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TANKS, BOMBS, GUNS, SMOKE, MARTIAL LAW FAIL TO SPOOK THE MARKET

Investors unperturbed by spate of violence Philippine Marines salute at the flag-draped caskets of eight of the 13 Marines killed in the battle with Muslim militants in Marawi City, after being flown to Villamor Air Force base in Pasay City on June 11. AP/Bullit Marquez

O

By VG Cabuag

day and shares of Travellers International Hotel Group Inc. of businessman Andrew Tan plunged 8 percent to P3.13.

These were the two events that may have—but failed—to rock the market, and scuttle its upward trend during the past months that left some analysts wondering.

n the day the Islamic State (IS)-inspired Maute terror group launched the Marawi City siege on May 23, most people thought stock-market prices would fall.

It did not happen.

During that week, the market gave up points just once, with the benchmark Philippine Stock Exchange index (PSEi) falling by just 4.16 points to 7,867.49 days later after the fighting started.

Martial law—a development usually dreaded by investors—was declared, yet the market was not shaken.

It was the same story during

the following week, with the market further gaining points toward the all-time high for the year at 8,000-point level.

On that same week on June 2, however, a lone gunman attacked Resorts World Manila (RWM).

There were dozens of casualties, but mainly from suffocation from smoke, as the gunman attempted to torch the casino.

The market finally fell on that

Positive outlook

President Duterte salutes at the flagdraped casket of Marine 1Lt. Raymond Abad as he condoles with relatives during ceremony at Villamor Air Force base on June 11. AP/Bullit Marquez

“The positive outlook of investors accounts for the resilience of the market and its growth in May,” according to a paper called “Capital Markets Research” by the First Metro Investments Corp. and University of Asia and the Pacific.

Not even the lower-thanexpected first-quarter GDP of 6.4 percent announced earlier in May failed to make a dent in the market.

“The local bourse continued its upswing, albeit moderated, as investors, especially foreign ones, paid little heed to the Marawi

terrorist attack and the lowerthan-expected first-quarter GDP growth. Rather they used their liquidity to buy-in on downturns,” the paper said.

Investors were actually more focused on international events in their trading, such as falling longterm US interest rates that reflect growing skepticism on the ability of US President Donald J. Trump to ramp up fiscal spending in the world’s biggest economy.

“[Investors are] less concerned about local inflation in the face of weakening crude-oil prices supported that sustained gains. Corporate earnings came in respectably, mostly in line with analysts’ consensus,” it said.

Mixed responses

Luis Limlingan, head of research of broker Regina Capital and Development Corp., said the See “Investors,” A2

Grow your own food in the city ometimes the key to food security is just right around the corner, especially for urban dwellers. And the Department of Agriculture (DA) believes so.

The agriculture department is now encouraging residents of urban areas to plant their own organic produce as an alternative key to achieve food security.

“This is a possible alternative in addressing our production woes.

In fact, one of our concerns today

is the shrinking hectarage of farm lands,” Agriculture Undersecretary for Special Concerns Ranibai Dalingalen said.

“Our theme is ‘Sa Maliit na Epasyo, May Pagkain Tayo [Grow food in small land space].’ We are encouraging our residents in the

PESO exchange rates n US 50.3270

urban areas to plant because when we produce our own vegetables we do not only harvest healthy vegetables, but we could also earn additional income,” Dalingalen said.

The DA recently launched its urban agriculture and feeding program, dubbed as “Urban Agriculture-Pagkain Para sa Masa”, with Dalingalen spearheading the program.

“This is consistent with the goal of the Department of Agriculture to ensure sufficient, nutritious and affordable food to urban-poor families,” Agriculture Secretary Emmanuel F. Piñol said in DA Memorandum Order 18.

“It is the policy of the state to empower its constituency by enhancing their capability to produce See “Food,” A2

n japan 0.4521 n UK 63.8297 n HK 6.4536 n CHINA 7.3612 n singapore 36.2091 n australia 37.9516 n EU 56.1398 n SAUDI arabia 13.4184

Boonsom|dreamstime.com

S

By Jasper Emmanuel Y. Arcalas

Source: BSP (23 June 2017 )

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A2 Saturday, June 24, 2017

Investors…

Continued from a1

Marawi incident also posed “quite a challenge” on the market, although it got mixed responses.

“On one hand, the battle has still been ongoing, but on the other, the military has been quite aggressive at trying to contain the situation. The areas that are also affected are presumed not to hamper the country’s growth. This, however, is still contingent on how much of the fighting can be contained, and how speedy this would end,” he said.

The attack on RWM battered the shares of Travellers, which canceled its annual stockholders’ meeting as a result of the incident.

The company, however, has now recovered to become one of the top stock picks, as its price is now cheaper, while the gaming sector remained robust. It is now trading at P3.38 per share.

“Investors were quick to rationalize that the event was not a terrorist act, rather an isolated case.

Furthermore, the hotel has already begun operations, while the casino operations are still being held under investigation. Following the news, there were several reports that the Philippines’s total GGR [gross gaming revenues] as of the first quarter grew by 48 percent, which was rather encouraging,” Limlingan said.

Setback for Mindanao

For now, the most immediate

Food…

effect will be on how Manila-based firms will be encouraged to expand in the Mindanao area, where development has been scarce for the last few decades.

Jose Victor Paterno, president of Philippine Seven Corp., which holds the master franchise of 7-Eleven stores in the country, said the company may still pursue its push to expand to Mindanao, but it will have to avoid the eastern part of Mindanao, where most of the conflicts have erupted, including Marawi City.

Retailer Wilcon Depot Inc., meanwhile, said it is still confident on the Philippine economy even with the ongoing conflict in Mindanao, and is pushing through with its store openings in Zamboanga City and Cagayan de Oro City this year.

William Belo, the company’s chairman, said the two Mindanao stores form part of seven stores to be opened around the country this year that include Iloilo, Tacloban and Bacolod City in the Visayas, and Cabanatuan City and Silang, Cavite, in Luzon.

“We’ve been operating for 40 years. We’ve gone through so many ups and downs, crises during the 1970s, 1980s. You have the martial-law years; then the Asian financial crisis during the 1990s, yet we survived. So in our case I don’t see any external factor that will significantly affect us. And

Continued from a1

their own food through adoption of various means of vegetables and other alternative staple-crop production,” Piñol added.

Major components

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The DA’s urban-agriculture program of the current administration has three components: urban gardening training skills; mushroom culture; and feeding program. These three components make the current administration’s urban-agriculture

program different from before, according to Dalingalen.

“We have a training component wherein we will distribute seedlings to our urban residents.

We are going to put up communal farms in every identified area that would serve as demonstration farms and learning sites for our residents,” she said.

Dalingalen also said the DA, through its attached agency, Agricultural Training Institute (ATI),

Indonesian National Police Chief Tito Karnavian (from left), Philippine National Police Chief Ronald M. dela Rosa and Royal Malaysia Police Inspector General Khalid Abu Bakar link arms together prior to the start of their Trilateral Security Meeting in Pasay City on June 22. The Philippines, Indonesia and Malaysia plan to closely cooperate to halt the flow of militants, weapons, funds and extremist propaganda across their borders as they expressed alarm over recent attacks in their countries. AP/Bullit Marquez

internally we are well prepared for all these eventualities. I don’t see any factor that could really affect [us], except if it’s an international crisis,” Belo said.

Better than last year

The LT Group Inc., where most of the businesses of tycoon Lucio Tan are being held, said it expects the business environment this year to be better than the previous year, with the Duterte ad-

would provide urban-gardening skills training for city residents.

Dalingalen added that under the feeding program component of the project, the department will distribute gourmix—a porridge rich in vitamins—in partner local government unit (LGU) communities.

“We will also introduce aquaponics and hydroponics to our urban residents. In hydroponics you will not anymore need land for cultivation, it will only require water,” the official said.

“Meanwhile, aquaponics is

ministration’s infrastructure plan providing a boost.

Company President Michael Tan said the government’s infrastructure plan will increase employment, especially in the countryside, which, in turn, will increase the purchasing power, resulting in continued demand for the group’s products. But a lingering concern is the stiff competition and rising inflation that may translate to higher costs.

sort of having an artifical fishpond where you can grow tilapia, which you could utilize for consumption or to sell if you have an excess supply. The Amas [Agribusiness and Marketing Assistance Service] will help our residents to market their excess produce,” the official added.

Targeting the youth

Dalingalen also said the DA is also seeking an agreement with the Department of Education to revive the Gulayan sa Paaralan (School vegetable gardening) project to entice young ones into urban agriculture.

Liquid market Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Teresita Herbosa said she believes that the country’s fundamentals—for now —have been helping weather the crisis.

“If you have a liquid market and that people are confident about the performance of the companies, you have corporate governance in place, measures to protect investors’ rights, even incidents like we have in the news right now will not really

The DA launched its urbanagriculture program in Barangay Bahay Toro in Quezon City, which would serve as the pilot area and model communal farm for the project. The department is eyeing to identify 30 partner-communities in the National Capital Region for the program, according to Dalingalen.

Proper implementation

Earlier, Sen. Cynthia A. Villar told the BusinessMirror that the government should establish more urban gardens and roll out

affect the market. All these points to a more stable market,” Herbosa said.

Herbosa believes that the PSEi may not end at the 8,000-point level by the end of the year, with all what’s happening both local and international fronts.

“I’m even more worried if it reaches 10,000 points immediately. I’m not really sure if we can reach 8,000 within the year. It’s a good [sign]. A slow, but sure, growth,” she said.

more agriculture-related programs in cities to boost the country’s food supply.

Villar, chairman of the Senate Committee on Agriculture and Food, said urban gardening could help augment food supply in cities, particularly when farms in rural areas are hit by natural disasters.

“The Philippines is the most disaster-prone country in the world.

It’s not surprising if later on our provinces would be hit by disasters and they are not able to bring in their produce to Metro Manila,” Villar said in an earlier interview.

“It’s better that we also have our own food production in the Metro Manila, so if that situation happens we are self-sustaining in terms of our food. It’s time to make a serious effort [to expand] urban gardening in Metro Manila,” she said. While the DA has a number of urban-farming programs, Villar noted that these are not being implemented properly.

During the Aquino administration, the DA allocated some P10 million to launch an urban-gardening program. The budget was used for the procurement and distribution of seeds and garden tools, as well as fishing equipment to homeowners, barangays and public schools.

Former Agriculture Secretary Proceso J. Alcala said urban agriculture may not be able to produce all what city dwellers need, but it was a way to increase awareness on agriculture and food security.

For Gerald Sioco, CEO of Quezon City-based Cedarhills Garden Center, urban gardening in the country needs more awareness campaign to entice people to venture into such activity, particularly the youth.

“Urban gardening needs more PR, it needs more hype. Compared to the new generation who are busy right now, it’s unpopular to them.

Unlike the senior ones, it is very popular to most of them,” Sioco told the BusinessMirror in an interview.

“Most of the adults wants to live in farms or to be surrounded with… [greeneries] surrounding [them], when they retire. They want to grow their own produce,” Sioco added.

Sioco pointed out that urban gardening today has become easier than ever due to the advancement of technology and availability of convenient planting materials.

“We want to tell the people that there is a way to make it easy for you to adjust to urban gardening with your lifestyle—no matter what your lifestyle is. If your problem is time, space, container, sunlight or what ever you have there are solutions for it,” he said.

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Malaysian financier believed killed in siege

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he military chief said a Ma laysian militant who helped lead and finance the siege in souther n Maraw i Cit y has been killed in one of the setbacks to t he upr ising by loca ls a l ig ned w it h t he Isl a m ic State (IS) group.

Armed Forces of the Philipines Chief of Staff, Gen. Eduardo M. Año told The Associated Press on Friday t h at M a l ay si a n M a h mud bin Ahmad was wounded in the fighting in Marawi last month and died on June 7 of his wounds. A local militant leader, Omarkhayam Maute, also is believed to have been killed in the early days of the violence. Troops are looking for their remains.

A ño, c it ing intel l igence s h a re d b y fore i g n cou n ter pa r ts, says Ma hmud is s u s p e c te d of c h a n ne l i n g more than P30 mil lion ($ 6 0 0 , 0 0 0) f r o m t h e I S g roup to acqu ire f irea r ms, food and other supplies for t he at t ac k.

On Thursday the Philippines, Indonesia and Malaysia agreed to closely cooperate to halt the f low of militants, weapons, funds and extremist propaganda across their borders, as they expressed alarm over recent attacks in the region, including a monthlong siege of a southern Philippine city.

Foreign Secretar y A lan Peter S. Cayetano and his Indonesian and Malaysian counterparts met in Manila with top security officials to discuss a joint plan of action amid the siege of Marawi cit y by mi l itants a l ig ned with the IS group that has left at least 369 combatants and civilians dead.

A s t he I S g roup lo s e s ter r itor y in Sy r ia and Iraq, S out hea st A si a n gover nments wor r y that batt leh a rdened A si a n f ighters, including ones from Indonesi a a nd Ma l aysi a, m ay return to exploit social restiveness, weak law enforcement, a sur feit of i l lega l ar ms and rag ing insurgencies to establish a foothold in the reg ion.

Many wor r y t hat t he siege in Marawi could draw in the returning jihadis.

