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CON-COM’S HALFTIME PERFORMANCE 80% of work’s done, but how near are we to adopting a federal constitution?

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By Bernadette D. Nicolas

ESOLVING crucial political and economic issues that have long bedeviled the country has been the name of the game for the 22-member committee handpicked by the President to review no less than the highest law of the land—the 1987 Constitution.

PUNO: “We are confident that we shall be able to submit to the President this draft and barnstorm the country and educate the people about this draft constitution.”

however, this was moved to June as the next remaining days of May will be devoted to accomplishing Con-com’s unfinished business.

All that’s left to do in terms of drafting the Constitution, Puno said, is to finish the deliberations on the structure of federated regions and their powers, the constitutional commissions, such as the Commission on Audit and the Civil Service Commission, and the proposed independent competition commission, the Federal Electoral Tribunal that will handle electoral cases, liberalization of restrictive economic provisions and the transitory provisions.

BLURAZ | DREAMSTIME.COM

The Consultative Committee (Con-com) is already halfway through its six-month life which started in February.

It may look like there is still much time left, but the committee actually has only less than two months to beat its self-imposed deadline to submit the final constitutional draft to the President on July 19. This is days before the Chief Executive’s State of the Nation Address on July 23.

Still, Con-com chairman and former Chief Justice Reynato S. Puno told the BusinessMirror that they are already 80 percent done with the draft federal constitution.

Although there are still a number of crucial things that are yet to be accomplished, Puno said he is “confident” that the Con-com is on track to beating the July deadline.

“We are confident that we shall be able to submit to the President this draft and barnstorm the country and educate the people about this draft constitution,” he said.

Supposedly, the committee should have begun its regional consultation phase as scheduled;

What’s been approved, so far

TO recall, the committee has already adopted the federal-presidential form of government.

The committee has also approved en banc a revised preamble, a new article on political rights and political parties, articles on legislative department and executive branch, antipolitical dynasty

provisions and the elevation of the Commission on Human Rights to a constitutional commission.

Other articles approved at subcommittee level were those on national territory, declaration of principles and state policies, bill of rights with the addition of socioeconomic and environmental rights, citizenship, suffrage, judi-

cial branch and family.

Everything seems easier said than done, however.

Puno admitted that the task given to the committee was “quite difficult” since they are changing the form of government from the present unitary to federal.

“When they revised the 1973 Constitution, there was no change

in the form of government. The government has always been unitary so this time, there is a major radical revision of the structure of government,” he said. “[And] there are really areas in our 1987 Constitution which need revisiting, not because the constitution is not a good constitution but just because See “Con-Com,” A2

NONIE REYES

Firms grin and bear it as ‘Bora’ closure marks one month. How about the workers?

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By VG Cabuag

T’S been a month since the government did what was previously deemed unthinkable, shocking and disappointing people: close down for six months Boracay island in Aklan, shutting out the world to the fabled white sand and other attractions of the island consistently listed by global travel magazines among the best.

PESO EXCHANGE RATES n US 52.5330

However, some larger companies that have operations in Boracay say they have prepared for its closure, and will take the losses, if necessary.

All new construction plans are on hold, until after the government decides to again open the island after six months. Hopes of an earlier-than-announced reopening may yet be dashed, however, by last

week’s discovery by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) of an old sewer line built by the then Philippine Tourism Authority (PTA) on one of the beaches. The discovery was made in the course of DENR’s efforts to track pipes illegally discharging untreated wastewater near the beach. It has so far found 33 such pipes, as well as an old sep-

tic tank.

As the government does its thing, businesses and their workers are coping, meanwhile.

In an interview just days before the ban took effect, some of the businessmen had laid down their plans while the island is closed, such as refurbishing of the property that they operate, and other things that they cannot do

while still in operation.

The big developers are finding ways to cope, certainly, while some of those already in operation— the restaurants, especially—have come up with creative solutions like pop-up operations outside of the island, especially in Metro Manila, where their long-time patrons are only too eager to flock.

See “Boracay,” A2

n JAPAN 0.4809 n UK 70.3049 n HK 6.6941 n CHINA 8.2379 n SINGAPORE 39.2330 n AUSTRALIA 39.7885 n EU 61.5687 n SAUDI ARABIA 14.0077

Source: BSP (May 25, 2018 )

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A2 Saturday, May 26, 2018

Boracay...

continued from A1

Discovery: Keep, retrain, redeploy staff

A LARGE company such as Discovery World Corp., a company led by the Tiu family, earlier admitted that its income will take a hit once the island is closed.

The company, which operates Discovery Shores Boracay, had committed to keep most of its staff, retrain them or put them in other company properties, such as those in Palawan.

“This temporary challenge will allow us to finish the soon-to-open Signature Suites of Discovery Shoes Boracay, as well as showcase our resort in Coron—Club Paradise—and the diving operations of Discovery Fleet,” the company said.

Workers have obviously borne the brunt of the Boracay closure, despite the government’s plea not to lay off their employees. Many of those laid off by the closure have since ventured out to nearby provinces, finding work in the hospitality sector, such as spas and beauty parlors in Negros.

Fortunately, certain other larger companies, such as Vista Land, say they will keep most of their staff, retraining them if necessary, or place them in other branches. The company is a new entrant in the industry, but it has been making investments in hotels and need all the workers.

“The industry [property development] in general is moving toward food and beverage,” Manuel Paolo A. Villar, president and CEO of property developer Vista Land & Lifescapes Inc., said in an earlier interview.

Discovery World, meanwhile, said it already made plans for its staff members since February, when the issue first broke, and will maintain enough personnel for the upkeep of their resort throughout the six-month period.

Look beyond the island–SMC

CONGLOMERATE San Miguel Corp., which operates Boracay Airport in Caticlan and is currently con-

ducting its upgrade, said it supports the closure of the island resort.

It declined to give further statement on its plan for the next six months while the ban is in effect.

San Miguel President and COO Ramon S. Ang said that all concerned sectors, including the government, businesses, developers and its residents, must also look beyond the island and move to disperse tourism to nearby municipalities, such as Caticlan and Nabas.

Ang is pushing for the government to build a Caticlan-to-Boracay bridge to help reduce the need for tourists and tourism workers to stay on the island.

“Tourists and visitors will have the option to go to Boracay during the day and in the afternoon or at night for accommodations outside the island,” Ang explained.

The accessibility of Boracay, through the proposed bridge, will enable developers to build hotels and resorts outside the island, Ang said.

Some new establishments, on the other hand, can be positioned as alternative or more affordable accommodations for tourists. At the same time, accommodations for workers can also be built.

That bridge could also solve the garbage and sewage problem on the island since it can be used as a safe way to deliver sewage via pipes, which would be built into the bridge design, out of Boracay island.

Better, ‘more world-class,’ island

INDEED, the “new, improved” Boracay—assuming the government succeeds in all major infrastructure reforms, such as proper and adequate sewage and wastewater treatment systems—may yet enhance the bottom line of developers whose projects are still just about to go onstream.

“I’m not trying to make light of what will happen to the people employed by them [other resort owners].

But just from a corporate point of view, it won’t affect Vista Land and arguably after the cleanup it will be better,” Vista Land’s Villar said.

Vista Land over the past two years has been snapping up properties on the island, as it dives into hotel operations.

In 2015 it bought Boracay Sands Hotel for P157 million and then a year later it launched Costa Vista Boracay, another property it bought that sits on a 6.5-hectare property that has direct access to the beach.

The first phase of the project costs about P2.2 billion and involves a residential component aside from the resort and the next phases of the project development will cost even more.

“So for us, economically we’re better off with the ban because... the projects that we have, which are not yet [operational], will be worth more after the ban. We would actually benefit,” he said.

“I am not saying whether that’s [the ban] good or bad for the island. But for all intents and purposes, it’s a ban. You’re crazy if you initiate construction [of a new project]. They’re already ripping off some physical structures in Boracay. I think construction is virtually stopped, almost completely stopped,” he said, adding that the company can afford to take a hit with the ban.

Vista Land was recently accused of continuing construction works despite the ban, even of allegedly “leveling a mountain” in a private area to give way to a condominium project.

The Villars have since denied such accusations.

Double Dragon Properties Corp., meanwhile, also considers it beneficial to them if the island is temporarily closed to tourists as its hotel will not be opened until 2020.

Marriana H. Yulo, the company chief investment officer, said the six-month cleanup of the government will not affect them since its 1,001-room hotel, which is a joint venture with Newcoast South Beach Inc. led by its Chairman Enrique Y. Gonzalez, will start operations in 2020.

“It’s a great thing that the government is cleaning up Boracay. In fact, it’s very good for us when it [the island] reopens because we’re going to come back with a stronger, more world-class island,” Yulo said.

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Con-com’s halftime performance Continued from a1

of the passage of time,” he added.

It is the committee’s belief that there were changes in the needs of the country that warranted some constitutional amendments, the former chief magistrate pointed out.

In an earlier interview, Puno described the structure of federated regions as a “slippery slope” for the Con-com.

As of press time, the Con-com has yet to decide on the number of federated regions. Puno said the committee targets to finish this in two week’s time, at the latest.

At present, the country has 17 regions but the committee is still studying whether or not to adopt the same number in the federal constitution. “[This is] because we want to be sure that the federated regions will be properly grouped together, especially their economic viability and sustainability, and in this endeavor, we are soliciting the assistance of all our government agencies, especially agencies that have knowledge that should be considered in determining the future viability of these regions, the economic data, the fiscal data, the social data and others,” he said.

Puno added the committee will also be working hand in hand with the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) when they do regional consultations, which will be done in two phases.

For the first phase, Con-com members will break out into groups to go to regional centers. Members will be assigned to regions where they came from to lead the consultations.

Next, Con-com and the DILG will train speakers who will carry

out the second phase in the provinces and key cities.

According to Puno, the committee shall endeavor to finish the task at hand to review the Constitution until August as stated in the executive order, but they took it upon themselves to impose the July deadline so that the President can consider it in his State of the Nation Address.

Asked if he thinks Duterte will fight for Con-com’s draft even in Congress, Puno said: “So far he has not expressed any disagreement on what has been approved and favorably voted upon by this consultative committee, and so on that basis we are confident that we shall endorse this draft constitution to the Con-ass [constitutional assembly] for appropriate action.”

After all the work has been done, Puno said it is only through the draft that the committee can be judged by the people as to whether it has succeeded in its mission.

“I think from the draft itself, one could reasonably predict whether this new constitution is better than the 1987 Constitution in meeting the current needs of the country, as well as the challenges which will confront us in this century considering that the society is now technology-driven, sciencedriven,” he added.

For Ronald U. Mendoza, dean of the Ateneo School of Government, the Con-com has tackled a number of important reform issues at this point, including possible steps to promote stronger governance and accountability in the political system.

Dynasty regulation

“ONE of their first decisions was to include a self-executory dynasty regulation which, when combined

with political party reforms, could help address some of the structural sources of the political noise that we see today. To the extent that this also promotes more accountability and better governance, we could also see more coherent policy-making and implementation,” Mendoza said.

He pointed out, however, that accomplishing the draft constitution, including the regional consultations for only six months, is difficult.

“Nevertheless, the scope of ground to cover is considerable, and completing a full review of the Constitution, along with consultations with the public, which until now appear oblivious to the many issues being tackled here— all in under half a year—is a tall order,” he said.

The present political noise has also led to a very divided political atmosphere, he added.

These include controversial policies pursued by the government, as well as the Supreme Court decision to grant the Solicitor General’s quo warranto petition to unseat Chief Justice Maria Lourdes A. Sereno.

“With all this noise and division, it is difficult to imagine a new or amended constitution providing a unifying basis for political and economic reforms. Unsurprisingly, many supporters of federalism are beginning to conclude that this is not yet a federalist moment for the country,” he said.

Ready to defend draft –Ex-CJ Puno

MEANWHILE, political analyst Ramon C. Casiple, executive director of Institute For Political and Economic Reform, said that he agrees with 65 percent of the Concom proposals.

The other 35 percent is composed of his reservations on Concom’s decision to adopt a federalpresidential form of government and their noninclusion of state subsidy, which Casiple said is an important part of political reform, among others.

Casiple helped write the proposed federal charter made by the study group of the Partido Demokratiko Pilipino-Laban, the President’s political party.

