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SEA GAMES BUDGET ‘WELL SPENT’

TOP government officials—Philippine Southeast Asian Games Organizing Committee Chairman and House Speaker Alan Peter Cayetano, Executive Secretary Salvador Medialdea, Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez, Public Works Secretary Mark Villar, Bases Conversion and Development Authority President and CEO Vince Dizon, Philippine Olympic Committee President Rep. Abraham “Bambol” Tolentino, Albay Rep. Joey Salceda, Tarlac Rep. Noel Villanueva, Tarlac Gov. Susan Yap and Clark Development Corporation President and CEO Noel Manankil—inspect the New Clark City sports facilities in Capas, Tarlac, on Thursday. Story and more photos on A8. BERNARD TESTA

WHEN ANTIBIOTICS FAIL Cooperation against antimicrobial resistance urged to save more lives

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By Roderick L. Abad Contributor

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NTIMICROBIAL resistance (AMR) could take 10 million lives annually by 2050, unless the health-care sector, governments, stakeholders and the people work together fast to address this challenge, experts warned. tions being incurable and at a high risk of spreading to others.

“Simply put, it’s when you have a group of bugs…which [was] previously [treated] when you used [an] antibiotic, it would kill the bug and, in effect, it will be able to treat the infection. But if you have antimicrobial resistance [and if] you use the same antibiotic…it’s not able to kill the bug. Hence, you don’t get better from the infection,” explained Dr. Ma. Charmian M. Hufano, medical consultant in internal medicine and infectious diseases at De Los Santos Medical Center (DLSMC) and St. Luke’s Medical Center.

Approximately at least 700,000 people die each year due to drug-resistant diseases, per the latest UN report. Apart from humans, AMR also affects animals

SKYPIXEL | DREAMSTIME.COM

The magnitude of this global threat over the next 30 years, based on a report prepared by the United Nations Ad hoc Interagency Coordinating Group on AMR, was raised by Pfizer Philippines Country Brand Lead Rene Carlo B. Pascual at a recent media roundtable discussion as part of the observance of World Antibiotic Awareness Week, which runs until November 24, 2019.

“This is not because of a natural calamity, not because of an earthquake, not because of a typhoon, but it’s another phenomenon which we can [already deal with] today,” he said.

AMR among microorganisms, such as bacteria, viruses and fungi, is mainly caused by improper use of antibiotics. This leads to infec-

Estimated death count by 2050 if the challenge posed by antimicrobial resistance is not properly addressed as early as today.

and the environment.

Improper use of antibiotics

HEALTH professionals agree that inappropriate use of antibiotics could be partly blamed for the rise of AMR worldwide.

Citing the study of the World

Health Organization (WHO) on how antibiotics are being used in primary care in developing and transitional countries that included the Philippines from 1990 to 2006, Hufano revealed that more than 50 percent of antibiotic prescriptions were identified as “inap-

‘AMR affects everyone, any age, any social class, all over the world. It is a worldwide challenge. That is why programs by the DOH, and under the Universal Healthcare law, include the proper distribution, administration and taking of antibiotics. We need to be responsible as health-industry workers, and the public, as people who consume medicines, [must also be responsible].’—Dr. Rontgene M. Solante, former president of the Philippine Society for Microbiology and Infectious Diseases

PESO EXCHANGE RATES n US 50.9570

propriate,” or “given at the wrong dose, at the wrong duration, or for the wrong indication.”

If the so-called “antibiotic selective pressure” brought about by the use of antibiotic appropriately and inappropriately becomes very strong, the acquisition of drug resistance becomes faster, Hufano noted.

“So we are faced with the possibility that there will be not enough antibiotics to treat even common infections,” she cautioned.

The Clinical Infectious Diseases journal reported in 2008 that the recent number of new antibiotics launched in the market is lower compared to the early years. It showed that there were 16 antibacterial agents made available in

the market from 1983 to 1987; 14, from 1988 to 1992; 10, from 1993 to 1997; 7, from 1998 to 2002; 5, from 2003 to 2007; and 2, from 2008 to 2012.

“Less and less new antibiotics are being introduced. So this is what we forecast if nothing is done about this,” said Hufano, who is also the chairman of the Department of Medicine and the Committee of Antimicrobial Stewardship at Dela Salle Medical Center (DLSMC).

Another negative effect of improper use of antibiotics, she said, is the possibility that these medications will no longer work when used to treat patients with drug-resistant bugs. Given Continued on a2

n JAPAN 0.4691 n UK 65.7855 n HK 6.5163 n CHINA 7.2499 n SINGAPORE 37.3832 n AUSTRALIA 34.5641 n EU 56.3432 n SAUDI ARABIA 13.5882

Source: BSP (November 22, 2019 )

A2 Saturday, November 23, 2019

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WHEN ANTIBIOTICS FAIL this, the average nine-day hospital stay after diagnosis and 36.4-percent hospital mortality rate for patients who have severe infections treated with appropriate antibiotics increases to 11 days and 51.7 percent, respectively, if given inappropriate antibiotics, per the study on Critical Care Med done in 2011.

Local vs global communities

HEEDING the WHO’s call for member-nations to come up with their own AMR study, the Department of Health (DOH) created the Philippine Committee on Antimicrobial Resistance Surveillance Program (ARSP) in 1998.

This initiative aims to provide critical inputs to the DOH’s effort to promote rational drug use by identifying the status and developing trends of AMR of selected bacteria to specific antimicrobials. At present, 24 sentinel sites and two gonorrhea surveillance sites joined the program, representing 16 regions nationwide.

From the 2018 Annual ARSP Report, different community- and hospital-acquired pathogens were examined. Among them is the Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) that is resistant to all penicillin, cephalosporin and carbapenem. For last year, the MRSA rate was at 53 percent.

“This means that for every two patients with this bug and this infection, one will already be resistant to that antibiotic. So this

is really problematic,” she said.

“And it differs from every hospital that we have in the surveillance.

Some rates can be as high as almost 80 percent in one hospital to lowest, I think in these data, [it] is at 32 percent. So even at the lowest data, still one out of three would already be resistant to that set of antibiotics.”

Benchmarking the local data from other countries in 2017, the rate of that type of drug-resistant bug in the Philippines was at 56 percent, compared to Japan at 41 percent, Korea at 53 percent, Vietnam at 73 percent, Thailand at 17 percent, and the United Kingdom at 7 percent. “So it’s doable to have low rates of resistance,” Hufano said.

Another bug covered in the surveillance last year was the Escherichia coli (E. coli), which is the common cause of urinary tract infections (UTIs), among others. She stated that it’s likewise “very problematic” here since it is present both in the hospital and community settings.

From a list of common oral antibiotics used to treat UTI in outpatients, E. coli’s resistance rate to ampicillin is at 78.1 percent; amoxillin-clavulanic acid, 24 percent; cefuroxime, 36.5 percent; ciprofloxacin, 45.1 percent; trimethoprimsulfamethoxazole, 57.8 percent; nitrofurantoin, 4.8 percent; piperacillin-tazobactam, 4.8 percent; ceftriaxone, 34.4 percent; ertapenem, 0.9 percent; and amikacin, 3.7 percent.

The third generation or multidrug-resistant version of the E.

coli called “cephalosporins” is also problematic here and abroad. Its antibiotic resistance in the Philippines was at 49 percent two years ago, whereas in the UK it’s only at 11 percent, Japan at less than 30 percent, and Korea at around 35 percent. Its resistance rate is very high in India at 77 percent. In terms of its resistance to carbapenem, it’s only at 5 percent here, whereas in Vietnam and India, it’s at 6 percent and 18 percent, accordingly.

Klebsiella pneumoniae is the most common organism in the report every year because it is seen both in the hospital and community setups. It’s very similar to E. coli in terms of drug-resistance profile.

Based on the resistance level of this bug in the DOH-ARSP report in 2018, around 10 percent of it will be resistant to the broadspectrum antibiotics available to treat it.

Meanwhile, from the 2017 data, its resistance to cephalosporins is at 65 percent in the country versus 6 percent in Japan; India had the highest rate of 68 percent.

When it comes to its resistance to carbapenem, Klebsiella in the Philippines was at 17 percent compared to Vietnam’s 24 percent and India’s 59 percent.

Ubiquitous organism Pseudomonas aeruginosa is very difficult to combat. It is common in patients who are very sick, or have other illnesses that make their immune system very weak.

The medical consultant in internal medicine and infectious

MECHANISMS OF ANTIMICROBIAL RESISTANCE

DESIGNUA | DREAMSTIME.COM

Continued from a1

diseases said that Pseudomonas is usually resistant to multiple antibiotics at the same time. In the 2017 data from ARSP, she added that it was 21-percent resistant to at least three classes of antibiotics all at the same time.

The antibiotic resistance of this bug is at 22 percent in the Philippines, lower than Vietnam (36 percent), South Africa (30 percent), India (30 percent), but higher than the US (10 percent), the UK (8 percent) and Australia (8 percent).

“I think we get the picture here. Inappropriate antibiotics is one of the biggest drivers for antimicrobial resistance, and antimicrobial resistance is a major public health issue not just globally but obviously locally, and multidrug resistance is seen both in the community and hospital settings,” Hufano said.

Vaccination as solution

AS with any health problem, AMR costs money, livelihood and lives.

More so, it threatens to compromise the effectiveness of healthdelivery programs.

“AMR affects everyone, any age, any social class, all over the world. It is a worldwide challenge,” said Dr. Rontgene M. Solante, former president of the Philippine Society for Microbiology and Infectious Diseases (PSMID). “That is why programs by the DOH, and under the Universal Healthcare law, include the proper distribution, administration, and taking of antibiotics. We need to be responsible as health-industry workers; and the public, as people who consume medicines [must also be responsible].”

The infectious disease specialist likewise emphasized the importance of vaccination in reducing the prevalence and impact of AMR in the country. An example is Streptococcus pneumoniae vaccine.

“We call that the ‘pneumococcal’ vaccine because the most common manifestation is pneumonia—respiratory tract infection.

So if you give someone a pneumococcal vaccine, you will prevent that person from getting a respiratory tract infection. Since respiratory tract infection because of pneumonia entails the use of antibiotics, it will also cause drug resistance when you give an antibiotic,” he said.

Globally, the most common source of Streptococcus pneumoniae are the infants. Thus, in the US, when the government vaccinated most of the children with it, a decrease in pneumonia among the elderly, even those who were not immunized, was observed.

To achieve the benefit of this so-called “herd immunity,” there is a need to vaccinate 70 percent of the children’s population. Sadly in the Philippines, the number of kids given with Streptococcus pneumoniae vaccine is quite low.

“It’s [only] 10 percent because we cannot afford this vaccine. It’s very important, plus the fact that we have problems of low vaccination rate because they don’t go to the [health] center. So that adds up [to] why pneumonia is an important cause of drug resistance,” Dr. Solante revealed.

Immunization is really important, hence it is recommended to be administered at an early age. He explained: “When you vaccinate, first, you prevent development of infection, so no prescription. Second, [if] you reduce the prescription, you reduce drug resistance.

Third, when you vaccinate, you reduce the transmission of the infection, so nobody gets infected.

Fourth, you reduce carriage because the source of the infection is in your nasopharyngeal area. And then it’s also effective against resistant strain because it will now promote the reversion from a resistant to a susceptible strain because you are given the vaccine.”

From an economic point of view, vaccination also leads to less death rates and less hospitalization of the people that, in turn, helps the government save money through the Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (PhilHealth), which subsidizes the health-care need of the populace.

Per the 2017 “Economic Burden of Community-Acquired Pneumonia (CAP) Among Pediatric Patients (Aged 3 Months to Less Than 19 Years) in the Philippines” research by the group of Dr. Bernadette Tumanan-Mendoza of Manila Doctors Hospital, the health-care cost of an infant patient admitted in a private hospital would be around P50,000 to P60,000, of which PhilHealth only covers about P15,000.

“So the point here is, if this is the cost of hospitalization of a pediatric patient, P24,000 to P75,000, and PhilHealth will only pay P15,000, the excess amount will be a burden to the patient. If this is the amount that PhilHealth will pay [for] severe pneumonia, because this is the cost of hospitalization—P121,000 in a private hospital—but PhilHealth will only pay P32,000, that’s a big burden on the part of the patient and of the government.”

This revelation flies in the face of data showing pneumonia has been identified as the No. 1 disease that PhilHealth pays for among the hospitals. The government-owned health insurer paid P1 billion in claims for CAP based on PhilHealth case rate; P14 billion in 2018; and P14 billion, first half of 2019.

“So the advocacy for Universal Healthcare, part of that is also prevention. And that has been stipulated in the framework of Universal Healthcare [law],” said the infectious disease expert of San Lazaro Hospital.

Citing the cost-utility analysis of pneumococcal conjugate vaccines (PCV) in the Philippines conducted

by PSMID, President Manuel Alexander Haasis, et al., Solante recommended the inclusion of PCV in the national immunization program, particularly PCV13, which achieved better value for money compared to PCV10. He noted, though, that the affordability and sustainability of PCV implementation in the long run must be considered by decision-makers.

