BusinessMirror September 30, 2018

MEDIA PARTNER OF THE YEAR

UNITED NATIONS

2015 ENVIRONMENTAL MEDIA AWARD LEADERSHIP AWARD 2008

BusinessMirror

www.businessmirror.com.ph

A broader look at today’s business n

Sunday, September 30, 2018 Vol. 13 No. 351

2016 EJAP JOURNALISM AWARDS

BUSINESS NEWS SOURCE OF THE YEAR

P25.00 nationwide | 2 sections 18 pages | 7 DAYS A WEEK

RANDALL HOWARD, Lockheed Martin’s aeronautics director for business development and the man behind the business success of the F-16 fighter jet, pauses from attending the 2018 3rd Asian Defense, Security and Crisis Management Exhibition and Conference. NONIE REYES

BUSINESS OF WAR AFP modernization attracts global defense industry players to Manila

By Rene Acosta

HE ongoing modernization program of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP), which is being undertaken in three phases, is attracting the world’s top suppliers of defense and military equipment, including Lockheed Martin, and a roster of other American firms.

The F-16 is the most advanced fourthgeneration fighter jet in the world that the Philippines has so long desired to acquire for its Air Force.

JOHANN68 | DREAMSTIME.COM

T

The ambitious modernization program is indicative of the rising defense and military spending in Southeast Asia, a region that has already positioned itself in the center of the Asia Pacific, as the top buyer and importer of military hardware.

Southeast Asia’s military spending binge, including by the Philippines, has prompted Lockheed Martin and other top defense contractors in the world to remain upbeat, business-wise, in the region, Continued on A2

After amassing $22T, Asia’s rich face succession problems

H

By Klaus Wille | Bloomberg News

AVING a grandfather with four wives can make for some complex succession issues, as Cheong Wing Kiat found when running his family’s Singapore-based drug company a few years ago.

The patriarch and his three cofounders had more than 20 heirs with competing agendas.

Buying out about half helped, but involved tough negotiations and family fights. Now, the number of shareholders is climbing again and Cheong, 59, worries for the next generation.

“Within the next 10 years, we

will have to do another pruning,” he said. “But it will not be my task, and I am happy about that.”

After building vast empires, Asia’s moneyed are, sometimes for the first time, confronting uncomfortable questions as they prepare for complex inter-generational transfers of both wealth and business. A new report released on

PESO EXCHANGE RATES n US 54.2510

Tuesday by UBS Group AG and Campden Wealth predicts a coming “seismic shift” as inheritances are handed down to younger generations globally.

But the need for succession planning is particularly pressing in Asia Pacific, where only 39 percent of family offices have a strategy in place, the lowest proportion of any region, it found.

“The main factor why succession planning often has been overlooked in Asia is that the money CHEONG WING KIAT’S extended family photo during Chinese New Year 1969.

CHEONG WING KIAT FAMILY ARCHIVE

See “Asia’s Rich,” 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 )

NewsSunday BusinessMirror

A2 Sunday, September 30, 2018

www.businessmirror.com.ph

BUSINESS OF WAR Continued from A1

notwithstanding the raging trade war between the United States and China.

Big player

LOCKHEED Martin’s optimism was evident in a recent interview with Randall Howard, the company’s aeronautics director for business development and the man behind the business success of the F-16 fighter jet, one of the core products of the American company dubbed as the world’s largest defense contractor.

For the first time in three years, the American defense behemoth showed up at the defense and security exhibition in the country, which also attracted top military suppliers from Asia and Europe and a host of armsexporting countries, including Israel and Czechoslovakia.

In the US and worldwide, Lockheed Martin, whose major industry portfolios are in aeronautics, missiles and fire systems, space and rotary and mission systems, employs at least 100,000 workers, with a revenue take of $51 billion.

Part of the earnings came from the region, and therefore, there should be no reason why Southeast Asia should not remain in its crosshairs, not with Manila’s continued buildup of its capability along with its neighbors’ sustained effort to further beef up their defense.

Keeping the tradition

THREE months ago President Duterte jump-started the Second Horizon, the second phase of the military’s modernization, by allotting P300 billion for its procurement program, a project that Lockheed Martin and other suppliers wanted to be a part of, one that included succeeding phases.

For one, the American defense contractor wanted to continue the

American tradition, or the western system in the Philippine military, something that still goes on or is seen even in the armies of its regional neighbors.

While Duterte has ordered the military to scout for other possible sources of its major assets and equipment like Russia, the AFP’s training, indoctrination and even equipage come mostly from the West.

F-16 factor

LOCKHEED Martin has offered to develop the air superiority of the Philippine Air Force, or at least position it on the radar of its neighbors, by delivering the F-16, the most advanced fourth-generation fighter jet in the world, with the proper arrangement with the US government.

Howard said that, while the acquisition cost of the plane is slightly higher, the F-16 gives value for the military money as compared with the South Korean-made FA-50, a squadron of which is already at the disposal of the Philippine Air Force.

The FA-50 is an earlier spinoff of the F-16 where its design was based. It could not, however, match the avionics, design, capability and the entire system of the American fighter from which it was copied.

The transition from FA-50 to the F-16, Howard said, should be a progression for Filipino fighter pilots as the South Korean jet should have provided them with the muchneeded training already.

Howard, who was formerly with the US Air Force before joining Lockheed Martin, said the F-16 will catapult the Philippine Air Force into the future as it even incorporates some of the features of the F-35 fighter jet, including its radar and avionics systems.

The F-35 is one of Lockheed Martin’s fifth-generation fighter planes. The other, the F-22 Raptor, is not being marketed yet outside

AIRBUS is now offering one of the latest heavy airlifters (above) that could take off and land on shorelines. The A400M, a four-engine plane, is a “21st-century airlifter,” according to Johan Pelissier, head of Airbus Defense and Space for Southeast Asia. It “is capable of carrying 37 tons of cargo, ideal for delivering troops, tanks, helicopter and even heavy excavators.” It can fly a greater distance at a faster and higher altitude and carries nearly twice the payload of current tactical airlifters. Airbus was at the 3rd Asian Defense, Security and Crisis Management Exhibition and Conference at the World Trade Center.

of the US, even as Australia, South Korea and Japan are already in the process of acquiring their F-35s.

While Howard would not want to dwell on the issue of the West Philippine Sea dispute in relation to the country’s air superiority buildup, he pitched the F-16’s capability, which, he said, brings the

whole situational awareness into its cockpit once it is up in the air.

Operational benefit

INTERNATIONAL media have reported that when talks about the possible offer of the F-16 to the Philippines cropped up, China reportedly called Lockheed Martin through the back channel to block any possible sale of the plane to Manila.

“There’s no such thing,” Howard said, adding that he should know, being the man directly in charge of the

fighter jet’s business side.

Around the world, at least 4,600 of the highly advanced fighter jet have been sold and are being used by the air forces of Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand, South Korea and Indonesia.

Its use by Manila’s allies, according to Howard, should assure the AFP of the operational benefit of F-16 for the military, including on the supply, financial and communication side.

Slovakia, which put the order on the F-16 two months ago, evalu-

Asia’s rich...

Continued from A1

is quite recent, often first or second generation,” said Karim MraniAlaoui, chief investment officer at a Singapore-based family office. “Pretty often, the person who created the wealth is still alive. So many families are just not used to setting up a proper succession plan.”

Total wealth in Asia has reached about $22 trillion and is increasing at the world’s fastest pace, according to consultancy Capgemini. Yet, the region has a bigger problem around succession partly because there’s often no clear demarcation between wealth and business, said Benoy Philip from Singapore-based consulting firm Taproot Family Offices Pte. Many Asian empires continue to be managed and owned by extended family, which means questions around company succession and estate planning are often intertwined.

In recent years, the region has seen some high-profile fissures among wealthy families, amid disagreements over control.

Mukesh Ambani, now Asia’s richest man, and his brother Anil, split the Reliance group in 2005 following an ownership fight after their father died without leaving a will. In Hong Kong, a family feud over control of the city’s biggest developer, Sun Hung Kai Properties Ltd., resulted in the 2008 ouster of Walter Kwok by his relatives.

“Things start falling apart if these issues are not taken into con-

sideration,” said Goh Siow Hui, Asean family business leader and tax services partner at Ernst & Young Solutions Llp. “Conflicts arise, and you see undesirable results in the newspapers, where family members bring each other to court.”

Trusts, wills, clear rules

IN Europe and the US, dynasties like the Rothschilds and financiers like J.P. Morgan started their family offices as far back as the 19th century with trusts, wills and clear rules of succession. In Asia, by contrast, a reluctance to talk about death can make this kind of preparation harder.

“The subject is more easily discussed in Europe,” said Noor Quek, the Singapore-based founder of NQ International Pte., which advises family offices. “Culturally, it’s a delicate subject here.” That’s partly because in Western countries, wealth doesn’t automatically go to family members and could be bequeathed to universities, foundations or philanthropic causes.

“I know a recent example of a very wealthy 90-year-old Indonesian owning a whole business empire,” said Philip. “His three children are already in their sixties, working for the family business and getting their salaries. But they don’t dare talk about succession.”

Cheong’s experiences at Wen Ken Group—the Singapore-based traditional medicine firm founded by his grandfather and three others in 1937—offers a window into some of the challenges Asia’s fami-

ated the multirole fighter against the Gripen of Sweden’s Saab and declared the American fighter plane is way above its Swedish counterpart.

Lockheed Martin said the F-16 should be a good pair for the Black Hawk helicopter since the military is in need of attack helicopters as a result of the aborted contract and delivery of attack choppers by Bell.

A modified version of the Black Hawk was used by a US SEAL team that hunted and killed al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden in Pakistan in 2011.

lies face around inheritance and succession.

Given his grandfather’s large family and many business partners, bringing down the number of shareholders at Wen Ken wasn’t easy.

“We had many, many rounds of meetings and a lot of arguments,” said Cheong, who ran the company from 1995 to 2011 as business leader. “There were disagreements about the valuation and a lot of suspicions.”

He even asked his father, who wanted to keep his holdings, to sell a small part of his shares to prove the pricing for the buyout was fair.

Managing the firm became easier after that process. Other family members are now running the company, and Cheong doesn’t hold an executive role anymore. But as a shareholder, he believes more pruning could be needed again someday.

Succession plans only for 32%

THE latest UBS/Campden Wealth Global Family Office Report found that 32 percent of Asian family offices had succession plans under development. About 21 percent said they had no plan and 7 percent said they didn’t know.

“It could become a serious threat to Asia’s wealthy if no proper mechanism is put in place for inheritance and succession planning,” said Philip of Taproot. “If no action is taken, it could become a time bomb.”

www.businessmirror.com.ph

The World BusinessMirror

Sunday, September 30, 2018

A3

In a stormy quarter, Thailand’s baht shines as rate rise beckons

T

HAILAND’S currency has been a standout performer in what’s been another tough quarter for many emerging currencies.

Along with an outsize currentaccount surplus, the country is luring investors thanks to prospects for the first interestrate hike since 2011.

The baht has strengthened almost 2 percent this quarter against the dollar, the top performer among 12 major Asian currencies tracked by Bloomberg. It’s also good enough for No. 2 in emerging markets, behind Mexico’s peso, which has benefited from a US trade deal.

The gain takes back some of the previous quarter’s loss, when the baht put in Asia’s worst performance.

“The baht got an additional support during this quarter as the Bank of Thailand became hawkish, with the economy showing a solid recovery and inflation returning back to the central bank’s target range,” said Takahide Irimura, the head of economic research in Tokyo at Mitsubishi UFJ Kokusai Asset Management Co., which managed $121 billion as of the end of June. “The currency may continue to perform well into the final quarter of the year, when tourism revenue seasonally picks up, and pushes up the current-account surplus.”

After years of wallowing in the “middle-income trap”—subpar growth for countries that made the initial jump up the development ladder—Thailand’s economy has been kicking into higher gear as its government gets going on infrastructure projects. Prospects for a political transition have also emerged. A royal endorsement this month paved the way for a long-delayed general election, boosting hopes that spending related to the vote will lift consumption and jobs.

With growth clocking a pace just under 4 percent for a second straight year, and forecasts for a similar pace next year, according to the International Monetary Fund, inflation pressures are expected to pick up. The baht reached a three-month high last week after the Bank of Thailand said the need for accommodative policy is expected to decline. Two of seven voters on policy favored an immediate hike in the 1.5 percent benchmark rate.

The nation’s current-account surplus of nearly 10 percent of gross domestic product has also provided support in a period of emerging-market rout triggered

EARLY INDICATORS SIGNAL ANOTHER TOUGH MONTH FOR CHINA’S ECONOMY

L

EADING indicators for China’s economy show growth continued slowing in September, amid the escalating trade war with the US. The data suggest the dispute was weighing on economic activity even before the latest round of tariffs, which took effect this week. That’s the takeaway from a Bloomberg Economics gauge aggregating the earliestavailable indicators on business conditions and market sentiment.

Policy-makers have taken steps to insulate the economy from deterioration in the external environment.

