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Peping’s ‘personal’ claim to power PHILIPPINE Olympic Committee (POC) President Jose “Peping” Cojuangco Jr. (right) addresses one of the body’s General Assembly meetings with his daughter, Mikee Cojuangco-Jaworski (left), International Olympic Committee representative to the Philippines, and POC Chairman Tom Carrasco. NONOY LACZA

F

By Al S. Mendoza

OR 12 straight years, Jose “Peping” Cojuangco Jr. has been president of the Philippine Olympic Committee (POC). That means he is a three-term head of the country’s chief sports body recognized by the International Olympic Committee (IOC).

On November 25 Peping seeks a fourth term. This time, he faces the stiffest challenge yet to his post that, from all indications, he considers his personal claim to fiefdom—if not greatness.

But that’s going ahead of the story.

Peping longest-serving president

THE IOC, based in Switzerland, is the exclusive owner and presenter of the Olympic Games, the world’s biggest, multibillion-dollar sporting spectacle held once every four years. Close to 300 nations send their athletes, screened by the IOC for eligibility, to play in the quadrennial Games.

Presidents of member-nations in the IOC are elected in every Olympic year, usually weeks after the Games. The Rio de Janeiro Olympics ended in September.

Eighty-two years old now, and sitting in his throne longer than outgoing US President Obama (eight years), and even former Philippine President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo a.k.a. GMA (nine years), Peping wants to extend his 12-year hold of the POC president to 16 years.

That means that, if he becomes

POC president 14 or so days from now, Peping, in God’s grace, will be 86 by the time the next Olympics come along in 2020 in Tokyo.

But how he had gotten this far is also a tale of the extraordinary.

Peping survives eerie challenges

FIRST elected to his first of three four-year terms in 2004, Peping barely survived the challenge of his reelection bid against the late Art Macapagal in 2008.

It was the general view that had GMA helped her brother Art’s campaign to defeat Peping, Art, the former head of the country’s shooting body, would have made it.

As things turned out, Art, too steeped in principle that he shunned seeking help from his younger sister endowed with a wealth of presidential powers then, would lose—by the slimmest of margins, yet. The belief was that one of his allies had betrayed him hours before the election, resulting in a razor-thin, one-vote winning margin for Peping.

Art had tossed out the window a lesson of years back, when thenPresident Fidel V. Ramos employed the full force of Malacañang to Continued on A2

Duterte’s ‘keyboard army’ sustains all-out cyber war

‘T

hreatening journalists when their reportage is disagreeable or erroneous is criminal, as is helping spread these threats, especially if any harm should befall the subjects of such opprobrium.”—NUJP

By Rene Acosta

D

uring the past weeks, at least seven members of the media have been the targets of trolls, or what appeared as “keyboard warriors,” of the Duterte administration, prompting some media groups and organizations here and abroad to raise the alarm.

As they are, these comments against the journalists and a broadcaster, in the form of messages over the Internet, were

PESO exchange rates n US 48.3360

“very nasty” to the point that such could be seen or interpreted as threats. Count the journalists out, and there are more other victims.

Indeed, another battle has been drawn by the hordes of Duterte followers in cyberspace, and they are waging it out in a borderless front, and like the war on illegal drugs that was being pursued by the government, which is brutal, it was also vicious.

It was a high-tech war, waged in the

cyberspace against those who do not toe the line of the administration.

Journalists case

Last month Reuters reporters Manny Mogato and Karen Lema were on the receiving end of the vicious messages and even threats by die-hard Duterte supporters, after they reported on the “Hitler” remarks of the President like other journalists.

Media groups and organizations

were forced to issue statements in defense of the two beleaguered journalists.

“Threatening journalists when their reportage is disagreeable or erroneous is criminal, as is helping spread these threats, especially if any harm should befall the subjects of such opprobrium,” the local National Union of Journalists of the Philippines (NUJP) said in a news statement.

“We are worried over the continued vilification of media and attempts to lay

the predicate to muzzle freedom of the press and of expression,” it added.

Not too long ago, another reporter was also attacked through the social media, after she asked the President about the incident wherein he whistled at one television reporter.

In September two other journalists were also attacked following an international story on Duterte’s campaign against illegal drugs.

See “Duterte,” A2

n japan 0.4694 n UK 60.2460 n HK 2.2333 n CHINA 7.1476 n singapore 34.9349 n australia 37.1124 n EU 53.6916 n SAUDI arabia 12.8860 Source: BSP (04 November 2016)

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Peping’s ‘personal’ claim to power

Ricky Vargas

facebook.com/therickypvargas

continued from A1 make his daughter, Cristy RamosJalasco, win the POC presidency.

A couple or so years ago, Art died of cancer—bringing with him to his grave his vision of a brighter tomorrow for sports.

Peping just 1 medal in last 3 Olympiads

IN three Olympic Games under Peping in 2008 Beijing, 2012 London and 2016 Rio, we had but one medal to show: Hidilyn Diaz’s weightlifting silver in September.

The silver was a shocker of

sweet proportion: The credit was practically to Diaz mainly and her intrepid coach, as the duo had labored hard, relying mainly on their own resources.

In short, save for the POC’s blessing for Hidilyn’s stint in Rio— which was, of course, merely min-

peping cojuangco

alysa saLen

isterial—Peping’s help was hardly felt by Diaz, before and during the Olympiad.

If truth be told, Duterte’s predeparture words of inspiration to our Olympic-bound athletes (he doubled their pocket money, too) had impacted more on Hidilyn, who had called President Duterte “my idol from the very beginning.”

Peping makes PHL champ

IN fairness, Peping did well in his first term.

One year after he assumed power, we emerged overall champion with a whopping total of 113 gold medals in the Manila SEA Games in 2005.

But that feat was met by boos from Thailand, which called us “cheaters”. The Thais would next threaten they’d avenge their defeat in the next edition. True enough, Thailand reclaimed the SEA Games championship in 2007 in Nakhon Ratchasima.

That year our gold harvest had drastically dipped to 41 from 2005’s 113 golds. It was the start of an ugly decline in our Asiad participation.

From champion in 2005 to a ghastly sixth overall in 2007, we would slide to just 38 golds in 2009 Vientianne for fifth overall, 36 golds in 2011 Jakarta (sixth overall), 29 golds in 2013 Naypyitaw (Vietnam, seventh overall) and 29 golds in 2015 Singapore (sixth overall).

Peping sees successive Asiad slips IT was even worst in our Asian Games results.

Two years after Peping’s ascent to power, he did fairly well as we won four gold medals in 2006 Doha Asiad, a leap from a two-gold performance in 2002 Busan Asiad.

But four years later we slipped to a three-gold haul and fell from 18th overall to 19th in 2010 Guangzhou Asiad. And then in 2014 Incheon Asiad, the slip was more gory: Just one gold, as we dropped to 22nd overall.

Duterte...

Just this week a broadcaster for radio station dzXL was, likewise, threatened over her critical reporting of the President.

Palace backing

The President’s “soldiers” over the Internet, who uses every available platform of social media, seemed to be very well organized that they would come in chorus for trolls the minute any message that do not sit well with the administration is put up.

It was with these soul-searing signs of slips that Ricky Vargas would step up to challenge Peping for the POC presidency on November 25.

Peping disqualifies Vargas

HOWEVER, before Vargas could formally mount an official bid, he gets disqualified by a rule sprung on him by the POC. The Comelec, headed by no less than Frank J. Elizalde, the former Philippine permanent representative to the IOC, ruled that Vargas had failed to complete a 50-percent attendance to the POC’s General Assembly meetings the last two years.

Elizalde claimed that that was a ground to disqualify Vargas, as Ricky’s absences made the president of the boxing body an “inactive member” of the POC. Immediately, Vargas, through his lawyer Chito T. Salud, the former commissioner of the PBA (Philippine Basketball Association), appealed. But Elizalde denied the motion, prompting Vargas to seek remedies in court.

