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China signals its bid to revive an aborted 2013 plan to impose an air defense identification zone over the South China Sea, but in truth, it may have been imposing its own kind of ADIZ there for the last 7 years.

’IN EFFECT, BUT UNDECLARED’

IN this May 14, 2019, file photo, a Chinese Coast Guard ship is seen while American and Philippine coast guards conduct joint search-and-rescue and capability-building exercises off South China Sea. PHILIPPINE COAST GUARD VIA AP

C

By Rene Acosta

HINA has been imposing air, and even maritime, travel restrictions against other countries, especially the weaker ones that include the Philippines, in the South China Sea (SCS) for years, but has not officially declared its enforcement of its air defense identification zone (ADIZ), perhaps for the sake of diplomacy and security.

But Beijing, now under intense international scrutiny over the Covid-19 pandemic and its origins, faces the prospects of global isolation and further backlash if it so decides to admit to the enforcement of the ADIZ, although it has been in effect and was already being practiced against states—with no less than Manila experiencing it for the last seven years.

Still, if and when it is officially declared, the ADIZ would allow China to clamp security around the military bases it has built on reclaimed islands in the regional waters by restricting even commercial overflights, while already constricting maritime access to the waters through which nearly half of the world’s trade passes annually.

While the communist state can unilaterally declare and undertake an illegal air security zone in a manner akin to its building of man-made islands in Southeast Asian waters by dismissing international concerns and even warnings, accession or even acquiescence to it by other countries would be another question.

Against international norms

BEIJING’S plans to declare an ADIZ in the SCS, especially above and within the surrounding airspace of its military fortresses, has spawned fear and concern among officials in the Asia Pacific. No less than Gen. Charles Q. Brown Jr., commander of the US Air Force in the Pacific, admitted recently such will have a bearing on the region.

“If the PRC [People’s Republic of China] were to claim an ADIZ in the South China Sea, it impacts all of the nations that are—and it actually goes against—as I said earlier, a free and open Indo-Pacific to fly, sail and operate wherever international law allows,” he said.

“This kind of impinges upon some of the international airspace, and it impacts not just the PACAF [Pacific Air Forces], but all of the nations in the region,” the incoming chief of staff of the US Air Force added during a recent telephonic news briefing with Asia-Pacific journalists.

Brown, who will be succeeded

by Gen. Ken Wilsbach as PACAF commander, declared that the ADIZ would violate the “rules-based interContinued on A2

BROWN: “I’m concerned by increasing opportunistic activity by the PRC to coerce its neighbors and press its unlawful maritime claims, while the region and the world is focused on addressing the Covid pandemic.” AP

Black businesses see increased sales amid racial reckoning

B

By Philip Marcelo | The Associated Press

money at Black-owned businesses.

Lists of local retailers, artisans and manufacturers have been circulating on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter, helping Black-owned businesses raise their profile at a time when the coronavirus pandemic has ravaged the economy.

OSTON—When Mahdi Hashemian was looking for a bicycle for his seven-year-old daughter Zeynab last week, the Cambridge, Massachusetts, resident decided to skip his local cycle shops in favor of a Black-owned one a few miles away in Boston’s Dorchester neighborhood.

At Spokehouse, a bike shop with “Black Lives Matter” painted in large bold letters outside, the pair picked out a simple, white-colored model and had training wheels and a white basket for its handlebars installed.

Hashemian, who is set to earn his doctorate from MIT, said he’s been reminded in recent weeks of the outpouring of support he felt from the campus community when President Donald Trump imposed a

ban on travelers from Muslim majority countries in 2017, including his native Iran.

“It seems small,” he said of his bike purchase, “but a little show of support can mean a lot.”

As the May killing of George Floyd by a white police officer in Minneapolis has fueled a worldwide outcry against racism and police brutality, many on social media are encouraging people to spend their

PESO EXCHANGE RATES n US 49.7770

All time high

MAHDI HASHEMIAN watches as his daughter Zeynab climbs onto her first bicycle as technician Dell Wilkerson Jr. looks on at Spokehouse Bikes in the Upham’s Corner neighborhood of Boston. Hashemian decided to buy his daughter’s bike at the store to support the Black-owned business, which was robbed and vandalized earlier in the month. AP/CHARLES KRUPA

ACCORDING to Google, searches for “Black owned businesses near me” reached an all-time high last month in the US. Yelp has also made it easier for customers to search for Black-owned establishments on the restaurant review site, and Uber Eats says it’ll waive delivery fees for purchases from Black-owned restaurants through the end of the year.

“It’s great seeing people realize that where they shop can be another form of activism, that it’s a way to put your money where your mouth is,” said Randy Williams, founder of Talley & Twine, a Black-owned watch company in Portsmouth, Virginia.

“You’re helping Black businesses Continued on A2

n JAPAN 0.4630 n UK 62.0769 n HK 6.4228 n CHINA 7.0446 n SINGAPORE 35.6876 n AUSTRALIA 34.4556 n EU 55.9543 n SAUDI ARABIA 13.2721

Source: BSP (July 4, 2020)

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‘In effect, but undeclared’ Continued from A1

national order,” which will not only concern the US but many countries in the region as well.

Revived in May

BEIJING’S plans to impose an ADIZ around its bases in the SCS, which the international community recognizes as an international airspace, was resurrected in May this year. The Chinese communist rulers, however, simply confirmed something that observers see as already in practice through the Chinese forces’ behavior in the maritime waters.

Talk about the declaration of the air security zone in the Chinese-reclaimed portion of the international waters comes as the world grapples with the effects of the raging Covid-19, the contagion that may have perhaps failed to make a big dent on the communist country.

Riding high

SOME states have even pushed the theory that China was riding high on the effects of the pandemic, especially in countries for which it has competing territorial claims in order to make security advances, or carry out harassment, and these included India, Taiwan, Japan and its Southeast Asian neighbors.

“I’m concerned by increasing opportunistic activity by the PRC to coerce its neighbors and press its unlawful maritime claims, while

the region and the world is focused on addressing the Covid pandemic,” Brown declared.

Lorenzana weighs in

DEFENSE Secretary Delfin Lorenzana has urged Beijing to exercise restraint in declaring an air security zone in the SCS, which, he said, would only create, or even exacerbate, the tension in the area, apart from going against the internationally accepted norms of conduct.

“I agree. First, an ADIZ by China over the entire South China Sea would arrogate unto itself a vast sea considered to be a global commons that has been opened for millennia to all for navigation and fishing,” the defense chief said in reaction to Brown’s concern.

“Second, it violates the exclusive economic rights of littoral states over their EEZs [exclusive economic zone] under the Unclos [United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea], of which China was a signatory,” Lorenzana said

He added: “A lot of countries will treat the ADIZ as illegal and violative of international laws,” as such “they would continue to use these waters and airspace, and thus would further raise an already heightening tension and could result in mishaps or miscalculations at sea and in the air.”

Easing the tension

IN early 2013, China had attempted to formally declare an ADIZ in

the SCS, which, security analysts in the region said, should have followed suit its declaration of such air security zone over the Japanese-claimed island of Senkakus, which Beijing also disputes.

Along with the Philippines, the international community averted such an insidious plot by raising a howl that tempered China’s move, and which also prodded Tokyo and Manila to hammer out a stronger defense and security cooperation, given the similarity of their security concerns.

In May, also in 2013, then Japanese Defense Minister Itsunori Onodera visited the Philippines, and he and his Filipino counterpart issued a joint statement that “any unilateral establishment of ADIZ in any area would bring tension over,” and as such should be a cause of concern.

“Both of us have affirmed that China’s unilateral action to change [the situation] by force or coercive action will bring that tension in this region,” Onodera said in a subsequent news conference.

He said that if other countries have their own ADIZ, these identification zones have subscribed to existing international laws and practices, unlike China, which demands pre-flight plans even from commercial airlines.

Harassments

WHILE Beijing did not push through with its plan, what followed later were cases of challeng-

WU SHICUN (left), president of National Institute for South China Sea Studies, and Zhu Feng, professor of International Relationship, Nanjing University, wait for questions during a press conference to launch a report titled: “The US Military Presence in the Asia Pacific (2020)” in Beijing, June 23, 2020. China on Tuesday released a report on the United States military presence in the Asia-Pacific region as the US is seen with more frequent show of military forces in a region roiled by the spiking tensions between the two countries. AP/NG HAN GUAN

es and harassment committed by Chinese forces against the Philippine military in the WPS, which is the subject of China’s contest.

“These cases are cause of concern, because it was giving [the impression]” that China already has an ADIZ “in place, although there is still no formal declaration,” former Defense Secretary Voltaire Gazmin was quoted as saying then.

In one of the challenges, Chinese forces even told a patrolling Philippine military plane that it was entering a Chinese territory and that it should turn away, or change course, but the warning was ignored.

That same month of Onodera’s visit, Chinese forces challenged a sophisticated surveillance plane of the US on patrol in the SCS, lending credence to the belief of an undeclared—but being observed— Chinese ADIZ in the area.

The P-8 Poseidon spy plane, the US’s most advanced surveil-

lance and anti-submarine aircraft, was challenged eight times by China near the Fiery Cross Reef and was documented by a journalist from CNN who was aboard the aircraft.

“It is regrettable that they are imposing their self-serving rules even in clearly established international airspace,“ the Department of National Defense said at that time, noting that a Delta Airlines flight was also challenged in the same area.

The challenges and harassments of the air and maritime patrols of the military continue to this day.

On Thursday, Lorenzana disclosed that “recently, there has been slight increase in the occurrence of incursions and harassments perpetrated by Chinese vessels, both military and civilian against the Philippine Navy, Philippine Air Force, Philippine Coast Guard and Filipino fishermen.”

He told the National Defense College of the Philippines during a virtual forum: “From August 2019 to early 2020 alone, almost 20 counts of harassment took place, which involved the People’s Liberation Army, China Coast Guard, commercial fishing vessels and Chinese maritime militia.”

Of these, Lorenzana continued, “we recall the sinking of the Filipino fishing vessel F/B Gem Ver by a Chinese fishing vessel in June of last year and the aiming of the weapons control radar of a Chinese navy ship on a Philippine Navy ship recently, and just a couple of days back, the sinking of another Filipino fishing vessel off Mindoro.”

Lorenzana, however, noted that the “Chinese aggression” has not only been directed at the Philippines, but also against Vietnam and Malaysia, two of its nine co-members in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.

Black businesses see increased sales amid racial reckoning Continued from A1

become self-sustaining, and that helps the whole ecosystem.”

Sales at Talley & Twine these past few months are up more than 300 percent from the same period last year, partly because more people are shopping online during the pandemic, he said. But the company was also recently mentioned on a number of social-media lists of Black-owned businesses, and its Juneteenththemed watch sold out before the June 19 holiday commemorating the emancipation of enslaved African Americans, Williams said.

In Los Angeles, cupcake sales and shipping orders on other sweets are up at Southern Girl Desserts after it was also mentioned on socialmedia lists, said Catarah Coleman, co-owner of the bakery in the city’s Baldwin Hills neighborhood.

“It’s not nearly the level of business we had before the virus, but it’s something,” she said. “If we only depended on foot traffic and folks just stayed in their own neighborhoods, I’m not sure we’d be able to keep going.”

At Slade’s Bar and Grill in Boston’s historically Black Roxbury neighborhood, online gift card purchases and take-out orders are up significantly as the long-running soul food and live music venue— which boasted Malcolm X, Muhammad Ali and Martin Luther King Jr. as patrons in its heyday—is just

starting to reopen after shuttering during the pandemic, said Shawn Hunter, the managing partner.

“We’re definitely seeing white customers and customers from outside the neighborhood that we would probably have never seen before,” Hunter said.

Coming together

IN nearby Dorchester, Kerri Thibodeau said she drove about half an hour from suburban Stoughton to shop at Pure Oasis, the state’s lone Black-owned retail marijuana shop and one of the few in the nation.

The 35-year-old mother of two, who is white, said there’s a marijuana shop about five minutes from her house but she decided to support Pure Oasis after hearing that more than $100,000 worth of marijuana products were stolen from the shop during a large Black Lives Matter protest through Boston last month.

“We really need to come together and show that it doesn’t matter the color of our skin,” Thibodeau said after buying some marijuana flower and pre-rolled joints last week.

But the business boon hasn’t been without growing pains for some companies. Black-owned bookstores have struggled to keep up with a surge in orders, many of them for a handful of sold-out titles on race relations.

In Boston, the owners of Frugal Bookstore, the city’s only Blackowned bookshop, say customers are

already seeking to cancel orders and complaining about delays and poor customer service. The Roxbury shop, which raised more than $40,000 through an earlier social-media campaign to help it weather the economic downturn, said in a note to customers that went viral last week that 75 percent of the more than 20,000 purchases it’s received are for the same 10 books.

At Spokehouse, the Boston bike shop, owner Noah Hicks hopes the interest isn’t a passing fad and that it leads to more concrete efforts to address the challenges facing Black entrepreneurs, including access to capital.

Hicks said his nearly five-yearold shop’s sales have tripled this month, compared to last June, in part because bike shops are enjoying brisk business during the pandemic.

The shop also received about $16,000 in donations after it was robbed during last month’s unrest, though Hicks ended up donating about half to efforts benefiting the local Black community, including covering the costs for a “Ride for Black Lives,” a cycling rally in Boston this past weekend.

“People being intentional about their economic purchases is refreshing,“ he said. “But we also want them to help tear down the systems that make it hard for us, not just spend their dollars with us.”

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Editor: Vittorio V. Vitug

Saturday, July 4, 2020

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Govt activates 2nd phase of NAP: Covid prevention balanced with economic goals

By Samuel P. Medenilla

R

estoring business operations amid the novel coronavirus disease (Covid-19) is now the top priority of the government under its new national action plan against the pandemic.

IATF-EID relaxes quarantine rules on religious and sports gatherings, salons, barber shops

M

ore people could now participate in religious gatherings and sports activities after the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious D i s e a s e s ( I AT F ) re l a x e d it s existing quarantine measures.

At an online news briefing on Friday, Presidential spokesman Harry Roque said the IATF issued its Resolution 51, Series of 2020 increasing the possible maximum number of participants in religious gatherings in areas under general community quarantine (GCQ).

Prior to the new issuance, participants of such activities were limited to a maximum of 10 persons.

“Religious gatherings in areas under general community quarantine shall be allowed up to 10 percent of the seating capacity, or up to 10 persons, whichever is higher, after 10 July, 2020,” the three-page IATF resolution said.

However, Roque said the following conditions must be complied with before this is allowed: it has the approval of the concerned local government unit; and minimum public health standards such as social distancing and wearing of face masks should be enforced in said events.

Allowed training

Roque said the IATF also approved

the Joint Administrative Order of the Philippine Sports Commission, Games and Amusement Board, Department of Health Joint Administrative Order for “health enhancing physical activities.”

Roque said this will allow physical “conditioning” of basketball and football players.

He said the issuance of the guidelines was in response to the request of the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) and the local football associations.

Relaxed measures

In a related development, Roque said the IATF allowed barbershops and salons to resume their other services other than hair cutting.

IATF instructed the Department of Trade a nd Indust r y (DT I) to issue t he necessa r y g u ide l ines for t h is before it cou ld be implemented.

It also granted the request of travel agencies, to reopen their operations on the condition they will still use only a skeletal work force.

T heir ser v ices is also limited “ad m i n ist rat ive work s” suc h as processing of ref u nd s a nd pay ments to suppl iers.

I AT F R esolut ion 51 w a s a p p r o v e d o n T h u r s d a y.

Samuel P. Medenilla

O n T hu rsd ay, t he I nte r Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (I ATF) approved the proposal of the National Task Force against Covid-19 (NTF) for the second phase of its National Action Plan (NAP).

Presidential spokesman Harry Roque said the next part of the NAP will now shift from just

By Roderick L. Abad Contributor

A

S the nation continues to grapple with devastation wrought by the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19), provincial leaders agreed that it’s now time to consolidate the health systems in place across local governments for efficient delivery of necessary health care to the people.

“The needed thing is integration. How we will be able to integrate the curative, promotive and preventive functions in such a way that we will be able to deliver the health services that are needed by our constituents down to the barangay level,” Aklan Gov. Florencio Miraflores said during the online Zuellig Family Foundation’s learning series tackling the provincial initiatives to mitigate Covid-19 risks.

The current problem, Miraflores said, is that there seems to be no cohesive program among the provinces and municipalities throughout the country.

“So what is needed is how to harmonize all of these by law, by programs or UHC [Universal Health Care]. That integration is a must in the provincial level so that we can answer the needs of our constituency much better,” he noted.

