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No Bangsamoro child left behind

BARMM embarks on a historic drive to raise literacy and education among Muslim youths

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By Manuel T. Cayon

EING the perennial laggard on the education front for decades past, the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) would not have more of such an unsavory reputation prevail.

With its battlecry of not leaving a Bangsamoro child behind, the current administration of the Bangsamoro Region has been breaking ground across its scattered provinces, many of them belonging to the country’s poorest areas, to lay down the solid stakes for more accessibility to education that they expect would reap a great harvest in the future.

Its officialdom is making itself loud and clear on this priority.

“You are now becoming part of the sector of the Bangsamoro people who will provide bright future of our children, of your future children to be,” Sahie A. Udjah, a member of the Bangsamoro Transition Authority (BTA), the BARMM’s interim parliament, told a throng of newly hired teachers for Sulu on Monday, January 10, 2022.

Sulu Schools Division Superintendent Kiram Irilis followed this up with a reminder: Do your duty with diligence because you are now part of the “moral governance” advocacy of the regional government.

“Sumumpa kayo ngayon [You have sworn today], that you will do the service diligently under the Republic of the Philippines, under the Bangsamoro government,” Kiram said in his speech.

New schools, teacher hiring, scholarships

IN the last two years, BARMM went on an offensive to raise school population, improve literacy and ensure that more classrooms are constructed in remote areas.

In March this year, the Ministry of Basic, Higher and Technical Education (MBHTE) turned

“EDUCATION is vital not only because it is a priority of the Bangsamoro Government’s development plans, but it is the bedrock on which we build the hope and future of the next generations.”—Minister Mohagher Iqbal FACEBOOK.COM/MOHAGHERMIQBAL

over to its Sulu Divisions Office 26 classrooms for seven schools in different municipalities of the province. The classrooms cost P50 million in total.

The ministry also broke ground for the construction of two-story buildings with 10 classrooms for college students of Hadji Butu School of Arts and Trade (HBSAT) in Barangay Asturias, Jolo, Sulu. It has a budget of P17.625 million from the Bangsamoro Appropriations Acts (BAA) of 2020.

The following month, Education Minister Mohagher Iqbal led the turnover of 55 classrooms to 24 schools in the Schools Division of Tawi-Tawi and presented significant projects and programs of the ministry for the Bangsamoro learners on the island province.

Another 22 school buildings are already nearing completion and would soon be turned over to the Tawi-Tawi Schools Division.

In July, Iqbal led the groundbreaking ceremony for the con-

MUSLIM, Christian students and advisers gather at the golf course section of the Mindanao State University in Marawi City after a day’s hectic school work during the prepandemic days. Schools like MSU are critical mixing spots for harmonious intertribe, interreligious relations in Mindanao.

MANUEL T. CAYON

PESO EXCHANGE RATES n US 51.4280

PHOTO shows the Grand Mosque (Sultan Haji Hassanal Bolkiah Mosque), Cotabato City. Madrasah education remains an important item in increasing literacy in the Bangsamoro Region. MANUEL T. CAYON

struction of seven school buildings in North Cotabato and Maguindanao for Sapakan Elementary School (with one-story building, flagpole and handwashing facility and rainwater collector), Buliok Elementary School, Datu Pinguiaman Elementary School Annex, Dagadas Elementary School, Nasapian Elementary School, Sambulawan Elementary School and Endaila Silongan Central Elementary School.

The BARMM has allotted P2.5 million budget for each school construction.

In November last year, MBHTE conducted 10 groundbreaking ceremonies for school-building projects in Marawi City and Lanao del Sur province, with a budget of P106 million.

These undertakings were complemented with the hiring of teachers.

In October last year, 203 vacant teaching plantilla items were filled in the Schools Divisions of Lanao del Sur I and II. These included 81 elementary, 37 secondary, and six Alternative Learning System (ALS) teachers, who were hired for the Division of Lanao del Sur I, while 46 elementary, 27 secondary, and 6 ALS teachers were hired for Lanao del Sur II. Last week, 294 teachers were also hired in Sulu, 183 of them in the elementary level, 103 in the junior high school level, and eight in the ALS. Members of the regional and division screening board of the MBHTE-Sulu have started evaluat-

ing the conduct of demonstration teaching and interview with some 1,800 licensed teachers, who were applying for jobs in the education ministry.

In September last year, four members of the Bangsamoro Parliament filed a bill granting permanent status to non-Licensure Examination for Teachers (LET) passers who have served for at least 10 years of efficient service in the region.

BTA Bill 122, also known as the “Provisional Teachers Act of 2021,” intends to recognize the provisional teachers’ contribution, expertise, and years of service in the region.

“By granting them permanent status under certain conditions, the authors believe that this would be the most just recourse to resolving the issue and ensure that they continue to contribute to the development of the Bangsamoro,” Ziaur-Rahman Adiong said in an explanatory note.

Abdulraof Macacua, Eduard Guerra, and Abdullah Hashim also authored the measure.

Under the proposed bill, all non-LET passers who have served the now-defunct DepEd-Automous Region in Muslim Mindanao for at least 10 years will be given permanent status if they meet the qualifications for the post: must have rendered continuous service to the defunct ARMM at least 10 years in teaching before the effectivity of this act; and he/she must pass the qualifying exam provided by the MBHTE. Islamic studies in the Ma-

drasah were not left out.

The MBHTE, through its Directorate General for Madaris Education, hired 2,374 new Islamic Studies and Arabic Language (ISAL) teachers, or asatidz, for the 11 schools divisions in the Bangsamoro region.

According to Prof. Tahir Nalg, MBHTE director general for Madaris Education, the main objective was not only to hire more ISAL teachers but to have a balanced and quality education for the young learners.

“Tuturuan po natin sila na maimprove ang Islamic studies nila, pero sinisigurado po natin iyong quality ng edukasyon,” said Nalg.

The teachers will receive a monthly salary of P16,200 until March 2022. According to Nalg, contracts are renewable every six months while they await the ministry’s special eligibility exams for permanent positions for Madaris teachers.

Overall, the BARMM granted P93-million subsidy to 64 recognized madrasahs last year.

According to MBHTE, a total of 18,630 madrasah learners from the 64 SMC Implementers benefited and received P5,000 from the subsidy.

Repainal Gampong, 48, school registrar of Ibn Siena Integrated School Foundation Inc. in Biaba, Marawi City, Lanao del Sur, received a check worth P11,185,000 from the Bangsamoro Government. He thanked the Bangsamoro Government for realizing assistance to Madaris education.

He said their institution recently recorded more than 4,000 enrollees, and from the subsidy, they will allocate 80 percent for teachers’ salary, while 20 percent will go to their school development programs.

Scholarship slots for poor but deserving students have been increased as well.

In December 2020, MBHTE granted scholarships to 799 incoming first-year college students from the central Mindanao provinces of Lanao del Sur and Maguindanao, the cities of Cotabato and Marawi, provinces of Maguindanao and Lanao del Sur, and the 63 barangays of North Cotabato.

Around 1,400 students across the BARMM were targeted to benefit from the scholarships: 799 made it from the mainland provinces and the rest, from the provincial islands of Basilan, Sulu and Tawi-Tawi.

The scholarship is effective from the first semester of academic year 2020-2021 until 2023-2024. A scholar gets P30,000 allowance per semester or P60,000 per academic year.

Iris Dinah Bacaraman, 21, a Maranao and taking up Bachelor of Science in Physics at the Mindanao State University-Main Campus in Marawi City, said she was happy she availed herself of the scholarship because she has five siblings and it would help her parents ease the burden of school expenses.

“My father is the sole breadwinner, and this fund is a big help. And Continued on A2

n JAPAN 0.4508 n UK 69.9575 n HK 6.6050 n CHINA 8.1097 n SINGAPORE 38.1740 n AUSTRALIA 37.1567 n EU 58.1856 n SAUDI ARABIA 13.7101

Source: BSP (January 21, 2022)

NewsSunday BusinessMirror

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No Bangsamoro child left behind Continued from A1

since it’s pandemic and we always have online classes, we have to load up on the internet every three days,” she said, partly in Filipino.

“This AHME scholarship program is a big help to my father who is a farmer spending for my schooling. I plan to stay in a boarding house because we live far, in Sultan Mastura, Maguindanao,” said Hissam Rumaguia, 19, a Maguindanaon and taking up Bachelor of Science in Social Work at the Cotabato City State Polytechnic College.

The Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST) also extended scholarships to 126 students: 73 from the province of Maguin­danao, 63 barangays in North Cotabato and Cotabato City; and 53 grantees from the provinces of Lanao del Sur, Basilan, Sulu and Tawi-Tawi.

Minister Aida Silongan said the program was the first of its kind implemented in the Bangsamoro region. “This program is a response to the very low performance in science and technology innovation in the region where we are several decades behind in terms of inventions, innovations, and even numbers of science researchers compared to other regions,” Silongan admitted.

In Tawi-Tawi, the MBHTE reported that 451 scholars finished their technical and vocational courses in January last year. The scholars finished courses on organic agriculture production, organic crop production, agricultural crop production, cookery, bread and pastry production, assembly of solar nightlight and post lamp,

masonry, dressmaking, electrical installation and maintenance, plumbing, shielded metal arc welding, technical drafting, security services, computer systems servicing, and housekeeping.

By April last year, the MBHTETechnical Education and Skills Development (TESD) reported that 3,453 scholars across the Bangsa­ moro region completed their vocational courses for the first quarter of 2021.

“This would open more doors for our Bangsamoro learners to hone their skills and knowledge,” Iqbal said. He noted the scholars come from disadvantaged sectors.

“With a certification rate of 85.4 percent, roughly 3,142 out of 3,679 scholarship grantees who have undergone National Competency Assessment [there] are now certified competent skilled workers in their respective areas of skills training,” the MBHTE said.

The ministry would also be opening slots for another 1,400 scholarship grants for the children of former combatants.

Rationale

“GIVING scholarships or financial assistance to deserving students is one way of promoting access among the Bangsamoro constituents to higher education,” said Member of Parliament Amilbahar Mawallil, who pushed for the establishment of a scholarship and return service program.

Mawallil reiterated that improving access to higher education is one of the major challenges of

MUSLIM, Christian students and advisers gather at the golf course section of the Mindanao State University in Marawi City after a day’s hectic school work during the prepandemic days. Schools like MSU are critical mixing spots for harmonious intertribe, interreligious relations in Mindanao. MANUEL T. CAYON

the Ministry of Basic, Higher, and Technical Education.

“This challenge is compounded by the armed conflict and other peace and order-related problems in the region,” he added, noting that higher education serves as the link between basic education and the professional world.

Scholarship programs in the region, specifically the Student Financial Assistance Program, he explained, are being managed by the

Commission on Higher Education (CHED) Central Office and that the number of slots available in the region depends on how CHED distributes slots among the regions.

The BTA Bill 162, or the Bangsamoro Scholarship Grant Act of 2021, seeks to address the problem by establishing a Bangsamoro Scholarship and Return Service Program for deserving students who wish to pursue education and training in any state university or college in the country.

But this bill includes a provision for return service, in which the scholar will be absorbed into the Bangsamoro government after graduating from the any state university or college, and will receive the appropriate civil service rank, salary, and related benefits.

For at least a year, the scholar must serve in the Bangsamoro government, preferably in the scholar’s hometown, or in any city or municipality closest to the scholar’s hometown.

“This will not only be beneficial to the scholar but has a reciprocal benefit to the government through the gainful employment of competent professionals and public servants of the region,” Mawallil said.

Coauthors of the proposed bill are MPs Atty. Laisa Alamia, Engr.

Baintan Ampatuan, Engr. Don Loong, Atty. Rasol Mitmug, Atty.

Suharto Ambolodto, Rasul Ismael and Abraham Burahan.

To enhance awareness of the benefits of education, Mawallil also filed a separate bill seeking to grant recognition and incentives to Bangsamoro topnotchers in board or bar, and other national licensure examinations.

“The granting of recognition and incentives to the Bangsamoro people and other inhabitants in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region is one way of inspiring individuals to strive for greater heights of excellence,” Mawallil, the main author of the bill, said.

Top-performing Bangsamoro residents bring pride and honor, and serve as role models for the youth, he said.

Medical school

TO bring the education front to greater heights, MP Susana Anayatin authored Parliament Bill 150 that establishes a medical school in the region “under the capacity and capability required by the licensing standards and regulation of the Commission on Higher and Technical Education of the Philippines and the Association of Philippine Medical Colleges.”

In July last year, Health Minister Dr. Bashary Latiph and University of Southern Mindanao (USM) President Francisco Gil Garcia signed a memorandum of agreement in Kabacan, North Cotabato, to formally start the Bangsamoro Medical Scholarship Program in the university.

Bangsamoro graduates of

pre-medical courses may avail themselves of free medical schooling which the Ministry of Health would soon offer.

“This memorandum of agreement is the first step toward the realization of more health-care professionals, especially doctors, for BARMM and Region 12,” Latiph said.

Thirty students would be sent as scholars to USM, 15 to the Western Mindanao State University in Zamboanga City and six to the Brokenshire College Inc. in Davao City.

The Bangsamoro Medical Scholarship Program has an allocation of P14.354 million under MOH’s 2021 annual budget.

BRAC

THREE years earlier, the Bangsamoro government tapped a development agency to help it reach out to more children in remote villages as the BARMM struggles with the problem of accessibility.

In 2019, the BARMM Bureau of Public Information said the BRAC has been tapped by the Australian government to implement the Alternative Delivery Model, a component of its Basic Education Assistance for Mindanao, or BEAM. This program aims to provide children in remote areas access to education especially where public education system is inaccessible.