“We expect that those who will be displaced there will go to Asia and because of the Marawi uprising, the Philippines is like a magnet,” said Año, who took part in the security conference.

Indonesian Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi condemned the attack in Marawi and said her government is ready to help.

“Your challenges are Indonesi a’s c h a l lenges a nd your challenges are also the

challenges of the region,” she said, adding that the threat of ter ror ism is imminent and that “no action is not an option”.

Malaysia’s top diplomat, Anifah Aman, said it’s more diff icu lt now for gover nments to f ight militants, who are willing to die and are harnessing technology and social media to spread their messages faster and recruit followers across the world.

“Motivated by a perverse ideology, terrorists today welcome death for others and also for themselves,” Anifah said.

Cayetano said the three countries agreed to go beyond a m i l it a r y solut ion in dealing with extremists who breed in dismal social conditions. “We take note that drugs, crime, poverty, injustice play a big role in making the ground fertile for recruitment or for radicalizing, especially young people,” Cayetano said.

I n a j o i nt s t a t e m e nt , the three governments expressed “concern over the recent incidents of terrorism and violent extremism in their countries” and said they would plan strategies together to combat them.

They pledged to improve intelligence-sharing about potential threats, stop the f low of militants, funds and weapons, and contain the spread of propaga nd a on social media.

The countries will also discuss how to cooperate in enhancing military and law-enforcement training and help each other promote religious tolerance and moderation, the statement said.

“W hat is important is the help of religious leaders so we can bring them back to moderate, mainstream Islam,” Año said. Southeast Asian foreign ministers will meet later this year to discuss r ising radica lization and violent extremism.

O n May 23 about 50 0 militants, including several Indonesian, Malaysian and other foreig ners, stor med the business d istr ict of Maraw i, a la keside center of the Islamic faith in the sout h of t he l a rge ly R o man Catholic Philippines, ta k ing a pr iest and others hostage, occupy ing buildings and insta l ling Islamic State-st yle black f lags.

Of the 276 militants who have been k il led, at least three were Ma laysians and one came from Indonesia, A ño said. He said the arrest in Ma l aysia l ast week of some militants suspected to be bound for Maraw i illustrated the k ind of crossborder cooperation needed to protect the reg ion . AP

Saturday, June 24, 2017

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Continuity and intuition guide new BSP chief

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n a country in political flux, investors have come to rely on a predictable central bank in the Philippines. Now, with Governor Amando M. Tetangco Jr. handing over the reins to one of his deputies after 12 years, his successor wants to show he is no clone.

Expect policy continuity, but prepare for a new style and approach, said Nestor A. Espenilla Jr., 58, who takes over on July 3. “Nesting”—as he’s known to many—considers himself an intuitive leader as described by Malcolm Gladwell in his book Blink, of which he is a fan. Gladwell argues that split-second decisions in complex situations can be as good as, or even better, than ones made under careful thought.

“Governor Tetangco is a consummate manager,’’ Espenilla said in an interview in Manila. “I’m very intuitive,” he said from his office, where portraits of women entrepreneurs hang on the wall, the main beneficiaries of a microfinance project he championed as a central banker.

“I respond to moments and situations, I trust my instincts,” he said. He balances that with the right dose of pragmatism, he said, having honed his skills at the central bank since the debt crisis in the 1980s.

A self-described libertarian, Espenilla will need to draw on those characteristics to manage a tough environment: he starts his six-year term with an insurgency in the south, an economy facing its first current-account deficit in 15 years and a currency that’s among the worst performers in Asia.

He is also contending with the risk of capital outflows as the US raises interest rates. In Tetangco’s last policy meeting on Thursday, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) held its benchmark rate at a record low of 3 percent.

“While am delighted to succeed him, I know I have very big shoes to fill,” Espenilla said on Tuesday. Espenilla said his decision-making style isn’t a threat to a smooth transition and that his term will be marked by what he calls “continuity plus plus”.

“Nesting will provide continuity but knowing how bright he is, he will also look at the existing policies and find ways to improve them,” said Joey Macadaeg, president of United Coconut Planters Bank, who has known Espenilla since he was a straight-A student in grade school.

New priorities

As head of banking supervision for more than a decade, Espenilla sees room for more reforms. He successfully pushed for a law that eased rules on foreign ownership of banks, required lenders to hold more capital and adopt stricter risk management.

He said his priorities include gradually lowering the amount of funds that banks must hold in reserves without compromising the inflation target, and deepening capital markets. He plans to further loosen currency restrictions.

“I look at it also as a trust game,” Espenilla said. “If you treat people like they can’t be trusted, they won’t be mindful of their responsibilities.”

Speculative behavior is more prevalent “ in a space that’s not open”, he said, rewarding those who can deftly navigate the system. One of Espenilla’s biggest challenges came last year when

Espenilla Veejay Villafranca/Bloomberg

$81 million in stolen reserves from Bangladesh found their way to the Philippines, starting out in bank accounts at Rizal Commercial Banking Corp. (RCBC), then transferred to a couple of foreign-exchange dealers who converted the money to pesos, and later to casinos, where the trail went cold.

RCBC was slapped with a record P1-billion ($20-million) fine and lenders were told to shape up.

Teresita Herbosa, chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission, describes Espenilla’s regulatory strategy as proactive and preventive. He is a consensus builder but isn’t afraid to disagree, she said. The only boy among five children, Espenilla joined the central bank as a debt analyst in 1981 after graduating magna cum laude in economics from the University of the Philippines. He juggled law school while working but knew after a year that he would have to choose one

path. By then, he was considered talented enough to join Governor Jaime Laya on foreign trips, so the choice was easy.

Espenilla crunched numbers and wrote speeches for governors, including Tetangco. His career f lour ished under Teta n gc o’s p r e d e c e s s o r, R a f a e l Buenaventura, who promoted Espenilla three ranks to deputy governor from director.

Family man

Tetangco is largely credited for helping push his promotion to governor, according to central bank watchers. Espenilla wa s one of Tet a ngco’s t hree deputies and was considered the least politically connected among the four main contenders. At home, Espenilla and his wife Tess raised a daughter and two sons in an environment of openness and bonding over the sport of 10-pin bowling, which they still play together at least twice a month.

“He would be strict when he thought he needed to, but he gives us enough” said his son Nikko, who runs an engineering consultancy in Manila. “He doesn’t get angry very often. But when he does, we know we’re in trouble and we understand why.”

At work, simplifying central banking and bringing it closer to the people to achieve financial inclusion is among Espenilla’s key goals.

“I had the great opportunity to promote reforms in the banking system, but that’s not enough,” Espenilla said. “Doing what we’re doing so far in a sense is not enough.

We have to push the envelope.”

Bloomberg News

World’s biggest wind turbine maker sets sights on new markets

T

he CEO of Vestas Wind Sy s t e m s A /S s a y s t h e world ’s biggest wind turbine maker wants to expand in the Middle East, and the AsiaPacific region as it taps into growing demand for renewable energ y in new markets.

Vestas intends to be a “pioneer in new markets”, CEO Anders Runevad said in a phone interview on Thursday. “ T here are markets in the Middle East which we hope will open up, and in A sia Pacific there are markets opening up now or that we have high hopes

for when they open up,” he said. “ T hese markets have grow ing energ y needs.” Vestas this week even introduced a new turbine that will be able to operate during the k inds of t y phoons and tropical storms that can hit the Philippines and Japan.

The comments follow an announcement earlier this week that Vestas expects to start operating in Russia, where the Danish company is planning facilities after winning contracts to supply turbines to Fortum.

“Russia has a lot of potential,” Runevad said. “We have always

been good at pioneering wind in new markets and have been good when we come in early.” He estimates the country “can become a good midsized market.”

The company is moving into new regions as the political landscape grows less certain. Investors sold Vestas shares earlier this month after President Donald J. Trump announced he was pulling the US out of the Paris climate accord. Vestas has since said the move won’t prompt it to alter its North American strategy as the all-important production tax credit, which provides an

incentive for renewable energy producers, stays in place for the foreseeable future. “ The US will continue to be the second-biggest market globally for the foreseeable future,” Runevad said. “You could argue that looking very long ahead, India could challenge.”

“In China there’s an increase in electricity demand,” he said. “It continues to be the biggest market not only for wind, but also for other forms of energy. We’re definitely getting traction and we definitely improve our position.”

Runevad said Vestas wants to

be the biggest foreign wind company in China, but acknowledged it probably won’t be able to dominate that market in the same way it does other regions.

To chase growth, the company is also focusing heavily on generating revenue from servicing turbines, which Vestas expects to continue to outgrow the market for new turbines.

“That’s why we’ve put a lot of focus on the service segment,” Runevad said.

Over the past two years, Vestas has bought German service provider Availon for €88 million

($98 million) and UpWind in the US for $60 million.

“The two acquisitions we’ve done were the biggest independent service providers that existed in the market,” Runevad said. “If we can find something similar that has a reasonable scale, we are definitely interested in looking at that.”

“Integration is going well, we’re a bit ahead of our internal plan,” he said. “We feel now the integration is well in place. It’s definitely part of the strategy if we can find bolt-on strategies in that space”.

Bloomberg News

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$100-billion Chinese city in the sea near Singapore hit by capital controls

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he $100-billion city rising from the sea next to Singapore has hit a roadblock: China’s capital controls. The dream of a Malaysian version of Shenzhen—largely funded

by Chinese developers and buyers— with hotels, offices, golf courses, tech parks and thousands of ritzy new apartments, is having to adapt after China’s government clamped down on an exodus of money for investment in overseas property.

Developers’ sales offices in China that once brought in buyers by the hundreds are now pushing developments in Chinese cities.

Subsidized junkets that flew in prospective buyers to development sites in the southern Malaysian state of Johor have dwindled. And some buyers who paid deposits for yet-to-be-built homes are considering canceling their purchases.

“I feel I’m on the horns of a dilemma,” said Michelle Gao, who paid about 600,000 yuan ($87,825) toward the 1.2- million yuan cost of a two-bedroom apartment at Country Garden Holdings Co.’s vast Forest City development. “If the project relies so much on Chinese buyers like me, how on earth are they able to sell in future? Will the construction ever finish?”

$87,825

The cost of a two-bedroom apartment at Country Garden Holdings Co.’s Forest City The crackdown on outflows of money from China has spooked some buyers. While Chinese citizens are allowed an annual foreign exchange quota of $50,000, the government said in December that all buyers of foreign exchange must sign a pledge that they won’t use their quotas for offshore property investment. Violators would be added to a watch list, denied access to foreign currency for three

years and be subject to a moneylaundering investigation.

The restriction threatens to take the wind out of residential property sales in cities around the world where prices have been driven in the past few years by buyers from China. Few projects are likely to be affected as much as the Chinese-financed developments in Johor, some of which had relied on mainland customers for as much as 90 percent of sales.

Six Chinese buyers interviewed for this story said they paid a 10 -percent dow n pay ment to Country Garden in showrooms in China by swiping debit or credit cards or using payment services like Alipay. They said the property agents are now telling them they need to go to Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia or Macau to swipe their cards to pay the balance of installments, or wire funds to Country Garden’s overseas accounts.

Many are worried that would still make them liable under China’s foreign exchange rules. This month, the Chinese government said domestic banks will have to provide daily reports of clients’ overseas transactions of more than 1,000 yuan.

“I was told it can still be done from Hong Kong, but I’m just scared now,” said buyer Elaine Xiao. “I don’t know what punishment I may get.”

Country Garden said the controls have not had a material effect on sales and construction at Forest City is continuing. It has completed a luxury hotel and handed over the first batch of 132

apartments on May 1. The Johor developments stem from Iskandar Malaysia, a government effort to leverage Singapore’s success by building a new metropolis near the causeway that connects the island state to the Malaysian city of Johor Bahru. When the 20-year project was announced in 2006, it envisaged a total investment of 383 billion ringgit ($87 billion) and much of the early investment came from Singapore.

But then Chinese developers like Country Garden and Greenland Holdings Group Co. moved in with projects that dwarfed those of their Malaysian and Singaporean rivals. Country Garden’s “Forest City” alone called for a $100 billion high-rise town to be built on artificial islands within a few hundred yards of Singapore.

The projects were marketed in China, and thousands paid deposits for apartments that cost as much as double the rate per square meter of homes for Malaysian buyers in Johor Bahru.

A buyer whose family name is Yu said she doesn’t intend to pay the next installment on her apartment when it comes due this month. She said her agent advised her to swipe her credit card in Hong Kong to get around the rules. “I asked the sales agent will you take responsibility when I’m blacklisted in China?”

Yu, from Guangzhou, put down a deposit on a 1.2 million yuan, 59-square-meter apartment in Phase III of the project while visiting the vast landscaped sales gallery at the construction site in

December. She’s among those now considering walking away from the agreement because of concern about breaking the rules.

Country Garden announced on June 20 it would proceed with stage 2 of the Forest City development, a $280 million plan that includes golf courses, an international school and another hotel.

The developer said in April it was in discussion with fewer than 60 Chinese buyers who indicated their intention to cancel bookings. The company said it sold 16,000 residential units in Forest City last year.

Country Garden said earlier it had stopped marketing Forest City in its sales galleries in China and ceased organizing tours to its Johor projects for would-be buyers.

Its agents in China are pushing domestic projects in the country’s tropical southern resort of Sanya and the seaside city of Beihai.

