BusinessMirror April 07, 2024

DENR wants power to demolish illegal structures in protected areas as Chocolate Hills fiasco opens a can of worms

TBy Ma. Stella F. Arnaldo Special to the BusinessMirror

HE Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) is seeking an amendment to the expanded protected areas law to give it the power to demolish illegal structures in these ecologically critical locations.

This developed as senators laid the blame at the foot of DENR officials for what they perceived as the latter’s inability to enforce Republic Act 11038, or the Expanded National Integrated Protected Areas System (ENipas) Act of 2018, even issuing environmental climate certificates (ECC) that have allowed commercial structures to be built in these protected areas. Sen. Cynthia Villar, chairperson of the Senate Committee on Environment, Natural Resources, and Climate Change, stressed at a hearing of her committee on Wednesday, “Even if these areas are [individually] titled, there are limitations on what the owners can do. It’s okay if it’s for agriculture purposes, but for other uses, like resorts, this shouldn’t be allowed.” DENR officials cited that in many protected areas, there are already private property owners because large portions had been declared alienable and disposable (A&D) lands, even before the ENipas Act had been promulgated.

At the hearing, jointly held with the Senate Committee on Local Government to discuss commercial structures in Chocolate Hills as well as other protected areas, Sen. Raffy Tulfo pointed out there were 57 of such structures at the Mount Apo Natural Park, which had been approved by the Protected Areas Management Bureau (PAMB), but had no ECCs from the DENR. “It should be, that if they don’t have an ECC, you [DENR] should immediately demolish [the structures],” he asserted. Mount Apo, a dormant volcano, is a popular tourist destination located along the borders of Davao City and Davao del Sur.

However, Environment Undersecretary for Legal and Administration Ernesto Adobo said the agency’s hands are tied in this regard. “Under the law, we have to go through the courts before demolition…. We have a position paper [to amend the law] to have the power to demolish.”

He cited the case of Boracay Island, where DENR had been able to demolish portions of resorts that violated the easement on the main white beach, because the Malay Municipality had its own ordinance that prescribed the 25+5-meter easement rule. “But in the forestlands, we have not been able to do that [demolish the structures], and many cases are pending [in court].” The DENR chaired the Boracay Inter-Agency Task Force tasked to rehabilitate the island in 2018.

Meanwhile, Senate President Pro Tempore Loren Legarda revealed at the same hearing that it was DENR Assistant Secretary for Field Operations (Luzon and Visayas) Gilbert Gonzales who approved the construction of the controversial Captain’s Peak Garden and Resort in Chocolate Hills. Gonzales was DENR regional executive director and chairman of PAMB, which had discussed the resort project, but he said he was away on an official trip when that meeting was held.

Senators also learned that 95.5 percent of Chocolate Hills, the Philippines’s first Unesco Global Geopark, are A&D lands, of which 5,652 properties are privately titled covering 7,860 hectares. Aside from Captain’s Peak, there are two other resorts within the popular destination—all of them have no

ECCs either. Captain’s Peak was eventually closed last month after the municipality of Sagbayan, where the resort is located, cancelled the latter’s business permit after it learned DENR had issued a temporary closure order last September precisely because it had no ECC. An official of the municipality said they were never given a copy of the DENR order, thus they proceeded in giving the resort a business permit in January 2024. (See, “Controversial resort within Chocolate Hills now closed,” in the BusinessMirror, March 15, 2024.)

Legarda, an environmentalist, insisted that DENR wrongly interpreted the ENipas law, which she coauthored as a bill, because its “aim has always been to protect and conserve our environment.” As such, she pointed out, that even if there are privately titled lands in protected areas, “any development on those properties will still have to conform to the law’s objective, i.e., ecological conservation.”

Sen. Nancy Binay, chairperson of the Committee on Tourism, had filed Resolution No. 967 urging relevant Senate committees to investigate the presence of commercial structures within Chocolate Hills and other protected areas after a vlogger’s video of Captain’s Peak went viral. In her opening statement at Wednesday’s hearing, she said in a mix of Filipino and English that aside from seeking the DENR and its other agencies’ side on the Chocolate Hills issue, “it would be good to find out what the local government units are doing to care for our protected areas, and if their comprehensive land use plans are aligned, harmonized, and complementing with ‘no-build zones,’ ‘protection zones,’ and ‘buildable areas’ to the unique physical and geographical character of Bohol and in line with the protection of the province’s geological heritage.” She stressed that the Senate hearing didn’t intend to have officials point fingers at each other,

“but we want to know where the policy gaps are, the gray areas in laws and ordinances, the failure in coordination and implementation, and why mandates were not faithfully carried out.” DENR’s Gonzales tried to defend his endorsement of Captain’s Peak, which was approved for construction in February 2018, saying that the project went through a stringent process and despite his absence when the project was discussed by PAMB, “the barangay captains imposed strict conditions such as no building on top of the hills. They actually debated what is acceptable to the PAMB. They also insisted that the proponent secure an ECC. But because the proponent didn’t seek an ECC, we were not given the chance to scrutinize the project.”

To this, Binay urged DENR to “tighten the policy” on how the PAMB hearings should be convened. Under the law, PAMB meet-

THE Captain’s Peak Garden and Resort, Sagbayan, Bohol MICHAEL EDWARDS | DREAMSTIME.COM AERIAL view of the Chocolate Hills

As

international travel

grows, so does

US use of technology. A look at how it’s used at airports

By Rebecca Santana The Associated Press

WASHINGTON—The Belgian family of four was on their fourth trip to the United States. They had been dreading the long line at passport control when they entered the country but had heard about a new app they could use to ease their way and decided to give it a shot. Within minutes, they had bypassed the long line at Washington Dulles International Airport and were waiting for their luggage.

“It was always a long row,” said Piet De Staercke of the line to go through passport screening. He, his wife and two sons were visiting Washington and Chicago. “We were a bit scared. But now with the app, it’s amazing.”

As travel continues to boom following coronavirus pandemicrelated slumps, US Customs and Border Protection is expanding the use of technology like the Mobile Passport Control app the De Staercke family used in an effort to process the ever-growing number of passengers traveling internationally. And with events like a rare solar eclipse, the Olympics in

Paris, and summer holidays still driving international travel, those numbers don’t look set to drop anytime soon. Customs and Border Protection officials gave The Associated Press a behind-the-scenes look at some of the technologies they’ve been using and what to expect in the months and years ahead.

The numbers DURING fiscal year 2023, the agency processed over 394 million travelers at the ports of entry. That’s a 24-percent increase over the previous year. When looking at the country’s top 20 airports

by passenger volume, officers processed 31 percent more travelers while average wait times increased 11 percent. And at some of the busiest airports, the wait times have had negligible increases or even decreased. At JFK Airport in New York, for example, wait times went

down—by 0.4 of a second on average—while CBP officers processed 33 percent more travelers.

Increasingly, people are traveling internationally with their families rather than going abroad alone for business.

More apps

OFFICIALS are moving more toward app-based technologies to speed passengers’ movement through the airport. The Mobile Passport Control app used by the Belgian family is one example. It’s available to US citizens, but also to lawful permanent residents, certain Canadians and travelers from countries who are part of the Visa Waiver Program who’ve already been to the US at least once.

Passengers upload their photos and information to the app. When they enter the screening area, they get routed to a separate line. The officer then just needs to take a photo of one member of the family and it pulls up the entire group’s photos and their information.

CBP launched the app in 2021 but is now trying to get more people to use it, including by working with airlines to allow the app to be downloaded while the plane is in flight and putting up signs at airports to let travelers know about

it. Last year, a record 4.1 million people came into the country using the app.

“Any second that we can save through the process, it saves time because it adds up eventually,” said Marc Calixte, the top CBP official at Dulles.

Last September, the agency also created an app specifically for passengers who use Global Entry. That’s one of the “Trusted Traveler” programs CBP runs that allows certain low-risk passengers who make an appointment for an interview and submit to a background check to travel through customs and passport control more quickly when they arrive in the US.

Improvements to global entry

LAST year saw a record 3.2 million people apply to the Global Entry program, and this year the agency is on track to field about 4 million applications, said Brendan Blackmer, CBP branch chief for the Trusted Traveler Programs. But passengers have complained about how long it can take to get applications processed and their struggles to get appointments. On its website, CBP says it averages four to six months to process applications. In February, 17 members of Congress wrote to CBP demanding infor-

mation, saying they were fielding complaints from constituents over the wait times.

Blackmer said the agency has pushed to improve the process, including by allowing nearly 100% of people renewing their status to do so without having to come into an enrollment center. That frees up appointments for first-time applicants. And it’s pushing for more people to be able to complete the process while they’re in the airport, either leaving or returning from a trip.

There are also more appointments available, Blackmer said, although some cities like San Francisco are still seeing so much demand that appointments can take more than 90 days to get.

“We’ve done a lot of work the past year and a half, and the agency’s in a better position now and able to meet the demand for the program. And we’re going to continue to work,” Blackmer said.

Fee increases

COME October 1, people using some of the Trusted Traveler Programs will see increases to the fees they pay. The cost of NEXUS, a US-Canadian program designed to ease travel between the two countries for pre-approved travelers, will go from $50 to $120.

Global Entry will go from $100 to $120. SENTRI, for pre-approved travelers on the southern border with Mexico, will go down, from $122.50 to $120.

But the fees will now cover all kids under 18 regardless of which program you’re in.

What’s unchanged is that approval for the programs will still be good for five years.

What’s next?

CALIXTE said possibly by the end of summer the airport will be opening so-called E-Gates where passengers using Global Entry can use the app, bypass an officer at a booth, and instead go to a gate where their photo is taken and matched to their passport, and, assuming no red flags arise, the gates open and they pass out of the customs and passport control area and are on their way.

Further on the horizon, Blackmer said the agency is exploring a concept called smart queuing, where the app assigns passengers to certain lines depending on information they have entered into the app, such as whether they have goods to declare.

Who protects our protected areas?

ings and hearings can be convened as long as there is a quorum, even if the chairman is absent.

At the beginning of the hearing Environment Secretary Maria Antonia Yulo-Loyzaga said, “There are 100-147 members of PAMB, and the while the chair is the regional executive director, he doesn’t vote. So in the case of Chocolate Hills, the barangay officials voted for the resolution [allowing Captain’s Peak’s construction].” She added that DENR also wants to amend the ENipas law to change the composition of PAMB, and said she has discussed with the Secretaries of Interior and Local Government (DILG), as well as of Tourism regarding this proposal.

Following the controversy over Captain’s Peak, Tourism Secretary Christina Garcia Frasco issued a statement that the Department of Tourism (DOT) was seeking a seat in PAMB to be able to recommend initiatives to further preserve protected areas in tourism destinations like Bohol. “Since PAMB is a creation of law and DOT is not a part of PAMB, we are lobbying for legislation to amend its composition to include the DOT, so it may

give its insights and guidance on sustainable tourism development for protected areas,” she said.

Captain’s Peak is not an accredited tourism enterprise, nor was it seeking accreditation, which is among the requirements before municipal governments can issue a business permit to primary tourism establishments (PTEs). The DILG had already stressed this requirement in a memorandum circular in 2019, on the heels of the closure and rehabilitation of Boracay Island, and again reiterated in an advisory on August 26, 2022. The advisory said LGUs have to ensure that all PTEs have complied with and have obtained DOT accreditation before operations.

For his part, Bohol Gov. Erico Aristotle Aumentado, who was also present at Wednesday’s Senate committee hearing, said his administration “takes its role seriously” in preserving sites such as Chocolate Hills, so the next generations can enjoy these as well. He noted that the tourism boom in his province has benefited its residents, has become insurgent-free, and is no longer among the poorest provinces in the country. “Naturally, we don’t want uncontrolled, unregulated develop -

ment...,” he said, so he requested DENR-7’s Regional Executive Director to convene the Chocolate Hills Natural Monument Protected Area Management Board in March to revoke PAMB resolutions that allowed the construction of Captain’s Peak resort.

Data from the Bohol Provincial Tourism Office said the island province welcomed some 1 million tourists in 2023, of whom 67 percent were domestic travelers, while the rest were foreign tourists. At the recent ITB Berlin, the world’s largest travel trade fair, Filipino tour operators and resort managers noted an increasing interest by international tourists in Bohol. (See, “Foreign buyers at ITB Berlin remain interested in the PHL,” in the BusinessMirror, March 19, 2024.)

More committee hearings are expected to follow to discuss other protected areas such as the Masungi Georeserve, where a foundation was allowed by the late Environment Secretary Gina Lopez to oversee its conservation. However, the Department of Justice now says the agreement between DENR and the foundation was a “void contract from the beginning.” Loyzaga said the DENR was inclined to follow DOJ’s opinion on the matter.