BRAC is an alternative education program founded in Bangladesh and adapted in central Mindanao to allow development workers to reach out to 60,000 children in hard-to-reach areas and former battlegrounds.

The BARMM has acknowledged the effective reach of the education and antipoverty outreach program called BRAC, formerly called Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee and now known as Building Resources Across Communities.

Since 2012, BRAC has established 2,108 learning centers, including seven floating schools, and reached over 60,000 children, the information office said.

In 2019, it disclosed that a total of 1,301 BRAC learners completed their elementary education.

Benefits of a literate population

EFFORTS to bring the Moro population to the classrooms have been paying off, although not in significant increases, data from the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) would indicate.

Growth in numbers was seen in the three comparative years of 1994 and 2003, when a big portion of the region was still locked in sporadic armed conflict with government, and 2013, during the last caretaker government of the now defunct ARMM. For example, the percentage of those who cannot read or write was at 32.4 in 1994, or one in every three Bangsamoro residents, with

a slight decline to 31.7 in the next comparative year, and plunged to 20.9 by 2013.

Conversely, those who can read and write started at 63.8 percent, or three in every five residents, to a high of 78.2 percent 19 years later.

Those who finished high school or higher remained low, however, at 21.9 percent in 2003, decreasing to 20.9 percent in the next comparative year, and to 29.2 in 2013.

Simple literacy was high at 86.1 percent, or almost nine in every 10 residents, by 2013, but it was the female sector that shows higher literacy level at 87.3 percent compared to the male sector, at 84.9 percent. This is remarkable in a region reputed to remain a highly patriarchal society.

The literacy level was taken from the 2013 Functional Literacy, Education and Mass Media Survey (FLEMMS) which the PSA conducted. The survey is done every five years.

The 2013 FLEMMS survey covers about 26,000 sample households in 1,600 barangays in the country. About 1,200 sample households were taken from ARMM. Marjuni Maddi, assistant secretary for academics of the then ARMM’s Department of Education, said he ascribed the increase to the agency efforts “in solving literacy-related problems.”

These include the regionally applied Abot-Alam, a national program that aims to reach out to outof-school (OSY) youths who are 15 to 30 years old; and the Alternative Delivery Mode (ADM), a joint program with Basic Education Assistance for Mindanao-ARMM. ADM is being implemented by BRAC Philippines.

The Abot-Alam program would tap the OSYs “who have not completed basic or higher education [and] who are unemployed, and to mobilize and harmonize programs, which will address these OSYs’ needs and aspirations.”

To solidify the regional government’s focus on literacy, BARMM approved in May last year the Education Code, one of six primary codes of laws that the BARMM should pass. The Bangsamoro Education Code (BTA Bill 70) is the act “providing for the establishment, maintenance and support of a complete and integrated system of quality education in the Bangsamoro.”

Iqbal, who filed the bill in 2020, said the legislation is “an embodiment of our aspiration for the Bangsamoro children to have a bright future which is an upshot of a quality education.”

He said it was not the goal to develop a “perfect” Bangsamoro education code, but rather, one that includes significant provisions that will enhance the region’s education system, and will protect the well-being and rights of the teachers and nonteaching staff, parents and learners.

Among the benefits of the code were granting special eligibility for Madrasah teachers, or those teaching Arabic, an important education component for the Muslims to undertand the Qur’an, their holy book, which is written in Arabic.

The code has also provided for a tribal university system “to address the higher educational needs of indigenous peoples (IP), provide a school system where the IPs’ language, culture and traditional knowledge of their elders are incorporated in the curricular and extracurricular activities of the students.”

A key element in the code is peace education, “to be a core component of Bangsamoro education system to instill the culture of nonviolence, social justice and respect for human rights, freedom and inclusivity.”

“Education is vital not only because it is a priority of the Bangsamoro government’s development plans, but it is the bedrock on which we build the hope and future of the next generations,” said Minister Iqbal.

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Hitachi’s $18-B divestment kept activist investors at bay

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ong before activist investors swooped into Japan to shake up conglomerates saddled with losses and legacy assets, Hitachi Ltd. managed to do it on its own, selling off more than $18 billion worth of businesses in the past five years under Chief Executive Officer Toshiaki Higashihara.

The result? A market value that’s more than doubled to 6.2 trillion yen ($54 billion), second only to Sony Group Corp. among Japanese electronics makers and roughly equal to the next two competitors—Panasonic Corp. and Mitsubishi Electric Corp.— combined.

“Activists have never said anything to us,” Higashihara, 66, said in an interview at Hitachi’s headquarters facing Tokyo Station. Since taking over in 2016, the rail-systems engineer is credited with transforming a sprawling conglomerate, once the country’s biggest loss-maker, into a profitable enterprise without the kind of outside intervention from activist funds such as Elliott Investment Management that forced change at Toshiba Corp. and

other companies in Japan.

He’s also not done. Hitachi last week said it would divest about half of its majority holding in Hitachi Construction Machinery Co. for 182.5 billion yen. It’s also looking to complete a $3.3-billion stake sale in Hitachi Metals Ltd., a deal announced in April but delayed by regulators. There’s also no need to keep holding on to the 20 percent of Hitachi Kokusai Electric Inc. that Hitachi holds, the CEO added.

Asked about the sale of a 40-percent stake in Hitachi Transport System Ltd., reported by Bloomberg News in December, Higashihara said he wanted to move forward with a sale “as soon as possible” and was seeking the right industry partner that will bring “benefits to society and advantages for Hitachi.”

“If those are in alignment, then the deal will be done quickly; if not, we won’t be able to explain it to our shareholders, so it might take longer,” the CEO said of any potential Hitachi Transport deal.

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Pag-IBIG home loan releases surpass ₧100-B in 2021 for record-high; up 58%

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ag-IBIG Fund has once again set a record-high as home loans breached P100 billion, even amid the ongoing pandemic, agency officials announced on Friday.

For 2021, Pag-IBIG Fund released home loans worth P97.28 billion. And, with interim releases for loans for house construction and renovation amounting to P3.5 billion, total releases have reached P100.8 billion—the highest amount ever released by the agency in a year. The amount disbursed in 2021 grew 58 percent compared to the P63.75 billion released in 2020 and has surpassed by 16 percent the P86.74 billion

released in 2019, the agency’s previous record-high.

“W hile the country is still facing challenges caused by the pandemic, I am happy to report that Pag-IBIG released more than P100 billion in home loans in 2021, surpassing its ‘ best-ever’ figure that it achieved in 2019, before t he he a lt h c r i si s st a r ted .

This is very good news for our members because bigger releases mean that more Filipino workers have become

ho me o w ne r s e v e n du r i n g the pandemic. T he growth in home loan disbursements also contributes to the economic recovery efforts of the government,” said Secretary Eduardo D. del Rosario, who heads the Department of Human Settlements and Urban Development (DHSUD) and t h e 10 - m e m b e r P a g - I B IG Fund Board of Trustees.

Meanwhile, Pag-IBIG Fund Chief Executive Officer Acmad Rizaldy P. Moti said that the amount released financed the acquisition of a record-high 94,533 housing units for its members, an increase of 48 percent compared to the 63,750 housing units f inanced in 2020. Of the amount released, P9.71 billion financed the acquisition of 22,028 socialized housing units for members belonging to the minimum-wage and low-income sectors, or 23 percent of the entire number of homes financed for the whole

year of 2021. “ We prev iously t hought that releasing P100 billion in home loans in one year was impossible. Yet, even when our home loan releases were at P57 billion in 2016, we still targeted the release of P100 billion by 2022. And, thanks to the commitment of you r L i ng kod Pag-IBIG and the support of our stakeholders, we have already surpassed P100 billion in home loan releases in 2021—a year earlier than our target date and even during a pandemic!

W hat truly is significant behind this number is that we were able to serve more Filipino workers during the most difficult times and we remain a catalyst for the Philippine housing industr y to thrive even amid the pandemic. I am grateful to everyone who helped make this seemingly impossible goal come true,” said Moti.

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TheWorld

Global inflation ends era of cheaper clean energy

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By Will Wade, David R Baker & Josh Saul

he era of ever-cheaper clean power is over, giving a fresh jolt of uncertainty to global energy markets battered by one supply crisis after another.

Relentless price declines over the past decade made renewables the cheapest sources of electricity in much of the world. In the past year, though, prices for solar panels have surged more than 50 percent. Wind turbines are up 13 percent, and battery prices are rising for the first time ever.

As pandemic-induced supply delays ensnare everything from cars to salads, green energy’s price hikes may not come as a surprise. But shipping backlogs and commodities shortages are coming at a particularly vulnerable moment for wind and solar. After years of rapid-fire advances in technology and manufacturing, there are fewer opportunities left to cut costs without sacrificing profits. Instead of perpetually falling, prices will now ebb and flow based on the cost of raw materials and other market forces.

For energy markets grappling with blackouts and extreme price volatility in the green transition, clean-power inflation is another wild card. Policy makers, accused of adding wind and solar so rapidly that electric grids have become unstable, are under pressure to ensure the entire system is more reliable—by pairing solar with batteries, for example, or keeping aging nuclear plants running for longer.

“From now on, what’s going to make the difference around the expansion of solar and wind is not going to be costs—how low can you go?—but value,” said Edurne Zoco, executive director of clean technology and renewables at research firm IHS Markit Ltd. Higher interest rates are also threatening to increase costs for wind and solar projects as central banks weigh tighter monetary policy to curb inflation, said Julien Dumoulin-Smith, an analyst with Bank of America Corp. “One of the single most important inputs that go into these highly levered projects are rates,” he said. “Interest rates have only gone down for a straight decade.”

Climate hawks need not fear renewable-energy inflation, however.

Even with the recent rise in costs, wind and solar have evolved from expensive, niche sources of electricity to become competitive with fossil fuels. Renewables remain cheaper on a relative basis than fossil fuels in much of the world, and prices for oil and natural gas have surged over the past year. Over the long term, prices for wind and solar will continue to decline, albeit at a slower pace. That means clean-energy installations are expected to keep growing rapidly in the coming years.

Still, the industry is wrestling with the immediate effects of supplychain snarls. Burlington, Vermont-based solar developer Encore Renewable Energy LLC is paying about 35 cents a watt for panels, up from 30 cents in mid-2020, according to Chief Executive Officer Chad Farrell.

Raw materials now account for 70 percent of the cost of finished modules, leaving suppliers with almost no room to trim expenses, said David Dixon, a senior analyst with research firm Rystad Energy. A shortage of polysilicon, one of the key materials for the photovoltaic cells that make up solar panels, increased expenses last year, and shipping costs also rose.

Invenergy, a US developer of wind and solar projects, has been forced to delay some projects because it can’t get panels, said Art Fletcher, the company’s executive vice president of construction. Though shipping expenses are beginning to decline after jumping last year, the renewables industry as a whole is undergoing a transformation, he said.

“I don’t believe we’re ever going back to where we were two years ago,” Fletcher said.

Canadian Solar Inc., one of the world’s largest panel makers, said it no longer makes sense for the industry to constantly slash prices. “There will be an end for this price drop,” the company’s chairman, Shawn Qu, told a virtual BloombergNEF event on November 30. “There’s a cost for going green and carbon neutrality.”

The Solar Energy Industries Association and Wood Mackenzie Ltd. forecast last month that US installations will drop 15 percent in 2022, about 25 percent below the trade group’s September forecast.

Supply-chain kinks may ease this year as China spends billions on new factories to produce polysilicon. That may cut prices in the short term, but it’s less likely to lead to sustained reductions.

“We’re getting to the tail end of price declines,” said Dixon. “Commodity prices will be the sole determinant of module prices.”

The wind industry is going through a similar transition. Prices plunged 48 percent in the decade through 2020, but are now leveling off and are expected to slide 14 percent through 2030, according to BloombergNEF. “That’s a sign of the industry maturing,” said BNEF wind analyst Oliver Metcalfe.

Manufacturers will continue to reduce per-megawatt costs with larger installations. However, these massive turbines—almost as tall as the Eiffel Tower—require more materials, especially steel, which surged in 2021 and will likely remain costly for the next several years. Supply-chain issues boosted prices for onshore wind turbines 9 percent in the second half of 2021.

In some regions, developers have already installed turbines in the best locations and now are looking at less breezy areas or smaller sites. That means they may be using turbines designed for slower windspeeds or placing smaller orders, both of which lead to higher per-megawatt prices.

The world’s largest wind turbine maker, Denmark’s Vestas Wind Systems A/S, had to cut its profit forecast last year as it faced rising costs from key commodities and persistent supply-chain disruptions. Something will need to change for the industry to be able to deliver enough wind power capacity to hit the world’s climate goals, the company said.

“We have to put up a warning flag here,” said Morten Dyrholm, senior vice president at Vestas. “We need to focus on profitability across the sector.”

Battery costs

Batteries have also been hit by inflation. BNEF said late last year that it expected prices for battery packs to climb this year for the first time in data going back to 2010. The 2.3-percent increase can be blamed on soaring prices for the metals batteries contain, booming demand worldwide and strained supply chains.

But compared with wind and solar, batteries are a much newer part of the clean-energy landscape. Suppliers are still experimenting with new chemistries and ramping up production capacity, which means there’s still room for more significant price cuts.

Fluence Energy Inc., a grid-scale storage developer, has seen delays and increased costs to ship batteries from its contract manufacturing facility in Vietnam, but the company doesn’t expect that to last.

“This backlog that has been created is really being worked through,” said Chief Financial Officer Dennis Fehr.

While some of the supply-chain issues bedeviling renewables developers are easing, George Bilicic, head of global power, energy and infrastructure for Lazard Ltd., said the industry is undergoing permanent changes.

