BusinessMirror March 24, 2019

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BERLIN TOURISM SHOW REVEALS PHL’S ALLURE

Europeans discover there’s more fun in the Philippines

TOURISM Secretary Bernadette Romulo Puyat leads a 30-man delegation to ITB Berlin, the leading travel trade show in the world, from March 6 to 8, 2019, at the Messe Berlin. With her are some 20 Philippine tour operators, and representatives of travel agencies and resorts. DOT-FRANKFURT

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

B

ERLIN, Germany—“The best ITB.” This was the pronouncement of Rajah Tours Philippines President Jose C. Clemente III, after having attended the largest travel trade fair in the world for the 22nd year.

“Personally for me it’s been very good. The quality of buyers [i.e., travel wholesalers] has been excellent this year; everyone is serious to sell the Philippines. This is evident because they do their research already because when they come to us, they already know which spots they want to visit, unlike before, we had to explain where the Philippines is, where everything is. That’s why we have those maps [points to a thick pad of large, tear-away Philippine maps]. We had to use those before, as late as, say, five years ago.

But now they come very prepared, they do their research beforehand, so when they come here, you know

they’re serious buyers.”

This was echoed by Allan A. Santos, general manager of the newly renovated, 88-room Bohol Beach Club on Panglao Island.

“Compared to last year, I’ve met less people, but the quality is much, much better. It’s less effort for me to sell, because the people I speak with are all potential clients. None of them are exploratory. I ask them, ‘What are you looking for?’ And they ask what can I offer. Before, they would say, ‘The Philippines is not for me because of the insurgency.’ But now they’re like, ‘I heard about Bohol, what can I do there?’”

PESO EXCHANGE RATES n US 52.8010

DURING the three-day ITB Berlin travel trade show, tour operators and resorts were busy entertaining buyers interested in bringing their clients to the Philippines. In photo is Sonia Lazo of Intas Destination Management Inc. (third from left). STELLA ARNALDO

Held from March 6 to 8, 2019, at the Messe Berlin, the International Tourism Borse (ITB) 2019 featured over 10,000 exhibitors from 181 countries and regions in 26 halls. According to a news statement from ITB organizers, this year’s trade show attracted record-breaking numbers at 160,000 visitors, including 113,500 trade visitors. Hall 26 was devoted entirely to Asia, with the 253-square-meter Philippines booth, designed by awardwinning Cebu furniture designer Kenneth Cobonpue, competing for attention against tourism heavyweights like Thailand, Malaysia (this year’s country partner for the trade convention), Indonesia, Vietnam, Bhutan, and the like.

The BusinessMirror’s interviews with other destination management companies, travel agencies and resort establishments participating in this year’s ITB also indicate heightened interest in the Philippines, although a few noted that some foreign travel wholesalers are at a loss on how to package the Philippines to their clients, the Continued on A2

n JAPAN 0.4765 n UK 69.2274 n HK 6.7286 n CHINA 7.8810 n SINGAPORE 39.1438 n AUSTRALIA 37.5468 n EU 60.0717 n SAUDI ARABIA 14.0807

Source: BSP (March 22, 2019 )

NewsSunday BusinessMirror

A2 Sunday, March 24, 2019

www.businessmirror.com.ph

Berlin tourism show reveals PHL’s allure Continued from A1

retail travel agencies. As such, the stakeholders suggest heavier promotions on the uniqueness of the Philippines, increased air connectivity, and continuity in marketing schemes.

Looking for something new

“THEY are looking for something different,” said Lourdes T. Banzon, president of Sharp Travel Service, about the travel wholesalers she has met. “Most of their clients have gone to Thailand, to Vietnam, so they have to be innovative. Their clients are looking for a different destination,” as she tried to explain the unusually high interest in the Philippines at this year’s German travel trade show.

“They’re all interested in the Philippines now. It’s surprising.

They are long staying, about two weeks…. They want more of the history, cultural, immersion with the people—they want to learn more about the Philippines, like the food,” she added.

Most of those keen on traveling to the Philippines are not just from Germany, the stakeholders noted, but also from Poland, Estonia, Switzerland, Romania, Denmark, Scandinavia, as well as Eastern and Central Europe. For these markets that don’t even have direct air connectivity to the Philippines, something about the country must have certainly drawn their desires to travel here.

Sonia Lazo, managing director of Intas Destination Management Co., which offers bespoke travel and unique experiences in Philippine travel spots, said her most sellable packages are Banaue, the Cordilleras and Palawan. “The entire Palawan journey from Puerto Princesa to Taytay, discovering that part of the province with pearl farms [near Busuanga Island and Coron], El Nido, the off-the-beatentrack islands out there,” she adds, are what sparks the curiosity of European travelers.

Clemente, for his part, said Bohol and Boracay are also attractive destinations to the long-staying, high-revenue European market.

“They [the clients] know Boracay’s been closed; we’re explaining to them it’s been open since October 26. They’re asking, ‘Is it nice?

What’s going on?’ We manage their expectations; [we say] it’s fantastic but there’s still work going on in the back. There are some inconveniences. But they remain interested. It’s just a matter of telling them what to expect. It’s up to their cli-

ents whether to proceed or not.”

Movenpick Resort & Spa is one of the establishments that have picked up on the goodwill now being reaped by Boracay Island, which was closed for six months in 2018 to give way to the government’s rehabilitation program. The island has been touted by the Department of Tourism (DOT) at foreign conferences and travel fairs as a model of sustainable tourism, a concept that has drawn the admiration of other countries.

Director of Sales and Marketing Grace F. Agatep said, “Boracay, the name, sells itself. It’s the white beach…they can go to Thailand, they have beaches as well, they can go to Bali, it has a beach too, but Boracay, it has a unique selling point. While the closure may have had some negative publicity, now that it’s open, it’s like the interest of the people is now hyped; they ask, ‘How’s Boracay now compared to before?’ On the downside, there are still excavations in some places, but nevertheless, it’s still publicity for us. Some people will ask, ‘why should I go to Boracay when it’s still chaotic,’ but on the flipside, the others also say, ‘It’s good; at least it’s now clean. I can stroll on the beach without worrying I might step on splintered glass.’”

Peace-and-order issues

OF course, not everything is all roses and chocolates.

The stakeholders admit that peace and order in the Philippines does still come up in a number of conversations with clients. “It’s still a super big issue….,” said Santos. “We just have to work a little bit harder in selling, just to convince [our clients] that it’s safe [to come to the Philippines]. Unfortunately, they will tell the operator, ‘We’ll do a familiarization tour [famtour] first. We’ll do an ocular first,’ because there’s this cloud that it’s unsafe. Operators will pay for that or pay 50-50 [half of the cost of the famtour]. So again, we have to spend a little bit more just to convince them that it’s a safe place,” he explained.

But he asserted that the European market has been able to generate visiting couples and families for Bohol Beach Club of late. “For them to be able to bring their kids means they consider us safe.” His clients also prefer to bypass Manila altogether, so they don’t have to deal with possible crime and the traffic jams. “So I have to pitch, ‘We just opened an international airport [on Panglao Island], and in six months, we’ll have international

EUROPEANS were the first foreigners to discover Boracay Island in the late 1970s. Now that it’s reopened, they’re curious to see the changes it’s undergone after the government rehabilitated it. STELLA ARNALDO

flights already.’ So they look forward to that. The thing is, Manila, which is supposed to be our country’s showpiece, is left out of the equation.”

Movenpick’s Agatep narrated that a few clients expressed confusion about the travel advisories against the Philippines. “They don’t know what these advisories are about. They’re not sure if it’s about safety, peace and order, political issues. Although these were just a few clients. But the advisories still affect them. One German agent I was speaking with, he said their Philippine sales had already been taking off, then suddenly, these travel advisories are issued. If only they could sustain the peak sales, but it’s like a rollercoaster to them. Which they compare to Vietnam, which is very, very safe. And their government is stable. They don’t receive any [negative] travel advisories at all.”

An expensive destination

ASIA’S Best Female Chef, Margarita Fores, dishes up the flavors of the Philippines during the launch of the refreshed It’s More Fun in The Philippines brand campaign on March 6, 2019, in Berlin. DOT-FRANKFURT

INTAS Destination’s Lazo also pointed to the distance of the Philippines from Europe, compared to Thailand and Vietnam, making the country a more expensive proposition to her clients’ retail customers. “They are eager to try promoting, launching the Philippines again. A lot of them are looking at other strategies to promote the Philippines, because they’re saying it’s a wonderful destination,” but Thailand and Vietnam continue to be her clients’ top-selling Asian destinations, they tell her.

“It’s common knowledge in the tourism industry that the Philippines is still more expensive compared to the two countries, especially in terms of airfare. The Philippines is farther. We don’t have as many rooms and as many hotel accommodations as Thailand.

When we offer packages, they’re a little bit higher. Of course, we have to convince our clients that their euro, dollar, or British pound will come a long way when they go to the Philippines, because our food is inexpensive. They can have a decent meal for just €6 or €7. That’s what we have to put out there.”

Similarly, Agatep rued the lack of direct air connectivity between the Philippines and Europe.

She noted that Vietnam Airlines, for instance, has direct flights to Frankfurt and London. But because of its codeshare agreements with alliance partners, it is able to attract tourists from Spain, France

TOURISM Secretary Bernadette Romulo Puyat and Tourism Attaché for Frankfurt Margarita Patricia R. Valdes (second from right) meet with Guillaume Linton (left), director general of ASIA, the largest tour operator in France specializing in Asian destinations. DOT-FRANKFURT

and Scandinavia. As such, Vietnam attracted 2.04 million visitor arrivals from Europe, accounting for 13 percent of its total foreign arrivals at some 15.5 million in 2018.

The Philippines, meanwhile, only has one direct service in Europe, from London to Manila via Philippine Airlines. Which probably explains why arrivals from Europe numbered only 720,586 in 2018, just 10 percent of total foreign visitors in the Philippines that year. And of all the European nations, only the United Kingdom made it among the top 10 markets of the Philippines.

Underscore the unique

LAZO suggests that we must promote what it is unique about the Philippines. “We have the same offerings [as our neighbors in Asia], but our culture is unique; I think we have to put out there our uniqueness. We’re a fun destination. Plus we’re not a one-time destination; we’re a destination where you can go back to over and over again and discover new things because we have 7,500 islands. There are tried and tested destinations like Banaue, the Visayas, but even in Banaue, you can go back again and again and discover new trails.”’

Santos also said one of the

unique selling points of the Philippines is being a country of English speakers. “We don’t have a lot of budget to promote the country,” compared to our Asian neighbors.

“That’s why when I do my sales talk and presentation, I always say 95 percent of Filipinos speak English.

And that’s the most attractive selling point.”

Agatep pointed to how much other foreign governments are spending to market their countries.

“You see how Malaysia sponsored the ITB? I’m sure they’re spending a lot. It’s a good avenue to promote Malaysia. Vietnam spends on CNN and BBC—they have a consistent global presence. [Marketing of destinations] is like attending a trade show. If you come here one time and then stop, nothing pans out.

It has to be continuous [marketing globally].”

But they’re coming

NEVERTHELESS, there is a definite renewed interest in the Philippines. While Rajah Tours’ Clemente said most of his clients’ trips will probably materialize in “late 2019 or mid-2020,” he has expressed confidence that things are finally turning up for the Philippines. The Europeans, who ironically came to the Philippines in droves in the

1970s until the early 1980s, and discovering the idyllic Boracay Island in their wake, are taking notice once more.

“Before, peace and order was their main concern,” he said. “But while some raise these issues, we only need to point out that these troubles happen everywhere else, too.” Santos quipped, “in our case, these are isolated incidents, not in prime tourist destinations like in other countries.”

Sharp Travel’s Banzon was just excited to talk about her meetings, “All of them want to go to the Philippines for two weeks! They want to explore the islands. So I booked [this client’s] 25 pax in 4to 5-star hotels.” She underscored that money, it seemed, wasn’t an object to them. “[For one client,] they wanted to book a helicopter just to see the Chocolate Hills [in Bohol],” she enthused. “We offered them to go ballooning instead. They loved the idea.”

The amount of potential business generated at the ITB has yet to be released by the DOT, but if the meetings between our stakeholders and their foreign clients are of any indication, 2020 could be the breakout year for Philippine tourism. Cross our fingers.

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

The World

Trump aides said to back F-16 jet sales to Taiwan in US shift

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HE Trump administration has given tacit approval to Taiwan’s request to buy more than 60 F-16 fighter jets, according to people familiar with the matter, a policy reversal likely to provoke China’s ire amid the trade dispute between Washington and Beijing.

President Donald J. Trump’s advisers encouraged Taiwan to submit a formal request for the jets, built by Lockheed Martin Corp., which it did this month, according to the people, who asked not be identified discussing internal discussions. Any such request would need to be converted into a formal proposal by the Defense and State Departments, and then Congress would have 30 days to decide whether to block the sale.

The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Beijing didn’t immediately respond on Friday to a faxed request for comment.

