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The 9 lives of ‘Lazarus’ passenger bus franchises

By Lorenz S. Marasigan

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he streets and highways of Metro Manila are all too crammed to accommodate more buses, especially during peak hours, and with the worsening traffic congestion in the metropolis, the government deemed it right to prevent another catastrophic event that could further aggravate the chronic problem that causes billions of pesos in losses daily.

After being resurrected from the dead, the Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board (LTFRB) decided to bury deep into the ground the franchises of five bus companies: Pangasinan Five Star Bus, Bataan Transit, Victory Liner, Luzon Cisco Transport and First North Luzon Transit.

The franchises of these bus companies were called by critics as “Lazarus franchises,” or expired transport operation certificates

that were revived by a former Court of Appeals justice.

So what are Lazarus franchises, and how do they fit into this traffic mess in Metro Manila?

Instant

In a nutshell, a Lazarus franchise is a certificate of public convenience that is deemed to be “long dead” or expired, as the bus company that holds such a certificate has stopped its operations.

Reportedly, these franchises, insiders were quoted as saying, were being peddled at about P100,000 per unit to those who want to have their own franchises without having to go through the legal process of proving their qualifications.

The “instant franchises” are peddled to operators who want to legalize the operation of their colorum buses.

Continued on A2

DENR lays out plan to save Boracay

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By Jonathan L. Mayuga

etermined to save Boracay, the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) has laid out a six-month operational plan, starting in March until August this year, to address the problem besetting the country’s top tourism destination in the municipality of Malay, Aklan Province.

Dubbed “Operational Plan: Regain Paradise,” the plan—if properly executed—would eliminate the problems besetting Boracay, hence, allowing it to regain its status as the country’s top tourism destination worthy of the tag “island paradise” by 2022.

The DENR has started mobilizing its personnel from the

central office in Quezon City and nearby regional offices to ensure that no stone is left unturned in addressing the environmental problems in Boracay.

A document obtained by the BusinessMirror bared the extent of the damage to Boracay’s ecosystem caused by decades of neglect and failure to implement the 2008

PESO exchange rates n US 52.0160

master plan, which could have prevented further environmental degradation on the island, including the over and unplanned development that exerts pressure on its scarce resources.

“While some sewage and septage infrastructure was built, up to half of the used water remains untreated and discharged into the wastelands, aquifer and the sea,” the document said.

The solid-waste generation on the island is 2.25 kilos per person, totaling 90 tons per day. Only 30 tons, however, are collected and brought out of the island.

Boracay is a 1,006.64-hectare island. Around 268 hectares of the entire island are classified as forestland, while 628.96 hectares are classified as alienable and disposable lands. So far, only 109.65 hectares are titled, while 2.1 hectares belong to the Ati tribe as part of their certificate of ancestral domain title (CADT).

Currently, Boracay has a total population of 34,000 belonging to

7,000 households.

Tourists arriving on the island at any given time are estimated at 22,000.

On top of these, the tourism industry in Boracay employs a total of 17,208 individuals, based on records of the municipality of Malay.

The tourism industry is the main source of income and livelihood of the people on the island and mainland Malay. The hotel and restaurant, and other service-related industries, including transportation, rely heavily on tourist arrivals.

Last year the municipality of Malay generated around P400 million from various fees, while the provincial government of Aklan generated revenues of P150 million.

In 2014, according to the Department of the Interior and Local Government, tourism revenues attributed to Boracay reached P27 billion.

There are around 2,612 business establishments with permits on the island.

The encroachment on public Continued on A2

This March 22, 2012, file photo shows a polluted Bulabog beach on Boracay island. Sandybronima | Dreamstime.com

n japan 0.4896 n UK 71.8757 n HK 6.6332 n CHINA 8.2072 n singapore 39.4988 n australia 40.5153 n EU 64.0525 n SAUDI arabia 13.8702

Source: BSP (March 9, 2018 )

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DENR lays out plan to save Boracay

specifically given six months by Duterte to fix Boracay’s woes, however, maintained that the crackdown on erring establishments will continue.

No less than the President has threatened to shut down Boracay, which he described as the country’s biggest “cesspool.”

Continued from a1

lands on the island is massive and the island’s carrying capacity had been exceeded since 2010, the document stated.

Biodiversity and ecosystem services of the island are now in dire conditions.

All these have resulted in the deterioration of the natural and tourism value of Boracay, the document stated.

Currently, around 20 million liters per day (MLD) are used and around 17.5 MLD become wastewater. Of the untreated wastewater, around 8 MLD go to the wetlands, the aquifer and sea. The high nutrient roads in the water are causing algal blooms.

The 2008 Boracay Master Plan, the document stressed, was not followed, with the total built-up area in forestlands reaching up to 60.7 hectares of the 268.7-hectare forestland. Encroachment on leal easement has reached a total of 23.94 hectares, according to the document.

Worse, the unbridled development in the area has severely threatened the island’s biodiversity, as well. Around nine wetlands and three forest types on the island are now in peril.

It was also reported that the population of the flying fox on the island has declined by 86 percent in the last 28 years. Worse, coral bleaching has occurred. It affected from 21 percent to 79.8 percent of coral areas.

Among environmental laws, particularly the Clean Water Act; Presidential Decree (PD) 1586, or the Environmental Impact System law; PD 705, or the Forestry Code; and Republic Act (RA) 9003, or the Ecological Solid Waste Management Act, have been grossly violated, according to the document.

Oplan: Regain Paradise bared that the interagency’s mission is to rehabilitate the damaged ecosystem of Boracay Island and conserve its natural and tourism values.

The interagency task force, dubbed “Task Force Regain Paradise,” will deploy teams to six designated areas to conduct inspections, then enforce and ensure compliance with various environmental laws.

“The first and most important stage is a rapid response that shall cover the six months from March to August 2018. A follow-through stage of one year and a way forward stage until 2022 will guide the succeeding operations,” the document stated.

The six areas are Yapak 1, Yapak 2, Balabag 1, Balabag 2, Manoc Manoc 1 and Manoc Manoc 2.

During Phase 1 of the execution of the plan from March to April, the six teams will conduct

Eye opener

Meanwhile, Leones said the crackdown on tourism destination extends to other areas, too, such as Panglao Island in Bohol, El Nido in Palawan and other potential tourism destinations.

“What happened in Boracay should never happen again. That is why the secretary [Cimatu] has already ordered our [DENR] offices to ensure compliance with environmental laws in tourism destinations,” he said. “There are instructions to all DENR regional offices to list potential tourism destinations. The assessment will include the carrying capacity of the areas.”

Bay watch

Unidentified people cleaning White beach on Boracay island, March 1, 2013. Saiko3p | Dreamstime.com

inspections to strictly enforce the Clean Water Act and other environmental laws.

The tourism industry, from then on, will be regularly monitored to ensure compliance with environmental laws.

Among the objectives is to stop the illegal wastewater discharges into the sea and the aquifer, issue appropriate orders and elevate cases to the Pollution Adjudication Board (PAB), then file cases against violators if warranted.

During the period, the connection of establishments and residences to sewer lines will be implemented, and water lines of violators will be cut.

The plan also includes plugging of illegal connections into drains, closing open dumps and nonfunctional materials-recovery facilities, and installing functional ones in compliance with RA 9003.

During the said period, the DENR will also conduct waterquality rapid assessment and establish base lines.

To ensure compliance with environmental laws, there will be a moratorium on new construction and those who will defy the moratorium will be slapped with cases.

The Task Force Boracay has already put in place a six-month moratorium on new construction.

There will also be regular monitoring, and during the two-month period, illegal wastewater discharges into the sea and the aquifer will be stopped.

At the same time, orders will be issued to owners of erring establishments. Cases will also be filed against the violators of vari-

ous environmental laws.

The document, in the form of a PowerPoint presentation, was supposed to be presented during the recent Senate public hearing on Boracay.

For Phase 2, or from July to August, there will be a review and subsequent revision of the Boracay Master Plan ,which will now include updated carrying capacity of the entire island.

Oplan: Regain Paradise is also pushing for a review of local ordinances and the issuance of appropriate amendments, particularly on solid-waste management.

During the period, the illegal structures constructed in timberlands and the 30-meter easement will be demolished. Charges will also be filed and corresponding fines will be imposed on violators.

From September 2018 to August 2019, the DENR will conduct rapid land tenure appraisal for possible titling, identify and recommend for the proclamation of resettlement sites in mainland Malay, strictly enforce the master plan and other local ordinances.

The DENR also recommends an amendment to Proclamation 1064, or the law that classified Boracay Island into forestland and agricultural land, pursuant to Presidential Decree 705 or the Philippine Forestry Code. Specifically, the amendment will focus on the provision allotted for roads on the island.

Under Proclamation 1064, all existing roads, trails and pathways and a 15-meter buffer zone on each side of the centerline of roads and trails, which are reserved for right-

of-way, shall form part of the area reserved for forestland protection purposes.

The plan also aims to promote the use of biodegradable waste to produce compost for food production.

As a way forward, the DENR aims to rehabilitate a total of 377 hectares of forest on the island, including nine inland and coastal wetlands.

The resettlement of affected settlers will begin during the period.

The DENR will engage the Ati tribe on the island to maintain the forestlands and the development of tourism options with strict regulation.

As a strategy, Oplan: Regain Paradise will also engage the business sector and intensify community engagement.

Evidence and science-based decision-making will also be used. To do this, a multidisciplinary team will be deployed from the DENR’s forest management, land management, biodiversity management, mines and geosciences, and environmental management bureaus.

Interviewed by the BusinessMirror, Environment Undersecretary for Policy, Planning, International Affairs and Foreign-Assisted Projects Jonas R. Leones said saving Boracay will require drastic measures that may even lead to a moratorium on tourism activities.

“The Boracay case is unique because of the severity of the problem,” said Leones, Environment Secretary Roy A. Cimatu’s designated spokesman.

A bitter pill to swallow

Leones said he personally favors temporarily stopping tourism ac-

tivities to hasten the implementation of corrective measures and the rehabilitation of the damaged ecosystems.

“In other countries, it has been proven and tested. Some countries have successfully rehabilitated beach resorts by stopping tourism activities for one year,” he said.

He said curing the ills of Boracay will require a strong political will on the part of the DENR, likening the ongoing crackdown, as well as preventive measures in other tourism destinations, as the bitter pill to swallow for the country’s tourism sector.

“We really need to exert all effort and exercise political will to address the environmental problems in Boracay. Otherwise, we will not be able to comply with President Duterte’s six-month deadline,” the official said.

During previous meetings of members of the interagency task force for Boracay, there was a consensus that closure of erring establishments on the island will be enforced.

Recommendations, such as the imposition of a moratorium on tourism activities and declaration of Boracay under a state of calamity, cropped up. While a six-month moratorium on construction of new establishments is in effect, the DENR hopes to temporarily stop tourism activities so as to allow faster recovery from environmental degradation.

Cimatu himself said he is not in favor of a moratorium on tourism activities on the island.

Cimatu, who is leading the interagency task force that was

The DENR, through Environmental Management Bureau (EMB), will also intensify a program called Bay Watch or Beach Watch.

Director Metodio U. Turbella of the DENR-EMB told the BusinessMirror that Bay Watch is a regular activity of the DENR-EMB and its regional offices.

Activities under the program focus on monitoring the water quality of beach resorts, particularly those that are frequented by local and foreign tourists.

The EMB, he said, monitors all water bodies, including coastal waters.

Turbella said discharge of untreated wastewater directly into water bodies, whether inland or coastal or marine areas, is a violation of the Clean Water Act of 2004.

Establishments found discharging untreated wastewater, especially water that is contaminated with hazardous or toxic substances, face severe penalty and fines under the law.

Violation of the Clean Water Act, such as in Boracay, he added, will be dealt with accordingly.

Fines for violating the Clean Water Act range from P20,000 to P200,000 per day until corrective measures are institutionalized. There is a separate penalty to be imposed for each or every violation of the Clean Air Act, the Forestry Code of the Philippines, Ecological Solid Waste Management Act, Caves Act and Wildlife Act. The next target, he said, is El Nido, Palawan.

“The secretary [Cimatu] already has in mind priorities. But we already have a plan. It is up to the secretary,” he said.

The 9 lives of ‘Lazarus’ passenger bus franchises Continued from a1

An example of a “dead” franchise that is being revived, through the scheme of hearing a petition to approve its sale to a transferee, is the long-expired Pantranco North Express Inc. franchise.

Expired

The Pantranco certificate, which expired 25 years ago, involves 783 units authorized in 128 provincial routes from several points in Ilocos, Cagayan Valley and Central Luzon to Metro Manila.

In 1993 these franchises were declared “invalid” by the regulator, after they were deemed worthless for not being used due to bankruptcy.

Because of this, the workers group of the company and the creditors tried to monetize what was left of the company—scrap metal and dead franchises.

Pantranco Retrenched Employees Association (Panrea) laid claim

on the 489 franchises held by Pantranco. They sought the regulator’s approval for the sale of these franchises, but failed to get the regulator’s nod, given that they were unused for more than half a decade.

What was awarded to these workers were almost a million pesos in compensation and what was left of the properties of Pantranco, namely: machinery, equipment and units. It did not, however, receive approval for the transfer of franchises to them.

Raised from the dead

Several moves were done to revive such certificates, leading to the coining of the term, Lazarus franchise, a reference to the biblical character Lazarus, whom Jesus raised from the dead.

One semi-successful attempt was made in 2012, when the regulator, through its former board member Manuel Iway, ruled a “sale and transfer order” of the 489 franchises

to Victory Liner Inc. of the Hernandez family even without public hearings while concurrently invoking workers’ rights on the franchises.

It was, however, declared invalid by then-Transportation Secretary Manuel A. Roxas II. His successor, Transportation Secretary Joseph Emilio A. Abaya, formally ruled the move illegal.

After the Aquino administration took its bow in 2016, the Hernandez family then sought for the revival of the dead franchises before the Court of Appeals (CA).

Questionable CA ruling

By November 2016, a ruling by Appellate Court Justice Normandie B. Pizzaro ruled that these franchises were still “alive” and decided to give all 489 of them to Victory Liner.

However, the First Division of the Supreme Court, headed by Chief Justice Maria Lourdes A. Sereno, decided to issue a temporary restraining order (TRO) to prevent the ex-

ecution of the CA ruling.

Despite this, the regulator, through Chairman Martin M. Delgra, issued a memorandum of compliance to Victory Liner, reminding the bus firm to register the franchise under its various companies.

Just last week the regulator decided to scrap the said memo, on the merit of an opinion sent by the Office of the Solicitor General (OSG).

According to Solicitor General Jose C. Calida, the regulator must uphold the High Court’s stay order against the Pizzaro ruling.

