BusinessMirror January 29, 2023

DEFENDERS OF THE SKY

By Rex Anthony Naval

PHL launches SPYDER missile defense system program in defense of airspace sovereignty

SPYDER is a contraction for surface-to-air python and derby for medium-range mobile air defense systems developed by Rafael Advanced Defense System with assistance from Israel Aerospace Industries.

Exact capabilities of the system were not made public for security reasons.

These GBADS, also known as the SPYDER Philippine Air Defense System (SPADS), were acquired as part of the efforts to create a secondary defense cover after the PAF’s manned fighter aircraft.

These missile batteries will also be the primary weapon of the PAF’s 960th Air and Missile Defense Group. It is described as “low-level, quick-reaction surfaceto-air missile system capable of engaging aircraft, helicopters, unmanned aerial drones, and precision-guided munitions.”

It is tasked to protect vital and critical government installations from aerial attacks and surveillance threats.

A side from these, these missile batteries are also “intended to secure the nation’s centers of gravity, critical government utilities, and other essential facilities and assets of national importance.”

Center of gravity may either refer to a country’s densely populated areas or key political and business infrastructures.

The PAF formally took possession of its first two SPADS batteries during turnover and commissioning ceremonies witnessed by President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. at Basa Air Base in Floridablanca, Pampanga, last November 8.

This is a day that is a momentous event for all of us, especially

“ THIS is a day that is a momentous event for all of us, especially of course the PAF, as our reason for gathering is a significant stride to our ability to shield our territories from aerial threats of different kinds, whether from inside or outside the country.”—President Marcos

of course the PAF, as our reason for gathering is a significant stride to our ability to shield our territories from aerial threats of different kinds, whether from inside or outside the country,” the Chief Executive said at the occasion.

According to Marcos, modernizing the Armed Forces of the Philippines is vital to make it “ready for all eventualities.”

“It is for this reason that we strengthen our country’s capabilities in territorial defense, counterterrorism and internal security. In keeping our defense systems updated with the latest technology, we fortify our capabilities to provide humanitarian assistance to respond immediately in times of calamities and disasters,” he added.

“With terrorism and external security threats brought by geopolitical tensions looming around us, around the Asia-Pacific region, and around the world, it is imperative that we continue to equip and em-

power ourselves in whatever capacity we are able to,” Marcos stressed.

PAF spokesperson Col. Ma. Consuelo Castillo earlier said that the first two batteries were delivered on September 24 and 29, respectively.

The third SPAD battery is expected to be delivered by May 2024.

A typical PAF GBADS battery consists of a command-andcontrol unit, three main firing units equipped with four missile launchers, along with two support vehicles for field service and

munitions resupply.

The Philippines is one of two countries in the Southeast Asian region operating this advanced missile system, aside from Singapore. GBADS or SPADS is a Horizon 2 AFP Modernization Program acquisition project.

The Department of National Defense (DND) signed the contract for acquisition on September 23, 2019, with the Israel Ministry of Defense and the manufacturer, Rafael Advanced Defense System.

Contract price for this weapon system is P6,846,750,000 and includes an “integrated logistics package, simulator, missile repair facility and air-and-missile defense training for personnel.”

Prior to the arrival of the first two GBADS batteries in September, the PAF on April 26 formally accepted and activated its first missile simulator facility. Formally called the SPADS Simulator-Training Center, the facility is located in Basa Air Base, and allows the PAF to train on various surface-to-air missile engagement techniques.

It also has the distinction of being the AFP’s first missile training center and will serve as a training ground for future missile operators, honing them in the skills needed for air-and-missile defense operations.

The simulator training center aims to develop three different capabilities—detection through radar, command and control, and missile firing. It is also custom-made for the men and women of PAF to utilize in their training on advanced air defense techniques.

‘Layered defense’ capability

ACCORDING to Castillo, having the GBADS in the PAF inventory gives them “layered defense”

against intruding, hostile aircraft and other aerial threats. This means that the PAF can use other assets in neutralizing threats that should manage to penetrate its defenses. The PAF spokesperson earlier said SPADS is expected to complement the Air Force’s Integrated Air Defense System. “ With a dependable GBADS, we can ensure that in situations when enemy aerial assets have infiltrated the national territory, a layer of defense is still available to directly protect vital assets on the ground for continuous defense operations,” she explained.

Castillo noted that the GBADS batteries in service are the first modern surface-to-air missile defense system of the AFP. Formerly, the Philippine military had to content itself with antiquated World War II anti-aircraft guns stripped from equally old ships for their defense against intruding aircraft.

And, with the advent of highspeed and very maneuverable jet fighters and bombers, trying to hit a target with these antiquated guns and sights is a hard task.

Fighter cover boost GBADS is described as the PAF’s

FOR the first time in its 76-year history, the Philippine Air Force (PAF) can now field its South Korean-made FA-50PH light jet fighters and its newly acquired ground-based air defense systems (GBADS) that consist of the Israeli-made SPYDER missile batteries in neutralizing any potential aerial threats that may intrude in the country’s airspace.

A TYPICAL PAF GBAD battery featuring its anti-air missile and trucks along with its logistics, firing units and surveillance systems. PHOTOS COURTESY OF PAF

Church helps mining community evolve in dark, warming Arctic

By Giovanna Dell’Orto The Associated Press

A century after it was founded to minister to the coal miners who settled to Longyearbyen, the Lutheran house of faith is open 24/7, serving as a beacon for the community navigating a drastic change in its identity.

The last Norwegian coal mine in Svalbard—an archipelago that’s one of the world’s fastest warming spots—was slated to close this year and only got a reprieve until 2025 because of the energy crisis driven by the war in Ukraine.

The mission

FOR the lone pastor, the challenge is to fulfill the church’s historical mission of ministering to those in crisis, while addressing a pressing, divisive contemporary challenge.

We pray every Sunday for everyone who’s affected by climate change,” the Rev. Siv Limstrand said.

Svalbard Kirke beckons to its fireplace-warmed lounge that opens into the sanctuary. A cup of coffee or hymnbooks in multiple languages are always available.

You don’t have to be very religious. They have room for everybody,” said Leonard Snoeks, whose

daughter sings in Polargospel, the church’s children’s choir, and whose wife is working on the city’s energy plan.

The switch this year from coalfired to diesel-powered energy production at the plant—which prompted the mine’s decision to shut down—is expected to halve carbon dioxide emissions, said Torbjørn Grøtte, Longyearbyen’s energy transition project leader. An anchor and a beacon AS change swirls faster than the snowdrifts outside, the church’s anchoring role seems poised to remain the only constant.

It attracts miners who have attended funerals for colleagues who died on the job over the decades, as well as newly arrived scientists and tourism workers seeking to integrate in the increasingly diverse community where people now tend to stay only a couple of years.

Store Norske, the Norwegian company still operating the remaining mine, built the first church in 1921 in Longyearbyen, which for most of the 20th cen

tury was inhabited by single min

ers and the mining executives’ families.

Trond Johansen was 17 when he arrived in 1971 on a plane chartered by the mining company. Sipping black coffee on a mid-January morning in the town’s sleek café, the retired miner recalled when the main entertainment was at the church.

Johansen and fellow miners gathered on Wednesdays to watch four-week-old videocassettes of news broadcasts from the mainland—though they skipped the weather forecast, Johansen added with a chuckle.

It was a fantastic place to grow up, more free probably than many places, and you had the wild and the excitement with polar bears lurking around,” said Bent Jakobsen, who was born on Svalbard and works at the coal mine like his father and brothers before him.

On the verge?

BUT today he jokes the mine’s closing will turn him into an endangered species just like the iconic Arctic predator. “I can be stuffed and put in the museum, me and the polar bear,” Jakobsen said.

Svalbard’s natural environment has been changing fast, too. There’s no more ice on Isfjorden, which translates as “ice fjord” and whose feet-thick ice cover used to be traversed by polar bears in winter until a dozen years ago.

“Everything except the darkness has changed,” said Kim Holmén, special advisor to the Norwegian Polar Institute.

Swept by the Gulf Stream ocean current, and with growing open water that accelerates the warming, Svalbard is heating up even faster

than the rest of the Arctic.

Unusual winter rains unsettle the snowpack, leading to more avalanches, including a deadly one around Christmas in 2015 that killed two people in Longyearbyen.

One of them was a friend of Svalbard Kirke’s then-pastor, the Rev. Leif Magne Helgesen, who had already been working on raising awareness of the changes he was observing on the island.

“As a pastor on Svalbard, you’re the northernmost religious leader in the world. That gives you a pulpit,” Helgesen said.

Church’s church

HE started including prayers about climate in worship services. He also worked with the church’s then music director, Espen Rotevatn, to create a climate change Mass—including a rite of penance for piano with deep, haunting notes and upbeat, Blues-inspired passages.

From a Christian perspective, some might argue that God can fix everything—but Rotevatn shares a different view he believes is more common in the Norwegian church.

“ We have a responsibility for the earth that is given to us, to [not] destroy it, which is what we may be doing now,” Rotevatn said.

In the winter months when the sun never rises here, keeping a light burning becomes more than a metaphor for Svalbard Kirke.

“Physical openness and accessibility to me not only symbolizes, but it is also…an ideal for what a church should be,” said Limstrand, who became pastor here in 2019.

A mong a couple dozen congregants at a mid-January Sunday afternoon Mass was a Hindu family—two scientists from India and their 18-month-old daughter, whom they named Svalbie after the archipelago.

“God is God, it doesn’t matter which religion. We feel good, peaceful and calm, similar to how we feel when we go to temple,” said Neelu Singh.

W hat Limstrand calls “spiritual hospitality” also extends outwards from the red-slatted church.

Before the pandemic, she hosted regular visits by Catholic and Orthodox priests to minister to their congregations—including Poles at remote research stations and Russians and Ukrainians in the mining town of Barentsburg.

The pastor herself travels to celebrate services beyond the church—including going to baptize two children at Green Dog, a dogsledding outfit half a dozen miles from Longyearbyen in a broad valley.

Their mother, Karina Bernlow, arrived in Svalbard a decade ago and has already seen Longyearbyen transform from a community where mining families lived for generations and extended a warm welcome to outsiders, to a mix of short-term workers who hardly ever meet outside their jobs. A place without history, that’s what it’s turning into. I can see how it’s disappearing,” she said. “The church is a bridge-builder.”

Th at is exactly the kind of church Limstrand wants to foster to serve this changing community.

Here, people feel at home when they come to worship by the rose-filled altar, because they have already attended a concert or the Tuesday night coffee hour.

It’s not the pastor’s church, it’s not the Church’s church, it’s not the church council’s church, but it’s our church,” Limstrand said.

Defenders of the sky

Continued from A1

secondary air defense cover, with primary air defense cover being provided by the Mach 1.5-capable FA50PH jet fighter fleet. Th e PAF’s fighter cover is expected to be further bolstered once the PAF’s multirole fighter (MRF) project is formally signed and completed. The Swedish JAS39 Gripen is one of the two jet fighters eyed by the PAF to fulfill

its MRF requirement. Read also: “The Ultimate Gripen Choice: Is PAF’s elusive quest for the MRF combat jetplane about to end with the Saab JAS-39?” on BusinessMirror’s weekend cover, January 21, 2023.

Another contender in the PAF’s MRF acquisition program is the Lockheed Martin F-16V Viper jet fighter. The requirements for the MRF project stipulate that the offered aircraft must be “fourth generation or higher.”

The project also requires 12 MRFs at least capable of patrolling the country’s protected waters and airspace. The MRF project is supposed to be part of Horizon 2 of the AFP Modernization Program slated for 2018 to 2022, which aims to acquire more equipment for external defense.

Any aircraft that will be selected must be able to integrate with existing radar systems that have a range of about 250 nautical miles.

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LONGYEARBYEN, Norway—The warm glow of Svalbard Kirke’s lights gleams on the mountain slope from where the church stands over this remote Norwegian Arctic village, cloaked in the polar night’s constant darkness.

THE Rev. Siv Limstrand celebrates evening service with congregants at Svalbard Kirke in Longyearbyen, Norway, Tuesday, January 10, 2023. AP/DANIEL COLE

SVALBARD Kirke member Lars-Olav Tunheim descends from Plataberget mountain during a hike in Longyearbyen, Norway, Wednesday, January 11, 2023. AP/DANIEL COLE

The global economy needs a new powerhouse; India is stepping up

By Kai Schultz & Vrishti Beniwal

INDIA’S economic transformation is kicking into high gear.

Global manufacturers are looking beyond China, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi stepping up to seize the moment. The government is spending nearly 20 percent of its budget this fiscal year on capital investments, the most in at least a decade.

Modi is closer than any predecessor to being able to claim that the nation—which may have just passed China as the world’s most populous—is finally meeting its economic potential. To get there, he’ll have to wrestle with the drawbacks of its exceptional scale: the remnants of the red tape and corruption that has slowed India’s rise, and the stark inequality that defines the democracy of 1.4 billion people.

“India is on the cusp of huge change,” said Nandan Nilekani, a founder of Infosys Ltd., one of the nation’s largest technology services companies. India has quickly created capacity to support tens of thousands of startups, a few billion smartphones and data rates that rank among the lowest in the world, he said.

US-China rivalry is providing a tailwind. India and Vietnam will be the big beneficiaries as companies move toward a “China-plus-one” strategy, supply-chain analysts say. Apple Inc.’s three key Taiwanese suppliers have won incentives from Modi’s government to boost smartphone production and exports. Shipments more than doubled to top $2.5 billion of iPhones from April through December.

As powerhouses from China to Germany contend with slowing growth, the stakes are rising to find another nation equipped to propel the global economy. Morgan Stanley predicts that India will drive a fifth of world expansion this decade, positioning the nation as one of only three that can generate more than $400 billion in annual output growth.

The thesis is reflected in global equity markets, with India’s Sensex index trading last quarter at the highest in a decade versus the S&P 500. Relative to other emerging markets, Indian stocks have never been higher.

“People are looking at which other place over the next decade is going to be a great place to put capital,” Nilekani said. “I haven’t seen this kind of interest in India for 15 years.”

Of course, Modi’s manufacturing aspirations are not new. His “Make in India” campaign kicked off in 2014, seeking to emulate China and the tigers of East Asia—from Singapore to South Korea and Taiwan—that climbed into the ranks of rich economies by filling factories with workers making products the world wanted to buy.

Boosting manufacturing to 25 percent of GDP, a key metric for the program, has proven elusive. The ratio rose to 17.4 percent in 2020 compared with 15.3 percent in 2000, according to data from McKinsey.

