BusinessMirror August 08, 2021 by BusinessMirror

TOKYO OLYMPICS MEDAL COUNT TEAM/NOC

GOLD

SILVER

BRONZE

TOTAL

People’s Republic of China

United States of America

101

Japan

Great Britain

Russian Olympic Committee

Australia

Germany

Italy

Netherlands

France

Philippines

SOURCE: OLYMPICS.COM | AS OF AUGUST 7, 2021 3:21 PM

RANK

Paalam: Silver medal ‘a symbol of my life’ By Jun Lomibao

OKYO—A much-anticipated second gold medal came in the form of a silver as Carlo Paalam yielded to Great Britain’s Galal Yafai in the men’s flyweight final of boxing at the Tokyo Olympics on Saturday, but his settling for silver was made up for by the historic overall four-medal haul: the biggest ever since the Philippines participated in the Olympics. The 28-year-old Yafai was the superior boxer in the fight, imposing the experience he reaped from years of fighting in tournaments in Europe and all over the world. In the end, the 23-year-old first-time Olympian Paalam took some beating and was almost floored midway the second round. But for Paalam, the silver medal meant more than athletic excellence. “Itong medal na ito ay simbolo po ng buhay ko,” he told Filipino reporters,

tears rolling down his face. “Isa akong mangangalakal…itong medalya ay gawa sa mga sirang gadget. Sa basura siya galing, kaya nai-connect ko po siya sa buhay ko [This medal is a symbol of my life. I was a scavenger…this medal was made from recycled gadgets. It came from trash, so I can connect it to my life].” Paalam was 10 when he moved from his native Bukidnon to Cagayan de Oro City in search of a job. He ended up a mangangalakal, or scavenger, until one day, he joined a local boxing tournament and the rest was history, so to speak. Despite Paalam’s silver, the Philippines’s four-medal-haul performance in Tokyo stood as the best ever, thanks to Hidilyn Diaz’s conquest in women’s -55 kgs of weightlifting. Paalam’s silver was the second for the Philippines—and in boxing—after Nesthy Petecio in women’s featherweight. Middleweight Eumir Felix Marcial settled for a bronze also in boxing.

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BUBBLES, JABS AND JOBS Pandemic safety helps bring about Subic’s P1.66-B midyear income

SBMA Chairman and Administrator Wilma T. Eisma sees to it that Subic seizes new opportunities under the new normal.

By Henry Empeño

UBIC BAY FREEPORT—Business is bouncing back in the Subic Bay Freeport, with most of 2021 first-semester revenue and other key indicators either eclipsing 2020 figures and easing toward prepandemic levels, or in some areas like export and import performance, even topping 2019 records. PESO EXCHANGE RATES n US 50.0120

In a report to the Office of the President on July 15, Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority (SBMA) Chairman and Administrator Wilma T. Eisma said the Subic agency “capped its 2021 first-semester performance with major accomplishments in its key measures,” even when a few areas remain impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic. “The general trend is upward where the SBMA was able to accelerate growth and surpass its performances in the previous year,” Eisma added in the SBMA midyear performance report.

She said among the measures showing positive growth from January to July 2021 were operating revenue, port operations, employment, business registration, and import and export performance. Meanwhile, tourism income, noncontainerized cargo volume, and committed investments were those that have yet to pick up, Eisma added.

Fast recovery

FOR the first semester, SBMA recorded an operating revenue of P1.66 billion, a slight increase over

the P1.53 billion in the first six months of 2020. Eisma said that while this was still short by P226 million, or 11.96 percent, from the prepandemic record of P1.88 billion in 2019, “it still shows how fast Subic is able to recover from the effects of the Covid-19 health crisis and the resulting global economic slowdown.” Much of SBMA’s revenue growth in the first half was boosted by a P718-million collection from leases of land, facilities and other real-estate assets, followed by P685 million from port opera-

tions. A P189-million income taken from regulatory fees, as well as P69 million from miscellaneous sources, sealed Subic’s remarkable growth this year. Likewise, SBMA figures showed port revenue reaching P645.8 million in the first semester—17 percent higher than last year’s figures. The upsurge came mainly from a 14-percent increase in containerized cargo volume at the Subic seaport, which rose from 107,740 twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) in 2020 to 122,862 Continued on A2

n JAPAN 0.4557 n UK 69.6717 n HK 6.4313 n CHINA 7.7406 n SINGAPORE 37.0240 n AUSTRALIA 37.0289 n EU 59.1992 n SAUDI ARABIA 13.3362

Source: BSP (August 6, 2021)

NewsSunday A2 Sunday, August 8, 2021

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SUBIC port operations grew by 17 percent in the first half of this year, boosted by a 14-percent increase in containerized cargo volume.

‘I

F we can’t change the direction of the wind, we can always adjust our sails to favor the ship and continue with our journey.’—SBMA Chairman and Administrator Wilma T. Eisma

Bubbles, jabs and jobs Continued from A1

TEUs this year even when the Port of Subic recorded fewer ship calls this year. The SBMA said that even when noncontainerized cargo slid down by 2.5 percent from 3.54 million metric tons (MTs) in 2020 to 3.46 million MTs this year, the importation of raw materials from foreign countries, and the exportation of finished products like tires and veneer lumber to Japan, largely helped increase Subic’s container cargo volume. The growth in containerized trade here was marked by total imports of $842.29 million that was 40 percent higher than the $601.8 million last year, as well as export value of $636.8 million that was 86 percent higher than last year’s $342.3 million. Eisma also pointed out that this year’s first-semester import and export values even topped respective records of $797.24 million and $528.29 million in 2019 when the global economy was still a year away from the adverse effects of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Leaders and (some) laggards

MEANWHILE, the Subic Bay Freeport workforce kept growing despite the pandemic, as some businesses defied the economic slowdown by migrating to other operations or developing new product lines. From a total of 134,268 workers in 2019, Subic’s labor force swelled to 138,110 in 2020, and now to 138,964 in the first half of 2021. The services sector here, which employed 101,390 workers or about 73 percent of the total as of the latest count, continued to be the bulwark for employment even when other sectors recorded some contraction. The number of workers in the services sector grew from 91,046 in 2019, to 98,634 in 2020, and then to 101,390 in the first half of 2021. Matching the upward trend in the number of workers here, the number of registered investorcompanies in Subic continued to increase from 1,691 in 2019 to 1,706 in 2020 and to 1,744 by midyear 2021. However, despite the growth in the number of investors, committed investments have not picked up as yet, probably indicating a wait-and-see attitude among

businessmen. Eisma said that the 2021 first-semester committed investment totaled only P873.75 million, which was 14 percent lower than that of last year’s first-half figure of P1.02 billion. Compared to the prepandemic level of P5.03 billion, this year’s investments total indicated a whopping drop of 82.6 percent. Subic’s tourism industry, on the other hand, showed a modest growth of 32 percent with 3.2 million same-day visitors in the first half of 2021; a slight increase in tourist arrivals from 149,951 in 2020 to 206,229 this year; as well as increased growth in hotel occupancy at 26.7 percent from 20 percent in 2020. Still, these figures are way off the first-half records in 2019 of 5.09 million same-day visitors, 553,286 tourist arrivals, and 65.8-percent hotel occupancy rate.

Subic bubble

EISMA had attributed the growth in key sectors to sound economic policies, best practices in antiCovid measures, and a vision for renewed growth under the new normal. In January, the Subic agency approved the Economic Relief Assistance (ERA) Payment Scheme that would allow longer amortization period for bills that had remained unpaid since the pandemic hit in March last year. While this resulted in lower collections for the SBMA in the meantime, Eisma said it gave businesses a breather with which to sustain their operations, avert further losses, and spring back to productivity and profit. Eisma said that aside from the ERA scheme, the SBMA has also temporarily suspended from March to June last year the collection of penalties and other fees from business locators and residents to help ease economic difficulties during the Covid-19 pandemic. At the same time, the SBMA developed the bubble concept to generate new businesses and encourage more economic activities in the Subic Bay Freeport—first coming up with the corporate jet maintenance bubble concept in February to draw in business jet operators in the Asia-Pacific region, then following it up with the sports and meetings “bubbles” to bring in national-level tournaments in volleyball and basketball, as well as

conferences and seminars. In her State of the Freeport Address in March, the SBMA chief reiterated her thrust to “capitalize on opportunities under the new normal and find new ways to handle new problems.” She said that “If we can’t change the direction of the wind, we can always adjust our sails to favor the ship and continue with our journey.” By the first quarter of 2021, the SBMA had already recorded P820.84 million in operating revenues—a 5.23-percent increase over the P780.08 million posted in the first quarter last year.

Jabs and jobs

THE Subic agency then further boosted Subic’s economic opportunities by working for the use by the Philippine Airlines of the long-dormant Subic Bay International Airport (SBIA) as alternate port of entry for returning overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) under the government’s repatriation program. This project again capitalized on Subic’s carefully calculated reputation as a haven of safety and security. Starting with the July 5 PAL flight, Subic has since secured steady business for more than 20 hotels and other accommodation establishments here and in neighboring Olongapo City that were used for the mandatory quarantine of returning overseas workers. PAL has so far landed 10 OFW flights in Subic, with an average of 250 passengers each flight. The arriving passengers are booked in local hotels from seven to 10 days of quarantine, with the government footing the bill. As of now, the SBMA is working with the Department of Health (DOH), as well as private groups, on the inoculation against Covid-19 of workers, residents and business locators in the Subic Bay Freeport to further bring about Subic’s economic sustainability, Eisma said. During the launch of the government’s vaccination program for workers in essential sectors and other economic frontliners, Eisma stressed that because workers are the backbone of the economy, “it is important that we maintain their well-being and safety at all times.” The DOH-SBMA vaccination program, which depended on government allocation, had so far rolled out vaccines for close to 3,500 recipients as of August 4.