However, PDP-Laban’s draft adopted a federal semi-presidential setup, different from what was adopted by Con-com. Under the semi-presidential model, power will be shared by the president and a prime minister.

Although there were differences in the Con-com’s proposal and the PDP-Laban study group draft, Casiple said there is no competition between the two groups.

“That is not competitive because some of our proposals were taken up by the consultative committee. We submitted it to them and we are also monitoring their discussions,” he said.

At the end of the day, Casiple added, Con-com’s work is recommendatory to the President and that the President will endorse the working document to Congress, who will then decide at least on the draft federal constitution.

Although Puno acknowledged the fact that Con-com will be facing Congress in the future, he maintained that the committee has remained independent while they are drafting the federal constitution.

“We are not in touch with them. We are not discussing [with them] the proposals or suggestions being made in this consultative committee. We have not also been appearing in the different committees of Congress,” Puno said. “But in due time, it is inevitable that upon the endorsement of the President of this draft, Congress will be calling us to defend our draft constitution.

That will be the time,” he added.

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National ID will ensure access to, delivery of public service–solon

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HE establishment of the Philippine Identification System (PhilSys) will enable more Filipinos to access vital services, such as education, social protection, health care, banking and finance, according to one of the principal authors of the measure creating a national identification system in the country.

“The PhilSys is particularly important for vulnerable sectors of our population, like those who are marginalized and living in poverty and those living in remote areas. Once they have the means to prove their identity, people will be empowered to exercise their rights and privileges and access basic services,” Rep. Xavier Jesus D. Romualdo of the Lone District of Camiguin said.

According to the Identification for Development initiative of the World Bank, over 16.3 million Filipinos do not have proof of identity and are hindered from availing themselves of government and financial services.

The bicameral conference committee report reconciling the House of Representatives and Senate versions of the measure is set to be ratified by both chambers before Congress adjourns next week.

Allaying concerns raised by critics that the national ID system will infringe on the rights and

THE POWER OF THREE

Tourism Secretary-designate Bernadette Fatima Romulo Puyat meets with Sen. Nancy Binay, chairman of the Senate Committee on Tourism, and Rep. Lucy Torres Gomez of the Fourth Disrtrict of Leyte, chairman of the Lower House’s tourism committee, on Thursday at the BGC. The meeting was an informal gathering meant to acquaint Romulo Puyat with tourism concerns of both lawmakers. Romulo Puyat’s FB account

privacy of citizens, Romualdo, who was a member of the bicameral conference committee, said Congress has ensured that only basic personal information will be stored in the PhilSys and that such information will be protected and kept confidential.

“Only one’s name, sex, address, date and place of birth, blood type and biometric data, such as facial photo and fingerprints, are required to be entered in the PhilSys. Furthermore, disclosure of and granting access to stored data and information to anyone, even to law-enforcement agencies and the military, is prohibited and penalized,” Romualdo explained.

The reconciled version of the bill provides that disclosure of information is allowed only when the registered person has given his or her consent, specific to the purpose prior to the processing, or, upon order of a competent court, when the compelling interest of public health or safety so requires, provided that the risk of significant harm to the public is established and the owner of the information is notified within 72 hours of the fact of such disclosure. Information obtained as a result of any unauthorized or illegal disclosure is inadmissible in any judicial, quasijudicial, or administrative proceeding.

Saturday, May 26, 2018

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Amid price surges, Poe-led panel pushes fuel tax halt

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LOILO CITY—As the public reels from increasing commodity prices, Sen. Grace Poe on Friday recommended the suspension of excise taxes on fuel as part of the taxreform package.

This was the initial recommendation of the Senate Committee on Public Ser vices after it conducted a public hearing in Iloilo City on May 25 on the effects of Republic Act 10963, or the Ta x Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion (TR AIN)

law, particularly on utilities and transportation.

“We will ask the Department of Finance and other government agencies to study well the suspension of excise taxes on fuel because of the continued rise in the prices of petroleum products,” said Poe,

committee chairman, speaking mostly in Filipino.

During the hearing, senators were told that pump prices in Panay region have already increased by 30 percent, or at least P10 for diesel and gasoline, since December last year. The region already registered price upticks in rice (P5 per kilo), pork (P15 per kilo) and fish (P20 per kilo).

Farmers also have to fork out an additional P2,600 a month and a worker has to contend with additional P3,640 after the passage of the TRAIN law, the Senate panel was told. Consumer groups in Panay have cited the effects of the TRAIN law—aggravated by increasing fuel costs—as the culprit of higher commodity prices.

“In order to ease the burden of our people, especially the poor, the government must study thoroughly the suspension of full implementation of the TR AIN law, particularly on fuel excise taxes, as these affect all products,” Poe stressed.

Poe said she will ask her colleagues to support the proposal for the fuel excise tax suspension.

Since the law’s implementation in January this year, the average price increase has been P8.07 per liter for gasoline, P8.95 for diesel and P9.15 per liter of kerosene.

Calls for fuel excise tax suspension snowballed as consumer prices rose 4.5 percent in April compared to a year ago, setting its fastest pace in over five years.

Sison agrees to come home to PHL–Duterte

By Manuel T. Cayon

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AVAO CITY—President Duterte disclosed on Thursday night that Communist Party of the Philippines founder Jose Maria Sison has finally agreed to come home to the Philippines after three decades of exile in the Netherlands. He disclosed Sison’s decision in a speech here inaugurating the P345-million Davao River bridge where he also congratulated

government soldiers for capturing a New People’s Army local leader, a.k.a. Jinggoy, this month.

Jinggoy succeeded the late Leoncio Pitao, who used the guerrilla nom de guerre Ka Parago, and who befriended the President in the course of several meetings and dialogues in the past.

“I have invited Sison to come home. He has agreed,” Duterte said on Thursday.

The President did not say when Sison gave his nod, or whether the date for such homecoming

has been set. Duterte said, “I gave him a window of two months, very small. Make or break tayo dito. Magkasinabot ta, maayo. Og dili [If we are able to understand each other, good. But if not]. ”I will see to it and will personally maybe escort him to the airport, pag walang nangyari sa two months [if nothing happens in two months], I will allow him to go out. I will not arrest him because [it’s] word of honor,” he said.

Nonetheless, Duterte said he would personally

tell Sison, if the talks fail, “do not ever, ever return again to this country. I will kill you. You’ve killed so [many] of my soldiers and policemen.”

The President reopened the negotiations with the underground Left on April, months after he called off the talks that had reached the fifth round of negotiations—the farthest ever attained between the two sides in the over 40-year-old insurgency. Duterte said Sison was his former professor.

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The World BusinessMirror

Saturday, May 26, 2018

Investigators: Russian military missile downed Flight MH17

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UNNIK, Netherlands—Detailed analysis of video and photos has unequivocally established that the Buk missile that brought down Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 over eastern Ukraine nearly four years ago came from a Russia-based military unit, an international team of investigators said on Thursday.

It is the clearest link yet published by the team of the involvement of Russian military in the deadly missile strike.

Prosecutors said they have presented their findings to Moscow and are seeking answers, but so far have not received a response.

The international team running the criminal investigation appealed for help from witnesses who can testify about the involvement of the Russian militar y’s 53rd anti-aircraft missile brigade based in the city of Kursk.

Prosecutor Fred Westerbeke said the new conclusion raised new questions: “Such as the question about how actively involved the brigade itself was in bringing down Flight MH17.”

Russia has always denied involvement in the downing of the jet.

Westerbeke said the Joint Investigation Team (JIT) is not yet ready to name suspects, but added: “I can say that we are now entering the...last phase of the investigation.

When we will be ready, it is not possible to say at the moment because there is still a lot of work to do.”

The Boeing 777 passenger jet was headed from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, when it was blown out of the sky over easter n U k ra ine on Ju ly 17, 2014. All 298 passengers and crew were killed.

Prosecutors said in 2016 that the plane was shot down by a Buk 9M38 missile fired from territory controlled by Russia-backed rebels, using a mobile launcher trucked in from Russia and hastily returned there.

T h u r s d a y ’s p r e s e n t a t i o n went a step further by identif ying the exact unit allegedly involved and more details of the rocket, and showing a compilation of videos and photos from social media tracing the missile convoy’s journey.

Investigators also displayed parts of the engine casing and exhaust system of a Buk 9M38 series missile recovered from easter n U k raine and showed

A sign reading “Respect for MH17” is shown during a commemoration at Museum Square in Amsterdam on July 21, 2014. AP/Margriet Faber

photos of a unique serial number on the missile.

Team members said that careful analysis of video and photos from social media traced the journey of the Russian missile convoy into Ukraine and identified the missile launcher system.

The displayed missile’s serial number gave them a “ fingerprint” identifying it and where it was made, but investigators said they could not yet say with certainty that it was the exact missile used to down MH17. They appealed for witnesses to come forward with more information about the missile.

“All findings from this forensic investigation confirm the earlier conclusion of the JIT that Flight MH17 was shot down by 9M38 series missile,” Jennifer Hurst of the Australian Federal Police said.

In a written statement, Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop said: “That a sophisticated weapon

belonging to the Russian Army was dispatched and used to shoot down a civilian aircraft should be of grave international concern. We are discussing these findings with our partners and considering our options.”

Ultimately, any suspects identified and charged will be prosecuted in Dutch courts—if they can be arrested and brought to trial.

Of the 298 people of more than 30 nationalities killed, 196 were Dutch, 42 Malaysian and 27 Australian.

Dutch Foreign Minister Stef Blok welcomed the newly released findings.

“This is an important piece of the puzzle,” Blok said. “I am very impressed by the evidence that has been collected.”

His Belgian counterpart, Didier Reynders, called on all countries to cooperate fully with the investigation “so that those responsible can be brought to justice.” AP

Yen falls, US stock futures rise on North Korea

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HE yen dropped and US stock futures rose after Nor t h Korea of fered a measured response to President Donald J. Trump’s decision to cancel a summit with that country’s leader. Asian shares were mixed, and crude oil held losses.

Shares in Japan, Hong Kong a nd Sout h Korea saw modest dec l ines a nd were head ing for week ly losses as trade tensions simmer and investors eye r isks from emerging markets. Cr ude oi l held losses a f ter Russi a’s energ y minister reiterated t hat t he Orga ni zat ion of t he Pe t role u m E x p or t i n g C ou n t r ies a nd its pa r t ners w i l l d isc uss phasing out supply c u rbs when t hey meet ne x t mont h.

Turkey’s lira resumed its slump a s t r aders we ig he d whet her

a n emergenc y rate h i ke wa s enough to stem losses.

Geopolitics was back on the agenda with Trump’s letter to the North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, in which he blamed the “tremendous anger and open hostility” in recent statements from Pyongyang for his decision.

North Korea’s government said in a statement that it was surprised at the cancellation and remained willing to meet with the US at any time.

Elsewhere, the euro remained weaker, alongside the pound, as questions swirl around the Italian populist government’s economic policies and Brexit negotiations loom large over British assets.

These are some key events remaining to watch this week: At the Saint Petersburg Forum

on Friday, Russian President Vladimir Putin and French President Emmanuel Macron, IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde and Japan Prime Minister Shinzo Abe participate on a panel moderated

by Bloomberg News Editor in Chief John Micklethwait. Also on Friday, European Union finance ministers discuss the latest on Brexit talks, in Brussels.

These are the main moves in markets:

Stocks

THE MSCI Asia Pacific Index fell 0.2 percent as of 3:01 p.m.

Tok yo time. Topi x index fel l 0.2 percent. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index dropped 0.5 percent.

Kospi index fell 0.2 percent. Futures on the S&P 500 Index rose 0.2 percent.

Currencies

T HE Bloomberg Dol l a r Spot Inde x rose 0.1 percent. T he Japanese yen fell 0.3 percent to 109.53 per dollar. The euro fell 0.1 percent to $1.1702.

Bonds

THE yield on 10-year Treasuries rose one basis point to 2.99 percent. Australia’s 10 -year yield fell two basis points to 2.785 percent. Ger man bunds were yielding 0.478 percent.

Commodities

W E S T Te x a s I n t e r m e d i ate cr ude fel l 0.3 percent to $70.50 a bar rel. Gold declined 0.2 percent to $1, 302.14 a n ounce. LME copper was f lat at $6,877.00 per metr ic ton.

