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‘RUN SILENT, RUN DEEP’

Navy set to acquire first submarine in most ambitious multibillion-peso capability upgrade plan

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By Rene Acosta

HE Philippines has fixed its sights on the acquisition of Scorpèneclass attack submarines from France in the next couple of years, a modernization project which, if consummated, would highlight the Philippine Navy’s capability upgrade program in the years to come.

The delivery of the underwater vessels, the first ever in the history of the Navy, would also automatically enlist the Philippines as one of the countries in the region that proudly flutters the submarine badge.

“Wow, that would be great,” exclaimed Navy Flag Officer in Command Vice Admiral Robert Empedrad when informed of the progress of the submarine program and the idea of the Navy’s sailing and prowling Philippine

SCORPÈNE-CLASS Malaysian Navy submarine “Tun Razak” in the shipyard of Navantia-Cartagena (Spain) few days prior to its delivery. OUTISNN/CC BY SA 3.0

waters with a submarine force.

In preparation for the planned procurement, the Navy is currently beefing up its stock of knowledge and skill in submarine operations.

On Tuesday, Navy officials and future submariners engaged

French military officials and submarine experts in discussion under a four-day subject matter exchange on underwater operations and warfare.

“In preparation for the upcoming acquisition of the submarine as

part of the Philippine Navy’s modernization program, a four-day subject matter expert exchange with the French Navy SMEs was conducted,” Lt. Commander Maria Christina Roxas said in a news statement.

NAVY Flag Officer in Command Vice Admiral Robert Empedrad PNA

Choices

WHEN the idea of securing the country’s vast maritime waters with the help of underwater craft dawned on the Navy, and was Continued on a2

Multiple failures led to Iran’s accidental attack on jetliner

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By Alan Levin Bloomberg News

ETAILS about why Iran air defense forces mistook a Ukrainian airliner for a cruise missile remain murky, but one thing is clear: Safeguards for operating surfaceto-air missiles are supposed to prevent that kind of mistaken identity and all of them failed.

The error, which killed all 176 people aboard the plane on Wednesday (January 8, 2020), is probably the result of multiple layers of failure that extend into high levels of the government and military, said Steven Zaloga, senior analyst for missile systems at the Teal Group.

“There’s any number of potential problems here,” Zaloga said.

“This incident strongly suggests that the methodology has failed and the technology has failed as well. There should have been a methodology worked out to prevent fratricide.”

Iran has vowed to conduct a thorough investigation of what happened, and bring the “culprits” to justice. Among the questions that remain is why authorities al-

PESO EXCHANGE RATES n US 50.7600

DEBRIS is seen from the Ukrainian plane which crashed as authorities work at the scene in Shahedshahr, southwest of the capital Tehran, Iran, January 8, 2020. Iran’s judiciary says arrests have been made over the shootdown of the plane that killed all 176 people on board. AP/EBRAHIM NOROOZI

lowed civilian flights to operate during the tense hours after its attack on the Iraqi bases.

Ukrainian International Airlines Flight 752 was flying in a very different manner than the cruise missile it was supposedly mistaken for. It was following the normal departure path from Tehran’s airport and was clearly transmitting its identity when it was taken down.

While a highly effective weapon against short-range threats, the SA-15 Tor missiles used in the strike early Wednesday have a guidance system that’s designed for use in war zones and can’t by itself easily distinguish between airliners, cruise missiles and other military aircraft.

As a result, nations that deploy the Tor typically link them into a broader air-defense command system capable of tracking civilian planes, Zaloga said. In those circumstances, soldiers operating missile batteries aren’t supposed to fire them without approval from higher authorities.

Continued on a2

n JAPAN 0.4609 n UK 66.4042 n HK 6.5316 n CHINA 7.3779 n SINGAPORE 37.6866 n AUSTRALIA 35.0142 n EU 56.5416 n SAUDI ARABIA 13.5313

Source: BSP (January 17, 2020)

News

BusinessMirror

RUN SILENT, RUN DEEP A2 Saturday, January 18, 2020

Continued from a1

ardently pursued by the Navy under Empedrad, the Navy began its search for possible suppliers. South Korea, Russia and Germany were considered, but the choice winded down to France through its wellknown Scorpène-class submarine.

“We came up with technical aspects of our submarine requirements with our technical working group and it fits our requirements,” Empredad explained, comparing the specs of the Scorpène with other well-known submarines from the other countries available on the market like the Russian Kiloclass hunter-killer submarine.

The Russian-made diesel attack submarine, at least six of which are already in the service of the Vietnamese Navy, was earlier identified as the frontrunner to the Navy’s need, owing to its much hyped capability, other than President Duterte’s tilt to the east in the country’s diplomacy offensive. But still, the Scorpène beat the Kiloclass in the Navy’s periscope.

“Actually, I have seen all the submarines from Russia. [They] are big submarines. But if we see what the Navy is requiring, the Scorpène fits more the requirement,” Empedrad said, noting that South Korea and Germany also offered their own type of underwater craft.

Aside from meeting the technical specifications, the Navy decided to go for the Scorpène because of the assistance offered by the French government, which is willing to finance the procurement

through a soft loan, and at 1 percent interest.

If the plans push through, Empedrad said, the Navy should have its first pair of the French-made submarine in 2027, at the cost of about P70 billion, thus assuring the country—being a maritime nation—of security, while beefing up the capability of the whole Armed Forces of the Philippines.

The Malaysian Navy already has in its service two Scorpèneclass submarines and it will acquire two more as it earlier announced.

Malaysia, Vietnam, Taiwan, the Philippines and China are all claimants to some portions of the South China Sea. Before it decided to acquire the Scorpène, Malaysia thoroughly reviewed the design and capabilities of both the French-made and Russian-made submarines since the Kilo-class was also a frontrunner. However, it eventually went for the Scorpène because of its balanced design that integrated stealth and offensive capabilities.

Respect

IN acquiring a submarine, which is the highest realization of the Navy’s modernization project and the crown jewel of every military around the world because of its capability, Empedrad wanted to regain the military’s standing as one of the best and modern-equipped forces in the Asia-Pacific region decades ago, before it ebbed as the least developed military in Southeast Asia.

It so commanded respect

BRAZIL’S first Scorpène-class submarine

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MARINHA DO BRASIL

that its claim and occupation of the Scarborough Shoal, which was formerly its target range, was not challenged even by China, which is already exercising de facto control over the shoal.

Empedrad said it was this kind of respect that he invoked when boxer-turned-senator Manny Pacquiao asked him questions when the Senate looked into the Navy’s frigate acquisition project.

“I was asked by Senator Pacquiao, I still remember, and he asked me what does the Navy need more,” he recalled a portion of the Senate hearing.

“Sir, if you want other nations to respect the capability of our Philippine Navy, give us submarines. We need submarines if we want to get the respect of other countries,” Empedrad said, recalling his response.

The Navy chief said the procurement of submarines would complete what they have been dreaming of—a modern navy, no more, no less.

Other assets THE submarine program would complement the other ongoing and planned procurements of the Navy, such as the recently delivered two AgustaWestland anti-submarine helicopters worth P5.4 billion, a South Korea-made corvette and two other brand-new frigates, also from South Korea.

The Navy has also made other procurements before these, including two brand-new landing dock vessels, one of which is already steaming toward the Middle East to help ferry home Filipino workers from Iraq and even Libya.

“We will complete the full capability of the anti-submarine warfare this year,” Empedrad said of the two delivered anti-submarine choppers, the full delivery of missiles and torpedoes of which is forthcoming.

By that time, the training of naval aviators would have also been completed, which Empedrad said could be concluded possibly in November.

South Korea also delivered in July last year the first batch of LIG Nex1 “Blue Shark” lightweight

torpedoes for the two AgustaWestland helicopters, which will serve as their primary weapons.

The Navy is also acquiring two South Korean-made corvettes, Australian-manufactured offshore patrol vessels (OPV) and eight Israeli-made missile-firing fast attack craft (FAIC), four of which would be manufactured in the country, with the expected upgrading of the Navy’s shipyard in Sangley Point, Cavite.

The FAIC will replace Navy gunboats.

Empedrad has also lined up other future and possible acquisitions like additional multipurpose fast attack craft (MPAC), frigates and offshore patrol vessels “Based on the future [apportioning] of the Philippine Navy, we should have six frigates, 12 corvettes and 18 OPVs. Our requirement for MPAC is 42. Since we already have 12, we need 30 more MPAC with missile capability,” he said.

‘Admiral of Admirals’

THE development of the Navy punctuated by the ongoing procurement and future acquisitions

defined Empedrad’s leadership of the military’s sea force, which he will leave next month with his mandatory retirement.

Empedrad will retire from the Navy where he is known as the “Admiral of Admirals,” not only for keeping the Navy afloat but graphing and setting its sailing plan through the level and intensity of the capability upgrade program that he pursued and implemented within a short period.

Still, he was very modest about his feat. “I [just] came [in] while the modernization program [was already] in full swing,” he said.

Empedrad assumed as the Navy chief at the height of the frigate acquisition controversy in late December 2017, an issue that the Navy weathered through his leadership.

If his lofty dreams for the command he will soon leave come to fruition in the future, then the old joke about the Navy being a “dumping ground” for other uniformed men sanctioned and placed on “floating status”—in a play on the word “floating”—will no longer be suitable.

Multiple failures led to Iran’s accidental attack on jetliner Continued from a1

Flight 752, a Boeing Co. 737800, was transmitting its position for civilian radars and the newest flight tracking system that uses global-positioning data, according to data posted by FlightRadar24.

While the Tor’s radars might not have been able to discern between civilian and military targets, other systems in Iran were tracking the plane and that information should be available to missile battery commanders, he said.

Iran has offered changing explanations for why it shot down the jet in the pre-dawn darkness.

A statement released early Saturday said that the plane had turned toward a military base.

FlightRadar24’s track for the Boeing 737-800 showed it flying a normal profile. About two minutes after becoming airborne, it made a slight turn to the right, which is typical for departures from that runway. When it climbed to about 7,900 feet (2,408 meters) altitude, it suddenly stopped transmitting its position, most likely as it suffered damage from the missile.

At least two other planes that departed that morning followed nearly identical paths and several others flew nearby, according to the company’s data.

“Even without having been made directly aware of this flight, a SAM operator crew should have easily been able to identify that this flight pattern and radar profile was completely at odds with any suspected US missile, or combat aircraft strike package,” Justin Bronk, a specialist in military technology at Britain’s Royal United Services Institute, wrote in a post on the think tank’s website.

A later statement by Amir Ali Hajizadeh, commander of Iran’s Aerospace Force, said the jet was identified as a cruise missile.

The US versions of those selfguided drones are designed to hug the ground to avoid detection, of-

ten flying within 100 feet of the surface, Zaloga said. The Ukrainian plane was rapidly climbing and was several thousand feet higher.

The missile operator was supposed to obtain approval before commanding a strike, but communications were disrupted and he only had 10 seconds to decide, Hajizadeh said.

Frank admission

DESPITE criticism of Iran’s explanations of the missile attack, the regime was praised by some for not attempting a broader cover-up.

“Notwithstanding two days of denials, this is an admirably frank admission of guilt,” Bronk said in a tweet. “Will help avoid further escalation with the West, help the victim’s families grieve, and prevent years of conspiracy rubbish. Well done. If only Putin had the courage to do the same with MH-17. ” The apparently mistaken missile firing came just hours after Iran launched several ballistic missile barrages on bases in Iraq at which US troops were stationed and Iran’s air-defense system was on high alert. An earlier US attack in Iraq that killed Iran’s top general also heightened tensions.

“We accept full responsibility for this action and we will obey any decision taken by the authorities,” Hajizadeh said.

Iran’s Civil Aviation Organization, which had initially adamantly denied a missile was involved, said it hadn’t received any information on the plane being shot down despite repeated requests for information from military authorities.

Civilian flights

IN spite of those factors, the failure points to broader issues with Iran’s air-defense system, Zaloga said.

Even though the country has had some successes, such as when it shot down a US drone last June, it’s generally seen as antiquated and ineffective, he said.

“The source of the problem may be that they thought they were better than they were,” he said.

Among the questions that also remain is why authorities allowed civilian flights to operate during the tense hours after its attack on the Iraqi bases.

The US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), which had imposed several flight restrictions on US carriers in the region in recent months as tensions rose, reissued those warnings prior to the Tehran crash. The FAA became more aggressive in issuing such warnings in the wake of the 2014 loss of a Malaysian Airlines plane.

There are relatively few surface-to-air missile systems operating around the world that are sophisticated enough to take down a jetliner and they typically aren’t activated unless there’s an imminent threat, Zaloga said. But last week’s incident shows better controls are needed.

“That is something that needs to be discussed at an international level,” Zaloga said.

