BusinessMirror April 25, 2021

ROTARY CLUB OF MANILA JOURNALISM AWARDS

2006 National Newspaper of the Year 2011 National Newspaper of the Year 2013 Business Newspaper of the Year 2017 Business Newspaper of the Year 2019 Business Newspaper of the Year

BusinessMirror

www.businessmirror.com.ph

A broader look at today’s business n

Sunday, April 25, 2021 Vol. 16 No. 193

EJAP JOURNALISM AWARDS

BUSINESS NEWS SOURCE OF THE YEAR (2017, 2018)

DEPARTMENT OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

2018 BANTOG MEDIA AWARDS

PHILIPPINE STATISTICS AUTHORITY

DATA CHAMPION

P25.00 nationwide | 3 sections 20 pages | 7 DAYS A WEEK

A GLIMMER OF HOPE

T

By Jonathan L. Mayuga

HE lifting of the moratorium on new mining agreements following the signing of Executive Order (EO) 130 by President Duterte offers a glimmer of hope for the mining industry with the promise of boosting the government’s recovery effort amid the raging Covid-19 pandemic.

EO 130, which amended Section 4 of former President Benigno Simeon Aquino’s EO 79 signed on July 6, 2012—pertaining to the “Grant of Mineral Agreements Pending New Legislation”—ended the nine-year mining moratorium, which also held in abeyance new mining projects.

The Department of Environment and Natural Resources

(DENR), through the Mines and Geosciences Bureau (MGB), is now working to draft the new EO’s implementing rules and regulations (IRR) to proceed with the processing of 100 priority mining agreements or projects.

Taken by surprise

ANTI-MINING groups immediately slammed the lifting of the morato-

PESO EXCHANGE RATES n US 48.4020

rium on new mining agreements.

Bantay Kita said the issuance of EO 130 lifting the mining moratorium has taken many stakeholders by surprise, and alleged that it was issued without any prior consultation with relevant stakeholders.

“EO 130 cites the increase of the excise tax from 2 percent to 4 percent (as contained in RA 10963 or TRAIN law) as the justification for the lifting of the moratorium.

This minor increase in excise tax is not the type of ‘[rationalization of] existing revenue sharing schemes’ that was contemplated by EO 79,” the group pointed out.

Alyansa Tigil Mina (ATM), for its part, branded Duterte’s order as “another incompetent Covid-19 response.” The group said it will only serve the business interests of a few in power and not the Filipino people.

“A just recovery from Covid-19 can only be achieved by sustainable solutions. Mining is the very opposite of sustainable. It has long proven to be destructive—many lives were lost to mining-related

disasters and the environment permanently destroyed. This is a disastrous Earth Day for miningaffected communities,” Jaybee Garganera, Green Thumb Coalition convener and ATM national coordinator, said.

Mining’s ‘Big 3’

THIS early, mining industry’s big players under the Chamber of Mines of the Philippines (COMP) are hopeful that new investments will start to flow that would give the sector a much-needed boost.

At least three big copper-gold projects of COMP member-companies alone—Silangan, as well as Tampakan and King-King—are expected to bring in a total of nearly $5 billion total capital investments spread over several years.

Such projects in rural areas are expected to generate hundreds of jobs, plus the indirect jobs in the form of livelihood and other employment opportunities.

This is assuming that the Tampakan and King-King will hurdle former DENR Secretary Gina Lopez’s open-pit mining ban, con-

sidered as the biggest stumbling block facing mining companies, according to Rocky Dimaculangan, COMP’s vice president for corporate communications.

Annual exports, revenues

THE annual exports from these three projects are estimated at nearly $2 billion, while the annual national government revenues have been pegged at P12 billion.

Local government units (LGUs) also stand to receive P1.5 billion from these mining projects.

On the other hand, the social expenses of these three big-ticket projects are estimated at P770 million, while royalties that will go to indigenous peoples are pegged at P632 million.

Stumbling block

THESE companies, however, need to hurdle stumbling blocks to start operation.

The open-pit mining ban put in place by Lopez in handing down DAO 2017-10 on April 27, 2017, remains the biggest challenge faced by miners.

The ban covers select ores, including gold, copper, silver and complex ores.

Both King-King and Tampakan prefer the open-pit mining method.

Proponents of the Silangan project had decided to use the tunneling method and secured the clearance from the DENR-MGB.

‘Not to worry’

MGB Director Wilfredo Moncano, in a telephone interview with the BusinessMirror, told industry players “not to worry.”

“Sabihin mo lang [Tell them] don’t worry,” Moncano said. The official, however, stopped short of saying the ban on open-pit mining method will also be lifted soon.

“What I can say is that a working group is working on it in the DENR,” he said.

Moncano, however, said any decision on the issue of open-pit mining will depend on the appreciation and recommendation of DENR Secretary Roy A. Cimatu to Malacañang.

Continued on A2

n JAPAN 0.4484 n UK 66.9932 n HK 6.2376 n CHINA 7.4566 n SINGAPORE 36.4226 n AUSTRALIA 37.3228 n EU 58.1695 n SAUDI ARABIA 12.9076

Source: BSP (April 23, 2021)

NEIL LOCKHART | DREAMSTIME.COM

PHL lifts ban on mining agreements in a bid to fund pandemic-battered economy. But both miners and environmentalists remain anxious.

NewsSunday Grim list of deaths at police hands grows even after verdict BusinessMirror

A2 Sunday, April 25, 2021

www.businessmirror.com.ph

By Lindsay Whitehurst & Alanna Durkin Richer

J

The Associated Press

UST as the guilty verdict was about to be read in the trial of former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin, police in Ohio shot and killed a Black teenager in broad daylight during a confrontation.

The shooting of Ma’Khia Bryant, 16, who was swinging a knife during a fight with another person in Columbus, is in some ways more representative of how Black and other people of color are killed during police encounters than the death of George Floyd, pinned to the ground by Chauvin and captured on video for all the world to see.

Unlike Chauvin’s case, many killings by police involve a decision to shoot in a heated moment and are notoriously difficult to prosecute even when they spark grief and outrage. Juries have tended to give officers the benefit of the doubt when they claim to have acted in a life-or-death situation.

While Tuesday’s conviction was hailed as a sign of progress in the fight for equal justice, it still leaves unanswered difficult questions about law enforcement’s use of force and systemic racism in policing. The verdict in the Chauvin case might not be quickly repeated, even as the list of those killed at the hands of police grows.

“This was something unique.

The world saw what happened,” said Salt Lake County District Attorney Sim Gill, who has examined over 100 use-of-force cases there.

To have video, witnesses, forensic evidence and multiple police officers testify against one of their own is unique and “demonstrates how high the bar has to be in order to actually have that kind of accountability,” he said.

Rare verdict

CONVICTIONS like Chauvin’s are extraordinarily rare. Out of the thousands of deadly police shootings in the US since 2005, fewer than 140 officers have been charged and just seven convicted of murder, according to data maintained by Phil Stinson, a criminologist at Bowling Green State University.

A MAN holds a sign at George Floyd Square on Wednesday, April 21, 2021, in Minneapolis, a day after former Minneapolis police Officer Derek Chauvin was convicted on all counts for the 2020 death of Floyd. AP

“This is a success, but there are so many more unjust murders that still need reckoning, that we still need to address,” said Princess Blanding, a Virginia gubernatorial candidate whose brother was killed

by Richmond police. Marcus-David Peters, who was Black, was fatally shot by a Black police officer during a mental health crisis after he ran naked onto an interstate highway and charged at the officer.

In Columbus, Bryant had been swinging a knife wildly at another girl or woman pinned against a car when the officer fired after shouting at the girl to get down, according to police and body camera video released within hours of the shooting. The mayor mourned the 16-year-old’s death but said the officer had acted to protect someone else.

Kimberly Shepherd, who lives in the neighborhood where Bryant was killed, had been celebrating the guilty verdict in Floyd’s killing when she heard the news about the teenager.

“We were happy about the verdict. But you couldn’t even enjoy that,” Shepherd said. “Because as you’re getting one phone call that

he was guilty, I’m getting the next phone call that this is happening in my neighborhood.”

In Chauvin’s case, by contrast, cellphone video seen around the world showed the white officer pressing his knee to the Black man’s neck for more than nine minutes as Floyd gasped for air.

It sparked protests across the US, and Chauvin’s fellow officers took the extraordinary step of testifying against him.

Dawning of ‘new era’?

“AS we look to future prosecution, the question is going to be: Is this perhaps the beginning of a new era, where those walls of silence are not impenetrable?” said Miriam Krinsky, a former federal prosecutor and executive director of the reform-minded group Fair and Just Prosecution. Chauvin’s case could also make future juries more skeptical of police, she said.

The day after Bryant was fatally shot, at least two other people were also killed by police in the United States.

On Wednesday morning, an officer killed a man while executing a search warrant in eastern North

Carolina. And in the San Diego suburb of Escondido, police said an officer fatally shot a man who was apparently striking cars with a metal pole.

On Thursday, a funeral will be held for Daunte Wright, a 20-year-old Black motorist who was shot during a traffic stop earlier this month in Brooklyn Center, Minnesota, just a few miles from the courthouse as the Chauvin trial unfolded. In Chicago last month, 13-year-old Adam Toledo was fatally shot less than a second after he tossed a gun and began raising his hands as an officer had commanded.

Police officer Kim Potter, who is white, has been charged with second-degree murder in Wright’s shooting. The former police chief said Potter mistakenly fired her handgun when she meant to use her Taser. She resigned from the police force afterward and was charged with second-degree manslaughter. Wright’s family has called for more serious charges, comparing her case to the murder charge brought against a Black officer who killed a white woman in nearby Minneapolis in 2017.

A GLIMMER OF HOPE Continued from A1

“Of course, it will all depend on Secretary Cimatu’s decision,” he said.

Moncano has been vocal in supporting the mining industry in its calls to reverse alleged antimining policies put in place by Lopez, which include the mining audit that saw 26 mining projects having been canceled or suspended, cancellation of 75 inactive Mineral Production and Sharing Agreements (MPSA) and one Financial and Technical Assistance

Agreement (FTAA) and the openpit mining ban.

Positive sentiment, investment climate

WITH Duterte’s change of heart in lifting the ban on new mining agreements, there’s also renewed hope among industry players on the issue of the open-pit mining method.

Philex Mining public and regulatory affairs head Francis Joseph G. Ballesteros Jr. said with Silangan, the company is still pursuing and working with its financial ad-

visor to identify and sign up a strategic business partner.

“Hopefully, EO 130 would somehow encourage investor interest in the project,” Ballesteros said.

He said while EO 130 did not directly benefit Silangan as the company has no new agreements in sight yet, the benefit to the project is in terms of investment climate.

Kaycee Crisostomo, director for communications of King-King, said the company is pleased with the positive developments and hoped that the potential investors in its project will also be encouraged.

“The project will benefit from the overall positive sentiment for new mining projects and the restoration of confidence among foreign direct investors,” Crisostomo said.

Necessary form of mining

COMP has been conveying member-companies’ sentiment against Lopez’s open-pit mining ban.

For COMP, the method of mining is dictated by the nature of the ores.

“The open-pit method is a necessary form of mining in most areas where underground mining

Cycle

THE Cook County state’s attorney’s office will decide whether to charge Eric Stillman, the white police officer who shot Adam in a Chicago alley on March 29 in Little Village, a predominantly Hispanic neighborhood of the city’s southwest side.

The boy, who was Latino, appeared to drop a handgun moments before the officer shot him. The graphic video of the boy’s death sparked outrage across the US, but some legal experts have said they don’t believe Stillman could or should be charged under criteria established by a landmark 1989 Supreme Court ruling on the use of force by police.

Instead of just prosecuting officers after shootings happen, more must be done to prevent such encounters from happening in the first place, said Eugene Collins, who was a local organizer for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People’s (NAACP) Baton Rouge, Louisiana, branch when Alton Sterling, a Black man selling CDs in front of a convenience store, was shot and killed by a white police officer in July 2016. The two officers

cannot be applied,” Dimaculangan said.

“The shape, nature and location of the ore body determine the mining method. In the case of open-pit mining, the ore is either on the surface or close to it, therefore necessitating an extractive approach from above ground and not from under it,” he explained.

Legal basis

DIMACULANGAN also noted the Mining Act of 1995 allows the implementation of open-pit mining.

“There are economic, safety

involved in the encounter weren’t charged in his death.

“We’re pulled over more, stopped and frisked more,” said Collins, now head of the NAACP branch. “It’s about putting responsibility on the policymakers.”

Activists say the fight for police reform and a more just legal system is far from over.

Rachael Rollins, the first woman of color to become district attorney in Massachusetts, said it must start in part by breaking down the misconception that questioning the police or suggesting ways they can improve means “you don’t back the blue.”

“The police have an incredibly hard job, and believe me, I know there are violent people that harm community and police but that’s not all of us. So we have to acknowledge that it’s not working and we have to sit together to come up with solutions, but it’s urgent,” said Rollins, the district attorney for Suffolk County, which includes Boston.

“I’m afraid, I’m exhausted and I’m the chief law enforcement officer so imagine what other people feel like,” she said.

and environmental considerations for employing this method. Thousands of mines worldwide have adopted this primary method, including Australia, Canada, China, Brazil and the USA. We are the only country in the world that bans this method,” he said.

Lastly, Dimaculangan said open-pit mines can be operated safely by following globally accepted standards and mined-out areas that “can be rehabilitated properly in a manner that provides alternative and productive land use after the life of the mine.”

www.businessmirror.com.ph • Editor: Angel R. Calso

The World

Covid will leave scars in world economy even after recovery

J

ust as some patients recovering from Covid-19 suffer long-lasting symptoms, it’s becoming clear that the same will be true for the global economy once this year’s V-shaped rebound fades.

While $26 trillion worth of crisis support and the arrival of vaccines have fueled a faster recovery than many anticipated, the legacies of stunted education, the destruction of jobs, war-era levels of debt and widening inequalities between races, genders, generations and geographies will leave lasting scars, most of them in the poorest nations.

“It’s very easy after a grueling year or more to feel really relieved that things are back on track,” said Vellore Arthi of the University of California, Irvine, who has examined the long-term health and economic hit from past crises. “But a lot of the effects that we see historically are often for decades and are not easily addressed.”

All told, the decline in gross domestic product last year was the biggest since the Great Depression.

The International Labor Organization estimates it cost the equivalent of 255 million people full-time jobs. Researchers at the Pew Research Center reckon the global middle class shrank for the first time since the 1990s.

The costs will fall unevenly. A scorecard of 31 metrics across 162 nations devised by Oxford Economics Ltd. highlighted the Philippines, Peru, Colombia and Spain as the economies most vulnerable to long-term scarring. Australia, Japan, Norway, Germany and Switzerland were seen as best placed.

“Getting back to the pre-Covid standard will take time,” said Carmen Reinhart, the World Bank’s chief economist. “The aftermath of Covid isn’t going to reverse for a lot of countries. Far from it.”