While sharing the same idea with him, Agusan del Sur Gov. Santiago Cane Jr. reiterated that the existing Local Government Code of 1991 need not have to be changed in order for the consolidation of health initiatives to push through.

“What is there to be amended? The curative, preventive and promotive [functions are already delegated to the] local government units. It’s with us since 1992,” he stressed.

In 1991, the Philippine government

introduced a major devolution of national government services, which included the first wave of health industry reform, through the introduction of the Local Government Code.

The following year, it transferred the management and delivery of health services from the Department of Health to locally elec ted provincial, cit y and municipal governments.

Despite this, however, fulfilling such tasks have become problematic due to lack of funds, according to Bataan Gov. Albert Garcia.

“The health functions have already been devolved since 1992 with the passing of the Local Government Code, but the money was not devolved. So this is a subject of a very controversial discussion that has been happening for many, many years now,” he said. “ I m a g i n e t h e f u n c t i o n s, o r t h e responsibilities were devolved, and yet the national government agency that is in charge of health [or] supposedly devolved functions still has a lot of [appropriation] as the years go by instead of these funds being [allotted] down to the local governments,” he pointed out.

Because of financial constraints, Garcia said they “have limited capabilities when it comes to delivering the health services that is much needed.”

The governor believes, though, that combining all the different levels of health services and functions into the provincial level will help solve the disunity in the system.

“Learning from this pandemic, even if you don’t unite these different levels of services in the province, but if we put in place an integrated system, we can still function as one even if our levels of health is fragmented,” he said.

He said this will be operationalize with the institutionalization of the prevent-detect-isolate-treat-reintegrate strategy of the government for Covid-19 cases, as well as the implementation of localized lockdowns.

The new phase of the NAP will also focus on returning overseas Filipinos, locally stranded individuals, and travelers since they could

be at a high risk of being exposed to the virus, and then spreading it to their destinations.

Once fully implemented, the IATF said it will allow the gradual resumption of travel, tourism, and non-disruption of work.

The new NAP was contained in I ATF ’s Resolution 51, Series of 2020 which was approved on Thursday.

Neda eyeing to craft ‘rolling’ economic development plan in push for continuity

By Cai U. Ordinario

T

he National Economic and Development Author it y (Neda) is considering the adoption of a “rolling” Philippine Development Plan (PDP) to minimize any adverse effects on the economy at the end of every administration.

In a House of Representatives Economic Affairs Committee Hearing, Neda Undersecretary Rosemarie G. Edillon said the rolling PDP will mean the updating of the plan will be done not only for the last three years of the current administration but the next six years, comprising the first half of the next administration’s term.

Currently, the country’s PDP is created at the start of every administration. At the midterm or the third year of implementation, the plan is updated for the remaining three years.

“It’s always the case that at the end of the administration, you see all these let’s say capital investments going down because the time horizon is only for the six years but we think that you can have six years at the start of the administration and then at midterm, update it for another six years,” Edillon explained.

Edillon said under the arrangement, the next administration will still get the benefit of creating an update and will ensure that the entire government will be focused on continuity.

However, Edillon said the idea is still being discussed at the Neda level along with other ways to improve government planning, especially in light of the AmBisyon2040, or the country’s “longterm vision.”

Other options on the table include proposed legislations that seek to improve development

planning in the country, as well as the budget modernization bill that the Neda supported.

Edillon said that under the budget modernization bill, the Neda is mandated to come up with an intergenerational plan, which is a 40-year plan.

“This is something that we are still discussing within the Neda and maybe elevate this to the Neda board,” Edillon said.

The Neda has already completed a midterm PDP update. However, due to the pandemic, the Neda decided to re-do the plan to take into consideration the changes needed to revive the economy after the Covid-19 pandemic.

Meanwhile, Edillon assured that the AmBisyon2040 and the current PDP are aligned with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

She said the SDG targets are

actually incorporated in the PDP to ensure the country’s achievement of these goals and the targets were used as strategies to attain the AmBisyon2040.

“As it is, [the AmBisyon2040] is a set of aspirations. Like I said, it’s a vision, it’s not actually a plan.

The plan [PDP] will really change given new things, innovations, and like this pandemic, we need to make a correction. But I think the direction should still be toward achieving the aspirations,” Edillon said.

Based on the results of the survey and focus group discussions on the AmBisyon2040, Filipinos want the Philippines to be a prosperous and predominantly middle class society where no one is poor.

Filipinos also want a society where people live long and healthy lives, are smart and innovative, and enjoy a high-trust society.

Ex-SC justice: Lopez’s dual citizenship forfeits privilege of mass media ownership

GOVERNORS PRESS INTEGRATION OF LOCAL HEALTH PROGRAMS AMID COVID PANDEMIC

containing the infection to restoring the operations of the economy, which was interrupted for over three months because of Covid-19. “ We w i l l now e st a bl i sh a change in the thinking of the people, wherein the focus to health and preventing illness will be balanced with the economic [objectives],” Roque said.

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By Joel R. San Juan

RETIRED Supreme Court magistrate and incumbent member of the Judicial and Bar Council (JBC) has maintained that the failure of ABS-CBN Corp. chairman emeritus Eugenio “Gabby” Lopez III to renounce his US citizenship forfeits his privilege of engaging in the mass media industry.

In his 26-page position paper, former SC Associate Justice Noel Tijam also said ABS-CBN should cease from selling, or issuing, its Philippine Depositary Receipts (PDRs) to foreigners in favor of Filipinos as mandated under the Constitution.

PDR is a security which grants the holder the right to the delivery of sale of the underlying share.

The retired magistrate also warned lawmakers against resorting to an “incomplete and vague” interpretation of the Constitution just to tailor-fit a disqualified enterprise.”

Tijam said such action could be construed as a “Constitutional shortcut that should not be encouraged but denounced as infidelity and treachery.”

“Failure to renounce US citizenship and to strip itself of foreign participation forecloses the privilege of engaging in a mass media enterprise. The only remedy is a Constitutional amendment, to be submitted to the Filipino people on a plebiscite for ratification. This is the equivalent of a Constitutional imprimatur,” Tijam said.

He noted that it has been established and admitted by Lopez himself that he was born in the US to Filipino parents; that he participated in US elections and Philippine elections; and that he carries both US and Philippine passports and uses the former when traveling to Europe and

the latter for travel to Asia; he received education from the US, but later on managed a broadcasting network in Philippine soil and that he paid taxes to both countries.

Lopez maintained that, notwithstanding his dual citizenship, he is entitled to the full rights and obligations as Filipino citizens. He argued that a dual citizen is 100 percent Filipino.

“This is, literally, a half-truth for it conveniently cancels the fact that, as a dual citizen, he is likewise 100 percent American,” Tijam pointed out.

The former SC associate justice branded as “inaccurate” the argument that the Constitution recognizes dual citizenship and, consequently, dual citizens should be given the same rights and privileges as Filipino citizens.

He explained that the Constitution could only define who its citizens are, but cannot define who are citizens of other countries for the obvious reason that nobody has no absolute control over citizenship laws of foreign jurisdictions.

“If we are willing to cede easily and effortlessly our national sovereignty, economy, and patrimony to dual citizens, like Gabby Lopez III, we are likely to open a Pandora’s Box. If we recklessly do so, we are obliged to grant equal, or similar, rights to other permutations of dual citizens,” Tijam pointed out.

“Granting parity, or equal rights, to dual citizens solely based on the goodness of their heart, their good reputation, and the expected contribution to our national coffers will endear us to the international community but will disenfranchise and disillusion countless Filipinos born and raised in the Philippines from availing of and benefiting from the fruits of the motherland,” he added.

Tijam recounted that in order to place the national economy in the effective control of Filipinos, the Constitution further mandates the regulation of foreign investments and imposes upon the State the duty to “conserve and develop our patrimony” and ensure “a selfreliant and independent national economy effectively controlled by Filipinos.”

Such State regulation covers the grant of franchise to public utilities. Article XII, Section 11 of the Constitution.

The said provision states that “the ownership and management of mass media shall be limited to citizens of the Philippines, or to corporations, cooperatives or associations, wholly owned and managed by such citizens.”

“The purpose of the limitation is self-evident—to prevent mass media, with its indelible reach, from being utilized, or exploited, to influence and sway public opinion in a manner detrimental to national interest,” Tijam stressed.

“The restrictive language of the Constitution should be sufficient indication that it admits of no further exposition, that the phrase ‘citizens of the Philippines,’ should not be unduly enlarged as to encompass other variations of citizenship,” he added.

Tijam noted that the Court’s ruling in Mercado v. Manzano that dual citizenship has to be terminated by those seeking any elective post is equally applicable to those seeking to own and manage mass media.

“Dual citizenship of those wanting to own and manage mass media has to be abrogated and cannot be indefinitely propagated. Dual citizens who refuse to terminate, or abrogate, their status as such clearly suffer from a Constitutional disqualification,” Tijam argued.

With regard to its PDRs, Tijam noted that during the Congressional hearings, ABS-CBN denied having issued PDRs and passed the buck to an investment company known as the ABS-CBN Holdings Corp.

But it was also admitted that ABS-CBN Holdings Corp. owns shares in ABS-CBN. Tijam also contradicted the claim of ABS-CBN camp that the PDR holders would not own shares, or exercise any form of control in ABS-CBN. He explained that ABS-CBN secures funding from ABS-CBN Holdings Corp., which, in turn, sold PDRs to foreigners, such as PCD Nominee Corp. (a PDR holder of 60.42 percent) and Prudential Singapore Holdings Pte. Limited, a Singaporean corporation which is also a substantial PDR holder.

Furthermore, Tijam said ABSCBN itself admitted that a PDR holder can trigger the transaction to sell the share, but was silent on whether ABS-CBN or ABS-CBN Holdings Corp. can trigger the transaction solely by themselves, without the PDR holders’ participation.

“These instances are clearly indicative that the actions of ABSCBN Holdings Corp. and ABS-CBN itself concern, if not subservient, to those of the PDR holders,” Tijam pointed out.

“When there is indication of subservience, even the slightest, the 100 percent Filipino effective control is compromised and diminished. Anything less than 100 percent Filipino is already a violation.

Any appearance of foreign control is already a violation,” he noted.

Tijam reminded that it is the State’s duty to protect what the Constitution has expressly reserved to Filipinos, and not to allow foreign nationals to take ownership and control of mass media.

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Duterte signs anti-terror bill into law

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By Samuel P. Medenilla

MID widespread opposition and fear it may be open to abuse, President Duterte signed into law the controversial antiterrorism bill on Friday.

In a statement, Presidential spokesman Harr y Roque said the President signed Republic Act (R A) 11479 or the Anti Terrorism Act of 2020 after an extensive review by his legal team.

Passage of the legislation is a sign of the administration’s

commitment to stamp out terrorism, Roque said.

“The signing of the aforesaid law demonstrates our serious commitment to stamp out terrorism, which has long plagued the country and has caused unimaginable grief and horror to

PHilippines AIRS ‘CONCERN’ OVER PLA’s MILITARY DRILLS IN SOUTH CHINA SEA

By Recto L. Mercene

T

HE Philippine government expressed “concern” on Friday over China’s conduct of military exercises in the waters off the Paracels, which are claimed by Vietnam, and reminded its Asian neighbor to respect the freedom of navigation of other countries.

In a video statement, the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) said the Chinese People’s Liberation Army’s military exercises are being held in the waters off what China calls Xisha and Nansha islands, from July 1 to 5, as posted in “Navigation Notice 0069” dated June 27. Manila reminded Beijing to stick to their coordinates so that they will not “impinge” on Philippine territory.

“Should the exercise spill over to Philippine territory, then China is forewarned that it will be met with the severest response, diplomatic and whatever else is appropriate,” warned Foreign Affairs Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr. in the video statement.

Quoting the post on China’s maritime safety administration web site, Locsin noted with concern that, “For this period, no vessel will be allowed to navigate within the prescribed area [of the PLA exercises], and all vessels shall have to follow the guidance of the commander Chinese ship on the site.”

The exercises, Locsin noted, are being held in the Paracels, “over which Vietnam claims sovereignty.”

He said the Philippines had previously protested the establishment of districts Xisha and Nansha under the administrative jurisdiction of Sansha city. “The creation of Sansha city is null and void ab initio for being devoid of basis in international law,” he added.

He added, “this is the problem with playing fast and loose with historical narratives and historical names. They open themselves to error unless the real purpose is to excuse unchallenged mistakes that may over time harden into rights.”

He continued, “Unless again, the purpose is to establish a perennial and unchallenged presence that may in time congeal into rights.”

According to the former lawmaker and H a r v a rd - t r a i n e d l aw ye r, Ch i n a i s j u s t a s entitled as any other power to invoke freedom of navigation in its militar y exercises, but cautioned that “freedom of navigation requires a straight and uninterrupted voyage.”

Locsin added that at a time like this, one would hope that “simulated military exercises would be more in keeping with the spirit of cooperation that China has encouraged everyone to take.”

Zubiri urges D.A. and D.T.I. to provide ‘strong support’ to agriculture sector

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enate Majority Leader Juan Miguel Zubiri is urging the Departments of Agriculture (DA) and Trade and Industry (DTI) to provide “strong support” to the local agricultural sector as it tries to recover from losses incurred during the several stages of community quarantines brought about by the Covid-19 pandemic.

“In these times, we should be buying Filipino— rice, livestock, local produce, sugar, and so on. The basic rule in food security is to protect the most vulnerable, and that means protecting not only our consumers but also our producers,” the senator said in a news statement.

“The problem is that this basic rule gets derailed by trade practices that at times favor importation to the detriment of local producers,” he noted.

“It boggles the mind that we are still importing when our local producers are suffering from a lack of market,” Zubiri said.

He said our farmers are still trying to recoup from losing bulk buyers like restaurants, hotels, and resorts.

“If our supply chains were functional, then those local products could have easily been redirected for the benefit of our households. Local governments could have bought out the supply intended for bulk buyers, and distributed those to constituents with limited or zero income. But what happened was that our farmers had to keep competing with imports,” Zubiri said.

Meanwhile, he added, food processors continued to use raw materials and ingredients that are imported.

“I know that the DTI has taken the initiative of setting up ‘buy local’ campaigns like Go Lokal! and PinasMunaTayo. These are wonderful initiatives, except for the glaring absence of the agricultural sector. I hope that the DA can push for our local producers to be included in these campaigns. They need these platforms as much as any other industry,” he added.

“Beyond restricting imports, the DA and the DTI should also be providing logistical support to our farmers,” Zubiri said.

many of our people,” said the Palace official.

“Terrorism, as we often said, strikes anytime and anywhere. It is a crime against the people and humanity; thus, the fight against terrorism requires a comprehensive approach to contain terrorist threat,” Roque said.

With its passage, he said they expect the public will be further protected from terrorist acts.

Many individuals and groups had in recent days rejected the legislation for its alleged unconstitutional provisions, and urged Duterte not to sign it.

A human-rights panel in the United Nations joined this call on Wednesday, prompting the bill’s chief advocate, Sen. Panfilo

Lacson, to point out that the measure was based closely on the UN’s own guidelines on dealing with terrorism around the world. Lacson said the UN itself had urged countries to enact effective measures against terrorism.

Minutes after Friday’s signing of the new law, Human Rights Watch (HRW ) Asian Director Phil Robertson warned it would “push Philippine democracy into an abyss.”

The law “threatens to significantly worsen the human-rights situation in the Philippines, which has nosedived since the catastrophic ‘war on drugs’ began four years ago,” Robertson said.

HRW said it is now bracing for the “systematic targeting of politi-

cal critics and opponents, as well as ordinary Filipinos who dare to speak out,” something it claimed is now made possible with the new law.

It urged other countries to denounce the passage or RA 11479.

L a b or c o a l it io n Na g k a i s a a l s o c a l l e d out D ut e r t e for “missing his histor ic oppor t unit y to uphold t he supremac y of t he Const it ut ion.”

“With his signing of the AntiTerror of 2020, President Rodrigo Duterte has failed his Constitutional Law test. We are disappointed with his failure to object to an unconstitutional proposal.

He succumbed to the seduction of an indecent proposal,” Nagkaisa said in a statement.

Key destinations in Palawan lose over P3 billion in tourism receipts

By Ma. Stella F. Arnaldo

Special to the BusinessMirror

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HE era of mass tourism is over. As far as Gov. Jose Ch. Alvarez is concerned, tourists for Palawan will be “selective, targeted, prioritized.” Last year, he said, the entire province recorded some 150 million in tourist arrivals.

