BusinessMirror January 22, 2023

‘UNSMOKED’

Gains in the

By Vittorio V. Vitug

AHABITUAL smoker for more than 30 years, George (not his real name), 57, went from Marlboros to e-cigarettes and then back again. Unsatisfied with the taste and feel of flavored e-cig juices, he was on this seesaw for several years until he came across Blends, a heated tobacco product (HTP) launched recently in the Philippines.

With breakthrough technology, HTPs impart the thrill of smoking without much of the health hazards. By heating real tobacco rather than burning it, HTPs produce no ash with no smoke and less smell than conventional or traditional cigarettes.

IQOS, the world’s No. 1 tobacco heating system created by Philip Morris International (PMI) as its first smoke-free product, is known to substantially diminish the tox-

icity of tobacco because it is the act of burning that releases thousands of toxic chemicals.

W hen tobacco is heated as done with IQOS, 90 to 95 percent of those toxins are not present, according to PMI.

W hile the highly addictive nicotine is present in both, it is not the primary cause of smokingrelated diseases, the world’s largest tobacco company has noted.

PMFTC, as the market leader

heated tobacco products (HTPs) in

in the Philippines, is committed to put the country at the hub of the global smoke-free future. The addition of Bonds by IQOS to our smoke-free portfolio in the Philippines is another significant step towards that goal of a smoke-free future for 14 million Filipino smokers and their loved ones,” said Denis Gorkun, president of PMFTC, PMI’s affiliate in the Philippines.

Bonds by IQOS is the affordable version of the revolutionary product. It was launched locally in November last year. The device has an average selling price of P990, while its accompanying specially designed tobacco sticks called Blends can be bought for P100 per 20-stick pack.

Bonds by IQOS offers our legalage consumers access to a compact, low-maintenance and hassle-free smoke-free product—validated by science as a better alternative to cigarettes. With a retail price of P100 per 20-stick pack, Blends is actually sold at a lower price than most of the popular cigarette brands,” Dave Gomez, communications director at PMFTC, told the BusinessMirror in an email interview.

Findings presented at the 2022 London E-Cigarette Summit

EVIDENCE proving the viability of smoke-free alternatives as tools to diminish the public health burden from prevalent smoking have been presented in certain fora. The latest findings were presented at the London E-Cigarette Summit on December 9 last year at the Royal College of Physicians, where experts from the scientific and medical communities tackled the science, regulation and public health dimensions of smoking cessation.

Documenting the European experience, the 10th annual e-cigarette convention also identified the important role low-to-middleincome countries (LMICs) could play in achieving global goals.

Filipino summit participant Dr. Lorenzo Mata Jr., president of advocacy group Quit for Good, found the revelations enlightening.

“Dr. Jamie Hartmann-Boyce from the University of Oxford presented a 2022 review of 78 completed studies—representing 22,052 participants across the United Kingdom, the United States

foothold of

the global market may be ‘good’ for public health, but other sectors disagree

MAREN WINTER DREAMSTIME.COM

PROF. Alan R. Boobis, emeritus professor of toxicology at Imperial College London, told summit participants that, considering the public health consequences of cigarette smoking and there being few alternatives attractive to smokers, e-cigarettes or electronic nicotine delivery systems (ENDS) could mitigate some of the harm.

E-CIGARETTESUMMIT.COM

DR . Sivakumar Thurairajasingam, associate professor in psychiatry and head of the Clinical School Johor Bahru, Monash University Malaysia, reported that about 49 percent of current smokers in Malaysia had attempted to quit at least once in the past 12 months, with only a third of them succeeding. E-CIGARETTESUMMIT.COM

‘UNSMOKED’

and Italy entitled, “Electronic Cigarettes for Smoking Cessation.” The results show that people are more likely to stop smoking for at least six months using nicotine e-cigarettes than using nicotine replacement therapy, and that nicotine e-cigarettes may help more people to stop smoking than no support or behavioral support only.

I also learned that countries like the UK, which have included tobacco harm reduction as part of their

state policy, have witnessed significant reduction in smoking rates,” he told the BusinessMirror at the sidelines of the conference in London.

A lso presented was evidence showing biomarkers for dreaded and life-threatening diseases were almost on the same level among ecigarette users and non-smokers, according to the founder of Quit for Good, which believes that harm reduction provides a tremendous opportunity to prevent the worst outcome of a disease even if

it is already beyond cure.

My most significant takeaway in the E-Cigarette Summit came from Clive Bates, director of Counterfactual Consulting—an advocacy firm focused on sustainability and public health. He said that the ‘strongest evidence of reduced harm is reduced exposure.’ I totally agree because e-cigarettes and HTPs are different from combustible cigarettes since they do not involve burning and do not produce smoke,” Mata said.

He added that evidence presented in the 2022 report of the United Kingdom Office for Health Improvement and Disparities (OHID) reinforced Bates’s theory. “Citing the 2022 report by the OHID entitled ‘Nicotine Vaping in England: An Evidence Update Including Health Risks and Perceptions,’ Dr. Debbie Robson, a co-author of the OHID annual evidence reviews of e-cigarettes, discussed biomarkers of exposure or medical signs used to measure the effect of a substance on the presence or progress of disease.

“ The study revealed that biomarkers of exposure to cancer, respiratory disease and cardiovascular disease are significantly lower in e-cigarette users than in smokers. What is fascinating is the finding that these biomarkers are almost on a par between e-cigarette users and non-smokers.”

A lso at the London E-Cigarettes Summit, Prof. Alan R. Boobis, emeritus professor of toxicology at Imperial College London and chair of the UK Committee on Toxicity of Chemicals in Food, Consumer Products and the Environment (COT), an independent advisory panel to British government agencies, revealed COT findings on the absolute and relative risks of e-cigarettes. Considering the public health consequences of cigarette smoking and there being few alternatives attractive to smokers, e-cigarettes or electronic nicotine delivery systems (ENDS) could mitigate some of the harm, he told summit participants.

“ENDS are substantially less harmful than conventional cigarettes, although the difference varies with the health effect. There is little evidence that short- to medium-term use of ENDS causes major harm, but the effects of long-term use are uncertain, though still likely to be less than those of conventional cigarettes. Use of ENDS by non-smokers is potentially associated with adverse health effects to which they would not otherwise have been subject. This information should not be considered in isolation, but in the wider context of the public health consequences of cigarette smoking,” Boobis said.

Asian perspectives

AN Asian perspective came from Dr. Sivakumar Thurairajasingam, associate professor in psychiatry and head of the Clinical School Johor Bahru, Monash University Malaysia. He reported that about 49 percent of current smokers in Malaysia had attempted to quit at least once in the past 12 months, with only a third of them succeeding.

Among those who attempted to quit were current smokers with low nicotine addiction and current smokers aged 45 years old. Being older and married and having tertiary education influenced such attempts.

Disadvantaged groups, including those with a low socioeconomic status, were also vulnerable to the

harms of smoking.

Besides having less social support for quitting or a low motivation to quit and a stronger addiction to tobacco, they lack selfdetermination and tend to skip behavioral support sessions and fail to complete the courses.

Me anwhile, young, highereducated males have switched to e-cigarettes, 90 percent of whom are current or former cigarette smokers. About 27 percent of the current cigarette smokers use e-cigarettes daily, while 42 percent of those who had quit were daily users.

IQOS launch in PHL and elsewhere IN the Philippines, the launch of a more affordable version of IQOS bodes well for public health. Market data collected by PMI since the tobacco heating system became available globally allow the company to evaluate the real-world effects on HTPs on the combustible tobacco market.

A s of September 30, 2022, there are 70 markets carrying PMI’s smoke-free products. PMI estimates there were approximately 19.5 million total IQOS users, excluding Russia and Ukraine, of which approximately 13.5 million have switched to IQOS and stopped smoking, with the balance in various stages of conversion.

Data also show Japan has the highest prevalence of HTP use, and is the country where these have captured the highest share of the tobacco market. Outside Japan, the country with the second highest market share of consumable HTPs is Lithuania.

We must recognize that smoke-free products such as ecigarettes and HTPs are indeed practical and tangible solutions for adults who do not quit smoking cold turkey,” Mata noted. “The clinical application of tobacco harm reduction in as far as e-cigarettes and HTPs are concerned should be augmented to fast track the decline in smoking prevalence.”

In sari-sari stores?

AMID opposition from certain sectors over PMFTC’s plan to use sarisari stores as a distribution channel for Blends, with parents fearing easy accessibility to their young children, the president of advocacy group Quit for Good cites protections provided by the recently passed Vaporized Nicotine Products Regulation Act or the Vape law.

At the heart of the Vape law is the state policy to regulate e-cigarettes and HTPs in order to promote a healthy environment, protect its citizens, and reduce the harm caused by smoking. It also provides very stringent rules to ensure that minors cannot access or be attracted to buying these products. Having said this, I believe that the focus now should really be on the full and faithful implementation of the Vape law as soon as possible if we wish to achieve our public health goal of significant-

ly reducing the smoking prevalence in the country, similar to the UK. I humbly call on all the implementing agencies to make every possible effort in hastening the enforcement of the Vape law’s implementing rules to save the lives of the 14 million Filipino smokers,” Mata said.

Important role of LMICs

ACCORDING to Malaysia’s Sivakumar, LMICs can play a big part in achieving global goals because they bear most of the global mortality burden of tobacco use, with 80 percent of the world’s 1 billion smokers living in LMICs (based on 2015 estimates).

The first step is to complement existing tobacco control policies by creating access to a range of noncombustible alternatives to help smokers transition away from combustible tobacco products, he said.

At the same time, policies must be in place to ensure the safety and quality of smoke-free alternatives and their accessibility to adult smokers, while restricting their availability to the youth.

Most important, a risk-proportionate regulatory regime should be applied to enable complementarity with existing interventions designed to reduce the prevalence of combustible tobacco use, Sivakumar recommended.

“Overall, about a fifth of young teenagers [13 to 15 years old] around the world are smokers. High-income countries may lower levels of adolescent tobacco use. LMICs have contrastingly high rates of adolescent smoking, where rates in some countries can reach as high as 46 percent and reflect high rates of all-age smoking. Adult smoking rates generally appear to reflect adolescent smoking rates,” the Malaysian professor noted in his summit presentation.

With this fear in mind, policymakers in LMICs have made ‘tobacco control’ a priority to mitigate effects of tobacco-related morbidity and mortality, by harnessing cessation interventions techniques from highincome countries. In reality, we are only seeing an increasing number of smokers in LMICs, questioning the effectiveness of the ‘total cessation’ policy. One evident phenomenon is the creation of ‘hidden populations’ of smokers, who continue their smoking habit against regulations and isolate from health providers, in fear of litigation. In driving their agenda, international policies have also neglected special populations, individuals living with mental health problems, where even nicotine replacement has shown modest results,” Sivakumar warned.

Concluding his talk, the professor from Monash University Malaysia reminded policymakers that harm-reduction initiatives ought to respect the rights, health and safety of smokers, without compromising on ‘the right of all people to the highest standard of health,’ in keeping with the World Health Organization’s Framework Convention on Tobacco Control.

RESOURCE speakers of the E-cigarette Summit discuss tobacco harm reduction and the approaches done by different countries to address the smoking problem, December 9, 2022, in London. E-CIGARETTESUMMIT.COM

Energy, chips and Taiwan: Probable 2023 flashpoints in a fractured world

By Saleha Mohsin, Philip Aldrick & Daniel Flatley

ANEW age of great-power rivalry is redrawing the map of the world economy and forcing business chiefs to navigate around a growing number of global flashpoints.

With a hot war raging in Europe and a cold one escalating between the US and China, the rest of the world is under pressure to pick sides. Political leaders are imposing new economic priorities, as they battle to avert shortfalls of vital commodities—from natural gas to semiconductors—and use the ones they control as leverage. For the titans of commerce gathering in Davos this week, all of this marks a shift away from the era of ever-closer global ties, when big business thought it had succeeded in making the world flat. Now it’s in for a bumpier ride.

Debate at the World Economic Forum will revolve around these emerging geo-economic risks. Some center on key goods or markets— like the worldwide focus on energy security since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, or the US campaign to deprive China of cutting-edge technology. Others are geographic, above all the threat of conflict in Taiwan.

“We’re living in a more fragmented world that includes financial fragility, so one thing that is clearly on everyone’s mind is: Where to invest, and how to invest, in a more multipolar world,” said Karen Harris, New York-based managing director of the Macro Trends Group at consulting firm Bain & Co.

Here is an overview of some of the likely hotspots this year in the increasingly fraught world of economic statecraft.

Weaponized energy ENERGY is at the heart of the

economic war that’s pitting the US and allies against Russia. Both sides have sought to weaponize it, and there’s potential for further turmoil in 2023.

President Vladimir Putin says Russia won’t sell oil to any nation participating in price caps that the US and its Group-of-Seven allies are trying to impose. For now, that means a $60 per barrel limit. The G-7 rules have helped push Russian crude exports well below that threshold—potentially squeezing Putin’s ability to finance the war.

Russia still has buyers, notably India, China and Turkey. It also has the option of shutting down supply altogether, which would wreak havoc in oil markets—threatening a repeat of last year’s crude-price spike that pushed inflation higher everywhere.

It’s not all about crude oil. Similar curbs on refined Russian products like diesel are due to kick in next month, and some Western officials worry that they could trigger shortages.

And the shutdown of Russian natural-gas pipelines has left a big hole in global supply. So far, a warm European winter has helped make the shortfall less acute, and bring gas and power prices down. Still, this year will likely see nations scramble to lock in scarce shipments of liquefied fuel.

Battle for chips

SEMICONDUCTORS , crucial components of everything from electric cars to ballistic missiles and new artificial intelligence technologies, are emerging as one of the global economy’s most important battlegrounds. Over the past year, the Biden administration has wielded various tools including export controls to prevent China from buying or manufacturing

the most advanced chips. It’s also launched a $52 billion subsidy program for the domestic chip industry, to bring manufacturing capabilities back home.

The US says its blunt-force restrictions are aimed at Chinese military capabilities, while Beijing says they’re part of a wider effort to halt China’s economic advance. Whatever the case, American allies will need to be on board for the curbs to work. The Netherlands and Japan, which host some of the most advanced chip firms, have already agreed.

Compliance will come with a cost, as the firms that make chips or machinery to build them may lose out on the vast Chinese market. Meanwhile Beijing is ploughing cash into its own semiconductor industry—though cuttingedge technologies will likely be tough to replicate—and could seek to retaliate if restrictions are tightened.

War over Taiwan? US and European leaders fear the next front in the new cold war— which could turn hot—will be

Taiwan.

China has claimed Taiwan as its own since the ousted nationalist government in Beijing fled there after the communist revolution. The Pentagon said recently it sees no sign of an imminent attack. But it expects more of the aggressive behavior that’s become a pattern since former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi triggered a furious reaction from Beijing by visiting the island in August, with an increase in military drills and intrusive actions by air and sea. President Joe Biden has promised to send American forces in the event of an invasion, something he’s ruled out doing in Ukraine.

On top of the obvious risks of a direct conflict between superpowers, there’s an economic dimension to the standoff. As home to the world’s largest chipmaker, TSMC, Taiwan is critical to all kinds of global supply chains. Even an escalation short of war, like a Chinese blockade, could set off a colossal domino effect.

A Chinese move against Taiwan, and the likely Western response, “is a contingency that everyone

is planning for,” says Tim Adams, chief executive of the Institute of International Finance. “Every single firm is gaming out what those sanctions would look like, and who would be an ally to the US.”

‘Friendshoring’ and subsidies

GOVERNMENTS are increasingly willing to use their economies as tools of statecraft. On offense, that might mean denying rivals access to goods or markets. On defense, it means only allies can be trusted to deliver strategic supplies, an idea known as friendshoring.

