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DENR struggles to control small-scale mining after deadly slide in Benguet kills dozens

TUNNELS OF

TRAGEDY

RESCUERS carry a body recovered from a landslide caused by Typhoon Ompong in Itogon, Benguet, September 17, 2018. AP PHOTO/AARON FAVILA

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By Jonathan L. Mayuga

NVIRONMENT Secretary Roy A. Cimatu has announced the creation of Task Force Mining Challenge to stop the rampant illegal small-scale mining in gold-rich areas in the country, following a deadly landslide that killed dozens of small-scale miners at a mining site in Barangay Ucab, Itogon, Benguet, during the onslaught of Typhoon Ompong recently.

By Ma. Stella F. Arnaldo | Special to the BusinessMirror

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LEAN it up. This was the warning of Tourism Secretary Bernadette Fatima Romulo Puyat to the local government of El Nido in Palawan, after she personally saw trash collecting in one of its lagoons.

In an interview with the BusinessMirror, Romulo Puyat expressed disappointment over her recent visit, because “there was so much waste [at the lagoon]. And there were so many people eating [in their boats].

They were throwing their waste into the water!” She fumed, “Is that proper? There should be regulations against this!”

She said she would be writing the mayor of El Nido, Nieves Rosento, “to shape up,” as well as her colleagues at the Department of Environment and Natural Re-

sources (DENR) and the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG), so environmental regulations can be strictly enforced in the popular tourist destination.

A video taken by a local tourist of trash floating in the Secret Lagoon in El Nido recently became viral on social media, which was one of the reasons the tourism chief was prompted to accept an invitation to visit El Nido last September 9. “I had been hearing [about this video], so I went to those areas where the tourists go,” said Romulo Puyat.

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late mining,” Cimatu told reporters during a news conference on Wednesday.

legal small-scale mining activities.

The police and military will also be tapped as the task force’s enforcement arm.

“We will legalize and properly supervise small-scale mining, including tax collection,” Cimatu said.

Revenue generating

INSTEAD, Cimatu vowed to legalize the sector by establishing more Minahang Bayan where smallscale mining activities are robust, such as in the Cordillera region, and generate revenues both for the national government and local government units (LGUs).

The Task Force Mining Challenge, he said, is tasked to stop il-

‘Biggies’

THE DENR chief, however, said it does not escape his attention that large-scale mining companies, likewise, operate using heavy Continued on A2

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Admitting that illegal smallscale mining is widespread in gold-rich areas, Cimatu vowed to intensify the campaign against “irresponsible” mining and enforce tighter regulation of the largely unregulated gold mining activity.

The DENR chief, however, said he is not keen on imposing a total ban, saying such will deprive tens of thousands of artisanal smallscale gold miners.

“It is the livelihood of small miners. I am not against smallscale mining, but we need to regu-

Fuming tourism chief warns local govt to clean up El Nido, enforce rules after seeing so much waste at the lagoon

El Nido has been consistently named among the world’s best islands in the world by influential travel publications like Condé Nast Traveller. Visitor arrivals in El Nido reached 200,000 in 2017, according to the tourism office of the municipality, up 58 percent from the arrivals in 2016.

El Nido and other tourist destinations will be coming under the heavier scrutiny of President Duterte for possible environmental violations, although he stopped short of ordering any of them closed.

Romulo Puyat said after a Cabinet meeting last September 11, the President “instructed me to look at all the other tourist destinations to determine their carrying capacities, and make sure they follow environmental laws.”

The instruction came on the heels of Task Force Boracay’s presentation of the carrying capacity of the popular resort island.

She said the “major tourist destinations” that will be studied include Bohol, Siargao, El Nido and Continued on A2

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Source: BSP (September 20, 2018 )

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equipment, including backhoes, dump truck, pay loaders and conveyors, and are “pretending” to be small scale.

“Some of the holes [entry point of a tunnel] are so big that a truck can get in to haul [ores]. They also have conveyors,” Cimatu said.

The official said LGUs that tolerate illegal small-scale mining will also be investigated, as he was informed that some local officials are also into the business of smallscale mining.

There are two mining laws in the Philippines.

Large-scale mining is covered

by Republic Act 7942, or the Philippine Mining Act of 1995, while small-scale mining is covered by RA 7076, or the People’s Smallscale Mining Act of 1991.

Large-scale mining is regulated by the DENR, through the Mines and Geosciences Bureau (MGB), while small-scale mining is regulated by LGUs through the Provincial Mining Regulatory Boards (PMRB).

At the Mining Philippines 2018 Conference and Exhibition on Wednesday night, Cimatu stated, “[I] will do [my] homework” and study the mining laws, adding he was aware of the sentiments of large-scale mining operators as the sector was put into bad light anew because of the Itogon incident.

Cimatu said that he promised local officials in Benguet to fasttrack the processing of the application for a Minahang Bayan in the Cordillera that is compliant with environment and mining laws.

Out of control

TO recall, the conference’s organizer, the Chamber of Mines of the Philippines (COMP), led by its chairman Gerard H. Brimo, the chief executive officer of Nickel Asia Corp., called on the DENR to take a tougher stance against illegal small-scale mining.

In an interview with reporters at the sideline of the event, Brimo expressed dismay that the incident is being blamed on largescale mining.

He said the already heavily regulated and taxed large-scale mining should be spared from what he

A BACKHOE lies on its side as it fell while working on the site of a landslide where victims were believed to have been buried after Typhoon Ompong barreled across Itogon, Benguet, September 17, 2018. Itogon Mayor Victorio Palangdan said that at the height of the typhoon’s onslaught, dozens of people, mostly miners and their families, rushed into an old three-story building in the village of Ucab. The building, a former mining bunkhouse that had been transformed into a chapel, was obliterated when part of a mountain slope collapsed. AP/AARON FAVILA

TUNNELS OF TRAGEDY described as “out of control” illegal small-scale mining activities and that the government can do more by strictly enforcing the law.

“We at the chamber are not against small scale. They have their purpose. But small-scale miners are really out of control,” Brimo said.

He also suggested that the government should look into properly regulating the sector and generate much-needed revenues, instead of imposing new and additional “punishing” taxes to large-scale mining companies.

Under Executive Order 79, small-scale mining should be done in designated Minahang Bayan identified by the PMRB and approved by the DENR-MGB. According to MGB Director Wilfredo Moncano, as far as the DENR is concerned, there are only eight Minahang Bayan in the country. However, he said, there are a dozen locally declared Minahang Bayan.

He said the DENR-MGB is currently processing more than 100 Minahang Bayan applications, even as there are at least 200,000 illegal small-scale miners all over

the country.

Largely unregulated, smallscale gold mining used to comprise 75 percent of the country’s annual gold output.

Prior to 2010, before the Department of Finance and the Bureau of Internal Revenue—through

the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP)—decided to strictly collect the 2-percent excise tax on gold sales in small-scale mining, the country’s gold production value attributed to small-scale mining reached up to P40 billion.

Today, gold production value

attributed to small-scale mining is less than P1 billion, Moncano revealed.

He said he is also not keen on recommending a nationwide ban on small-scale mining, saying it will deprive small-scale miners the access to the country’s natural wealth.

Spoilers in paradise

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Baguio, to name a few. The studies will be conducted in partnership with other members of the task force, chaired by Environment Secretary Roy A. Cimatu, with Romulo Puyat and Interior Officer in Charge Eduardo S. Año serving as vice chairmen.

The secretary of the Department of Tourism (DOT) added the task force was allowed by Duterte to use the same group of scientists from UP Los Baños that crafted the carrying capacity study of Boracay.

The Environmental Literacy Council defines “carrying capacity” as an ecosystem’s ability to support people and other living things without having negative effects.

“Carrying capacity can be affected by the size of the human population, consumption of resources, and the level of pollution and environmental degradation that results.” The council underscores,

however, that carrying capacity “need not be fixed and can be expanded through good management and the development of new resource-saving technologies.”

As this developed, the Tourism Infrastructure and Enterprise Zone Authority (Tieza) recently turned over modular floating docks to the local government of El Nido, a pioneering project the government firm aims to replicate in other tourist destinations.

“We want tourists to be safe wherever they go and this is the start,” said Tieza Chief Operating Officer Pocholo Paragas during the turnover ceremony. A floating dock is a lightweight quay or jetty, floating on pontoons, that rises and falls with the tide and shipping. Compared to stationary docks, floating docks are much safer, long-lasting and efficient to use.

In a news statement, Paragas noted that the growing number of tourists in El Nido has made it

imperative for the government to devise innovative projects to ensure safety and convenience to the island’s visitors, especially the young, elderly and persons with disability.

Known for its pristine beaches and crystal waters, El Nido is one of Palawan’s frequently visited islands, with island-hopping as the main activity of tourists. The lack of proper facilities in transporting island hoppers back and forth may discourage tourists from visiting the islands.

“We plan to replicate the installation of modular floating docks in other island destinations in other parts of the country,” Paragas asserted. “Our task is to ensure that their first step sets the tone of their trip. Island-hopping trips should be fun and safe all the time,” he said.

Tieza also funded the installation of floating docks in Honda Bay Wharf in Puerto Princesa.

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Saturday, September 22, 2018

A3

Govt forcibly evacuates Cebu villages as slide death toll climbs to 22, dozens still missing

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AGA, CEBU—Philippine troops and police forcibly evacuated residents of five villages vulnerable to landslides after the collapse of a mountainside buried dozens of homes and killed at least 22 people in a central region.

Some residents left on their own, but the bulk of more than 1,200 people in villages adjacent or near the landslide-hit area were forcibly moved by authorities on Thursday night, police Chief Supt.

Debold Sinas said on Friday.

Survivors heard a thunderous roar, crashing and banging when the mountainside fell onto rural houses and shanties in two villages in Naga City on Thursday morning. Some trapped in the sludge managed to send text messages pleading for help but the messages stopped within a few hours.

Distraught relatives begged for more backhoes to be brought to the mound of earth and debris, where they hoped loved ones could be pulled out alive, but there were far too few machines to dig for the dozens of people missing.

Resident Nimrod Parba said

one of h is t rapped rel at ives called for help about three hours after the landslide hit, entombing 13 of his kin. “ They are still under the rubble, they are still there. They are covered in shallow earth, we need a backhoe,” Parba said.

A man embracing a child in a house was dug out by rescuers using a backhoe on Thursday night in a poignant scene witnessed by journalists.

Authorities have limited the number of rescuers and other people inside the stricken villages, fearing heavy rains on the loose and soaked ground could cause new slides. T hursday’s landslide also covered part of a river, prompting officials to order a temporary canal to be dug.

About 270 government troops and policemen were deployed to prevent residents from returning

RESCUERS carry a body of a child after being dug out of the rubble following a landslide that buried dozens of homes in the city of Naga, Cebu, on Thursday.

A landslide set off by heavy rains buried homes under part of a mountainside in the central Philippines on Thursday, and several people are feared buried, including two who sent text messages seeking help. AP

to high-risk villages, Sinas said.

President Duter te is to v isit Naga C it y i n Cebu prov i nce l ater Fr id ay a s he faces h i s l atest cr isis.

The landslide in the central region occurred as parts of the far northern Philippines deal with damage from a typhoon

4 dead after Maryland warehouse shooting

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BERDEEN, Maryland—Workers say they endured horrifying moments of wild gunfire and terror as a woman working a temporary job at a drugstore warehouse in Maryland fired on colleagues with a handgun, killing three people before fatally shooting herself.

The shooting, which authorities said was touched off when the worker got into an argument on Thursday morning, sent survivors screaming and running in all directions from the Rite Aid distribution center in northeastern Maryland. Others

Ompong damage reaches ₧17.9B

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AMAGE to infrastructure and agricultu re caused by Typhoon Ompong (international code name Mangkhut) is now at P17.97 billion, the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC) said on Friday.

The NDRRMC ’s 6 a.m. update showed that the agriculture sector suffered the most damages at P14.33 billion and P3.63 billion for infrastructure.

Damages are concentrated at Regions 1 (Ilocos), 2 (Cagayan Valley), 3 (Central Luzon), 4A (Calabarzon), 5 (Bicol) and the Cordillera Administrative Region (C AR), the NDRRMC report said.

The number of families affected by Ompong is placed at 388,136, or equivalent to 1,633,746 persons, living in 4,414 barangays in Regions 1, 2, 3, 4A, 4B (Mimaropa), National Capital Region and the C AR. Some 13,726 families, or around 54,116 individuals, are in 366 evacuation centers.

Families getting help outside evacuation centers are at 18,504, which is equivalent to 74,622 persons.

Some 49,120 houses were damaged—3,861 totally and 45,259 partially—in Regions 1, 2, 3 and the C AR. PNA

nearby helped the wounded and one person tied blood-soaked jeans around an injured man’s leg trying to staunch the bleeding.