The developer said it has opened Forest City showrooms in Singapore, Kuala Lumpur and Jakarta, and plans to open more this year in Vietnam, Myanmar, Taiwan, Thailand, Japan, Dubai, the Philippines and Laos.

Construction at Greenland’s Jade Palace development was suspended in November while the company considered revising the project density to build more, but smaller apartments, according to a sales agent with knowledge of the project. No construction work was going on during a weekday visit to the site in May. In a response to written questions, Greenland said on June 3

that construction had not stopped and that the design of the apartments will be optimized pending feedback from previous buyers. It declined to give sales figures, but said it is looking for more buyers outside China.

Samuel Tan, executive director at KGV International Property Consultants, said approvals for all new serviced apartments in Johor have been frozen since 2014 and existing projects were introducing more affordable properties at around 600,000 ringgit instead of 800,000 to 1 million ringgit.

“Given the oversupply, we don’t foresee any recovery until 2019 for high-rise projects,” Tan said. He said China’s capital controls were only significant to the Chineseowned projects.

The glut of properties being built in Johor has also affected local developers, Petaling Jayabased Tropicana Corp. is giving a 25 percent rebate on the list price of homes they are marketing an interest-free, 36-month deferred pay ment plan. Resa le ask ing prices of properties in Johor have dropped 2 percent in the past two years, according to real-estate listings web site PropertyGuru.com.

Yu, the buyer from Guangzhou, worries that the thousands of apartments still to be built at Forest City will be hard to sell without Chinese buyers.

“My home is still in the ocean,” Yu said. “Locals will not buy homes with prices double the local rate.

Without enough residents from China, everything will change.”

Bloomberg News

The costs of A ‘ merica First’: What if others won’t bend N

ationalist politicians come in many varieties, from blustering to downright scary, but most share a common flaw: They forget, or do not care enough, that foreigners have politics, too.

The marrow-deep hopes, fears and grievances of their own citizens fascinate them. All too often, though, nationalist and populist leaders behave as if other countries are bloodless technocracies, guided by coolly weighed interests.

President Donald J. Trump is guilty of this error whenever he predicts that other governments will bend to his will because they know what is good for them.

Whether demanding that allies pay more for their own security, browbeating commercial rivals or menacing geopolitical adversaries, Trump seems sure that, once foreign rulers realize that he is serious about putting America first, and once they calculate the costs of defying him, they will swallow their pride and obey. He is oddly incurious about foreign publics.

A European ambassador recently reported an instructive tale. Last November 9, a day after Trump won the presidency, top officials held a crisis meeting in the envoy’s capital to discuss their country’s defense spending, which falls short of the target agreed to by North Atlantic Treaty Organization (Nato) members, which is 2 percent of GDP. “We’re screwed,” the officials concluded, or words to that effect. We want this alarming new president to stand by Nato, so we are going to have to find more money for tanks, planes and bombs.

Then came the Nato summit in Brussels on May 25. On the eve of the summit, American diplomats briefed the envoy’s government that Trump would, after months

President Donald J. Trump (center) speaks, as first lady Melania Trump (left), Vice President Mike Pence and his wife Karen Pence, listen at the Congressional Picnic on the South Lawn of the White House on Thursday in Washington. AP

of equivocation, formally commit himself to Article 5, the mutualdefense clause that anchors the alliance. To the dismay of the assembled leaders, however, Trump left that line out of his speech, instead scolding them for owing “massive” sums to Nato. It wasn’t until a press conference on June 9 that he finally endorsed Article 5.

Soon after that Brussels summit, the same group of government mandarins convened in their European capital again, and this time their politica l calculations had changed.

“Screw Trump, we’re not going to spend another cent on defense”, they agreed, or words to that effect. “Our voters despise this American president. As for the biggest European leaders, Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany

distrusts him and President Emmanuel Macron of France dislikes him. So we’re off the hook.”

Americans may be forgiven for finding this tale frustrating. Many European countries are free-riders when it comes to defense. Indeed, though President Barack Obama never used the phrase “America First”, he was vocal about prodding allies to take more responsibility for their own security, so that America could wind down costly overseas wars and start nationbuilding at home.

Where the current president brea ks new g round is in his willingness to offend foreign publics, and to bet everything on deal-making with national leaders. Trump and close aides concede that it once was shrewd public policy to help war-ravaged

nations, from Europe to Japan, to rebuild and prosper as allies, markets and bulwarks against communism. Trump believes, however, that foreign governments have abused that generosity, aided and abetted by stupid, weak and feckless American leaders, so now it is time to become more ruthless and selfish.

In June the German Marshall Fund, a think tank, gathered American, Chinese and European diplomats, officials, politicians and analysts for the “Stockholm China Forum”, a biannual conference.

Among other questions, the forum considered whether Europe or China might come forward to lead the liberal, international world order if America tires of that task.

Since Trump came to power, optimists have suggested that

his boldest America First moves, such as withdrawing from the Paris climate-change accords or abandoning the planned TransPacific Partnership, a trade pact w ith 11 Asia-Pacific nations, might prompt other powers to unite and promote global goods without him. The most starryeyed watched a speech defending globalization given by President Xi Jinping of China to the World Economic Forum, and saw a new global leader emerge.

Not so fast, was the gloomy message from the Stock holm forum. Without American leadership, squabbling self-interest remains the rule. At a summit this month with the European Un ion (EU ), C h i nese envoys made clear that their country is more interested in the trappings

of global leadership than in the responsibilities that go with it.

Asked to help on climate change, China reverted to arguments about being a developing country that can do only so much.

Warm talk about trade cannot conceal the barriers that shield China’s domestic markets.

At a summit in April with X i, Trump thought he had secured personal assurances to put unprecedented pressure on North Korea to stop developing nuclear weapons and missiles that could carr y them to American soil. A las, X i appears to fear the collapse of North Korea on his border more than he fears displeasing Trump—especially given the need for domestic stability ahead of a reshuff le of Chinese leaders later this year.

Tr ump seems to have overestimated his persona l bond w ith X i, telephoning him so often to ask about Korea coop eration that Chinese officia ls grumbled to American contacts that their president is “not our Nor th Korean desk officer”.

On June 20 Trump tweeted something between an admission of failure and a warning that he is losing patience: “While I greatly appreciate the efforts of President Xi & China to help with North Korea, it has not worked out. At least I know China tried!”

As for the EU, it failed to reach a common position on Chinese human-rights abuses at a United Nations meeting this month. EU unity was blocked by Greece, a recipient of hefty Chinese investment and run by populists sworn to put Greeks first. A looming America-EU trade battle over steel could turn nasty.

As Trump is finding out, America has no monopoly on nationalist grievances. New York Times News Service

Sports BusinessMirror

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

Saturday, June 24, 2017

A5

BRINGING WASHINGTON TOGETHER, FOR A NIGHT

By Matt Flegenheimer New York Times News Service

W

ASHINGTON—The capital power brokers filed into an elementary school lot, beyond barricades covered in wrinkled advertisements.

On the diamond, the players warmed up beside a giant-headed Abraham Lincoln mascot with a slightly menacing smile. Off it, heavily armed security guards lined the grounds.

“It has that small-town feel to it,” said Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, Republican-Florida, a semi-reluctant outfielder in Wednesday evening’s annual softball game between the women of Congress and the women of the Fourth Estate. “It just feels like Anytown, USA.” It doesn’t, exactly.

But for a moment, in this city of irrepressible cynicism and occasionally rose-colored outfield sunglasses, it could look like it—at least for the game’s truest believers.

For the second time in two weeks, a collection of proudly self-identifying members of the Washington establishment—elected officials, journalists and generally well-meaning creatures of the Trump-era swamp—gathered at a ballfield for a showdown that felt more meaningful than usual.

Last week the Congressional Baseball Game drew more than 24,000 people to Nationals Park to watch Democratic lawmakers prevail over their Republican counterparts. The game came the day after a gunman opened fire at the Republican team’s practice in Alexandria, Virginia, striking four people, including Rep. Steve Scalise of Louisiana, the House majority whip. Scalise is still recovering; MedStar Washington Hospital Center said on Wednesday that his condition had been upgraded to “fair” and that he was making “good progress”.

The game last week amounted to a brief catharsis, perhaps a very brief one, mixing cheers and tears and bipartisan beer-guzzling in the name of collective anguish.

The contest on Wednesday was different, the emotions considerably less raw. Neither team had been shot at the day before.

But one week out, the shooting has kept the capital suspended in a moment of broader reckoning—not uncommon, distressingly, in recent

Meralco vs Laguna, Ceres faces Makati

M

ERALCO Manila and Ceres Negros face separate foes today hoping to bounce back from a draw and a loss, respectively, in the Philippines Football League (PVL).

Meralco faces Stallion Laguna anew at 4 p.m. at the Rizal Memorial Stadium, while Ceres Negros hosts Kaya-Makati at 7 p.m. at the Pana-ad Football Stadium in Bacolod City.

Both squads failed to snatch victories in their previous outings.

Meralco’s winning run was halted at five by a Davao Aguilas side that forced a 2-2 draw on Wednesday at the Davao del Norte Sports Complex in Tagum City.

Ceres, on the other hand, lost to JPV Marikina, 1-2, last week.

The Sparks will try to pad their 16 points built on five wins and one draw and keep hold of the top spot. They routed Stallion Laguna, 5-1, in the league’s inaugurals in May in Biñan City.

Ceres Negros tries to add to its four points (one win, one draw and one loss). The Busmen and Kaya Makati settled for a 1-1 draw also on opening day at the University of Makati Stadium.

Kaya is in fourth place with 10 points on three wins, a draw and two losses. The Makati Club also seeks redemption from its recent 0-2 home setback to Manila Meralco last week, while Stallion is still hunting for its first win after losing thrice and settling for draw twice.

Lance Agcaoili

UNBEATEN

Foton’s Jaja Santiago looks unstoppable at the net against Generika-Ayala’s Angeli Pauline Araneta (left) and Mikaela Lopez to help the Tornadoes post a 19-25, 20-25, 25-18, 25-15, 15-7 victory in the Philippine Superliga All-Filipino Conference last Thursday night at the Filoil Flying V Centre in San Juan. The victory was the fifth straight for Foton, while Generika dropped to a 2-3 won-loss card. ALYSA SALEN

years. It called to mind the aftermath of tragedies past, like the Sandy Hook massacre of 2012 and the shooting of Gabrielle Giffords, then a congresswoman from Arizona, in 2011. Giffords was herself a member of the softball team when she served in the House.

“I think people are feeling very—what’s the right word?—almost wrung out,” said Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, Democrat-New York, an outfielder and a pitcher. “There’s been so much violence. It’s a climate of hate.”

Since its inception in 2009, the softball game has distinguished itself from the men’s affair by placing Republicans and Democrats on the same team, pitting them against members of the news media. (A disclosure: Three New York Times journalists—three talented and competitive New York Times journalists—play for the team, and a fourth coaches.)

The event raises money for the Young Survival Coalition, an advocacy group for women with breast-cancer. One of the game’s cofounders, Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, Democrat-Florida, is a breast cancer survivor.

“There are only 535 of us,” Wasserman Schultz said of Congress, as a country singer, Kalie Shorr, completed a sound check for the midgame entertainment—a performance of “Fight Like a Girl”. “We’re all in this together.”

There are more important things than softball going on in Washington, not least the discussions over a closely guarded Senate health bill that is set to be unveiled this week, with its attendant effects on about one-sixth of the US economy.

But for years, lawmakers have spoken of this athletic tradition in near-reverent terms, recalling friendships deepened and legislative partnerships forged in a Capitol often bereft of bygone comity.

The shooting last week, said one team member, Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, Republican-West Virginia, “reminded us of why we do this”.

“It matters,” Gillibrand added. “And it has always mattered.”

The accommodations have long been considerably more modest than the men’s game, which is played in a Major League stadium.

On Wednesday evening, among the moldering football practice

MEMBERS of the Congressional team take a selfie with House Speaker Paul Ryan (Republican-Wisconsin) and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (Democrat-California). NYT

equipment and overstuffed bleachers, the sides played before a near-sellout crowd of more than 2,500.

“Hi, ladies,” Ros-Lehtinen said, clasping hands with a volunteer in a highlighter yellow shirt.

“Mucho fun.”

Speaker Paul D. Ryan strolled behind home plate, warmly greeting members of the journalists’ team.

(It was, as ever, a complicated day for politician-press relations at the Capitol: Earlier on Wednesday, a new Republican member, Rep. Greg Gianforte of Montana, was sworn in, less than two weeks after pleading guilty to

assaulting a reporter.)

The journalists’ team secured a 2-1 victory when, with the tying run on third and two outs, Gillibrand was tagged out at second in the final inning.

Attendees seemed inclined to support both squads, for one evening anyway. Sara Akbar, 42, a government

affairs employee, came with her 2-year-old son, Kayed.

She has attended four softball games but never the men’s game, objecting to its partisan teams.

“Build them to be feminists now,” Akbar said, kicking a Disney-themed soccer ball with her son. “They have no choice, really.”

INTEL SIGNS UP AS MAJOR OLYMPIC SPONSOR ‘TIL 2024

A

S part of its mission to attract younger fans, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) announced a sponsorship deal on Wednesday with Intel, which will bring virtual reality and 360-degree viewing to mobile devices and TVs as soon as next year’s Winter Games.

