BusinessMirror January 15, 2023

DEAL OR NO DEAL?

By Lenie Lectura

THE resumption of oil and gas exploration talks between the governments of China and the Philippines faces a new challenge just days after their two leaders enthusiastically announced plans for such: the Philippine Supreme Court declared unconstitutional the 2005 exploration agreement of the Philippines with China and Vietnam.

D ays before the SC released its decision, Secretary Raphael Lotilla of the Department of Energy (DOE) had said President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. and Chinese President Xi Jinping, who met during the former’s state visit to Beijing, “have agreed in principle” for the resumption of talks on the possible joint exploration in waters disputed in the South China Sea (SCS).

“ What it establishes is a healthy environment for the talks to take place, that there is at the highest levels of both the Philippine and Chinese governments a commitment to move forward the discussions,” Lotilla said.

C hina’s Foreign Ministry said Beijing is willing to continue to work with the Philippines to properly deal with maritime issues in “a friendly and consultative manner,” restart negotiations on oil and gas development, promote cooperation on oil and gas development in nondisputed areas, and develop cooperation on green energy such as photovoltaic, wind energy and new-energy vehicles.

However, discussions may take a backseat anew after the SC voided a deal between state-run Philippine National Oil Company (PNOC), China National Offshore Oil Corp. (CNOOC) and Vietnam Oil and Gas Corp. involving the exploration of 142,886 square kilometers of the South China Sea under the tripartite agreement for Joint Marine Seismic Undertaking (JMSU).

According to the SC, the JMSU is unconstitutional for allowing wholly owned foreign corporations to participate in the exploration of the country’s natural resources without observing the safeguards provided in Section 2, Article XII of the 1987 Constitution.

W hen asked if the SC ruling will have any effect on the joint exploration the Philippines is now negotiating with China, Lotilla could not comment yet as the agency has yet to receive a copy of the decision.

Still have to get a copy of the full decision,” the energy chief said via text message.

Likewise, SC spokesperson

Atty. Brian Hosaka reportedly said, “The Court cannot speculate on that” while pointing out that the SC decision was in connection to the 2005 JMSU.

The DOE, Lotilla further said, “will go by the advice of the DOJ [Department of Justice] and OSG [Office of the Solicitor General]” should the agencies issue legal opinions in the future.

Thorough review

GOVERNMENT lawyers, meanwhile, said the Philippine government and the private sector would have to thoroughly review and seek further guidance as to the implications of the SC ruling. They insisted on anonymity because they are not authorized to speak.

One lawyer commented, “there could be an impact on listed companies that have tie-ups with Chinese firms.”

A fter the SC ruling was released, shares of PXP Energy Corp., which holds interest in two petroleum exploration service contracts in the West Philippine Sea, dropped.

A nother lawyer said, “It would be interesting to find out how the SC will exercise sovereignty on service contracts” involving oil and gas exploration.

Offshoot

EARLIER, businessman Manuel Pangilinan said PXP Energy was in talks with Chinese companies for a possible partnership.

With regard to this approach, “this too could be stalled,” said the government lawyers. “Hopefully, not,” they added.

Pangilinan, however, clarified that his group still awaits guidance from the government if it can pursue work program on areas cover -

ing SC 72 and 75. “We don’t have the authority on the sovereignty issues. We’re walking on egg shells, because if you talk about sovereignty—that’s them [Philippine and Chinese governments] and we have to respect that,” he stressed.

Pangilinan-led PXP and Forum Energy Ltd. earlier suspended all activities in SC 72 and SC 75 in compliance with a DOE directive to put on hold all exploration activities for these two sites.

For areas where there are no territorial disputes, the DOE is proceeding with oil and gas developments, noting these are open to both foreign and domestic investors.

L otilla said nine Chinese firms have pledged over $13 billion in investments in the country’s renewable energy (RE) opportunities, energy storage systems and off-grid power supply systems.

These companies include China Energy International Group Co. Ltd.; China Power International Development (CPID) Ltd.; SPIC Guangxi Electric Power Co. Ltd.; China Machinery Engineering Corp.; China General Nuclear Power Group; China Huadian Engineering Co. Ltd.; China Tianying, Inc.; Dajin Heavy Industry Co. Ltd.; and Mingyang Smart Energy Group Ltd. Some of these companies already have a presence in the Philippines.

We are very pleased with the enthusiasm we have received from these Chinese companies during our roundtable meeting. They were upbeat with our policy reforms and directions on RE, especially on the opening of 100-percent foreign ownership on wind and solar projects,” Lotilla had said. The energy chief announced this prior to the release of the SC decision.

Likewise, PNOC-Exploration Corp. (PNOC-EC) is looking for farm-in partners interested to take in a majority stake in SC 59 covering 14,769 square kilometers offshore Palawan, west of Balabac Island.

In case of PNOC-EC, it has announced an invitation for potential farm-ins to a number of service contracts under its control. As far as those are concerned, we can proceed with that,” said Lotilla, who also chairs PNOC-EC.

Th e government is committed to preserve and maintain the investment incentives for service contractors under Presidential Decree 87. This move, Lotilla said, has been met with renewed confidence and strong interest by local and foreign investors in the oil and gas sector.

Just recently, the agency allowed Nido Petroleum Philippines Pty. Ltd., operator of SC 6B and SC 54, to proceed with the site survey of their drilling locations.

L otilla is confident that this trend will continue as “we reaffirm to prospective investors the openness of our economy to foreign and local investors and assure them of the continued stability of our legal framework, especially in the upstream oil and gas sector.”

Lauded

ON the other hand, fishers’ group Pambansang Lakas ng Kilusang Mamamalakaya ng Pilipinas (Pamalakaya) welcomed the SC ruling.

“ The SC ruling will strengthen our call against any efforts to revive the negotiations for a joint oil and gas exploration between the Philippines and China in the West Philippine Sea. The Marcos administration should adhere and recognize this ruling by way of actively

our sovereign rights against China’s aggression,” it said in a statement.

Th e SC decision and the International Tribunal on the Law of the Sea (ITLOS) that recognizes the country’s exclusive economic zone in the West Philippine Sea are, according to Pamalakaya, “two strong legal bases to assert our territory.

The Marcos administration has no reason not to actively uphold our national sovereignty. It is all the more reason for President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. not to pursue the joint oil and gas exploration with China,” Fernando Hicap, Pamalakaya National Chairperson, said.

A s one of the petitioners who assailed the constitutionality of the 2005 JMSU, former Bayan Muna Rep. Teddy Casiño said in his Twitter account that “may this be a warning to Mr. Marcos not to trifle with the constitutional provisions that reserve the exploitation of our natural resources exclusively to Filipinos and under the full supervision and control of the Philippine government.”

Even if it took 14 years for the Court to resolve the case, Casiño said, the ruling remains “relevant as ever, considering President Marcos’s plan to enter into a joint exploration of the West Philippine Sea with China.”

For now, it looks like the SC ruling mooted a possible exploration deal between the two countries. “It may or may not complicate efforts to revive oil and gas exploration talks, depending on the next steps to be undertaken by both countries. But everyone is hopeful that all issues will be resolved soonest,” the lawyers added.

asserting

Just as the PHL and China have agreed ‘in principle’ to resume talks on fuel exploration, the Supreme Court rules adversely on an earlier agreement forged by Manila with its neighbors.

US spies lag rivals in seizing on data hiding in plain sight

By Nomaan Merchant The Associated Press

But the most useful early warnings came not from spies or intercepts, according to a recent congressional review of classified reports from December 2019 and January 2020.

Officials were instead relying on public reporting, diplomatic cables and analysis from medical experts—some examples of socalled open source intelligence, or OSINT.

Predicting the next pandemic or the next government to fall will require better use of open source material, the review found.

There is little indication that the Intelligence Community’s exquisite collection capabilities were generating information that was valuable to policymakers,” wrote the authors of the review, conducted by Democrats on the House Intelligence Committee.

Falling behind?

THAT echoes what many current and former intelligence officials are increasingly warning: The $90-billion US spy apparatus is falling behind because it has not

embraced collecting open-source intelligence as adversaries, including China, ramp up their efforts.

Th is doesn’t diminish the importance of traditional intelligence. Spy agencies have unique powers to penetrate global communications and cultivate agents. They scored a high-profile success when the Biden administration publicized ultimately correct intelligence findings that Russian President Vladimir Putin intended to invade Ukraine.

But officials and experts worry that the US hasn’t invested enough people or money in analyzing publicly available data or taking advantage of advanced technologies that can yield critical insights.

Commercial satellite imagery, social media and other online data have given private companies and independent analysts new powers to reveal official secrets. And China is known to have stolen or acquired control over huge amounts of data on Americans, with growing concerns in Washington about Beijing’s influence over widely used apps like TikTok.

Open source is really a bellwether for whether the intelligence community can protect the country,” said Kristin Wood, a former senior official at the CIA who is now chief executive at the Grist

Mill Exchange, a commercial data platform.

We collectively as a nation aren’t preparing a defense for the ammunition that our adversaries are stockpiling.”

Intelligence agencies face several obstacles to using open-source intelligence. Some are technological. Officers working on classified networks are often not able to easily access the unclassified internet or open data sources, for example.

There are also concerns about civil liberties and protecting First Amendment rights.

But some experts also question whether agencies are held back by a reflexive belief that top-secret information is more valuable.

R ep. Jim Himes, a Connecticut Democrat and longtime Intelligence Committee member, said he believed there needed to be “some cultural change inside places like the CIA where people are doing what they’re doing for the excitement of stealing critical secrets as opposed to reviewing social media pages.”

Man vs machine IN one 2017 test held by the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, a human team competed against a computer programmed with algorithms to identify Chinese surface-to-air missile sites using commercial imagery.

Both the humans and the computer identified 90 percent of the sites, Stanford University professor Amy Zegart wrote in the book Spies, Lies, and Algorithms, but the computer needed just 42 minutes—and it took the human team 80 times longer.

Reports created using commercial satellites, online posts and other open sources—like the daily analyses on Russian and Ukrainian military tactics published by the Institute for the Study of War—are widely read by lawmakers and intelligence officials.

“ There is a lot of open-source capability that the US intelligence community can pretty much rely on to be there,” said Frederick Kagan, a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute who oversees the creation of those reports. “What it needs to do is figure out how to leverage that ecosystem instead of trying to buy it.”

Most of the 18 US spy agencies have open-source programs, from the CIA’s Open Source Enterprise to a 10-person program in the Department of Homeland Security’s intelligence arm.

But top officials acknowledge there isn’t consistency across those programs in how they analyze open-source information or how they use and share it.

– Kristin Wood, a former senior official at the CIA who is now chief executive at the Grist Mill Exchange, a commercial data platform

Lessons learned “WE’RE not paying enough attention to each other and so we’re not learning the lessons that different parts of the [intelligence community] are learning, and we’re not scaling solutions,” said Avril Haines, the US director of national intelligence, at an industry event last year sponsored by the Potomac Officers Club. “And we’re not taking advantage of some of the outside expertise and information and work that could be taken advantage of.”

Th e Open Source Enterprise headquartered at the CIA is the successor to the Foreign Broadcast Information Service, where for generations employees monitored broadcasts to translate them for analysts.

Much of that work was transformed in the last decade. Where people once had to travel long distances to pick up tapes of radio broadcasts in remote places or areas where Americans weren’t welcome, sensors now transmit more signals automatically. And machine translation has largely taken the place of people who had to listen to the tapes and transcribe them.

But officials acknowledge they have to do more.

