“Congratulations to one of my favorite poets, Bob Dylan, on a well-deserved Nobel,” tweeted President Barack Obama, who in 2012 presented the singer-songwriter with a Presidential Medal of Freedom. Dylan, 75, becomes the first musician in the 115-year history of the Nobel to win the prize in literature. He was honored for “having created new poetic expressions within the great American song tradition.” AP
media partner of the year
“I can’t stop thinking about this. It has shaken me to my core in a way that I couldn’t have predicted. So, while I would love nothing more than pretend that this isn’t happening and come out here and do my normal campaign speech, it would be dishonest and disingenuous to just move onto the next thing like this was all a bad dream. This is not something we can ignore.”—Michelle Obama, on Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump’s boast on a 2005 tape about his fame allowing him to “do anything to women.” AP
“My mother praised me when I did something good and then the next moment she would say, ‘Don’t float.’ She put me in a balloon and then pricked it.”—Thai King Bhumibol Adulyadej, in a 1982 interview with the AP about how his mother, a commoner, may have imparted to him some of her down-to-earth ways. AP
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2015 environmental Media Award leadership award 2008
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A broader look at today’s business n
Saturday, October 15, 2016 Vol. 12 No. 3
PALACE LEGAL TEAM SIDES WITH ECON MANAGERS IN NIXING D.A.R. PROPOSAL
Land-conversion ban lobbying intensifies By David Cagahastian
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INSIDE
OurTime BusinessMirror
news@businessmirror.com.ph
11K join SM’s ‘Walk for Life’ to kick off seniors week celebration By Marvyn N. Benaning | Correspondent
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ORE than 11,000 people nationwide joined the kick-off activities in celebration of Elderly Filipino Week spearheaded by SM Foundation and the SM Cares Program on Senior Citizens Affairs on October 3.
The nationwide simultaneous 1-kilometer walk billed as “Walk for Life” started at 5 a.m. in 16 key venues all over the country. In the National Capital Region (NCR), the walk started at SM Mall of Asia. Highlighting the week’s celebration was an exposition-exhibit of golden memorabilia and old possessions of senior citizens to provide a glimpse of their halcyon days, as well as their genteel and gentle past to remind the young about a vanishing civilized lifestyle. Activities also included the Sampung Ulirang Nakatatanda
(SUN) Awards, in recognition of heroes among seniors who made a difference in the lives of many and gave extended exemplary services to their communities. Most of the older heroes were farmers, indigenous people, women and persons with disabilities. Awards rites were held at the DAPA Hall of the Philippines Heart Center. Coinciding with SUN Awards rites was the launch of the National Respect for Centenarians Day, provided for under Rule III of the Implementing Rules and Regulations of Republic Act
10868 (Centenarians Act of 2016), declaring the first Sunday of October as the National Respect for Centenarians Day. SM North Edsa Skydome also hosted “ Talakayan/For um on Elder Abuse and Social Security System [SSS] Pension” to thresh out and present legislative measures on pressing issues of the sector, including elder abuse and the low benefits from SSS. Participating government agencies included the departments of Education, Transportation, Health, Social Welfare and Development, Interior and Local Government, and Finance; the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority, Philippine Information Agency, Government Service Insurance System, Social Security System, Office of Senior Citizens Affairs, Population Commission and Philippine Health Insurance Corp. Also providing resources and manpower for the weeklong celebration were the Coalition on Services for the Elderly, Confederation of Older Persons Association of the Philippines and Federation of Senior Citizens Association of the Philippines.
& Jovee Marie N. dela Cruz
@joveemarie
olitical and ideological leanings have come into play in the proposal to stop land conversions for two years, with the known militant party-list groups criticizing the economic managers for opposing the planned moratorium.
11k join sm’s ‘walk for life’ to kick off seniors week celebration B4 Saturday, October 15, 2016 • Editor: Efleda P. Campos
@davecaga
Continued on A2
‘PUSO NG SAGING’
We believe that an absolute moratorium on land conversion can pose adverse effects on other government projects.” —Evasco’s legal team
Lola Baning de Guzman shows off the banana blossoms she sells in her store in Barangay Tambogan, Pozorrubio,
Pangasinan. LAILA AUSTRIA
2 Indian late bloomers run for the ages By Saurabh Duggal
Hindustan Times, New Delhi/TNS)
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SUPER MARIO
Mang Mario, a 64-year-old porter in the Baguio City public market, pulls his cart loaded with broken-down boxes along the main road of the city’s central business district. LAILA AUSTRIA
Seniors and 6th graders form special bond By Jenn Hall
empathy,” he said. Students are seeing the value in the visits. “Sometimes they’re lonely and they don’t have anybody to visit them,” said Rylee Kanatzar, 11. “So they need people to come and visit them. These people are important to visit.” The school’s Parent-Teacher Association is supporting the project by paying the fees associated with busing the children to the facility. Carriage Square is providing the treats and activity supplies. The pumpkins on Monday were given by Three Rivers Hospice and Fleek’s Market in Wathena, Kansas. Children and residents were partnered at different tables to create a personal connection. “It’s about understanding our
St. Joseph News-Press, Mo./TNS
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UPILS at Oak Grove Elementary School in Missouri and residents from Carriage Square Living and Rehabilitation Center embarked on a new journey Monday. About a dozen sixthgraders stopped by the home to paint pumpkins, decorate cookies, play games and read books. The goal is for a different sixth-grade class at the school to visit once a month. The partnership between the students and the residents fits perfectly with what Michael Otto, principal at Oak Grove, said was a mission to create a community betterment plan. “To help [students] learn respect and
seniors,” Otto said. “The objective is doing activities, getting to know them through pen pals.” Between visits, the students will be encouraged to write letters to those living at Carriage Square. “My grandma was here and we were her very close family and we couldn’t visit her all the time,” said Josh Donaldson, 12. “So I just like that we’re able to visit these people who might not have visitors. I think that’s really cool.” Monday was the first of many future trips. Courtney Hale, director of admissions and marketing at Carriage Square, said the sixth graders will visit once a month for six months, and Carriage Square also will be busing residents to the Oak Grove for special events.
OR most of their lives, they were nonentities, living far away from the spotlight. Now in the last leg of their lives, their brush with global glory has become an inspiration for all. Google Fauja Singh or Mann Kaur and it will provide search results running into six digits—an indication, if one was needed, of their fame. Both the centenarian runners hold the world record in their respective events. Chandigarh’s Mann Kaur, 100, recently hit the headlines by becoming the world’s fastest centenarian during the American Masters Games held in Vancouver and is now eyeing another track to conquer. She aims to represent her country at next year’s World Masters Games—the Olympics of the veterans—in Auckland. On Sunday the great-grandmother will be a special guest at a marathon in Patiala. “After coming from Vancouver, she had fever, which took a toll on her. I almost thought she would not survive. Thankfully, she recovered and all her reports are good. Even her haemoglobin level at this age is 12.4 [women above 18 years have a mean level of 14 grams/deciliter],” said her son Gurdev Singh, 78, who also competes in the masters’ event and has won dozens of medals at national and international levels. “Last week we completed the registration process for the 2017 World Masters Games and will compete in four events: 100m, 200m, Javelin throw and shot put.” Fauja Singh, who was featured with football star David Beckham and boxing legend Muhammad Ali in an adidas advertisement in 2004, holds the world record for the
fastest marathon by a centenarian. In fact, he is the only centenarian in the world to run a marathon in 2011, clocking 8:25:17. Even at 105, Fauja runs 5 miles daily. “For the last 20 years, running has become an integral part of my life. Rather, you can say I am only living to run. The day I stop running, I will die,” said British passport holder Fauja Singh, interacting with HT at his native village Beas in Jalandhar district. He was in India for a short visit. “I love meeting people and when they ask for a photograph with me, I feel really happy. This is my real motivation, which keeps me going.” Mann’s sports journey started at the ripe age of 93. Mann Kaur was introduced to athletics at the age of 93. Before that, she had never taken to running. It took her a further two years to don the track pants for the first time in her life, in the 32nd national masters meet. She won gold in the 100m and 200m races in the 90+ age category. It was while participating in the World Masters in Canad a in 2008 when her son Gurdev saw a 90-year-old woman competing in the 100m. That moment changed everything. “I was hesitant at first, when the idea of stepping into the competitive arena was thrown at me. Later on, I started enjoying running,” said Mann Kaur, who had worked as a caretaker to the queens of Maharaja of Patiala, Bhupinder Singh, before Independence. Mann, whose grandchildren are settled abroad, got her passport made only in 2011, when she was picked to represent the country in the World Masters Athletics Championships at Sacramento, California, US. There she won gold with new world records in 100m
and 200m races and was adjudged Athlete of the Year. To date, she has competed in five international meets and won 17 medals, all gold. The secret of her good health? “Start the day with a glass of kefir and have chappatis made of sprouted wheat. No place for fried food.” Nicknamed Turbaned Tornado because of his running feats, Fauja Singh ran the first marathon of his life at the age of 89, during the London Marathon in 2000. He hogged the limelight, when at 93 he completed the race in six hours, 54 minutes, almost an hour faster than the previous record in the 90plus category. “It was a family tragedy that introduced me to running and later to marathon. My son Kuldeep died in 1994 and I couldn’t come to terms with the loss. I almost lost my mind. The villagers suggested to my family to take me away from here or, otherwise, I would die. Finally I came to England in 1995,” Fauja recalled. “Because of the cultural gap, initially I found it really difficult to adjust. So, most of time I used to go for long walks. One day I met some elderly people, who told me about a charity run, and that made me to start running.” “Later, I came in touch with Coach Harminder Singh who introduced me to the world of marathons,” added Fauja, who has run eight marathons, the last in 2011 in Toronto. “If not a full marathon, I can run at least a halfmarathon now. But my coach has stopped me from participating in competitive events. But my day never ends without running 5 to 7 kilometers,” saidFauja, whose secret of good health is eating less and trying not to criticize anybody.
Our time
Honda’s hot, new Ridgeline is pickup truck for grownups H ERE’S something you will probably never hear at the local Home Depot: “I just want a pickup that’s more like a boring sedan.” Trucks trade in toughness. At least, that’s what decades of Detroit marketing have told us. They are supposed to be larger and more capable than one could ever require—like
a Super Wal-Mart or The Rock. It’s the American way, and pickups are still a uniquely American thing. (The government changed the tax code 50 years ago to make it stay that way). Yet, Honda Motor Co. has just started selling an all-new Ridgeline pickup that seems like the love-child of an F-150 and an Accord. It’s more
unassuming—shorter and squatter— than any other pickup on the market. Its grill isn’t an exercise in maximum chrome. And it’s a drama-free pleasure to drive, which is hard to say about anything with a cargo bed. After just three months, it’s selling like crazy. Critically, the body and chassis are baked together on the Ridgeline,
rather than bolted onto one another like those of every pickup made since Prohibition. The so-called body-onframe construction of a traditional pickup tends to deaden rough terrain, but it also detaches the driver from the regular road, with the vehicle leaning and lurching and swaying. Consequently, driving a contem-
porary pickup is not unlike talking to a weightlifter at your gym: Both constantly remind you how much they like working out. The Ridgeline doesn’t do this. It drives like a car—like a swollen Accord, to be precise. This, more than anything else, sets it apart. Bill Visnic, editorial director of the Society of Automotive Engineers,
said this is one of the few pickups he would feel comfortable driving up to the front of a fancy restaurant. “The Ridgeline does everything a casual driver needs and appears to be a little more mature approach to selling someone a truck,” he said. “Full-sized pickups these days are almost laughably over-engineered.” Bloomberg News
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thailand mourns king’s DEATH The World BusinessMirror
www.businessmirror.com.ph
t’s not as catchy as BrICs (Brazil, russia, India, China and south Africa) and wasn’t coined by a goldman sachs economist. But as leaders of the world’s largest emerging markets gather in India for the eighth annual BrICs summit, New Delhi is trying to emphasize a shift in its foreign policy toward friendlier eastern neighbors and focus on another regional grouping: Bay of Bengal Initiative for multisectoral technical and economic Cooperation (Bimstec). the obscure acronym includes India, Bangladesh, Nepal, Bhutan, sri lanka, myanmar and thailand. the grouping is notable mainly for who it excludes: India’s nuclear arch-rival Pakistan. As Prime minister Narendra modi hosts the BrICs leaders in the coastal Indian state of goa on october 15 and16, he has invited Bimstec leaders—including myanmar’s Aung san suu Kyi—for a parallel“outreach”meeting observers say is symbolic. Although BrICs economies are far larger, rising tensions with Islamabad, geopolitical rivalr y with China and the realities of geography have New Delhi looking toward the fast-growing economies of southeast Asia, where even small infrastructure investments could lead to increased trade ties. “we are giving it a lot of importance,” Preeti saran, a senior diplomat at India’s foreign ministry, told reporters in New Delhi on october 7.