Without any new technological breakthroughs or major consolidation, prices are stabilizing. “The story about big cost declines is that large cost declines won’t be the story anymore,” Bilicic said. Bloomberg News

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Markets tremble at Fed’s double-edged tightening

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rapid one-two punch of interest-rate hikes and balancesheet reduction from the Federal Reserve risks unsettling bond and stock markets that have already taken a beating.

The effects on markets and the economy of combining the two aspects of monetary tightening in quick succession—something it hasn’t done before—are unknown, and investors are telegraphing their concern. The Nasdaq Composite Index slid more than 8 percent over the past 10 trading sessions, while Treasuries are down 2.3 percent this month.

“The scale of what they’re contemplating now is completely unprecedented,” said Janice Eberly, a former Treasury Department official now at Northwestern University. “It’s prudent to gauge the market reaction, especially before moving the balance sheet in concert with interest-rate changes.”

Fed Chairman Jerome Powell and his colleagues would like to see some tightening of financial conditions to take a bit of the edge off the robust economy and help bring down decades-high inflation. A retreat in asset prices after equities and home prices hit records last year would help that process, as long as it didn’t turn into a destabilizing slump that ended up hurting the economy.

Making that task trickier: The Fed has only scaled back its stockpile of bonds once before, in 2017-2019, so there’s not much to go on to try to calculate the impact of a bigger, swifter quantitative tightening this time around.

New York Federal Reserve Bank President John Williams expects long-term rates to “move up somewhat” over time as the central bank downsizes its balance sheet. But he acknowledged last week that it was “pretty uncertain” how big the impact of such quantitative tightening

would be. “We have to be humble,” he told the Council on Foreign Relations Friday.

One of his predecessors, William Dudley, expects the process to be smooth. Steady communication of Fed plans will help, as will a liquidity backstop that the central bank put in place last year. The standing repo facility, as it’s called, gives banks an easy method of swapping Treasuries for cash—a safety valve that can help avert the squeeze seen in 2019.

Yet investors ascribe much more “tightening power” to balance-sheet drawdowns than some Fed analysis does, according to Deutsche Bank AG chief US economist Matthew Luzzetti—raising the risk of unexpected selloffs in risk assets.

With traders increasingly pricing in a March liftoff for rate hikes followed within months by the start of the Fed running down its bond portfolio, stock investors have become increasingly leery.

Back in 2017, the Fed began normalizing its balance sheet almost two years after it lifted its short-term policy rate from near zero. And it reduced its bond inventory in baby steps, starting the monthly runoff at $10 billion and slowly and steadily increasing it to $50 billion a year later.

Policy makers, including Powell, have made clear they’ll be going faster this time.

The monetary mavens have said that a different approach is justified: The economy is stronger than it was back then, inflation is a lot higher and the balance sheet is much bigger.

What’s more, the Fed holds $326 billion of Treasury bills that could come off the balance sheet within months

if the proceeds are not reinvested.

“By midyear, we expect the FOMC will recognize that they still will need to do more to give the best chance of ultimately achieving their 2-percent target. As a result, the committee will likely hike five times this year. We currently expect balance-sheet run-off to begin in third quarter of 2022, with a huge band of uncertainty around that timing,” said Anna Wong, Bloomberg’s chief US economist.

While some retreat in risk assets could be helpful to the Fed, a major plunge could harm the recovery. To avoid that, the policy makers would likely prepare the public for what it intends to do, by—in the parlance of Powell—socializing its intentions with investors.

They may have a ways to go to achieve that.

Speaking to reporters on January 13 after a meeting of the Economic Advisory Committee of the American Bankers Association, Morgan Stanley chief US economist Ellen Zentner sa id t he g roup broad ly agreed that the drawdown would begin mid-year. But there was a wide range of views about how quickly that would proceed.

Zentner, for her part, expects a July announcement laying out an initial monthly balance-sheet reduction of $40 billion, moving up quickly to $80 billion in September. That would be in addition to the four quarterpercentage point Fed rate increases she sees this year.

Weighing QT Complicating the outlook: some policy makers have described quantitative tightening as a potential substitute for some rate hikes—just as quantitative easing was for rate cuts.

Brian Sack, director of global economics for the D. E. Shaw group, estimates it would take about $600 billion in balance-sheet contraction to approximate a quarter-point rate hike. That compares with the $300 billion estimate he came up with Joseph Gagnon in a 2018 paper for the Peterson Institute for International Economics.

The change is because the Fed has deployed much more QE during the pandemic, and longer-term yields are lower and less volatile than in the past. Sack also cited “evidence that rates have been pretty resilient to Treasury supply changes.”

“The economy is strong enough that the Fed will likely have to hike the federal funds rate substantially, even as it shrinks its balance sheet,” Sack, a former Fed official, added.

Michael Gapen, chief US economist at Barclays Plc, highlights the large amount of cash parked in the Fed’s reverse repo facility—almost $1.6 trillion—as evidence that the Fed can easily proceed with more aggressive QT.

Yield curve Some policy makers favor leaning more on quantitative tightening than in the past. One argument for that approach: it could help limit a f lattening of the yield curve that crimps banks’ lending margins and thus affect their willingness to provide credit to the economy.

A swift rundown of the Fed’s bond portfolio could press up longer-term yields while policy makers are hiking the short-term benchmark rate. That could preserve margins for lenders, supporting the flow of credit. But a surge in rates across the curve could also damage equities, undermining business confidence.

Powell said this month that plans for shrinking the bond portfolio will be discussed in upcoming policy meetings.

In the end, the economic effects of a balance-sheet drawdown are very uncertain, said former Bank of England policy maker Kristin Forbes.

It could be like “paint drying in the background” or could have a bigger impact, especially if markets are unprepared, she said.

“Any movement in that direction should be done extremely cautiously because you will have to feel out the effects as any balance-sheet unwind happens,” said Forbes, who is now at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Bloomberg News

Hitachi’s $18-B divestment kept activist investors at bay Continued From A3

While Japanese companies had long resisted pressure from outside investors, this has changed in recent years amid a government drive to attract more foreign investment by promising better corporate governance and investor engagement. A steady march of activist funds have agitated for change at Japanese enterprises, trying to unlock value by pressuring them to untangle byzantine cross shareholdings and separating subsidiaries from larger corporate entities, albeit with mixed results.

Take the case of Toshiba, Hitachi’s polar opposite, which has been struggling to get back on a stable footing after an accounting scandal, huge losses on a badly-managed foray into nuclear power and the sale of its prized memory-chip business. Activist investors pushing for changes at Toshiba have triggered an ongoing boardroom power struggle and debate over whether the company should be split up. Toshiba’s shares are now trading at a third of historic highs.

Higashihara says the company can’t just depend on asset sales to bolster the shares, which he sees as still undervalued even though they have more than doubled during his tenure.

“You can’t realize a premium from

Hitachi Ltd. Chief Executive Officer Toshiaki Higashihara Bloomberg photo a conglomerate through a breakup,” Higashihara said. “It all depends on the leadership at the top. We’re in an era when we need to deliver solutions to customers.”

Hitachi’s business still spans power grids, nuclear energy, automotive parts, train infrastructure and industrial products. It has also increased its bets on software, acquiring GlobalLogic Inc. last year in a transaction worth $9.6 billion, one of its biggest deals ever.

It has also invested heavily in software to connect its products and systems to sensors and computing power—an Internet-of-Things technology it calls Lumada—so that customers can better monitor and manage hardware that they buy from Hitachi. The company has also hired aggressively to bolster the number

of programmers and data scientists, although large-scale cuts elsewhere mean its headcount of 351,000 is little changed from a decade ago.

Founded in 1910, Hitachi became one of the engines of Japan’s postwar economic growth, churning out everything from refrigerators and televisions to generators and railway systems. After posting four years of losses totaling almost 1 trillion yen through 2010, the biggest ever seen in corporate Japan at the time, Hitachi embarked on a radical revamp to improve profitability and make the business more resilient.

Higashihara and his predecessor started by selling off or halting production of most consumer electronics, shifting their focus toward big-ticket customers such as businesses and city governments. The company also used proceeds from divestments to bolster its core offerings, buying ABB Ltd.’s power-grid division and acquiring the rail-signaling arm of Thales SA. The global push toward more sustainable energy policies bodes well for Hitachi’s power and transportation businesses, according to Higashihara, an engineer who once worked on computerized railway systems.

There’s still one major Hitachi subsidiary whose fate remains an open question—Hitachi Astemo Ltd., the car-parts supplier created last year

when Hitachi merged three of its units with two from Honda Motor Co. Asked about whether the merged company would eventually be sold or listed, Higashihara said: “The goal is to become No. 1 in motors, inverters, brakes and suspensions by 2025. It depends on the market value at the time. If we can’t reach those targets, then we’ll have to make other choices.”

Asked about risks going forward, such as China’s Covid Zero policy, which is already showing signs of disrupting global supply chains, the CEO said that Hitachi is relatively insulated after bringing much of production for local markets within domestic borders. The bigger issue is ongoing difficulty in procuring semiconductors, both for automobiles and other products, he said.

“It will take another year for chipsupply constraints to ease,” Higashihara said.

Higashihara considers the company’s biggest risk to be that of another natural disaster, such as the 2011 earthquake in Japan.

“How do you prepare for the worstcase scenario? If Japan is out of commission, then where do we put the command tower? Where do we put financing functions?” the CEO said, adding that business continuity plans were in place but not complete. “We’re not ready yet.” Bloomberg News

A8

Faith

Sunday

Sunday, January 23, 2022

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

NCCP, CBCP: ‘Follow Christ’s light’

‘W

e have observed His star at its rising and have come to pay Him homage.”

(Matthew 2:2b, New Revised Standard Version) Thus said the National Council of Churches in the Philippines (NCCP) and the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines-Episcopal Commission on Ecumenical Affairs (CBCPECEA) in their unity statement for the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity 2022 on January 18 to 25.

“Christ’s light guides our journey during these days of struggle, hardships and despair,” said the statement signed by Bishop Reuel Norman O. Marigza, general secretary of NCCP, and Archbishop Angelito R. Lampon, OMI, chairman of the CBCP-ECEA. The Protestant and Catholic church groups said that with Typhoon Odette (international name Rai) and the Covid-19 Omicron variant straining the

capacities of local communities and families, “Christians must unite in solidarity with the most vulnerable among us. The Filipino people are in need of accompaniment and aid in these difficult times.”

As a nation, they said the Filipinos are also challenged to rise against widespread killings and call for accountability for so-called tokhang, or extrajudicial killings in the fight against drugs, and “anti-insurgency” operations.

“The very dignity of life has been violated, as many have been extra-judicially killed,” said the statement a copy of which was sent to the BusinessMirror.

“Fa lsehoods and ev il pedd led through strong-arm governance have not only limited democratic space, but

they have led to corruption, scandals and serious shortcomings in social, health, education and other government services,” it added.

It pointed out that such realities must strengthen the people and unite their common concern.

“Like the Magi of old, we are on a journey toward a better way. The better way is to completely change our old ways and bad habits,” the NCCP and CBCP unity statement said.

“Christ is the beacon that summons us to move toward hope. Jesus’ light rises as our guide in a common quest for God’s Shalom, which is peace based on justice, love, righteousness, freedom, democracy and dignity of life,” the statement said.

Citing the elections only months away, it said the people must all take courage to work together, honoring life and God’s creation.

“This is a Kairos [grace] moment where we can encourage active citizenship among our people and insist upon servant leadership from those who desire our votes in the May 2022 national polls,” the statement said.

Young volunteers of the Diocese of Tagbilaran help pack relief goods for Typhoon Odette (international name Rai) victims in Bohol province on December 29, 2021.

COURTESY OF THE DIOCESE OF TAGBILARAN/CBCP News

It added that in Christian unity, “our prophetic voice and firm stand for Christ-like conduct and life-affirming principles will enable us to join with other Filipinos in discerning who should lead the country.”

In these trying times, the NCCP and CBCP said, the people must also

guard against the “powers of darkness” that will seek to defraud, deceive and destroy God ’s intended goodness for the Filipino people.

“Let us be like ‘city on hill’ that cannot be hidden [Matthew 5:14],” it urged the faithful, they said.

The NCCP and CBCP said that as a

Pope to confer new lay ministries for 1st time in St. Peter’s Basilica

V

ATIC AN—The Vatican has announced that Pope Francis will confer the ministries of catechist, lector and acolyte upon lay men and women for the first time in St. Peter’s Basilica on Sunday.

Candidates from three continents will receive the new ministries during the papal Mass for the Sunday of the Word of God on January 23.

Two people from the Amazonian region in Peru will be made catechists by the pope, along with other candidates from Brazil, Ghana, Poland and Spain.

The ministry of lector will be conferred on lay Catholics from South Korea, Pakistan, Ghana and Italy.

Each of these ministries will be conferred through a rite prepared by the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments that will be presented for the first time, according to a Vatican communique issued on January 18.

“Before the homily, the candidates will be summoned, called by name and presented to the Church,” it said.

Those called to the ministry of lector will be presented with a Bible, while the catechists will be entrusted with a cross.

In this case, it will be a copy of the pastoral cross used by popes St. Paul VI and St. John Paul II. Pope Francis established the ministry of catechist as an instituted, vocational service within the Catholic Church last May. The newly instituted ministry is for lay people who have a particular call to serve the Catholic Church as a teacher of the faith.

Pope Francis celebrates Mass on the first Sunday of the Word of God, January 26.

DANIEL IBÁÑEZ/CNA

The ministry lasts for the entirety of life, regardless of whether the person is actively carrying out that activity during every part of his or her life.

According to the apostolic letter Antiquum ministerium, a lay person called to be instituted in the ministry of catechist should have “deep faith and human maturity,” be an active participant in the life of the Christian community, and “capable of welcoming others, being generous and living a life of fraternal communion.”