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

The World

Microsoft Exchange used to hack diplomats before breach in 2021

ate last year, researchers at the Los Angeles-based cyber-security company Resecurity stumbled across a massive trove of stolen data while investigating the hack of an Italian retailer. Squirreled away on a cloud storage platform were five gigabytes of data that had been stolen during the previous three and half years from foreign ministries and energy companies by hacking their on-premises Microsoft Exchange servers. In all, Resecurity researchers found documents and e-mails from six foreign ministries and eight energy companies in the Middle East, Asia and Eastern Europe. The attacks, which haven’t been previously reported, served as a prequel to a remarkably similar, widely publicized hack of Microsoft Exchange servers from January to March of this year, according to Resecurity. A person familiar with the investigation into the 2021 attack, who wasn’t authorized to speak publicly and requested anonymity, made a similar allegation, saying the data theft discovered by Resecurity followed the same methods. The 2021 hack was extraordinary for its scope, infecting as many as 60,000 global victims with malware. Microsoft quickly pinned the 2021 cyber attack on a group of Chinese state-sponsored hackers it named Hafnium, and the US, UK, and their allies made a similar claim last month, attributing it to hackers affiliated with the Chinese government. Resecurity can’t say for sure the same group perpetrated the attacks. Even so, the cache of documents contained information that would have been of interest to the Chinese government, according to Gene Yoo, Resecurity’s chief executive officer. The person familiar said the victims selected by the hackers and type of intelligence gathered by attackers also pointed to a Chinese operation. Researchers at other cyber-security firms, who requested anonymity because they hadn’t reviewed all of Resecurity’s findings, cautioned that the attacks could have been perpetrated by any number of nations interested in Middle East diplomacy and the internal communications of influential energy companies. Regardless, both hacking campaigns underscore how flaws in Microsoft’s popular on-premises e-mail servers—which are controlled by the customers using those systems—have for years acted as a skeleton key for hackers to unlock sensitive data from government and private companies. The Chinese government rejected allegations that its state-sponsored hackers were involved in any of these attacks. “China resolutely opposes any form of online attack or infiltration. This is our clear and consistent stance,” the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said, in a messaged statement. “Relevant Chinese laws on data collection and handling clearly safeguards data security and strongly oppose cyber attacks and other criminal activity.” In addition, the Ministry said it was a “complex technology problem” to determine the source of attacks, adding that it hoped the media would avoid “groundless speculation” and rely on “comprehensive evidence when determining the nature of cyberspace events.” China has already proposed a global data security standard and urges “all parties to work with us to genuinely safeguard global data security,” according to the Ministry’s statement. Microsoft Corp. spokesperson Jeff Jones said in a statement that, “many nation-state actors” target e-mail systems to gain confidential information, and that Microsoft’s security teams are “constantly working with our security partners” to identify new vulnerabilities that could be used in future attacks. Microsoft has been tracking Hafnium, the group it accused of the 2021 attack, since as early as April 2020, including collecting data about its cyber-espionage operations, Jones said. Microsoft’s threat intelligence unit has since tracked multiple campaigns by Hafnium, and have notified countries that were victims of the attacks, according to Jones, who didn’t identify the countries. Hafnium’s goal is espionage with a focus on data theft, he said. In a series of breaches stretching from 2017 to 2020, hackers stole documents and e-mails from foreign ministries in Bahrain, Iraq, Turkey, Oman, Egypt and Jordan—and e-mail and data from eight energy companies, including Malaysian oil and gas giant Petronas Nasional Bhd and India’s Hindustan Petroleum Corp., according to Resecurity and a review of the stolen data by Bloomberg News. Some of the e-mails and documents appear to contain sensitive information: diplomatic cables, critical network data including usernames and passwords and private consumer data. For instance, one memo from an attaché from Bahrain described a December 9, 2018, meeting in which the country’s leading Asia diplomats met with Chinese counterparts, at a time when China was facing a possible special session of the United Nations Human Rights Council to scrutinize its treatment of Muslim Uyghurs. In the meeting, China’s Lin Jiming recalled that two years earlier, his country defended Bahrain’s own humanrights record during a formal UN review, according to the memo, which was forwarded to Bahrain’s foreign minister and human-rights affairs directorate, along with a recommendation to support China’s position. Bahrain was among 37 countries that signed a letter in mid-2019 supporting China’s policies in the western region of Xinjiang. The special session never occurred. There are also documents detailing day-to-day business, such as internal memos about personnel changes, news summaries, an autograph request for a foreign minister and invitations to diplomatic conferences, according to Resecurity and the documents reviewed by Bloomberg. Officials in Bahrain didn’t respond to a message seeking comment. Officials in Iraq confirmed the government has been the target of cyber attacks but said they weren’t damaging. Representatives from Turkey, Oman, Egypt and Jordan didn’t respond to requests for comment. HPCL didn’t respond. The attackers also compromised a series of mostly state-run energy companies, utilities and research facilities covering regions stretching from Eastern Europe to Southeast Asia, according to Resecurity. Along with sensitive administrative data and intellectual property, Resecurity’s researchers also found lists of users, their internal network permissions and password details, all of which could be used by hackers to expand their footprint inside victim networks, according to Resecurity researchers and the documents. Inside the servers of Petronas, the hackers found lists of usernames and passwords, according to Resecurity and the documents. Within Hindustan Petroleum, they found thousands of user records and employee e-mails, according to the researchers and documents. Other victims included Doosan Fuel Cell Co. in Korea; Romania’s Institute for Nuclear Research in Pitesti; the State Oil Company of Azerbaijan Republic, known as SOCAR; the UAE’s Sharjah National Lube Oil Corp. and Jordan’s Electric Distribution Company and National Electric Power Company, according to Resecurity. In response to a Bloomberg query, Doosan said its Exchange server was attacked but that hackers were prevented from stealing any data. Petronas didn’t answer specific questions about the alleged attack but provided a statement about their “robust and comprehensive cyber-security strategy.” Bloomberg News

BusinessMirror

Sunday, August 8, 2021

Alibaba’s first sales miss in 2 years shows crackdown toll

libaba Group Holding Ltd.’s revenue missed estimates for the first time in more than two years, underscoring how Beijing’s months-long campaign against the Internet sector is taking a toll.

Grow th slowed in most of Alibaba’s major divisions from cloud to e-commerce, underlining fears that the mounting list of new government regulations is constraining expansion and increasing companies’ burdens. In a sign of the times, Chief Executive Officer Daniel Zhang on Tuesday endorsed a string of government policies enacted during a tumultuous 2021, from strict curbs on data collection to excessive subsidies. In particular, he voiced support for a six-month campaign kicked off last week by the Internet industry overseer that expressly called out the blocking of rivals’ services. Alibaba and arch-foe Tencent Holdings Ltd. have long excluded each other’s services from their platfor ms, creating so-ca l led walled gardens. That rift helps perpetuate the empires of China’s two largest corporations and is a key point of contention with regulators concerned about the growing influence of Internet firms, because it encourages merchants and startups to gravitate toward one or the other. “ We do see cross-platfor m openness and connectivity as a positive trend that could unlock greater dividends in the Internet era,” Zhang told analysts. Alibaba’s shares slid 1.4 percent in New York. Among the first of China’s Internet giants to feel the heat from Beijing, the company has been closely watched for clues to the real-world impact of the upheaval that’s ensued since regulators went after industries from online commerce to ride-hailing and edtech. Months after swallowing a $2.8-billion fine for violations such as forced exclusivity with merchants, Jack Ma’s flagship e-

commerce firm is plowing money into areas like its bargains platform and community commerce to offset slowing growth, at a time when Pinduoduo Inc. and JD.com Inc. are eroding its dominance. Revenue for the three months ended June climbed to 205.7 billion yuan ($31.8 billion), compared with the 209.4 billion yuan average of analyst estimates. Net income was 45.1 billion yuan, rebounding from a loss in the previous quarter following the record antitrust penalty. The company announced Tuesday it was boosting its share buyback program by 50 percent to $15 billion. In the wake of the crackdown, Alibaba has made tentative steps to reach out to Tencent, applying to create a mini app for its Taobao Deals platform on Tencent’s WeChat service, Bloomberg News reported earlier this year. The Wall Street Journal also reported Alibaba is considering letting customers use WeChat Pay on Taobao and Tmall. “If Tencent and Alibaba open to each other, it’ll be like each takes what they need,” Blue Lotus Capital Advisor analyst Shawn Yang said. “Alibaba will benefit more because it is hungry for user traffic, more than Tencent is for GMV. But no one knows how that would play out yet.” Scrutiny on the tech sector has expanded since Alibaba’s penalty. The antitrust watchdog in April launched an investigation into Meituan and ordered 34 Internet giants, including Alibaba and its units, to carry out internal reviews and rectify any excesses. In July, the cyberspace regulator stepped into the fray, announcing a probe into Didi Global Inc. and removing its services from Chinese app stores following its

Bloomberg photo

US listing, expanding the crackdown into the realm of data security. Alibaba has lost more than $300 billion in market value from its October peak, just before affiliate Ant Group Co.’s initial public offering was scrapped and the tech crackdown began in earnest. Ant’s profit fell to $2.1 billion in the March quarter after Chinese regulators told it to overhaul its sprawling operation. “Fiscal 2022 profit may be sadd led as A libaba increases spending to make its order-fulfillment services and marketing campaigns more efficient for strategic businesses such as Taobao Deals, Ele.me and Lazada and to spur commerce-revenue gains from a bigger customer base,” said analysts Catherine Lim and Tiffany Tam. But resurgent pandemic risks in China, the first major economy to recover last year, have clouded the outlook for companies like Alibaba. The country is currently battling its broadest coronavirus outbreak since the pathogen first emerged in late 2019. Alibaba in May forecast revenue growth of at least 30 percent for the 12 months ending in March, a deceleration from the 41 percent seen a year earlier. That prediction suggests that Alibaba’s share of Chinese e-commerce sales will fall below 50 percent for the first time ever in 2021, industry researcher eMarketer said in a July 30 report. Annual active consumers across its China retail marketplaces grew

a slower-than-expected pace to 828 million in the June quarter, driving a 35-percent increase in its commerce business. Overall, the firm, which is targeting 1 billion users in its home market by the end of 2021, had 912 million users in China. Its bread-and-butter customer management revenue climbed just 14 percent, the weakest in at least three quarters, after Alibaba started combining commissions with the figure. Cloud revenue climbed 29 percent, slowing for a second consecutive quarter after a major customer withdrew. Bloomberg News has previously reported that the client is TikTok-owner ByteDance Ltd. Management told analysts Tuesday the withdrawal will keep dragging on cloud growth for the remainder of this year, while the new regulatory regime for edtech companies will likely curb their spending on Internet services. Executives last quarter had pledged to channel all incremental profit into investment to refocus on its business. On Tuesday, executives pledged to sustain that strategy. Alibaba last month combined its Ele.me food delivery app, Koubei local commerce platform as well as mapping and online travel business into a new lifestyle services division, a move that could help it better challenge Meituan’s dominance in those sectors. As part of the changes, the company also merged Tmall’s online grocery service with Alibaba’s cross-border commerce business. Bloomberg News

New rule allows Olympians to sell products to social-media followers

lympians are taking advantage of a sponsorship rule change that allows them to capitalize on their socialmedia followings to promote items such as sports wear and washing detergent during the Tokyo Olympics, but agents say that the complexity of the new guidelines and the International Olympic Committee’s continuing control still prevents athletes from fully realizing their earning potential. Athletes had until now been prohibited from engaging in personal sponsor promotion during the Olympics, but a change in 2019 by the IOC to a guideline known as Rule 40 has opened the doors for them to post sponsored content and generate another revenue stream. That enabled athletes such as Portuguese triple jumper Patricia Mamona to tout cereal made by Nestle SA and Taiwanese weightlifter Hsing-chun Kuo to promote telecommunications provider Taiwan Mobile Co Ltd. on their Instagram accounts. The rule change underscores the shift that is under way in the power dynamics between Olympic organizers and athletes, with many

now developing into global brands with enough clout to challenge the dominance of the IOC—particularly in an age when social media is eclipsing television and other traditional media. Agents have also long complained that the old sponsorship rules concentrate power in the hands of the IOC and prevent revenue from trickling down to athletes, particularly those in sports such as weightlifting and badminton who typically make less money than star golfers and soccer players. The change is “a recognition of the fact that athletes are now a principal source of branding for the Olympics in themselves,” said James Walton, head of Deloitte’s sports business group in Southeast Asia. “The Olympics brand can be improved now by Usain Bolt posting something, whereas 20 years ago, Usain Bolt didn’t have a brand, the Olympics had a brand,” he added, referring to the legendary Jamaican sprinter. Rule 40 was set up initially to avoid ambush marketing—where businesses that had no connection to the games try to associate with the Olympics to gain exposure—

and to protect the official sponsors of the games, according to Bob Dorfman, a sports marketer and creative director at San Franciscobased Baker Street Advertising. Now, lesser-known brands can take advantage of the Olympics moment to gain visibility. For example, Gap Inc.-owned sportswear brand Athleta, which sponsors Simone Biles, expressed support on social media for the US gymnast after she announced her withdrawal from multiple events—a move that Dorfman and others in the sports industry said would not have been endorsed in previous Olympics. Gap told Bloomberg that it was following Rule 40 protocol. NordicTrack, a US fitness-equipment company that has posted several social-media posts supporting Team USA athletes, said that it couldn’t comment on its marketing activity at this time due to Rule 40. However, some agents believe that the new Rule 40 is not going to be a gold rush for athletes, because it is unevenly applied across countries by national Olympic committees, deterring potential sponsors

who do not want to navigate the complexity. “It’s de-motivated potential sponsors to start working with athletes, we have experienced this on several occasions,” said Kim Vanderlinden, cofounder of sports management agency We Are Many in Belgium. “It’s still not to an extent where sponsors or potential partners of these athletes have huge possibilities or ways to expose themselves.” Tight controls still remain on what athletes can post during the period of the games from July 13 to August 10. While they can thank personal sponsors on social media and sign new sponsorship deals during the games, even in the most relaxed interpretations sponsors and athletes have to register and get permission from national Olympic bodies to post content. But they can’t mention the Olympics, national teams or feature the Olympic rings in their posts, unless the brand is an official sponsor of the games or national teams. Athleta, for example, did not explicitly mention the games in its posts about Biles. Bloomberg News

Sunday, August 8, 2021

The World BusinessMirror

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Hydrogen goes nuclear as UK reactor pivots toward renewables T

he $28-billion Sizewell C nuclear station is touted as an anchor for Britain reaching net-zero emissions, yet its reactors will compete with wind farms over the North Sea horizon. On gusty days, where will the plant’s excess power go? Toward making hydrogen. Nuclear developers in Europe, North America and Russia are looking at the clean gas as an outlet for their low-carbon power to maximize revenue from one of the most expensive energy assets on the planet. They also want to capitalize on the $70 billion-plus pledged by governments to help develop the industry as a way to reach climate goals. Electricite de France SA wants to make hydrogen at the proposed 20 billion-pound Sizewell C plant on the southeast coast, marking the first time these technologies would be combined on a commercial scale in Europe. With enough supply, clean hydrogen could meet a quarter of the world’s energy needs by 2050, and annual sales have potential to reach 630 billion euros ($744 billion). “The amount of clean hydrogen that we’re going to need to really decarbonize our economic sectors is just immense,” said Elina Teplinsky, a Washingtonbased partner at Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLP who focuses on nuclear projects and

deals. “We need all of the hydrogen production sources that are available—we’re going to need nuclear.” Electricity grids want more re ne w a ble - p owe r sou rces a s n at ion s com m it to reduc i ng g reenhouse gas emissions to the point where their economies are carbon-neutral. Operators are preparing to run networks on 100 percent renewables at some times of the day, meaning nuc lear, natura l gas and coal sources won’t be needed. And that means less revenue for those plant owners. On the days when wind, solar and hydropower produce enough, the low-carbon electricity generated by Sizewell C would be diverted to an electrolyzer producing clean hydrogen. The waste heat produced by the atomic plant also can be used to make the process 10 percent more efficient, according to EDF. If the company secures planning permission and the necessary financing, the facility likely will come online in the early 2030s.