A CUSTOM Border Protection officer, right, puts his thumb up as Tuur de Staercke, left, gets screened in the port of entry as his family watches at Washington Dulles International Airport in Chantilly, Va. Monday, April 1, 2024. The Belgian family of four used the Mobile Passport Control app, the newest technology in international travel, to ease their way to their port of entry. Within minutes they had bypassed a long line of people waiting at the airport’s passport control and were waiting for their luggage. AP/MANUEL BALCE CENETA

Editor: Angel R. Calso

The World

Kim Jong Un faces annihilation in analysts’ Korea war scenarios

By Jon Herskovitz

AFTER decades of empty threats, much of the world tunes out when North Korea vows to unleash destruction on its enemies. But in the past few months, some prominent analysts began warning that Kim Jong Un may actually be serious about preparing for war.

Now in his 13th year running North Korea, Kim is more aggressively testing the boundaries of what his adversaries will tolerate. Backed by rapid progress in his nation’s nuclear capabilities and missile program, the 40-year-old dictator began 2024 by removing the goal of peaceful unification from North Korea’s constitution and declaring he had the right to “annihilate” South Korea.

While such bellicose rhetoric would normally be dismissed—Kim could just be posturing ahead of South Korean elections on April 10—two prominent analysts set off a round of discussion among North Korea watchers with an article suggesting that this time Kim isn’t bluffing.

“Like his grandfather in 1950, Kim Jong Un has made a strategic decision to go to war,” former CIA officer Robert Carlin and nuclear scientist Siegfried Hecker wrote in early 2024 on the website 38 North, which focuses on North Korea. They didn’t forecast how soon that could take place.

Carlin and Hecker’s views are not universal: Most analysts argue that any full-scale attack would be a move of desperation or suicide, inviting a response from South Korea and the US that would end the Kim family’s nearly eight-decade-long rule. But with multiple conflicts raging in Ukraine and the Middle East, it’s just the kind of war the world could stumble into—with potentially devastating consequences for not just the Korean Peninsula, but the global economy and, particularly, the chip supply chain.

Seoul’s response to all the speculation has been blunt: “The Kim regime will meet its end” if it pursues all-out war, South Korea’s Defense Ministry said in January.

Here are the potential scenarios if Kim Jong Un decides to make good on his threats to attack South Korea.

How it begins

BACK in 1950, North Korean troops invaded South Korea, catching the US off guard. The forces of Kim Il Sung— Kim Jong Un’s grandfather—took over much of the peninsula before US and South Korean forces counterattacked. China’s intervention led to a stalemate that resulted in a cease-fire but no formal peace treaty, and the Korean Peninsula has remained split at around the 38th parallel ever since.

Kim Jong Un is unlikely to risk a similar invasion. But he has shown an appetite for smaller provocations that could spin out of control—a trait shared by his father, Kim Jong Il.

One flashpoint is the Yellow Sea border islands that are part of South Korea but located in waters claimed by Pyongyang. In 2010, some two years before Kim Jong Un took power, Yeonpyeong Island was the scene of a deadly artillery bombardment that killed two South Korean soldiers and two civilians, while setting houses ablaze. About six months earlier, South Korea accused North Korea of torpedoing its warship Cheonan near the island, killing 46 sailors—an allegation Pyongyang denied.

South Korea has since pledged that another attack in the Yellow Sea would be met by an even stronger response, raising the chance for miscalculations on both sides that could quickly escalate.

“If North Korea makes a provocation, we will punish it multiple times over,” conservative President Yoon Suk Yeol said in January after North Korea conducted artillery drills near a border island. The South Korean leader has taken a tough line with Kim’s regime and responded to its provocations with military drills, of -

ten enlisting the US in shows of force.

Attack on Seoul

ANY peripheral attack that escalates would immediately turn the spotlight onto greater Seoul, home to about half of the country’s 51 million people. North Korea has spent decades stockpiling millions of rounds of artillery and thousands of rockets in the terrain north of the demilitarized zone, which sits some 40 kilometers (25 miles) away from South Korea’s largest city.

That border region is also home to about 70% of South Korea’s $1.67 trillion economy, the base for some of the world’s top technology and manufacturing powerhouses, including Samsung Electronics Co., LG Electronics Inc. and Kia Corp. Even a brief conflict would reverberate throughout global supply chains, disrupting the global economy.

In a display typical of his more aggressive stance, Kim watched his forces in March fire off the weapons that could be used in an attack on the South Korean capital. Just a oneminute artillery and rocket barrage against Seoul could result in nearly 15,000 casualties, according to a 2020 analysis by Rand. A one-hour barrage would see that number rise to more than 100,000.

In either case, a larger conflict would be inevitable.

Full conflict

IF Kim goes all-in on a war, he would likely kick it off with an artillery barrage at key military, political and economic targets in Seoul. North Korea keeps its howitzers, mortars and rocket artillery in hardened positions and ready to fire on short notice for exactly this purpose.

At the same time, an estimated 200,000 soldiers in Kim’s special operations units—part of a 1.1 millionstrong active-duty army—would try to cross the border by land, sea, air and even tunnel, according to South Korea’s Defense Ministry. One goal would be to target bridges on the Han River that flows through the center of Seoul, cutting the city in half and making it difficult for millions of people to flee to the less-populated southern end of the peninsula.

Kim would also seek to impose huge economic costs as quickly as possible. The Rand war game analysis determined that a five-minute North Korean artillery strike on one LG-run factory in Paju, north of Seoul, would put an $8.9 billion investment at risk and cause thousands of casualties.

But North Korea’s advantages in striking first wouldn’t last long.

South Korea is also ready to fight: It has Patriot defense systems to intercept incoming missiles, 555,000 active-duty troops and a military budget that’s larger than North Korea’s entire sanctions-ravaged economy. And there’s also 28,500 US troops based in South Korea, along with American spy satellites constantly monitoring the Korean Peninsula.

Although North Korea has a manpower advantage, the bulk of its forces rely on “increasingly obsolete equipment” dating back to the days of the Soviet Union, the International Institute for Strategic Studies said in its 2023 review of the world’s militaries.

North Korea’s few Soviet-era fighters and its squadrons of single-propeller An-2 biplanes—developed in the 1950s and with a top speed of about 160 miles per hour (260 kph)—would be easy pickings for South Korea’s surface-to-air missiles and modern F-35A jets, which can travel at speeds exceeding 1,200 mph.

“The United States and South Korea would essentially, instantly, from the very first moments of the war, have absolute air superiority in every way that could be imagined,” said Michael Mazarr, a senior political scientist at Rand.

It’s the same when it comes to other weapons systems: Pyongyang’s submarines are mostly small underwater

clunkers that can’t stray far from the coast because they are easily detected. Its tanks are Soviet-era, and easily destroyed by Javelin missile systems used in Ukraine to stop Russia.

What South Korea doesn’t strike in the first few waves would likely be subject to air and missile attacks in the days that follow, leaving North Korea’s cities vulnerable to destruction—as happened in the original Korean War.

“Inadequate availability of fuel and transportation assets, poor maintenance of ground lines of communication, and insufficient training all constrain North Korea’s ability to sustain large-scale conventional offensive operations,” the US Defense Intelligence Agency said in a recent report.

‘Bloody nose’ strike

ANOTHER possibility is a “bloody nose” strike against North Korea by the US and South Korea, an option discussed during the Trump administration. This scenario would only be on the table if the allies believed a large-scale North Korean attack was imminent, with the intent to show force and remind Kim that his antiquated military is no match for America’s might.

But the move was always seen as risky, likely leading directly to a bigger conflict. Moreover, in recent years, many of North Korea’s liquidfuel rockets—which take time to fire off—have been replaced by solid-fuel versions that Kim can quickly shoot from train carriages, lake beds and launchers hidden in caves with little to no warning.

If Kim misjudged and thought the US and South Korea were looking to end his regime—instead of just deliver a message of deterrence—he might preemptively use a nuclear weapon, said Duyeon Kim, an adjunct senior fellow in Seoul at the Center for a New American Security.

A US National Intelligence Estimate that was declassified last year said Kim would probably only use his atomic arsenal if he believes he and his regime are in peril.

“Our analysis right now is, effectively, that he will engage in increasingly provocative behavior but not— is not interested—in escalating this into a full-on war and that there is a kind of a limit on this,” US Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines told Congress in March.

If a broader North Korean attack looked likely, South Korea would aim to deploy new bunker-buster missiles and squadrons of fighter jets based south of Seoul. US bombers in Guam and ships and fighters based in Japan could also come to South Korea’s aid.

The South Korea-US alliance would use air superiority to target command centers, weapons storage sites, rocket launchers, radars, military bunkers, missile silos and nuclear storage facilities in hopes of wiping out as many of North Korea’s assets as possible.

Targeting Kim

ALSO on the target list: North Korea’s leaders, including Kim. Yoon has not been shy discussing his country’s socalled Three Axis plan that includes preemptive strikes, full-scale assaults and taking out Kim. Pyongyang’ propaganda apparatus has denounced South Korea for organizing “decapitation units” and pledged to destroy “the puppet warmongers” with a nuclear attack if they tried.

The question of nuclear weapons is the most harrowing. Various estimates indicate North Korea may have 40 to 90 warheads. The Seoul-based Korea Institute for Defense Analyses said Kim seeks to have 100 to 300 over the long term.

A strike on the Seoul region with one of North Korea’s more powerful bombs could cause about 400,000 fatalities and 1.5 million casualties, Rand estimated. North Korea could also strike out against US ally Japan, or target American facilities in Guam or even in North America, although

opinion is divided on whether Kim’s regime has the ICBM technology to hit targets on the US mainland.

“North Korea has yet to demonstrate its capability to launch a nuclear attack against the United States, with questions lingering about its proficiency in reentry vehicle technology,” said Lami Kim, a nonproliferation expert at the Asia-Pacific Center for Security Studies in Honolulu.

In early April, Kim’s regime tested a new missile that it said could deploy a nuclear-capable hypersonic glide vehicle capable of striking US bases in Japan and Guam, saying it was “an ultra-modern weapon” for protecting the nation.

North Korea has also sought to deploy lower yield tactical nuclear weapons for the battlefield, perhaps to slow down a US-led counterattack. But use of nuclear weapons would expose Kim to a far more powerful response, with the US being able to hit back quickly, and overwhelmingly.

In that case, the death toll for an all-out strike could reach into the millions. A full-blown war could knock the global economy off the rails, leading to trillions in dollars of damage. And Kim’s regime would almost certainly be finished.

“We assess that through 2030, Kim Jong Un most likely will continue to pursue a strategy of coercion, potentially including non-nuclear lethal attacks, aimed at advancing the North’s goals of intimidating its neighbors, extracting concessions, and bolster -

ing the regime’s military credentials domestically,” said the latest US National Intelligence Estimate report.

Is conflict inevitable?

THE biggest questions now are whether the die has already been cast and what could prevent it.

Most analysts say Kim’s more heated rhetoric is just amped-up saberrattling, meant to influence South Korea’s elections, unsettle the West or win more concessions. Kim has staged provocations ahead of every election held in South Korea during his time in power, and he has more of an incentive to deal Yoon’s conservative party a blow in the April 10 vote for parliament.

“The fundamental goal of the regime is regime preservation,” said Rand’s Mazarr.

Another variable to consider is China—historically Pyongyang’s closest partner, which came to the aid of Kim’s grandfather during the first Korean War.

Beijing has every reason to prevent a conflict from starting or getting out of hand. A nuclear exchange on the peninsula, or a conventional war that results in North Korea’s defeat, would go against China’s long-term interests, potentially leaving American and South Korean troops near the Chinese border and the global economy in tatters. But China’s influence over North Korea has long been limited, despite being the country’s most important

trade partner. Even when Beijing was cooperating with the US on the UN Security Council to condemn North Korean nuclear developments during the Trump years, the measures failed to change Pyongyang’s behavior. Kim is also working to diversify his economy away from China, selling some of his artillery stockpiles to Russia for its war in Ukraine.

That economic windfall—which could be in the low billions of dollars—may be one factor that helps keep Kim in line, along with his own desire for self-preservation. The fact that he’s selling millions of artillery shells to Russia may be another signal that Kim doesn’t actually want a war, given he would risk running short of arms to defend himself.

Moreover, there is now a chance that Donald Trump, who met Kim three times and generally sought better relations with North Korea, will again win the US presidency. Either way, Kim has already shown he has a long-term plan for his family to continue to rule the nation his grandfather founded in 1948, signaling that his daughter could take the reins of power decades from now.

