existing 81.63 km of road,” Villar added.

The P138.4-million project is now 69.95-percent complete.

“24/7 work schedule will be implemented in key regional projects so as to accomplish projects on time,” he noted.

Saturday, June 17, 2017

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The World BusinessMirror

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

Greece avoids another bailout trauma

G

reece avoided another potential brush with bankruptcy after striking a deal with European creditors to tide it over for the rest of the year and gained assurances that its repayment burden will be eased when it finally can stand on its own after nearly a decade on financial life support.

After months of haggling that raised fears of another escalation in Greece’s near eight-year debt crisis, the 19-country euro zone agreed on late Thursday to clear the release of a further €8.5 billion ($9.5 billion) after the Greek government delivered on an array of reforms. Getting the money was becoming increasingly urgent as Greece has a big repayment hump next month.

Perhaps, more important, for the longer term, the so-called Eurogroup made clear that it is ready to ease the burden of Greece’s debt repayments at the conclusion of the current bailout program next year.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) may also get involved financially, on a limited basis of up to $2 billion, but that still requires more detail on the debt relief on offer.

“Overall, I think this is a major step forward,” said Jeroen Dijsselbloem, the euro zone’s top official. “We are now going into the last year of the financial support program for Greece; we will prepare an exit strategy going forward to enable Greece to stand on its own feet again over the course of next year.”

He singled out the Greek people for their “intense efforts and resolve” over the past few years of t he cou nt r y ’s ba i lout era when successive governments had to enact drastic spending cuts and tax increases in return for the money needed to avoid bankruptcy and a possible exit from the euro currency.

The left-led Greek government, which has lost a lot of support since signing up for the country’s third bailout even after campaigning against austerity, hopes Thursday’s deal will help it get to a position to tap the international bond markets that lost faith in

2010 and forced Greece to rely on rescue money.

“We feel that after this Eurogroup [agreement] there is a much greater clarity for both the Greek people and for financial markets,” Greek Finance Minister Euclid Tsakalotos said.

There is now “light at the end of the tunnel”, he said.

The office of Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras said in a statement that the decision sends markets a positive message.

“The main point of today’s decision is that—for the first time—there is a clear Eurogroup commitment to support Greece’s market access and the successful completion of the program, with the creation of a significant liquidity reserve to back the country’s market access,” it said.

Among the measures offered to Greece was a possible 15-year extension in debt and interest payments due European creditors. Also, following a recommendation from the new French government of President Emmanuel Macron, the possibility was raised of linking Greek repayments to growth, which could mean debt repayments being postponed in the event of an adverse shock.

In retur n for these assurances, Greece’s government will have to continue with strict budgetary discipline beyond the end of its bailout program, including running a budget surplus after debt and interest payments of 3.5 percent of GDP through 2022 and then around 2 percent until 2060.

While conceding that Greece didn’t get everything it wanted, Tsakalotos said the country could now turn the page on its bailout era.

“We recognize that we did not want the perfect to be the enemy

German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble (right) speaks with Dutch Finance Minister and Head of the Eurogroup Jeroen Dijsselbloem during a meeting at the office of the European Stability Mechanism in Luxembourg on Thursday. AP

of the good,” he said. “And we also recognize that all sides have tried to give and compromise to some extent.”

Under the terms of its 2015 bailout, Greece’s European creditors had promised to provide cash and find a way to lighten the country’s long-term debt load—as long as the government kept a lid on spending and deeply reformed the Greek economy.

Overall, I think this is a major step forward. We are now going into the last year of the financial support program for Greece; we will prepare an exit strategy going forward to enable Greece to stand on its own feet again over the course of next year.”—Dijsselbloem

Singapore PM: Last will of Lee Kuan Yew ‘troubling’

T

he last will of Singapore founder Lee Kuan Yew was made in “deeply t ro u b l i n g c i rc u m s t a n c e s” w i t h a family member helping to draft it, his eldest son and the country’s prime minister alleged.

Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said on late Thursday that Lee Suet Fern, the wife of his brother Lee Hsien Yang, had “reinserted a demolition clause” in the last will before the elder Lee died in 2015. The clause directed a family home to be demolished instead of being turned into a museum or heritage site. Lee claimed that his brother and sister-in-law, who led a team of lawyers at Stamford Law Corp., now Morgan Lewis

Stamford, arranged for the will to be altered in December 2013. He shared a series of e-mail exchanges and said his father “had the impression that the new will would change only the division of shares, with the result each child would have an equal share, just like in the first will.”

“Yet, the last will that LSF and her law firm prepared and got Mr. Lee to sign went beyond that,” he added. LSF refers to Lee Suet Fern. The prime minister added that he has shared these suspicions with a government committee, which is in the process of “establishing what Mr. Lee Kuan Yew’s thinking and wishes were in relation to the house”.

The house, which was built on prime land in the city-state, appears to be the center of a feud that broke on Tuesday between the prime minister and his two younger siblings. But the feud is laced with disturbing accusations of extralegal bullying and nepotism, compelling the prominent family’s second son, business executive Lee Hsien Yang, to leave Singapore “for the foreseeable future”.

A self-proclaimed authoritarian, Lee Kuan Yew led Singapore with an iron grip for more than three decades and is credited with transforming the resource poor island into a wealthy bustling financial hub with low crime and almost zero corruption.

Oil set for longest run of weekly losses since 2015 amid glut

O

il headed for the longest run of weekly losses since August 2015 as US crude stockpiles remain stubbornly high and as Libyan production climbs toward the most in four years.

Futures were little changed in New York, down 3 percent for a fourth weekly decline. US inventories fell less than forecast last week, keeping supplies more than 100 million barrels above the five-year average, according to data from the Energy Information Administration on Wednesday.

Libya, exempt from the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec)-led deal to cut supply, will boost output to 1

million barrels a day by the end of July, according to National Oil Co. Oil slumped to the lowest close in seven months this week as concerns grew that rising US supplies will offset the production curbs by the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries and allies including Russia. New non-Opec output next year will be more than enough to meet demand growth, the International Energy Agency said on Wednesday in its first forecast for 2018.

“The risk is to the downside for oil,” said Jonathan Barratt, chief investment officer at Ayers Alliance Securities in Sydney. “If prices

Despite yea rs of auster it y since Greece was f irst ba i led out in 2010, the countr y’s debt bu rden st i l l st a nd s at about €320 bi l l ion, or a rou nd 180 p e r c e nt o f G r e e c e ’s a n n u a l GDP. T hat’s largely because the Greek economy has contracted a rou nd 25 percent, mea ning a worsening in t he debt load even as t he gover nment ’s budget improved ma rked ly.

drift toward $40 a barrel, there is likely to be some sort of reaction from Opec.”

West Texas Intermediate (WTI) for July delivery was at $44.48 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, up 2 cents, at 2:17 p.m. in Singapore. Total volume traded was about 25 percent below the 100-day average. The contract lost 27 cents to $44.46 on Thursday, the lowest since November 14.

Brent for August settlement rose 5 cents to $46.97 a barrel on the London-based ICE Futures Europe exchange. Prices are down 2.5 percent this week. The global benchmark crude traded at a premium of $2.27 to August WTI. Bloomberg News

An outright cut in Greece’s debt is not allowed under euro rules, but the length of time the country has in paying back its debts can be extended, and the interest rates on those debts can be cut.

For Greece, Thursday’s agreement should limit the amount it has to pay out in debt servicing each year, freeing up money it can use to help the Greek economy and society. More comprehensive details should emerge in the coming months.

One of the reasons Greece’s bailout program sta l led over the past few months was a disagreement on debt relief between the eurozone and the IMF, which contributed financially to Greece’s first two bailouts but not the third. Before deciding whether to participate in the latest deal, the IMF has wanted more information over the sustainability of Greece’s debt in the long term.

Christine Lagarde, the IMF’s managing director, said enough

progress was made at Thursday’s meeting for her to go to the IMF executive board in Washington to propose the approval in principle of a new stand-by arrangement for Greece. The release of IMF funds would then be contingent on policy implementation and receipt of debt relief assurances so that debt can be deemed sustainable by the IMF. “I think there is a very strong focus on growth and that’s a strong change of attitude and tone,” she said.

“I hope that the discussion over specific debt relief measures can soon be brought to conclusion,” Lagarde added.

For austerity-weary Greeks, the latest deal is unlikely to mean much change any time soon.

On Thursday more than 2,000 older Greeks marched through Athens to demonstrate against cuts to monthly pensions.

“We can’t live on 300 euros!” they chanted, with some waving sticks. AP

Hong Kong diversity in focus at same-sex visa appeal hearing A

Hon g Kon g appeals cour t has started hearing arguments over a case that has raised questions over the city’s allure as a diversity-friendly employment destination.

Lawyers for a British lesbian—named in cour t documents only as QT—are seeking to overturn a March 2016 ruling supporting the government’s rejection of her application to reside in Hong Kong as a dependent of her partner. Two years earlier, the immigration department had knocked back QT’s application essentially because it didn’t recognize same-sex marriages.

The case has drawn interest from multinational companies, as it hinders the ability of international firms to offer gay professionals residency permits for their partners—a privilege available to married heterosexual couples. Leading up to the hearings, 12 financial firms, including Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Morgan Stanley, had unsuccessfully applied as a group to support QT in her appeal.

The immigration department’s existing policy “deters gay people from coming to Hong Kong”, Dinah Rose, one of QT’s lawyers, said on Thursday, the first day of the hearings. Twelve “household names” were prepared to say “this policy is detrimental” in recruiting talent, said

Rose, a prominent UK barrister. QT’s case and a separate one involving a Hong Kong civil servant have thrown the focus recently on rights for gay spouses in the city, which doesn’t recognize same-sex marriage.

In April a gay immigration officer won his court battle to have his partner granted the same spousal benefits as his heterosexual colleagues. The government is appealing that decision, the South China Morning Post reported last month.

Civil Partnership

QT’s saga began when her partner was offered a job in Hong Kong, prompting the couple to move to the city in late 2011, court documents show. The pair entered into a civil partnership in the UK in May 2011, which gave them the same rights and responsibilities as a married couple under British law. QT unsuccessfully applied for her own dependent and employment visas at least three times.

The final rejection was in June 2014.

Underpinning the immigration department’s decision was its definition of “spouse”, which was “based on monogamy and the concept of a married couple consisting of one male and one female,” the court documents show.

QT challenged that decision in court in May 2015, saying the decision had

discriminated against her sexual orientation, and also infringed upon articles in Hong Kong’s constitution. That challenge was knocked back by High Court Judge Thomas Au in March 2016.

Married couple

Speaking in the government’s defense, lawyer Monica Carss-Frisk said on Friday— the final day of the appeal hearings—that QT’s civil partnership isn’t recognized by Hong Kong law. “QT is seeking the ability and benefits as a married couple,” Carss-Frisk said. “They are actually unmarried.”

The previous day, QT’s lawyer Rose cited a separate government policy introduced last June by which same-sex spouses and civil partners of consulate officials would now be permitted to stay as dependents, the SCMP reported on Friday.

“It illustrates there is no practical or legal difficulty at all in extending” recognition to all same-sex dependents,” the newspaper quoted her as saying. Rose has previously represented News Corp. and Julian Assange, the founder of the WikiLeaks web site.

The two-day appeals hearing ends on Friday. The case was QT v. Director of Immigration, CACV 117/2016, the Court of Appeal of Hong Kong’s High Court.

Bloomberg News

Sports BusinessMirror

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

Saturday, June 17, 2017

A5

RALLYING CRY FOR RATTLED LAWMAKERS

Pacquiao-Horn airs on GMA

G

MA Network inked on Thursday a partnership agreement with boxing promoter ALV Events International to air the bout between eightdivision world champion Manny Pacquiao and Australian fighter Jeff Horn, dubbed the “Battle of Brisbane: Pacquiao versus Horn,” on July 2.