Peping has contentious Senate, too

One court case led to another and, soon, the Senate also wanted a piece of the action, instigated mainly by Sen. Juan Edgardo M. Angara. Curiously, not only is Vargas’s eligibility the issue in the Senate but also the POC’s finances, as well.

On the forthcoming Senate probe, here is Salud’s statement: “We would welcome a Senate probe on POC issues as it highlights two important reasons why Ricky Vargas is presenting an alternative leadership: greater transparency and accountability. We believe that it should be fairly easy for the POC to account for the public money it received from the PSC. What would be puzzling is if these funds have, indeed, remained unliquidated over the years. The POC should publicly disclose how and where the money was utilized. And

it should do so without further delay to allay growing concerns regarding nontransparency in its financial transactions. Basic norms of good governance demand this.”

Before this, Salud went to the Regional Trial Court in Pasig City, asking for a temporary restraining order against the POC election on November 25. He also prayed for a clarification of the word “active member” pertaining to any candidate in the coming election.

Peping also faces Fernandez

THE plot thickens as the Philippine Sports Commission (POC), the government agency tasked to finance athletes’ training and participation in global events, has entered the fray.

Here’s PSC Commissioner Ramon S. Fernandez, the former basketball superstar, on Peping’s stance to disqualify Vargas:

“Peping Cojuangco missed his chance to be on the right side of history by choosing to desperately cling to power notwithstanding strong and unmistakable calls for change in the POC leadership. By doing the unfair and unpatriotic act of hiding behind the skirt of technicalities, Peping and his minions killed freedom and democracy in Philippine sports.

“From my understanding of PSC’s mandate, its direct partners are the NSAs [national sports associations]. The PSC funds the athletes’ training, allowances, incentives, etc. The POC only certifies, approves the composition of the team members of the NSAs that will be sent to the games under the auspices of the IOC. “It is my personal opinion that, because of the way they have interpreted the election rules only in their favor, to perpetuate themselves in power, contrary to the code of ethics of the IOC, the working relationships of the PSC and POC must change for the sake of Philippine sports.”

Is there hope for renaissance in Philippine sports?

continued from A1

And it appeared that Malacañang endorses this practice of Duterte followers when it told journalists in Manila to follow the examples of their colleagues from Davao, as reported by the NUJP.

The Palace suggested that “media should undergo a briefing from Davao-based media to be able tell if the President is making fun of an issue or if he’s serious.”

“The suggestion is egregious,” the NUJP said in response.

“What Malacañang is basically saying is that the President is so incapable of coherence that he requires divination by an exclusive clique that enjoys a level of kinship anathema to a profession that demands a modicum of distance from its subjects,” the NUJP said.

“It is the obligation of the government and of leaders to speak clearly that the governed may understand, unequivocally, the messages and edicts they wish to impart,” it added.

A4

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Trump is a mixed blessing for Chinese leaders

D

onald Trump is a mixed blessing for Chinese leaders.

Trump’s threats to tear up trade deals and hike tariffs on Chinese goods look ominous. If carried out, they could chill thriving commercial ties at a time when Beijing is struggling to shore up economic growth.

At the same time, Trump’s suggestion he might reduce Washington’s global strategic presence to focus on domestic issues would be a gift to Chinese leaders. They could expand their political and military profile in East Asia with less risk of conflict.

The incoming Trump administration faces the task of maintaining influence in the face of rising Chinese strategic ambitions while accommodating Asian countries that are being drawn into Beijing’s economic orbit.

That calls for more nimble diplomacy that transcends the securityfocused “pivot to Asia” and caters to countries’ desire for a balanced relationship between Washington and Beijing, analysts say. It will require greater economic and diplomatic engagement, drawing on America’s soft power assets in culture, media and education.

China is “without doubt trying to subvert American alliances and relationships,” including in Europe, Australia and South Korea, said Michael Montesano, a research fellow at the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies in Singapore.

That’s been abetted by “depressingly unimaginative” US diplomacy in Asia that is focused too narrowly on military alliances and is now hobbled by Washington’s failure to advance the Trans-Pacific Partnership free-trade pact, Montesano said.

Over US objections, Beijing has moved to cement its claim to most of the South China Sea, including by building artificial islands and military airstrips atop coral reefs.

On strategic issues, Chinese researchers have “come around to the view that Donald Trump is better for China,” said Paul Haenle, director of the Carnegie-Tsinghua Center at Tsinghua University in Beijing.

“There is a sense among many that Donald Trump will draw inward,” Haenle said. “This is music to their ears, because this means that the United States might not put pressure on China in the region.”

Beijing has been visited in recent weeks by leaders from the Philippines, Malaysia and Vietnam, high-

lighting its economic appeal and lack of interest in their internal affairs, especially corruption and human rights—issues the US is seen as harping on.

Still, it would be “premature to write off the United States,” said Carlyle Thayer, an expert on Southeast Asia and emeritus professor at Australia’s University of New South Wales.

“The US has important equities in the region through investment and trade,” Thayer said. “And the US has a national interest in preventing China from becoming a hegemonic power over the region.”

As for the Philippines’s unpredictable new president, Rodrigo R. Duterte, the new administration would be best advised to “ride out the Duterte storm and let domestic politics in the Philippines take its course,” Thayer said.

Meanwhile, concerns about China’s intentions will propel governments such as Singapore, Indonesia and Vietnam toward closer ties with the US, Australia, Japan and India, said Greg Poling of the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington.

How will Donald Trump deal with China on politically volatile commercial issues?

Despite his threats of a trade war, no one is sure—probably not even Trump himself. But businesspeople and economists say Washington is bound to be tougher on trade, market access and currency after the election laid bare Americans’ anxiety about jobs and stagnant wages. Uncertainty about where Trump wants to take the world’s biggest economy has caused turmoil in global financial markets. The answer—and especially how that affects ties with No. 2 China—could have been even bigger repercussions.

Trump is unlikely to carry out his most extreme threats to tear up trade deals or slap 45 percent tariffs on Chinese goods, say economists. But they say high-visibility gestures such as declaring Beijing manipulates its exchange rate to boost exports—a step that can trigger penalties—look more likely.

“It has been clear for some time

A front page of a Chinese newspaper with a photo of US President-elect Donald J. Trump and the headline “Outsider counterattack” is displayed at a newsstand in Beijing, China, on November 10. Trump is a mixed blessing for Chinese leaders. His threats to tear up trade deals and hike tariffs on Chinese goods could chill thriving commercial ties when Beijing is struggling to shore up economic growth. AP/Ng Han Guan

There is a sense among many that Donald Trump will draw inward.

This is music to their ears, because this means that the United States might not put pressure on China in the region.”

—Tsinghua University that whoever wins the White House is going to be tougher on China by necessity,” said Randal Phillips, vice chairman of the American Chamber of Commerce in China.

“And I think, frankly, the Chinese government has known that for several years.”

Phillips and others warn that Chinese leaders will need to be sensitive to American public sentiment to avoid disrupting their access to US consumers.

At the top of the US wish list is more access to China’s growing market, where finance, telecoms and a wide swath of other industries are mostly off-limits.Foreign governments assumed China would open up as it grew richer. But business groups complain Beijing is

trying instead to squeeze foreign rivals out of technology and other promising industries in violation of its free-trade commitments.

The US, along with Germany and other trading partners, are increasingly frustrated that their companies are blocked from buying Chinese assets in most industries while China Inc. is on a global acquisition spree.

“It’s just not acceptable anymore,” Phillips said.

That could help Washington recruit allies to pressure Beijing, said Haenle of the Carnegie-Tsinghua Center. He noted Germany, the biggest economy in the 28-nation European Union, is becoming more assertive in demanding “reciprocity and market access.”

Washington will talk to the EU “to see what can be done on this issue,” Haenle said.

Others warn reckless action could backfire.

“The biggest threats to the economy stem from Trump’s protectionist stance on trade, anti-immigration policies and the weakening of government finances stemming from expected tax cuts,” Sarah Boumphrey of Euromonitor International said in a report.

