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Group appeals for leniency amid Duterte’s total ban pronouncement on fireworks during holidays

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By Rene Acosta

HE government is being urged to strictly enforce rules and regulations covering firecrackers and pyrotechnics rather than imposing a total ban that would potentially “kill” a once flourishing industry and economically dislocate thousands of Filipinos.

While the fireworks industry in the country is a billionpeso business, it has considerably shrunk over the past years, amid the clampdown imposed by the Duterte administration on the grounds of health and safety concerns.

Just before the New Year, the President declared that he would impose a total ban on firecrackers this year due to injuries arising from its use as many Filipinos use it to welcome the New Year in the form of revelry and merry making.

What’s needed?

THE Philippine Fireworks Association (PFA) hopes the government throws its support behind the industry, instead of sending it to its “silent demise,” and it cited its contribution to the economy and to marginalized Filipinos who wanted to legally earn.

It is not good for the industry to die at a time when the country still reels from the economic effects of the Covid-19 pandemic, the group said.

PFA president Joven Ong said that while they understand that

President Duterte’s ban only covers firecrackers and not pyrotechnics, the move would still result in the loss of economic opportunities for thousands of Filipinos.

For a Filipino to be economically dislocated, it would also mean loss of income for his family, and “one family is still a family,” according to Ong, who is already looking at shutting down his company because of uncertainties.

Same problems

THE problem besetting the fireworks industry has not changed over the years. It has basically remained that way five years after Duterte kept on pushing for a total firecracker ban beginning in 2016 due to “loss of lives and limbs.”

In 2016, when the President broached his preference for a total firecracker ban, the industry responded by saying that instead of pushing for a ban, the government should stop graft and corruption by way of the smuggling of illegal firecrackers.

At that time, the PFA maintained that most of the injuries

PESO EXCHANGE RATES n US 48.0670

IN this December 27, 2017, file photo, workers make government-regulated fireworks ahead of the New Year celebrations, which have resulted in fireworks-related injuries and deaths in the past, in Bulacan. In an attempt to reduce injuries and deaths, the government has banned the use of powerful firecrackers and designated some public areas around Manila for fireworks display to welcome the New Year. AP/BULLIT MARQUEZ

recorded were caused by smuggled and unauthorized firecrackers, the entry of which into the country remains unabated, especially during the holiday season.

The chief of the Philippine National Police (PNP) Firearms and Explosives Office at that time, Chief Supt. Cesar Hawthorne Binag, agreed with the PFA, saying that piccolo, an imported but banned firecracker, accounted for at least 56 percent of the reported injuries.

“Under the law, it is prohibited to import finished products,” said Binag, noting the “hole” lies in smuggling.

Under Republic Act 7183, li-

censed manufacturers, dealers and even retailers are only allowed to sell firecrackers of lesser explosive content.

The law also allowed pyrotechnics such as sparklers, luces, fountain, Jumbo Regular, Mabuhay, Roman Candle, trompillo, Airwolf, whistle device and Butterfly.

However, other pyrotechnic devices, which contain explosive chemicals that pose risk to life and limb, are prohibited, as well as firecrackers with more than 0.2 grams of explosives.

Ong said that after five years, the smuggling of illegal and banned firecrackers has not stopped although it had decreased.

Where the problem lies

HE revisited PFA’s proposal for government agencies to work together and strictly enforce existing rules and regulations, rather than totally shutting down the industry.

“It’s in the implementation,” Ong said, referring to RA 7183, if the government really wanted to stop firecracker-related injuries, aside from reeducating the public on the use of firecrackers and pyrotechnics.

The PFA president noted that while the PNP grants permits for manufacturers, the authority ends in seeing that they only have the facility, and the production aspect

is not included.

Ong pushed for firecrackers and firework products to have the “Philippine Standards” seal from the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) to ensure that their members’ products went through strict government review and approval.

While other countries also use firecrackers and pyrotechnics, hardly any reports of injuries are heard from them, because their governments honestly implement and enforce regulations, the association noted.

In the country, government inspections of firms involved in the manufacture of fireworks are only done a few months, or even weeks into the end of the year instead of what, Ong said, should be a regular undertaking. Or at least, it should begin by the month of March.

In Europe, pyrotechnics is considered or falls under the category of an art, and as such is supported by the government. In the Philippines, it is lumped with and considered as a firecracker.

Ong said that because of the lack of government support, the fireworks industry, an estimated P4-billion business in 2016 employing hundreds of thousands of Filipinos, has declined to being merely a billion-peso industry, with an estimated 100,000 work force.

The trade of the business goes from one hand to another and so on, with each one expected to earn by adding an amount over the marked-up price.

“From the manufacturer, it goes down to the dealer, to the retailer and down the line up to ordinary Filipinos who sell them along the streets,” Ong said.

For the PFA president, killing an industry amid a raging pandemic— given all these considerations—will not help the country at all.

n JAPAN 0.4631 n UK 65.8085 n HK 6.1993 n CHINA 7.4223 n SINGAPORE 36.2879 n AUSTRALIA 37.3817 n EU 58.4495 n SAUDI ARABIA 12.8137

Source: BSP (January 15, 2021)

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How China won Trump’s trade war and got Americans to foot the bill

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By Bloomberg News

S President Donald Trump famously tweeted that “trade wars are good, and easy to win” in 2018 as he began to impose tariffs on about $360 billion of imports from China. Turns out he was wrong on both counts.

Even before the coronavirus infected millions of Americans and sparked the steepest economic downturn since the Great Depression, China was withstanding Trump’s tariff salvos, according to the very metrics he used to justify them. Once China got the virus under control, demand for medical equipment and work-from-home gear expanded its trade surplus with the US despite the levies.

While trade tensions between the world’s two biggest economic powers didn’t start under Trump, he broadened the fight with the unprecedented tariffs and sanctions on technology companies.

The tougher approach, according to the scorecard that follows, didn’t go as he hoped. But he’s leaving his successor Joe Biden a blueprint of what worked and what didn’t.

“China is too big and too important to the world economy to think that you can cut it out like a paper doll,” said Mary Lovely, an economics professor at Syracuse University. “The Trump administration had a wake-up call.”

The US trade deficit grew

TRUMP vowed in his 2016 election year to very quickly “start reversing” the US goods trade deficit with

China, ignoring mainstream economists who downplay the importance of bilateral deficits. However, the deficit with China increased since then, hitting $287 billion in the 11 months to November last year, according to Chinese data.

The deficit did fall year-on-year in 2019, as US companies switched to imports from countries like Vietnam, but it remained higher than the $254-billion gap in 2016.

That was partly because Beijing’s imposition of retaliatory tariffs on about $110 billion in goods reduced its imports of American products, and these only started recovering in the last few months of 2020.

As part of the phase-one trade deal signed a year ago, Beijing made an ambitious vow to import $172 billion worth of US goods in specific categories in 2020, but through the end of November it had bought just 51 percent of that goal. The slump in energy prices amid the pandemic and the problems with Boeing Co.’s planes played a part in that failure.

The persistent deficit demonstrated how reliant companies are on China’s vast manufacturing capacity, which was highlighted again by the pandemic. China was the only country capable of increasing output on a big enough

SHIPPING containers are stacked near gantry cranes at the Port of Nansha, operated by Guangzhou Port Group Co., in the Nansha district of Guangzhou, China, November 20, 2020. QILAI SHEN/BLOOMBERG

scale to meet surging demand for goods such as work-from-home computers and medical equipment.

President Xi Jinping expressed his confidence in China’s rise Monday, telling officials that “time and the situation are in our favor.” The Chinese leader said that he saw “opportunities in general outweighing challenges,” a marked shift from his sometimes dire-sounding warnings of recent months.

China’s export machine rolls on

TRUMP repeatedly said that Chi-

na’s accession to the World Trade Organization (WTO) in 2001 caused its economy to take off like a “rocket ship,” a result he viewed as unfair. As it turned out, Trump’s trade war with China coincided with another expansion in Chinese exports. After shrinking for two straight years in 2015 and 2016, China’s total shipments grew each year after Trump took office, including in 2019 when exports to the US fell.

A group of 10 Southeast Asian nations replaced the US as China’s second-largest trading partner in 2019. The shift to Asia is likely to continue as Southeast Asian economies are projected to grow faster than developed countries over the next decade. Those trade links will be further cemented by the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership pact signed late last year, which will see 15 regional economies gradually drop some tariffs on each others’ goods.

US companies stay in China

TRUMP said that tariffs would encourage US manufacturers to move production back home, and in a 2019 tweet he “ordered” them to “immediately start looking for an alternative to China.” But there is little evidence of any such shift taking place.

US direct investment into China increased slightly from $12.9 billion in 2016 to $13.3 billion in 2019, according to Rhodium Group data.

More than three quarters of 200-plus US manufacturers in and around Shanghai surveyed in September said they didn’t intend to move production out of China. US companies regularly cite the rapid growth of China’s consumer market combined with its strong manufacturing capabilities as reasons for expanding there.

“No matter how high the Trump administration raised any tariffs, it was going to be very difficult to dissuade US companies from investing,” said Ker Gibbs, president of the American Chamber of Commerce in Shanghai.

Economic losses on both sides

TRUMP claimed that tariffs had boosted the US economy, while causing China’s economy to have its “worst year in over 50” in 2019. However, direct economic impacts were small relative to the size of the two countries’ economies as the value of exports between them are tiny relative to gross domestic product.

China grew at or above 6 percent in both 2018 and 2019, with tariffs costing it about 0.3 percent of GDP over those years, according to Yang Zhou, an economist at the University of Minnesota. By her estimate, the trade war cost the US 0.08 percent GDP over the same period. The clearest winner was Vietnam, where the tariffs boosted GDP by nearly 0.2 percentage point as companies relocated.

US consumer foots the bill

TRUMP repeatedly claimed that

China was paying for the tariffs.

Economists who crunched the numbers were surprised to find that Chinese exporters generally didn’t lower prices to keep their goods competitive after the tariffs were imposed. That meant US duties were mostly paid by its own companies and consumers.

The tariffs led to an income loss for US consumers of about $16.8 billion annually in 2018, according to a National Bureau of Economic Research paper.

Another own goal: Tariffs on imports from China tended to reduce US exports. That was because globalized supply chains mean manufacturing is shared between countries, and the US raised the costs of its own goods by levying duties on imports of Chinese components.

Companies which together account for 80 percent of US exports had to pay higher prices for Chinese imports, according to analysis of confidential company data by researchers at the National Bureau of Economic Research, the US Census Bureau and the Federal Reserve, reducing export growth.

The rustbelt stayed rusty

TRUMP campaigned hard back in 2016 on pledges to revive the Rust Belt by taking on China and bringing the jobs back home. It didn’t happen.

Growth in US manufacturing jobs flatlined in 2019, partly due to falling exports. Even regions home to industries such as steel, which received explicit protection from Trump’s tariffs, saw declines in employment, according to research by New York University Stern School of Business economist Michael Waugh, suggesting that the trade war didn’t significantly alter the trajectory of US manufacturing.

“That stuff is just naturally going to move offshore. The protection maybe delays it a little bit,” Waugh said. “There’s no evidence that the tariffs benefited workers.”

The pandemic’s disruption to the world economy in 2020 makes it difficult to estimate the effect of the tariffs on jobs and investment.

China changed at its own pace

THE Trump administration claimed that tariffs provided leverage over the Chinese, which would force them to make reforms to benefit US companies. “I love properly put-on tariffs, because they bring unfair competitors from foreign countries to do whatever you want them to do,” Trump said.

The biggest victory claimed by the administration as part of its trade deal were promises from Beijing to enhance intellectual property (IP) protections. But that was probably in China’s interests anyway.

Mark Cohen, an expert on Chinese law at Fordham University in New York, said that while Beijing has made “tremendous legislative changes” to strengthen IP protection in the past two years, its own motivation to enhance innovation may have been a more important factor

WHAT BLOOMBERG ECONOMICS SAYS...

The fact that exports were little affected after four years of trade war speaks to the resilience of China’s manufacturing capacity. However, the trade war has exposed China’s vulnerability in certain bottleneck sectors such as high tech.

—CHANG SHU, CHIEF ASIA ECONOMIST than US pressure. The agreement didn’t “push the structural reforms in China that would make its system more systemically compatible with most of the world,” he added.

Chinese companies paid a record $7.9 billion in IP payments to the US in 2019, up from $6.6 billion in 2016, and its courts imposed some record-breaking fines on IP infringement involving US companies. But that rate of increase was slower than for its IP payments to the whole world, according to World Bank data, showing the payments to the US were part of a general trend.

Washington was also not able to extract any significant commitments on reform of China’s stateowned enterprises, which were also cited as a justification for tariffs.

Trade war to tech wars

IT’S now up to President-elect Biden to decide whether to keep up the trade war. In a recent interview, he said he wouldn’t remove the tariffs immediately and would instead review the phase one deal.

Compared with tariffs, an escalating conflict over technology is of more concern to China.

Sanctions and export restrictions imposed by Washington have threatened the viability of leading technology companies such as Huawei Technologies Co. and microchip maker Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp. That is an existential threat to Beijing’s plans for economic growth.

