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THE extent of a massive landslide is seen in Naga City, Cebu, September 21, 2018. Philippine troops and police forcibly evacuated residents of five villages vulnerable to landslides after the collapse of a mountainside buried dozens of homes. AP/BULLIT MARQUEZ

WARNING SIGNS

IGNORED By Jonathan L. Mayuga

N the wake of twin landslides happening within days in Benguet and Cebu and killing a total of over 100, an official of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) has reminded concerned local government units (LGU) and other stakeholders to be “consistent and persistent” in referring to geohazard maps as a means to forestall disasters that could lead to tragic loss of lives and property.

Tragic slides in Benguet and Cebu prompt govt to issue life-saving reminder: Always use geohazard maps to avoid tragedy.

And to fully enforce various environmental laws, including the laws that cover the highly extractive mining industry, both large-scale and small-scale, the official said he would lobby for the legislative approval of a proposal for the grant of police powers to the DENR in the enforcement of environmental laws. The DENR had completed nearly five years ago the national geohazard mapping that it conducted over several years, and, following instructions from the Executive, had disseminated the

maps to all relevant agencies, especially the LGUs that have primary responsibility for making their constituents know about these.

Oblivious

ENVIRONMENT Undersecretary for Solid Waste Management and LGU Concerns Benny Antiporda expressed dismay that many local officials remain oblivious of the threats posed by geological hazards like flood and landslide. Antiporda, also deputy spokesman of Environment Secretary Roy

A. Cimatu, described as “unfortunate” the tragedy that struck Itogon, Benguet, and Naga City, early this month, saying such could have been prevented or avoided had the LGUs and the people only been more aware of the danger. Antiporda told the BusinessMirror these geohazard maps are useful had they been integrated with disaster-risk reduction and management plans of LGUs. Unfortunately, he said, some of the maps provided by the DENR’s Continued on A2

The great Subic cleanup: Single-use plastics out, war on waste on

By Malou Dungog | PNA

UBIC BAY FREEPORT—Single-use plastics, which are used only once and then thrown away or recycled, will no longer be allowed in workplaces of the Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority (SBMA) starting on October 1. SBMA Chairman and Administrator Wilma T. Eisma on Thursday said the agency has decided to impose the ban as part of its solution to the growing global problem of pollution. Single-use plastics, or disposable plastics, include plastic bags, straws, coffee stirrers, as well as soda and water bottles, which form part of most food packagings, Eisma said.

“We should show good example and walk the talk,” she said. Eisma said canteens, stores and other food establishments in SBMA buildings have been advised not to use plastic packaging and containers anymore. Exempted from this regulation are goods in original plastic packaging. These, however, cannot be placed in new plastic bags or containers upon purchase by consumers.

PESO EXCHANGE RATES n US 54.2510

YOUNG visitors have their photo taken by a giant marker at Subic Bay, Zambales, on January 27, 2018. YOORAN PARK | DREAMSTIME.COM

Aside from enforcing the single-use plastics ban, the SBMA will urge business locators here to join the “strawless” campaign, the recyclables collection program, and cooperate in an intensified anti-littering drive that will be implemented this coming October to further strengthen the agency’s War on Waste (WOW) campaign. Eisma said single-use plastics account for most of the marine pollution in the Subic Bay area, as could be seen from the trash that periodically pile up on the free port’s coastline mostly after typhoons or heavy rains. “These plastic items are not only pollutive and harmful to wildlife and humans alike, but they also become an eyesore that negatively impact on the image of Subic as a world-class free port,” she said. “There is already a standing ban on the use of plastic bags and Styrofoam packaging in the whole See “Subic Cleanup,” A2

n JAPAN 0.4785 n UK 70.9820 n HK 6.9416 n CHINA 7.8750 n SINGAPORE 39.6658 n AUSTRALIA 39.0933 n EU 63.1644 n SAUDI ARABIA 14.4670

Source: BSP (September 28, 2018 )

A2 Saturday, September 29, 2018

News

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WARNING SIGNS IGNORED Continued from a1

Mines and Geosciences Bureau (MGB) were either ignored, or have been lost, because they were not properly turned over by outgoing local officials to their incoming counterparts after the local elections, which happen every three years.

No proper turnover

CITING the case of solid wastemanagement plans of some LGUs that somehow were lost because there was no proper turnover, geohazard maps provided by the DENR-MGB were also lost, mainly because of political conflict or rivalry between the incoming and outgoing local officials. The recent floods in Metro Manila and other parts of Luzon, the landslides in Itogon in Benguet and Naga City in Cebu have exposed anew the country’s vulnerability to often deadly geological hazards. While coastal areas are prone to flooding brought about by sealevel rise and storm surges, lowlying areas—particularly in socalled catch basins—are prone to flood. Communities in upland areas, especially those with denuded forests, meanwhile, are naturally prone to landslides. Mining and quarrying operations are often blamed for the environmental degradation in upland areas that affect those living in low-lying communities.

‘Highly vulnerable’

THE DENR, recognizing the danger posed by the effects of climate change, is intensifying rehabilitation of upland and coastal areas through massive reforestation activities. A climate-change mitigation and adaption program, the Expanded National Greening Program, is aimed at enhancing the natural defense of vulnerable communities against natural calamities. The Philippines has been assessed as one of the “highly vulnerable” countries to climate-change impacts. An archipelago situated

A VILLAGER looks at the extent of damage following a massive landslide in Naga City, Cebu, September 21, 2018. Philippine troops and police forcibly evacuated residents of five villages vulnerable to landslides after the collapse of a mountainside buried dozens of homes. AP/BULLIT MARQUEZ

in the so-called typhoon belt, the Philippines receives an average of 18 to 20 typhoons every year. Against the backdrop of intensifying typhoons, storm surge and excessive rains during the wet season, massive floods and landslides have been predicted to happen, prompting the Philippine government to identify which areas are prone to what particular geological hazards to prevent disaster.

Going to the details

AS early as 2014, the DENR completed the geohazard maps and two

years later, made the detailed landslide and flood geohazard maps available for viewing and downloading for free from the web site of the DENR’s MGB. Copies of the maps, with a scale of 1:10,000, were also distributed to various LGUs. These maps are considered bigger and more detailed as they can pinpoint the barangays that are susceptible to floods or landslides, and thus, should be able to help concerned national and LGU officials plan ahead to prevent deaths. Experts from the DENR-MGB

also started to train LGU officials and concerned employees on how to properly use the geohazard maps as early as 2015. However, the use of these geohazard maps has not been fully appreciated, as certain areas continue to experience tragic deaths as a result of flash floods and landslides, such as what happened in Barangay Ucab, in the municipality of Itogon, a mining town in the province of Benguet; and two separate sites near a quarry site in Naga City, Cebu. The death toll in these two landslide incidents continues to rise as retrieval operations continue. Thus far, 62 bodies have been retrieved in in Naga City, where mountainside cracks blamed on quarry operations of Apo-Cemex are being blamed for the deadly slide. Earlier, 78 people were retrieved from the earth in Itogon, Benguet, where a landslide spawned by continuous heavy rains spawned by Typhoon Ompong loosened the soil at an abandoned mining tenement of Benguet Corp. that small-scale miners had taken over and were illegally running. The twin deadly slides prompted DENR chief Cimatu to issue a suspension order on quarrying operations in eight regions, but as of late Thursday (September 27), he had lifted the order and green lighted the resumption of operations in most of the quarry sites. This, after DENR teams gave these sites a clean bill of health. The lifting of the suspension also followed concerns raised by Trade Secretary Ramon M. Lopez over the impact of sweeping quarry suspensions on the supply of cement–badly needed as the government ramps up infrastructure projects.

The decision to fast-track the investigation was made so as not to affect the price of cement and other construction materials that might impact on the “Build, Build, Build” infrastructure program of the Duterte administration.

Nothing new

A DEADLY landslide that leads to multiple deaths is not something new in the Philippines. Many areas have experienced landslides in the past after days of experiencing heavy rainfall induced by extreme weather events like a super typhoons. In 2012 a landslide in Compostela Valley buried more than two dozen people. The DENR-MGB, at that time, identified nine provinces—Benguet, Kalinga, Apayao, Ifugao, Abra, Catanduanes, Nueva Vizcaya, Marinduque and Southern Leyte—that are highly susceptible or have been identified as having a “high susceptibility” to landslides. Some of these areas are also the sites of what environmental advocates claim as environmentally destructive development projects. “…These [geohazard maps] were already distributed to local governments a long time ago. But because of our political system and turnover issue, most of the time, because they are rivals, the maps are not properly turned over,” Antiporda explained in Filipino.

Solution

ANTIPORDA said he would propose to Cimatu to order the MGB to ensure the proper turnover of the maps from one local government to the next. Another problem, he pointed out, is that some LGUs tend to ignore the warnings because of the

Subic cleanup... Continued from a1

Subic Freeport, and now we are backing this up with the ban on single-use plastics and our strawless campaign because there is really an urgent need to save the environment—and this includes public health—from further degradation,” she added. According to SBMA Ecology Center Manager Amethya de la Llana, the intensified no-littering policy to be implemented in the Subic Bay Freeport aims to stop the dumping or throwing of garbage,

rubbish or any kind of waste in parks, roads, beaches, forests, rivers, streams or on any open or public place in the Subic Freeport. The same policy also makes it illegal for anybody to urinate, defecate or spit in public places, or throw cigarette butts anywhere in public areas. De la Llana added that it would also be illegal to dispose of litter from a boat or ship into a water body, and to transport uncovered, spilling, or leaking waste or waste containers within the Subic Bay

huge amount of money involved in development projects. “They are gambling with peoples’ lives even if they know an accident can happen, preferring it over people dying of hunger,” Antiporda lamented. According to Antiporda, the LGU should no longer allow poverty as a reason to allow illegal activities. “The problem is the poor are always given leeway. Some capitalists tend to use them for profit because under the present system, poverty is a license to do something illegal, like illegal small-scale mining,” he said. The DENR, Antiporda said, also has no police power, which is a major hurdle for the DENR when it comes to enforcing the various environmental laws. “We are seeking for police power to enforce the law,” he said. The police power, he said, will only come in the form of legislation by Congress. “I will recommend that to the good secretary, because we are helpless if we have no police power in the DENR,” Antiporda said. The DENR chief had ordered a halt to quarrying activities in eight regions, namely, Ilocos, Central Luzon, Calabarzon, Bicol, Central Visayas, Northern Mindanao, Davao, and Caraga regions. He relieved all the top officials of the DENR-MGB in Central Visayas in connection with the Naga City landslide. On Thursday afternoon, however, Cimatu, in a hastily called news conference, announced the lifting of the ban and allowed quarrying operations to resume in select areas after DENR teams conducted a quick assessment and site inspection in their areas of operations. Without giving exact numbers, Cimatu said about 90 percent of all quarrying companies are now allowed to resume operation, with just 10 percent hanging in the balance. “There are also no communities that may be affected in the sites,” Cimatu told reporters.

