BusinessMirror February 11, 2024

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Sunday, February 11, 2024 Vol. 19 No. 119

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NEW THREAT TO MASUNGI? DETECTION OF DRILLING RIGS SEALS GROUP’S WIND-FARM EXPANSION SUSPICIONS

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By John Eiron R. Francisco

ARAS, Rizal—The drones flying overhead confirmed suspicions that a nature and wildlife sanctuary here has four drilling rigs for a wind farm project.

THE Masungi Reserve eco-tourist area, nestled at the entrance of the Sierra Madre mountain ranges, is part of the delicate karst terrain system and is integral to the Upper Marikina River Basin protected area. BERNARD TESTA “YOU can develop a place, you can introduce enhancements, but only to enhance the character of the place and not to destroy or change,” said Masungi Georeserve Foundation cofounder and conservationist Billie Dumaliang. BERNARD TESTA

Masungi Georeserve Foundation cofounder and conservationist Billie Dumaliang told the BusinessMirror that they occasionally use drones to inspect hard-toreach areas, monitor entrances, tree-cutting activities and instances of fires within the Georeserve.

“Na-spot namin na merong drilling rigs [We spotted that there are drilling rigs on the southern side of the Masungi Rock Formation]. They were bringing in some equipment and materials,” she said, highlighting the powerful use of drones that were able to zoom in on the area, exposing

the wind farm project initiated by Rizal Wind Energy Corp. (RWEC), a subsidiary of Singapore-based renewable energy company Vena Energy Holdings Ltd. The Masungi Georeserve management sought clarification by engaging in a dialogue with the representatives from both companies about the project’s nature and intentions, and, Dumaliang said, “that’s when we found out about the plan.”

The plan “was to build around 12 wind turbines within the Masungi Karst Conservation Area,” Dumaliang said.

THE JC Vine (Strongylodon juangonzalezii), among the numerous flora identified by researchers, is reportedly found in only four to five locations across the Philippines.

BERNARD TESTA

However, Angela Tan, head of corporate communication at Vena Energy Group, clarified to the BusinessMirror via email email that “we are only conducting a study on the potential of wind energy in Tanay [Baras], Rizal.”

Tan emphasized their collaboration with government authorities and commitment to complying with relevant laws regarding protected areas.

Yet, Dumaliang pointed out the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) Administrative Order 1993-33, asserting “even studies for a wind farm should not have commenced in the first place.”

Nevertheless, in November 2023, during a Senate hearing on the said “study of the establishment of windmill farms” in Masungi, Sen. Raffy Tulfo noted that, based on Proclamation 1636 series of 1977, Masungi Georeserve, situated in the rainforests of Baras, Rizal, was officially declared a wildlife sanctuary.

“Bakit po pinayagan ang isang wind farm na magtayo dun po sa Masungi conservation area na meron pong ancestral domain issue [Why was a wind farm allowed to be built in the Masungi conservation area despite the presence of an ancestral domain issue]? Vena Energy is what I’m talking about that was given permit by PAMB [Protected Area Management Board] to put up their structures,” asked Tulfo.

Tulfo also cited the DENR AO 33 dated May 10, 1993, stressing that Masungi was declared a strict nature reserve and wildlife sanctuary, with no subsequent administrative orders superseding the said declaration.

The DAO states the area is closed to mining location, exploration, development and exploitation

and other activities which might adversely affect the habitat and the ecological balance in the area.

Yet, according to Sen. Cynthia Villar, the budget sponsor of the DENR, the PAMB did not issue a permit for the energy company to operate in the area, but only to conduct a study on the potential of wind energy.

When the BusinessMirror asked about Dumaliang’s perspective on Senator Villar’s statement that it was just a study, she responded, “That’s what they [company proponents] will say; that’s what they will probably say to the public.”

Dumaliang told the BusinessMirror that company executives told them “they were already in the advanced pre-development stage.”

“They already had investments into the project and groundwork already in place,” she added.

Dumaliang said that based on the conversations they had between Vena Energy and RWEC, “they really have the intention to push through with the project.”

She expressed concern that allowing a study without clear rejection at this stage could potentially pave the way for large-scale commercial development; and permitting a study allows entities to speculate and invest money, making it more challenging to reject the project at later stages.

“What we see on the ground tells otherwise, that they are actually already preparing towards commercialization,” Dumaliang said.

She highlighted the potential risks of placing such projects in areas rich in biodiversity and heritage, worrying that it could lead to unintended problems.

“So, to be clear, we’re not against development. In fact, sustainable development is one of the Continued on A2

PESO EXCHANGE RATES n US 56.0330 n JAPAN 0.3782 n UK 70.7641 n HK 7.1663 n CHINA 7.7870 n SINGAPORE 41.7129 n AUSTRALIA 36.5223 n EU 60.3756 n KOREA 0.0422 n SAUDI ARABIA 14.9413 Source: BSP (February 9, 2024)

NewsSunday A2 Sunday, February 11, 2024 Continued from A1

key pillars of Masungi, and that’s what we’ve shown,” Dumaliang said.

But, she added, “You can develop a place, you can introduce enhancements. But, only to enhance the character of the place and not to destroy or change.”

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THE breathtaking view from the “Sapot Ni Ric” on top of the limestone park inside Masungi Georeserve in Baras, Rizal. This eco-tourist area, nestled at the entrance of the Sierra Madre mountain ranges, is part of the delicate karst terrain system and is integral to the Upper Marikina River Basin protected area. BERNARD TESTA

25 years of conservation at risk

MASUNGI Georeserve has transformed from a once-a barren landscape, plagued by the incessant hum of chainsaws and encroachment from land speculators, into a flourishing secondary forest over the past two decades.

Since the late 1990s, the foundation body of Masungi Georeserve said it has zealously protected and conserved the area.

However, Dumaliang expressed serious reservations about the potential environmental impacts of the wind turbine project within the Karst ecosystem.

“You will lose all of the gains of 25 years of conservation and protection, not just by Masungi, but by the other communities there that have also been protected for tourism or other purposes,” she said.

Dumaliang noted the destructive nature of the construction process, even before the installation of wind turbines begins. The need for wide road networks to transport the massive turbines could result in habitat destruction, similar to the consequences observed in the Panay natural park near Boracay Island.

“It’s really devastating because, in that national park in Panay, due to construction, they had negative impacts on endangered species like the Bleeding Heart Pigeon and the Philippine Deer,” Dumaliang recalled.

Construction-related silt also contaminated waterways, affecting the delicate Karst ecosystem that filters water for downstream communities.

Indeed, Masungi Georeserve, situated within the Sierra Madre Mountain Range, plays a crucial role in rehabilitating more than 2,700 hectares of deteriorated watershed regions through the Masungi Geopark Project.

Threat to wildlife?

THE second major concern raised by Dumaliang involves the potential threat to wildlife posed by the wind turbine blades.

“Being a biodiversity sanctuary, Masungi should prioritize the well-being of its resident birds and bats,” she said.

She questioned the responsible site selection process, asking aloud, “Why Masungi? That’s not responsible site selection. So, that’s what I have said to the company.”

She challenged the company’s claim of sustainability.

NEW THREAT TO MASUNGI? “You can’t say that you’re a sustainable company, responsible company, if you’re choosing to build in a location that isn’t appropriate.”

Preserving nature, heritage

MEANWHILE, Dumaliang told the BusinessMirror that Masungi Georeserve is gearing up for a campaign, yet to be officially launched, but already gaining traction among senators.

“Sen. Raffy Tulfo really took interest in the issue and firmly stated that such development should not have taken place in Masungi,” Dumaliang said.

She acknowledged the backing of other senators, including Sen. Koko Pimentel and Sen. JV Ejercito, who demonstrated awareness of the locations and associated problems.

“We’re thankful to the Senate in general for taking cognizance of the issue and to the senators who have taken a stand,” she said.

As the campaign gained momentum, Dumaliang hinted at a strategic approach, drawing on lessons from past campaigns: “It’s really making sure that all different sectors are involved in the campaign.”

“We’re creating alliances for this campaign—from the environmental community to the scientific and even the cultural community because this is not just about nature; it’s about cultural heritage,” she said.

When it comes to the impact on culture, Dumaliang likened the project to placing a massive wind farm on ancient landmarks like the pyramids or Machu Picchu: “This is more ancient than dinosaurs and predates human existence.

So, imagine doing that to the heritage.”

Home to rare species

MASUNGI Georeserve is a 10-kilometer limestone spine dating back to the Paleocene Age, the era following the extinction of dinosaurs, Dumaliang said.

According to the late geologist Rolando Peña, this limestone formation is the largest exposed rock of its kind in the Philippines from the Paleocene Age that holds paramount geological importance.

“That’s why, geologically, it’s very important for research, for learning about what life was like in the Philippines during that time,” Dumaliang said.

She added, “It gives us a sense of our natural heritage and even anthropological or geological heritage of our country.”

Masungi Georeserve derives its name from the Tagalog term “sungki-sungki,” inspired by the uneven and jagged rock formations resembling teeth. These formations, also referred to as corals and limestone, are composed of calcium carbonate that makes them prone to rapid dissolution due to the acidity of rain.

The limestone formations within Masungi Georeserve are part of the karst ecosystem, as elucidated by Dumaliang. She described the karst ecosystem as comprising caves, sinkholes and limestone formations.

“This type of ecosystem is recognized as an arc of biodiversity due to its natural barriers, which protect against disruptions, invasive species, and changes to the original biodiversity,” she said, adding that Masungi Georeserve, being a part of this unique karst ecosystem, is home to various species that are rarely found elsewhere.

For instance, the JC’s Vine (Strongylodon juangonzalezii), named in honor of Juan Carlos Tecson Gonzales, a zoology professor at the University of the Philippines in Los Baños, was discovered by Annalee S. Hadsall, Michelle D.R. Alejandro, Ariel R. Larona and Ivy Amor F. Lambio in 2015.

These researchers identified a thriving population of the JC vines within the conservation area of Masungi Georeserve, a rare plant distinguished by its striking bluegreen flowers, found in only four to five locations in the Philippines.

Masungi Georeserve also serves as a habitat for the Hypselostoma latispira masungiensis, a subspecies of snail dependent on karst ecosystems, discovered within its limestone formations.

“We have the highest count [47] of snail species in the Philippines. In this small study area alone, there will inevitably be more,” Dumaliang said.

In terms of bird species, Dumaliang revealed that Masungi Georeserve boasts around a hundred, most of which are endemic to the country, including endangered species like the Philippine Serpent Eagle, Philippine Hanging Parrot (Colasisi) and Philippine Bulbul (Hypsipetes philippinus).

Moreover, the Georeserve is a nesting site for large bats, specifically Flying Foxes, with 30 bat species identified.

Tourism as a conservation tool

DESPITE ongoing threats, Dumaliang remains optimistic about the future of Masungi, stating, “While the pressures are getting stronger, we have also become stronger and more resilient over the years.”

She believes that the forces of nature and the communities will continue to grow and will continue to persist in their pursuit indefinitely.

“While it’s challenging and risky, we remain hopeful for the future,” she said, emphasizing the significance of tourism experiences as a primary tool for their initiatives.

She highlighted how skepticism often transforms into support after people witness the conservation efforts firsthand, expressing a desire for such transformations to happen more frequently.

Dumaliang acknowledged the challenge of balancing conservation with tourism, emphasizing that the focus still leans towards conservation. Sustainable tourism and sustainable development serve as their means to attain the conservation objectives.

Contrary to the industry trend, “It’s more tourism for conservation than conservation for tourism,” she said.

Dumaliang emphasized the importance of involving the public through tourism as a vital means of fostering a deeper connection with Masungi, inspiring individuals to actively participate in its preservation efforts.

“We cannot stand alone in this cause. We have to engage as many people as we can,” she said, adding that the experiences and memories formed in Masungi can instill awareness and motivate people to actively protect the area.

According to Dumaliang, the Masungi Georeserve Foundation has achieved a level of financial independence by generating its own funds and minimizing dependence on external sources.

“That’s why we also need to continuously innovate. We need to be able to offer new experiences and really world-class experiences to our guests to be able to sustain our work,” she concluded.

TheWorld

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

Sunday, February 11, 2024

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Wall Street snubs China for India in a historic global markets shift

By Srinivasan Sivabalan, Chiranjivi Chakraborty & Subhadip Sircar

like we should have continuity in the government. But you never say never,” said Peeyush Mitta l, por tfolio manager at Matthews International Capital Management LLC. Modi’s social agenda, which his critics say favors the nation’s Hindu majority, also threatens stability in a country that has more than 200 million religious minorities.