In a news briefing live from El Nido, Tourism Secretary Bernadette Romulo Puyat added the three major tourism destinations in the province, namely, El Nido, San Vicente, and Coron, already lost P3.1 billion in tourism receipts from March to June this year. The travel restrictions and community quarantines implemented to contain the spread of Covid-19 has also “displaced 14,000 tourism workers” in these destinations alone.

Alvarez didn’t give a definite date when Palawan will start accepting tourists, preferring to wait for the results of a “dry run” to be conducted by the Department of Tourism from the Clark International Airport in Pampanga to El Nido Resorts. The province has been under modified general community quarantine since June 1 and is technically allowed to accept leisure visitors already, but so far, it is only to returning residents via the Puerto Princesa Airport.

He pointed out that he and Mayor Lucilo Bayron agreed to keep the Puerto Princesa Airport open “because this is the lifeblood of the province.”

Romulo Puyat said the tourism “dry run” in El Nido will be conducted soon after DOT’s dry run in Baguio City, which plans to reopen to tourism in September.

El Nido and its beaches have been consistently on the list of the “world’s best” of various international travel publications.

She said, what is currently being discussed with Alvarez and other local government units in Palawan are for tourists to come in from Clark, or from Manila.

“Pwedeng point to point muna, They can come from Clark or Manila,” she said.

But the tourists first have to undergo the RT-PCR tests in Clark, or any Department of Health-accredited hospital in Metro Manila, if flying in via from the Ninoy Aquino International Airport. The tourists, stressed Alvarez and the DOT chief, will shoulder the costs of their Covid tests.

Alvarez said he expects the Palawan economy to be in recession by the third quarter, after recording

While on an inspection visit of El Nido, Tourism Secretary Bernadette Romulo Puyat (center) discusses plans for the imminent reopening of Palawan to domestic tourists first with Palawan Gov. Jose Ch. Alvarez and El Nido Mayor Edna G. Lim. Photo courtesy DOT

Tourism Secretary Bernadette Romulo Puyat (center) informs media of plans for the imminent reopening of Palawan to domestic tourists first with Palawan Gov. Jose Ch. Alvarez (left). Also present at the virtual news briefing was Tourism Promotions Board COO Ma. Anthonette Allones. contractions in the first half of the year. “There are no profits to be made in 2020,” he said of the local tourism players, “but we will target [for profits] in 2021 and onwards.”

Romulo Puyat said the D epar tment of Environment and Natural Resources is continuing its study on the carrying capacity for El Nido and other destinations, and a firm number on tourism limits will be set before these are finally opened to tourists.

She thanked El Nido Mayor Edna G. Lim for allowing the upcoming dry run to El Nido Resorts and hoped the mayors of Coron and San Vicente would soon follow suit.

She likewise challenged El Nido Resorts to adopt the health and safety protocols prescribed by the InterAgency Task Force in Emerging Infectious Diseases and the DOT for accommodation establishments. An Ayala Group subsidiary, El Nido Resorts is a DOT-accredited primary tourism enterprise.

HK govt bans movement’s rallying cry for ‘revolution’

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he Hong Kong government has declared illegal a key slogan chanted by hundreds of thousands of protesters, in the latest sign that authorities plan to use a new Beijing-drafted national security law to enforce limits on free speech.

In what it called a “solemn statement” late Thursday, the Hong Kong government said the rallying cry “Liberate Hong Kong! Revolution of our time!” was now illegal under the law barring secession, terrorism, subversion of state power and collusion with foreign forces.

The sweeping law, which carries prison sentences as long as life in prison, was made public only as it took effect late Tuesday.

The government had said earlier Thursday that banners and chants calling for “Hong Kong independence” were now illegal, without specifying that that prohibition also applied to the more widely used “Liberate Hong Kong!” slogan. Independence was never included among the “Five Demands” sought by protesters last year, only meaningful elections.

“The slogan ‘Liberate Hong Kong, the revolution of our times’ nowadays connotes ‘Hong Kong independence,’ or separating the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) from the People’s Republic of China, altering the legal status of the HKSAR, or subverting the state power,” the government said.

The Hong Kong police arrested 370 people at protests against the legislation Wednesday, the 23rd anniversary of Hong Kong’s return to Chinese rule. Ten were detained under provisions of the new national security law. ”Until the offenders are charged and tried, it is unclear to both police and the public whether their behavior does in fact violate the new law—and if so, how steep the penalties will be,” Eurasia Group political risk analysts Andrew Coflan and Allison Sherlock wrote in a note to clients.

“In the meantime, officers seem to be targeting demonstrators making direct calls for independence, while others continue to be arrested for violating public order.”

Bloomberg News

U.S. unemployment falls to 11% but new shutdowns are under way W

ASHINGTON—US unemployment fell to 11.1 percent in June as the economy added a solid 4.8 million jobs, the government reported Thursday. But the job-market recovery may already be faltering because of a new round of closings and layoffs triggered by a resurgence of the coronavirus.

While the jobless rate was down from 13.3 percent in May, it is still at a Depression-era level. And the data was gathered during the second week of June, just before a number of states began to reverse, or suspend the reopenings of their economies to try to beat back the virus.

“This is a bit of a dated snapshot at this point,” said Jesse Edgerton, an economist at J.P. Morgan Chase.

The news came as the number of confirmed infections per day in the US soared to an all-time high of 50,700, more than doubling over the past month, according to the count kept by Johns Hopkins University.

The spike, centered primarily in the South and West, has led states such as California, Texas, Arizona and Florida to re-close, or otherwise clamp down again on bars, restaurants, movie theaters, beaches

and swimming pools, throwing some workers out of a job for a second time.

President Donald Trump said the jobs report shows the economy is “roaring back,” though he acknowledged there are still areas where “we’re putting out the flames” of the virus.

Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden responded, “Just like last month, President Trump has spiked the ball and made this about him. He doesn’t seem to realize he’s not even on the 50-yard line.”

Economists expect the recovery to take longer than Trump’s optimistic projections, with the unemployment rate likely to be near double-digit levels by year’s end.

“Even as we move into the second half of the year, a large number of people will still be looking for work,” said Eric Winograd, senior US economist at asset manager AllianceBernstein.

The shutdowns over the past two weeks will be reflected in the July unemployment report, to be released in early August.

While the job market improved in June for a second straight month, the Labor Department report showed that the US has recouped only

In this May 16, 2020, file photo, Glen Buhlmann, lower left, fills out a job application during a walk- and drive-up job fair in Seattle for clothing maker Outdoor Research’s new line of face masks and other personal protection equipment the company has started manufacturing due to the coronavirus pandemic. US employers likely rehired several million more workers in June, thereby reducing a Depression-level unemployment rate, but the most up-to-date data suggests that a resurgent coronavirus will limit further gains. AP

about one-third of the colossal 22 million jobs lost during the lockdowns this spring.

Layoffs are still running high: The number of Americans who applied for unemployment benefits fell only slightly last week to 1.4 million, according to the government. Though the weekly figure has declined steadily since peaking in March, it is still extraordinarily large by historic standards.

And the total number of people drawing jobless benefits remains at a sizable 19 million.

US job growth in June was driven mainly by companies recalling workers who had been laid off during the widespread business shutdowns across the country.

In an ominous trend contained in the labor department report, the number of Americans who said they had lost their jobs permanently rose by 600,000 last month to nearly 2.9 million.

Many businesses, particularly small ones, are shutting down for good even though the lockdowns have largely been lifted.

Erik Hurst, an economics professor at the University of Chicago, said many restaurants, bars and gyms can’t survive by operating at half-capacity,

and customers are going to be cautious until there is a vaccine.

“We don’t want to get our hair cut as much as we used to,” Hurst said. “We don’t want to go out to eat as much as we used to.”

Fred Wellman’s five employees are getting their final paychecks Friday as he closes down his public relations firm, ScoutComms. He was able to get a small-business loan from the government, but it wasn’t enough.

He usually drums up most of his business at conferences, seminars and other in-person events.

But “if people aren’t meeting in person, if people aren’t holding events, you don’t get a chance to mingle,” he said.

The job gains of the past two months have partly resulted from unprecedented levels of government spending, including $1,200 relief checks, more than $500 billion in grants to small businesses, and an extra $600 a week in unemployment benefits.

Those payments enabled millions of Americans to cover the rent and other bills. Yet those programs are expiring or tailing off. The additional $600 in unemployment ends July 31.AP

Companies BusinessMirror

www.businessmirror.com.ph

IBM shares ‘return to workplace’ playbook A S it continues to monitor and assess the Covid-19 pandemic, IBM (NYSE: IBM) has announced the first phase of its return-towork strategy with the release of the Return to Workplace Playbook for its 350,000-strong work force across the globe.

The company has begun to implement a staggered return-to-work plan in the Philippines and other offices globally.

While the guidelines are intended for its employees, IBM said it is also keen on sharing the principles behind the playbook with its customers and business partners. The playbook was the result of data-driven, evidence-based practices and policies that IBM initiated as countries and regions begin to ease quarantine and lockdown protocols surrounding the pandemic. The company has also been closely monitoring public health advisories from various governments, the World Health Organization and the US Centers for Disease Control to ensure that the playbook sets a consistent standard across all IBM offices.

IBM said it expects the playbook to be finetuned as it begins its first phase of implementation. The changes may be applied to succeeding phases based on results of continuous assessment of market-specific health and policy landscape. The guidelines are built around seven practical and actionable business imperatives: (1) empower a remote work force; (2) engage customers virtually; (3) remote access to everything; (4) accelerate agility and efficiency; (5) protect against new cybersecurity risks; (6) reduce operational costs and enhance supply chain continuity; and (7) support health providers and government services.

Work with clients–Silva

IBM Philippines Chief Operations Officer Rommell Silva said the business imperatives will be useful to clients as the country gradually moves forward through the pandemic. “It’s important for us to work alongside our clients so we can all build strategies that will adapt to the challenges that lie ahead. These business imperatives will definitely help them strengthen their resilience even further,” Silva said.

The playbook uses learnings from a survey conducted

by IBM Institute for Business Value (IBV) in April involving 25,000 adults in the US. The survey asked respondents how the Covid-19 pandemic has affected them in terms of work, transportation, shopping, attending large events, among others. Results revealed that almost half of those surveyed believe in implementing social distancing in the workplace, as well as the importance of remote work arrangements, training, and physical and emotional health.

Silva acknowledged the similarities of the results of the survey with that of the current IBM Philippines setting, emphasizing the importance of meeting the needs of their employees, customers and business partners while observing the protocols of the national government.

“We expect a larger number of employees to return to their respective offices as we slowly transition to new normal conditions. This is precisely why companies must know how to complement their safety guidelines for their stakeholders with that of government’s protocols without compromising performance and productivity.

This playbook will definitely help us navigate through this changing environment,” Silva said.

IBM Philippines Chief Human Resources Officer, Graziella de Guzman, assured their employees and their families of the company’s close attention to health and safety once they begin to report back to the office. “Our employees’ health and safety is our top priority. Not only do we want them to feel secure in our office premises, but we also want their families to have peace of mind each time they come home from work,” de Guzman said.

About 95 percent of IBM’s global work force from 175 countries has been working remotely since the middle of March. The first phase of the playbook includes a readiness checklist that applies to employees with on-site work settings; employers’ preparations and procedures for the workplace; and preparations and processes for employees, clients and visitors.

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BDO issues ₧36B in fixed-rate peso bonds B

DO Unibank Inc. (BDO) successfully issued on Friday (July 3) P36.0 billion in fixed-rate bonds, or more than seven times the original offer of P5.0 billion, on robust demand from individual and institutional investors.

The bonds were exclusively offered through BDO Trust & In-

vestments Group and BDO Private Bank Trust.

The bonds have a tenor of 1.75 years and a coupon rate of 3.125 percent per annum.

Interest will be paid quarterly, calculated on a 30/360 count basis.

The offer period started on June 15, 2020, and ended on June 26, 2020.

The latest bond issuance is part of BDO’s continuing efforts to diversify its funding sources and support its lending activities.

The Standard Chartered Bank (“SCB”) was the Sole Lead Arranger and Market Maker for the issue, while BDO Unibank Inc. and BDO Private Bank Inc. were the Selling Agents.

SMC opens its own Covid-19 testing lab for 70,000 people in its work force

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AN Miguel Corp. (SMC) has opened Better World Edsa, a facility housing the company’s own state-of-the-art Covid-19 RT-PCR testing laboratory which aims to test some 70,000 employees in its network, in order to unburden the health sector and help ensure a safe return-to-work strategy in the coming months.

Unveiling the marker for the new laboratory was SMC President and COO Ramon S. Ang, National Task Force (NTF) against Covid-19 chief implementer and Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process Secretary Carlito Galvez Jr., Covid-19 Task Force deputy chief implementer Secretary Vince Dizon and Health Undersecretary Leopoldo Vega.

The Better World Edsa testing facility has the capacity to process 4,000 tests per day, expandable to 12,000. This is seen to help the government reach testing capacity to 50,000 per day, as well as ease the strain on the country’s testing and processing facilities.

It is equipped with two sets of RT-PCR machines and fully automated nucleic acid extraction systems or NATCH. A set is comprised of two PCR machines and one NATCH. This makes the facility one of the most advanced private testing laboratories in the country.

“Two weeks into the quarantine last March, we included the testing laboratory as part of our business continuity plan. We procured the machines, and had personnel undergo training for its full-scale operations,” related Ang. “With this facility, we are taking responsibility for testing our own employees and unburdening our health system. It also helps make our operations more resilient to disruptions brought about by the virus. Lesser disruptions on our operations will allow us to better contribute to the immediate recovery of the economy,” he said.

According to Ang, the company aims to bring back 50 percent of its work force in the coming weeks.

Prior to the shift to general community quarantine, SMC had already commenced testing its employees, with those in its food manufacturing facilities as priority, in order to further stabilize the country’s food supply in the coming months.

Ang reiterated that companies should help the government with testing and reduce reliance on the already burdened system.

“It’s our contribution the government’s effort to continuously test and trace Covid-19 transmission and contain it, as well as enable early intervention or treatment to save lives,” he said.

Ang added: “The country and the rest of the world are still feeling the effects of the pandemic on the economy, particularly on businesses and loss of jobs for many of our fellowmen. We have to take more aggressive steps in addressing the virus and make sure that no more lives and livelihood are lost further,”he said.

National Task Force (NTF) against Covid-19 chief implementer Carlito Galvez Jr. undergoes a swab test at SMC’s Better World Edsa facility. PHOTO COURTESY OF SMC Dizon commended SMC for taking the lead in helping rebuild confidence in the economy by putting up its own lab and testing all its employees. “We should now be in confidence-building mode. We thank San Miguel for being the first among the companies and we challenge the private sector companies, especially the big ones like San Miguel to have their own laboratory and test their employees in order to boost confidence and hasten resumption of business.”

Galvez aired a similar sentiment as he and the other government officials present underwent swab tests for Covid-19 to signify the laboratory’s official start of operations.

The SMC laboratory is capable of continuous testing and processing of results. Among the personnel running the facility are molecular pathologists, medical technicians, data managers and laboratory aides.

Ang earlier batted to make testing available at little or no cost, particularly for the most vulnerable communities. In line with this, SMC has donated swab booths, as well as PCR testing kits equivalent to 34,000 tests to 17 Metro Manila LGUs. The company also provided three sets of Reverse Transcription Polymerase Chain Reaction (RT-PCR) testing machines and RNA machines to key government hospitals. This is aside from the five sets of the same machines donated to the Department of Health, which also received testing kits equivalent to 20,000 tests.

It also donated 55 sets of high-flow nasal cannula (HFNC) machines for the use of severely-ill Covid-19 patients to the government and 10 quarantine facilities each with a 15-bed capacity beside military camp hospitals nationwide.

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HE J. Amado Araneta Foundation (JAAF), the social development arm of Araneta City, recently donated Covid-19 RT-PCR test kits to the Quezon City government.

Present during the test kits turnover at the Philippine Genome Center were JAAF Executive Director Diane Romero, Dr. Mary Rochelle Paulino of the Quezon City Health Department, and Marissa Ocampo RN of The Manila HealthTek Inc. The kits, which are expected to test 500 samples at the Quezon City General Hospital, were developed by scientists from the University of the Philippines-National Institute of Health (UP-NIH), with the assistance of the Department of Science and Technology (DOST) through the Philippine Council for Health Research and Development (PCHRD).

PCCI, SB Corp. to provide ‘restart loans’ to MSMEs

HE Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry (PCCI) and state-owned SB Corp. have signed an agreement to operationalize and facilitate the grant of loans to micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) that are now seeking to reboot their operations that were disrupted by the Covid-19 pandemic and the strict quarantine measures that went with it.