Agree to disagree

SOUGHT for reaction, the antimining group Alyansa Tigil Mina (ATM) expressed support for the plan to make mandatory the turnover of geohazard maps from outgoing to incoming local officials. However, Jaybee Garganera, national coordinator of the group, said the geohazard maps should also be made available and accessible to indigenous peoples and farmers to make them fully aware of the impacts of extreme weather events. “More importantly, geohazard maps must be used to determine the no-go zones for mining, plantations and coal-fired power plants,” he said, adding that geohazard maps must be integrated into the unified maps that show land-use conflicts, especially where geohazard areas overlap with protected areas, watersheds, ancestral domains and prime agricultural lands. Last, Garganera said the President himself should be able to use the geohazard maps in identifying areas where open-pit mining method should be strictly banned.

Freeport Zone. The SBMA has set penalties for violators of the anti-littering rule: P1,500 for individual offenders and pet handlers, who would have the option to render four hours of community service instead; and P50,000 for companies or establishments per day until the violation is corrected. The public is enjoined to report incidents of littering, and particular info like the license plate number of violators, to the SBMA Law Enforcement Department.

Sports BusinessMirror

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

Saturday, September 29, 2018

GENERAL view of the 1st hole as fans clap their hands on the opening day of the Ryder Cup at the Le Golf National in Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines in France. AP

WARMING UP Paris Saint Germain’s Kadidiatou

Diani (left) and Shuang Wang warm up for their Women’s Champions League match against Sankt Polten at the Jean Bouin stadium in Paris on Thursday. AP

ExportUnlimited

A4 Saturday, September 29, 2018 • Editor: Efleda P. Campos

BusinessMirror

PHL exporters link with global buyers in recent 15th Caexpo By Golda Grospe | Trade-Industry Development Specialist,

Market Innovation Division, DTI-EMB

ILIPINO exporters successfully connected with prospective buyers from China and memberstates of the Asean through a businessto-business (B2B) matching facilitated by the Export Marketing Bureau of the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI-EMB) at the 15th China-Asean Expo (Caexpo) held from September 12 to 15 in Nanning, Guangxi, China. A highlight of the B2B matching was the meeting with the Guangdong Food Importers Association which gathered 89 buyers all set to explore business opportunities in the Philippines. This initiative was made possible through the cooperation of the Caexpo Organizing Team and the Philippine Trade and Investment Center (PTIC) in Guangzhou. Aside from the meeting with the Guangdong Food Importers Association, the DTI-EMB also conducted daily B2B engagements at the Philippine Commodity Pavilion at the Nanning International Convention and Exhibition Center. Over 160 business meetings transpired and resulted in $4.3 million (about P32.2 million) booked and negotiated sales, aside from the retail sales generated in the four-day event. The Philippines’s participation in the 15th Caexpo reflected a continuous commitment to establish strong trade cooperation with China and other Asean countries. Collaborative efforts were geared toward the setting up of the Philippine national pavilion and the Philippine commodity pavilion.

At the commodity pavilion, 70 micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) unveiled an array of food and beverage products, food supplements, fashion wearables, arts and crafts, personal care and services from the Philippines. Meanwhile, the national pavilion showcased the trade opportunities, cultural tourism and investment priority areas of this year’s featured City of Charm, Tarlac. Through its Ripples Plus Program, the DTI-EMB supported and enabled the participation in Caexpo of 18 enrolled exporters from various regions in the country. The DTI-EMB also served as an institutional partner in organizing this year’s Philippine participation to the Caexpo, along with the DTI Center for International Trade Expositions and Missions, Board of Investments, Foreign Trade Service Corps, Philippine Trade and Investment Center Guangzhou, Beijing, and Shanghai, Department of Agriculture Agribusiness and Marketing Assistance Service, Provincial Government of Tarlac, Tourism Promotions Board and DTI Region 11.

N a move to increase the exporters’ awareness on Japan’s foodsafety standards and practices that they can apply in their companies’ food-safety management system, the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI), through the Export Marketing Bureau (EMB) and the Foreign Trade Service Corps, conducted an information session on Japan Food Safety Standards on September 18 in Makati City. Around 80 participants composed of exporters, business support organizations, government representatives and delegates from Food Safety Network Japan attended the activity. Rose Marie G. Castillo, Chief of DTI-EMB’s Food and Agri-Marine Division, presented an overview of Philippines-Japan food trade. Castillo highlighted the top Philippine food exports to Japan, which include fresh fruits, tuna, fruit extracts, crustaceans, sugar and sweeteners, as well as the importance of the trade agreements between the Philippines and Japan. Rochel Francisco, Food and Drug Regulation Officer of the

Food and Drug Administration, d i s c u s s e d t h e Ph i l i p p i n e s ’s Hazard A nalysis and Critical Control Points (HACCP) implementation and compliance of Philippine establishments. Sadao Komemushi, Chief Advisor of Food Safety Network (FSN) Japan, discussed Japan’s HACCP Institutionalization and Food Hygiene 7S. He mentioned the importance of incorporating HACCP in the foodsafety management systems and emphasized the importance of the top management’s role in HACCP implementation. He said this should be the “Step 0” in the implementation. Komemushi also discussed Food Hygiene 7S—seiri (sorting out), seiton (systematic arrangement), seisou (sweeping), senjyou (scrubbing), sakkin (sterilization), shitsuke (selfdiscipline) and seiketsu (cleanliness). The information session was conducted as part of the activities during FSN’s visit to the Philippines. The delegation also visited companies in Cebu and Manila to evaluate Philippine companies’ food-safety management system. Japan is the Philippines’s secondlargest export market for food products. In 2017, food exports to Japan amounted to $716 million.

FILIPINO exhibitors meet with prospective buyers from China and other Asean countries during the ChinaAsean Expo held from September 12 to 15 in Nanning, Guangxi, China.

IN a display of solidarity and support for a Filipino company competing with the best in the world, Cabinet officials made a visit to the first-ever Jollibee store in the United Kingdom, a month before its scheduled grand opening in October. In the photo are (from left): Bases Conversion and Development Authority President and CEO Vivencio Dizon, Rep. Wes Gatchalian, Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Ernesto M. Pernia, Budget Secretary Benjamin E. Diokno, Tourism Secretary Bernadette Fatima Romulo Puyat, Trade Secretary Ramon M. Lopez, Finance Secretary Carlos G. Dominguez III, Jollibee Foods Corp. CEO Ernesto Tanmantiong, President and Head of Jollibee International Business for Europe, Middle East, Asia and Australia Dennis Flores, Philippine Ambassador to the United Kingdom Antonio Manuel Lagdameo, Public Works Secretary Mark A. Villar, Transportation Secretary Arthur P. Tugade and Rep. Pia Cayetano.

on various government programs. Present during the store visit were Finance Secretary Carlos G. Dominguez III, Trade Secretary Ramon M. Lopez, Tourism Secretary Bernadette Fatima Romulo Puyat, Public Works Secretary Mark A. Villar, Transportation Secretary Arthur P. Tugade, Budget Secretary Benjamin E. Diokno, Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Ernesto M. Per-

By Kalene Ann M. Ebora

Trade-Industry Development Specialist Food and Agri-Marine Division, DTI-EMB

Mozambique trade minister welcomes PHL trade mission

PHL Cabinet secretaries visit Jollibee’s first UK store

N a display of solidarity and Filipino pride, Philippine Cabinet secretaries made a visit to the first-ever Jollibee store in the United Kingdom, a month before its scheduled grand opening in October. The visit coincided with the Philippine Economic Briefing in the UK, where government officials presented before the UK-Asean Business Council the latest updates

DTI conducts information session on Japan food safety

nia, Bases Conversion and Development Authority President and CEO Vivencio Dizon, Rep. Pia S. Cayetano, Rep. Wes Gatchalian, and Philippine Ambassador to the UK Antonio Manuel Lagdameo. The officials were welcomed by Jollibee Foods Corp. CEO Ernesto Tanmantiong; and Dennis Flores, president and head of Jollibee International Business for Europe, Middle

East, Asia and Australia. “We are truly delighted and excited to be opening and introducing Jollibee to this part of the world. I, together with our Jollibee International and store teams, sincerely appreciate your presence in today’s event. We are sincerely humbled by your visit as we partner for economic progress and help contribute to bringing honor to our country,” Tanmantiong said. “As we have done in other markets, such as Vietnam, Brunei Darussalam, Singapore, and Hong Kong, we envision to successfully serve the delicious food and warm service of Jollibee not only to the Filipino community here, but also to the local British people of the United Kingdom.” He added, “From our family, to our people, to those who invested in us, to our suppliers and to our customers, the journey has become not just our own, but a journey of the Filipino people. And we look forward to traveling to the next destinations together. Here’s to bringing our well-loved Jollibee brand to the rest of the world, and to spreading the joy of eating to everyone!” The Jollibee UK store, which is slated to open on October 20, is among the latest wave of branches the fastfood brand is opening abroad, along with more stores in cities such as Macau and New York, which are also to be inaugurated this year. Daniel Robert Pruce, UK Ambassador to the Philippines, also visited the store as a sign of support from the British community. Jollibee Foods Corp. is the parent company of Jollibee, and has 12 brands with over 4,000 stores across 20 countries. It continues to expand its network beyond the Philippines as it targets to even the split between its domestic and foreign sales.

MOZAMBIQUE Minister of Trade and Industry Ragendra de Sousa (second from left) receives a token from Department of Trade and Industry-Export Marketing Bureau Director Senen M. Perlada (second from right), while Philippine Honorary Consul Donald Tulcidas (left) and Mozambique Deputy Minister Julio Pio look on.