The US, wary of antagonizing China, hasn’t sold advanced fighter jets since thenPresident George H.W. Bush announced the sale of 150 F-16s to Taiwan in 1992. The Obama administration rejected a similar Taiwanese request for new jets, agreeing in 2011 to upgrade the island’s existing fleet.

Trump has chosen a more assertive approach at a time when the administration is locked in difficult negotiations with China over trade. He’s been prodded on by China hawks in Congress, who have passed legislation urging greater diplomatic and military ties with the democratically run island.

It’s unclear whether a potential F-16 sale could become a bargaining chip in those talks or is solely an outgrowth of the administration’s renewed focus on Taiwan, said a US ally long seen as a bulwark against Chinese expansion in the Asia-Pacific region. The US has stepped up naval patrols through the Taiwan Strait and past Chinese military outposts in the disputed

South China Sea in recent months, drawing protests from Beijing.

The White House declined to comment on Taiwan’s F-16 request, which several of the people said also includes tanks. The Taiwanese defense ministry said in a statement that it hadn’t yet “received an official response from the US” to its request.

In October, Vice President Mike Pence assailed China for moves to chip away at Taiwan’s diplomatic presence overseas, and its ramping up of pressure on private companies to refer to Taiwan as a province of China. The government in Beijing considers the island’s fate a “core interest”—and respect for its concerns as a prerequisite for maintaining diplomatic ties.

In announcing its request for the planes, Taiwan didn’t say how many jets it was seeking.

The request followed a lengthy back-and-forth with the administration after the US swatted down Taiwan’s earlier request for Lockheed’s more modern F-35.

The US State Department’s Bureau of Political-Military Affairs, which oversees such weapons sales, declined to comment on the possibility of the weapons sales.

Even if Congress approved a sale and a contract was reached with Lockheed, the planes probably wouldn’t be going to Taiwan anytime soon. Carolyn Nelson, a Lockheed spokesman, said the first F-16s to be built at a new facility in Greenville, South Carolina, won’t roll off the production line until 2021, and those are committed to Bahrain. The jets were previously built in Fort Worth, Texas.

Taiwan’s air force is already vastly outmatched by the People’s Liberation Army Air Force, which is backed by a defense budget more than 20 times larger and commands a much bigger fleet increasingly made up of next-generation fighter jets. Bloomberg News

BusinessMirror

Sunday, March 24, 2019

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Half the world worries about Italy getting in bed with China E

UROPEAN allies see a threat to sovereignty, the US is flagging the risks of Beijing’s growing influence, and half of the Italian government is so uncomfortable that their leader, Matteo Salvini, is leaving town for the day.

And all the same, Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte on Saturday in Rome signed Italy up to China’s Belt and Road Initiative, a transcontinental infrastructure project that critics say allows Beijing to trade presentday investment for future leverage.

Italy’s state lender may also get a green light from Chinese authorities to issue renminbi-denominated bonds, further deepening ties.

The memorandum on Belt and Road will be the centerpiece of Chinese President Xi Jinping’s visit to Europe and will make Italy the first Group of Seven nation to sign up. Xi’s stay in the capital will include a gala dinner with President Sergio Mattarella and a meeting with business leaders, according to Italian officials.

Score this as a win for China fans including Giovanni Tria, Italy’s technocratic finance minister, and Luigi Di Maio, leader of the Five Star Movement, which makes up half the country’s populist government.

Both see the deal as a big opportunity to bring much-needed investment to Italy’s stagnant economy.

“The Silk Road is already in Europe—the train to China leaves from Duisburg in Germany,” Michele Geraci, undersecretary at the Ministry for Economic Development, said in a Bloomberg Television interview on Thursday. “I do think that Italy leading the remaining European countries along the Silk Road could actually entice other countries to join.”

One Italian leader who refuses to join in the festivities is Salvini, head of the nationalist League, which makes up the other half of the coalition. He continues to grumble about Chinese attempts to “colonize Italy.”

Limited impact WHILE the economic impact of a role for Italy in the Belt and Road will be limited, the symbolism of a G-7 country signing on is also causing disquiet in Washington, according to a US official, who asked not to be named citing the sensitive nature of the topic.

The Xi visit also comes at a time when Washington is losing its fight to persuade allies to lock Huawei Technologies Co. out of 5G network development plans. The US is concerned the Italians’ willingness to go along with the Chinese infrastructure is another sign of its allies softening on Beijing, the US official said.

In the wake of criticism from

Washington and European allies, Conte, who serves as a mediator between the League and Five Star, was forced to offer assurances that Italy won’t be China’s “Trojan Horse” in Europe.

Feted in France THAT hasn’t been enough for allies like Emmanuel Macron. Although Xi will visit France after his Italian stop, and even dine with the president on the Riviera, Macron recently cautioned against Chinese influence.

“Europe has woken up about China,” he told reporters on arrival at a summit in Brussels on Thursday.

“Since the beginning of my mandate, I’ve called for a defense of European sovereignty.”

The Rome-Beijing accord, first reported by Bloomberg, is seen in Paris as a breach in what was a united front against China’s pursuit of economic domination, according to a French official, who asked not to be named due to the sensitive nature of the matter.

Macron is attempting to close ranks with his key European allies on the issue, inviting German Chancellor Angela Merkel and European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker to meet with him and Xi on Tuesday morning in Paris.

And unlike the visit to Italy, Xi’s

visit to France won’t result in a Belt and Road memorandum, an official from Macron’s team said, though the government is looking at projects the two nations could sign. Macron will also discuss a major Airbus SE order during Xi’s visit.

Chinese investors made acquisitions worth $1.83 billion in France last year, up 86 percent compared with 2017, while investments totaled $2.52 billion in Germany, up 34 percent, according to a Baker McKenzie study. Italy’s share was down 21 percent to $800 million.

Doing deals THAT’s a source of resentment for Rome. One member of the government, who asked not to be named, noted that EU partners are doing deals with China worth millions of dollars while scolding Rome for a simple memorandum of understanding.

Italy has persuaded China to cite EU principles including transparency and reciprocity in the memorandum, another senior Italian official said.

Still, China is refusing to softpedal the planned accord with Rome.

Writing in Corriere della Sera on Wednesday, Xi called for a “global strategic partnership” covering everything from infrastructure to telecommunications to ports.

Bloomberg News

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Sunday, March 24, 2019

The World BusinessMirror

US abruptly endorses Israel’s Golan sovereignty in big shift

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ERUSALEM—President Donald J. Trump abruptly declared on Thursday the US will recognize Israel’s sovereignty over the disputed Golan Heights, a major shift in American policy that gives Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu a political boost a month before what is expected to be a close election.

The administration has been considering recognizing Israel’s sovereignty over the strategic highlands, which Israel captured from Syria in 1967, for some time and Netanyahu had pressed the matter with visiting Secretary of State Mike Pompeo just a day earlier.

US and Israeli officials said on Wednesday they had not expected a decision until next week, when Netanyahu is to visit the US. But in a tweet that appeared to catch many by surprise, Trump said the time had come for the United States to take the step, which Netanyahu warmly welcomed as a “miracle” on the Jewish holiday of Purim.

“After 52 years it is time for the United States to fully recognize Israel’s Sovereignty over the Golan Heights, which is of critical strategic and security importance to the State of Israel and Regional Stability!” Trump tweeted.

The US will be the first country to recognize Israeli sovereignty over the Golan, which the rest of the international community regards as disputed territor y occupied by Israel whose status should be determined by negotiations between Israel and Syria. Attempts to bring Israel and Syria to the table have failed. It was not immediately clear how a U.N. peacekeeping force in the Golan might be affected by the US move. That force’s mandate expires at the end of June.

There had been signals a decision was coming. Last week, in its annual human rights report, the State Department dropped the phrase “Israeli-occupied ” from the Golan Heights section, instead calling it “Israeli-controlled.”

Pompeo had brushed questions about the change aside, insisting even earlier on Thursday that there

was no change in policy. However, in comments to reporters ahead of a Purim dinner with Netanyahu and his wife at their Jerusalem home, Pompeo hailed the shift. “ Tonight, President Trump made the decision to recognize that that hard-fought real estate, that important place, is proper to be a sovereign part of the state of Israel,” he said.

Netanyahu, who is embroiled in a fierce re-election campaign ahead of April 9 voting, smiled broadly while delivering his own remarks. “ We h a v e t h e m i r a c l e o f P u r im,” he sa id. “ T ha n k you President Tr u mp.”

Netanyahu has for weeks been stepping up longstanding Israeli requests for the US and others to recognize Israel’s sovereignty over the Golan. He has bolstered Israel’s traditional argument that the area has for all practical purposes been fully integrated into Israel by accusing Iran of trying to infiltrate terrorists from Syria into the plateau.

“At a time when Iran seeks to use Syria as a platform to destroy Israel, President Trump boldly recognizes Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights,” Netanyahu tweeted.

Trump’s announcement came as Pompeo was wrapping up a two-day visit to Jerusalem during which he lauded warm ties with Israel, met with Netanyahu on at least three separate occasions and promised to step up pressure on Iran.

Pompeo’s events with Netanyahu included a visit to the Western Wall that made him the highestranking US official to visit the Jewish holy site with any Israeli leader and appeared to further signal the Trump administration’s

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, left, shakes hands with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, during their visit to Netanyahu’s official residence in Jerusalem on Thursday March 21, 2019. Netanyahu has praised US President Donald Trump’s recognition of its control over the Golan Heights as a holiday “miracle.” AMIR COHEN/POOL VIA AP

support for Israel’s control of the contested city. Trump has recognized Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and moved the US Embassy there from Tel Aviv, prompting the Palestinians to sever ties with the administration.

Pompeo’s presence also appeared to signal Trump’s support for Netanyahu, the political candidate. Netanyahu, facing a tough challenge from a popular former military chief and reeling from a series of corruption allegations, has repeatedly sought to focus attention on his foreign policy record and strong ties with Trump.

“The Trump administration is absolutely endorsing Netanyahu,” said Alon Pinkas, former consul general of Israel in New York. “It’s very rare for a secretary of state to come visit an Israeli prime minister without any apparent diplomatic reason justifying it, without a peace process, without any regional agenda.”

Pompeo sa id h i s t r ip h ad nothing to do with politics or US policy on Jerusalem, although for decades American officials refrained from visiting the Western Wall with Israeli leaders to avoid the appearance of recognizing Israeli sovereignty over the city’s most sensitive holy sites.

Israel captured east Jerusalem and the Old City in the 1967 Mideast war. The Palestinians seek east Jerusalem as the capital of a future state.

“I’m going to stay far away from the decisions that the Israeli people will make here in a few weeks,” Pompeo told reporters. “It wouldn’t be appropriate for the US

secretary of state to comment on Israeli domestic politics.”

The Old City is home to the Western Wall and the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, where tradition says Jesus was entombed and resurrected. Pompeo, a Christian, also stopped at the church.

Next to the Western Wall is a hilltop compound revered by Jews as the Temple Mount and by Muslims as the Noble Sanctuary. The spot, which once housed the biblical Jewish Temples, is the holiest site in Judaism and today is home to the Al-Aqsa Mosque, the thirdholiest site in Islam.

The competing claims to the site are a frequent source of tension and lie at the heart of the IsraeliPalestinian conflict.

When Trump recognized Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, he said it did not determine the city’s final borders. But the gesture was perceived as unfairly siding with Israel and prompted the Palestinians to cut contacts with US officials. The Palestinians have already rejected a planned Mideast peace initiative by the administration.

Nabil Abu Rudeineh, spokesman for Palestinian President M a h moud A bba s, s a id Pom peo’s visit added additional obstacles to peace hopes. “W hile they are claiming to be tr ying to solve the conf lict, such acts only make it more difficult to resolve,” he said.

While previous secretaries of state have traditionally met with the Palestinians when visiting the region, Pompeo has no such talks planned. AP

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

Facebook left hundreds of millions of passwords readable by employees

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A N F R A NC I S C O — Fa c e book left hundreds of mill ions of user password s readable by its employees for years, the company acknowledged on Thursday after a security researcher exposed the lapse.

By storing passwords in readable plain text, Facebook violated fundamental computer-security practices. Those call for organizations and web sites to save passwords in a scrambled form that makes it almost impossible to recover the original text. “ There is no valid reason why anyone in an organization, especially the size of Facebook, needs to have access to users’ passwords in plain text,” said c ybersec u r it y e x per t A nd rei Barysevich of Recorded Future.

Facebook said there is no evidence its employees abused access to this data. But thousands of employees could have searched them.

The company said the passwords were stored on internal company servers, where no outsiders could access them. Even so, some privacy experts suggested that users change their Facebook passwords.

The incident reveals yet another huge and basic oversight at a company that insists it is a responsible guardian for the personal data of its 2.3 billion users worldwide.

The security blog KrebsOnSecurity said Facebook may have left the passwords of some 600 million Facebook users vulnerable. In a blog post, Facebook said it will likely notify “ hundreds of millions” of Facebook Lite users, millions of Facebook users and tens of thousands of Instagram users that their passwords were stored in plain text.