Not all countries will be affected equally.

The International Monetary Fund sees advanced economies less affected by the virus this year and beyond, with low-income countries and emerging markets suffering more—a contrast to 2009, when rich nations were hit harder. With US GDP next year forecast to be even bigger than projected before Covid-19, propelled by trillions of dollars in stimulus, the IMF’s projections show little residual scarring from the pandemic for the world’s No. 1 economy.

The World Bank warned in a January report of “a decade of global growth disappointments” unless corrective action is taken. It estimated global output was on course to be 5 percent lower by 2025 than its pre-pandemic trend and that the growth rate at which inflation ignites is set to drop below 2 percent in the next decade, having already declined to 2.5 percent in the 2000s from 3.3 percent in the prior decade.

Experts, including Arthi, say there needn’t be a lost decade if the right policy steps are taken, especially in the areas of reskilling workers and putting a floor under those hit hardest by the crisis. One way out includes encouraging policies that create incentives for business to innovate and invest, particularly in climate change. Central banks and most governments are already signaling they will keep stimulus running hot.

The right kind of policy mix could push the rebound toward a full recovery, according to Catherine Mann, chief economist at Citigroup Inc. “Innovation supports higher productivity growth, and new investment raises living standards,” she said.

“Key too are strategies to keep and train workers to take advantage of the higher productivity opportunities.”

After the V

Countries that were quick to control the virus are sending warning flares about the uneven road ahead. After initially enjoying a V-shaped recovery, New Zealand’s economy contracted in the final three months of 2020 as the absence of foreign tourists left a hole that locals couldn’t fill. Now, the country that consistently topped Bloomberg’s Covid resiliency rankings faces the prospect of a double-dip recession.

In China, where the pandemic has been under control for almost a year, retail spending has lagged the broader recovery.

“Focusing on headline GDP, with the US and China engines humming, the world is set for a triumphant ‘V’ shape recovery. Beneath the surface, divergence between advanced and emerging markets, superstar firms and their smaller rivals, and high- and low-skill workers points to scars that will take longer to heal,” said Tom Orlik, Bloomberg chief economist.

How consumer confidence and spending patterns are shaped by ongoing concerns regarding health and hiring could end up being one of the crisis’ most important economic legacies, just as the Great Depression of the 1930s led to greater thrift. That’s a risk even though many people racked up savings during the past year.

“There’s genuine uncertainty over how much people’s behavior in terms of consumption patterns changes as a result of this crisis,” said Adam Posen, president of the Peterson Institute for International Economics. “If people go back to eating in restaurants, doing leisure travel, working out in gyms then a lot of those industries will revive. But it’s also possible that people’s tastes just genuinely change, in which case there is going to be transitionally more unemployment and there’s no good government fix for that.”

History shows that five years after countryspecific recessions, long-term growth expectations were typically 1.5 percentage points lower than in those without recessions, according to the World Bank.

Lasting change

The crisis has accelerated the use of robots in both manufacturing and in the services industry as workers and customers need to be protected from the spread of disease. While that’s spurring hopes for a revival in productivity growth, millions of jobs will be threatened with a question mark over whether enough new ones will be created in the process.

Over 100 million people in eight of the world’s largest economies may need to switch occupation by 2030, according to McKinsey & Co. Those most likely to suffer skill gaps are the less educated, women, ethnic minorities and the young.

The longer people are out of work the more their skills atrophy in a process known as hysteresis.

“A lot of those jobs are gone forever,” said Eric Robertsen, Standard Chartered Plc’s global head of research. “Low-wage job in marginal companies or marginal sectors are gone as the companies have gone bankrupt or the sectors have been hollowed out. A lot of the more-adaptive companies will have filled the void but with fewer workers.”

Even where jobs aren’t lost, work patterns have shifted and it remains an open debate about how those changes will impact wage packets.

Longer-term effects will also be evident in human capital after the pandemic locked out children and university students from classrooms for as much as a year in some countries. The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development calculated in September that even a loss equal to a third of a year for pupils affected by closures when the pandemic was declared could curb a country’s GDP over the remainder of the century. Students in grades 1-12 may see 3-percent lower income over their lifetimes, the OECD warned, with the poor or those from minority backgrounds hardest hit.

How to finance a full recover y will be complicated by the extra $24 trillion in borrowing that the world took on in 2020, bringing total debt to a new high of $281 trillion, according to the Institute of International Finance.

Even without a debt crisis, once interest rates start to rise both governments and companies will come under pressure, according to Mark Zandi, chief economist of Moody’s Analytics.

“The global economy will get back to full employment after the pandemic much more quickly than it did after the financial crisis,” he said. “But once back to full employment the global economy will be stuck in the low gear that prevailed prior to the pandemic.” Bloomberg News

New data says Covid jabs safe, effective for pregnant women

By Lindsey Tanner

O

AP Medical Writer

ne of the largest reports on Covid-19 vaccination in pregnanc y bolsters evidence that it is safe although the authors say more comprehensive research is needed.

The preliminary results are based on reports from over 35,000 US women who received either the Moderna or Pfizer shots while pregnant.

Their rates of miscarriage, premature bir ths and other complications were comparable to those observed in published reports on pregnant women before the pandemic.

The new evidence from researchers at the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention was published on Wednesday in the New England Journal of Medicine .

None of the women involved received Johnson & Johnson’s one-shot vaccine, which became available after the study, and is now in limbo as US authorities examine reports of blood clots in a handful of women.

S e p a r a t e l y, t h e A m e r i c a n S o c i e t y f o r Reproductive Medicine on Tuesday endorsed vaccination in pregnancy, based on evidence it has been evaluating for over a year. ‘’Everyone, including pregnant women and those seeking to become pregnant, should get a Covid-19 vaccine. The vaccines are safe and effective,’’ the society said in a statement.

A society representative said the group has not evaluated the latest evidence on Johnson & Johnson’s vaccine.

An American College of Obstetricians and

Gynecologists representative said the CDC report is promising but that longer-term follow-up is needed. That group has said previously that Covid-19 vaccination should be available to pregnant women and to those who are breastfeeding, and many pregnant US women have chosen to be vaccinated.

Although pregnant women were excluded from studies that led to emergency authorization for the vaccines, evidence showed no harms in women who were unknowingly pregnant when they enrolled.

Dr. Laura Riley, ob-gyn chair at New York’s Weill Cornell Medicine, said the new results are reassuring. ‘’It is great to have data to share with our patients who continue to weigh the risks and benefits of vaccination,” she said. “They know the potential complications of Covid infection in pregnancy and now there is some safety data in human pregnancies.’’

Pregnant women who become infected w i t h t h e co ro n av i r u s f a ce e l e vate d r i s k s for complications including intensive - care hospitalization, premature births and death.

The study authors, led by the CDC’s Dr. Tom Shimabukuro, said continued monitoring and more evidence is needed including on women who get Covid-19 vaccinations in the early stages of pregnancy.

Th e i r s t u d y i n c l u d e d i n f o r m a t i o n o n 35,691 pregnant US women who participated in a voluntary smartphone-based vaccination surveillance system and who received Moderna or Pfizer vaccines between mid-December 2020 and late February.

BusinessMirror

Sunday, April 25, 2021

A3

Covid survivors may require just 1 shot of 2-dose vaccine

C

By Carey Goldberg

oronavirus vaccines were just rolling out in December when more than 1,000 staffers at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles volunteered for a sweeping study. The goal: pinpoint how immune reactions to the jab might vary.

By last month, a clear pattern in the data “popped out at us,” said research leader Susan Cheng.

Those who had recovered from Covid-19 responded to their first shot so robustly that the results rivaled never-infected colleagues who had received both shots. The implication was clear. If you’ve had Covid, you may only need one of the two doses recommended by Pfizer and Moderna.

“We did not expect that this was going to jump out like a smoking gun,” said Cheng, who co-authored the Nature Medicine write-up. In fact, if you already had the virus, your immune response after one vaccine is likely to be even better than a never-infected person’s after two, according to Italian research just out in the New England Journal of Medicine.

The issue of giving only a single dose to people who have had Covid has become all the more urgent since safety concerns have been

raised about Johnson & Johnson’s and AstraZeneca’s vaccines. The implications at a time of strained global supply are striking: giving previously infected people just one mRNA vaccine shot could free up more than 110 million doses worldwide, according to a calculation by University of Maryland School of Medicine immunologist Mohammad Sajadi and colleagues.

‘Remembering’ Covid

Sajadi co-authored one of the recent studies that fit into a recent flurry of findings all pointing in the same direction: The immune system in people who’ve had Covid “remembers” the virus, so a first vaccine acts as a powerful booster for existing defenses.

“The data is very clear,” Sajadi said. “Every study has shown you get a very clear and strong memory response.”

Since February, several Europea n cou nt r ies — i nc lud i ng

France, Spain, Italy and Germany—have adopted policies giving Covid survivors just one dose of the two-dose vaccines.

In Israel, a world leader on coronavirus vaccinations, health authorities initially withheld vaccines altogether from recovered Covid patients, but in February recommended they receive one shot. New research there suggests that the booster vaccine adds protection against newer variants that originated in the UK, South Africa and Brazil.

“We think that our study supports the recommendation to administer one vaccine dose to recovered individuals to protect against the original and SARSCoV-2 variants of concern,” Michal Mandelboim, head of Israel’s National Center for Influenza and Respiratory Viruses, said in an email. A study in “Science” found that in Covid survivors, vaccinations massively boosted immunity against variants.

In the US, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention still recommends two vaccine doses for people who have had Covid, but the mounting evidence that one vaccine could be enough is under discussion. The US has administered enough doses for 31 percent of its population, while Israel has given enough for 57 percent, according to the Bloomberg Vaccine Tracker.

Data needed

In a blog post, National Institutes of Health Director Francis

Collins raised the possibility that giving sur vivors a single dose could “ help to extend vaccine supply and get more people vaccinated sooner.”

“But any serious consideration of this option will require more data,” he cautioned in February.

Since then, one study after another has reinforced the singlevaccine-for-survivors idea, though some skeptics have pointed out that it is logistically simpler to just give everyone two doses than to figure out who needs only one.

In the US, vaccine supplies are relatively copious, Sajadi said. But “for other countries, especially places that are having a hard time getting vaccine, this is really still an important question. And it’s also an important question in general because you don’t want to just give someone a medical intervention they don’t need.”

If a patient who’d had Covid asked Sajadi at this point whether they needed a second vaccine, he said, he’d say it would make sense to skip it if nothing in their medical history indicated issues with immune responses.

Cheng at Cedars-Sinai said she would still default to the CDC guidance calling for two vaccines, even for people who’ve had Covid.

The data does suggest, however, that one dose could be enough, she said—and that could be true for other types of people as well: “I think we’re just at the tip of the iceberg of figuring out who they are.” Bloomberg News

Even record death toll may hide extent of India’s Covid-19 crisis

By Upmanyu Trivedi & Sudhi Ranjan Sen

B

odies piling up at crematoriums and burial grounds across India are sparking concerns that the death toll from a ferocious new Covid-19 wave may be much higher than official records, underplaying the scale of a resurgence that is overwhelming the country’s medical system.

Several cities across the South Asian nation have reported shocking details of bodies, wrapped in protective gear and identified by hospitals as virus-related deaths, lined up outside crematoriums for hours. Accounts collated by Bloomberg from relatives of the dead and workers and eyewitnesses at crematoriums in at least five cities indicate that the real number of Covid fatalities could be significantly higher than the deaths being reported by local government health departments.

On Thursday, India blew past the global record of daily new infections with 314,835 new cases. With nearly 16 million cases in total, it is the second-worst affected nation in the world, lagging behind the US. But while the US caseload is twice as high, its death toll is three times what India has reported. The surge in Asia’s third-largest economy puts at risk not only its fragile economic recovery but also the global fight against the coronavirus pandemic.

Deaths in India have always been counted poorly, even before the pandemic struck. The vast majority of deaths, especially in rural villages, take place at home and routinely go unregistered. For others the cause of death listed is often anodyne—old age or heart attack—leading experts to estimate that only between 20 percent-30 percent of all deaths in India are properly medically certified.

News repor ts from across India suggest that a combination of poor testing and a health system that is inundated by the crush of those sickened by the virus has meant that counting Covid deaths accurately remains a struggle even a year into the health crisis.

Not capturing death data accurately “creates the misconception that media is showcasing anecdotal cases and the overall situation is under control,” said Himanshu Sikka, the chief strategy officer, health at IPE Global, a development consulting firm. “This damages future preparations and measures needed for a possible third wave.”

Data vs cremations

In Lucknow, the capital city of India’s most populous

Multiple funeral pyres of those patients who died of Covid-19 disease are seen burning at a ground that has been converted into a crematorium for mass cremation of coronavirus victims in New Delhi, India, on April 21. AP state of Uttar Pradesh, the official number of Covid deaths from April 11 to April 16 stood at 145.

However, just two of the city’s main crematoriums reported more than 430 or three times as many cremations under Covid-19 protocol in that period, according to eyewitnesses and workers, who asked not to be named because they weren’t authorized to speak to reporters. This doesn’t account for burials or funerals at other smaller cremation grounds in the city.

When a Lucknow resident, who asked not to be named, reached one of the main crematoriums with the body of a family friend on Monday morning he was told they could set up the funeral pyre anywhere they could find space. Even so, it took over three hours to find a spot that was far away enough to tolerate the heat emanating from the other burning bodies.

He was not allowed to use the electric furnace set aside for virus deaths because the dead man didn’t have a report showing he’d tested positive for the virus even though he had a doctor’s prescription for Covid-19 treatment. No relatives could attend the funeral as they had all tested positive and were under home isolation.

After the patient died in a city hospital, the staff wrapped the body in the protective kits used for Covid-19 deaths. The majority of the nearly 50 bodies the Lucknow citizen saw arriving in the four hours he spent at the crematorium were wrapped the same way but

were not cremated in the virus-only electric furnace, he said. That likely meant their deaths weren’t attributed to Covid.

In the industrial city of Surat, located in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s home state of Gujarat, the head of a trust that runs crematoriums said at least 100 bodies have been brought in each day for the last 10 days, wrapped in the Covid-mandated protective covering. Surat’s municipal body on April 19 reported only 28 virus deaths.

“Structures within the furnace, like the metal frames and the chimney, are melting and falling apart,” Kamlesh Sailor said. “Repairing it and keeping it going is a challenge, but we have no other way, bodies will have to be disposed of as quickly as possible.”

“The figure of deaths is dynamic, difficult to reconcile from plain reading,” said Navneet Sehgal, additional chief secretary of the Uttar Pradesh government. “No one is trying to hide Covid-19 deaths. Some of the deaths in Lucknow which are included as deaths because of Covid-19 are actually normal deaths which would have been counted wrongly.”

There was no immediate comment from the spokesperson of the Gujarat government.