Electricity transmission pylons stand in front of Sizewell A, right, and B, left, nuclear power stations, operated by Electricite de France SA (EDF), stand in Sizewell, UK, on May 15, 2020. The network operator struck a deal with EDF to cut supply at its Sizewell nuclear plant by half for at least six weeks because the demand for power is 20 percent lower than normal as measures to contain the coronavirus have shut industry and kept people at home for weeks. Bloomberg photo

“It’s not nuclear versus wind versus solar—we need to use everything and cooperate to make the most of the technologies,” Julia Pyke, Sizewell C’s financing director, said in an interview. “Ideally, you’d have the electrolyzer supplied both by nuclear and by wind.” T he UK’s long-awaited hydrogen strategy is expected to be technology neutral, leaving the door open for reactors. That blueprint could be released in coming days. EDF’s plans were imperiled amid reports Britain wants to oust China’s state-owned nuclear energy company from all future power projects. The Chinese have a 20-percent stake in Sizewell C, but the UK government says the project will move forward with

alternative financing. Hyd roge n pro duce d u si ng nuclear f uel is dubbed “pink hydrogen” within the industry. The UK grid operator, National Grid Plc, modeled production of the fuel in its long-term report this year for the first time. As much as 28 terawatt-hours of electricity from reactors could be siphoned off to make the clean gas by 2050—the equivalent of about 14 percent of the nation’s production. Trial runs to pair these technologies also are being held in North America. The US Department of Energ y has awarded $26.2 million to two projects run by Xcel Energy Inc. and FuelCell Energy Inc. to help nuclear plants switch between electricity generation and hydrogen production

when necessary. Bloom Energy and the Idaho National Laboratory are testing an electrolyzer run on nucleargenerated electricity. “ This expands the markets for nuclear power plants,” said Tyler Westover, project lead at the laboratory. Canada gets almost 15 percent of its electricity from nuclear stations and is looking to expand production using small modular reactors. In its hydrogen strategy published in December, the government outlined a role for nuclear electricity to produce hydrogen at off-peak times. Bruce Power LP is studying the economics and opportunities for the two technologies. Achieving net-zero emissions by 2050 could require as much as $173 trillion in investments globally, according to BloombergNEF. By then, Britain’s energy market will have transformed: renewable capacity is expected to triple while electricity demand doubles. The UK’s Nuclear Industry Association estimates that a third of the nation’s hydrogen could come from atomic energy. But there are questions about the economics of this marriage and whether it’s the most efficient use of investor money. Hydrogen and nuclear are capital-intensive industries by themselves, and combining the two will only increase project costs, said Rob Gross, professor at Imperial College London and director of researcher UKERC. “ The proposition would take a ver y expensive thing—a nuclear power station—and add

on another expensive thing— hydrogen production,” he said. While the two are highly combustible, the nuclear fuel is nowhere near the hydrogen being produced. Germany, the continent’s biggest economy, turned its back on the technology after the 2011 disaster at Japan’s Fukushima plant, a stand that’s made cutting emissions more difficult. Belgium and Spain also plan to exit atomic energy. With ample supply, Russia could be the first to deliver nuclear-produced hydrogen. EDF sig ned a cooperat ion agreement in April with Rosatom Corp., which operates 38 nuclear units at 11 sites. Rosatom says developing hydrogen production is a priority, and it plans to export the fuel to Europe. The same type of sma l ler reactor—pur posebuilt to produce hydrogen—is being considered by both the UK government and Rosatom. The UK has set a target for 5 gigawatts of hydrogen production by 2030, envisioning its use in road transportation, home heating and ship propulsion. EDF currently runs 27 plants in the UK and France, and is building two more. Sizewell C would be its 30th. “ The nuclear industry does need to broaden its ambition and recognize the value of these opportunities,” said Kirsty Gogan, managing director of consultant Lucid Catalyst in London and member of a government nuclear advisory board. “We have started to see this happening.” Bloomberg News

California spending billions to house homeless in hotels By Christopher Weber The Associated Press

OS ANGELES—When homeless outreach workers first visited her encampment under a Los Angeles highway overpass last fall, Veronica Perez was skeptical of their offer of not just a bed, but also a furnished apartment complete with meals, counseling and the promise of some stability in her life. “They said they had housing for me, but it just didn’t seem real,” Perez said. “When you’re homeless, you become leery and you don’t trust people.” Perez, 57, had been sleeping in cars or tents all over Southern California since she lost her job at a storage facility three years ago and couldn’t pay her rent. The second time the outreach team came to the camp beneath Interstate 405, Perez decided she was ready to take a chance and make a change.

She accepted the offer and took residence in one of 6,000 new units built statewide over the past year as part of Project Homekey. The program started in June 2020 is repurposing vacant hotels, motels and other unused properties as permanent supportive housing. Homekey is the lynchpin of Gov. Gavin Newsom’s $12-billion plan to combat homelessness in the nation’s most populous state. C a l i for n i a h a s a n est i m ated 161,000 unhoused people, more than a quarter of the nationwide total of 580,000, according to the US Department of Housing and Urban Development. Newsom signed the funding bill July 19, calling it the “largest single investment in providing support for the most vulnerable in American history.” Newsom’s office said $800 million—most of it federal Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act money—was spent on Homekey in 2020 to provide

shelter for 8,200 people. Now the administration plans to go even bigger: California will spend $5.8 billion of state and federal funds over two years to expand the program and create an estimated 42,000 housing units. “If you think of last year as a proof of concept, you can think of this year as taking this strategy to scale and making it a centerpiece of California’s approach to housing the homeless,” said Jason Elliott, senior counselor to Newsom. Newsom has made tackling homelessness one of his top priorities. Now that the governor faces a recall election, Republican candidates have released their own plans to combat the crisis. John Cox wants to require unhoused people to receive any needed treatment for addiction or mental illness before they can get housing. Kevin Faulconer wants to build more shelters to make it easier to clear encampments. It’s not just Republicans who are exasperated. The mostly progressive Los Angeles City Council this month passed a controversial anti-camping measure to remove homeless encampments. Other states are also grappling with the escalating crisis. This summer New York City instituted an aggressive campaign to remove encampments from Manhattan, and Mayor Bill de Blasio plans to transfer over 8,000 people from

hotels where they were placed at the start of the pandemic into shelters. A nd i n Wa sh i ng ton st ate, Seattle residents will vote on a measure that would force the mayor to take steps to combat the problem, including creating 2,000 shelter or housing spaces within a year. In California, Homekey is an outgrowth of Project Roomkey, a temporar y effort during the coronav irus outbreak to find shelter at hotels, which Elliot said provided beds for 42,000 homeless people 65 and older or others susceptible to Covid-19. It has been extended through June 2022. Under Homekey, the state buys the properties, covers all construction and conversion costs, and then hands them over to cities or counties that contract with local service providers. The state’s effort should be applauded but amounts to a “drop in the bucket,” said Eve Garrow, analyst with the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California. “This is substantial, but it’s nowhere near enough to meet the needs of all the people currently displaced from housing,” she said. A Homekey site at a hotel in the small Silicon Valley city of Milpitas met with some local opposition, prompting a lawsuit accusing officials of pushing the project through without public hearings. “We’re saying, you need to ask

us permission before you spend our taxpayers’ money and build in our city,” said Suraj Viswanathan, a member of the group Voices Of Milpitas. The litigation was settled, with the group securing regular security patrols in the hotel’s neighborhood and twiceyearly meetings. The former hotel that Perez now calls home is run by the nonprofit The People Concern, which operates three properties in LA County with a total of 162 units. All three are approaching capacity. CEO John Maceri said the state has set up local governments for success, but it will take a combined effort of politicians and service providers to sustain the program. He estimates conversion costs will be far less than $550,000 per unit, the going rate for building from the ground up. It’s also muc h faster t ha n bu i ld ing new u nits, a nd speed is impor t a nt in a cr isis. “ The goal should always be to provide permanent housing solutions faster and cheaper,” Maceri said. At her new home in central Los Angeles, Perez relishes her privacy, enjoys the three meals provided daily and appreciates that she was allowed to bring her cat. She attends a weekly painting class. “They told us, make yourself feel at home. And I do,” she said. Staff helped her apply for a new Social Security card and will assist her in finding a job when

she’s ready. Perez was diagnosed with PTSD from her years on the streets and receives on-site counseling. Others with more severe mental health problems or addictions also get the treatment they require. The goal is to make sure even the “ hardest-to-house” people will come inside, said Dr. Margot Kushel, director of the Center for Vulnerable Populations at the University of California, San Francisco. To that end, Kushel said Homekey gets the most important part right: providing permanent supportive housing, not temporary shelter. “Some people need services that go along with that housing, and some people don’t. But the really essential thing is that without the housing, the services don’t work,” she said. Eventually Perez will be presented with housing vouchers that will allow her to rent a subsidized apartment. It’s unclear how long those vouchers might last, however, raising concerns from advocates about the long-term success in a state with exorbitant housing costs. A new database shows nearly 250,000 people sought housing services in 2020. About 117,000 of them are still waiting for help. If California’s goals seem ambitious, Elliott said, that’s because they are: “Anything short of ending homelessness means we’re setting our sights too low.”

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Sunday, August 8, 2021

Bacteria from Mayon soils may have antibiotic and anticancer properties ‘J

ackpot!” This was how the lead researcher from the University of the Philippines Los Baños (UPLB) described their findings when they identified bacterial species from the soils of Mount Mayon has shown potential antibiotic and anti-colorectal cancer activities. Identified as Streptomyces sp. A108, the bacterial isolate has shown antibiotic activity against numerous potentially pathogenic microorganisms and anti-colorectal cancer potential, said a news release from the Science and Technology Information Institute of the Department of Science and Technology (DOST-STII). It is one of the 30 bacteria that were isolated from soil samples of Mount Mayon in Malilipot, Albay. “We have high hopes of getting new and novel species because this is a less explored environment, a volcano,” said Project Leader Kristel Mae P. Oliveros, an assistant professor in UPLB Microbiology Division. “We were totally surprised and excited,” she added while describing how they felt upon finding out the results of their experiments. The researchers will name it “Streptomyces mayonensis A1-08” once they have confirmed that Streptomyces sp. A1-08 is a new species, it in honor of the country, explained Albert Remus R. Rosana, coworker of Oliveros who is currently a PhD student at the University of Alberta, Canada. The researchers have initially isolated 30 bacterial species from Mount Mayon’s volcanic soils. Thirteen of them have shown varying antibiotic activities in different test organisms that were known as pathogenic to humans or plants.

