BusinessMirror February 12, 2023

READY, AIM, FIRE!

2 modern battleships named after Pinoy heroes Antonio Luna, Jose Rizal defend

By Rex Anthony Naval

WHILE its primarily role is to protect the country’s vast maritime territories from hostile incursions, the BRP Antonio Luna (FF-151), one of the two brand-new missile frigates in Philippine Navy (PN) service, is also upgrading the proficiency of next-generation seagoing officers on how to fight modern naval battles through its state-of-the-art combat management systems.

Officially known as the Naval Shield Combat Management System (NSCMS) and installed on BRP Antonio Luna and its sister ship BRP Jose Rizal (FF-150), this platform literally serves as the brains of the vessel and consists of onboard sensors that detect and monitor incoming surface, air and sub-surface threats.

NSCMS also provides weapons options that can neutralize hostiles. It even shows what kind or the best type of countermeasures can be deployed in actual sea combat situations.

Onboard training

NAVAL personnel from the offshore patrol vessel BRP Ramon Alcaraz (PS-16) got a glimpse of BRP Antonio Luna’s NSCMS during their scheduled “informational program visit” (IPV) on January 12 and 13.

“BRP Antonio Luna has served a productive and purposeful local informational program visit to the students of NSCMS of BRP Ramon Alcaraz (PS-16) last 12-13 January 2023,” the missile frigate staff said on its Facebook page.

The exposure to NSCMS provided these naval personnel with insights on how a modern frigate operates. “Said IPV gave the students an adequate knowledge and practical training that equipped them to understand the sophisticated systems aboard ship, and have raised their level of appreciation when it comes to modern naval

warfare. More so, this IPV helped the officers and personnel to be more prepared for their future roles as warfare directors and operations specialists,” the post added.

Th is is the second visit of the Ramon Alcaraz crew to the BRP Antonio Luna for a local IPV and onthe-job training of their students in connection with their NSCMS familiarization course.

FF-151 is indeed grateful to have showcased the warship’s modern systems and capabilities to the CIC [combat information center] team of PS-16,” the FB post added.

Both BRP Antonio Luna and BRP Jose Rizal (FF-150) are modern warships capable of surface, sub-surface, air and electronic warfare using state-of-the-art electronic sensors, long-range missiles, acoustic guided torpedoes and embarked anti-submarine helicopters.

The contract for the two ships was placed at P16 billion with another P2 billion for weapon systems and munitions. The Navy’s shooting ship—like its namesake, the fiery Philippine-American War general—the BRP Antonio Luna really knows how to shoot.

RIMPAC placer

THIS was after the Filipino ship won third place in the 2022 iteration of the “Rim of the Pacific” (RIMPAC) Naval Surface Fire Support (NSFS) Rodeo, which was part of the at-sea phase of the biennial

maneuvers done to promote regional stability in the Pacific region. In this exercise, the ship fired its Oto Melara 76mm Super Rapid Multi-Feeding (SRMF) gun.

“NSFS Rodeo is a naval gunfire accuracy competition where participants are given a two-dimensional virtual land target information by the designated naval gunfire liaison officer. Participants have a practice run for gunfire correction prior to proceeding for the record firing. Performance reports are provided by the Pacific Missile Range Facility (PMRF) using its computerized evaluation system,” PN spokesperson Commander Benjo Negranza said in an earlier statement.

In a contest where 17 naval ships from other countries participated, the PN’s BRP Antonio Luna won third place with only an eight-meter difference from the first placer, USS Mobile Bay (CG53), and four meters off the second placer ARM Benito Juarez of Mexico (POLA-101).

This achievement manifested that the PN is capable of being on a par with the best navies in the world, which RIMPAC 2022 has helped validate by providing resources and an environment that permits multinational participants to achieve their individual and collective training objectives,” Negranza said.

The feat may be considered more impressive as it is Antonio Luna’s first time to participate in the RIMPAC. BRP Antonio Luna was delivered last February 9, 2021, and formally commissioned to PN service on March 13 of that same year.

A bout 25,000 personnel from 26 nations participated in the 2022 iteration of RIMPAC, which was first held in 1971. The 2022 iteration of RIMPAC began on June 29 and concluded on August 4.

The PN’s participation in RIMPAC 2022, themed “Capable, Adaptive Partners,” is the third after its maiden participation in 2018 and its sophomore run in 2020.

In the 2018 RIMPAC, the Navy deployed the offshore patrol vessel BRP Andres Bonifacio (PS-17) and landing dock BRP Davao Del Sur (LD-602). In the 2020 iteration of

the maritime exercise, the PN sent the BRP Jose Rizal, which was delivered on May 23, 2020, and commissioned on July 10 of the same year. Shortly after its commissioning, BRP Jose Rizal was deployed for the 2022 RIMPAC. Both the BRP Jose Rizal and BRP Antonio Luna are capable of anti-air warfare, anti-surface warfare, anti-submarine warfare, and electronic warfare operations.

‘DAGIT-PA’ exposure

NOT content with its RIMPAC 2022 citation, BRP Antonio Luna demonstrated its advanced weapons and sensor capabilities during naval shore bombardment and air defense drills during the “DAGITPA” exercises, which ran from November 7 to 18 last year. DAGIT-PA stands for “Dagat-Langit-Lupa,” which focuses on enhancing the readiness of the Philippine Army, PN, and Air Force in joint operations that mirror a real-world scenario.

L ast year’s DAGIT-PA is the sixth iteration of the joint exercise unilaterally conducted by the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP).

In this annual exercise, the BRP Antonio Luna simulated the firing of its Oto Melara 76mm SRMF gun during a NSFS exercise at Brooke’s Point, Palawan. NSFS is defined as shore bombardment, which aligns with the objective by destroying or neutralizing defenses that oppose landing and troop advancement.

“In advantage, the rapid loading ability of naval guns such as the 76mm SRMF makes it possible to deliver a large volume of fire in a short period of time, and their small dispersion and deflections make them effective and valuable for close support fire of troops,” the post on BRP Antonio Luna read.

A side from the NSFS, BRP Antonio Luna also successfully participated in simulating the detection and engagement of air contacts.

Both BRP Antonio Luna and BRP Jose Rizal (FF-150) are equipped with MBDA Mistral 3 surface-toair missiles.

“DAGIT-PA exercise thru

motherland

ADEX (air defense exercise) has provided the ship’s crew a learning experience on the dynamics of air threats and further test their readiness to respond in a real-time scenario," the FB post added.

PN modernization going well ACCORDING to former Acting PN Flag-Officer-in-Command (FOIC)

Rear Admiral Caesar Bernard Valencia, the BRP Antonio Luna’s impressive showing at the gunnery exercise in the 2022 RIMPAC highlights the ongoing improvements of the Navy.

Such a feat, he said earlier, was once only a dream 10 years ago. “I remember the first naval exercise that I participated in and as part of this exercise, we fired our 3.50inch [naval] guns. Not only did our gun crew miss by a mile but also we were told to cease firing, as the deck was so brittle that there was a danger of it collapsing. And also, so much rust was raining down below deck due to the recoil of our naval guns,” Valencia recalled.

A s of this time, the PN is now equipped with two brand-new missile-armed frigates, two landing docks, two anti-submarine helicopters, and 12 multipurpose attack craft, six of which are now equipped with the Israeli-made Spike-ER surface-to-surface missiles.

He noted that such is far from the World War II ships previously being manned by the PN. Valencia served as acting PN FOIC following the mandatory retirement of Vice Admiral Adeluis Bordado on September 9, 2022. Vice Admiral Toribio Adaci Jr. eventually succeeded Valencia on November 24, 2022.

Fast-track modernization ADACI, upon his assumption as PN chief, vowed to expedite the ongoing modernization of the Navy.

“ We will intensify our efforts to achieve the objectives and measures in the remaining Horizons 2 and 3 of our modernization program. But while we acquire new assets, our plans should emphasize the complementing requirements of logistics support systems, trans-

fer of technology, among others,” he stressed.

A FP Modernization Program Horizon 2 is scheduled from 2018 to 2022, while Horizon 3 is from 2023 to 2028. Horizon 2 and 3 are geared toward the acquisition of more external defense equipment and platforms for the AFP. Moreover we will build on the gains of previous leadership; it is our priority to continue sustaining our modernization program, the acquisition of hardware, and strengthening the fields of specialization of our personnel among others,” Adaci added.

Adaci said the PN would also continue international defense and security engagements and strengthen its partnership with allies, partners, friends, and other like-minded nations that are committed to maintaining a stable and peaceful Indo-Pacific region. Equipping frontline units is imperative as the PN is involved in various interagency collaborations, he added.

We will prioritize giving our naval operating forces, our marine brigades, ships, and other frontline units with adequate personnel and equipment because they are the ones who perform our primary mandate of protecting our seas and littorals. They are also critical in the conduct of non-traditional and civil-military operations,” he added.

‘Cat-and-mouse’ game

AS this developed, the Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) confirmed on February 4 that four Chinese vessels tried to intercept BRP Andres Bonifacio while on patrol. The Filipino ship was patrolling near Panganiban Reef when the “Chinese Maritime Militia fishing vessels/ boats even conducted an intercept course towards the PN warship.”

The area is part of the Philippines’ exclusive economic zone. But the PCG clarified that the Chinese ships did not interfere in the operations of the BRP Andres Bonifacio, which continued its operations undeterred. The incident took place last February 1. The PN has yet to issue a statement on the matter.

THE BRP Antonio Luna (foreground) and the BRP Jose Rizal RHK111/ WIKIMEDIA COMMONS CC BY-SA 4.0

US makes case that Chinese balloon was part of spying program

By Iain Marlow Bloomberg News

The Biden administration presented the new evidence in a State Department fact sheet on the balloon’s capabilities and in open hearings and closed briefings on Capitol Hill Thursday, as they sought to counter China’s insistence that it was a harmless weather-monitoring device that blew off course.

To make the case, the administration offered rarely disclosed details, including that high-resolution imagery provided by U-2 spy planes flying past the balloon revealed an array of surveillance equipment. That equipment could collect and geo-locate communications, and a solar array gave enough power to operate multiple collection sensors, officials said.

This irresponsible act put on full display what we’ve long recog-

nized as the PRC has become more repressive at home and more aggressive abroad,” Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman told lawmakers, referring to China’s formal name, the People’s Republic of China.

US officials are now trying to expose and counter what they see as broader Chinese spying efforts alongside allies. They are also looking at taking action against Chinese entities linked to the intelligence-gathering effort after identifying a Chinese balloon manufacturer that sells products to the Chinese military, according to the administration.

In a finding that raises new questions about the provenance of the balloon’s components, administration officials told lawmakers

that the balloon had western-made components with English-language writing on them, people familiar with the matter said.

It wasn’t immediately clear whether the writing was discovered before the balloon was shot down Saturday or found in the wreckage afterward. Recovery operations for the balloon’s payload continued.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is combing through the debris, but FBI officials who briefed reporters on Thursday said the review is in its early stages and agents haven’t yet seen the balloon’s main payload.

China’s response

THE new details released on Thursday, including the contention that the device was part of a broader military-directed fleet, will add to the strain on US-China relations. The Biden administration said the manufacturer of the balloon, which it didn’t name, had a direct relationship with the People’s Liberation Army (PLA).

C hina refused a requested phone call between Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and his Chinese counterpart, Defense Minister Wei Fenghe, right after the balloon was shot down off the coast of South Carolina on February 4, according to the Pentagon.

“Over the last several months, the PLA has continued to view the mil-mil relationship as something that they can turn on and off to express displeasure with other things that are happening,” Assistant Secretary of Defense Ely Ratner told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee Thursday. “We think that’s really dangerous. We continue to have an outstretched hand.”

C hina’s Ministry of Defense said Thursday it declined to talk with the US over the balloon because “the use of force violates international practice and sets a bad precedent,” according to a statement from spokesman Tan Kefei.

“The US hasn’t created a proper atmosphere for dialogue,” he added, calling the downing of what China considers a civilian balloon “irresponsible.”

The disclosure of the balloon last week led to the postponement of Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s long-planned trip to China as part of an effort to normalize ties between the world’s two largest economies.