GMA will exclusively air the match on free TV starting at 10 a.m., with a replay on the same day at 11 p.m. The network’s flagship AM station dzBB 594, FM station Barangay LS and all RGMA stations nationwide will also air a live blow-by-blow account of the action beginning 9 a.m.

“We are happy that we will again watch on GMA Manny Pacquiao’s defense of his World Boxing Organization world championship,” GMA President and COO Gilberto Duavit Jr. said ALV Events International Chairman Arnold Vegafria is thrilled to team up with the Kapuso Network and looks forward to Pacquiao’s triumph.

“We’re very excited and it’s an honor to partner with GMA. We are one with the Filipino people in praying that Manny will win in his fight against Jeff Horn,” Vegafria said.

Also present in the contract signing were GMA Chairman and CEO Felipe Gozon, GMA First Vice President for Program Management Jose Mari Abacan, GMA Vice President for Drama Redgie Magno, GMA Vice President for Corporate Affairs and Communications Angela Javier-Cruz, GMA Assistant Vice President for Program Management Mitzi Garcia and Manny Pacquiao’s legal counsel Atty. Brando Viernesto.

INVESTIGATORS look for evidence around the baseball field in Alexandria, Virginia. AP

Manila-Makati at UMak pitch

T

HE Philippines Football League (PFL) resumes today after a weeklong international break with Meralco Manila taking on Kaya Makati in the “Metro Manila Derby” at the University of Makati (UMak) Football Stadium.

Meralco, unbeaten in four matches with 12 points, and Kaya Makati, running second with 10 points on three victories in five outings, square off at 4 p.m.

JPV Marikina seeks to tighten its grip of third place when it takes on Ceres Negros, which is eyeing its second win, at the Rizal Memorial Stadium also at 4 p.m..

The Marikina-based team is running third with nine points on three wins against two losses, while the Negros squad has only played two games with four points after a win and a draw.

Meralco will try to preserve its unbeaten record to move closer to clinching a spot in the semifinals.

The members of the men’s national team, which recently scored a 4-3 win over Tajikistan in the Asian Football Confederation Asian Cup Jordan 2019 Qualifiers, will be back in action with their respective teams.

Phil and James Younghusband will lead Meralco, while Kenshiro Daniels and Woody Ugarte will head Kaya’s charge.

Meralco Coach Aris Caslib is also expected to lean on Tahj Minniecon, Curt Dizon, Tyler Matas and Jake Morallo, who were all instrumental in their previous matches.

Kaya, on the other hand, will miss Miguel Tanton, who is serving a one-game suspension because of a second yellow card he sustained in their 1-0 win over Stallion two weeks ago.

He is the third Kaya player to get a red card. Lance Agcaoili

By Emmarie Huetteman New York Times News Service

W

ASHINGTON—It was an attack on politicians in the least political of venues: a baseball field.

The shooting on Wednesday that shattered the humid peace of an early-morning practice and wounded several people, including a Republican leader in the House of Representatives, shined a national spotlight on a local tradition more than a century old, the Congressional Baseball Game.

Founded in 1909, the annual game between Republican and Democratic members of Congress has offered lawmakers a quintessentially American outlet for their partisan frustrations.

But in recent years, as political tensions have taken on the tone of personal vendettas, it has become one of the last bastions of bipartisanship. And on Wednesday it became a rallying cry for rattled lawmakers, some still in dusty jerseys as they reluctantly displayed elbows skinned in the scramble to escape a shower of bullets.

“We’re 50-year-old men playing a game that we grew up on,” said Rep. Joseph Crowley of New York, who plays on the Democrats’ team. “It’s the American pastime. It’s so connected to who we are as a country.”

In late April, 60 members of Congress reported for their version of spring training: a stretch of 6:30 a.m. practices, scheduled early to avoid most conflicts with votes, hearings and fund-raisers. Consisting of 26 Democrats and 34 Republicans, all but two of them men, the teams have been focused on breaking a series tie, with each side boasting 39 wins (and one tie).

They practiced on the same Little League fields a few mornings each week, becoming a familiar, though perhaps inconspicuous, sight in those neighborhoods.

Only congressional leaders are assigned security details; were it not for the fact that the Republican team includes Rep. Steve Scalise of Louisiana, the House majority whip who was shot in the attack, there would have been no security present at the ballfield on Wednesday at all.

Baseball and softball provide common ground in political Washington. Glance off the Capitol balcony of the House speaker’s office on a warm evening, and one can hardly see the grass for the ballplayers dotting the National Mall. At Nationals Park, where the Congressional Baseball Game will be played on Thursday evening, spectators wear their Washington Nationals jerseys with dogged pride for a team that returned to the capital just a dozen years ago.

It also reflects an almost childlike embrace of something in short supply on Capitol Hill: fun. After all, on every Little League team, there are at least some kids who dream of playing professional baseball. A few of them, often with some measure of regret, might be elected to Congress instead.

“I played high-school football and have, at least between my ears, considered myself an athlete all these years,” said Rep. Mike Conaway of Texas, who plays first base on the Republican team. “This is an opportunity to disprove that.”

Started by a former professional baseball player, the congressional game has weathered more than 100 years of challenges. It was put on hold for the Great Depression; World War II; and the concerns of Speaker Sam Rayburn of Texas in the late 1950s that it had become too “physical”.

Repurposed as a fund-raiser to benefit a handful of Washington charities, the Congressional Baseball Game has become a chance to trash-talk across the aisle for a good cause.

Some moments have been more fraught than others. Last year members donned their jerseys—not a single uniform but a rainbow of hometown colors

from professional, college and local teams—mere hours after Democrats concluded a 25-hour sit-in on the House floor, demanding Republicans hold a vote on gun-control legislation. Democrats lost the game, 8-7.

The game inspired the Congressional Women’s Softball Game, a sister contest that began in 2009 and more recently added a twist: Democrats and Republicans play on the same team against another opponent, the women of the congressional press corps. (Four journalists at The New York Times, including this reporter, participate in the softball game.)

The goal was to unite women in raising money to fight breast cancer, said Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, Democrat-Florida, former head of the Democratic National Committee who cofounded the charity softball game after battling the disease herself. But the 7 a.m. practices also had a nice side effect.

“I have sponsored and passed laws with colleagues who I likely wouldn’t have spoken to, let alone gotten to know, without this team,” she said.

That camaraderie was on display after the shooting as the managers of each baseball team—Reps. Joe Barton, Republican-Texas, and Mike Doyle, DemocratPennsylvania—announced the game would be played on Thursday as scheduled.

Barton, whose 10-year-old son was at practice during the shooting and was unharmed, noted the emotional toll of the current political environment.

“Members are not looked at as people anymore,” he said, adding, “I can assure, every member of Congress is a person. He has family.”

Standing outside the House chamber, recounting the horror of coming under fire just hours before, Rep. Chuck Fleischmann of Tennessee learned the game was still on. He was still dressed in a practice jersey, the word “Republican” in a flourish across his chest.

“Wow,” he said, pausing for a moment. “I’m going to play.”

PHL DRIBBLERS RELYING ON SPEED, SKILLS IN 3X3 WORLDS

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HE Chooks-Pilipinas 3x3 team is expected to rely on speed as the four-man squad opens its campaign in the 2017 International Basketball Federation 3x3 World Cup starting on Saturday in Nantes, France.

Led by collegiate rivals-turned-teammates Kiefer Ravena and Jeron Teng, US-based standout Kobe Paras and seasoned veteran JR Quiñahan, the team hopes to make history when it tackles the best in the world of 3x3 basketball.

“They are young compared to the other teams. But they are ready to take the challenge. I know that they will do well,” Coach Eric Altamirano said.

The Philippines is bracketed with second-seed Slovenia, seventh-seed Romania, host France and El Salvador.

The Filipinos play Romania in a morning match on Sunday and France in the afternoon session. The team will take a break on the third day before engaging Slovenia and El Salvador on Tuesday.

The top two teams from the four groups will advance to the quarterfinals.

The country finished ninth last year in China, with Serbia winning the gold medal and the US and Slovenia completing the podium. The team was composed of Mac Belo, Karl Dehesa, Glen Khobuntin and Russel Escoto.

“I think we have an advantage in speed and skill level. This is not the strongest team for the Philippines, but we are able to assemble the best team possible for the competition,” Altmirano said.

Ramon Rafael Bonilla

RIO OLYMPICS COST $13.1B R

IO DE JANEIRO—An analysis by The Associated Press (AP) shows that the cost of putting on last year’s Rio de Janeiro Olympics was $13.1 billion, paid for with a mix of public and private money.

Officials of Brazil’s Public Authority for Olympic Legacy said at a news conference on Wednesday, the cost for “sports-related venues” was 7.23 billion reals ($2.06 billion).

In addition, the Rio organizing committee previously said the cost of running the Games at 9 billion reals ($2.8 billion).

The Olympic legacy body did not account for other Olympic-related costs. But the AP obtained them in e-mailed statements from city, state and federal agencies.

Those costs were 26.385 billion reals ($8.2 billion) for, among other things, a subway line, a doping laboratory, a renovated port and cleanup of polluted Guanabara Bay. The doping laboratory was paid for by the federal government and cost 163.7 million reals ($50 million). A delay-plagued subway line project that was built to connect fans to Olympic Park had a price tag of 9.7 billion reals ($2.98 billion). According to a state auditor’s report cited last August, the railway was overbilled by 25 percent.

Another legacy project, the renovation of Porto Maravilha, a run-down historic area in Rio, cost the city 10 billion reals ($4.2 billion).

“Should a country with such inequality as Brazil have hosted such an event with this level of investment?” federal prosecutor Leandro Mitidieri said. He added it would be difficult to use the Olympic venues in a way that would generate enough income to cover maintenance expenses.

“It is a challenge and we can see the difficulties,” he said.

“We recognize the difficulties.”

Officials presented the report at the Olympic Park in suburban Barra da Tijuca, which now consists of mostly vacant venues. Last month a federal prosecutor said many of the venues were “white elephants” that were built with “no planning”.

The Rio Olympics, which opened 10 months ago, were plagued by countless financial and organizational problems, and were hosted as Brazil sank into its deepest recession since the 1930s.

The state of Rio de Janeiro has been months late paying teachers, hospital workers and pensions. The state also reported record-breaking crime in 2016 in almost all categories from homicides to robbery.

The problems around the Rio Games—and the aftermath—have called into question the wisdom of cities building new venues every few years to accommodate an event that lasts just over two weeks.

Paulo Marcio, the head of the Public Authority for Olympic Legacy, talked vaguely about plans to use the venues. The Olympic Park has staged mainly small national or local events.

He did not offer any cost or income figures with most of the Olympic arenas now being operated by Brazil’s federal government. A plan to auction off the venues to private operators failed when only one bidder was reported to be interested.

“I think that in a short period of time I will be able to deliver this legacy, and we have already been successful,” he said. AP

THE Rio Olympics were plagued by countless financial and organizational problems, and were hosted as Brazil sank into its deepest recession since the 1930s. AP

A6 Saturday, June 17, 2017 | Editor: Mike Besa

The third hole on the Greg Norman Course

Quo Vadis Eagle Ridge?

Cleveland TFI 2135 Elevado

A great putter at a good price A fter reading the equipment reviews in our last issue, you’d be forgiven for thinking that you need to spend a lot of money to get a good putter. But nothing could be further from the truth.

Cleveland Golf is a company that isn’t exactly top-of-mind when talk turns to putters. The company is best known for its world-renowned wedges and, to a lesser degree, their hybrids but there are many names that come to mind more quickly when it comes to putters.

Cleveland Golf’s range of 2135 putters are so named because the alignment aid is elevated exactly 21.35 milimeter off the ground; the exact height of the equator of the golf ball.

Golfers have been taught to set up to their putts with their eyes directly over of just slightly behind the golf ball at address.

This allows the golfer to see the line and

align the center of the putter with the center of the golf ball.