The IOC has been aggressive in introducing new sports and disciplines to the Olympics: snowboarding and freestyle skiing on the winter side, with surfing, skateboarding and 3-on-3 basketball coming to summer.

Now, it’s a matter of getting kids to watch it all.

Olympic viewership has been trending toward an older audience for more than a decade, and IOC President Thomas Bach said “I got really concerned, because then, you have to ask yourself, ‘Why?’” “We could see from about 2012 on that it was very much a question about the platform,” Bach said in an interview with The Associated Press. “The youth just weren’t watching as much TV as they used to in the past.”

The deal covers next year’s Olympics through 2024.

Intel, which has been partnering with sports organizations to show the potential of its technology, plans to provide real-time virtual-reality viewing for the Pyeongchang Olympics, and will also offer drone technology to give viewers before unseen views of

events and opening and closing ceremony.

Intel will also bring 5G wireless technology to the games “because we have to get the feed off the mountain, or off the drone, or whatever it is, and down to the broadcaster,” CEO Brian Krzanich said.

“You don’t have the other [technologies] without the 5G,” Krzanich said.

The Intel announcement comes a week after the IOC severed its sponsorship deal with McDonald’s, even though the deal had three years left.

IOC Managing Director of Television and Marketing Services Timo Lumme said the committee is still analyzing whether it wants to stay in the so-called retail food market.

Clearly, the Intel deal made the McDonald’s decision an easier one for the IOC, which is signing new sponsors to its top-tier sponsorship program at around $200 million for four years—double the value of the old ones.

“With McDonald’s, it’s very easy,” Bach said. “They are changing and we are changing and this is why we agreed on going different ways.”

He called it “a mutual agreement at the right time”.

“With Intel, here today, this is a novel step, and it’s a milestone in achieving our goals” of bringing more young people to the Olympics, Bach said. AP

Germany mulling to invite China U-20 team to participate in fourth tier meet

B

ERLIN—The German soccer federation is mulling over a proposal to allow China’s under-20 team to compete in the fourth tier of its league system.

Because the Southwest Regional League is comprised of 19 clubs, each currently has two match-days free that can be used for friendly games. The one-off action would allow China’s under-20 team to prepare for the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo.

“Nothing has been fixed yet, but the clubs are all in favor,” league president Felix Wiedemann told The Associated Press on Thursday. “There’s a lot of interest in it. It’s important to say that there will be no points at stake, so it won’t influence the outcome of the league.”

Clubs would receive about €15,000 ($16,700) in compensation for two home games against the Chinese side, if the plan is approved. The Chinese are planning on a base near Heidelberg in the state of BadenWuerttemberg.

Southwest Regional League members are meeting on July 11, when a decision will likely be made in consultation with the German soccer federation, Wiedemann said. The league kicks off at the end of the month.

China and Germany agreed to a five-year soccer partnership last November, aimed at developing the game in China with training and other programs. AP

A6

BusinessMi

Saturday, June 24, 2017 | Editor: Jun Lomibao

IS REPORT A ‘WHITEWASH’?

J

ESS VARNISH has criticized the independent review into British Cycling and said that it was “laughable” that she was labeled as a troublemaker by coaches in the final version of the report.

“I am insulted,”Varnish told The Times. “In a way, I’m glad they have used this language because it shows what the people are like in there [British Cycling]. Anyone who knows me knows I am not a troublemaker or ringleader. No one has ever been removed from the program the way I was.”

The Cycling Independent Review was triggered when Varnish made allegations of sexism against British Cycling Technical Director Shane Sutton after she was dropped from the Olympic squad. Varnish said Sutton had informed of her removal by telling her to “go and have a baby”.

Varnish and her sprint partner Katy Marchant had criticized coaching staff in an interview at the Track Worlds in London in March 2016 when they fell short of qualifying for the Olympics. The review acknowledged that “the relevant interview was the ‘tipping-point’ which led to JV not having her membership of the WCP [World Class Program]

renewed”. Coaches reportedly told the review panel that Varnish “was perceived as the ‘ring-leader’ for the criticism against WCP coaching staff”.

“I was never called a troublemaker or a ringleader to my face,” Varnish said. “It’s an emotional thing to say. How do they quantify that and what do they mean by it?”

According to The Times, Varnish’s legal team is considering further action in the wake of the report, which acknowledges that “good governance was lacking at BC Board level in relation to how it managed the culture and behaviors within the WCP”. A draft version of the report leaked in March, however, was amended in the intervening period, including the claim that the board had sanitized an internal inquiry into Varnish’s allegations.

Passages critical of Team Sky Manager Dave Brailsford, who was also British Cycling performance director until 2014, have also been removed, following a process of “Maxwellisation”, in which those named in the draft report were able to present dispute or counter its contents.

Cyclingnews

HEIN VERBRUGGEN was the International Cycling Union president from 1991 to 2005.

Verbruggen loses battle with leukemia

F

ORMER International Cycling Union (UCI) President Hein Verbruggen has died at the age of 75. He passed away two weeks ago after battling leukemia.

The Dutchman was the president of cycling’s governing body between 1991 and 2005, and was appointed honorary chairman following his retirement, a position he held until his death.

Verbruggen took over as president from Luis Puig in 1991 and was succeeded by Pat McQuaid. His 15 years at the helm the UCI coincided with a period in professional road cycling in which doping was rife, with the Festina Affair in 1998 seeing things reach crisis point, and Lance Armstrong going on to win seven straight Tour de France titles, all of which would later be stripped from the record books.

The repercussions continued well into Verbruggen’s time as honorary president, as Armstrong’s doping was laid bare by a US Anti-Doping Agency investigation in 2012.

Most damaging to Verbruggen’s legacy and reputation was testimony from former

Armstrong teammates, Floyd Landis, Tyler Hamilton and Jonathan Vaughters, who all swore under oath that Armstrong told them he could have anti-doping tests nullified by the UCI. Verbruggen often had to resort to the courts to defend his reputation from corruption allegations, notably winning a protracted and fractious defamation case against the Irish journalist Paul Kimmage.

After Brian Cookson succeeded McQuaid as UCI president, Verbruggen came close to losing his honorary title. He was criticized by the Cycling Independent Reform Commission report of 2015, but lodged a complaint with the International Olympic Committee Ethics Commission and held on to his title against Cookson’s will.

Cookson publicly extended his condolences on Wednesday, writing on Twitter: “I am sad to hear of the passing of Hein Verbruggen and offer my sincere personal condolences to his family and friends.” Cyclingnews

Nobody wants to see or run the risk of equipment failure at the Tour de France, so more and more 2018 products have become commonplace at the Criterium du Dauphine in recent years.

Specialized Tarmac SL6

LANCE ARMSTRONG poses with his US Postal Service teammates.

Armstrong, US government fight over experts in looming fraud case

T

HE US federal “whistle-blower” case against Lance Armstrong is set to go to trial in November, and Armstrong’s attorneys and those of the US government are already locked in battle over what experts each side will be allowed to call upon for testimony.

Armstrong was the target of a federal False Claims Act lawsuit brought by former teammate Floyd Landis in 2010 under the assertion that the former cycling star’s doping constituted fraud against the government.

Should he lose, Armstrong could owe up to $100 million, and Landis would be due a cut of the damages.

Armstrong won the Tour de France in 1999, and with owners Tailwind Sports subsequently negotiated a larger sponsorship deal for the 2000 season. Armstrong fended off multiple accusations of doping throughout

his seven-year Tour de France run, but escaped punishment until 2012, when the US AntiDoping Agency issued an official anti-doping rule violation against him and five others.

Armstrong was stripped of his seven Tour de France titles and banned, then subsequently confessed to doping in 2013.

The government asserts that the US Postal Service’s sponsorship had no value because Armstrong and some of his teammates doped, then lied about it to keep the money coming in.

Armstrong’s attorneys have long argued that the US Postal Service got far more in marketing value from its sponsorship than the $32.2 million it paid the team from 2000 to 2004.

The government lawyers questioned the competence of Armstrong’s expert witness, Douglas Kidder, who calculated the value of

the US Postal Service exposure thanks to the team at $257 million.

“Mr. Kidder is not competent to testify about earned media in general, much less in the context of the facts of this case,” government attorneys wrote in a court filing, according to USA Today.

“The Court should not permit this testimony to be presented to the jury.”

Armstrong’s lawyers, in turn, want three of the government experts thrown out, including Larry Grebrant, who tallied the media impressions about Armstrong’s doping at 1.5 billion with another 154 billion online impressions. The government refuted their accusations that Gerbrandt is unqualified.

“The government would like to offer Mr. Gerbrandt’s counting exercise and allow the jury to speculate that the USPS suffered harm as a result of the summary and that

FOCUS ON SENEGAL I

NCREASE the popularity of cycling in Senegal, organize mountain bike events to attract youngsters, find partners willing to invest in the sport.

Michel Thioub set himself a tough set of challenges when elected president of the Fédération Sénégalaise de Cyclisme in 2015.

But his immediate objective was to restore and develop the country’s national stage race, the Tour du Senegal. As technical director of the federation for 28 years, Thioub used to organize 45 regional and national races each year. In the early 2000s he revived the dormant Tour du Senegal, which he then organized annually until 2011, when ill-health meant he had to take a step back.

Again, the Tour disappeared.

Thanks to the determination of the new federation president, the Tour du Senegal was restored in 2015, returned to the International Cycling Union Africa Tour calendar in 2016 and in April this year enjoyed another successful edition.

But Race Director Thioub is never satisfied.

“There are always things that can be improved. I am always under pressure and worried about everyone’s well-being but I have had some very positive feedback,” he said.

He said a national tour such as the Tour du Senegal, where local hero Bécaye Traoré finished 10th this year, goes a long way to motivating the population.

“There is a lot of enthusiasm for cycling in Senegal but activity has diminished in the last few years. The Tour du Senegal is very popular, it received good press coverage, school children were released from class to come and watch, and we organized festivities in the evenings after the stages where everyone

could get together.”

He is always on the lookout for ways to add spice to the racing and would dearly like to hold one or two stages in a neighboring country to make a change from Senegal’s largely flat, wind-exposed roads.

“I would like to get away from the routine and innovate. But I have to be prudent as there is always the problem of finance.”

One of the federation president’s biggest handicaps in his work is the lack of money.

“Technically, we are very good. I have been involved in cycling since the 1960s and organized a lot of races. The problem is finance. Cycling is not football and the investment is not the same.”

Looking for race experience Lack of finance also means that the national team is not always

IN Senegal cyclists are in need of more races.

able to accept invitations to race abroad. And with not even 25 events currently organized annually in Senegal, the athletes are lacking race experience.

“A rider should have at least 80 days racing a year and we just can’t manage that,” Thioub said.

Several talented young riders are coming up behind 30-year-old Bécaye Traoré, and Thioub was proud to see his country’s riders right up in the action at the African Continental Championships in Luxor, Egypt, in February. They have also gained experience in Morocco and Gabon, and the President is sure that their experience at these races will lead to even better results next year.

Meanwhile, he means to build Senegal’s cycling future by encouraging younger children to take up the sport.

To do this he will canvass major brands

such harm exceeded the benefits the USPS enjoyed under the sponsorship,” government attorneys wrote. “The jury cannot be allowed to speculate on this critical issue.”

Armstrong has already lost several attempts to have the case thrown out under the argument that the US Postal Service suffered no damages, including a last denial in February by District Court Judge Christopher Cooper.

Cooper determined that a jury should hear both sides and come to a conclusion on the amount of any damages that should be awarded to the government, if any.

Armstrong faces a minimum of $225,500 in statutory penalties even if his lawyers’ arguments work, but stands to lose much more—triple the amount of the sponsorship—if they fail. Cyclingnews

to put their name to new cycling clubs in order to increase the number of clubs, which has declined to just 10 throughout the country.

Plans are afoot to work with schools to encourage children to participate in twiceweekly cycling games and workshops.

Talent detection will be carried out at mountain bike races: “Mountain bikes are cheaper than road bikes so they are more accessible. A lot of children in the smaller villages go to school on bikes and we want to encourage that.

“The bike is very important in all aspects of life: for the protection of the environment and for health reasons. We need to raise people’s awareness and also get the Government on board.

“I have ideas running 100 kph through my head but we need time. I am optimistic and I believe anything is possible.” UCI News

TOP FIV PROS A T Merida Reacto 3

HE Criterium du Dauphine has established itself as the final chance to test the legs ahead of the Tour de France. A prestigious event in it’s own right, this year’s champion, Jakob Fugslang (Astana) joins a list of winners that includes Chris Froome, Bradley Wiggins, Alejandro Valverde, Miguel Indurain, Greg LeMond, Bernard Hinault, Eddy Merckx and Jacques Anquetil, to name just a few of the legendary winners.

As well as a final opportunity to test the legs, the Dauphine offers a platform to test new equipment in a race scenario. Many component and apparel manufacturers coincide their 2018 product launches with the biggest race of the year in July. While riders will have been training with the products for many months, you can never quite replicate a race.

Nobody wants to see or run the risk of equipment failure at the Tour de France, so more and more 2018 products have become commonplace at the Dauphine in recent years.