It wasn’t the first such case of tragic mistaken identity. In 1988, an Iran Air Airbus SE A300 was shot down by the US Navy over the Persian Gulf, killing 290 people.

Its crew mistook the jet for an Iranian fighter jet. In 2014, a Russianmade Buk missile downed a Malaysia Airlines flight as it flew over eastern Ukraine, where fighting was occurring between rebels and that country’s forces.

Iranian officials may have allowed flights to continue because they didn’t want to signal to the US that it was involved in the missile attack against the Iraqi bases, Zaloga said.

The result put those planes at risk, Simon Petersen, a specialist in missile defense issues based in Denmark who asked that his employer not be identified, said in a tweet. “So basically every passenger on every civil plane was used as human shields,” he said.

News

BusinessMirror

www.businessmirror.com.ph • Editor: Vittorio V. Vitug

Saturday, January 18, 2020

A3

Taal Volcano remains life-threatening despite ‘seeming lull’–Phivolcs official

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N erupting Philippine volcano remains life-threatening despite weaker emissions and fewer tremors, an official said Friday and advised thousands of displaced villagers not to return to the danger zone.

T he Ta a l Volc a no em it ted weaker ash and steam explosions Thursday and Friday, the sixth day of its eruption. But despite the “seeming lull,” its cont i nu i ng volc a n ic qu a kes, the dr ying of its crater lake and other signs indicate magma is mov ing beneath the volcano, said Ma. Antonia Bornas, a Philippine Institute of Volcanolog y and Seismolog y official.

“When there is an explosion, that will be life-threatening, especially if people get very near, like on volcano island,” Renato Solidum, who heads the institute, told The Associated Press.

T he volc a no since Su nd ay has remained at alert level 4, the second-highest warning of a volcano’s danger, indicating a hazardous explosive eruption is possible in hours or days. Solidum said assessing whether the volcano’s restiveness has eased may take up to two weeks.

Tens of thousands of people have been evacuated from areas now under a security lockdown, and soldiers and police have been stoppi ng desperate v i l l agers from returning to retrieve belongings and save their poultry and cattle. Police have allowed batches of residents to check

RESIDENTS from different barangay in Talisay and Tanauan Batangas at the National Shrine of Saint Padre Pio in Barangay San Pedro, Santo Tomas, Batangas. PHOTO BY ROY DOMINGO

their homes briefly during the day in some high-risk villages.

Many houses and farms have been damaged by volcanic ash, though no deaths or major injur ies directly caused by the

eruption have been reported.

Authorities have reported one traffic fatality on an ash-slickened road and an evacuee dying from a heart attack.

About 125,000 people fled their

Duterte okays total OFW deployment ban to Kuwait

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RESIDENT Duterte has given the green light to the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) to impose a total deployment ban of overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) to Kuwait, Malacañang announced on Friday.

In a news statement, Presidential spokesman Salvador Panelo said Filipinos are now officially barred from seeking jobs in the Gulf state, following the killing of Filipino domestic worker Jeanelyn Padernal Villavende.

“The Palace wishes to inform the public that President Rodrigo Roa Duterte has approved the recommendation of Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III on the total deployment ban of Filipino workers in Kuwait. The ban includes skilled workers,” Panelo said.

The announcement came after Duterte recently announced that he was not keen on ordering the repatriation of Filipino workers from Kuwait.

In an exclusive interview with ABS-CBN aired last week, the President said he has no plan to pull out Filipinos working in the Gulf state because he was satisfied with the Kuwaiti government’s swift response to Villavende’s case.

Panelo also issued the statement after the DOLE sought the total ban on the deployment of OFWs to Kuwait in the wake of Villavende’s murder and the Arab state’s supposed attempt to cover up the case.

R e s u l t s o f t h e N at i o n a l B u re a u o f I nve s t i g at i o n’s ( N B I ) ex a m i n at i o n o f

SARS-LIKE VIRUS CLAIMS SECOND LIFE IN CHINA

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SECOND person died in central China after being infected with the new SARS-like virus that’s sickened dozens of people in the city of Wuhan, while another traveler to Thailand was found to have the novel coronavirus.

A 69-year-old man died Wednesday at a hospital in Wuhan after a two-week illness that progressed to multi organ failure, the city’s health commission said late Thursday. Thai

health officials said Friday a 74-year-old visitor from China tested positive for the pneumoniacausing virus, the second case reported this week in the Southeast Asian country.

The infections, along with one in Japan reported Thursday, have heightened concern that the outbreak is spreading.

The novel coronavirus has captured international attention because of similarities with the one that sparked Severe Acute Re-

Vi l l ave n d e’s re m a i n s s h owe d s i g n s o f s ex u a l a b u s e o n t h e v i c t i m . Th e re we re a l s o “o l d h e a l e d wo u n d s” w h i c h i n d i c ate that Villavende had been battered we e k s p r i o r to h e r k i l l i n g.

Panelo said it seemed that the Kuwaiti government is trying to conceal the truth.

“The result of the re-autopsy conducted by the NBI indicates that overseas Filipino worker Jeanelyn Villavende was sexually abused and sodomized,” he said.

“The Kuwaiti government was attempting to hide the said circumstance when it gave us a general autopsy report that the cause of death was trauma and bruises all over her body,” he added.

Panelo said the total deployment ban

would not be lifted unless Kuwait honors the 2018 labor deal with the Philippines.

He was referring to the memorandum of agreement on the protection of OFWs in the Arab country signed by the two countries on May 11, 2018.

“PRRD [President Rodrigo Roa Duterte) is for a total ban until the memorandum of agreement between the two countries is fully implemented and the terms contained therein are incorporated in every labor contract with our OFWs,” he said.

The labor pact between the Philippines and Kuwait was seen as a solution to end the persistent human-rights violations committed

by Kuwaiti employers against their Filipino workers. PNA

spiratory Syndrome, or SARS, 17 years ago.

Unlike SARS, which killed almost 800 people, the new virus doesn’t appear to spread easily between people. Much remains to be understood about the new coronavirus, which was first identified in China earlier this month, the World Health Organization said in a statement Thursday.

“Not enough is known about 2019-nCoV to draw definitive conclusions about how it is transmitted, clinical features of disease, or the extent to which it has spread,” the Geneva-based agency said. “The source also remains unknown.”

Municipal health authorities in Wuhan, a city of 11 million people, have reported 41 cases of pneumonia caused by the 2019-nCoV virus. Twelve patients have been cured and

discharged, five are being treated for severe illness, and two have died. The rest are being treated in isolation wards in hospitals around the city. No new cases have been detected in Wuhan since January 3, 2020.

A man in his 30s, who lives in Kanagawa Prefecture, south of Tokyo, was hospitalized with pneumonia on January 10 and discharged with a mild cough five days later, the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare said Thursday.

Prior to returning to Japan on January 6, he’d spent time with an infected person in Wuhan, and developed a fever on January 3.

The case reported Friday in Thailand is receiving treatment, officials said. An initial case, reported Monday, has been treated and is awaiting clearance to return home.

U.S. WARSHIP SAILS ON TAIWAN STRAIT AFTER TRADE DEAL, POLLS

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US warship sailed through the Taiwan Strait, after President Donald Trump signed a trade deal with China and Taiwan reelected a leader seeking greater American military support to counter a threat from Beijing.

The US Navy’s trip through the narrow water body separating the island from the Chinese mainland Thursday was announced in a statement by the Taiwanese Ministry of National Defense.

The US Seventh Fleet confirmed that a “routine” Taiwan Strait transit was conducted by the USS Shiloh, a Ticonderogaclass guided-missile cruiser.

“The ship’s transit through the Taiwan Strait demonstrates the US commitment to a free and open IndoPacific,” said Lieutenant Joe Keiley, a fleet spokesman. “The US Navy

will continue to fly, sail and operate anywhere international law allows.”

The passage came five days after the island’s China-skeptic president, Tsai Ing-wen, won a landslide reelection victory. During her first term, Tsai has courted increased US

military support to counter a pressure campaign led by China, which views the island as part of its territory.

The US Navy conducted nine transits through the Taiwan Strait in 2019, the most since former President Barack Obama’s final year in office,

when American warships passed through the water body 12 times.

On Wednesday, Trump and President Xi Jinping sealed a “phase one” trade pact as part of a broader attempt to deescalate trade tensions that have roiled global markets for more than a year. The deal is expected to do little to resolve broader strategic tensions between the US and an increasingly powerful China.

While China says it doesn’t oppose the “normal passage” of foreign military vessels through the Taiwan Strait, it has criticized trips that appeared intended to send a geopolitical signal.

After a similar transit in July, the Chinese foreign ministry said it “expressed concerns” to the US side, urging Washington to respect its contention that both sides belong to “one China.” Bloomberg News

homes just in hardest-hit Batangas province, more than 65 kilometers south of the capital, Manila.

At least 373 evacuation sites were crammed with displaced villagers and needed more ash masks, por-

table toilets, bottled water and sleeping mats, according to a provincial disaster-response office.

The government’s main disaster agency reported a little more than 77,000 people were displaced in Batangas and the nearby provinces of Cavite and Laguna. The reason for the discrepancy was not immediately clear.

A mong those displaced were about 5,0 0 0 people who l ive on t he isl a nd where t he Ta a l Volca no l ies. T he isl a nd is a popular tourist destination renow ned for its st u nning v iew of the volcano’s crater lake and lush h i l ls teem ing w it h t rees a nd bird s. Defense Secret a r y Del f in L oren za na has recommended t hat v i l l agers shou ld not be a l lowed bac k.

The 1,020-foot Taal is the second-most restive of about 2 dozen active volcanoes across the Philippines. The archipelago lies in the Pacific “Ring of Fire,” the string of faults around the ocean basin where much of the world’s seismic activity occurs. AP

Eruption cost to agri soars to ₧3B–DA

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HE cost of damage to agriculture due to the Taal Volcano eruption has soared to P3 billion, the Department of Agriculture (DA) reported on Friday.

In its latest damage report, the DA said the agricultural damages and losses covered a total of 15,790 hectares and 1,923 animal heads in the Calabarzon region.

The department cited that the fisheries sector is the most affected with an estimated amount of P1.6 billion in losses for the culture of tilapia and some bangus species.

Other affected commodities include coffee, cacao, pineapple, assorted fruits and vegetables, rice, and coconut.

The Bureau of Animal Industry has delivered 20 bags of animal feeds, drugs and medicines for the rescued livestock. Earlier, the DA regional office in Calabarzon announced the distribution of P21.7 million worth of combined inter ventions

for crops and livestock to 17 local government units i nc lud i ng A gonc i l lo, Sa n Nicol a s, Ta l isay, L emer y, Laurel, Lipa City, San Jose, Nasugbu, Mataas na K ahoy, Balete, Cuenca, A litagtag, Padre Garcia, Tanauan City, Malvar and Taal.

As for loan assistance, the Agricultural Credit Policy Council has an initial amount of P30 million ready to provide to Rural Bank of Mount Carmel as funds for the implementation of Survival and Recovery Loan Assistance that will benefit around 1,200 farmers, or fisherfolk, in Batangas.

According to the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council, the number of families affected by the eruption of Taal Volcano in Batangas rose to 17,555, which is equivalent to 77,438 persons.

Of this number, 15,047 familie or 66,262 persons are temporarily staying in 283 evacuation centers. PNA

A4 Saturday, January 18, 2020

ExportUnlimited BusinessMirror

Trade dept sees more export opportunities for PHL in ’20

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HILIPPINE exporters are seen to gain more opportunities in 2020 on the back of strong support and commitment from both the government and the private sectors.

This as the latest Philippine exports of goods and services grew by 5.1 percent year-on-year (YOY) to $25.0 billion in the third quarter of 2019 based on the Balance of Payment Manual 6 (BPM6) data from the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP).

The 2019 third-quarter export growth performance was bolstered by an 8.6-percent YOY increase in services exports, with a value of $11.1 billion for the quarter. It was also backed by the 2.4-percent YOY increase in the goods exports valued at $13.9 billion.

Goods and ser vices’ exports climbed 3.7 percent to $70.4 billion spanning from January to September 2019. Services exports rose by

7.7 percent year-to-date (YTD) to $30.6 billion driven by a double-digit increase in exports of travel services due to bigger international tourist arrivals. Aside from travel services, information-technology and businessprocess management (IT-BPM) also contributed to the services exports’ good showing.

On the other hand, exports of electronics products, bananas, and forestry and mineral products contributed to the moderate increase in the exports of goods.

“We follow the targets of the Philippine Export Development Plan [PEDP] with strong support and commitment across major in-

dustries. We remain positive on the opportunities for 2020 as we in the Trade Promotions Group of the DTI [Department of Trade and Industry] continue to pursue the strategies for export growth. Currently, we have electronics, food and beverages, ITBPM and business services, creative industries, lifestyle and wearables, and halal as among the priority sectors for export promotion driven by global demand,” said Undersecretary for Trade and Promotions Group Abdulgani M. Macatoman.