But friends can fall out, and the friendliest shore of all is at home. That’s why nations are ramping up subsidies for their domestic producers—a shift away from freetrade orthodoxy that’s already causing frictions.

The Biden administration is spending more than $50 billion to boost chipmakers at home, and also backing the electric-vehicle industry as part of a $437 billion plan to fight climate change. Europe reacted furiously, accusing its ally of unfair trade practices that incentivize companies to relocate to the US, and says it may roll out financial supports of its own.

The risk is a global subsidies race where the winners are the countries with the deepest pockets, and the losers are economies in the developing world already suffering from growing debt burdens.

Dollar’s reign MORE and more countries—not all of them American adversaries—are seeking ways to conduct more business outside of the dollar, because they see the US turning its currency into a tool for advancing foreign-policy objectives.

The Biden administration

froze some $7 billion of Afghanistan’s central bank reserves, to keep money out of the hands of the country’s new Taliban rulers. The US and European Union are seeking ways to legally confiscate some half-trillion dollars worth of Russian reserves and use them to rebuild Ukraine.

It will likely take many years to displace the dollar as the world’s reserve asset, if that happens at all. The greenback’s safe-haven status was evident last year when it soared in the turbulent early months of the Ukraine war. It’s entrenched in everything from central banking to commodity trade, and there’s no clear alternative.

Still, among countries like China, Russia and Iran—as well as India and the Gulf energy giants, which have more amicable relations with Washington—the search is on for ways to build trade links that eschew the dollar. Chinese President Xi Jinping’s visit to Saudi Arabia last month, which saw talk of energy deals priced in China’s currency with investment set to flow the other way, may be a sign of things to come.

The risk for the US and its allies is twofold. Their sanction weapon, which relies on dollar dominance to be effective, may lose some of its force. And they may face higher inflation, as trade deals between non-Western economies lock key commodities out of the market, pushing prices up for other buyers.

“The US dollar is a hex on all of us,” George Yeo, former foreign minister of Singapore, said at a conference last week. “If you weaponize the international financial system, alternatives will grow to replace it.” With assistance from Bryce Baschuk, Julian Lee and Christopher Condon/Bloomberg.

Japan looks beyond US alliance for help to deter China military

By Isabel Reynolds & Ben Westcott

JAPANESE Prime Minister Fumio Kishida is looking beyond his country’s alliance with the US to deter China, bolstering security ties with democracies from Australia to Europe.

On his tour of Group of Seven countries last week, which came after the biggest overhaul of Japan’s security policy since World War II, Kishida told French President Emmanuel Macron that the security of Europe and the Indo-Pacific were indivisible. He signed a deal on mutual troop access with UK premier Rishi Sunak and agreed with Italian leader Giorgia Meloni to upgrade defense ties.

Japan’s alliance with Washington—complete with its “nuclear umbrella”—remains the cornerstone of its strategy, and US President Joe Biden endorsed the country’s more robust security strategy in a meeting with Kishida at the White House on Friday. Yet Japan’s deepening unease about the dangers in its neighborhood has prompted a fresh push to build a bulwark of other partnerships.

Concerns linger in Japan that Biden could be succeeded

by a less sympathetic US leader, said Euan Graham, a Singaporebased senior fellow for IndoPacific Defense and Strategy at the International Institute for Strategic Studies. Donald Trump, for instance, repeatedly questioned the fairness of the US-Japan alliance during his years as president.

“They can’t rely on the US entirely, both for political reasons and in simple scale terms,” Graham said. “They need extra help, and that’s where Canada and the other G-7 countries come into play.”

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, North Korea’s growing missile prowess and rising tensions around Taiwan—including Chinese military exercises that involved lobbing missiles into waters near Japan—have all contributed to its concerns.

Last year Kishida became the first Japanese prime minister to attend a Nato summit.

On each stop of his fivecountry tour, Kishida explained Japan’s defense expansion and regional security worries. It culminated with a joint USJapan statement that blamed China and North Korea for making it necessary to ramp up the nation’s military capability.

“In managing relations with China, it is absolutely

necessary for Japan, the US and Europe to work together as one,” Kishida said in a speech at the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies in Washington on Friday.

European allies are i ncreasingly conscious of the growing security threat China poses in a variety of arenas, particularly in the long-term, and are taking steps to address that. Macron highlighted security as one area where they can increase cooperation with Japan when he met Kishida last week, as they looked to a new round of joint military exercises.

Germany and the Netherlands have, along with Japan, the US and the UK, sent frigates to sail in the South China Sea in recent years as a way to counter China’s claims there and underscore the importance of freedom of navigation.

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization, which includes the US, Canada and European members, for the first time mentioned China in its 2022 Strategic Concept, laying out the alliance’s priorities for the coming decade. Nato leaders agreed at their summit last June, also attended by AsiaPacific partners like Japan and

Australia, that China posed a “systemic challenge” and warned about a deepening strategic partnership between Beijing and Moscow.

‘Unbreakable

bond’

EAGERNESS to get involved with a wider range of partners manifested itself in last year’s decision to work on a nextgeneration fighter jet with the UK and Italy, rather than with the US. Japan is set to negotiate an information-security agreement with Canada as part of a joint action plan sealed last year, which includes joint military exercises and defense exchanges.

Japan’s newfound openness to such ideas has met with particular enthusiasm from London.

“Japan is our closest security partner in Asia and the UK is Japan’s closest security partner in Europe,” Sunak said in an op-ed published in Nikkei Asia. “Between us is an unbreakable bond that reaches halfway around the world.”

Britain has and is moving toward what it calls an IndoPacific tilt in its foreign relations and is in the middle of updating its strategic foreign affairs goals.

Closer to home, talks are also

under way with the Philippines on deepening defense ties.

Taiwan question NONE of this obliges any of Japan’s partners to come to its aid in the event of a conflict over Taiwan, or the East China Sea islands disputed between Tokyo and Beijing, known as Senkaku in Japanese and Diaoyu in Chinese. Unlike the US, other G-7 partners have made no treaty pledges to help defend Japan.

“In the event of a contingency around Taiwan or the Senkaku, I don’t think they are expecting the UK or France to come to the Indo-Pacific,” said Kyoko Hatakeyama, a professor of international studies at the University of Niigata Prefecture. Still, she added, the effect Japan is seeking is deterrence.

Japan’s strategy with G-7 members appears to be following its engagement with Australia. Ties with Canberra progressed to a defense agreement last year in which the two countries pledge to increase interoperability between their forces.

‘Eggs in the US basket’ PRESSURE from the US could prompt Australia and other countries to offer some degree

of assistance in the event of a Taiwan contingency, said Graham from IISS. But he warned that Japan’s dubbing of Australia a “quasi ally” might be misleading.

“The whole point about alliances is that they are definitive,” he said. “It’s a black and white commitment—we will be there for you. I don’t think the Australians are going to offer that.”

Japan’s outreach to partners like Australia and the UK also serves as insurance in case US power in the Asia-Pacific begins to fade, according to Amy King, associate professor at the

Australian National University’s Strategic & Defence Studies Centre.

Until recently, the US has been by far the largest military presence in Asia, providing protection for its allies including Japan. However, concerns over the rise of “America First” rhetoric among US conservatives has led Tokyo to hedge its bets in the event of a US departure.

“It’s Japan diversifying the partners with whom it acts,” King said. “It doesn’t want to put all its eggs in the US basket any longer.” With assistance from Natalia Drozdiak, Kitty Donaldson and Jon Herskovitz.

A MILITARY exercise in Miaoli, Taiwan in July. LAM YIK FEI/BLOOMBERG

Ukrainian civilians vanish and suffer in Russian jails

By Hanna Arhirova & Dasha Litvinova The Associated Press

Men in military uniforms took 45-year-old Vita Hannych away from her house in eastern Ukraine in April. She never returned.

Her family later learned that Hannych, who has long suffered from seizures because of a brain cyst, is in custody in the Russianoccupied part of the Donetsk region.

Kapatsyna told The Associated Press that it remains unclear why her mother—“a peaceful, civilian and sick person” who has never held a weapon—was detained.

Hannych is one of hundreds— and perhaps thousands—of Ukrainian noncombatants believed to be held by Russian forces for months following their invasion. Some are deemed to be prisoners of war, even though they never took part in the fighting. Others are in a sort of legal limbo—not facing any criminal charges or considered to be POWs.

Hannych was wearing only a sweatsuit and slippers when she was seized by Russian forces occupying her village of Volodymyrivka several weeks into the Feb. 24 invasion. It is still under Moscow’s control.

Her family initially thought she would come home shortly. Russian forces were known to detain people for two or three days for “filtration” and then release them, Kapatsyna said, and Hannych had no military or law enforcement connections.

When she wasn’t released, Kapatsyna and her 70-year-old grandmother started a search. At

first, letters and visits to various Russian-installed officials and government bodies in the Donetsk region yielded no results.

“The answers from everywhere were the same: ‘We did not take her away.’ Who took her then, if no one took her?” said Kapatsyna, who left the village in March for the Ukrainian-controlled city of Dnipro.

Then, they finally got some clarity: Hannych was jailed in Olenivka, another Russian-controlled city, according to a letter from the Moscow-installed prosecutor’s office in the Donetsk region.

The jail staff told Kapatsyna’s grandmother that Hannych was a sniper, allegations her family deems absurd, given her condition. Medical records seen by the AP confirmed that she had a brain cyst, as well as “residual encephalopathy” and “general convulsive attacks.”

Anna Vorosheva, who spent 100 days in the same facility as Hannych, recounted squalid, inhumane conditions: putrid drinking water, no heat or showers, having to sleep in shifts and hearing new prisoners screaming from being beaten.

Vorosheva, 46, said she wasn’t told why she was detained, aside from “smirks and jokes about Nazis”—a reference to Russia’s false claims that what it calls its “special military operation” was a campaign to “denazify” Ukraine. She also said the staff told her: “Be happy we’re not beating you.”

Donetsk authorities labeled

Hannych a POW and recently told the family she is imprisoned in the occupied city of Mariupol. It remains unclear when, if at all, she could be released.

Ukraine’s top human rights organization, Center for Civil Liberties, has requests concerning around 900 civilians captured by Russia since the war began, with more than half still in custody.

Dmytro Lubinets, Ukraine’s human rights envoy, put the number even higher and said Friday that his office received inquiries concerning more than 20,000 “civilian hostages” detained by Russia.

Russian lawyer Leonid Solovyov told the AP he has amassed more than 100 requests concerning Ukrainian civilians. He said he was able to help 30-40 confirm the person they looked for was in Russian custody without any legal status—just like his client, Mykyta Shkriabin.

The student from northeastern Ukraine’s Kharkiv region was detained by Russia’s military in March and has been held ever since without charges or any legal proceedings.

Shkriabin, then 19, was sheltering from the fighting in a base -

ment with his family, according to his mother, Tetiana. During a break, he went out for supplies— and never returned.

Tetiana Shkriabina told the AP that she learned from witnesses that Russian soldiers seized him.

Months later, Solovyov got confirmation from Russia’s Defense Ministry that Shkriabin was detained for “resisting the special military operation.” There is no such offense on the books in Russia, Solovyov said, and even if there was, Shkriabin would have been formally charged and investigated, but that hasn’t happened. The ministry refused to disclose his whereabouts.

Moreover, when Solovyov filed a complaint to Russia’s Investigative Committee contesting the detention, it confirmed that there are no criminal probes opened against Shkriabin, that he is neither a suspect, nor an accused.

Shkriabin, who turned 20 in captivity, hasn’t been labeled a POW, the lawyer said, adding: “His legal status is simply a hostage.”

Russia’s Defense Ministry and the Interior Ministry didn’t respond to requests for comment.

Other cases are eerily similar to

those of Shkriabin and Hannych.

In May, Russian forces detained information technology specialist Iryna Horobtsova in the southern city of Kherson when it was occupied by Moscow. They raided her apartment, seizing a laptop, two cellphones and several flash drives, and then took her away, according to her sister, Elena Kornii. They promised her parents that she would be home that evening—but it didn’t happen.

Horobtsova remained in the city and spoke out against the war on social media before she was detained, Kornii said. She had attended anti-Russia protests and also helped residents by driving them to work or finding scarce medications.

“She hasn’t violated any laws,” Kornii said, noting that her sister had nothing to do with the military.

Horobtsova’s lawyer, Emil Kurbedinov, said he believed that Russian security forces were carrying out “purges of the disloyal” in Kherson.

He learned from Russia’s Federal Security Service, or FSB, that she was still in custody. The Interior Ministry in Moscow-annexed Crimea told him that Horobtsova was in a detention center there. When Kurbedinov tried to visit her, officials refused to acknowledge having any such prisoner.

As for why she was held, the lawyer said authorities told him that “she resisted the special military operation, and a decision regarding her will be made when the special military operation is over.”

He described her as “unlawfully imprisoned.”

Dmytro Orlov, mayor of the occupied city of Enerhodar in the Zaporizhzhia region, describes the fate of his deputy the same way—“an absolutely arbitrary detention.”

Ivan Samoydyuk was picked up by Russian soldiers shortly after they seized the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant in March, and no charges have been filed against

him, Orlov said.

“We’re not even sure if he’s alive!” the mayor said. “If we can’t get clarity from the Russians about the fate of a deputy mayor, imagine the fate of ordinary Ukrainian civilians.”

Mykhailo Savva of the Expert Council of the Center for Civil Liberties said the Geneva Conventions allow a state to detain civilians temporarily in occupied areas, but “as soon as the reason that caused the detention of this civilian disappears, then this person must be released.”

“No special conditions, no trades, just release,” Savva said, noting that civilians can’t be declared POWs under international law.

International law prohibits a warring party from forcibly moving a civilian to its own territory or territory it occupies, and doing so could be deemed a war crime, said Yulia Gorbunova, a senior researcher with Human Rights Watch.

POWs can be exchanged, but there is no legal mechanism for swapping noncombatants, Gorbunova said, complicating efforts to free civilians from captivity. Since the war began, however, Kyiv has been able to bring some home. Andriy Yermak, the head of Ukraine’s presidential office, said on January 8 that 132 civilians were brought back from Russian captivity in 2022.

Lubinets, the Ukrainian human rights ombudsman, met this month with his Russian counterpart, Tatyana Moskalkova.

He said he gave Moskalkova lists of some of the 20,000 Ukrainian civilians he said were held by Russia, and “the Russian side agreed to find out where they are, in what condition and why they are being held.”

After getting such information, the question “of the procedure for their return” will be raised, Lubinets said.

Taliban ban on women workers interrupts vital aid for Afghans

By Riazat Butt The Associated Press

KABUL, Afghanistan—

Last June, a team of female doctors and nurses drove six hours across mountains, dry riverbeds and on unpaved roads to reach victims of a massive earthquake that had just hit eastern Afghanistan, killing more than 1,000 people.

When they got there, a day after the earthquake hit, they found the men had been treated, but the women had not. In Afghanistan’s deeply conservative society, the women had stayed inside their tents, unable to come out to get medical help and other assistance because there were no women aid workers.

“The women still had blood on them,” said Samira Sayed-Rahman, from the aid agency International Rescue Committee. It was only after she met local elders to tell them about the arrival of a female medical team that women came out to get treatment.

“That’s not just the situation in emergencies; in many parts of the country, women don’t go out to get aid,” she said.

It’s an example, SayedRahman said, of how vital women workers are to

humanitarian operations in Afghanistan—and shows the impact that will be felt after the Taliban last month barred Afghan women from working in non-governmental organizations.