OZAMBIQUE Minister of Trade and Industry Ragendra de Sousa welcomed the first trade mission from the Philippines on September 2. The trade mission was headed by Department of Trade and IndustryExport Marketing Bureau Director Senen M. Perlada. The delegation was composed of 10 companies representing food and food supplements, beverages, garments, office machines and furnishings, processing and packaging equipment for food, pharmaceuticals and cosmetics, and information-technology business solutions and consultancy. De Sousa stressed the need for collaboration between the Philippines and Mozambique, especially in the areas of agro-industry, education, health tourism and light industries. He said Mozambique could be used as the entry point

to the Southern African Development Community, or Sadec, a market of 277 million people, which includes Botswana, Lesotho, Madagascar, Malawi, Mauritius, Namibia, Swaziland, Tnazania, Zambia, Zimbabwe and South Africa. The mission’s itinerary included a visit to FACIM 2018, Mozambique’s prominent international trade show, and business-matching sessions with the members of the Mozambique Chamber of Commerce and the Confederation of Economic Association of Mozambique. A meeting with the top management of Mozambique’s major online supermarket, Izyshop, provided an opportunity for Philippine products to be offered online in Mozambique. The mission was seen as a start of various strategic initiatives to improve Philippine-Mozambique trade relations.

Iconic Goldilocks ‘polvoron’ enters Indonesian market

HE Philippines’s best-selling Goldilocks polvoron is now available in select Indonesian supermarkets. This was announced by the Department of Trade and Industry’s (DTI) trade post in Jakarta. DTI Commercial Attaché Jeremiah C. Reyes said the much-anticipated entry of the product in Indonesia is part of the DTI’s mandate to promote homegrown brands in the international stage. Reyes added that the DTI has been promoting Philippine brands through its major events such as trade fairs. The iconic polvoron’s popular-

ity in Indonesia grew by word of mouth when their nationals started bringing back home these delicacies from their trips to the Philippines. Back then, before its formal launch in September, Indonesians could only purchase the product online or through their friends. Called kukis in Indonesia and classified as shortbread, Goldilocks polvoron, in classic and ube flavor variants, is exclusively distributed by PT Prambanan Kencana. Initially, the products are available in Jakarta, Surabaya and Makassar, and at Farmers Market in L’Avenue and Mall Artha Gading (Diamond).

OurTime

A6 Saturday, September 29, 2018 • Editor: Efleda P. Campos

BusinessMirror

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3.8M indigent seniors get ₧23-billion stipend

HE government is spending P23.18 billion next year to pay for the P500 monthly allowance of up to 3.8 million senior citizens tagged as “qualified indigents” by the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD), Makati City Rep. Luis N. Campos Jr., House Appropriations committee member, said.

“The target is to extend the monthly subsidy to an additional 800,000 impoverished seniors. This explains the 20-percent or P3.9-billion increase in the allocation,” said Campos, a deputy minority leader. The P19.28 billion the DSWD is forking out this year for the Social Pension for Indigent Senior Citizens covers only up to 3 million qualified beneficiaries, Campos said. “We want the monthly stipend for poverty-stricken seniors bumped up to P2,000, considering that Congress has not increased the original P500 since 2010,” Campos said. “Congress has to move quickly

in raising the pocket money for hard-up seniors who are now extremely vulnerable to hunger due to runaway food-price inflation,” Campos warned. Under the Expanded Senior Citizens Law of 2010 that first pegged the monthly grant for indigents at P500, Campos said Congress was supposed to, but never reviewed the amount every two years for possible upward revision. “If the government cannot afford to provide P2,000 monthly to every indigent senior all at once, we should at least offer the amount to those who are 70 years old and

above,” Campos said. Campos is a proponent of House Bill 2653, which seeks to jack up to P2,000 the monthly pension for destitute seniors at least 70 years old. In batting for the passage of his bill, Campos invoked the mandates of the 1987 Constitution for the State “to care for the elderly through just programs of social security, and to provide improved quality of life for all.” “An allowance of P2,000 per month, or P24,000 per annum, would serve as a bigger helping hand to needy seniors at least 70 years old and who have absolutely no one else to turn to for financial aid,” Campos said. Under the law, indigent seniors refer to citizens 60 years old and above who do not receive any regular pension from elsewhere; lack permanent income or compensation, or regular and appropriate financial support from family members; and are listed as qualified beneficiaries by the DSWD. The DSWD is required to ensure the P500 monthly stipend is given directly to payees. The department is permitted to spend only up to 7 percent of the funding allocation for administrative purposes.

166K indigent elderly in West Visayas get one time cash grant

LOILO CITY—The national government’s one-time cash grant has already benefited 166,520 indigent senior citizens in Western Visayas, data from the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) here showed. T he department has spent P399.6 million so far for the cash grant to the beneficiaries, Judith Tanate, focal person for Persons with Disabilities and Older Persons of DSWD 6 (Western Visayas), said in an interview on September 21. DSWD 6 began distributing the cash grants to its beneficiaries on July 25. The grant is a tax subsidy provided under the Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion law to help the poor cope with the rising prices of commodities. Each qualified beneficiary is entitled to receive P2,400 a year, or P200 per month. The national government is targeting to implement the unconditional cash transfer program until 2020. Meanwhile, the bulk of the P399.6 million went to 75,339 beneficiaries in Iloilo province, which amounted to P180.8 million. Aklan province has P57.2 million for 23,839 beneficiaries; Capiz, P50.2 million for 20,957 beneficiaries; Antique, P48.8 million for 20,335 beneficiaries; Negros Occidental, P45.8 million for 19,093 beneficiaries; and Guimaras, P16.9 million for 6,957 beneficiaries. Tanate said the 166,520 beneficiaries who received their cash grant were part of the 189,904 qualified senior citizens in the region. She said they are still waiting for their central office to release the remaining cash grants of more than 23,000 beneficiaries from 24 cities and towns in the different parts of the region. Some 7,944 senior citizens in Iloilo City and 1,547 senior citizens in Bacolod City have yet to receive their cash grant. PNA

RADIANT SMILE

Manang Solidad, 66, shows off rice seedlings ready for planting in her family’s farm in Bayambang, Pangasinan. She plants rice the traditional way in a farm she inherited from her family. LAILA AUSTRIA

It’s raining again. Seniors, get your flu shots By Claudeth Mocon-Ciriaco Correspondent

URING the rainy season, senior citizens are more prone to contracting flu and flu-like diseases. In order to prevent this, a nongovernment organization is urging older people to visit their barangay health centers and boost their immunity against dreaded diseases such as flu, especially during this rainy season. The Senior Citizens Club of the Philippines (SCP), a unit of the Consumers-Commuters Association of the Philippines or CCAP, is concerned with the rising numbers of Filipino senior citizens contracting flu and flu-like diseases which peak during monsoon and typhoon seasons. Statistics from the Bureau of Epidemiology, Public Health Surveillance Division of the Department of Health (DOH) show a 21-percent increase in influenza morbidity this year. Most influenza victims, or about 40 percent, contracted Influenza B Yamagata-Lineage virus, while Influenza A often hit 30 percent of mortality cases. The Center for Disease Control (CDC) said studies showed that people 65 years and older are at

greater risks of serious flu complications compared with young healthy adults as human immunity defenses become weaker with age. Research indicated that 70 percent and 85 percent of seasonal flurelated deaths hit people 65 years and older, while 54 percent and 70 percent of seasonal flu-related hospitalizations, particularly influenza symptoms, were observed in these age groups. Contracting a f lu especially by people aged 65 years old and older often lead to serious complications needing hospitalizations. Flu can lead to pneumonia, dehydration and worsen chronic conditions, such as asthma, emphysema and heart disease. While the health department has been proactive in limiting and contracting the spread of seasonal flu viruses, the best protection, according to the CDC and the World Health Organization, is still the flu shot. Flu vaccination, and not nasal sprays, has been shown to decrease flu illnesses and complications that may lead to hospitalization or even death in older people. A 2017 study showed that flu vaccination reduced deaths, intensive care unit (ICU) admissions, length of stay and overall duration of hospitalization among hospitalized flu

patients, with the greatest benefits observed among people 65 years of age and older. Senior citizens must constantly undergo flu shots because flu vaccines are updated each season to counteract the effects of the evermutating flu virus. Likewise, immunity against flu viruses wanes over a year; hence, yearly vaccinations are advised to ensure the best protection against flu, especially influenza. The 20182019 flu vaccine has been updated from last season’s vaccine to better match circulating viruses. Immunity from vaccination sets in after about two weeks. In 2016 the DOH launched free flu and pneumococcal vaccinations for 1,470,903 senior citizens aged 60 and 65 years old. Filipinos aged 60 years old are given two free doses of the vaccine, with the second dose after a five-year interval. Those aged 65 years and above are entitled to receive one dose to be administered in barangay health centers nationwide. Last year the Philippine College of Chest Physicians, the Philippine College of Cardiology, nephrologists and endocrinologists also advocated for vaccinations due to the risks influenza poses on their patients.

Unemployment a risk for elderly work force in the Netherlands after reforms in early exit

H MAYOR ABBY FETES NEW CENTENARIAN Makati Mayor Abby Binay shares a

light moment with 100-year-old Mamerta A. Aquino during her visit at the latter’s home in Barangay Cembo on September 18. The mayor handed over the P100,000 check traditionally awarded by the city government to centenarian Makatizens. The mayor also presented her with a plaque of recognition and a bouquet of flowers. Born on May 11, 1918, Aquino is one of the two newest centenarians to be recognized by the city government. Nanay Mameng, as she is fondly called, spent her married life at home to attend to the needs of her family while her husband worked as a soldier in the Philippine Army. Also in the photo are Vice Mayor Monique Lagdameo and Nelia Operaña (awardee’s daughter).

ELSINKI—According to a fresh dissertation, retirement is a long-term process rather than a single event. A comparison between the Netherlands and Finland by Senior Researcher Aart-Jan Riekhoff (Finnish Centre for Pensions) shows that retirement includes multiple transitions that take place over several years. “Many people get some other type of pension or benefit before

they retire on an old-age pension. In the Netherlands and Finland unemployment or sickness often result in an early, permanent exit from the labor market. The risks tend to add up over the life course for people with a low education level, insecure jobs and low earnings,” Riekhoff explained. Riekhoff has followed the employment lives of workers in the Netherlands and Finland from their mid-50s until retirement.

Welfare and pension systems are similar in many regards in both countries. It is possible to retire early or late. Many people also retire after longer spells of sickness, disability and unemployment. “Looking at the factors that contribute to each of the trajectories, it is clear that a higher education reduces the risk of involuntary early exit in both the Netherlands and Finland,” Riekhoff said.