Bloomberg News

N. Korea demolishes nuclear test site as journalists watch

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UNGGYE-RI, North Korea— North Korean leader Kim Jong Un made good on his promise to demolish his country’s nuclear test site, which was formally closed in a series of huge explosions on Thursday as a small group of foreign journalists watched.

The explosions at the test site deep in the mountains of the North’s sparsely populated northeast were supposed to build confidence ahead of a planned summit next month between Kim and US President Donald J. Trump. But Trump canceled the meeting on Thursday, citing “tremendous anger and open hostility” in a North Korean statement released earlier in the day.

The blasts were centered on three tunnels at the underground site and a number of buildings in the surrounding area. North Korea held a closing ceremony afterward with officials from its nuclear arms program in attendance.

The group of journalists that witnessed the demolition, which touched off landslides near the tunnel entrances and sent up clouds of smoke and dust, included an Associated Press Television crew. North Korea’s state media called the closure of the site part of a process to build “a nuclearfree, peaceful world” and “global nuclear disarmament.”

“The dismantling of the nuclear test ground conducted with highlevel transparency has clearly attested once again to the proactive and peace-loving efforts of the DPRK government being made for assuring peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula and over the world,” the North’s official news agency reported late Thursday.

North Korea’s formal name is the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.

Kim announced his plan to close the site, where North Korea has conducted all six of its underground nuclear tests, ahead of a summit with South Korea’s President Moon Jae-in in April and the planned summit with Trump next month.

But even as North Korea made good on its gesture of detente, it lobbed a verbal salvo at Washington, calling Vice President Mike Pence a “political dummy” and saying it is just as ready to meet in a nuclear confrontation as at the negotiating table.

Trump responded by canceling the summit, saying in a letter to Kim, “Sadly, based on the tremendous anger and open hostility displayed in your most recent statement, I feel it is inappropriate, at this time, to have this longplanned meeting.”

Nor t h K orea’s dec ision to close the Pung g ye-r i nuclear

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increasingly wealthy China and concentrating her energy on unofficial ties with larger, more inf luential countries, such as the US. “Today #China led #BurkinaFaso to sever diplomatic relations w/ #Taiwan,” Tsai wrote. “It will only bring Taiwan closer to countries that share our values: #democracy & #freedom.

It will only strengthen our resolve to look towards the world, rather than across the Strait.”

Beijing and Taipei have been competing for diplomatic recognition since 1949, when Nationalist leader Chiang Kai-shek’s flight to Taiwan established a stalemate with each side claiming to be the legitimate ruler of China. Still, the Communist Party

refrained from wooing any of the island’s allies under former President Ma Ying-jeou, who favored closer economic ties with Beijing.

That detente ended when Tsai— whose Democratic Progressive Party supports independence from China— took office in May 2016 and refused to accept Ma’s framework for negotiating with Beijing. Since then, China has established ties with five of Taiwan’s partners, also including Gambia, Panama and Sao Tome and Principe.

Julian Ku, a professor of constitutional law at Hofstra University, warned that China’s increased efforts to isolate Taiwan could push the island to formalize its independence.

Bloomberg News

test site had generally been seen as a welcome gesture by Kim to set a positive tone ahead of the summit. In a statement earlier T hursd ay, Sout h Korea’s National Security Council called the closing the North ’s “ first measure toward complete denuclearization.” Not everyone was as optimistic, however.

The closing of the site is not an irreversible move and would need to be followed by many more significant measures to meet Trump’s demand for real denuclearization.

North Korea also did not invite international nuclear weapons inspectors, opting instead for the impact of the television footage to impress the world.

The event was, indeed, impressive. The first blast the visiting journalists witnessed came at around 11 a.m. after they made a 12-hour-plus trip by train and convoy through the night and over bumpy dirt roads. That explosion collapsed the complex’s north tunnel, which was used for five nuclear tests between 2009 and last year.

Two other explosions, at around 2:20 p.m. and 4 p.m., collapsed the west and south tunnels, according to officials. North Korea’s state media stressed that those two tunnels could have been used to conduct future tests, countering reports the Punggye-ri site had been rendered largely unusable by its earlier tests.

Also blown up were observation posts and barracks used by guards and other workers at the facility.

A tunnel on the eastern side had already been shut down after an initial nuclear test in 2006.

North Korea said the demolition did not cause any leakage of radioactive materials or have any “adverse impact on the surrounding ecological environment.”

The journalists were allowed to stay at the site for about nine hours.

Getting to the remote site required an overnight train ride from Wonsan, a port city east of the capital, Pyongyang. In typically secretive fashion, officials instructed the media not to open the blinds that covered the windows of their train cars.

They also were not allowed to shoot photos from the vehicles they took to the site from the nearest train station, about 20 kilometers (12 miles) away.

Back in Pyongyang, the outburst directed at Pence, issued in the name of a top Foreign Ministry official, came on the heels of another sharp rebuke of Trump’s newly appointed national security adviser, John Bolton, and raised concerns that a major gap had opened between the two sides. AP

Indonesia passes tough law vs antiterrorism amid bombings

Taiwan is running out of friends fast I as China turns the screws tighter AIWAN’S loss of a second diplomatic ally in less than a month suggests China’s efforts to isolate the island are accelerating.

The West African nation of Burkina Faso broke off formal relations with Taipei in favor of Beijing on Thursday, reducing to 18 the number of countries that recognize Taiwan, formally known as the Republic of China. The setback—coming just four weeks after the Dominican Republic did the same—puts Taiwan’s fragile diplomatic position into focus as the rift with Beijing escalates.

In a statement posted on Twitter late Thursday, President Tsai Ing-wen reaffirmed her shift from competing for formal diplomatic bonds with an

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NDONESIAN security authorities have been given tougher powers aimed at combating a surge in extremist violence that has seen the world’s biggest Muslim majority nation reeling from the deadliest attacks since the 2002 Bali bombings.

Less than two weeks after a wave of attacks including three separate bombings at churches in Indonesia’s second-largest city of Surabaya, lawmakers on Friday gave final approval to a longdelayed revision of the country’s 2003 antiterrorism law. While the review had been proposed in early 2016 after a gun and suicide-bomb attack in central Jakarta, it had been stalled in the parliament for more than two years.

Police will now be handed enhanced powers to take preemptive action amid growing concerns about the threat from militants returning from battlefields in northern Iraq and Syria, as well as the

influence in Indonesia from the Islamic State terrorist group. The revised laws will mean people suspected of planning an attack can be detained for longer while making it an offense to take part in militant training at home or abroad.

There’s been a rapid rise in the number of Indonesians who’ve sought to join Islamic State, Justice and Human Rights Minister Yasonna Laoly told lawmakers after the revised law was passed.

“This clearly threatens the sovereignty and security of Indonesia,” he said.

T he at t ac k s i n Su r abay a , claimed by Islamic State, left more than 30 people dead and prompted President Joko Widodo to threaten to use his executive powers if the parliament failed to pass revision

by June. It was the deadliest spate of violence since bombings on the resort island of Bali in 2002 killed 202 people, mostly foreigners.

Bloomberg News

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

Saturday, May 26, 2017

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Houston Rockets guard Eric Gordon (right) shoots past Golden State Warriors guard Klay Thompson during the first half in Game Five of the NBA basketball playoffs Western Conference finals in Houston, on Thursday. AP/David J. Phillip

TRAINING IN THE RAIN Manny Pacquiao braved the rains and continued his training sessions in preparation for his title clash with World Boxing Association welterweight champion Lucas Matthysse on July 15 in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Training alongside Pacquiao in General Santos City is Chinese ace Lu Bin, who is also vying for a title shot in the “Fight of Champions” undercard.

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BusinessMi

Saturday, May 26, 2018 | Editor: Jun Lomibao

FROOME: LET’S RESOLVE THIS BEFORE THE TOUR C

HRIS FROOME (Team Sky) has reiterated that he hopes his salbutamol case will be resolved before the Tour de France.

UCI President David Lappartient admitted the case could drag on beyond July, and that there is a risk of Tour de France organizer ASO intervening by using their own race rules to stop Froome from starting on July 7.

Lappartient was at the Giro d’Italia but avoided crossing paths with Froome at the podium area at the start in Riva del Garda.

Froome and Lappartient have never spoken in person, and the French UCI president has apparently never had any direct contact with Team Sky Manager Dave Brailsford. Any dialogue is currently between the UCI legal team and Froome’s legal team as they fight over every detail of his case.

ASO could try to block Froome’s presence at the Tour de France under rules in team contracts that strive to preserve the reputation of the race.

It is unclear how those rules can be imposed if no verdict in the Froome case has been reached. ASO tried to stop Tom Boonen from riding the 2009 Tour de France after he tested positive for cocaine.

However, the Court of Arbitration for Sport ruled that the Belgian could ride.

Lappartient suggested he would respect Froome’s right to ride the Tour de France if no decision has been reached in his case, but Froome does not seem to trust Lappartient.

“I want this resolved as fast as anyone,” Froome told Cyclingnews and The Times after the finish of Stage 17 of the Giro d’Italia in Iseo.

“I want this resolved more than anyone else does, to be honest. I’d love this to be sorted out before the Tour de France, so that question isn’t there anymore. Obviously, there’s a process in place, and we’re following that process.”

Twice the permitted level of salbutamol was discovered in an anti-doping test performed in the final week of last year’s Vuelta a España. Froome went on to win the Spanish Grand Tour ahead of Vincenzo Nibali.

Froome has denied any wrongdoing but must prove that he did not exceed the permitted dosage. There are no time limits on the length of the case, and Froome is allowed to compete as salbutamol is a specified substance rather than a banned doping substance.

Despite the pressures, including from Lappartient, not to race sub judice, Froome has refused to recuse himself, setting himself the lofty goal of the Giro d’Italia-Tour de France double. He crashed before the opening

Jerusalem time trial of the Giro d’Italia and then lost time in the early mountain finishes.

Froome bounced back to win the stage to Monte Zoncolan but paid for that effort the following day to Sappada. He was fourth in Tuesday’s time trial and moved up to fourth overall, 3:50 down on race leader and fellow Briton Simon Yates.

Froome has hinted that the overall victory may now be beyond his grasp, but he intends to fight for a place on the final podium.

“I’m hoping to do the best I can do,” Froome said after warming down in Iseo.

“Whatever placing it turns out being, that’s OK. I’ve wanted to be at my best in this final week, and I’m feeling good. We’ve got three hard mountain stages ahead of us now, and I’ll give everything I’ve got, and we’ll see where I’m at once we get to Rome.”

Froome is not confident of his climbing ability, especially against Yates, but will be ready to take another stage win if the opportunity comes along.

“It’ll be amazing if there was another chance. It’s all going to be about the legs for the next three days. If I feel I’ve got it, then I’m definitely not going to pass up an opportunity,” he said.

Cyclingnews

CHRIS FROOME says he wants his salbutamol case resolved more than anyone else.

‘THE BIGGEST WIN

KATIE HALL celebrates in front of a hometown crowd.

INTERNATIONAL Cycling Union President David Lappartient says that four-time champion Chris Froome will be able to race.

...but Lappartient unsure of quick resolution of Froome case

I

NTERNATIONAL Cycling Union President David Lappartient has said that Chris Froome’s salbutamol case may not be concluded before the Tour de France in July.

Lappartient told Cyclingnews that he had hoped the case would be resolved before the Giro d’Italia but now said that it could carry on through the French Grand Tour.

Lappartient was at the start of Stage 17 in Riva del Garda. He posed for a photograph with race leader Simon Yates but suddenly slipped away from the podium area when Chris Froome signed on. The two have never talked in person, with Lappartient preferring to express his thoughts on the case via the media.

“We hope that it will be as soon as possible and I hope and call for a decision before the Tour for everybody, for his team, for the rider, for the UCI, for the fans and for the organizer,” he told Cyclingnewsat the Giro d’Italia where he was visiting Stage 17. “We don’t want to be

in the situation where we don’t have a decision before the Tour de France. At the beginning, I was expecting a decision before the Giro when we spoke about this in September, unfortunately, this wasn’t the case. I don’t know if we’ll be able to have this before July.”

Froome recorded more than twice the permitted levels of the asthma medication salbutamol in an anti-doping test performed in the final week of last year’s Vuelta a España.