US officials have said they took measures to nullify the balloon’s intelligence-gathering capacity as it traversed the continental US, but the new assertion that it was capable of actively gathering sensitive communications could fuel further Republican criticism that the Biden administration should have acted sooner to shoot down the balloon instead of waiting for it to cross the country so that it could be downed over water.

Congressional reaction

THE House of Representatives unanimously voted to condemn China for the balloon flight even as lawmakers continued to split, largely along partisan lines, about whether the administration had acted properly.

A fter an administration briefing for House members, Representative Adam Schiff, a California Democrat, said, “They answered all the questions that we had.

And I think that the administration made the right decision about shooting it down and when they chose to shoot it down. I think it

would have posed a real risk to people on the ground.”

But Republican Susan Collins of Maine told a Senate hearing that “it defies belief that there was not a single opportunity to safely shoot down this spy balloon” as it crossed the country. “By the administration’s logic, we would allow the Chinese to fly a surveillance balloon over the Pentagon.”

Democratic Senator Jon Tester of Montana, where the balloon’s presence first became public, said it should have been shot down when it initially passed over Alaska. “I don’t want a damn balloon going over the United States,” he said.  Lieutenant General Douglas Sims, director of operations for the Joint Staff, responded that over Alaska, as elsewhere, the concern was for “near zero probability of collateral damage” on the ground. Melissa Dalton, assistant secretary of defense for homeland defense, added that salvage operations to probe the balloon’s capabilities would have been difficult and “very dangerous” in the deep and icy waters off of Alaska.

The Chinese balloon that traversed the US was capable of collecting communications signals and was part of a military-led spy program that spanned more than 40 countries, Biden administration officials said.

THIS image provided by the US Navy shows sailors assigned to Explosive Ordnance Disposal Group 2 recovering a high-altitude surveillance balloon off the coast of Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, FebruRY 5, 2023. US NAVY VIA AP

REMNANTS of a large balloon drift above the Atlantic Ocean, just off the coast of South Carolina, with a fighter jet and its contrail seen below it, February 4, 2023. CHAD FISH VIA AP

HSBC bets big on India’s $400 billion pile of wealth

By Harry Wilson & Ambereen Choudhury

‘ROARING

Whiskey vs beer: Spirits beat brews in new US market data

By Bruce Schreiner & Jim Salter

The Associated Press

LOUISVILLE, Ky.—Producers of spirits

have new bragging rights in the age-old whiskey vs. beer barroom debate.

New figures show that spirits surpassed beer for US market-share supremacy, based on supplier revenues, a spirit industry group announced Thursday.

The rise to the top for spirit-makers was fueled in part by the resurgent cocktail culture—including the growing popularity of ready-to-drink concoctions—as well as strong growth in the tequila and American whiskey segments, the Distilled Spirits Council of the United States said.

In 2022, spirits gained market share for the 13th straight year in the fiercely competitive US beverage alcohol market, as its supplier sales reached 42.1 percent, the council said.

After years of steady growth, it marked the first time that spirit supplier revenues have surpassed beer—but just barely, the spirit industry group said. Beer holds a 41.9 percent market share, it said.

“Despite the tough economy, consumers continued to enjoy premium spirits and fine cocktails in 2022,” Distilled Spirits Council President and CEO Chris Swonger said. Overall spirit supplier sales in the US were up 5.1 percent in 2022 to a record $37.6 billion, the group said. Volumes rose 4.8 percent to 305 million 9-liter cases.

Seemingly unfazed, Brian Crawford, president and CEO of the Beer Institute, insisted that beer “remains America’s number one choice in beverage alcohol.”

“It’s interesting to hear liquor companies boast about making money hand-over-fist while simultaneously going state-to-state hunting for more tax carveouts from state legislatures,” Crawford said in a statement.

Benj Steinman, president of Beer Marketer’s Insights, a leading beer industry trade publication, said the beer industry saw unprecedented growth in the 1970s, growing at a pace of 4 percent annually. As recently as 2000, beer’s share in the alcohol market was 58 percent.

Over the past several decades, beer’s growth has essentially been flat. Meanwhile, spirits have flourished, especially over the past two decades.

“I think there’s just a long arc on these things,” Steinman said.

Steinman and Bart Watson, chief economist at the Brewers Association, a craft beer industry trade group, agreed there are several reasons for the shift to spirits.

“Some of it’s just the younger generation coming up, looking for a lot of variety,”Steinman said. “They sometimes like spirits. Cocktail culture is another thing.”

Watson cited data showing that liquor has become 20 percent cheaper relative to beer in recent decades.

“Price is a particularly large part of the story,” he said.

Another factor is advertising and marketing. Watson pointed to the success of spirits in its outreach to women. Steinman said distilled spirits now advertise freely, something they didn’t do generations ago.

“They’ve increased their availability. They’ve increased their ability to advertise. They’ve had a lot of legislative and policy wins that have enabled growth for distilled spirits,” Steinman said.

For spirit producers, reaching the market share milestone was worth toasting.

At Baltimore Spirits Company in Maryland, the head distiller and the manager of its cocktail bar said they are pleased with the rise in the consumption of spirits.

Eli Breitburg-Smith, head distiller and cofounder, said the distillery founders saw a space in the market to make rye whiskey as

consumer demand was growing.

“We did see that it was going to be on the rise,” he said. “Now, I don’t know that we thought it would be overtaking beer or anything like that, but we felt like there was a good space in the market for new whiskey, original whiskey, and people that...were making a unique product.”

Gregory Mergner, the general manager of the distillery’s cocktail gallery, said he didn’t anticipate spirits rivaling or surpassing beer for market share.

“As ubiquitous as beer is. don’t think anybody could have foreseen whiskey overtaking it,” he said.

The spirit sector’s rise has coincided with a growing thirst for high-end, super-premium products.

That trend toward premiumization slowed overall in 2022. But it remained strong because of growth in the tequila/mezcal and American whiskey categories, the Distilled Spirits Council said.

More than 60 percent of the spirit sector’s total US revenue last year came from sales of high-end and super-premium spirits, mostly led by tequila and American whiskey, said Christine LoCascio, the group’s chief of public policy and strategy. Those high-end products fetch the highest prices.

“While many consumers are feeling the pinch from inflation and reduced disposable income, they are still willing to purchase that special bottle of spirits choosing to sip a little luxury and drink better, not more,”LoCascio said.

Within the spirit sector, vodka maintained its status as the top revenue producer at $7.2 billion, though sales were flat in 2022, the group said.

In the tequila/mezcal category, sales rose 17.2 percent, or $886 million, totaling $6 billion, it said.

Sales for American whiskey were up 10.5 percent, or $483 million, to reach $5.1 billion, it said. The American whiskey category includes bourbon, Tennessee whiskey and rye whiskey.

Brandy and cognac sales were down 12.3 percent, with revenues totaling $3.1 billion.

Premixed cocktails were the clear leader as the fastest-growing spirit category.

Sales for premixed cocktails, including ready-to-drink spirit products, surged by 35.8 percent, or $588 million, to reach $2.2 billion, the council said.

Meanwhile, spirit sales volumes in restaurants and bars—referred to as onpremise sales—continued to recover from pandemic-era shutdowns but they remained 5 percent lower than 2019 levels, the council said. Those sales represent about 20 percent of the US market.

Off-premise sales volumes at liquor stores and other retail outlets remained steady in 2021 and 2022, after experiencing sharp gains during the pandemic restrictions in 2020, it said.

Meanwhile, there is a crossover strategy brewing in the alcohol market.

Steinman said that even the big players in the beer industry “are playing in all these different growth arenas, including spirits.”

Molson Coors changed its name in 2019, going from Molson Coors Brewing Co. to Molson Coors Beverage Co. Watson noted that the No. 2 canned ready-to-drink liquor product, Cutwater, is made by AnheuserBusch InBev.

For beer producers, the reversal in marketshare rankings is no reason to cry in their suds. Watson cautioned that the market share trend could flip, calling it “likely at some point we’ll see beer grow again at the expense of other segments.”

national

with global dreams,” blared the HSBC Holdings Plc ad outside an upscale Mumbai suburb in December. The 122foot billboard displayed a tiger stalking over the British bank’s hexagonal red logo—a not-too-subtle signal of its ambitions to dominate the financial industry of what’s by some estimates now the world’s most populous country.

Those expansion plans are vital to shore up growth at Europe’s largest lender, which is grappling with a downturn in profits from the Greater China region. Shanghai and Hong Kong have been the bank’s centers of gravity since opening its doors more than 150 years ago to fund trade between Europe and Asia. But as a slowing economy and crackdowns on industries from technology to real estate roil the world’s second-largest economy, HSBC is looking further afield to India— despite risks there as well.

The bank is planting its sights more firmly on the ultra-rich in India, where the wealth held by billionaires has crossed $400 billion from $148 billion in 2016. It also plans to launch an onshore private banking service in the South Asian country this year. After buying an investment business with $10.8 billion in assets under management there, it’s scouring for other selective purchases. “We certainly are always looking for bolt ons that would help us drive our capabilities further,” Surendra Rosha, co-head of Asia-Pacific at HSBC said in an interview in mid-January.

Expanding in the South Asian country can come with a string of uncertainties. In recent weeks, a short-seller report on the conglomerate of billionaire Gautam Adani has roiled his empire, caused a slump of more than $100 billion in his shares, and raised concerns about the extra collateral he needed for loans. While Adani has sought to calm investors by repaying loans and pledging to reduce debt ratios, the crisis has highlighted the pressures banks can face when doing business in India. “HSBC has been in India for over 160 years, and takes a very long term view of the country and its potential. There have been many upheavals over these years, and just as past episodes didn’t alter HSBC’s stance and commitment, nor will the current market noise,” Hitendra Dave, who runs HSBC India, said via e-mail this week. HSBC declined to comment on Adani. The lender—which is focused on green energy transition—didn’t have a banking relationship with the entrepreneur given his ongoing exposure to the coal industry, people familiar with the matter said. The Adani Group didn’t respond to a request for comment.

Steady streams of senior HSBC executives have flown in to India over the past year. Chairman Mark Tucker met the head of India’s G-20 preparation committee in December. Chief Executive Officer

Noel Quinn was pictured signing a book of condolence for the late Queen Elizabeth II at the UK embassy, when he was in the country in September to meet clients. The bank has seen an uptick among worldwide customers’ pushing into India, and the high-profile visits signal its growing interest in the country, Rosha said.

“It is a conscious effort,” he said. “And I certainly think that you will see more of that in the coming years.”

Quinn’s visit to India saw him call on several of India’s wealthiest businessmen, including Mukesh Ambani and Uday Kotak, according to a person familiar with the visit. Representatives for Ambani declined to comment, and spokespeople for Kotak didn’t respond to a request for comment.

HSBC’s bet on India—and the hurdles it must surmount to get the investments to pay off—shows the complicated decisions multinationals are being forced to make as the Chinese economic juggernaut slows. Last year, violent protests against virus lockdowns at a Foxconn factory served up a sharp reminder to international businesses like Apple Inc. of the dangers of over reliance on individual markets.

In 2021, HSBC got about 44 percent of its total $21.9 billion in adjusted profits from Hong Kong and China while Hong Kong and mainland customers made up more than a third of its total. But China’s problems have struck at the core of the HSBC profit machine in Hong Kong where 2022 half-year profits were down around 30 percent year-on-year.

Meanwhile, the International Monetary Fund projects India’s gross domestic product grew 6.8 percent in 2022, putting it among the world’s fastest growing major economies. “Once people become that wealthy in a domestic economy they start investing abroad,” said Dave.

The lender is now the largest foreign financial institution operating in India. In 2021, India-based employee numbers overtook those in the UK to become the bank’s largest center by headcount. HSBC’s investment bankers made more in India that year than in China, and commercial banking profits are not far behind those of the lender’s mainland Chinese unit. In January, chairman Tucker, speaking at the Asian Financial Forum conference, said Asia’s growth was “not just a story about Hong

Kong and mainland China.”

India was a hugely attractive market, he said. “This could be a basis for a 20 to 30-year runway for growth, as was the case for China in the 1990s.”

Despite such optimism, analysts say India is riddled with its own structural problems that have the potential to limit the economy over time. Rapid growth can also mean bigger risk as executives and businesses rush to expand.