Vietnam’s factory sector more than doubled its share of GDP during the

same period.

But as this year’s president of the Group of 20 nations, India has momentum. An external strategy built on multiple alliances and unapologetic self-interest has seen the nation boost purchases of Russian oil by 33 times, ignoring pressure from Washington. There are even some signs of pragmatism when it comes to the tense relationship with neighboring China—more than a dozen of Apple’s Chinese suppliers are receiving initial clearance from New Delhi to expand operations, underpinning the tech giant’s efforts to divert production to India.

In a multipolar world, India’s embrace of a middle path has bolstered its image as a nation “with which everyone is interested in having a good relationship,” said Kenneth Juster, a former US ambassador to India.

“India is positioning itself, and using its presidency of the G-20 to do so, as a bridge between east and west, and north and south,” he said.

“A lot of companies feel that given its size, given its young population, given its inevitable force in international affairs, India is a place where they should be.”

In an August speech commemorating 75 years since India’s independence, Modi urged the nation to settle for nothing less than to “dominate the world.”

“We must resolve to make India a developed nation in the next 25 years,” he said at the Red Fort in New Delhi, occasionally swatting the air with clenched fists. Helicopters showered the crowd with flower petals before he spoke. Bloomberg Economics expects the nation’s per capita income to pull even with some developed countries in that span, putting Modi’s goal within reach. Potential GDP growth will gradually peak at about 8.5 percent early next decade, propelled by corporate tax cuts, incentives for manufacturers and privatization of public assets, according to BE. The Centre for Economics and Business Research predicts India to become a $10 trillion economy by 2035.

Battling bureaucracy

TO meet his target, Modi will have to overcome the legacy of India’s early years as an independent nation, which included decades of squandered economic opportunity.

After Britain’s partition of the subcontinent in 1947 and the religious violence that followed, India turned inward. By the 1970s, much of the economy was nationalized and a formidable bureaucracy shut out the world. A labyrinthine system called the “License Raj” dictated everything from car models to what types of bread were allowed in stores.

In 1991, a balance of payments

crisis forced change. Facing plunging foreign exchange reserves and pressure from the International Monetary Fund, then-Finance Minister Manmohan Singh endorsed devaluing the rupee and opening up to foreign investment.

The reforms were a hard sell. But by the end of the decade, changes to India’s economic landscape were undeniable. GDP close to doubled. International brands from McDonald’s to Microsoft offered new choices. In the 2000s, India notched several years of growth near 8 percent.

When Modi rose to power in 2014, campaigning on “minimum government, maximum governance,” voters saw an opportunity to build on liberalization, hoping for “Ronald Reagan on a white horse,” as a prominent economist put it.

India’s new prime minister, the son of a tea seller, promised to clear the remaining cobwebs from the License Raj, including a culture of paying bribes for access to public services. Modi styled himself as a political outsider with managerial panache, poised to apply his experience running Gujarat, one of the nation’s most industrialized states, to propel India toward top-down development, à la China.

He can claim significant progress, especially on infrastructure. Since Modi’s election win in 2014, India’s national highway network grew more than 50 percent longer, domestic air passengers roughly doubled and a vast biometric system helped several hundred million people open bank accounts for the first time.

Among Modi and his Bharatiya Janata Party’s most heralded achievements has been forging a single economic zone from India’s overlapping federal and state taxes, perhaps the most consequential measure since 1991. Tax revenue collection hit a high last year, jumping 34 percent from the previous year. The government will lay out its budget for the next fiscal year on February 1.

Streamlining India’s economy has “brought a lot more transparency in the system,” said Adar Poonawalla, the chief executive of the Serum Institute of India, one of the world’s largest vaccine manufacturers. “Look at collection now. The government is getting double or triple what they were getting in the previous regime.”

The reception was chillier for Modi’s 2016 ban on nearly all localcurrency banknotes to fight corruption and tax avoidance. The shock announcement devastated Indians working for cash daily wages. And Modi struck another speed bump when he took his liberalization campaign to the agricultural sec-

tor, which makes up about a fifth of the economy. Sweeping reforms were abandoned in 2021 after mass protests saw thousands of farmers camping on the outskirts of the capital for months.

Gurcharan Das, an author and former chief executive of Procter & Gamble India, said Modi still has much to prove if he wants to transform India in the way that Margaret Thatcher revolutionized Britain. Part of the challenge is that Indian voters—many of whom still live on less than a few dollars a day—gravitate to tangible political pledges like free electricity, rather than abstract policies to spur investment.

“In India, nobody has sold the reforms, so people believe they’ll make the rich richer and the poor poorer,” Das said.

But Sanjeev Sanyal, an economic advisor to Modi’s administration, projected confidence, characterizing these issues as teething troubles that would afflict any young nation.

Boosting supply side productivity, enabling creative destruction and continuing to reduce absolute poverty are among India’s objectives for the next 25 years, he said.

“We are finally getting rid of the bureaucratic shackles in our heads,” Sanyal said.

Rising inequality

INDIA’S population stood at 1.417 billion at the end of last year, according to estimates from the World Population Review, about 5 million more than China has reported. The United Nations expects India to reach the milestone later this year.

Half of India’s people are under the age of 30, while China’s citizens are aging rapidly, and its population shrank in 2022 for the first time since the final year of the Great Famine in the 1960s.

Among other notable differences: India’s middle class remains significantly smaller. Fully capturing the nation’s demographic dividend—perhaps its biggest advantage compared to bigger economies—will require broader wealth creation that resolves high unemployment among women, minorities and young people.

“If we do not take care of inequality, we can’t get very far with growth,” said Duvvuri Subbarao, a former governor of the Reserve Bank of India.

Nowhere else is the super wealthy growing faster than in India, drawing comparisons to the heady times of America’s Gilded Age. Since 1995, the wealth gap between the top 1 percent and bottom 50 percent has soared about three times more than the equivalent metric for the US.

A new class of entrepreneurs is creating more unicorns—unlisted

companies worth at least $1 billion— than any other nation apart from the US and China. Their growing success is propelling property prices in Mumbai and Bangalore hotspots, while encouraging firms from UBS Group AG to Deutsche Bank AG to hire more private bankers. Yet by one estimate, female labor force participation fell to 9 percent by 2022, in part because of the pandemic. Closing the gap between men and women—58 percentage points—could expand India’s GDP by more than 30 percent by 2050, an analysis from Bloomberg Economics found.

India’s large Muslim minority is also underrepresented. Despite forming 14 percent of the population, they’re estimated to hold about 7 percent of public sector jobs. Government critics fear that India’s secular foundation, and the economic potential of some 300 million people among its religious minorities, are being undermined by hardline officials who’ve pushed for India to formally recast itself as a Hindu nation. Modi worked for years in a Hindu-right organization before running for public office.

“A whole section of our people live more and more in a kind of continuous insecurity,” said Harsh Mander, a social activist and founder of the Centre for Equity Studies, a research organization in New Delhi. This dynamic, he said, “will be stifling for secure investment.”

Factory dreams SANYAL , the economic advisor to Modi’s administration, said the government is working to create opportunities for all Indians and it’s unfair to hold one leader responsible for long-running challenges. Raising manufacturing to a quarter of GDP—and the jobs bounty that would come along with it—remains a top priority. While India’s contribution to global trade is less than 2 percent, merchandise exports exceeded a record $400 billion last fiscal year.

To compete with China, the government is providing more than $24 billion in incentives over the next few years in more than a dozen industries. Some of the money will support the production of mobile phone handsets by Wistron Corp. and Samsung Electronics Co.; semi-conductors by Hon Hai Precision Industry Co.; and solar panels by Reliance Industries Ltd. In coming months the program will be extended to manufacturers of electrolyzers and other equipment needed to make green hydrogen.

The next step is boosting production beyond the world’s manufacturing behemoths.

Shiv Bhargava, the founder of Viraj Exports, a mid-sized garment exporter, said building scale in India can be difficult. At his factory in the industrial city of Noida, Bhargava weaved between sewing stations where workers stitched clothing bound for Zara. He has about 1,000 staff in the country, but says he’d have more if it weren’t for relatively restrictive labor laws. Modi has sought to streamline the rules, sparking fierce opposition from some state governments.

“Compared to Bangladesh, our costs are 40 percent to 50 percent higher,” Bhargava said. “When the economy of a country goes up, then labor has the option to have better options.”

Some younger Indians, aspiring to white collar work, are deferring employment rather than laboring

in a factory. About half of potential workers under the age of 30 aren’t even looking for jobs.

The numbers are also explained by changing employment patterns, especially in rural areas, home to much of India’s population. In Haryana, a key farming state, the evaporation of agricultural jobs has forced workers to migrate from towns to urban centers.

Perched on a rope cot, Kusum, a young woman who lost a teaching position during the pandemic, said liberalization has benefited the village of Mundakhera. Her family can now afford a washing machine and motorcycle. Every morning, she uses her smartphone to scan Google for employment opportunities and catch up on current events.

But as farming declines, she said, India has to move faster to equip her generation with marketable skills in a more globalized economy. Quality jobs are now scarcer in Mundakhera, where tidy brick homes surround a pond speckled with algae.

“Our education is not skill-based and the private sector needs that,” she said.

Building India’s future EVEN with those obstacles, optimism pervades India’s business elite. Entrepreneurs are eager to capitalize on a stronger tolerance for risk-taking, higher consumer spending and a vibrant ecosystem for digital startups.

In Mumbai, the airy headquarters of Nykaa is abuzz as young employees film content with makeup kits. The business, India’s top ecommerce site for beauty products, has a fervent following among Bollywood stars and more than 100 brick-and-mortar stores.

Falguni Nayar, a former banker who started Nykaa with her daughter in 2012, said India has cleared “banana skins” that entrepreneurs used to slip on. The industry benefitted from changes like the easing of taxes on premium products, she said. In 2021, Nykaa raised 53.5 billion rupees (about $660 million) in a stellar initial public offering, helping to make Nayar the country’s richest self-made woman.

“Before we know it, we’ll be the third largest economy in the world,” she said. Nayar’s often asked if consumption is stronger in cities than in rural areas. “Not anymore,” she said. In many towns, “if earlier we used to see fans, now they’ll have air conditioners and refrigerators.”

Modi’s popularity remains robust, giving him a platform to enact change that many world leaders would envy. Polls consistently peg the prime minister’s approval rating above 70 percent. This month Modi urged members of his ruling party to reach out to Muslims and other religious minorities, a rare move to tone down sectarian tensions as he prepares to host the G-20 summit. With national elections due in 2024, the question on the horizon is the extent to which economic ambition will shape Modi’s agenda and how he expends his political capital.

“We’re optimistic,” said Poonawalla, the chief executive of the Serum Institute of India. “Despite the disruption in supply chains and oil prices and inflation and the war crisis, India, fundamentally, is doing very well.” With assistance from Anup Roy, Archana Chaudhary, P. R. Sanjai and Jane Pong/Bloomberg.

PRESIDENT Joe Biden and Prime Minister Narendra Modi during the G-20 Summit in Nusa Dua, Indonesia in November. LEON NEAL/GETTY IMAGES EUROPE

The World UN forecasts fall in global economic growth to 1.9%

By Edith M. Lederer The Associated Press

UNITED NATIONS—The

Painting a gloomy and uncertain economic outlook, the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs said the current global economic slowdown “cuts across both developed and developing countries, with many facing risks of recession in 2023.”

“A broad-based and severe slowdown of the global economy looms large amid high inflation, aggressive monetary tightening, and heightened uncertainties,” UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said in a foreword to the 178-page report.

The report said this year’s 1.9 percent economic growth forecast—down from an estimated 3 percent in 2022—is one of the lowest growth rates in recent decades. But it projects a moderate pick-up to 2.7 percent in 2024 if inflation gradually abates and economic headwinds start to subside.

In its annual report earlier this month, the World Bank which lends money to poorer countries for development projects, cut its growth forecast nearly in half, from it previous projection of 3 percent to just 1.7 percent.

The International Monetary Fund, which provides loans to needy countries, projected in October that global growth would slow from 6 percent in 2021 to 3.2 percent in 2022 and 2.7 percent in 2023. IMF Managing Director

Kristalina Georgieva said at last week’s World Economic Forum in Davos that 2023 will be a difficult year, but stuck by the projection and said “we don’t expect a global recession.”

Shantanu Mukherjee, director

Dubious Covid treatments explode on social media as China cases rise

CHINESE are turning to social media influencers and celebrities for tips about treating Covid, after the country’s whipsaw reversal in virus strategy undermined trust in government advice and health officials. China’s rapid dismantling of pandemic restrictions over a matter of weeks at the end of last year led to a quick surge in infections, with Covid spreading through cities and towns that have had little experience with the virus until now. With the government hastily retreating, people are increasingly looking to social media for answers, resulting in a corresponding increase in misinformation and even dangerous advice.

Search queries about treating common Covid maladies, from whether the XBB sub-variant causes diarrhea to how best to treat pneumonia, throw up a raft of responses on the Chinese Internet: adopt a vegan diet, take multiple antibodies, or even ways to buy illegal enzymes from online celebrities.   Throughout the pandemic, people in many countries—particularly those where the government’s approach to the virus was questioned or was ineffective—also turned to untested remedies and online advice. The US craze for Ivermectin, which is primarily approved to treat diseases caused by parasites in livestock and humans, is a prime example.

What makes China’s rush different is that it’s being accompanied by corresponding backlash against the government.

News stories and social media posts on Covid advice from Chinese health officials are being regularly lambasted with comments questioning their credibility, after many went from warning about the dangers of Covid to downplaying its seriousness within mere weeks, as policy completely shifted away from the stringent Covid Zero approach.

Backlash against officials

of the economic analysis and policy division of the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs, highlighted the growing income inequality in the world at a news conference launching the report.

Between 2019 and 2021, he said, average incomes for the top 10 percent rose by 1.2 percent while the incomes of the lowest 40 percent fell by 0.5 percent.

“The top 10 percent now earns on average over 42 times what the lowest percentiles” earn, Mukherjee said.

According to the UN report, this year “growth momentum has weakened in the United States, the European Union and other developed economies, adversely affecting the rest of the world economy.”

In the United States, GDP is projected to expand by only 0.4 percent in 2023 after estimated growth of 1.8 percent in 2022, the UN said. And many European countries are projected to experience “a mild recession” with the war in Ukraine heading into its second year on February 14, high energy costs, and inflation and tighter financial conditions depressing household consumption and investment.

