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AT THE ‘DISCOVERY’

OF THE PHILIPPINES IN 1521

MURAL showing the baptism of Rajah Humabon and his household by Fr. Pedro Valderrama (left) and the erection of a wooden cross on the shores of Cebu, at a chapel housing Magellan’s Cross, a Christian cross planted by Ferdinand Magellan upon arriving in Cebu on April 15, 1521, in Cebu City. NAMHWI KIM | DREAMSTIME.COM

F

By Joel C. Paredes* | Special to the BusinessMirror

ILIPINO historians no longer consider 1521 as the year the Philippines was “discovered” by Ferdinand Magellan.

At most, Dr. Nilo Ocampo, a history professor at the University of the Philippines for 46 years, said it was just a “meeting”—or an “encounter”—with our people then, when the Spanish armada led by the Portuguese explorer landed on the Philippine archipelago in the search for the Moluccas—the spice islands.

“Irrelevant” was how Dr. Zeus Salazar, a revered historian and anthropologist, described the event as the country marks the quincentennial of Magellan’s tragic voyage.

When the Spaniards came to the Philippines, the local inhabitants had been exposed to foreign affinities, from the Arabs to our Asian neighbors, who had influenced them in trading, culture and religion.

According to Salazar, “a great deal of what we now call our own has come from a common source,

a common civilization formerly shared with at least some of our fellow Asians (particularly the Malays and Indonesians)—i.e. , from our Austronesians or Malayo-Polynesian base-culture.”

Their differing views from “traditional” historians were hardly surprising, considering that Salazar and Ocampo were part of the movement that began in the early ’70s among academic scholars and intellectuals who tried to correct approaches in Philippine historiography, making the study of historical writing nationalistic and more culturally sensitive.

The late nationalist historian Renato Constantino once noted that those who had earlier documented our colonial past were, by training, “captives of Spanish and American historiography, both of which inevitably viewed Philippine

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history through the palm of their own prejudices.”

In The Past Revisited, Constantino wrote that history is not merely a chronology of events nor is it just a story of heroes and great men. History, he said, is “a recorded struggle of people for every increasing freedom and for newer and higher realization of the human person.”

But the struggle, he explained, is a “collective one” and as such “involves the mass of human beings who are therefore the motivators of change and of history.”

Ocampo said it is time to look at our history “from the point of view of the Filipino people.” There is really a need to educate the Filipinos that our history began even before the Spaniards “discovered” the Philippines in 1521; followed by the colonial years and the period where the Filipinos became free, he said.

“Yet until now, the framework of our history remains to be dominated by that of our colonizers,” Ocampo said. He deemed such orientation of history as partly to blame for the colonial mentality in a country that was built through the “dark days” of our history and the anticolonial struggle of its people.

Ironically, Ocampo’s mentor,

the historian Salazar, didn’t even mention the events that happened in 1521 in the Kasaysayan ng Kapilipinuhan: Bagong Balangkas, where he divided into three periods the country’s history—the Pamayananan (500,000/250 BC-1588), Bayan (1588-1913) and Bansa (1913-present).

‘Pantayong Pananaw’

THIS approach in historiography, as shown in Salazar’s framework of Philippine history, was based on the “Pantayong Pananaw”—or “Bagong Kasaysayan” (New History) which he spearheaded before it evolved as a popular movement among nationalist academic scholars and intellectuals calling for an indigenous perspective in conducting historical enquiries.

In an essay, Ateneo University history professor Aaron Rom O. Morlina explained Salazar’s “Pantayong Pananaw” or “PP”— “pantayo” simply means “from us-to-us” and connotes that the speaker communicates with an audience that is also part of the speaker community.

It was a method espoused by historians led by Salazar, who acknowledged development of the nation based on the “internal in-

terconnectedness and linking of characteristics, values, knowledge wisdom, aspirations, practices, behavior and experiences.”

The “pantayo” perspective, Salazar said, could be rooted in revolutionaries like Andres Bonifacio and Emilio Jacinto, who looked at the history and struggle of the Filipinos for independence from an internal perspective and use the Pilipino language to communicate.

The problem, he said, was the nation that was formed by colonialism. There was the “pangkami” perspective (from-us-to-you), espoused by the Filipino “elite” who were seen in the generation of intellectuals educated in Spain during the time of Rizal and the propaganda movement. Then there is also the “pangkayo” (from-you-to us), the judgment made by “external agents upon one’s culture.”

In this approach, Prof. Ramon Guillermo cited the need for a “talastasang bayan,” which is a “substantial dialogical circle” consisting of subjects within a community with a homogenous socio-politicocultural code. The “code” becomes the referent of analysis in historiography and other academic fields under the social sciences and the humanities.

Shattering the ‘myth’

“SO why [commemorate] 1521? If we want to celebrate the implant of Spanish power in the Philippines, it wasn’t there,” he said. “The Spaniards were there for a just a few weeks, and their leader, Magellan, was even killed by Lapulapu.”

At that time, each “datu” like Lapulapu wielded power in their own turf since there was no concept of a nation then, though there were already sultanates in the South.

Salazar suspected that Lapulapu killed Magellan simply because he wanted to get the Spanish galleon, although at that time the ships of Butuan were even bigger than the size of the vessels in the Spanish armada.

Magellan, on the other hand, meddled in internal affairs of the island leaders, if only to impress King Humabon of Cebu and his newfound friends on how the Spaniards can discipline an arrogant local chieftain.

“But how can we really celebrate, when our being a nation did not start there?” Salazar asked.

Salazar also doubted that Christianity really began at the time of Magellan. The indigenous people he encountered on the Visayan islands Continued on A2

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A second look at the ‘discovery’ of the Philippines in 1521 Continued from A1

were supposedly baptized and imbibed with the Catholic doctrine, when the natives couldn’t even understand the language of the Spaniards, he said.

He then cited historical enquiries on the image of the Santo Niño, the oldest Christian artifact left by Magellan in Cebu. It was a gift to the queen of Cebu after she agreed to be baptized.

Salazar noted, however, that when the Spanish colonizers returned to the island half a century later, they found the image inside a box in a shack. He believed that the Santo Niño was merely used as medium by the babaylan—the women priestess—in calling anitos or their ancestors during their Cebuano traditional religious rituals.

As Salazar put it, “This was a complete ignorance, I may say on the part of the Spaniards, on the religious practices of the Filipinos, while the latter then had no knowledge of the Western religion.”

It was only during the term of Miguel Lopez de Legazpi, the first Spanish governor-general in the Philippines, that the people were Christianized since the colonizers already brought with them missionaries, specifically to evangelize the natives when they arrived in Cebu to conquer the archipelago in 1565.

In one of his writings, Salazar cited a 1630 account of Fray Juan de Medina claiming that the image was being used for “paganism” by the Cebuanos, as “the representation (likha) of an anito (spirit, divinity) connected with the sun, the sea and agriculture (as epiphanies of the ‘supreme god’ in our ancient religion, in fact) and to the fact that the Filipino family (mag-anak)—and, for that matter, the Indo-Malaysian family (beranak)—turns around the child (anak) as center of preoccupation and fountainhead of life’s meaning.”

Indeed, the reluctance of modern-day historians to adhere to the traditional historiography on the “discovery” of the Philippines could have cautioned—if not just prompted—the National Quincentennial Commission to advise against specifically celebrating the 500th anniversary as the “arrival of Magellan,” but merely to commemorate the first part of the Magellan-Elcano circumnavigation in the Philippines.

Still, the government and the Church hierarchy maintained that this year, the nation is celebrating the quincentennial of the introduction of Christianity in the country and Lapulapu’s victory in the Battle of Mactan in Cebu.

Ocampo recalled a similar “big bang” that accompanied the Americans’ commemoration of the quincentennial voyage of Christopher Columbus to the “New World” and how he was honored for his “discovery.” “But now, after the death of George Floyd, the Americans started destroying monuments of the Confederates , those who were never really their heroes,” he said.

These myths of Western discoveries are finally being shattered by nationalist historians.

Western view of the Magellan legacy

TO Western historians, Magellan’s expedition which began in 1519 was considered to have changed the world forever.

American historian Laurence Bergreen, author of Over the Edge of the World: Magellan’s Terrifying Circumnavigation of the Globe, was even quoted by the National Geographic as saying that Magellan’s journey was “the greatest sea voyage undertaken and the most significant.”

Most historians concede they merely relied on most of the accounts of Antonio Pigafetta, a Venetian scholar and explorer who served as Magellan’s assistant when he sailed with his 250-strong, five-ship Spanish armada from the Port of San Lucar de Barrameda in 1519. The earliest accounts, however, were written

by Maximilian van Seevenbergen, a courtier of King Charles V, based on interviews with the survivors of the expedition that first circum-

DETAIL from a panoramic painting of the Battle of Mactan, in the Mactan Shrine in Cebu. CARL FRANCES MORANO DIAMAN (CC BY-SA 3.0)

navigated the world.

Pigafetta was also one of the 18 men who were able to complete the voyage—which many Western historians declared as the “first circumnavigation of the world” under the command of Juan Sebastian Elcano in 1522.

The Magellan-led expedition came at a time when the Spanish armadas, under Hernan Cortez, Francisco Pizarro and Diego de Almagro, were meeting with remarkable success in the Americas, wrote American businessman Robert MacMiking in his book Recollections of Manila and the Philippines before the turn of the 20th century.

As a young man, Magellan, born Fernao de Magalhaes around 1480, was said to have started in a string of Portuguese voyages designed to discover and seize lucrative spice routes in Africa and India at a time of intensive rivalry between Portugal and Spain in finding the spices coveted by European aristocrats.

After joining the fight and traveling to India, Malaysia and Indonesia, he was accused of illegal trading, and fell out of grace with King Manuel I of Portugal, who had sponsored Vasco de Gama, which led to the discovery of the Portuguese Indian Armada route that guaranteed Portugal’s monopoly on the spice trade.

In search of the ‘untold wealth’

BASED on Pigafetta’s account, Magellan, although a Portuguese navigator, reportedly convinced King Charles V of Spain that by sailing south he could pass the “new western world,” and would be possible to reach the Moluccas—or the Spice islands—of the East, which he supposed contained “untold-of wealth in their bosoms.”

The king eventually honored Magellan with the distinguished military order of Santiago and appointed him to the command of a squadron that will conquer and annex these islands to the Spanish Crown. Apart from a noble title, Magellan was given a decade-long monopoly on any route he might discover and a cut of the profits.

During the voyage, Magellan’s crew mutinied after winter weather forced his ships to wait for months in what is now Argentina. One ship was wrecked and another ditched the expedition and returned to Spain. Some of the mutineers were beheaded on Magellan’s order and others were either marooned or forced into hard labor.

When the voyage got back on track, Magellan managed to navigate a treacherous passage, now

known as the Strait of Magellan.

He also passed through an island that was likely Guam where they later killed the indigenous people and burned their houses in response to the theft of a small boat.

Based on Pigafetta’s account, historians later wrote that after a long, perilous voyage, Magellan sighted at dawn of March 16, 1521, the mountains of “Zamal (Samar),” marking the first documented arrival of Europeans in the archipelago.

The following day, Magellan ordered his men to anchor their ships on the uninhabited shores of Homonhon island, “to secure and to get water and have some rest.”

Two tents were set up on the shore for the sick.

According to the late Filipino historian and educator Dr. Onofre Corpuz, the Samar islanders gave gifts of bananas of various sizes to the Magallanes expedition. Some of the bananas were cooked. Coconuts were also widespread on the island and various technologies were employed for its many uses.

Betel and betel nut chewing were widespread. Pigafetta took note of different liquors: palm wine or brandy drunk by Kolambu, chief of Limasawa.

They stayed for eight days on the island, where Magellan befriended Kolambu, together with his brother Siaui, the rajah of Butuan. On March 31, 1521, an Easter Sunday Mass was officiated by Roman Catholic priest Fr. Pedro Valderrama, the Andalusian chaplain of the fleet, in a place he identified as Mazaua (Limasawa, now a sixth-class municipality at the tip of Southern Leyte).

Rajah Kolambu and Siaui attended the Mass with their people who later embraced the Christian faith. A wooden cross was erected on top of the hill overlooking the sea.

In the presence of the two kings, Magellan took ownership of the island where he had landed in the name of King Charles V and named the Archipelago Saint Lazarus, for it was the day of the saint when the armada reached the island.

Rajah Kolambu was so pleased with Magellan and his men’s help in harvesting of his rice that he offered to guide the Spaniards, along with his brother Rajah Siaui, to Cebu where they met Humabon, the influential rajah of the island.

Situated between Manila and Brunei along the Canton-Malacca route, Cebu was never Islamized, according to Salazar. At that time of Magellan, it was ruled “in the manner of the Malays,” with the rulers taking prestigious MalaySanskrit titles like rajah or batara.

The language and cultural overlay in all these areas were thus Malay with “Indian” elements.

With Malay as lingua franca, intensive commercial and cultural contacts were entertained by Filipinos with Dunia Melayu. In his book The Malayan Connection: Ang Pilipinas sa Dunia Melayu, Salazar wrote that Filipinos were perceived early enough as part of the great ethnic and cultural continuum of Oceania and Malaysia.

Corpuz, on the other hand, noted that the separateness of the settlements in the archipelago was also reflected, in turn, in the hundreds of dialects spoken by the people, “all developed from a single mother tongue.” It therefore did not surprise the members of Magellan’s expedition that his Malayan slave, Enrique de Malacca, could make himself understood throughout the Visayas and Mindanao.