Macatoman pointed out that under the PEDP 2018-2022, the overall objective is to reach between $122 billion to $130.8 billion by 2022. To achieve this, the DTI is pushing for the improvement of the overall climate for export development and ease of doing business. Likewise, the availment of preferential trade agreements poses as a significant element for the competitiveness of Philippine exports.

“As part of the comprehensive package of support for Philippine exporters, we have initiatives to elevate the

capacity of exporters across priority sectors and, in parallel, we have identified priority markets for export promotion both for inbound and outbound opportunities,” said Macatoman.

Among the priority export destinations that the TPG is set to visit this year for the outbound business matching missions, through the Export Marketing Bureau (EMB), Center for International Trade Expositions and Missions, Foreign Trade Service Corps, and various collaborators from other DTI units and the private sector include both the traditional and nontraditional markets: Europe, Canada, and East Asia for the promotion of Creative Services; Europe and East Asia for the promotion of Green Business; Association of Southeast Asian Nations, Gulf Cooperation Council, Turkey, Egypt, China, and Iran for Halal Products and Services; Asean, East Asia, and Europe for the Lifestyle Sector; East Asia, Southeast Asia, Europe, US and the Middle East for the Food Sector; and Russia, Mexico and Africa for Fast Moving Goods.

Exporters told: Tap modern tech for quality, world-class products

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XPORTERS are encouraged to employ new technologies to produce internationally competitive products and services, and help grow Philippine exports deemed the linchpin of economic growth in the country.

Trade Undersecretary Abdulgani Macatoman said access to information in the digital era dramatically improves the lives of billions of people in the world through increasingly powerful computing devices and network, digital services and mobile devices.

“It [digital technology] can also provide workers with new tools and insight to decide more creative solutions to previously insurmountable problems,” he said.

Macatoman also cited innovations in artificial intelligence (AI), robotics, biotechnology and other emerging technological advancement.

The trade official further underscored the importance of working with the private sector and the academe, noting the responsibility for growing Philippines exports is not only with the public sector.

However, he said, the govern-

ment will play an important role in setting the framework to growth and applying the needed action to stimulate growth in areas, such as innovation, research and development, skills, education, exports, foreign direct investments (FDI) and entrepreneurship.

“This also means identifying and supporting business growth in areas where there is the greatest potential while ensuring the needed economic [dynamism] and infrastructure is in place to capitalize on the existing opportunities,” he added.

Macatoman said this is in line with the current Philippine Export Development Plan 2018-2022 that aims to achieve exports target of $122 billion to $130 billion by the year 2022 even factoring in the trade war between China and the United States.

“Analysis and studies have shown that the current trade war... will be beneficial to the country especially to the exporters, particularly in the manufacturing industries. Thus, no matter what challenge the export community faces, the sector proves to be always resilient,” he added.

Philippines is 1st among Pioneering Special Economic Zone Institute seen to rise in Ilocos Norte Asean peers to accede to L UN treaty on digital trade

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HE Philippines has acceded to the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (Unescap) Framework Agreement on Facilitation of Cross-border Paperless Trade in Asia and the Pacific on December 23, 2019, in New York, making it the first Asean member-country to do so.

Designed as an inclusive instrument accessible to countries at all levels of development to develop their capacity to engage in crossborder paperless trade, the final treaty text was adopted by Unescap in May 2016.

It is expected to provide countries in Asia and the Pacific with a new tool and “digital” complement to better implement the World Trade Organization (WTO) Trade Facilitation Agreement (TFA) and the development of cross-border e-commerce.

Trade cost reductions expected from full implementation of cross-border paperless trade are estimated at 10 percent to 30 percent of existing transactions costs, depending on the current state of paperless trade development in the participating countries.

Significant benefits in terms of trade compliance are also expected. Based on the Unescap report, titled “Digital and Sustainable Trade Facilitation in Asean,” implementation of cross-border paperless trade, together with the WTO TFA, is expected to help the Philippines cut trade costs by at least 10 percent, boosting its competitiveness.

Trade cost savings could increase further should Philippines trade partners also join in the initiative.

Other benefits of the framework agreement include ready access to potential counterpart countr ies for negotiation on cross-border data exchange, thus avoiding numerous bilateral approaches and reducing the work involved in preparing bilateral, or subregional arrangements, and improving paperless trade readiness at national level.

It also provides the opportunity to make national paperless trade practices interoperable and become better prepared to engage in cross-border trade data exchange, in particular through structured and regular sharing of lessons.

AOAG CITY—The province of Ilocos Norte is expected to host the pioneering Special Economic Zone Institute (Sezi) in Region 1 with the staterun Mariano Marcos State University (MMSU) as the lead data bank service provider.

In an inception meeting held at the Sangguniang Panlalawigan session hall on Monday, Jacky Gajudo, executive assistant to the director general and chairman of Sezi, said MMSU is equipped with resources and manpower to carry out the program.

“As a Sezi, the main function is to act as collaborator/coordinator in addressing the demands of potential investors such as the provision of technical data pertaining to research and development,” said Gajudo, citing local government units could also help the institute in the promotion of export-oriented investments and alleviate poverty in the region.

During the meeting, MMSU President Dr. Shirley Agrupis said the university has proposed at least three ecozone initiatives to the Philippine Economic Zone Authority (Peza) last year.

These include the transformation of the MMSU College of Aquatic Science and Applied Technology (Casat) in Currimao town as an aquamarine zone, the conversion of the univer-

THE province of Ilocos Norte is set to have its Special Economic Zone Institute this year. During the inception meeting held at the Capitol session hall, MMSU President Shirley Agrupis (right) said the university is ready to host the Sezi’s office to be located in the Batac campus. Also in photo are Ilocos Norte Vice Gov. Cecile Araneta Marcos (middle) and Jacky Gajudo, executive assistant to the director general and chairman of the Sezi. PHOTO BY LEILANIE G. ADRIANO

sity’s forest reserve plantations in Barangay Payao as an agroforestry zone, and the creation of the Knowledge, Innovation, Science and Technology Park inside the 300-hectare university main campus in Batac City.

Republic Act 7916, or t he Special Ecozone Act of 1995, mandates the Peza to provide employment opportunities for the Filipinos, increase their productivity and income, especially

those in the rural areas through the establishment of Sezi of various types in suitable and strategic locations in the country, and through a measure that shall effectively attract legitimate and productive investments.

Creating Sezi is one of the important programs under the stewardship of Peza. The aim is to enhance partnership with Technical Education and Skills Development Authority, Commission on

Higher Education, Department of Science and Technology, local government units, and industry associations to make Filipinos become multiskilled, rich human capital and become world-class workers.

It will also provide professional, technical, and vocational training that matches the manpower needs of foreign and domestic industries in order to attract more investors to the country; and promote exportoriented investments, and increase productivity and income in the countryside.

Agrupis said MMSU is the only state university in the Ilocos region that shall serve as the programdelivering partner and office host of the Sezi that will be established in Batac City.

Comes January 23, Gajudo announced the Sezi office will be officially opened at the National Bioenergy Research and Innovation Center of MMSU. “This will serve as a start-up or inception to a regional Peza after five years,” he added. For Sarrat Mayor Remigio Medrano, Ilocos Norte has huge investment potentials but it needs to further improve its infrastructure.

“We can only hope so much because of our current infrastructure.

For example, there is no regular port schedule and we have limited air flights,” he said. PNA

www.businessmirror.com.ph

OurTime BusinessMirror

Over 20,000 elderly Negrenses get P124.6-M social pension for 2019

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By Nanette Guadalquiver | Philippine News Agency

ACOLOD CITY—A total of P124.608 million was paid by the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) to indigent senior citizens in Negros Occidental in 2019.

Records of the DSWD showed that 20,853 Negrenses aged 60 and above received social pensions during the period.

May Rago-Castillo, information officer of DSWD-Western Visayas, said on Monday the beneficiaries, who initially received the stipend, are those from 15 cities and municipalities in Negros Occidental.

“That’s around 50 percent of those in Negros Occidental,” Rago-Castillo said.

These include the cities of Bacolod, Cadiz, Sagay, Victorias, San Carlos, Talisay, Silay, and the municipalities of Murcia, Pulupan-

dan, Cauayan, Salvador Benedicto, Manapla, Valladolid, San Enrique and Hinigaran.

In these areas, there are still 4,144 beneficiaries who have yet to be paid. These are usually those who were not present during the payout schedules.

For the first quarter this year, scheduled to be paid are social pensioners from the cities of Escalante, Bago, Himamaylan, Kabankalan, Sipalay, and towns of Toboso, Calatrava, E.B. Magalona, Pontevedra, Moises Padilla, Isabela, La Castellana, Binalbagan, Hinoba-an, Ilog, and Candoni.

Rago-Castillo said they aim to pay the remaining 24,997 social pensioners in these areas by the end of January.

“There’s a slight delay in the release of the social pension because we completed the revalidation and reassessment of social pensioners’ list only on June 20, 2019,” she added.

Starting 2019, the social pension is directly released by the DSWD to beneficiaries on a semestral basis.

Each pensioner receives P500 a month, or P6,000 a year.

The Social Pension Program is being implemented by the DSWD for indigent senior citizens to improve their condition by giving them subsidies they can use for their daily and medical needs.

Those who can avail of the pension program are elderly who are at least 60 years old, Filipino citizen, frail, sickly or with a disability, has no regular income or support from his/her family or relatives, and does not have any pension from any private or government institution.

CDC BRINGS JOY TO ELDERLY

Clark Development Corp. (CDC), gives back to the community through a gift giving project at the Bahay Pag-ibig House of Prayer. In photo are the elderly in Bahay Pag-ibig who are the beneficiaries of the said project. CDC-CD PHOTO

Editor: Angel R. Calso • Saturday, January 18, 2020 A5

We can never thank them enough

By Nick Tayag

I

MY SIXTY-ZEN’S WORTH

RECENTLY watched an Indian film on Netflix called Billu about an impoverished barber in a remote forgotten rural village in India and a movie celebrity who has been looking for him all these years to repay a kindness done in the past. The film touches on lasting impact of sincere friendship and lifelong gratitude.

“Gratitude is the memory of the heart, ” wrote Jean Baptiste Massieu. Perhaps, at this point in our lives, it’s time for old folks like us to look back in gratitude and thank all the people who have helped and even changed us. The time to go back and see them and pay them recognition is now before it’s too late.

Which brings me to the last film made by Akira Kurosawa, called Madadayo. A quiet, poignant and elegant reflection on aging, wisdom and tolerance, it portrays the affection and loyalty felt between a retired teacher and his students. The old sensei basks in the admiring solicitude of his loyal students, who organize yearly birthday banquets during which the students, now also old, sing about ‘’looking up to our teacher, thinking of our debt.”

The film is an inspiring ode to gratitude to mentors who shaped and molded us. For we wouldn’t be where we are today if it wasn’t for people on whom we rely on a daily basis.

We can start by thinking about our parents.

Who gave you life and raised you, and took care of you—as a baby you were helpless and would have died very quickly if others hadn’t taken care of you. Who helped you learn how to walk and speak? Who taught you the alphabet, math, English, science, civics and other subjects?

What about the people who helped you during your adulthood, your years as an office worker, and so on. Think of your

friends, classmates, uncles or grandparents, coworkers, work mentors, bosses. People who helped you, people who made you to learn some lessons, people who gave you good and bad experiences. Never forget that whatever you’ve achieved is not only your efforts but the combined efforts of people whom you’ve met on the way to success.

Many of us mistakenly believe that we don’t actually have to say the words “thank you” out loud. We assume our loved ones know how thankful we are for all they have done for us. The truth is, often our loved ones really don’t know how much we appreciate them.

Offering gratitude for the acts of kindness others have extended to you is quick and easy. It takes little time and effort to say “Thank You,” yet it can have a tremendous impact on completing important relationships. You can find something to be thankful for in every relationship in your life. Surely you can find something to be thankful for in each relationship in your life. Now is the time to tell them, Thank you!

If you are in touch with your “sensitive side” and find it easy to express your feelings by saying Thank you, then just go ahead and do it. If you, like many people, find saying those three little words more terrifying than jumping out of an airplane without a parachute, there are other ways you can express sentiments of gratitude.

Some people might be more comfortable expressing gratitude in a written letter or card. Others find less obvious, but equally meaningful ways of expressing love.

In what ways can you get creative in expressing your gratitude? If Paul Simon can sing “50 Ways To Leave Your Lover,” surely you can find 50 ways of saying or expressing your gratitude.