“A restraining order issued by the Supreme Court or member thereof shall be effective until further orders. Therefore, it is our humble opinion that the TRO…remains to be valid and effective in spite of the issuance of the entry of judgement by the same SC division,” he said, citing former decisions of the High Court as its basis for the OSG’s opinion.

Immediately, Delgra issued

five separate orders recalling his earlier memorandum of compliance, citing the OSG’s position.

Loss

CRITICS have noted that additional bus units that pass through and ply routes within Metro Manila may cause another traffic mayhem that could probably aggravate the already chronic congestion in the metropolis.

Losses in relation to traffic in Metro Manila, according to the Japan International Cooperation Agency, have reached the P3.5-billion-per-day mark. Previous estimates were only at P2.4 billion daily.

It may reach the P5.4-billion mark should the government fail to mitigate the traffic congestion in Metro Manila through infrastructure development and route rationalization.

Conditional revival

According to Jose Regin F. Regi-

dor, a research fellow at the University of the Philippines-Diliman National Center for Transportation Studies, the franchises may be revived, so long as it follows a list of requirements that will ensure that traffic will not be adversely affected by such a move.

“My opinion is that brands associated with these franchises can be revived, but there are prerequisites. These include an inventory of units currently operating in relation to the demand,” he told the BusinessMirror.

What needs to be verified, first and foremost, is the demand.

“The rule is to determine first if existing operators/companies can cover the increasing demand. If not, then the LTFRB may decide to open routes for new players, including issuance of new franchises,” he said.

Regidor noted, however, that “new” may refer to “resurrected” franchises that have name recall among people.

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World’s top property stock of 2018 seen as a telecom play

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he performance of the world’s best property stock this year may have nothing to do with real estate.

Philippines-based Golden Haven Inc. has surged more than 1,400 percent this year, outpacing more than 2,700 other real-estate stocks globally. While the cemetery builder’s recent push into the affordable housing market is seen as part of the reason, an even bigger factor appears to be speculation that billionaire founder Manuel Villar Jr. may use it as a vehicle to become the country’s newest telecommunications carrier.

“Until the nation’s third major telecom player is named, the market will continue to speculate on the stock’s potential involvement with Villar’s push into telecoms,” said Rens Cruz, an analyst at Regina Capital Development Corp.

“The stock has moved far ahead of fundamentals.”

The shares rose as much as 20 percent on Friday to a record high, adding to a rally that has driven the company’s market valuation to more P200 billion ($3.8 billion), overtaking all of the Philippines’s property stocks except SM Prime Holdings Inc. and Ayala Land Inc. The ascent has caused some market jitters, with volatility spiking over 300 percent in late-January.

Calls to Villar and Golden Haven President Maribeth Tolentino went unanswered.

The Philippine government has invited bids for frequencies as part of its effort to open the telecommunications sector to new players beyond PLDT Inc.

and Globe Telecom Inc. Analysts estimate combined revenue for the duopoly of over P300 billion this year. President Duterte plans to choose a third major carrier in May. Villar, known as “Manny,” is a former senator, with deep family ties in politics, as well as holdings in various property-related companies. His wife Cynthia is a current senator and their son Mark is the Philippines’s publicworks secretary. Another son, Manuel Paolo, is CEO of Vista Land & Lifescapes Inc., a home and mall builder operating in more than 133 towns and cities throughout the country.

The family’s Streamtech Systems Technologies Inc. is seeking a franchise from Congress to initially provide fixed-line broadband services to residential communities developed by Villar group companies. Golden Haven is in the process of changing its name to Golden Bria following its acquisition last December of Villar group low-cost housing firm Bria Homes Inc. A market hunch that it could be used as the listed vehicle for the family’s potential telecom foray have helped drive its shares, as well as those of another Villar holding, Starmalls Inc., which has surged 160 percent year-to-date.

“Until the real story is out and known, the market speculation isn’t going to stop as everything will be possible,” said James Lago, an analyst at PCCI Securities Brokers Corp.

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Weak peso, high inflation seen slowing PHL growth

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By Bianca Cuaresma

he local currency has taken a beating in the previous month as it touched fresh 11-year lows and mostly traded on the P52-to-adollar level, which alarmed certain economic sectors.

Data f rom t he PDS Group showed the peso last week traded in the P52 band to hit P52.1 to a dollar before calming down to P51.9 to the greenback at week ’s end.

Earlier in the month, however, the peso reached its weakest in mid-February to P52.34 to a dollar, abruptly losing 34 centavos from the previous trade.

The local currency has not been this weak since the 1997 Asian financial crisis. The last time the peso has weakened this low was on July 19, 2006, when it hit P52.745 against the dollar.

What complicated the peso’s weakness was the spike in inflation last month. Following the Philippine Statistics Authority’s release of data, which showed that inflation rose to a three-year high of 4.5 percent, economists said consumers should brace for higher commodity prices.

The tandem of a weak currency and high inflation pushed

business sentiment downward in certain sectors.

Trade sector confidence falls

Data from the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas’s (BSP) latest business expectation survey showed firms in the trade sector had a significantly less favorable outlook for their business operations in the current quarter.

T he w ho l e s a l e a nd re t a i l trade sector is the only one of four sectors monitored by the BSP, whose confidence index (CI) declined during the first quarter of the year. However, the decline in the sector was significant enough to pull down the overall CI of the countr y’s business sector for the period.

In particular, the CI–which is computed as the percentage of optimistic firms minus the percentage of pessimistic firms on the prospects of the local economy–of the wholesale and retail trade sector went down to 31 percent, from

50.1 percent, during the quarter.

Respondent exporter and importer firms told the BSP their i nc re a s e d p e s s i m i s m i s due largely to the rise in fuel costs, as well as the initial increase in prices due to the implementation of the tax-reform law.

Most importers also cited peso depreciation as one of their reasons for their less-buoyant outlook. A weak peso raises the costs of imported goods, as transactions in this sector are usually done in dollars.

Manufacturing growth weakens

Growt h i n t he Ph i l ip p i ne manufactur ing sector, which was then the fastest-growing manufacturing sector in the region, lost further momentum in February, setting the sector on course for the weakest quarter in the survey history of Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) data.

IHS Markit principal economist Bernard Aw said demand slumped during the month and employment numbers in the sector fell at the steepest pace in survey history due to building pressures for the sector. “ W hat’s par ticu larly concerning was the tighter squeeze on profit margins, as inf lationary pressures built rapidly to survey-record rates. There were reports of layoffs as part of efforts to reduce costs. Firms continued to blame higher exciseta x rates and increased commodity prices, especially in oil,

plastics and paper, for the sharp cost increase,” Aw said.

“A weaker peso also worsened the impact of higher import costs,” he added.

Household spending to be muted

Also, despite the higher takehome pay of most Filipinos as an effect of the first tax-reform package, global bank ANZ economist Eugenia Victorino flagged risks of possible moderation in domestic consumption as the growth of consumer prices rise above what is expected in early 2018.

“While take-home pay is higher for taxpayers, non-taxpayers are facing higher prices,” Victorino said in ANZ’s report. “In the past, for every 1-percent increase in headline prices, there was a corresponding decrease in private consumption by 0.3 percent,” the economist added.

ING Ba n k economist Joey Cuyegkeng backed this forecast, say ing that they a lso ex pect higher inf lation to moderate household spending for the year.

Cuyegkeng forecasts a gross domestic product (GDP) growth of 6.7 percent this year.

This is below the government’s 7-percent to 8-percent growth target for 2018.

Private consumption has been, thus far, one of the more resilient and consistent growth drivers of the Philippine economy, and has driven the economy to a growth trend of above 6 percent in recent years.

Wynn Resorts settles lawsuit for $2.4B with Tokyo company W y nn Resor ts has agreed to pay $2.4 billion in a settlement with a Tokyo casino game maker and its United States unit over the forced redemption of their shares in the Las Vegas-based casino operating company in 2012.

The company on Thursday announced the settlement with Universal Entertainment Corp., which previously held an almost 20-percent stake in Wynn Resorts through its subsidiary Aruze USA Inc. Wynn Resorts, which is facing scrutiny over sexual misconduct allegations against its founder and former CEO, agreed to pay the sum by March 31.

T he lega l f ight bet ween

t he compa n ies d ates bac k t o 2 01 2 , w he n W y n n R e sorts pushed out Universal ’s founder K azuo Okada after finding the Japanese tycoon made improper payments to oversea s ga mbl i ng reg u l ators. T he actions by Wy nn Resorts stemmed from a separate casino resort project Okada was undertaking in the Philippines.

After a yearlong investigation led by former FBI Director Louis Freeh, Wynn Resorts said it found more than three dozen instances over a three-year period in which Okada and his associates engaged in “ improper activities for their own benefit.” That

included cash payments and gifts totaling about $110,000 to foreign gaming regulators, the company said.

Okada was ousted from Universal last year over fraud accusations. He has denied any wrongdoing.

Aruze’s shares were worth about $2.7 billion when Wynn R esor t s forc ibly redeemed them in February 2012 and issued a 10-year, $1.9-billion promissory note.

The settlement is the latest in episode in a tumultuous period for Wynn Resorts that began in late January, when the Wall Street Journal reported that a number of women said the company’s founder, Steve Wynn,

harassed or assaulted them and that one case led to a $7.5-million settlement with a manicurist. Since then, groups of shareholders, as well as current and former employees, have filed lawsuits against the billionaire and the company’s board of directors.

Steve Wynn has vehemently denied the accusations the newspaper reported and attributed them to a campaign led by his ex-wife, Elaine Wynn. Her attorney has denied that she instigated the news story.

Steve Wynn resigned as chairman and CEO of the company on February 6. The company on Wednesday announced changes to its board

of directors. The company is also facing scrutiny by gambling regulators in Nevada and Massachusetts. Regulators in Macau, the Chinese enclave where the company operates two casinos, are also inquiring

about the sexual misconduct allegations.

The initial newspaper report about Steve Wynn’s misconduct sent the company’s shares plunging but they have since stabilized. AP

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Saturday, March 10, 2018

The World BusinessMirror

Editor: Lyn Ressureccion | www.businessmirror.com.ph

Nearing end of term, PBOC chief says China’s opening can be bolder

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eople’s Bank of China (PBOC) Governor Zhou Xiaochuan said market access reforms should be accelerated and that the world’s second-largest economy “can be bolder in opening up.” Policymakers are now more focused on achieving “quality” growth, rather than the pace of expansion, which means reliance on credit may ease, Zhou, 70, told a packed on Friday during the National People’s Congress in Beijing.

He sa id it ’s positive major econom ies a re e x it i ng yea rs of easy monetar y polic y, amid a globa l recover y, whi le emphasizing t hat domestic cond itions are t he ma in consideration for t he centra l bank.

“When we’re pursuing qualityoriented growth, we’ll depend

less heavily on the credit-based growth model,” Zhou said, smiling often and looking confident and relaxed during the more than hour-and-a-half-long appearance that may be among his last as the central bank chief.

Deput y Gover nor Yi Ga ng said stable progress will be made

on capital account convertibilit y. St ate A d m i n ist rat ion of Foreign Exchange Director Pan Gongsheng said cross-border f lows are stable.

Zhou has led the PBOC for 15 years, the longest tenure in the monetar y authority’s histor y.

NPC delegates will vote on March 19 to appoint a central bank chief, who will face the challenge of keeping the economy growing while defusing debt risks and steering monetary policy. In recent months Zhou has capped his career as a determined advocate of financial openness, helping China’s yuan gain reserve-currency status, with warnings over mounting debt risks.

“I’ve spent so many years working in the financial system and many things have happened,” Zhou said with a touch of emotion. “It’s my honor to work with everyone to push ahead with financial reforms and opening up.

I feel very honored.”

T hough current bank regulator y chief Guo Shuqing and Hubei prov incia l par t y chief Jiang Chaoliang have both been tipped to replace Zhou, President X i Jinping’s top economic policy adv iser and newly appointed Politburo member Liu

He has recently been named by analysts in connection with the top monetar y-policy job and a v ice premier position.

Zhou’s call for bold opening came just after US President Dona ld J. Tr ump announced broad steel and aluminum tariffs and as his administration is said to be weighing clamping down on Chinese investments in the country and imposing tariffs on a broad range of its imports.

W hile China has, for example, announced the removal of foreig n-ow nership limits on its financial system, much of the economy is difficult for foreign investors to enter.

“He’s repeated what he’s been saying all his career: We must finish what we started in terms of liberalizing financial markets,” said Andrew Polk, cofounder of research firm Trivium China in Beijing. “He’s probably pretty concerned. There’s been a broader backsliding on marketizing and liberalization.”

As Zhou’s role as driver of financial reform and opening comes to an end, it’s unclear h i s successor w i l l sh a re h i s i n st i nc t s, Bloomberg econo m i s t s To m O r l i k , F i e l d i n g Chen and Qian Wan wrote in a

note. “Zhou repeated his view that ‘reform’ and ‘stability’ are not opposing forces,” they said.

“In fact, the reverse is true: by driving greater efficiency, reform is necessary to underpin stability. We agree.”

Zhou and Yi also dove into the internals of setting policy, suggesting views on the broad M2 money supply, a long-favored indicator, are evolving. Premier Li Keqiang’s annual report to the legislature on Monday omitted the M2 target, signaling that its significance is fading. The policy document instead said it’s expected to expand at a similar pace as last year.

“M2 is no longer a very precise tool to track whether monetary policy is tight or loose,” he said, adding that factors like output growth, inf lation and employment should be considered.

Zhou spoke hours after European Central Bank President Mario Draghi ’s sur prise dialing back of easing measures and a Bank of Japan meeting at which policy settings were left unchanged.

On financial stability, a key objective for top leaders, Zhou said China “has entered a phase of stabilizing and gradually reducing leverage.” Reforms are in

the works and the PBOC will get a greater role in supervision as the government boosts regulatory coordination, he said.

As regulators weigh new rules to supervise so-called financial holding companies, which span different segments and create hidden r isks, Zhou disclosed for the first time that they’ll be subject to more stringent capital requirements and be scrutinized for connected transactions.

O n t he c u r renc y, Z hou sa id t he process of y u a n g loba li z at ion w i l l b e g r adu a l . It s i nter n at ion a l i z at ion , long a goa l of B eiji ng ’s leaders, c a n be stepped up when capit a l accou nt rest r ic t ions h ave been l i f ted , he added.

Zhou’s deputies said authorities w ill allow more convertibi l it y u nder t he c apit a l account as cross-border f lows are more balanced and that China is gradua l ly exiting counterc yc l ic a l m a n a ge me nt of t he foreign-exchange market and capital f lows.

After climbing the most last year since 2008, the yuan’s rally has started to teeter as the dollar racks up gains on the back of a more hawkish outlook for the Federal Reserve. Bloomberg News

Word of Trump-Kim summit meeting stirs concern in Asia

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OKYO—As North Korea conducted ballistic missile and nuclear tests and President Donald J. Trump threatened fiery responses last year, Japan and South Korea feared the worst: a nuclear conflict on their front doorsteps.

