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THE EVOLVING BUSINESS OF PAMPANGA’S CHRISTMAS LANTERNS

It’s time to light up the lanterns Story & photos by Ashley Manabat | Correspondent

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ITY OF SAN FERNANDO— As long as there’s Christmas, Pampanga lantern makers will continue to make lanterns, and will never run out of business.

This belief is what drives Rolando Quiambao, 62, Pampanga’s foremost lantern maker.

What started out then as a childhood passion has become his key to success, because in this capital city north of Manila, and almost all cities in the world, it’s the Christmas season that is the most highly anticipated event.

“So when they asked me until when I will make lanterns, I told them [that] as long as there’s Christmas, we will continue making lanterns, and we will never run out of business,” said Quiambao in the Pampango vernacular from his residence-cumfactory in Barangay Del Pilar here on Monday.

“If you observe closely, Christmas is a highly anticipated event especially for Filipinos,” he added.

“That is why there is a great demand for lanterns, even in the

local market. For Metro Manila alone there’s a huge demand.”

Learning the craft

Quiambao is considered the foremost lantern maker here today, not only for his senior age and for winning the Ligligan Parul (Giant Lantern Festival) four times in a row, which elevated him to the Hall of Fame category, but also due to his advocacy of promoting the Capampangan culture and tradition.

In 2004 Quiambao was awarded The Outstanding Fernando Award and the following year was recognized with the Most Outstanding Kapampangan Award for his craftsmanship.

His story started when he was a child growing up here, where he learned his craft from Continued on A2

Rolando Quiambao strikes a pose in his factory in Barangay Del Pilar, city of San Fernando.

Local currency seen continuing slide up to end-2018 to 53/$1

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By Bianca Cuaresma

o recovery will be seen from the peso in the last two months of the year, as further weakness is expected for the local currency following the Central Bank’s recent stance on monetary policy.

PESO exchange rates n US 51.4880

In an assessment of local economic dynamics, ING Bank Manila economist Joey Cuyegkeng said the peso is now expected to end the year at the 51.85-to-a-dollar level—weaker than the 51-to-a-dollar projection made earlier for the local currency.

The peso currently trades at around the 51.5-to-a-dollar level, data from the PDS Group showed, on the back of sustained dollar strength.

The weakness of the peso is expected to extend up until 2018, as the local currency is seen nearing the 53-to-a-dollar territory by the end of next year, based on the calculations of Cuyegkeng.

Preemptive tightening

“Our previous forecast of a stronger peso relies on a BSP [Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas]-MB [Monetary Board] preemptive tightening

to reduce any risk of overheating,” Cuyegkeng said, adding that the absence of monetary-rate support for the peso is key to their weaker expectation.

“We reiterate our view that the peso would not receive any outright monetary-policy support anytime soon. The BSP is contented for now to smoothen the peso volatility with direct intervention,” Cuyegkeng said.

According to Cuyegkeng, with the strength of the dollar and limited local economic reports in recent days, the market is now focused on BSP actions.

Rate hike unlikely

But the BSP is not expected to deliver a rate hike in its upcoming November 9 meeting, given recent guidance of a manageable inflation, Continued on A2

n japan 0.4513 n UK 67.2485 n HK 6.6002 n CHINA 7.7906 n singapore 37.8922 n australia 39.7075 n EU 60.0350 n SAUDI arabia 13.7302

Source: BSP (3 November 2017 )

NewsSunday BusinessMirror

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It’s time to light up the lanterns Continued from A1

older folks, handed down from generation to generation and sustained passion.

That’s how he learned, Quiambao said, his lantern-making craft, which he turned into a profession in 1986 in Barangay Del Pilar.

“I am the only lantern maker in my family, and when I was a child, I used to make lanterns by asking for little pieces of paper from the [older] lantern makers,” he recalled. “But the old folks then would say, ‘work first before I give you some paper.’”

“I was able to capitalize on the popularity of Barangay Del Pilar because, at that time, the village is the winningest [entry] in the Giant Lantern Festival,” Quiambao recalled.

Barangay Del Pilar won the contest a record nine times in a row, a feat unmatched until today.

But back then it’s only more for honor and prestige, Quiambao said. So admittedly, he has no formal training. Today, however, he has created his own module in lantern making because one of his advocacies is to pass on his craft to the younger generations.

Learning course

Quiambao said he is mulling over the possibility of seeking the inclusion of lantern making in the Alternative Learning System of the Department of Education for out-of-school youths as his legacy to the craft.

“Because not every senior high school can go to college,” he added.

“So I thought, based on my personal observation, I should start training younger craftsmen be-

cause there is a huge demand from the market,” Quiambao said.

“Now we are doing more contractual jobs and we lack workers, so I ask some youths here if they want to learn the craft and I started training them,” he added.

“Right now, I have five neophytes who now are working in Parañaque doing repairs on lanterns, which I did last year at the city hall,” Quiambao said.

The ’chosen’

A Business Management graduate from the University of Assumption, a stone’s throw away from his residence, Quiambao now oversees RolRen’s Lantern and General Merchandise.

The store doubles as his residence and factory, where he oversees more than 40 workers.

“But only a few graduate to become good craftsmen,” he lamented, “because the work needs dedication and passion.”

Quiambao said the work is hard and laborious, and the designs are deviating every time. “It [design] changes, that is why it is important to always have something new.

There should always be innovations,” he added. His lanterns reached as far as Palau, Guam, South Korea, the US and Canada.

But Quiambao said he is also into the lantern-retail business that his wife and children manage.

Most of the lanterns sold for retail are made from Capiz shells, plastic and rope lights, he said.

“I told the mayor, let us not just sell lanterns, let us also sell our lights. That is why it’s now lights and lanterns. Now we also create decorative pieces like chandeliers

and lamps,” Quiambao added.

“We also cater to weddings for their tokens or giveaways to their guests,” he said.

Big income

Actually lantern making guarantees big income, he said. “We have just delivered three 20foot container vans of lanterns,” Quiambao revealed.

“After All Saints’ Day, 600 big lanterns will be delivered to Parañaque, Pasig and San Mateo,” he added.

Quiambao said the lanterns for Asiana City and the Philippine International Convention Center are already finished.

“We got the contract for five giant lanterns in Malacañang for the welcome ceremony of Asean delegates. They will be initially displayed at the Mall of Asia and later put on permanent display in Malacañang,” he said. “That’s part of the pride of the Capampangans,” he added.

Giant lantern festival

“Barangay Del Pilar is joining the Giant Lantern Festival in December, but for almost nine years I stopped joining the festival because I rested,” Quiambao said.

“But now the village needs my services, so I agreed to join again.”

Quiambao chuckled when told that his works are world renowned.

“That’s what they say.”

Since 1908, this city has been holding the annual Ligligan Parul, or the Giant Lantern Festival.

Cultural advocacy

“My advocacy is the Capampangan culture,” Quiambao said. “I just

Rolando Quiambao in his factory in Barangay Del Pilar, city of San Fernando.

don’t make lanterns; what I really wanted is to showcase the rich cultural heritage of Pampanga.”

Quiambao said whenever local and foreign tourists come here, “I tell them a story, just like Lola Basyang [a popular children’s story teller during earlier years].

“I tell them about the history of the lanterns. Actually I am writing a book titled Amana ku ing pamana ku [I inherited my legacy]. I tell the story, not only of the parol [lantern], but also how Christmas was observed by the Capampangans a long time ago that youths today did not experience and see,” Quiambao said.

“Like when you see smoke coming from your neighbor’s house, it means that they are already cooking kalame [rice cake], and tradition dictates that the youngest in the family was designated as the one who will bring food to the neighbors, and when they returned the plate, it was also full of food that

the neighbors gave,” Quiambao narrated.

“Then you gather around the embers because it’s chilly and during the Lubenas [candle procession] you can smell the Dama de Noche [Ladies of the Night flowers]. That’s what I have written in my book,” he continued.

Quiambao explained that the Capampangan lantern began with the Lubenas because the slightest wind usually blows out the candles, so the innovative Capampangans put a cover and those covers evolved into the parol.

But what makes Pampanga lanterns different from the others?

Quiambao said Pampanga lanterns display the character of the Capampangans who are maarte (lavish), that is why the designs are intricate and mayabang (showoffs), which explains why they made them bigger and bigger, joyful and colorful.

The visitors are amazed when

they learn the history of the parol, so it is the true character of the Capampangans that molded the parol into what they are today, he added.

The negative character has turned into positive trait for the Capampangans, Quiambao said, which also explains the Capampangans are good cooks, good craftsmen, better woodcarvers and excel in every endeavor in the walk of life, he said.

Among the leading Capampangan lantern makers are Ernesto Quiwa and his sons Arvin, Eric, Francis and Omar; Florante Parilla; Edmar David; David Sanchez; Daisy Flores; and Mark Nino Tizon Flores, among others.

The 50th anniversary of the Asean recently was observed with the simultaneous lighting of the iconic Capampangan lanterns, with President Duterte leading the ceremonial switch-on at the grounds of the Cultural Center of the Philippines.

Local currency seen continuing slide up to end-2018 to 53/$1 Continued from A1

albeit inching toward the ceiling of the government’s target range.

“There is no compelling reason to tighten based on policy-makers’ view of inflation over the policy horizon and growth this year and the next couple of years,” the economist said.

In the first nine months of the year, inflation averaged 3.1 percent—almost squarely between the 2 percent-to-4 percent target range of the government for 2017.

For October, the BSP said inflation would likely fall between 3.2 percent and 3.7 percent due to the higher prices of utility rates, as well as the effect of a weaker peso.

Growth, meanwhile, hit 6.4 percent in the first half of the year, a tad below the government’s 6.5-percent to 7.5-percent growth projection.

In contrast, the United States’ more aggressive stance to normalize its monetary policy will, in turn, provide further support and strength to the dollar against the currencies of emerging-market economies, such as the peso.

“We also anticipate that a third Fed rate hike is likely in De-

cember in the absence of a major softening of economic activity and as oil prices remained firm,” the economist said.

Back home, however, the BSP is still expected to remain firm to its status quo stance even in the December meeting—its last monetary policy-setting meeting for the year.

“We also explored last week that the chances of a preemptive move at the December 14 meeting is quite low, given the BSP and economic policy-makers’ view on growth and inflation,” Cuyegkeng said.

The BSP has been maintaining its monetary policy on hold since 2014—sans the transitionary move to interest rate corridor (IRC) framework in 2016. The main overnight reverse repurchase (RRP) rate remains at 3 percent currently.

Trade deficit factor

For next year, Cuyegkeng forecasts the peso to end the year at 52.9 to a dollar, due largely to a resumption of a faster deterioration of the trade deficit. The BSP, however, is then expected to deliver a tightening move to bring the policy rate at 3.5 percent by end-2018.

IHS Markit Principal Economist Bernard Aw also said the

recent weakness of the peso has been posing a problem for the local manufacturing sector, especially those that rely on imported inputs for production.

“Input cost inflation picked up sharply, which led firms to raise prices in order to preserve profit margins. Charges for Filipino goods increased at the fastest rate on record,” Aw said.

Despite the weakening, however, the peso is not expected to plunge into a currency crisis.

Views from the Singaporebased DBS Bank showed the regional bank remains optimistic of the Philippines’s ability to manage the weaker peso largely on the back of its strong macroeconomic fundamentals built up over the years.

“As for the weakening peso, a currency crisis in the Philippines is also quite unlikely, as it is still being supported by strong overseas remittances and foreign holdings of bonds are not high,” the bank said.

The DBS Bank forecasts the peso to end the year at 51.2 to a dollar, tamer than the 51.85-toa-dollar forecast of ING Bank. For 2018, however, the bank sees the peso hitting 52.8 to a dollar.

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The World BusinessMirror

Blast kills 29 at Indian power plant 7 months after start up

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n explosion at a newly commissioned unit of a coal-fired power plant in northern India killed 29 people and injured 85 in one of the nation’s worst industrial disasters in recent years. Flue gases and steam were released by the blast on Wednesday afternoon at NTPC Ltd.’s Unchahar power plant, India’s biggest electricity producer said in a news statement. NTPC has shut the unit, which was commissioned in March and began commercial operations in September, while the rest of the facility is operating.

NTPC has formed a committee to investigate the accident, Federal Power Secretary A.K. Bhalla said by phone on Friday. Officials from Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd., which supplied the boiler, are also at the site to investigate, he said.

“Until now we were busy with rescue operations,” Bhalla said.

“From today onward we will try to find out what went wrong and accordingly take action.”

The death toll ranks among one of the highest from a power-plant accident in recent years. Seventyfive people lost their lives following an explosion at a hydropower station in Siberia in 2009. Dozens of fatalities have also been reported at Chinese plants.

Industrial accidents

The Unchahar blast is the deadliest industrial accident in India since the 2009 collapse of a powerplant chimney under construction at Bharat Aluminium Co.’s Korba project killed 45 people, according to the Hindustan Times. India reported 809 accidental explosion

incidents in 2015, causing 831 deaths, federal home ministry data show.

NTPC declined 0.3 percent as of 9:18 a.m. Friday in New Delhi, while Bharat Heavy Electricals gained 1.2 percent. The benchmark S&P BSE Sensex rose 0.3 percent.