The ban, announced Dec. 24, forced a widespread shutdown of many aid operations by organizations that said they cannot and would not work without their female staff. Aid agencies warn that hundreds of thousands are already hurt by the halt in services and that, if the ban continues, the dire and even deadly consequences will spiral wider for a population battered by decades of war, deteriorating living conditions and economic hardship.

Aid agencies and NGOs have been keeping Afghanistan alive since the Taliban seized power in August 2021. The takeover triggered a halt in international financing, a freeze in currency reserves and a cut-off from global banking, collapsing the already fragile economy.

NGOs have stepped into the breach, and providing everything from food provisions to basic services like health care and education.

After the ban, 11 major international aid groups along with some smaller ones suspended their operations completely, saying they cannot operate without their women workers. Many others have reduced their work dramatically. A postban survey of 151 local and international NGOs found that only about 14 percent were still operating at full capacity, according to UN Women.

UN agencies have continued working—most vitally to largely maintain the food lifeline that is keeping millions of Afghans out of starvation. Despite the ban, the World Food Program provided food staples or cash transfers for food to 13 million people in December and the first week of January—more than a quarter of Afghanistan’s population of some 40 million.

The extent of the ban’s implementation and enforcement is unclear. In some places, some women have been able to continue working in the field.

Still, the impact is already great, agencies say.

The International Rescue Committee, which has suspended all its operations, estimates that around 165,000 people missed out on its health

services between December 24 and January 9. It warned of an increase of death and disease because of the ban and an increased burden on Afghanistan’s health system, which it said is “already fragile, near-to-collapse, and NGOdependent.”

IRC supports more than 100 health facilities in 11 provinces, including 30 mobile health teams, in some cases delivering lifesaving help to remote areas that had no humanitarian aid of any kind.

“It’s the only healthcare that some women have access to,” said Sayed-Rahman of the mobile teams. “Parts of Afghanistan still don’t have hospitals, clinics or other medical facilities. With each day that passes, the suspension has a huge impact on the amount of aid being delivered.”

IRC also helps families displaced by war and natural disaster, providing clean water, tents, cash and other necessities. Overall, IRC programs helped 6.18 million people between 2021-2022—more than double the number in the previous oneyear period.

While the bulk of food aid has continued to flow, important nutritional programs have stopped.

Save The Children is among the agencies that completely suspended its activities on December 25. As a result, tens of thousands have not received nutritional support.

Last month before the ban came into effect, Save the Children helped nearly 30,000 children and nearly 32,000 adults with nutrition, including providing calorieand vitamin-packed peanut paste to babies and children and porridge for women. The halt has also interrupted cash transfers to 5,077 families, who received one round of money in December but none of the further planned rounds - funds they rely on for food and other supplies.

Child malnutrition numbers are high and rising in Afghanistan, with a 50 percent increase over the past year. Around a million children under the age of 5 will likely face the most severe form of malnutrition this year, according to UN figures. Almost half of Afghanistan’s 41 million people are projected to be acutely food insecure between November 2022 and March 2023, including more than 6 million people on the brink of famine, according to the World Food Program.

“Children’s lives (in

Afghanistan) are hanging in the balance,” said Keyan Salarkia from Save the Children.

“If you don’t get the right type of food in the first 100 days, then that has a knockon effect for the rest of your life,” he said. In cases of severe acute malnutrition, after 10 days “you start slipping into loss of life,” he said.

Salarkia said the ban will affect almost everyone in Afghanistan one way or another. Save the Children was also providing classes for children, immunization and child protection. Its cash grants helped families feel they didn’t have to sell their children into marriage or labor. Without that support, more children will be married off or forced to work.

“The ripple effects of this will be huge, which is why we hope to see it reversed as soon as possible.”

Salarkia recalled the impact when Save the Children briefly stopped work for security reasons after the Taliban takeover in August 2021. The pause only lasted a couple of weeks, but workers on mobile health teams said some children they had seen regularly before never returned.

“That’s how quickly the situation changes,” he said.

KYIV, Ukraine—Alina Kapatsyna often dreams about getting a phone call from her mother. In those visions, her mother tells her that she’s coming home.

L itvinova reported from Tallinn, Estonia. Yuras Karmanau contributed to this report from Tallinn.

ALINA KAPATSYNA sits in a house in Dnipro, Ukraine, on January 6, 2023. Men in military uniforms took her mother, 45-year-old Vita Hannych, away from her house in eastern Ukraine in April. Since the war in Ukraine began, many civilians have been detained by Russian forces and are languishing in jails for months without charges as their relatives seek to find out what has happened to them. AP/HANNA ARHIROVA

Lyn Resurreccion

PEOPLE WHO TAKE LEQEMBI STILL WORSENED BUT NOT AS RAPIDLY AS THOSE WITH DUMMY VERSIONS

New drug slows Alzheimer’s but only by 5 months

WASHINGTON—A new Alzheimer’s drug is hitting the market—the first with clear-cut evidence that it can slow, by several months, the mind-robbing disease.

It’s a long-needed new treatment, but experts also are voicing a lot of caution: The drug isn’t a cure, it’s only intended for earlystage patients, requires IV doses every two weeks, and comes with some safety concerns.

It’s not even clear just how noticeable that modest benefit will be in people’s everyday lives.

Still, “it’s a landmark,” said Dr. Richard Hodes, director of the National Institute on Aging. “It’s not enough, but it’s encouraging that there’s something we can do.”

Here are some things to know about the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) approval of lecanemab, to be sold under the brand name Leqembi:

How does the new drug work?

THE drug, made by Japan’s Eisai and its US partner Biogen, is designed to target and clear away a sticky protein called beta-amyloid that builds up into brainclogging plaques—one key hallmark of Alzheimer’s disease.

It targets a slightly different form of that amyloid, possibly ex-

plaining why it proved successful in a rigorous study while a long list of prior amyloid-targeting drugs have failed, said Dr. Sam Gandy, an Alzheimer’s expert at New York’s Mount Sinai Hospital.

The FDA cleared a similar drug named Aduhelm in 2021 even though studies never proved it really helped patients, a move that triggered scathing criticism from a congressional investigation.

attributed to its Alzheimer’s drug.

But Gandy said the greatest risk of serious bleeding would be among Leqembi users who also take blood thinners, which are commonly used by older adults to prevent or treat strokes.

Patients also may experience temporary reactions after the infusions that can include fever, flu-like chills, nausea and blood pressure fluctuations.

patients will likely have to wait months to get it.

That’s because health insurers are expected to scrutinize the drug’s effectiveness before deciding whether to cover it, for which patients, and what testing they may require to confirm they are good candidates.

Delay

from getting worse by ‘5 months’

IN Eisai’s 18-month study of nearly 1,800 people, Leqembi appeared to delay early-stage patients from getting worse by about five months.

That was measured on an 18-point scale that tracks cognitive and functional abilities. People who got the drug still worsened but not as rapidly as those given dummy versions—a difference of nearly half a point on that scale by the study’s end.

Experts are divided over how meaningful a benefit that is. It may be hard for families to tell if a loved one’s decline has slowed, Gandy said.

Other experts say slowing the disease early on, when people still function well, is important even if it’s not that easy to spot.

“Several months with better

cognition, what’s that worth to you?” Hodes asked. “I think there you can get a strong argument: If I can interact with my family, be independent for months ... that’s a very meaningful outcome.”

What are the risks?

LIKE other amyloid-targeting medications, Leqembi can cause brain swelling or small brain bleeds.

In Eisai’s study, 13 percent of drug recipients had swelling and 17 percent has small brain bleeds.

The likely reason: Amyloid plaques usually form around

nerve cells in the brain but sometimes the gunk gets inside blood vessels, too.

Pulling amyloid out of those blood vessels can weaken them, making them leaky, Gandy explained.

While the brain swelling and bleeds may cause only minimal symptoms, such as dizziness and vision problems, they occasionally can be severe—and several Leqembi users have died while taking the drug, including two who were on blood-thinning medications.

Eisai has said the deaths can’t be

Who is eligible?

THE drug is only intended for people in the very early stages of Alzheimer’s who also have that tell-tale amyloid buildup.

The FDA warned doctors to use caution if they prescribe Leqembi to people who use blood thinners. Patients also will be urged to get brain scans several times over the course of treatment.

As patients gradually worsen, it’s not clear how long they should continue getting the twice-a-month IV infusions.

Study participants are being tracked for longer periods, and other research is exploring even earlier use—before people with amyloid buildup show symptoms.

When will it be available?

EISAI says the drug should be available by January 23, but most

And Medicare, which covers most people with Alzheimer’s, is not expected to pay for the drug until later this year. That’s because the plan for seniors only pays for Alzheimer’s drugs that have received full approval from the FDA—while the agency granted Leqembi’s approval using a shortcut based on preliminary study results.

The FDA is set to review that larger 18-month study soon, in anticipation of full approval later this year.

How much will the drug cost?

THE IV drug will cost about $26,500 for a typical year’s worth of treatment (or P1,448,940.5 at P54.68 to a $1).

If insurers cover it, most people won’t pay anywhere near that much—although people with insurance that requires them to shoulder a larger portion of their drug costs could pay thousands a year. Lauran Neergaard And Matthew Perrone/Associated Press

DOST projects to address impacts of ‘Odette,’ Covid-19 on crop sector

TYPHOON Odette in 2021 and the height of Covid-19 pandemic in 2020 and 2021 have damaged and adversely affected farmers and communities.

To help the farmers and communities recover their livelihood sources, the Crops Research Division (CRD) of the Philippine Council for Agriculture, Aquatic and Natural Resources Research and Development of the Department of Science and Technology (DOST-PCAARRD) recently launched two projects.

PHL’S 1ST COASTAL ENG’G R&D CENTER LAUNCHED

BATAC, Ilocos Norte—The Philippines’ first Coastal Engineering and Management Research and Development Center (Coaster) was launched on January 19.

Housed in Mariano Marcos State UniversityMain Campus (MMSU) in Batac, Ilocos Norte, Coaster is a project of MMSU and the Department of Science and Technology (DOST).

It is in partnership with the Kyoto University of Japan, University of the Philippines Marine Science Institute, Don Mariano Marcos Memorial State University, and other higher education institutions in Region 1.

The center aims to protect resources and the coastal communities from coastal erosion and flooding through effective implementation of science and technology (S&T)-based coastal management.

The coastal engineering program will be involved in developing innovations to combat coastal erosion, prototype of coastal floodcontrol infrastructure, data book of flood control structures, and coastal engineering design and guidelines handbook to promote coastal resilience.

S cience Secretary Renato U. Solidum Jr. said, “The DOST continues to offer S&T interventions that are anchored on four thematic areas: Wealth creation, through economic development and job creation; wealth protection, through climate and disaster resilience; human well-being, through health, education, access to water and energy; and sustainability, by ensuring protection and conservation of natural resources.”

S olidum congratulated the research team behind the Coaster, led by program leader, Dr. Nathaniel Alibuyog, for coming up with an innovative approach toward solutions to the threats of coastal erosion in the Ilocos region.

“As a staunch advocate of disaster risk reduction and management, I enjoin everyone to take part in these efforts and support the

initiatives of DOST, MMSU and the provincial government of Ilocos Norte. Rest assured that the DOST remains committed to serving the Filipino people through S&T,” Solidum said.

Alibuyog said the establishment of Coaster is in line with DOST strategic framework, particularly with its long-term vision to provide innovative solutions that will lead to higher productivity and better quality of life, especially in coastal communities.

Region 1 has the nation’s longest shoreline, at 708km, which is vulnerable to storm surges and tsunamis.

In the past years, the region experienced high failure in coastal flood-control structures, such as sea walls.

This could be attributed to the yearly occurrence of extreme typhoons, and the normal tear and wear of infrastructure projects.

Thus, the need to establish the first wave flume testing facility in the country where Coaster will find ways to improve the design and implementation of the country’s coastal infrastructure.

Executive Director Dr. Enrico C. Paringit of the DOST-Philippine Council for Industry, Energy and Emerging Technology Research and Development (DOST-PCIEERD) also expressed his support for this milestone.

The Council has high hopes for the future projects of Coaster. We anticipate that more coastal communities will be empowered to use the technologies and innovations of Coaster once they become familiar with the programs, technologies, and resources that this research center provides,” Paringit said.

The heads of various agencies, as well as provincial and local governments in Region I expressed support for Coaster.

DOST funded the facility through its Science for Change Program-Niche Center in the Regions program and monitored by DOST-PCIEERD. S&T Media Services

Odette damaged more than 6 million (M) coconut trees in Region 13, and 3 M trees in Region 8.

The damage caused the proliferation of coconut rhinoceros beetles (CRB) in the regions.

CRB is a major insect pest of coconut, which damages the palm by chewing into the emerging fronds, feeding on the sap, and injuring the young growing tissues.

If not addressed properly, its damage will ultimately result in early nut fall and lower yield.

To curb the CRB infestation, project leader Johana C. Orense from the Philippine Coconut Authority’s Davao Research Center (PCA-DRC) said the CRB control strategies include using a biological control agent, called “green muscardine fungus” (GMF), and other pest management strategies.

The project will have mass dis -

tribution of 6,270 kilograms of GMF to 7,838 hectares of Odetteaffected coconut plantations.

The training of agriculturists and farmers on integrated pest management of CRB to prevent future outbreaks will also be held.

At the same time, the Philippine Root Crop Research and Training Center of the Visayas State University (PhilRootcrops-VSU) project aims to address the unemployment and food shortage brought about by the pandemic.

Marlon M. Tambis, project leader from PhilRootcrops-VSU, said the project, “Enhanced Distribution, Nursery Establishment and Product Utilization of Rootcrops in Region 8 to Mitigate the Impact of Covid-19,” is a spin-off of their

completed project in 2020.

PhilRootcrops-VSU will distribute planting materials of sweetpotato, cassava, yam and taro in several municipalities in Northern and Eastern Samar, Leyte, Southern Leyte and Biliran.

The project is also expected to generate sustainable livelihood opportunities for the communities in the target areas.

Through the initiative, PhilRootcrops will establish more rootcrop nurseries and production areas to sustain the supply of planting materials.

They are also planning to train the beneficiaries on various production and processing technologies to maximize the production and consumption of rootcrops.

The two projects were discussed during a meeting attended by project team members and administrative staff from PCA-DRC, PCA-Albay Research Center, PCARegion XIII, and VSU; and DOSTPCAARRD representatives, led by Siano and Ramon A. Oliveros, Supervising Science Research Specialist of the Office of the Executive Director-Administration, Resource Management and Support Services. John Aaron Mark V. Macaraeg/S&T Media Services

January is 2023 PHL Tropical Fabrics Month

THE country celebrates Philippine Tropical Fabrics (PTF) every January.

Through Proclamation 313, Series of 2012, the monthlong activities aim to promote textile production using natural textile fibers, technologies and industries in the Philippines, the Philippine Textile Research Institute (PTRI) said in a news release

It also aims to revitalize the local textile industry toward inclusive growth through the generation of livelihood for Filipinos and to provide materials that nurture and promote a truly Filipino textile brand.

The PTF contains natural textile

fibers from pineapple leaf, abaca, banana, and Philippine silk, which are produced, spun, woven, or knitted, and finished in the Philippines.

The Department of Science and Technology through the PTRI (DOST-PTRI) leads the nation in the celebration of the PTF Month annually with activities to engage textile-garment and allied industries, including the private sector, associations and institutions, and the academe in using PTF.

Public officials’ and employees’ involvement is also enjoined as PTF is prescribed for their uniforms, based on Republic Act 9242, wherein fabrics to be used must contain at

least 5 percent by weight of either abaca leaf sheath, banana pseudostem and pineapple leaf, or 15 percent by weight of silk.

