Manila Standard - 2020 February 16 - Sunday

HOUSE SEEKS COMMENTS ON ABS-CBN FRANCHISE

By Maricel V. Cruz and Willie Casas

comments on the proposed renewal of the radio-television network’s broadcasting franchise.

HOUSE Speaker Alan Peter Cayetano He made the appeal as he reiterhas urged critics and supporters of ated that the House would do an imABS-CBN to send to the House of Rep- partial job in considering bills seeking resentatives their position papers and to renew ABS-CBN’s franchise. Turn to A2

VOL. XXXIII • NO. 361 • 4 SECTIONS 16 PAGES • P18 • SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 16, 2020 • www.manilastandard.net • mst.daydesk@gmail.com

TIT FOR TAT: PH REMINDS U.S. OF WW2

TASK FORCE TO MEET MONDAY TO ADDRESS ISSUE

STRANDED OFWS APPEAL TRAVEL BAN

By Maricel V. Cruz, Joel E. Zurbano, and Willie Casas

the letter, and pinaedit sa aming advisers (we asked our advisers to edit),” he told ABS-CBN News, read N OFFICIAL Philippine government ban nationwide.

The group claims to have for Filipinos stranded at home to return 1,000 overseas Filipino workers to their previous posts overseas has employed in Hong Kong. encouraged Hong Kong-based Filipinos “We sent it (to the) International Court of Justice (so the information to ask the international court to appeal to would spread in the) international Manila to let them return to the special Chinese community. The ban that was imposed was quite unfair,” he said, administration region. in a mix of English and Filipino.

Joms Ortega, a kindergarten Court of Justice in the Hague on #StrandedPH has also written teacher in Hong Kong, said their Thursday. to foreign media about their Facebook group #StrandedPH sent “Some of our group adminis- plight, he added. an appeal before the International trators and moderators... created At the same time, the Philippine

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MALACAÑANG on Saturday reminded Washington that the Philippines has been fighting shoulder-to-shoulder with America since World War II following Manila's decision to terminate the two-decades old Vising Forces Agreement.

Manila's “gentle reminder” came on the heels of US President Donald Trump's statement that America extended a hand to the Philippines in combating terrorism, specifically during the five-month Marawi siege in 2017.

Trump said American troops "came in and literally singlehandedly" saved the Philippines from ISIS and the ISIS-backed Maute group. “ We are, of course, not oblivious of such succor and we reiterate our appreciation for that deed. We wish to remind our erstwhile bosom ally that we too fought side by side with them in fighting the Japanese Imperial forces during the Second World War,” presidential spokesman Salvador Panelo said.

Panelo said President Rodrgio Duterte is thankful that Trump, who said he is “fine” with the VFA termination and that it would

government is ‘looking into’ removing the travel restrictions imposed on visitors from China’s special administrative regions as protective measure amid the novel coronavirus health threat, a tourism official said Saturday.

“Yes, we are looking into (removing the travel ban on Hong Kong and Macau) as long as stricter protocols are imposed,” Tourism Secretary Bernadette RomuloPuyat told CNN Philippines’ Newsroom Weekend.

Required protocols Romulo-Puyat said at present, Turn to A2

Turn to A2

TUCP BUCKS LIFTING OF KUWAIT BAN THE workers group Trade Union Congress of the Philippines has expressed disappointment and urged the government to reconsider its decision lifting the deportation ban in Kuwait amid the brutal death of overseas Filipino worker Jeanelyn Villavende.

On Friday, Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III announced the government would resume the deployment of Filipino workers to Kuwait after the governing board of Philippine Overseas Employment Administration approved a resolution lifting the ban.

“We cannot understand the lack of empathy of Secretary Bello for the plight of some 200 OFWs who have died under suspicious circumstances in Kuwait and the ongoing search for justice for Jeanalynn. That Sec. Bello Turn to A2

POPE FRANCIS SIDES WITH PRO-PRIESTLY CELIBACY

EMBA-ZOO. Orbelle, one of three peafowls of the

country's embassy in Tripoli, shows off his beautiful plumage—a sight to behold amid the bombings in strife-torn Libya. The Philippine embassy, which also has three attack dogs, three cats, three turkeys, several pigeons and a turtle, is among the few remaining embassies in Tripoli since conflict started in 2011. Photo courtesy of Philippine Ambassador to Libya Elmer Cato

DEATH TOLL SURGES PAST 1,500 • FIRST DEATH OUTSIDE ASIA IN FRANCE • 67 MORE POSITIVE CASES IN JAPAN CRUISE

HEALTH PROTOCOL. Overseas Filipino workers from Kaoshiung, Taiwan line up for a medical check as part of health security measures amid the COVID-19 outbreak. Che Santos twitter.com/ MlaStandard

facebook.com/ ManilaStandardPH

THE death toll from China’s new coronavirus epidemic jumped past 1,500 on Saturday but new infections fell following a mid-week surge caused by a change in the way cases are counted.

In France, an 80-year-old Chinese tourist died from the new coronavirus —the first outside Asia—French Health Minister Agnes Buzyn said.

Only three other deaths have been recorded outside mainland China—in the Philippines, Hong Kong and Japan.

More than 66,000 people have now been infected in China from a virus that emerged in central Hubei province in December before spreading across the country a month later and causing

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global panic.

Some 1,700 medical workers have been infected, with six dying from the COVID-19 illness, officials said, underscoring the country’s struggle to contain the deepening health crisis.

Chinese President Xi Jinping acknowledged that the outbreak exposed “shortcomings” in the country’s health emergency response system.

In nearby Japan, another 67 people on board a cruise ship quarantined of the coast have tested positive for the disease, according to Japan’s health minister.

The new cases, from 217 tests, bring the number of people diagnosed on the Turn to A2

TOUR DE LANGKAWI’S LONE PH RIDER RELISHES NEW ROLE SPORTS B4

DUTERTE REJECTS MANILA BAY RECLAMATION PROJECTS NEWS A2

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IN CHINA, EVEN MONEY GETS QUARANTINED CHINA is disinfecting and isolating used banknotes as part of efforts to stop the spread of the new coronavirus that has killed more than1,500 people, officials said Saturday.

Banks use ultraviolet light or high temperatures to disinfect yuan bills, then seal and store the cash for seven to 14 days—depending on the severity of the outbreak in a particular region —before recirculating them, China’s central bank said at a press conference.

The virus, which has infected more than 66,000 people in China and spread to more than two dozen other countries, has sparked a rush to disinfect public places and minimize contact between people.

Pharmacies across the country sold out of disinfectants and surgical masks in just days after a lockdown was announced in late January on Wuhan city, where the COVID-19 illness is believed to have emerged.

Office buildings have installed packets of tissue in elevators that tenants are encouraged to use when pressing buttons, while ride-hailing company Didi exhorts drivers to disinfect their cars daily.

‘Emergency issuance’ Fan Yifei, deputy governor of China’s central bank, said Saturday that banks have been urged to provide new banknotes to customers whenever possible.

The central bank made an “emergency issuance” of four billion yuan in new notes to Hubei province, the epicenter of the outbreak, prior to the recent Lunar New Year holiday, Fan added. AFP

DUTERTE REJECTS MANILA BAY RECLAMATION PROJECTS

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RESIDENT Rodrigo Duterte has rejected the proposed Manila Bay reclamation projects, saying these will “choke the entire Manila.”

“Not in my time. If you allow one, you have to allow all. If I allow that, I will choke manila. The entire City of Manila will be put in peril,” the President said in his speech during the inauguration of the Sangley Airport Development Project in Cavite City.

“Manila is an old city. It will decay if you add so many things in front of Manila Bay,” he added.

The proposed 25-project development covers 10,000 hectares from Navotas City to Cavite.

Duterte earlier described the

scope of the proposals as “almost mind-boggling and stupefying.”

The President said the proposals were among the reasons why he transferred the power to approve reclamation projects to the Office of the President from the Department of Environment and Natural Resources and the National Economic Development Authority.

“This is why the reclamation authority—I took it back because I heard every Tom, Dick and Harry was lobbying and following up. You just

wait until the next president who might look at it kindly with a different set of lens,” he said.

“Reclamation will only be approved for government projects,” the President added.

According to the PRA, at least four of the 25 projects—the Navotas City coastal bay reclamation project, the Pasay 360-hectare reclamation project, the Pasay 265-hectare reclamation project and the Horizon Manila 418-hectare reclamation project—have already been given notices to proceed.

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He said he had been monitoring comments in social media and the mainstream media for and against granting the network the privilege to continue its broadcast services.

“So, what I request is we join the issues. All those opposed to renewing the franchise, submit your comments to the House committee on legislative franchises, which will forward these to ABS-CBN so they can already respond.

That’s the way our democracy works,” Cayetano said.

Meanwhile, three citizen groups have added their voice to the chorus of objections to the Duterte administration’s crackdown on ABS-CBN, condemning it on socio-economic, political and legal grounds.

In separate statements, Bantay Konsyumer, Kuryente, Kalsada, CitizenWatch Philippines and Democracy Watch Philippines assailed Solicitor General Jose Calida’s quo warranto petition against the network, saying it threatened the livelihood of thousands of families/consumers, sent a negative message to investors, usurped the mandate of Congress, abused power to silence the President’s critics, and disregarded the rule of law.

‘Franchise violated’ Calida’s petition seeks to revoke the network’s license, saying it had violated the terms of its congressional franchise.

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“save (America) a lot of money,” underscored the good relationship between both countries.

“President Duterte welcomes President Trump’s remarks and he is glad that the American President understands and respects his decision to end the Visiting Forces Agreement.

In ceasing the effectivity of the VFA, he points to the the legislative and executive actions of the US government, which we have previously elaborated, as his raison d’etre,” Panelo said.

The Palace official was referring to the cancellation of the US visa of Senator Ronald dela Rosa, Duterte’s first Philippine National Police chief who is known as the architect of the administration’s bloody crackdown on illegal drugs, and the passage of the US government’s 2020 budget that included a provision barring the entry of Philippine officials behind the imprisonment of Senator Leila De Lima, who is on trial on drug charges.

“The Chief Executive deemed such actions to be not only an offensive and blatant disrespect to our judicial system but an outright assault to the country’s sovereignty. As a matter of principle and national pride, being the head of an aggrieved and insulted state, he had been compelled to take a bold, decisive and studied action,” Panelo said.

“The time to strengthen our defense capabilities has come. Reliance on another country to defend our motherland from whoever desires to threaten our territorial integrity as well as to assault our sovereignty will only further weaken and stagnate our already limited resources.”

PORT OF CALL. The Silver Spirit cruise ship has docked at the port area in Manila with thousands of tourists despite the COVID-19 outbreak.

Norman Cruz

STRANDED...

From A1 Hong Kong and Macau have yet to meet the required protocols.

In related developments: • Rep. Bernadette Herrera of the party-list group Bagong Henerasyon said the Philippines had so far been able to control the spread of COVID-19 because of the government’s unified efforts to educate the public on the disease.

Available data from the Department of Health indicate that the authorities have been gaining the upper hand against the disease.

“They have done a good job so far at managing the spread of COVID-19.

They did not allow themselves to become distracted by the public’s irrational panic and by baseless criticism from unknowledgeable armchair pundits,” Herrera said.

At least 261 patients under investigation were discharged from hospital confinement after testing negative and recovering from the illnesses that were not COVID-19.

Herrera added: “Since the last confirmed third case on February 5, which was over a week ago, we have not had any new confirmed cases. In fact, the first case has been discharged from hospital after testing negative in post-recovery from COVID-19.

“On top of that, over 250 patients

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Diamond Princess to 285, excluding a quarantine officer who also contracted the disease.

Americans evacuated At the same time, the United States plans to evacuate Americans from the Diamond Princess cruise ship held in quarantine at a Japanese port since early February, the US embassy said.

Washington will send a plane to Japan for the evacuation on Sunday, it said in a letter to US citizens on board, adding that evacuees will still be required to undergo a further quarantine of two weeks after their arrival in the US. It is not clear when the plane will depart Japan, but the letter said it will land at Travis Air Force Base in California.

under investigation have tested negative and the first patient has recovered and was discharged from hospital confinement.

“Only 191 admitted patients under investigation as of February 14 remain. I stress that these PUIs are not confirmed cases. They are all isolated in quarantine facilities of hospitals.”

She appealed “to the people who share about COVID-19 not to spread alarming ‘fake news’. The total number of cases does not paint the accurate picture of the COVID-19 situation.

“Please go into the details of the numbers. More PUIs tested negative, the number of pending cases decrease daily and many have been discharged.”

She added: “All these indicators point to clear progress. Test results on less than 200 patients are pending.

The rise in the number of negative results continues to gives us hope the country’s efforts to contain the spread of the virus are succeeding.”

Zero local transmission The Department of Health earlier reported there had been zero local transmission so far. The only confirmed cases were the three Chinese tourists.

• Two lawmakers welcomed the government’s decision to remove Taiwan from the list of areas covered by the country’s travel ban, saying the move would benefit the 120,000 overseas Filipino workers in Taiwan and help lessen the virus’ impact on

“Passengers will be screened for symptoms and we are working with our Japanese partners to ensure that any symptomatic passengers receive the required care in Japan if they cannot board the flight,” the letter said.

“Should you choose not to return on this charter flight, you will be unable to return to the United States for a period of time,” it added.

There were more than 3,700 people on the ship when it arrived off the Japanese coast, but more than 200 have been diagnosed with the newly named COVID-19 coronavirus and taken to local hospitals.

The illness has killed more than 1,500 people and infected at least 66,000 in neighboring China while spreading to more than two dozen other countries, sparking an unprecedented containment effort.

Some people on the ship suffering from other health conditions requiring medical attention have also been taken off. AFP

the economy.

“This is good news for the thousands of our kababayans working in Taiwan, particularly those who regularly travel to and from Taiwan,” Minority Leader Rep. Bienvenido Abante Jr. said.

Rep. Rufus Rodriguez of Cagayan de Oro’s second district echoed Abante’s view.

Rodriguez said the lifting of the travel ban was justifiable as “the World Health Organization report of countries with reported infections did not include Taiwan as of last Wednesday, Feb. 12. There is no single case in our friendly neighbor in the north.”

Rodriguez.earlier said the travel ban also covered overseas Filipino workers in Taiwan.

He added that OFWs who wanted to go home could not do so, while those here for a short vacation or to visit their families could not return to their jobs due to the travel restriction.

Abante, the minority bloc leader, said: “I understand that our health officials want us to take every precaution to prevent the spread of Covid-19 in our country, and I commend them for the steps they have taken to monitor and contain the disease.”

Economic effects “However, the measures we take must also take into consideration the initiatives made by other governments to take similar precautions, as well as

TUCP...

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announced the lifting of the ban in his meeting with local recruitment agencies clearly revealed Bello’s misplaced priorities,” said TUCP president Raymond Mendoza.

“It is clear that the DOLE and POEA place the private business interest of recruiters first while treating the public interest concerns of OFWs as an afterthought. This leaves a bad taste in our mouths. DOLE and POEA are dealing a disservice to our President’s advocacy for OFWs,” he added.

Mendoza said the POEA and DOLE “first failed our OFWs when they slept on their jobs, failing to obtain a harmonized employment contract for our OFWs when Kuwait signed to an MOA in May 2018 which could have prevented the deaths of OFWs Dayag and Villavende in 2019.”

the advisories from WHO,” added the solon.

“When it is determined that travel restrictions are not necessary, then we should not impose them so as not to further exacerbate the adverse economic effects of the outbreak.”

Abante earlier questioned the imposition of travel restrictions covering Taiwan, pointing out in the joint hearing of the House committees on Economic Affairs and Tourism that a travel ban covering Taiwan had not been included in any World Health Organization advisory.

• The Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in the Philippines welcomed the announcement made by the Philippine government to remove Taiwan from the travel ban, which was enforced by the Bureau of Immigration for five days.

Taiwan assured it was implementing all measures needed to contain the spread of COVID-19 and would continue to work closely with the international community, including the Philippines, to fight against the COVID-19 to safeguard the health and welfare of humanity.

“The Republic of China (Taiwan) attaches great importance to its long-standing relationship with the Republic of the Philippines. We are determined to strengthen our bilateral ties and promote our people-topeople connectivity,” TECO said in a statement.

“Second, these agencies have not successfully concluded deliberations on contentious items including the continuing demand by Kuwait that the Philippine Embassy close down its shelters for runaway OFWs. So, if it is closed down, who can our OFWs turn to now in Kuwait? Where can they go to be protected,” he said.

“Third, justice has not yet been secured for Jeanalynn Villavende. The DOLE and POEA are sending a political signal to Kuwait that we value the business side involved in the deployment of HSWs to Kuwait rather than the lives of Filipinos,” added Mendoza.

Bello, who chairs the POEA governing board, said the approval was made in view of the filing of charges against the suspected killers of Villavende.

Last month, the department imposed a total deployment ban of OFWs to Kuwait following the findings by the National Bureau of Investigation that Villavende was sexually abused and brutally murdered.

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COMELEC URGED TO RESOLVE POLL CRISIS IN MAGUINDANAO TOWN

By Nash Maulana

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ULTAN SA BARONGIS, Maguindanao—Residents of this town have appealed to the Commission on Elections to resolve an electoral controversy here between a protesting mayoralty bet in May 2019 and the vice-mayor, succeeding the deceased elected mayor.