Unfortunately, under the gun, most golfers fail to do so either because of a lack of practice or because of the pressure of the moment. Failure to get this right greatly reduces your chances of hitting the golf ball with the putter’s center of percussion and thus, reduces your chances of holing the putt.

Cleveland Golf’s 2135 putters are designed to reduce the impact of those faults on your putts, therefore, allowing you to make more putts. The raised sight line will not completely eliminate golfers’ faults when the set up incorrectly, but it will reduce the impact on the outcome.

The technology doesn’t have the visual impact of other manufacturer’s alignment aids but that’s a good thing as far as the majority

of golfers are concerned. It’s subtle, but it does what the engineers intended it to do.

The 2135 putters also use Cleveland Golf’s True Feel Insert (TFI) which is a copper-laced aluminum matrix overlaid on a copolymer base for soft feel. The feel is soft for a solid faced putter but not mushy.

It makes lag putts easy to judge.

For our review, I chose the Elevado.

It’s a mallet with two spars that come off the extreme ends of the putter face. This places the bulk of the club head’s weight on the extreme ends of the putter of a high moment of inertia (resistance to twisting) to help on off center hits. True, this design was pioneered by another golfequipment company, but it’s a sound design, and putters of this nature tend to be very forgiving on mishits.

The Elevado works very, very well. It is extremely easy to align without being in your face about doing so. The feel is soft but not as

The clubhouse at the Isao Aoki Course

soft as a polymer insert. The copolymer layer under the face dampens harsh vibrations and just feels good at impact.

Best of all, the Cleveland 2135 TFI Elevado is relatively inexpensive retailing at Srixon Proshop outlets for a smidge less than P10,000. While not dirt cheap, it’s certainly more affordable (less than half the price!) of some premium putters.

Which only goes to show that you don’t need a boatload of cash to buy a putter that does what the manufacturer says it will—it’ll help you make more putts.

Mike Besa

Ecco Biom Hybrid 2 Golf Shoe

Y

our golf shoes are arguably the most important piece of golf equipment that you own. Think about it. There is nothing that you use as much on the golf course as soon as you lace them up. A golfer walks over eight kilometers in a round of golf. An illfitting pair will hurt you more than you realize in the course of a round.

Ecco is a relative newcomer when it comes to golf shoes. The company was founded in 1963 by Karl Toosbuy, in Bredebro, Denmark. The company began with only the production of footwear, but has since expanded into leather production, as well as accessories and small leather goods.

Ecco shot to fame when Freddy Couples wore a pair of their hybrid-golf shoes at the Masters sans socks performed admirably in them. Today, all manufacturers have spikeless models in their

line but nothing fits quite an Ecco.

I got my first pair just recently from Transview Golf and they changed my attitude about golf shoes—how they fit and what I demand from them. Let’s just say that I am now more demanding than ever. Ecco’s raised the bar of my expectations.

Besides being extremely comfortable and supportive, the shoes put your feet in an ergonomically correct position that alleviates stress in other parts of the body. I struggle with back pain and the amount of discomfort in my lumbar area after I walk eighteen is often too much to bear.

But that all changed with the Bio Hybrid 2. The shoes were so comfortable and supportive that my next post-round pain was downgraded to minor discomfort. I could

www.pinoygolfer.com

I

Story & photos

by Mike Besa

t’s tough to see any golf course, let alone one that you call home, fall into disrepair. Such is the case at the Eagle Ridge Golf and Country Club in General Trias, Cavite.

Eagle Ridge was the magnum opus of real-estate giant Santa Lucia Realty Corp. Four golf courses, three clubhouses, plus a full sports club complete with multiple swimming pools, a bowling alley, basketball and tennis courts, a fitness gym, billiard tables and multiple restaurants. It was a statement.

It opened to great fanfare in the late-1990s just before the great club share crisis decimated the golf industry. Eagle Ridge was the showpiece golf property of the country and a statement of the progressiveness and vitality of the industry.

Shares were being snatched up by Filipinos in blocks and share prices soared.

Unfortunately, this didn’t last and when the market finally corrected, many of the golf courses floundered. Eagle Ridge, with its expansive facilities, was perhaps hit the hardest. Then as Cavite continued to develop and traffic in the province worsened, members stopped making the trip to General Trias, preferring to play at clubs in closer proximity to the city.

As the income streams of the club dwindled, the club began to cut costs to remain viable. Unfortunately, since maintaining four golf courses was horrendously expensive, the club started to cut maintenance costs. As the condition of the golf courses worsened, more and more golfers stayed away.

I first joined Eagle Ridge in the late 1990s. There were only 36 holes of golf that were playable back then—The Aoki was the first of the four golf courses that was completed and had its own clubhouse. The other 18 consisted of the front nine of the Dye and the front nine of the Faldo. We used to start on the Dye then walk across the street and continue our round on the eighth hole of the Faldo Course and finish up our round on seven.

The golf courses were pristine then. The greens were quick and the fairways devoid of weeds. The bunkers were difficult but as they were still fresh and they were fair tests. We were ecstatic when the Dye and Faldo golf courses were finally completed.

We were proud of the fact that we had two of the toughest and most beautiful golf

courses in the country at our club.

It took a while but the Greg Norman Course was finally completed and the main clubhouse along with it. The members had long been looking forward to the completion of the first Philippine mega golf club and, finally, it had come to pass.

The courses were full, particularly on the weekends. I remember that at its peak, Eagle Ridge had from 600 to 800 golfers a day plying its fairways during peak season.

That’s a sensational number.

But sadly, it didn’t last. As the years rolled by, fewer and fewer made the trip to General Trias to play Eagle Ridge’s four championship golf courses. A shame really.

Especially considering the quality of the said courses. I used to offer my guests at the club a free dinner if they could find two holes on the entire property that were similar to each other. I never paid on that bet. The variety of golf on offer at Eagle Ridge was supreme.

Not even the completion of the Microtel on the property could stem the downward trend. Pity. It was a great way to spend the weekend. Stay over at the club for one or two nights and play as much golf as your body could stand. I spend many nights there and even organized events for both the hotel and the golf club. All loved the golf but, eventually, the masses stopped coming.

As the club continued to cut costs, the condition of the golf courses worsened.

To stem the bleeding, the club shut down the Dye clubhouse. Patrons that wanted to play the most feared golf course in the land started from the main clubhouse on the seventh hole. Not the ideal situation since the first three holes you had to navigate were three of the toughest on an already very difficult track.

The club seemed to finally move in the right direction when it hired Raymund Bunquin away from neighboring Sherwood Hills Golf Club. A graduate of the San Diego Golf Academy, Bunquin was known for his congenial management style and his passion for the game.

Bunquin got right to work, making the golf courses’ condition his top priority.

He announced a mid- to long-term plan for their rehabilitation. He made other key changes to help the club run more smoothly and increase satisfaction among its members.

The BusinessMirror followed his progress at the club in a series of articles. He managed to land several big tournaments

The main clubhouse at the Eagle Ridge Golf and Country Club

scarcely believe it. I played more rounds with it and got similar results.

Credit here goes to the Technical Insole System—a new, ultra-premium insole with silicon printing helps prevent unwanted foot movement during the swing and the Anatomical Last Shape— Developed by scanning the feet of 2,500 athletes to provide ideal levels of support.

The outsole is constructed from TPU—a highly durable, wear-resistant material—and the molded traction bars offer hundreds of traction angles for superb grip. In no instance hus far have I ever felt compromised by the lack of spikes.

If there is one downside to the Ecco Bio Hybrid 2, it is the price. At a hair over P12,000, it is pricey, but not excessively so. I’ve come to like these shoes so much that I went and got myself another pair.

That pretty much says it all. Mike Besa

|

Saturday, June 17, 2017 A7

for the club, including the Ateneo-La Salle Golf Classic and the BRAFE; both large tournaments that used multiple golf courses and earned the club good money. Under his watch, the club became profitable once again and went into the black for the first time in many years. The surplus income was to be plowed back into the maintenance program. Things were looking up.

We were then most surprised to hear that Bunquin had resigned his position at Eagle Ridge at the beginning of 2017 over issues concerning the club’s maintenance. It was a shock to everyone concerned. This was a major step backward. The club is currently looking for a new general manager but finding a new one doesn’t seem to be the solution to the club’s problems.

Maintenance issues remain at the center of Eagle Ridge’s problems. The golf courses continue to deteriorate. Golfers continue to stay away. Rehabilitating the four golf courses will now take more money than ever. Money the club doesn’t have and money that the owners and developer seem unwilling to invest in the club. It’s a real catch-22 situation.

In the meanwhile, club continues to hemorrhage money. It will be expensive but there seems to be little choice in the matter—Eagle Ridge is going to have bite the bullet and raise the money somehow.

Things will worsen further if they do not.

Alternatives are few. The owners could sell the property or to find an angel investor that can put up the capital needed to bring the club back to where golfers want to go play and, perhaps, invest in the club. But this seems unlikely given the circumstances.

Personally, I can’t bear to see the club in this state. This is where I honed my game, bonded with my friends and spent many hours working on my game. I love this club. I was proud to be a member and even happier to show off its four distinctly different layouts to my friends. I was utterly distraught on my last visit here. Weeds were everywhere. The greens were bumpy and there was barely any sand in most bunkers.

When there was sand, it was seldom raked properly. There was trash and cigarette butts everywhere. It was depressing. I must confess that I haven’t been back since.

It’s exceedingly difficult to watch a golf club of this size and stature go down this road. That I am a member makes it doubly difficult. Whatever the path Eagle Ridge Golf and Country Club’s board and management choose, we can only hope they do right by their members and investors.

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

A8 Saturday, June 17, 2017 • Editor: Efleda P. Campos

BusinessMirror

BusinessMirror

TPHLPost gives Kalinga tattoo

RECE MARTIRES CITY, Cavite— The provincial government of Cavite disbursed more than P28 million for medical, burial and various assistance that benefited 7,772 socially disadvantaged Kabitenyos, a first quarterly disbursement summary report disclosed on Monday.

Story and photos by Faye Pablo |

Learning Training System, financial garnered the highest, with more than and capability development assistance 2,500 persons. for out-of-school youth, capability PSWDO said under the social-prodevelopment for child development tection program for displaced famiworkers and financial assistance for lies, individuals in crisis are those child laborers. living in hazardous places or victims Children who are in conflict with of fire, delivery of “food to work” for the law are given protection assistance disaster-related activities/events. and various projects, such as the govThis category also includes other ernor’s “give-a-gift”, children’s month development services or special cases event and the children’s congress that like the abandoned women and chilis held annually. dren, or children who have problems PWDs are extended educational with the law. or learning advancement “sulong-duOther “help” programs include Special to the BusinessMirror nong” and capability building trainings medical assistance in the form of cash and seminars, not only for students, but or medicines and livelihood training in also, their teachers.

Provincial Social Welfare DevelopCavite province, which ranks eighth the food or nonfood categories.

“Applicants may walk in anytime ment Office (PSWDO) officer in charge among the country’s top 10 high-perPSWDO also provides business and per the governor’s directive, these Ma. Felipa R. Servanez said the disforming provinces has embarked on start-up kits under its self-empowering various forms of assistance are open to bursements were in pursuit of Cavite its “6-17 Challenge” thrusts to put up assistance for those who wish to open all Kabitenyos,” Avila said.

Governor Jesus Crispin Remulla’s varivital and necessary social infrastruca sari-sari store or a feasible business The amount of financial assistance ous programs to uplift the lives and ture to help meet and satisfy the needs in their barangay.

Assistance for children are categothe applicants can avail themselves well-being of Cavite’s children, youth, and requirements of the prospective 6 rized based on their rights. of depends on the evaluation and recsenior citizens and persons with dismillion Caviteños by 2017.

For the “survival” category, assisommendation of the social worker asabilities (PWDs).

Burial assistance for senior citizens tance is in the form of supplemental signed to the case, Avila said.