Believed to be a Malay member of the expedition, Enrique was acquired as a slave by Magellan when he was just 14, probably in the early stages of the Siege of Malacca. Pigafetta stated that he was a native of Sumatra.

The Cebu king and his queen were eventually baptized into the Catholic faith, Humabon taking the Christian name Carlos, in honor of King Charles of Spain, and Juana in honor of King Charles’s mother. In that event, Magellan gave Juana a Flemish-style, 12inch dark wood image of the infant Jesus—the Santo Niño, as a symbol of their new alliance and held their first Mass on the coast.

On the island, Pigafetta saw swine, goats, dogs, cats, rice, millet, panicum, corn, ginger, oranges, lemons, sugar cane, garlic, honey, coconuts, jackfruit, gourds, palm wine and “much gold.” He also saw locally manufactured balancing scales in use.

At that time, Corpuz wrote, Cebu was already relatively developed and had dealings with foreigners. The island’s east coast was the principal trading port in the central Visayas and enjoyed the protection of Mactan Island.

The chief of Cebu, Pigafetta observed, was “far greater” than the two other neighboring chiefs that accompanied Magellan.

The Magellan tragedy

HUMABON later confided to Magellan that some of the chiefs refused to acknowledge him as their superior. It was then that Magellan decided to meddle in the affairs of the island leaders and ordered the burning of the village of Bulaia on Mactan so that these chiefs will

recognize Humabon as their leader.

The principal village on the island of Mactan was Mactan, with two chiefs—Zula and Lapulapu.

On April 26, 1521, a Friday, Magellan got a message from Zula that Lapulapu refused to recognize the king of Spain. He asked that a boatload of armed men be sent to him and help subjugate Lapulapu.

But the next night, Magellan himself decided to lead his force of 60 soldiers in corselets and helmets. Three hours before dawn, they arrived in Mactan, and immediately informed Lapulapu that if he and his people will recognize the king of Spain and pay tribute they would be friends. Otherwise, they “would learn the power of the Spanish lances.”

When Lapulapu reacted angrily to this manner of offering friendship, Magellan decided to do battle with the natives. According to Pigafetta, to confront Lapulapu they were forced to anchor their ships far from shore due to the shallow water filled with rocks and coral reefs. They couldn’t also bring their ships’ cannons to bear on Lapulapu’s warriors, estimated to be more than 1,500 in number.

Magellan and his men then waded through the shallow water to do battle with the natives.

A number of the natives who were Christian converts came to their aid. Upon landing, Magellan’s small force was immediately attacked by the natives with a heavy barrage of ranged weapons, consisting of arrows, iron-tipped “bamboo” throwing spears, firehardened sticks, and even stones.

The Spaniards were surrounded by warriors who attacked from the front and both flanks. The musketeers and crossbowmen on the boat tried to provide support by firing from the boats.

Though the light armor and the shields of the natives were vulnerable to the invaders’ projectile weapons, they were firing from an extreme distance and the natives easily avoided them. Due to the same distance, Magellan could not command them to stop and save their ammunition, and the musketeers and crossbowmen continued firing for half an hour until their ammunition was exhausted.

Magellan, hoping to ease the attack, set fire to some of the houses, but this only enraged the natives even more. Magellan was finally hit with a poisoned arrow through his unarmored legs, at which time the natives charged the Europeans for close-quarters combat.

Seeing that, Magellan sent some men to burn their houses

in order to terrify them. When they saw their houses burning, they were roused to greater fury.

Some of the men were killed near the houses, while Magellan’s men burned 20 or 30 houses.

“So many of them rained down upon us that the captain was shot through the right leg with a poisoned arrow. On that account, he ordered us to a frontal assault. But the men took to flight, except 10 to 15 of us who remained with the captain,” Pigafetta recalled.

“The natives shot only at our legs, for the latter were bare; and so many were the spears and stones that they hurled at us, that we could offer no resistance. The mortars in the boats could not aid us as they were too far away.”

Many of the warriors then zeroed in on Magellan, who was wounded in the arm with a spear and in the leg by a large native sword. Lapulapu’s troops finally overwhelmed and killed Magellan.

A wounded Pigafetta and a few others managed to escape.

Except for Enrique de Malacca, the soldiers who survived the battle and returned to Cebu were poisoned while attending a feast given by Humabon on May 1, 1521.

Giovannni Battista Ramusio, an Italian travel writer and geographer at that time, later wrote in a discourse that it was Enrique who had warned Humabon that the Spaniards were plotting to capture the king, and this led to the killing at the banquet.

With his master dead, Enrique de Malacca joined Elcano, the new commander of the expedition, who ordered the immediate departure after Humabon’s betrayal.

In fleeing Cebu, Enrique’s presumed intention was to return to his home island. Nothing more was said of Enrique in any documents, but some historians consider him the first man to actually circumnavigate the world.

Meanwhile, Elcano and his fleet sailed west and returned to Spain in 1522, completing the circumnavigation of the world in that year.

Defiance and colonialism

LIKE most modern-day Filipino historians, Corpuz, in his book, The Roots of the Filipino Nation, honored Lapulapu’s victory as the “first native victory in the battle against the invaders.”

It would also be the last until the Spaniards would invade Maguindanao later in the century, where their losses inaugurated the Muslim wars. Lapulapu’s defiance against Spain also triggered the start of Moro piracy, which lasted during the centuries of Spanish colonial rule.

Local historians agree on the difference between the European piracies and the Moro piracies.

While the Westerners were motivated by plunder in gold, the Moros, as the people of the Muslim South were called by the Spanish colonizers, were motivated by resistance to foreign aggression and colonialism.

While the European pirates carried gold and silver in the holds of their ships, Moro pirates carried Spanish Christians. “Doubtless this report of kings in the archipelago was taken as a wondrous thing when it reached Spain. This report and fabulous other tales of the adventurers of the Magallanes expedition did not die out forgotten,” Corpuz wrote.

The Spaniards sent out a series of expeditions from Mexico to try to retrace the route of the voyage in search of spices and treasure, and to conquer the heathen lands for the Spanish king and for their religion.

Spanish colonialism, Corpuz said, arrested the natural development of the native communities, but he asserted that “it also laid the basis for a unification of the archipelago, which was the very cause of an awakening that would end the days of Castilian overlordship in this part of the world.” *Veteran journalist Joel C. Paredes is a former director general of the Philippine Information Agency and holds an AB History degree from the University of the Philippines.

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

The World

World’s 3 biggest coal users get ready to burn even more

T

By Will Wade

he world’s three biggest consumers of coal, the dirtiest fossil fuel, are getting ready to boost usage so much that it’ll almost be as if the pandemic-induced drop in emissions never happened.

US power plants are going to consume 16 percent more coal this year than in 2020, and then another 3 percent in 2022, the Energy Information Administration said last week. China and India, which together account for almost two-thirds of demand, have no plans to cut back in the near term.

This means higher emissions, a setback for climate action ahead of international talks this year intended to raise the level of ambition from commitments under the Paris Agreement to reduce greenhouse gases. In the US, the gains may undermine President Joe Biden’s push to reestablish America as an environmental leader and raise pressure on him to quickly implement his climate agenda.

“We’re going to see a really marked increase in emissions,” with coal consumption at US power plants returning almost to 2019 levels, said Amanda Levin, policy analyst at the New York-based National Resources Defense Council. But if Biden implements green-energy policies as expected, “we could actually see changes pretty quickly.”

The US increase stems from higher natural gas prices and the recovery from the pandemic.

For China and India, it’s a reflection of rising electricity demand that’s keeping coal as the dominant source of power generation even as they add vast amounts of solar and wind capacity.

While Biden’s Covid stimulus didn’t focus on green energy, a pending infrastructure bill is expected to include plans to fulfill his campaign pledges on climate change, making the US best poised to salvage progress in reducing global emissions. Biden has said the US will target carbon neutrality by 2050, and is convening an April meeting that’s expected to include China and India.

China’s President Xi Jinping surprised the world with his promise last year to achieve netzero emissions by 2060. India has yet to make any similar commitment.

In China’s latest five-year plan announced March 5, Premier Li Keqiang didn’t set a hard target for emissions reduction, and said coal would remain a key component of the electricity strategy.

More detailed energy plans to be published later in the year could include specific steps on curbing fossil fuel consumption.

While Beijing has reduced coal’s share in the nation’s energy mix in recent years, total power consumption has risen, so its usage has also climbed.

Complicating the picture is that China also has the world’s biggest fleet of coal-fired power plants, and more than half of them are less than 10 years old.

Because they can run for several more decades, it’ll be tough to shift to alternatives.

“All of that installed capacity doesn’t go away overnight,” said Dennis Wamsted, an analyst for the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis.

Though a recovery in energy-intensive sectors like construction and metal production is currently boosting short-term coal demand, consumption will fall in the years ahead as China acts on climate promises, said Tang Daqian, an associate director at Fitch Bohua.

India too is a very long way from a clean grid, even as Prime Minister Narendra Modi said this month he’s ahead of schedule for meeting the initial carbon-reduction pledges under the Paris Agreement, reducing emissions intensity 33 percent to 35 percent from 2005 levels by 2030.

While the country has implemented an ambitious rollout of solar power, coal continues to account for around 70 percent of its electricity generation.

Consumption at power plants will rise 10 percent this year, and is set to increase every year through at least 2027, according to Bloomberg Intelligence.

In the US, coal is rebounding after the coronavirus pandemic curtailed electricity usage and cut demand for the fuel by 19 percent last year.

It’s also the result of gains in natural gas prices, which are up more than 40 percent from a year ago. When gas gets more expensive, utilities will often start burning more coal to bring down costs, even though it puts out twice the emissions. The EIA expects gas prices to remain high into 2022, pointing to strong demand for coal next year.

In the longer term, coal’s prospects are bleaker. While top users’ consumption might be rising in 2021, emerging markets that once seemed like the brightest spot for longterm demand are turning their back on the fuel as financing becomes more difficult and alternatives like gas and renewables are getting more accessible and cheaper. Bangladesh is abandoning almost all of its planned projects and the Philippines last year declared a moratorium on new coal-fired power plants.

“The trend is down, down and continuing to go down,” said IEEFA’s Wamsted.

But first, the fuel is poised for a revival that’ll lift overall global demand this year after two successive annual declines, according to the International Energy Agency. Its projection for a 2.6-percent increase in consumption this year reflects expectations for a pickup in every region of the world.

Coal India, the world’s largest producer, expects consumption will be boosted as industries including steel, cement and aluminum return to pre -virus levels of output. The company this month approved more than $6 billion in investments in new mines and expansions.

“There are climate-change issues about coal, but India’s energy needs won’t allow it to dump the fuel instantly,” said Binay Dayal, the firm’s technical director.

M i c h a e l B l o o m b e rg, t h e f o u n d e r a n d majority owner of Bloomberg LP, the parent company of Bloomberg News, has committed $500 million to launch B eyond Carbon, a campaign aimed at closing the remaining coal-powered plants in the US by 2030.— With assistance from James Thornhill, Rajesh Kumar Singh, Dan Mur taugh, Ronan Mar tin and Kr ystal Chia.

BusinessMirror

Sunday, March 21, 2021

A3

Warp-speed spending and other surreal stats of Covid-19 times

By Calvin Woodward The Associated Press

W

ASHINGTON—The US effort in World War II was off the charts. Battles spread over three continents and four years, 16 million served in uniform and the government shoved levers of the economy full force into defeating Nazi Germany and imperial Japan.

All of that was cheaper for American taxpayers than this pandemic.

The $1,400 federal payments going into millions of people’s bank accounts are but one slice of a nearly $2-trillion relief package made law this past week. With that, the United States has spent or committed to spend nearly $6 trillion to crush the coronavirus, recover economically and take a bite out of child poverty.

Set in motion over one year, that’s warp-speed spending in a capital known for gridlock, ugly argument and now an episode of violent insurrection.

For a year now, Americans have grappled with numbers beyond ordinary comprehension: some 30 million infected, more than half a million dead, millions of jobs lost, vast sums of money sloshing through government pipelines to try to set things right.

How high can you count? At one turn after another, that may be the rhetorical question of these Covid-19 times.

The toll Once, the attack on Pearl Harbor was the modern marker for national trauma. About 2,400 Americans died

in the assault on the naval base in Hawaii that drew the United States into the Pacific war. The nearly 3,000 dead from the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001 became the new point of comparison as the ravages of Covid-19 grew.

The US reached a total of 3,000 Covid-19 deaths even before March 2020 was out. By December, the countr y was experiencing the toll of 9/11 day after day after day. In t hat time, Cov id-19 was k i l ling more A mericans than any other disease, any other single cause.

“Covid-19 now is the leading cause of death, surpassing heart disease,” Dr. Robert Redfield, then leading the Centers for Disease and Prevention, said on December 10. Looking to the weeks ahead, he said “it’s going to be the most difficult time in the public health history of this nation.”

So it was, even with the vaccine rollout five days later.

With deaths now moderating—so that a 9/11 toll comes cumulatively every few days—the US death toll now has surpassed 530,000, exceeding US combat deaths of all of the last century’s wars.

A new marker looms: the estimated 675,000 Americans who died in the 1918-1919 pandemic misnamed the Spanish flu.

That milestone may not be reached, if worst-case scenarios are avoided.

Yet this much is clear—the United States has taken a proportionally worse hit in this pandemic.

The US has experienced 1 in 5 deaths worldwide, compared with 1 in 75 deaths globally by the rough estimates of the pandemic a century ago.