In recent weeks, a New Yorkbased short seller Hindenburg Research published a detailed report on the Adani empire—alleging the group used a web of firms in tax havens to inflate revenue and stock prices. Adani has denied the allegations, and his group published a 413-page rebuttal. Stocks in the Adani empire gained some days this week as its founders pre-paid some debt. HSBC wasn’t listed as an Adani financial backer in recent documents released by the group.

However, the episode demonstrates some of the myriad comp lexities of doing more business in India. “It’s a hard market to crack, and I have my doubts the economy could grow much faster than now to compensate for China,” said Tom Kirchmaier, professor at the Centre of Economic Performance at the London School of Economics.

Also, despite signs of India’s growing importance, the money it makes there pales compared to what HSBC draws in Hong Kong. Four years ago, HSBC India reached a major milestone as pretax profits broke through $1 billion for the first time in more than a century on the subcontinent. Even so, that’s just 7.5 percent of the global total.

That leaves HSBC executives with a tough balancing act politically. Recent years have been a rollercoaster ride for HSBC and its relations with China. HSBC was criticized by Chinese media outlets for providing information to US authorities in the legal case involving Huawei Technologies’ chief financial officer, forcing the bank to publicly deny that it had “framed” the telecom giant.

HSBC also faced criticism in the West over its stance on Hong Kong’s national security law, after the bank ended up publicly backing the legislation.

India and China, which fought a war in 1962, could fight another one, said Isaac Stone Fish, founder of Strategy Risks, which specializes in corporate relationships with China. “If that happens, banks like HSBC will not want to be caught in the proverbial crossfire.”

“The tensions between India and China over trade, Pakistan, and border disputes requires careful handling for banks that want to maintain large presences or investments in both countries,” he said.

HSBC also needs to appease its biggest shareholder—China’s Ping An Insurance Group Co., which has

been pressuring the lender to consider proposals including spinning off its Asian operations. Ping An declined to comment on HSBC’s expansion outside of China.

The long-standing legacy of Greater China and particularly Hong Kong will be hard to shakeoff, said Angela Gallo, senior lecturer in finance at Cass Business School in London. Yet it’s “a good time to reduce this idea of their main influence coming from China,” she said. “India looks more promising in many aspects and the country is definitely on a trajectory that looks better than China.”

HSBC has begun shrinking or exiting non-core operations in other territories, including its Canadian retail network. It’s expanding in places like Singapore where many of China’s super rich are parking their money. It agreed in 2021 to buy AXA Singapore, an insurance business, for $575 million. But the size of the city state pales compared with India’s more than 1.4 billion people.

“We certainly have the support to now look at where we could add on and build capabilities,” said Dave. “That would help us to drive through our wealth penetration, our international trade and foreign exchange and other such product lines.”

HSBC already facilitates around 8 percent of India’s exports, 10 percent of foreign direct investment and 10 percent of local currency trading. Back in 1987 HSBC even installed India’s first ATM.

It still faces international competitors like Standard Chartered Plc there. Also, established major banks like Kotak Mahindra Bank, and public sector institutions like State Bank of India still have an effective lock on much of India’s domestic banking business.

“From an overall share of the market, global banks are middle of the pack in India, with leadership positions in a few areas,” said Saurabh Trehan, partner in Bain & Company’s financial services practice.

Dave said he was confident HSBC could still get ahead in the South Asian country, partly because of its global heft. There are customers in India who want to send their kids abroad, and businesses that want to make acquisitions overseas.

“There is a certain segment of the market that we can serve better than the local banks,” he said. With assistance from Preeti Singh/Bloomberg

with

pride. Soaring

HSBC India headquarters in Mumbai. The bank installed India’s first ATM back in 1987. KANISHKA SONTHALIA/BLOOMBERG

GREGORY MEGNER , general manager and mixologist at Baltimore Spirits Company, pours two mixed drinks—a “Peanut Butter Jelly Thyme” on the left, and a “Best Cup of Coffee in a Manhattan”—containing whiskey distilled on premises on Wednesday, February 8, 2023, in Baltimore. AP/JULIO CORTEZ

Study: 15 million people live under threat of glacial floods

By Seth Borenstein AP Science Writer

More than half of those living in the shadow of the disaster called glacial lake outburst floods are in just four countries: India, Pakistan, Peru and China, according to a study in Tuesday’s Nature Communications. A second study, awaiting publication in a peerreviewed journal, catalogs more than 150 glacial flood outbursts in history and recent times.

It’s a threat Americans and Europeans rarely think about, but 1 million people live within just 6 miles (10 kilometers) of potentially unstable glacial-fed lakes, the study calculated.

One of the more devastating floods was in Peru in 1941 and it killed between 1,800 and 6,000 people. A 2020 glacial lake outburst flood in British Columbia, Canada, caused a tsunami of water about 330 feet (100 meters) high, but no one was hurt. A 2017 glacial outburst flood in Nepal, triggered by a landslide, was captured on video by German climbers. Alaska’s Mendenhall glacier has had annual small glacial outburst floods in what the National Weather Service calls “suicide basin,” since 2011, according to study lead author Caroline Taylor, a researcher at Newcastle University in the United Kingdom. Heavy rains and a glacial lake

outburst flood combined in 2013 in India to kill thousands of people. A 2021 deadly flood in India that was initially attributed to a glacial lake outburst wasn’t caused by one, studies later found.

Scientists say so far it doesn’t seem like climate change has made those floods more frequent, but as glaciers shrink with warming, the amount of water in the lakes grows, making them more dangerous in those rare situations when dams burst.

“We had glacier lake outburst floods in the past that have killed many thousands of people in a single catastrophic flooding event,” said study coauthor Tom Robinson, a disaster risk scientist at the University of Canterbury in New Zealand. “And with climate change glaciers are melting so these lakes are getting bigger, potentially getting more unstable.”

Dan Shugar, a geoscientist at the University of Calgary who wasn’t part of the two studies, said much of the threat depends simply on how many people live in a glacial flood zone.

“In a warming world we certainly expect more and larger glacial lakes,” Shugar said in an e-mail. “But the threat that these lakes might pose critically depends on

where people are living and what their vulnerabilities might be.”

Robinson said what’s different about his study is that it’s the first to look at the climate, geography, population, vulnerability and all these factors to get “a good overview of where in the world is the most dangerous places’’ for all 1,089 glacial basins.

At the top of the list is Khyber Pakhtunkhwa basin in Pakistan, north of Islamabad.

“That’s particularly bad,” Robinson said. “Lots of people and they’re very, very vulnerable” because they live in a valley below the lake.

The trouble is that scientists are focusing too much attention on the Pakistan, India, China and the Himalayas, often called High Mountain Asia, and somewhat ignoring the Andes, Robinson said. The second and third highest risk basins are in Peru’s Santa basin, and Bolivia’s Beni basin, the paper said.

After the deadly Andes flood in the 1940s that region “was sort

of a leader” in working on glacial flood outburst threats, but in the last decade or so, High Mountain Asia has taken over because of the high population, said University of Dayton geology professor Umesh Haritashya, who wasn’t part of the studies.

India ranks high in the threat list not so much because of the physical setup but because of “a huge number of people downstream.”

Three lake basins in the United States and Canada rank high for threats, from the Pacific Northwest to Alaska, but aren’t nearly as high as areas in Asia and the Andes with few people in the danger zone. They are in Alaska’s Kenai Peninsula—distinct from the Mendenhall glacier near Juneau— northeast Washington and west central British Columbia.

“This ranking is a good checklist for further research,” said Oliver Korup of the University of Potsdam in Germany, who coauthored the list of glacial lake outburst floods.

‘Shame for WHO’: Victim of sex misconduct slams UN response

By Al-Hadji Kudra Maliro & Maria Cheng

The Associated Press

KAMPALA, Uganda—A

woman who says she was victimized by a World Health Organization doctor during a recent Ebola outbreak in Congo said she is shocked that no senior officials were punished for the sexual abuse and exploitation claims involving dozens of women in the conflict-ridden country.

On Monday, the AP reported on a confidential UN report that excused senior staffers for their mishandling of another case due to a “loophole” in how WHO defines victims of such behavior.

Anifa, a young Congolese woman who worked at an Ebola treatment center in Beni during the outbreak, said she could not understand WHO’s seeming excusal of misconduct.

“It is a shame for WHO to give work to the kinds of men who do not respect women,” she said, declining to share her full name, for fear it could hurt her future job prospects. Anifa said she had been offered a job by a WHO doctor in exchange for sex during the Ebola epidemic, but refused. The AP does not identify victims of sexual abuse.

“Perhaps WHO does not consider us because we are Africans?” she asked. “As long as I am alive, I will hate the entire World Health Organization until (the perpetrators) are charged and punished.”

Paula Donovan, co-leader of the Code Blue campaign, which seeks to hold the UN accountable for sexual offenses, said WHO member countries looked the other way on the agency’s sexual misconduct charges because they could not afford to weaken the institution during the coronavirus pandemic.

“Countries could not go after WHO because it was doing what the US and other rich countries would not do during Covid, which is try to figure out how to get vaccines to the poor.”

She said donor countries had likely made a disturbing calculation about the costs of responding to global health crises.

“It is very depressing, but officials have essentially concluded this is the price that has to be paid, that some women are going to be sexually exploited.”

The UN report was focused on a case first reported by the AP in May 2021, involving Dr. Jean-Paul Ngandu, who worked on the Ebola response in northeastern Congo in 2019. Shortly after his arrival, Ngandu met a young woman at a local restaurant. The two had sex later that evening, but the relationship soured, and the woman and her aunt complained to WHO that Ngandu had impregnated her.

AP obtained a copy of a notarized agreement between Ngandu and the woman, signed by two WHO staffers, in which he agreed to cover her health care costs and buy her land.

After concerns about the

Ngandu case were raised to WHO’s Geneva headquarters, “a decision was made not to investigate the complaint on the basis that it did not violate WHO’s (sexual exploitation and abuse) policy,” the UN report said. The report said this was because the woman was not a “beneficiary” of WHO, meaning she didn’t receive any humanitarian aid, and thus, did not qualify as a victim under WHO policy.

WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has said repeatedly he is “outraged” by reports of sexual misconduct. But to date, no senior staffers linked to the sexual abuse allegations in Congo’s 2018-2020 Ebola outbreak—where more than 80 workers under the direction of WHO and other agencies were found to have abused or exploited women—have been fired.

A panel appointed by Tedros to investigate the Congo sex abuse claims found numerous allegations of sexual assault by WHO staffers, including women forced to have abortions by their attackers and a 13-year-old girl who said a WHO driver took her to a hotel where she was raped.

Tudi Diane Tumba, a coordinator at a Congolese organization that advocates for women’s rights, said they were still assessing complaints from young women and girls who alleged they were sexually abused or exploited by WHO officials during the Ebola epidemic.

“It is very shameful if the WHO

will not sanction Dr. Ngandu,” Tumba said. “I encourage women to denounce and shout louder so that these sexual abuses end.” Ngandu was not fired; his contract was not renewed, but he was not reprimanded by WHO.

Some global health experts were unconvinced by Tedros’ professed indignation.

“It undermines the complete integrity of WHO that no one has lost their job over this,” said Sophie Harman, a professor of international politics at Queen Mary University in London. “If WHO is serious about gender equality, then it is time for Tedros to go.”

WHO’s director of communications insisted the agency was committed to addressing sexual misconduct.

“WHO is focused on continuing the deep and broad strengthening of our policies and practices, staffing, training and resourcing to prevent sexual exploitation, abuse and harassment,” said Gabriella Stern.

After the Congo allegations became public, WHO created a new department to address sexual exploitation, headed by Dr. Gaya Gamhewage.

In her interview with UN investigators, Gamhewage said that prior to being appointed, she had no knowledge of the WHO’s sexual misconduct policies and had not even read them.

By Farai Mutsaka & Jamey Keaten The Associated Press

RUSHINGA, Zimbabwe—While others in her Zimbabwean village agonize over a maize crop seemingly headed for failure, Jestina Nyamukunguvengu picks up a hoe and slices through the soil of her fields that are lush green with a pearl millet crop in the African country’s arid Rushinga district.