Kim would’ve already invaded South Korea if he was actually preparing for war, according to Daniel Pinkston, an international relations lecturer at Troy University in Seoul and a former Korean linguist with the US Air Force. A simpler explanation, he said, is that North Korea is deterred from doing so. Bloomberg News

The World

The true toll of the Russia-Ukraine war is measured in bodies.

By Erika Kinetz & Solomiia Hera The Associated Press

OVHENKE, Ukraine—The

Dsmell in the car is sick and sweet, the overpowering scent of corpses that have lain too long in muck and ruin, the ones the dogs didn’t devour. Oleksii Yukov, a 38-year-old martial arts instructor who leads a team of volunteer body collectors in Ukraine, doesn’t notice. He is on the phone with one of the mothers. She heard her son was injured in battle and left behind, but she’s not sure where.

“He was left to die and now they are telling me that ‘he died as a hero!?’” she says, choking out words between sobs.

“Don’t cry,” Yukov tells her. “Because if you get weak—no one will help him ... Don’t cry in front of anyone! They are not worth it. Cry in front of the grave of your son only.”

“We will take everyone back,” he promised. “We just need some time.”

Yukov says the same thing to all the mothers. He tells them to talk about their dead children, so they will be remembered. There is one person in particular whose story Yukov does not want forgotten: Oleksandr Romanovych Hrysiuk—Sasha, to his mother, Olha.

In a cryptic voice message last year, Yukov urged Olha to tell Sasha’s story. “Not everyone has such a story,” he told her.

But he left out the most important part: What it had cost him to bring Sasha home.

Counting bodies

THE true toll of the war in Ukraine— and the odds faced by each side—can be measured in bodies.

More than half a million people have been killed or seriously injured in two years of war in Ukraine, according to Western intelligence estimates—a human toll not seen in Europe since World War II. The question of who prevails is being increasingly shaped by which side can tolerate higher losses.

By that measure, Moscow has the upper hand.

Analysts say it will be hard for Ukraine to outmatch Russian forces, which continue to grow despite hundreds of thousands of casualties, without significant resources from its international partners. But the US Congress has not approved $60 billion in aid for Ukraine, even as soldiers at the front run low on ammunition.

“Putin is not running a democracy,” said Evelyn Farkas, a former senior Pentagon official for Russia and Ukraine who now heads the McCain Institute at Arizona State University. “Putin can afford to be more callous and disregard the body count.”

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, on the other hand, is presiding over a more democratic system, “where the will of the people is actually the strongest component of their war machine.” Russia had 3.7 times more men of fighting age than Ukraine in 2022, according to World Bank data. That means that though Russia has sustained nearly twice as many casualties as Ukraine, according to Western intelligence estimates, on a per capita basis Russia’s losses remain lower than Ukraine’s.

At current levels of recruitment, the Kremlin can sustain current attrition rates through 2025, according to an assessment by the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI), a think tank in London. Meanwhile, Ukraine this week took the politically difficult step of lowering the military conscription age from 27 to 25 in an effort to replenish its ranks.

“Manpower is another currency,” said Nick Reynolds, a research fellow

This man

at RUSI. “The Russians with their industrial base and larger manpower can expend manpower and materiel at less cost.”

Yukov understands that for people far away, war is geopolitics, death can be counted in numbers, and money matters more than men. But he knows better.

“War has one face,” he said. “Death and stupidity and horror.”

God takes the best away

THE last time Olha Hrysiuk spoke with her son, Sasha asked about the spring crops, the vegetable garden, their horses and cows, were the chickens laying many eggs? The conversation went on, as if they had all the time in the world. It was May 15, 2022.

Sasha vanished the next day. For three days, Olha knew only silence. She accepted it, because Sasha had told her he was going on a mission and might be out of touch.

On the fourth day, she called the head of her village, who called the nearest military office, who contacted his military unit, who said that Sasha was missing.

Sasha wasn’t a born fighter. An athlete, he studied physiotherapy before he was drafted and packed off on April 3, 2022. Olha gave him a silver cross on a chain to hang around his neck as he went into battle.

Where was her boy now, she wondered, the kid with the sweet smile and ears that stuck out, who loved to run and had so many friends she couldn’t keep count? Where was her son, who dreamed of building a home for the family he did not yet have?

“In Ukraine, we have a saying that God takes the best away,” Olha said.

“I think this is the case.”

After pleading on social media for information, Olha’s daughter-in-law managed to speak directly with some soldiers from Sasha’s unit.

They said Sasha was dead. They were very sorry they couldn’t take his body with them, the shelling was too heavy, and all they could do was hide him in a cellar in Dovhenke—a rural settlement in eastern Ukraine that fell to the Russians. They would write his name on the shells they fired because they loved him too. He was a hero, they said.

Sasha, 27 years old, had lasted exactly six weeks at war. It was time for him to come home. If Olha couldn’t have her son back, she’d take whatever pieces were left.

But how?

Olha started making calls, so many that she had to buy a notebook to keep track. She said she called the Ukrainian Red Cross, the International Committee of the Red Cross, Ukraine’s National Information Bureau, the Ukrainian military, the Coordination Headquarters for the Treatment of Prisoners of War, every hotline and volunteer group she could find. She e-mailed the Commissioner for Human Rights and wrote letters to the Ministry of Defense and even to President Zelenskyy himself.

She wrote down who answered, who didn’t, and, mostly, who told her to wait, wait, wait. For six months, Olha tried.

“I just could not live without trying,” she said. “How is it possible to not even see the bones of your child! I was even ready to go to Dovhenke myself!”

In the end, people told her that if Black Tulip couldn’t bring Sasha home, no one could.

“We have to be buried”

BLACK Tulip is the name of the network of volunteer body collectors Yukov worked with back in 2014, when Russia seized Crimea and pushed into eastern Ukraine. Black Tulip has since disbanded but the name stuck. Yukov went on to found his own group, called

brings them home, one at a time

Platsdarm,

It is Yukov’s job to bring everyone back. He has collected the fragments of a man scattered across the trees and restored the scraps to the soldier’s mother. He has pulled hot human remains from a smoldering helicopter. Once, a mother asked him to please retrieve her son’s arm, which she’d heard was left dangling in a particular tree; he did. He has rooted through feces to retrieve the finger bones and teeth of men whose corpses were eaten by pigs.

“Listen, if your child was killed, you would gnaw through this s— with your teeth to bury the body,” he said.

Yukov is racing against time, which eats up corpses, to bring all the souls home. But there are too many. He can’t fit them all in his car, no matter if he straps them to the roof, carries them in his hands. They overwhelm him.

“Sometimes I just want to scream. To yell. Because you realize what madness and pain it is,” he said. “I understand that I do not have enough life to finish this work of searching for the dead.”

Yukov’s story is the story of the bloodlands of Ukraine, a landscape transformed by generations of conflict. He grew up cold and hungry in Sloviansk, in eastern Ukraine, one of five children. They made it through one winter by foraging dried peas packed in his brother’s punching bag. He learned to share, down to his last piece of bread.

When Yukov was around six, a local cemetery got dug up to make way for a new children’s hospital. Bulldozers heaved piles of clothes and bones; children ran around playing with skulls stuck on the end of sticks.

He was shocked and ashamed as he stood before the unburied dead. “I looked at the bones and thought, “Crap…these are people!’” Yukov recalled. “What if my relatives are buried in this place?”

The forests of Yukov’s childhood were filled with the bones of German and Soviet soldiers from World War II, some so densely strewn they looked like snow.

He started searching for the dead when he was thirteen, but at first he made mistakes. The souls he offended—or failed to find—haunted him. He felt them poke his ribs as he slept and he woke up dizzy, his nose bleeding.

“Why do you keep coming?” he demanded of his phantoms. “What do you need?”

As a boy, he dreamt he was running in a forest, jumping over pits and trenches until he tumbled into a hole, falling deep into ruby-colored light. He smelled the bodies before he saw them, bones sliding beneath his feet as he sank.

“Someone grabs me by the scruff of the neck, whispering, ‘We have to be buried,’” he recalled.

He woke up wet with sweat. He knew what he had to do.

“Until they are buried according to their traditions and rituals, a soul

will suffer. So it’s very important for me, even if it is an enemy, to return them home to be buried properly, for their souls to be calm,” Yukov said. “’Collectors of souls’ is what the locals call us.”

A fateful click

IN late summer 2022, Olha and her other son reached out to Yukov, seeking help. They sent along photos of Sasha and his tattoo, as well as satellite images of his approximate location. Yukov got to Dovhenke in September, not long after the Russians left. More than 90 percent of buildings there had been destroyed or damaged, and it was hard to find the cellar where Sasha’s unit said they’d left him. Also, there were mines.

They spent days searching. On Sept. 19, Yukov took a step and heard a click. The force of the explosion knocked him to the ground.

“I was laying there and I felt like I had no legs,” Yukov said. “I was like, ‘It’s fine, I’ll get a prosthesis.’ ... But I saw holes and blood spraying from my legs. I was like, ‘OK. Legs are in place.’ But suddenly, I can’t see with my eye. There’s no eye.”

His team came running for him, screaming. “STOP! DON’T RUN, STAND STILL!” Yukov hollered back, worried they’d get blown up too. “Bring tourniquets and a stretcher!” They drove him to the hospital fast, in silence, their dog panting above the high whine of the straining engine. Yukov was limp in the backseat, legs cinched with tourniquets. He gingerly touched a bloodied white cloth to the spot where his right eye used to be.

Two weeks later, Yukov led everyone back to Dovhenke, his eye patched like a pirate, and stumbled around on crutches trying to find Sasha. But it was still too dangerous, and they had to wait another few weeks for the mines to be cleared. By then, Yukov had a new glass eye, which looks incredibly real until he raps on it with his knuckles.

When they finally got back to Dovhenke to search for Sasha, a small grey kitten with an injured nose kept jumping on Yukov’s shoulder, nuzzling him. The cat circled one spot in the wreckage. They started digging there. “Souls come over and wander next to us,” Yukov explained. “A sign came to show us where he was lying...He wants to be back home. Mother is waiting.”

Sasha was pancaked beneath the rubble of a collapsed building. The place was scorched. There were fragments of 120mm mortars and signs of a massive blast.

By the time they’d pried through the last layers of concrete, it was dark. Denys Sosnenko, a 21-year-old who Yukov used to coach at kickboxing, went down in the pit to comb the dirt with his fingers, looking for bones. Yukov told Denys to try to keep the fragments of Sasha’s head together in what was left of his helmet. He handed part of Sasha’s skull, wet and yellowed, to Yukov, who placed it gently down

in a large white bag. It was hard to keep track of all the pieces because it was pitch black and they were working by flashlight.

Denys pulled out a silver, soilcaked cross and set it aside, then a spoon and a watch.

Yukov went on, making a rough anatomical inventory of what was left of Sasha. An arm. The backbone.

Pelvis. Femur. Elbow. “Wait,” Yukov said. “Where is the other arm and shoulder blade?”

It was Nov. 25, 2022.

Two months later, Denys drove over a landmine while searching for bodies and died.

11 Russians and one leg

AS in most wars, both sides have downplayed or obscured their losses, and the true toll may not be known for years. But from the sky, the multitudes of dead are already transforming the landscape. The graves look the same on both sides of the front: fields, once empty, now quilted with patchworks of fresh tombstones.

President Zelenskyy recently said that 31,000 Ukrainian soldiers have been killed in the war, less than half what Western intelligence has estimated. Russia’s losses are thought to be roughly double Ukraine’s.

Using satellite imagery and site visits, The Associated Press documented the rapid growth of soldiers’ graves at a few key sites in Russia and Ukraine where the war dead have accumulated at scale.

By March, more than 650 soldiers lay in what was open land outside Lviv two years ago, and there were more than 800 new soldiers’ graves in one Kyiv cemetery. Some 700 graves appeared in two plots for soldiers in a Kharkiv cemetery between Feb. 2022 through Sept. 2023, satellite images show. The AP also counted at least 1,345 new soldiers’ graves at a Dnipro cemetery in March, edged by six neat rows of empty pits in the earth waiting for more bodies.

Many more dead are scattered across both Ukraine and Russia, discreetly tucked among civilian graves.

Mediazona, an independent Russian media outlet, has identified the locations of dozens of Russian cemeteries that have swelled with war dead. Along with the BBC’s Russia service and a network of volunteers, they’ve confirmed the deaths of around 50,000 Russian soldiers killed since the full-scale invasion, a number they say probably captures just over half of the true death toll. Their count does not include Russian fighters from occupied territories in Ukraine.