The response The blame game is on, exacerbated by the record of a president, Donald Trump, who rarely acknowledged the gravity of the crisis and routinely distorted it. He told Americans in March 2020 the country would be “ just raring to go by Easter” and declared on the cusp of soaring infections that the US was “rounding the final turn” on the virus.

“We were hit with a virus that was met with silence and spread unchecked,” President Joe Biden said in his primetime address on Thursday. “Denials for days, weeks, then months.”

But while Trump persisted in sunny side up, he also opened the coffers on vaccine development and pandemic relief, backing $4 trillion in aid, equal to 20 percent of the US economy.

And he pulled together a Star Warssounding effort that pretty much lived up to the hyperbole of its name. By the usual yearslong lag in coming up with a vaccine, the authorization to release two vaccines—now three— proved something of an Operation Warp Speed.

The Trump administration’s striking success in backing the invention of coronavirus vaccines through direct spending or advance purchase commitments has been followed by the Biden administration’s nascent success in spurring the production and delivery of those shots.

On this Trump-Biden continuum, shots have risen from 48,757 the first

day, December 15, to an average of 1.5 million to 2 million per day the first week of March, raising hope that a persistent bottleneck and vaccine shortages can be overcome. More than 100 million doses have been administered; 35 million people have been fully vaccinated.

The bill for it all is stratospheric.

Back in February 2020, when the financial markets showed strain from the pandemic and oil prices started to plunge, many economists began to predict that the US government would need to borrow sums unimaginable to older generations.

Now that’s reality.

Biden’s $1.9-trillion package follows five others in the past year, altogether worth almost $6 trillion.

That’s about $1 trillion more than US military expenditures in World War II, all in today’s dollars. It’s more than the government’s entire budget just two years ago, $4.4 trillion.

About two-thirds of the money in Biden’s plan is to be spent in one year, a hefty infusion that has some economists worried about inflation.

Ho w c a n t h e U S p o s s i b l y a f f o rd t h i s?

At least for now, debt is cheap.

The cost of ser v icing the debt last year was only 1.6 percent of t he g ros s dome st ic pro duc t — a bargain compared w ith the 1990s, when the total debt was much lower.

Back then, the federal government spent about 3 percent of GDP on net interest costs.

Bargain, of course, is relative. Debt is historically high, up 130 percent over 10 years even before the latest relief package, a burden made manageable by historically low interest rates.

Big-ticket plans on infrastructure and more are still to come.

And they are bound to come with 12 zeroes. It’s a world of trillions now.

The Associated Press writers Alan Fram and Josh Boak contributed to this report.

Why Covid-19 left long-term scars on global job markets

By Paul Wiseman & Alexandra Olson

E

AP Business Writers

sther Montanez’S housecleaning job at the Hilton Back Bay in Boston was a lifeline for her, a 31-year-old single mother with a 5-year-old son.

The pay was steady and solid—enough to pay her bills and still have money left over to sock away for a savings account for her child. Montanez liked her co-workers and felt pride in her work.

But when the viral pandemic slammed violently into the US economy a year ago, igniting a devastating recession, it swept away her job, along with many tens of millions of others. Since then, in desperation, Montanez has siphoned away money from her son’s savings to help meet expenses. At Christmas, she turned to charities to provide presents for him. For now, she’s getting by on unemployment aid and, for the first time, has applied for food stamps.

“The truth is, I want my job back,’’ said Montanez, who has banded with her former colleagues and worked through their union to press the hotel to reinstate their jobs.

Getting it back could prove a struggle for her, along with millions of other unemployed people around the world. Even as viral vaccines increasingly promise a return to something close to normal life, the coronavirus seems sure to leave permanent scars on the job market. At least 30 percent of the US jobs lost to the pandemic aren’t expected to come back—a sizable proportion of them at employers that require face-to-face contact with consumers: Hotels, restaurants, retailers, and entertainment venues. United Here, Montanez’s union, says 75 percent of the 300,000 hospitality workers it represents remain out of work.

The threat to workers in those occupations, many of them low-wage earners, marks a sharp reversal from the 2008-2009 Great Recession, when middle- and higher-wage construction, factory, office and financial services workers bore the brunt of job losses.

No one knows exactly what the job market will look like when the virus finally ends its rampage.

Will consumers feel confident enough to return in significant numbers to restaurants, bars, movie theaters and shops, allowing those decimated businesses to employ as many people as they did before?

How much will white - collar professionals continue to work from home, leaving downtown business districts all but empty during the

week?

Will business travel fully rebound now that companies have seen the ease with which coworkers can collaborate on video platforms at far less cost?

“J o b s a r e c h a n g i n g — i n d u s t r i e s a r e changing,’’ said Loretta Penn, chair of the Virginia Ready Initiative, which helps workers develop new skills and find new jobs. “We’re creating a new normal every day.’’

The habits that people have grown accustomed to in the pandemic—working, shopping, eating and enjoying entertainment from home—could prove permanent for many. Though these trends predated the virus, the pandemic accelerated them. Depending on how widely such habits stick, demand for waiters, cashiers, front-desk clerks and ticket takers may never regain its previous highs.

The consultancy McKinsey & Co. estimates that the United States will lose 4.3 million jobs in customer and food service in the next decade.

In a study, José María Barrero of Mexico’s ITAM Business School, Nick Bloom of Stanford University and Steven Davis of the University of Chicago concluded that 32 percent to 42 percent of Covid-induced layoffs will be permanent.

The US Labor Department, too, has tried to estimate the pandemic’s likely impact on the job market. Before taking the pandemic into account, the department last year projected that US jobs would grow 3.7 percent between 2019 and 2029.

Last month, it estimated that if the outbreak’s lasting economic effects were limited mainly to increased work from home, job growth over the 10 years would slow to 2.9 percent.

But if the pandemic exerts a deeper, longerlasting impact—with many consumers going less frequently to restaurants, movie theaters and shopping centers—job growth would slow to just 1.9 percent, the department predicted. In that worst-case scenario, the department estimated, employment would tumble 13 percent for waiters and waitresses, 14 percent for bartenders, 16 percent for fast-food cooks and 22 percent for hotel desk clerks.

The coronavirus recession has been especially cruel, victimizing people at the bottom of the pay scale. Lael Brainard, one of the Federal Reserve’s governors, said last month that the poorest 25 percent of American workers were facing “Depression-era rates of unemployment of around 23 percent’’ in mid-January—nearly quadruple the national jobless rate.

The Fed also repor ted last month that employment in the lowest-paid jobs was running

20 percent below pre-pandemic levels. For the highest-paying jobs, by contrast, the shortfall was just 5 percent.

Services workers had long been thought to be safe from the threats that menaced factory employment: Foreign competition and automation. But more and more, as employers have sought to save money in a time of uncertainty and to promote social distancing in the workplace, machines are reaching beyond the factory floor and into retail, restaurants and hotels.

Tamura Jamison, for instance, came back to a changed job when she was recalled to work in June as a front desk agent at the Paris Las Vegas Hotel & Casino, owned by Caesars Entertainment.

Her hours were cut from 40 to about 32 a week, resulting in a pay cut of about $700 a month.

Just 26 of 45 workers on her team were brought back. Existing self-service kiosks used to be optional for guests checking in. No longer.

Now, agents must direct guests to the kiosks and intervene only if needed. That means fewer commissions for room upgrades; guests can request them on their own.

As a union shop steward, Jamison knows that her missing colleagues won’t likely be recalled.

“At this point,” she said, “they have to move on with their lives.”

Jamison wonders whether the front desk o p e r a t i o n w i l l e ve n t u a l l y b e e l i m i n a te d a l to g e t h e r, t h e j o b s l o s t to a u to m at i o n .

Guests, she notes, will soon have keys on their smartphones, allowing them to go directly to their rooms.

“This is the start of a new Vegas,” Jamison said.

“The front desk doesn’t really have to be there.

There are ways to eliminate our jobs.”

In a study out last month, Stefania Albanesi of the University of Pittsburgh and Jiyeon Kim of the Korea Development Institute warned that in a world still fearful of the virus or of other health threats, many companies could replace employees with machines rather than redesign workspaces to facilitate social distancing and reduce the threat of infection.

The services occupations that have absorbed the biggest job losses, they say, “have high susceptibility to automation.’’ That “raises the prospect that as the economy recovers, at least some of the jobs lost may not be reinstated.’’

Few places have been hurt more ruinously by the pandemic than Las Vegas, whose economy is powered by out-of-town visitors and live entertainment. Until 12 months ago, Sharon Beza was among 283,000 workers in the city’s tourism

and hospitality field. She had worked as a cocktail waitress at Eastside Cannery hotel-casino from the time it opened in 2008 to the day she was furloughed a year ago. Over the summer, her job was eliminated.

Now a part-time cashier at an Albertsons grocery store, Beza is still seeking full-time work in the restaurant industry, which employed her for 37 years. She’s holding out hope that Las Vegas will rebound and tourists will return to restaurants, hotels and casinos. But it may be impossible, she knows, for laid-off workers like her to land jobs that offer the kinds of solid wages, tips and benefits they used to enjoy.

In Europe, government jobs programs have prevented a devastating spike in unemployment.

Unemployment in January was 8.1 percent, up only modestly from 7.4 percent a year earlier.

Yet an economic reckoning has begun, with companies in the worst hit sectors envisioning years of reduced demand.

Consider commercial airlines. Lufthansa’s workforce shrank from 138,000 to 110,000 in 2020. British Airways plans to cut 12,000 jobs from its 42,000-strong workforce. UK-based regional airline Flybe took 2,000 jobs with it when it collapsed a year ago.

Germany’s hotel and restaurant association says that despite government support to help maintain payrolls, employment sank from 2.45 million pre-pandemic to 2.09 million. Holger Schaefer, a labor economist at the German Economic Institute in Cologne, suggested that behavioral changes—more digital meetings, for example, and less business travel—would result in permanent job losses in some companies.

By contrast, some other sectors of the economy should benefit from pent-up demand once the virus is defeated. Schaefer is optimistic about restaurants, for one.

“There is a fundamental demand for such services,” he said. “I can’t imagine that when everyone is vaccinated and it’s safe, that there will still be problems in that area.”

Around the world in the Chinese city of Xuzhou, nor thwest of Shanghai, Guan Li, a convenience store owner, said he hired four out-of-work relatives but had to lay them off after sales fell by half. Now, he and his wife run the shop themselves.

“People just don’t want to buy,” he said.

Guan, who is close to 60, and his wife plan to retire because the shop’s income may no longer cover their costs. Owners of two similar shops nearby also plan to close, he said.

In Egypt, Mohammed Gamal used to earn a decent living working six days a week at a café in Giza, twin city of Cairo. But pandemic restrictions and dwindling business shrank his workweek and slashed his income by more than half. It didn’t help when the government banned “sheesha,’’ the hookah water pipe that’s popular across the Middle East and is a major moneymaker for cafes.

In mid-2020, he sent his wife and two children back to his parents’ house in Beni Mazar, south of Cairo. Now, he shares a room with a friend to save on rent.

“I just work three days a week, and this is not enough even for a single person,” said Gamal, 31.

In Mexico City, Gerardo González, wearing a suit, a black mask and a plastic face shield, waited recently on the sidewalk outside the delivery service Didi. He had hoped to find work a month after he lost his job at a bakery where he did cleaning and displayed merchandise.

He’s applied for jobs at five companies.

“I can’t get anything,” said González, 51, who supports his wife and two young children. To meet his family’s expenses, he’s burned through his savings.

“We hope that with the vaccine, things will start going back to normal,” he said.

Melinda Harmon lost a job she loved as a bartender at Milwaukee’s Fiserv Forum last year.

First, she found work as a health care aide for $9.25 an hour. Even after receiving a raise to $10, she struggled to support her two sons. Frustrated, she resigned and took on a new job as a security guard for $12 an hour. She’s been switching off lights to save money for electricity and has had to delay haircuts for her two beloved Pomeranians.

Yet she remains optimistic that the Fiserv Forum will reopen and that she will one day be mixing drinks for Bucks fans again.

“I do believe things will go back,” said Harmon, 39.

In New York, Bill Zanker is also envisioning a comeback after being forced to close his luxury gym, Grit Bxng. He’s raising money to launch an at-home fitness business in the fall, which will mean eventually hiring to support a online business, including customer service and supply specialists.

Still, Zanker is hopeful that his Manhattan gym, known for its cocktail bar and backed by billionaire Tony Robbins and others, will eventually come roaring back . B efore the pandemic forced its closure, Zanker said, classes would be booked for the entire week within two hours each Monday morning. With the bar

typically packed, he had been on the verge of opening a second location.

“There is so much pent-up demand,” Zanker said. “People after class are going to want to hang out and socialize. It’s like after Prohibition: Party like there’s no tomorrow.”

However things shake out, the pandemic disruption to the job market will likely require millions of workers to find new careers. Reviewing the job outlook in eight major economies, McKinsey estimated that 100 million workers—1 in 16—will need to change occupations by 2030. In the United States, McKinsey concluded, workers who will need retraining are most likely to have a lost low-income job and to be Black, Hispanic or female.

“You can take people in these unskilled positions and teach them,’’ said Susan Lund, an author of the consultancy’s report on the jobs of the future. But in the United States, she said, “the problem is, we have not scaled it up. We do not a have a national program to do it.’’

The US spends a fraction of what other rich countries do on programs that are designed to help workers make career transitions. And a bewildering web of employment and training programs often leaves workers confused. The programs tend to focus on helping laid-off factory workers—not the unemployed chefs and sales clerks who are likely to be most in need in the pandemic’s aftermath.