The test organisms are Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium, Klebsiella pneumoniae, Staphylococcus aureus and its methicillin-resistant variant, Candida albicans, Aspergillus niger, and an unspecified Fusarium species. “One of the objectives of the study is to screen actinomycete isolates for antimicrobial activity. Therefore, we ensured that our selected test organisms would represent some of the major groups of microorganisms, including bacteria, yeasts and molds to capture a broader antimicrobial spectrum result,” Oliveros pointed out. “The choice of test organisms was also associated with World Health Organization’s [WHO] list of human pathogens that post eminent danger to human health by 2050, mainly due to antibiotic resistance,” Rosana said. The research team assumed that since the 30 isolates thrive in a unique environment, such as Mount Mayon’s volcanic soils, they most likely produce unique chemical compounds that may have medical, pharmaceutical and even cosmeceutical uses. Moreover, Streptomyces species, in general, are known to produce medically and pharmaceutically important products. But Streptomyces sp. A1-08 stood out because it has shown antagonistic effects on all test microorganisms and the methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA). Abundant in hospitals, MRSA is strongly resistant against antibiotics which make treatment of infections more difficult. In fact, the WHO has declared antimicrobial resistance as one of the top 10 global threats to public health.

Observable traits of Streptomyces sp. A1-08 are on different media on petri dishes. Photo from Philippine Journal of Science

With the slope of the majestic Mount Mayon behind them, the researchers are taking soil samples from the active volcano in Malilipot, Albay. Photo from UPLB researchers

Anticancer, genomic tests Because Streptomyces sp. A1-08 seems to fight off MRSA, this prompted Oliveros's team to study it further using the anti-colorectal cancer test and genomic analysis. Their anti-colorectal cancer test indicated that crude extracts from Streptomyces sp. A1-08 suggested low potency when compared to a doxorubicin, a chemotherapy drug. “It is good to remember that the

positive control doxorubicin is a pure, proven and tested commercially available chemotherapy drug,” Oliveros explained. “In contrast, the ethyl acetate extract of [Streptomyces sp.] A108, wh ic h we h ave used i n t he study, [was] a crude extract, and therefore still a complex mi xture and may contain multitude of raw compounds at different concentrations,” she added.

Science for Change Program bill gets House committee approval

he House Committee on Appropr iations approved the Science for Change Program (S4CP) bill that was proposed by the Department of Science and Technology (DOST) on August 4. Albay Rep. Joey Salceda, Pangasinan Fourth District Rep. Christopher De Venecia and Science Secretary Fortunato T. de la Pena spoke on behalf of the approved substitute bill, citing the important role of science and technology in helping the Philippines overcome the Covid-19 pandemic and strengthen its resiliency, a news release from the DOST S4CP said. “When I returned to Congress in 2016, I convened the National Scientists, members of the academe and leading officials of the DOST to craft a national framework for scientific development,” Salceda said. “We were alarmed by the data from the World Bank, which showed that out of 90 countries the Philippines only beats Algeria and Sudan for R&D [research and development] spending per capita. And in terms in share of GDP, we beat only Algeria, Iran and Indonesia.” Given the rapid demand for innovation during the pandemic, the bill aims to addresses disparity in R&D funding in the regions and lack of

R&D in the private sector. Health concerns presented by Covid-19 tested the country’s ability to respond to public emergencies. S4CP will also provide scientific solutions to national problems such as health innovations, transportation, nutrition, food security, food safety and disaster response and risk management “With approved and implemented S4CP bill, there will be continuing support from government, industry and academe to STI for inclusive, equitable and sustainable development,” de la Peña said. “There will be continuing increase in technology-based and value-adding business investments both foreign and domestic due to a conducive STI supported economic environment; and more self-reliance because of more capable and more confident technology stakeholders,” he added. While the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (Unesco) benchmark for a developing country is a budget of 1 percent of the GDP Expenditure on R&D, the S4CP bill is pushing for the allocation of 2 percent in the General Appropriations Act for R&D within the next five years. The Philippines’ R&D budget is

currently at 0.47 percent in the 2021 General Appropriations Act. Despite the relatively low inputs given to the science, technology and innovation initiatives in the country, the DOST has achieved significant milestones in scientific output as it implemented its four sub-programs of the S4CP since 2016. Among the four sub-programs of its S4CP, the DOST has funded 38 Niche Centers in the Regions for R&D (Nicer) in 17 regions with allotted funding of P1.89 billion for universities and R&D Institutes (RDIs) in the region. Another S4CP sub-program is the RDLead which deployed 42 R&D Leaders in 16 regions who are tasked to share their expertise and promote regional development. The Collaborative Research and Development to Leverage Philippine Economy (Cradle) Program created partnerships between private companies and the academe/ RDIs to solve their problems using R&D. The Cradle Program funded 71 partnerships in 10 regions with a total funding of P324.5 million. The Business Innovation through S&T for Industry (BIST) Program encourage pr ivate companies to invest in R&D.

BIST was designed for government to share the risk by shouldering 70 percent of the cost of the R&D equipment. The program has prov ided financial assistance to three companies in their R&D efforts with a total allotted funding of P32.6 million. “The Economic Development Cluster supports the Science for Change bill and we will abide by the DOF [Department of Finance] and DBM [Department of Budget and Management] suggestion not to create a special fund but instead propose to allocate a larger budget to DOST for its priority programs and projects,” de la Peña said. “[The proposal is to start] at P10 billion for 2022 and increasing each year in the next five years until it reaches 2 percent of the GAA,” de la Peña added. Once approved into a law, the S4CP will promote inclusive, equitable and sustainable development through the optimal use of the R&D budget allocated to different government department and agencies. It will give rise to more national centers of excellence in R&D which are on a par with international counterparts, and impact social and economic development of the country.

DOST-FPRDI's charcoal briquette wins in natl techno-transfer contest

he Forest Products Research and Development Institute of the Department of Science and Technology (DOST-FPRDI) emerged as a major winner at the recent Gawad Kintal: Kwentong Itinatangi Ng Taon sa Agham, Industriya, at Lipunan. The Institute won the Second Best Commercialization Story for how its green charcoal technology has benefitted a private company in Negros Occidental. The recognition was given by the DOST-Technology Application and Promotion Institute (TAPI) in a virtual awarding ceremony last July 31. With the DOST-FPR DI’s help, Mackay Green Energy Inc. is now able to turn huge amounts of agricultural waste into quality charcoal briquettes.

“The MacKay Green Energy Inc. owns large plantations of bana grass all over the country. The plants’ leaves are used as biomass fuel, leaving behind plenty of stalks unused. This prompted the company to seek our assistance to turn their grass stalks into briquettes,” explained DOST-FPRDI’s Carolyn Marie C. Garcia. A charcoal briquette is a compacted mass of fuel material made from a mix of charcoal fines and a binder, and molded under pressure. Compared to plain charcoal, briquettes are easier to handle because they are compact and uniform in size. Mackay Green Energy, Inc. acquired 30 manual briquettors, 30 drum kilns, six binder-mixers and six charcoal crushers from DOST-FPRDI in 2016.

MacKay has not only secured an average income of more than P100,000 per month, it has also employed at least eight workers as bana grass harvesters and laborers for the charcoal briquette production. According to their website, the bana grass charcoal is now being supplied to Landmark, Robinsons, Shell Select and Ihaw Juan, among others. “Charcoal briquettes are among the Institute’s eco-friendly technologies. They are easy to ignite, burn slowly, give more intense heat per unit volume and are almost smokeless when burning,” said DOST-FPRDI Director Dr. Romulo T. Aggangan. “Promoting the use of charcoal briquettes from agro-forest waste

is one way we can help protect the environment. In recent decades, the excessive use of wood charcoal by the ‘lechon’ industry has been blamed for the destruction of our mangrove forests,” Aggangan added. “ The Institute has long advocated the sustainable use of forest products, carefully exploring other native plants and related natural materials to meet its clients’ needs. Much of what we do shows our aim to help protect—and not destroy— the planet,” he said. The Gawad Kintal is DOST-TAPI’s way of giving “spotlight to commercialization stories that have made the most mark or impression in science, industry, and society.” Apple Jean C.

Martin-de Leon/S&T Media Services

The raw compounds can be purified further to develop an exact anticancer drug. To identify the specific genes of Streptomyces sp. A1-08 responsible for producing antibiotic and anticancer compounds, the researchers conducted genomics analysis—or the study of the organism’s complete set of DNAs. It also helped them zero in on the specific identity of Streptomyces sp. A1-08. Rosana likened genomics to a blueprint of a house or different Lego pieces that a person can assemble to build their favorite character. “In our genomics work, we use computer software to build the correct sequence of the Lego pieces and predict target outcomes, which, in our research, are the different antibiotics and potential anti-cancer molecules,” he added.

Discovery is not the end Oliveros defined their findings as a “ jackpot” but pointed out that their discovery must lead to more research. “Way forward, further studies should be made for us to establish that this novel species can likewise produce novel bioactive compounds,” she explained.

“Future rigorous research in drug chemistry combined with metabolomics are vital to claim that the secondary metabolites produced by our isolate is totally new and hopefully effective as a chemotherapy drug,” Oliveros said. Metabolomics is the study of metabolites, or substances made or used when an organism or the human body breaks down food, drugs or chemicals involved in chemical processes happening in the organism or body. “This is also our dream, to put this project forward in the large-scale cosmeceutical and pharmaceutical pipeline!” the UPLB researcher added. She finds it honorable to pioneer in extending their discovery to industrial applications, and “to showcase the known and great potential of the Philippines as a promising land that harbor natural products for drug discovery.” The paper was recently accepted in the Philippine Journal of Science (PJS), a peer-reviewed publication of the DOST. Although the paper is lined up on the PJS’s December 2021 issue, its full copy will be uploaded immediately on the journal's web site (philjournalsci. dost.gov.ph) as soon as it is ready for public reading. Joining Rosa na a nd Ol iveros in their groundbreaking work are A ndrew D. Montecil lo, Dr. R ina B. Opulencia, Arian J. Jacildo, Dr. Asuncion K. Raymundo, and the late Dr. Teofila O. Zulaybar, who are all from UPLB. The study was funded by the UPLB Basic Research Grant and scholarship grants given to Rosana. David Matthew

C. Gopilan/DOST-STII

PHL bags 6 medals at Intl Math Olympiad

he country is proud not only of the Filipino athletes who participated and won in the Olympics in Japan but also of the students who brought home medals from the recent 62nd International Mathematical Olympiad (IMO). Each of the six members of the Philippine team to the recently concluded 62nd IMO made the country proud by winning four silver and two bronze medals at one of the most difficult and most prestigious mathematics competitions in the world. Immanuel Josiah Balete of St. Stephen's High School, Raphael Dylan Dalida of Philippine Science High School-Main Campus, Steven Reyes of Saint Jude Catholic School and Bryce Ainsley Sanchez of Grace Christian College each won a silver medal in the Olympics of math competitions. Meanwhile, Sarji Elijah Bona of De La Salle University-Senior High School and Vincent de la Cruz of Valenzuela City School of Mathematics and Science each took home bronze medals. The team was led by Dr. Christian Paul Chan Shio (leader) and Raymond Joseph Fadri (deputy leader), on behalf of the Mathematical Society of the Philippines (MSP). Training for the contestants was handled by professors from the University of the Philippines Diliman and the Ateneo de Manila University, and included past team officials, such as Dr. Richard Eden (team leader, 2016-2019) and Dr. Louie John Vallejo (deputy leader, 2015-2017). Altogether, the team ranked 23rd out of 107 countries, a monu-

mental jump from 2020, when the Philippines ended the competition in 43rd place. Hosted by St. Petersburg, Russia, the 62nd IMO was the second competition in a row that was held online due to the current Covid-19 pandemic. “This is a very good year for waving the Philippine banner in the international arena,” said Director Dr. Josette T. Biyo of the Science Education Institute of the Department of Science and Technology (DOST-SEI). “These students are showing the world that Filipinos are achievers in anything they put their minds to, be it sports or intellectual pursuits,” Biyo added. “These medals are hard-earned and well deserved,” Dr. Chan Shio said. “They [students] are no strangers to the rigors of competition, and their commitment and dedication really paid off. They made us and the country very proud.” “The Philippine Team did particularly well this year, even doing better than historically strong teams like Japan, France and Romania,” said MSP President Dr. Jose Ernie C. Lope. “Once again, the Philippines has shown that it is not far behind the world leaders in mathematics competitions. Huge congratulations to all our contestants and to lead coaches Dr. Chan Shio and Mr. Fadri. On behalf of the MSP, I would like to thank DOST-SEI and HARI [Hyundai Asia Resources Inc.] Foundation for generously supporting us in this important endeavor,” Lope added.