Retire? These graying ‘encore entrepreneurs’ are just starting up

EW YORK—The first time David Grupper was laid off from his job as an art director, he was 58. It was 2013 and it took six months—and hundreds of résumés—to land another position as a manager of publications and marketing for the American Civil Liberties Union. A year later, he was laid off again. Fed up, Grupper decided to try something new: Be his own boss. He teamed up with a friend,

David Klein, to start a Brooklynbased company, Point Made Animation, with $2,000 in savings. Today, they produce education and training videos for a dozen clients, including education technology companies and a consortium of community colleges in California. “The risks have paid off,” he said. “I’m making money doing what I love to do.” The only drawback? He may never retire—and he has company.

A growing number of New Yorkers are starting businesses in their 50s and 60s, even as their colleagues are easing into retirement. They are crafting specialty foods like toffee—Oprah Winfrey is a fan—vegetarian dog treats and organic tempeh, a meat alternative traditionally made from soy beans. One for mer e xecut ive at Lehman Bros., who lost a chunk of her retirement savings when the firm collapsed, has since

parlayed her corporate skills and experience into a recruiting service for financial and real-estate companies. A speech therapist whose job was eliminated decided to help immigrants communicate better. These “encore entrepreneurs” are increasingly finding their niche: Their numbers are growing more than twice as fast as the population of New Yorkers over 50. Now, a new report by the Center for an Urban Future,

a nonprofit research and policy organization, has documented the trend using an analysis of census and labor data and dozens of interviews with organizations that work with entrepreneurs. “Ask most New Yorkers to picture an entrepreneur, and they imagine a 20- or 30-something in jeans and sneakers. But the face of entrepreneurship across New York City is changing,” read the report, “Starting Later: Realizing the Promise of Older Entrepreneurs in New York City.” AP

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Powell says Fed rate increases intended to prolong recovery

A S H I NG T ON — Fe d era l Reser ve C ha ir ma n Jerome Powel l sa id T hu rsd ay t hat t he economy is hea lt hy a nd t hat t he Fed ’s steady interest rate increases are intended to prolong its e x pa nsion. Powell said he and his colleagues believe the Fed’s approach to gradually raising rates from ultra-lows to historically normal levels “is helping to sustain this strong T he Fed chair man said the benefits of the strong economy have helped boost employment, but he acknowledged that the benef it s h aven’t reac hed a l l A mer icans. “Many of our country’s economic challenges are beyond the scope of the Fed, but we are doing all we can to keep the economy strong and mov ing for ward,” Powell said in remarks prepared for a conference of Rhode Island business executives sponsored by Sen. Jack Reed, a Rhode Island Democrat. Powell’s comments came one day after the Fed raised its key policy rate for a third time this year and signaled that it plans to tighten credit once more this year and three times in 2019. Powell noted that even with the latest rate hike—the eighth quarter-point increase since late

2015—“these rates remain low.” The Fed ’s latest increase has lifted its key rate to a range of 2 percent to 2.25 percent, still low by historical standards. The central bank began raising its benchmark rate in late 2015 after having kept it at a record low near zero since 2008 at the height of the financial crisis. Last year the Fed raised the rate three times, just as it has so far this year. In an updated economic projection on Wednesday, the Fed forecast that strong growth this year would begin to slow next year. In doing so, it sketched the outlines of a “soft landing” in which its rate increases would slow the economy enough to control inflation but not enough to end the expansion, now in its 10th year, the secondlongest on record. I n a quest ion- a nd- a n s wer session, Powe l l w a s a sked whether he saw any dangerous bubbles for ming in such assets as stock pr ices. Powell said that some asset prices were high but that he didn’t see any bubbles forming. He said the reforms made after the 2008 financial crisis had made the banking system safer. And he suggested that the financial crisis had delivered a strong lesson of the critical need to promote stability in the financial system. AP

Survey shows most UK firms are still unprepared for Brexit

OST British firms are unprepared for Brexit, but a fifth plan to move all or some of their business to the European Union in the event the United Kingdom fails to reach a deal with the bloc, according to one of the biggest surveys so far on the topic. Some 62 percent of companies are yet to carry out a Brexit risk assessment, according to the survey published on Friday by the British Chambers of Commerce. Their poll of more than 2,500 companies also found that 21 percent of businesses would cut investment in the UK in the event of a no-deal Brexit. The findings are a wake-up call for the government, underlining the lack of preparation in cor porate Britain and the potential economic damage that would result from a chaotic Brexit. Prime Minister Theresa May’s proposal was rejected by Eu ropea n leaders l a st week ,

forcing her to come up with a new Brexit plan both the European Union and the warring factions in her Conser vative Party can accept. “Businesses are c lear t hat reaching a deal with the EU, which addresses the future terms of trade and provides certainty, must be the government’s number one priority,” BCC Director-General Adam Marshall said in a statement. “Our evidence is clear: failure to reach a political agreement would have real-world consequences, with significant decreases in both investment and recruitment.” Negotiators are trying to forge a withdrawal agreement and an accompanying political statement on the future relationship between the EU and the UK by midNovember. May must put the deal to a vote in the UK Parliament, and it must also be approved by the European parliament in time for Britain’s scheduled departure at the end of March. Bloomberg News

Boeing beats Lockheed for $9.2-B US Air Force jet trainer program

OEING Co. beat Lockheed Martin Corp. in a US Air Force contest valued at as much as $9.2 billion to build training jets to hone the flying skills of future aviators, the biggest prize in a September flurry of defense contract awards. The 351 to 475 training airc ra f t a nd 120 g rou nd-ba sed training systems would be produced at Boeing’s Saint Louis plant through 2034, the A ir Force is planning to announce on Thursday. The service is initially issuing a contract for $813 million, including engineering and manufacturing development. The T-X Trainer program will replace the Air Force’s half-century-old fleet of T-38 supersonic jets that have helped prepare fighter pilots for combat since John F. Kennedy was president. Boeing may go on to claim hundreds of overseas orders for planes and spare parts stretching over decades as the Pentagon program spurs other countries to upgrade their trainer fleets. The

Teal Group of Fairfax, Virginia, forecasts a global market for 2,441 turbofan-powered trainers valued at $30.3 billion over the next decade, according to a December research report. The contest pitted an all-new aircraft and flight simulators created by Boeing and Stockholm-based Saab AB against entries based on existing models from a LockheedKorean Aerospace Industries partnership and from Rome-based Leonardo SpA, bidding through its DRS subsidiary. Northrop Grumman Corp., Textron Inc., Sierra Nevada Corp. and Raytheon Co. were among the companies that dropped out of the competition. The trainer award was the second that Boeing received this week in which it beat Lockheed in head-to-head competition. On Monday Boeing was awarded a job valued at as much as $2.38 billion for as many as 84 new helicopters to guard intercontinental ballistic missile sites in Montana, Wyoming and North Dakota. Bloomberg News

Saturday, September 29, 2018

Oil poised for 3rd weekly gain as traders brace for $100 crude

IL is poised for a third weekly gain as energy giants to Wall Street banks predict the return of $100 crude on fears over an impending supply crunch. Futures in New York were set for a 2-percent advance this week, on course for the longest run of weekly increases since May. Oil and gas major Total SA Chief Executive Officer Patrick Pouyanne said a supply loss in Iran and declining output in Venezuela may help push prices back into levels last seen in 2014. Meanwhile, the US government dismissed speculation it will release emergency crude reserves to temper prices. Oil has risen to near four-year highs after the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries showed little sign of immediately boosting production despite President Donald Trump’s demand to lower prices. Concerns over tightening supplies are growing as more and more buyers of Iranian crude shun purchases from the Islamic Republic, with US sanctions set to take full effect in early November. “Everyone’s worried about the tightness in supply at the moment and that’s continuing to push up prices,” Will Yun, Seoul-based commodities analyst at Hyundai Futures Corp., said by phone. “But volatility is coming as we’re still waiting for further response from the US.” West Texas Intermediate for November deliver y traded at $72.20 a barrel on the New York

Mercantile Exchange, up 8 cents, at 9:06 a.m. in Singapore. The contract has climbed $1.42 this week. Total volume traded was about 69 percent below the 100day average. Brent for November was little changed at $81.72 on the ICE Futures Europe exchange. The contract rose 3.7 percent this week. The global benchmark traded at a $9.53 premium to WTI. Oil also rose a day after the US Energ y Secretar y ruled out t apping t he St rateg ic Pet ro leu m R eser ve, compou nd i ng concerns that sanctions on Iran will tighten markets. “People are rolling the dice on whether oil will reach $100,” said Bob Yawger, director of the futures division at Mizuho Securities USA. “We’re getting close to an area where oil is overbought

and we’ll probably see a bit of a pull-back.” US crude is nearing four-year highs after Opec signaled it’s in no rush to boost production to counter losses from Iran, drawing repeated criticism from President Donald Trump. Top trading houses are predicting the return of $100 oil, last seen in 2014, while Bank of America Cor p. and JPMorgan Chase & Co. have increased their price forecasts. “Right now we’re trading more on fear than on fundamentals,”said Ashley Petersen, senior oil market analyst at Stratas Advisors. “Hopefully by the start of next year and the end of this quarter some of

Everyone’s worried about the tightness in supply at the moment and that’s continuing to push up prices. But volatility is coming as we’re still waiting for further response from the US.”—Yun

that fear will be worked out of the market.” West Texas Intermediate crude for November delivery rose 55 cents to settle at $72.12 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Total volume traded on Thursday was about 38 percent below the 100-day average. Brent for November settlement rose 38 cents to close at $81.72 a barrel on the London-based ICE Futures Europe exchange. The global benchmark crude was at a $9.60 premium to WTI. Releasing oil from the US strategic reserve to prevent a price spike would have “a fairly minor and short-term impact,” Perry said, adding that other producers can offset losses from Iran. Earlier this week, Trump accused Opec of “ripping off ” the world after the group stopped short of promising specific extra volumes of crude. The global oil market faces its tightest quarter in more than a decade in the final three months of this year as diminished Iranian supplies coincide with a resurgence in purchases by China, according to consultants Energy Aspects Ltd. Bloomberg News

Trump demands confirmation vote on Kavanaugh, praises testimony

RESIDENT Donald J. Trump demanded a Senate vote on confirmation of Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh and praised his performance minutes after a hearing on sexual assault allegations against him. Kavanaugh’s testimony “was powerful, honest, and riveting,” Trump said in a tweet on Thursday. “Democrats’ search and destroy strategy is disgraceful and this process has been a total sham and effort to delay, obstruct, and resist. The Senate must vote!” Trump thought Kavanaugh’s angry and emotional opening statement to the committee was strong, three people familiar with the president’s thinking said. Within the White House, the consensus is that the nominee showed passion and honesty. Christine Blasey Ford, a California psychology professor, told the Senate on Thursday that Kavanaugh sexually assaulted her while they were both in high school. She said she is “100 percent” certain K avanaugh was her attacker. Kavanaugh tearfully and “unequivocally” denied sexually assaulting Ford. He accused Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee of dragging out his confirmation and turning the process into “a national disgrace.” K av a n au g h ’s appoi nt ment may now hinge on how his testimony and that of his accuser is assessed by a handful of Republican senators who so far have avoided taking a position on his confirmation including Susan Collins of Maine, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Jeff Flake of Arizona. Each said they wanted to watch the hearing before making up their minds. T he three Republicans met privately w ith Democratic Sen.