“We make people jump through insane hoops just to get advice on getting a new job,” said Annelies Goger, who studies training programs as a fellow at the Brookings Institution. “We make it extremely challenging.”

In a paper last year, David Autor and Elisabeth Reynolds of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology warned that dwindling demand for low-paid workers without college degrees won’t coincide with job opportunities for “these same workers in middle-paid jobs...

“Those displaced may suffer significant hardship as they seek new work, potentially in occupations where they have no experience or training,” they wrote

Wiseman reported from Washington, Olson from New York. AP writers David McHugh in Frankfurt, Germany; Frances D’Emilio and Maria Grazia Murru in Rome; Joe McDonald and Yu Bing in Beijing; Zen Soo in Hong Kong; Chen Si in Shanghai; Sam Magdy in Cairo; Sam Metz in Carson City, Nevada; and Fabiola Sánchez in Mexico City also contributed to this report.

Journey

»life on the go

A4

BusinessMirror

Sunday, March 21, 2021

Editor: Tet Andolong

Journey to a waterworld wonder

Sarangani Bay

T

By Bernard L. Supetran

o beach bums, this body of water is the “Boracay of Mindanao” no less with its sun, sea and sand almost whole year round.

Host to the country’s biggest beach party held every summer, it was among Asia’s Top 50 Beaches in 2018 in the prestigious Australia-based Flight Network.

Embraced by General Santos City and six coastal municipalities of Sarangani, its 230-km coastline is a hive of watersports, family recreation, scuba diving, and fishing, among others.

But for those who look beneath its powdery sand, quite literally, Sarangani Bay is one of the archipelago’s richest yet one of the lesser-known seas, whose wonders are more than meets the eyes. This month, it is marking the silver year of its declaration as a Protected Seascape because of its remarkable marine biodiversity.

The 25-year journey began on March 5, 1996 when then-President Fidel Ramos signed Presidential Proclamation 756 to protect the bay’s aquatic resources.

The 215,950-hectare bay was subsequently listed by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources as a Key Marine Biodiversity Area because of its coral resources covering 2,293 hectares, 60 important live hard coral genera, 411 reef species, and 11 species of seagrass.

It is also a rich fishing ground, being the breeding ground of arguably the tastiest tuna which has tickled the world’s palate and has catapulted General Santos

City to being the globe’s “tuna capital.”

Various species of dolphins, killer whales, dwarf and pygmy sperm whales have been spotted by the DENR’s periodic monitoring in recent years, attesting to the health of the bay. Last year’s lockdown which drastically limited human activity in the bay has also greatly contributed to the growth of animal life, which can be seen both at the surface and under water.

To mark the 25th anniversary of the Sarangani Bay Protected Seascape, more than 500 bikers rode from General Santos City and planted various species of mangrove propagules in mangrove forests in the coastal towns of Alabel, Malapatan and Glan.

Dubbed Bike and Plant Activity, the 60-km ride pedaled through the alluring countryside of Sarangani to raise public awareness on the need to protect and conserve the bay’s ecosystem.

The town of Glan takes pride in being home to several whitesand shores and scenic coves, particularly the mile-long Gumasa Beach which lure sun worshipers and food trippers from all over the south. It is also the site of the

Bikers plant mangroves at Sarangani Bay.

Dive assessment at Sarangani Bay

Bikers at Sarangani Bay

Pilot whales at Sarangani Bay

Sarangani Bay (SarBay) Festival, a three-day extravaganza which fuses wellness, sports, entertainment, and wraps up with environmental awareness activities such as underwater cleanups, mangrove planting, and release of fish fingerlings, on top of the round-theclock cleanup for the duration of the event.

But because of the prevailing health crisis, beach lovers will be missing the sought-after beach party for the second straight year. Guests can frolic in the bay and frolic in its crystalline water,

though, under health and safety measures prescribed by the municipal government.

According to Sarangani Governor Steve Solon, the biodiversityrich bay abounds in various species of fish, corals, mangroves, seagrasses, and marine mammals, and there’s a need to safeguard it in the next 25 years and beyond.

As vice chairperson of the SBPS Board, he has pledged the support of the provincial government to the initiatives to ensure the bay’s sustainability.

A licensed open water diver, he

has also worked for the Department of Tourism’s declaration of the bay as the scuba diving capital of the Soccsksargen region to boost its emerging dive tourism sector.

The Maasim and Kiamba sections of the bay boast of some of the under-the-radar dive spots with their amazing assemblage of coraline and aquatic life.

While celebratory events have been low-key due to the obtaining pandemic, the message of nurturing the marine resource was never diluted among the stakeholders who consider the bay their source

of livelihood, sustenance, and collective pride as communities.

To conclude the celebration, the 68 barangays along the protected seascape held a simultaneous coastal cleanup to rid the shores of solid wastes that will find their way to the sea.

With its lush life under the sea, the enchanting shores on the surface, and colorful cultural communities in between, Sarangani Bay is the proverbial “pound-for-pound” champion among archipelago’s bodies of water.

Science

BusinessMirror

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

Sunday

Sunday, March 21, 2021 A5

DOST-PAGASA installs 40 lightning detection, automated weather stations for quick forecast

F

orty lightning-detecting automated weather stations (AWS) were installed all over Metro Manila and in select regional Observation and Weather Stations of the Department of Science and Technology-Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (DOST-Pagasa).

The AWS will provide research data to determine the relationship of lightning strikes and torrential rainfall to put together a forecast method to predict the weather at a shorter time period, said a new release from DOST-PCIEERD. The lightning detection AWS called P-Poteka and its variation

V-Poteka were installed under the project “Understanding Lightning and Thunderstorms for Extreme Weather Monitoring and Information Sharing.”

It i s i mple me nte d b y t he DOST-A dva nced Sc ience a nd Technology (DOST-ASTI) with co-implementing partners from

Filipino rice scientist appointed UN Food Systems Champion

D

r. Glenn B. Gregorio, a plant breeder researcher and direc tor of the Philippines-hosted, Los Baños-based Southeast Asian Regional Center for Graduate Study and Research in Agriculture (Searca), has been appointed as one of the new Champions of the United Nations (UN) Food Systems Summit 2021.

Expected to be held in September, the UN Food Systems Summit aims to raise awareness on the centrality of food system to the entire sustainable development agenda and draw attention to the urgency of transforming food systems, particularly in light of the Covid-19 pandemic, a Searca news release said.

According to the UN, “the Champions Network mobilizes a diverse range of people in ever y region of the world to call for fundamental transformation of the world’s food systems. Champions are leaders of institutions a n d n e t wo r k s a d v a n c i n g f o o d s y s t e m s transformation and thought leadership.”

Having bred rice varieties for tolerance to saline -prone and problem soils at the International Rice Research Institute for 29 years prior to joining Searca in 2019, Gregorio brings with him his experience and leadership in the transformation of foods systems both in the education and research contexts within Southeast Asia.

He ensures that Searca’s effor ts align with those of other global, regional, and national organizations toward contributing to the achievement of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

G regorio said being a Food Systems Champion “aligns well with Searca’s mandate and its focus on accelerating transformation through agricultural innovation, while pursuing the SDGs by strengthening academe-industrygovernment interconnectivity.

Searca is currently working on reinforcing transformative change in agricultural food systems through various initiatives with its partners. Such efforts include developing a digital agriculture platform to provide farmers with real-time farm management technical support and access to modern markets.

Dr. Glenn B. Gregorio Together with the Economic Research Institute for Asean and East Asia, Searca is also developing the Asean Guidelines that will outline conditions and actions needed for the inclusive and sustainable use of digital technologies for agriculture and food system improvements.

Gregorio said becoming a Food Systems Champion will “give us more opportunity to work with like -minded organizations and individuals towards the same goal of achieving the SDGs and food security.”

A s p a r t o f t h e Ch a m p i o n s Ne t wo r k , he commits to contribute to substantive discussions, generate ideas, and take action to s t re n g t h e n f o o d s y s te m s, a n d s h a re information to ensure anyone with an interest in food systems at all levels can engage with the Summit.

Gregorio is also a professor at the University of the Philippines Los B años-College of Agriculture and Food Science, and Academician at the National Academy of Science and Technology Philippines.

Moreover, he is president of the Society for the Advancement of Breeding Research in Asia and Oceania until 2023, and the chairman of the Commission on Higher Education Technical Panel for Agriculture until 2024.

P-Poteka automated weather systems at E. Library Technological College, Pateros. DOST-ASTI

the DOST-Pagasa and UP-Institute of Environment Science and Meteorology (UP-IESM).

The project is a collaboration between DOST-ASTI and Hokkaido University as an official

development assisted project from the Japan International Cooperation Agenc y, through the Science and Technology Research Partnership for Sustainable Development Program.

The research partnership aims to foster educational exchange, develop local expertise and aid in establishing the infrastructure for the research.

“In the case of the Philippines, where numerous year-round thunderstorms are experienced, the integration of lightning data has the potential to provide short-term forecasts, spur meteorological studies, and benefit the community in creating disaster response strategies,” said PCIEERD Executive Director Dr. Enrico Paringit.

The Poteka is a system of sensors comprised of either a plate lightning sensor (P-Poteka) or very low frequency antenna (VPoteka), rain gauge tipping bucket and weather sensor.

The weather data is received, analyzed and processed as inputs to formulate “nowcasting” technique that may complement methods used by the DOST-Pagasa to predict weather conditions in a shorter time span.

Experts from DOST-Pagasa have initiated the assessment on station distribution in some parts of Metro Manila and its sensor exposure in order to optimize the collection of weather data based on the World Meteorological World Organization standard.

This will ensure that the information meets the standards for weather forecast.

Me a nw h i l e , t he U P - I E S M delves deeper into the behavior of thunderclouds during harsh weather conditions using various weather collecting devices, such cloud particle sondes, radiosondes, Diwata and Himawari-8 satellites to characterize thunderclouds during extreme weather conditions.

Combining these studies will then be related to formulate the short-term forecast.

The project has provided realtime readings from the stations that can be accessed at http://philsensors.asti.dost.gov.ph.

Maya-2 cubes released to space from ISS T

h e Philippines’ second cube satellite (cubesat), Maya 2, was released to space from the International Space Station (ISS) recently.

This followed its launch to the space station aboard a Cygnus NG-15 rocket (S.S. Katherine Johnson) on February 21 together with cubesats Tsuru of Japan and GuaraniSat-1 of Paraguay, said a news release from Stamina4Space.

The three nanosatellites were designed and developed under the Fourth Joint Global MultiNation Birds Satellite (Birds-4) Project of the Kyushu Institute of Technology (Kyutech) in Japan.

Th e i r p ri m a r y p u rp o s e i s te c h n o l o g y demonstration, from which the learnings will be used as an educational platform.

The three Filipino engineers who made Maya-2 were sent to Kyutech by the Department of Science and Technology’s Science Education Institute (DOST-SEI) to pursue doctoral degrees as part of a scholarship program in cooperation with the Space Science and Technology Proliferation through University Partnerships (STeP-UP) Project of the Stamina4Space Program.

The Filipino engineers are Mark Angelo Cabrera Purio; Izrael Zenar Bautista, who is also the Birds-4 project manager; and Marloun Sejera.

Like its predecessor Maya-1, that was decommissioned on November 23, 2020, Maya-2 can remotely collect data using a Store-and-Forward (S&F) mechanism and capture images and videos using an on-board camera.

Its 1.3 kg frame is also equipped with an Automatic Packet Reporting System Message Digipeater (APRS-DP), attitude determination and control units for active attitude stabilization and control demonstrations, Perovskite solar cells and a Latchup-detection chip.

What’s next for Maya-2 in space?

“Right now we hope to execute all our missions with the help of other Birds ground stations around the world so that we could utilize the satellites to their full extent,” said Bautista.

For his part, Sejera said that the team is now preparing for the operations, which includes satellite health monitoring and mission execution.

With Maya-2 being the Philippines’ fourth successful attempt to send a small satellite to space—the other two are Diwata-1 and Diwata-2—in collaboration with Japan, this new

the things I learned in Kyutech and apply it for the future satellites that our country will build. A startup relating to satellites or my research is also one that I’m looking into,” he said.

He also plans to continue what he has learned in Japan in the research in Perovskite solar cells to satellite systems engineering, to help provide meaningful output for the Philippines.

‘Feels proud’ Screenshot of the Birds-4 CubeSats Maya-2 of the Philippines, and cubesats Tsuru of Japan and GuaraniSat-1 of Paraguay being deployed from the ISS on March 14. From JAXA livestream milestone continues to nurture the longstanding partnership between the two nations.

“As the principal investigator of the Birds program, I am very happy to see Maya-2 deployed from the ISS,” said Birds Project Principal Investigator Dr. Mengu Cho. Cho highlighted the Birds Project’s goal to foster human resources to initiate indigenous space programs in nonspace faring countries.

“After seeing the infant space programs in many countries, I can say that the Philippines is one of the best examples of a success story,” Cho said.

“For Maya-2, three students from the Philippines are engaged and play key roles in the entire Birds-4 project. I am sure that they can be an important asset to the future Philippine space program. So far, I have supervised five Philippine students under the Birds program and have been always satisfied with their talents and sincereness to study,” Cho added.

Kyutech Assistant Prof. George Maeda shared the same sentiments.

“Of all the Birds partners, none is more serious about developing in-country ‘human resources’ than the Philippines. Before you can make a spacecraft, you have to train engineers who know how to make them. The point is understood in your country,” Maeda said.