W hile India relies on coal, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has made surprising progress on his ambitious goals for developing the country’s renewable energy, said Jason Bordoff, director of Columbia University’s Center on Global Energy Policy. Renewables are the fastest-growing form of power and stand to challenge coal’s dominant position in the utility space.

“As a share of the total energy mix, renewables will grow and coal will fall,” Bordoff said. “But that’s a share of a pie that’s getting massively bigger. That still means a lot more coal a decade or two from now than it does today.”

The plant in Uttar Pradesh state has a total capacity of 1,550 megawatts, according to the company. NTPC has generating capacity of 51.7 gigawatts, almost 16 percent of India’s total 329.3 gigawatts capacity.

While safety standards at Indian power plants have improved in recent years, there’s still some way to go, said Ravi Krishnan, who runs a specialized energy consultancy with offices in the US and India.

NTPC has had an impressive safety record overall, he said.

“They have some of the best operating practices,” he said. “It surprised me when I saw this, it doesn’t happen very frequently.”

Bloomberg News

Sunday, November 5, 2017

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Battery-powered cars to take half of global auto market by ’30–BCG

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attery-powered cars will make up about half of the global automotive market by 2030, as environmental regulations, falling prices and the deployment of driverless taxis fuel demand, according to a new study by the Boston Consulting Group (BCG). “ The timing of the market’s transition to a new type of powertrain has long been the subject of debate,” Xavier Mosquet, BCG senior partner and author of the study, said in a statement. “ The prospects for electric vehicles are now clarifying.”

Vehicles powered solely by an internal-combustion engine— the dominant propulsion system since the advent of the Model T over a century ago—will cede about half the global market to battery-powered autos by 2030, BCG said. Traditional engines won’t d i s ap p e a r complete ly, though, since most of the electrified vehicles of the future will be hybrids that run on a combination of battery power and gasoline, the study found.

C h i n a w i l l lead t he w ay i n t he adoption of electr if ied c a rs a s it s smog g y sk ies, h ig h g a s p r i c e s a n d g o v e r n m e nt cont rol enable it to enact reg u l at ion s to qu ic k ly acce lerate t he sh i f t. T he US w i l l be c lose be h i nd , t h a n k s to low e lec t r ic it y cost s a nd a qu ic k-

e r p ayof f on b at te r y pr ice s f rom A mer ic a n d r ivers’ h ig h m i lea ge h abit s, wh i le Eu rope w i l l m a ke a slower t ra nsit ion.

T he r i se of robo - t a x i s, whose h ig h- m i lea ge prof i le a l so of fers a quicker payback on h ig h- cost e lec t r ic power, w i l l help speed adopt ion of batter y power g loba l ly, BCG s a id .

A s the cost of batter ies plu m me t s o v e r t he ne x t d e c a d e , t he e conom ic s of o w n i n g a n e l e c t r ic c a r w i l l o v e r t a k e t he ol d g a s ol i ne mo d e l .

The timing of the market’s transition to a new type of powertrain has long been the subject of debate. The prospects for electric vehicles are now clarifying.”

—Mosquet

“ I n 2027, a s a n ave r a ge US consu mer, I ’m bet ter of f t a king a bat ter y elect r ic veh ic le,” Mosquet sa id on T hursd ay at a briefing w ith reporters in Troy, Mic h iga n. T hat ’s because batter y- powered ca rs w i l l have a bet ter paybac k over f ive yea rs than vehicles w ith gasoline eng ines, t he st udy fou nd.

Automa kers are a lready gear ing up for the changeover.

Lu xur y electric carmaker Tesla Inc. is work ing t hrough pro duct ion del ays to l au nc h its Model 3, a n E V for t he ma inst rea m t hat st a r ts at $35,0 0 0.

Genera l Motors Co. sa id it is a im ing for a n a l l- elect r ic f ut u re a nd t hat by 2020 it w i l l of fer 20 models powered on ly by batter ies. Ford Motor Co. is focusing on developing electrif ied models whi le st i l l ser v ing its pic k up -hu ng r y c ustomers a nd has pa r t nered w it h compa nies on elect r ic veh ic les in C h ina a nd Ind i a. Bloomberg News

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The World BusinessMirror

Sunday, November 5, 2017

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Xi’s ‘New Era’ risks greater tension between China and Western nations

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“New Era” in President Xi Jinping’s China risks setting off alarm bells in the US and Europe. The ruling Communist Party committed to the more assertive policy during a twice-a-decade reshuffle that ended last week, contrasting with a relatively restrained approach over the past three decades. Xi said that China was “approaching the center of the world stage” as he outlined a road map for turning the country into a leading global power by 2050.

Now C h i n a’s most power ful leader in decades, X i has sought to reassure the world that his countr y’s rise would be peaceful—a bid to avoid the so-called Thucydides trap that says a growing power will clash with an established force. Still, China’s growing militar y and economic interests are reason enough for the world ’s strongest powers to worry.

“Xi’s vision includes—for the first time in contemporary Chinese history—staking out a global leadership role,” said Jonathan Sullivan, director of University of Nottingham’s China Policy Institute. “This will inevitably bring China’s interests up against those of other powers.”

China’s next chance to demonstrate its confidence could come as early as next week, when Xi hosts US President Donald J. Trump on a state visit to Beijing. Topping the agenda will be North Korea and trade, issues that highlight both the US’s unease about Chinese economic might and its desire for Beijing to take greater responsibility as a regional peacemaker.

Since X i came to power in 2012, China has accelerated efforts to leverage its strength into greater inf luence abroad.

That has included everything from boosting foreign aid to conducting far-f lung naval visits to creating the Belt and Road tradeand-infrastr ucture initiative, which spans three continents.

In some areas, such as efforts to fight climate change and support free trade, China has found common ground with Western powers. In others, like territorial disputes in the South China Sea, Beijing has shunned international rules.

X i ’s fore i g n - p ol ic y v i s ion represents a shift from the “ lay low” doctrine of late paramount leader Deng X iaoping , who urged China’s leaders to “ hide your brightness and bide your time.” Since that guidance in the late-1980s, China preferred to avoid getting enmeshed in international affairs.

In an October 18 speech to par t y cadres that w il l shape policy for the next five years, Xi cast the change as the third era in China’s long recovery from its “century of humiliation” at the hands of colonial powers like Japan, the UK and France. The country “stood up” under Mao Zedong and became rich under Deng, he said. Now under Xi, it would become strong.

Part of China’s outreach is economic: Xi declared that his version of socialism could provide an alternative model for other developing countries. That statecentric system could be a source of tension in coming years, according to Louis Kuijs, head of Asia economics at Oxford Economics in Hong Kong, who noted that the European Union and the US. don’t consider China a market economy according to the World Trade Organization’s definition.

“China’s further growth and global integration is likely to lead

to further friction, including in terms of trade and investment relations,” Kuijs said.

Xi also hailed the creation of artificial reefs in the South China Sea and vowed to build a world-class militar y by the mid-century mark. He’s pushed to amass a navy that can project power around the globe, and recently established China’s first overseas base—Beijing calls it a “ logistics facility”—in the East African country of Djibouti.

One of his best-received applause lines hit on Taiwan: Xi vowed to “resolutely oppose and preempt” any independence efforts on the democratically ruled—and US-backed—island.

“Xi is clearly trying to find multiple ways to solidify a new

presence in the region—whether it’s military, commercial, and perhaps most wide-ranging, in terms of narrative—the ‘Chinese Dream’ that can be exported,” said Rana Mitter, a professor of modern Chinese history and politics at Oxford University. “A faltering West, led by figures such as Trump, could find that it has given China plenty of leeway to create an alternative narrative.”

US officials have already expressed concern about China’s rising influence, and sought to block strategically sensitive investments. In a rare briefing last month, the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) warned that China was working to undermine the US alliance network and the global promotion of American values.

Xi is clearly trying to find multiple ways to solidify a new presence in the region—whether it’s military, commercial, and perhaps most wide-ranging, in terms of narrative—the ‘Chinese Dream’ that can be exported. A faltering West, led by figures such as Trump, could find that it has given China plenty of leeway to create an alternative narrative.”—Mitter

Authorities in Beijing “are attempting to reshape the world order to better suit Chinese preferences and growing clout,” the CIA said in a briefing note.

In August Politico reported that France, Germany and Italy had begun pressing the European Commission to protect the bloc’s top companies from Chinese acquisitions. They wanted the body to determine whether such purchases were being driven by political objectives rather than market forces.

“Even with the systemic differences we have, including on our convictions on human rights, we’re a close partner to China,” Steffen Seibert, chief spokesman for German Chancellor Angela Merkel, told reporters on Wednesday in Berlin. “We want to constructively accompany China’s development—and we want China to play a constructive role in the world and global affairs.”

Overseas interests

Ruan Zongze, a former top Chinese diplomat in Washington, said the country’s activities were in line with its economic development.

“China’s overseas interests have expanded to an unprecedented level, which requires a more active diplomacy,” said Ruan, who is now vice president of the China Institute of International Studies in Beijing. Still, he said, China lacked the strength to take over from foreign powers and was looking to be proactive rather than disruptive.

Bloomberg News

Patient deaths show darker side of modern Chinese medicine UK’s May replaces defense chief

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arly on a snowy, winter morning in January 2012, Wu Xiaoliang, a 37-yearold farmer, stopped by his local doctor to remedy a headache. At a small clinic near his village he received two injections made from traditional Chinese herbs. Hours later, villagers saw him struggling to prop himself up on his moped as he drove home. By noon, he was dead.

What killed Wu was later described in an autopsy report as a “drug allergy.” But doctors couldn’t pinpoint what he was allergic to because the shots he was given contained dozens, if not hundreds, of different compounds extracted from two herbs.

For centuries, Chinese have bought plant and animal parts from traditional clinics, and boiled them into bitter soups to treat colds, strokes and even cancer. But the Chinese medicine sector has modernized along with the rest of the country, with local manufacturers turning age-old recipes into fast-acting injectable drugs.

Chinese medicine injections generated sales of $13 billion last year, according to the research firm Forward Industries Institute.

Listed companies worth billions of dollars have thrived, benefiting major global funds like those managed by Schroders Plc., UBS Group AG and Skagen AS that hold their stocks.

Yet, the industry’s ascent has also raised public health concerns. Over a hundred injections based on traditional recipes are sold in China these days, some without stringent human trials. Doctors often prescribe them in an array of untested combinations. Adverse reactions, from skin rashes to fatalities like Wu’s, doubled to about 133,000 last year from 2011, according to government data.

Having struggled for decades to rein in the sector, regulators have recently begun pushing for an overhaul of Chinese medicine injections, seeking to weed out unsafe and ineffective products. But the process could take up to a decade, given the complexity of these intravenous pharmaceuticals.

“For the majority of these chemicals, their properties and their safety to the human body are not properly evaluated and some of them are not even discovered yet,” said Justin Wu, associate dean at the department of medicine at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. “If you

of the China Food and Drug Administration, Bi Jingquan, declared that when traditional therapies are prepared with contemporary methods, the “results should be reported, reviewed and regulated as modern medicine.”

They must also show greater benefits than risks in clinical trials, he said.

In May the agency pledged to reassess the quality of all marketed injections within the next decade, a push to advance a 2009 review of the Chinese industry that had made little headway. The China FDA didn’t respond to interview requests.

Vital business Traditional Chinese medicine ingredients at a pharmacy in Beijing. Giulia Marchi/Bloomberg

just focus on this point, I don’t think traditional Chinese medicine injections can pass through any regulatory authority outside China.”

Big challenge

Drugmakers, such as China Shineway Pharmaceutical Group, Guangxi Wuzhou Zhongheng Group, Tianjin Chase Sun Pharmaceutical Co. and Livzon Pharmaceutical Group, are now among the biggest public companies with substantial revenue from traditional injectable remedies. Manufacturers maintain their injections are safe and that the problems arise from incorrect use by doctors.

Still, due to the history of lax regulation, many injectables based on Chinese medicine haven’t been evaluated in strict scientific clinical trials. That means the reactions they set off in the body aren’t fully known. Chinese medicine is based on centuries of practical experience. But it is traditionally taken orally, which gives the digestive system a chance to shield patients from harmful chemicals.

Injecting the concoctions into the bloodstream can heighten side effects.

When Shineway first registered its traditional medicine injections in the 1990s, no clinical studies were needed, according to Chen Zhong, a vice president for R&D and quality at the company, which describes itself as the nation’s largest maker of these types of shots.

In recent years, Shineway has invested in post-market monitoring to track allergic reactions and has found its treatments highly safe, he said. But the drugs approved decades ago are still sold and haven’t had to undergo full-fledged testing in subsequent regulatory reforms, according to Chen. Three stages of human trials were only required of therapies approved after 2008, he added.

Chen reckons less than 10 percent of the shots being sold by the traditional medicine industry have undergone this kind of stringent review. He compared the shortfall of scientific studies to skipped classes: “The lessons we missed before, we can make up from now on step by step.”

In developed countries like the US, drugs must undergo several stages of review, often involving thousands of patients. China has instituted similar requirements for chemical medicines. But corrupt Chinese regulators in the early-2000s allowed thousands of therapies based on questionable data to be sold across the country, leaving a legacy of poorly tested treatments, the government has acknowledged.