BRETT KAVANAUGH, US Supreme Court associate justice nominee for US President Donald J. Trump, speaks during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing in Washington, D.C., on Thursday. POOL/BLOOMBERG

Joe Manchin of West Virg inia shor t ly after the hear ing ended. Manchin sometimes votes w ith Republicans and is up for reelection in a state Trump won by more than 40 points in 2016. “We’re still talking,” Manchin said as he left the meeting. “There’s no decisions made on anything I can assure you of that.” Ford described to the committee and a national television audience an assault she said “has haunted me episodically as an adult.” She told of fearing she would die as she was pinned to a bed, her mouth covered to keep her from screaming. She said the 1982 incident— including the “uproarious laughter” of Kavanaugh and his friend who she says witnessed the attack— was “seared into my memory” even though she didn’t remember all the details. Kavanaugh repeatedly flashed his anger at Democrats on the panel, scowling, arguing with them

and jabbing his finger toward the table in front of him. “ This whole two-week effort has been a calculated and orchestrated political hit, fueled with apparently pent-up anger about President Trump and the 2016 election, fear that has been unfairly stoked about my judicial record, revenge on behalf of the Clintons and millions of dollars in money from outside, left-w ing opposition groups,” Kavanaugh told the committee. “ This is a circus.” The Judiciary Committee is scheduled to vote on Kavanaugh’s nomination on Friday, and the full Senate could act as early as next week. The outcome and how the American public perceives it could redefine the “Me Too” era and reverberate for both parties in the November 6 election, which will decide control of Congress. A Pew Research Center survey released on Wednesday showed Supreme Court appointments now

rank essentially equal to health care and the economy as a top issue. While the court long has been a motivator for the GOP base, the Pew survey found 81 percent of voters who favor Democratic candidates said court appointments were important, compared with 72 percent of those who said they support Republicans. Adding to that is a gender gap in voter preferences. Democratic candidates have a 23-point edge over Republican candidates among women voters, 58 percent to 35 percent, while men are roughly evenly divided. Kavanaugh was emphatic as he tried to save his nomination in the face of public claims of sexual misconduct by three women. “I was not at the party described by Dr. Ford,” he told the commitee. Ford said she was pushed into a bedroom and attacked while attending a small gathering at a home in suburban Maryland. Bloomberg News

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

Saturday, September 29, 2018 A9 A7

LENOVO’S Legion

PROMO OFFERINGS FROM GLOBE-LENOVO PARTNERSHIP

AS we gear up for the holidays, leading PC developer Lenovo and Globe Telecom team up for an always-connected “ber” season in a promo ongoing until the month’s end. Customers now purchasing selected Lenovo products (Yoga, IdeaCentre, IdeaPad and Legion) will receive a free Globe at Home Prepaid WiFi kit worth P1,999. Each WiFi kit also comes with seven days worth of data out of the box. Purchase of selected Lenovo products with Intel Core i3 processors will get a Globe At Home Prepaid WiFi with free seven days of data, while purchases with Intel Core i5 processors will get an additional Homesurf P349 for an extra 10GB data valid for 10 days. Meanwhile, purchase of products with Intel Core i7 processors will get an additional Homesurf P599 for extra 15GB data valid for 30 days. “With this new promotion, everyone can stay connected especially this coming holiday season. Globe’s reliable Internet connection will surely elevate their Lenovo experience,” said Lenovo Philippines Country General Manager Michael Ngan. A cost-effective plug-in LTE WiFi solution, Globe at Home Prepaid WiFi is two times faster, with 50-percent stronger coverage, compared to regular pocket WiFi devices. Customers who buy qualifying products can claim in-store the Globe at Home Prepaid WiFi upon purchase. Customers who buy Intel Core i5 and i7 products can claim their free data add-ons through the promo’s web site by providing their invoice number and the product’s serial number. Each customer may only have a maximum of five selected products per transaction, and purchases must be made at engaged retailers only (www.lenovoredemptions.com).

Travel booking site holds mobile-led event influencers and artists.

PRIMETIME

DINNA CHAN VASQUEZ @dinnachanvasquez luckydinna@gmail.com

FROM left: Akari’s LED emergency light, 12-inch bluetooth music box fan, and electric mosquito killer

BE EMERGENCY-READY THIS RAINY SEASON

IT’S the rainy season once again, posing hazard to Filipinos’ health and homes. Akari (www.akari.com.ph), a leading lighting and technology brand in the country, aims to help you keep your home and family safe and to be emergency-ready this rainy season. Equip your home with Akari LED emergency light to provide you with temporary lighting of up to seven hours during a power outage. To ensure a longer battery lifespan, it features overcharge/ over-discharge protection so you can keep it plugged in and ready-to-use in times of sudden blackouts. To avoid mosquito-borne diseases common during the wet season, the brand offers a wide range of electric mosquito killers that can cover up to 100 square meters with a zapping voltage of up to 1400V. Akari also has an AC/DC 12-inch bluetooth music box fan that can keep you cool and entertained when there is a power interruption. This rechargeable fan can operate for up to six hours; you can also play your favorite tunes via bluetooth with its built-in speaker.

HE 2018 Klook Travel Fest, the first mobileled travel fair in the country, will be held today and tomorrow (September 29 and 30) at the SMX Convention Center, SM Aura. Klook is an online tour booking site that allows you to plan your travel activities via an app. You purchase your tickets to attractions, transportation and transfers, restaurants and even pocket Wi-Fi and SIM cards. The 2018 Klook Travel Fest is an experiential travel fair that brings together both local and regional partner attractions, airlines, tourism bodies and key opinion leaders from the travel industry for a weekend of exhibitions, workshops and, of course, great deals. The exhibitors and attractions include Universal Studios Japan, Resorts World Sentosa, Ocean Park Hong Kong, Ngong Ping 360, Taipei Fun Pass, Big Bus Tours, Madame Tussauds, Legoland Malaysia, Skytrek Adventures, Dessert Museum and Sanrio Odakyu. For the travel fest, Klook has also tapped Thailand Tourism Board, Singapore Tourism Board and Korea Tourism Organization and airlines, such as Cebu Pacific, EVA Air, China Airlines, Cathay Pacific, Emirates and Jetstar. One thing that makes the 2018 Klook Travel Fest unique is that it will also stage workshops, talks and performances featuring some of the country’s top

DAY 1: ■ “What It Takes to Become a Travel Influencer” with David Guison, Deegee Razon and Vina Guererro ■ “How to Travel in Style” with Nicole Andersson, Camille Co and Kryz Uy ■ “Staying Healthy before your Trip” with Vince Velasco ■ “Travel on a Budget” with The Poor Traveler ■ Performances from Mayonnaise, Dane Hipolito and IV of Spades DAY 2: ■ “Traveling with Kids” with The Mother Show DJs Andi Manzano, Delamar Arias and Riki Flores-Reyes ■ “Mastering Creative Night Photography” with Janina Manipol ■ “Eat Your Way Through Singapore” with Our Awesome Planet’s Anton Diaz ■ “#StrongIndependentTraveler” with Sam Oh, Issa Pressman and The Pinay Solo Backpacker ■ “Exploring K-Drama Locations” with Ana Gonzales ■ “Full Time Corporate Employee, Part Time Traveler” with Colleen Vidal ■ “Occupation: Traveler” with Wil Dasovich and Jako de Leon ■ Performances from Reese Lansangan, Sud and Autotelic Klook Philippines will also introduce its new ambassador duo—Alex Gonzaga and Luis Manzano— during the event. The 2018 Klook Travel Fest marks the first anniversary of Klook in the Philippines. Last year Klook had unique launch, which saw four sets of influencers going to different destinations: Singapore, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Palawan. I met Marcus Yong, head of marketing for Klook

Southeast Asia, in Singapore last year and was impressed by his impressive and inclusive insights on modern travel. The Philippines is a top market for Klook in Southeast Asia, with users that are very engaged. “Filipinos love to travel and spend a lot of money on experiences. Based on our data, 65 percent of bookings made by Filipinos are made on mobile. We’ve also found out that Filipinos like to check out blogs and travel sites for inspiration,” said Yong. Yong said Klook is not primarily a travel company but a technology company. Many of their bookings are done at the last minute, sometimes even while the traveler is outside a theme park or attraction. “We offer a seamless app experience,” said Yong. “The user gets to read reviews, click on a few tabs and then he or she is all set with a QR code. Klook eliminates the need to fall in line and other inconveniences.” Klook’s market is composed mostly of millennials. About 60 percent are in the 25 to 34 age range, 22 percent in the 35 to 44, and 15 percent are 18 to 24. Three percent are 45 years old and above and this is one of the reasons Klook has localized content and 24hour customer service in many of the countries where it has a presence. Klook has over 50,000 offerings in more than 200 destinations. In many destinations, its offices accommodate visitors who aren’t very tech-savvy or those who have a lot of questions because while Klook is an app, Yong said they are, first and foremost, people-oriented. Klook’s content is chosen carefully so the user doesn’t need to look through 50 to 60 entries if he or she is looking for an attraction or means of transportation. That means anything and everything on the Klook platform is the best at that price point, and that each and every activity has been tried and tested. Connect with them online: goo.gl/N5evzn (web site), bit.ly/2tD5pkV (Klook PH Facebook), or bit.ly/2kkHbbi (Klook PH Instagram). ■

How Apple’s Safari browser will try to thwart data tracking BY ANICK JESDANUN The Associated Press NEW YORK—New privacy features in Apple’s Safari browser seek to make it tougher for companies such as Facebook to track you. Companies have long used cookies to remember your past visits. This can be helpful for saving sign-in details and preferences. But now they’re also being used to profile you in order to fine-tune advertising to your tastes and interests. Cookie use goes beyond visiting a particular web site. As other sites embed Facebook “like” and “share” buttons, for instance, Facebook’s servers are being pinged and can access your stored cookies. That means Facebook now knows you frequent celebrity gossip sites or read news with a certain political bent.