The economies in the 27-nation European Union are forecast to grow by just 0.2 percent in 2023, down from an estimated 3.3 percent in 2022, the UN said. And in the United Kingdom, which left the EU three years ago, GDP is projected to contract by 0.8 percent in 2023, continuing a recession that began in the second half of 2022, it said.

With China’s government aban -

doning its zero-Covid policy late last year and easing monetary and fiscal policies, the UN forecast that its economy, which expanded by only 3 percent in 2022, will accelerate to 4.8 percent this year.

“But the reopening of the economy is expected to be bumpy,” the UN said. “Growth will likely remain well below the pre-pandemic rate of 6-6.5 percent.”

The UN report said Japan’s economy is expected to be among the better-performing among developed countries this year, with GDP forecast to increase by 1.5 percent, slightly lower than last year’s estimated growth of 1.6 percent.

Across east Asia, the UN said economic recovery remains fragile though GDP growth in 2023 is forecast to reach 4.4 percent, up from 3.2 percent last year, and stronger than in other regions.

In South Asia, the UN forecast average GDP growth will slow from 5.6 percent last year to 4.8 percent this year as a result of high food and energy prices, “monetary tightening and fiscal vulnerabilities.”

But growth in India, which is expected to overtake China this year as the world’s most populous nation, is expected to remain strong at 5.8 percent, slightly lower than the estimated 6.4 percent in 2022, “as higher interest rates and a global slowdown weigh on investments and exports,” the UN report said.

In Western Asia, oil-producing countries are benefiting from high prices and rising output as well as a revival in tourism, the UN said. But economies that aren’t oil producers

remain weak “given tightening access to international finance and severe fiscal constraints,” and average growth in the region is projected to slow from an estimated 6.4 percent in 2022 to 3.5 percent this year.

The UN said Africa has been hit “by multiple shocks, including weaker demand from key trading partners (especially China and Europe), a sharp increase in energy and food prices, rapidly rising borrowing costs and adverse weather events.”

One result, it said, is mounting debt-servicing burdens that have forced a growing number of African governments to seek bilateral and multilateral support.

The UN projected economic growth in Africa to slow from an estimated 4.1 percent in 2022 to 3.8 percent this year.

In Latin America and the Caribbean, the UN said the outlook “remains challenging,” citing labor market prospects, stubbornly high inflation and other issues. It forecast that regional growth will slow to just 1.4 percent in 2023 from an estimated expansion of 3.8 percent in 2022.

“The region’s largest economies—Argentina, Brazil and Mexico—are expected to grow at very low rates due to tightening financial conditions, weakening exports, and domestic vulnerabilities,” the UN said.

For the world’s least developed countries, the UN said growth is projected at 4.4 percent this year, about the same as last year but significantly below the UN’s target of 7 percent by 2030.

UN: Myanmar opium cultivation has surged 33% amid violence

By David Rising

Associated Press

The

BANGKOK—The production of opium

in Myanmar has flourished since the military’s seizure of power, with the cultivation of poppies up by a third in the past year as eradication efforts have dropped off and the faltering economy has led more people toward the drug trade, according to a United Nations report released Thursday.

In 2022, in the first full growing season since the military wrested control of the country from the democratically elected

government of Aung San Suu Kyi in 2021, Myanmar saw a 33 percent increase in cultivation area to 40,100 hectares (99,090 acres), according to the report by the UN Office on Drugs and Crime.

“Economic, security and governance disruptions that followed the military takeover of February 2021 have converged, and farmers in remote, often conflict-prone areas in northern Shan and border states have had little option but to move back to opium,” said the UN office’s regional representative Jeremy Douglas.

The overall value of the Myanmar opiate economy, based on UN estimates, ranges between $660 million and $2 billion, depending on how much was sold locally, and how much of the raw opium was processed into heroin or other drugs.

“Virtually all the heroin reported in East and Southeast Asia and Australia originates in Myanmar, and the country

remains the second-largest opium and heroin producer in the world after Afghanistan,” Douglas said. “There is no comparing the two at this point as Afghanistan still produces far more, but the expansion underway in Myanmar should not be dismissed and needs attention as it will likely continue—it is directly tied to the security and economic situation we see unfolding today.”

The so-called Golden Triangle area, where the borders of Myanmar, Laos and Thailand meet, has historically been a major production area for opium and hosted many of the labs that converted it to heroin. Decades of political instability have made the frontier regions of Myanmar, also known as Burma, largely lawless, to be exploited by drug producers and traffickers.

Most of the opium exported by Myanmar goes to China and Vietnam, while heroin goes to many countries across the region, Douglas said.

“It is really where the value is for traffickers,” he said. “Very high profits.”

The cultivation of opium had been trending downward in recent years before the military took control of the government in 2021.

Production estimates hit a bottom of

400 metric tons (440 tons) in 2020. After rising slightly in 2021, that spiked in 2022 to an estimated 790 metric tons (870 tons), according to the report.

Since it took control of the government, the military’s use of deadly force to hold on to power has escalated conflict with its civilian opponents to the point that some experts describe the country as now being in a state of civil war.

The costs have been high, with 2,810 people killed by government forces to date and 17,427 detained, according to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners.

The violence has meant that the government has been unable to reach some areas to carry out drug eradication raids, and has also had to divert its resources elsewhere. Consequently, eradication efforts appear to have decreased substantially, with 1,403 hectares (3,467 acres) reported eradicated in 2022—some 70 percent fewer than in 2021.

At the same time, as the conflict continues to take its toll on Myanmar’s economy, an increasing number of rural households have been pushed into relying more on opium cultivation for income, the UN said.

THE pushback has become so strong that the slogan “we advise experts to stop giving advice” was one of the top trending topics on Chinese social media platform Weibo earlier this month.

The result is that some Chinese are increasingly relying on influencers and others online who lack medical expertise for advice on how to treat or not contract the virus. A Weibo search for “preventing Covid” points people to nasal irrigation and “angong niuhuang” pills—traditional Chinese medicine typically used for stroke that’s made of cattle gallstones and buffalo horns, and contains arsenic and mercury.

The lack of accurate, accessible health information has already led to at least one tragedy. China has seen widespread shortages of fever medications like ibuprofen since its reopening wave took hold. Unable to find such drugs, one family of four in Inner Mongolia, a region in China’s north, ingested veterinary medicine to treat Covid in mid-December. Their two children ended up with major liver damage.

Control of the narrative

ALTON CHUA, an associate professor of communications and online information at Nanyang Technological University, said the backlash against government advice set a dangerous precedent.

“If the credibility of public experts were to be repeatedly undermined in future high-profile incidents, then I think it’d be difficult to regain confidence,” he said.

China has used its almost total control of domestic media and the Internet within its “Great Firewall” to validate the nation’s abrupt shift from quashing all Covid cases to letting the virus loose.

Officials have refuted claims the about-turn was triggered by damage to the economy and protests against Covid Zero, saying it was all part of the wider plan. Censors have vowed to curb online speculation about Covid over the Lunar New Year holiday, an apparent effort to prevent further anger and confusion over Beijing’s reversal on its virus policy.

Yet the shift in rhetoric was so pronounced in some cases, it couldn’t go unnoticed. One top medical official, Zhong Nanshan, went from claiming the more contagious Omicron variant validated China’s zero-tolerance approach to Covid, to saying the strain caused little more than a “cold.”

Yoga guru peddling cures

THE rise of misinformation comes as China’s reopening outbreak continues to swell, with the country saying it recorded more than 12,600 virus-related deaths the week before the Lunar New Year holiday, which is seeing many travel home to their home villages and towns. The unleashing of Covid has seen millions infected in China for the first time.

One of those people was Lisa, a resident of Shanghai in her sixties. Anxious about catching Covid as the outbreak spiraled, to try and ward it off she spent the equivalent of thousands of dollars on enzyme drinks and eye drops touted by Yi Heng, a celebrity yoga guru who has more than a million followers on Douyin, China’s version of ByteDance Ltd.’s TikTok video-sharing app.

The fact that the enzymes had no visible manufacturing date, certification or label of production origin didn’t faze Lisa, who declined to give her last name. Though she eventually became infected with Covid, Lisa believes the enzymes—coupled with Yi’s advanced breathing exercises—boosted her recovery.

“I’ve never felt better,” she said. “I’m strong as a bull.”

Yi didn’t respond to a request for comment from Bloomberg News.  Chinese social media companies have taken some steps to curb the spread of Covid misinformation, though their efforts remain limited compared to platforms popular abroad.

Last year, Weibo removed more than 82,274 pieces of content that it labeled as misinformation, though it didn’t specify how many were Covidrelated.

That’s lower than other international social media networks: TikTok removed more than 250,000 items for Covid misinformation, while Twitter culled 97,674 such posts in the first nine months of 2022.

Some Chinese are also trying to combat rumors proliferating online. Hetty Liu, a 33-year-old public relations manager in Shanghai, created several groups on the WeChat messenger app alongside friends with medical backgrounds to fact-check and dispense accurate health advice.

Common myths Liu’s tackled in chat rooms with some 4,000 members include that plant-based diets lower the risk of getting Covid, and the effectiveness of so-called “virus shut out” lanyards, which can contain pesticides that cause breathing issues. The lanyards have notched tens of thousands of sales on Chinese e-commerce platform Pinduoduo.

For Liu, the mission has become personal: Some of her family members have put their trust in fake Covid cures.

“I can’t stop them from believing what they want,” she said. “People are more susceptible now because everyone’s really anxious about Covid. Everything is scary, everything is unknown.”

With assistance from Chris Kay and Helen Yuan/Bloomberg

United Nations forecast

Wednesday that global economic growth will fall significantly to 1.9 percent this year as a result of the food and energy crisis sparked by the war in Ukraine, the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, persistently high inflation and the climate emergency.

PEOPLE wait for free food outside an eatery in Ahmedabad, India on January 20, 2021. Growing numbers of people in Asia lack enough food to eat as food insecurity rises with higher prices and worsening poverty, according to a report by the Food and Agriculture Organization and other UN agencies released Tuesday, January 24, 2023. AP/AJIT SOLANKI

UP SCIENTISTS FOUND TRACES OF SARS COV-2 THAT CAUSES COVID-19 IN DAVAO WASTEWATER TESTS

Govt urged: Use wastewater surveillance for pandemic, other disease management

By Manuel T. Cayon

DAVAO CITY—Scientists

from state-ran University of the Philippines (UP) urged the government to consider adapting a wastewater-based surveillance system during a pandemic or for other public-health management in order to enhance data accumulation and enable quicker sciencebased decisions.

The suggestion was an outcome of the research of a team led by Dr. Caroline Marie Jaraula of the UP Diliman College of Science’s Marine Science Institute.

Jaraula was already doing water quality research in the Davao region and decided to expand into wastewater-based epidemiology (WBE), or the analysis of biological and chemical markers in wastewater, in order to provide information on public health.

In the research in 2020 that evolved into multiple studies, when more scientists collaborated with her, it was found out that traces of genetic materials from the ribonucleic acid (RNA) of the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Corona Virus-2 (SARS CoV-2), the virus that causes the Covid-19, were in wastewater samples.

While scientists said the genetic materials were not infectious anymore and that more studies

should be conducted on other issues surrounding the result, the scientists believed that “there is potential in the conduct of WBE for monitoring public health across the Philippines,” especially during the Covid-19 and other pandemic diseases in the future.

The research

RESEARCHERS said the RNA found in the wastewater “may have also come from pre-symptomatic, asymptomatic, or symptomatic individuals, who did not report to their local health monitoring unit.”

Maria Catherine Otero of UP

Manila and one of those who joined the collaboration in the Davao City wastewater research said the virus’s RNA was detected in 22 out of 24 samples (91.7 percent) regardless of the presence of new Covid-19 cases in those areas. She said this “echoed” similar trends in Covid-19 cases reported through standard clinical surveillance.

“Danger of reinfection due to wastewater research will not be an issue because the virus is already dead in the water. They can still be detected because of the RNA, but they are no longer infectious,” Otero said.

Invaluable detection tool

IT was during the first year of the

pandemic in 2020, when Jaraula began her research on water quality that soon evolved into a multiple work as other scientists and researchers from UP Mindanao and UP Manila joined and formed a collaboration. They included Dr. Lyre Anni Murao, Dr. Emmanuel Baja, Dr. Vladimer Kobayashi, Dr. Dann Marie del Mundo and Otero.

The team has expanded its efforts to look at other possible beneficial uses of WBE.

With funding from the Department of Science and Technology’s Niche Centers in the Regions for R&D (DOST-Nicer), they have expanded their work into other areas

PHL showcases tropical fabrics at textile industry conference

IT was a colorful fashion event of products of innovation in Filipino-made textile fibers from pineapple leaf, abaca, banana and Philippine silk that were designed for government officials’ and employees’ uniforms.

The event was not your regular fashion show. It was held at the Philippine Textile Industry Stakeholders’ Conference that showcased the Philippine Tropical Fabrics (PTF) at a hotel in Makati City on January 26.

The event was part of the monthlong celebration of PTF, which is held every January. This year’s theme, “Pushing Boundaries for Sustainable, Competitive, and Inclusive Philippine TextileGarment Industry,” celebrates milestones in its activities and programs, said the DOST in a news release.

“Innovation powers the future of the textile industry,” said Science Secretary Renato U. Solidum Jr. during the conference.

“We hope to continuously empower our farmers, community weavers and small businesses, who are an integral part of the value chain through S&T programs and projects. The blended textiles made from locally sourced fibers is an illustration on the ability of science to contribute to national economic progress,” Solidum pointed out, the news release said.

The Philippine Textile Research Institute (PTRI) of the DOST is tasked to create and innovate textiles and auxiliaries in support of the industry.

Hinged on the requirement of Republic Act 9242, the institute has developed yarns and textiles in its PTF since 2005.

They are yarns containing at least 20 percent pineapple, banana or abaca fibers blended with polyester, woven in the mill with polyester warp, effectively meeting

the 5 percent by weight minimum natural textile fiber requirement in the fabric stage.

Another significant textile technology is the development of Philippine silk. DOST invested in a Silk Research and Innovation Hub in Misamis Oriental.

To keep Philippine silk cost competitive, the DOST developed a process to generate 7 kilogram (kg) of raw silk a day, requiring 15 hectares of mulberry farm, providing additional income of P16,000 each month to almost 60 families with at least halfhectare farm.

