BusinessMirror May 16, 2020

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‘We will survive’

PAL, Asia’s oldest commercial airline, places bets on domestic tourists, Pinoys abroad to help it recover from Covid-19

By Ma. Stella F. Arnaldo

W

SANTA MARIA: ‘We’ve been around for 80 years, and we will be around for a while longer, performing an essential service.”

Special to the BusinessMirror

E’RE not giving up. These were the brave words spoken

by Philippine Airlines (PAL) president Gilbert Santa Maria, during a webinar on the tourism industry hosted

by Go Negosyo, even as he dangled the specter of possible bankruptcies in the local aviation industry.

THE Ninoy Aquino International Airport Terminal 1, designed to accommodate 6 million passengers per year, is seen on May 3, 2020, almost empty except for a few passengers and employees. NONIE REYES

“PAL has the largest fleet in the Philippines. Our planes are new but very expensive, so this is a great time of challenge for us.

We’re not giving up. We’ve been around for 80 years, and we will be

around for a while longer, performing an essential service,” he said.

Due to the lockdown in Luzon and in other parts of the country to contain the spread of the novel coronavirus, PAL’s planes are just parked, not earning any revenue, except for the occasional sweeper flights contracted by the Department of Tourism and Department of Foreign Affairs.

“The biggest challenge of airlines is the absence of revenue, from 1 million passengers in January for PAL, to about zero in April, Continued on A2

Hong Kong’s economic crisis just keeps getting worse

By Enda Curran, Jinshan Hong & Eric Lam

O

Bloomberg

N the ninth floor of a building near Hong Kong’s old Kai Tak airport, Kung Fu master Lam Shushing teaches the Wing Chun technique to students, something he’s been doing since 1978. A banner on the wall nods to a legacy that traces back to his teacher’s master, who also trained Bruce Lee.

Passing on this cultural touchstone to the next generation is proving to be Lam’s biggest challenge yet as the number of students has dwindled to a handful.

“This is the toughest moment in the past 40 years that I am teaching Kung Fu,” said Lam, who at almost 70 had to give up his gym when he couldn’t afford the rent. “I don’t see any improvement in Hong Kong any time soon.”

First came months of protest in 2019 and then the coronavirus outbreak, sending Hong Kong spiraling.

Now, just as other economies around the world look to a recovery as their virus restrictions ease, Hong Kong’s reprieve appears fleeting: clashes between police and protesters are resuming and worries about another virus wave remain. It’s a dual threat that has

PESO EXCHANGE RATES n US 50.3720

BRUCE LEE’S ORPHANS Lam Shu-shing watches his students practice. BILLY H.C. KWOK/BLOOMBERG

businesses and shoppers on edge and raises fundamental questions about how—or if—one of the world’s most storied finance hubs will regain its past prominence.

Financial Secretary Paul Chan has described Hong Kong’s economic challenges as unprecedented. In the first quarter, the city had its worst slump on record.

Even pillars of the economy that had been holding up, like finance and real estate, are showing signs of softening.

In the property market—the world’s priciest—the political deadlock is eroding demand from buyers based in mainland China, according to Simon Smith, head of research and consultancy at Savills Plc.

“Obviously, the outbreak really reduced mainland visitors to almost nothing and the return of the unrest will continue to keep them away,” he said. Wealthy individuals from China had dominated the high-end home market, with about 60 percent of international buyers Continued on A2

n JAPAN 0.4698 n UK 61.6251 n HK 6.4981 n CHINA 7.1006 n SINGAPORE 35.3985 n AUSTRALIA 32.5554 n EU 54.4471 n SAUDI ARABIA 13.4129

Source: BSP (May 15, 2020)

THOR JORGEN UDVANG | DREAMSTIME.COM

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Hong Kong’s economic crisis just keeps getting worse Continued from A1

hailing from the mainland over the past 10 years, according to Savills.

In a sign of weakness, a plot of land near the former Kai Tak airport failed to sell at auction.

Banks are feeling the strain, too. Loan risks loom for lenders including HSBC Holdings Plc. as the city’s recession grinds on, according to Francis Chan, a senior analyst at Bloomberg Intelligence. Insurance agents and private bankers have been hurt by the virus outbreak as travel curbs blocked potential customers from the mainland.

At the same time, deteriorating relations between the US and China will squeeze the city’s port if trade tensions resume. US lawmakers routinely threaten to punish China for its actions against Hong Kong’s democracy protesters.

Sales slump

THE biggest strain so far has been on retailers, hotels, bars and restaurants. Tourism to Hong Kong has dried up amid virus-related travel restrictions, and for months before that mainland visitors stayed away because of the political unrest. Retail sales by value slumped by more than 40 percent for an unprecedented second straight month in March as inbound visitors sank by 99 percent.

To ease the pain, Hong Kong’s government has announced about HK$287.5 billion (US$37 billion) of direct virus-related aid this year, or about 10 percent of GDP, including a wage subsidy program and a cash handout of

HK$10,000 to all permanent residents age 18 or older.

Open again

ELAINE CHEUNG, who runs Elaine Beauty House not far from the central finance district, recently reopened her beauty salon after a 28-day compulsory shutdown to contain the virus. She is racing to make the most of pent-up demand, while it lasts.

“My WhatsApp just kept popping up messages from clients. I’m rushing to serve as many customers as possible when the situation is relatively safe,” she said. “Who knows what will happen next?”

Government officials warn the city may see its worst full-year economic performance on record, with a contraction of as much as 7 percent, after the economy shrank 1.2 percent last year. It contracted 8.9 percent in the first quarter from year-ago levels. Unemployment has risen for six straight months while industry barometers including small business sentiment and Markit PMI hover near record lows.

It’s an outlook overshadowing Hong Kong’s success in containing the virus, with cases in the city slowing to a trickle. Hong Kong has confirmed just 1,051 cases and four deaths, and hasn’t recorded a virus-related death since March.

Yet the risk of another wave became real in recent days as health officials confirmed two new local cases, bringing to an end a 23day streak without a locally transmitted case.

As authorities take a more aggressive approach to rein in protesters with little sign of compro-

mise to meet their demands, the unrest is expected to heat up again in coming months.

Last drinks?

ON Friday, May 8, in the city’s popular bar district, the maskwearing staff at the Honi Honi Tiki Cocktail Lounge were hustling to prepare for reopening after the enforced shutdown. Just 30 minutes after the doors opened, customers began trickling in, adjusting to the temperature checks and rules on spacing as they ordered tropical cocktails in Polynesian tiki mugs.

Bar owner Max Traverse has had to reduce staff. A rental discount has helped tide him over.

Conditions had been improving earlier this year before the virus hit yet now, like others, he’s worried what will happen if either the protests, or another virus outbreak returns.

“If the city has to close again, it would be a ghost city,” he said.

That concern is widespread across the bar and restaurant sector. Alan Lo, co-founder of the Classified Group of eateries as well as the Michelin-starred restaurant Duddell’s, said the political logjam could be a blow that shrinks the city’s food and beverage industry, with owners “down to their last drop of capital.”

Expat exit

HONG KONG’S bustling lifestyle, low tax rates and gateway-toChina status have long attracted expatriates. There are anecdotal signs that the appeal is waning after months of home schooling and travel restrictions, though much

LAM SHU-SHING, wearing a protective mask and a blindfold, practices with a student on the rooftop of a building in Hong Kong. BILLY H.C. KWOK/BLOOMBERG

will depend on what happens in the coming months.

“I think many companies are still taking a wait-and-see approach to matters,” said Lee Quane, regional director for Asia with expat consultancy ECA International. “If you see two years of continued disruption and no real solution in sight, a lot of companies will think twice about it.”

WHAT BLOOMBERG’S ECONOMISTS SAY...

“We expect the economy to recover in the last quarter of this year, as stimulus kicks in to lift growth in ma-

jor economies. Uncertainties remain high, though—on the pandemic, tensions between the US and China and tensions between the city and central government. However, in the longer term, there are upsides. The city’s economy has proved to be highly resilient in the past.”

—Qian Wan Bloomberg Economics

T

O navigate a way out, the government will need to shake up the economy by playing to its strengths in health care and financial services, along with a renewed focus on high-end manufacturing that would offer

new opportunities, according to Christopher To, chairman of the Hong Kong Institute of Directors.

Yet such solutions seem a long way off for those struggling to keep their businesses alive now.

Back at the gym, while demonstrating the flowing movements and quick arm-and-leg attacks of Wing Chun, Lam worries that things may never return to the way they were, for him and for Hong Kong.

“I won’t be able to go back to the past where I have my own center,” Lam said. “I will continue to roam around with my students.”

‘We will survive’ A LONE porter at Naia Terminal 1 sits on an empty baggage carousel. This place used to be busy, before the enhanced community quarantine forced a shutdown of air travel in most airports. NONIE REYES Continued from A1

though we have sweepers and repatriation flights,” he said. “Most of our 100-aircraft fleet is parked, but we still pay leases, so that’s a challenge, too.”

In a separate interview with CNN Philippines, Santa Maria said, with many foreign airlines going bankrupt, local carriers may suffer the same fate. “[It’s] a distinct possibility in the Philippines as well,” he said.

Even before Covid-19, PAL has already been undergoing financial difficulties. Its holding firm recorded a 147-percent jump in its net loss to P10.6 billion in 2019, from a P4.3-billion loss in 2018. It was the third year of losses for the pioneering flag carrier. Those losses, along with lowered revenue due to Covid-19, forced the airline to terminate 300 employees in March.

Cargo revenue

AT present, PAL is earning from cargo, “a very helpful source of revenue for us. We now have many cargo flights since goods still need to flow.

We have multiple daily flights to the USA, carrying boxes of PPEs and vital supplies that originate in China.

The geography of the Philippines is ideal for us to serve as a gateway for China-US cargo and other major

cargo flows. We are tapping that.”

Santa Maria said more stringent health and sanitation measures have already been put in place to regain passengers’ trust in flying. “We are obsessed with safety and have prepared for pandemics and other crises all these years, thus our airplanes have HEPA filters to prevent contagion. The air in our cabins is like the clean air of a hospital operating room, so viruses aren’t likely to survive in the environment at 35,000 feet.

Our policy requiring all travelers to wear face masks will help protect our passengers in such a clean environment, along with our other safety measures.”

He added, “We want to build confidence in flying and we have modified services to protect safety.

The PPE for our crew ensures their safety; it is something we will never compromise.”

Passengers will also be given options to make them feel more comfortable when flying. “We will give them good options for safe travel. We have never been a flying sardine can—some of our cabins will offer choices with social distancing—it’s all about choices and safety.” But he was quick to add that this would not mean higher fares for customers. “The CAB [Civil Aeronautics

Board] will not allow us to raise prices. There is no way to raise fares; there are different classes of flights and seats.... We will work within the current fare levels, charging different prices for promo and for regular seats in different cabins.

The goal is to fly both economically and safely,” said the PAL COO.

To recover much-needed revenue, PAL will first tap the domestic tourism market. “Definitely PAL will encourage domestic tourism from Manila to the islands, beyond the car. We will fly them to Palawan and Panglao. Beyond tourists, Palawan and Bohol are great business destinations as well.”

He intimated that this early, there are already inquiries from tourists in the UK asking “when they can fly to the beach. Basically we have to tell them not quite yet.”

Santa Maria underscored that Filipinos living around will also be key in PAL’s recovery. “PAL is a flag carrier with 80 years’ experience, offering full service and the long-haul routes that are vital for our country.

Europe, North America, Australasia, the Middle East—these are homes for our fellow Filipinos all around the world. We serve them. They will fly with us and feel at home. They will help us start the recovery of air travel and tourism.”

News

BusinessMirror

www.businessmirror.com.ph • Editor: Vittorio V. Vitug

Galvez justifies acquisition of 11-M PPEs for frontliners

By Samuel P. Medenilla

T

he government on Thursday belied allegations that its procurement of 11 million complete personal protective equipment (PPE) for frontliners in the fight to control the spread of the novel coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) was overpriced.

In an online news briefing, chief implementer of the government’s national policy on Covid-19 retired Gen. Carlito Galvez Jr. said the acquisition, which will cost P1.8 billion, is fairly priced at P1,800 to P2,000 per set, adding that the said items are of medical grade.

Each set includes military-grade eye goggles, a face mask, as well as shoe and head covers.

While he noted there were cheaper PPE sets, the said items did not undergo proper test and evaluation, and thus may put users at risk.

“We cannot sacrifice the lives of our frontliners. We must buy the best quality of Level 4 medical grade PPEs [for them to use],” Galvez said.

Above board

Galvez said the government, through the Procurement Service of Department of Budget and Management (PS-DBM), has already 3 million of the said PPE sets as part of its initiative to stockpile such items amid the Covid-19 health crisis.

The purchase of all the 11 million PPE sets is expected to be completed by 2021.

Galvez issued the statement in response to a news report and editorial, which he said, maliciously implied that the government will spend P20 billion to buy P3 million worth of PPEs. He noted the news report in question wrongfully stated that each PPE set is worth P6,000.

Currently, Galvez said, the government had already distributed 200,000 PPEs in Mindanao, and 263,000 in Luzon and Visayas to Covid-19 frontliners.

He said they have an available 430,000 PPEs ready for distribution.

Better protection

He noted that since they started providing PPEs to frontliners, especially those in the medical field, fewer of them died because of Covid-19.

“That is why we’re happy to hear of the continuous decline in the infection rate of our medical workers in the past week,” Galvez said.

As of May 13, 2020, the Department of Health (DOH) reported that 2,125 medical workers were infected with Covid-19.

Of these figures, 1,421 are still infected with the virus, 669 of them recovered, and 35 of them died from it.

Marikina city govt conducts rapid tests on 1K workers ahead of shift to MECQ

By Claudeth Mocon-Ciriaco

T

HE city government of Marikina on Friday conducted mass testing for nearly 1,000 employees of private companies in the city as they prepare for the transition from enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) to modified ECQ (MECQ).

Mayor Marcelino Teodoro said that employees of three companies in Marikina, namely, the shoe manufacturer C-Point, Philip Morris Fortune Tobacco Corp. (PMFTC) Inc., and Armscor Global Defense Inc. were tested using the rapid test kits.

“We are making sure that our workers are safe against Covid-19 that’s why we have this testing before the industrial, manufacturing, and shoe industry starts their operations,” Teodoro said, as the National Capital Region (NCR) transitions to the MECQ on Saturday (May 16).

Teodoro underscored the need for the government and the private sector working together to prepare for the “new normal” by taking into consideration the health of employees in their workplace.

The mayor also stressed the need to have a Covid-free area workplace.

According to the mayor, they are currently balancing the biosafety and economic aspect of the community.

However, Teodoro said they are still facing challenges as the MECQ, which meant the easing of quarantine protocols does not really bring

back everything to normal.

Meanwhile, he said that the offices, shops, and factories of companies in Marikina are currently undergoing renovation and reconfiguration in accordance with the guidelines of the Inter-Agency Task Force. Some of them told him they need to improve their ventilation. He also said that proper health protocols will be observed like using face mask and temperature checks on employees before they enter the workplace.

The mass testing and random testing will be regularly conducted, Teodoro said, adding, “This is what we call surveillance testing.”

All employees who will test positive for Covid-19, the mayor said, will be immediately brought to a quarantine facility so that they can be isolated and given supportive treatment and their health will not deteriorate.

Teodoro said they chose to first test employees using rapid testing so that whoever will test positive for Covid-19 will be subjected to a confirmatory test using the PCR test of the Marikina Molecular Diagnostics Laboratory.

Their strategy in Marikina, he said, is test, trace, and treat. “And after treating we isolate them, and after isolating and recovering, we reintegrate the individuals to the community and to the family.

There are around 6,000 employees in the shoe industry, while there are 8,000 industrial employees in Marikina, the mayor said.

SM prepares for ‘safe malling’

S

M is set to welcome back the community as the malls begin to operate with essential and non-leisure services after the enhanced community quarantine period due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

The gradual reopening follows the local government unit’s decision to also observe adjusted mall hours until further notice.

As part of SM’s campaign to promote #SafeMallingAtSM, all SM malls will continue to carry out strict safety and sanitation measures to assure shoppers that SM malls are safe and clean, complying with safety and sanitation protocols over and above government regulations.

All malls are being thoroughly cleaned and disinfected prior to the opening and throughout mall hours, especially in areas with heavy customer contact. Entrances are equipped with temperature checks and disinfecting foot mats. Alcohol dispensers are provided at the mall entrance and restrooms. The restrooms are sanitized every 30 minutes.