The camp of Mayor Alfizzar Angas, who has succeeded his uncle who died late last year of lingering ailment, said they were hopeful the Comelec First Division will resolve the case they have appealed from a previous court decision.

Ronald Torres, counsel for Angas, said he was hopeful the First Division would resolve the case on the basis of merit.

Former Mayor Allandatu Angas, father of the incumbent mayor, said a court-issued temporary restraining order was about to lapse, and that any resolution by the First Division can by default favor their opponent, former Maguindanao Board Member Mamatanto Mamantal.

The younger Angas said he was very much humiliated by the unexpected remarks uttered on his personality allegedly by Comelec Commissioner Rowena Guanzon during a hearing she presided two weeks ago on the poll case.

Angas said because of the incident, he doubted whether Guanzon could objectively handle the case.

His lawyers have contested a decision of a regional trial court annulling the results of elections in two barangays from the May 2019 elections.

Angas said as a young father, he held child rights advocates like Guanzon in high respect, noting that his town is a consistent national recipient of Galing Pook Award on Child-Friendly Local Governance, including the 2019 Seal of Good Local Governance Award for the same category.

Guanzon, who graduated on top of her class in the University of the Philippines School of Law, is an ardent advocate of women and children’s rights, having written books and delivered scholarly papers on the topic in various forums.

Angas succeeded his late uncle, Mayor Ramdatu Angas, as vice-mayor of the town. The deceased mayor’s rival had protested his proclamation by asking the court to nullify all 2,080 votes cast in two barangays.

Angas, 27, during a poll-protest hearing that Guanzon presided for the Comelec First Division last Wednesday, asked his lawyers if he had been named respondent in a “second wave” of cases in connection with the November 23, 2009 Maguindanao Massacre.

The mayor recalled to reporters that during the time when the massacre was all over the airwaves of radio and TV newscasts, he had just turned 17 years old as a college student in Far Eastern University in Manila.

Angas said during the same hearing, Guanzon asked his lawyer to allow him to answer her question, and that he said that none of his family members was involved in any crime.

UP FOR CONSTRUCTION.

House Majority Leader and Leyte Rep Martin Romualdez (right) poses with, from left Cavite Governor Jonvic Remulla, DOTR Secretary Arthur Tugade, Vice Governor Jolo Revilla and Senior Deputy Majority Leader Rep. Crispin Remulla during the inauguration of the new Sangley International Airport in Cavite. Ver Noveno

RICE LIBERALIZATION LED TO BOOM IN RICE IMPORTS—LAWMAKER

By Willie Casas WHILE the Rice Liberalization Law spelled doom for Filipino rice farmers, the measure led to a significant boom in the rice importation business, Gabriela Women’s Party Rep. Arlene Brosas said.

Brosas said the number of import clearances issued by the Bureau of Plant Industry surged by 160 percent in 2019, from just 1,705 in 2018 to 4,513 in 2019.

The actual figure could be higher since importers who smuggle rice were not accounted for.

“Rice liberalization law, which marks its first year today, made rice importers happier and rice farmers poorer.

Kumikitang kabuhayan ang importasyon ng bigas habang sadsad ang kabuhayan ng ating mga magsasaka at manggagawang nakasandig sa lokal na produksyon ng bigas,” Brosas said.

“The surge in rice import clearances alone indicate that rice importation has been a very lucrative area for businesses. If anything, the law appears to be Duterte’s sweetheart deal for rice importers,” she added.

The top 10 rice importers in

the country today include Arvin International Marketing, Davao San Ei Trading, and Puregold Price Club, Inc. This is based on the list obtained

by Gabriela Women’s Party from the Department of Agriculture.

Total volume of imported rice also soared by 60 percent to 2.245 million metric tons, of which 1.8 million metric tons were recorded since the Rice Liberalization Law was enacted.

“We are literally flooded with rice imports with no regulation at all except for the sanitary and phytosanitary clearances. This is alarming since external crisis

situations would leave us with no rice to eat for being too dependent on importation” Brosas said.

“Halimbawa, nagkaroon ng matinding pest infestation sa Vietnam na top rice source natin o di kaya’y magkaroon ng gera. Tiyak na instant ang magiging krisis sa bigas, tapos wala nang pipilahang NFA rice dahil inalis na ito sa ilalim ng batas,” she added.

Brosas is the principal author of HB 476 seeking the repeal of the Rice Liberalization Law, as well as HB 477 or the Rice Industry Development Act (RIDA) which will ensure the country’s rice self-sufficiency.

SENATE URGED TO ACT SWIFTLY ON BILL FOR WOMEN, KIDS HOSPITAL IN CAMSUR

By Maricel V. Cruz DEPUTY Speaker Luis Raymund Villafuerte has appealed to the Senate to act swiftly on a House of Representatives-approved bill establishing the Bicol Women’s and Children’s Hospital.

Once operational, the BWCH will services for the three main healthcare concerns affecting women and children.

Villafuerte said what Camarines Sur needs right now is a 200-bed specialized institution primarily addressing healthcare gaps in Obstetrics, Gynecology and Pediatrics, as provided for in a measure—House Bill (HB) 2444— that the bigger chamber already approved on third and final reading in December.

“One of the biggest gaps in CamSur in terms of health care is the Obstetrics, Gynecology, Pediatrics needs of this province of 35 towns and two cities,” Villafuerte said.

“It is therefore proposed that a hospital for women and children hospital be put up as a specialized institution that will complement and supplement the facilities and services available at

the Bicol Medical Center (BMC).”

The BMC in Naga City has 300 beds in its main buildings for the following medical services: Internal Medicine; Obstetrics; Gynecology; Pediatrics; Surgery; Orthopedics; Eyes, Ears, Nose and Throat; renal care; Physical Therapy Services and Diagnostic Laboratory Facilities.

“The BMC itself needs expansion in terms of bed capacity, equipment and professional personnel,” he said.

A measure similar to HB 2444 was also filed by Villafuerte and subsequently approved by the House in the 17th Congress, but it was not acted upon by the Senate.

“I hope that this time, the Senate will act swiftly on its counterpart measure to HB 2444 before both chambers go on their Lenten break this March,” he said.

Villafuerte pointed out to senators that the proposed 200-bed specialized hospital supports the Philippines’ commitment under the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (UN-SDG) to reduce child mortality, improve mental health and combat other women’s and children’s diseases.

UP FOR DEMOLITION. This overpass bridge along Commonwealth avenue in Litex Road, Quezon City will be soon demolished to give way for the MRT 7 project.

Manny Palmero

TAGUIG CITY CITED AS ‘DUGONG BAYANI 2019’ RIZAL AWARDEE

By Joel E. Zurbano THE Taguig City government received the Jose Rizal Award at the Dugong Bayani 2019: “Dugong Alay, Ligtas Na Buhay,” an event organized by the Department of Health in partnership with Philippine Blood Center.

The award is the highest recognition given to an organization or company that conducted mobile blood donation activities and donated more than 2,000 blood units every year.

Taguig City also received a plaque of appreciation for its unwavering support in the advocacy campaign of promoting voluntary blood donations by organizing 60 to 70 bloodletting activities annually.

Taguig 2nd District Councilor and Councilor for Health Pammy Zamora, Taguig-Pateros District Hospital officer-in-charge Dr. Anna Richie Quilatan, and TPDH Coordinator of Blood Donation Activity and Blood Assistance officer Princess Villamor personally received the award during the event held last Friday at the Century Park Hotel in Malate, Manila.

This is the third time Taguig received the highest recognition since it was also conferred with the Jose Rizal Award in 2017 and 2018.

ACT SLAMS ‘NEXT LEVEL’ PNP PROFILING THE Alliance of Concerned Teachers Philippines has condemned and raised the alarm on a new case of police profiling of ACT officers in Bataan, which the group said took on a ‘new and worse level’ as the police memorandum not only identified teacherunionists but also tagged them as terrorists.

The order from the Provincial Intelligence Branch of the Bataan Police Provincial Office, dated February 13, 2020, bore the subject “Counterintelligence Periodic Status Report (CI PSR)” and identified four teachers for profiling who are allegedly “members of the CTG and supporters in the bureaucracy” and to find out “their level of involvement in the CTG.” CTG stands for “Communist Terror Groups.” The profiles of their subjects were submitted on February 14, 2020.

“We condemn the relentless and vicious attempts of the state through the PNP to conduct undue intelligence operations on teacher-unionists and to terror-tag us. These violate teachers’ rights and freedoms, and endanger their lives,” said ACT Secretary General Raymond Basilio.

Basilio explained that profiling remains to be illegal, and violates the Data Privacy Act of 2012.

“This kind of rights infringement is precisely the reason why we should not allow the increasing presence and intervention of police in our schools. Teachers and students are not safe in the hands of these notorious rights violators and peddlers of life-endangering allegations,” said Basilio. Wilie Casas

MMDA TO PICK BEST PH MOVIES FOR SUMMER FILMFEST THE Metropolitan Manila Development Authority is now in the process of selecting the official movie entries for the country’s first ever summer film festival scheduled this April.

The submission of entries in finished film formats ended on Saturday (Feb. 15).

MMDA chief and Metro Manila Film Festival chairman Danilo Lim said the Summer Film Festival selection committee will choose eight official entries based on the following criteria: artistic excellence 40 percent; commercial appeal 40 percent; Filipino cultural sensibility 10 percent; and global appeal 10 percent.

“We look forward to the success of the summer festival, a spin-off of the annual MMFF held every December, to encourage Filipino filmmakers to create more films and showcase the cinematic artistry and talents of the members of the Filipino movie industry,” said Lim. The official entries will be revealed on March 2 and will be shown in cinemas from April 11, Black Saturday up to April 21.

Meanwhile, students who wish to participate in the Student Short Film Competition have until February 28 to submit their entries with Pinoy Pride as its theme. Joel E. Zurbano

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TAGUIG EYES SINGLE-USE PLASTIC BAN

RAGE AGAINST THE DYING OF THE LIGHT. Employees of local

broadcast giant ABS-CBN hold lighted candles and placards during a protest in front of the company's building in Manila on Feb. 14, 2020. Philippine government lawyers moved on Feb. 10 to strip the nation's biggest media group of its operating franchise in what campaigners branded a fresh attack on press freedom under President Rodrigo Duterte. AFP

By Joel E. Zurbano and Willie Casas

CHINA SPINS COVID-19 STORY

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HINA’S government is purging unpopular local officials and commandeering heroic stories of doctors on the frontline as it tries to shield itself from public rage over the handling of the deadly coronavirus epidemic.

Facing the biggest challenge of his presidency, Communist Party leader Xi Jinping has cast the crisis as a “people’s war” and state media have gone into overdrive to regain control of public opinion.

Images of doctors and nurses in masks and full protective suits, leaving their families behind to care for patients, have dominated the airwaves.

Government censors, meanwhile, have made rare exceptions to allow for criticism online—but mostly when directed at local officials accused of negligence in central Hubei province and its capital Wuhan, the epicenter of the outbreak.

One comment that was allowed to cir-

culate on the Twitter-like Weibo platform declared that “scores should be settled against all the officials in Wuhan after the crisis,” which has claimed more than 1,500 lives and infected some 66,000 people.

An investigation into health inspectors in neighboring Hunan province who had leaked residents’ personal information also became a trending search on the platform.

On Thursday, the political chiefs of Hubei and Wuhan were sacked and replaced with Xi loyalists with security backgrounds. The province’s top two health officials were also fired.

Senior Beijing law enforcement official

Chen Yixin was also appointed to manage local efforts against the epidemic.

Every part of Beijing’s messaging is designed to “deflect from the center: failings at the local level, the heroism of medical staff, the resilience and unity of the Chinese people in the face of great difficulties,” Jonathan Sullivan, a China expert from the University of Nottingham, said.

In Hubei, local Red Cross leaders had also come under fire on Weibo for allegedly mismanaging donations of masks and other medical supplies.

Authorities reacted quickly, sacking the local Red Cross vice president Zhang Qin for dereliction of duty.

HEROES

The death of Li Wenliang, a whistleblowing doctor punished in January by Wuhan police for sending text messages about the illness, prompted

a national outpouring of grief and anger that Beijing was quick to redirect toward local officials.

The 34-year-old, who died after contracting the virus from a patient, was mourned on Weibo but his death also triggered calls for freedom of speech and the downfall of the Communist Party.

Within hours, however, hashtags and posts related to free speech disappeared from the platform.

Two open letters, including one signed by 10 professors in Wuhan, were circulated on social media days later but were quickly removed by censors.

At the same time, the central government announced that it would send a team to Wuhan to investigate how Li’s case had been handled.

State media and officials sought to paint Li as a hero who was part of a “joint” battle against the epidemic. AFP

TOKYO HOLDS OLYMPIC TORCH RELAY PRACTICE

LOVE AND LIGHT. A mall in McKinley Hill, Taguig brings back its Aqua Carnevale—an award-winning ethereal lights and water show at the Venice Canal. Norman Cruz

TOKYO Olympic organizers held a dummy run for the torch relay Saturday as fears over the coronavirus epidemic continue to cast a dark shadow over preparations for this summer’s Games.

A quartet of runners carried unlit torches for some 200 meters each as organizers meticulously went over the fine details before the Olympic flame arrives in Japan to wind its way around the country from March 26 to July 24, when the Games begin.

Watched by security and police, the torch-bearers, sporting the official white Olympic uniform with diagonal red stripe, passed a fake flame to one

another followed by onlookers, local residents and city officials as traffic was diverted for the event.

“It’s thrilling to think this will take place across Japan over 121 days,” said actress Satomi Ishihara, who ran the third leg of the relay rehearsal.

“I’m sure it will leave behind a lot of good memories.”

However, concerns over the fastspreading coronavirus—which has killed more than 1,500 people and infected over 66,000 in China—have triggered calls for Tokyo organizers to reveal whether they have contingency plans, despite their assertions the Olympics will go ahead as planned. AFP

CUSTOMS DISPOSES SHIPMENT OF ASF-POSITIVE FOOD ITEMS THE Bureau of Customs has disposed a shipment of food items from China that were found positive for African swine fever.

The food items—dumplings, pork-chicken balls and roast chicken wings —were disposed of via thermolysis or thermal decomposition at the Integrated Waste Management facility in Trece Martires, Cavite.

The shipment, consigned to Dynamic M International Trading Inc., arrived at the Manila International Container Port on Dec. 11, 2019 from China.

Customs operatives seized the shipment on Jan. 24, 2020 after the Bureau of Animal Industry’s Veterinary Quarantine Services found a sample of porkcelery dumpling to be positive for ASF. The BOC said the food items were first disinfected by BAI before these were transported to Cavite for disposal.

Last month, Mindanao has recorded its first African swine fever outbreak, with the entire Davao region put on lockdown and at least 13,000 hogs culled.

The Department of Agriculture has

imposed border control across Northern Mindanao to prevent the entry of pork and pork-based products from Davao and Caraga.

The outbreak began in the town of Don Marcelino in Davao Occidental on Jan. 31 after about 1,000 pigs died of the disease.

Northern Mindanao has the third largest swine industry in the country, data from the Department of Agriculture showed, accounting for nearly a million swine population with a total estimated value of P25 billion.

Agriculture chief William Dar said commercial and backyard hog growers in Davao region have already incurred an estimated P79.81 million in revenue losses after the dreaded ASF outbreak President Rodrigo Duterte earlier ordered all government agencies and local government units to ensure the “strict” implementation of the DA’s nationwide zoning plan for ASF to control and contain the spread of the fatal hog disease.

“The African swine fever, despite having no known effect to humans, is a severe

and highly contagious viral disease affecting domestic and wild pigs, with a casefatality rate approaching 100 percent,

caused by a resistant virus with no developed cure to date,” the President said in his Administrative Order No. 22.

FULL STOP. Members of the Tactical Motorcycle Riders Unit of the Manila Police District conduct an ‘Oplan Sita’ at the Jones Bridge in Binondo, Manila on Saturday, Feb. 15, 2020. Norman Cruz

THE city of Taguig is joining other local government units in Metro Manila in phasing out single-use plastics.

Mayor Lino Edgardo Cayetano, who convened the city’s Solid Waste Management Board Friday, said the local government will reduce solid waste by 80 percent in three years.

Cayetano urged residents to use canvas bags or ecobags as alternative to plastic bags when shopping for sundries such as meat, fruits, and vegetables.

The initiative came a month after the Parañaque city government announced the ban of single-use plastic in all commercial establishments.

Other cities in the National Capital Region like Makati, Quezon, Pasig, Muntinlupa, Las Piñas, and Pasay have already said no to single-use plastic.

Studies have shown that the Philippines is one of the top producers of plastic waste in the world.

The Taguig city government also announced it will establish a Sustainable Livelihood Office that will help look for eco-friendly alternatives to plastic.

“This green initiative will contribute to the overall health and well-being in Taguig, addressing flood problems and other environmental concerns,” said Cayetano.

The city chief executive said the move will also create employment opportunities for many residents such as waste collectors, monitoring staff, and MRF (materials recovery facility) caretakers.

“The key for this is information dissemination. Focusing on segregating-at-source, every household, school, business in Taguig will be taught how to properly manage their trash,” he said.

SOLON URGES DEPED: FILL UP VACANT POSTS

By Maricel V. Cruz A PARTY-LIST lawmaker on Saturday urged the Department of Education to fill up tens of thousands of vacant teaching and non-teaching positions in public schools.