Worker Walter Zambrano, 64, said he was fortunate that he was in a bathroom when shooting broke out during a 9 a.m. morning break when workers were gathering in a cafeteria. He hid in the bathroom until the shooting stopped, fearing for his life.

The person was “shooting like crazy, bam! bam! bam!” Zambrano said,

speaking in Spanish. “Everyone was screaming, running this way and that.

I didn’t know which way to run.”

Harford County Sheriff Jeffrey Gahler told a news conference hours later that the woman had been identified as a temporar y employee, Snochia Moseley of Baltimore County. It appears only one weapon was used—a 9mm Glock handgun that was registered in Moseley’s name—and no shots were fired by responding law-enforcement officers, he added.

that hit last weekend. At least 95 people were killed and more than 50 are missing, many in the gold-mining town of Itogon in the north, where landslides hit houses and a chapel where people had gathered in the storm.

Cebu province was not directly hit by Typhoon Mangkhut but the

storm intensified the seasonal monsoon rains that normally fall in tropical Asia.

It’s not clear what set off the landslide, but some residents blamed limestone quarries, which they suspect may have caused cracks in the mountainside facing their villages.

The Philippines is one of the world’s most disaster-prone countries. It is lashed by about 20 tropical storms each year and has active seismic faults where earthquakes and volcanic eruptions occur. Poverty forces many people to live in those vulnerable areas, making natural disasters more deadly. AP

ExportUnlimited

A4 Saturday, September 22, 2018 • Editor: Efleda P. Campos

BusinessMirror

Developing clusters centered near hub seaports seen to boost Philippine exports

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HE Philippines should follow the success of other countries in developing strong export clusters centered near hub seaports in a bid to become a major exporting nation.

A policy brief on Philippine seaports and shipping published by The Arangkada Philippines Project (TAPP) cited as an example of a potential cluster in the Philippines the shipbuilding and ship repair based in Subic.

It said there are three shipyards in the area, with proximity to the Clark airport and Subic seaport.

The paper noted that Clark-SubicTarlac-Pampanga-Zambales region has other potential clusters, such as mango production in Zambales, which could develop into a robust

trading hub, bringing more frequent ship visits into the area.

Aside from Clark-Tarlac-Subic Corridor, the paper cited other ports and airports where the country could build strategic regional clusters, namely, Batangas, Cebu, Coron and Aklan, Davao, Phividec in Cagayan de Oro, Leyte, and Sarangani and General Santos.

While Cebu has many opportunities for clusters in the furniture industry, it pointed out that furniture manufacturers are spread around the city and could be con-

solidated into a planned area near a new modern port.

“Airport, port and logistics infrastructure in various regional cluster areas should be developed to address the need of each kind of goods and its trade traffic,” it said. “Most important, the cluster by its nature must aim to scale up, to lower costs, produce larger volumes, attract larger ships, and lower costs to become competitive in global markets.”

The paper also underscored the need to provide competitive incentives, including fiscal, which will attract domestic and foreign exporters to locate in selected product clusters.

The paper listed Philippine principal exports that the regional leadership can study to look for potential cluster expansion, including electronic products, other manufactured goods, machinery and transport equipment, woodcrafts and furniture, ignition wiring sets,

chemicals, articles of apparel, other mineral products, metal components and coconut oil.

It said Thailand offers a successful model of industrial clustering.

“The quality of port infrastructure, port efficiency and hub port connectivity to feeder ports need considerable improvement. The cost to export should be more competitive and excessive fees imposed by foreign shippers should be regulated,” it noted.

The paper further said ports have been an important part of the country’s economic activity.

“Increasing global trade presents immense opportunity for Philippine ports to scale up to become more significant in intraregional trade. Intra-Asia trade is growing strongly and becoming more important than TransPacific and Asia-Europe shipping,” it added. PhilExport News and Features

DTI, PHL start-ups join the Asean-Korea Startup Week

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HE Philippine delegation, led by the Department of Trade and Industry-Export Marketing Bureau (DTI-EMB), joined the Asean-Korea Startup Week as it strengthens the start-up community in information and communications technology (ICT) among the Asean member-countries on September 13 at the Startup Campus B2F, Pangyo Techno Valley, Seongnam City, South Korea.

The delegation, headed by DTIEMB Director Senen M. Perlada, was composed of Philippine startups Cropital, GetMoreph Inc., Medtrix of HYBrain Development Corp. and Qwikwire Corp.

The conference held during the start-up week was attended by officials from eight Asean nations—Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam—and 54 managing directors of start-ups in the ICT sector. The officials shared their own policies, initiatives, and incentives to promote ICT start-ups in their respective countries. The participants also built networks with their Korean counterparts and pitched business ideas for possible Korean venture capitals.

The Asean-Korea Startup Week was organized by the Asean-Korea Centre and Gyeonggi Center for Creative Economy and Innovation (GCCEI). The event was composed of three programs: The Investment Facilitation Seminar, Demo Day for Asean Startups, and Industrial visits to ICT start-up incubators in Korea.

Two Philippine start-ups, Medtrix and GetMoreph, were among the 16 Asean start-ups that made their pitch. Both systems are de-

SENEN M. PERLADA, director of the Department of Trade and Industry’s Export Marketing Bureau, presents the Philippine Startup Ecosystem during the Asean-Korea Startup Week from September 11 to 13 at Seongnam City, South Korea.

signed to maximize the efficiency of the users, shortens the sales cycle, cuts sales cost, improves customer relationship and manage the sales team better.

Medtrix Healthcare is an innovative digital technology that aims to help pharmaceutical companies actively engage health-care professionals in their medical communications. The company is combining digitalization and platform technology to meet scientific requirements.

GetMoreph is a real-estate technology company in the Philippines that runs a cloud-based software,

called MiDash, for real-estate developers and MiRealty for realestate brokers.

Perlada presented the Philippine Startup Ecosystem during one of the forums. He also gave an impromptu response, in behalf of the Asean government delegates, to the message of Mayor Eun Soo Mi of Seongnam City, South Korea.

He congratulated Mayor Eun Soo-mi for putting up together the Startup Week in Seongnam City. He commended Korea’s startup industry and praised the city for strengthening Korea’s start-up

ecosystem. The Pangyo Techno Valley in Seongnam City is also known as the Silicon Valley of Korea.

Alongside Medtrix and GetMoreph, Qwikwire and Cropital also built networks for possible business collaborations. Qwikwire, a fintech and real estate is an enterprise solution for companies such as real-estate developers and businessprocess outsourcing.

Cropital, a fintech for agriculture, is a crowdfunding platform for smallholder farmers, connecting small farmers in need of production loans to lenders online.

PHL enhances economic relations with Fujian province

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HE Philippines is keen on strengthening economic relations with one of China’s key provinces, Fujian. In a business networking conference organized by the Fujian government and led by Gov. Tang Dengjie on September 14, Trade Secretary Ramon M. Lopez discussed trade and investment opportunities in the Philippines, as well as the Philippine government’s commitment to facilitate ease in doing business in the country.

“We have strong historical ties with Fujian province and its people. Our proximity with each other has attracted so many Fujian investors to do business in the country and partner with other Filipino business groups. Some of the known Filipino-Chinese Taipans trace their origins from Fujian. And now that we have renewed our relationship with China, we can push further our collabo-

ration in enhancing trade and investment relations that would have mutual benefits for both parties,” Lopez said.

The trade chief encouraged Fujian businesses to locate and expand their operations in the Philippines.

He emphasized the Philippines as a critical entry point to over 600 million people in the Asean market and a natural gateway to the EastAsian economies.

He underscored preferential trade agreements with different trading partner countries, such as Asean, Japan, China, Korea, India, Australia and New Zealand. Likewise, he highlighted the Philippines’s participation in United States’s Generalized System of Preferences (GSP), European Union’s Generalised Scheme of Preferences Plus (GSP+), as well as the free-trade agreement signed by the country to the European Free Trade

Association (Efta) member-states.

Lopez reiterated the Philippines’s strong macroeconomic fundamentals, as well as ongoing government reforms and programs, to assist investors in doing business in the country. He also invited Fujian business delegation, particularly those from the construction and engineering industries, to participate in the infrastructure development program of the government and employ Filipino professionals. He emphasized the country’s rich talent pool and young population, wherein 62.4 percent of the population is of working age, between 15 and 64.

Fujian Gov. Tang Dengjie expressed his positive outlook for the Philippine and Fujian economic relations. The governor said the Philippines is an important investment destination for Fujian. He also commended the economic and investment breakthroughs of the

Philippines and China, as well as both parties’ efforts to promote people-topeople relations.

During the conference, 15 cooperation and joint-venture agreements were signed by high-level representatives of Fujian companies and Filipino businesses. The agreements signed covered industry, agriculture, tourism and real-estate collaborations. There were also agreements signed to purchase Philippine banana amounting to $4.51 million from Del Monte Fresh Produce and $6.27 million from Verde Horizon Agri-Ventures Corp.

“Fujian investors and members of their business sector have strong interest in investing in the Philippines considering our potentials. They would also like to ride on our growing economy and join us in maintaining its momentum,” Lopez added.

DTI chief discusses PPP opportunities at the World Economic Forum

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ANOI, Vietnam—Trade Secretary Ramon M. Lopez and Asean heads of state addressed concerns about automation replacing the work force, especially those in the manufacturing sector, even as they agreed that corporations and entrepreneurs need to change business models to adapt to automation, artificial intelligence (AI) and other developments brought about by the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR).

Lopez was the Philippine representative at the World Economic Forum on Asean (WEF) from September 11 to 13 in Hanoi, Vietnam, themed “Asean 4.0: Entrepreneurship and the Fourth Industrial Revolution.” At the sidelines of the WEF, Lopez also discussed prospective public-private partnerships (PPPs) with Nissan Ltd. and Fullerton Health.

“Rather than replacing people and bringing down employment, technology creates new, higher-paying jobs,” Lopez said. “For example, the entry of ATMs was expected to replace bank tellers and bring down employment figures, but business and employment growth continued and there were just adjustments in the nature of jobs.”

During the forum, it was agreed on that countries must shift to egovernment systems and reskill their people. On intraregional trade, technology will connect the data windows of customs offices through the Asean Single Window.

Also in attendance at the WEF were Prime Ministers Nguyen Xuan Phuc (Vietnam), Lee Hsien Loong (Singapore), Hun Sen (Cambodia), Thongloun Sisoulith (Lao PDR); Deputy Prime Minister Prajin Juntong (Thailand); and President Joko Widodo (Indonesia).

The Philippines is already preparing for the 4IR, through initiatives lead by the DTI. At the forefront is the i3S or the Inclusive, Innovation-led, Industrial Strategy, wherein academe, in-

dustry and government sectors collaborate to solve business innovation challenges.

The agency is also streamlining and automating the business registration process through Project One, a three-phase project that will produce one portal, one form and one business number.

The portal is already accessible at www.projectone.ph.

For entrepreneurs, the Philippine Trade Training Center (P T TC) was conver ted in a n MSME academy earlier this year.

The academy offers several training modules on e-commerce.

Meanwhile, Nissan Ltd., headed

by Senior Vice President Yutaka Sanada, expressed interest in bringing electric vehicles in the country.

The company also wants to collaborate on training Filipino engineers.

“We need to harvest the power of public-private collaboration to bring the benefits of advanced mobility to our roads,” Nissan Asia & Oceania (@NissanAO) said in a tweet about the meeting.

Lopez also met with David Sin, cofounder, group president and deputy chairman of Fullerton Healthcare Corp. Lopez encouraged Sin to invest in the Philippine pharmaceuticals industry and connected him to relevant government agencies to explore a PPP. “The President is pushing for a more unified, effective and lowcost health care for the Filipino people. I saw the potential of this company to partner with our government to provide accessible and affordable health care in the country,” Lopez said.

The trade chief also opened the similar opportunity to pharmaceutical companies he met through the EU-Asean Business Council led by Donald Kanak. The Philippines, Lopez said, is seeking investors to improve research and development in the industry to produce low-cost, good-quality medicines such that of India.

Online marketplace helps MSMEs do more business in Asia Pacific

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ORE micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) in Asia Pacific are encouraged to go into cross-border online platform to help them do more business in the region.

The Philippines has the highest number of visitors and registered active users in the Apec MSME Marketplace among the 21 member-economies of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (Apec).

The Marketplace has 685 registered MSMEs and total visitors of 10,054 from Apec economies.

Launched on September 15, 2017, during the 24th Apec MSME Ministerial Meeting in Vietnam, the Marketplace which showcases MSME products and trade facilitation services, is the result of the collective efforts of Apec members to contribute to the shared vision of mainstreaming the MSMEs into the global economy.