Among the candidates to be inducted into the ministry by Pope Francis this week is the president of the Roman Oratory Center, which was founded by Arnaldo Canepa, who dedicated more than 40 years of his life to the catechetical instruction of children.

The pope changed Church law in January 2021 so that women can be

On Jewish Earth Day, more Jewish groups act on climate

T

u BiShvat, the Jewish new year of the trees, barely registers on most Jewish calendars, except as an occasion to plant trees or eat fruit and nuts.

But the one-day holiday, which began on January 16, has gotten a boost these past few years as environmentalists have reimagined it as the Jewish Earth Day. This year, Tu Bishvat started early with the Big Bold Jewish Climate Fest, a five-day online event, from January 10 to 14, that has drawn hundreds of Jews to reexamine ways to make climate action a central priority of the Jewish community.

Despite the growing urgency of tackling the global climate crisis, environmental values haven’t always been at the forefront of Jewish institutional life.

Judaism doesn’t have a pope who can issue an encyclical on climate change like Pope Francis did in 2015

with his ecological manifesto, “Laudato Si’.”

But multiple Jewish organizations are beginning to consider the environment, spurred by rising global temperatures and growing climate weather disasters.

Increasingly, major Jewish organizations have signed on, including the Jewish Federations of North America, an umbrella organization representing 147 local federations.

Its Federation and Jewish Community Foundations system holds an estimated $21 billion in collective endowment and donor-advised funds—money it uses for social welfare, social services and educational needs for Jews in the US, Canada and around the world.

At a panel the other day, three local federation leaders in Baltimore, Providence and Vancouver spoke of their efforts to make their buildings environmentally sustainable.

formally instituted to the lay ministries of lector and acolyte.

In the apostolic letter Spiritus Domini, the pope modified the Code of Canon Law, which previously limited the ministries to lay men.

A lector is a person who reads Scripture—other than the Gospel, which is only proclaimed by deacons and priests—to the congregation at Mass.

After abolishing the minor orders, Pope Paul VI wrote that an acolyte was a ministry in the Church with the “duty to take care of the service of the altar, to help the deacon and the priest in liturgical actions, especially in the celebration of the Holy Mass.”

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

Due to travel restrictions related to the outbreak of the Omicron variant of Covid-19, candidates from the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Uganda will not be able to take part in the Mass, as originally planned.

Attendance in St. Peter’s Basilica will also be limited to only 2,000 people as a precaution.

The Mass will be broadcast live by EWTN at 9:30 a.m. Rome time (1:30 a.m. MDT).

Pope Francis is seen leaving a record store in Rome on January 11.

JAVIER MARTINEZ-BROCAL/ROME REPORTS TV NEWS AGENCY VIA CNA

Pope to journalist on his record store visit: ‘We must not lose our sense of humor’

A

Catholic News Agency via CBCP News

fter a journalist reported on Pope Francis’ surprise visit to a record store, the pope surprised him back—by writing him a letter.

Javier Martínez-Brocal, director of the Rome-based news agency Rome Reports, tweeted a black-and-white photo on January 11 of the pope exiting a record store near the Pantheon in Rome.

The photo went viral as people wanted to know, “What did he buy?”

The journalist also captured a video of the encounter.

But while the pope left the shop with a disc, he came for another purpose: to visit the owner, an old friend of his, and to bless the newly renovated store.

Following the incident, MartínezBrocal apologized to the pope for intruding on the moment.

“I’m sorry that the pope, who loves freedom, has to stay in his residence, because ever y move he makes is caught on camera,” Martínez-Brocal says in a Rome Reports video released on January 14.

“I wrote to him to apologize and to say that, on the other hand, a story like this, which can make people smile, is important in a time when we only hear about tragedies.”

To his surprise, the pontiff responded.

Pope Francis confirmed that he saw the photo and even thanked

The Jewish Alliance of Greater Rhode Island, for example, began 2022 by drawing 100 percent of its electricity from renewable energy at its 80,000-square-foot facility in Providence.

The Associated Jewish Federation of Baltimore has awarded nearly $900,000 in interest-free loans to synagogues and other Jewish institutions for energy-efficient HVAC upgrades, or solar roof projects.

Sarah Eisenman, chief community and Jewish life officer for the Jewish Federations of North America, said the organization will be launching a series of webinars for staff who want to ramp up environmental initiatives.

Jewish environmental groups, such as Hazon, are leading the educational efforts.

Hazon, which claims to be America’s “largest faith-based environmental organization,” developed a “Seal of Sustainability” for Jewish organizations that have undergone 12 months of training and committed to several sustainability initiatives.

Some 200 Jewish organizations have received the seal so far.

“We do see increasing commitment

and engagement and we need a lot more,” said Jakir Manela, the CEO of Hazon. “We need Jewish leaders and institutions to lean into this project as a global Jewish priority.”

Environmental concerns are also beginning to filter down into Jewish investments.

A few Jewish foundations are pushing donors to invest responsibly by supporting environmentally sound practices, such as renewable energy, electric cars or sustainable agriculture, a field known as impact investing.

Five years ago, the Jewish Community Foundation of San Diego became the first Jewish community foundation to offer its fund holders, including 35 Jewish organizations whose financial assets it manages, the opportunity to invest in companies and organizations committed to social and environmental good.

“What we’re trying to promote is that our donors be thoughtful about the social and environmental impact of their investments alongside the impact of the philanthropy they eventually do with their dollars,” said Beth Sirull, president and CEO of

the Jewish Community Foundation of San Diego, which has assets totaling $750 million, mostly in donoradvised funds.

An investor network called JLens, begun 10 years ago, encourages Jewish individuals and organizations to apply Jewish values, including caring for the Earth, to their investments.

But Sirull said there’s a long way to go. Investment managers in the Jewish community are more interested in limiting risks and maximizing profits.

“We would never have a board meeting on Shabbat or serve pork,” she said. “But when you go to a synagogue investment committee meaning, it’s all about investment, it’s not anything Jewish. It makes no sense.”

Younger Jews, however, appear to have gotten the memo.

Since the start of the pandemic lockdown, Hazon has started the Jewish Youth Climate Movement to mobilize young people to respond to climate change.

It has grown to 37 chapters across the country consisting of small clusters of middle and high-school students.

In October, the movement organized

community that evangelizes through active participation in the democratic process, “we can lead by example, reflecting Christ’s love and joining in a journey toward our desired future, where justice, righteousness, and peace will take root and God’s Shalom will flourish among us.

“As we respond to the challenges of our time, we offer ourselves in service to the poor, the marginalized, and to the toiling majority who are striving for more prosperous and peaceful futures,” they said.

The two church groups said they commit to nurturing ecological integrity, both because this is a right thing to do and because such action can lessen the probability of extreme climate events and dangerous pandemics.

“Together, we celebrate our Christian unity and affirm our deepest desire to participate in a common journey while working and praying together that will bring us to a place where all creation will sing of God’s goodness and will live in harmony and peace,” the NCCP and CBCP said in their unity statement.

Martínez-Brocal for his “noble” post, Vatican News reported.

Pope Francis revealed that he had attempted to keep his visit secret, joking that, “one cannot deny that it was a ‘terrible fate’ that, after taking all precautions, there was a journalist waiting for someone at the cab stop.”

He continued, “We must not lose our sense of humor,” and thanked the journalist “for fulfilling your vocation, even if it means giving the pope a hard time.”

On a more serious note, he added that he missed freely roaming city streets.

“What I miss most in this diocese is not being able to ‘wander the streets,’ as I did in Buenos Aires, walking from one parish to another,” he wrote.

Martínez-Brocal reacted to the pope’s letter.

“I think the Pope recognizes the importance of a journalist’s job, even if it’s sometimes uncomfortable for him or causes him problems,” he said. “But he is grateful for this service of honestly recounting events as they happen.”

The pope did not reveal the genre of music the shopkeepers gifted him with. That part of his visit, it seems, he kept a mystery.

Pope Francis is a music-enthusiast.

His music library, curated by the president of the Pontifical Council for Culture, Cardinal Gianfranco Ravasi, houses nearly 2,000 CDs and 19 vinyl records, Catholic News Service reported.

The recordings include music from the pope’s personal collection as well as music the pope has received as gifts.

Most of the library is classical, but it also includes Édith Piaf, Argentine tango tunes, and a 25-disc collection of Elvis Presley’s Gospel songs.

Catholic News Agency via CBCP News

in New York City to protest BlackRock, the largest investment management company in New York.

With signs and banners, they assembled outside the BlackRock offices to demand the firm stop investing in the fossil fuel industry.

Three rabbis and six Jewish teenagers were among those arrested at the demonstration.

Madeline Canfield, a sophomore at Brown University who serves as the organizing coordinator for the youth movement, said it’s all about empowering teens to have what she called “lovingly agitational conversations” with their elders and with Jewish community leaders tackling climate change.

“We can’t solve polarization in Congress but we can solve the way our community orients around the climate crisis,” she said.

The key, she said, is growing the movement’s capacity to reach a critical threshold for change.

“For us it’s about the vision of transforming our own community,” Canfield said. “That’s the power we do have.” Religion News Service via AP

Biodiversity Sunday BusinessMirror

Asean Champions of Biodiversity Media Category 2014

Sunday, January 23, 2022

Editor: Lyn Resurreccion

A9

Typhoons are threats to ecosystems, wildlife

By Jonathan L. Mayuga

T

yphoon Odette (international code name Rai) devastated parts of Visayas and Mindanao in December last year.

The typhoon, which nearly reached the supertyphoon category, caused severe and widespread damage, killing at least 409 people, and damage of at least P39.3 billion or $794 million.

T he Ph i l ippi ne At mos pher ic, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration said Odette falls under the “typhoon category” with its maximum sustained winds of up to 195 kilometers per hour, whi le the “super t y phoon” has a maximum sustained winds of more than 220 km/hour.”

While the impact of Odette to people and the economy can be measured by the numbers, the same could not be said about ecosystems and the all-important wildlife that are equally vulnerable to such natural calamity.

Serious threat Strong typhoons like Odette that cause widespread destruction of forests, landslides and floods are a serious threat to wildlife as they are to humans.

Forests are home to both plant and animal wildlife. Their capacity to shield the country’s already threatened wildlife depends on their capacity to withstand the devastation.

A healthy forest ecosystem or coastal and marine habitat means plant and animal wildlife are safe and sound even during the worst weather. But for those in an already damaged ecosystem, the wildlife are always in peril.

No scientific study The lack of empirical data, before or after the occurrence of such natural calamity, is due to the fact that there are no extensive studies on natural calamities’ impact on habitats and wildlife in the Philippines.

The same could also be said about its neighboring countries in Southeast Asia.

In the case of the Philippines, an official of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) said that due to limited resources, the local government units (LGUs) are tapped in monitoring the impacts of typhoons to wetlands, caves and other ecosystems.

it will probably have to be a long-term study, she said it is a good time to start now, with the support of ACB. “I think this is a good time to start it and ACB can support such an initiative,” she pointed out.

A question of resiliency “But of course, there is always an impact of these disasters on wildlife, on natural ecosystems. The question is how quickly they can recover or if they can even recover at all. This is what we call ‘resiliency,’” Lim told the BusinessMirror via Messenger on January 17.

Lim said ecosystems that are still intact or healthy have the capacity to recover faster.

On the other hand, she said wild animals can always move into thicker growth to shelter themselves from areas being battered by the storm, citing, for example, the movement from the eastern portion to the western portion of a great forest along the Eastern seaboard.

Dual positions Anson Tagtag, OIC division chief of the Caves, Wetlands and Other Ecosystems Division of the DENR’s Biodiversity Management Bureau (BMB), said when it comes to natural calamities, wetlands and caves have dual positions.

Wetlands, for instance, is seen as a buffer for natural calamities, like flooding, Tagtag told the BusinessMirror on January 18.

“Wetlands are water basins and they are repositories of floodwater. If these wetlands, like river systems, remain intact or maintained, they hold water [that help in] preventing flooding,” he said in a telephone interview.

On the other hand, Tagtag said that when wetlands are already disturbed by humans, these ecosystems’ capacity to hold water is compromised, resulting in massive flooding.

The same can be said about caves.

“The dynamics of cave systems are dependent on natural vegetation. If the vegetation on top of caves are already ruined, hence, water easily sip through the soil, eventually affecting the caves below.

Ecosystems monitoring Important ecosystems are being monitored by the DENR-BMB, but there’s no scientific study yet on the impact of a devastating typhoon, like Odette.

On the part of the Wetland Management Program of the DENR-BMB, which aims to manage and conserve the most important ecosystems, Tagtag said the first step was to identify the wetlands and conduct a physical assessment and learn the ecosystem services they provide.

“We already have a map of wetlands in the Philippines, but due to limited

Performing ecological function

The aerial view of the heavy devastation of Surigao City caused by Typhoon Odette as recorded by the Philippine Coast Guard. Wikimedia Commons resources, we prioritize what can be managed. Of course, we want to manage them all, because that’s our target.

But then, we identify priorities that we can manage,” he said.

but only around 700 are classified,” he explained.

He said the practical thing in monitoring important ecosystems is through partnership with communities.

No impact study

Conserving ecosystems ‘a must’

Wetlands are sometimes subsumed in protected areas like Naujan Lake.

Agusan Marsh Wildlife Sanctuary and all Ramsar Sites are being monitored, he said. However, there’s no extensive study on the impact of every disastrous event or natural calamity.

“I can’t remember if we have [an impact study of natural calamities]. In wetlands, we check and monitor. For caves, I mean the managed caves, monitoring is regularly done,” Tagtag added.

“When there’s a disturbance, we are able to know through monitoring through our partnership with LGUs. We have 3,000 plus caves in the Philippines

Tagtag highlighted the need to conserve wetlands, caves and other important ecosystems, saying their capacity to cushion the impact of natural calamities and protect plant and animal wildlife depends on their condition.