“If the US continues to increase its technological blockade, China’s modernization towards the highend of the global industrial chain will undoubtedly be affected,” two researchers at the official Communist Party school in the province of Jiangsu wrote in an article.

So far, the impact of US actions has been to accelerate Beijing’s drive for technological selfsufficiency. The issue has rocketed up the Communist Party’s agenda, symbolized by a statement last month that increasing “strategic scientific and technological strength” is the most important economic task.

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

TheWorld BusinessMirror

Sunday, January 17, 2021

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Biden’s term to open in Trump’s shadow as agenda, impeachment trial converge J

oe Biden’s hope of turning the page on a chaotic chapter in American history with his January 20 inauguration dissolved on Wednesday, with his own party’s efforts to punish Donald Trump poised to drag on through the earliest days of the new president’s administration.

Instead of shifting to Biden’s agenda and confirming his nominees for dozens of key positions, the Senate may be preparing to hold a trial for his predecessor after the House impeached Trump on Wednesday, making him the first US president to suffer the rebuke twice.

Timing for the Senate to act isn’t clear, but Republican Leader Mitch McConnell rejected a call to convene the chamber in an emergency session and quickly start the trial.

That means the proceedings almost certainly won’t begin before Biden is inaugurated.

Biden’s advisers, like other Democrats, see Trump as deeply damaged politically by the episode and understand the need to hold him accountable, people familiar with their thinking said. But they also worry that the trial will sidetrack Biden’s agenda,

not only taking up the Senate’s time but also fueling deep divisions in the country that have led to violence and doomed bipartisan work on national policy priorities.

And with McConnell’s decision not to reconvene the Senate before January 19, Biden faces the prospect of taking office without a single member of his Cabinet confirmed and in place.

Biden has largely refrained from wading into the debate over punishing Trump for his role in encouraging the mob that stormed the US Capitol last week, leaving at least five dead. As House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s intentions became clearer, the presidentelect proposed that the Senate “bifurcate” its schedule so it could continue work on confirming his nominees and passing a coronavirus relief bill even as it carried out Trump’s trial.

After Wednesday’s vote, Biden

President-elect Joe Biden speaks during an event at The Queen Theater in Wilmington, Delaware on January 7, to announce key nominees for the Justice Department. AP/Susan Walsh repeated that wish. “I hope that the Senate leadership will find a way to deal with their constitutional responsibilities on impeachment while also working on the other urgent business of this nation,” he said in a statement.

During an impeachment trial, the Senate may require unanimous consent for any other actions including considering legislation, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service. That would make it possible for even a single Republican senator to block other votes.

Pelosi may delay sending the impeachment article to the Senate until later this year, allowing Biden’s government to be put in place and his anticipated pandemic relief bill to be considered first. Or McConnell and the Democratic leader, Chuck

Schumer, could strike a deal to vote on Biden’s appointments concurrently with the trial.

Pelosi declined to take questions in a brief appearance before reporters after the House voted 232-197 to impeach.

‘Hurt irreparably’

Biden’s allies say he and Democrats have no choice but to push ahead.

“Donald Trump is not the person he was a few days ago. He has been hurt irreparably,” former Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said. “His power base has been weakened significantly.

And I think that’s really a good thing for the country and for the world.”

Reid said that while he hasn’t spoken with Biden since before the attack on the Capitol, he’s come away from recent conversations with incoming

Tech giants banished Trump; now things get complicated

By Barbara Ortutay

AP Technology Writer

A

s the world adjusts to a Twitter without @ realdonaldtrump, the next big question is: “Now what?”

Major tech platforms, long accused of giving President Donald Trump special treatment not allotted to regular users, have shown him the door in the wake of his incitement of violence by supporters at the US Capitol on January 6. He’s gone from Twitter, Facebook, Snapchat—even Shopify.

But in many ways, booting the president was the easy part.

Will companies now hold other world leaders to the same standard? Will they wade further into deciding what is and isn’t allowed on their platforms, potentially alienating large swaths of their user base? Will all this lead to further online splintering, pushing those flirting with extreme views to fringe sites and secret chat groups?

Although they’ve long sought to remain neutral, Facebook, Twitter and other social platforms are slowly waking up to the active role they and their algorithms have played in shaping a modern world filled with polarized, angry groups and huge factions falling for bogus conspiracies and misinformation about science, politics and medicine.

“What we’re seeing is a shift from the p l a t f o r m s f ro m a s t a n c e o f f re e - s p e e c h

absolutism, towards an understanding of speech moderation as a matter of public health,” said civic media professor Ethan Zuckerman of the University of Massachusetts-Amherst.

None of this can be fixed soon, if ever. Certainly not by blocking a president with just a few days left in his term.

But there are blueprints for future action.

Remember “Plandemic?” That was the slicklyproduced, 26-minute, misinformation-ridden video promoting Covid-19 conspiracies that emerged seemingly out of nowhere and racked up millions of views in a matter of days.

Facebook, Twitter and YouTube scrambled to take it down—too late. But they were ready for the sequel, which failed to attract even a fraction of the attention of the first.

“Sharing disinformation about Covid is a danger because it makes it harder for us to fight the disease,” Zuckerman said. “Similarly, sharing disinformation about voting is an attack on our democracy.”

Unsurprisingly, it’s been easier for tech giants to act decisively on matters of public health than on politics. Corporate bans of the US president and his supporters have led to loud, if generally unfounded, cries of censorship as well as charges of left-wing bias. It’s even attracted criticism from European leaders such as German Chancellor Angela Merkel—not exactly a friend of Trump’s.

Merkel’s spokesman, Steffen Seibert, said freedom of opinion is a fundamental right of

“elementary significance.”

“This fundamental right can be intervened in, but according to the law and within the framework defined by legislators—not according to a decision by the management of social media platforms,” he told reporters in Berlin. “Seen from this angle, the chancellor considers it problematic that the accounts of the US president have now been permanently blocked.”

From that German perspective, it should be the government, and not private companies like Facebook and Twitter, who decides what counts as dangerous speech on social platforms.

That approach might be feasible in Europe, but it’s much more complicated in the US, where the First Amendment of the US Constitution protects freedom of expression from government interference, although not from corporate policy on privately owned communication platforms.

Governments, of course, remain free to regulate tech companies, another area of ferment. Over the past year, Trump, other Republicans and some Democrats have called for revoking a fundamental 1996 legal provision known as Section 230. That protects social platforms, which can host trillions of messages, from being sued into oblivion by anyone who feels wronged by something someone else has posted. But so far there’s been more heat than light on the issue.

Still, few are happy with the often sluggish,

after-the -fact, three -strikes takedowns and suspensions that have characterized Twitter and Facebook for years. Particularly in the light of the Capitol insurrection, the deadly Charlottesville rally in 2017 and live-streamed mass shootings.

Sarita Schoenebeck, University of Michigan professor who focuses on online harassment, said it might be time for platforms to reevaluate how they approach problematic material on their sites.

“For years, platforms have evaluated what kinds of content are appropriate or not by evaluating the content in isolation, without considering the broader social and cultural context that it takes place in,” she said. “We need to revisit this approach.

We should rely on a combination of democratic principles, community governance and platform rules to shape behavior.”

Jared Schroeder, an expert in social media and the First Amendment at Southern Methodist University, thinks the Trump bans will encourage his base of followers to move towards other social platforms where they can organize and communicate with fewer—if any—restrictions.

“It’s likely the bans will fuel the us-againstthem narrative—and it’s also likely other forums will get a boost in traffic, as we saw after the 2020 election,” he said. “The bans have taken away the best tools for organizing people and for Trump to speak to the largest audiences, but these are by no means the only tools.” AP

Covid has imperiled plans to retrieve Titanic’s radio

By Ben Finley

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The Associated Press

ORFOLK, Va.—Fallout from the coronavirus pandemic is threatening a company’s plans to retrieve and exhibit the radio that had broadcast distress calls from the sinking Titanic, according to a court filing made by the firm.

The company, RMS Titanic Inc., said Monday that its revenues plummeted after coronavirus restrictions closed its exhibits of Titanic artifacts, causing the firm to seek funding through its parent company. Some of the exhibitions, which are scattered across the country, are still closed, while others that have reopened are seeing limited attendance.

RMS Titanic Inc. recently missed a deadline with a federal admiralty court in Virginia to submit a funding plan for the radio expedition. The company left open the possibility that it may no longer seek the court’s approval for the undertaking if a plan

isn’t submitted in the coming weeks.

The company’s update, filed with a US District Court in Norfolk, was made in the midst of an ongoing court battle with the United States over whether the expedition is legal.

Lawyers for the US government have argued that the mission is barred under federal law and an international agreement with Britain. The attorneys say the company must seek the government’s permission to remove the radio because the sunken vessel is a recognized memorial to the roughly 1,500 people who died.

The luxury ocean liner was traveling from England to New York in 1912 when it struck an iceberg and sank. It was discovered in 1985 about 2.4 miles (3.8 kilometers) below the surface of the North Atlantic.

RMS Titanic Inc. owns the salvage rights and oversees a collection of items recovered from the wreck as the court-recognized steward of the artifacts. They include silverware, china and

gold coins as well as the Titanic’s whistles and a piece of its hull.

Exhibiting the radio will help sustain the ship’s legacy while honoring passengers and crew, the company has argued. Known in 1912 as a Marconi wireless telegraph machine, the radio sent distress calls to nearby ships that helped save 700 people in lifeboats.

The US government’s effor t to stop the expedition is pending in the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond. But the company’s funding woes appear to pose a more immediate threat.

“The pandemic and resulting governmental restrictions forced the company to temporarily close its exhibitions to the public, effectively shutting off its primary source of revenue for six months,” RMS Titanic Inc. wrote in Monday’s filing.

The Atlanta-based company said only a few of its exhibits, including one in Las Vegas and another in Orlando, have reopened. They’re operating at diminished capacity and revenues

“remain very low.”

The company said it received more than $700,000 through the Paycheck Protection Program. And it expects to get $3 million in funding through its parent company, Premier Acquisition Holdings Llc. A federal admiralty judge in Norfolk had approved the planned expedition in May. But the approval was conditioned on the firm submitting a plan detailing costs and funding for the operation and conservation of the recovered equipment.

RMS Titanic said in Monday’s filing that it’s still trying to finalize that plan despite missing a January 10 deadline. It said the plan “will depend on a complicated, multi-faceted commercial transaction between RMST, an international production company, and deep-sea salvage experts.”

The company said it hopes to submit a plan

by January 29. But if it’s unable to, the firm said it would withdraw its original motion seeking the court’s permission to retrieve the radio. AP

White House chief of staff Ron Klain and incoming counselor to the president Steve Ricchetti confident that the president-elect understands the gravity of the moment and the need to act against Trump.

Biden might have been able to stop or slow the impeachment process last week, arguing that moving forward was more important than looking back as Democrats retake the White House and claim narrow majorities in both chambers of Congress. Instead, he left the decision to congressional Democrats, who chose to forge ahead.

“What the Congress decides to do is for them to decide,” Biden said Friday.

“But I’m going to have to—and they’re going to have to—be ready to hit the ground running, because when Kamala and I are sworn in, we’re going to be introducing, immediately, significant pieces of legislation that will deal with the virus, deal with the economy, and deal with economic growth.”

“We’re going to do our job and the Congress can decide how to proceed with theirs,” he added.

Since then, momentum for impeachment and backlash against congressional Republicans who were supportive of the rioters has mushroomed. Ten House Republicans voted for impeachment, including the Liz Cheney, the GOP conference chairwoman and the party’s thirdranking leader in the chamber.

Major US corporations, at the same time, have announced that they will stop donating to lawmakers who last

week voted against certifying Biden’s Electoral College victory.

Manchin’s misgivings

“Even if some of Biden’s advisers had the instinct at first to try to stop this, I think they’ve been given courage to let this play out,” said Brian Fallon, a former top adviser to Schumer, who will become Senate majority leader next week after Biden and Harris are sworn in. “Support for some kind of accountability has surfaced from unanticipated corners, like corporate America signaling they’re not going to give corporate PAC checks to the House Republicans that voted to not certify the election results.”

Some Democrats, including Reid, are pushing for the trial to move rapidly, limiting it to only a few days.

“Impeachment is going to come and go away quickly,” Reid said. “I don’t think there’s any reason that it has to be cranked out over a period of weeks.”

But the impeachment push—and its swift speed—is not without its critics, even among Democrats.

West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin, a moderate who is expected to flex his muscle in the closely divided Senate, warned Monday on Fox News that a “rush” to impeach Trump would be “ill-advised” as Biden takes office.