The P300-million loan facility, under the Covid-19 Assistance to Restart Enterprises (CARES) program, will be made available to MSMEs accredited by PCCI based on the MOU signed by SB Corp. President and CEO Ma. Luna Cacanando and PCCI President Amb. Benedicto Yujuico.

Joining the signing were PCCI Director Edgar “Injap” Sia II PCCI honorary Chairman and Treasurer Sergio Ortiz-Luis Jr., PCCI Secretary-General Ruben Pascual, PCCI Director for SME Apolinar Aure, and SB Corp. Department Manager for Planning Wally Don Calderon.

The donation is in fulfillment of Araneta City’s pledge last March 10 to assist the local government in the mitigation and containment of the pandemic. In the pledge, Araneta City Senior Vice President for Operations Antonio T. Mardo said: “We value the health and safety of the entire community. In these health challenging times, being responsive, aside from being prepared, is highly important.

We are talking about saving lives here, and donation of test kits is the least Araneta City can do to help. This is our way of showing our cooperation to the government in this time of crisis.”

Through this donation, JAAF and Araneta City said they intend to show their commitment in fighting Covid-19, and in fostering a spirit of public-private cooperation for the immediate resolution of this health crisis.

BDO ranked as the largest bank in terms of total assets, loans, deposits and trust funds under management based on published statements of condition as of March 31, 2020.

BDO is a full-service universal bank which provides a wide range of corporate and retail banking services.

It has one of the largest distribution networks, with more than 1,400 operating branches and over 4,400 ATMs nationwide.

It also has full-service branches in Hong Kong and Singapore, as well as 15 overseas remittance and representative offices in Asia, Europe, North America and the Middle East.

Metro Pacific hospitals explore telemedicine, remote patient care

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Araneta City donates Covid-19 test kits to Quezon City hospital

Photo shows the officers of PCCI and SB Corp. at the signing of the MOU. They are: SB Corp. President and CEO Ma. Luna Cacanando (seated, second from right) and PCCI President Amb. Benedicto Yujuico (seated, second from left), PCCI Director Edgar “Injap” Sia II (seated, left), PCCI honorary Chairman and Treasurer Sergio Ortiz-Luis Jr. (seated, right). Standing, from left, are PCCI Secretary-General Ruben Pascual, PCCI Director for SME Apolinar Aure, and SB Corp. Department Manager for Planning Wally Don Calderon.

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Saturday, July 4, 2020

ETRO Pacific Hospitals Holdings Inc. (MPHHI) is stepping up efforts to find a “new normal” solution that will serve as a common platform for its member hospitals to keep hospitals and health-care footfall to minimum. The group is introducing virtual consultation to other capabilities such as e-pharmacy, mobile laboratories, remote patient monitoring and continuity of care beyond the hospital room.

Long touted as a means to provide health-care for the needy in far-flung or underserved areas, telemedicine is currently viewed as a way to cope with an overwhelmed health system dealing with the Covid-19 pandemic.

“The country’s health-care system faces unprecedented challenges because of the ongoing pandemic, caused by a virus that is unfamiliar, and seems easily transmitted,” warned Metro Pacific Investment Corp. (MPIC) Chairman Manuel V. Pangilinan when he designated MPHHI-owned Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital (OLLH) as the group’s main Covid referral facility in March.

Three months into the Covid-19 pandemic, MPHHI is now seriously looking into possible modern information and communication technologies to connect medical professionals with

patients in lieu of actual physical meetups in hospitals or clinics.

“MPHHI believes that using telemedicine and remote patient monitoring for management of chronic diseases can minimize, though not totally prevent, physical visits of patients to healthcare facilities,” said Eriene C. Lao, chief information officer of MPHHI. Lao revealed that some hospitals in the group have already deployed telemedicine solutions for virtual consultation, but noted that these solutions were mainly developed in-house.

As a group initiative, she said MPHHI, is in the process of selecting the most feasible solution that will serve as a common platform for the MPHHI hospitals.

‘Healing at a distance’

“Telemedicine may be our new normal,” said Lao. “It augments the delivery of primary health-care most especially in our country, where the doctor to patient ratio is a challenge.”

She acknowledged that telemedicine, literally meaning “healing at a distance”, could hold the promise of delivering patient-centered care in a post-pandemic era, with its advantages.

Lao explained that telemedicine, and remote patient monitoring, could allow for better management of chronic diseases earlier, and prevent patients from showing up in a health-care setting that can expose them to the Covid-19 virus.

“We feel there are business and operational opportunities here,” she said.

“Hospitals can optimize the utilization of their bed capacity, improve the efficiency of the health-care workers, allow collaboration of medical team from different hospitals and give remote hospitals access to more experienced medical practitioners in big hospitals.”

Face-to-face with docs

Lao cautioned, however, that while the new normal following the pandemic may see patients being encouraged to consult doctors through telemedicine, face-to-face interaction between a doctor and a patient still retains considerable importance.

For now, she said physicians at the MPHHI hospitals group are strongly advised on safety protocols such as limiting to five patients daily, observing physical distancing, wearing of personal protective equipment (PPE), and changing gowns after every other patient.

A6 Saturday, July 4, 2020

ExportUnlimited BusinessMirror

PHL set to ink pact to export halal products to Indonesia I

DTI-EMB presents financing options to MSME exporters

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HE Philippines and Indonesia are set to enter a government-togovernment (G2G) agreement to facilitate the export of Philippine halal products to Indonesia.

This was relayed in a webinar last June 24, 2020, by the Department of Trade and Industry-Export Marketing Bureau (DTI-EMB), Philippine Trade and Investments Center-Jakarta (PTIC-Jakarta), Philippine Trade Training Center (PTTC), and the Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry (PCCI) on Indonesia’s new halal regulations.

“Although we have a significant trade on food with Indonesia, we want to maximize by exploring opportunities in halal. Indonesia is home to more than 200 million people and the first requirement of the consumers is halal especially for food, pharmaceuticals, cosmetics, and personal-care products,” said DTI Undersecretary Abdulgani M. Macatoman as he welcomed the participants during the webinar.

Professor IR Sukoso, head of the Halal Product Assurance Body (BPJPH), in his talk during the webinar, discussed the new regulations of Indonesia, which called for a mandatory halal certification of products that enter, are distributed, and are traded within the territories of Indonesia.

These changes prompted the Philippines to seek possible cooperation on halal with Indonesia to further strengthen the economic ties of the two economies.

Sukoso underscored two options for international cooperation: G2G and business-to-government mechanisms.

B2G mechanism is the direct application of the business entity, while the G2G mechanism involves a memorandum of understanding between the two

countries. The MOU will be an instrument for the subsequent establishment of mutual recognition arrangement (MRA) for halal certification and accreditation between the two markets.

“The most straightforward way to solve halal certification issues is to have a G2G agreement. We need to capacitate, particularly our certifying bodies, so that they are in line with the bilateral agreements with the countries we are dealing with,” DTI-EMB Director Senen M. Perlada added.

The DTI’s Philippine Accreditation Bureau (PAB) Director James Empeño discussed the accreditation guidelines and requirements for halal during the webinar. He said that while local halal certification bodies are yet to be accredited, there is an accredited foreign certification body that was able to comply with the national and the international requirements of its target market.

“While we are ecstatic about the enormous potential of the halal market for food, tourism, and services, both here and abroad, we need to also work in building our credibility and competitiveness as halal exporters to gain the respect and trust of the global Muslim

DTI chief sees swifter flow of vehicles, goods with launch of Nlex Harbor Link Segment 10

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EPARTMENT of Trade and Industry (DTI) Secretary Ramon M. Lopez congratulated the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) in officially opening to motorists the C3-R10 section of the North Luzon Expressway (Nlex) Harbor Link Segment 10 in Navotas City on June 15, 2020, which would ensure better movement of commercial vehicles and goods in the area.

The 2.6-kilometer Nlex Harbor Link section is an elevated expressway that will serve as a direct route from Nlex to the Port of Manila and vice versa to make the delivery of goods faster and more efficient.

“We very much welcome the opening of this section of the Nlex Harbor Link, as this will definitely boost productivity and spur trade and commerce. It would cut travel time from Quezon City to the Port of Manila from two hours to 10 to 15 minutes. Likewise, it would also provide ease of travel for Manila port freight carriers and other commercial vehicles,” Lopez said.

“We laud the DPWH and its privatesector partners in working overtime to deliver this vital piece of infrastructure even during the height of the Covid-19 pandemic. This will be critical in speeding up our country’s post-pandemic economic recovery,” he added.

The project is the first infrastructure project to open during the general commu-

nity quarantine period. By bringing Nlex closer to the country’s central shipping gateway, the Port of Manila, the government foresees speedier transport of goods, as well as increased economic productivity in Metro Manila and North and Central Luzon regions. As no truck bans are imposed along Nlex, cargo trucks would also gain 24/7 road network access.

“Effective logistics development is the key in facilitating trade and connectivity.

It lowers cost and clearance time of imports and exports, while also ensuring the smooth flow of commodities. Having stable and reliable logistics would encourage market expansion and improve investors’ confidence in our country’s ability to transport goods and services,” Lopez explained.

“With this new project that improves overall accessibility and reduces transportation costs, including travel time, the impact on economic productivity is immense.

With reliable logistics, costs to obtain input materials and services are reduced, businesses’ labor pool is increased, and the potential markets are expanded,” he added.

In the first quarter of 2020 alone, the Philippine Ports Authority reported 14,920,227 metric tons of foreign cargo throughput and 782,482 twenty-foot equivalent units of foreign container traffic, both imports and exports, between the Port of Manila to North Luzon.

community,” said Roberto Amores of PCCI, one of the speakers during the webinar.

Jakarta-based Philippine Commercial Attachè Jeremiah Reyes echoed the necessity to have an MOU with Indonesia.

“We have visited the office of Prof.

Sukoso many times and the initial draft is with us at the moment. It’s just a matter of consultation to get the inputs of other stakeholders particularly from the private sector because at the end of the day, we don’t want the process to be burdensome to all of us, especially to the private sector,” he said.

The initial draft of the MOU has already been tabled for approval at the Halal Export Board level which will then be circulated with the Department of Foreign Affairs for subsequent transmittal to the Indonesian side.

The webinar was well received with more than 500 participants from Zoom and Facebook Live combined, coming from the enterprises of all sizes, covering food and nonfood sectors. It was also participated by relevant government bodies both from the Philippines and Indonesia.

N an effort to help micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) find financing for their business, especially in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic, the Department of Trade and Industry-Export Marketing Bureau (DTI-EMB) hosted a webinar, entitled “Financial Stimulus and Tools to Mitigate the Impact of Covid-19” on June 25, 2020.

“The government is aware of your plight when the pandemic started and has since made efforts to come up with financial programs to stimulate your businesses that would help you to be more resilient,” said Abdulgani M. Macatoman, DTI undersecretary for Trade Promotions, who delivered the opening remarks.

Speakers include Mr. Angelito Acupan, chief risk officer of the Small Business Corp. (SB Corp); Ms. Gay Santos, a financial inclusion specialist and advocate; and Ms. Maureen Ledesma, founder and chief executive officer of Vesl Pte. Ltd. Vesl is one of the start-ups supported

by DTI-EMB through its Startup Pinay program.

Acupan gave updates about the Covid-19 Assistance to Restart Enterprises (CARES) Program of the SB Corp. The P1-billion program gives out business loans to micro and small enterprises affected by the Covid-19 pandemic. SB Corp. has since closed applications and is processing the 22,061 loan applications they received.

When asked, the chief risk officer said that the reopening of the CARES program depends on the government allocating an additional budget for the program.

Meanwhile, SB Corp. has other programs like P3 Protect, a P50million financing facility available for small and medium enterprise manufacturers of personal protective equipment, test kits, and Department of Health- accredited medicines. They also have P3 HEROES, a P100-million loan program to help repatriated overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) start their own business.

Santos gave an overview of the MSME financing landscape and said that 41.2 percent of adults have borrowed from family and friends compared to the 11 percent who borrowed through formal channels, according to the World Bank Global Findex Database of 2017. She said that “heavy reliance on family and friends on funding does not lead to a bankable footprint for MSMEs.”

Stakeholders launch FIRe project in bid to boost PHL’s export competitiveness

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TAKEHOLDERS of the export industry have launched a project that aims to enable exporters utilize game-changing technologies to enhance their competitiveness especially as they adapt to the “new normal” amid the Covid-19 pandemic.

Sergio Ortiz-Luis Jr., president of the Philippine Exporters Confederation Inc. (Philexport), said The Road to FIRe (Fourth Industrial Revolution) project, which the group conceptualized early this year, hopes to serve as a platform to help advocate to and shepherd interested Philexport members to leverage on technology for business growth.

“For this reason and consistent with the strategies and targets in the Philippine Export Development Plan, we intend to bring this advocacy to the next level with the implementation of The Road to FIRe project,” Ortiz-Luis said. He said the pandemic highlighted more the significance of implementing the project, underscoring the need to use technology to crisis-proof businesses in the future. OrtizLuis signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) for the launch of the The Road to FIRe project with the Departments of Trade and Industry, Science and Technology, Labor and Employment, and the Development Academy of the Philippines (DAP) during the third of the three-part general membership meeting

of Philexport.

Science Secretary Fortunato dela Peña said the Covid-19 crisis has changed the way tasks and businesses are being carried on, as more people go online amid the restrictions on mobility.

“Unfortunately, this change in our reality affected so many people especially our MSMEs [micro, small and medium enterprises] who are not yet ready to go digital,” he said. “So a lot of our local MSMEs have been affected in terms of operations during this crisis. And this is exactly what we are trying to address here, we want our MSMEs to be FIRe-ready so that they can easily cope when a crisis such as this occurs.”

Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III said the MOU signing for The Road to FIRe project highlighted their goal to promote “gainful employment” and develop their human resources by sharing expertise and knowledge on various undertakings related with the transition of the MSMEs toward the digital economy.

“The transition to the digital economy is inevitable. This pandemic showed us our MSMEs that adapted new technologies were able to sustain operations and survive the impact of disruptions in the economy,” he said.

“This should therefore be considered, the Fourth Industrial Revolution, as an opportunity to revolutionize our workplaces and implement

structural changes. While this may entail a very difficult transition, our joint collaboration will surely help in providing guidance for MSMEs toward the successful transition,” he added.

Trade Undersecretary Bles Lantayona said the Regional Operations Group of the DTI supports the various agenda on the Fourth Industrial Revolution, or Industry 4.0, by implementing several programs to transform MSMEs into more innovative and competitive enterprises. “Our 1,130 Negosyo Centers all over the country can be an information hub for industry 4.0 technologies. Our Negosyo Centers can set up business clinics to promote adoption and linkage with the technology providers. While the support is not much, it will help our MSMEs slowly get back to business while recalibrating its entry as the economy gets back to normal,” she said.

Lantayona added the Kapatid Mentor ME program, together with the Philippine Center for Entrepreneurship’s Go Negosyo, will look into the possibility of including modules on the Fourth Industrial Revolution. “Through the KMME program, we want to be able to reach more MSMEs to become smarter entrepreneurs.

With the current pandemic, KMME program will continue by embracing the digital world where coaching and mentoring sessions are already conducted online,” she added.

OurTime BusinessMirror

www.businessmirror.com.ph

Editor: Angel R. Calso • Saturday, July 4, 2020

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Coty Manalang-Cruz: Helping people through Reiki yoga

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By Rizal Raoul S. Reyes

but can now do with ease.

The class starts with a short meditation, to quiet the mind, followed by guided pranayama breathing.

Her only open class is on Saturdays at 8:30 in the morning. The rest are private classes.

Although she does not impose dietary restrictions, she just tells them to try to eat a balanced meal with a bit of vegetables and fruits.

“I also tell them to stay away from sugar…with a smile,” she said.

HESE are indeed stressful times and people, especially the elderly, are looking for ways to de-stress to make everyday life more bearable.

T he cur rent pandemic has prompted former social entrepreneur Coty Manalang-Cruz to open her Reiki yoga center to both local and foreign clients from ages eight to 86.

Reiki is a Japanese technique that promotes healing and self-improvement through energy. It works in conjunction with traditional medicine and therapeutic practices to encourage faster recovery.

For the elderly, Manalang-Cruz conducts and evaluates their condition before they “plunge” into action.

“The main challenge would be...I have to first learn and study their condition. This is so I know what positions can benefit them, as well as a position they can comfortably

do with their age and condition,” Manalang-Cruz said in an e-mail interview with the BusinessMirror.