“The DepEd should perhaps hold a jobs fair to recruit needed personnel, mostly teachers,” Anakalusugan party-list Rep. Michael Defensor said.

Based on the government’s staffing summary for 2020, the public school system has a total of 966,159 permanent positions, of which 907,133 are filled.

“This means that DepEd has 59,026 in vacant posts, mostly for teachers.

That is not counting the thousands in additional teaching and non-teaching jobs funded under the P4.1-trillion national budget for this year,” he said.

Defensor said the huge number of vacancies means a larger student-teacher ratio, or more students in a class.

“We are sacrificing the education of our children by lumping more students in a class because we lack teaching and non-teaching personnel,” he said.

He added that such lack also results in teachers having to do nonteaching and administrative chores.

Defensor urged qualified education graduates to seek jobs in public schools.

“I am sure that the compensation in the public school system is higher than that in private schools. This is the reason why many private school teachers are migrating to the public education sector,” he said.

He said the entry-level basic monthly salary for teachers under the Salary Standardization Law 5 is P22,316. That amount does not include allowances, he said.

Defensor said the DepEd has to hire personnel to fill vacancies “because those jobs are already funded in the national budget.”

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Adelle Chua, Editor mst.daydesk@gmail.com

Opinion

EDITORIAL

T

EVERYMAN

LONE WOLVES AND TEAM PLAYERS

HE impeachment trial of United States President Donald Trump had a fairly predictable outcome.

Many were shocked at the revelations on how he attempted to get a foreign government to investigate a political rival, even going to the extent of withholding military aid if Ukraine officials did not do his bidding. In the end, however, the senators voted along party lines.

Since the Senate was dominated by Trump’s political allies, the Republicans, the inevitable happened: Acquittal.

There was a lone Republican however who voted to convict Trump—Mitt Romney, the former governor or Massachusetts who challenged President Barack Obama during the latter’s 2012 re-election bid.

In a statement, Romney narrated how he received numerous calls and text messages from his colleagues, demanding that he “stand with the team.” Romney acknowledged that in the

past, he had been supportive of Trump, voting with him 80 percent of the time. But on this matter, he could not support his party’s leader.

The task at hand was to determine whether the President committed an act so extreme and egregious that it rises to the level of a “high crime and misdemeanor.”

“Romney’s answer: Yes, he did. The President asked a foreign government to investigate his political rival. The President withheld vital military funds from that government to press it to do so. The President delayed funds for an American ally at war with Russian invaders.The President’s purpose was personal and political. Accordingly, the President is guilty of an appalling abuse of the public trust.”

This decision was the most difficult he had one to make, he said. But he took an oath before God—he says he is a religious man—to exercise impartial justice. “The Constitution is at the foundation of our Republic’s success, and we each strive not to lose sight of our promise to defend it.”

He expects some backlash. “I will be

THE TRAGEDY IN RED-TAGGING

vehemently denounced. I am sure to hear abuse from the President and his supporters,” he said.

He went ahead with his guilty verdict, anyway.

We know little of Romney’s political behavior and motives outside of this impeachment move, but it’s a move that is commendable and worth emulating. Party loyalty, after all, is a big issue not only in the United States but also here in our country.

We are all too familiar with politicians who dare not act according to conscience, or who choose to stay silent in the face of injustice just because they want to be perceived in a good light by the powers-that-be. They toe the socalled party line and look the other way even in the face of egregious acts, fearful of reprisal. They forget that their sworn duty is to the people, first and foremost. They lose sight of why they went into public service in the first place. And so they remain team players.

“We’re all footnotes at best in the annals of history,” Romney said in his statement. May our leaders always be reminded of that instead of being delusional about their own importance, power and consequence.

By Joel Vega ON FEB. 7, five activists were arrested by the Philippine Army’s 8th Infantry Division on allegations that they are members of a communist terrorist group based in Tacloban City, Leyte. The activist Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan) secretary general Renato Reyes Jr. denied the allegations, insisting that the five arrested are staff members of Bayan, Katungod and Sagupa in Eastern Visayas. The offices of Bayan Eastern Visayas were also raided.

Without going into the legal merits of this case which is still under investigation, I think this incident highlights the diminishing democratic space that Filipinos are seeing under the current Duterte regime. The wider context of the arrest is more telling and significant, coming in the wake of the continued red-tagging that the military and the Office of the President have rabidly launched in recent months. Consider the recent TV interview of presidential communications undersecretary Lorraine Badoy and higher military officials where they repeated unproven charges of terrorist activities to mostly members of student and farmers’ groups. The playbook is old and much used and Rodrigo Duterte and his generals fully know the dog-eared script that has worked in the last 45 or so years may yet prove useful again in these heydays of political sycophancy.

In a society living under a cloud of fear, where can its weaker members expect meaningful and lasting change?

Certainly not, or almost never, from the government whose goal is to preserve the status quo, or worse a government which has the propensity to simply replace ineffectual governance with equally ineffectual measures. The radical left or those advocating revolutions are sidelined, having operated in the extreme margins of society. Their fight takes place under conditions that are either anachronistic and hostile; the language of violence or combat is a hard-sell among people who are lulled by consumerist tendencies and the shallow but savvy-looking political messages.

Grassroots activism plays a decisive role, for activism is a logical development in the growth of democracy. Societal benefits and political maturity owe their resilience to civil activism. Unfortunately, our society is blind to the almost unseen work of social activists, and perhaps this is due to the fact that the true spirit of activism abhors selfaggrandizement. Their work is not about the doer, but about the communal good which has a truer and more lasting legacy.

This is where Rodrigo Duterte comes in, for he and his minions are the very embodiment of self-glorification. Just consider his recent speech to a broadcasters group where he was quoted as saying: “Don’t think twice even if the truth will destroy me.”

These words are replete with the nuances of parochial power play, replete with the self-absorbed thoughts of the powerful but politically deluded. Journalists running after factual truth is not about destroying a leadership but about exposing the mechanisms of a society and the dynamics among its members. Ruining a presidency, if that happens, is simply collateral damage.

The greater good in a society rests not on its leaders but on its people, for it is the people who do the dirty work in the ditches. The mud-slinging and social media pyrotechnics? Leave that to Duterte, Badoy and the Sassots of this world. Theirs is not even a footnote in history.

It is therefore curious that the pseudointellect of a Salvador Panelo will come to the defense of the president with useless words that Duterte’s threatening words to a TV station are part of his freedom of expression. Nganga, as they say in the vernacular. Let us remind Panelo that the freedom of expression he is yakking about is meant to serve the weakest members of a society. Guaranteed freedoms are precisely the last resort for the powerless.

The powerful and the so-called leaders do not have a higher or valid claim for more freedom since their high positions already grant them all the freedoms that they will ever need in their lifetime. Leaders are already imbued with vast powers and it is patently foolish to add to it by giving them more. Declaring that Panelo has unpalatable and a queer taste for clothing that looks like a cross between an Alexander McQueen high on steroids and a Karl Lagerfeld undergoing serious mid-life crises, that is freedom of expression.

Back to the red-tagging of social activists.

To red-tag is not merely a juicy news quote of the week, or a TV soundbite for talking heads. Badoy and her ilk and the bloodthirsty generals who are red-baiting are grooming minds, insinuating unproven lies that damage the very fabric of critical thinking and societal discourse. It is my hope that the families of these activists will have the courage to defend their names, file cases in court and go to the people that they serve to prove that their work is the real work of change.

CLIMATE ROWS RAGE ON EVEN AS AUSTRALIAN BUSHFIRES ARE EXTINGUISHED

By Andrew Beatty AUSTRALIA’S “black summer” of devastating bushfires is finally coming to a close, but bitter arguments over how to tackle climate-fuelled disasters are raging on.

When firefighters announced this week that all blazes in the hard-hit state of New South Wales were under control for the first time since September, the relief was palpable.

In other regions, a few fires are still being contained, but most Australians can finally abandon the grim rituals of the last half-year—morning checks of smog monitors and “Fires Near Me” apps, deciding whether the kids can play outside, whether to flee or defend their homes.

But the after-effects will endure, and national soul searching has already begun.

“We know events like these can challenge the way we think about the world, undermine our perceptions of safety, and rupture social bonds,” said disaster response expert Erin Smith.

Dozens of families have lost loved ones, thousands of homes and farms have been gutted, swathes of the east coast are scarred charcoal-black and

millions have had their sense of security shaken.

“It will likely take years and a great deal of imagination for us to figure out where we go from here,” said Smith.

The question of what is next for Australia is already being asked, most of all of political leaders, and it is being met mostly with finger-pointing and recrimination.

‘HEADS ABOVE THE PARAPET’ While scientists agree climate change created favorable conditions for the blazes, politicians of all stripes are acutely aware how sensitive the issue is in Australian politics.

In an arid nation whose economic strength is intimately tied to the mining and export of fossil fuels, at least four prime ministers have been ousted in part over their climate policies.

In recent weeks, Prime Minister Scott Morrison has seen his ruling conservative coalition threatened by members in rural constituencies demanding funding for more coal-fired power plants.

At the same time, the centrist wing of his party has criticized his climate targets as inadequate.

Meanwhile rebel members of opposition Labor met secretly to

steer the center-left party’s leadership toward a more overtly pro-coal stance.

The party’s deputy leader awkwardly refused to rule out more coal subsidies, months after vowing they should end.

“They don’t want to stick their heads above the parapet, at least when it comes to suggesting substantive policy,” said Matt McDonald, an expert in climate politics from the University of Queensland.

One reason, he explained, is that while the hot and dry Australian continent is uniquely susceptible to the impact of climate change, it is also a world-beating source of coal.

Coal accounts for around 75 percent of Australia’s electricity generation and exports of the fossil fuel are worth Aus$60 billion a year, the country’s largest export after iron ore.

People in affluent suburbs may call for emissions cuts and green energy, but coal accounts for thousands of jobs in election-deciding districts of Queensland and New South Wales, and many more in the related aluminium smelting business.

Independent MP Zali Steggall—a former barrister and Olympic medalwinning skier—who ousted climateskeptic former prime minister Tony

Abbott from his Sydney seat at the last election, wants to take some heat out of the debate.

She has introduced a bill that would reduce Australia’s carbon emissions to zero by 2050 and divert some contentious issues to an independent expert body.

“The debate has been very divisive,” in part because of the blame game, Steggall told AFP. “There was a certain defensiveness in the early days of this debate because the finger was so squarely pointed at coal and fossil fuels.”

“You have to think about a generation that worked really hard at building Australia’s prosperity on fossil fuels. You have to be very careful in the debate about apportioning blame. It’s not like it was done on purpose.”

“It’s about recognizing and being thankful for that contribution, but acknowledging that we do need to evolve,” she added. “We’re all going to get there in the end.”

With bushfires projected to get ever more deadly and the next season a little over six months away, the risk, Steggall says, is that politicians take so long to reach consensus “it will be too late to do anything.” AFP

Joel Vega is the author of ‘Drift,’ winner of the 2019 National Book Award for Poetry in English. He works as an editor in Arnhem, The Netherlands.

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ANTI-GOVT SITE TOLD TO WARN READERS OF ‘FALSEHOODS’ SINGAPORE—Singapore ordered the Facebook page of an anti-government website Saturday to warn readers it regularly posts falsehoods, the first time authorities have taken such action under a tough law against misinformation.

The law gives ministers in the tightlyregulated city powers to order internet platforms to put warnings next to posts they deem false, but activists and tech giants like Facebook fear it could be used to curb free speech.

Authorities have used it several times to force corrections on individual online posts, but this is the first time since the law came into effect in October that an entity is being directed to warn its readers that it is a regular promoter of falsehoods.

A government statement said the information minister had invoked the law to name the Facebook page of The States Times Review (STR) as a “declared online location” with effect from Sunday.

This means it is required to carry a notice warning readers that it “has a history of communicating falsehoods”, the statement said.

The notice aims to prompt readers to do additional fact-checking when accessing the page.

According to the statement, STR “has repeatedly conveyed numerous falsehoods” since November last year, three of which had been ordered corrected under the law. AFP

FOG, ‘HUMAN FACTORS’ CAUSE CHOPPER CRASH IN TAIWAN TAIPEI, Taiwan—Thick fog and human factors were to blame for a military helicopter crash in January that killed Taiwan’s chief of general staff and seven senior officers, according to investigators who ruled out mechanical failure.

“Weather, terrain and human factors were behind the crash,” Air Force Major General Huang Chih-wei told reporters at a press conference Saturday.

“The pilot had only six or seven seconds to pull up after thick fog rapidly descended,” Huang added.

In the preliminary investigation report, the co-pilot had warned about the helicopter’s altitude twice before it crashed onto a mountain slope.

The 62-year-old military chief General Shen Yi-Ming and his entourage were on a routine mission to visit soldiers in northeast Yilan county for the upcoming Lunar New Year when the incident happened.

The UH-60M Black Hawk helicopter was carrying 13 people in total, with five surviving the crash. It disappeared from radar less than 15 minutes after taking off, and did not send a distress call.

There have been a number of incidents involving Taiwan’s 60 Black Hawk helicopters—purchased from the United States— in recent years.

In 2018 a chopper belonging to a government rescue agency crashed during a medical mission off outlying Orchid Island, killing six people on board in an incident attributed to human error.

There were also two crash landings in 2016 and 2018 with no casualties.

“We will be looking into future adjustments in our pilot’s simulator training after this accident,” Huang said. AFP

ETHNIC VIOLENCE LEAVES 40 DEAD IN CENTRAL MALI BAMAKO, Mali—Forty people, including nine soldiers, have been killed in a spate of attacks in central Mali, authorities said Friday, with most of the deaths caused by inter-ethnic violence in the deeply troubled region.

Thirty-one people were killed in an attack overnight in Ogossagou, a village mainly inhabited by Fulani people where 160 died last March in a massacre blamed on Dogon militiamen, the government said, raising the death toll.

About 30 gunmen carried out the new attack, village chief Aly Ousmane Barry told AFP. “Huts and crops were set alight, livestock was burned or taken away,” he added, vowing that the government would find the perpetrators.

A local government official, who requested anonymity, had earlier said that 28 people were missing.

He blamed the attack on a Dogon hunters’ group -- an assertion that could be not be verified independently.

The official and village chief Aly Ousmane Barry both said the attackers moved in several hours after government troops had pulled out of the area.

- Eight soldiers killed in ambush Later Friday eight Mali soldiers were killed and four others injured in an ambush in the central Gao region, the army said.

The Malian force also suffered “material damage,” the military said on social media sites, without indicating who had carried out the attack in the village of Bentia.

Also on Friday a soldier was killed in an attack on a military camp in Mondoro, also in central Mali, security officials said. AFP

CHINA, VATICAN FOREIGN MINISTERS HOLD 1ST MEETING

DARK SHADOW. US President Donald Trump walks over to speak with the press before departing from the South Lawn at the White House in Washington, DC on February 7. AFP

POPE FRANCIS SIDES WITH PRO-PRIESTLY CELIBACY

V

ATICAN CITY—In quashing the idea of married priests in the Amazon, Pope Francis has appeased traditionalists while disappointing progressives who had hoped for a historic turning point in the Catholic church.

In his “apostolic exhortation” on the Amazon basin published Wednesday, Francis slammed the door on a progressive proposal offered by the region’s bishops during a synod on the region in October.

The synod had suggested that the way to solve a shortage of priests in the remote and inaccessible area was to allow married indigenous men to become priests.

Without even mentioning that proposal, Francis instead argued for more missionary priests in the Amazon and for women and lay people to take on larger roles, falling short of another synod idea to ordain women as deacons in the region.

The Argentine pontiff’s thoughts, coming after months of speculation and hand-wringing within the Vatican, were welcomed by some, including a vocal opponent of Francis, German Cardinal Gerhard Mueller.

For five years Mueller was in charge of church dogma, holding the key Vatican post of Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith until 2017—

when he was not reappointed by Francis.

Mueller saluted the document’s potential for “reducing internal Church factions.”

Conservatives within the Church were outraged by the regional synod’s proposal, even were it to be an exception limited to the Amazon, seeing it as potentially paving the way to the abolition of priest celibacy globally.

US Cardinal Raymond Burke, a staunch traditionalist, suggested last year that Francis would be heading into a “schism” were he to give his stamp of approval to the synod’s proposals.

But to others, the text lacked the audacity that has marked the papacy of the first Jesuit pope.

Francis’ document marked a “failure in the reforming impulse of the pontificate,” according to longtime Vatican analyst Marco Politi.

The pope, “abruptly slowed down” by a strong and multifaceted opposition, also disappointed those local Amazon bishops whom he had called on to offer up new ideas to help guide the Church, Politi said.

“Francis finds himself more alone today, having caused disillusionment among a notable mass of his supporters,” Politi said.

Key among them are Catholic feminist organisations, some of whom have been fighting for women’s access to the priesthood.

In his text, Francis cited the contributions of women and argued that their roles be increased, but dismissed the idea of their ordination. AFP

BEIJING—The foreign ministers of China and the Vatican have met in the first high-level encounter between the sides—a new sign of improving relations between two states with no diplomatic ties.

The talks between China’s Wang Yi and Archbishop Paul Gallagher in the German city of Munich on Friday come as relations steadily improve following a landmark agreement on the appointment of bishops in 2018.