But now, as Trump accepts an offer from North Korea’s Kim Jong Un to discuss the country’s nuclear program, another fear is looming: that Trump might offer concessions that the North’s Asian neighbors would find unpalatable, or, if the talks fail, resort to a military option.

Shortly after the announcement of t he summit meeting, Japan’s prime minister, Shinzo Abe, told reporters he appreciated “Nor t h Korea’s change” and attr ibuted the d iplomat ic over t ure to t he pressure of sanctions coordinated by the United States, Japan and South Korea. “ We w ill continue imposing the utmost pressure until Nor th Korea ta kes specif ic actions toward t horough, ver i f i able a nd i r re versible denuclearization,” Abe said, emphasizing that “Japan and the US have been and w ill be together 100 percent.”

He also said he would visit Tr ump in Washington next month to discuss the North Korean nuclear issue before the president meets Kim. Analysts saw Abe’s language as suggesting that Japan fears that the North might define denuclearization differently from the rest of the world.

“I think there’s real concern about a deal-maker president talking one-on-one with Kim, accepting something less than” verifiable and irreversible denuc lear izat ion, sa id Tobias Harris, a Japan analyst at Teneo Intelligence, a political risk consultancy based in New York.

“ T he Japa nese gover nme nt ob v iou s ly w a nt s t he North Korean threat resolved,” he added, “ but I don’t t hink Japanese of f icia ls are na ive about t he d if f icu lt y of achiev ing a tr u ly meaningf u l d isar mament ag reement under t hese circumstances.”

In remarks released by the White House, an unnamed senior official said Trump had spoken with Abe on Thursday night in Washington. The official added that the administration sought a verifiable deal for the permanent denuclearization of North Korea.

In Seoul, a spokesman for President Moon Jae -in de scribed the invitation to talk as “another great breakthrough.”

Trump’s acceptance of Kim’s invitation to a summit meeting clearly marked a diplomatic victory for Moon, adding momentum to the South Korean leader’s efforts to steer the nuclear crisis from talk of war toward negotiations.

But analysts quick ly noted the r isks for Washington and Seou l if K im d id not live up to US e x pectations for negotiations, or if Sout h Ko rea pursued better relations w it h t he Nor t h even if K im did not take any steps toward denuc lear ization.

“Announcing intention for a US -Nor t h Korea summit, with so many details yet undetermined, carries risks,” said Leif-Eric Easley, associate professor of international studies at Ewha Womans University in Seoul. “If the Trump-Kim meeting breaks down, both engagement and pressure campaigns could suffer.”

T here was no immediate reaction from China’s Foreign Ministr y, but some Chinese a n a ly st s we re ple a s e d t he United States was seizing on a diplomatic opening.

“The United States cannot resist North Korea’s proposals, and Trump is grabbing at them,” said Cheng Xiaohe, professor of international relations at Renmin University. “That’s good.”

Yet, any talks could end up offering only a temporary reprieve, given the US readiness for military action.

“W hat is worth paying attention to is whether North Korea will state very clearly that they are willing to give up their nuc lear weapons,” said Zhang Liangui, professor of international studies at the Central Party School of the Communist Party.

“If North Korea tries to beat around the bush again this time,” Zhang added, “I think the United States is ready to resolve the problem with force.”

In Japan, where Abe has worked to maintain a close relationship with the US president, analysts said officials were keen to rein in Trump’s impulsive tendencies and willingness to disregard the wishes of his key allies.

On the same day that Trump accepted K im’s inv itation, he announced tariffs on steel and aluminum impor ts, a move that Japan’s foreign minister, Taro Kono, described as “regrettable.”

Kunihiko Miyake, a former Japanese diplomat, said he was neither optimistic nor pessimistic about the planned dialogue, putting his faith in a wide circle of advisers in Washington and internationally. “ No m at te r w h at M r.

Tr u m p s a y s , t h e f o r e i g n pol ic y est abl ish ment a nd ot her l i ke -m i nded pol it ic a l leaders wou ld not hopef u l ly a l low t he president to m a ke a concession t h at we c a n not accept,” Miya ke said. “But we w i l l wa it a nd see.”

New York Times News Service

Sports BusinessMirror

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

Saturday, March 10, 2018

A5

PETRON STAKES UNBEATEN RUN

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NBEATEN Petron tries to move a win shy of a seven-game preliminaries sweep when it guns for victory No. 6 against Foton in the Chooks To Go Philippine Superliga (PSL) Grand Prix today at the Santa Rosa Sports Center in Laguna.

The Blaze Spikers stake their mettle against the Tornadoes, who tote an even 2-2 win-loss card, at 4 p.m.

Cocolife (3-2), meanwhile, guns for its fourth straight triumph when it tackles winless GenerikaAyala (0-3) at 2 p.m.

The Asset Managers started out flat and lost their first two games but found their groove under new Head Coach Moro Branislav, who has been drawing contributions from his fellow Serbian, import Sara Klisura, and American reinforcement Taylor Milton.

The Tornadoes dominated the 2015 and 2016 Grand Prix at the expense of Petron under its former import Lindsay Stalzer, who is now with Foton.

Last season Stalzer led the Blaze Spikers in eliminating the Tornadoes in their knockout semifinals only to miss the championship by losing to F2 Logistics in Game Three.

The Tornadoes are still adjusting under new coach Rommel Abella, as they split their first four games.

Abella hopes that imports Brooke Kranda and Elizabeth Wendel, as well as locals Dindin SantiagoManabat, Maika Ortiz, Gen Casugod, setter Gyzelle Sy and libero Jen Reyes, would bring out their best to upset their opponents today. Lance Agcaoili

NU squares off with DLSU anew

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F2 LOGISTICS’S Kennedy Lynn Bryan tries to score against Smart’s Sanja Trivunuvic and Maureen Penetramte-Ouano during their match on Thursday.

The Cargo Movers won, 25-22, 25-18, 25-17.

WINNING FORMULA AT PARALYMPICS? A

By Pat Graham The Associated Press

DAPTIVE snowboarder Mike Schultz could very well have the winning formula at the Paralympics—whether or not he even crosses the finish line in first.

He is the architect behind some of the most cutting-edge prosthetic components out there, which is no surprise considering he’s been tinkering with technology and testing it himself since losing his left leg above the knee a decade ago following a snowmobile accident.

There will be around 30 male and female athletes from six different countries at the Paralympic Games in South Korea using Schultz’s “Moto Knee” (constructed to withstand high-impact stress), “Versa Foot” (featuring adjustable shock absorbers) or both.

He just might be beaten by his own creations.

That’s almost a win-win situation for the world’s topranked snowboard-cross and banked slalom boarder.

Almost.

“Me winning would be better,” cracked the 36-year-old from Saint Cloud, Minnesota, who was voted the flag bearer for Team USA during the opening ceremony on Friday. “I’ve got some secret stuff. I’ll share it with everybody at the end of March.

“I do take a lot of pride in knowing that I’ve helped these athletes step up their performance game a little bit—or a lot. It’s very rewarding to see these athletes really bring their ‘A’ game and do the level of riding that they all do.”

His life was altered in December 2008 during a snowmobile race in Michigan. He was making a move in a downhill section when he lost his balance and was thrown from his sled. His left knee hyperextended 180 degrees, with his lower leg ending up near his chest. The main nerve to his leg was severed. In an essay on The Player’s Tribune, Schultz said he went through 42 units of blood, but the “reality was that the best way for me to go forward was to amputate at the mid-thigh.”

New challenge—he just didn’t know what.

“I kind of figured my competitive days were over,” Schultz said. “But you know what? Once I started feeling better and healthier and learned to walk on my first prosthetic leg, I realized I’m not going to be satisfied with just walking around.”

Within a few months, he was riding his dirt bike again. And shortly after that, on a prosthetic leg he designed, Schultz captured a silver medal at the 2009 Summer X Games in Moto X racing adaptive. It felt just like gold.

In 2010 he started his company BioDapt, where he designs and custom-fits prosthetics out of a workshop behind his house. His company’s mission is simple: “Manufacture the highest quality and highly versatile

Mike Schultz is the architect behind some of the most cutting-edge prosthetic components out there, which is no surprise considering he’s been tinkering with technology and testing it himself since losing his left leg above the knee a decade ago following a snowmobile accident.

EAGUE leader National University (NU) and two-time defending champion De La Salle collide anew in what could be a Finals preview in Season 80 University Athletic Association of the Philippines (UAAP) women’s volleyball tournament today at the Filoil Flying V Centre in San Juan City.

The match is set at 4 p.m.

Adamson University, which ended the first round with an embarrassing 22-25, 25-22, 25-14, 20-25, 13-15 loss to University of the East last week to slide to a 3-4 win-loss card, seeks payback against University of the Philippines (2-5) at 2 p.m.

The Lady Bulldogs, who won six of their seven games in the first round for their best start since Season 76, are looking to assert their mastery over the Lady Spikers, whom they beat, 26-24, 19-25, 22-25, 25-17, 16-14, in the first round.

But NU is anticipating a tougher and hungrier De La Salle side, which will try to improve on its 5-2 card and force a tie at the top of the standings.

“It will be another beautiful La Salle-NU game,” NU star Jaja Santiago said. “We all know that La Salle will bounce back. So we have to work hard and give it our best.”

Besides Santiago, NU Head Coach Babes Castillo will also pin his hopes on setter Jasmin Nabor, Aiko Urdas, Audrey Paran, Jorelle Singh and Roselyn Doria.

“Let’s bring it on,” Castillo said. “We have to be ready anytime and whoever we are facing.”

After that first loss to NU, the Lady Spikers armor revealed its flaws—they almost lost to UE. But the Lady Spikers got their acts back and brought down archrival Ateneo de Manila with a character-building 25-20, 25-17, 24-26, 25-20 win last week.

“Their determination to win is back, although it’s still a roller-coaster ride. They still lack the killer instincts of closing out a game,” De La Salle Head Coach Ramil de Jesus said.

NU and Far Eastern University, each with a 6-1 card, battle for separation at 10 a.m., while UE (0-7) continues to hunt for the elusive first win when it battles Adamson University (2-5) at 8 a.m. Lance Agcaoili

‘Breakdown’ hoops nationals up

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U.S. Olympic Winter Games paralympic snowboarding hopeful Mike Schultz poses for a portrait at the 2017 Team USA media summit in Park City, Utah. AP

components that allow amputees to participate in sports and activities.”

Dabbling in the world of snowboarding never really crossed his mind. That is, until an adaptive boarder saw him riding snowmobiles at Winter X and asked if the technology might be applied to his sport.

“I was like, ‘Well, I better go give that a try,’” Schultz said.

So that’s how he became a snowboarder. But the learning curve was steep.

“I had my fair share of injuries and hard hits,” said Schultz, who was recently featured on a box of Kellogg’s Frosted Flakes. “But I’m an athlete, so I pick things up fairly quick.”

There’s a reason his products are in demand—they’re state-of-the-art.

His Moto Knee design mimics the action of the

quadriceps muscle. His Versa Foot offers shock absorbers that control toe pressure and ankle resistance.

Two-time Paralympian Amy Purdy uses the Versa Foot. Fellow snowboarder Brenna Huckaby happens to be sponsored by Schultz’s company—her prosthetic components made in purple to match her hair. Also sponsored is 20-year-old Noah Elliott, who lost his left leg to osteosarcoma bone cancer and was inspired

by Schultz after seeing him on a talk show. They’ve become good friends.

Elliott also happens to be the No. 2-ranked rider in the world behind Schultz. He swears by Schultz’s innovations.

“Mike’s design is truly unique and the performance is true to its name,” Elliott said in an e-mail. The Moto Knee and Versa Foot provide confidence on and off the slope—from bringing a person to or back to a passion

they once lost, or even to walk with the head high because you know you can.”

Schultz’s path to Pyeongchang, South Korea, hasn’t been exactly smooth in recent months. He crashed at the Winter X Games in 2015 and shattered his right heel into 15 pieces.

“I thought honestly, I’m going to have to pull out of snowboarding completely,” said Schultz, whose snowboard-cross final at the Paralympics is on Monday, with the banked slalom final set for March 16. “I’m going to feel that one the rest of my days. We’re dealing with it.”

Schultz already has eight gold medals and one silver courtesy of the Winter and Summer X Games—all displayed in his trophy case at his gym back home. He wouldn’t mind adding a little more hardware.

“If you would’ve told me I’d be a snowboarder back then? No way. No way. But,” Schultz said, “it is pretty amazing when I look back.”

EGIONAL champions from the National Capital Region, Bulacan, Cagayan de Oro, Cavite, Cebu, Davao and Iloilo clash for national under-12 and 17 division titles in the Smart Breakdown Basketball Invitationals (BBI) set from March 13 to 18 at the Blue Eagle Gym at the Ateneo de Manila campus in Quezon City.

One of the biggest and fastest-growing grassroots basketball leagues backed by Cherifer, the tournament is holding its national championship for the first time since its creation three years ago.

“It was just a dream and we’re very happy that we were able to fulfill it. Hopefully this continues to move forward,” the league’s managing partner Jay Paolo Adevoso said.

Adevoso was joined by fellow managing partners Gil Salandanan, Edwin Corral and Yuri Escueta during the event’s press launch last week. Noli Ayo of the University of Visayas and Matt Calizar had commitments in a basketball league and missed the launch.

“We just wanted to provide a venue for the young kids to be able to play and showcase their talents, as well as the coaches,” Escueta said.

NCR’s Xavier School is the favorite in both the U-12 and U-17 divisions.

Xavier boasts of Batang Gilas players Miguel Tan and Ryan Samuel Yu in the U-17 division, where they will face Centerphil Montessori of Iloilo, Immaculate Concepcion Academy (Cavite), Philippine Academy of Sakya (Davao), Southern Philippines College (Cagayan de Oro) and Montessori De San Ildefonso (Bulacan).

In the U-12, Xavier sees action against Assumption College of Davao, Bukidnon Faith Christian Inc. (Cagayan de Oro), Saint Thomas Moore Academy (Cavite) and San Miguel Elementary School (Bulacan).

The opening ceremonies are set on Tuesday at the Blue Eagle Gym. It will be hosted by Miss World Philippines Laura Lehmann with Ateneo Blue Eaglets Finals Most Valuable Player Kai Sotto and Barangay Ginebra’s Scottie Thompson serving as guest speakers.

All the BBI coaches will also have a conference, with Coaches Nash Racela of TNT, Jamike Jarin of National University and Lyceum of the Philippines University’s LA Mumar holding talks on coaching.

Bukidnon Faith Christian Inc. and Assumption College of Davao face each other at 10:30 a.m., in a U-12 game, while Montessori De San Ildefonso and Immaculate Concepcion Academy of Cavite clash at 2:30 p.m. in an U-17 clash.