“The provincial government protopped the list of disbursements, with feeding, food for growth projects and The processing time takes one to grams ‘Mula sa masa-para sa masa’ P2.321 million that benefited 1,203 two weeks, and all financial assistance [from the people, for the people] areanniverto seniorment, citizens.as per the Centenarian nutritious-food training to parents.

As part of the first is distributed en masse at the ProvinThe PSWDO first-quarter report give backsary to theofpeople the servicepostal they ID, ForAct theofhighest 2016. number of peothe digitized cial Gym every Tuesday, Avila added. deserve,”PHLPost Provincialbrought Social Welfare Of- IDsple who were afforded help,ofthe The distribution theaspost- said the development assistance infree postal ficer IV Darylvy Avila said. forwas individuals in open crisisarea cludes access support to Alternative Gladys S. Pino/PNA al ID held at the to members of the Butbut tribe,sistance of Buscalan Elementary School, including Apo Whang-Od, the headed by Grace Noble Dizon of last mambabatok (tattoo artist) PHLPost. To give more life to the of her generation. first-ever issued ID of the locals of In partnership with WE Volthe Butbut tribe, they were asked unTour, an independent volunto wear their traditional costume teering tour group, they had an called wanes. outreach program in Buscalan on Tabuk, where government ofMay 21 where “free capturing” fices are located and where people (information gathering) service can get various IDs, is almost and biometrics registration for three hours away that is why Butthe postal ID was also held. but tribe locals don’t mind having Out of only 129 families in BusACAO—Macao’s statistic their IDs delivered by PHLPost. calan, 41 individuals registered, department on May 6 who pub-regis“Nang malaman ng mga taga-rito including Whang-Od lishedatthe resultsbefore na darating ang PHLPost, masaytered thedetailed last minute of 2016 population by census carried ang-masaya sila. Nag-unahan pa the registration closed.

Whang out in the administrative nga sila sa pag-a-apply ng ID,” said Odspecial turned 100 years oldreon Febgion (SAR), showing Gaspar Laguinday, local leader of ruary 17 andan theaccelerated postal ID is her population growth coupled with ID. the Butbut tribe. first-ever government-issued continued population in the The ID gives the locals an opW hang-Odaging said she intends last fiveto years. portunity to gain more privileges. use her ID to receive addiThe Statistics and Census The ID would give them a faster tional benefits fromService the governsaid the population of Macao totaled 650,834 in August 2016, up 17.8 percent from 552,503 in the 2011 Population Census, attributable to a surge in nonresident workers living PHLPost delivers on June 9 Apo Whang-Od’s first government-issued ID, while she was doing her world-renowned in Macao and a rebound in birth rate. trade pambabatok at Buscalan, Kalinga.

The average annual-growth rate of Despite his age, farmer Cornelio Sebastian still manages an organic tomato farm right at the border of the the Macao population between 2011 OceanaGold Sustainable Agro-forestry Inc. central nursery in transaction Tucod Village, Cabarroguis, and agriculture and 2016 reached 3.3 percent, the highwith theQuirino. banksHeorbelieves any mining limang anak,” can saidcoexist.

Juanita Banal, LEONARDO PERANTE II est in the past 20 years. Local popularemittance center, since some of a single parent. tion, excluding nonresident workers the family members of the locals “It is our joy to bring them the and foreign students living in Macao, are working abroad. This has also Postal ID as we know that bearing totaled 537,018, up by 10.7 percent given them the chance to prove a valid identification card can open compared with 2011. their identity when applying for doors for them. We know this can The result also showed the SAR popa job in the city of even transachelp the indigenous people of the ulation continued to age. The elderly tions with the government.

Cordilleras, and we believe this population aged 65 and older increased “Magandang oportunidad ito para will pave the way toward inclusive WEARING their traditional costume substantially by 48.6 percent from fivecalled “wanes”, members of the Butbut tribe finally receive lalo pang gumanda ang aking kabugrowth,” said Luis Carlos, assistant official identification years agotheir to 59,383, accountingcards for from 9.1 PHLPost.

ACOOR CITY, Cavite—Bacoor (Osca) Head de Leon. age and physical disability. hayan at Bayani maitaguyod ko ang aking postmaster general for Marketing. percent of the total population, up by City Mayor Lani MercadoThe Rev. Father Erickson Santos She also reiterated her support for 1.9 percentage points.

Revilla led the inauguration of consecrated the new facilities as city them, who are provided funds by the Moreover, the percentage share of a new building for senior citizens and officials, councilors and beneficiaries city government for their free admisthe elderly population to the youth persons with disabilities (PWDs) on toured the facilities. sion to movies in all theaters in the population under 14 rose by 15.6 perMonday at the Bacoor Government The two-story building has six ofcity every Sunday, Monday, Tuesday centage points toUMAGUETE 76.3 percent. Populathat will attend to various servicesin and Thursday.

CIT Y—TheCenter,asBayanan. the cash incentive will be directly ficesincentive to the centenarians already died, but Lucero said the tion aged 55 to 64De took 13.5 officiated city’sOccidental, Osca and as PWD Sheincentive said Bacoor City is be thegiven only pa up r t me ntpercent of S oc i a l Mercado-Revilla handed out to them, Lucerothe added. for the Negros onegroup’s of them cash would still (87,583) of the total.

The pace of popuribbon-cutting local government that proWelfare and Development T h e crites e nt e with n a r i athe n s PWD a r e i n 66,000 hadmembers. died earlier. pending guidelinesso for far post-mortem lation aging is expected to accelerate President Jerwin Bautista, who The city mayor the vides freeShe admission tocentenarians movie houses Negros Island Region (DSWD-NIR)group Binalbagan, Candoni, Cauayan, Lucero said also theythanked are working release. said the further in nextout decade.

Panapaan Kabankalan, village chief, La Oscaforand PWDs who serve in their for the gone elderly and PWDs four days isthe giving P100,000 each to 74is alsoEBtheMagalona, the possible post-mortem have through a process of The by census found female of Senior CitizensSagay, AffairsSilay respective despite their a strict week. screening PNA centenarians in the Negros Orientaland Office Carlota, La Castellana, releasecommunities of the cash incentive to the and verification, population the male andoutnumbered Negros Occidental.

City, Sipalay City, Talisay City, family of the deceased beneficiary. plus the submission of documents, population. totaled TFemales his is and themales f irst time the Valladolid and Bacolod in Negros Together with the cash is a plaque of such as membership with the local 336,816 government, and 314,018,under respectively, Republic Act Occidental; and in Canlaon City, recognition for having reached the Office of Senior Citizens’ Affairs, accounting for 51.8 percent and 10868, is offering the48.2 incentive Guihulngan City, Manjuyod, Sta. age of 100 or more, Lucero added. birth certificate of the beneficiary, percent of total.the Thecentenarians, gender ratio said tothe honor Catalina, Siaton, and Tayasan in The centenarians are of varying birth certificate of a child or was 93.2,DSWD-NIR correspondingRegional to 93.2 males LMOST 3Oriental. million grandparents in down a very high fever.”

But108 ice baths grandchild their Director Negros ages from 100 up to yearscan old. children had and negatively above, andaffected affidavits per 100 females.

AsMarie regarding the local US are raising their hypothermia. spouse relationship. persons, aged Shalaine Lucero in a news theCentenarians ingrandchilHinobaan, cause The oldest living person on the of twoordisinterested population, the gender dren, but outdated practiceslana The studyatalso nearlyis oneMany the grandparents were interconference on ratio June dropped 7.

Bago Cit y andhealth La Castel island, 108revealed years old, from 80 andofabove, among others. from 92.7 ago to 90.2, and and myths may be putting some ofwill thosealso quarter of the grandparents didn’t know ested in receiving counseling (43director percent) five Theyears DSWD-NIR has identified in Negros Occidental Santa Catalina, Negros Oriental.

The DSWD-NIR regional the surplus females rover males was at risk,the newcash research contends. but that “infants be O put orsaid joining a support group (61 percent), and 56 ofcentena ia n-benef ic ia r iesyoungsters receive incentive, For should Ne g ros r ietontsleep a l , on t he they have additional funds for more apparent. step up to the for theirDSWD-NIR back, not on targeted their stomach side”of those without an adequate system in Negros Occidental and 18 in “When theygrandparents are still under process the or week more centenarians to support be given the The number households totaled can be for grandchildren, risk of sudden infant-death were likelyfor to report feeling NegrosofOriental, Lucero said. plate, itlack ofwonderful requirements, Lucero said. to reduce June the 12 to deliver the money to the cashless grant 2017, but thegenerally agency 188,723, anHowever, increase oftheir 10.5identities percent arebut can also pose challenges inhas terms of syndrome. happy (54 percent versus 86 The DSWD-NIR already households of the centenarians. will still be searching forpercent). deserving comparedbeing to five years ago. averfinances and andofphysical In two related surveying nearly “In their questionnaires, a fairly large withheld for The safety reasons,lifestyle,released 99 mental percent the cash Four of studies the beneficiaries have beneficiaries.

Judy Flores Partlow/PNA age household size was 3.07 persons, health to a somewhat older or elderly co800 grandparents, the same research team sample size of grandparents felt they were a slight decrease from 3.08 persons in hort,” senior investigator Dr. Andrew Adesfound that one in 10 grandparents raising doing a good job, but acknowledged they 2011. Analyzed by the household size, man said. He is chief of developmental and their grandchildren didn’t have any supdidn’t have the support they often needed three-person households predominatbehavioral pediatrics at Cohen Children’s port systems, and another 12 percent said and that their role could be alienating in ed, accounting for 24.5 percent of the Medical Center in New Hyde Park, New York. their support system didn’t meet their most terms of their own peer group,” Adesman total households, up by 1.3 percentage More than 600 grandparents raising important needs. said in a Northwell Health news release. points from five years earlier. By concompleted Also, 71 percent of at those grandparPediatricians can help A SHINGTON—Deat htheir grandchildren by the US Centers fora quesDisease diagnosis of AD earlier stages, tor Anne Schuchat saidgrandparents in a statetrast, the proportion four-person for theand study.

Their answers said their grandchild raise their“Our grandchildren by updating ratesoffrom the Alzheim-tionnaire Control Prevention’s (CDC) entsincreased reportingresponsibilities by physicians ment. new study revealsthem an households fell by 1.6 percentage that 44 percent mistakenlyWeekly berestricted their ability to socialize with onincrease current health careincidence and parenting er’s disease points (AD) in therevealed Morbidity and Mortality and others who record the cause in the ofmethAlto 21.4 percent.

Xinhua increased 55 percentlieved “ice baths are a good way to bring friends.

Nearly one-third saiddeaths raising their ods, he said. New York Times News Service United States Report. of death, and fewer from zheimer’s disease-related deaths. between 1999 and 2014, a newly Overall, the fatal form of demenother causes of deaths for the elAs the number of older Americans released government report said. tia is now the sixth-leading cause derly, such as heart disease and with Alzheimer’s disease rises, During that time, the number of of death in the US, accounting for stroke, it said. more family members are taking AD deaths per 100,000 Ameri3.6 percent of all deaths in 2014.

“Millions of A mer icans on the emotionally and physically cans rose from 16.5 in 1999 to Possible reasons for the increase, and their family members are challenging role of caregiver than 25.4 in 2014 after accounting for include the growing population of profoundly affected by Alzheimever before. These families need age, according to data released older adults in the US, increases in er’s disease,” CDC Acting Direcand deserve our support.”

artist, tribe first ID cards

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USCALAN, Kalinga—Philippine Postal Corp. (PHLPost) delivered the first governmentissued identification cards (ID) to the members of the Butbut tribe in Buscalan, Kalinga, on June 9.

Macao prepares to embrace rapid aging of local population

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GRANDPA’S CONTOUR FARM

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

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74 centenarians in Negros Island to get cash incentives

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Are grandkids safe when grandparents raise them?