Trump’s election adds to the urgency of winding up negotiations begun in 2013 on a bilateral investment treaty before President Barack Obama leaves office, said Jake Parker, vice president of the US-China Business Council, which represents some 200 companies.

His group sees the measure, which would guarantee the legal status of investments in each other’s markets, as the best way to increase access to the China.

“This may offer an opportunity to accelerate the negotiations,” Parker said.

China’s government tried to remind Washington that both sides benefit from one of the world’s biggest commercial relationships despite chronic disputes.

“Bilateral trade over the past decades has tangibly benefited the US people and created jobs instead of harming their interests,” said a foreign ministry spokesman, Lu Kang.

Tough talk on China has featured in every US presidential campaign since 1992, when thencandidate Bill Clinton dubbed the ruling Communist Party the “butchers of Beijing.”

Once elected, Clinton set that aside and persuaded Congress to grant China low-tariff “most-favored nation” status. Other candidates have taken a similar approach. “What he said during the campaign, that’s not government policy,” said James Zimmerman, the American chamber’s chairman.

“Government policy really requires thoughtful discussion, dialogue and compromise.”

Companies and economists were waiting to see whether Trump follows tradition. “This scenario is still subject to considerable uncertainty,” Boumphrey said. “Republicans will control both houses [of Congress], which would ordinarily make for more certainty, but it is unclear how many of his policies the party will support.” AP

It’s not just Ford: Trump’s trade barbs threaten vw, Toyota too F

ord Motor Co. was a favorite target of Donald Trump, who lambasted the company for producing cars south of the border throughout his campaign. Toyota Motor Corp., Volkswagen AG and other US carmakers are just as exposed.

Toyota and Nissan Motor Co., Japan’s largest automakers, were spared from Trump’s critique by name on the campaign trail. Yet, along with General Motors Co. and VW, they all rely on Mexican plants for millions of vehicles and a high volume of parts. That puts them at risk if the president-elect makes good on his threat to levy hefty taxes on cars assembled across the Rio Grande.

“Trump could, or will, try to set up trade barriers,”said Ferdinand Dudenhoeffer, director of the Center for Automotive Research at the University of Duisburg-Essen in Germany.

“Automakers with US factories will therefore be on the winning side. Mexico, the new El Dorado of the auto industry, could suffer.”

Since 2010, nine global automakers, including GM, Ford and Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV, have announced more than $24 billion in Mexican investments. VW’s Audi, BMW AG and Daimler AG each build or plan to

assemble luxury vehicles, engines or heavy trucks in the low-cost country, which Trump says has benefited at the expense of the American voters who propelled him to victory. Output in Mexico may more than double this decade, from 2 million to 5 million vehicles, according to the Center for Automotive Research in Ann Arbor, Michigan.

The Republican candidate and real-estate developer grabbed headlines during his campaign by threatening to slap a 35-percent tariff on any cars Ford builds in Mexico and ships back to the US. He called Ford’s plans for a new plant in Mexico “ an absolute disgrace.”

A levy would lead to higher prices and hurt demand, said Joe Spak, an analyst at RBC Capital Markets.

Trump would “start a worldwide trade war” if he decides to end trade pacts and uses antidumping provisions to impose widespread tariffs on other countries, said Donald Grimes, an economist at the Institute for Research on Labor, Employment and the Economy at the University of Michigan.

The North American Free Trade Agreement (Nafta), for example, requires only six months’ notice of termination to Canada and

$24B The amount of Mexican investments announced by nine global automakers since 2010

Mexico and doesn’t specify that the president would need congressional approval, he said.

“These other countries would retaliate.

Prices consumers would pay would increase sharply. The Federal Reserve would then increase interest rates. It would be ugly,”Grimes said. Despite that threat, US automakers and the United Auto Workers (UAW) union extended an olive branch to the president-elect.

“We agree with Mr. Trump that it is really important to unite the country—and we look forward to working together to support economic growth and jobs,” Ford said in a statement. The company’s plan to shift small-

car production from a factory in Michigan to Mexico was attacked by Trump during his first answer of the initial debate with Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton in September.

GM and Fiat Chrysler said in separate statements they would work with Trump and the new Congress on policies that support US manufacturing. UAW President Dennis Williams, whose union endorsed Clinton, told reporters at a roundtable Thursday that “I’m prepared to sit down and talk to him on trade. Nafta is a huge problem to the American people.”

German executives attending an industry conference in Munich on Wednesday also expressed concerns about Trump’s views.

BMW is building a new car plant in Mexico’s San Luis Potosi that’s due to start production in 2019, while Audi started assembling autos in San Jose Chiapa in September.

“We need open trade,” said BMW CEO Harald Krueger. The luxury automaker ships many of the SUVs assembled at its South Carolina factory to markets around the world and in turn exports sedans and Mini cars to the US from Europe. “We live off exports and imports. The US market is fundamental for us.”

Nafta has created a “highly integrated” auto market in North America that is critical to the fortunes of all global carmakers operating in it, said Sean McAlinden, an automotive economist based in Ann Arbor.

“To interrupt the flow of trade across either border, Canadian or Mexican, would really throw more than a monkey wrench into the machine,” McAlinden said. “It would create a very, very noncompetitive North American auto industry.”

Conciliation hopes

Daimler CEO Dieter Zetsche and James Verrier, who heads supplier BorgWarner Inc., are among executives who held out hope that much of Trump’s trade talk was campaign rhetoric and would soften with the practicalities needed to govern. “Many things get said during the heat of an election campaign,” Zetsche said. “I hope and believe this is also the case here.”

For Bob Lutz, the retired vice chairman of GM, Trump’s victory could ultimately help the auto industry if his advisers and Congress keep him from pushing his protectionist agenda too far. “He’s not a

dictator,” Lutz said in an interview. “No one can go in and abrogate trade deals. There are some aspects of Nafta that will probably be renegotiated, but he will probably be talked out of his crazier ideas.”

Rather than threaten Japan auto imports with tariffs, Trump has pointed to wealth generated from the cars being sold in the US to bolster his argument for America to pay a smaller share of the costs related to stationing troops in its biggest Asian ally’s territory.

“Japan is ripping us off with the cars,” Trump said at an October 12 campaign event in Florida. In remarks to Ohio volunteers in July, he spoke of “massive ships” delivering vehicles to the US from Japan, which he told Americans was “rich because of us.”

Representatives for Toyota, Nissan and Honda Motor Co. declined to comment.

Japan’s automakers have combined capacity to build about 1.36 million vehicles annually in Mexico and have announced plans for new plants capable of assembling another 430,000 vehicles a year. Models built or planned for Mexican production and sale in the US include the Toyota Corolla, the Nissan Versa and Sentra, and the Honda Fit and HR-V. Bloomberg News

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Sunday, November 13, 2016

A3

Oscars of watchmaking cites best watches of 2016

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very year in Geneva, a panel of 28 judges across the fields of watchmaking, jewelry, retail and journalism gather to determine which are the best timepieces that came out that year.

The watches vying for an honor in the Grand Prix d’Horlogerie de Genève (GPHG) fall into 12 categories, from sport watches to artistic watches to watches that have exceptional complications. Overall, one winner is chosen, the true winner of the “Grand Prix.” (The prize trophy is a small upraised hand and wrist, modeled in gold, just waiting for a watch to be strapped on.)

Before the cocktail party announcing the winners, at the Hotel Kempinski on Lake Geneva, some of the jurists shared their thoughts on why such a prize is necessary in a world in which the consumer, in the end, decides which watches will succeed and fail. “Wristwatches are superfluous, but these awards urge [brands] to push things forward in interesting and important ways,” said Ben Clymer, a jury member and the founder of the web site Hodinkee. “What the foundation has understood over the years is that there is no one, perfect watch that ticks every box,” added Aurel Bacs, the founder of

Philips’s vaunted vintage watch program. “The number of categories has increased, so you can compare apples to apples.”