Lance Agcaoili

BusinessMi

A6 Saturday, March 10, 2018 | Editor: Jun Lomibao

Team Sky asked to explain medical practices on riders Wiggins

Froome firm in support of Sky manager Brailsford

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HRIS FROOME defended Team Sky Manager Dave Brailsford, rejecting claims that the embattled Welshman should resign following a series of accusations in the British Parliamentary Committee report into doping in sport.

“I wouldn’t still be in the team if I didn’t believe in the team and the people around me. Dave B has brought all those people together and we’ve got a fantastic group of people,” Froome said after attending the prerace TirrenoAdriatico photo shoot and press conference.

Froome also denied the accusation in the British Parliamentary Committee report that a small group of riders used corticosteroids outside competition to lose weight in preparation for the major races, saying: “That’s absolute rubbish, I’ve seen that accusation, but no, that’s complete rubbish.”

Asked if there was any use of Triamcinolone, he said: “No. I’ve learned about this through the media, as well, I wasn’t even aware Bradley was using it.”

Froome arrived early for the official Tirreno-Adriatico photo opportunity and press conference on Tuesday afternoon, waiting in the hotel foyer, happy to sign autographs and pose for photographs.

During the press conference he sat between Fabio Aru and Tom Dumoulin, but he and the Giro d’Italia winner never caught each other’s eye, with Dumoulin’s body language appearing unwelcoming. Dumoulin revealed he was ill and announced he would not stay for the mixed zone interviews.

That meant he avoided any questions about Froome’s presence at Tirreno-Adriatico.

Froome did not shy away from the cameras, even if most of the questions were about his salbutamol case and especially about Team Sky and the accusations in the British Parliamentary Committee report.

“I haven’t seen the report myself, I’ve only seen the headlines. I can only speak from my own experiences in the team. I’ve been there for eight years, since day one when the team started. I certainly have a very different picture to what’s been painted in the headlines,” he said, defending Team Sky and Brailsford against accusations that an important ethical line had been passed with the use of Triamcinolone.

“I’ve never seen anything like that, it’s not my experience within the team, that that’s how the team operates,” he said, occasionally tripping up on his own words.

Froome explained how he managed to separate his ongoing salbutamol case and Team Sky’s woes from his racing.

“That’s part of something I’ve been dealing with over my whole career as a pro cyclist, I’ve come up against adversity and I’ve learnt how to compartmentalize things. Right now I’m here to race Tirreno and I’m focusing on that, and I’m building toward the Giro d’Italia,” he said.

“I spoke about it before at the Ruta del Sol when I began racing, there’s a process for me to follow and a process for me to demonstrate that I’ve not done anything wrong, and that’s exactly what I plan to do. These are not easy circumstances; I understand it’s difficult for everyone. It’s not a good situation for the sport, it’s not a good situation for any of us, but we are getting on with it and I’m working as hard as I can to get this resolved as fast as possible.”

Asked if he was at Tirreno-Adriatico to try to win the weeklong race, he said: “I’m here to try. I understand that this is part of my progression toward the Giro, it’s one of my preparation races, I don’t feel that I’m at my best yet, I’m working hard toward the Giro and I hope to be at my best shape by the start.”

Froome’s case emerged in late September but his legal team is still in discussions with the UCI regarding the case and Froome has not been accused of an anti-doping violation. However, there is growing pressure for him to avoid racing until his case is resolved. There are fears the case could drag on until the Tour de France, meaning he would race sub-judice and possibly lose any results if he is eventually found guilty and punished.

“As I said, I’m working as hard as I can to get everything resolved before then and hopefully that’s going to be the case,” he responded.

“Everyone is entitled to an opinion, but there’s a process we are following. I’m doing everything I can to get this resolved as fast as possible.”

An ITV camera crew asked Froome if Brailsford should resign several times during the interview. Froome ignored them but eventually responded.

“No. Like I said. I’m really proud to be part of this team. I wouldn’t be here if I didn’t believe in the people around me,” Froome said. Cyclingnews

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HANE SUTTON has refuted claims that Bradley Wiggins or any other Team Sky riders used Triamcinolone to lose weight in 2012 or that he bullied or pressured Dr. Richard Freeman for performance-enhancing TUEs. Sutton had previously stated in a BBC documentary that Team Sky saw TUEs as a legitimate way of finding “marginal gains.”

Sutton also called for Wiggins and the former Team Sky doctor Freeman to provide a full explanation of medical practices in the wake of the DCMS report on Combatting Doping in Sport.

In the DCMS report released on Monday, Sutton said of Wiggins’s TUEs: “What Brad was doing was unethical, but not against the rules.” Wiggins responded to the DCMS report in a television interview with the BBC on Monday night in which he said he “100 percent did not cheat,” adding: “That really hurts me that someone like Shane would say that.”

Speaking to Sky Sports News in Mallorca, Sutton explained that he had “no axe to grind with Brad” and simply wants a full explanation from Wiggins and Freeman regarding the findings of the DCMS report.

“My axe to grind here is that Brad and the Doc had the chance to come forward and they never did,” Sutton said.

“They had the chance to defend Dave Brailsford and it should have been them in front of the select committee. Not myself and Dave. That grieves me a little bit, but not to the point where I wouldn’t sit down with Brad and have a drink.

“There is no problem there whatsoever. As I said, I watched him on TV last night and he looked very stressed. I am calling for him, like I said, and the Doc to come forward and tell the truth.”

Sutton was asked during the interview if he knew precisely when and where Wiggins used Triamcinolone. The Australian said he had little knowledge of the situation and called again for Wiggins and Freeman to clear up the facts and present a full explanation.

“I can’t actually say I know a lot about Brad’s use of it, in competition or out of competition,” he said. “Obviously, I am told by the doc that we have a TUE for this particular event, etcetera, etcetera. Outside that, I keep saying to everybody that they have to go and sit down with Brad and the Doc and ask them, ‘Were you sanctioned to use it by the International Cycling Union [UCI] in lead-ups to major tours and everything else?’ Because, obviously, he is a sufferer.

“When you actually have been on a col and seen him suffering like I have seen him suffer and seen him gasping for breath at the end of that particular effort— which everyone will say you always get out of breath making an effort—to see what he was going through, I can’t answer all the questions like you just asked me, how often he used it or when he did. That is something only Brad and the Doc can tell us.”

Sutton was also asked why there was inconsistency in the explanation of Wiggins’s TUE use in the DCMS report and the rider’s BBC interview. The report stated Wiggins received fewer than 10 doses of Triamcinolone, but may have received as many as nine. Following the Fancy Bears’

leak of his TUEs, Wiggins had previously denied being given the substance out-of-competition, but then told the select committee that had done so once in 2013. The DCMS report found that Sky had acted unethically, but had not cheated by the letter of the law. Sutton suggesting that a full explanation would help bat away claims that Wiggins and Team Sky had cheated.

“That is why I am calling on Brad and the Doc to come forward now and explain all to everybody. As you’ve just stated, and everybody knows, the word cheat needs to be taken out of the equation here because the report, in the tabloids and everything else, is that he didn’t cheat. So come forward and tell everybody what you went through, how many times you actually administered this particular corticosteroid or whatever to combat what you were going through and I think then let’s just put it to bed.”

There also remain inconsistencies regarding the Jiffy bag that was delivered to Sky on the final day of the 2011 Criterium du Dauphiné, the contents of which remain unknown. Asked its contents in his interview with the BBC on Monday, Wiggins said: “Your guess is as good as mine.”

It’s also unclear when and where the contents of the Jiffy bag were administrated to Wiggins. Sutton suggested Wiggins was treated on the team bus at the finish in La Toussuire. Wiggins stated to the BBC he was not treated on the team bus, but said that he was treated with the legal decongestant Fluimucil in Sestriere later that evening.

“Yeah, I understand that he was treated on the bus and I thought that was public knowledge,” Sutton said. “This goes back to 12 months ago when I was interviewed by parliament. That’s the statement I made and that’s what the doctor told me. So, once again, I would call for the doctor and Brad to come forward in front of you and answer these questions you are asking me.”

Sky News reportedly contacted Freeman via telephone with the doctor stating that he treated Wiggins at a training camp at Sestriere several hours after the 2011 Dauphiné had concluded.

Sutton rebuffed the suggestion in the DCMS report that Wiggins and a number of Sky riders used Triamcinolone to lose weight ahead of the 2012 Tour de France, a claim also rejected by Team Sky. “I totally refute that. If it was to happen, do you not think with the governing bodies that are out there with the whereabouts system in place, these riders were not tested?” he said. “They were tested on a regular basis. Whether you were in a Tenerife training camp [or elsewhere]. I just want to clarify this—what you have to remember is that Brad and I tended to work in isolation in that period the source says this happened. So I’d like to know when. There are not that many occasions when I was present and all the riders of the Tour had come together to work with Brad.

“I have no recollection of ever training with that group or knowing where that particular group were together as this person says. I know what training camps I was on with Brad. For me that is a total lie from someone who I would say has an axe to grind with Team Sky.” Cyclingnews

McQuaid: Team Sky misleading people

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AT MCQUAID, president of the International Cycling Union (UCI) in 2012 when Bradley Wiggins won the Tour de France and a series of other major stage races, has supported the findings of the DCMS report on Combatting Doping in Sport and accused Team Sky of “misleading people.”

McQuaid was the UCI president until September 2013, when he was ousted by Brian Cookson, and he has had no qualms about criticizing Team Sky since leaving his post.

McQuaid reiterated his views to Cyclingnews that Team Sky “went further in the gray areas than marginal gains.

I think it was going against the ethics of the sport and I disagree with that.”

Speaking to the BBC yesterday, Wiggins denied any wrongdoing and said, “Not at any time in my career did we cross the ethical line.”

However, McQuaid dismissed Sky Team Principal Dave Brailsford’s repeated assertion that Sky did things “the right way.”

“The sad part is that Team Sky’s success came after many doping scandals, including Lance Armstrong,” McQuaid said. “Sky always said that they were whiter than white, that it was all within the rules and down to marginal gains, to diet, pillows and mattresses. Now we know that wasn’t the whole story.

“They were misleading people,” the Irishman said. “In their statement this week, they recognized that mistakes were made, and to me they must accept that they misled people.”

McQuaid said the exploitation of gray areas was also a characteristic of British Cycling and cited the example of a crash involving Chris Hoy at the UCI Track World Championships in 2009 and his conversation with British Cycling staff afterward.

“I said to them, ‘That must have been a very expensive crash’, because the bikes were wrecked—they told me it was £15,000 to £20,000 worth of damage,” he recalled.

“I was very concerned to hear that because under UCI rules the bikes were supposed to be commercially available, but these were especially made bespoke machines.

“I spoke to Brian Cookson, who was BC president at the time, and said it wasn’t acceptable. A few months later the bikes appeared on sale online.”

But McQuaid also said he had not been aware of any specific details of Team Sky’s usage of TUEs during his time as UCI president.

“TUEs sat with the UCI’s medical team, but there were so many coming in and coming in so often,” McQuaid said. “The system was unsatisfactory. That goes across all sports, not just cycling.

“It’s important to say that the report wasn’t just about cycling but also athletics. It shows a weak anti-doping system within sport, not just cycling. I always said that

the TUE system was weak. Yes, there was too much use of corticosteroids, and I did try to do something about it.

“The problem is that the UCI can do very little about it as no UCI rules have been broken and no Wada rules have been broken. I pushed Wada on TUEs when I was UCI president, but the system is easy to get around.”

McQuaid argued that the DCMS report’s findings on British Cycling and Team Sky were an inevitable consequence of what he called the “gold rush that started before 1998.”

“There was a pressure to win medals and get results, and I think there was a mentality of winning at all costs,” he said.

Asked about the ongoing impasse on the investigation into Chris Froome’s AAF for salbutamol, McQuaid was as scathing as Tour de France Director Christian Prudhomme earlier this week, when the Frenchman described the situation as “completely farcical.” Cyclingnews

READY to use shared bikes are lined up on a sidewalk by a popular tourist destination in Dallas. AP

DOCKLESS B SOMETIMES Over the last year, start-up companies have brought the bikes that don’t require docking stations into city after city in the US. The bikes that can be unlocked with an app can bring bike sharing to cities like Dallas that didn’t previously have a system and in cities with established systems, they can get bikes into areas that don’t have docking stations.

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By Jamie Stengle The Associated Press

ALLAS—Shared bikes that can be left wherever the rider ends up are helping more people get access to the mode of transportation that reduces car traffic and increases exercise. But they are also producing some chaos—discarded bikes cluttering public spaces, blocking sidewalks and even placed in trees and lakes.

Over the last year, start-up companies have brought the bikes that don’t require docking stations into city after city in the US. The bikes that can be unlocked with an app can bring bike sharing to cities like Dallas that didn’t previously have a system and in cities with established systems, they can get bikes into areas that don’t have docking stations.

“There’s a lot more flexibility with this model but then that’s kind of the con also: you can put it anywhere, but then you can leave it anywhere and then how do you control that,” said Jared White, a Dallas Transportation Department manager, adding: “The execution may need some refining.”

Most shared bike systems use docking stations and are the result of some kind of public-private partnership. With dockless bike sharing, which was first seen in China but is now global, companies including San Mateo, California-based LimeBike,

Dutch frolick on home track in UCI

HE 2018 International Cycling Union (UCI) Track Cycling World Championships presented by Tissot concluded recently in Apeldoorn, the Netherlands, with the host country winning two world titles, and Germany and Belgium one each.

This left the Netherlands alone at the top of the standings with a total of 12 medals, including five gold. Germany finished with six medals, including four gold, while Great Britain, Australia and Italy also had six medals each.

Kirsten Wild of the Netherlands took her third gold medal of the Championships in the Points Race with a dominating performance that saw her score 49 points.

Jennifer Valente of the United States, who had previously won gold in the team pursuit, took the silver medal, while

Jasmin Duehring of Canada won the bronze.

“Yes, it’s awesome,” Wild said. “Thanks to all the people here. Yes [winning this race] is special, but every jersey is special, whether it’s the first or the last.”

In the men’s 1,000-meter time trial, the Netherlands took gold and bronze, with Jeffrey Hoogland recording the fastest time of the day at 59.459 seconds.

Matthew Glaetzer of Australia, the sprint champion 24 hours earlier, took silver and former world champion Theo Bos won the bronze medal.

The final women’s title was awarded in the Keirin, and brought Belgium its first world title when Nicky Degrendele outkicked Lee Wai Sze of Hong Kong, China, and Simona Krupeckaite of Lithuania.

“I still can’t believe it,” Degrendele admitted. “This is my first elite title and I’m very happy. I was speechless, I didn’t know I actually did it, I still can’t believe it. I think

WORLD champion Kirsten Wild of The Netherlands celebrates after winning the women’s points race. AP

irror CYCLING

mirror_sports@yahoo.com.ph | Saturday, March 10, 2018 A7

Jamaica aims to excel in cycling, too

THE president of the Jamaican Cycling Federation believes Jamaica has talented cyclists who just need the necessary support to realize their potential.

