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‘COOKIE-CUTTER’ PROJECTS COULD PRICK THE HOUSING BUBBLE IF NOT AVOIDED
DON’T LET THE BUBBLE BURST T By Roderick L. Abad | Contributor
HE residential segment of the property sector is heading toward a bubble, if the market continues to be flooded with cheaply priced yet poor-quality housing projects, cautioned an international real-estate expert.
dwelling market has technically extended its run against the bust of the looming bubble. This could be attributed to the vigilance of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) in limiting the amount of money that banks can loan to real-estate borrowers. “At the maximum, I think it’s 20 percent. So that’s an automatic check to rein in possible overinvestments in real estate, because the bubble, if it bursts, it gets very expensive from an economic standpoint. So the BSP is controlling that,” Keyland Corp. Chairman of the Board Rex Drilon noted.
Other factors
Decreasing lending rates and the continued peso depreciation could, likewise, be factored in the constant resilience of the housing sector at present. It was noted that as borrowing rates collapse, more residential units, particularly from condominiums, are being introduced to Continued on A2
Annnmei | Dreamstime.com
“Fundamentally, the bubble per se, it’s a healthy event. It should not burst, though, because the bubble is an issue of supply and demand,” said Prof. Enrique Soriano, chairman of the marketing cluster and program directorship for real estate at the Ateneo Graduate School of Business. “The bursting is something we’re worried about. That’s what scares a lot of people like me.” Over the years, it’s the residential that has been the stellar performer in the property field, as seen in the mushrooming of various vertical and horizontal projects across the country. Data from the Philippine Statistics Authority showed there are 15.7 million square meters of floor area of approved building permits in 2015, whose constructions are still ongoing. Of the total, single houses account for 52 percent; townhouses, 20 percent; and residential condominiums, 28 percent. Such an apparent boom in the
MMDA relaunches estero cleanup drive ahead of the rainy season
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By Claudeth Mocon-Ciriaco
he rainy season may still be a month or so away, but the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) this early has started to implement floodmitigation measures to save lives and properties before heavy rains pour. MMDA Acting Chairman Thomas M. Orbos said the agency has relaunched the Estero Blitz project as part of the yearly
flood-mitigation activities aimed at declogging and cleaning up waterways, such as creeks and esteros, in preparation for the fast
PESO exchange rates n US 49.9270
approaching rainy season. While summer fun lovers flock and frolic to the beaches in droves, hundreds of MMDA personnel from the agency’s Flood Control and Sewerage Management Service have started the cleanup activity at the Estero Tripa de Gallina in Malate, Manila. Armed with various floodcontrol tools and equipment, the agency’s personnel are conducting the not-so-pleasant job of dredging and cleaning up the city’s waterways and sewers.
Target projects
Despite the regular cleanup of Estero Tripa de Gallina in Pasay City, Orbos noted that it has always been swamped with domestic
waste materials coming from the upstream as well as midstream areas. There are also houses built along and near the creek, he added. There is a host of other waterways that have to be declogged, some of which are the Pasig River Basin in Port Area, Manila; Estero de San Miguel, Estero de Quiapo, Estero de Magdalena and Estero de Maypajo also in Manila; Lapu-Lapu/Spine Open Canal and Letre Open Canal in Malabon City; Pasong Malapad Creek and the lagoon in Caloocan City; Waling-Waling Creek and Tanque Creek, Santa Lucia Creek and Villa Creek in Quezon City; Pinagkatdan Creek in Pasig City; Balanti Creek in Marikina City; Continued on A2
THIS August 7, 2012, file photo shows heavy flooding in Marikina City. Hrlumanog | Dreamstime.com
n japan 0.4440 n UK 64.5157 n HK 6.4155 n CHINA 7.2404 n singapore 35.6545 n australia 36.9809 n EU 54.8448 n SAUDI arabia 13.3139
Source: BSP (5 May 2017 )
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Don’t let the bubble burst Continued from a1
the market, and more money from overseas Filipino workers’ (OFWs) remittances is channeled into real estate. Last year OFW remittances grew by 5 percent year-on-year to $26.8 billion, from $25.6 billion in 2015. From this amount, 60 percent is being invested into the realestate sector. “Because interest rates are low, people still buy and borrow,” Keyland Corp. Director and President Lito Montinola pointed out. “Now, the OFWs also have more reasons to send more money here, because they get more pesos in exchange for their hard-earned foreign currencies. So consumer spending is strong.”
Boom or bust
CONSIDERED a veteran with his three-decade extensive career experience in real estate and management in the Asia-Pacific region, Soriano has witnessed the ups and downs of the property sector since 1987. “So it’s been a long ride and, therefore, I have seen almost three or four cycles in the sector,” he recalled. “It’s really a boom-and-bust thing. The only good thing about the sector is that it’s technically an ‘unreal estate market’. Why? Because there are still many that have no houses.” While officially the housing backlog in the Philippines is pegged at around 5 million, based
on reports of the Housing and Urban Development Coordinating Council, Soriano said the gap could go higher to about 7 million. This is because more and more dwelling units are wanting every year across all categories. In fact, there’s an annual pent-up demand of around 40,000 to 50,000 in the midmarket and about 400,000 in the low-end segment. “We can only supply practically around 22 percent to 23 percent of that. So it keeps on building up. And then the huge migration of people from the provinces moving to Metro Manila, that’s around 200,000 to 300,000 a year. We can only produce an ‘X’ percent,” Soriano explained.
Gaps
Because of the gap between the supply and demand, the majority of the market who can’t afford to buy their own space to reside, either a house and lot or condo/apartment units, usually end up renting. Lease rates in vertical projects, for instance, have been increasing over the last five years, according to the research of Leechiu Property Consultants. The study showed that Bonifacio Global City still commands the highest rental rate at an average of P968 per sq m. This is followed by Makati at P951 per sq m; Ortigas, P925 per sq m; reclamation or bay area, P810 per sq m; Alabang, P770 per sq m; and Libis in Quezon City, P680 per sq m. Residential rents across major
central business districts (CBDs), the report added, are observed to move upward despite having a stable residential supply and low absorption rates. “The only problem with this sector, as opposed to Singapore or even some advanced economies, is that we’re a country of the haves and have-nots. It’s either you can afford to live in a house or a condo, or generally you will be forever leasing,” he pointed out. “So that’s the scenario. And we are attempting to balance it, except that regulatory policies are structural and so on, and sometimes are the cause of corruption. These are really happening,” he stressed.
No to ‘cookie-cutter’ houses
WHILE the bubble remains uncertain, Soriano cautioned of a possible explosion given the proliferation of various developments with lousy concepts that lure homebuyers with their very low-cost products, yet compromising not only the integrity of the properties, but also their market value in the long run. He cited, for instance, a condominium that’s very near the CBD, but it takes over 20 minutes to navigate from a certain unit all the way to the ground floor. Congestion is the culprit to blame, according to him, that makes queuing a normal scene in the elevator of the said property, which he did not identify. “It’s like multidwelling, so
that pains me. What do you get there in a density of, for example, 40 units on a floor? It’s practically one building already. And if you multiply them by 30 floors, how many units do we have? 1,200. So even if developers proposed to their market that they have a powerful value proposition that is near the MRT [Metro Rail Transit], still the elevator line in their building is longer than going by MRT to their destination,” he said of the pigeonhole-like project that’s very compact and overcrowded. The tradeoff here from a buyer’s perspective is that there will be no secondary market to absorb the condo unit if put on resale given the above-cited conditions. What’s more alarming is that if the purchaser cannot pay off the mortgage of his unit. “My fear is he’s going to abandon the amortization. And if you compute that in multiples of 100 who will default, the rate is going to affect the viability of the banking industry and also the property alone,” Soriano noted, while citing that the owners might end up renting the units at a fraction just to monetize it. “So the problem is now continued; it’s a cycle. And that’s my fear. It’s happening to a lot [of developers] that we’ve been monitoring because their value proposition is having a very low price. But in the end, that’s going to boomerang on the industry itself. So watch out for developers who are cookie-cutters, with no value to offer,” he stressed.
The term “cookie-cutter” is often used to describe suburban housing developments that are mass-produced and where all of the units are based on the same blueprints and are differentiated only by their color.
Powerful value proposition
TO prevent the bursting of the bubble from happening, real-estate developers are encouraged to go through a painstaking process of looking at a concept first before launching it to the market. “In focusing on a concept, for me, to win the market, you need to be competitive and have a compelling and a powerful value proposition,” Soriano said. In so doing, the developer must think, plan and develop in the long term, not just aesthetic-wise, but also for the project’s appraisal. Aidea Philippines Inc. President Jojo Tolentino cited a recent study that tried to identify what creates value for a particular building. “A lot of people think it’s just design. But design is just No. 2. The No. 1 is really the buildingmanagement part because after, let’s say, 15 years, what you see is how well maintained the project is. And that’s how value is retained and created,” he explained. “So design is important. But management of the property is equally important.” A well-thought-out project is, likewise, a win-win not only for the developers but also the buyers
themselves. “They probably have bought in the past, and they have a penchant to invest some more. So to have that competitive advantage, you need to offer something better and palatable to them, with wonderful yields, but no guarantees,” Soriano said. “And again, if you have a lousy concept and you have many of those, what’s gonna happen is when the demand is taken out, everything is going to come tumbling down, from poor property management to poor concept, poor execution, and even unqualified buyers. “So that’s why we’re trying to put all of these advocacies so that we can pin down on developers that are really espousing for best practices,” he stressed. But seeing the real-estate sector as already developed, the chairman of the marketing cluster and program directorship for real estate at the Ateneo Graduate School of Business is confident that more and more players will be discerning further, as regards their future endeavors. “This is a mature market. And when the market is all mature, you need to think deeper in coming up with a powerful value. So I think this is the good side of a mature market where any developer, whose goal is to make money, will rethink their position. They will now come up with powerful values that will energize the sector again. When this market continues to mature, it can now extend the growth of the industry,” Soriano said.
MMDA relaunches estero cleanup drive ahead of the rainy season Continued from a1
Pinagsama Creek in Taguig City; Santo Rosario-Silangan River in Pateros; Estero Tripa de GallinaBuendia Outfall in Makati City; Santo Niño Creek in Pasay City; Dahlig Creek in Las Piñas City; Pasong Diablo River in Muntinlupa City; Coastal Open Canal in Parañaque City; and Libertad Re-
tarding Pone at Libertad Pumping Station in Pasay. “We have to do this periodically to maximize the conveyance capacity of our open waterways in anticipation of the forthcoming rainy season,” Orbos said. To date, there are 37 pumping stations in Metro Manila being operated and maintained by the agency.
Pumping stations
For his part, Engr. Baltazar Melgar assured there will be no repeat of the incident in 2012 in Taguig City that a pumping station in Barangay Wawa ran out of fuel and was unable to pump, leaving the city at the mercy of flood waters. The pumping station then had been running for 10 days straight when it ran of
fuel, a night before the metropolis was hit by monsoon rains. Melgar said that last year, the MMDA has opened two rehabilitated floodwater pumping stations in Taguig. The upgraded facilities, which are located along Circumferential Road 6 (C-6) in Barangay Hagonoy and Barangay Wawa, are major components of
the Metro Manila Flood Control Project, particularly the west of Manggahan Floodway. The agency is hopeful that the upgrades made in these pumping stations will totally spare the city of Taguig from flooding. Additional three units of submersible axial flow pumps with a capacity of 3.0 cubic meters per second each were installed at the Hagonoy pumping station, covering about 528 hectares drainage area. A new motorized trash rake/screen was also set up at the facility. Located along C-6 at TaguigPateros drainage channel, the Taguig pumping station, on the other hand, now has eight units of submersible axial flow pumps that siphon 24 cubic meters of water per second. It covers about 1,423 hectares drainage area and serves approximately 8,700 meters of estero. The MMDA, data show, has identified several flood-prone areas in Metro Manila during the wet season, including Sampaloc in Manila and its immediate vicinity; Rizal Avenue corner R. Papa in Manila; Makati Diversion Channel; South SuperhighwayBuendia; Maysilo Circle-Boni Avenue, Kalentong Street, New Panaderos Street, Shaw Boulevard and Acacia Lane in Mandaluyong; Barangay Doña Imelda, Damayang Lagi, Tatalon and Talayan in Quezon City; the Quiapo district in Manila and its immediate vicinity; and Ninoy Aquino Avenue and its immediate vicinity in Parañaque.
More responsive
Orbos also assured that the MMDA will be “more responsive” now with the creation of the Metro Manila Crisis Monitoring and Management Center. The launch of the facility was graced by President Duterte on April 4. “With the establishment of this center, we are highlighting the need of the MMDA to be more responsive to the needs of our constituents in Metro Manila and surrounding provinces. I there-
fore direct the MMDA to assume a lead role in the government’s efforts to maintain peace and order in our communities, be vigilant not only in protecting our people from natural and manmade calamities, but also in our fight against illegal drugs, crime and corruption,” Duterte said. Duterte added that the MMDA should initiate programs that will educate the people on the significance of disaster preparedness and the need to mitigate the adverse effects of climate change. Moreover, the MMDA must be involved in policy formation by coordinating with law-enforcement agencies, barangays, and non-governmental organizations. “Let the center serve as a concrete reminder to all of you that your primary concern must always be the safety, security and the welfare of the people,” he reiterated. Orbos said the facility will serve as the nerve center to their data collection and timely dissemination and utilization of information to support decisions and actions not only by the MMDA but also other responders in an emergency incident that can escalate into crisis level, to ensure the protection of the people, or at the very least, to mitigate the impact of such events. He added that among the incidents to be given particular attention will be multiple vehicular accidents with casualties, industrial and chemical accidents, fire incidents and explosions, transport strikes, mass action or protests, high population-density events such as huge concerts, gatherings or festivities, epidemic or suspected release of biological agents, events of chemical, biological, radiological nuclear nature, extreme weather events, and widespread floods. The center will operate on a 24-hour basis and is manned by the deaf-mute employees who are tasked in controlling the “no-contact apprehensions” through LED television screens.
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Slower price adjustments in nonfood group kept inflation at 3.4% in April
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he Nationa l Economic a nd D e v e lo p me nt A u thority (Neda) reported that the average hike in prices in April remained at 3.4 percent. The slower price adjustments in electricity and gas and slightly higher prices of food commodities kept inf lation at the same rate as with the previous month, the Neda said. This inf lation rate is slightly below the median market expectation of 3.5 percent and rem a i n s w it h i n t he gover nment’s target of 2.0 percent to 4.0 percent for 2017. “ The stable inf lation rate in April is a respite from the upward inf lation trend we saw in the first three months of the year. Nevertheless, volatilities in oil prices and erratic exchange rates can still manifest into higher domestic prices for both food and nonfood commodities,” Neda Officer in Charge and Undersecretar y for Investment Programming Rolando G. Tungpalan said. I n f l at ion i n t he non fo o d group decelerated from 2.8 percent in March to 2.7 percent in April 2017. Slower inf lation in this group can be attributed to the sluggish price adjustments of electr icit y, gas and ot her f uels. T his can be traced to the resumed operations of the Malampaya Gas Field after a two-month maintenance shutdown in Januar y and Februar y. Moreover, lower pump prices recorded for unleaded gasoline, diesel, kerosene and LPG in April 2017 contributed to slower nonfood inflation.