There were no smartwatches among this year’s finalists, although they are not barred from entry if they have a mechanical movement, as well. (For example, Frederique Constant entered a horological smartwatch in the past; it did not become a finalist.) This is a topic of some debate among the members of the jury, and tempers flared when it was raised in a group discussion.

“We should give up 500 years of [mechanical] watchmaking?” sneered Claude Sfier, a jeweler from Beirut, when asked if there should be a smartwatch category in the future. “I’d feel like I’m showing up with a soft drink at a wine tasting,” Bacs agreed. “I have a problem mixing things that shouldn’t be mixed.”

Below, the year’s best watches, according to the GPHG, the Oscars of watchmaking:

Aiguille d’Or (Grand Prize): Chronométrie Ferdinand Berthoud FB 1

Inspired by the rationalist design of 18th-century marine clocks and powered by an original handwound movement, Chronométrie Ferdinand Berthoud’s big winner stops the eye with an octagonal case that’s juxtaposed against an understated, lacquered dial.

Calendar: MB&F Legacy Machine Perpetual

Unlike many perpetual-calendar watches, this platinum dream uses a mechanical processor. It also features a dedicated quickset pusher for your quadrennial leap year adjustment.

basilica in the Netherlands. Their father, and his father before him, maintained its clock, the special “church turret” movement of which inspired this mechanism.

Ladies’ High Mechanical: Girard-Perregaux Cat’s Eye Tourbillon With Gold Bridge

Travel Time: Fabergé Visionnaire DTZ

Chronograph: Montblanc 1858 Chronograph Tachymeter Limited Edition

Mechanical Exception: Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Concept Supersonnerie

With 50 diamonds on its oval bezel—and more yet on the buckle of its alligator strap—this GirardPerregaux is a dazzler, from its leaf-shaped hands to its motherof-pearl dial.

Ladies’: Piaget Limelight Gala Milanese Bracelet

The slinky, pink-gold bracelet of this Piaget meshes with the spiral of diamonds and elongated Roman numerals to memorably elegant effect.

Artistic Crafts: Piaget Protocole XXL Secrets & Lights Venice Micro-Mosaic

Italian micro-mosaic artist Cesare Bella arranged 5,000 tiny tesserae to create a postcard-perfect view of the Santa Maria della Salute basilica in Venice.

Men’s: Grönefeld 1941 Remontoire

Brothers Bart and Tim Grönefeld grew up near a 12th-century

1889, the Esmeralda Tourbillon features a tourbillon carriage 14.3 millimeters in diameter and a balance wheel 10.5 millimeters in diameter.

Dr amatic to see and intuitive to use, this Fabergé watch presents the local time, with peripheral hands that rotate around a raised dome to display the hour of a remote time zone.

This titanium Audemars Piguet makes industrial music, bringing the acoustic clarity and sustained tone of chiming pocket watches to a minute-repeater.

Petite Aguille (Lower Price): Tudor Heritage Black Bay Bronze From its plump, fluted crown to its distinguished, deep-blue face to its stately, cathedral-style hands, the 1858 Chronograph Tachymeter Limited Edition pays tribute to the Minerva pocket watch of yesteryear.

Tourbillon: Girard-Perregaux La Esmeralda Tourbillon

Inspired by the most exceptional pocket chronometer of

The winding crown of the Tudor Heritage Black Bay Bronze echoes the “Big Crown” of 1958 Submariners, and the “snowf lake” angular hands allude to a French National Nav y design of the 1970s.

Sports: Eberhard & Co. Scafograf 300

The clean-lined Scafograf 300 is a self-winding dive watch boasting a date window at 3 o’clock and a helium escape valve at 9 o’clock.

Jewelry: Chanel Secret Watch ‘Signature Grenat’

In homage to the classic, quilted Chanel bag, diamond squares (augmented with orange sapphires) reflect the brilliance of 53-carat carmine garnet that opens to reveal the dial.

Revival: TAG Heuer Heuer Monza Chronograph

In 1976 Heuer designed a chronograph to celebrate both Ferrari and Formula One driver Niki Lauda. Forty years later, the watchmaker sped the sporty model up to date, increasing the diameter from 39 millimeters to 42.

Public: Czapek Genève 33 bis Quai des Bergues

This Czapek Genève is the fan favorite, winning votes from the public on the Internet and at various international exhibitions. You can have the Grand Feu enamel dial very subtly—almost invisibly— engraved to add further pleasure in enjoying the sweep of its cambered fleur-de-lis hands.

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A5

Elephant poachers are hard at work in Africa, and carbon dating proves it

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lephant poaching is alive and well—and the elephants are not.

A team of scientists examining seized shipments of elephant tusks from Africa have found that the vast majority of the ivory came from elephants that died within the last three years.

The sobering results, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, reveal that the killing of elephants for their ivory is continuing at a disturbing pace— even as elephant populations across the continent are in sharp decline.

While poaching had been easing for several years, it has returned with a vengeance in the last decade or so, said lead author Thure Cerling, a geochemist at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City.

Central African forest elephants have fallen by an estimated 62 percent from 2002 to 2011. At the Selous Wildlife Reserve in Tanzania, savanna elephants have declined 66 percent from 2009 to 2013.

“There’s been a staggering rate of elephant loss every year,” Cerling said.

Last year in a study, led by Samuel Wasser of the University of Washington, scientists analyzed the DNA locked in 28 large seizures of ivory (at least half a ton each) made between 1996 and 2004, and matched it to 1,350 DNA samples taken from dung gathered at 71 spots across 29 different countries.

Now they could map the ivory’s sources, and watch as patterns of poaching changed as elephants in one country dwindled or as political pressure ramped up.

But some suggested that these seized shipments might not be ivory from recently killed animals, but old ivory “leaking” out of government stockpiles.

“Some people were say ing, ‘Well, we don’t need to worry so much because there’s big stockpiles of ivory,’ so we’re getting legacy ivory into the market… and other people were saying, ‘No, no, no, these are all recent

deaths,’” Cerling said.

To answer that question, the researchers analyzed 231 samples of ivory taken from 14 large caches (at least half a ton) confiscated between 2002 and 2014. They analyzed the carbon-14 in the pulp cavity inside the ivory, using a sample taken near the base—which would record the last two or three months of growth before the elephant died.

Scientists can figure out exactly how long ago an elephant died, thanks to the Cold War-fueled nuclear arms race.

The US and Russia’s spate of nuclear testing in the 1950s and 1960s nearly doubled the global concentration of a certain carbon isotope, carbon-14, by 1963. That spike of carbon-14 is recorded in tree rings, in the bottom of the oceans, even in our own teeth.

Because this isotope’s abundance has been declining at a well-known rate in the years since, scientists can use the carbon-14 concentration to tell when a living tissue first formed.

The researchers found that some 90 percent of the ivory was taken from animals that died less than three years before the ivory was seized by government officials. Out of 231 analyzed specimens, only one had a lag time longer than six years, the authors wrote.

“That means all of the ivory that’s being seized by customs is [from] very recently killed elephants,” Cerling said. “So, indeed, the crisis is severe if we’re going to preserve this species on our planet.”

There is a small silver lining: The findings showed that “legacy” ivory was not leaking out of sealed government stockpiles, as some had feared. “So that’s a very positive finding, that we’re

The overall elephant population has seen the worst declines in 25 years, mainly due to poaching over the past 10 years, according to the African Elephant Status Report launched by the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources on March 1 in Samburu, Kenya. Sun Ruibo/Xinhua/Sipa USA

not finding government officials selling old ivory or allowing that to happen,” Cerling said. Part of the problem is that, while demand for ivory in Europe and North America has dropped, markets in increasingly prosperous countries in Southeast Asia, such as China, Vietnam and the Philippines, have been growing.

“So, basically in 1989 in North America and Europe, most people said, ‘OK, yeah, this is a bad thing,’ and so ivory very quickly became something that’s not a desirable object,” Cerling said. “But that’s not true in Southeast Asia—and so when their economy improved, it became a desirable object.”