Also, the Silk Innovation Hub in Kalinga serves the silk production in Cordillera. In 2023 two more will be launched, one each in Aklan and in Negros Occidental.

The DOST also sustained a genomic project to maintain the productivity and vigor of the largest silkworm germplasm in the Philippines.

Through these efforts, natural textiles have expanded from wearable items to nonwoven applications for filtration and automotive, and bags and footwear

through drylaid textiles under the nonwoven textiles R&D.

Developing natural dyes is another important component in textile transformations.

The DOST focuses on this to prevent toxic byproducts in the processing of textile and the income opportunities given to local farmers and manufacturers.

Through DOST investments, the Natural Dyes (NatDyes) Center that serves as the core facility for natural dyes R&D and product development is able to link 11 NatDyes Hubs all over the Philippines.

The Science office aims to add three more NatDyes hubs this year. A large-scale indigo dyeing machine is already also working in DOST-PTRI.

The event brought together stakeholders from the industry, government and academe, and highlight the significant role of collaborations in enabling innovation-led and creative studies for textile-garment and allied industries.

T he conference also featured an exhibit of design creations from Filipino artisans, the news release said.

through the Integrated Wastewater-Based Epidemiology and Data Analytics for Community-Level Pathogen Surveillance and Genetic Tracking (iWAS) Project.

Wastewater samples from six Davao City barangays contained a high volume of SARS-CoV-2 RNA genetic material even though the barangays were classified as having a low risk of Covid-19 transmission and has no report of new infections, the researchers said.

The WBE research is eyed to be expanded to Tagum in Davao del Norte and Digos City in Davao del Sur.

What emerged after the research

was the significance of using wastewater-based epidemiology “to aid with public health management.”

“The collaboration resulted in multiple studies that underscore the value of wastewater research in public health surveillance,” the researchers said.

While there was an assurance that the SARS Cov-2 virus may not be infectious anymore, further studies may be needed to address some more issues, including the finding that some of RNA materials were the mutations of the virus.

Otero said there may be a need to improve the equipment

of government laboratories to be able to effectively determine the type of variants that mutated.

Del Mundo, Project iWAS leader, said the research, “Multifaceted Assessment of Wastewater-Based Epidemiology for SARS-CoV-2 in Selected Urban Communities in Davao City, Philippines: A Pilot Study,” explained how WBE research “can provide effective and faster analysis of community-level Covid-19 infection using fewer resources.”

“Clinical monitoring, such as RT-PCR [reverse transcriptionpolymerase chain reaction] testing, and contact tracing are limited in the early detection or prediction of community outbreaks and can be logistically demanding and expensive when applied to a large population,” del Mundo said.

The researchers urged the Philippine government to consider WBE as a powerful and cost-effective tool for public health surveillance.

“Detecting RNA in wastewater could help LGUs forecast what barangays are at risk and may need closer monitoring, rather than a blanket lockdown,” Jaraula said in a news release.

“We should consider this as science-based tools to determine which barangay is more susceptible,” she added.

Searca head pushes for culture of agri-innovation

THE Southeast Asian Regional Center for Graduate Study and Research in Agriculture (Searca) head reaffirmed the need to build a culture of agri-innovation among the Filipino youth.

Speaking at the sixth session of the Webinar Series on Nanotechnology titled “Empowering Young Filipino Researchers for an Emerging Technology Ready Philippines,” Searca Director Dr. Glenn Gregorio emphasized the innovations for transformational change and how to reinforce a transformed agricultural food system in the Philippines and in Southeast Asia, said a Searca news release.

Gregorio told the webinar organized by the Department of Science and Technology’s Philippine Council for Industry, Energy and Emerging Technology Research and Development (DOST-PCIEERD) on January 20 that inclusive social service and protection schemes to all sectors, especially the women and youth; innovative new sourcing of funding and financing; and new policies on innovation, sustainability, and entrepreneurship are needed for policy innovation.

“S&T [Science and technology] for social innovations to scale wider and faster, use of digital technology platforms for business models, and IT [information technology]based education and collective learning

are needed in technology innovation,” said Gregorio, an Academician at the National Academy of Science and Technology, Philippines.

He added that social innovation will come with public and private sector players adopting new ideas, strategies and practices to better meet social needs.

Gregorio also discussed policy recommendations to sustain the growing interest in agriculture among young people and to promote and generate more agripreneurs.

“We must encourage full participation, particularly among the youth and women, through a number of systematic education and mentorship programs with sustained

incentives and innovative training modalities with social safety net systems,” he pointed out. The Searca director also expressed that young researchers must get themselves involved in more public value-driven research initiatives that are geared towards strengthening the welfare of their stakeholders.

He pointed out that the key to communicate the plight of farmers from the nano or micro level of poverty to the policymakers is to strengthen the agricultural extension system of countries and conduct integrative studies exploring how to capacitate local government units and agencies, the news release said.

“Inventions happen in universities or higher education institutions. Partnering with the industry and commercializing these is where innovation happens. Thus, innovation is the way of transferring research results into profits for economic, environmental, and social gains. In the end, let us all remember that what matters the most is building relationships,” Gregorio said.

The webinar series was part of Nanohubs, PCIEERD’s platform for nano-research and development, nano-education, and nanoentrepreneurship. PCIEERD is one of the three sectoral planning councils of DOST.

DOST-R02 to strengthen smart, sustainable initiatives in Cagayan Valley

THE contribution of science technology and innovation (STI) has been proven to be essential in the development of the country.

The Department of Science and Technology (DOST) Region 02 has displayed firmly its accomplishments in STI in the S&T ecosystem and in the spirit of resilience in the entire Cagayan Valley. The agency’s competencies were shown in many aspects of government service.

Moreover, the leadership and management of DOST-R02 have formed the backbone of various improvements and strategies. This include in providing a unity of purpose, while also establishing the direction of the organization through its programs, projects and activities.

Now, with the DOST’s new battle cry, One DOST4U, the DOST-R02 will continue to advocate the utilization and transfer of available technologies from the research and development institutions down to the local government units, communities and industries.

will

THE

02 in front of their headquarters in Tuguegarao City in Cagayan. DOST-R02 PHOTO

embracing the importance of unleashing creativity through Innovations and having the ability to respond rapidly and effectively in any circumstances.

Furthermore, DOST-R02 with its mandate, will continue to provide central direction, leadership and coordination of scientific and technological efforts in

and communities in the country. This proved that DOST-R02 is the leading STI hub in Cagayan Valley and beyond. As the country moves forward to the next level of S&T landscape, DOST-R02 will find and encounter even more enormous ideas that can help characterize the massive use of emerging technologies.

DR . Dann Marie Del Mundo, Project iWAS lead, talks about the challenges of designing a wastewater-based surveillance system for Covid-19. She and her team underscored the potential of WBE for monitoring public

building smarter cities

men and women of DOST-Region

A GLITTERING fashion show made of local fabrics on January 26 highlighted the Philippine Tropical Fabric Month at a hotel in Makati City. It featured creations from top Filipino designers, and designers of government uniforms and from students of schools all over the country. Among them were Anthony Cruz Legarda, Pablo Cabahug, JC Buendia, Albert Andrada, Ann Casas, Seda Pilipinas, Bayo, Studio Regina, Aire, Maison Métisse, Raquel's Piña Cloth Products, Kingsmen Bespoke, Fashion Institute of the Philippines, De La Salle College of Saint Benilde, Iloilo Science and Technology University, University of San Carlos, Samar State University, Philippine Women's University, Central Luzon State University. HENRY ANSALDO DE LEON, DOST-STII

Pope Francis: ‘Homosexuality not a crime’

VATICAN CITY—Pope Francis

criticized laws that criminalize homosexuality as “unjust,” saying God loves all His children just as they are and called on Catholic bishops who support the laws to welcome LGBTQ people into the church.

“Being homosexual isn’t a crime,” Francis said during an interview Tuesday with The Associated Press.

Francis acknowledged that Catholic bishops in some parts of the world support laws that criminalize homosexuality or discriminate against the LGBTQ community, and he himself referred to the issue in terms of “sin.” But he attributed such attitudes to cultural backgrounds, and said bishops in particular need to undergo a process of change to recognize the dignity of everyone.

“These bishops have to have a process of conversion,” he said, adding that they should apply “tenderness, please, as God has for each one of us.”

67 countries criminalize same-sex activity

SOME 67 countries or jurisdictions

RGS

THE Religious of the Good Shepherd (RGS) congregation lauded the acquittal of their confrere, Sr. Elenita B elardo, from perjury charges, calling it a victory “for God’s little ones.”

“The recent court decision is a glimmer of hope amid the dark times our nation is living in,” said the RGS Philippines-Japan Province in a statement.

“The acquittal is not only a victory of those accused but of all ‘God’s little ones’ for whom and with whom this struggle is being fought and continued,” it said.

A Quezon City court, on January 9, acquitted Belardo and nine other human rights activists of perjury charges filed b y former National Security Adviser, Hermogenes Esperon Jr, in 2019.

The 83-year-old nun is the former national director of the Rural Missionaries of the Philippines (RMP).

The RGS said Belardo is “a gentle follower of Christ,” who had been working with the poor, the vulnerable and the marginalized “and in doing so caught the i re of the mighty and powerful.”

“She has inspired us with her faith, courage and unwavering commitment to the farmers, fisherfolks and indigenous p eoples, whom she untiringly served through the RMP all these years,” it added.

The congregation also reaffirmed their commitment “to p romote justice” and to “help bring about change in whatever condemns others to live a m arginalized life.”

“In the spirit of synodality, along with fellow church workers and human rights defenders, we continue walking with a nd among the poor, listening to and including voices from the margins and holding our ground despite threats and political repression,” it said.

worldwide criminalize consensual same-sex sexual activity, 11 of which can or do impose the death penalty, according to The Human Dignity Trust, which works to end such laws.

Experts say even where the laws are not enforced, they contribute to harassment, stigmatization and violence against LGBTQ people.

In the US, more than a dozen states still have anti-sodomy laws on the books, despite a 2003 Supreme Court ruling declaring them unconstitutional.

Gay rights advocates say the antiquated laws are used to harass homosexuals, and point to new legislation, such as the “Don’t say gay” law in Florida, which forbids instruction on sexual orientation and gender identity in kindergarten through third grade, as evidence of continued efforts to

marginalize LGBTQ people.

The United Nations has repeatedly called for an end to laws criminalizing homosexuality outright, saying they violate rights to privacy and freedom from discrimination and are a breach of countries’ obligations under international law to protect the human rights of all people, regardless of their sexual orientation or gender identity.

‘Catholic Church should work to end unjust laws’

DECLARING such laws “unjust,” Francis said the Catholic Church can and should work to put an end to them. “It must do this. It must

do this,” he said.

Francis quoted the Catechism of the Catholic Church in saying gays must be welcomed and respected, and should not be marginalized or discriminated against.

“We are all children of God, and God loves us as we are and for the strength that each of us fights for our dignity,” Francis said, speaking to the AP in the Vatican hotel where he lives.

Such laws are common in Africa and the Middle East and date from British colonial times or are inspired by Islamic law.

Some Catholic bishops have strongly upheld them as consis -

tent with Vatican teaching that considers homosexual activity “intrinsically disordered,” while others have called for them to be overturned as a violation of basic human dignity.

In 2019, Francis had been expected to issue a statement opposing criminalization of homosexuality during a meeting with human rights groups that conducted research into the effects of such laws and so-called “conversion therapies.”

In the end, the pope did not meet with the groups, which instead met with the Vatican No. 2, who reaffirmed “the dignity of every human person and against every form of violence.”

Distinction between crime and sin

ON Tuesday, Francis said there needed to be a distinction between a crime and a sin with regard to homosexuality.

“Being homosexual is not a crime,” he said. “It’s not a crime. Yes, but it’s a sin. Fine, but first let’s distinguish between a sin and a crime.”

“It’s also a sin to lack charity with one another,” he added.

Catholic teaching holds that while gays must be treated with respect, homosexual acts are “intrinsically disordered.”

Francis has not changed that teaching, but he has made reaching out to the LGBTQ community a hallmark of his papacy.

Starting with his famous 2013 declaration, “Who am I to judge?” when he was asked about a purportedly gay priest, Francis has gone on to minister repeatedly and publicly to the gay and trans community.

As archbishop of Buenos Aires, he favored granting legal protections to same-sex couples as an alternative to endorsing gay marriage, which Catholic doctrine forbids.

Despite such outreach, Francis was criticized by the Catholic LGBTQ community for a 2021 decree from the Vatican’s doctrine office that the church cannot bless samesex unions “because God cannot bless sin.”

The Vatican in 2008 declined to sign onto a UN declaration that called for the decriminalization of homosexuality, complaining the text went beyond the original scope and also included language about “sexual orientation” and “gender identity” it found problematic.

In a statement at the time, the Vatican urged countries to avoid “unjust discrimination” against gays and end penalties against them. Nicole Winfield/Associated Press

Pope on health, critics and future papacy

VATICAN CITY—Pope Francis says he hasn’t even considered issuing norms to regulate future papal resignations and plans to continue for as long as he can as bishop of Rome, despite a wave of attacks by some top-ranked cardinals and bishops.

In his first interview since the December 31 death of retired Pope Benedict XVI, Francis addressed his health, his critics and the next phase of his pontificate, which marks its 10th anniversary in March without Benedict’s shadow in the background.

A Quezon City Metropolitan Trial Court in the capital

M anila acquitted the activists after the prosecution failed to establish “beyond reasonable doubt” that the accused “made a willful and deliberate assertion of a falsehood,” Licas News s aid in its report earlier.

Found not guilty besides Belardo were women rights activists Gertrudes Libang and Joan S alvador; and human rights advocates Cristina Palabay, Elisa L ubi, Roneo Clamor, Edita Burgos, OCDS, Wilfredo Ruazol, G abriela Krista Dalena and Jose Mari Callueng.

The case stems from a complaint filed by Esperon who c laimed that leaders of the RMP, human rights group Karapatan and women’s group Gabriela lied in their petition for a “writ of amparo” before the Supreme Court.

Esperon—who was a respondent in the amparo petition— a ccused the activists of calling RMP a “registered nonstock, nonprofit organization” even as the Securities and Exchange Commission reportedly revoked the organization’s certificate of registration in 2003, Licas News said.

The Quezon City prosecutor’s office initially indicted Bel ardo.

Esperon later appealed and included the other activists in the charge. CBCP News and Licas News

“I’m in good health. For my age, I’m normal,” the 86-year-old pontiff said, though he revealed that diverticulosis, or bulges in his intestinal wall, had “returned.”