The 2016 edition was the year of the shoe. Froome, Dan Martin and Team Giant-Alpecin

wore the Sidi Shot, Mavic Comete and Shimano S-Phyre, respectively, all of which were subsequently released in the months that followed, ahead of the 2017 season.

This 2017 edition of the race became the year of the frameset. BMC, Specialized, Trek, Merida and Lapierre all debuted new frames.

While BMC officially launched the latest Teammachine SLR01 ahead of the race at a press camp in Switzerland, the remaining frames have yet to be officially launched and it is expected we will hear the full details during, or soon after, the Tour de France in July.

1. Specialized Tarmac SL6

THE new Specialized Tarmac is so different to its predecessor, frankly we weren’t sure what it was when we first saw it. Aesthetically, the latest Tarmac sits somewhere between the previous Tarmac and the aerodynamic Specialized Venge, looking more like a carbon version of the latest Allez DSW released last year.

Following the industry-wide trend, the new Tarmac features a smaller rear triangle, lower seat stays and a D-profile seat tube. The tubing appears to be more aerodynamically profiled than its predecessor and the frame also features direct mount brakes.

Expect the official launch to

irror CYCLING

mirror_sports@yahoo.com.ph | Saturday, June 24, 2017 A7

BRIAN COOKSON has a challenger and it’s his vice president.

UCI vice president challenges Cookson’s bid for reelection

Trek Emonda SLR

B

VE BIKES TOP ARE RIDING Lapierre Aircode 2

contain more stiffness, better compliance, larger tyre clearance and better braking.

Dan Martin (Quick-Step Floors) rode into a podium position on the final day of the race on the new frame, and Emanuel Buchmann (BoraHansgrohe), who was the only other rider on the bike, came seventh overall and winning the youth classification in the process.

2. Trek Emonda SLR

ALBERTO CONTADOR only rode the long awaited update of th Emonda on Stage One of this year’s race. Without crosschecking the frame’s Internatioal Cycling Union code on the day, you might be forgiven for not noticing the new frame at all.

Unlike the new Tarmac, the Emonda seems relatively

similar to the current version of the bike. It is suspected that the frame will feature new composite technologies and will be launched alongside a disc version of the frame.

The rear dropouts of the frame are one of the few noticeable updates on the Emonda. It is likely that Trek has followed BMC’s lead in keeping the rear triangle the same geometry, whether in disc or calliper versions of the frameset. Therefore, maintaining handling characteristics if Alberto Contador or a Trek-Segafredo teammate needs to change between the bikes midrace.

3. Merida Reacto 3 SONNY COLBRELLI (BahrainMerida)

certainly had the most eye-catching bike at the race. A black and white geometric design in the form of a plastic wrap covered the bike to keep the design features of the latest Reacto, well, under wraps.

Closer inspection of the bike unveiled smaller rear stays, a new fork crown and updated top tube and new tubing profiles throughout the frameset.

Merida registered four new framesets for UCI approval in February of this year. The CF2 in rim and disc versions and the CF4 in rim and disc versions, suggesting two different geometry setups of the aero frame and continuing the trend of launching disc brake and rim brake versions of the bikes simultaneously.

4. Lapierre Aircode 2

BMC Teammachine SLR

We first saw the Lapierre Aircode at the Scheldeprijs race in the spring. Like the Merida Reacto, the Aircode is an updated aero offering from Lapierre, which Thibaut Pinot also raced on at the Giro d’Italia.

New tubing profiles, forks and most significantly, a deep profile seat tube are all

likely to results in improved aerodynamic performance. Aero bikes in recent years have also earned the welcome characteristics of also being incredibly comfortable. The Aircode 2 looks to be no different, with a vague triple triangle design that also appears on several endurance bikes.

5. BMC Teammachine SLR

Unlike the previous four framesets, the BMC has been officially launched ahead of debuting at a race. The new Teammachine SLR01 retains the same race geometry as its predecessor, but comes with new composite technology resulting in a stiffer fork and bottom bracket whilst improving comfort.

The vertical compliance improvement predominantly comes from lowering the seat post clamp and increasing the seat post length by 20 percent. BikeRadar’s US Editor Ben Delaney tested the bike at the launch in Switzerland, and whilst the increased compliance wasn’t obvious, the stiffer fork due to reinforcement to handle the disc brakes was.

As mentioned above, BMC designed the rim and disc versions of the framesets with identical geometry, so the two bikes will feel identical if needing to switch during a race.

Longer chainstays feature on both the rim and disc brake versions of the bike to accommodate the disc brakes, but with increased bottom bracket stiffness minimal power transfer is lost.

Following the launches of the Pinarello Dogma F10, new Cervelos for Team Dimension Data and a handful of time trial bikes, on top of the Dura-Ace 9100 series groupset from Shimano, the 2017 season has seen an exciting new array of tech.

It is likely we will see a handful of even more new products at the Tour de France next month, as well as the official launches of the above bikes. We look forward to updating you following the launches in the coming weeks.

Cyclingnews

rian Cookson has reacted to the news that he will be challenged for the next term of the International Cycling Union (UCI) presidency by his Vice President David Lappartient, releasing a statement in which he questions the Frenchman’s vision for the sport and notes his “well-known personal ambition for the role”.

Cookson, formerly president of British Cycling, succeeded Pat McQuaid as UCI president in 2013, and is coming to the end of his four-year team. He has always voiced his desire to serve a second and final term.

Lappartient is the former president of the French cycling federation and the European Cycling Union, and has served as vice president at the UCI, under Cookson, for the past four years.

He has long been tipped with a bid for the top job in cycling administration, and launched his candidacy on Tuesday with a new web site— ourpassion.org—a social-media campaign, and a five-pillar project that promises “real leadership” and “a real ambition for cycling”.

“Having changed the constitution of the UCI to introduce term limits and improve the election process after the controversial events of four years ago, I respect other people’s right to announce their candidature,” Cookson wrote in a statement on Tuesday.

“I note that, so far, David Lappartient has not set out very much detail in his plan or any vision he may have beyond his well-known personal ambition for the role. I look forward to debating what matters for the future of cycling over the coming months.”

Lappartient’s hat was thrown into the ring just 24 hours before the deadline for candidacy

registration, though it wouldn’t have come as a huge surprise to the Cookson camp.

“David is an ambitious young man and he might decide on being a candidate at some stage,” Cookson had said at the Tour Down Under in January, though he did attempt to fend off the challenge until he had served his maximum term. “If I was him, I’d wait another four years, as he would probably have an extremely good chance and wouldn’t be opposed.”

Though working closely together at the head of the UCI, Cookson and Lappartient’s relationship hasn’t always been plain sailing, with the Frenchman’s ties with Amaury Sport Organisation (ASO), the organisers of the Tour de France, a notable source of tension. As Cookson attempted to reform the WorldTour, ASO threatened to pull the tour and other races from the series, with the UCI eventually backtracking on many of the proposals ASO wasn’t happy with.

In his statement on Tuesday, Cookson made his veiled dig at Lappartient but mostly talked about his own credentials.

“I strongly believe that my track record of restoring integrity and credibility to the UCI, and developing cycling over the past four years, together with my plans for a final four-year term as president, will be judged favourably by the cycling family at the UCI Congress in Bergen in September,” he wrote.

“My plans can be read on my campaign web site www.briancookson.org together with some of the messages of support I have been proud to receive from across the cycling world, from those most familiar with the work of my administration. Cyclingnews

Niewiadoma finally captures elusive first WorldTour victory

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LTHOUGH she has been among world’s best riders for two seasons, she waited until her debut on British roads to take the very first win on a WorldTour level.

Katarzyna Niewiadoma (WM3 Pro Cycling) stormed to the victory in the opener of the Ovo Energy Women’s Tour and held on to the green race leader’s jersey over next four days, celebrating the overall win in the end.

“I am super happy. That’s the only word that can describe my feelings,” Niewiadoma said to a group of journalists after the finish of the criterium-like final stage in central London.

Niewiadoma, 22, has already three-stage race victories to her name: the Euskal Emakumeen Bira in 2015, and the Festival Elsy Jacobs and Giro del Trentino Alto Adige-Sudtirol in 2016. Winning the Women’s Tour is arguably her most significant achievement, a maiden WorldTour victory coming after two seasons of coming close during the key races on the calendar.

“I was waiting for a WorldTour victory for a long time. I was all the time somewhere there— second, third—but somehow always missed that victory. I’m super delighted I can grab it.

After the Ardennes, I was a little bit disappointed but I certainly didn’t expect to take my first WorldTour victory in the UK,” she said.

Women’s races are often more spontaneous and unpredictable than those of their male counterparts. The British race lived up to these expectations, and what happened on the road to Kettering on Stage One was not a part of anyone’s script, certainly not WM3’s or Niewiadoma’s. The Polish rider attacked 47.5 kilometers before the finish and ended up winning the day by a hefty margin of 1:42.

“I did the same thing last year at Holland Ladies Tour. I attacked early and I got caught with 10 kilometres to go. This time it worked out...I don’t know, maybe they underestimated me. When I first realized I’m on my own, I thought, ‘oh gosh, what am I doing here alone out in this field?’” Niewiadoma said

with a laugh when asked about the situation.

“It was a moment when we tried to form an echelon. But we got a headwind, not a crosswind. I wanted to do something and I attacked.

Worst part was, nobody followed. So I just pushed on, I was ashamed to just quietly go back to the bunch,” she explained.

“It was unexpected, the teams started riding late. But it’s also a little bit stupid to ride, like Kasia [in the first stage]. Sometimes it happens, it worked good for us,” Sports Director Jeroen Blijlevens told Cyclingnews ahead of the final stage.

Niewiadoma’s debut on British roads was her first appearance after a month-long break following her spring campaign. After three podium results in the Ardennes classics in April, she struggled with a knee injury in the build up period. As such, the leadership responsibility at the Women’s Tour initially rested upon the shoulders of Marianne Vos. “Coming here, I didn’t even feel like fighting for a top 10 result. I just wanted to ride every stage hard and help Marianne,” she said.

Cyclingnews Katarzyna Niewiadoma: I am super happy.

That’s the only word that can describe my feelings.

OurTime BusinessMirror

A8 Saturday, June 24, 2017 • Editor: Efleda P. Campos

Manila archbishop Tagle is now a senior citizen

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RCHBISHOP of Manila Luis Antonio Cardinal Tagle celebrated his 60th birthday on Wednesday with a thanksgiving Mass and a simple lunch with family, fellow clergymen and friends.

“Today, I thank the Lord for the gift of 60 years. I stand b y t he com m it me nt to lo ve God and others always by the grace of God,” he said in his message before the Mass at the Manila Cathedral on Wednesday morning. “God is my joy in every circumstance of my life, knowing that He works all things out,

always for the good of all.”

He also remembered the late Jaime Cardinal Sin, who died 12 years ago on this day, blessing his tomb at the crypt of the Cathedral.

Joining Tagle on his birthday were family members, led by his parents, Manuel and Milagros, and guests, among them former President Benigno S. Aquino III, and his sisters Ballsy Aquino-Cruz and Viel Aquino-Dee. A l so present were Ma n i l a Archbishop Emeritus Gaudencio C a rd i n a l R osa les, Pa mpa nga Bishop Pablo David, Cavite Bishop Reynaldo Evangelista, Kalookan Bishop Emeritus Teodoro Bacani and Palawan Bishop Pedro Arigo.

After the Mass, he treated his guests to a simple lunch at the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Manila (RCAM) grounds in Intramuros, Manila.

Before Wednesday’s celebration, a bloodletting activity was held at the RCAM as the archdiocese’s “birthday gift” to him.

The retirement age for bishops in the Catholic hierarchy is 75.

Senior citizens in the country a re ent it led to a 20 -percent discount in medical expenses, transportation fares, restaurants and recreation centers, among other benefits.

Ferdinand G. Patinio/PNA

WHO: Rising abuse of elderly people impacts on health and well-being

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ENEVA, Switzerland—One in six elderly people aged 60 and older, particularly in lowand middle-income countries, suffers various forms of abuse, inflicting an impact on their health and wellbeing, a latest study by the World Health Organization (WHO) said.

The study, supported by the WHO and published in the Lancet Global Health, draws on the best available evidence from 52 studies in 28 countries from different regions, including 12 low- and middle-income countries.

It found that almost 16 percent of people aged 60 years and older were subjected to either psychological abuse, financial abuse, neglect, physical abuse or sexual abuse.

The most pervasive, for example, is psychological abuse, which includes behaviors that harm an older person’s self-worth or wellbeing, such as name calling, scaring, embarrassing, destroying property, or preventing them from seeing friends and family.

All forms of the abuse can have health effects on the aged, such as traumatic injury and pain, depression, stress and anxiety and, hence, a possible increased risk of nursinghome placement, use of emergency services, hospitalization and death.

“Despite the frequency and the serious health consequences, elder abuse remains one of the leastinvestigated types of violence in national surveys, and one of the least addressed in national plans to prevent violence,” said Alana

T

alty Co. Inc., P341,486.99 for senior citizens and P19,223.24 for PWDs. The program entitles 77,685 senior citizens and 8,110 registered PWDs of Makati to free admission in any of the previously mentioned cinemas.

The free-movies benefit for the elderly started in 1997 with the passage of City Ordinance 97085 appropriating P500,000 as the 25-percent share of the city in cinema- admission costs for senior citizens. The program was institutionalized almost three years later through City Ordinance 2001-035 granting the inclusion of appropriations in the annual City Executive Budget for its continuous implementation in succeeding years.