The cross-border business-tobusiness (B2B) platform is the part of the Philippine commitment to implement the Iloilo Initiative: Growing Global MSMEs for Inclusive Development adopted by the Apec SME Ministers in 2015.

The Marketplace showcases 64 company databases/trade directories, including the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) Tradeline’s Philippine Exporters Directory and Philippine Sourcing Directory and the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas’s Directory of Philippine Merchandise Exporters with over 5,000 listings of MSMEs. Four Philippine government marketplaces are featured in the Marketplace, including Go Lokal!,

a retail concept store showcasing quality and innovative products crafted, designed and produced by local MSMEs; and the Department of Trade and Industry’s E-Commerce web site, InDOStriya.

An e-commerce Web application, oneStoreHub, helps the Department of Science and Technology’s assisted MSMEs widen the scope of their target market; and Mimaropa Ventures, an online Marketplace for government-assisted MSMEs in the Mimaropa (Mindoro, Marinduque, Romblon and Palawan) region, are also listed in the Marketplace.

A total of 34 government marketplaces in Apec are showcased in the Marketplace.

There are 158 private marketplaces listed in the Marketplace. For the Philippines, 19 marketplaces are featured, including ebay.ph, Lazada, Metro Deal, OLX and Zalora.

The Philippine-led Apec Trade Directory is a key section of the Apec MSME Marketplace providing information on trade regulations across Apec.

When one clicks the member economy page, for example the Philippines, other information can be accessed including link to the PNTR, a Web-based portal that provides a single source of comprehensive, accurate and up-to-date information on all trade-related matters.

The Philippines’s “Capacity Building for Small and Medium Enterprises and Competition Policy and Law” tool kit was added to highlight the role of SMEs in stimulating a competitive economy.

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

Sports

BusinessMirror

Saturday, September 22, 2018

A5

FENCERS ALL

Fencers take part in a flashmob organized by the Hungarian Fencing Federation to mark World Fencing Day in Heroes’ Square in Budapest recently.

Hungary will host the World Fencing Championships from July 15 to 23, 2019. The tournament will serve as a qualifying event for the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo. AP

JAPAN PREPARES FOR TYPHOONS, EARTHQUAKES Ladies tennis meet set at Manila Polo

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HE Philippine Ladies Tennis League 2018 kicks off in Manila Polo on Monday up to October 19 with players from 18 teams seeing action in Class A and B doubles categories.

The matches are set at 9 a.m. after the traditional parade of teams that will determine the winners in Best in Uniform. The ceremonial serve will be hit at 8 a.m.

The tournament is presented by David’s Salon and has Panasonic Beauty as title sponsor. The event is also sanctioned by the Philippine Tennis Association and supported by Tecnifibre, The Henry, Fila, Madison Galleries, Panasonic Cooking, Forty Winks and Regenesis.

UTMOST CONCERN T

National U, DLSU chess bets sparkle

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ATIONAL University (NU) and De La Salle opened their title-retention bids in the men’s and women’s division by topping Ateneo in the University Athletic Association of the Philippines Season 81 chess tournament last Wednesday at the University of Santo Tomas Quadricentennial Pavilion.

With reigning Most Valuable Player, International Master Paulo Bersamina leading the charge, the “fourpeat-seeking” Bulldogs blanked the Blue Eagles, 4-0.

The Lady Woodpushers, with Woman Candidate Master Mira Mirano now playing at the top board, overpowered the Lady Eagles, 3-1.

Aside from Bersamina also emerging victorious for NU were Christian Magtabog, Robin Ignacio and rookie Arnel June Iligan.

Ella Moulic and Samantha Revita supported Mirano by providing wins for De La Salle.

In other men’s results, University of the Philippines nipped De La Salle, 2.5-1.5, Far Eastern University overwhelmed University of the East, 3.5-.5, while Adamson University downed UST, 3-1.

Women’s action also saw Adamson University edging FEU, 2.5-1.5, UP nosing out NU, 2.5-1.5, and UE and UST battling to a 2-2 draw.

DALLAS Mavericks owner Mark Cuban advocates to further the cause of women in sports and raise awareness about domestic violence.

AP

A PAIR of official mascots of the Rugby World Cup 2019 “Ren-G” (Ren, in white, and G, in red) walk at the stage during the one-year-to-go kickoff event on Thursday in Tokyo. AP

Allianz signs up as Olympics sponsor

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HE International Olympic Committee (IOC) announced recently that Allianz signed up as a global Olympics sponsor from 2021 to 2028, adding that the global insurer will join the “Worldwide Olympic Partner” (TOP) Program.

Through the sponsorship agreement, Allianz will work with the IOC to provide innovative and integrated insurance solutions to support the Olympic Movement, including the Organizing Committees of the Olympic Games, with the objective of providing those insurance solutions to the National Olympic Committees around the world and their Olympic teams and athletes.

The support will include existing products, such as fleet and property and casualty insurance, but also insurance

solutions for future products and services, driven by technological changes. The partnership will run from 2021 until 2028.

Both partners are aiming at using the power of sports to connect with new audiences via digital channels, including the Olympic Channel. Engaging the next generation in their preferred way gives Allianz the opportunity to cover their insurance needs.

The sponsorship period will cover the Winter Games Beijing 2022, Summer Games Paris 2024, Olympic Winter Games 2026 and Summer Games LA 2028. In China, France and Spain, Allianz will already have marketing rights from 2019 onward.

Allianz PNB Life Chief Marketing Officer Gae Martinez

said the partnership emphasizes the values of integrity, teamwork and inclusivity, which are relevant values for Filipinos.

“Engaging digital natives is an important strategy undertaken by Allianz in the Philippines, seeing how digital conversations have dominated consumer behavior,” Martinez said.

Allianz PNB Life Director for Brand and Communications Rei Abrazaldo said that Allianz and the Olympics coming together will amplify the message of Allianz to dare individuals to pursue the best versions of themselves and as families and communities to work in collaboration to advance a better working environment.

“This new partnership demonstrates the global appeal and strength of the Olympic Movement, and we are delighted to be working together in the long term with Allianz to support sports around the world,” IOC President Thomas Bach said.

Mavs owner Cuban donates $10M after workplace probe

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ALLAS—Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban has agreed to contribute $10 million to help further the cause of women in sports and raise awareness about domestic violence after an investigation released on Wednesday substantiated numerous incidents of sexual harassment and improper workplace conduct

within the franchise going back more than 20 years.

Investigators hired by the outspoken billionaire said there was no evidence to show Cuban knew of the most explosive allegations involving former team president Terdema Ussery. But the report faulted Cuban for not firing two employees when there were clear signs he should have.

The report was made public some seven months after Sports Illustrated (SI) detailed years of examples of a hostile workplace for women on the business side of the team.

Anne Milgram, one of the lead investigators and former attorney general in New Jersey, said Cuban didn’t know many details of allegations because he was rarely in the club’s business office. It is housed away from the home arena and basketball operations.

But when some issues were brought to Cuban’s attention, he erred by not acting swiftly, the report said.

In one case, a successful ticket salesman wasn’t fired after surveillance video showed a used condom slipping out of his pants. Years earlier, Cuban had been told

OKYO—Organizers of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics are concerned about it. So are those running the Rugby World Cup in Japan, which opens with Japan facing Russia on September 20, 2019, in Tokyo.

The concern? Natural disasters, like earthquakes and typhoons.

This month the strongest typhoon in 25 years hit the western part of the country, killing 11. A few days later, 41 people were killed by a powerful earthquake on the northern island of Hokkaido.

“It’s a real hot topic for us right now,” Tournament Director Alan Gilpin said.

The Rugby World Cup, held every four years, is big.

It lasts more than six weeks with 20 teams entered in four pools headed by New Zealand, Ireland, Australia and England. Some of the sport’s lesser powers are also involved like Uruguay, Namibia and Russia.

Of the contingency planning for extreme weather, Gilpin said: “It’s a complex piece and something we would do for every tournament. But this one has a heightened sense of realism to it. We have to take it seriously.”

Gilpin pointed out that, although Japan is subject to earthquakes in particular, no country is better equipped to handle them.

“There’s also a heightened sense of comfort that Japan deals with these issues all the time. It’s not as though we’re dealing with a one-off here.”

It’s the first time rugby’s showcase event will be staged in Asia, having started in 1987 with a Rugby World Cup held jointly

by Australia and New Zealand. The tournament has also been hosted across Britain and Ireland, France and South Africa.

Japan caused the biggest upset in Rugby World Cup history with a win over South Africa in England four years ago and has a growing following of fans, adding extra intensity to the opening match.

The remainder of the opening weekend is set to feature some heavyweight matches, with three-time and defending champion New Zealand meeting South Africa in Yokohama, France playing Argentina in Tokyo, two-time World Cup champion Australia facing Olympic sevens gold medalist Fiji in Sapporo, and Ireland and Scotland going head-to-head, and England taking on Tonga.

There’s already tension rising among some of the leading contenders after last weekend when South Africa beat the All Blacks in New Zealand for the first time in nine years, and Argentina edged the Wallabies in Australia for the first time since 1983.

About 1.8 million spectators are expected in 2019 to fill stadiums in 12 cities around Japan, and the TV broadcast will go to a record global audience.

“World Rugby selected Japan as we believed in the tremendous opportunity to further the sport across Asia, and I am delighted to say that with a year to go, we are confident that Japan 2019 will be a very special, successful and game changing Rugby World Cup,”World Rugby Chairman Bill Beaumont said. “It will be the most impactful Rugby World Cup ever, attracting and retaining more than 1 million new rugby players in Asia.” AP pornography was found on the employee’s computer, and Cuban warned him that he would be fired if it happened again.

When told about the condom, Cuban was not aware of any further issues with pornography on the computer and wrote to Ussery, “Don’t make a bigger issue out of it than it is.” The employee wasn’t fired until three years later after other issues came up, including with a new female employee.

In another case, Cuban didn’t fire team web site reporter Earl Sneed after learning of a second domestic violence allegation against him. The accuser was another Mavericks employee. Sneed was fired after the SI report. AP

A6

BusinessMi

Saturday, September 22, 2018 | Editor: Jun Lomibao

QUINTANA SETS SIGHT ON TOUR DE FRANCE N

AIRO QUINTANA (Movistar) has revealed that he will ride the Tour de France in 2019, though the remainder of his program and the makeup of the Movistar team that will accompany him is still to be decided.

The Colombian has endured a disappointing 2018 season, placing eighth overall at the Vuelta a España and 10th at the Tour, where he claimed stage victory atop the Col du Portet but his already faint podium hopes were furthered tempered by a crash the following day.

“I’ll certainly be at the Tour de France [in 2019],” Quintana told Marca after completing the Vuelta on Sunday. “We’ll have to see how and with whom, that will

be decided at the end of the season.”

In 2018 Movistar deployed all three of its Grand Tour leaders at the Tour, with Quintana joined in the lineup by Alejandro Valverde and Mikel Landa. The trio of galacticos failed to make a telling impact in the face of Team Sky’s dominance, however, with Landa placing seventh in Paris and Valverde taking 14th overall.

Movistar’s best result in a Grand Tour in 2018 was ultimately provided by Richard Carapaz at the Giro d’Italia. The Ecuadorian underlined his potential by placing fourth overall in Rome and winning a stage at Montevergine di Mercogliano.

In an interview with Spanish radio station Onda Cero this weekend, Valverde

said that would skip the Tour and instead ride the Giro and Vuelta in 2019. He placed third overall on his lone Giro appearance in 2017.

Landa, absent from the Vuelta due to injury, confirmed last week that he will remain at Movistar in 2019 despite interest from Astana.

Valverde was Movistar’s best performer at this Vuelta, and he was in contention for overall victory until the race reached its denouement in Andorra before eventually dropping to fifth place overall.

Despite Valverde’s brace of stage wins, Quintana classed Movistar’s Vuelta as a disappointment. The Colombian began the final week within touching distance of red jersey Simon Yates (Mitchelton-Scott), but he faded from contention on Monte Oiz on

Wednesday and then fell short in his bid to win a stage in Andorra.

“It’s a sad day. We haven’t fulfilled our objectives. Valverde didn’t get on the podium and I didn’t win a stage,” Quintana told Marca on the Vuelta’s final day. “We’ll take time to think and look at where we failed. We’ll have to assess things, but we’ll do it calmly. We have to work to be at the top level again.”

Quintana will be part of a strong Colombian team for the elite men’s road race at the Innsbruck World Championships.

Astana’s Miguel Angel Lopez—third overall at the Vuelta—and Rigoberto Uran (EF Education First-Drapac) will also be in the team, and Quintana was coy about the

hierarchy of the squad.

“It will be decided at the time, depending on who is up there,” Quintana said. “But we have to take advantage of this great Colombian team that we have and go to win.”

Cyclingnews

NAIRO QUINTANA has endured a disappointing 2018 season, placing eighth overall at the Vuelta a España and 10th at the Tour de France.