With the theme, “Pushing Boundaries for Sustainable, Competitive, and Inclusive Philippine Textile-Garment Industry,” the activities and programs this January 2023 celebrate milestones, launches regional hubs, and raise awareness of using and developing Philippine textiles, local natural resources, and mainstream developed textile solutions and technologies.

Sustainability and innovation drive the textile and garment industries forward and offer the industry the impetus and platform to rebuild

a solid and circular textile-garment economy.

The activities kicked off on January 3. The remaining events during the month are the Philippine Textile Industry Stakeholders’ Conference on January 26; the Fourth Philippine Silk Summit on January 27; and the opening of the Philippine Tropical Fabrics Exhibition at the Batasan Pambansa on January 31.

The DOST-PTRI, while sustaining its research and development efforts, is looking forward to building a truly inclusive Philippine textilegarment industry and achieving its goal to mainstream PTF for all textile applications with a fabric that is truly Filipino.

CRD OIC, Dr. Allan B. Siano, expressed his gratitude to the project teams for developing quick response projects that will benefit the farmers and other stakeholders affected by natural hazards.

ON January 6, 2023, US health officials approved Leqembi, a new Alzheimer’s drug that modestly slows the brain-robbing disease. The approval was granted for patients in the early stages of Alzheimer’s. EISAI VIA AP

SCIENCE Secretary Renato U. Solidum Jr. (left) delivers his speech during the launching of Coaster in Mariano Marcos State University-Main Campus in Batac, Ilocos Norte. Also in the

photo are MMSU President Dr. Shirley C. Agrupis, DOST-PCIEERD Executive Director Dr. Enrico C. Paringit and Dr. Nathaniel R. Alibuyog, MMSU VP for Research and Extension. DOST-PCIEERD PHOTO

COCONUT rhinoceros beetle PCA DAVAO RESEARCH CENTER PHOTO

PHILROOTCROPS -VSU distributes sweetpotato planting materials in Southern Leyte. PHILROOTCROPS-VSU PHOTO

Caritas PH calls for more govt support to onion farmers

said Caritas PH President Bishop Jose Colin Bagaforo.

“This will make them more competitive with producers from other countries, who are already receiving large subsidies and other forms of support from their government,” he said.

Besides financial support, the bishop also urged the DA to improve onion farming infrastructures in the country.

“Another thing that can be looked into is infrastructural investments that would improve the productivity and efficiency of onion farms,” Bagaforo said.

“More cold storage facilities should be established to lessen the cost surplus of our farmers and meet the rising demand for agricultural products in the market,” he added.

The national Caritas issued the statement as prices of local red onions are now between P500 to P720 per kilogram.

supply and price problems.

However, the volume of imported onion that will enter the country this month may be below 5,000 metric tons (MT), as importers showed a weak appetite for the government’s emergency import program, a Business Mirror story said.

It said that at a recent Senate hearing, Bureau of Plant Industry Director Glenn Panganiban reported that importers only applied to bring in 25 percent, or only about 5,000 MT, of the 21,060-MT onion importation program of the national government.

Some groups, however, have expressed concern that the importation could affect local onion farmers, whose harvest period are from January to March.

Balanga diocese continues fight against BNPP revival

THE Roman Catholic Diocese of Balanga has vowed to continue its fight against plans to revive the Bataan Nuclear Power Plant (BNPP).

the possible revival of the BNPP to fix power shortage.

Caritas Philippines recently issued a statement calling on the Department of Agriculture (DA) to help farmers increase onion production at less costs in a bid to lower their

“The

VATICAN—Catholics traveled from near and far to attend the funeral Mass of Cardinal George Pell in St. Peter’s Basilica on January 14.

The Australian cardinal died in Rome on January 10 from a cardiac arrest following a hip surgery. He was 81.

His January 14 funeral, held at the Altar of the Chair, was filled to capacity, with extra chairs added at the last minute to accommodate people standing as far back as the Vatican basilica’s main altar.

“A man of God and a man of the Church, he was characterized by a deep faith and great steadfastness of doctrine, which he always defended without hesitation and with courage, concerned only with being faithful to Christ,” Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re said about Pell in his homily for the funeral.

“As he noted many times, the weakening of faith in the Western world and the moral crisis of the family grieved him,” Re said. “To God, who is good and rich in mercy, we entrust this brother of ours, praying that God will welcome him into the peace and intimacy of his love.”

Pell’s brother, David Pell, and cousin Chris Meney, together with other family members, priests and religious, traveled from Australia to be at the funeral.

Michael Casey, Pell’s former secretary who now works at the Australian Catholic University, also attended.

From Rome, Holy See diplomats, students and priests also came to pray for Pell’s repose. Seminarians of the Pontifical North American College attended the funeral Mass immediately following their audience with Pope Francis the same morning.

American author George Weigel, a longtime friend of Pell, traveled from the United States for the funeral.

The Mass was celebrated by Cardinal Re, the deacon of the

College of Cardinals, and concelebrated by cardinals and bishops.

Pell’s private secretary during his years in Rome, Father Joseph Hamilton, and archbishop Georg Gänswein, the longtime secretary of Pope Benedict XVI, also concelebrated.

Pope Francis arrived at the end of the Mass to perform the rite of final commendation and farewell, as is his custom for the funeral of a cardinal.

“May God unite his soul with those of all the saints and faithful departed,” the pope prayed.

“May he be given a merciful judgement so that, redeemed from death, freed from punishment, reconciled to the Father, carried in the arms of the Good Shepherd, he may deserve to enter fully into everlasting happiness in the company of the eternal King together with all the saints,” he added.

Francis sprinkled holy water. A priest incensed the coffin as the choir and congregation sang the Marian antiphon “Sub Tuum Praesidium.”

Applause broke out as Pell’s coffin was carried from St. Peter’s Basilica.

The cardinal will be buried in his former cathedral, St. Mary’s, in Sydney, Australia.

The day before his funeral, a visitation was held for Pell in the Church of Santo Stefano degli

The amount is far from prices in 2021, when the prevailing price of locally produced onions stood at around P140 per kg. The government has planned to import 21,000 metric tons (MT) of onions in order to help solve the

In the same Senate hearing, the DA said it will build six cold storage facilities in four onion-producing regions starting this year in support of local farmers, the Philippine News Agency said.

Each facility with a capacity of 20,000 bags will cost up to P40 million and will rise in the Ilocos, Cagayan Valley, Central Luzon and Mimaropa regions. CBCP News with B usiness M irror and PNA

Bishop Ruperto Santos said they stand firm against the project because “we don’t want to put life on the brink of danger, in the shadow of impending death, and in a future with no certainty of goodness, safety and beauty.”

“We acted then and will continue to act today. We are against it. Stop it. Enough. We do not agree. We are against any ideas or plans for the rehabilitation of the Bataan Nuclear Power Plant,” Santos said in a pastoral letter.

“The Diocese of Balanga objects and it cannot be changed. Life is more important to us than profit or money from low-cost electricity or just to satisfy someone’s personal selfish motives,” he said.

The diocese maintains that nuclear energy remains a high-risk technology, will be harmful to the environment, and the amount of waste it will produce “will be tremendous and so does the cost to dispose it.”

“We don’t want to put life on the brink of danger, in the shadow of impending death, and in a future with no certainty of goodness, safety, and beauty,” Santos said.

“We don’t want our sea to be uninhabitable to marine life, resulting in the disruption of our ecosystem. We don’t want our soil to be poisoned and no longer viable to be cultivated. We don’t want our livelihoods to be destroyed,” he said.

The late former president Ferdinand Marcos Sr. ordered construction of the 620-megawatt nuclear facility in the 1970s.

Francis’s papacy, whose goals included reforming the Holy See’s finances, which had a long history of scandals and poor management.

Pell later returned to his native Australia to be tried on child sex abuse charges over allegations that he molested two choirboys while he was archbishop of Melbourne.

He served more than a year in solitary confinement in prison before an earlier court conviction was overturned in 2020.

Pell had steadfastly proclaimed his innocence.

The prelate made the statement as the House Special Committee on Nuclear Energy recently began talks on the development of nuclear power, including

Based on alleged safety concerns, and on corruption, the project was mothballed after Marcos was ousted in 1986 and in the aftermath of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster. CBCP News

Catholic priest burned to death in Nigeria

ACATHOLIC priest was burned to death recently after bandits set on fire his parish rectory in northern Nigeria.

The body of Father Isaac Achi was found among the charred parish building of Saints Peter and Paul Catholic Church on January 15, according to the Catholic Diocese of Minna, Nigeria.

Abissini inside the Vatican.

The Gospel for Cardinal Pell’s funeral Mass was from Luke 12 , about the vigilant and faithful servants: “Blessed are those servants whom the master finds vigilant on his arrival,” Luke 12:37 says.

The Responsorial Psalm was from Psalm 23: “The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.”

In his homily, Re remarked on Pell’s unexpected death, and on his recent attendance at the funeral of Pope Benedict XVI.

“Despite his 81 years, he seemed to be in good health,” he said. “Hospitalized for hip surgery, heart complications ensued, causing his death.”

“Enlightened and comforted by faith in the risen Christ, we are gathered around this altar and the body of Cardinal Pell to entrust his soul to God, that he may be received into the immensity of his love in life without end,” Re said.

Re described Pell as a “strongwilled and decisive protagonist, characterized by the temper of a strong character, which at times could appear harsh.”

The cardinal’s premature death, Re said, has left us dismayed, but “there is only room in our hearts for hope.”

As the Vatican’s finance minister for three years, Pell had been a key player in the early years of

Right after his death, it was revealed that the Australian churchman had authored the memo that had been circulating for many months in church circles, the Associated Press (AP) reported.

In the memo, Pell had lamented that the current papacy as a “disaster” and a “catastrophe.”

Separately, the day after Pell died, a conservative magazine published what it said was an article by the cardinal decrying as a “toxic nightmare” Francis’s determination to sound out Catholic laity on such issues as church teaching on sexuality and the role of women. Those issues will likely spark sharp debate later this year in a meeting of bishops from around the world summoned by Francis to the Vatican, AP said.

The day after Pell died, Francis in a condolence telegram paid tribute to the cardinal, saying that while the prelate led the economy office, “he laid the bases with determination and wisdom” for reforms of the Holy See’s finance system, which had been taken to task for years by international financial watchdog bodies.

In the homily, Cardinal Re lamented that Pell’s final years had been “marked by an unjust and painful conviction.”

“It was an experience of great suffering sustained with faith in the judgment of God,” Re said. Hannah Brockhaus/Catholic News Agency via CBCP News with Associated Press

He died after armed bandits attacked the priest’s residence in the village of Kafin Koro at 3 a.m. Another priest at the rectory, Father Collins Omeh, escaped the building, but sustained gunshot wounds and is being treated in a hospital.

Alhaji Sani Bello Abubakar, the governor of the Nigerian state of Niger where the attack took place, described the attack as “ungodly and inhumane” and directed the local security agencies to pursue the attackers, according to The Daily Post.

“This is a sad moment, for a priest to be killed in such a manner means that we are not all safe, these terrorists have lost it, and drastic action is needed to end this ongoing carnage,” Bello said.

Achi served as the parish priest of Saints

Peter and Paul Catholic Church, where he died. He was also the chairman of his local branch of the Christian Association of Nigeria.

“May the soul of very Reverend Father Isaac Achi and the souls of all the faithful departed rest in perfect peace,” the Diocese of Minna said in a statement shared by the Nigeria Catholic Network.

Courtney Mares/Catholic News Agency via CBCP News

Pope invites Christians to event in St. Peter’s Square

VATICAN CITY—Pope Francis recently invited Christians of all dominations to gather in prayer in St. Peter’s Square in September to help further the cause of Christian unity.

Speaking during his weekly window appearance to people gathered in the Vatican City square, Francis announced that an ecumenical prayer would take place on September 30, a few days before the start of a month-long synod that will bring Catholic bishops from around the world to the Vatican to ponder the future direction of the church and to rejuvenate its mission.

Later this month, Francis plans to preside at a special service in a Rome basilica as part of an annual week of prayer for Christian unity, which this year runs from

January 18 to 25.

Francis told some 15,000 pilgrims, tourists and Romans in the square on January 15 that God “with His faithfulness and patience guides His people toward full communion” among Christians.

The pontiff said that the “path to the unity of Christians and the path of synodal conversion of the Church are linked.”

Speaking of the September 30 vigil, Francis said: “Starting now, I invite the brothers and sisters of all Christian denominations to participate in this gathering of the people of God.”

The bishops’ synod runs from October 4 to 29. Bishops are expected to gather again at the Vatican in October 2024 for the event’s conclusion. AP

prices in the market.

government should provide financial incentives or subsidies to help our farmers grow more onions and lower the cost of production,”

THE Catholic Church’s social action and advocacy arm urged the government to provide farmers with needed assistance amid the soaring prices of onions in the market.

BUSINESSMIRROR FILE PHOTO

‘A man of the Church,’ Cardinal George Pell’s funeral held at Vatican

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Asean Champions of Biodiversity Media Category 2014

Biodiversity Sunday

Editor: Lyn Resurreccion

Philippines, the center of Rafflesia diversity

By Jonathan L. Mayuga Photos by Adriane Tobias, CFNR-UPLB

RAFFLESIA , the world’s largest flower, is on the brink of extinction, and saving the species will require the formulation of a national framework for conserving this unique species and its habitat across the Philippines

Known for its rich biological diversity, the Philippines is known to host a wide variety of rare animals and plant species.

Among them is Rafflesia. It is famous for producing the world’s largest flowers that can only be found in tropical forests of Southeast Asia, particularly in the Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia, Brunei and Thailand.

There are 41 Rafflesia species known globally, with flower sizes ranging from 6 centimeters to more than a meter across. On record, there are only 13 known different species of Rafflesia.

Rafflesia research

ADRIANE TOBIAS , a teaching associate at the Department of Forest Biological Sciences, College of Forestry and Natural Resources (CFNR) at the University of the Philippines

Los Baños (UPLB), the Philippines has emerged as an important center of its diversity, with 15 species, not 13, as described to date so far.

Tobias, a BS Forestry graduate at UPLB, as part of his thesis for a postgraduate degree in forestry, studied Rafflesia in the Philippines in 2021.

The study’s output was published as a USAID Research Brief titled, “Taxonomic Study and Conservation Assessments of Rafflesia in the Philippines.” His coauthors were Chris J. Thorogood, Inocencio Buot Jr., Lerma S.J. Maldia and Pastor Malabrigo, Jr.

“With a number of relatively recent species discoveries, the Philippines has emerged in the past two decades as an important center of diversity for Rafflesia,” the paper said.

However, most of the country’s Rafflesia species are “on the edge of extinction.”

The study sought to build a national strategic framework and action plan to conserve Philippine Rafflesia species using science-based data. Through these efforts, researchers

also hope to promote a greater appreciation for plants and the great need to conserve them.

Easily recognizable

THE paper said that with its singular appearance and distinction as the world’s largest flower, plants belonging to the genus Rafflesia are among the more easily recognizable in the world.

However, as in the case of all plants, Rafflesia conservation efforts often receive far less attention compared to charismatic animal species, such as large mammals or visually striking birds.

“People must understand that plant conservation does not strictly refer to preventing plant extinction. It matters for the promotion of environmental health and, most importantly, human health. In the case of Rafflesia, it is also important to highlight their interconnectedness to the ecosystem,” the authors pointed out.

Threatened, pollinator magnet

ACCORDING to the paper, Rafflesia is composed of species that are exclusively holoparasitic to a Tetrastigma vine from the grape family.

“They also mimic the smell and appearance of rotten flesh to attract flies as their pollinators,” the authors said, which made the flower become known as “corpse flower.”