Facebook Lite is a version designed for people with older phones or low-speed Internet connections.

It is used primarily in developing countries.

Last week, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg touted a new “privacyfocused vision “ for the social network that would emphasize private communication over public sharing. The company wants to encourage small groups of people to carry on encrypted conversations that neither Facebook nor any other outsider can read.

The fact that the company couldn’t manage to do something as simple as encrypting passwords, however, raises questions about its ability to manage more complex encryption issues f lawlessly.

Facebook said it discovered the problem in January. But security researcher Brian Krebs wrote that in some cases the passwords had been stored in

plain text since 2012. Facebook Lite launched in 2015 and Facebook bought Instagram in 2012.

The problem, according to Facebook, wasn’t due to a single bug.

During a routine review in January, it said, it found that the plain text passwords were unintentionally captured and stored in its internal storage systems. This happened in a variety of circumstances—for example, when an app crashed and the resulting crash log included a captured password.

But Alex Holden, the founder of Hold Security, said Facebook’s explanation is not an excuse for sloppy security practices that allowed so many passwords to be exposed internally.

Recorded Future’s Barysevich said he could not recall any major company caught leaving so many passwords exposed. He said he’s seen a number of instances where much smaller organizations made such information readily available—not just to programmers but also to customer support teams.

Security analyst Troy Hunt, who runs the “ haveibeenpwned. com” data breach website, said the situation may be embarrassing for Facebook but not dangerous unless an adversary gained access to the passwords.

Facebook has had major breaches, most recently in September when attackers accessed some 29 million accounts.

Jake Williams, president of Rendition Infosec, said storing passwords in plain text is “unfortunately more common than most of the industry talks about” and tends to happen when developers are trying to rid a system of bugs.

He said the Facebook blog post suggests storing passwords in plain text may have been “a sanctioned practice,” although he said it’s also possible a “rogue development team” was to blame.

Hunt and Krebs both likened Facebook ’s failure to similar stumbles last year on a far smaller scale at Twitter and GitHub; the latter is a site where developers store code and track projects.

In those cases, software bugs were blamed for accidentally storing plaintext passwords in internal logs.

Facebook’s normal procedure for passwords is to store them encoded, the company noted on Thursday in its blog post.

That’s good to know, although Facebook engineers apparently added code that defeated the safeguard, said security researcher Rob Graham. “They have all the proper locks on the doors, but somebody left the window open,” he said. AP

BOEING TO MAKE SAFETY FEATURE STANDARD ON TROUBLED MAX JETS B OEING will make standard on its troubled new airliner a safety feature that might have helped the crew of a jet that crashed shortly after takeoff last year in Indonesia, killing everyone on board.

The equipment, which had been offered as an option, alerts pilots of faulty information from key sensors. It will now be included on every 737 Max as part of changes that Boeing is rushing to complete on the jets by early next week, according to two people familiar with the changes.

The people spoke on condition of anonymity because Boeing and federal regulators are still discussing details of the upgrade to the Max fleet, which was grounded worldwide after a second deadly crash this month in Ethiopia.

The cause of the accidents has not been determined, but investigators probing the crash of a Lion Air Max jet have focused on an automated system designed to use information from two sensors to help prevent a dangerous aerodynamic stall.

The sensors measure whether the plane is pointed up, down or level in relation to the direction of onrushing air. Software on the Max

can push the plane’s nose down if data from one of the sensors indicates the plane is tilted up so sharply that it could stall and fall from the sky.

In the Lion Air case, the sensors malfunctioned and gave wildly conflicting information, and the plane crashed minutes after takeoff. A preliminary report described a grim fight by the pilots to control the plane as it pitched downward more than two dozen times.

It is not known whether the same flightcontrol system played a role in the March 10 crash of the Ethiopian Airlines jet shortly after takeoff from Addis Ababa, but regulators say both planes had similar erratic flight paths, an important part of their decision to ground the roughly 370 Max planes around the world.

The Lion Air plane also lacked another optional feature: gauges or displays that would let pilots see at a glance the up-or-down direction of the plane’s nose. It was unclear whether such“angle of attack” or AOA gauges will also become standard equipment on the Max. Boeing declined to say why the options were not standard equipment sooner.

American Airlines has both options on its Boeing 737s. Dennis Tajer, a Boeing 737 captain

for American and spokesman for its pilots’ union, said he could not understand why Boeing would make the alert system standard but not do the same with the gauges.

“Anyone who suggests that we should just have one of those two items—the alert and not the AOA gauges—is not embracing giving pilots all the information they should have,” he said.

Tajer said the plane can be flown safely without the gauges—most small planes don’t have them—“but it’s a broader margin of safety if you’ve got it.”

Pilots often rely on separate sensors measuring airspeed to determine if they are in danger of stalling. That is true of the earlier models of the Boeing 737. The Max is different because flight-control software called MCAS can pitch the nose down based on readings from a single AOA sensor.

Max jets flown by Lion Air and Ethiopian Airlines lacked both the sensor-disagreement warning and AOA gauges, according to the New York Times, which first reported Boeing’s decision to make the warning standard. Boeing declined to comment on details of customer orders.

The average list price for a 737 Max 8 is $121.6 million, according the company’s website, although airlines routinely receive deep discounts. Boeing charges extra for additional features but won’t discuss those numbers, calling it valuable proprietary information.

Low-cost carriers such as Indonesia’s Lion Air may be more likely than the larger airlines to turn down options to save money.

Since both Max crashes involved foreign airlines, and US and Canadian carriers have had little trouble, problems may have arisen with pilot training in developing countries, said John Goglia, a former member of the US National Transportation Safety Board and an expert in aircraft maintenance.

Many airlines, he said, buy training programs from third-party vendors and not from Boeing because Boeing’s program costs more.

Boeing’s training also requires many hours of pilot work, which some airlines don’t want.

The CEO of Ethiopian Airlines said Thursday that the carrier’s pilots went through all the extra training required by Boeing and the US Federal Aviation Administration to fly the 737

Max 8 jet that crashed. The accident killed 157 people from 35 countries.

Tewolde Gebremariam said the training was meant to help crews shift from an older model of the 737 to the Max 8, which entered airline service in 2017. In a statement, he said pilots were also made aware of an emergency directive issued by the FAA after the Lion Air crash, which killed 189 people.

The New York Times reported that the pilots of the Ethiopian plane never trained in a simulator for the plane. Gebremariam said that the 737 Max simulator is not designed to imitate problems in the new jet’s flight-control software. He declined to say whether the pilots had trained on the simulator.

After the Lion Air accident, Boeing reminded pilots of the process for stopping the plane’s automatic nose-down tilt, including flipping two cutoff switches near the pilot’s knees. That procedure is unchanged from earlier 737s, and pilots are expected to know it.

John Hansman, an aeronautics professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, said the Ethiopian Airlines pilots clearly struggled to control the plane and might have been too

preoccupied to realize whether the anti-stall system was malfunctioning.

“All you know is the airplane is not flying correctly. You’re trying to figure it out at the same time you’re trying to fly an airplane, which is difficult,” Hansman said. He believes the crashes show the need for more pilot training, whether it is done on a simulator, a computer or an iPad, which is becoming more common at airlines.

William Waldock, a professor of safety science at Embry Riddle Aeronautical University, said it is essential that pilots get simulator training on handling a failure of the anti-stall system.

“If they want to put the Max back into service, they have got to get that system so that whatever you are training is what you are going to experience in a real flight,” he said.

A spokesman for CAE, the world’s leading maker of flight simulators, said the company has sold about 40 Max simulators. US airlines expect to begin receiving them late this year.

A spokesman for the FAA declined to say whether the agency would require new, additional training for pilots in Max simulators before it lets the planes resume flying. AP

Faith

Sunday

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

3RD SUNDAY IN LENT: ‘LUKE 13:1-9’

EVERYONE NEEDS CONVERSION MSGR. JOSEFINO S. RAMIREZ SUNDAY GOSPEL IN OUR LIFE

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ODAY’S gospel contains very strong words from Jesus Christ: “Unless you repent, you will all perish!” (Luke 13:5).

Jesus, who referred to Himself as being meek and humble, who attracted the little children to Himself, is the very same person who now has these very strong words.

Why? Can He really make such a general statement and apply it to all of us? Could He be making a sweeping generalization or a rash judgment? That is very unlikely if we consider that Jesus Christ is God and, therefore, He knows the inner secrets of each human heart.

It must be true that we all are in need of repentance, of conversion. We can understand this better if we look inside us.

Every man is in the world in order to know, love and serve God. God is the last end of every man, and, therefore, each has to move gradually toward God. Yet we see that we are often deflected from this end.

Saint Augustine referred to sin as turning away from God in order to direct ourselves to temptations. It is to give up the Creator for the sake of His creation. We do this when we deliberately refuse to live according to the moral order to established by God. Since all of us are easily attracted by

temptations (pleasure, greed, power, fame, etc.), then we are all in need of repentance. We need to reverse that tendency inside each one of us so that we turn away from temptations in order to direct ourselves toward God. If not, we shall perish. We shall fail to reach our ultimate end. We shall fail to achieve the objective purpose of our life. We shall end up unhappy here on Earth, and with the very serious possibility of not achieving the eternal life of heaven.

The season of Lent is a season of penance.

It is not a season of sadness, but of joy. When a person, who is far from God, decides to repent and to be reconciled with God, he experiences a profound joy.

So the invitation of Christ to repentance, coupled with what seems to be a warning, can be compared to the loving warnings of a parent who knows what is the best for the child. The parents, in warning a child, do not wish to make the child’s life miserable.

On the contrary, they give that warning because they see much further, and they want the best for their children.

Jesus Christ sees things from the perspective of eternity. And so He invites us to that which will be the best for us—repentance and conversion.

SAINT ELIZABETH OF HUNGARY

By Corazon Damo-Santiago

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RINCESS Elizabeth of Hungary refused to wear the bejewelled crown of gold on her wedding day. “How can I, when our dear Lord wears but a crown of thorns.”

She was 14 and Louis (Ludwig IV), the groom, was 20. He was heir of Herman, who ruled the Landgravine of Thuringia in central Germany. Although his mother Sophia and sister Agnes expressed their dislike for Elizabeth, Louis loved her and would not exchange her, even for a “mountain of gold.”

To Lord Gauthier, Louis said: “Let them think or say of her what they please. I say this: that I love her, and love nothing better in this world. I will have my Elizabeth, she is dearer to me for her virtue and piety than all the kingdom and riches of the Earth,” Joan Carroll Cruz narrated in Secular Saints.

Fullness of charity

ELIZABETH was four years old when her parents, King Andrew II of Hungary and Queen Gertrude of Merania, sent her to live in the Thuringian Castle of Wartburg. For political alliance, she was betrothed to be the future wife of Louis, who was then 10 years old.

Although not wholeheartedly welcomed by the royal family, she was kind, patient, modest and fervent in prayer life. She and

Louis grew up as good friends.

When the Franciscans arrived in Eisenach, she tried her best to lead a life of generosity, kindness and penance, and follow the ideals of Saint Francis, who then was still alive.

Elizabeth was the first German to become a member of the Third Order of Franciscans.

Since Wartburg Castle was on a steep rock, and the old and sick cannot climb the kneesmasher place, she would go at the base of the rock and feed and care for the sick herself.

Cruz wrote that Elizabeth “fed 900 daily at her gate, who came from different parts of the country. But idleness was not tolerated among the abled poor. She assigned them to do tasks according to their physical capacities.” Louis tolerated her generosity to the needy. He would defend her that “her charities will bring upon us divine blessings.”

Charles Forbes Rene de Montalembart in the Hagiography of the Saint narrated how Queen Sophia was horrified when Elizabeth laid leper Helias of Eisernach in the bed that the couple shared. She called for his son to show the unspeakable scene.

Instead of a leper, Louis saw a “figure of Christ crucified on the bed” that left the queen speechless.

Elizabeth’s genuine concern for the needy intensified when Germany suffered famine and plague in 1225. People flocked to the

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PHL Knights pray for world’s persecuted Christians

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HE Knights of Columbus (K of C)-Philippines prayed for Christians suffering persecution around the world as they marked the feast of Saint Joseph, protector of the Church, on March 19.

The Filipino Knights unite with other members of the order worldwide in grieving the violence that plagues churches across the globe.

Led by K of C Supreme Director Bro. Jose Reyes Jr., dozens gathered in Manila to pray the rosary, culminating a “Triduum Prayer for Peace.”

The Knights of Columbus Supreme Council has chosen this intention following the twin blasts

that hit a packed church in Sulu on January 27.

The bombings of the Mount Carmel Cathedral in Jolo City left at least 23 people dead, including two Knights, and more than 100 were hurt.

Brothers Leo Herbolario of Fr. Emile Buldoc Council 8181 and Reynaldo Pescadera of Bishop Francis McSorley Council 4552 were among those who died in the attacks.