“If rivers are silted, naturally, their capacity is reduced. This causes flooding that may affect wildlife,” he explained.

“The best way to use natural resources is by not using them at all,” he said.

No targeted research in AHPs E x e cutiv e D i r e c t o r T h e r e s a Mundita S. Lim of the Asean Centre for Biodiversity (ACB) said even in

Ocean heat is at record levels, with major consequences

T

he world witnessed recordbreaking climate and weather disasters in 2021, from destructive flash floods that swept through mountain tow ns in Europe and inundated subway systems in China and the US, to heat waves and wildfires.

Typhoon Odette (international codename Rai) killed over 400 people in the Philippines; Hurricane Ida caused an estimated $74 billion in damage in the US. Globally, it was the sixth hottest year on record for surface temperatures, according to data released by National Aeronautics and Space Administration and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in their annual global climate report on January 13.

But under the surface, ocean temperatures set new heat records in 2021.

As climate scientist Kevin Trenberth explains, while the temperature at Earth’s surface is what people experience day to day, the temperature in the upper part of the ocean is a better indicator of how excess heat is accumulating on the planet.

The Conversation spoke with Trenberth, coauthor of a study published on January 11 by 23 researchers at 14 institutes that tracked warming in the world’s oceans.

Question: Your latest research shows ocean heat is at record highs. What does that tell us about global warming?

The world’s oceans are hotter than ever recorded, and their heat has increased each decade since the 1960s.

This relentless increase is a primary indicator of human-induced climate change.

As oceans warm, their heat supercharges weather systems, creating

more powerful storms and hurricanes, and more intense rainfall. That threatens human lives and livelihoods as well as marine life.

The oceans take up about 93 percent of the extra energy trapped by the increasing greenhouse gases from human activities, particularly burning fossil fuels.

Because water holds more heat than land does and the volumes involved are immense, the upper oceans are a primar y memor y of global warming. I explain this in more detail in my new book The Changing Flow of Energy Through the Climate System.

Our study provided the first analysis of 2021’s ocean warming, and we were able to attribute the warming to human activities. Global warming is alive and well, unfortunately.

The global mean surface temperature was the fifth or sixth warmest on record in 2021 (the record depends on the dataset used), in part, because of the year-long La Niña conditions, in which cool conditions in the tropical Pacific influence weather patterns around the world.

There is a lot more natural variability in surface air temperatures than in ocean temperatures because of El Niño/ La Niña and weather events.

That natural variability on top of a warming ocean creates hot spots, sometimes called “marine heat waves,” that vary from year to year.

Those hot spots have profound influences on marine life, from tiny plankton to fish, marine mammals and birds.

Other hot spots are responsible for more activity in the atmosphere, such as hurricanes.

While surface temperatures are both a consequence and a cause, the main source of the phenomena causing

extremes relates to ocean heat that energizes weather systems.

We found that all oceans are warming, with the largest amounts of warming in the Atlantic Ocean and in the Southern Ocean surrounding Antarctica.

That’s a concern for Antarctica’s ice—heat in the Southern Ocean can creep under Antarctica’s ice shelves, thinning them and resulting in calving off of huge icebergs.

Warming oceans are also a concern for sea level rise.

In what ways does extra ocean heat affect air temperature and moisture on land?

The global heating increases evaporation and drying on land, as well as raising temperatures, increasing risk of heat waves and wildfires.

We’ve seen the impact in 2021, especially in western North America, but also amid heat waves in Russia, Greece, Italy and Turkey.

The warmer oceans also supply atmospheric rivers of moisture to land areas, increasing the risk of flooding, like the US West Coast has been experiencing.

The year 2021 saw several destructive cyclones, including Hurricane Ida in the US and Typhoon Odette/Rai in the Philippines.

How does ocean temperature affect storms like those?

Warmer oceans prov ide extra moisture to the atmosphere. That extra moisture fuels storms, especially hurricanes.

The result can be prodigious rainfall, as the US saw from Ida, and widespread flooding as occurred in many places over the past year.

The storms may also become more intense, bigger and last longer.

Several major flooding events have

occurred in Australia this past year, and also in New Zealand.

Bigger snowfalls can also occur in winter provided temperatures remain below about freezing because warmer air holds more moisture.

If greenhouse-gas emissions slowed, would the ocean cool down?

In the oceans, warm water sits on top of cooler denser waters. However, the oceans warm from the top down, and consequently the ocean is becoming more stratified.

This inhibits mixing between layers that otherwise allows the ocean to warm to deeper levels and to take up carbon dioxide and oxygen. Hence it impacts all marine life.

We found that the top 500 meters of the ocean has clearly been warming since 1980; the 500-1,000 meter depths have been warming since about 1990; the 1,000-1,500 meter depths since 1998; and below 1,500 meters since about 2005.

The slow penetration of heat downward means that oceans will continue to warm, and sea level will continue to rise even after greenhouse gases are stabilized.

The final area to pay attention to is the need to expand scientists’ ability to monitor changes in the oceans.

One way we do this is through the Argo array—currently about 3,900 profiling f loats that send back data on temperature and salinity from the surface to about 2,000 meters in depth, measured as they rise up and then sink back down, in ocean basins around the world.

These robotic, diving and drifting instruments require constant replenishment and their observations are invaluable. Kevin Trenberth, University of

Auckland/The Conversation Creative Commons

other countries there are no targeted research studies on the impact of natural calamities in Asean Heritage Parks (AHPs), which represent the best of the best of protected areas in Southeast Asia.

However, Lim, a former DENR-BMB director, said natural calamities have always direct impact on natural ecosystems and wildlife.

Lim said there used to be a plan to conduct a study on the impact of natural calamities to a select area and the wildlife that thrive in that area.

Not enough literature The plan, she said, was conceptualized

by ACB’s Knowledge Management chief, Dr. Arvin Diesmos, who used to be with the National Museum of Natural History but there was not enough literature as basis to pursue the plan.

Nevertheless, Lim said that though

Lim said when wildlife survives the wrath of natural calamities, they continue to perform their important ecological function, helping restore forests—the home to plant and animal wildlife.

“If the pollinators and seed dispersers survive the wrath, they will continue to perform their ecological function and restore the forest in time for the next storm,” she explained.

“But as you know, the state of the ecosystems accessible to humans is no longer as pristine, and so the wildlife’s range to seek safety is already more limited than ideal,” she noted.

Aggravating this, she added, is the frequency of natural calamities, “which makes them vulnerable even more.”

“But if we are aware of the thresholds, so we keep enough high biodiversity-protected areas to retain their ecological functions, then we not only have more resilient protected areas and wildlife populations, but more resilient communities and infrastructure, as well,” she ended.

Ikea taps Mober to reach 100% e-vehicle delivery goal by 2030

By Roderick L. Abad Contributor

H

OME furnishing retailer Ikea Philippines has cemented its commitment to lessen its carbon footprint as it tied up with Filipino tech logistics company Mober to provide it with electric vehicles (e-vehicles) for its home delivery service.

T heir par tnership was announced during Mober’s recent launch of its first electric delivery van in the Philippines.

With online orders now accounting for a significant portion of Ikea’s sales, the company has embarked on a mission to achieve 100 percent evehicle delivery by 2030.

“We are working with our transport partners to support this goal.

With the first electric vehicle from Mober, for instance, we lower harmful emissions as we deliver home furnishing solutions from our store to the customers’ homes.

This is our small collaborative start to tackle climate change and clean transport,” said Ikea Philippines Manager Georg Platzer.

According to Corinna Schuler, director of sustainability and corporate communication for Ikea Southeast Asia, the company is excited to work with like-minded suppliers and transport partners, such as Mober, as it encourages authorities in all the markets where it operates to “help pave the way to low-carbon economy with positive policies and

infrastructure.”

“With Mober, we are just getting started on our journey. We are still working toward securing sustainable alternatives to the big trucks we need to deliver large furniture.

We hope to see more innovations soon,” she noted.

Ikea opened its first outlet in the Philippines on November 25, 2021. The retailer’s largest store in the world welcomed customers to its new 66,000 square meters facility in Manila.

A pioneer of same day delivery, Mober’s electric delivery fleet boasts a service coverage area of 250 kilometers and serves Metro Manila areas. It offers transparent pricing and precise tracking of goods.

Like Ikea, Mober seeks to reduce its carbon emissions. Plans are afoot to secure a mixed fleet of 100 units of electric vans and trucks by 2030.

“Our goal with our new electric van fleet is to reduce carbon emissions. We are delighted to be collaborating with retail giants like Ikea that are as committed to the reduction of carbon emissions as we are. We look forward to serving the company’s customers with the same level of professionalism and efficiency that we are known for,” said Dennis Ng, Mober CEO and Founder.

Apart from providing e-vehicle home delivery services for Ikea Philippines, Mober also offers kiosk services, back-office customer relations recovery, and furniture assembly.

Science Sunday BusinessMirror

A10 Sunday, January 23, 2022

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

Japan’s 3 genome-edited food products now in Japanese market

By Clement Dionglay

Special to the BusinessMirror

J

apan is one of the world’s biggest consumers of aquatic food products.

The Japanese people love eating fish.

A study conducted by the American College of Cardiology reveals that on average, Japanese people eat about 3 ounces of fish daily. Japan’s local cuisine is rich in fish and seafood, which are the main protein source of its people’s low-fat and high-nutrient diet.

In recent years, Japan’s aquaculture industry faced several challenges, including overcrowded farming, red tide and diseases with significant damages.

Declining prices due to overproduction and imports al so affected Japan’s fish consumption, prompting fishermen and the government to create new seafood products using advanced scientific tools, such as clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPR) gene-editing technology.

CRISPR is a tool used to edit genomes, allowing researchers and scientists to easily alter DNA sequences to modify gene function. The CRISPR system has many potential applications in agriculture, pharmaceuticals and medicine.

Japan develops, approves genome-edited fishes for commercial sale In October and November 2021, two genome-edited fishes were approved for commercial sale in Japan.

Aiming to revitalize Japanese aquaculture, Kyoto-based start-up Regional Fish Co. Ltd. started selling genome-edited “Madai” red sea bream and “22-seiki fugu” tiger puffer.

Both fishes were genome-edited to grow bigger than their conventional counterparts.

In the notification procedure submitted to Japanese ministries, Regional Fish noted that genome editing is not a genetic modification but a change that

Fugu, more popularly known as globefish or pufferfish, are luxury food in Japan. The genomeedited fugu grows faster than conventional fish and weighs 1.9 times heavier.

Photo from Regional Fish Co. Ltd.

The genome-edited red sea bream (left) compared to unedited versions. The genome-edited fish has 1.2-1.6 times more edible part than their conventional counterparts. Photo from Dr. Masato Kinoshita, Kyoto University, and Dr. Keitaro Kato, Kindai University can occur in the natural world, and its safety as a food product is comparable to that of conventional foods.

It has been confirmed that it does not adversely affect biodiversity. Earlier in September, a genome-edited tomato with increased gamma-aminobutyric acid (Gaba) content was also approved for commercial sale.

‘Madai’ red sea bream Red sea bream is a prized fish in Japan.

It is considered the “king of fish’ in the country because of its elegant appearance, color, and superior taste.

According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the production of red sea bream accounts for 10 percent of the total value of aquaculture in Japan.

It is produced using cage culture and is commonly cultivated around Kyushu Island and in the Seto Inland Sea. Regional Fish Co. Ltd. developed the genome-edited “Madai” red sea bream—together with the Kyoto University and Kinki University, the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare, and the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry

and Fisheries.

The genome-edited fish was developed using CRISPR gene editing technology to knock out a protein (myostatin) that suppresses muscle growth.

The red sea bream lacking the myostatin gene has an edible part 1.2 times to 1.6 times than the conventional fish, with an improved feed utilization efficiency by about 14 percent.

Scientific experts confirmed the safety of the fish—which is the world’s first genome-edited animal food to be launched through national procedures.

In October 2021, Regional Fish start accepting reservations for 190 meals of “Eatable Red Sea Bream” after providing information on genome editing technology and production methods in a crowdfunding campaign called “Campfire.”

‘22-seiki fugu’ tiger puffer Puffers of the genus Fugu, more popularly known as globefish or blow fish, are considered luxury food in Japan despite some species being extremely toxic.

Regional Fish Co. Ltd., together with the Kyoto University and Kindai University, developed a genome-edited

Sanatech Seed’s genome-edited tomatoes have increased GABA content believed to aid relaxation and help lower blood pressure. Photo from Sanatech Seed

tiger puffer fish using CRISPR. The popular puffer fish known as “torafugu” was edited to increase the speed of growth.

Out of the torafugu’s 400 million genes, the scientists removed four leptin receptor genes that control appetite, boosting their appetite and weight gain.

The genome-edited puffer fish grows faster and are 1.9 times heavier than the conventional puffers in the same farming period.

This will allow production and shipping in shorter periods than conventional tiger puffers which require more than two years to grow.

After the trial sales in late November 2021, the torafugu, named “22-seiki fugu” received favorable comments. One person who tasted it said the fish had a

DOST-FNRI study on VCO in Valenzuela City shows results similar to Sta. Rosa trial

2nd VCO study confirms faster patient recovery from mild to moderate Covid-19

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By Lyn Resurreccion

he Philippines’ Department of Health reported more than 32,000 new Covid-19 cases on Friday. Of the positive cases, around 98 percent are mild or moderate.

These patients could benefit from the researches of the Department of Science and Technology (DOST) on the benefits of virgin coconut oil (VCO) as an adjunct therapy against Covid-19.