Haines has begun multiple open-source reviews since becoming director of national intelligence and is expected to finalize recommendations this year.

Some people involved in those reviews have suggested that the Open Source Enterprise no longer be designated as leading OSINT efforts across the spy agencies, said people familiar with the reviews who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss internal government deliberations.

Th ree people familiar with Open Source Enterprise say the center had cut its budget for multiple years running prior to last year.

They argue that’s a sign that opensource work has not always been prioritized at a consistent level.

Th e CIA recently appointed new leadership for the Open Source Enterprise and in 2021 created a “mission center” dedicated to technology.

We recognize the importance of open source is only growing as the sheer volume of data openly available increases,” the agency said in a statement. “CIA is working not just to keep pace with this trend, but to get ahead of it—and ahead of our adversaries who also utilize open-source information.”

There’s no consensus on whether the US should create a new open-source agency or center. Supporters say a new organization could focus on adopting advanced technologies and creating more useful products, while opponents question whether it would unnecessarily bloat and take away resources from other agencies.

C armen Medina, a retired CIA deputy director of intelligence, now studies how spy agencies can incorporate outside ideas and encourage employees to be more creative and intuitive.

S he suggests a pilot program in which a cell of open-source analysts would compete for a number of years against the regular output of people with top-secret clearances.

Medina and others who have worked in top positions and briefed White House officials think that on most days, an open-source group would be competitive and might even produce better analysis using information that’s broadly available.

“ You can’t make sense of the world today by just packaging tidbits,” she said. “I’ve come to believe that almost all of the time, the open source way of thinking about it is correct.”

WASHINGTON—As alarms began to go off globally about a novel coronavirus spreading in China, officials in Washington turned to the intelligence agencies for insights about the threat the virus posed to America.

KAROLINA HIRD, a Russia analyst, works at her desk at the Institute for the Study of War, Wednesday, January 11, 2023, in Washington. AP

‘Open source is really a bellwether for whether the intelligence community can protect the country. We collectively as a nation aren't preparing a defense for the ammunition that our adversaries are stockpiling.’

China wants to corner another green energy market: Hydrogen

By David R. Baker & Will Mathis

solar equipment maker, set up a hydrogen unit in March 2021 and has already built 1.5 gigawatts of electrolyzer manufacturing capacity in China. It’s developing PEM but predicts that alkaline electrolyzers will dominate the industry for the next five years, said Wang Yingge, vice president of Longi Hydrogen. Within three years, the company expects foreign markets to make up more than half of its sales, he said.

As the world sprints to decarbonize, the next round of competition revolves around a device called an electrolyzer. Plug these into clean electricity such as solar power, and it’s possible to extract hydrogen from water without producing any planet-warming emissions. That’s a crucial step in creating a green fuel capable of decarbonizing such industries as steel, cement or shipping.

Companies around the world are already revving up electrolyzer production, green hydrogen plants are under construction, and the industry is finally making the leap from pilot projects to industrial scale. BloombergNEF, a clean energy research group, estimates worldwide electrolyzer production will need to grow 91 times by 2030 to meet demand. But many Western clean tech veterans eye the emerging competition with a queasy feeling of déjà vu. More than 40 percent of all electrolyzers made today come from China, according to BNEF.

Chinese electrolyzers aren’t as efficient as those made in the US and Europe, but they cost far less— about a quarter of what Western companies charge. Chinese electrolyzer companies still largely serve their domestic market, but they’re starting to expand sales overseas.

“I’ve heard too many government officials say we cannot repeat the experience of solar again,” said BNEF hydrogen analyst Xiaoting Wang.

President Joe Biden served as vice president during the crucial years when China seized the lead in solar manufacturing. Now he views China as a competitor more than a supplier, and he has made bringing clean tech manufacturing back to the US a pillar of his climate policies. The US is determined not to let China control this new energy boom, and Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act showers money on domestic hydrogen production.

“The reality is, the US is going to give very generous subsidies to ensure that local suppliers survive,” Wang said.

Europe has its own reasons for wanting a piece of this nascent industry.

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has driven home the value of fuel that can be produced within Europe, and it has ramped up the continent’s ambitions for hydrogen. And yet, some hydrogen advocates say the European Union isn’t following through, putting it at a disadvantage to both the US and China. The union has set a target for green hydrogen production—10 million tons per year by 2030 — but has not yet decided which methods will qualify as “green.” That makes it hard for companies to commit to the big hydrogen production projects that would drive electrolyzer orders.

“I’m scared the market shares in the electrolyzer business will

be taken away from Europe and shipped to other geographies,” said Jorgo Chatzimarkakis, chief executive officer of the Brussels-based lobbying group Hydrogen Europe.

“The EU are shooting themselves in the head. Not in the foot—in the head.”

Meanwhile, many analysts expect the efficiency of Chinese electrolyzers to improve, eroding any technological advantage US and European companies now have.

“I have no doubt that China is working on better electrolyzers,” said Bridget van Dorsten, senior hydrogen analyst at the Wood Mackenzie research and consulting firm.

“The day that China decides not to be a laggard anymore is the day they aren’t a laggard anymore.”

And some Chinese companies have a head start. Chemicalequipment manufacturers there have made electrolyzers for years, installing large-scale water electrolysis systems for various manufacturing industries such as polysilicon production for solar cells.

Electrolyzers use electricity to split water into hydrogen and oxygen, and versions of them have been on the market since the 1920s. Many countries now see hydrogen as the best bet for decarbonizing industries that can’t easily run on electricity. If an electrolyzer’s power comes from a solar or wind facility, or a nuclear reactor, the process of producing the hydrogen is also carbon-free.

The devices come in several varieties, each with its pros and cons. Chinese companies mostly produce “alkaline” electrolyzers that have low up-front costs but need more electricity than competing technologies to yield each kilogram of hydrogen. US and European companies focus on “solid oxide” and “protonexchange membrane” (PEM) electrolyzers that have a higher initial cost but need less electricity—a big selling point in places where electricity is expensive.

Chinese manufacturers, however, are developing PEM electrolyzers and refining their alkaline products. And they’re eying foreign markets for growth.

Xi’an-based Longi Green Energy Technology Co., the world’s largest

“Europe and the US have the most proactive incentive policies for the hydrogen industry, while the Middle East and Africa have the largest scale and most economical renewable energy,” Wang said. “Green hydrogen projects in these regions have good profitability.”

Meanwhile, state-owned PERIC received orders in 2022 from seven foreign countries, including Australia, the US and Korea, according to BNEF. Shandong Saikesaisi Hydrogen Energy, one of the few Chinese manufacturers to specialize in PEM, now gets about 10 percent to 15 percent of its sales from overseas, said Huang Fang, a project director of the company.

It’s aiming to improve that percentage amid demand from Europe and Australia, Huang said.

While the electrolyzer is as essential to green hydrogen as the solar cell is to solar power, there are key differences.

Solar panels are essentially an off-the-shelf technology. Whether they’re set up on a rooftop or assembled in a giant desert array, the panels and the systems connected to them don’t vary all that much.

That’s not the case with hydrogen production. Electrolyzers are just one part of a hydrogen production plant whose size and design will be dictated by its energy source and customer needs. Plug Power Inc. is building a fleet of green hydrogen production plants in the US, and each is unique, said Chief Executive Officer Andy Marsh.

“The plant in Texas is different from the plant in New York, which is different from the plant in Georgia,” he said. “It’s all very local.” Plug, based in Latham, New York, also makes and sells PEM electrolyzers.

There are advantages to making electrolyzers within the market they’re intended to serve.

Belgium’s John Cockerill Group established a joint venture in China—Cockerill Jingli Hydrogen— to make electrolyzers for China, rather than for other countries.

The company is also investing in two factories in Europe as well as potentially the US and India.

The equipment is complex and heavy, requiring significant on-site customization for each customer, said Raphaël Tilot, Cockerill’s head of hydrogen. “Transporting this from China to

other parts of the world isn’t that straightforward,” he said. “The level of on-site work to make it compatible with the client’s project is quite significant.”

While China’s solar industry enjoyed years of generous subsidies from the central government, which helped equipment makers dominate the global supply chain, hydrogen has yet to see the same level of policy support. The country introduced its first state-level plan for hydrogen development early last year, but refrained from instituting any financial support policies such as subsidies, crushing hopes from equipment manufacturers.

Meanwhile Roeland Baan, chief executive officer of Denmark’s Topsoe A/S, said the American incentive system is now easier to navigate than the EU’s. His company is developing a 500-megawatt factory to produce solid-oxide electrolyzers, which operate at high temperatures and are more efficient than alkaline or PEM. “We decided to put our plant in Denmark,” Baan said. “For the second plant, we’ll have to see. It might definitely be in the US.”

With assistance from Luz Ding/Bloomberg.

Southeast Asia, too, is losing patience with US dollar’s clout

By Michelle Jamrisko

SOUTHEAST Asia, like much of the rest of the world, is losing patience with King Dollar.

The weaponization of the world’s reserve currency, as through sanctions on those deemed bad actors—such as Russia for its war in Ukraine—has pushed even the typically diplomatic Southeast Asians to warn the US of the consequences.

In a c onference in Singapore Tuesday, multiple former officials spoke about dedollarization efforts underway and what economies in the region should be doing to mitigate the risks of a still-strong dollar that’s weakened local currencies and become a tool of economic statecraft.

“The US dollar is a hex on all of us,” George Yeo, former foreign minister of Singapore, said at the conference hosted by the ISEASYusof Ishak Institute. “If you weaponize the international financial system, alternatives will grow to replace it” and the US dollar will lose its advantage.

While few expect to see the end of King Dollar’s global sovereign status anytime soon, Yeo urged that the risk of it happening be taken more seriously.

“When this will happen, no one knows, but financial markets must watch it very closely,” said Yeo, who is a visiting scholar at the National University of Singapore’s Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy.

After gaining 6.2 percent in 2022, the US dollar is down 0.67 percent in the first several days of this year, through the end of Tuesday, according to the Bloomberg Dollar

Spot Index.

Yeo noted that in times of crisis, the dollar rises further—as with levies on Russia that have left Russian banks estranged from a network that facilitates tens of millions of transactions every day, forcing them to lean on their own, much smaller version instead. That’s put more pressure on third-party countries, too, which have to unduly rely on US dollar use.

Following on Yeo’s remarks later in the conference, former Indonesian trade minister Thomas Lembong applauded Southeast Asia central banks that already have developed direct digital payments systems with local currencies, and encouraged officials to find more ways to avoid leaning too hard on the greenback.

“I have believed for a very long time that reserve currency diversification is absolutely critical,” said Lembong, who’s also a cofounder and managing partner at Quvat Management Pte Ltd. Supplementing dollar use in transactions with use of the euro, renminbi, and the yen, among others, would lead to more stable liquidity, and ultimately more stable economic growth, he said.

The 10 Asean members are just too disparate to establish a common currency as with the euro bloc. But Lembong said he was “deeply passionate” on this subject of the dollar as a global reserve currency.

The direct digital payments systems— which have boosted local currency settlement between Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore and Thailand—are “another great outlet for our financial infrastructure,” he said.

ADECADE ago, China used low prices to dominate solar manufacturing, wiping out Western competitors just as worldwide demand for panels started to soar. The US and Europe are determined not to let the same thing happen with hydrogen.

Bloomberg News

on the go

Post-Holiday Hideaways

Story & photos by Bernard L. Supetran

The good thing is there are easy-toreach pocket destinations tucked in the outskirts of the metropolis which would turn out to be refreshing retreats for family and friends. Here are some cozy and intimate hideaways you can come home to in between the long holidays.