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Faith A6 Sunday, August 8, 2021

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Catholic, IFI churches move toward reconciliation

he Philippine Catholic Church and the Iglesia Filipina Independiente (IFI) released a joint statement recently, vowing to continue the healing process of fractured relationships between the two churches. In the historic document titled, “Celebrating the Gift of Faith, Learning from the Past and Journeying Together,” the churches pledged to pursue the dialogue in the spirit of repentance and forgiveness. The IFI, popularly known as the Aglipayan movement, is a Christian denomination that broke away from the Catholic Church in 1902 due to alleged mistreatment of Filipinos by Spanish rulers. It was founded by Catholic

priest Fr. Gregorio Aglipay, who became its supreme bishop, together with Isabelo de los Reyes. The joint statement recalls the beginnings of the Aglipayan movement during the Philippine Revolution against Spanish colonial rule from 1896 to 1898. It stressed that Aglipayans were not against the Catholic Church, but rather against the continued domination of Spanish bishops and priests in the country. The document also emphasized

Rhee Timbang, the supreme bishop of the Iglesia Filipina Independiente, gives a copy of the IFI’s liturgical book and directory to CBCP Secretary General Msgr. Bernardo Pantin during the liturgical launching of the two documents at the IFI National Cathedral in Manila on August 3. SCREENSHOT/IFI

that the movement was a continuation of the earlier nationalist struggle of the Filipino clergy for recognition. In the statement, both IFI and Catholic leaders “ask and pray for mutual forgiveness for any injuries inf licted in the past” and “strive for the healing and

purification of memories among our members.” They also commended “ecumenical cooperation amid diversity” and encouraged “spiritual ecumenism” through joint prayer activities. T he IFI noted that it also “strives to reach out for healing

and reconciliation with other separated churches founded in the Aglipayan tradition.” A companion statement that was also signed on the same day was a statement of “mutual recognition of baptisms” between the IFI and the Catholic Church. The Trinitarian baptismal formula of the IFI is actually recognized already by the Catholic Church on its list of validly administered baptisms by other Christian churches. The latest updated list was issued by Bishop Jose Rojas, chairman of the CBCP Commission on Doctrine of the Faith, in March this year. What is new in the agreement is the expression of mutual recognition by both churches. The document also includes the signatures of two Episcopalian bishops as witnesses, since the IFI entered into full communion with the Episcopal Church in 1961.

In 1980, the Philippine Episcopal Church had already affirmed in a signed agreement its mutual recognition of baptism with the Catholic Church. The document was formally launched during an ecumenical service held at the IFI National Cathedral on Taft Avenue in Manila, and coinciding with the 119th proclamation anniversary of the IFI. Among those in attendance were IFI leaders led by its Supreme Bishop R hee Timbang and some representatives of the CBCP, including Bishop Emeritus Deogracias Iñiguez of Kalookan and CBCP Secretar y Genera l Msgr. Bernardo Pantin. CBCP President Archbishop Romulo Valles of Davao; Archbishop Angelito Lampon of Cotabato, chairman of the CBCP Commission on Ecumenical Affairs; and Archbishop Antonio Ledesma, chairman of the CBCP Commission on Mutual Relations joined the event online. CBCP News

Vatican: 5th Catholic bishop consecrated under China deal

Jalue Dorje, 14, says his morning prayers on July 20 in Columbia Heights, Minnesota. When he was an infant, Jalue was identified as the eighth reincarnation of the lama Terchen Taksham Rinpoche. AP/Jessie Wardarski

Vatican spokesman confirmed recently that the fifth bishop to be created under the 2018 Vatican-China deal has been ordained. Anthony Li Hui was appointed coadjutor bishop of the Diocese of Pingliang by Pope Francis on Januar y 11, according to spokesman Matteo Bruni. Bruni said that Bishop Li was ordained in the Cathedral of Pingliang, in the province of Gansu, on July 28. Pingliang, in north-central

China, has a wider metropolitan population of more than 2 million people. According to Union of Catholic Asian News, the 49-year-old Bishop Li was consecrated by Archbishop Joseph Ma Yinglin of Kunming, president of the statesanctioned Bishops’ Conference of the Catholic Church in China. Bishops’ Conference Vice President Bishop Joseph Guo Jincai and Bishop Nicolas Han Jide of Pingliang were concelebrants. Representatives of the Chinese

Patriotic Catholic Association, a state-endorsed organization founded in 1957, were also present. Li was born in 1972 in Mei county in the province of Shaanxi. He was ordained a priest for Pingliang diocese in 1996. He also studied the Chinese language at Renmin University in Beijing. Starting in 1998, Li worked at the secretariat office of the Chinese bishops’ conference and the Chinese Patriotic Catholic Association in Beijing. Before his appointment as bish-

op, Li was secretary of the Chinese bishops’ conference. In October 2020, the Vatican and China renewed their provisional agreement on the appointment of bishops for another two years. Bishop Antonio Yao Shun of Jining, in the Autonomous Region of Inner Mongolia, was the first bishop consecrated in China under the terms of the Sino-Vatican agreement, on August 26, 2019. Bishop Li is the third bishop to be consecrated since the deal’s renewal. Hannah Brockhaus/Catholic News Agency

For US teen Buddhist lama, Fasting health fad: Religious groups have been doing it for millennia it’s faith, school, football

OLUMBIA HEIGHTS, Minnesota—In most ways, Jalue Dorje is a typical American teen—he grew up in a suburb of Minneapolis, loving football, Pokémon and rap music. Yet a few years from now, he’s expecting to say goodbye to his family and homeland and join a monastery in the foothills of the Himalayas—from an early age, he was recognized by the Dalai Lama and other Tibetan Buddhist leaders as a reincarnated lama. Since that recognition, he’s spent much of his life training to become a monk, memorizing sacred scriptures (often rewarded by his dad with Pokémon cards), practicing calligraphy and learning the teachings of Buddha. Now he’s 14 and entering his first year of high school. After graduation in 2025, he’ll head to northern India to join the Mindrolling Monastery, more than 11,500 kilometers from his home in Columbia Heights. Following a period of contemplation and ascetism, he hopes to return to America to teach in the Minnesota Buddhist community. His goal? “ To become a leader of peace,” he said. “Like the Dalai Lama or Gandhi or Nelson Mandela.” On a recent day, he chanted ancient prayers for hours with his father and other monks who gathered in a prayer room in the family’s home to ring bells, bang drums and blow conch shells near an altar decorated with offerings of fruits, flowers and Torma ritual cakes. The annual ceremony, which was suspended last year because of the coronavirus pandemic, pays homage to Guru Rinpoche, the Indian Buddhist master who brought Tantric Buddhism to Tibet. Over two days this year, the group prayed for victims of natural disasters, war and Covid-19, and for the peace and happiness of beings

worldwide. On a break, Jalue sat for lunch in the yard under the summer sun, the youngest by far among the monks, and then walked upstairs in his maroon and gold robes to play the NBA 2K video game against Delek Topgyal, his 13-year-old cousin and best friend. The young lama would lose with team Kyrie Irving and later explain that team LeBron James “is practically unbeatable.” The process of identifying a lama is based on spiritual signs and visions. Jalue was about 4 months old when he was identified by Kyabje Trulshik Rinpoche, a venerated master of Tibetan Buddhism who was the leader of the Nyingma lineage. He was later confirmed by several other lamas as the eighth Terchen Taksham Rinpoche—the first one of whom was born under the name Taksham Nüden Dorje in 1655. After the Dalai Lama also recognized him at age 2 as the guru’s reincarnation, Jalue’s parents took him to meet the spiritual leader of Tibetan Buddhism when he visited Wisconsin in 2010. The Dalai Lama cut a lock of Jalue’s hair in a ceremony. He also advised the parents to let their son stay in the US so he could perfect his English and then send him to a monastery at age 10. Jalue is now f luent in English and Tibetan and often gets A’s in class. A lthough he was officially enthroned in a 2019 ceremony in India, he’s still living in Columbia Heights, where his parents decided he’ ll stay until graduation. “Seeing him growing up to a teenager is a lot of things to take in because he’s a Buddhist master, and at the same time, he’s a normal person as well,” said his uncle, Tashi Lama. “We get to see the two sides of it.” AP

he practice of fasting has entered popular culture in recent years as a way to lose extra pounds. Featured in the bestselling book “ T he Fast Diet,” it advocates eating normally on select days of the week while drastically reducing calories on the remaining days. Fasting has been shown to improve metabolism, prevent or slow disease and possibly increase life span. But the practice is far from new. Around the world the pious have been fasting for millennia. As a scholar of religion, I argue that there is much to be learned from religious fasting, an embodied practice, meaning that it connects the body and soul.

Fasting in Islam and Jainism

Fasting is intrinsic to the two traditions that I study—Islam and Jainism. Jainism is an ancient religion from India that espouses, among other things, nonviolence, nonpossessiveness and pluralism. In Islam, fasting is one of the five pillars that constitute the main belief and actions of a practicing Muslim. As part of this practice, Muslims abstain from food, water, smoking, sex and all sensory pleasures from dawn to dusk during Ramadan, the ninth month of the Islamic lunar calendar. This is a divine commandment in the Quran and exemplified in the life of the Prophet Muhammad. At its core, fasting is about conquering human pride to connect with God. Indeed, the term Islam itself means submission to God in Arabic. Muslims believe that fasting develops submission to God, empathy with the poor and repentance and gives time for spiritual introspection.

Mahatma Gandhi during his fasting in Rajkot, Gujarat in India for his self-purification and protest against the British colonialism. Wikimedia Commons

According to the 12th-century theologian al-Ghazali, fasting can allow the believer to better perceive the ultimate reality of God as it involves all five senses—touch, sight, hearing, smell and taste. The Jain tradition provides a different perspective on fasting from the one in Islam. Fasting falls under tapas or asceticism, which also varies by degree between the laity and monastics. Jain fasting includes complete avoidance of food or eating only a partial meal, eliminating rare or expensive foods and avoiding sexual temptations. The holiday of Paryushan, observed annually around August to September, is the time when Jains connect communally on the core tenets of the faith through fasting and studying. For eight to 10 days, Jains focus on the values of forgiveness, humility, straightforwardness, t r ut h, content ment , se l f -re -

straint, penance, renunciation, nonattachment and celibacy. Fasting is also possible throughout the year by individuals, but this celebration is the common communal embracing of fasting across sects.

Fasting as faith

R eligious fasting is meant to shock the body from its routines. The individual physically enters sacred time. According to the 20th-century Romanian historian of religion Mircea Eliade, sacred time lies outside of ordinary time and fasting is one way to step into it. D u r i ng t h i s t i me, nor m a l activities are disrupted, so an individual ’s thoughts become more attuned to the metaphysical. The physical needs and desires give way to spiritual ref lection and contemplation on the world to come. In most religions, fasting is associated with an introspection of one’s

life—the past, present and future. This reflection can make one more conscious of one’s own actions internally and externally, the impact on oneself and on society. Traditionally, fasting is coupled with prayer and meditation to further develop these goals. T he annual cycles of fasting in most faith traditions are meant also to be cumulative over a lifetime; the hope is that each year, one’s character becomes a little better and wiser than the year before. This refining of an individual’s characters over a lifetime is most easily visualized through the Chinese religious traditions, which include Buddhism, Confucianism and Daoism. The spiritual benefits of fasting are said to accrue over time, leading to a type of wisdom that the Confucians call ren, loosely translating as humanity, humaneness, goodness, benevolence or love. Daoism also adds another dimension to the understanding of fasting in the Jain and Islamic traditions through the the idea of “fasting of the heart-mind.” This means it’s not just the body that goes through the detoxing, but it also detoxes the soul, as people learn to control their five senses during fasting. As religions show, fasting is much more than denying the body. Physical deprivation of food—to a healthy point—can allow the mind to enter new states of awareness and understanding. By acknowledging this, secular fasters, I argue, can tap into its joy, uncover new ways of being and sustain this physical discipline over a lifetime as their religious brethren have for millennia. Iqbal Akhtar Florida International University/The Conversation (CC)

Biodiversity Sunday Of trees, bees and honey BusinessMirror

Asean Champions of Biodiversity Media Category 2014

Sunday, August 8, 2021

Editor: Lyn Resurreccion

By Jonathan L. Mayuga

4 that bees are threatened primarily due to indiscriminate use of chemical pesticides that not only affect harmful pests but important insects, as well, such as bees.

ees are important being the most effective pollinators, according to the United Nations. They help in the reproduction of plants, including food crops. “A world without pollinators would equal to a world without food diversity—no blueberries, coffee, chocolate, cucumbers, and so much more. They also serve as sentinels for emergent environmental risks, signaling the health of local ecosystems,” the United Nations said, underscoring the world’s need for pollinators, such as bees. With over 80 percent of human food being supplied by plants, the loss of pollinators would lead to “an exponential loss of biodiversity, endangering our ecosystems and our diet,” according to the UN. Together with moths, flies, wasps, beetles and butterflies, the bees make up the majority of pollinating species, although the bees have a striking diversity as pollinators and pollination systems. Most of the 25,000 to 30,000 species of bees (Hymenoptera: Apidae) are effective pollinators, the UN added.