Street proposed to be named after founder of Baguio university

MacArthur originally landed on San Fabian Beach–UP professor B

By Pigeon Lobien

Philippine News Agency

Dr. RICARDO JOSE, University of the Philippines-Diliman professor and historian, serves as the resource speaker during a forum at Lingayen, Pangasinan, on January 8, 2020. Jose claims that Gen. Douglas MacArthur originally landed in the Blue Beach of San Fabian, eastern section of the Lingayen Gulf exactly 2:15 p.m. of January 9, 1945, during World War II.

PHOTO FROM PANGASINAN PROVINCE FACEBOOK PAGE

By Jerick James Pasiliao Philippine News Agency

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INGAYEN, Pangasinan—Seventyfive years after Gen. Douglas MacArthur had landed in Pangasinan with his troops, leading the liberation of Luzon during World War II, a discussion on where he actually landed in the province is still ongoing as yet another historian claims that it was not on the coast of Lingayen nor in Dagupan City, but in San Fabian town.

“General Douglas MacArthur originally landed in the Blue Beach of San Fabian, eastern section of the Lingayen Gulf, exactly 2:15 p.m. of January 9, 1945,” said University of the Philippines-Diliman Prof. and historian Dr. Ricardo Jose, who served as the resource speaker during a forum here

on January 8, ref uting earlier claims that MacArthur landed on the coasts of Dagupan City or Lingayen town.

The landing is a significant part of history as the liberation of Luzon island had started on that a f ter noon when MacArthur and his troops landed on

the coast, he said.

“However, air strike bombardments began when the United States Seventh Fleet entered the Lingayen Gulf from the Pearl Harbor on January 6, 1945. It was a signal that the US Seventh Fleet survived the battle in Pearl Harbor,” he added.

In his lecture, Jose said the life of the Filipinos during the Japanese occupation was very poor because of some restrictions imposed.

“During the occupation of the Japanese, life was so hard because everything was censored,” he said.

Jose said Japanese military took over the government where they tortured many Filipinos whom they believed were doing activities against the will of the Japanese,

more commonly known as Kempeitai.

Aside from the guerrilla resistance, Filipinos were able to manage these acts of the Japanese through indistinct responses by not abiding to some cultures and traditions the Japanese would like to instill among Filipinos, he added.

Meanwhile, Center for Pangasinan Studies (CPS) Executive Director Dr. Perlita Legaspi said the activity aims to educate people, especially the youth, about the historic events that took place in Pangasinan.

“This forum aims to educate people about our past and to recognize the gallantry of our forefathers who fought for our liberation,” she said in her speech.

Legaspi said the activity further enhances one’s patriotism and love for country, particularly for Pangasinan that played a significant role during the Lingayen Gulf Landings and World War II. “As Pangasinenses, this lecture-forum reminded us of our role during the WWII, our patriotism and how we fought for freedom,” Legaspi said.

It also informed the millennials about the struggles of Pangasinenses and how the early generation of Pangasinenses survived before and after the war.

The forum was organized by the Pangasinan provincial government, National Historical Commission and the CPS. Annually, Pangasinan commemorates the Lingayen Gulf Landing, while the Dagupan City government also holds the annual Luzon Landing commemorative program.

Since 2007, Pangasinan celebrates the Veterans’ Day every January 9 to honor the veterans from the province who fought alongside American soldiers during World War II.

AGUIO CITY—A city councilor has proposed the naming of a street after a founder of one of the three bastions of education here.

In a proposed ordinance to the city council, Councilor Betty Lourdes Tabanda wants to name a portion of the Perfecto Street at Burnham Park after the late Dr. Margarita “Itang” Joven THE third force that helped Baguio become a center for learning in northern Luzon and Fernandez, founder of the a female to boot, Dr. Margarita Joven Fernandez, might get the proper recognition she Baguio Central University. deserves like her contemporaries Benjamin Salvosa and Fernando Bautista Sr., founders Tabanda, in her propos- of the University of the Cordilleras and the University of Baguio, respectively. Once the al, said that naming a part proposal is approved, Fernandez would also get her “own street” at Burnham Park, of the 100-meter road from which now serves as a terminal for westbound public transport. PNA PHOTO BY PIGEON LOBIEN the Lake Drive junction to the footbridge at Harrison Road—which now became the first president of the Universerves as a depot for westbound jeepneys—is sity and, through her leadership, expanded to commemorate the educator who founded its academic programs and infrastructure one of the universities that defined Baguio as development. an educational hub.

In naming a portion of the street, Tabanda Fernandez founded the school right after noted and praised Fernandez for “bringing World War II that may have started the school honors to the City of Baguio” through her local building drive in the city. and international awards, and for her being a In 1946, the late lawyer Benjamin Salvosa champion of women’s welfare. founded the Baguio Colleges that would become The proposed ordinance was approved on the Baguio Colleges Foundation (BCF) and now first reading during the City Council’s Regular the University of the Cordilleras (UC), while Session on January 6 and was referred to the the late Fernando Bautista Sr. established the Committee on Education, Culture, Creativity, Baguio Tech in 1948, now the University of and Historical Research for further study and Baguio (UB). recommendation.

While her two contemporaries had their Baguio is home to more than 100,000 college names inscribed in two streets just below the students from its various universities, colleges, Baguio City Hall—the Fernando Bautista Drive technical-vocational schools and the military and Benjamin Salvosa Drive, Fernandez was not learning institution of the Philippine Military given the same recognition.

Academy (PMA).

Fernandez was named as a builder of Baguio The biggest is Saint Louis University which like her two contemporaries during the city’s has more than 35,000 students from preschool centennial celebration for founding the school, to postgraduate. UC and UB are also home to which holds campuses along the streets of Magmore than 15,000 students at all levels. saysay and Bonifacio.

The three are among the best schools in Tabanda, in penning the proposed orthe country in terms of professional board dinance, wrote that in 1979, Fernandez passers.

A6

Saturday, January 18, 2020 | Editor: Mike Besa

THE long par 4 ninth plays back up the hill to the clubhouse.

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Story & photos

by Mike Besa

FIRST got wind of Splendido Taal Golf Club back in the mid-90s when I was working with a tech company providing hospitality information systems to the industry. In our portfolio was a club management system that I was tasked to market to the local golf industry.

One of the clubs that came up on my radar as a potential client was Splendido.

I heard that they’d broken ground at the time and since I was often at the now closed Evercrest Banyan Tree Resort looking in on our installation there, I decided to try and find the site on which Splendido was to rise.

I’ve been driving along the Tagaytay ridge since I learned to drive back in college.

We would come up for weekends at a friend’s house. We ‘d drive up on Saturday nights to have a few beers and sing songs under the stars. It was even more beautiful back then; there were few structures to detract from the magnificent view of the lake. For the life of me, I couldn’t understand why I could not find the Splendido site.

As it happens, I was looking in the wrong direction. I assumed that because the lakeside of the Tagaytay-Nasugbu Highway looked like a sheer cliff that the golf club would be on the opposite side.

MANY golf balls find a watery grave in the hazard on 17.

A MOST IMPROB

SPLENDIDO TAA I was mistaken! I think I drove by there more than a dozen times before I noticed the massive earthwork on the lake side of the road.

Only then did it dawn on me that I’d found what I was seeking.

The developers, the JAKA Group, basically, filled the ravine, moving some 13 million cubic meters of earth to create a suitable site for the Greg Norman designed track. In my years as a golf writer, I’ve never heard of another golf

course that’s defied nature in this fashion.

Whoever’s idea this was clearly knew what he was doing. Against the odds, Splendido Taal Golf Club not only survives but currently thrives amid the turmoil and uncertainty that is the local golf industry.

Splendido Taal isn’t overly long at a hair under 7,000 yards, but the think to note is the forward tees aren’t all that much shorter.

This means the course will play longer than average for the average golfer.

It does have a few very long holes, though. The longest on the card is No. 5—it’s 464 yards from the tips but plays slightly shorter than that since the second shot plays downhill. Conversely the 435-yard ninth plays significantly longer that it reads on the card since the hole plays entirely up the hill back to the clubhouse.

The golf course opens with two par 5s.

The first is straightforward enough and offers a real birdie opportunity at the start of your

round. Be prepared to give that back on two; the tee shot plays over a yawning ravine to the fairway on the other side.

Perhaps, even more harrowing than that is the tee shot on the par-3 eighth hole. It plays a hair over 200 yards back over the same ravine from the member’s tees.

A unique feature of Splendido Taal is that its greens are covered in a turf grass found in only one other golf course in the country.

Evergreen is a low growing fairway couch

MORE SPEED AND DISTANCE?

How the big two are trying to help you hit the golf ball further

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Y now we’ve all heard and seen the first videos and reviews of the new 2020 drivers on the Internet.

As usual, they’re all promising us, the consumers, the same thing—more speed, more distance. But is this actually possible?

Most of us have become more than a bid jaded with the marketing pitches of golf’s biggest equipment manufacturers and the speed at which new golf clubs are being released. With each new release, manufacturers promise more clubhead speed and more distance.

In the interest of preserving golf’s heritage golf courses, the R&A and USGA have clamped down hard on the driver. There are constraints on the speed of the clubface, the size of the clubhead and the length of the shaft. They’ve done everything that they can to limit how much distance we can get out of the driver, so how are companies like Callaway and TaylorMade making drivers that keep pushing the limits?

The answer is complex. Both companies have gone about improving their products differently. This helps their marketing efforts immensely as both have always produced great products that have proven themselves in the hands of the consumer. Step out on the first tee of any golf course and chances are pretty good that most of the golfers will have either a Callaway or TaylorMade driver in their bags.

Both manufacturers have plenty of technology at their disposal, but in their rush to get product to market, both could have done a better job at integrating and synergizing the applied tech. This year is one in which Callaway and TaylorMade are working hard to find incremental gains to make their products better. Gone are the days of massive gains just by changing your driver. Today, the name of the game is to make small improvements in a number of places hoping they add up to as substantial gain in distance.

Both Callaway and TaylorMade have brought their faces to the very edge of what the rules allow. TaylorMade

claims that their Injected Twist Face actually starts as illegal and is reigned in with the foam that’s injected into the cavity behind the clubface. Callaway’s Flash Face was designed by artificial intelligence and the most sophisticated digital prototyping in the golf industry.

Both companies trade on the extreme amounts of MOI in their drivers to make them as forgiving as possible.

But one thing that both manufacturers have discovered is how to decouple spin from MOI. This is where new gains are being made.

Here’s the thing. As the moment of inertia, or the amount of forgiveness increases, the amount of spin generated by the driver increases also. This is also why low spinning drivers have been difficult to hit well and are generally left to the better player or the professional golfer.

The latest drivers from both manufacturers go a great way to close that gap. After all, if you could have both ease of use with low spin, it would be the best of both worlds. This is exactly what they’ve done.

Callaway, like TaylorMade, has worked on more closely synergizing its driver tech in the Mavrik line, learning as its crosstown rival did from its tour staff. For example, the Mavrik Subzero leverages things Callaway learned from the Epic Flash triple black diamond that made such an impact on the PGA Tour last year. It’s now a bit smaller at 450cc and like the Rogue Subzero, has weights that you can flip to alter the launch angle.

The developments in the Flash Face have allowed Callaway to reduce the MOI of the Mavrik without compromising forgiveness. This is the decoupling of MOI and spin we talked about earlier in this piece. Not only does

Mavrik boost off-center ball speeds over Epic Flash, but it also improves them to the degree that Callaway doesn’t need to rely on MOI to maintain ball speed. The face does most of the work. That allows Callaway to shift the center of gravity forward, which provides the spin consistency on off-center hits that most manufacturers covet.

TaylorMade’s SIM (Shape In Motion) Driver uses the

www.pinoygolfer.com | Saturday, January 18, 2020

A7

THE charming clubhouse at Splendido Taal has become a popular venue for wedding receptions.

BABLE GOLF COURSE

AL GC FINDS A WAY variety with fine, dark green leaves. This variety has been used by Greg Norman and his golf course design teams for some of the best golf courses in Australia. It is a unique couch variety due to its ability to thrive and retain a deep green color in full sun with only moderate water. It produces minimal thatch and seed head which makes it very easy to maintain for the golf club.

Unfortunately for us, it is devilishly difficult to read because of a very irregular

grain pattern. But this only adds to the charm of Splendido. It seems to have taken hold here. The greens were quick and rolling very well in spite of the heavy tourist traffic.

Situated where it is, Splendido Taal Golf Club is immensely entertaining to play and offers stunning views of the Taal Volcano and lake, and is routed to make the best use of the scenery. There are a number of forced carries over yawning ravines and strategic carries over parts of the hillside. Norman was

a great driver of the golf ball and one of the best ball strikers of his day. His course will ask you to show off these skills.