Froome, who has denied any wrongdoing, is under investigation as a result and must prove that he did not exceed the permitted dosage. There are no time limits on the length of the investigation and Froome is allowed to compete as salbutamol is a specified substance rather than a banned one.

He is currently racing at the Giro d’Italia, where he lies in fourth place overall, and Lappartient says that, from a UCI standpoint, he will be able to compete at the Tour de France if the case has not reached its

conclusion. However, he says that he still believes that Froome should voluntarily suspend himself. He also admits that Tour de France organizer ASO could prevent Froome from racing under their own regulations.

“Of course, regarding the UCI rules, if there is no decision before and there is no sanction then he has the opportunity to ride the Tour de France and we always will fully respect his right,” Lappartient said. “I made a statement before that I consider the best way for everybody would be for him not to ride. I keep and maintain my position, however, we recognize that he has a right and we don’t challenge this. But, on the other hand for the Tour de France, they have specific regulations with the potential way to declare that the rider will not be allowed to take part—but this is not under the UCI rules, this is a specific regulation of the event and image of the race.

“This is not what we want and it’s not what the organizer wants. For me, this is better when the institution takes the decision and our jurisdiction bodies take the decision and we don’t want the organizer to take the decision.”

Though Froome is allowed to race while the investigation is ongoing, it remains unclear whether or not his results will stand or be removed should it result in a suspension. The rules on the matter are unclear and reports have varied as to what might happen. Ahead of the Giro d’Italia, race director Mauro Vegni said that he’d received insurances from Lappartient that Froome’s result would not be stripped. Lappartient later said that this was a misunderstanding and the UCI had no control over it.

“We spoke with Mauro about this

because, of course, I never said there would be no sanction,” Lappartient explained to Cyclingnews. “This is up to the anti-doping tribunal to decide what would be the possible or not possible decision and if the results in between would be withdrawn or not. I don’t know what it will be so, of course, I cannot take a decision.

“It’s not completely clear. Normally when we have a penalty or a suspension, usually you use the results in between but it’s not automatic and if in this period you have all of the tests and all of them are negative there is also maybe no reason to have an issue. This is up to the jurisdiction of the UCI to decide but I know the feeling of Mauro and it was a misunderstanding. I never said that though, he will have no decision on this.”

Big brother is watching

Lappartient also commented on the time penalties that were dished out by the videoassisted referee (VAR) at the end of Tuesday’s time trial stage. Six riders, including Fabio Aru, were handed punishments for drafting.

The VAR was introduced for this year after the furore over the decision to throw Peter Sagan out of last year’s Tour de France.

“I would say big brother is clocking you,” he said. “They have to understand that wherever they are in the race, we are watching what is happening and yesterday it was a demonstration of that. The video commissaire is very, very useful. I was a little bit surprised when I saw the results of the time trial so I understood after why. It demonstrates that we don’t accept cheating in cycling.” Cyclingnews

C

alifornian Katie Hall (UnitedHealthcare) was overjoyed after the final stage of the Amgen Women’s Race recently when she could celebrate her overall win in front of a hometown crowd in Sacramento.

Hall had been the race leader in 2015 and 2017, too, but didn’t win the overall on those occasions. Her relief and happiness were palpable

when she spoke to Cyclingnews after the race.

“I’m just so happy. This is the biggest win of my career yet. I feel I was on a roll coming into it, but this was the one I was really focused on this spring. Now it’s over, and we won, that’s just awesome. This is the third year that I have worn the yellow jersey, but the first year that I’ve managed to keep it. I’ve been working on this win for a couple of years now, and it feels really good to get to go home with the win.”

Hall’s UnitedHealthcare team controlled the final circuit race with aplomb, kept their leader safe in the yellow jersey, and could also celebrate winning the team classification.

“This is a really big win for us because we’re a domestic American team, and there are a bunch of European teams here. I’m amazed by my team every single day, every race I’ve done. I have some strengths, but they make up for all of my weaknesses and look out for me. I couldn’t do it without them. And I’m so glad that we all got to celebrate on the podium as best team.”

After she finished third overall last year, Arlenis Sierra (Astana Women’s Team) was one of the riders

YATES IN CONTROL S

IMON YATES was perhaps considered an outsider for the overall victory at the start of the 2018 Giro d’Italia but a few hours before the hugely important Trento time trial, where he will fight to limit his losses to Tom Dumoulin in the hope of retaining the maglia rosa, the 25-year-old continues to exude self-confidence, giving the impression that he is in control of his own destiny and even enjoying trying to win his first Grand Tour.

“This is what I wanted to do when I turned professional, it’s what I’ve been working toward from the beginning,” the Mitchelton-Scott rider said calmly and simply, during the final rest day of the race in Trento after studying the time trial course in the morning.

Yates has followed a careful training plan and race calendar to be at his very best at the Giro d’Italia. He was already on form at Paris-Nice and the Volta a Catalunya but then spent time at home in Andorra, taking advantage of the altitude to work even more on his Grand Tour climbing ability.

He was the best young rider and finished seventh overall at the 2017 Tour de France. The 2018 Giro d’Italia was an achievable and logical next goal.

“I am getting a bit older, a bit stronger—I’m more confident every year,” Yates explained.

“The team knows how I work and how we do things, so small little things are coming together.

I’m also learning from past mistakes with regard to

training. I’m also watching my weight; it’s the best it’s ever been. I think was never that far away from being up there in the Grand Tours, especially in the last year or two, so the small changes make a difference.

“Am I’m surprised to be sitting here with the advantage I have? Yes but to be sitting here, no. I arrived here from the beginning to win the race. I don’t underestimate what I am doing at the Giro d’Italia, I’m know I am doing a great job, I wouldn’t say I’m surprised.”

Yates’s rivals have been left asking why he is so consistently strong while they suffer and fall by the wayside. Yates’s inner calm and growing self-confidence is at least part of his reason. So is his pragmatism.

“I’m relaxed, I feel good, if I blow up and explode in final week, or lose five minutes tomorrow, that’s fine, really fine. I’m happy with what I’ve done. I came to the Giro d’Italia to win but if I can’t, that’s okay, I won’t lose sleep. I want to be the best I can be, but if this is the max, then that’s okay too.”

Yates has gradually won over the Italian media and Italian tifosi. It seems Italy has had an impact on Yates. His very British self-control cracked on the podium after his win in Sappada. He shed a tear on the podium and was clearly emotional afterward.

“I’ve not raced that much in Italy, I am really enjoying my time here, for now it’s really been a great race,” he said.

“There’s been a little bit of a poker face and people

irror CYCLING

mirror_sports@yahoo.com.ph | Saturday, May 26, 2018 A7

LE TOUR DE FILIPINAS CHAMP

Philippine Navy-Standard Insurance’s El Joshua Cariño fulfills a cherished dream as he rules the 2018 Le Tour de Filipinas in dramatic fashion at the Burnham Park in Baguio City on Wednesday. The Mangaldan (Pangasinan) native becomes just the third Filipino to rule the only International Cycling Union-sanctioned road race in the country after 7-Eleven Cliqq Roadbike standouts Baler Ravina (2012) and Mark Galedo (2014).

NONIE REYES

Development of cycling high on Beninese list

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N OF MY CAREER’ to watch in the 2018 edition. But the Cuban was struggling with a tooth infection during the race and had to fight to stay in the race on the first stages before winning the sprint on Stage 3.

“I really have to thank my teammate Sofia Bertizzolo and the rest of the team for their help. A rider crashed into my wheel on the first stage, and yesterday was very hard for me, as well. I felt like I wasn’t going to finish, so now I’m very happy to have won the final stage.”

Alexis Ryan (Canyon-SRAM) led the sprint for a long time only to get pipped by Sierra on the line. The 23-year-old learned from Stage 1 when she finished fourth and launched a long sprint.

“I really wanted to win, and I was so close to winning, so it’s a bit disappointing. Trixi Worrack pulled until 200 meters to go. I knew from stage 1 that I needed to start earlier because I needed to get up to speed and hold it. A 200-meter sprint might be long for some people, but it was perfect for me. It’s just that Sierra had a better kick at the end.” Cyclingnews SIMON YATES: I came here to win, but if I can’t that’s okay. AP

don’t see my 200 heart rate when I am attacking, I’m really suffering inside.”

Yates has raced largely on the defensive so far in his Grand Tour career but at this Giro d’Italia he has been the most aggressive and the most successful, winning three stages in the maglia rosa and pushing out his overall lead on Dumoulin to 2:11. He has clearly stepped up and his rivals have been unable to take him on, while the MitcheltonScott team have controlled the peloton, thanks to their strength and balance.

he Tour de Bénin took riders on a seven-day, 621-kilometer journey through the West African country.

The host nation had two teams taking part, and although they did not feature at the top of the classification, the event’s Director General Romuald Hazoumè was full of praise for their performances.

“I am very proud of the Beninese rider’s results...” declared Hazoumè, also president of the Fédération Béninoise de Cyclisme (FBC), in an interview with Benin Web TV. Two of “his” athletes finished in the top 20 of the overall classification: “They animated the stages, they attacked, they put the other riders under pressure,” he said, before adding that “if we work well we will win.”

Voted to the head of the federation in May 2017, Hazoumè is known in Benin for his long-term commitment to cycling. He has worked tirelessly since his election to develop cycling in his own country, and sees the Tour de Benin as an ideal occasion to promote the sport and enable the country’s riders to measure up against their counterparts from abroad.

“Beninese cyclists are more than ever determined to make a name for themselves in competitions in African and international events,” he declared just days before the event kick-off.

The 15th edition of the Tour de Benin started in Tanguiéta and finished in Cotonou, passing through Porto-Novo, Lokossa and a new venture through the north of the country. The two Beninese teams were joined by teams from Togo, Ghana, Niger, Nigeria, Burkina Faso, Côte d’Ivoire, Cameroon, Congo and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

PROMISING RESULTS

Already this year, results of Beninese riders— among others, at the 30th edition of Tour du Faso or at the last Continental Championships in February—have generated much hope for the future. The Team B also lined up at the Tour Cycliste International du Togo at the beginning of April, while the Team A wore the national colors at the Tour du Sénégal two weeks later.

Romuald Hazoumè credits much of the progress made so far to the signing of a three-year partnership agreement with Sobrera, the Brewery Association of Benin, which has facilitated the implementation of changes with well-defined activities and the provision of equipment.

With the help of a new, dynamic and dedicated team, the president is slowly beginning to build up cycling in Benin. The federation has enabled its teams to attend various training sessions around the world as part of its development plan. It is also building entire teams of commissaires, coaches and mechanics.

Benin has been looking to innovate, and that began with the hosting of an official race in Banikouara, in the north of the country. Held on March 18, its principal aim was to uncover new talent. 200 riders took to the start line, and enthusiastic large crowds lined the route.

The Men Elite race served as a test for future representatives of the National team, ahead of the Tour du Lomé and the Tour du Sénégal.

Following that race, the mayor of Banikoara lent his support to the best riders from his area and made a commitment to open a cycling club in his town. After Banikoara, the aim is to extend this type of talent-spotting race to Glzoué and Djougou, with the intention of taking the best 10 riders from each region to a final in Lokossa in June.

“Our objective is clear: work to ensure every event organized and every action taken contributes to the development of cycling across the whole of Benin, with the aim of garnering respect for this nation’s sporting achievements,” Hazoumè said.

This is an opportunity that we must seize to move forward and achieve our objectives.

There is a new train on the tracks and it will not wait for those who wish to stop it with their old ways. If the riders are good, we’ll take them from wherever they are in the country, and they will board the train so that we can all win,” he added. UCI News

Making riding better for everyone

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undreds of city officials, advocates, bike industry leaders and retailers put their heads together at a conference in Indianapolis, to discuss better biking solutions for cities.

Earlier this month, the US-based cycling advocacy group PeopleForBikes organized the second edition of its PlacesForBikes Conference. The agenda was centered around PeopleForBikes’s four-part formula for building better biking: Plan, Build, Engage and Measure.