Turning India’s potential into an economic reality that benefits all citizens is a tough ask, especially in a multilingual democracy with vast cultural differences between states.

“India still has a long way to go,” said Charles Robertson, head of macro strategy at FIM Partners Ltd. “Potential peak growth is still under what China did achieve.”

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MOMENTOUS shift is under way in global markets as investors pull billions of dollars from China’s sputtering economy, two decades after betting on the country as the world’s biggest growth story.

Much of that cash is now heading for India, with Wall Street giants like Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Morgan Stanley endorsing the South Asian nation as the prime investment destination for the next decade.

That momentum is triggering a gold rush. The $62 billion hedge fund Marshall Wace has positioned India as its biggest net long bet after the US in its flagship hedge fund. An arm of Zurich-based Vontobel Holding AG has made the country its top emerging-market holding and Janus Henderson Group Plc is exploring fund-house acquisitions. Even Japan’s traditionally conservative retail investors are embracing India and paring exposure to China.

Investors are paying close attention to the contrasting trajectories of two of Asia’s greatest powers. India, the world’s fastestgrowing major economy, has vastly expanded infrastructure under Prime Minister Narendra Modi in his bid to lure global capital and supply lines away from Beijing. China, on the other hand, is grappling with chronic economic woes and a widening rift with the Western-led order.

“People are interested in India for several reasons—one is simply it’s not China,” said Vikas Pershad, Asian equities portfolio manager at M&G Investments in Singapore. “There’s a genuine long-term growth story here.”

While the bullish sentiment about India isn’t new, investors are more likely now to see a market that resembles the China of times past: a vast, dynamic economy that’s opening up to global money in novel ways. Nobody expects a smooth ride. The country’s population is still largely poor, stock markets are expensive and bond markets insular. But most are making the crossover anyway, calculating that the risks of betting against India are greater.

History shows that India’s economic growth and the value of its stock market are closely linked. If the nation continues to expand at 7 percent, the market size can be expected to grow on average by at least that rate. Over the past two decades, gross domestic product and market capitalization rose in tandem from $500 billion to $3.5 trillion.

Aniket Shah, global head of environment, social and governance practice at Jefferies Group LLC., said a recent investor call about India was one of the firm’s bestattended.

“People are really trying to figure out what’s going on in India,” he said.

Follow the money

CAPITAL flows reflect the enthu-

siasm. In the US exchange-traded fund market, the main fund buying Indian stocks received record inflows in the final quarter of 2023, while the four largest China funds combined saw outflows of almost $800 million. Active bond funds have put 50 cents to work in India for every dollar they pulled from China since 2022, according to EPFR data.

In mid-January, India briefly overtook Hong Kong to become the world’s fourth-largest equity market. To some investors, the South Asian nation will only rise higher.

Morgan Stanley predicts India’s stock market will become the third largest by 2030. Its weight in the MSCI Inc.’s benchmark for developing-market equities is at an all-time high of 18 percent, even as China’s share has shrunk to its lowest on record at 24.8 percent.

“In terms of index weights, China would be lower and India bigger,” said Mark Matthews, the Singapore-based head of Asia research at Bank Julius Baer, which launched its first-ever India fund last year. “That’s the direction.”

The big picture

New investors

JAPAN’S retail investors, who have traditionally favored the US, are also warming up to the country.

Five of their India-focused mutual funds now feature among the top 20 by inflows. Assets at the largest—Nomura Indian Stock Fund— are at a four-year high.

Hedge funds including Marshall Wace point to India’s strong growth and relative political stability as reasons to remain optimistic about consistent pockets of growth, even if the broader market still has expensive valuations.

Karma Capital, which manages money in India for institutions like Norges Bank, says US investors are especially eager to enter and learn more about the market.

Rajnish Girdhar, the fund’s chief executive, recalled one client responding with unusual speed to several India queries.

“We would send something Friday and before we returned Monday morning, she’d have responded, which means she was working on the weekend,” he said.

Old rivalry

INDIA has capitalized on changing power dynamics with China, a decades-long rival.

If China is viewed as a threat to the Western global order, India is regarded as a potential counterweight—a country increasingly equipped to assert itself as a viable manufacturing alternative to Beijing. Nations like the US see the need to have strong business ties with India, even though they’ve criticized the country’s tax policies. India now accounts

for more than 7 percent of the iPhone’s global output and is pouring trillions of rupees into upgrading infrastructure.

These efforts are part of Modi’s plan to sell India as the world’s new growth engine. The government will boost infrastructure spending by 11 percent to 11.1 trillion rupees ($134 billion) in the coming fiscal year, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said last week in her interim budget speech.

“The investment cycle is picking up with public capital expenditure and infrastructure initiatives,” said Jitania Kandhari, deputy chief investment officer for solutions and multi-asset group at Morgan Stanley Investment Management.

India is also building a vast

ecosystem of technologies aimed at pulling many more people into the digital marketplace. Alphabet Inc.’s Google Pay plans to work with India’s mobile-based payments system—which generates billions of trades every month— to expand services beyond the country.

“For the first time, you have hundreds of millions of Indians with a bank account and access to credit,” said Ashish Chugh, a money manager at Loomis Sayles & Co. “This is bound to attract global companies to India—and with them global investors, too.”

Priced for perfection

SOME hurdles do persist. The euphoria has made Indian equities among the most expensive in

“An enormous success is priced into India’s markets,” said Mark Williams, a fund manager at Somerset Capital Management. “But the question is how much of that is not priced in. There’s certainly a risk that Indian markets can go sideways for some years.”

the world. The popular S&P BSE Sensex Index has almost tripled from its March 2020 low, while earnings have only about doubled.

The gauge trades at more than 20 times future earnings, 27 percent more expensive than the average for the 2010 to 2020 period.

Stretched valuations and Beijing’s recent attempts to support its markets have prompted some investors to contemplate a change in strategy. Global funds took out more than $3.1 billion from local shares in January, the largest monthly total in a year, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

“An enormous success is priced into India’s markets,” said Mark Williams, a fund manager at Somerset Capital Management. “But the question is how much of that is not priced in. There’s certainly a risk that Indian markets can go sideways for some years.”

Investors are bracing for a correction after eight straight years of annual gains in local shares.

Modi is expected to win a third term in office during this year’s national elections, especially after his party’s sweep of recent state polls signaled existing policy will continue. But a weakened ruling party could jolt markets in the short run. “ The way the state election results have panned out it looks

EVEN with those risks, India fans say they’re investing for the long term. With a still-low per capita income, the country is setting the stage for multi-year expansion and new market opportunities, they say.

“There is always the possibility of scandals, social polarization and political noise,” said Aninda Mitra, head of Asia macro and investment strategy at BNY Mellon Investment Management.

“Despite all this, if you believe the economy is poised to grow to about $8 trillion-plus by this time in the next decade, the volatility is worth it.”

India’s once-insular financial markets will continue to open up.

With foreign ownership just above 2 percent, the nation’s $1.2 trillion sovereign-bond market is being added to JPMorgan Chase & Co’s global debt index from June. The move may lure as much as $100 billion of inflows in the coming years, according to HSBC Asset Management.

India is also stepping up efforts to globalize the rupee, albeit at a more modest scale than China’s yuan expansion. Still, the potential is there when combined with the government’s development of GIFT City—a free market pilot project in western India that aspires to become a global financial hub unhampered by rules and taxes. It’s a prospect with echoes of Shenzhen’s opening up in 1980 as a special economic zone.

Confidence in India stems from the long-term impact of such initiatives, not necessarily from the nearterm outlook on the nation’s stocks and bonds, according to Gaurav Narain, a money manager who advises India Capital Growth Fund.

“There is no longer a need for a ‘sell the India story’ pitch from us,” he said. “It’s a ‘buy into India’ from people who are aware of the positive changes.” With assistance from Ishika Mookerjee, Dinesh Nair, Nishant Kumar, Preeti Singh, Yasutaka Tamura and Hideyuki Sano / Bloomberg

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Hedge-fund short sellers revel in hidden cash perk like 2007

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By Justina Lee and Lu Wang

EDGE funds are paid big bucks for making smart market bets. Yet these days, a simple feature of the financial plumbing—largely overlooked on Wall Street during the low interest-rate era— is helping juice industry returns.

It’s the tidy income the masters of the universe are enjoying just on their cash proceeds after shorting stocks, all thanks to the highest federal funds rate since 2007.

When the fast-money set bets against a company, it sells borrowed shares, resulting in a pile of cash that is held as collateral with their prime broker. That cash earns interest, known as a short rebate.

Cambridge Associates, an industry consultant, has cited this benefit as one reason to be bullish on hedge funds this year—alongside all the rich stock-picking opportunities fueled by the Federal Reserve’s disruptive policy-tightening campaign. TIFF Investment Management, Morgan Stanley Investment Management and Evanston Capital, which allocate money to a range of investment vehicles including hedge funds, have said the same.

In a good year, short rebates are just a small fraction of hedge-fund returns, of course. Yet the effectively free money is offering traders a boon just as the great monetary squeeze separates the strong from the weak across Corporate America—spurring an uptick in short interest from historic lows.

With Jerome Powell & Co. pushing back against market bets

on fast rate cuts this year, these mundane lending dynamics are getting more attention as the cashis-king era powers on—and raising big questions about the hefty fees charged by some funds.

“For the first time in 15 years, the wind’s at their back on the short book,” said Joe Marenda, head of hedge fund research at Cambridge Associates. “The other aspect simply is that with higher rates, one would expect weaker companies to underperform.”

To Bill Harnisch, who oversees the $1.5 billion Peconic Partners, higher rebates are never the reason to go short, but a nice benefit nonetheless. His fund brought in $55 million in rebates last year, compared with a “fraction” of that in 2022.

“It was very noticeable, and that’s continuing into this year,” he said. “The interest income is a byproduct because we’re not going to short because of the interest.”

One rough but widely accepted way to gauge short rebates is the fed funds rate less a cost of borrow of 25 to 50 basis points.

Meanwhile, the S&P 500’s dividend yield is also drifting lower, which helps bump up the rebate since funds also have to return any dividends incurred.

The short rebate was juicy enough to get a shout-out in an investor letter last year from Maverick Capital, which called it “a smaller, but still important, contributor” to returns.

“Maverick’s average net short rebate of 4.5 percent is the highest it has been since 2000,” wrote Lee Ainslie, a so-called Tiger Cub who founded the hedge fund. “To put that figure in perspective, our net short rebate was actually negative in eleven of the last fourteen years! Our short alpha is certainly enhanced by replacing a mild head-

wind with a strong tailwind.”

To be clear, returns derived from an elevated short rebate can be at least partly offset by higher borrowing costs on the long side when leverage is employed. Interest income is no substitute for smart investment decisions, and the actual track record of the ratehike cycle so far is mixed.

Diversified equity funds and sector specialists managed to return 11 percent and 14 percent respectively last year, PivotalPath indexes show—a decent but far from spectacular showing even by

For a fund with a roughly equal amount of long and short exposures, proceeds from the shorts pay for the longs, leaving the cash from investors sitting more or less in Treasury bills and the like. The same is true of macro funds trading only derivatives, since they only need to put up cash margin rather than buy any assets directly.

the standards of the post-2008 era.

Global macro, despite the boon of higher interest income, eked out just 1.4 percent, implying that many funds likely lost money from their trading.

Yet there are signs the appetite to bet against companies is growing again, after a shift in investor preferences in recent years to shorting exchange-traded funds and indexes instead. The median short interest in S&P 500 members rose to 1.8 percent late last year, still not far from historic lows but already the highest since 2020, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. data show.

Among the bank’s prime-brokerage clients, gross leverage has jumped to record highs, with short positions surging from a few muted years, according to a late January report.

Corporate fortunes are also diverging. The Cboe S&P 500 Dispersion Index, which measures the difference in prices of options between the benchmark and its constituents, has steadily risen since the pandemic.

“It feels like the good old days,” said Benjamin Dunn at Alpha Theory Advisors, a risk and portfolio consultancy for hedge funds, who has witnessed first-hand the

short-rebate boost for his clients last year. “Zero interest rates were just a terrible environment.”

Performance fee

FOR a fund with a roughly equal amount of long and short exposures, proceeds from the shorts pay for the longs, leaving the cash from investors sitting more or less in Treasury bills and the like. The same is true of macro funds trading only derivatives, since they only need to put up cash margin rather than buy any assets directly.