Educating potential consumers in these countries is key, he added— as is working with courts to ensure that they mete out severe sentences for breaking national and international laws on poaching.

“We’ve got a lot to do,” Cerling said. “And we’ve got to do it fast.”

Los Angeles Times/TNS

Funding to combat land degradation lagging; urgent action needed

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AIROBI, Kenya—Land degradation already affects millions of people, bringing biodiversity loss, reduced availability of clean water, food insecurity and greater vulnerability to the harsh impacts of climate change.

According to the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD), 2 billion hectares of productive land are currently degraded worldwide. An additional 12 million hectares are degraded every year.

Delegates meeting at the 15th Session of the Committee for the Review of the Implementation of the Convention (CRIC 15) held in Nairobi last month agreed that urgent action is needed to address the problem.

But for efforts to combat land degradation to succeed, huge financial resources must be mobilized. UNCCD has proposed the creation of the Impact Investment Fund for Land Degradation Neutrality (Land Degradation Neutrality Fund). Although not yet operationalized, the fund is intended to bring together institutions committed to addressing the global challenge of land degradation.

It will support large-scale rehabilitation of degraded land, for sustainable and productive use, with long-term private-sector financing.

The fund also aims to contribute to the achievement of global and local food and water security, and to mitigate climate change by sequestering up to 20 percent of carbon dioxide emissions by 2050. The fund hopes

to mobilize $50 billion to rehabilitate 300 million hectares of land worldwide in the next 20 years, reducing carbon emissions by an estimated 20 billion tons.

The Global Mechanism is spearheading the establishment of the fund. The fund plans to provide a structured framework in which private and public actors will be able to engage with the aim of achieving land degradation neutrality (LDN). The private-public partnership will include provision of funds and technical assistance.

The LDN concept was introduced at the Rio+20 Conference in 2012. According to the UNCCD, attaining LDN means ensuring that the amount of land resources that every household, region or country depends on for ecosystems services, such as water, remains healthy, productive and stable.

The resolve resonates with target 15.3 of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) adopted by the UN in September 2015 in New York. The target is to achieve LDN by 2030.

The Global Mechanism, UNCCD’s operational arm, was identified as the body to administer the fund to support initiatives that aim to reach LDN. The vision of the LDN Fund is to combat land degradation and finance rehabilitation of 12 million hectares of degraded land a year. When in place, it will also complement and leverage existing initiatives by creating a link between the bottom-up approach

(projects developed on the ground) and the top-down initiatives (government targets and institutional initiatives). Markus Repnik, managing director of the Global Mechanism, said $450 billion is required annually to combat land degradation and desertification. He noted that climate funding is growing, but more resources are needed. Repnik added that states have spent $200 billion but total financing is less than $400 billion.

The Green Climate Fund (GCF), a financial mechanism under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), is aiming to provide half of its funds for climate-change adaptation measures.

Repnik noted that the African Development Bank wants to triple climate financing by 2020.

He said there is abundance of funding initiatives and systems, but there is no single measure to show how finances are being mobilized. “In-depth data on global financing is required. It should be known how much has been spent, where it came and who provided it in addition to ensuring data compatibility and reliability,” Markus said.

He called upon parties to consider how they will mobilize resources to implement the convention. The EU delegation to the UNCCD’s CRIC 15 urged parties to explore more funding mechanisms instead of relying on multilateral partnerships. They said innovative measures to source funds from the private sector should be explored. IPS

Faith

A6

Sunday, November 13, 2016

Sunday

Editor: Lyn B. Resurreccion

‘Doors of Mercy’ start closing as year ends S ANTA MARIA, Bulacan—The Door of Mercy of the Diocesan Shrine of Mary, Mother of Eucharist and Grace in San Vicente was closed on November 5, the first in the Diocese of Malolos to do so with other Doors following suit on November 12 and 13, as scheduled.

King Malcolm III greeting Margaret on her arrival in Scotland. Detail from a mural by the Victorian artist William Hole. Wikimedia Commons

Saint Margaret of Scotland

By Corazon Damo-Santiago

G

od speaks through holy people to inspire others to change their relationship with God and treat others as their brethren.

Ma rga ret of Scot l a nd wa s cited by Catholic biographers as the most significant person to inf luence King Malcolm III, the warrior king who could neither read nor write, to change the barbaric culture of his kingdom to a refined way of life.

She inspired King Malcolm to do works of charity, mercy and justice. Historians described him “as one of most virtuous kings who ever occupied the Scottish throne.”

Perfect queen

Margaret was born in 1046 at Reska, Hungary, when his father Anglo-Saxon Prince Edward Atheling was on exile. Her mother Princess Agatha of Hungary was the granddaughter of King Edmund Ironside of England.

Margaret was raised at the Christian court of Hungary and in the English court of her great uncle, King Edward the Confessor.

O n Ja nu a r y 5, 10 6 6 , t he king died without an heir to the throne of England. Margaret’s father, a nephew, was nominated but was unable to defend his right to be king. Harold, the king’s brother-in-law, seized the crown and was hastily proclaimed king during King Edward the Confessor’s burial.

When the English army was defeated by Norman king, William the Conqueror, in the Battle of Hastings in 1066, Margaret’s family sought refuge in Scotland.

King Malcolm III, a widower, was captivated by “Margaret’s beauty, refined manners and extraordinary intelligence.”

Although she prefers a religious life, she yielded to the wishes of her mother, with a discernment that God wants her to have another vocation. The wedding was celebrated at the castle of Dunfermline in 1070. The king was 39, while Margaret was 24.

From a rough, unc u lt ured warrior who raided England to capture the Sa xons, pi l laged their homes, smuggled and made them slaves, Malcolm, by divine grace and love for Margaret, changed his ways and supported the religious and social changes introduced by his wife.

Malcolm believed that “Christ dwelt in the heart of his queen he was always ready to follow her advice, and her ‘pious wishes,’” Joan Carroll Cruz noted in Secular Saints.

A lthough a nonreader, Ma lcolm “ loved to hand le Margaret’s books, often ta ke them

secret ly and have them il luminated or decorated w ith gold and precious stones.”

A stor y is told that one of her prized books, a copy of the gospels, was accidentally dropped in a stream. W hen it was retrieved, the book exhibited only a tiny watermark on the cover.

The book is now displayed in Bodleian Librar y, Oxford.

Margaret bore Malcolm eight children: six sons and two daughters. She supervised their studies herself and taught them about Christian faith. They became her companions in her works of mercy and spiritual exercises.

Two of her children became saints: David and Matilda, who became to be known as Good Queen Maud. Two sons became monks, and three ruled Scotland successively and wisely. Edward, the eldest, was slain with his father in a siege in Alnwick Castle.

Spiritual legacy

A constant virtue attributed to Margaret is her love for the poor. She fed the hungry, visited the sick in hospitals, sponsored the construction of churches and monasteries, and formed guilds to help provide for liturgical needs.

Synods were held to correct the grave abuses of priests and laity on simony, usury, incestuous marriages and observance of Lent, Easter and Sunday duties.

Margaret’s faith, holiness, humility, tact and prudence enabled her to foster a better relationship with the Church by convincing leaders of the Celtic Church to conform with Roman practices.

She, likewise, led an austere life; eating sparingly, and spending minimum hours of sleep for her devotion and prayers and spiritual readings.

S he brou g ht t he S cot t i sh people to aspire for prosperity, humanness and Christian culture. Bishop Turgot, her biographer and spiritual confessor, described her as a lady with “staidness of character that even in her stately anger, impressed a distinctive virtue.”

“It seemed as if she had been born with a pattern for a virtuous life. Every word that she uttered, every act that she performed, showed that she was meditating on the things of heaven.”

Four days after her husband’s death, she died on November 16, 1093, at the age of 47.

She was canonized by Pope Innocent IV in 1250 and declared Patroness of Scotland in 1673.

Santiago is a former regional director of the Department of Education National Capital Region. She is currently a faculty member of Mater Redemptoris College in Calauan, Laguna.