“These crops don’t get affected by drought, they are quick to flower, and that’s the only way we can beat the drought,” the 59-year old said, smiling broadly. Millets, including sorghum, now take up over two hectares of her land—a patch where maize was once the crop of choice.

Farmers like Nyamukunguvengu in the developing world are on the front lines of a project proposed by India that has led the UN’s Food and Agricultural Organization to christen 2023 as “The Year of Millets,” an effort to revive a hardy and healthy crop that has been cultivated for millennia—but was largely elbowed aside by European colonists who favored corn, wheat and other grains.

The designation is timely: Last year, drought swept across much of eastern Africa; war between Russia and Ukraine upended supplies and raised the prices of foodstuffs and fertilizer from Europe’s breadbasket; worries surged about environmental fallout of cross-globe shipments of farm products; many chefs and consumers are looking to diversify diets at a time of excessively standardized fare.

All that has given a new impetus to locally grown and alternative grains and other staples like millets.

Millets come in multiple varieties, such as finger millet, fonio, sorghum, and teff, which are used in the spongy injera bread familiar to fans of Ethiopian cuisine. Proponents tout millets for their healthiness—they can be rich in proteins, potassium, and vitamin B—and most varieties are gluten-free. And they’re versatile: useful in everything from bread, cereal and couscous to pudding and even beer.

Over centuries, millets have been cultivated around the world—in places like Japan, Europe, the Americas and Australia—but their epicenters have traditionally been India, China, and sub-Saharan Africa, said Fen Beed, team leader at FAO for rural and urban crop and mechanization systems.

Many countries realized they “should go back and look at what’s indigenous to their agricultural heritage and what could be revisited as a potential substitute for what would otherwise be imported—which is at risk when we had the likes of pandemic, or when we have the likes of conflict,” said Beed.

Millets are more tolerant of poor soils, drought and harsh growing conditions, and can easily adapt to different environments without high levels of fertilizer and pesticide. They don’t need nearly as much water as other grains, making them ideal for places like Africa’s arid Sahel region, and their deep roots of varieties like fonio can help mitigate desertification, the process that transforms fertile soil into desert, often because of drought or deforestation.

“Fonio is nicknamed the Lazy Farmers crop. That’s how easy it is to grow,” says Pierre Thiam, executive chef and co-founder of New York-based fine-casual food chain Teranga, which features West African cuisine. “When the first rain comes, the farmers only have to go out and just like throw the seeds of fonio ... They barely till the soil.”

“And it’s a fast growing crop, too: It can mature in two months,” he said, acknowledging it’s not all easy: “Processing fonio is very difficult. You have to remove the skin before it becomes edible.”

Millets account for less than 3 percent of the global grain trade, according to FAO. But cultivation is growing in some arid zones. In Rushinga district, land under millets almost tripled over the past decade. The UN’s World Food Programme deployed dozens of threshing machines and gave seed packs and training to 63,000 small-scale farmers in drought-prone areas in the previous season.

Low rainfall and high temperatures in recent years in part due to climate change, coupled with poor soils, have doused interest in water-guzzling maize.

“You’ll find the ones who grew maize are the ones who are seeking food assistance, those who have grown sorghum or pearl millet are still eating their small grains,” said Melody Tsoriyo, the district’s agronomist, alluding to small grains like millets, whose seeds can be as fine as sand. “We anticipate that in five years to come, small grains will overtake maize.”

Government teams in Zimbabwe have fanned out to remote rural regions, inspecting crops and providing expert assistance such as through WhatsApp groups to spread technical knowledge to farmers.

WFP spokesman Tatenda Macheka said millets “are helping us reduce food insecurity” in Zimbabwe, where about a quarter of people in the country of 15 million—long a breadbasket of southern Africa—are now food insecure, meaning that they’re not sure where their next meal will come from.

In urban areas of Zimbabwe and well beyond, restaurants and hotels are riding the newfound impression that a millet meal offers a tinge of class, and have made it pricier fare on their menus.

Thiam, the US-based chef, recalled eating fonio as a kid in Senegal’s southern Casamance region, but fretted that it wasn’t often available in his hometown—the capital—let alone New York. He admitted once “naively” having dreams making what’s known in rural Senegal as “the grain of royalty”—served to honor visiting guests—into a “world class crop.”

He’s pared back those ambitions a bit, but still sees a future for the small grains.

“It’s really amazing that you can have a grain like this that’s been ignored for so long,” Thiam said in an interview from his home in El Cerrito, Calif., where he moved to be close to his wife and her family. “It’s about time that we integrate it into our diet.”

Keaten reported from Geneva. Haven Daley in El Cerrito, California contributed to this report

AS glaciers melt and pour massive amounts of water into nearby lakes, 15 million people across the globe live under the threat of a sudden and deadly outburst flood, a new study finds.

CHUNKS of ice break off the Perito Moreno Glacier, in Lake Argentina, at Los Glaciares National Park, near El Calafate, in Argentina’s Patagonia region on March 10, 2016. As glaciers melt and pour massive amounts of water into nearby lakes, 15 million people across the globe live under the threat of a sudden and deadly outburst flood, a new study finds. AP/FRANCISCO MUNOZ

UN eyes revival of millet crops as global grain uncertainty grows

Cheng reported from London. Krista Larson in Dakar, Senegal, contributed to this report

Turkey, Syria quakes: Shallow depth of shocks key in devastation

Phivolcs to boost R&D to address risk reduction through nuclear science

TWO science agencies forged a pact in order to strengthen research collaboration on the applications of nuclear science and technology in the fields of volcanology and seismology.

The Department of Science and Technology agencies, Philippine Nuclear Research Institute (DOSTPNRI) and the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (DOST-Phivolcs), recently signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) for the purpose.

Held at the DOST-Phivolcs Auditorium in Quezon City on January 25, the signing signaled the joint initiatives of the two DOST agencies to harmonize their efforts to address disaster-risk reduction and management.

The initiative was aligned with the current administration’s thrust to pursue the OneDOST4U advocacy to better improve delivery of public service.

Under the MoU, the DOST-PNRI and DOST-Phivolcs will focus and venture together on projects related to the fields of geochemistry, isotopic techniques, volcanism, active faults, geothermal and volcano-hydrothermal.

Both institutions agreed to share its respective pool of experts, resources, equipment, facilities, and other information relevant to the project.

“Through this MoU, we will be able to freely use each other’s resources to continue to answer scientific questions that both DOST-Phivolcs and DOST-PNRI are facing,” said DOST-Phivolcs Director Teresito C. Bacolcol.

“We hope to gain knowledge, data and information from the works that will be implemented within the scope of the MoU. Likewise, DOST-PNRI researchers are encouraged to build the capacity of DOST-Phivolcs researchers through shared research activities such as sample preparation, analytical works, and training,” Bacolcol said.

He added that it is a good opportunity for the returning PhD and MSc graduates of DOST-Phivolcs to continue their research using the same analytical equipment they’ve used during their stay in the universities.

At the same time, DOST-PNRI will also benefit from the volcanologists and seismologists through the sharing of ideas they have on certain projects that DOST-PNRI researchers are working on.

Meanwhile, after the program and signing, scientists and experts from the DOST-PNRI visited the Geochemical Laboratory located at the DOST-Phivolcs office in Quezon City.

Allan Mauro V. Marfal/S&T News Services

At the time of writing, the death toll has risen beyond 11,000 people and will continue to rise over the coming days and weeks. (As of February 9, the Associated Press reported more than 17,000 died.— Editor) Hundreds of thousands more have lost their homes.

There are many reasons why the death and devastation have been so terrible.

First and foremost, the sheer magnitude of the two main events and their associated aftershocks. These earthquakes, which measured 7.8 and 7.5 on the moment magnitude scale, each released roughly as much energy as the largest-ever atomic bomb test carried out during the Cold War— around 50 megatons, in 1961 by the former Soviet Union. And there were two of these events in the same region, separated by a matter of hours.

To this we have to add the clusters of aftershocks which follow on from the main events. These are smaller (mostly lower than magnitude 5) but will continue for several days, gradually decreasing in intensity and regularity.

They are nevertheless dangerous, as buildings already seriously weakened by earlier events may be caused to collapse. This inevitably further hampers rescue attempts in the region.

Another factor is the timing of the first and largest earthquake. It occurred at 4.17am local time, when most people would have been asleep in their homes.

During an earthquake, the great majority of casualties are caused not by the shaking, but by the resulting collapse of buildings. The timing of this event was about as bad as it possibly could be—many people had very little opportunity to escape from their homes in time. This is likely a major factor in the very high number of deaths and injuries.

Depth charge

BUT a key geological contribution to the devastation was the relatively shallow depth of the earthquake hypocenters: 18 kilometers (km) for the first 7.8 magnitude event and 10 km for the later 7.5 shock.

The hypocenter is the point at which the fault begins to rupture at depth.

In global terms, these are relatively near-surface shocks. There are two reasons why this leads to a greater degree of destruction.

Put simply, the first reason is that the shallower an earthquake is, the closer the Earth’s surface is to the hypocenter.

This means that the ground shaking is more intense and destructive. There is less opportunity for the shockwaves to dissipate, as happens when earthquakes occur deeper in the Earth and they travel through tens of kilometres of rock.

The second reason is that the faults that generate earthquakes larger than 5.5 are more likely to rupture through to the surface. This creates—almost instantaneously—a ground displacement whereby one part of the ground literally moves by several meters relative to an adjacent part.

These surface breaks —also known as “capable faults”—are incredibly damaging. They can lead to the severing of major subsurface and surface infrastructure—including water mains, electricity cables, gas pipelines and tunnels.

There are already reports of damage to pipelines in Turkey following the February 6 events. Spectacular satellite images and ground-based photographs are also emerging of offset roads and railway lines, as well as serious damage to buildings that straddle the ruptures.

All of this occurs in addition

FILIPINOS won six of the seven prizes in the latest edition of the annual photo contest of the Southeast Asian Regional Center for Graduate Study and Research in Agriculture (Searca).

Themed “Emerging Agricultural Innovations for the Next Generation,” the 2022 edition of the competition searched for images that depict technologies and innovation that are modernizing and transforming agriculture and rural development towards increased food supply and security, Searca said in a naews releasse. Now on its 16th year, the Searca annual photo contest attracted 760 entries from 182 photographers from 10 countries, namely, Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Indonesia, Lao PDR, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.

The top three prizes went to photos showing innovation in planting crops, while images showing various technologies used in agricultural activities were selected for the special awards.

The first prize winner is a photo by Lea Caguiat showing children happily watching a rice seedling transplanter at work in a rice field.

Dennis Ivan Baliguat bagged the second prize for his photo of a Fresco-Greenovation project that integrates hydroponics, Internet of Things, automation, computer vision, and machine learning technologies for precision farming.

Fresco-Greenovation is a social enterprise founded by young farmers with degrees

in agricultural science and engineering know-how.

The third prize went to Fredelon Sison’s entry that pictures a man building a locally designed aquaponics system in his small shop well after the sun had gone down.

The Searca Director’s Choice Award was bestowed on Jaime Singlador’s photo of an agricultural technician introducing to a young student a hydroponic system that uses a solar power-controlled water sprinkler inside plant boxes that are suitable for small spaces and backyard farming.

Jomar Mariñas won the Department of Education Secretary’s Choice Award for his picture of a combine harvester juxtaposed with a carabao in the foreground.

Robert Dela Vega was selected as Best Youth Photographer for his photo of a young boy looking up from a laptop and reading a material while seated near an elderly person grasping some rice grains in a flat basket. His picture also won the People’s Choice Award via online voting.

Pham Quoc Hung’s photo of rice seedlings in rolled-up mat nurseries ready for transplanting won the Best Agricultural Innovation/ Technology Award. Mat nurseries use less land, can be installed closer to the farmer’s house than traditional field nurseries, and use less labor for both transporting seedling mats and replanting.

The winning images received cash prizes and will be displayed within the Searca building, shared on its social media and website, and featured in various Searca publications.

to the damage caused by shaking, liquefaction of soft sediment in valleys, and landslides.