“The early indicators point to further weakness in the Chinese economy even before the latest round of the US tariffs took effect,” Bloomberg Chief Asia Economist Chang Shu said. “The government measures to support growth have not yet had visible effects so far.”

During a September 25 news briefing in Beijing where officials presented an 81-page white paper blasting US President Donald Trump’s trade policies, National Development and Reform Commission Vice Minister Lian Weiliang told reporters “China is fully capable of hedging the impact by expanding domestic demand” through a variety of measures, including tax cuts and infrastructure spending.

The first official data for September, the purchasing managers indexes for the manufacturing and services sectors, will be released on Sunday at 9 a.m. Both will decline slightly, according to forecasters surveyed by Bloomberg. The official manufacturing PMI reading unexpectedly picked up slightly in August, with analysts saying that the mere announcement of government stimulus had helped stabilize sentiment.

External demand conditions though continued to deteriorate this month as the political situation worsened. A weighted average of the flash PMI readings of China’s major trading partners, including the US, the European Union and Japan, declined in September for the fifth straight month, bringing the measure to its lowest level in over a year. That said, PMI readings in many major trading partners remain firmly in expansion territory, showing that demand is far from collapsing.

Factory inflation also moderated—for the third month in a row, to the lowest level since April, according to Bloomberg calculations.

Market sentiment was mixed. The benchmark Shanghai Stock Exchange Composite Index had a monthly gain after bottoming out in mid-September at its lowest level in almost four years. Copper prices also rebounded, but stayed well below where they were earlier in the year, before the US and China began imposing tariffs on each other’s exports.

China’s central bank didn’t follow the Federal Reserve’s interest-rate increase this week, with analysts saying growing uncertainty would keep them from increasing borrowing costs for some time. Most People’s Bank of China watchers expect the central bank to continue increasing the amount of liquidity in the financial system in the fourth quarter, according to a Bloomberg survey. Bloomberg News

by sell-offs in Turkey and Argentina. Foreign investors poured almost $3.5 billion net into the Thai bonds since the quarter began, and though they pulled some out of equities, the SET Index

has been the best performer among major Asian markets, headed for its biggest quarterly rally since 2013.

Bank of Thailand Governor Veerathai

Santiprabhob signaled on Monday that policymakers will be careful not to hurt growth prospects if they do raise rates, with a pause likely after any such move. Bloomberg News

A4

The World BusinessMirror

Sunday, September 30, 2018

Israel PM says Iran has secret warehouse for nuclear program C

www.businessmirror.com.ph

No Nafta doesn’t mean no ‘Aaa’ rating for Canada–Moody’s

I

SRAELI Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu used his annual speech to the United Nations General Assembly to accuse Iran of having another secret facility for its nuclear program and to call on the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to inspect the site immediately.

St a nd ing at t he U N pod ium last Thursday, Netanyahu waved a photograph of a building in Tehran that he said Israeli intelligence had identified as a previously unknown storage warehouse for Iran’s nuc lear work. Iranian authorities had in the past month removed 15 kilograms of radioactive material from the warehouse and hid it around Tehran, he said, adding that the site contains 300 tons of nuclear-related equipment and material.

“The reason Iran didn’t destroy its atomic archive and its atomic warehouse is because it hasn’t abandoned its goal to develop nuclear weapons,” Netanyahu said, adding that “what Iran hides, Israel will find.”

The presentation was in line with the Israeli leader’s long history of making dramatic presentations or accusations at the UN

General Assembly. In 2012 he unveiled a small poster board with a cartoon drawing of a nuclear bomb, which he used to illustrate the threat he saw from Iran’s nuclear program.

Three years later, an agreement aimed at easing economic sanctions on Tehran in exchange for curbs on its nuclear program was reached by the US, Iran and other world powers, but Netanyahu said the agreement didn’t go far enough and the Trump

NETANYAHU BLOOMBERG

administration withdrew from the accord in May.

Nuclear archive

NETANYAHU’S latest accusation comes several months after he unveiled an archive of material on the Iranian nuclear program that he said Israeli intelligence agents smuggled out of Tehran early this year.

Iran has long denied that its nuclear program was ever aimed at developing weapons. International inspectors say they have no evidence that Iran sought to develop a nuclear weapon after

The reason Iran didn’t destroy its atomic archive and its atomic warehouse is because it hasn’t abandoned its goal to develop nuclear weapons.”—Netanyahu

PAULSON: CHINA TRADE WAR RISKS LONG-TERM U.S. PAIN

A

TRADE war with China carries “dangerous” long-term risks because companies and nations may pull back from doing business with the US, former Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson said.

“The question really is: Is China going to start looking for new markets for which they’re going to buy soybeans?” Paulson said on Thursday in an interview with Bloomberg’s David Westin, suggesting it might turn to Brazil or Africa. “Are they going to be concerned that they need to protect themselves if there’s another tariff war and they need other suppliers?”

Paulson, who founded a research group that promotes US-China relations, spoke as a trade war heats up between Washington and Beijing. President Donald J. Trump’s administration added tariffs on another $200 billion of Chinese imports this week—the largest escalation of the confrontation so far. China responded with duties of its own on $60 billion in US products.

“Companies and countries want to do business with the United States because we’ve got reliable, stable economic policies,” Paulson said. “Are they going to want the US to be a supplier if they think the United States is going to come in and break up the supply chain? Is a foreign investor going to want to come in and build a plant in the United States if they’re afraid they’re going to be in the middle of a tariff war?”

Paulson, 72, has called on the two countries to hold negotiations and establish timelines for China to open its economy.

“This trade war obviously doesn’t benefit anyone,” he said in the interview before remarks at the Chicago Council on Global Affairs. “And the tariff impasse is a serious thing.”

Paulson spoke with Sheila Bair, former chairman of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., at the Chicago event looking back at the worldwide credit crisis and the US government’s rescues of financial firms. He acknowledged that many Americans believe the bailouts were unfair and that “the arsonists got rewarded,” while saying officials had little choice.

“There was a severe panic in the marketplace,” Paulson said. Had regulators waited until Wall Street firms collapsed, “I don’t think we could have put this system together again.”

Bloomberg News

2003, but Netanyahu said the archive Israel found earlier this year showed the Islamic Republic planned to restart its weapons program when restrictions on its uranium enrichment are set to expire in a few years.

T he archive Israel unveiled in May had been shared w ith I A E A a nd P5+1 , Ne t a ny a hu said, and that the intel ligence unveiled on T hursday has been shared with I AEA and unnamed intel ligence agencies.

‘Israel knows’

NETANYAHU told the UN that Israel will never allow Iran to get a nuclear weapon and reiterated previous vows to act against Iranian military actions in Syria that he sees as threats to national security, and even in Iraq. He also displayed information that he said showed efforts by Iranian-backed Hezbollah to develop precision weapons that the organization had based inside civilian areas of Beirut.

Addressing Hezbollah directly, Netanyahu said, “Israel knows what you are doing, Israel knows where you are doing it, and Israel will not let you get away with it.”

Netanyahu addressed the assembly a few minutes after Palestinian Author it y President Mahmoud Abbas, who called on President Donald Trump to rescind recent steps such as recognizing Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and cutting financial aid to the Palestinians. Bloomberg News

ANADA’S “Aaa” sovereign rating and stable outlook could probably withstand even the worst-case North Atlantic Free Trade Agreement (Nafta) scenario in which no agreement is reached and the country faces new tariffs, according to Moody’s Investors Service.

W hile the base case for Moody’s is for Canada to ultimately sign a new Nafta with the US and Mexico, the rating company is confident the northern nation would be able to adapt if no deal is signed and the US slaps it with auto tariffs.

“We would expect the economy would adjust in some way to that shock from the worstcase Nafta scenario, probably by shifting some of their exports to other markets and maybe changing the production function in some capacity,” William Foster, vice president at New York-based Moody’s sa id in a telephone interview. “It would certainly weigh on growth, as initially it would weigh on investment and confidence, but that would be temporary. We would expect this to pick up again as things become more clear.”

T he US is set to publ ish t he te x t of a bi l atera l t rade accord w it h Me x ico on Fr id ay, but of f ic i a ls f rom Wash ing ton a nd Ott awa rema in at log gerhead s despite week s of face -to -face negot i at ions. T he impasse is ra ising fea rs t he US w i l l leave C a nad a, its big gest e x por t ma rket, out of t he renegot iated t rade bloc, resu lt ing in p ot e nt i a l b a r r ie r s for more t ha n $50 0 bi l l ion in a nnu a l cross-border t rade.

Markets adapt

IF Canada isn’t included in a new trade deal, the countries would probably revert to World Trade Organization rules, which wouldn’t have a major impact on Canada, Foster said.

While Canada’s economic reliance on the US is large, debt-toGDP ratios and deficits are both on downward paths and are at manageable levels, Foster said.

Canadian policy-makers have also proved willing in the past to respond to economic shocks, including to the slump in oil prices four years ago, he said.

Although further protectionist measures would undoubtedly have a negative impact on growth and therefore revenues, debt markets would price in materially less tightening from the Bank of Canada which would probably cause yields to fall, Andrew Kelvin, senior Canada rates strategist at Toronto Dominion Bank in Toronto, said.

“Moreover, there is significant demand for longer duration Government of Canada bonds, so I would expect the market to absorb any increase in GOC issuance without too much difficulty,” he said in an e-mail.

Only 12 nations are currently rated as “Aaa” by Moody’s. The last time Canada lost the trust of international credit graders was in the early 1990s, when swelling government indebtedness elicited downgrades from Standard & Poor’s and Moody’s.

Moody’s and S&P raised their credit ratings for the countr y to A A A in 2002, while Fitch R atings upgraded it in August 2004. Bloomberg News

Malaysia and Cambodia offer two Asian narratives of change at UN

U

NITED NATIONS—Two veteran Southeast Asian leaders appearing at the United Nations on Friday present a microcosm of a dynamic region enjoying rapid economic growth but struggling to fan away egregious human-rights problems that follow it like a bad smell.

On the one hand is Malaysia’s Mahathir Mohamad, who at the grand old age of 93 has shed his authoritarian past, ousted a rival accused of massive corruption through democratic change, and re-entered the international stage with vigor.

On the other is Cambodia’s Hun Sen, who has ruled his nation with a combination of political guile and brute force for three decades, and comes to New York having won all the seats in an election after outlawing his main political opposition.

It was ever thus with the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations, an unwieldy mix of democracies and autocracies where politics struggles to keep pace with social change.

It’s a grouping that carefully balances its relations between the United States and China but typically has few answers to international criticism over gross rights violations in its midst as it abstains from interfering in the affairs of its member-states.

This year, Asean is shadowed by accusations of genocide perpetrated by the military in Myanmar against Rohingya Muslims. It’s a rare instance in which the Western world and majority-Islamic nations have been united in outrage.

That has spoiled what had been one of the region’s democratic transition success stories. Just two years ago, Myanmar’s Aung San Suu Kyi, a Nobel laureate and former political prisoner, received a hero’s welcome when, after a historic election victory, she became the first civilian leader of her nation in five decades to address the General Assembly. This year she is notably absent and has sent a government minister in her place.

But two other familiar Southeast Asian icons are here—and their respective journeys are a telling reflection of the competing forces in their region—the popular desire for more democratic accountability and the resistance of entrenched leaders to change in political structures that they have dominated for decades.

Mahathir is returning to the UN after a gap of 15 years. It’s the culmination of a comeback remarkable for more than just

IN this combination of two photos showing Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen (left), in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, on August 1, and Malaysia’s Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad in Putrajaya, Malaysia, on August 13, the two veteran Southeast Asian leaders appearing at the United Nations present a microcosm of a dynamic region enjoying rapid economic growth but struggling to fan away egregious human-rights problems that follow it like a bad smell.

Mahathir has shed his authoritarian past, while Hun Sen comes to New York having won all the seats in an election after outlawing his main political opposition. AP

the Malaysian prime minister’s age.

Angered by a graft scandal at the state investment fund, Mahathir emerged from political retirement and joined the opposition he had persecuted during his first, 22-year stint as leader. In the process he toppled a former protégé and the party at whose helm Mahathir oversaw the rapid development of his young country in the 1980s and 1990s while concentrating power under his increasingly authoritarian rule.

Where once he was an archetype of “Asian values”— a paternalistic view of government that prioritized economic progress over individual rights— now he’s showcasing Malaysia as a mature democracy that upholds the primacy of the rule of law.

The still-sprightly Mahathir is promising to hand over the reins of power within two years to Anwar Ibrahim, who had challenged Mahathir’s rule two decades previously and was subsequently convicted and imprisoned for years on charges of sodomy that were widely regarded as politically motivated.

Contrast Malaysia’s political renaissance with Cambodia’s descent into autocracy under Hun Sen. He’s been in power for half of his 66

years and extended his rule last month after his party’s walkover election win. The government-influenced courts had dissolved the only credible opposition party last year, and Hun Sen says he intends to stay in office for 10 more years.

On the eve of Hun Sen’s appearance before General Assembly, a UN special rapporteur told the world body’s Human Rights Council that the elections had consigned Cambodia’s democracy to history for the next five years. Hun Sen’s party won every single parliamentary seat prompting rapporteur Rhona Smith to conclude: “The country is therefore de facto a single party state.”