Honey, the golden liquid

The bees are particularly loved not just for saving the world, but for providing that thick, golden liquid that they produce—the honey. Bees produce honey using the nectar of flowering plants that industrious they bring inside their beehive. This natural sweetener is mixed in tea, coffee, or milk, spread on bread or simply consumed as is.

Health benefits

Various sources say that natural, raw or unadulterated honey, has many health benefits.

It contains no fiber, fat or protein and is rich in calories and sugar, but can also help fight diabetes. Medical experts say it is a good source of antioxidants because it contains an array of plant chemicals that act as antioxidant, antibacterial and antifungal. Honey helps soothe a sore throat and helps cure cough; and it improves the digestive system, too.

‘Protect the bees’

Thousands of stingless bees protect their queen and colony, and their sweet, delectable honey. Recelee Recella and SP3 Agriculture Cooperative their capacity in honey bee farming, as some agrarian reform beneficiaries’ organizations (ARBOs) have decided to venture into honey production.

Beekeeping

Stingless bee honey

Because honey can help cure many health problems, it became in demand and with many resorted to “farming” honey bees. The University of the Philippines Los Baños (UPLB), the country’s premier agriculture learning institution, has been giving online training for beekeeping to educate those who want to boost their farm’s production. UPLB started the beekeeping training program in 1989 with enrollees for various training courses on beekeeping keep coming to this day. Although not entirely a new endeavor, honey bee production or honey bee farming, also called beekeeping in the Philippines, was conceived by upland dwellers who have grown tired of “hunting” the hard-to-find beehives in the thick forests. Some farmers have even grouped together to make honey bee production and distribution as their business, while others resorted to honey bee farming to augment their income. The Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) is helping farmers develop

In the study, “Stingless Bees: Their Behavior, Ecology and Evolution,” Christoph Gruter said that stingless bees, also called stingless honey bees or melipones, are a large group of bees comprising the tribe Meliponni. These bees are closely related to the common honey bees, orchid bees and bumblebees. The Samahan ng Pagkakaisa sa Pagunlad ng Payanas (SP3) Agricultural Cooperative based in Barangay Payanas in Torrijos town in Marinduque province is one of the ARBOs that is into honey bee farming and honey production using stingless bees as their honey producer. Likewise, the A nib Agricultural Cooperative in Barangay Bagacay, Buenav ista tow n, also in Marinduque, and the Sikap Agricultural Cooperat ive i n Ba ra ngay Bic a s Bicas, also in Buenav ista, are into honey bee production. Touted to be nature-based and biodiversity-friendly enterprise, honey production is becoming quite popular among upland dwellers and farm-

ers, as well as enterprising Filipinos who found beekeeping a worthwhile enterprise.

Honey bee production

Margarita del Mundo, chairman of SP3 Agricultural Cooperative, said the 43-member farmers’ cooperative are active in the stingless bee honey production. She said each member can produce 15 bottles of 250 grams of honey bee every month that are sold at P250 per bottle. Primarily, she said the bees are the pollinators of their farm and the honey they produce are value-added. “In our town of Torrijos, there are many stingless bees. The bees are not dangerous to humans because they do not sting,” del Mundo said in a telephone interview on August 3. Besides honey, they also produce soap and vinegar from the pollen produced by the bees.

Training

R ecelee Recella, Agrarian Reform Program Officer 1 for Village Level Farm Focus Enterprise Development Program, said the SP3 Agricultural Cooperative members were provided a one-week training by UPLB experts under its Beekeeping Program.

The trainees were mostly coconut farmers to boost their know-how and capacity in beekeeping. In 2010, the Norwegian Mission Alliance Philippines (NMAP), a nongovernment organization, provided them their much-needed training and startup capital—65 stingless bee colonies. “Since then, the colonies provided by NMAP have already multiplied. As far as DAR is concerned, we are simply providing help by marketing their product,” Recella said. She said the training provides the farmers the knowledge on the behavior of the stingless bees. “The bees do not want to be disturbed [because] they leave when they feel threatened,” she said in Filipino.

Endangered species

Many bee species in the wild are already endangered due to various threats. Their population is declining because the forests are devastated by various destructive human activities. Even in protected areas, bees may not be spared by human activ ities, said Asean Centre for Biodiversity (ACB) Executive Director Theresa Mundita S. Lim. Lim told the BusinessMirror in an interview via Messenger on August

“Native bees are pollinators that ensure the natural propagation of indigenous trees and vegetation,” Lim, a former director of the Biodiversity Management Bureau of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources said. As such, she said protecting them in the wild is of utmost importance Other threats to bees are the improper methods of collecting honey and the illegal cutting of trees. According to Lim, she prefers protecting the wild population of native bees over bee farming in order to get the maximum benefit from the industrious insects. “If you protect them, they can provide unique tastes of honey from feeding on flowers of narra, lawaan and other indigenous tree species. They also act as natural pollinators and provide sustainable communitybased livelihoods,” she said.

Sustainable practice

Lim said she is not totally against bee farming, as long as it is done “sustainably.” Those into beekeeping should use native bees that are in semi-captive conditions which can allow the bees to gather their food in surrounding areas with natural vegetation, she said. “This practice also encourages ‘farmers,’ including their neighbors who are also benefitting from reselling honey products, to adopt biodiversity-friendly planting practices that promote native flowering plants and reduce the use of pesticides. She warned that introducing exotic bees for honey production may result in the accidental introduction of potentially invasive species, which could affect the local bee populations.

Don’t hike so close to me: Humans can disturb wildlife up to half a mile away

ILLIONS of Americans are traveling this summer as pandemic restrictions wind down. Rental bookings and crowds in national parks show that many people are headed for the great outdoors. Seeing animals and birds is one of the main draws of spending time in nature. But as researchers who study conservation, wildlife and human impacts on wild places, we believe it is important to know that you can have major effects on wildlife just by being nearby. In a recent review of hundreds of studies covering many species, we found out that the presence of humans can alter wild animal and bird behavior patterns at much greater distances than most people may think. Small mammals and birds may change their behav ior when hikers or birders come w it hin 300 feet (100 meters)—the length of a football field. Large birds like eagles and hawks can be affected when humans are over 1,300 feet (400 meters) away— roughly a quarter of a mile. And large mammals like elk and moose can be affected by humans up to 3,300 feet (1,000 meters) away—more than half a mile. Many recent studies and reports have shown that the world is facing a biodiversity crisis. Over the past 50 years, Earth has lost so many species that many scientists believe the planet is experiencing its sixth mass extinction—due mainly to human activities.

Protected areas, from local open spaces to national parks, are vital for conserving plants and animals. They also are places where people like to spend time in nature. We believe that everyone who uses the outdoors should understand and respect this balance between outdoor recreation, sustainable use and conservation.

How human presence affects wildlife PANDEMIC lockdowns in 2020 confined many people indoors—and wildlife responded. In Istanbul, dolphins ventured much closer to shore than usual. Penguins explored quiet South African Streets. Nubian ibex grazed on Israeli playgrounds. The fact that animals moved so freely without people present shows how wild species change their behavior in response to human activities. Decades of research have shown that outdoor recreation, whether it’s hiking, cross-country skiing or riding all-terrain vehicles, has negative effects on wildlife. The most obvious signs are behavioral changes: Animals may flee from nearby people, decrease the time they feed and abandon nests or dens. Other effects are harder to see, but can have serious consequences for animals’ health and survival. Wild animals that detect humans can experience physiological changes, such as increased heart rates and elevated levels of stress hormones. And humans’ outdoor activities

The Philippine tarsier is endemic to Southern Philippines. Tarsiers are shy animals, sensitive to bright lights, loud noises and physical contact. They tend to behave suicidally when stressed or kept in captivity. Wikimedia Commons can degrade habitat that wild species depend on for food, shelter and reproduction. Human voices, off-leash dogs and campsite overuse all have harmful effects that make habitat unusable for many wild species.

Effects of human presence vary for different species FOR our study we examined 330 peerreviewed articles spanning 38 years to locate thresholds at which recreation activities negatively affected w ild animals and birds. The main thresholds we found were related to distances between wildlife and people or trails. But we also found other important factors, including the number of daily park visitors and the decibel levels of people’s conversations. The studies that we reviewed

covered over a dozen different types of motor ized and nonmotor ized recreation. While it might seem that motorized activities would have a bigger impact, some studies have found that dispersed “quiet” activities—such as day hiking, biking and wildlife viewing— can also affect which wild species will use a protected area. Put another way, many species may be disturbed by humans nearby, even if those people are not using motorboats or all-terrain vehicles. It’s harder for animals to detect quiet humans, so there’s a better chance that they’ll be surprised by a crosscountry skier than a snowmobile, for instance. In addition, some species that have been historically hunted are more likely to recognize—and flee from—

a person walking than a person in a motorized vehicle. Generally, larger animals need more distance, though the relationship is clearer for birds than mammals. We found that as bird size increased, so did the threshold distance. The smallest birds could tolerate humans w ithin 65 feet (20 meters), while the largest birds had thresholds of roughly 2,000 feet (600 meters). Previous research has found a similar relationship. We did not find that this relationship existed as clearly for mammals. We found little research on impact thresholds for amphibians and reptiles, such as lizards, frogs, turtles and snakes. A growing body of evidence shows that amphibians and reptiles are disturbed and negatively affected by recreation. So far, however, it’s unclear whether those effects reflect mainly the distance to people, the number of visitors or other factors.

How to reduce your impact on wildlife WHILE there’s much still to learn, we know enough to identify some simple actions people can take to minimize their impacts on wildlife. First, keep your distance. Although some species or individual animals will become used to human presence at close range, many others won’t. And it can be hard to tell when you are stressing an animal and potentially endangering both it and yourself.

Second, respect closed areas and stay on trails. For example, in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, wildlife managers seasonally close some backcountry ski areas to protect critical habitat for bighorn sheep and reduce stress on other species like moose, elk and mule deer. And rangers in Maine’s Acadia National Park close several trails annually near peregrine falcon nests. This reduces stress to nesting birds and has helped this formerly endangered species recover. Getting involved with educational or volunteer programs is a great way to learn about wildlife and help maintain undisturbed areas. As our research shows, balancing recreation w it h conser vat ion mea ns opening some areas to human use and keeping others entirely or mostly undisturbed. As development fragments wild habitat and climate change forces many species to shift their ranges, movement corridors between protected a reas become even more important. Our research suggests that creating recreation-free wildlife corridors of at least 3,300 feet (1,000 meters) wide can enable most species to move between protected areas without disturbance. Seeing wildlife can be part of a fun outdoor experience—but for the animals’ sake, you may need binoculars or a zoom lens for your camera.