He added, “One more thing that is immensely impressive, you have propagated more capacity building through Birds-2S and Birds-4S [locally developed cubesats under the nanosatellite engineering track in EEEI UPD, or the Electrical and

Electronics Engineering Institute at the University of the Philippines Diliman.]”

This means, he pointed out, “the ‘Birds concept’ is replicated inside of the Philippines. The fruit of knowledge acquired at Kyutech is taken to the Philippines and then applied to help others.»

This “’multiplication of knowledge’” is precisely what we want to occur. This is what education is all about. It means to spread knowledge. Replace darkness with light on a broad scale,” Maeda pointed out.

Bring knowledge to PHL

After the scholars complete their studies, they have their eyes set on bringing to the Philippines the knowledge they gained in Japan. “[My] plan is to return to our respective institutions and carry out knowledge transfer to aspiring students in the field of science and technology,” said Sejera.

Purio agreed, saying that he also plans to return to his alma mater, Adamson University, to impart what he learned in Japan and support government projects related to this endeavor.

“Furthermore, I envision setting up our own ground station in the university to continue our efforts to support space-related activities while involving our students by providing them hands-on training,” Purio said.

As for Bautista, he hopes to contribute to the growing space industry back home.

“Maybe [I will contribute] to the Philippine Space Agency or to the academe so I could share

Farmers see bright future in rubberwood furniture making

R

ubber farmers in Zamboanga Sibugay province in Mindanao are now reaping the fruits of the rubberwood initiative led by the DOST-Forest Products Research and Development Institute (DOST-FPRDI).

Members of the Tambanan Agrarian Reform Beneficiaries Multi-Purpose Cooperative (Tarbemco) have started producing and selling furniture pieces made from old and unproductive rubberwood trees.

With clients coming initially from the province, the farmers have so far produced cabinets, chairs, tables and other home pieces.

“Zamboanga Sibugay locals are accustomed to using senile rubberwood trees

for low-value products, such as fuelwood, pallets and crates. Through the DOST-FPRDI project, they learned to make high-value products which could sell for a competitive price,” explained Engr. Victor G. Revilleza, project leader.

“Rubberwood has good qualities suitable for making furniture, packaging materials and other wooden products. It has white to pale cream color, which when dried becomes light brown. Its reasonably good strength properties make it a durable material for furniture,” he added.

In the last three years, DOST-FPRDI has conducted a series of trainings for

Tarbemco members. These include trainings on harvesting and sawmilling, rubberwood preservation and treatment, kiln drying, woodworking machine operation and maintenance, furniture making and basic finishing.

The institute also established a Rubberwood Processing Center in Naga, Zamboanga Sibugay, with a complete line of processing facilities from sawmilling to finishing.

Interested parties may contact Tarbemco Manager Jonard Ansoc at 0965-058-6690.

Juliemar V. Purificacion and Apple Jean C. Martin-de Leon/S&T Media Service

For Science Secretary Fortunato T. de la Peña, “the successful launching of Maya-2 makes me feel proud.”

“The accomplishment made possible by our young researchers and engineers should make us confident that we can do more in the area of space technology. I have high hopes that we, as a people, will be able to benefit more from developments in this area—all toward making the quality of life of our people better,” de la Peña said The Philippines is set to send more satellites to space in the near future—with Maya-3, Maya-4, Maya-5 and Maya-6 already in their respective development and testing phases.

For her part, DOST-SEI Director Dr. Josette T. Biyo said the investment made in these scholarships “are well worth it.”

“We are ecstatic over Maya-2’s successful deployment to space and incredibly proud of the DOSTSEI STeP-UP scholar-engineers behind it,” Biyo said.

“They exemplify the perseverance of Filipinos and the brilliance of our science scholars. Maya-2 proves that the country’s space program and science scholarships are investments worthy of people’s support,” Biyo added.

Philippine Space Agency (PhilSA) Director General Dr. Joel Marciano Jr. said: “Just as how computers on Earth have helped to improve our lives, satellites like Maya-2 are ‘computers in orbit’ that work for us from space.”

“With the release of Maya-2 from the ISS, the genius words of Mark Weiser, father of ubiquitous computing, resonate with renewed meaning and inspiration: ‘The most profound technologies are those that disappear. They weave themselves into the fabric of everyday life until they are indistinguishable from it.” Like Diwata-1, Maya-1 and Diwata-2 before it, Maya-2 now ‘blends’ into the background to serve and perform its mission.

Godspeed, Maya-2!”

Faith A6 Sunday, March 21, 2021

Sunday

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

‘God does not and cannot bless sin’

Vatican: Catholic Church cannot bless same-sex unions

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ATICAN—The Vatican’s doctrinal office last week clarified that the Catholic Church “does not have the power” to give liturgical blessings of homosexual unions.

Answering the question “does the Church have the power to give the blessing to unions of persons of the same sex?” the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF) responded, “negative.”

In an accompanying note, the doctrine office explained that blessings are “sacramentals.”

“Consequently, in order to conform with the nature of sacramentals, when a blessing is invoked on particular human relationships, in addition to the right intention of those who participate, it is necessary that what is blessed be objectively and positively ordered to receive and express grace, according to the designs of God inscribed in creation, and fully revealed

by Christ the Lord,” the CDF said.

“Therefore, only those realities which are in themselves ordered to serve those ends are congruent with the essence of the blessing imparted by the Church,” the CDF added.

“For this reason, it is not licit to impart a blessing on relationships, or partnerships, even stable, that involve sexual activity outside of marriage [i.e., outside the indissoluble union of a man and a woman open in itself to the transmission of life], as is the case of the unions between persons of the same sex,” according to the CDF. The ruling and note were approved for publication by Pope Francis and signed by CDF Prefect Cardinal Luis Ladaria and Secretary Archbishop Giacomo Morandi.

The CDF’s note did not state the origin of the question—known as a dubium—submitted to the doctrinal office. But it observed that “in some ecclesial contexts, plans and proposals for blessings of unions of persons of the same sex are being advanced.”

In recent years, German bishops have been increasingly outspoken

in demanding “discussions about an opening” toward acceptance of practiced homosexuality and the blessing of homosexual unions in the Church.

Following consultations in Berlin in late 2019, the chairman of the marriage and family commission of the German bishops’ conference declared that the German bishops had agreed that homosexuality was a “normal form” of human sexual identity.

The topic also plays a central role in one of four forums that constitute the controversial “Synodal Path” underway in Germany.

The CDF explained in 2003 that “the Church teaches that respect for homosexual persons cannot lead in any way to approval of homosexual behavior or to legal recognition of homosexual unions.”

In its explanatory note March 15, the Vatican said that its answer to the dubium does not deny that blessings may be given to individuals with homosexual inclinations who manifest the will to live in fidelity to Church teaching.

The ruling instead “declares illicit any form of blessing that tends to acknowledge their unions as such,” which, the CDF explained, would in this case “approve and encourage a choice and a way of life that cannot be recognized as objectively ordered to the revealed plans of God.” Sacramentals such as blessings are given in relationship with the sacraments. Therefore, blessings of same-sex unions “would constitute a certain imitation or analogue of the nuptial blessing invoked on the man and woman united in the sacrament of Matrimony,” the note said.

German bishops who have publicly voiced support for the blessing of same-sex unions in the Catholic Church include Cardinal Reinhard

Parishioners plant trees to mark 500 yrs of Christianity on Homonhon

Faith leaders get Covid-19 shot to curb vaccine reluctance

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UIUAN, Eastern Samar—A small parish in an island that is dominated by decades-old chromite mining operations led the planting of 500 native trees over the weekend to drum up care for the environment.

It was a symbolic event on March 14 on Homonhon Island off Guiuan town in Eastern Samar province as part of the celebration of the 500 years of Christianity in the Philippines.

Fr. Christian Ofilan of the St. John the Baptist Parish said it was to remind the faithful that they are God’s stewards of all creation.

“Through this we encourage and remind Christians to be responsible and to be good stewards of God’s creation,” Ofilan said. “Protecting the environment is part of the Christian message.”

More than 500 parishioners from the island’s eight villages joined the activity, with Polish Ambassador to the Philippines Jaroslaw Szczepankiewicz.

Mining operations have been ongoing in Homonhon since the early 1990s.

The Borongan Diocese has also been at the forefront in raising environmental awareness to save the island.

The island is at the center of the diocese’s jubilee celebrations because it is where Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan and his Spanish crew first landed 500 years ago.

Magellan’s expedition reached the archipelago on March 16, 1521, but docked in Homonhon only on March 17.

From March 17 to 28 that year, they took a respite on the island before proceeding to Southern Leyte’s Limasawa Island, where the first recorded Easter Mass on March 31, 1521, was held.

To commemorate the day, Bishop Crispin Varquez will lead a Mass at the St. John the Baptist Parish Church in the island’s Casuguran village.

Alren Beronio/CBCP News

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ASHINGTON—More than two dozen clergy members from the capital region rolled up their sleeves inside the Washington National Cathedral and got vaccinated against the coronavirus recently in a camerafriendly event designed to encourage others to get their own Covid-19 shots.

The interfaith “vaccine confidence” event targeted in particular Black, Latino and other communities of color, with the aim of overcoming reluctance among populations disproportionately hit by a pandemic that has killed more than a half-million people in the country.

“Over 50 percent of all cases and almost half of all deaths are in persons of African American, Latino or Hispanic background, American Indian and Pacific Islanders,” said Dr. Eliseo Pérez-Stable, director of the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities.

“Now, much has been said about, ‘Well, the risk is greater because there’s more disease, more diabetes, more obesity, more heart disease,’” Pérez-Stable said. “But the reality is that the infections are more likely because people live in more crowded conditions. They work in jobs that do not allow the privilege of teleworking. They cannot self-isolate at home.”

Following a moment of prayer for Covid-19 victims, the socially distanced attendees applauded when the Rev. Patricia Hailes Fears from Fellowship Baptist Church pulled back the upper arm of her Roman collar shirt and became the first one present to be inoculated.

A succession of faith leaders then took turns walking to tables to get jabbed by doctors in white

In this October 18, 2014, photo Rome’s Mayor Ignazio Marino (center) is flanked by Costanza Tantillo (left) and Monia Di Giuseppe (right) after he registered their gay marriage, in Rome. AP/Andrew Medichini Marx of Munich and Freising, Bishop Georg Bätzing of Limburg, Bishop Franz-Josef Bode of Osnabrück, and Bishop Heinrich Timmerervers of Dresden-Meißen.

Bätzing, the president of the German bishops’ conference, in December 2020 called for changes to the section on homosexuality in the Catechism of the Catholic Church.

Expressing openness to blessings of homosexual unions, he said, “we need solutions for this.”

On February 23, Bishop Peter Kohlgraf of Mainz defended his support for a book of blessings and rites for homosexual unions.

The book followed a May 2020 publication from Austria about how same-sex couples might receive a formal, liturgical blessing.

Kohlgraf suggested that Catholics with homosexual inclinations cannot all be expected to live chastely.

The CDF noted that proposals for blessings of same-sex unions were often motivated by a sincere desire to welcome and accompany homosexual people in the faith, and encouraged prayer and participation in the liturgy to sustain the commitment “to adhere with freedom and responsibility to one’s baptismal call, because ‘God loves every person and the Church does the same,’ rejecting all unjust discrimination.”

Quoting Pope Francis’s apostolic exhortation Amoris laetitia, the doctrinal office said that, even if there is the presence of positive elements

coats at the cathedral, which has hosted national prayer services for the inauguration of several US presidents as well as state funerals.

Melissa Rogers, executive director of the White House Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships, said working with faith communities is vital to the vaccination effort because many people are more comfortable getting their shot in a house of worship, and religious leaders are among the most trusted leaders in their communities.

Dr. Anthony Fauci, the government’s leading infectious-disease scientist and the public face of the nation’s fight against Covid-19, said that the vaccines have been extensively tested and are trustworthy.

He also sought to debunk some myths and misperceptions around the vaccines, such as that they supposedly could alter a person’s DNA or be a vehicle for implanting microchips for surveillance.

“We often get asked, can you get Covid-19 from the vaccine? ... It is impossible to get Covid-19 from the vaccine,” Fauci said, sporting a gray face mask with drawings of laboratory beakers.

The vaccine campaign that has already reached tens of millions across the country has come “with no significant adverse events,” he added.

Fauci has estimated that somewhere between 70 percent and 85 percent of the US population needs to get inoculated to stop the scourge in the country.

The coronavirus has killed Black and Hispanic Americans at disproportionate rates compared with their relative populations, according to the data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

in same-sex relationships, “‘there are absolutely no grounds for considering homosexual unions to be in any way similar or even remotely analogous to God’s plan for marriage and family.’”

It said: “The Church recalls that God Himself never ceases to bless each of His pilgrim children in this world, because for Him ‘we are more important to God than all of the sins that we can commit.’”

“But He does not and cannot bless sin: He blesses sinful man, so that he may recognize that he is part of His plan of love and allow himself to be changed by Him,” it continued. “He, in fact, ‘takes us as we are, but never leaves us as we are.’”

“For the above-mentioned reasons, the Church does not have, and cannot have, the power to bless unions of persons of the same sex in the sense intended above,” the CDF note concluded.

The call for liturgical blessings of same-sex unions is part of a wider push by some German bishops to change the Church’s teaching on a number of issues, including on the sacraments of priestly ordination and marriage.

CNA Deutsch, CNA’s German partner agency, reported that Bätzing has suggested that the Vatican Synod of Bishops on synodality, scheduled for October 2022, could help implement German “Synodal Way” resolutions not only in Germany but throughout the Catholic Church. Hannah Brockhaus/ Catholic News Agency via CBCP News

In Washington, Black residents account for a little under half the population but nearly threefourths of Covid-19 deaths.