With the possible exception of the 1997 coup that Hun Sen launched against a copremier that brought fighting to the streets of Phnom Penh, that marks a nadir in Cambodia’s politics since its democracy was established on the back of internationallyendorsed peace accords in 1991 and massive United Nations support.

Members of the outlawed opposition party are set to protest outside UN Headquarters when Hun Sen speaks Friday.

While the setbacks to human rights and democracy in Cambodia and Myanmar have

drawn stiff criticism from the West, and from activists inside Southeast Asia itself, the wider trend lines suggest that authoritarianism is on the upswing in the region.

Democracy has been eroded in the Philippines by the strongman tendencies of its popularly elected leader Rodrigo Duterte; Thailand has been under military rule since 2014, and elections next year are unlikely to end the army’s sway over politics. The opposition in Singapore has never had a sniff of power, and Vietnam and Lao PDR have been under one-party rule since 1975. Only in Malaysia and the region’s largest nation, Indonesia, does democracy appear entrenched or in the ascendant.

US engagement with Asean, which was pushed hard by the Oba m a ad m i n i st r at ion , h a s slipped under President Donald Trump. That’s less a result of the region’s democratic backsliding than Washington’s withdrawal from Trans-Pacific Partnership free trade deal and diminished diplomatic bandwidth, as the under-staffed State Department focuses on pressing concerns like North Korea and Iran.

But both US and China still view Asean as strategically important. It lies at a crossroads of sea lanes crucial for global trade, and with its growing markets is a crucible of investment opportunities. Southeast Asia has generally prospered over the past five decades and it remains one of the fastest-growing regions of the world, with GDP rising on average by more than 5 percent.

That will likely continue. What remains uncertain is whether Southeast Asia’s politics keep pace with the trend toward openness and connectivity among its 600 million people, or whether it resists those changes.

That’s to say, will it follow the transformative example of Mahathir, or the defensive crouch of Hun Sen? AP

Faith

Sunday

Editor: Lyn Resurreccion • www.businessmirror.com.ph

Guardian angels

By Corazon Damo-Santiago

‘A

NGEL of God, my guardian dear. To whom His love commits me here.

Ever this day be at my side.

To light and guard, to rule and guide. Amen.”

This is a daily prayer to our guardian angel. It was written by Reginald of Canterbury, a Benedictine monk who lived during the time of Saint Anselm.

In 1670 Pope Clement X set October 2 as the day to honor angels.

In 1865 Pope Leo XIII declared it a solemn feast.

“ANGEL is the name of their office, not of their nature. If you seek the name of their nature, it is spirit; if you seek the name of their office, it is angel; from what they are, spirit, from what they do, angel” (Saint Augustine).

Angels are beautiful beings with halos and wings. The halo symbolizes wisdom and enlightenment; the wings, their home—in heaven.

T he word a ngel is f rom a Greek word, ag gelos, a translation of mal ’akh, a Hebrew word meaning messenger.

Created before the dawn of time, they sang God ’s glory during creation. They surpass in perfection all visible creatures, according to Pope Pius XII in Humani Generis.

Angels do not belong to man’s concept of matter, space and time. They are spirits in pure form and pure minds, and superior intelligence with no gender.

God made angels with free will “so they might be capable of making their act of love, their choice of God. Only then, would they see God...enter into that everlasting union with God, we call heaven,” said Leo J. Trese in The Faith Explained.

Many theologians believe that God gave the angels a preview of Jesus as the Redeemer of Man, with all the humiliations He would suffer before His crucifixion.

Aware of their “own spiritual magnificence, beauty and dignity,” many of the angels could not accept the idea. Led by the “most gifted of all the angels, Lucifer [Light Bearer], pride made them say ‘No, we shall not serve.’”

Thus, a war between the bad and the good angels took place. Lucifer led the bad angels, while the good ones were with Saint Michael the Archangel, who were victors.

Lucifer and his cohorts were thrown into hell.

With “perfect clarity of angelic minds and unhampered freedom of angelic wills,” God, even in his infinite mercy, could find no excuse for the sin of the angels.

Fallen angels were commonly called devils. The devils are also called Satan, from a Hebrew word meaning adversary.

Man’s staunch enemy

THE devils hate God so they hate His creature—man—too. The devils’ hatred for man is to the core, and forever in the belief that man was created “precisely to replace angels who sinned and fill the gap in heaven left by their defection.”

The devil is “100 percent evil, 100 percent hatred without even the faintest pinpoint of good anywhere in his being,” Trese said in Creation and The Angels.

Because of their hatred for God and man, devils do not only tempt man continuously to sin.

They can induce disasters, possess man who are in the state of mortal sin or deceive him with false revelations. They can even “masquerade as an angel of light” (2 Corinthian 11:14).

Father Pio de Pietrelcina’s angel looked like another child and made himself visible to him. But sometimes, the devil made himself look like his guardian angel.

How are PHL children?

First of two parts

T GUARDIAN Angel by Pietro da Cortona (1656)

But Father Pio, who had been gifted by God in discerning spirits, could not be deceived. He would utter “Jesus, Mary,” and the devil would disappear, as revealed in his letters to Father Argosino, his spiritual director.

Man’s “struggle is not with flesh and blood, but with principalities, with the powers, with the world rulers of this present darkness, with the evil spirits” (Ephesians 6:12).

Angelic friendships

GOD assigned a guardian angel for each man to be at his side 24 hours everyday, to enhance faith, lighten burdens and protect him from dangers.

Man can talk to his angel through prayers. They can influence man’s thoughts and imagination, but never the will.

There are holy people in the Catholic Church associated with angels. Thomas Aquinas is called Angelic Doctor because of his purity of heart and marvelous intelligence. He wrote “voluminously and magnificently about angels,” as Spiritual Creatures and Separate Substances.

In Power of God and Summa of Theology, Aquinas discussed the hierarchies, ministry and speech of angels. On evil, he extensively discussed the fallen angel.

There were saints who were helped by angels in their tasks and challenges.

Saint Zita de Lucca, patroness of domestic workers, left her task in the Fatinelli family to help someone in need. The other servants of the family told the master of the oversight. When they went to investigate, they saw angels baking bread.

Angels would plow the field while Saint Isidore, the farmer, was wrapped in prayer in the church, where he prays every morning before going to work.

Saint Rose of Lima healed the sick and the poor in their neighborhood while holding the statue of the child Jesus; she communicates to angels.

Father Pio’s angel “gladdened his boyhood and made him long for heaven.” It was his angel that woke him up every morning and “sing together praised to the Beloved of our hearts,” said Father Pio to his spiritual confessor.

Saint Hildegard of Bingen, aware that her life was an example of angels, sang praises and glory to the Lord and shared her mystical enlightenments in music, illustrations and writings.

Saints Teresa of Avila, Veronica Giuliani and Blessed Anne Catherine Emmerich knew that their angels, enhanced their insights on “understanding of the cross, growth in divine charity and transformation in Christ.”

Damo-Santiago is a former regional director of the Department of Education National Capital Region. She is currently a faculty member of Mater Redemptoris Collegium in Calauan, Laguna, and of Mater Redemptoris College in San Jose City, Nueva Ecija.

A5

INTERFAITH WOMEN’S FORUM

By Lyn Resurreccion & Stephanie Tumampos

War in heaven

Sunday, September 30, 2018

HE high incidence of povert y in the Philippines causes many problems, with the children suffering the most. With 21.6 million Filipinos below the poverty line, malnourished children under five years old have high levels of stunting (33.4 percent) and wasting (7.1 percent). At the same time, children are also victims of armed conflicts.

A Women’s Luncheon held by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saint (LDS) at a hotel in Quezon City last week discussed these issues and how the Philippine government agencies and nongovernment organizations are responding to them in order to improve the situation of children.

The forum’s special guests are Sister Sharon Eubank, the first counselor in the general presidency of the Relief Society, the LDS’s organization for its 6 million female members ages 18 and above, and Sister Bonnie Cordon, young women general president of LDS.

Health and nutrition

n Lourdes B. Caminade of Feed the Children Philippines said they provide food and nutrition to children, and care to women in Angono, Rizal; Cebu; Bohol; Negros Island; and Zamboanga del Norte.

Mothers are trained to provide food to children in their first 1,000 days from birth. It should be noted that children who suffer from chronic malnutrition at this stage face irreversible stunting all their life.

Besides providing hot meals to children in schools, the organization also gives psychosocial and emotional development services to children in slum areas, pregnant teenagers, Grade 3 pupils who engage in gangs and delinquents.

Feed the Children also helps disaster victims, such as those of Typhoon Ompong (international code name Mangkhut). n The Philippine Women’s University (PWU), Sally Bongalonta said, also provides psychosocial services, especially to children who suffer from depression.

“We support endeavors that concern family life.... The problems stem from troubled homes.

Children need shoulders to cry on.

The parents are not at home [working late or abroad] and the children are left alone,” Bongalonta said. n The World Youth Alliance Asia Pacific promotes “human dignity” as a foundation of human rights.

Mary Imbong, its executive director, said they formulated a Human Dignity Curriculum for K to 12 “to make the young people understand their worth.”

The curriculum, she said, teaches the youth to take care of their body—their right to have proper hygiene, food and shelter; freedom

to think; and proper values.

“We hope to see the young people to have smart decision after college,” Imbong said. n At the Buddhist Fo Guang Shan Mabuhay Temple, Luisa So said they “nurture talents” through education and promote vegetarianism, a “silent meal” that makes people “more calm.”

“We appreciate what we eat and we are thankful for people who prepare our food.... It is good for the health, and lessens carbon emission.” n Mary Grace Flores from the Supplementary Feeding Program at Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) said nutrition activities are held among two to four-year-old malnourished children in day-care centers all over the country.

Hot meals are given to children below the minimum required weight for 90 days to 120 days as provided for in the Supplementary Feeding Act. There are 1.7-million children beneficiaries nationwide for 2018. n Mary Grace Blando of DSWD’s Early Childhood Care and Development Program acknowledged that the children’s malnutrition problem also stems from “poor parenting.”

She recognized the importance of providing good health care and nutrition to children in their first 1,000 days for them to grow as normal healthy children. n Jovita B. Raval of the Department of Health’s National Nutrition Council disclosed that based on the Philippine Plan of Action for Nutrition (PPAN) 2017-2020 the agency addresses children’s nutrition, especially the high level of stunting (33.4 percent) and wasting (7.1 percent) of those under five years old.

Stunting is the impaired growth and development that children experience from poor nutrition, repeated infection and inadequate psychosocial stimulation, the World Health Organization said.

Wasting is the condition where children are below the minimum weight requirement.

As with the DSWD, Raval said the agency focuses on the health and nutrition of children in their 1,000 days from conception.

The Council promotes breastfeeding and has created a parental module to guide parents in managing their children’s early years.

The local government units are helping address the situation.

Based on DOH PPAN 2017-22 Executive Summary dated July 31, 2017, due to hunger and food insecurity, 68.3 percent of Filipino households are not meeting their caloric requirements.

Family life and peace

n Dr. Potre Diampuan, senior fa it h adv iser of United Relig ions Initiative-A sia, said the Philippines is one of the big ex por ters of human resources,

26TH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME: ‘MARK 9:38-43, 45, 47-48’

NO MONOPOLIES IN THE APOSTOLATE MSGR. JOSEFINO S. RAMIREZ SUNDAY GOSPEL IN OUR LIFE

T

HE disciples came upon someone who was casting out devils in the name of the Lord. We don’t know if it was someone who had previously known Christ, or someone who had been cured by Christ and who had decided to be one of Christ’s followers.

Saint Mark narrates to us the reaction of apostle John: “Master we saw a man who was not of our followers casting out devils in thy name, and we forbade him (Mark 9:37).

The Lord took advantage of this occasion

to give the apostles a lesson that would be applicable for all times: “Do not forbid him, because there is no one who shall work a miracle in my name, and forthwith be able to speak ill of me. For he who is not against you is for you” (Mark 9:38).

That exorcist manifested his deep and effective faith in Jesus. Jesus accepted him as a follower, and reprimanded the exclusivistic, narrow and monopolistic outlook regarding apostolic works. He

DR. Potre Diampuan (center), senior faith adviser at United Religions Initiative, speaks while Dr. Shakuntala Vaswani (left) of Peacemakers’ Circle, and Veronica de Almeida of LDS Relief Society listen. PHOTOS BY LYN RESURRECCION

LDS Sister Bonnie Cordon, Young Women general president

LDS Sister Sharon Eubank, first counselor in the general presidency of the Relief Society

such as domestic helps, nurses and careg ivers.

W hen the father leaves for a job abroad for the family’s upkeep, the mother is capable of dual roles of a father and mother in the family, she said.

However, since many mothers now work abroad and leave behind their children in the care of the father, changes in family relations occur. Problems among children crop up, such as juvenile delinquency.

“While there is economic gain [with the mother working abroad], poverty is not addressed. The economic gain [in the family] is not proportionate to social costs,” she noted.

Onthe Marawi siege last year, she shared how her very young granddaughter could distinguish different kinds of bullets through the firing sounds.