The easy income generated from cash these days is spurring hand-wringing among some clients given hefty industry fees.

Dy mon A sia Capita l recently started courting investors for its multi-strategy hedge fund with a share class that will not charge performance fees until returns hit 5 percent for the year.

“Investors like myself are having a conversation,” said Zhe Shen at TIFF Investment Management, which allocates $7 billion for charity foundations. “‘Hold on, I don’t really want to pay you for cash management, so how about we relook at those fees that we discussed earlier?’” Bloomberg News

Eastern Europe’s richest woman shifts her empire towards western markets

By Peter Laca & Andrea Dudik

W

HEN the richest man in Eastern Europe died in a helicopter crash, hardly anyone knew his wife’s name.

Nearly three years later, that’s no longer the case. Renata Kellnerova is now synonymous with the family business—a Prague-based telecommunications, media, financial services and e-commerce empire that employs 61,000 people and operates in 25 countries.

In the region, PPF is perhaps best known as the owner of private TV stations in six countries across Eastern Europe, and of one of the Czech Republic’s largest phone companies.

With $43 billion in assets, PPF has emerged as one of the main winners of the Czech Republic’s postcommunist transition, a success that Kellnerova’s late husband Petr Kellner leveraged by expanding into the fast growing markets of Russia and China. But with Russia’s invasion of Ukraine upending geopolitics and business, many companies, including PPF, are now prioritizing growth closer to home.

In an e-mail exchange with Bloomberg News—her first public comments to media since taking over PPF—Kellnerova recounted the challenging period she spent familiarizing herself with the company’s complex operations after the sudden death of her husband.

“The first priority was to secure the stability of PPF, and then start developing the business again,”

she said. “I realized that PPF is personal for me and that my task is to prepare our children so that they will have the possibility of taking leadership of the group one day themselves.”

Since assuming control, the 56-year-old has put her imprint on the company. She’s overseen a major move away from Asia—once a key source of income—and has shifted attention back to western markets. She’s chosen a new chief executive officer and parted ways with some of her late husband’s close allies. She brought the company under full family ownership by buying out two minority shareholders, then named herself and her three daughters to the board of a new holding company housing all of their assets.

Now the region’s wealthiest woman, with her family’s net worth estimated to be around $11.8 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaire Index, Kellnerova has been dedicating more and more time to making key investment decisions. She cites her close cooperation with PPF CEO Jiri Smejc, one of Kellner’s former investment partners, as central to her approach.

“If the situation requires it, we are able to make decisions about deals in just one weekend,” she said. “We pride ourselves at PPF on being very flexible in reacting to investment opportunities.”

Under Kellnerova, PPF has finalized several large transactions, including agreeing to a €2.15 billion sale of a controlling stake in telecommunication operations across Eastern and Central Eu-

INPOST SA postal lockers in Warsaw, Poland. LUKASZ SOKOL/BLOOMBERG

rope to Abu Dhabi ’s Emirates Telecommunications Group Co. The company’s consumer finance division, Home Credit Group BV, also agreed in 2022 to sell its Philippine and Indonesian businesses in deals worth about €615 million ($669 million).

This helped boost PPF’s profitability to pre-pandemic levels, with a first-half net income of €709 million in 2023. That’s compared with a €406 million loss the year prior, mostly due to a costly withdrawal from Russia.

While there is no exact timeline yet for the complete exit from Asia, “the core focus of our business has been moving west in the past three years,” Kellnerova said.

With extra cash on hand and higher interest rates weighing on valuations of privately owned and publicly traded assets, PPF is scanning Europe for new acquisition

targets. Its biggest purchase yet has been taking a stake in InPost SA, a Polish e-commerce company that operates self-service delivery lockers, and building a stake in German broadcaster ProSiebenSat.1 Media SE. Like her late husband, Kellnerova keeps a low public profile and closely guards her family’s privacy.

She would not disclose specific investment targets that her company has or might be watching. PPF plans to maintain its four primary investment pillars—financial services, telecommunications, media and e-commerce—but, she noted, “that doesn’t rule out smaller opportunistic investments.”

Because the group isn’t a typical investment fund with a defined horizon for holding onto its assets, “we can be patient,” she said. “That’s why short-term returns aren’t the primary parameter when we are considering an

investment opportunity.”

PPF, now an intricate network of companies, began its ascent shortly after the fall of communism. Kellner founded the company in the early 1990s, when what was then Czechoslovakia started selling state assets through a program that issued vouchers which people could either exchange for shares in companies or place in funds.

In 1991, Kellner set up a fund to acquire stakes in 202 companies. It ended up handling the sixth-biggest batch of assets available at the time, according to the firm, which then became known as PPF Group. Over time, PPF built a 20 percent stake in Ceska Pojistovna, the country’s largest insurer, creating the foundation of Kellner’s wealth. He cashed out in 2013, selling the insurance assets to Italy’s Generali in a $3.3 billion deal.

As Kellner built up his empire, his wife was occupied with the Kellner Family Foundation, one of the Czech Republic’s first philanthropic organizations, which has donated nearly 2 billion koruna ($89 million) to social projects and scholarships. Kellnerova brings this perspective to her new perch, describing PPF as having “social responsibility that reaches beyond the sphere of business.”

Alongside PPF, the post-communist sales of state assets gave rise to a handful of other superrich Czech families, including property magnate Radovan Vitek, one of Europe’s largest real-estate investors, and energy tycoon Pavel Tykac. Companies owned by billionaires residing in the Czech

Republic now employ tens of thousands of workers across the continent and have played a crucial role in the region’s economies.

At the same time, they have drawn scrutiny. In an interview late last year, former Czech President Milos Zeman criticized the privatization process for creating a sharp wealth gap in the former communist nation. Zeman was nevertheless a major backer of Kellner, and even awarded him the highest state honor after the tycoon was killed in a helicopter crash during a trip to Alaska.

“I really valued Petr Kellner, we worked well together,” said Zeman.

PPF a l so c a me u nder f i re from the local investor community when it moved to pull the country’s biggest traded phone company from the Prague stock exchange, decreasing its market capitalization but giving the group full control. The process was finalized in 2022.

While most close associates and former employees have kept quiet about PPF’s new leadership, one of PPF’s former minority owners, Ladislav Bartonicek, shared his view in an interview with the country’s biggest business daily newspaper, Hospodarske Noviny, in September.

“The responsibility for Renata, who is very actively involved, and for the second generation, is different,” he told the newspaper. “It’s no longer a one-man company—in a good way. The shareholders will be more conservative. It’s a question of who on the family side will be the most involved in the future.”

Bloomberg News

Science Sunday BusinessMirror

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

Researchers study synthetic human embryos, sidestepping ethical, logistical hurdles

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MBRYONIC development, also known as embryogenesis, is a cornerstone in understanding the origins of life. But studying this marvel of intricate and layered biological processes in people faces considerable challenges.

Early-stage human embryos are difficult to obtain. Then there are ethical issues surrounding their use. This has made it difficult for scientists to understand early human development.

However, advances in genetic engineering and molecular and cellular biology have catalyzed the emergence of synthetic embryology, a subfield dedicated to replicating and studying embryonic development in a petri dish using human stem cells. By offering new tools to explore the enigmatic earliest stages of human development, synthetic embryology can help researchers overcome the challenges of using real human embryos.

As a reproductive and developmental biologist, I develop stem cell models for embryogenesis.

With these new models, researchers can also better understand conditions that affect human reproduction and development as well as maternal-fetal health, potentially leading to new therapies.

Making human embryos from stem cells

EMBRYOGENESIS begins with the fertilization of an egg. This triggers the egg to rapidly divide into embryonic cells that soon form an inner cell mass that eventually develops into the fetus and a outer layer of cells that will give rise to the placenta.

Upon implantation in the uterus, the inner cell mass develops into the three layers that will create all the tissues and organs of the human body. Concurrently, the placenta begins to form as the embryo attaches itself to the uterine wall, a crucial step for maternal-fetal connection.

This attachment enables the transfer of nutrients, oxygen and waste between mother and fetus.

Synthetic embryology artificially recreates these developmental stages using human pluripotent stem cells derived from human embryos or induced from adult human cells. Like early embryonic cells, these cells have the ability to develop into any type of cell in the human body. In carefully engineered lab environments, researchers can coax these cells to form multicellular structures that mimic various embryonic developmental stages, including early organ formation.

Researchers created the first human embryo model from embryonic stem cells in 2014. This pioneering model, also called a gastruloid, captured key aspects of early human development and showed that scientists can drive pluripotent stem cells to form patterned layers echoing the three germ layers and the outer layers of the embryo.

Gastruloids are easy to replicate and measure when studying early events in development.

These 2D gastruloids can also help researchers precisely identify and image embryonic cells.

However, this model lacks the complex 3D structure and spatial cell interactions seen in natural embryogenesis.

Sunday, February 11, 2024

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Tilapia ice cream, anyone?

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OU read it right! Tilapia ice cream is the recent addition to the growing trend of unique and interesting flavors of ice cream in the market.

At the same time, the research on tilapia ice cream scoops up the top prize from National Symposium on Agriculture, Aquatic and Natural Resource Research and Development (NSAARRD).

Developed by food scientists and researchers at Central Lu-zon State University (CLSU), the tilapia ice cream is an enjoyable way to get the best out of what the fish can offer.

This tilapia food technology offers consumers a rich protein source without the fishy and smelly taste of the fish.

To share the taste of the ice cream with more Filipinos, Vera Bella Enterprises Ltd. created the Daerrys tilapia product lines.

Besides ice cream, it also created other products, such as tilapia cookies and ice cream sandwiches.

According to Dr. Dana Vera Cruz, managing partner of Vera

Currently, tilapia ice cream is already available in the market.

It is being sold in Daerry’s Scoop ‘N Bites in Munoz, Nueva Ecija.

Daerrys products are also distributed in Harvest Hotel, Cabanatuan City; Lumings Café, San Jose City; Milka Krem, Science City of Muñoz; Kafe Klasiko, Cabanatuan City; and at the Philip-pine Carabao Center at CLSU.

NSAARRD 2023 top prize

DAERRYS Tilapia Ice Cream and Cookies offers a variety of products that aim to give consumers a more enjoyable way of eating protein. CENTRAL LUZON STATE UNIVERSITY PHOTO

Bella, the motivation to pursue tilapia ice cream was to provide another option for addressing malnutrition and undernourishment in the country.

“The problem that we intend to solve here is the declining fish

consumption of children. Incorporating fish into the children’s diet, and even those individuals who don’t eat fish, is an innovative way to provide them with the protein and other health benefits of eating fish,” Vera Cruz said.

THE paper, “Upscale Production and Commercialization of Daerrys Tilapia Ice Cream and Tilapia Cookies,” took the top spot in the Development Category of the 2023 NSAARRD. Led by the Philippine Council for Agriculture, Aquatic and Natural Resource Research and Development of the Department of Science Technology (DOST-PCA ARRD), NSAARRD show-cases the outstanding contributions of individuals and institutions in the field of agriculture, aquatic, and natural resources research and development.

Karl Vincent S. Mendez/S&T Media Services

Advancements in human embryo models

SINCE the first gastruloid, the field has made substantial advancements.

Over the years, various models have been able to replicate different facets of human embryogenesis, such as amniotic sac development, germ layer formation and body plan organization.

Researchers have also developed organ-specific models for early organ development, such as a model that captures key events of neural development and fetal lung organoids that mimic the process of lung formation.

However, none of these models fully captures the entire process of a single cell type developing into the complete structure of a whole embryo.

A significant breakthrough occurred in 2021 when several research groups successfully used human pluripotent stem cells with higher developmental potential to create blastoids, which resemble early-stage embryos prior to implantation.

Blastoids form in a similar way to human embryos, starting from just a few cells that proliferate and organize themselves.

The developmental and structural similarity of blastoids to embryos make them useful for studying the early steps of how embryos form, especially before they attach to the womb.

Blastoids can adhere to lab dishes and undergo further growth. They can also mimic embryo implantation in the uterus by integrating with maternal endometrial cells and developing into later embryonic stages after implantation.

Recently, researchers have successfully created more complex models in the lab that mimic what happens after embryos attach to the womb.

Two research teams have used specially engineered cells to create structures similar to those of human embryos at about one week postimplantation. These models are also able to form the cells that eventually turn into sperm and eggs in humans, mirroring what happens in natural development.