Mea nwhi le, inf l at ion in t he food a nd nona lcohol ic beverage g roup accelerated f rom 4.0 percent in March to 4.2 percent in Apr i l. But par t ia l ly temper ing t he increase in food inf l at ion were f r u its, veget ables, suga r, ja m, honey, c hocol ate a nd confect ioner y. Prices of staples, such as rice, meat and fish, remained high due to supply constraints. Data from the Philippine Statistics Authority showed the country’s declining inventory of commercial and National Food Authority rice. “Possible increases in transportation fares and electricity rates in t he com ing mont hs could also exert upward pressure on prices, along with the transitor y impact of the proposed tax reform program,” the Neda official said. On a positive note, normal ra infa l l pat ter n a nd neut ra l weat her cond it ions e x pected from March to August bode well for the crops sector. “ With the potential recurrence of El Niño, the government should start taking precautionary actions to mitigate the damaging effects of droughts and dr y spells. These include production support, distribution of seeds, and timely importation,” Tungpalan said. He also urged the government to prioritize discussions on rice tariffication, in order to avoid creating policy uncertainties. “Additional interventions should also be taken to address those who will be negatively affected by the expected increase of rice imports,” Tungpalan added.
India, PHL to lead Asian growth as work forces rise
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or a vivid illustration of why demographics matter so much for economic growth, take a look at the diverging trends in Asia. Ind i a a nd t he Ph i l ippi nes are likely to post Asia’s fastest economic growth rates in coming years, as their working-age popu l at ion keeps e x pa nd i ng through 2020, in contrast with shrinking work forces across North Asia, Nomura Holdings Inc. estimates show. The Philippines, with 31 percent of its population currently under the age of 15, is projected to see a 1.9-percent expansion of its 15- to 65-year-old population this year, with Malaysia’s due to rise 1.6 percent and India 1.5 percent, Nomura economists said in a report. Malaysia’s population growth, however, is expected to slow faster than India’s. That contrasts with bleaker prospects for the likes of China, Japan and Hong Kong, all of which have seen a contraction in the work force since 2015. South Korea and Thailand are expected
31%
The percentage of the Philippine population that are under the age of 15
to join the ranks of older economies with a smaller working-age population next year, according to Nomura. Aging will clip the potential growth rates of all major North Asian economies in coming years, while those of India and Southeast Asian economies may accelerate, with the exception of Singapore’s, the bank said. “We expect any upside surprises to the consensus of economists on potential output growth to come from India and Southeast Asia, while any disappointments are likely to come from Northeast Asia,” Nomura said. Bloomberg News
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IPPs get tax reprieve from Duterte
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ood news for independent power producers (IPPs), as President Duterte signed an executive order (EO) on the reduction and condonation of real-property taxes, interests and penalties assessed on the power-generation facilities of IPPs under build-operate-transfer (BOT) contracts with government-owned or -controlled corporations (GOCCs). Under EO 19, signed on April 27, all liabilities for real-property ta x, including privileges amassed to the Special Education Fund, on property, machinery and equipment used by the IPPs operating under the BOT scheme for the fiscal years of 2015 and 2016, are “reduced to an amount equivalent to the tax due if computed based on an
assessment level of 15 percent of the fair market value of said property, machinery and equipment depreciated at the rate of 2 percent per annum”. It added, “All interests on such deficiency are also condoned and the concerned IPPs are relieved from payment.” Should there be any real-property tax payments for 2015 and
2016 made by IPPs in excess of the reduced amount, such excess will only be applied to their real-property tax for the succeeding years. Section 234 of the Local Government Code of 1991 incentivizes GOCCs engaged in the production and distribution of power a number of exemptions and privileges with respect to real-property tax, such as an assessment level of 10 percent on all its lands, buildings, machineries and other improvements, as well as for pollution control and environment protection. Such incentives were not given to IPPs operating in local areas, and EO 19 notes that this have threatened enforcement action against the IPPs, including the levy and sale at public auction of the affected properties. “Since a substantial part of said real-property taxes being charged against the affected IPPs has been contractually assumed by the National Power Corp., the Power Sector Assets and Liabilities Managements
Corp. and other GOCCs, the payments of such taxes will trigger massive direct liabilities on the part of such GOCCs, thereby threatening their financial stability, the government’s consolidation efforts, the stability of energy prices and, worse, may even trigger cross-defaults significant economic losses across all sector,” EO 19 read. Under Section 277 of Republic Act 7160, the President can condone or reduce real-property ta x and interest for any year, given that it is necessary to keep public interest intact.
EO 19
The executive order issued by Duterte that eases the independent power producers’ property tax burdens
SC justice writes online book on China sea claims
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Supreme Court (SC) justice launched a book on Thursday that questions China’s historic claims to most of the South China Sea and said he will distribute it online to try to overcome China’s censorship and reach its people. SC Senior Associate Justice Antonio T. Carpio said his e-book can be downloaded for free in English now and will be made available later in Mandarin, Vietnamese, Bahasa, Japanese and Spanish to help more people understand the basis of the Philippines’s stand against China’s territorial claims. Carpio said public opinion, including in China, can help pressure Beijing to comply with an arbitration ruling last year that invalidated China’s historic claims based on a 1982 maritime treaty. Carpio helped prepare the arbitration case, which the Philippines largely won. China has dismissed the ruling and continued to develop seven artificial islands in the South China Sea’s Spratly archipelago. China’s construction of the islands on disputed reefs has alarmed rival claimants and the United States. “This book in its printed form can never be distributed in China. It will be banned,” Carpio said at the launch of his book in Manila. “ The only way this e-book can reach the Chinese people is in electronic format through the Internet.” “I believe that like all other people of the world, the Chinese people are inherently good, but their government has drilled into their minds that they own the South China Sea since 2,000 years ago. This is, of course, utterly false
Supreme Court Senior Associate Justice Antonio T. Carpio (from left), Mel Velasco Velarde and former Foreign Secretary Albert F. del Rosario unveil the original copy of the 1734 Murillo-Velarde Map, which shows the disputed Spratlys group of islands and the Scarborough Shoal, during the launching of Carpio’s e-book, titled The South China Sea Dispute: Philippine Sovereign Rights and Jurisdiction in the West Philippine Sea, in the financial district of Makati City on Thursday. AP
and the world will never accept this,” he said. Chinese Embassy officials were not immediately available for comment. In the book, titled The South China Sea Dispute: Philippine Sovereign Rights and Jurisdiction in the West Philippine Sea, Carpio uses old maps, photographs, excerpts from the arbitration ruling, Chinese government statements and documents to question the validity of China’s claims. Former Foreign Secretary Albert F. del Rosario, who spearheaded the filing of the arbitration case against China in 2013, praised Carpio for promoting the rule of law and how that worked
well for a small country standing up to a superpower, saying “international law is the great equalizer”. He gave a speech at the launch of Carpio’s book and said they stood together with most Filipinos in agreement that international rule of law applied to all. Carpio’s studies on the South China Sea disputes are not part of his work on the SC. He said he asked the court’s permission in 2015 to give lectures in 17 countries to explain the territorial conflicts, which many fear could become Asia’s next flashpoint. Carpio warns in the book that China may be planning to build more island outposts at Luconia
Shoal off Malaysia and Scarborough Shoal off the northwestern Philippines. If it constructs an island base at Scarborough, China would have enough radar coverage of the South China Sea to be able to impose an air defense identification zone similar to what it did a few years ago in the East Sea in a region where it has territorial rifts with Japan, he said. China and the Philippines, along with Brunei Darussalam, Malaysia, Vietnam and Taiwan, have overlapping claims to parts or all of the South China Sea that straddle busy sea lanes and are believed to be atop undersea deposits of oil and gas. AP
UN envoy rebukes Duterte’s war on drugs
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he UN special envoy on extrajudicial executions on Friday issued a veiled rebuke of President Duterte’s deadly campaign against illegal drugs, saying world leaders have recognized that such an approach does not work. Agnes Callamard told a forum in Manila that badly thought out policies not only fail to address drug abuse and trafficking, they also compound the problems and “can foster a regime of impunity infecting the whole justice sector and reaching into whole societies, invigorating the rule of violence rather than law”. She did not mention the Philippines by name. Ca l lamard is an early cr itic o f t he p re s i d e nt ’s a nt i d r u g
dr ive, and has been cha l lenged by Duterte to debate his war on dr ugs that has left thousands of suspected dr ug dea lers and users dead since he took office in June. Human-rights groups say 7,000 to 9,000 have been killed, but the government refutes that, releasing data this week showing nearly 4,600 people were killed in police operations and homicides found to be drug-related. “In 2016 the general assembly of the world’s government recognized explicitly that the ‘war on drugs’—be it community based, nationa l or globa l—does not work,” Callamard said. She said other factors exacerbate the problem, including poorly conceived policies, extrajudicial
killings, deaths by criminal gangs, vigilante crimes, detention in rehabilitation centers without trial or evaluation and the breakdown of the rule of law. She said UN member-countries, in their joint commitment last year to counter the world drug problem, called instead for a multifaceted and scientific approach that promotes the dignity and human rights of individuals and communities. Duterte Spokesman Ernesto C. Abella expressed disappointment that Callamard did not contact the government before her visit, saying “she has sent a clear signal that she is not interested in getting an objective perspective of issues that are the focus of her responsibility”.
He said the government has sent a letter to Callamard last September inviting her to visit and meet with officials to get their perspective on the drug menace. Abella failed to mention that Duterte earlier rejected Callamard’s proposal to hold a private meeting and instead insisted on a public debate with her. Callamard refused to answer questions from the media except to say she was in the country in an unofficial capacity, solely to attend a two-day academic conference at the invitation of the University of the Philippines and human-rights lawyers. She invited “all parties, including the government, to participate fully and take stock of what is going to be debated”. AP
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Secretary Tillerson ‘emphatic’ on need to halt South China Sea buildup in Asean message
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.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson delivered an “emphatic” message to foreign ministers from Southeast Asian nations that militarization and construction in the South China Sea must stop while territorial disputes in the area are worked out, a senior US official said. Tillerson delivered the message—aimed at China, which has reclaimed thousands of acres of land in the South China Sea in recent years—during a lunch on Thursday with ministers of the Asean in Washington. The top US diplomat urged “all parties involved to stop militarization, construction, reclamation of land in the South China Sea while talks are going on,” Patrick Murphy, deputy assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific Affairs, said on a call with reporters. “ The secretary was quite emphatic about the need to stop these activities to give talks a good chance of succeeding.” Tillerson’s remarks were more moderate toward China than President Donald J. Trump’s comments during the campaign, when he called out Beijing over its reef reclamation, currency manipulation and trade policies. Since then, Trump has made clear he’s counting on cooperation with Beijing to rein in North Korea’s nuclear program and praised his relationship with President Xi Jinping, a move that could undercut any tough message from the State Department. In his confirmation hearing in Januar y, Tillerson compared China’s actions in the South China Sea to those of Russia in Crimea, saying a failure to respond had let China “ keep pushing the envelope.” “We’re going to have to send China a clear signal that, first, the island-building stops and, second, your access to those islands is also not going to be allowed,” Tillerson said, in remarks that critics said
invited a military confrontation. He hasn’t repeated that formulation since then. The US is not a claimant in the South China Sea but has urged talks to solve the disputes. Southeast Asian nations are in talks with China for a code of conduct covering the waters, though progress has been slow. During the meeting with Tillerson, the ministers stressed the importance of the peaceful resolution of the disputes, according to an Asean statement. “We reiterated the principles previously agreed by our leaders and we call for the early agreement on the framework and expeditious conclusion of a code of conduct in the South China Sea,” the ministers said in the statement. A summit in Manila last weekend of Asean leaders ended with a statement noting “the improving cooperation between Asean and China” over the waterway. Murphy said the US would continue the Navy’s “freedom of navigation” operations in the South China Sea, though he declined to say when that might occur. Such operations, which have typically produced protests from Beijing, haven’t been undertaken since Trump took office, according to a Pentagon official who asked not to be identified discussing military movements. “Our objectives remain very firm in this regard, and the United States will continue to assert its rights in the South China Sea,” Murphy said.
North Korea action
Tillerson also pressed Southeast Asian governments to ensure
Secretary of State Rex Tillerson (center) meets with foreign ministers from Southeast Asia as they do the “Asean handshake” during a meeting of the Asean at the State Department on Thursday in Washington. AP
“leak-proof” enforcement of sanctions against North Korea and to prevent the pariah nation’s diplomats from conducting business that could benefit its weapons programs. Tillerson called on foreign ministers of the 10-nation Asean to “minimize” the diplomatic relations with Pyongyang, “so that North Korea does not gain benefit from its diplomatic channels for its nuclear and missile aspirations,” Murphy said after Thursday’s meeting at the State Department. That was the latest salvo in the Trump administration’s push to get the international community to intensify diplomatic and economic pressure on North Korea to dismantle its nuclear weapons program before it can pose a direct threat to the American mainland.