Th e D i s t ri c t o f Co l u m b i a h a s o f f e re d vaccinations to residents over 65, but numbers show that older Americans in neighborhoods with some of the highest concentrations of poor and Black people are lagging behind.

Officials blame, in part, historic distrust of the medical establishment, especially among Black older Americans who vividly recall medical exploitation horrors, such as the Tuskegee syphilis medical study in which hundreds of impoverished rural Black men were allowed to suffer from syphilis with minimal treatment for decades.

Many Latinos face barriers in getting the shot due to factors, such as lack of knowledge about the vaccines and government web sites that don’t have Spanish-language instructions.

Fear of deportation can also be a deterring factor for those in the country without permission. “ U n f o r t u n ate ly m a ny w h o co u l d m o s t benefit because they are at highest risk of serious and even life-threatening infections are still holding back, worried about stories they hear, skeptical, unimpressed by how government has previously shown interest in their medical care,” said Dr. Francis Collins, director of the National Institutes of Health.

“The church can play a leading role by educating, modeling and encouraging that there is nothing to fear here and there’s much to be gained,” Collins said. “That’s what we are here to do today. Houses of worship are houses of hope.” AP

List of Jubilee Churches for the celebration of the 500 Years of Christianity in PHL Continuation

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he country’s 85 dioceses have listed 537 pilgrimage Jubilee Churches for the quincentennial celebration of the evangelization of the Philippines, Asia’s bastion of Christianity.

Based on Pope Francis’s recent decree, the faithful can receive plenary indulgence when they make a devotional pilgrimage to one of the designated Jubilee Churches until April 22, 2022.

When the faithful make the pilgrimage, they have to meet the usual conditions of going to confession, receiving the Eucharist, and praying for the intentions of the pope.

Pilgrims are also asked to pray “for the fidelity of the Filipino people to their Christian calling, for the increase of priestly and religious vocations and for the defense of the family, concluding with the Lord’s Prayer, the profession of faith, and an invocation to the Blessed Virgin Mary”.

An indulgence is the remission of the temporal punishment due to sins, which have already been forgiven.

Diocese of Catarman

1. Our Lady of the Annunciation Cathedral Church (Catarman, N. Samar) 2. Diocesan Shrine of Nuestra Padre Jesus Nazareno (Brgy. Cawayan Catarman, N. Samar) 3. St. Michael the Archangel Parish Church (Laoang, N. Samar) 4. St. James the Greater Parish Church (Allen, N. Samar) 5. Our Lady of the Assumption Parish Church (Palapag, N. Samar)

Archdiocese of Cebu

1. Cebu Metropolitan Cathedral 2. Sts. Peter and Paul Parish (Bantayan, Bantayan Island) 3. San Nicolas Parish, Cebu City 4. St. Catherine de Alexandria Parish (Carcar City) 5. Patrocinio de Maria Parish (Boljoon) 6. St. Anne Parish (Barili) 7. National Shrine of St. Joseph (Mandaue City) 8. San Guillermo de Aquitana Parish (Dalaguete) 9. St. Michael the Archangel Parish (Argao) 10. Sto. Tomas de Villanueva Parish (Danao City) 11. St. Vincent Ferrer Parish (Bogo City) 12. St. Francis of Assisi Parish (Balamban) 13. National Shrine of Our Lady of Rule (Lapu-lapu City)

Archdiocese of Cotabato 1. Immaculate Conception Cathedral (Cotabato City) 2. Nuestra Señora de Candelaria (Tacurong City, Sultan Kudarat) 3. Queenship of Mary Parish (Lebak, Sultan Kudarat) 4. San Blas Parish (Pigcawayan, Maguindanao)

Diocese of Cubao

1. Immaculate Conception Cathedral of Cubao (Lantana St., Cubao, Quezon City) 2. Basilica Minore de Santuario de San Pedro Bautista (SFDM, Quezon City) 3. Minor Basilica of the National Shrine of Our Lady of Mt. Carmel (Broadway Avenue, New Manila, Quezon City) 4. Diocesan Shrine of St. Joseph (Aurora Boulevard, Project 3, Quezon City) 5. Sto. Domingo Parish (Quezon Avenue, Quezon City) 6. Sta. Rita de Cascia Parish (Philam Homes, Quezon City) 7. Sto. Niño Parish Shrine (Bukidnon Street, Bago Bantay, Quezon City) 8. Christ the King Parish (Greenmeadows Avenue, Quezon City) 9. Parish of the Holy Sacrifice (UP Campus, Diliman, Quezon City)

Diocese of Daet

1. Cathedral of the Most Holy Trinity (Daet, Camarines Norte) 2. Parroquia de San Juan Bautista (Daet, Camarines Norte) 3. Parroquia de San Pedro Apostol (Vinzons, Camarines Norte) 4. Parroquia de Nuestra Señora de Candelaria (Paracale, Camarines Norte) 5. Parish of San Lorenzo Ruiz (San Lorenzo Ruiz, Camarines Norte) 6. Diocesan Shrine of St. Anthony of Padua

(Mercedes, Camarines Norte) 7. Diocesan Shrine of Jesus, the Black Nazarene (Capalonga, Camarines Norte)

Archdiocese of Davao

1. San Pedro Apostol Cathedral (Cathedral of the Archdiocese of Davao) 2. St. Jude Parish Shrine (One of the oldest parish churches in the Archdiocese, a diocesan shrine and a popular destination of devotees) 3. Sta. Ana Parish Shrine (One of the oldest parish churches in the Archdiocese, a diocesan shrine and a popular destination of devotees) 4. Sto. Rosario Parish Church (One of the oldest parish churches, located in the far south of the Archdiocese) 5. Most Sacred Heart of Jesus Parish Church (Calinan) 6. St. James Parish Church (An old parish church located in the far north of the Archdiocese) 7. Immaculate Conception Parish Church (Peñaplata)

Diocese of Digos

1. Sto. Rosario Parish (Malita, Davao Occidental) 2. St. Joseph the Worker Church (Sta. Cruz, Davao del Sur) 3. San Isidro Labrador Parish (Daigos City, Davao del Sur) 4. Immaculate Conception Parish (Bansalan, Davao del Sur) 5. St. Michael Parish (Padada, Davao del Sur)

Diocese of Dipolog

1. Our Lady of the Most Holy Rosary Cathedral (Dipolog City) 2. St. James the Greater Parish Church (Dapitan City) 3. St. Joseph the Worker Parish Church (Sindangan, Zamboanga del Norte)

Diocese of Dumaguete

1. St. Catherine of Alexandria Cathedral Parish (Dumaguete City, Negros Oriental) 2. St. Anthony of Padua Parish (Sibulan, Negros Oriental) 3. St. James the Greater Parish (Tanjay City, Negros Oriental) 4. Holy Child Parish (Jimalalud, Negros Oriental) 5. St. Nicholas of Tolentino Parish (Dauin, Negros Oriental) 6. St. Nicholas of Bari Parish (Siaton, Negros Oriental) 7. St. Thomas of Villanueva Parish (Bayawan City, Negros Oriental) 8. St. Francis of Assisi Parish (Siquijor, Siquijor) 9. St. Joseph the Worker Parish (San Jose, Negros Oriental)

Diocese of Gumaca

1. San Diego de Alcala Cathedral Parish Church (Gumaca, Quezon) 2. Immaculate Conception Parish Church (Catanauan, Quezon) 3. Our Lady of Mount Carmel Parish Church (Alabat, Quezon) 4. St. Peter the Apostle Parish Church (Calauag, Quezon)

Diocese of Iba

1. St. Michael the Archangel Parish (Sta. Cruz, Zambales) 2. San Andres Parish (Masinloc, Zambales) 3. St. Augustine Cathedral Parish (Iba, Zambales) 4. Ina Poonbato Chapel (Botolan, Zambales) 5. St. James Parish (Subic, Zambales) 6. St. Joseph Parish (Olongapo City) 7. San Roque Chapel (Subic Bay, Olongapo City)

Diocese of Ilagan

1. St. Michael Cathedral (Upi, Gamu, Isabela) 2. Immaculate Conception Parish Church (Cabagan, Isabela) 3. Our Lady of the Pillar Parish Church (Cauayan City, Isabela) 4. St. Joseph Parish Church (Echague, Isabela) 5. Our Lady of La Salette Parish Church (Roxas, Isabela) 6. St. Ferdinand Parish Church (Ilagan City, Isabela)

To be continued

Biodiversity Sunday BusinessMirror

Asean Champions of Biodiversity Media Category 2014

Editor: Lyn Resurreccion

Sunday, March 21, 2021

A7

A look at wildlife farming in PHL

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By Jonathan L. Mayuga

he Convention on International Trade on Endangered Species (CITES) recently published data for 2019 based on reports of countries in compliance with the international treaty.

Based on the trade data, the Philippines reported the export of 1,053 captive-bred long-tailed macaques for biomed ica l research to the United States.

The significant increase in the number of exported live monkeys from 140 in 2018 to 1,053 in 2019, a year before the global pandemic, did not escape the attention of animal rights group Action for Primates (AP).

“Prior to 2018, the last recorded export of long-tailed macaques was in 2015 when the Philippines recorded 676, again to Japan,” Sarah Kite, the spokesman for Action for Primates told the BusinessMirror via e-mail on March 3.

Appeal to authorities

AP has been appealing to countries like the Philippines not to allow the capture of wild long-tailed macaques for captive breeding and eventually, export of their progenies.

Kite said: “The large increase in the number of long-tailed macaques exported from the Philippines for research purposes during 2019 is alarming. It represents greater than a seven-fold increase over the previous year,” Kite said.

She added that there are inc rea sing concer ns about t he conservation status of this species “which is now considered to be vulnerable, including in the Philippines.”

Because of the “lack of accurate information” on the macaque population in the Philippines, “it is important that the DENR do not allow the capture of macaques from the wild to supply breeding farms,” Kite said.

The group believes that the number of long-tailed macaques exported from the Philippines during 2020 may be even greater.

Although the data have not yet been released, there has been a reported increase in the demand for long-tailed macaques for research purposes, including for Covid-19, Kite said.

This, together with a ban on the export of macaques from China, the largest supplier of monkeys to the US, has apparently caused the research industry to turn to other countries, such as the Phil-

ippines, to meet the demand for the animals.

“Our concern is not only for the conservation status of the long-tailed macaque, but also for the extreme suffering and death to which the intelligent and sentient animal will unquestionably be subjected to,” she lamented.

Wildlife farming

The Philippines, through the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) and its Biodiversity Management Bureau (BMB), issues wildlife collector’s permits for various purposes, such as scientific research and captivebreeding in wildlife farms.

Besides monkeys, the Philippines is known to farm other wildlife, such as saltwater crocodiles, an industry which is slowly taking off.

According to the DENR-BMB, other wild animals being farmed in the Philippines are local and exotic parrots, butterfly, hornbill, macaw, cockatoos, lovebird, and exotic reptiles, such as snakes, turtles and tortoise.

Rationale

Amelita D.J. Ortiz, acting director of the DENR-BMB, cited several reasons on why wildlife farming in the Philippines is being allowed.

It aims to promote sustainable use of resources and to reduce the pressure of hunting/poaching on the wild population, thereby preventing the decimation of the natural population of wildlife species.

More importantly, the DENRBMB believes that wildlife is consistent with the DENR’s mandate to promote the socio-economic well-being of Filipinos.

The DENR-BMB chief believes that wildlife farms could serve as a source of captive-bred animals for the enhancement of the natural population of species with low numbers through the introduction, reintroduction and restocking in the wild. ” Wi ld l ife fa r m ing , t hrough appropr i ate fa r m ing tec hnolog y, is a legitimate strateg y for conser v ing w i ld l ife, en ha ncing r u ra l l ivel i hood s, a nd in-

Hunted in the wild, crocodiles and monkeys are now “thriving” in wildlife farms in the Philippines. The population of saltwater crocodiles like this from the province of Palawan and long-tailed macaques like this in the forests of Tawi-Tawi was on the decline prompting the introduction of wildlife farming of the species.

Farming monkeys in the Philippines started in 1984, while farming crocodiles began in 1987. Gregg Yan

creasing food access,” she said.

In commercial breeding, she pointed out, only progenies of the species can be used for commercial purposes, which include the sale of skin, meat and other products derived from the animals being farmed.

Historical, legal basis

According to the DENR-BMB, while it cannot be ascertained when the wildlife farming begun in the Philippines, it can be safely assumed that attempt to farm wild animals commonly hunted for food happened way back, offering as proof the domestic animal collection, such as native chicken and native pigs which parental origin can be traced from Philippine wild animals.

T he reg u lation of w i ld life farming was instituted in 1983, when t he Ph i l ippi nes joi ned CITES, which encourages member countries to promote it as source of stock for the international trade.

A year later, farming for longtailed macaques began.

In 1987 the Crocodile Farming Inst it ute, l ater rena med as the Palawan Wildlife Rescue and Conser vation Center (PWRCC), was established by the DENR in cooperation with the government of Japan, the DENR-BMB said.

The establishment of PWRCC aims to prevent the further decline of two naturally occurring species of crocodiles in the Phillippines— the saltwater crocodile and the endemic Philippine or Mindoro crocodile.

Authorized selling

Because of the success of crocodile farming, DENR Administrative Order 99-45 dated November 5, 1999, authorized the PWRCC to sell captive-bred saltwater crocodiles to qualified individuals or private entities to use as stocks for leather industry, direct trade and commercial breeding purposes.