In 2006 this perk was also granted to registered PWDs of Makati through the enactment of City Ordinance 2006-066.

All they have to do is present their senior citizens ID card or PWD ID card, together with their city government-issued movie-tickets booklet, at the ticket booths whenever they go to any of these cinemas.

In 2016 cinema partners were paid a total amount of P23.2 million, as follows: P21,081,297.20 for senior citizens and P2,203,721.54 for PWDs. This year the city government has allocated P35 million for the movie tickets of senior citizens and P4 million for PWDs. Aside from the free-movies program, senior and PWD Makatizens also enjoy other benefits from the city. Makati senioritas and senioritos receive birthday and golden-wedding anniversary cakes, and bags of groceries every December.

Under the BLU Card program, senior citizens are also entitled to cash gifts given in two equal installments every June and December. Those who are 60 to 69 years old receive P3,000; 70 to 79 years old, P4,000; and 80 years old and above, P5,000. To date 38 Makati centenarians have been awarded with P100,000 cash gift, also under the BLU Card Program. PNA

Officer, senior health adviser, Department of Ageing and Life Course at WHO. “We must do much more to prevent and respond to the increasing frequency of different forms of abuse.”

By 2050 the number of people aged 60 and over will double to reach 2 billion globally, with the vast majority of older people living in low- and middle-income countries, the study said.

If the proportion of elder-abuse victims remains constant, the number of people affected will increase rapidly due to population ageing, growing to 320 million victims by 2050.

To address the situation, health ministers from the globe adopted the WHO Global Strategy and Action Plan on Ageing and Health at the World Health Assembly in May 2016.

Priority would be given to improving studies on the frequency of elder abuse, particularly in low- and middle-income countries from Southeast Asia, the Middle East and Africa, where little data had been available.

The WHO strategy would also col lect ev idence and develop guidance on what works to effectively prevent and respond to elder abuse.

The UN General Assembly also designated June 15 as World Elder Abuse Awareness Day, for the whole world to voice its opposition to the abuse on and suffering of the older generation. Xinhua

Social pensioners tripled in Catbalogan

Makati paid P7M to cinemas for free movies to elderly, PWD in first quarter HE city government of Makati has paid P7,090,613.05 to five cinemas in the city for free movie tickets for senior citizens and persons with disability (PWDs) of the city who availed themselves of the privilege, from January to March this year.

In a report to Mayor Abby Binay, Accounting Department Officer in Charge William Dayrit said for the first quarter of 2017, the city paid P6,604,171.27 for the movie tickets of senior citizens and P486,441.78 for PWDs. The amounts represented the 25-percent share of the city government in the cost of movie tickets used under its free-movies program being implemented in partnership with cinema owners in the city.

The lady mayor acknowledged the support of the city’s partners, which include ALI Commercial Center Inc. for Glorietta and Greenbelt cinemas Rockwell Land Corp. for Power Plant cinemas, Century City Development Corp. for Century City Mall cinemas, Willimson Inc. for Waltermart cinemas and Adebe Realty Co. Inc. for Cash and Carry cinemas.

“The city government is very grateful to our program partners for sharing our commitment to raising the quality of life of elderly and PWD Makatizens in every way possible. We thank you for your consistent support to this program, which has given priceless joy to our beneficiaries for several years now,” Binay said in a statement.

From January to March this year, Makati paid ALI Commercial Center P2,973,700.68 for senior citizens and P215,362.62 for PWDs; Rockwell Land Corp., P2,026,421.25 for senior citizens and P157,353.25 for PWDs; and Century City Development Corp., P438,558 for senior citizens and P29,575.87 for PWDs. Other payments made were to Willimson Inc., which received P824,004.35 for senior citizens and P64,926.80 for PWDs; and Adebe Re-

news@businessmirror.com.ph

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‘WUSHU TAICHI’ IN BAGUIO CITY Elders perform their daily workout, featuring wushu taichi moves, at the Baguio City public park. MAU VICTA

China’s 222M seniors may reshape the world

By Adam Minter | Bloomberg View

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OR decades, Nestlé SA has tried to get its infant-milk powder into the hands of China’s new mothers with promises of brighter, healthier babies. Now it’s trying to do the same for the elderly. Last week the company launched “Nestlé YIYANG Fuel for brainTM senior milk powder,” a formula designed to help China's seniors “refuel their brains and start a new smart life”.

The announcement didn't get quite the hype that products targeted to China’s millennials do. But it may yet prove more consequential. With 222 million people over age 60, China is home to the world’s largest population of seniors, and their economic clout is set to surge in the years ahead. By one estimate, the value of products and services geared toward them may reach 33 percent of GDP by 2050.

If that trend holds, caring for seniors will be China’s dominant industry by the middle of the cen-

tury, and old folks will be its defining demographic. That presents plenty of challenges for the government, but also some major opportunities for business.

Seniors are already playing a key role in shifting China’s economy away from exports and toward consumption. Fan Min, president of China’s biggest online travel site, predicts they’ll be the primary drivers of the country’s tourism market within a decade. About 5 million of them are traveling overseas annually, with that number expected to more than double by 2030. As they venture out, the travel industry is adjusting to their demands (by offering more group tours and cheaper accommodations, for example).

And it’s not just tourism: In recent years, businesses ranging from car companies to online marketplaces have built features marketed to China’s elderly.

Health care is another industry that may be transformed. Unlike Japan and Western Europe, China is

aging before it has grown rich enough to develop the institutions—such as nursing homes—needed to sustain a large senior population. Increasingly, the private sector is stepping in.

For those who can’t afford to travel overseas, private preventative care is becoming much more common.

Elsewhere, companies are developing “smart care” products, in which Internet-connected devices track the health of customers. Beijing is expanding a program that uses a discount shopping card to monitor seniors while applying data analytics to anticipate their needs.

Nestlé clearly understands these trends. At the launch of its new seniormilk powder, a company official told the press: “As an old Chinese saying goes, ‘Diet cures more than the doctors’.” Long-term, that attitude— combined with investments in healthfocused artificial intelligence and big data by companies such as Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. and Baidu Inc.— may well reshape the health-care industry, both in China and globally.

ATBALOGAN CITY, Samar—The number of poor senior citizens in this city entitled to their monthly social pension has increased from 1,000 in 2016 to 3,000 this year.

Maricel Aquino, city social welfare and development office focal person on senior-citizen program, said last Friday the national government has increased the budget allocation for the program, prompting them to list more recipients.

Under the existing laws, all indigent Filipino senior citizens in the country 60 years old and older must be included in the program.

The qualified senior citizens may apply at their local Office of Senior Citizens Affair. Among the requirements are identification cards, birth certificate, and certificate of indigence.

Catbalogan City has more than 4,000 registered senior citizens.

The eligible recipient is entitled to a monthly pension of P500.

“Only those who are below the poverty threshold or those who are not receiving pension or any kind of financial support will receive the cash incentive,” Aquino said.

The amount is small compared to the medical needs of senior citizens, but this is also a big help, Aquino added. The city government personally distributes cash to beneficiaries in all 57 villages every three months.

“We used to do the distribution at the city hall, but Mayor Stephany Uy-Tan saw that it’s inconvenient to senior citizens, which is why she ordered to change the system of distribution,” Aquino said.

Roel T. Amazona/PNA

news.businessmirror@gmail.com

The Millennials BusinessMirror

Saturday, June 24, 2017

A9

Youth finds solace in new nationalism

This June 16 photo shows the interior of Spotlight, a restaurant in Manila two millennials invested into out of a “dream”. Sherina Alexandra Baltazar

Young entrepreneurs shine a spotlight on doing business

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S darkness hugged the city street, Richerbert Curso methodically switched on lights in a watering hole he and his business partner Lester Paje thought was “only a dream”.

Curso flopped his weight on one of the bar stools chucked at the end of the restaurant along Maria Clara Street in Sampaloc, Manila.His eyes stole across the street, now blanketed with gray light. This was only a dream that seemed to be impossible to achieve, he said almost inaudibly.

Ironically, they were not the kind of people one would often see in a kitchen, experimenting on every dish. Curso displays the clean boy-next-door image; somebody one wouldn’t bump into night clubs cradling a bottle or glass of alcohol.

“I didn’t event know how to cook,” Curso said, giving a goofy smile. “Hindi rin ako umiinom. [I don’t drink, too.]”

Before the two ventured into running a restobar, Curso worked as a call-center agent, while Lester was battling the languor of the vast ocean as a seaman.

Unlike other businesses, theirs was an unplanned one, according to him.

“Sobrang bilis, isang buwan lang ang preparation. [It was ver y quick, it took us only a month to

plan and prepare the business.]”

But what gave them the courage despite the uncertainties and skepticisms was their desire to follow their long-time dream of making themselves their own bosses.

Cool bar

CURSO was only 23 when he and Lester, 25, opened Spotlight in June last year. Since then, it has become the favorite den of students after a long day at school.

Spotlight is one of the coolest bars around the city, from its fancy tower drinks and budget-friendly meals to its ver y welcoming staff.

Of course, the Spotlight experience would be incomplete without being able to input the digits of the barkada’s favorite song in the bar’s karaoke machine.

They say there is no such thing as free lunch, but in Spotlight, they give the millennials what they want: music and fun, all for free.

As a call-center agent working from midnight to 9 a.m., Curso used to earn a monthly salary of

P18,000. “Sa call-center industry, kung marunong ka lang magtipid, makakaipon ka talaga. [In the call center industry, if you know how to be thrifty, you will have enough savings.]” he said.

After he resigned from work, he learned about his friend Paje’s interest on entering into business.

He turned down another job offer.

Second thoughts

SINCE he was a Business Administration graduate, Curso always thought about running his own business.

As a young entrepreneur, Curso believed that lack of self-belief is the biggest enemy in the industry.

“It would come to a point na mahihirapan ka, at kung wala kang strong foundation sa sarili mo, mawawalan ka ng lakas ng loob. [It would come to a point that you will go through a lot, and if you do not have a strong foundation within yourself, you will lose determination.]”

Curso said it was rough during their first few months in the industry. That time, too, Paje had conflict with his work abroad, while Curso began to doubt if the business was really for him.

He was almost regretful, thinking he should have just accepted the job offer. But we know there was no turning back, Curso added.

The friends stayed with the business despite all the consequences that might result from choosing to do so.

There is no denying how risky it was for us, since we had no experi-

ence in business at all, Curso said.

Millennials’ home

EVENTUALLY, people learned about the place, and it has become not just a shelter for those who want to stay the night while having fun: Spotlight became a home for millennials.

“Hindi ka [There’s no] magses e c o n d h a n d s m o k e b e c au s e cigarettes were banned inside the bar,” said Quennie Ajayi, a 19-year-old Pharmacy student in the University of Santo Tomas. She added she loved going to Spotlight because the place was health-friendly.

Likewise, as a music lover, she added Spotlight is the perfect hub for her and her friends.

Another reason millennials love this place is because of its student-friendly meals, she said.

Spotlight’s menu is divided into five categories: Specials, Express, On The Spot Savour, Starters and Sizzlers.

The Spotlight Specials offer dishes that range from P60 to P65, while those under the Spotlight Express range from P50 to P65 each. Those who miss their mother’s cooking can order Spotlight’s home-cooked dishes, like sinigang na baboy (pork in sour broth) and tinolang manok (chicken stew). A dish range from P65 to P75.

Finger food range from P100 to 165 per dish. [Spotlight is open from 4 p.m. to 1 a.m. from Mondays to Friday and 1 p.m. to 1 a.m. on Sundays.] Sherina Alexandra Baltazar

This undated photo provided by nonprofit group Waves for Water shows members (from left) Denise Alcantara, Kevin Mayuga, Takeshi Shinohara, Carlo Delantar and Jenica Dizon.

By Rizal Raoul S. Reyes

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@brownindio

NLIKE their senior counterparts, millennials express their activism in different platforms and avenues.

The availability of numerous options, like social media, has given them to pursue their brand of activism not only in the streets but also in cyber space to push for social change.

Waves for Water, an international nonprofit organization currently present in 21 countries that works on the front line providing clean water to communities in need, has made a stand regarding the Philippine Rise (also known Benham Rise). Its young members visited the controversial site on June 11 and 12, a perfect time for celebrating the country’s 119th independence.

“Reaching the Philippine Rise and contributing in our own capacities—whether it was through photography, writing or joining the flag-raising activity, ignited a more profound sense of being Filipino,” Jenica Dizon, director for operations of Waves for Water, said in a recent mail interview with the BusinessMirror. “We felt honored to be able to not only witness but take part in a historic event.”

“Having done such in the midst of heroes, we come home from the trip with a deeper understanding of what we sung every morning once as school children, the ending line more sobering and heartfelt,” Dizon added.

No cakewalk

DIZON said their group coordinated with the Armed Forces of the Philippines’s Northern Luzon Command, which functioned as the principal component of the trip to the Philippine Rise.

Two-tone timepieces are a hit with young watch buyers

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S a sports superstar and fashion avatar, David Beckham has done his part to infuse newsboy caps, fauxhawk haircuts, neck tattoos and overtight underwear with an air of cool. Can he do the same for two-tone watches?