“Today is the first meeting between the Chinese and Vatican foreign ministers,” Wang said, according to the People’s Daily newspaper, a Communist Party mouthpiece.

“This is a continuation of the exchanges between China and the Vatican for a period of time.

It will open up more space for the future exchanges between the two sides,” he said.

Wang, who met Gallagher on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference, called the 2018 agreement “groundbreaking”, adding that it “has achieved positive results”.

In a statement, the Vatican said the talks were “cordial” and that contact between the two sides had seen “positive developments”.

Wang and Gallagher “highlighted the importance” of the 2018 deal and reiterated a willingness to continue “the institutional dialogue at the bilateral level to promote the life of the Catholic Church and the good of the Chinese people”.

The People’s Republic of China broke relations with the Vatican in 1951.

The Vatican is the only European diplomatic ally of selfruled Taiwan, which is viewed by China as a breakaway province awaiting reunification.

China’s roughly 12 million Catholics have for decades been split between a governmentrun association, whose clergy were chosen by the atheist Communist Party, and an unofficial underground church loyal to the Vatican.

But under the terms of the deal agreed in September 2018, both Beijing and the Vatican now have a say in appointing Catholic bishops. AFP

IRKED U.S. SQUEEZES IRAQ WITH CASH DELAYS, SHORT WAIVERS BAGHDAD—Irked by Iraq’s close ties to neighbouring Iran, Washington has begun following through on threats to squeeze Baghdad’s fragile economy with delays to crucial cash deliveries and slashed sanctions waivers.

This week, the US granted Iraq last-minute leave to import Iranian gas for its crippled power grids, despite American sanctions on Tehran.

But Washington’s patience seems to be running out: the latest waiver was hacked from the usual 90 or 120 days to just 45.

“This is the beginning of death by a thousand cuts,” warned financial analyst Ahmed Tabaqchali, of the Iraq-based Institute of Region-

al and International Studies.

“The shorter the waiver, the more we can’t afford for things to go wrong in that time.”

Iraq is at a crucial crossroads. Its new premier is struggling to form a cabinet, massive anti-government protests are filling the streets and skyrocketing tensions between its two main allies, Tehran and Washington, have already spilled blood on its territory.

While Iran enjoy tremendous political and military sway in Iraq, the US still holds a major trump card: the economy.

Every month or so, Iraq’s Central Bank flies in $1-$2 billion in cash from the Federal Reserve in New York, where all its oil revenues are

kept, to pay for official and commercial transactions.

But the mid-January shipment was more than a week late, a top Iraqi official and an oil industry source said, citing “political reasons” for the White House decision.

“We are on a knife’s edge,” the Iraqi official said.

It was the first sign Washington may implement a January threat to block Iraqi access to its money were Baghdad to oust the roughly 5,200 US troops stationed in Iraq.

That was the Iraqi parliament’s response to a US strike on its soil that killed a top Iranian commander and an Iraqi paramilitary chief.

Washington has considered blocking the funds to pressure Iraq

for months, a senior US diplomat in Baghdad describing it last year as “the nuclear option”.

While February’s dollars arrived on time, Iraqi officials said they expect Washington to start restricting how much cash Baghdad can bring in.

Losing access to its funds would have devastating ramifications for Iraq, whose economy relies almost entirely on oil exports paid with the greenback.

And if the sanctions waiver expires, Iraq would have to either stop buying Iranian gas and face mass outages, or keep importing and risk US sanctions itself.

Power cuts can last up to 20 hours a day. AFP

PARKLAND SURVIVORS REMEMBER FRIENDS 2 YEARS AFTER SHOOTING PARKLAND—Two years after 17 students and faculty members were gunned down in one of the worst mass shootings in US history, survivors from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School remembered the slain victims on Friday.

Families attended ceremonies near the site of the massacre in Parkland, Florida, as schools across the country observed a minute of silence at 10:17 am (1517 GMT) for the 14 students and three staff murdered by an ex-pupil.

“Two years ago at approximately 7am, I sent my two children to school. I was so busy rushing them out the door so that they would not be late that my final words were not ‘I love you,’” tweeted Fred Guttenberg, whose daughter was among the dead.

“Jesse came home that day. Jaime did not.”

The shooting actually began around 2:20 pm on February 14, 2018 but organiz-

ers chose 10:17 am, with the minutes past the hour representing the 17 victims.

“A lot of my friends have post-traumatic stress disorder,” said Jillian Gelfand, a form student who was not in the building the day of the massacre.

“This is something that we are going to carry with us for a very long time,” the 19-year-old added.

Spiritual leaders from multiple denominations held an afternoon service near the high school at a park, which was a meeting place for the mourners, many of whom wore maroon shirts in honor of the school’s colors, some with the names of the victims or anti-gun messages on the back.

The shooting inspired Parkland survivors to lead the March for Our Lives movement in support of legislation to prevent gun violence, chronicled in the documentary “Us Kids,” which debuted at last month’s Sundance Film Festival. AFP

SNAKE BITE. An Iraqi Kurdish Peshmerga female officer bites a snake while demonstrating skills during a graduation ceremony in the Kurdish town of Soran, about 100 kilometres northeast of the capital of Iraq’s autonomous Kurdish region Arbil, on February 12. AFP

Images

PHOTOS OF THE WEEK

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VALENTINE OVER VIRUS. A vendor wearing a protective facemask stands at their shop on Valentine’s Day at a flower market in Manila on February 14, as the Philippines battles the COVID-19 illness. AFP

LOVE IS IN THE AIR. Vendors selling heart-shaped ballons wait for customers on Valentine’s Day at a flower market in Manila on February 14. AFP

SAYING ‘I DO’. About 36 couples in Navotas City gather to exchange vows in a ‘Kasalang Bayan’ as their families and friends bore witness to their love and celebrate Valentine’s Day. Navotas Mayor Toby Tiangco (at right), Rep. John Rey Tiangco, and other officials led the ceremony. Andrew Rabulan

HARBOR LINK. Public Works Secretary Mark Villar inspects the North Luzon Expressway (NLEX) Harbor Link Dagat-Dagatan Ramp in Malabon City that is scheduled to open on February 21, and later the widening of the 3.3 km Fort Bonifacio - Nichols Field Road from four lanes to six lanes (right photo) that will be completed this year. NLEX Harbor Link Segment 10 will benefit thousands of motorists, mostly delivery trucks, traversing this toll road daily, while the the Bonifacio Global City (BGC)- Ortigas Centre Link Bridge Project cuts travel times between the business districts to just 12 minutes. Norman Cruz NOKOR CLEANUP.

This undated picture released from North Korea’s official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) on February 15 shows people in protective suits spraying disinfectant at an undisclosed location in North Korea, amid concerns of the COVID-19 coronavirus outbreak. AFP

COVID COUPLE. A couple wears face masks as a preventative measure against the COVID-19 coronavirus, as they hug at the observation deck in Tsim Sha Tsui of Hong Kong on February 14. AFP

FINALLY OUT.

Passengers disembark from the Westerdam cruise ship in Sihanoukville on February 15, as they finally began disembarking in Cambodia a day earlier after their ship was turned away from ports around Asia over fears they could be carrying the new coronavirus.

AFP

B4

SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 16, 2020

Sports

mst.daydesk@gmail.com

TOUR DE LANGKAWI’S LONE PH RIDER RELISHES NEW ROLE

By Charles Dantes

L

ANGKAWI, Malaysia—After the biggest cycling event in Southeast Asia has come to an end, lone Filipino rider Dominic Perez looked back on his performance at the 25th Petronas Le Tour de Langkawi.

Suiting up for the Chinese team SSIOS Miogee Cycling Team, Perez is happy with his performance with his new club, even though his team was created a few days before the race after the original members have been denied to join due to the virus outbreak in China.

The team, consisting of different six nationalities from The Netherlands, Philippines, Greece, Spain, Uruguay and Thailand, was able to run with elite cyclists and compete at the high level.

“Masaya naman ako sa performance namin kasi ngayon lang kami nabuo for Langkawi (LTdL), meron ng teamwork konting ensayo pa at sa tingin ko makakasabay na kami,” shared Perez in an interview with Manila Standard.

“First time ko silang (teammates) na-meet dito na sa Malaysia, kaya medyo may miscommunication pa,” he said.

Asked about his performance, the Pangasinan cyclist hastily shared that he saw maturity in his fourth year joining the tour, especially when he played in the support role for his team.

Perez is one of the rop riders of the Filipino intercontinental team 7-Eleven.

Perez’s best performance was during the seventh stage from Bagan to Alor Setar, where he finished at the 24th spot.

“Medyo nahirapan ako ngayon, lalo na sa Genting (fourth stage) kasi ang hirap umakyat tapos ang lakas ng hangin, pero ibinigay ko na lang ang best ko at nag-focus kami sa teammates namin para makahabol sa individual category,” he said.

The 26-year-old rider is aiming to join the upcoming allFilipino Ronda Pilipinas with Team Army, but before anything else, he will head to his hometown in Pangasinan first to enjoy a quick rest before joining his squad in Albay.

“Sa ngayon, na-cancel na ‘yung ibang professional events kaya balik muna ako sa Pilipinas para makapagpahinga at makapag-ready para sa Ronda Pilipinas,” he added.

Dominic Perez of the SSIOS Miogee Cycling Team from China, is assisted by a Malaysian supporter.

LE BON RULES MMC MALAYSIAN CLASSIC LANGKAW—The 25th silver jubilee of the Le Tour de Langkawi has officially ended earlier as the riders from different teams joined the MMC Langkawi Malaysian Classic.

Two French nationals ended up in the podium, with Johan Le Bon of B&B Hotels-Vital Concept reigning over rival cyclists with a spectacular showing after clocking a time of three hours, 37 minutes and three seconds, outsprinting Australian Jesse Ewart of Team Sapura Cycling (+0;00).

Frenchman Lucas de Rossi (Nippo Delko Provence) managed to place third five seconds behind.

Le Bon took home the top prize of RM10,000, with Ewart receiving RM5,500 for a bridesmaid finish and De Rossi snagging RM3,000.

Pre-race favorite and LTdL’s sprint king Max Walscheid of NTT Pro Cycling team crashed at the last part of the race, ending his successful outing in the tour that included wins at the Kota Kinabalu Criterium International, plus two more stage triumphs.

Some 88 cyclists retired at the middle of the event and did not finish their run, leaving only 28 racers to conclude the Malaysian Classic.

Vino-Astana Motors Nikitin Matvey

was hailed as the best Asian rider, duplicating his teammate Yevgeniy Fedorov’s white jersey, while LTdL red jersey owner Nur Aiman Zariff (Team Sapura) bagged another King of the Mountain award with 11 points.

Another Team Sapura member Cristian Raileanu was named the best sprinter of the closing race after garnering 12 total points in intermediate sprints.

Malaysian Prime Minister and Le Tour de Langkawi mastermind Mahathir bin Mohamad joined the flag-off at the start of the event.

Charles Dantes

Johan Le Bon

GO FOR GOLD TO COMPETE AGAINST RONDA PILIPINAS’ BEST GO FOR Gold will try to compete against the country’s best cyclists as it parades the team it formed and trained for years in the LBC Ronda Pilipinas 10th anniversary race unfurling on Feb. 23 in Sorsogon and ending on March 4 in Vigan, Ilocos Sur. Ronnel Hualda is skippering the squad composed of Daniel Ven Carino, Jonel Carcueva, Isamel Grospe, Jr., Jericho Jay Lucero, Marc Ryan Lago, Ronnilan Quita and Rex Luis Krog, who have shown great potential in the past when the team

picked them one by one.

“The guys have improved since we first took them and while our target is modest this year, I will not be surprised if we will give the favored teams serious challenge,” said Go for Gold coach and manager Eds Hualda.

Hualda said they remained focused on their goal on discovering, tapping and honing young talents who have a potential to succeed and make the national team in the future.

“That has been the goal by Go for Gold since the team was first formed.

And we will never stop until we find and make them champions,” said Hualda.

Carino, Carcueva and Grospe are Go for Gold’s best hopes to contend

in this decade-old race staking a whopping P1 million to the champion as the three are consistent top 10 finishers in past races.

They’ll be faced by a field headed by a Standard Insurance (Navy) squad spearheaded by former titlists Jan Paul Morales and Ronald Oranza and three more former Ronda winners Santy Barnachea of Scratch it, Mark Galedo of 7Eleven Cliqq-Air21

by Roadbike Phil and Reimon Lapaza of Celeste Cycles-Devel Project Pro Team.

The other teams joining this 10-stage race presented by LBC and supported by the Manny V. Pangilinan Sports Foundation are Bicycology (Army), Bike Xtreme, Tarlac/Central

Luzon, Ilocos Sur, South Luzon/Batangas and Nueva Ecija.

Backing up the race are Versa, 8A Performance, Print2Go, Petron, Green Planet, Bike Xtreme, Standard Insurance, Spyder, CCN, Lightwater, Prolite, Guerciotti, Black Mamba, Boy Kanin, Vitamin Boost, NLEX/ SCTEX, Maynilad, 3Q Sports Event Management Inc., LBC Foundation and PhilCycling.

After the 137-kilometer Stage One, Ronda will resume with a 163km Sorsogon Legazpi Stage Two on Feb. 24, 126.9km Legazpi-Naga Stage Three on Feb. 25, 212.5km Daet-Lucena Stage Four on Feb. 26, and 155.4km LucenaAntipolo Stage Five on Feb. 27 before taking a breather the next day.

LEDESMA, UY LEAD TOP 8 JR WINNERS NILO Ledama and Paula Uy wore down their respective rivals and came away with a pair of abbreviated victories in the premier division of the PPS-PEPP Mayor Rene Gustilo Cup UTP Top 8 Juniors tournament at Sacata Tennis Club in San Carlos City, Negros Occidental last week.

Ledama, the Zambo del Sur ace who swept Group B elims in the two-division side among eight of the country’s top players in the boys’ 18-and-under category, toppled Brent Cortes from Lanao del Norte, 6-3, 6-1, in the crossover semis then stopped Tangub, from Tukuran, also in ZDS, who succumbed to heat and yielded a 6-4 (ret.) result in the finals.

Uy, from Cabatuan, Isabela, also braced for a fierce title duel with the fancied Sydney Enriquez from Zambo del Norte, but took the shorter route in claiming the girls’ 18-U plum with a 1-0 (ret.) victory.

Uy topped the Group B elims with three victories but struggled past Group A No. 2 Krystel Galanza, 3-6, 6-4, 11-9, in the semis while Enriquez also swept Group A then eased out Cebu City’s Pherl Coderos, 6-2, 6-2, in the Final Four.

Sharing the spotlight in the inaugural staging of the event which gathered the best players in nine age categories (boys and girls) from last year’s Unified Tennis Philippines ranking are La Carlota’s Alexa Milliam and John David Velez from Ozamiz (16-U); Manila’s Mica Emana (14-U); Nueva Ecija’s Jayden Ballado and John Prince Lim from Urdaneta (12-U); Dipolog’s Pete Bandala (10-unisex); and Gerald Gemida from Ormoc and Cebu’s Mitch Largo, who shared the boys’ 14-U crown.

Milliam turned back Althea Martirez, 6-2, 7-5, in the crossover semis before foiling Cebu’s Tiffany Nocos, 6-1, 6-4, in the finals. Nocos earlier shocked Group A topnotcher Justine Maneja, 6-1, 3-6, 12-10, to earn a crack at the crown in the event presented by San Carlos City and put up by Palawan PawnshopPalawan Express Pera Padala.

Velez, on the other hand, lived up to the hype, sweeping the Group B elims, thwarting Oroquieta’s Nash Agustines, 6-4, 6-3, in the semis before blasting Marc Jarata, 6-1, 6-1, for the crown.

Emana repulsed Marielle Jarata, 6-0, 1-6, 10-2, in the semis then held off Group A topnotcher Judy Anne Padilla, 6-4, 6-3; while Largo defeated Kendrick Bona, 6-3, 6-0, and Gemida overpowered Neo Maratas, 6-2, 6-3, in the semis and were declared co-champions.

Ballado outlasted Davelan Gauran, 3-6, 6-3, 10-5, in the semis then edged Shara Paliwag, 6-3, 7-6(5) in the finals while Lim foiled Aaron Tabura, 6-4, 6-3, in the semis then turned back brother Kriz Roque, 4-6, 6-0, 103, to snare the crown.

Bandala whipped Iloilo’s John Santiago, 4-2, 4-0, in the semis then stopped David Sepulveda, 4-2, 2-4, 4-0.

DANCE, YOGA CLASSES OFFERED AT SUNSHINE PLACE SUNSHINE Place has prepared of series of workout classes for everyone, not only seniors.

Enroll in any of the classes and relax after a heavy schedule in the work place.

Classes range from Ashtanga Vinyasa Yoga, Pop Jazz Kadara Capoiera and Fitness Gym Personal Training.

Sunshine Place has scheduled an open house with free trial Pop Jazz class on Wednesday and Capoiera on Thursday, both from 7:30 to 9:30 p.m.

Kristin Ramos will conduct regular classes for Ashtanga Vinyasa Yoga, a 60-minute session consisting of Guided

Meditation, Pranayama (breathing exercise) and Modified Ashtanga, a structured vinyasa-style class, starting Feb.18, from 6:30 to 7:30 p.m.