The concerned DENR regional offices conduct quarterly monitor-

ing of the wildlife farms within their jurisdiction.

As a policy, captive animals, both the parental stock and progenies, are properly marked. In some, tail cutting, or tattooing, is used.

Some are embedded with microchips, while others have leg bands.

Section 17 of Republic Act 9147, or the Wildlife Act, and its Implementing Rules and Regulation state that only progenies or captive-bred animals are allowed for trade.

The DENR-BMB also requires wildlife farm-permit holders to submit a production report, which serves as reference for the processing of wildlife export-permit applications.

Arresting declining populations

According to the DENR-BMB, as far as farming monkeys and crocodiles are concerned, wildlife farming serves its purpose well.

Since 1994, after policies were issued prohibiting the collection of animals in the wild, the trade in monkeys was limited to captivebreeding. The measure was in response to the decrease in wild population.

Only a limited number of wild individuals was allowed for collection for use as parental stocks, Ortiz said.

But before this policy, the Philippines was a major exporter of monkeys, supplying half of the global demand for monkeys estimated at 40,000 primates, mostly long-tailed macaques.

According to Ortiz, in 2004, the long-tai led macaque was assessed as near-threatened, c it i ng DENR A d m i n i st rat ive Order 2004-15.

“After more than a decade of regulated removal from the wild, the recent assessment [DAO 2019-09] delisted the long-tailed macaque from the national list of threatened species,” she said.

The DENR- BMB is currently receiving reports of increasing incidence of monkey proliferation and infestation in certain localities in the countr y.

Finally, Ortiz said that farming

or commercial breeding of monkeys and crocodiles have contributed to arresting the decline of the population of the two species in the wild.

“Instead of collecting wild individuals for direct trade, the collected individuals are used instead for parental stocks and only progenies produced in the farms are traded,” she said.

In the case of crocodiles, specifically the Philippine crocodile, several of its progenies have been released into the wild several years back.

The DENR-BMB cited the release of 36 progenies of the Philippine crocodile from a crocodile farm in Davao in the Paghungawan Marsh on Siargao Island in March 2013. Another 29 were released in the same area in June 2017.

Croc farms

There are currently eight crocodile farms in the Philippines, six of which comprise the Crocodylus Porosus Philippines Inc., a nonstock, nonprofit env ironment nongovernment organization (NGO).

The Philippines is exporting crocodile skins since 2008 to Singapore from these farms.

Crocod i le meat, f resh and processed, are now being sold in select stores in areas with crocodile farms, particularly in Palawan, the home of the first crocodile farm in the Philippines, the PWRCC. As of 2020, about 30,000 raw crocodile skins, the primary product of crocodile farming, were exported, DENR-BMB record show.

Economic opportunity

Ortiz believes that the profitability of a wildlife farm is dictated by demand, citing the case of the monkey trade. W hen the global demand for decreased, t he c losure of some monkey farms ensued.

There are currently two operating monkey farms, DENR-BMB records show. One of the farms have over 2,000 monkeys, including breeders and progenies.

Maynilad receives ‘Utility of the Future’ citation from WB

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he World Bank recognized the Maynilad Water Services Inc. (Maynilad) recently for its commitment to become a Utility of the Future (UoF).

The citation reads: “A futurefocused utility which provides reliable, safe, inclusive, transparent, and responsive water supply and sanitation services through best-fit

practices that allow it to operate in an efficient, resilient, and sustainable manner.”

The World Bank created the UoF diagnostic tool and actionplanning methodology to help utilities assess their service, including the development of an immediate 100-day action plan to help them overcome challenges and achieve the Sustainable Development Goals.

Maynilad has been participating in the program since August 2020, joined by nine other water and wastewater companies from eight countries, a Maynilad news release said.

Based on the UoF assessment, Maynilad ranked as “Utility of the Future” in one program criterion; as “WorldClass” in seven criteria, and as

“Well-Performing” in two other criteria.

Performance and maturity were measured in organization and strategy, human resources and financial management, and technical and commercial operations.

Service was also assessed in areas of reliability, safety, inclusiveness, transparency and responsibility.

Maynilad Chief Operations Officer Randolph T. Estrellado holds the certificate of citation given by the World Bank in recognition of its commitment to become a Utility of the Future (UoF).

Mea nwh i le, ot her w i ld l ife farms for birds and plants, such as orchids, and crocodiles have been in business for decades, the DENR-BMB chief said, indicating that the demand for wildlife and their products is sufficient to keep wildlife farms in operation and profitable.

However, Ortiz believes that the profitability of wildlife farming could be undermined by the illegal wildlife trade.

“The illegal wildlife trade robs wildlife farm operators and legal traders profit by taking a substantial share in the global demand for wildlife products,” she said.

Wildlife laundering

How ever, Emerson Y. Sy, a wildlife trafficking specialist of the nongovernment group Traffic, believes wildlife farming is basically an economic activity and has no or little contribution to wildlife conser vation.

“The primary objective of such facilities [wildlife farms] is ‘profit’ and not for the conservation and welfare of wildlife,” Sy said via Messenger on March 8.

For monkey farming, he said the objective is mainly for export as a laborator y animal and that there is no conser vation aspect in the enter prise.

Sy s a id t he DEN R shou ld look deeper into the operation of wildlife farms and strictly monitor their activities because they can also be used in “wildlife laundering.”

Wildlife laundering happens when wild-caught animals are presented as progenies or animals bred-in captivity, when in fact their origin can be highly dubious, or worse, are actually wild-caught animals using legal export permits as a shield against wildlife trafficking laws Wildlife farms, he added, can also be buyers of wild-caught animals for the purpose of adding parental stocks to their current number of breeders.

“The DENR should look into it because it has significant implications,” he said.

Sports BusinessMirror

A8 | S

unday, March 21, 2021 mirror_sports@yahoo.com.ph Editor: Jun Lomibao

CURRY HONORED FOR ADVOCACY S

AN FRANCISCO—Golden State Warriors star Stephen Curry’s tireless work off the basketball court campaigning for social justice, supporting women’s causes and even interviewing Dr. Anthony Fauci about the coronavirus pandemic is drawing acclaim from civil rights leaders.

The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) has given him its Jackie Robinson Sports Award. And, for the first time, the nation’s oldest civil rights organization is recognizing more than one person by honoring the Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA) Players Association.

“This award is truly a humbling and honoring experience. It kind of came by surprise in terms of when you do things in the community and speak on things you believe, it’s about the collective effort, not just myself but everybody who is around me in terms of accountability to change,” Curry said in remarks provided to The Associated Press by a team spokesman.

Curry was unavailable for a formal interview while resting a tailbone injury suffered Wednesday night in Houston.

“You don’t really do it for the acknowledgment, it’s more so about the work that you’re doing, that this is a great opportunity to continue to speak on

things that are important and honor the legacy of Jackie Robinson and what he stood for and the change he was able to create and the barriers he was able to break and to continue these conversations,” Curry added.

“So I’m appreciative of the acknowledgment, the honor and if it gives more inspiration and energy to keep changing things in terms of what needs to happen for the Black community across the country then I’m all about it,” he added.

The 33-year-old Curry, Golden State’s twotime NBA Most Valuable Player, held a YouTube question-and-answer forum with Fauci last March near the start of the Covid-19 pandemic.

“I would borrow a Maya Angelou quote to describe Steph and his leadership: ‘I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel,’” Warriors General Manager Bob Myers said in an e-mail.

“Steph has certainly made people in the Bay Area and all over the world feel joy. His commitment to social activism and support of women are another part of the fabric that makes up the person that he is. I’m honored to know him for what he does both on and off the court,” Myers added. “And a much deserved congratulations to the women of the WNBA who continue to fearlessly

pursue what is right.”

The Jackie Robinson award—named for the late Dodgers great who broke baseball’s racial barrier— recognizes athletes for their success as well as their commitment to social justice, civil rights and their communities.

The awards are to be presented during next week’s NAACP Image Awards Virtual Experience.

LeBron James, Michael Jordan, Jim Brown, The Harlem Globetrotters, Jackie Joyner-Kersee, Sugar Ray Leonard, Eddie Robinson are among prior recipients.

“He has a strong platform and he utilizes it to the best of his ability,” said Curry’s teammate, Kelly Oubre Jr. “He’s a great individual.”

The WNBA players have been applauded for their activism in a unified movement that has featured kneeling for the national anthem, messages supporting Black Lives Matter and protesting the shooting of Jacob Blake in August by following the Bucks’ lead in not playing.

“I am so proud of the WNBA players for this well-deserved recognition of their continued activism and advocacy for social justice and equality,” WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert said in a statement provided to the AP. “Their platforms are bigger than basketball, and they are amazing role models for the next generation

of athletes and leaders,” Engelbert said. “The WNBA Social Justice Council continues their important work and you can definitely ‘Count’ on more to come from the players.”

WNBA players also notably called out former Georgia Sen. Kelly Loeffler, a Republican and former co-owner of the Atlanta Dream, for her criticism of the league’s social justice efforts.

Curry, too, applauded the women for their efforts.

“The acknowledgement of the WNBA and what they’ve stood for and how

GOLDEN State’s Stephen Curry kisses his son Canon after the Warriors defeated the Utah Jazz in a recent game in San Francisco. AP

they’ve used their platform to be bold and courageous and speak for change at every opportunity, that acknowledgement is very much deserved,” Curry said. “They are game changers and leaders in terms of using their collective voice and impact on and off the court, so a shoutout to them and all that they’ve done and are continuing to do in terms of leadership and using their voice.”

Some WNBA players sported t-shirts reading “Vote Warnock” in support of Atlanta pastor Raphael Warnock, a Democrat who

defeated Loeffler in a runoff race in January.

Warnock became Georgia’s first African American senator.

Warriors Coach Steve Kerr, outspoken on many issues himself, admires the WNBA players for their activism.

“I love what the WNBA players have done.

They’ve really taken the lead with creativity and unity in a lot of important causes, political causes but social injustice issues,” Kerr said.

“They’ve made their voices heard. They’ve done it very creatively and powerfully.” AP

Russians to compete as neutral athletes again in track and field

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THREE-TIME high jump world champion Mariya Lasitskene benefits from the development.

ONACO—Russian athletes in track and field will be allowed to compete internationally again under a neutral flag as their national federation edges closer to having its long-standing doping suspension lifted.

The World Athletics council voted to revive the “authorized neutral athlete” scheme, which can grant individual exemptions from the suspension after vetting the athlete’s drugtesting record. As before, there will be a cap of 10 for the Olympics.

“We will start that process. It’s arduous work. The doping review panel work long hours to do this, they’ve done it successfully in the past and the process is under way,” World Athletics President Sebastian Coe said.

That paves the way for athletes like three-time high jump world champion Mariya Lasitskene and former hurdles world champion Sergei Shubenkov to return to the Diamond League circuit ahead of the Tokyo Olympics.

Thursday’s decision comes after World Athletics approved RusAF’s road map for antidoping reforms. It includes more drug testing for athletes and encourages whistle-blowers to share what they know about drug use.

The plan also contains an admission of “an extensive doping and covering-up culture involving athletes, coaches and officials” which arose “from inheriting a post-Soviet doping culture aimed at winning by all means including

doping.”

“The judgment we made about ANAs was contingent on the quality of that plan,” Coe said. “The task force has given confidence to the council that that reinstatement plan is substantive and will take us in the right direction. And so the decision today to move ahead, to re-implement the ANA status is a good one and we will try and do that as quickly and as sensibly but as carefully as we can.”

A different neutral athlete system will apply for the Olympics, where the International Olympic Committee sets the rules. All Russian athletes at the Tokyo Games will compete for “ROC,” or Russian Olympic Committee. That comes after the Court of Arbitration for Sport ruled against Russia in December in a separate case about falsified data from the Moscow antidoping laboratory.

The Russian track federation, known as RusAF, has been suspended since 2015 after investigations revealed doping was rife among elite Russian athletes.

For much of that time, individual Russians were allowed to compete internationally with neutral status, without their country’s flag or anthem. That system was suspended after five senior RusAF officials were charged in 2019 with using forged documents to give one of the world’s top high jumpers, Danil Lysenko, an excuse for being unavailable for drug testing.

AP

NCAA basketball players use biggest stage to send message

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NDIANAPOLIS—A social-media effort to raise awareness about inequities in college sports by some prominent basketball players came with calls for rules changes and requests for meetings with the NCAA president and lawmakers.

The players who got #NotNCAAProperty trending on social made no threats of protests at tournament games, which started Thursday night and will have millions of viewers all weekend.

Following a year of activism in sports that included NBA players shutting down the playoffs after a police shooting, it seems fitting that college athletes would use March Madness to get a message across.

NCAA vice president of basketball Dan Gavitt, who communicates frequently with coaches, said Thursday he was not aware of any plans for player protests that could interfere with tournament games being played.

“Am I concerned? I would be concerned about any potential disruption, I guess, of games,” Gavitt said. “I’m certainly not at all concerned and, and quite frankly, supportive of student-athletes using their voices for advocacy in issues that they are very passionate about.

We have certainly seen that throughout 2020 in particular.”

Using the #NotNCAAProperty hashtag on Twitter, players pushed for the NCAA to change its rules banning college athletes from earning money for things like endorsements, sponsorship deals and personal appearances, all encompassing revenue tied to their name, image or likeness (NIL).

Three prominent Big Ten players—Isaiah Livers of Michigan, Geo Baker of Rutgers and

A MARCH Madness sticker for the NCAA college basketball tournament is seen on a window in downtown Indianapolis. AP

Jordan Bohannon of Iowa—led the way, and players from at least 15 tournament teams jumped on board with tweets of support.