Among the injured were Oscar Asares, Arturo Ablay and Vincent Unding, all of Council 8181, and Roderick Hoe of Jolo Carmelite Council 9419.

After hearing the incident, Supreme Knight Carl Anderson immediately ordered a worldwide prayer for the victims of the church attacks.

“We are also offering this not only for Mindanao but for all our persecuted brothers and sisters all over the world,” said Reyes, who is also the K of C Luzon North Deputy and chairman of the Knights of Columbus Fraternal Association of the Philippines Inc. (KCFAPI).

An estimated 200 million Christians globally face the threat of persecution because of their faith.

The Knights of Columbus Supreme Council has pledged to financially assist the victims

and their families, regardless of their religion.

Sulu is a predominantly Muslim province, where security forces are fighting several groups that claim allegiance to Islamic State.

“This is the Knights of Columbus. We are not exclusive. We are inclusive because love is inclusive,” said Msgr. Pedro Quitorio III, KCFAPI’s Spiritual Director.

The Supreme Council will also donate financial assistance for the repair of the Jolo cathedral, wh ic h rema ins u nused since t he bombings.

“We are reaching out in prayer and suppor t for our brot her Knights and their families in their time of grief and loss, remembering especially those who were killed or injured in this senseless attack on a Catholic sanctuary,” Anderson earlier said. CBCPNews

hospital she built at the foot of the rock where the castle was located. She exhausted even the grains of the palace, which made the court members complain.

‘The world is dead to me’

THE Crusades organized by the church to free the Holy Land from Islam had been raging for more than a century. When Frederick II, emperor of Germany, joined the fifth Crusade in 1227, Louis, a vassal of the emperor, was duty-bound to join.

Louis did not reach the Holy Land. He died of the plague in Otranto, Italy, on September 11, 1227. Elizabeth learned about it only in October after the birth of their second daughter. In sorrow, “the world is dead to me,” she cried.

Louis’s brother, Henry, acted as regent for his son Herman, who was only five years old. Elizabeth was accused of exhausting the money of the kingdom, and thus was dispossessed of all properties.

With her two children, Elizabeth sought refuge with her Aunt Matilde, Abess of Kitzengen. Her uncle Eckembert, Bishop of Bamberg, offered the Castle of Pottenstein for their shelter.

When Louis’s body arrived, Elizabeth went to see his body unconsoled in her grief. He was buried in the Abbey Church at Reynhartsbrunn, which he has chosen to be his burial ground.

Reconciliation followed with Henry.

Financial provisions were provided for Elizabeth and her children. Bishop Eckembert forced her to remarry, but she adamantly answered no. She even threatened to cut her nose to discourage men from pursuing her.

Life of ascetism

ELIZABETH lived in austerity in a cottage beside a hospice she built to care for the poor, sick and aged.

Conrad of Marburg, Inquisitor of Heretics assigned by Pope Honorius as her spiritual adviser when her husband was alive, remained as her spiritual guide. He replaced her two ladies in waiting dear to her, one of them Guda, who was with her since childhood, and substituted two harsh females.

Conrad stopped her from begging for for alms and caring for leprous people to avoid infection. Isentrude, her attendant, repor ted: “Master Conrad tried her constancy in many ways, broke her will in all things and clung to God alone.”

Two years after, her health deteriorated and she died on November 17, 1231, at the age of 24 For three days her body was on the chapel of the hospice that she built, where many miracles took place.

Saint Elizabeth is the patron of beggars, bakers and brides.

She was canonized by Pope Gregory IX in 1235. Her relics were transferred to the church of Saint Elizabeth in Marburg, built by her brother-in-law.

SAINT Elizabeth washing a sick man, a scene from the main altar of Saint Elizabeth Cathedral in Kassa, Slovakia; 15th century WIKIMEDIA COMMONS

Sunday, March 24, 2019

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

MANILA Archbishop Luis Antonio Cardinal Tagle (fourth from left) at the Santisima Trinidad Parish on March 16 with (from left) guest priest Fr. Don Graciano, Auxiliary Priest Augusto Abril, former Parish Priest Fr. Domingo Baybay, Parish Priest Joselito Buenafe and resident guest priest Fr.Theophilus Sothtun FACEBOOK SANTISIMA TRINIDAD PARISH

Twin events: Mount Carmel Natl Shrine to be declared as minor basilica; Santisima Trinidad Parish’s 25th year

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HE National Shrine of Our Lady of Mount Carmel on Doña Juana Rodriguez Avenue (formerly Broadway Avenue) will be declared as a minor basilica on Monday, March 25.

Devotee and pilgrims of Our Lady of Mount Carmel are invited to attend the solemn event during the 6 p.m. Mass.

A procession will be held after the Mass.

On the same day, the Santisima Trinidad Parish on Estrada corner Dian Streets in Manila will celebrate its silver jubilee.

The event was preceded by a three-day Trinity Congress with the closing Mass on March 16 presided by Manila Archbishop Luis Antonio Cardinal Tagle.

A Triduum Mass started on Friday with Fr. Domino Baybay, Manila Auxiliary Bishop Broderick Pabillo, DD, (Saturday), and Archbishop Emeritus of Manila Gaudencio Cardinal Rosales, (Sunday, 9. a.m.).

A medical mission, a Catholic Mass Media Awards-sponsored “Soup Kitchen for the Poor” and a “Sayaw Santatlo” were held on Saturday. A “Parada Bente Singko” will be held on March 24 at 3 p.m.

To c ap t he ce lebrat ion , a Thanksgiving Mass to be presided by Novaliches Bishop Emeritus Teodoro Bacani will be held on Monday at 6 p.m.

THE National Shrine of Our Lady of Mount Carmel MTCARMELSHRINE.COM

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Science

BusinessMirror

Sunday, March 24, 2019

Sunday

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

‘Love of country’ prompts Filipino scientists abroad to serve w PHL

‘L

Story & photo by Stephanie Tumampos

OVE of country” motivates Filipino scientists who are already living abroad to apply for the “Balik Scientist” program (BSP) of the Department of Science and Technology (DOST).

Take the case of Dr. Rodrigo Jamisola Jr., who is currently working on the second phase of his short-term visit for his BSP project and is staying in the country for another six days until March 30.

Speaking to the BusinessMirror, Jamisola said he aimed to provide technical expertise on robotics in three universities, namely, Batangas State University (BSU), Rizal Technological University and Bulacan State University in the first phase of his BSP program last year from October 9 to November 2, or for 25 days.

At the DOSTkusyon Balik Scientist Forum at the Sulo Hotel on March 20, Jamisola explained that the three universities accomplished proposals for projects that address certain issues, such as developing four autonomous underwater vehicles to monitor Isla Verde passage for BSU, developing another four autonomous underwater vehicles to explore the Philippine Benham Rise and building a touch kiosk, hologram, virtual reality and 4D for immersive interaction and historical preservation of Barasoain Museum.

“I have identified these projects and I’m glad the institutions have already made proposals that would cost about P12 million each, and hopefully be approved for funding to create a laboratory for each university and make these proposals into reality,” Jamisola said.

As a current senior lecturer of the Botswana International University of Science and Technology in Botswana, Southern Africa, he hopes that the Philippines

pushes through to a higher level of scientific and technological advancement.

“I want Filipino universities to advance. I want to see these projects used not only for a particular area, such as the Benham Rise, but throughout the Philippine waters,” Jamisola said.

Jamisola is encouraging Filipinos to also take part in improving the S&T situation in the country by taking further studies and serve the nation.

According to him, the BSP of the DOST is helping him give back to the country and share his learnings.

Challenge: To have 300 S&T staff per million population SCIENCE Undersecretary Dr. Carol M. Yorobe for S&T Services told the BusinessMirror in an interview that for this year “a total of 67 Balik Scientists will share their expertise to Filipinos.”

With a budget of P400 million for research in different disciplines like agriculture, industry and health, the 67 Balik Scientists can have a huge advantage of good funding for their proposals this year alone.

Yorobe also said that the science department aims to accomplish the 300 S&T staff per million population for 2022.

“We already have around 270 [S&T personnel] per million [of the Filipino population] out of the 380 required by the United Nations,” Yorobe told the BusinessMirror. “We are aiming at 300 S&T personnel mark for the Philippine Development Plan period of 2022.”

She cited that it is quite a challenge, but nonetheless, the BSP is a huge contributor in achieving that goal.

“The BSP is involved in research. If the scientists can upgrade the country’s S&T capability either in the academe or industry, the younger generations will be encouraged to go into more research and, therefore, help in adding up the numbers,” Yorobe said.

She explained that every year, the BSP will increase the number by adding 50 percent of the current number for the following year.

With the Balik Scientist Act signed by President Duterte last year, the entire process of selecting qualified scientists has been simplified and more incentives are in store for them.

The incentives include additional insurance, especially on health, endorsement of membership at the National Research Council of the Philippines and a one-time P500,000 incentive if the proposed program they generated has outstanding results after an evaluation by the National Academy of Science and Technology.

Also, the process of approving Balik Scientists’ proposals has been simplified, giving Filipino scientists abroad easier procedures for application to the program.

As long as my health is good and I am able, I am willing to render my service to the country by applying to the Balik Scientist Program again and again.”

—Comiso

FILIPINO Scientists (from left) Dr. Rodrigo Jamisola Jr., Dr. Emmanuel S. Baja and Dr. Josefino Comiso discuss their respective experiences from the Balik Scientists Program at the DOSTKusyon Forum held at a Quezon City hotel on March 20.

Balik Scientists return for good

“SOME Ba l i k Sc ient ists have a l re ady re pat r i ate d a nd a re now absorbed by t hei r host i n s t it u t i o n ,” Yo r o b e n o t e d .

One sc ient ist sha red h is e xper ience w it h t he DOST ’s BSP DOST Kusyon for u m.

Dr. Emma nuel S. Baja, a n ex per t in env ironmenta l epidemiolog y, which deter mines h o w e n v i r o n m e nt a l f a c t o r s and e x posures af fect human hea lth, retur ned to the countr y and stayed at the University of the Philippines Manila for good after his Ba lik Scientist ex per ience in 2012.

“I have always wanted to come back home,” Baja said.

He insisted that the Philippines has a lot more exciting research in his field rather than in any country. A former postdoctoral researcher at the Harvard School of Public Health, he had to focus on one kind of research.

In the country, Baja has done and is currently doing researches on the use of medical marijuana in the Philippines, determining social and economic cost of medical cannabis to Filipinos, exposure assessment of the health of Metro Manila Development Authority traffic enforcers, developing an online mobile application game for HIV engagement and testing and a lot more.

‘Joining BSP again and again’

BESIDES repatriation, a Filipino scientist, who is currently at the United States’s, National Aeronautics and Space Administration Goddard Space Flight Center, has repeatedly returned to the country through the Balik Scientist Program.

A four-time Balik Scientist, Dr. Josefino Comiso, an expert in remote sensing and climate change, is currently on a short-term engagement with the Institute of Environmental Science and Meteorology of the University of the Philippines Diliman.

“I share my knowledge and techniques for assessing the occurrence and modelling of drought from satellite data,” Comiso told the BusinessMirror.

Although he is getting older, he said he still would like to serve the country through the BSP. Comiso added: “As long as my health is good and I am able, I am willing to render my service to the country by applying to the Balik Scientist Program again and again.”

The Balik Scientist Program is an open-ended platform for scientists.

Yorobe told the BusinessMirror that, “There is an unlimited opportunity for each Balik Scientist to reapply for the program because it only answers if there is still a need for the field, and if they [the scientists] are the only experts on the field.”

Legislators apprised on PHL biosafety regulations

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ORE than 100 Legislative officials from the House of Representatives and selected members of the Philippine Judicial Academy (Philja) were apprised on the Philippine regulatory system for genetically modified crops in a briefing held at the House of Representatives on February 27.

In the latest briefing, the legislative officials were given thorough information on the Philippine Regulatory System for Genetically Modified Crops: DOSTDA-DENR-DOH-DILG Joint Department Circular (JDC) No. 1, series of 2016.

Representatives from the Departments of Agriculture (DA), Health (DOH), Science and Technology (DOST), the Interior and Local Government (DILG), and Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) explained to the participants the new regulatory guidelines on biotech crops.

They also provided factual and science-based information pertaining to the science, as well as the environmental and food safety of biotech products.

Expressing his support, Rep. E r ico A r i s t ot le A u me nt a d o, chairman of the House Committee on Science and Technology,

said legislation should be more empirical and scientific. Donald Caballero, Secretary of the Committee on S&T, read Aumentado’s message on his behalf.

Aumentado also noted that the activity is an innovation toward the realization of Research for Development (R4D), which will strengthen the role of science and basic research in creating meaningful governance through policymaking and legislation.

Meanwhile, Director-Coordinator Annalyn Lopez of the DABiotechnology Program Office (DA-BPO), noted that though some find the current regulatory

requirements to be a hurdle, science has enabled the evolution of regulatory approaches, and it can be used to improve the effectiveness and agility of the country’s regulatory system.