Another research group was also able to create a similar model from pluripotent stem cells without needing to genetically engineer them.

This model is able to mimic even later development stages and the beginning of nervous system formation.

Choosing the right models

IN the evolving field of synthetic embryology, no single model can perfectly capture all aspects of embryogenesis.

Consequently, the objective isn’t to play God, creating life in a petri dish, but rather to enhance our understanding of ourselves. This goal underscores the importance of carefully choosing the model best suited to the specific research objectives at hand.

For example, my previous work focused on chromosomal abnormalities in early human development.

Aneuploidy, or cells with an abnormal number of chromosomes, is a leading cause of pregnancy loss. But scientific knowledge about how these abnormal cells affect pregnancy and fetal development is very limited.

Since gastruloids can effectively model these aspects of early development, this system could be ideal for studying aneuploidy in early development. It allows researchers to precisely track and analyze how aneuploid cells behave and how they affect developmental processes.

Using this model, my team and I discovered that cells with chromosomal abnormalities are more likely to mature into placental cells and are likely eliminated during the development of fetal cells.

This finding offers significant insight into why babies with normal chromosome numbers can be born healthy even with aneuploidy detected during pregnancy.

Such discoveries are valuable for improving diagnostic and prognostic methods in prenatal care.

Future models that more completely replicate embryonic structures and more closely mirror biological events will not only advance understanding of the fundamentals of early development but also hold great potential in addressing clinical problems.

Researchers can use them to model diseases and develop drugs for early life or genetic conditions. These models are also invaluable for studying tissue formation in regenerative medicine.

Creating embryo models from a patient’s own cells could also allow researchers to study the genetics of development and aid in personalizing treatments.

Key to progress in the field of synthetic embryology is unwavering adherence to ethical standards and regulation. Crucially, these embryo models are neither synthetic nor actual embryos.

The International Society for Stem Cell Research strictly prohibits transferring these embryo models into the uterus of a human or an animal.

Although these models mimic certain features of early developmental stages, they cannot and will not develop into the equivalent of a human baby after birth.

Grounding research in solid justifications and oversight will help ensure that scientific exploration into the fabric of life is conducted with the utmost respect and responsibility.

By embracing the complexities and potential of synthetic embryology, researchers stand on the brink of a new era in biological understanding and are poised to unravel the mysteries of life itself. Min Yang, University of Washington/The Conversation (CC) via AP

THE game app can be accessed through Google Play: https://play.google.com/store/apps/ details?id=ph.gov.dost.nrcp.sffpuzzlegame NRCP PHOTO

AN offline smartphone game called “Siargao Flora and Fauna Puzzle” was created as a result of an NRCP grant. NRCP PHOTO

Filipino game app educates children on biodiversity

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OBILE game applications (apps) are very popular during this age of artificial intelligence, especially among the youth.

To inspire young learners to know more about the rich biodiversity of Siargao Island, a game app titled “Siargao Flora & Fauna Puzzle” was developed by the Department of Science and Technology-National Research Council of the Philippines (DOST-NRCP).

The offline game app, similar to one of the most popular mobile games, Candy Crush, but the difference is that it introduces new animal species on specific levels.

Each level is an idle and visual way to understand the habitat and behavior of Siargao’s natural treasures.

They include the Mindanao

flying tree squirrel, Paka Gadikit and Platymantis Paka through the app feature called “Siargao Journal.”

“Siargao Flora and Fauna Puzzle” was created as a result of a NRCP grant.

The project involved environmental researchers, led by Dr. Cecilia Banag-Moran, who conducted research, assessment, inventory, and a biological field survey of the Mangrove Forest in Del Carmen, Siargao Island.

The success of the “Siargao Flora & Fauna Puzzle” underscores the positive impact of the DOSTNRCP’s initiatives in promoting basic research nationwide.

Scientific research findings are translated into entertaining and interesting platforms through the Council’s Leveraging Basic Research

Information Translation for Empowerment in the Regions Program (BRITER), which supports the advancement of basic research and a science culture among the youth throughout the country’s regions.

Local leaders and members of the House of Representatives and the Senate are increasingly recognizing the value of evidence-based research studies in shaping policies and crafting legislation “Let us explore Siargao Island through this game app, especially for our children, and learn more about the types of plants and animals that continue to thrive in Siargao’s rich biodiversity,” said Rep. Francisco Jose Matugas II of Surigao del Norte First Congressional District as he endorsed the NRCP game application to parents and children.

DOST expert, first Filipino to receive ISO Excellence award

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DEPARTMENT of Science and Technology (DOST) official received the coveted International Organization for Standardization (ISO) Award, the first Filipino expert to bag the recognition.

Dr. Rico J. Cabangon, the DOST Forest Products Research and Development Institute (DOST-FPRDI) Office of the Director OIC, was honored for his work in Bamboo and Rattan (ISO/TC 296), and for his leadership in the working group on Bamboo for Furniture (WG 5).

Cabangon was also cited for his contributions to the development of ISO 6128:2023, which outlines the requirements and test methods on laminated products made of bamboo strips for indoor furniture purposes.

The formulation of ISO 6128:2023 aims to boost the global trade of laminated bamboo and strengthen its value, effectiveness, and competitiveness in the market.

The ISO Excellence Award recognizes the

DOST-FPRDI OIC Rico J. Cabangon (center) receives from DTI- BPS SDD Division Chief Ma. Teresita del Rosario (third from left) the ISO Excellence Award during the flag ceremony at the DOST on January 22. With them are (from left) Senior Trade-Industry Development Specialist Rheychelle Pidoc; DTI-BPS Standards Development Section Assistant Division Chief Myra Magabilin; Science Secretary Renato U. Solidum Jr.; Science Undersecretary for R&D Leah J. Buendia; and Chief of DTI-BPS-Product Testing Division Jay Illescas. DOST-FPRDI PHOTO

endeavors of ISO’s technical professionals, experts, project leaders, or convenors in committee working groups that have significantly helped in “furthering the interests of standardization and related activities.”

Science Secretary Dr. Renato U. Solidum Jr. congratulated Cabangon for the ISO

recognition.

Solidum underscored the need to create more standards and testing facilities, particularly for engineered bamboo products that are economically promising for export.

This includes e-bamboo as structural material for trusses and columns.

Matugas emphasized that the game app is a fun, safe and educational tool for learning about the island’s natural species.

In the Senate, Sen. Francis N. Tolentino, at the 2024 DOST budget deliberation, emphasized that the wealth of scientific research and data from the DOST needs to be actively applied by other government agencies to improve their respective services.

Looking ahead, the researchers, scientists, engineers, policymakers, scholars, academicians, entrepreneurs, technology enthusiasts, and government officials will gather in the 2024 Annual Scientific Conference and the 91st NRCP General Assembly scheduled on March 12 at the Philippine International Convention Center.

Glenn Ford B. Tolentino/S&T Media Service

“We are very pleased to announce that Dr. Cabangon is the first Philippine expert to receive this special award from ISO. PNS 2099:2015 Engineered Bamboo for general purpose-Specification is also the first Philippine National Standard approved/ translated into an International Standard, ISO 6128:2023,” said Engr. Ma. Teresita G. del Rosario of the Department of Trade and Industry’s Bureau of Philippine Standards (DTI-BPS) during the awarding ceremony at the DOST last January 22.

Del Rosario added: “The DOST’s efforts and contribution to national and international standardization activities are recognized by receiving this international award. This demonstrates how the Philippines’ involvement and contribution to sustainability-driven standardization at the national, regional, and international levels has improved.”

Cabangon also chars the DTI-BPS’ Technical Committee on Bamboo and Rattan.

Maybell Mariella A. Palaypayon and Kathleen Joy B. Bitao/S&T Media Service

A6 Sunday, February 11, 2024

Faith

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

Pope: ‘Welcome’ is at the heart of ‘Fiducia supplicans’

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VERYONE, everyone,” Pope Francis said in Lisbon at the 2023 World Youth Day in August, and repeated on numerous other occasions to reiterate the principle of welcome at the heart of the Church’s pastoral mission.

Likewise, he said it to describe spontaneous blessings of individuals who are in so-called “irregular” relationships, including homosexual ones, as taken into account by the Vatican’s doctrinal document Fiducia supplicans which was issued in December.

In his interview with the Italian weekly magazine Credere, a periodical of the San Paolo Group, which was published on February 8, Pope Francis also returned to the theme of such blessings, which have generated various reactions and controversies, and repeated what he had already mentioned in his audience with the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith that drafted the declaration.

“I do not bless a ‘homosexual marriage’; I bless two people who

love each other, and I also ask them to pray for me,” the Pope explained in his conversation with Credere’s Editor Don Vincenzo Vitale.

“Always in confessions, when these situations arrive—homosexual people, remarried people—I always pray and bless.

The blessing is not to be denied to anyone. Everyone, everyone.

Mind you, I am talking about people: those who are capable of receiving Baptism.”

“The gravest sins,” the pope adds, “are those that disguise themselves with a more ‘angelic’ appearance. No one is scandalised if I give a blessing to an entrepreneur who perhaps exploits people: and this is a very serious sin. Whereas they are scandalised if I give it to a homosexual... This

(FROM left) the Rev. James Martin, Archbishop John Wester of Santa Fe, New Mexico, and Rev. Eric Andrews attend the closing Mass for the Outreach conference at the Church of St. Paul the Apostle, in New York, on June 18, 2023. Martin is the founder of Outreach, a unique Jesuit-run program of outreach to LGBTQ+ Catholics. CRISTOBAL SPIELMANN/AMERICA MEDIA VIA AP

Jesuits in US bolster outreach aimed at encouraging LGBTQ+ Catholics

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EW YORK—Even as Catholic dogma continues to repudiate same-sex marriage and gender transition, one of the most prominent religious orders in the United States— the Jesuits—is strengthening a unique outreach program for LGBTQ+ Catholics.

The initiative—fittingly called Outreach—was founded two years ago by the Rev. James Martin, a Jesuit who is one of the country’s most prominent advocates for greater LGBTQ+ inclusion in the Catholic Church.

Outreach, a ministry of the Jesuit magazine America, sponsored conferences in New York City in 2022 and 2023, and last year launched a multifaceted website with news, essays and information about Catholic LGBTQ+ resources and events.

There was another milestone last week for Outreach—the appointment of journalist and author Michael O’Loughlin as its first executive director.

O’Loughlin, a former staff writer at online newspaper Crux, has been the national correspondent at America. He is the author of a book recounting the varied ways that Catholics in the US responded to the AIDS crisis of the 1980s and ‘90s—“Hidden Mercy: AIDS, Catholics, and the Untold Stories of Compassion in the Face of Fear.”

O’Loughlin told The Associated Press he’s excited by his new job, viewing it as a chance to expand the range of Outreach’s programs and the national scope of its community.

“It’s an opportunity to highlight the ways LGBT people can be Catholic and active in parishes, ministries and charities,” he said.

“There’s a lot of fear about being

too public about it.... I want them to realize they’re not alone.”

O’Loughlin says his current outlook evolved as he traveled to scores of places around the US to promote his book, talking to groups of LGBTQ+ Catholics, and their families and friends, about how to make the church more welcoming to them.

T hose conversations made O’Loughlin increasingly comfortable publicly identifying as a gay Catholic after years of wondering whether he should remain in the church. Its doctrine still condemns any sexual relations between gay or lesbian partners as “intrinsically disordered.”

T he latest ex pansion of Out reac h occ u rs a m id a t ime of d iv ision w it h in t he globa l C at hol ic C hu rc h as it g rapples w it h LGBTQ+ issues.

Pope Francis, a Jesuit who has met with Martin and sent letters of support to Outreach, has made clear he favors a more welcoming approach to LGBTQ+ people.

At his direction, the Vatican recently gave priests greater leeway to bless same-sex couples and asserted that transgender people, in some circumstances, can be baptized.

However, there has been some resistance to the pope’s approach.

Many conservative bishops in Africa, Europe and elsewhere said they would not implement the new policy regarding blessings.

In the US, some bishops have issued directives effectively ordering diocesan personnel not to recognize transgender people’s gender identity.

Amid those conflicting developments, Martin and other Jesuit leaders are proud of Outreach’s

church’], of people who feel superior. This is not the holy, faithful people of God. The people of God is made up of believers who know they are sinners and go ahead. I do not hold it against movements, which do so much good.”

“The movement,” explains the Holy Father, “is good when it inserts you into the real Church, but if they are selective, if they detach you from the Church, if they lead you to think that you are a special Christian, this is not Christian.”