It included topics such as: n planning complete bike networks n building more equitable communities n finding funding and engaging nontraditional partners n overcoming bikelash n making the business case for bicycling n speeding project delivery and measuring success The conference offered tools, ideas and strategies to achieve broader

community goals through biking, allowing attendees to develop and refine action plans for their own communities. Keynote speakers include Valerie Jarrett, former senior adviser to President Obama; Manuel Calvo, mastermind of Seville’s bicycle network; Doug Gordon, writer and producer of BrooklynSpoke.com; and Toks Omishakin, chief of the bureau of environment and planning at the Tennessee Department of Transportation. More than 35 other experts provided in-depth feedback and recommendations regarding building connected infrastructure, fostering political leadership and other key themes, during the three days.

The conference also featured a DRAFT Meetup; DRAFT is a nationwide series created

by PeopleForBikes that taps into people who love bikes, business and beer. These events bring communities together to celebrate the latest bike industry innovations and share big ideas— all while enjoying delicious craft beer.

UCI Mass Participation and Advocacy Manager Isabella Burczak had a chance to provide an overview of how the UCI works on linking elite and everyday cycling promotion during this interactive evening, which also included presentations by Adam Vollmer, founder and CEO of Faraday Bicycles, and Vop Osili, president of Indianapolis City-County Council.

One of the highlights of the conference was the opportunity to experience Indianapolis’s Cultural Trail, an 8-mile-long decorative brick path for cyclists and pedestrians connecting visitors to hotels, restaurants and other attractions. The $63-million investment has been considered as a model for urban revitalization. UCI News

A8 Saturday, May 26, 2018 • Editor: Efleda P. Campos

OurTime BusinessMirror

www.businessmirror.com.ph

‘Tatay Sendong’ has been driving a jeepney for the past 4 decades S

older citizens team up with Manila Water, QC to plant trees ENIOR citizens of the Quezon City local government and their g randchildren teamed up with employees of East Zone water and used-water concessionaire Manila Water as they planted trees at the Pugad Lawin Shrine in Quezon City.

The tree-planting activity with the theme “Pamanang Yaman” symbolizes the legacy of senior

By Angel Tamayo

A

Special to the BusinessMirror

FAMOUS fashion designer, Diane von Furstenberg, once said, “Aging is out of your control. How you handle it, though, is in your hands.”

Getting old is inevitable, but aging has never been an excuse for a 77-year-old who has been driving a jeepney for the past four decades to sustain his family’s daily needs.

Rosendo “Tatay Sendong” de Leon Fadriquela from Paco, Manila, complements his income as a jeepney driver by being a vendor in a public market. With this dual job, he was able to send his four children to private school until they graduated from college.

Despite the planned jeepney phase-out, Tatay still considers driving a jeepney as his primary source of income, where he gets his daily needs, such as food and

medicine for his health maintenance (vitamins, medicines for hypertension and asthma). For him, his P500 to P600 daily net earnings are already a big help in sustaining his needs. Sometimes, if he does have extra money, he would treat his grandchildren for snacks.

Although his children are now professionals, Tatay Sendong, a widower, said he doesn’t want to be a burden to his children. As much as possible, he doesn’t want to ask money from them because they have their own family to feed and support. If he does, he makes sure he returns it after.

Driving a jeepney is not only

Iloilo City to distribute social pension to 5,000 older people, 2,000 PWDs

I

Fadriquela

for his living expenses. He considers it his passion and his everyday exercise.

Tatay Sendong would rather drive the jeepney than to stay at home and rest. “I feel weak whenever I stop driving and I don’t like that kind of feeling. I would go out and do some stretching. That way, I get to exercise my body and, at the same time, I am able to earn money. I will only stop driving when my body gets weak.”

Though he only borrows the

jeepney from a friend, Tatay Sendong drives 12 hours a day, except Friday, from Taft to Guadalupe and back until around 7 p.m.

He does not mind the cramped space nor the occasional passenger who does not pay their fare. He also does not complain about the long hours of sitting, the dust, the heat and the glare of the sun.

However, for those 40 years of driving, he not only served his family; he also served the ordinary people who ride the jeepney.

Workplace revolution will be led by senior citizens

By Tyler Cowen

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Bloomberg Opinion

LOOMBERG asked readers a year ago: “Are you about to be replaced by a robot?”

Next the question became a statement: “Robots are coming for jobs of as many as 800 million worldwide.”

Does the real-world experience so far back up the fears? Japan and the United States are two of the countries most advanced in robot deployment, and yet both are very close to full employment. To be sure, introducing more software and more robots into the workplace introduces very real problems of training and retraining, but there will always be more work to be done.

Scary as the rise of robots apparently is, perhaps it’s a fixation because it’s actually less scary than the real social issues ahead.

One of those is how to integrate growing numbers of elderly into the workplace. More elderly workers will force many people to confront their biases, fears and prejudices, probably leading to a bigger cultural clash than that with the machines.

No matter how much they may disavow explicit age discrimination, many companies try to portray themselves as cool places to work for young people. And, indeed, these companies are especially interested in hiring younger people: The median age at the hot tech companies ranges from 27 to 31. It’s 38 at IBM and 39 at Hewlett Packard, still young by most standards, but in the tech industry those are viewed as much-stodgier places to work. Overall, the median age of American workers is a little over 42.

It is not a surprise that tech companies should have so many younger workers, because younger people probably are on average more in touch with the latest developments in rapidly changing fields, such as programming and software. Younger people also seem more interested in putting in the sometimes crazy hours behind many start-ups, because they have a higher overall career return from doing so.

Of course, American business is becoming more like the tech

sector as more companies are incorporating tech innovations.

That development may not favor elderly workers.

Squeamishness about the elderly manifests itself in advertising, too. Retirement products and Viagra are exceptions, but so many ads use young actors because companies are image-conscious. Collectively it amounts to a harmful form of age discrimination. These biases toward youth may be a greater problem in America, which typically has prided itself on being a young, dynamic culture, always riding the next wave of change.

There is also a practice, hard to avoid even in efficient workplaces, to reward workers to some extent on the basis of seniority alone. In the longer run, that makes elderly workers a potential target for costcutting, even if they are doing a good job.

Of course, the age structure of America’s work force is moving in the opposite direction of these trends. The populations of

citizens of giving back to nature a cleaner and greener environment for the next generation.

Present during the event were Frederika Rentoy and Quezon City Councilor Beth Delarmente, who acknowledged Manila Water’s strong commitment to environmental protection. She also expressed hope to replicate the program in other parks in Quezon City.

the US and many other developed nations are aging, and the big surprise has been that older people want to work more than in previous generations. Against many prior expectations, the laborforce-participation rate of older Americans started rising in the 1980s and 1990s. For instance, t he l abor-force-pa r t icipat ion rate for men ages 65 to 69 was 25 percent in 1985 but 37 percent in 2016. By 2020 over one-quarter of the work force will be over 55 years of age.

The ability to spot, mobilize and deploy older workers is the next biggest source of competitive advantage in the United States. The sober reality is that many companies should retool their methods to fit better with the experience and sound judgment found so often in older workers. That also will involve a retooling of the glamour notion to valorize the young less and the idea of maturity more. HR departments may have to work harder to help older workers keep

up with new technologies.

That prospect doesn’t make for exciting headlines as a robot takeover does. But most of the story of economic success involves such small changes. And do you know which group of workers often understands that best? The older ones.

Of course, some sectors have welcomed elderly workers with open arms. In academia, the practice of mandatory retirement at age 70 has been replaced by permanent tenure, because of changes in the law. This has happened without incidence, though it may bring long-run fiscal problems if more people work through their 80s and beyond. On the bright side, that development might induce a beneficial modification of the tenure system, and a move toward greater contract flexibility.

Our willingness to banter about the robot apocalypse is yet another sign that, too often, we just don’t want to confront the issues surrounding the elderly.

VIZCAYA’S PRIDE An elderly man who prefers to be called Tatang shows off a bottle of fruit vinegar fermented from varieties of fruits grown in Nueva Vizcaya. The province is famous for the production of local products like native vinegars and fruit preserves. LEONARDO PERANTE II

LOILO CITy—The city government will kick off the distribution of the social pension for 2,000 persons with disability (PWDs) and 5,000 senior citizens here on Tuesday.

Gene Garingalao, city social welfare and development officer, said in an interview last Monday the social pension is sourced from the city’s local fund. Each PWD and senior citizen beneficiary is entitled to P1,000 annually.

Garingalao added that Tuesday’s release will represent 50 percent of the annual pension. The distribution will accommodate PWDs first. She added they hoped to

complete the distribution before the month ends.

Garingalao said senior citizen beneficiaries for this local program were chosen in coordination with the Federation of Senior Citizens Affairs of the Philippines.

She added they are not recipients of the national government’s social-pension program, and are still active senior citizens.

PWDs were also chosen in coordination with their association, she said.

Garingalao added the national pension for identified senior citizens is targeted to be released next month. PNA

China’s baby boom needs to start in the workplace

By Adam Minter Bloomberg Opinion

C

HINA is home currently to 241 million people over the age of 60, approximately 17 percent of the population.

By 2050 the elderly will number around 500 million and account for more than one-third of the population.

A report by Bloomberg News said the Chinese government has grown so alarmed by these developments that it’s preparing to scrap all limits on the number of children that a family can have. By early next year the infamous one-child and—more recently— two-child policies should be no more.

That decision is worth celebrating as a victory for reproductive rights. On its own, however, it won’t inspire a baby boom. To encourage Chinese to have more children, the government is going to have to overcome some deeply ingrained biases and make it easier—not harder—for women to work while raising kids.

China’s been aging since at least 1965, when the country’s modern fertility rate peaked. Several factors contributed to the subsequent decline, including the Cultural Revolution and—starting in 1970—coercive Maoist campaigns to promote later marriages, greater spacing between births, and fewer children. By one accounting, as much as three-quarters of China’s fertility decline since 1970 took place even before the government introduced the one-child policy late in that decade.

Indeed, despite being often brutally enforced, the policy’s impact on China’s fertility rate, population and gender balance appears to have been limited. During the 1980s the most intense period of enforcement, China’s fertility rate hardly changed at all.

When the rate began to decline again in the 1990s, finally falling below replacement value, economic changes appear to have been the cause. Young Chinese, especially women, suddenly had greater access to education and jobs. To escape the burdens of small-town China, where they were expected to stay in the home and raise families, millions of women migrated to cities and took up factory work. Others took advantage of an expanding education system.

Today, 52 percent of Chinese women enroll in tertiary education while fewer than 40 percent of men do the same. Career independence is a common goal, with 63.3 percent of women participating in the work force.

These women face discrimination, even from the government, for choosing work over children. Since 2007 the government

has promoted the term “leftover women” to scapegoat successful, educated, unmarried, urban women over the age of 27. The official attitudes trickle down to workplaces, where according to one comprehensive 2017 survey, 43 percent of women with graduate degrees experienced employment discrimination (compared to 22 percent overall).

Likewise, married women without children and women in prime child-bearing years were much more likely to face discrimination than their peers.

Pushing women to leave the work force to have kids will hardly help matters. At a time when the cost of raising children in China is becoming ever more expensive—and a leading factor cited by families that choose not to have more than one child—women need equal access to the job market and equal pay.

The first step should be to ensure both by actively enforcing antidiscrimination laws.

That’s part of a successful approach that Sweden adopted as early as the 1930s to boost a declining fertility rate, and there’s no reason—beyond political will—that it couldn’t be successful in China, too.

Officials also need to rethink well-meaning policies that are designed to help working women. For example, last year the government expanded parental-leave policies in 30 provinces. Yet rather than be embraced by the public, the decision was widely dismissed and derided as yet another excuse for employers to avoid hiring and promoting women of child-bearing age. Instead of lengthening leaves, they should be shortened and be made more generous, allowing families to receive a full salary for the duration.

They should then be supplemented with the introduction of a universal childcare program. While an expensive and long-term proposition, that’s not as far-fetched an idea as it might seem. After all, China is keen to expand its service economy and childcare is an excellent way to boost skilled and semiskilled employment.

If employment shortages emerge, migrants from Southeast Asia could help fill the gap. (China recently concluded an agreement to hire 100,000 Filipino English teachers.) A program could be rolled out in stages from expensive cities to the rural countryside, where demand is lower due to the presence of extended families and grandparents.

There’s no question that China’s low fertility rate is a long-term burden. But it’s also a reminder of the extraordinary economic and social progress the country has made over four decades. As China looks to increase its population, it should do so by embracing those changes, not seeking to reverse them.