“Per the total economic cost [of PCV], it will be beneficial [to all]. This has to be the priority of the government,” he stressed.

Stewardship

PFIZER is one of the signatories of the Davos Declaration in 2016 during the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Switzerland, committing itself to join in the collective efforts of companies in the pharmaceutical, biotechnology and diagnostics industries for a sustainable market for antibiotics, vaccines and diagnostics.

“So you want to reduce the development of resistance, you want to invest in research and development related to global public health needs, as well as improve access to these high-quality antibacterials that come out from these companies,” is how the bottom line is laid down by Dr. Evan Payawal, senior medical manager, Pfizer Anti-Infectives. “We are serious about participating in this [declaration].”

Pfizer, with other pharmaceutical firms, promotes the Roadmap for Progress on Combating Antimicrobial Resistance, using a six-part strategy: stewardship, manufacturing, surveillance, vaccination, a supportive regulatory framework, and incentives and new business models to support research and development and a sustainable marketplace.

The pharmaceutical giant, likewise, called on not only health workers but also the general public to join the fight against the spread of AMR and be involved in international antimicrobial stewardship through simple acts like making sure that they follow directions on the package, taking antibiotics only as prescribed by doctors, and frequent hand washing.

“At Pfizer, we are driven by our desire to protect global public health and address the medical needs of people suffering from infectious diseases. We are committed to being a leading provider of solutions to both help prevent and treat infections through antimicrobial stewardship,” he said.

At present, the company offers one of the industry’s largest and most diverse portfolios of anti-infectives, that includes more than 80 medicines. This portfolio contains therapies that help address areas of greatest unmet medical need.

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

SMC debuts PHL’s 1st recycled plastics road

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ONGLOMER AT E Sa n Miguel Corp. (SMC) has taken another major step in the area of sustainability by laying the first recycled plastics road in the Philippines.

Asphalt using plastics were laid on a 1,500 -square-meter pilot test site at a new logistics center in General Trias, Cavite.

The test site was chosen as it will be used primarily as a marshalling area for trucks with heav y loads, including 18 -wheelers, and heav y equipment.

SMC President Ramon S. Ang said, “What we want to achieve is to help address an important environmental issue, and that is plastic wastes. We want to create a sustainable use for waste plastics so that they don’t end up in landfills and our rivers and oceans.”

Some 900 kilos of plastic waste, equivalent to some 180,0 0 0 sac hets a nd pl a st ic bags, were used for the test site.

SMC’s technology partner, global materials science company Dow, said that recycled plastic waste acts as a binder together with bitumen, in the production of asphalt.

The company said that using recycled plastics in the production process can help make roads longer lasting and more durable compared to conventional asphalt.

Independent lab testing done on San Miguel’s recycled plastics road asphalt shows that it exceeds the standards of the Department of Public Works and Highways.

T he company said that pending further testing, it can build rec yc led pl ast ics road s in its fac i l it ies, as wel l as major inf rast r uct u re projects.

Last week, San Miguel also announced that it is adopting the use of biodegradable plastics for food and nonfood products.

For this, the company is utilizing the biodegradable plastics developed by Philippine Bioresins Corp. that can be 64.65 percent degraded in 24 months as compared to nonbiodegradable plastics (4.5 percent in 24 months).

The Department of Science and Technology Industrial Technology Development Institute gave this innovation an Environmental Technology Verification certificate.

SMC has also discontinued its bottled water business a few years ago and embarked on the move to reduce group-wide nonproduct water use by 50 percent by 2025.

News BusinessMirror

Saturday, November 23, 2019

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Cotabato City lines up big-ticket infra projects for implementation next year

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By Manuel T. Cayon | Mindanao Bureau Chief

AVAO CITY­—Cotabato City is expected to embark on its biggest infrastructure construction binge yet next year with an airport and a seaport on top of the list of projects lined up for implementation.

This developed as the Duterte administration has been revisiting, or revising, its list of projects funded under its “Build, Build, Build” (BBB) program.

It could not immediately ascertained if the construction of the two port facilities are in the unrevised list of BBB projects list but the city mayor’s office said the two big-ticket projects will be build through a public-private partnership (PPP) arrangement.

The city mayor’s office has described these “megaconstruction” projects as getting Cotabato City “one step closer to being one of Mindanao’s top transportation hubs.” Both ports are of international standard and would be the two largest infrastructure projects in the city’s history.

Also set to begin construction next year is the China-Cotabato Friendship Technical School to help train the manpower pool requirement of the projects, as well

as for future labor needs of the city, according to Cotabato City Mayor Frances Cynthia Guiani-Sayadi.

“All of these three projects will be undertaken by the China Engineering and Construction [Shenzhen] Co. Inc. and the city government of Cotabato through a publicprivate partnership scheme,” the mayor said.

She said groundbreaking of the international airport would be held before the end of the year after more than a year of negotiations and study.

Sayadi said the three projects “are the results of steadfast relations between the people of Cotabato City and China” and described the three projects “not merely a business partnership but a brotherhood rooted deeply through the years.”

“Many Cotabatenios, including myself, have Chinese blood in them and that’s what connected us with our friends from t h i s c o n s t r u c t io n c omp a ny.

These projects will surely bring more progress and change our lives,” she added.

T he t hree projects needed approx i m ate ly 15,0 0 0 workers, f rom ca r penters a nd masons to laborers and other const r uct ion-rel ated work.

The city mayor’s office said representatives of the China Engineering and Construction (Shenzhen) Co., headed by Mr. Yi Bin Liu and Ms. Tingting Yang, arrived in Cotabato City on November 10 to oversee the initial phase of the construction of each project.

The company earlier sent its engineers and architects to Cotabato City to present the blueprints for the three projects to the city officials, including the city engineers and architects.

They also conducted various surveys of the construction sites.

The airport would be located at Tamontaka 3, 4 and 5 while the seaport would be built in Barangay

Kalangalan at the foot of Timaco Hill. Site of the technical school is at Tamontaka Mother.

Cotabato City used in development compared with other cities in Mindanao, mainly because of the periodic armed conflict in central Mindanao mounted by the two major Moro revolutionary fronts. Economic activities are commonly confined to agricultural trading, with the city strategically as a trading center for the Cotabato areas that have been dubbed as the country’s rice bowl.

The city relies on the Awang airport located in Datu Odin Sinsuat town, Maguindanao, and on the Polloc Port located in Parang town, Maguindanao, for air and sea transport.

The airport is classified as a major domestic airport and was listed as the 23rd busiest airport in the Philippines. It served 298,345 passengers last year. It has a runway length of 1,900 meters, or almost 2 kilometers.

Passengers, crew safe after PAL plane catches fire in mid-air A

By Recto Mercene

L L 342 passengers and 18 crew members aboard Philippine Airlines (PAL) Flight PR113 disembarked safely following an emergency landing at the Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) after one of the airplane’s engines caught fire in mid-air on Friday.

The flight, which took off from LAX at 11:45 a.m. local time (3:45 a.m. Manila time, November 22), landed safely, a PAL news statement said.

“All 342 passengers and 18 crew members are safe and were able to disembark from the airplane using regular air stairs,” the statement read.

“We greatly appreciate the calmness and patience of our PR113 passengers, who cooperated well with our cabin crew during the flight and the emergency landing,” it added.

The legacy carrier said it is extending all necessary assistance to the passengers and are

arranging to rebook them on flights to Manila.

In the meantime, all of the passengers were given meals and hotel accommodation, PAL said.

“We, likewise, recognize and appreciate the calm professionalism exhibited by our experienced flight and cabin crew, headed by Captain Triston Simeon and Purser Joanne Marie Dirige, in executing the unscheduled landing and taking care of our passengers,” it added.

The flight involved a Boeing 777 aircraft with registry number RP-C7775. “We affirm that safety is our top priority and that Philippine Airlines is fully cooperating with the concerned airport and aviation authorities,” PAL Spokesman Cielo Villaluna said.

Philippine Airlines said that as of press time, 20 passengers were rebooked on other airlines, while 62 passengers will join the regular PR113 and PR103 flights tomorrow.

PAL added 130 passengers will take the PR113/PR103 flights on Saturday and 126 passengers will take PR113/PR103 on Sunday.

With PNA

A4 Saturday, November 23, 2019

ExportUnlimited BusinessMirror

DTI organizes biz mission to Tokyo’s PHL Festival ’19

Banana exports seen reaching all-time high by year-end, fueled by demand from China T

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By Jasper Emmanuel Y. Arcalas

HE Philippines is inching closer in surpassing its 2018 total cavendish banana exports of 3.4 million metric tons (MMT) based on the preliminary trade data in the January-to-September period from the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA).

Data from PSA obtained by the BusinessMirror showed that the country’s banana shipments during the nine-month period have reached an unprecedented 3.2 MMT. The volume was 45.12 percent over the 2.211 MMT recorded in the same period of last year, PSA data showed.

This is now the highest volume of bananas exported by the Philippines during a January-to-

September time frame, based on historical PSA data.

If the Philippines continue to export at a monthly average rate of 356,632.285 MT for the last quarter then total banana shipments for the year may reach an all-time high of 4.28 MMT, eclipsing the previous record of 3.631 MMT in 2014.

This would also ensure the Phil-

ippines stature as the second-top banana exporter in the world for the second consecutive year after reclaiming the position in 2018.

Export receipt from the banana exports during the nine-month period reached $1.448 billion, which was 47.76 percent higher than last year’s $979.937 million, PSA data showed.

Fueled by China

PSA data showed that China has been the consistent top banana market for the Philippines after becoming the latter’s top destination for the yellow fruit last year.

During the nine-month period, the Philippines exported 1.157 MMT of bananas to China, which was 52.25 percent over the 760,290.869 MT it shipped out to Beijing in the same period of 2018, PSA data showed.

China dethroned Japan last year as the top buyer of Philippine bananas as Filipino growers took advantage of the expanding Chinese economy and population.

“You can never go wrong with 1.3 billion people. China’s economy is growing by leaps and bounds over the years,” Pilipino Banana Growers and Exporters Association Executive Director Stephen A. Antig told the BusinessMirror in an earlier interview.

“We knew that it’s only a matter of time that China would overtake Japan as our top market due to its growing economy,” Antig added.

Japan and Korea remained as among the key markets for Philippine cavendish.

The Philippines banana exports to Japan rose 48.10 percent to 1.039 MMT, from 701,916.927 MT last year, while shipments to Korea expanded by 46.96 percent year-onyear to 412,741.868 MT, PSA data showed.

“As we all know, banana is the most important and cheapest fruit in the world. As long as it is available in the shelves of supermarkets, foreign consumers would continue to buy,” Antig said.

MSME marketplace lends support to globalization of PHL exporters

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HILIPPINE micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) can raise their chances of going global and improve their opportunities for growth by joining the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (Apec) MSME Marketplace, an online portal that seeks to support the globalization of MSMEs in the region.

The Apec MSME Marketplace ( http://www.apecmsmemarketplace.com/) serves as an online portal where MSME exporters and importers can network with small and large businesses, gather information on trade regulations, and find training and resources for their business, according to the Apec.

By registering, MSMEs can have bigger potentials to sell their products directly to the customer, buy directly from the producer, find partners, ensure additiona l advertisement for their products, and ensure se-

cure trade through regulations in force on the Apec marketplace, according to a recent presentation at a capacity building workshop on using the portal.

The marketplace can facilitate business networking and matching for MSMEs. For exporters, they can participate in business-matching activities, and their profiles in the MSME directory can be viewed by buyers from the Apec and partner economies who may wish to connect with them.

Through matching opportunities, MSME participation in crossborder e-commerce will also be promoted.

MSME awareness can also be enhanced. They can become more informed about various procedures and regulations in the international trade and take advantage of the many resources including financing support available to them, as well as a toolkit on SME business

continuity planning.

Sources of information found on the site include the Apec Trade Repository, the World Trade Organization, International Trade Information Portal and the International Trade Centre’s Market Access Map. The portal can also provide MSMEs access to information on new nontariff measures or NTMs. This facility will also allow MSMEs to share their views on proposed regulatory frameworks so governments and international trade bodies can gain insights for the development of policies relevant and helpful to MSMEs. The Apec MSME Marketplace can also improve the mechanism for knowledge sharing and capacit y building activ ities for enterprises.

“This portal can help inspire partnerships, innovation, and linkages between MSMEs and LEs, thus increasing the potential and avenues

for MSME internationalization,” said Apec.

“This will feature stories or cases featuring transformative partnerships on how MSMEs have been engaged by LEs and exporters in their value chains. This pillar will feature information on inclusive business models, cases of successful MSMEs export businesses, lessons extracted from successful experiences of internationalization and, cooperation among economies, between public and private sectors, and international organizations that helped hurdle barriers of MSMEs or advance their participation in global trade and value chain participation.”Many of the participants in the workshop organized

by Apec, Department of Trade and Industry, and Ministry of Economic Development of the Russian Federation welcomed the information about the Apec MSME Marketplace, saying this was the first time they had heard of the portal

HE Department of Trade and Industry-Export Marketing Bureau (DTI-EMB), in collaboration with the Philippine Trade and Investment Center (PTIC)-Tokyo and Asean -Japan Centre (AJC), will conduct an outbound business matching mission (OBMM) to Tokyo, Japan, for the Christmas/holiday décors, gifts and houseware sectors in time for the Philippine Festival Product Showcase and Bazaar 2019 from November 27 to December 2, 2019.