Sanjeev Gupta, a freelance photojournalist in the central city of Bhopal, said he has consistently witnessed 80 to 120 bodies being cremated each day last week at just one of the city’s three cremation centers set aside for Covid cases. The

official virus death numbers for the district were below 10 each day. According to news reports, the state government said the deaths were “suspected Covid” but couldn’t be confirmed because of a shortage of testing kits and lab facilities.

Counting struggles

The speed with which the pandemic swept across the world meant that even in countries with sophisticated health systems, mortality was difficult to accurately assess, especially in the early days. Patients with heart disease, diabetes, cancer and other chronic conditions are at greater risk of dying from Covid-19.

Some governments, including Russia, had last year attributed the cause of deaths in some of these patients to the pre-existing condition, raising doubts about the veracity of official mortality data.

Tens of thousands of probable Covid-19 deaths in the US weren’t captured by official statistics between March and May 2020, a study in July found.

India’s federal Health Ministry did not respond to an e-mail seeking comment.

Even without accurate figures, the deadly impact of India’s second wave is hard to miss.

Four pages of the local language Sandesh newspaper in Rajkot, another Gujarat city, were covered with obituaries on Wednesday. A month ago, they took up only a quarter of a page.

Bloomberg News

A4

The World BusinessMirror

Sunday, April 25, 2021

Wall Street’s Asian American minority waiting to be heard

F

By Lananh Nguyen

rom the outside looking in, her Wall Street CV seems impeccable: Columbia, Princeton, Salomon Brothers, Merrill Lynch and, finally, a top job at JPMorgan. None of that protected Joyce Chang from encountering hate in her daily life.

One moment, she was taking in Chinatown, just north of New York’s Financial District. The next, racist slurs were being hurled at her from a passing car.

The ugliness of the past year— the racism in the streets, the waves of anti-Asian violence, the deadly shooting rampage in the Atlanta area—have lit fires of fear among the nation’s almost 23 million people of Asian descent.

But the events have also carried a special resonance on Wall Street, where powerful institutions are confronting one reckoning after another over race and inequality—and where Asian Americans often occupy an uncomfortable middle ground.

On one level, they face many of the same hurdles as other minorities in the mostly W hite, mostly male world of finance.

There are the everyday slights, the racist jokes, the crass stereotypes, the missed opportunities, the stunted careers—all with t he g naw ing k nowledge t hat almost no one at the very top looks like you. The challenges are particularly formidable for Asian-American women.

‘Model minority’

But here’s a key difference: On Wall Street, Asian Americans are sometimes stereotyped as a “mo de l m i nor it y ” b e c au se of their economic success as a group. They can also seem like forgotten minorities or, sometimes, not even minorities at all. “Honorar y whites” is one term. T hat is particularly so next to their Black and Latinx colleagues, who are statistically even less represented in upper management and, to some Asian A mer icans, appear to be the main focus of belated efforts on diversity and inclusion.

Granted, the catchall “Asian American,” coined in the 1960s as a phrase of empowerment, is overly broad. The roughly 5.9 percent of Americans who identify as people of Asian ancestry aren’t a monolithic group. They comprise a multitude of ethnic groups and cultures, as well as stark economic realities: Asian Americans, often viewed in

elite circles as more advantaged than disadvantaged, have the largest income inequality within any racial community in the US. On Wall Street, the presence of highly educated, well-paid Asian Americans can mask the issues of racism and economic disparities that exist in broader society.

Speaking out

Interviews with more than 20 Asian Americans working in US finance, in positions ranging from analyst to managing director, suggest this broad, diverse group is now united in its anxiety and fear.

Many feel angry. Others betrayed or overlooked. More and more are speaking out.

“We need to break the silence,” Chang wrote in a March 26 internal blog post at JPMorgan Chase & Co., where she is chair of global research. She urged her colleagues to talk about the contradictory stereotypes of Asian Americans being perceived as a group to be feared at the same time as being labeled “silent, invisible achievers.”

At the heart of this stor y are numbers. The fact is, Asian Americans make up a greater percentage of finance workers than Black or Latinx people.

The total workforces of the six biggest US banks average 15.5 percent A si a n A mer ic a n, 15 percent Hispanic or Latino, and 10.3 percent African American.

Yet at a time when Kamala Harris became the first Indian American and Black person to be elected vice president, and Andrew Yang, a son of Taiwanese immigrants, is running for mayor of New York, no Asian American runs a top five US bank. Among companies in the S&P 500, fewer than 1 percent of all CEOs in recent years have been of East Asian descent.

Across the six largest US lenders, the propor tion of A sian Americans in executive or senior management roles ranges from 7 percent to almost 19 percent, even though they comprise an average 23 percent of middle managers and professionals. Greater strides have been made in areas

Joyce Chang Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg

like private equity: the head of Carlyle Group Inc., Kewsong Lee, is Korean American, as is KKR & Co. Co-President Joe Bae. But US asset-ma nagement firms that are actually owned

by Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders, like the ones owned

by Black Americans and women, manage only a small fraction of all the money out there—just 0.7 percent of the total, according to research published in December by the Association of Asian American Investment Managers.

Major banks and investment firms say they strive to treat everyone equally and recruit and promote diverse work forces.

Many have publicly condemned the racism and violence directed at Asian Americans, much the way they’ve issued support for Black Americans. Banks including Citigroup Inc., JPMorgan and Bank of America Corp. have condemned anti-Asian racism in recent weeks. So has the Business Roundtable, a group representing chief executive officers of major US companies.

But the anxiety is palpable among rank-and-file workers and executives of Asian ancestry.

“It’s been gut-wrenching,’’ said Ida Liu, global head of private banking at Citigroup.

Like Chang at JPMorgan, Liu said she’s had a stranger shout racist slurs at her on a New York City street. Up in Boston, Jane Li, an equity analyst at Zevin Asset Management, makes sure to be aware of her surroundings after several run-ins with people yelling anti-Asian remarks at her in a grocery store and in South Station. One banker has bought pepper spray. Another has taken to wearing a hat and sunglasses, in addition to the now ubiquitous Covid-19 mask, in order to hide her ethnicity.

A new sense of dread is descending as more finance professionals prepare to return to their offices after the long pandemic lockdown.

Asian-American women, in particular, are speaking out about the racism and sexism that has blighted

their careers for years. Many are asking if anything will change. Various racist stereotypes—“Dragon Lady” is one—can sometimes prevent Asian women from climbing the corporate ranks, according to Ascend, a pan-Asian professional association.

“Tiger Mom” is a more recent addition to the lexicon.

In a recent LinkedIn post, Binna Kim, president of financial-communications agency Vested, told of how men at industry events have made her uncomfortable time and again with comments like “Asian women are sexy.”

Others, worried about jeopardizing their careers by being quoted, told private stories of insults and abuse. One spoke of lewd remarks—an offensive line from Full Metal Jacket, the Vietnam War film, for example. Another of belittling shouts of “hello” in various Asian languages.

Dark history

Recently, the new fears of Asian Americans—just the latest entry in the nation’s dark history of anti-Asian bias—reached the highest office in the land. After his predecessor repeatedly blamed an entire ethnic group for the Covid-19 pandemic, President Joe Biden named a White House liaison to the Asian-American Pacific Islander community. The Senate this week passed a bill to address hate crimes directed at Asian Americans.

Chris Bae, who previously worked at Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Bank of America, wonders if Wall Street is listening.

“I’ve been on a lot of diversity and inclusion panels in my career, and I can tell you, in my 23 years on Wall Street, I’ve never had a management committee meeting, a senior leadership meeting, business meeting where we sat around the table and said, ‘How do we get more Asians promoted, how do we get more Asians in the C-suite?’” said Bae, head of investment strategy at UBS Asset Management, a division of the big Swiss bank.

“That’s not a conversation I’ve ever had.” Bloomberg News

Mexico’s drought reaches critical levels as lakes dry up

M

E X I CO C I T Y— D ro u g h t c o n d i t i o n s now cover 85 percent of Mexico, and residents of the nation’s central region said Thursday that lakes and reservoirs are simply drying up, including the country’s second-largest body of fresh water.

The mayor of Mexico City said the drought was the worst in 30 years, and the problem can be seen at the reservoirs that store water from other states to supply the capital.

Some of them, like the Villa Victoria reservoir west of the capital, are at one-third of their normal capacity, with a month and a half to go before any significant rain is expected.

Isaías Salgado, 60, was trying to fill his water tank truck at Villa Victoria, a task that normally takes him just half an hour. On Thursday he estimated

it was taking 3 1/2 hours to pump water into his 10,000-liter tanker.

“The reservoir is drying up,” said Salgado. “If they keep pumping water out, by May it will be completely dry, and the fish will die.”

Mexico City Mayor Claudia Sheinbaum said that as the drought worsened, more people have tended to water their lawns and gardens, which worsens the problem.

The capital’s 9 million inhabitants rely on reservoirs like Villa Victoria and two others—which together are at about 44 percent capacity—for a quarter of their water; most of the rest comes from wells within city limits. But the city’s own water table is dropping and leaky pipes waste much of what is brought into the city.

Rogelio Angeles Hernandez, 61, has been fishing the waters of Villa Victoria for the last 30 years. He

isn’t so much worried about his own catch; in dry seasons of the past, residents were able to cart fish off in wheelbarrows as water levels receded.

But tourism at reservoirs, like Valle de Bravo further to the west, has been hit by falling water levels.

In the end, it is the capital that is really going to suffer.

“Fishing is the same, but the real impact will be on the people in Mexico City, who are going to get less water,” Angeles Hernandez said.

Farther to the west, in Michoacan state, the country is at risk of losing its second-largest lake, Lake Cuitzeo. About 75 percent of the lake bed is now dry, said Alberto Gómez-Tagle, a biologist and researcher who chairs the Natural Resources Institute of the University of Michoacán.

Gómez-Tagle said that deforestation, roads

built across the shallow lake and diversion of water for human use have played a role, but three extremely dry years have left the lake a dusty plain.

“2019, 2020 and so far 2021 have been drier than average, and that has had a cumulative effect on the lake,” he said.

Michoacan Gov. Silvano Aureoles said so much of the lake has dried up that shoreline communities now suffer dust storms. He said communities might have to start planting vegetation on the lake bed to prevent the storms.

In a petition to the government, residents of communities around the lake said only six of 19 fish species once present in Cuitzeo now remain.

They said the dust storms had caused tens of thousands of respiratory and intestinal infections among local residents. AP

www.businessmirror.com.ph

Korea workers need to make space for robots, minister says

S

outh Koreans must learn how to work alongside machines if they want to thrive in a post-pandemic world where many jobs will be handled by artificial intelligence and robots, according to the country’s labor minister.

“Automation and AI will change South Korea faster than other countries,” Minister of Employment and Labor Lee Jae-kap said in an interview on Tuesday.

“Not all jobs may be replaced by machines, but it’s important to learn ways to work well with machines through training.”

While people will have to increase their adaptability to work in a fast-changing high-tech environment, policy-makers will also need to play their part, Lee said. The government needs to provide support to enable workers to move from one sector of the economy to another in search of employment and find ways to increase the activity of women in the economy, he added.

The minister’s remarks underline the determination of President Moon Jae-in’s government to press ahead with a growth strategy built around tech even if it risks alienating the country’s unions—an important base of support for the ruling camp—in the short term.

Capitalizing on the expertise of global technology giants such as Samsung Electronics Co., Korea is accelerating its efforts to transform itself into a resilient, tech-centric economy that can keep punching above its weight in key global supply chains through innovation while operating at full tilt even when another pandemic or similar crisis occurs.

“New jobs will be created as technology advances,” Lee said. “What’s important in policy is how to support a worker move from a fading sector to an emerging one.”

To help with the transition, the government

is looking to expand its jobs insurance program to 21 million people, or more than 40 percent of the population, by 2025. The program is part of a government initiative to provide financial support in the form of insurance for every worker in the country, whether they are artists, freelancers or deliverymen on digital platforms.

Separately, the government is providing stipends for young people to encourage them to keep searching for work, as their struggle to stay employed amid slowing economic growth has been made tougher by the pandemic.

While Korea posted one of the smallest economic contractions in the virus-hit world last year, it wasn’t able to prevent a jump in job losses as multiple waves of the coronavirus struck the nation and forced the government to put restrictions on economic activity.

The country shed jobs for almost a year until last month when employment rose due to the government’s job program and a low base.

Among the hardest hit groups were women in service sector jobs requiring face-to-face interaction.

That sits at the heart of one of Korea’s biggest labor issues, the low participation rate of women in the work force, Lee said. The rate for women stands at 53 percent in South Korea, compared with 73 percent for men.

Youth unemployment remains a chronic issue for South Korea. The jobless rate among people in the 20s stood at 8.6 percent last month, the highest among all age groups.

“I feel sorry for young people,” Lee said. “There were many jobs when the economy was growing fast, but now we live in a low-growth era. Nonetheless, we’re going to seek to provide income and training support to help them find the jobs they need.”

Bloomberg News

Billionaire Saudi family breaks with kingdom secrecy to open up

F

By Matthew Martin & Devon Pendleton

or Ahmad BinDawood, last year’s share offering in the eponymous Saudi grocery business was a chance to shape his legacy at the family firm he’s worked at since the age of eight, while cementing a $3.1-billion fortune built over the decades by his father and uncles.

As the October public offering of BinDawood Holding Co. got underway, details emerged of some $76 million in previously undisclosed loans made by the Saudi company to family members. In a departure from the traditional secrecy associated with the kingdom’s family firms, Jeddah-based BinDawood revealed everything, put the IPO on hold and gave buyers the chance to take their money back.

As the loans were quickly repaid, the sale resumed and eventually raised about $500 million for the family, attracting $29 billion in bids along the way.

“We have to be very transparent with investors,” BinDawood said in an interview in Riyadh last month.

“If there is any disclosure at any time that we need to make, we will go ahead and do it. So we took this on the shoulder and decided to announce it.”

The success of the IPO has helped establish BinDawood, 37, as one of a new breed of Saudi executives rising within a corporate world that was largely off-limits to foreigners until a few years ago.

What’s more, it has made him emblematic of a drive to shake up traditional ways of doing business, dovetailing with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s goal of transforming the oil-rich kingdom into a regional business hub.

That mold-breaking character can even be seen inside BinDawood stores. The past few months have seen the company doing prominent Valentine’s Day and Easter promotions, a move unthinkable just a few years ago in a country that has historically adhered to a strict Wahhabist interpretation of Islam.

Prince Mohammed’s commitment to reshaping the economy isn’t all working in BinDawood’s favor.

A sudden decision to triple value-added tax last year hit consumer spending. Higher customs duties and fees on expatriates are driving up costs for Saudi firms, too. And all at a time when the Covid-19 pandemic has been stoking unemployment.

“We remain cautious of near-to-mid term growth across the consumers space as market size shrinks on potential expat depopulation,” said Mehwish Zafar, a senior equity analyst at Arqaam Capital in Dubai who has a “hold” recommendation on the shares.