The second study conducted by the DOST on VCO showed that its “direct intake” resulted in the faster resolution of mild to moderate symptoms of confirmed positive cases of Covid-19 compared to the control group.

A sequel to the Sta. Rosa, Laguna, study in 2020, the second VCO clinical trial was held at the Valenzuela Emergency Hospital in Valenzuela City. It was led by the DOST’s Food and Nutrition Research Institute (DOST-FNRI).

“For the Valenzuela VCO group, at Day 2, seven patients, or 18 percent of the 39 patients, showed decreasing Covid-19 symptoms. At day 14, all patients had total resolution of signs and symptoms,” said Science Secretary Fortunato T. de la Peña during a webinar on January 21 that disclosed the results of the Valenzuela City study.

Dubbed, “Effects of VCO among Mild and Moderate Covid-19 Cases in Selected Metro Manila Areas,” the webinar said that the Valenzela City study “again confirmed” that, like in the Santa Rosa study, VCO, “significantly lower the C-Reactive Protein or CRP, which is a biomarker for inflammation and infection.”

CRP values higher than 5 milligrams per liter indicate presence of infection or inflammation.

“In conclusion, VCO can be an effective adjunct therapy in managing COVID-19 signs and symptoms, whether mixed in nutritious meals or taken separately,” de la Peña pointed out.

“Both VCO trials by DOST-FNRI confirmed that VCO hastens resolution of Covid-19 signs and symptoms,” he added.

Valenzuela and Sta Rosa processes

De la Peña noted that in the Valenzuela City study, VCO was given

separately in “medicine cups” together with specially prepared meals.

In the Sta. Rosa study in December 2020, he explained that the VCO was mixed in nutritious meals specially prepared for suspect and probable Covid 19.

The Sta. Rosa study group, who consumed meals with VCO, exhibited faster relief from Covid-19 symptoms and quicker CRP level normalization than the control group.

The VCO given to the Valenzuela City experimental group was 0.6 milliliters per kilogram of body weight for the first three days to let the gut adjust.

It was increased to 1.2 ml/kg of body weight from day 4 to 28, which was the same dose given to the Sta. Rosa group, de la Peña explained.

He further explained that the selection criteria for study participants were similar in the Sta. Rosa study, but only patients who tested positive using RT-PCR test were included in the Valenzuela City study.

Study participants

The DOST-FNRI said that a total of 77 participants completed the study, 39 of whom belong to the VCO group and 38 patients did not receive VCO (control group).

In the Valenzuela study, only patients “with positive RT-PCR test results” were included, while in the Sta Rosa study, patients who were suffering from Covid-19 symptoms were included but the RT-PCR test to confirm Covid-19 infection was done later.

Other inclusion criteria were adults 20 years and over; admitted to the health facilities within three days before the start of data collection; controlled hypertension, and a slight elevation in SGOT and SGPT (due to antibiotics) Excluded from the studies were pregnant; was diagnosed with heart disease; taking statins and other medications for heart disease; elevated blood lipid; elevated fasting blood sugar levels; and individuals who had been vaccinated

Monitoring

The DOST-FNRI said that signs and symptoms (cough, difficulty of breathing, fever, etc.), and dietary assessment (nutrient content, weighing of food

waste, and 24-hour food recall) were monitored on a daily basis.

The following biomarkers—CRP, lipid profile, fasting blood sugar, liver enzyme SGPT and SGOT and complete blood count—were analyzed at day zero before the start of VCO intake (baseline), at day 14 (midline), and at day 28 (end line).

These were measured similarly as has been done in the Sta. Rosa study.

All of the participants were subjected to Covid-19 RT-PCR testing during these three timepoints to monitor their infection status.

resolution of signs and symptoms.

Control group Valenzuela: At Day 2, four, or 10.5 percent, of the 38 patients experienced relief of signs and symptoms of Covid 19.

At Day 26, all patients experienced total resolution of signs and symptoms.

Difference between Sta. Rosa and Valenzuela tests

VCO group Valenzuela study: The CRP normalized by Day 14 and continued to decrease until Day 28.

VCO group Sta Rosa study: The CRP normalized by Day 14 and continued to decrease until Day 28.

Control group Valenzuela: CRP normalized only at the endpoint (Day 28).

Control group Sta Rosa: CRP stayed above the cut-off point until Day 28 (5 mg/L).

The DOST-FNRI said that the main differences between the first study in Sta. Rosa and the second study in Valenzuela were: n In the Sta. Rosa study, the VCO was added to meals while in the Valenzuela study, the VCO was given in a measured cup, that ensured a more accurate measurement of VCO intake.

In the first study, the subjects did not know whether they were taking VCO, while in the second study, the subjects were aware they were taking VCO. n In the Sta. Rosa study, no supportive medicines were provided, while in the Velenzuela study, antibiotics and other medicines were provided to both groups. n The SARS-CoV-2 variants during the first and second studies can be assumed to be different. The subjects in the first study which was conducted in 2020 can be assumed to be infected with the original Wuhan virus, while those in the second study, which was conducted in 2021, may have been infected with the Delta variant.

Results

VCO group Valenzuela: At Day 2, seven of patients, or 18 percent of the 39 patients, experienced decreasing signs and symptoms of COVID-19.

On Day 14, all patients demonstrated total resolution of signs and symptoms.

VCO group Sta Rosa: At Day 2, five patients, or 17 percent of the 29 patients manifested decreasing signs and symptoms.

At Day 18, all patients had total

Control group Sta Rosa:

At Day 2, only one, or 4 percent of the 28 patients experienced decreasing signs and symptoms of Covid-19.

At day 23, all of the patients showed total resolution of signs and symptoms.

CRP levels:

Quality standards

The VCO products used in the study adhere to the quality standards, the DOST-FNRI said. They were proven compliant to the Philippine National Standards and were analyzed by the Laboratory Services Division of the Philippine Coconut Authority (PCA).

The VCO products were provided by accredited VCO producers.

“This study is one of DOST-FNRI’s collaborative responses with the medical and scientific community on research and development interventions and solutions in preventing, managing, and possibly eradicating Covid-19,” de la Peña said.

“VCO provides a safe, effective and affordable food supplement to combat COVID-19,” he added.

This development can also help boost the VCO industry and provide other livelihood options for coconut farmers, he said.

The study was in collaboration with the DOST-National Capital Region, DOST-Philippine Council for Health Research and Development, PAC, and the Ateneo de Manila University, in partnership with the local government of Valenzuela City.

“nice texture.”

After selling 290 packages of the genome-edited torafugu in the trial, Regional Fish has put as many as 2,000 packages per month up for online sales.

Genome-edited tomato to lower blood pressure, aid relaxation Earlier in September 2021, Sanatech Seed, a Japanese company founded with the goal of using the latest innovative technology to improve crops and protect tomorrow’s children and planet, announced the commercial sales of “Sicilian Rouge High Gaba,” the genomeedited tomatoes with increased gammaaminobutyric acid (Gaba).

The Sicilian Rouge High Gaba tomato was developed using CRISPR-Cas9

gene editing technology.

The genome-edited tomato contains high levels of Gaba, an amino acid believed to aid relaxation and help lower blood pressure.

According to Shimpei Takeshita, president of Sanatech Seed and Chief Innovation Officer of Pioneer EcoScience, the exclusive distributor of the genomeedited tomato, it contains four to five times more Gaba than a regular tomato.

Sanatech Seed received a parental line of the Sicilian Rouge variety from Pioneer EcoScience, and developed the F1 variety Sicilian Rouge High Gaba with enhanced Gaba content through gene editing.

Developed in collaboration with the University of Tsukuba, the genomeedited high-Gaba tomato was launched in seedling gardening kits in May 2021 and was received positively by home gardeners.

The overwhelming response and strong interest from this group prompted commercial sales in September 2021. A puree product made of the same tomato will also be available at a later date.

New products to set acceptance of future genome-edited food products In Japan, genetically modified foods must undergo safety screening. This is not the case with genome-edited products.

While gene editing is a fully-debated issue in some countries, Japan has fully embraced the technology with three new food products being sold in the Japanese market.

These approvals will also pave the way for the acceptance of future products that Japanese scientists are currently working on—including geneedited potatoes, rice and chicken.

Clement Dionglay is with International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-biotech Applications Southeast Asia Center’s Global Knowledge on Crop Biotechnology.

DOST-FPRDI finds new use for invasive ‘lapnis’ tree

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he DOST-Forest Products Research and Development Institute (DOST-FPRDI) is exploring the possibility of using lapnis bast fibers for paper conservation.

Lapnis, or paper mulberry (Broussonetia papyrifera [L.] L’Herit ex Vent), is a shrub introduced in the Philippines in 1935 as a reforestation species and a source of fiber.

Over the years, however, it has come to be known as a pest that is thriving uncontrollably and invading vast tracks of idle lands in the country.

“Our initial research showed that lapnis’s strength and long fibers make it a good substitute for imported conservation paper,” said Project Leader Cesar O. Austria.

Paper conservation is the process of restoring and preserving all kinds of important paper-based objects, such as archival documents and art works.

Made by hand or machine, paper for conservation is used to repair tears, consolidate and give support to strengthen weak and brittle paper artifacts.

Generally, these papers should be strong, insect- and tear-resistant, acidfree and translucent.

According to Austria, the country mostly imports these papers from Thailand and Japan.

“The DOST-FPRDI produced at least five different kinds of lapnis handmade papers that were evaluated by a paper conservator,” Austria said.

“Thin lapnis handmade paper is particularly good as backing material for supporting artwork on paper; as pre-coated lining papers for mending tears; and as hinges for framing art on paper, among others,” she explained.

Austria added that further studies will be done at the Institute to improve lapnis handmade paper’s color, fiber formation and distribution, and clarity, such as free from specks, dirt or foreign particles.

The DOST-FPRDI also now offers

Lapnis shrub DOST-FPRDI photo training on lapnis handmade paper production.

Funded by the DOST-Philippine Council for Agriculture, Aquatic, and Natural Resources Research and Development, the initiative is part of a recently concluded project that studied lapnis’s ability to grow new shoots after being cut down.

The project is envisioned to help curb the spread of lapnis in the country—not by killing it off, but by finding possible uses for its wood and non-wood components. Apple Jean C.

Martin-de Leon/S&T Media Services

Sports BusinessMirror

A11 | S

WORKERS sweep snow off of walkways outside the main media center at the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing. AP

unday, January 23, 2022 mirror_sports@yahoo.com.ph Editor: Jun Lomibao

Ralph Lauren unveils USA’s opening Olympic uniforms

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‘GAMES MUST GO ON...’

By Jim Litke

The Associated Press

T

HE Olympic Charter runs 112 pages and reads like something Gwyneth Paltrow would have written if she were in charge of the Games instead of Goop.

“The goal of Olympism,” the charter reads, “is to place sport at the service of the harmonious development of humankind, with a view to promoting a peaceful society concerned with the preservation of human dignity.”

OK, forget about all that highminded stuff. The International Olympic Committee (IOC) and their Chinese handlers abandoned any such appeals not long after the bid was awarded in 2015. Forget about all the human-rights abuses in the host nation since then, too. With two weeks left until opening ceremonies, the sales pitch has been pared down to “the Games must go on,” because we all need a diversion right about now.

True enough. What the hosts still won’t say is what they hope to divert your attention from.

To be sure, the Games will go on because...well, because of all the money plowed in beforehand and all the renminbi to be vacuumed up still.

They should go on, too, because of all those years of sacrifice by thousands

of athletes and officials for their shot at a moment of glory in the glistening winter sun. To deny them that chance, at this late date, serves no one’s purpose.

But if you thought last summer’s Tokyo Olympics were hollowed out, just wait.

In just the past 10 days or so, athletes were threatened by the organizing committee with “certain punishments” for saying or doing anything that would offend their Chinese hosts, which experience suggests could be...literally anything.

Several delegations urged anyone headed to Beijing to take “burner” phones instead of their personal devices because of concerns over government spying. Ticket sales to events were canceled, meaning the few spectators the organizing committee allows to attend will be there by invitation only. Even that modest attendance goal won’t be easy in a nation where more than 20 million were under some form of lockdown as China tries to quell a series of Covid-19 outbreaks.

Rushing back to Beijing for another Olympics was a bad idea from the getgo. That was in 2015, when the stink of Russia’s doping-and-corruptionaddled Sochi Games still lingered. A half-dozen potential European bidders dropped out, leaving the bid committee

with only one other choice. That was Almaty, Kazakhstan, a country every bit as authoritarian but nowhere near as rich. Deservedly, the IOC and China have been on the defensive ever since.

It was China’s bad luck to land the Winter Games in what turned out to be the time of Covid. But the hosts turned those Olympic ideals on their head any number of times since.

The regime in Beijing is enslaving Uyghur Muslims in Xinjiang province, crushing dissent in Hong Kong, threatening neighboring Taiwan, and was accused recently of “disappearing” tennis star Peng Shuai after she made a sexual assault allegation against a close ally of President Xi Jinping.

Worse, perhaps, the IOC’s involvement has resembled nothing more than the lookout on the crimesin-progress. They don’t see any abuse and sure won’t talk about it. If anything, the swells in charge and the corporate sponsors who line their pockets have stayed silent and even gone out of their way to help paper over those transgressions—with predictable results.

Six weeks ago, the Biden administration had seen and heard enough to cancel plans to send US diplomats, a move mirrored by several nations since. Not long after that, the NHL cited uncertainty caused by the pandemic to hold back all of its players

Infantino focuses on tackling workload in player talks

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ONDON—Fifa President Gianni Infantino assured players during talks Thursday that a reshaped international calendar will tackle their workload and fixture congestion concerns, while backing away from heavily pushing biennial World Cups.

The meeting in northern England was convened by the English players’ union, including Manchester United players Paul Pogba and Juan Mata, and Manchester City duo Steph Houghton and Lucy Bronze.