The briefing was organized by the DA-BPO, the Southeast Asian Regional Center for Graduate Study and Research in Agriculture Biotechnology Information Center and the International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-biotech Applications. It was the tenth in the series of public briefings held nationwide by the DA-BPO, Searca and ISA A A since 2015.

THE Remote Multi-Mission Antenna System facility is housed in the antenna bay compound of Francisco Bangoy International Airport. DOST-DAVAO REGION

PHL TO OPERATE LARGEST SATELLITE-DATA GROUND RECEIVING STATION IN DAVAO CITY

By Manuel T. Cayon Mindanao Bureau Chief

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AVAO CITY—The government put up its largest ground receiving station that is able to receive higher frequency data fed from satellite stations in space, the Department of Science and Technology (DOST) said on Wednesday.

The DOST said the ground receiving station is the second to be established by the Philippine Earth Data Resource and Observation (Pedro) Center. This one, though, would have a larger moving antenna with a 7.3-meter diameter, “which is capable of receiving higher-frequency data.” The first is at the DOST-Advanced Science and Technology Institute (Asti) facility at the University of Philippines (UP) Diliman in Quezon City.

“The station has a 40-foot container van to serve as the control room”, it added.

The Philippines’s Diwata-2 microsatellite, which was launched into space from Japan on October 29, 2018, is expected to feed data to Pedro.

Harold Bryan Paler, senior science research specialist at the DOST-Asti, conducted the orientation recently to the DOST Davao regional personnel on the operation, maintenance and

troubleshooting of the station. Paler is also the operations team lead of the PhilippineMicrosat Ground Receiving Station Project.

The Pedro would operate the ground receiving station “in time for the DOST Regional Science and Technology Week in July.”

The DOST said the ground facility “is designed to communicate with Earth observation satellites deployed in space by receiving, processing, exploiting and distributing space-borne imagery and derive information from remote-sensing satellites for various applications, such as disaster mitigation, natural-resource management, environmental monitoring, pollution control, energy exploration, intelligence and emergency response management.”

It said that the project is part of a multiagency research and development effort of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, UP Diliman, DOST-Asti and two Japanese academic institutions, Tohoku University and Hokkaido University, under the Space Technology and Applications Mastery, Innovation and Advancement Program, which succeeded the Philippine Scientific Earth Observation Micro-satellite Program.

The Diwata-2 microsatellite is part of this program.

PHILIPPINE SCIENCE CENTRUM IS MORE FUN WITH NEW HEALTH AND TECH GALLERY

STUDENTS at the PSC’s Sneeze and Disease exhibit PSC PHOTO

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CIENCE is more fun at Philippine Science Centrum (PSC). This is made possible by the launching of the Health and Technology Gallery last month at the PSC, the flagship program of the Philippine Foundation for Science and Technology (PFST).

The gallery aims to develop interactive exhibits aligned with research areas, the National Unified Health Research Agenda 2017-2022, and with the health and science education curriculum.

It also aims to promote understanding, positive attitude, commitment and active engagement in taking care of health among students and teachers, and the general public.

Sponsored by the Department of Science and Technology-Philippine Council for Health and Research Development (PCHRD), the new gallery is comprised of six exhibits: drug discovery (Vaccine); functional foods (Phytonutrients); dengue (Dengue Virus); hospital equipment and biomedical devices (Test Your Eyesight): information and communication technologies for health (Healthy App Kiosk and Wireless Medical Devices); and health and climate change adaptation (Sneeze and Disease).

Gracing the occasion were Dr. Israel Francis A. Pargas, senior vice president of Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (PhilHealth) as guest

speaker and Alysya Marie Pedraza of PCHRD, representing Director Jaime Montoya.

Pargas discussed the government’s response on the current health outbreak in terms of awareness and prevention, and PhilHealth’s collaboration with academe by making health education part of the current education curriculum.

He also mentioned about the recently signed bill on Universal Health Care that benefits every Filipino.

Pargas commended PFST-PSC for taking the lead toward health-information campaign and thanked PCHRD for partnering with an informal learning facility like the PSC. PFST-PSC is grateful for PCHRD for believing that PSC is one of the right channels for promoting public understanding on health.

The launching of exhibits was the highlight of PSC‘s 29th anniversary celebration.

PFST Chairman Filemon T. Berba Jr. and President Rodolfo S. Salazar assured the stakeholders that PFST-PSC will continue to provide engaging exhibits and activities toward better understanding and appreciation of science.

Also present during the launching were representatives from academe, private sector, medical and health practitioners and from the local government.

Tourism&Entertainment BusinessMirror

Editor: Carla Mortel-Baricaua

LAKBAY NORTE

Baler without the surf board

Sunday, March 24, 2019

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Pagsanjan marks grand 350th-year fest

LAGASLAS Bangkero Festival’s street dancing

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RESHAPED by a recent landslide, Ditumabo Falls remains a wonderful sight.

Story by Marky Ramone Go

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Photos by Mac Dillera courtesy of NPVB

HRICE in over a decade, I found myself in Baler tugging a surf board. Despite failing to achieve consistent long rides over the waves, I’ve always cherished the vibe reigning in this seaside town.

There is this inexplicable vibrant subculture that continue to attract an expanding list of friends and acquaintances of mine into re-rooting themselves amongst the surfing community here.

Many decades removed from the aftermath of the laborious shooting of Apocalypse Now, which gave birth to the country’s arguably first surfing location when the film crew left their surf boards behind, Baler has become synonymous with the sport of surfing.

While the film’s menacing character Colonel Kilgore referred to the Viet Congs, “Charlie don’t surf,” in real-world Baler, everybody surfs.

Easily, one can conclude that one cannot enjoy Baler without surfing.

That’s what I thought, too. I can never be more wrong. Because fourth time around, as part of this year’s Lakbay Norte media group, I got to experience Baler sans a surfboard (almost) and had a wonderful time doing it.

Baler Heritage Walk

BEFORE Francis Ford Coppola took his film’s Captain Willard into the soil of Baler to shoot scenes for his iconic Vietnam War film, Baler has been the setting of the real-life battle in what is known as the “Siege of Baler.” The standoff lasted 337 days after Filipino revolutionaries first surrounded and laid siege to Spanish troops holed up inside San Luis Obispo de Tolosa Church. It only culminated when Spain relinquished the Philippines to the United States in December 1898.

Today, this church situated where the exact 17th-century original church was built, serves as the town’s

SAN Luis Obispo de Tolosa Church was proclaimed as a historical landmark in 2000

ONE has to eventually learn to surf in Baler.

heritage centerpiece. A few paces outside and you can reach the Dona Aurora Aragon-Quezon House. It was named after the former Philippine first lady and wife of President Manuel L. Quezon, who was assassinated by rebels in 1949. Despite being a replica of the original house where the young Aurora Aragon grew up, it stores valuable and historic items such as old photographs and the couple’s book collection.

A few steps away is the Museo de Baler. Marked by a steel statue of Manuel L. Quezon, said to be the only one in the Philippines, the museum houses more notable items, such as: World War II newspaper clippings, old photographs, art works, archeological finds and historical documents.

Wonderful nature rush

VARIOUS River tributaries ebb from the lush Sierra Madre Mountains leading to the Pacific Ocean. This orderly process of nature gave birth to stunning cascades, and quaint rivers are perfect for nature lovers and

HISTORY junkies will take delight of this museum’s collection pieces

solitude-seeking travelers.

One such water falls is the 50-meter-high Ditumabo Falls or otherwise called as “Mother Falls.” It requires a half-hour hike over an easy trail that knifes through the mountain parallel to the massive pipes of a hydraulic plant. The waterfalls’ wide basin surrounded by massive boulders is suitable for a refreshing dip, especially after a surfing session.

Following the highway, towards the east, shall lead you to stunning rock formations of Lukso-lukso islets seen on the coast of Diguisit beach.

The swell-chiseled tips of the rock formations also serve as a wonderful foreground to the sunrise just over the horizon of the Pacific Ocean. Just behind one of the islets is a natural pool that appears only at low tide.

Other places you can visit along the way are Diguisit Falls, Ermita Hill, where you can view the whole Sabang beach of Baler, and a centuryold Balete tree.

Isolated beach coves

A NUMBER of sea-voyage outfitters like Seasta Beach Resort and Lodging offers boat excursions further to the southeastern part of Baler, where numerous remote bays can be found. Picturesque panorama views of the Dimadimalangat rock formations and the Anyao islets will serve as beautiful precursors to the almost secluded Discalarin Cove. Regale at the sight of the azure-colored waters blending magnificently with the lush green peaks tipped with an old lighthouse and a weather station.

BALER is the birthplace of Aurora Aragon-Quezon.

On the northern east side from Baler, the distant coves of Dipaculao and Casiguran provides a more offthe-beaten path options for travelers desiring a more sheltered beach destination.

Thrilling inflatable rides

IF you are missing the body movement generated by surfing and yearning of some tumble-down water-splash action, then you shouldn’t miss the ocean-based activities offered by Buoyancy Water Sports. This company provides speedboat-towed inflatable rides starting from the chill Banana Boat, to the mildly wild UFO Couch that can sit up to eight people, and the thrilling Flying Fish.

Surf’s up, finally!

BUT of course, almost nobody leaves Baler without picking up a board. After the euphoric high from immersing at the many great outdoors, the gift of Baler settles down; the lure of the waves and the feeling of getting stoked still remains too hard to pass up. There is no better way to bookend one’s trip to Baler than riding the waves and to let Apocalypse Now’s Colonel Kilgore know that “Juan can surf.”

This article was written by the author after his participation in the Lakbay Norte 8, the media tour organized by North Philippines Visitors Bureau (NPVB), a nonstock, nonprofit organization, and spearheaded by the Manila North Tollways Corporation, the builder and concessionaire of the North Luzon Expressway.

HE charming town of Pagsanjan, one of the country’s pioneer tourist hotspots, marked a historic milestone as it recently celebrated its 350th foundation day through the weeklong Lagaslas Bangkero Festival.

Themed “Sa Panahong Lumipas, Pagsanjan Lalong Tumikas,” the event-filled fest was a fitting tribute to the bangkeros or boatmen who skillfully navigate and shoot the rapids all the way to the pictureperfect falls.

Festivities kicked off with the unveiling of the commemorative marker of the Spanish-era Puerta Real or Royal Gate by the National Historical Commission, which was built in 1878 to memorialize Pagsanjan’s glory years as Laguna’s provincial capital from 1688 to 1872. The site is believed to be the place where the town’s patroness, Our Lady of Guadalupe, appeared and drove away the pirates who were about to raid the town in the late 1800s.

The celebration coincides with the town’s patronal fiesta, which converges at the Diocesan Shrine of the Our Lady of Guadalupe whose first church was founded in 1687. In its Chapel of the Tilma is enshrined the stone where the Virgin Mary is believed to have appeared in Mexico.

Pagsanjan Mayor Maita JavierEjercito said the festival showcased the town’s road to progress over the decades. She said this year’s observance is special with the Seal of Good Local Governance they have received from the Department of the Interior and Local Government for their stewardship and sound fiscal management.

Pagsanjan was rated by the Department of Trade and Industry as the country’s sixth overall Most Competitive Municipality because of its efficiency, economic dynamism, infrastructure and resilience.

The town is also a national finalist in the Best BDRRMC and Best GEMS Categories of the Gawad Kalasag Award by the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management

MAYOR Maita Ejercito

Council, and various accolades from the Province of Laguna, national government agencies and socio-civic organizations.

Spicing up the festivities was a street-dancing contest depicting the exciting boat ride to Pagsanjan Falls, whose accompanying music was recorded by the lady mayor herself in an MTV. Adding color were a Korean Traditional Folklore Group show, a Chef War which put the spotlight on upcoming homegrown chefs, the Ginoong Bangkero pageant and the Lakan at Binibini ng Laguna with celebrity judges.

Other fringe events were drum and lyre competition, a hip-hop modern dance, a singing contest, a photography tilt, Christmas-related activities and screenings of awardwinning movies of former Laguna Gov. ER Ejercito.

Pagsanjan takes pride in its wellpreserved ancestral stone houses, as well as its vibrant culinary scene with its cozy homegrown themed restaurants, which attract food trippers from various parts of Laguna.

A new attraction is the San Isidro Hill Religious Eco-Tourism Park, which will become the newest tourist hot spot with its soothing panorama of Laguna de Bay sunset.

Built by the municipal government, it can be reached through a 292-step landscaped staircase, and will have a giant statue of the Our Lady of Guadalupe, prayer garden, public park and a multipurpose hall.

NYC & Company embarks on first trade mission to Southeast Asia

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YC & Company, New York City’s official destination-marketing organization, embarked on its first mission to Southeast Asia to engage top travel players from Singapore, Malaysia and the Philippines, following the opening of its representative office in the region in October 2018.