Women’s presence is important, not ministeriality POPE Francis ANSA

is hypocrisy! We must all respect each other. Everyone! The heart of the document is welcome.”

Ecclesial movements

IN the interview with the weekly magazine, which celebrates 10 years since its foundation, born precisely on the occasion of Jorge Mario Bergoglio’s election in 2013, the pope retraces the years of his pontificate between personal sharings, such as his dialogues with the elderly or his memories in Buenos Aires, or other pertinent topics, including the Jubilee, “an accomplishments and optimistic about its future.

“There seems to be deep hunger for the kind of ministry that we’re doing, not only among LGBTQ Catholics, but also their families and friends,” Martin said by email from Ireland, where he was meeting last week with the the country’s Catholic bishops.

“Pope Francis has been ver y encouraging, allowing himself to be inter viewed by Outreach and sending personal greetings to our conference last year,” Martin added.

“Perhaps the most surprising support has been from several bishops who have written for our website, as well as some top-notch Catholic theologians who see the need for serious theological reflection on LGBTQ topics,” he added.

Martin will remain engaged in Outreach’s oversight, holding the title of founder.

The Rev. Brian Paulson, president of the Jesuit Conference of Canada and the United States, evoked both Jesus and the pope when asked why his order had embraced the mission of Outreach.

“Pope Francis has repeatedly called leaders in the Catholic church to emulate the way Jesus spent his ministry on the peripheries, accompanying those who had experienced exclusion,” Paulson said through email. “I think the work of Outreach is a response to this invitation.”

Paulson also said he was impressed by Martin’s “grace and patience” in responding to the often harsh criticism directed at him by some conservative Catholics.

There was ample evidence of Outreach ’s stature at its conference last June at a branch of Fordham University in New York City. The event was preceded by a handwritten letter of support sent to Martin by Pope Francis, extending “prayers and good wishes” to the participants.

“It’s a special grace for LGBTQ Catholics to know that the pope is praying for them,” Martin said.

Another welcoming letter came from Cardinal Timothy Dolan, the archbishop of New York.

“It is the sacred duty of the Church and Her ministers to reach out to those on the periphery,” he wrote to the conference attendees.

The keynote speakers included Fordham’s president, Tania Tetlow, and the closing Mass was celebrated by Archbishop John Wester of Santa Fe, New Mexico. David Crary Ap National Writer

event of grace” in view of which it is necessary to “rediscover the value and the need for prayer.”

The pope also spoke of the ecclesial movements and the involvement of young people in pastoral experiences, such as those in developing nations or Latin American countries, where people are spoken to in language they can understand.

“There are also ‘sophisticated’ realities and movements,” the pope says, that are rather “refined.”

These movements, he says, “tend to form an ecclesiola [‘a little

THE pope’s response on the role of women is also clear, in light of the constant appeals to restore a “female face” to the Church or, the most recent one, to “unmask” the Church.

Pope Francis reiterates the difference between the Petrine principle and the Marian principle. “The Church is woman; She is bride. Peter is not woman; he is not bride.” “ The Church-bride is more important than Peter-minister!” he said.

He then adds that “opening up work in the Curia to women is important,” emphasising how women “help the ministry.”

He urges everyone to look at

the small villages where there is no priest and nuns run parishes, baptise, give communion, and perform funeral rites.

“It is not the ministeriality of women that is the most important thing; instead, the presence of women is fundamental,” the pope explained.

New future appointments in the Roman Curia

LOOKING at the Roman Curia, where several female appointments have taken place over the years, the pope says, “Now there are several women, and there will be more, because they do better than us men in certain positions.”

Pope Francis cites Sr. Raffaella Petrini, secretary of the Vatican Governorate, “the women who are in the Dicastery to elect bishops” (who include Sr. Petrini, Sr. Yvonne Reungoat, former superior general of the Salesians, and Maria Lía Zervino, president of the UMOFC, Sr. Alessandra Smerilli, secretary of the Dicastery for Integral Human Development, and others.

“These are all posts that need women,” he said.

Finally, when asked if he realises that he has initiated “an epochal change” the pope replies, “No, really! They tell me, Yes, I go ahead as I can.”

India opens new Rama temple; ritual becomes controversial

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HE consecration rituals of the icon of Lord Rama were performed in a newly built mega-temple in the town of Ayodhya, India, on January 22. The prime minister of India, Narendra Modi, performed the rituals during a 48-minute period considered auspicious by Hindu astrologers.

Lord Rama, an avatara, or incarnation of Vishnu, is one of the most important deities in the Hindu tradition.

Amid the carefully staged pageantry, the media’s hysteria over the guest lists and the celebrations of exultant Hindus—not just in India but from Golden Gate Bridge to Times Square—the religious significance of the rituals, known in Sanskrit as “prana pratishtha,” or “establishment of breath,” was completely lost.

Media all around the world, particularly in India, referred to the icon of Lord Rama as an “idol.”

However, the term does not capture the Hindu belief that matter transforms into divine reality during this ritual.

Although there are many nuanced Sanskrit words, there is no English term that does justice. In fact, the word “idol” has pejorative implications.

As a professor of religion who has studied the religious significance of deities in temples, I want to highlight this important ritual, which is said to transform the material image.

From matter to deity

THE ritual of “prana pratishtha” is a culmination of several days or even weeks of preparation. At crucial moments during the per formance of the ritual, many Hindus, though not all, believe that the divine being comes to abide in a carefully carved icon.

I n a n i d e a ro u g h l y a n a l o g o u s to transubstantiation in the Catholic Church—where, when the priest consecrates the bread and wine, the whole substance of the bread and wine is believed to become the body of Christ—through prana pratishtha, the material icon becomes a divine presence.

Although several Hindu texts speak of the supreme being as being beyond form, gender and even number, paradoxically, Hindus also see the supreme entity as graciously taking a “material” form and abiding in a temple as an incarnate deity worthy of worship.

Despite textual and regional variations, there are many common practices in this ritual.

During the process of prana pratishtha, this image carved by a master sculptor is initially purified, then covered in water, grains, fragrant substances, herbs, flowers and other materials.

In doing so, it is said to absorb the energies of the universe. Texts called “Puranas” and “Agamas,” composed in the first millennium C.E., give many details for the procedure.

DEVOTEES and visitors celebrating the “prana pratishtha” ceremony outside the Rama temple on January 22, Prime Minister’s Office (GODL-India) WIKIPEDIA COMMONS

There are fire sacrifices in a pavilion outside, the deity is taken into the temple and also in a procession through the town, and there is recitation of mantras.

Precious stones and metals, as well as a yantra, a metal plate with geometrical drawings, are buried in the ground in the inner shrine where the deity is to be installed.

The eyes of the icon are also ritually opened. Since the unrestricted power or “shakti” of the deity is believed to blaze out through its gaze, a mirror is held in front of it both to guide the sculptor in opening the eyes carefully and also to reflect the power back to it.

In Ayodhya, a scarf was removed from the eyes of the deity.

At the crucial time, the chief priest invokes the divine being, inviting it to abide in the icon. With the opening of the eyes and the invoking and transfer of breath, the material icon is said to be transformed into an incarnation of the deity.

at the site have been litigated for more than a hundred years, and in 2019, the Supreme Court of India ruled that the land be given to a Hindu trust and a five-acre lot be given to the Muslims to build a mosque.

Building the temple was started soon after this judgment.

Politically, the attention accompanying the rites highlighted the metaphor of Rama “returning home.”

It refers to an incident in the story of Rama as told in the ancient epic, the “Ramayana,” when he is exiled from Ayodhya on the eve of his coronation and returns home after 14 years of exile.

Devotees’ sentiments as well as speeches at the inauguration of the temple spoke of Rama’s return to Ayodhya after 500 years of being banished from his birthplace.

It was a clear reference to what the government and many Hindus believed to be a return of Rama to Ayodhya after his presence was “banished” with the building of the mosque in the 16th century.

Controversies over the temple land

‘Not in our names’

THE “prana pratishtha” rituals have been done in thousands of temples in India and globally. But the Ayodhya one has arguably drawn the most attention politically and has also been the most controversial.

The new temple has been built on the land where a 16th century mosque—the Babri Masjid—was destroyed by Hindu activists in December 1992.

Some Hindus claim that the mosque had been built by razing a 15th century Rama temple, said to be the site of his birth.

While there seems to be evidence that a temple stood where the mosque was built, scholars have disputed the claim that that spot was the very one where Rama was born.

Representatives of Jainism, another ancient religion of India, have also claimed that a sixth century Jain temple existed on this site before the mosque was built.

Several scholars have argued that the destruction of the mosque is directly connected with Hindu nationalism and communal violence.

Hindus’ and Muslims’ rights to worship

THERE were many Hindus who objected to the politicization of the event as well as the active role of the government and its agencies in the ritual fanfare. Indian Air Force choppers rained flowers on the temple after the consecration.

Some observers, including outsiders sympathetic to Hinduism, saw these rituals as a glorification of Modi, not Rama.

The event was also contested in religious circles. Several monastic heads refused to join the event, but a prominent Hindu writer said that these religious leaders were not representative of Hinduism and refuted their objections.

Despite these controversies, for those Hindus who supported the building of the temple, it was a sacred moment.

During the prana pratishtha, the divine is said to become present in the icon, if the rituals are properly performed. The “idol” made of material substance is then transformed, and the temple becomes the home for the deity.

Vasudha Narayanan, University of Florida/The Conversation (CC) via AP

Biodiversity Sunday BusinessMirror

Asean Champions of Biodiversity Media Category 2014

Sunday, February 11, 2024 A7

Editor: Lyn Resurreccion

NORTHERN MANILA BAY

A haven for migratory shorebirds under threat

By Jonathan L. Mayuga

and [Brgy.] Taliptip [in Bulacan], where water levels have risen due to altered drainage around the reclaimed area for the airport. Interactions between these threats and other factors are possible, and the severity of the outcomes is often difficult to predict. Possible losses of migratory bird populations due to land reclamation, such as in southern Manila Bay, should be a cautionary tale,” she explained.

H

ABITAT loss caused by destructive human activities is pushing more and more species, including migratory shorebirds, to the brink of extinction.

These include wetland ecosystems in the Philippines, such as Manila Bay, currently the subject of land reclamation activities.

Shorebird abundance

DESPITE the threats, however, a recent study published in the International Wader Study Group revealed a significant shorebird abundance in northern Manila Bay. The area includes the municipalities of Sasmuan and Masantol and Pampanga River Delta in Pampanga, and the municipalities of Hagonoy, Paombong and Brgy. Pamarawan in Bulacan.

The study“Frequent, year-round monitoring reveals significant shorebird abundances in northern Manila Bay, Philippines” highlights the connectivity of habitats along a migratory bird flyway that is crucial for the survival of migratory shorebirds threatened by anthropogenic loss of coastline habitats.

The authors were Hui Zhen Tan, Movin Nyanessengeran, both of the Department of Biological Sciences, National University of Singapore, and Irene C. Dy, Wala. a bird watcher and bird tours facilitator. Dy also contributed to waterbird census.

According to the authors, a lack of regular monitoring in shorebird sites may prohibit accurate and comprehensive assessment of site importance and impede the identification of key sites for conservation.

Important shorebird areas

THE authors presented a case where important shorebird areas in northern Manila Bay have been overlooked as previous bird counts were mostly made outside of the actual period of peak shorebird use.

The areas surveyed—Brgy. Tanza in Navotas City, Brgy. Pamarawan in Bulacan, and Pampanga province—host high numbers of shorebirds during migratory months, with Brgy. Tanza also having considerable numbers of over-summering shorebirds.

“Importantly, 14 species were recorded in abundance, exceeding 1 percent of their flyway populations. These areas in northern Manila Bay should be granted protection under the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands, and demonstrate the importance of frequent, year-round monitoring in assessing sites,” the authors noted.

Under grave threat

UNFORTUNATELY, northern Manila Bay is under grave threat as highly destructive developments and land reclamation are currently being carried out in the area, with additional coastal development projects being planned.

“We highlight the urgency of surveying other sites in the Philippines to prevent inadvertent loss of undervalued shorebird

Healthy sites, healthy birds

MIGRATORY shorebirds in Brgy. Pamarawan, Bulacan PHOTOS COURTESY OF IRENE DY

areas and to preserve crucial portions of the East Asian-Australasian Flyway,” the study said.