This is the first engagement of EMB with PTIC-Tokyo in promoting the lifestyle sector. The Philippine delegation is composed of 27 companies from the holiday décor, gifts and houseware sector. The key components for this OBMM project include retail/product showcase, individual client meetings, business forum, business-matching (B2B) meetings and market sensing/store checks.

The project aims to strengthen the Philippines’s position as a major trading partner of Japan, identify the business development and new business leads through the individual business meetings, forum and networking activities. It also intends to test retail prospects of handmade small and medium enterprise (SME) products in the Japanese mainstream market and render a presentation to Japan stakeholders on opportunities for outsourcing gifts, holiday décor, and interior product manufacturing to Philippine regional SMEs. The companies joining the mission are: A. Teves Enterprises, Acento Colleccion Inc., Adorno ’72 Home Decors, Ai-She Footwear, Benelco Arts and Crafts, Brics Ventures, Coco Plus Aquarian Development Corp., Crafter’s Joy Cornhusk Products, Cut N Shape Craft Manufacturing, Denmark Candle, Dorevi Industries, Esrom’s House of Eco Buri and Fae Décor Crafts.

Also joining are Fruits of Life Inc., Fulgosino Enterprises, Island RKOC Home Decors & Accessories, Jacildo’s Handicrafts, J.E.R. Shells Craft Creations International, Jhaz Footwear Store, LBR Philcrafts, Ness Crafts and Fine Goods, Rowilda’s Loomweaving, San Mariano Banana Growers and Producers Cooperative, Style Cat Mauve Marketing, TGIA Craft Manufacturing, Tuy Arts and Designs, and Yamang Atin Enterprises.

The business-matching activity with the AJC is an opportunity for these companies to network with prospective buyers, retailers, distributors and fit-out companies. AJC will prearrange meetings, with the assistance of PTIC-Tokyo, based on the initial B2B survey.

The Philippine Festival promises to be Japan’s biggest Philippine event of the year since there are over 30,000 Filipinos living and working in Tokyo complemented by the presence of Japanese locals as prospective consumer base.

The two-day event used to be known as the “Barrio Fiesta” and was held in Yokohama’s Yamashita Park. In 2013, it was rebranded as the Philippine Festival and has since been hosted in Hibiya Park. But this year, it will be held at Yoyogi Park at Shibuya.

On the other hand, the Winter Illuminations Lighting Show is a top seasonal tourist attraction in Tokyo with a number of special light up events being held in the city during winter. Shibuya is one of the most popular tourist destinations in Tokyo known for the trendy young culture and also the vibrant nightlife.

An added attraction in the Winter Illumination Light Show is the Shibuya Hikarie in the Shibuya Business District, which also features retail sales and event space up to floor 11, at which point access is controlled to the theater (11th to 16th floors) and private office space (17th to 34th floors). The eighth floor is the creative space where the following are located: art gallery, museum, and design travel store. Lifestyle Goods, Beauty and Fashion are located at the first to fifth floors. This corporate and commercial entity is home to all things design, lifestyle, and hospitality that present potential business opportunities for the Philippine companies.

“The inherent strength of the Philippine industries for the Christmas/ holiday décors, gifts and housewares, immense opportunity and potential demand in Japan, and its reputation of being a fertile ground for company set up because of its commitment to sustainable development and economic diversification, progressive-minded government and liberal corporate policies were main consideration for organizing this mission,” DTI-Trade Promotions Group Undersecretary Abdulgani M. Macatoman said.

Forthcoming export congress highlights digital transformation, fresh opportunities for MSMEs

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HE digital transformation reshaping global trade and its impact on and opportunities for Philippine exporters will be the highlight of the National Export Congress 2019 (NEC 2019) on December 6, 2019.

NEC 2019 is the culmination of the annual National Exporters’

Week to be held from December 2 to 6, 2019, at the Philippine International Convention Center (PICC).

The five-day NEW 2019 marks the yearly celebration of Exporters’ Week every first week of December.

It is organized by the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) through the Export Marketing Bureau, in collabo-

ration with the Philippine Exporters Confederation Inc. (Philexport) and Export Development Council.

With the theme “Driving Exports through Digital Transformation,” NEC 2019 will look at the critical role of technology and collaboration in growing exports, and innovative ways to enhance the competitive-

ness of Filipino micro, small and medium enterprise (MSME) exporters through digitization.

Philexport President Dr. Sergio R. Ortiz-Luis Jr. underscored the need for micro and MSMEs to level up their operations and processes, and improve their business strategies and efficiencies amid the rapid

changes and emerging opportunities in the age of digitalization and e-commerce.

MSME exporters must also be aware of and actively seek out the resources, training, and support available to them from the government and the private sector, he added.

These urgent and relevant issues

will be tackled at NEC 2019, which lines up top experts to provide updates and information on, among others, financing support and fintech, self-certification, electronic certificate of origin, innovation programs for exporters, and small and medium enterprises-oriented solutions and technologies.

www.businessmirror.com.ph

OurTime BusinessMirror

QC hospital to hire elderly workers

OFFICIALS of the Department of Labor and Employment, Philippine Children’s Medical Center, Ang Probinsyano Party-list and the Quezon City government sign a memorandum of agreement on the employment of senior citizens on November 18, 2019. The senior citizens will be employed under the Tulong Panghanapbuhay sa Ating Disadvantaged/Displaces Workers program where they will be paid a daily minimum wage for at least six hours of work at the hospital. PNA/FERDINAND PATINIO

S

OME 50 senior citizens in Quezon City will soon be employed, as part of the initiatives of the government to allow them to work again and make a living.

In a memorandum of agreement (MOA) signed on November 18, 2019, by the Department of Labor and Employment and the Philippine Children’s Medical Center (PCMC), in cooperation with Ang Probinsyano Party-list Rep. Ronnie Ong and the

Local Government of Quezon City, members of the marginalized sector will be employed at the hospital under a special job program.

Labor Assistant Secretary Benjo Benavidez said the senior citizens will be employed under the Tulong

Panghanapbuhay sa Ating Disadvantaged/Displaced Workers Program.

It is a community-based package of assistance that provides emergency employment to displaced or terminated workers, the underemployed, seasonal workers and selfemployed workers who have lost their livelihoods due to natural calamities and economic crises.

PCMC Executive Director Julius Lecciones expressed support to the program.

“They can still contribute to the development of our country by sharing their knowledge and experiences with the younger work force,” he said.

He added that they will be deployed to areas that are safe for elderly workers.

The Quezon City government, through the Office of the Senior Citizens Affairs, will provide the list of the senior citizens living near the PCMC who can join the program.

Qualified senior citizens will receive a 100-percent wage for work tendered based on prevailing minimum wage in the National Capital Region.

On the other hand, Ong said the senior citizens will be hired to work at least three hours in the morning and three hours in the afternoon.

He added that salaries of the senior citizen workers under this program shall be based on the minimum salary in each region. In the NCR, for example, they would get P537 per day.

The lawmaker recently launched the special job program at the Polytechnic University of the Philippines.

Ong said another MOA will be signed with the University of the Philippines (UP), and he is hoping that this program will be replicated in other state universities and public schools nationwide.

Meanwhile, Mercedes Alix, 61, from Barangay UP Campus, one of the beneficiaries of the program, expressed gratitude to the government for this opportunity.

“Masaya kami kasi magkakaroon kami ng hanapbuhay. Malaking tulong po ito sa pamilya ko, sa aking apo, [We are happy because we will have a job.

This will greatly help our family, especially my grandchild],” she said in an interview. PNA

Sagay City gives cash incentives to nonagenarians

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ACOLOD CITY—They no longer have to wait until they turn 100 to avail themselves of cash incentives because nonagenarians in Sagay City, Negros Occidental, can also receive such additional benefit from the local government.

Mayor Alfredo Marañon III said on Wednesday he will give cash grants to 200 nonagenarians this year.

Starting this week, a total of 21 elderly Sagaynons, who have reached the age of 90, received P50,000 each from the city government as provided in City Ordinance 2019-009, or “An Ordinance Granting Additional Benefit to Senior Citizens in Sagay City, Negros Occidental, and Providing Funds Thereof.”

“It is hereby declared a policy of the city government of Sagay to recognize and honor the elderly who are considered valuable citizens that led exemplary long lives that deserve to be given tribute and respect,” said the ordinance, which was enacted on May 29 this year.

It covers all qualified Sagaynons aged 90 to 99 years old, and those aged 100 years and more, who will receive cash grants of P50,000 and P100,000, respectively.

They should be residents of the northern Negros city for at least five years.

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The long-life diet: Nutrition for longevity

By Angel R. Calso

A

GOOD diet is the cornerstone to your health and long life.

A healthy diet can make a big difference to how quickly you age. In the book Stopping the Clock, Dr. Ronald Klatz and Dr. Robert Goldman said a good diet has the following benefits:

Provides the food, water and oxygen that your cells need to reproduce, transmit information and repair damage.

Assures the body a continuous supply of usable fuel, which improves your emotional stability and energy levels.

Helps you to purge toxins and waste products, retention of which can increase your risk of cancer and other degenerative diseases.

Decreases your risk of cancer, arteriosclerosis, hypertension, heart disease, osteoporosis, senility and depression.

Sy nchronizes your body rhythms, helping you to function physically mentally, and emotionally at peak efficiency.

Adds years to your life—and helps make those years more productive and healthy.

The authors, however, admit that diet is probably the most emotionally charged topic in their book. They said: “For most of us, food is much more than just a source of nutrition. It’s also a source of comfort, a symbol of love, a recreational pastime, a connection to family and community, and, occasionally, the ground for potent emotions, such as anger, fear, anxiety and depression.” Their advice to readers is to understand the basic principles on which their antiaging diet recommendations are based, and “take it one step at a time.

Remember that dietary changes can be both immensely difficult and extremely rewarding. Following the right diet can literally add years to your life.”

Eat right for long life

MAYOR Alfredo Marañon III (standing, center) with some of the 21 nonagenarians and their family members during the granting of cash incentives to Sagay City residents between 90 and 99 years old, at the City Hall on November 11, 2019. The awardees each got P50,000. PHOTO COURTESY OF SAGAY CITY INFORMATION AND TOURISM OFFICE

The Office of the Mayor has formed a committee tasked to evaluate the nonagenarian and centenarian awardees, along with the City Social Welfare and Development Office, Office of the

Senior Citizen Affairs and the City Council Committee on Senior Citizens.

Last November 5, three centenarians from Sagay were among the 33 honored by the provincial govern-

ment during the 121st Negros Day program in Bacolod.

They were Trinidad Canoy Suarez and Roberto Custodio Sumbi Sr., both 100, and Luminada Ursal Monares, 104. PNA

Feds charge at least 10 men in Nigerian online romance scam

ULSA, Oklahoma—At least 10 men in several states have been charged in a Nigerian romance money laundering scheme that swindled victims out of more than $1.5 million.

US Atty. Trent Shores said during a news conference in Tulsa that many of the victims were seniors, the Tulsa World reported. An Oklahoma resident was among the victims. “ T he defend a nts enr ic hed themselves and their cohorts by preying on vulnerable victims hoping to find love and companionship online,” he said.

Shores said FBI agents arrested seven of the defendants, including five who were arrested in Norman,

Editor: Angel R. Calso • Saturday, November 23, 2019 A5

Oklahoma, one who was arrested in Brooklyn, New York, and another who was picked up in Long Beach, California.

The other three remain at-large.

Even though most of those targeted were seniors, authorities said anyone could fall victim to the deception.

“Everyone is vulnerable to phone and Internet scams, but seeing a romance scam and money laundering conspiracy that resulted in the exploitation of elderly Americans is just shameful,” Shores said. “US attorneys across the nation are working diligently to empower victims of fraud to speak out so that online scammers can be brought to justice.”

The people charged were Afeez

Olajude Adebara, 34; Chibuzo Obiefuna Jr., 26; Jamiu Ibukun Adedeji, 23; Tobiloba Kehinde, 27; Oluwasenu John Ogundele, 30; Joshua Nnandom Ditep, 25; Paul Usoro, 25; and three others who have not yet been identified.

Since 2017, the suspects have concealed the operation’s profits by shifting money between several bank accounts that were opened using fake identification papers, the indictment alleges.

“Sadly, experience tells us that these victims will never see their money again,” Shores said.

Investigators said the victims and defendants never met in person and only communicated via

online platforms.

The scheme followed a pattern in which defendants would pretend to be American citizens and ask the victims for relatively low-cost items such as gift cards and cellphones before asking for larger amounts of money to cover travel or work costs as the online relationships progressed.

But the defendants allegedly used the money to “salvage vehicles and car parts to export them overseas, typically to Nigeria,” according to the indictment.