Last month, when Tudor introduced Beckham as a brand ambassador, he wore the brand’s new Heritage Black Bay S&G divers’ watch rendered in stainless steel and gold. Two-tone timepieces have a rich history in watchmaking (Rolex has been stylishly combining the metal of kings with sporty

steel since the 1930s), but it is a look that comes with baggage. To under-40 watch buffs raised on heritage chic, two-tone seemed like the horological equivalent of a yellow power tie. It was a holdover from the if-you’ve-got-it-flaunt-it 1980s that called to mind Patrick Bateman, the brand-obsessed yuppie sociopath in American Psycho, who trumpeted his taste for luxe with a two-tone Rolex Datejust.

But, like stonewashed jeans, pastel polos and synth pop, two-tone watches are 1980s staple

that is mounting a comeback. At the Baselworld watch fair in March leading watchmakers unveiled new statement pieces in bold steeland-gold versions, including the Tudor, Rolex Oyster Perpetual Sky-Dweller, Omega Seamaster Aqua Terra and Breitling Chronomat 44. “There seems to be some rising backlash against the minimalism trend and, in a funny way, two-tone actually feels more maximalist and in-your-face than a solid gold watch,” said Stephen Pulvirent, the managing editor of the watch site Hodinkee.

“There’s something very South Beach, early

1980s, a-few-too-many-mai-tais about it that I think resonates in an era of crocodile Gucci mules and tricked-out G Wagons.”In the vintage market, younger collectors are warming to two-tone because it represents a greater value.

Despite the fact they contain precious gold, twotone versions of classics like the Audemars Piguet Royal Oak or the Patek Philippe Nautilus often sell for a third of the price of the steel versions, said Eric Wind, the senior watch specialist for Christie’s New York.

Although two-tone is often associated with

flashy sports agents and Las Vegas high rollers, it can, worn the right way, add a welcome hint of alpha-male sex appeal to an otherwise understated outfit. The dapper Prince Michael of Kent, a first cousin of Queen Elizabeth II, spices up his Savile Row suits and country tweeds with a two-tone Audemars Piguet Royal Oak. Jeff Bridges, playing a fading country singer in the 2009 film Crazy Heart, relied on a steel-andgold Rolex Submariner to add a dash of showbiz glamour to his faded dungarees and dusty Stetson. New York Times News Service

As for the team, Dizon added the expedition was treated like any typical activity that involved briefing, designating roles and preparing the necessary paperwork. She said a trip to any remote part of the country is not a walk in the park.

She recalled that the drive to Casiguran, Aurora, tested their physical capability, as they had to endure a total of nine hours of travel through winding roads and inclement weather. Moreover, Dizon said there were also challenges in communication, as mobile-phone signal was weak most of the time.

Water wave

FOUNDED by professional surfer Jon Rose, Waves for Water came to Dizon’s attention after the group helped the country rise from the devastation of Supert y phoon Yolanda. At present, it has provided a million Filipinos access to clean water across 35 provinces through filtration and rain-catchment systems.

According to Rose, the turning point to pursue the advocacy was when he was exposed to the water-shortage problem in the different parts of the world, often overlooked in idyllic locations with perfect waves.

A few years later an unassuming Facebook tag brought Carlo Delantar, the current country director, to respond to the cleanwater crisis. Dizon joined the group two years ago. Along with a talented and diverse team of photographers and volunteers, they formed Waves for Water Philippines.

The local office is run and operated by passionate millennials all in their 20s who have resonated with the organization’s “do what you love and help along the way” mantra.

BusinessMirror

A10 Saturday, June 24, 2017

news.businessmirror@gmail.com

Moto E4 Plus

Motorola rolls out new smartphones

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This undated photo courtesy of Star Telecom Alliance Resources Inc. shows workers at the assembly line of the UNO B208 feature phone in a facility in Calamba, Laguna. Star Telecom Alliance Resources Inc.

Star Telecom begins local assembly of mobile phone

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ILIPINO technology company Star Telecom Alliance Resources Inc. (Star Inc.), the parent of smartphone brand Starmobile, announced on June 15 the start of its mobile phone-production efforts in the Philippines.

In a statement, Star Inc. said it has started assembly of 20,000 units of the UNO B208 feature phone in a facility in Calamba, Laguna. This ground-breaking

effort officially makes Starmobile the first Filipino brand to assemble mobile phones locally, according to Gerry Torres, Starmobile’s Quality Control Team

leader who oversees the inspection of the UNO B208.

“Since we star ted five years ago, it has been the company’s goa l to contr ibute to the loca l economy and prov ide employment by assembling phones in t he Ph i l ippi nes,” St a r mobi le COO Michael Chen said. “Aside from br ing ing us a step closer to our dream of building up the Philippines [as] an important player in the globa l tech scene, this will also benefit our bottom line, as it w il l resu lt in more cost- and time-efficient log istics and shipment around the countr y.”

Chen added: “Because we will

have parts and an assembly facility locally, we expect this to improve our after-sales support for our customers.”

While smartphones are more popular than ever in the Philippines, the demand for basic ca l l-and-te x t feat ure phones still thrives in the country, the company said. “Their affordability allows them to be great daily drivers for a large segment of the population, while their focused call-and-text services and compact screens allow them to be very power efficient.”

According to Star Inc., the facility can assemble a minimum of 1,000 units per day. Rizal Raoul Reyes

Ericsson: Energy sector shows high potential in digitalization revenue

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HE energy and utilities (E&U) industry would outpace six other sectors in terms of digitalization revenue in the Philippines, a research by a Swedish telecommunications firm bared.

Telefonaktiebolaget L. M. Ericsson said in its report that E&U outpaces the following industries: automotive, financial services, health care, manufacturing, media and entertainment, public safety and public transportation in terms of digitalization revenue (DR) potential.

From $4 billion in 2016 the DR

potential of the E&U industry is forecast by the Swedish multinational firm to hit nearly $16 billion by 2026. The financial-services industry nearly hit the DR potential of the E&U sector last year, but only shows just over $9 billion in DR potential in 2026.

The public-safety sector follows the E&U industry in terms of DR potential by 2026, expected by Ericsson to hit nearly $14 billion.

According to Ericsson, the DR is one of three factors that telecommunications operators should consider if they want to

help create a “Digital Philippines”.

According to a 2011 Gartner CIO Survey involving 2,014 enterprises, digitalized businesses have higher growth rates, scale efficiencies and asset effectiveness than their less-digitalized peers.

“Operators need to differentiate offerings through the Internet of Things [IoT],” Ericsson said.

The company noted that last year, cellular IoT-connected devices in Southeast Asia and Oceania was at 30 million. Ericsson expects these devices to hit around 50 million this year and 60 million by 2018.

Ericsson said it forecasts the number of cellular IoT subscriptions in the region to increase almost six-fold between 2016 and 2022, reaching around 180 million.

Last week the International Data Corp. said it forecasts worldwide spending on the IoT to grow 16.7 percent year over year in 2017, reaching just over $800 billion.

By 2021 global IoT spending is expected to total nearly $1.4 trillion as organizations continue to invest in the hardware, software, services and connectivity that enable the IoT. Rizal Raoul Reyes

O T OROL A Mobi l it y L lc . a n nou nce d t he recent release of three new smartphones that the Lenovo Corp. subsidiary said address “Filipino millennials’ diverse needs without draining their wallets”. “ The new Motorola smartphones embody Lenovo’s commitment to meeting the needs of different users at every level, while keeping up with the demands of our dynamic society today,” said John Rojo, Lenovo Mobile Business Group Philippines country manager, in a statement. “With the Moto C, Moto C Plus and Moto E4 Plus, Lenovo gives millennials the freedom to choose from a range of smartphones at affordable prices. This new smartphone lineup is part of our expanded Motorola product portfolio aimed at broadening our market reach across the Philippines.”

Moto C Plus

THE company said it released the Moto C Plus, which has a 4,000 milliamp Hour (mAh) battery that can last up to 30 hours.

The device has a 5-inch HD display, 8 megapixel (MP) and 2MP

front camera. The Moto C Plus is powered by a 1.3 gigaHertz (GHz) quad-core processor and runs on Android OS Nougat. (SRP: P6,299 or $125.24)

Moto E4 Plus

THE Moto E4 Plus has a 5,000mAh battery, 5.50-inch full-HD display, 13MP rear camera and a 5MP-resolution front camera.

The Moto E4 Plus has a 16 gigabyte (GB) to 32GB internal storage capacity. The smartphone’s Fingerprint Authentication lets users unlock the phone w ith just the touch of a finger. (SRP: P8,999 or $178.92)

Moto C

THE Moto C runs on a 1.3GHz quad-core processor and Android 7.0 Nougat OS. It has a 5-inch display, 5MP rear camera with an LED f lash and a 2MP front camera. The smartphone has an 8GB built-in storage capacity, expandable to 32GB with a microSD card. The Moto C, for 3G and 4G, runs on a 2,350mAh battery. With the dual-SIM feature, this smartphone carr y the functions of two phones in one. (SRP: P3,699 or $73.54)

briefs Bose distributor remains bullish

THE local distributor of Bose Corp.’s eponymous brand remains bullish on the Philippine market. “We see a lot of potential in the mobile product category, which consists of headphones and Bluetooth speakers,” said Ramon Borja, marketing manager of Eleksis Marketing Corp., the exclusive distributor of Bose in the Philippines. Borja added the American privately held firm based in Framingham, Massachusetts, is also quite aware that the Philippine market is price-sensitive. “Hence, we try to price our products as close to their US retail price as possible,” Borja said. He added the Bose brand has developed a market niche in the country. Rizal Raoul Reyes

Teachers group to host I.C.T. gab

THE Teachers Education Network (TEN) will have their first ever Technology in Education Summit in the Philippines (TIES PH) on July 29 at Crimson Hotel in Alabang, Muntinlupa City, to promote the importance of technology in all schools nationwide. TEN is a community of educators that aim to elevate the standards of Philippine education.

TIES PH will focus on the technologies that are revolutionizing the way Filipinos learn, the group said. There will be discussions that will revolve around the latest innovations transforming the classroom, in turn, promoting technologies in schools, and how to best prepare students using these innovations.

Move over, Bitcoin. Ether is the digital currency of the moment T

HE price of bitcoin has hit record highs in recent months, more than doubling in price since the start of the year. Despite these gains, bitcoin is on the verge of losing its position as the dominant virtual currency.

The value of ether, the digital money that lives on an upstart network known as Ethereum, has risen an eye-popping 4,500 percent since the beginning of the year.

With the recent price increases, the outstanding units of the ether currency were worth around $34 billion as of Monday—or 82 percent as much as all the bitcoin in existence. At the beginning of the year, ether was only about 5 percent as valuable as bitcoin.

The sudden rise of Ethereum highlights how volatile the bewildering world of virtual currency remains, where lines of computer code can be spun into billions of dollars in a matter of months.

Bitcoin, the breakout digital currency, is also hitting new highs— one bitcoin was worth $2,600 on Monday. But the bitcoin community has struggled with technical issues and bitter internal divisions among its biggest supporters. It has also been tainted by its association with online drug sales and hackers demanding ransom.

Against this backdrop, ether has been gaining steam. The two-year-old system has picked up backing from both tech geeks and big corporate names like, JPMorgan Chase and Microsoft,

which are excited about Ethereum’s goal of providing not only a digital currency, but also a new type of global computing network, which generally requires ether to use.

Many of the companies using Ethereum are building their own private versions of the software, which won’t make use of the ether currency. Speculators are betting that these companies will eventually plug their software into the broader Ethereum network.

There is, though, also the possibility that none of these big trials come to fruition, and the current excitement fizzles out, as has happened many times in the past with bitcoin after big price surges. New York Times News Service

Fans cool racks of bitcoin-mining machines at a server farm in Guizhou, China, on June 23. The value of Ether, the digital money that lives on an upstart network known as Ethereum, has risen an eye-popping 4,500 percent since the beginning of 2017, and may soon surpass bitcoin, its inspiration. Gilles Sabrie/The New York Times

BusinessMirror

news.businessmirror@gmail.com

Saturday, June 24, 2017

A11

Singaporean app operator targets students as PTEs

By Rizal Raoul S. Reyes

S

@brownindio

INGAPOREAN online grocery and home goods store operator Honestbee Pte. Ltd. formally launched operations in the Philippines targeting students as part-time employees (PTEs). “ That’s another good thing that we are providing since we said we want to create jobs,” Honestbee Country Manager Crystal Gonzalez said on June 19.

The company is very flexible when it comes to giving schedules to employees, Gonzalez said.

There is no minimum or maximum number of hours that they should work in, she added.

“We try to create job opportunities for people who are unable to pick up full-time jobs for example students,” Vice President, Corporate Strategy Varian Lim said.

Currently, Lim said there are a number of students are PTEs in

Honestbee.

Honestbee operates its eponymous app that allows users to order food, buy groceries and do laundry. The app allows users to order food from a nearby restaurant. It charges a concierge fee of P99 for every delivery.

Lim said the company c hose Metro Ma ni l a because of o p p or t u n it ie s p ro v id e d b y traffic jams.