Thailand mourns king’s death
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uthorities declared a public holiday on Friday as Thais mourned the death of King Bhumibol Adulyadej, though the nation’s stocks and currency recovered from recent losses as markets stayed open for trading.
Bhumibol, 88, passed away on Thursday at Bangkok’s Siriraj Hospital, marking the end of a sevendecade reign that saw Thailand transition from an agrarian backwater to Southeast Asia’s secondbiggest economy. His only son Crown Prince Maha Vajiralongkorn, 64, requested a delay in taking the throne to mourn his father along with other Thais, according to Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-Ocha. “ The crown prince realizes his job as heir,” Prayuth told reporters in Bangkok on Thursday night. “He will continue to do his duties as crown prince, and hopes people will understand and not incite unrest.” Vajiralongkorn doesn’t have the same adulation among the population as Bhumibol, a symbol of unity in a country rocked by 10 coups since he took the throne in 1946. In recent years, the deceased monarch had made limited public appearances while spending most of his time in the hospital. Thailand’s baht and equities recovered on Friday after falling earlier this week as Bhumibol’s health deteriorated. Prayuth called on the nation to avoid “joyful events” for 30 days, to dress in mourning for a year and pray for the king’s soul to protect the nation. “It’s a great loss to the Thai people,” Prayuth said in a TV broadcast on Thursday. He concluded the eight-minute address with: “Long live the new king.” The mood on the streets of Bangkok was somber on Friday, as a sea of people dressed in black made their way to work before the government announced the public holiday. Commuters stood silently on a SkyTrain that runs through the city, with normally blaring TV advertisements turned off. Vajiralongkorn will go to Siriraj Hospital at 3:30 p.m. to oversee the transfer of Bhumibol’s body to the Grand Palace, according to a state-
70
The number of years of King Bhumibol Adulyadej’s reign
ment from the crown prince’s office. Bathing rites will take place this evening, it said. Thailand’s national broadcasting regulator banned entertainment programs for 30 days and warned television and radio to follow palace protocol in airing news about the king’s death. Programming on every channel was replaced by documentaries about the king’s life, a measure that will continue “until further notice,” according to the regulator. Many Thais began changing their Facebook profile photos to a black box. Thailand’s economic recovery had gained momentum in recent months, with consumer confidence rising to a seven-month high in September. Tourism accounts for about 10 percent of GDP. William Heinecke, COE of Minor International Pcl.—which owns the Four Seasons, Saint Regis, Marriott and Anantara hotel chains in Thailand—said he doesn’t anticipate any impact on his business as the mourning period would be “one of the most incredible times” to visit the country. Bhumibol was a personal investor in the company. “When you lose a leader such as this, a country is often seen as in crisis,” Heinecke told Bloomberg Television. “Personally, I believe, like every crisis Thailand has faced in the last hundreds of years, that it will come out of this stronger than ever before.” Condolences poured in from around the globe. The king was a
“close friend” of the US, President Barack Obama said in a statement. Singapore’s foreign ministry called him an “outstanding and deeply revered monarch,” while Indonesian President Joko Widodo said “the world has lost a leader who was close to the people, the bearer of peace and unity, and welfare to the people of Thailand.” Under Thailand’s constitutional monarchy, the king is head of state while the prime minister and parliament govern. All legislation requires his seal of approval. According to the Constitution, when the throne is vacant the Privy Council president serves as regent until a new king is proclaimed. Former Prime Minister and Army chief Prem Tinsulanonda, 96, has led the royal advisory council since 1998. Public discussion of Bhumibol and his political role is curbed under lese majeste laws that can be invoked for defaming, insulting or threatening the king, queen, heir apparent or regent. Offenders face up to 15 years in prison, and the military-run government has recently stepped up arrests to curb posts about the royal family on social media. The king was repeatedly hospitalized over the past decade, and had been treated in recent months for hydrocephalus, a condition characterized by increased fluid in the cranium. In an October 9 statement, the royal palace said his overall condition was unstable. On October 1 the palace had said the monarch’s condition had improved following a lung infection. Prayuth became leader following a May 2014 coup that deposed the government of Yingluck Shinawatra, whose brother Thaksin Shinawatra was ousted by the military in 2006 and now lives in exile. Thaksin and his allies have won the past five elections in Thailand dating back to 2001, with his opponents taking power periodically after interventions by the military or courts. “I’m worried about our country,” said Wasin Tiangtam, 18, a public administration student at Suan Dusit University in Bangkok who was among the thousands at Siriraj Hospital mourning the king’s death. “Our country became so divisive with so many quarrels even when he was alive. What will happen now that he is no longer [here]?” Bloomberg News
the BrICs grouping—which has its roots in a 2001 goldman sachs research report—is still important for India, even if enthusiasm for the grouping has been waning. the ongoing tensions between India and Pakistan are likely to figure prominently when modi meets his counterparts on the sidelines of the summit as New Delhi continues to spearhead efforts to isolate Islamabad diplomatically. Bloomberg News
world
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POSTHUMOUS AWARD FROM CMMA A highlight of the 38th Catholic Mass Media Awards (CMMA) for 2016 was the presentation of a Special Posthumous Award to Ambassador Antonio L. Cabangon Chua, chairman and president of the awards-giving body for almost 17 years, for his vigorous support of values-oriented mass media. The award was received by J. Wilfredo A. Cabangon (third from left), eldest son of the late Ambassador and chairman of the board of Fortune Medicare Inc., an affiliate in the ALC Group of Companies that the late Ambassador founded. The award was given by Luis Antonio G. Cardinal Tagle (fourth from left), archbishop of Manila and honorary chairman of the CMMA; and Msgr. Arnaldo Catalan (right), counselor at the Apostolic Nunciature in the Philippines. With them are Fr. Rufino D. Sescon Jr. (left), CMMA executive director; and J. Antonio A. Cabangon Jr., CMMA trustee and chairman of Fortune General Insurance Corp., another ALC Group member-company. ROY DOMINGO
The Millennials
PHL spends ₧7B a year to import coffee 70,000 MT
BusinessMirror
Shared WorKSpaCeS hIT The IndIan STarT-Up SCene
Saturday, October 15, 2016
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By Rishabh Jain | The Associated Press
EW DELHI—Every weekend, the partiers flood into a New Delhi restaurant and dance club called Social, a three-story destination on the edge of Hauz Khas Village, one of the city’s most popular nightlife neighborhoods.
vices Cos., or Nasscom, an Indian industry research company. Foreign-based investors are opening their coffers, and now comprise most of the money being pumped into Indian start-ups, Nasscom says. Funding for Indian start-ups is growing at more than 125 percent a year, with an additional $700 million estimated to be invested before February 2017, according to a 2016 report by InnoVen Capital, an Asian venture capital firm.
After nightfall, the bar is busy and the dance floor is full. The lines regularly stretch out into the street. The dancing goes on until 1 a.m. But just a few hours later, the watering hole will be clean, the tables will be cleared of silverware and plates, and the nightclub will have been transformed into a cozy office where no one gets fired for drinking at work. Everyone shares desks at Social: photographers, designers, journalists, software programmers. They bounce ideas off one another, hire one another and collaborate to expand their businesses. Everyone is either a freelancer or working for a small start-up. As India emerges as one of the biggest markets in the world for tech-based start-ups, workspaces are transforming from traditional and hierarchical to relaxed and bar-like. “It’s the millennial personality,” says 29-year-old Dinsa Sachan, a
RIYAAZ AMlANI, the owner of Social and a powerful force in the changing Indian restaurant scene, said he noticed a demand for cheap office space in prime New Delhi locations and decided on a fluid concept for his restaurants. There are now 14 Social outlets across India, all of them also coworking spaces. “Increasingly, offices started becoming more like cafés, right? Google, Yahoo!, Facebook, Twitter,” the 41-year-old says. “If you get into a traditional office environment, you know, it’s all very cut-and-dried. It’s all very hierarchal. Your importance is measured by the amount of square-foot” your office has. The coworking spaces are also very young places. Most Indian start-ups are created by people under age 28 who often cannot afford skyrocketing rents in big-city office districts. Membership fees at most Indian shared offices are usually less than
freelance journalist who works out of Social. “People don’t want to bow down to random bosses in their offices. They are seeking more meaningful work. So, I think coworking spaces are like a melting pot for individuals like these.”
Tech firms
THE first coworking offices began springing up in India about three years ago. Today, there are at least a dozen in New Delhi—though Social is the only one that also functions as a restaurant—with similar numbers in Mumbai, Bangalore and Hyderabad, where most Indian start-ups are based. With more than 4,200 new technology companies, mostly phone apps or web sites, by the end of last year, India now has the third-largest start-up industry in the world, behind the United States and United Kingdom, according to The National Association of Software and Ser-
Under 28
$100 per month. They also come with free access to networking events, investors’ conferences and even parties. At Social, members also get lockers, free Internet and can redeem their monthly fees for food and drinks.
Free flow
RISHI JAlAN, a 25-year-old who started a sports management company for student athletes two years ago, said the free flow of ideas and inspiration is one of the top reasons people choose to work at a shared office space. “I know so many of my friends who actually went to a coworking space and found their cofounders,” the Cornell University graduate says. “Everyone, I feel, in these kind of coworking spaces in Delhi, is a guy who’s motivated. First, because you have to do that if you’re an entrepreneur. And second, they’re all ready to share their ideas.” like Jalan, many young Indians are moving away from traditional low-paying, entry-level jobs and want to do something of their own. “In my day, we didn’t have this opportunity available to us,” says Amlani, the Social owner. “Our heroes were rebels and rock-androllers, and the millennials’ heroes are people like Mark Zuckerberg and Elon Musk and people who want to change the world with an app,” he said. “They’re blazing their own trail. And that’s amazing. And we’re just happy to facilitate it in a very small way.”
ShabbaT, MIllennIal STyle By Nancy A. Simon Chicago Tribune/TNS
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HICAGO—As the sun began to set on a recent Friday evening, more than 25 millennial-age guests gathered at the lakeview apartment of brothers Adam, 25, and Andrew Kouba, 27, to partake in a communal welcomingin of the Jewish Sabbath. The group greeted guests with hugs and kisses and “Happy Shabbat’s.” At sundown, they moved into the dining area to read Hebrew prayers for light, wine and bread (challah). Raised in a reformed Jewish household in Illinois’s Western Springs before attending college in Pennsylvania and moving to Chi-
cago, Adam Kouba recounted how friends helped rekindle his interest in the religion. “I consider myself more culturally Jewish than religious, but because I appreciate the social aspect of Judaism, I look for opportunities to connect and build community.” Following the “formalized” part of the evening, folks descended on the kitchen for a buffet-style pasta bar dinner featuring gluten-free noodles and a variety of toppings. A departure from the more standard Shabbat fare of roasted chicken, brisket and noodle kugel, the Koubas’ offering paid homage to the hosts’ individuality while reflecting a modern version of a centuries-old religious practice.