Like-for-like sales growth will probably be negative until at least 2022, he said, with growth only coming from new store openings or acquisitions.

Shares in BinDawood jumped more than 30 percent in the days immediately after the sale. They have since slipped back, showing as of Thursday last week a gain of about 11.5 percent from the listing price.

It’s a performance that has helped buttress the family’s bid to diversify into other assets while strengthening the core business, a goal identified

by Ahmad BinDawood as key to avoiding the kind of strife his father feared might undermine the business as it passed to a new generation.

“The majority of family businesses don’t survive the transition to the third generation, and

that’s something that concerned my father a lot,” BinDawood said.

Pilgrims progress

The rise of the BinDawood business has been some 40 years in the making. Once a small-time vendor of Arabian perfumes and groceries to pilgrims visiting the Islamic holy sites of Mecca and Medina, it is now a nationwide concern spanning supermarkets and hypermarkets, hotels and distribution centers. The grocery business alone employs more than 10,000 people across 74 stores.

Ahmad BinDawood’s own destiny was sealed as soon as his father, Abdulrazzag BinDawood graduated in the 1980s from the King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals in Riyadh. Instead of following his peers into the oil industry, he decided to join his brothers Ismail and Abdullah in their burgeoning retail trade.

Which is why Ahmad found himself on the front line at such a young age. At just eight, he was helping to sell items to the pilgrims during his school holidays, envious of friends who were away avoiding Saudi Arabia’s scorching summers.

“Our friends were traveling and off enjoying themselves and sometimes we would ask: why not us?” BinDawood said. “But that experience built the passion in us to stay in the business that our father and our uncles built.”

A decision to push into online shopping and delivery helped prepare the firm for lockdowns during the coronavirus pandemic, but couldn’t outweigh the hit from the absence of religious tourists who were prevented from entering the kingdom for much of the year. While profit climbed almost 7 percent last year, it had slumped more than 53 percent in the fourth quarter as Saudi Arabia reimposed travel restrictions.

BinDawood is still optimistic that shoppers will return as travel resumes, though how quickly pilgrims come back to Saudi Arabia in anything like their previous numbers remains uncertain.

Next up may be the purchase of a rival grocery chain to expand into neighboring countries, BinDawood said. At the same time, the IPO proceeds will help further develop the BinDawood Group family office, which Ahmad’s father is now running. That fortune, which is split across several family members, is estimated at about $3.1 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.

“The IPO had two main angles to it— sustainability and continuity of the business first, and second the diversification for the family,” he said. “We are in the process of building the family office and bringing in the right talent.”

More family businesses are likely to follow in BinDawood’s footsteps. The IPO of Saudi Aramco in 2019, which many Saudis never thought they would see, “has been a massive driver in motivating families to take their operating businesses public to help grow their enterprises and generate new wealth,” said Tayyab Mohamed, cofounder of London-based family office staffing firm, Agreus Group.

For all the challenges, Ahmad BinDawood is optimistic, citing his life-long involvement in the business as a foundation for success.

“Retail is embedded in our DNA now,” he said.

Bloomberg News

Science

BusinessMirror

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

Sunday

Sunday, April 25, 2021 A5

DOST’s innovation hub turns ‘waste’ into sustainable, healthy products

By Edwin Galvez Science Contributor

T

he Department of Science and Technology’s Industrial Technology Development Institute (DOST-ITDI) is pushing “backend” innovation as a path toward a more sustainable and resilient economy with its now fully operational Modular MultiIndustry Innovation Center (MMIC), the country’s first one-stop food and nutraceutical innovation hub.

The backend innovation process, done at the latter part of innovation using scaled-up machines, tests initial ideas with the objective of commercializing these technologies at pilot-scale capacity.

But the ITDI’s latest research and development facility—also called “InnoHub sa Pinas” that is catering to the needs of innovative micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) and food and supplement manufacturers and exporters—is even doing more: the facility promotes good health and protects the environment.

The advanced equipment and processing facilities at the MMIC can produce sustainable and healthy products—oils, liquids and sauces and powder blends—using food processing byproducts and agricultural crop “wastes” (fruit peels, seeds, cores, rinds and leaves) as raw materials.

Housed at the Chemicals and Energy Division (CED) building of the ITDI at the DOST Complex in Bicutan, Taguig City, the multi-functional and multiapplication modular operation equipment unit of MMIC can be retrofitted to suit the different manufacturing needs of entrepreneurs, researchers and other “innovation partners.”

“I was impressed by the fact that one raw material can be developed into different types of products using the different facilities and equipment here at the MMIC,” said Science Secretary Fortunato T. de la Peña at the online forum dubbed “Backend innovation gives new life to wastes” on March 31.

De la Peña said that “even those previously thrown away or leftovers of processing raw materials can be further processed to come up with value-added products like tablets that

The oil expeller machine at the Modular Multi-Industry Innovation Center of the DOST-ITDI can extract oil from up to 100 kg of nuts or seeds for 8 hours a day of operation, depending on the type of feedstock. The MMIC also has an agglomerator unit that enlarges light powders, such as granulized coffee powder while retaining their valuable flavors or ingredients, and a homogenizer for thorough mixing of liquids to attain homogeneity of mixture. Images courtesy of MMIC can be an additional source of fiber.”

“Our investment in this facility can really be put to the maximum benefit of our fellow Filipinos who are enterprising, which is what we need today, to innovate, come up with new products and maximize the value we get out of our raw materials,” de la Peña added.

The ITDI technical and research experts, who de la Peña said took trainings in benchmarking and other advanced studies locally and abroad, are now onhand to assist entrepreneurs, particularly those from the food and herbal industries, students and researchers.

Innovating with sustainable, healthy products Focused on food ingredients, dietary fiber and nutritional supplements and beauty or personal-care products, the ITDI experts have, to date, developed 38 product prototypes using MMIC’s three processing lines: nuts and seed oil, powders and mix blend, and liquids and emulsions.

They have produced oil from calamansi seed, pili pulp and coconut; dietary fiber powder from the peels and pulp of calamansi, pili, mango, pineapple, banana and tomato; and spray-dried and ready-to-drink herbal teas—even milk teas—from the leaves of soursop, banaba, malunggay (moringa) and mangosteen rind.

They have also developed prototypes for mouthwash and toothpaste with calamansi seed oil; tomato sauce

DOST-PCIEERD unveils 100 completed innovative projects

O

ne hundred completed innovative projects aimed at helping Filipinos through research, development and innovation (RDI) were unveiled on April 22 as the Philippines commemorated the National Innovation Day. The projects are among the Department of Science and Technology-Philippine Council for Industry, Energy, and Emerging Technology Research and Development-funded 2,546 projects across the different regions in the country, amounting to more than P17 billion, DOST-PCIEERD said in a news release.

The top five sectors the council has supported are space technology applications, utilizing 29.14 percent of DOST-PCIEERD’s Grants-In-Aid Program, followed by food (9.62 percent), disaster mitigation (8.57 percent), process (6.82 percent), and material science (4.69 percent).

At the online opening ceremony of the 2021 Philippine Research, Development and Innovation Conference (PRDIC), the Philippines’ first massive, online public presentation of RDI projects in the industry, energy and emerging technology sectors, DOST-PCIEERD Executive Director Dr. Enrico Paringit expressed elation over the feat of Filipino researchers who were able to come up with game-changing innovations amid the pandemic.

“We initiated this event to keep the public abreast about the development of our cutting-edge solutions that helps us usher in the next wave of growth and prosperity. It is through science and technology that we can get our way out of this crisis," Paringit said.

"Through this conference, we hope that the public becomes more aware of the important role that R&D plays in society—anywhere from communication, transportation, disaster mitigation, food production, medical applications and many more,” he said.

The 2,546 DOST-PCIEERD-funded RDI projects are on artificial intelligence; biotechnology; construction; creative industries; disaster mitigation; electronics technology; energy; environment; food; genomics; human security; information and communications technology; information dissemination and promotion; infrastructure development program; institution development program; material science; metals and engineering; mining and minerals; nanotechnology; photonics; process; space technology; and transportation.

The DOST-PCIEERD executive director also mentioned some of the council’s completed projects, which includes ready-to-eat retort foods, spraydried powder dextran and high fructose syrup, halal chicken and chicken by-products, and severe weather amphibious navigator using local abaca, which showcased the country’s homegrown technologies and innovation.

“We are doing this to win the hearts and minds of our fellow Filipinos toward leaning on our own locally developed innovations. With greater technology adoption, we can enhance citizen experiences, help them overcome challenges and together further advance STI in the Philippines,” he said.

However, Paringit emphasized that there is much to be done, especially in terms of technology adoption and transfer for some particular sectors, thus imploring stakeholders, to continue collaborating with the science and technology community.

“We hope that stakeholders see PCIEERD as a valued and leading partner in enabling innovations.

PCIEERD will continue to champion and support worthy research projects and capacity-building activities all for our collective aspiration for economic growth, social progress and environmental equilibrium,” he said. S&T Media Services

and mayonnaise with virgin coconut oil or pili pulp oil; tomato-garlic sauce with VCO and basil sauce with pili peels and pulp oil.

They can also produce personal care products like liniments, liquid or bar soaps, lotions, creams. At present, they have massage oils for aromatherapy using calamansi oil as bioactive agent with VCO. “We expect to serve at least one client a month or a total of 12 clients on our first year, but the maximum number of clients would depend on the scope of work,” said Engr. Apollo Victor O. Bawagan, CED officer-in-charge, in his e-mail to the BusinessMirror.

Bawagan said there could be a maximum of three clients at a time or one client at each processing line per day, depending on the number of equipment units to be utilized by clients.

The three processing lines are located at the center of the facility.

Complying with the minimum requirements of good manufacturing practice in terms of the flow of raw materials, clients and staff, the facility has separate areas for wet and dry storage, packaging and labeling, and batching, while providing offices for clients and a lounge and dedicated entrance for ITDI staff.

Bawagan said that among their target clients are the members of Chamber of Herbal Industries of the Philippines Inc. (CHIPI) and the Philippine Food Processors and Exporters

Organization, Inc. (Philfoodex).

MMIC has served two clients, calamansi juice maker Zambo Tropical Foods of Zamboanga City and Rainier Research Inc., since its inauguration on February 18. Two contracts are still under negotiation.

Within the next five years, MMIC plans to establish a regional MMIC each in Mindanao and Northern Luzon and, “alongside with the MMIC,” the Pharmaceutical Research Center to be housed at the new CED building, according to Bawagan.

Innovating for economic growth In her message during the forum, DOST Undersecretary for Research and Development Rowena Cristina L. Guevara said that it is important to talk about the role of innovation in the country’s economic growth.

“Through innovation, we continue to think of how we can improve our products and processes,” Guevara said, citing the MMIC as one of the ways of the DOST “in finding a better way to do R&D.” Clients of MMIC can avail themselves of its services through four modes of engagement.

First, entrepreneurs and students can use its equipment units—a machine or a line of machines—for a reasonable or standardized rate with the help of MMIC technicians and operators.

Second, they can avail of the technical services of ITDI experts who can assist them in performing tests

and analyses of their products and provide consultancy and training as not all MSMEs have built-in expertise or facility.

Third, for technology transfer, clients will be assisted in adopting or commercializing a developed technology subject to a technology licensing agreement.

Fourth, through a collaborative R&D work or contract research covered by a memorandum of agreement through ITDI’s Planning and Management Information System.

Here, as frontend innovations, clients can use the MMIC to test their products, concepts or ideas combining the resources and ideas of researchers from both clients and MMIC.

Advanced manufacturing equipment For nuts and seed oil line, MMIC has an oil expeller that extracts oil by screw expelling. It has a capacity of about 100 kg at eight hours per day operation, depending on the type of feedstock (7 kg per hour for dried calamansi seeds or dried grated coconut).

It also has a vacuum dryer to take out the moisture in liquids (20 L per batch); a pressure filter to remove impurities from the materials (20 L per batch); two other extraction machines, the ram press to extract oil by hydraulic pressure and screw press to extract juice or liquid from feedstock; and a grater for coconut meat preparation,

grating into smaller pieces about 120 coconuts per hour.

“The nut or seed oil can be the product itself [fixed oil] or as base oil or carrier oil when combined with essential oils for aromatic effect,” said Engr. Joseph Herrera, CED supervising science research specialist, in his presentation at the forum.

The powders and mix blend line has two mixers, a V-blender mixer for mixing fine powders and a ribbon mixer for mixing course powders, depending on the application; a cabinet dryer for drying by convection heating; a hammer mill to reduce the size and make the powder more refined; a rotary tableting machine; and for advanced powder, an agglomerator unit that enlarges light powders such as granulized coffee powder while retaining their valuable flavors or ingredients.

For liquids and emulsions line, the available machines for processing viscous liquids are a jacketed kettle, which cooks sauces and other liquid mixtures using steam, or LPG, for heating; a colloid mill for refining materials; for thermal processing or pasteurization, a retort to produce shelf-stable food products; and a homogenizer for thorough mixing of liquids to attain homogeneity of mixture.

The MMIC also has a tableting machine for making tablets with dietary fibers; a slicer for preparation of coconuts; and blast freezers for storing sensitive or highly valuable products.

Searca, Jollibee foundation link to increase local onion production DOST XI holds S-PaSS orientation in Davao Region

T

h e S o u t h e a s t A s i a n R e g i o n a l Ce nte r f o r G r a d u a t e S t u d y a n d R e s e a rc h i n Agriculture (Searca) and Jollibee Group Foundation (JGF) have partnered to increase onion production in the country and improve the local supply systems.

Searca and JGF have sealed their cooperation in a memorandum of understanding signed by Searca Director Dr. Glenn B. Gregorio and JGF Executive Director Ma. Gisela H. Tiongson early this month, said Searca in a news release.

Tiongson said the “farmers need partners who can provide them with access to information and technology to help them improve their productivity, increase the value of their produce and, in the process, build their agro-enterprises.”

"I believe Searca’s experience and expertise in education, training and research will provide an impor tant dimension in deepening our understanding of the complex challenges facing our farmers,” she said.

Through its Emerging Innovation for Growth Department, led by Dr. Rico C. Ancog, Searca is set to implement the JGF-funded “Project Saya: Strengthening Agricultural Yield of Allium cepa L. [Onion] in the Philippines,” which will focus its analysis on yellow onion.

Gregorio pointed out that onion is classified as one of the country’s high-value crops. However, despite the 7.49-percent average growth in onion production from 2015 to 2019, the local supply meets only up to 70 percent of the country’s total requirements.

He noted that “the large demand for onion from large corporations and food establishments is being met by additional supply from imports.”

He said investigating farm-level factors affecting the local production will provide empirical basis to formulate interventions to enhance productivity.