The Pop Jazz class will be conducted by Ida Ramos, a well-known choreographer and dance teacher. She was a scholar and company member of the Metropolitan Dance Theater, adept in ballet, jazz and tap and was a company member of Hot Legs Dance Inc. from 2002 to 2009. The class will include standing and floor warmup exercises, dance across the floor and dance choreography. Schedule of classes is every Wednesday from 7:30 to 9:30 pm.

Capoeira is a unique Brazilian martial art that combines elements of fight, acrobatics, music and culture in a graceful manner. It will be conducted by Kadara Capoiera Philippines, a member of Associação Kadara Capoeira Internacional, founded and headed by Alessandro Gomes de Reis, known all over the world as Mestre Cicatriz. Kadara Capoeira is present in Brazil, Australia, Canada, Indonesia, Vietnam and the Philippines.

Locally, the academy is headed by Mestre’s student Academy and country director Instrutor Leão (Joseph Pagulayan), who has been running capoeira classes in the Philippines since 2005. The class is headed by

Instrutor Leão and will be conducted Mondays and Tuesdays from 7:30 to 8:30 p.m.

A personal training with Life-Care Fitness Management Inc. consisting of one hour of custom fitness gym exercises, including warm up, full body work out and cool down is also available at the Sunshine Place by appointment from Monday to Saturday.

For more details, contact Kristin Ramos at 0917 326-5969 (Yoga); Ida Ramos at 0917999-8529 (Pop jazz); Joseph Pagulayan at 0915769-5269 (Copaeira) and Danica Bautista at 0956132-8642 (LifeCare Fitness Management Inc.).

C1

SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 16, 2020

Business

Ray S. Eñano, Editor / Roderick dela Cruz, Issue Editor business@manilastandard.net

PH CHOCOLATES TO BE FEATURED IN AMSTERDAM

MultiSys headquarters in Moonwalk, Parañaque City

FORMER OFW WANTS TO EMULATE BILL GATES

By Alena Mae S. Flores

T

ECH guy David Almirol Jr., a former overseas Filipino worker in the Middle East who went on to establish a local IT company that has the best chance to become a tech unicorn, has a strong admiration for the world’s richest man—Bill Gates, the founder of global software company Microsoft Corp.

“The corporate culture that he [Gates] deeply ingrained in the company has shaped computer programming as we know it, and Microsoft as a global software giant that it is today. I look up to him and his mind,” says Almirol, who studied Information Science at the University of Cordilleras.

After working at a US military camp in Iraq, Almirol returned to the Philippines in 2014 and established MultiSys Technologies Corp.—the country’s leading software company with more than 2,000 companies using its platform. In 2018, PLDT Inc. infused P2.15 billion for a 45-percent stake in MultiSys. “When I founded MultiSys five years ago, I took a page from his iconic brand and, together with my team, applied its business model—one that is agnostic and user-friendly. In other words, we made sure that our solutions are compatible with as many types of platforms or operating systems as possible,” Almirol says.

He says building MultiSys to become a respected IT brand wasn’t an easy feat for him and his people.

“It entailed unimaginable sacrifices, hard work and dedication, coupled with an innovative vision turned into action and the implementation of this potent business model,” Almirol says.

Today, the company has nearly 300 Filipino information technology professionals under its domain, of which almost half are full-stack programmers.

“These people have the same vision as I do.

The number is still growing, and these people are vital if we are to achieve our vision of proving that the Filipino software development capability is world-class. We at MultiSys will continue to search for local talents with potentials—people who we can mentor in order to hone their skills and achieve that vision. We hold hackathons

MultiSys Technologies Corp. founder and CEO David Almirol Jr.

and projects like Clash of Codes to find ‘rockstar’ programmers,” he says.

The company set up the 1.5-hectare MultiSys Smart Community in Moonwalk, Parañaque—a Google community-style complex where the firm’s growing band of computer programmers work under conducive environment that inspires them to design and develop computer platforms that focus on areas like eBusiness, eGovernment, eTechnology, eCommerce and eServices.

Almirol says that like Microsoft, MultiSys is a business enabler, not a disrupter as the company empowers businesses and is a partner to everyone.

“The solutions that we offer underscore our relentless commitment to help private companies operate more efficiently and grow, as well as to assist government agencies for faster and more effective delivery of service to the public. We at MultiSys genuinely have a vision for the country,” he says.

MultiSys developed HealthBox to manage the operations of local hospitals, electronic medical records, doctors’ schedules, as well as the integration of wellness partners, health

maintenance organizations, and pharmacies.

The software can be used by both private and public hospitals, pharmaceutical companies, HMOs and diagnostics and wellness centers.

On the other hand, uBox aids electricity, water, telecommunications and cable companies as well as internet service providers in performing better financial analytics and consumption monitoring. This software solution provides utility companies a better insight on consumption patterns and financial data that help them operate more efficiently.

MultiSys products also include the JobBox— an all-around job hiring dashboard that can be used by both the government and the private sector, such as the business process outsourcing industry and human resources and recruitment agencies, to quickly find and assess potential employees and candidates with excellent qualifications.

The company also developed SchoolBox for the integration of school curriculum, establishment of online enrollment with electronic payment, management of academic records and an all-in-one portal for students, teachers and school administrators.

“By making full use of the digital technology, MultiSys has been helping businesses in various industries for better organization and delivery of service that will ultimately help drive the Philippine economy. The establishment of MultiSys also underscores my faith and confidence in the immense potential of Filipino programmers and of the Philippines as a hub for software development. We truly hope to build a better future for the country through digital transformation,” he says.

Almirol wants to build a Smarter Philippines where technology can make everyday business processes more efficient and seamless.

He hopes that MultiSys will become the Philippines first tech unicorn, startup-up company valued at over $1 billion.

Almirol also believes the company can further grow by expanding internationally.

“Like Microsoft, MultiSys is looking to expand its reach globally by exploring possible markets in neighboring countries. With the support of our valued partners like PLDT, we strive hard to empower businesses and institutions beyond the Philippines, through the continuous development of innovative Filipino technology. Still, at the core of MultiSys, is the strategy to design and develop software platforms that anyone can use seamlessly, and an unwavering dedication to our team, family, and our country,” Almirol says.

TESLA RUNS MONSTER RALLY, CROSSES $600 TESLA stock has been on fire. Shares are up more than 190 percent from 2019 lows, leaving investors to wonder what’s next for the electricvehicle pioneer.

On Wednesday, Tesla reported a profit for the final quarter of 2019— its second quarterly profit in a row.

The stock doubled since Oct. 23, the day before it jumped more than 17 percent on an earnings-fuelled gap up. The main achievement is, according to Gulf Brokers, that TESLA sold 367,500 cars in total in 2019— more than it sold in 2018 and 2017 together.

Tesla stock soared 12 percent late

Wednesday after the electric car maker reported better-than-expected quarterly earnings. The stock was already up 39 percent this year.

Revenue rose to $7.38 billion from $7.23 billion a year earlier. Analysts had expected revenue of $7.02 billion.

The Model 3 maker’s $7.38 billion in sales for the fourth quarter beat estimates and carried the company to its second consecutive quarterly profit.

Tesla stock debuted at less than $20 a share in 2010. It hit $200 in 2014.

And now, after strong deliveries in the fourth quarter and the successful launch of a new factory in China, it’s

above $500—giving the company the highest valuation of any U.S. carmaker ever.

The stock surged to almost $650 after the close of regular trading.

But in last few days the stock shows some weakness in the upside run.

As we know there are a lot of traders shorting this stock from last few days because of RSI Overbought & the price close to the 3rd Resistance pivot on the daily. So still there are room for retracement before heading more higher.

As per our previous prediction TSLA crossed 600$ level on Wednesday after strong earnings report.

THE Philippines prepares its awardwinning chocolate makers and cacao producers for a country exhibit in the Cocoa Trade Show & Chocolate Festival, also known as CHOCOA, at the Beurs Van Berlage, Amsterdam, the Netherlands, on Feb. 19 to 23, 2020.

The FoodPhilippines delegation is set to showcase eight Philippine producers and manufacturers of chocolates and other value-added cacao products including local brands that have earned global recognition.

It will be led by the Department of the Trade and Industry, through the Center for International Trade Expositions and Missions, in partnership with the Philippine Trade and Investment Center in Brussels, Belgium, and the Rural Agro-Industrial Partnership for Inclusive Development Growth Project, funded by the International Fund for Agricultural Development. “ The Philippine chocolate and value-added cacao products have been making waves in the international market for its distinct flavor profile and high-quality beans,” said CITEM executive director Pauline Suaco-Juan. “We want to make a statement that the Philippines is ready to take on the global cacao demand by showcasing some of our top brands in Netherlands, the world’s leading importer of cacao beans.”

The five award-winning Philippine firms with their brands attending the event are Malagos Agri-Ventures Corp., Auro Chocolates/Filipinas Oro de Cacao, Theo and Philo Chocolate Factory Inc., MS3 Agri-Ventures Corp. and Kablon Farm Food Corp.

The FoodPhilippines Pavilion will also sample products from Tigre y Oliva Chocolates (Tiger Craft Food and Beverage Co.), another emerging chocolate brand in the country. Likewise, Biao Agrarian Reform Beneficiaries Cooperative and Kennemer Foods International, Inc. are also looking to showcase their cacao beans and other valueadded products.

Malagos Chocolates is one of the frontline brands of the Philippines in the international market. Launched in 2012, the brand has made a name with its line of single-origin 100 percent, 85 percent, 72 percent and 65 percent dark and drinking chocolates, earning multiple awards from the Academy of Chocolates, International Chocolate Awards and Great Taste, among others.

Now, they offer chocolate beer and chocolate variants with truffles and tropical fruits.

The Puentespina Farm, where its beans are cultivated, earned its heirloom status from the Heirloom Cacao Preservation Fund in 2019 for growing one of only 16 Heirloom Cacaos in the world. In 2017, Malagos Chocolates’ cacao bean made it to the list of the “Best 50 Beans in The World” under the Cocoa Excellence Programme.

Business

C2

SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 16, 2020 business@manilastandard.net

IN BRIEF FRANCHISE GROUP SEES INNOVATION AS VITAL FOR SMES

THE Association of Filipino Franchisers Inc., the home of Filipino home-grown franchisers, believes that the three I’s—Improvement, Integration and Innovation—will be the name of the game for SMEs this year. Many MSMEs have to learn to fully embrace technology by integrating new systems that will help improve and innovate their business.

AFFI noted, though, that while the 3-I’s are catalysts in business development trends this year, millennial consumer behavior remains as a major influencer of business trends for 2020. For one, some as young as 18-years-old already earn enough money, those who work mostly in business process outsourcing companies to transform them into “entitled spenders.”

Second, most companies now look at skills and high aptitude towards technology even without a college degree.

Also, there is a noted increase in the number of freelance professionals due to “offsite” or “remote office” setups, where even those with existing jobs can accept extra work at home, thereby increasing their buying capacity.

With this shift in buying power of consumers, it may mean more growth for the local economy, and thus will help expand the field for more SMEs and other business start-ups.

Some business trends that AFFI sees will experience a boom this year include those that provide “convenience” such as online shopping, which will continue to level up due to technology, delivery services because of the so-called shared services business such as Grab and the like.

There will also be the prevalence of specialty cuisines minus an actual restaurant or store, and more homemade products will emerge, while old and traditional food will flourish due to available delivery platforms. Home services like car wash, aircon cleaning, pet grooming and even personal wellness services will also grab a piece of the spotlight because it can now be rendered at everyone’s doorstep. And after the Ice Scramble, Siomai, Milk Tea, Waffle, Shawarma, and the Mango Graham craze, more original brands with new food concepts will crop up, those that will cater to the taste buds of Filipinos.

These trends and other developments will be the highlight of the upcoming 18th Franchise and Business Expo, the country’s biggest and longest-running business expo organized by the Association of Filipino Franchisers Inc. on Feb. 28 and 29 up to March 1, 2020 at the World Trade Center, Pasay City. The event features some of the best savvy start-up businesses and the best and most successful ventures across various industries in the country today.

BIG BAD WOLF RETURNS WITH 17,000 NEW TITLES THIRD time’s the charm as the Big Bad Wolf Book Sale makes a much-anticipated return to Manila.

The sale officially opened its doors on Feb. 14 and will run until Feb. 24 at the World Trade Center in Pasay City.

Voracious readers can look forward to getting their hands on 33,000 titles including 17,000 brand new titles that will be available for the first time at 50 percent to 90 percent off recommended retail price. Entry to the 11-day World’s Biggest Book Sale is free.

Around 2 million English books will be available with prices as low as P60 for the first time with the introduction of the ‘Crazy Deals’ promotion which offers further markdowns.

Book worms who love escaping reality through fiction reads will find ’13 Reasons Why’ by Jay Asher, ‘Elevation’

by Stephen King, ‘Percy Jackson’s Greek Gods’ by Rick Riordan and John Rocco and ‘The 13th Reality: The Complete Series’ by James Dashner among the titles on hand.

Genres such as young adult, literature, romance, thrillers, self-help, architecture, graphic novels, bibles and more will be available at the sale. Children who are fans of Terry Deary can go for titles such as ‘Horrible Histories: Terrible Tudors’ from the bestselling series. The little ones will take delight in browsing through the endless children’s books including pop-up books, board books, sound books, activity books and more.

The Magical Books series were introduced last year with six titles to tremendous response from parents who discovered the magic of the Augmented Reality books.

This year, back by popular demand, 1 2 n e w t i t l e s w i l l b e i n t ro d u c e d including two ‘come -to-life’ puzzle sets that have an added dimension of fun as an exciting game can be played through the free application on smart gadgets.

“The Big Bad Wolf Book Sale is not just about selling books to target readers; we hope to change the habits of society and their mindset to empower and inspire someone to want to pursue a dream.

Many of us are not raised with the habit of reading, but I believe that it’s never too late to start. It is just our third visit to Manila but we have started to witness the power of books being able to transform lives,” said Jacqueline Ng, co-founder of the Big Bad Wolf Book Sale.

A

START-UP OUT TO CHANGE E-COMMERCE SCENE IN PH

SINGAPORE-BASED fashiontechnology platform aims to change the electronic commerce scene in Asia, including the Philippines, by linking small businesses to suppliers and consumers.

“Zilingo is a technology platform, with end-toend cloud solutions that power the entire fashion supply chain to serve the needs of the fashion industry,” Zilingo Philippines marketing director Ryza Dipatuan-Lazo says in an interview in Fort Bonifacio, Taguig City.

On what makes Zilingo different from other online malls such as Zalora, Shopee and Lazada, Dipatuan says: “We are more than a B2C [business to consumers] platform”.

“Aside from B2C, we have B2B [business to business], financial technology, marketing as a service and software as a service. We have more products and services than the usual B2C platforms,” she says.

“Last year, we launched the B2C platform in the Philippines. This year, we are launching the B2B platform through Zilingo Asia Mall. We want to empower MSMEs [micro, small and medium enterprises,” says Dipatuan-Lazo.

Zilingo was founded in 2015 by India entrepreneurs Ankiti Bose and Dhruv Kapoor who chose to start the business in Thailand and Cambodia, with Singapore as headquarters. Today, Zilingo, backed by $308-million funding from investors such as Sequoia Capital and Temasek Holdings, is present in 11 countries and works with more than 4,000 factories and 50,000 merchants across the world.

It also has an office manned by 38 individuals in Fort Bonifacio which it hopes to expand with the launch of its B2B business this year.

The start-up says what it does is the future of fashion—helping businesses from farm to closet.

The platform helps MSMEs in terms of sourcing, selling, financing, logistics and marketing. It earns through commissions from users.

“We cut out a lot of middlemen--from raw material sources, manufacturers, brands and channels. We simplify the whole process. We give your access to suppliers from around the world,” says Dipatuan-Lazo.

“We provide hassle-free sourcing from 4,000 global manufacturers for the sourcing needs of MSMEs at low prices,” she says.

“The real value of this is for MSMEs. We can offer them marketing services. Rather than spending P50,000 for photoshoot, our platform for branding and marketing services can help you with content creation for cataloguing and other requirements that you have for only P100 per SKU [stock-keeping unit],” says Dipatuan-Lazo.

“As a platform, we can give them resources in terms of services such as content creation, branding, marketing, social media, events, and public relations,” she says.

From left: Zilingo Philippines executives Ryza Dipatuan-Razo (marketing director), Shiela Mauricio (head of commercial) and Edryan Lorenzo (marketing nanager)

Dipatuan-Lazo says that as a one-stop business solution provider, Zilingo provides the necessary tools and services for product development, procurement, trendcasting, working capital, marketing and software implementation easily accessible.

With the help of upgrades in raw material sourcing, HR and productivity software, and financial and marketing services, MSMEs can improve their product quality, turnover and secure better pricing models, allowing them to remain competitive in the global market.

“Zilingo first built their own B2C platform to help merchants distribute better. Today, Zilingo added more services to its platform that will help address the problems faced by the MSME industry here in the Philippines and abroad,” says Dipatuan-Lazo.

Shiela Mauricio, head of commercial at Zilingo Philippines, says, “one of the objectives of the company is to grow the local SMEs— manufacturers, partners and bring the business

to global sources”.

“Instead of them traveling to these countries, we are giving them the sources to their doorsteps,” says Mauricio.