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8 WayS To develop The ‘ConIo’ STyle By Rizal Raoul Reyes @brownindio
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P against the “athleisure” and rave party trends, millennials might wonder if there’s still space in the fashion horizon for the classic and preppy look. Thanks to the partnership formed among Sperry, Saucony, Skechers and Pony, millennials now have an opportunity to acquire the conio look that has been dominated by “the dudes” belonging to high society. “Whatever the season, it’s a look you want in on, and with how good these guys look, there’s no question why,” a statement on the partnership said. Urban Dictionary defines conio as a term used to describe spoiled rich kids who often mix their English and Tagalog. To get the much-wanted conio look, the four brands collaborated and developed eight tips for the Filipino male millennials. Wear boat shoes. As an integral part of the preppy uniform, boat shoes, which became popular in the mid-1980s to early 1990s in the Philippines, are now worn far beyond the yacht clubs, where they first proliferated. This should be complemented by wearing a pair of slim-fit jeans or straight-cut pants. This combination will make a rather casual ensemble look more polished. Go for modest colors. Millennials are urged to wear pieces in grays and blacks. The typical conio would wear plain clothes in these understated hues. A black top paired with black pants is a good start. They can also try an all-gray outfit but in different shades. Seal the deal in minimalist outfits like these by looking for a versatile
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In this August 30 photo, members having beer at Social Offline, a bar-cum-café that has a lax coworking space, as well, in new Delhi, India. As India emerges as one of the biggest markets in the world for tech-based start-ups, workspaces are transforming from traditional and hierarchal to relaxed and bar-like. aP
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pair that features two neutral colors, like leather or black sneakers. Keep it crisp and clean. You can acquire a clean look easily with a white button down or a plain white shirt—two of the most common must-haves in every conio guy’s arsenal. Finish off the plain look with a dash of color in your shoes Cuff it up. Nail the laidback yet put-together short-sleeved shirt and shorts ensemble by cuffing the hemlines. Folding your jeans’ once or twice makes for a very relaxed style statement, too. Cuffed jeans or shorts call for fail-proof trainers. Try skimming bottoms. Wear snug ankle-grazing pants with a simple shirt or pair slim-fit shorts with a muscle tee. Balance out these millennial-inspired outfits with shoes that have become an iconic brand. Keep accessories minimal. Millennials must focus on quality over quantity where an accent piece can make the outfit. A snapback makes for a casual vibe, while a nice metal watch adds polish. The right accessories will add character to a simple shirt and ripped jeans combo or shirt plus cut-offs look. Master the tuck. Tucked-in tops for an everyday ensemble are cool for conios. They select tops with a good fit. So if you’re thinking of tucking in a baggy button down, think again. Go for timeless pieces. Wearing the classics is also for the millennials. Striped long-sleeve tees, plain sweaters, dark jeans and all-white sneakers are classics and will make them look polished without even trying. These outfits are best paired with classic and versatile white shoes.
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AnDrew KOubA (left) makes pasta for Shabbat, wine and Canvas while his brother Adam Kouba, talks with elana Horowitz. The food was all vegetarian and included gluten-free options. taylor
Glascock/chicaGo tribunE/tns
IN a second break from tradition, whereby no work or physical exertion is supposed to occur on the Sabbath, and following the evening’s theme— Shabbat, Wine and Canvas—Adam
Kouba’s after-dinner activity featured painting on canvases. Adam Koubas partnered with two national nonprofit organizations: One Table, helped with food, and Moishe House, donated art supplies.
By Manuel T. Cayon | Mindanao Bureau Chief @awimailbox
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I’m a millennial: here’s why I don’t have Internet (at home) By Randi Stevenson Chicago Tribune/TNS
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HICAGO—living without cable has become the norm in my group of friends. It’s an unnecessary expense, requires hideous cords and you can stream practically everything online anyway. But my boyfriend and I aren’t online. We don’t have Internet. This has never been a hardheaded, deliberate choice or some sort of social stand. It just kind of happened. I had Internet for a while after college, but streaming hadn’t really taken off in 2010, and I never used it for much else. So when I moved to my own place in Chicago in 2013, it just never crossed my mind. My boyfriend didn’t have it at his old place either. So, like two peas in a prehistoric pod, we didn’t get Internet when we moved in together. To be clear, we have a TV that gets old-school antenna channels. I’m a documentary superfan, and he loves Seinfeld reruns. We both have smartphones, so we can check the Cubs score, work e-mail or Mariah Carey’s Instagram account when needed. If we’re feeling crazy, we’ll even rent a movie from Redbox. We’re not exactly living in the Dark Ages. But that’s not enough for people. Tell someone you don’t have internet, and a barrage of questions follows. “How do you watch shows? How did you start dating without ‘Netflix and chill?’ What do you even do all day?!” Well, our shows usually consist of whatever is on PBS. We had our first date at a bar. And we live our lives. Not in a pretentious, hipster sort of way—in a normal, average, hang out and eat sandwiches sort of way. We bike along the lakefront. We play Frisbee. We throw beers in a backpack and walk through
ElEna ElissEEva/DrEamstimE
lincoln Park. We split a sandwich somewhere. We talk about our days, about our workouts (cringe, judge, I know). I tell him I’m nervous but excited about my brother moving to New York. He tells me it will give us an excuse to visit—and that we should split another sandwich. Then we walk home on a different route. We snuggle into our respective Ikea couches, maybe tune into “Chicago Tonight” and hit the hay. When he’s alone, he bikes even more often. When I’m alone, I Rollerblade, read books about Vietnam or organize something that I’ve already organized a dozen times. We live our lives. According to the Census Bureau, 74.4 percent of US households were connected to the internet, as of 2013. Another recent study found that nearly half of US consumers subscribe to a streaming service, and people 14 to 25 value that service more than paid-for TV. So we’re definitely in the minority. I couldn’t find a single study that explored whether or not having internet at home was “good” or “bad,” but a girl can dream... Cue the 500 studies that show walking helps you live longer. Or that watching TV increases your risk of Type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease. And don’t forget the bohemian souls who think electronic waves cause cancer—a theory I don’t buy into but get a chuckle from, regardless.
The Millennials Intentions
In this July 27, 1966, file photo, Thailand’s King Bhumibol Adulyadej (right) walks with Queen Sirikit and their 13-year-old son, Crown Prince Vajiralongkorn, through the gardens of their residence at Sunninghill, Berkshire, where they are staying during their private visit to Britain. Below, Crown Prince Vajiralongkorn at the royal plowing ceremony in Bangkok on May 9, 2016. AP/Harris/ Sakchai Lalit
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r o w n Pr i n c e Maha Vajiralongkorn has been anointed Thailand’s next monarch following his father’s death, an elevation that would see him become the 10th king in the Chakri Dynasty and inherit control of a fortune that runs to the tens of billions. The sole son of King Bhumibol Adulyadej, who died on Thursday at 88, Vajiralongkorn would replace the only monarch most Thais alive today have known. While his father was beloved over the course of his seven decades on the throne, Vajiralongkorn, 64, has not attracted the same adulation.
Corn producers see yield beating growth forecast
BRICS
the move reflects modi’s “neighborhoodfirst” policy to boost south Asian prosperity by uniting the region’s disjointed economies with infrastructure links. India has long had a “look east” policy. After modi took power, he changed it to “Act east.” Bimstec, which was founded in 1997, is far from a new grouping. It is not even the
shared workspaces hit the indian start-up scene news.businessmirror@gmail.com
Thai Prince Awaits Crown, Groomed Since Birth for Throne
See “Thai Prince,” A2
most prominent multilateral group in the region—a title that arguably belongs to the south Asian Association for regional Cooperation (sAArC), which includes Pakistan and Afghanistan. modi had previously pushed to prioritize regional economic integration in south Asia, a region the world Bank says will have 7.3-percent gDP growth in 2017. however, tensions are running high after militants killed 19 Indian soldiers in Kashmir and India retaliated after blaming Pakistan. New Delhi led other nations in a boycott of a planned sAArC summit in November. that led to the meeting’s cancellation. “sAArC is pretty much dead now,” said Constantino Xavier, an associate with the Carnegie endowment for International Peace India, a think-tank. “You need to work on regional cooperation and integration through different” venues. with India’s goal of deeper regional economic integration through sAArC effectively on hold due to disagreements with Pakistan, New Delhi is looking to rejuvenate the long-ignored Bimstec as the organization approaches its 20th anniversary. “that is a very auspicious time for it to rejuvenate and reinvigorate itself,” saran said, “what is very positive about this grouping is one, that there are a lot of commonalities, and second, that there are no issues. “
‘Reinvigorate’ grouping
PeoPle cry outside Siriraj Hospital when they learned of King Bhumibol Adulyadej’s demise. BloomBerg News
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AVAO CITY—The Philippines shells out P7 billion a year to import coffee and plug the shortfall in domestic production, according to an official of the Cavite State University (CSU). Dr. Alejandro C. Mojica, CSU vice president for research and development,
PESO exchange rates n US 48.4730
The volume of coffee beans that the Philippines imports annually said local governments should provide more support to coffee farmers so they can meet the increasing requirement of
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By Jasper Emmanuel Y. Arcalas
@jearcalas
Filipinos for coffee. “We need a boost. We need to improve farm-production practice,” Mojica told participants of a three-day national coffee summit, which kicked off here on Wednesday. He noted that the Philippines imports an average of 70,000 metric tons (MT) of coffee beans at P100 per kilogram. This is because local coffee production remains unable to meet the national
he Philippines may exceed the forecast corn production for the remaining months of the year despite huge losses incurred by farmers due to El Niño, a group of corn farmers said. The Philippine Maize Federation Inc. (PhilMaize) said the current climate and soil conditions in the country and usage of high-yielding corn varieties recently approved by the government would offset the low production from the regions still recovering from the effects of the prolonged dry spell. “I’m optimistic that we can hit the growth forecast. Maybe we can even exceed [the forecast production] with the conditions right now, especially that there’s no forecast drought,” PhilMaize President Roger V. Navarro told the BusinessMirror. Navarro noted that all the corn-producing regions will produce higher volume due to favorable climate conditions during the next cropping season, except for the Isabela region. “We have a forecast shortfall in Region 2, especially in Isabela province, because of the effect of the prolonged drought,” Navarro said, adding that the forecast is yet to be validated by concerned officials.
See “Coffee,” A2
See “Corn,” A2
n japan 0.4675 n UK 59.4231 n HK 6.2496 n CHINA 7.2073 n singapore 35.0999 n australia 36.6844 n EU 53.5966 n SAUDI arabia 12.9237
Source: BSP (14 October 2016 )
News BusinessMirror
A2 Saturday, October 15, 2016
www.businessmirror.com.ph
Land-conversion ban lobbying intensifies Continued from A1
The Cabinet economic cluster, however, appears to have the upper hand, with the legal team of Cabinet Secretary Leoncio B. Evasco Jr., who is tasked to coordinate the Duterte administration’s antipoverty programs, recommending against the total ban on land-use conversion of agricultural lands proposed by the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR). Currently, members of the Duterte administration’s economic managers continue to lobby against the proposal of Agrarian Reform Secretary Rafael V. Mariano, one of the Cabinet officials who came from the ranks of leftist groups. Mariano said his proposal would allow the country to finally achieve food security. Evasco’s recommendation for or against the proposed total ban is expected to carry a heavy weight, him being the Cabinet official tasked by President Duterte in his Executive Order (EO) 1 to coordinate the government’s antipoverty programs. In the recommendation issued by Undersecretary Halmen A. Valdez of the Office of the Cabinet Assistance System, the legal team of the Office of the Cabinet Secretary opposed the DAR’s proposal for a two-year total ban on land-use conversion of agricultural lands for other purposes. “While we support enforcement of stringent measures to preserve our agricultural lands to ensure our food security, we believe that an absolute moratorium on land conversion can pose adverse effects on other government projects,” the recommendation
Corn. . .