Ads can be tailored to that. Here’s how Safari is getting tougher in dealing with that: ■ NO MORE GRACE PERIOD. Safari used to wait 24 hours from your last visit to a service before blocking that service’s cookies on third-party sites. That effectively exempted Facebook, Google and other services that people visited daily. Now, Safari will either block the cookie automatically or prompt you for permission. Apple says Safari will still be able to remember sign-in details and other preferences, though some web sites have had to adjust their coding. ■ THWARTING FINGERPRINTING. Browsers typically reveal seemingly innocuous information about your device, such as the operating system used and fonts installed. Web sites use this to make minor adjustments in formatting so that pages display

properly. Browsers have historically made a lot of information available, largely because it seemed harmless. Now it’s clear that all this data, taken together, can be used to uniquely identify you. Safari will now hide many of those specifics so that you will look no different from the rest. It’s like a system that digitally blurs someone’s image, said Lance Cottrell, creator of the privacy service Anonymizer. “You can tell it’s a person and not a dog, but you can’t recognize a person’s face,” he said. For instance, Safari will reveal only the fonts that ship with the machine, not any custom fonts installed. ■ MASKING WEB ADDRESSES. When visiting a web site, the browser usually sends the Web address for the page you were just on. This address can be quite detailed and reveal the specific product you were exploring at an e-commerce site, for instance.

Now, Safari will just pass on the main domain name for that site. So it would be just “Amazon.com” rather than the specific product page at Amazon. ■ CLOSING A LOOPHOLE. Some ad companies have sought to bypass restrictions on third-party cookies— that is, identifiers left by advertisers—by using a trick that routed them through a series of web sites. That could make a third-party cookie look like it belonged to a site you’re visiting. Safari will now try to catch that. The changes come on Tuesday as part of the iOS 12 update for iPhones and iPads and a week later in the Mojave update for Mac computers. Many of the safeguards will be limited to cookies that Apple deems to be trackers. That’s being done to reduce the likelihood of inadvertently blocking legitimate third-party cookies.

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A10 A8 Saturday, September 29, 2018

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TEAMING UP TO PUSH LTE IN THE PHILIPPINES Present at the signing ceremonies were (from left) Smart Vice President for Prepaid Marketing Carlo Endaya, PLDT-Smart FVP and Consumer Marketing Head Andrew L. Santos, PLDT-Smart SVP and Head of Consumer Business Market Development Oscar Reyes Jr., Oppo Vice President for Channel Sales Zen Han, Oppo Vice President for Marketing Jane Wan and Oppo Vice President for Operations Garrick Hung.

SMART PARTNERS WITH OPPO TO DRIVE LTE ADOPTION

PLDT wireless subsidiary Smart Communications Inc. (Smart) is teaming up with popular smartphone brand Oppo in ramping up LTE smartphone adoption among its customers. Under the partnership, Smart and Oppo are offering the Oppo A71 phone kit bundle to Smart, TNT and Sun users at a discounted price to encourage more customers to upgrade their devices to LTE. LTE allows customers to experience overall faster download and upload speeds that they can use to stream video, play mobile games, send files on the go and share photos on social media. Present at the signing ceremonies were PLDTSmart SVP and Head of Consumer Business Market Development Oscar Reyes Jr., PLDT-Smart FVP and Consumer Marketing Head Andrew L. Santos, Smart Vice President for Prepaid Marketing Carlo Endaya, Oppo Vice President for Channel Sales Zen Han, Oppo Vice President for Marketing Jane Wan and Oppo Vice President for Operations Garrick Hung. “Our vision is to enable Filipinos to enjoy the fastest data connection with Smart LTE. We want to do this by equipping every Filipino with an LTE smartphone. Hence, Smart joins forces with Oppo to bring an LTE smartphone that allows our subscribers to level up to LTE and do this in an affordable way,” Santos said. Oppo A71, one of the brand’s best-selling smartphones, is available for P5,988, discounted from its original price of P6,990 while supplies last. The A71 phone kit bundle comes with an LTE upgrade SIM for existing Smart, TNT and Sun customers. First-time LTE SIM upgraders also get a free 1GB open-access data valid for three days upon successful upgrade, which customers can use for accessing social-media sites like Facebook, Instagram and YouTube, chat apps like Viber, and games like Mobile Legends, for example. “Oppo and Smart share a mission, and that is to empower the customer with the latest technology and innovative products,” said Wan. “We’re partnering with Smart to bring LTE-ready and up-to-date smartphones at affordable prices to more customers.” As Smart accelerates its LTE migration campaign, the number of LTE handsets now surpasses the number of 3G phones on the network. The number of new LTE handsets in the Smart network also rose by 75 percent in the first half of the year. As a result, the average revenue per user among prepaid subscribers increased just three months after the SIM upgrades. As more subscribers upgrade to LTE, mobile traffic on Smart’s network also grew by 79 percent in the first half of the year, higher than the industry year-on-year growth of 54 percent for the same period. Under Smart’s Level Up to LTE campaign, customers are encouraged to upgrade to an LTE-capable smartphone and an LTE SIM to be able to fully enjoy Smart’s upgraded networks. “To enjoy LTE, our subscribers need only to remember three things: SPD—short for SIM, Place and Device,” Santos said, adding that subscribers who are still using non-LTE SIMs can easily get an LTE Upgrade SIM at Smart Stores, Sun Shops and sari-sari stores across the Philippines.

MAURICE ALTAR (from left), MSI-ECS AVP for Marketing and Communications; Natasha Gray, DJI senior communication manager; Mary Jane Esteban, Mavic Air winner; and Kevin On, DJI Global Communication director.

Facebook allows gender-biased job ads on its platform

EW YORK—Facebook is allowing job ads on its platform that exclude women, according to the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU). In a complaint filed on Tuesday with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, the ACLU lists 10 employers that it claims have placed ads on Facebook that violate federal and state discrimination laws. Changes Facebook made to its ads systems this year to prevent discrimination based on race, ethnicity, religion and other characteristics didn’t extend to gender, the group said. Facebook responded quickly, saying that there is “no place for discrimination” on its platform and that it will defend its practices once it can review the complaint. The ACLU and the Communications Workers of America labor union say the ads target potential job applicants based on gender. This includes women as well as people who do not identify as either men or women, or “non-binary” people. The complaint was filed on behalf of three women, living in Pennsylvania, Ohio and Illinois, who allegedly were not shown ads for jobs in traditionally male-dominated fields, even though they appeared qualified for those positions. The ads, which appeared over the course of several months in 2017 and 2018, were for jobs such as tire salesman, mechanic, roofing worker and security engineer, said Galen Sherwin, senior staff attorney at the ACLU’s Women’s Rights Project.

The ACLU says that the women, as well as the union’s other female and other non-male members, have “routinely been denied the opportunity” to receive job ads and recruitment on Facebook that their male counterparts received. Targeting job ads by gender is illegal under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. In one of the ads in the complaint, the City of Greensboro, North Carolina, is advertising jobs at its police department. The ad shows a photo of two policemen and says the department is hiring “year round” with a starting salary of $38,222. The ad placed by the city was targeted to “men ages 25 to 35 who live or were recently near Philadelphia.” Such targeting information is available to Facebook users when they click on “why am I seeing this” on a drop-down menu on the ad. A representative for the city of Greensboro did not immediately respond to calls on Tuesday. Other ads had a similar format and while the text of the ads shown in the complaint is neutral, the images, when they have them, include only men. Facebook already tells advertisers that their ads must not discriminate, or encourage discrimination against people based on “personal attributes such as race, ethnicity, color, national origin, religion, age, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, family status, disability, medical or genetic condition.” In April the US Department of Housing and Urban Development filed an administrative complaint, saying Facebook’s advertising tools allow landlords

and real-estate brokers to engage in housing discrimination. Facebook said at the time that it prohibits such discrimination and that it has been working to strengthen its systems. But Tuesday’s complaint says Facebook has “long known” that employers and employment agencies were using its platform to discriminate on the basis of gender. Instead of eliminating this behavior, the ACLU said on Tuesday, Facebook has encouraged it. “They have been on notice for quite some time,” Sherwin said. “They should have paid closer attention. They had plenty of opportunity to fix this.” According to the complaint, Facebook has “consciously decided not to stop itself or employers from targeting employment ads that exclude female users from receiving the ads.” In addition, while companies can actively choose to exclude women from seeing their job ads, a popular Facebook advertising tool called “lookalike audiences” can also lead to similar results, the ACLU says, even if it is not intended. It lets advertisers target people who “look like” their existing customer base, but are not customers yet. When it comes to job ads, a company can target potential employees with similar characteristics— including gender—to their existing employee base. This, the ACLU says, is illegal. “Their machine learning is supposed to flag [ads for] employment, housing or credit,” Sherwin said. “But it isn’t working. Whatever mechanism they have in place is not up to the job.” AP

New era for camera drones THE world’s leader in civilian drones and aerial imaging technology, DJI recently introduced a new era for camera drones with two additions to its iconic Mavic series: Mavic 2 Pro, the world’s first drone with an integrated Hasselblad camera; and Mavic 2 Zoom, the world’s first foldable consumer drone with optical zoom capability. The Mavic 2 is the most advanced DJI camera drone ever built, designed for professionals, aerial photographers and content creators. Incorporating the iconic folding design of the world’s most popular Mavic Pro, the Mavic 2 is a powerful platform with new gimbalstabilized cameras and advanced intelligent features like Hyperlapse and ActiveTrack for easier and more dynamic storytelling. With an impressive flight time of up to 31 minutes and a more stable video transmission system, Mavic 2 delivers the optimal flight experience for capturing epic shots. “When the Mavic Pro was launched two years ago, it redefined the way people looked at a drone and expanded possibilities for creators around the world,” said Kevin On,