Francis had 33 centimeters (13 inches) of his large intestine removed in 2021 because of what the Vatican said was inflammation that caused a narrowing of his colon.

He added that a slight bone fracture in his knee from a fall had healed without surgery after laser and magnet therapy.

“I might die tomorrow, but it’s under control. I’m in good health,” he told The Associated Press with his typical wry sense of humor.

Speculation about Francis’s health and the future of his pontificate has only risen following the death of Benedict, whose 2013 resignation marked a turning point for the Catholic Church as the first pontiff in six centuries to retire.

Some commentators believe Francis might be freer to maneuver now that Benedict, who lived out his 10-year retirement in the Vatican, is gone.

Others suggest that any sort of ecclesial peace that had reigned was over and that Francis is now more exposed to critics, deprived of the moderating influence Benedict played in keeping the conservative Catholic fringe at bay.

Francis acknowledged the knives were out, but seemed almost sanguine about it.

“I wouldn’t relate it to Benedict, but because of the wear-and-tear of a government of 10 years,” Francis

said of his papacy.

At first, his election was greeted with a sense of “surprise” about a South American pope, then came discomfort “when they started to see my flaws and didn’t like them,” he said.

“The only thing I ask is that they do it to my face, because that’s how we all grow, right?” he added.

On Benedict: ‘I lost a good companion’ FRANCIS praised Benedict as a “gentleman,” and said of his death: “I lost a dad.”

“For me, he was a security. In the face of a doubt, I would ask for the car and go to the monastery and ask,” he said of his visits to Benedict’s retirement home for counsel. “I lost a good companion.”

Some cardinals and canon lawyers have said the Vatican must issue norms to regulate future papal retirements to prevent the few hiccups that occurred during Benedict’s unexpectedly long retirement, during which he remained a point of reference for some conservatives and traditionalists who refused to recognize Francis’ legitimacy.

From the name Benedict chose (emeritus pope) to the (white) cassock he wore to his occasional pub -

lic remarks (on priestly celibacy and sex abuse), these commentators said norms must make clear there is only one reigning pope for the sake of the unity of the church.

Francis said issuing such norms hadn’t even occurred to him.

“I’m telling you the truth,” he said, adding that the Vatican needed more experience with papal retirements before setting out to “regularize or regulate” them.

On his possible resignation

FRANCIS has said Benedict “opened the door” to future resignations and that he too would consider stepping down.

He repeated on Tuesday that if he were to resign he’d be called the emeritus bishop of Rome and would live in the residence for retired priests in the diocese of Rome.

Francis said Benedict’s decision to live in a converted monastery in the Vatican Gardens was a “good intermediate solution,” but that future retired popes might want to do things differently.

“He was still ‘enslaved’ as a pope, no?” Francis said. “Of the vision of a pope, of a system. ‘Slave’ in the good sense of the word: In that he wasn’t completely free, as he would have liked to have re -

turned to his Germany and continued studying theology.”

By one calculation, Benedict’s death removes the main obstacle to Francis resigning, since the prospect of two pensioner popes was never an option.

But Francis said Benedict’s death hadn’t altered his calculations. “It didn’t even occur to me to write a will,” he said.

As for his own near-term future, Francis emphasized his role as “bishop of Rome” as opposed to pontiff, and said of his plans: “Continue being bishop, bishop of Rome in communion with all the bishops of the world.”

Criticism is freedom to speak HE said he wanted to put to rest the concept of the papacy as a power player or papal “court.”

Francis also addressed the criticism from cardinals and bishops that burst into public in the weeks since Benedict’s death, saying it’s unpleasant—“like a rash that bothers you a bit”—but that is better than keeping it under wraps.

“You prefer that they don’t criticize, for the sake of tranquility,” Francis said. “But I prefer that they do it because that means there’s freedom to speak.”

“If it’s not like this, there would be a dictatorship of distance, as I call it, where the emperor is there and no one can tell him anything. No, let them speak because ... criticism helps you to grow and improve things.”

The first salvo in the wave of attacks came from Benedict’s longtime secretary, Archbishop Georg Gaenswein, who revealed the bad blood that accumulated over the last 10 years in a tell-all memoir published in the days after Benedict’s funeral.

In one of the most explosive sections, Gaenswein revealed that Benedict learned by reading the Vatican daily newspaper L’Osservatore Romano that Francis had reversed one of the former pope’s most significant liturgical decisions and re-imposed restrictions on celebrating the Old Latin Mass. Nicole Winfield/Associated Press

POPE Francis speaks during an interview with The Associated Press at the Vatican on January 24. AP/DOMENICO STINELLIS

celebrates nun’s acquittal from Esperon’s perjury charges

SR . Elenita Belardo, RGS. RMP PHOTO

POPE Francis (left) embraces Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, at the Vatican, on June 28, 2017. L’OSSERVATORE ROMANO/POOL PHOTO VIA AP

Asean Champions of Biodiversity

Media Category 2014

Biodiversity Sunday

Editor: Lyn Resurreccion

ACB: There’s high hopes for mangroves in Asean

By Jonathan L. Mayuga

‘UNCERTAIN future looms for Philippine, Southeast Asian mangroves,” said the headline of a news release from University of the Philippines-Diliman College of Science (UPD-CS) scientists, who conducted a comprehensive survey of over 300 mangrove studies across the Philippines and the rest of Southeast Asia.

The survey said the Philippines is the second worst country in the Asean in terms of mangrove losses, suffering a 10.5-percent decline between 1990 and 2010, citing independent studies included in the survey.

The Philippines is surpassed only by Myanmar, which suffered a 27.6 percent loss between 2000 and 2014, the survey undertaken by UP Ph.D. Biology student Maria Elisa Gerona-Daga and Institute of Biology Associate Professor Dr. Severino Salmo III revealed.

Stark wake-up call

ACCORDING to the UPD-CS scientists, the findings are a stark wakeup call, given the international declaration from 2021 to 2030 as the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration, that aimed at preventing, stopping and reversing the degradation of ecosystems worldwide.

“With the countdown well-underway of existing mangrove restoration, research helps identify ways to achieve the [Southeast Asia] region’s restoration targets and safeguard their biodiversity,” the scientists added.

The study, titled “A systematic review of mangrove restoration studies in Southeast Asia: Challenges and Opportunities for the United Nation’s Decade on Ecosystem Restoration,” provides a systematic and quantitative synthesis of 335 mangrove restoration studies in the region that were published before February 2022.

The investigation has also identified regional successes and failures in mangrove restorations.

Recommendations

GERONA-DAGA and Salmo suggested five priority topics for improving the science and practice of mangrove restoration to realize the UN’s targets by 2030.

These are: restoration areas and methods; mangrove restoration in climate change adaptation and mitigation programs; monitoring recoveries of biodiversity and ecosystem services; policies, governance, and community en -

gagement; and strengthening of the Asean network.

Among others, the UPD-CS scientists and researchers proposed to add more mangrove faunal and floral species as bases for selecting and prioritizing sites for restoration, thereby furthering the UN’s biodiversity goals and potentially generating useful data on genetic diversity.

Important ecosystem

MANGROVE forest ecosystems provide the ideal environment for a large variety of animals ranging from mammals, birds, reptiles to fish, crab, shrimp and mollusk species to live and thrive, according to the Asean Centre for Biodiversity. They also serve as nurseries for many fish species.

Mangroves also provide natural defense against storm surges and protection to coastal communities and are good carbon sink, reducing, if not limiting, greenhouse gas emission into the atmosphere.

Earth’s secret weapons

MANGROVE forests are some of Planet Earth’s ‘secret weapons’ in stopping climate change,” said Best Alternatives Director Gregg Yan.

“Their branches, leaves and roots passively absorb and store incredible amounts of carbon dioxide. The 2020 book, Carbon-Based Material for Environmental Protection and Remediation, states that mangal or mangrove forests store three to four times more carbon dioxide per hectare than terrestrial or land-based forests,” Yan told the BusinessMirror via email on January 25.

According to Yan, some estimates even claim that mangroves absorb up to 10 times more carbon dioxide than other forest types.

Unfortunately, the world’s mangrove forests have receded

Muntinlupa taps Japan tech to depollute Laguna de Bay

By Roderick L. Abad Contributor

IN its new attempt to improve

the overall quality of Laguna de Bay, one of the primary sources of freshwater fish in the country that is now facing environmental issues, the City of Muntinlupa is now using a Japanese proven technology.

The city’s Lake Management Office (LMO), in partnership with Rotary Club of Muntinlupa City Central and Rotaract Club of Alabang Bagong Paraiso, launched “Project ADBokashi” at the Muntinlupa City Fish Hatchery in Bayanan Baywalk on January 22.

It is a partner initiative to enhance bodies of water in the

due to continuing coastal development, clearing for brackishwater aquaculture, charcoal-mining and other destructive activities.

Fortunately, there are numerous sustainable alternatives to these threats, from switching to briquettes made from pressed corn husks to promoting mangrove forests as preferential tourist destinations, especially for birdwatchers.

“Once considered fetid swamps, we should look at the protection of the world’s mangroves as one of our best answers to the ongoing climate crisis,” he pointed out.

Alarming problem

RONNEL ARAMBULO, Pamalakaya national spokesman, said the UPD-CS study should raise an alarm to the national government and its agencies concerned with the environment.

“This reflects the previous administrations’ neglect to preserve and protect our marine and coastal resources. Mangroves are crucial to coastal and marine biodiversity, as they serve as habitat of a wide array of fish species,” Arambulo told the Business Mirror via Messenger on January 20.

According to Arambulo, the Marcos Jr. administration should direct the Department of Environment and natural Resources (DENR) to seriously and immediately take on the problem.

“Specifically, we call on the DENR to reject all forms of coastal destruction activities, such as reclamation. We have yet to hear from DENR Secretary Maria Antonia Yulo-Loyzaga on her stand on this environmentally destructive project since she took the post,” he pointed out.

Ray of hope

ON a positive note, ACB Executive Director Theresa Mundita S. Lim

periodic water quality testing to be conducted by the LMO.

Made of organic materials such as garden soil, effective microorganisms, molasses and rice hulls, the bokashi balls break down toxins and bad bacteria in water.

locality and across the country.

Mayor Ruffy Biazon welcomed the collaborative work toward improving water quality in Laguna de Bay for the long-term, in relation to his administration’s 7K Agenda for the environment.

Population pressure and industrialization, invasive species and overfishing are of concern for the lake, impacting its contribution to both local and national economies.

More than 1,000 bokashi balls were released into the lake. The activity was part of a two-year experiment to make the water quality improve and to thwart the effects of rapid urbanization around the lake.

The release of bokashi into Laguna de Bay will be done at least every six months with

said members of the Asean, including the Philippines, are very much aware of the challenges brought by the degradation of the coastal and marine environment, including the shrinking mangrove forest cover.

“Though there indeed have been a decline of healthy mangrove areas in Southeast Asia, efforts have not been scarce to protect the remaining mangroves and restore degraded mangrove ecosystems in the Asean as reflected in the Asean Biodiversity Outlook 3, which was recently launched at the CBD COP15 [Convention of Biological Diversity 15th Conference of Parties] in Montreal [in December 2022],” Lim told the Business Mirror via Messenger on January 30 when asked to comment on the UPD-CS report.

According to Lim, the increased awareness of Asean member states (AMS) on the value of mangroves as ecosystem-based adaptation measure against climate change impacts has accelerated restoration initiatives. This already take into account various science-based methods to rehabilitate damaged and degraded mangrove areas.

“Because of these, the ACB has high hopes for mangroves in the Asean, and will continue to support existing efforts of the AMS in protecting and restoring their mangrove areas, in line with the Asean Green Initiative as well as their commitments to achieve the objectives of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework,” she said.

Encouraging scenario

THE ACB’s compilation of AMS efforts to restore and rehabilitate mangrove ecosystems provides a positive and encouraging scenario of the mangroves in the Asean.

For instance, a report by the

Provincial Department of Natural Resources and Environment in Thua Thien Hue province in Vietnam’s northern coast, stated that from 2015 onward, 23 fishery community-based protection zones with total land area of 6.14 square kilometres were established in Tam Giang and Cau Hai lagoons.

Local fishermen have been actively supporting this community-based management model and followed the development plan and guidelines for implementation

The ACB report also revealed that Myanmar’s community forestry-based enterprises underscore best practices like the nationwide greening of dry zones and forest landscape restoration, promotion of biodiversity, mangrove rehabilitation and coastal management, and reform strategy to boost private sector investments in social forestry/community forestry.

Ecosystem approach

MALAYSIA and the Philippines enhanced conservation efforts by implementing the Ecosystem Approach for Fisheries Management, which entails the monitoring and rehabilitation of coral cover and coastal mangroves.

Myanmar is moving toward sustainable forestry through a certification system. Fisherfolks have accelerated the use of sustainable techniques at all aquaculture sites. These efforts are complemented with mangroves reclamation, provision of extension services, and capacity building.

In the framework of its National Voluntary Land Degradation Neutrality Targets and Measures, Cambodia targets to maintain and enhance ecosystems and their services by inter alia restoring at least 8 percent of degraded and depressed protected areas, conservation areas, agroecosystems,

and forest ecosystems including mangroves.

These targets are operationalised in three provinces (Kampong Thom, Preah Vihear and Siem Reap), where Forest Landscape Restoration and Restoration Opportunities Assessment Methodology approach are being implemented.

Increasing mangrove forest AMID the bleak situation gathered by the UPD-CS scientists, the Philippines’ mangrove forest cover and mangrove cover within forest lands have increased by a total of 1,852.5 square kilometres from 2010 to 2015.

“This may have stemmed from interventions that were introduced to address mangrove rehabilitation in 2014, when the government included the Mangrove and Beach Forest Development Project as a component program under the National Greening Program,” the ACB report said, citing the Philippines own country-report.

“Singapore has also undertaken mangrove restoration projects a fter it observed many of its important mangrove sites to be undergoing severe erosion,” the ACB report added.

One such site is on Pulau Tekong, which is home to one of Singapore’s largest remaining patches of mangrove habitat, stretching about 3 kilometres along the offshore island’s coast, with a size of approximately 0.92 square kilometres.

Continuing mangrove conservation initiatives AMS continue to support mangrove conservation initiatives throughout the region, the Asean report said. For instance, Malaysia’s permanent forest estate now includes 5,440.32 square kilometres of mangroves, with five sites designated as Ramsar Sites, or wetlands of international importance.