HISTORIC TRIPLE What makes those results even more remarkable is that, before 2018, Britain had never won the Giro d’Italia, and before 2017, the country had never won the Vuelta a España— and that for Simon Yates and Geraint Thomas, these are firsttime Grand Tour successes.

W

HEN Simon Yates (Mitchelton-Scott) stepped up onto the podium of the Vuelta a España for one last time, he was completing an unprecedented Grand Tour “set” of success for Great Britain.

Prior to Chris Froome in the Giro d’Italia, Geraint Thomas in the Tour de France and Yates in the Vuelta a España, no nation had ever taken all three Grand Tours in the same year with different riders.

What makes those results even more remarkable is that, before 2018, Britain

BRITISH cycling celebrates historic triple of Grand Tour success with the victories of Simon Yates, Geraint Thomas and Chris Froome.

had never won the Giro d’Italia, and before 2017, the country had never won the Vuelta a España—and that for Yates and Thomas, these are first-time Grand Tour successes.

There has been a run of more than five Grand Tour wins in the past by the same nation and it has been equalled, too, but it is not easy to compare.

The French won six straight Tour de France from 1903-1908 on the trot, which is six Grand Tours, but that was before the Giro and Vuelta were held. Then in 1924-1926 before the Vuelta started in the mid-1930s, Giuseppe Enrici, Octavio Bottechia, Alfredo

Binda and Giovanni Bruneo won three Giros and two Tours for Italy.

The only time in the postwar era when all three Grand Tours were up and running where a single nation won all three Grand Tours five times in succession was in 19631964. Jacques Anquetil won the Tour and Vuelta in 1963, then the Giro and Tour in 1964, and Raymond Poulidor took the Vuelta (then held in April) in 1964, as well.

It’s not unknown for nations to win all three Grand Tours in one year, the most recent being Alberto Contador and Carlos Sastre taking the Vuelta, Giro and Tour, respectively in

2008, but it is extremely rare.

Only France, in 1964 with Anquetil and Pouldor, has done that in the post-1955 era, when all three Grand Tours were running regularly. Britain, therefore, is only the third nation to do that and the first with three different riders.

Curiously enough, while Britain has dominated in the Grand Tours, the country’s track record in Monuments and one day Classics remains much less stellar.

Mark Cavendish’s win in the 2009 Milan-San Remo remains the last victory for a Briton in one of the Monuments and

his gold and silver medals in the World Championships Road Race are equally unparalleled achievements for Great Britain.

At World Tour level since then, Geraint Thomas has won the E3 Harelbeke, Adam Yates has won the Clásica San Sebastián and Ian Stannard has captured the Omloop Het Nieuwsblad twice, as well as making it onto the podium of Paris-Roubaix.

But in the Grand Tours, Britain has been much more consistently successful. The million-dollar question is, of course, how long it can continue. Cyclingnews

British Cycling rolls out new-look kit for Worlds

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RITISH Cycling and Kalas have unveiled a new racing kit to be used by British riders at the International Cycling Union (UCI) Road World Championships in Innsbruck.

The predominantly white jersey is said to be inspired from a 1959 design and features red trim paired with navy blue shorts.

Previous years’ designs have relied heavily on the national flag on the jersey but the new design swaps out the Union Flag design for large “GBR” lettering on the chest in a custom typeface, specifically designed for the kit.

The kit’s design and technical features have had direct input from the Great Britain cycling team’s riders and coaches for the collection.

Stephen Park, Great Britain Cycling Team’s performance director, said in a press release: “High performance clothing is crucial to delivering results in today’s world of competitive cycling, so having a clothing supplier with such in-depth knowledge and a high level of service is invaluable to the Great Britain Cycling Team.

“The riders are at the heart of everything we do, so it was important for us that they played a key role in designing a kit that was bespoke to the squad, that looks good and that they were proud to wear without compromising on performance or quality.

“I look forward to seeing the collection on its first outing at the UCI Road World Championships in Innsbruck in the coming days.”

Dani Rowe, who will be representing Great Britain in the women’s elite road race, added: “Having us all involved in the design process was a great idea.

“Our ideas were listened to and I’m really pleased with the outcome—it’s a modern twist on a classic design and will keep us visible in the peloton when we race. I’m looking forward to putting our new kit through its paces in Austria.”

Czech company Kalas have been producing technical sportswear since 1990 and first partnered with Britain’s cycling team in January 2017.

The kit will be used on the track for the first time at the UCI Track Cycling World Cup in December. Cyclingnews

Yates overtakes Sagan to top world rankings

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PETER SAGAN finds himself at No. 2 in the world rankings.

ITH his victory in the Vuelta a España, Mitchelton-Scott’s Simon Yates overtook Peter Sagan to move into the lead of the International Cycling Union (UCI) WorldTour rankings.

The Briton racked up a whopping 1,230 points, thanks to his stage win on Les Praeres and his 10 days in the red leader’s jersey. The results came on top of his tally from the Giro d’Italia, which he led for 13 days and won two stages, and his stage win and second place overall in the Tour de Pologne. Earlier in the season, Yates won a stage in Paris-Nice and in the Volta a Catalunya, and finished second and fourth overall, respectively.

Although Yates pushed Sagan to second in the WorldTour rankings, with Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) in third, the world champion continues to lead the World rankings, which include all UCI-ranked results,

over Quick-Step Floors’ Julian Alaphilippe and Elia Viviani. Sagan failed to win a stage at the Vuelta a España but won Gent-Wevelgem and Paris-Roubaix in the spring and then three stages at the Tour de France.

Mitchelton-Scott’s Shayne Bannan lauded Yates’s accomplishments.

“To see Simon at the top of the WorldTour rankings is testament to a lot of hard work and incredible results this season. As a team, we are especially proud of the fact he is ‘homegrown’.

We saw him as a talent when we signed him as a neo-pro in 2014, but to witness how far he has come and how quickly he has achieved, such success is incredible,” Bannan said.

“Not only have we enjoyed a fantastic three weeks of racing, winning our first-ever men’s Grand Tour, but we now lead the UCI WorldTour in both the men and women’s rankings.”

Mitchelton-Scott’s Annemiek van Vleuten leads both the UCI Women’s WorldTour and the UCI World Rankings.

“2018 has been a fantastic season for both our men and women’s teams, and to have riders leading the WorldTour in both categories is a great acknowledgement of how consistent our riders have been throughout the year,” Bannan said.

Quick-Step Floors, with its huge tally of victories this season, holds a sizeable lead in the teams rankings, with Team Sky in second and Bora-Hansgrohe narrowly ahead of Mitchelton-Scott in third.

The UCI Americas Tour wrapped up with the Colorado Classic, and Gavin Mannion finished atop the rankings thanks to his overall victory in that race. His UnitedHealthcare squad also finished the season as the topranked team. Cyclingnews

THE British will be wearing a minimalist-designed suit in Innsbruck.

irror CYCLING

mirror_sports@yahoo.com.ph | Saturday, September 22, 2018

A7

Avancini makes Brazil proud O NE week after the cross-country Olympic and downhill International Cycling Union (UCI) Mountain Bike World Championships, off-road action shifted to Auronzo in Italy for the 16th edition of the UCI Mountain Bike Marathon World Championships.

Henrique Avancini became the first Brazilian rider in mountain bike history to win a world title with his victory in the men’s race, while Annika Langvad of Denmark successfully defended her title in the women’s race to take her fifth win in the Marathon.

The event took place in one of the most beautiful landscapes in the world, within the Unesco World Heritage site Tre Cime di Lavaredo, in the Italian Dolomites mountains. Women raced 89 kilometers and climbed 3,400 meters, while the men covered 102 kilometers and climbed 4,200 meters.

The women’s race saw most of the top contenders close together as they went over the first climb, including Langvad and other former winners Gunn-Rita Dahle Flesjaa of Norway and Maja Wloszczowska of Poland. However, by the time they reached the Tre Cime climb it was only Langvad at the front, with Christina Kollmann-Forster of Austria a distant second, more than seven minutes back, and Wloszczowska in third, which

was the finishing order. Six-time winner Dahle Flesjaa was fourth and recent crowned XCO UCI World Champion Kate Courtney of the USA finished ninth.

“It was really tough, for sure the most selective race I’ve ever took part in,” said Langvad. “I tried to be aggressive from the very first climb. Since I felt fine, I kept my pace until the end, and I managed to increase the distance from my opponents. I could not be more stoked about ending my season like this! A massive thanks to all the people and my specialized mountain bike team who were behind me for making this possible.”

In the men’s race, the lead group of 14 was gradually whittled down to just five by the Tre Cime climb—Avancini, Hector Paez Leon (Colombia), Howard Grotts (USA), Alexey Medvedev (Russia) and Daniel Geismayr (Austria), the defending bronze medalist. Paez Leon was the first to attack, but Avancini and Geismayr bridged across, dropping the others for good. Coming into the final kilometer, Avancini and Geismayr were still together, with Paez Leon only 10 meters back, setting the stage for a sprint finish after 102 kilometers of racing. Avancini came out of the last corner with a few bike lengths lead and held it to the finish line. UCI News

U.C.I. ROAD WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS

NO PLACE LIKE HOME R

IDERS have few opportunities to represent their country, and the International Cycling Union (UCI) World Championships are among the rare occasions they can compete in their national colors. Even more rare is having the chance to pull on their national jersey in their home country.

This year, Austrian riders will be able to do just that when the 2018 UCI Road World Championships begin on Sunday in Innsbruck-Tirol.

Bernhard Eisel, a veteran UCI WorldTour

rider with Team Dimension Data, knows what it is like to race the Worlds at home, having represented Austria at the 2006 UCI Road World Championships in Salzburg, where he was 11th in Elite men’s road race.

“Doing World Championships on the road is always something special. You don’t race for your team, you race with your mates who you maybe raced with when you were young. It’s completely different; you ride for pride, like when you were young. I’ve done a lot of World Championships around the world, but definitely

Salzburg was a special one for me. It was perfect until the last corner, when a group went away.

When I look back...we went into the last lap with five Austrians crossing the finish line first. This is something we will all never forget.”

More of a sprinter, Eisel will not race for Austria at the mountainous Innsbruck-Tirol UCI Road World Championships.

“I knew Innsbruck wouldn’t be easy, and when they announced the course I knew it definitely wasn’t for me! We have many strong young riders coming up now, so we’ll have a really

good team for the Championships. But I will be there for the whole week and watching from the side of the road with a beer in my hand.

“Definitely there is pressure, but it doesn’t come from the country, it comes from within the rider himself. When you have home Worlds, the plan never leaves you.... As soon as they announce the UCI World Championships in your home country, you start thinking about it. At every training ride, it crosses your mind and you focus on it. The national sport director will get nervous, but he will not show it to the rider. The rider will

feel the pressure that he builds up himself, but you need that healthy pressure inside yourself to be good.”

Lukas Pöstlberger, who rides for the BoraHansgrohe World Tour team, will represent Austria at his home Worlds in the Elite men’s road race.

“Having the UCI World Championships in your own country is not an everyday event—the Worlds itself is already not! So, having both together and happening in my active career is really unique!”

“The circuit is one of the hardest I’ve ever

M.T.B. WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS

Switzerland’s Jolanda Neff competes in women’s cross country elite at the International Cycling Union mountain bike World Championships recently in Lenzerheide, Switzerland. AP

seen. It’s a fact, and every rider and nation has to deal with it. ‘Only the strongest will survive’ is going to be the quote. I’m really curious to see how the race is going to be, and how it will be to race on the circuit.”

“I’m really proud and it’s a big honor to be selected for the team to compete against the best of the world on my home soil. Even when the parcours is not really fitted to my abilities, I’ll give my best to support our captain Patrick Konrad to make these Worlds maybe more special than all others.” UCI News

OurTime

A8 Saturday, September 22, 2018 • Editor: Efleda P. Campos

BusinessMirror

A child of the streets turns hero in Cebu

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By Jennee Grace U. Rubrico | Special to the BusinessMirror

N 1981 13-year-old Egmedio “Bill” Felisan was apprehended for eating food left unattended at a stall. He had thought they were someone’s leftovers.

He was turned over to a facility where street children from different parts of Cebu City were gathered.

(As part of Unicef Philippines’s 70th anniversary, the UN’s child rights agency honors modern-day heroes committed to bringing a brighter future for the next generation of Filipinos. This is one such story.)

This was not Bill’s first act of mischief, nor was it his first brush with law enforcers. The boy hustled to survive, meeting arriving ships to ask passengers to drop coins into the sea so he could dive for it. He sifted through trash to sell what he could for food. He stole unattended slippers to resell. When he was hungry, he would steal corn and other crops to eat.

Bill was used to running away from the police. He was caught with other street children and marooned on an island during city events. But the boy from the pier would go behind the guard’s back to swim to the city and take part in the festivities.