The president-elect has the goal of “trying to heal the country, trying to be the president of all the people,” he noted. Bloomberg News

How the ‘Black Death’ pandemic reshaped Europe’s feudal economy

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By Joe Weisenthal & Tracy Alloway

he introduction of an effective Covid-19 vaccine means the light at the end of the tunnel may be in sight. But it’s hard to know what the post-crisis period has in store. What will it mean for the economy? How will society have changed? Nobody knows. Still, we can talk about history. On a recent episode of the “Odd Lots” podcast, we talked with Patrick Wyman, the host of the “Tides of History” podcast, to discuss the Black Death in the 1300s, and the ramifications seen in its aftermath. Of course, the Covid-19 pandemic is nowhere near as deadly as the Black Death, which killed millions of people across Europe. Nonetheless, it was a historic disruption to everyday life, the likes of which we haven’t seen in most of our lifetimes. So what did the plague bring about? For one thing, a massive shortage of labor and the collapse of the feudal economy, which was already in decline. Below are a few partially edited quotes from Wyman from our discussion: “The idea, the basic narrative of the Black Death, is that it makes that system less tenable because these formerly enser fed, formerly semi-free people now do not have to do that labor service. They can just run off ; they can go somewhere else. They can go to a town, they can get a job working in a trade, something like that. So that’s kind of the broad long-term shifts that people talk about with the Black Death and its impact on the European economy. The Black Death comes at the end of what we call the commercial revolution. So the couple of century period leading up to the Black Death season, enormous expansion of the European economy.”

“It’s the period in which most of the tools that we’re familiar with that kind of define an advanced economy. Things like widespread access to credit. High levels of international trade... Merchants who are capable of doing business over long distances. The key, it’s the time when these things all across Europe are coming into play. Now, the reason for that is fundamentally demographic, that this is a period when the climate is really good, crop yields are good. So there’s a population boom, there’s new land cleared. New land comes under cultivation.

These Lords are able to extract lots of labor dues and rents from their tenants because there are a lot of tenants and there’s not that much land. So if you control the land, you can get a lot from it.”

“Now, by the time the Black D eath rolls around in the middle of the 14th centur y, that expansion is over. The economy has peaked.

It’s already in a little bit of decline by the time the plague hits. So the largest firms in Europe, prior to the Black D eath, what are called the super companies, these which are mostly based in Florence and are involved in a whole host of ac tivities all over the continent, the super companies have already gone bankrupt by the time the Black D eath hits. So the economy is already in trouble when the Black D eath hits, and then you get this enormous wave of mass death.”

“In addition to redefining the relationship between lords and labor, the post-plague period also catalyzed a number of modern technologies.”

“I think the labor shortage that comes out of that, the kind of additional freedom that laborers have. It spurs things like an increased emphasis on labor-saving technologies. So I don’t think that there’s a world in which you have the printing press without the Black Death, because that’s a labor-saving technology. Not just in the sense that you have the attempt to save labor on that, but also the financial mechanisms that make it possible for you to fund the development of a printing press.”

“Not only did technology and the labor-capital relationship change, but we also saw a burst of consumption, as people were freed after multiple years of terror.” “ Th e re w a s a h u g e k i n d o f b u r s t o f consumption after the black death, an enormous burst of it. So there’s a lot of anxiety, especially among churchmen in the second half of the 14th century about all the conspicuous consumption that people are doing. So part of it is pent-up demand, but part of it is also lots of people died. There are lots of inheritances, so there’s lots of money coming to people who may not have had as much money to spend before who are suddenly like, ‘If I could die in the plague next week...I’m going to pay for this amazing piece of art.’ Like there’s good reason to think that kind of the flourishing of early Renaissance art, the demand for that came from pent-up demand. It came from people who were like, ‘OK, we have all these resources, let’s spend them on something. The way to do that is now we’re going to compete with our fellow, you know, rich Florentine merchants by paying for art.”

Bloomberg News

Journey

»life on the go

A4

Sunday, January 17, 2021

BusinessMirror

Editor: Tet Andolong

A walk in the parque

By Bernard L. Supetran

W

ITH the mercury dropping in the metropolis in the next few weeks, there might be no need yet to escape to the traditional mountain resorts for a lazy bed weather.

Down in Alabang, which boasts of lush greeneries and open spaces, you can bask in the cool breeze and get a feel of countryside living within the big city.

The posh district is the southern capital region’s hub for outdoor recreation, golf swings, tropical and specialty dining, hotels with a relaxing out-oftown-feel, and a panoramic view of the placid Laguna Lake.

A master-planned modern township which harmonizes with nature, the business-cum-residential enclave of Filinvest City takes pride in being a haven for jogging and biking as expansive bike lanes are integrated into the sidewalks.

At its core are tree-canopied walkways, landscaped pathways, seating areas, and outdoor art installations for the visual comfort of promenaders taking a walk in the park.

It also boasts of a 9-km mountain bike trail, which lures extreme and endurance events, as well as elite and beginner cyclists. With its challenging terrain and greens, fitness buffs need not go far to pedal to their heart’s content.

Golf aficionados, meanwhile, can slow down a bit and master their swing at Southpoint Driving Range, a 285yard facility on Filinvest’s far end. It has 28 covered bases with turf mats, an equipment shop, and a mesmerizing view of the cityscape which can bring out your championship form.

Come chow time, options are plentiful in the area, but for more focused choices, you can swing by Commercent-

RCM receives highest in awards

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OTARY Club of Manila (RCM) received from Rotary District 3810, the Over-all Platinum Champion for Club, while RCM Immediate Past President Jackie Rodriquez (center) was named the Over-all Platinum Champion for Club President for the year 2019 to 2020.

In photo with Rodriquez are RCM Director Albert Alday and RCManila Foundation Chairman Hermie Esquerra in front of their several category awards received during the Rotary District 3810 “A CHAMPION’S REIGN” Thanksgiving and Appreciation Banquet 2020. There are 116 Rotary Club members in this District.

Parque España Roofdeck pool Parque España lobby

Greek dishes at Akrotiri Commercenter

er Alabang, a boutique lifestyle mall which houses specialty restaurants and stores, and services. Most food outlets have breezy al fresco dining area if one feels uneasy about enclosed spaces due to the pandemic.

Relive the glory that was Greece at Akrotiri Real Greek Restobar which serves typical cuisine from the empire’s fabled city states and Mediterranean Sea region in a modern setting. Regarded as among the world’s most ancient and healthiest cuisines, dishes revolve around vegetables, nuts, seeds, olive oils and fish which are rich in antioxidants, healthy fats, vitamins and minerals.

Sink your teeth on a wide variety of contemporary renditions of all-time favorites such as gemista, gyros, kalamakia, souvlaki, and steaks, among

Southpoint Driving Range

others, which have satisfied the taste buds of generations of Greeks who have shaped the world’s civilization.

And when it’s time to hit the sack, Parque España Residence Hotel is an alternative accommodation worth exploring. Literally meaning “Spanish park,” it’s got 123 all-suite rooms and has the most spacious lodging among its peers within the area as it was originally designed to be a condotel. Its studio-type business executive room has a veranda which opens to an unhampered view of southern Metro greeneries.

Old world interiors composed of painted tiles, wood, arches and curves are all highlighted with tropical colors that make each room bright and airy, much like the typical Castillan abode.

The suites, the biggest of which is a

120-sq-m unit, are styled with earth-toned interiors, rustic vibe, and tasteful décor, and guests can pick from the Classic Spanish or Fiesta España themes.

On top of the usual room amenities, it boasts of fully-equipped kitchens, coffee or tea making equipment, living and dining space which providing that irreplaceable element of home.

These unique elements evoke the hotel’s philosophy expressed in the Spanish adage “Mi Casa es Tu Casa” or “my house is your house.”

The tower hotel exudes a Spanish-Mediterranean vibe with its modern design of machuca tiles and lavish furnishings, which are unmistakably Iberian in character. The flagship of Hospitality Innovators Inc., which manages 20 assorted properties in Metro Manila and other key tourist destinations, Parque España welcomes guests with its intimate Lobby Lounge reminiscent of the opulent interiors of

ilustrado century-old ancestral stone houses which have survived the ravages of time.

The Spanish-inspired journey continues with its Hispanic dishes at its Bistro Del Cielo, and roofdeck pool with a mesmerizing panorama of Laguna De Bay and the Sierra Madre Mountain Ranges in the horizon.

Professionals who have transitioned into the work-from-home scheme can upgrade their setup with a reasonably priced workfrom-hotel arrangement which can be more productive, comfortable, and flexible. As it is a residence hotel, guests can book long stays at special rates, or seek assistance for transfers to its sister establishments.

And being at the center of all the recreational activities mentioned above, a staycation at Parque España offers the proverbial walk in the park, or more appropriately—the parque, and beyond.

Pedal towards a better life O UT of a crippling pandemic rose the Filipinos‘ realization that biking is better—for health, for the community, and for the environment. From the same crisis came a passion to help, and a bicycle brand dedicated to the democratization of mobility for Filipinos during these challenging times: Better Bike.

Better Bike encapsulates the perfect balance of purpose and beauty. It is the brand’s mission to empower the resilience and move-forward attitude that Filipinos are known for. It is a business with a heart for Filipinos who strive to work for their families, no matter what. Tuluy-tuloy ang padyak—onward, forward and upward.

The affordability of their product offerings is proof of Better Bike’s advocacy to present “wheels to live” to people with the will to succeed. Hence, they offer low priced but high-quality modern bikes, for every person who strives to make a living.

One look at a bicycle from Better Bike and you’ll see that style does not have to be expensive. The bikes are done in a range of beautiful finishes, from light to dark, striking to neutral. No matter what your aesthetic is, there will surely be a Better Bike for you.

These beautiful bikes are also made to fit every rider's lifestyle.

Condo-dwellers will appreciate the compact strength of the Foldable Bikes. Adventure riders who require heavy-duty support can get the Mountain Bikes in steel or alloy frames.

Chic and cool riders who want to get from point A to point

B in style will love the Village Bikes (these bikes get plus points for their retro feels!).

When you feel stuck and going nowhere, remember that it only takes two wheels to help you move forward. Better Bike is here to give you a better quality of life.

For more information, visit their web site at https://betterbikeph.com their Facebook page at https://www.facebook. com/BetterBikePH/ or their Instagram account at https://www. instagram.com/betterbikeph/.

Science

BusinessMirror

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

Sunday

Sunday, Janury 17, 2021 A5

DOST-Mimaropa, CEST shore up Romblon areas

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a coconut-processing equipment to make a special chocolate called “chocobuco,” a chocolate treat infused with coconut filling.

solar-powered water pumping system with filtration and treatment facility; basic nutrition and food safety; chocobuco making as livelihood opportunity; and waste management.

These were just some of the projects provided by the Department of Science and Technology’s (DOST)-Mimaropa, through the Community Empowerment through Science and Technology (CEST) program to communities in Romblon.

Opportunities in recycling

Water-source problem A newly installed solar-powered water pumping system with filtration and treatment facility made a big difference to the lives of residents on the island of Concepcion in Romblon in terms of water security and safety.

Concepcion, considered a Geographically Isolated and Disadvantaged Area (Gida), is the farthest island municipality in the province with nine barangays. It has been suffering from limited access to safe and adequate water.

Its residents rely only on rainwater collected with basins and pails, and deep wells powered by electric pumps that have limited operations due to high electricity cost.

Barangay Masadya residents were given only two hours in the morning and another two in the afternoon to fetch water for their families’ needs.

Barangay officials limit the water collection hours to avoid incurring high electricity costs.

Each family is required to pay P50 per 10 cubic meters of water per month and an additional P5 per extra 10 cubic meters for the use of the deep well to sustain its operations.

On average, Barangay Masadya is paying P7,000 solely for electricity, which they admit can be used for more valuable expenses of the community.

Besides the high costs, the water is also salty and metallic in taste which pose many health risks to the residents.

An aerial shot of the ground water collection system powered by solar energy in Barangay Masadya, Concepcion, Romblon. Photos from DOST-Mimaropa

Also, when a household was not able to save enough water within the allotted time, they have to endure traveling to the next barangay, Barangay Poblacion, which is about 7 kilometers away.

Dream come true It is the dream of Barangay Masadya— the poorest barangay on Concepcion— to reduce this drudgery and to be able to improve the health condition of its residents and give more opportunity of spending more time on income-generating and other productive activities.

Finally, the barangay’s dream has come true.

A solar energy system-powered water pump was provided to Barangay Masadya through the DOST’s CEST Program.

The residents are guaranteed with continued access to clean and safe drinking water any time of the day with the installation of the solar-powered water system that has filtration and treatment facilities,.

A total of 74 households, or about 400 residents, not only from the community but even from the adjacent barangays could now benefit from the improved water source.

Water treatment facility

Feeding program

Improved water quality Moreover, the system’s water filtration and treatment facility greatly improved the water quality. The water’s metallic taste has been removed and its saltiness has been reduced by 90 percent.

Since it is solar-powered, it also helps the community manage their water needs in an environment-friendly way. The barangay local government unit maintains the technology and ensures that families can collect as much water as they need that is also clean and safe.

“There is a big difference in the taste of the water now. It is no longer salty, making us confident now that we will not get sick,” said Barangay Masadya’s Chairman Erlindo Fanoga Jr. in Filipino.

Other interventions to guarantee the sustainability and reliability of their water supply include trainings on the operation and maintenance of the solar-powered water system, and the provision of ceramic water filters to 50 households in other barangays.

DOST-Mimaropa recognizes the importance of water security to ensure sustainable rural development

Women in chocobuco making

rangay nutrition scholars were trained in basic nutrition and food safety.