In Thailand, a community beekeeping enterprise was established in Nai Nang Village, Krabi province to aid in the conservation efforts of mangroves around their village as well as to provide alternative sources of income to villagers.

In Indonesia, a mangrove conservation project in the Mootilango Village, Gorontalo province, involves five women groups, of which 50 members were trained in mangrove-based food processing as an alternative source of income.

Number of Asian waterbirds in Lemery, Batangas, declining

Dubbed locally as “mabuhay balls,” bokashi were also proven in Japan to “deodorize” bodies of water and reduce siltation.

The Department of Environment and Natural Resources recently used them to improve the water quality in Boracay’s wetlands as part of the rehabilitation of its beaches.

In 2008, the Asian National Institute in Angono, Rizal, introduced the organic deodorizer balls to the country.

Prior to their recent release into Laguna de Bay, an initial batch counting at 6,000 was first used in Muntinlupa in 2019 in Jamboree Lake in Poblacion, which is known as the smallest natural lake in the country.

CONTINUOUS decrease in the number of Asian waterbirds was observed during the monitoring conducted in Palanas, Lemery, Batangas, while numerous birds were still observed in Barangay San Diego, Lian, Batangas, a news release said.

Asian Waterbird Census is conducted annually every January to provide basis for estimates and monitor changes in waterbird population in all types of natural and man-made wetlands, including, rivers, lakes, reservoirs, ponds, freshwater swamps, mangroves, mudflats, coral reefs, rice fields and sewage farms.

Birds from other countries migrate to the Philippines to escape the winter, find shelter, feed, and some of them even breed.

This January, a team from the Department of Environment and Natural Resources’s Calaca Environment Natural Resources Office (DENR-Cenro) Calaca Conservation and Development Section conducted monitoring of Asian waterbirds in Barangay Palanas and Barangay San Diego.

Most of the waterbird species observed in both areas were: Little Egret and Great Egret, with a total count of approximately

3,320 in Baranagay San Diego, and 950 in Barangay Palanas. This shows a decline in the number of waterbirds observed in Barangay Palanas, said the DENR-Calabarzon in a news release.

Changes in geographical features in Barangay Palanas occurred after the Taal Volcano Eruption in 2020.

It was observed that there was an increase in the level of river of about 1 meter, which

further cause the destruction of estimated 4 hectares of mangrove areas that serves as the roosting site of the waterbirds. The mangrove area in the barangay is continuously being observed for its possible restoration.

On the other hand, waterbirds in Barangay San Diego, are still abundant in the past few years, the DENR-Calabarzon release said.

MANGROVE trees GREGG YAN PHOTO MANGROVE propagules or seedlings GREGG YAN PHOTO

WATERBIRDS in Barangay San Diego, Lian, Batangas DENR-CALABARZON PHOTO

LeBron, Giannis chosen captains for All-Star Game

Starters—three frontcourt players and two guards from each conference—were selected by a combination of three different votes: fan balloting counted for 50 percent, media balloting was worth 25 percent and voting by the NBA’s players made up the final 25 percent.

mirror_sports@yahoo.com.ph

Editor: Jun Lomibao

LEBRON JAMES is closing in on Kareem AbdulJabbar’s National Basketball Association (NBA) career scoring record. And now, he has caught Abdul-Jabbar on another page of the All-Star record book.

James was announced Thursday as an NBA All-Star for the 19th time, the Los Angeles Lakers’ star tying Abdul-Jabbar for the most selections in league history. James—the leading overall vote-getter—will be the captain of one of the teams for the February 19 All-Star Game in Salt Lake City, while Eastern Conference voting leader Giannis Antetokounmpo of the Milwaukee Bucks will captain the other side.

Th is is the sixth year the NBA has used the captain format for the All-Star Game; James has been a captain every time and has never lost, taking a 5-0 record into this year. Antetokounmpo is a captain for the third time, after also earning that right in 2019 and 2020.

James and Antetokounmpo will pick their teams shortly before the game in Salt Lake City, a newly announced twist and a departure from past years in which the captains picked a week or two in advance of All-Star weekend.

The other eight starters they’ll be choosing from, barring any changes because of injury beforehand, are:

Denver’s two-time reigning NBA MVP Nikola Jokic, NBA scoring leader Luka Doncic of Dallas, Golden State’s Stephen Curry, Boston’s Jayson Tatum, Brooklyn teammates Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving, Cleveland’s Donovan Mitchell and New Orleans’ Zion Williamson.

“ I’m definitely blessed and humbled to be a part of this,” Mitchell said during the televised starters’ announcement on TNT. “To be a part of my fourth All-Star and now to be a starter, I couldn’t be happier.”

T he big intrigue was the third East frontcourt spot, where Philadelphia’s Joel Embiid—No. 2 in the NBA’s scoring race entering Thursday at 33.4 points per game—was the odd man out after Antetokounmpo, Durant and Tatum were the top three in the balloting.

The reserves, which are chosen by votes from the league’s coaches, will be announced Feb. 2. Among the players certain to merit strong consideration: Portland’s Damian Lillard, Oklahoma City’s Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Boston’s Jaylen Brown and Miami’s Bam Adebayo.

James is 157 points away from Abdul-Jabbar’s career scoring total of 38,387 points. At his current average of 29.9 points per game, James will need just over five games to break the record–and, if he doesn’t miss any games in the interim, would be on pace to pass Abdul-Jabbar in a February 7 home game against Oklahoma City.

A nd that means the All-Star weekend, if James passes the record beforehand, could be a celebration of his breaking a record that AbdulJabbar has held for nearly 40 years.

Calculating out when it might happen, it seems at this point it’s likely to happen before our AllStar break,” NBA Commissioner Adam Silver said last week in Paris. “If it were to happen before our All-Star break, it seems like the All-Star Game this year, which is in Salt Lake City, may be the perfect opportunity to honor him.”

J ames is now tied with Abdul-Jabbar for most All-Star selections, and if James plays in Salt Lake City he will become the first player in NBA history to actually appear in 19 All-Star games. Abdul-Jabbar was selected to the 1973 game but did not play.

T hat’ll be just another entry on a long list of All-Star records for James. He’s the first player to be selected to 19 consecutive All-Star games—until Thursday, he shared that record with 18-time-selection

Kobe Bryant, the Lakers legend who died Jan. 26, 2020, exactly three years to the date from Thursday.

I f he actually starts, it’ll be James’ 19th time doing so, four more anyone else in league history; Bryant made 15 starts. The 19 starts in a row extends another All-Star record; Bob Cousy has the second-longest such streak, having started 13 straight.

James also is the career All-Star leader in minutes, points, field goals made and field goals attempted. AP

Warriors’ Green, others sacrifice minutes to boost backups

SAN FRANCISCO—Draymond

Green dribbles the ball up court and takes charge of Golden State’s backups, directing two-way teammate Anthony Lamb on the wing, dishing the ball to Donte DiVincenzo or finding Jonathan Kuminga down low.

The move Warriors coach Steve Kerr made with Green in November to boost the defending champions’ then-struggling second unit has worked out well, especially considering those players have been needed in a big way due to injuries over the past month.

Green, who continues to play significant time with the reserves, is regularly praised by coaches around the league for his willingness to sacrifice his starter minutes to help the overall balance, something other stars are also doing around the National Basketball Association (NBA).

It’s the modeling part for those guys that’s very helpful for them in their game,” said Rockets Coach Stephen Silas, who called Green “one of the most cerebral players in our league who has a voice that those guys will listen to.”

I n Dallas, Luka Doncic is relied upon to play key stretches with each unit. With Nets star Kevin Durant sidelined by a knee injury, Kyrie Irving is also spending more of his minutes with the Brooklyn backups as Xoach Jacque Vaughn is forced to get more creative with his lineups.

Some nights we’re going to put points on the board very easily, guys are feeling good,” Irving said of adjusting without Durant, “and some nights we’re going to have to really rely on our poise, really rely on our defensive pressure, and let that lead us to wins.”

R ick Carlisle recalls fondly how former Mavericks star Dirk Nowitzki also used to play with the backups. And when Carlisle played, the now-Pacers coach always cherished the minutes

CYCLING WHILE SAILING

PEDAL power is returning to the America’s Cup.

Two-time defending champion Emirates Team New Zealand has added a new group of elite athletes, including two cyclists, to help provide the immense amount of power required for the hydraulics that control various systems on the foiling AC75 sloops that will be sailed in the 2024 regatta in Barcelona.

The Kiwis first debuted the “cyclors” during the 2017 America’s Cup, using cyclists pedaling stationary bikes to replace traditional grinders to power the hydraulic systems for trimming sails and controlling the foils on their 50-foot catamaran. That was just one of several technological breakthroughs that helped propel the Kiwis to a stunning upset of two-time champion Oracle Team USA.

Cyclors were banned from the

last America’s Cup, when the AC75 monohulls replaced the catamarans, but are back because the crew size has been reduced from 11 to eight. It’s up to each team to decide whether to use grinders or cyclors, but the prevailing thinking is that four crewmen using their legs will provide more power than four crewmen using their arms.

The Kiwis have hired rower/cyclist Hamish Bond, a three-time Olympic rowing gold medalist; cyclist Louis Crosby; multi-sport athlete Dougal Allan; and rower Cameron Webster to go along with grinders from the last Cup and original cyclor Simon van Velthooven. E ach of the new recruits went through a tough selection process overseen by ETNZ trainer Kim Simperingham late last year.

“ We had a really interesting week of cyclor testing for our existing sailing team as well as a list of potential new candidates, all of whom took their bodies to their absolute limits for the tests,” Simperingham said. “The two main physical qualities we were looking for are athletes that can sustain a really high-power output for the length of a race, up to about half an hour, and athletes that can also achieve really high peaks in power, that will be used for the maneuvers during races.”

The tests were a combination of short maximum power output tests as well as longer endurance tests as the Kiwis looked for athletes to get them through the next few years.

What we found was the big guys have the power and endurance as opposed to the smaller guys with huge power-to-weight ratio who, although highly impressive, struggle to match the overall numbers that bigger guys can output which shows in many of the guys who have been selected,” Simperingham said.

Van Velthooven, will return to his familiar role alongside grinders Louis Sinclair, Marcus Hansen and Marius van der Pol from the last regatta. The grinders went through the testing as well, along with sailor Sam Meech who joined the team in 2022.

“ It’s brutal. America’s Cups are hard so they put us through a hard test. It’s crucial to deliver the whole way through.” van Velthooven said.

You sort of easily forget how much pain these little tests can put you through. So that’s a good check-in and reminder,” van der Pol said.

F light controller Blair Tuke was involved in the selection process and is encouraged by the skill of the athletes.

We have a really potent mix of America’s Cup and AC75 experience,

fresh hungry talent and raw power which I am sure will set us up strongly by the time we are on the start line for the America’s Cup match,” Tuke said. To see what these guys are prepared to put themselves through in testing to qualify for the team has been really impressive and I have no doubt they will apply that same commitment to the whole team in the gym, in the shed and on the water throughout the campaign,” Tuke said.

The New York Yacht Club’s American Magic has been training with four cyclors aboard Patriot on Pensacola Bay for four months, said Terry Hutchinson, the president of sailing operations/skipper. The change in the rule drove the decision,” Hutchinson said.

“The crews were reduced from 11 down to eight but they didn’t change the amount of power being used in the boat. Four guys using their arms are not the same as using their legs, so the rule change made it very easy. From there we’ve had to work on fine-tuning the athletes and finding them.” Hutchinson said 10 athletes are competing for cyclor spots. The team will have eight or nine cyclors in order rotate fresh athletes through on days when there are multiple races. AP

Scattered by war, Ukrainian preteens head to hockey tilt

Hall of Famer Bill Walton played with him and the Boston backups. Hawks coach Nate McMillan took on that role at times, too. McMillan used to play key stretches with the youngsters—and the stars—in Seattle, taking great pride in making the others shine, “because that was the strength of my game.” Gary Payton would move to the wing and McMillan might run the point on the floor with Hersey Hawkins, Sam Perkins and Detlef Schrempf. “ I was the guy that would come in and really be that coach out on the floor,” McMillan recalled. “I was that guy who was initiating and making sure that we set up. Very similar to Draymond, I wasn’t providing a lot of scoring but the defense was going to be there, moving the ball, getting the ball to those shooters, all of that.”

Those versatile players mean so much, to both the starters and

the backups, for their ability to make everyone on the roster better. The Warriors are counting on the experience gained by the young players now making them a far better team come playoff time in April and May.

To this day, Carlisle treasures the time he spent on the court with Walton.

When I was a young player we traded for Bill Walton when I was in Boston and I was a hell of a lot better player when I was on the floor with Bill Walton,” Carlisle said. “I wasn’t very good but now when you’ve got a chance to be on the floor with a Hallof-Fame-type player like that who has major impact on defense and offense, it’s going to change you.” Green gets that. He wants to be part of helping his teammates build a better NBA future by serving as an on-court guide. He has the championship pedigree. AP

MONTREAL—Sean Bérubé said he thought it was a joke when he was first asked to help assemble a team of Ukrainian preteen refugees, displaced by war and spread out across Europe, to play in a renowned Quebec City hockey tournament.

B érubé, a businessman from the Quebec City region, was having a beer in Bucharest last March with Evgheniy Pysarenko, whom he played hockey with in Ukraine as a teenager.

The businessman—with the help of Pysarenko—had just traveled to Ukraine to help his former Ukrainian hockey coach and the coach’s family flee the Russian invasion. To show his gratitude, Bérubé said he owed Pysarenko a beer.

Then he (Pysarenko) said, ’No, I’ve got a different thing to ask you. I have a different favor.’”

Th at favor morphed into a mission, culminating with travel visas to Canada for a group of 11- and 12-year-olds from Ukraine to play in the Quebec International Peewee Hockey Tournament, which has hosted greats such as Wayne Gretzky and Guy Lafleur.

The Ukrainian team is scheduled to take to the ice at the Videotron Centre on February 11 to play the Junior Bruins from Massachusetts.

My thrill is to see them smile after all the mess and all the trouble they’ve been through for the last few months,” Bérubé said this week before heading to Europe.

The biggest obstacle to getting them in Canada was the paperwork, Bérubé said. The boys were living with their mothers in various European countries, while their fathers were on the front lines fighting the Russian invasion.

So to get the signature for their mother—that was the easy part,” Bérubé said. “But the most difficult part was to get the signature from the fathers…[they] are all on the battlefield…so we had through a courier service to get them to sign.”