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BIKES UP ACCESS, S CREATE CHAOS Beijing-based Ofo and San Francisco-based Spin simply bring their bikes to town.

This has allowed some cities that hadn’t been able to fund their own program to get bike sharing started, said Dana Yanocha, a senior research associate at the nonprofit Institute for Transportation & Development Policy. White said attempts to get a dock-based bike-sharing program in Dallas had stalled because of funding: A program would have been a $6-million investment until it got stable.

Dallas, which has allowed companies to bring as many bikes to town as they see fit, has seen a flood of 18,000 to 20,000 dockless bikes since the summer. Washington, DC, which already had an established docked bike-share program called Capital Bikeshare, started allowing five dockless companies last September to each bring in up to 400 bikes. After Seattle’s docked bike-share program went out of operation last April, city officials allowed three dockless companies to operate beginning in July, with each allowed up to 4,000 bikes.

Ofo Spokesman Taylor Bennett said the more people become familiar with the concept, the more they’ll “recognize and feel comfortable with the bikes being ubiquitous.” Since Ofo was founded in 2014, it has expanded to more than 21 countries in more than 250

I world championships in the next few days it will sink in, but at the moment it is so hard to believe. It’s nice to get the medal but also the jersey. Last year the girls, in the Madison, were world champions and they couldn’t defend it this year, so I’m happy I could get a jersey.”

The world championships concluded with the men’s Madison, and the German team of Roger Kluge and Theo Reinhardt won their country’s fourth world title. They were one of four teams to take a lap on the field, but they also won five intermediate sprints for a total of 53 points.

Spain finished second with 45 points and Australia third at 37 points. “[I had] good legs today and a good partner, as well,” Kluge said. “Maybe I was the strongest, but without him I couldn’t win. There’s always two in the game. I had all week good legs, after I came from Abu Dhabi. It was hard watching all week the other races and now I’m really happy to bring it home. Finally the jersey I’ve been looking for since 2008. Now I’ve got it, I’m really happy. Thanks to Theo. It’s a good start to the way to Tokyo.” UCI News

cities. The company, which offers rides for $1 an hour, entered the US market last August.

Off work for the day, 30-year-old John Reese spotted one of the dockless bikes near his Dallas home and decided it would be a good way to get some exercise as he went about his day.

“It’s cheap and it’s convenient,” Reese said, adding, “It was just a real easy process to get the app.”

Joel Miller, bike-share program manager for the Seattle Department of Transportation, said preliminary data show the number of miles ridden on dockless bikes “far exceed” what they had with their dock-based system. “Seattle is growing incredibly rapidly and our roads can’t take more cars, so we’re looking at other ways for people to get around,” Miller said.

In general, an app helps riders find available dockless bikes, which can then be unlocked via the app, ridden and then locked when the rider is done.

Dockless companies instruct riders on the best places to park their bikes—for example: do park on sidewalks, but don’t block pedestrian right-of-way— and they also have staff to redistribute the bikes and retrieve those wrongly placed.

Kim Lucas, bike-share manager for the District

Department of Transportation in Washington, D.C., said the hope is that dockless bikes increase biking in the district and said the agency has been seeing the dockless bikes in areas where there aren’t docking stations.

In Dallas, a city with limited public transportation and a web of highways filled with trucks and SUVs, seeing so many bicycles parked around town has been a bit startling. “We go from having virtually no bikes anywhere to lots all over the place. It’s something new to get used to,”White said.

Samantha Herr, executive director of the Maine-based North American Bikeshare Association, said, “I think that what we’re seeing right now is sort of a clash between a technological opportunity and the chaos that ensues when there’s no sort of broad education and norm around how exactly we engage with it.”

Along the tree-lined Katy Trail in Dallas, the sheer numbers of parked dockless bikes has been overwhelming at times. Lauren Whitson, a spokesman for the nonprofit Friends of the Katy Trail, said the bikes have been left in the middle of the trail, blocking emergency entrances and in landscaping. Some days they’ve counted up to 200 bikes along the 3.5-mile (5.6-kilometer) trail.

“We’re spending a lot of our time and funds cleaning up their messes,” Whitson said.

AMAICANS love cycling. Jamaicans love sports in general. They like to win, and they don’t give up.

These words come from the Jamaican Cycling Federation (JCF) President Joylene Griffiths, who is determined to see Jamaica’s prowess in other sports, such as athletics, transfer through to cycling.

Since being elected president of the JCF in November 2017, Griffiths has been on a two-month journey that she describes as “hectic, exciting, inspirational and enlightening.”

She has set herself an overwhelming list of priorities that include strengthening the federation’s administrative effectiveness, continuing the dialogue with the government to build a new velodrome, creating a calendar of local and international events, talking with potential sponsors, introducing cycling into the school curriculum and ensuring the presence of a Jamaican cyclist at the next Commonwealth Games (Gold Coast, Australia, in April).

The new president is aiming high but is optimistic for the sport both at Elite and recreational levels. She said Jamaica has talented cyclists who just need the necessary support to realize their potential. The country has nine cycling clubs, and at weekends it is common to see groups of cyclists out riding from Kingston to Port Royal and in Montego Bay. She believes the key to growing the sport lies in introducing cycling to Jamaicans at a young age.

INTRODUCING CYCLING TO SCHOOLS

“MY burning desire for cycling in Jamaica is to establish the youth program,” said the JCF president who, even before becoming involved in cycling administration, had already been instrumental in organizing Youth Development Summer Camps a few years back. These not only enabled inner-city children to learn to ride, but also taught them the basics of bike mechanics, hygiene, hydration and road safety.

Since her election as JCF president, she has had meetings with school principals and students to share her ideas.

“My vision is to incorporate cycling into schools and organize a national championship for the schools similar to that for track and field. This is the approach that has made track and field so successful for Jamaica,” she said.

“This way we will discover new talent, fuel the love and excitement for the sport and regain the fan support and the much-needed sponsorship.”

LEADING BY EXAMPLE

TO boost cycling among women, Griffiths looks to the example set by Cycling Australia, which as well as accompanying elitelevel riders to the top of the sport, also encourages women to ride for their health and for pleasure. She has pledged to lead by example and get back on her own bike.

“Jamaica is currently riding a wave of physical activity awareness, so it is a great time to introduce any new activity that gets people moving. A women’s cycling program would be welcomed by our Ministry of Health, which is spearheading an initiative called ‘Jamaica Moves’.”

A recurring topic when talking cycling with Griffiths is the need for a new velodrome in Jamaica. Although there is a velodrome at the national stadium in Kingston, athletics meetings, football matches and national celebrations organized at the complex take priority over cycling. For example, February is the month dedicated to athletic championships, which means the velodrome, which in any case is scheduled to be removed, lies unused.

“A new velodrome could dramatically launch cycling into a new age,” Griffiths said. “We would be able to host regional events, improve track training, host more development events and attract sponsors.”

As she lobbies the government for a new velodrome, she can count on the support of, and close collaboration with, the Jamaican Olympic Association (JOA), which has a dedicated director for cycling. Cycling is the only sport outside track and field that has ever won an Olympic medal for Jamaica (David Weller in the 1-kilometer time trial in 1980 at Moscow) and the JOA and JCF intend to see more cycling medals in the future.

“Jamaica has a good chance of gaining a medal at the World Championships and the Olympics,” Griffiths predicted.

“We have the raw talent and the drive. We just need the financial backing. Cycling has never had a large sponsor, so it is time to forge bigger partnerships.”

Track cyclist Oshane Williams, 22, is the country’s rising star and Jamaica’s hope for the upcoming Commonwealth Games.

He is clearly a cut above the rest on the domestic scene but, has yet to measure up against the best from abroad.

“I ran for president of the Jamaica Cycling Federation because I want to give Jamaica the opportunity to sing the national anthem, not just for athletics but also for cycling.” UCI News

WHY IS TRACK CYCLING RACED COUNTERCLOCKWISE?

BECAUSE THAT’S THE WAY IT IS

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VERY sport has its idiosyncrasies, including track cycling. One of the questions that often comes up for newcomers to the velodrome is “why are all events run counterclockwise?”

The most obvious reason is “because the rules say they do,” but that doesn’t actually explain the why and, it turns out, there is no definitive answer, just lots of theories.

So, here are some of the most common theories:

RIGHT-SIDE DOMINANCE

STUDIES suggest that approximately 90 percent of the world population is right-side dominant, and it may have become a matter of the preference of the majority to work with their natural tendency to curve to the left rather than against it.

Further support for this theory can be seen that athletics running events also run counterclockwise. Of course, it can also be pointed out that there are many events that run clockwise.

There is evidence that even in Roman times, chariot races ran counterclockwise, and that charioteers and fighters would want to keep their dominant sword hand to the outside as they turned, in case they needed to draw their sword—this rarely happens in bike races, however!

PHYSIOLOGY

THE scientific argument supporting this theory centers around the position of the heart in the chest and how blood pumps. The theory is that the superior vena-cava brings de-oxygenated blood to the heart by heart suction. This vein carries blood from left to right across the body. Centrifugal force due to counterclockwise movement would help this suction. If we cycle clockwise, the centrifugal force impedes suction, so clockwise riding would tire people faster.

Has anyone ever actually proven this? No. Are cyclists even moving fast enough for this to become a factor? Doubtful, given the 250-meter length of a standard track.

LEFT TO RIGHT MOVEMENT

THE majority of written languages are read left to right, so

it would make sense that most spectators would be more comfortable following activity that came from the left and went to the right. Of course, there are written languages read right to left, as well as some that go top to bottom, and that doesn’t seem to affect the choice of direction.

EARTH ROTATION

DUE to the Earth’s rotation, the Coriolis effect in the Northern Hemisphere (which makes storms swirl counterclockwise) would give a rider moving counterclockwise a slight advantage, resulting in a faster time. Of course, the reverse is true in the Southern Hemisphere, where there would be a disadvantage.

It’s a great theory, unfortunately, a number of track cycling world records were set in the Southern Hemisphere, including in Brazil, Bolivia and Australia, which sort of negates the importance of the Coriolis effect.

Finally, we asked a couple of track experts for their thoughts on the matter: Canada’s Curt Harnett is a three-time Olympic medalist on the track and a former world record holder; his comment was: “I honestly have no idea why [resisting the urge to ‘Google’ it]. I think it would be based off of any other form of stadium/track racing—horse, athletics—may have gone in the counter direction. I do know that Britain and some of the colonies [Australia specifically] run their horseraces in a clockwise manner more than counterclockwise but I cannot think of any other reason than ‘just because’.”

Wayne Pomario is a UCI official who has worked at the highest level of the sport, including president of the jury for multiple Olympics and UCI World Championships: “An interesting questions and to be honest one I have never thought of. I don’t think anyone thinks about it, they just do it as though that is how it is ordained to be. So asking me the question made me think a bit. All I could come up with on my own was maybe something to do with track cycling being a British thing, and with them driving on the left with left turns being the free flow ones, that would make sense.” UCI News

OurTime BusinessMirror

A8 Saturday, March 10, 2018 • Editor: Efleda P. Campos

Low immunization among seniors noted in E. Visayas

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ACLOBAN CITY—Only few senior citizens in Eastern Visayas have availed themselves of the immunization program in the past years, raising concerns over the vulnerability of this age group to killer diseases.

“Senior citizens are the most neglected group when it comes to immunization, despite available free vaccines in rural health units for them. They really need vaccines because they are prone to age-related impairment of the immune system compounded with the decrease of their physical activity and poor nutrition,” said Elaine Joy Villarosa, Department of Health national immunization program manager for Eastern Visayas.

Coverage for immunization of senior citizens is only more than 50 percent with no strong campaign for vaccination at the local government level, buoyed by age-old beliefs and lack of awareness, Villarosa told the Philippine News Agency.

The immunization for adults aged 60 years and above is meant to combat flu and pneumonia.

Flu is a common disease among the elderly, while pneumonia is included in the top 10 causes of

death in the Philippines.

Every year, the region gets a minimum of 65,000 doses of antiflu vaccines and 10,000 doses of anti-pneumonia vaccines.

The central government allocates one dose of anti-flu vaccine for each senior citizen every year for immunization during the flu season from October to May. For anti-pneumonia, a dose of the vaccine is available to each senior citizen every five years.

This year, the region aims to immunize 814,554 senior citizens against flu and 57,498 against pneumonia. The target is based on the projected population.

“Based on reports, not all vaccines are used by senior citizens. They have to be proactive, as well, since there are services available to them.

Our rural health units should bring immunization program to the community, especially its older residents, and not just focus on children,” she added. PNA

Ilocos Norte now hiring tourism ambassadors

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AOAG CITY—With the onset of the summer season, the provincial government of Ilocos Norte announced last Tuesday the hiring of tourism ambassadors is now open.

Provincial Tourism Officer (PTO) Aianree Raquel said the tourism ambassadors would serve as tourist aides and storytellers in various museums, churches, and other major destinations here.

Raquel said the tourism employment program is back and applications are now welcome at the PTO. “We are again accepting applicants and the basic qualification is they should be at least 18 years old, and show interest in tourism work,” Raquel said. Regardless of age or status, Raquel said anybody is welcome to apply for the tourism job.

He added they have reserved slots for retirees and senior citizens.

At the moment, Raquel said they are hoping to employ about 300 tourism aides again this summer when foreign and domestic tourist arrivals are on its peak season for the province.

Like in previous years, the additional workers will assist the provincial government in serving as tourist ambassadors, utility personnel and first-aid personnel in at least 42 tourist centers across the province, starting March until the end of the summer season.

Interested individuals may fill out application forms at the PTO or inquire at 0939-147-3720 or 0935344-1254 or e-mail banguiilocosnorte2920@yahoo.com or justinephilipmeneses@yahoo.com. PNA

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Many of the residents, unaware of their rights, leave without a challenge.

“The nursing homes know the system and they really game it to where they maximize their advantage,” said Tony Chicotel, a lawyer at California Advocates for Nursing Home Reform, a nonprofit group.

Complaints about evictions have caught the attention of federal regulators, who are now seeking ways to step up enforcement of the federal laws that protect residents of the nation’s 15,000 nursing homes.

In December regulators sent a memo to state officials across the country who inspect nursing homes for compliance with federal standards, saying they would begin examining discharges that appeared to violate the rules.

David R. Wright of the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services said in the memo that wrongful evictions were “of great concern” because they could be unsafe or traumatic for patients, uprooting them “from familiar settings” and moving them far from family and friends.