Data from the Philippine Statistics Authority show that Central Luzon has the lion’s share of the total onion production at 62.5 percent, with the Ilocos Region and Mimaropa being far behind at 17.48 percent and 15.78 percent, respectively.

In view of this, Ilocos Sur and Occidental Mindoro were selected as the Project Saya sites.

In Ilocos Sur, the project team will work with the Tagudin Agroentrepreneurs Association and the Don Mariano Marcos Memorial State University.

In Mindoro Occidental, Searca will collaborate with the Lourdes Multipurpose Cooperative and Mindoro State College of Agriculture and Technology.

A n co g, a n a s s o c i ate p ro f e s s o r at t h e University of the Philippines Los Baños, said Project Saya intends to determine the present productivity and efficiency levels of local onion production.

He explained that “the technical efficiency of farmers reflects their ability to produce an optimum level of output using a given set of inputs and available technology.

Measuring the efficiency of local onion producers may reveal information that is vital to improving the productivity of onion farms.”

To determine gaps and factors affecting onion production in the study sites, Ancog said one project component will collect farm-level data in terms of environmental conditions, farm practices and innovations or technologies used.

Project Saya is also expected to provide recommendations at the farm level and farmergroups level on the potential interventions and innovations to intensify onion production, the Searca news release said.

“A set of recommendations will be developed based on the findings of the analyses to improve efficiency across the supply chain, reduce postharvest losses, and increase yield,” Ancog said.

Free webinars offered for die and mold firms

T

he Department of Science and Technology's Metals Industry Research and Development Center (DOST-MIRDC) will host a series of webinars once a month from April to November 2021 for companies engaged in die and mold industry.

Participants will get to learn from highly Korean experts.

The first webinar in the series is titled "For precision mold, the best price! The best quality!"

It will be about standard plate (heat-treated and grinded plate) to be discussed by Jung Sun Lee from IL KANG Trading.

The target participants are companies from economic zones and their workers. Students are also encouraged to attend. It will be held on April 30, at 1 p.m.

The webinars are part of the implementation of the “Establishment of Mold Technology Support Center (MTSC),” an Official Development Assistance

(ODA) project of the Republic of Korea to the Philippines.

The MTSC project aims to develop needed human resources for the local die and mold companies, encourage advancement of the Philippine manufacturing industry's competitiveness, and to contribute the industrial cooperation between the Republic of Korea and the Philippine government. Genevieve M.

Barsales/S&T Media Services

T

he Department of Science and Technology Region XI (DOST XI) recently held an online orientation and training for the deployment of the department's online system intended to manage local travels.

The Safe, Swift and Smart Passage (S-PaSS) is an innovative travel management system for local travelers who are returning to or visiting different localities.

The system can facilitate local travel where the public can access information on travel restrictions implemented by different local government units (LGU) due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the DOST-XI said in a news release.

DOST Region VI's Disaster Risk and Reduction Management Unit Head, Ryan Vilmore Dumpit, explained the features of S-Pass and how it could assist the travelers, LGUs, Philippine National Police, and other monitoring agencies.

Dumpit said the government agencies can do real-time monitoring of all incoming travelers to their localities, while travelers can also monitor the travel restrictions and requirements of their destination through the system.

Vince Carreon of DOST-VI presented and explained the demonstration videos on how to create an account and how to use the different features of the system.

Th e a c t i v i t y wa s p a r t i c i p ate d i n b y representatives from the Department of Interior and Local Government XI, Office of Civil Defense, Police Regional Office XI, provincial LGUs and Provincial Disaster and Risk Reduction Management Council units from the region.

Mirasol G. Domingo, DOST XI Assistant Regional Director for Technical Support Services Division, said the innovation is one of the opportunities at the back of the pandemic. She added that the orientation and training aim to raise awareness and strengthen the implementation of S-Pass in Davao Region, the news release said.

Faith A6 Sunday, April 25, 2021

Sunday

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

Church groups hit red-tagging of humanitarian missions

R

By Samuel P. Medenilla

eligious groups recently slammed the red-tagging of the organizers of the “community pantries” and other humanitarian initiatives during the pandemic by authorities.

In a statement, the Philippine Faith-based Organization Forum (PFOF) was alarmed by the “unwanted series of visits and inappropriate questioning” of Roman Catholic priest and former executive secretary of the Caritas Philippines, Fr. Edwin Gariguez and Rev. Glofie Baluntong, district superintendent of the United of the Methodists Church in Mindoro.

The incident occurred while both religious leaders were leading relief and development ministries with the Mangyan communities in Mindoro.

It also reported similar incidents of sur veillance, threats and redtagging of other religious leaders in Central Luzon and Ilocos Norte.

“In the context of constricting democratic space in the country, there seems to be a climate of suspicion and surveillance among humanitarian and church workers,” PFOF said.

Likewise, similar red-tagging were also reported by the organizers of the “community pantry,” which recently became popular by providing access to

people, who want to donate and avail themselves of food in a community.

Halt in operation

In response, the Maginhawa community pantr y along Maginhawa Street in Quezon City halted its operation out of concern of being linked to the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP).

Some organizers of community pantries also opted to halt their operations after they were allegedly red-tagged by the National Task Force to End Local Communist and Armed Conf lict (NTF-ELCAC).

Caloocan Bishop Pablo Virgilio Dav id lamented the incident att r ibuted to t he a nt i-insurgenc y task force of the government since it deprived needy people of a food supply during the pandemic. “ This is a different CPP. It is not the Communist Party of the Philippines, but the Community Pantr y of the Poor, wherein people could freely get and donate food based on their capability,” Dav id said in

Archdiocese of Manila declares May 8 as day of mourning for Covid deaths

By Samuel P. Medenilla

T

he Archdiocese of Manila declared May 8 as a day of mourning for those who died from the novel coronavirus disease (Covid-19).

In a Pastoral Instruction, Manila Apostolic Administrator Bishop Broderick Pabillo announced they will be holding Mass for the Dead at the Manila Cathedral to commemorate the event.

It will be attended by the priests of the Archdiocese of Manila.

“The whole Archdiocese will mourn for our dead during this pandemic but with great hope given by the Resurrection of the Lord Jesus,” Pabillo said.

“A memorial wall can be set up in parishes with the pictures of those who have died this past year.

This can serve as a reminder to all to always pray for them,” he added.

As of Wednesday, the Department of Health reported 16,265 people have died due to Covid-19 infection.

Pabillo said the Mass will be streamed online so the public could participate.

Prior to the Mass, Pabillo said they will also dedicate a Holy Hour in front of Blessed Sacrament for those affected by Covid-19.

“Together we shall implore the Lord for the front liners [May 5], for the sick [May 6], and for the dead [May 7],” Pabillo said.

Also in his Pastoral Instruction, Pabillo urged parishes, Basic Ecclesial Communities, schools and religious institutions to organize activities and programs that would promote charity, like feeding programs and distribution of food bags and gift certificates.

“Let us share even the little that we have through the Alay Kapwa sa Pamayanan that we set up in our communities so that there be no one among us who is in need,” Pabillo said.

Alay Kapwa sa Pamayanan is a campaign of the Caritas Filipinas, which is similar to the community pantries, where people could donate and access basic necessities.

Vatican dedicates May to rosary ‘marathon’ for end of pandemic

At the Vatican, a rosary initiative was announced dedicating the month of May to prayer for an end to the coronavirus pandemic.

The Pontifical Council for the Promotion of the New Evangelization said on April 21 that “for the deep desire of the Holy Father, the month of May will be dedicated to a prayer marathon with the theme ‘Prayer to God went up incessantly from the whole Church.’”

The council said that the world’s Catholic shrines would be involved in a special way as promoters of the rosary among Catholic individuals, families and communities.

Thirty of the shrines will take turns leading a daily live-streamed rosary at 12 p.m. Eastern time, the council said.

The Catholic Church dedicates the month of May to the Blessed Virgin Mary. Pope Francis will open the month of prayer on May 1, asking for Mary’s intercession.

Pope Francis spoke about the coronavirus and its economic effects in a video message to participants in the 27th Ibero-American Summit in Andorra on April 21.

The Covid-19 pandemic “has demanded enormous sacrifices from each nation and its citizens,” he said.

The crisis has called on “the entire international community to commit, united, with a spirit of responsibility and fraternity, to face the many challenges already in action, and those which will come.”

The pope said that he had prayed for the millions of people who have died from Covid-19, or who are suffering from the illness, as well as their families.

“The pandemic has made no distinctions and has hit people of all cultures, creeds, social and economic strata,” he said.

He emphasized the importance of considering anti-Covid vaccination as a “universal common good.”

He said: “In this area, initiatives that seek to create new forms of solidarity at the international level are particularly welcome, with mechanisms aimed at guaranteeing an equitable distribution of vaccines, not based on purely economic criteria, but taking into account the needs of all, especially those of the most vulnerable and needy.”

“It is urgent to consider a recovery model capable of generating new, more inclusive and sustainable solutions, aimed at the universal common good, fulfilling God’s promise for all men,” Pope Francis said.

H e a d d e d t h at, i n re s p o n d i n g to t h e co ro n av i r u s, at te nt i o n s h o u l d b e p a i d to reforming the international debt struc ture and allowing access to ex ternal financing to promote economic development “so that ever yone can get out of the current situation with the best chance of recover y.”

“None of this will be possible without a strong political will that has the courage to decide to change things, mainly priorities, so that it is not the poor who pay the highest cost for these tragedies that are hitting our human family,” he said. with Hannah

Brockhaus/Catholic News Agenc

Volunteers at the “parish pantry” of Santisima Trinidad Parish on Estrada Street in Malate, Manila, distribute food items to the needy. Jun Resurreccion a Facebook post.

“Bayanihan is not a crime. Are we not thankful people are helping one another?” he added.

Government appeal

PFOF called out to President Duterte to stop “the vilification and redtagging of humanitarian missions.” “ Fa i t h - b a s e d o r g a n i z a t i o n s , like ours, and the humanitarian communit y shou ld a l l the more be supported, especially in these times when our countr y is beset with overwhelming Covid-19 cases, natural calamities, and the lack of sound government response to

address the proliferating hea lth crisis,” PFOF said.

On Tuesday, Presidential Spokesman Harry Roque said the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) ordered the police not to interfere with the operations of the “community pantries.”

“I think the President has spoken through my office, the DILG has spoken, and unless their concern is about health protocols not being observed, they [police] should let this community pantries alone,” Roque said in an online news briefing.

The government, however, fell short of prohibiting the NTF-ELCAC

making claims against the community pantry organizers.

“You know that is part of the free marketplace of ideas. I think whatever they [NTF-ELCAC] say, as long as people benefit from the community pantries, people will believe in favor of its organizers,” Roque said.

CBCP praises ‘bayanihan’ spirit

The Catholic bishops’ leadership on Wednesday lauded the communitybased initiatives to help the needy amid the Covid-19 pandemic.

A r c h b i s h o p R o m u l o Va l l e s , president of t he Cat hol ic Bishops’ Con fe re nce of t he Ph i l ip pi ne s,

sa id c u r rent ef for ts to suppor t needy fa m i l ies w it h food a nd ot her basic goods e xempl if ied t he “t r ue baya n i h a n spi r it.”

“We are happy to know that in recent days, in true bayanihan spirit, neighborhoods and communities have organized themselves to help needy families, especially with food and other basic necessities,” he said.

Valles also encouraged parishes and religious communities to carry on their charitable works “even if we are all suffering.”

“Let us again challenge ourselves to continue helping the most needy families in our midst,” the archbishop said.

The CBCP head made the statement as community pantries sprouted across the country.

In t he C hu rc h, C a r it a s Ph i l ip pi nes’ “K i nd ness St at ions” h ave been operat i ng i n m a ny d ioceses.

He then asked the church community to also bring their attention to communities affected by the recent Typhoon “Bising,” “which has compounded the suffering of the people” due to the health crisis.

He said that Caritas Philippines, the Church’s social action arm, has already started bringing assistance to the affected areas.

“The love of Christ compels us to act. It is difficult when all of us have to deal with our own difficulties and sufferings. But our faith in Jesus tells us to look first to those who are most in need,” Valles said.

“I would like to believe that true charity does not stop even when that charity and care come from people who themselves are in great need,” he added. with CBCP News

Vatican webinar urges common efforts to care for biodiversity

I

n par tnership with the Vatican Covid-19 Commission Ecology Taskforce, the Dicastery for Integral Human Development on Tuesday hosted a webinar on Biodiversity, inspired by Pope Francis’s Encyclical “Laudato si.”

The online event, titled “The Road to COP15 [15th United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity Conference of Parties],” aims to share wisdom, understanding, experiences and mutual insights drawn from various disciplines of knowledge— including the indigenous and scientific traditions, the Holy Scriptures and the Social Doctrine of the Church on biodiversity.

These, together, will advocate and inspire biodiversity protection and restoration at the upcoming COP15 and 26th UN Climate Change Conference of Parties (COP26) meetings.

The webinar invited the ecclesial community to generate dialogue on biodiversity in order to find new paths for the human family to heal and restore relations with creation, especially as in the wake of the ongoing Covid-19 health emergency.

Speakers at the event included Cardinal Peter Turkson, the prefect of the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development; and Dr. Jane Goodall, founder of the Jane Goodall Institute and UN Messenger of Peace.

All of creation is interconnected

In his intervention, Cardinal Turkson highlighted two main points: the current context of the multifaceted crisis and the safeguard of biodiversity.

He explained who these two are connected, on the basis of a 2020 report by the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystems Services that showed that the same human actions which drive biodiversity loss have also resulted in an increase in pandemics.

The current situation of the Covid-19 pandemic— which has affected world economies, increased the already existing gap between the rich and the poor, and has further made evident the poor access to healthcare suffered by some populations in society—“one pandemic has revealed other social pandemics,” Turkson said, re-echoing Pope Francis’s words.

Given that Covid-19 has been designated as a zoonotic disease, or transmitted between animals and people, he continued, “the current pandemic alerts us to the fact that when nature is sick, humanity itself is very sick.”

This, he noted, has been highlighted in Pope Benedict XVI’s encyclical Caritas in veritate, which says that the way humanity treats the environment influences also the way that it treats itself.

Turkson pointed out that all the elements of creation are interconnected, and that the disregard and abuse of one invariably affects

other components of society. The ecological crisis, therefore, is linked with an anthropological crisis—with human conduct and behavior.

Joint responsibility to protect biodiversity

Drawing inspiration from the Scriptures, Turkson noted that in the book of Genesis, “biodiversity took its form right from the beginning of creation,” as God created the plants and animals as well as humans.

Moreover, in the social teaching of the Church, “biodiversity is the ongoing work of God’s creation, a sacred gift from God, and each creature has an intrinsic value and worth on that account, and a purpose known to God.” In this sense, every creature reveals God to us and is a manifestation of God’s own glory as expressed in Psalms 19 and 104, he said.

Turkson lamented the deconstruction of God’s creation and the continuous cry of both creation and the poor highlighted in Laudato si and manifested in the disappearance of plant and animal species, lost forever because of our abusive treatment of nature.