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news@businessmirror.com.ph

news@businessmirror.com.ph

The ethical dilemma

Intl Retirement Migration: Safety, of aged care inandPHL community, lifestyle health care Marc A. Daubenbuechel

The Age of Eldercare

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Welast areweek’s startingcolumn, a columnIon Eldercare this week, authored Marc N wrote marketing tools;bythe only opDaubenbuechel who has been based in the Philippines since 2006.

He about the different market tion in almost all communities is an expert in of elderly care and assists in developing sector segments foreign retirees, is buyingthea geriatric property.

The develin thethe Philippines through between international projects. and relationship opers try to sell their properties Marcand earned a bachelor retireof arts degreeasinfast international business tourism international as possible, without any management from the Cologne Business School.

He worked for years care, ment migration. To become a key partnerships with4 health with the Sozial Betriebe Köln, anthe operator community of nursing homes and homeplayer in this sunrise industry, or lifestyle providers. care services in Germany, and has in-depth experience in running Department of Tourism and the Successful retirementrescommunitaurants, hotels, spa and wellness institutions.

Philippine Retirement Authority ties, however, need to be able to From 2009 to 2016 Marc was the executive director of the Retireneed to work closely together with provide these four areas. ment and Healthcare Coalition, a project of the European Chamber of the private sector.

Long-term leases can be exCommerce of the Philippines. which products does the tremely helpful whenformarket But Since 2015 Marc has been an independent health-care consultant private sector need to develop to ing a village to seniors. various companies interested to get involved in the Philippine geriatric Buying attract retirees? institutions Retirees wanting a property to be marketforeign and for Philippine to learn means more about ge- permalook at four areas when deciding nently tied to a new country they riatric care and education in Germany. to move to another country: Comare not yet very familiar with. A munity,COMMON lifestyle, statement health care and long-term gives retirees the when I bring up the topic oflease nursing homes, safety. If just oneservices of the or areas is feeling a property, but home-care geriatric-care servicesofisowning “We do not need not existent underdeveloped at the same time, make the move any of or these facilities or services. Our tradition is to look after inour a own destination, back to their home country (if elderly.” the destination I have unattractive. heard the comment in different ways a few hundred times over becomes necessary) easier. theLet last 10give years in athe there a fierce me you fewPhilippines. examples.Almost every R e ttime, i re me nt iscom mu n it ie s reaction fromCity someispeople the crowd I talk necessity Dumaguete on itsinway to when need toabout havethe special facilities of nursing homes.

This might be due to the fact that I am a foreigner, becoming a popular retirement catering to the needs but and wants the same reaction be seen when fellowof Filipinos bring up the same amedestination, butcan some retirees its residents, including topic.

So what is leading to this denial? struggle and are actually relonities, like a clubhouse, restauWhyafter is it okay to have months in the most swimming excating a few years.seniors Whilefor several rants, grocery stores, pensive hospitals country (which ruins families financially Dumaguete has of a the large foreign pools, activity center,for sport fayears)? But the moment you bring up the possibility of transferring population (community) and has cilities, and on-site medical fayour parents to a nursing home, you are criticized for “giving your malls, cultural events, nature cilities (or a tie-up with a close parents away”, or for “disposing those that loved you all your life”. and beaches (lifestyle), the city by health-care provider). Special This common perception and judgment of society is the cause for many struggles to deliver transparent, services for the convenience of emotional conflicts among families and suffering for the elderly in need fast and reliable quality medical retirees—such serof professional care. On one hand, families are in desperate needasforshuttle help, treatment (health care).

This leads vices, laundry, household serbut on the other, they fear to seek for help as family members, community retirees in need medical to beingvices well gardening and and society mightofblame themcare for not able toas “love andas take care of relocate to other destination, such their parents as they are supposed to do”. maintenance assistance—are as Cebu orisSubic. a necessity. services can Where geriatric or aged care in the Philippines headed?These What are the A great example of a perfect also create additional revenues measures taken to come up with services for local seniors? Have we ever retirement destination to the developers and operators. asked ourselves why there isisa Subic. national government agency mandated to Itattract has aforeign controlled Developers should take special retireesenvironment to the Philippines, but there is no national agency which secu-seniorscare in obtaining lookingoffers after thesafety welfareand of Filipino and their families? reliable profescan argue the Department of Social sional Welfareadvice and Development is opinion rity,We a large foreign population, and expert’s mandated to do so. tourism Yes, but only after the elderly “poor, vulnerable design many activities, attracfor who the are most appropriate and disadvantaged individuals”, leaving seniors their families tions, nature and great hospitals. of theand master plan, aswho well as the are not “poor, vulnerable and disadvantaged” without anyone to turn Hence, over the past few years, individual facilities andto. buildings, To show the urgent need for action, at the statistics a strong increase of retirees can let us as look different culturesfrom and target Philippine Authority (PSA). The groups number have of senior citizensneeds is be seen inStatistics Subic and surrounddifferent and increasing faster than the growth of the total population in the Philiping areas. wants. A German, for example, pines.

2000 there were 4.6 million (6 percent ofpreferences the The In most common question you senior hascitizens, different housing total population).

By 2010 this grew to 6.5 million seniors, or about 6.9 need to address when relocating is from a Japanese. percent of the total population. The PSA projects that by 2030, older people where and how you are going to live Important is also the managewill make up around 16 million, or 11.5 percent of the total population. in your chosen destination. Some ment aspect of the community, The issue of aging previously merited only little attention in the counretirees prefer to live indepenwhich should be managed as a try. For example, it was only since 2014 that Philhealth was mandated to dently, while other retirees prefer combination of a resort hotel and cover senior citizens. Prior to this, no health-care coverage was available. toSadly, live in retirement communities. a health-care facility. are up until now, most of the private insurers do not cover seniorServices citiRetirement communities also one of the most important things zens, putting families under tremendous financial pressure. attract those retirees who to tospeed the elderly.

Foreign seniors are While improvements areprefer happening, the in which the Philiplive independently. presence often usedservices to a prompt pines is aging demandsThe faster action and more geriatric to ensuredelivery ofdignity such developments of these services. For some retirin growing old. sends a sign thatI the destination is already a ees,I saw it might be difficult visited places for abandoned seniors, and the pressure on the to find preferred retirement destination. the right doctor or right medisystem. Whatever the reasons—family conflicts, financial constraints, Sadly, until now, we doout not cine,among the management fear of judgement and “burned syndromes” the family mem-needs to have a singlefrom retirement bebeing prepared for those cases. Tiebers—seniors all classes comof society are abandoned at a rate faster than new facilities cancompabe established. families hide their upsOther with local hospitals or a small munity in the Philippines “difficult” at home because dementia is still within a topic of shame, and clinic the village that rable withseniors projects in Thailand, families do know who to turn to for help.

Thankfully, is still the can stabilizethis a patient in case of Panama ornot Florida.

This alone exception, but if you visit or volunteer in a emergency place for the are abandoned, you Also asnecessary. sends the signal the Philippines it with your owndestination eyes. sistance for visa, travel arrangeiscan notsee yet a preferred Today, nursing homes in the Philippines ment are associated withmatters the nega-are very and other for foreign retirees. tive perception that onlydevelopers seniors “given away” by their families are living important to them.

While real-estate there.

Many people do not consider nursing homes Whatthat each retiree prefers and are marketing their projects tothe possibility can be happy places.

A home away from home.

Places where specialized needs can only be achieved by foreign retirees, they still use the geriatric nurses, caregivers and dedicated doctors give their loving care proper research of already successsame marketing approach they to seniors. Some seniors are entirely alone at home as all members of the ful projects abroad, and through use when marketing to Filipinos. family are working. Others are stroke victims, have a form of dementia the advice of international exLike foreign retirees are lookor just simply need assistance in performing the most basic activities of perts. Another key in developing ing at four areas when choosing daily living. In some instances, it is simply not possible to age at home.

Philippines as an international aSome destination, they also look for seniors also prefer to age in a nursingthe home to keep the “burden” retirement destination are partsafety, community, lifestyle and off of their families. nerships among key players availability of health care when Without a doubt, most of us prefer to grow old in our own homes to- from thenot private sector that can provide choosing their accommodation. gether with our family.

So do I. This is, however, always possible.

Rapid the that four10areas of Filipinos safety, commuUntil now,increased real-estate develurbanization, cost of living, the fact million nity, lifestylefamily and systems health care. opers do not useare theproofs appropriate are living abroad, of the burden the traditional

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are under. To make matters worse, cardiovascular diseases, stroke and dementia are on the rapid rise.

We should start to consider that aged-care services in their various forms are a much-needed service and a direct response to the rapid rise of aging of the Philippines.

I do not claim that nursing homes and geriatric-care services are the solution.

Rather, should be seen ultimate The report found mostthey Alzheimpr as i man a roption i ly i nfortthose he Sinout he a st , need of health-care services for the elderly.

After all, we wouldn’t er's deaths in the US still occur in according to the refuse report. Other health-care services for our children.

How much more to our seniors? a nursing home or long-term care areas with high rates included

Report: US death rates from Alzheimer’s disease up 55% in 15 years

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facility, but fewer in 2014 (54 percent) than in 1999 (68 percent).

In contrast, the number of Alzheimer’s deaths at home increased from 14 percent to 25 percent during the same period.

Counties w ith the highest death rates in the countr y were

the Midwest and West Coast.

While there is currently no cure for AD, the CDC urged people to see a doctor if they experience symptoms affecting their daily life, such as memory loss, difficulties with problem solving or misplacing objects. Xinhua News

The Millennials BusinessMirror

news.businessmirror@gmail.com

Saturday, June 17, 2017

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Family finds fulfillment in sharing financial tips

By Rizal Raoul S. Reyes

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@brownindio

HE Faustos is a family on a mission. They want to save the Filipino millennials from a potential debt trap by teaching the development of a “financial quotient”.

“Our objective is spread financial literacy and improve financial well-being. We want to go beyond just teaching because there is a big gap on what we already know and what we do,” Rose Fausto, a former investment banker, said in a recent interview with the BusinessMirror. “As a family, that is what we want to achieve.”

According to the Manulife Investor Sentiment Index, Filipino millennials face the threat of being debt-strapped. More than four in 10 Filipino investors carry debt, with the mean debt level incurred by millennials below the age of 35 is P291,582 higher than the debt levels of those in the 35 to 49 age bracket (P207,428) or those over 50 (P143,958).

“With the way they are doing, 63 percent of the 25-year-olds will be broke when they retire because they are not saving and investing,” Fund Managers Association of the Philippines (FMAP) Founding President Marvin Fausto said.

For Rose, the turning point to become financial wellness advocates was when she realized she had to give more time to the family. As an investment banker, Rose knew it would be hard for her to manage the family affairs while working in a numbers-crunching job.

Marvin said he realized his former post as senior vice president and chief investment officer of BDO Trust Group can be a great source of sharing his knowledge in teaching financial awareness to young Filipinos.

Family first

AS a family, Marvin is tapping his children Martin, Enrique and Anton

to serve as sort of a bridge to the young people in sharing the values of saving and investing. The Fausto children join their parents in giving talks to people from different social class.

Rose said she and Mar v in taught their sons that money and values are not mutually exclusive. With dinner conversations usually revolving around saving and investing, all three boys were exposed to the investing world early on.

The Faustos have conducted Family Financial Quotient (FQ ) workshop sessions in Manila, Cebu, Balesin, Iriga and Singapore, among others. It is their hope to impart their knowledge and inspire families to make investing part of their conversations and traditions. Teaching the value and importance of saving to their children started after they were born, Rose said citing as example immediately opening a savings account for their children.

“We deposit [to the bank] the gifts they received during baptism and birthday celebrations,” said Rose, author of Raising Pinoy Boys and The Retelling of The Richest Man in Babylon.

Even their household helpers are given the basic of financial quotient upon working with them.