The dead cannot be hidden from space. Satellite images show more than 750 graves at the Wagner cemetery in Bakinskaya, a town near the Black Sea, up from around 170 in January 2023. About 15 kilometers (9 miles) away, an estimated 2,646 compartments for cremated remains have been built into new rows of dark grey walls at the Wagner Chapel, though it wasn’t possible to say how many were filled. The number of war dead buried at the Federal Military Memorial Cemetery north of Moscow, has tripled in the last year, to an estimated 846 graves.

These are the lucky ones, the ones who made it home.

Yukov says he’s collected over 1,000 bodies since the full-scale invasion began two years ago, more than half of them Russians.

“We are not fighting the dead,” he said. “I don’t separate the bodies of Russian soldiers and Ukrainian soldiers. They are all souls for me.”

One night in October, Yukov returned from a mission near Sloviansk with black body bags strapped to the roof of his car. They bounced perilously over potholes, as he sped to deliver the cargo to a morgue.

The count that day was 11 Russians and one leg, which was probably Ukrainian, judging by its boot. Their wounds would be documented. The things they carried—amulets that hadn’t worked, kids’ drawings, family photos, letters of love and despair—would be collected and cataloged. Their DNA would be tested, if necessary, and their identities logged in government databases.

The Ukrainians, Yukov hoped, would find their way home. The Russians would become currency to barter for Ukrainian bodies in periodic exchanges of war dead.

“When someone says, “I am tired of war,” yes, we are all tired,” Yukov said. “But we just need you to understand: Help us. Don’t stand aside. Because war has no borders. War will cross your doorstep too.”

He peered into a body bag. The corpses had baked in the sun and the meat of their faces was partly mummified. Yukov figured they’d been dead for around three months.

Suddenly angry, Yukov began speaking in agitated Russian.

“You carried this child in your womb,” he said, “Now your Russian boys are lying here, in Ukrainian soil. Why did you let them come here? You knew what this was all about, that they were going to kill and be killed.”

Yukov looked down at the bodies laid out on the night grass. “This is where it all ends,” he said.

He turned away and let out a little laugh, then stopped talking and shook his head in silence.

“So, I don’t know … It’s stupidity.”

Holding the sky together

OLHA hoped for a long time that missing meant alive. But when Yukov sent a photograph of the necklace they’d found in the cellar in Dovhenke, Olha recognized it instantly. It was the same silver Jesus she’d given Sasha when he left for war, only now it was an exhibit, number 3118, mud-flecked evidence of the dead.

Olha never got to see her son’s face again. By the time she got the body back, Sasha had no face anymore. This was hard for her because it allowed her to nurture a tiny, painful hope that there had been some mistake.

Yukov is a destroyer of hope for mothers. But they thank him anyway.

“I am glad we managed to do it,” Yukov messaged Olha, after he found Sasha. “We hug you and hope that we can meet you to get to know more about him. We are holding the sky together with you.”

“Your work is priceless,” she replied.

Olha buried what was left of Sasha on March 16, 2023 in her village cemetery, beneath a cross bandaged with flowers and ribbons.

“It’s very important for me to know his body is next to me,” Olha said. “We are all waiting for victory. For me, it’s the most important thing. If we do not win, what did my son die for—and so many other sons?”

Yukov never told Olha he’d lost an eye trying to find her son.

When she heard what had happened, she nodded faintly, her frown deepening to an expression of infinite sadness.

“I cannot express with words how grateful I am,” she said. She opened her hands and looked up, searching for sounds that could convey the enormity of loss. “I’m so shocked ... As long as I live, I will remember the sacrifice he made for me and my family.”

Olha visits Sasha’s grave every day, to sit with him, talk with him and pray that he—and perhaps she herself—finds peace. AP journalists Michael

which can be translated as “bridgehead,” to continue Black Tulip’s mission.

OLEKSII YUKOV and his team members wait for colleagues to offload the bodies of Russian soldiers they’ve collected from the frontline in the Sloviansk region, Ukraine on Oct. 24, 2023. “Sometimes I just want to scream. To yell. Because you realize what madness and pain it is,” Yukov says. “I understand that I do not have enough life to finish this work of searching for the dead.” AP/BRAM JANSSEN

Tumampos: ‘I hope more PHL women will be recognized’

STEPHANIE TUMAMPOS , a doctoral student in geoscience and remote sensing at Technology University of Munich in Germany, and at Imperial College London, said she was “overwhelmed,” “surprised” and “humbled” when she was featured in a book and in two online stories during the celebration of the International Women’s Month last month.

Tumampos was among the 15 women from different sectors who were featured in the book “Becoming Sheroes: Stories of Heartstrong Women,” and among the scientists in the online “10 Women Shaping the Earth Sciences” and “Who is Who in GRSS.”

“I was overwhelmed. These recognitions of my being part of a community, and learning that people notice me makes me feel valued, that what I’m doing makes an impact or can make an impact,” Tumampos, a former BusinessMirror Science reporter and photographer, said in a social media interview.

Recently launched “Becoming Sheroes” recognizes the women in their “becoming heroes to the people around them. The book is reflective of the authors’ [the featured women] evolution and growth from their experiences and challenges to become heroes of their own stories.” said the book’s online introduction.

Featured in the book are the inspiring stories of Marissa Atienza, Karen Batungbacal, Rebecca Bustamante, Kristine Calleja, Ayhee Campos, Laurice Chiongbian, Mawi Fojas de Ocampo, Nica Jones, Monica Maralit, Shawntel Nieto, Arizza Nocum, Paulynn Sicam, Unyx Sta. Ana, Stephanie Tumampos and Sharon Vaswani.

Tumampos, 33, said it was Maralit who approached her to become one

of the authors. Maralit is an advocate for women’s empowerment and young women’s education, and the leading force in making the book published.

“I was wondering that out of all those [women] who could be invited to write their own stories, ‘Why me?’ Then I just realized, ‘Why not?’ Maybe some readers would see themselves through me, that they can realize their dreams and act on them like [what I did] in my journey”

Tumampos was from humble beginnings in Bohol. She graduated with BS in Applied Physics from the University of the Philippines (UP) Los Baños, Laguna; MS in Environment Engineering from UP Diliman; and is now taking her doctoral studies under the European Union’s Erasmus Mundus Scholarship.

She shared in the book not only her journey in life, titled “Looking through life in a scientific lens,” but also a “little recipe” for success.

It includes being stubborn but being mindful; being with the right people who value you as a person and listen to you; and “the most important ingredient is being yourself.”

“It is you who define your life. It is you who have all the answers. It is important to see yourself and be your own cheerleader. And it is only you who make decisions to achieve your dream that matters,”

Tumpanpos pointed out.

Tumampos was featured in “Who’s Who in GRSS?” owing to her role as the organization’s Chief of Publicity and Public Relations.

The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers’s (IEEE) Geoscience and Remote Sensing Society (GRSS) is an international organization with more than 5,000

Taiwan is exposed to earthquakes but well prepared to withstand them

TAIPEI, Taiwan—Taiwan was struck on April 3 by its most powerful earthquake in a quarter of a century. At least 10 people were killed and around d 1,000 injured as of April 5, buildings and highways damaged and dozens of workers at quarries stranded.

Taiwan is no stranger to powerful earthquakes yet their toll on the high-tech island’s 23 million residents has been relatively contained thanks to its excellent earthquake preparedness, experts say.

Here is a closer look at Taiwan’s history of earthquakes:

Why so many temblors?

TAIWAN lies along the Pacific “Ring of Fire,” the line of seismic faults encircling the Pacific Ocean where most of the world’s earthquakes occur.

The area is particularly vulnerable to temblors due to the tension accumulated from the interactions of two tectonic plates, the Philippine Sea Plate and the Eurasian Plate, which may lead to sudden releases in the form of earthquakes. The region’s mountainous landscape can magnify the ground shaking, leading to landslides. Several such landslides occurred on Taiwan’s eastern coast near the epicenter of Wednesday’s quake near eastern Hualien County, when falling debris hit tunnels and highways, crushing vehicles and causing several deaths.

How well-equipped is taiwan to handle quakes?

THE April 3 earthquake measured 7.2, according to Taiwan’s earthquake monitoring agency, while the US Geological Survey put it at 7.4. It damaged several buildings in Hualien but caused only minor losses in the capital Taipei despite being strongly felt there.

The earthquake hit in the middle of the morning rush hour yet only slightly derailed the regular commute.

Just minutes later, parents were again walking their children to school and workers driving to offices.

“Taiwan’s earthquake preparedness is among the most advanced in the world,” said Stephen Gao, a seismologist and professor at Missouri University of Science and Technology.

“The island has implemented strict building codes, a worldclass seismological network, and widespread public education campaigns The government continually revises the level of quake resistance required of new and existing buildings—which may increase construction costs—and offers subsidies to residents willing to check their buildings’ quake resistance.

Following a 2016 quake in Tainan, on the island’s southwestern coast, five people involved in the construction of a 17-story highrise apartment building that was the only major structure to have

collapsed, killing dozens, were found guilty of negligence and given prison sentences. Taiwan also is pushing quake drills at schools and workplaces while public media and cellphones regularly carry notices about earthquakes and safety.

“These measures have significantly enhanced Taiwan’s resilience to earthquakes, helping to mitigate the potential for catastrophic damage and loss of life,” Gao said.

The 1999 quake was a wake-up call TAIWAN and its surrounding waters have registered about 2,000 earthquakes with a magnitude of 4.0 or greater since 1980, and more than 100 earthquakes with a magnitude above 5.5, according to the USGS.

The island’s worst quake in recent years struck on September 21, 1999, with a magnitude of 7.7. It caused 2,400 deaths, injured

members worldwide. “Through my role, I implement publicity strategies including our marketing materials and social media engagement. This way, I connect not only to the members but also to the greater geoscience and

around 100,000 and destroyed thousands of buildings.

It was a major wake-up call that led to key administrative reforms to improve emergency response and disaster reduction, according to Daniel Aldrich, professor of political science and public policy at Northeastern University.

“Observers strongly criticized Taiwan’s response to the 21 September 1999 earthquake, arguing that it took hours for emergency medical response teams to arrive, that rescuers lacked training, and that the operations between government agencies were not well coordinated,” Aldrich wrote in an email.

As a result, the government passed the Disaster Prevention and Protection Act and set up two national centers to handle coordination and training for earthquakes.

“I think we’re seeing the results in this most recent shock,” he said. Simina Mistreanu/Associated Press

remote sensing community and, of course, to the public on what we do for our planet,” Tumampos said.

She thanked a lot of people for the recognition, especially her media and PR friends.

Her BusinessMirror family, she said, “accepted this young girl more than 10 years ago, who was kind of lost and kind of exploring, but gave me an incredible gift to learn the ropes in media and publicity, without even having a single knowledge to do so when I started.”

She said earlier that her being a former journalist was a plus point in her doctoral studies because scientists are encouraged to communicate their researches.

A multi-awardee, she won in 2018 the top prize for print media in the “Bantog” award from the Department of Science and Technology.

Being named as one of top 10 women leaders shaping Earth sciences, “surprised” Tumampos.

“I didn’t know why I deserve such recognition. It took time for me to process the news [besides the fact that I was on a business trip abroad for a meeting],” she said.

As part of an “underrepresented group [or women]” in the field of space data, Tumampos said it gives her “hope my recognition will pave the way for more Filipino women to be recognized, too.”

The recognition, she said, “humbles” her.

“It reminds me that I didn’t make this to happen alone but with all the people who helped build my foundations. I lack in so many ways but I am truly grateful to all the people who see me and my dreams [coming true],” she said.

“Just wait, Philippines. I’ll come back when the time is right,” she remarked. Lyn Resurreccion

Central Mindanao University developing anti-inflammatory ointment from ferns

THE Central Mindanao University-Tuklas

Lunas Development Center (CMU-TLDC) is exploring the potential of developing skin ointments from local fern species.

Initiated in 2022, the project, titled “PreClinical Studies and Scale Up Formulation of Anti-inflammatory PharmaFern Ointments,” aims to assess the industrial applicability of anti-inflammatory PharmaFern ointments developed from two fern species. The project has support from the Department of Science and Technology’s Philippine Council for Health Research and Development (DOSTPCHRD).

The project has two component studies. The first seeks to propagate the two identified fern species, and evaluate the antiinflammatory potential of their extracts and the formulated ointments. The second will then conduct the pilot-scale manufacturing of the said ointments.

Currently in its second year of implementation, the research team builds on the results of their first year of work, where they successfully identified the two fern extracts to be non-toxic with significant anti-inflammatory activities.