“I was shocked to learn how my six-year-old granddaughter could recognize these sounds at a very young age,” she said.

A Muslim, Diampuan said, “Until today we could not return to our places. We want to return to where we belong.” n Atty. Jo Imbong of the Legal Office of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines, agreed with Diampuan, saying, “prosperity does not always work in the terms of the family.” Imbong stood as the forum’s moderator. n Dr. Lilian Sison, secretarygeneral of Religions for Peace Philippines (RFP), work in Mindanao among children displaced by armed conflicts conflicts, and among mothers and women.

RFP provides psychosocial service among women and childrenprotection projects among lumad including Manobos, and Muslims.

She said they found out that

many children have no birth certificates. Parents have to go to lowlands to pay P400 for the certificates.

“With no birth certificates they could not go to school, could not work. They have to borrow [other people’s] identities [birth certificates].” Through the group’s intercession, 2,500 children were registered and the P400 fee for birth certificates was waived.

She said recruitment of children in armed groups in Mindanao is rampant.

“We saw a lot of child soldiers in conflict areas,” she added. n According to Atty. Salma Pir Rasul, program director of Philippine Center for Islam and Democracy, “We have to strengthen family ties because even in the areas where extremism is on the rise, studies have shown that strengthening the family is key to promoting peace.”

Agreeing to Diampuan's report, she added that in places where tanks and guns are common,children could already identify the kinds of bullets and sound of gunshots and bombings.

“It is [the sound of gunshots] common to them already…. If we value peace, the military presence should be a concern. They [children] see soldiers, fighting jets flying over [as an everyday occurrence].”

Rasul expressed alarm that most of the rebels in the first two days in the months-long Marawi siege were around 14-year olds “who were car r y ing firear ms heavier than their weight.”

“Where were their mothers?

Where were their families?” she asked.

She said people join armed groups owing to poverty, for redress of grievances or lack of education. To be concluded

taught us that there are many forms of apostolate.

The Second Vatican Council said “there are many forms of the apostolate whereby the laity build up the Church, sanctify the world and give it life in Christ” (Apostolicam Actuositatem, 16). The only condition required is to be with Christ, to be with the Church, to teach her doctrines and to serve her with deeds.

The Christian spirit should make us foster an open attitude in the face of different apostolic works. We should try to understand them even though they may be different from our own manner of thinking or doing things. We have to rejoice sincerely in the existence of so much variety, because “the harvest is great and the laborers are few” (cf. Matthew 9:37).

It is unbecoming for a Christian, who is supposed to be “catholic” or “universal” to

have a “one-party mentality,” which would maintain that whoever adopts a different mode of doing things or goes into a different field of apostolate would be a rival.

No one who works with the right intention in the field of the Lord should be considered as a competitor. All hands are needed. It is important that, while safeguarding the unity of the Church, Christ should be announced in different ways.

There should be unity “in faith and morals, in the sacraments, in obedience to the hierarchy, in the common means of sanctification and in the great disciplinary norms” (John Paul II, 31 October 1982).

But this unity has to be practiced according to the well-known Augustinian principle: in necessariis unitas, in dubiis libertas in omnibus caritas. Let there be unity in necessary matters, liberty in doubtful matters and charity in all matters.

Science

A6 Sunday, September 30, 2018

BusinessMirror

Sunday

www.businessmirror.com.ph • Editor: Lyn Resurreccion

DOST continues to make a difference for Caraga MSMEs through Setup Story & Photos By Edd K. Usman | Special to the BusinessMirror

VPO-RAIDC can already make a claim to it.

The cor poration’s products are being sold in “Sinubong by VPO” specialized stores with branches in Caraga and Compostela Valley, Davao region, such as eg gs, meat products, rice, corn, coffee, cacao products, sugar palm products like sweeteners, vinegar, sugar palm wine, adlai cereal and sago f lour.

VPO-RAIDC operates the following enterprises in its integrated farm complex: 1. Poultry and hatchery that produce around 90,000 to 120,000 eggs a day and hatches 45,000 chicks per week; 2. Piggery and slaughterhouse that butchers around 60 to 90 heads of pigs and 5,000 to 7,000 heads of chickens a day; 3. Pangasius farm producing around 2 tons to 3 tons a week; 4. Feed, rice and corn mills with a combined output of 70 tons to 80 tons a day; 5. Rubber-processing plant producing 250 metric ton of crumb rubber per month; 6. Agri-farm planted with rubber, cacao, rice, corn, coffee, sugar palm, sago palm, coconut trees and others; 7. Sago-processing plant; 8. Food-processing plant for products like sugar palm wine, vinegar, cocoa, coffee and adlai cereal 9. Biogas digesters that supply most of the power requirements of the integrated farm enterprise: The two biogas digesters (22,050 cubic centimeters and 16,800 cm 3 that conver t the pig manure, chicken dung and

other wastes from the farm into methane gas to electricity in a powerhouse that gives 420 KVA of electricity; 10. Organic foliar fertilizer from farm wastes; and 11. Product display center.

If there’s a product that is closer to Ocite’s heart, it would probably be from the sago palm tree, which abounds in the region.

One proof is that he sought D O S T C a r a g a’s S et up i nte r vent ion for a projec t, t it led “Product and Quality Enhancement of Sago Flour Processing through S and T [Science and Technolog y] inter vention.”

He got an assistance worth P3.341 million which he used to buy equipment, such as shredder, pulverizer, mechanical drier and sago drill.

The Setup arrangement also came with technical assistance: plant layout, food and safety training in good manufacturing process, and training on chocolate making.

“We saw that the sago flour being the food of the Lumad was no longer getting much attention. Sago palm trees were being cut down in many areas,” Ocite recalled as he acknowledged the DOST for the help that became the firm’s Sago Flour Mill.

“Our company launched a program to save the sago palm and, in fact, encouraged and convinced them [lumad] to plant more of this palm tree so they can earn from it,” he said.

The VPO-RAIDC president said they strengthened their advocacy of conserving and planting the sago palm that is endemic in Agusan del Sur through an industry that turns out products.

“It is not r ight [for the sago pa lm] to be lost. A s a lumad myself, I have [ benefited] a lot from it. We owe it a big gratitude because in times of scarcit y the sago pa lm saved my family, my ancestors.

“Now, we are trying to give back with the small knowledge that we have. Agusan del Sur has about 40-percent lumad population,” Ocite said.

Other DOST-Caraga-assisted projects visited were the Bayugan Farmers Millers Multi-Purpose Cooperative in Bayugan City, Agusan del Sur; Eel Farm in Cabadbaran, Agusan del Norte; Hillsview Resort for its Mangosteen Tea in Trento, Agusan del Sur; and Geo-Safer Mindanao at Caraga State University, Main Campus, Butuan City.

successor former President Corazon C. Aquino’s first act was to abrogate PD1423, effectively annulling all tax exemptions and abolished all incentives and privileges hard-won by the inventors.

Aquino also abolished PIDI and replaced it with the Technology Application and Promotion Institute (TAPI) under the Department of Science and Technology.

The FIS members marched back to Congress to fight for the passage of a legislation better than PD 1423. Eventually, FIS pulled yet another coup with the passage of Republic Act 7459, also known as the Inventor and Inventions Incentives Act of 1992. However, incentives under the Act’s compromise provisions were n o t exc l u s i ve l y f o r i nve nt i o n s b u t for “technologies developed by local researchers or adapted locally from foreign sources, including inventions.”

Hence, FIS has petitioned for a revised set of implementing guidelines in simple, understandable terms, which, hopefully, FIS and TAPI will draft in the near future.

FIS linked up with academe for research and development. It has standing agreements with the Polytechnic University

of the Philippines and De La Salle University to provide members with an outlet for their commercial creations.

It spearheaded the establishment of the Filipino Inventors’ Multipurpose Cooperative (Fimcoop) with a retail store, products display and office in Quezon City.

To l o c a t e m a r k e t s a b r o a d f o r commercialized inventions and innovations of members, Fimcoop, headed by Malang, established the Filipino Inventors ExportImport Inc., which incorporators include FIS Saudi Arabia Chapter.

Since it was established, FIS did not have a permanent place of business.

Work has stalled but may soon resume on a planned P30-million Philippine Invention Development Center funded

by Congress. The building shall serve as the national hub for the interaction of all inventors, including the unaffiliated and holders of intelectual property rights and proponents.

FIS also received assurance for another P30 million for the purchase of research and development equipment for the facility.

By the looks of it, FIS certainly is back and bound on track.

B

UTUAN CITY—Programs of the Department of Science and Technology (DOST) continue to make a difference for the ordinary people. This includes the Small Enterprise Technology Upgrading Program (Setup).

For 2018 Setup has a total budget of P847 million, of which the national government should still increase to benefit more micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs). Setup is one of the DOST’s flagship programs.

Previous years’ annual budget for Setup is only to P500 million.

The Philippines has 17 regions, including the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao. Scores of MSMEs need assistance to improve their operation with the introduction of modern technology to increase productivity.

Figures in 2016 from the Department of Trade and Industr y showed there are 900,914 MSMEs in the countr y, which generated 4,879,179 jobs and contributed 25 percent of total export revenue.

Obviously, those figures alone make MSMEs and their owners deserving of more assistance to help them become more competitive.

The Caraga region has been attending to the needs of the MSMEs in the five provinces of Agusan del Norte, Agusan del Sur, Dinagat Islands, Surigao del Norte and Surigao del Sur. Dom inga Ma l longa, DOST Caraga regional director, told the BusinessMirror that Setup has already assisted 378 MSMEs in the region from 2002 to August 2018 with with P210,776,314 fund.

She said that, of the five provinces, Agusan del Norte has the most number of assisted MSMEs with 111 firms; Surigao del Sur second at 90; Agusan del Sur third with 83; Surigao del Norte is fourth, 77; and Dinagat Islands fifth with 17.

Ma l longa said DOST- Caraga already graduated 64 projects, with 314 still ongoing and under a grace period. She disclosed the figures during the Regional Science and Technology Week (RSTW) held in a mall in Butuan City early this month.

Led by Science Secretary Fortunato T. de la Peña, the DOST has been staging RSTW events across the country’s regions to communicate the government’s Science for the People programs, projects, the products and services of the various DOST agencies promoting technology and innovation.

Part of RSTWs included visits to Setup-assisted firms and their projects that received funding from the DOST. Setup is DOST’s “nationwide strategy that encourages and assists small and medium enterprises to adopt technology innovations to improve their operations and boost their productivity and competitiveness.”

It was designed to enable enterprises to address their technical problems using innovative technology solutions.

Clients or beneficiaries of Setup can expect to receive free technical advice from consultants; technical training courses for workers/ employees; new equipment to mechanize and/or improve production lines; improve product quality; and increase productivity and competitiveness.

Under Set up, t he pr ior it y covers MSMEs engaged in food processing; g ifts, decors and handicrafts; metal and engineering; pharmaceutical and health products; furniture; agriculture, marine and aquaculture; information and communication technology; and halal products.

DOST regional offices may have their other priorities, as well.

One of the projects visited was the VPO-Rosario Agro-Industrial Development Corp. (VPORAIDC), a family business that sits on around 2,000 hectares of land in Rosario, Agusan del Sur. VPO-R AIDC was approved as a farm tourism site, a thrust of the government to get people to visit agri-business sites and, perhaps, attract the young people to

DEPARTMENT of Science and Technology (DOST) Caraga Regional Director Dominga D. Mallonga (center) assists Science Secretary Fortunato T. de la Peña and the officials of Caraga State University in Butuan City, Agusan del Sur, in the launching of “Navigatu,” the Technology Incubation Center for start-ups funded by the DOST. The ribbon-cutting was part of the DOST Caraga Regional Science and Technology Week.

VIVENCIO “VPO” P. OCITE JR., president of VPORosario Agro-Industrial Development Corp. in Rosario, Agusan del Sur, acknowledges the DOST for extending help to his family corporation through a Setup fund for his Sago Flour Mill.

go to farming and other related endeavors.

The family of Vivencio P. Ocite Jr. owns and operates the corporation, which started operation in 1987 as VPO Enterprises, then a small-time gold mining processor.

Fondly called “VPO,” the corporation’s president is an agricultural engineer and has been wanting to go into his passion in agri-business. He did after 30 years.

Ocite, a proud Lumad, ventured into agricultural farming and production of livestock and

poultry. In his vast tract of land, he planted rubber, cacao, coffee and other crops. He expanded his farming operation in 2010.

Ocite now produces his own animal feeds and fertilizers, as well as the electricity required to run his farming enterprises.

Some staff of the DOST-Caraga, when asked how wide his farm area is, would say “as far as the eyes can see”—which would exactly greet visitors as they enter Ocite’s vast farmland.

While others may just wish for “from-farm-to-table” products,

It is not right [for the sago palm] to be lost. As a lumad myself, I have [benefited] a lot from it. We owe it a big gratitude because in times of scarcity the sago palm saved my family, my ancestors.”—Ocite

FILIPINO INVENTORS SOCIETY MARKS 75TH YEAR T HE Filipino Inventors Society (FIS) will mark its diamond anniversary on the third week of November.