Continued from A1
In its August round of forecast for crop production, the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) has lowered its projection for the country’s corn production in the third quarter of the year to 2.673 million metric tons (MMT ) from the 2.696 MMT it forecast earlier in July. However, the agency’s new forecast is still higher than last year’s production in the same period of 2.407 MMT by 11 percent. “The probable drop in corn output could be attributed to contraction in harvest area brought about by dry spell in Cagayan and Isabela,” the PSA report said. Based on farmers’ planting intentions, the PSA said the corn production in the fourth quarter of the year will increase by 4.78 percent, from 1.73 MMT in 2015 to 1.81 MMT. For the second half of the year, the PSA said corn production will expand by 8.98 percent. “Probable increases in harvest areas and yields may be attributed to more plantings with anticipation of rainfall and availability of seeds,” the PSA report said. The country ’s corn production in the first half declined by 16.35 percent to 2.83 MMT, from 3.38
letter, a copy of which was obtained by the BusinessMirror, said. “This proposal [for a total ban on landuse conversion] can be counterproductive. It might pose as hindrance to the infrastructure projects of different government agencies. The plan to make President Duterte’s term as the Golden Age of Philippine Infrastructure will be difficult to realize,” the letter said. Earlier, National Economic and Development Authority (Neda) Director General Ernesto M. Pernia lobbied for the support of the other members of the economic team to block the Mariano-proposed EO, which will impose the two-year moratorium on land-use conversion. But militant farmer groups, led by Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP), which used to be chaired by Mariano before he was appointed to the top post at the DAR, pointed out that the moratorium is already a done deal, with Mr. Duterte himself having approved it in a meeting of the Presidential Agrarian Reform Council (PARC) in September. In the latest statement issued by the DAR, Mariano reiterated that PARC, which was convened for the first time in more than 10 years last month after being put in the freezer by former President Benigno S. Aquino during his term, had already approved the two-year moratorium on the conversion of agricultural lands and that an EO to put into effect such approval is in the offing. But the legal team of the Office of the Cabinet Secretary is siding with Pernia
MMT recorded a year ago. “We are hoping that the planting intentions will not drop given the case in Isabela. We’re hoping that the farmers in Isabela will not be discouraged from farming again,” Navarro said. The provincial government of Isabela has been under the state of calamity after its Sangguniang Panlalawigan assessed that the dry spell has caused the province some P1 billion worth of damage on corn and palay. Isabela’s agriculture office has called on the Department of Agriculture (DA) to help the farmers by providing at least P200 million worth of fuel and corn seeds. The latest cropping season for corn started in September and may last until early January, according to the DFAs Agriculture and Fisheries Market Information System.
Bt corn permits
Navarro also said the release of permits allowing corn farmers to use and plant the high-yielding Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) MON89034 and NK603 corn varieties would boost the farmer’s yield throughout the cropping season. “Yes, we are going to use those varities already and it will boost our production in hitting the target,” Navarro said. “There are regions wherein a cer-
on the issue, citing Neda’s findings that a total ban on land-use conversion of agricultural lands will worsen the housing backlog of an estimated 5.5 million houses, of which some 1.4 million is for socialized housing. “We reiterate that absolute ban on land conversion is not the answer. We recommend that in the drafting of the proposed EO, provisions providing for exemptions will be included, particularly lands which are no longer suitable for agricultural purpose, which will be used in government projects, such as infrastructure or housing projects,” the legal team’s recommendation said. “A mechanism may also be included to allow parties to seek exemption from the ban and a mechanism which empowers real parties in interest to question any exemption given to a party or project,” the recommendation read. Militants lawmakers, meanwhile, criticized the positon of the economic managers opposing the two-year ban on land conversion. This is after Vice President Maria Leonor G. Robredo, Budget Secretary Benjamin E. Diokno, Finance Secretary Carlos G. Dominguez III, Trade Secretary Ramon M. Lopez and Pernia submitted a position paper to Malacañang asking President Duterte not to endorse the moratorium on land conversion. Gabriela Rep. Arlene Brosas said she’s supporting the land-conversion moratorium being espoused by the DAR as part of the Duterte administration’s program to ensure food security.
tain variety of seed is not applicable or comfortable to the planting area. Given the approval of these varieties, our farmers now have a wider choice on seeds,” he added. The MON89304 and NK603 cornseed varieties are resistant to corn borers, cutworm and earworm that infest corn plants during the rainy season. These are preferred by farmers, Navarro said. The Bureau Plant of Industry (BPI), an attached agency of the DA, has approved the permit for propagation of the MON89304 and NK603 corn-seed varieties on September 30. The said Bt corn varieties passed the assessment of six different concerned agencies—as stated under the guidelines of Joint Department Circular (JDC) S2016—regarding the varieties’ health, environmental and socioeconomic implications. The assessors for MON98034 x NK603 corn varieties are BPI’s Scientific and Technical Review Panel, to evaluate the applicant’s submitted risk-assessment report; the Department of Environmental and Natural Resources (DENR), to determine the varieties’ effect on the environment; the Department on Health (DOH), to determine the varieties’ impact on environmental health; Insect Resistance Management Team (Irmat), to review and evaluate the application for any IRM related concerns
“Continuing land conversion will only benefit big real-estate businesses that led the conversion of rice fields and agricultural lands into subdivisions, resorts and golf courses. The land-conversion moratorium is right on track if, indeed, we are bent on achieving food security in the coming years,” Brosas said. “As VP Robredo uses the homeless as an excuse, it becomes obvious that she has entirely missed the point. It was massive land conversion that has evicted millions of farmers from agricultural lands and, in the absence of livelihood, forced them to exodus into congested urban-poor communities,” Brosas added. She said the housing projects that the Housing and Urban Development Coordinating Council, headed by Robredo, have been building are in partnership with realestate developers. “In fact, government housing projects uproot yet again poor families from their livelihood, forcing them to live in projects far from their sources of income while collecting unaffordable amortizations,” she added. For his part, Party-list Rep. Ariel Casilao of Anakpawis said the position of economic managers runs counter to the policy direction of the DAR, which was approved by President Duterte during the PARC meeting last month. “The Neda is actually contradicting the progressive direction of the Duterte administration. The opposition on the two-year ban on land conversion is a spoiler and a slap in the faces of poor, landless farmers,
and issues; Fertilizer and Pesticide Authority (FPA), to determine if the applicant is duly licensed pesticide handler and follows good agricultural practices; and another expert to assess the varieties’ socioeconomic, ethical and cultural (SEC) effects. “After reviewing the documents submitted by the applicant, the two members of the STRP find scientific evidence that the regulated article applied for commercial propagation has no evidence of interaction on the resulting gene products, while the DOH, DENR, Irmat and SEC expert recommended for the issuance of Biosafety Permit for corn MON89034 x NK603,” according to the consolidated report released by the BPI biotechnology office. “On the other hand, FPA found that Monsanto Philippines Inc. is a duly licensed pesticide importer, exporter, indentor and national distributor of agricultural pesticides,” the report added. Five government agencies, including the DA, the DOH and the DENR, issued Joint Department Circular 1 in March to replace Administrative Order (AO) 8, which governed the propagation and importation of genetically modified crops. The Supreme Court nullified AO 8 in December 2015, when it ruled against the field testing of Bt eggplant.
Thai prince. . . Continued from A1
Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-Ocha said on Thursday Bhumibol had chosen his successor in accordance with the constitution—a reference to Vajiralongkorn. Even so, Prayuth later said Vajiralongkorn requested a delay in proclaiming him king to give Thais time to mourn his father. He also urged people not to use the transition as a pretext to incite unrest, Prayuth said. Vajiralongkorn, who is the father of seven children and has been married three times, is a career soldier whose personal life has been the subject of gossip on outlawed web sites and in leaked diplomatic cables. As Bhumibol’s health deteriorated in recent years, focus turned to Vajiralongkorn and what his reign may look like, given long-running political divisions in Thailand that were exposed by two military coups in eight years, the last in May 2014. “Crown Prince Vajiralongkorn neither commands the respect nor displays the charisma of his beloved father,” read a confidential US cable from July 2009 addressed to thenSecretary of State Hillary Clinton and released via WikiLeaks. “Nearly everyone expects the monarchy to shrink and change in function after succession,”
especially in areas that are threatened by various land-conversion project, approved by the Neda itself,” Casilao said. “The Neda’s lame excuse is unacceptable and unsubstantiated, as housing projects and protection of productive agricultural lands are not contradictory, they are supposed to be congruent in serving the welfare of the poor. By clashing these two concerns, only means giving precedence to profit by real-estate developers who often take advantage of the public-private partnership schemes of the government housing projects,” Casilao said. For his part, Terry L. Ridon, chairman of the Presidential Commission for the Urban Poor, said: “Only large real-estate developers and multinationals stand to gain from a reversal of the President’s moratorium on the land-use conversion of agricultural lands.” Ridon said the remedy was not to stop the issuance of a moratorium but to consider socialized housing projects as the only exception to the ban. “Change has not come to our agricultural farmers if we will insist that food security and social justice should suffer at the whims of real-estate moguls and multinationals,” Ridon said. Ridon added that the main problem in agrarian reform was the dizzying pace of land-use conversions for other uses to the exclusion of the poor Filipino farmer. “In the main, land- use conversions were made not for socialized housing but for the construction of provincial malls, golf courses, residential subdivisions and resorts.”
Coffee. . .
Of the 100,000 MT coffee beans required by the domestic market, the bulk goes to making instant coffee currently being dominated by industry leader, Nestle Philip-
pines, according to Mojica. “The gourmet market accounts for only about 10 percent,” he said, referring to coffee shops and restaurants using specialty fine-granulated coffee offerings. He said local farmers supplying beans to makers of instant coffee are being paid P100 per kilo, but farmers prefer the gourmet coffee providers who buy their beans for P120 a kilo. “But not many farmers are tapping into this market,” Mojica said. This is because there aren’t many coffee shops and similar establishments offering specialty coffee preparations that can buy farmers’ coffee beans in bulk, he said. Mojica made an assurance that the farmers’ preference for the gourmet coffee market would not disrupt the production of instant coffee makers, especially if coffee farmers would get the assistance they need. He said good farm practice and “adequate” help from local governments would allow coffee farmers to increase their output to 1 MT per hectare. “That would be big.” “It would mean more and stable work for the constituents of the local governments, increase tax collection, and most important, erase import cost that drains our coffers,” Mojica said.
the cable read. “How much will change is open to question, with many institutions, figures and political forces positioning for influence, not only over redefining the institution of monarchy but, equally fundamentally, what it means to be Thai.” The royal palace does not comment on political matters. The crown prince rarely speaks in public and little is formally revealed of how he spends his time. He is known to travel to Germany, where his personal jet is recorded making landings. Still, in recent years, he has taken part in more public events, leading two carefully planned bike rides for his mother and father across Bangkok last year. The rides drew hundreds of thousands of people. As monarch, Vajiralongkorn would have influence over royal investments held by the Crown Property Bureau, which by 2012 climbed to an estimated $41.3 billion—more than three times that of the British throne. Forbes magazine has called Bhumibol the world’s wealthiest monarch. Bhumibol has been seen as a unifying figure in a country that has seen dozens of change in prime minister and 10 military coups during his reign. Like his father, Vajiralongkorn is protected by lese majeste laws that allow for as long as 15 years in prison for those convicted of
threatening or insulting key members of the royal family. The constitution says the king “shall be enthroned in a position of revered worship,” and the law has served to limit debate about the role of the monarchy in Thai society. Vajiralongkorn was destined to rule from birth. Bhumibol snapped a photo of his son when he was just 48 hours old and it ran in newspapers with the caption “Thailand’s new heir to the throne.” Vajiralongkorn underwent ancient ceremonies and a religious leader spent a month composing his name, which in full is nearly 70 words long. The second oldest of Bhumibol and Queen Sirikit’s four children, and the only son, Vajiralongkorn studied at the palace’s school in Bangkok before leaving at 13 to attend King’s Mead School in Sussex. He was seen off at the airport in Bangkok by hundreds of well-wishers. The Bangkok Post described the prince as somber as he left and reported he told his friends “I am a soldier and soldiers don’t cry.” The prince went on to study in Australia, graduating from the Royal Military College at Duntroon in 1975. Upon his return, he was made a captain in the Thai army and was a serving officer in the fight against communists. He is a qualified pilot, flying helicopters, fighter jets and his own Boeing 737. Bloomberg News
Continued from A1
consumption of 100,000 MT due to low production and uncompetitive pricing for local coffee products. The average production was supposed to be at 1.2 MT per hectare, but the 15,000 Filipino coffee farmers could only produce 300 kg per hectare. Only Cavite farmers have been able to yield as much as 700 kg, but he said this is not enough. With output unable to satisfy local demand, coffee production gets low priority when it comes to the provision of government assistance, said Mojica, who also works for the National Coffee Research Development and Extension Center. “It’s here that local governments may find multiple benefits for them in training more farm technicians for coffee,” he said. He added that coffee farmers would need a lot of technical help from local governments as the Department of Agriculture is already “overstretched.”