“I tell them to save for emergency and retirements funds,” Rose said. “Whatever they put, we provide counterpart funding in the form of equities and stocks.”

Martin’s tack

GROWING up, Martin, 25 and the eldest of the three boys, recalls his parents inculcated to him and his

siblings the value of savings “in a fun and cool way” by giving them treasure boxes and the ubiquitous piggy bank. Later, we discarded the piggy bank because they have to break it when they need to get some money.

“When our own treasure boxes got filled up, we asked Papa to deposit it to our savings account,” said Martin, a business management graduate from the Ateneo de Manila University.

The children were required to submit their notebook reflecting the balance sheet of their savings for the week to ensure they will get their allowance for the following week.

After a three-year marketing stint in Del Monte Philippines Inc., Martin decided to put up Brand ’eM, the brand and management consu ltanc y ar m of IFE Management Advisers Inc. He is a lso a Ga l lup-certified “strengths coach ”.

The financial discipline imparted by Marvin and Rose enabled Martin and his siblings to spend their allowance wisely.

“At that time, I only shopped during my birthday and Christmas,” Martin said.

Furthermore, he said he also learned to wisely spend the load for his mobile phone.

Rose said Martin had to familiarize himself all the promos offered by the telcos to ensure he can get maximum saving.

“Looking back, that served as a cost-benefit analysis program for us,” Martin said.

He said the savings regimen taught by his parents gave him the extra push to study harder.

Martin said he was able to use good grades as leverage whenever he needs some extra expenses in his school and extracurricular activities.

Dinner talks

MARVIN, currently a COL financial consultant, said conversations during family dinner exposed the children on topics about saving and investing.

These talks made it easy for them to understand stocks using

This undated photo shows Fund Managers Association of the Philippines Founding President Marvin Fausto (second from left) with wife Rose Fres Fausto (middle) and sons Enrique (left), Martin (second from right) and Anton. The Fausto Family has taken the advocacy of teaching families how to be financially free. Paul Soriano

cash they saved from their allowance and other cash gifts from godparents and relatives, he said.

Rose concurs with her better half. “They’ve seen market movements for two decades now. They have empirical data in their respective balance sheet archives,”

she explained. “Although they’re not as extensive as Jeremy Siegel’s two centuries of data, they are their personal data, enough proof for them to stay the course.”

Rose said they hope to impart their knowledge and inspire families to make investing part

of their conversations and traditions regardless of what lifestyle and career one chooses.

We want to stay true to FMAP’s commitment in helping improve the country’s financial literacy as well as encouraging the younger generation to invest, she added.

Cash faces a new challenger in mobile-banking service Zelle T

HE days of cash as king may be a step closer to ending. After six years of laying a foundation, major banks are ready to introduce Zelle, a digital payments network that will allow people to send money instantly through participating banks’ mobile apps.

But Zelle faces competition. Since the banks began experimenting with peer-topeer mobile payments, several upstarts like Venmo entered the field, building a loyal following.

What makes Zelle (pronounced “zell”, as in “gazelle”, the nimble creature that inspired the service’s name) stand out from rivals—most prominently, Venmo, the currency of choice for many millennials—are the big banks backing it.

More than 30 of them, including Bank of America, Citibank, JPMorgan Chase and Wells Fargo, have teamed up to create the new network and throw their combined weight and marketing power behind it.

“Nearly all banked Americans will be able to access this,” said Michael Moeser, director of payments at Javelin Strategy, a financial industry research firm. “That’s a huge breakthrough.”

The casual payments that people make every day—$20 for the dog walker or $50 to split a dinner check with friends—have long been one of the US banking system’s thorniest problems.

Instant person-to-person payments are common in many countries, but in the US, sending cash between banks is often a technical ordeal.

Mobile app

ZELLE’S pitch is that it will be fast, free

and ubiquitous. The interface is almost identical at each participating bank, and setting it up takes a few seconds. To send money to others, you need only their phone number or e-mail address. If their bank is part of Zelle’s network, recipients can immediately sweep the cash into their own checking account.

Participating banks are incorporating Zelle’s transfer system into their mobile apps, sparing customers from having to download a separate app. About 86 million people will soon have access, according to Early Warning Services, the bank-owned consortium in Scottsdale, Arizona, that runs the network.

A stand-alone Zelle app will be released this year. Until then, those outside the network can collect payments through Zelle by manually filling in their banking information and linking their accounts.

Wells Fargo, which plans to formally introduce Zelle to its customers this month, has already, like many other banks, quietly built much of the service’s functionality into its mobile app. When it officially turns Zelle on, the money-transfer system in its app will adopt Zelle’s common branding and interface, which is built around two activities: “send” and “receive”.

“We think the simplicity and shared experience around this will magnify the network effect,” said Brett Pitts, a Wells Fargo executive.

Devoted users

THAT effect—when millions of people flock to a product and, through mass adoption, enhance its utility—is both Zelle’s biggest oppor tunity and its greatest

A New York City branch of Wells Fargo on April 7. Taking on rivals like Venmo and Apple Pay, more than 30 major banks, including Wells Fargo, have created a network called Zelle that allows users to instantly send money to one another. Sam Hodgson/The New York Times

risk. By taking so long to build their own easy-to-use mobile-payments system, the banks opened the door to challengers like Venmo, Popmoney, Square Cash and Apple Pay, each of which has its own devoted users.

“This isn’t a slam dunk. The banks have a big branding and awareness challenge,” Moeser said. “This has to be done well right out of the gate.”

In the banks’ favor are the vast number of people who have already entrusted them with their finances. Those customers

are often willing to put up with some frustrations to avoid the hassles and risks that come with using outside services.

Venmo, the most popular of the upstarts (and now owned by PayPal), handled payments of $17.6 billion in 2016.

The banks in Zelle’s network collectively processed $55 billion in person-to-person transactions last year, according to Early Warning.

Interesting surprise

ZELLE’S other advantage is its speed.

Money transferred through the network will be available to the recipient immediately, participating banks say.

Other services, including Venmo, usually take at least a day to complete transfers to a bank account. (Venmo has said it will enable instant withdrawals this year.)

US Bank, one of Zelle’s partners, began offering real-time transfers a year ago within its partner network, and found that senders valued it just as much as those they were paying, according to Gareth Gaston, who leads US Bank’s nonbranch banking channels.

“People told us they really liked the reassurance of knowing the money was gone immediately, as opposed to waiting for a check to clear,” Gaston said. “It was an interesting surprise.”

Banks began laying the technical infrastructure for Zelle in 2011 through a shared transfer network called clearXchange. But that service, which served banks’ needs more than their customers’, was fairly clunky, and its design and features varied at each bank. Zelle, built atop clearXchange’s infrastructure, is the industry’s first attempt at creating a unified consumer brand.

Common enemy

WHEN banks began experimenting with person-to-person transfers, they hoped it would be a moneymaker, with customers paying fees for the convenience of moving their cash around electronically. But the banks moved slowly and competitors flooded in, offering free bank-tobank transfers as a way to draw in users.

(Customers typically pay a fee of about

3 percent if they make payments with credit cards.)

To keep up, the banks have been forced to match their rivals’ price tag: free. Early Warning lets banks set their own user fees for Zelle, but none have announced plans to charge customers for bank-tobank transfers.

“We see this being something that is part of your core checking experience,” Gaston said. “The other players in the marketplace are evidence that this is something customers want to have.”

Zelle has been called the banks’ “Venmo killer”, but Venmo insists that it sees room in the market for multiple services.

“Cash is the common enemy,” said Josh Criscoe, a Venmo spokesman.

Social feed

THE banks drew on some of Venmo’s popular features—Zelle’s interface is similarly stripped-down and simple—but skipped others, like the emoji-strewn social feed that allows Venmo users to broadcast their payment stream to their friends.

(Or, if they choose, to the entire world.)

Moeser, the analyst at Javelin, thinks the mobile-payments market has plenty of room for both Venmo and Zelle to thrive.

“I don’t think this is a winner-take-all scenario,” he said. “There’s a huge population of consumers, particularly those over 45, who haven’t used mobile payments yet. It’s a hurdle for people—maybe they don’t want to download an app, or mess around with settings. But once people try it a couple of times, and see ‘wow, it worked!’ they tend to get over that hurdle and love it.” New York Times News Service

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In this January 7, 2014, file photo, Yahoo! president and CEO Marissa Mayer speaks during the International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. On June 13 Verizon took over Yahoo, completing a $4.5-billion deal that will usher in a new management team to attempt to wring more advertising revenue from one of the Internet’s best-known brands. AP

Verizon takes over Yahoo! to complete $4.5-B deal

S This May 25 photo shows Gavin Struthers, McAfee Inc. senior vice president and president for Asia Pacific, speaking during a news briefing in Manila. Struthers said vigilance is the key to achieve a strong and stable cyber-security status.

McAfee exec urges good cyber hygiene

By Rizal Raoul S. Reyes

C

@brownindio

AN cyber hygiene protect you? Gavin Struthers of McAfee Inc. believes so.

“There is a need to shift in the outlook of the people’s views on cyber security. It is also better for them to practice cyber hygiene by just starting with due diligence in patching,” Struthers, senior vice president and president for Asia Pacific of McAfee, told reporters in a news briefing on May 25.

“People should also make their signatures very secured.”

The South African-born veteran of the information communications technology said the emergence of the Wannacry malicious software served as a wakeup call to the public that cyber security should be taken more seriously these days as cyber criminals “are

getting more sophisticated in the pursuit of nefarious activities”.

Struthers said security companies, such as McAfee, are not resorting to scare mongering in order to promote their respective security products. Still he said “to underscore the gravity of the local situation, there were 10,000 ransonware attacks in the Philippines last year”.

Struthers said cyber attacks on Philippine enterprises, including the government, has swelled in recent months.

He cited a 2016 report by the Australian Strategic Policy Institute that ranked the Philippines the least “cyber mature” coun-

try in Southeast Asia. Industry professionals who were surveyed reported they were less prepared to tackle cyber-security issues than in the past one-year period.

Home to a growing base of Internet users, which now stands at 47 million, organizations in the Philippines will only grow to face mounting challenges to manage high volume and complex cyber risks, the group added.

In working with its local partners, Struthers said McAfee will augment its engagement with law enforcement and academe to map ways to take down criminal networks, to develop new approaches to fighting cybercrimes and to recruit young people to join the cyber-security industry.

Ransomware is a form of malware that is designed to extract money from a victim. Often, ransomware will force a payment in order to undo changes that the Trojan virus has made to the victim’s computer.

Struthers emphasized coordination between government

and the private sector is the best option to fight cybercrime.

By involving the private sector in combating cybercrime, Struthers said companies like McAfee have more agility in the decision-making processes.

Daryush Ashjari, McAfee head of presales in Asia Pacific, said organizations must implement innovations to counter the threats of cyber criminals. “Old solutions solve the problems of today,” Ashjari said. “We also need to create an open platform that allows bringing in complimentary technology.” Struthers added raising awareness is also vital to counter the growing number of cyber threats. He also emphasized that developing a strong cyber-security road map does not only cover technolog y, but also involves people and processes problems.

Furthermore, he said collaboration must also be formed by the concerned stakeholders to fight the cyber criminals.

“We must remember no one person can protect the world.”

AN FR ANCISCO—Verizon h a s t a ken over Ya hoo!, completing a $4.5-billion deal that will usher in a new management team to attempt to wring more advertising revenue from one of the internet’s bestknown brands.

Tuesday’s closure of the sale ends Yahoo’s 21-year history as a publicly traded company. It also ends the nearly five-year reign of Yahoo! CEO Marissa Mayer, who isn’t joining Verizon. She will walk away from Yahoo with a compensation package currently worth about $125 million, including her severance pay and stock awards that will be fully vested with the deal ’s completion.