Authorities encouraged any potential victims of such scams to contact the FBI’s Internet Complaint Center and to file an official complaint. AP

THE authors said that basically, the diet that will most support healthy longevity follows these principles:

It’s nontoxic. That means it contains hardly any preservatives, additives, pesticides, growth hormones (routinely given to livestock and poultry), antibiotics (also given to livestock and poultry), food coloring, chemical flavoring, and other substances that tax your liver, your digestive system, and your heart.

In contains enough nutrients and fuel to satisfy your daily needs. Since most fresh fruits and vegetables lose much of their nutritional value within hours after being picked, you’ll probably have to augment even the healthiest diet with vitamin and mineral supplements.

Nevertheless, the more you can obtain basic nutrients from natural sources, the healthier your diet is likely to be.

It consists of foods that are easy to digest and eliminate. Evidence dating back to prehistoric times indicates that humans were originally vegetarians, with meat-eating developing as a later, acquired taste. Certainly our digestive systems bear this theory out, for they process and eliminate meat and poultry with far greater difficulty than high-fiber foods, complex carbohydrates and fresh produce.

Although occasional consumption of meat—say, twice a week—is probably a key ingredient of a healthful diet, there’s mounting evidence that more frequent consumption increases your risk of colon and pancreatic cancer.

Klatz and Goldman said a long-life diet should consist of the following:

Raw or lightly cooked wholegrain cereals.

Raw or lightly steamed vegetables and sprouts.

Raw fresh fruit, including the skin because of the fiber and pectin

TRIPLE DIGITS it contains.

Lightly cooked beans, lentils and peas.

Raw nuts and seeds (unsalted).

A certain amount of non-homogenized dairy products, particularly cultured products like yogurt.

Fresh meat, fish and poultry about two times a week.

They said sugar, salt, alcohol, caffeine, and foods high in preservatives, as well as high-fat foods, will all contribute to making you old before your time. “American staples, such as presweetened cereals, luncheon meats, bacon and pork products, white flour, cola and other sweet drinks [even if made with aspartame], sweetened fruit drinks, potato chips and pretzels, roasted nuts and seeds, instant foods of all types, fried foods, coffee, tea, and [alas] chocolate all tend to age the body; they put a strain on your organs, your digestive system, and your cardiovascular system, and in many cases, they actively introduce free radicals into your body,” the authors said.

The soybean solution

HIGHLIGHTED in the book was the discovery made by scientists at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, saying that soybeans contain a protease inhibitor called the Bowman-Birk inhibitor, which is so versatile against various cancers that it has been dubbed “the universal cancer preventive agent.”

Thus,theauthorssaidthesoybean—one of nature’s own antioxidants—may be one of the most important foods we add to our long-life diet. They said some nutritionists call soybeans a natural “antiaging pill” because they may interfere with free-radical damage and enhance our cells’ defenses against aging and agerelated diseases.

Theauthorssaid:“Inastudyconducted by Dr. Denham Harman, father of the free-radical theory of aging, laboratory animalsthatconsumedsoybeanprotein drastically reduced free-radical damage to their cells, more so than animals fed casein, a dairy protein. In addition, the animals that ate soybean protein extended their life spans by 13 percent!”

The effect soybeans have on longevity is not restrained to laboratory animals. The authors said it is a known fact that the Japanese, who eat the highest daily amount of soybeans in the world, live longer lives than any other group of people on the planet. The Japanese consume about an ounce of soybeans per day—almost 30 times more than Americans—and they have a far fewer cases of heart disease, cancer, diabetes and osteoporosis. Perhaps the key ingredient that makes soybeans, such powerful antioxidant food is a substance called genistein.

The authors said genistein is a rare, vital antioxidant that has immense antiaging biological activity.

Its antiaging effects include:

Interfering with cancer activity at every stage, including breast, colon, lung, prostate, skin and blood (leukemia) cancers.

Reducing plaque build-up in artery walls and reducing the risk of heart attack, stroke and atherosclerosis.

Other amazing effects of soybeans on the human body include boosting high-density lipoprotein cholesterol levels cholesterol is known as the “good” cholesterol because it helps remove other forms of cholesterol from your bloodstream) and lowering triglycerides, keeping blood sugar at healthy levels—thus reducing the risk for mature-onset diabetes and heart disease—and increasing bone mass by helping your systems retain calcium. Some of the best sources for good soy protein: soy nuts, tofu, soy milk, miso, and soy flour.

(Continued next week)

A6

BusinessMi

Saturday, November 23, 2019 | Editor: Jun Lomibao | mirror_sports@yahoo.com.ph

WILD: AGE NOT A BARRIER TO SUCCESS D UTCH rider Kirsten Wild has been successful on both the road and track for years. And with the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games on the horizon, the 37-yearold shows no signs of slowing down.

Wild rides with the confidence and tactical acumen of an athlete who is about to enter her 17th year of competitive racing. Take the recent Gent Six Day event in Belgium where she displayed tenacity, talent and no small amount of power en route to dominate the Omnium.

Wild won the scratch race, tempo race and elimination race to top the standings ahead of Belgium’s Jolien D’Hoore and Lotte Kopecky. Before the race, Wild had identified the pair as her main rivals, telling local media that “it’ll be a hard battle between us.” As has been the case so many times in her career, Wild dug deep and came out on top.

ALL EYES ON TOKYO

WILD has made no secret of her current ambitions, her main objective to qualify for Tokyo 2020. “That’s the thing that’s at the back of my head the whole time,” she says. “All the training and racing is about accumulating enough points to qualify for selection. I’m growing older but, for me,

age is not a barrier.”

Wild entertained the Gent crowds resplendent in the rainbow jersey, having won the Madison and the Omnium at the UCI Track Cycling World Championships presented

by Tissot in Pruszków, Poland, earlier in the year. Wild also rode to two gold medals at the UEC European Track Cycling Championships in Apeldoorn in her home country in the Omnium and elimination race.

Success hasn’t been confined to the boards. Wild joined the WNT-Rotor Pro Cycling Team in 2019 on a two-year contract after her previous road team, Wiggle High5, folded— and immediately set about more sprint success. She didn’t have long to wait.

On a cool, bright day at the end of March, Wild won the Driedaagse Brugge-De Panne one-day race in Belgium after a thrilling finale that culminated in a mass sprint with nearly all the top sprinters.

The victory proved a master class in sprinting with Wild nestling back in 40th with 2 kilometers to go. Her teammate, Lisa Brennauer, was ahead in 30th and started to crank up the power around 1.5 kms from the finish. The move triggered Wild to take the German’s rear wheel. With 1 km to go, Brennauer took the lead.

Team Sunweb took over, but a patient Wild

launched her successful sprint with 250 meters remaining to take the crown. Three days later, a buoyant Wild won Gent-Wevelgem in Flanders Fields, again piloted by Brennauer.

Wild went on to win a further four times on the road—it would have been five but Wild was disqualified after a crash at the Prudential RideLondon Classique in July— taking her overall road tally to an incredible 108 wins. But it’s the track that’s currently uppermost in her thoughts.

“I’ll start 2020 with some track, but then some road stuff with De Panne and Gent-Wevelgem,” she said. “I’ll then take a little break before full gas to the Olympics on the track.”

That laser focus comes from unfinished business. Tokyo would be Wild’s third Olympics. In both London and Rio de Janeiro, she failed to win a medal. A standout absence for an athlete with such a glittering palmares, especially as success, on the face of it, has always come easy for Wild.

SUCCESS FROM AN EARLY AGE

WILD was born and raised in Almelo, the Netherlands, and at the age of 13 the seeds of her cycling career were sown when she took possession of her first race bike. The idea was to go touring around her home country

with her brother, Werner, and father. But that wasn’t enough for Werner or Kirsten, both applying for race licences, Werner in mountain biking and Wild on the road.

To start with, Wild’s natural talent was nurtured by local association AWV de Zwaluwen, before progressing further under the watchful eye of Wim Kruis at the UCI team @Work Cycling Team. Here, Wild achieved her first podium places.

After two years, she moved to the AA Drink-Cycling Team and won her first road race, Omloop door Middag-Humsterland. At the time, she juggled cycling with her studies and work as a physical education teacher. Wild balanced the two until going full-time in 2009 with the Cervélo TestTeam.

The move paid off with numerous victories on the road. But it was on the track that Wild would really make a name for herself, finishing second in the world rankings in both 2009 and 2010. From there, well, Wild won the European Championships, UCI World Cup and UCI World Championship titles, with three track gold medals—Omnium, Points and Scratch—at the 2018 UCI Track Cycling World Championships presented by Tissot in Apeldoorn.

At a time in her career where many riders are starting to slow down, Wild’s seemingly doing the opposite. It means, once qualified, she will head to Japan primed to end her Olympic drought. Like Wild said, “age is not a barrier to success.” UCI News

UCI bares road race cast for Tokyo 2020

BELGIUM’S Greg van Avermaet is the defending Olympic champion.

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HE International Cycling Union (UCI) announced the National Olympic Committees that have qualified for the men’s and women’s road events during the Olympic Game from July 24 to August

9 in Tokyo.

The men’s road race will field 130 riders and the women’s road race will field 67.

The elite men’s road race will be held on July 25, starting from Musashinonomori

Park and ending at the Fuji International Speedway.

The peloton will include 130 athletes with national teams from Belgium, Colombia, France, Italy and the Netherlands holding the highest number of competitors at five riders per nation on the start line.

The 234-kilometer route will favor the climbers, with the parcours tackling four climbs: Donushi Road and Kagosaka Pass, and including the outer slopes of Mount Fuji, with a total of 4,865 meters of climbing.

Belgium’s Greg van Avermaet is the defending champion after winning the gold medal at the 2016 Rio Olympic Games.

The route will likely better suit riders, such as Egan Bernal (Colombia), Thibaut Pinot (France), and Vincenzo Nibali (Italy), although national teams have not yet been selected.

Nations that secured four athletes per team include Australia, Denmark, Great Britain, Germany, Norway, Slovenia and Switzerland. Nations with three riders per team include Austria, Canada, Czech Republic, Kazakhstan, Poland, South Africa and Russia. All other competing nations earned either one or two spots per team.

The elite women’s 137-kms road race will be held on July 26, also starting from Musashinonomori Park and ending at the Fuji International Speedway. The women’s course will not go over Mount Fuji but will include climbs over Donushi Road and Kagosaka Pass, and total 2,692 meters of climbing.

The women’s race will field 67 athletes, whereby nations Australia,

Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and the United States with have most riders per team.

Each of these nations secured a total of four athletes.

Anna van der Breggen (the Netherlands) is the defending champion, having won the gold medal in Rio. Other top contenders will likely include world champion Annemiek van Vleuten (the Netherlands), Amanda Spratt (Australia), Elisa Longo Borghini (Italy) and Katie Hall (US), although teams have not officially been selected.

Belgium was the only nation that secured three spots for the women’s road race, while nations that secured two riders per team included Canada, Denmark, Spain, Great Britain, Japan, Norway, Poland and South Africa. All other competing nations secured one spot.

The are a maximum of two spots available for the elite men’s 44.2 kms and elite women’s 22.1 kms individual time trials that are both held on July 29.

Nations that reached the maximum quota for the men’s event include Australia, Belgium, Spain, Great Britain, Germany, Italy, New Zealand, Poland, Switzerland and the US. All other competing nations earned one spot.

For the women’s time trial Australia, Canada, Germany, the Netherlands and the US will start two riders, while all other competing nations will start just one rider.

Retired athletes Kristin Armstrong (US) and Fabian Cancellara (Switzerland) won the gold medals in Rio. Favorites to win the time trials in Tokyo, include Annemiek (the Netherlands) and world champion Chloe Dygert (US) for the women’s race, while world champion Rohan Dennis (Australia) and Tom Dumoulin (the Netherlands) will be the favourites for the men’s race. National teams have not yet been selected, however.

According to the Olympic qualification system calendar for road cycling, the National Olympic Committees must confirm the number of quota used by December 15, 2019, before the UCI reallocates the remaining places. UCI News

KIRSTEN WILD is congratulated by UCI President David Lappartient. AP

TRACK CYC

MACHINE Dig a little deeper and you’ll discover frames spawned from computational fluid dynamics software, wind-tunnel research and lab testing, all in the name of producing the lightest, stiffest and most aerodynamic bikes possible.

CALEB EWAN: I think when I finished the Tour, it was the biggest relief of my life.

Ewan recalls mental stress of first Tour de France race

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USTRALIAN sprinter Caleb Ewan has admitted that he found the stress of his first Tour de France in July, difficult to deal with, and that finishing it was “the biggest relief of my life,” despite having won three stages.

After four years with Australian World Tour team Mitchelton-Scott, Ewan made the decision to join Belgian World Tour outfit Lotto-Soudal for the 2019 season, effectively replacing their established sprinter André Greipel, who moved on to Pro Continental squad ArkéaSamsic this year.

Following years of not being selected to ride the Tour de France with Mitchelton-Scott, Lotto-Soudal would give Ewan his first shot at riding the race, but the expectation that came with having a team built around him for the world’s biggest bike race was far from insignificant, said Ewan.