“Rafflesia’s intimate connection to their host and pollinators shows

WWF-PH, BPI Foundation partner for vulnerable areas

THE World Wide Fund for Nature

Philippines (WWF-Philippines) and the BPI Foundation recently said they will continue to provide climate risk assessments and livelihood programs for vulnerable communities even as their earlier projects were recently concluded.

Under the P roject Pagisibol that was created in 2020, the WWF-Philippines and BPI Foundation have been working together to build sustainable food sheds and climate-resilient food production facilities that will help low-income communities all over the country, the partnership said in a news release.

WWF-PH Project Manager Monci Hinay said the project has directly assisted a total of 499 individuals, while 2,037 were provided with access to fresh and quality food.

Financial literacy sessions were held with the creation of 10 functional Group Savings and Loan Associations in these communities with a total of P1,568,000 in savings.

“Our communities need to be able to take care of themselves. They understand this, and the pandemic has made this all the more apparent. These workshops are the first step in a long process towards helping our farming communities to stand up on their own two feet amid the current climate crisis,” Hinay said.

The partnership continues to take on

the challenge of aiding food and livelihood security through community-specific programs.

The Farm-to-table-for-fisherfolks Project, a newly-launched program of the BPI Foundation, provides climate-smart facilities for fish drying and water purification to reduce fish spoilage and promote sustainable livelihood will run until 2023 to help the Halian, Siargao, community.

He said that although the island barangay of Halian is recognized as an emerging tourism spot with a marine sanctuary, it has limited access to appropriate technology to support livelihood and basic necessities like stable and safe potable water sources.

Facilities for fish drying and water purification will also be built in the area, with BPI's help, to reduce fish spoilage and increase economic and health benefits for the community.

Hinay added that trainings on fish catch documentation and financial literacy will also be conducted to increase the knowledge and capacities of the members.

The WWF-Philippines and BPI Foundation partnership pledged to continue to find solutions to #ChangeTheEnding for our environmental frontliners as the country continues to struggle from the economic impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, and as concerns such as rural hunger and livelihood insecurity remain to be addressed, the news release said . Rizal Reyes

how a plant is very dependent on its habitat and various organisms in an ecosystem. Hence, protecting Rafflesia means protecting their hosts, pollinators and habitat,” the authors explained.

In coming up with the paper, the authors conducted a comprehensive taxonomic examination and collated the best available information on the country’s Rafflesia.

In the process they recognized 15 species in the Philippines, all of which are endemic or can only be found in the country.

“Applying IUCN [International Union for Conservation of Nature] Red List Categories and Criteria, it was determined that all of these species are threatened, with 10 species assessed at the highest threat category of Critically Endangered,” the study said.

The study proposed a holistic framework and identified priority actions to push the conservation of these iconic blooms.

Tobias said he is pursuing another research focusing on four aspects, namely, species diversity, extinction risk, awareness campaign and future research focus.

There are existing and future collaborative projects, especially between Oxford Botanic Garden and Arboretum through Dr. Chris Thorogood and CFNR-UPLB through Prof. Pastor L. Malabrigo, Tobias said.

“Results of the study will finally provide the basis for formulating a national framework in conserving our Rafflesia and their habitats across the Philippine archipelago,” he told the BusinessMirror via Messenger on January 18.

Rafflesia’s richness

ACCORDING to Tobias, the number of species known in the Philippines is still debatable.

He said depending on the taxonomic treatment, the Philippines has 13 to 15 species, which hampers setting up conservation actions for the Philippines’ species.

Tobias believes Rafflesia banaoana from Cordillera is unique and should be treated at species rank and, therefore, should be separate from Rafflesia leonardi which can be found in Sierra Madre.

A paper he co-authored about the reinstatement of Rafflesia banaoana is still in review for publication.

“Furthermore, we found putative new species in Luzon, thus, emphasizing the need for more field surveys and explorations,” he said.

Identifying conservation priorities According to Tobias, while taxonomy gives species a name, extinction risk assessment of Rafflesia species is crucial in identifying conservation priorities.

In fact, he said following the IUCN standards, all Philippine species of Rafflesia are mostly Critically Endangered.

“These are species with restricted distribution range or occurring only in a very small habitat,” he said.

Conserving not just the plant TOBIAS said people see plants as just a background of the planet.

“Rafflesia, being unique for producing the biggest flowers and for having no leaves and stem, can be a good representative of flowering plants,” he said

This iconic yet enigmatic holoparasite can be used to catch the attention of policy-makers and government officials to once and for all act toward the conservation of the country’s plants and forests, he added.

Knowing that Rafflesia species are at great risk of extinction, their occurrence in nationally proclaimed protected areas adds more conservation value to the sites, he said.

“Rafflesia can be used as trigger species to strengthen conservation efforts in protected areas. Such species are important for setting conservation priorities,” he said.

Policy recommendation

IN general, he and his group believe there should be a conservation program in place, especially for Rafflesia, which is endemic to the Philippines.

However, he said funding always serves as a hindrance.

“It’s high time for the Philippine government to protect and conserve our biodiversity, our rich natural treasure!”

“It’s ironic to think that the Philippines, being one of the hottest biodiversity hotspots and a megadiverse country, have no law enacted except for the Nipas [National Integrated Protected Areas System] Act,” he lamented.

He said a law or a national program for the protection and conservation of Rafflesia is needed.

High species diversity

THERESA MUNDITA S. LIM, executive director of the Asean Centre for Biodiversity (ACB), said the Philippines has a high Rafflesia species diversity considering that there are

currently only 41 species of the plant in the world, and all found in Southeast Asia.

“However, as of now, it is Indonesia that has the highest number of species, at 17,” Lim told the BusinessMirror in an interview.

She disclosed that the Philippines, however, has the distinction of being host to the “smallest of the biggest flower in the world, R. consueloae, first sighted in Pantabangan in Nueva Ecija.

According to Lim, if the report is to be believed that there are 15, and not just 13 Rafflesia species in the Philippines, an increasing number of species discoveries “is always a welcome occasion,” as this indicates that the Philippines “is increasingly having a better understanding of the biological resources we have.”

Harnessing benefits of biodiversity

“IF we have a good inventory and awareness of them, we will be able to determine how to harness them to benefit our people and our economies,” she said.

She cited for instance that Rafflesia blooms have become tourist attractions, “therefore, if we know when these flowers bloom in our Asean Heritage Parks this information can be used to promote nature tourism in protected areas and bring in added revenues if sustainably managed.”

Lim said some species of Rafflesia have also been recorded to have wound-healing properties, and so perhaps there can be substances in Rafflesia plants that can be tapped later for pharmaceuticals and naturebased remedies.

US donates ₧1.6M to counter Palawan wildlife trafficking, environmental crime

THE United States government recently donated three evidence containers to help strengthen the capacity of the Palawan Council for Sustainable Development (PCSD) to properly retain confiscated contraband and evidence in the prosecution of wildlife traffickers and persons engaging in environmental crime.

The P1.6 million equipment handover at the PCSD headquarters in Puerto Princesa City on January 16 was led by visiting Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary Lisa Johnson of the US Department of State Bureau of International Narcotics and Law

Enforcement Affairs (INL), a US Embassy news release said.

“INL is strongly committed to doing everything it can to disrupt the criminal networks behind wildlife trafficking. Building our partners’ capacity to investigate and prosecute environmental crimes is a priority for the U.S. government,” Johnson said at the turnover ceremony.

PCSD Executive Director Niño Rey Estoya thanked the US government for its continued support.

He noted that the donation would be critical in ensuring that cases PCSD teams investigate and prosecute over

several months are not dismissed for technical reasons.

The secured storage units are expected to improve the PCSD’s adherence to chain of custody requirements, making evidence more likely to be admissible in court.

According to the Asian Development Bank, the value of the global illegal wildlife trade is estimated at between P548 billion ($10 billion) to P1.26 trillion ($23 billion) a year, making wildlife crime the fourth most lucrative illegal business after narcotics, human trafficking, and arms.

INL’s support for environmental

justice in Palawan began in 2019 through a P28 million ($500,000) partnership with the US Forest Service to strengthen the institutional capacity of PCSD and its law enforcement partners to combat and prevent environmental crimes, the US Embassy said.

Globally, INL assists partner governments in assessing, building, reforming and sustaining competent and legitimate criminal justice systems. It also develops and implements the architecture necessary for cross-border law enforcement cooperation.

ADRIANE TOBIAS, a teaching associate at the College of Forestry and Natural Resources at the University of the Philippines Los Baños, with a Rafflesia banaoana, a species named after the Banao Indigenous Cultural Community in Balbalasang, Balbalan, Kalinga.

THE Banao people posing with a Rafflesia banaoana.

RAFFLESIA LEONARDI found in Aurora province. It is named after the murdered Filipino botanist Dr. Leonardo Co of Conservation International.

US Department of State Deputy Assistant Secretary Lisa Johnson (right) joins PCSD Acting Executive Director Nño Rey Estoya at the turnover of equipment for evidence storage to support environmental cases. US EMBASSY PHOTO

THE US-donated storage units will be used by investigators and prosecutors in the proper handling of evidence in cases involving illegal poaching and environmental crime. US EMBASSY PHOTO

‘VOLLEY NETS’ AT AUSSIE OPEN Sports

MELBOURNE—

When she was younger, Katie Volynets used to fake stomach aches so she could get out of swimming. She was much more focused on improving her tennis.

It worked.

At the Australian Open on Thursday, the 21-year-old American qualifier beat the No. 9-seeded Veronika Kudermetova, 6-4, 2-6, 6-2, to reach the third round of a Grand Slam event for the first time.

B orn in the United States to Ukrainian parents, the 21-year-old Volynets grew up speaking Russian as her first language and learned English in school.

They wanted English teachers to teach me English, so I wouldn’t pick English up from them,” she said of her parents.

Volynets said she’s in regular touch with her extended family in Ukraine, which was invaded almost 11 months ago by Russia.

I have a lot of cousins in Ukraine and actually they watch every single match. They usually write me and I communicate with them. It’s really special. It’s really a difficult time,” she said, referring to the war.

“ Before, everyone used to be able to move about the country however they wanted to and go on with their days, and now it’s just day-to-day,” she said. “I really feel for them. To have their support through all of this is incredible. Whenever I come out on the courts, I hope that I’m supporting them as well because they’re watching, and I stay strong for them.”

Volynets was asked how her family name should be pronounced. It seems like a perfect fit for a tennis player.

I’m going to stick to volley nets,” she said.

A nd when asked if that was really how she pronounced it at home, she replied: “Now it is.”

ONE BALL TOO MANY THERE was controversy on Court 3 in the second-round match between Jeremy Chardy of France and the Briton, Dan Evans.

W ith Chardy serving at 3-3, a break point down, a ball from Chardy’s pocket fell on to the court during the point, which the Frenchman went on to lose.

O rdinarily, the point would have been replayed but the umpire, Miriam Bley, only saw the stray ball late and awarded the point, and therefore the game, to Evans.

C hardy argued his case for 10 minutes but it was to no avail and Evans went on to win the match in straight sets.

I was angry because she should stop straightaway, and she says she didn’t even see the ball,” Chardy said. “I don’t know what she’s doing because she doesn’t call in or out. She just called the score, and if she doesn’t watch the point.”

MATCH FLAGGED

THE second-round match between Andrey Rublev and Emil Ruusuvouri was interrupted on Thursday when two men hung a Ukraine flag over the edge of the front row seats in the Kia Arena.

R ublev, a Russian, said his only problem was with what the two men were saying.

“ It was not about the flag,” he said.

“I said straightaway to the referee, it’s not about the flag, they can put any flag they want, I understand completely the situation. It was more that they started to tell me bad words

and bad things. I said to the referee: ‘It’s not about the flag, but please can you tell them at least to not say bad words when I’m on the changeover.’”

Australian Open organizers banned Russian and Belarusian flags from this year’s event because of

Belarus coach charged with code breach

THE Belarusian track coach who tried to force a sprinter to return home from the Tokyo Olympics after she was critical of the team has been charged with breaching the sport’s integrity standards.

The Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU), which oversees disciplinary actions in track and field, announced the charges against Yury Maisevich on Thursday, alleging he broke rules in the sport’s integrity code of conduct involving honesty, dignity and protecting reputation.

The charges stem from the ouster of 200-meter sprinter Krystsina Tsimanouskaya, who went on social media during the Olympics to question why she had been entered in the 4x400 relay without her knowledge, the AIU said.

Coaches decided to send her home. As she was being guided through the Tokyo airport by team officials, Tsimanouskaya spoke on the phone to her grandmother, who told her of

the backlash against her from staterun media at home, where President Alexander Lukashenko’s government cracked down on dissent.

Tsimanouskaya sought help from police, who were able to take her away from the Belarusian officials. She ended up traveling to Poland on a humanitarian visa.

Four days after the episode, the International Olympic Committee revoked credentials for Maisevich and another coach, Artur Shimak. Shimak was not charged in Thursday’s AIU release.

The AIU alleges that, in respect of these circumstances of Tsimanouskaya’s removal from the Olympic Games, Maisevich did not act with integrity and acted in bad faith; failed to safeguard the athlete’s dignity and his actions constituted verbal and mental harassment; and that he brought athletics generally into disrepute,” the release said. The AIU did not explain what, exactly,

Antetokounmpo passes Durant for East NBA All-Star voting lead

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

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

Meanwhile, more than halfway through the regular season, the Milwaukee Bucks haven’t had much of a chance to show how well they can play at full strength.

The Bucks’ three biggest stars— Antetokounmpo, three-time All-Star Khris Middleton and Jrue Holiday— have played together in just five of Milwaukee’s 45 games. Th at situation has led to some adversity. Since starting the season with nine straight wins, the Bucks have gone 20-16.

There’s been nights where we haven’t played as good as we need to,” Bucks coach Mike Budenholzer said. “Some nights, it’s both ends. Other nights it’s one or the other. So we’re very much a work in progress. But I think we continue to be confident with the group and excited about where we’re going.”

The Bucks hope to have a couple of key pieces back soon.

Budenholzer said Antetokounmpo “did pretty much everything” at the Bucks’ Thursday practice as they prepare for Saturday’s game at Cleveland. Antetokounmpo has missed the Bucks’ last four games with left knee soreness.

M iddleton had a scheduled day off Thursday but has been working out with the Wisconsin Herd, the Bucks’ NBA G League affiliate.

T he Bucks’ biggest obstacle thus far has been the health of Middleton, who has appeared in just seven games.

A fter undergoing surgery on his left wrist last summer, Middleton missed the Bucks’ first 20 games before making his season debut Dec. 2. He last played Dec. 15 and has been dealing with a sore right knee ever since.

They haven’t been as consistent as usual without him.

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Rublev, the No. 5-seeded player, has been one of the few Russian players to speak out openly against the war.

For the record, Rublev beat Ruusuvuouri, 6-2, 6-4, 6-7 (2), 6-3. AP

Qatar player banned for social media post in recent World Cup

DOHA—Qatar defender Abdelkarim Hassan was handed an indefinite suspension by the country’s soccer federation on Thursday reportedly following an altercation with a fan over social media.

Qatari media reported that Hassan responded to a complaint on SnapChat about Qatar losing a game during the World Cup the emirate hosted late last year by posting, “Relax, do you think it’s war?”

Hassan was also deducted 50 percent of his salary, fined 200,000 Qatari riyals ($55,000) and issued a warning by the Qatar Football Association.

I n other punishments handed down on Thursday, two more national

team players—Bassam al-Rawi and Mohamed Waad—were fined 100,000 and 50,000 Qatari riyals, respectively, while both had their salaries deducted by 50 percent.

No reasons were disclosed for those sanctions, which were announced by the federation through its Twitter account based on the report submitted by the department of national teams to the general secretary, the Qatar News Agency said.