Although China, North Korea’s traditional ally and main trading partner, is viewed as the key lever of international influence, Southeast Asian nations have diplomatic relationships with Pyongyang and small-scale trade ties, and have sometimes served as conduits for North Korean activities that violate UN sanctions. A recent UN report found that North Korean diplomats often play key roles in commercial activities banned under Security Council resolutions aimed at starving it of technology and revenue for its nuclear and missile programs. “North Korea in many countries has a diplomatic presence that clearly exceeds their diplomatic needs,” Murphy told reporters. He said, without providing specifics, that “considerable common
[Tillerson urged] all parties involved to stop militarization, construction, reclamation of land in the South China Sea while talks are going on.”—Murphy
ground was identified” between the US and Asean on North Korea. He said the February assassination of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un’s estranged brother at a Malaysian airport, using a chemical agent, illustrated the threat it posed “in the heart of Asean”. He said this has galvanized concern in the region. Enrique Manalo, acting foreign secretary of the Philippines, said the way forward with North Korea was through dialogue and deescalation of tensions. He said China has an “important role” to play, and Asean has not really yet discussed reducing the presence of North Korean diplomatic presence in their countries. “That’s probably something we’ll look at,” Manalo told reporters. “Our immediate concern is that the tension in the [Korean] peninsula does not increase, because the more it increases the more danger of some kind of miscalculation. The last thing we would really like to see is to have a conflict break out.” Southeast Asia’s top diplomats are clearly seeking better ties with Washington, amid uncertainty over the Trump administration’s
trade policy and its dealings with China. They have been heartened by President Donald Trump’s plans to attend an Asean-hosted summit in the Philippines in November and a regional economic summit in Vietnam. Eight foreign ministers and two other senior officials from the 10 nations traveled across the world for the face-to-face with Tillerson. Broadly speaking, they want a sustained US presence in the region—which President Barack Obama promised them as part of his “pivot” to Asia—to counter China’s military assertiveness and growing economic dominance over its neighbors. “We had a very good meeting: short, sharp and to the point,” Singaporean Foreign Minister Vivian Balakrishnan told reporters. He emphasized the importance of economic and trade ties between the US and Southeast Asia. However, long-standing US a l lies like the Philippines and T hailand have moved closer to China, complicating US hopes for unit y on issues like control over the potentia l ly resourcer ic h Sout h C hina Sea. T he Philippines, which is currently chair of A sean, has dia led back it s once st rong st a nce ove r China’s asser tive behav ior and island-building. Murphy said the US remains committed to freedom of navigation and commerce in the South China Sea. He said Tillerson had urged all “relevant parties” to stop militarization, construction and reclamation there while Asean and China conduct talks—which have dragged on for years—aimed at framing a binding code of conduct to prevent conflict. Tr u mp h a s fe te d C h i ne s e President Xi Jinping as he pushes for more cooperation against North Korea. Southeast Asian nations generally welcome cordial ties between the two powers but worr y about whether secret dea l-ma k ing m ight u nderc ut Wa sh i ng ton’s w i l l i ng ness to stand up to China, which claims virtually all the South China Sea and has conf licting territorial claims with four Asean nations. Bloomberg, AP
America’s allies are figuring out Donald Trump O
ne question about President Donald J. Trump obsesses foreign governments more than any other: Will this president, who campaigned as an “America First” insurgent, continue to trample norms in office? Strikingly often, foes and friends answer this in different ways. Such hostile or rival powers as China, Iran and Russia increasingly find that Trump’s policies resemble those pursued by his predecessors. Candidate Trump called China a trade cheat, bent on “rape” of the American economy. Trump now calls that country’s leader, President Xi Jinping, a “highly respected” and indispensable partner in efforts to curb North Korea’s nuclear ambitions—a position not far from that adopted by President Barack Obama and President George W. Bush before him. Trump aides no longer talk about a grand bargain with Russia, offering President Vladimir Putin a free hand in Ukraine in exchange for iron-fisted support in the fight against the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria. A loud advocate for such a deal, former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn, was fired for lying about
contacts with Russian envoys. Nor has Trump torn up the Obama-era deal to freeze Iran’s nuclear program, although he calls it a “disaster”. Instead he seems minded to buttress it with sanctions targeting Iranian misconduct in other fields, a policy that his former opponent Hillary Clinton favored. Often Trump’s worldview has not so much evolved as collided with reality. That process is welcomed in such friendly capitals as Berlin, but maintaining amicable ties with this president still feels anything but straightforward. Official Berlin is glad that Trump takes a more conventional view of America’s interests than it once feared. There is less confidence that he respects the values underpinning the rules-based, Western-led international order, however. Germans are dismayed by Trump’s tolerance for authoritarian strongmen, from President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey to President Rodrigo Duterte of the Philippines, whose blood-soaked campaign against drug dealers earned him Trump’s praise on April 29 and a White House invitation. The mood in official Berlin is best described
TRUMP AP
as relief mixed with real sadness. Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany prepared meticulously for her first meeting with Trump on March 17. Merkel has spent a career handling swaggering men, from German political rivals to Putin. Her aim was not to befriend Trump, who as a candidate called her refugee policies “insane”, but to suggest where he might be misjudging America’s interests. Team Merkel knew that Peter
Navarro, a senior White House trade adviser, holds that Germany’s success as an exporter to America is explained by manipulation of the European single currency and by cunning Teutonic negotiators who outsmarted Obama and previous presidents. Trump favors bilateral trade pacts, believing that America suffers when many countries cram into one negotiating room. Merkel duly explained that Germany does not negotiate trade pacts or control its currency, ceding authority on both fronts to the European Union (EU). If Trump wants trade talks with only two players, Merkel told him, it is the EU that offers that opportunity. Tr u mp a ides h ave wa r ned that their boss does not respond well to detail-heavy briefings, preferring stirring stories, pictures and maps. Merkel brought a group of company bosses and apprentices to talk about vocational education. Turning to the agenda of a G20 summit to be held in July, she engaged Trump and his daughter, Ivanka, on the dire risks posed by global pandemics and antibiotic resistance. Merkel also invited Ivanka to speak at a women’s summit in Berlin. That visit saw the first daugh-
ter hissed by some in the audience when she called her father a champion for families. In common with other foreign visitors to the Trump White House, Merkel found the president a good listener, perhaps because much of what he was hearing seemed new to him. Allies have begun taking advantage of this trait, conferring before visits to reinforce such messages as the need to negotiate with Russia warily and from a position of strength. Surprisingly wonky subjects pique Trump’s interest: Prime Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen of Denmark told the president how wind power has helped Denmark reduce its carbon emissions while strengthening its economy. Allies have begun giving much thought to crafting policy wins that Trump can call his own. Still, public antipathy toward Trump runs deep, which raises the costs of doing business with him. Merkel, for instance, saw the case for increased German defense spending long before Trump demanded that her government pay what he claimed it “owes” to America in Nato contributions. As soon as Trump made defense spending sound so personal, sell-
ing Germans on an increase became harder. Perceptions will be hard to change. A s Norber t Röttgen, chairman of the foreign-affairs committee of the German parliament and a member of Merkel’s Christian Democratic Party, lamented, “Even if Donald Trump turns back to a more normal foreign policy, he will remain a provocative figure in German eyes.” A Social Democrat on that committee, Dagmar Freitag, is unsure that Germany and Trump “share common values”, making relations “more fragile”. German leftists who dislike or distrust America face a different puzzle, noted Boris Vormann of the Free University in Berlin. Such skeptics traditionally have raged at the hypocrisy of American claims to moral superiority. Trump makes no such claims, leaving anti-Americans oddly bereft. Even Trump’s mercurial nature plays differently with friends and foes. It can be helpful to surprise adversaries. Unpredictability is harder for friends to love. Nonetheless, allies know now that Trump is not about to change— and doesn’t see why he should. The New York Times News Service
Sports BusinessMirror
Editor: Jun Lomibao | mirror_sports@yahoo.com.ph
Rivers
for wild off-season
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LAYA VISTA, California—The Los Angeles Clippers and Coach Doc Rivers are settling in for what could be a wild off-season. After another disappointing playoff exit—this time a first-round loss to Utah in seven games—the Clippers have a lot of work to do. Will the Clippers blow up the core of the team and rebuild? Will the “Big Three” of Chris Paul, Blake Griffin and DeAndre Jordan be broken up, with Griffin and Paul set to become free agents? “I don’t know. I think they deserve a chance to win. They have built this legacy. I do believe that,” Rivers said on Wednesday. “Whether that’s what we decide to do that or not, there’s a big part of me that believes [in them]. These guys are responsible for the birth of our franchise in a lot of ways. They consider themselves Clippers.... I would love them to shepherd that through. Whether that happens or not, it’s too early to make all those decisions or they’ll make them for us. But I do have a strong believe in that.” The Clippers have yet to make the Western Conference Finals. JJ Redick also is a free agent, and Luc Richard Mbah a Moute has an option. The inability to beat the Jazz provided evidence for Rivers heading into free agency. “We need length,” Rivers said. “We need more length and two-way players. Again, that’s easy to say. Little harder to do with the way our contracts are. We may continue to do what we’ve done or we may decide to change our contracts and have more flexibility.” There is much work to be done, and it could be an off-season of much change. “I’m really looking forward to it,” Rivers said. “I’m a driven human being. I can tell you I do this for one reason and that is to be the winner. I decided a while ago I no longer want to be in the party, I want to be the party. Like I tell my players, when you set yourself up that way, you’re going to have a ton of disappointment. I told them that four years ago. Unfortunately, so far I’ve been right. It’s the only way to go, as far as I’m concerned.” Griffin suffered a toe injury in Game Three of the playoffs, and had surgery this week. “He’s doing well.... The surgery went better than we thought,” Rivers said. Griffin is a free agent with an early termination option. Asked if he thinks he’ll opt out, Rivers said: “I guess. I don’t know. I have no assumption.” Rivers is president and coach of the Clippers and there is speculation over whether he’ll keep his duties in the front office. There’s no uncertainty on his part over whether his dual roles work based on the help he gets with front-office staff. “It is hard, that’s why I hired Lawrence [Frank]” Rivers said. “People don’t realize Pop [Gregg Popovich] has been the president a long time. Clearly, it can be done but you’ve got to have great help. [General Manager] RC Buford and that entire staff does. Pop really coaches the team. He’s involved. That’s the same system we’re at. I hear that it’s hard to do both. I’m doing the same thing. We’ve hired a million people. Half of them, I’m still learning their names. Lawrence is running the team in that way, but I’m still the president. I really believe more now that it’s a good way of doing it.” AP
E LA SALLE goes for a sweet sweep of an Ateneo de Manila side that is expected to have fine-tuned itself in Game Two of the Season 79 University Athletic Association of the Philippines (UAAP) women’s volleyball championship series today at the Smart Araneta Coliseum. The Lady Spikers go for their second consecutive crown in the 4 p.m. match that is again seen to go down the wire as the series opener that was played tight all the way, 21-25, 29-27, 25-22, 25-20. Ateneo’s men’s team will also go for a series sweep against the National University Bulldogs also in Game Two of their own finals series at 12 noon. But before the first serve is made, De La Salle’s Majoy Baron will be feted as the new queen of UAAP
volleyball when she is awarded her first Most Valuable Player (MVP) trophy in the 3 p.m. ceremonies. Blue Eagle Marck Espejo will share the spotlight as he hoists his fourth men’s MVP trophy. Graduating captain Kim Fajardo was instrumental for De La Salle in Game One and dished out 37 excellent sets and finished with 10 points she highlighted with seven service aces and 10 digs. She vowed today’s match would be her last in the league.
“I want this to be my last game. But I know Ateneo will do everything to bounce back,” Fajardo said. “It will be a test of character and it’s up to us on how we will defend our title.” Fajardo and Baron again expect to draw the best out of their teammates, including last season’s Finals MVP Kim Kianna Dy and this year’s Best Digger Dawn Macandili, as well as young spikers Des Cheng, Tin Tiamzon and Aduke Ogunsanya. If the Lady Spikers’ sweep, it would be their Head Coach Ramil de
Jesus and their school’s 10th UAAP title. But the Lady Eagles are determined to extend the series to a winner-take-all Game Three on May 10. “It’s not the worst possible time,” Lady Eagle Bea de Leon said. “We didn’t lose the championship—that’s the worst possible time.” De Leon said they are not buckling down against their archrivals and expects Jia Morado, Jho Maraguino, Michelle Morente, Kat Tolentino, Maddie Madayag and Ana Gopico to play Game Two with a deeper passion. “The mantra of this team is ‘heart strong’ and we’ll live up to that. It’s not over, it’s Game One, it’s best-ofthree,” de Leon said. “Today we’ll meet again.”
Lance Agcaoili
STRETCHING Cocolife’s Wensh Tiu and
Abie Nuval do some stretching before their match against F2 Logistics A’s Fritz Gallenero and Cyd Demecillo in the Belo Philippine Superliga (PSL) Beach Volleyball Challenge Cup on Thursday at the SM By the Bay in Mall of Asia. Tiu and Nuval won, 15-21, 21-18, 17-15.
Philippine Football League unfurls
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HE inaugural Philippine Football League (PFL) kicks off today with two matches in separate venues—Kaya Makati hosting Ceres Negros at the University of Makati and FC Meralco Manila going to the Stallion Laguna pitch in Biñan. The Kaya-Ceres match is set at 4 p.m., while the Stallion-Meralco duel is scheduled for 7 p.m. The games will be aired on People’s Television 4. Ceres Negros is coming off its successful campaign in the group stages of the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) Cup 2017 and will be parading returning player Stephan Schrock, Spaniard Bienvenido Marañon, Manny Ott, Iain Ramsey and Fernando Rodriguez and goalkeeper Roland Müller. The Makati-based team, on the other hand, will be bannered by skipper Ali Borromeo, Masanari Omura, Kenshiro
Valdez powers Cool Smashers A
LYSSA VALDEZ and the Creamline Cool Smashers earned their first victory at the expense of the Air Force Lady Jet Spikers, 25-23, 25-16, 25-22, in the Premier Volleyball League (PVL) Reinforced Conference women’s volleyball tournament on Thursday at the Filoil Flying V Centre in San Juan City. The victory allowed the Cool Smashers to bounce back from their 25-23, 22-25, 19-25, 21-25 defeat to Perlas last Sunday. It was also Valdez’s first win in a local tournament after playing for 3BB Nakornnont in the Thailand league. A three-time Most Valuable Player in the league, Valdez exploded with 21 points on 18 attacks and three service aces, and also had 10 digs and four receptions. “We already expected that Alyssa will deliver that kind of performance,” said Assistant Coach Sherwin Meneses, who called the shots for Creamline for Head Coach Tai Bundit, who is deep into Ateneo’s championship series with De La Salle in the University Athletic Association of the Philippines. Ivy Remulla contributed 10 points, the same output made by playmaker Alexa Cabanos, who also dished out 20 excellent sets. Jocemer Tapic had 11 points for Air Force, which fell to a 1-2 won-lost card behind Creamline’s 1-1 record. In men’s play, Santa Elena spoiled the debut of defending champion Air Force, 25-18, 25-20, 25-22, to go unscathed in two matches. The Cignal HD Spikers, on the other hand, defeated the IEM Volley Masters, 25-19, 25-16, 25-22, for a rousing start in the league. Lance Agcaoili
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LADY SPIKERS EYE CROWN D
Clippers, Rivers brace
Saturday, May 6, 2017
Daniels, Woody Ugarte, Anton Ugarte and new recruits Patrik Franksson, Jordan Mintah and goalkeeper Ref Cuaresma. Meralco captain James Younghusband, on the other hand, is upbeat about being part the historic opening of the PFL when they battle the Stallion, led by captain Ruben Doctora, Fitch Arboleda, Matthew Nierras, Nathan Alquiros and keeper Roland Sadia. “I’m very excited. The Philippines has made a great turf, moving to next level in football and it’s a great way to get more kids interested in the sport,” said Younghusband, who will play alongside his brother Phil under new coach Aris Caslib. On Sunday Ilocos United hosts Davao Aguilas at 4 p.m., while JPV Marikina battles Global Cebu at the Marikina Sports Complex at 7 p.m. Lance Agcaoili
Cebu’s Suson bags 2 titles in Bais City
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CREAMLINE’S Alyssa Valdez is back to her powerful form against the Philippine Air Force Jet Spikers. ALYSA SALEN
EBU City’s Marc Nicole Suson swept the oldest age groups of the recent 19th leg of the Cebuana Lhuillier Age Group Championship Series in Bais City in Negros Oriental. Suson swept Dipolog City’s Stephen Zion Guia in two finals—6-4 , 6-4 in the 16-under and 6-3, 6-2 in the 18-under—to emerge as the winningest player in the tournament supported by Dunlop. “This young player will definitely make his mark at the national level soon. He has been one of the most dominant players in the series,” sportsman-businessman Jean Henri Lhuillier, president and CEO of the sponsoring Cebuana Lhuillier, said. Jacob Diago and Diana Fe Perez, meanwhile, gave the hosts reasons to rejoice. Diago topped the boys’ 12-under division after beating Siquijor’s Francis Samson, 6-3, 1-6, 10-5, while Perez defeated Dumaguete City’s Sheynna Yu, 7-5, 6-0, in the girls’ 14-under final. Bohol’s John Kenneth Jumamoy also went home with two titles, beating Faith Khiarrah
Banico, 5-3, 2-4, 4-2, in the 10-under division and teamed up with Krist Aaron Banico for a 4-2, 4-1 victory over Jade Ann Catulong and James Zyril Romadia in the 10-under class. Aaron Jacque Geromo of Molave, Zamboanga del Norte, made short work of Ozamiz City bet Ashton Benne Villanueva, 6-4, 6-2, to capture the boys’ 14-under crown. Siquijor’s Ellaine Rose Bahonsua pocketed the girls’ 16-under title with an easy 6-2,6-2 victory over Dumaguete City’s Ghyllian Yu, while Faith Banico swept Louise Paliwag of Valencia, Negros Oriental, 6-1, 6-2, to bag the 12-under tiara. Bohol’s Trixie Gudelosao dominated Sunzel Faith Callao of Tayasan, Negros Oriental, 6-4, 6-2, in the girls’ 18-under championship. Gudelosao partnered with Bahonsua in beating Ghyllana Yu and Mariepol Lacpao, 8-3, in the final of the 18-under doubles; Fahd Kenneth Banico and Heart Sotto brushed aside Lorenze Celis and Wilfredo Gorospe in the boys’ 16-under championship, and Harland Hogan and Villanueva posted an 8-4 win over Simon Anqui and Randy Tatoy in the boys’ 14-under final.