BusinessMirror

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

HMD Global raises $100 million to fuel next phase of growth FINLAND-BASED start-up HMD Global, the home of Nokia phones, announced recently that it has raised additional $100 million from multiple investors to scale business operations and fund the company’s growth in its second year. This round of investment has been led by Geneva-based Ginko Ventures via Alpha Ginko Ltd., with participation from DMJ Asia Investment Opportunity Ltd. and Wonderful Stars Pte. Ltd., a subsidiary of FIH Mobile Ltd. With the latest round of funding, HMD Global’s current market valuation exceeds $1 billion, giving it a unicorn status. The company will be making strategic investments in scaling its fast-growing business operations. In 2018 it plans to aggressively expand its portfolio of Nokia smartphones and double down on expanding channel reach in strategic markets while continuing to deliver innovation where it matters most to consumers.

Florian Seiche, CEO of HMD Global, said, “We are thrilled to have these investors join us in our journey to script the next chapter of Nokia phones. It is our ambition to deliver great smartphones that delight our fans while staying true to our Finnish roots and the hallmarks the Nokia brand has always been known for. We aim to be among the top smartphone players globally and our success to date gives us the confidence to further continue on a growth path in 2018 and beyond.”

Set up on December 1, 2016, the company in its first year has shipped more than 70 million Nokiabranded phones, scaled sales operations in over 80 countries with phone activations coming from 170 countries. Today Nokia phones are sold at over 250,000 retail outlets across the world, and more than 600 direct trade partners are committed to this next chapter of Nokia phones globally. In financial year 2017, HMD Global posted a total revenue of €1.8 billion ($2.13 billion) along with an operational loss of €65 million ($77 million).

Demonstrating incredible passion, engagement and enthusiasm for the new portfolio, the response from fans around the world to the new Nokia range of Android smartphones has been humbling. Two-thirds of consumers buying a Nokia phone today are below the age of 35 years. Four out of every five consumers are recommending the brand to their friends and family. Over 150,000,000 visits have been welcomed to the Nokia.com/phones web site since January 2017.

Since Mobile World Congress (MWC) 2017, the Finnish start-up has introduced 16 new devices and global partnerships with industry heavyweights such as Google and ZEISS, in addition to its long-term strategic relationship with Nokia and FIH. At MWC 2018, HMD Global announced that it will be the lead global partner for Google’s flagship program for Android, Android One, committing a complete portfolio of Nokia smartphones to the Android One family.

Saturday, May 26, 2018 A9

Is it back to hailing cabs on the street for commuters? which I previously wrote about in this space, and also failed to get a ride that night.

In the weeks prior to last Friday’s disaster, booking Grab rides had been even more difficult than usual.

Just to get a ride and not be late for appointments, I had to resort to booking rides an hour before I had to leave the house.

In its web site, Grab said, “The number of people who request for Grab cars in the Metro has almost doubled to 600,000 bookings every day.

“Unfortunately, the number of available drivers has decreased from 43,000 to just 35,000. This means that after the acquisition, there are 8,000 less cars every day to meet riders’ needs,” Grab said.

I don’t know about you but I along with most of my family and friends have had difficulty in booking Grab rides. On Tuesday night an Instagram friend had been trying to book a Grab Car for two hours and finally gave up. Her brother ended up picking her up from work.

According to Grab, it has been trying since March to transition all Uber drivers to the Grab platform via a variety of channels, such as an on-ground sign-up event, e-mail, SMS and social media.

“However, we’re unable to complete this transition with more than 6,000 cars missing from the Land Transportation Franchise and Regulatory Board [LTFRB] audited masterlist of transport network vehicle service [TNVS] drivers. As per regulation, we cannot onboard them unless they are on this list. The remaining 2,000 have decided not to move to our platform,” Grab said.

According to several Grab drivers I have talked to, there are so many of them who operate on the platform by using tricks. For instance, one driver will try to up his Acceptance Rating by accepting your booking but not arriving at the pick-up point for a long time so you’re forced to cancel the ride.

Why do they do this? To bring down their Cancellation Rate. The Grab drivers I have talked to said this is usually done by drivers who own their cars and, thus, technically, have nothing to lose.

Their goal, according to the other drivers, is to get booked on rides that are advantageous to them. For example, they like foreigners who may possibly give huge tips, or older people for the same reason. So they resort to whatever tricks to achieve their goals.

Aside from Micab, the LTFRB has accredited other TNVS to give commuters more choices. These include Hype, HirNa, OWTO and GoLag. I wish Lyft would come to the Philippines because as we have seen in the past few weeks, a monopoly is dangerous.

China has Didi Chuxing, which has established a dominant position in its home country with over 450 million registered users and 21 million drivers in more than 400 cities. That translates to over 30 million rides a day. It’s twice as many rides as all the other ride-hailing apps. It’s unlikely that Didi will ever come to the Philippines but as someone who is dependent on ride-sharing services, I can still hope.

In the Philippine setting, the ride sharing scenario seems bleak for commuters. It seems that those who don’t take the train, jeepneys, UV Express or buses are once again at the mercy of cab drivers. ■

KENDRA DURAN (from left), host; Jerome Ascano, sports photographer; JV Ruanto, Sony Philippines product marketing officer for digital imaging; Pilar Trigo Bonnin, portrait photographer; and Sony Philippines Sales Director Sunao Sakata

DROPBOX SETTLES OVER AUTO-RENEW COMPLAINT IN CALIFORNIA

PRIMETIME

DINNA CHAN VASQUEZ @dinnachanvasquez luckydinna@gmail.com

S

O like most of those who don’t drive cars in Metro Manila, I was stuck last Friday waiting for a ride.

I had been booking a Grab Car for two hours from SM Megamall to Music Museum in Greenhills to no avail. I tried that, then a Grab Taxi, and after that a Grab Six-Seater. I also attempted booking a Grab Share ride and a Grab Premium, which is more expensive. But I still didn’t get a ride.

Finally, I went out of the mall via SM Megamall’s Mega Fashion Hall where I was lucky enough to hail a cab after an hour of waiting. I say “lucky” because people had been there waiting longer but since there was no line, it was a on a first-grab-first-served basis.

There is something very wrong with the transport system when you have been conditioned to believe that you are lucky to get a ride after hours of waiting.

In my case, I had to offer the driver a P200 tip just to accept me as a passenger.

To be fair to me, I had downloaded the Micab app,

Live test drive of new Sony a7 III reveals high picture quality, powerful capture speed SONY Philippines launched recently the newest additions to its full-frame mirrorless camera lineup, the Sonya7 III: the ILCE- 7M3K (P129,999) and the ILCE-7M3 (P115,999).

Retaining high-powered performance, high-quality image processing, 4K movie shooting, fast-processing speed and shooting response, the a7 III comes as another breakthrough on the Sony Alpha lineup. It also features highperforming battery life unknown to any mirrorless camera at 710 shots per charge. The event showcased the latest features of the a7 III through photo talks and demos from Sony ambassadors Pilar Bonnin, portrait photographer; and Jerome Ascano, sports photographer. The event gathered various photography communities comprising of amateur to professional shooters, and the tech and lifestyle media.

Ascano test-drove the unit on-ground through a live mock-up boxing match. Jerome said, “As a sports photographer, having the right equipment is vital to capture the right moments. The a7 III’s capturing speed allows me to capture the moments at a faster pace without compromising the image quality, and this is up to 24.2 megapixels.”

On the other hand, Bonnin reviewed the picture quality through an onsite bridal studio photoshoot. “The a7 III is very user-friendly. It allows you to take seamless images effortlessly,” she said. During the live shoot, she shared with the crowd the clarity of the captured images—from the details of the gown to the face of the subject.

The latest innovations in mirrorless camera come with the Sony a7 III, including: ■ Newly developed Full-Frame 24.2MP Back-Illuminated Exmor R CMOS Image Sensor with Evolved Image Processing ■ Wide ISO range of 100-51200 (expandable to ISO 50204800 for still images) and 15-Stop Dynamic Range at low sensitivities ■ World Class AF system featuring 693 phase-detection AF points covering 93 percent of image area, 425 contrast AF points and fast and reliable Eye AF ■ Continuous Shooting at up to 10 fps with either Mechanical Shutter or Silent Shooting and full Auto Focus/ Auto Exposure tracking.

OAKLAND, California—Online file sharing company Dropbox will pay $1.6 million in civil penalties and $450,000 in restitution as part of a settlement with prosecutors in California over its subscription renewal policies.

District attorneys in four counties sued, alleging the firm failed to properly notify customers using its paid Dropbox Pro service about its automatic renewal policy in violation of state law.

Dropbox agreed to the settlement without admitting liability. The settlement was announced on Wednesday by officials in Alameda County, where the civil action was filed.

In addition, prosecutors alleged the company didn’t sufficiently advise consumers that its Dropbox for Business service was intended only for organizations or businesses—not individual consumers using it for personal, family or household reasons. Dropbox says it’s pleased to have resolved the matter. AP

BusinessMirror

A10 Saturday, May 26, 2018

www.businessmirror.com.ph

From airlines to pizza parlors, EU businesses adopt data law /

LISA MEYER blow drys the hair of a client at her Hair and Beauty shop in London.

Meyer is worried about how the European Union’s new data-protection law will affect her business as she contacts customers to seek permission to store their details on her computer. AP

L

BY DANICA KIRKA The Associated Press

ONDON—Lisa Meyer’s hair salon is a cozy place where her mother serves homemade macaroons, children climb on chairs and customers chat above the whirr of hairdryers.

Most of the time Meyer is focused on hairstyles, color trends and keeping up with appointments.

But now she’s worried about how the European Union’s (EU) new data-protection law will affect her business as she contacts customers to seek permission to store their details. Even though she supports the law, Meyer fears it may cut her mailing list by 90 percent as people choose to withhold their data or simply overlook her e-mails.

“It will be difficult to market upcoming events,” she said at her shop, Lisa Hauck Hair & Beauty in London.

Businesses from pizza parlors to airlines across the EU’s 28 countries are bombarding customers with emails seeking consent to use personal data as they rush to comply with the bloc’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), which takes effect Friday. While much of the attention has focused on how technology giants like Facebook and Google will comply with the rules, consumers are learning firsthand that they apply to any firm, large or small, that stores personal data.

The new rules, called GDPR for short, are designed to make it easier for EU residents to give and withdraw permission for companies to use personal information, requiring consent forms that are written in simple language and no more than one-page long.

Companies that already hold such data have to reach out to customers and ask for permission to retain it.

Authorities can fine companies up to 4 percent of annual revenue or €20 million ($23.6 million), whichever is higher, for breaching the rules.

As a result, e-mail boxes all over the continent are being swamped with messages from opticians, hotels, greeting card companies and even charities that fear stiff penalties for noncompliance.

In an effort to rise above the clutter, some companies are trying to spice up their approach as they try to ensure continued access to information vital to their businesses.

The St. Pancras Hotels Group promises that “only nominated people have access to your details, and they are kept really safe, guarded by our very own British Bulldogs. And a rude punk rocker.” Britain’s Channel 4 television offered up a video featuring one of the country’s best-known comedians explaining GDPR and how it will affect viewers. Many are using animations, like one from France’s mobile operator Bouygues, to explain the rules.

Regulators say the law applies to anyone who collects, uses or stores personal data. That can be a burden for small businesses that are forced to hire outside lawyers or consultants because they don’t have the staff or expertise to deal with the law.

The EU’s one-size-fits-all approach is one of the flaws in the law, according to Max Schrems, an Austrian privacy advocate who has formed a nonprofit to take action against big companies that deliberately violate the new rules.

BAP to push awareness of blockchain technology

BY RIZAL RAOUL S. REYES

When the rules were being discussed, industry lobbyists sought to weaken the law by creating uncertainty, and as a result there are no clear guidelines that exempt small companies, Schrems told the BBC recently.

“GDPR is a prime example of corporate law gone wrong, because it’s helpful for big companies,” he said.

“They have to do all of this anyways and they can use the uncertainty in the law to kind of get around things. But it leaves small companies that don’t... have a law department, or something like that, in a situation with a lot of uncertainty.”

Meyer falls under the new rules’ jurisdiction because she keeps data. Like many hair colorists, she keeps a card on each of her clients that notes whether they are allergic to any chemicals used in the dyes.

That’s considered personal medical information that must be protected.

She took a data protection course to learn about her obligations and avoid legal bills.