“Ever y thing that we are doing, especia l ly in the Philippines, is a l l about tr y ing to g ive you more time so you can focus on what matters most,” Gonza lez said. With Sherina Alexandra Baltazar

Why Vivo V5 Lite is way ahead of its competitor

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N t he wa ke of its recent launch, the Vivo V5 Lite has drawn the attention of selfie enthusiasts nationwide due to its 16-megapixel camera, an outstanding feature that no other smartphone brand in the same price range—P9,990—can claim to have.

Too good to be true? Not if selfie fans pit the Vivo V5 Lite against similarly priced competitors, such as the Oppo A39.

First, take a selfie using both the V5 Lite and the competitor, and note the glaring difference in terms of clarity of details. After all, the Oppo A39 only has an 8-MP shutter vis-à-vis the Vivo V5 Lite’s 16-MP front camera.

Vivo absolutely nails the selfie game here, as shown in the highpixel details of the subject’s facial features and hair, and even those of the image’s background.

The Vivo V5 Lite’s more advanced beauty algorithm also puts it at a greater advantage when compared to the Oppo phone. It uses a Face Beauty 6.0 feature that enhances one’s skin tone, giving it a naturally radiant glow that

the Oppo’s Beauty Face 4.0 is not capable of.

Another attribute of the Vivo V5 Lite is its Beauty Face 6.0, which can detect one’s gender and apply the appropriate touches: females get a smoother skin tone, a more delicate contour and bigger eyes, while males are lent a more masculine look.

A nother competitor in the same price range is the Huawei GR5 2017, which, like the Oppo phone, has an 8-MP secondary shutter. Needless to say, the Vivo V5 Lite phone produces betterquality and more radiant selfies due to its superior 16-MP front camera.

The real dealmaker, however, is the Vivo V5 Lite’s Selfie Soft Light, which puts it way ahead of the competition. The V5 Lite being powered by this Selfie Soft Light feature, it produces imressive lighting effects akin to those in a professional photo studio. It also chooses the most appropriate colors from the spectrum to make one’s skin tone appear naturally more radiant.

Best of all, the V5 Lite’s Soft

D-Link Omna Cam. D-Link Systems Inc.

Light feature is activated when you set it in auto mode, so you’ll get beautiful, natural-looking selfies anytime, anywhere.

Clearly, no other selfie-centric phone does it like the Vivo V5 Lite—the clear winner in the competition.

Amazon’s at it again: Places dressing room in your house

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EW YORK—Amazon is increasingly claiming territory once held exclusively by department stores and it’s doing so again, essentially placing a dressing room in your house.

Amazon is testing a new service for Prime members that allows them to try on the latest styles before they buy at no upfront charge.

Customers have seven days to decide what they like and only pay for what they keep. Shipments arrive in a resealable box with a prepaid label for returns.

Amazon said on Tuesday that more than a million pieces of clothing and accessories are eligible and include brands, like Calvin Klein, Hugo Boss, Theory and Levi’s, labels that are big names at department stores. Shoppers receive discounts depending on how much they keep.

Prime Wardrobe is Amazon’s latest thrust into fashion and could be another big blow to department stores, like Macy’s, which are struggling with weak sales. It’s also a potential concern for Walmart, which has been snapping up online clothing brands,

D-Link rolls out new surveillance camera

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AIPEI, Taiwan-headquartered D-Link Systems Inc. announced on June 14 the roll out of its new surveillance camera called “Omna”, or DSH-C310.

In a statement, the Taiwanese multinational networking equipment maker said the home-surveillance system would be made available in selected Power Mac stores nationwide this July.

The launch came after D-Link said its net revenue for the first quarter of the year was NT$4.73 billion (roughly $155.3 million), down by 19.3 percent “sequentially due mostly to the drop in seasonal retail sales in the US and Europe, as well as slower projects pull in emerging markets”.

In the emerging market, revenues were down by 19.4 percent on a quarter-on-quarter basis “as there was less project pull coinciding with the slower retail during the first quarter of the year”, the company said in its financial statement for the quarter.

D-Link said the technology behind Omna is combined with Apple’s Home technology.

With the net work sur veillance device’s motion-detection feature, a user can synchronize with other HomeKit accessories through their Home Hub and remotely turn on the lights in the house as needed. Once motion is detected, the user can even set the device and Home app to send

alerts and notifications.

The unit has a 180 -degree wide-angle lens, full-high definit ion 1080 p resolut ion a nd two-way audio function. In addition, the unit has night-vision capabilities of up to 16 feet and expandable storage of up to 128 gigabytes. The user can also ask Siri to pull up the live feed of the Home hub-controlled security camera and access the Omna Cam through an iPhone or iPad. The camera also features a microSD card slot to record timesensitive videos clips and 2-megapixel images for future playback.

The company is selling the device at P12,499 ($248.61 at current exchange rates). Oliver Samson

US software developer taps Cebu-based reseller In this May 30 file photo, the Amazon logo is displayed at the Nasdaq MarketSite, in New York’s Times Square. AP

including ModCloth and Bonobos, as it tries to snare millennials.

But Amazon’s new service is a threat to newer, online businesses, as well; clothing subscription services, like Stitch Fix, which charge a styling fee of $20.

Amazon has made a concerted push to expand into fashion through private labels, like Lark & Ro. But with Prime Wardrobe, it’s bidding for more loyalty from already devoted members of Prime.

Amazon is poised to surpass Macy’s this year as the largest US clothing seller, according to Cow-

en & Co. analysts. The industry observer expects Amazon’s share of the US clothing market will increase from 6.6 percent last year, to 16.2 percent by 2021.

Prime Wardrobe works this way: Shoppers pick three or more items and then have a try-on period to find the best styles.

For items they want to discard, customers can drop off at a UPS location or schedule a free pick up. Shoppers will receive 10-percent off if they keep three or four items or 20-percent off for five items or more. AP

F

ILIPINO technology firm Alliance Software Inc. announced on June 20 its partnership with Manage Casa Inc., developer of a home and property-management software, for exclusive reselling to the Philippine market.

The Cebu City-based Alliance Software said it continues to expand its product line with the launch of ManageCasa, an online platform for home and property management.

A Silicon Valley, San Franciscobased company, ManageCasa is a first all-inclusive modern-service platform specifically directed toward independent small to medium-size property managers,

homeowners, landlords and tenants. ManageCasa shall partner exclusively with Alliance in the Philippines.

“ManageCasa’s entry in the market is very timely,” Robert Cheng, president and CEO of Alliance, was quoted in a statement as saying. “The real-estate industry has been robust, and ManageCasa could be every home and property manager’s next best tool to streamline and professionalize their services, and ultimately increase efficiency and profitability.”

ManageCasa offers a wide suite of services designed to simplify the entire management experience for property managers, homeowners

and residents alike. The platform facilitates simple accounting to record property-related income and expenses, maintenance management, seamless communication and collaboration between property stakeholders, property-related document storage and sharing.

In the near future, ManageCasa will offer reporting tools, as well as collaboration between users and their contractors on maintenance and improvement projects.

ManageCasa CEO Peter Koch said the partnership marks the company’s first globally focused marketing effort to offer its online propertymanagement solution to bigger markets. Rizal Raoul Reyes

BusinessMirror

A12 Saturday, June 24, 2017

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Microsoft brings anti-piracy Toshiba chooses US-Japan bidder for chip business sale T war on hackers’ turf: online

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INGAPORE—After supporting moves offline against pirated CDs and DVDs, Microsoft Corp. is bringing the war against those behind illegal software on the cold waters filled with hackers: the Internet.

“Using pirated software expose users to a plethora of cyber threats,” Biplab Sikdar of the National University of Singapore (NUS) told reporters Microsoft flew here from seven markets in Asia.

“Although the risk of containing malware through all sources of pirated software is high, the online medium is turning out to be a more potent infection vector,” added Sikdar, associate professor from the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the NUS Faculty of Engineering. “[The online medium] not only provides cybercriminals with the scale to attack anybody, anywhere, anytime, it also allows them to easily camouflage their malicious activities and attack remotely,” he said.

Sikdar led the study that discovered 100 percent of web sites hosting pirated software download links are exposing users to multiple security risks. The risks, according to Sikdar, include adver t isements w it h ma l ic ious programs.

Citing the Business Software Alliance (BSA), Sikdar said 3 in 5 personal computers in Asia Pacific were found to be using nongenuine software in 2016.

T he BSA, to note, is a trade group established by Microsoft in 1988.

Jeffrey Avina, Microsoft Asia Pacific and Japan regional director for government affairs, said here on Wednesday that 60 percent of users worldwide run pirated software.

The study commissioned by Microsoft analyzed 90 new laptops and computers, as well as 165 software CDs and DVDs with pirated software. According to Sikdar, the samples were randomly purchased from vendors that are known to sell pirated software from across eight countries in Asia: Bangladesh, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, South Korea, Sri Lanka, Thailand and Vietnam.

Sikdar added he and studentvolunteers also examined 203 copies of pirated software downloaded from the Internet.

“Some of my students even admitted they, too, were using pirated software,” he said, adding 3 in 10 users in Singapore do so.

Sikdar’s team also noted 24 percent of the malicious programs bundled with the pirated software downloads deactivated the antimalware software running on the computer.

“Once the antimalware engine is blocked, the downloaded malware installs itself on the computer.”

The NUS team also discovered that 92 percent of new and unused computer that had pirated sof t ware insta l led were preinfected with malware. According to Sikdar, these computer samples were purchased from vendors that are known to sell nongenuine software.

“The buyer could have been offered with a preloaded unit or was enticed by the vendor to have some software installed that unwittingly were accepted as genuine by the buyer.”

Sikdar added that out of the DVDs and CDs samples acquired for their study, 3 in 5, or 61 percent contained malware. He said infected discs contained an average of five pieces of malicious software. In some cases, as many as 38 malware instances were found in just one DVD. “Some may believe they saved SGD75 by buying pirated software,” Sikdar said. “But the consequences, the costs, of getting hacked are more than that.”

OKYO—Money-losing Toshiba Corp. said on Wednesday that it has chosen a US-Japan consortium as the preferred bidder in the sale of its lucrative memory-chip business, but hurdles remain as an American joint-venture partner is opposing the move.

Toshiba sorely needs the sale, with its US nuclear unit Westinghouse Electric Co. racking up massive red ink and filing for bankruptcy protection. Tokyo-based Toshiba said the board of directors selected the bid, totaling about ¥2 trillion ($18 billion), from the consortium of Innovation Network Corp. of Japan, Bain Capital Private Equity and the Development Bank of Japan in the sale of Toshiba Memory Corp.

But Western Digital of the US, which has acquired some SanDisk-chip operations, including a joint venture with Toshiba in Japan, reiterated its opposition to such a move. It said in a statement that Toshiba “has no right” to transfer the joint venture without its consent.

It said it filed a request for arbitration last week. Toshiba has accused Western Digital of interfering with its sales efforts. Such sales can be sensitive because they involve the transfer of technology.

SK Hynix, a major South Korean chip supplier, confirmed it was a lender to the consortium, “seeking new business opportunities”, but declined to elaborate. Toshiba said Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group of Japan was also a financer for a consortium member, but neither SK Hynix nor MUFJ will have managerial say.

“Toshiba has determined that the consortium has presented the best proposal, not only in terms of valuation, but also in respect to certainty of closing, retention of employees and maintenance of sensitive technology within Japan,” it said. Damian Thong, senior technology analyst with Macquarie in Tokyo, said the decision reflects how Japan wants to keep the technology, but concessions would be needed from Western Digital.

In this April 11 file photo, Toshiba Corp. President Satoshi Tsunakawa bows during a news conference at the company’s headquarters in Tokyo.

Troubled Japanese electronics giant Toshiba Corp., has chosen a US-Japan consortium as the preferred bidder in its attempt to sell its lucrative memorychip business. AP

A fight in court would be detrimental long-term, because delays would give an edge to rivals, he added. Samsung Electronics is No. 1 in the field. “The whole point of this is to help Japan retain control of the semiconductor operations and business of Toshiba,” Thong said. “This is Japan trying to protect its position and relevance in global chip-making.”

Earlier, others had expressed interest, including Hon Hai of Taiwan, also known as Foxconn, a major supplier to Apple, which has acquired Japanese electronics company Sharp Corp. Broadcom, Western Digital’s rival, had also been reported as a candidate.

Toshiba wants to reach an agreement with the consortium and clear legal and other procedures before its June 28 general shareholders’ meeting.

The Innovation Network Corp. of Japan is made up of 26 big-name Japanese corporate investors, including Sony Corp., Canon Inc., Toyota Motor Corp. and Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corp. Bain Capital Private Equity, based in Boston, is one of the world’s leading

investment firms. The Development Bank of Japan is backed by the government of Japan.

Toshiba’s earnings reports have failed to get endorsements from its auditors, given the company’s precarious finances over the US projects. The reports are being given as projections, not results—a ¥950 billion ($8.6 billion) loss for the fiscal year ended March.

Reactors that Westinghouse is building in the US are still unfinished, partly because of beefed-up safety regulations following the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster.

Toshiba shares closed down 2 percent on Wednesday. The stock has tanked in recent months, and speculation has been growing about its delisting.

In 2015 Toshiba acknowledged that it had been systematically falsifying its books since 2008, as managers tried to meet overly ambitious targets. An outside investigation found profits had been inflated and expenses hidden across the board. Some experts say Toshiba still needs to deal with accountability and governance issues. AP