This is a course that provides plenty of thrills without becoming absurd. It is great fun and one of the best golf courses on the Tagaytay Ridge. Against the odds, Splendido Taal Golf and Country Club has become the complete package for everyone.

The clubhouse is executed in a gorgeous Southwestern Mission style. It is at once

funky looking Inertial Generator on the sole of the club to position the greatest discretionary mass as low and as far back as possible. This came after they noticed that their tour staff, almost to a man, had their M5 drivers set with weights in that position to maximize forgiveness.

To decrease the spin potential caused by the lower center of gravity, TM’s Speed Slot was employed to decrease the amount of spin generated on hits lower in the clubface. They also repositioned their Inverted Cone behind the clubface to work more in harmony with the Twist Face. Both these improvements not only close the spin window between good and poor hits but do much to make the club more forgiving on off-center hits.

The other area that both manufacturers focused on to help us swing our drivers faster was aerodynamics. TaylorMade’s SIM

CALLAWAY Flash Face

TAYLORMADE Sim Driver Speed Injected-face

TM SIM Driver family

CALLAWAY Mavrik Drivers

homey and elegant. The restaurant offers some of the best food in any golf club in the country. Because of its beauty and serenity combined with its proximity to the Tagaytay Ridge, the course has become a very popular wedding venue.

Splendido Taal Golf Club has done everything in its power to carve out its niche in the local golf industry. It’s been a battle that was hard fought. They’ve had to deal with the share price crash and

concept focuses on the aerodynamics of the clubhead in the 3 feet before impact. In that area, the club isn’t coming into the ball with the face square to the ball, the clubhead is coming in at an angle and rotating until the clubhead squares up with the golf ball and target line.

To address the aerodynamic qualities of the driver in this area, The Inertial Generator is positioned at a 20-degree angle toward the toe. This puts the weight in a position that doesn’t disrupt the airflow as the clubhead accelerates toward the golf ball.

Further, the rear skirt of the SIM driver is raised and drops very slightly before coming to an abrupt end above the Inertial Generator. This allows the airflow to stay attached to the clubhead and improves its aerodynamic properties.

The Mavrik counters with its AI-derived Cyclone shape. To increase the potential speed of the driver head, Callaway used AI to overcome the trade-offs of forgiveness, aerodynamics,

subsequent depression of the local golf market, it’s distance from Manila and plenty of competition from the superb golf courses elsewhere in the Calabarzon that enjoy closer proximity to the city.

It dodged the proverbial bullet when it escaped the eruption of Taal Volcano earlier in the week with minor ashfall on its fairways, spared by the shifting winds. It continues to operate for the pleasure of us all. Long may the club endure.

and ball speed to build a new profile that is much more aerodynamically efficient and forgiving. The Mavrik shares the raised crown/raised skirt design of the SIM (not unusual since both products were tested in wind tunnels).

What we can expect from both driver families is that these clubs are going to be more forgiving on off-center hits. We believe they will probably make you longer on average because they will cost you less on hits away from the center of the clubface. The limitations on the speed off the clubface make it difficult to see large gains in distance on hits here.

Now, the P50,000 question is whether either of these drivers will allow the average Juan to increase his clubhead speed and add yards to his or her drive. We’ll share all of this with you as soon as we get samples of each driver to test.

Watch this space. Mike Besa

Sports BusinessMirror

A8 Saturday, January 18, 2020

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

SHIFT IN OLYMPIC PHILOSOPHY

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AUSANNE, Switzerland—New ways of solving challenges for Olympic host cities are being tested this month at the Winter Youth Games in Lausanne.

Most athletes taking public transport to their venue.

Staging medal events in a neighboring country.

Creating cost-effective space for hundreds of more competitors with two phases of stays in the athlete village.

Officials from Paris, Milan and Los Angeles—the Olympic hosts from 2024 to 2028—would be wise paying attention to the project in the International Olympic Committee’s (IOC) home city.

W h at work s at t he Yout h OIympics often is picked up by future host cities. Especially since the 2014 Sochi Winter Games, tagged with $51 billion of Russian spending, helped to persuade voters to sink some potentia l bids and increased pressure from the IOC to drive down costs.

“If we can be just a small part of this [Olympic] history and we can help the system, I will be so proud,” Ian Logan, chief executive of Lausanne 2020, told The Associated Press.

I n no v at ion i s e a s ie r at a Yo u t h O l y m p i c s , L o g a n a c knowledged, because key inf luencers are more focused on the

blockbuster Summer Games.

“There is maybe not so much pressure everywhere,” he said.

“But that’s also the purpose of the Youth Games—to be a test bed of different things.”

The Youth Olympics’ role has shifted a little since the first summer edition in 2010 in Singapore.

A signature idea of Jacques Rogge’s 2001-13 presidency of the IOC, it was hoped to be elite competition for 14-to-18-year-olds. Also on the agenda were education in anti-doping and sporting values plus trials of new events.

Singapore’s staging of 3-on-3 basketball drove an urban trend that 10 years later sees it debut at t he 2020 Tok yo Oly mpics alongside sports climbing and skateboarding.

Breakdancing began at the 2018 Buenos Aires Youth Olympics and was added to the 2024 Paris Games.

Not all events had elite lineups.

Soccer in Singapore was a boys’ under-15 tournament. Bolivia, the gold medalist, and Montenegro represented the two strongest continents.

W hen Innsbr uc k , Aust r ia, hosted the debut winter edition

ATHLETES from Romania grab every opportunity for extra rest on the early train to the Ski Mountaineering competition at Villars Winter Park during The Winter Youth Olympic Games in Lausanne. AP

in 2012, 16-year-old Mikaela Shiffrin was already competitive in alpine skiing’s World Cup and had no need for junior races. The January slot, for Innsbruck and Lausanne, also clashes with the biggest alpine races in Austria and Switzerland.

“All the youths wanted to go to Kitzbuehel to watch, more than to compete at Innsbruck,” recalled Gian Franco Kasper, president of the International Ski Federation.

Kasper supports the Youth Olympics concept and a wider pool

of potential medalists. Morocco won an alpine ski gold in 2012, and Israel has taken silver and bronze in Lausanne: “For them it is the greatest thing you can imagine,” he said.

One element of the inaugural games should not be repeated. It cost Singapore organizers close to $30 0 mi l l ion—more t han three times the original budget, and way over the IOC’s suggested $30 million.

Singapore’s IOC member, Ser

Miang Ng, said those games, organized in two-and-a-half years, were “a starting point for subsequent games who can scale up, or scale down.”

The Lausanne Youth Olympics stayed within its $40-million budget during a five-year project when cutting costs and avoiding white elephant buildings became Olympic mantras.

Logan said a speed skating arena in Lausanne was dropped in favor of using the frozen lake

Olympic rings SAINZ VIRTUAL WINNER arrive in Tokyo H A R A DH, Saudi A rabia— At 57, C a rlos Sa i n z is poi se d to w i n a t h i rd Da k a r R a l ly a f ter pl ay ing it safe on the penu ltimate stage on T hursday.

A day after grabbing a giant 18-minute gap on rivals Nasser Al-Attiyah and Stephane Peterhansel, Sainz gave back eight minutes on the sandy 379-kilometer route from Shubaytah back to Haradh.

Peterhansel and A l-Attiyah dueled for more than four hours before Peterhansel prevailed by 10 seconds.

Sainz was content to minimize risks on Stage 11 and cruise home.

A WORKER is dwarfed by the Olympic rings on a barge in the Odaiba district of Tokyo. AP

T

OKYO—The Olympic rings have arrived in Tokyo.

They sailed into Tokyo Bay on Friday on a barge and will stay there until the Olympics open on July 24 and close on August 9.

The blue, black, red, yellow, and green rings will be replaced after that by the symbol for the Paralympics Games, which open on August 25.

The symbol for the Paralympics is called “agitos,”which resembles three brush strokes in red, blue, and green. The word in Latin means “I move.”

The five Olympic rings are gigantic. They stand 15.3 meters high—about 50 feet tall—and are 32.6 meters from end to end— about 100 feet in length.

“We decided to install the Olympic rings at this time because we wanted to do it first thing in the Olympic year,” said Kenichi Kimura, an Olympic official with the Tokyo Metropolitan Government.

The location of the rings in Tokyo Bay is the Odaiba Marine Park, which is the venue for triathlon and distance swimming.

The venue is a made-for television location, with a view across the water of the Tokyo skyline and the Tokyo’s Rainbow bridge.

Many of Tokyo’s venues are located around the bay.

The rings will be the center of attention on Jan. 24 when Tokyo will note its six-months-to-go milestone with a fireworks display. AP

He’s set to add to his previous victories in 2010 and 2018, all of them with co-driver Lucas Cruz.

They have led since Stage 3.

“I’ll keep an eye on the gaps and stay focused for tomorrow,” the Spaniard said.

A l-At t iya h, t he defend i ng champion 10 minutes behind overall, conceded he was driving for second place, only six seconds ahead of Peterhansel, the 13-time winner and teammate of Sainz.

“We gained some time, but not enough,” Peterhansel said. “Now, if Carlos can bring it home, it’ll be great for the team.”

American biker Ricky Brabec is set to win his first Dakar at

his fifth attempt.

Brabec let main r iva l Pablo Quintani l la speed away, and the Chilean held off Matthias Walkner by nine seconds to win his second stage of this Da k ar.

Qu int a ni l l a sl ashed Brabec’s overall lead by 12 minutes down to 14, and that shou ld stil l be plent y for Brabec to w in on Fr iday in Qiddiya.

“I rode defensively today. I went at 70 percent to avoid pushing man and machine too hard,” Brabec said. “I’m happy to be here, and now I’m mainly thinking of getting over the finish line. Tomorrow could be a great day, I just want to keep this good vibe going.” AP

Australian Open organizers defend playing despite poor quality of air

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ELBOURNE, Australia—Australian Open tournament director Craig Tiley defended the decision to hold qualifying matches this week even though Melbourne’s air quality was among the worst in the world because of smoke from wildfires devastating parts of the country.

The tournament has drawn criticism from players for contesting matches in conditions that led one, Dalila Jakupovic, to collapse to her knees while coughing heavily, and another, Bernard Tomic, to seek medical attention because of trouble breathing.

Tiley said Thursday the conditions were under a threshold set after Australian Open organizers consulted with sports and medical experts, and scientists from the Environmental Protection Authority.

“Our medical team were satisfied with the conditions that the players were competing in, per all of the research and the data and the science that they have,” Tiley said.

He said matches would have been stopped if medical staff at Melbourne Park decided it was too unhealthy to keep playing.

“Absolutely, we understand the anger, [but] a lot of it comes from the confusion and the complexity of understanding what goes on,” Tiley said. “We’ve invited the players...to come in at any time to have a conversation.

“If anyone at any time is feeling not well, we have a full medical team. We have a respiratory specialist on hand to deal with any of these issues.”

Qualifying matches were delayed for an

at St. Moritz, almost six hours away by train.

Using the sliding track at St. Moritz also allowed the games to add bobsled, luge and skeleton.

Athletes stay in a youth hostel there, Logan said.

A m ajor sh i f t i n Oly mpic philosophy is detailed by these changes. And not just because the St. Moritz track is there waiting for the call to duty in 2026 from nearby Milan-Cortina d’Ampezzo in Italy.

When Tokyo bid and won in 2013, the strong—and expected—campaign promises included creating the special Olympic experience of living together for two weeks in the athlete village, which was close to most venues.

“If you do this, this is oldfashioned. Today we have to be clever,” said Logan, who is sending dozens of athletes into France for Nordic events.

A Lausanne legacy could be an athlete accommodation plan, in university housing, that creates space for hundreds of more competitors at no extra cost.

Instead of keeping all athletes on site for a two-week education program, many of the occupants in week one leave to make room for a second wave whose events start in week two.

Using that system at a Summer Games could increase the athlete quota limit of around 1 1 , 0 0 0 t h at p r e v e nt s s o m e sports and medal events from joining the program.

“It is very challenging,” Logan concedes. “The concept is really worth looking at.” AP

PARA ATHLETES START HONING

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HE Philippine Sports Commission opened the doors of its newly refurbished PhilSports Complex for national para athletes training for the 2020 Asean Para Games.

“The renovations done in both Rizal Memorial Sports Complex and in PhilSports are primarily for our elite athletes,” PSC Chairman William Ramirez said.

Despite being weeks away from its official turnover, the PSC has already opened the complex in Pasig City to support the para athletes’ preparations for the Games that are rescheduled for March.

“Our national para-athletes are inspired to work harder as they use the new facilities inside PhilSports. We thank the PSC for supporting us,” Philippine Paralympic Committee Executive Director Dennis Esta said.

Esta said para athletes in athletics, powerlifting and sitting volleyball are now using the Pasig City facility.