“Southeast Asia is a valuable emerging market for New York City, with an estimated 241,000 visitor arrivals in 2018, up 9 percent from 221,000 visitors in 2017,” said Makiko Masuda Healy, NYC & Company’s managing director, Tourism Market Development. “With our reinforced presence in the market and new direct flights from Manila and Singapore to NYC, we hope to see even further growth and look forward to engaging with leading travel professionals this week.”

New York City tourism partners joining the mission span a variety of travel experiences, including Hudson Yards, The Museum of Modern Art, Tour America Llc. and Wyndham Garden Brooklyn Sunset Park. Hertz will also participate as an in-market partner. Philippine Airlines is the official airline partner for the Manila Roadshow.

The New York City delegation visited key cities in Southeast Asia, with sales activities in Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia and Manila.

The program included destination seminars and workshops, as well as one-on-one meetings with leaders and product planners with top travel trade generating FIT and group sales.

“We are delighted to be the bridge between New York City tourism partners and top agents in Asia, facilitating face-to-face meetings with

some of our most important industry contacts and to grow and deepen their understanding on New York City as an innovative, meaningful and responsible leading global meeting and incentive destination,” says Ee Lian Lee, account director, Southeast Asia Representative Office of NYC & Company.

New York City welcomed a record 65.2 million visitors in 2018, representing the ninth consecutive year of tourism growth for the destination. The destination welcomed 13.5 million international travelers, including an estimated 241,000 visitors from the Philippines, Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand. On average, Southeast Asian visitors stay longer and spend more than other international travelers.

2019 is set to be a Monumental Year for New York City with several iconic and large-scale openings and developments debuting, including Hudson Yards, the largest private real-estate development in the history of the United States; The Shed; Statue of Liberty Museum; TWA Hotel; and an expanded and reimagined Museum of Modern Art. PAL launched its nonstop services between Manila and New York on October 29, 2018 using the Airbus A350-900. The 16-hour route between Ninoy Aquino International Airport and John F. Kennedy International Airport is served five times a week. It departs Manila on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday.

The aircraft is configured in a three-class layout, with 30 Business Class seats, 24 Premium Economy Class seats and 241 Economy Class seats.

A8 Sunday, March 24, 2019

Sports BusinessMirror

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

WATCH OUT for HACHIMURA

By John Marshall

S

The Associated Press

ALT LAKE CITY—Rui Hachimura leaned against a wall inside Las Vegas’s Orleans Arena, towering above the boom microphones and cameras being held by the reporters

below.

The Gonzaga big man patiently answered questions in Japanese for more than 15 minutes from the nearly two dozen reporters, including one who raised his hand and bowed after Hachimura gave him a thoughtful answer.

Hachimura is used to the attention by now.

Whether it’s back in his homeland of Japan or after a loss in the West Coast Conference tournament in Las Vegas, Hachimura always draws plenty of attention.

“I don’t mind it,” he said on Wednesday in Salt Lake City as another group of Japanese reporters waited to ask questions. “But they do ask a lot of the same questions.”

Hachimura has developed a huge following in Japan and in the United States from fans who have followed his rise from phenom to one of college basketball’s best players.

Raw when he arrived at Gonzaga in 2016, Hachimura has developed into a possible National Basketball Association (NBA) lottery pick as the Zags prepare to face No. 16 seed Fairleigh Dickinson in the National Collegiate Athletic Association Tournament West Region on Thursday.

Hachimura became popular when he played for Japan’s national youth teams,

and that popularity has grown exponentially as he has become the best player on one of American college basketball’s premier programs. Hachimura has put himself in position to become the third Japanese player to reach the NBA, joining Memphis Grizzlies forward Yuta Watanabe and Yuta Tabuse, who played four games for the Phoenix Suns 14 years ago.

“I do get noticed a lot, but I kind of get used to it,” Hachimura said. “And it’s an important time in national Japanese basketball history, so I’m fine with it.”

Hachimura was a baseball player when he was younger, in part because the sport is so big in his home country, but also because he was just 5-foot-5.

Once he sprouted and reluctantly tried basketball to stop a friend’s nagging at 13, Hachimura made a steady climb to stardom.

A 6-foot-8 forward, he drew international attention at the

2014 U-17 World Championships when he averaged 22.6 points and scored 25 against a US team that featured future NBA players Jayson Tatum, Harry Giles and Josh Jackson.

Hachimura also caught the attention of Gonzaga Assistant Coach Tommy Lloyd, who had a knack for bringing talented international players to Spokane, Washington.

Hachimura struggled when he first arrived at Gonzaga, with the American game, the culture and, particularly, the language.

“He was absorbing about 10 percent of what we were telling him,” Gonzaga Coach Mark Few said.

Hachimura worked hard on the language—with the help of Zags video coordinator Ken Nakagawa—and his game, becoming proficient at both.

The Japanese big man was a role player when Gonzaga reached its first national title game in 2017 and became a more important cog last season, averaging 11.6 points on a team filled with veteran players.

Hachimura made a big jump as a junior, boosting his scoring average to 20.1 points, while shooting 62 points and grabbing 6.6

rebounds. He has the size to play down low, developed a superb midrange jumper and improved his three-point shooting to 47 percent this season.

Hachimura’s steady improvement can be tied to him becoming more aggressive.

When Hachimura first arrived at Gonzaga, he was passive on the court, deferring to older teammates and getting pushed around by more aggressive opponents. At the constant urgings of his coaches, Hachimura became much more assertive and willing to take over games, as he did by making the decisive plays down the stretch in Gonzaga’s win over Duke in the Maui Invitational title game.

“When he got here, it’s very much within the cultural norms to defer to people that are older than you, who have been here a while or they have seniority on you,” Few said. “We’ve had to get him to kind of work through that.”

It’s certainly paid off.

With Hachimura leading the way, Gonzaga is a favorite to reach its second Final Four in three years.

Pull it off and the attention on Hachimura will only intensify—and he’s fine with that.

Louganis picked as cliff-diving series sports director

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OUR-TIME Olympic diving gold medallist Greg Louganis will continue to serve as sports director for this year’s Red Bull Cliff Diving World Series Season 11.

The World Series will kick off on April OLYMPIC champion Greg Louganis is coming to the Philippines. 12 in the Small and Big Lagoons in

JAPANESE Rui Hachimura’s popularity continues to rise at Gonzaga. AP

Miniloc Island in El Nido, Palawan. This is the first time the event comes to the Philippines and will also be the only Asian stop of the 2019 series.

In 2017, Louganis was named as sports director for the Red Bull Cliff Diving World Series after having attended the event in the past as a judge.

“I was invited as a judge on the tour years ago,” Louganis said. “Then after the passing of my dear friend and former Olympic competitor, Niki Stajkovic, who was the original sports director, Red Bull reached out to me and asked if I could step into the role.”

Louganis is excited to be working on the

11th season.

“I am honored to be back this year on the Red Bull Cliff Diving World Series. I look forward to another exciting year,” he said.

As Red Bull Cliff Diving’s sports director, Louganis oversees every athletic and logical aspect of the competition. This ensures that all safety measures are met, in addition to the implementation of consistent competition rules across all the competitors. AP

Baltimore sues to block move of Preakness Stakes

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ALTIMORE—Baltimore has ratcheted up a bitter dispute with the owners of a historic racetrack in an effort to seize a nearly 150-year-old course and block the move of one of America’s premier horse races out of the city where it was first run in 1873.

Under state law, the Preakness Stakes— the middle jewel of the Triple Crown of thoroughbred horse racing—can be moved to another track in Maryland “only as a result of a disaster or emergency.” But the Canada-based development company that owns and operates the rundown Pimlico Race Course in Baltimore has made it abundantly clear that it wants to move the storied race out of the city.

A lawsuit freshly filed by Baltimore Mayor Catherine Pugh, the City Council and three residents claims that the Canada-based development company that owns the track is “openly planning to violate Maryland law by moving the Preakness to a different racetrack despite the absence of any disaster or emergency, except for the disaster that they are in the process of creating.”

The Stronach Group is looking at a fresher track it owns in Laurel Park—in Anne Arundel County about 30 miles (about 50 kilometers) south of the Baltimore facility—as a better option for the Preakness. It has only pledged PEOPLE walk outside of a building at Pimlico Race Course as preparations take place for the Preakness Stakes horse race in Baltimore. AP

to keep the Preakness at the Baltimore track through 2020.

In an e-mail seeking comment about the lawsuit, which was filed on Tuesday in Baltimore Circuit Court, the Stronach Group said it “believes these actions are premature and unfounded.”

Here’s what it wants to do: Stronach aims to make some $80 million in improvements to build a “super track” at Laurel Park, and company officials are lobbying Maryland’s General Assembly to permit funding from gambling proceeds to help realize their vision.

Baltimore’s lawsuit, meanwhile, asks a court to grant ownership of the Pimlico track and the Preakness race to Maryland’s biggest city through condemnation. Baltimore is also trying to prevent the Stronach Group from using state bonds to fund improvements at Laurel Park.

The lawsuit accuses the company of essentially manufacturing a disaster by “systematically” underinvesting in Pimlico, instead spending the majority of the state aid it receives on boosting its Laurel track.

Hard feelings between Baltimore and the owners of Pimlico had been intensifying before this week’s lawsuit. In a February letter to Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan and Maryland

lawmakers, Pugh portrayed the Stronach Group as a family business in disarray, noting that the feuding “father, daughter and now granddaughter” were “suing one another in multiple lawsuits.”

The Preakness saga’s latest chapter comes a few months after the Maryland Stadium Authority issued a report saying the Pimlico track should be torn down and rebuilt at a cost of $424 million.

It said the rundown condition of the aging Baltimore track presents challenges threatening the “continued existence and the success of the Preakness Stakes,” but it also stressed there did not appear to be “situational factors” such as the surrounding city neighborhood of Park Heights and accessibility issues that would “negatively affect Pimlico Race Course’s ability to remain the long-term home” of the Preakness.

Pugh strongly endorsed the redevelopment plan recommended by the Maryland Stadium Authority, saying the economic opportunity it would bring could dramatically revitalize an area that’s experienced disinvestment for decades.

Hogan appears less than receptive to Baltimore’s latest tack, telling WBAL’s radio station that “the overwhelming number of people in Maryland don’t really care where it [the Preakness] is.” AP

SERGEY KHAKIMULLIN | DREAMSTIME.COM

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N case you’re not attuned to the stars, Sanctuary Ventures Inc., the digital media company focusing on mystical services for a millennial audience, wants to change that.

Wednesday, March 20, is the start of the astrological new year and the launch of Sanctuary’s new astrological reading app.

It offers daily horoscopes, first-in-kind live and on-demand readings with professional astrologers, and plans to expand into the ecommerce marketplace (think tarot cards, crystals, sage bundles, and incense).

For readers of a certain age, the question “What’s your sign?” evokes images of openshirted, disco-dancing Lotharios. But as everything in life is cyclical (sorry, eggs), many millennials and members of Generation Z are gravitating toward the pseudoscience, making the question of what’s your sun sign (Aries, Libra, etc.) once again a generic point of conversation, as well as fueling the burgeoning mystical and psychic services market valued at more $2 billion, according to 2018 market research from Ibis World.

The Sanctuary app builds on the success the company has had with its Facebook Messenger astrology bot, but now expands its offerings beyond free daily horoscopes by allowing users to upgrade to a monthly ($19.99) or yearly ($199.99) subscription membership level granting access to live,

chat-based readings from a team of professional astrologers led by Astrologerin-Residence Aliza Kelly. Subscribers are able to access one astrology live-chat reading per week with the option of additional readings at $19.99 each. (At press time, a weekly $3.99 option was still listed in the App Store, although company reps say that is being removed.)

“Astrology is really ancient practice that has existed for centuries,” says Sanctuary co-founder and Chief Executive Officer Ross Clark, who adds the traditional entry point into the space was daily newspapers and magazines, or in-person or phonebased readings. Sanctuary aims to upend the access model via reimagining the experience as a text-based, one-on-one live chat format in shorter, more digestible bites (15to 20-minute readings).

“Texting is the language of millennials and younger people today, so we really wanted to harness that,” says Clark. “It’s not only the language they are most familiar with but that medium also enables us to provide this anytime, anywhere experience. The textbased mechanism also provides a filter if you are someone who is just dipping your toe in the water or you’re someone who maybe is reluctant to go and do these sorts of things in person or on the phone, so there is a layer that gives people reassurance.”

Clark sees the Sanctuary app launch as “part of the broader wellness story that has been happening for the last few years,” which includes tarot, Reiki energy healing, and “everything we have seen with the rise of the meditation app.”

The self-care and wellness industry is

2 BusinessMirror

a booming $4.2-trillion market, according to the Global Wellness Institute, with brands such as Goop and mindfulness and meditation apps such as Headspace and Calm experiencing huge growth. Calm was the topearning app worldwide in the Health & Fitness category during 2018, with an estimated gross revenue of more than $63.6 million, a 277-percent increase from a year earlier, according to Sensor Tower data. Calm’s downloads increased by 120 percent, from 8.15 million in 2017 to 17.95 million in 2018.