The Professional Footballers’ Association leadership has previously called Fifa’s desire to double the frequency of World Cups “a source for concern,” reflecting wider criticism across Europe of the plans that have stalled amid opposition.

Infantino said that while the players discussed “whether the prestige of the World Cup would be less if it’s played every two years,” that it was not a “main topic” in the talks.

“It was really for us and for them— how can we put the players in the best condition to perform the best in the best games,” Infantino said in a phone call with The Associated Press and another reporter after the meeting.

“They said...we would like to play every game, every day if we could but it’s just not possible. The player load and rest was the big one.”

A new international calendar is needed in the women’s game from 2024 and from the following year in the men’s game.

“It’s really about how we could structure the rest periods for the players for them to be able to perform better in the games,” Infantino said.

“It was less about the biennial World Cup [in the talks] and much more about the international match calendar...how to make sure that the games that are played at the club and national team level are really meaningful and the players are put in the best conditions to play the best possible tournament.

“Of course, the biennial World Cup was mentioned as well. There are different views, but we didn’t seek any

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HARLOTTE, North Carolina—Dale Earnhardt Jr. recognized early he would never be a seven-time Nascar champion like his dad.

It was unrealistic to believe he would match the late Dale Earnhardt on the track. The Intimidator was tough as nails, didn’t tolerate any nonsense and built a winning resume that made him a first ballot Hall of Famer in Nascar’s 2010 inaugural class.

Junior never hoisted the Cup. But what he did do was build a career as Nascar’s top ambassador, finding a crossover audience that stretches far beyond his father’s reach.

“Once I realized that I wasn’t going to match dad’s statistics on paper...to me, my dad was this really important part of the puzzle, and he was important because of his success but also because of the reaction to whatever he did,” Earnhardt told The Associated Press this week. “I thought, ‘Wow, that is an asset, that’s what being an asset to the

sort of opinion in terms of are you in favor, are you against. It’s more about the timings, the periods, the workload, how to play, when to play.”

Infantino was joined Arsène Wenger, the former Arsenal manager now serving as Fifa’s chief of global football development.

“When we speak about the load, the number of days, the kind of competitions that we want to

from the hockey tournament. Earlier this week, NBC said it won’t be sending announcing teams to China, citing the same safety concerns raised when the network pulled most of its broadcasters from the Tokyo Games.

The Olympics have a useful and instructive history, packed with both moments of heroism. Think of American sprint medalists John Carlos and Tommie Smith raising gloved fists at the 1968 Summer Games, or Englishman Derek Redmond blowing out a hamstring midway through a 400-meter semifinal, getting back up and struggling up the track to cross the finish line in his father’s embrace.

The first opened our eyes to injustices beyond the track, the second reminded us that striving to finish what we started can be its own reward.

Or, as the Olympic charter frames it: “Blending sport with culture and education, Olympism seeks to create a way of life based on the joy of effort, the educational value of good example, social responsibility and respect for universal fundamental ethical principles.”

There will be no shortage of glorious sports moments on the stage in Beijing. If you want them served up with a side of “social responsibility” and “respect,” you’ll probably want to find something else to watch on TV for those two weeks.

organize,” Infantino said, “of course, we need to care about the players.

We want to protect the players. And in order to know really what their concerns are, we need to talk to them directly.”

The PFA, which asked last month for the meeting with Infantino, represents players across the English men’s and women’s leagues.

“If those who play the game are to have meaningful input into decisions about its future,” PFA Chief Executive Maheta Molango said, “then this kind of dialogue is absolutely critical.” AP

EW YORK—Team USA’s opening ceremony uniforms for the Beijing Olympics include some sneaky new warming technology, along with a handy front pouch and a cinch waist on anoraks in navy and white.

The jackets unveiled Thursday by official outfitter Ralph Lauren include a smart, honeycomb-like fabric layer built in that expands or contracts in response to temperature changes—all without the use of a battery or wired technology.

The assist by a company called Skyscrape follows battery-powered cooling and heating tech the company used for some previous looks for the Tokyo Summer Olympics and the Pyeongchang Winter Games.

Bobsledder Aja Evans, a bronze medalist at Sochi and an alternate this time around, was pleased with the new gear that she modeled for media at the Polo Ralph Lauren store in Soho downtown.

“This is my favorite look,” said the three-time Olympian, who didn’t medal at the 2018 Pyeongchang Games. “It feels good and can go from indoor to outdoor.”

Female athletes will parade February 4 at the start of the games in China wearing red boots and red fleece pants with predominantly navy jackets. The men’s looks are mostly white. Both will be wearing navy knit beanies, and both get the large bonus pouch on the front of their jackets to go with roomy side pockets and graphic touches on sleeves.

Ralph Lauren went with navy for their gloves, and all athletes will be provided with masks to help guard against Covid-19. Team USA’s paralympians will receive the same gear. The uniforms were made in the US. The team’s closing ceremony looks in a buffalo plaid design were unveiled in October.

Evans, who competes in two-person bobsled, wasn’t

particularly nervous about soon heading to China while the Omicron variant still poses challenges. The host country has severely restricted spectators and taken other precautions.

“We test every other day within the sport of bobsled and when we get to Beijing, we’ll be testing every single day,” she said.

The 33-year-old Evans said she’ll miss the camaraderie of Olympic Village life, exchanging Olympic pins, meeting fellow athletes from all over the world and attending events in other sports.

“This Olympic Village life will be a lot different than my previous Olympic Games. I know that, you know, with the Covid restrictions, there won’t be as much interacting and mingling or even going to other events. That’s going to be a bit disappointing and unfortunate. But the fact that the Olympic Games are going on is a blessing,” she said.

Evans, from the south side of Chicago, grew up in track and field with Olympic hopes.

At the urging of a college coach, she switched to bobsled after graduation. Though she lives in Atlanta, she returns to Chicago often to encourage other kids like her to reach for their dreams.

Vonetta Flowers is another reason Evans turned to bobsled. At the 2002 Winter Olympics, Flowers and driver Jill Bakken won the gold medal in the two-woman event.

Flowers became the first African American woman to win a gold medal in the Winter Olympics.

“My journey through sports has shown me that my purpose is to help continue to inspire young women and children,” said Evans, who is one of many African American athletes now in the sport. “I go back home and talk to the kids where I sat in those same seats in the Chicago public school system, and to see someone like myself who looks exactly like them have an Olympic medal in a Winter Olympic sport just shows you that it’s possible.” AP

BOBSLEDDER Aja Evans models the Team USA Beijing Winter Olympics opening ceremony uniforms designed by Ralph Lauren. AP

Earnhardt Jr. matches father as Nascar Hall of Famer sport is and this guy is valuable.’ I wanted to have that same value.”

Earnhardt will join his father in the Nascar Hall of Fame on

Friday night when he is inducted alongside Red Farmer and Mike Stefanik. The hall welcomed five members each of its first 11 years,

DALE EARNHARDT (left) hugs Dale Earnhardt Jr. in Victory Lane in February 2000 after the elder Earnhardt wins the International Race of Champions round at the Daytona International Speedway in Daytona Beach, Florida. AP

then tweaked the rules to cut the inductees down to three for the 2021 class.

Earnhardt is the headliner of this first three-member class, whose induction was postponed a full year by the pandemic. He is being celebrated for his performance accomplishments—26 career Cup Series victories that include a pair of Daytona 500 wins, and two championships in Nascar’s second-tier series—but also for the enormous role he’s taken on since his father was killed 21 years ago on the final lap of the Daytona 500.

Earnhardt was a rising star at the start of his second Cup season when his father died. His dad had built a powerhouse race team at Dale Earnhardt Inc. and persuaded Budweiser to sponsor his kid; the brewer went all-in on introducing Junior to a mainstream audience.

The elder Earnhardt was a superstar, but his fan base was filled with the blue-collar folks who drove Chevrolets and wore Wranglers, just

like their favorite driver.

Earnhardt Jr. was profiled in Rolling Stone magazine and showed off the nightclub in his home on MTV’s “Cribs.” His crossover appeal landed him appearances in various music videos for artists ranging from Trace Adkins to Nickelback to Jay-Z. A lot of it seemed silly to his old man, but when Earnhardt was killed his legacy immediately fell to a 25-year-old adjusting to his insane popularity. He admittedly suffers from severe anxiety, but Earnhardt navigated the heightened spotlight with brutal honesty and raw emotion.

The third-generation racer became a 15-time winner of Nascar’s fanvoted most popular driver award, and over the last two decades has built an empire centered around the sport his family holds in such high regard.

Earnhardt has a successful media company and both his television special series “Lost Speedways” and “The Dale Jr. Download” podcast are fan favorites. AP

AMID A HARVEST OF AWARDS, YOUR SUPPORT COUNTS MOST

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HE pandemic tested the media industry, forcing newsrooms around the world to overhaul the way they do their job while following strict health protocols in order to survive a deadly infection.

The BusinessMirror, the country’s premier national business daily, was tested like everyone else, and survived, even continuing to live up to its promise to provide a broader look at today’s business.

In November 2021, the business broadsheet was recognized as the “Business News Source of the Year” for 2020 by the Economic Journalists Association of the Philippines (Ejap), the country’s premier organization of business reporters, editors and wire agencies. It was a 4-peat for BM, having gotten the same honors for the years 2017, 2018 and 2019.

And, as in the past Ejap awards, it also swept half of the individual categories, with its seasoned reporters adjudged as best in their respective coverages.

Earlier in 2021, the BusinessMirror was given the Pro Patria Award by the Rotary Club of Manila, for “its commitment of valuable resources for the protection of free expression and its resilience in disseminating fair and truthful information resulting in an informed and enlightened citizenry.”

It was just the latest recognition from the prestigious Rotary Club, which named it “Business Newspaper of the Year” for 2018-2019, and again in 2020. In all, it has received six top

Rotary journalism awards in its short 16-year existence.

The BusinessMirror has also consistently reaped top awards in the Brightleaf Journalism Awards for Agriculture and the Philippine Agricultural Journalists-San Miguel Corp. (PAJ-SMC) Binhi Awards, also for the best in agriculture journalism.

The BusinessMirror was also repeatedly adjudged the leading daily in biotechnology journalism, a recognition bestowed by the Jose G. Burgos Jr. Biotechnology Journalism Awards.

The “broader look” mantra also drew recognition from the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) which named the BusinessMirror, at its first awards rites in 2018, as the inaugural “Data Champion.”

In the first “Bantog Science for the People” awards for media from the Department of Science and Technology, the BusinessMirror got the top award for the Institution category for Print; and the grand prize in the individual category for science journalist Stephanie Tumampos.

In 2018, Environment Reporter Jonathan Mayuga received the Luntiang Aligato award from the Climate Reality Project, a nonprofit organization founded by Nobel Laureate and former US Vice President Al Gore.

The Broader Look at biodiversity was also recognized. It was named among the Asean Champions of

Biodiversity, for the Media Category, by the Asean Centre for Biodiversity.

The Broader Look also extended to the paper’s corporate social responsibility. It organized and staged the first-ever recognition rites for the best of the Philippines’s friends in the world, with the “MISSION PHILIPPINES: The BusinessMirror Envoys & Expats Awards.” The initiative won a Gold Anvil in 2019.

Distinguished institutions in government have also repeatedly recognized the BusinessMirror’s role in spreading the word about the work they do—information that shines a light on good governance and committed public service to uplift people’s hopes. Most notably, these are the Social Security System and Pag-IBIG Fund.

Sixteen years, two of them in a pandemic, have tested the promise of a Broader Look. But they are also a measure of the unstinting support of friends—advertisers and news sources alike—and readers who continue to believe in that promise.

THANK YOU, EVERYONE. YOUR LOVE AND SUPPORT IS OUR MOST IMPORTANT TROPHY.

BusinessMirror A broader look at today’s business

BusinessMirror

January 23, 2022

Microsoft’s Activision buy could shake up gaming

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BusinessMirror JANUARY 23, 2022 | soundstrip.businessmirror@gmail.com

your Musi

SEEING LIFE THROUGH MUSIC

Dru Chen on his own personal snapshots

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By Edwin P. Sallan

orn in Melbourne, Australia but spent his formative years in Singapore, Dru Chen is a singersongwriter and multi-instrumentalist who specializes in his own unique fusion of pop, funk and soul.

Dru Chen

Publisher

: T. Anthony C. Cabangon

Editor-In-Chief

: Lourdes M. Fernandez

Concept

: Aldwin M. Tolosa

Y2Z Editor

: Jt Nisay

SoundStrip Editor

: Edwin P. Sallan

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

Columnists

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

Photographers

: Bernard P. Testa Nonie Reyes

Y2Z & Soundstrip are published and distributed free every Sunday by the Philippine Business Daily Mirror Publishing Inc. as a project of the

The Philippine Business Mirror Publishing, Inc., with offices on the 3rd Floor of Dominga Building III 2113 Chino Roces Avenue corner Dela Rosa Street, Makati City, Philippines.

Tel. Nos. (Editorial) 817-9467; 813-0725.

Fax line: 813-7025 Advertising Sales: 893-2019;

817-1351,817-2807.

Circulation: 893-1662; 814-0134 to 36. www.businessmirror.com.ph

To date, Dru has released two full-length albums, his 2019 debut Mirror Work and his latest, Slow Life and a 2021 EP, Our Story in addition to several singles including the huge hits, “Who We R” and “Summertime.” Currently, he has over 87,000 monthly listeners on Spotify alone.

In a recent exclusive interview with SoundStrip, Dru talks about how his musical roots, his creative process that influenced the direction of his first two albums and the thrill of collaborating with likeminded artists. Excerpts:

How and when did you decide to pursue your passion for music? Who were your early influences?