“The safety problem of traditional Chinese medicine injections has always been rather serious,” Ke Sufang, an analyst at Shenzhenbased Forward Industries, said in an e-mail.

These are signs the sector is now drawing more scrutiny in Beijing. On August 29 the head

Shineway’s ascent offers a window into the industry’s journey. The company, which started as a chemical drugmaker, developed 11 traditional injections between 1993 and 1995 to boost growth. They were seen as symbols of the modernization of the ancient science. “Clinical trials were needed for new drugs, but the requirements were very simple,” Chen said. And Shineway was copying existing products, so it didn’t have to do even the easier tests under the regulatory requirements of that time.

Drugmakers can charge more for injections because they require added production, according to Forward Industries. That’s made them a vital business for many firms.

Nowadays Shineway boasts $160 million in sales each year from injectables and a market value of about $767 million.

Its annual report states “evidence-based medical research is also being carried out.” Its top foreign investors as of midyear included funds run by London-based Schroders and Norway’s Skagen. Skagen and Schroders didn’t comment.

Its competitor Livzon, which has a market value of $5.1 billion, says injectable versions of traditional therapies act faster and help patients who can’t take drugs orally. The company said its main injectable, used by cancer patients, was registered in 1999 after three phases of clinical trials and was found safe with adverse reactions of less than 0.2 percent in a study. Livzon’s international investors this year included funds managed by UBS, which didn’t comment. Bloomberg News

as harassment scandal widens

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ONDON—The resignation of Britain’s defense secretary, amid a growing sexual-harassment scandal, is a sign the UK’s corridors of power are not always a comfortable place for women.

As allegations of impropriety and abuse spread to more politicians and officials, many women are expressing hope this will be a tipping point in transforming Britain’s macho political culture. Some men, though, worry they are being unfairly tainted by allegations of sexism.

Michael Fallon, a dependable lieutenant to Prime Minister Theresa May, quit as defense secretary late Wednesday, saying his past behavior “may have fallen below the high standards” expected. Fallon had apologized after a newspaper reported that he had repeatedly touched a journalist’s knee at a function in 2002, and reports suggested more allegations about him might emerge.

Fallon’s resignation is an unwelcome challenge for May, who is struggling to keep her fractious government united as Britain heads for the European Union exit. She replaced Fallon on Thursday with Gavin Williamson, the former Conservative chief whip.

It’s also a challenge to the British political system.

Multiple sexual-harassment claims against British politicians have emerged since the scandal around movie mogul Harvey Weinstein emboldened people in many industries—including politics—to speak up about improper behavior by powerful individuals who control their future job prospects.

In a new allegation, a 27-year-old woman told the Daily Telegraph newspaper that Labour Party lawmaker Kelvin Hopkins inappropriately touched her at a university event in 2014. Labour said it had suspended Hopkins after receiving allegations and was investigating.

Britain’s Parliament is an intense and insular place, where politicians and parties employ large numbers of young

and ambitious staff. The building, full of long corridors, dark crannies and cheap bars, is the perfect stage for liaisons, intrigue—and worse. “ Where you have lots of young individuals, be they men or women, with very little in terms of employment protection, it seems like the per fect environment for abuse,” said Victoria Honeyman, a lecturer in politics at the University of Leeds.

She said the allegations so far were likely “the tip of the iceberg.”

“I think there will be an awful lot of very, very worried individuals across the political spectrum,” she added.

For decades, Parliament was famous for a rowdy, male-dominated culture of hard drinking, boozy debates and midnight votes.

British politics also has a long history of sex scandals: The “Profumo affair” involving a government minister, a model and a Soviet attache helped bring down the Conservative government in 1963.

Prime Minister John Major’s early-1990s government was debilitated by regular reports of embarrassing affairs.

Parliament’s raucous atmosphere was dealt a blow several years ago with a move to more “family friendly” hours, with sittings starting earlier in the morning and ending earlier in the evening. One of the building’s many bars has been turned into a nursery for the children of legislators and staff.

The number of female lawmakers has risen, though they are still outnumbered by men. When Margaret Thatcher became Britain’s first female prime minister in 1979, only 3 percent of lawmakers were women.

The figure rose to 22 percent by 2010, and to 32 percent this year.

In addition to a woman as prime minister, Scotland has a female leader in First Minister Nicola Sturgeon, and women lead the Scottish Conservatives, the Welsh party Plaid Cymru and Sinn Fein in Northern Ireland. AP

Sports BusinessMirror

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

Sunday, November 5, 2017

A5

Multitasking for veteran broadcaster

FRENCHMAN’S GOAL France’s

Benjamin Cavet is shown competing in men’s moguls at the World Cup freestyle skiing competition at Deer Valley resort in Park City, Utah, early this year. The 23-year-old wants to land a jump at the Pyeongchang Olympics that no one has successfully performed in competition: the devilishly difficult off-axis quadruple spin known as the “cork 1440.” AP

N

EW YORK—Mike Tirico will fill the 100 days before the Pyeongchang Games with football and figure skating.

With speed skating and downhill skiing.

Curling and hockey.

Tirico will be NBC’s prime-time host for the Winter Olympics, which begin a few days after the Super Bowl in February. Indeed, in that role for the first time—Tirico had some hosting duties at the 2016 Summer Games in Rio de Janeiro, but Bob Costas was the primary anchor—Tirico will miss the National Football League’s title game in Minneapolis. By then, he’ll be hunkered down in South Korea.

“I have never watched a Super Bowl on a Monday morning,” Tirico joked recently before heading to Pyeongchang this week for some prep work and reports for NBC News. “Of course I would have loved to do both, but logistically, it so unrealistic. If I leave Minneapolis on Sunday night after the Super Bowl, I’m not at the IBC [International Broadcast Center] until Tuesday in the middle of the day in South Korea, and Thursday we are on the for the first prime-time show. If you have one bad weather day, what are you going to do?

“And we’re embarking on 18 straight nights of prime-time television and want to do it the right way. And this is my first time doing this.

“The Olympics are the biggest event over an extended period given the number of consecutive nights in prime time. So reality sets in, and it’s great that Bob will be able to host the Super Bowl and do as good or better a job than has ever been done.”

Tirico isn’t stepping away from his Thursday night football gigs or his work on Notre Dame games, so he’s had to mix in research and interviews on luge and bobsled, freestyle skiing and ski jumping. Several Olympic hopefuls train at a rink in Canton, Michigan, near where he lives, so Tirico has spent a few hours there watching figure-skating practices—for the first time in his life.

While he won’t be calling any events in Pyeongchang and notes that everyone at NBC is heavily reliant on the experts the network uses for the various sports, Tirico recognizes the need for more than a passing knowledge of a stone (curling) or a sit-spin (figure skating).

“On the TV side, I’ve been going back and watching the last few Winter Olympics piecemeal over the last several months to see how it plays out,” he says. “I have watched it as a fan, and you get one sense of it. But now with the eye of being a host, seeing different things and how the Olympics will play out as a host.

“I won’t be asked for technical aspects of skeleton or luge, but I need to understand the story lines of what we are looking for. And in prime time, that means really knowing the prominent sports.”

Not that the Winter Olympics are filled with prominent sports. Hockey would fit that category, except that the National Hockey League is not sending players for the first time since 1994. Otherwise, it’s likely that a vast majority of viewers rarely if ever have tuned in to see the other sports since, well, the Sochi Games in 2014.

But that adds to the cachet of the Olympics.

“The athletes, by and large, are in our lives for 2 1/2 weeks,” Tirico said. “The other 200 or so weeks between Olympics, they mostly are off our radar. The cycle of even the greatest of Olympians is a couple of games or three, max.

You constantly are introducing new stars and stories. That’s one thing our place has thrived on.

That is at the core of any of us who got into this business; we love telling stories. It’s part of our curiosity to introduce personalities to America, or with a Lindsey Vonn or Mikaela Shiffrin to update their life story leading up to that few minutes that impact the rest of their lives.”

While at ESPN, Tirico had no involvement with the Olympics. He moved to NBC in the summer of 2016, and has established himself as the premier sports broadcaster on television—if he hadn’t already done so at ESPN. And now, a huge new challenge. He’s clearly stoked for his first Winter Games and the role he will have. He’s eager to see which stories basically jump off the ice and snow and straight onto the tube. AP

South African soccer president denies raping singer in 1993

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THE gold, silver and bronze medals offered in the Pyeongchang 2018 Winter Olympics are put on display. AP

GERMANY FAVORED

IN OLYMPIC FORECAST L

By Stephen Wade The Associated Press

IKE many trying to forecast the results of next year’s Winter Olympics, Simon Gleave has a major problem: Russia could be the subject to a doping ban.

All calculations are muddied when it’s not clear if Russia will it be in, out or somewhere in between.

“At the moment we assume with everything we’re doing that Russia is in,” Gleave, the head of analysis for Gracenote Sports, said in an interview with The Associated Press.

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) hopes to decide in December on Russia’s eligibility with the Pyeongchang Olympics opening on February 9. But it may drag right up to the eve of the games, as it did last year in Rio de Janeiro.

Gleave has created a virtual medal table on the assumption that Russia’s full team will participate.

With Russia in, Gleave predicts that Germany will win the most gold medals, and the most overall. Germany is predicted to win 14 golds and 35 overall, followed by Norway with 12 gold and 32 overall.

The United States is next with 10 gold and 29 overall. Canada is predicted to win 31 overall, more than the Americans but with fewer gold.

After Germany, Norway and the US, the top 10 in the gold medals are: France (9), Austria (7), South Korea (7), Netherlands (6), Russia (6), China (6) and Canada (5).

If Russia is out, Gracenote figures the 21 overall medals would be distributed among 11 different countries. The big winners would be Germany and the Netherlands.

Its six gold medals would go to the Netherlands (2) with one each for Canada, Germany, Japan and Norway.

Accustomed to dealing with the unpredictable, Gleave said there is another dark spot.

Men’s hockey will be tougher to predict,

2 RINGS! CORREA MAKES PROPOSAL L

OS ANGELES—Carlos Correa and Daniella Rodriguez both left Dodger Stadium with rings.

The Astros shortstop proposed to his girlfriend on live television moments after Houston earned its World Series title with a 5-1 victory in Game Seven on Wednesday.

The proposal from her boyfriend of over a year completely surprised Rodriguez, a former Miss Texas USA. “He had been so focused on the game,” Rodriguez said. “All he ever talked about was

winning the World Series, so I never really thought something like this would be on his mind, so when it all went down, I was just shocked.”

She also had no idea Correa had been urged to put a ring on it by his mother, and he was plotting a proposal for several weeks. Even Correa’s teammates were in on the scheme: Carlos Beltran, the Astros’ 40-year-old slugger, helped the 23-year-old shortstop pick out the ring.

Correa said he gambled and waited for a dramatic finale to the Astros’ first championship year.

“I knew we had championship potential, so I decided to hold out until the last game of the season,” Correa said.

Rodriguez said yes, once she regained the ability to speak.

While Correa went to the clubhouse to spray champagne, Rodriguez gleefully flashed the huge ring to her fellow Astros wives and girlfriends, including Justin Verlander’s partner Kate Upton.

Rodriquez said she’ll need a while to get over the shock.

since National Hockey League players will not participate. That leaves him relying on results from recent world championships.

“The strong countries in ice hockey are the strong countries in ice hockey—whether it’s their first teams playing or their second teams,” he said, acknowledging his picks for men’s hockey will not be “as strong” as in other events.

To get his predictions for all sports, Gleave weighs results in recent world championships and other world-class events, giving more weight to the most recent.

In the case of winter sports, most seasons are just beginning. Gleave said he expects “minor changes” when he calculates the standings again in January with a month to go.

“It won’t change enormously,” Gleave said.

“But there will be changes.”

At last year’s Rio Olympics, Gleave said 80 percent of the eventual medalists came from a top 8 list he compiled for every discipline. He added he expected the same

“Everyone knew besides me,” Rodriguez said.

“I’m really good at finding stuff out. Every time I had a surprise birthday party, I would always find out. So I was literally in just the complete dark about this. Everyone knew but me.”

Correa and Rodriguez are living together in Houston with a beautiful puppy named Groot.

Correa, the 2015 American League Rookie of the Year, had five homers and 14 runs batted in in an outstanding postseason capped by eight hits in the World Series, including two homers. AP FORMER Miss Texas Daniella Rodriguez enjoys sweet moments with Carlos Correa after Game Seven of the World Series. AP

for Pyeongchang.

“Men’s downhill is always one of the toughest to predict,” he said. “The times are close, the course, the day itself. Surprises are frequent in downhill.”

This is Gleave’s fourth analysis, which he began for the 2012 London Olympics as a project for The Times of London newspaper.

He’s now doing it for Gracenote, which bills itself as a “sports and entertainment provider” that supplies statistical analysis for sports leagues around the world.

“We develop it as we go along to try to make some improvements,” he said. “But improvements in this are only very tiny. It’s very difficult to predict the unpredictable, which is obviously what makes sport most interesting.”

HE head organizer of the 2010 World Cup on Wednesday denied raping a singer and former South African ruling party lawmaker 24 years ago.