Everyone will be required to wear face masks at all times. In observance of social distancing, SM lays emphasis on “safe distancing” as this promotes the importance of physical distance with social connectivity.

In line with the government’s rules that discourage loitering in the mall, free

Wi-fi access will be disabled and “leisure” establishments will remain closed.

Customers are requested to limit malling activities to buying essentials only, such as food and medicine, and accessing non- leisure services. Hallways and common areas will have floor directional arrows to encourage one-way customer traffic to help people avoid coming into close contact with others. Safety Protocol Officers have been deployed to reinforce Safe Malling measures.

Taking safety measures up a notch, SM will run Covid-19 antibody rapid testing for all its employees and agency frontliners, including janitors and security guards. SM tenant partners can avail of this test, at cost, for their respective staff. Protective equipment are also provided, including face masks and face shields.

Agency personnel working in high customer contact areas are required to wear gloves. Mall employees undergo temperature checks at the start of shift and throughout the day.

As the country heals and recovers from the crisis, SM, together with its employees and partners, will continue to serve and support communities as its malls make everyone’s safety a top priority. For more info about SM Supermall’s takeout and delivery offerings— visit its social-media accounts on Facebook, Twitter, IG and www.smsupermalls.com.

Saturday, May 16, 2020

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PHL riding out Typhoon Ambo after Covid-19 slows evacuations

M

ore than 150,000 people were riding out a weakening typhoon in emergency shelters in the Philippines on Friday after a mass evacuation that was complicated and slowed by the coronavirus.

Typhoon Ambo (international code name Vongfong) has weakened after slamming ashore into Eastern Samar Thursday and was blowing northwestward toward the populous main northern island of Luzon, government forecasters said. There was no immediate reports of casualties, or major damage as authorities surveyed regions where the typhoon has passed.

The typhoon’s maximum sustained wind has weakened to 125 kilometers per hour with gusts of 165 kph but it remains dangerous especially in coastal and low-lying villages, forecasters said, adding Vongfong was expected to blow out of the country’s north on Sunday.

In the northeastern Bicol region, more than 145,000 villagers have fled, or were moved by disasterresponse teams to dozens of emergency shelters, mostly school buildings, Office of Civil Defense Director Claudio Yucot said. Thousands more were evacuated to safety in the outlying provinces of Samar, where the typhoon first blew over, officials said.

Unlike before, rescuers and volunteers needed to wear face masks and protective suits before deployment and could not transport villagers to emergency shelters in large numbers as a safeguard against the Covid-19 disease, Yucot said.

“Our ease of movement has been limited by Covid,” Yucot told The Associated Press by telephone from Albay province in the Bicol region, which has had dozens of coronavirus infections, including four deaths and remains under quarantine. “In the evacuation centers, there are more challenges.”

In an evacuation room, which could shelter up to 40 families before, only four families could be accommodated now as a safeguard against infections and the occupants should know each other and required to report any infected villager, Yucot said.

The coast guard said more than 600 cargo truck drivers and workers were stranded due to the suspension of sea travel in several eastern ports, where 340 cargo ships were barred from leaving due to the typhoon. All were required to wear protective masks and prohibited from mingling.

The typhoon hit as the Philippines struggles to deal with coronavirus outbreaks, largely with a lockdown in Luzon that is to be eased this weekend, except in metropolitan Manila and two other high-risk areas. The rest of the country will be placed in less restrictive quarantine, and crucial businesses will partially reopen starting next week.

The Philippines has reported

Residents ride a boat along a flooded village as Typhoon Ambo (international code name Vongfong) passes by Sorsogon province, northeastern Philippines on Friday, May 15, 2020.

More than 150,000 people were riding out a weakening typhoon in emergency shelters in the Philippines on Friday after a mass evacuation that was complicated and slowed by the coronavirus. AP

nearly 12,000 coronavirus infections, including 790 deaths, among the highest in Southeast Asia.

In its 2 p.m. bulletin on Saturday, the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (Pagasa) reported that Ambo has weakened into a severe tropical storm (STS) as it heads to northern QuezonLaguna area.

The STS was last eyed in the vicinity of Agdangan, Quezon, moving northwestward at 20 kph. It packs maximum sustained winds of up to 110 kph near the center, and gustiness of up to 150 kph.

Pagasa forecast moderate to heavy with at times intense rains over the Bicol Region, Quezon, Aurora, Marinduque, Laguna, Rizal, Metro Manila, Bulacan, Nueva Ecija, Nueva Vizcaya and Quirino.

Tropical cyclone wind signal (TCWS) no. 2 is hoisted over Ilocos Norte, Ilocos Sur, Apayao, Abra, Kalinga, La Union, Ifugao, Mt. Province, Benguet, Nueva Vizcaya, Quirino,

Tarlac, Nueva Ecija, Aurora, Pampanga, Bulacan, Rizal, Metro Manila, Laguna, the eastern portion of Pangasinan (San Nicolas, Natividad, San Quintin, Umingan, Balungao, Sta. Maria, Tayug, Asingan, San Manuel, Binalonan, Laoac, Urdaneta, Villasis, Rosales, Sto. Tomas, Alcala, Bautista, Bayambang, Urbiztondo, Basista, Malasiqui, Sta. Barbara, Manaoag, Mapandan, San Jacinto, San Fabian, Pozorrubio, Sison, Mangaldan, Dagupan, Calasiao, Binmaley, Lingayen, Bugallon, Aguilar, San Carlos, Mangatarem), the western portion of Isabela (Quezon, Mallig, Roxas, Quirino, San Manuel, Burgos, Gamu, Reina Mercedes, Aurora, Luna, Cabatuan, Naguilian, Benito Soliven, Cauayan, San Guillermo, Dinapugue, San Mateo, Alicia, Angadanan, Ramon, San Isidro, Echague, Jones, San Agustin, Santiago, Cordon), Cavite, Quezon including Polillo Islands, Camarines Norte, western portion of Camarines Sur (Del Gallego, Ragay, Lupi, Sipocot), Marinduque, and Batangas. AP and PNA

Senators mourn passing of ex-Sen Tessie Oreta

By Butch Fernandez

S

ENATORS are mourning the demise of a former colleague, Sen.Tessie AquinoOreta, whose death was announced on Friday by her son, Malabon Mayor Anthony “Len-Len” Oreta.

Senate President Vicente Sotto III, who is known as one of Oreta’s close friends, said the chamber will adopt a resolution on Monday expressing its sense of loss and honoring Oreta’s contributions to lawmaking.

Sen. Kiko Pangilinan said in a statement: “ Saktong-sakto na TAO ang tawag kay Sen. Tessie Aquino-Oreta,” referring to the late senator’s initials, and part of her political branding. “ May malasakit, mababang-loob, at may puso, lalo na sa kanyang adbokasyang edukasyon. Marahil nakuha niya ito, bilang bunsong kapatid, sa kanyang kuyang si Ninoy Aquino [She is a caring person, with a good heart, especially in her advocacy for education.

Perhaps, as the youngest, she got this from her

big brother Ninoy Aquino],” Pangilinan said.

Continuing in Filipino, Pangilinan recalled that when Aquino-Oreta was in the Senate, “She legislated measures that give the youth opportunities for quality education and a good future.”

This, Pangilinan said, would be her enduring “legacy” to those left behind to chart a path for the nation.

In his Facebook page, Malabon Mayor Oreta announced on Friday morning: “On behalf of my family, it is with great sadness that I announce the passing of my mom at 10:48 p.m. of May 14. Former Senator Tessie Aquino-Oreta was a public servant who devoted her life to the country and her adopted hometown of Malabon. She was a loving grandmother, mother, and wife and a friend to those whose

lives she touched. We ask for your prayers for mom.”

Aquino-Oreta, once described as the late democracy icon Ninoy Aquino’s beloved baby sister, died Monday night. The cause of the death was not stated. She was 75.

Aquino-Oreta won a Senate seat in the 1998 national elections and went on to chair the Senate Committee on Education, Arts and Culture. Before being elected senator, she also won a seat in the House of Representatives where she served for three consecutive terms (1987-1998), representing the district of Malabon-Navotas.

Some of the bills she authored, or coauthored, that were signed into law during the 11th Congress include the Solo Parent Act, Solid Waste Management Act, Clean Air Act, and Philippine Science High School System Act. She was also known as a staunch champion of teachers’ welfare, on whom she said rested the future of the nation, as they mold young citizens.

AirAsia mounts sweeper flights between Manila and Jakarta

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IRASIA on Friday flew three special chartered flights between Indonesia and the Philippines in support of the repatriation efforts for the citizens of both countries.

These are in addition to two humanitarian services which AirAsia Indonesia operated last month.

The first rescue flight departed Jakarta’s Soekarno Hatta International Airport at 09:16 local time and arrived at the Ninoy Aquino International Airpor t with 22 passengers at 2 p.m. local time.

The aircraft returned to Jakarta with 95 Indonesian citizens onboard, departing Manila at 2:34 p.m. and arriving in Jakarta at 5:53 p.m.

The third flight, which departed from Ahmad Yani International Airpor t in

Semarang at 9:44 am, arrived in Manila at 2:30 p.m.with 23 Filipino citizens onboard.

These three flights were successfully carried out with the collaboration of the Indonesian embassy in Manila, and the Philippine Embassy in Jakarta, as well as the authorities and airport operators in both countries.

The Indonesian Embassy in Manila said it supports and facilitates the repatriation flights as an implementation of the government policy to protect its citizens overseas, especially during Covid-19 epidemic.

The same policy was also implemented by the Philippine government through its embassy in Jakarta.

Philippine Ambassador to Jak ar ta Leehiong T. Wee said, “The coordination

between our two embassies in bringing our respective citizens home during this challenging time is testament to the friendship of our two countries, which we have built and strengthened over the last 70 years.”

According to AirAsia Indonesia Chief Executive Officer Veranita Yosephine Sinaga, “AirAsia is once again very honored by the trust bestowed upon us from both embassies for today’s missions. Despite the uncertainties emerging from Covid-19, we are proud to still be able to contribute to our local communities by flying our guests back to their families and hometowns. On behalf of AirAsia and all of our Allstars involved in the flight: ‘ Mabuhay ! Welcome home! and Selamat datang di tanah air [welcome to homeland].’”

The special flights were carried out on AirAsia’s Airbus A320-200 aircraft, adhering to strict safety protocols, in compliance with relevant health authorities’ advice and guidelines.

All guests were required to provide health certificates and to undergo additional health screening procedures at the airport prior to departure. All guests and flight crew will also be required to undergo a 14-day quarantine upon arrival as per standard procedure.

AirAsia said it imposes strict standards for passenger and baggage carriage in compliance with local governments, civil aviation authorities, and global and local health agencies, including the World Health Organization. The aircraft were immediately disinfected after the flights as per AirAsia’s enhanced safety. Recto L. Mercene

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The World BusinessMirror

Saturday, May 16, 2020

China’s industrial output rises while consumers remain wary

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hina’s industrial output increased in April for the first time since the coronavirus outbreak, adding to early signs of a recovery that economists cautioned would be slow and challenging.

Industrial output rose 3.9 percent from a year earlier, reversing a drop of 1.1 percent in March, data showed Friday. Fixed-asset investment decreased 10.3 percent in the first four months, a smaller decline than the 16.1-percent drop in the January-March period. Retail sales slid 7.5 percent, more than the projected 6-percent drop. The surveyed urban jobless rate, which doesn’t include all of the work force, rose to 6.0 percent, from March’s 5.9 percent.

The industrial improvement signaled that government stimulus efforts are having some effect, although support remains modest compared with China’s global peers. With continued efforts to restore production and the gradual lift of virus-containment measures, the back-to-work rate rose to around 95 percent by mid-April, up from 85 percent at end-March, according to a Bloomberg Economics estimate.

Private firms’ industrial output rose 7 percent in April, faster than other types of enterprises including SOEs and foreign companies, according to the statement.

“The data is in line with the overall trend that supply is stronger than demand and the recovery is mainly driven by supply,” said Larry Hu, chief China economist at Macquarie Group Ltd. Government-led investment, especially infrastructure projects and the so-called technology-focused “new infrastructure” initiative, received an increased boost as Beijing ramped up both policy and financial support. Private-sector investment, however, continued to contract faster than that by the state, shrinking 13.3 percent in the first four months.

What Bloomberg’s economists say...

“The economic outlook will probably improve slightly in the coming months as other countries

exit lockdowns. Even so, China needs to sustain—and step up— policy support, given weakness in private-sector demand, the global downturn and some resurgence of trade tensions with the US.”

Chang Shu & David Qu, Bloomberg Economics

In spite of the improvement, the Chinese economy “hasn’t returned to normal level,” Liu Aihua, a NBS spokeswoman said at the press conference. There are “pent-up demand effects” in the data improvement, she said.

Retail sales remained soft in April, suggesting weak domestic demand. The retail data underscore the caution with which the public is greeting measures to reopen the economy.

In the month, restaurant and catering receipts slumped by 31.1 percent from a year earlier, after a 46.8-percent collapse in March.

Communication appliances rose 12.2 percent.

Slumping external demand, as most of the major economies are still trapped in lockdowns to various extents, could continue to be a drag on growth. Plunging oil prices, also showed there are downside risks on the demand side, Liu warned, with negative impacts seen in petroleum related sectors.

“The divergence between supply and demand raises growth risks in the coming months,” said Frederic Neumann, co-head of Asian economic research at Hongkong & Shanghai Banking Corp Ltd. “The consequent inventory buildup may ultimately throttle back manufacturing activity, leading to more of a W-shaped recovery than a swift V.” Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index fell 0.2 percent while the Shanghai Composite was flat, as investors digested the mixed data.

The slight increase in the jobless rate, which economists say severely understates the current situation, showed that unemployment pressure is still piling up. Economists expect the official rate to edge higher this year, with migrant workers and fresh graduates being the two most vulnerable groups.

“Going forward, the ensuing global recession will weigh on China’s recover y. But China’s growth now relies largely on domestic demand,” said Louis Kuijs, head of Asia economics at Oxford Economics Hong Kong Ltd. “We expect China’s stimulus to remain relatively modest in size.

But it should add support to the domestic demand recovery that we see continuing in the rest of the year.” Bloomberg News

Thailand allows malls to reopen in latest loosening of lockdown

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hailand allowed shopping malls to reopen from Sunday in the latest leg of an economic restart after coronavirus cases dwindled.

Malls will have to close at 8 p.m., while cinemas and gyms must remain shut as part of ongoing efforts to restrain the pathogen, Taweesilp Witsanuyotin, a spokesman for the Covid-19 center, said in a briefing Friday.

Some other retail operations can

also resume, he said.

Thailand remains under a state of emergency through May but began a phased easing its lockdown at the start of the month by lifting an alcohol ban and permitting restaurants to take dine-in customers. Some provinces have also allowed hotels to open their doors again.

The nation is returning to a “new normal ” where “we still need to wear masks, clean our

hands and keep social distancing practices as long as we don’t have a vaccine,” Taweesilp said.

Social distancing brought new infections under control but officials remain concerned about the risk of another wave of illness as people start moving around more freely. T he countr y’s borders remain closed to most international flights, though domestic routes are firing up again.

The fallout from the pathogen

has badly damaged Thailand’s usual engines of growth, tourism and exports, leaving it with Southeast Asia’s most precarious economic outlook this year.

Gross domestic product likely slid 3.8 percent in the first quarter from a year earlier, according to a Bloomberg survey ahead of an official economic report due May 18. The contraction is putting pressure on officials to ease the lockdown. Bloomberg News

Wealthy travelers are starting to book year-end vacations

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he new offering from Roar Africa is lavish, even for the safari outfitter’s well-heeled, often well-known clientele. With Roar Privé, they can experience an eight-day safari in South Africa without coming into contact with another human—except for their private pilots, guide, butler, chef, and whomever they choose to bring along.

These very socially distant safaris start at $60,000 per person. Since early May, Roar has sold them to a half-dozen groups for the yearend “festive” season and beyond.

“I would never have thought to put it out there [during normal times],” says Roar Chief Executive Deborah Calmeyer, because of the additional cost of the trips. But these are not normal times and, in this moment, the appeal goes beyond exclusivity. “I’m so fearful for our wildlife and the people dependent on travelers coming back. Whatever we have to create to make it safe, that’s what we’re going to do.”