“The cost of the damage caused by the human exploitation of nature is much greater than the economic benefits that are obtained.”

“For ethical, moral and theological reasons,” the Cardinal said, “it is incumbent upon us to safeguard biodiversity on earth.”

He noted that a global framework in this regard has been provided by the International Convention of Biological Diversity, which recognizes the need for a multisectoral and transversal approach to ensure the conservation and sustainability of biodiversity.

COP15 also has a vision of a world living in harmony with nature, where, by 2050, biodiversity is conserved and wisely used to sustain a healthy planet and deliver benefits essential for all, he said.

For this, four goals can serve as points of focus: first, an increase in protected areas so that biodiversity can be ensured in its interconnectivity and integrity in order to reduce the number of threatened species; secondly, valuing nature’s contribution to people, to maintain and enhance it through sustainable use for the benefit of all; thirdly, sharing fairly and equitably the benefits from genetic resources; and finally, checking the means of implementation of these goals and the targets relating to them.

‘To keep and to till’

“The Church always raises her prophetic voice to provide a spiritual basis for reflection on the protection of the poor, which includes the earth’s diversity and its ecosystems,” Turkson said.

He recalled, too, Pope Francis’ incessant calls for increased care for the earth, including his calls for universal fraternity, which further emphasize

our interconnectedness.

Turkson further highlighted that humans have the responsibility to take care of nature. He explained that this comes from the book of Genesis, when at creation God charged Adam to till and keep the garden: “to ‘till’ was to make the earth productive, while to ‘keep’ was to ensure that the earth maintains its productive qualities and traits to support life all the time.”

This imperative of care also extends to the teaching about resting on the Sabbath, which is, for human beings, also to preserve creation, he said.

“Sabbath has a sense of liberation and respite, rest to any system that is oppressed and lives in bondage,” he added.

Indigenous people, custodians of biodiversity

Indigenous people, according to the Cardinal, are “custodians of biodiversity,” and are essential to the protection of biodiversity. They have also been recognized by Pope Francis as “the great teachers of conservation of our biodiverse system.”

He added that they need to be respected and protected so that we can learn from them through paying attention to them.

Turkson also debunked claims that the relationship between indigenous people and nature is idolatrous.

Rather, he explained, “it is an accumulation of timetested wisdom that ensures the living together of human beings and the systems in creation.”

Concrete steps

For steps to save biodiversity, Turkson proposed planting trees and partnering with organizations that care for nature.

He also urged the prioritization of restoring degraded ecosystems, support for regenerative agriculture, and participation in initiatives even at the local level in parishes.

The Cardinal pointed out that the protection of biodiversity directly affects each one of us, touching the social, cultural and economic dimensions of our lives.

“We are therefore called to embrace an integral ecological perspective and approach, and apply holistic thinking to reorient economies, education and cultural practices and policies, so that we honor the dignity of the human person and the integrity of creation,” he said.

Goodall regrets humans’ destroying ‘only home’

Goodall shared her wealth of experience of studying chimpanzees in Africa and working to preserve their habitat.

She expressed regret that in spite of the developed intellect of humans, we are destroying our only home.

She noted that humans’ disrespect for the natural world and contribution to the destruction of the habitat of animals have put humans in increased contact with normally isolated animals, increasing the chance of pathogens spreading from animals to humans, and creating a zoonotic pandemic such as the current one.

This same disrespect for the world has also led to climate change, which is one of the major factors affecting biodiversity, she noted.

Proposing concrete action, Goodall emphasized the need to act within this “window of opportunity.”

She highlighted the urgency of reducing the “unsustainable lifestyle of hundreds of thousands of us on this planet who have way more than we need,” especially as regards food, where tons are wasted when there are people who go to bed hungry.

Goodall also stressed the importance of eliminating poverty. One way of achieving this, she explained, is teaching people to find ways of living without destroying the environment.

She recalls that this became apparent to her when she flew over a forest that used to house chimpanzees that had been greatly reduced and surrounded by human presence and farmlands.

Through the work of her foundation, she encourages community-based conservation to restore fertility to over-used land without agricultural chemicals and pesticides and water management.

She also suggests scholarships to keep girls in school; and micro-financing so that villagers, particularly women, can take loans to start businesses that are environmentally friendly.

In addition, local people can also be given tools with which they can monitor the health of their own village forest reserves.

This will help people to understand that “we protect the environment, not just for the wildlife, but for their own future, because the environment provides us with clean water; and we depend on healthy ecosystems for everything,”Goodall explained.

Biodiversity, fragile tapestry of life

“I like to see an ecosystem as a tapestry of life composed of this diversity of animal and plant species, all interrelated, each little species having a role to play,” Goodall said.

In this light, if one of the species becomes extinct, it tears a hole in that tapestry, and as more and more holes are torn, in the end we will be left with a tapestry so torn that the ecosystem will collapse, she warned.

In this regard, Goodall hailed the efforts of organizations and scientists working to protect and conserve the “tapestry.”

She also salutes the many young people who are rising up to tackle the ecological problems they have inherited from those before them. Vatican News

Biodiversity Sunday BusinessMirror

Asean Champions of Biodiversity Media Category 2014

Sunday, April 25, 2021

Editor: Lyn Resurreccion

EDC gets extended partnership grant from conservation body

By Rizal Raoul Reyes

M

ajor geothermal energy provider Energy Development Corp.’s (EDC) conservation program will continue to be enhanced as the Europe-based Botanic Gardens Conservation International (BGCI) has extended its partnership grant for two more years with the Lopez-led company.

The grant aims to assess and conserve additional 200 Philippine endemic tree species and 470 nearendemic species.

Near-endemic species are defined as those that can be found not only in the Philippines but also in two or three more countries, while endemic species are those that can only be found in the Philippines.

Under its flagship Binhi regreening program, EDC was selected in May 2019 as the first and sole partner of BGCI for its Global Tree Assessment (GTA) program for the conduct of conservation status assessments of 800 Philippine endemic tree species for two years.

BGCI is the secretariat of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) for GTA, an organization that formulates measures for the protection of the environment through data gathering, research, field projects, advocacy and education.

Under the partnership, EDC received a grant of £16,160, or more than P1 million.

Moreover, BGCI also trained the Binhi team, its partner organizations and representatives of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) on the IUCN Red List methodology, a vigorous and globally respected procedure following strict guidelines and data requirements on extinction risk assessments.

Megan Barstow, conservation officer of BGCI, pointed out that there has been significant progress in the undertaking of the two organizations.

Before 2019, only 248 assessments for trees native to the Philippines were published on the IUCN Red List.

To date, there are now 1,225 assessments, 42 percent of which were contributed by EDC in collaboration with Pro-Seeds Development Association Inc., a University of the PhilippinesLos Banos (UPLB)-based organization composed of young professionals engaged primarily in various environmental research, as well as the promotion and development of environmentally sound management strategies.

“There are not just tree assessments that we need to be doing to help save the world’s tree species. We also need to be taking conservation actions. Binhi is already a great example of this, working with its community farmers and leading on protection and propagation of the 96 priority threatened tree species,” Barstow said.

“I think that the National List of Threatened

Species for the Philippines is also going to be taking on the Philippine assessments for trees that have been produced by EDC, which hopefully means there will be more national attention to the tree-assessment program already established,” she added.

In a virtual signing ceremony, EDC President and COO Richard B. Tantoco, likewise, believed that there is much to be done and a bigger world to restore.

“Just when you think you’ve accomplished your goals and reached the finish line, that line just keeps getting farther as you find out that what you have done is merely a drop in the bucket,” Tantoco said.

“We learned that much is not known about our Philippine native trees and it doesn’t help that there’s not enough protection ordinance and there are limited propagation technology and limited cooperation for the protection of these Philippine native tree species,” he added.

BGCI Secretary-General Paul Smith expressed his gratitude to EDC for the fruitful collaboration.

“BGCI is delighted to be working with you and building on an already fruitful partnership.

But we have a big job to do. We aim to persuade the government to use the regulatory levers and their incentives at their disposal to protect and restore what is left,” Smith said.

“Wherever possible, we hope to persuade investors and financiers of greening programs to use their capital to protect and restore old-growth forests.

For conservation organizations and civil society, let us leave the industrial forestry model to the forester, he stressed in a press statement,” Smith added.

Tantoco said: “If we want to succeed, we really cannot do this alone. The task is too huge for any one entity. So with all humility, we are actually aggressively partnering with as many entities and individuals as we can throughout the country.”

Lopez Group Foundation Inc. Executive Director Mercedes Lopez Vargas recalled the passion and “extraordinary love” for trees of her father, EDC Chairman Emeritus Oscar M. Lopez, that gave birth to EDC’s flagship environment program BINHI. “He has always felt deeply about this mission and is the happiest walking and tracking through forests and nature trails that allow him to interact and gain more knowledge about the ecosystems,” Vargas said at the online signing.

Over 6 million trees have been planted and nearly 10,000 hectares of land have been reforested with the help of 88 farmer associations under the Binhi program.

Additionally, 187 partnerships have produced 15 arboreta, and seven more are expected to be established. Four vegetative material reproduction nurseries have also been established in different locations in Negros Island, Antipolo City and Mt. Apo in Davao.

US sets aside habitat critical for survival of rare songbird

The true value of wildlife

A green marine turtle, one of five marine turtle species in the Philippines, is photographed by underwater photography expert Danny Ocampo.

A

A

LBUQUERQUE, New Mexico—US wildlife managers have set aside vast areas across several states as habitat critical to the survival of a rare songbird that migrates each year from Central and South America to breeding grounds in Mexico and the United States.

The US Fish and Wildlife Service announced the final habitat designation for the western yellow-billed cuckoo last Tuesday. It covers about 467 square miles (1,210 square kilometers) along hundreds of miles of rivers and streams in the western states.

Most breeding in the US occurs in Arizona and New Mexico, but the habitat designation also includes areas in California, Colorado, Utah, Texas and Idaho.

The designation isn’t as big as initially proposed.

Wildlife managers opted to exclude more than 300 square miles (777 square kilometers) of potential habitat after considering updated information about ongoing conservation activities, the lack of suitable habitat in some areas and potential interference with critical infrastructure.

“This designation identifies impor tant feeding and breeding grounds for the cuckoo

to suppor t the species’ recover y while also balancing the need in finding solutions that suppor t current and future land-use plans,” Michael Fris, field supervisor for the Sacramento Fish and Wildlife Office, said in a statement.

Federal biologists describe the cuckoo as an elusive species. Difficult to observe, it selects its nesting spots based on habitat conditions and the availability of food. That means breeding habitat not suitable one year may become suitable the next due to increased rainfall or flooding, while favorable areas might degrade the next year.

Each spring and fall, the cuckoo uses river corridors as routes to travel between its wintering and breeding grounds.

Nesting pairs find refuge in willows, cottonwoods and other trees along waterways and once their chicks hatch, their voracious appetites for insects help them fuel up for the return trip south.

Listed as threatened in 2014, biologists say the bird has seen population declines due to loss of riparian habitat and habitat fragmentation resulting from agriculture, dams and river management, erosion, overgrazing and competition from exotic plants. AP

A Hawskbill turtle glides gently atop corals. Danny Ocampo

By Jonathan L. Mayuga

t a local carinderia (eatery) that serves exotic dishes in Cebu City, an order of “power” is P80 to P120. This is almost twice the cost of ordinary viand available at the carinderia.

Interestingly, “power” is not on the menu and is offered discreetly to select customers.

It turns out “power” is a soup with marine turtle meat as the main ingredient. It is popular among male customers of the carinderia because it is widely believed to be an aphrodisiac.

Meanwhile, at local pet shops, a blue-naped parrot is sold at P3,000 to P5,000, depending on its age.

The younger they are, the expensive they get.

Endangered species

Like the marine turtles that are hunted for their eggs, meat and other parts, the blue-naped parrot, a popular pet because of the belief it brings good fortune, is being pushed to the brink of extinction by the illegal trade in wildlife.

Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) Administrative Order 2019-09, the updated list of Philippine threatened fauna and their categories, classifies the hawksbill turtle and leatherback turtle as „critically endangered,“ while the loggerhead turtle, green turtle and olive ridley turtle as “endangered”.

T he list a lso classifies the blue -naped pa r rot as “cr it ica l ly end angered.”

Marine turtles and the blue-naped parrot are also listed in the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora Appendices, affording different levels of protection from over-exploitation.

Both species are also on the Red List of Threatened Species of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature.

IWT targets

The yellow-billed cuckoo is also known in the southern United States are rain crow and storm crow. Wikimedia Commons

A7

While marine turtles are being slaughtered for their meat, shell, and other body parts, the blue-naped parrots are hunted for illicit pet trade targeting unique Philippine species.

Because of their behavior like singing and dancing while mimicking humans as they talk, parrots are high in demand by so-called “pet lovers.”

Even in Palawan, the country’s ecological frontier where these amazing birds used to thrive, the population of the blue-naped parrot is decreasing.

In illegal wildlife trade activities, Republic Act 9147, the Philippine Wildlife Resources Protection and Conservation Act or the Wildlife Act, the law that provides protection to essentially all wild animals in the Philippines, is violated.

Economic value of wildlife

Last month, the DENR released a study placing high economic use value to the endangered marine turtles and blue-naped parrots.

Based on the study, one marine turtle is projected to have an economic use value of P4.8 million throughout

its 57-year lifetime.

Its economic use-value was based on its ecological role in the coastal and marine ecosystem, approximately P900,000 per turtle and on the tourism value it generates, pegged at P3.9 million per turtle.

The annual use value of the entire population of the Philippine marine turtle, which is conservatively estimated at 7,294 individuals by the DENR-Biod iversit y Management Bureau (BMB) ranged between P2.89 billion and P3.19 billion.

Meanwhile, the study also showed that the blue-naped parrot, more commonly known as “pikoy,” is estimated to have an economic use value of P186,000 throughout its six-year lifetime.

The estimated cost of one bluenaped parrot is based on its trade value and tourism value (P5,000 per bluenaped parrot when combined) and its ecological role in forest ecosystems at P181,000 per blue-naped parrot.

The entire Philippine parrot population was estimated at 8,500 individuals, according to wildlife conservation group Katala Foundation. With that, its annual use value range between P36.23 million and P295.19 million a year.

Important ecosystem functions

While parrots, like other birds, are efficient seed dispersers and help make the forest healthy with the allimportant bird poop that fertilizes the soil, marine turtles are known to feed on algae, nibbling them from corals, allowing corals to “breathe” and stay healthy.

Some marine turtle species are also known to feed on jellyfish, thus, acting as biological control agents in their natural habitats.

Marine turtles are also known to feed on seagrass, acting like nature’s lawnmower that cuts and maintain seagrass bed, a special ecosystem where small fish play and feed, in good health.