Danny Jordaan, the president of the South African Football Association and a Confederation of African Football executive committee member, released a statement through his lawyer to deny the allegations made by Jennifer Ferguson, who said in a series of online posts that she was raped by Jordaan at a hotel in South Africa in 1993.

Ferguson made the claim two weeks ago, using the hashtag #MeToo, an online campaign denouncing sexual assault and harassment.

In the statement, Jordaan’s lawyer, Mamodupi Mohlala-Mulaudzi, said Jordaan denies raping Ferguson.

Jordaan was criticized in South Africa for taking so long to respond.

“Dr. Jordaan’s perceived silence in the face of such serious allegations is because of his empathy with the victims of gender-based violence,” his lawyer said. “Dr. Jordaan has, however, after careful consideration, decided to assert his innocence.”

The lawyer said Ferguson’s allegations must be tested in court.

Ferguson said she didn’t report the rape because she was “too ashamed to go through the reporting procedure.” She said she met the soccer official at a hotel in Jordaan’s hometown of Port Elizabeth, where she was performing. She claimed Jordaan followed her back to her room and raped her.

South African media have reported that other women have made allegations against Jordaan but the women haven’t been identified and no criminal charges have been laid.

The 66-year-old Jordaan, widely praised seven years ago for delivering a successful first World Cup in Africa, has had his reputation tarnished in recent years.

He has also been accused of involvement in a bribery scheme to win South Africa the hosting rights to the 2010 World Cup. Jordaan, and the South African government, have denied any bribery took place, contradicting an indictment by the United States. Department of Justice that alleges former International Football Federation executives were bribed by South Africa’s bid team to vote for the country.

Ferguson, 55, was an anti-apartheid activist whose music reflected her activism.

Both she and Jordaan were elected to be members of parliament in South Africa’s first democratic elections post-apartheid in 1994, the year after the alleged rape.

As parliamentary colleagues, Ferguson said she often came across Jordaan in subsequent years.

“He would never meet me in the eye,” she said in an interview with the South African news web site Daily Maverick. “Slide away as fast as possible.”

Science

BusinessMirror

A6 Sunday, November 5, 2017

Sunday

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

SMEs assisted on export of fish, fishery products

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Participants to the recent Asean Packaging Conference, held at a hotel in the CCP Complex in Pasay City, pose for a photo with Philippine Science Secretary Fortunato de la Peña (center) and Science Undersecretary Dr. Rowena Cristina L. Guevara (center, right). Henri de Leon/S&T Media Service

Globalization challenges Asean achievements in packaging

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By Rizal Raoul Reyes

@brownindio

lthough the Association of Southeast Asian Nations [Asean] member-countries have achieved improvements in the design and fabrication of packaging and processing equipment, printing machine and can/plastic sealer, the 50-year-old economic bloc needs to hurdle more challenges to become a stronger force in the global economy.”

Thus, said Science Secretary Fortunato de la Peña in his keynote address, titled “Packaging Achievements in Asean through Scientific and Technological Innovation”, at the recent Asean Packaging Conference hosted by the Philippines at a hotel in the CCP Complex in Pasay City.

“Just like the rest of the world, packaging development in Asean is confronted by many challenges, such as globalization, which means increasing competition in the market, borderless economy, increasing pressure from new regulations and the need to accelerate an in-depth and comprehensive packaging education and training,” de la Peña added.

He pointed out that the Philippines has introduced an innovation in the sachet-concept packaging, which has benefited consumers through cheaper products in the local market. The sachet or the single-serve products is used for fast-moving consumer goods like shampoo, coffee, condiments and toothpaste, among others.

De la Peña said the emergence of the modern lifestyle and the rise in the number of working housewives

also contributed to the increasing sophistication of both the processing techniques and packaging system for food products.

In response, the food manufacturers introduced ready-to-eat, ready-to-heat/cook food packages in the market.

“Retort pouches, trays and cups were developed for shelf-stable ready-to-eat meal preparations, sauces and snacks. Now housewives or any individual can easily prepare the tom yum soup of Thailand, the famous chili-crab sauce of Singapore, the satai sauce of Indonesia, sambal oelek of Malaysia, nuoc cham dipping sauce [fish-sauce based] of Vietnam and the kare-kare sauce of the Philippines. In other words Asean cuisines can now be tasted around the world,” he said.

Through the innovations in

packaging in Asean, their ethnic foods are now exported to other countries mainly because of improved and longer shelf life through the application of appropriate packaging technology.

As far as the Philippines is concerned, de la Peña said packaging has a major role in society, lifestyle and economy, citing the invention of the sachet or the single-serve products not only for convenience in handling but also to make the products more affordable to the consumers.

He cited that Singapore, Asean’s wealthiest member, has its consumers switching to purchase medium or small packages in multipack due to the rising cost of living.

“I believe, in general, this will be the trend in all Asean countries,” he said. Although the region has to speed up in innovation in other areas, he cited that Asean has gained huge gains in terms of process, controls and artificial intelligence. As expected, Singapore is the leader in this area.

De la Peña said that environment protection is now a vital component in good packaging.

Asean, he added, has responded to the demand for green packaging as environment-responsible, consumer-friendly and, at the same time, cost-effective packaging are now the fundamental basis of new technology development. “ Bio de g r ad a ble pac k a g i n g materials are developed as alternative to plastic-based foodpackaging containers. Now we have bioplastics/polymers using different types of starches.

Nanotechnology is being used

[Through innovations in packaging] Asean cuisines can now be tasted around the world.”

—De la Peña

to improve the properties of bio-based packaging materials,” he said.

Many scientific studies on renewable materials as packaging are being undertaken by different packaging research institutions in Asean, he added.

In her speech at the same forum, Undersecretary Dr. Rowena Cristina L. Guevara, of the Department of Science and Technology for Research and Development, pointed out that packaging continues to have a big role in Philippine society and manages to keep pace with the transformations in society.

“More than ever, packaging is continuing to be given a greater role, whether in the area of business or in bigger concerns like food security and environment issues. This has become possible mainly because of technology advancements and innovations that have widened the scope of relevance and reach of the packaging industry,” she said.

The rise of the business-process outsourcing (BPOs) industry in several Asean countries, complemented by rapid urbanization, has led to the growth of convenience stores in every corner of streets and the introduction of microwavable and oven-ready containers.

“Aseptic packaging technology is no longer limited to milk and dairy products, but has found new application in many types of fruit juices, beverages and processed foods,” she said.

While Japan leads in technology and innovation on packaging closures and easy-to-open devices in Asia, Guevarra said Asean countries have also made improvements in these areas.

She cited the consumer’s demand and growing concern on safe closures and convenience paved the way for the launching of tamper-proof or tamper-evidence closures and reclosable packages with zipper.

Pruitt guts E.P.A. science panels, will appoint new members

W

ASHINGTON—The head of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) said last Tuesday he intends to replace the outside experts that advise him on science and public health issues with new board members holding more diverse views.

In announcing the changes, EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt suggested that many previously appointed to the panels were potentially biased because they had received federal research grants.

The 22 boards advise the EPA on a wide range of issues, including drinking-water standards and pesticide safety. “ Whatever science comes out of the EPA shouldn’t be political science,” said Pruitt, a Republican lawyer who previously served as the attorney general of Oklahoma. “From this day forward, the

EPA advisory committee members will be financially independent from the agency.”

Pruitt has expressed skepticism about the consensus of climate scientists that man-made carbon emissions are the primary cause of global warming. He also overruled experts that had recommended pulling a top-selling pesticide from the market after peer-reviewed studies showed it damaged children’s brains.

Pruitt said he would name new leadership and members to three key EPA advisory boards soon—the Science Advisor y Board, Clean Air Scientific Advisory Committee and the Board of Scientific Counselors.

It was not clear from the EPA’s media release if all current board members serving out their appointed terms were immediately dismissed. The EPA’s press

office did not respond to messages seeking clarification last Tuesday.

As part of his directive, Pruitt said he will bar appointees who currently are in receipt of EPA grants or who are in a position to benefit such grants. He exempted people who work at state, local or tribal agencies, saying he wants to introduce more “geographic diversity” to the panels.

The five-page policy Pruitt issued last Tuesday makes no mention of other potential conflicts of interest, such as accepting research funding from corporate interests regulated by the EPA. The announcement comes after Pruitt in May said he would not reappoint nine of the 18 members of the Board of Scientific Counselors to serve a second three-year term, as had been customary. Current

board chairman Deborah Swackhamer said the members were already required to follow rules intended to prevent conflicts of interests.

“It obviously stacks the deck against scientists who do not represent corporate special interests,” said Swackhamer, a retired professor who taught environmental health sciences at the Universit y of Minnesota. “It speaks volumes that people funded by special interests are OK to be advisers, but not those who have received federal grants.”

S e n at e E nv i ro n m e n t Co m m i t t e e Chairman John Barrasso, a Wyoming Republican who shares Pruitt’s skepticism of mainstream climate science, cheered the move. He said EPA’s science boards would now better reflect the views of rural states like his own. AP

eing a recognized key player in the export market, the Philippines has high export potentials for fish and fishery products. The potential stems from the country’s vast natural resources, the market demand and good prices being offered to the export products. Given these potentials, there is a need to address the inadequate supply of raw materials encountered by exporters and to help small and medium entrepreneurs (SMEs) promote live and frozen fish and fishery products.

The recent Fisheries Women Entrepreneurs’ Forum identified some of the products with export potential—such as black tiger shrimp, prawns, crabs, tuna, abalone, lobster, octopus, cuttlefish, milkfish, seaweeds, groupers, squids, eel, siganids and hair tail—as products with export potential.

Conducted by the Philippine Council for Agriculture, Aquatic and Natural Resources Research and Development (PCAARRD) of the Department of Science and Technology (DOST), National Network of Women in Fisheries Inc. (Winfish) and the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR) Caraga region, the forum identified problems that affect the country’s fish and fishery products, as well as the necessary measures required to help the SMEs who are engaged in these products.

Problems on live fish and fishery products business include the inadequate supply of raw materials, postharvest losses, wastage in processing, poor-quality products, adulterated raw materials, irregularity of supply and stringent export requirement.

In terms of marketing and export of live and frozen fish and fishery products, the problems were on obtaining export requirements, competition with other countries, registration requirements and multilayer-marketing system.

Several measures were identified to address these concerns. These include providing SMEs with trainings and seminars, technical assistance, investment on R&D and access to foreign markets.

The forum also determined the need for processors to be knowledgeable on the rules and regulations in trade and export of fish and fishery products, competitive and sustainable development/continued expansion of aquaculture, European

market for exportable fishery products, agreement for market access for fish and fishery products, trade rules and regulator y cooperation, intellec tual property rights, services and investment and public procurement.

In the development of live and frozen fish and fishery products export business, needs include the link with exporters, organization of expor ters, updated training on fish handling and orientation on food safety (Good Manufacturing Practice, Sanitation Standard Operating Procedures and Hazard analysis and critical control points), technical assistance on packaging/labeling, and improvement in the fish-handling protocols.

Processors feel that the fish and fisher y-produc t business has a big opportunity to expand with the help of government agencies.

Through the forum, the participants learned the potentials of live and frozen fish and fishery products; export business and its requirements; market matching; linkages for export and marketing strategies; and technical, financial and equipment assistance being offered by government agencies like the DOST, BFAR and the Department of Trade and Industry.

Knowledge gained from the forum will help the community enhance awareness on fishery products with export potentials, share information with fisherfolk and women to become entrepreneurs and expor ters, disseminate information through training and upgrade enterprises with new technologies.

The forum also came up with recommendations on how to enhance the export industry for live and frozen fish and fishery products. Among these were the branding of fishery products, adoption of export and certification requirements by the SMEs, awareness on international product standards, provision of public plant for processing, improvement in fishery products, participation of SMEs in the forum and expansion of production.

With this joint activity, SMEs were encouraged to collaborate and link with the key export players and government agencies to ensure the development of the live and frozen fish and fishery products industry. Dalisay DG. Fernandez

Slow flow of human immigration may have doomed Neanderthals

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EW YOR K—W hat killed of f the Neander tha ls?

It ’s a big debate, a nd now a study says that no matter what the answer, they were doomed any way.

Our close evolutionar y cousins enjoyed a long r un in Europe and A sia, but they disap peared about 40,000 years ago after moder n humans showed up from A fr ica.

The search for an explanation has produced many theories— including climate change, epidemics, or inability to compete with the modern humans, who may have had some mental or cultural edge.

The new study isn’t intended to argue against those factors, but just to show that they’re not needed to explain the extinction, says Oren Kolodny of Stanford University.

He and colleague Marcus Feldman present their approach in a paper released last Tuesday by the journal Nature Communications.

They based their conclusion on a computer simulation that represented small bands of Neanderthals and modern humans in Europe and Asia. These local populations were randomly chosen to go extinct, and then be replaced by another randomly chosen population, with no regard for whether it represented the same species.

Neither species was assumed to have any inherent advantage, but there was one crucial difference: Unlike the Neanderthals, the modern humans were supplemented by reinforcements

coming in from Africa. It wasn’t a huge wave, but rather “a tiny, tiny tr ick le of sma l l bands,” Kolodny said.

Still, that was enough to tip the balance against the Neanderthals. They generally went extinct when the simulation was run more than a million times under a variety of assumptions.