Mauricio says Zilingo also supports MSMEs with financial support. “This is the most effective support that we have. Once MSMEs grow, they would need more capital. To do that, they should be backed by financial assistance. It is easier for us because we are encouraging them to use the platform. Once they are in the platform, we have the data to analyze or assess their capability. Our interest rates are lower than what the bank offers and range from 10 to 12 percent. The requirements are very minimal,”she says.

“Zilingo is reimagining the entire supply chain and aggregating all parties within the same platform by offering services and software that can help businesses do better. This has been the brand’s focus since Day 1,” says Mauricio.

Roderick T. dela Cruz

CEBU SHIPYARD LAUNCHES 109-M CATAMARAN FERRY AUSTAL Philippines has successfully launched Hull 419—a 109-meter high-speed catamaran ferry from the company’s recently expanded Balamban shipyard in Cebu.

The vehicle-passenger ferry, to be known as FSTR, is the largest aluminum vessel ever launched in the Philippines and the largest (by volume) ever constructed by Austal, worldwide.

The vessel is now in the final stages of fit-out, prior to delivery to Fjord Line of Norway in the second quarter quarter.

Austal chief executive David Singleton said the launch of the ‘Auto Express 109’ catamaran was a significant milestone for Austal Philippines, as the first ship to be wholly constructed from the Balamban shipyard’s expanded production facilities, which were opened in July 2019.

“This impressive new ship for Fjord Line of Norway is the first of many large, high-speed commercial ferries to be constructed at our expanded shipyard in the Philippines. After Hull 419, we have Hull 395, a 118 meter

Austal Philippines successfully launches Hull 419—a 109-meter high-speed catamaran ferry for Fjord Line of Norway at the company’s Balamban, Cebu shipyard.

trimaran, under construction which will be the longest high-speed ferry to be constructed in the Philippines,” he said. “ We also have a 115-meter catamaran ferry scheduled for construction at Austal Philippines later this year which will be another record build, as the largest vessel (by volume) to be constructed by Austal, worldwide,” Singleton said.

Olsen Express of the Canary Islands is a 118-meter high-speed trimaran ferry and a sister ship

to Bajamar Express, launched in Australia earlier this week. Hull 4 2 3 , a 1 1 5 - m e te r h i g h - s p e e d catamaran ferry to be known as Express 5, is a follow-up order from Molslinjen of Denmark and is scheduled to commence construction in Balamban in the third quarter.

Austal Philippines president Wayne Murray celebrated the launch of Hull 419 by thanking the 1,000-strong Filipino shipbuilding team and acknowledging the outstanding

capability of the Balamban shipyard which now includes a 120-meter long assembly bay and multiple new fabrication bays.

“I am exceptionally proud of the entire Austal Philippines team. The launch of Hull 419 from our newly expanded shipyard is a significant event that highlights our capability to deliver multiple vessel projects concurrently—safely and cost effectively,” Murray said.

Fjord Line’s FSTR (Hull 419) is capable of transporting 1,200 passengers at up to 40 knots and features Austal’s largest ever vehiclecarrying capacity constructed to date, with a beam of 30.5 meters enabling 404 cars to be carried across two decks.

The ship features several key design innovations that enhance operating per formance and passenger comfort, including a new, optimized hull form that will minimize fuel consumption and wake wash when operating on the Skagerrak Sea between Hirtshals, Denmark and Kristiansand, Norway.

PILMICO HELPS REVIVE AQUACULTURE IN CAPIZ ABOITIZ food business unit Pilmico Animal Nutrition Corp. recently turned over 1.3 million bangus fry to help Capiz fishermen rebuild their typhoon-depleted fish stocks.

Pilmico’s Aqua Feeds team, in partnership with the Roxas City government and Sagana Agricultural Supply, launched Bangon Capiznon to provide fish farmers in Capiz province the necessary seed stocks and technical support to revive its aquaculture production.

Roxas City, dubbed as the country’s “seafood capital” due to its abundant fish and seafood production, was one of the places severely damaged by Typhoon Ursula that ravaged the country in December 2019.

For farmers engaged in cage operations, their fry allocation will be reared in assigned nurseries and will

be distributed to them once their fish reach three to five inches—the suitable size for stocking in cages.

“True to our brand promise of being a Partner for Growth, Pilmico is here to assure our fish farmers that, together, we can recover and revive the aquaculture industry here in Capiz,” said Richard Rafio, category manager for aqua of Pilmico Feeds.

Roxas City councilor and presiding officer for agriculture and fisheries Moreno Gonzaga lauded Pilmico and its initiatives for helping the affected fish farmers. Pilmico is the first feed company in Roxas City to give direct support to its aquaculture operators.

“This will greatly help not only Roxas City residents, but also in the recovery of the entire Capiz,” said Gonzaga.

Pilmico partners in Capiz with Pilmico Aqua Feeds Category team members inspect bangus fry.

Tech & Gadgets

TRUE WIRELESS EARBUDS JABRA ELITE 75T LAUNCHED

J

ABRA a global leader in personal sound and office solutions, launches its fourth generation of true wireless earbuds in the Philippine market—the Jabra Elite 75t. The latest version of Jabra’s industry-leading wireless earbuds boasts of a longer battery life, and a smaller, more secure and comfortable fit.

“We are excited to introduce the most comfortable and long-lasting addition to our awardwinning Elite range of true wireless earbuds in the Philippines. It is a result of our dedication in listening and catering to changing customer needs for an elevated and truly wireless earbud experience. On top of delivering premium sound, the Elite 75t delivers smaller, better fitting earbuds with longer battery life,” shares Gladee Manantan, Country Sales Manager, Consumer for Jabra.

LISTENING AND RESPONDING TO KEY USER NEEDS To innovate with products that respond to user needs and preferences, Jabra gathered and collated valuable insights from a multitude of global users to determine the primary barriers to a true wireless experience. The insights guided the company to develop next-level products such as the Jabra Elite 75t to provide a true wireless, secure, best-in-sound experience.

SECURE AND COMFORTABLE FIT The Jabra Elite 75t’s shape and size is based on thousands of ear scans conducted by the company.

As a result of this intensive research, Jabra Elite 75t features an optimal 3D size and shape that fits ears comfortably across a wide range of users.

Meticulous engineering ensures that the new compact size continues to deliver the fundamentals users expect from Jabra such as robust connectivity, durability, ease of use and a superior call and music experience.

Making and taking calls is a great experience with the 4-microphone call technology, enhanced with Jabra’s latest noise and wind reducing algorithms. This feature gives users the confidence to take calls even in busy environments like the street, train or subway. Jabra has enhanced the ease of use of the charging case by ensuring easy access and adding magnets.

Users can instantly connect to Alexa**, Siri® or Google Assistant™, quickly accessing the information they may need—from setting appointments, to finding nearby events or having messages read out. In addition, Bluetooth 5.0 allows users to seamlessly connect the Jabra Elite 75t to their smartphones.

The Jabra Sound+ app allows users to choose their voice assistant, customize their music profile with the equalizer, modify how much nearby noise they want to hear (HearThrough), adjust their calls experience, keep track of battery charge, and much more.

BATTERY LIFE AND CONNECTIVITY In terms of usage time, the Jabra Elite 75t offers up to 28 hours of battery life with the charging case and 7.5 hours without. Those in a rush will appreciate the fast charging feature which offers 1 hour of playback time from only 15 minutes of charging.

PRICING AND AVAILABILITY The Jabra Elite 75t Titanium Black is now available at P9,999 from authorized Jabra retail partners. Meanwhile, the Jabra Elite 75t Gold Beige variant will be introduced within Q1 2020. In addition, the Jabra Elite Active 75t—ideal for athletes and runners—retails for P10,999.

By Peter Paul Duran

Zilingo officials Ryza Dipatuan-Razo (left), Marketing Director; Shiela Mauricio (center), Head of Commercial; and Edryan Lorenzo, PR and Influencer Marketing Manager

development, procurement, trend casting, working capital, marketing, and software implementation easily accessible. With the help of upgrades in raw material sourcing, HR and productivity software, and financial and marketing services, MSMEs can improve their product quality, turnover and secure better pricing models, allowing them to remain competitive in the global market.

“Zilingo first built its B2C platform to help merchants distribute better.

Today, Zilingo added more services to its platform that will help address the problems faced by the MSME industry here in the Philippines and abroad,” said Ryza Dipatuan-Razo, Marketing Director, Zilingo Philippines.

Using its B2B (Business to Business) solutions, the company plans to empower, innovate, and diversify

the Philippines’ MSME industry by providing greater access to suppliers and manufacturers to produce materials at competitive pricing.

As the fashion industry continues to be plagued by outdated technology, inefficient supply chains, inappropriate labor practices and harmful waste generation, Zilingo emphasizes on alleviating these pain points and enabling users to access financial services, product design and sourcing solutions within a single platform.

In short, Zilingo provides an endto-end cloud platform for the entire supply chain, from the yarn manufacturers to the brands, cutting out intermediaries in the process.

Founded by Ankiti Bose and Dhruv Kapoor with a vision to use technology to put responsible and efficient business within everyone’s reach, Zilingo believes the future of fashion belongs to everyone.

According to the company, the fashion industry is dominated by a select few, favoring only those with social, human, and financial capital.

“By using smart, technology-led solutions to bridge the gap between creators and producers, we’ve reimagined the fashion supply chain to make it fair, connected, and transparent for all,” the company said.

OLERN SETS GROUNDBREAKING VIRTUAL BUSINESS SUMMIT A NEW breed of training and consulting company with a mission to help Filipino companies become world-class using the latest technologies and training methodologies, Olern is helping an increasing number of entrepreneurs stay competitive in their industry by learning new best practices, improve their people skills and adopt new technologies.

By partnering with the different business consultants and experts to design online and offline practical and indepth courses and programs for SMEs, Olern is coming up with more convenient and affordable ways to learn everything that it takes to be a successful entrepreneur.

In the last two years alone, Olern trained thousands and thousands of entrepreneurs through its online platform and face-to-face trainings.

This summer, Olern is tak-

SAMSUNG..

From C4

Just open your device and place it on a table. When closed, quickly capture one-handed high-quality selfies using the rear camera without unfolding.

Notifications on Your Terms— Whether Galaxy Z Flip is closed, standing upright or open, never miss a text, call or reminder. When closed, check the date, time and battery status at a glance on the cover display.

Get real time notifications so you can easily answer a call without unfolding or respond to a text by simply tapping the notification and unfolding your Galaxy Z Flip.

Multi-Active Window—Seamlessly multi-task with Multi-Active Window —simply open the Multi-Window Tray to drag and drop the apps you want to use. Scroll through an article on the latest fashion looks on the top half while shopping for your favorite pieces on the bottom.

GALAXY FOUNDATION AND ECOSYSTEM

ZILINGO AIMS TO DIGITIZE LOCAL MSMEs FASHION is 4% of the Global GDP, yet it is a disaggregated industry with a lot of middlemen in the supply chain, according to technology platform Zilingo.

That’s why the company aims to digitize the Philippines’ MSMEs to level up the fashion supply industry and cut out the many middlemen in an era of tight margins and fastmoving fashion.

“Zilingo is reimagining the entire supply chain and aggregating all parties within the same platform by offering services and software that can help businesses do better,” said Shiela Mauricio, Head of Commercial, Zilingo Philippines in an intimate media luncheon recently in BGC. “This has been the brand’s focus since Day 1,” she added, reiterating Zilingo’s commitment to aide merchant partners in scaling up their businesses efficiently.

Zilingo, which has touchpoints in 11 countries across Asia, the US, and Australia, started in 2015, focusing on integrating the global fashion supply chain using technology.

As a one-stop business solution provider, Zilingo makes the necessary tools and services for product

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SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 16, 2020 rumallari@thestandard.com.ph

ing its innovative approaches to the next level with its firstever Olern Virtual Business Summit. Happening on March 3 and 4, 2020 from 9 a.m. To 5 p.m., the momentous event will be a gathering of more than a dozen business leaders with the goal of sharing best practices to help Filipino companies become world-class.

Focusing on key business areas such as Innovation and Technology, Management Strategy, Strategic HR, and Sales & Marketing, the twoday FREE event features distinguished speakers such as Fortune 100 CEO and Olympic coach Jim Lafferty, Google Philippines market lead Samuel Jeanblanc, BQB CXInstitute Founder Claire BoscqScott, Philippine Franchise Guru Armando Bartolome, Association of Filipino Franchises Inc. Chairman Eric Caeg, sought after professional

speaker Paulo Tibig, Executive Director of Ideaspace Diane Eustaquio, Cycle House President Jeff Chua, Tarkie Founder Rio Ilao, MPlify Founder Migs dela Rosa, President of DM Kompass Suzan Bigay, Digital Marketing Consultant Rey Baguio, and world-certified Image Strategist, Executive Coach and Transformational Speaker Toni Miranda.

Expecting more than 1,000 attendees in this pioneering event, Olern understands that SMEs need more help in growing their businesses and becoming world-class companies. More often than not, however, the moving forces behind these rising enterprises cannot physically attend trainings or summits for reasons that include venue proximity, conflict in their busy schedules and pricey business summit fees.

The first Online Business

Distinguished business leaders to help elevate Filipino SMEs to world class levels

Summit in the Philippines using the latest technologies aim to break those barriers. With the Olern Business Summit, interested entrepreneurs can attend the Summit wherever they are in the world, no need to travel or go

through painstaking traffic. And best of all, it’s FREE. All one needs is a mobile phone or laptop and an internet connection and he or she is good to go!

To know more, visit https:// www.olern.com/olernsummit

As a Galaxy device, Galaxy Z Flip brings the Galaxy ecosystem into its brand new foldable experience. It boasts flagship-level performance and features across camera, display, battery, security as well as services like Samsung Health, Samsung Knox and more. Enjoy a versatile camera experience with 4K video capture, Live Focus and Super Steady recording. Galaxy Z Flip features an optimized dual battery system that holds more power without taking up more space—wired or wirelessly quick charge, plus with Wireless PowerShare8, you can wirelessly charge up your Galaxy Buds, Galaxy Watch or even a friend’s device. Samsung Knox protects users and their device from the chip to the software level and receives monthly and quarterly security updates. Users also get services that enable health and wellness tracking and monitoring with Samsung Health, and access to more than 5,000 Samsung and partner smart products through SmartThings.

The Galaxy Z Flip will be available in limited quantities in Mirror Purple and Mirror Black, starting February 21, 2020. For more information about Galaxy Z Flip, please visit news.samsung.com/galaxy, samsungmobilepress. com or samsung.com/galaxy.

HUAWEI...

From C4

“During my time, a camera costs an arm and a leg. Now, everything is more accessible, go out and shoot. Eventually, you’ll be able to see your work on screen,” he concluded.

Five judges, who are mostly directors and producers from the Asia Pacific region, will choose the best in all submitted entries.

The deadline of the Huawei Film Awards is on February 25 at 11:59 p.m.

For more information about Huawei Film Awards, users may visit the link: https://consumer.huawei.com/ph/campaign/film-awards/submission/

PH IS NEXT...

From C4

ticipating in the festival such as Business Matching activity with Trade Connect where entrepreneurs can network with possible investors and learn from their peers in the industry.

There will also be a PFF edition of The Final Pitch wherein startups can present their innovative business ideas to industry leaders and venture capitalists.

While, the PFF Hackathon will challenge students and tech enthusiasts in creating impactful solutions for current pressing issues in the Philippine financial industry.

Access to the ASEAN Financial Innovation Network (AFIN)’s APIX platform will be made available to Hackathon participants as part of their toolkit. These activities will culminate during the PFF Awards wherein winners from these activities will be recognized.

“We are working closely with the various government and industry partners in putting together PFF 2020 because this is an opportunity to showcase the Philippines’ capabilities in the fintech space. Through the PFF, we are taking a shot at co-creating the future together,” said DLTAP and FPH chairman Justo Ortiz.

The Philippine Fintech Festival aims to empower enterprises via a digital revolution in order to remain relevant and competitive amid a rapidly changing business environment.

Registration for the first Philippine Fintech Festival is now open. Sponsorship opportunities are also available for interested parties. For more information about PFF 2020, visit https://www. philippinefintechfestival.com/.

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TECH & Gadgets SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 16, 2020 Riera U. Mallari, Editor rumallari@thestandard.com.ph

SAMSUNG JOINS THE FOLD WITH GALAXY Z FLIP S

AN FRANCISCO—Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. unveiled the Galaxy Z Flip, a new, statementmaking foldable smartphone.

Galaxy Z Flip is bold and stylish—designed for those who see cutting-edge technology as a way to express themselves. Engineered with first-of-its-kind foldable glass, Galaxy Z Flip bends the laws of physics, and features a 6.7inch display that folds into a stylish and compact form factor that fits in the palm of your hand.

Designed with an innovative Hideaway Hinge and custom-built UX, Galaxy Z Flip provides elegant new ways to capture, share and experience content. From its stylish design to its flexible camera experience, Galaxy Z Flip opens up a new decade of foldable mobile innovation.

“At Samsung, we were encouraged by the excitement for the Galaxy Fold.

Galaxy Z Flip is an important next step as we look to build the foldable category by bringing to consumers a new form factor, new display and most importantly, a new kind of mobile experience,” said Dr. TM Roh, President and Head of Mobile Communications Business, Samsung Electronics. “With Galaxy Z Flip’s unique foldable design and user experience, we’re redefining what a mobile device can be, and what it enables consumers to do.”