Batangas province is a favorite for travelers looking for a bit of everything—beaches, mountains, lakes, inland resorts, dive sites, verdant farms and good food.

Salud is the latest addition to the growing list of garden and farm-themed properties which has become the “new normal” even before the pandemic struck.

Named after the owner’s late grandmother, it offers the literal salud— health and wellness as you spend moments of reclusion and rejuvenation.

Situated in a quiet neighborhood at the San Jose-Lipa City boundary, this private villa is an elegant glasshouse neatly tucked in the midst of lush vegetation. Located below the street level, guests are welcomed by the exotic view of a Balinese-style door leading to a staircase down to the boutique resorttype house.

With its floor-to-ceiling windows, Salud affords guests a light and airy ambiance with the panoramic view of its green environs and hardwood, both at day and night.

The chic glasshouse has everything you’ll need for a staycation—a modern kitchen with convection stove, microwave oven, mini ref and coffeemaker, so you can whip up your own feast and after-meal cravings.

The house exudes an abundance of breathing space from the dining table set which can comfortably sit six persons, a sala where you can laze around, and an even more spacious sleeping area with two queen beds, which open up to the Instagrammable wading pool and garden, the family resort’s piecede-resistance.

With no recreational amenities, save

for a cable TV and WiFi, the place is designed for family bonding moments.

Salud also boasts of a spacious toilet and bath, and a detached massage room which can easily qualify for that of a tropical luxury resort.

With its ideal location and lush greeneries, you can experience cool weather the whole-year round and snuggle in bed for a dreamy staycation. For a taste of local specialties, the home-grown restaurants and cafés of Lipa City and the tender beef dishes of Taal are just a few minutes away.

Another sought-after hideaway at any given time is the Tagaytay Ridge area, because of its cool breeze and good food, not to mention its notorious traffic despite new roads being opened up.

Fortunately, you don’t have to drive up to the core of the city to experience the countryside feel it offers. Nestled at the doorstep of Tagaytay in Silang are the twin establishments of Balai Palmera and Farm Hills Garden which are just minutes away from each other.

Located inside the Tagaytay Farmhills executive village in Silang, the Farm Hills Garden combines the rusticity of a plantation and the comforts of modern lodging. It boasts of an array of Victorian,

industrial, nautical, and cabin-themed rooms which would fit the diverse characters and preferences of guests. Couples on honeymoon or romantic hideaway can opt for a standard room which has its own jacuzzi.

The boutique hotel has a cozy dining

outlet which has occasional musicians to spice up dining pleasure on cold evenings.

There’s also an al fresco French-inspired café on the second level for in-between meal cravings, coffee and desserts while being caressed by the cool crisp mountain air.

Pet lovers would be delighted to know

that the property is pet-friendly and guests can bring their fur babies which have become part of the family.

For a taste of the signature highland cuisine and Filipino favorites, Balai Palmera is a value-for-money proposition with its extensive menu and specialties diners often look for in the Ridge area. A must-taste is Silang Express, which is their tweaked version of the spicy Bicol Express.

The spacious restaurant exudes the feel of a Spanish-era Filipino home, which makes use of natural ventilation and lighting, and has an adjacent courtyard-type dining area with a view of Silang’s rolling terrain.

After a gastronomic journey, go on a shopping spree of take-aways or pasalubongs —assorted tarts, chocolate almond babka, raisin bread, ensaymada, silvanas, sans rival, and special buko pie, which is reputedly the best in this side of town. There’s also a variety of indigenous nibblers and food items, such as tahong and banana chips, mushroom cracklings, calamansito, coco jam, biscocho, piaya ube, and chicharon.

Just like big surprises coming from small packages, these homey hideaways can make every day a holiday.

The Christmas holiday season may have died down, but true-blue leisure lovers will seize every opportunity to hie off to a hideaway, however simple it may be.

Salud Batangas garden

Salud Batangas glasshouse

Resurreccion

China is world leader in producing high-quality scientific papers

science.

Chinese

THE community media have an important role in disseminating science news and information, Science Secretary Renato U. Solidum Jr. said.

Solidum made the statement at the “2023 Community Multimedia Summit” at the Aklan State UniversityBanga Campus on January 11.

The three-day event gathered broadcasters, publishers, editors, columnists, online broadcasters, writers and professional communicators from various media organizations nationwide to discuss issues, such as food security, climate change, tourism, social media education and other concerns affecting the national interest.

Solidum highlighted the DOST’s efforts and initiatives that are anchored on four thematic areas: wealth creation, through economic development and job creation; wealth protection, through climate and disaster resilience; human well-being, through health, education, access to water and energy; and sustainability, by ensuring protection and conservation of natural resources, said Enrico Belga Jr. in the news release from the Office of the Secretary of the Department of Science and Technology (DOST).

“ We at the [DOST] have witnessed how communicators helped us become relevant in the public eye especially during the height of Covid-19 pandemic, where most of the news are about vaccines, clinical trials, virgin coconut oil, and testing kits, to name a few. We owe the media the public’s increased awareness about DOST, which then helped us leverage our projects with our lawmakers and stakeholders,” Solidum said.

“Making sense of science and technology [S&T]-related news can be a daunting task, and delivering it to the public in layman manner requires keen sense of inquisitiveness and curiosity that only truly dedicated communicators can do,” he added.

Solidum noted that engagement with members of the media has always been part of DOST’s strategy to inform the public about the agency’s efforts in terms of service delivery and improvement of public awareness about the Philippines’ S&T ecosystem in general.

In his presentation, Solidum further discussed DOST’s flagship programs and offerings in the fields of research and development; industry, energy and emerging technologies; food security and improved agricultural processes; technology intervention for micro-small and medium enterprises, communities, academic organizations, government agencies, research institutions, and local industries; information, communication and technology tools, and technologies for monitoring the weather and geological events; and scholarship opportunities for science, technology, engineering, and mathematics students at the secondary, undergraduate, and graduate levels.

The event was organized by the Provincial Multi-Media Press Corps PH Inc., Publishers Association of the Philippines Inc., Philippine Online Broadcasters Association, and the Aklan Press Club Inc.

It was considered to be the biggest convergence of the press and social media groups after the two-year height Covid-19 pandemic.

Present during the event were Kalibo Bishop Jose Corazon Tala-oc; Communications Undersecretary Edwin Cordevilla and Assistant Secretary Bobby Ricohermoso; Juan Dayang, chairman of the Provincial MultiMedia Press Corps PH Inc.; Roy Bato, chapter chairman of the Kapisanan ng mga Brodkaster ng Pilipinas Calabarzon; Lydia Bueno, president of the National Press Club of the Philippines; Nelson Santos, president of Publishers Association of the Philippines; and Rowen R. Gelonga, Regional Director of DOST-VI. S&T Media Services

I am a policy expert and analyst who studies how governmental investment in science, technology and innovation improves social welfare.

While a country’s scientific prowess is somewhat difficult to quantify, I’d argue that the amount of money spent on scientific research, the number of scholarly papers published and the quality of those papers are good stand-in measures.

China is not the only nation to drastically improve its science capacity in recent years, but China’s rise has been particularly dramatic.

This has left US policy experts and government officials worried about how China’s scientific supremacy will shift the global balance of power.

China’s recent ascendancy results from years of governmental policy aiming to be tops in science and technology. The country has taken explicit steps to get where it is today, and the US now has a choice to make about how to respond to a scientifically competitive China.

Growth across decades

IN 1977, Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping introduced the Four Modernizations, one of which was strengthening China’s science sector and technological progress.

As recently as 2000, the US produced many times the number of scientific papers as China annually.

However, over the past three decades or so, China has invested funds to grow domestic research capabilities, to send students and researchers abroad to study, and to encourage Chinese businesses to shift to manufacturing high-tech products.

a growing, capable workforce, China’s scientific output—as measured by the number of total published papers— has increased steadily over the years.

In 2017, Chinese scholars published more scientific papers than US researchers for the first time.

Quantity does not necessarily mean quality though. For many years, researchers in the West wrote off Chinese research as low quality and often as simply imitating research from the US and Europe.

During the 2000s and 2010s, much of the work coming from China did not receive significant attention from the global scientific community.

But as China has continued to invest in science, I began to wonder whether the explosion in the quantity of research was accompanied by improving quality.

To quantify China’s scientific strength, my colleagues and I looked at citations. A citation is when an academic paper is referenced—or cited— by another paper.

We considered that the more times a paper has been cited, the higher quality and more influential the work. Given that logic, the top 1 percent most cited papers should represent the upper echelon of high-quality science.

My colleagues and I counted how many papers published by a country were in the top 1 percent of science as measured by the number of citations in various disciplines.

Going year by year from 2015 to 2019, we then compared different countries.

we looked at the mix of disciplines referenced in scientific papers.

The more diverse and varied the referenced research was in a single paper, the more interdisciplinary and novel we considered the work. We found Chinese research to be as innovative as other top performing countries.

Taken together, these measures suggest that China is now no longer an imitator nor producer of only lowquality science.

A number of scholars, including me, see these fears and policy responses as rooted in a nationalistic view that doesn’t wholly map onto the global endeavor of science.

Academic research in the modern world is in large part driven by the exchange of ideas and information. The results are published in publicly available journals that anyone can read.

FILIPINO students from various regions in the country continue to make a name for the Philippines in the international stage by winning a total of 5,060 gold, silver and bronze medals in 2021.

The Youth Excellence in Science (YES) Awards of the Department of Science and Technology-Science Education Institute (DOSTSEI) made the announcement during the recent online awarding ceremony.

The event was part of the recent 2022 National Science and Technology Week celebration. It should be noted that the YES Awards are given to competition winners in the succeeding year.

The DOST-SEI conferred 1,802 YES medals to elementary pupils and high-school students, who have won the 5,000 medals either individually or in group in international science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) competitions.

T he total number of awardees were: National Capital Region, 805; Calabarzon, 189; Western Visayas, 115; Central Luzon, 113; Ilocos Region, 78; Bicol Region, 86; Zamboanga Peninsula, 55; Davao Region, 66; Northern Mindanao, 67; Central Visayas, 48; Caraga, 38; Eastern Visayas, 37; Cordillera Administrative Region, 38; Cagayan Valley, 27; Mimaropa, 19; and Soccsksargen, 21.

DOST-SEI Director Dr. Josette Biyo lauded the students who are always eager to learn, unpack curiosity and pursue excellence in STEM.

“It is a humbling moment for us at the [DOST] to be given the opportunity to celebrate the winning of our young geniuses who bagged awards from various international mathematics and science competitions. We commend you for having reached this impressive milestone

that could only be accomplished through your sheer dedication and perseverance,” Biyo said.

S cience Secretary Dr. Renato U. Solidum Jr. also congratulated the students and reminded them to continuously strive for excellence, not just in science, but also in life.

“We hope that this recognition further motivates you to strive for excellence and inspires you even more to choose STEM as a field of study and as a career,” Solidum said.

He thanked the national organizers for the various STEM competitions, the coaches and trainers and the students’parents and guardians for investing in the young people.

YES awardee, Harvey Allen V. Ylanan of the Ateneo de Manila Senior High School, who won a bronze medal in the Hong Kong International Science Olympiad and a silver in the GuangdongHongkong-Macao Grater at Area Mathematical Olympiad, encouraged his co-awardees to continue to pursue excellence and persevere despite the hardships, and to become a beacon of hope for an innovative future.

“I hope you may use this award to provide help in advocating and raising your voices for quality education for everyone, climate action, medical innovation, and scientific discovery in our country, where love, wisdom, the truth and facts may grow and foster,” Ylanan said.