Ramirez also announced that the para swimmers led by Ernie Gawilan and Garry Bejino are now training at the world-class New Clark City pool, thanks to Bases Conversion and Development Authority Vice President for Business Development Arrey Perez.

“We want to duplicate the success Team Philippines took in the 30th Southeast Asian Games. The PSC will continue to give its full backing to the more than 280 national paraathletes competing in the Para Games,” shared the agency chief.

The Philippines is fielding 280 athletes in the Para Games set in 14 different venues in Metro Manila, Subic and Clark.

MIGHTY SPORTS READY FOR DUBAI HOOPS

H BELARUSIAN Aryna Sabalenka hides under her towel during a break against Ukrainian Dayana Yastremska during their Adelaide International match on Friday. AP

hour on Tuesday and two hours on Wednesday until smoke and haze from the regional wildfires cleared enough to allow play to proceed. Rain late Wednesday improved the air quality in Melbourne.

British player Liam Broady was critical Thursday of the playing conditions he dealt with Tuesday in a 6-3, 6-0 qualifying loss to 131st-ranked Ilya Ivashka of Belarus.

“The more I think about the conditions we played in...the more it boils my blood,” Broady posted on Twitter. “We can’t let this slide. The e-mail we received yesterday from the ATP [Association of Tennis Professionals] and [Australian Open] was a slap in the

face, conditions were ‘playable.’ Were they healthy?”

Broady, who finished last year ranked No. 240, said people in Melbourne were advised to keep their pets indoors on the day he played, “and yet we were expected to go outside for high intensity physical competition?”

On Wednesday, Canadian qualifier Brayden Schnur was critical of officials after his first-round win over Sebastian Ofner, and said stars such as Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal should be more outspoken about playing conditions.

The ATP player council is set to meet before the Australian Open, which begins Monday. AP

Ramon Rafael Bonilla

EIGHT will never be an issue when Mighty Sports represents the country in the Dubai International Basketball Tournament next week.

Naturalized Filipino Andray Blatche and imports Renaldo Balkman and McKenzie Moore bolster the ceiling of the squad that is gunning to improve its third-place finish last year.

Coach Charles Tiu assembled a crew of collegiate standouts led by Thirdy Ravena and Juan Gomez de Liaño and invited Philippine Basketball Association veteran Beau Belga and former pro Joseph Yeo to guide the youngsters in the team.

Teen prodigy Kai Sotto will also provide a peek on how he has improved since his training in the US. “I really like our local crew, all the college stars are out here and the imports are very solid,” Tiu said in a press conference in Makati City on Thursday. “ We also got Kai Sotto. It ’s his first tournament since he went to the United States, so we will see how much he has improved,” Tiu added.

Mighty Sports also features former Xavier School stars, according to team owner Alex Wongchuking. The Xavier products on the team besides Tiu are TY Tang, Joaqui Manuel, Gab Banal and Jarrel Lim. Mighty Sports’ third-place finish last year was already a big achievement considering it won only once during the 2017 edition .

Editor: Gerard S. Ramos • lifestylebusinessmirror@gmail.com

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THIS is the letter that Chen posted on the EXO-L Lysn app.

BusinessMirror

Saturday, January 18, 2020 A9

EXO’s Chen trends worldwide as he announces upcoming marriage PRIMETIME

DINNA CHAN VASQUEZ @dinnachanvasquez luckydinna@gmail.com

I

F you’re a K-pop fan, your Twitter feed the past few days must have been filled with news about the Korean boy band EXO—specifically one of its members, Chen.

Chen, Kim Jong-dae in real life, announced last Monday (January 13) that “I have a girlfriend that I want to spend the rest of my life with.”

This announcement, alone, caused an uproar online, as many K-pop fans are known for being possessive of their idols.

But that’s not all.

In the handwritten letter, Chen also said that a “blessing” came. This was interpreted as the singer saying his partner was pregnant.

For us Filipinos and Westerners, this announcement is no big deal. Chen is 29 years old (Korean age), and many men of that age in our country are already married. But Korean fans are angry because the news signified that Chen and his future wife engaged in premarital sex, something Korean fans labeled as “anti-feminist.”

My personal stand, as a fan of K-pop as a genre and a longtime supporter of EXO, is that what artists and celebrities do away from the stage is really their own business. It pains me to think what Chen must have gone through in writing that letter.

As a mother, I think of the long years the idols (as they are called in K-pop) trained in singing, dancing and personality development, and the diets and procedures they go through just to be more attractive to fans, and my heart hurts that they cannot even be allowed to date and love freely.

As a human being, I am baffled as to why idols can’t date. Surely, dating will not affect the way they

sing and interact with fans? I am sure that fans know the idols will never date us. My mentality as a fan is that the only thing we get back from our favorites is that they share their talent with us. As fans, we can transfer our love, and support, to other idols and groups, but the artists are stuck with what they have.

Yes, they are rich and famous ,but they are not free to do what they want.

I am aware that compared with most people, these idols are blessed. They have more money than we will ever see in our lifetimes. But they are also human.

They have needs, such as companionship.

There have been arguments on the part of Chen’s fans in Korea that they spent their money on his own albums, on his group’s albums, on concert tickets, merchandise and many other fan-related things. This, in turn, was money that Chen spent for himself, his family and his new family, including the baby. If this is a valid argument, until when does Chen or any idol who gets married need to be alone and single so that they can repay us?

Sungmin of the group Super Junior is in exile because he is married.

In 2017, Sungmin had to write this letter because he couldn’t be part of Super Junior’s comeback: “Hello, this is Sungmin. I’m writing to you all for the first time in a while because of various situations.

First, I’d like to apologize for causing worry to so many fans. There has been a lot of negative talk about me recently, but it was a situation I couldn’t act alone on.

I’m sorry for the late response.

“When I look back on when I was preparing for marriage, I don’t think I was considerate or truthful to the fans who’ve loved me for over 10 years now. I think I should’ve communicated more with my fans, who were hurt due to rumors and misunderstandings.

“When I was serving in the army, I always looked forward to promoting with Super Junior once again.

However, I really want the next album to do well, so I decided to withdraw from their promotions. As a Super Junior member, I want my group to receive love for a long time. In light of ongoing controversies, I feel my decision to step away for this album is the best for the group. I feel very sorry to the fans who’ve loved and supported me, but I think I need to work harder and have more time to reflect on myself. I ask ELFs to

support Super Junior’s comeback.”

I mean, why does a man need to apologize for getting married? It’s not like he committed economic sabotage or unleashed a weapon of mass destruction.

As I write this column, hashtags related to Chen, good and bad, continue to trend. The fans are still fighting. Some fans in Korea have destroyed Chen’s

solo albums and photo cards. Many of the singer’s fansites have closed. Given Korea’s reaction to Chen’s announcement, it is unclear what the future holds for him. What’s clear is that he is an artist with great talent, and while some have condemned him for what is a normal rite of passage, there are still many fans who will continue to support him. ■

Does the naked body belong on Facebook? It’s complicated

BY BARBARA ORTUTAY The Associated Press SAN FRANCISCO—When is a photograph of nude bodies artistic or titillating? A woman’s exposed nipple a political statement or erotica?

A video of childbirth might show genitalia. Should what someone considers a celebration of life be censored?

In 1964, US Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart declined to define what constitutes obscenity but famously added, “I know it when I see it.”

In the 21st century, does Facebook?

The social-media behemoth is in a well-publicized struggle to address hate speech, extremism, abuse and misinformation on its services—which together serve nearly 3 billion people worldwide.

At the same time, it’s been retooling its policies on nudity. It’s tweaking its original heavy-handed policies to account for modern nuances around gender identity, political speech and self-expression, employing thousands of people and quickly evolving artificial intelligence (AI) for the task.

But some of its users—including activists, sex therapists, abuse survivors, artists and sex educators—say policies at Facebook and its Instagram service are still too vague and unevenly enforced.

They say their work is being unfairly censored, condemning them to “Facebook jail” with no warning and little, if any recourse.

And it’s no small matter for them. Artists can be suddenly left without their audience, businesses without access to their customers and vulnerable people without a support network. And it means that a company in Silicon Valley, whose online platforms have become not only our town squares but diaries, magazines, art galleries and protest platforms, gets final say on matters of free speech and selfexpression. It’s deciding what “community standards” should be for billions of people around the world.

“Instagram, really, is the magazine of the world right now. And if artists are being censored on Instagram, it’s really dangerous for freedom of speech, and openness, when it comes to the body and art,” said Spencer Tunick, a photographer known internationally for his shoots assembling masses of nude people. Tunick says that more recently he has found his work “shadow-banned” by Instagram, which has become a crucial tool for artists to showcase their work. His post weren’t removed, but aren’t readily visible to users.

Of course, there’s near universal agreement that child exploitation and nonconsensual images don’t belong on social networks. Pornography probably doesn’t either.

Facebook’s monitoring systems do a better job in censoring nudity than with hate speech, extremism and misinformation. After all, a butt is a butt and a nipple is a nipple. But deciding when a nipple is art, porn or protest gets murky even when humans are doing the deciding. Teaching AI software about human sexual desire is a whole other ball game.

From its start as a college photo directory and social network, Facebook banned nudity. Over the years, as Facebook’s audience grew bigger and more diverse, the ban loosened. The company instituted exceptions for breastfeeding women, for images of postmastectomy scars. Birthing videos are now allowed, as are photos of post-gender reassignment surgery. “We had this policy that said no genitals on the platform,” said Kim Malfacini, the Facebook product policy manager who oversees how the company’s community standards are developed.

“Until two years ago, there were no exceptions to that.”

But the reviewers began seeing photos and videos women shared about their childbirth, she said. Based on the letter of the policy, those had to be removed.

Malfacini said she joined Facebook around this time and began speaking with midwives, doulas, birthing photographers and others to carve out an exception

for images of childbirth even though they show genitalia. Now, the images come with a warning screen; users can click through to see them.

Most of the photos of unclothed children on Facebook are posted innocently by parents sharing vacation photos on the beach or kids in a bath.

Sometimes, these parents get a warning. Malfacini, sometimes, speaks to them.

“They have no idea that those photos could be abused,” she said.

With child nudity, Facebook is more conservative.

Over the age of three, girls can’t be topless. Boys can.

It may be that, the way some bars ask anyone who looks under 40 for ID, Facebook is being extra conservative in setting the line so there won’t be any gray areas. For parents of girls, though, this can feel sexist. Should Facebook ban all photos, then, of children without a shirt? Until what age? How will it verify when the kids turn 18?

“It’s a challenge,” Malfacini said.

Even with carefully thought-out policies, enforcement can feel arbitrary and the consequences lasting. Dawn Robertson started her womenempowerment campaign, “Grab Them by the Ballot,” before the 2018 US midterm elections. She wanted to inspire women to vote, especially in light of the MeToo movement and growing restrictions on abortion.

She organized women to pose nude, covered only by strategically placed ballots, props and hashtags.

The photos catch the eye not just because the women are naked, but because we are still unaccustomed to seeing images of flawed, unretouched bodies. These are women with wrinkles and fat, and tattoos and unretouched skin, a wheelchair here, pregnant belly there—photos not meant to attract our gaze or sell a product, but to defy.

Then, she posted them on Facebook and Instagram.

Suddenly, the campaign took off, though much of the attention was from right-wing publications, such as Breitbart, Robertson said.

“All of a sudden, it was just insane, the negative feedback we got,” she said. “Facebook banned my personal account.”

Robertson said she’s been banned on and off since starting her campaign. When that happens, she couldn’t delete racist and sexist comments that were posted on her group’s page. She got no warning, or reason why she was banned, though she figured it was for nudity. That is even though Facebook allows nudity in some cases, including for political activism.

Other services are dealing with the issue in their own way—Twitter is generally more freewheeling and Tumblr only recently banned adult content—but none have the heft and size of Facebook’s family of services.

Lori Handler, who works as a “sex and happiness coach,” first found herself in Facebook jail two years ago, when she posted a photo of someone doing naked yoga on her page. She couldn’t comment on anything or send private messages.

“I have four business pages and a personal page,” she said. “And when something goes down and I can’t post, I am out of business for a month.”

Artists have staged protests and pleaded with Facebook. Some have found other platforms to show their work, but they say the company’s sheer dominance in online communications makes it difficult to have the same reach.

“What we are trying to do is open the gate somewhat,” said Svetlana Mintcheva, director of programs at the National Coalition Against Censorship, which has asked Facebook to reconsider its ban on photographic nudity. “The human body is not this horrible, scary, traumatizing thing. It’s a beautiful thing.”

But beauty has been historically a tricky thing to define. Which means Facebook’s stance on nudity will, likely, continue to shift.

“No policy is set in stone,” Malfacini said. “On any given policy, we are in some process of revisiting some part of it.”