“We did not know that what we were doing was wrong. We committed many violations at the pier because our enemies were the law enforcers. They would catch us,” Bill recalled.

In this latest facilit y, Bil l thought his time was finally up.

There were many of them from the streets, the market and the pier.

The children had been gathered through Operation Fishnet, a Cebu City initiative to take juvenile delinquents off the streets.

Bill was instead handed a ticket to a new life in what turned out to be the Community Scouts Youth Guidance Center, which was part of an experimental project for minors in conflict with the law.

Under the project, apprehended street children were sent to the facility for rehabilitation instead of jail.

Cases were not filed against them,

FELISAN

and they were required to go to school. Bill was among the first batch of minors received by the center.

The administrator briefed the children about the program. Bill knew this was his chance. He had to follow house rules. Like other residents, he also had the responsibility of washing softdrink bottles.

“The center’s program was for us to have a family. They thought of us as family. We would go to school. We even had parents and siblings waiting for us. We went home to the center after our classes, and we went home to a real house,” he said.

When he learned they could go to school, he fetched his two younger siblings to stay with him at the center.

Bill, who had stopped at fifth grade, picked up from where he left off. During his sophomore year in high school, he took a placement exam that allowed him to go straight to college. He applied for and got a scholarship, which allowed him to complete a bachelor’s degree in Industrial Technology,

major in Electronics.

Bill’s life of juvenile mischief then came full circle. The boy who had spent his life running away from men in uniform ended up becoming a policeman. He continued with the Community Scouts and gave the same care for the incoming minors as was once done for him.

While he did not know it at that time, Bill became part of a diversion program for children in conflict with the law long before the Juvenile Justice and Welfare Act (Republic Act 9344), which institutionalized the rehabilitative process, was even passed.

W hen deliberations for R A 9344 were finally conducted in Congress, Bill became one of the resource persons who fought for the inclusion of diversion programs into the legislation.

Now 50, a husband and a father, and better known as Kuya Bill, SPO4 Felisan has made it his life’s work to help transform minors who tread the path he once walked.

After the Community Scouts— now a United Nations Children’s Fund-supported facility—moved out of its old location in 2007 to a four-story building in Duljo, Cebu, SPO4 Felisan decided to bring the program to schools and the streets. The program has also been adopted by municipalities and every year, he conducts it in different areas.

As a member of Cebu City’s Police Community Relations, he speaks on juveniles and women, and in different fora on the life-changing effects of diversion programs. As vice president of the multisectoral Men Opposed to Violence Against Children Everywhere, he has advocated for diversion as a response to juvenile delinquency. He has won awards for his contributions to juvenile justice.

SPO4 Felisan has used his story to give children once like him a second chance.

“There are others, especially those who already have tattoos, they say ‘I am already muddied, big brother. There is no hope for me.’

But I challenge them. I tell them what I was like before. I tell them, this uniform was the one that used to chase me, but now, I’m wearing it,” Felisan said earnestly. “The uniform that I hated before is the one that God used to save me.”

Smart trains Cebu ‘milleniors’ to be techies

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IXTY is the new 40. This isn’t just a catchphrase for people trying to keep aging at bay. Scientists affirm that what (or who) was considered old, say, a century ago, is no longer so today. Besides living longer healthier, lives, today’s “old” folks have characteristics of younger people, one study said.

Look no further for proof: grandparents on Facebook. From staying in touch with younger family members here and abroad, to keeping themselves informed and entertained, these seniors are keeping pace with the fast-changing, techdriven world.

Smart has dubbed them “millenniors,” or seniors who are tech-savvy like millennials. The telco developed a program to guide them in the proper use of smartphones and instruct them about mobile data, social media and online video streaming. “I log on to Facebook and catch up with my grandchildren and their ‘millennial things,’” said Paz Pangilinan, a senior from Barangay 734 in Paco, Manila, where the Smart Millenniors program had its pilot run last year.

Dorina Naldo, secretary of Barangay Dalipuga Seniors’ Association in

Iligan City, is a regular YouTube user.

“I never imagined I could listen to songs of my favorites, Victor Wood and Tom Jones, which are seldom played on radio these days. The best part is, I can play them anytime,” she said.

A smartphone and social media have spared Virginia Pangilinan, 80, the strenuous road trips just to see family members living elsewhere.

“Thanks to Facebook, I can now talk more often to relatives abroad whom I haven’t seen in a while,” said Lilia Cos, 60.

These women all participated in the Smart Millenniors program, conducted across the country with the help of student volunteers from Manila, Cebu and Iligan City, particularly, Adamson University, Coalition for Better Education and EduStudio in Cebu, and Mindanao State University– Iligan Institute of Technology (MSU-IIT) School of Computer Studies-Executive Council.

Program participants included residents of Barangays 734 and 672 in Paco, Manila; Barangays Dalipuga and Santiago in Iligan City; and members of the Philippine Association of Retired

Persons in Cebu.

For promoting the teaching of technology among seniors and engaging the youth in this endeavor, the Smart Millenniors program won an Award of Merit at the recent 16th Philippine Quill Awards, and a Silver Anvil at the 53rd Anvil Awards in March.

The program offered lessons as well for the volunteer trainers, mostly millennials.

“Like us, seniors are also looking to learn new ways to improve their lives,” said Shun Camannong, of Adamson. “We just have to listen to what they’re saying, and be open to their questions.”

Jomari Ferolino, of Cebu, a school teacher, said he found the interaction with the “once-young” quite fulfilling. It reminded him of his parents.

“I realized I needed to teach them as well about technology.”

“This activity only proves one thing: Learning is ageless,” said EduStudio director Mardy Verano, who trained the Cebu volunteers. “When one is a learner, one can be anyone he or she wants to be. It has to do with attitude.

And with technology, it becomes even better.”

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Elegant seniors reign at Ms. Eternal Beauty Lipa 2018 beauty pageant

WINNERS of the Ms. Eternal Beauty Lipa join officials of Eternal Gardens on stage on September 15 at the Eternal Gardens Lipa park grounds in Lipa City, Batangas, during their coronation. On stage from left are: Eternal Gardens Management Information Systems Manager Geoffrey Coberos, Vice President for Sales and Marketing Jose Antonio V. Rivera, Engr. Alyssa Marie Cailao, Hsueh Jung Hsu, Kristine Joy Alina-Quinto, Ms. Eternal Beauty Lipa First Runner-up Aida Lalusin, Ms. Eternal Beauty Lipa 2018 Cecile Sebastian, Ms. Eternal Beauty Lipa Second Runner-up Luzviminda Rellis, Eternal Gardens President and Chief Operating Officer Numeriano B. Rodrin, Eternal Gardens Lipa Branch Manager Jocelyn Ann Buendia, Eternal Gardens Batangas City Branch Manager Arlin de los Reyes and Eternal Gardens Lipa Marketing Officer Pearline Charlotte Castillo.

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TERNAL Gardens celebrated the timeless beauty and elegance of the elderly with the Ms. Eternal Beauty Lipa 2018 pageant held on September 15, at the Eternal Gardens Lipa park grounds in Lipa City.

Cecile Sebastian, an 80-year-old retired teacher from Barangay Sico, Lipa City, Batangas, bested eight other candidates and became the first-ever Ms. Eternal Beauty Lipa.

She went home with P7,000 in cash, plus gift certificates and gift items from the sponsors, which included Gelrocks Surplus, Burj Al Hair Salon, Picture City and Jollibee.

Aida Lalusin, 70, of Barangay 2, was first runner-up, while 63-year-old Luzviminda Rellis of Barangay Sabang was the second runner-up. They were awarded P4,000 and P3,000 in cash, respectively, plus gift certificates and gift items from pageant sponsors.

“We believe in Eternal Beauty.

A beauty that is beyond what we see, a beauty that comes from deep within. These brave, confident women are the perfect example of what real beauty is: a beauty without expiration, an ageless beauty. A beautiful being inside and out, with

a beautiful heart,” said Eternal Gardens Lipa Branch Manager Jocelyn Ann Buendia as she introduced the nine senior candidates vying for the title of Ms. Eternal Beauty Lipa 2018, who were in their sportswear.

Later on, they changed into their stunning formal wear which they modeled gracefully on stage.

Before the coronation night, a pre-pageant was held at the Eternal Gardens Lipa office on September 5, where the candidates showcased their talents, which made up 10 percent of their score. They also had a photoshoot courtesy of Picture City, and their portraits have been posted on the Facebook page of Eternal Gardens Lipa for the online voting that was 20 percent of their total score.

The other criteria for judging were audience impact, 20 percemt; intelligence (question and answer), 25 percent; sportswear, 10 percent; and formal wear, 15 percent, for a total of 100 percent.

Among those who had the difficult task of choosing the winners were Alyssa Marie Cailao, Bb. Sto. Tomas Batangas 2010; Hsueh Jung Hsu, Brand Ambassador for Althea Korea, Pixi Beauty UK and Too Faced Cosmetics; Kristine Joy

Alina-Quinto, Ms. Lipa Tourism 2004 and Ms. STI College Philippines 2004; and Jose Antonio V. Rivera, Eternal Gardens vice president for Sales and Marketing.

Special awards were also given to the candidates who did exceptionally well in certain areas of the pageant. Nenita Dimaano, 77, won Best in Talent for doing a declamation for which she received a certificate, plus a gift certificate and gift items from Jollibee. She was also awarded Best in Sportswear for her unique motocross attire, and Best in Formal Wear for her elegant red and black ensemble. She received certificates, plus P2,000 worth of gift certificates from Toby’s SM Lipa, and a gift certificate from Lorenzo’s Asian Restaurant as prizes for the special awards, respectively.

Trinidad Guia, 69, was chosen Most Photogenic by the experts of Picture City and was given a certificate and a framed blown-up copy of her portrait. The People’s Choice Award, determined through Facebook likes, was bagged by 69-yearold Felisa Genove, who received a certificate plus an overnight hotel accommodation for two at Hotel La Corona de Lipa.

Batangas senior citizens share life after retirement in Grandparents’ Day fete

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IPA CITY, Batangas—To some senior citizens, life after retirement from their long years of regular office work or normal business hours is already a diversion from their routine jobs as they could now enjoy some relaxation and do the so-called apostolic mission, a slang to describe rearing up their grandchildren.

But to six Batangueña elderly, life as senior citizens means new ventures chartering their lives as micro, small and medium entrepreneurs.

During interviews at the Seniors Bazaar in observance of Grandparents’ Day on September 9, the six senior citizens were featured as they showcased their products ranging from herbal soaps, honey bee products, rice-based desserts and handmade leathers that were up on sale at the SM City Lipa’s Seniors Bazaar.

The weeklong mall event has proven that senior citizens could do a lot more to share their expertise and business acumen, drawing inspiration from their past experiences as professionals and industry workers.

Their new business ventures got the support of Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) Batangas Provincial Head Marissa Argente, who graced the opening of the Seniors Bazaar featuring assorted products of the Batangas’s entrepreneurial senior citizens.

Efren Ayo, 61, from the town of Ibaan was among the senior-citizen exhibitors who showcased his handmade products of herbal soaps called Oayo Herbal Soaps.

Ayo disclosed that soon after retiring as chemists, he and wife Sophie started their soap business in the primary agricultural hometown.

He said their new soap business uses natural products from their farm like moringga (malunggay), guava leaves, calamansi and honey.

Wildora Miranda, 60 and a resident of Santo Tomas, Batangas, also participated in the Seniors Bazaar selling handmade leather bags and purses from her Wildora’s Enterprises.

The Batangueña elder exhibitor featured her bags and purses products, which are identifiable with her “signature” crochets she personally

designs and gives distinct strokes.

“Doing the crochet is relaxing,” she admitted, citing the intricate “touch” on her leather products and bags as her products’ unique appeal.

Not to be outdone are the equally hardworking senior citizens as product exhibitors, including Winnie Pagcaliwagan, 65, from Batangas City for her kakanin (sweetened specialties); Cecil de Jesus of Lipa Beekeepers Cooperative; and friends Evelyn Lim and Marilou Wall.

The senior-citizen entrepreneurs thanked the DTI Batangas, through Argente, and the SM City Lipa management, through mall manager Liza F. Dimaculangan, for the opportunity to showcase their respective products at the Seniors Bazaar in observance of the Grandparents’ Day celebration, which culminated on September 9.

The Batangas Senior Citizen’s bazaar exhibitors have proven to all and sundry that “age doesn’t matter” as they explored life after retirement and to paraphrase the old adage, “there is more to age than meets the eye.” PNA

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

Maine Mendoza continues to rock the world in her own way

OPPO F9 LEADS MEMOXPRESS WEEKLY CHART

MOBILE smartphone retailer MemoXpress recently announced that Oppo F9 was its top-selling smartphone from September 3 to 9, exceeding the sales of other brands in the midrange category on its first week of availability starting September 1.