She and her elderly clients set a weekly schedule that is convenient for all parties. She becomes inspired and motivated to teach this group when they approach and tell her that they really want to change and improve their lifestyle. Aside from being a nurturing mentor, she charges them affordable rates to encourage them to stay in the program. “If they do it weekly or better yet twice a week, seeing them improve their flexibility, balance and stamina is a blessing,” she said.

For the elderly, she asks them to do gentle flow and always remind them to do only what they can. “Little by

Reinventing herself MANALANG-CRUZ

little, they will see the improvement, this is if they do it on a regular basis,” Manalang-Cruz said.

Sessions with the elderly are done on a one-on-one basis.

She motivates her elderly students by setting an example, living a life that is more balanced. Another motivation is found within the students themselves, as they find it easier to perform yoga positions that they previously found difficult,

Ethiopian monk said to be 114 years old survives coronavirus

CENTENARIAN Tilahun Woldemichael prays to God after spending weeks in hospital recovering from the coronavirus, at his house in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, on June 27, 2020. The Ethiopian monk believed to be 114 years old has survived the coronavirus and was discharged from a hospital on June 25, having received oxygen and dexamethasone, a cheap and widely available steroid that researchers in England have said reduced deaths by up to one third in severely ill hospitalized patients. AP PHOTO/MULUGETA AYENE

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DDIS A BA BA , Ethiopia—A n Ethiopian Orthodox monk whose family says he is 114 years old has

survived the coronavirus.

Tilahun Woldemichael was discharged from a hospital on June 25, 2020, after almost three weeks. He received oxygen and dexamethasone, a cheap and widely available steroid that researchers in England have said reduced deaths by up to one third in severely ill hospitalized patients.

Ethiopia’s health minister has said the ministry recommends the emergency use of the drug for Covid-19 patients who require ventilation or oxygen.

Tilahun’s grandson Biniam Leulseged said he has no birth certificate to prove the monk’s age, but he showed a photo of him celebrating his 100th birthday.

“He was looking young back then, too,” Biniam told The Associated Press on Saturday.

He said he was emotional when his grandfather was taken to the hospital but “I am very happy because we are together again.”

Ethiopia has more than 5,200 confirmed cases of the virus. AP

Nursing homes are only as safe as their communities

By Justin Fox | Bloomberg Opinion

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BOUT 2.2 million Americans, or a little under 0.7 percent of the country’s population, live in nursing homes and other residential-care facilities for the elderly. Residents of these facilities, meanwhile, have by some estimates accounted for more than 40 percent of US deaths from Covid-19.

This “astounding share of deaths,” as conservative health-policy expert Avik Roy described it last month, has raised lots of questions about whether a different approach to managing the disease in the US might have been able to spare the lives of nursing-home residents while allowing for fewer restrictions on everyone else. I don’t exactly have answers to those questions, and in truth I don’t think anyone does yet.

I have collected some numbers, though, that may help put the issue in context.

First, there’s nothing particularly surprising about nursing homes and their ilk accounting for a much larger share of Covid-19 deaths than they do of the population. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention keeps track of deaths by location, and from 2014 through 2018 19.5 percent of US deaths from all causes and 20.9 percent of deaths from internal causes occurred in nursing homes and other longterm-care facilities. Since late January of this year, 24.1 percent of the deaths from Covid-19 for which the CDC has data on place of death have occurred there.

This is lower than the 40 percent-plus cited above because it does not count nursing home residents who die in hospitals. A

lot of nursing home residents die in hospitals in normal years, with a large-scale study from the 2000s putting the share at about 20 percent, but with Covid-19 the percentage seems to be at least twice that. So yes, nursing homes do seem to have been inordinately affected. But they have also suffered heavily during past outbreaks of influenza and even the common cold, and though their share of US Covid-19 fatalities is high it hasn’t really been “astounding,” or markedly different from that seen in other countries.

Nursing homes and their ilk are especially vulnerable to infectious diseases such as Covid-19 because their residents are frail elderly people with weak immune systems who spend a lot of time indoors, often in shared bedrooms, and generally cannot avoid coming in close contact with their caregivers. These caregivers, meanwhile, are among the lowest-paid workers in the health-care sector—or any sector, for that matter.

Because pay is so low, caregivers for the elderly often live in overcrowded conditions and work multiple jobs. They’re also less likely to have health insurance or access to paid sick leave than other healthcare workers, and while the Families First Coronavirus Response Act passed

by Congress in March addressed these issues somewhat, there were loopholes.

It shouldn’t be too surprising, then, that two recent studies of the characteristics of nursing homes hit hardest by Covid-19 found that the main things they had in common were (1) locations in communities with high incidence of the disease and (2) large size.

BEFORE becoming a Reiki healer, Manalang-Cruz managed a business engaged in manufacturing health and beauty products.

Manalang-Cruz noticed she had the innate talent, but she just was not ready to accept and hone it until a few years ago, when her sister died of cancer.

“I was thankful to be beside her while she was fighting this sickness.

When she passed away, I started fixing her things, and I kept seeing Reiki books, articles, documentation, etc. Let me reiterate that I am for alternative healing and integra-

tive medicine even before becoming a Reiki healer,” she said.

“I have done some Reiki sessions on myself, I just did not know that what I was performing was Reiki in itself, all this before my sister died.

I decided to follow this path right away. So I went on a two-week cleansing with Shanti Ayuverda and went straight into learning how to be a Reiki master,” she added.

It was not an easy journey for Manalang-Cruz because Reiki required a lot of dedication, time, meditation and a change of mindset. Doing yoga helped her a great deal to familiarize herself with the discipline.

Eventually, she decided to learn how to teach yoga “on the very first day of my training as a Reiki healer.” She took yoga to improve her focus, breathing and lifestyle. To become a Reiki healer, she decided to create a routine to optimize the teachings of the craft.

For Manalang-Cruz, teaching yoga is very fulfilling as it enables her to connect to a lot of people physically, mentally, and even spiritually.

In return, yoga teaches them how to enhance their lifestyle in a chaotic and challenging world.

“It is amazing to see that my students are starting to live a more balanced lifestyle, more aware of what they eat and take care of themselves from when they first participated in yoga or meditation,” she said.

Through Reiki yoga, her students were able learn to be the best versions of themselves, and she is very grateful for their accomplishments.

Manalang-Cruz encourages people to do yoga because it is designed for everybody. As a mentor, it gives her a great feeling of satisfaction to see students who first did not show enthusiasm in the early stage but later appreciated the benefits of yoga after they realized how it lifts their well-being.

Through teaching, ManalangCruz feels blessed for being able to reach out to more people and promote a balanced lifestyle. “I wanted to connect to people more and be able to somehow inspire them by how I live,” she said.

“My presence in social media [Facebook and Instagram] also plays a big part in motivating people, as my Instagram and Facebook pages inspire people from all over the world,” she added.

The fascinating origins of Filipino words

By Nick Tayag

MY SIXTY-ZEN’S WORTH

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S a writer, words are my stock-in-trade.

I have written in English as well as in the vernacular. But ever since I encountered words like dalumat, matarling, kariktan, matimyas and all those unfamiliar terms that sounded so intriguing and enchanting, my dilettante’s fascination with native words have been kindled and has grown more intense through the years.

I hunt for these odd and unusual native terms and write them down on a notebook.

And the more I encounter them, the more I realize that there’s something much more to be uncovered or to be revealed about our native terms beyond their dry dictionary meanings.

Recently on the Internet, I learned that naga is an ancient Filipino term for a mythical serpent-like dragon. There is also the word bakunawa said to be a giant dragon believed to swallow the moon, in reference to what we now call a lunar eclipse. The Bagobo tribes also believed in the minokawa, a giant dragon-like bird that swallows the sun, to explain a solar eclipse. Other appelations for this mythical dragon include olimaw, tambanakua, arimaonga and more. Why so many references to dragons in our ancient vocabulary?

On a twitter conversation thread, someone shared that there is an old native term for rabbit which is buot found in Vocabulario de la lengua tagala compiled by P. Juan de Noceda and P. Pedro de Sanlucar and published in Manila in 1754. Were there rabbits in pre-colonial Philippines? And what about gadya, which is an ancient Tagalog word for elephant. Isn’t it odd that our precolonial vocabulary had such terms?

When you walk back to the origins of these words, they give you interesting insights as well as hindsights, revealing teasing glimpses of our history and if you dig enough, they can lead you to the wellspring of our culture. Each of them has a story to tell. From words spring forth narratives of our race and culture. It’s an intellectually stimulating passion, akin to discovering 2,000-year-old manuscripts or million-year-old mammoth fossils. With every surprising factotum, your mind goes: Hindi ko alam ’yun a. Ganoon pala!

This is why I am frustrated that we don’t have something like the Oxford Etymology Dictionary for our native terms. I don’t mean definition of meanings. We have enough dictionaries for that purpose. I mean an etymology, which is the modern branch of linguistic science that deals with the origin and evolution of words.

Etymology is from the Greek word etymologia and according to them, this undertaking

consists of “unwrapping or decoding a name to find the message the name givers have placed inside.” In other words, it is an “analysis of a word to find its true origin,” or “a study of the true sense of a word.”

The “unwrapping” and “decoding” aspects are what I am more interested in.

A Filipino etymology dictionary will not only enhance our deeper understanding of primeval beginnings of our native language, but it will give us insights into its shared roots with other languages. If we look at words in Tagalog or other dialects, we think they are indigenous. But we share them with the Malay language.

A Filipino Internet blogger, Resty Odon, lists down a litany of words we share with our racial brothers from Indonesia and Malaysia from ako, bahagi, balik to palayok, pangulo, pasok, sintá, to takot, ulan, utak, and utang. It’s a very long list of terms we share with our racial cousins in this part of the world, enough to make us realize that the basic core of our native lingo is Malay in origin.

Then, take our penchant for addressing everyone as kuya or ate. Again Ridon’s blog tells us that these are adaptations of Chinese nomenclature, including bunso, a term of endearment for the youngest sibling in a Chinese family. Totoy is the literal translation of the “foolish one” and variant of this is atoy, toto, itoy which are all variant names given to the youngest boy. As opposed to foolish one, the youngest girl is called nene, which in Chinese literally means “dull one,” which hints at the low regard given to girls in a Chinese household.

There are also many other words in our contemporary lingo whose origins can be found in the Chinese language. Bimpo is from bin-po which is Chinese for face and fabric. Hikaw is combination of two Chinese words, hee means ear and kaw means hook.

Susi, which should be pronounced as so-see, is Chinese for lock-key. Of course, every Pinoy is familiar with bihon, pansit, lumpia, misua, hopia, tikoy, champoy, mami, and toyo, which are all derived from the Chinese language.

Some Filipino terms surprisingly have Japanese origin: dahan-dahan, from dandan meaning slowly, gradually, tamang-tama is Japanese for just right, kaban our term for sack of rice, was originally bag in Japanese, tansan was originally soda in Japanese, and of course jack-en-poy is a Japanese rock-paper-scissors game pronounced as jankenpon.

But there are more surprises. Tagalog words such as budhi, dukha, dalita, diwata, katha, likha, mukha, masaya, saksi, sampalataya, sabon, and many more can trace their origins in the San-

skrit language, by way of the Hindu language.

Bathala, our local appelation for God, is said to be derived from Bhattara Guru, which means “the highest of the gods.” If we are to believe an Indian immigrant, Sunita Khatnani, “Tagalog is 25 percent Sanskrit, mostly words signifying intellectual acts, moral operations, passions, superstitions, names of deities, planets, higher numerals, botany, war and its outcomes and vicissitudes.”

Stephen Acabado, who is writing a book on the archaeology of the indigenous history of the Philippines, mentioned in a recent article that we have even borrowed words from Nahuatl (the language of the Aztecs of Mexico) including nanay, tatay, tiyangge, palengke and many more.

But these are just patikim or pasilip of what a Philippine etymology dictionary can do to open a hidden treasure chest of concepts, feelings, and spirit that define the kabihasnan of our race. Not to mention that they will be good conversation points with peers and friends, making you appear learned.

There are terms like pasma, bangungot, usog, kulam and so on that beg deeper analysis.

In one of his articles, columnist Michael Tan discoursed on the Tagalog words dalamhati and lualhati, which uncovered deeper layers of meanings to reflect and ruminate on. What about our common word “tao?”

Where did it come from? Does the word have any original connection to the Chinese “tao?”

Like a labyrinth, a suffix or a word can lead one to other contiguous paths of inquiry.

Don’t even get me started on the origins of the names of Philippine towns such as Cainta, Calamba, Pila, and many others.

Another delightful side topic is how we got our native culinary terms.

Through this article, I call the attention of anyone at the Kagawaran ng Wikang Filipino, the UP Department of Linguistics or any institution involved in linguistic research to consider a Filipino etymology book project, no matter how long it will take. I believe such a dictionary, preferably with digital version and freely accessible, will help the next generation unpeel the layers and layers of our past and gain a more enlightened appreciation of our culture beyond what they are told to read and memorize in their school books.

Our native literature will surely be much more enriched by the works of next generation Filipino writers who will be using such a dictionary as reference.

In the beginning is the word. And what a world of stories from its beginning!

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Saturday, July 4, 2020

BusinessMirror

www.businessmirror.com.ph

Google tweaks privacy settings to keep less user data GOOGLE is tweaking its privacy settings to keep less data on new users by default.

The search giant said that starting on Wednesday, it will automatically and continuously delete web and app activity and location history for new users after 18 months.

Settings for existing users won’t be affected but the company will send reminders about the feature.

The change comes after Google added new controls last year that allow users to effectively put an expiry date on their data, by providing the option to auto-delete location history, search, voice and YouTube activity data after three or 18 months.

The company is also making it easier to toggle in and out of incognito mode while using its Search, Maps and YouTube mobile apps by doing a long

press on the profile photo. In incognito mode, Google doesn’t remember any activity during online browsing. In another change, users will get easier access to their controls when doing Google searches.

If they’re signed into their Google accounts and search for terms like “Google Privacy Checkup”, they will see a box only visible to them with their privacy and security settings. AP

CliQQ it at your favorite convenience store

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F there is one thing I have missed from our old lives, it’s going to a convenience store and choosing a meal for lunch or choosing chips for an afternoon snack. I also miss going to a 7-Eleven to buy soda or a loaf of bread before heading home. During the early days of ECQ and there was a bread shortage, we were lucky that the person at the 7-Eleven near us would tell my husband when the bread deliveries would come so he could go there and get a loaf.

My daughter’s place of work is right beside a 7-Eleven and she’d buy City Blends coffee there, thanks to their Bring Your Own Cup promo.

My 7-Eleven favorites include the hotdogs and siopao. They’ve been my favorites for over a decade.

For its anniversary this year, dubbed #711Day and ongoing until July 14, 7-Eleven is celebrating with exclusive promos and discounts up to 50-percent off on over 150 grocery items. The discounts are applied on a wide variety of items including milk and other dairy products, cookies, laundry soap and fabric softener, instant noodles, energy drinks, cookies, and many others. You can enjoy big discounts at 50-percent off from July 7 to 11.

“We prepared our big 7-Eleven birthday week with our customers in mind. It’s their celebration as much as it is ours. Giving promos and discounts on basic essentials is our own way of helping them save money during this time,” said Jose Victor Paterno, president and CEO of Philippine Seven Corp.

You can also enjoy a free 12oz. Gulp for every purchase of one piece of Crunch Time Fried Chicken from July 9 to 11, or get another piece of fried chicken free for every purchase of 1 Crunch Time Crunch Carrier of six pieces of fried chicken from July 6 to 11 via the CLiQQ app.

The CLiQQ App is an official 7-Eleven Philippines mobile app for Rewards and Payments. For cashless transactions, you can load money into your CLiQQ wallet by clicking “Load Wallet” in the CLiQQ Pay homepage, enter the amount you wish to load, and present the generated barcode to the 7-Eleven cashier and pay the amount. You can also earn a point for every purchase worth P25 at any 7-Eleven. Just make sure to present the barcode and have it scanned every time you pay. These points can be used to redeem products in the Rewards catalog.

Health and safety protocols, such as proper wearing of masks and physical distancing, are being implemented at 7-Eleven stores. Hand sanitizers are placed around the store for customers to use.

Customers can also opt for a cashless payment method via CLiQQ app or GCash, available in all 7-Eleven stores.

To register for a 7-Eleven CLiQQ account, simply follow the different steps: ■ Download the 7-Eleven CLiQQ app on Google Play or App Store ■ Open the app ■ Choose from any of the following options for CLiQQ account registration: sign in via your mobile number, Facebook account or Google account.

■ If you’ve opted to register through your mobile number, enter your number and tap the Continue with Mobile button.

■ Enter the four-digit verification sent to your mobile number. Agree to the Terms and Conditions.

You’ll then be automatically signed in to your CLiQQ account.