Market requirement
Enchanted Kingdom at 21
Soaring Like Agila! T
he Philippines’ first and only world-class theme park Enchanted Kingdom (EK) reaches another milestone as it celebrates its 21st Anniversary this October 15. Through the years, EK has consistently upgraded its facilities and attractions, in keeping with its mission of bringing magical moments and memorable experiences for all its park guests, both local and foreign. The family-friendly destination soars high with its innovative rides and attractions, world-class entertainment and excellent guest service, recently getting accreditation from Trip Advisor as one of 2016’s top 25 theme parks in Asia. This year brings even more magical surprises as EK launches two new world-class attractions that are sure to make everyone’s trip to Sta. Rosa extra special. With more fun and exciting reasons to come to EK, more magical and meaningful experiences will be made for people of all ages to cherish and share. The anniversary celebration kicks off with a music festival featuring home-grown Filipino talents, among them, popular pinoy alternative rock band Sponge Cola, whose hits include Bitiw, Nakapagtataka and Jeepney; the Climax band with their soulful R&B renditions; and the award-winning dance crew UPEEPZ, Gold Medalist for the MegaCrew Division at the 2016 World Hiphop Dance Championship in Las Vegas. The guest performers, together with EK’s very own Kingsmen and Victoria’s Way vocal groups will perform live as they share the stage with celebrity model and program presenter, Ms. Angel Aquino. Capping off the fes-
tivities, an amazing Sky Wizardry Display by the multi-awarded Platinum Fireworks will light up and paint the night sky with vibrant colors to celebrate 21 magical years of Enchanted Kingdom.
EK Ghostbusters Live to open on EK’s Anniversary Day
Halloween is made especially spooky with the addition of the Ghostbusters Adventure Live! - a haunted walk-through attraction featuring memorable sets and scenes from the latest installment of the Hollywood blockbuster film Ghostbusters. It is truly a first in the country and a definite must try in EK. The park’s Cast Members underwent rigid training under The “Scare School” of Sudden Impact! Entertainment Company’s Director of Live Attractions Worldwide Dominic McChesney, to amp up the scare factor of this thrilling spectacle. EKto-1, the Jeepney version of the Ghostbusters vehicle, is also displayed in the park for those who want to capture the moment, Pinoystyle. For the braver park guests, there’s a 7D attraction featuring the Zombies Attacks interactive flick.
EK’s Agila The EKsperience
This 2016, Enchanted Kingdom proudly launches its most ambitious offering in 20 years – Agila:
The EKsperience – the only flying theater in the Philippines and the largest single flying theater based on seating capacity. This unique attraction is named Agila as a tribute to the magnificent Philippine eagle, the largest bird of prey in the world and endemic to Philippine shores. It not only signifies Enchanted Kingdom’s commitment to promote and support the Philippine eagle’s conservation efforts; it also stands as a symbol of the Filipino’s indomitable spirit to soar above all of life’s challenges. Agila: The EKsperience will feature pioneering and patented motion theater technology simulating the eagle’s flight. It will showcase some thirty of the country’s stunning destinations encapsulated in a six-minute feature film, all shot through aerial videography in vividly clear 6K resolution by an Emmy award winning cinematographer. Known for his astonishing work in aerial videography, Emmy-award winning cinematographer Mark Hryma of “Survivor” and “Titanic” fame, lends his vision and creativity to making Agila: The EKsperience a certified magical ride. Joining Mark are the much respected teams of Central Digital Lab (post-production), Phil. Film Studios Inc. (video production) and national artist Ryan Cayabyab with his majestic original score created especially for the Agila EKsperience. The combined artistry and technical expertise of this Filipino team behind Agila makes it a real celebration of Filipino talent as well. Agila: The EKsperience will soar above all other theme parks in the country and the region as the attraction to beat for many, many years to come. So Agila will be the only flying theatre in the Philippines.
EK @ 21
There’s a lot more magic in the horizon according to Enchanted Kingdom President Mario O. Mamon. He envisions EK to be an integrated attraction destination catering to wholesome family leisure & entertainment. Meaning, the park will be transformed to more than just a stand-alone theme park that will allow its guests to stay for more
than a day. The onset of Agila: The EKsperience signals EK’s flight towards bigger and brighter attractions for the enjoyment of park
visitors of all ages and races this year and beyond. Enchanted Kingdom’s magic definitely lives FOREVER.
To know more about the upcoming events you may visit www. enchantedkingdom.ph or call us at 02-830.3535/02-584.3535.
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Saturday, October 15, 2016
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Editor: Dionisio L. Pelayo • Saturday, October 15, 2016 A5
Embattled de Lima prefers court cases to hearings in Congress
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By Butch Fernandez
@butchfBM
EN. Leila M. de Lima on Friday said she expects more charges coming her way.
Reacting to the latest complaint filed against her on Thursday by two former National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) officials, de Lima said: “I’m not surprised anymore. I’m expecting now a bunch of cases. It’s all part of the harassment being done to me.” The embattled senator added: “I just have to face this. I just have to face all those cases. Mas gusto ko nga, eh, mga kaso na lang kaysa naman iyong mga public hearings na iyan na talagang halata naman na para lang ipahiya ako, i-shame ako, para pahinain ang loob ko, para wala nang maniwala sa akin kasi masama raw akong babae.” On Thursday another complaint for illegal-drugs trade and conspiracy under Republic Act 9165 (Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act) was filed against de Lima before the Department of Justice (DOJ) by former NBI Deputy Directors Reynaldo Esmeralda and Ruel Lasala through
de lima
lawyer Eduardo Bringas. Aside from de Lima, the complaint named as respondent NBI Deputy Director Rafael Ragos. It was Ragos who confessed during the House of Representatives inquiry on proliferation of illegaldrugs trade in New Bilibid Prison
(NBP) that he personally delivered millions of drug money to the residence of de Lima in Parañaque City in several instances in 2012 and handed the money to her aide and alleged paramour Ronnie Dayan. The complainants said based on the testimony of Ragos and corroborating statements of NBI agent Jovencio Ablen Jr. and NBP inmate Jojo Baligad, the respondents “acted in conspiracy to commit illegaldrugs trade.” “Senator de Lima, acting as the mother of all drug lords and through the use of her authority, was able to appoint and designate men inside the Bilibid in order to ensure the perpetuation of illegal-drugs trade,” the 20-page complaint read. “Respondents definitely saw how profitable the system established in the Bilibid at that time. Like hungry wolves, they took advantage of their power, influence and resources,” it added. If found guilty, de Lima and her co-respondents may be meted out life imprisonment and a fine ranging from P500,000 to P10 million. Bringas said they decided to include Ragos as respondent, although he was granted immunity by the House justice committee. “His immunity was with regard
Environmental task force raids illegal quarry operations on Mount Banahaw By Jonathan L. Mayuga @jonlmayuga
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ATIONAL Anti-Environmental Crime Task Force (NAECTF) on Friday swooped down on illegal-quarrying sites on Mount Banahaw in Sariaya, Quezon. The raid was conducted by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR), National Police, Armed Forces and the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) personnel. Environment Secretary Regina Paz L. Lopez said the raid, led by Undersecretary and NAECTF chief Art Valdez, effectively stopped all illegal-quarrying activities in the area. Aside from quarrying, portions of Mount Banahaw in Sariaya and other towns in Quezon are under siege by illegal loggers. The raid came a month ahead of a scheduled audit of nonmetallic mine operations in various parts of the country. Nonmetallic mine operations include quarry sites. The DENR had just concluded the audit of 41 metallic mines and had, so far, suspended 10 mining companies. Twenty other companies were issued show-cause orders
and face possible suspension. There are 65 nonmetallic mines, which the DENR audit teams will inspect as part of the campaign to weed out irresponsible mining. Lopez said the unchecked quarry operation in the area causes massive environmental destruction that threatens the forest ecosystem in Mount Banahaw, considered a sacred mountain by tribesmen. Some of the quarry operations used to have permits, but Lopez said the quarry companies have violated the terms and conditions of their environmental compliance certificates (ECC), which were revoked by the DENR-Region 4-A Office. Valdez said at least 30 quarry personnel were arrested during the operation. The NAECTF also impounded more than a dozen of heavy equipment, such as back hoes and cargo trucks, used in the quarrying operation. According to Valdez, around 30 different quarry operators are to be blamed for the massive destruction of the forest in the area. “It already looks like a big mine. In case of rain, it will bury the town of Sariaya in mud,” Valdez said.
Mall operators cooperate with MMDA to ease traffic By Claudeth Mocon-Ciriaco Correspondent
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ALL owners and operators in Metro Manila have approved all the proposals and plans of the Inter-Agency Council on Traffic (I-ACT) to ease vehicular traffic in Metro Manila. During a meeting with I-ACT representatives from the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA), the Department of Transportation (DOTr) and the National Police-Highway Patrol Group (HPG), mall owners expressed their willingness to comply and implement the four suggestions of the traffic body. The mall operators agreed to submit their traffic management plans, which includes deployment of their own traffic personnel; nighttime deliveries—from 11 p.m. up to 5:00 a.m. the next day; and the management of the queuing of vehicles going to the shopping centers will be coordinated with I-ACT traffic personnel. The mall owners also agreed to refrain from holding special sales and other crowd-drawing events during weekdays starting November 1. MMDA General Manager Thomas M. Orbos expressed gratitude to the mall owners for their cooperation.
“This show of support from the private sector will definitely help the government toward the common goal of solving the traffic problem in Metro Manila,” Orbos said after the meeting at the agency’s main office in Makati City. He asked the mall owners to submit all their concerns and suggestions to improve traffic situation on their respective areas to the I-ACT for proper evaluation and action. Orbos clarified that the no-weekday sale of the shopping centers only pertains to mall-wide sales events. He, however, pointed out that the holding of sales of particular department stores and tenants inside the mall should, likewise, be coordinated with the I-ACT. Present in the meeting were Chief Supt. Antonio Gardiola, HPG commander, and Assistant Secretary for Road Transportation Mark de Leon. Orbos said shopping-mall owners have agreed to conduct sales during weekends only starting on October 21 to January 9, 2017, from 12 :01 a.m. on Saturday to 11:59 p.m. on Sunday. Orbos said malls and similar commercial establishments are traffic generators during the Christmas holidays and that there is a need to come up with “effective and sustainable measures to provide convenience to the public.”