“I had to take the risk to move on [from MitcheltonScott] because as far as performance, I wasn’t getting what I needed from the team,” Ewan told theage.com.au at

the weekend, referring to his wish to test himself against the world’s best at the Tour.

“I went there with my new team, I went there as a clear leader for the team to get them their results,” he explained. “They’d just had André there for the last eight years, who’d won them, I think, 12 [11] Tour de France stages, so I’m following on from that.

“I’ve never done the Tour before, and I’ve got the media looking at me thinking, ‘Is he going to do as well as he thought he was going to the year before, or is he going to get there, do nothing, and were Mitchelton right to leave him at home?’

“I went into the Tour with a lot of pressure from a lot of different angles,” said Ewan, whose wife gave birth to the couple’s first child prematurely, with their daughter still in hospital when he had to leave for the race.

However, Ewan’s wife and daughter were later at the race to see him come away with three stage wins— Stage 11, Stage 16, and then the race’s final stage on the

Champs-Elysées in Paris. It was a huge achievement for any rider, but all the more so when it was Ewan’s race debut.

“I’m proud of the way I dealt with that and performed through it, especially when in the first half I hadn’t won and obviously I needed to win.

“I’d gone to the Tour, I’d done well, I’d done well for my new team, my daughter was born and she was all good. There was so much stress, I guess, leading into the Tour; it wasn’t healthy, I don’t think,” said Ewan.

“In the end, to win three stages in the last 10 days, all that pressure from the start, and then all the pressure again from not winning for the first half, I think is something I can be proud of.

“I actually deal with a lot of stuff just by myself. It’s the way I’ve always been,” the 25-year-old said. “I don’t know if it’s a good thing; maybe it’s better if I speak to someone, I don’t know, but I think when I finished the Tour, it was the biggest relief of my life.” Cyclingnews

irror CYCLING

Saturday, November 23, 2019

A7

TRACK cycling really is the ultimate sporting mix of humans maximizing machine and nature in harmony.

CLING:

AND NATURE IN HARMONY T

HERE’S more than meets the eye when it comes to the world’s fastest track cyclists generating optimum speed. At first glance, a track bike appears to be a basic machine, comprising one fixed gear.

There are no brakes—instead you scrub speed by slowing your pedalling rate. It couldn’t be more simple, right? Wrong. Dig a little deeper and you’ll discover frames spawned from computational fluid dynamics software, wind-tunnel research and lab testing, all in the name of producing the lightest, stiffest and most aerodynamic bikes possible.

Let’s start with material: carbon fiber, which strikes the track cycling sweet spot between low weight and maximum stiffness. And that stiffness is vital when you consider the forces generated from the cyclist through to the frame.

Take the Netherlands’s Jeffrey Hoogland, who set a new flying 200-m time-trial sea-level record of 9.448 seconds at June’s European Games in

Belarus. Hoogland’s average headed toward 80 km/hr, sending huge forces through the frame.

If his frame had lacked stiffness, more energy would have been leached rather than projecting bike and rider forwards. And that would have meant no world record for the Dutchman.

THE ROLE OF THE AIRFOIL

HOOGLAND’S power output is immense, touching 2000 watts. Frame material assists rather than impedes. As does a track cyclist’s frame shape. As a rider’s speed rises, so does air resistance; in fact, for every doubling of speed, air resistance rises by a power of four. That’s where the world’s leading aerodynamicists come in, researching and forging frames that reduce drag. And that leads us to teardrop-shaped tubing, which features on the majority of today’s track bikes.

Why is very much down to the work of Professor Ascher Shapiro in the 1950s, who showed that airflow is far more turbulent passing

over round objects compared to a smooth airfoil, which is essentially a tapered tube.

Aerodynamicist Simon Smart has shown that a teardrop tube generated 1/20th the drag of a cylindrical tube of similar diameter.

If that’s so, why do we not see huge fairings on the world’s finest track bikes? That’s down to UCI guidelines ensuring the impact of machine doesn’t overtake the impact of man, meaning the maximum height of tubing mustn’t eclipse 8 cm with tubing thickness a minimum 2.5 cm, reduced to 1 cm for the chain and seat-stays. This 8:2.5 ratio equates to a 3.2:1 ratio. Studies show that a ratio of between 6:1 and 7:1 optimizes aerodynamics without too great a weight penalty.

It’s why some manufacturers might design their tubes at, say, 5:1 but then carve off the end to adhere to UCI guidelines. This, it’s purported, cuts drag by creating a virtual tail.

THE EFFECT OF AIR PRESSURE

IT’S clear that reducing air resistance is pivotal to

Preparing for Paris 2024 in earnest T

HE Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games are less than a year away, but many young athletes are already eyeing up the 2024 Games in Paris (France).

In October, coaches at the International Cycling Union (UCI World Cycling Centre took more than 40 teenagers through their paces in different Olympic disciplines as part of a wide-ranging talent identification process.

The aim is to select a core group of BMX, mountain bike, road and track cyclists to train at the UCI WCC in Aigle, Switzerland, and accompany them through to the 2024 Olympics in the French capital.

All the athletes underwent Wattbike protocol testing, scientific assessment in the UCI WCC testing laboratory, as well as sessions specific to their particular discipline.

MOUNTAIN BIKE SEVEN athletes from six countries: For UCI WCC mountain bike Coach Charlie Evans, it was

important to test a range of traits necessary for a potentially successful athlete: “I wanted to see their qualities of organization, their assertiveness, their technical and physical capabilities, and importantly how brave they were.”

Evans tested their bravery on a range of technical trails in the surrounding countryside, and also took the athletes to a climbing wall “to see their behavior, confidence and approach in a new environment.”

On top of a threshold test on the road, and trail riding, they underwent gym and core skills sessions to assess their technical skills such as manuals, wheelies and hopping. The training camp finished with a gravel race in Bern against some of Switzerland’s top riders.

TRACK FOUR athletes from three countries: Attitude was a major factor taken into account for the track athletes who spent a week at the UCI WCC in October. Aged between 18 and 21, the young cyclists had already

been spotted at international competitions or were nominated by their National Federation.

For a week they were integrated into the UCI WCC’s current group of track trainees and were exposed to a typical training schedule of a full-time athlete: three track sessions, two gym sessions, wattbike testing and road riding.

“It was an opportunity for them to see if they could actually cope with this environment,” explains UCI WCC track Coach Craig McLean. “It would be great to have a group that can work toward Paris 2024, although my aim is always to get the best performance from an athlete.”

McLean underlined the necessity for athlete development work—an important role of the UCI WCC satellite centres—alongside highperformance programs.

ROAD 26 athletes from 20 countries: From flat time

INTERNATIONAL Cycling Union World Cycling Centre coaches take more than 40 teenagers through their paces in different Olympic disciplines as part of a wideranging talent identification process.

maximizing speed. But that’s just the start of air’s impact on track cyclists. Cue in air temperature and air pressure. In the buildup to Bradley Wiggins’s record-breaking UCI Hour Record attempt in June 2015, the 2012 Tour de France winner told reporters, “Much of the hour record is dictated by temperature and air pressure. I’m not a weatherman but if you have really low pressure—under 1,000 Hpa [grams per cubic meter]—you’ll travel a lot further on the day.

Anything up to an extra 1 km for the same power.”

Warm air is also less dense than cold air and that is why the team at the Lee Valley Velodrome in London, controlled temperature at a constant 28°C. It had the desired effect, Wiggins’s 54.526 kms surpassing Alex Dowsett’s mark of 52.937 kms, since bettered by Victor Campenaerts in April 2019, the Belgian’s 55.098 km helped by the low pressure of his altitude attempt at the Velodromo Bicentario in Aguascalientes, Mexico.

The shape of the track also influences the speed of the rider. Starting with the fundamentals, if track

trialing to threshold testing up a mountain and power testing on stationary wattbikes, the 12 women and 14 men athletes on the road cycling talent identification camp had their work cut out for them.

Aged 17 to 23, they had to deal with difficult weather conditions as they trained under the watchful eye of the UCI WCC road coaches Richard Wooles and Adam Szabó.

Wooles said the coaches were looking for riders who could benefit from the facilities and expertise available at the UCI WCC. The most promising will be invited back as early as January 2020 to join the long-term group of trainees.

“They need to be at a good level of fitness and mentally ready to move to full time training and racing,” he said. “The ultimate aim is Paris 2024 but also to move up the levels of cycling so they can make cycling their life and inspire others in their respective countries.”

BMX RACING FIVE athletes from five countries: With technical aspects of BMX Racing being so critical, the athletes on the discipline’s talent identification camp spent as much time as possible on the UCI WCC’s Supercross track.

BMX Coach Liam Phillips pointed out that technical aspects of the sport are learned at a young age and most athletes will already have spent a number of years working on this.

However, most are 16 and 17 years old and had only competed on a traditional BMX track. At the UCI WCC they confronted the Supercross track with an 8-m high start hill, bigger jumps and consequently higher speed.

“That is what they will have to tackle at the Olympics, UCI World Championships and UCI World Cups,” says Phillips. “The athletes spent time in the gym, but my primary focus is on the track.”

What are the principal traits he is looking for in potential long-term trainees?

“There are a multitude of things from their physical and technical potential to how they are as people. BMX athletes need to be extremely resilient, too.”

Opened in 2002, the UCI World Cycling Centre offers training and development for around 100 athletes every year. Since opening its doors, trainees in the different disciplines have enjoyed success at national, continental, world and Olympic level. UCI News

cyclists were to accelerate around a flat circular track, they’d find it near impossible to stay on. That’s where the banking comes in, the steepness dictated by the length of the track.

The banking of a 250-m track, for instance, might max out around 45 degrees; a longer track of around 333.33 m might max out at a shallower peak of around 32 degrees. Ultimately, it’s a balancing act as sprint cyclists prefer a steeper back to generate peak speed, while endurance cyclists might prefer gentler angles to preserve energy.

THE BENEFITS OF DRAFTING

THAT principle of energy preservation carries over to the team events and, in particular, drafting. This is where the rear rider sits behind the front rider and benefits from the low-pressure wake created from the air passing over and around the front rider.

It’s the closer the better when it comes to drag savings with wheel manufacturers Swiss Side showing that a rider sitting 10 cm behind

the rear wheel and cycling at 45 km/hr saves 90 of the 250 watts required to reach that speed: that’s an enormous 39.5-percent energy saving.

Not surprisingly, this dissipates further back the second rider sits, but even at 20 m back, Swiss Side showed 8.9-percent savings.

Professor Bert Blocken of Eindhoven University showed that the lead cyclists could also enjoy an energy-saving benefit from the drafting rider—around 1.5 percent if the following rider is 15 cm back.

Successful track cycling is much more than one man or woman powering around an oval track as fast as possible. And their bikes are far from the simple machines they might appear at first glance.

Yes, riders with low body fat, powerful muscles and efficient technique play a huge part in optimum performance, but so does the environment, the equipment and rider position.

Track cycling really is the ultimate sporting mix of humans maximizing machine and nature in harmony. UCI News

EDDY MERCKX says the bike crash he had has been potentially more serious than has been reported.

Merckx reveals serious nature of bike crash

W

HILE in demand for his comments about his rival and close friend Raymond Poulidor, who died on Wednesday morning following a long spell in hospital, five-time Tour de France champion Eddy Merckx has told the Belgian press that the bike crash he had in mid-October had been potentially more serious than had been reported.

Merckx crashed while riding with friends on October 13, and was rushed to hospital with what was described at the time as a “serious head injury.”

“Things are going better now, but things still aren’t quite as they should be,” he told Sporza.be on Wednesday. “It’s a bit too much to explain, but I have to have some further scans, and riding is absolutely forbidden.

“If you’d seen what I went through, then you’d know that I was very lucky,” he continued. “If it wasn’t for the coincidence that a nurse had been passing by, I think it might have been the end for me.”

Merckx was released from hospital after five days, although the

Belgian Sudpresse newspaper group reported at the time that Merckx had suffered a hemorrhage and had been kept in intensive care overnight.

“Fifty years after Blois, and now this,” Merckx told Sporza.be, revealing further clues about the seriousness of the crash, and referring to the accident he was involved in at the cycling track at Blois, France, in 1969, when his Derny rider, Fernand Wambst, was killed, and Merckx was left bedridden for six weeks due to having injured both his hips and his head.

Merckx also admitted on Wednesday that Poulidor’s death had hit him very hard.

“The cycling world has lost a monument, an icon,” Merckx told Het Nieuwsblad. “You can’t imagine how loved ‘Poupou’ was in France—every year I saw that at the Tour.

France loved his charm. “[He is] maybe the sportsman who was the most popular in France. A monument of a sportsman and a man is no longer with us. I’ve been hit very hard,” he said. Cyclingnews

Sports BusinessMirror

A8 Saturday, November 23, 2019

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

Magnaye, Pomar advance to semis

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ATIONAL team members Ariel Magnaye and Thea Pomar booked semifinals berth on the penultimate day of the Smart National Open Badminton Tournament on Thursday at the Muntinlupa Sports Complex.