The number of complaints about the discharge and evictions of resi-

Iloilo City awards ₧50K each to two centenarians

I

PROUD TO BE IFUGAO

David Nagayon, 76, from Ifugao and a resident of Barangay Irisan, shows his skills in the ongoing creative arts exhibit at the People’s Park in Baguio City. The Unesco declared Baguio as one of the creative cities in the country. MAU VICTA

Singapore boosts taxes to shore up revenue for aging nation

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INGAPORE Finance Minister Heng Swee Keat announced a range of tax increases in his budget, including a surprise hike in property levies, as he seeks to shore up savings to cope with a rapidly aging population.

The stamp duty on residential properties in excess of $1 million ($761,600) was increased to 4 percent from 3 percent, effective from Tuesday, Heng said in a speech in Parliament. The government also plans to raise the goods and services tax by 2 percentage points to 9 percent sometime from 2021 to 2025, he said.

“There is a need to strengthen our fiscal footing,” Heng said. “In the next decade, between 2021 to 2030, if we do not take measures early, we will not have enough revenues to meet our growing needs.”

Policy-makers had warned of higher taxes to balance a budget they see as too reliant on investment returns, and that will see new strains in the years to come. Spending on health and retirement benefits are set to grow over the years as the elderly population climbs, while the government is also planning on higher expenditure on infrastructure, security and education.

“The message is that the economy is maturing, the population is aging,” said Irvin Seah, an economist at DBS Group Holdings Ltd. “In order to cater to the needs to various segments of the society going forward—corporations, individuals young and old—this budget is about rebalancing.”

While Singapore has substantial reserves that it draws on to help fund the budget, Heng said the government must act prudently as the economy matures and the population ages. Income from reserves and investments managed by GIC Pte., Temasek Holdings Pte. and the Monetary Authority of Singapore is already the largest contributor to the government’s overall revenue, estimated at almost S$16 billion in the fiscal year beginning April 1.

The hike in GST is set to boost revenue by almost 0.7 percent of GDP a year. Heng said the timing of the increase will depend on the state of the economy, how much expenditures grow and how buoyant the existing taxes are, but added that he expects “we will need to do so earlier rather than later in the period.”

“The GST increase is necessary because even after exploring various options to manage our future expen-

ditures through prudent spending, saving and borrowing for infrastructure, there is still a gap,” the minister said. “This boost in revenues will be vital in closing this gap.”

The budget includes planned offsets to cushion the blow to lower-income consumers from higher taxes, while the delayed implementation of the tax increases will allow residents to ease into the changes.

Singapore is facing a severe aging crisis. The share of the population that’s 65 years and older is set this year to match those younger than 15 for the first time. The fertility rate remains half the global average, at 1.2 births per woman in 2015, according to World Bank data. And the government has maintained fairly strict immigration policies to ensure locals have enough job opportunities.

For now, Singapore’s economic outlook for 2018 remains bright.

The boom in global trade last year that’s helped spur manufacturing, especially in semiconductors, is spreading to other sectors of the economy. The government sees growth at slightly above the middle of its forecast range of 1.5 percent to 3.5 percent this year, moderating from last year’s expansion of 3.6 percent. Bloomberg News

Complaints of US nursing-home residents rise amid evictions IXweeksafterDeborahZwaschka-Blansfield had the lower half of her left leg amputated, she received some news from the nursing home where she was recovering: Her insurance would no longer pay, and it was time to move on.

The home wanted to release her to a homeless shelter or pay for a week in a motel.

“That is not safe for me,” said Zwaschka-Blansfield, 59, who cannot walk and had hoped to stay in the home, north of Sacramento, California, until she could do more things for herself—like getting up if she fell.

Her experience is becoming increasingly common among the 1.4 million nursing home residents across the country. Discharges and evictions have been the top-ranking category of grievances brought to state long-term care ombudsman programs, ombudsman agencies say.

While nursing homes can discharge residents for a limited set of reasons, legal advocates say that home operators sometimes interpret those reasons in unjustified ways.

Often, it’s because the residents’ more lucrative Medicare coverage is ending, which is what ZwaschkaBlansfield said happened in her case.

www.businessmirror.com.ph

dents was rising through 2015, the most recent year for which data is available. That year, there were 9,192 complaints about the discharge and eviction of nursing- home residents, out of a total of 140,145 complaints, according to the Department of Health and Human Services.

But some legal advocates said they believed these figures understated the problem, since many residents do not contest their discharge.

Even as the Trump administration has said it is looking for ways to address improper evictions, it has scaled back the use of fines against nursing homes that harm individuals, in keeping with the administration’s broader deregulation push.

Chicotel, the advocacy group lawyer, said the federal regulations governing nursing homes were already strong, but enforcement was weak.

Even when nursing homes are cited for violations, he said, they frequently “get a modest fine, and it’s often a cost of doing business.”

Dr. David R. Gifford, a senior vice president of the American Health Care Association, a trade group for nursing homes, said the perception that residents were being moved

against their will for financial reasons was wrong.

“There’s a tension in the regulations,” Gifford said. “They clearly state that if someone can harm themselves or others, either through infections or their behavior, or whatever, the individual can be discharged. But the regulations also clearly say the goal is to not discharge people, and they have a right to stay there and receive care.”

Bill Wilson, a lawyer representing the nursing home where ZwaschkaBlansfield was a resident, said he could not comment on the specifics of her discharge because of privacy laws. But he said patients cannot be discharged without a doctor’s order and that the facility complied with all regulations. He also said the home “unequivocally” must be covered by Medicare. Elderly residents who are deemed difficult or require extra assistance—and who may cost more overall—are more frequently discharged as well, advocates said.

Reimbursement rates for Medicare and Medicaid differ substantially, according to the National Investment Center for Seniors Housing and Care, a nonprofit group that collects data on the industry. Nurs-

ing homes receive about $200 a day for a Medicaid patient on average, compared with about $500 for a patient in the traditional Medicare program and $430 for a Medicare patient in a managed-care plan.

Alan Schoen, a 58-year-old resident with multiple sclerosis at a nursing home in Stockton, California, said he believed the facility was trying to discharge him because his Medicare coverage was ending.

While his wife was at work in late December, Schoen fell out of his bed.

An ambulance took him to a hospital, which released him to the nursing home for physical therapy.

But then in early-January, the nurses could not wake him. They sent him back to the hospital, which found that he had a bladder infection and pancreatitis, and he had to start using a catheter.

After he returned to the nursing home, it told him that his insurance would soon stop paying—and that he should move to an assisted-living facility where, he said, he would receive a lower level of care. But Schoen, who can no longer stand or walk, said he needed the kind of help he is receiving now.

New York Times News Service

LOILO CITY—The Iloilo City government on February 23 awarded P50,000 each to two senior citizens who turned centenarians.

Salustiano Jimenea from Gustilo, La Paz and Basilisa Hablan from Buhang, Jaro were the first to benefit from Iloilo City’s Centenarian Incentive Award granting P50,000 from the previous amount of only P10,000.

Under the ordinance authored by Councilor Armand Parcon, chairman of the Committee on Veterans, Retirees, Elderly and Disabled Persons of the Sangguniang Panlungsod (SP), the city government has to allocate P1 million annually for their benefit.

The assistance will go a long way because it is five times higher than the previous P10,000, Mayor Jose Espinosa III said.

He said both centenarians are not bed-ridden although Hablan could no longer hear and see.

The mayor, however, was surprised to know that, at the age of 100, Jimenea has no maintenance medication, only vitamins. His secret was eating vegetables, he said.

In addition to the cash incentives, the city government also gave them cake and a certificate.

They are also entitled to receive the P100,000 incentive provided by the national government through the Department of Social Welfare and Development. PNA

Harsh flu season hits senior-living firms with more pain to come

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HE bad flu season is finally showing signs of easing up for most Americans. For senior-housing companies, the worst is yet to come.

During earning calls this month, senior-housing operators and landlords have lamented a harsh flu season that has led ailing residents to move out of their facilities and forced operators to temporarily close their doors to admissions for fear of spreading the virus.

Brookdale Senior Living Inc. CFO Cindy Baier said on a call last Thursday the current flu season has been the worst for seniors in two decades.

Cumulatively, the company’s facilities were closed to new move-ins for more than 1,000 days in the first month and a half of 2018, Baier said.

That compares with about 800 days during the entire first quarter of last year. Executives from publicly traded landlords Welltower Inc., Ventas Inc. and HCP Inc., all said the severe flu season will hurt first-quarter results.

The shares of all three firms have dropped at least 15 percent this year.

“The effects tend to linger into the second quarter, just because of the natural timing of when vacancies happen and how long it takes for them to be filled,” said Jeffrey Langbaum, a senior analyst at Bloomberg Intelligence. “There’s nothing they can really do to prevent it except wait for it to run its course.” While the flu tends to hit senior-housing companies hardest during the first calendar months of the year, Brookdale and Welltower reported the early start to the current flu season started hurting occupancy in the fourth quarter.

This winter has been especially trying. Influenza and pneumonia accounted for 9.8 percent of all US deaths during the week ended January 27, after peaking above 10 percent. While the share of doctor visits for flu-like symptoms plateaued during the week ended February 10, indicating that flu season is waning, the number of deaths from this year’s outbreak could outpace those from late 2009, which was marked by the swine-flu epidemic. Bloomberg News

BusinessMirror

Editor: Gerard S. Ramos • lifestylebusinessmirror@gmail.com

Saturday, March 10, 2018 A9

Curating your feed and other tips from in�luencers PRIMETIME

DINNA CHAN VASQUEZ @dinnachanvasquez luckydinna@gmail.com

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Less is more as companies explore shopping by voice

BY ANICK JESDANUN The Associated Press NEW YORK—When the world shifted from personal computers to smartphones, web sites had to slim down to work on smaller screens and slower wireless connections. A similar shift to voice-centric services is again forcing businesses to rethink how they present information to consumers—and spurring new efforts to help them do so.

The software company Adobe, for instance, announced recently a new suite of tools that could help airlines, retailers and other companies create simple voice interfaces for travel and shopping. It’s not a simple task, since a voice-based digital assistant can’t really list dozens of flight options or hundreds of products.

That means companies have to figure out how to winnow down those choices to the travel options or products people are most likely to want—an inherently fraught undertaking.

The technology is still in its infancy, and Adobe doesn’t have any actual corporate partners to showcase yet. But its announcement, made in conjunction with a tech show in Barcelona, Spain, shows that voice assistants are becoming important channels for reaching consumers.

Amazon’s voice-shopping feature already boils down shopping requests to one or two options and makes buying easy because it already has payment and shipping information for voice-eligible customers. But smaller businesses don’t have the computing resources and expertise to match that, which is where companies like Adobe come in.

Analyst Carolina Milanesi with Creative Strategies says she’s not aware of another service trying to help companies improve how they reach their customers through voice.

In practice, making voice capabilities useful means anticipating what customers want. Travel sites, for instance, let people limit a search to, say, nonstop flights, but that’s more cumbersome when they’re talking to a service. Adobe promises to help narrow those options automatically, so that someone who earns points in United and likes early-morning flights might hear only those matches.

Adobe’s new voice service will work with all major voice assistants, not just Amazon’s. It will limit its analysis to data provided by the particular company people are shopping at, instead of trying to pulling together a more comprehensive personal profile from multiple sources.

That will limit the accuracy of its personalization compared to what Adobe says it could provide. But the company believes consumers aren’t going to be comfortable with that broader profiling yet.

AVE you ever looked at the feed of an influencer and wondered why it’s so attractive? Is it because she is naturally beautiful, or is it all artifice? Is it the camera she’s using? Is it the lighting? Is it the use of filters, Photoshop and careful curating?

The answer is probably all of the above.

During the launch of the new Fujifilm X-A5, the smallest and lightest mirrorless digital camera in the X Series range, we asked three of the brand ambassadors—beauty queen Katarina Rodriguez, influencer Issa Pressman and actress Andi Eigenmann—what do they do to make sure their photographs will always turn out well.

The other ambassadors include Shy Carlos, Michelle Dy, Janeena Chan, Bea Benedicto and Chelsea Robato.

“I don’t really curate as much as other people do. I like to see some color scheme happening but I’m not really OC with the curation,” said Rodriguez, a beauty queen and model with 191,000 followers on Instagram and over 48,000 on Twitter.

“Be true to yourself and make sure the photo is of good quality and that it pleases you,” she added.

Issa Pressman, an influencer and show business personality, said being authentic is really important.

“Whatever you post, make sure it’s you so that people will not be shocked that you look so different in person,” she said.

How they do their makeup is also important for photographs.

Rodriguez exercises her “quantity over quality” philosophy. She learned how to do her own makeup and invested in good products, such as a highquality foundation.

“Skin care is important. Take off your makeup at night. Prep your face prior to makeup application so your skin really looks good,” Rodriguez said.

Pressman also does her own makeup.

“Focus on blending. Blending ensures that the ‘delivery’ on camera is flawless and there are no harsh lines,” she explained.

During events, she checks her makeup on her camera phone once in a while to make sure she looks okay.

Actress Andi Eigenmann likes to keep it simple.

X-A5 comes in three colors—pink, brown and silver.

“I had that problem before when I was a full-time actor and other people would do my makeup. And I only see it when it comes out in newspapers. It would be oily or too white or too thick,” she said.

“I don’t really put on a lot of makeup. I like to stay safe. I’ve learned that the best thing to do is keep it natural. If I put on makeup, it’s really more of just an enhancement. It’s never just to cover up my entire face or change it. I’ve realized that the way to go is keep it simple, make it effortless and just be myself,” Eigenmann added.

Eigenmann, Pressman and Rodriguez all use the Fujifilm X-A5 for their photographs and social-media updates. Combining a new 24.2-megapixel sensor with the X Series signature color-reproduction technology, the X-A5 has a newly developed zoom lens, 4K movie recording, touch screen and the latest Bluetooth pairing.

For vloggers like Michelle Dy, the X-A5 has a high-speed HD Video function. There is also a 2.5mm microphone jack for better sound recording.

The X-A5 allows the user to record their activities in HD video up to quad speed for slow-motion slips.

You can also have different bokeh-similar effects with its Multi Focus Mode. The camera automatically stacks 4K quality images while changing the required depth of field.

You also won’t miss a snap with X-A5’s 4K Burst function, which shoots 15 frames per second in 4K image quality.

The X-A5 is perfect for selfies and groufies with its

touch-screen 180-degree tilting rear LCD Screen. The 180-degree rotation also activates the Eye AF function, which automatically snaps high-quality self-portraits by focusing on your eyes.

For perfect selfies, X-A5 has a Portrait Enhancer Mode that improves your skin tone. It has three levels of skin-tone enhancements to choose from.

With its newly developed 24.2-megapixel APS-C sensor partnered with Fujinon lenses, the X-A5 provides better image resolution. It’s better than previous models in terms of SR+AUTO mode, color-reproduction performance and skin-tone reproduction capability. Its ISO Sensitivity has been extended to ISO 128000. Aside from its standard 11 film simulation modes, the X-A5 also has two new advanced features: Fog Remove and HDR Art. The new intuitive touch panel GUI LCD provides a live view of film simulations, which allows you to choose the filter you want to use.