only to the statement he gave. But there is corroborating witness, Ablen, that’s why we included him,” he explained. It can be recalled that de Lima had dismissed Esmeralda and Lasala from their posts in March 2014 after accusing them of “lingering integrity issues” and links to pork-barrel scam queen Janet Lim-Napoles. But, the two former NBI officials said the filing of the complaint was not intended to get back at their former boss. “Definitely no [ax to grind]. There are pieces of evidence we gathered and it’s about time we file the charges also to give her due process,” Esmeralda told reporters. In an earlier complaint, the Volunteers Against Crime and Corruption named as respondents de Lima, for mer Justice Undersecretar y Francisco Baraan III, former Bureau of Corrections Director Franklin Bucayu, Dayan, de Lima’s former security escorts Joenel Sanchez and Jose Adrian Dera, Bucayu’s alleged bagman Wilfredo Ely and highprofile inmate Jaybee Sebastian. Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre II said the complaints would undergo preliminary investigation to be conducted by a panel of prosecutors. With Joel R. San Juan
PAL issues Letter of Intent to acquire up to 12 Bombardier Q400 Aircraft
BOMBARDIER Q400
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OMBARDIER Commercial Aircraft announced on Friday that flag-carrier Philippine Airlines (PAL) has signed a Letter of Intent (LOI) to acquire up to 12 Q400 aircraft. “For close to a decade, the Bombardier Q Series family of aircraft has been instrumental in evolving our domestic network operations,” said Jaime J. Bautista, PAL president and COO. “We are proud that our continued fleet growth now makes us the first airline to launch service with the two-class, 86-seat Q400 aircraft. As we strive to become a 5-star-rated airline, the Q400 aircraft, featuring a modern and innovative configuration, will be instrumental in providing our travellers with a world-class, in-flight passenger experience.” “Integrating the extra-capacity, two-class Q400 aircraft into its operations is the ideal solution for PAL, as it reshapes its domestic air-travel strategy,” said Fred Cromer, president of Bombardier Commercial Aircraft. “With its perfect balance of passenger amenities and operational flexibility, the 86-seat Q400 aircraft will offer PAL significant opportunities to differentiate itself in the region’s fiercely competitive environment. “We look forward to working with Philippine Airlines to reach a firm purchase agreement for Q400 aircraft,” Cromer added. “As PAL looks to develop its domestic operations from secondary hubs and increase intraisland connectivity, the 86-seat Q400 aircraft—the largest two-class turboprop aircraft available on the market—will increase the carrier’s competitiveness by offering the lowest seat-mile and operating costs in the regional aircraft market,” said François Cognard, vice president for Sales, South-East Asia and Australasia. “Our continued collaboration will undoubtedly set the stage for another decade of profitable and efficient operations for PAL.” Bombardier’s Dash 8/Q Series turboprops and CRJ Series regional jets have made significant advances in the Asia-Pacific region where approximately 190 aircraft—including more than 165 Dash8/Q Series turboprops are in service with, or ordered by, over 25 customers and operators. Bombardier’s customer-support network for commercial aircraft in the Asia-Pacific region includes Regional Support Offices in Narita (Tokyo), Sydney, Beijing, Shanghai and Mumbai, as well as Parts Depots in Sydney, Beijing and Singapore. Operating from the company’s regional office located in Singapore, Bombardier Commercial Aircraft’s sales and marketing team is well-positioned to provide industry-leading solutions to its current and prospective customers. Recto L. Mercene
A6 Saturday, October 15, 2016 • Editor: Angel R. Calso
Opinion BusinessMirror
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The power transfer Thailand needs
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ith the passing of revered King Bhumibol Adulyadej and the naming of his son to the throne, the question of when and to whom power would be transferred in Thailand has finally been answered. The real question, however, remains: how to empower the Thai people. While little can be said about how Crown Prince Maha Vajiralongkorn might rule—not least because of Draconian laws against insulting the monarch that have been applied liberally of late—two things seem clear. He will struggle to achieve anything like the near-universal popularity of his father, the only monarch most Thais have ever known. And since the 2014 coup, he appears to have reached an understanding with the military. There’s no reason to think he will challenge the political order that the ruling junta has enshrined in a new constitution, approved by referendum in August. Even if the military follows through on its promise to hold new elections by the end of 2017, the charter will ensure that the army and unaccountable elites heavily influence any new government. This will only reinforce the topdown nature of Thai politics, in which the bulk of spending (more than 70 percent, according to the World Bank) is devoted to Bangkok and surrounding provinces, and political power is heavily centralized. The system will almost certainly perpetuate one of the world’s widest inequality gaps; by one estimate, the richest 0.1 percent of Thais owns nearly half of the nation’s assets. This is no more sustainable under a new king than it was under the old one and, perhaps, even less so. Regional divisions remain stark. Since 2001, the rural populations in Thailand’s north and northeast have supported parties associated with Thaksin Shinawatra, the prime minister who was ousted in a military coup 10 years ago. Though the constitutional referendum was approved in those areas—after a campaign in which no dissenting opinions were allowed—the vote was close and turnout low; resentment stands to grow once it becomes clear that the people’s favored politicians have been defenestrated. Anger remains among Muslims in the far south of the country, as well, as evidenced by a series of mysterious bomb blasts in August. A renewed concentration of power can’t be good for Thailand’s economy. The junta has laid out a 20-year plan to achieve a fully developed nation, in part by tapping high-tech growth engines, such as biotechnology, robotics and the Internet of things. This well-meaning scheme will remain a fantasy, however, unless the government overhauls the education system and invests more in schools and skills programs in underserved parts of the country. Meanwhile, the rural economy continues to contract, and private demand is stagnating. The government talks of spending more than $50 billion on long-term infrastructure projects, but, unless fiscal spending is distributed more equitably, consumption will continue to lag. Nor is the junta’s new system likely to produce the “harmony” the generals have repeatedly promised. The only realistic means of addressing local demands is to devolve more authority to the provinces and villages. The best way to prevent corruption and keep elected politicians in check is through greater transparency and stronger, more independent institutions. Above all, rather than weaken major political parties in hopes of fostering weak coalition governments, Thai leaders should encourage the growth of a viable democratic opposition that’s accountable to voters. The new king has the power to nudge things in the right direction. Loosening the lese majeste laws would create room for greater political debate in the country. He could press the military to go ahead with elections, then encourage elected representatives to map out a route back to a more open system. The alternative is obvious: a reign that will begin as turbulently as the last one ended. Bloomberg Editorial
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Dangerous rhetoric; dangerous times John Mangun
OUTSIDE THE BOX
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he world is polarized and divided to the extent that it is extremely difficult to have a sensible conversation anymore, even in the Philippines. It is all part of the political cycle that I have been ranting about for nearly two years now. And this is a dangerous situation.
It is expected, and even necessary, that people hold opposing viewpoints. That is how achievement and progress are generated. Greek philosopher Socrates believed that a discussion pitting two opposing views was the only way to arrive at the “truth”. The term we use somewhat loosely is “dialectics”; the process of “a discourse between people holding different points of view about a subject, but wishing to establish the truth through reasoned arguments.”
Mark Buchanan
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rest of us call “sheeple”. Perhaps the ultimate “us versus them” and “good versus evil” is found from Italian leader Benito Mussolini, creator of the National Fascist Party. Mussolini, in a speech to the Italian Chamber of Deputies, said: “All within the state, nothing outside the state, nothing against the state.” Where is the people’s voice in that equation? But as Mussolini was trying to escape Italy, he was caught and shot by a still unknown village leader, his body eventually hung on meat hooks at a gas station where the people stoned the body. Who is responsible for this great divide? We all are. But the political elite of all sides is creating the dangerous narrative that the people are participating in. Maybe they’re right and we all are sheeple. E-mail me at mangun@gmail.com. Visit my web site at www.mangunonmarkets.com. Follow me on Twitter @mangunonmarkets. PSE stock-market information and technical analysis tools provided by the COL Financial Group Inc.
A Nobel that helps explain why a bagel always has hole
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But the key to the deal for Socrates was not to become emotionally invested in a particular viewpoint. That seems impossible today. Everyone treats their opinion as the ultimate truth, and it is hard to listen to anyone else when you think you are speaking ideas directly from the gods on Mount Olympus. I am probably as guilty of that as anyone else. But again, this is dangerous. If and when people divide the world into “black and white”, “good
and evil” and “right and wrong”, there is no other possible outcome other than war in whatever form that may take. Ultimately, there is no way that your “good” can possibly exist alongside my “evil”. During the “Cold War” between the United States and the USSR, both sides felt that the other was totally evil and a threat to their existence. So what prevented the war? It was the fact that there were dozens of other important and vital nations that did not buy into the arguments of either the US or the USSR. I do not believe that is the situation today. Look at the senseless public rhetoric in the Philippines. President Duterte is either “Satan’s Spawn” or “God’s Anointed”. Fortunately, the mass of people know better. The recent polling says that eight out of 10 Filipinos approve of the way the Duterte administration is addressing the illegal-drugs problem. But 94 percent also said that suspects should be caught alive. Remember that these are the same folks that the people who are wiser than the
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ast week’s announcement of the 2016 Nobel Prize in Physics seems to have left many people perplexed. Three physicists —Michael Kosterlitz, David Thouless and Duncan Haldane— received the prize for work on “topological phase transitions and topological states of matter.” Scientists at the awards news conference vaguely implied it had something to do with the holes in bagels and pretzels, and with topology, an arcane branch of mathematics. And yet, the work isn’t as obscure as it may seem. It’s one more step in the study of ordinary matter that has been going on for centuries. Substances often change form; make some water cold enough, and it will abruptly freeze. The water molecules don’t change, only their organization does: the molecules that moved freely in the liquid at the higher temperature, when they had more energy, suddenly get locked in place, making a solid. Physicists call this a phase transition, and similar transformations of organization happen everywhere—in crystals, magnetic materials, superconductors, you name it. Making anything from good steel alloys to tasty chocolate requires careful control over such organizational changes. Scientists have known about phase transitions for centuries, of course, yet physicists really only
gained a deep understanding of them in the 1960s and early 1970s. One thing they discovered is quite amazing—that such changes, even in totally different materials that would seem to have almost nothing in common, often happen in exactly the same way. For example, phase transitions in some liquids, metals and magnetic materials are exactly identical, despite there being almost no physical similarities in the substances. There are zillions of different physical materials, yet, across the board, when organization changes from one form to another, it typically happens in one of a very small number of ways. Most physical stuff exists in three dimensions, of course, but physicists can also make extremely thin two-dimensional films, or even microscopically fine one-dimensional wires. What happens to phase transitions in these weirder conditions? Here, it
turns out, the beautiful 1970s theory implied for various reasons that in many real systems, they should simply never occur. But in 1973, Kosterlitz and Thouless found a loophole in the theory. Think of the surface of a liquid, which is a two-dimension system. One unique thing about it is that it can support vortices, or regions of circular flow. In fact, it can have vortices of two kinds, clockwise or counterclockwise, which we might call a vortex and an antivortex. In a liquid, it’s easy to stir up a pair of vortices—one vortex and one antivortex—by running a finger through it. Kosterlitz and Thouless showed that for two-dimensional systems much more generally—sadly, the analogy to the liquid surface only goes so far—that the ordinary jostling of atoms associated with temperature should stir up vortex pairs like this all the time, creating a kind of gas of weakly bound vortex pairs. They also showed that, as temperature increases, these pairs should eventually get ripped apart, shifting the system’s organization from one form to another—a phase transition in two dimensions, and of a kind never-before imagined by physicists. What about the bagels and pretzels? Topology is the study of properties of objects that remain unchanged, even as the object gets distorted and stretched. Stretch a rubber bagel into any weird shape you like—without ripping it—and you’ll always only have a single hole. Vortices in two dimensions work much
like holes, and with the mathematics of topology, Kosterlitz and Thouless were able to add another layer to our fundamental understanding of how, in our world, one kind of organization can give way to another. (Some visuals of the transition really help, and I recommend physicist John Baez’s excellent explanation). And, sure enough, this thing turns out to happen in real physical systems. It’s been seen in thin films of both superconducting solids and superfluid helium, as well as in the melting of fragile two dimensional solids. This matter is “exotic” in the sense that it doesn’t exist in nature, even though physicists build it up out of the ordinary particles that make up everything else. The third Nobel winner, Duncan Haldane, did important work also using topological concepts, culminating in the recent discovery of solids called topological insulators, weird materials that don’t conduct electricity on the inside, but do at their surfaces, again for topological reasons. When people think of physics, they usually think of Albert Einstein, or quantum theory, or Stephen Hawking and cosmology. But most physics during the past 50 years has been in so-called condensed matter physics—the study of the stuff around us, the liquids, solids, gases and everything else, from plastics to superconductors. It’s all about understanding the kinds of organization that are possible, and how they can change form. This Nobel work fits within a very old tradition.