The coronavirus crisis has all but shut down travel around the world and across the board. The number of people going through US Transpor tation Security Administration checkpoints has dropped by some 95 percent since the start of March. That month, private jet companies began turning away customers as international borders closed.

It’s still unclear when shuttered resorts, airports, and borders will reopen. But wealthy jetsetters are betting that by November, or December, travel will be somewhat normal— and that spending additional dollars can keep them sufficiently safe.

“We had several weeks of crickets...not a single request,” says Brooke Lavery, co-owner of New York-based travel consultancy Local Foreigner. “Probably two weeks ago [in early May] is when it really started to come back.”

Some of the earliest requests are coming from clients who have the means to fly privately.

Aside from being at reduced risk of infection, these travelers are also unaffected by flight cancellations, or other airline disruptions. “At the drop of a hat, they could get themselves out if they needed it,” she explains. “They’re more free.”

Resorts that are set up to accommodate

private aircraft, such as Petit Saint Vincent in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, are likely to see a corresponding boost. Almost all of the 22 cottages on the 115-acre private island are booked for the year-end holidays.

In the US, the 12-cabin Dunton Hot Springs resort in Dolores, Colorado., near Telluride, is sold-out for Christmas. In Aspen, Colo., the Little Nell’s director of sales, Mark Elias, reports: “We currently have twice the number of rooms confirmed for the holiday week, December 24 to January 2, as we did at the same time last year.”

Auberge Resorts, which has hotels in Los Cabos in Mexico’s Baja California and in Napa Valley, California, has seen a 50-percent yearover-year increase in holiday booking inquiries.

And while summer requests for yacht charters have been down at Northrup & Johnson, Marketing Manager Janine St. Denis says the 2020 winter season is matching the 2019 pace.

That kind of optimism represents one of two dominant perspectives, according to travel agents.

There are those eager to hit the road, despite the possibility of a second wave of Covid-19 infections in the fall. They’re maintaining existing reservations and planning new trips to make up for missed spring and summer travel, to ease the sense of being trapped at home, or make sure they get exactly the destinations, hotels, and villas they want—especially if their bookings have flexible cancellation policies. (Whether the communities they intend to visit will embrace or reject the presence of outsiders is an open question.)

At the more cautious end, say agents, are clients who are refusing to travel until a coronavirus vaccine is available, or at least until things are more stable.

Some consumers may be caught between.

There’s some urgency for those who have credits for canceled trips, says Melissa Biggs Bradley, founder and chief executive officer of luxury travel firm Indagare. “Many of those will expire by the end of the year,” she says. “There are not enough days or rooms to satisfy all the credit out—so if people don’t grab options, they may lose their credits.”

In any case, “luxury, high-end travel is going to be what comes back first,” says Kate

Doty, managing director of premier access for adventure specialist GeoEx. Deep-pocketed travelers can afford to pay for space, privacy, and even coronavirus testing for staff.

City vs country

Whether they’re staying in the US or venturing overseas, one thing is clear: Travelers are not booking urban breaks.

“I would say the common thread [among client requests] is spread out, wide-open spaces, privacy, and avoiding anywhere with density unless it’s brief,” says Brendan Drewniany, head of communications for luxury travel-planning firm Black Tomato.

Iceland is in demand, he says, because it’s remote but easy to reach, with direct flights from the US and regularly scheduled transfers within the country. Private planes can fly into a dedicated terminal in Reykjavik, and many remote parts of Iceland are accessible by helicopter. “Deplar Farm has two helipads,” Drewniany says, referring to the 13-room heli-skiing and fly-fishing lodge on northern Iceland’s Troll Peninsula. It helps that the country is preparing to welcome international visitors in mid-June, with the provision that they test negative for Covid-19 upon arrival, quarantine for two weeks, or otherwise show a clean bill of health.

Auberge says it’s seeing spikes for its properties in Cabo, Hawaii, the Caribbean, and the mountains—places that are removed but not too remote for American guests.

The Maldives have rarely been more in demand, says George Morgan-Grenville, founder and chief executive officer of UK-based travel design firm Red Savannah.

“This year, its geography leads it to be perceived as a safer area; each resort sits on its own island with its own controls with accommodation widely spaced,” he says.

Deals that take as much as 35-percent off pricy overwater accommodations, such as the $2,600-a-night, waterslide - equipped villas at Soneva Jani, are putting the bucket list destination within reach for some. Unlike Iceland, however, the Maldives has no current plan to lift travel restrictions.

By contrast, one classic holiday trip is on the outs this year: skiing.

“Too many families picked up Covid-19 at European ski resorts,” says Indagare’s Bradley.

Vail, Colorado, emerged as a hotbed of infection for wealthy Mexicans, who then spread it back home. “And the news that there were many who caught it in Sun Valley [Idaho] has created a real fear of being in a ski destination this coming winter.”

By land or by sea

Instead, Bradley says her clients are asking about resort buyouts, wherein one guest or group books the whole property.

“Among the most popular buyout options are ranches or island locations,” she says, such as the Ranch at Rock Creek, a “luxury dude ranch” in western Montana, or the lodges at Ted Turner’s four New Mexico wilderness reserves.

They’re also interested in yacht charters. At the start of the global lockdown, one Indagare client hired a boat and had the crew quarantine for 14 days before the trip; the family plans to do the same thing over the holidays.

Villas are in high demand as well, says GeoEx’s Doty. Private homes may seem the safest way to release the pressure value on a pent-up, economically critical travel industry, especially in hard-hit countries such as Italy.

Andrea Grisdale, owner and CEO of Italy specialist IC Bellagio, says that there is such “huge interest” for the upcoming fall-winter season that she has, at times, struggled to find availability for her clients. For now, the European Union is recommending that travel remain limited to domestic and European guests, but Grisdale expects international visitors to return as soon as September.

Beyond solitude and privacy, such buyouts have the added benefit of allowing space for extended families to come back together.

“We are seeing more multigenerational retreat requests,” Bradley says, with travelers optimistic that by December, social distancing recommendations will relax. “As many families have been forcibly separated, they are eager to gather over the holidays.” Bloomberg News

Editor: Angel R. Calso

Despite China’s aggression, ‘no war erupting in South China Sea in 10 years’

By Recto L. Mercene

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ESPITE the frequent skirmishes involving coastal fishermen and Chinese militia fishing boats, and Beijing’s aggressive “creation” of islands and cities in the South China Sea, “there will be no war in the South China Sea in the next 10 years,” a maritime expert said on Friday.

Gregory Poling, senior fellow and director of the Asia Maritime Transparency International Initiative (AMTI) Center for Strategic and International Studies, shared this outlook at the conclusion of a virtual talk on maritime challenges in Southeast Asia, titled “Sailing a Course Through Contested Waters.”

The panelists included experts from the United States, the Philippines, Vietnam and Malaysia.

Poling said that after reading many of the questions sent by listeners, “a lot of them involved whether the US and China will fight a war in the SCS. I’m just going to say, ‘no.’”

However, he added words of caution: “The fisherfolks are the canaries in the coalmine here,” a metaphor for an advanced warning of danger.

“They don’t have 10 years, there will be a cascading fish stock collapse in the South China Sea [SCS] in far less than 10 years unless something is done now. So the movement to take out this fight is now.”

Poling was referring to two separate incidents in 2019 and this year involving Philippine and Vietnamese fishing boats that were allegedly rammed by Chinese fishing militia and sunk, leaving the occupants to the mercy of the sea.

Vietnamese fishermen saved the Filipino fishermen, while in the second incident where a Vietnamese boat was sunk, Chinese fishermen came to save the Vietnamese.

At the end of the discussion, Poling asked the participants for their prognosis for the next 10 years in the contested waters. Most of them, he said, “agree far more than we disagree.”

Polin said the “points of agreement” converged on “[the need for] multilateral efforts, whether or not it is all of Asean or a subset of Asean [Association of Southeast Asian Nations].”

Everyone agreed, he said, “that the region is at an inflection point, all of the claimants and the international community, including the US, are losing in the SCS but it is not lost.”

The US has continued to conduct its United States Freedom of Navigation Operations (Fonops), asserting the right of all nations to sail through international waters notwithstanding China’s projections of ownership.

Poling cited a ranking Philippine Air Force

official’s view on “the need for all Asean to get together because otherwise, there’s no way any single claimant is going to be heard, given the disparity in power of China.”

Poling then asked each participant how they would see the South China Sea 10 years down the road.

Dr. Jay Batongbacal, director, University of the Philippines Institute for Maritime Affairs and Law of the Sea, said 10 years from now, “if it is business as usual mode, [and] China will be allowed to get away with its assertion,” then the region will see “China’s control increasing, both in active and passive ways.”

He said China would be actively sending out its “assets’ to regulate activities in the SCS, in the way they wanted to be regulated.”

Batongbacal said the surrounding countries, “probably out of fear, will maintain good relations with China [and] adjust their behavior, activities to comply with the requirements and demands of China.”

If that happens, he sees Southeast Asian nations “being pushed of elbowed out of the way in the SCS.” “If the region basically surrenders to China’s expansion, and assertions, then there’s not much the international community can do to help them,” Batongbacal said.

On the other hand, if there’s a change within Asean and they are able to unify, “then there is hope that we would see China adjust to international law through rules of fair play and see the region as an impor tant stakeholder.”

Dr. Nguyen Hung Son, director general and head, Institute for the South China Sea, Diplomatic Academy of Vietnam, said: “If China is allowed to dictate what goes on in the SCS, then they will dictate the business handling in relation to the rest of the world, with North America, the European Union and the international community.”

Son added: “I’m sure no one is going to stand idle, accepting that international law or international order is twisted unilaterally, serving one country’s interests with disregard [of ] the interests of the immediate neighborhood and the broader international community.”

Sumathy Permal, fellow and head of Center for Straits of Malacca Maritime Institute of Malaysia, shared this outlook of the decade: “China will have a tighter grip on their 9-dash line, [and] I’m not sure how one claimant could respond to [such] assertiveness.”

She said China will attempt to control the Asean platform, “but bilaterally there will be a lot of engagements and also perhaps there will be formation of multilateralism.”

Ma’s open banking strategy gets a boost from lockdown

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illionaire Jack Ma’s Ant Financial Services Group saw a surge in Chinese banks seeking out its digital technology to keep business flowing after the coronavirus outbreak shuttered branches across the world’s most populous nation.

The number of customers paying for Ant to help them build mobile apps and provide cloud computing power jumped by 175 percent in the two months through April, and it’s now working with more than 200 lenders, according to the company. Inquiries to collaborate with the tech giant increased by 400 percent over the period.

Ant entered the banking arena as a disruptor, raising alarm bells for many of the nation’s 4,500 lenders. But about two years ago, it also expanded its strategy to sell services to banks.

While that had so far met a tepid response, the virus outbreak is now providing Ant momentum, at least among the nation’s smaller, regional lenders.

“The bigger banks might want to build their own private cloud, but we’re targeting the smaller lenders who might not have the budget to build their entire online infrastructure from scratch,” Liu Xin, who oversees Ant Group’s cloud unit, said in an interview.

For Ant, the open banking push is crucial.

Besides selling technology to banks, it includes a consumer lending platform and also backs MYbank, an online lender that has embarked on a spree to dole out 2 trillion yuan ($280 billion) in loans this year. Ant is on track to generate 65 percent of its revenue from these services by 2021, up from about 35 percent in 2017, according to a person familiar with the matter.

The virus outbreak came as a shock for

China’s beleaguered smaller banks, who were already struggling with rising loan losses over the past years. More than 800 bank branches have been permanently shuttered as of May 4 this year, according to China’s banking watchdog.

One lender turning to Ant’s help this year is Shenzhen Rural Commercial Bank Co. Working with Ant, the bank was able to cut the loading time on its app by four, to less than half a second, at a time when its 15 million retail customers flooded online to transfer funds, check on their investments and buy wealth products. Close to all of its transactions were done online during the height of the outbreak, according to the bank.

“While we’ve always prioritized mobile development, the growing demands from our customers made us realize our existing infrastructure wasn’t enough,” said Zhan Bin, head of the Network Finance Department at the lender, based in China’s tech hub of Shenzhen.

The community lender still has most of its data on its own private cloud, but it uses Ant’s public cloud to facilitate express payments. It’s also planning to incorporate the mini program infrastructure of Ant’s Alipay, which allows users to access entertainment, dining, movie tickets and traveling services without leaving the app.

In return, the bank’s users can win discounts and accumulate reward points.

The lender pays a one-time license fee to Ant for its cloud products such as mPaaS and SOFAStack and also an annual fee for software support and maintenance. Shenzhen Rural declined to disclose how much it is paying to Ant. “The key to convincing more banks to use our technology is to prove that we can help them solve their problems,” said Liu. Bloomberg News

The World BusinessMirror

www.businessmirror.com.ph

Global cost of contagion could reach as much as $8.8T–ADB ADB’s estimated global impact of virus

% of GDP

Losses ($ billion)

Containment of 3 months with policy measures

-4.5

4,095.8

Containment of 6 months with policy measures

-5.9

5,387.8

Containment of 3 months

-6.4

5,796.9

Containment of 6 months

-9.7

8,789.9

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he cost of the coronavirus pandemic could reach as much as $8.8 trillion, or almost 10 percent of global gross domestic product, depending on how long the outbreak continues and the strength of government responses, according to the Asian Development Bank (ADB).

A shorter containment period of three months coupled w it h strong pol ic y measures could limit the impact to $4.1 trillion, or 4.5 percent of world output, the Manila-based lender said in a report on Friday. The Asia-Pacific region is expected to account for about 30 percent of the overall decline in global output, it said.

The analysis “highlights the important role policy interventions can play to help mitigate damage to economies,” ADB Chief Economist Yasuyuki Sawada said in a news statement.

The new cost estimates are more than twice the range of $2 trillion to $4.1 trillion the development bank gave on April 3, 2020. There are now more than 4 million confirmed cases

of coronav ir us globa l ly w it h deaths exceeding 300,000.

The lender suggests boosting health systems, as well as income and employment protections, to avoid an even more difficult recovery. Sustained measures from governments could soften the economic impact of the virus by as much as 40 percent, ADB said.

Between 158 million to 242 million jobs could be lost globally, with 70 percent of those in Asia and the Pacific, according to the ADB. As consumption and investment decline, wages will drop globally, particularly in the US and Europe, Sawada said in an online briefing on Friday.

“This is a health risk and not driven by fundamental economic problem,” he said. “Smart health policies and containment policies are really the key,” he said, citing measures implemented in South Korea and Vietnam.

Travel restrictions and lockdowns implemented to arrest the virus’s spread will likely cut global trade by $1.7 trillion to $2.6 trillion, it said. Bloomberg News

Saudi crude rush threatens to stir stabilizing US oil market

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n armada of tankers filled with Saudi crude heading to American shores is raising concern that tanks may fill again just as a US glut shows signs of easing.

Over 30 tankers laden are set to arrive in the US Gulf Coast and West Coast during May and June, according to ship tracking data compiled by Bloomberg. The more-than 50 million barrels of Saudi crude on the water threaten to disrupt a positive supply development: US crude stockpiles declined for the first time since January and inventories at the Cushing, Oklahoma storage hub contracted by the most in months.

“The expected Saudi deliveries could push US inventories back to builds depending on their timing,” said Sandy Fielden, director of oil and products research at Morningstar Inc. “If the shipments land at a rate that isn’t balanced by falling production, or an uptick in exports, then we’ll see a domestic build.”

The oil industry has been on edge for months with onshore and offshore storage capacity levels tested worldwide due to ballooning oil inventories spurred by the Covid-19 demand slowdown. On the US West Coast, crude stockpiles are less than 5 million barrels short of reaching the region’s storage capacity.

Data from the Energy Information Administration this week showed US crude production dropped for a sixth straight week to the lowest in nearly a year.

But even though output is steadily declining, there are still volumes being produced that may have to jostle with Saudi deliveries for storage

space.

“If all the Saudi tankers unload, the crude they carry will offset during May almost all of the production reductions from March levels, effectively maintaining the current high storage filling rates,” Paola RodriguezMasiu, a senior oil market analyst at Rystad Energy, said in a note.

Very Large Crude Carries, or VLCCs, headed for the US Gulf include Shaybah, Hong Kong Spirit and Dalma, ship tracking data show. Tankers en route to the Pacific Coast include Sea Jade and Sikinos I. The vessels, mainly supertankers, will deliver over 45 million barrels of Arabian crude to Gulf buyers and at least 7 million to Pacific users.