X-A5 comes in three colors—pink, brown and silver. This compact camera comes with a new kit lens, XC15-45mmF3.5-5.6 OIS PZ, currently the smallest and lightest zoom lens. It is the first electric power zoom in the Fujinon Lens Family and has a minimum shooting distance of 5cm from the lens surface for macro.

The Fujifilm X-A5 with XC15-45mmF3.5-5.6 OIS PZ is priced at P34,990. The camera is part of Fujifilm’s Mirrorless Digital Camera X Series. Fujifilm products are sold at authorized dealers nationwide.

For information, visit www.fuji�ilmph.com. ■

Wearable technology used to track Pinoy drivers’ emotions CONTINUED FROM A12 fueled up at Phoenix,” Phoenix Petroleum COO Henry Fadullon said.

In just 15 years, Phoenix Petroleum has grown from five stations in Mindanao to 530 nationwide, establishing its reputation as the fastest-growing oil company in the Philippines. Just last year the company broadened its portfolio to include LPG with the acquisition of Petronas Energy Philippines Inc., now Phoenix LPG Philippines Inc., and convenience retailing with the purchase of Philippine FamilyMart.

It will soon venture into the bitumen business.

Phoenix Pulse Technology is available in all Phoenix stations in all fuel grades. These nextgeneration fuels are suitable for Filipino drivers looking for a connection unlike any other.

VIRTUAL ‘KUBO’ FOR START-UPS THE Philippines’s first public-private sector initiative for start-ups, QBO Innovation Hub (QBO), recently launched its own app where start-ups can connect with top-notch mentors and consultants who can help them grow their business.

QBO (ku-bo) was formed through a partnership between Ideaspace Foundation Inc., J.P. Morgan, the departments of Science and Technology and of Trade and Industry. It is a platform for the start-up community to collaborate, develop talent and grow.

THE QBO app

Spurred by the vision of Filipino start-ups changing the world, QBO’s mission is to create a globally competitive start-up ecosystem in the Philippines.

The QBO App is an extension of QBO’s on-ground efforts.

“In this fast-paced, always-on world, we saw the need for start-ups to get easy access to our services and resources. This is why we created the app,” said Katrina Chan, director of QBO Innovation Hub. The QBO App is downloadable on iOS and Android devices (search for “QBO Innovation Hub”). It is a digital space where start-ups and entrepreneurs can come together to connect and collaborate with other players in the start-up ecosystem and contribute their own knowledge with the community.

QBO’s mentor roster consists of successful start-up founders, experienced venture capitalists and veteran company leaders, among others.

The seven mentors include: Chito Bustamante, CEO, Chikka Asia Inc.; Ambar Machfoedy, managing partner, Rekanext Venture Capital Partners; Joey Vilar, head of marketing services and OIC of market education, Philippine Stock Exchange; Jojy Azurin, founder and CEO of Horsepower.ph; Francis Simisim, CEO of Social Light Inc. (WhenInManila, Blogapalooza); Noel Lorenzana, venture capitalist with years of experience in key leadership positions; and Joseph Lacson, chief investment officer at Metro Pacific Investments Corp. ■

A10 Saturday, March 10, 2018

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JESSICA MCSHANE, an employee at Interactions Corp., monitors person-to-computer communications, helping computers understand what a human is saying, in the “intent analysis” room at the company’s headquarters in Franklin, Massachusetts.

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AI’s dirty little secret: It’s powered by people S

BY RYAN NAKASHIMA The Associated Press

AN FRANCISCO—There’s a dirty little secret about artificial intelligence (AI): It’s powered by hundreds of thousands of real people.

From makeup artists in Venezuela to women in conservative parts of India, people around the world are doing the digital equivalent of needlework—drawing boxes around cars in street photos, tagging images and transcribing snatches of speech that computers can’t quite make out.

Such data feeds directly into “machine learning” algorithms that help self-driving cars wind through traffic and let Alexa figure out that you want the lights on. Many such technologies wouldn’t work without massive quantities of this human-labeled data.

These repetitive tasks pay pennies apiece. But in bulk, this work can offer a decent wage in many parts of the world—even in the United States. This burgeoning but largely unseen cottage industry represents the foundation of a technology that could change humanity forever: AI that will drive us around, execute verbal commands without flaw, and, possibly, one day think on its own.

■■■ THIS human-input industry has long been nurtured by search engines Google and Bing, who for more than a decade have used people to rate the accuracy of their results. Since 2005, Amazon’s Mechanical Turk service, which matches freelance workers with temporary online jobs, has also made crowd-sourced data entry available to researchers worldwide.

More recently, investors have poured tens of millions of dollars into start-ups like Mighty AI and CrowdFlower, which are developing software that makes it easier to label photos and other data, even on smartphones.

Venture capitalist S. “Soma” Somasegar says he sees “billions of dollars of opportunity” in servicing the needs of machine-learning algorithms. His firm, Madrona Venture Group, invested in Mighty AI. Humans will be in the loop “for a long, long, long time to come,” he says.

Accurate labeling could make the difference between a self-driving car distinguishing between the sky and the side of a truck—a distinction Tesla’s Model S failed in the first known fatality involving self-driving systems in 2016.

“We’re not building a system to play a game, we’re building a system to save lives,” says Mighty AI CEO Daryn Nakhuda.

■■■ MARJORIE AGUILAR, a 31-year-old freelance makeup artist in Maracaibo, Venezuela, spends four to six hours a day drawing boxes around traffic objects to help train self-driving systems for Mighty AI. She earns about 50 cents an hour, but in a crisiswracked country with runaway inflation, just a few hours’ work can pay a month’s rent in bolivars.

“It doesn’t sound like a lot of money, but for me it’s pretty decent,” she says. “You can imagine how important it is for me getting paid in US dollars.”

Aria Khrisna, a 36-year-old father of three in Tegal,

Indonesia, says doing things like adding word tags to clothing pictures on web sites ,such as eBay and Amazon, pays him about $100 a month, roughly half his income.

And for 25-year-old Shamima Khatoon, her job annotating cars, lane markers and traffic lights at an all-female outpost of data-labeling company iMerit in Metiabruz, India, represents the only chance she has to work outside the home in her conservative Muslim community.

“It’s a good platform to increase your skills and support your family,” she says.

■■■ MAJOR automakers like Toyota, Nissan and Ford, ride-hailing companies like Uber and other tech giants like Alphabet Inc.’s Waymo are paying reams of labelers, often through third-party vendors.

The benefits of greater accuracy can be immediate.

At InterContinental Hotels Group, every call that its digital assistant Amelia can take from a human saves $5 to $10, says information technology director Scot Whigham.

When Amelia fails, the program listens while a call is rerouted to one of about 60 service-desk workers. It learns from their response and tries the technique out on the next call, freeing up human employees to do other things.

“We’ve transformed those jobs,” Whigham says.

When a computer can’t make out a customer call to the Hyatt Hotels chain, an audio snippet is sent to AI-powered call center Interactions in an old brick

building in Franklin, Massachusetts. There, while the customer waits on the phone, one of a roomful of headphone-wearing “intent analysts” transcribes everything from misheard numbers to profanities and quickly directs the computer how to respond.

That information feeds back into the system.

“Next time through, we’ve got a better chance of being successful,” says Robert Nagle, Interactions’ chief technology officer.

■■■ RESEARCHERS have tried to find workarounds to human-labeled data, but the results are often inadequate. In a project that used Google Street View images of parked cars to estimate the demographic makeup of neighborhoods, then-Stanford researcher Timnit Gebru tried to train her AI by scraping Craigslist photos of cars for sale that were labeled by their owners.

But the product shots didn’t look anything like the car images in Street View, and the program couldn’t recognize them. In the end, she says, she spent $35,000 to hire auto dealer experts to label her data.

The need for human labelers is “enormous” and “dynamic,” says Robin Bordoli, CEO of labeling technology company CrowdFlower. “You can’t trust the algorithm 100 percent.”

■■■ AT the moment, figuring out how to get computers to learn without so-called “ground truth” data provided by humans remains an open research question.

Trevor Darrell, a machine-learning expert at the

University of California Berkeley, says he expects it will be five to 10 years before computer algorithms can learn to perform without the need for human labeling. His group alone spends hundreds of thousands of dollars a year paying people to annotate images. “Right now, if you’re selling a product and you want perfection, it would be negligent not to invest the money in that kind of annotation,” he says.

Several companies like Alphabet’s Waymo and game-maker Unity Technologies are developing simulated worlds to train their algorithms in controlled scenarios where every object comes predefined. For the most part, even companies trying to push humans out of the loop still rely on them.

CloudSight, for instance, offers web-site and app developers a handy tool for uploading a photo and getting a few words back describing it. The retailer Kohl’s uses the service for a “Snap and Shop” visual search feature on its app. But it’s not just a fancy computer program spitting back responses. If the algorithm doesn’t have a good answer, one of its 800 employees in places like India, Southeast Asia or Africa type in the answer in real time.

“We want to be the ones that can label any image without any human involvement,” says Ian Parnes, CloudSight’s head of business development. “How long that will take is anyone’s guess.”

■ The Associated Press writers Matt O’Brien in Franklin, Massachusetts, Yuri Kageyama in Tokyo and Dee-Ann Durbin in Detroit contributed to this report.

Global Crypto Hub opens Philippine office in Ortigas

FROM left: JOFF PARADISE, cryptopreneur; Shahin Pilli, Global Crypto Hub founder; and Jagdish Pandya, Global Crypto Hub cofounder, pose during the news conference.

WITH an aim to let the crypto community worldwide to ‘connect, create and collaborate’ on digital money, Bangkokheadquartered cryptocurrency-consulting firm Global Crypto Hub opened recently its first hub in the Philippines at Jollibee Plaza in Ortigas, Pasig.

Global Crypto Hub founder Shahin Pilli said, “We’re doing 15 Hubs all over Asia this year. The one in Ortigas is the first we have developed and presented to the community. It’s a fully equipped hub for the crypto community, which will serve their needs in all sense.”

According to Pilli, the opening of the hub aims to provide people training on different kinds of cryptocurrencies, stating the necessity to educate individuals, as “the future is digital technology.”

“We have witnessed the era where it started with coins, then paper, then credit and debit card, and now the cryptocurrency. It shows where the world is moving toward, and our ambitious plan includes India, too, and we are just waiting for concerned authorities to communicate their clear stand on the subject. And we are very much hopeful that the Phillipines too will soon see success of its own Global Crypto Hub as we’re doing a Cryto Show in Manila, which has created so much positive vibes among local crypto

community,” Pilli said.

“Come to think of it, cryptocurrency is not illegal, as there are no laws created to regulate it yet. But, to provide protection and safeguard the interest of our clients and the cryptocurrencies we are marketing, on our part we are creating a support system for the industry. We will follow all KYC / AML rules for due diligence of the crypto community,” Pilli further explained. Global Crypto Hub is seeking to engage the government in drafting laws for cryptocurrencies.

“We would like to be the catalysts. There are so many people that have been cheated and scammed. Our expo is set up to educate the people. There is no other objective, but to educate the people. Our Hub and the expo is intended to be the knowledge center,” he added.

Since its inception, Global Crypto Hub has been conducting highly popular events, such as Crypto Awareness Programs, Crypto Show, Global Crypto Expo, Global Crypto Cruise, along with its community body CryptoCurrency Association, and has a team of over 45 employees for five countries: Philippines, Thailand, India, Malaysia and Dubai.

The Global Crypto Hub offers a membership fee of only $99 per year. As a member, one can use Global Crypto Hubs in other countries also. These hubs are fully equipped space

with all the necessary facilities to foster knowledge sharing, business possibilities and technology evolution.

With the opening of their office here in the Philippines, the Global Crypto Hub has also launched its very own digital token, Usereum, a multitasking maverick.

Usereum is a utility coin that will be primarily used to pay for the various types of crypto-community events organized by the Global Crypto Hub. Cofounder Jagdish Pandya said, “The company is looking forward to having a dialogue with the government to consider using Usereum and cryptocurrency as a mode of payment like any other fiat currency for ecommerce, real-estate purchase, remittance, daily commodities and public utilities, since it is far more secure and scalable than any fiat currency of the world. “The underlying blockchain technology makes it safer than traditional money, and the blockchain technology itself is a strong contender for becoming the smartest solution for many problems of the new age world that we live in today.”

Despite having its own cryptocurrency, Pandya said their hubs and crypto events are open to market other cryptocurrencies, as well.

“Usereum isn’t compteting with any cryptocurrency, it’s complementing all cryptocurrency.”

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Twitter CEO asks for help on ‘civility’; YouTube stumbles

BY RYAN NAKASHIMA The Associated Press TWITTER CEO Jack Dorsey is asking for help improving the openness and civility of conversation on Twitter, saying the company failed to prevent misinformation, echo chambers and abuse of its global messaging service.

In a series of tweets, Dorsey said Twitter was committing “to help increase the collective health, openness, and civility of public conversation” and needs to reengineer the service to encourage more healthy debate. The company is now soliciting proposals for measuring the healthiness of conversation on the service in order to improve it.

“We aren’t proud of how people have taken advantage of our service, or our inability to address it fast enough,” he tweeted, adding that the request for proposals due in mid-April would eventually create metrics against which it could be held accountable.

“We simply can’t and don’t want to do this alone.”

Dorsey isn’t alone with his social-media mea culpa. In January Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced he would devote 2018 to fixing similar problems at Facebook; the company has since reoriented its news feed to encourage “meaningful” interactions with family and friends over passive scrolling through posts and videos.

In a related development, YouTube said its effort to crack down on misinformation with more human moderators hit some snags, acknowledging mistakes in deleting some channels in the wake of the Florida school shooting.

YouTube’s reversal of several enforcement actions against video creators are a sign of growing pains at the video service, which aims to hire several thousand moderators this year to deal with fake news, conspiracy theories and offensive videos. It aims to have 10,000 people checking videos for compliance with YouTube’s standards by the end of the year.

Last week several channels said YouTube shut them down after their coverage of the shootings, including Defango, Charles Walton, Bombard’s Body Language and others. Infowars, the conspiracy web site run by Alex Jones, said it received a second strike from YouTube, which would have frozen new uploads, only to have it reversed hours later. Several channels were subsequently reinstated.

YouTube said last Thursday that as it adds moderators, newer hires may “misapply some of our policies resulting in mistaken removals.”

Mandy O’Brien, who runs Bombard’s Body Language, said in an e-mail she had three strikes issued against her channel in the last week accusing her of bullying and harassment, including for a video in which she scrutinized the expressions of Florida shooting survivors in TV interviews. Her channel was deleted, she said, but reinstated as of Wednesday after she appealed.