From the extracts, the ointment products were developed, which the team submitted

for a patent or utility model grant.

Initial data from the user acceptability studies shows that the produced ointments are generally acceptable in terms of look, smell, color, and packaging.

The research team is currently continuing the pilot scale manufacturing of the ointment, carrageenan-induced paw edema assay to assess the anti-inflammatory effect of the product in mice, and the production of ointments in preparation for Phase 1 of clinical trials.

“Since 2014, we have been working with the CMU-TLDC to build their infrastructure capabilities for research on drug discovery and development, establishing multiple laboratories, such as a molecular genetics laboratory and an in-house enzyme inhibition laboratory,” said DOST-PCHRD Executive Director Dr. Jaime C. Montoya.

“We are happy to see how this almost 10-year work has now borne fruit, enabling our researchers from CMU to pursue studies on local ferns and examine how they can be utilized to alleviate the health concerns of our communities,” Montoya added.

Allocated with a total funding support of P22,357,091, the project is expected to be completed by March 2025.

8th Indie Siyensya on interconnection of science, culture, calls for entries

FRESH from its successful 7th run, the Indie-Siyensya calls for entries for its new season, bannering the theme

“Science and Filipino Culture: Siyensya sa Kultura, Kultura sa Siyensya.”

This year, Indie-Siyensya hopes to captivate students and young filmmakers to explore the relationship and influence between science and the rich tapestry of Filipino culture and tradition. The project has the support of the Department of Science and Technology-Science Education Institute’s (DOST-SEI).

The theme encourages participants to look beyond the surface of Filipino traditions and see the scientific concepts that may underlie them.

These include the case in seeing the cultural significance of constellations used by ancient Filipinos in navigation and planting; the science behind the vibrant burst of flavors found in the Filipino palate; or how the widespread use of traditional herbal medicine, such as Lagundi, which has been passed on from one generation to another, instigated scientific research to prove its effectiveness and health benefits.

The country’s pioneering science filmmaking competition, in partnership with the Film Development Council of the Philippines (FDCP), continues its shared commitment to promote a strong culture of science among the youth through audio-visual mediums such as films.

COURTESY OF NIKKI MYZAH TUMAMPOS

Faith Sunday

NEW YORK—Above a bodega in New York City’s Harlem neighborhood, a mosque congregation hosts iftar, the traditional Islamic end of fast meal, for hundreds of hungry migrants every night during this holy month of Ramadan.

Up north in the Bronx, an imam has turned the two-story brick residence that houses his mosque into a makeshift overnight shelter for migrants, many of them men from his native Senegal.

Islamic institutions in the Big Apple are struggling to keep up with the needs of the city’s migrant population as an increasing number of asylum seekers come from Muslim-majority African countries. The challenge has become all the more pronounced during Ramadan, which began on March 11 and ends on April 9.

Many mosques have opened their doors to migrants during the daylight hours, becoming de facto day centers where new arrivals can find a quiet place to rest and recover, oftentimes following restless nights sleeping on the streets or in the subway.

Muslim leaders say they’ve stepped up their appeals for donations of money, food, clothing and other supplies in recent days.

“We’re doing what we can do, but we can’t do everything. That’s the bottom line,” said Moussa Sanogo, assistant imam at the Masjid Aqsa-Salam in Harlem, just north of Central Park. “These brothers, they don’t eat enough. They’re starving when they get here. Can you imagine? Starving. In America.”

Imam Omar Niass, who runs Jamhiyatu Ansaru-Deen, the mosque in the Bronx, said providing a place for newly arrived migrants to bed down is the least he can do, even if it has come at great personal expense. His utility bills have long since outpaced his ability to pay. He estimates he’s behind about $7,000 on the home’s electricity service and another $11,000 on water service.

“In our culture, you can’t deny the people who come to the mosque,” he said on a recent Friday as more than 50 men arrived for afternoon prayers. “We keep receiving the people because they have nowhere to go. If they come, they stay. We do what we can to feed them, to help them.”

The latest migrant surge has seen more than 185,000 asylum seekers arrive in New York City since the spring of 2022, with Africans from majority Muslim nations, such as Senegal, Guinea and  Mauritania among the top nationalities. New York City’s estimated 275 mosques were among the first places to feel the impact of the African wave, as they’re often migrants’ first stop upon arriving in the city, said Assefash Makonnen, of African Communities Together, a Harlem-based advocacy group supporting African immigrants.

But relying solely on the generosity of faith-based communities—many of which are already struggling to keep afloat—isn’t sustainable in the long run, she said.

Last summer, Democratic Mayor Eric Adams announced to fanfare a program meant to provide funding, security and other support for up to 75 mosques, churches and synagogues that agreed to provide overnight shelter to migrants.

So far, though, just six houses of worship holding around 100 beds have been approved to provide additional space for the more than 64,000 migrants currently housed by the city in hotels and other shelters.

Bishop Matthew Heyd of the Episcopal Diocese of New York said the challenge for many faith-based institutions is that they’re located in older buildings that don’t meet current fire safety standards.

With more “commonsense” regulations, he said, houses of worship are prepared to provide 5,000 additional beds for migrants at a fraction of the cost the city is currently paying to shelter migrants in hotels across the five boroughs.

“We want to be part of the solution to this. We have been before, and can be now,” Heyd said, referring to a network of faith-based shelters that grew in response to the city’s homeless crisis in the 1980s.

Adams Spokesperson Kayla Mamelak said the city, in response to the concerns, lowered the maximum number of beds permitted at faith-based shelters earlier this year from 19 to 15, meaning they wouldn’t be required to have sprinkler systems under city building codes.

“We are making changes where we can,” she said. “Obviously the health and safety of the people we are sheltering has to be the priority. You just can’t walk into a church and turn it into a shelter.”

In the Bronx, Niass said he hasn’t given the city program much thought. He also stressed he doesn’t collect rent from the migrants, in contrast to the illegal, dangerously overcrowded migrant boarding houses the city has shut down in recent weeks.

Still, the conditions at the mosque are less than ideal.

On a recent visit, men rested on the floor of a basement prayer room in between the day’s five prayer times. More lounged out in the backyard, where there was a microwave and hot water kettle set up for preparing basic meals, as well as a shed for storing luggage and a row of file cabinets for incoming mail.

Near the driveway was a portable toilet covered in a blue tarp that did little to mask the odors that drew swarms of flies.

Back in Harlem, Alphabacar Diallo is similarly thankful for the support Masjid Aqsa-Salam has provided, but is anxious to get on with his life. Like many others coming for iftar, the 39-year-old migrant from Guinea says he’s still waiting for work authorization some eight months after arriving in the country.

Until then, the mosque provides him a place to keep warm, fed and close to the faith that’s sustained him.

“Without the masjid,” he said in French through a translator, “I don’t know where I’d be.” Philip Marcelo/Associated Press

Pope Francis exposes political ‘maneuvers’ in past conclaves

VATICAN CITY—Pope

Francis has exposed the political “maneuvers” used to sway votes during the two most recent elections of popes, while denying he is planning to reform the process for future conclaves, in a book-length interview published on April 2.

The confidential revelations are contained in “The Successor: My Memories of Benedict XVI,” in which the Argentine pope reflects on his relationship with the late German pope and settles some scores with Benedict’s longtime aide.

The book, written as a conversation with the correspondent for Spain’s ABC daily, Javier Martínez-Brocal, comes at a delicate time for the 87-year-old Francis. His frail health has raised questions about how much longer he will remain pope, whether he might follow in Benedict’s footsteps and resign, and who might eventually replace him.

In the book, Francis revealed previously confidential details about the 2005 conclave that elected Benedict pope and the 2013 ballot in which he himself was elected, saying he was allowed to deviate from the cardinals’ oath of secrecy because he is pope.

In 2005, Francis said, he was “used” by cardinals who wanted to block the election of Benedict— then Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger— and that they managed to sway 40 out of 115 votes his way.

The idea wasn’t to elect the Argentine but rather to force a compromise candidate after knocking Ratzinger out of the running, he said.

“They told me afterward that they didn’t want a ‘foreign’ pope,”—in other words, a nonItalian one—Francis said, making clear that the process wasn’t so much about the Holy Spirit inspiring cardinals as it was a cold, hard political calculus.

Francis said he put an end to the maneuvering by announcing that he wouldn’t accept being pope, af -

ter which Ratzinger was elected.

“He was the only one who could be pope in that moment,” Francis said, adding that he, too, voted for Ratzinger.

In 2013, after Benedict’s resignation, there was also political maneuvering involved.

Francis—who at the time was Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio— said he only realized after the fact that cardinals were coalescing behind him, pestering him with questions about the church in Latin America and dropping hints that he was gaining support.

He said it finally dawned on him that he might be pope when Spanish Cardinal Santos Abril y Castelló came running after him after lunch on March 13, just before what would become the final ballot.

The Spanish cardinal had what was clearly a health-related question about Bergoglio’s ability to take on the physical rigors of the papacy, after opponents apparently had raised his health as a possible impediment to his election. “Eminence, is it true you’re missing a lung?” Francis recounted Abril as saying, to which he replied that he had part of one lung removed after a respiratory infection.

After he assured the cardinal that the operation had taken place more than 50 years earlier, he remembered Abril muttering: “Oh these last-minute maneuvers…” Francis in the interview denied rumors he is planning any reform of the conclave rules for a future papal election.

Conservative media have speculated, without any attribution, that Francis was tinkering with the protocols to limit pre-conclave discussions about the needs of the

church to cardinals aged under 80. Only those cardinals—most of whom were appointed by Francis—are able to vote for the next pope, but older colleagues are currently allowed to take part in the earlier discussions.

While Francis denied any such reform, he revealed he was revising the protocol for papal funerals. Francis said Benedict’s would be “the last wake in which the body of a pope is exposed in an open coffin, on a bier.”

He said he wanted to ensure popes “are buried like any son of the church,” in a dignified, but not excessive manner.

In the book, Francis also settles some scores with Benedict’s longtime secretary, Archbishop Georg Gaenswein, whom he initially fired and then exiled from the Vatican after what he described as a series of imprudent decisions that “made life difficult for me.”

Gaenswein is widely believed to have helped fuel the antiFrancis opposition during Benedict’s decade-long retirement, allowing Benedict to be used by conservatives nostalgic for his doctrinaire papacy.

He was behind some of the biggest hiccups in the unusual cohabitation of two popes.

Francis reveals details about one well-known incident in 2020, in which Cardinal Robert Sarah, the conservative former Vatican liturgy chief, co-authored a book with Benedict reasserting the need for a celibate priesthood.

The book was published at the precise moment Francis was considering calls to relax celibacy

requirements and allow married priests in order to address a shortage of clergy in the Amazon. It caused a stir because Benedict’s participation in the book raised the prospect of the former pope trying to influence the decision-making of a current one.

Francis squarely blames Gaenswein for the affair, insisting that Sarah was a “good man” who perhaps was “manipulated by separatist groups.” Francis said he felt compelled to sideline Gaenswein after the ruckus.

“I was obliged to ask Benedict’s secretary to take a voluntary leave, but keeping the title of prefect of the papal household and the salary,” Francis said.

Gaenswein later sealed his fate with Francis when he published a tell-all memoir, “Nothing But the Truth,” in the days after Benedict’s December 31, 2022, death that was highly critical of Francis.

“It pained me that they used Benedict. The book was published on the day of his burial, and I felt it was a lack of nobility and humanity,” Francis said.

Francis insisted that Benedict always deferred to him, defended him and supported him and was not behind any of the conservative attacks or maneuvers to undermine his authority.

He denied that his dry homily during Benedict’s funeral, criticized by conservatives as lacking praise, was a sign of anything other than liturgical protocol.

“You don’t deliver eulogies in homilies,” he said.

Nicole Winfield/Associated Press

Tagle: Godparents are to be ‘models’ of faith, not gift-givers

CARDINAL Luis Antonio Tagle has reminded parents to choose godparents for their child who responsibly witness their faith.

Speaking during Easter Sunday Mass, he said that godparents should be spiritually rich and that their financial status should be unimportant.

“Unfortunately, some choose godparents who are corrupt, greedy,” Tagle said in his homily at the Landmark Chapel in Makati City.

“Remember that the role of ‘ninong’ and ‘ninang’ is not to give gifts. They are supposed to be models of Christian life,” he said.

According to the cardinal, who is the pro-prefect of the Vatican’s Dicastery for Evangelization, the desired outcome of baptism is being “dead to sin and alive for God.”

“Please, please respect the death of Christ,” he said. “Jesus died on the cross and God raised Him from the dead to bring us new life.”