The YES Awards is a DOST institutional award for exemplary achievement of the youth in the fields of STEM.

It is in the form of a medal of distinction awarded by the DOST Secretary or the DOST Regional Director to deserving youth. It signifies the DOST’s high regard for excellence and competitiveness in science and technology.

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Since 2000, China has sent an estimated 5.2 million students and scholars to study abroad. The majority of them studied science or engineering. Many of these students remained where they studied, but an increasing number return to China to work in well-resourced laboratories and high-tech companies.

Today, China is second only to the US in how much it spends on science and technology. Chinese universities now produce the largest number of engineering PhDs in the world, and the quality of Chinese universities has dramatically improved in recent years.

Producing more and better science

THANKS to all this investment and

We were surprised to find that in 2019, Chinese authors published a greater percentage of the most influential papers, with China claiming 8,422 articles in the top category, while the US had 7,959 and the European Union had 6,074.

In just one recent example, we found that in 2022, Chinese researchers published three times as many papers on artificial intelligence as US researchers; in the top 1 percent most cited AI research, Chinese papers outnumbered US papers by a 2-to-1 ratio.

Similar patterns can be seen with China leading in the top 1-percent most cited papers in nanoscience, chemistry and transportation.

Our research also found that Chinese research was surprisingly novel and creative—and not simply copying western researchers. To measure this,

China is now a scientific power on par with the US and Europe, both in quantity and in quality.

Fear or collaboration?

SCIENTIFIC capability is intricately tied to both military and economic power. Because of this relationship, many in the US—from politicians to policy experts—have expressed concern that China’s scientific rise is a threat to the US, and the government has taken steps to slow China’s growth.

The recent Chips and Science Act of 2022 in the US explicitly limits cooperation with China in some areas of research and manufacturing.

In October 2022, the Biden administration put restrictions in place to limit China’s access to key technologies with military applications.

Science is also becoming ever more international and collaborative, with researchers around the world depending on each other to push their fields forward.

Recent collaborative research on cancer, Covid-19 and agriculture are just a few of many examples. My own work has also shown that when researchers from China and the US collaborate, they produce  higher quality science than either one alone.

China has joined the ranks of top scientific and technological nations, and some of the concerns over shifts of power are reasonable in my view.

But the US can also benefit from China’s scientific rise. With many global issues facing the planet— like climate change, to name just one—there may be wisdom in looking at this new situation as not only a threat, but also an opportunity. Caroline Wagner, The Ohio State University/The Conversation (CC) via AP

DOST-FPRDI, Malayan College ink R&D pact

AGOVERNMENT science agency and a private educational institution recently signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to forge a partnership for research and development (R&D) activities.

The Forest Products Research and Development Institute of the Department of Science and Technology (DOST-FPRDI) and the Malayan Colleges Laguna Inc. (MCL) signed the MOU.

The MU will enable the parties to conduct joint R&D projects and skills development activities, such as seminars and workshops related to research.

The DOST-FPRDI may also be tapped in the conduct of student

research activities, such as theses, dissertations and capstone projects.

The institute will also be one of the priority on-the-job training sites for MCL’s senior high-school

students.

“The opportunities and experiences during the internship hope to prepare the Malayan students for their respective future careers. We are excited about this collabo -

ration with the college and look forward to the many R&D outputs that will arise from this partnership,” said DOST-FPRDI Director Romulo T. Aggangan. The MOU signing was attended by MCL officials James Ronald O. Mesina, assistant vice president of the Office for Academic Services, and Dr. Hermie A. Articona, director of the Research Promotions and Coordination Office; and DOST-FPRDI officials Director Aggangan, Deputy Director Rico J. Cabangon, Technical Services Division Chief Maria Cielito G. Siladan, Technology Innovation Chief Loreto A. Novicio, and Engr. Ceazar A. Cuaresma. Apple Jean C. Martin-de Leon/S&T Media Services

BY at least one measure, China now leads the world in producing high-quality

My research shows that

scholars now publish a larger fraction of the top 1-percent most cited scientific papers globally than scientists from any other country.

THE space program is among China’s top achievements in science and technology. It is one of the only three countries with independent human spaceflight capability, after the United States and Russia. The photo shows the launch of Shenzhou 13 by a Long March 2F rocket, taken in Jiuquan, China. WIKIMEDIA CC BY SA 4.0

DOST-FPRDI and Malayan Colleges Laguna Inc. officials recently sign an MOU for partnership in research and development. DOST-FPRDI PHOTO

SCIENCE Secretary Renato U. Solidum Jr. at the “2023 Community Multimedia Summit” at the Aklan State University-Banga Campus on January 11. ENRICO BELGA JR., DOST OSEC

Pope Francis: Celebrate the date of your baptism like a birthday

Francis baptized babies in the Sistine Chapel on January 8 and encouraged parents to teach their children to celebrate their baptism anniversary each year.

On the Feast of the Baptism of the Lord on January 8, the pope baptized 13 babies and presided over Mass beneath Michelangelo’s frescoes.

In a brief off-the-cuff homily, the pope said that baptism is like a rebirth in Christ and, therefore, should be celebrated “like a birthday.”

“Dear parents, thank you for bringing your children here to have them enter the Church. This is a good day,” Pope Francis said.

“It is like a birthday because baptism makes us reborn in Christian life. That is why I advise you to teach your children the date of their baptism as a new birthday: that every year they will remember and thank God for this grace of becoming a Christian.”

Following the homily, the Sistine Chapel choir sang the Litany of the Saints in preparation for

the baptisms.

As in previous years, the pope told parents not to worry if their babies made loud noises during the ceremony.

He said: “The children are symphonic.… Let them cry…and breastfeed them freely. What is important is that today is a celebration.”

The pope concelebrated the Mass with the papal almoner Cardinal Konrad Krajewski and Archbishop Fernando Vérgez Alzaga, president of the Governorate of Vatican City State.

The Feast of the Baptism of the Lord commemorates Jesus’ baptism in the Jordan River by St. John the Baptist.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church describes baptism as the “basis of the whole Christian life, the gateway to life in the Spirit… and the door which gives access to the other sacraments.”

St. John Paul II began the papal tradition of baptizing children in the Sistine Chapel on the Feast of the Baptism of the Lord on January 11, 1981.

The ceremony initially took place in the Pauline Chapel of the Apostolic Palace but was moved to the Sistine Chapel in 1983.

The event was reserved at first to babies of Swiss Guards but later expanded to include the children of Vatican employees.

To qualify, children have to be under one year of age and their parents must be married in the Church. Each child is accompa -

nied in the Sistine Chapel by its parents, siblings, godfather and godmother.

The family groups attend a rehearsal before the ceremony. During the event, the Vatican provides baby-changing tables in a nearby room in the Apostolic Palace.

“Today is a day to celebrate,” the pope said. “It is the celebration of the beginning of a beautiful Christian journey in which you will help your children to move forward.… Thank you for your decision to bring them to be baptized.”

Saudi Arabia: Hajj pilgrimage returning to pre-Covid levels

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates—Islam’s annual hajj pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia will return to pre-pandemic levels this year after restrictions saw the annual religious commemoration curtailed over concerns about the coronavirus, authorities say.

The hajj, required of all able-bodied Muslims once in their life, represents one of the world’s largest gatherings of people.

Before the pandemic, the pilgrimage drew millions each year to Islam’s holy city of Mecca, home to the cube-shaped Kaaba that observant Muslims pray toward five times a day.

In 2019, over 2.4 million people took part in the pilgrimage. But in 2020, amid the lockdowns sparked by the pandemic, S audi Arabia drastically curtailed the hajj with as as few as 1,000 residents of Saudi Arabia permitted to take part.

It was an unprecedented move unseen even during the 1918 flu epidemic that killed tens of millions worldwide.

In 2021, some 60,000 residents of Saudi Arabia attended. Last year saw 1 million faithful perform the pilgrimage.

Speaking early this past week at a conference about the hajj in the Red Sea port city of Jeddah, Saudi Hajj and Umrah Minister Tawfiq bin Fawzan al-Rabiah announced the lifting of the restrictions.

“I bring you two bits of good news in this meeting The first: The return of the numbers of pilgrims to what they were before the pandemic without any age restrictions,” al-Rabiah said, according to the state-run Saudi Press Agency.

“And the second: Allowing any hajj mission from around the world to deal with any licensed company that meets the requirements of the pilgrims of those countries,” he added.

Only those between the ages of 18 to 65 could attend the hajj in recent years. Saudi Arabia also had limited which private

companies could conduct travel arrangements for the hajj.

The coronavirus isn’t the first public health disaster to strike the hajj. The kingdom’s Al Saud ruling family stakes its legitimacy in this oil-rich nation on overseeing and protecting the hajj sites.

Ensuring the hajj happens has been a priority for them—and also a main economic driver bringing billions of dollars of non-oil revenue to Saudi Arabia.

Disease outbreaks have always been a concern surrounding the hajj. Pilgrims fought off a malaria outbreak in 632, cholera in 1821 killed an estimated 20,000, and another cholera outbreak in 1865 killed 15,000 before spreading worldwide.

More recently, Saudi Arabia faced danger from a different coronavirus, one that causes the Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS). The kingdom increased its public health measures during the hajj in 2012 and 2013, urging the sick and the elderly not to take part.

In recent years, Saudi officials also instituted bans on pilgrims coming from countries affected by the Ebola virus.

It wasn’t immediately clear what health precautions would be taken for the hajj, which falls according to the lunar-based Islamic calendar this year at the end of June.

While Saudi Arabia has no requirement for coronavirus vaccines or testing, it does require pilgrims to be vaccinated for other maladies.

Muslims have been prohibited from kissing or touching the cube-shaped Kaaba, the metaphorical house of God at the center of Mecca that pilgrims circle as they complete the hajj.

The hajj also involves close contact in large crowds, which in 2015 saw over 2,400 people killed in a crush and stampede. Jon Gambrell/ Associated Press

Pope Benedict XVI leaves a legacy of intellectual brilliance, controversy

BENEDICT XVI leaves behind a complex legacy as a pope and theologian.

To many observers, Benedict, who died on December 31, 2022 at the age of 95, was known for criticizing what he saw as the modern world’s rejection of God and Christianity’s timeless truths.

But as a scholar of the diversity of global Catholicism, I think it’s best to avoid simple characterizations of Benedict’s theology, which I believe will influence the Catholic Church for generations.

While the brilliance of this intellectual legacy will certainly endure, it will also have to contend with the shadows of the numerous controversies that marked Benedict’s time as pope and, later, as pope emeritus.

Priest and professor

BENEDICT was born Josef Alois Ratzinger on April 16, 1927, in Marktl am Inn, Germany. During World War II, he was required to join the Hitler Youth, a wing of the Nazi Party. He was later drafted into an anti-aircraft unit and then the infantry of Nazi Germany.

In 1945, he deserted the German military and was held as a prisoner of war by the Americans; he was released when World War II concluded.

In 1946, he went to study for the priesthood and was ordained five years later. He completed his doctorate in theology in 1953.

While teaching at the University of Bonn, Ratzinger was chosen as a theological adviser to Cardinal Joseph Frings of Cologne, a strong critic of Nazism, for the Second Vatican Council held between 1962 and 1965.

The Second Vatican Council attempted to renew the Catholic Church by engaging the modern world more constructively. At the council, Ratzinger argued that Catholic theology needed to develop a “new language” to speak to a changing world.

As pope, Benedict would later reject more progressive interpretations of the council as a revolutionary event that was intended to remake the Catholic Church.