The top seeds in mixed doubles, Magnaye and Pomar recovered from a first-set loss to beat University of the Philippines’s JM Bernardo and Aldreen Concepcion, 17-21, 21-19, 21-9.

Magnaye and Pomar will face Christian Bernardo and Geva de Vera—who swept Alem Palmares and Aires Montilla, 21-14, 21-16—in the semifinals.

Magnaye will also see action in the men’s doubles semifinals with Alvin Morada after their 21-15, 21-16 over JC Clarito and Jayson Oba-ob. The No. 1 men’s pair put their mettle on the line against JM Bernardo and Christian Bernardo.

Pomar and Alyssa Leonardo, meanwhile, will battle University Athletic Association of the Philippines Season 82 Co-Most Valuable Players Chanelle Lunod and de Vera in Thursday’s semifinals.

The top-seeded women’s pair took down Ghiselle Bautista and Clydel Pada, 21-12, 21-14.

In singles, Ros Pedrosa and Sarah Barredo stake their top billing in the semifinals against UAAP rookies in Solomon Padiz Jr. and Concepcion.

Pedrosa dominated Michael Cudiamat, 21-14, 21-7, while Barredo stopped Beatriz Felizardo, 21-18, 21-7, to secure semifinals berths.

A DIVER trains at the Aquatics Center, athletes and officials hoist the national colors at the Athletes Village and Philippine Southeast Asian Games Organizing Committee Chairman, House Speaker Alan Peter Cayetano, makes the No. 1 sign. BERNARD TESTA

DOMINGUEZ: SEAG FUNDS WELL-SPENT

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INANCE Secretary Carlos Dominguez III said government funds for the New Clark City sports venues were “well-spent” as he lauded the Bases Conversion and Development Authority (BCDA) for constructing the facilities “on time and within budget.”

“My job is to raise money for the government. When I do that, I also want to see that the money is well-spent and not wasted.... This project, I think, is well-spent, not

only for the athletes but also for the pride of our country, and that we now have for the first time in 80 years a world-class sports facility,” said Dominguez, citing the

ANTHONY WEEK’S BEST

S

EAN ANTHONY came through for NorthPort when it mattered most by serving as the steady presence in the team’s back-toback victories that assured the Batang Pier a playoffs berth in the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) Governors’ Cup. Anthony had an all-around effort of 18 points, six rebounds, and six assists as the Batang Pier edge Barangay Ginebra, 98-96, that formalized their third straight quarterfinals stint for the season.

Four days earlier, the Filipino-Canadian forward finished with 19 points and seven rebounds as NorthPort brought down leagueleader NLEX, 102-94, to help the team keep its playoffs hopes alive.

In all, Anthony averaged 18.5 points, 6.5 rebounds, and 4.0 assists as the Batang Pier swept their last two outings in the eliminations.

Anthony’s consistency in those two games for the period November 11 to 17 earned for him the PBA Press Corps-Cignal Player of the Week.

The 33-year-old NorthPort veteran won the weekly honor against teammate Christian Standhardinger, who also played big for the Batang Pier, who finished as the No. 8 seeded team.

Others considered for the citation include Alaska’s Maverick Ahanmisi and Vic Manuel, the Magnolia backcourt duo of Paul Lee and Chris Banchero, Phoenix’s Matthew Wright, and the trio of Barangay Ginebra’s Jeff Chan, Stanley Pringle and Japeth Aguilar.

Rizal Memorial Sports Complex, built in 1934.

“We want to ensure that we are also world class when it comes to our athletes because our athletes are really world class and they really deserve a facility like this,” Dominguez added.

Dominguez inspected the New Clark City facilities on Thursday with Executive Secretary Salvador Medialdea, House Speaker Alan Peter Cayetano, other “Build, Build, Build” officials—Transportation Secretary Arthur Tugade, Public Works Secretary Mark Villar and BCDA President and CEO Vince Dizon, as well as Philippine Olympic Committee President Rep. Abraham “Bambol” Tolentino, Albay Rep. Joey Salceda, Tarlac Rep. Noel Villanueva, Tarlac Gov. Susan Yap and Clark Development Corp. President and CEO

Noel Manankil.

BCDA, together with infrastructure developer MTD Clark Inc., built the new sports facilities as part of New Clark City Phase 1 A in just 18 mont hs since the project broke ground in January 2018.

T he go ve r n me nt of f ic i a l s were joined by national athletes in touring the Athletes’ Village, the 2,000-seat Aquatics Center certified by the International Swimming Federation and the 20,000-seat Athletics Stadium with a track certified as Class 1 by the International Association of Athletics Federations.

They also visited the government building, which will ser ve a s a n i nteg rated operat ion s center for agenc ies involved in disaster risk reduction and management.

Cycle PH unwraps at BGC

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ORE than a thousand bikers of all ages and skill levels set off for another fun ride with a cycling legend and a number of celebrities/sportsmen as the Sun Life Cycle PH gets going today at the Bonifacio Global City in Taguig.

Former three-time Tour de France green jersey winner Robbie McEwen, who has seen the big improvement on the local cycling scene being a visitor the last six years, joins regular triathlon campaigners Piolo Pascual and Matteo Guidicelli in the noncompetitive event which features the kids ride, short ride (20K) and long ride (40K) categories around Taguig, Makati, Manila and Pasay.

“The Sun Life Cycle PH is getting bigger and better every year. I have watched the event grow and involve so many people from as young as two-years-old to serious elite cyclists, families and 60+ year olds,” said McEwen, also an Australian cycling legend and Olympiad veteran during Friday’s launch of the event put up by Sun Life Financial Philippines and organized by Sunrise Events Inc., now part of the Ironman Group.

“This year, we have a large number of riders from PH Police, Army, Navy and Traffic Enforcement taking part in the 20 km and 40 km rides. The highlight, however, is always the kids ride on the closed circuit so they can get active and

discover a love for biking,” he added.

The event includes the tricycle ride (100-m distance for two- to three years olds), kids’ ride (500m for 4-5 years old), the family ride (30-minute ride for 6-15 with adult companion) and the solo ride (30-minute ride for 6-15).

McEwen, Pascual and Guidicelli, along with the other Star Magic artists, will see action in the long distance ride (40 km for 10 and above) of the event also held to further promote awareness on keeping a healthy lifestyle, diabetes prevention and helping less-privileged kids sustain their education. For details, log on to www.sunlife.cycleph.com.

MIKEE’S POLO DREAM COMES TRUE

POLO federation President Rep. Mikee Romero says the sport’s inclusion on the Games program is a dream come true.

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HE leadership of the Philippine National Federation of Polo Players (PNFPP) on Friday deeply thanked the Philippine Olympic Committee (POC), Ph i l i p p i n e S o ut h e a s t A s i a n Games Organizing Committee (Phisgoc) and Philippine Sports Commission for fulfilling its dream to stage the sport in the region’s biggest show.

“Without their support we will not realize our dream of playing in the coming regional meet and play against the top guns of other countries,” PNFPP founding member and Rep. Mikee Romero said.

“Hats off to POC President and Rep. [Abraham] ‘Bambol’ Tolentino for all the help—without his backing, our sport will be left out in the cold, and of course to House Speaker Alan Peter Cayetano for the valuable support and motivation,” Romero said.

Romero a lso thanked PSC, especia l ly its Chair man William “Butch ” Ramirez, for helping f und the team’s training in Buenos A ires, A rgentina.

“ It wa s a wonder f u l e x pe r ience and we lear ned a lot dur ing our t wo-week traini n g c a m p ,” s a i d R o m e r o , w h o is fast recovering from a b a d f a l l d u r i n g t h e t e a m ’s A rgent ina tra ining.

T he m ajest ic B a mb oo Pa v i l lon of t he Mig uel Romero Field in C a l at aga n, Bat a ngas, meanwhile, w il l be blessed and inaug u rated on Sat u rd ay.

Diplomats, high-rank ing spor ts officia ls and polo enthusiasts are ex pected to grace the ceremony.

“A s id e f rom ou r b e aut i f u l f a c i l it ie s , t he B a m b o o Pav i l lon w i l l b e a g re at at t r a c t ion for polo lovers. Designed e x q u i s it e l y, it l o ok s re g a l ,” a d d e d R ome ro.

A n added appetizer is the fr iend ly game bet ween Team Philippines against some A rgentine and Br itish players.

Polo competitions will start on Sunday although the official opening of the SEA Games will be on Saturday at the Philippine Arena in Bocaue, Bulacan.

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

BusinessMirror

Saturday, November 23, 2019 A9

Data don’t breach TECHNIVORE ED UY

whereiseduy@gmail.com

I

MIGHT have forgotten my sunblock, but I made sure I had a complete blister pack of paracetamol and an unopened bottle of White Flower during my recent trip to Bali.

It was one of the rare times I was invited to cover an enterprise event and data management solutions isn’t exactly my cup of milk tea. Thankfully, the speeches weren’t all that technical and even the afternoon sessions didn’t have any of those nose-bleed moments I was expecting.

So while the headache meds and White Flower returned to Manila untouched, I did get happily sunburned.

THE STATE OF DATA PROTECTION VERITAS Technologies, the worldwide leader in enterprise data protection and software-defined storage, held its Veritas Vision Executive Forum last week at The Mulia in Nusa Dua, Bali, Indonesia. The conference brought together regional customers, partners and technology leaders to discuss abstract information-technology complexity, and how Veritas solutions can empower their businesses, as well.

Over 50,000 enterprises—including 99 percent of the Fortune 100—rely on Veritas for abstract IT complexity and simplify data management. Veritas Enterprise Data Services Platform automates the protection and orchestrates the recovery of data everywhere it lives, ensuring 24/7 availability of business-critical applications, and provides enterprises with the insights they need to comply with evolving data regulations.

In today’s digital economy, data is critical. It is the lifeblood of an organization and the new fuel for growth. Data centers are constantly evolving and becoming more complex, making it ever more challenging for enterprises to monitor and manage all their resources. The explosion of data in the digital economy has direct implication for IT and administrators who must acquire the best products while keeping cost down.

According to IDC, data is projected to grow to 175 zettabytes by 2025, and businesses have to deal with data that is spread across the core data centers, the cloud or at the edge. To add to the complexity,

organizations have to contend with new cyber threats that aim to expose data for financial gain, and with data governance regulations such as the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), which are intensifying complex data protection and storage challenges for customers.

Infrastructure complexity is damaging IT’s ability to meet the demands of enterprises. “It is the ultimate goal of Veritas Vision Executive Forum to empower customers to abstract the IT complexity across physical, virtual or cloud platforms so they can focus on their desired business outcomes. Today, customers simply need applications to be available, data to be always protected and recoverable, and insights to achieve optimization and regulatory compliance,” said Ravi Rajendran, vice president and managing director of Asia South Region, Veritas.

While this is not a new challenge, it is a real issue that data-driven organizations continue to struggle with, especially when there are many new threats out there that aim to expose data for gain.

One key takeaway from the conference is how Veritas can harness important data, seek insight into that data to make it usable and an asset to drive business. Digital disruption is forcing customers to rethink their IT consumption and services. Trends, such as 5G and IoT are leading to a more decentralized IT infrastructure. Data management is proving to be more than just backing up data on premises or to the cloud. As cloud and multi-cloud services continue to grow, Veritas helps businesses to migrate to the cloud or create a valuable environment between your data and cloud provider.

Ravi also stressed the importance of standardization, because while businesses can have several different environments, it would be a lot more efficient to have a single united data services platform.

On the issue of cyber attacks, we learned that ransomware has become a $33 billion industry and merely 50 percent of affected companies actually recover their data even after paying ransom. That is why organizations must always have an immutable copy of data that is good to go, good to be restored, unencumbered by ransomware demands.

Cyber attacks are becoming a key concern and many of Veritas’s customers are looking for a solution, not just to prevent attacks but, more important, to be able to recover as quickly as possible when it does happen. They also cautioned that small and medium-scale enterprises might be the next target of these ransomware attacks, especially since big companies are investing more into making sure their data is secure.

VERITAS VISION VERITAS Vision is part of a series of more than 20 events globally designed to showcase the latest data management best practices and technologies, and the Bali edition offered an opportunity for an exclusive cadre of executives to exchange insights and discuss IT challenges plaguing businesses today.

Highlights of the keynote sessions included speeches from Deepak Mohan, executive vice president, enterprise data protection and compliance, Veritas; Chris Lin, senior vice president of sales, Asia Pacific and Japan region, Veritas; CIO thoughts by

John Abel, senior vice president and CIO, Veritas; and a customer panel discussion about new ways to manage data complexity.

Lin said Veritas is the king of data protection and stressed they are the only one that could offer API— namely availability, protection and insights, delivered via their Enterprise Data Services Platform, or EDSP. Managing data is becoming too complex and the key lies in abstraction. In June, the company announced its new EDSP, a unified set of technologies designed to abstract the complexity of enterprise IT and a brand-new set of connections across the Veritas product portfolio.

Powered by Veritas NetBackup 8.2, Veritas Enterprise Data Services Platform allows customers to get what matters to them most, simply: highly available apps, always protected and recoverable data, and insights that drive operational efficiency and regulatory compliance.