BusinessMi
Saturday, May 6, 2017 | Editor: Jun Lomibao
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IT looks obvious Chris Froome is looking ahead to The Tour.
Team Sky suspends Moscon
I
TALIAN cyclist Gianni Moscon was suspended by his Sky team for six weeks after he racially abused another rider last week during the Tour of Romandie. Moscon was also given a formal written warning and told to attend a diversity awareness course, following a disciplinary hearing, Sky said in a statement on Monday. Moscon racially abused FDJ’s Kevin Reza after the third stage on Friday. Sky said Moscon apologized to Reza after the stage, and the following morning to him and his team, and the apology was accepted. Sky did not withdraw Moscon from the race, which ended on Sunday, after talking with FDJ. “Gianni recognizes that his behavior was wrong and how seriously Team Sky take this kind of incident,” Sky said. The beleaguered Team Sky have suffered another body blow in its attempts to rebuild its brand. The incident occurred after Friday’s stage three of the Tour de Romandie, which was won by Sky’s Elia Viviani, and has led to the Italian being handed a formal written warning. A statement from Team Sky read: “Following a disciplinary meeting with Team Sky concerning an incident at the Tour of Romandie, Gianni Moscon has been given a formal written warning and suspended from racing for six weeks. He will also attend a diversity awareness course. The incident comes at a time when UK Anti-Doping (UKAD) has been investigating allegations of wrongdoing affecting Team Sky and British Cycling. Sky have been under scrutiny since October when it was revealed that Ukad was looking into a claim that the former rider Sir Bradley Wiggins was injected with triamcinolone, a powerful corticosteroid, at the end of the Critérium in 2011. The Fancy Bears computer hackers revealed that Wiggins was given permission for jabs of the otherwisebanned drug before his three biggest races in 2011, 2012 and 2013, including his breakthrough Tour de France win in 2012. The retired rider, who has denied any wrongdoing, did not have permission to use it at the Critérium, though. Central to the investigation has been the contents of a package, handdelivered by a British Cycling coach and sent from the National Cycling Centre in Manchester, to the team at the end of that race. Dr. Richard Freeman, the former Team Sky medic, has said he cannot find any records to prove the package contained the legal decongestant Fluimucil because he failed to follow team policy by sharing those records with colleagues. He lost his laptop on holiday three years later. Ukad is yet to publish the findings of its investigation while the results of a concurrent probe by the culture, media and sport select committee will now not appear until after the general election. In March Team Sky published an open letter from the team principal, Sir Dave Brailsford, to Damian Collins MP, chairman of the select committee, in which the team outlined 14 steps taken to improve their anti-doping and medical policies since 2011, including a focus on record-sharing. AP
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FROOME PACING HIMSELF?
EAM Sky’s Chris Froome finished ninth in the Tour de Romandie’s final time trial to take 33rd place overall. And at the finish, he revealed that he has been dogged by a small-but-recent back injury. The three-time Tour de France winner fell out of contention in the race for the overall on mountainous Stage 4. Simon Yates (Orica-Scott) won the queen stage, with Richie Porte (BMC Racing) moving into second before usurping Yates in the final time trial. Froome was dropped on the final climb on Stage 4, and in the 18.3-km time trial around Lausanne he managed a respectable top 10. “Of course I would have liked to have been up there on the queen stage, but the truth is I got to the final climb and just didn’t have it enough,” Froome told the media after his effort against the climb. “I’ve been having a few small issues with my lower back, but at the end of the day I just didn’t have
the legs. There’s still a lot of work for me to do ahead of the Tour de France, but I’m confident that I know how to get the job done.” Froome started his season in January at the Herald Sun Tour, and although he has not tasted victory in 2017 he appears confident with regards to his form. He has previously stated that he is taking a slower approach to the year in a bid to defend his Tour title and then conquer the Vuetla a Espana for the first time. The objective, he told the press, was to come through Romandie unscathed, although the blistering form of former teammate and race winner Porte will be a reminder that a fourth Tour crown will be far from easy. “I think if I look at the objective that I came here with, to get a good week of racing in the legs, and with that to take me on in my preparation towards the Tour, then I’ve got through the week upright and without getting too cold in quite difficult conditions.”
Cyclingnews
NO longer a chaotic street race, the event is contested on a winding, closed-circuit course just over 1-kilometer long, featuring tight chicanes, sweeping turns and high-speed straightaways. NYT
NO LONGER
By Jeff Dinunzio
New York Times News Service THEY come in many colors, including the famous pink of the maglia rosa.
Advent of customized bicycles A
S custom bikes and equipment has become commonplace in the WorldTour peloton, race specific customization has also become the standard protocol for riders. The Giro d’Italia is no exception and the famous pink of the Maglia Rosa has been used to customize everything from tires to bottle cages and of course, the frame itself. Whilst some early race leaders opt for small and restrained customizations such as pink handlebar tape to match their Maglia Rosa, Steve Kruijswijk didn’t hold back, opting for a hybrid pink and Celeste Bianchi for his extended stint in pink during the 2016 edition of the race. Mario Cipollini and David Arroyo adopted the completely pink bike approach during their stints in the Maglia Rosa in 2002 and 2010, respectively.
Nairo Quintana’s victory in 2014 took the customization to the next level, a completely pink frameset, bottles, handlebar tape, shifter hoods and tires left no component spared, bar his green Movistar computer mount. Oleg Tinkov took the trend even further following Alberto Contador’s victory the following year, dying his hair pink for the final stage and this has become an iconic image of the outspoken former team owner. Click or swipe through the gallery above to take a closer look at the pink bikes, components and customization from the Giro d’Italia in years gone by. Cyclingnews
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EW YORK—David August Trimble first held the Red Hook Criterium in March 2008 on the sleepy streets of Red Hook, Brooklyn, with about 40 cyclists on bikes intended for a velodrome. It was informal and unsanctioned, with little vision for the future. “The first year it was just, ‘How do I make a race that’s super fun and gets people to come to my birthday party?’” Trimble said. But Trimble, who has a background in auto racing, eventually turned his attention toward making the race a yearly event. “In my head, the idea was to create the Formula One of bike racing,” he said. Trimble’s goal is to create a spectacle, despite grumblings that the race is becoming detached from its roots. A warm breeze carried Trimble’s voice one Saturday night from the booming loudspeakers across the Brooklyn Cruise Terminal as he counted down the start for 100 riders in the 10th Red Hook Criterium, now a well-loved fixedgear bike race known as the Red Hook Crit. No longer a chaotic street race, the event is
irror CYCLING
mirror_sports@yahoo.com.ph | Saturday, May 6, 2017 A7
WHAT’S in a trophy?
So much, if you look at these four trophies hardly fought for by the world’s grizzled elite cyclists.
WHY does the winner of TirrenoAdriatico receive a trophy in the shape of a trident? The event’s route and ancient mythology provide the explanation. The theme of the race, which takes riders from the Tyrrhenian to the Adriatic, is the sea, of which Poseidon is the God. And what is the symbol of Poseidon? The trident! PARIS-ROUBAIX, one of cycling’s
Monuments, is characterized by the difficulty of its cobbled sectors (usually more than 50 kilometers in total). So what trophy could better symbolize this unique event than a real cobble? No-frills, brute and rough, just like the race whose winner receives the trophy.
RESEMBLING a salad bowl, the trophy
presented to the winner of the Tour de France is no doubt the most prized in cycling. Proof: the riders who receive it traditionally kiss it. The image of the champions reflected in the shiny metal is symbolic of the podium ceremony organized at the end of the Grande Boucle.
Female athletes progress as incredible ambassadors of cycling
IT might make you think of a strand of
OMEN athletes do not only participate in International Cycling Union (UCI) events, they provide some of the most exciting racing in our different disciplines. While the history of women’s cycling may be shorter than that of men, female athletes have made up for lost time. Today, women World Cup winners and World Champions are incredible ambassadors of the sport.
DNA or of the spiral-shaped pasta fusilli... this “never-ending trophy”, which bears the names of all the Giro d’Italia winners, is recognizable and unforgettable. Many consider it cycling’s most magnificent trophy.
R ‘YAHOOS IN THE STREET’ contested on a winding, closed-circuit course just over 1-kilometer long, featuring tight chicanes, sweeping turns and highspeed straightaways. Kacey Lloyd won the first Red Hook Crit and competed in several more, often placing in the top 10 of what was until 2014 a coed event. Lloyd, who now oversees the race’s web site, said she welcomed the race’s evolution. “It’s not just a bunch of yahoos in the street anymore,” she said. “There’s so much more structure around it. Some people think that’s a bad thing. I think it’s fantastic.” The planning eventually became so time consuming that Lloyd and Trimble stopped competing in the event. Red Hook took a major turn toward becoming a more well-oiled, professional event in 2013 when Rockstar Games, a video-game company, signed on as the title sponsor. In the preceding years, registration was limited to 100 riders on a first-come first-served basis, and there were no qualifying races. The sponsorship allowed the organizers to accept more entries. That year, starting with the opening race in Brooklyn, the crit expanded to a four-race series. From 2010 to 2012, contests were held in Brooklyn and Milan. But with additional resources and growing interest in fixed-gear races, a stop in Barcelona and a second race at the Brooklyn Navy Yard were added. (The Navy Yard event was a one-time race, and a London race was added in 2015.) By 2014, there were enough cyclists to create a women’s division. This year’s crit had 279 men and 69 women complete qualifying. The top 100 men reached the final, while there were 60 spots in the women’s final. What began as an underground night race among friends at the intersection of Richards and Dikeman streets now attracts some of the world’s top cyclists.
The 2017 field included Colin Strickland, the 2016 series winner, who snagged three race victories with team Allez Allez-Specialized; Callum Skinner, a gold and silver medalist in track cycling for Britain at the 2016 Olympics; and the retired World Tour rider Francesco Chicchi of Italy. Francisca Campos, a former Olympic mountain biker from Chile, returned to Red Hook after finishing ninth in the 2016 women’s standings. Trimble, 34, said he wanted to keep the race open to everyone, but acknowledged that rising performance levels made it difficult for all but the top riders. “When we started, the high-level athletes were national track champions,” he said. “Now they’re gold medalists.” The increased participation meant adding structures, such as qualifying heats and time trials to establish starting position. More racers also led to a greater focus on safety and course design. Red Hook has faced criticism for the risks of fixed-gear bikes racing at upward of 35 mph, without brakes, on a course with multiple turns. A competitor suffered a shattered jaw in 2013. “I’ve adapted a lot of safety aspects from motor sports into this race,” Trimble said. “Like the way we use course marshals, and the way we use flags and the way we use crash protection.” In 2015 Trimble began working with Liam Worthy, a cycling consultant from London who worked at the 2012 Olympics. Some precautions include applying grip tape to areas of the track prone to tire slippage, and creating “see throughs” at corners using small orange concrete markers to lessen the risk of hitting the metal barriers enclosing the course. After each heat, Worthy rides the course to observe the conditions and make any adjustments. His team of marshals is positioned along the course and communicates safety hazards using flags, as in motor racing. Crashes are inevitable, though. Several occurred last Saturday, with the most serious in the men’s final, which was red flagged with five laps left so medical staff could tend to an injured rider. The future of the Red Hook Crit will depend on reaching more spectators and keeping them engaged during a full day of racing, Trimble said. “Whenever we pick a venue in another city, we really think, ‘How can this grow?’” he said. “The goal is to make bike racing spectator-friendly.”
WHILE the history of women’s cycling may be shorter than that of men, the female athletes have made up for lost time. UCI News
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U.C.I. WOMEN’S WORLDTOUR
THE first women’s world ranking for road cycling was introduced by the UCI in 1994, and four years later the World Cup made its debut in Sydney, Australia. American Dede Barry won the opening race, while Lithuanian Diana Ziliute was the first overall winner of the series. Eighteen years later, 2016, the series was replaced by the UCI Women’s WorldTour. This new series comprises the best women’s events in the world and includes 21 races for a total of 47 days of competition, combining 15 one-day races and six stage races held across 10 countries and three continents.
TRACK
TRACK cycling races date back to the 19th century (the first World Championships were held in 1895), in the days when women were not exactly encouraged to participate in any sports. The postwar period in Europe allowed for women to slowly earn their place on the continent’s velodromes, and today the
men/women ratio of participants in UCI Track Cycling World Cups and Championships are very balanced, as is the prize money for these events.
MOUNTAIN BIKE
UNLIKE other traditional disciplines, mountain bike events have always combined women’s and men’s races. From the introduction of the World Cup in the 1990s, Olympic crosscountry female stars, such as Juli Furtado, Alison Sydor and Paola Pezzo, received the same attention and were paid the same prize money as their contemporaries John Tomac, Bart Brentjens and Thomas Frischknecht. Equality is probably one of the greatest values that this young sport, born in the 1980s, has carried forward. In 2011 the UCI introduced a team ranking that, thanks to its points system, favors mixed teams. This has had a particularly positive impact on the development of women’s downhill, as teams started looking for young talents in order to be competitive in the team ranking. In Olympic cross-country, most teams have been mixed for a long time.
CYCLO-CROSS
FIRST introduced for the 1993-1994 season, the Cyclo-cross World Cup was a men-only affair until 2005 and 2006, when a women’s elite race was included. Although cyclo-cross is the Belgian national sport—and, therefore, where most of the financial support comes from—it is the women, from countries with less tradition in this discipline, who are slowly but surely ensuring its globalization.
BMX
BMX was born in the 1960s and although it was originally a baby brother of motocross, it eventually found its home within the cycling family. By 1993, the discipline had been fully integrated into the UCI portfolio. Since its introduction to the Olympic program in 2008, female participation in BMX has been on the rise, and its top athletes are internationally renowned.