While the council did bring substantial changes to Catholic life, particularly by allowing mass in local languages, Benedict resisted any suggestion that the Second Vatican Council was calling for a fundamental break with centuries-old Catholic doctrine and tradition.

During his pontificate, he would permit wider celebration of the old Latin Mass—a decision that his successor Pope Francis would later reverse

In 1966, Ratzinger accepted an important teaching position at the University of Tubingen, in the city of Tübingen, Baden-Württemberg, Germany. During the late 1960s, Tubingen saw widespread student protests, some of which called for the Catholic Church to become more democratic.

When protesting students disrupted the Tubingen faculty senate, Ratzinger reportedly walked out instead of speaking with students as other faculty did. He was disturbed by what he felt were dictatorial and Marxist tendencies among the student protesters.

He then moved to the University of Regensburg.

In 1977, he was named bishop of Munich and Freising by Pope Paul VI. Soon after, he was named a cardinal, a member of the administrative body that elects the pope.

Cardinal and pope

AS a skilled theologian, Ratzinger was chosen by Pope John Paul II to head the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, which oversees and enforces Catholic doctrine.

In this position, Cardinal Ratzinger disciplined a number of theologians. Most notable was the case of American priest and theologian Charles Curran, who was fired from The Catholic Uni -

versity of America because he challenged official Catholic teachings on sexuality.

Ratzinger was also chosen to head the committee drafting The Catechism of the Catholic Church. Published in 1992, The Catechism remains an important foundation for any understanding of Catholic thought and practice.

After John Paul II’s death in 2005, Ratzinger was elected pope. He chose the name “Benedict” in honor of Benedict of Nursia, the founder of Western monasticism, a religious movement that preserved Western culture after the fall of Rome.

The name “Benedict” also acknowledged Benedict XV, a muchoverlooked pope who tried to broker a peace agreement to end the First World War.

Controversies in the pontificate

AFTER his election, Pope Benedict XVI had to confront a growing sexual abuse scandal in the Catholic Church.

While a cardinal, he had publicly downplayed the extent and seriousness of the crisis. And it was under his leadership that The Congregation for the Doctrine of

the Faith decided not to remove Lawrence C. Murphy from the priesthood, even though Murphy had been accused of molesting more than 200 boys at a Catholic school for the deaf in Wisconsin.

As pope, however, Benedict did take some strong steps that his predecessor, John Paul II, did not.

Most significantly, Benedict punished Marcial Maciel Degollado, an incestuous bigamist, serial pedophile and the powerful founder of the Legionaries of Christ, an important Catholic religious order, by taking away his permission to preach or to say Mass publicly.

He also criticized Irish bishops for their mishandling of the sexual abuse crisis.

For many survivors of clerical sexual abuse, these actions were not nearly enough. Benedict did not move to open Vatican records to public investigation, and he also failed to discipline cardinals and bishops who reassigned pedophile priests.

Beyond the sexual abuse crisis, Benedict’s pontificate had other controversies that drew worldwide attention.

During a lecture in Regensburg in 2006, Benedict seemed to

criticize the Islamic view of God and the legacy of the Prophet Muhammad.

This lecture led to protests in the Middle East and South Asia. However, his official visits to Beirut and Istanbul repaired some of the damage.

Benedict also reached out to Catholic splinter groups. In 2009, he lifted the excommunication of bishops of the order of St. Pius X, a breakaway Catholic sect that rejects the reforms of the Second Vatican Council.

After doing this, Benedict learned that one St. Pius X bishop, Richard Williamson, had made antisemitic comments and denied the holocaust.

Benedict said his lack of knowledge about Williamson’s views was an “unforeseen mishap” due to a lack of familiarity with the Internet as a “source of information.”

Theological writings

AS pope, Benedict continued his theological writing and produced three important encyclicals, or papal letters.

The first encyclical, Deus Caritas Est, or “God is Love,” defends “charity” as love that is freely given. Charity is not simply a good deed but an act that changes both the giver and the recipient.

The second encyclical, Spe Salvi, or “Saved in Hope,” reflects upon the hope that God gives human beings in a world that often seems hopeless.

In the third encyclical, Caritas in Veritate, or “Charity in Truth,” Benedict argues that charity is fundamentally related to justice. And when it comes to questions of human progress and fulfillment, we cannot place our trust in the nation state or market economies because “without God, man neither knows which way to go, nor even understands who he is.”

These papal letters attempt to defend Christianity in a world that Benedict believed was grow -

ing increasingly hostile to religious faith.

What was striking about Benedict’s thought—even to his theological critics—was how elegantly he presented his case for Christ and Christianity’s transforming power as sources of truth, beauty and love.

But long before he became pope, Benedict admitted that Christianity would continue to lose cultural ground and dwindle to an ever smaller group of faithful believers.

Writing in 1969, Ratzinger predicted the Church would have “to start afresh from the very beginning,” which meant that someday Christianity would have to build itself up again from its foundations.

The legacy of Benedict XVI

WHEN  Benedict resigned as pope in 2013, it took the world by surprise. In saying that he could no longer bear the burdens of the papacy, Benedict promised to live in seclusion. His official title became “Pope Emeritus.”

But controversy also followed his resignation. For example, he gave interviews and put his name on writings that appeared to criticize the reforms of Pope Francis, who succeeded him.

Most recently, a January 2022 report on sexual abuse in the diocese of Munich criticized Ratzinger’s “inaction” regarding four cases of sexual abuse during his period as archbishop from 1977 to 1982.

In reaction to the report, the pope emeritus apologized but did not admit to any administrative failures.

Benedict XVI’s writings will be relevant decades from now, but his pontificate will inevitably be associated with controversies. As for his own personal legacy, that will likely be defined by the one issue that concerned Benedict the most: how the Catholic Church can still make a difference in the modern world. Mathew Schmalz,

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

Courtney Mares/Catholic News Agency via CBCP News

POPE Francis baptized 13 babies in the Sistine Chapel on January 8. VATICAN MEDIA

College of the Holy Cross/The Conversation (CC) via AP

POPE Francis stands as the simple, cypress wood coffin of late Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI is being carried after a funeral Mass at St. Peter’s Square at the Vatican on January 5. Benedict was buried in the grottoes under St. Peter’s Basilica’s main floor. He died at 95 on December 31, 2022, in the monastery on the Vatican grounds where he had spent almost a decade in retirement that was devoted to prayer and reflection. AP/ANTONIO CALANNI

VATICAN—Pope

Asean Champions of Biodiversity Media Category 2014

Biodiversity Sunday

Forest management showcases in Negros, Panay

By Jonathan L. Mayuga Photos from Ibajay, Aklan, Power Point Presentation

THE government has been making efforts to improve forest management programs. In one initiative, it highlighted the lessons learned, good practices, innovations and success stories (LGIS) in implementing various foreign-assisted projects in Negros and Panay Island.

The recent hybrid forum dubbed, “Addressing Forest Degradation through Natural Resource Management: The Negros and Panay Islands Experience,” featured the successful implementation of the Forest and Climate Protection Project in Panay, Community-Based Forest and Mangrove Management Project (CBFMMP) and the Forestland Management Project (FMP).

They involved foreign-assisted projects that the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) implemented through its Foreign Assisted and Special Projects Service.

They are among efforts to protect and conserve the country’s rich biodiversity through forest management in partnership with various stakeholders in Negros and Panay islands.

Changing state of environment

IN his message, DENR Undersecretary for Policy, Planning, and International Affairs Jonas R. Leones said the state of the environment in the country is rapidly and constantly changing in an unprecedented scale.

“It continuously challenges our

policies, questions what we already know, and even outpaces the country’s capacity to reverse the impaired biophysical and ecological systems,” he said.

Amid such difficulties, Leones said the forum comes at a very opportune time for the government to reflect and learn from actual experiences in implementing and managing projects.

‘From 20 to 300 projects’

“ WE started with about 20 projects in the early 1980s and the office withstood the test of time. To date, we have managed to implement a total of more than 300 projects and still growing,” he said.

Leones said much work is required to improve the agency’s performance and stay relevant in fast-changing times.

“We must constantly enhance our tools and techniques to document, analyze and store this LGIS. Our continuous improvement is only possible with our partners and stakeholders. We need relentless support from our development partners, the private sector, other national government agencies, local government units and the civil society,” he pointed out.

Forest and climate project

THE Forest and Climate Protection Project on Panay that is funded by the German Federal Ministry for the Environment was implemented by the DENR in 23 local government units (LGUs) on Panay Island between 2010 and 2018.

It was reported that it has achieved its goal of protecting the globally significant biodiversity of the last large forest block of the Panay Mountain Range (PMR). Same with the sustain-

able and climate-friendly management of natural resources in the Central Panay Mountain Range (CPMR) by local communities in four provinces. The CPMR straddles the four provinces of Aklan, Antique, Capiz, and Iloilo.

Through the project, the activities—such as forest protection measures in forest land-use planning and its implementation, the establishment of environmental offices in LGUs, the recruitment of local forest guards, the creation of alternative sources of income through agroforestry, agriculture, use of biomass as an energy source—have contributed to a significant reduction in deforestation in the PMR and the conservation of biodiversity.

Forester Wilfredo P. Canto, OIC of Kabankalan City Environment and Natural Resources Office, said some of the notable milestones of the project include the establishment and maintenance of a total of 2,214 hectares of agroforestry, assisted natural regeneration and upland agriculture, declaration of critical habitats for biodiversity conservation in the towns of Leon, Sebaste, Tubungan and Libacao, and strengthened protection of the Central Panay Mountain Ranges.

More importantly, he said: “The harvest of abaca and income of partner people’s organizations have increased.”

Forest management

A 10-YEAR DENR-Japan International Cooperation Agency joint undertaking, the Forest Management Project aims to strengthen forestland management in three critical river basins by implementing collaborative and comprehensive

Ozone layer slowly healing, hole to mend by 2066

DENVER—Earth’s protective ozone layer is slowly but noticeably healing at a pace that would fully mend the hole over Antarctica in about 43 years, a new United Nations report says.

A once-every-four-years scientific assessment found recovery in progress, more than 35 years after every nation in the world agreed to stop producing chemicals that chomp on the layer of ozone in Earth’s atmosphere that shields the planet from harmful radiation linked to skin cancer, cataracts and crop damage.

“In the upper stratosphere and in the ozone hole we see things getting better,” said Paul Newman, co-chair of the scientific assessment.

The progress is slow, according to the report presented Monday at the American Meteorological Society convention in Denver.

The global average amount of ozone 18 miles (30 kilometers) high in the atmosphere won’t be back to 1980 pre-thinning levels until about 2040, the report said. And it won’t be back to normal in the Arctic until 2045.

Antarctica, where it’s so thin there’s an annual giant gaping hole in the layer, won’t be fully fixed until 2066, the report said.

Scientists and environmental advocates across the world have long hailed the efforts to heal the ozone hole—springing out of a 1987 agreement called the Montreal Protocol that banned a class of chemicals often used in refrigerants and aerosols—as one of the biggest ecological victories for humanity.

“Ozone action sets a precedent for climate action. Our success in phasing out ozone-eating chemicals shows us what can and must be done—as a matter of urgency—to transition away from fossil fuels, reduce greenhouse gases and so limit temperature increase,”World Meteorological Organization Secretary-General Prof. Petteri Taalas said in a statement.

Signs of healing were reported four years ago but were slight and more preliminary.

“Those numbers of recovery have solidified a lot,” Newman said.