The highlight of the celebration is the holding of an Inventors’ Night with a dinner, an awarding and fellowship night at a hotel in Quezon City. More than 200 inventors from all over the country and their distinguished guests are expected to attend the event.

Prior to the Inventors Night, the FIS will have its National Inventors’ Week with the theme “Go Innovations! The Green Light for a Greater Philippines” at a mall in Quezon City from November 15 to 21.

This is in line with the Presidential Proclamation 285 of 1993 to showcase unique and marketable inventions of Filipinos to the Filipinos.

In line with this, FIS is seeking the support of President Duterte to help mobilize the Inventors’ Innovations and Grand Caravan.

The goal is to strengthen the invesntors’

support to the Duterte administration’s quest for inclusive growth and economic boost of the marginalized sectors like farmers, fisher folk, urban poor, etc; regreening of the countr y’s air, land and sea environments; heighten ways to enhance and reduce costs of socialized housing construction; upholding ways to enhance employment generation in the face of cer tain displacements in countries that do not provide equitable treatment to our co-Filipinos; and upraise urban farming and fishing to provide for self-liquidating livelihood and daily sustenance opportunities The FIS was founded in 1943, amid World War II, by an intrepid triad of Teo Puruganan, Pastor Reyes-Torres and Dalmacio Buenaventura.

Incorporated in 1953 as a nonstock, nonprofit organization, FIS aims in promoting the interests of inventors and their work by providing assistance in developing, protecting and locating markets for their

inventions, utility models and industrial designs; diffusing information relating to industrial intellectual property; speaking for inventors nationwide; and cooperating with similarly bent persons and entities.

The achievements of FIS include the first National Exhibition of Inventions in 1957.

This set the stage for Filipino inventors trying its hand in lobbying Congress for the inclusion of invention development assistance in government’s priority agenda.

It resorted to lobbying, for four years before the bill creating the Philippine Inventors Commission was passed in 1964. PIC, a creation of FIS, was renamed Philippine Invention Development Institute (PIDI) in 1982.

In 1967 FIS initiated and organized, in cooperation with PIC, the observance of the first Inventors’ Week, wherein amateur and professional inventors competed in a national contest of their exhibited inventions and innovations.

In 1970 the PIC and FIS launched an

initiative jump-starting innovative skills among the youth, a forerunner of the present Inventschool and Creativity Cram School flagship program by FIS-affiliate Manila Innovation Development Society Inc., headed by FIS Director Virgilio Malang.

Thereafter, then-President Ferdinand E. Marcos, heeding a petition by FIS, issued Presidential Decree (PD) 1423 on June 9, 1978. It created an Invention Guarantee Fund to assure the unsecured portion of industrial loans for the exploitation and manufacture of any registered Filipino invention, utility model or industrial design; granted a five-year exemption from all taxes and fees for inventors in the manufacture and commercialization of their industrial IPs; and enabled financial aid for prototyping and patenting.

FIS also secured Proclamation 187 that paved the way for the national annual observation of Inventors’ Week, a muchtouted activity until 1988.

After Marcos was ousted in 1986, his

Tourism&Entertainment A7 Sunday, September 30, 2018

BusinessMirror

Editor: Carla Mortel-Baricaua

EXPERIENCE FRESH ENCOUNTERS WITH NATURE UP NORTH

QUIRINO’S QUAINT QUINTESSENCE

T

Story & photo by Bernard L. Supetran

HIS quaint place is not the usual destination travel websites can easily search, yet its quirky aura of remoteness might be its main come-on for those seeking a getaway that is totally out of the ordinary.

And it won’t be until you’ve actually set foot in Quirino province that you’ll realize that it is the proverbial big surprise wrapped in a small package.

Named after former President Elpidio Quirino, this travel frontier is a veritable blend of nature, adventure and culture at every twist and turn, and a dash of basic urban comfort.

The journey to this well-kept secret begins at the provincial capitol in Cabarroguis town, a 111-hectare government enclave that has two resort-type lodgings, a track oval and the Quirino Watersports Complex. The latter is beautifully manicured and framed with the undulating terrain and the perfectly contoured twin hills aptly called Susong Dalaga. It boasts of a hostel with well-appointed rooms, a dining pavilion overlooking an infinity

pool and a world-class spring-fed wakeboarding park.

The sprawling complex promises to be a mecca for water sports and motocross in the interiors of the Cagayan Valley region, with its challenging race course, which is specifically put together for tournaments. A few years back, Quirino Motorismo was introduced which features an assortment of racing activities on two wheels— drag racing, motocross and longdistance drives as an adventurous way of showcasing the tourist spots and the diverse way of life in the countryside.

Also within the expansive government enclave is the Quirino Province Museum, the repository of heritage, which showcases the culture of the Dumagat, Ifugao, Isinay, Bugkalot and Gaddang indigenous peoples, as well as those of the Iloca-

DEBIWEN Falls, one of the many in Quirino.

nos and lowland settlers.

This melting pot takes center stage in the Panagdadapun Festival held every September to mark the creation of the province in 1971, as the different cultures are portrayed in the street parade and dance competitions.

A must-do adventure is spelunking at Aglipay Caves and Campsite, which has hollow and fragile draws, amazing drapers, and stunning stalactites. Among the 37 caves in the nature reserve, eight chambers have been developed for tours, which are ideal even for newbies because of its moderate difficulty but exhilarating trail.

The stalagmites were formed

from minerals deposited by dripping water, attesting to the rich biodiversity of the watershed and forrestal land.

Named after revolutionary priest Gregorio Aglipay who hid here during the Filipino-American War, the 101-hectare site is surrounded by forests, which provide a refuge for vegetation, wildlife and recreation.

Since the province has no beach, its main body of water is the Governor’s Rapids and the poster image of Quirino because of its amazing rockscape and whitewater ideal for boat rides and tubing. Its iconic features are the jagged, majestic limestone formations that punctuate the two-hour cruise.

Along the away are naturally carved rock platforms where brave souls can leap into the river. In one of the rock crevices is a small cascade that forms a chest-deep natural tub, which serves as a pit stop in the cruise. A tributary of the Cagayan River, it has been adjudged as among the cleanest inland bodies of water in the region.

One can also opt to stay overnight at Villa Caridad Resort in Maddela, arguably the best accommodation in Quirino, to be closer to the eco-adventure spots to the east.

A similar experience further is the Siitan River in the fringes of Nagtipunan, which offers a lesser-known but equally exciting cruise aboard a dugout canoe where one can marvel at the amazing geological wonders. Located on the river banks is the “Bimmapor” rock formation, which is socalled because of its resemblance to the hull of a steel ship.

Hype up the adventure with a foray into Diamond Cave, which is has earned the moniker due to its sparkling stalactites and columns. It has narrow chambers and running water that form knee-deep subterranean streams at some points, and can be completed under an hour.

Also within the town is a promontory called Landingan, which provides a sweeping vista of the villages, verdant farmlands below and the meandering river.

Quirino’s rugged terrain has gifted it with another refreshing

water world—the numerous waterfalls tucked into the bosom of mountains for a hydromassage or a rejuvenating dip in the natural pool basins. The moderate treks across vegetations add to the total outdoor experience, which make the trip more rewarding.

The seven-tier Maddela Falls is perhaps the most sought-after with its stunning view of the majestic Sierra Madre mountain ranges at the fifth cascade.

Other popular falls are Ganano and San Pascual in Diffun, Pensaland Victoria in Maddela, and Mactol and Guiyayan in Nagtipunan, which not only give you a refreshing bath but brag-worthy photographs on Instagram, as well.

For a meaningful trip out of the ordinary, immerse with the Bugkalot, Igorot, Kalinga and Dumagat tribes for an appreciation with their indigenous way of life. The said visits can be arranged with municipal authorities for an encounter truly worth remembering.

This is Quirino—quaint and quintessential.

Getting there: Quirino can be reached via the Nlex-SCTEx-TPLEx connection leading to the Cagayan Valley Road. At the Cordon junction in Isabela, turn right all the way to Quirino.

Solid North Bus and GV Florida have direct trips every night to Maddela. You can also fly to Cauayan City, Isabela, and make a one-hour land trip.

A8

Sunday, September 30, 2018

BusinessMirror

www.businessmirror.com.ph

2018 NJLA WINNERS

By Alma Anonas-Carpio

Graphic editor in chief Joel Pablo Salud and literary editor Alma Anonas-Carpio have served as judges in literary contests, including the annual Don Carlos Palanca Memorial Awards for Literature.

They are also members of the Manila Critics Circle that judges the annual National Book Awards.

T

HREE women took home the bacon at the 2018 Nick Joaquin Literary Awards on September 25. Business writer and novelist VJ Campilan took first prize, a medal and certificate, and a P50,000 cash prize for her story “The Visitation,” her first NJLA win. Second prize and P30,000, plus a medal and certificate, went to Manila Standard columnist and fictionist Jenny Ortuoste for the story “High Priestess,” her third NJLA win. Sydney Paige Guerrero, meanwhile, takes home third prize honors, P20,000, and a medal and certificate for her piece titled “The Other Side.”

The panel of judges also selected three more stories as honorable mentions: “Little Star” by Miguel Escano, “Blue-Black” by Alex Alcasid and “The Final Bullet” by Matthew Jacob F. Ramos.

The panel of judges for the 2018 NJL A was composed of

Judging The Work

PHILIPPINES GRAPHIC advertising Sales Manager Dennis Cruz Guevarra (from left), Graphic Editor in Chief Joel Pablo Salud, Graphic and BusinessMirror Publisher T. Anthony C. Cabangon, third prize winner Sydney Paige Guerrero, first prize winner Victorette Joy “VJ” Campilan, second prize winner Jenny Ortuoste, Aliw Media Group Chairman D. Edgard A. Cabangon and Vice President for Advertising Sales Marvin Nisperos Estigoy. PHOTOS BY ROY DOMINGO

Gawad Balagtas awardee Susan Severino Lara, who chaired the panel; award-winning writer and Esquire Editor-at-Large Angelo “Sarge” Lacuesta and; University of the Philippines Professor Emeritus and internationally-

awarded poet Gemino Abad. The final deliberations were held at the conference room on the third floor of Dominga III Bldg. on the corner of Don Chino Roces Ave. and Dela Rosa Street in Makati City on August 24, 2018. The

GRAPHIC and BusinessMirror Publisher T. Anthony C. Cabangon (from left), La Jeunesse Aesthetic and Lifestyle Center President Naicee Lee Salamagos with honorable mention awardees Alex Alcasid, Miguel Escano and Matthew Jacob F. Ramos. With them are Poet of the Year Ramil Digal Gulle, Aliw Media Group Chairman D. Edgard A. Cabangon and Graphic Editor in Chief Joel Pablo Salud.

deliberations were documented on video.

Ramil Digal Gulle was named Poet of the Year, a publisher’s choice award in which the magazine’s Publisher, Editor-in-Chief

and Literary Editor select the winner based on the quality of the author’s poetry that was published in the Literary Section of the Philippines Graphic magazine during the contest cycle.

THE fiction entries to the 2018 NJLA were sent by courier weeks before the final deliberations to the judges as a double-blind manuscript—all the stories were printed in uniform typeface on 8”X11” bond paper, without the authors’ bylines. The literary editor kept a list of all the stories entered into the competition and the names of their authors, which she only allowed the judges to access after they made their final selection of

www.businessmirror.com.ph

BusinessMirror

HONORED TEAM PHILIPPINES GRAPHIC (from left) Editor in Chief Joel Pablo Salud, Associate Editor Fil. V. Elefante, Literary Editor Alma Anonas-Carpio, Managing Editor Psyche Roxas Mendoza, Graphic Artist Malou Dizon-Francisco, Senior Editorial Assistant Susan M. Bermas, Advertising Sales Manager Dennis Cruz Guevarra, Account Manager Charmine Rose Arquibel, Vice President for Finance Adebelo D. Gasmin, Vice President for Human Resources Loida Virtudazo, Shirley Fesarillo of the Circulation Department, IT Administrator Philip B. Navarro, Account Executive Richard Santos, Publisher T. Anthony C. Cabangon and Vice President for Advertising Sales Marvin Estigoy. Not in photo: Graphic Artist Guillermo Altre Jr.

GRAPHIC and BusinessMirror Publisher T. Anthony C. Cabangon.

PHILIPPINES GRAPHIC Editor in Chief and awards night host Joel Pablo Salud.

three winning pieces and three honorable mentions.

The annual NJLA contest is a year-long competition in which all literary pieces in the competition must first be published in the literary pages of the Philippines Graphic magazine within the contest cycle beginning in July of the previous year and ending in July of the year the awards are given.

The final deliberations were held on Aug. 24 at the conference room of the Graphic on the third floor of the Dominga III Building in Makati City, a process that was documented on video. The panel of judges was unanimous in selecting “The Visitation” as the first prize winner, after which Lara asked the rest of the panel a tongue in cheek query: “May ipaglalaban ba kayo nang patayan (Is there a piece you will fight for to the death)?”