Global Communication director at DJI. “Today, we enter a new era of aerial photography with the introduction of DJI’s new flagship product, the Mavic 2 series. The Mavic 2 Pro and Mavic 2 Zoom will enable photographers and videographers to take their inspirations to the air quickly and elevate their creative ideas to new heights.” Coengineered in partnership with Hasselblad, the world’s leader in medium format photography, the Mavic 2 Pro is the world’s first drone with an integrated Hasselblad camera for

outstanding image quality with superior light and color performance. Housing a 1-inch CMOS sensor with a 10-bit Dlog-M color profile, the camera captures four times as many levels of color per channel compared to Mavic Pro to provide maximum flexibility for photo and video editing. The Mavic 2 Pro can capture 20-megapixel aerial shots with color accuracy using Hasselblad’s unique Hasselblad Natural Color Solution (HNCS) technology, while an adjustable aperture from f/2.8 to f/11 provides more control across a wide variety of lighting

conditions. With 4K 10-bit HDR support, the Mavic 2 Pro can be plugged into a 4K TV with HLG and will play back footage with the right color tones. Meanwhile, powered by a 1/2.3-inch CMOS sensor, the Mavic 2 Zoom is DJI’s first foldable consumer drone with zoom, providing a dynamic perspective that ushers in a new era of creative storytelling. With the Mavic 2 Zoom, you can get closer to your subject at a moment’s notice by combining two-times optical zoom (24-48mm) with two-times digital zoom to simulate a 96mm telephoto lens that captures lossless video in full HD resolution. Hybrid auto-focus on the Mavic 2 Zoom combines phase and contrast detection for higher focus accuracy with an increased focus speed of up to 40 percent faster than before. Shoot vivid 12-megapixel photos or take advantage of the new Super Resolution feature that uses optical zoom to automatically capture and stitch nine photos together for a highly detailed 48-megapixel image, making it an ideal option for landscape photography. Exclusive to the Mavic 2 Zoom, the new

Dolly Zoom QuickShot mode opens a new visual language for storytelling that was previously reserved for professional cinematographers. It creates an otherworldly warped perspective by automatically zooming in as it flies away from its subject, keeping the subject the same size while the full background of the scene is revealed. The retail price of a Mavic 2 Pro, including the drone, battery, remote controller, charger and four pairs of propellers, is P98,800. The retail price of a Mavic 2 Zoom, including the drone, battery, charger, remote controller and four pairs of propellers, is P76,300. A Fly More Kit, including two additional batteries, a multibattery charging hub, a car charger, a batteryto-power bank adapter, two pairs of propellers and a carrying bag, retails at P23,100. A gimbal replacement service exclusively for Mavic 2 will be available soon. The Mavic 2 is now available for purchase at store.dji.com and the four DJI Flagship Stores. For more information on all the new features and capabilities of the Mavic 2, visit www.dji. com/mavic-2.

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Saturday, September 29, 2018 A11 A9

Instagram cofounders resign from social-media company / PRINT AWAY THIS RAINY SEASON BROTHER MFC-T910DW Color Inkjet Printer

THERE’S no reason to be gloomy this rainy season— and more reason to be excited as Japanese home and office imaging leader Brother Philippines brings consumers another jolly treat. Brother Philippines brings back their partnership with Jollibee with the Rainy Season Treat promo. The promo features participating printer models under Brother’s Refill Tank System Series that are best for small office and home office printer users, as well as home, school and personal printer users. Under the promo, customers purchasing any participating product may redeem corresponding meal packages at the popular fast-food chain. Maximize productivity and carry out your imaging tasks at the fastest, most affordable way possible with the least hassle via the Brother Refill Tank System printers. Enjoy user-friendly design engineered to minimize the risk of mess and leakage, a document print speed of up to 12/10 ipm (impressions per minute) that lets users do more in less time, and ultra-high-yield ink bottles—up to 6,500 pages in black and 5,000 pages in color—that lower cost per print. Under the promo, customers purchasing the Brother MFC-T910DW Color Inkjet Printer get P1,500 worth of redeemable Jollibee meal packages. Meanwhile, buyers can get P1,000 worth of Jollibee treats for every purchase of a Brother DCP-T310, DCPT510W Color Inkjet Printers, DCP-T710W, MFC-T810W Color Inkjet MFC Printers. Customers who qualify for the promo must visit promotions.brother.com.ph and register to get a corresponding bCODE to their purchase. To redeem the meal packages, customers will need to present the e-mail containing the code at any of the participating Jollibee stores nationwide under this promo, which runs until November 30.

AN FRANCISCO—The cofounders of Instagram are resigning their positions with the social-media company without explanation. Chief Executive Kevin Systrom said in a statement late Monday that he and Mike Krieger, Instagram’s chief technical officer, plan to leave the company in the next few weeks and take time off “to explore our curiosity and creativity again.” “Mike and I are grateful for the last eight years at Instagram and six years with the Facebook team,” Systrom said. “We’ve grown from 13 people to over a thousand with offices around the world, all while building products used and loved by a community of over 1 billion. We’re now ready for our next chapter.” “Building new things requires that we step back, understand what inspires us and match that with what the world needs; that’s what we plan to do,” Systrom said. “We remain excited for the future of Instagram and Facebook in the coming years as we transition from leaders to two users in a billion.” No explanation was given for their sudden departure from the photo-sharing network they founded in 2010. Facebook bought Instagram in 2012, just before going public, at a price that seemed inconceivable at the time—$1 billion—especially for a little-known start-up with no profit. At the time Instagram was ad-free, with a loyal following of 31 million users who were all on mobile devices—still a somewhat elusive bunch for the Web-born Facebook back then. Since then, the service has grown to more than 1 billion users and has of course added plenty of advertisements. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg called Systrom and Krieger “extraordinary product leaders” and said he was looking forward “to seeing what they build next.” The departures are a challenge for Facebook. Instagram has been a bright spot for the company not just because it’s seen as a more uplifting place than Facebook itself, but because it is popular with teens and young people—a group Facebook has had trouble keeping around. “The challenge with Instagram has always been balancing its strong desire for independence, with the need to make Instagram a part of the Facebook machine,” said eMarketer analyst Debra Aho Williamson.

She said one of the key reasons Instagram has done so well is because it’s been integrated into Facebook’s advertising system. Instagram has largely escaped Facebook’s highprofile problems over user privacy, foreign elections interference and fake news, even though it is not immune to any of these things (Facebook recently disclosed it has deleted hundreds of pages on its namesake site, as well as Instagram that were linked to global misinformation campaigns intended to disrupt elections). Though Systrom, in the early days of Instagram ads, famously checked each one personally to ensure

it aligned with the app’s aesthetics, he was not as loudly anti-ads as the founder of another popular Facebook-acquired mobile app, WhatsApp. WhatsApp’s CEO Jan Koum resigned in April. Koum had signaled years earlier that he would take a stand against Facebook if the company’s push to increase profits demanded radical changes in the way WhatsApp operates. In a blog post written when Facebook announced the biggest acquisition in its history, Koum wrote that the deal wouldn’t have happened if WhatsApp “had to compromise on the core principles that will always define our company, our vision and our product.” AP

Planning to be a foodpreneur? Let’s talk business HOW can foodpreneurs grow their business? Globe myBusiness, Globe Telecom’s micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) arm; and UnionBank GlobalLinker, UnionBank’s digital platform for business owners, invited the country’s biggest online food community Let’s Eat Pare to learn useful business tips and hacks from members of Entrepreneurs’ Organization Philippines, a peerto-peer network of influential business owners. The learning session, titled “Let’s Talk Business, Pare!,” was an opportunity for both Globe myBusiness and UnionBank GlobalLinker to collaborate on a shared goal: equipping MSMEs with the tools and expertise to help them grow their business. According to Debbie Obias, vice president of segment marketing for Globe myBusiness, linking MSMEs to seasoned mentors and industry experts is essential to building on their capacities to grow, whether for learning or simply for inspiration through Globe myBusiness Academy’s online and on-ground learning sessions. “For a while now, we have been working with both Entrepreneurs’ Organization and Let’s Eat Pare so we thought: why not create an opportunity where they can interact and learn from one another? That way, we can help foodpreneurs scale up and unlock more opportunities,” Obias said. “Empowering MSMEs create a lot of opportunities for organizations to collaborate, which is what we were able to do with UnionBank GlobalLinker.” “Access to essential tools, resources, technicalknow how, and skills-building opportunities is one of the challenges that MSMEs face. One way we’ve addressed this is the introduction of UnionBank GlobalLinker, a free and easy-to-use platform which helps entrepreneurs’s expand their network, build their stores online and access cost-cutting deals,” UnionBank Vice President and UnionBank GlobalLinker Lead Proponent Dino Velasco added. “While we are making these solutions available, we also work with different communities and organizations like Globe myBusiness to widen the impact we can make for MSMEs.” During the session, foodpreneurs learned from the

THE Let’s Talk Business, Pare! partners UnionBank VP and UnionBank GlobalLinker Lead Proponent Dino Velasco (left), Globe myBusiness VP for Segment Marketing Debbie Obias (second from right) and Let’s Eat, Pare! Founder Mark del Rosario (right). Together with them are (from left): mentors from Entrepreneurs’s Organization—Yellow Cab Cofounder and Founder of The Henry Hotel Hanky Lee, Bo’s Coffee Founder and CEO Steve Benitez, Nacho King! Cofounder Michael Singh, Jimini Foods Group Managing Director Kerwin Tansekiao and Mida Food President and CEO Enrique Valles.

success stories of Bo’s Coffee Founder and CEO Steve Benitez, Jimini Foods Group Managing Director Kerwin Tansekiao, Yellow Cab Cofounder and Founder of The Henry Hotel Hanky Lee, Mida Food President and CEO Enrique Valles and Nacho King! Cofounder Michael Singh. SERVINGS OF INSPIRATION AND IDEAS FOR foodpreneurs to grow, they must first come up with a strong brand position, the event’s speakers advised. In building Bo’s Coffee, for example, Steve chose to position his brand as the Philippines’s best source of homegrown specialty coffee, all of which are sourced from local coffee farmers. This made Bo’s Coffee the first and largest homegrown specialty coffee chain, a local brand at par with international competitors. Only last year, Bo’s Coffee opened its 100th store in Makati. On the other hand, using keywords can also help a brand build its identity, communicate more clearly and leapfrog competition, Hanky said. According to Hanky, owning the term “boutique hotel” is what built The Henry Hotel, which he also founded. The Henry Hotel is known

as pioneering brand in that category, with properties in Manila and in Cebu. Likewise, a foodpreneur can leverage a solid brand to collaborate with other entrepreneurs through franchising and distribution, Michael said. He also recommended the use of influencers to boost credibility and national recognition, especially in a brand’s early stages. To date, Nacho King! has several hundred outlets nationwide, with over 1,000 institutional customers, restaurants, bars and hotels serving their nachos and dips. At the same time, Kerwin emphasized the need to constantly invest in support structures that can equip the company in hitting different milestones: manpower, infrastructure, funds, processes, systems and other tools that can optimize operations. Jimini Foods Inc., which operates Pizza Pedrico’s, has over 800 stores and counter-top operations nationwide. Foodpreneurs, however, should keep their costs while pursuing growth. According to Rick, finding the right suppliers can help foodpreneurs stay on budget. Drawing from his experience with Mida Food, Rick shared that

most large suppliers are willing to do tasks like portioning, premarinating, and par frying for a toll processing fee, which gives entrepreneurs more control on cost. In terms of stretching cashflow, Rick recommends having supplier credit terms. Mida Food is currently the Philippines’s leading seafood distributor. GROWING TOGETHER AS foodpreneurs pursue growth, Let’s Eat Pare Founder Mark del Rosario highlighted that their journey becomes more rewarding when shared with communities who can help them learn. “Joining communities helps businesses in many ways: they become a source of ideas, broaden your network and expose you to opportunities like this learning session hosted by Globe myBusiness and UnionBank GlobalLinker,” Mark said. After sharing about their journeys of building their businesses, the event’s speakers, as well as other members of Entrepreneurs’ Organization, held consultations to make the learning experience more enriching for members of Let’s Eat Pare.