I have a deep relationship with music - something I stumbled upon when I was about 4 or 5 years old.

At first, it was classical piano, and hearing my mum harmonizing along with her folk singersongwriters from the 60s and 70s like Simon and Garfunkel, and James Taylor. Dad liked to listen to Classic Rock, and Motown. These filtered through to my young ears.

How would you in your own words describe your music?

Lyric-wise, what do you usually write about and are they based on your personal experiences?

I see life through music, and I write songs as a by-product of living. Songs are snapshots of how I feel at a particular point in my life. To commemorate them in a song serves a similar purpose to taking photographs.

It is through these experiences, and my innate love for groove, emotional chord progressions, lushly layered productions, and the history of musicology itself, that

propels me to write the bulk of my discography.

Your debut album ‘Mirror Work’ is described as an ode to 70s music. What is it about music from that era that resonated with you and lingered in your consciousness?

‘Mirror Work’ was anti-digital. My distaste for the fast pace of digital life and the instant gratification of social media urged me to go in the opposite direction. To create music the 1970s way is to avoid computers, metronomes, and sequencers. We recorded ‘live’ as an ensemble rather than layering instruments one at a time. My vocals were left un-tuned, untamed, and au naturel. We did our mixdown to analog tape. The 1970’s is my favorite era in music. I like the way it sounds on analog tape, as well as the freedom, and sparsity of the arrangements. “Mirror Work” reflects the space and natural ambience in the recordings.

How is your new album ‘Slow Life’ different from the previous one? What was your inspiration in writing it and how do you want people to perceive it and you as an artist?

In “Slow Life”, I took it as a challenge to do everything the opposite way to ‘Mirror Work’.

This meant embracing everything digitally, to work towards achieving a full-sounding, exciting, and decidedly modern mixing aesthetic.

For this new album, I wanted to look at life very intentionally - to take stock of the meaningful and important things. This meant friends, family, personal time, artistic expression, and doing the things worth doing. It also meant

putting a priority and a spotlight on mental health. The concept of ‘Slow Life’ is to live life deliberately, and consciously - that is to say, to seize the day, and to not let distractions, reactions, and negative energy influence how you choose to spend your precious time on this planet.

What’s it like to collaborate with prolific singersongwriter Gentle Bones? Do you have plans of doing more collaborations, either with Gentle Bones or other artists?

Gentle Bones has had a big impact on me as an artist, and also on the ‘Slow Life’ album in general.

He played a major role in shaping the sound and A&R direction of the project, and he’s one of the most brilliant top-liners I’ve ever met in this industry. His melody writing is untouchable! Collaborations are a crucial and exciting way to push oneself in the music-making process, and the element of creative risk-taking is very rewarding indeed. I love the spirit of working with other people, and passing the baton back and forth.

How did you spend most of this pandemic? And do you already post-pandemic plans?

I split my time as a music writerproducer, and as an educator. It’s an incredibly rewarding way to influence the future generations of creative talent. I spent a lot of pandemic time working on my health and fitness, packing on muscle, and attempting to get stronger. This was a good challenge for me, and I relished the opportunity to revisit my favorite childhood sport - basketball. Now that things are slowly moving towards a semblance of normality, we can play in small teams, and feel that camaraderie again!

ic

soundstrip.businessmirror@gmail.com | JANUARY 23, 2022

business

SoundSampler

by Tony M. Maghirang

Soundtracks, throwbacks and the latest tracks

KIYO Haranasa

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n his first full-length album, Filipino underground hiphop sensation Kiyo delivers a spectrum of sounds, from lo-fi rap to trap, experimental hiphop to tropical jazz, ambient electronica to bedroom pop.

Even better, he expresses love through the prism of colorful lyrics that go beyond the clichés of the moon-in-June and Till death do us part variety. That is, urban flow is all over this freshman effort.

In the dub-splashed “Hey,” featured rapper Shortone describes the object of love: “Tila chicken neck ng tinola na yung sabaw nakakagaling sa akin.” The elegant pop behind “Ikaw Lang” offers why she’s the one—“Bukod sa aking nanay, ikaw lang ang tumawag sa akin ng guwapo,” Self-esteem aka love thyself is a key motto underscoring “G.” The diverse shuffle of music and words makes “Haranasa” a memorable debut from an important artist.

NONENTITIES Autonimbus

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illed as a punk band in some online music platforms, five-man Pinoy band Nonentities actually recharge classic hard rock tropes with

punkish punch and energy.

They match the musical fury with passionate lyrics that swing from the personal to the political.

“Witness The Shedding” opens blazing and furious. As the stampeding music rages, the frontman rants, “Rights denied/They want us deaf and blind and numb and mute/To perpetuate the abuse.” Shoegaze scrapes the metal attack of “Joy Unknowable” and the mainman comes through with this Sisyphean despair: All I want is to stand firm in spite of it all/But how could I when there’s no solid ground to stand on.” Nonentities may occupy a mongrel territory in heavy metal but they flex a serious muscle to stand above the thriving competition.

bring on the snappy rock and roll of “Farewell OK,” the Beatlesque pop-rock of “Penelope Halfpenny,” and the country lament of “Turn Red to Blue.” In the quietly plaintive “Magnificent Hurt,” Costello sings, “But the pain that I felt, let me know I’m alive/And I opened my heart to the way you make me feel.” Yessir, this year’s model, 32nd in his discography, proves Elvis Costello’s aim continues to be true.

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urated by the documentary’s director Todd Hanes himself, this OST features songs from the landmark first album of the Velvet Underground plus rarities and artists who influenced the seminal band further acclaimed to have influenced by now, a gazillion other rock groups to get started. VU favorites like “Venus in Furs,” “Pale Blue Eyes,” and “All Tomorrow’s Parties” are here as well as Bo Didley’s “Roadrunner,” The Diablos’ doowop classic, “The Wind” and Nico’s “Chelsea Girl.”

VARIOUS ARTISTS Netflix Cowboy Bebop Soundtrack

I’ll Be Your Mirror A Tribute To The Velvet Underground And Nico

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ELVIS COSTELLO AND THE IMPOSTERS The Boy Named If

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here’s passion in the music, acidic wit in the messages and eclectic styling in his voice. The easy bet is that the now 67-year old Elvis Costello is recapturing the essences of his younger brash self. It’s perhaps his way of discovering the elixir of eternal youth and the fact remains that Costello’s latest album comes out after decades of dalliances with country, jazz and pop.

So surprise, surprise. Elvis Costello, with the help of close associates including foremost mates keyboardist Steve Nieve and drummer Pete Thomsas, is still a bracing proposition in this day and age. Despite recording the tracks remotely, Elvis and crew manage to

n accompanying music compilation to the Cowboy Bebop TV show, it’s actually a sampler from the Japanese anime of the same title. It is said that original composer Yoko Kanno used only 10 percent of the music from the anime series for the Netflix version and in the hands of jazz band Seatbelts playing in top form, those mere ten percent just about captures Ms. Kanno’s groundbreaking vision.

Outstanding tracks include the James Bond-ish swagger of “Tank,’ the nostalgic melancholy of “Rain” and veiled menace behind “The Real Folk Blues.”

The Velvet Underground Music From The Motion Picture Soundtrack

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host of contemporary musicians pays tribute to one of the greatest bands of all time whose debut release sold only 30,000 copies in five years.

In a press release, primary curator Hal Willner was quoted to have said he wanted to present “the love and care he felt for his late friend Lou Reed to be evident on every note on the tribute album.” REM’s Michael Stipe does an idiosyncratic revision of the otherwise playful “Monday Morning,” Andrew Bird and Lucius’ “Venus in Furs” is an abstract electroacoustic experience while “Heroin” covered by Sonic Youth’s Thurston Moore with Primal Scream’s Bobbie Gillespie explores the potential going from a whisper to a scream to a mighty roar to fade out.

Most albums reviewed can be listened to on most digital platforms, especially bandcamp.

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Microsoft’s Activision buy could shake up gaming

By Matt O’Brien and Tali Arbel The Associated Press

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icrosoft stunned the gaming industry when it announced last week it would buy game publisher Activision Blizzard for $68.7 billion, a deal that would immediately make it a larger videogame company than Nintendo.

Microsoft, maker of the Xbox gaming system, said the deal would be good for gamers and advance its ambitions for the metaverse—a vision for creating immersive virtual worlds for both work and play.

But what does the deal really mean for the millions of people who play video games, either on consoles or their phones?

And will it actually happen at a time of increased government scrutiny over giant mergers in the US and elsewhere?

So, is it good for gamers?

“For the average person who is playing Candy Crush or anything else, there will probably be no changes at all,” said RBC analyst Rishi Jaluria.

But Jaluria and industry watchers think it could be good news for game development more broadly, especially if Microsoft’s games-for-everybody mission and mountain of cash can rescue Activision from its reputation for abandoning favorite game franchises while focusing on a few choice properties.

Microsoft stunned the gaming industry when it announced on January 18, 2022 it would buy game publisher Activision Blizzard for $68.7 billion, a deal that would immediately make it a larger video-game company than Nintendo. AP “Microsoft wants to increase the variety of intellectual property,” said Forrester analyst Will McKeon-White. “Their target is anyone and everybody who plays video games and they want to bring that to a wider audience.”

He said the “most egregious” example of a popular franchise that Activision, founded in 1979, left by the wayside is Starcraft, last updated in 2015. Others include Guitar Hero, the Tony Hawk skateboarding games and MechWarrior, which McKeon-White said “basically wasn’t touched for two decades.”

On the other hand, the prospect of a console-maker like Microsoft controlling so much game content raised concerns about whether the company could restrict Activision games from competitors.

Microsoft expects to bring as many Activision games as it can to its subscription service Game Pass, “with some presumably becoming Microsoft exclusives,” wrote Wedbush analyst Michael Pachter. However, he noted antitrust regulators may not allow Microsoft to keep games off Sony’s competing game console, the PlayStation.

Pachter said that Activision presents a model for Microsoft for how to evolve its

classic console franchises. It has adapted Call of Duty into successful mobile and free games, and he expects the company to help Microsoft do the same with Xbox-owned Halo and other games.

Is this really about the metaverse?

Microsoft says so. And there are some ways Activision could help the tech giant compete with rivals like Meta, which renamed itself from Facebook last year to signal its new focus on leading its billions of social-media users into the metaverse.

Metaverse enthusiasts describe the concept as a new and more immersive version of the Internet, but to work it will require a lot of people to actually want to spend more time in virtual worlds. Microsoft’s metaverse ambitions have so far been focused on work tools such as its Teams video chat service, but online multiplayer games such as Call of Duty and World of Warcraft have huge followings devoted to interacting with each other virtually for fun.

“That’s where Activision really helps,” said RBC’s Jaluria. “Millions of people play Call of Duty online. The community element helps drive adoption.”

Will it actually happen?

That’s a big unknown. Regulators and rivals could turn up the pressure to block the deal.

Other tech giants such as Meta, Google, Amazon and Apple have all attracted increasing attention from antitrust regulators in the US and Europe. But the Activision deal is so big—potentially the priciestever tech acquisition—that Microsoft will also be putting itself into the regulatory spotlight.

Microsoft is already facing delays in its planned $16-billion acquisition of Massachusetts speech recognition company Nuance because of an investigation by British antitrust regulators.

Asked about the deal at a White House briefing Tuesday, press secretary Jen Psaki had no comment but emphasized the Biden administration’s recent moves to strengthen enforcement against illegal and anticompetitive mergers.

If the deal fails, Microsoft will owe Activision a “break-up fee” of up to $3 billion.

That prospect should motivate Microsoft to make concessions to antitrust regulators to get it done, said John Freeman, vice president at CFRA Research.

PlayStation users worry what the Microsoft deal means for them

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icrosoft Corp. plans to buy Activision Blizzard Inc. for $68.7 billion, purchasing the game publisher responsible for franchises like Call of Duty and World of Warcraft that has been plagued by claims of sexual misconduct and discrimination.

In its largest purchase ever, Microsoft will pay $95 a share in cash to add Activision’s popular titles and expand its own offerings for the Xbox console while pushing it into the markets for mobile gaming and the metaverse. The deal would make Microsoft the world’s No. 3 gaming company.

At Activision, CEO Bobby Kotick, 58,

will continue to serve in his role until the deal closes, a person familiar with the deal said. Then the Activision Blizzard business will report to Phil Spencer, who, as part of the deal was promoted to CEO of Microsoft Gaming.

So far, little is known for how this deal might impact how people can access Activision’s title’s long-term, particularly for people who use other consoles. Here’s how people in the gaming world are reacting.

Many were surprised by the announcement.

Waking up to find out Activision-Blizzard got bought by Mircosoft wasn’t what I ex-

4 BusinessMirror

pected, wow. Apparently Bobby Kotick might be leaving after the acquisition too I REALLY hope this is a good thing.

— Zack (@Asmongold), January 18, 2022 Some speculated what the combination could spur Sony and other game-publishers and console-makers to do and what the future was for libraries like Microsoft’s Xbox Game Pass.

If this goes through, what does PlayStation’s E3/Summer State of Play 2023 look like? Can Sony really make equal acquisitions when Microsoft’s means a back catalogue on game pass? How crucial is a ‘game pass’ equivalent now & what does it need January 23, 2022

to offer to really compete?

—Peter Harris (@PeteyHarris), January 18, 2022 Others worried that the deal would limit their access to titles and franchises.

Rough morning for Playstation owners...

—Oxygen Esports (@OXG_Esports), January 18, 2022 Many asked what the deal means for Call of Duty, an Activision game that’s currently available on Sony’s PlayStation.

What does this mean for Call of Duty on Playstation?

—Kgothatso Madisa (@kgmadisa), January 18, 2022. Bloomberg