In a recent blog, Professor Hasan Sözbilir of the Dokuz Eylül University Earthquake Application and Research Centre has studied the region and reported: “As far as I can see, at least three fault segments have been broken. The total length of the surface fracture has exceeded 500km.”

So why were these events relatively shallow in this region?

Some of the largest earthquakes known to have occurred are associated with the so-called “Pacific Ring of Fire”. These earthquakes are commonly generated as deep as 700km, as the strong, dense oceanic plates plunge down into the Earth below the surrounding continents.

Turkey, however, lies in a region of weaker, mainly continental lithosphere where the crust is only about 30 km thick, close to a point where three tectonic plates come together—Africa, Arabia and Anatolia.

The convergence of the Arabian plate is squeezing the wedgelike Anatolian plate out to the west, generating a series of subvertical, strike-slip faults, such as the East Anatolian Fault, which failed during the magnitude 7.8 event.

In such continental crust, the strongest part—and the most likely point for large earthquakes to be born—lies typically at between 10km and 20km depth.

In settings of this kind, shallow, surface-rupturing faults are more likely to form.

Wrong time, wrong place

A THIRD factor is simply that the region where the earthquakes occurred is highly populated. Given the timing, a substantial loss of life is almost inevitable following an event—or events—of this magnitude.

Deadly earthquakes are well known in Turkey. In the past 50 years, there have been at least four major events with substantial loss of life—in 1975, 1983, 1999 and 2020.

Following the Izmit earthquake in 1999, there were serious efforts by the Turkish authorities to improve building standards to better resist earthquakes.

But there are limits as to what you can do in a highly populated area with events of this size. And we have to remember that the two main seismic shocks were perhaps more than twice as big as the largest known historical earthquake in this region.

Furthermore, in Syria we have to add the fact that years of ongoing civil conflict have substantially degraded the building infrastructure, making the region event less resilient to the effects of seismic shaking. This will likely also hamper efforts to deliver assistance and aid—and, in the longer term, to rebuild. Bob Holdsworth, professor of Structural Geology, Durham University/The Conversation (CC)

DOST-FPRDI names substitute trees for wood carving

GOOD news for the country’s wood carving industry, which has been experiencing shortages in its raw material supply! Two wood species—yemane and paraiso—were identified as ideal materials for wood carving.

The two wood species were identified through a recent study made by the Department of Science and Technology’s Forest Products Research and Development Institute (DOST-FPRDI).

For centuries now, sculptors in the town of Paete in Laguna province, have produced remarkable art works and until recently, have successfully passed on their skills to younger generations.

All these years, many of the craftsmen have relied heavily on batikuling (Litsea leytensis Merr.), their favorite raw material.

Batikuling wood is known for its right mix of hardness and softness, and how it easily resists insect and fungal attack.

Due to overuse, however, the tree’s supply has shrunk dramatically in recent decades, putting it on the government’s threatenedspecies list.

“To help address the problem, we studied other trees which could serve as substitute material,”

said DOST-FPRDI’s Armando V. Gillado Jr.

“We found that yemane (Gmelina arborea Roxb. ex Sm.) and paraiso (Melia azedarach L.) are ideal alternatives since their wood properties are similar to those of batikuling,” Gillado said.

After looking into the wood’s physical and strength properties and acceptability to members of the Paete Artists Guild, Gillado and team found that yemane is easy to carve and finish.

It is also insect and fungi-resistant, and has the right hardness. It even scores higher than batikuling in texture and color.

At the same time, besides the required wood qualities, paraiso has good grain direction and smell, and is easy to dry.

Yemane is a fast-growing tree widely planted in industrial plantations all over the country.

Paraiso, meanwhile, is a lesserknown tree commonly grown in private plantations in Quezon province.

“It is important to support the country’s wood carvers,” Gillado said, “because we foresee much growth in their sector. In a world drowning in mass-produced consumer goods, there is a special place for products of the so-called creative industries, for things painstakingly made by hand using individual talent and skill.”

The study was conducted as part of DOST-FPRDI’s “Gubat Obra: Forest-Based Creative Products S&T Program.” Rizalina K. Araral and Julius T. Pelegrina/S&T News Services

WOMEN from Turkey check their destroyed building, in Kahramanmaras, southern Turkey, on February 8. With the hope of finding survivors fading, stretched rescue teams in Turkey and Syria searched on Wednesday for signs of life in the rubble of thousands of buildings toppled by a catastrophic earthquake. AP/HUSSEIN MALLA

THE earthquakes that struck in Turkey and Syria in the early hours of February 6 have led to terrible destruction on a scale not seen in Europe for many decades.

Filipinos dominate 2022 Searca photo contest

of the

Pope leads prayer for quake victims in Syria, Turkey

POPE Francis concluded his public audience on Wednesday with a prayer for the intercession of the Virgin Mary for the thousands of victims of a deadly earthquake in Syria and Turkey.

“Let’s pray together so that these brothers and sisters can move forward from this tragedy. And we pray that Our Lady will protect them,” the pope said in the Vatican’s Paul VI Hall on February 8. He then led pilgrims at the event in praying a Hail Mary for all those affected.

A series of strong earthquakes in parts of Turkey and Syria on February 6 have created massive destruction and killed more than 15,000 people, according to the latest estimates reported by the Associated Press (AP) on Thursday.

“With deep feeling I pray for them and express my closeness to these peoples, to the families of the victims, and to all those who suffer because of this devastating natural disaster,” the pope said.

“I thank all those who are

working to bring assistance and encouragement to them,” he added, “and solidarity to those areas, in part already tormented by a long war.”

On Monday, a “deeply saddened” Pope Francis sent “heartfelt condolences to those who

mourn their loss” in telegrams addressed to the apostolic nuncios of Turkey and Syria after the earthquake. Rescuers pulled more survivors from beneath the rubble of collapsed buildings in Turkey on Thursday, but hopes were start -

ing to fade of finding many more people alive more than three days after the catastrophic earthquake and series of aftershocks, AP said.

Francis’s topic for his February 8 general audience address was his January 31 to February 5 visit to the Democratic Republic of Congo and South Sudan, which he called a “long-desired journey.”

The trip fulfilled “two ‘dreams,’” he said: “To visit the Congolese people, custodians of an immense country, the green heart of Africa and second in the world along with Amazonia. A land rich in resources and bloodied by a war that never ends, because there is always someone to feed the fire.”

“And,” he added, “to visit the South Sudanese people, in a pilgrimage of peace together with the archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, and the moderator general of the Church of Scotland, Iain Greenshields: We went together to bear witness that it is possible and a duty to collaborate in diversity, especially if one shares faith in Christ.” Hannah Brockhaus/Catholic News Agency and AP

Pope confers 2 Filipinos among 10 new catechists, lectors

VATICAN—Pope Francis conferred the ministries of lector and catechist upon four men and six women from the Philippines, Mexico, Congo, Italy and the UK at a Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica.

Celebrating the Sunday of the Word of God on January 22, the pope presented Bibles to three new lectors and said: “Receive the book of Holy Scripture and faithfully transmit the Word of God, so that it may germinate and bear fruit in the hearts of men.”

The pope then spoke to the future catechists who knelt before him. He handed each one a silver crucifix, saying: “Receive this sign of our faith, seat of the truth and charity of Christ: proclaim him by your life, actions, and word.”

Filipinos in the catechist ministry

THE Filipinos among the new catechists who were conferred by the pope were Leon Asuncion and Norma Ramos from the Catechetical Foundation of the Archdiocese of Manila (CFAM).

Asuncion, 55, is from St. John the Baptist Parish in San Juan City, where he had been serving as Extraordinary Minister of the Holy Communion.

Blessed with four children, he and his wife, Juliefer, are also members of the Couples for Christ since 2008.

Asuncion’s involvement with CFAM started in 1992, where he served as catechist until 2000.

He also served as CFAM’s area coordinator, ministry assistant for research and development, and human resource development officer.

Since 2019, Asuncion has been serving as CFAM’s catechetical coordinator.

Ramos, meanwhile, is a catechist from St. John Bosco Parish in Manila’s Tondo district and volunteer servant of the The Lord’s Flock Catholic Charismatic Community.

At CFAM, she has been its head catechist since 2009.

The 57-year old also anchors Radio Veritas’ “Katekesis Like Ko To” program.

Ministries shaped by the pope

POPE Francis conferred the lay ministries on the Sunday of the Word of God, a day that he declared in 2019 on the 1,600th anniversary of the death of St. Jerome, who famously translated the Bible.

Military bishop: ROTC is good if done right

THE effectiveness of the Reserve Officers Training Corps (ROTC) program in schools depends on implementation and not just ideas, the country’s military bishop said. Bishop Oscar Jaime Florencio of the Military Ordinariate of the Philippines (MOP) said he is not entirely against ROTC revival as long as it is for the good of the students.

“The push for the ROTC program would be good if they are implemented well,” Florencio told Radio Veritas.

“The different values that are enshrined in the program could go down to the core of our young people,” he said.

The bishop made the statement amid the ongoing push in the Senate for the return of the

ROTC program in tertiary and vocational schools.

The program seeks to provide basic military training to motivate, train, organize and utilize students for national defense preparedness or civil-military operations.

The ROTC was made optional in 2002 because of reports of corruption within the program.

CBCP News

PHL embassy in Oslo joins Feast of Sto. Niño celebration

THE Philippine Embassy in Oslo joined around 500 Filipino Catholic faithful from the Norwegian capital and nearby kommune (communities) in celebrating the Feast of the Sto. Nino at the Oslo Katedralskole (cathedral school) on January 21.

The event featured a Holy Mass in Cebuano celebrated by Fr. Johan Dumandan, cultural performances from various groups from Oslo and Drammen, Jesshiem, Larvik and Hammar towns, with The Voice Norge Filipino born contestant LJ Amorsolo also performing.

There was also a turnover of hermana duties from the Sacred Heart Filipino Chaplaincy-Our Lady of Mt. Carmen Oslo to the Hiligaynon Group. The latter will lead the celebrations next year.

In his remarks at the event, Philippine Ambassador to Norway Enrico T. Fos reminded those present of the importance of bringing

their Catholic faith and their Filipino roots to wherever they are. He said it not just connects them to the Philippines, but also inspires others around them.

“Wherever we are, the Filipino faithful filled churches, sang

in choirs and helped in various ministries, much like what you are doing here in Norway. I hope that you continue to spread the Catholic faith and the Filipino values where you are, as you showcase the best values of the

Filipino being admired around the world,” he said.

In a raffle draw winners were able to take home prizes, including pilgrimages to the Holy Land and Fatima, and plane tickets to the Philippines.

The ministries themselves have also been shaped by Pope Francis in recent years. The pope changed Church law in January 2021 so that women could be instituted to the lay ministries of lector and acolyte.

Pope Francis established the ministry of catechist as an instituted, vocational service within the Catholic Church in May 2021.

The ministry is for lay people who have a particular call to serve the Catholic Church as a teacher of the faith. The ministry lasts for the entirety of life, regardless of whether the person is actively carrying out that activity during every part of his or her life.

In his homily, Pope Francis said that “the Word of God is for everyone.”

He underlined that the Word “calls everyone to conversion” and “leads us to direct our lives to the Lord.”

“All of us, even the pastors of the Church, are under the authority of the Word of God. Not under our own tastes, tendencies and preferences, but under the one Word of God that molds us, converts us, and calls us to be united in the one Church of Christ,” the pope said.

He said that the “proclamation of the Word must become the main priority of the ecclesial community, as it was for Jesus.”

“May it not happen that we profess a God with an expansive heart, yet become a Church with a closed heart … may it not be that we preach salvation for all, yet make the way to receive it impractical; may it not be that we recognize that we are called to proclaim the Kingdom, yet neglect the Word, losing ourselves in so many secondary activities or so many secondary discussions,” he said.

More than 5,000 people attended the Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica, according to the Vatican.

The Sunday of the Word of God has been celebrated in the Church each year on the third Sunday of Ordinary Time since 2020.

Pope Francis said that the Word of God “draws us into the ‘net’ of the Father’s love and makes us apostles moved by an unquenchable desire to bring all those we encounter into the barque of the Kingdom.”

“Today let us also hear the invitation to be fishers of men: let us feel that we are called by Jesus in person to proclaim his Word, to bear witness to it in everyday life, to live it in justice and charity, to “give it flesh” by tenderly caring for those who suffer,” he said.