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Words will never harm me
‘Love in Abundance’ concert to support Youth Scholars of Caritas Manila
Jemain Tinio Diaz de Rivera
Forward Moving
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hen I see a child crying because he was teased or unfairly accused by playmates, I remember a nursery rhyme —“sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never harm me.” The information technology and business-process management (ITBPM) industry has grown and will continue to grow under three administrations: Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo (2001-2010), Benigno S. Aquino III (2010-2016) and Rodrigo R. Duterte (incumbent). A healthy labor pool, local government support, fiber optic connectivity and accessibility, and infrastructure are primary reasons the Philippines is a top offshoring location. These are what would be considered as sticks and stones that build the local IT-BPM industry, an industry that has a target revenue of $25 billion and employment of 1.3 million by year-end. It is an industry that first bloomed in Metro Manila and is now booming also in Metro Clark, Bacolod, Iloilo, Davao and Cebu, which was ranked early this year as the seventh best outsourcing destination globally by advisory firm Tholons. Leechiu Property Consultants sees Cagayan, Pangasinan, Bulacan, Batangas, Aklan, Leyte and Bohol as locations for small and midsized IT-BPM operations. The Department of Information and Communications Technology also identified the 10 next wave cities and 10 emerging cities as communities that can host one of the most dynamic industries, providing work for thousands of Filipinos who are currently underemployed or unemployed. There are computations showing the number of full-time employees in the provinces could double to 780,000, as the number in Metro Manila equally increases to 1.82 million over the next six-year period. The Department of Trade and Industry sees the IT-BPM sector to be worth $250 billion by 2022, while the National ICT Confederation of the Philippines (NICP) targets countryside employment in this sector to reach 1 million, which is more than thrice the current estimated 300,000 IT-BPM workers outside Metro Manila. The 2017-2022 IT-BPM road map will be made public during the International IT-BPM Summit on the 28th of this month. The industry’s contribution to national growth is seen rising further as the sector aims to acquire higher value projects, such as software development, health-care information management, creative services and products, and engineering services. The IT-BPM sector plays an important role in boosting the country’s competitive advantage as
the key destination for voice and non-voice services. It is the nation’s second-largest source of dollar earnings, next to remittances by those working abroad. Currently, there are talks about President Duterte and the negative impact of his statements on diplomatic and economic affairs of the Philippines, words that should never harm over a million Filipino workers in IT-BPM or those working in other countries. This, despite the Philippine economic growth of 7 percent in the second quarter of this year, the highest since the economy expanded by 6.5 percent in the fourth quarter of 2013, on the back of gains in the industry and services sectors. A 24-year-old resident of Pasig, working as an IT-BPM worker in Bonifacio Global City, shared with me that she believes that President Duterte has good intentions but she hopes his words will not cause her to lose a job that helps feed her family and pay tuition for three of her younger siblings. Words can remove hope from Filipinos looking for career opportunities, and dampen enthusiasm of both local and foreign investors in the country if the industry was built on a weak foundation. The IT-BPM industry has a lot of heart: 1.3 million Filipinos keeping the industry alive 24 hours a day, seven days a week for over 10 years now. Investors from America, Asia, Australia, Europe and India continue to help build the industry because they believe in the globally competitive and professional Filipinos that provide world class knowledge-based services. The Filipino nation elected President Duterte into office. They believe that he has a heart for the nation, and can hopefully best provide an environment for each Filipino to have a better quality of life. Although sticks and stones may break their bones, unlike words as the rhyme proclaims, the government, however, should be aware that words can hurt too. The Philippine economy will continue to prosper because Filipinos work hard as they take their fair share of the bruising. They have the spirit of Katipuneros and are a product of parents who invested in their children’s formal education. Its no longer a matter of sticks and stones, or words, for that matter. It is all about working together and making sure that we reach our point of destination. E-mail: jemain_diaz_de_rivera@yahoo.com.
Rev. Fr. Antonio Cecilio T. Pascual
SERVANT LEADER
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special dinner concert called Love in Abundance: An Outpouring of Blessings will be presented on October 26 for the benefit of Caritas Manila’s Youth Servant Leadership and Education Program (YSLEP) scholars.
In celebration of Caritas Manila’s 63rd founding anniversary and in support to its almost 5,000 YSLEP scholars, Smart Infinity and D Source Inc., together with PLDTSmart Foundation, One Meralco Foundation, Ayala Corp., Ayala Land Inc. and BPI Foundation will hold a benefit dinner concert that will feature the inspirational music of the renowned composer and musician maestro Ryan Cayabyab to be held at the Grand Ballroom, Shangri-La at the Fort, Bonifacio Global City. Through this musical event, we aim to sustain the needs of Caritas Manila’s YSLEP scholars and to be able to send more youth to school to help and guide them to have a better future. These scholars need all the help they could get, especially now that some of them are dependents
of drug-rehabilitated offenders who are also being assisted by Caritas Restorative Justice Ministry. As the present administration’s war on drugs intensifies, there had been 734,231 illegal-drugs pushers and users who surrendered under “Oplan Tokhang” as of October 6, according to the official record of the Philippine National Police (PNP). We, at Caritas Manila, hope to help these people through the integrated formation program of YSLEP that requires scholars and their parents to go through the values formation, sacramental appreciation, national family planning and responsible parenting, health and nutrition, livelihood and skills training to help them get a sustainable source of income so that they will not go back to
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he importance of education cannot be stressed enough. In the Philippines education is seen as an investment in human capital. All Filipino parents want their children to have a good education because this will pave the way for a successful career. Thus, we can say education is one of the pillars of a strong nation because an educated populace has a great impact on the country’s development and economic growth. The traditional value of stressing the importance of education among Filipinos has been incorporated into the constitutions and laws of the Philippines. The first Philippine constitution, or the 1899 Constitution (also called the Malolos Constitution), expressly provided in Article
23 of Title IV that “public education shall be free and obligatory in all schools of the nation.” Section 5 Article XIV of the 1935 Constitution, which was enacted for the Commonwealth government, stated that the “government...shall provide at least free primary instruction, and citizenship training to adult citizens.” The provision for free public elementary education was retained under the 1943 Constitution adopted by the provisional government during World War II. This was carried over to the 1973 Constitution that took effect during the regime of Ferdinand E. Marcos. The 1987 Constitution took effect during the presidential term of Corazon C. Aquino. Several significant provisions on education were embodied in this constitution. Public elementary education was declared to be free and compulsory.
their previous lifestyle. This Love in Abundance concert is part of Caritas Manila’s initiatives to collect funds that will help to fulfill this cause. To be directed by Floy Quintos, the benefit concert will feature the performances of the Philippine Philharmonic Orchestra, singers Bo Cerrudo, Esang de Torres, Bituin Escalante, Celeste Legaspi and Basil Valdez. The event will not just be a night of musical entertainment, fortunate members of the audience will also have a chance to be given special gifts, such as expensive jewelry and other collectible items, donated by generous benefactors spurred by mercy and compassion to help the poor and the needy being supported by Caritas Manila. YSLEP is the flagship program of Caritas Manila, which extends financial assistance to poor but deserving youth, and trains and hones the youth not only for academic excellence but also to become servant leaders and good members of the community. To date, Caritas Manila has produced over 10,000 graduates and continues to provide educational assistance, values formation workshops and leadership trainings to almost 5,000 students nationwide with an average of 300 college and technical/ vocational graduates yearly.
Caritas Manila is the Archdiocese of Manila’s lead social services and development ministry. Apart from YSLEP, Caritas Manila runs diverse projects that help the poor fulfill their human potential, such as the Caritas Damayan and Restorative Justice Ministry, as well as socialentrepreneurship programs Caritas Margins and Segunda Mana. A sponsorship worth P25,000 will help fund one-school year full educational support to a YSLEP scholar. For Love in Abundance sponsorship and ticket inquiries, log on to www.veritas846.ph/cmoncert, or please contact Caritas Manila at (632) 254-5519, 562-0020 to 25 local 35 and 39 or send your e-mail to fsdcaritas_manila@yahoo.com. You may also buy online, by going to http://ushare.unionbankph.com/ caritas/ and click the drop down menu and choose “Caritas Love in Abundance benefit concert.” You may also choose Caritas Youth Servant Leadership and Education Program to donate any amount. To know more about Caritas Manila, visit www. caritasmanila.org.ph. For your donations, please call our DonorCare lines 563-9311, 564-0205, 0999-7943455, 0905-4285001 and 0929-8343857. Make it a habit to listen to Radio Veritas 846 in the AM band, or through live streaming at www.veritas846.ph. For comments, e-mail veritas846pr@ gmail.com.
Islamic State has good reasons to retreat in Iraq Noah Feldman
BLOOMBERG
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here’s no need to believe the Russian propaganda that says the US agreed to let 9,000 Islamic State (IS) fighters flee Mosul to go fight President Bashar al-Assad in Syria. But the story “reported” on Wednesday by Russia Today (on the basis of a single anonymous source) does capture a strategic truth in the run-up to the attack on the IS-controlled city: The fighters have good reason to flee—and the Iraqis and the US have good reason to let them. The battle to retake Mosul has been a long time coming. IS occupied the city in June 2014, without encountering much in the way of Iraqi military resistance. Mosul was the biggest and most important city to fall into the hands of the selfproclaimed caliphate. Before IS arrived, it had a population of roughly 2 million, making it Iraq’s third most populous city. (Since then, at least half have fled or been expelled or killed, including essentially all the ethnic and religious minorities, such as Kurds, Turkmen, Assyrian Christians and Yazidis.) With Mosul, IS controlled a significant portion of Iraq. The Baghdad government couldn’t allow that indefinitely without appearing to give up on functioning as a sovereign state.
Yet, Baghdad took its time. First, it had to retake Ramadi, which didn’t fall until February. That required the use of Shiite militias backed by Iran, which Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi ideally doesn’t want to repeat. Abadi has been worried about the political cost of a failed assault by Iraqi regular troops. And the United States, which will have to support the attack from the air and with advisers on the ground, hasn’t wanted to press the timing too hard. There’s little political advantage to be gained from a major conflict in Iraq during the election season. And there’s plenty to lose if the attack falters. Nevertheless, the first deployments of Iraqi troops near Mosul began in the spring. A slow encirclement has been proceeding apace.
Helping poor Filipino children get good education By Loreen Lolita A. Cubero
Saturday, October 15, 2016 A7
Public high-school and secondary education were also to be provided for free. Moreover, it was categorically stated in Section 5(5) of Article XIV that the “State shall assign the highest budgetary priority to education and ensure that teaching will attract and retain its rightful share of the best available talents through adequate remuneration and other means of job satisfaction and fulfillment.” The constitutional provisions on education notwithstanding, millions of Filipino children have been denied this basic right. Latest figures show that one in six school-age Filipino children will not attend school, while only seven out of 10 kids will complete elementary school. Of those seven, only four will complete high school and only one will proceed to college. The main reason? Poverty. Lack of formal education is the
main reason most out of school youth cannot find decent jobs. As a result, a handful of them will turn to illegal activities and ultimately become a problem to society. Poverty doesn’t just affect the children. With the high rate of dropouts, the teachers’ livelihoods inevitably suffer. As a consequence, many teachers will prefer to go abroad for higher salaries. Since 2010, reducing poverty has been an official objective of the government. Currently, it remains at the center of the new administration’s policy with bigger Conditional Cash Transfer that provides cash to poor families. The good news is that the Duterte administration is bent on eradicating poverty. With more than P500-billion budget for the Department of Education in 2017, the agency is going all out on its K to 12 program, including the hiring of new
And a full-on push is now assumed by all to be imminent. That leads to the $64,000 question: To what extent will IS stand and fight? No one doubts that there will be some resistance, and the Pentagon says the defense includes trenches and booby traps. But as long ago as July, the Iraqi defense minister claimed militant leaders and fighters were leaving the city. This report probably had some truth to it. Recent reports from inside the city say that most non-Arab and foreign fighters have left. The logic of tactical retreat is strong for IS. Its ideological predecessors in the Iraqi Sunni insurgency stood and fought the US in the second battle of Fallujah in 2004 —and were resoundingly defeated, at significant cost in manpower. Perhaps, 1,500 insurgents were killed, and another 1,500 captured. The lesson for IS is not to fight an unwinnable battle. Instead, the best strategy is to act like a classic insurgent force: offer only token resistance at the advance of regular troops, and return if and when the Iraqis seem like they can’t defend or control Mosul. It’s far from certain that the Iraqi state can effectively govern Mosul or control potential ethnic conflict. There’s some cost for the caliphate in giving up territory, simply because its legitimacy has derived from controlling so much of it. But because IS still controls plenty of territory in Syria, that’s a cost it can probably bear.