TRIALS
TRIALS is one of cycling’s most spectacular disciplines that requires outstanding bike-handling skills, control and nerves of steel. Time is of lesser importance than in other disciplines, with the win going to the rider who incurs the least number of penalty points. It is a competition in which men and women are judged on exactly the same set of criteria.
PARA-CYCLING
PARA-CYCLING is all about offering equal opportunities; not only to men and women, but to people. At the Paralympic Games, 40 percent of the medals are awarded to women.
UCI News
Astana honors Scarpori in Giro
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HE Astana team will line up at the Giro d’Italia with eight riders, rather than a full nine, in honor of Michele Scarponi, who tragically lost his life last weekend. After Fabio Aru suffered a knee injury in training, Scarponi was set to lead the Kazakh team in the 100th edition of the Giro, which he won in 2011, but the Italian was killed when hit by a van on a training ride last Saturday. The team announced their line-up for the Giro on Sunday, deciding not to bring in a replacement for Scarponi. “Michele should have been our leader for the Giro and for this reason we have decided not to substitute Michele in the line-up for the race, leaving his race number free,” General Manager Alexander Vinokourov said.
“I think this is right decision and I am sure the organizers of the Giro d’Italia, as well as the whole cycling community, will accept and understand it. Obviously, this is not the only initiative that Astana Proteam is promoting to remember Michele and also to help his family. We initiated such an important thing as the fundraiser for his family, while many others will be developed in the next weeks and months.” Dario Cataldo, a highly rated domestique for Aru, is now set to the team’s general classification bid. The Italian has twice finished 12th overall at the Giro and, along with Scarponi, was racing strongly at the Tour of the Alps last week. They’ll be joined on the start line in Sardinia by Paolo Tiralongo, Andrey Zeits. Pello Bilbao, Zhandos Bizhigitov, Jesper Hansen, and Luis Leon Sanchez. “Every day in this Giro d’Italia, as well as in all other races, Michele will be with us and, day by day, we will ride trying to honour his memory, fighting and smiling as he taught us all to do,” Vinokourov added. The Astana team for the Giro d’Italia include Pello Bilbao, Zhandos Bizhigitov, Dario Cataldo, Jesper Hansen, Tanel Kangert, Luis Leon Sanchez, Paolo Tiralongo and Andrey Zeits.
Cyclingnews
A8 Saturday, May 6, 2017 • Editor: Efleda P. Campos
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Study: Active video games good for brain health of elderly people
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ONDON—Older people should play active video games to boost their brain health, a study by academics at the University of Manchester showed on Wednesday. A study found that active gaming is good for brain health and memory, and video games that involve physical activity significantly boost brain health as people get older, experts found. St u d y aut h o r s D r. E m m a
Stanmore and Joseph Firth said systems that use physical activity for gaming, such as Wii and Xbox Kinect, can boost brain functioning in people with neurological impairment, as well as keeping minds healthy and ac-
tive as people age. In the first-ever analysis of all published evidence, the researchers studied data from 17 clinical trials, examining the effects of active gaming on the cog nitive f unctioning among almost 1,000 people. Their results have been published in the journal Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews, describing what was a collaboration among the University of Manchester, King’s College London, KU Leuven and ETH Zurich. Firth said, “As people age, their brain functioning, such as mem-
ory, concentration and spatial awareness naturally decline. Various neurological conditions, such Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease, mild cognitive impairment and dementia can also impede people’s cognitive functioning and reduce their ability to function day to day. “Recently there has been much interest in using active video games in the rehabilitation of these conditions, and to promote healthy aging. So we were fascinated to learn that the available evidence shows how these sort of games can significantly improve
overall cognitive functioning, and is particularly beneficial for attention, executive functioning and visuospatial abilities. Physically active video games have, according to our research, greater impact on brain functioning than regular physical activity alone, suggesting that their benefits are more than just moving around,” Firth said. Stanmore just completed a randomized controlled trial in 18 sites in Manchester and Glasgow. The trial showed MIRA games improved balance, pain and fear of falling after 12 weeks’ use.
She said, “Our research shows the potential of active v ideo games that can be used independently at home and remotely supervised by therapists. The brain benefits may be because these activities are physically demanding, while also requiring concentration and cognitive effort, resulting in positive effects for body and brain. We hope this research will encourage the NHS [Britain’s National Health Service] and social services to take up active gaming as part of their support packages, as some are already starting to do.” Xinhua
DTI Antique taps elderly to help in price monitoring S AN JOSE DE BUENAVISTA, Antique—The Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) Antique provincial office is tapping the voluntary services of senior citizens to help monitor the prices of basic goods. DTI Antique Information Officer Lynna Joy Cardinal said in an interview on Friday that a memorandum of understanding had been signed with the local government of San Jose de Buenavista, the Kapisanan ng mga Matatandang Mamayan ng San Jose de Buenavis-
ta and other stakeholders to establish collaboration to improve business regulation and increased consumer awareness. This came about after the launch of the “Provision of Support Mechanisms to San Jose Tradetown Operation” project on April 21. “We are tapping the support of senior citizens initially of San Jose de Buenavista because we, DTI personnel, cannot do the monitoring alone, because there’s only a few of us,” Cardinal said. She said the elderly would un-
dergo capacity-building and orientation soon on the Consumer Act of the Philippines and other fairtrade and consumer-protection laws, so they could help eliminate unfair business practices and empower consumers to assert their rights and get the best value for their money. The senior citizens can report violations on trade practices to the Municipal Economic Enterprise Development Office and to the DTI so that these can be acted upon immediately. Annabel J. Petinglay/PNA
Ilocos Norte is Region 1’s best Peso performer
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AOAG CIT Y—Generating thousands of jobs for students, out-of-school youths and even senior citizens, the Public Employment Service Office (Peso) of the local government unit of Ilocos Norte is this year’s best performing PESO in Region 1. The latest record showed that Ilocos Norte’s unemploy ment rate is dow n to 4.2 percent, making the province the least poor among other provinces in Region 1 such as Ilocos Sur, La Union and Pangasinan. Unlike in previous years when most students in the province spent summer break or holidays with family and friends in beaches, rivers or other recreational facilities, some of them are now in government offices, museums and other government-owned and -managed tourism destinations assisting visitors from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Mondays through Fridays. Some are even deployed on week-
ends at the Visitors’ Assistance Desks strategically located near frequently visited tourism attractions here. Thanks to the Special Program for the Employment of Students and the tourism summer-job program of the provincial government, hundreds of students with the consent of their parents are being hired in this special program. Recognizing Ilocos Norte’s continuing Task Force Trabaho (TFT) program to boost domestic and foreign employment among Ilocanos, the Department of Labor and Employment, led by Assistant Regional Director Elpidio Atal Jr., handed on May 1 a plaque of recognition for the province represented by Peso Ilocos Norte Head Ann Marie Lizette Bitancor and Senior Board Member Matthew Joseph Manotoc. The simple awarding ceremony was held at the Summer Job Fair activity area at the Robinsons Mall
in San Nicolas town. Since the 2012 launching of the TFT program, the Peso Ilocos Norte has recorded over 50,000 jobs generated, increasing Ilocos Norte’s local employment by more than 35 percent compared to a mere 3 percent in 2010. While maintaining an online jobs portal, a dedicated web site for job seekers and employers to make job searching and employment within the province easier through a more efficient and technologically updated process, the Peso also performs offline and online skills registration of applicants, conducts series of job fairs, anti-illegal recruitment advocacy, employment and career counseling, among others. Gov. Ma. Imelda Josefa Marcos said she believes “only jobs guarantee a permanent pathway out of poverty, and the challenge today is to create stable and wage-paying quality jobs”. PNA
GRANDMA’S GRILLED ENTERPRISE An enterprising granny makes the local banana-wrapped dessert Ilocanos call tupig. The dessert is made of ground glutinous rice and muscovado sugar, and is grilled over charcoal. LEONARDO PERANTE II
596 Cavite trainees complete free computer certificate modular courses
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MUS CITY, Cavite—Around 596 trainees—including persons with disabilities and senior citizens—completed their computer certificate modular courses last week from the Cavite Computer Center (CCC). Provincial Information and Communication Technology Office (PICTO) Head Camille Lauren V. del Rosario, with Senior Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (Tesda) Specialist Ramir Montoya as keynote speaker, graced the commencement and recognition rites which adopted the theme “Uplifting Technology: Learn, Educate, Inspire”. The PICTO spearheaded the
ICT-literacy training for Caviteňo out-of-school youth (OSYs), government employees, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), professionals, persons with disabilities (PWDs) and senior citizens at the CCC. CCC registrar Eleazar Cayag said the computer center was established in 1999 through the Office of the Provincial Governor in collaboration with the Department of Education (DepEd) for nonformal studies. Of the more than 500 graduates, around 190 completers were conferred outstanding awards of excellence in each class. Cayag said the center provides computer-literacy programs for the people of Cavite, especially
OSYs through modular trainings, which are Tesda-accredited, and these are categorized by lower and higher modules. He said the lower modules category is composed of 4 modules where students learn computer skills—from the basics, to advanced computer application, databasemanagement systems and basic troubleshooting skills. The higher module category offers photo editing and graphic design (module 5), multimedia webpage designing using Macromedia Dreamweaver MX 2004 (module 6), video editing and digital FX (module 7) and the Basics of Autocad2 as the latest module. PNA
Romania sees continued population decline, aging
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PASSION FRUITS Manang Carnacion Tuguinay, 68, sells her passion fruit around the barangays in Baguio City. MAU VICTA
UC H A R E S T— T he R om a n i a n population continues its declining tendency and population aging in 2016, the National Institute of Statistics said on Wednesday. T he resident population, which also includes Romanians officially registered in the country but living and working abroad, was 22.223 million on January 1, down 0.2 percent from a year earlier. More than 3.55 million people were in the elderly-age bracket, while the young population aged 0 to 14 were 3.28 million. The average age of the population was 41.1 years, 0.2 years higher than on January 1, 2016, while the median age was 40.8 years, up 0.4 years in the same period. A s a c o n s e q u e nc e o f t he p ro natalist policies in the socialist period, Romania had higher fertility until 1990. In common with many European countries, Romania has experienced a decline in population in recent years, due to a low birthrate and increased life expectancy. Xinhua
KEEPING UP An elderly woman keeps up with the crowd crossing Edsa in Ortigas Avenue. NONOY LACZA
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The Millennials BusinessMirror
Millennials are making an impact–PLDT exec T HE last of the millennials—the generation born between the years 1980 and 2000—are already marching into adulthood. The largest generation in human histor y is now a cur ious mi x of older teens, ver y young adults and those approaching a highly experienced and mature 40 years. T his is the generation that has been labeled “egoistic, impatient and entitled ” but whose concer n for the env ironment, hea lth and work-life ba lance; whose premium on transparenc y, cor porate socia l responsibility, and making an impact, are a lso wel l-documented. At a for um on “Mil lennia ls on the R ise” held recently at the First Pacific Leadership Academy, Voyager Innovations Inc. Managing Director Dindo Marzan addressed some of these notions and misconceptions. “ We [m i l len n i a l s] m ay be perceived as impatient mainly because we simply want things to be quick and of high quality,” Marzan said. “ We actua l ly apply the same set of standards to ourselves, so when others don’t meet ou r e x pect at ions we e it her d i seng a ge or lose interest.” Marzan added that, “Millennials also always need and seek a pur pose in what they do.” “Give t hem t h at sen se of pur pose and ex pect great and awesome resu lts.” One of the millennials who occupy a top management post at PLDT Inc.’s digital innovations arm, Marzan highlights t he c r uc i a l “eva ngel ist ” role that millennials play in leading the push for digital inclusion especially in the Philippines and in emerging markets. At the sidelines of the forum, Marzan also noted: “Especially in emerging markets, millennials have a role in pushing the adoption of digital technologies that can help equalize economic
and social opportunities.”
Millennials on a mission
A BOUT 84 percent of Voyager’s work force are Mil lennia ls a lthough the Gen Z, the so-called “ dig ita l natives”, have star ted to roa m t he compa ny h a l l s, as wel l. “ I b e l i e v e t h e c o m p a n y ’s bias for inclusive innovation for emerging markets prov ides us w ith that pr iv ilege of a lter native careers a long w ith a chance ‘to ma ke a difference,’” Marzan said. Voyager Innovations is focused on closing the w ide gaps in terms of digital and financial access in the countr y, by pushing v ir tua l pay ment schemes and f inancia l technolog ies (fintech), sponsored-data access and OT T communications among others. T he company’s dig ita l pay ments app PayMaya is the No. 1 financia l app on GooglePlay (Phl) while Freenet which offers free mobile data access to par tnered sites is the top mobile communit y app in the countr y. W here only 5 percent of 1 mil lion reg istered SMEs have web sites, and only a fraction of that hav ing transactiona l online stores, Voyager is a digita l economy platfor ms enabler v ia online store builder TackT his! together w ith Ta k atack, t he cou nt r y ’s l a rgest on l i ne ma rket pl ace. “A s long as we stay passionate, asser tive, and grounded, I think we’ l l be able to inf luence institutions to go dig ita l,” Marzan said. “Filipinos are in fact digital ready and their quality of life is improved ever y time dig ita l capabilities and transactions are enabled.”
Making an impact
THE Deloitte Millennial Survey
Voyager Innovations Inc. Managing Director Dindo Marzan
2016 revealed that millennials “ feel accountable for many issues in both the workplace and the w ider world ”. “However, it is primarily in and via the workplace that they feel most able to make an impact.” T he sur vey also said that the generation is less fixated on a company’s financia l per formance and more interested in a business’s potential to do good. About 76 percent of mil lennials sur veyed see business as a force for positive social impact. Interestingly, millennials in emerg ing markets ex pect to be both financia l ly (71 percent) and emotiona l ly (62 percent) better off than their parents,
in contrast to mature markets, where only 36 percent of millennia ls predict they w ill be financia l ly better off than their parents and only 31 percent say they’ l l be happier. “In emerg ing markets, dig ita l has a ver y high incrementa l impact indeed on the qua lit y of life of people. Histor ica l ly, mobile technolog ies have been h i g h ly e mp owe r i n g for fol k out here for livelihood, education, infor mation and indeed commerce, even in the earlier days,” Marzan said. “ With the advent of smar t phones, plus a generation grow ing up w ith a l l these technologies, we sha ll be closing the gap even faster.”