The authors pointed out that coastlines, with their proximity to trade and transport networks, are also sites for concentrated human habitation.

Coastlines are among the most exploited and degraded habitats today, threatened by encroachment for a range of economic activities, including tourism, aquaculture, agriculture and sand mining, they said.

East Asian-Australasian Flyway

THE Philippines is in the path of the East Asian-Australasian Flyway (EAAF), which hosts the highest number of shorebirds.

Incidentally, almost half of the global human population also sits along the path.

“Southeast Asia, part of the EAAF, also holds some of the greatest expanses of mudflats and mangroves globally. These factors make the EAAF crucially important for safeguarding shorebird populations while being highly threatened,” the study said.

Conserving the EAAF requires a multipronged approach, exemplified by the formation of the EAAF Partnership, which coordinates concerted and collaborative efforts to protect and conserve the flyway.

Staging areas

SHOREBIRDS use various sites along the EAAF

Old forests critical for slowing climate change; need protection from logging

F

ORESTS are an essential part of Earth’s operating system. They reduce the buildup of heat-trapping carbon dioxide in the atmosphere from fossil fuel combustion, deforestation and land degradation by 30 percent each year.

This slows global temperature increases and the resulting changes to the climate.

In the US, forests take up 12 percent of the nation’s greenhouse gas emissions annually and store the carbon long term in trees and soils.

Mature and old-growth forests, with larger trees than younger forests, play an outsized role in accumulating carbon and keeping it out of the atmosphere.

These forests are especially resistant to wildfires and other natural disturbances as the climate warms.

Most forests in the continental US have been harvested multiple times. Today, just 3.9 percent of timberlands across the US, in public and private hands, are over 100 years old, and most of these areas hold relatively

little carbon compared with their potential.

The Biden administration is moving to improve protection for old-growth and mature forests on federal land, which we see as a welcome step.

But this involves regulatory changes that will likely take several years to complete.

Meanwhile, existing forest management plans that allow logging of these important old, large trees remain in place.

As scientists who have spent decades studying forest ecosystems and the effects of climate change, we believe that it is essential to start protecting carbon storage in these forests.

In our view, there is ample scientific e v i d e n ce to j u s t i f y a n i m m e d i ate moratorium on logging mature and oldgrowth forests on federal lands. .

Federal action to protect mature and old-growth forests

A WEEK after his inauguration in 2021,

for staging or fuelling when migrating between their breeding and wintering grounds.

Citing various studies, the authors said different shorebird species prefer different paths along the flyway.

“For instance, the Far Eastern curlew [Numenius madagascariensis] is more abundant along the eastern portion of the EAAF compared to the Eurasian curlew [Numenius arquata], which is more prevalent in the western regions,” the study said.

In conclusion, they said a network of sites along the length and breadth of the flyway is needed to safeguard its full suite of species.

Despite being relatively well-known, new information on the EAAF has demonstrated that much remains to be learned about it.

For instance, areas in southern Philippines that were not thought to be important for migrants were recently found to be used by overwintering critically endangered Chinese crested tern (Thalasseus Bernstein).

Dy said via email that the study surveyed the eastern edge of northern Manila Bay, particularly Brgy. Tanza mudflats, which is an extremely critical shorebird habitat.

Fascinating birds

“SHOREBIRDS are a fascinating group of birds known for their annual feats of migration between their breeding grounds and their wintering areas. As they President Joe Biden issued an executive order that set a goal of conserving at least 30 percent of US lands and waters by 2030 to address what the order called “a profound climate crisis.”

In 2022, Biden recognized the climate importance of mature and old-growth forests for a healthy climate and called for conserving them on federal lands.

Most recently, in December 2023, the US Forest Service announced that it was evaluating the effects of amending management plans for 128 US national forests to better protect mature and old-growth stands—the first time any administration has taken this kind of action.

These actions seek to make existing old-growth forests more resilient; preserve ecological benefits that they provide, such as habitat for threatened and endangered species; establish new areas where oldgrowth conditions can develop; and monitor the forests’ condition over time.

The amended national forest management plans also would prohibit logging old-growth trees for mainly economic purposes—that is, producing timber.

Harvesting trees would be permitted for other reasons, such as thinning to reduce

migrate, shorebirds use various habitats and, therefore; promote connectivity of ecosystems around the world,” Dy told the B usiness M irror on January 9.

She said that in the Philippines, the arrival of large numbers of these shorebirds from higher latitudes in the Northern Hemisphere marks the migratory season from August to March each year.

According to Birdlife International, more than 50 million migratory waterbirds, including 8 million shorebirds across hundreds of species, use the EAAF annually.

Decreasing population

ACCORDING to Dy, while they do not have data in the study for definite interpretation of long-term trends, observations made during their surveys over three migratory cycles have suggested a decrease in shorebird populations, which was also the observation of previous studies.

“Considering that large-scale and ongoing reclamation and quarrying that started in the third quarter of 2022 in Bulacan will destroy and degrade much of the surrounding shoreline habitats, we expect that future studies will find that such activities would have greatly affected shorebird populations due to a reduction in feeding and roosting grounds,” she said.

Dy explained that local reduction in shorebird populations can also indicate fire severity in hot, dry regions where fires occur more frequently.

Remarkably, however, logging is hardly considered in the Forest Service’s initial analysis, although studies show that it causes greater carbon losses than wildfires and pest infestations.

In one analysis across 11 western US states, researchers calculated total aboveground tree carbon loss from logging, beetle infestations and fire between 2003 and 2012, and found that logging accounted for half of it.

Across the states of California, Oregon and Washington, harvest-related carbon emissions between 2001 and 2016 averaged five times the emissions from wildfires.

A 2016 study found that nationwide, between 2006 and 2010, total carbon emissions from logging were comparable to emissions from all US coal plants, or to direct emissions from the entire building sector.

Logging pressure

FEDERAL lands are used for multiple purposes, including biodiversity and water quality protection, recreation, mining, grazing and timber production.

Sometimes, these uses can conflict with one another—for example, conservation

changing qualities of the shoreline habitats, which could have implications for residents and industries relying on the intact ecosystem of the bay.

Reclamation, quarrying woes

DY said the first major threat to migratory shorebirds in the study sites is the loss of habitats due to reclamation of critical mudflats.

“This has already happened at [Brgy.]

Taliptip in Bulacan, which used to hold good numbers of Far Eastern curlew [an endangered species under IUCN] and Eurasian curlew, and could have spillover effects on [Bgy.] Tanza, Navotas, an important site for the Far Eastern curlew that has seen the highest count in the Philippines currently known to date,” she said. IUCN stands for International Union for Conservation of Nature, an international organization on nature conservation and sustainable use of natural resources.

Dy added that planting mangroves on mudflats is further reducing the available mudflat area where shorebirds feed and roost.

“The second threat to our migratory shorebirds as well as fishermen in the area is the deepening of the bay due to large-scale quarrying of sand and mud for reclamation projects, such as the [building of ] new international airport [in Bulacan],” she pointed out.

“Changing hydrology has also been observed in [the municipality of ] Obando and logging.

Legal mandates to manage land for multiple uses do not explicitly consider climate change, and federal agencies have not consistently factored climate change science into their plans.

Early in 2023, however, the White House Council on Environmental Quality directed federal agencies to consider the effects of climate change when they propose major federal actions that significantly affect the environment.

Multiple large logging projects on public land clearly qualify as major federal actions, but many thousands of acres have been legally exempted from such analysis.

Across the western US, just 20 percent of relatively high-carbon forests, mostly on federal lands, are protected from logging and mining.

A study in the lower 48 states found that 76 percent of mature and old-growth forests on federal lands are vulnerable to logging.

Harvesting these forests would release about half of their aboveground tree carbon into the atmosphere within one or two decades.

An analysis of 152 national forests across North America found that five forests in the

ACCORDING to Dy, it is important to maintain healthy migratory shorebird habitats, which means a healthy migratory shorebird population.

“The importance of having a healthy migratory shorebird population in the Philippines means that these birds can gain sufficient energy reserves to fly back to their northern breeding grounds. Since a network of healthy sites is necessary to support shorebird migration, just like how airports facilitate our [human] travels, the loss of shorebird habitats in the Philippines will affect the entire East-Asian Australian Flyway all the way to Siberia,” she further explained.

As such, Dy said there is an urgent need for stringent measures to safeguard or protect these migratory shorebirds and their habitats from threats.

“These migratory shorebirds and their habitats could be protected with a critical evaluation of the environmental impacts of ongoing and future development projects in Manila Bay, and more surveys to identify important shorebird habitats in the Philippines that may have been overlooked,” she said.

More legal protection

DY pointed out that urgent and drastic action to afford these habitats with more legal protection, such as under the Ramsar Convention on Wetland, are needed.

“Past conservation successes in Manila Bay, such as the Las Piñas-Parañaque Critical Habitat and Ecotourism Area Ramsar site, demonstrate that cooperation between public and private sectors can effect meaningful change for the ecosystem, birds, and coastal residents,” she said.

P ro te c t i n g t h e s e h a b i t at s a l s o means safeguarding the mudflats, wetlands, fishponds and rice fields that contributes to the integrity of the communities.

She said Bulacan province, Brgy. Tanza in Navotas, Iloilo province, Mandaue in Cebu, Zamboanga Sibugay, Lingayen Gulf and Palawan province, are just a few of the critical areas for wintering and transiting shorebirds in the Philippines and in this region of the EAAF. “As a party to the Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals, the Philippines has been committed to environmental protection. We need to do our part [so] that birds that come to our shores are able to fly back to their breeding grounds,” Dy pointed out.

Pacific Northwest had the highest carbon densities, but just 10 percent to 20 percent of these lands were protected at the highest levels.

The majority of national forest area that is mature and old growth is not protected from logging, and current management plans include logging of some of the largest trees still standing.

Letting old trees grow

CONSERVING forests is one of the most effective and lowest-cost options for managing atmospheric carbon dioxide, and mature and old-growth forests do this job most effectively.

Protecting and expanding them does not require expensive or complex energyconsuming technologies, unlike some other proposed climate solutions.

Allowing mature and old-growth forests to continue growing will remove from the air and store the largest amount of atmospheric carbon in the critical decades ahead. The sooner logging of these forests ceases, the more climate protection they can provide.

Beverly Law, Oregon State University/ The Conversation (CC) via Associated Press

Sports BusinessMirror

A8 | S

unday, February 11, 2024 mirror_sports@yahoo.com.ph Editor: Jun Lomibao

Usher: A challenge squeezing 30-yr career into 13-minute halftime show

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Plenty of storylines, interesting matchup A WORKER stands by an exhibit at the Super Bowl Experience ahead of the Super Bowl 58 in Las Vegas. AP

L

AS VEGAS—The first Super Bowl in Las Vegas has everything the imaginary National Football League (NFL) scriptwriters could’ve wanted.

There’s Patrick Mahomes and the underdog Kansas City Chiefs (14-6) aiming to become the first repeat champions in 19 years and trying to solidify their claim to a dynasty with a third Super Bowl title in five years.

There’s Brock Purdy returning from a significant injury after rising from “Mr. Irrelevant” to now lead the San Francisco 49ers (14-5) to the brink of a record-tying sixth Super Bowl title that would etch his name alongside Pro Football Hall of Famers Joe Montana and Steve Young.

Of course, there’s the glitz and glamour of America’s showcase city and the irony of playing a Super Bowl in this gambling capital, an idea that used to be taboo for the NFL. Did we mention Taylor Swift yet?

Make room for the Grammywinning superstar to jet into town just in time to see her boyfriend, Travis Kelce, try to win another ring.

Swift is expected to fly in for Sunday’s game at Allegiant Stadium from Japan after her concert on Saturday.

Kelce, the four-time All-Pro tight end, is focused on limiting the distractions despite fielding numerous questions this week about Swift and their relationship that has captivated millions and attracted a new audience of football fans.

“Show up every day thinking about the now and not too much the

future,” Kelce said. “Obviously, you gotta prepare for what’s ahead but not harp on the past is the biggest thing...I think we would never try and tie in what we did last year to this year. Every single year is really its own journey.”

For the Chiefs, nothing less than hoisting another Vince Lombardi trophy is acceptable so they have the most pressure.

“That expectation has become a demand at this point,” Kelce said.

“I know the years that we haven’t won since we won our first one have felt like the biggest losses of my life.

So it’s just having that mentality year in, year out, and putting the expectations on yourself, making sure that no one puts higher expectations on us more than us. We’re here to win this thing, baby. That’s for sure.”