“I find it actually quite scary how data is being used so carelessly,” Meyer said. “It’s a good wake-up call. It’s made me more aware.”

But many others have been caught off-guard.

A survey by French consultancy Capgemini says that 85 percent of European firms will not have completed their preparations for GDPR this week. It finds that British businesses are the most advanced and Swedish ones have the most work to do still.

A survey conducted by Britain’s Federation of Small Businesses estimates that complying with the rules will cost an average of £1,030 ($1,390) per

company. “For a small business, it’s hugely onerous,” said Mark Elliott, who runs the digital marketing company, Sparks4Growth Ltd. He knows other small business owners who are worried about the extra red tape and costs of complying with the law.

“I think, quite simply, they left us open to the lions,” he said of regulators.

EU officials say GDPR is necessary to catch up with all the technological advances since 1995, when the last comprehensive European rules on data privacy were put in place.

As technology advances, data becomes more important. The ability to analyze everything from medical records to the weather holds enormous potential, with suggestions it will make us healthier, improve traffic flows and help scientists learn more about the movements of endangered species, to name but a few items. But with that potential comes concern about privacy.

The threat was vividly illustrated earlier this year when allegations surfaced that a little known campaign consultancy, Cambridge Analytica, misused data from millions of Facebook accounts to help Donald J. Trump win the 2016 US presidential election. That touched off a global debate over Internet privacy and triggered speculation other jurisdictions will soon follow the EU in tightening data-protection laws. That is just fine with Meyer, who thinks society needs a new etiquette for dealing with personal data.

“It’s like sitting up straight at the table. It’s like not talking too loud on the bus,” she said. Respect for data “has to get into our culture.” ■

NEW ANDROID-BASED MALWARE CAMPAIGN SPREADING THROUGH COMPROMISED LEGITIMATE WEB SITES GLOBAL cybersecurity company Kaspersky Lab (www. kaspersky.com) researchers have discovered ZooPark, a sophisticated cyberespionage campaign, which for several years has been targeting users of Android devices based in several Middle Eastern countries. Using legitimate web sites as sources of infection, the campaign appears to be a nation-state backed operation aimed at political organizations, activists and other targets based in the region.

Recently, Kaspersky Lab researchers received something that seemed to be a sample of unknown Android-malware.

At first glance, the malware appeared to be nothing serious: a technically very simple and straightforward cyberespionage tool. Researchers decided to investigate further and soon discovered a far more recent and sophisticated version of the same app. They decided to call it ZooPark.

Some of the malicious ZooPark apps are being distributed from news and political web sites popular in specific parts of the Middle East. They are disguised as legitimate apps with names like “TelegramGroups” and “Alnaharegypt news,” among others, recognized in and relevant to some Middle Eastern countries.

Upon successful infection, the malware provides the attacker with the following abilities:

EXFILTRATION: ■ Contacts ■ Account data ■ Call logs and audio recordings of the calls ■ Pictures stored on the SD card of the device ■ GPS location ■ SMS messages ■ Installed application details, browser data ■ Keylogs and clipboard data ■ Etc. BACKDOOR FUNCTIONALITY: ■ Silently sending SMS ■ Silently making calls ■ Execution of shell commands An additional malicious function targets instant messaging applications, like Telegram, WhatsApp IMO; the Web browser (Chrome) and some other applications. It allows the malware to steal the internal databases of the attacked apps. For example, with the Web browser this would mean that stored credentials to other web sites could be compromised as a result of the attack.

Read more about the ZooPark advanced persistent threat at www.securelist.com.

IN order to boost application of blockchain technology in the Philippines, the Blockchain Association of the Philippines (BAP) will conduct a three-day forum from May 28 to 30, to enhance the general awareness of the latest technology and convince business leaders and thinkers that are not yet on the blockchain to embrace it. In a news briefing held on May 21, Union Bank of the Philippines Chairman and CEO Justo Ortiz said the enterprise-level organizations like the country’s conglomerates can set the pace in implementing blockchain technology in their operations. “We have to up the ante to the next level— to the enterprise level,” Ortiz said in the news briefing.

“At the end of the day, if enterprise adopts blockchain, people will follow,” Ortiz added.

Christian Blanquera, chief technology officer of Sterling Technologies, said people must be aware that blockchain and cryptocurrency have a separate distinction. In the early days of cryptocurrency, blockchain had been used as its platform.

But this has changed in the recent years as blockchain has been used by several organizations and institutions in their operations. For instance, Georgia is using blockchain for their list of land titles.

Brian Behlendorf, executive director of Hyperledger, said blockchain became an epitome by among techies because it’s often discussed in similar context with cryptocurrencies such as the Bitcoin and Ethereum. “However, they are not one and the same,” Behlendorf explained.

Vincent Choy, director of the Blockchain Asia Forum, said blockchain can be harnessed in every major aspect of operations such as supply chain management.

Arvie de Vera, head of fintech and partnerships of Union Bank, said application of blockchain technology is going to benefit rural banks in serving their clients because it will enable them to process their transactions faster. “Rural banks can check the records of clients in the digital ledgers powered by blockchain,” he said.

Blockchain, also called the new Internet, is a distributed ledger that allows people around the world to link their computing power to create permanent records of exchange and build systems that have trust, accountability, security and transparency at their core. Also known as distributed ledgers, it can be used to record promises, trades, transactions or simply items that a user doesn’t want to disappear.

Mirrored exactly across all nodes in a given network, it allows everyone in an ecosystem to keep a copy of the common system of record.

Furthermore, the records can never be edited or erased. Being a relatively new concept, blockchain remains an arcane concept to many local businessmen and company executives, particularly those that are not too tech-savvy.

The first day of the forum, on May 28, will be the formal launch of the BAP and the staging of two preconference boot camps. One is a wholeday workshop on “Ethereum and Smart Contract Development,” which is designed especially for software developers, tech experts and blockchain enthusiasts who wish to get into coding in the blockchain platform Ethereum.

The forum also aims to help entrepreneurs and corporate decision-makers find the right blockchain solution for their businesses, particularly in the light of the fact that aside from fintech, blockchain solutions can be implemented into gaming, supply chains, logistics, digital identity and much more.

A special discussion on blockchain for the social good will be led by Daniel de Gruijter of Incitement and Paolo Magnata from the UNDP. Also of particular interest would be the look at how blockchain can be applied to the entertainment, logistics, energy, commerce, health care and even government sectors.

The three-day forum will be capped by a panel discussion on “What is Next? Taking the Leap into Blockchain,” which will focus on what corporations need to do with newly acquired information on blockchain and what they can do to move ahead.

BusinessMirror

www.businessmirror.com.ph

Saturday, May 26, 2018 A11

Amazon shouldn’t sell face-recognition tech to police

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BY GENE JOHNSON The Associated Press

EATTLE—The American Civil Liberties Union and other privacy activists are asking Amazon to stop marketing a powerful facial-recognition tool to police, saying lawenforcement agencies could use the technology to “easily build a system to automate the identification and tracking of anyone.”

The tool, called Rekognition, is already being used by at least one agency—the Washington County Sheriff’s Office in Oregon—to check photographs of unidentified suspects against a database of mug shots from the county jail, which is a common use of such technology around the country.

But privacy advocates have been concerned about expanding the use of facial recognition to body cameras worn by officers or safety and traffic cameras that monitor public areas, allowing police to identify and track people in real time.

The tech giant’s entry into the market could vastly accelerate such developments, the privacy advocates

fear, with potentially dire consequences for minorities who are already arrested at disproportionate rates, immigrants who may be in the country illegally or political protesters.

“People should be free to walk down the street without being watched by the government,” the groups wrote in a letter to Amazon on Tuesday.

“Facial recognition in American communities threatens this freedom.”

Amazon released Rekognition in late-2016, and the sheriff’s office in Washington County, west of Portland, became one of its first law-enforcement agency customers. A year later, deputies were using it about 20 times per day—for example, to identify burglary suspects in store surveillance footage.

Last month the agency adopted policies governing its use, noting that officers in the field can use realtime face recognition to identify suspects who are unwilling or unable to provide their own ID, or if someone’s life is in danger.

“We are not mass-collecting. We are not putting a camera out on a street corner,” said Deputy Jeff Talbot, a spokesman for the sheriff’s office. “We want our

local community to be aware of what we’re doing, how we’re using it to solve crimes—what it is and, just as important, what it is not.”

It cost the sheriff’s office just $400 to load 305,000 booking photos into the system and $6 per month in fees to continue the service, according to an e-mail obtained by the ACLU under a public records request.

Amazon Web Services did not answer e-mailed questions about how many law-enforcement agencies are using Rekognition, but in a written statement the company said it requires all of its customers to comply with the law and to be responsible in the use of its products.

The statement said some agencies have used the program to find abducted people, and amusement parks have used it to find lost children. British broadcaster Sky News used Rekognition to help viewers identify celebrities at the royal wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle last weekend.

Last year the Orlando, Florida, Police Department announced it would begin a pilot program relying on Amazon’s technology to “use existing City resources to provide real-time detection and notification of

persons-of-interest, further increasing public safety.”

Orlando has a network of public-safety cameras, and in a presentation posted to YouTube this month, Ranju Das, who leads Amazon Rekognition, said Amazon would receive feeds from the cameras, search them against photos of people being sought by law enforcement and notify police of any hits. “It’s about recognizing people, it’s about tracking people, and then it’s about doing this in real time, so that the lawenforcement officers...can be then alerted in real time to events that are happening,” he said.

The Orlando Police Department declined to make anyone available for an interview about the program, but said in an e-mail to The Associated Press that the department “is not using the technology in an investigative capacity or in any public spaces at this time.” Amazon’s technology isn’t that different from what face-recognition companies are already selling to law-enforcement agencies. But its vast reach and its interest in recruiting more police departments to take part raise concerns, she said.

“This raises very real questions about the ability to remain anonymous in public spaces,” Garvie said. ■

Curse of the middle child: Does the Huawei P20 deserve more attention?

CONTINUED FROM A12 The dual-camera module is flushed vertically near the top left corner with the dual-tone, dual-LED flash just below the camera lens. The new Huawei logo is at the bottom end, together with several labels and required markings. I prefer this new layout and camera placement because most of us probably take photos in landscape mode and hold our phones horizontally anyway.

Unlike the P20 Pro, the P20 only has IP53 dust and water resistance, which means the phone is protected from dust ingress but not submersion in water, only a light spray. So while you can use it in the rain, it won’t survive being dropped in a tub or pool. But even with IP67 protection, who does that anyway?

The quality of the screen is really good, despite being an IPS LCD panel compared to the P20 Pro’s OLED panel. It’s bright and colorful, and if it looks a bit too saturated, you can just adjust the color mode and temperature from vivid to normal. I, personally, prefer the screen of the P20 because of the better viewing angles and outdoor brightness.

SECOND-BEST CAMERA

WHEN it comes to camera, only a few other smartphone brands can go head to head with Huawei, especially since partnering with Leica.

This year it’s official. Based on the DxOMark scores, Huawei has the best smartphone cameras beating the Samsung S9+, Google Pixel 2 and the iPhone X. The P20 sits smugly in second place at the DxOMark leaderboard with a score 102, bested only by the P20 Pro’s score of 109.

It may still have a 12MP RGB and 20MP monochrome camera but Huawei has upgraded the sensor of the P20, specifically the aperture opening (f/1.8 RGB, f/1.6.monochrome) for better low-light performance. The big megapixel jump is on the front-facing camera, which is now 24MP compared to the measly 8MP of the P10. This results into better portrait selfies, and gives you the option to choose from six different kinds of lighting.

Huawei introduced AI features in the Mate 10 and further improves its implementation with the Master AI option in the P20 series. Master AI allows the camera to do all sorts of image awesomeness and recognize 19 different scenes automatically, adjusting photo parameters accordingly, presumably HDR in high-contrast scenes.

It knows whether you’re taking a photo of a cat or a dog or a flower, and makes the needed adjustments. The result— photos always come out looking sharp, with high dynamic range and excellent color reproduction. It also performs pretty well in dim scenarios.

Point it at the sky and it will suddenly become even more blue and make the clouds look a bit more detailed; focus it on your food and the colors will be more vivid to make whatever you are eating look more appetizing. It also automatically switches to portrait mode when you point your camera at a person. Other scenes include cat, dog, fireworks, flowers, greenery, sunset, waterfalls, snow, beach, macro, text, document, night shot and stage.