With younger Americans turning away from organized religion (a 2015 Pew Research Poll reported 35 percent of millennials eschew any religious affiliation), Clark believes they are hungry for a system that “helps them understand both themselves and a way of filtering and working through all the chaos in the world.” Astrology provides that, he says, as well as adding a playful layer that’s identity-driven and predominantly expressed via platforms such as Instagram.

Self-identification is what initially drew Alice Bell to astrology. A former fashion assistant at Vogue, the 26-year-old Bell began reading charts “obsessively a little over a year ago” and believes the practice helps explain emotions and personality traits she had struggled with.

“I was always comparing myself to others and wondering why I couldn’t act the same, so it helped calm me by telling me there is a reason why I was acting the way I did,” she says. “Other people find that appealing, too, it helps them understand their emotions.”

New York-based Bell began posting about astrology on Instagram in March

MARCH 24, 2019

of last year, and the response was so great she began reading people’s charts via direct messaging. By summer’s end she was charging for readings before launching Stalk, her lifestyle and astrology website, in late November. Demand for her services had increased so much that by early 2019 she quit her job at Vogue and now focuses solely on her astrological business, which offers astrology chart readings ($40 to $65) and merchandise ranging from sign-specific coffee mugs to phone cases and tote bags.

“After I announced I was quitting, the orders started piling up,” says Bell, whose readings now have a wait time of three to four weeks as she juggles in-person event appearances, requests for written astrological content, and face-to-face readings with clients. “It’s like the universe saw me give my notice and immediately I started getting astrology job offers.”

Sanctuary had a less mystical entrée into the marketplace thanks to $1.5 million in seed funding led by Advancit Capital, Broadway Video Ventures, Greycroft Partners, KEC Ventures, and Blue Seed Collective. Other apps in the astrology space include TimePassages and the AI-powered Co-Star, while the marketplace in general now accommodates items as diverse as a $15 crystal and incense kit from Urban Outfitters and $27 Psychic Vampire Repellent at Goop.

Clark says the paid readings are the central monetizable product on the app with ecommerce merchandise to follow. At launch, Sanctuary astrologers are available every day from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. Eastern Time, with plans to expand to 24-hour-a-day coverage later in the year. Bloomberg News

IGOR STEVANOVIC | DREAMSTIME.COM

NEW ASTROLOGY APP OFFERS ON-DEMAND READINGS AIMED AT MILLENNIALS

BusinessMirror

MUSIC

PRINT

K-POP ACTS, LOCAL BAND

CONQUER FREE-CONCERT STAGE

by Carla Mortel Baricaua Photos by Marose Loperez

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ORDES of K-pop fans trooped to the SM Mall of Asia Arena on March 7 to catch the performances of local and Korean artists in a concert aimed to commemorate the 70year old diplomatic ties between the Philippines and South Korea.

In an effort to strengthen cultural ties between the two countries, the 2019 K-pop Friendship Concert in Manila gave Filipino rock band Silent Sanctuary the chance to share the stage with young Korean K-pop groups NOIR, April and NCT

Dream. The free concert was presented by Korea’s Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism (MCST).

After a formal official opening segment, hosts Ryan Bang and Kring Elenzano-Kim called on stage Silent Sanctuary, the sole

Philippine representative and the first act to perform. The rock band dished out hits such as “Bumalik Ka Na Sa’Kin,” “Pasensya Ka Na,” “Sa’yo,”and “Ikaw Lamang.” The predominantly young K-pop fans met their set with loud cheers, and those who knew the songs and sang along with the band.

K-pop craze continues

AFTERWARDS, the loudness of the crowd went a several decibels higher when the K-pop groups took over the stage. Fresh from their last visit in December, rookie boy group NOIR delivered Continued on page 4

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Sound BusinessMirror

MARCH 24, 2019 | soundstrip.businessmirror@gmail.com

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K-Pop...

from page 3

energetic song and dance routines as they performed Airplane Mode and Gangsta. They followed it up with mellow track As a Star, then hyped the crowd anew with a cover of BTS’s hit Boys in Luv. Girl group April brought on their cutesy dance moves as they charmed their way through the performances

to get the audience’s attention. In their first appearance in Manila, the six members entertained the crowd with songs Oh! My Mistake, Take My Hand, Tinker Bell and April Story.

After debuting in 2015, April was adjudged the Female Rookie of the Year in the 2016 Korean Entertainment Arts Award.

Then, K-pop fans, majority of whom are NCTzens who wielded

their neon green light sticks, went extra wild when NCT Dream was called upon and conquered a Manila stage for the first time. The fivemember boy group opened their set with Chewing Gum and was followed by the track My First and Last. During the break, Renjun, Chenle, Jaemin, Jeno and Jisung introduced themselves to the crowd.

(Another group member, Haechan, was absent since he is still recovering from an injury.) NCT Dream then performed Go and We Go Up to wrap up the concert.

The boy group promised a comeback show in Manila.

Hallyu recognized

BEFORE the stage performances, Ambassador of the Republic of Korea to the Philippines Han Dongman gave his speech in the vernacular, to the delight of the audience, as he underscored the diplomatic relationship and the growing interest in cultural exchange of both countries.

In response, National Commission on Culture

and the Arts (NCCA) Commissioner and National Archives of the Philippines Executive Director Victorino Mapa Manalo marked the warm appreciation of Filipinos to the Korean culture that introduced the hallyu wave and brought in K-drama, K-pop, Korean food as well as cosmetics into the country.

Vice Minister of the MCST Kim Yong-sam also gave a speech and joined Han, Manalo and a group of children on stage to lead the symbolic gesture of throwing paper planes to mark the start of the “Year of Mutual Exchange” between Korea and the Philippines while promoting the celebration through K-pop music.

In addition to the free concert, MCST will organise and stage several cultural events in the country, such as the Taekwondo Cultural Festival, The Korean Culture and Tourism Exhibition and the Korean-Philippines Film Festival, while the NCCA will hold the Days of Philippine Culture event in Korea.

d trip

soundstrip.businessmirror@gmail.com | MARCH 24, 2019

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SIC ON PRINT

JANA GARCIA MUSIC VID OUT SOON

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N about two weeks, the music video of “Sabihin Mo Lang” will officially be launched. The song, written

by Jana Garcia, was released in November 2018 and is digitally distributed by Warner Music Philippines.

Garcia, a singer-songwriter, is a seasoned performer in the local indie scene. She composes songs inspired by her experiences and perspectives on unconditional love (“Di Biro”), mental health (Nonsense) and the imbalance of power (Buwaya).

She has earned the moniker “Rock Angel” for her heavenly singing prowess while rocking the house with her energized performances.

Sabihin… was penned in 2009, inspired by a failed one-sided relationship. It talks about another person holding on and rhetorically asking what else needs to be done to bring back to what it used to be. As years went by, the song has transformed into a self-reflecting piece, which will be portrayed in the upcoming music video.

The premiere will be more special as it will be for the

benefit of the artist’s friend, Dhon Kekim, who has been recently diagnosed with cancer at an early age.

Artists and bands Don’t Miss Hanna, ANNA, Jaydee G, Adminus and GRT - Gin Rum and Truth will get the night started with alternative and rock and roll vibes.

Likewise, join The Club, Soapdish and Brisom as they headline the night by dishing out their chart-topping hits.

Witness the launch on March 29, 8 p.m. at Main Street Restaurant in Kapitolyo, Pasig City. Entrance is at P250 (with a drink) and P350 (with a drink and a copy of Lipad EP). Proceeds will go to Kekim’s chemotherapy sessions.

Sponsors are UP Epsilon Chi Fraternity Alumni, Denada Music, Sards Van Rentals, Copy That (Quezon City) and Sqoe Studio Philippines. Media partners include GigLab PH, SX Manila, RadioManila, Red Button Productions, Block Sheep Media Marketing, Business Mirror, Produccion Denada, OPM (Organisasyon ng mga Pilipinong Mang-Aawit), Musika Publiko andWarner Music Philippines.

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MARCH 24, 2019 | soundstrip.businessmirror@gmail.com

Sound trip BusinessMirror

MUSIC ON PRINT

SoundSampler | by Tony M. Maghirang

Weekend fix from Bob Mould, Calebral, Ourselves The Elves and MØ produced a record that displays their real strengths.

OURSELVES THE ELVES Self is the Universe

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HE name Ourselves The Elves seems like an attempt at self-deprecation.

However, once the Pinoy indie foursome star ts playing, they set aside their selfconsciousness, elec ting instead to let their music do the talking.

By the sound of their sophomore release, the band ac tually stands taller than the competition in squeezing out fresh sounds from guitar-driven rock. True, the guitars occasionally recall inf luences from The Smiths’ Johnny Marr and a clutch of ‘70s folk rock greats, but in the company of Aly Cabral’s ethereal vocals, the combination packs its own distinc t attrac tion.

Sariling Duwende/Inner Faerie opens the new album with thatringing chordsethereal singing blend. Toe-tapping folk rock meets aching sentiments in Shellf ish, soul boosts the pop-rock disposition of Spinal Crack, while That ‘70s Song ups the volume a notch above the rest.

Then, wonder of wonders, these indie heads pull out their inner Meghan Trainor to give D.I.C.K. (Daddy Issues Cursed Kids) a retro-future makeover currently on heav y rotation in Histor y Channel’s alien conspirac y series Project Blue Book. The band reprises the feeling two tracks later in the back porch swing of Sweet Sally.

Somewhere along the way to the whiz-bang elec tronica of the title track, Cabral sings about losing her head.

Ourselves The Elves must have listened to their own advice and triumphantly

never theless allows moments of clarity to shed light on the subjec ts of love and loss, emotional turmoil and ugly truths about living in the now. Kurdun and Fall From Grace are a pair of post-punk Juan de la Cruziads. Sugar Daddy proudly wears its Siakol badge, while Gawin Nating Masaya and Tapos na Tayo constitute Trojan horses meant to reel in unwar y mainstream listeners to “basurock.” Their cumulative ef fec t is utterly compelling.

Love Song will see young and old punks bouncing of f the wall. There’s an obligator y slow rocker in Camp Sunshine and a new wave indebted track in The Final Years.

We should all welcome some sweet ferocity in our lives. Each time out, Bob Mould is your dependable provider of tender aggression.

CALEBRAL Basurock

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AD album title alert! “Basurock” doesn’t exactly inspire confidence that oddly named band Calebral has something good to offer—and on a double CD at that!

Garbage in, garbage out, anyone?

Suckers to supposedly subliminal advertising will have the last laugh. You see, Calebral has been strip-mining the elastic boundaries of hard rock, punk and Pinoy rock so that on their fifth and newest album, they’ve hit upon a motherload of glittering gems that should incite the spawning of the next generation of metal and OPM pop fans.

“Basurock,” despite its icky connotation, is among the finest double albums in Pinoy rock ever. To argue, most other OPM artists release double album collections of their greatest hits or of their live performances.

Calebral’s “Basurock” isn’t composed of recycled materials though: it features new songs and new collaborations, and none of them stink at all.

One or two comparatively slow tunes may not appeal to snotty rockers, and they’re part of the package like some sort of pit stops before the band launches into another set of hot-rod scorchers. One such softer track, Strawberry, is deftly delivered with subtlety and beguiling surprises that can move hearts of stone. Crackpot Dissension goes for lounge-like South Border— with iron balls.

The tough rocking majority ripples with amped-up intensity, which

MØ Forever Neverland BOB MOULD Sunshine Rock

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QUARTER-centur y separates this year’s pop-rocking Bob Mould from his original mothership, the great American band Husker Du—bad-assess from America’s Midwest who augmented the harsh hardcore punk of the sprawling cities with the enduring melodicism of power pop.

Like most unconventional ‘80s way farer s like The Replacement s’ Paul Westerberg, Bob Mould remains true to the rock and roll ethos that shaped his early musical life. They both fashion slambang songs founded on hook s. He diverges a bit by creating more power f ully built anthemic rocker s.

The sound of Sunshine Rock comes from a long line of smar t, attrac tive originals beginning with his days with Sugar. Each new song can viewed be seen as a reboot of an earlier version, probably now on its iteration 6.0.

That ’s okay. No matter its previous lineage, today’s I Fought, What Do You Want To Do With Your Life? and Sunny

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F TER a sketchy opener, Danish pop star MØ pirouet tes quickly into the faux tribal beat of Way Down, wrapping the listener in it s tight, dance f riendly embrace. By the third track I Want You, the catchy hook s unfold as the beat moves f rom steady to f renetic, going into the chorus, then back to the nex t c ycle of tunef ulness.

The energy tapers of f with Blur, which really reveals that the Danish Euro-pop formula is a cascade of one big hook af ter another. Nostalgia, Red Wine and West Hollywood showcase the method in full bloom, and despite the rather emotional ambiguity in MØ’s singing—her deliver y and pacing never changes whether she’s evoking happiness or sadness—each cut f lows without memorable distinc tion from track-to-track.

Forever Never land is an inter national c har t bus ter, and MØ may b e the ne x t Rhianna.