Qatar lost to Iraq, 2-1, in the semifinals of the Gulf Cup in Basra City on Monday.

Mexico, meanwhile, was ordered to forfeit a pair of friendlies and fined 10,000 Swiss francs ($10,900) by FIFA for using American forward

Alejandro Zendejas.

FIFA said Mexico also was ordered to forfeit three under-23 matches in which it used Zendejas.

The governing body did not announce the penalty until Thursday, a day after it was contacted by The Associated Press following the US Soccer Federation selecting Zendejas for next week’s games against Serbia and Colombia, the first for the Americans since the World Cup.

The 24-year-old forward started three matches for the United States at the 2015 Under-17 World Cup, where he was a teammate of Christian Pulisic and Tyler Adams.

FIFA can confirm that it has imposed a fine of CHF 10,000 on the Mexican Football Association

for breaches of article 5 of the Regulations Governing the Application [RGAS] of the FIFA Statutes following the fielding of the player Alejandro Zendejas,” the governing body said in a statement.

Besides the fine, all matches have been declared forfeited. Based on the applicable provisions of the RGAS, the player remains however eligible to play for the representative teams of the USA.”

Under FIFA’s statutes, because Zendejas played in an official competition for a US youth national team, he would have had to apply to FIFA for a one-time switch in affiliation in order to appear for a Mexican national team. AP

A ntetokounmpo had 5,970,196 votes entering Thursday, the National Basketball Association (NBA) said in the third update of the All-Star balloting. Durant is 132,014 votes behind, with 5,838,182.

L eBron James of the Los Angeles Lakers remains the overall voting leader, with 6,506,682 votes. James has been a captain in all five of the NBA’s previous uses of the format where the leading vote-getters from the Eastern and Western conferences get to pick their rosters from the other selections.

James’ teams are 5-0 in All-Star games when he is a captain.

D urant—who was the voting leader from the East at each of the first two balloting updates this year, but has been sidelined of late with a sprained knee ligament—has been the captain as the East’s voting leader in each of the past two years. Antetokounmpo was in the previous two years, 2019 and 2020.

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

James tops the list of West frontcourt players. Denver’s Nikola Jokic remained in second (4,718,218) and the Lakers’ Anthony Davis remained third (3,838,171).

A ntetokounmpo leapfrogged Durant among East frontcourt balloting, and Boston’s Jayson Tatum stretched his lead over Philadelphia’s Joel Embiid for the third spot in the voting among those players. Tatum had 4,521,414 votes, while Embiid had 4,318,035. The margin a week ago had Tatum leading Embiid by just over 32,000 votes in the race for the No. 3 spot.

Golden State’s Stephen Curry still leads all guards in the balloting, now with 5,151,822 votes. Dallas’ Luka Doncic remained No. 2 behind Curry among West guards with 4,905,655 votes.

The top two vote-getters among East guards was also unchanged.

Brooklyn’s Kyrie Irving still leads with 3,968,041 votes, and Cleveland’s Donovan Mitchell is second with 3,851,233 votes.

Fan voting counts for 50 percent

The Bucks rank 18th in 3-point percentage (.355) after finishing fifth in that category each of the last two seasons (.389 in 2020-21 and .366 in 2021-22 ). They’re committing 15.2 turnovers per game to put them on pace for their highest average since 2015-16, when they also had 15.2 per game.

Yet they’re still second in the Eastern Conference, four games behind the Boston Celtics but only 1½ games ahead of fifth-place Cleveland. Considering how little the Bucks have been able to play together, the key will be establishing cohesiveness once everyone is healthy.

It’s about the work that’s going to go into, as guys come back, making sure we all find a rhythm and chemistry and things together hopefully before the All-Star break but obviously definitely making that push after the All-Star break,” guard Pat Connaughton said, “to make sure everyone’s in rhythm, everyone knows their roles and responsibilities and we’re playing our best basketball come the brighter and sunnier days here in Milwaukee.”

The Bucks have stayed near the top of the East thanks to some exceptional individual performances.

L ate last month, Antetokounmpo began a four-game stretch in which he averaged 43.3 points, 18.3 rebounds and 7.3 assists. That included a 123-113 victory over Washington in which he scored a career-high 55 points.

A ntetokounmpo is averaging a career-high 31 points, though he also has a career-high 4 turnovers per game and has his lowest overall shooting percentage (.524) since 2016-17.

Brook Lopez, who played just 13 regular-season games last year due to a back injury that required surgery, has missed only one game all season. He has career highs in 3-point percentage (.401) and blocks per game (2.5).

B obby Portis is averaging a double-double with 14.2 points and a career-high 10 rebounds per game.

But it’s been Holiday who really has come on lately.

Holiday helped the Bucks win two straight games without Antetokounmpo or Middleton this week by scoring 35 points against Indiana and 37 against Toronto on back-to-back days. Teammates are calling for Holiday to make the AllStar Game, something that hasn’t happened since 2013 when he was with Philadelphia.

the charges meant, what sort of hearing would be held or what the possible penalties were if Maisevich is found to have broken the rules.

Tsimanouskaya, 26, has gained Polish citizenship and has said she hopes to compete for that country at the 2024 Olympics in Paris. AP

BELARUSIAN Olympic sprinter Krystsina Tsimanouskaya holds up an Olympic-related T-shirt with the slogan “I Just Want to Run” after her news conference in Warsaw, Poland, on August 5, 2021. AP

PARIS—Milwaukee’s Giannis Antetokounmpo has passed Brooklyn’s Kevin Durant for the All-Star Game voting lead among Eastern Conference players, now putting him on track to be a captain for the February 19 game in Salt Lake City.

MILWAUKEE’S Giannis Antetokounmpo has 5,970,196 votes—132,014 more than Kevin Durant. AP

KATIE VOLYNETS’S family name seems like a perfect fit for a tennis player. AP

STRAIGHT SHOOTERS

One Click Straight on the ‘best songs’ they’ve written

By Jill Tan Radovan

FOR a bunch of kids who started a band for the most juvenile of reasons—to look cool and to get the girls’ attention—One Click Straight has marked quite a few milestones: three EPs, a fulllength album, and bragging rights to capturing the audience in sought-after venues like Route 196 and Saguijo. The band has just released its self-titled sophomore album under Island Records Philippines, and this is one album that its members—brothers Tim, Sam and Topher Marquez and their childhood friend Joel Cartera—are particularly proud of.

It took them two years and a pandemic to finish the album. Writing and recording the songs kept them

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afloat despite not being able to play in their favorite venues as frequently as they would have preferred.

“That was the difficult part because majority ng strength namin as a band was playing gigs ‘cause we’re not big on numbers or social media. We were just strong with the way we toured and the way we used to do gigs,” guitarist and vocalist, Sam, admitted in an interview with SoundStrip.

“And nung nawala yung gigs, in all honesty, it was an existential kind of thing. But we focused our energy on finishing the album.”

Sam and his bandmates were left to their own device when the pandemic hit. “We were always ‘sound searching’ so nagkataon na nahanap namin something that would really represent the band.”

Creating music behind closed doors and with one’s siblings at the height of a pandemic came with its own set of perks and challenges.

“It’s very straightforward. If we want to push an idea, there’s no more beating around the bush. We just go straight and say, ‘okay, this is what we wanna do,” said Sam.

There’s also a certain level of respect that they have established over the years, as brothers and as bandmates. Their closeness, however, does present certain issues every so often.

opinions, too; clear as day in how they expressed their views on a certain lawmaker’s suggestion to limit the entry of foreign acts into the country.

“I don’t know the political standpoint. I don’t know, is there a reason for that? Is it money, a political reason? I don’t know,” said Sam. “But for me, from a musical standpoint, I think we should welcome any form of music, whether it’s Filipino or a Korean thing. It’s just race. That should not have any effect on the music thing.”

“Again, that’s just me, and from a musical standpoint. I’d love for everyone to come here. If British bands could come here, that would be rad. Who cares about the race? It’s about the music!”

Tim, the drummer, chimed in, saying, “It all comes down to music. If we’re gonna shut them out, wouldn’t it hurt more if they also shut us out? Basically we’re cutting off the chances of international support, of international connections. Of cultural exchange.”

Both Tim and Sam believe that if anything, homegrown artists and producers should learn from the shows imported by foreign acts–there’s a lot of production value in such shows. Making locally produced shows globally competitive could lead to plenty of opportunities to conquer the world stage.

doesn’t matter. It doesn’t have any value if it’s not trending. If it doesn’t even have streams, ‘why did you even write that?’ It does mess up with your head.”

“But that’s what the album is about. It’s fighting—that specific culture, that mindset na if a song is not a commercial success, it doesn’t matter. We’re fighting that. Music does matter if it’s real, if it’s honest, if it comes from an honest place.”

“It does affect us, but I guess we’ve found the confidence to not care.”

Finding their sound when they least expected it

Tim said that being forced to create music during the pandemic helped the band discover the qualities that would set them apart, musically. “It basically made us step back and look at where we wanna go, sonically.”

“I dunno. I think what we found is just the attitude—not a specific genre,” he added. “It was more of that confidence and that angst, that feeling of ‘hey, I just wanna make something that I’m proud of, something I wanna listen to.’”

The result is a 14-track record that includes the previously released singles “Lilo,” “MRT,” “Untitled 02,” “Hahayaan” and “Dahan-dahan.” Tim and Sam are the chief songwriters, but the rest of the band contributed to the arrangement.

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“Sometimes wala nang walls, so when aggravation comes in, sometimes it’s a bit intense,” admitted Sam. But the good thing is that these guys have also reached a certain level of maturity and are capable of resolving their problems peacefully. “It’s more of just brotherhood and music.”

It’s all about the music THIS maturity translates into their

As a band born in the age of social media, One Click Straight recognizes the good and bad, and can still feel quite affected by incisive comments even after playing the circuit and making music for a decade.

“I’ll be honest,” began Tim. “The voices around…do get into your head. Especially during the pandemic when social media became the number one, let’s say, ‘source’ of success. If you’re not successful on social media, your song

“With this album, I think we could finally say that we found our message. We found what we’re fighting for. We found our identity in the creation of this. So in terms of sound and lyrics, it’s all honesty,” said Tim. “I think these are the best songs we’ve written.”

One Click Straight’s new, self-titled album is available on Spotify, Apple Music and on the iTunes store. You may also check out One Click Straight on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube.

every Sunday by the Philippine Business Daily Mirror Publishing Inc. as a project of the

ONE Click Straight

REVISITING THE PAST

Ebe Dancel expresses excitement performing alongside Sugarfree drummer Mitch

By Patrick V. Miguel

FROM the start, at the peak of Sugarfree in the early 2000s, lead vocalist Ebe Dancel never imagined celebrating a 20th anniversary of their first album. It was only when a friend reminded him of it that he realized “Sa Wakas” is going to be two decades old, which has now become an OPM classic that every generation—even the young ones—are familiar with.

With how times have quickly passed, Ebe admitted that he did not realize their freshman album is turning 20 this year. “Sometimes, you have to stop counting,” he remarks.

He talked to the rock band’s drummer Mitch Singson, and from there, they started planning to do a show for its 20th anniversary.

Ebe initially wanted a “small” show, which he described as “tayo tayo lang.” But along the way of planning, everything snowballed and both members are now set to perform at Mandala Park on January 28.

Asked what Ebe looks forward to that day, he said, “Just seeing the fans of that album again.”

He shared that long-time fans of Sugarfree, which he is friends with on Facebook, have already messaged him and expressed excitement towards the show. “The line-up is fantastic, all of them are friends of mine so we’re looking forward to playing again,” he said.

But more than everything else, he looks forward to performing again on the stage alongside Mitch. He enthused, “Mitch is performing also so that one, I’m looking forward to that.”

Describing how things are going now, Ebe said, “Things are very good now. I don’t know yet because we haven’t rehearsed so I don’t know how Mitch wants to do this part and I’m gonna follow his lead na lang.”

“It’s going to be more of reminiscing,” Ebe hints.

Asked on the set-list, he said, “As much as I prefer playing the new songs

these days, parang promise ko ‘yon sa Sugarfree fans [that] just for one night puro old hits ‘yung tutugtugin ko.”

The Itchyworms, Cheats, and Johnoy Danao are also set to perform on that day as guests.

Long-term effects of “Burnout” “BURNOUT” is one of the most popular songs of Sugarfree, garnering around 18 million streams on Spotify as of writing. Even before the era of online-streaming platforms, the iconic song has become a staple in 2000s OPM rock.

Since Johnoy and Ebe, alongside Bullet Dumas, translated a much more melancholic version of “Burnout” which gained popularity since its release a few years ago, Soundstrip asked if he would be singing the song with Johnoy at the event.

“I don’t think so,” Ebe answered. He revealed that Johnoy has his own set, and Ebe has his own.

However, Ebe hints a possibility, saying, “Pero kasi kapag nagkakatuwaan na, ganoon naman

kasi dati, kung sino sino lang ‘yung gusto mong aakyat tas kakanta. I would like to believe na same vibe pa rin [na] parang freedom bar.”

“We’ll see, we’ll see,” Ebe enthused. “BURNOUT,” after all, is the song highly demanded by the fans that Ebe recognizes. He also looks forward to playing the song in front of his fans.

He said, “I think ‘Burnout’ has such an effect on people, like the moment they hear the guitar sound, then like for me I’ve been performing it for what, 23, 24 years already? And then it’s like you’re hearing it for the first time or for the first time in a long time.”

“I think that will never get old, especially that intro part,” Ebe reflects on “Burnout.”

Sa Wakas: 20th Anniversary Celebration will take place at 123 Block, Mandala Park, Shaw Blvd., on January 28 from 4:30PM onwards.

EBE Dancel

Can ‘The Last of Us’ TV series finally break the bad video game adaptation curse?

By Jacqueline Burgess University of the Sunshine Coast

However, to say video game adaptations are often awful is an understatement. From 1993’s Super Mario Bros film, which regularly features on lists of the worst films of all time, to the three Lara Croft Tomb Raider films released from 2001 to 2018—the first of which was given the lowest score possible (“Disaster”) by video game review site IGN—the list goes on. More recently, 2022’s Halo and Uncharted television and film adaptations have received mixed receptions and criticism for deviating from their video game sources.

Frustratingly, there is no reason for this terrible track record. Video games have long been able to tell exciting, emotional stories with rich worlds and beloved characters. All the ingredients, you would think, needed for a television or film hit. But the litany of terrible adaptations demonstrate these ingredients have never been properly used.

The Last of Us video game

T He Last of Us might be able to break the last three decades’ track record of disastrous adaptations. When the game was released in 2013 for the PlayStation 3, it received unanimous critical and popular acclaim and is considered one of the greatest video games of all time.

The Last of Us is set in a post-apocalyptic US Human civilization has collapsed and is contained in quarantined zones after the spread of a highly contagious fungal infection that transforms victims into mind-

less and aggressive zombies.

Players control Joel, a smuggler who lost his only child during the early stages of the outbreak and is escorting teenager el lie across the country. The game’s characters were played by talented voice actors and motion caption technology was used to ensure the characters were believable and well developed. The emotionally gripping and compelling story and characters won the hearts of video game players, and helped prove video games could tell deep, emotional stories with complex characters.

In a 2013 review, IGN called the game a “masterpiece” with a stellar narrative that never slows down or disappoints, and compared it with Cormac McCarthy’s literary work The Road

Adaptations and HBO

T He success of The Last of Us led to a comic book series, a live reading of parts of the script, downloadable content, a sequel and a remaster and remake of the first game. A film was announced in 2014 before falling through.

When HBO announced in 2020 a television series was in the planning stages, this was met with some skepticism. However, HBO did a lot of things right. One of the original creators of the game, Neil Druckmann, was involved and HBO itself, a network known for premium and compelling content, had the right reputation and values. The show also cast some highly talented actors in Pedro Pascal as Joel and Bella Ramsey as el lie.