Saturday, March 10, 2018 A11

No art or wood paneling–some law firms work in the cloud

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BY JOYCE M. ROSENBERG The Associated Press

EW YORK—There’s no wood paneling or plush carpet at Culhane Meadows—the law firm’s 52 lawyers practice out of their homes or rented work spaces.

Culhane Meadows is one of many law firms without dedicated office space that now operate virtually using software, e-mail, videoconferencing and the Internet to work and connect with clients.

Lawyers at virtual firms say that without the trappings and overhead of a traditional practice, they can charge lower fees, work for a variety of clients and have more say over their work/life balance. Practicing virtually can also mean taking extra steps to ensure that communications of all sorts remain confidential, including working in spaces designed to protect clients’ privacy.

Heather Clauson Haughian, a managing partner at Culhane Meadows, doesn’t miss the works of art, mahogany and high rents of traditional firms.

“When you take away all those things as part of this virtual model, you can pass along that value to your clients,” says Haughian, who works out of her home in Niceville, Florida. The hourly rates at Culhane Meadows are what a lawyer with four or five years’ experience would charge at a larger firm. Clients include Fortune 100 companies that don’t want to pay ultra-high fees and much smaller businesses.

Culhane Meadows, whose lawyers are based in seven metropolitan areas, was founded in 2013 by lawyers who had worked at big traditional firms or large corporations. The lawyers, some of whom are licensed in multiple states, can gather, either themselves or with clients, via videoconferencing.

When they need an in-person meeting, they rent conference rooms.

Law firms, especially very large ones, are known for adhering to traditional ways of working and have been slow to adapt to new technology. A few firms pioneered the virtual model in the past decade and the idea is gaining momentum, says Marlene Laro, COO at the Potomac Law Group, which is based in Washington, D.C., but has lawyers in 17 states. Soaring legal fees are one reason why.

“There’s certainly a lot of interest among general counsels in major corporations to reduce their legal spending and try something different,” Laro says.

Like Culhane Meadows, the seven-year-old Potomac Law Group uses videoconferencing, e-mail and other services to communicate, and lawyers rent office space as needed. Lawyers are also interested. At big firms with high overhead, there is pressure to work and bill for a minimum number of hours, making for extremely long workdays and workweeks and little personal time. At some virtual firms, including Potomac, lawyers have more autonomy to set fees and their hours.

“It enables them to feel more comfortable with the way they’re practicing law,” Laro says. She says she gets inquiries from lawyers with 20 or more years at big firms who are interested in a different way of working. The idea is particularly attractive to younger lawyers who grew up with technology and who prefer simplicity over tradition. Nicole Swartz

knew when she was in law school that she wanted a virtual practice. She started her firm, Sprout Law, after graduating three years ago, and practices out of coworking spaces in New Orleans. She plans to expand to Los Angeles in the summer with another lawyer and the same setup.

Swartz’s practice focuses on women entrepreneurs with most of her clients age 25 to 35 and comfortable texting and e-mailing with their lawyer, or with meeting at coworking locations.

“I don’t see what a traditional office would bring us that we don’t already have,” she says.

Virtual firm lawyers hear few complaints from clients about their setup. For one thing, most interactions are by phone or e-mail. And, “clients big and small walk into fancy office spaces in lavish office buildings and are frustrated that the legal fees they’re paying are going to such lavish offices,” Laro says.

Still, some clients are unsure about a law firm that doesn’t, well, look like a law firm. Tricia Meyer recalls one client who had reservations about her eight-yearold virtual firm.

“I can’t just pop into your office whenever I want and you’re going to be there,” he told her.

But he ended up hiring Meyer Law, which specializes in helping technology companies with matters including contracts, patents and setting themselves up as corporations. It’s work that adapts easily to a virtual model.

“If we were in another area of the law, where we had to do depositions and meet clients in the office all the time, maybe we wouldn’t do it this way,” Meyer says. The firm has five lawyers split between Chicago and Denver, who practice out of their homes and coworking spaces.

Virtual firms do have some concerns to deal with.

One is their technological vulnerability—law firms of any sort can be attacked by hackers or have important data stolen, but the more a firm relies on technology, the more vulnerable it can be.

Megan Porth educates herself about the relative safety of the software, data storage and other technology products that her firm, Your Contract Shop, uses. The firm has programs that encrypt files so they cannot be read by hackers, and firewalls that help prevent potential invasions.

“The reason it does concern me is the perception of a virtual office as opposed to a brick-and-mortar one, not that we are actually, legitimately more prone to cybersecurity issues,” says Porth, whose Phoenixbased firm, launched in 2016, has two lawyers and expects to hire another soon.

Some coworking spaces cater to the need for confidentiality. The spaces where Swartz works have soundproof rooms so phone calls can be kept private.

In more than half the states, lawyers must maintain a level of competence with technology and an awareness of the risks it poses—whether they practice virtually or in a traditional office. “A lot of lawyers don’t realize what an enticing target they are to hackers and crooks,” says Gregory Touhill, a division president at cybersecurity company Cyxtera Technologies who was a chief information security officer in the Obama administration. He describes the legal industry, because it has custody of clients’ personal, financial and competitive information, as a “hot target” for cyberthieves.

But it’s also technology that’s feeding the growth in virtual firms, says John Simek, a vice president at Sensei Enterprises, an information technology and cybersecurity company.

“I think it’s the wave of the future,” he says. ■

Check out the kinds of people you’re likely to encounter at a music festival THE Wanderland Music and Arts Festival (goo.gl/tv7v6c), powered by Globe happens today, and fans look forward to seeing their favorite singers and bands perform. This year’s lineup features Kodaline, Jhené Aiko, FKJ, Daniel Caesar, Lauv and Bag Raiders, along with performances from top local acts Jess Connelly, Quest, IV of Spades, Ben&Ben, Asch, Basically Saturday Night and Carousel Casualties.

While the artists lineup continue to change every year, you are likely to encounter six kinds of people who could make the event livelier, interesting, or sometimes a pain.

Check out this list and, maybe, you can even see yourself in them: 1. THE STAN. The most prominent person you’ll see at any music festival is the stan. Stans are different from fans because they’re more intense and know more about the musicians performing than anyone else. They can sing along to the discography of all the performers and even name the members of the bands. Their energy is contagious and they can tell you the title of a song you end up liking.

2. THE CASUAL FAN. The opposite of the stan is the casual fan. They’re at the musical festival because they know one or two musicians, and maybe even one or two songs from them.

They’re there to support their friend or their partner, and will

stand awkwardly during the performances of the singers they don’t know. They can be fun, too, because they usually end up liking someone new.

3. THE FOODIE. He or she is the one who knows the best deals when it comes to food. You’ll never go hungry when you’re with them because they always have something to eat and drink.

After all, you can’t enjoy the music on an empty stomach. The foodie is the optimist who won’t mind lining up for the best tacos and when you’re at a music festival with them, you can trust that they’ll serve up the most delicious treats.

4. THE SUPERSTAR. You know a superstar when you see one. They’re the ones who seem to know everyone at the festival. They’re not celebrities but they’re so friendly that the event is like their own private party. Expect to meet different people when you’re with the superstar. Chances are, they’re friends with an artist too.

5. THE FASHIONISTA. This creature will arrive at the festival as if it was his or her cover shoot. Expect to see them at their trendiest festival wear, from crop tops to tribal prints, boots, large sunglasses and hats. They’re dressed to impress but the veterans know never to sacrifice comfort for style. The fashionistas at music festivals know how to balance looking good and feeling good.

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SEEN through a large neon sculpture, Marlene Laro, partner and COO of Potomac Law Group, poses for a portrait at the Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center where her firm has a workspace in Washington. AP

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THE opposite of “The Stan” is “The Casual Fan.”

6. THE ‘GRAMMER.’ Trailing behind the fashionista is the grammers, who’re always on their phones. They’re the ones snapping everything they see for their social media. Some people may find them annoying because their phones are blocking views of the performances but they take the most

beautiful shots of the bands and the venue. Plus points for them as they can take your next Instagram photo.

Do you recognize any of them? You’ll see many of them at Wanderland today at the Filinvest City Event Grounds, Alabang.

Editor: Gerard S. Ramos • lifestylebusinessmirror@gmail.com

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FAST facts of life on the road

Saturday, March 10, 2018 A12

FILIPINO driver profiles

Wearable technology used to track Pinoy drivers’ emotions THE TECHNIVORE ED UY

whereiseduy@gmail.com

I

KNOW what you’re thinking: with all those viral videos, dashcam diaries and James Deakin’s ascent to “Tulfo” status when it comes to motorist woes, you don’t need any sophisticated device or data to track how Filipino drivers feel.

Spending a day driving around Metro Manila or rush hour (make that hours) along Edsa is enough to turn even the mildest-mannered motorist into a raging Hulk. I guess the only reason there are lesser incidents of road rage is because we’ve actually come to accept insufferable traffic as a way of life.

Last week I attended a Shell event, thinking that they were going to launch a new promo or product that could help me save a few pesos. Instead they shared the results of the Shell Driving Experiment, a groundbreaking worldwide study that utilized cutting-edge emotional intelligence technology, ChatBots, mobile apps, and online weather and traffic data sources to uncover how the emotions of drivers affect their driving performance—and the results were quite fascinating.

Prior to the start of the experiment, participants were profiled to understand the different aspects of their personalities, such as sensitivity, ambition and cautiousness. Participants then wore a 37 Degree wearable fitness tracker, which was used throughout the study in tandem with three different apps: the Shell App, the 37 Degree fitness tracker companion app and the Facebook Messenger app.

The 37 Degree fitness band was worn by participants to record their biometrics, as well as their mood and fatigue levels. The band took automatic readings throughout the day and logged in the details on a specially coded version of the 37 Degree companion app, which was used exclusively for the study and allowed participants to log the start and end of their drives in order to monitor their biometrics when on the road.

The driving performance score of the participants were then measured through the Shell App. Three factors determine driver performance scores: speed, acceleration and braking. Instances of overspeeding, harsh acceleration and harsh braking lower the performance scores of the participants, meaning the smoother their drive is, the higher their performance score will be.

The final app utilized by the Shell Driving Experiment was the Facebook Messenger app, wherein participants had to interact with a special

ChatBot that gave them a series of questions to answer before and after their drive.

The information monitored by the 37 Degree band and the three apps were all brought together and analyzed by experts at Goldsmiths, University of London, giving an interesting look at the unique personalities of Filipino drivers and the realities of driving in the Philippines. The results were presented by Cleary Ahern, a doctoral researcher from Goldsmiths. She was later joined in the panel discussion by motoring enthusiast and actor Jericho Rosales, champion racer Michele Bumagarner, and health and diet guru Nadine Tengco.

In the Philippines more than 300 participants logged in nearly 2,000 journeys from three key areas—Metro Manila, Cebu and Davao—to help uncover the nature of Filipino drivers. The data from these journeys revealed that the Philippines achieved the highest driving performance score among all the countries that participated in the global study. This means that Filipinos have smoother journeys (less incidents of harsh acceleration and harsh braking) and are more efficient than other participating countries, such as Malaysia, Germany and the Netherlands.

I, however, forgot to ask if they included drivers who drive their jeepneys like horses and AUV drivers who have a nasty habit of stepping hard on the brakes to squeeze in their passengers.

The results of the study also showed that, contrary to a common stereotype of women being bad drivers, gender has no significant influence on driving performance, with personality type more likely to predict your driving style. Two unique, highperforming personality types among Filipino drivers were uncovered by the study: the Modern Man and the Gamma Woman.

The Modern Man is the type of driver that has a unique combination of sensitive and ambitious personality traits, leading to their ability to maintain a well-balanced emotional state behind the wheel.

They adapt well to any situation in life and exercise caution on the road to achieve outstanding driver performance scores. The Gamma Woman, on the other hand, is known for her openness and emotional stability both on and off the road, leading to exceptional driving performance scores.

As always, family also played a big part in the Shell Driving Experiment, as evidence linking the presence of children and additional passengers in the car to better driving performance was consistent throughout the study. A different result was found in other countries, with drivers in Germany performing better when they are alone in the car.

The experiment confirmed that stress is a constant emotion felt by Filipinos on the road. Destination is also another factor, with findings showing that drivers who are on their way to work are more stressed than those who are on the road for other purposes.

Even the food we eat plays a role in the driving performance of Filipinos. Participants in the study

who reported feeling hungry during their journey had lower driver performance scores. The experiment showed that drivers who crave food or hydration don’t perform as well on the road. This decreases the smoothness of a driver’s journey, negatively correlating to a smoother trip score.

Tengco, a famous health guru, shared her two cents on the results. She said, “Just like how you need to fuel up your car before going on a drive, our body needs our own fill, as well. Driving while you’re hungry, especially in this heavy traffic, can really affect your mood and focus, which can have detrimental effects to your driving. Food rich in Omega-3 can enhance mood, relieve stress and increase alertness. But many other nutrients and flavors are associated with increased wakefulness and alertness, such as nuts, citruses and dark chocolates. More than that, staying hydrated is important.”

“The Shell Driving Experiment is part of Shell’s efforts to understand the changing needs of our customers,” shares Anthony Lawrence Yam, vice president for retail at Pilipinas Shell. “This helps us create better products and services, such as developing new fuels like Shell V-Power with Dynaflex Technology and the expansion of our nonfuel offers at Shell Select, which are relevant in improving the driving experience of Filipinos. At the end of the day, our goal is making life’s journeys better for every Filipino on the road.”

In the Philippines nearly 2,000 journeys were completed by more than 300 participants from three key areas—Metro Manila, Cebu, and Davao.

To kick-start the study, a set of hypotheses were developed for testing. The hypotheses covered topics about driver performance vis-à-vis factors like stress

management and sleeping.

After taking the internal and external factors that affect the everyday journeys of Filipinos into consideration, the Philippines achieved the highest driving performance score across all the countries who participated in the study. This means that Filipinos have smoother journeys and are more efficient drivers than other participating countries, like Malaysia, Germany and the Netherlands.

THE PULSE ADVANTAGE THE fuel company that did introduce some new technology was homegrown brand Phoenix Petroleum, which introduced its upgraded fuels powered by their new Pulse Technology—and they did it on Valentine’s Day. Pulse Technology is an innovative formulation with advanced cleaning and protection properties for enhanced power and acceleration. It’s made with cutting-edge fuel technology by world-class fuel experts. The upgraded fuel products promise three main benefits. It avoids fuel filter blockage in diesel-powered vehicles, removes deposits from fuel injectors, valves and piston surfaces; and provides engine protection. Phoenix Pulse Technology also helps result to better fuel economy when used continuously.

“The launch of Phoenix Pulse Technology is in fulfillment of our goal to be the most credible alternative to the major brands. We enhanced our fuel products and improved our formulation not only to be able to compete with bigger players in the oil industry, but, more important, to add value to every peso

CONTINUED ON A9

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CLEARY AHERN