FOLDABLE HERITAGE

The category-defining Galaxy Fold began the foldable era. Now, Galaxy Z Flip is shaping it for a new decade. As the first device in the Z series, Galaxy Z Flip introduces a new device portfolio that reaffirms Samsung’s commitment to leading the category, and leveraging technologies and form factors to create foldable experiences that will surprise and delight in the years ahead.

FASHION MEETS TECHNOLOGY

Galaxy Z Flip’s compact, stylish design is created for those who see technology as a

way to express themselves. And all of the innovations that go into Galaxy Z Flip ensure they can do so.

Style that Fits in Your Pocket—Designed for ultimate portability, Galaxy Z Flip folds into the size of a wallet, so you can easily fit it in your pocket or bag. When closed, it is a stylish, compact palmsized device. When opened, i t s screen size

nearly doubles to reveal a stunning 6.7-inch display.

With its stylish color palette, sleek rounded corners and forward fold that closes with a satisfying snap, Galaxy Z Flip is sure to turn heads.

Samsung’s First Foldable Glass Display— Galaxy Z Flip features an Infinity Flex Display with Samsung’s proprietary bendable Ultra Thin Glass (UTG), making it slimmer with a sleek, premium look and feel that has never been seen with a foldable device before. The centered in-display camera cutout at the top also means there’s no notch and no distractions, with Samsung’s firstever 21.9:9 ratio, so you can enjoy even more of your favorite content such as cinema-ratio 21:9 shows and movies.

New Hideaway Hinge—Galaxy Z Flip’s Hideaway Hinge is a work of engineering art. It’s backed by a dual CAM mechanism—small but sophisticatedly designed to ensure every flip and fold is smooth and stable. Galaxy Z Flip can stay open at a range of angles, like a laptop screen.

The Hideaway Hinge system also integrates Samsung’s new sweeper technology, which uses nylon fibers crafted by micro-height-cutting technology to repel dirt and dust.

THE NEXT FOLDABLE EXPERIENCE

Galaxy Z Flip is built for the modern, on-thego lifestyle. Now you can do more, from multiple angles—hands-free. This unique foldable experience is unlike any other smartphone on the market today.

Samsung Galaxy Z Flip phones are seen on display during the Samsung Galaxy Unpacked 2020 event in San Francisco, California. Samsung unveiled its second folding smartphone, a “Z Flip” handset with a lofty price tag aimed at “trendsetters.” The smartphone flips open, like a pocket cosmetics case, opening into a 6.7-inch screen. AFP

Do more—Hands-free—When Galaxy Z Flip unfolds, it can stay open at multiple angles, unlocking opportunities for selfies that show more of the world around you and expressive video chats with Google Duo—all hands-free.

Flex mode—Samsung worked closely with Google to design Flex mode—a custom-built user experience for Galaxy Z Flip’s unique forward folding form factor. When the device is freestanding, the display automatically splits into two 4-inch screens so you can easily view images, contents or videos on the top half of the display, and control them on the bottom half. Easily watch and navigate YouTube—stream on the top while searching for other videos, reading descriptions and writing comments on the bottom.

Game Changing Camera—Galaxy Z Flip literally stands on its own so that you can capture more, on-the-go—from timed group shots to vivid nighttime content. You can create content for your social media feeds from the best angle and enjoy video recording with a 16:9 ratio that’s perfect for uploads to social media platforms, hands-free—no tripod needed. Capture stunning Night Hyperlapse videos or vivid low light shots with Night mode—no flash needed.

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HUAWEI FILM AWARDS STAKES $20K

By Paul David Gelario

Shown here are Sid Maderazo (third from left), commercial and film director, owner of 88story Film and managing partner of Central Digital Lab; Pepe Diokno (leftmost), film director, producer and screenwriter; and Save Philippine Seas Executive Director Anna Oposa (second from left). Paul Gelario

A GRAND prize of $25,000 or P1 million pesos will be up for grabs in the Huawei Film Awards for the participant who can create the best film, shot on a Huawei smartphone.

Also in attendance in the Huawei Film Awards launching were seasoned directors and executives, Sid Maderazo, Pepe Diokno and Anna Oposa.

For the best shot of winning, Maderazo and Diokno recommend participants to use Huawei Mate 30 Pro. “It has best in class wide-range focal length. It has ultra-slow motion, up to 9,000 fps. To shoot that fast is amaz-

ing for a small camera,” said Maderazo, commercial and film director, owner of 88story Film, and managing partner of Central Digital Lab. Maderazo also advised users to utilize Huawei Mate 30 Pro’s focal lengths, night modes and slow motion features to produce optimal results.

Diokno also told users to never be afraid to go out in the field to shoot.

“I hope that you guys just go out and shoot and have fun,” said Diokno, film director, producer and screenwriter.

As a parting advice, Maderazo told users to go out and shoot now that technology is more accessible Turn to C3 compared to his time.

LG HOLDS 2ND LAUNDRY LOVE FOR TAAL EVEN if the Alert Level of Taal Volcano has been downgraded, the threat of a destructive volcanic eruption is still very real. Those affected by last month’s phreatic eruption are slowly trying to get their lives back together, but a lot of families, especially those in the volcano’s immediate vicinity, are left without anything to come home to.

While the worst might seem to be over, all of the evacuees still need a lot of help. LG Philippines was one of the organizations who were first to lend a hand last month by staging its popular Laundry Love Project which provided commercial grade washing machines so that Taal evacuees could have access to clean and hygienic clothing. LG, together with its team of employees and volunteers, visited the evacuation centers in Alfonso Central School, Kaylaway National Highschool, and DOH Rehab Center over the course of a week for the Laundry Love program and to provide medical missions to give physical and optical checkups for the evacuees.

LG paid a visit again to the evacuation centers in Batangas since there’s still work to be done. They re-staged the Laundry Love Project like last month but seeing the demand and the need for it, the company brought even more washing machines to cater to more families. #TeamLG visited the evacuation center in Laurel, Batangas for four days to en-

sure that everyone gets a chance.

LG also donated to the evacuation center 2 refrigerators, 2 LED Television sets, and 2 X-Boom speakers each, bringing the grand total of 25 refrigerators, 16 LED TVs, and 25 X-Boom speakers donated and distributed across the different evacuation centers. Speaking more about the program, LG PhilipLG Sustains the Love with its 2nd Laundry Love for Taal

To formally receive the donations, LG turned them over to Mayor Joan LameroAmo, Mayor of Laurel, Batangas.

pines’ Managing Director, Inkwun Heo, said “We’re here for the people of Taal. We sincerely hope that the worst is over, but rest assured that LG is fully committed to help in bringing this remarkable community back to its feet. Their resilience is a true testament to the strength of the Filipino people.”

To formally receive the donations, LG turned them over to Mayor Joan LameroAmo, Mayor of Laurel, Batangas. “It is with utmost gratitude that we accept LG’s generous support during this tumultuous time.

You have our heartfelt thanks”.

PH IS NEXT HOTBED FOR TECHNOLOGY INNOVATION THE coming Philippine Fintech Festival, to be held at ShangriLa at The Fort on May 20 and 21, 2020, will explore the widening horizon for the tech and fintech potential of the Philippines.

The festival is in partnership with various government agencies including the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas, Department of Information and Communications Technology, Department of Science and Technology (DOST), and Department of Trade and Industry, along with private corporations and organizations such as Distributed Ledger Technology Association of the Philippines and FinTech Philippines Association.

The Philippines is all set to cement its role as the next hotbed for fintech and tech innovation with all the necessary ingredients to tech up already present in the Southeast Asian country, officials said at the press launch in Taguig City.

A solid financial and business ecosystem with projected 6.2% GDP growth in 2020; an innovation-ready regulatory environment; a large, young, and increasing population with an internet penetration rate of 63% — most of them through mobile devices — the Philippines is certainly ripe for fintech growth.

“We strongly believe that this is a pivotal moment for us to become more relevant and competitive in the global marketplace. DTI has always been supportive of the growing fintech industry because of its massive potential for financial inclusivity for our people. With all the work and tech innovation building up in the country in recent years, we are ready to expand our horizons,” shared Department of Trade and Industry Undersecretary Dr. Rafaelita “Fita” Aldaba.

She underscored the significance of being at the center of tech innovation, citing how fintech companies and products have largely contributed to the government’s relentless drive for financial inclusion.

These include telcos and traditional banks successfully launching their own fintech products offering millions of consumers access to formal credit products; small and medium enterprises as well as farmers being given alternative finance by startup firms who link them to banks and other investors; and mobile wallets and startup firms working on modernizing remittances through online payments and use of cryptocurrencies amid the growing number of Filipinos working overseas.

“Now, the Philippines is primed to move on to the next level and transition into a worldclass digital economy via the Philippine Fintech Festival—an international gathering of experts and leaders in innovation,” continued Usec. Aldaba.

“The Philippine Fintech Festival promises to be a showcase of the latest technological innovations both here and abroad to local and international businesses. This will definitely go a long way in helping us develop the country’s capability for innovation through the continuous development of information and communications technology,” declared DICT Undersecretary Jose Arturo de Castro.

PFF will gather global innovation experts to discuss the future of banking, industry transformation, and financial inclusion for the plenary sessions.

Beyond the plenary talks and exhibits, there are several exciting events geared for those parTurn to C3

Destinations D1

SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 16, 2020

Bernadette Lunas, Editor

manilastandardlife@gmail.com

@manilastandardlife

@MStandardLIFE

FREQUENT FLYER

5,000-PESO GETAWAYS IN THE PHILIPPINES

SKYJET

RELAUNCHES

SIARGAO FLIGHTS

BOUTIQUE airline SkyJet resumes flights to top surfing destination, Siargao island. Surfers and beach lovers can now book their flights daily starting March 19.

“Our jet aircrafts are the fastest and the only jet that could land directly in Siargao via Sayak Airport. It only takes one hour from Manila Domestic Airport,” said SkyJet Airlines president Dino Reyes-Chua.

The tear drop-shaped island is famous for its world-class surfing spot Cloud 9, Magpupungko pool, and Naked and Guyam islands, among others.

Other destinations gaining popularity among tourists are the beautiful lagoons in Sohoton Cove, dive spots like the Blue Cathedral, and Taktak Falls in Santa Monica.

SkyJet also flies to Batanes, Coron (twice daily), and Camiguin. Go to www. flyskyjetair.com for more information.

AFFORDABLE ADVENTURE. Frugal travelers have many choices when it comes to holiday travel, some of which like the stunning Kawasan Falls in Cebu, can be enjoyed without breaking the bank.

By Steph Llarena

F

ILIPINOS’ love of traveling is evident in the many times they venture into new places.

According to a study by Picodi, a Polish company that offers access to deals and discounts from local and international brands, almost half of Filipinos surveyed travel at least twice a year. But we travel frugally.

The average Filipino spends about P13,000 for every trip, which covers fares, food, accommodation, and incidentals. With promos available left and right, this could further go down, enabling many to plan several trips.

However, the current coronavirus outbreak has impeded many a travel plan, causing filed off days—allotted to that muchawaited trip—go to waste.

Boutique airline Skyjet resumes direct flights to Siargao.

Go on a river cruise while enjoying local dishes across the San Juanico Strait. (Photo from aquamomentum.com)

Our country is blessed with a number of breathtaking destinations, some we can reach without needing to book a flight. And the best thing about them? They can be enjoyed without spending over P5,000. Hotel management company RedDoorz offers suggestions on where to go without breaking the bank.

Enjoy a delicious lunch on a bamboo raft at Seven Lakes in San Pablo, Laguna.

heading to Laguna for a meal in the middle of the lake. For as low as P600, you can cycle along scenic trail on a bike, hop on a tricycle tour, and indulge in some of the finest local meals while on a bamboo raft in one of the lakes at Seven Lakes in San Pablo.

River cruise

way to enjoy and appreciate San Juanico Bridge, connecting Leyte and Samar. For P800, guests can take a river cruise, go island hopping, and munch on local dishes.

Dinner cruise under the bridge, meanwhile, costs P1,000.

Falls in love

Badian, Cebu San Juanico Strait Several kilometers southwest San Pablo, Laguna In Tacloban, Leyte, a group of from Cebu City awaits the breathTake weekend dine out with the “navy seals of water sports and is- taking Kawasan Falls, known for its family a few notches higher by land hopping” offers an exciting cold, turquoise water. This stunning three-stage cascading waterfall is a favorite of nature lovers, especially thrillseekers who enjoy climbing, rappelling, and jumping off cliffs and into the water. Klook offers a canyoneering and waterfalls day tour priced at P2,250.

Lake lunch

DUBAI FOR LESS DUE to popular demand, Emirates brings back its promo that lets travelers from the Philippines fly to Dubai for less and enjoy more.

Return fares to Dubai start at US$449 (Economy) and US$1,249 (Business Class), available today until March 3 for travel between Feb. 14 and Sept. 30.

Economy Class passengers who book flights within the promotional period can enjoy two nights’ accommodation at either Aloft Me’aisam or Aloft Dubai South; while Business Class passengers who book flights during the same period can enjoy two nights’ accommodation at either the JW Marriott Marquis or Marriott Al Jaddaf.

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Chocolatey day tour

Malagos Garden Resort, Davao In the southern part of the Philippines lies the country’s first chocolate museum. A perfect side trip for those who love chocolates or want to learn more about it. For a Chocolate making at Malagos Garden Resort and Chocolate Museum in Davao. (Photo from Malagos Chocolate/Facebook)

RedDoorz has more than 200 hotels in over 20 cities nationwide.

THAT SILKEN TOUCH

The hotel’s infinity pool on the 19th floor glistens high above the buildings of Makati.

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Emirates flies travelers from the Philippines to Dubai at lower fares and with additional perks.

come staff told me that EVER since I retired from the main lobby is on the my airline designation, my building’s 19th floor. The visits to Makati have besoothing panoramic view come less frequent. Being of the city, highlighted by a Manila resident, I limthe hotel’s infinity pool, ited my sphere of activity greeted me as I stepped to within my city and the out of the elevator. neighboring entertainMERCURY RISING The hotel has 293 ment area in Pasay City.

BY BOB ZOZOBRADO rooms, ranging from stuNeedless to say, the condio to three-bedroom tinuing traffic problem was suite. The studios are the deciding factor for my quite spacious, with sizes from 31 to 43 self-imposed limited mobility.

This is why, just the other day, I was pleas- square meters. Their three-bedroom suites antly surprised to see a very tall building at are large, at 143 square meters. The interithe western end of Ayala Avenue, right next ors are tastefully and elegantly decorated, to Makati Medical Center, when our associa- with a functional design that makes the oction held our first Board Meeting. It turned cupant comfortable and at ease.

All rooms have kitchen facilities which out that our venue was this tall building, now make them very convenient for long-staya deluxe hotel.

The Seda Residences Makati is a recently ing guests or those who do not want to go opened Ayala property. As I entered the ho- out for meals. The bigger rooms even have tel’s ground floor lobby, I knew right away I a washer and dryer. was in for a terrific visual treat when the welTurn to D2

Destinations

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SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 16, 2020 manilastandardlife@gmail.com

THE WAZE TO YOUR HEART H

OW did Filipinos spend their time during last year's Valentine’s Day? Navigation app Waze knows the answer.

Food is the way to the heart

Most Filipinos took their dates out for a sumptuous meal on Valentine’s Day 2019. Navigations to food locations grow significantly on February 14 compared to an average day.

Last year, dessert stores made the top of the list of most frequented by Filipinos during Valentine’s Day, with an 82 percent increase versus regular days. Restaurants and fast food joints ranked second and third, with 61 percent and 47 percent increases, respectively.

Date at the mall

Malls remain a favorite for spending quality time owing to a variety of fun activities available. In 2019, 23 percent of Filipinos chose to treat their loved ones at the mall, while 31 percent went out to spend Valentine’s Day at the movies.

Expectedly, traffic around malls were heavy during this day, hence Waze offers an alternative: If you don’t want to get stuck in traffic, get creative and navigate your way around by considering other ways to spend your date.

Flowers for your love

Flowers are a great way to express one’s love to their significant other. When it comes to buying them, however, Filipinos are leaving it to the last minute. According to Waze 2019 data, navigation to florists and flower shops grew higher by the day leading up to February 14th, with the highest spike in navigations on Valentine’s Day itself. “Hunting for other gift ideas in advance—instead of visiting the florist at the last minute—is ideal to avoid traffic,” said Waze.

5,000-PESO...

From D1 ticket priced at P650, visitors to the Malagos Garden and Chocolate Museum can watch how chocolates are made, from fruit to production, and sample them after. Complete the “Tree-to-Bar” experience by making a personalized bar for P450 for 200 grams.

After a chocolatey day, enjoy other funfilled activities in nearby attractions such as Museo de Mariposa (Butterfly Museum), or go biking or horseback-riding for as low as P80 per hour.

RedDoorz allows travelers to enjoy more without spending too much on lodging with its affordable rates. The company currently has more than 200 hotels in over 20 cities nationwide, including key cities and emerging tourist destinations.

“A single day just isn’t enough time to enjoy each and every part of these destinations. When traveling with a group, book rooms in a budget hotel strategically placed near your dream destinations. That way, you can save more time and money, but not on experiences and adventures with your family and friends.”