Pope Francis called for the celebration of an Extraordinary Jubilee Year of Mercy worldwide.

It began on December 8, 2015, (the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception) and will end on November 20 (the Solemnity of Christ the King). Thousands of churches were identified as Holy Doors of Mercy in the Philippines.

Merciful like the Father

“Let us give thanks to the Lord for letting us experience His love and mercy through Mama Mary, the Mother of Eucharist, Grace and Mercy,” said Bishop Jose Oliveros in a concelebrated Mass with Fr. Fernando Cenon, Fr. Herbert Bacani and Fr. Hernan Milan to signal the nearing conclusion of the Year of Mercy.

The prelate added: “Continue showing mercy and compassion to our fellowmen in every way we know.”

The bishop also encouraged the faithful to continue responding to the Annual Bishop’s Appeal, which aims to rally support for the diocese’s charities and other initiatives that help those in need.

“Let us remember that what we do to our least brothers and sisters, we also do to the Lord,” he said in his message.

Prayer for the sick

Shrine Administrator Carmelo Villanueva Cortez, who is known for his “miraculous rose petals” that bear the images of the Crucifixion, the Blessed Mother, saints and of angels, led the prayer for

Malolos Bishop Jose Oliveros leads the rites of the closing of the Door of Mercy at the Diocesan Shrine of Mary, Mother of Eucharist and Grace in San Vicente, Santa Maria, Bulacan. Neil Joshua D. Roque/CBCP News

the sick after the Mass and the closing of the Door rites.

In an interview, Cortez explained to CBCPNews the importance of learning to love and forgive oneself.

“We look for God in different places, but His mercy can be found in our hearts,” he said. “Let us continue performing those corporal

and spiritual acts of mercy as stated in the Holy Bible.”

The faithful also received certificates with the third-class relics of Saints John Paul II and Mother Teresa of Calcutta.

A healing Mass and prayer for the sick is held at the shrine every first Saturday of the month at noon.

Myraine Carluen-Policarpio/CBCP News

Walking in the pathways of the Messiah, prophets

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Story & photos

by Manuel Mariano Jr.

his pilgrimage to Jordan, Israel and Egypt was a rare experience for any Christian who would like to see places, where 83 percent of biblical events took place.

Strategically, Israel is where three continents meet, namely, Africa, Asia and Europe. Paul’s travels to the gentiles in the general areas of Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, Turkey, Greece and Rome, where he established the 1st-century Christian churches as covered in the New Testament accounts for the remaining 17 percent of the bliblical events.

This tour from May 17 to 27 presents a synopsis of the entire Bible showing God’s plan for mankind. How would you like to study it from Genesis to Revelation by going to where it happened?

Indeed, walking in the pathways of the patriarchs: Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, so with Joseph, Moses, Joshua, the Judges, Kings and all the prophets, like Isaiah, Jeremiah, Elijah etc., and seeing where Jesus spent his 33 years of his earthly life was truly exciting.

Following Biblical chronology, Egypt today is a country of 100 million people; 95 percent of its land is desert.

The Egyptian civilization dates back to 3000 BC. For two days of the tour, we have seen the pyramids, sphinx, the Nile river, the Abu Segra Church, where the infant Jesus hid from Herod’s persecution, and the museums showing proofs of pharaohs rule.

Biblical events include the story of Jacob and his household of 70 people, who went there in about 2000 BC to avoid the famine in Canaan. They lived there for the next 430 years, and later became slaves to the Egyptians.

At this time, Moses led them back to the Promised Land as told in the book of Exodus.

They crossed the Red Sea on dry grounds and wandered in the Sinai desert for 40 years.

It is here where God gave to Moses the Ten Commandments, and Judaism came about as the religion of the Jews in 1440 BC. As part of the tour package, going atop Mount Sinai was, indeed, a rare privilege.

One would feel how Moses communicated with God face to face.

Next stop was Jordan of about 10 million people; it is 85-percent desert. This Hashemite Kingdom, currently under King Abdullah II, was established in 1921.

In biblical times, this was the land of

Petra, Jordan

THE author near the altar at the traditional site of Golgotha

the Midianites, Moabites, Ammonites and Edomites. Later on, the Nabatean Arabs, who were cave dwellers, built the city of Petra, which was a trade route in ancient times.

Mount Nebo was where Moses viewed the Promised Land and died there at 120 years old, so with the others who departed from Egypt as a judgment from God for their disobedience.

Only Joshua and Caleb and all 20-year olds and younger entered the Promised Land in 1400 BC. Joshua took over from Moses and crossed the Jordan River and captured Gilgal and Jericho as their first settlement. As soon as they have eaten the fruit of the land, their supply of manna and quail stopped from falling from heaven (Joshua 5:12).

From thereon, the Israelites conquered the Jebusites, Amorites, Girgasites, Hittites and Philistines, and allotted their land to the 12 tribes.

The judges took over from Joshua when

he died. In those days, Israel had no king and everyone did as one saw fit. The judges ruled for 400 years with famous names, like Deborah, Gideon, Samson and Delilah, etc.

The people clamored for a king from the Prophet Samuel and Saul. David and Solomon became kings of the United Kingdom of Israel. Later on, the kingdom split into Judah and Israel.

In those days, prophets were chosen by God to tell the people to repent for their sins and worship him alone but they didn’t heed the warning.

Eventually, the Israelites were deported to Assyria in 722 BC but never came back.

The Judahites were exiled to Babylon in 586 BC; they returned after 70 years and rebuilt Jerusalem and the temple.

About 500 years later, John the Baptist announced that the Kingdom of Heaven was at hand upon the baptism of Jesus by the Jordan

River. His mission, “the Son of God came for the purpose of destroying the works of the devil” (1 John 3:8).

The temptation by the devil of Jesus was the second spiritual battle, which began in Genesis 3:15, the declaration of God the Father to send His Son to save mankind from sin and death. After which, he went to Galilee, where he performed miracles, healed the sick, casted out demons from possessed persons and taught the people about the kingdom of God. As a flashback, he grew up in Nazareth but was rejected, so he moved to Capernaum and made it the center of his three-year ministry.

In the last week of his earthly life, he went up to Mount Tabor and prayed to God the Father and he was transfigured as witnessed

by Peter, John and James.

From there, he went to Jerusalem that brought about his crucifixion, death, burial and resurrection for the atonement of our sins.

Having seen and walked in all these places in 10 days, without doubt, I conclude the Bible is true. All events are historical facts documented by 40 authors in a span of 1,500 years and proven by archaeological findings and thorough investigation and analysis by scholars.

Theologically, the existence of a living God is beyond reasonable doubt, true. This God talked with Moses face to face and identified Himself as “I am who I am,”or YHWH in Hebrew.

Finally, the Bible is, indeed, a road map detailing the salvation of mankind toward eternal life with our Creator. Just have faith in God and you will be right on track.

Tourism&Entertainment Editor: Carla Mortel-Baricaua • tourism@businessmirror.com.ph

BusinessMirror

Sunday, November 13, 2016

A7

Casa Mariquit: Inheritance of a grand past

W

Story & photos

by Henrylito D. Tacio

hen I was in high school, I really wanted to visit Iloilo. After all, my father was born there. Spain’s Queen Maria Cristina once dubbed it as “Luy muy leal y noble ciudad [the most loyal and noble city].”

I had the opportunity of visiting Iloilo twice. The first was in the 1990s, when I won a media contest on climate change. Part of the prize was an “ecotrip” to Palawan. My sister Elena and I had to fly all the way from Davao to Cebu and then to Iloilo before going to Puerto Princesa. Yes, my first trip was until only at the airport.

The second time was a couple of months ago, when I joined a group of journalists from Davao who were convened by the Department of Tourism to visit the beautiful attractions of Western Visayas.

True enough, I had grand time visiting the region. We didn’t only tasted the mouthwatering foods those places we visited are noted for, but also areas of interest, including museums, churches, historical sites, past relics and old houses.

But the one that really fascinated me most were those in Iloilo, especially its historic buildings and ancient houses.