The National College Players Association, a college athlete advocacy group, released a statement late Wednesday that detailed the players’ goals. They included meetings with NCAA President Mark Emmert and the opportunity to meet with state and local lawmakers who are working on passing laws that could set parameters for the association’s NIL rules.

“President Emmert regularly meets with student-athletes to discuss matters that impact them and their lives. While there have been limited opportunities over the past year due to the pandemic, he has met virtually when possible,” NCAA spokesman Bob Williams said in a statement to the AP. “He would be happy to connect either virtually or in person when appropriate with any student-athletes who want

to engage.”

The NCAA has been working toward changing its rules governing NIL compensation to pull back most restrictions. But those efforts have bogged down under scrutiny from the Justice Department and with an antitrust case involving the NCAA heading to the Supreme Court later this month.

Meanwhile, at the women’s basketball tournament in San Antonio, those players were forcing the NCAA to deal with a different kind of equity issue. A social-media post from a member of Stanford’s sports performance staff showed the weight training areas for the women were severely lacking compared to what the men have in Indianapolis.

The men’s players were back to Twitter on Thursday, circulating the #NotNCAAProperty hashtag again and what they hoped to accomplish. AP

BusinessMirror

March 21, 2021

Clubhouse’s founder is in a state of perpetual motion

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BusinessMirror MARCH 21, 2021 | soundstrip.businessmirror@gmail.com

YOUR MUSI

DEEPER CONNECTIONS Noah Schnacky considers himself a student of the ‘Top 50’

K

By Stephanie Joy Ching

NOWN for his deeply personal songs set to a modern country sound, rising newcomer Noah Schnacky finds himself making waves on the Filipino side of Tik Tok and Spotify with his latest single, ‘Every Girl I Ever Loved.”

According to the 24 year old singer-songwriter, this happy and bright country pop jam stemmed from the love and respect for the many women in his life.

“I love my mom and I love my grandma, they both played a role in my life and I’m grateful for the best years of my life because of them,” he shared. “I’m grateful to the girls I have dated, and the girls I have yet to date. I wanted this Publisher

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NOAH Schnacky

song to honor the girls in my life, and I’m so grateful that people are connecting to it like they are,”.

The song first made waves in Tik Tok when Noah shared the song with his Tik Tok followers, which immediately connected with people due to a combination of the positive take on past relationships and Noah’s raw sincerity.

“I’m a really big fan of connecting to people in an

authentic way and I really got to connect with people on that platform,” he told the press.

As a child, Noah knew he wanted to be in the limelight and connect to people through art, but he didn’t exactly know how.

This drive led him to try a bunch of different mediums such as the stage and tv.

“I grew up a fan of theater. I didn’t know what I wanted to do but I knew I wanted to entertain people,” he reminisced. “I love the live show feeling, but something was missing for me. So I decided to try tv. I did “How I met your mother” the sitcom, then I did a Disney channel show, and I was in this spin off for like a Disney channel associated act that shot for three seasons and during those three seasons, my role was a kid who lived in a studio making music. I fell in love with music and live performance of music in such a deep way, it changed my trajectory. Music is what I was created to do and who I was meant to be. But my main purpose remains the same-to connect with people in the deepest way that I know.”

After this epiphany, Noah took a leap and independently published his first song, “Hello Beautiful” on his 21st birthday. His sincerity and innate understanding of human connections attracted the attention of Big Machine Label Group President/CEO Scott Borchetta, and since then has released hits such as “Maybe We Will”, “Comeback” and “Where’d You Go.” Though he primarily focuses on creating country music, Noah considers himself a “student of the top 50”, as he enjoys dissecting popular songs and finding out what made them “work in culture.”

“I’m looking for the soul of the song,” he explained. “For me, music comes out of connection, which is why I fell in love with country music. Because who I am at my core is a true to himself songwriter-storyteller. I love that country music can make you feel things, and I wanna do that with music, no matter what instrumentation it has surrounding it, and that’s why I consider myself a country artist.”

Noah Schnacky’s “Every Girl I Loved” is now available on all major streaming platforms.

IC

soundstrip.businessmirror@gmail.com | MARCH 21, 2021

BUSINESS

SoundSampler

by Tony M. Maghirang

JOEY AYALA NOMINATED AS NATIONAL ARTIST FOR MUSIC Netizens react

JOEY Ayala’s last two releases in 2015

T

he popular profile of ethnic folk singer songwriter Joey Ayala may soon be elevated to heroic status. Various groups have endorsed his recent nomination to the latest National Artist for Music.

Part of the nomination reads: “Over the years, Ayala continued recording albums as a solo act or with various artists – the consistent quality of his work apparent in his signature baritone vocals and brilliant songwriting, such as in the 2005 album “Mga Awit ng Magdaragat.” Thus, Joey Ayala has become the finest exponent of Filipino Alternative Music.”

Reactions to Joey’s nomination are mixed:

–­­ “JOEY Ayala comes on top of mind when I think about the fusion of Filipino artistry and world music. A casual talk with him is an enriching experience about music roots and Philippine history. For me, his song ‘Walang Hanggang Paalam’ captures the sentimentality of Filipinos and brings one back to the land of Juan Dela Cruz wherever he may be on Earth. For that and more, he certainly deserves to be named National Artist.” ­­– “Makes sense to me sir.” ­­– No offense to Joey A. Pero nauna pa siya to be nominated for

national artist? What about Heber Bartolome, Resty P. Fabunan or even Pepe Smith?

Gary Granda, Florante, Banyuhay, Freddie Aguilar,Juan de la Cruz band, Maria Cafra ­­– “The criteria for selecting a national artist include Filipino citizenship, the contribution of their works to nation-building, impact of their distinctive and pioneering works or styles on succeeding generations of artists, excellence in the practice of their art form which enriches artistic expression or style, and prestigious national and international recognitions.”

–­­ “Totally Agree !” ­­– Not against him pero parang mas may mauna muna kaysa sa kanya.

–­­ Dapat may mauna Dapat lang dahil sa pag gamit niya ng ethnic music and instruments sa modern setting ngunit dapat may kasulatan na hindi na siya mag endorse ng ….

- We have so much respect po for sir Joey at isa din po sya sa patuloy na nagpapaunlad ng OPM kaya ang nominasyon po nya as National

Artist ay nararapat po sa kanya –­­ “Hilaw pa! Taga Davao kasi. Mas marami pang deserving! Si Ate Guy kaya muna.”

–­­ “Baka pop music ang category.

Outcast mga Pinoy rock musicians?” ­­– Mas type ko si Cynthia Alexander! ­­– “A sad reality .. all awarding bodies have their own politics .. depende kung sino ang nakaupo” –­­ “Kantahin nya muna ‘ikaw na may baril’ sa panahong ito, then he can be nominated.”

Per information available online, Joey Ayala is a member, National Committee for Music (NCM) of the National Commission for Culture and the Arts (NCCA) from 2007 to the present and Committee chairman from 2008-2010.

The Order of National Artists (Orden ng mga Pambansang

JOEY Ayala (Photo by Eddie Boy Escudero)

Alagad ng Sining) is the highest national recognition given to Filipino individuals who have made significant contributions to the development of Philippine arts; namely, music, dance, theater, visual arts, literature, film broadcast arts, and architecture and allied arts.

Past National Artists for music include Ryan Cayabyab, Tony Molina, Felipe P. de Leon, Atang de la Rama, Francisco Feliciano and Ramon Santos.

Every national artist receives A gold-plated medallion and citation; P200,000 net of taxes; a monthly life pension worth P50,000; medical and hospital benefits worth P750,000 every year; life insurance coverage; a place of honor in state functions and arrangements for and expenses of a state funeral.

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Clubhouse’s founder is in a state of perpetual motion

By Ellen Huet and Brody Ford

was losing momentum, and came to a deal with Pinterest Inc. He soon became frustrated with how life inside a bigger company moved slower than his regular, frenetic pace.

Bloomberg

N

early a decade ago, South

by Southwest was known as a launchpad for internet phenomena: The annual tech and arts festival was where Twitter Inc. broke out and where masses of 20-somethings made group messaging apps a thing.

In the spring of 2012, the king of the conference was Highlight. Paul Davison, then 32, had released the app six weeks earlier with a proposition that was scary yet intriguing. It tracked users’ whereabouts to show them profiles of people nearby with similar interests or shared connections. For that week in Austin, Texas, everyone wanted to try it. Phones buzzed and buzzed and buzzed with Highlight notifications. Venture capitalists wrote checks for millions of dollars.

But within a year, the app was deemed too invasive to go mainstream and had essentially flatlined.

Nine years later, few people have even heard the name Highlight. A lot of people, however, have heard of Clubhouse, which Davison co-founded last year.

Clubhouse is in many ways the opposite of Highlight, and even subsumes the role played by South by Southwest. Clubhouse is a virtual conference hall with different rooms for people to talk about whatever topics they like and invite guests to listen. It only uses audio.

South by Southwest, the venue that launched Davison’s star in the tech industry, kicks off Tuesday, not in Texas but on hundreds of thousands of screens. Meanwhile, Clubhouse rages on as a sort of virtual South by Southwest that never ends.

‘True king’ Unlike Highlight, Clubhouse has outlasted the initial burst of excitement. In the past year, the startup raised funds at a $1 billion valuation, signed up more than 10 million users, spread to dozens of countries and hosted talks with some of the biggest celebrities in Hollywood and Silicon Valley. Venture capitalists, it seems, are ready to anoint Davison as a true king.

The last try

Paul Davison speaks during the Glimpse Social Discovery conference in San Francisco in 2012. Bloomberg The app closely follows Davison’s style and interests. Over the past 15 years in the Valley, the Clubhouse chief executive officer has explored the depths of how technology can be used to connect people in new ways. He’s frequently embarking on the next project and proselytizes a seemingly genuine belief that most people are good-hearted and wellintentioned, according to those who have

in 2007 that was followed by a stint with a startup, Davison went to work as an entrepreneur-in-residence. He emerged with a new idea: using a smartphone’s location to connect people in proximity to one another.

Davison established a company called Math Camp, a reference to a twoweek crash course offered to Stanford business students before real classes

“I look at a lot of social products,” said Ryan Hoover, an early investor in Clubhouse. “Very few capture this magic, this feeling of, ‘This is fresh, this is new, this is exciting.’” worked with Davison.

At times, the results have made people uncomfortable or demonstrate a failure to consider safeguards against potential abuses. Clubhouse has been used to spread misinformation about Covid-19, racism and misogyny. The live and ephemeral nature of the app make policing such content difficult.

A Clubhouse spokeswoman declined to make Davison available for an interview. She said racism, hate speech, abuse and false information are prohibited on the app and that moderation has always been a top priority. In a sign that Davison may be learning from past privacy controversies, Clubhouse backtracked last week from demanding access to a user’s full contact list in order to invite friends.

Smooth and unsurprising path to the Valley After earning his MBA from Stanford

4 BusinessMirror

began. Math Camp’s first product was Highlight. To promote it, the company paid young people to wander around downtown Austin during the conference in 2012 wearing white turtlenecks with the Highlight logo on the front.

The workers showed South by Southwest attendees how the app could alert them to the presence of, say, a woman nearby who shares a mutual acquaintance and an interest in opera.

After a white-hot week in Austin, however, interest in Highlight cooled. It was unclear what the app should be used for.

Dating? Networking? Connecting with friends? Many people never got comfortable with the privacy implications, and those who did got annoyed by how the GPS-intensive app drained their batteries. As people drifted away, Math Camp spent the next couple of years trying to see what else might catch on.

But Davison recognized Math Camp

March 21, 2021

Davison left Pinterest after about two years and in 2019 reconnected with an old acquaintance named Rohan Seth. At the time, Seth was looking for help raising money for a research effort to treat his young daughter’s rare disease. The two decided to give social media startups “one last try,” they wrote in a company blog post.

They introduced Talkshow, which eventually morphed into Clubhouse.

Clubhouse quickly generated buzz among Valley insiders selected to try the service, including some top venture capitalists.

“I look at a lot of social products,” said Ryan Hoover, a founder of the app directory Product Hunt and an early investor in Clubhouse. “Very few capture this magic, this feeling of, ‘This is fresh, this is new, this is exciting.’”

Like Highlight, Clubhouse doesn’t give people a clear reason to use it, and that has actually turned out to be an asset. In the absence of any prescriptions, Clubhouse can be a place to hear Elon Musk talk about Bitcoin, get an audio news briefing, listen to musicians sing lullabies or learn how to game the stock market.

In one recurring room, people just make whale moaning sounds together.

Clubhouse turns a year old on Wednesday. Davison has said he wants to expand the room capacity—usually capped at around 5,000 listeners—to an infinite size, so they can accommodate musicals, news conferences, sports post-game analyses, political rallies and big company allhands meetings. And while he’s excited about those, Davison is even more jazzed about what he can’t envision yet.

“The ways people use Clubhouse are just mind-blowing to me,” Davison told a virtual roomful of listeners, his voice quickening. “If you think about how video evolved, we sort of went from this world where you had broadcast television, and we had four channels, and everyone watched the same thing at seven o’clock on a Thursday, to cable television in the 90s, where you had 400 channels suddenly, and that led to 24-hour news channels and golf channels and fishing channels and home shopping networks.

“And then we got YouTube, which was crazy,” Davison continued. “And suddenly you got unboxing videos and ASMR and top-10 videos and crazy things that no one ever would have expected. Because people are amazing, right?”