At the end of the deliberations, this literary editor asked a “bonus round” question: “Can you name the author of the first place winning story in one paragraph?” Lacuesta’s guess was Sage Alfar, the daughter of National Book Awards judge Dean Francis Alfar.

Sage holds the distinction of having been the youngest author to have her work published in the literary pages of the Graphic (she was 13 when her first story saw print in Graphic's literary pages).

When this literary editor revealed the names of the winners and the honorable mentions, the judges expressed both surprise and delight: Some of the authors on this select list attended workshops with them and first prize-winner Campilan was on a roll, with several literary wins under her belt just this year.

History

WHEN the Graphic was still the Weekly Graphic and the newspapering Roces family still owned it, the magazine gave monthly prizes to the best short fiction to see print in its pages. The prizes were modest, but the recognition encouraged authors to send in their best work.

The magazine has changed ownership over the years, and it was padlocked during the Martial Law years. When it finally became part of Ambassador Antonio L. Cabangon Chua’s Aliw Media Group,

the Graphic literary section was revived along with the rest of the magazine and, with it, the literary contest, which was made an annual event that highlighted the company Christmas party.

National Artist for Literature Nick Joaquin was the editor in chief and literary editor of the resuscitated Graphic and he called the annual literary awards the Philippines Graphic Literary Awards. The contest was renamed in Joaquin’s honor after his death in 2004.

This annual rite of award-giving has grown from those humble beginnings into a much-anticipated event in the country’s literary calendar. It now enjoys the support of several sponsors, including El Calle of Resorts World Manila, San Miguel Corp., the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO), SM, the Holiday Inn Express, AXN Asia, Fundador, Cowboy Grill, La Jeunesse, Petron and Kitsho Restaurant & Sake Bar. Now the NJLA is in the process of spreading its wings: The Graphic now has literary pages in its sister publication, the Business Mirror broadsheet. The Tony & Nick section is a bi-monthly literary spread that carries short fiction and poetry in English from writers in ASEAN member-states, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Australia and New Zealand.

Residents of these locales, including overseas Filipinos, are part of a growing pool of authors whose work appears in Tony & Nick. These stories and poems are entered into the competition for the 2018 Nick Joaquin Literary Awards Asia-Pacific, which will be conferred to the winners at an awards night in Manila come the first quarter of 2019.

It is time to spread our wings and seek the sky.

Sunday, September 30 , 2018

2018 NJLA Asia-Pacific cycle closed, 2019 cycle opens

T

HE cycle for the 2018 Nick Joaquin Literary Awards Asia-Pacific is now officially closed. But, like the best of things, the end of one cycle heralds the opening of a fresh cycle.

It is with great pleasure that we announce the opening of the competition cycle for the 2019 NJLA Asia-Pacific.

We said this when we announced this new edition of the Nick Joaquin Literary Awards, and we are saying it again: We seek fresh works from new voices across the region, including Filipinos in the diaspora.

Specifics

THE NJL A w il l accept entries of original poetr y and short fiction works in Engl ish (w r itten or ig ina l ly in English, or translated into English, with credit given to the translator if the translator is not the author) from member-states of the ASEAN, Australia and New Zealand making up the countries in the NJL A Asia-Pacific.

Expatriate Filipinos residing in these areas may join the Asia-Pacific NJLA, but they must provide proof of residency in these host countries/ territories. Writers native to these territories are also encouraged to compete in the Asia-Pacific NJLA. The works will be published in the Tony & Nick section of the BusinessMirror newspaper and on the website of the BusinessMirror.

The contest secretariat and Literary Editor of both the

Philippines Graphic magazine and BusinessMirror will only select for publication works that have not been previously published in any online or print publications—including, but not limited to, periodicals and anthologies.

The cash prizes for the winners of the Asia-Pacific NJLA, given in US dollars, are as follows: $1000 (first prize), $600 (second prize) and $400 (third prize). A single Tony & Nick Poet of the Year will be selected by the panel of judges and the Literary Editor and will receive a cash prize of $1000.

T hese pr izes, and any other prizes the Asia-Pacific NJL A sponsors may see fit to add to the pr ize pool w il l be g iven to the w inners during t he A si a-Pac if ic NJL A awards night in the Philip pines. T he w inners and the inter nationa l judge w il l be transpor ted to and bil leted in Manila prior to the awards n ight a nd prov ided w it h transpor t back home, courtesy of the contest sponsors.

A ny v isa requirements for Austra lia and New Zea land residents w il l be shou ldered by the w inners.

The contest period for this cycle of the Asia-Pacific NJLA will cover all works accepted for publication by the Literary Editor from November 4, 2018 to the second week of October 2019.

Submission Guidelines

WE prefer works to be submitted via email, to asia-pacific. njla@gmail.com.

Because private messages on social media cycle so fast, we discourage the submission of literary work to us via attachment to a PM over Facebook, or via DMs over Twitter or Google +Hangouts. We would hate to miss your submissions just because they get swamped under other private messages.

We prefer to receive work formatted in MSWord, .txt and .rtf, with the typeface set at 12 points, Times New Roman.

We accept manuscripts of between four to eight 8”X11” pages of double-spaced text.

If their bylines are shorter versions of their full legal names, the authors should also include their full legal names, as appear on their valid government IDs (passports, driver’s licenses, social security IDs), as well as proof of residency in their home or host countries in the information they send along with their literary submissions.

We will accept between one and two poems for publication per submission. Any additional poetry may or may not be accepted for future publication. The Literary Editor will inform the author of this as part of the acceptance email she will send to the author should this be the case.

The literary editor has set a minimum of three months as the interval between multiple submissions by the same author. We do this so that we can give the best exposure to all qualified works by all the authors who send us their best work. Alma Anonas-Carpio

A9

A10 Sunday, September 30, 2018

Sports BusinessMirror

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

SILVER: HIRE MORE WOMEN

N

ATIONAL Basketball Association (NBA) Commissioner Adam Silver wants all teams to hire more women, especially in leadership and supervisory positions, and is urging them to take some of the mandates that the Dallas Mavericks must now adhere to as an impetus to improve working conditions within their own organizations.

Silver, in a memo sent to all teams recently and obtained by The Associated Press, also asked teams to thoroughly review the report that was released earlier this week about the Mavericks. The league stopped short of flatly ordering the 29 other clubs to institute new policies, though Silver’s wishes were very clear.

“Use this opportunity to make changes and create a dialogue within your organizations about workplace policies, procedures and respectful conduct,” Silver wrote.

The league asked clubs to have what they are calling

“Community Conversations” with their own employees within the next two weeks about the investigation and subsequent report about the Mavericks. Dallas owner Mark Cuban announced on Wednesday—when the report was released following a months-long probe that began after problems were detailed in a Sports Illustrated article in February—that he will contribute $10 million to help further the cause of women in sports and raise awareness about domestic violence.

Cuban was not personally involved in any of the incidents of sexual harassment and improper workplace conduct within the Mavericks’ organization.

The investigation made clear that others within the organization were allowing an environment in which workplace misconduct was rampant.

“Respect and integrity are core NBA values, and we all must work to ensure that they are reflected in the culture

ADAM SILVER wants all teams to hire more women, especially in leadership and supervisory positions. AP

and workplaces of our organizations,” Silver wrote.

The league urged teams to consider making more than a dozen changes, including: n Increasing the number of female staff, including in leadership and supervisory positions; n Better harassment-reporting procedures for victims of misconduct; n Additional commitments to ensure that harassment is eliminated and diversity is improved; n Anonymous workplace culture surveys of employees; n Stronger human-resource departments; n Sexual harassment training, with special training for managers and supervisors; and n Having general counsel employed in-house.

Silver said all of the recommendations were made specifically for the Mavericks in the investigators’ report.

“But we at the league office thought it was so well done that it clearly put in one place a set of rules that we think all workplaces should follow, frankly, in the NBA and in all industries,” Silver said during a news conference after the Board of Governors meetings in New York.

“We saw this as an opportunity to send those directly to our teams and say, ‘Take a look at what you’re currently doing and make sure, literally go down this checklist and make sure that you’re doing those things, as well.’”

The NBA has already established a leaguewide “Respect in the Workplace” hot line, one that was established after the Mavs story broke last winter.

“Open and honest dialogue about these issues is critically important and the league office can supply facilitators if needed to conduct these conversations in person,” Silver wrote. AP

Bolt has until January to prove soccer skills

G

OSFORD, Australia—Usain Bolt has a few more months to prove his soccer prowess in Australia.

Central Coast Mariners Coach Mike Mulvey said on Thursday that he will wait until January before assessing the progress of eight-time Olympic gold medalist sprinter Bolt, who’s set to play in his next preseason match for the Mariners in mid-October.

Bolt, who hopes to earn an A-League contract with the team based north of Sydney, will likely play on October 12 against Sydney league side Macarthur South West United. The Mariners begin the regular season on October 21 in Brisbane against the Roar.

“If I get to start it will be a big thing for me,” Bolt said. “It shows that the work that I’ve been putting in since I’ve been here is really paying off and the coach has confidence in me and he sees the improvement and the work I’ve been putting in.”

Bolt saw his first action for the Mariners on August 31, playing 20 minutes against a Central Coast selection side. He played the entire second half against the North Shore Mariners on September 19, when he again alternated between left wing and striker.

Mulvey said on Thursday that Bolt was progressing.

“In the initial dispatches talked about he needed time, I said at the time we will give him 12 months if need be,” Mulvey said.

“But I think a reasonable assumption would be around about Christmas time, January, we should be really judging on whether he’s really improved or not improved. He’s slowly getting there.” AP

MY BALL! Seattle Mariners right fielder Ben Gamel leaps at the wall as the ball slips from the grasp of fans after a

grand slam by Oakland Athletics’ Matt Olson during the fifth inning of their Major League Baseball Game early this week in Seattle. AP

Video review set for Asian Cup

USAIN BOLT will likely play on October 12 against Sydney league side Macarthur South West United.

K

CARVING A NEW LIFE L

AKE PLACID, New York—Andrew Weibrecht steers his pickup truck off the main drag of the Olympic village where he grew up and heads down a narrow, wooded dirt road to water’s edge, grabs a fishing pole and gazes out at windswept Lake Placid, Whiteface Mountain looming in the distance like a giant sentinel.

Home again.

“I love time in the woods so much, whether it’s going out canoeing, hiking or just bushwhacking around with my dog,” said the two-time Olympic medalist in Alpine skiing. “Whatever I’m doing in the woods...just really centers me. It’s why I love living here. To be able to walk out the door and be out in it is pretty special.”

The man who earned the nickname “War Horse” for his unbridled fury in attacking a course—he blew out each ankle and had surgery on both shoulders and a knee in his career with the US ski team—announced his retirement in May after nearly three decades of competitive skiing. The transition from the frenetic pace of the ski season into the role of husband to wife Denja and father to his two young daughters has been seamless.

“It’s been really good. I was ready to move on to different things,” said Weibrecht, who will be inducted into the US Ski and Snowboard Hall of Fame and Museum in April. “I think in that respect, I’ve been really lucky because not everybody has that luxury where they’re ready to do something different. Being able to spend as much time as I have with my family...has been a treat.

“It came down to two things,”Weibrecht added. “My body took a serious hit the last couple of years. It’s not that I probably couldn’t have gone through it physically, but it just doesn’t really make sense to me. The other part is we had another daughter. Once we had our first daughter, it was definitely a different situation with me being on the road

and knowing what I went through and what I missed. I really didn’t want to do that a second time.”

That he made the right decision at the age of 32 to walk away from the sport he’s loved since he was a toddler is evident to those who know him best.

“I think this is the happiest I’ve seen him in a long time,” said his mom, Lisa. “It’s really interesting.”

Weibrecht’s career on the slopes was unique. Before he earned a spot on a World Cup podium for the first time, he already had won Olympic bronze, at the 2010 Vancouver Games, and silver, at Sochi in 2014, both in super-G. “The timing of the Olympics was very fortuitous,” said Weibrecht, whose Olympic medal streak ended at Pyeongchang in February when he failed to finish. “Those just happened to be the times that I was peaking in my career, for whatever reason. From Sochi on for a couple of years it was a great run for me.

“The things that really halted my development—if I could do it again, I would just get hurt less,” he added with a laugh. “That was always the limiting factor. When I would get injured, then I’d have to start the process over again. I got good at it because I did it a lot. I think that having that process down so well I could have gotten back to where I wanted to be athletically, but I’m just at a different place in my life.”

That place is action-packed, too. Weibrecht earned his license to be a guide during the summer and is studying to complete the degree he started long ago at Dartmouth with an eye toward going on for an MBA. He’s also

fulfilling a physical education requirement by helping coach the Dartmouth ski team, which makes his mom chuckle.

“I started it and went through part of the process,” Weibrecht said. “I never went to high school that much [because of skiing], so being able to have the opportunity to go to college and see that through is something personal that I want to accomplish. This one I want to actually complete.”

Weekends are spent home in Lake Placid, where Lisa and husband Ed operate the stately Mirror Lake Inn, one of the signature resort hotels in the East. On Friday nights, Andrew makes s’mores for hotel guests on the shore of Mirror Lake, and by day he’s in business meetings and patrolling the dining room pouring coffee, just like mom and dad, as he learns the business alongside his wife.