KEVIN SYSTROM, CEO and cofounder of Instagram, prepares for an announcement about IGTV in San Francisco in June. AP

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

EUGENE B. GERONIMO’S “Faces Philippines,” captured on the Huawei P9 Plus

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Saturday, September 29, 2018 A12 A10

PETER JOHN ONGGAY’S “Family Outing—Hello,Life!,” taken on the Huawei P9

Jet Yu: From gamer to city enabler THE TECHNIVORE ED UY

whereiseduy@gmail.com

ASSION is overrated. And just like the word “amazing,” it has become one of the most overused and abused words by a lot of millennials. Long ago, the word “passion” was used only in relation to exceptional situations and bizarre persons, but now the word is everywhere—people are either talking about their passion; or telling other people to find and follow their passion, as if it’s some holy grail to happiness and success. I think they’ve forgotten that it’s also the word used to describe the last hours in the life of Jesus—ever heard of the Passion of Christ? Our discussion about passion was one of the highlights of my recent conversation with Jet Yu, the 28-year-old founder and CEO of Prime Philippines, one of the biggest real-estate consultancy firms in the country. “When people ask me what is my passion, I answer it this way: It depends on what you mean by passion. Passion can refer to a strong and barely controllable emotion, or a strong desire or enthusiasm to do something, but people tend to forget that it originated from the Latin word ‘passio,’ which means ‘suffer.’ “A lot of young people nowadays often get so hyped and make decisions in the heat of the moment. They are willing to turn their backs on everything in the name of passion—not even thinking if they are ready to suffer and make sacrifices to pursue it.” Jet says he often based his advice on practicality. “If they are the breadwinner of the family, I’ll them to keep their jobs rather than risk it in business, since they have little room for failure, because if they fail, their whole family suffers. In his experiences with Prime Philippines, Jet says they have worked with a lot of small start-up business. “Out of the 100 leasing transactions, about 60 percent will shut down in less than a year (mostly food and beverage). The ones who make it past the third year are only 10 percent—meaning 90 percent would have shut down in the first three years. So putting up a business is not easy.” For those who aren’t breadwinners and have money to spare, Jet asks them which industry they want and how long they’ve actually thought about their business plan. “Take note that any hobby turned into a business becomes a career, and when you make it a career, ask yourself if you’re ready to suffer for the first few years for long-term benefits.” Jet stresses that real passion requires sacrifice, discipline and choosing the right opportunity. “There will always be a lot of opportunities, but you have to focus on the good opportunities you have right now; otherwise, you will just be chasing one passion and one opportunity after another.”

PRIME LEARNINGS

JET credits his sense of discipline and determination to his

parents. The middle child in a brood of three, Jet recalls spending his summers working for the family business, typical of Filipino Chinese families, doing clerical work and observing how his parents ran their real-estate marketing company for mass market housing. Jet says his mom taught them how to be resourceful and street-smart, while his father showed them how to treat people equally. “My mom ran the business using the limited manpower and resources she had and taught me that you don’t always need to spend a lot of money to get things done. She also showed me that there was no weekend or holidays when you are running a business and people are depending on you. When business calls at 3 a.m., you have to wake up and attend to whatever needs to be done.” His mom originally wanted him to be an architect, just like she wanted his elder brother to become an engineer and his sister an interior designer—hoping they would eventually take over the family business. All of them, however, had different plans. His sister took up marketing, his brother became a food technologist and Jet became an entrepreneur. Jet took up entrepreneurship at the University of Asia and the Pacific, and even before they were required to start their own business in their third year, Jet had already put up a food kiosk selling siomai and rice meals, called Lil Asya Express, at one of the Light Rail Transit (LRT) stations in Caloocan. This is where Jet learned just how hard it is to run a business. “I ran the kiosk for more than two years, and during the first six months we were just burning money, as in luging-lugi.” His parents lent them one of their vans, and everyday at 3 a.m., he would go to the Balintawak Market to get supplies and then bring it to the kiosk, which isn’t easy considering they live in Quezon City, and he still had to attend classes. Sometimes, when his staff wouldn’t report for work, Jet says he had no choice but to run the kiosk himself and cook everything, otherwise they’d be penalized. He says things only started to turn around when his brother came up with siomai with ginger rice toppings. After that, sales increased more than 100 percent. But while his business was finally starting to flourish, school was a different thing. Jet admits he wasn’t much of an achiever in school. “Back then, I was really addicted to games—‘Ragnarok,’ ‘Counterstrike,’ ‘Dota,’ ‘Gunbound,’ ‘Left for Dead’ and all that—and I think that affected my studies.” So while his classmates were receiving numerous job offers, Jet recalls not getting any offer and even if he had a food kiosk and a few other small businesses on the side, Jet knew this was going to be a major turning point in his life and he had to come up with something. We continue this story next week.

A TESTAMENT TO FLAGSHIP CAMERA PERFECTION

HUAWEI has grown in the eyes and hearts of consumers as one of the leading smartphone brands of choice offering excellent value, style, design, performance and exceptional photography capabilities. This year Huawei has once again opened the Next Image Awards, a platform where Huawei users globally can show off their eye for capturing different subjects and moments. Huawei’s push for a mobile photo contest is no surprise, given that the brand is renowned for its class-leading smartphone camera, such a the P20 Pro with its Leica lens

camera setup. To further develop the culture globally, this 2018 several countries and regions have been chosen to host their local competitions independent of the international contest, as well as other events more specifically catered to the characteristics of local users. These events include three rounds of two-week competitions in the Philippines. In each of the three rounds that were held, judges selected the 10 best works from numerous contributors, naming a single grand prize and nine mentions of excellence. A total of 10,431 photo entries from 3,378 attendees came from the Philippines alone, making it the country with the highest submission of entries overseas. The reason Next Image got so many entries from the Philippines is not only because Filipinos love taking photos but, more important, Filipinos are creative people by nature. We Filipinos like expressing ourselves in different ways—through music, the way we dress, the way we dance, every one of us wants to show the world that we have something to offer and show the world. Huawei collaborated with Manila Bulletin for the Next Image Photo Exhibit on September 5 at The Manila Hotel, Philippines. The Next Image exhibit is revolutionary in its concept since it features photo collections on how the Filipino express themselves creatively.

SAMSUNG HANDSETS TO SUPPORT SMART’S WIFI CALLING

CUSTOMERS using the latest Samsung handsets can soon enjoy the benefits of WiFi Calling as PLDT wireless subsidiary Smart Communications Inc. (Smart) partners with Samsung in rolling out Voice over WiFi (VoWiFi) services, which will be initially available to selected subscribers by October after Samsung releases its latest firmware over-the-air update. Soon, Smart customers can make VoWiFi calls using Samsung smartphones, such as the Samsung Galaxy S8 and S8+, Galaxy S9 and S9+, Note 8 and Note 9 via any Wifi connection like Smart WiFi and PLDT Home WiFi. VoWiFi, or WiFi Calling, lets customers make and receive calls and text messages over a WiFi connection using their smartphone’s native dialer, without having to install a thirdparty app. Apart from an improved calling and messaging experience, WiFi Calling also offers extended network coverage, as customers can make and receive voice calls, as well as video calls, wherever there is WiFi connection. Earlier this month, Smart and its technology partners Huawei Technologies Inc. and Samsung made the first successful VoWiFi call over a live network in Cebu, a first outside Metro Manila. “This pioneering initiative is a key part of PLDT and Smart’s integrated efforts to continuously improve and evolve our voice services,” said Mario Tamayo, PLDT and Smart senior vice president for Network Planning and Engineering. “We will continue to strengthen and revolutionize our network so that we can deliver relevant services, such as WiFi Calling and VoLTE, as well as voice/video over 5G in the near future.” Last year Smart also made the country’s first Voice over Long-Term Evolution (VoLTE) mobile call, which uses LTE or 4G to conduct calls. With VoLTE, customers with VoLTE-capable devices can stay on the 4G/ LTE network when making and receiving calls, which makes call setup time in LTE faster. Call setup time is the amount of

time it takes for the voice call to connect. And because LTE is very efficient in carrying data traffic, a voice call made over LTE is of crystal clear quality, with almost no background noise. Parent company PLDT has committed historic levels of resources to support its network transformation. For 2018 PLDT capital expenditure is expected to reach P58 billion. As of the end of June, Smart has installed over 3,900 new LTE base stations across the country, not only to expand LTE coverage but also to lay the ground for LTE-A, which can provide even greater capacity and speeds to users with capable smartphones. This puts the total count of LTE base stations at over 12,600. Underpinning PLDT and Smart’s fixed and mobile network rollout was the expansion of PLDT’s fiber-optic transmission and distribution network. In the first half of 2018, PLDT increased its fiber footprint to about 204,000 kilometers. PLDT’s fiber network, the most extensive in the country, also supports Smart’s mobile network by providing high-capacity fiber connections for LTE base stations. Smart is also deploying carrier-grade Smart WiFi in high-traffic public places all over the country, such as transportations hubs like Metro Rail Transit Line 3 and LRT Line 1 stations, major airports, bus terminals and seaports across the country, as well as in schools, government buildings, hospitals, malls and entertainment centers. ■

PRIME Philippines Chief Executive Officer Jet Yu