One blogger wrote: “Iloilo is associated with legacies of Spanish colonial era. Most noticeable lies in its architecture, where images of the city in the 18th century show manorial old houses, in their ornate façades combined with classical western influences and folk-art motifs. Relics and mementos of the

Fernando Lopez Jr.

past abound. Mute, yet eloquent, reminding everyone of Iloilo’s colorful past bequeathed to the present.”

Casa Mariquit is one of the old houses that caught my attention.

What made this Spanish-colonial ancestral home equally impressive, aside from being open to the public, is the fact that it has solar panels on the roof. There is also a huge banyan tree (which is considered to be home of the spirits) at the front of the house, which roots are creeping up the walls of the house.

The house-museum was built by Fernando H. Lopez Sr., who served as vice president of the Philippines for three terms: once under Elpidio R. Quirino (1949-1953) for the Liberal Party and twice under Fer-

dinand E. Marcos (1965-1969 and 1969-1972) for the Nacionalista Party. He was also the chairman of ABS-CBN Corp. from 1986 until his death in 1993.

Lopez named it after his wife, Maria Javellana, whose nickname is “Mariquit” (probably from the Tagalog word marikit, which means beautiful). Built some 200 years ago, it is considered the oldest heritage house in Iloilo. The ground floor once served as a bank used by Mariquit’s father, who was a banker. If you go the master bedroom, you get a glimpse of the bank vault that was concealed by wooden floor planks. The cement vault was built sometime in 1900.

The upper portion of the house had the luxurious apartment, where the owners lived and entertained friends who come to visit them.

The house is full of memorabilia: old cameras, wall clocks, recorder player, gramophone, paintings, keys, chess board and grandfather clock, to name a few.

If your interest is people from the past, there were photos of the Lopez meeting historical figures, like Japanese Emperor Hirohito, Chinese political and military leader Chiang Kai-shek, Generalissimo Francisco Franco of Spain and American President Lyndon Johnson. Just by looking at those photos, you seem to be traveling back in time.

Not to be missed: the photo of Saint Pope John Paul II when he visited the house.

There are many interesting stories about the house-museum.

Some stories are hair-raising, while others are out of this world. One visitor wrote: “I was having goosebumps all over my body every time we transferred from one room to another. I sensed that we were not alone inside the dimly lit house.”

Another one shared: “This ancestral home is not portraying itself as a history museum, but rather as a wealthy family period house…expect your mind to be challenged to think what is was like as a family

Asean craft takes center stage at Manila FAME

S

outheast Asia can look forward to more contemporary global crafts and designs as works of master craftsmen from the region took center stage in the recent Manila FAME, the country’s premier international event for lifestyle exports, at the World Trade Center.

Dubbed the Asean Master Craft Design Festival, the exhibit highlighted the first collection of crafts developed through the project “Improving the Status of Asean Mastercraft Designers,” supported by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean).

With the theme “Asean Crafts to the World,” the festival featured contemporary crafts in an Asean Pavilion featuring the works of master craftsmen Roselyn Long Lah and Edric Ong of Malaysia, Lim Masulin of Indonesia, Truong Phi Duc of Vietnam, Rush Pleansuk of Thailand and Al Valenciano of the Philippines.

The pavilion, inspired by a cocoon and executed in metal and cloth, was curated by celebrated Indonesian Arch. Cosmas Gozali. The Vienna-trained designer presented modern and futuristic design works with innovative spatial exploration.

On display were Indonesian batik handweaving applications on furniture, clothing, houseware and installations, and Malaysian beadwork, Sarawakan native headgear and cloth as fashion accessories and lighting fixtures.

The Philippines was represented by inabel handwoven products from the Ilocos region, Vietnam displayed its notable lacquerware sets, while Thailand its craft designs applied on furniture, lighting, accessories and houseware toys.

The project was initiated by the Asean Handicraft Promotion and Development Association (Ahpada), the region’s largest group of craftsmen, and supported by its partner—the Center for International Trade Expositions and Missions (Citem) of the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) The project was endorsed by the National Commission on Culture and Arts (NCCA), through the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) and funded by the Asean-Republic of Korea Future Oriented Cooperation Program.

“The program aims to strengthen and enhance the use of design in reinforcing cultural identity in the development and marketing

Edric ONG (fifth from left) and Malaysian craftsmen with models wearing Sarawakan creations

INABEL gown

Cosmas GOZALI of Indonesia, exhibit curator

of Asean products by sustaining the region’s master craftsmen,” says Mina Gabor, chairman of the Philippine Small and Medium Business Development Foundation Inc. (Philsmed), which is managing the project.

She said the project stemmed from the decline in the export sales of Southeast Asian crafts as observed by the Asean countries during the Ahpada meeting in 2009.

“The solution is not only to groom and propagate master craft designers, but also to help them develop and establish their individual cultural identity, attain brand distinction despite the commonality of raw materials, diversity and ultimately enable them to name their price,” she added.

The Korean-funded program kicked off in mid-2015, and was able to train 103 new craftsmen in Indonesia, Vietnam, Malaysia,

Thailand and the Philippines.

The five senior Asean master craftsmen underwent an observation tour in Milan, Italy, in April to interact with top international designers and get updated on global trends.

Gabor said the exhibit is the “coming out party” for the Asean as they make a statement that they are ready for the world fashion and design market.

A second round of workshops is slated for the master craftsmen of other Asean countries, such as Singapore, Brunei, Cambodia, Myanmar and Lao PDR as a continuation of the program.

A similar exhibit showcasing the crafts of the five countries will also be held in 2017 in Jakarta and Bangkok, and the complete 10-member Asean will stage an expo in Paris in 2018.

Casa Mariquit is considered the oldest heritage house in Iloilo.

OLD photos adorn the sala filled with memories.

home with children and servants, or during a reception for Iloilo’s elite with the women in the reception room and the men on the large balcony smoking cigars.”

Robert Peña Puckett, the current owner of the museum, is the great grandson of Mariquit. He commenced the restoration of the

A chessboard stands out as a conversation piece.

house in 1993. “Casa Mariquit could very well serve as a metaphor for the bigger sitting that is Iloilo today—a rich inheritance of a grand past that continues to hold meaning today,” the Iloilo Tour Guides’ Cooperative commented.

Puckett, by the way, is the president of Solar Electric Co. Inc.

It’s no wonder why there are solar panels on the roof. Those are what he called as “small concession to modernization.”

Casa Mariquit is open seven days a week but be sure to call in advance for an appointment. There is no entrance fee. It is in the old district of Jaro on Santa Isabel Street.

Sports BusinessMirror

A8 Sunday, November 13, 2016

GRASSROOTS ISSUE

By John Duerden

F

The Associated Press

OR all the new investment and advancements driving unprecedented growth in Asian football, it’s an old problem that is still causing concern at the grassroots.

Billions have been invested in Super Leagues in China and India, the 2022 World Cup is coming to Qatar and the flow of players to Europe is on the rise, giving Asia some prominence in the global game, but regional soccer administrators are still grappling with match-fixing.

The good news is, they’re fighting it.

On Monday the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) suspended four players from the Laos national team on suspicion of match manipulation. All four were involved in Laos’s opening game against Sri Lanka at the inaugural Solidarity Cup, for the lower-ranked teams in the continent.

Steve Darby is a former head coach of Laos—he was in charge during its failed qualifying run for the 2018 World Cup—and said he was shocked and angered by the news. Two of the four accused were in his team.

“They trained well and always gave 100 percent in matches. I trusted them,” Darby told The Associated Press (AP). “One of the others I dropped from the squad but that was for form and nothing else.”

Darby said that, at least while he himself was in Laos, the fourth player—a goalkeeper—was not playing regularly at the top club level.

“He has made a rapid rise from about eighth choice to becoming the national team keeper,” Darby noted. “You have to ask how this occurred.”

Darby has seen it from a rival team’s

perspective. In 2014 nine players of Vietnamese club Ninh Binh were found guilty of matchfixing in an AFC Cup match with Malaysian club Kelantan, which Darby was coaching at the time.