Ya hoo! ’s e -ma i l a nd ot her digital services, such as sports, finance and news, will be run

by Tim A r mstrong , who has been r unning AOL since Verizon bought that company for $4.4 billion two years ago. Armstrong will now be CEO of a new Verizon subsidiary called Oath, which will consist of Yahoo! and various AOL services.

About 2,000 Yahoo! and AOL workers are expected to lose their jobs as Verizon trims expenses and eliminates overlapping positions.

“Now that the deal is closed, we are excited to set our focus on being the best company for consumer media, and the best partner to our advertising, content and publisher partners,” Armstrong said.

Ve r i z o n w o n’t b e ge t t i n g Yahoo!’s prized stakes in two Asian Internet companies, Alibaba Group and Yahoo! Japan.

Those will belong to a newly formed company called Altaba, which also will inherit Yahoo!’s $8 billion in cash and any money that might have to be paid in var ious shareholder lawsuits filed against Yahoo! leading up to the sale.

The suits include complaints tied to computer hacking attacks that stole personal information

from more than 1 billion Yahoo user accounts in 2013 and 2014 but weren’t disclosed until last year. The fallout from the digital intrusions forced Yahoo! to give Verizon a $350-million discount on the initial sale terms reached last July, causing the deal to be delayed by several months.

Altaba’s stock will begin trading next week under the ticker symbol “A ABA”. Yahoo!’s stock will trade through Friday.

Verizon is counting on the combination of Yahoo! and AOL to build a strong third alternative in a rapidly growing digital advertising market that is currently dominated by Google and Facebook.

But Yahoo!’s ad revenue has been falling for most of the last decade. The company lured Mayer away from Google in 2012 in hopes of reversing the decline, but she couldn’t pull it off despite investing billions in acquisitions aimed at making Yahoo! a bigger player in the mobile advertising market.

B y t h e e n d o f l a s t y e a r, Yahoo!’s annual revenue after subtracting ad commissions had shrunk to $3.5 billion, a 35-percent drop from its 2008 peak. By comparison, Google’s revenue last year totaled $73 billion, after subtracting ad commissions.

Despite the company’s struggles, Yahoo!’s stock more than tripled while Mayer was CEO, creating more than $30 billion in shareholder wealth.

But most of t hose ga ins stemmed from Yahoo’s stake in Alibaba, a Chinese e-commerce company whose fortunes have soared while Yahoo! faded. The A libaba investment was engineered 12 years ago by Yahoo! cofounder Jerry Yang in what is now widely regarded as one of the savviest deals in internet history.

Yahoo!’s stock performance is the main reason most shareholders haven’t complained too loudly about Mayer’s lavish compensation package. AP

vivo: V5$ captures PHL’s ‘groufie’-hungry market

Cosmic Technologies rolls out new phone

HE local operations of the Dongguan, Guangdong, China-headquartered Vivo Mobile Communications Co. Ltd. believes its V5s model has captured a large market in the Philippines.

In a statement, vivo’s Philippines operations said it believes consumers predilected to taking group selfies, or “groufies”, considerably warmed up to the V5s.

The groufie technology in the V5s allows panorama-panning effects in groufies, or group shots, and likewise help capture outdoor groufies or family portraits without needing to squeeze in or cut out anyone, the company said.

“This superior offering has widened vivo’s lead over its competitors and captured a larger market

OM EGROW N mobi le phone fir m Cosmic Te c h nolo g ie s I nc . announced the roll out of its latest smartphone under the Cherry Mobile brand.

In a statement, the company said it is positioning its latest device, called “Desire R8”, in the consumer segment predilected to photography and gaming.

The smartphone has a dual rear camera lens and refined phone specifications.

T he Desi re R 8 h a s a 5. 5” f u l l - h i g h d e f i n it ion s c re e n , 13 megapixel (MP)+5MP dual rear and 8MP front cameras and 700 megahertz Long-Term Evolution-capability. The unit

T

for the leading smartphone brand as it continues to appeal to selfieloving Filipinos.”

According to vivo, the V5s weans users from selfie monopods and may eventually be junked.

Targeting groufies- or selfiesaddicted users is not new for vivo as the firm also touted this feature in China for the x9. “vivo also relied on a key model with the x9 in China that continued to generate a lot of hype around its selfie camera features, targeted at the under-30 crowd,” the International Data Corp. (IDC) said in April. vivo followed Huawei and Oppo brands in IDC’s top 5 smartphone vendors in terms of worldwide shipments, market share and year-overyear growth in the first quarter.

vivo, according to IDC, shipped 18.1 million in the first quarter, gaining 5.2-percent market share. The latter is 1.2 percent higher than vivo’s volume shipment in the first quarter of last year.

This undated photo courtesy of vivo Mobile Communications Co. Ltd. shows the V5s smartphones that the Dongguan, Guangdong, China-headquartered firm is touting as its most impressive smartphone yet.

H

runs on a 1.5 gigahertz OctaCore processor and on the latest Android Nougat 7.0 operating system. It has a 3 gigabyte (GB) random access memory and 32GB internal memor y.

At P9,999 ($200.95), the Desire R8’s pricing is slightly above the International Data Cor p.

(IDC) forecast of a decline in the average selling prices (ASPs) of Android devices.

In a statement on May 30, IDC said it “continues to see A ndroid average sel ling pr ices decline and ex pectations are t hat t he 1.5 bi l lion A ndroid phones that ship in 2021 w il l have a col lective A SP of $198 [P9,849.51].”

BusinessMirror

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Saturday, June 17, 2017

A11

DICT exec eyes larger budget for Tech4Ed

This June 12 photo shows Metro Politan Manila Development Authority Chairman Danilo Lim (from left), Presidential Spokesman Ernesto C. Abella and Information Secretary Rodolfo A. Salalima at the ceremonial switch-on during the inauguration of the Edsa Free Wi-fi Project at the Edsa Shaw Boulevard Metro Rail Transit station. Salalima told reporters after the Department of Budget Management will provide an additional P1 billion for the National Broadband Plan. NONOY LACZA

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HE Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) seeks to double the budget of its Technology for Education, Employment, Entrepreneurs and Economic Development (Tech4Ed) project.

T h e DIC T r o l l e d o ut t h e Te c h4E d to promote d i g it a l literacy. The project seeks to establish Tech4ED Centers nationwide, where each center is ex pected to offer a one-stop shop to citizens “where services like platform usage, digital literacy, Internet usage and skills training are available for free.”

DICT Undersecretar y Monchito Ibrahim told the BusinessMirror the DICT is pushing for a P45-million allotment for the

project. Ibrahim said they hope the allotment would be approved in this year’s deliberation of the 2018 national budget. Currently, the project is using a P22-million war chest.

The amount is part of a P2.9billion allocation for the DICT. That amount is also being used for the operations of the National Telecommunications Commission, Cybercrime Investigation and Coordinating Centre and the National Privacy Commission.

All these units are under the purview of the DICT. However, the budget excludes the National Broadband Plan, which aims to accelerate the deployment of fiber-optic cables and wireless technologies to improve the Internet speed in the country since it was mandated

by President Duterte.

Under Republic Act 10844, the DICT aims to “craft and implement a national broadband policy to accelerate broadband

infrastructure deployment and improve public access.” To solve the budget shortage, Information Secretary Rodolfo A. Salalima said the Department of Budget Management will provide an additional P1 billion for the NBP. The International Data Corp.

(IDC) earlier announced it has selected the Tech4ED project as a finalist in its annual Smart City Asia Pacific Awards 2017 under the category of “economic development”. Maria Eden T. Dino

Condé Nast shuts e-commerce site nine months after its debut C

ONDÉ Nast, the publishing giant that owns magazine titles like Vogue, GQ and Vanity Fair, is closing its first major experiment in online fashion retail, a mere nine months after its high-profile introduction.

The company said in a statement on Tuesday Style.com, a global multibrand e-commerce site in which it had reportedly invested more than $100 million, had ceased all trading operations. Effective immediately, visitors to that web site will be redirected to that of its new partner, Farfetch, a rapidly growing online marketplace for high-end boutiques in which Condé Nast was an early investor.

The move is a stunning strategic backtrack by the publishing empire, which first announced a multimillion-dollar rebranding of Style.com, formerly the encyclopedic digital home of all Condé Nast runway coverage, in 2015. It also reflects the current turmoil in the glossy magazine industry, which has struggled to adapt to the digital age.

“Our experience with Style.com taught us that content is a powerful driver of commerce, and the combination of great editorial with a great shopping experience creates a great user experience and revenue upside,” said Matt Starker, the general manager of digital strategy at Condé Nast.

He acknowledged, however, that the skill sets required to create content and those required to run a seamless shopping site were different.

Widespread rumors

WITH increased competition from blogs, newsletters and other Web-native publications over the past decade, alongside an industrywide plunge in advertising spend-

Condé Nast, the fashion publishing giant that owns magazine titles like Vogue, GQ and Vanity Fair, is shuttering its first major experiment in fashion e-tail, Style.com, a mere nine months after its high-profile launch. Ellen Weinstein/The New York Times

ing, traditional magazine publishers have had to plan aggressively on cultivating new revenue streams, with luxury e-commerce a particular focus. McKinsey & Co., the management consultancy, has predicted that online sales of luxury goods will triple in the next 10 years, and that by 2025, the online share of total luxury sales will reach 18 percent, or $78 billion.

Hearst Publishing has experimented with a variety of different structures, from selling items off online editorial content (via Harper’s Bazaar and its ShopBazaar initiative) to maintaining its own inventory and online marketplaces. (Elle Japan has its own store.)

No e-tail venture, however, was as hyped

as Condé Nast’s Style.com.

Yet, despite extensive funding and a slew of starry outside hires—including the president, Franck Zayan, previously the head of e-commerce at the French department store Galeries Lafayette, and the fashion director Yasmin Sewell, a well-known industry consultant and street-style personality—the reincarnation of Style.com was plagued with rumors of problems from the outset.

The introduction was repeatedly delayed. Once the site was unveiled, numerous brands that were promised in the announcement, like Burberry, Chloé and Maison Margiela, were not actually present.

There were widespread rumors of poor sales and reports of a staff exodus. A planned

rollout of the shopping site to US consumers this year never occurred.

Jonathan Newhouse, chairman and chief executive of Condé Nast International, said in a statement to the web site staff on Tuesday morning: “Three-and-a-half years ago Condé Nast started Style.com with the aim of creating a worldwide e-commerce business. Everyone has worked very hard. There is a great deal to be proud of.”

Carpenter needed

THE decision to pull the plug on Style.com suggests a humbling admission by Condé Nast executives that being a global authority on fashion, with a worldwide audience of more than 340 million readers, doesn’t

necessarily mean you know how to sell it—a lesson their fellow glossy executives might do well to observe. “You need a great carpenter to build a good house,” Starker said.

That is where José Neves, the chief executive of Farfetch, who founded the platform in 2008, comes in. His company, which is based in London, acts as a marketplace and middleman between brands, independent stores and consumers. The company builds and maintains the web sites for the labels, connects them to customers and then takes a percentage, in the double digits, from a vendor’s margin from each sale. But the vendor handles the inventory and shipping, reducing both the risk and cost for Farfetch.

This approach has made Farfetch the world’s top luxury e-commerce destination in terms of traffic, outperforming rivals like Net-a-Porter and MatchesFashion.com, according to data from the Web analytics service Alexa. They currently work with more than 500 boutiques, in nine languages. Valued at almost $1.5 billion in its most recent funding round last year, it is reported to be planning an initial public offering in New York this year—the same period in which the company could become profitable.

Next chapter

UNLIKE its rivals, however, Farfetch has not had its own content-creation arm. Condé Nast will fill that gap, and Newhouse will join the Farfetch board of directors.

“I am ecstatic about this next chapter in our partnership with Condé Nast,” Neves said in a telephone call from Tokyo. “Both sides are excited about how together we can tackle the big question currently facing the

fashion industry: how to successfully link content with commerce.”

He declined to disclose when talks for the deal began, although Starker said they had gone on for “many months”.