Key innovations that differentiate Veritas NetBackup include: scalable data protection which gives organizations the confidence of recovering large environments in the face of ransomware, data loss or other threats to modern enterprises; automated, multi-cloud integration that supports a broad range of operating systems, hypervisors and relational databases, providing organizations unified data protection regardless of where they are on their cloud journey; and extensive storage options that integrate with a wide range of storage arrays, object storage, public cloud targets and tape device vendors, ensuring seamless integration into heterogenous environments. ■

COST-EFFECTIVE, ENVIRONMENTFRIENDLY AND AFFORDABLE WATER-CLEANING FACILITY

FROM left: Acer Philippines Senior Marketing Manager Princess Laosantos, Acer Philippines General Manager Sue Ong-Lim, Acer Philippines A BALLERINA holds up one of the powerhouse laptops from Acer.

Managing Director Manuel Wong, realme Philippines COO Jackie Chen and realme Philippines Marketing Lead Eason de Guzman.

Acer, realme partner to spread holiday cheer THE holiday season is just around the corner. The twinkling lights are on; the streets are busy and the people are merry.

Nothing beats the excitement of gift-giving and seeing the eyes of the recipient light up.

Multinational technology company and the Philippines’s No. 1 PC brand, Acer, and country’s fastest-growing smartphone brand, realme, have forged a partnership to spread the holiday cheer with a free realme smartphone for every purchase of any qualifying Acer or Predator PC. The holiday promo aims to celebrate the season with what Acer touts as the

TechEssential duo: Acer and Predator PCs and realme smartphones—bridging the gap between you and your loved ones in this most wonderful time of the year.

Gadget geeks will have an unforgettable Christmas when they purchase any qualifying Acer or Predator laptop, which are powered by either Intel Core i5 or i7 or AMD Ryzen 5 or 7. For Acer laptops, the customer gets the realme C2 2020 (2GB + 32GB) worth P4,990 for free, while Predator laptop buyers will get a free realme 5 (3GB + 64GB) worth P7,990.

“Acer is excited to partner with realme

for this holiday promo as we both believe in developing products that can help bridge the gap and let our customers experience real connections” said Sue Ong-Lim, Acer Philippines general manager. “Offering both of our top-of-the-line gadgets, we hope that this duo spreads holiday cheer to you and your loved ones this Christmas season.”

To qualify for the giveaway, customers must register their new purchase for warranty at warranty.acer.com.ph within two weeks of purchase. The Aspire, Nitro, and Predator laptops come with a two-year warranty.

The purchase of eligible products has a corresponding electronic voucher that the customer will get through the e-mail they will provide. Customers just need to print it out to claim their free smartphone at any designated realme redemption center.

They need to present a valid government ID. Customers must make sure to register within seven days after the date of purchase.

Acer and realme aim to celebrate a long Christmas with the promo, whis is ongoing until December 31. Customers have 60 days to redeem the electronic voucher until the end of the promo.

THE revolutionary technology behind the BioCleaner water-cleaning facility enables the system to clean water with the least amount of energy, resulting in great savings in power consumption and other operational costs. Portable, compact, and modular, the BioCleaner can be applied in residential, commercial, industrial and municipal sectors. Since each unit uses less than 2.5HP, it can cut electrical consumption by more than 75 percent as compared to traditional systems.

Harnessing the power of nature, BioCleaner (www. biocleaner.com) utilizes a biological solution, wherein Biosafety Level 1 microbes are employed to treat different kinds of organic waste. Since it does not make use of any chemical solution, BioCleaner can be utilized to clean natural water systems, such as creeks, ponds and lakes.

With the US Green Patent A, BioCleaner wastewater cleaning facility can produce colorless and odorless water, eliminating the need for the chlorination process.

BioCleaner units had been employed in different applications in the US, China, Indonesia and the Philippines.

Photo shows a portable and compact BioCleaner device that floats in tanks, lagoons and rivers that releases good microbes and digests the dirt, metals, sludge and bad odor thereby producing clean water.

BusinessMirror

A10 Saturday, November 23, 2019

www.businessmirror.com.ph

SpaceX launches 60 more mini satellites for global Internet CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida—SpaceX launched 60 mini satellites Monday, the second batch of an orbiting network meant to provide global Internet coverage. The Falcon rocket blasted into the morning sky, marking the unprecedented fourth flight of a booster for SpaceX. The compact flat-panel satellites—just 575 pounds (260 kilograms) each—will join 60 launched in May. SpaceX Founder and Chief Executive Elon Musk wants to put thousands of these Starlink satellites in orbit, to offer high-speed Internet service everywhere. He plans to start service next year in the northern US and Canada, with global coverage for populated areas after 24 launches.

Last month, Musk used an orbiting Starlink satellite to

send a tweet: “Whoa, it worked!!”

Employees gathered at company bases on both coasts cheered when the first-stage booster landed on a floating platform in the Atlantic. “These boosters are designed to be used 10 times. Let’s turn it around for a fifth, guys,” company’s launch commentator said. This also marked the first time SpaceX used a previously flown nose cone. The California-based company reuses rocket parts to cut costs.

Stacked flat inside the top of the rocket, the newest satellites were going to maneuver even higher following liftoff, using krypton-powered thrusters. SpaceX said there was a potential problem with one of the 60 that could prevent it from moving beyond its initial 174 mile-high (280 kilometer-high)

orbit. In that case, the faulty satellite will be commanded to reenter and burn up harmlessly in the atmosphere.

Each satellite has an autonomous system for dodging space junk. In September, however, the European Space Agency had to move one of its satellites out of the way of a Starlink satellite. SpaceX later said it corrected the problem.

SpaceX is among several companies interested in providing broadband Internet coverage worldwide, especially in areas where it costs too much or is unreliable. Others include OneWeb and Jeff Bezos’s Amazon.

According to Musk, Starlink revenue can help SpaceX develop rockets and spacecraft for traveling to Mars, his overriding ambition. AP

/

THE Trump administration has extended for 90 more days a limited reprieve on US technology sales to the Chinese technology giant Huawei. AP

US again extends limited reprieve on tech sales to Huawei

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BY FRANK BAJAK The Associated Press

HE Trump administration has extended for 90 more days a limited reprieve on US technology sales to Huawei.

The US government blacklisted the Chinese tech company in May, deeming it a national security risk. That means US firms aren’t allowed to sell technology to Huawei without government approval. The limited reprieve renewed on Monday applies to technology sales and transfers necessary for existing networks and services to continue to operate. It was not unexpected and represents the second such extension.

Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross said the extension will allow wireless companies to keep offering service in remote parts of the US. Larger US wireless companies do not use equipment from Huawei, while smaller, rural carriers do.

Despite sanctions, numerous loopholes have been exploited. US companies, for example, continue to supply Huawei with chips made outside the United States. Nor do the sanctions bar US telecoms from buying Huawei equipment—though the Federal Communications Commission is moving toward banning federal subsidies for such purchases.

President Donald Trump has sent mixed signals on Huawei, enmeshing it in the trade war between Washington and Beijing, and showing a willingness to use the sanctions as a bargaining chip.

Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer decried that strategy.

“If President Trump and his Commerce Department agree that Huawei is a national security threat, they should start acting like it,” he said in a statement. “Every day President Trump is soft on Huawei, the Chinese Communist Party takes that as a signal that they can continue hurting American jobs and threatening our national security without any

repercussions.”

Earlier this month, Ross told Bloomberg that his agency had received 260 requests for licenses from US companies to be exempt from the so-called entity list sanctions. Ross said “quite a few” would soon be granted. Such an exemption would not be dependent on 90-day renewals.

Huawei is the biggest global maker of network gear for phone and Internet companies and the No. 2 smartphone brand. The company denies US accusations that it is a security risk and might facilitate Chinese spying.

Indeed, US officials have not provided any evidence that Huawei has knowingly assisted Beijing in its cyber espionage operations.

The sanctions’ biggest impact may be on Google’s Android mobile operating system, which Huawei can no longer use in its smartphones.

Huawei has developed its own operating system as a replacement. ■

GRIPS a viable alternative to ERP

BY RIZAL RAOUL S. REYES IN the digital age, it is important for the government to have an integrated resource planning system that can manage all its data toward better governance.

In response, Radenta Technologies recently introduced its Government Resource Integrated Planning System (GRIPS), a resource planning system that is comprehensive, fully customizable and scalable, developed and integrated as it was for the Philippine government.

Radenta President Randall Lozano said GRIPS integrates budget, procurement, contract management, inventory and fixed assets, accounting, HRIS and payroll processes. Its goal is to unify data and make it available at a fingertip, thus providing a more responsive and reliable service to the Filipino people.

Furthermore, he said GRIPS is a viable alternative to the enterprise resource planner (ERP). Being a Third World country, Lozano said Radenta is aware that the Philippines will be a price-sensitive market and clients will look for a cheaper alternative for their digital technology solutions.

Data from www.financesonline.com shows that a resource planning system like GRIPS can reduce operation cost by 11 percent, standardize back office processes by 77 percent and give real-time visibility of data by 48 percent.

GRIPS, which is a cloud-hosted ERP, is cheaper than on-premise solutions by 30 percent. An ERP like GRIPS is normally applied on enterprise and commercial markets.

In a 2018 survey by Panorama Consulting Solutions on “Why Businesses Implement ERP,” respondents cite the

following reasons: to improve business (64 percent), reinforce company growth (57 percent), reduce working capital (57 percent), improve customer service (54 percent) and simplify workload (49 percent).

Radenta is pioneering a trend to take an ERP that has proven its effectiveness for the private sector and customize it for use by the government.

GRIPS will run on Microsoft Dynamics 365. This resource planning system is composed of 8 modules that can be deployed in a cloud platform.

Each module is compliant to the following government regulations: Procurement Module, Republic Act 9184; Budget Module, DBM Budget and Management Reform; Fixed Assets and Inventory Module, Commission on Audit Circular 2015-007; Project Monitoring Module, COA’s Circular 2012-001 or the

Revised Documentary Requirements for Common Government Transactions; Accounting and Finance Module, COA’s Circular 2015-007; the Human Resource Information System Module, Civil Service Commission RA 6713, or The Code of Conduct and Ethical Standards for Public Officials and Employees, and its Implementing Rules and Regulation; and Payroll Module, CSC regulation.

Furthermore, the technology behind GRIPS supports the Philippine government’s Electronic Freedom of Information initiative.

“What is good with GRIPS is that it can easily be adapted to any local and national government system. We believe the government and consequently the Filipino people should benefit from what technology can offer. Radenta has the technology and the expertise to make this happen,” Lozano said.

‘Future Disrupted’ predictions for 2020: Data, automation and IoT to reshape society THE world-leading global technology services provider, NTT Ltd. has announced its Future Disrupted: 2020 Technology Trends predictions.

They’re based on the most critical technology trends companies need to be aware of next year and the steps they need to take to address them. Formed from key insights from its technology experts, the company outlines the trends that will shape the business technology landscape throughout 2020 across six key areas: disruptive technologies, cyber security, workplace, infrastructure, business and technology services. NTT Ltd. CTO Ettienne Reinecke predicts mainstream adoption of disruptive technologies in 2020 will finally see data, automation and Internet of Things (IoT) technologies come together to create connected cities and societies.

The company predicts 2020 will finally see all the hype words of the past decade come together to create completely connected environments that are capable of running themselves autonomously to build more intelligent cities, workplaces and businesses—and on a secure basis. Data, AI and secure by design will be at the heart of this movement, empowering devices to talk to one another and act on that information without human intervention. Smart cities and IoT will become the norm as they improve productivity, growth and innovation across entire regions.

NTT Ltd. is the newly formed company bringing together 40,000 people from across 31 brands— including NTT Communications, Dimension Data and NTT Security—to serve 10,000 clients from around the world. Using the insights gathered from its global client base, NTT Ltd. is able to better understand the future and shape the most effective intelligent technology solutions for its customers.

The Future Disrupted: 2020 Technology Trends looks at the way businesses need to prepare for tomorrow in the next year.

Commenting on the predictions, Reinecke said: “The industry has been talking about different technologies, including the cloud, data, AI and security in different siloes. But 2020 is the year that will change. Next year, we’ll see complete end-to-end computing come to the fore, bringing to life fully intelligent environments that are completely connected and will have a big impact on the world we live in.”

Some of the disruptive technologies from the predictions include: 1. DIGITAL TWINNING: With enough data points, you can model behavior and understand patterns—for example, the diet of someone’s biometric twin—and come to more accurate conclusions (the time it would take before a health incident occurs) more quickly, and at a fraction of the cost of modern-day science.

2. BUILDING TRUST THROUGH DIGITAL INTERACTIONS: Now that AI has evolved, we can move from being purely transactional to having a more relational engagement with customers, applying rules that bring empathy to the interaction and establish trust with the customer.

3. IMMERSIVE, RESPONSIVE ‘PHYGITAL’ SPACES: Where the physical world blending with the digital takes any physical space—a meeting room, office, shop, VIP box in a stadium—and plugs in a limited series of technologies to transform it into a virtual environment that can create any range of experiences.