T he agenc y a l so showc a sed DOST-Food and Nutrition Research Institute’s Complementary Baby Food through a 120-day feeding program to all malnourished children in the barangay aged 6 months to 36 months.

Results showed the children elevated their nutritional status. Two children were removed from its severely underweight status, while seven underweight children improved their weight and were classified as “normal” after the intervention.

‘Chocobuco’ making and resilience, especially in this time of battling against the Covid-19 pandemic where sanitation and hygiene serve as the primary defenses.

Improving children’s health, nutrition Besides the solar-powered water pumping system, Barangay Masadya also received various interventions to improve its status in health and nutrition through the CEST program.

Barangay health workers and ba-

Economic opportunities in the area are limited, with only coconut trees as the most abundant resource and main source of raw materials.

To open more livelihood opportunities, a group of women was trained on chocolate molding.

This inspired them to venture into chocolate-making as a source of additional income.

In 2019, a women’s organization sought assistance from the DOSTMimaropa and was provided with

DOST-Mimaropa also performed a Waste Analysis and Characterization Study and provided the island with a plastic pulverizer and a junk compactor to improve its waste management and upgrade their materials recovery facility.

The technology, which started as an initiative for solid waste management, later turned out to be an income-generating opportunity for the community and the local government unit (LGU).

Plastic waste generated by households are being sold to LGUs to be pulverized and become a bulk material for hollow-block making.

Pulverized plastics are mixed with cement and gravel and then molded into blocks. The hollow blocks are used in the construction projects of the LGU. Other recyclable wastes, on the other hand, are compacted using the junk compactor and are sold to the nearest waste-processing facility in Pinamalayan, Mindoro.

CEST works Through the CEST Program, DOSTMimaropa harnesses technology as a springboard for further development in remote areas in the region.

Through these projects, CEST works to raise the living standards of disadvantaged and vulnerable communities, not only in Romblon, but in many other parts of the country.

It provides the much-needed resources by addressing pressing issues related but not limited to livelihood, health and nutrition, education, disaster risk reduction, climate change adaptation, and environmental protection and conservation. Charlotte F. Pizarras and Mae Angelica Fabito-Famini/S&T News Service

2020 sets new global AIM harnesses AI to curb water shortage in Metro Manila temperature record R E

arth’s rising fever hit or neared record hot temperature levels in 2020, global weather groups reported on Thursday.

While NASA and a couple of other measurement groups said 2020 passed or essentially tied 2016 as the hottest year on record, more agencies, including the National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), said last year came in a close second or third.

The differences in rankings mostly turned on how scientists accounted for data gaps in the Arctic, which is warming faster than the rest of the globe.

“It’s like the film ‘Groundhog Day.’ Another year, same story—record global warmth,” said Pennsylvania State University climate scientist Michael Mann, who wasn’t part of the measurement teams.

“As we continue to generate carbon pollution, we expect the planet to warm up. And that’s precisely what we’re seeing,” he said.

Scientists said all you had to do was look outside: “We saw the heat waves. We saw the fires. We saw the [melting] Arctic,” said NASA top climate scientist Gavin Schmidt. “We’re expecting it to get hotter and that’s exactly what happened.”

NOAA said 2020 averaged 58.77 degrees (14.88 degrees Celsius), a few hundredths of a degree behind 2016. NASA saw 2020 as warmer than 2016 but so close they are essentially tied.

The European Copernicus group also called it an essential tie for hottest year, with 2016 warmer by an insignificant fraction.

Japan’s weather agency put 2020 as warmer than 2016, but a separate calculation by Japanese scientists put 2020 as a close third behind 2016 and 2019.

The World Meteorological Organization, the British weather agency and Berkeley Earth’s monitoring team had 2016 ahead.

First or second rankings really don’t matter, “but the key thing to take away is that the longterm trends in temperature are very very clearly up and up and up,” said Schmidt, who heads NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies that tracks temperatures.

“We’re in a position where we’re pushing the climate system out of the bounds that it’s been in for tens of thousands of years, if not millions of years,” he added.

All the monitoring agencies agree the six warmest years on record have been the six years since 2015.

The 10 warmest have all occurred since 2005, and scientists say that warming is driven by the burning of coal, oil and natural gas.

Temperatures the last six or seven years “really hint at an acceleration in the rise of global temperatures,” said Russ Vose, analysis branch chief at NOAA’s National Centers for Environmental Information.

While temperature increases have clearly accelerated since the 1980s, it’s too early to discern a second and more recent acceleration, Schmidt said.

Last year’s exceptional heat “is yet another stark reminder of the relentless pace of climate change, which is destroying lives and livelihoods across our planet,” United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres said in a statement. “Making peace with nature is the defining task of the 21st century.”

The United States, which had its fifth warmest year, smashed the record for the number of weather disasters that cost at least $1 billion with 22 of them in 2020, including hurricanes, wildfires, tornadoes and a Midwest derecho.

The old record of 16 was set in 2011 and 2017.

This was the sixth consecutive year with 10 or more billion-dollar climate disasters, with figures adjusted for inflation.

Earth has now warmed 1.2 degrees Celsius (2.2 degrees Fahrenheit) since pre-industrial times and is adding another 0.2 degrees Celsius (0.36 Fahrenheit) a decade.

That means the planet is nearing an international warming threshold set in Paris in 2015, Vose and Schmidt said.

Nations of the world set a goal of preventing at least 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) of warming, with a tougher secondar y goal of limiting warming to 1.5 degrees (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit).

“We cannot avoid 1.5 C above pre-industrial now—it is just too late to turn things around,” University of Oklahoma meteorology professor Jason Furtado, who wasn’t on any of the measurement teams, said in an email.

“I also fear that the 2 C threshold is slipping away from us too unless changes become much more immediate in the US and other nations,” Furtado said.

Earth has warmed 1.6 degrees (0.9 degrees Celsius) since 1942, when President-elect Joe Biden was born, and 1.2 degrees (0.6 degrees Celsius) since 1994, when pop star Justin Bieber was born, according to NOAA data.

The main reason the agencies have varying numbers is because there are relatively few temperature gauges in the Arctic.

NOAA and the British weather agency take a conservative approach in extrapolating for the missing data, while NASA factors that the Arctic is warming much faster than the rest of the globe, hitting 100 degrees (38 Celsius) in the Russian Arctic last June, said NASA’s Schmidt.

The pandemic may have added ever so slightly to last year’s warming, enough to edge 2020 past 2016 in NASA’s calculations, Schmidt said. AP

esearchers from the Asian Institute of Management (AIM) are harnessing the power of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning to help curb water shortages in the east service area of Metro Manila.

The research team, led by Dr. Christopher Monterola, under the AIM-Analytics, Computing and Complex Systems Laboratory (ACCeSs), developed a simulation modeling software to enhance Manila Water Co.’s (MWC) capability in forecasting the water supply system of Angat-Ipo-La Mesa Dams and its treatment plants and storage reservoir, a news release said.

“The forecast models will serve as a tool in day-to-day operations of the MWC for the enhanced distribution of water supply in the Manila East Zone to cater the needs of its consumers—household, business, and industries,” Monterola said.

The team said that they integrated different statistical, machine learning models, and input parameters in the development of reliable forecast models from the water source to the MWC treatment plants.

They have already completed the development of forecasting models for each dam.

Currently, the project team is continuously

retraining and redesigning the simulation model software by adding more input parameters relevant to the improvement of their methodology and model architectures.

The team said that their modeling software can also be used to forecast the water supply of other dams in the Philippines, providing more opportunities for other agencies to get the benefit of this tool.

The AIM-ACCesS team, with MWC, started the project in February 2020 with support from the Department of Science and Technology’s Collaborative Research and Development to

Food security research grants for Covid-19 impacts available to PHL, Southeast Asians

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rants for research on transformation through agricultural innovation in S outheast Asia are available to Filipinos and from Southeast Asian countries of Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Myanmar, Timor-Leste and Vietnam.

The research grants are focused on food security during the Covid-19 pandemic and its economic and social impacts.

The grants are under the auspices of a Mentorship Program for Advanced Grants jointly funded by the International Foundation for Science (IFS) and the Southeast Asian Regional Center for Graduate Study and Research in Agriculture (Searca).

This is the first activity under the agreement recently signed by IFS and Searca, a Searca news release said.

S earca D irec tor G lenn B. G regorio said this is the second collaboration of Stockholm-based IFS and Philippine government-hosted Searca.

“The first was in 2015-2019 on the IFSSearca Collaborative Grants Pilot in Southeast Asia, which awarded research grants to 12 teams composed of a total of 41 scientists and researchers from seven countries in Southeast Asia. The research focus then was on climate change adaptation and mitigation,” Gregorio explained.

He said the IFS-Searca grant is intended to enhance the research capacity of early career scientists in the specified Southeast Asian countries, the news release said.

Gregorio also highlighted the role of higher education and research institutions, particularly in

the global pandemic, to “promote a transformative mindset and produce experts who understand the growing complex social concerns and are able to contribute positive change now and in the future.”

IFS Director Nighisty Ghezae pointed out that “no single organization, no matter how large or well-funded, can address future challenges by itself. In this era of interdependence, strategic par tnerships with like-minded institutions are not an option, but a necessity, Thus.... this MOA between our two organizations symbolizes a collaboration which we believe will lead to addressing short- and long-term food security challenges, enable us to invest in more resilient food systems, and take us closer to achieving the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals.”

Ghezae said: “We are aware of Searca’s reputation for excellent work in this field and its strong commitment to creating a critical mass of early career researchers who can generate applicable knowledge.”

Searca Program Head for Research and Thought Leadership Pedcris M. Orencio asserted that “research formally articulates the truth” and that collaborative research increases productivity and quality, the news release said.

He likewise affirmed the value of the mentorship program as an approach to enhancing the conduct of research and as an intervention to nurturing young minds and honing skills through the guidance of technical experts and those with decades of research experience.

On the other hand, Ghezae shared that “over the past 50 years, IFS has earned its own place by providing support to early career researchers in low- and lowermiddle-income countries, many of whom now occupy leadership roles in the region and around the world.”

According to Orencio, “To be eligible for the grants of up to $20,000, applicants must be enrolled in a PhD program or have recently completed a master’s or PhD degree within the five years before the call, with proven limited access to star t-up funds for their research.”

He added that proposed projects must contribute to knowledge and practice in food security.

The topic of proposed projects must also fall within the common thematic priorities of IFS and Searca, which are biological resources in terrestrial systems, water and aquatic resources, dietary diversity and healthy livelihoods, agri-business models for increased productivity and income, sustainable farming systems and natural resource management, food and nutrition security, transformational leadership for agricultural and rural development, gender and youth engagement in ARD, enhanced ARD towards climate resilience, EcoHealth/ One Health applications to ARD. Moreover, Orencio said the proposed projects must be applied or developmental research—that is, drawing upon explicitly re f e re n c e d b a s i c re s e a rc h , t h e n e w s release said.

Leverage Philippine Economy (Cradle) Program and monitoring efforts from DOST-Philippine Council for Industry, Energy and Emerging Technology Research and Development (PCIEERD).

“With much data that is already out there, it is high time that we maximize the power of emerging technologies like AI and machine learning to improve and affect the daily lives of Filipinos.

AIM’s forecast modeling fulfills this by seamlessly providing apt agencies with helpful data as basis for decision and policy making on water supply to avoid shortages,” said DOST-PCIEERD Executive Director Dr. Enrico C. Paringit.

PCAARRD, AIT ink ties for R&D, capacity building

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o intensify its partnership and collaboration with international partners, the Philippine Council for Agriculture, Aquatic and Natural Resources Research and Development of the Department of Science and Technology (DOST-PCAARRD) recently inked a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Thailand’s Asian Institute of Technology (AIT).

AIT is a leading regional postgraduate institution that promotes technological change and sustainable development in the Asia-Pacific region through higher education, research and outreach.

AIT’s mission is to develop highly qualified and committed professionals who will play a leading role in the sustainable development of the region and its integration into the global economy.

The new partnership with AIT is a result of the Global Technology and Information Search/Benchmarking activity on the best practices in S&T administration for improved resource management and utilization.

The is conducted by Dr. Melvin B. Carlos, deputy executive director for Administration, Resource Management and Support Services, and Dr. Procy B. Sobreviñas, supervising science research specialist of DOST-PCAARRD DOST-PCAARRD and AIT agreed to implement joint research and development projects, capacity building activities (exchange of researchers, faculty, and scholars), and joint trainings, conferences, symposia, and workshops.

Also included are exchange of information, education, and communication materials and scientific and technical publications; and participation in scientific seminars, workshops, conferences, and symposia.

The modes of cooperation will cover agricultural systems and engineering; aquaculture and aquatic resources management; natural resources management development and sustainability; environmental engineering and management; climate change and sustainable development; and nanotechnology.

The MOU was signed by DOST-PCAARRD Executive Director Dr. Reynaldo V. Ebora, and AIT President Dr. Eden Y. Woon.

Both parties are now working on the details of the work plan of cooperation focusing on the priority areas.