“This is our mission: to become seekers of the lost, oppressed, and discouraged, not to bring them ourselves, but the consolation of the Word, the disruptive proclamation of God that transforms life, to bring the joy of knowing that He is our Father and addresses each one of us, to bring the beauty of saying, ‘Brother, sister, God has come close to you, listen and you will find in his Word an amazing gift!’” Courtney Mares/Catholic News Agency via CBCP

Installation of parish priest Fr. Carmelo (Jek) P. Arada Jr. (solo photo, and third from right, foreground, group photo) is the new parish priest of Santisima Trinidad Parish on Estrada St., Malate, Manila. The Mass for his installation on February 8 was led by Manila Archbishop Jose Cardinal Advincula (fourth from right). The concelebrated Mass included Lingayen-Dagupan Archbishop Socrates Villegas (seventh from right), Bishop Emeritus Teodoro Bacani (sixth from right) of Diocese of Novaliches, Fr. Domingo Baybay (fifth from right), first parish priest of Santisima Trinidad. FROM FROM JAY RESURRECCION AND SCREENSHOT

LEON ASUNCION (left) and Norma Ramos were among the 10 newly installed catechists during Mass presided over by Pope Francis to mark the Sunday of the Word of God in St. Peter’s Basilica at the Vatican on January 22, 2023. VATICAN MEDIA

BISHOP Oscar Jaime Florencio of the Military Ordinariate of the Philippines WIKIPEDIA COMMONS

PHILIPPINE Ambassador to Norway Enrico T. Fos and Madame Myla Fos (fourth and third from left) join the performers during the Feast of the Sto. Nino celebrations. CHRISTIAN BATUYONG PHOTO

Fr. Johan Dumandan celebrates a Mass in Cebuano during the Feast of the Sto. Niño in Oslo, Norway. OSLO PHILIPPINE EMBASSY PHOTO

A WOMAN sits on the rubble as emergency rescue teams search for people under the remains of destroyed buildings in Nurdagi town on the outskirts of Osmaniye city southern Turkey on February 7,. A powerful earthquake hit southeast Turkey and Syria early February 6, toppling hundreds of buildings and killing and injuring thousands of people. AP/KHALIL HAMRA

Asean Champions of Biodiversity

Media Category 2014

Biodiversity Sunday BusinessMirror

Editor: Lyn Resurreccion

Sunday, February 12, 2023

Vigorous work with stakeholders needed to protect, conserve PHL eagle, other species

By Jonathan L. Mayuga

Philippine Eagle Foundation (PEF) Executive Director

Dennis Salvador narrated stories of conservation experiences in protecting and conserving the Philippine eagle, the country’s national bird, and its habitats before some 300 participants of a multi-stakeholder forum in Cagayan de Oro City on February 2.

Salvador talked about enabling policies and interventions, programs and projects that can be considered successful models of conservation, the bad or the gaps and challenges they faced, and the ugly part, which is happening and still threatening the existence of the iconic bird.

The PEF, a nonstock, nonprofit organization dedicated to saving the Philippine eagle and its habitats, is the conservation partner of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR), which organized the Multi-Stakeholders’ Forum in Mindanao after holding the same in Luzon and the Visayas recently.

The forum aims to gather insights on environmental governance, as well as other issues, such as ecotourism, agriculture and food security, forest and land management, climate and disaster resilience, and mining.

In his talk, Salvador said that as the country’s top forest predator, the Philippine eagle, is a perfect surrogate for biodiversity status.

Cinchona Reserve

THE Cinchona Reserve on Mount Kitanglad is a perfect example of how national protected areas secure a very critical life stage of a threatened species, such as the Philippine eagle, Salvador said.

“At Cinchona, protected area management and a low-key incentivebased nest-monitoring scheme resulted in the successful breeding and independence of 10 eaglets,” he said.

Salvador said working together, the DENR, Indigenous communities, nongovernment organizations (NGOs), local government units

(LGUs) and the private sector are delivering many good biodiversity stories.

Through joint field expeditions, eagle rescues, releases and monitoring, he added, also improved their knowledge about the status and needs of the Philippine eagle.

Centers of biological evolution, endemism

ACCORDING to Salvador, Philippine eagle nesting territories, such as Cinchona Reserve, are centers of biological evolution and endemism.

He cited that expeditions within eastern Mindanao with the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago yielded at least four organisms new to science.

A new species of Rafflesia (Rafflesia verucossa); cloud rat (Batomys hamiguitan); gymnure or moon rat, the Eastern Mindanao Gymnure; and a new genus and species of forest mouse, the Kampalili ShrewMouse, were all recently discovered in the region.

“These are site endemics within the Eastern Mindanao Biodiversity Corridor, which is a metaphorical ‘Garden of Eden’ for biological evolution and might also be home to 47 wild eagle pairs,” he added.

Grassroots participation

SALVADOR credited the DENR for making the Philippines one of the countries that are very compliant with inclusivity and grassroots participation to conservation.

He cited the creation of Indigenous communities’ conservation areas (ICCA) and local conservation areas (LCA) among the good policies.

“At some ICCAs, the Philippine Eagle Foundation contributed a

meaningful model of Indigenous people’s [IPs] engagement in conservation, through our ‘culturebased conservation’ framework,” he noted.

The approach documents and supports Indigenous conservation philosophies and values, and puts scientific techniques and tools in the hands of the IPs.

The PEF has 14 Indigenous partners, protecting at least 140,000 hectares of forests within 20 Philippine eagle territories across the country. It also joined the DENR in supporting LCAs.

Inadequate PA coverage

IN the latest spatial gap analyses for eagle protection, PEF’s protected area network covered only 32.4 percent, or 9,274 km2, of the projected suitable eagle habitats.

“This is 12.6 percent less than the target protected area representation of 45 percent,” Salvador

pointed out.

“We identified priority eagle habitats that are currently classified as key biodiversity areas [KBAs] but without protected area coverage,” he added.

He cited that in Mindanao, the priorities for protected areas, or other effective area-based conservation measures (OECMs) include Mount Hilong-hilong and Mount KampaliliPuting Bato, where the three-site endemic rodents were discovered.

He said the Mount Latian complex and Mount Busa-Kiamba KBAs should also be prioritized.

Meanwhile, he said the priority in Leyte is the Anonang-Lobi Range, which contains the largest suitable eagle habitats on the island.

Hunting and trapping

“ HUNTING of apex predators, such as the Philippine eagle, and critical link species and ecological engineers, such as the hornbill, Philip -

pine deer and Philippine warty pig, are still rampant,” Salvador said.

This can result in “empty forests,” or forests without large predators and herbivores because of high hunting pressures.

He noted that a total of 94 Philippine Eagles were rescued over the PEF’s five decades of conservation work.

Data showed that human persecution accounted for 71 percent of these cases, or seven birds persecuted out of every 10 birds.

“The situation is even worst during the pandemic. A record high of 14 Philippine eagles was rescued and retrieved from the wild, and 11 of them were either shot or trapped. This is the highest rescue rate so far in the history of Philippine eagle conservation,” he noted.

Mass die-off

ACCORDING to Salvador, hunters roaming the forest and bringing contaminated meat or materials may have also introduced the African swine flu (ASF) in the mountains.

He said the first case of a mass die-off of wild pigs happened at a privately managed forest patch in Tagum City in Mindanao in 2021.

“All of the 141 wild warty pigs died inside the 325-hectare reserve. Across the country, there are reported cases of wild pigs suspected to have died due to ASF,” he said.

According to Salvador, regulating, if not altogether banning, wildlife hunting can also prevent spillover of zoonotic diseases, or infections spread between people and animals.

Recommendations

SALVADOR said nature-based solutions to cross-cutting issues of poverty, biodiversity losses, climate change and disasters are popular.

In addition, he said the integration of culture-based solutions that open up genuine opportunities for IPs and other nonstate actors would be helpful.

As an umbrella approach to conserve biodiversity, he recommended the designation of all Philippine eagle nesting sites as protected areas or other effective area-based conservation measures.

Meanwhile, to address the threats of wildlife shooting, the use of airguns, jolen guns and other improvised firearms must be banned along with the regulation of the use and number of native traps.

Social issues

ENVIRONMENT Secretary Maria Antonia Yulo-Loyzaga lauded the efforts of PEF in conserving and protecting the Philippine eagle.

Sought for reaction, she noted that the PEF successfully engaged the IPs, communities, local governments and other stakeholders, making their conservation model a success.

She said it can be a basis or a strategy for other endangered species to put them off from the endangered list.

She said science-based targets will have to be determined to effectively address the problem the country’s biodiversity is experiencing.

“Unless we can address the social issues, I firmly believe we will not be able to address the environmental ones,” she said.

According to Loyzaga, the DENR will start in addressing problems confronting communities, the way they are growing, their needs and their visions.

“Those investments need to be made. If we will not make these investments, we will not be able to address the problem,” she said, adding that the focus of the multistakeholders forum is to listen to everyone across sectors.

Meanwhile, she said the DENR is relying on stronger collaboration with various stakeholders, particularly with the LGUs, in enforcing environmental laws to protect and conserve the Philippine eagle and other threatened species and their habitats.

PhilSA, DENR to use space data to create database, monitor national reforestation

TWO government agen -

cies are set to implement a project that will create a geospatial database of the country’s natural resources, and monitor the National Greening Program (NGP) through the use of spaceborne data.

The Philippine Space Agency (PhilSA) and the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) signed a memorandum of agreement (MOA) for the project at the DENR office in Quezon City on February 6, a PhilSA news release said.

PhilSA Director General Joel Joseph S. Marciano Jr. and Environment Secretary Ma. Antonia Yulo-Loyzaga signed the MOA for their respective agencies .

Titled, “Use of Satellite Imagery in the Creation of the National ENR Geospatial Database and other related Programs of the DENR,”

the DENR will fund the project.

The two agencies will collaborate on the NGP Progress Monitoring and the National Resource Accounting Program (NRAP), which are seen to strengthen sciencebased policy-making.

For the NGP Progress Monitoring, PhilSA will generate monthly indices or maps on vegetation trends and biophysical parameters, and develop ways to detect forest disturbance and forest cover classification.

PhilSA will also assist to enhance the capability of DENR in monitoring NGP areas and other forests using satellite remote sensing, machine learning, artificial intelligence, and geographic information systems.

The space agency will develop methodologies for NRAP to produce annual mangrove extent maps and air quality maps.

In the following years, PhilSA will generate maps that cover other natural resources.

PhilSA will provide the technical capacity training for both activities to help DENR’s personnel adopt applicable space technologies for the project, and develop

systems and tools to map, monitor and account the country’s natural resources.

“PhilSA welcomes this outstanding collaboration with the DENR. This is a concrete step in further strengthening the domestic space value chain, specifically

the capacity to transform satellite imagery and spaceborne data into insights and actions for the conservation, protection, management, and restoration of our environment and natural resources,” Marciano said.

The partnership “highlights the socio-economic benefits and value from our country’s emerging space capabilities,” he added.

Yulo-Loyzaga, in her message, underscored the importance of the space value chain.

“The space value chain… actually helps us identify valuable ecosystems, habitats and ecosystems services’ potential that are critical to the country’s development. And we look forward to this particular endeavor, for being a small initial step but growing in terms of impact, importance, and resources towards building a resilient and

inclusive Philippines,” she said.

The cooperation agreement with the DENR is also aligned with PhilSA’s Key Development Areas on Hazard Management and Climate Studies, where the country develops and utilizes space science and technology applications to enhance hazard management and mitigation strategy and ensure the nation’s resilience to climate change.

It is also aligned with Space Research and Development to accelerate scientific growth in the areas of space science and technology and other allied fields, the news release said.

PhilSA is likewise mandated under Republic Act 11363 to assist other national government agencies and the private sector perform their functions and duties through the utilization of space science and technology applications.

A PHILIPPINE eagle on Mount Apo PEF PHOTO

A PHILIPPINE EAGLE at the Malagos Philippine Eagle Breeding Facility in the outskirts of Davao. GREGG YAN PHOTO

ORLANDO, Florida—

Facing blowback , the director of Florida’s high school sports governing body is backing away from using an eligibility form that requires female athletes to disclose their menstrual history in order to compete.