■ Tap the Profile icon on the upper left corner of the homepage and provide the required account details.

■ If you have a new CLiQQ Rewards card, tap the Cards icon at the bottom of the screen and enter the card number you want to add. Then tap the Update button.

The CLiQQ Pay Wallet can be used only to pay for items bought in 7-Eleven stores. For financial transactions like bills payment and send money, you can pay only in cash at 7-Eleven using the barcode generated through the CLiQQ app.

Once you’ve signed in to your account, you have to activate and top up your CLiQQ Pay Wallet before you can use it. ■

China: US ‘oppressing Chinese companies’ in new Huawei move

BY JOE MCDONALD The Associated Press BEIJING—China on Wednesday demanded Washington stop “oppressing Chinese companies” after US regulators declared telecom equipment suppliers Huawei and ZTE to be national security threats. The Federal Communications Commission on Tuesday blocked the Chinese vendors from receiving subsidies from a government fund, stepping up efforts to limit their access to the US market.

A foreign ministry spokesman accused Washington of “abusing state power” to hurt Chinese companies “without any evidence.”

“We once again urge the United States to stop abusing the concept of national security, deliberately discrediting China and unreasonably oppressing Chinese companies,” said the spokesman, Zhao Lijian.

US regulators say Huawei Technologies Ltd., the biggest global maker of telecom switching equipment, and its smaller Chinese rival ZTE Corp. are controlled by the ruling Communist Party and say they might facilitate Chinese spying.

Huawei and ZTE deny the US accusations. Huawei’s founder, Ren Zhengfei, said last year he would refuse official demands to reveal its customers’ secrets despite a law that obliges Chinese companies to cooperate with intelligence agencies.

The FCC said money from its $8.3 billion-a-year Universal Service Fund, which subsidizes equipment purchases for some carriers, may no longer be used to purchase Huawei or ZTE equipment.

The FCC “has designated Huawei and ZTE as national security risks,” said the agency’s chairman, Ajit Pai, in a statement. He said the companies “threaten our national security.”

The decision affects mostly small, rural carriers because major US phone companies don’t use Chinese equipment. The FCC had previously barred Huawei and ZTE from receiving other government subsidies.

Congress enacted a law in March that will provide up to $1 billion for carriers to replace Chinese-made equipment. The Trump administration is lobbying its European and other allies to avoid Huawei as they upgrade to next-generation, or 5G, telecom networks.

An assistant secretary of state, Keith Krach, said last week Washington might be willing to help other countries pay for 5G gear from European rivals Nokia Corp. and LM Ericsson to avoid buying Huawei technology.

Globe Business, Zscaler team up to strengthen PHL cybersecurity IN this day and age, cybersecurity has become a necessity more than a competitive advantage.

The introduction of remote work, constant use of collaboration tools, digitization of personal records, mainstreaming of digital payments, and the daily exchange of company and customer data over the Internet are only some of the factors that should make cybersecurity a priority for organizations across the Philippines.

In line with this, Globe Business joined the Zscaler Summit Partner Program to help companies drive their digital transformation, as business activities take a dramatic shift online.

The Zscaler cloud platform is the largest cloud security platform in the world, processing more than 100 billion transactions and detecting about 100 million threats per day from users across 185 countries. Zscaler serves nearly 4,000 customers across all major industries, including over 400 of the Forbes Global 2000 companies.

“With the volatility of business environments, the complexity of applications and programs, and the urgency to shift to the

cloud, every organization’s IT security should evolve accordingly,” shares Peter Maquera, senior vice president for Globe Business. “This is why our partnership with Zscaler is very timely in helping businesses transform their cybersecurity approach, so they can focus on educating and empowering employees with secure, remote access to applications through the world’s largest security cloud.”

Andrew Mann, Zscaler Director of Alliances and Channel for Asia Pacific and Japan, also shared his thoughts on the partnership: “The days of all employees working in an office and connecting to a corporate network are gone.

Modern business must help employees be effective no matter where they work, and this demands a cloud-first approach to security.

Zscaler was built in the cloud and for the cloud in order to securely connect authorized users to the right applications. Together with Globe, our global resources and round-the-clock detection capabilities, which contribute to approximately 120,000 unique security updates a day, can

ensure that businesses are protected from security threats.”

Through this partnership, Zscaler Internet Access (ZIA) and Zscaler Private Access (ZPA) are now part of Globe Business’s growing cybersecurity solutions portfolio.

ZIA is a cloud security service that transforms networks by delivering cloud-based Internet and web security that scales to all users, regardless of location. Meanwhile, ZPA delivers on Zero Trust Network Access by securing access to private applications without those applications or users ever connecting to the network.

As a long-standing ally for digital transformation, Globe Business (www.globe.com. ph/business/enterprise.html) encourages companies to integrate their cybersecurity strategies along with their business continuity plans.

The path toward a cyber-secure nation is within reach with Globe’s reliable and resilient network backed by the world’s leading cybersecurity experts.

BusinessMirror

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Saturday, July 4, 2020

A9

Using ‘face doubles,’ a new doc captures an anti-LGBTQ purge PLDT deploys solutions to cope with pandemic

BY RIZAL RAOUL S. REYES THE PLDT is playing a major role in helping the national government confront the challenges posed by the Covid-19 pandemic.

PLDT-Smart recently announced it is providing free access for all Smart, TNT and SUN subscribers to the “ReliefAgad” app (www.reliefagad.ph) of the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) to enable beneficiaries of the government’s social amelioration program to process easily the registration and receive financial assistance electronically.

Launched last May 24 by the DSWD and the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT), ReliefAgad,” is an app that facilitates automated cash aid distribution of the government’s social amelioration program (SAP) which aids families affected by the lockdown due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

The app was developed to address challenges in updating beneficiary data and information as well as to accelerate the distribution of disbursements to beneficiaries. The “ReliefAgad” app makes the cash relief distribution faster through e-wallets such as PayMaya, and may be accessed by families who have already received their social amelioration card (SAC).

DSWD partnered with USAID’s E-Peso Project and Developers Connect Philippines (DevCon) for the Relief Agad project where a segment of the beneficiaries may self-enroll through an online form.

“We encourage qualified beneficiaries to register to ReliefAgad app and link their mobile numbers so they can receive their financial assistance faster via digital means,” Alfredo S. Panlilio, Smart President and CEO and PLDT Chief Revenue Officer, said in a statement.

In the same statement, Jovy Hernandez, ePLDT President and CEO and SVP and head for PLDT and Smart Enterprise Business Groups, added: “We are committed to assisting the DSWD in promoting electronic registrations to the Relief Agad app for more efficient distribution of the second tranche of cash relief through contactless transactions.”

Once they register, citizen beneficiaries can link their mobile numbers and choose their preferred means to receive their financial assistance. Options include eWallets such as PayMaya.

In response to the Covid-19 pandemic, Hernandez said PLDT and Smart have continued to introduce solutions that aim to streamline operations and enable customers with the means to stay connected— whether it be for personal or professional reasons.

As the only Filipino company that is a member to the Wireless Broadband Alliance (WBA), he pointed out that PLDT-Smart underscored its commitment to enable a greater majority with access to public Wi-Fi in this year’s recent celebration of #WorldWiFiDay last June 20. Moreover, initiatives to power Covid-19 facilities and key offices also fall in line with the WBA’s call for members to ensure the deployment of public Wi-Fi for the underserved and unconnected.

“Since its launch, our Smart WiFi service has always been a tool that was designed to connect, inform and educate users. We are grateful to both customers that have trusted us with deploying the service to their sites, as well as the WBA which has given even more purpose to our mission,” Hernandez said. “#WorldWiFiDay was created with the aim of allowing participants of both the public and private sectors to recognize the role of Wi-Fi in bridging a digital divide. Such thrust could not be any more apt than it is today,” said Tiago Rodrigues, CEO of the WBA, in a press statement.

In another development, PLDT Enterprise recently provided mobile connectivity solutions to food delivery service Foodpanda to ease their riders’ daily operations. This collaboration gave birth to the Smart Ka-Panda Postpaid plan, which is a foodpanda exclusive mobile bundle that provides riders the ability to make use of their delivery app, Roadrunner, as well as other navigational applications. The program was created to bridge the gap between the riders and customers.

BY JAKE COYLE | The Associated Press

A

NONYMOUS sources in documentaries have often been reduced to a shadowy, voice-distorted figure—or worse, a pixelated blur. But a new documentary premiering Tuesday on HBO has, with the aid of advanced digital technology, gone to greater lengths to preserve the secrecy of its sources while still conveying their humanity.

Welcome to Chechnya, directed by David France, is about an underground pipeline created to rescue LGBTQ Chechens from the Russian republic where the government has for several years waged a crackdown on gays. In the predominantly Muslim region in southern Russia ruled by strongman Ramzan Kadyrov, LGBTQ Chechens have been detained, tortured and killed.

France, the filmmaker behind How to Survive a Plague and The Death and Life of Marsha P. Johnson, worked in secrecy with the Russian LGBT Network, a group formed to help save gay Chechens and find them asylum abroad.

But France had a dilemma. He couldn’t reveal the identities, or the faces, of his main characters. Their lives depended on staying anonymous.

Yet France still wanted to faithfully show the trials they were enduring. This was a tragedy that needed a face. That meant none of the old methods of cloaking

anonymous sources would work.

“They were dehumanizing,” France said in an interview. “I believe one of the reasons we haven’t been hearing about this ongoing crime against humanity in the south of Russia is because we haven’t been able to hear from the people and see the people who have suffered this unspeakable torture. When the only testimony of a crime of this magnitude comes from people who are behind a curtain, it lacks the empathy of the public that this story truly deserves.”

France didn’t know how he would resolve the issue, but he promised those he shot that he would somehow disguise them. After searching and testing a range of approaches, France settled on a novel one: In Welcome to Chechnya, the faces of all the LGBTQ Chechens have been replaced using artificial intelligence. It’s a little like the documentary answer to The Irishman or a more altruistic version of a “deepfake.”

The faces seen in Welcome to Chechnya belong, in fact, to 22 volunteers whose faces were superimposed on the people in the film. Most of them are LGBTQ activists in New York. The “face doubles” were shot on a blue screen stage and converted into algorithms that, with machine learning, could digitally mask the subjects of the film. Different voices were substituted, too. “Nobody had ever really attempted this before,” said France. “And most people said it was impossible. It turned out it was pretty close

to impossible but not impossible.” The technology was developed by software architect Ryan Laney.

And its implementation was decided through a study organized by Dartmouth College Prof. Thalia Wheatley, an expert in brain sciences. She showed 109 students different visual effects options of Welcome to Chechnya to determine which one conveyed empathy the best and avoided an “uncanny valley” effect.

(Another less successful option was using filters to render the film’s individuals cartoon-like caricatures.)

Still, adding the face doubles throughout the film was a grueling, months-long process that only concluded a week before the premiere of Welcome to Chechnya at the Sundance Film Festival in January.

The Irishman, by comparison, altered its actors’ faces in highly planned scenes with carefully orchestrated camera movement. France’s documentary was full of erratic movements of both camera and people.

Every step of the way, France and his editors worked on encryption drives, and never let their original footage with real faces touch the Internet or even a computer that had previously been connected to the internet. They edited in what France calls a windowless bunker in Los Angeles.

“It added a lot of time to our work,” said France, “But it reminded us everyday what the stakes were and what it meant to be the people whose lives were shared with us and entrusted us in sharing their lives with a wider audience.” ■

Apple, Facebook, Amazon, Google CEOs to testify in congress

BY NAOMI NIX & BEN BRODY Bloomberg News THE chief executive officers of Facebook Inc., Alphabet Inc., Amazon.com Inc. and Apple Inc. have agreed to testify before a congressional panel investigating competition issues in the technology industry, according to a spokesman for the US House Judiciary Committee overseeing the probe.

Mark Zuckerberg, Sundar Pichai, Jeff Bezos and Tim Cook are likely to face a torrent of critical questions from lawmakers in a televised hearing about their companies’ business practices as the subcommittee seeks to build its case for tougher antitrust enforcement of tech companies.

Representative David Cicilline, a Rhode Island Democrat who leads the probe as chairman of the antitrust subcommittee, has said he wants appearances by top tech company executives before wrapping up the probe and recommending changes to antitrust law.

Facebook and Amazon spokespeople declined to comment. A Google spokesman deferred to the committee. Apple did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

The companies have previously shown reluctance to send in their top executives even though Cicilline has said he would be willing to subpoena CEOs

FACEBOOK’S Mark Zuckerberg

that didn’t voluntarily agree to appear before the committee. Earlier, Apple said it would send an appropriate executive to testify before the panel,

without promising Cook. Amazon said it would send Bezos to testify “at a hearing with the other CEOs this summer.”

Facebook and Alphabet have also said they would be willing to send Zuckerberg and Pichai, respectively, Bloomberg reported last month.

Antitrust scrutiny of giant technology companies is accelerating. Facebook and Google both face competition probes by federal enforcers and nearly all 50 states. Amazon is under investigation in California, Bloomberg has reported, and both the e-commerce giant and Apple are facing scrutiny from the European Union.

Last September, Cicilline’s subcommittee sent extensive document requests to the four companies seeking detailed information about acquisitions, business practices, executive communications, previous probes and lawsuits.

Except for Bezos, the CEOs have been questioned at congressional hearings before. Zuckerberg testified in 2018 after the Cambridge Analytica scandal, in which Facebook allowed the harvesting of personal data of millions of users without their permission, and about the company’s digital currency, Libra, the following year. Pichai testified in 2018 to address allegations that Google is politically biased in its treatment of content. Cook testified in 2013 about Apple’s payment of taxes.

Tips for SMBs: What to do before, during, and after a ransomware attack OVER three years after the infamous WannaCry ransomware, its costly aftermath still remains a vivid glimpse on the damage cybercriminals can do by kidnapping companies’ essential data. And such threats remain.

Global cybersecurity brand Kaspersky’s latest statistics for small and medium businesses (SMBs) in Southeast Asia (SEA) show that in the first three months of the year, the company’s solutions have blocked a total of 269,204 ransomware attempts against businesses in the region with a total of 20 to 250 employees.

“While the total number of ransomware attempts detected in the region is 69 percent lower compared with the same period last year, the risks of SMBs and enterprises losing their data and their cash because of this threat is still ever-present. The good news is that there are effective ways to protect SMB’s much-needed cash flow from becoming payment to get their kidnapped data back,” says Yeo Siang Tiong, general manager for Southeast Asia at Kaspersky (www.kaspersky.com).

As more economies in Southeast Asia re-open following months in lockdown, Kaspersky’s experts have several important and useful tips for restarting business safe from ransomware threat.

BEFORE A RANSOMWARE ATTACK

■ BACK-UP, BACK-UP, BACK-UP. Always have fresh back-up

copies of your files so you can replace them in case they are lost (e.g. due to malware or a broken device) and store them not only on the physical object but also in cloud storage for greater reliability. Make sure you can quickly access them in an emergency when needed.

■ EDUCATE YOUR EMPLOYEES. Build a shared sense of responsibility inside your company. Explain to your employees how following simple rules can help a company avoid ransomware incidents. Create employee and operational control policies that cover aspects of network management and facilities, including password renewal regulations, incident handling, access control rules, protecting sensitive data and more.

■ LAYERED SECURITY IN EVERYTHING. Literally everything.

Security means safeguarding all data touchpoints within your network, may it be via hardware devices or software platforms.

■ UPDATE, UPDATE, UPDATE. It is essential to install all security updates as soon as they become available. Always update your operating system and software to eliminate recent vulnerabilities.

■ USE A RANSOMWARE TOOL. SMBs can also try a free Kaspersky Anti-Ransomware Tool for Business. Its recently updated version contains an exploit prevention feature to prevent ransomware and other threats from exploiting vulnerabilities in software and applications. It is also helpful for customers that use Windows 7: with the end of support of Windows 7, new

vulnerabilities in this system won’t be patched by the developer.

DURING AND AFTER A RANSOMWARE ATTACK

■ UNBLOCK YOUR COMPUTER; REMOVE THE MALWARE. If you find your computer blocked—it won’t load the operating system— use Kaspersky WindowsUnlocker, a free utility that can remove a blocker and get Windows to boot. Cryptors are a harder nut to crack.

First, you need to get rid of the malware by running an antivirus scan.

If you don’t have a proper antivirus on your computer, download a free trial version of an antivirus app.

■ DON’T PAY, DO REPORT. Remember that ransomware is a criminal offense. Do not pay the amount the perpetrators are asking in exchange for your data. If you become a victim, report it to your local law enforcement agency.