Cyrill S. Estimado/S&T Media Services

Faith A6 Sunday, January 17, 2020

Sunday

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

Pope Francis opens ministries of lector, acolyte to women

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ATICAN—Pope Francis published on January 11 an apostolic letter issued motu proprio (on his own impulse), modifying the canon law regarding women’s access to the ministries of lector and acolyte.

He a lso released a letter to the Vatican doctrinal chief Cardina l Luis Ladar ia ex plaining his reasoning for the decision.

What’s changed?

In the document, Spiritus Domini, the pope changed the Church law so that women can be formally instituted to the lay ministries of lector and acolyte.

The pope modified the wording of Canon 230 §1 of the Code of Canon Law, which previously limited the ministries to lay men.

He changed the phrase “lay men” to “lay persons,” so that the canon now reads: “Lay persons of suitable age and with the gifts determined by decree of the Episcopal Conference may be permanently assigned, by means of the established liturgical rite, to the ministries of lectors and acolytes; however, the conferment of such role does not entitle them to support or remuneration from the Church.”

But aren’t women already allowed to serve as altar servers and readers?

Yes, in many parts of the world women serve and read at Mass.

But until now they were not officially established in the role with the liturgical rites associated with the ministry of an acolyte or lector.

They performed the role “by temporary designation,” under Canon 230 § 2 of the Code of Canon Law.

Why were the roles of lector and acolyte previously reserved to men?

The ministries were traditionally reserved to men because they

of God in the liturgical assembly.”

“The reader, feeling the responsibility of the office received, should do all he can and make use of the appropriate means to acquire every day more fully the sweet and lively love and the knowledge of Sacred Scripture, in order to become a more perfect disciple of the Lord,” he wrote.

What is an acolyte?

were associated with what were known as the “minor orders” of priesthood: stages on the way to priestly ordination.

But in 1972, Pope Paul VI intended to abolish the minor orders in the motu proprio Ministeria quaedam.

From then on, he said, lector and acolyte should be regarded as ministries, rather than minor orders. When they are conferred, he wrote, it should not be called “ordination,” but rather “institution.”

With the 1983 revision of the Code of Canon Law, the Church law recognized that “lay persons”— either male or female—could “fulfill the function of lector in liturgical actions by temporary designation.”

It added: “All lay persons can also perform the functions of commentator or cantor, or other functions, according to the norm of law.”

Women began to take on the functions of lector and acolyte in parts of the Catholic world, but they were not formally instituted into the ministries.

In 1994, the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments confirmed that bishops could permit women to be altar servers.

A fter abolishing the minor orders, Pope Paul V I wrote that an acoly te was a ministr y in the Church w ith the “ dut y to ta ke care of the ser v ice of the a ltar, to help the deacon and the pr iest in liturg ica l actions, especia l ly in the celebration of the Holy Mass.”

Potential responsibilities for an acolyte include distributing Holy Communion as an extraordinary minister if such ministers are not present, publicly exposing the Eucharist for adoration in extraordinary circumstances, and “the instruction of the other faithful, who, on a temporary basis, help the deacon and the priest in liturgical services by carrying the missal, cross, candles, etc.”

Pope Paul VI wrote: “The acolyte, destined in a special way to the service of the altar, learns all those notions concerning divine public worship and strives to understand its intimate and spiritual meaning: in this way he can offer himself, every day, completely to God and be, in the temple, an example to all for his serious and respectful behavior, and also to have a sincere love for the mystical body of Christ, or people of God, and especially for the weak and the sick.”

What is a lector?

What reasons did Pope Francis give for the changes?

A lector is a person who reads Scr ipture to the congregation at Mass (other than the Gospel, which is only proclaimed by deacons and pr iests.)

Paul VI explained that the lector is “instituted for the office, proper to him, of reading the word

In his apostolic letter, the pope said that a number of Sy nods of Bishops h ad “ h igh l ighted the need to deepen the subject doctrinally” in light of presentday cha l lenges and the need to suppor t evangelization.

“Accepting these recommendations, a doctrinal development has taken place in recent years which has highlighted how certain ministries instituted by the Church are based on the common condition of being baptized and the regal priesthood received in the Sacrament of Baptism,” he wrote.

Emphasizing that these ministries were different to ordained ministry, he said: “A consolidated practice in the Latin Church has also confirmed, in fact, that these lay ministries, since they are based on the Sacrament of Baptism, may be entrusted to all suitable faithful, whether male or female.”

Does this open the way for women priests?

In his letter to Cardinal Ladaria, Pope Francis reiterated his predecessor John Paul II’s statement in the 1994 apostolic letter Ordinatio Sacerdotalis that “the Church has no authority whatsoever to confer priestly ordination on women.”

He underlined the distinction between “ordained ministries” and “nonordained ministries,” explaining that “it is possible, and today it seems appropriate” to open “nonordained ministries” to both men and women.

He said that the previous reservation of these nonordained ministries to men had “its own meaning in a certain context but can be rethought in new contexts, always having as their criteria fidelity to the mandate of Christ and the will to live and proclaim the Gospel transmitted by the Apostles and entrusted to the Church.”

Vatican gives guidance on Ash Wednesday amid Covid-19

V

ATICAN—The Vatican recently gave guidance about how priests can distribute ashes on Ash Wednesday amid the coronavirus pandemic.

The Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments published a note on January 12, directing priests to say the formula for distributing the ashes once to everyone present, rather than to each person.

The priest “addresses all those present and only once says the formula as it appears in the Roman Missal, applying it to all in general: ‘Repent, and believe in the Gospel,’ or ‘Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return,’” the note said.

It continued: “The priest then cleanses his hands, puts on a face mask and distributes the ashes to

ue to the increasing crowd, the Basilica Minore del Sto. Niño De Cebu has cancelled all public Masses starting last Tuesday until the feast of the child Jesus on January 17.

In a statement, the basilica’s Augustinian friars said the decision was made for the “common good and benefit of all.”

Fr. Pacifico Nohara Jr., prior and rector of the centuries-old basilica, said the situation calls them to action to prevent coronavirus transmission.

For the past four days of the novena Masses, thousands of devotees flocked to the basilica despite threats of the Covid-19.

“The situation has called us to rise above the situation and to choose this course of action for

the common good and benefit of all,” Nohara said.

According to him, protecting the health and well-being of the people is a matter of “Christian morals.”

“We ask for your great understanding and hoping that, with our hearts and minds attuned to God’s mercy to deliver us from the scourge of the pandemic, we can celebrate the entirety of the Fiesta Señor in God’s perfect time,” he said.

The priest invited devotees to join in the remaining novena Masses and the feast day online through the church’s Facebook page and YouTube channel.

However, the friars said the basilica and its compound would remain open for devotees who would want to visit. CBCP News

Online petition launched vs condo project behind San Sebastian Church

A

Catholic News Agency via CBCP News

Mylene Manuel Reyes and Liza Mendez with their relief goods. Mylene Reyes Facebook page

The Bansit and Lansangan families expressed their gratitude to good samaritans Mylene Manuel Reyes and Liza Mendez. Bernard Testa

religious. They have different doctrines and practices, but all of them are going to one direction—they want to serve God. What is important is they long for God. It is better than not believing in God. A person’s personality is affected if he does not believe in God, he is not afraid to do wrong,” the pastor explained.

This 2021, he said his ministry will continue its humanitarian services, like feeding program, values formation for students enrolled in Advance Learning System, skills training for job seekers.

He said that with God on his side, partners are welcome to expedite the transformation of Kasiglahan Village into a more “maka-Diyos” (pro-God) village.

we have been returning here, actually this is our fifth,” Mendez said.

They told the BusinessMirror that they planned to visit and distribute small gifts to the residents of Cagayan in northern Luzon but because of travel requirements, they chose to distribute the goods to Kasiglahan residents again based on its proximity.

Reyes was busy during the lockdown, but whenever able, she handed food packs to frontliners and to people on the streets, especially during her birthday.

“During my birthdays in the last 10 years, I distributed food packs to street people. I continued it during my birthday last year when the lockdown was eased. I gave food to frontliners and backliners, and even reached Rodriguez, Rizal,” she said.

Their efforts in handing 100 foodpacks to children and relief goods to 300 families on their first outing in Kasiglahan, drew praises from their friends.

Afterwards, their friends and family members pooled more resources and channeled them to the two women who courageously found their way in helping the poor in the area.

“When I was young, I had been thinking of extending help to others as my way of thanking God for overcoming the challenges I experienced in life,” Mendez shared.

In Pope Francis’s letter to Cardinal Ladaria, he said that the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments would be responsible for guiding the changes, amending parts of the Roman Missal and the rite of institution of lectors and acolytes where necessary.

Catholic News Agency via CBCP News

Cebu’s Sto. Niño basilica cancels public Masses D

n online petition was launched to oppose the construction of a 31-story condominium right behind the country’s iconic and only all-steel church.

The high-rise building has been opposed since the plans were first announced but it was given green light by the authorities last year.

Those who oppose the residential project have been continuing in their efforts to save the San Sebastian Church, a national historical landmark.

“Our goal for this petition is to raise 400,000 signatures by this August 2021,” said petitioner San Sebastian Basilica Conservation and Development Foundation Inc. The number of target signatures also aims to symbolize the 400th year anniversary of the very first San Sebastian Church.

Who will oversee the changes?

those who come to him or, if appropriate, he goes to those who are standing in their places. The priest takes the ashes and sprinkles them on the head of each one without saying anything.”

The note was signed by the congregation’s prefect, Cardinal Robert Sarah, and its secretary, Archbishop Arthur Roche.

Ash Wednesday falls on February 17 this year.

In 2020, the divine worship congregation put out various instructions for priests on administering the sacraments and offering Mass during the coronavirus pandemic, including for the celebration of Easter, which occurred when many countries were in lockdown and public liturgies were not permitted.

“The signatures from this general petition will be recorded to show the public there is a community of people who care about the basilica and the neighborhood,” it said.

The present structure, which dates back to 1891, is the only all-steel church in Asia and the only prefabricated steel church in the world.

The petitioner asked the public to help in raising awareness about the San Sebastian Church, also known as the Minor Basilica of San Sebastian, and why it must be protected.

“We strongly believe in the power of a united community, and so beyond this petition, we invite everyone to connect with us and collaborate,” it added.

As of January 12, or five days since the campaign was launched, the petition already has around 7,200 signatures. CBCP News

‘They helped each other, and embraced God’

By Bernard Testa

T

Photo by Bernard Testa

wo months have passed after Typhoon Ulysses (international code name Vamco) left thousands of homes submerged in water last November 13, 2020, in Kasiglahan Village in Rodriguez, Rizal.

As videos came out in the news of people screaming for help while on rooftops, residents in Kasiglahan (meaning enthusiasm) turned into kalungkutan (grief ) in just a snap of a finger.

The once vibrant town has quickly became a deep mud that took months to clean.

Most of the residents even spent Christmas and New Year in evacuation centers.

What transpired that fateful evening was etched in the psyche of many residents who escaped the cascading floodwaters that rose up to the second floor of houses in Rizal province, and in nearby Marikina, Camanava and other low-lying and flood-prone areas in Metropolitan Manila.

Just two weeks after Supertyphoon Rolly (Goni) left 32 people dead and thousands homeless, Typhoon Ulysses followed, which was deemed worse than Typhoon Ondoy (Ketsana) in 2009 in terms of areas of submerged communities and the height of flood water.

But Ulysses wasn’t expected to spread havoc that reached even to as far as Cagayan province in the north.

The countr y didn’t escape the wrath of nature amid the Covid-19 pandemic, because the Philippines lies in the typhoon belt where it is visited by around 20 typhoons a year.

However, amid all these natural calamities, Filipinos always reach out to each other, through thick and thin. The trait of bayanihan (helping one another) became the keyword replacing matatag (resilience). Most of all, clinging to dear life, the residents embraced God for succor.

Saved by God

A mother of four, Geraldine Humunong, 30, recounted how they fed their children on the roof of their neighbor’s second story house. It was a scary moment, she said in Filipino.

“We were among those who did not leave our house. At around 8 p.m. we raised our things to the attic,” she continued, after they secured their children on their house’s trusses.

By midnight, the flood quickly rose to 4 meters high, where Humunong and husband Nicanor, decided they needed to evacuate to their neighbor’s house.

“We were trapped at the attic. The water rose very fast. My husband swam to ask our neighbor to let us in their house that has a second floor,” she continued.

Humunong recounted that her husband made a hole in their roof so they could pass to their neighbor’s house.

They then found out that four other families were already there.

As rain continued and dams have released water, the flood already submerged their house and quickly reached the second floor of their neighbor.

All the five families went to the roof, braving the rains just to stay safe, especially the children. They were crying—and praying.

As they were waiting for help in the morning, rain drenched, the adults reached for anything among the debris the flood current brought from the mountains of Sierra Madre—chocolate snack bars, pomelo or any thing that could be eaten.

They fed the children with the chocolate snack bars and divided the pomelo among the adults.

“We could not do anything. We were afraid that we might drown when the water rise higher at dawn. We just prayed with trust in God that He would not leave us,” Humunong explained.

Finally, after those harrowing moments, rescue arrived by 9 a.m. Government boats evacuated them to safer grounds.

“Every time it rained, we would think we would drown and die. We prayed that it will never happen again. We are happy now because we were saved

by God,” Geraldine recounted in Filipino.