The two chief chemicals that munch away at ozone are in lower levels in the atmosphere, said Newman, chief Earth scientist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center.

Chlorine levels are down 11.5 percent since they peaked in 1993 and bromine, which is more efficient at eating ozone but is at lower

levels in the air, dropped 14.5 percent since its 1999 peak, the report said.

That bromine and chlorine levels “stopped growing and is coming down is a real testament to the effectiveness of the Montreal Protocol,” Newman said.

Natural weather patterns in the Antarctic also affect ozone hole levels, which peak in the fall. And the past couple years, the holes have been a bit bigger because of that but the overall trend is one of healing, Newman said.

This is “saving 2 million people every year from skin cancer,” United Nations Environment Programme Director Inger Andersen told The Associated Press earlier this year in an e-mail.

A few years ago emissions of one of the banned chemicals, chlorofluorocarbon-11, stopped shrinking and was rising.

Rogue emissions were spotted in part of China but now have gone back down to where they are expected, Newman said.

A third generation of those chemicals, called HFC, was banned a few years ago not because it would eat at the ozone layer but because it is a heat-trapping greenhouse gas.

The new report says that the ban would avoid 0.5 to 0.9 degrees (0.3 to 0.5 degrees Celsius) of additional warming.

The report also warned that efforts to artificially cool the planet by putting aerosols into the atmosphere to reflect the sunlight would thin the ozone layer by as much as 20 percent in Antarctica. Seth Borenstein, Ap Science Writer

Community-Based Forest Management (CBFM) strategies.

The project aims to rehabilitate degraded forestlands in three critical river basins—the Upper Magat in Cagayan, Upper Pampanga, and Jalaur on Panay Island—and improve forest conservation and socio-economic conditions of affected communities, while contributing to disaster risk mitigation efforts in vulnerable areas.

The project also aims to strengthen forestland management through community-based management strategies through empowering people’s organizations, securing land tenure rights, enterprise development for food security and income, and development, conservation, protection, and sustainable use of forestland resources

The project began in 2012 and is now in its last and final year of implementation.

Project beneficiaries are people’s organizations and community-based groups in selected towns of Villaverde, Kayapa, Bambang, Ambaguio, Aritao, Santa Fe, Dupax del Norte, Dupax del Sur, Kasibu, Quezon, Diadi, Diffun, Carranglan, Pantabangan, Calinog, Lambunao, Janiuay, Aguinaldo, Mayoyao, Banaue, Lagawe, Kiangan, Hingyon, Hungduan and Asipulo, in the provinces of Nueva Vizcaya, Quirino, Nueva Ecija, Iloilo and Ifugao.

Notable milestones of the project include the preparation of 24 sub-watershed management plans, and the formation of 149 people’s organizations to strengthen and support their communities, and the establishment of 71,300 hectares of site development plantations within the 24 sub-watersheds.

Community-based forest, mangrove management

JOINTLY implemented by the DENR and the Land Bank of the Philippines, with the support of the German government between July 2008 and December 2016, the Community-Based Forest and Mangrove Management Project (CBFMMP) contributed to the improvement of the environmental conditions and the reduction of poverty in Panay and Negros islands.

It also enabled the participating people’s organizations to manage forests and mangroves sustainably; adopted sustainably and productive upland farming systems; improved food security and living conditions, as well as improves access to the market.

It was implemented in the towns of Altavas, Libacao, Dumarao, Passi City, Carles, Anini-y, Valderrama, Sebaste, Kanbankalan City, Ilog and Candoni, in the provinces of Aklan, Antique, Capiz, Iloilo and Negros Occidental in Region 6, and in Bayawan City, Sta. Catalina, Bindoy, La Libertad in Negros Oriental in Region 7.

Adopting the CBFM approach, the project pioneered an innovative financing mechanism to encourage sustainable resource management through investment packages that dovetail livelihood/ infrastructure development measures with natural resources initiatives.

The Loan and Financing Contribution extended by Germany’s Kreditanstalt für Wiederaufbau (Credit Institute for Reconstruction) was used to fund loans granted by the LBP to finance livelihood and rural infrastructure activities, in close cooperation with the DENR.

2022 that seared Europe ends as 5th warmest on record

FROM drought in Europe to floods in Pakistan and melting polar ice, climate change made 2022 a year of new extremes, according to the EU agency that tracks changes to the planet’s atmosphere.

The year ended as the world’s fifthwarmest on record, with Europe heating up faster than anywhere else on the planet as concentrations of greenhouse gases kept up their relentless rise, it said in new research published on Tuesday.

T he continent experienced its secondwarmest year on record and its hottest summer ever, fueling wildfires, ruining crops, hampering trade and leading to higher than normal deaths even in some of the world’s wealthiest nations.

“These events highlight that we are already experiencing the devastating consequences of our warming world,” said Samantha Burgess, deputy director of the Copernicus Climate Change Service.

“Avoiding the worst consequences will require society to both urgently reduce carbon emissions and swiftly adapt to the changing climate,” she said.

Extreme heat over the summer led to at least 20,000 excess deaths in France, Germany, Spain and the UK alone.

Drought upended agricultural production, while low water levels in European rivers disrupted the transport of goods in the Rhine River, western Europe’s most important

waterway, and nuclear power production in France.

These climate-fueled events worsened an energy and inflation crisis that has made it harder for families to heat their homes and pay for essential goods.

The Copernicus research is the first in a series of annual reports from top climate and weather agencies set to be released this week. The scientific data is expected to match predictions made by the World Meteorological Organization last November that 2022 would be the fifth or sixth hottest year ever.

Average temperatures globally were 1.2C higher last year than re-industrial times, surpassing 2021 levels by a small margin, Copernicus said.

That level of heat is particularly worrying because it happened under the second consecutive year of La Niña weather conditions, which tend to help keep temperatures low.

Inst ead, high temperatures combined with extremely low levels of rainfall t o cause widespread drought in Europe as well as parts of the US, Asia and Africa. Temperatures in Europe have increased by more than twice the global average over the past three decades, according to Copernicus.

The hot weather exacerbated the gradual melting of the Earth’s ice sheets, which store vast quantities of fresh water and help cool

Forester Glenn L.

Region VI said in his presentation that among the project’s notable milestones and project outcomes was the completion and approval of 12 Forest Land Use Plans (FLUPs) and the signing of 11 co-management agreements.

“The FLUPS enabled LGUs to identify sites for development activities in the upland and avoided land use conflicts and overlaps with other government projects,” he said.

More importantly, he said that through CBFMMP, permanent Municipal Environment and Natural Resource Offices were created in the municipalities of Valderrama in Antique, and Libacao in Aklan. The funding for the newly created Libacao Menro will start next year.

Learning organization

ACCORDING to Leones, the DENR aspires to become a learning organization that is skillful at generating, acquiring and transferring knowledge and modifying its approach to reflect new knowledge.

“This forum is a reflection of that aspiration. We want to capture the valuable knowledge from our successes and failures in a project cycle, learn from them and use them in future projects,” he said.

The environment official said the Foreign Assisted and Special Project Service exert conscious efforts to imbibe such learning culture, pointing out that the FASPS has undergone a series of rebranding and strategy designs to adapt new ideas and apply valuable learning from the past.

the atmosphere.

Parts of northern and central Siberia, and of the Antarctic Peninsula recorded temperatures more than 2C above the average between 1991 and 2020, according to the report.

D uring September, temperatures over the center of Greenland, site of the Arctic ice sheet, were 8C higher than the average of the past three decades.

T he area covered by ice in the Antarctic was unusually low, with daily sea ice in February 2022 reaching its lowest extent in 44 years of satellite records. Six other months saw the Antarctic Sea ice extent at record or near record-lows.

W hile total collapse of the ice sheets is hundreds, or thousands of years away, scientists estimate that if all glaciers melted completely global sea levels would rise by about 70 meters (230 feet).

At the moment, sea-level rise is faster than it has been in at least 3,000 years, with higher water levels eroding coasts and forcing people in low-lying towns and cities to move.

P ossibly the worst disaster of the year was the flooding in Pakistan, which was linked to persisting La Niña conditions and made worse by climate change. The record-breaking rainfall that flooded about a third of Pakistan, caused widespread destruction and loss of life, with at least $16.3 billion needed to rebuild houses and farms, as well as to rehabilitate people impacted by floods, according to the latest estimates.

S o far, the hottest years on record globally are 2016, 2020 and 2019 and 2017, respectively, according to Copernicus’ observations.

Laura Millan Lombrana/Bloomberg

Gases of the DENR

AGROFORESTRY products produced by people’s organizations in Ibajay, Aklan, through the Community-Based Forest and Mangrove Management Project (CBFMMP).

MAINTENANCE of agroforestry area developed by people’s organizations through the CBFMMP in Ibajay, Aklan.

THE Ibajay, Aklan, watershed

Ronaldo left off FIFA 14-player award list led by Messi, Mbappé

ZURICH—Cristiano

R onaldo, who was released by Manchester United and benched by Portugal during the World Cup, won the FIFA award the first two times it was handed out—in 2016 and 2017— and was among the three finalists the following three years. This was the first time he was not even selected as a contender by a FIFA-appointed expert panel.

The award was rebranded in 2016 following a six-year period where the former FIFA World Player of the Year Award had merged with the annual Ballon d’Or.

Ronaldo finished seventh in the voting last year, when Robert Lewandowski won for the second time in a row ahead of Messi and Mohamed Salah. The 37-year-old Portuguese star joined Saudi Arabian club Al Nassr last month, seemingly marking the end of his European club career.

A side from Messi, the only member of Argentina’s World Cupwinning team to make the list of nominees is forward Julián Álvarez.

L ewandowski is also on the list, which includes just four players who did not play at the World Cup.

K arim Benzema, the 2022 Ballon d’Or winner, and Sadio Mané were injured ahead of the tournament in Qatar, while Erling Haaland and Salah were not there because their countries, Norway and Egypt, respectively, did not qualify.

The other players nominated are Jude Bellingham, Kevin De Bruyne, Achraf Hakimi, Luka Modrić, Neymar and Vinícius Junior.

B allon d’Or winner Alexia Putellas is among 14 nominees for the Best FIFA Women’s Player prize. The list also includes Beth Mead, Keira Walsh and Leah Williamson from European

champion England. Putella, the Spain playmaker, missed the tournament in England because of an injury.

A lex Morgan is the only player nominated from the United States team which will defend its World Cup title this year.

A rgentina coach Lionel Scaloni is among five nominees for the men’s coaching award, a list that also includes Walid Regragui after Morocco became the first team from Africa to reach the World Cup semifinals.

The other coaches nominated are Real Madrid’s Carlo Ancelotti, France’s Didier Deschamps and Manchester City’s Pep Guardiola.

England coach Sarina Wiegman, who is from the Netherlands, is among six nominees for the coaching award in women’s soccer.

T he 11 goals competing for the Puskas Award include two scored at the World Cup–Mbappé’s volleyed second goal against Argentina in the final and Richarlison’s bicycle kick for Brazil against Serbia.

Supporters from Argentina and Japan are among three nominees for the fan award.

F IFA cited Argentina fans’ fervor in Qatar and the passion shown when welcoming the winning team at home, and lauded Japanese fans for their World Cup tradition of staying back after games to clean the stadium.

Voting is done by national team captains and coaches worldwide along with selected journalists, and there is an online vote by fans which runs through February 3.

T he winners are announced at a February 27 ceremony in Paris. AP

FOR WHOM WILL FIREWORKS IN BOCAUE BE FOR: GIN KINGS OR DRAGONS?

share of v ictories, defeats and, who could forget, that unforgettably regrettable rumble between the national team and the guys from Down Under years ago.