P ysarenko, speaking from Romania, said he searched for Ukrainian coaches and put together a list of potential players before he contacted Bérubé, who put up his own money to bring the kids to Quebec.

A s of this week, Bérubé was still finalizing tickets and travel insurance

and making sure families in Quebec City are ready to host the boys.

I want to give back to Ukraine,” Bérubé said. “You know, I had such a great time when I went there as a teenager, so I feel it’s my duty.”

Tryouts were held over Christmas in Romania. Pysarenko said some of the boys knew each other, either as former teammates or opponents. They will gather again in Romania later this week, traveling from places like Latvia, Germany, Slovakia and Hungary, before they fly to Montreal on February 1 and ultimately travel to Quebec City.

“

The first goal is to show these kids that anything is possible, that dreams can come true even if it’s a difficult time back home and it’s war,” Pysarenko said. “They need to believe in a better future, and they can be an example for other people all over the world.”

B érubé was heading to Europe to pick up four players at the UkraineRomania border. Two kids are originally from Kherson, which spent months under Russian occupation, and two others from Odesa, which has also been bombed. AP

JAMES ANTETOKOUNMPO

THE Golden State Warriors’ Draymond Green fouls the Memphis Grizzlies’ Ja Morant during their game in San Francisco Wednesday. AP

Gyms that survived pandemic steadily Get back in shape

A SHARED PASSION FOR ACOUSTIC MUSIC

Boyce Avenue ready to perform for Filipino fans again

By Patrick V. Miguel

THEY are mostly known as the “boyce”—pun intended—singing acoustic covers on Youtube, gaining popularity there from rendering their own version of today’s popular songs. However, the Florida-based boy band is also set to get out from the screens and perform live, and this time, in the Philippines.

Boyce Avenue will perform on Valentine’s week at the Araneta Coliseum, Waterfront Ballroom Hotel in Cebu, and SMX Convention Center respectively.

Publisher :

Editor-In-Chief :

Concept :

Y2Z Editor :

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Group Creative Director :

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Lourdes M. Fernandez

Aldwin M. Tolosa

Jt Nisay

Edwin P. Sallan

Eduardo A. Davad

Niggel Figueroa

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Lead singer Alejandro Manzano says that Filipinos share with the band a profound appreciation and passion for acoustic music. “There’s a deeper level of the passion there, it seems to be woven in the Filipino culture to be really romantic and that’s such a big part of what we do and what we’ve always loved to do,” he further noted.

Known for their acoustic genre, Alejandro highlights the lyrics, the melody, and the emotions of each song as their main focus when singing.

Choosing the Philippines to have a concert at was an “easy decision,” according to Daniel Manzano.

“Whenever we do have a particular performance live, the crowd sings so passionately in the Philippines,” he added, expressing a sort of appreciation for how Filipinos love their music as a band.

“It’s because the Philippines embraces us as a whole country that we’re able to play too often as we do,” Daniel said.

This would not be the band’s first time in the Philippines as they had already performed at the Araneta Coliseum in February 2020, sharing the stage with OPM band I Belong to the Zoo.

Since they took some time off during the pandemic, the band is more

than excited to perform again live in the Philippines.

Asked on what their Filipino fans should look forward to, Alejandro answered, “I think they can look forward to Boyce Avenue that I feel like is reinvigorated and kind of I guess almost more excited to play live than we ever have been before.”

“I think there would be some sort

of genuine excitement that hopefully they would feel from us on-stage,” he added.

He added that in the last two years, they managed to improve themself as a band, and hopefully would come out to the stage a better one—providing a better performance—for the audience.

“I think our sound is gonna be better than we’ve ever had before just because, you know, we’re getting older, we have more experience, and we’ve become better musicians,” Alejandro expects.

He hints of “something special” that’s gonna happen at the concert, particularly on the opening act.

Reflecting on the past and what they will offer in the upcoming concert, Alejandro shared, “We’re gonna add a lot of classics and we’ve added several new cover songs that we didn’t play the last time that we were there but just on a deeper emotional level. I think there’s a different kind of perspective now post-pandemic.”

Tickets for the Manila Concert are available at TicketNet, while the Cebu concert is available at SM Tickets.

T. Anthony C. Cabangon

BOYCE Avenue (Photo from their official website)

SoundSampler

by Tony M. Maghirang

New singles to jump start The Year of the Rabbit

THE DAWN “Earth”

IN a private message, The Dawn guitarist Francis “Kiko” Reyes told Soundstrip, “Our latest song “Earth” came from a more somber place; Jett (Pangan) and I talked about how weirdly messed-up the world had become, politically and socially, even before the pandemic. Covid obviously amplified paranoia and distrust further.

“Jett had a vocal melody and some scratch lyrics for verses,” Kiko added, “He wanted the guitar to shadow the melody. He sang the verse during one of our semi-drunken online meetings and I plugged in my guitar. We both agreed it should be an in-your-face unapologetically rocked-out heavy angry guitar tune.”

“Everything You Do”

KYLE Juliano is once again ready to melt his listeners’ hearts with his latest single “Everything You Do”. Produced by Mr. Ito Rapadas, Kyle’s rendition of the 2006 OPM hit song thrives in swooning beat and rhythm. It showcases Kyle’s remarkable vocal chops while staying true to the song’s genuinely romantic lyricism.

Supporting the release is a romantic music video starring Kyle himself and TikTok content creator Andrea So as his leading lady. The fourminute visual is a moving depiction of romantic love.

FILIPINO singer-songwriter Jason Marvin starts 2023 with the release of his new single “Oras.” Brimming with lush, gentle arrangements and laid-back vocals, the piano-driven ballad finds the Cornerstone Entertainment artist traveling back in time in an attempt to amend a romantic relationship. The song also touches on the idea of admitting one’s mistakes and using it as motivation to become a better person.

Directed by King Bingcang and written by Jason himself, the accompanying music video conveys the essence of the lyrics. It stars social media influencer Albert Nicolas as a time traveler trying to win back the love of his life portrayed by up-and-coming actress Roxie Smith.

FERVID “Ziggy Wannabe”

F ERVID is a rising rock band from Legazpi City and their remarkable song “Ziggy Wannabe” is the second single off their recently released debut album. Mainman John Fervid said, “In this song, I intended to depict the story of a young boy whose spirit is profoundly influenced by Ziggy Stardust and who, like Ziggy Stardust, aspires to become a rock star when he grows up.”

For the band, the song is an anthem for all the young dudes who are enthusiastic and determined enough to achieve their ambitions. No wonder, it’s one of most popular songs in their live performances.

FORMERLY known as Tim Bautista, Timba has just released a new single titled “Gitara,” an R&B/hip hop song about serenading women ( harana). Timba said, “My song is raw, edgy and seductive as opposed to a traditional harana because of the melodic R&B/rap flow and urban feel. In the beginning of the second verse, I even sample the line “ Uso pa ba ang harana? ” from Parokya Ni Edgar’s most memorable song “Harana.”

The “Gitara” singer is known for his diverse vocal range ability and crowd rocking stage presence. He has quickly grown into one of Sydney, Australia’s most entertaining performers with live renditions of his original music.

THE new release “Contemplate” is a fresh fusion of melodic pop melodies guitar solos and hooks, with an underlying infectious funk beat. While being undeniably catchy, the song is at once a provocative statement about how when we are alone, our minds tend to overthink situations,.

Singer songwriter Jordy said that the funky beat and edgy lyrics will have listeners feeling excited and locked in, while singing and dancing along. The lyrics supply added punch with “Everything’s just a big deal in your head/ But only when there’ time to care about it.”

KYLE JULIANO

TIMBA “Gitara”

JASON MARVIN “Oras”

JORDY ALEJANDRO “Contemplate”

Gyms that survived pandemic steadily get back in shape

By Mae anderson The Associated Press

nEW yOrK

One day in January, a onceregular customer at Fuel Training Studio in newburyport, Massachusetts, stopped in to take a “shred” class. She hadn’t stepped foot in the gym since before the pandemic.

The customer told owners Julie Bokat and Jeanne Carter that she had been working out at home alone in her basement but had slowly become less motivated and sometimes exercised in pajamas without breaking a sweat.

“I was getting bored of what I was doing, so here I am,” Bokat quoted her as saying. She’s heard similar comments from customers who’ve returned after more than two years of working out in a basement or a converted home office.

The weight of uncertainty

Dur Ing the “dark days” of the pandemic in 2020 and 2021, Bokat and Carter moved equipment outdoors to hold classes in parking lots and a greenhouse they built for the winter. They also held classes online, but attendance still plummeted by 70 percent. They weren’t certain the business would survive.

They weren’t alone. gy ms and fitness studios were among the hardest hit businesses during the pandemic, hammered by lockdowns and then limits on the number of people they could allow in for classes and workouts. unlike bars, restaurants and live venues, there was no industry-specific federal aid given to health clubs. Twenty-five percent of uS health clubs and studios have closed permanently since the pandemic began, according to the national Health & Fit-

ness Alliance, an industry group.

For gyms that made it through the worst, signs of stability are afoot. Foot traffic in fitness studios rose about 32 percent for the first two weeks of January 2023, compared with 2022, according to the most recent data from Placer.ai, which tracks retail foot traffic.

At Fuel Training, the greenhouse is gone, as are the parking lot spin classes. Attendance is still down about 35 percent from 2019, but Bokat and Carter say more people are coming in every day. The gym-goers say they miss the sense of community a gym can provide.

“I feel pretty positive that man, if we sustained our community during like the darkest of days, it can only go up from there, and it has,” Bokat said.

‘Take a step back, to take another step forward’

M A n y gyms and fitness studios had to quickly diversify their offerings in order to attract customers during the pandemic–and some say those changes worked so well, they’re permanent.

guy Codio, who owns the n yC Personal Training gy m in new york, went from nine to four trainers during the pandemic and had to pivot to online training sessions. In 2021, he moved to a different space with lower rent and started renting out space to others in the health and wellness industry including

physical therapists and massage therapists.

“Everybody was worried during Covid, so we just need to downgrade a little bit,” he said. “We had to change the model in order for us to succeed—almost take a step back, to take another step forward.”

now, he’s back to six trainers, but plans to keep the new business model renting out space to hedge his bets in case of another downturn.

In his new space, Codio limits people on the floor to 10 or 12 so customers feel more comfortable Covid-wise. But most customers he sees are “over Covid,” and not as worried about getting sick as they used to be, he says.

“If a person is feeling worried there are measures we take, we do have masks or we have them in during different hours when there’s less amount of people,” he said.

For Jessica Benhaim of Lumos yoga & Barre in Philadelphia, some pandemic changes have led to a boom in business. not only is she back to pre-pandemic attendance levels, she recently opened a second location.

Demand returned to normal in the summer of 2022, Benhaim said. She raised the price for a drop-in class by $5 to $25 to offset higher costs for employee wages and cleaning supplies, but says that hasn’t deterred customers.

Benhaim credits two pandemic changes with helping demand recover: outdoor classes and limited class size. She started outdoor

classes from April through October during the pandemic in a nearby community garden out of necessity, but now has no plans to stop them.

“People just love being outside, especially when it’s really nice out in the spring, even in the summer when it’s hot,” she said.

Classes are still capped at 12, down from 18 pre-pandemic. She offsets the decrease by offering more classes in her two studios. “I think it just gives everyone a little bit more space like, you know, just having a couple extra inches between mats, people really appreciate that.”

New lifeblood

WHEn the pandemic first hit, Vincent Miceli, owner of Body Blueprint gy m in Pelham, n y , expected that 30 percent of his clients wouldn’t come back. He underestimated.

Miceli thinks about 30 percent of his members left Pelham, a bedroom community near new york City, and moved elsewhere. Another 30 percent changed their habits and stopped working out altogether.

no w, he’s seeing slow growth, similar to pre-pandemic levels, of about 5 percent month over month as working out at home loses its luster. He’s still down about 35 percent client-wise from where he was in February 2020. Most of the new customers are people who haven’t worked out before, he said.

“That gives us a whole new kind of lifeblood of the business,” he said. Personal training is booming—up 60 percent. And he’s focusing on fewer classes that are more tailored to his current clients, like a strength and conditioning class called “Strength in numbers” for women 40 and up.

He says people’s interest in being healthy is overshadowing their fear of getting sick in a gym.

“I do think the severity in which unhealthy people got sick over past few years is also letting people who have not done any fitness pay more attention to it,” he said.

Miceli’s business has recovered to the point that he’s ready to start opening other locations. “I think in-person fitness will never go away,” he said.

Yoga: Modern research shows a variety of benefits to both body and mind

THE popularity of yoga has grown tremendously in the past decade. More than 10 percent of uS adults have practiced yoga at some point in their lives.

researchers have begun to study the effects of yoga and are finding that it has great benefit for mental and physical health. yoga involves physical movement, so it is no surprise that most types of yoga can help to improve a person’s strength and flexibility. In one study with healthy

untrained volunteers, researchers found that eight weeks of yoga improved muscular strength at the elbow and knee by 10 percent-30 percent. Flexibility at the ankle, shoulder and hip joints also increased by 13 percent-188 percent.

There are a number of less obvious but meaningful benefits from yoga as well. r e search has shown that yoga practice can reduce risk factors for heart disease such as high blood pressure, high cholesterol and abdominal

obesity. Studies on older adults have shown significant improvements in balance, mobility, cognitive function and overall quality of life.

yoga also provides many benefits for mental health. researchers have found that a regular practice over eight to 12 weeks can lead to moderate reductions in anxiety and depressive symptoms as well as help with stress management.

It is important to consider that although yoga is generally safe, just as with any other

form of exercise, there is some risk of getting injured. Individuals with medical conditions who are new to yoga should practice it initially under the supervision of a trained instructor.

If you do decide to give yoga a try, talk to the yoga instructor first to assess whether the style they offer meets your preference and fitness levels. r e member, you may need to practice a couple of weeks to feel the benefits, physically and mentally. The Conversation

Julie BokaT, owner of Massachusetts-based gym Fuel Training Studio, remained optimistic about the recovery of the fitness industry. She said, “i feel pretty positive that man, if we sustained our community during like the darkest of days, it can only go up from there, and it has.”