House of Prayer

Pastor Jun Carlo Madridano, 39, of Christian Assembly Baptist Church said that since their church was built in Kasiglahan Village in 2013, floodwaters never reached their house.

However, this time they were among the 2,500 families affected by Ulysses.

He said the nearby low-lying Anakpawis area was the only one prone to floods. But flood waters reached their house this time. So he could do nothing but bring his family to safety.

He said that throughout his ministry he would always prioritize the welfare of the church members. But during those crucial hours in November, he led his family out of danger to safer grounds first.

He carried his 3-month-old son, and held his wife and two daughters as they waded the flood waters.

“Our belongings, including my motorcycle, just floated in the water, although we were able to save some in the attic,” he said in Filipino.

As debris hit their legs, he thought they needed to go to safer ground. Alas, like Moses crossing the Red Sea, they reached a safe place.

He narrated how faith and relationship with God can save your life physically and spiritually.

He said that there are various churches in the area—Catholic, Iglesia ni Cristo, Full Gospel Church, born-again Christians, Baptist, Methodist—you name it, Kasiglahan Village has it.

Madridano believes the residents, regardless of religion, have a special relationship with God. “ Th e p e o p l e b e l i e ve i n G o d. Th e y a re

Angels without wings

Entrepreneurs and mothers Mylene Manuel Reyes and Liza Mendez went on their own in helping the residents in their little ways in as Christmas was just around the corner last December.

“There was so much devastation, there were garbage everywhere, and vehicles could not pass the roads. People were afraid, you would pity them, you could not imagine their experience on the rooftops. Where are they now? How were they able to survive?” Reyes recalled.

“On the other hand, we were thankful that it did not happen to us. So as our thanksgiving,

Fu l l o f l o ve, t h e y te a m e d u p w i t h a resident named Cha, who linked them to Pastor Madridano to identify those deserving of their small Christmas gifts.

They were able to reach out to 400 families and they planned to help the House of Prayer in providing skills training and job opportunities to affected residents.

These experiences during the Covid-19 quarantine period, indicated that heroes don’t wear capes, and in the spirit of the season, angels don’t have wings. They just have the goodness in their hearts to reach out and help.

Special spaghetti

Junior Bansil, 25, and Ruben Lansangan, both residents of San Jose Builders Street LK1, celebrated the New Year with renewed life as they watched the fireworks from a distance.

“We thanked God for us being alive with our family,” they said Their media noche food was the spaghetti from the gift packs from Reyes and Mendez, who made sure the residents, who cheated death during the typhoon, would have a happy celebration of the holidays.

They always said that there is light after each tunnel. That is true because God moves in mysterious ways.

Biodiversity Sunday BusinessMirror

Asean Champions of Biodiversity Media Category 2014

Editor: Lyn Resurreccion

Sunday, January 17, 2021

A7

Asean body OKs result of One Planet Summit for biodiversity T

he Asean Centre for Biodiversity (ACB) welcomed the outcomes of the One Planet Summit that was hosted by the French government, United Nations and World Bank on January 11.

“We welcome fresh commitments from world leaders, which the ACB views with much optimism and enthusiasm,” ACB Executive Director Theresa Mundita Lim said in a news release.

“These pledges pivot initiatives to conserve and restore ecosystems in the Asean region and across the globe, especially now that we are ushering in the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration,” Lim said.

Funds for nature-based solutions

At the summit that was held via videoconference owing to the pandemic, governments, such as the United Kingdom (UK) and France, announced earmarking funds for nature-based solutions.

UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson said the UK will commit at least £3 billion ($4 billion) to climatechange solutions that protect and restore nature and biodiversity over five years.

The amount of $10 billion was earmarked for the Great Green Wall, a project to restore degraded lands in the Sahel in Africa along an 8,000-kilometer band from the Atlantic to the Red Sea, along with new financial commitments from Norway and Germany.

“The pledges of governments are of great importance for other regions and subregions. Such commitments could not come at a more opportune time ahead of the 15th meeting [in October] of the Conference of Parties [COP] to the Convention on

Biological Diversity in Kunming, China, where the post-2020 global biodiversity framework is expected to be adopted,” Lim said in the news release.

extinction looming for over 1 million species of plants and animals.

“We know even more clearly amid the crisis we are going through that all our vulnerabilities are interrelated,” Macron said. “Pressure on nature exerted by human activities is increasing inequalities and threatening our health and our security.”

“We can change the story if we decide to do it,” he added.

Asean initiatives

In 2020, the ACB co-organised webinars with Pew Charitable Trusts and the High Ambition Coalition for Nature with the National Geographic Society’s Campaign for Nature to raise awareness among the Asean memberstates on the importance of the plan to carve out 30 percent of global lands and oceans for protection by 2030 (30x30 Goals), the news release said.

Based on the Asean’s initial inputs to the post-2020 global biodiversity framework, resource mobilization— including setting up a finance mechanism explicitly for biodiversity—is a crucial tool to effectively implement the framework and achieve the 2050 vision.

Meanwhile, in terms of the One Health approach to address existing and emerging outbreaks of diseases, Lim shared the regional and country-level initiatives made in the Asean in line with incorporating biodiversity into public health responses and regional development processes during the One Planet summit pre-event webinar “Prevention of Pandemics and Protection of Biodiversity” organized by the World Wide Fund for Nature.

She highlighted the initiatives in the Asean, such as Malaysia’s wildlife disease surveillance program, Indonesia’s economic support and livelihood stimulus to ease environmental pressure on protected areas, and Vietnam’s One Health strategy pre-dating the Covid-19 pandemic, the ACB news release said.

4 major topics

French President Emmanuel Macron (top), Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau (below, left), Norwegian Prime Minister Erna Solberg (center) and Britain’s Prime Minister Boris Johnson attend a videoconference meeting during the One Planet Summit for biodiversity at The Elysee Palace, in Paris, on January 11. Ludovic Marin, pool photo via AP The ACB, an intergovernmental body created by the 10 Asean member-states, aims to facilitate cooperation in the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity and natural resources in the region.

High-ambition coalition

Top US officials were absent at the summit, as were the leaders of Russia, India and Brazil, the Associated Press (AP) reported.

French President Emmanuel Macron, who hosted the event, announced that the High Ambition Coalition for Nature and People, which was launched in 2019 by Costa Rica, France and Britain to set a target for the 30x30 Goals, has now been joined by 50 countries.

A 2019 UN report on biodiversity showed that human activities are putting nature in more trouble now than at any other time in human history, with

The one-day summit focused on four major topics: protecting terrestrial and marine ecosystems; promoting agroecology, a more sustainable way to grow food; increasing funding to protect biodiversity; and identifying links between deforestation and the health of humans and animals, AP said.

The summit also launched a program called Prezode, which Macron presented as an unprecedented international initiative to prevent the emergence of zoonotic diseases and pandemics, which is already mobilizing over 400 researchers and experts across the world.

The move comes as scientists suspect that the coronavirus that first infected people in China last year came from an animal source, probably bats. “ Pa n d e m i c re co ve r y i s o u r c h a n ce to change course,” UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres said. “With smar t policies and the right investments, we can chart a path that brings health to all, revives economies, builds resilience and rescues biodiversity.”

Guterres also stressed that according to the World Economic Forum, emerging business opportunities across nature could create 191 million jobs by 2030.

Other leaders at the summit were German Chancellor Angela Merkel, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

China, represented by Vice Premier Han Zheng, agreed that “collective efforts” are needed.

The event, organized by France, the United Nations and the World Bank, took place without top US officials, as President-elect Joe Biden, a strong proponent of climate issues, does not take office until January 20.

The UN’s global climate summit, the COP26, has also been rescheduled for November in the UK. Participants welcomed the creation of Africa’s Great Green Wall project, a so-called accelerator, which is expected to release billion of dollars over the next five years to finance the program.

Launched in 2007, it aims to plant an arc of trees running 7,000 kilometers (4,350 miles) across Africa—from Senegal along the Atlantic all the way to Djibouti on the Gulf of Aden.

Another initiative involves a new coalition of Mediterranean countries working to better protect the sea from pollution and overfishing.

Britain’s Prince Charles launched an “urgent appeal” to private-sector leaders to join a new investment alliance targeting $10 billion by 2022 to finance nature-based solutions, AP said.

Greening PHL the public-private way

By Jonathan L. Mayuga

T

he E ne r g y D e v e lo p me nt Corp. (EDC), the country’s largest and the world’s second-largest geothermal energy producer, recently celebrated the 12th anniversary of Binhi, the company’s nationwide greening program.

Over the years, the Lopez Group’s global and diversified renewable-energy firm was able to accomplish a feat unmatched by no other companies in the Philippines.

From 2009 to 2019, EDC was able to plant over 6.4 million seedlings and restored 9,449 hectares of denuded forests inside geothermal reservations and other watershed areas “to leave a legacy of a verdant Philippines for the next generation.”

Humble beginning It all started with the planting of a single tindalo seedling at the heart of the Quezon City Memorial Circle 12 years ago.

From the single binhi, or seedling, taken from the tindalo mother tree that Philippine Commonwealth President Manuel L. Quezon planted on the town plaza of Bacolod City in Negros Occidental on its inauguration as a chartered city on October 19, 1938, EDC’s Binhi Program went on to carry out its mission of planting native trees and covering more areas as possible.

“We realized that it was not enough for us to just plant any random tree seedlings to maintain, if not enhance, the biodiversity in our areas of operation.

Beyond this, we knew when we launched this program that Binhi will benefit not only EDC but more so our partner communities and our planet,” Atty. Allan V. Barcena, head of EDC Corporate Social Responsibility and Public Relations group said in a statement.

refuge to 113 species of birds and one of the primary sources of quality coffee (robusta and arabica) in Central Visayas.

More importantly, the former kainginero (slash-and-burn farmers) are now masters of interplanting coffee with native tree species.

Welcome initiative In a telephone interview with the BusinessMirror on January 11, Amerlita D.J. Ortiz, assistant director of the Biodiversity Management Bureau of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR), underscored the importance of preserving the country’s native trees and welcomed the initiatives of EDC. The Philippines has a total land area of 30 million hectares, almost half of which are classified as forest land.

However, only half of the forest land, or approximately 7.5 million hectares, are covered with trees, leaving almost the same area falling under the classification of “open, degraded and denuded forests.”

With its limited financial and technical capacity, the DENR welcomed private-sector support to boost its reforestation efforts.

Mt. Apo (background), seen from Davao City, is the country’s tallest mountain, home to a variety of native tree species and where one of the country’s largest geothermal reservation that is controlled and managed by the Energy Development Corp. Wikimedia Commons

Misconception about forestry

Food and habitat “First, native trees [should be used].

When you say native, they are already here in our country. If ever they carry pests or diseases, because they naturally occur here, we can easily address them. Unlike exotic or nonnative trees, the pests or diseases can wipe out entire species,” Ortiz said partly in Filipino.

According to Ortiz, there are lots of wildlife species that depend on native trees for food and for habitat.

“If the native trees become extinct, or are wiped out, the source of food for the wildlife is also gone,” Ortiz said.

Collaborative partnerships

Biodiversity friendly

Realizing the gargantuan task, EDC has partnered with institutions and communities to realize its mission.

Over the years, the company has partnered with a total of 183 institutions in 16 regions and 88 communities for various forest-restoration projects.

“It was not easy, but through our constant communication and engagement, we were able to forge a mutual trust that resulted in our farmers’ associations’ transformation,” Barcena told the BusinessMirror via e-mail.

One of its most successful Binhi initiatives is the Baslay coffee program.

Three generations of farmers in Dauin, Negros Oriental, through the program operated by the Baslay Farmers Association (BFA), have learned the value and income potential of taking care of the forests.

Baslay’s community forest is now a

The advantage of growing native trees cannot be overemphasized, said Tommy T. Valdez, national council president of Society of Filipino Foresters Inc. In reforestation, forester Valdez said the obvious choice is the use of native tree species.

In a telephone interview on January 11, he said native trees easily survive and grow well in an area where they occur naturally. More importantly, native tree species promotes balance ecosystem.

“Native trees can perpetuate the existence of other species in a particular area, compared to areas planted with exotic trees, like mahogany and gmelina,” Valdez said partly in Filipino.

Exotic threats, natural attracts Valdez said some exotic trees also release certain chemicals that are not

should be encouraged to come in.

“First, we don’t have that much money to sustain or maintain the planted trees until they are fully grown,” he said. “Most of our reforestation programs, after tree-planting, the sites are eventually left with nobody to maintain the trees.”

He said private-sector partners ensure that reforestation of forest plantations are sustained, with the sites having someone permanently protecting the area, nurture the trees, and, at the same time, protecting the area from timber-poaching or illegal cutting.

The tindalo tree planted by then-President Manuel Quezon in Bacolod City. EDC photo favorable to wildlife.

This, he said, explains why some forest plantations planted with a single tree species do not attract as many insects or birds.

Exotic trees sometimes adversely affect the growth of other native trees in a forest as the trees tend to compete for sunlight, soil nutrients and even space.

“Because they grow faster, they displace the native tree species” Valdez said.