Jeremy Dertien Clemson University/The Conversation (CC)

Sports BusinessMirror

Native Hawaiians ‘reclaim’ surfing with Moore’s gold

A8 | S

unday, August 8, 2021 mirror_sports@yahoo.com.ph Editor: Jun Lomibao

ARISSA MOORE wore a white and yellow plumeria pinned next to her ear for her victory-lap interviews after making history as the first Olympic gold medalist at surfing’s historic debut. Her mother—crowned the Honolulu Lei Queen in 2016— had given her the flower hair clip before she left for Tokyo to remind the only Native Hawaiian Olympic surfer of where she came from. At this pinnacle point, Moore is still in disbelief when she’s compared to Duke Kahanamoku, the godfather of modern surfing who is memorialized in Hawaii with a cherished monument. “I don’t think I’ll have a statue,” Moore said, grinning from ear to ear while her body bobbed into a quiet giggle at the suggestion. “Gosh, there’s only a few people in Hawaii that I think deserve that.” As celebrated at home as she is loved by fans and peers around the world, it was a characteristically modest statement from one of the world’s greatest surfers after she took home gold in the sport’s inaugural Olympic competition. The methodical Moore found her rhythm with the ocean to deliver the kind of standout, power-surfing performance that has defined her career. The picture-perfect ending even included a rainbow that popped into the sky as she shredded waves in the final against South African rival Bianca Buitendag. Moore has now become a realization of Kahanamoku’s dream, at once the symbol of the sport’s very best and a validating force for an Indigenous community that still struggles with its complex history. “It’s a reclaiming of that sport for our native community,” said Kūhiō Lewis, president of the Council for Native Hawaiian Advancement, which convenes the largest annual gathering of Native Hawaiians. Lewis said all the locals he knew were texting each other during the competition, glued to the TV and elated, even relieved, by Moore’s “surreal” win. He called it a “come to home moment” for a community that may never reconcile its dispossession. After centuries of colonization by various European settlers, Hawaii was annexed by the United States in 1898 after the overthrow of the Hawaiian monarchy by US-backed forces in 1893. “At times, we’re an invisible people. We’re lumped in to other ethnic groups. Our sport is being defined by other groups. This puts it into perspective,” Lewis said. “It feels like an emerging of a people, of a native community that has been invisible to many.” All eyes were on Moore when the Tokyo Games began, not only because she was the medal favorite as the reigning world champion but also because she was competing for the United States. Until then, Moore had always surfed for Hawaii in the professional World Surf League, which recognizes it as a “sovereign surfing nation.” Moore is biracial and grew up in the only majority Asian American and Pacific Islander state in the United States. Her white father, of Irish and German ancestry, taught her how to surf. Her mother is ethnically Native Hawaiian and Filipino and was adopted and raised in a Chinese-American family. “I’m proud to be representing the USA, but specifically the islands of Hawaii because there are just so many different kinds of people there, and I feel like such a connection to all of them,” Moore said. “And I wouldn’t be where I am today without the community of people that have really raised me.” AP

THE methodical Carissa Moore finds her rhythm with the ocean to deliver the kind of standout, power-surfing performance that has defined her career. AP

TOUGHEST OLYMPICS? By Gerald Imray The Associated Press

OKYO—Even for the athletes good enough and brave enough to take on the decathlon or the heptathlon at the Olympics, Tokyo was nextlevel hard. Injuries took out world champions, world-record holders, gold-medal contenders and more. By the end of the two days, which covered 10 events for the men and seven for the women, all in hot, steamy conditions, Damian Warner of Canada had won his first Olympic title and Nafissatou Thiam of Belgium had defended hers. Was it worth it? “I was just looking forward to being done with it,” Thiam said. That she finished was great. Winning gold even better. Even more impressive considering those who didn’t make it to the final tests—the 1,500-meter run for the men, and 800 for the women. World champion and gold medal contender Katarina Johnson-Thompson of Britain left on the first day with a torn right calf muscle. She waved off a wheelchair and decided that, at the very least, she would finish her 200-meter race before withdrawing. She did, but at a limp, not a sprint and was disqualified from the race for stepping out of her lane. The decathlon world champion, Niklas Kaul, wasn’t able to do that. He exited on a wheelchair after breaking down halfway through a 400-meter race at the end of the opening day when his injured right foot gave in. It continued Thursday. World record holder Kevin Mayer hung on for the silver medal despite a back injury, finishing just 77 points ahead of 21-year-old Australian Ash Moloney. He decided, all things considered, he couldn’t be disappointed with second.

“It’s pretty good to have a medal in that condition,” he said, hand on his back and wincing. Warner dragged himself over the finish line in four minutes and 31.08 seconds in the 1,500 to clinch gold. He broke the revered 9,000-point mark and set an Olympic record with a total of 9,018, beating the mark of 8,893 shared by Roman Sebrle (2004) and Ashton Eaton (2016). “It’s one of those moments when all the dreams you had as a kid finally came through and I don’t know how to react to it,” the 31-year-old Warner said. And then, in a far grittier assessment, the Olympic decathlon champion—the best all-around athlete in the world for some—explained how it really felt to have to race that final four laps having already run and jumped and thrown to his body’s limit through nine previous events. “I’ve never had fun running the 1,500,” he said. “Not one time.”

Not even this time, when it delivered an Olympic gold to top his bronze from Rio in 2016 and three world championship podium finishes. This year’s multi-eventers had more than just the typical punishing physical demands to deal with; those come with the job. Thiam also lost her coach for the crucial final day after he tested positive for Covid-19 and went into quarantine. “That wasn’t easy,” she said. “That was a hard moment when they told me he wouldn’t be there. It took me a moment to get my mind together and just be fully focused again.” She refocused well enough to retain her title and there were smiles on the track at the end. But her voice broke and she held back tears when she spoke later, taken to the limit physically but also emotionally. The last 18 months brought the pandemic, while Tokyo brought

Spanish teener López wins first Olympic climbing gold

another new challenge, as if the multi-eventers needed it. The scorching heat and humidity at the Olympic Stadium had many of the competitors donning ice vests and dumping ice inside and over their hats to try stay cool. Warner called his ice vest his “life vest.” His “life saver.” “The heat was spanking, it was spanking today,” said Maicel Uibo of Estonia, the silver medalist at worlds in 2019, who finished 15th this time. But he finished. “That was hot,” he said. It all begged the question: Why even take up the decathlon or heptathlon? Some posed that to Warner: Do you regret choosing to be a decathlete? “All the time,” he said. “We’ve had the unfortunate luck of being good at something like the decathlon. “As you get near the end, you think, why do I do this? And then you finish, and you’re like, I can’t wait to do the next one. It’s a weird thing.”

AFTER the smoke of battle clears, these are what you see on the track at the Tokyo Olympic Stadium. AP

OKYO—Nerves once were Alberto Ginés López’s biggest obstacle on the climbing wall. Didn’t matter if he was in the finals or well down the standings, the fear of climbing in front of other people left him locked up. The Spanish teenager not only overcame those jitters, he conquered the world’s best climbers on the sport’s biggest stage. At ease in front of a worldwide audience, Ginés López won the first Olympic gold medal in sport climbing, riding a victory in the speed discipline to the top of the podium Thursday at the Tokyo Games. “My head hasn’t worked so well to start the season, but I was working with a specialist, and I think now it’s working better,” Ginés López said. That’s an understatement. Ginés López struggled when climbing in front of even 100 people when he was younger and still had stage fright into this World Cup season. The 18-yearold sought help from a coach to soothe himself on the wall, and it’s paid off. He qualified sixth in Tokyo and quickly put himself into the lead by winning the speed event. He then showed off his all-around skills by finishing seventh in lead and fourth in bouldering. He had 30 points—the finishes are multiplied together—to edge Nathaniel Coleman of the United States by two. “Two years ago, I was quite bad on speed and I worked a lot on it with my team,” Ginés López said. “Here I was bit lucky but was able to win it.” Coleman came to Tokyo hoping to make the finals in the sport’s first Olympics. The 24-year-old from Salt Lake City did more than that, winning bouldering by topping three of the four “problems.” He also was fifth in lead and sixth in speed, finishing just short of gold. “Getting into finals, it didn’t feel for real for a long time,” he said. “I put a lot of effort in resetting my mind and believe a good performance was possible.” Jakob Schubert of Austria had the climb of the night, becoming the first man or woman to reach the top of the 15-meter lead wall in three days of competition. His climb moved him into the bronze medal spot and knocked Czech climber Adam Ondra off the podium. “It kind of came out of nowhere,” Schubert said. “Out of speed and boulder, I was in such a bad position. I knew even with a first place in lead, there was only a small chance to medal. Everything went so fast after that.” Climbing made the transition from chill outdoor vibe to competitive sport in the 1990s and took a huge step forward in 2007 with the formation of the International Federation of Sport Climbing. The World Cup circuit expanded the sport’s popularity, as did the increase in recreational gyms around the world. Climbing exploded the last several years with the social media prowess of the top climbers, a TV deal with ESPN and the success of Free Solo, a documentary of Alex Honnold’s rope-free climb of Yosemite’s El Capitan. AP

ALBERTO GINÉS LÓPEZ not only overcomes jitters, he conquers the world’s best climbers on the sport’s biggest stage. AP

BusinessMirror

August 8, 2021

Level-up

learning Video games have long been viewed as a potential threat to learning. Meet the physics teacher/gaming server admin who believes otherwise

BusinessMirror AUGUST 8, 2021 | soundstrip.businessmirror@gmail.com

YOUR MUSI

THE POWER OF MANIFESTATION Electropop sensation Lesha on connecting with the universe

By Edwin P. Sallan

ESHA is an emerging singersongwriter and music producer who has been thriving in the digital sphere with her own distinctive brand of contemporary electropop.

LESHA

Publisher

: T. Anthony C. Cabangon

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: Lourdes M. Fernandez

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: Aldwin M. Tolosa

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: Edwin P. Sallan

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: Niggel Figueroa Anabelle O. Flores : Tony M. Maghirang, Rick Olivares, Darwin Fernandez, Leony Garcia, Stephanie Joy Ching Pauline Joy M. Gutierrez : Kaye VillagomezLosorata Annie S. Alejo

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: 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

With over 242,000 followers on YouTube and over 22,500 monthly listeners on Spotify, Lesha introduced herself with a bang in 2018 with her independent debut release, Two Faced. The EP contained the hit single, “Bury,” a collaboration with Australian rapper/producer riddo that went on to earn over half a million streams online and topped Spotify’s OPM Rising Playlist chart. Now Lesha is back with series of new releases, starting with the title track from an upcoming fulllength album called Sun Moon Rising. Lesha says the new record under Star Music is a collection of Lesha’s writings that represent the distinctive sides of herself—or what she considers an artistic manifestation of her different walks in life and how she views the world from her own point of view. Characterized by enthralling lyrics and a mix of musical genres that include electronic pop, hiphop, alternative, jazz, trap, and EDM that are close to her heart, Sun Moon Rising is a labor of love that Lesha is very excited to share. “These past months have been filled with challenges and learnings but I’m very excited for people to finally hear this body of work that I’ve been working so long and hard. It honestly feels super surreal,” she exclaims. Each track has its own strength on a specific emotion, from reminiscing good times, feeling empowered, letting go of inhibitions to seeking love amid chaos; all those diverse emotions that can surely be relatable to the listeners. Lesha made sure that every song can stand alone as a powerful track and even stronger as an impactful part of Sun Moon

Rising album. Like many other artists, Lesha has been able to take advantage of the ongoing pandemic and the resulting lockdowns. Working solo in the confines of her bedroom where her studio is also set up has been quite cathartic for her as she was able to draw plenty of inspiration, not just for her music but for the music videos that she personally filmed in her own home. “The way the universe communicates with me is through my songs and that’s basically why I chose to name this album Sun Moon Rising because it is in relation to astrology and how the universe works to communicate with us human beings,” Lesha said in explaining the album’s title and concept. What makes Sun Moon Rising even more special is that Lesha was able to collaborate with talented producers and artists from all over the world including the UK, USA, Seoul, Barcelona, Bahrain, and Italy. “It was a very collaborative process and it was a breath of fresh air working with these insanely creative minds. Through this record, I was able to mold my sound and really showcase my

capabilities as a music producer and songwriter. I worked on this record from the backend to the front and I’m really proud of myself for that,” Lesha enthuses. The album’s title track, “Sun Moon Rising” which is also its carrier single is about the strengths and weaknesses of a person’s sun, moon, and rising sign that gives fuel to a specific alter ego and how this affects the different ways they express themselves. Lesha says the song revolves around her curiosity and desire to understand all aspects of a person and why they are who they are. More tracks from the album that features Lesha’s global collaborators are set to drop in the next coming months. As a true believer in the power of manifestation, Lesha says the album is the universe’s way of telling her to work hard in pursuing her passion and pour her heart out in it and attract positivity. “If being in the music industry is something you really want to pursue, by all means go for it and put your heart into it. Artists that have that grit and passion for what they do will definitely make it farther, so be prepared for the struggles you’ll have to face cause this industry is tougher than it looks. I myself started out DIYing everything as an artist, something I still do to this day so I believe anyone could do the same as long as there is willingness to learn and there is a clear goal. There will always be people who will have opinions about you or your work which is something I learned the hard way. You have to know how to segregate the hate from constructive criticism. Keeping this in mind really helped me grow and give myself a reality check from time to time. Sometimes all you need are people who truly believe in you and your capabilities in order to succeed,” Lesha concludes. Lesha’s music including the new single, “Sun Moon Rising” can be streamed on Spotify. Fans can also watch her official music videos, covers, and learn more about music production on Lesha’s YouTube Channel. For more updates, visit Lesha’s official page.