His parents are thrilled.

“For us, it’s personal. That’s where I grew up,” said Andrew, whose Olympic medals hang behind the front desk at the inn. “It’s my parents’ life work. It’s very personal to them. To me, that’s really cool—to be involved in a business that you really care about on a deeper level than the spreadsheet end of it. AP

UALA LUMPUR, Malaysia—Video review is set to help referees at next year’s Asian Cup in the United Arab Emirates.

The Asian Football Confederation says it wants to use the technology “at some stage” in the 24-team tournament, which will be played from January 5 to February 1.

The AFC’s executive committee wish is “pending final confirmation that all necessary preparation is in place.”

The video assistant referee (VAR) system was tested in some European leagues and other competitions worldwide before Fifa used it at the World Cup in Russia.

AFC President Sheikh Salman says “it was clear to everyone that there needed to be a great deal of training of officials and investment in facilities to make sure that the system was effective.”

Video review will start being used to help referees next season in the Champions League, after the technology makes its UEFA debut at the Super Cup.

The UEFA executive committee also decided on Thursday to approve the VAR system for the 2020 European Championship and the 2020-2021 Europa League.

The first UEFA game using technological help for referees is expected to be 14 months after Fifa introduced it at the World Cup in Russia. On August 14 in Istanbul, the Super Cup game will pair this season’s Champions League and Europa League winners.

The timetable was hinted at last month by UEFA President Aleksander Ceferin, who has been more skeptical than Fifa counterpart Gianni Infantino about the readiness of match officials to use the oftencontroversial protocols.

“We are confident that introducing video assistant referees in August 2019 will give us enough time to put in place a robust system and to train match officials to ensure an efficient and successful implementation,” Ceferin said on Thursday in a statement. AP

ANDREW WEIBRECHT pilots his boat on Lake Placid in the Adirondack Mountains of New York. AP

MACROVECTOR | DREAMSTIME.COM

Swiss transnational offers ways millennials, Gen Z Pinoys can help combat malnutrition

W

ITHOUT access to nutritious food and clean drinking water, children across the Philippines find daily schoolwork, physical education classes and homework even more difficult.

The local office of Vevey, Vaud, Switzerland-headquartered Nestlé is urging millennials and Gen Z Filipinos looking to support a good cause to consider supporting its advocacy program that aims to help school-aged children combat malnutrition.

Called United for Healthier Kids (U4HK), the food and drink company said the program has linked up with 10 local organizations with programs on nutrition, water and nutrition education covering various parts of the Philippines.

The following are some of the ways millennials and Gen Zs can help schoolchildren with U4HK:

Participate in a feeding program.

One of the easiest ways to get involved is to join a feeding program. Preparing and serving hot meals to schoolchildren brings smiles to their faces and helps them face their school day with a happier demeanor.

Some groups conduct daily feeding programs and supplement them with reading programs, a toy library and tutorial sessions. They even have sports clinics, nutrition education sessions for parents, and monthly check-ups available. Volunteers are encouraged to bring in-kind donations

1

PROJECT PEARLS holds daily feeding programs to ensure that kids have a full stomach before going to school. They support their feeding programs with medicaldental missions, access to free medicines and free health-care services, brain-booster sessions, and a toy library to encourage holistic development. of healthy food items, such as pasta, bread, fruits and vegetables.

4

Build a school or community kitchen. Some groups build kitchens for communities to complement school gardens. Volunteers and donors can help start a kitchen in their neighborhood and maintain it after it’s been built, setting up cooking instruments, storing ingredients, and teaching volunteer cooks and delivery teams healthy recipes.

2

Turn your love for travel into a force for good. A group provides Filipino children in remote areas access to clean water by providing water filtration systems and rainwater harvesting systems to underserved, remote communities. This organization teaches interested couriers how to set up and maintain the

GAWAD Kalinga’s Kusina ng Kalinga program delivers lunches to students impacted by malnutrition. The Kusina ng Kalinga volunteers cook, pack and deliver lunches every day to public schools across the country. The parent volunteers also support the program by maintaining community gardens, which is a key source of produce for the program. clean water system, and volunteers are then encouraged to bring water filters each to a less-privileged community and share their knowledge with their chosen community.

3

ADVANCEMENT for Rural Kids has set up community gardens and kitchens in Western Visayas, where parents and teachers serve children organic vegetable and protein lunches which cost less than P2.50 a meal.

2 BusinessMirror

Help schools grow their own food. One of the ways that schoolchildren get access to nutritious food is through school gardens. A group builds and maintains gardens in public schools. Its volunteers can engage in activities such as designing containers, setting up container gardens and planters and transplanting vegetable seedlings.

SEPTEMBER 30, 2018

5

Keep diseases away by building water and sanitation facilities.

One of the challenges that poorly nourished children have to face is combating diseases that can be found in bathwater or drinking water. The Philippine Red Cross distributes hygiene kits and builds water, sanitation and hygiene facilities in schools. Volunteers can raise funds to build more of these facilities in schools.

Teach kids about nutrition, water and healthy habits. Some volunteers can conduct cooking classes with parents—teaching them lessons about how to make affordable, nutritious food and how to purify their drinking water. Some volunteers can also help kids learn lessons on proper nutrition and hydration and physical activity through storytelling and arts and crafts.

6

BusinessMirror

PRINT

OPM FOR A UNITED CAUSE

PHOTOS BY JOHN AARON MACARAEG

MUSIC

4

Sound BusinessMirror

SEPTEMBER 30, 2018 | soundstrip.businessmirror@gmail.com

MUS

OPM FOR A UNITED CAUSE

by John Aaron Mark Macaraeg

A

IMED at bringing together both mainstream and independent artists in one venue, a gig was held at The B-side Collective in Makati City on September 7.

On the first leg of their 10-series bar tour, Filmville invited bands that have and were currently making noise in OPM: Urbandub, Autotellic, and Bennbunnyband.

Wacky as ever, Bennybunnyband never failed to make their “bunnies” (fans) sing along with their original songs, Dear Laarni and I’m Coming, while dressed up as a gang of “Droogs” in the film, Clockwork Orange.

Memphiis and Bandido also didn’t miss their chances to perform their original songs before their fans.

Meanwhile, the event also paved the way for the debut of WDDD, as it finally had the chance to announce the meaning of the letters of their band's name: We Don’t Deserve Dogs!

United artists

ASIDE from bringing together both mainstream and independent genres in one setting, the event also showcased the unity of Filipino artists who contributed to the local music scene

despite the industry’s “labels” on them.

Along with the artists who exert effort in writing songs, music productions also play a vital role in making sure that stages will never be empty for them.

That’s how Filmville helps the local music scene here in the country: by spearheading band gigs to help artists keep their passions flowing and allowing them to be heard by more people.

Chelsea Gloria, a member of Filmville, shared her insights on their contribution to the music scene: “Aside from initiating small bar gigs, [we are] very active in producing school tours and introducing our local artists to students in Metro Manila. We also partake in large-scale events and cater to thousands of people. And in these, we make sure OPM is our priority in what we showcase.”

Help for indies

BEING in the backstage of those gigs, Gloria herself has been very immersed on indie bands struggling to be in the limelight. Having that, she’s still somehow very optimistic on how the local music scene would be on the future.

“I personally think that we’re about to see and hear more emerging artists in the next few months. With the technology we have now and also with the help of social media, it will be easier to reach an audience.”

Gloria went on to say, “I think [engagements like this are] greatly helping indie artists make a name for themselves in the scene. I’m very excited actually. OPM is indeed entering another golden age.”

Come and sing along with Filmville and other Filipino artist in the local music scene as they embark on their journey to the new era of OPM for the new age.

d trip

soundstrip.businessmirror@gmail.com | SEPTEMBER 30, 2018

5

SIC ON PRINT

END OF AN ERA:

PHOTOS BY ANDREW GREGORY N. SON

B-SIDE BIDS ‘ADIEU’

by Anna Reinette Tarinay

E

ARLY this September, the local music and indie communities were blown away by the news: One of the biggest stages that housed the “grandest of the grand” music-andart shows, B-Side, is soon to close down.

This is very saddening for folks in the music scene, as B-Side was considered as a “safe place.” It is where one can talk to random people about passions for music, or maybe just about anything under the sun, over beer, loud sounds, smell of mixed

piss, and cigarette butts.

B-Side memories will always include sweaty foreheads, beer breath, and shrill echoes.

According to Anna Sobrepena-Ong, one of the owners, the reason for B-Side’s closure was the local government’s “proper zoning and gentrification.”

“[It’s] mainly because the neighborhood has become more residential, and so we need to respect change and the residents around us. Also we believe that, in order to create something new, we need to let go of what we have now.”

Safe haven, mecca

B-SIDE has become a safe haven for young artists around the metro.

For the past nine years, it has catered to music fests, “flip-top” battles, fund-raising gigs, musicvideo shoots, events, exhibitions, and being home to the legendary “Irie Sunday,” a weekly celebration of reggae music.

The music mecca will soon be added to the list of bars

permanently drawing its curtains, chaining the doors, and biding good-byes to its community, together with the likes of Revamp, Selda Dos, Black Kings Bar (or BKB), Chrome Box, and Dark Side Bar.

Local band Autotelic shared how special B-Side was to its members. On their social media page, the group showed their utmost gratitude to the establishment where they hosted their “Papunta, Pabalik” album. It was where they met EJ before they became bandmates, and where Eco del Rio of Chicosci proposed to keyboardist Kai Honasan in the middle of their set.

‘Thanks for the memories!’

INDEED, the local scene would surely miss B-Side’s vibe. For years, it has become a hangout spot for artists, musicians and writers who wanted to chill and enjoy cheap beer and listen to music during weekends, and even on normal Monday nights under

dim lights and art-covered walls.

B-Side was scheduled to host its last gig on Saturday, September 29, with a show entitled, “End of an Era.” The indoor line-up would have included Red-I, Soul Steppa, Toro, Big Answer Sound, Don-P, Mulan, Digital Dan Boi (Uk), Dott Seki (Live), Jay Ru, Super Mikki and Rastaro.

The outdoor cast was supposed to be headlined by Greyhoundz, Cheats, Brass Pas Pas Pas Pas, Kapitan Kulam, Bawal Clan, Hernandez Brothers, Comic Love, Queso, Ourselves The Elves, Tarsius and Goodleaf.

For B-Side, this is the end of an era—but the memories will live on forever. (Share your memories online and on social media by using the hashtag: #BSideMemories.)

6

SEPTEMBER 30, 2018 | soundstrip.businessmirror@gmail.com

Sound trip BusinessMirror

MUSIC ON PRINT

ALL SYSTEMS GO FOR TRUEFAITH’S ‘SENTI 25’

W

ITH less than a month to go, fans of Truefaith are getting more excited about one of 2018’s highly anticipated OPM concerts: “Far From Perfect: Truefaith’s Senti 25, The Silver Anniversary Show,” slated on October 25 at the Music Museum.

There’s just no stopping the phenomenal OPM band from doing what they love to do: performing onstage in front of their fans and communicating directly with them through their endearing music. It’s really something to look forward to as the event is deemed to be a grand celebration with their fans and friends in the business.

The anniversary show is expected to be very gratifying, especially for true-blue Truefaith fans as they will be playing songs rarely heard in the band’s usual repertoire.

Truefaith promises to do an electrifying, lengthy set, filled with excitement and energy throughout the show. As shared by lead vocalist

Medwin Marfil, “Musically and visually, it shall be a delight.”

Musically, as promising OPM and established artists like Better Days, Cooky Chua, and DJ Lopie “Ouch” Guzman will grace the stage as special guest performers, as well as other friends and fellow musicians who will jam with the band. Versions of all-time favorite Truefaith songs will absolutely sound more brilliant on that night.

Visually—with talented filmmaker Adrian Arcega doing the design for the visual effects of the show. It won’t just be a feast for the ears, but also a spectacle for the eyes.

When asked about their musical influence, the band’s members revealed, “Our kind of Filipino pop is a confluence of our favorite genres: classic OPM, 80s new wave, British sophisti-pop, and acoustic or folk music. [There are lots] of artists whom we admire and have greatly influenced us, like Simon & Garfunkel, Duran

Duran, Everything But The Girl, Freddie Aguilar, and Apo Hiking Society... just to mention a few.”

Truefaith’s brand new album is aptly titled, “Sentimental”—the band’s 10th full-length album. It features potential hit singles such as, “Paano Ka Magiging Akin?” “The Rain,” “Consolation For A Fool,” “Cool Lang,” the MGMT “collaboration,” “Ako at Si Michael,” and the latest single, “Kahit Na,” written by Governor Robert Lee Rodriguez of Sorsogon.

The bucolic province served as the backdrop of the latter single's music video, shot under the lens of Lui Villaruz. Such can now be viewed on YouTube and MYX.

The sound of Truefaith is once again showcased in “Sentimental,” and quite fittingly: exquisite, refined and stylish. CDs will be available for sale on the night of the show.

The album is likewise available on various digital formats, such as iTunes, Amazon, Google Play, Spotify, Apple Music and Deezer.