The volume of oil arriving in May and June is equal to nearly a third of all Saudi crude delivered to the US last year.

West Coast crude stockpiles are currently at 58.2 million barrels. The inventory picture is brighter on the US Gulf Coast, America’s refining belt.

Crude inventories there are 88 million barrels shy of reaching total storage capacity.

Still, the market is witnessing delays in discharging Saudi oil. For some ships, it has taken about two weeks to unload cargoes, about twice the usual time to finish the job as small ships that are needed to unload have become increasingly scarce.

Oil imports from Saudi Arabia are not set to slow down anytime soon even as the kingdom deepens its production cuts and raises prices for June supply. Plus, a true demand recovery worldwide isn’t expected for at least another year.

Bloomberg News

Saturday, May 16, 2020

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Pandemic revives worst-case scenarios for US-China ties

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n January 15, 2020, it seemed like the US and China had avoided a quick descent into a new Cold War.

In Washington, US President Donald Trump declared that “our relationship with China is the best it’s ever been” while signing a preliminary trade deal that “unifies the countries.” The pact between Trump and China’s Xi Jinping raised hopes that the world’s predominant superpower could peacefully resolve differences with a rising China.

That same day, health officials in the central Chinese city of Wuhan acknowledged that they couldn’t rule out human-to-human transmission of a mysterious new pneumonia that had already sickened 41 people. A man who had visited Wuhan also arrived home in Washington state carrying the deadly pathogen—the first confirmed US case of the disease that would become known as Covid-19.

Four months later, the virus has prompted the worst global health crisis in at least a century, killing almost 300,000 people and plunging the global economy into a deep recession. The pandemic has also revived all the worst-case scenarios about US-China ties, edging them closer to confrontation than at any point since the two sides established relations four decades ago.

From supply chains and visas to cyberspace and Taiwan, the world’s two largest economies are escalating disputes across several fronts that never really fell silent.

Trump is even expressing frustration with the trade pact, one of few commitments preventing the rhetorical fights from spilling into the real world. On Thursday, Trump said he doesn’t want to speak with Xi and the US would “save $500 billion” if it cut off ties with China.

The feud will likely get noisier before the US election in November: Trump is increasingly blaming China for the virus turmoil as it undermines his chances at victory, while presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden, Congress and several states also join in. Meanwhile, Xi’s government has unleashed nationalist forces against the US as slowing exports and rising joblessness push the country toward its worst downturn in generations.

“The Covid-19 attacks on both China and the US seem to have pushed the deterioration of bilateral relations to the breaking point,” said Gao Zhikai, a one-time

interpreter for late paramount leader Deng Xiaoping. “Never since the normalization of relations in 1979 have China-US relations been as dangerous and as confrontational as today.”

While the trade pact for now lowers the risk of new tariffs, most other disputes between the two sides are the same, or worse, as during the depths of the conflict a year ago. Trump and his top aides have infuriated China with a daily barrage of criticism, including unsubstantiated claims that the virus escaped from a Wuhan lab, that Beijing is hording medical supplies and that the country’s hackers are probing US organizations for vaccine research.

At the same time, Chinese diplomats and state media outlets have promoted conspiracy theories that US Army athletes introduced the virus to Wuhan and accused “certain US politicians” of trying to shift the blame for the world’s biggest coronavirus case tally. They’ve denounced Trump administration officials as liars, even calling Secretary of State Michael Pompeo “evil” on an evening news program.

‘Act of War’

The crisis has prompted hawks on both sides to throw around threats that would’ve rarely been taken seriously during the decades when most in Washington advocated engagement with Beijing.

Key Republican lawmakers have proposed cancelling more than $1 trillion in US debt held by China— a move Gao compared to an “act of war”—while the chief editor of a Communist Party newspaper suggested more than tripling the country’s relatively small stockpile of about 300 nuclear warheads.

The pandemic has also sparked tensions in old disputes, such as the status of democratically run Taiwan, which China has blocked from participating in World Health Organization (WHO) events. Last month, the top US health official held a rare phone call with his Taiwanese counterpart, and this week the US Senate passed legislation seeking the island’s inclusion in WHO meetings while an American destroyer sailed through the Taiwan Strait.

The flow of information between the two countries has perhaps suffered the most immediate impact, with dozens of journalists expelled from both countries in recent months. Beijing warned of

President Donald J. Trump applauds as Liu He, China’s vice premier, speaks during a ceremony in Washington on January 15. Bloomberg

further retaliation this week after the US reduced visas for Chinese media staff to 90 days.

Biden detente?

The conflict has led some Chinese insiders to play down the prospects of another deal with Trump, who many in Beijing once viewed with relief as a pragmatist who wouldn’t be too concerned about human rights. Shi Yinhong, an adviser to China’s cabinet and an international relations professor at Renmin University in Beijing, argued in a recent speech that the country should tone down the rhetoric in the hopes of preserving a post-election relationship with the Democrats, who are emphasizing Trump’s responsibility for the outbreak.

“A Biden presidency will be less ideological and more practical,” said Susan Shirk, the chair of the University of California San Diego’s 21st Century China Center and author of China: Fragile Superpower. “Instead of confronting China across the board with the goal being unclear, a Biden administration will impose pressure in some areas, and remain tough in others—like national security and technology— with the goal being to negotiate changes in Chinese policies.”

Much depends on whether Trump’s “phase one” trade deal with Xi holds through Election Day. The president has shown increasing impatience with China, with S&P Global Ratings predicting that the country was unlikely to meet pledges to buy an additional $200 billion of American products this year and next year.

Trump and Xi probably have less appetite for a tariff war as the pandemic pushes their economies into historic crises. Among the biggest threat to both leaders is a sustained rise in joblessness that could prompt political unrest. More than 84,000 people have died from the coronavirus in the US, making it the worst-hit country in the world.

James Green, a senior adviser for geopolitical consulting firm

McLarty Associates, pointed to a phone call earlier this month between top American and Chinese trade negotiators as evidence that both sides want to preserve the deal. China on Friday started allowing imports of US farm products from barley to blueberries under the phase-one deal.

“You will see increased volatility in US-China relations, with both sides playing to domestic audiences,” said Green, who was previously a US trade official in Beijing. “That said, in my view there are signs that a working relationship can be maintained.”

‘Worst state in decades’

Still, each new battle only deepens the suspicion between the two powers. The US has used the supply chain disruptions caused by the virus to accelerate the push to move American production out for the country.

In Washington, calls are rising to rescind Hong Kong’s special trading status as Beijing seeks to suppress calls for greater democracy.

On Thursday morning, Trump said he is “looking at” Chinese companies that trade on the NYSE and Nasdaq exchanges but do not follow US accounting rules. The Federal Retirement Thrift Investment Board, which oversees a retirement-savings plan for federal workers, delayed a move that would’ve allocated billions of dollars to invest in Chinese companies. Later on Thursday, the Senate gave unanimous consent to legislation that would impose sanctions on Chinese officials over human rights abuses against Muslim minorities.

Shi, the Renmin University professor, said that efforts to decouple the world’s two largest economies appeared “much broader and much less selective” than before, with both sides “prioritizing their domestic issues.”

“China-US relations have descended to the worst state in decades and will only get more tense,” he told Bloomberg News. “So the strategic confrontation will retrench, but the political and ideological tensions are being deliberately heated up.”

Bloomberg News

Sokor health-care firm says it can ship 100-M virus test kits to US

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South Korean medical diagnostics maker has ramped up production and is aiming to sell millions of virus test kits to the US, where cash-strapped states are scrambling for federal funds to buy them.

Osang Healthcare Co., the first South Korean test-kit maker to receive authorization from the US Food and Drug Administration (US-FDA) in April, is ready to ship kits that can test 100 million people in the US, the company’s Chief Executive Officer Lee Donghyun said in an interview.

President Donald Trump has earmarked $25 billion to expand testing in the virus rescue packages allocated to the states. Osang said distributors in 25 states, including Florida, California and Michigan, have expressed interest in the kits and are waiting for the funds to buy them.

Florida’s Department of Health said it’s not aware of any deal with Osang and the other

states either declined to comment or did not respond to requests for comment.

Slow and inadequate testing has dogged the US from the start of the pandemic and is one reason the virus has spread so quickly through the country, which now has the most infections and deaths globally.

While nations like South Korea have relied on rapid, large-scale testing to curb their outbreaks, access to testing in the US is a fraction of what it should be, according to experts. That could hamper reopening of the battered economy, with testing seen as a key way to get people back to work safely.

With some infected people displaying no outward symptoms of the virus, rapid testing among vulnerable groups has emerged as the best way of identifying virus carriers and stopping them from spreading the pathogen to others.

Globally, access to testing has been uneven and especially difficult for countries without the capacity to mass-manufacture their own kits. While nations like Singapore and India are trying to procure sufficient kits, others like South Korea and China make more than enough for their own use.

Korea has enough local capacity for its testing needs, so Osang exports all of its supply, Lee said.

This worldwide competition for testing kits is expected to intensify as countries look to reopen following lockdowns that have wiped $6 trillion from the global economy.

Osang is among a group of South Korean manufacturers that started making tests to identify the new coronavirus within weeks of the disease’s emergence earlier this year. The company has supplied countries from Brazil to Russia and has already sold 760,000 tests to

US customers, including the Federal Emergency Management Agency, or FEMA, said Lee, 59, who founded the company in 1996.

“The Moroccan ambassador in Korea came to us twice and bought 900,000 kits and shipped them via private plane,” he said. “We only ship out the kits after the payment has been made because the entire world is facing uncertainties caused by the pandemic.”

Osang, which employs about 300 staff in a suburb near Seoul, has exported a total of 10 million tests globally since the outbreak, and its stock has quadrupled in value this year, along with other Korean test kit makers like Seegene Inc. South Korea’s strategy, which involves zeroing in on a group exposed to the virus and testing widely, has been cited as a potential model by the White House after the country was able to curb its first outbreak without the need for oppressive lockdown measures. Bloomberg News

A6 Saturday, May 16, 2020

ExportUnlimited BusinessMirror

Nations ‘sober up,’ start to lift bans on key medical exports

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OLLOWING two months where nations imposed 150 trade-related restrictions on exports of critical medical goods, some countries are slowly beginning to roll them back.

Over the past month, China, the UK, Turkey, Russia, Sri Lanka and Thailand rescinded their export restrictions on ventilators, hand sanitizer and other medical equipment, according to the University of St. Gallen’s latest Global

Trade Alert report.

Governments have begun to loosen up because they realize export restrictions aren’t all that effective in ensuring sufficient supplies of medical equipment for their citizens, said Simon

Evenett, a professor at the University of St. Gallen.

“Lots of countries realized it was stupid putting import taxes on soap and things like that,” Evenett told Bloomberg in a phone interview. “They freaked out in March and then they sobered up in May.” In total, some 90 jurisdictions have established 123 import policy reforms aimed at making it easier to trade medical supplies and medicines, the group said.

Opening better

“IT suggests that maybe the right side of the argument is winning,” he said.

“That opening up markets to medical trade is better than restricting them.”

A key question that remains is whether European nations will relax their temporary export authorization scheme for personal protective equipment at the end of this month.

Though European Union memberstates have granted authorizations for 90 percent of foreign applications for medical exports, some American officials argue the scheme shows the US is alone in the fight against coronavirus.

That’s because the EU is a crucial player in the global market for Covid-19 medical products. Bloomberg News

Covid-19 cuts global trade Philexport calls for swift passage, inclusive coverage of stimulus bill value by 3% in Q1 2020

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HE coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) pandemic has triggered a decline in global trade value by 3 percent in the first quarter of the year, according to the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) data.

The report by the Committee for the Coordination of Statistical Activities (CCSA) attributed the lower value in global trade to falling commodity prices mainly due to plummeting world oil prices.

The declining crude prices in the world market are caused by uncertainties brought by the Covid-19 pandemic, which has infected over 4.26 million individuals and has killed more than 292,000 worldwide.

“Global merchandise trade volumes and values were showing modest signs of recovery since late 2019 when the global economy was hit by the measures taken to contain the Covid-19 pandemic,” UNCTAD said in the report.

Many countries have implemented lockdowns that suspended many economic activities.

In the Philippines, Metro Manila and other parts of the country have been placed under enhanced community quarantine for two months until May 15.

But the UNCTAD forecasted that global trade value will further drop in the second quarter of the year.

“Most of the impact of these measures, however, will affect global trade in the second quarter of the year, with an estimated quarter-on-quarter decline of 26.9 percent,” it added.

“Everywhere, governments are pressed to make post-Covid-19

recover y decisions with longlasting consequences,” UNCTAD Secretary-General Mukhisa Kituyi said in a news statement released on Wednesday.

With the restriction in business operations during a lockdown, global manufacturing output further fell in the first two months of the year.

UN Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) reported to the CCSA that global industrial production indices in January declined to 103 and to 102.6 in February this year. These were lower compared with the December 2019 index of 114.2.

UNIDO said the drop in global manufacturing production in the first two months of the year can be attributed to the industrial output slowdown in China, a manufacturing powerhouse and also the origin of the new coronavirus.

China’s industrial production index in January dropped to 99.8 from 134 in December 2019. It slightly recovered in February at 100.3.

Factories in China were closed for two weeks starting the Chinese New Year in its government’s bid to contain the Covid-19.

In the same report, the International Labor Organization (ILO) said the pandemic has shocked the labor markets with the biggest employment decline since World War II. “Halt in activity due to the Covid-19 pandemic had an immediate and sweeping impact on employment. Global hours worked could drop by 10.5 percent this quarter, equivalent to 305 million full-time workers with a 48-hour workweek,” ILO said. PNA

T

HE country’s umbrella organization of exporters is pressing for the urgent passage of the “Philippine Economic Stimulus Act of 2020” (PESA) to provide immediate help to exporters and micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs), while also urging that the bill cover all “critically impacted businesses” nationwide, not just those in Luzon.

The Philippine Exporters Confederation Inc. (Philexport), in a position paper dated May 5 and sent to Congress, issued a strong call for the draft bill “to be passed in a month’s time, especially for the benefit of our MSMEs and their stakeholders.”

The letter signed by Philexport President Sergio R. Ortiz-Luis Jr. noted that the far reaching ill impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic extended to MSMEs in the countryside, which are in the supply chains of enterprises and corporations in Luzon.

“In this context, we strongly recommend that this Act cover all critically impacted businesses in the country,” stressed OrtizLuis. MSMEs account for some 60 percent of the country’s employment and 30 percent of gross domestic product (GDP).

PESA is a consolidated economic stimulus bill being drafted in the House of Representatives prescribing an economic stimulus package for critical sectors to help the Philippine economy recover from the impact of the coronavirus pandemic.

Critically impacted businesses refer to community quarantine (CQ) nonessential business entities in industries directly impacted by the disruption in travel and the transport of goods and services such as tourism, air transportation and trade, or significantly displaced as a result of the Covid-19 outbreak.

The position paper also suggested that business entities availing of grants and loans, or loan guarantees through other provisions of the act may not be disqualified from pursuing any other form of economic relief measures so as to prevent

business closure.

The paper was addressed to Rep. Joey S. Salceda, Rep. Sharon Garin, and Rep. Stella Luz Quimbo, all co-chairs of the Economic Stimulus Response Package Cluster of the Lower House.

To promote retention of workers, the bill also provides for Department of Labor and Employment wage subsidies to critically impacted businesses, amounting to at least 25 percent but not more than 75 percent of actual payroll costs for a period equivalent to two months.

On this, Philexport suggests that the period equivalent to two months refer to the period when the CQ was implemented and another month after it was lifted. Also suggested is to continue observing the ease of doing business timelines of 3-7-20 as part of recovery measures, as regulatory relief “is an all-time important intervention particularly during crisis.”

Moreover, on the provision on wage subsidies, Philexport recommended only the minimum of requirements, like a Certificate of Employment and Compensation from the employer with just the latest payroll slip.

“Proceeds may be coursed through the employers who already have the payroll system to facilitate the disbursement.”

Regarding the Small Business Corp.’s P20billion loan program for MSMEs under the bill, the paper recommends that SB deputize Negosyo Centers nationwide to accept, review and ensure that applications for loans comply with requirements, as well as empower the centers to provide the status of these applications.