If sur v iva l was a game of chance, “it was rigged by the fact that there’s recurring migration,” Kolodny said. “ The game was doomed to end with the Neanderthals losing.”

Kolodny said the evidence that such migrations actually occurred is suggestive rather than conclusive. Such migrations would not be expected to leave much of an archaeological trace, he said.

Experts in human origins said the paper could help scientists pin down the various factors that led to the Neanderthals’ demise. It fits in with other recent attempts to explain the extinction without assuming behavioral differences between Neanderthals and our ancestors, said Wil Roebroeks of the University of Leiden in the Netherlands.

The notion of such differences is largely disproven, he said.

K aterina Har vati of the Universit y of Tuebingen in Germany said while the new work could be useful in solving the extinction myster y, it doesn’t address the question of why modern humans dispersed from Africa into Europe and Asia.

It’s important to figure out what was behind that, she said in an e-mail. AP

Tourism&Entertainment BusinessMirror

Editor: Carla Mortel-Baricaua

Dive. Ride. Glide. Repeat.

Sunday, November 5, 2017 A7

When ecotourism leaders meet

Dr. Mina T. Gabor

THE bm traveler Part Two

Classical dressage lessons at Tarsier Botanika

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Glass-bottom kayaking at Doljo Beach

By Bernard L. Supetran

or the longest time, Bohol has been synonymous to the Chocolate Hills, tarsier and Spanish-era churches.

But beyond these tourism icons, this beguiling island province is known for its wide array of adventures on land, air, sea and beneath.

Here, you can dive, ride, glide and repeat the cycle to your heart’s content.

n Dive. The Department of Tourism’s “It’s More Fun in the Philippines” TV ad boasts that the archipelago has the most species in the least space of anywhere in the planet, and out of the earth’s 500 coral species, more than 400 are here. And a good portion of these figures can be found in Bohol’s underwater world.

And if there is one reason to go diving here, Balicasag Island is it.

Dubbed as the “mecca” of diving in the south, the island takes pride in its kaleidoscope of marine life, including brilliant reef fish that dart around among flourished corals and sponges, and its resident school of jacks that swirl endlessly at about 50 feet below the surface.

A showcase for marine conservation, it has five spectacular world-class dive spots and a marine sanctuary just off its sleepy shores.

Among these sites are Resort Wall, Black Coral Forest, Cathedral Wall, The Cavern and Turtle Point, which teem with sea turtles, mackerels, cushion stars, a profusion of feath-

er stars, and a wide variety of reef fishes, such as lionfish, triggerfish, clownfish and anemones.

Panglao Island is another interesting dive haven, especially in Doljo Point, which has a lush coral wall; and Tangnan Point for its newly discovered sardine run. The Scuba Schools International-affiliated Scottys Dive Center, which services most of the high-end resorts in the Visayas, can take you beneath the waves to admire Neptune’s marine kingdom.

n Ride. You can relive your childhood cowboy fantasies by learning horseback riding at Tarsier Botanika, a sprawling luxe boutique resort that takes pride in its ornately designed structures and beautifully landscaped gardens and greeneries.

Perhaps the only resort of its kind in the archipelago, the 10-hectare green sanctuary is an exponent of European-style classical dressage used in international equestrian tournaments and by both Eastern and Western royalty at ceremonial pomp and pageantry.

Students are personally taught by resort owner-slash-artist Patricia Muassab-Moussempes to make the uninitiated confident and relish the sport of riding, and the prestige and glamour that goes with it. A master rider herself, she advocates

Doljo dive site in Panglao Island

ATV at Chocolate Hills Adventure Park

for better treatment of horses, even as they are the beasts of burden in many provinces.

Meanwhile, bikers will find Panglao a pedaler’s haven with its wide and well-paved circumferential road network. There are also rough side roads which are challenging rides for mountain bikers. Bellevue Hotel offers its guests the opportunity to pedal the indigenousthemed Bambike, whose frame is made out of sturdy bamboo developed by Fil-American social entrepreneur Bryan McClelland.

The trendy, innovative bike, which made waves as a mode of sightseeing around the Walled City of Intramuros, is a sleek vehicle that can take you around the island’s hidden nooks and crannies at your own pace. As you pedal leisurely, you can make occasional pit stops to smell the flowers by the wayside, take snapshots and relish the simple joys of countryside living.

If you want to be in the fast lane, you can hire a habal-habal or single motorcycle and feel the rush of the wind on your face as you cut across the bucolic country roads along the charming coasts.

n Glide. Surrounded by mesmerizing crystalline water on almost all fronts, Bohol is an infinite aquasports playground where you can glide onto the placid sea.

Doljo Beach, located at Panglao’s outermost point, is home to an expansive beachfront accessible only to guests of upscale resorts in the area, including Bellevue, which is your one-stop shop for aquasports and outdoor recreation.

Board a kayak or a stand-up paddleboard (SUP) and slice the glassy sea as you paddle around the cove with the silhouette of Cebu in the horizon. Rowing in calm waters with the sky of blue above and sea of green below is simply nirvana, a heavenly experience in this side of paradise. The beach’s gradual depth makes it ideal for small children.

Sailing aficionados can take on a windsurf or the wind-powered slider catamaran sailboat for a more thrilling and action-packed glide.

Adrenaline junkies can take adventures to greater heights quite literally at the Chocolate Hills Adventure Park (CHAP) with no less than the picturesque brownish mounds as a backdrop. Located in the central town of Carmen, CHAP pioneered the Skycycle or bicycles suspended on cable wires and the Surf Zip, a variation of the ubiquitous zipline which simulates midair surfing.

There are also ATV operators in the area that will enable you to ride and explore the iconic geological formations up close like never before.

So many places to dive, ride and glide in Bohol, so little time.

Slider catamaran sailboat

Dance for Peace marks this year’s Bonok-Bonok festival

S

urigao City, the provincial capital of Surigao del Norte, recently celebrated the Bonok-Bonok Maradjaw Karadjaw Festival, a ritual dance which originated from its early settlers, the indigenous Mamanwa tribe. The festival literally means “heavy downpour” and “all the very best” based on the belief that the heavy rains ensure a bountiful harvest.

The dance festivities begin with the traditional Mamanwa purification ritual using incense to drive away evil spirits. It is followed by animated dancing accompanied by trumpets and percussion, with the participants clad in colorful raiment accented by tribal designs, such as the tubao scarf headdress, and brass bracelets and anklets.

Now on its 33rd year, Bonok-

Bonok-Bonok Maradjaw Karadjaw Festival street dancing

Bonok has evolved into the most award-winning and sought-after cultural festivals in Mindanao.The dance ritual has been passed on from generation to generation and is celebrated with reverence to San Nicolas de Tolentino, the city’s patron saint, and to reflect Surigao’s rich cultural heritage.

This year’s theme is “Sajaw para sa Kalinaw” (Dance for Peace), which highlighted the need to pur-

sue a genuine and lasting peace in Mindanao and across the country.

The festivity also coincides with the 47th Charter Day Anniversary of Surigao, which included various socio-civic activities and cultural events. Dubbed the “City of Island Adventures,” Surigao is composed of pristine islands with fine, white-sand beaches, lush marine sanctuaries, mangrove forests and cave systems.

he other speakers from Global Ecotourism Network (GEN) and Asian Ecotourism Network (AEN) included General Chairman Glenn Jampol, owner and developer of two fivelevel sustainable hotels in Costa Rica (Finca Rosa Blanca Coffee Plantation Resort and Arenas Del Mar Beachfront and Nature Resort); General Vice Chairman Tony Charters, an environmental scientists and urban and regional planner by profession, a founding director of Ecotourism Australia and board member since 1999; General Board Member Robert Holmes, founder and chief strategist of Green Living Project (GLP) Films—a content marketing agency dedicated to authentic storytelling and digital content strategy within the travel industry; General Board Member Hitesh Mehta, a landscape architect, architect, interior architect and environmental planner who has worked on socially and environmentally friendly projects in 63 countries; Masaru Takayama, founded the Asian Ecotourism Network (AEN) in 2015, owner and operator of the ecotravel agency Spirit of Japan Travel in Kyoto, as well as a 75-year-old historic building registered under Japanese Culture Agency, and founder of Japan Ecolodge Association (ECOLA) in 2006; Nabil Tarazi, founder of EcoHotels in May 2009, partnering with the Royal Society for the Conservation of Nature to operate the only ecolodge in Jordan, Feynan Ecolodge (selected by National Geographic Traveler as one of the best 25 ecolodges in the world); and General Board Member and AEN Vice Chairman, founder of the Borneo Ecotourism Solutions and Technologies which garnered the UNWTO Ulysses Award for excellence and innovation in tourism in the NGO category.

Delegates also heard from Greg Duffell, the former PATA CEO, on using the principles of nature itself as guidelines of running an ecotourism business; Dr. Kaewta Muangasame of Mahidol University, Thailand, on the brilliant wisdom of the late Thai King Bhumibhol’s Sufficiency Economy concept; and Randy Durban, CEO of the Global Sustainable Tourism Council, on the challenges of setting and maintaining ecotourism standards.

The presentations by the foreign experts were matched idea for idea by the very eminent Filipinos themselves.

Marie Grace Pascua of the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples (NCIP) discussed highlights of the Indigenous Peoples Rights Act, a landmark social legislation passed in 1997 to protect the “Four Bundles of Rights”—to ancestral lands, self-governance and empowerment, social justice and human rights, and cultural integrity. The legislation paved the way for the establishment of the NCIP to protect and promote the interest and well-being of indigenous peoples with due regard to their beliefs, customs, traditions and institutions.

One critical need is to highlight the importance of the indigenous peoples in correcting historical injustices. Pascua said, “The cultures of those countries that have more economic power are likely to be more dominant than others, it is no surprise that global tourism threatens indigenous knowledge, social structures and relationships.”

Although tourism can be of great benefit, Pascua cited NGO research showing that in many developing countries, tourism has harmed indigenous peoples by causing a wide-scale eviction from their lands, economic dislocation, breakdown of traditional values, degradation of cultural sites when historic sites and buildings demolished to make way for tourist facilities, and commodification of culture.

She said, “The environment is their spiritual space. We want tourism that is culturally appropriate, protects the customs and local belief systems. We want

tourism projects that are transparent and do not themselves become sources of conflict.” Another speaker was Rico Pableo, executive director of the School Of Living Traditions (SLT), a flagship project initiated by the Subcommission on Cultural Communities and Traditional Arts (SCCTA). Set up in 1993, the SLT is entrusted with the safeguarding of traditional culture and practices via transfer of indigenous knowledge and skills of art, craft and tradition of the cultural masters of a community. Young members of the community are the top priority, preferably out-of-school youth/ young adults.

To help the learning centers become self-sufficient, the SLT can be a Traditional Arts and Heritage House, functioning as a nonprofit, private organization to promote and exhibit the best works of traditional arts, sponsor lecture-demonstrations, and market the products of SLT Culture Masters and their students locally and abroad.

He said that the first SLT was set up in Benguet province at the Benguet State University in 2002, specializing in Kankana-ey dances, songs and literature.

Today there is at least one SLT in 9 of Benguet’s 13 municipalities, one in Baguio City, and several SLTs all over the country.

“The SLTs are not without their challenges,” he said. Citing the case of the Ibaloi Performing Arts SLT in Lower Wangal, La Trinidad, he said that although under masters Nestor Epi (b. 1949) and Felix Taynan (b. 1964), its students are frequently sent off to regional and national events as representatives of their province. However, there is opposition from two fronts: Conservatives who label the SLT as a step in “returning to paganism,” and the Ibaloi elders who oppose the performance of certain music and dance outside of their ritual context.

One of the more practical sessions was by Australian International Funding Expert Paul Niederer. He narrated the process by which projects and ideas could use the internet-based platforms to raise crowdfunding.

Takayama, the founder of GEN and AEN, identified the following challenges ecotourism operators face in Asia: establishing stronger public-private relationships; making all types of tourism more sustainable, green washing or having false claims; lack of reliable, evidence-based information; on-theground exchange of experience; unclear legal information, and human and financial resources.

One trend that gained traction is the growing status of ecotourism as a spiritual experience. One of the invited speakers discussed the topic “Can there be Sustainability without Spirituality?” Arguably the first time such a thought-leadership topic had been raised at an Asian ecotourism conference, the talk highlighted the linkage between what is commonly known as “nature” and the grassroots references to it in all the global religions and spiritual faiths as a source of peace, unity and harmony. Indeed, various speakers also referred to travelers who now seek a “communion with nature” in the forests.

The grand finale was a surprise in more ways than one. In the 1960s and 1970s, local indigenous people were deployed to train US soldiers how to survive in the jungles of Vietnam. After the war ended, these indigenous peoples were redeployed to tourism. This year, I recognized one of the trainers. Tata Kasui, 67, was presented with an Award and Certificate of Appreciation for his “lifetime work in preserving the Rain Forest and Culture.”

It was the first time any such award had been given in the Philippines.

After the conference, delegates joined a trip to Green Canyon Resort where Jose Niccolo, 38, outlined how his family had turned a devastated former weapons testing ground of the US military into an ecotourist resort, and how he himself, a woodcarving enthusiast, has enhanced the décor with some captivating works of art.