Of course, talented actors don’t guarantee a fantastic video game adaption, as the casting of Michael Fassbender, Pablo Schreiber and Tom Holland in Assassin’s Creed, Halo and Uncharted illustrate.

Respecting the source material

BU T what might ensure a successful and well-made video game adaption is just what The Last of Us seems to be using: respect for its video game source material.

The Halo and Uncharted adaptions met with a mixed reception partly due to the changes to their source material. The characters and overall narrative were deemed

too dissimilar to their original video game sources, leaving viewers frustrated.

When a video game adaption is trading on the brand and reputation of its source material, not winning over the original fans and players can leave them with few other audiences. And not ensuring the adaptation is respectful and authentic to the source is the fastest way to lose the original fans.

Keeping the “soul” of the video games while employing the changes needed to take the story to a different medium was a key aspect of production for Neil Druckmann.

And the early rave reviews for The Last of Us praising everything from the writing to the acting suggest that the curse of horrible video game adaptions might have been not just broken but obliterated.

It makes sense that The Last of Us, with its compelling characters and story, is just as groundbreaking and acclaimed in another medium. Decades of terrible video game adaptations highlight how monumental that achievement will be. The Conversation

The Last of Scams: Cybercriminals target fans of video-game-turned-TV-series

WITH the highly anticipated release of the live-action television adaptation of The Last of Us video game, cybercriminals are already plotting new schemes to attack new fans.

Fraudsters have begun spreading scams on the acclaimed exclusive PlayStation game, infecting victims with malware and offering fake downloads of “The Last of Us” game for PC.

Cybercriminals are actively exploiting the public’s lack of awareness. Kaspersky

researchers found a site that offers to download “The Last of Us Part II” on PC, despite the game being exclusive to console. The folder contains a malicious file, which can remain undetected for years without a trusted security solution.

“The Last of Us will be a real boom in early 2023, considering how many years millions of fans have been waiting for the series,” says Olga Svistunova, a security expert at Kaspersky. “Curiously, now instead of offering pre-access to the series, cybercriminals have chosen a dif-

ferent path, distributing malicious files under the guise of a game. Gamers, especially new ones who don’t know enough about cybersecurity, are among the main targets.”

To avoid falling victim to malicious programs and scams, Kaspersky recommends that users practice these behaviors:

n Avoid links promising early viewings of films or TV series. If you have any doubts about the authenticity of the content, check with your entertainment provider.

n Check the authenticity of the website before entering personal data and only use official, trusted web pages to watch or download movies. Doublecheck URL formats and company name spellings.

n Pay attention to the extensions of files you are downloading. A video file will never have a .exe or .msi extension.

n Use a reliable security solution, such as Kaspersky Security Cloud, that identifies malicious attachments and blocks phishing sites.

EvEn if you’re not a video game player, you might have heard about the just-released and highly anticipated television series based on beloved and acclaimed video game The Last of us .

HBO’s first look at Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey as Joel and Ellie in The Last of Us live-action series. The pilot of the nine-episode first season aired last Monday. HBO

Chinese New Year

ESTABLISHING STRONG CONNECTIONS

Year of the Water Rabbit, the perfect year to fall in love

By Dennis Garcia Contributor

THE Year of the Water Rabbit is a rare occurrence in yearly horoscopes, as the last one was in 1963, making it 60 years ago.

One of the general predictions

Feng Shui Queen Marites Allen highlighted is that this is the year of love. According to her, 2023 is the year to fall in love, and more than that, a time to celebrate love through marriage, recreation, and reconciliation (for the hopefuls). Resonating with reconciliation, 2023 is also the year for fragmented families to reconcile and be

together again.

But if all else fails, Allen said that the Year of the Rabbit is also the year of moving on, the year to establish other connections beyond romance, cultivated through networking and professional affiliations.

Here’s what Allen has to say about the following Chinese animal signs for the year:

RABBIT (1963, 1975, 1987, 1999, 2011, 2023)

Although this year will be their year of gaining luck and opportunities at work or money, they are advised not to drive away blessings as often as they should. They should also focus on their health because there is a possibility that it will be their weakest point this year.

DRAGON (1940, 1952, 1964, 1976, 1988, 2000, 2012)

Although the year of the rabbit is a year for love, the opposite may come to dragon-born people. Heartaches and misunderstandings may come, so try to avoid disagreements as much as you can.

SNAKE (1941, 1953, 1965, 1977, 1989, 2001, 2013)

Possible havoc will shake the moments of peacefulness of Snake-borns this year. Conflicts such as misunderstandings and heartbreaks are possible in this year’s fortune.

HORSE (1942, 1954, 1966, 1978, 1990, 2002, 2014)

Horse-borns are advised to focus on their respective careers, work hard, and hopefully, promotions or new gains will serve as rewards.

GOAT

(1943, 1955, 1967, 1979, 1991, 2003, 2015)

This might be your lucky year as sheep are also friends with rabbits. Goat-borns are advised to partake in new adventures and gain experiences.

MONKEY (1944, 1956, 1968, 1980, 1992, 2004, 2016)

Monkey-borns may have struggled for quite some time now, so it should be a relief that their prediction this year will grant them a moment of solace and relief. However, be wary of losing some money and of your health.

Rooster (1945, 1957, 1969, 1981, 1993, 2005, 2017)

Rooster-borns are advised to keep a low profile this year and just take it easy in life. However, being busy is inevitable but take note that you will be rewarded for your hard work.

OF THE RABBIT

Chinese New Year

C2 Sunday, January 22, 2023

ESTABLISHING STRONG CONNECTIONS

A BusinessMirror Special Feature

www.businessmirror.com.ph

Year of the Water Rabbit, the perfect year to fall in love

Continued from c1

DOG

(1946, 1958, 1970, 1982, 1994, 2006, 2018)

Dogs and rabbits are best friends, Allen said. It can be expected that dog-borns could have a wonderful 2023. They just need to be wary of their health as possible illness could come their way.

OX

(1949, 1961, 1973, 1985, 1997, 2009, 2021)

PIG

(1947, 1959, 1971, 1983, 1995, 2007, 2019)

Pig-borns are advised to spice up their outfits with some metal accessories such as gold and silver to attract good fortune. Pigs are also good friends with the rabbit so there may be benefits coming along the way.

TIGER

RAT (1924, 1936, 1948, 1960, 1972, 1984, 1996, 2008, 2020)

Rat-borns are on a good track this year! With the help of Future Prosperity Star, good fortune is to be expected.

(1938, 1950, 1962, 1974, 1986, 1998, 2010, 2022)

The Ox might be reeling into bad fortune this year as losses and possible injuries pose a threat to their life. Their temperamental attitude could also drive good fortune away from them this year. Nevertheless, ox-born people are resilient enough to rise above any adversities that may come their way.

While the year of the tiger may have ended, good fortune could still possibly come their way this year. There are possible losses, but good karma will always find a way to come to tiger-borns.

Old world charm meets new home tech in Manila’s latest ‘smart’ condo

ACCORDING to feng shui expert Johnson Chua, the Year of the Water Rabbit is an auspicious year to invest in real estate. This is because the Earth and Metal elements are predicted to experience abundance this year, with Earth representing real estate and property, and Metal representing construction and development.

One of the hottest properties

to invest in within the Chinatown area in Manila right now is One Crown Suites, a P3 billion-, 18-storey residential tower to be located within property giant Megaworld’s newly launched Winford Resort Estate. This P20-billion, three-hectare integrated lifestyle community will also feature hotels and commercial developments.

Units at One Crown Suites are

all equipped with a smart home system that offers practical solutions in terms of comfort, safety, and control. Each unit features a full home automation system that can be activated via a smart home display panel at the entrance of each unit, and through a mobile application. What’s more, each unit features a balcony.

Modern living One Crown Suites elevates the standard and comfort of modern living as it fits the demands of goal-getters and professionals. The property also features a co-working space where dynamic professionals can do their work, network with other professionals, and participate in spontaneous business discussions without having to go far from home.

Rounding up the experience of every resident are other generous amenities, including adult and kiddie pools, a fitness center with sauna, study room, daycare center, game room, function room, children’s playground, roof deck garden, a covered badminton court, and a landscaped garden.

Find out more about One Crown Suites and Winford Resort Estate

when you attend the Chinese New Year Open House event happening on January 28, 2023, Saturday, from 10 am to 4 pm at the Hotel Lucky Chinatown Ballroom in Lucky Chinatown Manila. Johnson will be giving a talk about his book on feng shui, which will also be gifted to investors who will attend the event.

To reserve a slot, please call +63 (02) 8241 8000.

Chinese New Year

7 Feng Shui tips for getting lucky this 2023

THE Year of the Water Rabbit is here, and as Feng Shui expert Marites Allen has predicted, 2023 is a year of love and hope.

Wondering how you can usher in good luck this year? Hop off old habits and jump on new ones with these tips from Allen.

Clean up!

If you’ve been putting off the decluttering of your home, this is a sign to get up and grab that broom!

Allen shared that cleaning is the best way to welcome the Chinese New Year. As “dust” in Chinese is a homophone for “old,” Pinoys must ensure that they’re able to drive away the bad luck to allow energy to flow into spaces.

Keep your fridge well-stocked Chinese New Year is associated with food, so it is just as important to keep a well-stocked fridge in preparation for the festivities.

Do not let the Chinese New Year come with an empty refrigerator. Put as much healthy food and shop as early as you can. For example, you can buy rice which is a symbol of good luck in Feng Shui. And don’t forget about the fruits! Have fruits that you will eat this Chinese

New Year, and not just for display,” said the Feng Shui expert.

Share the gift of fortune with lucky foods

To keep luck on your side, you must share the gift of fortune with family and friends by giving them lucky food items including Tikoy and other Chinese New Year delicacies, which you can find at the Lucky Finds Pop-Ups located in select SM Malls’ Lucky Park

Wear lucky prints and colors

According to Chinese tradition, wearing new clothes is a way to celebrate the start of the new year, as it symbolizes a new beginning and a clean slate. So aside from the usual preparations, Allen also noted that those who celebrate this event should shop and wear new clothes “with some lucky prints on them or preferably those that are red, pink, or purple.”

Spend time with your family and friends

Allen also shared that celebrating

the new year is not just about material things but keeping connections strong by spending time with your loved ones.

The Year of the Water Rabbit is a great time for reconciliation, reconnection, or anything favorable to the affairs of the heart. You can treat your family to a nice dining out experience. As early as now, you can reserve your spots at your favorite restaurant in SM to celebrate this moment just in time for the weekend.”

At SM, families can indulge in a sumptuous dine-in experience with overflowing Lucky Feast deals from participating tenants.

Get a dose of positive energy at SM

Allen noted that it is also important to get a dose of the Yang energy that the SM Supermalls provide. “As opposed to just staying at home, why not go out and enjoy the festive activities at SM? The place has a young, vibrant, and bright energy that would give one a positive experience. Invest in yourself, make it meaningful to you, and join the activities at SM.”

Discover your luck this year, face-to-face

But if you want to have an indepth forecast of your fortune

this year, SM Supermalls and Marites Allen have got your back. Just present a minimum SM receipt worth Php 1,000 to get a chance to discover what’s in store for you this 2023. Check out the schedule below:

• January 19, 2PM – SM City

Fairview

• January 20, 2PM – SM City

Dasmariñas

• January 20, 5PM – SM City Santa

Rosa

• January 21, 2PM – SM Megamall

• January 21, 5PM – SM City North

EDSA

• January 22, 2PM – SM City Bacoor

• January 22, 5PM – SM Mall of Asia

W hen it comes to an exciting Chinese New Year experience, SM Supermalls has lined up events that will help you harness positive energy this 2023. SM’s Lucky Parks will be up to give shoppers a meaningful CNY celebration. You can catch lucky rabbits all around the mall with your family and friends and earn rewards or you can also watch live lion and dragon dance performances this weekend in select malls nationwide.

For exclusive news about SM Supermalls, visit www.smsupermalls.com and check out @smsupermalls on social media.

Celebrate the Chinese New Year at any of the SM Supermalls.

Buy a lucky charm and attract good vibes this Year of the Water Rabbit.

YEAR OF THE RABBIT

Chinese New Year

C4 Sunday, January 22, 2023

A BusinessMirror Special Feature

AFUN and festive stay awaits guests at Tripadvisor 2022 Traveler’s Choice “Best of the Best” awardee, The Alpha Suites.

Have a wonderful Lunar New Year celebration from January 20 to February 5, 2023, with their special package which includes a complimentary platter from Tang Palace Chinese restaurant (consists of Dim sum, Crispy Noodles with Balesin Vannamei Shrimp and Mixed Seafood, Broccoli with Garlic, and Sesame Balls), a special Lunar New Year gift, complimentary breakfast, complimentary access to their lagoon-style swimming pool and 500-sqm gym, and flexible check-in and check-out times. Plus, invite good fortune at their Dragon Dance Parade on January 20, 2023 at 3 pm at the Atrium. Complimentary pica-pica will be served.

Welcome Lunar New Year with a feast at Tang Palace Chinese restaurant, one of the highly acclaimed restaurants at The Alpha Suites (the same as the one in their sister property Balesin Island Club), and indulge in exquisite flavors of authentic Chinese cuisine.

Guests of The Alpha Suites are

entitled to complimentary dining credits at the hotel’s nine specialty restaurants, including Tang Palace, so don’t miss out on the chance to try their signature dishes, such as Dim Sum, Spring Rolls, Roast Peking Duck, Live LapuLapu Hong-Kong style, Crispy Noodles with Balesin Vannamei Shrimp and Mixed Seafood, Assorted Vegetables with Bamboo

Guests can also enjoy complimentary Prosperity Toss and koishaped Tikoy when they order set menus, or complimentary Koishaped tikoy with a minimum single-receipt bill of P5,000 from January 20 to 23 at Tang Palace. Adorned with statues of warrior guards, red lanterns, and ornate wood carvings, Tang Palace offers

an elegant Chinese dining experience so you and your loved ones can have a Lunar New Year feast to remember!

Get all these perks and more when you book their Lunar New Year package with rates starting at P8,250 nett. Book directly at www.thealphasuites.com or via their Reservations Team at reservations@thealphasuites.com or at

+63.2.8737.0088.

The Alpha Suites caters to various lifestyle needs with its more than 50 amenities, such as indoor basketball, badminton, tennis, and squash courts, boxing and martial arts arena, billiards, a high-definition virtual golf simulator, private screening room, and Wii game room, as well as The Alpha Spa for your relaxation and

pampering needs. Just an elevator ride away, The Shops at Alphaland Makati Place houses more dining options, The Marketplace, and other retail stores.

Aegle Wellness Center (a stateof-the-art integrative health facility) and the Top of the Alpha (Manila’s premier lounge and events venue) are also in the same complex.

Pith, and Sesame Balls.

Chinese New Year

Welcome the Year of the Water Rabbit with Conti’s Delights for Good Luck

all orders of regular-sized Strawberry Shortcake to further level up the delight. DIY Edible Bunny Cake Toppers will be available on Lunar New Year weekend, January 20January 22, 2023.

Wishing for a prosperous year ahead? Fish dishes are known to symbolize prosperity and Conti’s has the mouth-watering Baked Salmon. If you’re one of many who wish for wealth in the new year, the Conti’s Shanghai Rolls should be on your menu, a staple during the Lunar New Year celebration because they symbolize wealth in Chinese culture.

If you want something festive on your table, the Conti’s Holiday Specials are still available. Ham Roll, Porchetta, or Chicken Relleno are the perfect dishes to round up your celebration spread.