Mahomes, the two-time NFL and Super Bowl MVP, is already drawing comparisons to Tom Brady, who won seven Super Bowl rings. Brady won three in his first four seasons as a starter. Mahomes is going for No. 3 in his sixth season.

Even if he wins, it’s too early to have the conversation.

“I’m not even close to halfway, so I haven’t put a lot of thought into it,” Mahomes said. “I mean, your goal is to be the best player that you can be.

I know I’m blessed to be around a lot of great players. And so, right now, it’s doing whatever I can to beat a great 49ers team and try to get that third ring. And then if you ask me that question in 15 years, and I’ll see if I can get close to seven. But seven

seems like a long ways away still.”

This is a rematch of the game the Chiefs won four years ago to give coach Andy Reid his first championship. Niners coach Kyle Shanahan has been close to winning twice before only to see his teams blow big leads.

He was Atlanta’s offensive coordinator when Brady and the Patriots rallied from a 28-3 secondhalf deficit to win the Super Bowl in 2017. His 49ers team led the Chiefs 20-10 entering the fourth quarter only to watch Mahomes rally Kansas City to a 31-20 win in Miami in 2020.

“Both of them are heartbreaking,” Shanahan said. “Those things last awhile. But it’s all about getting back there again, and that’s what I’m excited for.”

Shanahan’s dad, Mike, lost two Super Bowls as an offensive coordinator with Denver before going to San Francisco and winning one in 1995. He then won two more as the head coach of the Broncos.

“I remember seeing my dad after those Super Bowls when he was a coordinator in Denver when I was younger and how hard it was on him,” Shanahan said. “So I think anytime you get that close and you lose the last one, that’s definitely the hardest.”

Jimmy Garoppolo was the team’s quarterback last time around. Now, it’s Purdy, an AP NFL MVP finalist who overcame all the odds and continues to make critics look foolish.

Purdy isn’t concerned with proving doubters wrong. He has rare maturity for a 24-year-old that helps him play with confidence and maintain his composure.

“It comes down to how do I do my job really well for three hours against the Kansas City Chiefs’ defense,” Purdy said.

“That’s where my mindset’s at. I want to do everything I can to help my team win. I’m focusing on the plays. I’m focusing on what we’re trying to do for this week, not getting caught up in all the paparazzi and all that kind of stuff outside.” AP

AS VEGAS—Usher found fitting a successful three decades of music into a supershort Super Bowl halftime show a challenge, but the multiple Grammy winner decided to concentrate on past hits, moments from his popular Las Vegas residency and possibly draw from his new album.

“I was very mindful of my past, celebrating my present, which is here in Las Vegas, and thinking about where we’re heading in the future,” the singer said when he addressed the media Thursday in advance of Sunday’s Super Bowl, which will be held at Las Vegas’ Allegiant Stadium, with the San Francisco 49ers facing off against the Kansas City Chiefs. He will release his ninth studio album “Coming Home” on Friday.

Usher said he’s been asking himself, “What songs do people know me for, what songs have been a celebration of all of the journey?”

The R&B singer thought about adding the roller skating element from his residency into his halftime performance, but he gave no other specific clues on where that process led him, and what his take on the global spectacle will look like.

“For everybody who heard about my show in Las Vegas, you’ll now get a chance to see some of what I did here but you’ll get the best of it,” he said.”

Usher did not drop names of who might be joining him on stage, but he offered some vague hints. He confirmed that he won’t be alone at Allegiant Stadium. In previous years, most Super Bowl performers have included guest stars—except for Rihanna, who was a solo act last year.

The singer suggested it would be people he’s collaborated with before.

“I think I made it easy for myself

Victims recall lifetimes of trauma from molestation in 1970s

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EX-OLYMPIAN Conrad Mainwaring listens to victim impact statements in Berkshire Superior Court in Pittsfield, Massachusettes. AP

OSTON—A former Olympian and longtime track coach will spend as many as 11 years in state prison after pleading guilty to charges of sexually molesting young boys at a sports camp in western Massachusetts in the 1970s, abuse that was laid bare by the emotional testimony of several victims.

Conrad Mainwaring, who was a hurdler for Antigua and Barbuda in the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal, faced 12 counts of indecent assault and battery on a child over 14 and four counts of indecent assault and battery on a child under 14 in Berkshire Superior Court. The charges involved nine male victims.

“He used his Olympic status to abuse young boys,” District Attorney Timothy Shugrue told the court. “He chose young, attractive, athletic boys, young men because he knew, at least he thought he knew, they would not speak up. This was his opportunity for self-gratification, a fraud at the expense of many, many lives.”

In a pattern that repeated itself over the years, Shugrue detailed case after case in which Mainwaring leveraged his Olympic credentials as part of a grooming technique used

on boys attending Camp Greylock, making the youngsters believe that the sexual assault would make them better athletes.

The abuse took place in the woods around the camp, in a van and near a tennis court among other places.

After details of the cases were presented, Mainwaring, in a wheelchair and wearing a mask, said “yes” when asked by the judge if he committed the offenses laid out in court. He then said “guilty” after each of the charges was read out.

Mainwaring, a 72-year-old Los Angeles resident and United Kingdom national, will serve his sentences on the multiple charges concurrently.

But Judge John Agostini said it was “probably a life sentence” given Mainwaring’s age.

Mainwaring molested campers from 1975 to 1979 while working as a counselor at Camp Greylock in Becket. Authorities have said they believe there are “many other victims” in several states and outside the United States.

Some of the camp victims—who were as young as 13 and as old as 19—testified at Thursday’s hearing, recalling the shame and the damage

when I decided to have featured artists on songs that became hit records. That gave me the greatest inspiration,” he said. “I have definitely gone through a lot of ideas of who I would have go through this moment with me.

That hardly narrows it down, however, given all the folks he’s collaborated with, from Beyoncé to Monica to Nicki Minaj to Ludacris to Lil Jon. Usher was a Super Bowl guest star himself, with Black Eyed Peas frontman will.i.am in 2011. He told The Associated Press previously that he’d use that performance as a “cheat sheet” for Sunday’s show.

On Thursday, he said he had a harrowing moment getting there.

“My hand got caught on a wire that was holding me 30 feet in the air, and I almost missed my entrance,” he said.

He still managed to hit is mark— in the splits. But he would prefer to avoid that kind of mishap.

Usher said he definitely aims to bring the flavor of Atlanta—a city where he made his musical name. His 100-show local residency in Las Vegas last year was a perfect workshop to help make that happen.

“I’ve been able to bring a great deal of Atlanta and the melting pot that it is, musically and culturally, to Las Vegas,” he said. “It wasn’t easy to do but I turned Vegas into Atlanta.

I took the V and turned it upside down.”

An eight-time Grammy winner, Usher’s “Confessions” has sold more than 10 million units in the US. The album ranks among one of the best-selling music projects of all time and launched No. 1 hits such as “Yeah!” with Ludacris and Lil Jon, “Burn” and “Confessions Part II.” His special edition version included the smooth hit “My Boo,” a duet with Alicia Keys. Next year will mark the 20th anniversary of the epic album.

Usher joins a list of celebrated entertainers, who have played during the Super Bowl halftime shows, including Prince, Beyoncé, Madonna, Michael Jackson, Coldplay, Katy Perry, Lady Gaga, Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg. Last year, Rihanna chose her Super Bowl performance to tell the world she was pregnant with her second child.

Usher spoke to the media not in a traditional news conference format but via an interview with Apple Music’s Nadeska Alexis in front of an audience full of reporters that was streamed on its platform and social media sites.

The news conference also featured pre-game performers including Reba McEntire, Post Malone and Andra Day. AP USHER: What songs do people know me for, what songs have been a celebration of all of the journey? AP

the abuse has caused them. Addressing Mainwaring directly, they called him a danger to young men. They demanded a long jail sentence, arguing that he be kept away from boys or young men and barred from coaching.

“It’s beyond diabolical, the pain and suffering of so many. It’s why he must be put behind bars and be prevented from ever harming anyone again,” John Shapiro, an entrepreneur and father of three, who told the court how he was abused at the Massachusetts camp and Syracuse University, “Because given the chance he will. He has shown no signs of remorse or forgiveness. None. Again, given the chance, Mr. Mainwaring will do this again.”

Shapiro also detailed the toll the abuse has taken on his life.

“The trauma from that has caused my life to be full of darkness, sadness and devoid of hope. I’ve suffered so much for so many years,” Shapiro said. “Too painful to describe and too tortuous to put into words, but I’m making an attempt here and now. My life has never been the same since that first fateful time he sexually abused me at Greylock.”

Michael Waxman detailed how

he met Mainwaring 40 years ago at the camp when he was 13. Waxman, an attorney from Portland, Maine, told the court that at the time he was “overjoyed” that Mainwaring had picked him and would have followed him to “the ends of the earth” to see the dream of becoming a top athlete.

“What you did to me had nothing to do with my dream,” he said, confronting Mainwaring for the first time in decades. “It was all about satisfying your perverted sexual needs.”

Waxman said the abuse left him ashamed and disgusted “for the first time in my life.”

“You stole part of my childhood, part of my innocence and frivolity,” he said. “Conrad, I really was a good kid.

I didn’t deserve to feel shame. I didn’t deserve to feel disgusted with myself.

You did and you do. Shame on you.”

As victims read their statements, Mainwaring mostly stared at the ground or twiddled his thumbs. He said nothing directly to the victims.

Massachusetts authorities started investigating Mainwaring following a 2019 ESPN report in which more than 50 men alleged they were abused by him, some of them at Camp Greylock.

He was arrested in 2021 on a fugitive warrant as he left a Los Angeles County courthouse after a plea in a separate case from 2019.

Mainwaring also is accused in several lawsuits of abusing dozens of young men when he was a doctoral student, a deputy residency hall director and track and field coach at Syracuse University in the 1980s. A spokesperson for Syracuse declined to comment, saying the school doesn’t “comment on pending/ongoing litigation.”

“Everyone who brought Conrad Mainwaring to justice deserves our thanks, including law enforcement, the district attorney, the journalists at ESPN, and especially the courageous men who shared their stories deserve the most gratitude,” said Saul Wolf, an attorney whose firm represents seven victims and filed lawsuits against Syracuse University in New York, the Syracuse school district and the Massachusetts camp.

“Now that Mainwaring intends to enter a guilty plea and take responsibility, it is time for Syracuse University and Camp Greylock to accept responsibility and be held accountable,” he added. AP

BusinessMirror

Chinese mythology’s Old Man Under the Moon

February 11, 2024

The divine matchmaker who helps couples find love

2

BusinessMirror FEBRUARY 11, 2024

‘SKY’ IS THE LIMIT|

YOUR MUSI

Getting candid with Skypodcast’s Kryz and Slater

By Reine Juvierre S. Alberto

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HAT do you do when you get bored?

For the married couple Kryz Uy and Slater Young, it’s starting a podcast, apparently.

Stuck in their famous Skypod in Cebu due to the pandemic, Kryz and Slater had a lot of intimate conversations and realizations at their home. To share all of these stories with their community, they started the Skypodcast in 2021.

“To be quite honest, it was born out of boredom but we quickly grew to love the platform and connect with our audience in such a different way,” shared Kryz in an exclusive online interview with SoundStrip.

Since the pandemic happened, people were confined to their homes unable to go out and spend time with friends and families. Kryz and Slater had a goal in mind to simply open up conversations and be there for their audience, whom they fondly call “Skyfam,” whenever they feel lonely and anxious while on lockdown.

Publisher : T. Anthony C. Cabangon Editor-In-Chief : Lourdes M. Fernandez Concept : Aldwin M. Tolosa Y2Z Editor : Jt Nisay SoundStrip Editor : Edwin P. Sallan Group Creative Director : Eduardo A. Davad Graphic Designers : Niggel Figueroa Anabelle O. Flores Contributing Writers

: Tony M. Maghirang Rick Olivares Patrick Miguel Jill Tan Radovan Reine Juvierre S. Alberto John Eiron R. Francisco Pocholo Concepcion Francine Y. Medina Rory Visco Bea Rollo

Photographers

: Bernard P. Testa Nonie Reyes

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

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

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

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

817-1351,817-2807.

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

It has been three years since the first episode of Skypodcast and Kryz and Slater love their podcast recording days because it’s their one-on-one time.

Having two boys, Scottie and Sevi, and another one on the way, this is the time when Kryz and Slater get to sit down and catch up without work, their phones, or their kids as a distraction.