“Most exotics are invasive. You must not allow them to invade an area,” he said. Native birds, insects and other wildlife are naturally attracted to native trees, he added.

Initial plantations

The use of fast-growing trees, such

as mahogany and gmelina, have their purpose as far as the Philippines is concerned, Valdez said.

“Some native trees cannot survive directly under direct sunlight like the dipterocarps, so some foresters use fast-growing trees like mahogany and gmelina to establish the initial cover crops,” he said.

Once the fast-growing trees are able to provide enough shade and improve the micro-climate that would allow native trees to grow and thrive, after some time, the fast-growing trees must eventually go or be cut down, he said.

Private-sector support Given the government’s limited financial capacity, the private sector

Valdez said there are many misconceptions about forestry, a reason why the country is not able to realize its full economic potential.

For instance, some people are not in favor of cutting trees, when, in fact, trees provide much-needed resources that can be replenished through plantation development.

“Let us remember that trees or our forest are renewable. What is bad is the indiscriminate cutting of trees or illegal logging,” he said.

He explained that the Philippines has a tropical rainforest with uneven aged trees, composed of old, mature, young trees, and with a diverse number of tree species.

“In such case, for us to perpetuate the forest, we need to cut the old and mature trees to liberate the growth of the young trees that would become the next timber crops. If not, the old trees will die and the young ones will not be given the opportunity to grow,” he said.

According to Valdez, this is what foresters call “sustained yield cutting.”

“If this was practiced religiously in the past, then we should have never been in a situation where we are now.

What we need is to cut trees in a sustainable manner, allow natural regeneration and plant at the same time new ones to take the place of the ones that will be cut down,” he explained.

Valdez, however, was quick to point out that there are areas that cutting of trees should not be allowed.

These are watershed areas, declared protected areas, areas with an elevation of 1,000 meters above sea level and areas with more that 50 percent slope and river embankment, he told the BusinessMirror via e-mail on January 12.

Economic opportunity According to Valdez, partnering with the private sector will allow the government and their development partners to realize the economic potential of forest plantation development, while rehabilitating and managing the degraded

forest areas.

“We have a vast tract of forest lands and we need the private-sector investment to come in and help us develop and protect these areas,” he said.

This will allow the government to realize revenues from these areas while the private sector gain from such venture, and, at the same time, institute a better strategy in protecting the forest.

“Please note that we have more than 25 million people living in upland areas who have been dependent from the forest lands for survival. Providing them employment and livelihood through plantation development will provide the government reliable partners who will protect the forest from further degradation,” he said.

Sustainable development fund Valdez said the Society of Filipino Foresters Inc. has proposed to promote sustainable forest development through a financing mechanism and public-private partnerships.

Called Sustainable Forest Development Fund (SFDF), the establishment of the financing mechanism, he said, will provide the much-needed capital investment that could be available to the private sector to do business in forest plantation development.

The SFDF could be made available “through a loan with a reasonable interest.”

Under this scheme, the fund will be rolled out and will be returned back to the government, or to the financing facility that will handle the fund.

The financing scheme is a part of the proposed Sustainable Forest Management Bill that is being deliberated in Congress.

Organize the people “What the government need is to organize the people. Once they are into forest plantation development, you will no longer have a problem protecting the forest because they will be the ones going after illegal loggers, or anyone that destructs their source of livelihood,” Valdez said.

The Philippines has an excellent program launched by the government in 1995, the Community-based Forest Management Program, Valdez said.

“If we can focus our efforts and improve it further based on our past experiences in implementing the program, this will provide the key strategy to our problems in forestry,” he said.

Valdez said Filipinos need to rely on the country’s forestry experts who understand the science of forestry to help provide the direction toward sustainable forestry.

“We must leave forest management to experts,” he said.

A8 Sunday, January 17, 2021

‘COVER UP OF COVER-UP’ T

HE highest court in sports blasted Russia for engaging in “a cover up of the coverup” in another desperate attempt to deny culpability for a state-sponsored doping scheme, while also justifying its decision to reduce the country’s punishments at the next two Olympics.

The Associated Press obtained an advance copy of the Court of Arbitration for Sport’s (CAS) 186-page decision for the case it ruled on last month between the Russians and the World Anti-Doping Agency (Wada). The decision was made public Thursday.

Wada had proposed a four-year ban for Russia for manipulating potentially inculpatory data it held in its Moscow lab for years before handing it over to investigators early in 2019.

CAS reduced the sanction to two years.

Despite alleviating that and other sanctions, the CAS arbitrators denounced Russia while once again laying out the intricate details of the plot to manipulate the lab data. The panel concluded the fabrications mean “it will never be possible to know the number of cheating athletes or officials who may have escaped detection.”

“The manipulations show that the Russian authorities remain as willing as ever to interfere with, and corrupt, the anti-doping system,” the panel said.

Still, CAS called for more lenient terms than Wada wanted, lowering the burden for

Russian athletes to gain eligibility to compete as neutrals at the upcoming games in Tokyo and Beijing and softening a proposed ban on Russian government officials.

The panel said it cut the sanction in part because Wada only ever intended the ban to include one Summer and one Winter Olympics.

(Four years would have brought the Paris 2024 Games into play, as well.) The coronavirus pandemic forced the IOC to reschedule the Summer Games for 2021, and CAS said the reduction would also help avoid further disruptions to preparations “particularly in the light of disruption occasioned by the Covid-19 pandemic.”

“Further, the panel acknowledges that imposing severe consequences upon an entirely new generation of Russian athletes may go further than necessary to achieve the objectives of the [Wada sanctioning rules.,” the panel wrote.

When the decision was announced last month, both parties took victory laps—Wada because CAS essentially agreed with every part of its case, and Russia because, despite that, it had its sanction reduced.

CAS said the reduction should not be read as “any validation of the conduct of Rusada or the Russian authorities.”

But the release of the full report, which rehashes details of Russia’s plot to erase, rewrite and sometimes completely make up new

files in the 23 million megabyte cache of information it held at the Moscow lab, sends a mixed message.

For instance, one of Russia’s biggest victories was the loosening of conditions for Russian athletes to compete as neutrals.

Wada had insisted athletes be able to prove they hadn’t been implicated in Russia’s noncompliance.

But CAS ruled that was too high a burden. Why? Because much of the proof of their innocence might have been tucked in parts of the 23 million megabytes that had been compromised. AP

Sports COMFORT OVER STYLE BusinessMirror

mirror_sports@yahoo.com.ph / Editor: Jun Lomibao

STANFORD Head Coach Tara VanDerveer watches warmups their game against California in Berkeley. AP

L

ET’S just say Gabriele D’Annunzio isn’t on board with the new fashion trend for college basketball coaches.

Coaches across the country have eschewed the traditional game day attire of coats, ties and dress slacks in favor of polos, quarter-zips and warmup pants. Notre Dame’s Mike Brey went so far as to coach a game in shorts.

The 76-year-old D’Annunzio is the personal tailor for the best dressed man in the game, Villanova’s Jay Wright. It nearly broke D’Annunzio’s heart when Wright told him about the vote by Big East coaches to go casual this season.

“The coaches shouldn’t look exactly the same as the players and everyone that’s affiliated with basketball—a pair of warmup pants and all that,” D’Annunzio said. “For a game, you need to look the part and be respectful for the position. It’s a little disappointing but I understand. This is just a difficult time.”

National Basketball Association (NBA) coaches went casual when the league re-started its season over the summer at Walt Disney World in Florida and college coaches have followed their lead. The idea picked up serious momentum for the general public during pandemic lockdowns, too.

Dressing down isn’t a new concept in college athletics. Bob Knight and his red sweater were inseparable. George Raveling was wearing a tracksuit on game days at Iowa in the 1980s, well before Bob Huggins made the look cool.

“Bob Huggins is light years ahead of all of us,” Brey said. “Maybe we should all stay in the Huggins look.”

Creighton’s Greg McDermott said he doesn’t plan to dress up for games again.

“I think it makes way more sense,” he said.

“We’re moving a lot, we’re bending down when we’re in the huddle. Bankers don’t wear suits anymore. Everything has changed. I think it’s the way it should be anyway.”

On the women’s side, Stanford’s Tara VanDerveer and UConn’s Geno Auriemma traded in their blazers for quarter-zips while Arizona’s

Adia Barnes, known for her trendy wardrobe and Gucci shoes, coached a game in a longsleeved t-shirt.

Tennessee’s Rick Barnes said he came up in an era when a coach was considered disrespectful to the game if he didn’t do what his predecessors had done, and that included the way he dressed. That’s no longer the case.

“The way we are now is basically the way we are in practice every day,” Barnes said, “so I like it. I really do.”

So does Wisconsin’s Greg Gard, who said Raveling had the right idea with those tracksuits.

“I’m not going to go as far as Mike Brey has at Notre Dame and start wearing shorts on the sideline,” Gard said, “but I do love the casual.”

Brey said he took the notion of acceptable coaching attire to a “ridiculously new level” last Saturday. He sensed his team was tight going into a game at North Carolina on January 2, and he wanted to loosen them up, so he put on gray shorts along with a blue polo.

“I get it. Hey, the suit look is classy,” Brey said. “I’m a physical education major. I like dressing like a PE major for game day. I do for practice every day.”

Brey is like a lot of coaches, D’Annunzio said.

“Look, most of those coaches have no style sense,” he said. “For them, they were jocks, and they’re really not into wearing suits because they don’t have that sense of style like Jay..... I can appreciate that they want to not wear suits because they’re not comfortable with it.”

D’Annunzio, who has owned D&B Tailors in suburban Philadelphia since 1966, has made tuxedos for Frank Sinatra and suits for the late comedian George Burns and also has had Phillies great Mike Schmidt and other pro athletes as clients.

D’Annunzio estimated he’s made 40-50 suits for Wright, whose nickname is “GQ Jay.” That works out to between three and five suits a year, and the tailor acknowledged the coaches’ agreement to dress casual is taking money out of his pocket. AP

Not only goalies wear masks: NHL coaches must cover faces

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INNIPEG Coach Paul Maurice struggled to blow a whistle while wearing a mask. Barry Trotz couldn’t see if one of his New York Islanders players was skating toward him because his mask had helped fog up his glasses.

“It was ugly there for a while,” Maurice said.

“There’s some challenges to it.”

One of the new challenges for National Hockey League (NHL) coaches this season is the requirement to wear a mask behind the bench during games and on the ice for practices. Now that goaltenders won’t be the only masked men around the rink, coaches will learn and adjust on the fly like those in other sports have had to in recent months.

“Just being around the rink all day wearing one is an adjustment, but we’ll work it out,” Joel Quenneville of the Florida Panthers said.

“Sometimes when you really want to get your point across, you might have to pull your mask down to make yourself clear. But I’ve never changed lines with a face mask on.”

Hockey coaches are more responsible than their counterparts in baseball, football or basketball to bark out directions in real time at a fast pace, which makes this an even steeper learning curve. Get ready for loud yelling and maybe a few more bench minor penalties for too many men on the ice.

“I used to have a big moustache, maybe that was kind of like a mask,” Dave Tippett of the Edmonton Oilers said. “I’m a mumbler at the best of times. You’ll have to be really clear with who’s going on line changes.”

One thing that’s clear is most coaches won’t complain about the extra safety measure to prevent virus spread. Quenneville and his staff have talked about NFL coaches being fined for not wearing face coverings correctly and how they’ve adapted.

Commissioner Gary Bettman told coaches and executives that protocols “are not a suggestion or a recommendation” and the NHL “will vigorously enforce them.”

“I’m going to have to do my absolute best to make sure it stays on and stays right,” D.J. Smith of the Ottawa Senators said. “Ultimately the league’s doing it for a reason, and it’s the safety, and I’ll abide by all the rules.”

So will John Tortorella, who told the Columbus Blue Jackets on the first day of camp he doesn’t want to hear any complaining about health and safety protocols. He said wearing a mask is important and added: “It doesn’t affect me, it will not affect the other coaches.”

Colleagues also see it as personal responsibility.

“It’s the right move under these circumstances,” David Quinn of the New York Rangers said. “If it helps a little bit, we should all do it, so certainly our staff is embracing it.

Our organization’s embracing it and we’re just going to have to manage it.”

There are some benefits. Maurice suggested keeping the television cameras off him during games because they won’t be able to pick up anything he’s saying anyway.

Gone—for now—are the days of reading lips of coaches swearing at officials or each other.

“Probably be good for me,” Peter Laviolette of the Washington Capitals said. “Nobody will see what’s coming out of my mouth. My mother will be happy.” AP CHICAGO Blackhawks Head Coach Jeremy Colliton sets up a drill during their training camp practice. AP

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Xbox: The oral history of an American video game empire

January 17, 2021

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BusinessMirror JANUARY 17, 2021 | soundstrip.businessmirror@gmail.com

YOUR MUSI

A SLICE OF SKY

Acel Bisa-van Ommen and Mikey Amistoso thrilled to mentor young songwriters

MIKEY Amistoso of Ciudad

Publisher

: T. Anthony C. Cabangon

Editor-In-Chief

: Lourdes M. Fernandez

Concept

: Aldwin M. Tolosa

Y2Z Editor

: Jt Nisay

SoundStrip Editor

: Edwin P. Sallan

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

Columnists

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INGER-SONGWRITER Acel Bisa -van Ommen recently launched Titik at Tono, an online songwriting workshop under Payong Musikero, a multi-platformcommunity that serves as a source of instruction, information, and inspiration for aspiring and established musicians which she started in 2018.