Since I cover a lot of events and concerts, I used to have trouble getting a good photo whenever there’s bright LED screen in the background. But with the P20’s “Stage Performance” scene, it automatically focuses and highlights the person/s or performer onstage. But my favorite has to be Night mode and with the improved AI camera of the P20, you can now shoot those night photos even without a tripod as you only need to stay still for four seconds. And just because

its called Night mode, it doesn’t mean you can’t use it during the day. Experiment with it and you’re in for a surprise.

Thanks to the AI, I find myself doing less post-editing because the photos already look ready for social-media posting. My only problem with the Master AI is when there’s prominent text on the background (i.e. when someone is making a presentation or standing beside a poster), as it will sometimes switch to document scan and crop only the portion with the text. It can also be a bit fidgety sometimes, changing from one mode to another when there are different subjects in front of it, but you can always turn it off in the settings. Fans of the Monochrome mode will also be happy that it now has its own modes which you can access right on the viewfinder—Normal, Aperture, Portrait and Pro. The P20 also shoots way better videos than before and record video up to 4K resolution at 30fps—there’s no 4K/60fps mode. There’s super slow-motion recording as well at 32x 720p/960fps, as well as “regular” slow-mo in 8x 720p/240 and 4x 1080p/120fps. The regular slow-mo clips are only limited in length by your free storage, but the super slow-mo clips last precisely 10 seconds—six seconds of slow-mo with two seconds of regular speed action on both ends which you cannot adjust. The trick to capture the best super slow-mo clip is to press the shutter right when the action starts and not before.

PERFORMANCE AND POWER

AS I mentioned, the P20 uses the same processor of the Mate 10 and Mate 10 Pro which, for some, is both good and bad.

The HiSilicon Kirin 970 is composed of a high-performance, quad-core ARM Cortex A73 processor running at a max speed of 2.36GHz and a power-efficient quad-core ARM Cortex A53 running at 1.8GHz. This is paired with a Mali G72MP12 graphics processor and a dedicated Neural Processing Unit that handles AI-specific computational tasks.

The good thing is that the Kirin 970 has proven itself to be an excellent SoC processor, offering very high performance and great energy efficiency. You will have no trouble opening multiple apps and switching between them, experiencing little to no lag when playing those graphically intensive games, or doing those large file transfers.

Thanks to the latest Android 8.1 and improved EMUI 8, animations and transitions are buttery smooth even if it only has 4GB of RAM (compared to 6GB for the P20 Pro). EMUI 8.1 also handles background task management very well, only causing a few apps to go into too deep of sleep if you are worried about missing those notifications.

I guess the only people who were a bit disappointed were those hoping that the P20 would also debut a new processor.

If you’re already a Huawei user, you know that battery life is never a problem. The P20 might not have wireless charging as many had hoped, but I’d choose SuperCharge over wireless anytime. The 3,400mAh battery will easily last you a day or two even on heavy use and you only have to plug it in for a few minutes to get it considerably juiced up again.

COMPARISON WITH IPHONE X AND SAMSUNG GALAXY S9

BOTH the P20 and P20 Pro have always been compared with the iPhone X and Galaxy S9/S9+, because and they are undoubtedly the best of the current flagships.

The iPhone X may be the only option for those used to the iOS ecosystem, but for those looking to switch to Android, I find the transition to the P20 a lot easier. You can even transfer all your iPhone’s contacts and photos to the P20 just by using the Phone Clone App.

As an alternative to the Samsung Galaxy S9, the P20 offers better pricing, dual cameras which take better photos, and a pretty good screen that wouldn’t make you miss the infinity display all that much. It has the same 4GB of RAM but the S9 has expandable memory. It may lack wireless charging but the SuperCharge feature is actually more practical if you need a quick charge.

FINAL WORD

ON paper, the Huawei P20 has a lot going for it. It’s been praised for its design and colors, has a really good camera with some unusual talents, and it also has a pretty tempting price tag that’s quite lower compared to the other flagship devices.

But is it good enough?

Despite lacking the third camera of the Pro, the P20 still lets you shoot “Leica Boss” and the AI improvements will definitely make your photos significantly better even if you know zilch about adjusting aperture and exposure levels. The LCD screen display looks just as good as the P20 Pro whether you are watching movies or playing games.

A lot will say that the P20 is the more affordable counterpart of the P20 Pro and they’re right, but the P20 is more than just an alternative. It has the best dual-camera setup in a smartphone, a powerful and dependable processor which doesn’t slow down over time, a bright and crisp display, and a battery that lasts and charges quickly.

The Huawei P20 is now available at an SRP of P34,990.

You can also get it via Smart Giga X Plan for only P1,699 per month and includes 4.5GB for all apps and sites; 10GB for videos (YouTube, iFlix, Fox+, iWantTV); unlimited all-net text; 50 all-net call minutes; discounted calls to Smart and TNT. It comes with a free one-month Gadget Shield and Data Rollover For Globe subscribers the Huawei P20 Lite is available at ThePlan 1499 and comes with free Facebook (1GB data allocation per month for 24 months); 8 GB data; unli calls to Globe/TM; unli all-net text; Spotify Premium for three months for a 24 month-contract period.

■■■

OPTICAL MEDIA BOARD SUPPORTS GLOBE’S #PLAYITRIGHT

THE Optical Media Board (OMB) expressed its full support to the #PlayItRight anti-piracy advocacy of Globe Telecom by helping educate the general public against malware, cybersecurity threats and access to illegal digital content and torrent sites. Globe President and CEO Ernest Cu said that the support of OMB gives a big boost to the #PlayItRight campaign. “We are grateful to OMB for recognizing our advocacy on anti-piracy. Our partnership will reinforce our educational drive against the illegal distribution of copyrighted content to a greater reach,” Cu explained.

“The Internet has become the main source of almost all the copyright infringement content nowadays, and we need all the help we can get. We are encouraging the OMB to invite other stakeholders, as well, such as the cinemas to collaborate with our education drive to target the moviegoers,” Cu added.

OMB Chairman and CEO Atty. Anselmo B. Adriano said that the biggest problem of OMB is the big market for pirated videos out there because people don’t know why they should not buy pirated materials. “Inasmuch as we try to be creative in our enforcement and disrupt the distribution chain and the retail chain for pirated video, there is still a big market for it.

This is why we need to target the market through education.

This is the reason we are partnering with other organizations and companies like Globe to push for more education,” Adriano exclaimed.

The OMB will also actively participate in the Digital Thumbprint Program of Globe that teaches responsible use of the Internet to children in public schools by including illegal downloading of illegal content online in the training module.

Having partnered with global and local content creators and distributors for its content business, Globe has taken an active role in promoting legitimate sources of online content.

In 2017 the company launched the #PlayItRight advocacy to help the entertainment industry curb piracy and protect intellectual-property rights. ■

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

BusinessMirror

Saturday, May 26, 2018 A12

Curse of the middle child: Does the Huawei P20 deserve more attention? inner technivore?

DOUBLY BETTER THAN THE P10?

THE TECHNIVORE ED UY

whereiseduy@gmail.com

W

HAT do Abraham Lincoln, Bill Gates and Martin Luther King Jr. have in common with Jennifer Lopez, Britney Spears, Madonna and even Kim Kardashian?

They were all middle-born children, and each one of them had to overcome the “middle child syndrome.” Sandwiched in between the cherished first-born and the spoiled youngest child, middle children often get the short end of the stick.

Whereas the eldest is more prone to receiving privileges and responsibilities, and the youngest in the family more likely to be the favorite and receive indulgences, middle-children have to deal with never-ending comparisons about the milestones set by their older siblings and compete for attention with the baby of the family.

Such is the fate of the Huawei P20—overshadowed by the triple-rear camera setup of its bigger, more powerful sibling, the P20 Pro, and the more accessible price point of the P20 Lite, it has become the unlikely middle child of the P20 family.

While the P20 is undeniably a significant upgrade in nearly every aspect compared to last year’s P10, does it have enough to make it a viable choice, and, more important, can it satisfy your

ONE of the questions I usually get from my readers, is whether it’s time for them to upgrade especially if they still have the previous year’s model. More often than not, I’d suggest an upgrade every two years as other brands usually offer incremental updates. But that isn’t the case with the P20.

From the P8 and then P9, followed by the P10, people were surprised that Huawei skipped several numbers and named their latest device the P20. Does it mean that it is also twice as better as its predecessor?

Place the two phones side by side and you’ll immediately notice a big visual change from the P10. The P20 now sports a glass back compared to its predecessor’s metal unibody. The new colors of the P20—especially the rainbow gradient Twilight and Pink Gold—are also far more eye-catching than the Dazzling Blue and Greenery options of the P10.

Apart from the design and color options, the P20 also has a bigger, higher resolution screen (the P20 has a 5.8-inch 2240 x 1080 and 18.7:9 aspect ratio while the P10 has a 5.1-inch 1080 x 1920 LCD 16:9 aspect ratio); a larger battery (3400mAh vs 3200mAh), more storage (128GB vs 64GB), a newer chipset with a dedicated Neural Processing Unit, and, of course, the latest version of Android and EMUI 8.1.

As for the cameras, despite offering superficially similar specs and the same dual camera setup (12MP RGB lens and a 20MP monochrome), the P20 boasts of cool new AI features (more of it later) and a higher 24MP front camera not only for taking selfies but portrait selfies.

So, if you have the P10 (or P9) and are still having second thoughts whether to upgrade to the P20, I suggest you stop thinking and just do it (as long as you

have the budget). I assure you, the improvements are worth it.

Now on to our review: DEVOUR ■ Classy glass finish ■ Unique color options, (Twilight and Pink Gold) ■ Vibrant and crisp display ■ Option to hide the notch ■ Fantastic camera setup ■ Handheld night mode ■ Dependable performance ■ Improved EMUI DISLIKE ■ Glass finish is prone to smudges and fingerprints ■ No 3.5mm headphone jack ■ IP53 rating only for moderate dust and light splash resistant ■ No MicroSD card slot

DESIGN AND DISPLAY LAST year the Huawei P10’s design didn’t generate very much enthusiasm, unlike the P20, which immediately had that “wow” effect and sparked renewed interest in the P series.

The Huawei P20 is a gorgeous phone and its smooth glass on the front and attractively colored glass back is truly eye-catching. If the triple camera setup of the P20 Pro made headlines, its the twotone color gradient of Twilight and Pink Gold that definitely got everyone’s attention. Still, if you prefer a slightly less ostentatious look, there’s also the Midnight Blue and Black color options.

In front, the P20 has a 5.8-inch (RGBW) screen with an 18.7:9 aspect ratio and a FHD+ 1080 x 2244 resolution featuring Huawei Full View Display 2.0.

There is the now popular (or unpopular) notch on top of the display, similar to the iPhone and almost every other phone that launched recently. But unlike the others, Huawei gives users the option to hide the notch. I don’t actually mind the notch, but when you switch to full screen it sometimes crops the text (i.e. when adding/editing your Facebook Day photo).

As in the P10, the fingerprint sensor on the P20 is right below the screen. Again, the placement of the fingerprint sensor seems to be an unpopular choice, since it is a bit harder to reach when holding it with one hand and you have to be careful with your grip.

I personally don’t mind where they put the sensor, because either way, it’s still one of the fastest, if not the fastest, in any smartphone. Besides unlocking your phone, the fingerprint sensor can also functions as the navigation dock. When you get used to the tap, swipe and hold gestures, to go back, return to home or view your recent apps, you’ll understand why its placed there. Hopefully, the P21 (or will it be P30?) would make use of gesture controls like the iPhoneX. The power button and volume controls are on the right side, while the Dual SIM card slot is on the left.

There’s a noise-canceling mic up top while the USB Type-C charging port, primary mic and speaker grille are at the bottom end.

A couple of things I’d like to point out before I continue. First, the speaker output is merely mono— cover up the right-hand grille with a finger and all the sound goes away, though it still has very good sound quality. Second, since the second speaker grill is useless anyway, I just wished they retained the 3.5 mm jack.

Made of eight layers of glass, Huawei used an advanced thermal coating combined with a gradient finish to create the beautiful 2.5D glass back of the P20.

CONTINUED ON A11