O riginally scheduled for Friday, Ginebra coach Tim Cone said the extra two days give his team adequate time to shatter the Myles Powell-Dragons chemistry that prevented the Gin Kings’ red balloons from falling down the Smart Araneta Coliseum in Game 6 on Wednesday night.

“ We have a little more time and

rethink what we need to do about him,” said Cone, referring to Powell who was called to action from injury bay and dazzled to allow his team to level the series. “It gives our guys a little extra time to rest and be ready for him. We will just do what we can because this is our first time with him.”

Powell exploded with 29 points and grabbed seven rebounds in the 87-84 win in Game 6.

for their opponents.

It’s totally will,” said Goorjian, as he retools his plays focused not only on Powell but also Hayden Blankley, Songwei Zhu, Glenn Yang and Kobey Lam.

I nterestingly, Goorjian’s most illustrious accomplishment as a coach was a bronze medal at the Tokyo Olympics for Australia, the team Gilas Pilipinas forced to a brawl in a FIBA Olympic qualifier in 2018.

Blankley found his touch in Game 6 and finished with 29 points, while Zhu had 10 points and 10 assists.

Yang and Lam contributed 10 points each.

Powell talked about extra energy and defiance against the Gin Kings in Game 7.

“ They [Gin Kings] are going to punch us if we don’t play great,” said Powell, who before Game 6, last played on November 23 and scored 37 points in a victory over TNT.

He sat out their first playoff quarterfinals game against Rain or Shine with Canadian Andrew Nicholson taking over en route to victories over the Elasto Painters and the San Miguel Beermen in the semifinals, 4-1.

Kings in the best-of-seven Finals series with the league’s most popular team winning the odd-numbered games and the Dragons prevailing in the even-numbered matches.

He’ll be up in a marquee matchup with Justin Brownlee, who’s expected to play more inspired after President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. signed his naturalization papers before the weekend.

the Philippine

Association (PBA) Commissioner’s Cup crown Sunday with more than 50,000 fans expected to pack the mammoth Philippine Arena in Bocaue.

The pendulum favors the Gin

But in a Finals showdown that already clinched its nook in PBA history, the mystic numerology brings is thrown out the window.

I nstead, it will be a battle of strength, wits and skills on the arena’s hard court that has had its

B rownlee is averaging 31.8 points, 12 rebounds, 6.1 assists, 2.6 steals and 1.8 blocks in the Finals. He had a triple-double of 37 points, 10 rebounds and 11 assists in that Game 6 loss.

D ragons’ head coach Brian Goorjian knows what his team would be facing in Game 7 that tips off at 5:45 p.m.—a raucous crowd rooting

LeBron, Durant still lead NBA All-Star votes

NEW YORK—LeBron James of the Los Angeles Lakers is well on his way to catching Kareem Abdul-Jabbar on more than the National Basketball Association’s (NBA) career scoring list.

James is on pace to be an All-Star for the 19th time, after the NBA said Thursday he remains the overall leading vote-getter for the February 19 game in Salt Lake City.

A bdul-Jabbar is the only 19time All-Star in NBA history. James and Kobe Bryant are 18-time selections, and James entered Thursday 423 points away from passing Abdul-Jabbar as the NBA’s all-time scoring leader.

James had 4,825,229 votes entering Thursday. That puts him in

position to be a captain for the sixth consecutive year—and possibly opposing Kevin Durant for the third straight time.

Durant, the Brooklyn Nets star who is expected to miss about a month after spraining a knee ligament earlier this week, is the top vote-getter in the Eastern Conference, with 4,509,238 entering Thursday.

The top three frontcourt players and top two guards in each conference will be chosen as starters, with the leading overall vote-getters from each conference serving as captains and choosing their teams.

James tops the list of Western Conference frontcourt players. Denver’s Nikola Jokic remained in second (3,441,893) and the Lakers’

Demonstrators protest NCAA’s transgender athlete inclusion

Gaines and about two dozen

the NCAA convention Thursday protested the inclusion of transgender athletes in women’s sports and threatened the association with legal action if it doesn’t change its policies.

Gaines competed in last year’s NCAA swimming and diving championships against Penn’s Lia Thomas, who became first transgender woman to win a national title ( the women’s 500-yard freestyle). She also placed fifth in the 200 freestyle, tying with Gaines.

Today, we intend to personally tell the NCAA to stop discriminating against female athletes by handing them a petition that we have garnered nearly 10,000 signatures on in just a couple of days,” Gaines said, kicking off more than an hour of speeches that attracted a few onlookers and a handful of quiet counter-protesters.

T he topic has divided the US for

the past several years,  with critics saying transgender athletes have an advantage over cisgender women in competition. Eighteen states have passed laws banning transgender athletes from participating in female school sports; a  federal judge earlier this month ruled West Virginia›s ban is constitutional and can remain in place.

T he NCAA has permitted transgender athletes to compete since 2010.

The Transgender Student-Athlete Participation Policy was updated a year ago, taking a sport-by-sport approach that brings the NCAA in line with the US and international Olympic committees.

F ull implementation of the policy was scheduled to be phased in by August but the NCAA Board of Governors this week approved a recommendation to delay that  through the 2023-24 academic year “to address operational considerations.”

NC AA leadership says the stated

goal in policy making is “not if transgender athletes are included, but how.”

We want to have an environment that is fair, welcoming and inclusive for all of (the athletes),” Ivy League executive director Robin Harris said at the convention during a session this week on the topic. Harris said the transgender athletes policy is no different from other eligibility requirements.

They are playing by the rules,” NCAA director of inclusion Jean Merrill said during the session.

Schuyler Bailar, a transgender man who switched from the women’s swim team to the men’s during his time at Harvard, said he believes the NCAA is doing the best it can to be inclusive, fair and effective with its policies. The challenge is that the standards are not static.

It’s just not that simple. I think they’re ever moving, ever evolving. And fairness is ever evolving, as well, the more we learn about bodies and biology and people and the more

we understand diversity and equity and inclusion,” Bailar said at the convention session.

At the protest, Alliance Defending Freedom attorney Christiana Kiefer said the NCAA is violating Title IX, the landmark gender equity legislation enacted in 1972, and legal action against the NCAA could take several forms.

So I think that could look like a federal lawsuit against the NCAA,” she said. “I think that could look like a Title IX complaint. And I think it could look like even universities starting to actually push back against the NCAA and saying, ’Hey, we have a legal obligation to protect fair athletic opportunities for female athletes and if we fail to do that, you’re kind of binding our hands and not allowing us to fulfill our legal obligations to the female athletes at our schools.’”

The NCAA has not yet taken a stand against states that have banned transgender athletes from competing in women’s sports. The NCAA has previously banned states

Anthony Davis remained third (2,950,563).

D urant leads East frontcourt players, just ahead of Milwaukee’s Giannis Antetokounmpo (4,467,306). But Boston’s Jayson Tatum moved ahead of Philadelphia’s Joel Embiid this week for the third spot; Tatum had 3,281,124 votes, while Embiid had 3,248,733.

Golden State’s Stephen Curry leads all guards in the balloting with 3,901,808 votes. Dallas’ Luka Doncic remained No. 2 behind Curry among West guards with 3,649,647 votes.

T he top two vote-getters among East guards was also unchanged: Brooklyn’s Kyrie Irving leads with 3,024,833 votes, and Cleveland’s Donovan Mitchell

Goorjian and the entire Dragons squad admitted they’re venturing into unchartered waters.

I haven’t been into a Game 7 before,” Goorjian said.

T he Gin Kings won Game 1, 96-81; Game 3, 89-82; and Game 5, 101-91; while the Dragons took Game 2, 99-82; Game 4, 94-86; and Game 6, 87-84.

G inebra is aiming for its third Commissioner’s Cup crown and 15th PBA title with Cone targetting a runaway 25th league championships ring.

is second with 2,725,558.

Fan voting counts for 50 percent of the starters balloting, a media ballot counts for 25 percent and the ballots turned in by NBA players count for the other 25 percent.

James has been a captain in all five previous uses of that process, going 5-0 in All-Star Games. His team beat a Durant-picked team in 2021 and 2022, beat teams picked by Antetokounmpo in 2019 and 2020, and beat a team picked by Curry in 2018.

D urant did not play in either of those games in 2021 or 2022 because of injury.

Voting continues through January 21. The captains and the starters will be announced January 26. Reserves—chosen by NBA coaches— will be revealed February 2. The All-Star captains will then draft their teams, probably in the second week of February.

from hosting its championship events because of the use of Confederate symbolism or for laws that it believe discriminated against LGBTQ people.

B ailar said it would be valuable to have the NCAA take a similar position on this issue.

I also know that NCAA’s

jurisdiction is in college athletics and not in children’s sports. And many of these laws are about children’s sports. So I understand the discrepancy there,” he said. “But I mean, if you’re asking me do I want more support for trans people? The answer is going to be: absolutely yes.” AP

SAN ANTONIO—Former

Kentucky swimmer Riley

demonstrators outside

FORMER University of Kentucky swimmer Riley Gaines (second from right) stands during a rally on Thursday outside of the NCAA Convention in San Antonio.

AP

LEBRON JAMES is on his way to becoming captain again opposite Kevin Durant. AP

A MARQUEE matchup is also up between Ginebra’s Justin Brownlee and Hong Kong Bay Area’s Myles Powell.

By Josef Ramos

BARANGAY Ginebra San Miguel and Hong Kong Bay Area clash in an epic Game 7 for

Basketball

Ronaldo was left off the 14-player shortlist for the annual Best FIFA Men’s Player award for the first time with Lionel Messi and Kylian Mbappé among those selected.

What is ChatGPt and Why are sChools bloCkinG it?

NEW COLLABORATION

Over October intertwines with The Ridleys for perfect wedding song

By Patrick V. Miguel

IT might come as a surprise, but bands

Over October and The Ridleys have been intertwined personally for a long time now. Vocalists of the bands Josh Buizon and Benny Manaligod respectively knew each other since childhood, considering that their parents are friends. Now, both bands have coiled their music for their first ever collaboration.

Josh initially started writing the song, coming up with its first verse and its first chorus. However, he got stuck along the way, struggling to finish writing it. This is where he reached out to Benny, asking him, “Can you help me finish it?”

“Why don’t we do something for Diego?”

Benny’s cousin and a friend of Josh, Diego, is about to be married with his fiancé Alison. Both vocalists decided that the song they were working on would be the perfect wedding present for the couple.

Upon getting Benny’s version of the song, Josh’s reaction, he shared, was “Wow, this is great.”

However, Josh admitted, “The backstory of the lyrics of the song are not really directly about Diego and Alison, but it’s more of just what every couple who is committing their lives to one another should be like.”

“So it’s more than that, it’s more of that kind of a backstory of the song rather than specific to their relationship, so it applies to all of the relationships,” he added.

It was a decision that drew the two bands Over October and The Ridleys to work together, intertwined per se, to create the perfect song about getting married.

fans have requested a collaboration of the bands in the past.

“Matagal na siyang balak din mangyari,” Lua said.

Because they all knew each other for quite some time now, working together was, in a way, easier than expected. Lua shared that they were all already friends before the collaboration happened, and rapport was not difficult to establish.

“I think it helped din na friends na kami to begin with,” the guitarist noted.

Adding Anton Rodriguez back in the band, there were three guitarists in total for “Intertwine.”

Reflecting on the experience, Lua shared, “We had to balance all of the parts… to the point nag mag-g-give way talaga for the other guitarist, and ano siya fun experience [since] its the first time in a while na I took the back seat in terms of the guitar parts.”