As they feed on seaweeds and seagrass, marine turtles prune them, thus, making them grow faster, in the process, benefiting other species dependent on the same ecosystem.

‘About time’

Grace Diamante, executive director of the Mindoro Biodiversity Conservation Foundation Inc. (MBCFI), said it is about time that the DENR give attention to the economic valuation of these species and of all significant species in the Philippines.

More than the economic value of species, Diamante said the valuation per square meter of key biodiversity areas, especially the protected areas, should also be considered by the government.

“The Build Build Build Program of the administration is beneficial to our economy and to Filipinos, but they should also weigh the long-term impact

A blue-naped parrot DENR-BMB of these developments to the environment,” she told the BusinessMirror via Messenger on March 30.

About the study

Conducted through the DENRAsian Development Bank (ADB)/Global Environment Facility (GEF) Project on Combating Environmental Organized Crime in the Philippines, the study aims “to recognize the bigger picture as the protection of wildlife not only keeps ecosystems balanced, but eventually benefits human well-being.”

In a statement released by the DENR with the study results, environmental economist Dr. Agustin Arcenas underscored the importance of economic valuation of resources in monitoring whether the steps to protect these resources are effective.

Moreover, he believes that the economic valuation of resources also helps evaluate the efficiency of projects and programs geared toward managing the resources, especially in situations where no other feasible metric currently exists.

In the same statement, Environment Secretary Roy A. Cimatu expressed hope the result of the study will allow “more people to be inspired in conserving and protecting our wildlife.”

“We hope that in popularizing the findings, we can entice more Filipinos to think about the long-term benefits of our wildlife, such as marine turtles and blue-naped parrots, and not just short-time gains,” Cimatu said.

A good way to communicate ‘value’

Emerson Y. Sy, a wildlife trafficking specialist at Traffic agreed with Cimatu, saying that economic valuation is a good way to communicate the “value” of wildlife to the public since money is a universal language.

“I agree that it will help in IEC [information, education and communication] to make people appreciate wildlife,” he told the BusinessMiror via Messenger on April 7.

However, Sy said that to deter poachers and illegal wildlife traders, the chance of being caught should be very likely and equates to better law enforcement.

Preemptive action

He added that preemptive actions have more impact to conservation than law enforcement, and that the proposal to impose higher penalties may end up strong only on paper.

“The highest penalty on the current Wildlife Act is already P1.5 million for killing a critically endangered

species, but it has never been utilized.

Secondly, the inclusion of administrative adjudication might embolden wildlife traffickers since they can just pay a fine,” he said.

Sy suggested that the law should be clear when administrative adjudication is appropriate, citing for instance first-time offender with less than 20 animals involved in the crime.

“Unless it is very clear cut, it will be abused,” he lamented, citing what is happening in the fisheries sector.

Sy was referring to the apprehension of foreign nationals with dried seahorses worth P1.7 million in 2019.

The foreigners were given a slap-inthe-wrist penalty when fined with P15,000, and were released from detention.

“Besides the supposed higher fine than the market value, they [should have] underwent deportation proceeding as specified by the law,” he said.

Commendable exercise

Theresa Mundita S. Lim, executive director of the Asean Centre for Biodiversity (ACB), commended the DENR-BMB for the exercise in valuing nature, specifically wildlife, to include nonuse values.

Lim has been pushing for the economic valuation of natural resources during her 15-year stint as a former DENR top biodiversity official.

“We thought that total economic valuation of nature would be a good tool to help decision-makers in resolving conflicting proposals on land use (eg. mining and protected area),” Lim told the BusinessMirror via Messenger on April 7.

Attracting investment in nature, biodiversity

“Translating the value of wildlife into monetary amount will create a different kind of appreciation, hopefully attracting the attention of the finance and economic sector to invest in nature and biodiversity,” she added.

Moreover, she said the economic valuation study which estimates the true value of wildlife is a good basis for estimating penalties for violations of wildlife laws, such as poaching and illegal wildlife trade.

Lim pointed out that there is no science behind the current estimates for the fines and penalties in the current law, “except that we knew we had to have higher penalties and fines for violations vs critically endangered species” as compared to those of lower conservation status.

With the study, she said this time the valuation can provide a good rationale for the estimation of fines.

Sports

Indy 500 to host 135,000 fans in largest event in pandemic

BusinessMirror

TORRE: CHESS DOESN’T STOP T

By Josef Ramos

ALK about Philippine chess and the first thing that comes to mind is Eugene Torre.

And talk about Torre and what comes next after his name? Asia’s first grandmaster (GM), no less.

Torre became the continent’s first GM at a young age of 22. He completed his norms at the 1974 Nice Olympiad where he claimed a silver medal playing board one for the Philippines. And from then on, he has become the most popular Filipino woodpusher ever and a member of the elite circle of global chess icons.

Early this week, the World Chess Federation announced Torre’s induction to the 2020 World Chess Hall of Fame along with Polish-Argentine GM Miguel Najdorf and Hungrarian GM Judit Polgar.

“It’s an honor, a big one,” said Torre, the first Asian male player to be inducted to the Hall of Fame.

“This is not only a recognition for Filipinos, but also for

A8 | S

unday, April 25, 2021 mirror_sports@yahoo.com.ph Editor: Jun Lomibao

T

HE Indianapolis 500 is set to be the largest sporting event in the world since the start of the pandemic with 135,000 spectators permitted to attend “The Greatest Spectacle in Racing” next month.

Indianapolis Motor Speedway said Wednesday it worked with the Marion County Public Health Department to determine that 40 percent of venue capacity can attend the May 30 race on Memorial Day weekend. The speedway is the largest sporting facility in the world with more than 250,000 grandstand seats and the ability to host close to 400,000 on race day throughout the entire property.

The attendance figure was determined after Indianapolis hosted the NCAA men’s basketball tournament through March and into April with limited attendance. The NCAA allowed 8,000 fans at Lucas Oil Stadium for the April 5 men’s championship game.

The Alabama spring football game last weekend hosted 47,218 fans, nearly 10,000 more than a recent Texas Rangers baseball game; an Australian Rules cricket match in Melbourne drew 51,723 in March.

Roger Penske, in his second year as owner of Indianapolis Motor Speedway, had hoped for full attendance, but IndyCar and speedway officials are taking pride in the upcoming milestone.

“This event and this place means so much to everybody we see every day and we hear from every day, whether they are Hoosiers or race fans from around the world,” Mark Miles, president and CEO of Penske Entertainment Corp., told The Associated Press.

“We feel a real responsibility to protect that legacy and to grow it and to have the race,” Miles said. “We’re ready to take the next step in bringing back the economy and a lot of that in this city and state is driven by sports events which has been shut down for so many months. March Madness was incredibly successful, this is the next step and it just so happens this will probably be the biggest sporting event of the year.”

The speedway will be open to spectators every day cars are on the track beginning with the May 15 road course event. The viewing mounds in the infield will be closed, and general admission infield tickets will not be made available.

The infield’s raucous “Snake Pit” will be closed and all the traditional concerts will not be held, including on Carb Day and Legends Day. There will be suite seating and the Pagoda will be open to those with tickets, but the midway will be closed.

Grandstand seating will be socially distanced; fans will have an option to return their tickets for an account credit.

Face coverings will be required on track property and temperature checks will be given at the entrances. IMS will also extend its vaccination clinics through the end of May with the ability for spectators to receive a vaccination on speedway grounds throughout the month Miles anticipated about 60 percent of those in attendance will have been vaccinated. IMS has vaccinated approximately 100,000 people since it began operating as a site.

“Roger Penske and everyone associated with Penske Entertainment and the Indianapolis Motor Speedway have been incredible partners with us throughout the pandemic,” said Indiana Gov. Eric Holcomb. “It is high time for fans to return to the greatest motor speedway in the world with this safety plan in place.”

Miles said 90 percent of the IndyCar paddock had been vaccinated by last Sunday’s season opener and there are two more opportunities for competitors to get shots before racing begins at the speedway. Those who choose not to be vaccinated before the track opens May 18 for Indy 500 preparations will be required to undergo daily Covid-19 testing. AP

THIS is the size of the crowd that the Indianapolis 500 traditionally lures. AP

all Asian chess players.”

Torre’s credentials in a career that spans more than five decades if filled to the brim. From winning the national champions as an 18-year-old in 1970, he went on to play in almost all major international competitions.

He saw action in 23 Olympiads as a player and twice as a coach, the most by a Filipino.

But if not for his love of chess, what could have Torre pursued?

“I think any Engineering course. I’m good in algebra and I’m good at solving,” said Torre, who had to drop out on his junior year at Mapua’s College of Business Administration because his chess schedule has become too hectic.

Torre, who will turn 70 on November 4, comes from a big family. He is the seventh in a brood of six girls and four boys, all born in Iloilo to their dad, Federico Torre, a lawyer at the Commission on Elections, and mother Vicenta Oliveros, who worked at the Food and Drug Administration.

He has a daughter, Nicole, to wife Marilyn Alano Torre

A YOUNGER Eugene Torre writes down his move in an international competition and an older one chill out with teammates (from left) Fide Master MJ Turkesa, International Master John Emmanuel Garcia and Haridas Pascua and Grandmaster John Paul Gomez at their training camp in a Batangas resort for the 43rd World Chess Olympiad in Batumi, Georgia, in 2018. and are keeping themselves excitedly busy attending to two granddaughters and one grandson at their Alta Vista residence in Quezon City.

With Torre’s charming good looks, he got himself a leading man’s role in a 1975 romantic comedy film with one of the country’s cinema icons, now Batangas Rep. Vilma Santos. The film’s title? Basta’s Isipin Mong Mahal Kita.

“I didn’t watch the premier. In fact, I just watched it in a theater somewhere in Bicol a year after it was released,” he said. “But Vilma [Santos] is very professional, a good actress and she’s very kind. I don’t know if she will still remember me. It was a long, long time ago.”

Besides chess, Torre used to pack a mean forehand as he and wife Marlyn play tennis on a regular basis, or on a more regular one when the late former Fide President Florencio Campomanes dragged them almost every day to the court.

“I can’t remember the last time I played tennis, maybe four or five years ago when I was in Baguio City. But I do walking now,” said Torre, who picked close friend, the late Bobby Fischer, as well as Garry Kasparov, Raul Capablanca, Magnus Carlsen and Anatoly Karpov as his alltime top 5 players in the world.

Politics also almost got into Torre’s system, like his contemporary, GM Utut Adianto who is a member of the Indonesian parliament.

“I considered running as councilor in Quezon City, but it didn’t push through because I

wasn’t a registered voter,” he said.

Tennis perhaps kept Torre fit and sharp all these years, but as he approaches his super senior stage, the chess icon still have a mission to accomplish: keep propagating chess to the youth.

“My dream is for the youth to apply the good moves of chess in their daily life,” he said. “For example, to avoid blunders—like drugs, lies, criminal acts, wrongdoings and other vices. We always find the right moves in chess, so in life also.”

Chess, he said, is a sport where decisionmaking is a huge factor.

“Other than my dream of seeing the country having more grandmasters and become a strong nation in Asia, I hope the youth apply what they learn from chess or the good moves to have a better life.”

“There was a time I blundered too, like smoking. If I didn’t commit some vices, I think I achieved a lot of things,” he added.

The World Chess Hall of Fame was established in 1984 in St. Louis Missouri but names its first batch of inductees only in 2001. There are 37 players who have so far been inducted to the Hall of Fame.

The induction proceeding is set in the US but the pandemic is likely to force the organizers to hold the ceremonies online.

Torre, a close friend of the late Bobby Fischer, inventor of the Fischer Random chess, was inducted into the Philippine Sports Hall of Fame by the Philippine Sports Commission in 2016.

California to allow fans for US Opens if vaccinated, tested

A

LIMITED number of spectators will be allowed at the US Women’s Open in San Francisco and the US Open in San Diego in June provided they are vaccinated or can show proof of a negative test for the coronavirus.

The US Golf Association (USGA) announced the policy Monday after consulting with California health officials.

While the US Opens will not be the first majors to allow fans, they will be the first to hold spectators to a standard of health through the Covid-19 vaccine or testing.

The USGA did not indicate how many fans would be allowed at either championship.

The Masters did not require its spectators, believed to be about 8,000, to be tested two weeks ago at Augusta National. The PGA Championship from May 20 to 23 at Kiawah Island in South Carolina is allowing 10,000 fans a day who will not need to show proof of a negative test or vaccination.

On the LPGA Tour, the ANA Inspiration earlier this month in the California desert did not allow spectators.

The US Women’s Open is June 3 to 6 at Olympic Club and US Open is at Torrey Pines from June 17 to 20.

According to the policy the USGA announced, face coverings and social distancing will be required for fans, staff and volunteers even if they have been vaccinated.

Spectators who live in California must show proof they have been vaccinated at least 14 days before the tournament or that they have tested negative. Still to be determined is when the test results are returned.

Those fans from outside California must

have been vaccinated 14 days ahead of time.

Neither the US Open at Winged Foot in New York last September nor the US Women’s Open at Champions Golf Club in Houston in December were allowed spectators.

“Last year, we missed the energy that fans bring to our US Open championships,” said John Bodenhamer, senior managing director of championship for the USGA. “We are grateful to our local and state health and safety officials in California to be in a position to welcome some fans back this year.”

Olympic Club has hosted the US Open five times, most recently in 2012 when Webb Simpson won. This will be the first time the course will be used for the Women’s Open.

Torrey Pines is hosting the US Open for the second time. Tiger Woods won in 2008 in a playoff over Rocco Mediate. The municipal course also hosts a PGA Tour event year. Fans were not allowed at Torrey Pines in January when Patrick Reed won.

This is the first time since 1971 the US Open and US Women’s Open have been held on different courses in the same state. Lee Trevino won the US Open at Merion outside Philadelphia, and a week later, JoAnne Carner won the US Women’s Open at The Kahkwa Club in Erie, Pennsylvania. AP

Nelly Korda lines up her shot on the ninth green during the second round of the Ladied Professional Golf Association Hugel-Air Premia LA Open golf at Wilshire Country Club on Thursday in Los Angeles. AP

BusinessMirror

April 25, 2021

Is it finally game on for video game adaptations?

Hollywood increasingly viewing video games as one of ripest, richest veins of IP outside of comic books

2

BusinessMirror APRIL 25, 2021 | soundstrip.businessmirror@gmail.com

YOUR MUSI

BLENDING GENRES

Indonesian sensation Rendy Pandugo reaches for new heights with new EP

A

By Stephanie Joy Ching

S Indonesia’s indie music frontman, singer-songwriter Rendy Pandugo has come a long way from his early days as a café singer. Now with over 100 million streams under his belt, the Medan native has taken his musicality to many different places and intends to continue his exciting journey with his latest EP, See You Someday.