Saturday, May 6, 2017
A9
Georgia wonders: Will newcomers dye the suburbs blue? By Richard Fausset
New York Times News Service
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OHNS CREEK, Georgia—At first blush, this bedroom city of 83,000 a half-hour north of Atlanta might be mistaken for the perfect example of a white-flight Sun Belt suburb. It sits squarely in the congressional district once represented by Newt Gingrich, with excellent public schools and master-planned communities so pristine they could have been built by a model train aficionado. In 2015 the all-white City Council rejected the idea of expanding public transit out from majority-black Atlanta on the grounds that it “would increase highdensity housing.” But something has been happening in Johns Creek—and, indeed, across much of the vast archipelago of cul-de-sac communities north of Atlanta that served as the launchpad for Gingrich’s 1994 Republican revolution. The promise of a suburban idyll has been increasingly attracting all kinds of people—many of whom are not white, and not Republican. Today, 24 percent of people in Johns Creek are of Asian heritage. Indian-Americans shop for saris at the Medlock Crossing strip mall and flock to the latest Bollywood hits at the multiplex. Chinese-Americans and food lovers of all stripes head to the Sichuan House, near the Target and Home Depot stores, for sliced pork ears in chili sauce and “tearfully spicy” mung bean noodles. Indeed, the northern Atlanta suburbs, once considered bastions of Republicanism, are experiencing an identity crisis—one that became acute with the success of a Democrat, Jon Ossoff, in a special House of Representatives election in Georgia’s 6th District, which last sent a Democrat to Congress in the Carter administration.Fueled by fierce anti-Trump sentiment, millions in outside donations and an untiring door-to-door campaign mounted by liberals including many newcomers to the district. Ossoff placed first in an 18-way race in April and will face Karen Handel, a fixture in Georgia Republican politics, in a June 20 runoff.
Watershed
MANY Republicans remain confident that Handel will prevail in a 70 percent-white district where even liberals concede that conservative culture dominates. Big churches and golf courses still do much to set the social tone, and homegrown conservative talk-radio personalities like Herman Cain and Erick Erickson help commuters assuage the increasingly painful slog through traffic. November was a watershed, however: Though she did not carry Georgia, Hillary Clinton defeated Donald Trump in both suburban Cobb County, part of which is in the Sixth District, and nearby Gwinnett County. Both were once considered classic white-flight suburbs; today Gwinnett is majority-minority, and Cobb is fast heading that way. At the same time, Republicans here reject the idea that demography is political destiny. Instead, they envision a future in which the charms of suburban life, and the conservative politics that made it possible, will rub off on
everyone. Instead of the newcomers changing the suburbs, they say, the suburbs will change the newcomers. “You move to Cobb, you’ve got a good job and cheaper property taxes, and you say, ‘Hey, maybe this is a better way,’” said Michael Altman, 58, a former vice chairman of the Cobb County Republican Party. It is the kind of political reckoning that many US suburbs may soon confront, if they haven’t already. A report last year by the Urban Land Institute noted that the percentage of foreign-born Americans was at its highest in 90 years, and that millennials were now starting families and looking for good public schools. It estimated that 79 percent of the nation’s household growth would occur in the suburbs in the next decade, much of it in “affordable sunshine states” where the weather is warm, taxes are low and homes are relatively cheap.
Racially coded
LOW taxes, cheap homes and sunshine indeed helped fuel the rise of Atlanta’s northern suburbs beginning in the 1950s—along with a heavy dollop of racism. During integration the Klan presence was strong in Cobb County, and in later years, it was home to the former segregationist governor Lester Maddox and the white supremacist and convicted church bomber J.B. Stoner. But Cobb also became home to a large group of transplants decoupled from local history, many of them professionals transferred to metro Atlanta from elsewhere who were looking for good public schools. Gingrich, who served as House speaker from 1995 to 1999, used language in his heyday that liberals saw as racially coded, railing against the “welfare state” of Atlanta. But for the most part he appealed to newcomers and old-timers alike, extolling free markets, technology and traditional values as a means of answering “the cries of the baby boom generation for a new politics responsive to the future’s needs.”
Social pressure
MADDOX and Stoner are long dead, but the high-performing schools in places like unincorporated East Cobb County still serve as a magnet. Eight years ago, they attracted Jen Cox, a dyed-in-the-wool Democrat who had been living in Denver. On a recent afternoon, Cox, a 47-year-old mother and real estate agent, backed her Toyota Highlander out of the garage of her handsome five bedroom home in a neighborhood called Kings Cove. She drove past subdivisions of simple 1970s-vintage homes and newer, busier McMansions. Some of the neighborhood names, like Plantation North, hinted at the tumult of Southern history, though most—Edgewater, Carriage Park— strove for a more ahistoric blandness. Cox is a cofounder of PaveItBlue, one of the many new grassroots liberal groups that have sprung up or vastly expanded to help a Democrat win the Sixth District contest. As she passed numerous yard signs for Ossoff, she noted that such a display of support for a liberal would have been unthinkable just a few years ago.
Bahamas party lives, dies on social media By Tamara Lush Associated Press
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N this day and age, the young and beautiful live and die on social media. And it’s been a sudden and ugly death for the illfated Fyre Festival, a multiday music, art and culture party that promised “an invitation to let loose and unplug with the likeminded” on the Bahamian island of Exuma. The festival’s rise and fall has played out in real time on YouTube and filtered through Facebook, where would-be party goers are putting their anger on display. Instead of photos of boozy good times, people have posted pictures of rows of white tents that look like “Stormtrooper helmets”, blue port-a-potties near half-constructed plywood structures and limp, lifeless cheese sandwiches. Organizers canceled the event at the last minute after poor planning, disorganization and lack of accommodations. Most of the Alist acts had pulled out days before, saying they hadn’t been paid. It was supposed to be a sun-soaked experience filled with yachts, gourmet food and models. Ticket prices ranged from $500 to $12,000. But by Saturday morning, the partygoers had decamped, many of them to hotels in Miami in hopes of salvaging a weekend. People decried the festival accommodations as being like a “disaster tent city” and
a “refugee camp”. The Bahamas Ministry of Tourism says it’s deeply disappointed. “Hundreds of visitors to Exuma were met with total disorganization and chaos,” the tourism office wrote in a statement to the media. Fyre Festival co-organizer Billy McFarland promised full refunds on the festival’s web site last Saturday. “We will be working on refunds over the next few days and will be in touch directly with guests with more details. Also, all guests from this year will have free VIP passes to next year’s festival,” he wrote. The hype began months ago, marketed with slick videos on social media. “I saw it on Instagram and booked it before the lineup was announced,” said Mitch Purgason, a 25-year-old bespoke menswear designer in Charlotte, North Carolina. The Instagram ads looked especially “ridiculous”—parlance for amazing—what with models like Gigi Hadid and rapper Ja Rule. Blink-182 was supposed to perform. Photos of the impossibly blue water and the sugary sandy beach looked incredible. What’s more: Wild, docile pigs lived on the beach and swam in the warm water, perfect props for a killer Instagram selfie. Although the festival on the island chain east of Florida appeared to cater to the Millennial trust fund crowd, it was people like Purgason and 29-year-old Jake Strang of
Pittsburgh who purchased early tickets— young professionals who wanted to spend a fun weekend in the tropics. Both men paid $500 for a flight from Miami to the island along with lodging and food. Strang and seven of his friends planned the trip to coincide with a birthday. They reserved a “lodge” for eight, with four king beds and a seating area in the middle. “Everything made it look amazing,” said Strang. The festival web site promised a treasure hunt of “exceptional proportions,” with more than $1 million in riches to be found on a private island. Purgason said he was skeptical, but planned the vacation anyway. “Worst case scenario, I figured, we’re still in the Bahamas in a villa.” His first inkling something was amiss came on Thursday morning, after the first flight from Miami to Exuma. Organizers said the villas weren’t ready, so they whisked the planeload of partygoers to a restaurant at a nearby resort. It wasn’t a private island at all, but food and drink were free and plenty. Cute pigs and bikini-clad girls roamed the beach. There was a DJ. “They actually treated us pretty well,” he said. “The first three hours was dope.” Jenna Conlin, 30, an advertising professional from Venice, California, said, “They were putting down bottles of tequila on every table in an attempt to make every-
this photo provided by Jake Strang shows tents and a portable toilet set up for attendees for the Fyre Festival, on April 28 in the Exuma islands, Bahamas. Organizers of the much-hyped music festival in the Bahamas canceled the weekend event at the last minute after many people had already arrived and spent thousands of dollars on tickets and travel. AP
body happy.” Strang flew in later Thursday and wasn’t so lucky. “When we arrived, it essentially looked like a construction site. It looked like they were trying to sell lots for homes,” he said. A promoter told festival goers to find tents and waved his arm in a direction. But the tents had holes that had obviously allowed rain to come in, because the beds were wet. They were given a Styrofoam container of food: “two slices of ham, lettuce and one slice of cheese on soggy bread,” Strang said.
A few lucky patrons had been relocated to resorts. Most had to find beds in the tents. Available rooms aren’t easy to grab on Exuma, a small island with a population of about 7,000 that lacks the well-developed tourist infrastructure of Nassau or Freeport. The island’s hotels were already booked months in advance for a well-known regatta, wrote Robert Carron, owner of the Bahamas Tribune newspaper. By daybreak, people were already lining up to complain, and buses began returning
them to the airport. Soon, it was official: The festival was cancelled. Word got out via social media that organizers said “circumstances out of our control” prevented them from preparing the “physical infrastructure” necessary for the event on the largely undeveloped island. “I’m heartbroken at this moment,” Ja Rule, whose real name is Jeffrey Atkins, said on Twitter. “I wanted this to be an amazing event. It was not a scam as everyone is reporting. I truly apologize as this is NOT MY FAULT.”
BusinessMirror
A10 Saturday, May 6, 2017
news.businessmirror@gmail.com
Karon Weber demonstrates an experiment created for middle-school students by the Hacking STEM team in their lab at Microsoft headquarters in Redmond, Washington on April 25. Microsoft spent the past year talking to thousands of teachers and designing high-tech experiments that they can use in their lesson plans, part of a push to make its products more attractive to school administrators, students and teachers. Ian C. Bates/The New York Times
Microsoft looks to regain lost ground in the classroom By Nick Wingfield and Natasha Singer
New York Times News Service
Winston Damarillo speaks during the launch of a Cloud Native product on April 25. Nonoy Lacza
All-Pinoy team develops native Cloud product T By Rizal Raoul S. Reyes @brownindio
HERE was Filipino pride in the country’s information communications technology (ICT) sector when Amihan Global Strategies launched on April 25 its Cloud Native product, a solution developed by an all-Filipino team.
“I want to prove that Filipinos are capable of developing lead ing- edge technolog ies in ICT. It is always been like that for me,” PLDT Inc. Chief Strategy Officer Winston Damarillo told the BusinessMirror. “I always go home to the country to touch base with Filipinos and talk with them to keep us updated with the latest development in software.” Damarillo led the launch of the Cloud Native product on April 25 in Makati City. “ We beat t he big boy s i n the bidding of some projects,” he said at the sidelines of the launch. “If we need some advanced studies or skill sets, I can ask the Filipinos in the US to come to the country and share their expertise.” Damarillo said Amihan entered the Philippine market at the right time, as local enterpr ises are starting to implement their respective digitaltransformation programs. He observed enterprise-level organizations have always been fac-
ing challenges, such as becoming more nimble on their path towards digital transformation. Never theless, Damar il lo pointed out Amihan has developed its CloudBlocks to give enterprise more ability to become faster innovation and introduce new solutions. Developed in Cebu and Manila by Filipinos and FilipinoAmericans, CloudBlocks enables companies to deploy new services faster, harmonize legacy and next-generation apps in a unified ecosystem, and perform complex data analytics all in a single platform, he explained. It aims to transform the IT infrastructure of legacy companies, starting with their data center: the nucleus that powers business applications and houses business intelligence.
Kubernetes
AMIHAN CloudBlocks is based on Kubernetes, a container management tool, that was initially developed by Google, and is now
managed by the Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF), of which Amihan is a member. Further more, A mihan CloudBlocks is built on the NEC DX 2000 hardware platform, which delivers world-leading density of compute, memory and storage. It me r ge s t he te c h nolo g y based on Google’s pioneering Kuber netes Platfor m and regional expertise, catering to the specific needs of the largest enterprises in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) region. Designed as a fully managed service solution, the CloudBlocks fits the requirements of the Southeast A sian market, Damarillo said. He explained the rationale b e h i nd t a rget i ng t he A se a n trading bloc, composed of Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos,Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, T hailand and Vietnam, is because it is one of the fastest growing regions in the world. “By experiencing rapid growth, Asean needs fast changing technologies to keep its dynamism,” Damarillo noted. He also pointed out a lot of companies in the region are not quite keen on investing more on hardware that will lead to rise in their capita l ex penditure. Second, a lot of companies don’t want to invest more in capital expenditure. The other products developed by Amihan are Nimble (mobile apps), Unawa (Big Data and analytics) and a cyber-security solution. He said Amihan’s securit y product is currently undergoing beta testing before
it goes into the market.
Targets
DA M A R I L L O s a id A m i h a n’s products will cater initially to the enterprise-level organizations. “ The cloud is step one of digital transformation,” he said. “It’s the infrastructure for innovation that allows you to experiment, grow and adapt in ways that are necessary to keep up with the pace of customers’ digital appetites.” Damar il lo, a veteran techno p r e n e u r, s t r e s s e d d i g it a l transfor mation is a comple x process that involves drastic changes in cu lture, business practices and IT systems. He said the team focused in developing CloudBlocks capabilities to simplif y compatibilit y issues, unif y ing data sources, investing in new systems and ensur ing latest c yber-secur it y and data-pr ivac y standards. Amihan CloudBlocks enables a deliberate transformation of a company’s existing IT systems to the cloud through its virtualization platform based on OpenStack, which will house legacy L i nu x a nd w i ndows ser vers; Acaleph Storage, a data-secure enter pr ise w idestorage pl atform; and Kubernetes-managed Docker to accelerate application development. “Enter prises are using open source technologies, like Kubernetes, to deploy cloud native architecture models that support fast, agile application development,” Cloud Native Computing Foundation Executive Director Dan Kohn was quoted in a statement as saying.
UnionBank selects IBM Cloud for app overhaul
I
BM Corp. announced on May 3 that UnionBank has selected IBM Cloud to quickly and easily build, deploy, run and manage new customer-facing application (apps) for its growing digital customer base. Through IBM Bluemix, IBM’s cloud platform and IBM API Connect, the company’s complete lifecycle management solution for application programming interface (API) development, the bank plans to create new compelling customer experiences, innovative new business models and speed operational processes. UnionBank has pioneered products and
projects that have cemented its reputation as a technology leader in the banking industry. It was the first to introduce an internet-based deposit account, with no minimum balance called EON, bringing online banking to a whole new generation of cyber customers. It was one of the first players in e-banking, with its financial portal unionbankph.com, generating new business and winning numerous accolades. It also developed the first and only integrated web platform called OneHub. Gov for its e-government initiatives. The bank now wants to take innovation to the next level. To do this, UnionBank is
embracing APIs, which will enable it to extend services, and open up new markets by allowing other businesses and application developers to more easily exchange data and build innovative new apps. Through IBM API Connect, UnionBank plans to quickly create, manage, secure and run APIs that the bank has made available internally and run them externally for consumption. The Bank hopes to create entirely new businesses, provide their customers with an even richer menu of services through this collaboration with the startup ecosystem. All this aligns with the two driving tenets of
UnionBank’s digital transformation: enterprise scalability and startup agility. IBM Philippines President and Country General Manager Luis Pineda said IBM is committed to supporting UnionBank’s drive to advance Philippine banking. “Our collaboration with the bank helped both of us with successful hackathons, where over 150 developers participated to create new APIs for the bank using Bluemix,” Pineda said. “This is just the beginning of a long term relationship that has the potential to not only change, but improve banking in our country.” Rizal Raoul Reyes
R
EDMOND, Washington—Last week, Satya Nadella, the Chief Executive of Microsoft, slipped on a glove made of cardboard and clenched his hand into a fist, causing a robotic hand with fingers made of drinking straws to mimic his movements. The glove was one of several engineering projects built in a makeshift laboratory on Microsoft’s campus. The company spent the past year talking to thousands of teachers and designing high-tech experiments that require mostly lowcost parts. It will give the designs to schools for free, so teachers can use them in their lesson plans. The projects are part of a major push the company announced on Tuesday at an event in New York to make its products more attractive to school administrators, students and teachers. The push includes a new version of Microsoft’s Windows operating system for classrooms, tweaks to its office applications and a new Surface laptop for students in a collection of bold colors. While the dollars available in the education market are compelling enough for big technology companies, like Microsoft, classrooms also offer an opportunity to make a first impression on young people who could eventually buy their products. “The second-order effects of education, of being relevant in education, are going to be very, very key for us,” Nadella said in an interview last week. He added, “The devices the kids take to their school, or to their college, is going to be influenced by what they were familiar with.”