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

Photographers

ACEL Bisa-van Ommen

: Bernard P. Testa Nonie Reyes

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As part of the workshop, each finisher was tasked to record their song so it could be showcased during the online recital. They could either self-produce it or work with professional producers to get the full experience of making a song at home due to the pandemic.

Several of the participants who wanted to work with professional producers were tweens and teens.

Two of these teens had a distinct British indie pop sound and Acel knew that the perfect producer and mentor for them was Mikey Amistoso of Ciudad.

The online class eventually discovered talented newbie and young songwriters whose compositions deserve to be heard.

The resulting album, A Slice of Sky features delightful HUES of music about the pandemic, hope, faith, healing, waiting, and acceptance. It showcases a multigeneration set of musicians, several of whom are tweens and teens.

The album starts with an edgy

indie pop sound by 13yr old Ligaya Escueta with her song "The End" which explores all the fun things she’d like to do in case our world is possibly coming to an end. It is followed by 14 yr old Janna Mishka’s "Dance All Night" which dishes out positive vibes and assures us that, "It's gonna be alright."

Produced by Amistoso, these two songs will remind you of the Beatles and some Brit-pop bands.

“When I heard the demo for this (“The End” by Ligaya Escueta), I was astounded by her song, and her melodies, and the maturity behind it all! I was also intrigued with the similarities of our musical sensibilities (especially with my work in Ciudad).

Long live our sound!” Soon after that post, Mikey also posted a photo with Janna Mishka and her band. He was obviously thrilled to work with these promising young musicians.

Track 3, “I Believe in You” is written by 12-yr old homeschooler, Andi Moran. Produced by Charles Bautista who heads the production team in

Victory Worship Manila, the song is a reminder of God's promises that will help us stand firm in times of trouble.

Mavene Gutierrez’s “Hope” and Ira Ting’s “I Will Stand Up” are empowering songs by the two 11-yr old songwriters that were produced

by Jeremiah De Leon. These feel good and light hearted tunes are about the beauty of nature, and letting one’s voice be heard.

18-year-old Zion Mallari selfproduced his song, “Waiting. The ukulele-based number talks about how hard it is to wait for something if you don't know what you are waiting for The song "Paghilom" was produced and performed

by Shekinah Shalom and is characterized by an OPM pop rock sound that perfectly complements its theme of healing and forgiveness.

Meanwhile, “Back Home” written by Sheggz Nepomuceno is a pop ballad produced, arranged, and performed

by Brad Coronel and provides a sense of acceptance and peace even it will result in losing a loved one who is now in a better place.

During the online recital of these exciting young artists, Acel enthused, “Their works are all amazing! I am not exaggerating! I don’t think I could have written a song like that when I was 11 years old. I was surprised with the melodies they came up with! This just shows that age is just a number and you’re never too young or never too old to learn and develop new skills.”

IC

soundstrip.businessmirror@gmail.com | JANUARY 17, 2021

3

BUSINESS

STAYING IN CHARACTER

Sponge Cola’s new song inspired by hit K-drama series

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PONGE Cola is no stranger to writing music inspired by their love for cinema and pop culture. In fact, the four-piece alternative rock outfit named their debut full-length album, Palabas to acknowledge the compelling impact of shows—be it a theatrical play, a dramatic film, or an episode in a television series—in making us understand our own lives, the lives of those around us, and the lives of people whose contributions to humanity deserve to be celebrated at all cost.

With this creative pursuit comes a tribute to the blockbuster K-drama series, Start-Up, which is currently heaping praises all around the world for its gripping story on young entrepreneurs aspiring to make it big in the competitive world of Korean high-tech industry.

Sponge Cola released “Siguro Nga” as a song born out of vocalist and guitarist Yael Yuzon’s love for Han Ji-Pyeong, a prominent character whose unconventional upbringing and misfortunes in life enabled him to become a principled, selfmade man with a tough exterior and unbeknownst to everyone—a tender heart.

“Immediately after the shock of Episode 9, I literally picked up a guitar and began writing the song,” Yuzon shares in a statement. “I didn’t know how the story was going to unfold, but at that point, I felt like it wasn’t going to work out for Han Ji Pyeong’s character. And while heartbreak wouldn’t ravage him, it leaves him with an undulating kind of pain.”

“Siguro Nga” builds on this nuanced character study of a man realizing that he’s lost the love of his life, after spending a great deal of time living a lie to protect the person he’s pining for from emotional harm and trauma. It’s a soaring acoustic number that is propelled by a genuine reverence for empathy and romantic yearning, but never quite reaches a climatic run arrangements-wise, as it ends on a miserable note, with the subject of the song stuck in a rut, hoping to relive his past to undo his mistakes.

According to Yuzon, the song

SPONGE Cola

arrived in the middle of recording phase for their forthcoming album to be released next year. “The process was a bit more theatrical than what we’re accustomed to,” he admits.

“As a singer, I had to be in character, which made the recording process a bit grueling.” In order to capture the very essence of the song, Yuzon had to experience some of Han Ji Pyeong’s crucial scenes in the series, including having to bask in the rain for minutes and reliving the memories of standing next to a corn dog stall. “I also had to face someone looking at me with ‘those eyes’ while pretending to be fine. Couple that with the idea of multiple takes, it was tiring but ultimately fulfilling.”

Armo Armovit, the band’s lead guitarist explains how the arrangements for “Siguro Nga” came to play. “Like most of our songs from the previous albums, we started by recording a very basic acoustic guitar as a foundation. Yael himself played the rhythm to make it consistent with

how he initially wrote the song and his melody. Everything else on top of that are layers of sound to decorate and enhance the song’s emotional content.” Bassist Gosh Dilay adds, “We tried some experimentation in terms of overall sound-- but we reserved a version specifically for future live performances of the song.”

“Siguro Nga” was recorded at Love One Another studios, and was mixed and mastered by Joey Santos.

Armovit, who praised Santos for doing an excellent job in designing sounds and layering them to tell a story, was very much happy with the final product. “His familiarity with a wide range of music, and ability to create the appropriate textures for the song was a very welcome and refreshing addition to the production process. Everything you hear that isn’t the usual drums, bass, vocals, and guitar are all him.”

Sponge Cola’s “Siguro Nga” is out now on all digital platforms worldwide via Sony Music Philippines.

Xbox: The oral history of an American video game empire should do it.” And then Ballmer says, “I think we should do this.” And then they said, “We’re going to approve this plan just like you guys asked for. We’re going to give you guys everything you want.

You wanted $500 million in marketing money. You want to go off into a different set of buildings so people will leave you alone.” That part went super quickly, like five minutes quickly.

BACH: So Steve looks up, and he says, “OK, we’re done. Bill and I will support this to the end.”

FRIES: I walked out of there with Robbie, and I said, in what at that point was 15 years at the company, “That is the weirdest meeting I’ve ever been in.” And then a month later, Bill was onstage at the Game Developers Conference announcing the Xbox.

By Dina Bass

T

Bloomberg

he box looked like an old VCR, the controller was comically large, and it was made by one of the most boring companies on earth. Somehow, the Xbox triumphed and gave Microsoft Corp. the first—and last— successful video game console brand from an American company since Atari.

“We needed to penetrate the living room,” said Steve Ballmer, then the chief executive officer of Microsoft. His former boss, the cofounder Bill Gates, said: “Xbox might seem like an unlikely success story to other people, but it wasn’t a stretch for me to believe in this project and the people who were bringing it to life.”

Video games now account for more than $11 billion a year for Microsoft and have established the Xbox as a premier brand. In the original team’s own words, here is the story of how an ungainly, overbudget project spawned a gaming powerhouse.

A game console is born Jonathan “Seamus” Blackley was a cog at Microsoft working on programming tools for PC game developers. On the way back from a personal trip in 1999, he had an idea.

SEAMUS BLACKLEY (technology officer for Xbox): I visited my girlfriend who had moved back to Boston. On the flight back, I started thinking, Now, PlayStation had just announced PlayStation 2. They had advertised it was going to have Linux on it, and it was going to be a competitor to the PC. I think there was a little bit of mistranslation, or they didn’t understand that it might be a bad idea to taunt Microsoft this way.

KEVIN BACHUS (director of thirdparty relations): Sony coming out and saying, “PlayStation 2 is going to redefine the computer world,” that got attention inside of Microsoft.

BLACKLEY: Everybody who made PlayStation games worked on a PC to make the game. And the attack that I realized we could make would be to just make the PC into the console.

Just days before launch, Seamus Blackley and Bill Gates show the Xbox console at Comdex 2001 in Las Vegas. Getty Images It didn’t take long for the team to discover that the initial plan, to design a gaming PC and get other companies to build it, wouldn’t work.

BLACKLEY: There were some guys who worked on Xbox early on who called it Coffin Box because they worried that it would fail and end their career at Microsoft.

RICK THOMPSON (first head of Xbox): (J Allard, general manager) and I had to go into Bill, and we told him it wasn’t going to be Windows. We literally, like, needed towels to wipe the spit off our faces because Bill is screaming and yelling at us. But Bill being Bill, he’s very, very angry that he’d been misled, which he deserved to be. But within a half hour, he was like, “Yeah, I understand. Get out of my office, you two jerks.”

STEVE BALLMER (president and soon-to-be CEO of Microsoft): We made this very conscious break, which was one of the hardest things, to not use real Windows. Did I say, “Gamers are a must-have market?” I probably can’t say that. No, I said, “We must be in the living room, and if the path to being in the living room is gaming, let’s take it.”

The Valentine’s Day massacre Nine senior employees gathered in the executive boardroom at 4 pm on February 14. Most had dinner plans with their partners that evening. They expected a routine meeting, but it quickly became evident their bosses were not convinced of the plan to invest large sums of money in a console without Windows software.

ROBBIE BACH (second head of Xbox): Bill is about 15 or 20 minutes late, and he’s pissed. And he comes in shouting and slams his fist on the table and says a bunch of things I won’t repeat. The gist of

4 BusinessMirror

it was: You’re screwing Windows.

ED FRIES (head of first-party games): Bill throws the PowerPoint deck down on the table and says, “This is a f*cking insult to everything I’ve accomplished at this company.”

BACH: I’d been there, at that point, 12 or 13 years and been told I was a knucklehead at least five or six times. It was just kind of the way the company communicated.

BALLMER: I came into that meeting sort of as my first big CEO decision. It also was an emotional time. My dad was sick with cancer. He died a week after that meeting. It was a stressful time. I’m in this new job. I want to do it well, and this is my first big call.

BACH: We’re not getting anywhere. So at some point during the meeting, I said to Steve Ballmer, “We’re not going to convince each other. So let’s just decide not to do this. If you guys are that concerned about it, let’s just stop.” And of course, that led to like another hour of angst about, “Well, Sony has got PlayStation 2 in the living room. They’re calling it a computer. What are we going to do about that?”

FRIES: One of the vice presidents who had been quiet the whole time asks this question, “What about Sony?” So that basically stopped the room, and the way I remember it is, it got quiet for a second, and then Bill got that kind of funny look he gets when he’s thinking and said, “What about Sony?” And he turns to Ballmer, and Ballmer said, “What about Sony?”

BALLMER: I think I knew at the beginning of the meeting that I wanted to say yes. I also knew that, man, this thing was going to get the Roto-Rooter of all Roto-Rooters before I would say yes.

FRIES: Bill turns and says, “I think we

January 17, 2021

Release day On November 15, 2001, the Xbox went on sale in stores across the US Microsoft held a glitzy event in New York City with Gates to mark the occasion.

JOHN O’ROURKE (director of marketing): Bill genuinely was like a little kid. You could see it in his eyes. I was the guy that sort of taught Bill how to play some of the games.

FRIES: Immediately, the day after launch, it was clear Halo was going to be our runaway hit. What it showed was that we didn’t just create a clone of the PlayStation but that we were opening up a new market that was somewhere in between Mario and PC gaming.

BACHUS: Halo was a showcase game.

Halo was why you, as an Xbox owner, were smarter than your PlayStation 2-owning friends.

J ALLARD (general manager): Most Xbox “origin” stories celebrate heroics, individuals and anti-Microsoft spirit, when in truth any success Xbox had was based in professionalism, teamwork and the Microsoft spirit. The team was the magic behind the Xbox.

BILL GATES (cofounder of Microsoft): One of my favorite things about Microsoft—and something I still love to do today—was getting to explore big, new ideas that might seem impossible to other people. We built the whole company around that. The early Xbox days were a great example—with a group of people who knew that gaming would be huge, and they believed Microsoft had a role to play even though it would mean starting something completely new.

BLACKLEY: It’s a really honest product, and the reason it still resonates is because it stayed honest. Microsoft is a company that was embarrassed by gamers, that thought it was all 14-year-old, criminal skateboarders playing games.

We proved them wrong.