A10 Saturday, January 18, 2020

BusinessMirror

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FACEBOOK has decided not to limit how political ads can be targeted to specific groups of people, as its main digital-ad rival Google did in November 2019 to fight misinformation.

Neither will it ban political ads outright, as Twitter has done.

And it still won’t fact-check them, as it’s faced pressure to do. AP

GCASH TO MOUNT AGGRESSIVE CAMPAIGN ON FINANCIAL INCLUSION

BY RIZAL RAOUL S. REYES

Facebook again refuses to ban political ads, even false ones

BY BARBARA ORTUTAY & MAE ANDERSON The Associated Press

S

AN FRANCISCO—Despite escalating pressure ahead of the 2020 presidential election, Facebook reaffirmed its freewheeling policy on political ads Thursday, saying it won’t ban them, won’t fact-check them and won’t limit how they can be targeted to specific groups of people. Instead, Facebook said it will offer users slightly more control over how many political ads they see and make its online library of political ads easier to browse.

These steps appear unlikely to assuage critics— including politicians, activists, tech competitors and some of the company’s own rank-and-file employees—who say that Facebook has too much power and that social media is warping democracy and undermining elections.

And Facebook’s stance stands in contrast to what its rivals are doing. Google has decided to limit targeting of political ads, while Twitter is banning them outright.

“Today’s announcement is more window dressing around their decision to allow paid misinformation,” said Bill Russo, a campaign spokesman for Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden.

Social-media companies have been trying to tackle misinformation since it was learned that Russians bankrolled thousands of fake political ads during the 2016 elections to sow discord among Americans.

The fears go beyond foreign interference. In recent months, Facebook, Twitter and Google refused to remove a misleading video ad from President Donald Trump’s campaign that targeted Biden.

Facebook has repeatedly insisted it won’t factcheck political ads. CEO Mark Zuckerberg has argued

that “political speech is important” and that Facebook doesn’t want to interfere with it. Critics say that stance gives politicians a license to lie.

TV stations and networks aren’t required to factcheck ads either, but social media gives candidates a certain advantage: the ability to “microtarget” their ads. For instance, they can use information gleaned from voter rolls, such as political affiliation, and try to reach just those people. Or they can narrow the target audience to those who have shown interest in guns, abortion or immigration, based on what the user has read or talked about on Facebook. Candidates might even show one ad to young Democratic women interested in both gun control and climate change, and a different ad to everyone else.

Google, the digital ads leader, decided in November to limit political-ad targeting to just three broad categories—sex, age and location, such as ZIP code.

Under Google’s policy, candidates would be free to show immigration ads next to immigration-related stories only; they wouldn’t be able to show ads to just Democrats or Republicans, or target people specifically interested in immigration when they’re reading about baseball or Beyonce.

Google said that approach aligns its policies with those of other media such as print, TV and radio.

Jason Kint, CEO of Digital Content Next, a trade group that represents digital publishers, said Google’s ban on microtargeting is much better than Facebook’s permissive stance. Making sure ads reach a wider, more diverse group of people can enable the public and the press to see, debate and correct claims in them, he said.

“Sunlight is the best disinfectant,” he said.

Facebook said in a blog post on Thursday that it considered limiting microtargeting for political ads.

But it said it learned about the importance of such

practices for reaching “key audiences” after talking with political campaigns from both major parties in the US, political groups and nonprofits.

The company said it was guided by the principle that “people should be able to hear from those who wish to lead them, warts and all, and that what they say should be scrutinized and debated in public.”

Facebook does plan to let users choose to see fewer political and social-issue ads, although it won’t let people exclude them entirely. It’s also going to let people choose whether to see ads, political or otherwise, from advertisers that target them using their contact details, such as e-mail address or phone number. The company is also tweaking its ad library so people can search for exact phrases and limit results using filters such as dates and regions reached.

Facebook’s ad library currently lets anyone find out how much was spent on an ad, how many times it was seen, and the age, gender and location of the people who saw it.

Facebook also called for government regulation of political ads, saying private companies should not be the ones to make rules about them. Experts say one of the big problems with political advertising online is the lack of a federal standard about what is and isn’t allowed. “Facebook and Twitter should not be making these decisions themselves,” said Daniel Kreiss, a journalism professor at the University of North Carolina. “In the absence of any standards, you get the mess we’re seeing now.”

Sam Jeffers, cofounder of Who Targets Me, an advocacy group researching political advertising, also said individual companies shouldn’t be deciding whether to allow political ads and what limits to set.

“It shouldn’t be up to Facebook to decide what a lie is or isn’t,” he said. “It should be up to journalism and other forms of accountability.” ■

Lalamove promotes financial inclusion through LalaAuto APPLYING for an auto loan can be a tedious process.

People have to consider the different financing options and approval criteria offered by banks, financial institutions and dealerships. Generally, rejection is common due to a poor credit history, insufficient documents and a lack of stable income.

This year, Lalamove (www.lalamove.com) has launched Lalamove Automotive, a program where anyone can be a Lalamove partner even without a vehicle. Through this program, partner-drivers can upgrade and get a brand-new vehicle of their own which they can then enroll in the Lalamove platform.

The program offers vehicle choices, application assistance, and exclusive Lalamove privileges and partner benefits. Dannah Majarocon, Lalamove’s managing director, shared that this program helps fulfill Lalamove’s mission of empowering local communities. “With the launch of Lalamove Automotive, aspiring partner-drivers can have access to affordable vehicles and get vehicle upgrades through flexible financial terms,” she said.

Lalamove Automotive has recently concluded their monthlong promo, called “November Auto Bonanza,” where partner-drivers were able to reserve fourwheel vehicles at low fees and get additional discounts on down payment. They also held raffles throughout the month where participants got to take home a brand-new motorcycle, smartphones, smart TVs, gift cards and more.

Nong Mirarza was one of the first partner-drivers to get a brand-new vehicle of his own with the assistance of Lalamove Automotive. “With Lalamove Automotive, I had no trouble getting a vehicle for my business,” he said. “I’m already taken care of and I even got a discount.”

With the rise of digitalization, new avenues are being opened for financial products and services to reach more Filipinos. The launching of Lalamove Automotive in the Philippines is a step toward spreading financial inclusion and empowering more drivers to have the flexibility to earn more using their own vehicles.

MAJOR mobile money service GCash is pursuing expansion plans in 2020 that will focus on conducting financial literacy campaigns nationwide to reach out to the unbanked sector of the population.

Ney Villaseñor, chief corporate affairs officer of GCash, said the service is helping the country in developing e-payments at the grassroots level by empowering microentrepreneurs and small enterprises in their transactions through their mobile phones.

“We have merchants in public markets, canteen operators, carinderia, food carts such as Jollyjeep and sari-sari stores,” Villaseñor told BusinessMirror in a recent e-mail interview.

“GCash aims to be a democratizing factor to promote financial inclusion using the app. It allows people the convenience to manage their finances. On our part, we want to improve the access so they can enjoy the experience of banking through mobile technology,” Villaseñor added.

Aside from huge mall establishments, quick-service restaurants, and supermarkets, GCash has also empowered the simple sari-sari store and tricycles to make digital transactions via GCash’s QR. He said GCash is being used by micro-entrepreneurs in Boracay in selling their merchandise.

Villaseñor said GCash is also targeting a certain demographic which belongs to the 18 to 34 age bracket, or the millennials. At the same time, GCash is broadening its campaign because it believes that access to financial services should be enjoyed by everybody.

Furthermore, he said GCash is determined to push for inclusivity involving a lot of sectors in the Philippines. He pointed out that GCash has reached out to the deaf-mute community by launching a video using the sign language as the medium of communication. “The deaf-mute should also be considered in the financial inclusion campaign,” he said.

“At the same time, we try to localize it further through dialects to tap others as well. If you want to educate people, you have to educate them genuinely by speaking through the language they understand,” he added.

As part of broadening the payment options for Filipinos, GCash recently announced that it is now available as a payment method for Apple services in the Philippines. He said consumers can use their GCash account to pay for App Store, Apple Music, Apple TV, and iTunes Store purchases, iCloud storage and more.

Villaseñor said the company’s newest offering as an Apple ID payment method offers a new way to pay for Apple services without needing a credit card. At the same time, this provides consumers easy, one-tap purchasing from all Apple devices. To protect the information of the customer, he said GCash does not share the information with Apple, making it simple and private.

“Customers can manage their Apple ID payment information in Settings on the iPhone, iPad and iPod touch, or on their Mac or PC,” he said in a statement.

BusinessMirror

www.businessmirror.com.ph

Saturday, January 18, 2020 A11

DATING APPS LEAK PERSONAL DATA, NORWEGIAN GROUP SAYS

SAMSUNG Sero TVs are on display at the Samsung booth during the CES tech show in Las Vegas. The TVs can rotate to play vertically or horizontally. AP

Privacy, once hidden topic, gets attention at CES tech show

BY RACHEL LERMAN & JOSEPH PISANI The Associated Press

L

AS VEGAS—Once a hidden and under the radar topic, privacy got more attention at the CES gadget show in Las Vegas this week.

Start-ups now volunteer information about how they’re securing your data and protecting your privacy when you use their heart rate monitor or cuddly robot.

Roybi, an alien-looking robot that teaches kids languages, and other skills, has a camera with facial recognition that can remember children and guess whether the kid was excited or sad after a lesson.

Roybi says it uses that information to make changes to its lessons.

But the $199 robot also comes with a sticker, so parents can block the camera if they want.

“We want to make sure we give people choices,” said CEO and founder Elnaz Sarraf, who said parents questioned the lens. “When it comes to children, people are more sensitive.”

Caregiver Smart Solutions, which makes products for caregivers to track the elderly remotely, decided to do away with cameras, declaring them too intrusive.

The company opted instead for small sensors that monitor when doors are opened and closed.

After two years of tech companies facing the reckoning of rising privacy concerns, the message seems to be setting in—the way you use customers’ information can no longer be ignored.

Friday was the final day of the annual CES technology conference in Las Vegas, a forum for companies to unveil their products and services for the coming year.

Among other highlights this week:

A SCREEN THAT’S ALL ABOUT YOU AIRPORT screens are a jumble of flight numbers, times and gates. Delta wants to change that.

The airline will soon start testing an airport screen that will show personalized flight information only to you.

The twist: nearly 100 people will be able to look at the same screen simultanously and see just their own information. No special glasses needed, just the naked eye. It’s a technology that could change the way people get from airport security to their planes. The hope is that similar screens will fill the halls of airports, pointing people to where they need to walk or where they can stop to get a bite to eat.

Delta is teaming with start-up Misapplied Sciences for the technology. Misapplied CEO Albert Ng said normal TVs send the same colored light in all directions. His company’s screens control which colors are emitted to different people. Cameras above figure out where each person is standing and send the right combination of lights in that direction.

Delta will test the screen later this year at Detroit’s airport. The company said the screens won’t be used for targeted advertising.

Frank Gillett, a technology analyst at Forrester, said the technology may be too expensive right now to expand to every airport. But he said Delta’s plans to make the airport experience easier for travelers could hook more customers to the airline.

HUMANOID CHATBOT MEET your new artificial friend, called Neon.

For weeks leading up to CES, Samsung has teased Neon as the next big thing in artificial intelligence.

What is being shown is essentially a humanoid chatbot with AI.

Neon is an independent company backed by Samsung’s advanced research lab.

Ask the Neon a question, and it will respond.

It won’t know all the answers, the way the Google Assistant or Amazon’s Alexa is supposed to. In that sense, it’s intended to be more like a human—with some knowledge and an ability to learn.

The vision is a future where Neons are so humanlike that humans start interacting with them just like any other person.

Neon CEO Pranav Mistry says that it will let humans have real human connections with the machines, instead of just yelling orders like “stop” and “open.” But that’s some time a way. Neon is still in an early stage of development.

OOOPS THINGS don’t always go as planned.

Samsung’s new Sero TV can pivot between horizontal and vertical orientations, but just getting it to work onstage was a challenge at the company’s CES event earlier in the week.

Product training manager Scott Cohen was unable to connect his smartphone to the TV set and eventually chose to carry on the stage demonstration regardless.

“Since we cannot get it to work, I will explain all the things we can do,” he said. “We’re not sure if the Wi-Fi in here with everyone on is doing it.

Samsung later blamed unreliable Wi-Fi that prevented the smartphone from connecting.

The Sero—which means “vertical” in Korean—is intended to let viewers watch social media, YouTube and personal videos in their true orientation, without black bars at the side. When viewing vertical video, for instance, the TV physically rotates to that position. ■

New Huawei gear goes with discount, freebies WHILE many have noted that Huawei never fails to bring the best premium technology devices, the tech giant ultimately keeps on bringing surprises and proves that it does not forget the entry-level segment. To start 2020 on right footing, Huawei is kicking off offers that won’t break the bank: Huawei Y9s and Huawei MediaPad T3 8 are now available for preorder via Lazada and Shopee.