4. SMART BUILDINGS: These will use IoT to make their inhabitants feel more comfortable— automatically adjusting temperatures to the number of people in them, or lighting to the time of day— while becoming more sustainable, too.

5. ‘DATA WALLETS’: Putting data in the hands of the person who owns it and making it completely secure for them. Nobody can access that data without certain permissions being in place and, if the user is under threat, can be locked down.

To read more about the trends we’ll see in 2020 and beyond, NTT Ltd. has made the data available at a dedicated Future Disrupted page (www.hello.global.ntt).

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Muted launch for Google’s game-streaming service Stadia GRABFOOD CELEBRATES 1ST ANNIVERSARY IN PHL WITH ONLINE FEAST THE leading food delivery platform in Southeast Asia and in the Philippines, GrabFood is celebrating its first anniversary with what it calls the year’s “biggest online feast.” Dubbed as “One Big Handaan,” the service is giving back with a grand online blowout party with treats, such as free supply of GrabFood vouchers for a year, daily merchant deals, happy hour offers and a special P1 delivery fee.

“We are delighted to celebrate our first anniversary milestone with our fellow Filipinos who have chosen GrabFood to be their preferred and most often used food delivery platform,” said GrabFood Head EJ dela Vega. “As a gesture of gratitude, we are introducing an online food feast with a daily dose of treats and surprises that will surely make their GrabFood experience more rewarding.”

Running until December 6, consumers can grab exciting deals and rewards prepared by GrabFood and its partner merchants. More than 200 participating merchants, ranging from crowd favorites among international brands and local chains, will offer various deal types as part of the celebration. These include: ■ PISO DELIVERY SALE. GrabFood eaters will be treated to a two-week long special P1 delivery fee from November 15 to November 28. GrabFood users can enjoy this deal by using the promo code P1HANDAAN with a minimum order of P400 from participating merchants.

■ BLOWOUT OF THE DAY. A surprise merchant will be featured on selected days with a slew of exclusive deals and promotions.

■ GRABFOOD HAPPY HOUR. On certain days during the anniversary campaign, the service will be offering Happy Hour flash deals for several merchant-partners from 2 to 5 pm to further delight consumers with the best food at the best value.

■ GRABFOOD FOR A YEAR. During the campaign period, each transaction with a minimum order of P300 from participating restaurants earns GrabFood users one raffle entry for the chance to win a year’s supply of meals: the “GrabFood for a Year” prize is the equivalent to 15 voucher codes worth P350 each per month. Consolation prizes include GrabFood promo codes that consumers can enjoy at a later stage.

According to market research by Kantar, GrabFood is the No. 1 most often used food delivery platform in the Philippines voted by 76 percent of Filipino online food delivery consumers. With the strong support of consumers, merchants and delivery partners, the service is leading the market with the widest selection of restaurants and biggest operations in the country.

It is the only accredited end-to-end food delivery partner of major quick-service restaurants in the country, and a true partner that enables the growth of small and medium enterprises like Jollijeeps.

“It has been an incredible first year for GrabFood in the Philippines. For 2020 and beyond, we take on the challenge of revolutionizing the food delivery industry in the country by bringing more growth opportunities and introducing new services and food concepts for Filipinos,” added dela Vega.

MICROSOFT COMPETES FOR POPULARITY WITH UPSTART SLACK

SAN FRANCISCO—Microsoft says that its own workplace collaboration service Teams now has more than 20 million daily active users.

That’s 8 million more than what upstart work messaging service Slack boasted of having last month. Microsoft is in a fierce popularity contest with Slack.

Slack, which had its initial public offering in June, was in a federally mandated quiet period when Microsoft first revealed its Teams metrics in early July.

Slack has since gotten louder about downplaying the numbers, saying users are more engaged with its customizable service than “legacy suites of badly connected products”—a thinly veiled swipe at Microsoft.

Microsoft benefits from being able to bundle Teams as part of a software package that includes e-mail and other products. Slack’s shares took a hit after Microsoft’s announcement on Tuesday. AP

N

BY MAE ANDERSON The Associated Press

EW YORK—Google’s new gamestreaming service Stadia demonstrates the possibilities of gaming from the cloud, but experts say it’s hindered by a lack of compelling video games and a convoluted pricing scheme. Piers Harding-Rolls, head of games research at IHS Markit, called Tuesday’s launch more of a public beta test than an actual debut. He said the real test will come next year, when Stadia begins to compete with new video game consoles due out from Sony and Microsoft.

“It is not at the moment a challenger to console companies or PC gaming,” he said. “At this stage, it is really about getting the product into market and into hands of consumers.”

Google can learn from that and fine-tune the service as it grows and competition intensifies, he said. Much like movies and music, the traditional video game industry has been shifting from physical hardware and games to digital downloads and streaming. Such an approach lets gamers play from a variety of devices, picking up where they left off as they switch, without having to buy expensive equipment.

Tech companies, such as Google, are trying to establish a foothold early—even with some kinks— before streaming becomes as established in gaming as Netflix is in video and Spotify in music.

The benefits go beyond subscription revenue.

While Stadia itself won’t have ads. Google will try to tie Stadia with its other services, like YouTube and its digital assistant. Ultimately, as more people use Google services, the company can collect more data on user habits and show more ads targeted to those interests. But these tech companies must compete with gaming stalwarts Sony and Microsoft, both of which have streaming ambitions of their own.

Unlike Google, they also have decades of experience negotiating with game publishers and navigating the gaming industry.

Microsoft’s $10-a-month Xbox Game Pass lets players download more than 100 games on the Xbox console at no additional cost. The company is also working on a streaming service, Project xCloud, though few details are available. Sony’s PlayStation Now, also at $10 a month, or $60 a year, lets users stream or download games on its PlayStation 4 console or a personal computer.

Stadia, on the other hand, isn’t meant for the console. But it requires a PC with Google’s Chrome browser or a Google-made device—a Chromebook laptop, a Chromecast TV streaming device or a Pixel phone. It won’t work with other phones using the company’s Android operating system, or on iPhones, for now. The service will eventually cost $10 a month, but it’s currently available only to those who bought a $130 bundle that includes a three-month subscription.

The service currently offers 22 games—most carrying a separate fee. For example, the adventure game “Red

Dead Redemption 2” starts at $60.

Apple is also getting into the game-subscription business with Apple Arcade. The $5-a-month service lets users download a variety of games to play on iPhones and iPads. Games don’t cost extra. Apple Arcade lets people download games to play offline, but Stadia does not.

Google is competing on this front, too, with a separate subscription called Google Play Pass. The $5-a-month service gives users access to about 350 games and apps on Android devices.

Video game streaming typically requires a strong connection and more computing power than simply streaming video, as there is real-time interaction between player and game. Google says it is tapping its massive data centers to power the system.

From a technological front, Stadia impresses, said Randy Nelson, head of mobile insights at analytic firm Sensor Tower.

But elsewhere, Stadia falls short. He said there is a disconnect between the hard-core gaming audience that Google appears to be targeting, and the few compelling games actually available.

“Gylt,” a fantasy horror adventure game, is the

service’s only new exclusive title. Other games available at launch include “Shadow of the Tomb Raider,” “Mortal Kombat,” “Just Dance 2020” and “Destiny 2”—but all of these are available on other game platforms, too.

“It does seem to be a bit of a bare-bones launch to get this service out the door,” Nelson said. “Hopefully Google will expand it over time.”

Nelson said Google’s approach is odd because it targets hard-core gamers who probably already have a console or PC, as well as many of the games on offer, rather than trying to reach more mainstream or casual users who don’t want to invest a few hundred dollars in a console.

“There’s certainly a missed opportunity here to position Stadia as a gateway to console-style gaming for casual and mobile players,” Nelson said.

Also, consumers might be confused about pricing.

Google sold Founder’s Edition bundles in advance, but is now offering a Premiere Edition bundle for the same price and benefits. Besides a three-month subscription, the bundle offers a Chromecast Ultra streaming device and a controller.

A stand-alone monthly subscription won’t be available until 2020. A free version will also be available then. And while games are sold separately, the price depends on which level of service the gamer has. “It all stacks up to being a bit of a confounding offering from Google,” Nelson said. “They’re likely to struggle a bit initially getting traction due to a bit of misunderstanding part of consumers about what it is offering.”

Google hasn’t disclosed subscription figures, nor have Microsoft and Apple. Sony said PlayStation Now has 1 million subscribers. ■

A partnership that benefits the gaming community CONTINUED FROM A12 Under the agreement, Acer Predator will be the exclusive gaming products in TNC’s upcoming Ground Zero eSports lounges and TNC Premium cafés. “It is an honor and privilege to be partners with the No. 1 gaming machine, Predator. We’ve been in partnership for three years and with this contract signing, we extend our partnership with Acer and Predator,” said Redulfin.

“This partnership hopes to provide the gaming community everything that it needs to become the best, not only in the country, but in the region, as well,” said Ong-Lim. Predator formally opened the Philippine qualifiers for the Predator League 2020 in September 10. The Predator League is one of the largest eSports league in the country, with qualifiers being held nationwide. For the 2020 competition, Predator is

holding 16 regional qualifiers in TNC cybercafés nationwide.

From the regional qualifiers, 16 PUBG teams and four Dota 2 will battle it out in the Grand Finals which will be held on November 30 and December 1.

Winners of the Grand Finals will be the country’s representatives for the Asia Pacific Predator League 2020, which will also be held in the country.

Predator is the first gaming brand to win the Red Dot Award: Brands & Communication Design, which finds the best designed brands and creative projects from designers, agencies and companies around the globe.

A CAMPAIGN THAT’S ALL ABOUT COMPLIMENTS MEANWHILE, Mentos has launched a new packaging for its Mint and Fruit Chewy Dragees. The new packaging— called Mentos Complimentos— features 16 different compliments, such as “You fill me with excite-mint!,”

“You sweeten up my life” and “Your smile is refreshing,” among others.

Mentos wanted to bring the global campaign closer to home by working with celebrities Paulo Avelino and Gabbi Garcia on a social experiment video. The two were seen separately on a small screen posing as static ads at a mall.

They try to get the attention of passersby in the mall and interact with them by paying them compliments.

The social experiment culminates with Paulo and Gabbi revealing they are actually at the mall, and start sharing Mentos CompliMentos rolls to the crowd and more live compliments from everyone around.

“What I learned was that people were shy and embarrassed at first, but they were thrilled to receive compliments and nice comments. They sort of lost their shyness,” said Paulo.

“The compliments served as ways to connect with them. What I saw was

how they were not just flattered, but touched, by the compliments,” said Gabbi.

“Mentos is all about making Fresh Connections and with Mentos CompliMentos, our latest limitededition roll, we wanted to be the enabler or catalyst for these moments through the tangible manifestation of our brand positioning. Compliments don’t need to be made up of big words.

They can be something as simple as ‘You have a nice smile’ or ‘You are kind.’ Mentos came up with this campaign to help people make connections, meet new friends and learn how to accept compliments graciously,” said Denise Opulencia, Mentos brand manager.

“Mentos continues to create fresh connections even on digital through its continued partnership with Shopee,” said Eugen Soriano, digital and e-commerce lead, Perfetti Van Melle Philippines. ■

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

/

PRESENT during the contract signing are (from left) Nvidia Philippines Consumer Sales Lead Jerome Matti, Acer Philippines General Manager Sue Ong-Lim, TNC Group of Cos. Founder and CEO Eric Redulfin, Acer Philippines Managing Director Manuel Wong and TNC VP for Operations Jim Paulo Sy

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A partnership that benefits the gaming community PRIMETIME

DINNA CHAN VASQUEZ @dinnachanvasquez luckydinna@gmail.com

G

AMING is no longer just a niche market.

It is now officially an eSport included as a medal tournament in the Southeast Asian games. Indeed, gamers are athletes who spend hours training and practicing. I once interviewed a team of gamers and was surprised at the

number of hours they devoted to eSports.

Acer, the leading PC brand for 13 consecutive years, has always supported the gaming community through its Predator range of gaming powerhouse desktops and laptops.

Acer Predator recently signed a partnership agreement with TNC, one of the country’s largest gaming group and cyber cafe franchises. The contract signing was held recently at Romulo Café, in Makati City.

Present at the contract signing were Acer Philippines Managing Director Manuel Wong, Acer Philippines General Manager Sue Ong-Lim, TNC Group of Cos. Founder and CEO Eric Redulfin, TNC Vice President for Operations Jim Paulo Sy, and Nvidia Philippines Consumer Sales Lead Jerome Matti.

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In the ad material of Notice of filing of Application for Alien Employment Permits published on November 12, 2019, the Company of Mr. Yang, Jing under MOA CLOUDZONE CORP. should have been read as GM YI XIN HOLDINGS INC. and not as published.

If you have any information / objection to the above mentioned application/s, please communicate with the Regional Director thru Employment Promotion and Workers Welfare (EPWW) Division with Telephone No. 400-6011.

ATTY. SARAH BUENA S. MIRASOL REGIONAL DIRECTOR