Faith A8 Sunday, November 5, 2017

Sunday

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

Sainthood cause of Filipino bishop pushed

R

OME, Italy—In line with the Church’s celebration of the Solemnity of All Saints on November 1, Filipinos in the Eternal City recently took part in the promotion of the cause to sainthood of one of their fellowmen.

Hu nd re d s of Fi l ipi no m i g r a nt s i n t h i s c it y, m o s t l y I locanos, attended a Mass presided over by Nueva Segov i a A rc hbishop Emer it us Er nesto Sa lgado, DD, on October 29 to promote t he cause for beat if icat ion a nd ca noni zat ion of t he Ser va nt of God, A l f redo F lorent in Verzosa.

The Eucharistic celebration was held at the Church of Santa Maria Addolorata in Rome’s Piazza Buenos Aires. Priests, mostly chaplains of the Filipino Catholic migrant communities in Europe, concelebrated in the Mass.

Updates

The cause for beatification was opened in Vigan on Januar y 11, 2013, for the diocesan phase.

T h e N i h i l O b s t a t ( “n o t h i n g blocks the way”) to the inquir y was issued by the Vatican’s

Congregation for the Causes of Saints on November 7, 2014.

T he d iocesa n i nqu i r y wa s closed on April 2, 2016, and the papers were submitted by the postulator, Fr. Samsón Silloriquez, OAR, to the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, which affirmed the validity of the diocesan investigation with the issuance of the “decree of validity” on June 2, 2017.

This was followed by the appointment of Msgr. Paul Pallath as relator in the writing of the cause’s official report or positio.

T he positio is to be rev iewed by a team of historians, theolog ians and, eventua l ly, by some cardina ls, and after a l l g ive an a f f i r m at ive st a nce, t he c a se is brought to the Pope for the declaration of the Ser vant of God as “ Venerable” or wor thy of veneration.

w h i c h w a s t he b a i l i w i c k of Aglipayans, being the homeregion of former priest Gregorio Aglipay, supreme bishop of the Iglesia Filipina Independiente.

In 1917, at age 39, Verzosa was consecrated bishop of the Diocese of Lipa, which at the time comprised the civil provinces of Batangas, Tayabas (now Quezón), Laguna, Mindoro and Mariduque.

Verzosa’s pastoral priority was catechism and his passion for it led to the foundation of MCSH in 1923.

He was the bishop who invited the Carmelite Fathers, Pauline Fathers, Pauline Sisters and the “Pink Sisters” to the Philippines.

Main consideration

Archbishop Emeritus Ernesto Salgado (left) in an audience with Pope Francis. CBCPNews

Major miracle

One major miracle is usually required through the intercession of the Servant of God to reach beatification and another major one to reach canonization.

The Archdiocese of Nueva Segovia and the Missionary Catechists of the Sacred Heart (MCSH) are intensely doing the promotion of

the cause as part of the celebration of Versoza’s episcopal consecration centenary this year.

Defender of the faith

The Servant of God Alfredo Verzosa, born in Vigan, Ilocos Sur, on December 9, 1877, is the fourth native Filipino Roman Catholic bishop (after Bishops Jorge Barlín,

Juan Bautista Gorordo and Pablo Singson) and the first Ilocano.

A s a pr iest, he fought for the preser vation of Roman Cat hol icism aga inst t he t hreat of the Aglipayan schism at the beginning of the 20th centur y.

He risked his life and worked for the revival of the Catholic Church in the I locos reg ion,

Ver zosa was also the bishop of Lipa during the alleged “miracle of roses” in 1949. This was eventually declared “not worthy of belief ” by the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.

The Vatican lately clarified that the “Lipa miracle” was just an event in the bishop’s life and not the main concern and purpose of the beatification cause but the heroic virtues that emanated from the witnessing and holiness of the Servant of God, obedience to Church hierarchy being the foremost consideration.

Fr. Ericson M. Josue/CBCPNews

Germany marks 500th year of Martin Luther’s challenge

B

ERLIN—German leaders last Tuesday marked the 500th anniversary since the day Martin Luther is said to have nailed his theses challenging the Catholic Church to a church door, a starting point of the Reformation.

German Chancellor A ngela Merkel and President FrankWalter Steinmeier took part in a service in the famous Castle Church in Wittenberg, where Luther supposedly posted his 95 Theses on October 31, 1517.

In remembrance of the 500th anniversar y, Reformation day was a public holiday in Germany this year. T housands of people were participating in different c hu rc h s e r v ic e s t h rou g hout t he d ay in t he ea ster n Ger man tow n of Wittenberg. T he cit y a lso celebrated the anniversar y w ith a medieva l-st yle

street festiva l including ar ts and cu ltura l events.

As Protestantism spread following Luther’s revolt against the Catholic Church, religious wars erupted, dividing western Christianity in a schism that resulted in hundreds of years of violence, persecution and discrimination.

Merkel, in a speech in Wittenberg, stressed the importance of tolerance toward the wide variety of beliefs.

“Those who embrace plurality must exercise tolerance—that is the historical experience of our continent,” she said. “Tolerance is the basis for peaceful togetherness in Europe.”

Both Lutheran and Catholic clergy, who participated in different church services and celebrations throughout the day, vowed to do more for the unity of Christianity and to overcome differences. AP

Parade of saints The parish of Santisima Trinidad in Estrada, Manila, commemorated All Saints’ Day on October 29 with the holding of a “Parade of Saints.” Children dressed as saints—instead of the usual macabre characters like ghosts, witches or skeletons used during Halloween—participated in a procession. Those in best costume received prizes from parish priest Fr. Joselito Buenafe. Jun Resurreccion

Saints Zechariah and Elizabeth, parents of Saint John the Baptist

Pope recalls cost of war with WWII site visits Z N

ETTUNO, Italy—Pope Francis called war “the destruction of ourselves” during visits last Thursday to an American military cemetery and the site of a Nazi massacre in Rome as he marked the Catholic All Souls’ Day commemorating the dead.

Francis laid flowers on 10 graves among the 7,680 American war dead buried in the Sicily-Rome American Cemetery, which also commemorates a further 3,095 who went missing in campaigns to liberate southern and central Italy from Sicily north to Rome during World War II. The new US ambassador to Rome, Lewis M. Eisenberg, was among the 5,000 in attendance.

During Mass, Francis said in his offthe-cuff homily that the sight of the arcs of white headstones should stand as a call for peace, saying “no more war, no more of these useless massacres.”

The pope said that humanity hasn’t learned, or hasn’t wanted to learn, the lessons of war. “How often in history, when men think of making war, they are convinced of bringing a new world, they are convinced that they are making

spring. It ends in winter; ugly, cruel, a reign of terror, of death,” the pope said.

Calling for prayers for all the dead, the pope made special mention of those “who are dying in the battle every day,” referring again to what he has called “a war of pieces,” or the many eruptions of violence and attacks around the globe.

The pope continued to the Ardeatine Caves, the site of one of the worst massacres of Nazi-occupied Rome. He prayed, laid flowers on the graves and signed the book of honor: “These are the fruits of war: hatred, death and vendetta. Forgive us, Father.”

The site commemorates the Nazi murder of 335 Italians aged from 14 to 75 in reprisal for a partisan attack on Nazi troops marching through Rome.

They included 68 soldiers as well as artists, farmers, a priest and a diplomat.

While some were members of the resistance, many had no partisan involvement and 73 were singled out because they were Jewish.

Francis is the fourth pope to visit the caves, after Paul VI, Pope John Paul II and Benedict XVI. AP

By Corazon Damo-Santiago

echariah is dumb. So, when asked what name he would give his son, he wrote on the tablet—John. His tongue was loosened and he burst into a “prophetic exhortation” about the greatness of God. Called Canticle of Zechariah, or Benedictus, it is recited with reverence by the church every morning. “Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel; he has come to his people and set them free. He has raised up for us a mighty savior, born of the house of his servant David” (Luke 1:68-79).

Holy and childless

Elizabeth, a cousin of the Blessed Virgin Mary, was married to Zechariah, son of Berakiah, a Pharisee and a holy priest in the temple of Jerusalem. Both were born in Hebron on the first century and belong to a priestly family.

Saint Luke writes that although Elizabeth had committed no evil in the eyes of God, she was barren. The holy couple were sad, for in those days, not to have a child is considered as a punishment from God.

Dumb for disbelief

One day while Zechariah was ministering in the Altar of Incense, the Angel Gabriel appeared to him and divulged a joyful news: Elizabeth will bear him a son.

Overjoyed he was for God has removed his disgrace. Then doubt gripped him and he asked, “How shall I know this? For I am an old man and my wife is advanced in age?”

(Luke 1:18).

The angel replied, “You will be speechless and unable to talk, until the day, these things take place, because you did not believe my words, which will be fulfilled at their proper time” (Luke 1:20).

It took a long time for Zechariah to emerge from the sanctuary, but the people waited.

Unable to talk, he made gestures and the crowd knew he had a vision. Disbelief made him dumb and as soon as he reached home, Elizabeth conceived.

John leapt with joy

As revealed by the mystics, three days after the Annunciation, the Lord revealed to Mary in a vision that Elizabeth had conceived a child destined to prepare the people for the coming of the Messiah.

Mary, obliged to visit her, told Joseph about it. He borrowed a donkey for the four days journey to the village of Ain-Karem in the Judean hills, 5 miles west of Jerusalem.

At the sound of Mary’s voice, Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit and the child in her womb quickened joyfully. Lifting her hands, she exclaimed, “Blessed art thou among women and blessed is the fruit of thy womb.” (Luke 1:42).

Canticle of Zechariah

Eight days after Elizabeth gave birth, John was to be circumcised in accordance to Jewish tradition. He was to be named Zechariah after his father according to the custom. But Elizabeth insisted that the child be named John. So Zechariah was asked and he wrote John and immediately regained his speech.

Overwhelmed, he praised God. His exhortation about God’s saving action and the liberation he offered was in three choral solemn odes. The first was salvation from enemies, the covenant of God with David. The second strophe was the covenant with Abraham when the people of God were rescued from their enemies. And the third was about John the Baptist who will announce a new covenant with Christ.

Of this, Zechariah sang: “You my child shall be called the prophet of the most high; for you will go before the Lord to prepare his way, to give his people knowledge of salvation by the forgiveness of their sins. In the tender compassion of our God, the dawn from on high shall break upon us, to shine on those who dwell in darkness and the shadow of death, and to guide our feet into the way of peace” (Luke 1:76-79).

This prophetic exhortation about the greatness of God in sending John the Baptist as Forerunner to announce the coming of Christ, prepares man’s heart and mind as an apostle of evangelization, and sharing the

gospel to others in a loving and peaceful manner is Canticle of Zechariah, in the Liturgy of the Hours, prayed every morning

by Christians.

Death of innocent children

When the Magi of the East asked Herod the way to see the newborn king, the king was tormented. Unable to subdue his madness, he ordered that all infants two years and below in Bethlehem and adjacent places be killed, hoping the Messiah would be among those killed.

Tradition reveals that King Herod asked Zechariah where Saint Elizabeth and John could be found. When he refused to answer, Herod stabbed him (Mt. 23:35).

Elizabeth hid herself with John in the hills.

When she saw the pursuers she implored for safety from God. Immediately the hills opened and swallowed mother and John to conceal them from the pursuers. Elizabeth died 40 days after Zechariah.

Saint John the Baptist, preserved by the Lord, lived in the wilderness until the day of his appearance to the Israelites.

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

RegionsSunday

www.businessmirror.com.ph • Editor: Efleda P. Campos

BusinessMirror

Sunday, November 5, 2017 A9

Diadi, Nueva Vizcaya: A fruit basket in the making

FARMERS in Decabacan, Diadi, Nueva Vizcaya, sort and cull out undesirable citrus fruits before trading the good ones at the Nueva Vizcaya Agricultural Terminal in Bambang town.

FRAMED by a pristine forest, a BusinessMirror media vehicle traverses a well-paved, winding road at the Lower Magat Ecotourism Park in Diadi, Nueva Vizcaya.

Story and photos by Leonardo Perante II

Correspondent

N

OT much has been heard about the town “created from the ribs” of Bagabag, Nueva Vizcaya. It used to be a mere barrio of the town, up north, before Diadi was finally converted into an independent municipality.

Armed with my favorite Nikon D3S mounted with 14-24 mm./ f2.8 ultrawide angle lens on board a Nissan Navarra, I went uphill from Santiago City, Isabela on a winding road to discover more of what is Diadi today.

History has it that former Rep. Leonardo Perez of Nueva Vizcaya on February 28, 1966, filed House Bill 182, “An Act Creating the Municipal District of Diadi in the Province of Nueva Vizcaya.”

In May 1967 Sen. John Osmeña Jr., then-Chairman of the Committee on Provincial and Municipal Governments, recommended the approval of the bill. On June 17, 1967, Republic Act 4973 was approved by both chambers of Congress, which eventually gave birth to the Municipality of Diadi. Composed of 19 barangays, it is located at the northernmost tip of Nueva Vizcaya before traversing Cordon, Isabela.

Before its creation, Diadi was a vast forest region. Tribal groups, such as Ifugaos, Igorots and Gaddangs inhabited the rolling terrain.