I nstead, the executive director of the Florida High School Athletic Association is recommending that most personal information revealed on medical history forms stay at the doctor’s office and not be stored at school.

The association’s board has an emergency meeting recently to vote on whether to adopt the four-page form— which would remove questions that force student-athletes to share details about their menstruation cycles in order to be participate in sports.

M any other states ask or order female athletes to include details about their menstruation cycles with other health information.

The Florida association’s spokesperson has said the proposed changes were not in response to concerns about transgender athletes competing in women’s sports, as some social media users claim.

F lorida Gov. Ron DeSantis in 2021 signed a bill barring transgender girls and women from playing on public school teams intended for student athletes identified as girls at birth, which put DeSantis and the state into the national cultural debate over transgender rights.

Under the new Florida recommendation, answers to additional questions about mental health, alcohol and drug use, and family health history would stay in the offices of the health care practitioner who conducted the medical screening.

A n earlier version of the form, which had mandatory questions about students’ menstrual histories, had been recommended by an advisory committee of the association. Committee members said making the menstrual cycle

questions mandatory rather than optional was consistent with national guidelines for sports physicals developed by the American Academy of Family Physicians, the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American College of Sports Medicine and other groups. The national guidelines said menstrual history is an “essential discussion for female athletes” because period abnormalities could be a sign of “low energy availability, pregnancy, or other gynecologic or medical conditions.”

However, the earlier version of the form “created concerns and questions from parents, school district administrators, school board members and coaches regarding the health privacy of student-athletes,” according to the Florida association board’s Thursday meeting agenda.

“ Therefore, this recommendation provides pertinent medical history to the qualified health care practitioner and gives schools the medical authorization necessary for allowing athletic participation, while the protecting the privacy of the studentathlete,” the agenda item said.

Thursday’s meeting was being held after a group of Democratic state lawmakers sent a letter this week to John Gerdes, the association›s president, calling the reporting requirements in the earlier proposed form “highly invasive.” The letter said, “no girl should be forced to disclose her bodily functions to someone who is not her mother, father, caretaker, or physician.”

T he state lawmakers said they were concerned that, if the schools had the information, a coach or athletic director would be able to get access to it. With the current form, such questions are optional, not mandatory; in the revised form under consideration, they would be scrapped.

“

There is absolutely no reason for FHSAA to collect such private information and no reason why the schools need it,” the lawmakers said in the letter. AP

St. Andrews leaves 700-year-old Swilcan Bridge on 18th hole alone

PEBBLE BEACH, California—

What was shaping up as one the biggest controversies in golf this year also turned out to be the shortest one.

The Swilcan Bridge on the 18th hole at St. Andrews will be left alone.

The outrage, bordering on horror, began with social media images of the St. Andrews Links Trust extending the start of the bridge to include a circular patio of stones that did not look like they had been there for 700 years.

The ongoing works are solely focused on the turfed approach area to the bridge, which regularly falls into disrepair due to the significant foot traffic by tens of thousands of golfers and countless other visitors seeking to have their photograph taken at the landmark,” St. Andrews said in a statement issued Sunday.

Golf Digest met with Links Trust officials on Monday. Laurie Watson, the external relations and media manager, told Digest the area in front of the bridge was a quagmire just three months after the British Open. Watson said the Links Trust has tried using artificial turf, rubber rocks and turf seeding, and yet nothing has worked.

So this is the next step in trying to find a potential solution,” Watson told Golf Digest.

A nd then it wasn’t. A few hours later, the Links Trust, which oversees the Old Course and six other public courses in the Scottish town, said it

was abandoning the plan. “

The stonework at the approach and exit of the bridge was identified as one possible long-term solution, however while this installation would have proved some protection, in this instance we believe we are unable to create a look which is in keeping with its iconic setting and have taken the decision to remove it,” said an updated statement issued Monday.

THE religiously wary, the spiritually curious—and anyone inclined to appeal to a higher power on game day—are the target audience for a Super Bowl ad campaign with a simple message: Jesus loves them.

A g roup that includes wealthy Christian boosters is using the  biggest megaphone TV marketing money can buy on Sunday to spread the word with two new ads that proclaim “He Gets Us.”

They hope to counter the notion that religion is used to divide people, spending about $20 million to reach more than 100 million viewers at a time when the nation’s Christian population—and religious affiliation of any kind—are in decline.

Because religion is a touchy subject and prime-time advertising is so expensive, it is rare for faith to be promoted alongside the Super Bowl ‹s perennially buzzed about beer and

Religion gets into spotlight in Super Bowl

fast-food commercials. But the backers of the “He Gets Us” campaign see it as a great opportunity to reach so many people at once.

It fits with our target audience really well,” said campaign spokesperson Jason Vanderground about the NFL [National Football League] and its big game. “We’re trying to get the message across to people who are spiritually open, but skeptical.”

Christianity is still in the majority in the US, with 63 percent of adults defining themselves as believers, according to a 2021 Pew Research Center survey But that figure is down from 78 percent in 2007. About 29 percent of Americans define themselves as religiously unaffiliated, up from 16 percent in 2007.

Within the NFL, Christianity has long permeated the culture, and regular fans are accustomed to expressions of faith, from locker-room prayers to Hail Mary passes to players pointing skyward after touchdowns.

join a modest list of past faith-based ads aired nationally, including some that spurred controversy.

I n 2010, the anticipated debut of a Super Bowl ad by Focus on the Family, a conservative Christian ministry long involved in anti-abortion efforts, received pushback from abortionrights advocates and others in the run-up to the game. The ad featured Pam Tebow, mother of football star Tim Tebow, talking about her challenging pregnancy with her son. She chose not to have an abortion despite medical concerns.

I think we ended up in the Top 10 for the most controversial ads…that wasn’t the one I wanted, but it’s OK. I communicated a message,” said Focus on the Family CEO Jim Daly. He said the goal was to reach the most people with “a quick story about the positivity of choosing life.”

biggest cultural moment that we have the entire year?”

The “He Gets Us” campaign, which was launched in March 2022, is funded by Hobby Lobby CEO David Green and other anonymous donors. The ads direct people to a website, where they can learn more about Jesus, find Bible reading plans and connect with people online or in-person who can answer their questions.

Super Bowl ads draw enormous attention—sometimes too much—so any company or organization considering spending $6.5 million for 30 seconds of air time needs to weigh the pros and cons, experts say. “ It’s incredibly powerful because you really get to reach people, but you also are inviting lots of discussion and scrutiny and feedback,” said Tim Calkins, a Northwestern University marketing professor. A religious organization might decide, for example, that its money would be better spent directly funding programs that benefit people in their community, he said.

That may help explain why there are so few faith-related ads during the big game, said Paul Putz, assistant director of Baylor University’s Faith & Sports Institute. “Football players themselves have often been the advertisements for Jesus,” he said.

The league’s religious undercurrent was thrust into the spotlight last month after Buffalo Bills safety Damar Hamlin collapsed during a crucial game with Cincinnati. Those watching witnessed players praying on the field as medics worked to save Hamlin’s life. An outpouring of public prayer followed for days.

Some advertisers, like the Church of Scientology, have opted to air regional ads during the game. But the 30-second and 60-second “He Gets Us” spots will

I n spite of the controversy, Daly said he considers the ad a success. The ministry later shared the story of a woman who said she decided not to get an abortion after seeing the ad.

O n other occasions, religious themes have been used in a lighthearted way to sell everyday products: In 2018, a Toyota ad featured nuns, a priest, a rabbi, an imam and a Buddhist monk. A California church created a humorous Doritos ad that aired in 2010 after winning the snack brand’s Super Bowl ad contest.

O n Sunday, one “He Gets Us” ad will be shown during each half. One will focus on how children demonstrate Jesus’ love, while the other deals with anger, and how Jesus modeled a different way.

“ We think Jesus is a big deal and we want to make a big deal out of it,” Vanderground said. “What better way to do that than to put him in the

FIFA rules panel to debate on 20-plus minutes stoppage time

ZURICH—The 10-plus minutes of stoppage time that were a regular feature of games at the World Cup in Qatar are back on soccer’s agenda.

F IFA’s rule-making panel known as IFAB put additional time on  the agenda published Wednesday  for its annual meeting next month.

Changes agreed on March 4 can take effect next season. Talks are scheduled on “possible measures to create fairer conditions for both teams in terms of the amount of time available in a match, with a particular focus on a stricter calculation of additional time.”

Games of 100 minutes became routine at the last World Cup as referees followed FIFA advice to add on more accurate amounts for stoppages due to goal celebrations,

injuries, video reviews and substitutions.

T he directive was part of a longstanding FIFA aim to create more active playing time on the field and give fans and viewers better value.

It led to record-setting long games at the World Cup with a slew of stoppage-time additions of more than 10 minutes early in the tournament.

T hough a head injury helped to cause 14-plus minutes of stoppage time in the first half of EnglandIran, there were more than 13 minutes added to the second half of Saudi Arabia’s stunning 2-1 win over eventual champion Argentina.

The United States’ 1-1 draw with Wales on the second day of the tournament kicked off at 10 p.m. in Doha and finished the next day once

There just isn’t a huge need to spend millions on Super Bowl ads about Jesus, said Putz of the Faith & Sports Institute.

Christians can get the word out for free through the network of Christian athletes and coaches developed by sports ministries,” he said. These ministries began building connections across the NFL during the 1950s—before the Super Bowl had become a major televised event— and believed that players and coaches would serve as unofficial ambassadors for Christianity, on and off the field, through their words and deeds.

P utz said Don McClanen, founder of the Fellowship of Christian Athletes, put it best: “If athletes can endorse shaving cream, razor blades and cigarettes, surely they can endorse the Lord, too. AP

The bridge, regarded as the most famous landmark in golf, originally was built to allow shepherds get across the small stream. In recent years, shepherds have given way to the likes of Arnold Palmer, Jack Nicklaus, Tom Watson and Tiger Woods, all of whom have been photographed crossing it for the final time at the home of golf. AP almost 11 minutes were added to the second half.

O rganizers such as individual domestic leagues have not followed FIFA’s example, though some said they were unwilling to change policy midseason and would revisit the subject in the offseason.

F IFA trials at the Club World Cup in Morocco of live broadcasts during video reviews of communications between match officials will also be discussed at the IFAB meeting in London.

O ther subjects include allowing an extra substitute for teams when a player sustains a suspected concussion, though not the emergency temporary replacements requested by the global players’ union FIFPRO and some head injury experts.

The IFAB panel includes representative of FIFA and the four British soccer federations. The voting structure weighted toward FIFA means soccer’s world body can veto any proposal. AP

CONSTRUCTION continues to restore the area around the Swilcan Bridge on the 18th hole of the Old Course at St. Andrews. AP

A GOALKEEPER is on guard in the first day of tryouts for the Fort Walton Beach High School girls’ soccer team in Fort Walton Beach, Florida, on October 10, 2012. AP

KANSAS City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes prays before their American Football Conference playoff game against the Cincinnati Bengals on January 29, 2023, in Kansas City. AP

BOUND BY MUSIC

One Click Straight celebrates a new milestone in their music journey

By Patrick V. Miguel

AFEW hours before their show started at 123 Block, fans of One Click Straight were already forming a line outside. This is a milestone for the band as it is a show dedicated to the band, and at the same time, for the album launch. The audience came to the show to see One Click Straight play and them only.

According to Sam Marquez, this is their biggest One Click Straight show. He compared it to their UP Fair show last year, saying, “This is our biggest OCS show kasi, I think, last year we did UP Fair in terms of size, but in terms of One click Straight show, I think this is the biggest.”

One Click Straight played at 123 Block, Mandala Park, in Mandaluyong on Friday, January 20, to celebrate their self-titled album launch.

Straight is a sibling group. In addition to that, their childhood friend Joel Cartera is also a part of the group— but that does not make him any less of a brother. Sam said so, describing Joel as “A.K.A. brother.”

With that, they feel like One Click Straight is a band that started since birth. “We kinda feel like we’ve been one click straight since birth, we’ve been jamming around high school, grade school,” Sam shared.