This is to facilitate the processing of applications. “This function may also be delegated to industry associations also as a form of vetting. Likewise, anticipating the huge number of applications, we recommend that loan proceeds be distributed via bank transfers to lessen people movement and facilitate the release,” said Ortiz-Luis.

Agri-based firms go digital, diversify amid pandemic

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HE Department of Trade and Industry (DTI), through the initiative of its Regional Operations Group (ROG), is assisting the micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) to adapt new business concepts and get past the so-called old brick and mortar mindset in order to survive the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19).

DTI Assistant Regional Director Maria Elena Arbon underscored the benefits of digitization amid Covid-19 pandemic.

“As an advocate for digital transformation, I have experienced the hurdles of convincing our MSMEs and people in general to adopt and adapt digital. Perversely, Covid-19 has effectively forced everyone to accept more digitization into their lives, work and businesses,” she said in a news statement issued on Tuesday.

One Cebu-based company has successfully translated its business online.

FRL Trading, a start-up company selling agri-based products, diversified to producing washable face masks and running a grocery delivery service online.

Proprietor Felita Lubon said that although her company earns well producing turmeric and ginger tea, she saw the high demand for washable face masks and decided to look for good needle workers in the mountain barangays of Cebu.

“I bring the fabric to their homes and collect the finished products from them. These needle workers are happy that they earn income from their work and are able to support their family despite the lockdown,” Lubon said.

Currently, FRL Trading produces 6,000 to 10,000 face masks a day for local and international buyers.

In late April, Lubon noticed the huge volume of people who have been forced to stay home and were unable to do groceries, as well as drivers who were suddenly rendered jobless.

This crisis gave Lubon the idea of establishing an online grocery delivery service that brings supermarket items to those compelled to stay home and give jobs to drivers who are out of work as well.

Since two weeks ago, Lubon’s grocery delivery service receives an average of 100,000 online orders a day.

DTI-ROG Assistant Secretary Asteria Caberte said developing this kind of mindset, seeing opportunity in obstacles is part of the training, workshops, and other interventions that DTI offers to business start-ups.

“DTI also assists MSMEs in product development, design, packaging, standards compliance, marketability, production capability, brand development, among others,” she added.

Lubon is a beneficiary of DTI’s One Town, One Product program for entrepreneurs who engage in business within the value chain of OTOP products, such as raw material suppliers, processors, distributors, retailers and manufacturers.

Lubon is also a graduate of the Kapatid Mentor Micro Entrepreneurs (KMME) program which helps MSMEs scale up their businesses through mentoring on different functional areas of entrepreneurship, produces the right mindset and business know-how.

“In the coming months, DTI may hold most of its training via videoconferencing to comply with the new normal restrictions,” Arbon said.

For remote barangays where technology may not be accessible, she added DTI may hold seminars in gymnasiums, multipurpose buildings but with limited number of participants as to comply with the social distancing protocol.

Meanwhile, Caberte underscored that DTI is open to using other viable means to reach out to MSMEs in the countryside such as radio and comic strips written in the local dialect.

OurTime BusinessMirror

www.businessmirror.com.ph

Editor: Angel R. Calso • Saturday, May 16, 2020 A7

Johnny Perlas: Soaring through Venerable but vulnerable: Centenarians hit hard by virus the clouds of instant awareness

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By Rizal Raoul S. Reyes

N the game called life, we need to have great mentors to succeed, according to Johnny Perlas, a former Blue Eagle point guard. He said one of those who molded him was legendary basketball Coach Virgilio “Baby” Dalupan.

Aside from being a great coach who won several titles in the collegiate tournaments, amateur commercial leagues and in the Philippine Basketball Association, Dalupan was also known as an excellent mentor to his players on important lifelong values, such as discipline, perseverance, teamwork and patience.

Perlas said he is one of the beneficiaries of the Dalupan school of discipline when he played under the legendary coach for two years.

It was a memorable stint for the AB Communication graduate, because Perlas learned the value of hard work and discipline.

“I played for two championship years under Coach Baby and to him there were no superstars.

If you want to play, practice hard and you will get your playing time,” he said in an e-mail interview with the BusinessMirror.

Among his teammates in the 19761977 and 1977-1978 teams were Steve Watson, Fritz Gaston, Joy Carpio, Padim Israel, Louie Rabat, Chito Narvasa and EU Puyat.

Aside from Dalupan, Perlas cited Fr. Bert Ampil S.J. and Nannete Diyco as his influential mentors. Perlas described Fr. Bert as the consummate educator. “He will not tell you what to study but rather what you have not learned,” he said.

As for Diyco, Perlas knew the type of persona to expect in the advertising world. Through Diyco, Perlas expected advertising people

PERLAS

to be flamboyant, articulate and convincing.

Perlas, who is currently a senior lecturer at Saint Joseph College, Saint Paul College in Quezon City, and the University of the PhilippinesDiliman, said his academic involvement was based on classroom-toclassroom experience.

Being a provincial lad, Perlas admitted that television commercials and the broadcast environment dazzled him as a student. That led him to pursue his AB Communications degree in Ateneo.

After graduation, Perlas worked at McCann Erickson as an account manager. He got his baptism of fire in the company and described his stint there as “rocky, turbulent, unforgiving but rewarding.”

“This opened doors for me in the sales, marketing and business development milieu,” Perlas said.

After working for several years in the corporate world, Perlas devel-

oped a yearning to go back to academe. “Somehow I always find a way to be in the classroom, or rather the classroom lures me back. I’ve gone full circle,” he said.

Perlas thanked his students for luring him back to academe. It gives him a high degree of satisfaction when students tell him years after their graduation that they use his lectures as reference in their current jobs.

“Mystyleinanylevelwaslargelyinfluenced by Fr. Joseph Galdon S.J. and Professor Louie Beltran. Both were writers, havetechnicalmasteryofthesubject,and were like drill sergeants. They will pound you to the bone. An article [almost] every meeting must be submitted but returned with detailed corrections.”

Aside from giving substantial and valuable inputs in his lectures, Perlas has also coached advertising students.

Since 2011, he coached several winning teams that participated in students advertising competitions such as the ADSPEAK, Student Advertising Congress, and the ARAW Awards.

For Perlas, competitions—whether scholastic or sports events—are important for students because they provide an opportunity to showcase their level of competence. For mentors or coaches, competitions provide a measure of whether their methods actually work. “To win in advertising contests, I have to develop a culture of creativity,” Perlas said. “ T h at c u lt u re i nv o l v e s re search, strategy formulation, language competency, and discipline in adhering to brief storylines and humor,” Perlas added.

Given the advertising world’s current environment, Perlas said it is very challenging because of the clutter and disturbance in the reception of messages. To succeed in this kind of environment, Perlas said one has to stand out and be different.

Last but not least, the presence of good mentors is important to guide and motivate students to realize their full potential. Given the mentors that molded him, it’s not surprising to see this former Blue Eagle point guard soar high in his chosen field.

Walk, don’t drive or ride

By Nick Tayag

MY SIXTY-ZEN’S WORTH

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HILE most of us have been marooned inside our respective dwellings, many have been forced to walk: a construction worker walking 30 kilometers to go home to his family located in a nearby province, a senior couple pushing a borrowed wheelchair for 20 kilometers back and forth to get the ailing wife to a kidney center for her dialysis, a fastfood employee walking 10 kilometers to his place of work, and so on.

If we had more walkable cities, with each neighborhood connected to one another, the health-care frontliners and essential workers wouldn’t have to worry about getting a ride to their hospitals where they are needed. So they hitch rides and risk being accosted and made to pay hefty fines!

Personally, I don’t mind walking if I have to. In the days B.C. (before Covid), when I had to go to the office or make an appointment somewhere, I would leave my old battered car somewhere, and get on a publicutility vehicle or mass transport. In between rides, I walked, and walked.

If you haven’t got into the walk-

ing habit, I highly recommend that you insert some walking into your daily commute, build it into your daily activity. Start small, such as light walking for short distances.

Walking can be rewarding. I mean it, literally. In my advertising days, there was a fellow named Mang Mat who used to deliver our printing proofs. He did not ride the public transpo. He preferred to walk from one ad agency to the next. He must have walked a thousand kilometers equivalent to the length of Luzon. Through the years of doing his task by walking, he had not only saved a lot on his transpo expenses, he had also picked up a lot of valuable stuff along the way: coins, paper money, screws, and even a wrist watch.

Let’s talk about the health benefits of walking, which you probably know already. Medical researchers have validated a number of clear health benefits to walking for seniors. Did you know that walking 25 minutes a day can add up to seven years to your lifespan? That’s according to a 2015 study at St. George’s University Hospitals NHS

Foundation Trust in London.

Walking may be the best form of physical exercise for older adults because it’s easy to get started with, it can be done at low or moderate intensity. It helps lubricate knee and hip joints and strengthens the surrounding muscles, reducing the strain placed on the joint itself.

A new United States research has found that increasing the amount of steps you walk each day could lower your blood pressure.

What I dig about walking is that it makes me feel the ground beneath my feet. I like standing and walking on solid ground. It helps me stay grounded, physically and metaphorically.

I like the phrase “being grounded.” To me the phrase describes a person who is sensible and has a good understanding of what is really important in life. To be grounded is the ability to maintain balance, stability, and presence of mind, no matter what is happening around you, and despite all the fame and praise.

Walking reminds me about the need to be humble. The root word

By William J. Kole The Associated Press

B

OSTON —Centenarians have always been a rare breed. Now they’re an endangered species.

The 100-plus crowd—those most venerable of human beings—is succumbing rapidly and heartbreakingly to the coronavirus pandemic. Entire limbs are being lopped off family trees, and their wisdom and lore are dying with them.

“We’ve been really upset,” said Thomas Perls, a professor of medicine and geriatrics at Boston University who directs the New England Centenarian Study. “We’re seeing a higher rate of people passing away...cutting these incredible lives shorter.”

“For families, they’re the pride and joy, the anchor, the link to the family’s history. They’re a huge big deal,” he said. “If you have a healthy centenarian who’s cognitively intact with no signs of Alzheimer’s, to me they’re practically immortal.

Covid-19 has interfered with that formula for sure.”

Reliable estimates of the numbers of centenarians who have perished in the pandemic are elusive, primarily because most state and government health agencies tracking deaths lump them into an 85-and-older demographic. That age bracket has seen more deaths than any other, according to data from Johns Hopkins University, the Covid-19 Tracking Project and the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

But anecdotal evidence, including newspaper and online death notices, suggests that Covid-19 is exacting a grim toll among the estimated 70,000 centenarians in the US. In tiny Rhode Island alone, at least eight people aged 100 or older have died, public health officials say.

Carrie Hoza of Northfield, Illinois, lost her 101-year-old grandmother, Norma Bratschi Hoza, to Covid-19 this month.

Born in 1919 to a mother who survived the deadly 1918 influenza pandemic, Bratschi Hoza married of humble after all is humus, Latin for ground. When I walk, I walk with the so-called humble masses, the hoi polloi. I sweat in the heat of walking under the sun like them.

I can smell the mingling of various scents. I see all kinds of faces.

I imagine each individual walking as people with their own burdens.

This is why walking should be practiced by persons in public service. It is one way of getting a reality check on life as experienced by the people they are supposed to serve.

It is also the kind of daily serum that should be injected into individuals who have risen to a higher social and economic level so they would never forget who they once were and where they came from. I know a lot of highly successful people, some of them my acquaintances who would rather erase the memories of their humble roots, because they are ashamed to be found out. You would never catch them walking on the streets or taking a public ride.

But there is another stimulating reason why I love to walk. It helps me think creatively. It triggers the flow of creative juices.

“All truly great thoughts are conceived by walking,” said Friedrich Nietzsche. And he is certainly not the only genius to associate walking with creative inspiration.

Nikola Tesla took long daily walks in a city park and claimed to have formed his ideas fully in his mind during these strolls before committing anything to paper. Steve Jobs insisted on “walking meetings” with business associates at Apple, especially when creative problem solving was required, something

IN this photo taken on April 1, 2020, 103-year-old Ada Zanusso poses with a nurse at the old people’s home “Maria Grazia” in Lessona, northern Italy, after recovering from Covid-19 infection. To recover from coronavirus infection, as she did, Zanusso recommends courage and faith, the same qualities that have served her well in her nearly 104 years on Earth.

RESIDENZA MARIA GRAZIA LESSONA VIA AP PHOTO

her childhood sweetheart, went to business school and helped found the family’s plumbing business.

When three neighborhood boys close in age to her own three sons were orphaned, she took them in and raised them as her own.

“She lived a beautiful life, with kindness and goodness in her heart,” said Hoza, 46. “She always believed that hatred was toxic and forgiveness was the best way to live. She was an absolute gem.”

Remarkably, some centenarians have recovered from Covid-19.

Against all odds, 103-year-old Ada Zanusso battled back after being hospitalized in the northern Italian town of Lessona, crediting “courage and strength, faith” for her rebound.

You don’t become a century old without some inherent toughness and genetic good fortune. An otherwise healthy 100-something, experts say, may be more likely to recover than someone who’s 60 and obese with underlying health issues.

But many of the very oldest of us are faring poorly in the pandemic.

People who survived world wars, that Mark Zuckerberg and many others in Silicon Valley now emulate. Dozens of famous authors— Henry David Thoreau, L.M. Montgomery, J.K. Rowling, and Ernest Hemingway, to name a few—have said that walking is the only reliable cure to writer’s block.

Just looking at ordinary people and hearing them talk can inspire ideas. As an advertising copywriter, my antenna is up to pick up street lingo I can use in my copy. As a short story writer or scriptwriter, I look at people’s faces and I imagine them to be characters, characters about whom I can weave stories.

Science has confirmed that walking does indeed awaken creative ability. In one Stanford University study, researchers found that walking boosts creative output by 60 percent.

It could be, then, that walking, with its continuous involvement of left and right sides of the body as we shift from one foot to the other with each step, accommodates greater communication between the two hemispheres of the brain in the process of coordinating those movements. It’s as if when we walk, the two halves of our brains are having a conversation.

Where we walk matters as well. I vary the places where I walk. Sometimes in the alleys of Binondo or the narrow passageways of Quiapo where I used to source my pirated DVDs in another lifetime. Sometimes I amble and saunter through the hallways of an air-conditioned mall, just aimlessly looking and sniffing around. A walk through the Metro provides immediate

polio, the Great Depression and the Holocaust aren’t beating this.

“They’re people who are rock-solid citizens,” said Neenah Ellis, a former National Public Radio producer in Yellow Springs, Ohio, who interviewed many for her best-selling book, If I Live to Be 100: Lessons from the Centenarians.

“These are people who lived on the same block for 80 years, who taught school for 60 years, who never missed a church service,” she said. “We’re all enriched by knowing these people.”

Having cheated death for so long, they draw us in mysterious, almost totemic ways.

We picture ourselves in their fedoras and flapper dresses. They are, or were, slightly more turbocharged and bulletproof versions of us. Until now.

There was Quentin Wiest, of Paramus, New Jersey, felled by Covid-19 at the age of 107—an accomplished engineer who played golf long after he turned 100. “When it came to life, he left nothing on the table,” his son told Gov. Phil Murphy, who paid tribute to Wiest at a coronavirus briefing. AP stimulation—a greater variety of sensations for the mind to play with. But it can be over-stimulating, with all the pedestrians, cars, and billboards that zap and drain our attention.

A small but growing collection of studies suggests that spending time in green spaces—gardens, parks, forests—can rejuvenate the mind much better than city streets because a garden or a park allows our mind to drift casually from one sensory experience to another, from cascading water to rustling grasses and leaves, fluttering butterflies, the panoramic display of colorful flowers, and so on.

Unfortunately, Metro Manila is a no walking zone. It does not encourage oldies to walk more because it is a motor vehicle-first society. Even alleys and neighborhood streets are congested with vehicles, in spite of the number coding policy.

Perhaps there is a need to redesign our city landscapes and city ordinances. Maybe the lockdown we are going though should give us something really good to think about. Urban designers and planners, is it possible to connect neighborhoods and buildings and create more walkable neighborhoods so that in the next pandemic, we can ride a bicycle or walk to hospitals and public places without worrying about transportation? Let’s make our cities more walkable. Seriously.

I don’t see the transportation ban being lifted totally soon. So in the meantime, start training yourself by walking around the house and backyard or going up and down the stairs.