Publisher : Editor-In-Chief : Concept : Y2Z Editor : SoundStrip Editor : Group Creative Director : Graphic Designers : Contributing Writers : Columnists : Photographers :

T. Anthony C. Cabangon Lourdes M. Fernandez Aldwin M. Tolosa

Jt Nisay Edwin P. Sallan Eduardo A. Davad

Niggel Figueroa Anabelle O. Flores

Tony M. Maghirang, Rick Olivares, Leony Garcia, Patrick Miguel

Kaye VillagomezLosorata Annie S. Alejo Bernard P. Testa Nonie Reyes

Explaining why he reached out to Benny, Josh said, “Magaling si Benny, he’s really good at writing lyrics so I sent it to him and he sent me back a draft with the lyrics.” Josh added that he also asked Benny,

Lua, Over October’s second guitarist, noted, “I think ‘yung writing style ni Benny for that one is parang… wedding vow ‘yung verse na sinulat niya.”

Collaborating process

THE collaboration was a “long-time coming,” according to Lua, since

The only stumbling block they had to surpass, according to Josh, is scheduling. “Everybody has their own schedules—actually that was one of the bigger challenges in terms of putting the whole thing together was more of the scheduling.”

He added, “In terms of the song, it actually took over a year to finish because me and Benny were like sending it back and forth and we also had other commitments.”

Josh shared that Over October members have regular day jobs, a field beyond the scenes of music.

Josh further explained, “It was during the pandemic pa when it happened so I never actually got to sit down with Benny and like we never sat down in the same room to write together. It was all online so I would send him lyrics and then he would send me back the lyrics with an edit and then back and forth lang talaga kami. So that was actually the one that took most of the time—the sending it back and forth.”

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Nevertheless, Over October and The Ridleys were able to put the music together, offering to the world and to Diego and Alison the perfect song about having lives intertwined. The song was released last November 25.

As of writing, “Intertwine” has 439k streams on Spotify, and was recently added to the Viral Hits Playlist PH.

“Intertwine” is available on all music-streaming platforms.

by Tony M. Maghirang

New music to start the New Year

girl PB Jelli hectoring as well as pleading her case as any good modern RnB vocalist should. She’s a showstopper in the club anthem “Daydream” and a bedroom dominatrix in “Control.” She can be a sensitive lover in “Cover Me.” PBJ may be late but she brings life to the party.

WEYES BLOOD And in the Darkness, Hearts Aglow

COLOURA In Between

THIS four-man group hailing from Cebu bills itself as an experimental band which is partly true if you count mixing ambient sounds with touches of new wave, emo, boy band harmonies and rock and roll to be “experimental” enough. That’s not a complaint because Coloura blend assorted sonic colors into a complete coherent package one song at a time. Like, “First Time” is a funky tune with sections that rock and splashes of cool balladry. Opening track “Drive and Meet You” features the push of hot synth runs and the pull of breathy vocals. “Let This Go” is a sweet ballad that doesn’t go emo-sensitive on you. “In Between” should be a nice place to start a new year of new music.

JOCKSTRAP

I Love You Jennifer B

PB JELLI

Late to the Party

THE lateness referred to in the EP title comes mainly from dance tracks harking back to electronica from way back when. But since everything comes round again for another swing, the electronica boomerang sounds freshlyminted, what with our main

UK’S Jockstrap duo are Georgia Ellery and Taylor Skye who studied various aspects of music making in college. They apply their learnings to create music that’s been described as ‘an alchemy of modern pop.’ On their new album, the duo focuses on the restless pursuit of young love and surrounds their songs with the edgy sounds of indie pop. Club beats are de facto all over the record but that does not stop them from dropping a sideways slant to the overall atmosphere. For instance, the electronica in “Greatest Hits” devolves to weepy strings then back again to the big thump. Shoegazey ambience gives “What’s It All About?” its dreamy quality and a sort of post-punk sensibility exudes from the weird “Debra.” Jockstrap simply reflects the continuing fusion of musical forms.

WITH a voice redolent of Karen Carpenter, Weyes Blood elevates to greater heights and a wider audience her tales of mankind’s plunders that brought about climate change impacts and the destruction of the environment. In its wake, she enables her own personal agenda of a return to the natural world. The wonder of it all is that Ms. Blood uses a wider musical palette than The Carpenters’ rootsy MOR. She powers her delicate introspections with girlgroup harmonies (“Children of the Empire”), layered orchestrations (“It’s Not Just Me, It’s Everybody”) and torchy croon (“Hearts Aglow”.) In her astute hands, Weyes skirts the political subtext of the issues she’s taken up to front-load the hope that there’s still time to reverse an impending catastrophe.

massive hit titled “American Teenager” milks her gloomy condition in pumping rock and roll by way of The Cars. The music and the lyrics turn even darker in the Goth of “A House in Nebraska” and on to the Black metalscarred “Ptolomea.” The easy conjecture is that Ms. Cain is Lana del Rey’s lost twin but it’s more likely, Ethel Cain is her own person finding unique beauty in a very bad circumstance.

VARIOUS ARTISTS

Malabong Lababo Sessions #01: Squiggle Beware

ETHER Cain’s previous album titled “Inbred” was about troubled family ties. Her latest release hints at problems with her faith. True enough, the opening track on her new album sports this chorus: “The fate’s already fucked me sideways/Swinging by my neck from the family tree.” clearly referring to the tragedy of being born to a preacher man. The next track, a potentially

OVERWROUGHT album title aside, the 25-track “Malabong Lababo Sessions #01” collects contributions from nine independent acts — eight from the Philippines and one from Singapore. Proceeds from sales will help fund PH-based The Buildings’ two-week tour of Japan next month. That’s the goodwill part, and the participating bands are no charity cases, at all. Bird Dens’ blues has The Strokes undercurrent. WAX stomp around in powerful guitar rawk ramblings and The Gory Orgies banner rabble rousing metal while Subsonic Eye conjugate twee and lounge in easy listening bliss. Buy the album, help the indie OPM cause and have yourself a musical adventure.

Check out these albums on digital music platforms, especially bandcamp.

SoundSampler

ETHEL CAIN Preacher’s Daughter

What is ChatGPT and why are schools blocking it?

By Matt O’Brien The Associated Press

ask the new artificial intelligence tool ChatGPT to write an essay about the cause of the american Civil War and you can watch it churn out a persuasive term paper in a matter of seconds.

That’s one reason why New York City school officials recently started blocking the impressive but controversial writing tool that can generate paragraphs of human-like text.

The decision by the largest US school district to restrict the ChatGPT web site on school devices and networks could have ripple effects on other schools, and teachers scrambling to figure out how to prevent cheating. The creators of ChatGPT say they’re also looking for ways to detect misuse.

The free tool has been around for just five weeks but is already raising tough questions about the future of AI in education, the tech industry and a host of professions.

What is ChatGPT?

Ch ATGPT launched on November 30 but is part of a broader set of technologies developed by the San Francisco-based startup OpenAI, which has a close relationship with Microsoft.

It’s part of a new generation of AI systems that can converse, generate readable text on demand and even produce novel images and video based on what they’ve learned from a vast database of digital books, online writings and other media.

But unlike previous iterations of socalled “large language models,” such as OpenAI’s GPT-3, launched in 2020, the ChatGPT tool is available for free to anyone with an internet connection and designed to be more user-friendly. It works like a written dialogue between the AI system and the person asking it questions.

Millions of people have played with it over the past month, using it to write silly poems or songs, to try to trick it into making mistakes, or for more practical purposes such as helping compose an email. All of those queries are also helping it get smarter.

What are the pitfalls?

A S with similar systems, ChatGPT can generate convincing prose, but that doesn’t

mean what it says is factual or logical.

Its launch came with little guidance for how to use it, other than a promise that ChatGPT will admit when it’s wrong, challenge “incorrect premises” and reject requests meant to generate offensive answers. Since then, however, its popularity has led its creators to try to lower some people’s expectations.

“ChatGPT is incredibly limited, but good enough at some things to create a misleading impression of greatness,” OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said on Twitter in December.

Altman added that “it’s a mistake to be relying on it for anything important right now,” adding that “it’s a preview of progress; we have lots of work to do on robustness and truthfulness.”

Can it be used for writing school papers?

Th I S is what ChatGPT said when The Associated Press asked it to answer that question in all caps from the perspective of a principal shouting a brief message through a school’s PA system:

“DO NOT USE C h ATGPT OR ANY OT h ER AUTOMATED WRITING TOOL FOR SC hO OL PAPERS. T h I S IS C h E ATING AND WILL NOT BE TOLERATED. IF YOU ARE CAUGh T USING C h ATGPT OR ANY OT h ER AUTOMATED WRITING TOOL FOR SC hO OL PAPERS, T h ERE WILL BE SERIOUS CONSEQUENCES.”

But when asked to answer the same question on its own, ChatGPT offered this more measured warning: “As a gen-

eral rule, it is not appropriate to use ChatGPT or any other automated writing tool for school papers, as it is considered cheating and does not benefit the student in the long run.”

What do schools say?

M A NY school districts are still scrambling to figure out how to set policies on if and how it can be used.

a human or an AI, you can look for the absence of personal experiences or emotions, check for inconsistency in writing style, and watch for the use of filler words or repetitive phrases. These may be signs that the text was generated by an AI.”

That’s what ChatGPT told an AP reporter when asked how to tell the difference.

OpenAI said in a human-written statement this week that it plans to work with educators as it learns from how people are experimenting with ChatGPT in the real world.

“We don’t want ChatGPT to be used for misleading purposes in schools or anywhere else, so we’re already developing mitigations to help anyone identify text generated by that system,” the company said.

Does this threaten Google?

Th E RE ’ S been some speculation that ChatGPT could upend the internet search business now dominated by Google, but the tech giant has been working on similar technology for years—it’s just more cautious about releasing it in the wild.

It was Google that helped jumpstart the trend for ever-bigger, ever-smarter AI language models that could be “pretrained” on a wide body of writings. In 2018 the company introduced a system known as BERT that uses a “transformer” technique that compares words across a sentence to predict meaning and context. Some of those advances are now baked into Google searches.

The New York City education department said last week that it’s restricting access on school networks and devices because it’s worried about negative impacts on student learning, as well as “concerns regarding the safety and accuracy of content.”

But there’s no stopping a student from accessing ChatGPT from a personal phone or computer at home.

“While the tool may be able to provide quick and easy answers to questions, it does not build critical-thinking and problem-solving skills, which are essential for academic and lifelong success,” said schools spokesperson Jenna Lyle.

Human or AI?

“TO determine if something was written by

But there’s no question that successive iterations of GPT—which stands for Generative Pre-trained Transformer—are having an impact. Microsoft has invested at least $1 billion in OpenAI and has an exclusive license to use GPT-3.

Hey ChatGPT, can you put all this in a rap?

“ChatGPT’s just a tool, But it ain’t no substitute for school. You can’t cheat your way to the top, Using a machine to do your homework, you’ll flop.

Plagiarism’s a no-no, And ChatGPT’s text is not your own, yo. So put in the work, earn that grade, Don’t try to cheat, it’s not worth the trade.”

‘The free tool has been around for just five weeks but is already raising tough questions about the future of AI in education, the tech industry and a host of professions.’

A ChAtGPt prompt is shown on a device near a public school in Brooklyn, New York on January 5, 2023. New York City school officials started blocking this week the impressive but controversial writing tool that can generate paragraphs of human-like text. AP