Successfully launched only a month ago, Oppo F9 (@OPPOPhilippines) features the highly beneficial VOOC flash charge, which allows the user two hours of talk time after only five minutes of charging. Its fast-charging capabilities help dynamic Filipinos save time and be able to do more with their smartphones.

Priced at P17,990, the phone also brings together an innovative waterdrop screen, 6GB RAM, and dual rear cameras, providing high value for money for Filipinos in every way.

TIPS ON HOW TO MAKE YOUR SHOTS EXTRAORDINARY

Saturday, September 22, 2018 A9

BEFORE you start shooting, think about the story you want to tell. How will you show your audience where you’re at, what you’re getting up to, and how the adventure ends? This saves editing time and helps you craft a more powerful story.

Leading action camera brand GoPro (www. gopro.com) shares some tips on how to make your content more exciting and interesting in achieving #FeedGoals.

1. SET THE SCENE. Let your friends know where you are—a wide static shot or location sign always works well. Show yourself gearing up, or take a time lapse of the backdrop to build excitement and set the scene.

2. CHARACTERS + MISSION. Who are the heroes of your story, and what are they setting out to do?

Capture moments that reveal personalities and allude to the adventure.

3. CAPTURE THE ACTION. Experiment with different mounts and perspectives to tell your story. Be sure to mix in body- or gear-mounted POV footage along with more traditional shots.

4. THE PAYOFF. If you just did something epic, show off those celebratory hugs and Hi5s. Or maybe things didn’t go so well—how did the crew react? Let the cameras roll as you pack it up and head back home as you post your captured moments on social media.

Don’t forget to share your fun stories using the #GoProPH hashtag.

PRIMETIME

DINNA CHAN VASQUEZ @dinnachanvasquez luckydinna@gmail.com

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HEN Maine Mendoza was in Canada to create her lipstick for MAC Cosmetics, she had an accident after mixing and completing her creation.

“I wasn’t feeling too well and the beaker slipped from my hands. I was so embarrassed,” said Maine, who recovered from what happened through the help of MAC Cosmetics’s friendly and kind Filipino chemists.

“I really am a klutz,” said Maine during the intimate dinner for members of the press, vloggers and influencers hosted by MAC Cosmetics Philippines earlier this week. Being klutzy, aside from her awkwardness, is Maine’s self-confessed trait.

Maine is not your traditional star. She became a star by accident, thanks to her perfect comedic timing and self-deprecating humor.

In person, the 23-year-old is more serious and, yes, awkward. It takes her a while to warm up to people but when she does, she is disarming and charming.

You will like her even if you are a jaded person used to meeting celebrities. She doesn’t try to be nice because you’re a writer. She is really nice, if a bit shy.

“Ako po si Maine [I am Maine]” was how she introduced herself to everybody meeting her for the first time.

She hugged those she already knew, like Mega Editor in Chief Peewee Reyes Isidro. Peewee had told me previously how humble Maine was, as she had observed while they were shooting the Aldub cover for the magazine in Morocco.

“She was never mayabang [boastful]. She preferred to hang out and eat with the photographer, makeup artist and other members of the group. She was always very quiet and unassuming,” said Peewee.

The MAC Cosmetics collaboration was a surprise to Maine. She was in the US when her manager Rams David informed her about it in December. The collaboration became possible because of RB Chanco, who became the bridge between MAC Cosmetics Philippines and Maine’s management.

“MAC Cosmetics Global asked us to submit a list of names for the #MACMaker collaboration. This is the first time they are having an influencer from Asia. Maine’s name was approved from a list that we had submitted. The problem was that we didn’t know anyone from her management, so it was RB who hooked us up with Rams,” said MAC Cosmetics Philippines General Manager Gay Lao Chen, who admitted that she screamed for joy when David called her to say that Maine has said yes.

“I couldn’t believe that they asked. Sino ba naman ako [who am I]? I’ve been a MAC user even before I entered showbiz. I remember using my ate’s MAC lipstick and getting my first one in the shade Candy

Yumyum,” said Maine.

“This is a dream come true for me. I can’t believe my name will be on a MAC lipstick. This is MAC, right? This is every girl’s dream,” she added.

Even before she left for Canada on January 17 with Michael Uycoco from her management and MAC Philippines PR and artist relations executive Nicole Tejano, Maine already knew what she wanted. It wasn’t a red.

“Red and Ruby Woo have always been associated with Yaya Dub. This lipstick is by Maine and I’m not really someone who’ll use red on a daily basis. I wanted something everyone could wear. I wanted to do something that would not intimidate women from wearing lipstick. Ganda lang [something that would make anyone and everyone feel and look beautiful],” said Maine.

Maine relates that on the day that she had to go to the MAC Cosmetics laboratory to create her color, she was surprised to see the other #MACMakers in full makeup and she was suddenly very shy.

“I only had lip and cheek tint on and my hair was pulled back in a ponytail. They were all so beautiful and glamorous. The chemists really made me feel at home. They were fans of Aldub and we talked for a while until I became more relaxed.”

The result of the collaboration is a pinkish-beige that can best be described as a cousin of other MAC

lipsticks like Spirit, Brave and Velvet Teddy. It is simple and subdued.

MAC Maine lipstick looks different on different people. On a pale-skinned person, it is mauve-colored.

On someone with medium skin tone, it looks beige.

Those who have deeper skin tones can apply a dark lip liner on the lips before the lipstick, as Maine suggests.

Lip liners that could work with Maine’s lipstick are Soar, Whirl, Boldly Bare and even Plum, depending on your skin tone. The special packaging of the lipstick, which is made up of kiss marks on a mauve-pink background, was Maine’s idea. She actually kissed a white sheet so you’ll notice that the kiss marks are of different sizes.

The texture is MAC’s modern matte formula so it glides on easily and isn’t drying. Those who wear makeup regularly would likely pair it with a strong eye for full impact.

“I have a feeling that I will cry on Saturday [today, September 22] during the launch at SM Megamall.

Every time I think of how far I have come and how this collaboration came to be, I’m really overcome by emotion,” said Maine.

The MAC Maker/Maine Mendoza lipstick will be available at SM Megamall today and all MAC stores nationwide tomorrow, September 23. It will be available globally sometime in November via the MAC Cosmetics web site. ■

1st private moon flight passenger to invite creative guests

JAPANESE billionaire Yusaku Maezawa

LOS ANGELES—Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maezawa said on Monday that he plans to blast off on the first-ever private commercial trip around the moon and will invite six to eight artists, architects, designers and other creative people on the weeklong journey “to inspire the dreamer in all of us.”

The SpaceX Big Falcon Rocket is scheduled to make the trip in 2023, company founder Elon Musk announced at an event on Monday at its headquarters near Los Angeles. Maezawa, 42, said he wants his guests for the lunar orbit “to see the moon up close, and the Earth in full view, and create work to reflect their experience.”

Musk said the entrepreneur, founder of Japan’s largest retail website and one the country’s richest people, will pay “a lot of

money” for the trip, but declined to disclose the exact amount. Maezawa came to SpaceX with the idea for the group flight, Musk said.

“I did not want to have such a fantastic experience by myself,” said Maezawa, wearing a blue sports jacket over a white T-shirt printed with a work by the late painter Jean-Michel Basquiat. He said he often mused about what artists like Basquiat or Andy Warhol might have come up with if they’d traveled into space.

“I wish to create amazing works of art for humankind,” Maezawa said.

Maezawa didn’t immediately say who will be on his guest list for the spaceflight, but in response to a question from a reporter, he said he’d consider inviting Musk. “Maybe we’ll both be on it,” Musk said with a smile.

He said the BFR is still in development

and will make several unmanned test launches before it takes on passengers. The reusable 118-meter (387-foot) rocket will have its own dedicated passenger ship.

The mission will not involve a lunar landing. The average distance from Earth to the moon is about 237,685 miles (382,500 kilometers). Astronauts last visited the moon during NASA’s Apollo program.

Twenty-four men flew to the moon from 1968 through 1972 and half of them made it to the lunar surface.

NASA is planning its own lunar flyby with a crew around 2023. The space agency also aims to build a staffed gateway near the moon during the 2020s.

The outpost would serve as a steppingoff point for the lunar surface, Mars and points beyond. Musk outlined a somewhat different SpaceX mission last year. He said

then that two people who know each other approached the company about a weeklong flight to the moon and back. He had said that the trip would happen this year. Musk did not name the clients last year or say how much they would pay.

That original mission would have used a Falcon Heavy rocket—the most powerful rocket flying today—and a Dragon crew capsule similar to the one NASA astronauts will use to fly to the International Space Station as early as next year.

The era of space tourism began in 2001 when California businessman Dennis Tito paid for a journey on a Russian rocket to the International Space Station. The trip was organized by the Virginia-based company Space Adventures, which has since sent several more paying customers on spaceflights. AP

BusinessMirror

A10 Saturday, September 22, 2018

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Renault-Nissan to use Android system in its dashboards

Apple, Firefox tools aim to thwart Facebook, Google tracking

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INSULAR Life Executive Chairman Nina Aguas (from left) presents the visual summary board to UnionBank Chairman Tito Ortiz, moments after his digital transformation talk. With them is Insular Life Head for Innovation Fam Alonto.

INSULAR LIFE CHAIR CHALLENGES EMPLOYEES TO BE DISRUPTORS

“THE goal of innovation in an organization is to empower employees from all levels to be able to provide meaningful solutions that will impact the company and the community at large.” These are the words of Insular Life Executive Chairman Nina D. Aguas, as she issued a challenge to employees to be disruptors during the company’s innovation conference.

Dubbed as “Innovating Solutions for the International Pinoy” (ISIP), the conference was the second such event that Insular Life convened in less than a year.

The goal of this activity was to immerse the Insular Life community in new trends in technology, innovation and the importance of digitalization.

Aguas, in her speech, noted that rapid developments in technology and business models are forcing companies to adapt to these changes. Good companies, she said, let their employees ride the tide, but great ones allow their people to create the waves themselves.

“We need to develop significant cultural and mind-set adjustments,” she said.

“Early this year, we embarked on a dual strategy of intensifying our core businesses to remain financially strong and competitive, and for the institution to remain relevant and fit for purpose to the future.”

Among the top speakers and industry captains were Union Bank of the Philippines Chairman Justo A. Ortiz, who talked about the bank’s transformation journey; Harvard and Yale-educated techpreneur Manny Ayala, who discussed emerging trends in start-ups; and Singapore-based venture capitalist Justin Hall, who talked about the future of financial technology and where the big opportunities will come.

After the plenary sessions on digital transformation, financial technologies and the start-up world, employees were also given the choice to attend breakout sessions that piqued their interest in such topics as: Intrapreneurship and Solving Problems; Digital Sales and Branding; Fintech, Blockchain and Bitcoin; and Design Thinking and User Experience. The breakout session speakers were Mynt Vice President for Marketing Chris Manguera, Storm Learning CEO DM Varun, Style Compass founder Abbie Victorino, Machine Ventures CEO Shahab Shabibi and Qwikwire founder Ray Refundo.

Hundreds of Insular Life employees gathered at its Alabang headquarters for ISIP. The conference was livestreamed so that employees from its branches nationwide and those who could not physically attend would not miss the talks from some of the country’s top leaders in innovation and technology.

BY ANICK JESDANUN The Associated Press

EW YORK—Facebook and other companies routinely track your online surfing habits to better target ads at you.

Two Web browsers now want to help you fight back in what’s becoming an escalating privacy arms race.

New protections in Apple’s Safari and Mozilla’s Firefox browsers aim to prevent companies from turning “cookie” data files used to store sign-in details and preferences into broader trackers that take note of what you read, watch and research on other sites.

Lance Cottrell, creator of the privacy service Anonymizer, said Apple’s effort was particularly significant, as it takes aim at a technique developed by tracking companies to override users’ attempts to delete their cookies. Safari makes these protections automatic in updates coming Tuesday to iPhones and iPads and a week later to Mac computers. Firefox has similar protections on Apple mobile devices and is rolling out them out to personal computers in the coming months.

To get the protections, you’ll have to break your habit of using Google’s Chrome browser, which by some estimates has more than half of the worldwide browser usage. Safari and Firefox have less than 20 percent combined.

Even then, Safari and Firefox can’t entirely stop tracking. For starters, they won’t block tracking when you’re using Facebook or Google itself. Nor can they help much when you use phone or tablet apps, unless the app happens to embed Safari, as Twitter’s iPhone app does. But Will Strafach, a mobile security expert who is designing data security tools for phones, said imperfect protection is better than no protection. He notes that burglars can still break down a door, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t bother locking it.