soundstrip.businessmirror@gmail.com | AUGUST 8, 2021

BUSINESS

IT TAKES A VILLAGE No, make that an ARMY to become BTS

By Jill Tan Radovan

SK any BTS fan—an ARMY—what they love about the group and as expected, they will point out the obvious: the boys are talented, good-looking, and dedicated to their craft. But then there are also the other factors—characteristics you’d only expect to see in someone you’ve closely connected with and known for some time: genuine and honest; humble and grateful; hard-working and passionate; decent and sincere. Whoever’s calling the shots for and managing the group’s PR and social media presence might just be a genius, but as one fan pointed out, “they can’t fake the sincerity of the live vids, the tweets, the small updates they post.” They’re probably the real deal. Fans are enthralled, not just by the glitz, glamour, and smooth moves of these global superstars, but also by the personas they project. These personas, by the way, are distinct. You’d think it would be difficult—for each member of a group of all-male, Asian performers to project a personality that’s all his own and that stands out from the rest—but in BTS’s case, it is very much possible to easily distinguish V, Jimin, RM, Suga, J-Hope, Jin and Jung Kook from one another.

BTS (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)

It’s not just the coordinated but carefully curated wardrobe and variety of hairstyles they sport; it’s also the unmistakable individual talent, as well as the individual character of every member, as manifested in appearances on Ellen and The Late Late Show with James Corden, to name a few. Are they for real, or is it all but an act? Could these young, impeccably dressed, handsome, and evidently talented—not just as performers but also as songwriters—men be true to the good boy image they show? Seems too good to be true, but the fact that they were tapped by UNICEF to be ambassadors for its Love Myself campaign and #ENDviolence program must count. Being chosen as poster boys for self-love and for the protection of children and the youth against violence is a big deal. And that speech of RM or Kim Nam Jun, at the UN General Assembly in 2018 was truly inspiring. Apart from being able to send a heartfelt message promoting self-love and acceptance, RM’s

speech was also a venue to honor the boyband’s followers. “Our fans have become a major part of this campaign with their action and enthusiasm. We truly have the best fans in the world,” he said. Not too shabby. The connection BTS has with its fans helped fueled the worldwide fandom that has broken the barriers set by geographical distance, racial prejudice, generational gaps, and cultural differences. The ARMY isn’t an army of teenage fans; there are also children, young professionals, doting mothers, middle-aged executives, and even senior citizens dancing to one of the band’s hits while in retirement in South Korea, the Philippines, the United States, and the rest of the world. BTS, has in fact, surpassed a hurdle that most musicians, performers, and recording artists have been grappling with for more than a year now: a global pandemic. The year-on-year income of BigHit Entertainment, BTS’s managing firm, as of the last quarter of 2020 increased by 122%, proving that no crisis is big enough to prevent a global music phenomenon. Music streaming companies also saw an increase in revenue. Do we need more proof of BTS’ groundbreaking international success, and that these guys deserve it? Again, they are extremely talented. They actually sing well and you can tell even if most of the time you don’t understand the lyrics. They dance with skill, suave and precision that remind you of Justin Timberlake and Michael Jackson. And the ones who rap—recently, also in English as well as their native Korean— sound like they were born to do just that. Such great performers. There’s also the first-time Grammy nomination for a K-pop act, along with the performance at the Grammys itself. Catchy, well-written songs that serve as earworm for weeks regardless of where the listener is from. Several Billboard hits, including the chart-topping singles “Dynamite,” “Butter” and most recently, “Permission to Dance,” co-written by no less than Ed Sheeran, are all proof that aside from satisfying and adding more to the band’s already growing legion of fans, BTS

has and continues to make a major impact on South Korea’s economy. Such impact ultimately leads to a significant increase in the export of merchandise and the creation of jobs in different sectors. Of course, one cannot forget the global fan base so engaged not just in the songs and lyrics and performances but also by the real people behind them, and the good looks and pristine image that would melt even a grumpy grandmother’s heart. The ARMY that, aside from being fans, also serve as selfappointed disciples advocating for BTS through their networks. BTS’s global appeal illustrates that in the world we now live in, there is no longer room for discrimination, sexism, and violence. People don’t want to see macho chauvinists anymore. The good guys get the prize. The story of BTS tells us that yes, there is hope of Asian musicians to go global and to find success outside our region. But it also tells us that to be nearly as successful, it will take a lot of hard work, strategizing, tactics, and tech-savvy. Raw talent isn’t always enough to be recognized, become famous, and to make money these days. What BTS could not make through live, in-person concerts during the pandemic, they made up for through merchandise, streaming, and online show ticket sales—all of which require a superteam working for the supergroup. It takes a village—no, make that an army—to make things happen. Saying that BTS has conquered the world and attained world domination isn’t far-fetched. This giant of a boyband is supported by an ARMY after all, from every corner of the world.

Level-up learning Video games have long been viewed as a potential threat to learning. Meet the physics teacher/gaming server admin who believes otherwise By Pao Vergara

he root of all evil, a wise old nanay once said, is kakakompyuter mo ‘yan. Bad grades? Kaka-kompyuter mo ‘yan. Bad headache? Kaka-kompyuter mo ‘yan. Bad odor? Take a bath, clean your room; kakakompyuter mo ‘yan. Come to think of it, new media (that is,newly introduced communication tools) has always been met with hesitation throughout history, from initial naysayers to doomsday prophets. The first printed books were met with skepticism, film was derided and seen as low art, and decades later, it was television. Today, in a world where the establishment is made up of TV and film, it’s computers. One more barrier to true acceptance of the computer-as-a-medium is, understandably, in the education sector. After all, the same sector was worried too that the television habits of kids back in the day would affect their learning and performance in school. Jason Arias, who finished Mechanical Engineering at the University of the Philippines-Diliman in 2018, believes otherwise. Currently teaching science (physics) full-time in the Ateneo de Manila Junior High School, Arias recently gave a magisterial lecture, titled “Kaka-kompyuter mo ‘yan” in the university’s Areté innovation hub, where he talked alongside more veteran educators like Anne Candelaria, Ambeth Ocampo, and Ricky Abad to name a few. “Do parents have to stare down at their children and say, kaka-kompyuter mo ‘yan, as the primary excuse for academic underachievement?” Arias asks, before suggesting that “what if the academe itself turn the system on its head? What if education

“What if education turns to gaming as a tool rather than view it as a bad habit?” says mechanical engineering graduate/high-school physics teacher/gaming server admin Jason Arias. turns to gaming as a tool rather than view it as a bad habit?”

A new approach Despite being given this privilege speech, Arias has yet to take his teaching licensure exam. To date, he has given similar lectures in other programs for other organizations, notably for Tagpros (a movement aiming to share strategies on distance learning) and STEP (Society for Technology in EducationPhilippines). Arias’s first teaching experience was as a kid, when he taught his dad how to play Pokémon, as the latter genuinely wanted to learn how to operate new gizmos. Arias describes it as being “the Pikachu to Ash, the caddie to a golfer. It placed me, a child, in a unique position of being a mentor to a person in authority, who was my father.” Now, as the pandemic nears its second year, institutions have gradually embraced online learning. Still, given the logistical difficulties, like attention-span challenges and dealing with dangers both physical and mental of extended quarantine, simply listening to a lecture and taking tests is not enough. This gap, Arias asserts, is where more

interactive forms of media—like gaming— can step up. He has since used the openworld canvas videogame Minecraft to teach concepts like projectile motion, electric circuitry, and gravity as part of his physics classes. He was also one of the administrators of the largest Minecraft servers in the Philippines, where his group was dedicated to recreating famous Filipino landmarks in the game’s open-world engine. It’s not about getting things dot-per-dot, Arias asserts, but rather, teaching—much like game designing—is about “creating experiences” that leave lasting impressions on the audience that help them appreciate the offline world and their actions within it in a new way.

‘Holistic experiences’ Minecraft, or videogames, aren’t a standalone affair, however. Acknowledging the real downsides of a purely electronic approach, from screen burnout to addiction, Arias and his co-teachers strive to make holistic experiences. For example, after asking the students to design their own circuits on Minecraft, Arias then tested them by asking them to go around the house,

look at appliances, and audit their electric consumption. He capped the lesson off asking students to write about their carbon footprints. Here, Arias fondly recalls the sincere response of one of his students, aghast at how much time he spent on his videogame console on Saturdays. “We didn’t give any exams that year,” Jason confides, citing this use of “authentic assessments” versus simply asking students to “state the capital of the Philippines.” The pandemic won’t last forever, but this time in our lives has given educators lessons that can help face-to-face learning once it resumes. For one, Arias lights up, “we could go an entire year without consuming any paper” on submissions. But more than that, he hopes we become more open to teaching methods that are out of the box, but still meet the learning objectives.

Still an engineer Once upon a graduation ago, some peers, professors, and even family doubted Arias’s decision to teach, having just passed the engineering boards, all with calls from foreign countries for Filipino engineers. Arias’s passion for building, which started alongside his childhood passion for gaming, remains steadfast. Next to boxes of old games lie cardboard and wooden DIY projects—boats and airplanes (both with engines), carts and catapults. For him, teaching and engineering are not an either-or dilemma, but a series of dots that his life will connect in the long-run. Arias now has a batch of students in college, and a good number of them picked engineering. “I’m ‘not an engineer,’” he quips, “but I’m engineering engineers.” n Arias’ talk can be viewed for free at the Areté YouTube channel. n ON THE COVER: Photo by Ty Feague on Unsplash

E-commerce brand nurtures next gen of entrepreneurs

eading e-commerce brand Lazada is accelerating its efforts to help Filipinos expand knowledge on ecommerce through LazStart 2.0, an online entrepreneurship and innovation program now made more comprehensive and exciting as more entrepreneurs strive to make their mark in the digital space. Following the success of LazStart’s launch in 2020, Lazada enhances the program by expanding its partnerships to include more renowned institutions such as University of the East, University of Asia and the Pacific, SoFA Design Institute, Centro Escolar University, and Southville International School and Colleges. LazStart 2.0’s main goal is to empower

youth in the community with the confidence to become an online seller, by arming them with not just the basic knowledge of navigating e-commerce, but also with the lifeblood of an online business itself—a trusted and reliable digital platform. To date, nearly 300 students have graduated from the first phase of the program, and some have already successfully jumpstarted their e-commerce venture with Lazada. Management Engineering student Vincent Sy is among these young and curious students, eager to stay productive and gain new knowledge amid the pandemic. Through the wide-ranging insights on the e-commerce industry learnt

4 BusinessMirror

Management Engineering student Vincent Sy, founder of Comfy Home Essentials from the program, he was inspired to launch Comfy Home Essentials on Lazada, providing shoppers convenient access to a breadth of items for the home—from AUGUST 8, 2021

kitchenware to gardening tools. “Through Lazada’s LazStart 2.0 program, we want to bridge that gap of uncertainty by providing youths of today with knowledge, industry resources and an inclusive and collaborative environment to kick-start their entrepreneurial dreams,” said Lazada Philippines Chief Customer Officer Jacqueline Fuentes. “This program is a step in the right direction to tap the potential of our youth, and nurture the next generation of online entrepreneurs.” Students interested to find out more about the LazStart program can also join LazStart’s Facebook Community to get started on their e-commerce education journey today.