Watch the latest Danish superstar ascend to global prominence when she takes the spotlight at the New Frontier Theater on April 15.

PUP-COC fetes top students at Sikat Awards 2019

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HE Polytechnic University of the Philippines-College of Communication (PUP-COC) will recognize its outstanding students and festival winners during the SIKAT Awards on March 25 at the school’s Balagtas Hall.

SIKAT (Samu’t Saring Ideya, Kakayahan, Abilidad at Talino) Awards is considered the recognition event of PUP-COC since 2009. The following is the list of citations to be handed out: For top scholars: President’s Listers and Dean’s Listers For collegiate festivals: Interactive Year Book

(Best Interactive Year Book and Best Interactive Portfolio), Mural Painting Festival (Best Mural Painting, Best In Execution and Best Content), Music Video Festival (Music Video Of The Year), CETV Caravan (Best CETV Program, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Presentation and Best Concept), Research Festival (Best Qualitative Research and Best Quantitative Research) Icommunicate: Best Magazine, Best Design and Layout, Best News Feature, Best Feature Article, Best Marketing and Best Launch Special Awards: TV Scene

Champion and Best Public Speaker Most Active Graduating Student - To be awarded to one student per department: BA in Broadcast Communication, BA in Journalism, BA in Advertising and Public Relations and BA in Communication Research Most Active Graduating Class - Also awarded to one class per department: BA in Broadcast Communication, BA in Journalism, BA in Advertising and Public Relations, BA in Communication Research Glamor awards: Male Star of the Night and Female Star of the Night

All attendees and current COCians (alumni) are encouraged to wear their best formal attire. The event will start at exactly 3 p.m.

Trudeau targets home-buying millennials with equity plan

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ANADA’S housing agency will spend up to C$1.25 billion ($943 million) over three years to take equity positions in homes bought by first-time buyers, part of a plan by Justin Trudeau’s government to make housing more affordable for the youngest voters.

According to federal budget documents released Tuesday in Ottawa, Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. will provide up to 10 percent funding for new homes and 5 percent for existing homes to reduce mortgage costs for low- to middle-income buyers. The financing would apply to insured mortgages, which are required if the buyer puts less than a 20 percent down payment on the property.

Finance Minister Bill Morneau is seeking to ease affordability concerns after price gains and rule changes in recent years pushed home ownership out of reach for many Canadians, in particular millennials who may be just starting out in the labor market. Though prices and sales slumped in most cities in 2018, prices are still up 64 percent in Vancouver over the past five years, topping C$1 million on average, and up 56 percent in Toronto over the same period, Canadian Real Estate Association data show.

This new program—which the government expects to be used by 100,000 homebuyers over three years—may provide a shot in the arm to a market that has been a vital contributor to growth amid signs the

home value when the property is sold. Those details will be worked out in coming months, according to finance department officials.

Aside from the CMHC amount, the measure will cost the federal government about C$121 million over five years.

The incentive is an extra boost for homebuilders like Mattamy Homes Ltd., which have seen prices for new projects decline.

The backstop on new homes is twice as high as for existing units.

RRSP Loans HOMES stand in this aerial photograph taken above Toronto, Ontario, Canada, on October 2, 2017. JAMES MACDONALD/BLOOMBERG Canadian economy is slowing.

“Sales should be boosted by this, so should prices,’’ said Brian DePratto, an economist at Toronto-Dominion Bank.

“At the margin, there is more upside to demand.’’ TD estimates the housing measures in the budget could boost sales by 2 percent to 5 percent by the end of 2020, with prices rising by a similar amount.

September launch THE equity plan borrows a page from smaller non-profit groups in Canada that already offer similar loans for low-income people.

The new program, called the “First-Time Home Buyer Incentive,” will be launched in September and be available to first-time buyers with annual household incomes of as much as C$120,000. The amount of the insured mortgage would be capped at four times income, or up to C$480,000.

A buyer purchasing a new C$400,000 home with a 5-percent down payment of C$20,000 may qualify for a 10-percent,

or C$40,000 contribution from CMHC. That would lower the monthly payment to C$1,745, from C$1,973, assuming a 25year amortization and a mortgage rate of 3.5 percent, according to an example in the budget documents.

Mind-blowing THE move is “mind-blowing,” and will only fuel demand in the segment of the market that is already the most competitive, said John Pasalis, president of the Torontobased firm Realosophy Realty Inc. “Why is the federal government playing mom and dad and buying everyone homes?” he said. “This is not the solution to high house prices, this is trying to treat the symptom by just throwing money at it, throwing taxpayers dollars to buy homes for people.”

As an equity owner, CMHC would benefit from any gain in the house price, or potentially absorb a fraction of any loss. It’s not clear if the homeowner would repay the amount of the loan or the equity stake based on the

“THIS larger shared equity mortgage for newly constructed homes could help encourage the home construction needed to address some of the housing supply shortages in Canada, particularly in our largest cities,’’ according to the budget.

While the budget made no changes to mortgage stress tests or amortization terms—changes industry groups had called for—it did provide other forms of housing relief. The limit on tax- free withdrawals from registered retirement savings plans for first-time buyers will be raised to C$35,000, from C$25,000, the first change to the limit in a decade.

The government is also adding C$10 billion over nine years to an existing program to entice more developers to build rental units. This additional funding would support 42,500 new units. It’s also allocating C$300 million to launch a new housing supply challenge to encourage cities to open up more space for housing.

“There aren’t enough homes for people to buy or apartments for people to rent,’’ Morneau said in the text of his budget speech. “That makes finding a good place to live too expensive—beyond what many people can afford.” Bloomberg News

Youths to vie for repping PHL in Paris for L’Oréal competition

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UNDREDS of youths would be competing to represent the Philippines in Paris for the annual business competition among college students around the world organized by L’Oréal SA. The top 8 teams would have been selected on March 22 at the national semifinals and will go on to compete at the national finals on April 25.

A statement issued mid-March by L’Oréal Philippines Inc. said the National Champion will represent the country in Paris for the Worldwide Finals. For the first time ever, the winning team receives L’Oréal’s Intrapreneurship Award where they will immerse in a three-month program at Station F, the world’s largest startup campus in Paris, France.

Locally established by L’Oréal Philippines in 2009, the competition attracts thousands of students every year. This

year, the 27th, students are tasked to create a disruptive innovation for skin care to attract and engage health-conscious consumers via digital solutions and connected technologies.

The worldwide winner in Paris will be

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mentored by L’Oréal experts at Station F, where they will demonstrate the feasibility of their concept to a collection of decisionmakers for the chance to develop a prototype of their project as a brand under the L’Oréal Active Cosmetics Division.

MARCH 24, 2019

As a global competition, Brandstorm allows L’Oréal to find new talent by putting students through real-life situations that reveal skills that are innovative, daring, tenacious and entrepreneurial in spirit.

Winners are given the opportunity to discover the company’s culture and explore its various areas of expertise. For L’Oréal, it’s a fresh and homegrown approach to discovering new talent.

“Every year, between 150 and 200 people are hired by the group from Brandstorm,” L’Oréal Executive Vice President Human Relations Jean-Claude Le Grande was quoted in a statement as saying. “The competition has completely changed to better meet the expectations of the young participants, as well as the group’s current recruitment needs and its position as a ‘beauty tech company,’ which requires an increasingly wide range of skills and diversified profiles.”

Big Coffee has problem as craft roasters cut out a middleman

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EFF BEZOS isn’t coming to Long Island City anymore, but the future of smallbatch coffee roasting may already be taking root there.

About a mile north of the site that Amazon.com Inc. abandoned for its proposed New York City campus, a tiny coffee roasting co-op is welcoming anyone from cafe owners to hip consumers wanting to prepare their own green beans. Regalia’s model, which lets customers rent time at its roasting machines, is attracting a wave of trendy Americans looking to ditch the traditional brands that have long dominated the coffee scene in favor of specialty beans and a more artisan cup of joe.

“The visions and the goals of the coffee roasters and the visions and goals of a cafe or bakery owner didn’t always align,” said Paolo Maliksi, one of the owners of Regalia.

“We are here to make sure that anyone can come in and roast for whatever reason.”

Maliksi and other small-batch roasters are at the forefront of a trend that has spilled over from the beer industry. Much like the boom in US craft breweries, more and more coffee shops are now roasting their own beans from New York to Chicago to Seattle. The shift away from mass-produced coffee lets discerning cafe owners tell caffeinated customers exactly where their beans came from—something sustainability-minded clientele increasingly care about.

$5 coffee THE trend toward self-roasting is good news for the millennial cafe-goer concerned about where food comes from and who isn’t deterred by prices that can be more than double that of a drip coffee at Starbucks Corp. A sign of a more plugged-in consumer, it’s helping reshape America’s coffee industry, where Folgers and Maxwell House once ruled.

The rise of self-roasting has been helped by online commerce and social media, which allow newcomers to establish their brands and give roasters an outlet to connect with customers. The internet has also given regular consumers a way to buy unroasted beans.

Rabobank says roasting shops alone aren’t yet a major threat to Big Coffee, but as young consumers move away from traditional brands, that’s forcing the old guard to adapt. JM Smucker Co., for example, has rolled out a new line of coffee called 1850 intended to attract younger drinkers who wouldn’t think to pick up a pound of sister brand Folgers. Last month, Maxwell Houseowner Kraft Heinz Co. took a $15.4-billion write-down on assets in a stunning ac-

BLACK Ivory Coffee beans sit in a bowl at Ban Ta Klang Elephant Village, Surin province, Thailand.

TAYLOR WEIDMAN/BLOOMBERG

knowledgment that changing consumer tastes have destroyed the value of some of the company’s most iconic products.

“If this eventually scales up and it takes over more grocery stores, it could be a bigger risk to a large industrial roaster,” said James Watson, a beverages analyst at Rabobank. Big brands like Maxwell House are stagnating, Euromonitor data show, “and in general there’s a move toward smaller batches, more specialty coffee and roasting to match that,” he said.

Machine makers WHILE big brands may be squirming, the shift to small-batch roasting is a boon for the makers of roasting machines, especially as models have grown smaller and cheaper.

Bellwether Coffee makes a roaster that’s the size of a standard fridge, 70 percent smaller than typical models. It’s also electric, eliminating the need to pull gas lines into cafes and solving the smoke problems and typical ventilation requirements, said Nathan Gilliland, chief executive officer of the Berkeley, California-based manufacturer. The machines also have a feature allowing sustainable-minded customers to tip the farmers directly, which in many cases can result in doubling the amount the grower gets for their beans.

At Regalia, where the main coffee roasting machine is affectionately called “Big Mama,” a cafe roasting 1,000 pounds a week can save more than $200,000 a year by buying and roasting green beans, instead of purchasing roasted ones, the

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co-op estimates.

Some of the top coffee traders are also adapting their business models to supply the exotic origins and micro lots these specialized shops need. Buyers are looking for smaller batches than traditional 60-kilogram bags and some beans—usually those used in competitions—are so expensive that they are transported by plane, instead of the 20-foot containers that dominate the global coffee trade.

“The equipment has become more available, more accessible,” said Rich Futrell, who oversees sales in the US Midwest for Genuine Origin, a unit of coffee trader Volcafe, which operates an Amazon-like website for specialty roasters and ships its beans in 30-kilogram cartons delivered via UPS. “Graphic design, information and knowledge have become more accessible, but green coffee is still traded the way it’s been traded for a long, long time,” he said.

One way traders are pulling off the gear shift is through M&A. Neumann Kaffee Gruppe, the world’s largest coffee trader, bought a majority stake in Atlas Coffee Importers in Seattle and Olam International acquired East African coffee specialist Schluter SA. Sucafina, another coffee trader, invested in specialty coffee merchant 32cup.

“It absolutely opens the doors for new ways of doing business,” said Cory Bush, managing director of 32cup. “Smaller specialty roasters are forcing importers and traders to become more responsive. When

MARCH 24, 2019

people are buying smaller quantities of anything, I think they expect to buy them in the same way they buy stuff from Amazon or their online grocers. We are having to find new platforms and new approaches to sell to people the way they want to be sold to.”

Niche industry

TO be sure, specialty coffee is a niche industry and there are still no precise figures on what percentage of the global market it accounts for. Still, Americans report drinking more and more gourmet coffee. A survey carried out by the National Coffee Association earlier this year showed that gourmet’s share of all coffee consumed reached a record 61 percent in 2019.

At Regalia, which opens to the public for a few hours every weekend, a filtered cup of coffee might go for anywhere from a few dollars to $10 a pop, depending on what was roasted recently. That’s a lot for a coffee in the slightly grittier part of Long Island City, which is more known for the warehouses that house and clean the city’s halal meat carts than for the glass highrise apartment towers shooting up in other parts of the neighborhood. But it’s not insurmountable.

“You can buy a good cup of coffee for $3 and a great cup of coffee for $5; we are not talking about the difference between buying a Honda Civic and a Ferrari,” 32cup’s Bush said. “Choosing the better option is not going to fundamentally change your household economics.” Bloomberg News