A8

BusinessMirror

Saturday, May 16, 2020

Phone brand offers wellness tips in lockdown era THERE are many ways through which people are coping with feelings of anxiety, depression, boredom and other ill-effects of the extended enhanced community quarantine (ECQ).

One of these is stress-eating.

While understandable, such a lifestyle may not be sustainable in the long run, especially if one has not been exercising. Unfortunately, most gyms and sports facilities won’t be opening anytime soon, so there is really no better way to shed-off excess fat than by adopting exercise habits at home.

Don’t know where to start? Here are simple and easy ways from popular smartphone brand Vivo (www.vivo.com/ph) to get your body moving and getting it back into tip-top shape.

■ START WITH SIMPLE ACTIVITIES. It would be unwise to instantly go through rigorous exercises and programs without priming your body to go through them. Activate and engage your body through simple activities, such as cleaning the house while listening to upbeat music. You can also try meditating just to make sure that your mind is in harmony with your body.

■ DOWNLOAD WORKOUT APPS. The Vivo app store has workout apps that contain plenty of programs and exercises. Try apps that include High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) programs where you do a series of repetitions continuously with minimal rest time. While these apps promote quick workouts that last less than 10 minutes, do not be fooled—you will feel like you just ran a marathon.

■ HEAD TO FACEBOOK FOR LIVE WORKOUT VIDEOS. If motivation is what gets you going when it comes to workouts, try doing it together with other online users. Facebook pages of different gyms around the Metro now offer both free and paid live online workout classes like yoga and shadow boxing that are sure to shed off a few “quarantine pounds.” If you’re not to keen on working out with strangers, you can always gather your friends for a video call workout session. Just make sure you actually work out and not end up having an “e-numan”—you can always do that at a different time.

■ TRY TIKTOK DANCE CHALLENGES. If conventional workout routines and exercises aren’t your thing, you can always try creating TikTok videos. Try engaging in a “dance workout” by trying out all the dance challenges created by users in the platform. You will actually sweat buckets trying to perfect the challenges over and over again.

These home-based exercise methods may not be the same as “maxing out” in the gym, but these are great ways to maintain an active lifestyle and fight off the urge to stress-eat during these unprecedented times.

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From a loft studio on a farm, professor teaches painting

BY MATT SLOCUM The Associated Press FRED HAAG, an associate professor of visual arts at Penn State York, normally teaches his Art 50: Introduction to Painting course in a large studio at a state-of-the art performing arts center. But because of the Covid-19 outbreak, classes are now being held remotely from a loft studio at his small farm in south-central Pennsylvania.

The farm is in a hilly, agrarian area in Hellam, about 11 miles from campus. Haag lives there with his wife of almost 30 years, Marcy Nicholas, who also teaches at Penn State York. They currently raise just cats and chickens, but the old farm has hosted

cattle, goats and ducks.

The spring class of 20 undergraduate students has been meeting remotely three days a week since March 16, when the whole Penn State system moved to remote and online classes in response to the global pandemic. On a rainy Friday morning, the class began on Zoom with an artist presentation, with Haag later checking in on students’ progress on their projects—and a crowing rooster outside the window making an occasional interruption.

For Haag, who’s been teaching for more than three decades, this is his first experience with remote instruction. He’s encountered a few growing pains with technology and streaming video. “Our area has limited Wi-Fi, and visual courses consume

lots of bandwidth,” said Haag, 58.

The university has provided him with a smartphone to act as an Internet hot spot.

“There is a significant learning curve for both faculty and students,” he added. “This term is really an emergency stopgap measure. And to do things correctly, I would want a lot more time to assemble materials and work out the details of class-time activities.” Haag said he thinks remote painting classes could continue after the pandemic, but he has some reservations.

“There are a bunch of folks who teach art courses remotely,” he said. “But I find myself missing the studio dynamic and the active learning that occurs for me in the face-to-face environment.”

IN the face of Covid-19, The Figaro Group now offers mealbox varieties online for delivery.

New way of buying food

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F there is one industry that has survived the ECQ (enhanced community quarantine), it’s the food business. Because when every member of the family is home, what else would they do except eat?

I use the word “survive” because I’m not really sure if these food businesses are even breaking even.

They’re probably just making enough money to pay their staff. Buying groceries and ready-to-cook and -eat food has turned into full-on adventures. For those without their own cars, getting to the supermarket is in itself an adventure.

Because there is not any form of public transportation except habal-habal, you’d need to walk.

When you get there, you line up for hours without interacting with others as everyone practices social distancing. Going home is another struggle. Imagine

carrying home several kilograms on your own?

Thus, the word “tribute,” used in reference to the tributes in The Hunger Games, was coined to refer to the single person in the household with a permit to go out and get supplies.

Restaurants and fast-food chains had the good idea to sell their inventory to customers. Thus, Jollibee sold its marinated Chicken Joy and McDonald’s its pancake mix and hot fudge syrup to the public.

So during the ECQ, we’ve had DIY Potato Corner, Nacho King, Yabu and many other kits at home. Cakes are premium. The lines at stores like Conti’s and Goldilocks are proof of this. There is a small online community for the acquisition of Conti’s famous Mango Bravo cake. On Mother’s Day, Mango Bravo and Conti’s trended because of the long lines outside and inside the stores.

Figaro Coffee, a household name in the local coffee scene, is now offering The Figaro Group products for delivery. That means you can consolidate your orders from Figaro Coffee and TienMa’s Taiwanese Cuisine at www.thefigarogroup.ph and have them delivered to your home during the ECQ. I love Figaro coffee, iced tea and the food, so this was very good news to me. I love Figaro Coffee’s Gourmet MealBox, which is only P100. You can pick from six different pork or chicken rice meals. My favorites are Pork Teriyaki and Chicken Arroz a la Cubana. These meals are perfect for those who live

alone. The servings are decent enough.

Cakes and pastries, such as the Heavenly Cheeseroll (a must try) and the Grand Xocolat Gateau Cakes, are also available. TienMa’s Taiwanese Cuisine now delivers frozen precooked meals. The selections include Siopao Asado, Pork Siomai, ThreeCup Chicken, Sweet & Sour Pork and Seafood Fried Noodles. Each dish would serve three to four people.

I’m very interested in ready-to-cook and -eat foods because even after the ECQ has been lifted, I plan to stay home unless it is imperative for me to go out.

Only work will bring me out of my cave.

If there is something I’m excited to get from Figaro, it’s their Coffee Blends in House Reserve, French Roast, High Mountain Arabica, Barako Blend, Metro Blend, Espresso Blend and Country Blend.

To order, you can go to their web site or call designated phone numbers, then you pay via online transfer. A Figaro representative will call you when your orders are ready and you can have them picked up via GrabExpress, Lalamove or your preferred platform.

I never imagined the day would come when we’d order our food online, pay for it via online transfer and book a ride to pick it up. But here we are.

If there’s one thing about using technology that I like, it’s that it helps users become more adaptable.

It’s the modern-day method of “making do with what we have.” ■

Google Philippines reveals Covid-19 trends summary for the month of April GOOGLE Philippines recaps the most searched terms and queries that topped Filipinos’ curiosity for the month of April regarding Covid-19. The results reveal how Filipinos are using Google Search to cope with the community quarantine period and look for information about the pandemic.

Below is the Google Trends results summary: ■ Coronavirus is the fifth most searched term in the Philippines during April (behind YouTube, “Facebook,” “Translate” and “MP3”). Search interest for the pandemic surged to a new high nationally, peaking on 13 April.

■ The region with the highest search interest over April is Central Visayas, followed by Eastern Visayas and Caraga.

■ Among other trending topics over the month is

the Department of Social Welfare and Development, which reached an all time high on April 5.

Top trending searches include: ■ “Coronavirus update whole world” spiked +5,000 percent.

■ “Tasuku Honjo coronavirus” spiked +2,950 percent.

■ “How long does coronavirus last in the body?” spiked +1,550 percent.

Meanwhile, Recipes, Bread and Cake all surged to a record high during the month. Breakout related searches include: ■ “Dalgona coffee recipe instant coffee,” “Puto pao recipe” and “How to make condensed milk cake” all spiked +5,000 percent.

■ “Sotanghon guisado recipe” spiked +3,250

percent.

Most searched questions for coronavirus in April: ■ What is coronavirus?

■ Is coronavirus airborne?

■ Is there a cure for coronavirus?

■ How many cases of coronavirus in the Philippines?

■ When will coronavirus end?

■ How to prevent coronavirus?

■ What country has no coronavirus?

■ When did coronavirus start?

■ How to know if you have coronavirus?

■ How does Taiwan control coronavirus?

Most searched coronavirus-related terms in April: ■ Coronavirus update ■ Coronavirus Philippines

■ Worldometer coronavirus ■ Coronavirus symptoms ■ Coronavirus stats ■ Coronavirus cases ■ Coronavirus death toll ■ Coronavirus vaccine ■ Italy coronavirus ■ Coronavirus USA Google Trends provides access to a largely unfiltered sample of actual search requests made to Google. It’s anonymized (no one is personally identified), categorized (determining the topic for a search query) and aggregated (grouped together).

This allows Google to display interest in a particular topic from around the globe or down to city-level geography.

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TWITTER announced on May 11 that it will warn users with a label when a tweet contains disputed or misleading information about the coronavirus. AP

NO SERVICE FEES ON GLOBE/TM LOAD, PROMO LOANS EXTENDED UNTIL MAY 28

AS the country continues to face the challenges brought by Covid-19, Globe remains committed in meeting the demands for strong data connection and continuous connectivity for users who cannot leave their homes and are struggling financially due to the effects of the pandemic.

To help Globe Prepaid and TM customers stay connected, informed and #SafeAtHome, the company is extending its waived service fees for its Globe load and promo loans until May 28. With this, customers can continue to conveniently borrow load and subscribe to promos from the security and safety of their homes, without worrying about additional costs. Globe loans is an emergency service that allows Globe Prepaid and TM customers to continue using Globe services even without sufficient load. Eligible customers can avail loan products from P5 to P50 in the form of load and promo.

Prepaid customers can also loan 5MB of data for P5 or 3 texts to Globe/TM + 1 load for P4. On their next top-up, only the borrowed amount will be automatically collected (i.e. the standard service fees are waived).

To check which available load promos, loan plans, or emergency text or data services you can subscribe to, customers can simply dial *143# on their mobile phones and check “LOANS” in the menu for Globe Prepaid users, and “UTANG” for TM subscribers. Meanwhile, customers who still see a service fee in the menu description upon visiting *143# will receive a confirmation text from Globe notifying them that the service fee has been waived after availing the loan or promo.

More information is available at www.globe.com.ph/staysafe-at-home.html.

FACEBOOK REMOVES ACCOUNTS LINKED TO QANON CONSPIRACY THEORY OAKLAND, California—Facebook says it has removed several groups, accounts and pages linked to QAnon, taking action for the first time against the far-right US conspiracy theory circulated among supporters of President Donald J. Trump.

The social-media giant made the announcement Tuesday as part of its monthly briefing on “coordinated inauthentic behavior” on its platforms. That’s Facebook’s term for fake accounts run with the intent of disrupting politics, elections and society.

In addition to the QAnon accounts, Facebook also removed accounts linked to VDARE, a US website known for posting anti-immigration content, as well as accounts in Russia, Iran, Mauritania, Myanmar and the country of Georgia. QAnon is a right-wing conspiracy theory centered on the baseless belief that Trump is waging a secret campaign against enemies in the “deep state” and a child sex trafficking ring run by satanic pedophiles and cannibals. For more than two years, followers have pored over a tangled set of clues purportedly posted online by a high-ranking government official known only as “Q.” The conspiracy theory first emerged in a dark corner of the Internet but has been creeping into the mainstream political arena. Trump has retweeted QAnon-promoting accounts and its followers flock to the president’s rallies wearing clothes and hats with QAnon symbols and slogans.

Facebook says it found the QAnon activity as part of its investigations into suspected coordinated inauthentic behavior ahead of the 2020 presidential election.

“We are making progress rooting out this abuse, but as we’ve said before, it’s an ongoing effort,” the company said in its April report on coordinated activity. “That means building better technology, hiring more people and working more closely with law enforcement, security experts and other companies.”

Social-media research firm Graphika, which receives funding from Facebook, said in a concurrent report on Tuesday that the QAnon network promoted conspiracy theories and tried to sell merchandise, such as T-shirts, using Facebook. The network, Graphika said, appeared to be run by a small group of users who had both real and fake accounts.

The network focused primarily on the “Q” conspiracy theory, but dabbled in others—around the 5G wireless network, the US presidential elections, Bill Gates and the coronavirus, Graphika said.

The research firm found related activity on Twitter as well, but noted that in itself, such activity may not have violated Twitter’s rules. Twitter allows users to post under fake names.

Twitter said if it finds information-operation campaigns that can be reliably attributed to state-backed activity, it removes them. It said Facebook shared details of the accounts it removed, but Twitter didn’t find anything to conclude that an information operation took place on its platform. AP

Twitter to label disputed Covid-19 tweets

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BY AMANDA SEITZ The Associated Press

HICAGO—Twitter announced Monday it will start alerting users when a tweet makes disputed or misleading claims about the coronavirus.

The new rule is the latest in a wave of stricter policies that tech companies are rolling out to confront an outbreak of virus-related misinformation on their sites. Facebook and Google, which owns YouTube, have already put similar systems in place.

The announcement signals that Twitter is taking its role in amplifying misinformation more seriously.

But how the platform enforces its new policy will be the real test, with company leaders already tamping down expectations.

Yoel Roth, Twitter’s head of site integrity, acknowledged as much: “We will not be able to take enforcement action on every tweet with incomplete or disputed information about Covid-19.”

Roth said Monday the platform has historically applied a “lighter touch” when enforcing similar policies on misleading tweets but said the company is working to improve the technology around the labels.

In February, Twitter said it would add warning

labels to doctored or manipulated photos and videos after a recording of Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi was slowed down to make it appear as though she slurred her words. But even with obviously fake videos, such as one showing Joe Biden lolling his tongue and grinning that was shared by President Donald Trump, the company has since used the label only twice, in part because of technical glitches.

And Twitter has not added any warning labels to politicians’ tweets that violate its policies but are deemed in the “public interest” under a policy the company announced in June 2019.

Under the newest Covid-19 rules, Twitter will decide which tweets are labeled—only taking down posts if they are harmful.

Politicians’ tweets will be subject to the notices, which will be available in roughly 40 languages.

Some of the questionable tweets will run with a label underneath that directs users to a link with additional information about Covid-19. Other tweets might be covered entirely by a warning label alerting users that “some or all of the content shared in this tweet conflict with guidance from public health experts regarding Covid-19.”

Twitter won’t directly fact check or call tweets false on the site, said Nick Pickles, the company’s global

senior strategist for public policy. The warning labels might send users to curated tweets, public health websites or news articles.

“People don’t want us to play the role of deciding for them what’s true and what’s not true but they do want people to play a much stronger role providing context,” Pickles said.

The notices, which could start appearing as soon as today, could also apply retroactively to past tweets.

The fine line is similar to one taken by tech rival Facebook, which has said it doesn’t want to be an “arbiter of the truth” but has arranged for third-party fact checkers to review falsehoods on its site. The Associated Press is part of Facebook’s fact-checking program. One example of a disputed tweet that might be labeled on its site includes claims about the origin of Covid-19, which remains unknown. Conspiracy theories about how the virus started and if it is manmade have swirled around social media for months.

Twitter will continue to take down Covid-19 tweets that pose a threat to the safety of a person or group, along with attempts to incite mass violence or widespread civil unrest. The company has been removing bogus coronavirus cures and claims that social distancing or face masks do not curb the virus’ spread for several weeks. ■

Fast-food brand cites benefits of going digital

BY RIZAL RAOUL S. REYES A MAJOR local pizza and pasta brand recently said harnessing digital technology has enabled them to become more efficient serving their customers even during the pre-Covid-19 period.

“Our continuous efforts in digital transformation were inspired by our promise to provide easy-touse, relevant access points for delivery and takeout ordering,” Greenwich head of marketing Pam Reyes told BUSINESSMIRRO� in a recent e-mail interview.

Reyes said Greenwich has been working on its overall digital readiness even before the pandemic situation, stressing their e-commerce platforms and point-of-sales (POS) systems have long been set in place prior to Covid-19.