Cookies and other trackers can be used by companies to keep track of who you are as you move from web site to web site. The companies can build a digital profile as you, say, read about Democratic or Republican viewpoints, buy a particular brand of pet food or indulge in the entire season of Keeping Up With The Kardashians.

News, video and other third-party sites use Google and Facebook cookies to customize ads to your hobbies and interests, rather than hawking products you might never buy. That’s why you might see an ad for shoes soon after searching for them elsewhere.

Apple says its tests show that some popular web sites are embedded with more than 70 such trackers.

Many of these are from Facebook and Google, which are expected to command a combined 57 percent of the $107-billion US digital advertising market this year, according to the research group eMarketer.

Though general awareness of data collection has grown in the wake of Facebook’s Cambridge Analytica

privacy scandal, how trackers work behind the scenes remains a mystery to many people.

Ghostery and other products have long offered tracking protection. The browsers are now trying to incorporate that directly so you don’t have to go looking for browser add-ons.

Safari will try to automatically distinguish cookies that are useful from ones that are there just to track you. Apple notes that cookies can appear in unexpected places, such as sites that embed “like” and “share” buttons.

Now, those cookies will be blocked until you click on one of those buttons, in which case you’ll be prompted for permission to allow the tracking. If you don’t, your like won’t register.

Safari is also attacking a technique developed to circumvent cookie deletions. Through “fingerprinting,” a company can identify you through your computer’s characteristics, such as browser type and fonts installed. Your new cookie can then be tied to your old profile. Safari will now limit the technical details it sends.

Firefox has an anti-tracking feature that also tries to distinguish tracking cookies from useful ones. It’s on by default only on Apple’s mobile devices. Mozilla is testing a broader rollout for personal computers, though its plans for Android are not yet known. For now, you need to turn it on or use a private-browsing mode, which gets more aggressive at killing cookies, including useful ones.

For PCs, Firefox also has an optional add-on, called Facebook Container, to segregate your Facebook activity from everything else. Think of it as a wall that prevents Facebook from accessing its data cookie as you surf elsewhere. A version is available for other trackers, too, but requires configuration on your part.

None of the Firefox tools, though, address fingerprinting.

Unsurprisingly, advertisers aren’t happy.

In a statement, Interactive Advertising Bureau Executive Dennis Buchheim said that even as browsers makers feel pressured to deliver privacycentric features, they should consider the importance of advertising in enabling free services.

The new Safari and Firefox tools don’t block ads.

But without cookies, web sites might get paid a lot less for them, said Jed Williams, chief innovation officer at the Local Media Association, an industry group for news publishers.

Apple and Mozilla are able to push the boundaries on privacy because neither depends on advertising.

Google makes most of its money from selling ads.

Facebook and Google declined comment on the Safari and Firefox tools. But Google said its Chrome browser offers tools to control and delete cookies and set preferences for certain web sites. Google says users can also decline personalization and get generic ads instead, though tracking continues in the background while using the company’s services. ■

DETROIT—The Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi alliance, one of the world’s top-selling automakers, has decided to go with Google’s Android operating system to run its dashboard information and entertainment features. The change, which won’t roll out until 2021, means that users will get Android features such as Google Maps, Waze and the hands-free Google Assistant, without having to connect a phone. They’ll also be able to download auto-specific apps, such as those that find and pay for parking spaces, from the Google Play Store.

It’s a sign that automakers are starting choose sides in infotainment software, deciding between developing their own systems or going with an established company that’s familiar to customers.

Most automakers already let users link their Apple or Android phones to car systems through Android Auto or Apple CarPlay. But using the Android operating system will open cars to over-the-Internet infotainment software updates and integration of Google Assistant voice commands into some car functions such as windshield wiper controls, the companies said.

Since the operating software can be continually updated, the system will be able to handle communications with other vehicles or infrastructure such as traffic lights when those features become available, said Kal Mos, global vice president for connected vehicles for the Nissan-Renault-Mitsubishi alliance.

The change also opens cars to a universe of app developers, Mos said. “Once you offer that platform, that capacity, people will start coming up with things we don’t think about today,” he said.

Owners would have to choose from apps that are approved for automotive use that minimize distraction, said Patrick Brady, Google’s vice president of engineering for Android. “Any app that gets into the store goes through multiple iterations to make sure this can be used in the car,” Brady said.

Although Android powers 80 percent of the world’s smartphones, those with Apple iPhones need not fear the system, the companies said. They still will run Apple CarPlay, just as automaker systems do now, they said.

Other automakers, such as Honda, Volvo and General Motors, already run Android in their operating systems, although they aren’t as advanced as what the Nissan-Renault-Mitsubishi alliance will do, the companies said.

The brands are looking at cost for the system, and there likely will be a monthly fee.

Currently automakers have somewhat clunky voice-recognition systems that often take several steps to complete a simple command, said Sam Abuelsamid, an analyst for Navigant Research. But as more cars become linked to the Internet, automakers are finding suppliers who have better systems that can be updated, he said.

The next generation of Android should have much better voice recognition than anything now in the auto industry, he said. “It’ll be more natural language that’s going to make it a lot better and easier for consumers to use,” Abuelsamid said.

The system also will let Google Maps and Googleowned Waze gather data about speed and traffic from more vehicles as more cars are equipped with Android, Abuelsamid said.

The technology partnership with Google is part of the Nissan-Renault-Mitsubishi alliance’s wider effort to wirelessly connect cars to online “cloudbased systems,” allowing automakers to gather data, diagnose problems and update vehicle software remotely.

The Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi group sold a combined 10.6 million vehicles last year and aims to raise that to 14 million by 2022. It’s among the top 3 automakers in the world.

Shares in navigation system maker TomTom plunged 23 percent to €6.52 on Tuesday on the Amsterdam stock exchange after the announcement as investors feared that the Dutch company’s sales could be hit hard by the decision. AP

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WikiLeaks files expose group’s inner workings

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BY RAPHAEL SATTER The Associated Press

ONDON—Julian Assange had just pulled off one of the biggest scoops in journalistic history, splaying the innards of American diplomacy across the Web. But technology firms were cutting ties to his WikiLeaks web site, cable news pundits were calling for his head and a Swedish sex-crime case was threatening to put him behind bars.

Caught in a vise, the silver-haired Australian wrote to the Russian Consulate in London.

“I, Julian Assange, hereby grant full authority to my friend, Israel Shamir, to both drop off and collect my passport, in order to get a visa,” said the letter, which was obtained exclusively by The Associated Press. The November 30, 2010, missive is part of a much-larger trove of WikiLeaks e-mails, chat logs, financial records, secretly recorded footage and other documents leaked to the AP. The files provide both an intimate look at the radical transparency organization and an early hint of Assange’s budding relationship with Moscow.

The ex-hacker’s links to the Kremlin would become increasingly salient before the 2016 US presidential election, when the FBI says Russia’s military intelligence agency directly supplied WikiLeaks with stolen e-mails from Hillary Clinton’s campaign chairman and other Democratic figures.

In a statement posted to Twitter, WikiLeaks said Assange never applied for the visa or authored the letter, naming a former associate of his as the alleged source of the document.

WikiLeaks did not return a follow-up e-mail seeking clarification on whether Shamir applied on his behalf, or whether a lawyer or someone else at WikiLeaks might have drafted the letter. The Russian Embassy in London said it doesn’t discuss the personal details of visa applicants.

WikiLeaks has repeatedly been hit by unauthorized disclosures, but the tens of thousands of files obtained by the AP may be the biggest leak yet.

The AP has confirmed the authenticity of many of the documents by running them by five former WikiLeaks associates or by verifying nonpublic details, such as bank accounts, telephone numbers or airline tickets.

One of the former associates, an ex-employee, identified two of the names that frequently appeared in the documents’ metadata, “Jessica Longley” and “Jim Evans Mowing,” as pseudonyms assigned to two WikiLeaks laptops.

All five former associates spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity, in some cases because they didn’t want their past association with WikiLeaks to become public, and in others because they feared legal retaliation or harassment from the group’s supporters. Among other things, the documents lay out Assange’s campaign to avoid being arrested and extradited to Sweden over allegations that he sexually molested one woman and raped another during a trip to the Scandinavian country in August 2010.

Assange has always denied wrongdoing in the case, which he cast as a prelude to extradition to the US. The Swedish prosecution jeopardized what at the time was WikiLeaks’s biggest-ever disclosure: the publication of around 250,000 US State Department cables. Swedish authorities issued a warrant for his arrest on November 18, just 10 days before the cables exploded across the Web, with bombshell revelations about drone strikes in Yemen, American spying at the UN and corruption across the Arab world.

Italy’s then-foreign minister, Franco Frattini, described the release as the “September 11 of world diplomacy.” Enraged American politicians demanded that Assange be treated like a terrorist.

Metadata suggests that it was on November 29, the day after the release of the first batch of US State Department files, that the letter to the Russian Consulate was drafted on the Jessica Longley computer. The AP couldn’t confirm whether or when the message was actually delivered, but the choice of Israel Shamir as a go-between was significant.

Assange’s involvement with Shamir, a fringe intellectual who once said it was the duty of every Christian and Muslim to deny the Holocaust, would draw indignation when it became public.

Shamir told the AP he was plagued by memory problems and couldn’t remember delivering Assange’s letter or say whether he eventually got the

WIKILEAKS Founder Julian Assange arrives at Belmarsh Magistrate’s court in London for an extradition hearing in this January 2011 file photo.

According to a cache of internal WikiLeaks files obtained by The Associated Press, Assange sought a Russian visa and staffers at his radical transparency group discussed having him skip bail and escape Britain as authorities closed in on him in late-2010. AP

visa on Assange’s behalf.

“I can’t possibly exclude that it happened,” Shamir said in a telephone interview. “I have a very vague memory of those things.”

Shamir’s memory appeared sharper during a January 20, 2011, interview with Russian News Service radio—a Moscow-based station now known as Life Zvuk, or Life Sound. Shamir said he’d personally brokered a Russian visa for Assange, but that it had come too late to rescue him from the sex-crimes investigation. Russia “would be one of those places where he and his organization would be comfortable operating,” Shamir explained. Asked if Assange had friends in the Kremlin, Shamir smiled and said: “Let’s hope that’s the case.”

Shamir often makes eyebrow-raising claims (in the same interview he said that the US offered Assange $100 million not to publish the cables), but it was true that any visa for Assange would have been moot.

On November 30, 2010—the date on the letter— Interpol issued a Red Notice seeking Assange’s arrest, making any relocation to Russia virtually impossible.

With legal bills mounting, Assange turned himself in on December 7 and his staff’s focus turned to getting him out of jail.

One WikiLeaks spreadsheet listed names of potential supporters arrayed by wealth and influence; a second one, titled “Get Out of Jail Free,” tracked proposed bail donations and pledges for surety.

As they gathered money, Assange’s allies also plotted what to do once the WikiLeaks founder was released. One document showed Guatemalan

human-rights lawyer Renata Avila floating the idea of jumping bail.

“I will advise him to seek asylum abroad: We already contacted the Ministry of Justice in Brazil, there is a possibility to run out of the country in a Brazilian ship,” Avila told fellow WikiLeaks supporters in a memo. The document said Assange should “plan to escape and pay the bail money back to his supporters.”

Avila didn’t return repeated messages seeking comment. It’s not clear whether her idea went anywhere; former Brazilian Justice Minister Eduardo Cardozo, who was serving on then-President-elect Dilma Rousseff’s transition team at the time, told the AP that he’d never heard of an Assange asylum request. Assange would eventually skip bail after exhausting his British legal campaign to block the Swedish extradition effort, darting into the Ecuadorean Embassy on June 19, 2012. The move frustrated the sex-crimes prosecution, which was dropped last year, but it sparked a standoff that continues to this day, with Assange refusing to leave the embassy unless he is shielded from extradition to the US. Assange’s escape left many of his guarantors in the lurch. When a group of them went to court in late-2012 to reduce their bill, the escape plan went unmentioned.

A lawyer for four of Assange’s supporters, Henry Blaxland, told the judge that Assange’s Ecuadorean asylum stunt caught everyone off guard.

“Nobody could reasonably have foreseen that’s what he would do,” Blaxland said. ■

LBC makes move to digital transformation THE way consumers talk and transact in this millennial world is changing at a breakneck speed.

With dwindling attention spans, an open market that has attracted challengers from all corners, and the need to get business done with a swipe of the screen, enterprises are now being asked to reconsider where they stand on this playing field today.

LBC Express, the leading logistics provider in the Philippines, knows that to sustain the success it has enjoyed for over 68 years, they have to embark on one of their biggest and boldest moves yet: a comprehensive digital transformation. The intent is to move differently and put themselves in a position to better respond to the needs of customers, clients and corporations. An upgrade from the ground up, LBC Express initiated a revamp of all its digital assets.