Neither man would comment explicitly on possible layoffs for the Style.com staff, other than to say that both Farfetch and Condé Nast would be interviewing the 75 Style.com employees to see if they could be absorbed. Currently, the only evidence of a partnership that consumers see is the redirect to Farfetch from Style.com. Farfetch has also acquired some of the assets of Style.com, including the domain and the current inventory.

By the third quarter of this year, and starting with Vogue and GQ in the United States, there are plans to offer Condé Nast readers the ability to browse and shop from magazine content, commercializing the editorial portfolio with items available to buy from Farfetch vendors. Condé Nast publications will also create shopping guides like “20 Summer Outfits to Wear in 2017,” which will appear on its magazine web sites, as well as at Farfetch and feature items that readers worldwide can purchase via Farfetch, with the magazine company receiving a cut of each sale.

“We’re not going to wait a moment to start,” Starker said. Although this arrangement could further erode the distinction between editorial and commercial operations once held dear to publications, the magazine editors who will create the guides will retain all editorial control over the product, Starker said, including the ability to choose items not available on Farfetch.

New York Times News Service

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Secure printers seen to defend vs hackers

S

INGAPORE—If the Philippines does not want to suffer the same fate of the Bangladeshi central bank in 2016, when it lost $81 million in a cyberheist, then it should only do one thing: secure its printers. So says executives of HP Inc.

What was thought out to be a simple printing system error by officials of Bangladesh bank, turned out to be one of the biggest cyber robbery incident of last year, executives told reporters the company flew here.

At the usual routine, printers at the Bangladeshi bank would automatically print all the acknowledgement messages of transactions made through the bank over the weekend.

However, that Friday of February 5 was exceptional. The printers were empty. Bangladesh bank officials tried to print the messages manually but failed.

It was not a printing error. It was a system malfunction.

The men behind the robbery?

Hackers. They infected the printing system with a malware that disabled the machine from doing its chore: printing.

Aversion

THE unusual system intrusion could have been averted if the “usual” printers were secured, according to network analysts and experts.

For security expert, Joseph Wagle, worldwide director of HP Inc.’s Security and Industry Solutions Consulting arm, it is high time that government entities treat their printers as not mere machines but of a security threat.

“We recommend this to a lot more sensitive government entities, not only to the Philippines.

There a lot of very important gov-

ernment entities and corporate entities that should look into this very very closely,” Wagle said in a news briefing here on June 6.

“A lot of organizations spent a lot of time and money securing their PCs [personal computers] and data centers, but they have not given the same focus in their printing system,” he explained. “The printing system is a vulnerable endpoint that could allow hackers to perpetrate their system.”

HP Printing Systems General Manager for Asia, Pacific and Japan Ng Tian-Chong said companies tend to overlook printers as mere machines and not as a valuable piece of their whole network.

“The printer sits in the IT [information-technology] infrastructure. And any government in the region, in the world, should consider that very carefully,” Ng said.

“They are securing their PCs to protect their networks but they forget about their printers. They just see it as for printing, faxing and scanning, that it is a minimal threat—but it’s not.”

‘Endpoint vulnerability’

INTER NATIONA L Data Cor p.

(IDC) Asia Pacific Practice Group Vice President Sandra Ng said the print system is considered to be one of the “weakest links” in a businessnetwork infrastructure, leaving it a loophole for hacking attacks.

“When you think about security threats and think about hackers, they will going to find the weakest link in the environment. And the

Twitter, telcos join forces to dish out infotainment

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OCIAL networking platform provider, Twitter Inc., announced on Wednesday it has inked a deal with Globe Telecom Inc. and Smart Communications Inc. to dish out infotainment to local consumers.

According to Tina Pang, head of sales for Twitter Southeast Asia, the agreement with the two competing telecommunications companies was based on the firm’s view that “the Philippines is one of our fastest growing markets today”.

“And this is not just about the numbers [of Filipino Twitter users],” Pang said during the Philippine launch of “Twitter Lite”, a version of Twitter sans the bells and whistles.

“Twitter Lite provides users a faster, data-friendly, and more accessible mobile web experience, which allows them to stay informed on the happenings of their favorite Filipino celebrities and idols,” a statement dished out

by Twitter said.

Dwi Adriansah, head of business development for Twitter Southeast Asia and Australia, told reporters the decision to emphasize infotainment was based on the firm’s view that they “see a lot

of people flocking and discovering information about [celebrities and] local entertainment here in the Philippines”.

The launch of Twitter Lite came two months after the online news and social networking service provider said in April its first quarter revenue decreased 8-percent yearover-year (YoY). Twitter said in its letter to shareholders its advertising revenue totaled $474 million, a decrease of 11-percent YoY. Apparently the offering of a “lighter” Twitter brought good news to telcos.

Globe Telecom’s Prepaid Brand Director Pauline Yambao said they expect the firm’s customers to spend more time connected on the telco’s line.

“Our customers can now follow more, tweet more, and engage more without having to worry about [data] consumption so much.” Yambao added.

First launched in India two months ago, Twitter Lite allows up to 70 percent data saving and 30 percent faster launch time, offers off line support, and takes up less than 1 megabyte memory on mobile devices. Mary Noll Christine P. Caadyang

This undated photo courtesy of Lenovo Philippines shows details of ThinkPad E470 units. Lenovo Philippines Country Manager Michael Ngan told the BusinessMirror the company expects a shift in the traditional personal computer market share.

This June 6 photo shows Joe Wagle, HP Inc. worldwide director for security and industry solutions consulting, speaking during a forum in Singapore.

By Jasper Y. Arcalas

news.businessmirror@gmail.com

weakest link can be your printer, and unfortunately large majority of you don’t have a secure print environment,” Ng said.

In its AP Printer Survey 2016, IDC found out that nearly half of all the business entities in the Asia Pacific excluding Japan (APeJ) region do not include printers in their respective IT security program, according to Ng. IDC surveyed 3,053 companies on the inclusion rate of printers in their security program.

Furthermore, the survey revelead that only one in every five companies in the APeJ region include at least half of their printers in their security program, Ng added.

“No one really talked about that it’s [printer] 100 percent secured and part of IT security program.

And almost half of all organizations, never study printer logs for security purposes,” she said, citing the 3,053 companies surveyed by IDC. She added that 2/3 of all organizations “never defined print security” in RFPs (request for proposal).

“And almost half of all organizations, never scan printers for malware.”

HP Inc. Southeast Asia Managing Director Koh Kong Meng said the companies’ lax printing-system security could be attributed to two factors: timing and awareness.

“Security has always been a big issue but it’s only recently that security on printers has been talked about. Because most resources and discussion about security has always revolved on PCs and notebooks,” Koh said. “Nowadays, everything is connected. Printer is nothing but a PC that happens to be able to print...and people are beginning to realize that.”

Moving forward

WHEN asked whether HP is doing something to address the lack of awareness of corporate entities and government agencies on the weakness of printers, Koh said: Yes we do.

“We have discussions not only with individuals, government and organizations across Southeast Asia, but also with the agencies in countries that have responsibility for cyber security. We have discussions with cyber-security agencies to also educate them about the risk inherent in some of the devices of technologies,” Koh said.

“As Joe [Wagle] mentioned, many people have done a lot to strengthen their PC’s security, even their mobile devices and tablets. But not many considered the printer as a point of vulnerability,” Koh added. “And we are here to say that they are.”

Citing the case of Singapore, Ng said the national government has mandated financial institutions to secure all endpoint devices, including printers, in order to secure their respective monetary systems.

“The government is starting to pay attention that it is happening,” Ng said. “They are not jusy buying printers for printing per se, but for the security features it provide.”

Wagle noted that installing a “secured printer” would not be sufficient in having a fully secured printing-system structure. Wagle added that agencies—may it be public or private—should employ certain regulation and standards of practices that would revolve on print security.

“Because regulations, external audits and compliance requirements change. You need to know how does that regulation apply to print security, how that standard of practice apply to print security,” he said. “Agencies must develop, implement and maintain tools and procedures covering the detection of potential cyber-security incidents, incorporating: countermeasures against malicious code; intrusion detection strategies; audit analysis; system integrity checking; and vulnerability assessments,” he added.

HP is the “first” technology company that rolled-out a copier line series that have built-in security features, according to Ng.

Lenovo sees shift in PC market share

C

OMING from what International Data Corp. (IDC) said is a soft market for personal computers (PCs) in Asia-Pacific, Lenovo Philippines Corp. believes there would be a shift in market share.

“If the market share shifted at the global level, we in the [Philippines] are also experiencing the same,” Lenovo Philippines Country Manager Michael Ngan told the BusinessMirror.

“And applying the same [customer-centric] strategy, this is what every one of us [in Lenovo] has to do. So we are expecting that shift in market share.”

Ngan spoke after the IDC held that Lenovo hit the second spot in top 5 vendors of worldwide traditional PC shipments for the first quarter of the year.

Lenovo slightly increased its market from 12,121 shipments and 20.2 percent of market share in the first quarter of 2016, to 12,322 shipments and 20.4 percent of market share in the same quarter this year, IDC data revealed.

According to IDC, worldwide shipments of traditional PCs (desktop, notebook, workstation) totaled 60.3 million units in the first quarter of 2017, posting a year-over-year growth of 0.6 percent.

“The APeJ [Asia/Pacific (excluding Japan)] market remained soft,” IDC said in April. “Weakness in the consumer market persisted, as demand and shipments in many countries were impacted by price increases

fueled by tight component supply.”

Ngan agreed saying in April that “component price is increasing rapidly, especially over the last three to four months”.

He said Lenovo plans to address its secondfiddle play with HP Inc. “by reacting faster than [our] competitor in terms of price actions”. Generally, however, Ngan said Lenovo is “doing generally well”.

Smartphone

THIS statement also applies to the smartphone segment of the firm.

Today we are the No. 3 vendor (in the Central Asia and Pacific [CAP] region) based on the IDC, Ngan said citing the first quarter of calendar 2017 (January to March).

“In CAP, there is mature and emerging market. You can just look at the Philippines as one of the emerging countries where firsttime buyer opportunity is big…is a lot.”

Ngan said based on IDC’s report, “the smartphone business is growing and it is still growing exponentially fast”.

“I’ve attribute that to the fact that there are a lot of first-time buyers of smartphones,” Ngan said. “And these first-time buyers prefer smartphones that are really affordable.”

Lenovo has failed to break into the top 5 vendors of smartphones that IDC said is currently dominated by Chinese brands.

Finnish firm to monitor reaction on Nokia return

H

MD Global Oy’s local business would closely monitor how consumers warm up to the return of the Nokia brand in the handheld device market.

“We’re very much focused on the customers here in the Philippines and how they react to [these Nokia’s new phones], [and] basically, their real life experiences [in using Nokia phones],” China Tanchanco, HMD Global Philippines head of marketing, told the B usiness M irror . “We actually develop our phones based on what our consumers want.”

Tanchanco spoke during the introduction to the Philippines of the iconic Nokia 3310, a handheld device that dominated the market prior to the entry of smartphones.

The company has emphasized the device’s battery life—22-hour talk-time and month-long standby time on a single charge.

“You can put this into your emergency

survival kit if you need to,” said Shannon Mead, HMD Global country manager for Philippines and Singapore.

The 3310, which will be launched along with other Nokia phones, carries a price tag of P2,490 ($50.37 at current exchange rates).

The other devices carrying the brand, Nokia 6, 5 and 3, will be priced at P11, 990, P9,990 and P6,990, respectively. Mead said research is important especially in finding out what consumers are asking for their products.

“One of the examples is when we [have] consumer research on Android, they [are] telling us the things that bother them,” Mead said. “[So] when we look on our strategy, you know, with Android, we’re really addressing those things.”

The International Data Corp. has said that Androids capture roughly 85 percent of the worldwide smartphone volume. Mary Noll Christine P. Caadyang