BUKIDNON’S MANOBO TIGWAHANON TRIBE

STRIVES TO SAVE NATURE, CULTURE, AND TRADITION

LPU MMA STUDENTS DOMINATE ROTARY

DATU Daag stabs a pig with a spear, as other tribal leaders slaughter chicken beside the Tigwa River to ask for protection, blessings, and guidance for the tribe and the celebration of Sabit Festival event in San Fernando town, Bukidnon, in this photo taken October 27, 2022. Kleester Macasero

BUKIDNON’S MANOBO TIGWAHANON TRIBE STRIVES TO SAVE NATURE, CULTURE, AND TRADITION

FOR most of the Indigenous People’s (IP) community throughout Mindanao and in other parts of the country, keeping their indigenous cultural practices and traditions has been a struggle and a constant fight amid the changes brought by modernity and adhering to material infrastructure and monetary progress.

Fighting to keep their cultural identity, the Manobo Tigwahanon Tribe of San Fernando town in the province of Bukidnon hopes to influence the next generation and encourage them into learning the practice and tradition of their culture through music and the arts while embracing nature through conservation and protection of its threatened environment.

“Keeping our culture and tradition while protecting our environment has never been more challenging than ever, the children of our next generation have slowly forgotten our ways, and we are doing our best that these cultural practices will be passed because we want it to live forever, it is what we are and who we are, it is our identity, without it we will just be another page in history,” said Roger Limbo known to its people as Datu Daag, Manobo Tigwahanon Ancestral Domain Representative of Kibongkog and IP Education Representative.

Several of the tribal elders have noticed that the youth has lost their indigenous identity to the point of not being able to speak their own native language and has merged

traditions with the modern foreign concept of the arts such as modernizing even their traditional ritual dance to adapt to competitions.

“I hope that the youth will inculcate in their minds that they are of the Tigwahanon tribe and they shouldn’t replace their practices and identity with other foreign cultures. It’s fine to get along with them but their identity should prevail,” expressed Datu Daag.

Datu Daag added that they should not be ashamed of who they are as members of the indigenous community.

“We shouldn’t be ashamed of using our crafts like clothes, jewelry, and our dances. As Tigwahanon, we must glorify our culture because these are blessings given to us by our ‘Magbabayo/Manama’ to showcase our identity. We should also adhere to preserving and protecting our environment as this is part of our ancestry, the forest, our lands, our rivers, and the animals that live within, it is what we all are as a tribe,” said Datu Daag pointing out several of their practices are derived from living in harmony with nature.

For Datu Daag, the uniqueness

of its people, its knowledge, and skills cannot be learned or taught in schools, instead, they are passed on by their ancestors to the next generation as it should be.

Several of the tribe’s elders expressed their concern as the youth has not learned the arts and crafts that have been passed from one generation to the next such as playing the musical instruments, the different stories behind the dance and its beats, the intricacy of tribal tattoo, and the spoken language which they fear to have slowly been diluted over the past few years.

The Tigwahanon people derived their name from the Tigwa river that traverses across the town of San Fernando and is a source of agricultural nutrients for the river basin farms as the waterway swells during the rainy season bringing sediments that helped fertile the plains and served as the transport highway for early IP settlers in the area.

Culture-Based Conservation

THE area within the claimed ancestral domain of the Manobo Tigwahanon tribe in San Fernando is an important site for the conservation of the critically endangered Philippine Eagle as it is home to four pairs of the majestic birds together with other endangered flora and fauna.

Part of the claimed ancestral domain is a portion of the Pantaron Mountain Range and the Tangkulan Mountain range on the opposite side of the Tigwa River. Both areas are considered to be essential biodiversity area as it is one of the last remaining tropical rainforests with several watersheds.

Dr. Jayson Ibañez, director for research and conservation at the Philippine Eagle Foundation (PEF) explained that they are adopting a culture-based conservation approach towards working with the IP community as it is essential for the protection and conservation of the Philippine

Eagle and the entire ecosystem that it calls home.

Ibañez explained that indigenous people’s knowledge of conserving their own land and its ecosystem plays a vital role in creating a participatory approach to wildlife and nature conservation utilizing the blend of both indigenous culture and science.

“Our culture-based conservation approach is based on the premise that in order to get community support and conservation success, people should benefit clearly from conservation, it should help bring them a better life, so that’s where our reforestation project comes in, the communities restore forest habitats through reforestation, then find a way to give them financial incentives,” said Ibañez.

The PEF acknowledges that without the cooperation of the indigenous communities, protecting nature and wildlife like the critically endangered Philippine Eagle will fail as monitoring the

Story & Photos by Kleester Macasero

MANOBO Tigwahanon performs using traditional indigenous musical instruments showcasing the dance and music of the tribe to guests.

nesting sites and the eagle pairs require dedicated cooperation of communities such as the Manobo Tigwahanon.

Over the years, PEF has helped several communities with identified Philippine Eagle couples and nesting sites through funding information and education campaigns, reforestation and training of forest guards, and livelihood projects.

Datu Crispino Linsagan, Municipal Tribal Chieftain, Unified Tigwahanon Ancestral Domain, stated that the Manobo Tigwahanon people of San Fernando are grateful to PEF because “they are one of the organizations that empowered us and helped our culture to thrive.”

“We didn’t expect that an organization that’s not IP will help and care for us. To be honest, PEF didn’t ask for any kind of return despite their immense contributions. We are really thankful because, through them, our tribe has

been known and recognized,” said Datu Linsagan.

He added that the presence of the Philippine eagle in their forests which the tribe calls “Banog Tuubal” has also helped them to strengthen their attitude towards the protection and preservation of the remaining forests.

According to the PEF, eagle territories are managed to deliver clear biodiversity conservation outcomes with the hopes of creating meaningful partnerships with Indigenous and local communities whose ancestral lands and territories overlap with eagle habitats. Apart from conserving eagles, forests, and the unique biodiversity inside eagle territories, such partnerships must bring tangible economic, political, and cultural empowerment to these communities.

On April 22, 2021, the PEF released a rehabilitated Philippine Eagle named Tagoyaman Fernando in Barangay Magkalungay who

was rescued by Datu Tagoyaman Sinangkap in the same area in October 2020.

Cultural Conservation Through Learning Exchange

ON December 10, 2022, the USAID through the Investing in Sustainability and Partnerships for Inclusive Growth and Regenerative Ecosystems (INSPIRE) Project facilitated a biodiversity and sustainable landscapes learning exchange by visiting the PEF project site in Barangay Magkalungay along the foot of the Pantaron Mountain Range, San Fernando, Bukidnon. Edmund Leo B. Rico, biodiversity and sustainable landscape specialist of the USAID INSPIRE Project explained that the site visit learning exchange is aimed as a cross-learning platform on biodiversity conservation and natural climate solutions that is culture-based, between members of the Manobo-Tigwahanon

Tribe, members of the Biodiversity Conservation Society of the Philippines, students, civil society organizations, and conservationists.

The event was highlighted with a showcase of how tribal community collaboration and partnerships could be facilitated through species conservation and landscape restoration that would lead to peace and the revival of progress and economic development of a community once known for its insurgency problems.

“The primary significance of doing this learning exchange is to be able to empower communities and budding conservationists, CSO’s conservation practitioners to have an exchange of learning not only just by visiting the site but also by bringing in the experiences and learning from the host communities, most especially the indigenous peoples,” said Rico.

Rico pointed out that by visiting the site they are giving the message to the host community of how essential and important their conservation work.

“We also learn from the community, we get to know their plights and the struggles they face, as conservation practitioners we should not only look at the environment but we need to recognize what is happening within these communities in key biodiversity areas in the hopes to find ways to help address and facilitate future interventions,” Rico added.

During the discussion with the community, tribal leaders acknowledged and appreciated the visit with verbal expression of appreciation and hopes for more learning exchanges in their village that will also help the community through sustainable ecotourism enterprise, a way from destructive utilization of forest products.

AN aerial shot of Barangay Magkalungay, one of the villages situated at the foot of Pantaron Mountain Range in San Fernando town in Bukidnon.

6 Sunday, January 29, 2023

LPU MMA students dominate Rotary PSA Festival

By Seymour Barros Sanchez

THIRD year Multimedia Arts majors from Lyceum of the Philippines University Manila emerged victorious at the 6th Rotary PSA Festival after three years of landing as semifinalists in the annual competition of public service announcements geared towards the Rotary International’s Areas of Focus.

cess to quality education, which deprives them of their growth and development. And so, using the lines as cage bars construes that the lack of basic education limits the child to the better life that they deserve,” she added.

On the other hand, fellow LPU MMA major Roniel Justine T. Sañez’s entry “ApoliPOLIO” won a special award in highlighting the Rotary’s End Polio Now campaign.

“This certain issue regarding one of the latest movies asking why Mabini is always sitting in the movie triggered me and made me think on how I can introduce him again and also to help on how to gain knowledge about polio,” Sañez revealed.

In addition to the two winners, five other PSAs from LPU MMA students, namely “A Mother’s Love” by Eunize-Anne D. Dalena, “Bawas ang Bukas” by Aaliyah Frances Damilig, “Folds” by Aina Zarinah E. Dela Cuadra, “Hashi” by Earl Lance C. Sta. Maria and Marie Nicole Domingo, and “Paano Naman Sila?” by Ron Vincent R. Dumalay were declared semifinalists.

LPU Manila barged into the win column after MMA student Hazel L. Ampon placed third in the 30-second video making contest designed to create and promote awareness about the Rotary’s efforts. Her animated PSA “Primary Lines” illustrates the boundaries set by the lack of education in the Philippines.

“The concept was greatly

inspired by optical illusions on lined paper, which eventually developed the idea of something or someone existing on the other side. The primary lined paper then became the symbol for basic education as it is used early in the elementary stage of education,” Ampon explained.

“I wanted to emphasize the reality that not every child has ac -

Ampon brought home P10,000 while Sañez bagged P5,000. The seven entries from LPU Manila also received P2,000 each for being semifinalists.

The Rotary Club of Circuit Makati has been organizing the event since 2017. Three semifinalists were chosen for each of the seven Rotary Areas of Focus, namely Peace and Conflict Prevention and Resolution, Supporting Environment, Water and

Sanitation, Maternal and Child Health, Economic and Community Development, Disease Prevention and Treatment, and Basic Education and Literacy, and a special category on End Polio Now.

In 2021, LPU MMA students Eunice Angelica G. San Juan’s “Boto Para sa Pagbabago” (Vote for Change), Mark Wilson S. Cat -

indig’s “Kain-Basura” (Food for Trash), Dan Enrico P. Picardal’s “Billiards,” Rikki Lou Bonifacio’s “Laro Tayo, Resiklo” (Let’s Play, Recycle) and Venus Mariel Orbon’s and Lovely Rose Veroya’s “Hide and Seek” made it as semifinalists among 355 submissions from 27 different schools nationwide.

In 2020, recent LPU MMA graduates Ashley Cordero’s “Alone,” Francis Alba’s “Mother Tongue,” Austin Banaag’s “TULOy Tuloy,” and Rochelle Philippe Jedidah Urag’s and James Nadora’s “Ang Ating Gubat” (Our Forest) were selected as semifinalists in the contest. In 2019, “Coindolence” by LPU Broadcasting majors’ Uno Productions entered the semis under the Economic and Community Development category.

HAZEL AMPON holding her 3rd place trophy with Rotary Club officers

RONIEL SAÑEZ with Rotary Club officers

NICOLE DOMINGO, Earl Sta. Maria, and Roniel Sañez as semifinalists with Rotary Club officers

EUNIZE-ANNE DALENA with Rotary Club officers

RON DUMALAY and Hazel Ampon with Rotary Club officers

LPU MMA students and professors

FEU filmmakers reap awards abroad

By Seymour Barros Sanchez

ALUMNI and student filmmakers from Far Eastern University won accolades for their short films in two international film festivals in Spain and the United States.

to a ban from commercial mainstream. We aim to establish the CIM as a meeting venue for the unassimilated, the rebellious, and the free minds of the audiovisual underworld,” CIM Sueca organizer Eugeni Alcañiz said.

“Dalaw,” which was previously a finalist at the Short+Sweet Film Manila and Sinepiyu film festival at FEU, also made it to SWIFF, which got more than 5,400 entries from 120 countries. “We loved the technical creativity and impactful message of your film, Dalaw (The Guest),” SWIFF Director Mark Leschinsky revealed.

Ramri Rivota’s “Dalaw” (The Guest) led FEU awardees by winning Honorable Mention in Art Direction for Melbrick Morillo at the Festival de Cinema Internacional de Merd ə de Sueca (C.I.M. Sueca) based in Spain and another Honorable Mention award at the Student World Impact Film Festival 2022 in the US.

Rivota, who graduated with a degree in Communication from FEU, also served as Secretary of the FEU Communication Society.

In “Dalaw,” Grace (Maniecel Jagonob) is forced to stay for a couple of days with her Lola Mary (Wendy Villacorta). During supper, a spoon accidentally falls, which, based on a superstitious belief, leaves them waiting for an unexpected guest.

Aside from Morillo, Rivota, who wrote and directed the film, also got ample support from producer/production manager

Shaina Legaspi, assistant director Patricia Rigodon, director of photography/editor Andrew Aquino, assistant director Audrey Vicencio, script writer Angelica Altera, casting manager

Yvonne Salazar, sound designer Val Manalo, wardrobe/makeup artist Cyrus Barros, and production assistants Donita Borre and Maurich Macatangay.

Organized by the Cultural Association for the Second Law of Thermodynamics in Sueca, Valencia, Spain, C.I.M. Sueca

is a global competitive event of “low-budget, independent, or noncommercial cinema.”

“We hope to stimulate countercultural audiovisual initiatives to spotlight independent productions which focus on creativity, medium love and sheer fun over technical requirements leading

Apart from “Dalaw,” other FEU student films such as “Agam” (Thought) by Rose Anne Abellar, “Debut” by Reyna Nicole Paner, “Hutik Sang Mga Kuliglig” by Luke del Castillo, “Kumari” by Angela Aguila and One Carlo Diaz, “On the Shepherd’s Warning” by Lily Gomes, “Pua Iyam” (Coming Out) by Juan Pablo Pineda III, and “Retrospektib” by Daryll Jameson Apaga also received Honorable Mention prizes and were nominated for multiple awards, including Best Short Film and Global Impact Grand Prize.

On the set with the cast and crew, Ramri Rivota directs the scene.

THE crew in Dalaw huddles before filming.

TALIKHA Production Team

RAMRI RIVOTA with Val Manalo, Andrew Aquino, and Audrey Vicencio

BUSY at work: Ramri Rivota with Cyrus Barros and Melbrick Morillo.