In the new normal, Reyes said Greenwich expects a sustained increase in off-premise consumption driven by delivery and takeout. In response, she said Greenwich will expand its delivery store network on top of rolling out new access points and improving their existing access points.

She said the company also decided to embark on the digital road map to engage more the millennials and Generation Z. Since the two groups are the main markets of Greenwich, Reyes said they need to have an active presence in social media and engage them in real time.

She said the recent launch of their Facebook

Messenger bot has enabled a personal pizza and pasta help desk to respond quickly to a customer query about any of their Greenwich product.

Greenwich also introduced SMS ordering to allow customers to access their favorite products even without an Internet connection. “Just text ‘G’ to to

0919-8855555 or 0905-8855555 and Greenwich will call you for your orders,” she said.

Reyes said their Call and Pick Up service took off fittingly during the ECQ. She pointed out that customers are now able to place their orders at least an hour in advance as they finish their errands or household chores.

For driving customers, she said their store team will guide them to the pick-up area and not require them to enter the store. The same principle applies for non-driving customers. “Just approach the cashier in-store and you are good to go,” she said.

Reyes said Greenwich also expanded its partnership with food aggregators to ensure an expanded delivery coverage. Aside from GrabFood and foodpanda, Greenwich recently tapped LalaFood in anticipation of an increase in takeout orders.

Greenwich also stepped up its safety measures in delivery and take-out channels by implementing temperature checking of store team members and customers, frequent handwashing, intensified disinfection of spaces, kitchen tools and equipment, and introduction of no-touch serving and delivery of orders. “We want to guarantee our customers that while they enjoy the same mouthwatering pizzas, pastas and a whole lot more, we have strategically devised restaurant systems that will ensure their safety, convenience and that ultimate awesome kabarkada experience,” Reyes said.

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Here come Covid-19 tracing apps—and privacy trade-offs

BY MATT O’BRIEN & CHRISTINA LARSON

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The Associated Press

S governments around the world consider how to monitor new coronavirus outbreaks while reopening their societies, many are starting to bet on smartphone apps to help stanch the pandemic.

But their decisions on which technologies to use—and how far those allow authorities to peer into private lives—are highlighting some uncomfortable trade-offs between protecting privacy and public health.

“There are conflicting interests,” said Tina White, a Stanford University researcher who first introduced a privacy-protecting approach in February.

“Governments and public health [agencies] want to be able to track people” to minimize the spread of Covid-19, but people are less likely to download a voluntary app if it is intrusive, she said.

Containing infectious disease outbreaks boils down to a simple mantra: test, trace and isolate. Today, that means identifying people who test positive for the novel coronavirus, tracking down others they might have infected, and preventing further spread by quarantining everyone who might be contagious.

That second step requires an army of health-care workers to question coronavirus carriers about recent contacts so those people can be tested and potentially isolated. Smartphone apps could speed up that process by collecting data about your movements and alerting you if you’ve spent time near a confirmed coronavirus carrier. The more detailed that data, the more it could help regional governments identify and contain emerging disease “hot spots.” But data collected by governments can also be abused by governments—or their private-sector partners.

Some countries and local governments are issuing voluntary government-designed apps that make information directly available to public health authorities.

In Australia, more than 3 million people have downloaded COVIDSafe, an app touted by the prime minister, who compared it to the ease of applying sunscreen and said more app downloads would bring about a “more liberated economy and society.” Utah is the first US state to embrace a similar approach with an app called Healthy Together, developed by a social media startup previously focused on helping young people hang out with nearby friends.

Both these apps record a digital trail of the strangers an individual encountered. Utah’s goes even further, using a device’s location to help track which restaurants or stores a user has visited.

The app is “a tool to help jog the memory of the person who is positive so we can more readily identify where they’ve been, who they’ve been in contact with, if they choose to allow that,” said Angela Dunn, Utah’s

state epidemiologist.

A competing approach under development by tech giants Apple and Google limits the information collected and anonymizes what it pulls in so that such personalized tracking isn’t possible.

Apple and Google have pushed for public health agencies to adopt their privacy-oriented model, offering an app-building interface they say will work smoothly on billions of phones when the software rolls out sometime in May. Germany and a growing number of European countries have aligned with that approach, while others, such as France and the UK, have argued for more government access to app data.

Most coronavirus-tracking apps rely on Bluetooth, a decades-old short-range wireless technology, to locate other phones nearby that are running the same app. The Bluetooth apps keep a temporary record of the signals they encounter. If one person using the app is later confirmed to have Covid-19, public health authorities can use that stored data to identify and notify other people who may have been exposed.

Apple and Google say that apps built to their specifications will work across most iPhones and Android devices, eliminating compatibility problems.

They have also forbidden governments to make their apps compulsory and are building in privacy protections to keep stored data out of government and corporate hands and ease concerns about surveillance.

For instance, these apps rely on encrypted “peer to peer” signals sent from phone to phone; these aren’t stored in government databases and are designed to conceal individual identities and connections. Publichealth officials aren’t even in the loop; these apps would notify users directly of their possible exposure and urge them to get tested.

In the US, developers are pitching their apps directly to state and local governments. In Utah, the social media company Twenty sold state officials on an approach combining Bluetooth with satellitebased GPS signals. That would let trained health workers help connect the dots and discover previously hidden clusters of infection.

“It’s unlikely that automated alerts are going to be enough,” said Jared Allgood, Twenty’s chief strategy officer and a Utah resident, citing estimates that the peer-to-peer models would need most people participating to be effective.

North and South Dakota are pursuing a similar

model after a local startup repurposed its existing Bison Tracker app, originally designed to connect fans of North Dakota State University’s athletic teams.

Regardless of the approach, none of these apps will be effective at breaking chains of viral infections unless countries like the United States can ramp up coronavirus testing and hire more health workers to do manual outreach.

Another big limitation: many people, particularly in vulnerable populations, don’t carry smartphones.

In Singapore, for instance, a large migrant worker population lives in cramped dorms, makes about $15 a day, and powers the city’s previously booming construction industry—but smartphone usage in this group is low. When the Southeast Asian citystate launched its app TraceTogether in March, total confirmed Covid-19 cases were well under 1,000.

Then in early April, a rash of new infections in worker dormitories pushed that number to more than 18,000, triggering new lockdown policies.

“If we can find a way to automate some of the detective work with technology, I think that would be a significant help,” said Nadia Abuelezam, a disease researcher at Boston College.

“It won’t be all we need.” ■

Kaspersky foils 56 percent more phishing attempts against SEA SMBs in Q1 2020

NUMBER of phishing attempts against SMBs blocked by Kaspersky Anti-Phishing System

BASED on the latest statistics from multinational cybersecurity and anti-virus provider Kaspersky, the first three months of 2020 proved to be busy for cybercriminals targeting small and medium businesses (SMBs) in Southeast Asia (SEA). The company’s AntiPhishing System prevented 834,993 phishing attempts against companies with 50-250 employees, a 56-percent increase compared with the same period last year with just over 500,000 fraudulent attempts blocked.

The rating of organizations targeted by phishing attacks is based on the triggering of the heuristic component in the Anti-Phishing system on user computers. This component detects all instances when the user tries to follow a link in an e-mail or on the Internet to a phishing page in cases when such link has yet to be added to Kaspersky’s databases. The statistics mentioned are analyzed from Kaspersky’s solutions for SMBs operating with Windows, Mac OS, and Linux.

“The financial toll combined with the urgent need to adapt to a forced remote working arrangement without enough preparation undoubtedly put the IT security of SMBs on the edge. At the same time, cybercriminals are

unethically piggybacking on the current chaos to increase their attacks’ success rate through social engineering tactics like phishing. Our data revealed such attempts are increasing as our technology foiled more phishing attempts this year than in 2019,” says Yeo Siang Tiong, general manager for Southeast Asia at Kaspersky.

Phishing is one of the most flexible types of social engineering attack, as it can be disguised in many ways and used for different purposes. Social engineering attacks, or tricking the mind, exploit human emotions to victimize users online. Cybercriminals are also incorporating topics and “hot phrases” related to Covid-19 into their content, boosting the chances of their infected links or malicious attachments getting opened.

The damage of this online crime ranges from hacked companies’ networks to stolen confidential data like personally identifiable information (PII), financial credentials, and even corporate secrets. Aside from this, it is known that phishing attacks, particularly those with malicious link or attachment, are popularly used as launch pads for targeted attacks on organizations, such as the case of the $81M Bangladesh Bank Heist.

In terms of per country statistics, all of the six countries in SEA registered an increased number of fraudulent emails blocked by Kaspersky in Q1 2020 as compared with the same period last year, (see graph).

“Small and medium enterprises form the backbone of SEA’s growing economy, contributing immensely on both gross domestic product and employment. It is clear that governments across the region are aware of this as each has formulated different ways to help the sector during this challenging period.

For our part, we are currently offering our select solutions for free to help SMBs and even the health-care industry fend off escalating cyberattacks against them,” adds Yeo. Especially created with the SMBs’ security needs in mind, Kaspersky is giving six months free licenses for Kaspersky Security for Microsoft Office 365 (bit.ly/3dJZfFp). Designed to protect mailboxes from viruses, Trojans, spam, phishing and other types of malware that can be spread via email, this solution also protects cloud-oriented enterprise communication and collaboration apps such as Microsoft Exchange Online, OneDrive, SharePoint Online and Teams from known and unknown cyber threats.

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SMART SUPPORTS FILIPINO MEDICAL FRONTLINERS THROUGH VARIOUS ESPORTS AND MOBILE GAMING EVENTS PLDT’S mobile subsidiary Smart Communications Inc. stands with the gaming community by mounting and supporting various eSports events to support the Filipino medical frontliners battling the Covid-19 pandemic.

The company began its support with its very first Mobile Legends: Bang Bang benefit tournament that enabled thousands of eSports fans to be real heroes and help out frontliners in the real battle.

The monumental tournament was open to all Mobile Legends: Bang Bang enthusiasts subscribed to Smart Prepaid and TNT from across the Philippines who wanted to engage not only in their favorite game during the quarantine, but also to contribute to the aid and support of valuable medical frontliners.

Over a thousand solo players and teams participated in the tournament nationwide that ended on April 3. All the winners bested the legions of Mobile Legends: Bang Bang fans that participated to win P100,000 worth of cash prizes.

“We’re glad to have been a part of this meaningful endeavor, as it goes to show that eSports not only keeps us engaged and socially active through this difficult time, but it could also be used as a way to help our public hospitals and frontliners,” said Team Kingpin, the first team to win in the team battle category. Aside from the benefit matches, Smart Omega, the official eSports professional team of Smart, also competed in an exhibition match to show their support for the frontliners. The event, which was broadcast on Smart’s Facebook page, featured popular local shoutcasters Sh1n Boo and Wolf.

On top of the tournament winnings, Smart donated P100,000 on the tournament winners’ behalf through the PLDT-Smart Foundation to support the public hospitals and medical frontliners. On top of the Mobile Legends: Bang Bang tournament, Smart also supported events held by eSports events organizers Gariath Concepts and Mineski.

Gariath held a Care Crate Benefit Auction through its Facebook page on April 8, 12 and 15 to raise funds for PPEs, meals, and other essentials to be given to frontliners. As part of the auction, Smart donated two iPhone X 64GB units with the proceeds benefiting the UP Medical Foundation Inc. Gariath’s auction raised a total of P450,000.

Meanwhile, Mineski held its own tournament, called the Lockdown Games, which showcased multiple titles to gamers and fans on its official Facebook page. The Lockdown Games, held from April 6 to 23, aimed to raise P1 million to be donated to frontliners. Smart participated in this effort as a show of support to both Mineski’s efforts and the dedicated medical professionals tirelessly working to fight the virus.

All these online events were a successful culmination of eSports’ crucial role during this challenging period by opening an opportunity to the gaming community to play and bid for a cause while keeping them connected and entertained while at home. More information is available at www.facebook. com/SmartCommunications.

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Realme 6i: Stuck in the waiting game

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HETHER you are still in ECQ, GCQ, or MECQ, three things are certain: 1) you’ve probably read the word “amid” or “despite” in almost every single news or blog entry; 2) next to the refrigerator, your smartphone is your most abused device the past couple of months; and 3) I just turned a year older.

So, before we go into our realme 6i review, allow me to thank some people who’s made this journey a lot more fun for the past 44 years; my family, my editor Gerard Ramos, who trusted me with this space; the late Tonypet Rosales, who was the first to believe in my writing; my former editors Bing Jaleco, Chit Licauco, Inday Espina-Varona, Tessa Arriola, Isah Red and Nelson Ramirez, and Louise Waterson of Reader’s Digest. Friends from the media and PR industry: Edd Fuentes, Tatum Cruz, Jingjing Romero, Raquel Hizon, Angie Limbaco, Mark Parlade, Ana Manansala, Alan German, Lydia Vivero, Ferds Bondoy, Johnny Litton and Marites Allen. Corinne Bacani, Anda Lee, Carlo Ople, Maxine Loyola, Kaye Losorata, Ava Castillo & Mark Li, Eason de Guzman and Austine Huang.

Jeman Villanueva and my friends from the blogging community. And to my partner and No. 1 supporter Lou, thank you for staying by my side.

Now let’s get to our review.

REALME 6I HIGH PERFORMANCE, BUDGET-FRIENDLY

THIS week, the fastest-growing smartphone brand launched the realme 6i, priced at P7,990 for the 3GB/64 GB version, and P9,990 for the 4GB/128 option.

The realme 6i is the successor of the successful realme 5, providing 35-percent jump in performance, a 48MP Quad-Camera setup, better body, a 5000mAh battery with 18W Quick Charge, and a price tag that’s still well within reach. But, hello, is it the “realme” you are looking for?

DEVOUR ■ Great for gaming ■ Capable processor ■ Nice eye-catching design ■ Build quality is solid, splash-resistant ■ Cameras are great in good lighting ■ Realme UI is way better than color OS ■ Has USB Type C, fast charge DISLIKE ■ Display struggles under bright sunlight ■ Single, bottom firing speaker is unexceptional ■ Camera suffers in low light The realme 6i comes in the trademark bright yellow box and the standard package which includes a SIM tray ejector pin, soft gel protector case, 18W Quick Charger, USB Type-C cable, a pre-installed screen protector, and quick start/warranty guide.

Up front is a 6.52-inch HD+ 720 x 1600 pixels

IPS display with a dew-drop notch. The realme 6i is equipped with an 89.8-percent screen-to-body ratio with thin bezels on the sides. The small notch on top houses a 16MP f/2.0 front-facing camera for selfies and recording vlogs in full HD. It’s a big jump from the realme 5i’s 8MP front shooter.

On the right side you’ll see the power button while on the left are the volume rocker and SIM card tray.

The top part of the phone is clean and free of ports or a mic, while on the bottom you have the loudspeaker, mic, the beloved 3.5 mm audio jack for your wired headphones/earphones, and, finally, a USB Type-C port which is what a lot of fans have long been waiting for.

Last, and certainly the most eye-catching feature of the realme 6i, is the back panel which houses the quad-camera setup consisting of a 48MP primary, 8MP ultra-wide, 2MP macro, and 2MP depth sensor.

Next to the camera module is the LED flash, and in the upper center of the back is a snappy and accurate fingerprint scanner.

■ DESIGN AND DISPLAY: The realme 6i flaunts a shining “striped” design depending on the angle of light. When I first saw it in photos, I actually thought the streak pattern was embossed. To achieve this matte visual and delicate finish, the back of the realme 6i was polished hundreds of times and underwent a unique spray coating process.

The realme 6i comes in two colorways—White Milk and Green Tea. The Green Tea version is a brave choice since it isn’t your usual smartphone color. It does remind me of a leaf and our military frontliners.

On the other hand, there’s no denying that the White Milk looks a lot like a “Rimowa” luggage and there’s no unseeing that.

With a concept of nature, the realme 6i was designed by master Naoto Fukasawa, the same genius behind the realme X series Master Edition. If the name sounds familiar, its because Fukasawa is also in charge of product development and design at Japanese retail company Muji which is famous for relatively simple yet striking designs.

The matte finish means you don’t have to keep on wiping it to get rid of fingerprints and smudge marks, but unlike those “glasstic” finishes, there’s no hiding that this phone is made out of plastic. Still, it does look quite premium, and build quality is solid and isn’t as slippery to hold, plus its also splash resistant.