Their parents questioned this decision, with their mother asking if they were sure about it. But eventually, they got the support of their parents—but only emotional support.

“We were really working hard to support our craft, we didn’t really get money from our parents,” Sam said. “We did not come from—let’s say— we didn’t come from a rich family or from a music industry family.”

With that, they had to “learn everything the hard way.” They even had to perform gigs where their guitar had only four strings, and unfortunately, in their earlier run, some people mocked them in shows.

According to Joel, they had “zero network, zero socials.”

He narrated, “We really had to go out there and put ourselves out there and meet people who are connected well in the industry. We really started from scratch.”

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Soundstrip got the opportunity to interview the band a few minutes before their show. Asked on how they feel seeing the line of fans coming in, Sam answered, “To be honest, as of this moment, it’s not sinking in (yet).

He added, “Hindi ko pa na-f-feel kasi ang dami ko pang inaasikaso, pero later yan siguro when we get to the top and when I hear the sound of the people, then maybe I’ll get that feeling.”

Before gracing the stage, Sam said he feels “very nervous.” However, he countered, “But at this moment, because of how things are turning out, we’re too tired to be so nervous so we’d rather be just like a vessel.”

Reflecting on why OCS fans spared a few hours of their daily life to see them play, Sam shared, “What is important is how the kids will absorb what we try to say because that’s what we’re trying to do—I think they are here so that they can hear the words that we wanna say.”

Other artists such as Ena Mori, Gabba, Zild, and Sandwich also got to perform on that stage to show their support to One Click Straight.

Bound by music (and blood)

SAM, Tim, and Toffer Marquez are siblings, so technically One Click

The band started as “juvenile,” Sam described. As teenagers, they believed that being in a band was “cool” enough to attract the ladies’ attention since they are not best at sports.

“We just wanted to be cooler,” Tim admitted.

Professionally, according to Sam, it was in 2014 when they decided to take music more seriously. They decided it based on one reason: for the music and music only.

Turning to the positive side, Sam said that being brothers—all of them—helped. It was love and their shared love for music that kept them together.

He said, “One of the blessings that counts is the love that is also real, you know there’s no more walls, there’s no more sugar coating.”

One Click Straight’s self-titled album is available on all musicstreaming platforms.

ONE Click

SoundSampler

by Tony M. Maghirang

‘More Than Friends’ and other love songs this February

MEGUMI ACORDA

“You Forgot to Say Goodbye”

THE new single titled “You Forgot to Say Goodbye” from Pinoy guitarist Megumi Acorda starts with a light folk rock gait till it blooms in encompassing shoegaze breadth and then back to a cycle of light and heavy guitar tones. It parallels the accompanying video featuring lonely landscapes to mirror the happysad arc of the lyrics that partly goes: “You forgot to say goodbye, but it’s okay /Cause every time I close my eyes I see you anyway/I watched the roses die beside your name/You’re the first I’ll try to find when I leave this world behind.” Sigh.

THE QUEENS “Skeletons”

THE Queens is composed of five individuals from Iloilo City, with JC, Pao, and Amiel on guitars, Mac on drums, and Lilith on bass and vocals. They bring together a number of different influences to deliver fresh, dream-like tones and personal, emotional lyricism in their new single “Skeletons.”

JC Pain explains, “Skeletons tackles themes of selfdoubt, rejection, and the very real fear which every queer individual lives through at some point of his/her life. It’s a wish that every skeleton trapped behind a closet door gains the strength to push the door open and show the world what’s been hidden for so long inside the closet.”

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BASALT SHRINE

“The Immutable Eminence of Despair”

THIS doom/post-metal super quartet of Bobby Legaspi (Surrogate Prey), Rallye Ibanez (ex-Religious Nightmare) and Ronaldo and Ronnel Vivo (The Insektlife Cycle) opens their latest single in slow, rhythmic tempo that succumbs to Black Sabbath-like funereal dirge. The harsh vocals introduce the gloom ain’t lifting any time soon while expressing the onset of hellish anguish and desolation. It may not be the best tune for Valentine’s day but it’s as heartrending as any of the sunshiny tracks to prick the ears this time of the year.

KAIA “Turn Up”

YUAN ESTRADA, DAVE ANONUEVO

“More Than Friends”

AFTER releasing songs like “First Impressions” and “Home to You on Christmas,” Yuan Estrada X Dave Anonuevo are back again with a soft pop tune titled “More than Friends” that talks about wanting to get out of the friendship zone even as it unveils hidden feelings for a friend. Yuan’s soft-touch vocals, combined with Dave’s masterful production, makes this song a very feel-good, light, and easy song to listen to. Avid listeners especially in the love month, should get that “kilig” moment when true feelings to a close friend are finally revealed with the fervent hope for a happy ever after.

JAN ROBERTS

“Patlang”

alternative artist Jan Roberts conceived his new single to encapsulate the mellow mix of healing and acceptance that fate is beyond anyone’s control and it may eventually not go your way sometimes but that too is okay. The song offers a gentle validation that longing for someone you lost can coincide with accepting that you can still find happiness in other loving arms. Filled with simple but melodic tunes and heartfelt lyrics, “Patlang” illustrates the blank spaces of time spent staring at the ceiling trying to find peace in between uneasy sadness when you feel nothing and everything at the same time.

BICOL-BASED

THEFilipino P-Pop quintet’s new single “Turn Up” unabashedly displays their signature brand of sass while reviving the bold, explosive sounds of early 2010’s dance-pop. Its release comes with a music video (performance version) whose visuals find KAIA executing the track in synchronized choreography.

As pointed out by the five-member act, “Turn Up” is an escapist anthem about setting one’s worries aside for the time being and taking pleasure in moments that call for fun and adventure. In a collaborative statement, KAIA shares, “Because the original song is upbeat and danceable. we thought a party concept will be best for it, so people would have fun whenever they hear or see “Turn Up.” We want our listeners to feel good as they vibe with the song.”

Looking for love online? New study shows mixed experiences

by Leanne Italie The Associated Press

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These figures from Pew Research Center also reveal that the overall number, which amounts to 30 percent, is unchanged since 2019, the last time the center took a broad look at online dating. In 2015, 15 percent of US adults said they had used a dating site or app, said lead researcher Colleen McClain.

“When we talk to users who have been on the sites more recently, we see that there is really a mix of emotions,” she said. “Everything from burnout to elation.”

Among the study’s key takeaways for McClain: 1 in 10 adults who have a partner said they met their current significant other on a dating site or app. The number rises to 1 in 5 for those under 30.

Asked about their reasons for using the platforms, 44 percent of current or recent users had finding a long-term partner top of mind, with 40 percent responding that they wanted to date casually. Twenty-four percent were in search of casual sex and 22 percent were hunting for new friends.

Using dating sites and apps is most popular among adults under 30, Pew reported, with 53 percent saying they have done it. That compares with 37 percent of those ages 30 to 49; 20 percent of those 50 to 64;

and 13 percent of those 65 and older.

‘A little weird’

AT l A n TA firefighter Andy Giron, 33, is among the pleasantly surprised. He said he had always considered digital dating “a little weird” until recently.

Giron had just gotten out of a long-term relationship in 2019 when he decided to give Tinder a try for some casual dating. That didn’t work out after a couple of times but he hit gold on Hinge a short time later.

“My wife was my first date on Hinge,” he said. “She was so easy to talk to and we had a lot in common. There was an immediate connection when we first met in person.”

The two married six months later, soon after the Covid-19 pandemic hit. They now have a year-old daughter. Giron was inspired to turn to online dating by his sister, who found her spouse the same way.

“I always thought you should meet someone the regular way, in person, but

this is the way the world is now,” Giron said.

Mixed experiences

OnlInE daters’ experiences were mixed, with 53 percent saying they have been at least somewhat positive. Fourteen percent said they have been very positive, and 48 percent said their experiences have included at least one of four unwanted behaviors explored in the study.

Thirty-eight percent of those reporting negative experiences said they received unsolicited sexual messages or images, and 30 percent cited unwanted continued contact. Twenty-four percent said they were called an offensive name, and 6 percent said they were physically threatened.

Female users were more likely to report such experiences, especially those under 50.

li ke Giron, 22-year-old liv l oughlin, a tech company marketing associate in San Jose, California, had just ended a long-term

relationship when she first tried digital dating last September.

“I wanted to jump into it, especially to meet people because I was new to the area,” she said. “My first date on a dating app was on Hinge and it was crazy. He was immediately very, very touchy and there were all these sexual overtones to everything he said.... I ended up bailing.”

But l oughlin didn’t give up. She turned to Bumble and is now happily in a relationship with a man she met there. “I figured I had hit rock bottom and it couldn’t go anywhere but up,” she said.

A call for background checks

SA FET y is a large concern for some digital daters. There have been demands over the years for more protections, such as required background checks, in light of reported stalking, and sexual assaults and other violence. Few sites require such checks of every user.

“We see that Americans are divided on this,” McClain said. “Forty-eight percent say that dating sites are a safe way to meet people. A very similar share, 49 percent, say that they’re not safe.”

A majority overall said dating sites and apps should require people to undergo background checks. Stacy Overcamp, 58, an unemployed marketing specialist, knows the dangers firsthand. She’s been dating online since about 1998, with several contacts leading to relationships over the years.

“I’ve never had a problem meeting men online. I’ve had a problem meeting quality men online,” said Overcamp, in suburban San Francisco. One long-term relationship ended in stalking, harassment and a restraining order, she said. Other men she dated turned out to be broke, drug users or liars. But she remains active as her priorities have shifted to marriage.

Overcamp estimates 30 or 40 contacts a month. She said: “It would take me five years to talk with and connect with that many men if I weren’t online.”

Choosing safe Valentine’s flowers, plants for pet parents

IF you’re sending your sweetheart cut flowers or a potted plant for Valentine’s Day, choose ones that are safe for their pets. One lick of a pollen-covered lily stamen can be life-threatening to cats.

“Each year, the ASPCA Animal Poison Control Center (APCC) sees a rise in calls around February 14th,” according to Dr. Tina Wismer, veterinarian and senior director of the APCC. She said many of those involve chocolate, xylitol and indoor plants, adding that plant poisonings are a concern for pets year-round.

In 2021 alone, she said, “the APCC received more than 31,500 calls about pets

ingesting potentially toxic indoor and outdoor plants and flowers.”

Ones to watch for lIlIES, Wismer agreed, are among the worst offenders. “Even a small exposure to li lium [lily] and Hemerocallis [daylily] causes kidney issues in cats, as they are extremely toxic.” But they aren’t considered toxic to dogs, she said.

Tulips, on the other hand, are problematic to both cats and dogs. “While ingestion of the leaves typically just causes stomach upset, the bulb contains toxins that can cause intense stomach upset, low blood pressure, convulsions, and cardiac abnor-

malities,” Wismer said.

Carnations, calla lilies, chrysanthemums, daisies and gladiolas, all popular bouquet additions, also are toxic and should be kept away from dogs and cats.

“The most common outward signs of any toxicity in pets will be nausea, vomiting, diarrhea and drooling,” Wismer said. “In more severe cases, lethargy, depression and seizures can suggest your pet may have ingested something poisonous.”

If your pet has eaten any part of a toxic plant or flower, or shows any of these signs or symptoms, Wismer recommends contacting your veterinarian.

Safer options

PETS and plants can safely coexist, of course, but some diligence is required. Roses, gerbera daisies and orchids are among the popular gift flowers considered safe for cats and dogs, Wismer said. But she cautioned that thorns can pose a risk; you can buy thorn-stripped roses, or clip thorns off yourself once you get the flowers home. Some pet owners forego flowers and plants altogether, while others place plants out of reach. Finding an out-of-reach spot can be difficult, however, for a cat with superhero agility, who can balance on the top of a door and leap tall refrigerators in a single bound. AP

Whether looking for love or a casual encounter, 3 in 10 uS adults say they have used a dating site or app—with mixed experiences. For the under-35 set, more than half have tried it.

A couPle walk along New Brighton Beach at sunset in christchurch, New Zealand. Whether looking for love or a casual encounter, 3 in 10 uS adults say they have used a dating site or app—with mixed experiences, according to a Pew Research center study. AP