These groups roamed the hinterlands and dwelled in the heart of the forest.

Six-term (1992-2001 and 2010 to present) incumbent Diadi Municipal Mayor Norma Miguel is optimistic that the road network connecting to even the remotest villages of her town will be totally paved soon. Some 60 kilometers of

ON a farm tour in Diadi, Nueva Vizcaya, young Nonie looks amazed by prolific production of mangoes in clusters.

farm-to-market roads are now accessible to farmers in bringing their farm products out to the market.

“Accessibility is very vital and indispensable to a developing town like ours. We cannot advance with bad roads and without good bridges,” she said. Another priority thrust of Diadi is the implementation of its livelihood and incomegenerating programs.

It takes 310 km from Manila via the Maharlika Highway to reach the town up north or some 47 km from the capital town of Bayombong and 25 km to Santiago City in Isabela. The nearest airport in Bagabag town is 29 km away from the heart of the municipality.

Oblivious to many, the town’s hillsides are contour farms planted to varieties of high-value fruit trees. Mango farms dominate both sides of the road anywhere in town.

In Baragay Decabacan, 44 hectares are planted to citrus.

In Barangay San Luis, pomelo, rambutan and lanzones stay on top as favorite fruit trees. Banana and pineapples are also major crops in town. Local traders would bring truckloads of fresh harvest to the Nueva Vizcaya Agricultural Terminal in Bambang town or deliver them directly to other wholesale markets like Urdaneta City in Pangasinan or Balintawak and Divisoria in Metro Manila. Enterprising farmers whose orchards are near the national road would install

THE home of the local government of Diadi, Nueva Vizcaya, the town hall serves as a welcome landmark to the northernmost municipality of the province. The agricultural town is known for its fish farms and exotic fruit trees.

makeshift fruit stands that entice motorists and commuters to buy.

Diadi is popular for growing high-yielding corn: either the golden ones for corn chips or sweet-pearl varieties like what many ambulant vendors sell along the national highway. Like other towns in the province, upland vegetables like legumes, bell pepper and tomatoes are grown in commercial proportions.

Its vast, green meadows make it ideal pasture land for cattle and other livestock. Fresh carabao milk was then sold along the roadsides.

The fish port in Barangay Escoting downstream serves as a catch basin and watershed. Fish-caging is not practiced in the area where

A NURSERY man in Barangay San Luis, Diadi, Nueva Vizcaya inspects his fruiting calamansi that he propagated in a pot by budding method in his agro-forestry nursery.

fishes are fed with formulated feeds.

The high-value ayungin is allowed to grow organically in the wild.

In the village of San Luis, many are engaged in agro-forestry nursery business. Seedlings for both fruit trees and forest trees are propagated and supply the whole Cagayan Valley region as part of the National Greening Program.

Since the exotic narra is gradually vanishing from woodshops in town as a top furniture component, fine woodcraft remains in the market as the homegrown gmelina stock replaces the national tree as prime woodcraft material.

Other potential investments of the town are gold-copper mining

and quarrying. Farm tourism is eyed as an ideal package for pick-and-pay from local farmers. Many farm visitors enjoy the fun of personally picking their favorite fruits or vegetables of their choice. The province has already launched farm tourism in a number of municipalities.

While the provincial government of Nueva Vizcaya runs and operates the Lower Magat Ecotourism Park in Barangay San Luis, it remains hosted by Diadi.

The eco-park is a favorite tourist destination for neighboring provinces up north apparently for its natural ambience that attracts visitors. Seminars and conventions are the common functions held

ATTRACTED by a golden hibiscus flower, a white dove flies over the colorful bloom near the boating lagoon of the Lower Magat Ecotourism Park in Diadi, Nueva Vizcaya.

in the resort. Family gathering or large occasions may be organized in place. But simple get-togethers with friends like picnics or swimming are always welcome.

It also showcases a real picture of pristine forest and a boating lagoon for fun. Its well-paved, winding road from entrance to exit makes it more convenient to every visitor.

The clean and green nature of the park is maintained by well-trained crew, who also serve as tour guides.

The stretch of the Magat River 15 km from Barangay Langka to Butao is a part of the Magat River Multi-Purpose Dam Reservoir that stores water for irrigation and power generation.

A10 Sunday, November 5, 2017

RegionsSunday BusinessMirror

Editor: Efleda P. Campos • www.businessmirror.com.ph

Oktubafest celebrates Waray culture, recovery of local coconut industry

Pagbasya ceremony opens the ninth Oktubafest. Pagbasya is the first step in making a tuba, where the mixture of coconut sap with barok is placed on a glass jar for sedimentation. An Waray party-list stalwarts Neil Benedict Montejo (from left), Rep. Victoria G. Noel, Leyte Gov. Dominic L. Petilla and Bem Noel led the ceremonies.

Story and photos by Elmer V. Recuerdo

T

Leyte Gov. Leopoldo Dominico L. Petilla lauded the party-list group for sponsoring the activity.

“I thank them for giving importance to something that gives identity to us here in Eastern Visayas, the tuba making. This is only done here,” he said.

Correspondent

ACLOBAN CITY—Gather two or more Warays to a table and before you know it, there are already two glasses being passed on from one to the next—one glass has a cola drink and the other has the red coconut wine called tuba.

It doesn’t need a special occasion. It can just be a regular family gathering, or a time listening to a friend pouring out over a spurned love interest, or a moment of relaxation after a grueling work.

Tuba has been part of the everyday life among the people in Eastern Visayas.

Big occasions like fiestas, a family reunion, or a toast for a new family member, the celebration is not complete without tuba. Tuba does not only lighten up the mood; it doubles the gaiety.

Tuba is the most popular native wine in Leyte and Samar. Every celebration among Leyteños and Samarnons cannot be complete without it. This organic wine is most affordable for anyone who wishes to buy a drink, and is much better than any alcoholic beverage: It does not result in a headache or hang over.

To us in the Leyte-Samar region, collectively known as Waray, tuba is not just a drink; it is our culture.

Even before the Spaniards came, tuba was already the centerpiece

of any celebration. When the expedition of Ferdinand Magellan came to our shores, his chronicler Antonio Pigafetta documented the social and cultural practices of the natives. He noted that during the initial encounter at sea near Suluan Island, the southernmost island of Samar, the natives offered them rice, bananas and tuba.

In Homonhon Pigafetta also noted the stages of preparing coconut milk from the coconut, the gathering and fermenting tuba, and the way of extracting milk from the coconut flesh.

Numerous local poetry, drama, songs and dances have revolved around Waray’s love for tuba. Literary luminaries like Eduardo Makabenta, Norberto Romualdez Sr., Vicente de Veyra and Iluminado Lucente have noted the importance of tuba in social gatherings and interpersonal relationships among the locals.

The ubiquitous tuba once again took center stage in the recent ninth edition of Oktubafest held on October 28. The annual tuba festi-

Visual artist Dante Enage (center), who uses tuba as his medium in painting, served as a judge on the on-the-spot painting of kawit competition.

‘Barok’ is the secret

Party-list Rep. Victoria G. Noel of An Waray, organizer of the ninth Oktubafest, sponsored the event to help the coconut industry and popularize Waray culture of tuba making.

A foreign student in the city enjoys his first taste of tuba

val showcases the best tuba products of Leyte. Local government units (LGUs) in Leyte province vied for best bahal (old) and bahalina (aged), best kutil (tuba concoction) and best tuba-infused dishes.

The festival also featured an on-the-spot kawit painting, monochromatic tuba painting contest and Oktuba photo contest. Kawit is made of bamboo pole that is used by tuba harvesters. It is attached on the shoulders by a wooden hook, and serves as a container of the freshly harvested juice.

The annual festival, which started in 2009, is organized by the An Waray party-list, with the support of the provincial government of Leyte, LGUs, academe and big hotels and restaurants in the province.

“This is an effort of the An Waray to promote the coconut industry,” Party-list Rep. Victoria G. Noel

said. “Coconut is one of the main industries of the region.”

The An Waray party-list has also been in the forefront for the passage of a bill to revitalize the coconut industry, which remains pending in Congress.

Noel added the passage of the bill is more important now especially that Eastern Visayas is still in the midst of rehabilitation of coconut trees toppled by Supertyphoon Yolanda in 2013.

Her House Bill 1705 seeks to increase farm productivity through planting or replanting of suitable seedling varieties, rehabilitation and fertilization of coconut and integration of coconut-farming system and processing. The bill also includes provision of infrastructure facilities that will benefit coconut farmers, as well as research and development to improve existing coconut varieties.

Coconut shell in lieu of pots and pans in cooking? Why not coconut?

MANY farmers in Leyte plant coconut not to produce copra or sell the nuts, but to make tuba.

“We do not only produce the finest tuba; we also have the most number of tuba lovers,” Petilla said.

Tuba is produced by mixing coconut sap with barok, a reddish bark of a mangrove tree. Barok not only gives the reddish color, but it also prevents the coconut sap from turning sour and allows the tuba to ferment. A tuba fermenting for up to one year is called bahal, while aged tuba is called bahalina. Some tuba producers keep their tuba as old as 10 years to keep it more potent and of higher alcohol content.

Coconut sap is produced by cutting the tip of an unopened flower to release the sap. The sap is then transferred to the kawit that a mananguete (tuba gatherer) carries along when climbing the tree. The sap is mixed with a handful of finely chopped barok placed in a small container attached to the waist of the mananguete as he climbs the tree. One tree can produce as much as one liter of coconut sap.

The mixed coconut sap and barok is then placed in a glass bottle. In three to four days, it will bubble and produce sediments.

When sediments have subsided, the tuba is then carefully transferred to another glass bottle, making sure the bottle is full and

there is no space for air. When sediments have gathered, tuba is transferred again to another bottle until all sediments are gone.

The whole sedimentation process may take months to complete.

When the sediments have already been removed, the tuba are then kept to age. Some tuba makers are known to bury their jars on the earth to age.

Not all tuba tastes the same. The taste depends on the technique used by the tuba gatherer and the amount of barok put in. There is no exact ratio between the amount of sap gathered and the barok that is added. Each mananguete makes his own estimation. The amount of barok explains why some tuba is darker than the others.

Reviving the coconut industry

TUBA production in Leyte suffered when Yolanda hit the region in November 2013, destroying an estimated 13 million coconut trees. For some time, tuba sellers in the province had to get their supply from Southern Leyte, and in the process, jacking up prices to as double its original price before the typhoon.

The Philippine Coconut Authority has earmarked P2.8 billion for the massive rehabilitation and recovery program that included planting of 10 million coconut seedlings in Eastern Visayas alone.

Some partially damaged coconut trees have also started bearing fruits, earlier than the expected five years of recovery.

Other government agencies like the Department of Science and Technology and the Department of Trade and Industry have launched separate programs to help coconut farmers.

Schools in cooking competition that makes use of tuba as one of its ingredients.

RegionsSunday

www.businessmirror.com.ph • Editor: Efleda P. Campos

BusinessMirror

Sunday, November 5, 2017 A11

Sarangani comes of age

Sarangani provincial boundary in Alabel

Story and photos By Bernard L. Supetran

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Special to the BusinessMirror

HEN the province of Sarangani was carved out of the southern coastal municipalities of South Cotabato, skeptics pinned little hope on the good future of the fledging province. I was expected to undergo birth pains.

Composed of the Third Legislative District, which locals say were largely neglected by provincial authorities due to political differences, Sarangani was created in 1992 to become the country’s 75th province.

Named after Sarangani Bay, one of among the archipelago’s richest fishing grounds, it was created by virtue of Republic Act 7228 authored by Rep. James L. Chiongbian. His spouse, Priscilla L. Chiongbian, was elected the first governor in the first local elections in 1995.

Its territory has the peculiar characteristic of being noncontiguous and dissected by General Santos City, creating a cluster of towns called the “east” and “west” coasts.

A quarter of a century later, the province is like a fully grown-up adult looking back to its silver years as it celebrates this month the 15th MunaTo Festival to mark its founding day.

Coined from a B’laan term meaning “first people,” MunaTo is a cultural themed festivity that pays tribute to the earliest inhabitants of Sarangani long before the political boundaries were drawn.

But beyond the typical pomp and circumstance that goes with such an event, what is perhaps more important are the milestones it has attained as it marks its coming of age.

Competitive province

LISTED among the country’s 10 poorest provinces, Sarangani was recently named the country’s sixth most competitive province in the recent Cities and Municipalities Competitiveness Index (CMCI), an annual ranking of local governments whose framework focuses on the idea of productivity.

Provinces are ranked based on population and income weighted

average of the overall scores of the cities and municipalities under it.

The towns of Malungon and Alabel landed on the top 50 in the first- and second-class municipalities category at 26th and 41st place, respectively, out of the 486 participating towns.

Maasim, Glan, Maitum, Kiamba and Malapatan towns also improved their rankings at 94th, 111th, 156th, 160th and 169th, respectively. The province leapt 18 notches higher from its 23rd position last year.

Gov. Steve Chiongbian Solon said it is worthy to note that all municipalities have highly improved in economic dynamism, which means that local government units performed well in terms of business expansion and jobs creation.

Organized by the National Competitiveness Council with the Regional Competitiveness Committees and the United States Agency for International Development, CMCI ranks cities and municipalities based on their scores on economic dynamism, government efficiency, infrastructure and resiliency.