“It is hard to accept when it is you that is being cheated,” Darby said. “Like in all Southeast Asian nations, there are rumors—some you think are feasible, some outlandish. You don’t know who is fixing.”

Southeast Asia has long been regarded as a hotbed of match-fixing. Singapore, home to high-profile alleged match-fixers such as Dan Tan, has made recent progress in tackling the problem, according to Chris Eaton, Fifa’s former head of security and now an independent sports integrity adviser.

“Singapore has taken decisive action to contain locally bred match-fixers,” Eaton said.

“Singapore ultimately realized that it has a duty of care to all nations for its homegrown criminality.”

The problem is by no means contained to one region. In 2011 South Korea had a major scandal of its own with more than 50 players and coaches, past and present, charged with rigging matches.

The country’s leading club Jeonbuk Motors, which is preparing for the final of the 2016 Asian Champions League later this month, is under the shadow of its own scandal.

In September the team was stripped of nine competition points by the K-League authorities after a club scout was convicted of bribing referees in 2013. The punishment cost the club, which denies any knowledge of wrongdoing, a third successive domestic title. It is also possible that the AFC will bar Jeonbuk, champion of Asia in 2006 and finalist in 2011, from entering the 2017 tournament.

Chinese soccer had periodic outbreaks of corruption until the authorities got tough in

Pagadian hosts football festival

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GUANGZHOU Evergrande players throw their coach, Marcello Lippi, into the air after beating South Korea’s FC Seoul in the final of the 2013 Asian Champions League at the Tianhe Stadium in Guangzhou. AP

2010, jailing officials and referees.

“It has done a great deal over the past five years to address the problem with significant criminal prosecutions of players and referees,” Eaton said, although adding that some level of fixing still exists.

Eaton said if the AFC had really adopted a harsher and more proactive approach to fighting match-fixing, “that will not only be good for regional football, but global football also.”

In a statement released to the AP, the AFC reiterated a “zero tolerance” to match manipulation and said it was determined to stamp it out.

But Darby said while that, catching the players is necessary, more needs to be done to

bring the orchestrators of corruption to justice.

“They have caught the foot soldiers but need to catch the generals,” he said. “If the players are guilty there is somebody above them, they cannot do this on their own.”

He points to illegal gambling as a major problem. Eaton agrees.

“Match-fixing is absolutely and clearly holding Asian football back,” Eaton said. “The only way to drive organized crime out of sport is to deny it the money.”

He said reforming sports betting by legalizing it would help ensure it was regulated properly at “national, regional and global levels.”

FOR INSPIRATION Tourism Assistant Secretary Frederick M.

Alegre (left), Canon Marketing Philippines President and CEO Lim Kok Hin and Pilipinas Dragons Football Club President Atty. Danilo Roleda inspire the Pilipinas Dragons to SingaCup 2016 as the country’s football ambassadors. Lim treated the players to a short sporting segment after a friendly match before leaving for Singapore. The 16-man team is led by Head Coach Ayi Nii Aryhee and Assistant Coach Hassan Muhammed.

Schrock shrugs off pressure in Azkals’ Suzuki Cup bid

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mirror_sports@yahoo.com.ph

By Lance Agcaoili

TEPHAN SCHROCK finally gets to don an Azkals jersey in Suzuki Cup play come November 19 at the Philippine Sports Stadium in Bocaue, Bulacan.

This, after the Filipino-German got his schedule straight and commitments with his clubs in Europe don’t conflict with the Asian Football Federation (AFF) Suzuki Cup’s 2016 edition that kicks off on November 19.

For the 5-foot-7 striker, the Suzuki Cup offers him the opportunity to enjoy his passion and most significantly give him the chance to help the Philippines to finally make its mark in Asean football.

But the pressure, he said, is weighing down his legs.

“It’s just another contest. It makes no difference for me if it’s AFC [Asian Football Confederation], AFF, UFL [United Football League] or Bundesliga,” Schrock said. “We play to win. We don’t go there being third placer or second placer. We want to win every game.

What is the outcome of this? We will see but we go there to win.”

Schrock is the most seasoned player on American Coach Thomas Dooley’s team. He played in the German Bundesliga for 12 years with SpVgg Greuther Fürth. He also suited up for UFL team Ceres-La Salle, which he helped in its Asian Football Confederation (AFC) Cup 2016 campaign.

Schrock played for Germany’s Under-18 and Under-20 teams in 2004 and 2005 before joining

the Azkals in 2011.

“Pressure?

Football is not pressure. Football is fun. We enjoy football, we love football, we work for it every day,” the 30-year-old Schrock said.

“It’s the only time where 90 minutes of a day you can be you, you can be free, you can be doing what is natural to you. So that’s why we feel no pressure.”

Schrock said that for him and the rest of the Azkals to be pumped up in the Suzuki Cup, they need a “12th man”—the Filipino fans—to fill up the 25,000-seat Philippine Sports Stadium.

“Everybody’s looking forward to the Suzuki Cup. We are all excited to have this big event at home. But a lot of people don’t know that we are hosting the Suzuki Cup so it would be ashamed if we, as a host, would not have not enough fans in the stadium,” he said.

HE Football For A Better Life (FFABL) grassroots developmental program, sponsored by PRU Life UK for the second straight year, kicked off its seventh leg this weekend in Pagadian City, Zamboanga del Sur. More than 60 teams from Zamboanga del Sur, Zamboanga Sibugay, Dipolog City, Ozamiz City, Cagayan de Oro City, Iligan City and Cotabato City are participating in the football festival featuring different age groups—8-under and 18-under for boys and girls and open divisions for men and women.

Kids aged 6 to 12 years old are also attending the free clinic handled by former Azkals team captain Chieffy Caligdong and Ref Cuaresma.

PRU Life UK Football Ambassador Graham Caygill will also be conducting a goalkeepers’ clinic and a basic clinic.

“We are happy to have been able to bring the FFABL to Pagadian City for the first time, and we are impressed with the response from different provinces and cities in the region,” said Lee Longa, chief financial officer of PRU Life UK, which is also supporting the Azkals and the national 14-under team.

Also gracing the festival are series organizer Albert Almendralejo of Spears Activation and PR, Gov. Antonio Cerilles, Vice Gov. Wililiam Cerilles, Pagadian City Mayor Romeo Pulmones and Dumalinao Mayor Junaflor Cerilles.

The festival is being held at the Dumalinao Regional Pilot School and Zamboanga del Sur Provincial Center in Pagadian City.

Angeles boy bags 2 titles

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OCAL bet Jed Justin Labasano beat Olongapo City’s Jonas Silva, 6-2, 6-3, in the boys’ 18-under finals and emerged victorious with Nio Tria in the 18-under doubles championship to give host Angeles City two titles in the recent Cebuana Lhuillier Age Group Championship Series Pampanga leg.

Tria defeated Loucas Fernandez, 6-4, 6-3, in a battle of Quezon City-based players to snatch the 16-under crown of the tournament supported by Dunlop as official ball.

Aldwyn Rosales, also of Quezon City, blanked Oriental Mindoro’s Jose Martin Buenaventura, 6-0, 6-0, for the 14-under title; La Union’s Marc Andres Jarata edged Angelo Rosales, 6-3, 7-6, for the 12-under championship and Olongapo City’s Darwin Cosca downed La Union’s Mariel Jarata from, 4-3, 4-3, for the 10-under crown.

“I am happy when I do not recognize familiar names among the winners in our series. It means there are really young talents in the provinces just waiting to be discovered,” said Jean Henri Lhuillier, president and CEO of Cebuana Lhuillier and chairman of the Philippine Tennis Association.

In girls’ action, Nueva Ecija’s Jhastine Red Ballado won the 16-under title at the expense of favored Patricia Lim of Quezon City, 6-1, 6-1, but lost in the 18-under finals to Bohol’s Dana Uy, 5-7, 3-6.

A12 Sunday, November 13, 2016

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