From there, it also introduced an all-new mobile app,

relaunched the corporate site and consolidated dozens of different territory-initiated social-media pages into one official Facebook account.

Because of this revolution, the company’s platforms and other solutions now allow people to benefit from LBC’s features in the most intuitive, simplest, efficient way possible. The use of technology is more responsive and proactive to what people truly need—a service that allows them to focus on moving beyond the things they send to their families, loved ones and even business partners.

As LBC Express clears the runway on this journey toward complete digital transformation, even more impactful moves are being mapped out in the horizon.

With an open invitation to everyone, LBC is more than ready to take on all the challenges that this millennial world has in store.

Saturday, September 22, 2018 A11

Can apps like Waze steer you clear of disaster? Maybe not NAVIGATION apps like Waze are trying to help motorists avoid hurricane flooding. But can people really rely on their smartphones to steer themselves out of a disaster zone?

Amid heavy rain from Florence, some smartphone or in-car map directions in recent days have sent people in North Carolina onto flooded roads and others closed to traffic.

Google-owned Waze said on Monday it’s worked with local governments and its own community of volunteer map editors to mark closures of more than 1,300 roads in North Carolina and hundreds more in South Carolina and Virginia.

But the North Carolina Department of Transportation warned in a tweet on Sunday night that Waze and other travel apps are unable to keep up with Florence-caused road closings.

“It is not safe now to trust them with your life,” the agency warned after another Twitter user credited Waze for helping her avoid floodwaters during Hurricane Matthew in 2016. “This storm, this flooding, these road closings are worse than Matthew, and they’ll get even worse. Please stay safe!”

GPS-powered mapping systems have come a long way since updating an in-car navigation system required loading a compact disc with the latest geographic data. More cars now come with navigation systems that are updated remotely and automatically.

Other drivers rely on apps like Waze, Google Maps or Apple Maps.

It can still be hard to keep up with Mother Nature.

Miguel Melo, 22, said he was trying to drive from North Carolina to Florida to get to a friend’s house when his SUV stalled out in high water in Lumberton.

He was waiting with his stalled car on a service road parallel to flooded Interstate 95.

“The GPS brought me here. It’s stupid, and it’s really bad. I’m in trouble,” said the Raleigh resident, who was parked in a dry spot of road.

State officials had warned in previous days that GPS was taking people down routes where roads had flooded and urged people to check a list of road closures before driving.

“A map in a catastrophe is only so good as its ability to capture real-time information either from sensors or people,” said Steve Goldsmith, a professor who directs Harvard University’s Data-Smart City Solutions project.

Goldsmith, a former mayor of Indianapolis and former deputy mayor of New York, said the good news is that the flourishing of map apps has “unlocked the ability of people to post information in real time and help their neighbors.”

Waze, in particular, relies on a large community of users inputting data about the latest road conditions.

Goldsmith said more government agencies are also entering two-way information sharing arrangements that help provide a better picture of what’s happening on the ground, both for emergency responders and the travelers themselves.

“Individuals themselves will always collectively have more information than governments will,” he said. “They’ll have more information but less wellorganized.”

■ The Associated Press writer Jonathan Drew contributed to this report. AP

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

BusinessMirror

XS, XS Max and XR? Terrible names aside, here are 8 reasons to get excited about the new iPhones THE TECHNIVORE ED UY

whereiseduy@gmail.com

T

HE new iPhones are out and, once again, Apple fanbois are in a frenzy with the unveiling of the iPhone XS, iPhone XS Max and iPhone XR. Many are excited about the new features, but there are also an equal number of critics who just can’t take the godawful naming.

Apple has always added an “S” to iPhones before, but even if Apple CEO Tim Cook insists that the names are pronounced as “TEN-S [think Tennis],” “Ten-S Max” and “Ten R.” I can’t blame you if your brain reads it as “extra small” or even as “excess.” Hence the contradictory iPhone “Extra-Small Max.” One Twitter user even pointed out that Apple seems to have missed the obvious name it could have given to its the jumbo-screen phone—the iPhone XL. Still, it doesn’t seem like the names will deter Apple fans from snapping up the phone as preorder sales continue to do well—after all, it’s still an “S” year.

THE ‘S’ YEARS SINCE the first iPhone came out in 2007, Apple has followed a pretty predictable schedule: every two years, Apple gives its new iPhone a major overhaul, such as increasing the size and resolution of the screen, or drastically changing the shape and design of their new phone.

The year 2018, is an intervening year, or one of those so called S years. It is during these years that the iPhone models instead get incremental improvements, maybe a faster processor, a few iterative features, or maybe an improved camera system. But while these “S” models—iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4s, iPhone 5s, iPhone 6s—are more evolutionary rather than revolutionary, longtime iPhone users insist that “S” models are actually the better phones to use. Remember Siri? She was introduced in the iPhone 4s, while the 3D touch screen came with the iPhone 6s.

So if you are still holding an iPhone 6s or maybe even an iPhone 7 or iPhone 7 Plus, here are eight reasons it might be time for you to get that upgrade.

1. THE iPHONE X LOOK: For those who didn’t like how the iPhone 8 immediately looked outdated because of the iPhone X, you’ll be happy to know that all three new iPhones have the almost bezel-less screen—and the notch. Sadly, that also means the fingerprint scanner joins the headphone jack and is now also extinct. Hooray for Face ID! No? 2. “SUPER” AND “LIQUID” RETINA DISPLAY: Both the high-end iPhone models get an upgraded display

panel which Apple is calling “Super Retina.” The smaller iPhone XS has a 5.8-inch OLED panel with with a 2436 x 1125 resolution and 458ppi pixel density, while the iPhone XS Max has a 6.5-inch OLED screen with a 2688 x 1242 resolution and pixel density of 458 ppi. The iPhone XR, meanwhile, has what Apple claims the “best LCD on a phone,” which it calls “Liquid Retina” and comes with a 6.1-inch display with 1792 x 828 resolution and 326ppi pixel density.

3. DUAL-SIM SUPPORT: Yes, believe it or not, this is the very first time Apple has incorporated one of the most-asked features in their iPhones. The iPhone XS and XS Max get dual-SIM support, allowing users to have nano-SIM and a digital eSIM. eSim what?

Don’t worry, Apple is apparently creating a dualSim card tray for international markets.

4. NEW COLOR OPTIONS: The XS and XS Max come in silver, space gray and a new polished gold color.

But for those who want even more colors, the iPhone XR comes in white, black, blue, coral, yellow and red color options.

5. FASTEST SMARTPHONE: Initial reviews have shown that the benchmark scores for the new iPhones are way higher than any Android smartphone, thanks to the new A12 Bionic Chip. The A12 bionic chips is said to consume less power by running 40-50 percent more efficiently, performance is 15 percent faster and app launch speed gets a 30 percent boost. The Neural Engine is once again the highlight that offers realtime machine learning for the camera app and for augmented reality apps.

6. BETTER WATER RESISTANCE: The iPhone 7, iPhone X and 8 all had IP67 certification for water and dust resistance. Apple further upgraded the certification to IP68, which makes the XS and XS Max even more resistible to dust and liquid conditions. They can reach a new level of up to 2 meters under water for 30 minutes, and are also protected against everyday spills including coffee, juice and soda.

7. BEST iPHONE CAMERAS? The rear cameras in the iPhone XS and the iPhone XS Max have the same resolution as the iPhone X’s dual lens camera, but according to Apple the new 12MP wide-angle and telephoto sensors now come together with a new image signal processor in the A12 Bionic and the upgraded neural engine. There’s also Smart HDR that enhances typical HDR to bring out better colors, shadows and highlights. The iPhone XR might only have a single 12MP sensor but it can still do those Bokeh effects and retains that adjustable depth feature even after you’ve taken the shot. The front still has the same 7MP True Depth camera as last year’s model, but with a sensor that is “twice as fast.”

8. IMPROVED BATTERY LIFE: Apple did not indicate the exact battery capacity of the new iPhones but it does promise a significant bump in battery performance.

The iPhone XS will offer 30 minutes of additional battery compared to the iPhone X, whereas the bigger iPhone X Max gets 90 minutes more. The iPhone XR also gets 90 minutes longer battery life compared to the iPhone 8 Plus.

These are just some of the standout features of the three new iPhones; which improvements do you like

best? All variants of both the iPhone XS and iPhone XS Max are already soldout on the Apple web site, with shipping for all configurations now listed as ‘one to two weeks.” Preorders for the iPhone XR will begin on October 19.

But don’t panic, I’m sure both Globe and Smart will offering these new iPhones on their postpaid plans and we will be doing a comparison as to which telco has the better offer as soon as we get the information.

Saturday, September 22, 2018 A12

Beyond fake news?

Facebook to fact check photos, videos NEW YORK—Facebook says it is expanding its factchecking program to include photos and videos as it fights fake news and misinformation on its service.

Malicious groups seeking to sow political discord in the US and elsewhere have been embracing images and videos to spread misinformation.

The company has been testing the image factchecks since the spring, beginning with France and the news agency AFP. Now, it will send all of its 27 third-party fact-checkers disputed photos and videos to verify. Fact-checkers can also find them on their own. Facebook will label images or video found to be untrue or misleading as such.

Facebook says the fact-checkers use visual verification techniques such as reverse image searching and analyzing image metadata to check the veracity of photos and videos. AP

SMART WIFI INCREASES DEPLOYMENT IN SCHOOL SMART Communications Inc., the country’s leading wireless services provider, has increased Smart WiFi rollouts in over 100 school areas nationwide— providing students across the country the benefits of the Internet as a learning and communications tool.

As a member of the World Broadband Alliance, Smart Communications Inc. has endeavored to give a greater majority access to seamless connectivity through the service.

With Smart WiFi, super speedy Internet connections are now available to students of the University of the Philippines-Diliman, De La Salle University-Manila, Pamantasan ng Lungsod ng Maynila, Pamantasan ng Lungsod ng Muntinlupa, Emilio Aguinaldo College, Adamson University, Navotas Polytechnic College and San Sebastian College, giving them access to an enhanced digital learning experience.

Other universities outside of the Metro include Ateneo de Naga, University of Cebu, University of Mindanao, University of Bohol, Tarlac Agricultural University and Letran Calamba, among others.

With this program, students will be given access to Smart WiFi’s reliable Internet connection, enabling them to access online resource material for research and other day-to-day information needs. Students will be better connected through their e-mail and social-media accounts, and will enjoy easier downloading and uploading of files, with Smart WiFi’s broadband capacity of up to 100 megabits per second.

In addition, the availability of Smart WiFi in universities opens up opportunities for brands to reach the younger market, particularly students, through Smart WiFi Ads, a customized and targeted marketing solution that enables businesses to directly reach and engage their customers. As targeted digital advertising becomes more widespread, Smart WiFi Ads are expected to surpass conventional online advertising methods.

Smart WiFi Ads come in several forms: banner or interstitial ads, which combine clickable material with access to the brand’s web site; promo page with triggered SMS, which sends an SMS to the user’s mobile number upon clicking the ad; sponsored access, which grants customers free WiFi usage upon watching a nonskippable video, or answering a survey; and Wi-Fi rental, which provides advertisers with a branded SSID and landing page and customizable Wi-Fi experience that gives customers free 30-minute access after entering a PIN, watching a video or answering a survey. ■

REVOLUTIONARY MOBILE APP ALLOWS IDESIA HOME OWNERS EASY ACCESS TO HOME OWNERSHIP INFO RECENTLY launched for Idesia home buyers and owners is Hi+, a handy, one-stop home information portal that puts all the information about their Idesia properties right in the palm of their hands.

Convenient and hassle-free, the portal allows users access to information relevant to the Idesia home ownership process without the need of any additional hardware. Users may access their home information through this simple mobile app, which can also be downloaded on a tablet.

With Hi+, users can check the status of their reservation up to move-in, including the following: buyer’s account information, document compliance, payment history and status, construction updates, and occupancy and move-in dates and status.

With its chat facility, users can also directly send inquiries and concerns, as well as required documents to Idesia Customer Care Representatives. Hi+ can easily be downloaded from Google Play Store or the Apple App Store, and you’re on your way to getting instant updates on the status of your Idesia property.

Idesia Dasmariñas, a joint venture between Laguna-based developer PA Properties and realestate giant Hankyu Hanshin Properties Corp. of Osaka, Japan, is a community of over 900 housing units in Dasmariñas, Cavite, which is comprised of single detached homes, single attached homes and townhouses. Designed to appeal to starting couples, growing families and young urban professionals, the community will also feature gyms, swimming pools, lounge areas, jogging paths, a basketball court, bike lanes, children’s playground, pocket gardens, WiFi hubs and other amenities that will make Idesia truly an ideal way of living.

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FACEBOOK CEO Mark Zuckerberg makes the keynote address at F8, Facebook’s developer conference in San Jose, California. AP