The governor said the province’s improvement in standing was credited to its leadership’s governance system based on God-centered prosperity.

He added the provincial government’s flagship program, Sulong Sarangani, merged all initiatives delivering basic services to bring in a holistic impact to its communities in the areas of infrastructure, health, indigenous peoples’ welfare, and economic and social services.

Agricultural excellence

In October Sarangani was recognized by Agriculture Secretary Emmanuel F. Piñol as the most successful Special Area for Agricultural Development (SAAD) project

Sarangani Provincial Capitol

Gawad Manlilikha ng Bayan Estelita Bantilan

agriculture Secretary Emmanuel F. Piñol (third from right) gives P75-million agri grant to Sarangani.

of the Department of Agriculture because of its fast process and implementation.

During his recent visit to the upland barangay of Upo in Maitum town, the DA chief lauded Solon and the stakeholders, composed mostly of T’boli indigenous peoples, for their productive yield of organic brown rice.

Piñol also handed over the P75million check for the SAAD program and committed a package of postharvest facilities to help modernize agriculture in the area.

With the initial P25-million fund the DA downloaded last year, Sarangani has picked seven of its poorest barangays identified by the Community-Based Monitoring System and Social Welfare Indicators covering 436 hectares and 190 hectares of upland rice and white corn, respectively.

As of the end of October, four municipalities have already produced 111 metric tons of rice, expected to increase when the yield from the other three towns are

accounted for by December.

“While the other provinces are still making their purchase requests for the SAAD, Sarangani was the first to implement the project and had already their first harvest in seven barangays,” Solon proudly beamed.

He noted that SAAD opens new opportunities to meet the necessities of the upland farmers with the goal of food sufficiency and supporting the necessities of the farmers to help them out of poverty.

Nature, adventure and culture tourism

TOURISM is another bright spot in the local economy, with Sarangani being watched as an emerging destination. Last year the province attracted 980,972 day visitors and 107,730 overnight guests.

The province is acknowledged as the country’s paragliding capital, as it is flyable 300 days a year because of good winds and fair weather.

Located in the mountains of Maasim town, Safi Ranch Fly

Site has been identified by aerosports aficionados as among the best fly sites and has hosted the International Paragliding Accuracy Competition in 2014, and the Philippine leg in the Paragliding Accuracy World Cup (PGAWC) in 2015, which drew 65 pilots from seven countries.

Early this year, the province was declared by the Department of Tourism as the scuba diving haven of Soccsksargen, or Region 12, after a dive safari participated in by the country’s top dive tour operators and underwater photographers.

An unheralded body of water, Sarangani Bay is a protected seascape, and listed as one of the Marine Key Biodiversity Areas by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources.

With an area of 215,950 hectares with a 226.4-kilometer (km) coastline, its coral resources cover more than 2,293 hectares spread over 20 coral-reef areas with about 60 important live hard-coral genera, 411 reef species in 46 families. Seagrass

cover is placed at 912 hectares, with 11 species in the coastal towns.

Another adventure activity is the 2-km white-water tube ride at Pangi River in Maitum town, where one can get an adrenaline rush as he negotiates the chest-deep rapids.

For a dash of culture, visitors can immerse with the B’laan communities at the Lamlifew Community Village Museum in Malungon, the first of its kind in the country. It chronicles the tribe’s culture, especially its exquisite mabal tabih weaving.

A novel way of reaching the area is an 11-km ATV or buggy ride passing through the town’s interiors from the 3Doe Park.

A new tourist drawer is Upper Lasang in Malapatan, which is home to master weaver of B’laan igem mat Estelita Bantilan, recipient of the Gawad Manlilikha ng Bayan or National Living Treasure accolade.

Islamic culture is vibrant in the town known for inaul fabric of the regal Maguindanaoan tribe. The fabric is handwoven by local women.

Beach bums can bask in the glow of Gumasa White Beach in Glan, monikered as the “Boracay of Mindanao” for its mile-long powdery sand and crystalline water minus the madding crowd.

Another beach getaway is Tuka Marine Park in Kiamba, which teems with marine life ideal for snorkeling.

But, perhaps, Sarangani’s main bragging right is being the cradle of ancient civilization evident in the 2,000-year-old anthropomorphic burial jars discovered in a remote cave system in Maitum.

Now on display at the National Museum, the jars are described as “exceptional archaeological assemblage and unparalleled in Southeast Asia.”

A diorama of the archaeological site is on display at the municipal hall museum to give you an idea of one of the country’s oldest settlements.

A12 Sunday, November 5, 2017

RegionsSunday BusinessMirror

Ayta favorite: sweetened glutinous rice cooked in bamboo tube

A chicken adobo dish simmers during the native cookfest.

Editor: Efleda P. Campos • www.businessmirror.com.ph

A coconut-shell bowl holds native chicken adobo.

Subic Aytas preserve roots while embracing the new

S

Story and photos by Henry Empeño Correspondent

UBIC BAY FREEPORT— Members of the Ayta tribe at the Pastolan village in the hinterlands of the Subic Bay Freeport straddle the two worlds of the new and the old.

Eager and able to adopt the lifestyle of their brethren in the lowlands, the natives now enjoy the modernity of television, cellular phones and washing machines, while retaining their connection to the mountain and jungle around them.

The dichotomy is nowhere more apparent than during the October celebration of the Indigenous People’s (IP) Month here when the Ambala Ayta tribe, along with the Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority (SBMA) and some community organizations, showcase the native culture through dances, songs and various competitions.

At the “Ayta Got Talent” competition on October 27 at the Harbor Point Ayala Mall here, for example, Ayta children pranced about for the talipi, a native dance that mimics the movements of animals in the forest, all in loincloths and native wraps, and gamely playing to the mall audience in the air-conditioned setting.

And when it was time to present the winners, the same youthful figures nimbly came up the stage transformed in colorful shirts, denim pants and jackets—their usual garb in their mountain locality.

Transformation

THE image of Ayta tribesmen in Gstrings beside their lean-to dwellings in the middle of the forest is virtually a thing of the past, observed Gigi Estalilla, a communityrelations officer from the SBMA who coordinates agency projects at the Pastolan community.

“They have changed a lot in the last five years,” Estalilla explained.

“Now, 70 percent of the houses in Pastolan are already made of concrete. Around 70 percent of the residents have television sets, with about 30 percent of these connected to satellite disks. And 40 percent of the households use washing machines, instead of doing their laundry in the river the traditional way.”

The radical change in the Subic Ayta lifestyle could be traced to the recognition by the SBMA of Ayta rights to their ancestral domain.

With the help of the SBMA, the Ayta Ambala tribe of Subic Bay secured their Certificate of Ancestral Domain Title (CADT) in 2009, giving them formal ownership of the more than 4,280 hectares of land covering the Kalayaan and Binictican housing areas, and the Apaliin, Pamulaklakin

and El Kabayo tourism areas in the free port, among others.

Then in 2011 in recognition of these CADT rights, the SBMA and the Tribung Ayta Ambala sa Pastolan (TAAP) signed a joint-management agreement for the Ayta lands in Subic. This set into motion the provision of benefits like priority employment for qualified tribesmen; annual livelihood assistance for 25 years; annual financial assistance for tribal celebrations; scholarship and medical benefits; and the establishment of a fund for a 5-percent share collected from direct business leases of land within the Ayta ancestral domain.

The SBMA said the SBMA-TAAP accord was the first to provide a comprehensive package of economic, social and cultural benefits to Subic Aytas ever since their tribal land had been occupied as an American military reservation for more than a century, and later when the Subic Bay Freeport was established in 1991.

Change and stability

WITH more economic opportunities available to the natives, the upland community of Pastolan, some 10 kilometers from the central business district of the Subic Freeport, thrived despite its relative isolation.

The small Ayta village has its own grade school, health clinic, potable water-supply system and electricity.

Now, a sturdy vehicle owned by the tribal council brings Ayta students to the government high school in Olongapo City, thus ensuring they get the needed higher education.

But even with their changing social status, Ayta leaders have fortunately chosen to preserve their community’s indigenous roots.

“The annual celebration of the IP Month,” said Conrado Frenilla, chieftain of the Pastolan Ayta tribe, “gives us, the Ayta tribes in the Subic Freeport and nearby areas, the opportunity to demonstrate and show other people the richness of our indigenous culture.”

“At the same time, we also do this to teach our children the importance of knowing, preserving and practicing the Ayta traditions,” he added.

Mike Recacho, vice chairman of the Ambala Pastolan Organization, stressed that, more than being a festivity, the annual IP Month cel-

ebration should strengthen the Ayta people’s awareness of their cultural identity and assertion of their rights.

“We need to awaken, among the youth especially, a sense of our place in the bigger community and our role in the changing times. We need to give them knowledge to fight discrimination and to embrace our folkways and culture,” Recacho said.

Happy mix

WITH this emphasis on local culture, events during the IP Month celebration always came out a happy mix of the traditional and the contemporary.

In the recent Pastolan events, Ayta elders like the renowned jungle-survival instructor Dominador “Tata Kasoy” Liwanag, were seen walking about and greeting visitors in their traditional red bahag and headscarf. Tata Kasoy was also with his ubiquitous “walkie-talkie,” a radio transceiver that links him instantaneously to fellow operators of Ayta tourism spots several kilometres away. Others mostly carried cell phones.

Likewise, at the “Maglutuy Na!” Ayta Ultimate Cook-Off Competition on October 19, tribesmen from the Subic Freeport, Olongapo City and Subic, Zambales, cooked native recipes in the traditional bamboo tubes. However, some of the ingredients they used, like coconut milk and fruit preserves, came straight from the can and not from old-fashioned food preparation.

The blend of the old and the new also showed during the Ayta booth competition organized by JobinSQM Inc. when Ayta girls in native tapis manned a booth where they showed visitors a presentation of Ayta jungle-survival skills—conveniently from a laptop computer.

Spoken-word contests help teach Ayta tribesmen love of their own culture.

Empowerment

Ayta kids enjoy a tour of the Magaul Bird Park.

Encouragement

ARMIE Llamas, manager of the SBMA Public Relations Department, said the Subic agency has encouraged the Ayta tribesmen to retain their identity while keeping up with social changes.

As such, the SBMA takes an active role in promoting Ayta welfare to show appreciation for the cooperation and support given by the tribal folk, and to strengthen their capability as partners in development.

“For the past 10 years, we have been celebrating the robust partnership between the SBMA and the indigenous cultural community here,” Llamas said. “In recognition of the Ayta ownership of ancestral lands where locators of the Subic Bay Freeport now continue to flourish, the SBMA is helping heighten public understanding and preservation of the Ayta culture amid fast-paced modern living.”

For this year, Llamas said the SBMA prepared a two-week program that began with an Ayta-led flag-raising ceremony at the SBMA main office on October 16. This was followed by a breakfast meeting

among SBMA and TAAP officials on October 18, a native cooking competition on October 19, children’s tour of four theme parks in the Subic Freeport, village-level lectures on climate change and drug-abuse prevention, and the “Ayta Got Talent” contest on October 17.

The SBMA also invited over Norman King, the first Ayta to graduate with a bachelor’s degree from the University of the Philippines, as a motivational speaker during the IP Month program.

Meanwhile, heavy private-sector support contributed to the success of the IP Month activities in Subic.

Llamas said that, for this year, the SBMA received support for IP Month activities from Harbor Point, Philip Morris-Fortune Tobacco Corp., Redondo Peninsula Energy, Emerging Power-Jobin SQM, Jamjle Properties and Development Corp., Subic Vacation Villas, MSK Group Work, Asia International Auctioneers, Ocean Adventure, Zoobic Safari, Magaul Bird Park, Funtastik Park, First Subic Bay Food Ventures, Subicwater, Rotary Club of Subic Pearl and the local governments of Olongapo City, Hermosa and Morong in Bataan and Subic in Zambales.

Cookfest participants break open a native cookware.

Curiosity draws an onlooker into a model Ayta hut.

IN particular, Jobin-SQM Inc., which put up a solar farm in Pastolan, organized competitions among the tribesmen on spoken-word poetry, which required participants to render their entries in the Sambal dialect; tribal booths, which showcased the evolution of Ayta dwellings and tribal skills in jungle survival; and music and dance, with emphasis on traditional dances and Sambal folk songs.

Angeli Eclevia, the firm’s community relations officer, said this was the second year they have initiated projects to help promote and preserve Ayta culture. The company, which began operating in the area last year, had organized the first Ayta native cookfest, which saw tribesmen besting each other with exotic dishes.

“This [year’s program] is actually a continuation of the theme from last year’s event, which was ‘Ha kitamuy mi aayun, ha kantamung pinagmul an ha dan ginawa tamu hin hatu’ [Let us recall together our collective past and culture],” Eclevia noted.

“This time around, we tried to showcase the empowered spirit of the Pastolan community, which was strengthened throughout the years via local expression through the arts and native language,” she added.

On the same occasion, Jobin plant manager Mark Allen Perez formally turned over P500,000 representing the firm’s committed annual financial assistance to the TAAP. Mayor Jopet Inton of Hermosa, who was among the guests in the event, also provided additional cash prizes for winners in the contest, Eclevia noted.