Remains a force
MICROSOFT remains a force in classrooms around the globe. But the company’s relevance in schools in the US is in jeopardy after years of progress by Google, whose software dominates sales of new devices in schools. Google has gained ground in public schools by offering a tightly connected system of free classroom apps, lower-cost laptops called Chromebooks and a web-based console, that allows schools to remotely manage thousands of student devices. Industry analysts said Microsoft’s initiative was the company’s first credible response to Google’s recent encroachment into education. “I am not going to predict that they are going to take back the entire market, or anything like that, but this is the best move that I could have seen them making against Chromebooks,” said J.P. Gownder, a technology analyst at Forrester Research, a market research company, where Microsoft is one of his clients. Some of Microsoft’s moves are intended to make its products more appealing to educators by simplifying them and, in some ways, restricting them. The new version of its operating system, Windows 10 S, will only run applications that have been vetted by Microsoft and placed in its online app store, to prevent students from downloading software that could slow down the performance of their computers.
Front lines
MICROSOFT has also devised a way for schools to get new computers running on a network quickly, without manually configuring each one, by plugging in a USB memory stick. A Microsoft management system called Intune for Education allows schools to set further limits on classroom computers, like locking them down, so students cannot cheat by searching the web during tests. The tools are designed to be easy enough for teachers to use, since many schools do not
have dedicated technology administrators. “Sometimes school districts aren’t managing the devices,” said Terry Myerson, a Microsoft Executive Vice President. “Teachers are on the front lines of managing the devices.” The company is also making full versions of its Office applications, rather than more limited web versions, available to schools for free. It has modified a version of its Microsoft teams group-chat tool, so teachers can collaborate with students. It is also waiving the cost of an educational version of “Minecraft”, a popular video game it owns, for the first year schools use it. While much of Microsoft’s focus is on software that makes using inexpensive devices—often in the $200 to $300 range—more palatable, the company will also release a $999 device called the Surface Laptop, a twist on its Surface tablets. The device will run Windows 10 S. Tech companies are fiercely competing for business in primary and secondary schools in the United States, a technology market expected to reach $21 billion by 2020, according to estimates from Ibis Capital, a technology investment firm and EdtechXGlobal, a conference company.
Matter of urgency
IT is a matter of some urgency for Microsoft. Chromebooks accounted for 58 percent of the 12.6 million mobile devices shipped to primary and secondary schools in the United States last year, compared with less than 1 percent in 2012, according to Futuresource Consulting, a research company. By contrast, Windows laptops and tablets made up 21.6 percent of the mobile-device shipments to schools in the United States last year, down from about 43 percent in 2012. Outside the United States, Microsoft Windows devices accounted for about 64 percent of mobiledevice shipments to schools last year, Futuresource said. Apple has similarly experienced a steep Chromebook-related decline in shipments of iPads and Mac laptops to schools. Its mobile shipments to schools fell to 19 percent in the United States last year, from 52 percent in 2012.
Lying down
LIKE Microsoft, Apple is not taking the Chromebook phenomenon lying down. Apple recently introduced an iPad management app called Classroom, which enables teachers to assign shared iPads to students and create virtual classrooms to guide students through lessons. Apple also introduced lower pricing for educational institutions on its newest iPad model. The iPad starts at $329 for consumers and at $299 for schools. Google began to take off in schools in the United States in 2013, when school districts started making bulk purchases of Chromebooks, which are now made by Acer, Asus, Lenovo, HP and other computer makers. Because the laptops run on Google’s Chrome operating system and revolve around webbased apps, they are often cheaper, easier to manage and faster to boot up than traditional laptops. By contrast, Gownder of Forrester Research said Microsoft software is so featurerich that technology experts in many school districts have had to devote their summers to preparing Windows laptops for students one device at a time. And some of Microsoft’s initial attempts to contend with Google’s rise in schools stumbled. In 2014, Microsoft announced it would be going head-to-head with Chromebooks by working with device manufacturers to introduce cheaper Windows laptops. But some schools found the lower-priced Windows devices too cheaply made to withstand student use and too low-powered to efficiently run Microsoft software.
BusinessMirror
news.businessmirror@gmail.com
Saturday, May 6, 2017
A11
Can blockchain technology help poor people around the world?
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ary Permadi Kartono and Alex H.K. Tan
HID Global expects bigger role for mobile devices T
RUSTED identity solutions provider HID Global anticipates a bigger role for mobile devices, such as the cellular phone and tablets, in the use of identity technology. “I think there is going to be a greater adoption of mobile devices for the trusted identity solutions,” HID Global Asean Sales Director A lex H.K. Tan said in a news briefing in Pasay City. “You can see the uptick of phones not just in our industry but across all other industries as consumers push the adoption of wearables and the adoption of mobile access.” Tan said the use of mobile phone creates opportunities and, at the same time, a challenge for HID Global. It’s a challenge because the company needs to meet the objectives of this emerging trend where people want more convenience, more privacy and more trust within the usage of mobile phones, he explained. “That is why we felt that the mobile access is very timely,” Tan said. “We’re glad that the solution we developed brought more convenience and improved user experience for facility managers, tenants and workers.” He added t he I nter net of Things (IoT) can also be a growth driver for HID Global, as it has developed solutions that can be compatible with the IoT platform. He also pointed out trusted identities will experience wider deployment to help secure, customize and enhance the user experience across a growing range of industry segments that are embracing the power of the IoT. As expected, technology will
be the game changer the way trusted identities are used with smar t cards, mobi le dev ices, wearables, embedded chips and other “smart” objects, particularly in industries focused on regulatory compliance, such as government, finance and healthcare markets, according to Tan. Moreover, the change will hasten the move from legacy systems to NFC, Bluetooth Low Energy and advanced smart card technology to meet the evolving needs of enterprises and governments worldwide, he added.
IoT
H A RY Permadi K artono, HID Global director of sales, said the advances in adoption of mobile identity technology continues momentum from 2016 has benefited the firm in terms of increase in customer deployments of its mobility solution “with a strong pipeline of future customer installations in the works to verify identities optimized for mobile applications”. “HID Global has forecasted top trends based on our broad view of the market in close collaboration with customers and partners who are assessing and deploying innovative solutions across markets worldwide,” HID Global President and CEO Stefan Widing was quoted in a news statement as saying. “HID Global believes 2017 will mark an important phase
in the industry, as organizations seek to use the broadest range of smart devices ever. This will directly impact how customers v iew and use tr usted identities on both mobile devices and smart cards for more activities in more connected environments in the years ahead.” Ta n s a i d t h e c o m p a n y i s opt im ist ic cont inu ing sig nif ica nt t rend s w i l l cont inue to emerge and w i l l inf luence how orga ni zat ions create, ma nage a nd use t r usted ident it ies in a broad ra nge of e x ist ing a nd new use cases.
Concerns
SI M IL A R to the adoption of consumer trends to information technology (IT) in past years, Kartono said there will be greater consumerization of security, with heightened demand from users seeking to open doors, and login to cloud-based resources, as well as have personalized ondemand printing of documents, and to deploy printed credentials remotely or conduct other transactions and daily activities using trusted IDs on their phone, wearable or smart card. Furthermore, he said trusted IDs that combine security, privacy and convenience feature will introduce a new stage of assurance to these applications and transactions, while being branded as tool that provide stronger secure access more personalized to the individual. Tan said the industry will give closer focus on complete identity relationship management that believes the need to grant access based on the context or circumstances for risk-appropr i ate aut hent ic at ion ac ross trusted identities assigned to people, devices, data and things in smart offices, buildings and other environments will become
more pervasive as more people are becoming more connected every day. He also predicted the industry will give greater emphasis on the cloud through “hybrid” solutions that combine on-premises and the cloud to create common management platforms for digital IDs I n b a n k i n g , go v e r n me nt , health care and other regulated markets, Kartono said the need to develop multifactor authentication for physical and IT access control will generate more opportunities to join together integrated systems that will also provide a more convenient experience for users and increase security. “This model will make it easier for administrators to deploy and maintain an integrated system throughout the complete identity lifecycle—from onboarding to off boarding,” Kartono said. Tan said organizations will give a serious look o streamlining processes and operations using real-time location systems, presence-based and proximitybased location f unctiona lit y, condition monitoring solutions, beacons and cloud-based models for emerging IoT applications using Bluetooth low energy. He pointed out these cutting-edge applications have a number of energ y efficient, productivity and safety-oriented use cases that require to get the identity of occupants in a physical space to manage environmental conditions, book meeting rooms and auto-configure audio-visual equipment and alarms. He said introduction of Bluetooth low energy-based solutions will also move forward current secure proof of presence capabilities to include the predictive analytics and functionality based on location-based technologies. Rizal Raoul Reyes
TV5 to bring back WattPad to capture millennials market
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HE company behind the TV5 channel aims to maintain its stronghold in the millennial market by boosting its Wattpad Presents program. “We have 1.3 million followers of Wattpad in our Facebook page. We also have been receiving high marks on our FB page,” Lloyd Dennis Manaloto, head network marketing and digital 5 of Media5 Marketing Corp., said in an interview during a news press briefing on April 25 in Makati City. “In effect, we have a brand and we are attached to it.” Manaloto said the TV5 management implements project planning in Wattpad and other programs, as well, they say targets young audience. He said this can be manifested in the wide range of genre that is being offered on TV5. Manaloto said TV 5 will bring back a much-better Wattpad Presents, with new stories
millennials can relate with. He added the TV station has tapped Unitel and Firestarter to bring quality episodes. The return of Wattpad Presents will also feature more popular titles and authors from varied genre, he added. “The difference between the earlier and the newer version is that Media5 gave more time to plan and produce Wattpad Presents,” Manaloto explained. “Since it has a major following, the management decided to boost the quality of the series.” He added teen fiction is the most popular genre among millennials, belonging to the early-20s and late- 20s brackets. Manaloto said Wattpad Presents will continue to carry romantic, sweet, dreamy love stories that have generated a large following among the millennials. He attributed its appeal to plot twists and soundtrack, among others. Rizal Raoul Reyes
IG Wall Street companies are using a complicated technology called blockchain to further increase the already lightning-fast speed of international finance. But it’s not just the upper crust of high finance who can benefit from this new technology. Most simply, a blockchain is an inexpensive and transparent way to record transactions. People who don’t know each other—and, therefore, may not trust each other—can securely exchange money without fear of fraud or theft. Major aid agencies, nonprofits and start-up companies are working to extend blockchain systems across the developing world to help poor people around the world get easier access to banks for loans or to protect their savings. In my work as a scholar of business and technology focusing on the impact of blockchain and other modern technologies, such as cloud computing, big data and the Internet of Things, on poor people, I see four main ways blockchain systems are already beginning to connect some of the world’s poorest people with the global economy.
How does a blockchain work?
A blockchain is a fancy word for a transaction-recording computer database that’s stored in lots of different places at once. The best-known example of blockchain technology is the electronic cryptocurrency called bitcoin, but the concept can be applied in lots of different ways. One way to think about a blockchain is as a public bulletin board to which anyone can post a transaction record. Those posts have to be digitally signed in a particular way, and once posted, a record can never be changed or deleted. The data are stored on many different computers around the Internet, and even around the world. Together, these features—openness to writing and inspection, authentication through computerized cryptography and redundant storage—provide a mechanism for secure exchange of funds. They can even involve what are called “smart contracts”, transactions that happen only if certain conditions are met—such as a life-insurance policy that sends money to the beneficiary only if a specific doctor submits a digitally signed death certificate to the blockchain. Right now, these sorts of services are available—even in the developed world— only because nations have strong regulations protecting the money people deposit in banks, and clear laws about obeying the terms of formal contracts. In the developing world, these rules often don’t exist at all—so the services that depend on them don’t either, or are so expensive that most people can’t use them. For instance, to open a checking account in some parts of Africa, banks require enormous minimum deposits, sometimes more money than an average person earns in a year. A blockchain system, though, inherently enforces rules about authentication and transaction security. That makes it safe and affordable for a person to store any amount of money securely and confidently. While that’s still in the future, blockchain-based systems are already helping people in the developing world in very real ways.
Sending money internationally
In 2016 emigrants working abroad sent an estimated $442 billion to their families in their home countries. This global flow of cash is a significant factor in the financial well-being of families and societies in developing nations. But the process of sending money can be extremely expensive. Using MoneyGram, for example, a worker in the US with $50 to send to Ghana might have to pay $10 in fees, meaning her family would receive only $40. In 2015 transaction costs and commission rates averaged 10.96 percent for remittances sent from banks and 6.36 percent for sending money through money-transfer operators. Companies justify their costs by saying they reflect the price of providing reliable and convenient services. By contrast, Hong Kong’s blockchainenabled Bitspark has transaction costs so low it charges a flat HK$15 for remittances of less than HK$1,200 (about $2 in US currency for transactions less than $150) and 1 percent for larger amounts. Using the secure digital connections of a blockchain system lets the company bypass existing banking networks and traditional remittance systems. Similar services helping people send money to the Philippines, Ghana, Zimbabwe, Uganda, Sierra Leone and Rwanda also charge a fraction of the current banking rates.
Insurance
MOST people in the developing world lack health and life insurance, primarily because
it’s so expensive compared to income. Some of that is because of high administrative costs: For every dollar of insurance premium collected, administrative costs amounted to $0.28 in Brazil, $0.54 in Costa Rica, $0.47 in Mexico and $1.80 in the Philippines. And many people who live on less than a dollar a day have neither the ability to afford any insurance, nor any company offering them services. In India, for example, only 15 percent of the population has health insurance. Even those people pay higher relative premiums than in developed countries. As a result, people in South Asia pay a much greater share of their healthcare costs out of their own pockets than do people in high-income industrialized countries. Because blockchain systems are online and involve verification of transactions, they can deter (and expose) fraud, dramatically cutting costs for insurers. Consuelo is a blockchain-based microinsurance service backed by Mexican mobile payments company Saldo. mx. Customers can pay small amounts for health and life insurance, with claims verified electronically and paid quickly.