Celebrate Chinese New Year with King Sue New Year Hams

THE Lunar New Year is a festive occasion for many all over the world that’s rich in tradition. Celebrated with fireworks, and more importantly, lots of good food shared with family and friends.

Chinese New Year culinary traditions are also steeped in symbolism, all designed to satisfy palates while representing the wholeness and prosperity of the coming year.

K ing Sue Ham recommendations are topping the list for this occasion. It brings together the auspiciousness of pork, while the round shape signifies unity so you can hop into the year of the rabbit with the best of luck.

ANOTHER Lunar New Year celebration is upon us, and what celebration is complete without good food? Aside from a delicious dining experience, food is an important part of the Lunar New Year celebration as it is often associated with luck and fortune that you wish to have in the coming year. If you’re looking to up your luck, welcome the Year of the Water Rabbit at Conti’s Bakeshop and Restaurant. The popular and well-loved homegrown brand founded more than 25 years ago by the Conti sisters of Batangas has an excellent menu of winsome meals and desserts that

delight Pinoy tastes and at the same time are considered as magnets for a brighter, better future.

No Lunar New Year celebration spread is complete without round food items. Instead of looking for 12 round fruits, why not add a cake to your table? You can’t go wrong with a Strawberry Shortcake from Conti’s. This strawberry and cream dream is the perfect attraction to your table. Not only is it round, it has the lucky color red, too! That’s two items ticked on your lucky food list.

In addition, this year Conti’s is offering special Do-It-Yourself Edible Bunny Cake Toppers for free on

Have a fruitful start to your Lunar New Year at Conti’s. To fully enjoy your celebrations, bring the entire family and your most cherished friends and colleagues to any of the branches nationwide.

The delightful Conti’s menu is also available for delivery via Grab and Foodpanda. To know more, send a message to Conti’s Messenger, call 8580-8888, visit the website at www.contis.ph or check out the Conti’s Facebook (@contisph), Instagram (@contis_ph), and TikTok (@contisph) pages. Other pages bearing the name and images are fake. They do not in any way represent the brand.

A Prosperous Centerpiece: Piña Ham

Traditionally, ham combines three flavor blocks that offer palates a distinct flavor profile—sweet, spice, and savory. King Sue’s Piña Ham premium quality meat, cured in special brine, manages to draw out the delicate balance of all three flavors, making it a must-have for Chinese New Year.

The Flavor of Fortune: Sweet Ham

As the name suggests, King Sue’s Sweet Ham offers a sweet flavor profile that is loved by many Filipinos. Achieving this unique flavor

requires a combination of traditional curing methods King Sue Ham is known for, with a special brine that draws out the sweetness of the meat while maintaining its soft and juicy texture-Keeping in mind that sweetness also indicates that you will have an abundant life in the coming year-so incorporating it into a beloved holiday staple like ham can only make the coming year more prosperous.

Lucky HawaiianTraditions: Ham

King Sue’s Hawaiian Ham is an incredible flavor experience that combines the fusion of cultural flavors in a single dish. If you’re plan-

ning to serve this for the Lunar Holiday, remember that King Sue Ham creates it using only premium, lean meat while ensuring that it’s tender and juicy. It’s a preferred addition for anyone who wants the sweetness of our unique glaze combined with the savory goodness of King Sue’s signature meat.

Be sure to elevate this year’s Chinese New Year feast by serving these choice holiday hams.

For more information about King Sue Ham, visit their Facebook page, Instagram, or get in touch with them via (02) 83648575 8364-8548 8376- 6500. You may also contact sales at +63 917 713 8229.

Conti’s Bakeshop and Restaurant’s Do-It-Yourself Edible Bunny Cake Topper

C6 Sunday, January 22, 2023

Special Feature Chinese New Year

Warning: Chemical-tainted lucky charms, amulets are dangerous to your health

By Jonathan L. Mayuga

ALOCAL waste and pollution

watchdog cautioned luck seekers from purchasing charms and amulets containing highly hazardous chemicals cadmium and lead.

Some amulets and charms that claim to attract or boost ‘Sheng Chi’ (good energy) and counter ‘Sha Chi’ (bad energy) are unluckily laden with high levels of cadmium and lead,” Aileen Lucero, National Coordinator, EcoWaste Coalition said in a statement.

The warning was issued by EcoWaste Coalition, as the Chinese Lunar New year starts today. At the same time, the group urged manufacturers of these to label their products and provide hazard warnings.

“ These chemicals are highly hazardous and are known to negatively affect human health and the environment,” she said, “We therefore question their presence in charms and amulets that are marketed to enhance good health, happiness, long life, and prosperity,” Lucero said.

High levels of hazardous chemicals

In test buys conducted ahead of the celebration of the Chinese Lunar

New Year of the Water Rabbit, 23 of the 35 lucky charms and amulets purchased from retailers in Binondo and Quiapo, Manila were found to contain high levels of cadmium and lead.

A total of 17 bracelets with rabbit-inspired metallic components were found to contain cadmium above the European Union’s 100 parts per million (ppm) limit for cadmium in metal parts of jewelry and imitation jewelry. Of these 17 bracelets, 11 had over 100,000 ppm cadmium, five had 19,690 ppm to 78,200 ppm, and one had 553 ppm.

Six other products were found to be coated with paints containing lead above the 90 ppm total lead content limit under the Department and Environment and Natural Resources-issued Chemical Control Order for Lead and Lead Compounds.

Cadmium and lead, the EcoWaste Coalition pointed out, belong to the Philippine Priority Chemi-

cal List and to the 10 chemicals or groups of chemicals of major public health concern according to the World Health Organization (WHO).

Cadmium, according to the WHO, “exerts toxic effects on the kidneys as well as the skeletal and respiratory systems (and) is classified as a human carcinogen,” while

lead is considered as “a cumulative toxicant that affects multiple body systems, including the neurologic, hematologic, gastrointestinal, cardiovascular, and renal systems.”

Deadly charms Among the items found to be decorated with lead paints above 90 ppm were:

n A black and white “Yinyang" bagua with 26,720 ppm (yellow); 867 ppm (black), 487 ppm (green), and 441 ppm (red).

n A lucky charm to protect users against the “San Sha” (or “Three Killings,” namely financial, health and career problems) had 7,039 ppm (yellow) and 2,066 ppm (green).

n A bagua with a mirror and eight

auspicious symbols of good luck had 6,317 ppm (yellow) and 873 ppm (green).

n A “Tau Sui General Pi Shi” amulet that is supposed to protect certain people whose Zodiac signs are against Tai Sui (Grand Duke) had 4,030 ppm (green).

n A “Golden Dragon Lucky Coin” that is recommended as a good gift for friends and relatives had 3,805 ppm (green).

n A black and red bagua with tassel had 3,647 ppm (red), 2,008 ppm (green) and 291 ppm (black).

The group performed the chemical screening of the above products using a handheld Olympus Vanta M Series X-Ray Fluorescence (XRF) analyzer.

“Manufacturers should properly label their products, including providing hazard warnings, to help consumers make informed choices,” she suggested.

“Consumers have the inherent right to be informed, including the right to know about chemical substances in products.”

Instead of unlabeled charms and amulets that may contain hazardous chemicals, the EcoWaste Coalition again pitched for the tried and proven recipes for good health, success and happiness such as healthy and non-toxic lifestyle, hard work and perseverance, loving and caring relationships, positive outlook in life, prayers and good deeds, and respect for Mother Earth, to name a few.

Hotel Sogo shines at Asian Business Excellence Awards

CONGRATULATIONS, Hotel Sogo!

The country’s largest Filipino-owned hotel chain company has been awarded as Asia’s Most Outstanding Hotel Chain of the Year and Philippines Most Leading Hotel Chain of the Year.

Meanwhile, Hotel Sogo’s CEO, Reynaldo M. Malaca was recognized as the Philippines Most Outstanding CEO of The Year at the recent Asian Business Excellence Awards 2022 held in Quezon City.

Hotel Sogo Marketing Director, Sue Geminiano thanked the award giving organization for recognizing the hotel’s goal in providing a clean, safe, and top-notch service to its patrons and guests.

“On behalf of Hotel Sogo, thank you Asian Business Excellence Awards 2022 for giving us these recognitions. These awards are nothing if not because of the management and the hardworking staff of our operations.

We will continue to give our all in providing our guests a safe and clean stay. Hotel Sogo will not be here without

your love and support,” she shared.

The Asian Business Excellence Awards (ABEA) is a prestigious International Citation in recognizing Asian excellence in corporate, products, services features and trademarks and/or brands founded by Young Asian Consumers Welfare Advocate.

Currently, Hotel Sogo has 46 branches nationwide located in key areas around the metro and provinces. The hotel anticipates expanding in more areas of the country and looks forward to many more recognition in the future.

For more details, visit www.hotelsogo. com or like and follow Hotel Sogo on Facebook (facebook.com/hotelsogo), Twitter (@ hotelsogo), and Instagram (@hotelsogo).

Worker in Seng Guan Temple in Tondo, Manila cleans a Buddha in preparation for the Chinese New Year that will welcome the year of the Rabbit.

PHOTO BY NONIE REYES

Celebrating the Year of the Rabbit at SM Megamall SM Megamall hops into the Year of the Rabbit with its LED billboard showing “Bob the Bunny,” handing over a 3D carrot to bring good fortune, success, and happiness to Megamall shoppers.. In Chinese culture, the rabbit represents longevity, wittiness, and prosperity. The 3D Rabbit show at SM Megamall EDSA LED billboard runs daily until March.

Chinese New Year

A festive Chinese New Year is coming to Kingsford Hotel Manila

ATTRACT luck and prosperity in 2023 in the Year of the Water Rabbit and celebrate Chinese New Year at Kingsford Hotel Manila. Feel the atmosphere of the Spring Festival with exciting room and restaurants promotions.

To kick-off, Kingsford Café continued its thematic weekend dinner buffet last January 13, 2023 with the Chinese Food Festival. Reunite with your loved ones over a grand buffet feast with seven lucky stations where you can explore your favorite authentic Chinese food.

Savor the rich and distinct flavors of different dishes such as Beef Manchurian, Honey Garlic Pork chops, Chongqing Chicken, drunken prawn, braised fish in ciba, sesame silken tofu, steamed whole fish in light soy, and lechon macau pork belly. These are just some of the many selections you can try at the restaurant.

Chinese Food Festival is open every Fridays and Saturdays, 6PM to 10PM, for the whole month of January for only P1,588 per person. Kids can also enjoy the buffet

for only P988 for kids 6 to 11 years old. Kids aged five years old and below are free of charge as long as they are accompanied by at least one paying adult.

A Chinese New Year Sunday Brunch Buffet is also happening at Kingsford Cafe. Come together and welcome the Spring Festival on January 22, 2023 for only P1,688. Aside from the widespread buffet, feel the festive occasion with a Lion and Dragon dance show and take home your Chinese name calligraphy as a souvenir. Event will start at 11:30AM until 2:30PM.

Sweeten up with this Chinese New Year essential

You can also get a whole cake to share with your loved ones and wish them a prosperous life with the Lucky Cake for the Year of the Water Rabbit. Enjoy this rich, moist, and creamy auspicious longevity cake embellished with Chinese lucky pieces for only P2,500.

Make sure to Stay Lucky

If you wish to have a staycation, invite your loved ones to enjoy an overnight stay with breakfast buffet. Book the Stay Lucky room package and enjoy the following inclusions such as Chinese New Year

Brunch Buffet, access to Lion and Dragon dance show, and get your Chinese name calligraphy souvenir. This promo is good for two (2) persons for only Php 6,888. Stay period is on January 21-23, 2023.

Reserve your tables now at the Kingsford Cafe, send an email to dine@kingsfordmanila.com, or call 09178053585. For room bookings and inquiries, call (02) 8538 6388 or email at stay@kingsfordmanila.

com. You can also reach us through Kingsford Hotel Manila’s Facebook page and follow them on Instagram @kingsfordmanila. To know more information about the hotel, visit www.kingsfordmanila.com.

Try this Lucky Cake at Quick-To-Go

Try this Lucky Cake at Quick-To-Go

C8 Sunday, January 22, 2023

Chinese New Year

A BusinessMirror Special Feature

QC’s Banawe to replicate Binondo’s Chinese New Year festivities

By Marita Moaje, PNA

QUEZON City Mayor Joy Belmonte, together with the Filipino-Chinese community in the city is drumming up support for the city’s celebration of the Chinese New Year as an alternative to the annual celebrations in Manila’s Chinatown.

QC Association of Filipino Chinese Businessmen Inc. (QCAFCBI) president Joaquin Co and QC Chinatown Development Foundation (QCCDF) chairman Charles Chen said the Chinese New Year event that will be held in Banawe Street on Sunday is “a good alternative” to the festivities in Binondo, Manila that has become overcrowded.

They said people can enjoy the same spectacles—like float parades, dragon and lion dance performances, and fireworks dis-

plays—and enjoy authentic Chinese cuisine, among others, just like in Binondo, but without the overcrowding that goes with it.

Performers

Among those who will perform during the event are the Philippine Kong Han Athletic Club Lion Dancers, the Philippine Cultural Chinese 20-piece Orchestra, the Chinese Cultural Dance Group, and the Philippine Institute of QC Children’s Glee Club.

Adding excitement to the event are singers Shiloh Choy and Shawn Tan, who will render solo performances, while the Philippine Wushu Colleges and Clubs Association will conduct a wushu exhibition.

Meanwhile, renowned feng shui master Rev. Fr. Wong Seng Tian will also give his predictions for the Chinese New Year.

Belmonte expressed his full support to the activities by acknowledging the significant con-

tributions of the Filipino-Chinese community, especially in the city economy.

The Chinese New Year celebration is important for us here in Quezon City because we have a significant Filipino-Chinese community here and this is a very big part of their culture, we would like to give them a chance to express their culture, we would like to support them as part of our inclusivity policy,” Belmonte said in a press briefing.

“ The Filipino-Chinese community has contributed so much to our city’s economy as well, and we would like to recognize that contribution to us. Kailangan na kailangan natin na ipagdiwang ito kasi kailangan nating ipakita sa ating mga (We really need to celebrate this important event because we to show to our) Filipino-Chinese brothers and sisters that their contribution is valued, and that they are a significant part of our community,” she added.

Tourism destination

The Banawe area, Belmonte noted, has been declared an official tourism destination, along with the city’s Chinatown, in 2015 through City Ordinance No. 2453-2015.

In line with the celebrations to welcome the Year of the Water Rabbit, parts of Banawe Street, from Cuenco Street up to the Quezon Avenue area, will be closed to traffic from 9 p.m. on Saturday, January 21, to 9 p.m. on Sunday, January 22.

Motorists are advised to take alternate routes: from Quezon Avenue, turn right to Biak Na Bato Street, turn left to Dapitan Street, turn left to Cordillera Street, and

back to Quezon Avenue.

A lternatively, from Quezon Avenue, motorists may turn right to Biak Na Bato Street, turn left To Maria Clara Street, turn left to D. Tuazon Street, and back to Quezon Avenue.

Quezon City Police District (QCPD) director Police Brig. Gen. Nicolas Torre III meanwhile assured the public that enough numbers of police officers will be deployed in the area to maintain peace and order.

A s the Covid-19 threat is still present, the city government is encouraging the public to wear face masks. (PNA)

Caption: CHINESE NEW YEAR. Workers install Chinese lanterns along the intersection of Banawe Street and Quezon Avenue in Quezon City in preparation for the Chinese New Year festivities, which will culminate on Sunday (Jan. 22, 2023). QC Mayor Joy Belmonte said the city government is one with the Filipino-Chinese community in celebrating the event as a reminder of how Chinese culture and traditions have enriched Filipino customs.

(PNA photo by Joey O. Razon)