■ GET YOUR FILES BACK; LOOK FOR A DECRYPTOR. If you have a backup copy of your files, you can simply restore your files from the backup. That is by far your best shot. If you haven’t made backups, you can try to decrypt files by using special utilities called decryptors. All of the free decryptors created by Kaspersky can be found at noransom.kaspersky.com.

■ INVOLVE THE EXPERTS. If the decryptor is not available online, contact your trusted cybersecurity vendor to check if they have a decryption tool for the ransomware that has attacked you.

A10 Saturday, July 4, 2020

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ASG Technologies launches new solution

BY RODERICK L. ABAD Contributor GLOBAL software company ASG Technologies has launched ASG-TMON for IMS 3.5, offering Day 1 support for the new release of the IBM subsystem.

The latest issue allows organizations to better handle IBM Information Management System (IMS) resource performance and costs, while planning wisely for the future.

ASG-TMON for IMS gives data center managers, data base administrators and system programmers with new support to effectively cut costly application downtime and rapidly identify, respond to and resolve IMS system, database and application problems.

It keeps ASG’s commitment to IBM IMS by adding

/

REDDIT, an online comment forum that is one of the Internet’s most popular web sites, recently banned a proDonald Trump forum as part of a crackdown on hate speech.

Reddit banned a total of 2,000 of these forums, or subreddits, most of which it said were inactive or had few users. AP

first-day assistance for the just announced release of IMS V15.2.

Other major improvements include improved profile management via cross-TMONPlex shared repositories.

By transfering the profiles of every member in a TMONPlex into a plex-wide shared repository, profiles just need to be created once and are then available for all TMONPlex members. This is helpful in saving time and effort to manage them and providing consistency across the TMONPlex.

What’s more, it has improved abilities to perform IMS Type-1 and Type-2 commands to facilitate IMS operations. ASG-TMON for IMS 3.5 enhances overall IMS availability by proactively handling IMS applications and critical resources, providing

the insight needed to solve complicated IMS system, transaction and database problems.

Using this results in optimized end-user response times and performance.

“The ASG TMON brand is recognized by IT [information technology] professionals for its highly integrated, easy-to-use solutions,” said Jeff Cherrington, vice president of product management for ASG Systems Management offerings.

He added that it gives a single view of IMS across the enterprise, including vital details required for tuning and debugging IMS systems and applications to identify and resolve performance issues before outages occur.

“We at ASG are pleased to provide day one support for IBM’s latest release,” he stressed.

Social media platforms face a reckoning over hate speech

BY BARBARA O�TUTAY & TALI ARBEL The Associated Press

F

OR years, social media platforms have fueled political polarization and hosted an explosion of hate speech. Now, with four months until the US presidential election and the country’s divisions reaching a boiling point, these companies are upping their game against bigotry and threats of violence.

What’s not yet clear is whether this action is too little, too late—nor whether the pressure on these companies, including a growing advertiser boycott, will be enough to produce lasting change.

Reddit, an online comment forum that is one of the world’s most popular web sites, on Monday banned a forum that supported President Donald J. Trump as part of a crackdown on hate speech. Also on Monday, live-streaming site Twitch, which is owned by Amazon, temporarily suspended Trump’s campaign account for violating its hateful conduct rules.

YouTube, meanwhile, banned several prominent white nationalist figures from its platform, including Stefan Molyneux, David Duke and Richard Spencer.

Social media companies, led by Facebook, now face a reckoning over what critics call indefensible excuses for amplifying divisions, hate and misinformation on their platforms. Civil rights groups have called on large advertisers to stop Facebook ad campaigns during July, saying the social network isn’t doing enough to curtail racist and violent content on its platform.

Companies such as the consumer goods giant Unilever—one of the world’s largest advertisers—as well as Verizon, Ford and many smaller brands have joined the boycott, some for the month of July and others for the rest of the year. New companies have been signing on to the boycott almost every day.

While some are pausing ads only on Facebook, others have also stepped back from advertising on Twitter and other platforms.

On Monday, Ford Motor Co. put the brakes on all national social media advertising for the next 30 days. The company says hate speech, as well as posts advocating violence and racial injustice, need to be eradicated from the sites.

While the ad boycott has dinged Facebook’s and Twitter’s shares, analysts who follow the social media business don’t see it as having a lasting effect.

Raymond James analyst Aaron Kessler noted that YouTube has faced several ad boycotts in the past over hate speech and other objectionable material.

Each time, it adjusted its policies and the advertisers returned. In addition, July is generally a slow month for advertising. Companies have also been cutting their ad budgets due to Covid-19, so the spending declines are not a surprise for investors. Kessler called Facebook’s stock pullback—its shares fell more than 8 percent on Friday, then rallied a bit Monday—a “buying opportunity.”

Reddit’s action was part of a larger purge at the San Francisco-based site. The company said it took down a total of 2,000 forums, known as the site as “subreddits,” most of which it said were inactive or had few users. The Trump Reddit forum, called The_ Donald, was banned because it encouraged violence, regularly broke other Reddit rules, and defiantly “antagonized” both Reddit and other forums, the company said in a statement. Reddit had previously tried to discipline the forum. “We are cautiously optimistic that Reddit is finally working with groups like ours to dismantle the systems that enable

hateful rhetoric on their platform,” Bridget Todd, a spokeswoman for the women’s advocacy organization UltraViolet, said in an emailed statement.

The group said its members met with Reddit CEO Steve Huffman via Zoom last week, encouraging him to address racism and hate speech on the platform.

Despite optimism from some critics, others said it is not clear if such measures will be enough. For years, racist groups “have successfully used social media to amplify their message and gain new recruits,” said Sophie Bjork-James an anthropology professor at Vanderbilt University who specializes in white nationalism, racism and hate crimes.

“However, limiting access to a broader public will have unintended negative consequences. Farright and white nationalist groups are increasingly gathering on encrypted apps and social media sites that do not monitor for offensive speech or violent content,” she added. “This shift allows for coordinating more violent and radical actions.”

The algorithms tech companies developed to keep users glued to their services “have provided perhaps the biggest boon to organized racism in decades, as they help racist ideas find a much larger and potentially receptive audience,” Bjork-James said, adding that she is hopeful that the same companies that “helped this anti-democratic movement expand” can now help limit its impact.

For its part, Twitch pointed to comments the president made at two rallies, videos of which were posted on the site.

In one, a livestream of a rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma, Trump talked about a “very tough hombre” breaking into someone’s home. The other was from a 2015 campaign rally that was recently posted on Twitch, in which Trump said Mexico sends rapists and criminals to the US. Twitch declined to say how long the

suspension will last.

The White House referred a request for comment to Trump’s reelection campaign. Tim Murtaugh, the campaign’s director of communications, said that people who want to hear directly from the president should download the campaign’s app.

Reddit has tweaked its rules and banned forums for white nationalists over the years in an attempt to rid its platform of vitriol, sometimes producing significant user backlash as a result.

CEO Steve Huffman said earlier this month that Reddit was working with moderators to explicitly address hate speech. ■

Exclusive rewards for Huawei P40 Pro+ preorders EVEN when physically apart, innovation brings us together still—this is the core message of Huawei’s “Stay Connected” campaign, featuring the tech brand’s newest flagship smartphone, the Huawei P40 Pro+.

Together with online shopping giant Lazada, Huawei has launched a preorder program for this highly anticipated entry in its lauded P Series smartphones.

Following the Huawei Lazlive event on June 27— which was joined by Miss Universe 2015 and Huawei Ambassador Pia Wurtzbach, and gave consumers who preordered the flagship device exclusive fashion and tech freebies—the tech giant treats shoppers who missed the livestream a free Huawei Band 4 fitness tracker for every preorder of the P40 Pro+ on or before July 10.

Featuring some of the best cameras ever put on a smartphone, the Huawei P40 Pro+ is engineered to bring out the user’s full creative expression. The Ultra Vision Leica Penta Camera system produces unparalleled images, still or moving, in an all-day, all-scenario shooting solution. With 100x super zoom, ultra-wide cinematic video, phenomenal night mode, studio portrait shooting—the cameras on the P40 Pro+ has everything and more.

The onboard Kirin 990 5G chip intelligently weaves all the groundbreaking tech on the P40 Pro+ together to provide a consistently fast, smooth and efficient user experience. As the first 5G-capable flagship device on the mainstream Philippine market, the P40 Pro+ flexes that power through the Huawei MeeTime app for crisp and clear HD video calls.

Design-wise, the Huawei P40 Pro+ goes for timelessness with an elegant black or white ceramic finish, while the Quad-Curve Overflow Display’s maximum visual immersion demonstrates the brand’s signature cutting-edge craftsmanship.

As for the rest of the P40 Series, the P40 Pro and P40 shares the same photography DNA that’s swept accolades from tech journalists everywhere.

The P40 Pro features an Ultra Vision Leica Quad Camera system offering All-Day, Super Definition shots that create stories the way the user wants. The combination of Quad-Curve Overflow Display, Kirin 990 5G chipset, and 40W Huawei Super Charge makes the P40 Pro a powerful creative companion and productivity monster at the same time.

The Huawei P40 also packs a significant photographic punch, utilizing a versatile Ultra Vision Leica Triple Camera setup that maximizes light and distance to produce dynamic shots, be it for subtle drama or detailed artistry. It shares the Kirin 990 5G core with the rest of the P40 Series for high-speed, high-quality activities like MeeTime video calling and 4K livestreaming.

More information is available at bit.ly/31CLoye.

PLDT-SMART FOUNDATION PARTNERS WITH WOMEN’S GROUP TO PROVIDE FACE MASKS, P.P.E.s TO FRONTLINERS THE PLDT-Smart Foundation (PSF), in partnership with the Kababaihan, Kamay ng Kalikasan (KKK), recently distributed over 36,000 protective face masks to frontliners from various organizations and communities to help augment the supply of face masks—necessities in the continuing fight against the spread of the coronavirus disease (Covid-19).

Some 500 sets of personal protective equipment (PPE) were also donated to the following facilities: Novaliches Hospital, Sta. Ana Hospital, National Center for Mental Health, San Lazaro Hospital, and Jose Fabella Memorial Hospital.

Among the recipients of the face masks were the AFP frontliners, Makati Medical Center Foundation for PNP HPG, and various communities affected by Covid-19.

“It is an honor for us to help our beloved frontliners by equipping them with the basic necessities, such as face masks and PPEs, to protect them in their battle against Covid-19,” said PSF President Ma. Esther O. Santos.

“We would like to assure our frontliners that we are here for them and one with them in fighting this pandemic,” Santos said. “If every Filipino will wear a face mask, observe physical

distancing and practice proper hygiene, we will all have some protection from Covid-19,” KKK Founder and Commissioner at Philippine Commission on Women Sandy Sanchez Montano pointed out. “We are glad to provide reusable, nonwoven protective masks produced by women who were severely affected by the enhanced community quarantine [ECQ] due to the pandemic,” Montano added.

The KKK is a program under the Community Health Education Emergency Rescue Services Corp. (CHEERS). It aims to actively help in addressing the spread of Covid-19 while providing a source of sustainable livelihood for women who need to make a living for their families. KKK participants/ beneficiaries include women-recipients of 4Ps, solo parents, and those who were affected by the ECQ. A nonprofit organization, the PSF fully serves as the social outreach arm of PLDT Inc. and its wireless subsidiary, Smart Communications Inc. Headed by PLDT and Smart Chairman Manuel V Pangilinan, the PSF creates programs focused on education, livelihood and social enterprise, disaster response and recovery, youth arts, and sports development.

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Saturday, July 4, 2020 A11

The myths and benefits of wireless charging E

VER since Apple announced the wireless charging capabilities of the iPhone X and iPhone 8/8Plus in 2017, it’s become a muchtalked about (and almost expected) feature especially for all flagship smartphones.

But Apple wasn’t actually the first to implement wireless charging (surprise!). Samsung introduced its first commercial wireless charger way back in 2011 for the Droid Charge followed by the wireless charging cover and mat for the Galaxy S4 in 2013, before making it a basic option for the Galaxy S6 and the S6 Edge. Some even point to the Palm Pre (2009) as the first to have an optional wireless charging back cover.

As wireless charging becomes more popular, we are seeing more devices with embedded wireless charging features. Analysts say that it’s only a matter of time until we see charging ports go the way of the 3.5mm headphone jack and disappear from all mobile phones to allow for better water-proofing.

How many times did you answer a call on your mobile phone, forgetting it was still connected to a cabled charger, and you had to rip it off aggressively from the charger? Or how many times have you tripped on a cable or damaged the charging port of your phone because of the number of times you had to plug it in and out?

The foremost advantage of wireless charging is right there in the phrase—wireless. With wireless charging, you reduce the clutter of charging cables, limiting it to just the power cable of the charging pad. The lack of charging cables also eliminates that timeless problem of not having the right connectors.

You don’t need to worry about not having a Lightning, USB-C, or micro USB cable on hand anymore. All Qisupporting devices will work on all Qi charging pads.

However, there are still people who have doubts about wireless charging, beliefs often from the old days when the standards weren’t quite as refined.

One myth is that wireless charging is slow. Yes, wireless charging indeed started out slow and this was probably true during the 5-watt “era”. But today, there are fast wireless charging pads that can provide 10 or even 15 watts of power.

The one I am currently using is the Moshi Otto Q ($39.95 on Amazon), a certified Qi wireless charging pad featuring optimized circuitry that can charge all your Qi enabled devices—from iPhones, Apple Airpods, Samsung Galaxy and Note phones, Huawei Mate 30 Pro, etc. It supports fast charging up to 10W using a high-output USB-C wall charger and has been recognized as the “fastest wireless charger in the world” as tested by German Apple magazine Mac & I. Another belief is that wireless charging is inefficient. The conversion from electric current to electromagnetic field and back doesn’t cause a significant loss in efficiency, and you can recover as much as 80 percent of the input wattage when wirelessly charging, though this may go down depending on whether you use a phone case, and how thick it is.

The Otto Q’s Q-coil module features a 2.6 mm ferrite sheet that charges your phone efficiently, even through cases up to 5 mm thick. I’ve tested it with several types of cases on my iPhone 11 Pro Max and Samsung S20 Ultra and true enough, it didn’t affect or slow down charging.

Last, there’s the myth that wireless charging pads can damage the phone or its battery. Again, this is not entirely true—unless you are using a low-quality, generic wireless charger. Good quality charging pads are built to prevent damage to the phone while in use.

Rated as the “Best Wireless Charger Overall” in an article by Business Insider, the Otto Q even has foreign object detection, so wireless charging is disabled immediately if a metal object is detected, ensuring safety of your phone.

Inspired by Danish furniture, Otto Q acts as an “ottoman” that cradles your device as it charges wirelessly. The circular pad has a fancy “Nordic Gray”

fabric that sets it apart from the all-plastic finishes of other charging pads, making it not only the fastest but also the most stylish wireless charger in the market.

It’s designed to cushion your phone with its soft material finish, and the silicone surface ring gives your phone some traction when sitting on the pad.

It also has a similar non-slip silicon on its base to prevent it from slipping off your table.

Located on the front edge is a “smart” white LED. This LED indicator remains unlit until you place your phone on top. Once you place your phone on the pad, the LED will then begin to “breathe” to let you know that it’s charging. Once the phone is fully charged, this light will become steady. And when it detects a foreign/metal object on top, it will rapidly flash to alert you and will shut off to prevent heating.

As an added assurance of their product’s quality, Moshi is even offering a 10-year global warranty if you register your product at www.moshi.com/en/register.

This is certainly quite interesting as tech companies usually don’t provide a warranty that’s longer than one or two years.

DYNAMIC DUO: REALME 6 AND REALME 6 PRO

IN the most recent Counterpoint Research Market Monitor service released last month, realme emerged as the fastest-growing smartphone brand both globally (157 percent year-on-year) and in the South East Asia market for the first quarter of 2020.

From aspiring to be the “game-changer” brand when it first entered the Philippine market in late 2019, it “dared to leap” and became the new lifestyle partner of the youth, recording a 173 percent YoY growth and continued to be in top 5 in the South East Asia smartphone market including Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam, Myanmar, Cambodia and the Philippines.

An impressive feat considering that the markets were down due to the Covid-19 pandemic, with an 11 percent decline in SEA and a 13 percent decrease in the global market over first quarter in 2019.

Within the first half of 2020, realme has already released five new smartphones in addition to several AIot devices (realme Buds Air, realme band, and realme powerbank), helping the brand sustain its growth and provide a holistic experience in the form of a connected ecosystem to its tech-savvy young consumers. This month, realme will also be taking on a new market segment, as it is set to launch its very first flagship device in the Philippines—the realme X3 SuperZoom and realme watch.