Publisher

: T. Anthony C. Cabangon

Editor-In-Chief

: Lourdes M. Fernandez

Concept

: Aldwin M. Tolosa

Y2Z Editor

: Jt Nisay

SoundStrip Editor

: Edwin P. Sallan

Group Creative Director : Eduardo A. Davad Graphic Designers Contributing Writers

Columnists

: Niggel Figueroa Anabelle O. Flores : Tony M. Maghirang, Rick Olivares, Darwin Fernandez, Leony Garcia, Stephanie Joy Ching

Described as a blend of ‘pop, folk and modern music’ the EP serves both as a present to his fans and an avenue to explore his musicality.

“There’s a new vibe here that I’ve never had before in terms of musicality,” he shared, “I always say ‘See you someday’ at the end of my shows, and that’s always in my head. So I think it’s time to have something for them and gift them a little present, I want to make something that everyone can enjoy,” The EP consists of six songs, all of which are based on his or his friends’ true to life stories, who also

Pauline Joy M. Gutierrez : Kaye VillagomezLosorata Annie S. Alejo

Photographers

: Bernard P. Testa Nonie Reyes

Y2Z & SOUNDSTRIP are published and distributed free every Sunday by the Philippine Business Daily Mirror Publishing Inc. as a project of the

The Philippine Business Mirror Publishing, Inc., with offices on the 3rd Floor of Dominga Building III 2113 Chino Roces Avenue corner Dela Rosa Street, Makati City, Philippines.

Tel. Nos. (Editorial) 817-9467; 813-0725.

Fax line: 813-7025 Advertising Sales: 893-2019;

817-1351,817-2807.

Circulation: 893-1662; 814-0134 to 36. www.businessmirror.com.ph

RENDY Pandugo

served as producers for songs such as ‘Far’, ‘B.Y.L’, and ‘Secret.’ The EP is also a collaborative effort, with names such as Ollipop from The Kennel Sweden and Greg Calby from Sterling Sound lending their talent in mixing and mastering respectively. The result is an EP that’s the musical embodiment of a hug and the promise that yes, he will, “see you someday.”

“It’s 50-50,” Rendy said about the overarching theme of his EP, “there’s sad stories and there’s life experiences that aren’t as sad or happy. So ‘B.Y.L” and ‘Far’ are kind of sad, but ‘Secret’ is

begging. So those three songs give sad vibes, and the other three- ‘Home’ is about missing home, ‘Mr. Sun’ is about people who stop complaining, and ‘See You Someday’ has the message that I kind of want to show to my fans that ‘I will see you someday.’

So yeah, I think there’s three sad songs and three happy songs,” Rendy also expressed that the EP is about reconnection and new beginnings, expressing that his previous work didn’t feel like himself and he hoped to reconnect with his fans through the EP and at the same time reach out to new people.

“My previous song back in July, I don’t know, it felt like it wasn’t me. I want to make something that everyone can enjoy, and there’s no pressure when I make songs, I just release it after an enjoyable process. So that’s why I made this EP for my fans and try to reconnect to them and hope it reconnected,” he shared.

Rendy first began his musical journey as a guitarist when he was forming his band back in 2014.

However, his band soon found themselves in a predicament.

“We were trying to find a vocalist for our band, but it turns out, we couldn’t find anyone who was right for it, so I ended up becoming the vocalist by accident” he shared.

Despite singing being an “accident,” Rendy found himself being almost a natural right from the start, his voice having a smoothness that just flows and fits naturally into the pop and rock genres he so often covered. When asked about his vocal style, he admits that he mostly learned by “soaking up” the artists he covered and incorporating it into himself.

“I just sing,” he explained, “I don’t know how I developed my vocal style. I did learn how to breathe when singing and how to open my mouth, but it’s just natural. I just keep practicing. I did a lot of covers when I sang in cafes, and a lot of my musicality comes from the artists and idols that I cover and I try to fit them into my new identity,” See You Someday is now available on all major streaming platforms worldwide.

IC

soundstrip.businessmirror@gmail.com | APRIL 25, 2021

BUSINESS

SoundSampler

by Tony M. Maghirang

RE-INTRODUCING YUGEL LOSORATA

Music and Letters Are in the Blood.

with Manila Standard. My weekly music column ”Touchbass“ started in early 2018.

Fiction-writing wise, I contributed a couple of horror stories to the True Philippine Ghost Stories anthology. In late 2019, I began writing essays that formed the contents of my first e-book published by E-Publish Book Hub in July 2020. It was only last year that I seriously sat down to write an e-book of flash fiction stories.

I finished my first novel “The Lust Regime” in late December 2020.

Early this year it was published by the international Ukiyoto Publishing which also made it available in paperback edition.

YUGEL Losorata and his band The Pub Forties

W

RITER Yugel Losorata is no stranger to the local entertainment scene. Yugel first made a name as a journalist for a general circulation newspaper then rose through the ranks to become a widely-read columnist writing about popular music and its craftsmen.

In his off-hours, he indulged in his passion for music further by creating his own original compositions and recording some of them with kindred music-makers like his latest group named The Pub Forties.

Last year, while the country reeled under the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, prolific Yugel embarked on a new adventure in his journey as a writer. He published two books, the first one titled “How To Survive The New Normal“ seeks to inspire people struggling to cope with life under community quarantine, followed by “30 Midnights of Flash Fiction,” a collection of stories about the strange, the paranormal, the wicked and the emotionally unsettling.

Last month, author Yugel published his first novel, the testosteronestimulating “The Lust Empire.”

Sound Sampler caught up with the ever busy Yugel Losorata to spill the beans on the art of juggling music and letters in perfect harmony.

Yugel, first off, tell us more about your first novel with its erotic title.

“THE Lust Regime” is a novel about lust for power and sex and how people handle them. I’m always fascinated

with those in power abusing their position and thinking they can get away with them. Eroticism, on the other hand, adds spice to the romantic liaison, illicit and otherwise, that’s also central to the main plot.

The politics and its subplots have been inspired by my reading of history books or watching of documentaries about abusive regimes and despicable, yet highly charismatic leaders. I really don’t see myself living in the world I imagined for the book. But as an author, I have to say I enjoyed some kind of power or control since I knew exactly what’s going to happen to my characters.

How did you prepare for your first novel?

IT took me six months to write my first novel. The major challenge was to keep myself interested in the story.

I did read some books in the past on how to write fiction, and it helped that I attended the scriptwriting workshop conducted by the iconic Ricky Lee. Back in 2002 I was a member of 14th batch of Ricky’s free scriptwriting workshop.

Your latest band The Pub Forties. Who are its members and who are your common influences?

THE Pub Forties is my fourth band affiliation. It was formed based on the idea of broadsheet journalists playing together. Myself and lead vocalist Aries Espinosa, former PDI editor and

How has your journey as a writer been so far?

IN some ways, I can say that my writing has been a continuous, albeit slow-paced, progress. I got employed in Manila Bulletin in 2000 and became part of its special features section, writing articles on various subject matters. I settled with the music beat in 2005 when I began contributing for the entertainment section.

I also had regular stints as contributor to the Philippine Star, Yahoo Philippines, PEP.ph, and Manila Times. Presently I’m a music columnist

YUGEL Losorata and his book, ‘The Lust Empire.’

now contributing for Business World, formed organized the group when we met at a provincial junket. We later pulled in Vince Borromeo who at the time was contributing for the Daily Tribune. Currently, our drummer is James Casas who replaced our original percussionist Kap Maceda-Aguila, a veteran motoring journalist.

Our common influences are The Beatles, Queen, 80s bands like U2 and REM, and other classic rock acts. Every band I have been in always has The Beatles as a key influence.

Anything special about your recording sessions?

THE Pub Forties recorded a song I composed titled ”Stop The World“ which was originally recorded by a boy group called Voizboys. Our version featured Swedish violinist and painting artist Jeanette Kamphuis, who’s prominently heard in the instrumental middle part of the song and towards the end. She also played on the instrumental extro for our band's upcoming digital single ”Nung Tayo Pa“ which we recorded on the same sessions we did ”Stop The World.“ We don't spend much time recording our tracks as we more or less rehearsed and arranged them prior to recording. I usually take the lead in arranging songs while Aries handles the vocal harmonies and some add-on instrumental bits. * Yugel Losorata’s books are available on Amazon. ** The Pub Forties can be accessed on most digital music platforms.

3

Is it finally game on for video game adaptations?

Hollywood increasingly viewing video games as one of ripest, richest veins of IP outside of comic books

By Jake Coyle The Associated Press

N

EW YORK—Is there a more woebegone movie genre than the video game adaptation?

This is the pantheon of Max Payne, Wing Commander and Assassin’s Creed. In the 27 years since the first video game movie, Super Mario Bros., these adaptations have been so regularly mocked that you might think the genre was—like a teetering fighter in “Mortal Kombat” surrounded by chants of “Finish him!”—on its last legs.

And yet, Hollywood is increasingly viewing video games as one of the ripest, richest veins of intellectual property outside of comic books. Even as much of the film business slowed over the last year, the hunt for the kind of IP that has fueled an overwhelming share of worldwide boxoffice ticket sales has continued unabated.

Just pressing ‘Start’ Warner Bros. released on Friday a new, rebooted Mortal Kombat 26 years after the first adaptation of the martial arts fighter. It was then just the fourth video game movie, coming on the heels of Double Dragon and Street Fighter, with JeanClaude Van Damme. This was well before the IP land rush started by Marvel’s success more than a decade later. Apollo 13 was the No. 2 film at the box office in 1995.

This image released by Warner Bros. Pictures shows Hiroyuki Sanada in a scene from the new Mortal Kombat movie, 26 years after the first adaptation of the popular martial arts fighter. AP Now, a bloodier, R-rated Mortal Kombat signals a new cycle for video game adaptations. After years of misfires and flops, it’s lately seemed like a new level has been unlocked for one of the movies’ most derided genres.

In 2019, Detective Pikachu, based on the Nintendo game, grossed more than $400 million worldwide for Warner Bros. Last year, Sonic the Hedgehog became the genre’s highest grosser; a sequel is already under way. Netflix, which on Wednesday suggested it may invest more deeply in gaming, has found one of its biggest hits—the streamer’s answer to Game of Thrones—in The Witcher. The Henry Cavill-led series is based on a fantasy novel series that found fame as a popular video game.

No one is engraving Oscars or Emmys yet. But it may be that video game adaptations aren’t cursed, after all. They were just going through some growing pains.

“Comic-book IP is the biggest IP in the world right now and yet it took 40 years to really get into the spotlight and it took 50 years to become the biggest thing,” says Matthew Ball, a venture capitalist and former head of strategic planning for Amazon Studios. “Video game adaptions have been

happening since the early 90s but we see a lot of evidence that people are learning— they’re training. At some point in the near future, I would be shocked if we didn’t have on a recurring basis one of the biggest films and TV series of the year coming from video games.”

Established market Hollywood’s hunt for IP with builtin global fanbases has found more dead ends over the last decade than new directions. But gaming is unique in its scope and growth. Last year, the gaming industry was worth more than $150 billion. By 2023, revenue will reach $200 billion, Juniper Research has forecast, exceeding the size of the film industry. A study released this week by consulting firm Deloitte found that the top entertainment activity of Gen Z—those aged 14-24—is playing video games, ranking over movies or music by a wide margin.

“There’s an appetite and desire to make things that might have seemed more niche at some point,” says Mortal Kombat filmmaker Simon McQuoid, an in-demand director of commercials who’s previously worked on ad campaigns for Sony’s PlaySta-

tion and “Halo.” “I get the feeling people are OK pushing that forward and being a little mainstream with things.”

Many video game adaptations have had prolonged or even torturous developments, suggesting the industry is still figuring out how to tackle these properties. Mortal Kombat was in development for a decade.

Infamously, Sonic the Hedgehog was forced to redesign its animated protagonist after an outcry from fans. There are reasons that video game movies get ranked from “least bad to absolute worst.”

Some have suggested the mediums are inherently distinct. Roger Ebert maintained video games aren’t art and “by their nature require player choices, which is the opposite of the strategy of serious film and literature, which requires authorial control.”

But someone, eventually, may crack the code of the video game movie. In the years since Ebert wrote that in 2015, games have developed in atmosphere, narrative and character. They are more cinematic.

More filmmakers are gamers, themselves, and they’re interested in plumbing virtual worlds while staying true to a game’s spirit.

“The importance of the source material has become something that 20 years ago people didn’t really care about. They nodded at it,” says Johannes Roberts (47 Meters Down), director of the upcoming Resident Evil reboot, Welcome to Racoon City.

“There’s definitely a real understanding that you need to believe and love in it,” Roberts added. “I think studio execs get that, that it is an important thing, that you can’t just take the name and run with it.”

ON THE COVER: Photo by Mike Meyers on Unsplash

Savviest online shoppers: Millennials most likely to hunt for best deals

By Tyrone Jasper C. Piad

M

illennials are the most likely to browse and compare prices online before making a purchase as compared to other generations, a new survey revealed.

According to a study commissioned by e-commerce rewards and discovery platform Shopback, titled “How Covid-19 Impacted the Way Filipinos Shop,” 86 percent of millennials, or those born between 1981 and 1996, said they typically spend 30 minutes to 1.5 hours searching for the best deals.

The findings added that 68.3 percent of the age group have been more inclined to make an online purchase since the global pandemic began.

“The survey findings have shown us how ecommerce acceptance has grown tremendously over the past year,” said Prashant Kala, country manager of ShopBack Philippines. “With Filipino shoppers discovering the conveniences and benefits of online

shopping, we expect continuous growth in the Philippines, and along with it, the rise of digital payment solutions.”

The survey noted that more Filipino online shoppers have become more “value-conscious” and “platform-agnostic.”

Nearly 90 percent of the respondents are found to compare prices of a certain item across different online marketplaces before clicking on the check-out button. Around 72 percent of the consumers also said they only started comparing prices in 2020, spending an average of 50 minutes looking for the best-value offers. Some 14 percent even take 90 minutes.

Meanwhile, the study revealed that 92 percent of the respondents shop on major e-commerce sites, such as Shopee, Lazada and Amazon, citing less expensive products and convenient payment methods. However, 71.3 percent made purchases from other online web sites as well in the past year.

They pointed to better discount offers, wider product selection and exclusive brand promotions.

“Consumers tend to stick to their usual shopping platform, but are platform-agnostic when lower prices or specific products come into play,” the report noted.

Among the factors that influence the purchase behavior of Filipino consumers are price, quality of product and good reviews. The ShopBack-commissioned survey also noted that the average online window shopping time for 73.1 percent of the respondents is over an hour, with 15.3 percent spending as much as five hours.

“The study found that 79.8 percent of respondents tend to spend more time browsing online during major sales days such as the recently concluded 4.4, 9.9, 10.10, 11.11, and 12.12,” Kala added.

Earlier this year, the Department of Trade and Industry said it aims to boost the contribution of the e-commerce industry to P1.2 trillion by 2022, which is equivalent to 5.5 percent of the country’s gross domestic product.

4 BusinessMirror

April 25, 2021