“It’s been really healthy for our relationship and we’ve come to learn so much about each other, even with the topics that we don’t normally discuss outside the podcast,” Kryz said.

Figuring out life

WITH so many things to talk about, Kryz and Slater usually talk about concepts that they find interesting.

Sometimes, it’s also through listening that they find topics to discuss in their podcast whenever they hear a story from a peer that they have opposing opinions about.

“The varying opinions help us have an open mind and understand each other’s points without necessarily negating or having to agree,” Kryz pointed out.

The “Skyfam” would also send them an email about their current situations and struggles or ask for advice and in turn, they would discuss this in the podcast. Kryz and Slater would also get topics from posts on their private Skypodcast Facebook group.

“We tend to resonate a lot with young professionals or people in their 20s just figuring out adulting and life,” Kryz noted.

“Our audience has also grown more connected to us. Listening to a podcast really helps you get to know someone and how they think and feel,” she added.

Kryz said that podcasting is far more intimate than watching a 60-second clip or seeing a photo shared online that’s why sometimes when they encounter their listeners in person and they say, “Hey, we listen to the Skypodcast!,” they immediately form a connection.

On being ‘cancelled’

TALKING about all sorts of things in their podcast, Kryz admitted that someone is always bound to disagree with them in the online sphere specifically in social media.

“You never really know how far they will take that disagreement. Whether it be a viral Facebook post or getting ‘canceled’— we’ve been there!” exclaimed Kryz.

In fact, Slater received backlash after a comment he made on fantasizing about women, which he said was “normal.”

He held himself accountable by admitting his mistake and apologized through an episode in the podcast saying that it was a learning experience for him, adding: “I should have called it out na ‘Ah, it happens but this isn’t okay; we should hold ourselves to a higher standard.”

Kryz, on the other hand, recalled a time when they were “so careful” with what they were saying that they felt the conversations were shallow and losing a connection.

“We felt the conversations were not able to go as deep and we didn’t really have that feeling of connection we usually get from an episode,” she said.

It became a challenge for the couple how to remain authentic with their opinions and have a “truly open discussion” without having that fear.

As Kryz and Slater would always say in their podcast, everyone is different and has their own views.

People having different opinions about everything, Kryz said, makes the world

“truly unique and special.”

“What we hope will happen is having an open conversation, and being okay with the difference of opinions. It doesn’t always have to be black and white,” Kryz expressed.

“We can agree on some points and disagree on others. At the end of the day, that doesn’t make anyone a bad person,” she pointed out.

‘Podcast of the Year’

FAST forward to 2024 and over 150 episodes later, the Skypodcast was named Spotify Philippines’s Top Podcast of the Year in 2023.

“It’s really crazy to hear how well the podcast is doing and how many people resonate with our conversations. We are truly grateful to the members of the ‘skyfam’ community who have always been so supportive of us from day one,” Kryz shared.

“We would also love to thank Spotify for being our cheerleaders especially when times get tough. It was truly a great year and a beautiful journey we wish to continue,” she added.

For the people who want to start a podcast but don’t know how and where to start, Kryz shared a tip: “As clichè as it sounds—be authentically you.”

“There is always someone out there who can relate to how you feel and how you think, so don’t try to copy what you already hear online. Try to be uniquely you,” Kryz said.

IC

soundstrip.businessmirror@gmail.com | FEBRUARY 11, 2024

3

BUSINESS

SLASH STILL BURNS

Legendary rock guitarist looks forward to returning to Manila this March

The rock star guitarist recalls the first time he played before a Filipino audience: ‘The fans were amazing, and I’m looking forward to that, you know, that’s the most important thing. They’re such a great, fu**kin’ bunch of people’

By Pocholo Concepcion

L

IFE went on for Slash after Guns N’ Rose and Velvet Revolver. In fact, he has done quite a lot of work as a solo musician and with Myles Kennedy and the Conspirators— with whom he recorded their most recent album, “4,” released in 2022.

Slash is on the road with the band and is coming to perform in Manila on March 4 at the New Frontier Theater.

In this phone chat with SoundStrip, the rock star guitarist looks back on how he dealt with the pandemic, recording “4,” and his memory of playing in the Philippines back in 2018 with GNR. How did you weather the pandemic?

I kept myself busy, did a lot of writing (songs), recording, produced a movie (the horror flick “The Breach”) and recorded the soundtrack for the movie. As soon as the quarantine restrictions lightened up, I got the band together, took a tour bus to Nashville, and record the “4” album.

But everybody got sick (of Covid) while making it.

The pandemic was quite an experience, it stopped life in its tracks for a year and a half at least. It was an interesting time, but I tried to be as productive as possible.

Tell us about the making of “4.”

As a band we just write the new material we have and then record it.

It’s not to make a conscious statement over and above the last record. You just move forward in life. You make a record, make a statement about that period, and when you the next one, you sort of progress toward wherever you are as musicians and as human beings. So all you’re trying to achieve is the best thing you can do in that moment.

When we were doing “4,” it was putting together a bunch of cool material, and when we went to record it, we did the most live recording session we’ve ever done as a band— and for me as a professional musician.

We all went into a room, set up the drums and amps and played live, no headphones or anything.

And then Myles was in a booth singing right next to us where we could see him. And that’s how we recorded the album. This was to capture the spontaneity of the

Slash featuring Myles Kennedy and the Conspirators

straight-ahead rock and roll record. I don’t think I stopped and said, “Let’s find a reggae part,” hahaha, you know, intentionally. It might happen spontaneously, but I’ve never thought that out. So anything that happens that sounds like a fusion of any other different styles is something that happens naturally. I don’t think there’s jazz in this record.

moment. We didn’t go back and fix the mistakes. Two songs a day for five days. That was an achievement, something I’ve never done before in my professional career.

Did it also mean the band didn’t go through rehearsing the songs extensively before recording them?

We didn’t have a chance to because we were doing it during the pandemic.

I sent demos to the band. When we got into the studio, we ran through the songs. There were a couple of songs that weren’t complete. “Fall Back to Earth” wasn’t complete, “April

Fool” wasn’t complete…. We just got together quickly and worked out the arrangements and then recorded them.

There wasn’t a lot of rehearsing…

Did you experiment with other music genres, or did you incorporate some jazz, reggae, and since it was recorded in Nashville, country, and other influences?

Ahh…no, hahaha. There was a Nashville influence on the spirit of the record. It made a big impression on us, doing it in Nashville, me especially. But I think the record itself is delivered pretty much as a

At your age and at this point in your career, what’s the greatest thing you’ve learned as a musician?

That I love being a musician.

What do you remember during your past visit to the Philippines and what do you look forward to when you come back this March?

We had a great time, it was a short visit, but the fans were amazing, and I’m looking forward to that, you know, that’s the most important thing. They’re such a great, fu**kin’ bunch of people. It was the first time we ever played for them. I’m excited to be coming back and doing it again coz it’s been a little too long since the first time. (With additional interview by Edwin P. Sallan)

Chinese mythology’s Old Man Under the Moon

The divine matchmaker who helps couples find love

By Megan Bryson

T

University of Tennessee

here are at least three holidays and cultural traditions centered on romantic love in China, including Valentine’s Day on February 14.

A figure that ties together these other holidays is the “Old Man Under the Moon”—Yuexia Laoren in Mandarin, or Yuelao for short—who is believed to be a divine matchmaker.

In many cultures across the world, parents traditionally arranged their children’s marriages, and love was not necessarily their main concern. In pre-modern China, daughters had little say over their marriage partners. Moreover, they were seen as belonging more to their future husbands’ families than to their birth families. Under these conditions, unmarried girls would pray to the Old Man Under the Moon for a happy marriage.

Girls could either make offerings at home or visit a temple where an image of the Old Man Under the Moon was enshrined. There are other figures in Chinese mythology, such as the “Weaving Maiden” and “Moon Goddess,” who are worshiped for good luck in love. But the Old Man Under the Moon is the most popular god of love and marriage. These days, the name Yuelao has even become a general term for “matchmaker.”

As a scholar of Chinese religious history, I know that understandings of gods can change over time. These days, men and women pray to the Old Man Under the Moon to find their own love match, while the Rabbit God takes care of devotees looking for same-sex romance.

A divine official The Old Man Under the Moon was first mentioned in a ninth-century short story called “Engagement Inn,” where he arranged marriages as a divine official.

In the story, an unmarried man named Wei Gu set out before sunrise to meet a matchmaker. He saw an old man reading a document by moonlight and tried to get a peek, but found that he could not decipher the script. The old man laughed and told Wei Gu that he was a divine bureaucrat in charge of human marriages, and his document was a marriage register written in an otherworldly script.

Wei Gu then asked about his own prospects, to which the old man replied that

The Old Man Under the Moon at Xiahai City God’s Temple in Dadaocheng, Taipei, Taiwan. Sean Chiu via Wikimedia Commons/The Conversation

Those looking for love will pray to the Old Man Under the Moon and tie red threads. Megan Bryson via The Conversation

Wei Gu would get married, but it would take 14 years. Wei Gu then asked about a bag the old man was holding. The old man pulled a red cord out of the bag and explained that he used those to tie the feet of a future couple so that fate would bring them together.

In the centuries that followed, the Old Man Under the Moon became an increasingly popular figure in Chinese literature, drama and religion. His statue was enshrined in temples, where unmarried people and their relatives could pray and make offerings in the hope of finding a match.

Like other divine bureaucrats in charge of human affairs, the Old Man Under the Moon is rarely a temple’s central deity, but his icon appears in side halls alongside deities in charge of fertility and education.

Fittingly, he looks like an old man with a long white beard, and he holds the red cords that bind couples to each other.

People looking to find a partner often leave red strings tied to tree branches, sometimes with short prayer texts attached to the strings, outside shrines to Old Man Under the Moon.

tant holiday for romance is the Double Seventh Festival, which appropriately falls on the seventh day of the seventh lunar month. This festival commemorates the story of the star-crossed lovers Weaving Maiden and Cowherd, who live on separate constellations and can meet only once a year.

Unmarried girls make offerings to the Weaving Maiden in hopes of finding a good husband, in addition to saying prayers to Old Man. According to Taiwanese tradition, on the Double Seventh Festival, the Weaving Maiden compiles a list of all unmarried men and women to give to the Old Man Under the Moon. The Old Man then pairs up the single men and women in his marriage registry, binding their feet to seal their shared fate.

The Mid-Autumn Festival, or Moon Festival, on the 15th day of the eighth lunar month focuses on family togetherness, but it also includes romantic themes. Unmarried girls traditionally pray to the Moon Goddess Chang’e and to the divine matchmaker Old Man Under the Moon for a good husband. The Moon Festival is seen as the birthday of the Old Man Under the Moon, so temples sometimes have special events in his honor.

The moon represents both wholeness and romance, making it a fitting symbol for the divine matchmaker.

Even the most important holiday on the Chinese calendar, Lunar New Year, can be a time to worship the Old Man Under the Moon. As celebrants set their intentions and goals for the new year, those

Heavenly romance The Old Man Under the Moon can be worshiped year-round, but he has special ties to two holidays in the traditional Chinese calendar: the Double Seventh Festival and the Moon Festival. Valentine’s Day is a new addition to existing Chinese holidays celebrating love and marriage.

In Chinese culture, the most impor-

4 BusinessMirror

February 11, 2024

looking for love and marriage will make a point of sending prayers to the Old Man Under the Moon.

The Rabbit God Apart from the Old Man Under the Moon, another divine matchmaker in Chinese mythology is the Rabbit God, who has been worshiped as far back as the 18th century as a god of love between men.

Members of the LGBTQ+ community in Taiwan revived the worship of this deity as a same-sex counterpart to the Old Man Under the Moon. The Rabbit God binds same-sex couples, just as the Old Man Under the Moon binds couples of the opposite sex.

Same-sex couples in Taiwan can visit Wei Ming Tang temple, which is dedicated to the Rabbit God, to seek lasting romantic love and marriage. Worship of the Rabbit God can be done more openly in Taiwan, which is the only place in Asia where same-sex marriage is legal. LGBTQ+ relationships are frowned upon in mainland China.

The Old Man Under the Moon has long sustained the hope for romance and love in arranged marriages. Now that most people in Chinese culture find their own marriage partners, he offers hope that people will be able to find their match in a sea of possibilities. The Rabbit God offers the same hope for the LGBTQ+ community, especially in Taiwan. The Conversation Cover photo by Laween Farhad on Pexels.com