Helping small businesses
BLOCKCHAIN systems can also help very small businesses, which are often short of cash and also find it expensive—if not impossible—to borrow money. For instance, after delivering medicine to hospitals, small drug retailers in China often wait up to 90 days to get paid. But to stay afloat, these companies need cash. They rely on intermediaries that pay immediately, but don’t pay in full. A $100 invoice to a hospital might be worth $90 right away—and the intermediary would collect the $100 when it was finally paid. Banks aren’t willing to lend money in places where fraudulent invoices are common, or where manufacturers and their customers might have inconsistent and error-ridden records. A blockchain system reduces those concerns because these records must be authenticated before being added to the books, and because they can’t be changed. Those Chinese pharmaceutical companies are getting help from Yijan, a blockchain that is a joint effort of IBM and Chinese supply management company Hejia. Electronics, auto manufacturing and clothing companies facing similar difficulties are the test markets for Chained Finance, a blockchain platform backed by financial services company Dianrong and FnConn, the Chinese subsidiary of Foxconn.
Humanitarian aid
BLOCKCHAIN technology can also improve humanitarian assistance. Fraud, corruption, discrimination and mismanagement block some money intended to reduce poverty and improve education and health care from actually helping people. In early 2017 the UN World Food Program launched the first stage of what it calls “Building Block”, giving food and cash assistance to needy families in Pakistan’s Sindh province. An Internet-connected smartphone authenticated and recorded payments from the UN agency to food vendors, ensuring the recipients got help, the merchants got paid and the agency didn’t lose track of its money. The agency expects using a blockchain system will reduce its overhead costs from 3.5 percent to less than 1 percent. And it can speed aid to remote or disaster-struck areas, where ATMs may not exist or banks are not functioning normally. In urgent situations, blockchain currency can even take the place of scarce local cash, allowing aid organizations, residents and merchants to exchange money electronically. Blockchains can even help individuals contribute to aid efforts overseas. Usizo is a South Africa-based blockchain platform that lets anyone help pay electricity bills for community schools. Donors can track how much electricity a school is using, calculate how much power their donation will buy and transfer the credit directly using bitcoin.
Future potential
IN the future, blockchain-based projects can help people and governments in other ways, too. As many as 1.5 billion people—20 percent of the world’s population—don’t have any documents that can verify their identity. That limits their ability to use banks, but also can bar their way when trying to access basic human rights, like voting, getting health care, going to school and traveling. Several companies are launching blockchain-powered digital identity programs that can help create and validate individuals’ identities. Using only an Internet-connected smartphone, a person is photographed and recorded on video making particular facial expressions and speaking, reading an on-screen text. AP
BusinessMirror
A12 Saturday, May 6, 2017
Assa Abloy PHL bullish on digital lock adoption E
XECUTIVES of the company behind the Yale brand are optimistic the local market for digital door lock (DDL) system would grow more than the current 5-percent adoption rate. “A c t u a l ly, we’re rea l ly fa r behind other countries where the dig ita l door lock system has been a standard,” Sonny Ver Soneja told reporters on Wednesday. Soneja, DDL business development ma nager of A ssa Abloy Singapore P TE Ltd. (Ph i l. Represent at ive Of f ice), cited South Korea has a 95 -percent adopt ion rate a f ter t he f irst DDL s were used in t hat countr y t wo decades ago. Stil l,
he sa id at t he sidel ines of t he IFSEC E x po in Pasay C it y, t he rol l out of t he Ya le DDL products in t he Ph i l ippines ca me f rom a low base. “So there’s a big room for growth for DDLs,” Soneja said. “Remember we started from a low base three years ago so we’re really expecting the growth rate to be higher.” He also pointed out the DDL product Assa Abloy introduced now currently cost less
than P10,000 when it was priced at around P15,000 today. DDLs, Soneja said, are still for t he h i g h - e nd ret a i l a nd commercial market. But as the country’s property market in all segments—leisure, commercial and residential—continues to grow, Assa Abloy expects DDLs becoming an integral component of every project. “Two years to three years down the road, a DDL system would be used by a developer as a [market] differentiator,” Soneja said. Currently, the flagship DDL product of Assa Abloy is the Yale 4109, which uses key-less and card-less multiple access methods. With the 4109, you won’t need a mechanical key to open the lock, according to Soneja who showed the use of fingerprint in securing the DDL.
Aside from the biometric fingerprint access method, the 4109 also features a touchpad for pincode access. The Yale 4109 also features automatic loc k ing , intr usion and security alarm to protect against any attempt to break in as well as an automatic opening system when the door senses there’s a fire. “Our latest model also comes w it h acces s t h rou g h sm a r t phones and is home automationready,” Soneja said. According to him, they are still studying if Assa Abloy would also roll out a DDL that features an eye scanner. Soneja told the BusinessMirror regulatory support would help hasten adoption of the DDL system in the country. “As it is, we have building codes but having one for the DDL system would help.”
Govt launches info campaign on cyber-security awareness
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HE Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) would be conducting cybersecurity caravans across the country to spread awareness among stakeholders. The DICT recognizes that both the private and public sectors are facing cyberthreats today, DICT Secretary Rodolfo Salalima said in a forum on Tuesday. “ We are raising awareness
not only in the private sector but also public sector,” he added. The DICT cybersecurity caravan has reached Zamboanga City on April 26, according to DICT Assistant Secretary Allan Cabanlong. “With that we can create awareness, educate and empower our citizens,” Cabanlong said adding that providing cyber awareness is the main program of the DICT. According to Salalima, the
agency is looking outside the private sector in the campaign as companies are the most secured organizations in the country. “ The private sector is already advanced in cybersecurity measures,” he said. “Even before, they have been strengthening their cybersecurity.” In a recent interview, Philippine Institute of Cyber Security Professionals (PICSPro) President A ngel Redoble said the
countr y’s IC T inf rastr uct ure should be strengthened through proactive and inclusive measures as the number of threats grows. Speaking to members of the local media during the Unveiling of the National Cybersecurity Plan 2022 in Manila on Tuesday, Salalima said that the DICT plan in securing the country’s information and communications technolog y infrastructures would remain a “secret.” Oliver Samson
Dell EMC research bares few firms prepped for digital biz
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ELL EMC announced on May 4 the results of a new study conducted by Enterprise Strategy Group (ESG), which revealed that a majority of senior IT leaders and decision-making managers of large companies surveyed around the world indicate their organizations have yet to fully embrace the aspects of IT Transformation needed to remain competitive. While there is a clear imperative for companies to transform their legacy IT, digital transformation is becoming the driving force to making IT Transformation a top priority, Dell EMC said. However the ESG 2017 IT Transformation Maturity Curve study commissioned by Dell EMC shows 95 percent of survey respondents indicate their organizations are at risk of falling behind a smaller group of industry peers that are transforming their IT infrastructures, processes and delivery methods to accelerate their goals of becoming digital businesses. Many organizations still measure application cycle times in months, if not years; have siloed infrastructures; and continue to grapple with rigid legacy architectures—all barriers to undertaking a successful digital transformation. These findings mirror how the vast majority of customers are telling us they need to optimize their existing infrastructures to take advantage of digital-age opportunities, Dell EMC President David Goulden was quoted in a statement as saying. However, the research shows that most respondents are falling behind a small and elite set of competitors who have cracked the IT Transformation code, and they’re competing more vigorously because of it. As organizations progress in their IT Transformation investments, they can overcome the conflict between legacy IT and digital business initiatives to realize their goals, speed time to market and increase competitiveness.
Curve study
The ESG 2017 IT Transformation Maturity Curve study was designed to understand the role that IT Transformation plays toward becoming a digital business. ESG employed a research-based, data-driven maturity model to identify different stages of IT Transformation progress and determine the degree to which global organizations have achieved those different stages, based
on their responses to questions about their organizations’ on-premise IT infrastructure, processes and organizational alignment. Based on the global survey responses, the 1,000 participating organizations were segmented into the following four IT Transformation maturity stages: nStage 1-Legacy (12 percent): falls short on many—if not all—of the dimensions of IT Transformation in the ESG study n Stage 2-Emerging (42 percent): showing progress in IT Transformation but having minimal deployment of modern data center technologies n Stage 3-Evolving (41 percent): showing commitment to IT Transformation and having a moderate deployment of modern data center technologies and IT delivery methods n Stage 4-Transformed (5 percent): furthest along in IT Transformation initiatives The majority of respondents (71 percent) agree that IT Transformation is essential to ongoing business competitiveness. Of the “Transformed” companies, 85 percent believe their organizations are in a “very strong” or “strong” position to compete and succeed in their market over the next few years contrasted with 43 percent of the least mature companies. The “Transformed” organizations report the most progress in leveraging IT resources to speed product innovation and time to market; automating manual processes and tasks; and running IT as a profit center rather than a cost center. About 96 percent of these companies exceeded revenue targets last year and are eight times more likely than the least mature organizations to report a highly cooperative relationship between IT and the business. These firms also made “excellent progress” running IT as a profit center rather than a cost center and are 7 times more likely than the least mature organizations to have IT viewed by the business as a competitive differentiator
n 54 percent of all respondents use converged or hyper-converged infrastructure to support applications n 58 percent of all respondents have adopted scale-out storage systems in some capacity n 26 percent of all respondents have “extensive” or “established” self-service capabilities n 65 percent of all respondents have made “excellent” or “acceptable” progress toward providing end users with the same ability to provision IT resources that they can get from a public cloud provider n 43 percent of respondents claim “extensive” or “good” adoption of formal DevOps principles and best practices n 36 percent of IT organizations and their outcomes are evaluated by the C-suite or board of directors monthly, and 38 percent are evaluated quarterly n 39 percent have the most senior IT executive reporting directly to the CEO n 61 percent of the least mature organizations indicate their line of business stakeholders view IT as a “stable service provider, but ultimately a cost center”
Roughly 50 percent of respondents are committed to software-defined as a longterm strategy and have begun to implement, evaluate or plan for software-defined technologies According to ESG, the adoption of modern IT processes - such as self-service provisioning capabilities, running IT like a
public cloud and use of DevOps methodologies - can be an attribute of a successfully transformed company. Dell EMC said IT transformation is often correlated with a more cooperative and effective relationship between IT and the business, which was validated by the research.
This April 14, 2016, file photo, shows a push-button landline telephone, in Whitefield, Maine. According to a US government survey released on May 4, homes and apartments with only cell-phone service exceeded 50 percent for the first time, reaching 50.8 percent for the last six months of 2016. AP
Some consumers cling to landlines, but cell-only homes now dominate By Anick Jesdanun AP Technology Writer
N
E W YO R K— D e b o r a h Braswell, a universit y administrator in A labama, is a member of a dwindling group—people with a landline phone at home. According to a US government study released on Thursday, 50.8 percent of homes and apartments had only cellphone service in the latter half of 2016, the first time such households attained a majority in the survey. Braswell and her family are part of the 45.9 percent that still have landline phones. The remaining households have no phone service at all. More than 39 percent of US hou sehold s—i nc lud i ng Bra s well’s—have both landline and cellphone service. The landline comes in handy when someone misplaces one of the seven cellphones kicking around her threestory house in a Birmingham suburb. “You walk around your house calling yourself to find it,” she says. It’s also useful when someone breaks or loses a cellphone and has to wait for a replacement.
The patterns
RENTERS and younger adults are more likely to have just a cellphone, which researchers attribute to their mobility and comfort with newer technologies. The in-person survey of 19,956 households was part of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Nationa l Hea lth Interview Survey, which tracks landline use in order to assure representative samples in ongoing health studies. The survey has a margin of error of plus or minus 1 percentage point. Cellphone-only home have other commonalities. “Wireless-only adults are more likely to drink heavily, more likely to smoke and be uninsured,” even after factoring for age and income, says Stephen J. Blumberg, the study’s co-author (and a landline user himself). “There certainly is something about giving up a landline that appeals to the same people who may engage in risky behavior.” Why that’s so will require further research. The survey doesn’t get into why people ditch or keep landl ines, t hough l a nd l ine users cited a number of reasons for hanging on in phone interviews and email exchanges with The Associated Press.
No choice in the matter
Tech adoption
ACCORDING to ESG, the adoption of modern data center technologies, such as scale-out storage systems and converged/hyperconverged infrastructure, can improve the agility and responsiveness of infrastructure provisioning, IT project delivery and application development.
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Samsung Philippines President Kevin Lee pose for a photo with actress Solenn Heussaff during the launch of Samsung S8 and S8+ The most striking feature of the new phones is what Samsung dubs an "infinity display" – an expanded glass screen that covers the entire front of the device and appears to curve seamlessly around its edges. The home button has been replaced with a pressure-sensitive section embedded under the screen.nonie reyes
PLENTY of people would get rid of their landlines if they could. It goes beyond complaints about cellular reception at home. Joe Krkoska, a supply chain director, needs a traditional copper wire for his home security system in Zionsville, Indiana. Getting rid of the line would require crews to drill holes in his home and put batteries in the bedroom. No thanks, he says. Chris Houchens, who works in sales and marketing, says his phone company forces him to get a landline with internet service. There’s no cable TV alternative where he lives in rural Smiths Grove, Kentucky. And those who could drop
phone service might pay more after losing package discounts. Martin Axel, a retired hospital administrator in Seal Beach, California, says dropping the landline would increase his cable bill by more than $40 a month.
Emergencies
TR A DITIONA L copper phone lines have their own power supply, so those landlines still work during blackouts. Internet-based phones through the cable or phone company aren’t true landlines, although the CDC counts them that way. The internet modem for these phones still needs power. Both kinds of landline phones are more dependable for 911. Even if you can’t give dispatchers your home address, they would often have that already. Cellphones primarily use GPS for location, which means the dispatcher might know which building you’re in, but not the specific apartment. For that reason, Trey Forgety of the nonprofit National Emergency Number Association recommends landlines for those who live alone and have a disability or medical condition. He says cellphone location accuracy is improving, but there’s still work to be done.
Spam magnets
IN many households, the landline is a honey trap for telemarketers. “We never use the landline, and the only calls I get on it are from someone looking to sell me something,” says Matt Lawrence, a management consu ltant in O’Fallon, Missouri. On the other hand, it’s comforting to have a device just for calls—without “all of the irritating bells and whistles of smartphones,” says Brad Cooney, a Navy veteran in Brandon, Mississippi. “I can shut the (cell) phone off and still have a landline if someone needs to call me.”
Phone nostalgia
THE landline harkens to an era in which a number is tied to a family and not an individual. You can call your parents’ home and not play favorites in choosing Mom or Dad. Children can talk to Grandma at once from separate phone extensions. “My parents had landlines, as did their parents,” says Axel, the landline user in Seal Beach. “It’s probably a habit. It just feels more comfortable to me.” Cy nthia Dibblee, a retired teacher in Merced, California, has elderly parents who “can’t remember our cell numbers but know the landline by heart.”
The future
USTelecom, a trade group for traditional phone companies, estimates that true landlines—the copper kind—now connect fewer than 20 percent of households. The group says companies have adapted by offering other types of services, including video and, for some, cellphones. Even so, phone companies get new landline customers now and then. Shawn Fisch, a 37-year-old teacher in New York, got his first landline after becoming a dad. When his son is old enough, he says, he’ll need “an extra way to phone home.” AP