But for now, we’ll take a look at two of realme’s best-selling devices of the year so far: the realme 6 and realme 6 Pro.

(PAY) LESS FOR MORE: 90HZ GAMING WITH THE REALME 6

THE appointed successor to the realme 5 Pro, the realme 6 forefronts the brand’s mobile gaming strategy and was designed for the aspiring serious gamer. It is available in two configurations; the 4GB + 128GB priced at P11,990 and an 8GB + 128GB variant for P13,990.

The realme 6 is powered by a MediaTek Helio G90T flagship-class processor, ensuring smooth and lag-free gaming session for its users, complemented by a 6.5-inch 90Hz Ultra Smooth Display for a smooth visual experience. It also has a quad rear camera setup with a main 64MP shooter, 8MP Ultra Wide-Angle Lens, 2MP B&W (portrait) and 2MP macro; 16MP selfie camera, and a 4300mAh battery that supports 30W Flash Charge. It runs Android 10 out of the box and the new realme UI on top.

The realme 6 sports a more refined design compared to its predecessor. Inspired by the comet that splits the dark night sky, the design of realme 6 is definitely eyecatching. You can’t go wrong with either Comet Blue or Comet White, but it’s a bit of a shame that the free dark colored plastic case somehow conceals just how good it looks. The curved back ensures better handling and the power button doubles as a fingerprint scanner, which has actually become my favorite placement. It’s fast and very easy to reach.

Sporting a 6.5-inch IPS LCD display (with a punchhole for the selfie camera), the realme 6 is relatively large, but just the perfect size for gamers. The Full HD+ display has good brightness levels even when using it outdoors during the day. Colors are vibrant and viewing angles are superb. But the best part of the realme 6’s display is its 90Hz refresh rate—a feature

you can only find on smartphones twice or even thrice its price. Its best seen with your own eyes, but it will definitely make your gaming sessions more immersive and scrolling through your social media feeds a lot smoother. This feature alone makes the realme 6 stand out from other phones at the same price point.

Keeping things and games running butterysmooth is a MediaTek Helio G90T processor—a chipset that’s designed for gaming. You won’t have any problems installing and playing any game you want even on medium to high settings. I’m using the 8GB RAM variant and I’ve had no problems or complaints as it could easily handle all my day-to-day apps and tasks. Whether it’s for work like updating my social media feed, editing photos/short videos, checking email, posting new stories on my blog, or when using it to watch YouTube videos or Netflix, the experience was always slick. I wouldn’t deny that it does heat up a bit during prolonged used but not to the point of making it uncomfortable and upsetting.

As for the cameras, the realme 6 does an OK job, but definitely better than the realme 6i. In daylight and good lighting, the realme 6 can capture beautiful photos with vibrant colors. There’s a good amount of detail and the exposures are quite good. I did have a bit of a problem with focusing on a subject up close, and there are times when I had to move back a bit so that the

camera can refocus. Its also best to wait for a second before moving the camera to avoid blurry shots. The ultrawide-angle shots are also OK, though not as good as those taken by the primary camera sensor. Still, you get vibrant colors with good details. The front camera of the realme 6 can also capture nice-looking selfies in good lighting. It’s in low-light situations where the realme 6 cameras struggle a bit, which is not is not surprising for phones at its price point, and it’d be a good thing for you switch to an improved Night Mode to get better more detailed snaps.

The realme 6 has 4300mAh battery that can easily last you a day of moderate usage with some gaming throughout, but what’s even better is that it supports 30W flash charge and you can charge it from zero percent to 100 percent in around an hour.

Once again, realme raises the standards for a mid-range smartphone with the realme 6. With all of the features we discussed, it is a relatively easy recommendation for those looking for a gaming phone with a premium design on a limited budget.

You get a large clear display with a 90Hz refresh rate, reliable gaming performance, a versatile camera setup and a battery that could keep up with your gaming marathons. Get the 8GB + 128GB configuration for the best value. Next week, we check out the realme 6Pro. ■

A12 Saturday, July 4, 2020

By Jerome Pugmire

S

The Associated Press

PIELBERG, Austria—Formula One champion Lewis Hamilton called out rival teams on Thursday for not doing enough to combat racism, and said the sport still needs to push for more

diversity.

Hamilton has spoken widely about racism in recent weeks following the killing of George Floyd—a handcuffed and unarmed Black man—by a police officer in Minneapolis in May. And Hamilton’s Mercedes team will be competing in an all-black car—instead of the usual silver—as a statement against racism when the season starts on Sunday in Austria.

But Hamilton, the only Black driver in F1, said he’d like to hear more from other teams—and criticized some sports figures for only jumping on social-media bandwagons instead of pushing for real change.

“There are a lot of people that just take a moment to post Blackout Tuesday [on social networks] but they’re not really doing much. I’ve definitely not heard anything from any of the other teams, as far as I’m aware,” Hamilton said. “I won’t stop pushing until we really see change. Seeing one person of color added to the paddock is not diversity, so we’ve really got to dig deep.”

Hamilton attended a Black Lives Matter march in London recently and is setting up a commission to increase diversity in motorsport.

F1 launched an initiative aimed at tackling racism and encouraging more diversity within the series, with F1 Chairman Chase Carey pledged $1 million of his money toward a fund.

“It’s positive to see that people are reacting and I do want to see people being more proactive,” Hamilton said. “I think Formula One have been great. I’ve spent a lot of time on the phone with them, doing Zoom calls talking about their plans and how we can move forwards, united.”

F1 drivers are discussing whether to take the knee

Sports HAMILTON: SPEAK OUT ON RACISM BusinessMirror

together on the grid before Sunday’s race in support of the Black Lives Matter movement, as soccer players have been doing.

“We haven’t all spoken, I’m sure we will.

It’s not something that’s been at the top of my mind, in that I’ve been asked the question multiple times. It’s not really been a priority for me [to have a plan] to come and kneel at the start line,” Hamilton said. “We’ll see Sunday. I think whatever we do we’ll try to do it united.

I think it’s really important that we remain united. Or that we become united, I would say, in this sport.”

After Floyd’s death, Hamilton spoke of his “anger, sadness and disbelief.”

Wounds from the racism he has endured resurfaced.

“When this all kicked off it really struck a nerve and a chord, brought a lot of emotion up from my personal experiences,” he said.

“I experienced a lot of racism growing up, both at school and in my local area. Then on the race [driving] scene particularly being that my dad and I were the only people of color there.”

Things were not better elsewhere in Europe.

“When I got to Italy, when I got to Belgium—which was one of my first European races—I experienced the same thing. When I was in France [as well],” Hamilton said. “That was definitely a very, very difficult thing....

You don’t understand when you’re young why things are thrown at you, why things have been

shouted at you.”

Hamilton previously criticized F1 for staying silent on racism, prompting a flurry of support on Twitter from fellow drivers such as Charles Leclerc and Daniel Ricciardo.

“People perceived that I was targeting drivers, I really wasn’t. It was targeted at the whole industry,” Hamilton said. “People being silent is something I’ve experienced for such a long time, and now is not the time to be silent. This is a time to help spread the

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

message. We need as many voices as we can to push for change.”

Hamilton hopes his commission finds the root cause of why he’s still the only Black F1 driver.

“It is an expensive sport and I think that’s definitely an underlying factor. The truth is that the opportunity is not the same, not only from the drivers point of view but also the engineers,” he said. “I’ve been working with Mercedes since I was 13. I’ve also been in Formula One for 14 years and I’ve hardly seen any change. That upsets me.”

CAMERON CHAMP shoots a 69 in the first round of the Rocket Mortgage Classic. AP

PGA Tour player Champ says he never had virus

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ETROIT—Cameron Champ lathered up his hands with sanitizer as he made the turn in the Rocket Mortgage Classic, trying to stay healthy enough to keep competing.

“I use it as much as I see it out there,” he said after shooting a three-under 69, putting him four shots back after the opening round.

Champ was added to the field at the Detroit Golf Club under a modified Professional Golfers’ Association (PGA) Tour policy that allows players who test positive for the coronavirus to be eligible if they had no symptoms and get two negative test results at least 24 hours apart.

Champ, however, said he does not believe he ever had Covid-19.

“Through the specialist that we worked with, at this point it’s clear that I never had it,” he said. “Still being precautious because if I happen to do get it, then it affects my family deeply.”

The decision to let Champ play on the eve of the tournament was the latest change to an evolving “Health and Safety Plan” as the tour enters its fourth week back from the pandemicinduced shutdown. Champ is among six players and two caddies on the PGA Tour who have tested positive.

“About 4:30 [Wednesday] night we got the call

saying, ‘Do you want to play?’” Champ recalled. “I’m like, ‘Of course I want to play.’ I had to rush here and was able to make it in time to tee it up.”

Ricky Elliott, the caddie for Brooks Koepka, tested positive before the Travelers Championship last week in Connecticut, and then had a negative test. Webb Simpson said the same thing happened to one of his daughters, who tested positive initially before another test was negative.

The tour said after several asymptomatic positive tests that were followed by a negative test, it consulted with the CDC and is moving to a test-based model. Previously, the PGA Tour relied on time-based protocols that required those who test positive to self-isolate for at least 10 days.

Champ tested positive on June 23 and withdrew from the Travelers Championship. The tour said he had three negative tests over the 72 hours. After flying from Houston on Thursday morning, he was tested again in Detroit and was cleared to play.

Champ had back-to-back bogeys early in his round before closing his front nine with three birdies in a five-hole stretch. He had another bogey on his 11th hole and bounced back again with three birdies on his back nine.

“It was definitely a little shaky start, but like I said, it was last minute to be playing,” he said. AP

Lewis Hamilton speaks during the drivers news conference at the Red Bull Ring racetrack in Spielberg, Austria, on Thursday. AP

World Athletics freezes Russia panels because of unpaid fine

M

ONACO—The program allowing Russian track athletes to compete internationally will be frozen because the country’s federation failed to pay a fine on time, World Athletics said Thursday.

The Russian track federation, known as RusAF, owes a $5-million fine and another $1.31 million in costs for various doping-related work and legal wrangles. World Athletics said RusAF missed Wednesday’s deadline to pay.

World Athletics said it would freeze the work of the Doping Review Board, which vets Russian athletes who want the “authorized neutral athlete” status that allows them to compete internationally, and its task force monitoring RusAF’s anti-doping reforms.

World Athletics said both bodies will be “put on hold” until its council meets to discuss the situation at the end of July. If the situation isn’t resolved soon, it could mean Russian athletes like world champions Mariya Lasitskene and

Anzhelika Sidorova are shut out when the Diamond League restarts next month.

“RusAF is letting its athletes down badly,” World Athletics President Sebastian Coe said in a statement. “We have done as much as we can to expedite our ANA process and support RusAF with its reinstatement plan, but seemingly to no avail.”

RusAF President Yevgeny Yurchenko earlier told the Tass state news agency that his federation’s finances were damaged by the coronavirus pandemic and that it had asked for more time to pay.

World Athletics’ statement didn’t directly address that issue, but said Russia hadn’t indicated when it would pay.

Russia was fined $10 million by World Athletics in March, with $5 million suspended for two years, after the federation admitted to breaking anti-doping rules and obstructing an investigation.

The Athletics Integrity Unit said fake documents were used under the previous management to give high jumper Danil Lysenko an alibi for missing a doping test.

Russians with neutral status won six medals at last year’s world championships, including gold for Lasitskene in the high jump and for Sidorova in the pole vault.

They need to have that status re-issued each year, but World Athletics hasn’t approved any applications in 2020. That’s because of the lack of competitions during the coronavirus pandemic and World Athletics’ desire to review the system after the case involving Lysenko, who held neutral status.

Top-level international track and field resumes next month with the first regular, non-exhibition Diamond League meet of the year in Monaco.

Russia has been suspended from World Athletics, formerly named the IAAF, since 2015.

That followed evidence of widespread doping.

Russia appeared on track to be reinstated last year before the then-RusAF President Dmitry Shlyakhtin and six others, including Lysenko, were charged over the alleged use of fake documents. Those cases are still awaiting hearings. AP

FEDEX TO REDSKINS: CHANGE YOUR NAME W ASHINGTON—The title sponsor of the Washington Redskins’ stadium wants the National Football League (NFL) team to change its name.

“We have communicated to the team in Washington our request that they change the team name,“ FedEx said in a statement Thursday.

The company paid the team $205 million in 1999 for the naming rights to FedEx Field in Landover, Maryland.

In addition to the stadium name and sponsorship agreement, FedEx CEO Frederik Smith is a minority owner. Majority owner Daniel Snyder has shown no indications he’ll change the name since buying the team in 1999.

Amid the national debate over race, pressure has been mounting on the organization to abandon the name called a “dictionary-defined racial slur” by experts and advocates.

Investors this week wrote to FedEx, PepsiCo and

other sponsors asking them to request a change.

FedEx is believed to be the first to take action.

On Thursday night, Nike appeared to remove all Redskins gear from its online store. The other 31 NFL teams were listed and a search for “Redskins” came up with no results. Nike did not immediately respond to an email message seeking comment.

Asked about Snyder changing the name, a spokesman said recently the team had no comment. The team last week removed the name of racist founder George Preston Marshall from its Ring of Fame at FedEx Field, and a monument to him was removed from the site of the old RFK Stadium.

Washington, DC, mayor Muriel Bowser also said the name was an “obstacle” to the team returning to the District. The team’s lease at FedEx Field expires in 2027, and it is still talking to Washington, Virginia and Maryland about building a new stadium. AP

FEDEX Field is less than full during the second half of a National Football League game between the Washington Redskins and New York Giants in Landover, Maryland, in December 2018. AP

Redman in 3-way tie for lead at Rocket Mortgage Classic

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ETROIT—Doc Redman is playing his best golf, priming him to perhaps earn his first Professional Golfers‘ Association (PGA) Tour victory.

Redman shot a seven-under 65 on Thursday to share the first-round lead with Scott Stallings and Kevin Kisner in the Rocket Mortgage Classic.

Bryson DeChambeau, the only player with top-10 finishes in each of the last three tournaments, topped the group a stroke back.

The 22-year-old Redman closed with four straight birdies and seven over the last eight holes at the Detroit Golf Club. Last year, he went from being a Monday qualifier to finishing second at the inaugural Rocket Mortgage Classic.

At last week’s Travelers Championship, Redman closed with a 63 to tie for 11th—his best performance this season—after tying for 21st the RBC Heritage.

“I’ve come off two good finishes and a really good finish last year at this event, which has never really happened to me,” he said.

“So, I’ve never had this kind of expectation externally or even internally.”

Stallings, who tied for sixth last week, birdied his last two holes and three of four. Players with afternoon tee times didn’t fare as well, but Kisner was an exception with a bogey-free round.

DeChambeau surged up the leaderboard with four birdies and an eagle over a eight-hole stretch on the back nine. He gave a stroke back, though, with a bogey at the 18th after pushing an 8-foot putt just to the right.

“That really got me a little agitated,” DeChambeau said. “It’s going to put a little fire in my belly.”

Peter Malnati, Emiliano Grillo, Chase Seiffert, JJ Spaun, Matt Wallace and Chris Stroud matched DeChambeau at 66.

Rickie Fowler, who has missed the cut in the two tournaments he has played since the restart, was among the many players another shot back.

Redman, DeChambeau, Lucas Glover, Tyler Duncan, Viktor Hovland, Mark Hubbard and Brian Stuard have made the cut in all three events since the PGA Tour returned from the Covid-19 shutdown.

On a quiet morning at the fanfree tournament in which the hum of generators was often the only sound, a slew of players took advantage of favorable playing conditions and one of the easier courses on the PGA Tour.

And when their rounds were complete, players took off their caps and extended fists without coming close enough to make contact with one another.

Fowler started with a birdie on his first hole and four on his first six. He pulled within a stroke of the lead when he was standing on his ninth tee and got into trouble in the rough, which appears to be longer than it was last year in the Motor City, and ended up with a double bogey at the par-4, 465-yard 18th.

“There was probably, I don’t know, 8 inches of grass there,” Fowler said. “I thought it was going to kind of just pop up when I hit it and it kind of came out low and left.”

Defending champion Nate Lashley, who had a wire-to-wire win at the Detroit Golf Club last year, opened with a birdie before hurting his chance to repeat with three bogeys and three birdies the rest of the round.

Lashley landed in a greenside bunker and holed out from 45 feet on his final hole to escape with a much-needed birdie, but just a few people clapped and several others simply stood silently.

“With no fans out here, it almost feels like it’s not a golf tournament,” Lashley said. “I need to maybe get some nerves for [Friday] and get a little adrenaline going.” AP