Seda Residences Makati stands at the western end of Ayala Avenue, right next to one of the country's leading medical facilities.

THAT SILKEN...

From D1

And it’s no simple kitchen either. It has a complete set of chinaware, glassware, and silverware, an electric kettle, microwave oven, an oven toaster, and induction cooktop with range hood. The kitchen also boasts a full-sized refrigerator, rice cooker, and a complete set of kitchen tools.

A typical room at Seda Residences Makati.

YOUR WEEKEND CHUCKLE Q: What do you call fish without eyes?

A: FSH

RedDoorz enables travelers to book affordable accommodations using its mobile app.

DUBAI...

From D1

Other perks include 10-kilogram free excess baggage allowance and free 30day Dubai Tourist Visa for local travelers.

When booking the flight tickets on www.emirates.com/ph, travelers simply need to enter the promotional code DUBAI20 before making payment. The complimentary hotel stay will then be booked and confirmed.

But for those who prefer to experience dining in style and comfort, the Misto Restaurant on the 35th floor offers buffet breakfast and lunch, and a breathtaking view of the city. The al fresco patio of the restaurant is the Straight Up Bar, offering a wide array of finger food, wines, and cocktails, ensuring a most refreshing and relaxing experience, with the city’s skyline glittering below and the wind blowing from every which way.

I’m glad I discovered this new hotel and, having experienced their service when we had our Board Meeting, I have to say that it lives up to its name. This new addition to our accommodations industry, Seda Residences Makati, banners the seamless, smooth, silken touch that every fastidious traveler looks for.

For feedback, I’m at bobzozobrado@gmail.com.

A twobedroom suite has a large living room and a dining area right next to the kitchen.

Entertainment

ANOTHER YEAR WITH HER ‘MAJASTY’

By Nickie Wang

S

OMETIME in 2018, when Maja Salvador celebrated her 15th year in show business, the screen darling had a show called Majasty, a concert inspired by her being a breathtaking onstage performer, particularly in the world of dance where she is considered royalty.

But Maja, now blooming at 31, doesn’t just leave everyone in awe whenever she hits the dance floor. She’s also an accomplished actor and a product endorser whose untarnished reputation makes her a reliable ambassador for any brand.

In thesw respects, Guitar Apparel decided to make Maja to be the face of the brand for another year.

“We welcome the new decade by gearing towards where we’ve been good at for 60 years—giving a new take on the basics and having a reliable face to further our brand’s reach,” an executive from Guitar Apparel said in a statement.

To mark the occasion, the brand organized the Guitar Apparel Fashion Show 2020 at Robinsons Place Manila’s Midtown Atrium. The show looked back at the brand’s past collections and displayed what its solid patrons can expect this new year.

More can be expected from the dance royalty, trending actress, and TV star and Guitar Apparel with this continued partnership. She’s just excited to finally focus on collaborating with the brand that she can so much relate to.

“I’m just so grateful for this partnership. Another year means we are growing together,” Maja said.

Last year, Maja joined the league of other accomplished and diverse artists representing Guitar Apparel namely Gloc 9, Carlos Agassi, and Jake Cuenca, whose characters gave justice to the brand and has been part of its six decades of success in the Philippines.

Her launch also marked the birth of Guitar’s first-ever denim series collection. As Guitar ventured into something new, the brand continued to reign in making the basics that the Filipinos have grown to love. The De Hilo, 800, 900, Underwear, Polo Shirt, Socks, and the Uniform series have been one of the most patronized and casual wears by Filipinos through the years.

Guitar Underwear is known and labeled as a premium brand of underwear since its launch in the 60s.

While the market is continuously evolving, the brand evolved as well, expanding its product line from basic underwear to innerwear and sleepwear, to socks, to polo shirts and then to jeans.

From underwear and to the upcoming collection, Guitar is now ready to take on the world of overall clothing and apparel while maintaining the best quality products and best business practices.

Maja Salvador renews her partnership with Guitar as the brand’s official ambassador.

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7 SIMPLE WAYS TO SHOW YOU CARE THIS

MONTH OF LOVE FEBRUARY is the time to celebrate all kinds of love, and whether you’re “selfpartnered,” spending it with someone special, or dedicating the season with family and friends, you can rely on mobile technology to help show your love in simple but meaningful ways.

Here are seven ways to make someone feel even more special with just a few taps on your smartphone—and prove that simple connections truly matter:

1. Get creative with a heartwarming message.

Whether you already have something planned out or thinking of a last-minute, sweep-off-your-feet gift, there’s nothing like a simple message that comes from the heart to let someone know you really care. Amp it up with a photo that takes you back to a special moment—or something that makes you look forward to a shared goal.

2. Beat the rush with a special flower or food delivery.

No time, no problem. Just go to any delivery app and search for that perfect flower arrangement or feast-fortwo that fits your budget. It’s all about knowing your loved one’s favorites — flower, food or both—and you’re good to go.

3. Purchase that special gift on your mobile phone.

If your language of love leans towards the generous kind, don’t let traffic stop you from getting the gift your special someone deserves.

There’s a lot of shopping apps that let you have your surprise delivered right where you want it. All it takes is just a few taps on your smartphone.

4. Rekindle friendships with an old photo.

Missing the good old days? Reach out to friends you haven’t seen for quite some time now and remind them of that fun trip you had a couple of years ago. These days, it’s just a matter of reposting a previous memory – and tagging everyone – to get you to talk about the next catch-up dinner or impromptu road trip.

Maja with fellow Guitar ambassadors Gloc 9 and Carlos Agassi.

QUENCHING YOUR THIRST FOR KNOWLEDGE JOIN award-winning host Chris Tiu, James Macasero, tween star JK “Dekdek” Giducos, and Vaness del Moral as they discover how science can be everywhere, today on iBilib.

For the show’s yet another fun and informative episode, quench your thirst for knowledge and learn the science behind the awe-inspiring ”flair bartending” moves of Master Bartender, Richie Cruz, and watch as Dekdek even gets to try his hand at spinning the bottles in the air.

Meanwhile, find out the science and technology behind the magical Air Pen, which people have been mistaken for a microphone, a flashlight, and a magical wand.

For today’s Street Genius experiment, find the answer which 10-pound dumbbell will fall to the ground first: one wrapped in chains, one with a hanging chain attached or a plain one with no chain attached?

Also, discover what can separate egg yolks from the whites fastest (is it by using a hand, a shell, a spoon or a plastic bottle?)

For her ”Huling Hirit,” Vaness shows us how to make a yummy Strawberry Rose.

Make your Sunday mornings more fun and educational with iBilib.

SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 16, 2020

Nickie Wang, Editor nickie.standard@gmail.com

Chris Tiu with gang of ‘iBilib’

5. Curate a special playlist dedicated to your loved one.

Music has a special ability to take us back to special moments in our life, so a thoughtfully-curated playlist on music streaming apps such as Spotify would be perfect to show you care.

From hugot tunes to tracks that feed your indie obsession, you can easily put together titles that follow the plotline of your love life.

6. Binge-watch your fave kilig shows on Netflix.

If you have your own soundtrack, your personal binge-watch selection can’t be far behind. Time to watch those series and movies that you never get the time to focus on.

7. Share those cheesy moments when you post your Valentine stories.

You only get this one time in the entire year for that license to be cheesy, so make the most of your celebration by capturing and sharing these “love stories” on social media.

It doesn’t take a lot to make someone feel special. Powered by Smart LTE, the country’s undisputed fastest mobile network as certified by global internet testing leader Ookla, a few taps on your phone can go a long way in celebrating the month of love and making simple connections matter.

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V

SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 16, 2020

Desiree Carlos, Editor

Pets

daycarlos28@yahoo.com

MY FURRY BESTIE

ITAMINS are essential for your dog’s well-being.

“Vitamins are organic compounds that are necessary for a myriad of different chemical reactions in the body. Some are made in your dog's body and some need to be ingested through diet,” stressed Boneo (For Canine Bone Health) in its website boneo.bio-rep.com.

Boneo explained: “Vitamins often work in conjunction with minerals and enzymes to assure normal digestion, reproduction, muscle and bone growth and function, healthy skin and hair, clotting of blood, and the use of fats, proteins, and carbohydrates by the body. Thirteen vitamins are currently recognized.”

THIS corner features pets of animal lovers every week. We hope new owners and those thinking of getting a pet will be encouraged to be responsible “furparents” through these features. We also hope more people will be moved to be kind to animals when they read about the great relationship that can be created between humans and animals.

Vitamins and other nutrients

While vitamins are necessary for good health, please remember that that they also work alongside other nutrients, specially minerals, to support functions, Boneo said.

“Some minerals are more easily absorbed or become bioavailable only when combined with vitamins (called co-factors).For example, calcium requires Vitamin D3 in order to be properly absorbed into the system,” Boneo emphasized.

It added: “Similarly, lactoferrin (an important molecule that is naturally produced within the body of all mammals, including dogs), is a metal binding protein (and) is a key transporter for many minerals, including iron and zinc.”

For contributions, please email to daycarlos28@yahoo.com and put My Furry Bestie as subject.

VITAMINS FOR A DOG’S BONE HEALTH

On multivitamins

Dogs produce or create some vitamins in their body while other vitamins are sourced from the food they are given.

Most commercial dog food contain the recommended daily amount of the "essential" vitamins.

But commercial dog food is not customized for specific needs of dogs. Thus, Boneo said adding homemade food is sometimes necessary.

Dogs on pure homemade food have to be monitored also as they may not be getting all the nutrients they need from natural food.

“A generalized dog multivitamin is typically not needed unless a dog has a deficiency or is on a homemade or specialized diet where they are not getting enough nutrients. The best way to determine whether additional vitamin supplementation is needed is through a blood panel test with a veterinarian,” Boneo said.

Onyok and Nahaniel were born with splayed legs. They are given calcium phosporous daily for bone support.

“Certain supplements do include vitamins and minerals to support specific needs (such as eye health, immune support, or skeletal health). These can be beneficial additions so long as the dosages are minimal and balanced and the supplement is of high quality. Vitamins can also be provided through homemade foods, such as leafy greens or sweet potatoes,” Boneo said.

The best vitamins for your doggo

Key vitamins for dogs, specially for bone health, have been well-documented, said Boneo.

While canned or dry dog food contain essential vitamins, dogs and pups with joint and bone support concerns need supplements for these conditions.

Such bone conditions include a broken leg or genetic predisposition to bone problems.

“When looking for a canine bone health supplement for your dog, it's important to note that even the best joint supplements for dogs do not offer important bone nutrients,” Boneo stressed.

Vitamin D

Vitamin D, 'the sunshine vitamin,”plays a huge role in regulating the calcium and phosphorus levels within the bloodstream.

“Vitamin D stimulates the conservation of calcium in the kidney and therefore helps the body to retain it. Because of its interplay with calcium, Vitamin D is known to be extremely important in bone formation and muscle control,” Boneo said.

“Low levels of Vitamin D can cause bone demineralization. Inclusion of this vitamin in a dog's diet is highly advised in both puppies and adult dogs,” Boneo added.

Vitamins C (Ascorbic Acid)

Boneo.bio-rep-com provides this graphic to show the important vitamins for dogs' bones and joints

Vitamin C is important for bone formation.

“It is involved in bone growth as well as bone mineralization. Vitamin C helps collagen biosynthesis and bone cartilage function,” Boneo said.

Deficiency in Vitamin C is linked to defective connective tissue, especially during the bone and wound healing.

Deficiency can also lead to scurvy.

“Dogs with scurvy exhibit weak bones and swollen joints usually accompanied by severe tissue bleed-

A puppy was found among the rubble . His front leg is broken and he is now in the care of AKF in Capas, Tarlac. His name is Fita.

ing,” Boneo said.

“In young dogs, scurvy is sometimes referred to as hypertrophic osteodystrophy (HOD). Dogs with HOD generally exhibit swollen, painful joints especially of the limbs. Vitamin C may help alleviate the pain associated with dysplastic hips. In arthritis, ROS and other free radicals are associated with the inflammation process via numerous pathways. Some studies have shown that Vitamin C could alleviate symptoms of arthritis. Vitamin C also helps reduce pain during fracture healing. Vitamin C is a widely used supplement in growing, pregnant, lactating, stressed, and working dogs,” Boneo said.

Vitamin E

Vitamin E is linked to a lot of physiological and biochemical functions.

“The molecular mechanisms of these functions are mediated by either antioxidant mechanism or by its role as a membrane stabilizer. It protects cell membranes from oxidative damage by removing free radicals and preventing the progression of oxidative reactions,” Boneo stressed.

“Several studies have elucidated a positive role for vitamin E in expediting the fracture healing process with influence on bone remodeling,” Boneo added.

“In the skeletal system, several studies demonstrated effects of vitamin E on bone and cartilage tissues. Vitamin E supplementation, especially with the gamma isomer, improves bone structure, which contributed to stronger bone,” Boneo said.

Vitamin K

Vitamin K is linked to the synthesis of proteins that regulate bone metabolism. “ It is an essential co-factor for several bone proteins involved in calcium uptake and bone mineralization. Vitamin K has positive influence on bone mineral density (BMD) and helps reduce bone loss.

Vitamin K2 exerts a powerful influence on bone building, “ Boneo stressed.

“It has a stimulatory effect on bone formation in the femoral tissues. K2 may have a preventive role for bone deterioration with aging. Vitamin K play a synergistic role with vitamin D, Ca(II) and Zn(II) in reducing bone loss,” Boneo added.

AKF with volunteers rescuing an emaciated animal.

A cattle and a chicken having their fill from a shared plate.

ABANDONING ANIMALS DURING DISASTER

TAAL volcano caught everybody by sur- still ongoing around Taal, with 466 earthprise. It erupted on an unassuming Sun- quakes recorded and observed by Phiday afternoon last January 12, 2020. Phi- volcs but AKF still deployed volunteers to volcs immediately issued an Alert Level the hard-hit villages for feeding and first4, indicating that "a hazardous explosive aid treatment of the abandoned animals.

"These new eruption is posstrong, continusible within hours ous earthquakes to days,” promptthat we are now ing the provincial

BY GREG SALIDO QUIMPO experiencing government of AND HEIDI MARQUEZ are due to fisBatangas to evacsuring, which uate everyone within the declared Permanent Danger means that there really is magma that is still making its way out of Taal," Mariton Zone (PDZ).

Unfortunately for the animals, espe- Bornas, chief of volcano monitoring and cially for the more than a thousand ani- eruption at PHIVOLCS said on Tuesday.

Three weeks later, AKF and its Taal Emermals in the island volcano, they were not gency Animal Rescue (TEAR) team are still part of the rescue plan.

After three days, volcanic activity was caring for the abandoned animals.

CLAWS PROTECTION

CHIVAS was given to Tess Cayanas by her best friend who was going home to the province to live there permanently.

“My eight-month-old baby had four siblings which were adopted also. I gladly took Chivas home and he instantly became my bestfriend, “ Tess says.

“He loves snapping at plastic bottles and climbing the windows. He goes out to poop and pee,”Tess adds.

“Somehow I was able to train him well. I bring him to the vet for his check-up to make sure he is healthy.”

Tess says.

During a committee hearing at the Senate, AKF Program Director Atty. Heidi Marquez Caguioa, appealed that AKF and the other rescuers, “…have been pressing for the immediate rescue of the animals because they are the reason why communities keep coming back to the area."

Per the Batangas Provincial Veterinarian Office (PVO), there are more than a thousand animals abandoned in the volcano island. These are a mix of horses, cows, pigs and fowls.

AKF further argued that since the volcano island is declared as a no-man’s land by no less than the Phivolcs, there should not be any animals in the island. But trekkers to the volcano are allowed via the tourism program of the province and some hotels organize trips to the island

therefore horses with guides exist in the volcano island.

Now that the volcano erupted, the animals were abandoned.

AKF is the main convenor of the TEAR and is the collaborator of the provincial veterinary office (PVO) of Batangas but the Provincial Disaster and Risk Reduction Management Council (PDRRMC) of Batangas decides whether the animals should be retrieved or not. They issued a total lockdown of the PDZ's hence no groups or individuals were allowed to retrieve any animals.

AKF will lobby to the lawmakers for the inclusion of the animals in the agenda of the planned disaster management bureau. See also AKF’s online petition: (Change.Org)

SOLOMON was a regular visitor in the clothes store of Basky Tuazon in Mandaluyong.

“One day, he just came by. Solomon would jump on the pile of clothes and rest there the whole day. Every day he would come,”shares Basky.

“I started feeding him fish and from then on, he never left me,” Basky adds.

“When it's closing time, he would stretch out and walk out of my store.

He would wait for me to be done and I would put him in my bag and we would bike on our way home. He loves bike rides,” Basky says.

“He sleeps on my bed and when morning comes, we would eat together with my wife and bike to the store again,”Basky shares.

“Solomon is my constant companion and he loves keeping me company,” Basky adds.

The vet says Solomon is one year old.

Editor's note: These stories were compiled by admin Miks Lim of Save Animals of Love and Light (Save ALL), a SEC-registered animal welfare group that helps animals in need, and encourages and promotes responsible pet ownership, adoption of rescued dogs and cats from fosters, shelters and pounds, and spaying and neutering of pets to control animal population in the country, among others.