During the Mass, Catholics also renewed their baptismal promises, and everyone was blessed with holy water.

The former Manila archbishop also urged the faithful “not to waste” the gift of Easter by sharing the gift of baptism with the whole world.

“Transmit this gift of baptism to your grandchildren, to your children, to your friends. Let us not waste this Easter gift,” he said.

NYC mosques struggle to house, feed influx of Muslim migrants this Ramadan

AN African migrant from Senegal (left) sits with his possessions as Imam Omar Niass speaks on his phone in the backyard of Bronx’s Masjid Ansaru-Deen mosque on March 15, 2024, in New York. AP/BEBETO MATTHEWS

Editor: Lyn Resurreccion

Biodiversity Sunday

El Niño, a threat to fisheries, marine biodiversity

By Jonathan L. Mayuga

RECOGNIZING the impact of extreme weather events on the country’s food production capacities, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. has ordered Cabinet officials to assist farmers hit by the environmental phenomena, El Niño and La Niña.

The two are extreme opposites. While La Niña triggers above-normal rainfall, El Niño causes severe drought and heat waves.

Currently, the El Niño dry spell or the long period of drought is gripping the Philippines. While the effect of this phenomenon is more pronounced and measured in terms of its impact on crop production, its impact on fisheries is often overlooked.

Impact on fisheries

EXPERTS said the impact of El Niño on fisheries is primarily due to changes in ocean temperature, current and the availability of nutrients.

It has a significant impact on fisheries, affecting the livelihoods of millions of people worldwide. Its effect is strongly felt in the Philippines. primarily through changes in sea surface temperature, salinity, nutrient availability and precipitation rate.

The change in ocean-atmospheric interactions impacts marine life, including the species that comprise the country’s fisheries resources.

Many communities in the Philippines depend on fisheries for livelihood. Its impacts depend on the intensity and duration of El Niño.

Socioeconomic implications

THE socioeconomic implications of El Niño on communities dependent on fisheries in the Philippines are significant and multifaceted.

For instance, the El Niño event of 1990-1992 caused damage estimated at P4.1 billion.

The decline in fish populations and subsequent decrease in income can lead to economic instability in affected communities. As food production decreases significantly, food security can also be compromised, with fish being a primary source of protein for many Filipinos.

The fisheries sector, which is a significant contributor to the

national economy, can face severe challenges.

Impact on aquaculture, inland fisheries

EL NIÑO can have significant impacts on both aquaculture and inland fisheries production, as well.

It can impact aquaculture output, particularly for marine plants, mollusks, and crustaceans.

The changes in sea surface temperature and salinity can disrupt the growth and reproduction of mussels and oysters, leading to decreased production.

Changes in water quality, such as decreased dissolved oxygen levels, can further affect aquaculture operations.

For inland fisheries, El Niño can trigger shifts toward more drought-resistant species. Those who are caught flat-footed by the change in extreme temperatures suffer the consequence of losing their hard-earned money invested in fishpond operations.

Scientists also said changes in precipitation patterns and water availability can alter the habitat conditions of fish in lakes, rivers and reservoirs.

This can lead to changes in fish populations, with some species becoming more dominant while others decline.

Drying fishponds

TO date, fishpond operators arestarting to feel the brunt of El Niño. Fishpond operators in Cavite province, for instance, are experiencing huge investment losses owing to drying fishponds.

Fernando Hicap, national chairman of fishers’ group Pamalakaya, said El Niño is severely impacting on aquaculture as well as inland fisheries, citing the case in Cavite.

Fishponds in Cavite that are adjacent to Manila Bay have dried up and turned into parched earth, Hicap told the BusinessMirror via Messenger on April 2.

“The fishpond used to provide alternative sources of food and livelihood for many fisherfolk

and residents of Tanza, Cavite,” said Hicap, a former Anakpawis Partylist Representative and a fisherman in Cavite.

According to Hicap, the fishpond has been unproductive since January due to the rapid loss of water volume.

Pamalakaya has been calling on the national government to comprehensively address the impacts of El Niño in the rural sector.

“The rural sector is suffering from drought for many months now. And yet we haven’t seen any substantial action from the government, given the extent of damage of El Niño to the agriculture sector. Fishers and farmers must collectively assert concrete support in the form of production subsidies, economic aid and relief, and long-term rehabilitation measures,” Hicap said.

Varying impacts

JIMELY FLORES , a fisheries and marine scientist, said the effect of El Niño on fisheries varies on the location. But generally, she said the long season of drought has a net negative impact on fisheries, as well as other marine species.

“Coastal habitats and organisms may suffer from extreme heat beyond their normal range which may result in, worst, their death,” she said.

In moderate cases, Flores said the effect is the shifts in habitatseeking areas, where the condition is ambient to them, or shifts in reproductive processes.

“Corals are known to bleach during intense high temperatures. Beaching or fish kills may happen because of pools of deoxygenated water,” said Flores, a conservation advocate.

She added that “water current may shift resulting in some areas to temporary upwell, bringing nutrient-rich and cooler waters from the deep, or it may cause pools of deoxygenated water.”

According to Flores, fisheries

production in general decreases particularly for the highly valued migratory large pelagic fishes, or the fishes in the open, free waters away from the shore.

“The small pelagics may go deeper to seek cooler waters. Though in areas where upwelling happens, temporary increase of observed aggregation may occur,” she said, citing the positive effect in some cases.

She explained that Zamboanga sardines gained from El Niño in the past due to stronger winds from the lands causing temporary upwelling in known sardine areas. This resulted in bigger aggregation, thus, “higher catch and increased production.”

However, this does not mean an increase in the size of stocks.

“It might intensify fishing. It is a two-edged sword and [it is sad] that many never looked at the other side of the blade,” she said.

Flores said while corals bleach or turn white leading to their destruction, El Niño also affects mangroves and seagrasses that become prone to diseases.

“Heat also increases degradation of macro plastics, turning them into nano and micro, and more pollutants leach into the water,” she added.

In lakes, rivers and aquaculture, El Niño favors invasive species that were introduced from hotter areas like catfish and tilapia, she said.

Varying temperature thresholds

EXECUTIVE Director Theresa

Mundita S. Lim, of Asean Centre of Biodiversity, said different marine organisms have varying temperature threshold.

“Warming seas, such as what happens during the El Niño phenomenon, will result in the loss of several species, once their marine habitat reaches their respective heat thresholds,” Lim, a biodiversity expert told the BusinessMirror via Messenger on April 4. She said certain types of fish

like the skipjack and bigeye tuna, for example, have preferences for specific water temperatures. Thus, abrupt temperature changes can lead to increased fish mortalities, and reduce fish catch.

“Other occurrences during El Niño, such as coral bleaching, dangerous algal blooms, reduced nutrients, and changes in water salinity, can also affect fisheries diversity,” Lim said.

Resilience of healthy biodiversity

ALTHOUGH this climactic pattern may have devastating effects on marine fisheries, a healthy marine biodiversity can help our fisheries recover from and be more resilient to El Niño effects, Lim, a licensed veterinarian added.

“Other threats, such as marine pollution and unsustainable fishing,also need to be addressed, as these will be aggravating the impacts of the El Niño phenomenon every time it happens,” she said.

But fish is not the only marine life affected by El Niño., citing the case of marine turtles.

“The sex ratio of certain charismatic marine species, in particular, marine turtles, will be affected by warmer beach temperatures,”

she said.  Marine turtles layeggs in the sand, so if the temperature of the sand no longer goes lower than around 28 degrees Celsius, most of the hatchlings will be females and there will be no more male turtles in the future, Lim explained.

In addition, Lim, a former DENR Biodiversity Management Bureau director who started her career as a protector of marine turtles, pointed out that sea level rise can also inundate beach areas that later there may be no sandy areas left for female marine turtles to lay eggs on, thereby threatening the existence of these amazing long-distance, pre-historic creatures of the sea.

“Climate change is already upon us and undoubtedly, there are mitigating measures that must be undertaken, especially by developed countries to help reduce the frequency and duration of ENSO [El Niño-Southern Oscillation] events. But for an archipelagic, developing but a marine biodiversity-rich country like the Philippines, our solutions may very well lie on how the country, together with our neighbors in the Asean, protect nature and the variety of biological resources we are endowed with,” Lim said.

Southeast Asian countries consider boosting ‘green financing’ as region chokes on smog

LUANG PRABANG, Laos—Senior finance and central bank officials from Southeast Asia and major economies met on Thursday in the scenic Laotian city of Luang Prabang to discuss ways to help the region build resilience against shocks like the Covid-19 pandemic and natural disasters brought on by climate change.

The need for faster progress was dramatically apparent as the city and surrounding region were engulfed in heavy smoke from fires—some set to clear forests for crops, some ignited by record high temperatures and tinder-dry conditions.

The air quality index early Thursday was nearly 300, or “very unhealthy.”

Laos and other countries in Southeast Asia have committed to seeking more sustainable ways to feed their people and power their economies. The question is where the money will come from to do that.

Green finance is among several items on the agenda of the finance meetings of the

Asean related to countering the mounting impacts of global warming.

The officials also were set for talks on an Asean infrastructure fund and disaster risk financing and insurance, according to the agenda provided by hosts of the meetings.

Also on the list, refining a “taxonomy” to help identify and agree on projects that support Asean’s sustainability agenda and align with its climate change commitments and other goals.

The 10 member nations of Asean— Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam—range from tiny but wealthy Brunei and Singapore, to big, fast growing economies like Vietnam and Indonesia. They have pledged to cut carbon emissions to help reduce the impact of climate change but are struggling to find ways to unlock financing needed to make that transition.

Asean members are extremely vulnerable to extreme weather, drought and rising sea

levels. Investments in clean energy need to increase by five to seven times, to more than $200 billion a year, according to various estimates.

Laos and its neighbors also are contending

with a raft of other regional troubles, including human trafficking, a growing illicit drug trade and fast-growing enclaves of online scam centers run by criminal syndicates. A landlocked country of about 7.5

million people, Laos is rich in hydroelectric power, but its economy has been shrinking in recent years and its national finances are fraught—strained by a heavy load of foreign and domestic debt, a weakening currency and inflation.

Longstanding traditions and a lack of funding to persuade farmers not to rely on crop burning—their most affordable option—mean that progress is slow.

The government has set a goal of reducing the number of fires by 35 percent by the end of 2025.

Similar burning in neighboring Thailand, Myanmar and Cambodia leaves the region shrouded in heavy smog for weeks at a time during the spring.

Countries in the region have begun to build regional electricity grids as one step toward improving a balance between supply and demand.

A higher priority for Laos, a Communist state where annual incomes average below

$2,000 a person, is weaving itself into the wider regional economy of about 660 million people.

Combined, the region is the world’s fifthlargest economy at about $3.3 trillion.

Like many countries in the region, Laos’ economy has become increasingly entwined with that of China. Those ties have deepened with the building of a $6 billion high-speed railway that links to railways in southwest China’s Yunnan province and eventually will be connected with a line running to Bangkok and the Gulf of Thailand.

The downside: debts that are a heavy drain on the country’s resources.

Along with regional financial leaders, senior officials of major international financial institutions like the International Monetary Fund and Asian Development Bank, along with delegates from Japan, China, the US and other major economies, are attending the talks in Luang Prabang. Elaine

EL NIÑO can lead to coral bleaching. DANNY OCAMPO

WHAT used to be a fishpond in Tanza, Cavite, is all cracked and dry land as a result of El Niño extreme dry spell. PAMALAKAYA

PHILADELPHIA—He surveyed the Arizona crowd that had paid to catch a wrestling glimpse of the planet’s mightiest heavyweight, as measured in both boxoffice heft and ink-stained muscles.

Then The Rock let the abuse fly. And as with so many public outbursts these days, attacking his opponents wasn’t enough. He had to insult the people, too.

“The Rock did a little bit of research, and here’s what he found out. This is the truth. This is a fact. The No. 1 city in America for cocaine and meth use is Phoenix, Arizona,” The Rock said to a roaring crowd that seemed to revel in the insults. Then and only then did he lay the smack down on his WrestleMania opponents.

Were The Rock’s assertions true? Or just an engine for vigorous trash talk? Most importantly: Does anyone really care, as long as the entertainment value is cranked to 11 and WWE churns out more fans to watch and fork over cash for its signature spectacle, WrestleMania, unfolding in Philadelphia this weekend?

Along the murky lines that intertwine sports, entertainment and, yes, politics, the ethos of being bad has never been so good. Say what you want. Do you want. The public eats it up. And for decades, somehow, the garish world of professional wrestling has sat smack in the middle of it all.