Huawei Y9s is wrapped in a glass body with a side-mounted fingerprint sensor. It is also quipped with powerful Triple AI Camera setup that includes an ultra-clear 48MP Main Camera, 8MP Ultra Wide Angle Camera and 2MP Depth Camera. With a native resolution of 48MP main camera and 16MP auto pop-up camera, you can take great photos and gorgeous selfies, even without a flagship smartphone.

This beautifully designed pop-up camera smartphone also packs an Ultra FullView

Display, delivering an ultra-clear, big-screen viewing experience. It is powered by the high performance, power-efficient Kirin 710F chipset, with 6GB RAM and 128GB of user storage, expandable to 512GB via a microSD, leaving more space for apps, songs or videos.

It also sports a large battery of 4000 mAh (typical value), which enables one to two full days of use. The compelling price even makes the Huawei Y9s more attractive. So if you are looking for an entry-level smartphone with excellent quality, this handset is really impressive and definitely worth considering. It come in two stylish finishes: Midnight Black or Breathing Crystal.

Meanwhile, Huawei MediaPad T3 8 is made from a solid piece of sleek anodized aluminum that exudes quiet strength and refined style. Because strong things can come in slim packages, this tablet delivers

power and smooth usability while being only 7.95-millimeter thick and weighing in at just 350 grams. The tablet boasts an 8-inch IPS HD Display that will bring media consumption to next level. Furthermore, it has 2GB RAM with 16GB storage. It delivers long-lasting enjoyment even with heavy use via its 4800 mAh battery that can keep the lights on for longer, giving you an unrushed, uninterrupted experience. One of the best features of this tablet is that it is suitable for the entire family.

The MediaPad T3 8’s smart app access and content control allows you to let others use your device in a way that gives you full control.

Whether letting children play, sharing the device, or even keeping yourself from getting distracted, you are the master.

More information about the about the Huawei Y9s and Huawei MediaPad T3 8 is available at consumer.huawei.com/ph.

LONDON—Dating apps including Grindr, OkCupid and Tinder leak personal information to advertising tech companies in possible violation of European data privacy laws, a Norwegian consumer group said in a report on Tuesday.

The Norwegian Consumer Council said it found “serious privacy infringements” in its analysis of how shadowy online ad companies track and profile smartphone users.

The council, a government-funded nonprofit group, commissioned cyber-security company Mnemonic, to study 10 Android mobile apps. It found that the apps sent user data to at least 135 different third-party services involved in advertising or behavioral profiling. “The situation is completely out of control,” the council said, urging European regulators to enforce the continent’s strict General Data Privacy Regulation, or GDPR. It said the majority of the apps did not present users with legally compliant consent mechanisms.

The council took action against some of the companies it examined, filing formal complaints with Norway’s data protection authority against Grindr, Twitter-owned mobile app advertising platform MoPub, and four ad tech companies. Grindr sent data including users’ GPS location, age and gender to the other companies, the council said.

Twitter said it disabled Grindr’s MoPub account and is investigating the issue “to understand the sufficiency of Grindr’s consent mechanism.”

Period tracker app MyDays and virtual makeup app Perfect 365 were also among the apps sharing personal data with ad services, the report said.

InterActive Corp., owner of Tinder and OkCupid, said the company shares information with third parties only when it is “deemed necessary to operate its platform” with third-party apps. The company said it considers the practice in line with all European and US regulations.

The US doesn’t have federal regulation like the GDPR, although some states, notably California, have enacted their own laws. Nine civil-rights groups, including the American Civil Liberties Union of California, the Electronic Privacy Information Center, Public Citizen and US PIRG sent a letter to the Federal Trade Commission, Congress and state attorneys general of California, Texas and Oregon, asking them to investigate the apps named in the report.

“Congress should use the findings of the report as a road map for a new law that ensures that such flagrant violations of privacy found in the EU are not acceptable in the US,” the groups said in a statement.

The Federal Trade Commission confirmed it received the letter but declined to comment further.

The creators of the MyDays, Perfect 365 and Grindr apps did not immediately respond to requests for comment. AP

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HUAWEI Y9s (left) and Huawei MediaPad T3 8

BusinessMirror

Editor: Gerard S. Ramos • lifestylebusinessmirror@gmail.com

Saturday, January 18, 2020 A12

GLOBE AT HOME APP HITS 1-M MARK IN REGISTERED USERS

THE Globe At Home app, the best partner for your home Internet connection, has reached a record number of registered users by hitting the 1,000,000 mark. As of December 2019, there are 1,000,620 confirmed total registered customers benefiting from its features that offer utmost convenience in managing their Globe At Home plans (www.facebook.com/globeathome). These numbers are projected to continuously increase in the succeeding quarters as more and more useful features are deployed monthly.

“The Globe at Home app is one of our most recent efforts to offer enhanced home Internet experience for our customers,” shared Martha Sazon, SVP and head of Broadband Business at Globe. “This is why we are thrilled to know that more homes are maximizing the benefits of the app to fully enjoy quality connectivity with their families.”

With features designed to make managing one’s account hassle-free, the app offers a convenient digital alternative to traditional methods. Using one convenient app, customers can easily track their data usage, purchase promos and add-ons, view and pay their bills, score freebies, perform selftroubleshooting for basic connectivity issues, and even track their repairman or request for a transfer of location.

With the app’s Help and Support feature, everything you need to know about your Globe At Home service— from information about the latest promos and new plans to troubleshooting tips—is available in just one click. You can also activate and cancel content services connected to your Globe At Home Postpaid subscription on your app’s dashboard.

For Prepaid customers, the Globe At Home App allows you to activate your home Internet service in three easy steps, track your data usage, load promos in seconds, and enjoy various rewards.

“We are continuously updating the app with more features, such as real-time serviceability check and auto debit option for payment. With these in the pipeline, customers can be assured that we will be working on further improving their home Internet experience in the near future,” Sazon added.

Aside from the app, Globe At Home also offers fast and easy applications via Facebook Messenger. It’s definitely a more convenient way to get connected without having to leave the comfort of your home.

The Globe At Home app is free for download on Google Play Store and the App Store.

PINTEREST SOARS AFTER REPORT SHOWS U.S. USERS ECLIPSING SNAPCHAT

PINTEREST Inc. shares rose as much as 13 percent on Tuesday after a report showed it beat out Snap Inc.’s Snapchat to become the third-biggest social-media platform in the United States.

Pinterest had an estimated 82.4-million US users in 2019, a 7.4-percent gain from the previous year, while Snapchat had 80.2-million users, data tracker eMarketer estimated.

Pinterest’s US users are projected to rise 4.4 percent to 86 million in 2020, the firm said. Facebook and Instagram, both owned by Facebook Inc., hold the top 2 positions.

“While Snapchat has a young core audience that it caters to, Pinterest has a more universal appeal, and it’s made significant gains in a wide range of age groups,” analyst Nazmul Islam said in the report.

Pinterest makes the bulk of its revenue from US users and is in the early stages of efforts to boost international ad sales.

The stock still hasn’t recovered from losses after a thirdquarter revenue miss led to a 17-percent plunge in November.

While some analysts say the company’s third-quarter earnings results hint at saturation in its US market, bulls say the stock remains attractive as it continues to develop its advertisement offerings.

Wall Street’s expectations for Pinterest’s fourth-quarter financial results “are reasonable” and user survey results revealed positive trends, RBC Capital Markets analyst Mark Mahaney said in a research note late Monday. The results are due in mid-February. BLOOMBERG NEWS

Google enhances privacy and perhaps itself at the same time

I

BY ALEX WEBB Bloomberg News

F you lived west of the Mississippi at the dawn of the 20th century, there must have been a moment when it became clear that the Wild West of old was no more. Perhaps it was the arrival of the railroad, or the last stagecoach robbery, or the introduction of a federal income tax.

For the Web, that moment might just be Google’s decision on Tuesday to end third-party tracking of people’s browsing habits. It’s a move that will better protect user data, but it also provides an opportunity for the Alphabet Inc. unit to extend its dominance of online advertising.

The advertising technology (ad-tech) industry has long been a Wild West of its own, largely thanks to the proliferation of seemingly innocuous little files known as cookies, which nourished hordes of start-ups feeding on the data they generated. When Internet users visit a web site, files are deposited on their computers that record the visit. Many sites, if not most of them, include cookies from other firms, which means they can track users’ progress across the Web. As that data accumulates, and users peruse new shoes on one web site, film reviews on another, train tickets on a third and so on, ad-tech firms are gradually able to build a profile of their interests, spending power and demographic attributes. The

problem is that users often have no idea who exactly is gathering that personal data. In many ways, adtech is the lubricant for the modern Internet—its proceeds pay for much of the Web’s operating costs.

In 2017, Apple Inc. started blocking third-party cookies on its Safari Web browser to stymie the practice. Last year, Mozilla Corp.’s Firefox did the same. Google is finally now following suit with Chrome, which has significantly more users than its competitors.

The decision is a no-brainer for the search giant, which regularly asserts that search terms are its most useful tool for targeting relevant ads. And ever since the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), cookies have been dying. The rules included measures that made it easier for users to opt out of cookie-based ad-tracking. Within three months of the legislation coming into force in 2018, the number of third-party cookies found on news web sites in the region fell by 22 percent, according to the Reuters Institute. Similar digital privacy legislation is being rolled out around the world.

But GDPR also made life harder for a cohort of second-tier ad-tech players trying to compete with the likes of Google and Facebook Inc. The regulation’s provision to prevent data being shared wantonly with third parties seemed to give the tech giants an opportunity to tighten their control over user data.

Rivals, such as Sizmek Inc. have since gone bankrupt.

A new must-have for vloggers, et al BUILDING on the growing lineup of cameras and accessories developed for modern creators, Sony has announced the new GPVPT2BT wireless shooting grip. Ideal for many different types of content creation ranging from vlogs to travel photography/videography to simple everyday use, the new grip offers optimum stability and comfort combined with cable-free connectivity and

a reliable dust and moisture resistant design.

Compatible with a variety of Sony’s latest digital cameras, the GP-VPT2BT (bit. ly/35QUhCE) connects easily via Bluetooth, allowing creators to simply aim and shoot without interfering cables, or exposed inputs. The new grip includes a useful tilt feature that allows for flexible vertical angle adjustment, as well as the ability to switch

from normal to self-shooting mode with ease. Additionally, it has an adjustment wheel can be loosened or tightened to allow for seamless operation with cameras of different sizes and weights. The grip also includes a flip button, indicator light and lock switch, and can be quickly changed into a tripod by simply expanding the bottom portion, enabling easy stable, hands-free shooting.

Putting an end to third-party cookies could have a similar effect—cement Google’s control at the expense of rivals. After Tuesday’s announcement, shares in French ad-tech firm Criteo SA fell as much as 14 percent. After all, if you’re using Chrome, Google is still likely to know your browsing habits. Data that advertisers might formerly have obtained from those third parties might become most readily available from Google itself.

It’s a move that could appear anticompetitive and might explain why Google isn’t enforcing the change immediately but instead phasing it in gradually over two years—with feedback from the adtech “ecosystem,” as director of Chrome engineering Justin Schuh wrote in an accompanying blog post (bit. ly/374M�HS). That approach might take the wind out of accusations of brazen anticompetitiveness.

For publishers, it will most likely accelerate the shift toward requiring users to register for their web sites because that will be the best way to determine who exactly is browsing their content and thus how to serve appropriate ads. That could become a problem for sites that depend on sporadic visits more than they do a loyal audience.

There are still other channels where ad-tech’s worst practices remain rife, through the use of digital fingerprinting, mobile apps and other means. But the industry’s gunslinging days are nearing an end, and Google is the sheriff. ■

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In the ad material of Notice of filing of application for Alien Employment Permits published on January 7, 2020, the name of Mr. Yang, Zhongkun under BILLION DRAGON OUTSOURCE PHILS., INC. should have been read as Yang, Zongkun and not as published. In the ad material published on January 17, 2020, the company name of Mr. Choo Tze Wei under CEVA LOGISTICS HEADOFFICE B.V. - PHILIPPINE BRANCH should have been read as CEVA LOGISTICS PHILIPPINES INC. and not as published.

Any person in the Philippines who is competent, able and willing to perform the services for which the foreign national is desired may file an objection at DOLE NCR Regional Office located at 967 Maligaya St., Malate, Manila, within 30 days after its publication.

Please inform DOLE NCR if you have any information on criminal offense committed by the foreign nationals.

ATTY. SARAH BUENA S. MIRASOL REGIONAL DIRECTOR