For its price, the realme 6i has a pretty large display at 6.5-inches; the resolution however is only HD+. The colors were okay, and watching videos and playing games are still satisfactory, just as long as you’re not doing it under bright sunlight. The display suffers a lot when it’s really bright out and you can barely see anything even with brightness set to max.

■ GAMING PROCESSOR: The realme 6i features the world’s first MediaTek Helio G80 SoC with a high performance processor that was built for gaming. It’s octa-core CPU has a main frequency of up to 2.0GHz, offering 35 percent better single-core performance and 17 percent better multi-core performance than its predecessor. The Mali G52 1000MHz GPU also delivers 25 percent better performance resulting in greater image quality and a more stable frame rate that makes the realme 6i stand out while gaming.

Realme is a partner of Mobile Legends: Bang Bang, so if that’s the game you’re playing the most, expect near flawless performance from the realme 6i. Be sure turn on the Game Space feature to further optimize your phone and make your gaming experience as smooth

as possible.

Overall, the MediaTek Helio G80 proves to be a quite snappy performer and there’s hardly any slowdown when opening multiple apps.

■ CAMERA: Realme phones have been remarkable when it comes to its cameras, and the 6i doesn’t disappoint. It boasts of the latest flagship, ultraclear quad camera setup, comprised of a 48MP main camera, an 8MP 119° ultra wide-angle, a macro lens and a B&W portrait lens. The 48MP main sensor has an f/1.8 large aperture and deploys Quad Bayer’s 4-in-1 intelligent pixel binning mechanism that combines four adjacent pixels into a large pixel, enhancing the resolution and quality of images taken even in low-light settings. The 119° 8MP ultra wide-angle lens, on the other hand, has an f/2.25 aperture, so you don’t have to move back to capture the entire scene, whether it’s a large group photo, gorgeous landscape or impressive architecture. For those who love taking close-ups of small things, there’s the 4cm Macro while the B&W lens enables the portrait lens to detect a wider array of light, assisting the main lens to capture light better, enhance image contrast, create retrostyle images, and add texture to portraits.

As for the selfie camera it has a 16MP Super Clear Selfie AI Beauty mode and can now capture full HD videos. Like I said, the main cameras don’t disappoint—as long as you have adequate lighting.

Under bright, well-lit scenes, photos and videos are quite good, but with less-than-ideal conditions indoors and low light, quality suffers a lot. You can use night mode but it’s still not worth raving about, and passable at best. Hopefully, they can fix this with some software updates.

Video quality is about the same as you’d expect from photos, with regards to dynamic range and details. You can only shoot up to 1080p at 30FPS with fairly good stabilization.

■ BATTERY LIFE: One of the most welcome changes to the realme 6i is its migration to USB Type-C, which means faster charging and file transfer. The 18W Quick Charge and a 9V/2A charging kit further raise the charging speed and reduce the charging time. Complementing the quick charge feature is its massive 5000mAh battery. Featuring triple safety protection, this massive battery eases concerns for smartphone battery life.

■ FINAL WORD: The realme 6i is supposed to be an easy recommendation for those looking for an affordable gaming phone for their kids or as a secondary phone. You get a lot of value for its price, and won’t be disappointed with its performance. Just don’t forget that it is still a budget phone and has its limitations such as a lower resolution screen and a camera system that’s dependent on ideal lighting.

But the biggest problem of the realme 6i isn’t the phone itself, but because its currently stuck in a waiting game. Since I first posted about the 6i, I have been getting a lot of messages asking about the phone and even the pro. If you watched the Facebook live stream of the launch the other day, you might have even caught a glimpse of the realme 6 Pro on display behind realme Philippines Vice President for Marketing Austine Huang, so it looks like its definitely going to be launched real soon—and unless you really need a phone now, its better to wait a bit more for the prices of those two phones, just to have a comparison.

If you do plan on getting a realme 6i, be sure to set a reminder on May 20 as Lazada will be holding a flash sale and you can get P500 off the retail price. ■

A12 Saturday, May 16, 2020

Sports BusinessMirror

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

FROOME SEEKING GREENER PASTURE?

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ITH speculation mounting over Team Ineos’ pecking order at this year’s Tour de France, Cyclingnews learned that four-time Tour winner Chris Froome is in discussions over a possible mid-season transfer.

The Ineos leader has not yet signed a contract extension, with his current three-year deal with Team Ineos concluding at the end of the calendar year.

The 34-year-old has stated several times that he sees a possible fifth Tour de France title as his main objective for the year and that he plans to race for at least another four years. However, with leadership for the Tour de France still undecided and last year’s winner Egan Bernal last week stating that he will not sacrifice his chances for a teammate, Ineos have a number of difficult decisions to make.

Cyclingnews confirmed that Froome has been in discussions with several teams enquiring about his services for 2021 and beyond but, with the Tour de France rescheduled for later in the season, coupled with the lack of clarity over leadership, the idea of a mid-season switch has also been raised in discussions with rival teams.

Cyclingnews understands that two teams have approached Froome with interest in either a mid-season or end-of-year transfer.

If a mid-season transfer did go ahead—and it would need agreement from all the parties concerned—then it would potentially give the British rider complete leadership at the Tour.

When asked for an official comment, Froome would not go into details regarding his contract situation, but he reiterated his focus for the Tour.

“Following my crash last year and subsequent recovery I am extremely confident that I can return to Tour winning form. Which team that will be with beyond 2020, I don’t know yet,” he told Cyclingnews.

“I have no intention of retiring any time soon. If anything, the crash has given me a renewed focus and drive. I have worked harder than I ever have to get back to where I am. I won’t let that be for nothing.”

Last week, Bernal told reporters that he would find it hard to give up the chance of defending his 2019 Tour title, saying: “I’m young, I’ve already won one Tour de France, and I’m not going to throw away an opportunity to win another Tour de France, that’s for sure. That I would sacrifice myself, being at my 100 percent... I don’t think I’m going

to do that, nor will he [ed - he said in relation to Froome], nor will anyone.”

Team Ineos also have Geraint Thomas to consider. The Welshman won the Tour in 2018 and finished second to Bernal a year later. He too is determined to lead the squad at the Tour and while Ineos have managed situations with former winners before, they have never started a Tour de France with the last three winners in their ranks.

Froome crashed out of the Dauphiné last year and spent all of last summer and the winter recuperating. In April, he told the press that he is now back to full-health and that he would take aim at a fifth Tour in order to join the likes of Eddy Merckx and Miguel Indurain as a joint record holder. Froome has even stated that his long-term aim is to surpass the current record of five wins.

“My dream, when I retire, would be to have won more Tours de France than anyone else. It would be the perfect scenario, but I know there is still a lot of work to make it come true,” Froome told the French publication L’Equipe last month.

“Given the recovery has been successful and my track record, that’s the plan. I’d like to think that the chances are I can do it. Nothing is written in stone, or given in sport, but I’ve got the experience, loads of motivation and I want to make it happen obviously,” he said.

“Going through what I have been through the last year, it did give me a lot of time to think.

Looking at other athletes who have been through similar experiences and come back stronger, I can understand why now. It gives you a whole new perspective on your career and racing. In cycling

WILL Chris Froome be wearing another jersey any time soon?

we saw [Alejandro] Valverde break his leg in the Tour, come back and the following season he ended up world champion,” he added.

At the time, Froome was keen to hold off on talks regarding contracts, insisting that a return to racing after the current lockdown was his

main priority. However, with no contract on the table from Ineos at present, and teams already asking about his future for next year, the topic of a mid-season move has come up.

Such transfers are rare in cycling, with Rohan Dennis the most high-profile rider to change

teams in 2014 from Garmin to BMC Racing. The International Cycling Union rules state that riders can make mid-season transfers during the first two weeks of August if all parties are in agreement.

Cyclingnews

WHAT Covid-19? THEY’RE RACING BIKES IN VIETNAM

By Jean-François Quénet

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due to the coronavirus outbreak. International Cycling Union-sanctioned events are suspended until July 1, but although cycling has been a very popular sport in Vietnam, a country of almost 100 million people, since the French colonial times, none of their races are part of the UCI calendar. The last UCI event was the ADC Tour of Vietnam in 2012.

Even though Vietnam has a 1,300-km long border with China, the country has managed to contain the propagation of Covid-19 based on the experience of SARS in 2003.

“Everything is fine here now and our race will be the first sporting event in Vietnam after Covid-19,” journalist and organizing committee member Duc Phat Nguyen told Cyclingnews.

“The riders will not have to wear a mask, but staff members, cameramen, referees, motorbike drivers, etc. will do, as well as washing their hands regularly.”

Cyclingnews

OMPETITIVE cycling will resume next week in the country that hasn’t recorded any deaths from the Covid-19 virus—and has had just 288 confirmed cases—Vietnam.

The HTV Cup features 18 stages—just as many as this year’s postponed Vuelta a España— and runs from May 19 to June 7.

Cycling fans get an alternative to the Giro d’Italia and could cheer for the likes of Luong Van Sinh from the Hanoi Team as the Trinh Cup Truyen Hinh TP Ho Chi Minh Lan Tu 32—commonly called the HTV Cup—will be broadcast live on Facebook and YouTube.

It will be the 32nd edition of the oldest and most famous stage race held in Vietnam.

The event, organized by Ho Chi Minh TV or HTV, was scheduled for April but was postponed

Foreigners are still banned from entering Vietnam so the start list of 84 riders is made up of Vietnamese nationals only, with the exception of defending champion Javier Sardá Pérez from Spain, who rides for Thanh Phô Ho Chi Minh, and Frenchman Loïc Desriac of Bikelife Dong Nai, who migrated after marrying a Vietnamese at the time he was racing professionally for RoubaixLille Métropole (2011-2013).

“I normally spend eight months a year in Vietnam, and I go back to Spain when I don’t have any races here,” said Sardá, 31, who hails from Zamora in Castilla y León.

“I arrived in Ho Chi Minh City in February before the outbreak. I live here as a professional cyclist, and have trained very well these past few months with the goal of winning the HTV Cup again. This is the most important race for my team,” he said.

“The event is very well covered by the newspapers,” Desriac said. “The criteriums are

live on TV, while other stages have 15-minute highlights every evening. Every day it’s live on Facebook and YouTube. Usually, the race celebrates the reunification of the country [in 1976]. This year it starts on May 19 as it’s the birthday of Ho Chi Minh [the Vietnamese revolutionary leader born on that day in 1890].”

Twelve teams of seven riders each will form the peloton, which is set to cover 2,183 kms from the north of the country to Ho Chi Minh City in the south. Besides Sardá and Desriac, race favorites are Sardá’s Thanh Phô Ho Chi Minh teammates Le Nguyet Minh and Nguyen Truong Tai, Dong Thap’s Phan Hoang Thai and Nguyen Tan Hoai, Trinh Duc Tam and Le Ngoc Son (both An Giang), and, of course, Luong Van Sinh, 23, who rides for the team of the country’s capital, Hanoi, but hails from the mountains near the border with Thailand and speaks three languages—Thai, Hmong and Viet.

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their own bags. The advantage there goes to Wolff, who was still at Oklahoma State this time last year and has recent experience lugging his own clubs.

Social distancing is paramount.

“I think we have a big responsibility on ourselves to make sure that we practice all the guidelines that the PGA Tour is going to set in place,” Johnson said.

“Obviously, everyone is going to be watching what we’re doing, so I think it’s very important for us to do it all correctly. We have a responsibility to ourselves and all the other players to stay safe and stay healthy.”

Bunkers will not have rakes. They won’t be needed, anyway, not with only one match on the course. Just in case, a PGA Tour rules official will carry a rake with him. Players will be encouraged to putt with the flagstick in the cup. If it needs removed, that’s the job of another Professional Golfers Association (PGA) Tour rules official.

Andy Levinson, the tour’s senior vice president of tournament administration, said all four players have gone through a diagnostic PCR test for the virus, and there will be additional testing, temperature taking and health questionnaires for everyone at Seminole (a number likely to be around 50). AP

‘The truth’ according to Lance

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anned for life from cycling which he once dominated, Lance Armstrong is still featuring in sports shows, with ESPN’s 30 for 30 documentary series the latest to highlight the Texan’s rise and fall into disgrace.

The sports channel launched a trailer of the documentary which will air on May 24 at 9 p.m.

EDT this month.

The trailer features Armstrong and former teammate George Hincapie (“I did tell Lance to just come out and say it, this is real now”) as well as former USA Cycling head Derek Bouchard-Hall (“all the praise we put upon him was all well deserved. Winning seven Tour

de Frances [sic] is not easy. That’s extremely difficult to do”) and ESPN journalist Bonnie Ford (“I’m going to be naturally skeptical of whatever Lance does or says”).

The episode is likely to delve into Armstrong’s deception surrounding his use of performance enhancing substances to win the Tour de France seven times—victories that were taken away after the US Anti-Doping Agency’s welldocumented case against him and the US Postal Service team Manager Johan Bruyneel and other staff and riders.

“I’m not going to lie to you,” Armstrong says, “I’m going to tell you my truth.” Cyclingnews

IOC sets aside $800M for loans, payments linked to pandemic

Johnson, McIlroy prepare for golf’s return in skins game before television audience USTIN JOHNSON left The Players Championship two months ago and didn’t play another round of golf until four days ago, the start of a crash course for his return to playing before a television audience.

He also owes it to his partner, Rory McIlroy, to practice.

They play against Rickie Fowler and Matthew Wolff on Sunday at Seminole Golf Club in a charity skins game, the first live golf on television since the opening round of The Players Championship on March 12. It was canceled—along with sports worldwide—because of the Covid-19 pandemic.

“I figured I probably should play a little bit of golf before we tee it up here this Sunday,” Johnson said on a conference call Thursday. “But I’ll be ready. Don’t you worry.”

McIlroy has been playing some but not really working. He expects that to start after the Sunday match, giving him three full weeks of hard practice to get ready for the PGA Tour’s return at Colonial.

But it’s more than golf that will be on display from Seminole, the Donald Ross design along the Atlantic Ocean that has hosted the game’s best over the years, just never on TV. Along with $4 million or more for Covid-19 relief efforts, this is as much about how golf will look when it returns for real.

The players will not have caddies and will carry

Armstrong

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DUSTIN JOHNSON and Rory McIlroy would be observing physical distancing, that’s for sure. AP

ENEVA—The International Olympic Committee (IOC) set aside $800 million on Thursday for loans and payments arising from the pandemic that forced the 2020 Tokyo Olympics to be postponed.

It is still unclear how big the total postponement bill will be with Olympic organizers and public authorities in Japan facing extra costs estimated to run into billions of dollars.

“We anticipate that we will have to bear costs of up to $800 million for our part of the responsibilities for the organization of the games,” International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach said.

A sum of $150 million will be available to make loans to sports governing bodies and more than 200 eligible national Olympic committees.

They have cash flow issues while unable to organize events and were due to get payments this year for the Tokyo Games, which are now scheduled to open in July 2021.

The loan program is being run with Switzerland’s federal government, which announced aid Wednesday for Olympic sports federations based in the country. The IOC will put up half the money for those loans, and federal and state authorities provide 25 percent each.

A detailed breakdown of how the remaining $650 million could be allocated will be formulated in the months ahead, IOC Chief Operating Officer Lana Haddad said.

“It is a little too early to pull together all known and unknown costs.” Haddad told reporters on a conference call after an IOC board

meeting held remotely.

The IOC had revenue of $5.7 billion from the 2013-16 Olympic cycle. That figure would likely have approached $7 billion for the next four-year period tied to the Tokyo Games.

Before the postponement, Japanese organizers officially said the bill for the games would be $12.6 billion. However, a government audit in 2019 said it was at least twice that, and most in taxpayer money.

Bach said all of the IOC’s 14 top-tier sponsors— whose deals are worth more than $1 billion combined in the 2017-20 period—are committed to fulfilling their support through 2021.

In its most recent accounts, for 2018, there was $897 million in the Olympic Foundation portfolio intended to “cover the IOC’s operating cash requirements in the event of a cancellation of any future Olympic Games.”

Some public health experts have suggested the Tokyo Olympics could have to be canceled if vaccines for the Covid-19 are not available globally.

“It is way too early to draw any conclusions now,” Bach said Thursday when asked how important vaccines were to the Summer Games in 14 months’ time.

Six months after the Tokyo Olympics are due to close, the 2022 Winter Games are scheduled to open in China where the coronavirus outbreak started.

Bach said preparations for the Beijing Olympics “continue to go very well” and the backto-back timing could be a benefit. AP