Outside the ring, the Superman spandex traded for Clark Kent glasses and a leather jacket, Dwayne Johnson crafts his good-guy image to plug his movies, his tequila label, his men’s care line, his football league—business interests where the bottom line doesn’t require calling the competition a bunch of “roody-poo candy-asses.” But under the house lights each week on live TV, Johnson knows storylines are sold on his Hollywood heel persona.

“I feel like everybody wants to be the good guy, the good girl. Everyone wants to be loved and cheered and considered the hero, which is great and it’s natural,” he says. “But, I have felt in my career, the rare air is when you have the opportunity to grab it by the throat, you don’t let it go. And that’s the opportunity to be a great bad guy.”

Reveling in universally accepted fakery Atrevidos

AWrestlemania’s cultural pull

THE Rock is set to headline one of two nights of the annual WrestleMania event this weekend in Philadelphia, where more than 70,000 fans each night are expected to pack the National Football League stadium that is home to the Eagles. Banners of your favorite wrestlers, or the ones you love to hate, have smothered city street poles. Philly has been overrun by wrestling conventions, autograph signings, independent wrestling shows, podcast tapings, a 2K24 gaming tournament and all the other trappings that have turned the industry into a mainstream cultural phenomenon.

From the start, WrestleMania was born to be different. Mr. T and Muhammad Ali helped pack Madison Square Garden in 1985, and “The Showcase of the Immortals” quickly turned a night of wrestling usually reserved for smoky arenas into the Super Bowl of entertainment. As WrestleMania approaches 40, it’s never been bigger—even with brainchild Vince McMahon a pariah and ousted from the company in the wake of a sex abuse lawsuit

Yes, McMahon and Donald Trump even tangled at WrestleMania in 2007 in a “Battle of the Billionaires” match.

“Donald Trump, to a certain extent, represents a great deal of Americana,” McMahon said in 2007 “He’s larger than life, which really fits into what the WWE is.”

Saudi certainly provokes strong views from people,” WTA Tour Chairman and CEO Steve Simon told The Associated Press. “We’ve met with Chris and Martina and listened to their concerns and we have shared their concerns through our stakeholders as well, without prejudice.”

“We’ve also shared the concerns around women’s rights and LGBTQ+ rights within the Kingdom of Saudi. Our focus is on how we develop women’s tennis for the benefit of everybody involved in the game,” he said. “The reality of it is...we are truly a global tour, a global business. We have players from over 90 nations now. We have over 90 events.... We participate in many countries that have different cultures and values systems across the board.”

As for any  concerns about Saudi Arabia that current players  might have, Simon said: “We don’t plan to do any persuading. The players need to make their own choices, and we do believe that everyone who qualifies is going to want to play.”

The event for the top eight singles players and top eight doubles teams will be held in Riyadh from 2024-26, part of a recent wave of investment by the kingdom in tennis and various sports, despite questions about LGBTQ+ and women’s rights there raised by Hall of Famers Chris Evert and Martina Navratilova and others.

“We’re going into this eyes wide open that the investment in sport by

Maybe wrestling really does represent who we are as a nation. But even if you still scrunch your nose like you took a whiff of curdled milk over the very idea that anyone would like this flavor of wrestling, odds are you’ve still heard of The Rock and Hulk Hogan. Andre the Giant and John Cena. You’ve snapped into a Slim Jim because Randy Savage ordered you to, or let out a “Woooo!” at a hockey game like Ric Flair. Dave Bautista won a WrestleMania championship before he ever guarded the galaxy.

“Look at the way it was marketed in

the 80s, when Vince McMahon really changed the whole industry forever,” said author Brad Balukjian, whose new book is on 1980s WrestleMania stars. “He’s got the action figures, he’s got the cartoon and the bedsheets and the lunch boxes. He turned these guys into the Batmans and the Marvel Cinematic Universe of the 80s, in a way.”

Reveling in accepted fakery

FANS have long been in on the con—and embraced it. It’s a mutual agreement forged for even paying customers to play their own roles in the four-sided ring performance. So they cheer. They boo. And despite all evidence to the contrary, they openly accept that each move is as legitimate a sporting action as anything found in a weeknight ballgame.

Club Punta Fuego, and co-presented by property conglomerate Landco Pacific Corp.

According to Club Punta Fuego general manager Edgar Krohn, the event bolsters its position as the sports and recreational sailing haven of southern Luzon. Situated in Nasugbu, the sprawling Club is home to a star-rated Mediterranean-themed resort hotel, Spanish-inspired restaurant, an upscale residential community, 18-hole golf course, and a yacht club.

The Club also served as the starting point of the Busuanga Cup in February, which is part of the BPI Private Wealth Signature Yacht

Wrestling pretended for so long to be on the up-and-up. Comedian Andy Kaufman drew gasps when he was slapped by wrestler Jerry Lawler on “Late Night with David Letterman.” But the curtain was yanked open long ago. On Wednesday, Johnson and WWE Universal Champion Roman Reigns appeared on the “The Tonight Show” without any manufactured theatrics on their final hype job ahead of WrestleMania.

Former WWE star Dave Schultz slapped a “20/20” reporter in the 1980s for calling wrestling fake. Now ESPN, The Athletic, Sports Illustrated and CBS Sports have dedicated pages that report on both storylines and behindthe-scenes news, where the real drama is more likely found. Wrestling news is treated as seriously as any other sport’s. But is it? A sport, that is.

DEBATE the definition all you want. Wrestling—a precursor to reality TV and all the Real Housewives—isn’t going anywhere. And its biggest fans are often the athletes who want to emulate the super-sized stars. This week, Joel Embiid was about to divulge that he suffered from

depression during an injury that cost him two months of his NBA career. But before the Philadelphia 76ers big man unburdened himself, he pulled on a WWE T-shirt emblazoned with the slogan of the wrestling company’s most boorish faction, Degeneration X: “Suck It.”

For pro wrestling, momentum is at hand. WWE’s weekly television show “Raw” will move to Netflix next year as part of a major streaming deal worth more than $5 billion. That’s some serious cash that even the “Million Dollar Man” Ted DiBiase would envy.

So go ahead. Sneer at wrestling. Or let go, turn a blind eye to the subterfuge and embrace Hulkamania and the frenzy that followed as a staple of the global sports landscape. Because it’s not leaving the building anytime soon.

Consider John Kruk, retired Phillies star and team broadcaster. You’d think that the pinnacle moment of baseball each year would be a must-see for him. But if pro wrestling is coming to town, as he told wrestler Kofi Kingston on TV recently, other priorities prevail.

“If it was a World Series game, if the Phillies aren’t participating, and wrestling was on,” Kruk said, “I’m watching wrestling.” AP

Locations in Europe, North America and Asia also were considered as possible new sites for the WTA Finals, which have moved around to five cities over the past five editions after a deal to put the tournament in Shenzhen, China, through 2030 was disrupted by the coronavirus pandemic and concerns over the safety of retired Grand Slam doubles champion Peng Shuai , who accused a Chinese government official of rape.

The cities that hosted in 2022 (Fort Worth, Texas) and 2023 (Cancun, Mexico) were not revealed until September each year, and last November’s event was strongly criticized by players. Four-time Grand Slam champion Iga Swiatek beat Jessica Pegula in last year’s title match; US Open champ Coco Gauff and Australian Open winner Aryna Sabalenka were among the other participants. Simon said Riyadh was selected by the WTA in late December, but the details of the agreement were just completed.

“This partnership will build on our exposure to a market and a region whose impact on the sports industry is certainly growing rapidly,” Simon said. “We certainly expect that you’ll see more events coming there in the future. So at the end, we believe that the WTA should be a part of this development, versus being on the outside.” Saudi Arabia’s Private Investment Fund (PIF)  formed the LIV Golf tour and put money into soccer, for example, and the kingdom’s role in tennis has been rising. The Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) Tour moved its Next Gen Finals for leading 21-and-under players to Jedda in November; the PIF is the title sponsor for the men’s rankings; 22-time Grand Slam champion  Rafael Nadal recently became an ambassador  for the Saudi Tennis Federation; he will join 24time major champ Novak Djokovic and rising stars Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner at an exhibition event in Riyadh in October. AP

JOHN CENA (top) chokes Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson at a Wrestlemania event on April 7, 2013, in East Rutherford, New Jersey. AP

How would you like your restaurant?

Former chef Jespher Millano may have hung his apron, but he continues to create sensorial experiences in the F&B scene as a restaurant and bar consultant

Championing OPM artists in the digital landscape

By John Eiron R. Francisco

MUSIC resonates deeply within the Filipino soul that weaves a thread and binds generations together. From the timeless classics of yesteryears to the pulsating beats of today’s emerging artists, Complex Philippines under the helm of its Editor-in-Chief Gelo Lasin stands amidst this melodic landscape, who aims to amplify the voices of Filipino musicians and artists towards a bold new frontier.

Indeed, the Filipino music scene is experiencing a renaissance of sorts, with a burgeoning wave of OPM (Original Pilipino Music) talent making an impact both locally and globally. From hip-hop to R&B, Filipino artists are carving out their own space in the industry.

“As champions of Filipino talent and entertainment, it’s fitting that Complex

Philippines is in the middle of this outpouring of Filipino creativity,” Lasin said in a recent interview with Soundstrip.

Lasin’s career took an unexpected international detour when he ventured to Sweden, where he immersed himself in the digital landscape while working for Educations Media Group. This experience broadened his horizons, giving him invaluable insights into the power of digital platforms to shape opinions and engage audiences.

Upon his return to the Philippines, Lasin discovered his passion for publishing, set out on a journey that would see him accumulate six years of industry experience. His tenure included a pivotal role as the Senior Content Lead for a youth-centric platform focused on pop culture, laying the groundwork for his eventual leadership at Complex Philippines.

As Complex Philippines marks its inaugural year in the industry, Lasin’s vision extends beyond mere celebration but  it’s a commitment to expanding the publication’s influence. With a focus on content creation, collaborations, and social media strategy spanning music, lifestyle, and sports, Lasin believes that Complex Ph  is ready to carve out an even greater presence in the cultural landscape.

Championing resilient Filipino Artists

ONE of the trends Lasin finds intriguing is the growing independence of artists. He expressed admiration for budding Filipino artists who navigate the industry with resilience and determination.

“It’s nice to see the hard work pay off for a budding Filipino artist when they boom on social media, for example, through publicity of their own making,” he said.

He believes that his publication takes pride in its ability to capture the lifecycle of artists, from their humble beginnings to their rise to stardom. By spotlighting both mainstream and emerging talents, the publication offers a comprehensive view of the Filipino music landscape, uncovering trends and issues that connect with its audience.

Selecting the right voices

WHEN it comes to selecting artists to feature, Lasin emphasized the importance of authenticity and resonance. While the “reputation and numbers” play a role, it is the artist’s craft and connection with the audience that ultimately guide their editorial decisions.

“We look for artists whose voices resonate with our audience,” Lasin explained, “those who embody the essence of Complex.”

Meanwhile, balancing editorial vision with audience expectations and advertiser interests is a delicate dance for any media platform, but for Lasin, authenticity is non-negotiable.

“Indulging one’s editorial vision comes naturally when you genuinely align with the interests of your community,” he said.

Lasin also believed that for far too

long, Filipino voices, talents, and stories have been underrepresented across various industries and platforms, both locally and internationally.

In the realm of music, this lack of representation has been particularly glaring. Despite the wealth of talent and creativity that exists within the Filipino music scene, many artists have struggled to gain recognition and visibility on a global scale. Mainstream music charts and awards ceremonies often overlook Filipino artists, perpetuating a cycle of marginalization and exclusion.

However, this sentiment extends beyond just music. It permeates through various facets of Filipino culture and society.

Lasin’s acknowledgment of this longstanding issue reflects a growing awareness and determination to challenge the status quo. As the Editor-in-Chief of Complex Philippines, Lasin recognizes the importance of amplifying Filipino voices and stories across all areas of interest.

He believes that true progress and inclusivity can only be achieved when diverse perspectives are represented and celebrated.

Lasin’s words serve as a call to action for greater diversity and inclusion in all aspects of society. They remind us of the need to uplift Filipino talents, to give them the platform and recognition they deserve, and to ensure that their voices are heard and valued on a global scale.

As Complex Philippines continues its journey of growth and transformation, Lasin’s unwavering commitment to championing Filipino creativity and culture remains steadfast. With each passing day, the publication strives to carve out its unique place in the Filipino music scene, which leaves a legacy on the cultural landscape.

“Aside from content, the promotion also comes in forming a community of kindred spirits,” he said.