As for the Iraqis and the Americans, they’d like nothing better than to take Mosul without firing a shot, the way IS did in 2014. No one is really sure how well the Iraqi army will operate under fire; its record isn’t very impressive. US air strikes will inevitably kill civilians and devastate the city’s infrastructure, which will make rebuilding harder, which, in turn, will make it harder for the Iraqi government to establish control. Also, no one knows exactly how many fighters are in the city. One Kurdish estimate from September put the number at 20,000. That sounds high, but US estimates of 3,000 to 4,500 may be optimistically low. So if IS fighters want to leave Mosul now, it’s in Iraqi and US interests to let them go. Killing militants as they retreat toward the Syrian border might backfire by forcing IS to stay and fight in Mosul. This brings us back to the Russian fantasy that the fighters will be allowed to go to Syria to fight Assad —and his Russian allies. The US and Iraq have, of course, no interest in seeing an IS offensive against Assad. The Barack Obama administration is not going to ally itself with IS, the ideological source of terror attacks on the home front and in Europe. But there is a certain zero-sum effect to the movement of IS troops. In practical terms, any fighters who are able to make it to Syria will, in fact, strengthen IS against its opponents, including Assad.
teachers and building more classrooms to accommodate an expected influx of students. The Department of Social Welfare and Development, in partnership with local and foreign foundations, meanwhile, is in the forefront of bringing poor children to schools, handing out free school uniforms, books and notebooks and allowances for the whole year. Other private companies are also helping in feeding undernourished children with complete feeding programs. Some of these local and foreign foundations include the Odyssey Foundation, SM Foundation, Save the Children, Children International and many more. For those who want to help in their own way, they can sponsor the school fees or allowances of needy children; help them pay their medical expenses
and health care; give the books and school supplies to students; and maybe even help students by donating pillows, blankets, mosquito nets and other needs. Bringing poor kids to school is a great responsibility of all Filipinos, and there should be no let-up for this kind of program. Shouldering the enrollment expenses of poor students and giving support for their other school needs, say, for one year, will go a long way in helping financially disadvantaged students. It is our social and moral obligation to help poor Filipino children who want to get good education. Who knows, the child we are financially supporting today could be our national leader in the future. The author is Principal 1 at Gonzaga South Central School in Gonzaga, Cagayan
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Sports
aturday, October 15, 2016 mirror_sports@yahoo.com.ph sports@businessmirror.com.ph Editor: Jun Lomibao Asst. Editor: Joel Orellana
Unbeaten Green Archers face dangerous Fighting Maroons
WORLD-CLASS VOLLEYBALL ACTION UP F ILIPINO fans will be treated to world-class action and a new technology during the 2016 Internatational Volleyball Federation Women’s Club World Championship which fires off on Tuesday at the Mall of Asia Arena. According to Ramon Suzara of the organizing Philippine Superliga (PSL), the Hawkeye replay system that guarantees the accuracy and integrity of officiating will be used in the event coorganized by Eventcourt with TV5, Petron, Asics, BMW and F2 Logistics as official sponsors, Diamond Hotel as official residence and Turkish Airlines as official airlines. A state-of-the-art computer system, Hawkeye uses seven high-performance cameras located in strategic positions to make sure that crucial calls will be accurately decided. It is being used in top-tier volleyball events, like the Olympics, World Championships, Olympic qualifiers and World Grand Prix. Aside from the Hawkeye, the tablet system in the interaction between the bench
Tigresses eye ‘W’ No. 5 vs Customs
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NIVERSITY of Santo Tomas (UST) tries to seal a semifinals berth as it tangles with a tough Bureau of Customs (BOC) side in the Shakey’s V-League Season 13 Collegiate Conference on Saturday at the Filoil Flying V Center in San Juan City. The Tigresses shoot for their fifth straight victory to formally make it to the semifinals against the Transformers in the 4 p.m. collision in the season-ending conference sponsored by Shakey’s. Pocari Sweat, another title favorite in the league backed by Mikasa as official ball and Accel as official outfitter, guns for its second win in three games as it battles University of the Philippines (1-2) at 2 p.m. to be aired live over ABS-CBN Sports + Action Channel 17 or 23 and via streaming on www.sports.abs-cbn. com and www.v-league.ph, according to the organizing Sports Vision. The Tigresses are the youngest in the field and, despite playing without an import, they are the hottest team so far, beating club teams Air Force, Coast Guard and BaliPure, as well as fellow college team UP, with a form that makes them look prime for the crown. UST Head Coach KungFu Reyes is satisfied with their hot start, but he wants his wards—led by EJ Laure, Carla Sandoval, Ria Meneses, Chloe Cortez and Cherry Rondina—to remain consistent for the rest of the tournament. “Momentum and luck are on our side, so we have to sustain our form,” Reyes said. Cignal, meanwhile, tries to bounce back from its setback to Air Force last Monday, as it tangles with Champion Supra at 12:30 p.m. in the Spikers’ Turf Season 2 Reinforced Conference, also at PhilSports. Lance Agcaoili
and table officials will also be used. First implemented in the world club tournament last year in Zurich, coaches will be provided with a tablet from Data Volley that is wirelessly connected to the table officials, enabling them to enter their starting roster and request for substitutions, timeouts and challenges with ease. Reigning Swiss Cup champion Volero Zurich, led by former Brazil national player and international model Mariana Costa, arrived on Thursday and would be followed by Rexona-Sesc Rio, Pomi Casalmaggiore, VakifBank Istanbul and Eczacibasi VitrA Istanbul, shifting the country’s preparation to a higher gear. Hisamitsu Springs Kobe and Bangkok Glass are due on Sunday. PSL-F2 Logistics Manila Head Coach Moro Branislav admitted to the BusinessMirror on Friday that the Philippine representatives are not ready to do battle in the world-class tournament. “We’re not ready for this level. These are the best teams in the world and it’s
impossible to prepare against these teams with big names in only three weeks time,” Branislav said after their Friday training. The team is led by skipper Rachel Anne Daquis, Mika Reyes, Kim Fajardo, Jovelyn Gonzaga, Frances Molina, Jen Reyes and Jaja Santiago and reinforced by imports Tichaya Boonlert, Yuri Fukuda, Yevgeniya Nyukhalova, Ekaterina Krivets, Lynda Morales, Stephanie Niemer and Lindsay Stalzer.
FORMER Brazil national player and international model Mariana Costa makes heads turn at the airport.
CHITO IN, JASON OUT S
ROBINS BAG CROWN M
APUA hammered out an 84-67 victory in Game Three on Friday to snap San Beda’s reign and end its own 16-year title drought in the 92nd National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) juniors basketball finals at the Mall of Asia Arena. Showing a killer instinct they lacked in Game Two, the Robins snapped the Red Lions’ seven-year reign and, in the process, bagged their 20th crown, two shy of San Beda’s league best 22. They last won in 2000 with a team coached by Horacio Lim. Brian Lacap led Mapua with 16 points, while Clint Escamis celebrated his 16th birthday by dropping 14 points. It was Randy Alcantara’s first championship as a coach, although he already won two NCAA titles as a cardinal in the 1990-1991 seasons. Bryan Samudio, playing his final season, scattered 13 points, including eight in the fourth quarter, enough to clinch him the finals Most Valuable Player trophy. Mapua also avenged its finals loss to San Beda two years ago when the Robins came a victory away from the crown after winning the opener only to lose the final two games.
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E LA SALLE stakes its unbeaten record against an overachieving University of the Philippines (UP) in Season 79 University Athletic Association of the Philippines (UAAP) men’s basketball action on Saturday at the Smart Araneta Coliseum. The streaking Green Archers and rejuvenated Fighting Maroons face off at 2 p.m. with De La Salle trying to extend its streak to nine
Lance Agcaoili
TAR shipped out ace player James Yap in favor of Paul Lee from Rain or Shine on Thursday. On Friday the franchise again rocked the national basketball community by tapping Chito Victolero as head coach, replacing Jason Webb. Victolero, the former interim coach at Mahindra (formerly Kia), was introduced to the Hotshots along with Lee by Star governor Rene Pardo during the team’s practice at the Ronac Center in San Juan City. “Coach Victolero is the only available coach and we believe he can get the job done. We were defeated in most games last season. I’m hoping we can perform well this time,” Pardo said. “I’m not used to seeing our team in the cellar,” said Pardo, as he provided hints the team is on rebuilding mode for the incoming Philippine Basketball Association season on November 20. Webb remained with Star as consultant, while Johnny Abarrientos, Juno Sauler, Mon Jose and Tony Boy Espinosa will remain as assistant coaches.
It was over midway through the final period when the Robins quashed repeated rallies by the Cubs. When it ended, the Robins and their fans celebrated frantically on the court and Alcantara could only smile after enduring some hardships in his early years as Mapua’s tactician. “It was hard at first because people laughed at us whenever we enter the court because they thought we were an elementary team,” Alcantara said. “I also remembered when I first conducted a tryout, my team looked like a quiz bee team, they had to remove their eyeglasses before playing.” “We never won a game on my first year. We were trailing 120 points to La SalleGreenhills and they were still trapping us. The closest of our losses was when we were beaten by just 40 points by Perpetual Help,” Alcantara said. “San Beda beat us by 80 points but they did platoon substitution everytime,” he added. “But I learned to be patient and work harder and I told myself ‘I’ll get back at them someday and I’m very thankful we’re here now.’”
ACE SHOOTER
Roland Tan is part of the Philippine delegation, which raked 56 gold medals during the prestigious Australasia 2016 international shooting competition held at Surabaya, Indonesia, in August. Tan, along with the other team members, will be honored by the Association of Firearms and Ammunition Dealers during the opening of the 24th Defense and Sporting Arms Show Part 2 at the SM Megamall on November 10. The country’s most prestigious gun show will be open to gun enthusiasts until November 14.
BusinessMirror
Star had a forgettable Season 41 under Webb, who went 1224 won-lost the whole year. The Hotshots wound up ninth place in the Philippine Cup, No. 1 in the Commissioner’s Cup and 11th in the ongoing Governors Cup. Victolero, 40, was a former Mapúa Cardinal who donned the Sta. Lucia and FedEx jerseys. He was Manny Pacquiao’s assistant at Mahindra before relinquishing his post to Chris Gavina. “He signified his interest to join us, and we decided to take a look at him as he might be able to help us,” Pardo said of Victolero, who played under coaches Joel Banal, Alfrancis Chua and Philip Cezar. Webb, also a former player and a TV panelist, took over from Grand Slam-winning Coach Tim Cone, moved over to Barangay Ginebra San Miguel. Earlier, Yeng Guiao parted ways with Rain or Shine and signed with NLEX. Several days later, Lee followed suit, soliciting speculations Lee and Guiao would reunite at the Road Warriors camp—with the Hotshots playing conduit. Ramon Rafael Bonilla
CHITO VICTOLERO will have his hands full resuscitating the »Hotshots, who had a miserable season under Webb.
games against UP, which is eyeing its third straight victory. National University (NU) hopes to bounce back from back-to-back losses to Far Eastern University as it battles the skidding University of Santo Tomas (UST) at 4 p.m. The Bulldogs, tied for third spot with Ateneo de Manila, absorbed twin losses to the Tamaraws, including a tough 56-57 decision on Monbert Arong’s game winner. Although the Green Archers have yet to drop a single game this season, Head Coach Aldin Ayo cautioned his wards against the upset-conscious Fighting Maroons. “It will not be easy. The more you win, the harder it gets. All teams are capable of an upset,” Ayo said. “We can’t be complacent and continue to improve as a team.” De La Salle gets a shot in the arm as team skipper Jeron Teng returns to the lineup after sitting out the last two games due to bone spurs in his left foot. UP has won its last two games to match its total number of wins last season. It has five more games to play in the eliminations. Fighting Maroons Coach Bo Perasol admitted how tough task on hand is and those two wins gave his players the confidence they need in facing Ben Mabal and company. “Our goal is to get through each game. Our next game will be the toughest,” Perasol said. Standings: De La Salle, 8-0; Far Eastern University, 7-2; Ateneo, 4-4; NU, 4-4; Adamson, 4-5; UP, 3-6; UE, 2-6; and UST, 2-7. Joel Orellana
Chabon finishes eighth, Superal ties for fourth in Thai golfest
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OFIA CHABON stumbled with a two-over 75 and wound up eighth in the Thailand Ladies Amateur Open, while Princess Superal wavered with a 73 and finished tied for fourth in the National Women’s GAZellwood Classic in Florida on Thursday. Chabon and Superal both struggled with their iron game and putting stroke and missed gaining a shot at the crown after staying in the hunt in the first two days of the two tournaments. The 15-year-old Chabon, four down behind Nur Durriyah Damian after two rounds, had a two-under card after 13 holes at the Legacy Golf Club. But The Country Club (TCC) ace double bogeyed the par-4 14th and the closing par-5 18th ended up with a 75 for a 217 total, 10 strokes behind the veteran Malaysian campaigner, who closed out with a 69 for a 207 to run away with the crown which Filipina Pauline del Rosario won last year. Thais Tunrada Piddon (73), Rina Tatematsu (72), Napabhach Boon-In (75), Atthaya Thithikul (73) and Keerattirya Foocharoen (71) all finished with 215s for joint second. Mika Fortuna shot a 7 to finish joint 10th at 219, while del Rosario also carded a 74 to share 12th place with TCC teammate Bernice Olivarez-Ilas, who hobbled with a 76 for 221s. Over in Florida, Superal failed to sustain a solid 68 in the second with a two-bogey, one birdie effort, her miscues on Nos. 2 and 12, both par-3s, a result of poor tee shots. She actually recovered by birdying the 17th, also a par-3, from 7 feet, but ran out of holes to mount a comeback at the Zellwood Station Country Club.