Tickets for the “Far From Perfect” concert are selling very fast. Fans should hurry and grab their tickets soon, which are available through Ticketworld (891-9999) and the Music Museum (721-6726). “VVIP” is at P2,500 each; VIP Orchestra, P1,850 (both sold out); Center Orchestra, P1,500; Side Orchestra, P1,250; and Balcony, P750. For inquiries, call (0916) 6392291.

Far From Perfect: True Faith’s Senti 25, The Silver Anniversary Show is presented by Rockford Productions Inc., in partnership with Trends Travelmart, SM By the Bay, UNO Bistro, ABY Bistro, Locally, JB Music, Purple Haze, Venom, Edmel, Blade, Home Radio 97.9 FM, along with the BusinessMirror and its Music on Print, SoundStrip, as some of the media partners.

Follow the concert and post on social media using the hashtags #rockfordproductionsinc, #truefaithsenti25 and #truefaithsilver anniversaryconcert.

It’s hip to be cheap as US hotels democratize design I

F you haven’t visited a college campus, secondhand store or seen Crazy Rich Asians, in which one of the central characters possesses a Jamba Juice freebie card, you may not have heard: Thrift is cool.

In hospitality, that spirit has worked its way from Airbnb mania to spinoff hotel brands and independent properties that promise the travel equivalent of fast fashion.

“Cheap chic is in,” said Chekitan Dev, a professor of marketing at Cornell University’s School of Hotel Administration and the author of Hospitality Branding. “The cheap chic hotel brand trend is in line with tiny houses and other minimalist lifestyle trends that are sweeping the country.”

Among new hotel introductions heeding the thrifty hip movement, InterContinental Hotels Group just launched Avid, a new brand featuring well-equipped gyms, Chobani yogurt and Kind granola in the breakfast buffets, and rates from $80. The stylish London-based Hoxton hotels made their American debut this month with the Hoxton, Williamsburg in New York, with three restaurants, a rooftop lounge and bed linens from the Brooklyn label Dusen Dusen in $159 rooms. The style-focused consortium Design Hotels recently introduced a “luxe for less” collection with rooms under €200, or about $233.

Bargains, of course, are relative to markets and perceptions. The hotel analytics firm STR identifies the average daily rate (known as ADR) at hotels in the top 25 markets in the country over the past year as $130. That averages out places like New York, where annual ADR is $240, along with Detroit at $104.

The democratizing-design trend dovetails with the rise of millennial travelers.

“At an early stage of their travel cycle, millennials have less money to spend and are extremely value conscious,” Dev said. “They will pay only for those items that give them plea-

“It’s all in one facility because the person that travels in a cabin this year may in fact want a poolside cabana next time,” said Jeff Trigger, the founder and president of La Corsha Hospitality Group, which owns the East Austin. “The people that are going to stay in our place want that eclectic style.

They’re not coming to be in an environment where everybody is the same.”

Bargains by design

A ROOM at the Skyview Los Alamos in California’s Santa Ynez Valley. SKYVIEW LOS ALAMOS VIA THE NEW YORK TIMES

sure, so boring design, bad technology and unnecessary amenities are out and thoughtful and minimal design, fast and free technology and useful amenities are in.”

But they’re not the only ones driving the trend, according to Richard Born, a principal at BD Hotels, which anticipated downsized rooms with its first Pod Hotel in New York in 2007. The five Pod Hotels in New York and Washington, D.C., draw travelers of all ages who tend to share an interest in style.

“It’s about price, but it’s not just about price,” Born said. “It’s about price, style, design and experience.”

Thrifty brands CHALLENGED by Airbnb, major hotel groups have expanded their vertical portfolios downward on the price scale and introducing more updated affordable brands.

In addition to Avid, newcomers include Moxy Hotels from Marriott, which embraces a party spirit. At the new Moxy Chicago Downtown, for example, the front desk is a bar, and rooms that look into other rooms across a courtyard come with message boards to communicate things like “Meet me in the lobby” to the voyeur across the way (rooms from $170).

The Dream Hotel Group introduced the playful Unscripted brand with its first Un-

scripted Durham in Durham, North Carolina, in a former 1960s-vintage motel with a rooftop pool and bar (from $129). It plans future openings in Belize and Mexico.

In Israel, Brown Hotels spun off the freespirited the Dave—Son of a Brown in Tel Aviv, which recently hosted a tattoo artist pop-up shop (from $125). In Japan, Hoshino Resorts launched Omo earlier this year with minimalist design (from about $45).

Tiny rooms AIMING to attract diverse travelers, some hotels offer a few tiny rooms at substantial savings.

Among 14 rooms, Hotel Eleven in Austin, Texas, offers two 230-square-foot “crashpads” starting at $159.

“When people come to Austin, they don’t really want to spend time in their hotel rooms,” said Mark Vornberg, the hotel’s co-owner and architect. “The crash pad was developed as a place to sleep. It still has to have a great bed and a great shower, but it doesn’t need a living room. The city is your living room.”

When the 612-room Moxy Times Square opened in New York last year, it introduced 19 crash pad rooms` for $99 each (others from $149). The 120 square-foot crash pads can only be ordered from the menu of the rooftop bar, Magic Hour, after 11 p.m.

“Our team anticipated that many of our rooftop patrons would like to ‘take the elevator home,’ keep the party going and crash downstairs,” wrote Mitchell Hochbert, the president of Lightstone, which developed the hotel, in an email.

Eclectic style A HOTEL with a luxe-to-less price range may also better serve groups like wedding parties, where budgets can vary.

The East Austin Hotel, opening in November with a courtyard pool, restaurant and rooftop bar, will house 75 rooms, including 13 “cabins,” or rooms with double beds and shared bathrooms on a single floor, starting at $99. The highest-end poolside suites start at $299.

THE Unscripted Durham, a rehabilitated 1960s-vintage motel in Durham, North Carolina. UNSCRIPTED DURHAM VIA THE NEW YORK TIMES

7 BusinessMirror

SEPTEMBER 30, 2018

A BARGAIN in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, in ski season, let alone a deal with decent design, is a winter unicorn. When I visited last January, rates at the slope-side Four Seasons Resort were $800, but in town, the 50-room Anvil Hotel, a newly redesigned 1950s motel, came close at $174. Double iron beds were dressed in Woolrich blankets and guests gathered around the rustic lobby’s wood-burning potbelly stove.

“We realize there are more and more travelers out there who can’t afford luxury but are looking for experiences that are in harmony with the environment in which they exist and those travelers shouldn’t be deprived of good design,” said Erik Warner, the lead partner at Filament Hospitality, which owns the Anvil.

“You can provide good design without spending a lot of money.”

In many cases, vintage roadside motels have provided hoteliers affordable properties with interesting midcentury bones to spruce up. The hotelier Liz Lambert did her first, the Hotel San Jose in Austin, nearly 20 years ago. Her newest, the Phoenix Hotel in San Francisco, a former 1956 motor court lodge, features vintage concert posters in its 44 rooms and a lobby modeled on a recording studio (from $185).

Vintage furnishings IN Santa Ynez Valley in California, the Skyview Los Alamos—which started as the Skyview Motel in 1959—reopened in April after a modern renovation brought wood floors, area rugs and vintage furnishings to its 33 rooms, some with outdoor showers and fire pits overlooking its vineyards.

Many refashioned motels don’t intend to be the destinations that many resorts aim to be. Built in 1963, the Astro in Santa Rosa, California, had fallen into disrepute when Liza Hinman and her partners, who also own the nearby restaurant Spinster Sisters, decided to buy it, renovate it in midcentury style and reopen the 34-room motel last year. Keeping the rooms affordable—they start at $156— set the property apart.

“The hotel options in Sonoma County skew heavily to the luxury market,” said Hinman. “People coming to Santa Rosa for cycling or touring the microbreweries or for weddings, they didn’t necessarily want all the luxury. They wanted a great, clean, functional, fun place to stay while they went about their vacation.”

New York Times News Service

America’s divorce rate sinks as younger couples marry later

A

MERICANS under the age of 45 have found a novel way to rebel against their elders: They’re staying married.

New data show younger couples are approaching relationships very differently from baby boomers, who married young, divorced, remarried and so on. Generation X and especially millennials are being pickier about who they marry, tying the knot at older ages when education, careers and finances are on track. The result is a US divorce rate that dropped 18 percent from 2008 to 2016, according to an analysis by University of Maryland sociology professor Philip Cohen.

Demographers already knew the divorce rate was falling, even if the average American didn’t. Their question, however, was why? And what do current trends mean for the marital prospects of today’s newlyweds?

One theory is that divorce rates are falling largely because of other demographic changes—especially an aging population.

Older people are less likely to get divorced, so maybe mellowing boomers were enough to explain the trend. Cohen’s analysis of US Census Bureau survey data, however, suggests something more fundamental is at work. Even when he controls for factors such as age, the divorce rate over the same period still dropped 8 percent.

“The change among young people is particularly striking,” Susan Brown, a sociology professor at Bowling Green State Univer-

sity, said of Cohen’s results. “The characteristics of young married couples today signal a sustained decline [in divorce rates] in the coming years.”

Young people get the credit for fewer divorces because boomers have continued to divorce at unusually high rates, all the way into their 60s and 70s. From 1990 to 2015, according to Bowling Green’s National Center for Family and Marriage Research, the divorce rate doubled for people aged 55 to

64, and even tripled for Americans 65 and older. Cohen’s results suggest this trend, called “gray divorce,” may have leveled out in the past decade, but boomers are still divorcing at much higher rates than previous generations did at similar ages.

Today’s young couples don’t seem to be following the same path.

“One of the reasons for the decline is that the married population is getting older and more highly educated,” Cohen said. Fewer people are getting married, and those who do are the sort of people who are least likely to get divorced, he said. “Marriage is more and more an achievement of status, rather than something that people do regardless of how they’re doing.”

Many poorer and less educated Americans are opting not to get married at all.

They’re living together, and often raising kids together, but deciding not to tie the knot. And studies have shown these cohabiting relationships are less stable than they used to be.

Fewer divorces, therefore, aren’t only bad news for matrimonial lawyers but a sign of America’s widening chasm of inequality.

Marriage is becoming a more durable, but far more exclusive, institution.

Bloomberg News Service

US students spend more time working paid jobs than going to class

H

AUNTED by costly degrees and insurmountable student debt, American college students now spend more time working paid jobs than in lectures, the library or studying at home.

The vast majority of current students—85 percent—work while enrolled, according to an HSBC survey published on September 20. Students spend an average of 4.2 hours a day working paid jobs, which is more than double the time they spend in the library, nearly two hours more than they spend in class and 1.4 hours more time than they spend studying at home.

“The economics of the debt crisis have become a major distraction to students’ education,” said John Hupalo, founder and chief executive officer of Invite Education, an education financial planner. “Students’ first priority should be to get value out of their education, not squeezing out hours at a job in order to make money to sustain that education.”

The HSBC study was conducted by Ipsos MORI, which surveyed 1,507 students aged 18 to 34 currently enrolled in undergraduate

A WAITRESS delivers a tray of food to customers.

VICTOR J. BLUE/BLOOMBERG

and postgraduate programs and 10,478 parents with at least one child aged 23 or younger currently enrolled at a university. The survey sample was drawn from nationally representative online panels in 15 countries and territories from March to April 2018.

The United States spends more per college student than nearly every country in the world, according to a September report from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. And the cost of tuition is at an all-time high, bringing with it the highest rate of student loan debt in history.

Student loans are now the second-largest category of US household debt, topping nearly $1.4 trillion, according to Bloomberg

8 BusinessMirror

Intelligence. The burden is even larger for younger Americans with entry-level wages and salaries. Student loans currently make up 40 percent of all millennial debt.

Students tend to rack up personal debt as well, spending an average of $4,321 to pay back credit cards, personal loans and student debt over the course of their degree. That’s nearly $1,000 more than they spend on academic books over the same period, according to the HSBC report.

American students are also responsible for funding a larger portion of their expenses than students elsewhere in the world. American parents fund an average of $17,314 on tuition fees, accommodation and other bills, SEPTEMBER 30, 2018

but students spend nearly $100,000 while earning a college degree. That leaves a funding gap of more than $80,000.

“The fundamental issue is that families and students don’t have a realistic knowledge of the actual cost of an education in advance,” Hupalo said.

Nearly three in four American parents rely on their day-to-day income to help fund their child’s education, rather than resort to savings or borrowings, the study shows.

Only quarter of parents fund their child’s savings from a specific education savings or investment account, which is still slightly ahead of the global average.

But it’s not enough. Students still report feeling overwhelming anxiety about their financial situation and, in turn, their academic performances. Six in 10 students said they feel anxious about their finances “frequently” or “all the time,” according to a report released on September 18 by Chegg, an education technology company. And female students were 28 percent more likely than male students to be stressed by financial concerns—a statistic in line with the student debt gap between women and men.

(Women and people of color disproportionately bear the burden of student loan debt).

“There’s no silver bullet,” Hupalo said.

“Despite these statistics, many students are actually handling these responsibilities well. And for some, taking on a bit more paid work could actually reduce their financial burden.” Bloomberg News