Through thought-provoking articles, insightful interviews, and dynamic events, Complex Philippines aims to spark meaningful conversations and foster connections among its audience.

“That’s how we promote local culture; by cultivating a community that cannot be ignored,” he concluded.

GELO LASIN

Steve Gadd returns to Manila for James Taylor’s concert on April 8

The esteemed drummer in ‘50 Ways to Leave Your Lover’ and ‘Aja’ first performed at the Philippine International Convention Center with Tom Scott in June 1980, and then visited Birds of the Same Feather in QC for a jam

By Pocholo Concepcion

FILIPINO fans of Steve Gadd are looking forward with excitement to watch the esteemed drummer who is performing at the concert dubbed An Evening with James Taylor and His All Star Band on April 8 at the Mall of Asia (MOA) Arena. The concert is mounted by Ovation Productions.

Gadd—now 78 and still regarded as one of America’s best session musicians, having played with the likes of Simon & Garfunkel, Chick Corea, Chuck Mangione, Eric Clapton, and now with Taylor’s 2024 touring band—is best known worldwide for his snare drum marching intro in Simon’s 1975 hit single “50 Ways to Leave Your Lover” and avalanche drum solo on the title track in Steely Dan’s 1977 Aja album.

In June 1980, Gadd had the opportunity to perform in Manila as the drummer at saxophonist Tom Scott’s concert at the Philippine International Convention Center A memorable treat after that event was Scott and his band, composed of keyboardist Richard Tee, guitarist Carlos Rios, bassist Neil Stubenhaus, and Gadd himself, proceeding to Serafin Pua’s jazz club Birds of the Same Feather at the corner of Morato and Timog Avenue in Quezon City to jam in a few numbers.

“It was customary for such musicians, after a concert, to look for a club where they can release their adrenaline by jamming,” Pua told Business Mirror, adding that in the audience that night was the Philippines’ sax great Eddie Katindig, still sweaty since he was the featured performer at Birds.

“Wow!  Nasa gilid ako ni  Steve Gadd  diyan!” Filipino drummer Mar Dizon recalled in a comment to Pua’s posting on Facebook of a photo of the jam.

On Taylor’s website are photos of his touring band with a short Q&A with its members. Here’s Gadd’s part:

When and where was your first gig?

Gadd: My first gig was an appearance on the Mickey Mouse Club in California, 1957. (In Steve’s 1957 appearance on the Mickey Mouse Club, he both tap danced and performed a drum solo!)

When did you start working with James?

My first job with James was a recording session in the mid-1980s.

When was your first tour?

My first tour was with the School Band of America in 1961.

What one special item do you always take on tour?

Running gear.

What’s your pre-show routine?

Going to the bus and taking a nap.

Why do you enjoy touring with James?

I like touring with James because the music is great,

and the hang is fantastic.

Rounding up Taylor’s band members for the MOA concert are guitarist Dean Parks (another Steely Dan alumni, having played on the tracks “Josie,” “Haitian Divorce,” “Deacon Blues,” and “Rikki Don’t Lose That Number”), bassist Jimmy Johnson (whose long list of credential  includes session work with Allan Holdsworth, Elton John, Stan Getz, Chris Botti, and Fra Lippo Lippi), keyboardist Kevin Hayes (who has recorded over 20 albums as leader or co-leader of bands whose members included Ron Carter, Joe Henderson, Doug Weiss, and Bill Stewart), and vocalists Kate Markowitz, Dorian Holley, and Andrea Zonn (who also plays fiddle).

Meanwhile, the Associated Press (AP) news agency published online on March 28 a Q&A that writer Maria Sherman conducted with Taylor about his current tour. Here are excerpts:

Before the continental US tour, you’re headed to Japan, the Philippines, Australia, New Zealand, and Hawaii. What keeps it interesting?

Taylor: The audience, always. The event itself has never failed to supply the motivation and the energy that is required. You know, it’s very compelling to go a great distance and to find a crowd of people that have bought tickets to come see me and the band play again.

Over time, it’s something you learn to do, to keep your strength up, keep your health...also, I don’t do more than a couple of shows in a row without a day off.

I’ll do more than that if I’m in one town, but generally speaking, we pace ourselves now... I definitely burned myself out a few times.

Reflecting on his career, Taylor said: “This is the time of life when you feel like you ought to get in touch with a lawyer and make a will. You see, the older generation, the people that were your friends and mentors, sort of checking out one by one. It is a time when you feel as though things are being summed up a little bit and you start thinking about, the whole thing as a totality. You know, a line from one of my songs, ‘Copperline,’ is ‘I’m only living ’til the end of the week,’ and I think that really does describe me.

“But, you know, it is a period of time when you look back and see the whole thing, it’s important not to internalize that idea of being a big deal. It’s important to focus on what it is that you do — and that thing as a craft that allows you to have your place in the world.”

What has that allowed you to learn?

As time goes by, I think it’s wrong for people to judge other people and even to evaluate them, and yet it’s something we constantly do, and we can’t avoid it. But we should mitigate it by knowing that when we judge someone, we’ve got it wrong. They know who they are, and not we. But, of course, in a million ways, all day long, we evaluate ourselves and other people and it’s complicated. It’s not up to me to determine what my ultimate position in popular culture turns out to be 50 years from now.

That’s a value judgment, too.

I see people selling the rights to their catalogs. That baby boom generation musical expression, which happened between ’62 and 1980, that sort of 20 years of amazing activity that happened, I was in the center of it and actually got my start in London with the Beatles. So, I

had a real sense of this generational phenomenon that the music that I was part of, was a big feature in the landscape and we were communicating to each other. We invented a kind of music there. It was predicted by rhythm and blues and folk music. And those two resurgences sort of fueled it and supplied it. It was big.

You see those people now, being in my sort of age group generally, selling the rights to their catalogs and sort of evaluating what their life’s output was worth. You know, David Bowie’s went for like $250 million. I think (Bob) Dylan... got like $300 million... (Bruce) Springsteen is said to have gotten more than that, like half a billion or something. It’s sort of like monopoly money.

What do you hope people take away from your live show, and are you working on a new album?

I feel like I’ve got another one in me—sounds like an egg—but I’m writing a little bit.

And as to what I hope people take away from live performances, I hope they take away a sense of connection. You know, live music—the thing that I’m so attached to about it, why I can’t let it go—is that there’s something (that) happens when people come together for a couple of hours for two or three hours and have a sort of collective experience.

It’s indescribable. You prepare for it, but when it happens, it’s spontaneous and, in a way, unique. I love it when that happens, and it does most nights.

Give us a call if you consider selling your catalog.

If someone comes sniffing around, I’ll get in touch.

An Evening with James Taylor and His All-Star Band, April 8, MOA Arena; log on to smtickets.com

STEVE GADD

JAMES TAYLOR

How would you like your reSTauranT?

Former chef Jespher Millano may have hung his apron, but he continues to create sensorial experiences in the F&B scene as a restaurant and bar consultant

By Jt Nisay Y2Z Editor

HaviNg spent most of his young life in the food & beverage (F&B) industry, Jespher Millano knows this to be true in putting up a restaurant: it’s easy to get started when you have the money. However, he also understands that having the capital is hardly a singleingredient recipe for success.

“The establishment needs to have a soul,” Millano said in a recent sit-down at a restaurant in Bonifacio Global City. “It has to have proper positioning, concept, branding, marketing, and a solid story to tell.”

At 29 years old, Millano has already crossed the broad F&B spectrum as a chef-turned-consultant. He holds a Master of Science degree in Restaurant Management and Concepts Creation from Institut Paul Bocuse in Lyon, France and has worked in the kitchen brigade of a fine-dining Michelin-star restaurant in Paris and a 5-star luxury hotel in the US.

Millano now manages his own restaurant and bar concepts company, año, which celebrates its first anniversary this week. The group helps a full range of clients from finedining restaurants to quick-service establishments bring their concepts to life through end-to-end services. This includes curating a strategic report, to working on branding, all the way to the font selection in the menu.

“Our goal is to help clients make a remarkable impression in the F&B industry by attending to every detail and aligning each aspect of the concept with their vision and goals,” Millano said.

Serendipity’s specialty

W HIL e Millano’s impressive ascent in the F&B business seems like a realized lifelong dream, he maintains that everything only happened by chance.

His entry into the culinary scene, for instance, was enrolling at

e nderun Colleges after learning that the prestigious institution, known for its hospitality programs, offered internship in Paris. The French capital was Millano’s top bucket-list destination ever since high school, “just because it’s Paris.” Prior to signing up for the program, he’s mostly been to the kitchen as a boy to watch his mom cook. But those moments fostered in him a tremendous passion for food, along with a keen attention to detail.

“I’ve always liked ingredients in their raw form, making it into something while keeping its flavors and complimenting it with others,” Millano said.

Under his undergraduate program, Millano was able to work in the kitchen of top-class establishments abroad, including a Michelin-star restaurant in the e iffel Tower. As an intern, he was “fed to the wolves.” The French ran a military approach in the kitchen but the eager learner did not fold. He rose to the challenge and grasped the ins and outs of the trade.

The experience also allowed Millano’s innate culinary talents to shine through. He earned praises from his superiors as he worked his way up from prep work, tasked to prepare ingredients, to the line, where orders were readied for final touches. At 19, he was offered a job offer in the restaurant.

Millano decided to pursue postgraduate studies in culinary arts. Citing another serendipitous turn of events, he enrolled in a program thinking that

it would prepare him for a life in the kitchen. Instead, the master’s degree focused on restaurant management and concepts creation, which laid out the groundwork for his current path with his own company.

Millano looks back with no regrets and only fondness of how things turned out. He truly enjoys restaurant work outside the kitchen that was geared towards branding and management.

“It was another layer of creativity that excited me and I wanted to pursue,” he said. “I got genuinely interested in analyzing the behavior of diners, from their preference for food to the colors on the restaurant walls that work for them. How a leather-bound menu creates a perception of premium selections, or how red sauce is more appealing. It’s all about creating that sensorial experience.”

año, in reference to the Tagalog of “form” M ILLA n O supplemented his master’s degree in Lyon with certificates of leadership, hospitality and education from École Hôtelière de Lausanne in Switzerland and Alain Ducasse e ducation in France.

In 2018, he came home and served as a sous chef and program manager in a Makati hotel, teaching freshmen and sophomore college students. When the pandemic hit, Millano thought of utilizing his degree and worked remotely for a Kuala Lumpur-based F&B consultancy group. He helped create

bespoke concepts for clients across the Middle e ast, Southeast Asia, and Greater China, including global hotel chains like Intercontinental Hotels & Restaurants, Raddison Blu, and more.

Millano realized he deals with every client with a smile. “It’s the hotelier in me,” he said, as the discipline instilled in him to always be accommodating and ready to go the extra mile. He added that seeing a happy client as a consultant gives him the same dopamine effect to seeing a happy diner when he was a chef.

Last year, Millano decided to establish his own F&B consultancy firm, año ( ano-concepts.com ). While his few competitors bank on a marketing background, Millano believes that his hotelier training and culinary experience sets año apart from the rest.

Aside from embodying the spirit of hospitality, the company designs experience-driven concepts that flesh out the client’s vision. año offers comprehensive strategic report services that cover benchmarking, market research, trends and competitive landscape analysis, and more. They also do branding that includes identity and guideline development, as well as concept creation from menu direction to music curation and staff uniform design, among others.

año’s clients include an awardwinning eclectic-modern Japanese restaurant in Dubai; a premier café in Bacolor, Pampanga; and a speakeasy bar in Poblacion, Makati, among others. Millano is ready to take on more clients across different F&B segments, from fine-dining concepts to upper-casual restaurants.

As the company turns a year old, Millano’s focus lies on expanding año. They are working on introducing an interior design arm soon, along with a culinary & mixology department for R&D and a bigger branding department.

Millano likewise hopes to have another international client as part of his ultimate goal of becoming the go-to, one-stop-shop F&B consultancy firm for hotels, restaurants, and independent groups. After that, he would love to go back to his roots as a chef and helm the kitchen of his own bar and restaurant.

For now, he takes pride in how much the Philippine F&B industry has grown. However, Millano believes there are still ways to go.

“The maturity of the Philippine F&B market has evolved tremendously, but we still need to keep up with our neighboring countries that have lots of excellent concept establishments. We’re getting there, but we need to have more,” he said. “To do that, our establishments need to have proper concepts, a good story to tell, and more importantly, a soul.”

Jespher Millano, founder and director of restaurant & bar consultancy firm año.

inside K aTa dubai Mall, an award-winning eclectic-modern Japanese restaurant in United arab emirates.

one of the food offerings at Virtue & Vice, which año helped develop.