BusinessMirror June 11, 2023

Beating the dreaded

NKTI’s kidney patient, donor education made easy with AI

By Roderick L. Abad

W hile various treatments are now available for this disease, including its underlying conditions, the most common cures at its worse phase are dialysis and kidney transplantation.

“When you are on stage five, then, that’s the time you’ll be on dialysis. Actually, the increase in the number of dialysis patients is like 17 percent per annum, or maybe getting to 20 percent now,” Dr. Rose Marie R. Liquete, executive director of the National Kidney and Transplant Institute (NKTI), said in a news briefing following the opening ceremony for the National Kidney Month (NKM) held at the hospital on Monday, June 5, 2023.

Since one patient develops a CKD every hour, it is no doubt that many of the more than a hundred million population of Filipinos have been diagnosed with endstage renal disease (ESRD).

“It will be either dialysis or a kidney transplant,” Dr. Concesa C. Casasola, deputy executive director for education, training and research services at NKTI, said of the procedures they need. “In NKTI, our priority is for our patients to have a kidney transplant. We do more than 320 kidney transplants every year.”

With this figure, NKTI is the top leading hospital that performs kidney transplants in the Philippines. It is also among the top in Asia with a big number of patients that are transplanted with a kidney from a single center, according to her.

“So we really push and encourage our patients to have a new life and to have a kidney transplant,” she said.

Challenges

BY and large, there remain hindrances as regards the lesser popularity of transplantation among ESRD patients in the country.

“ These are the main problems: social-economic and the lack of donor,” Liquete emphasized. Due to poverty, underprivileged people who cannot afford to ease their suffering from kidney failure fail to engage in preventive management. Hence, their condition is, more often than not, severe already when they come to seek treatment as they come to the hospital very late.

In the case of those with financial means yet living in the provinces or far areas, some think of NKTI right away or other private hospitals,

yet they cannot come to Manila. “ They can go to their barangay, to the local government unit, or to the regional hospitals,” she pointed out. “That’s why in Universal Health Care, we should take care of them from the very start—on the barangay level and up. And our hospitals should be the end referral for [simple] transplantation and difficult transplantation.”

Even though there is the PhilHealth to turn to, beneficiaries qualified to avail of its Z benefit package for kidney transplantation ought to have a donor first. And that is another challenge.

In the Philippines, a living do -

nor must be the next of kin of the patient, either a legal spouse or children. To avail of a giver who is alive and, of course, in good health condition is ideal, while organ donation from the deceased is another option. These are the donors who met an accident mostly, or died of cerebral, vascular, or neurological illnesses.

Unlike in the US and Europe, wherein 25 percent of donations are coming from living givers and 75 percent are dead ones, it’s the other way around in the Philippines.

I believe also in Singapore, Thailand and Asia in general, that is a problem. Even if some of the

countries are very active in organ donation, let’s say Spain and also the US, that are mainly cadaveric,” Liquete said.

AI-driven education ORGAN donation and transplantation are complex processes that need ample understanding for both the giver and recipient to meet in the middle of these lifesaving procedures. “ We found that there was a gap between our patients and donors who are coming to attend our prekidney transplant orientation and their next follow up. Some of them don’t even come back [afterwards],”

revealed Dr. Romina A. Dañguilan, deputy executive director for medical services at NKTI.

K nowing that patient and donor education is complicated, time-consuming and stressful, the NKTI has found a way to do it faster, more effectively and with less effort, in just a click of a button—thanks largely to artificial intelligence (AI).

Th is government-owned and -controlled corporate tertiary specialty center attached to the Department of Health (DOH) has strengthened its partnership with Singapore-based Bot MD to make kidney care education simpler, easier to access anytime, anywhere via messaging applications.

They are taking a cue from the success of their initial teamup with the Hospital Super App that uses the Bot MD AI so clinical teams can instantly search duty schedules, hospital directory guidelines and protocols, drug and lab formularies, and even PhilHealth case rates within a single chat interface. Now, they have just launched the expansion of the second platform called the Bot MD Care to help automate patient education and monitoring.

“Since 2021, we have used Bot MD Care to remotely monitor over 700 patients in NKTI with great results. We have seen how the AI can help doctors and nurses triage their patients for early signs of infection so they can intervene earlier,” Bot MD CEO Dorothea Koh said.

Th is new feature of the Bot MD Care will enable potential kidney donors and recipients to undergo pretransplant orientation at their own pace and time, not only through Viber, but also through Facebook Messenger, without having to download a separate mobile

CHRONIC kidney disease (CKD) is a growing spectrum disorder in the Philippines that needs a better understanding from among the populace to prevent its progression, take care of, save, or even reverse, the deteriorating condition of patients with long-standing renal malfunction.

(FROM left) Adam Bolitho, General Manager, Astellas Pharma Philippines; Dr. Paulo Miguel David, Adult Nephrology; Dr. Romina A. Danguilan; Deputy Executive Director for Medical Services; and Dr. Concesa C. Casasola; Deputy Executive Director for Education, Training and Research Services, at the launching of kidney transplant recipient and kidney donor handbooks during the commemoration of the National Kidney Month on Monday, June 5, 2023, in Quezon City. NONOY LACZA

Impeachment mania unravels an economic miracle in Latin America

By Marcelo Rochabrun Bloomberg News

Th at constitution, pushed through by former president Alberto Fujimori, helped save Peru’s economy from collapse in the 1990s. But it also came with a perfect recipe for ungovernability, allowing Peru’s congress to impeach presidents with few speed bumps, while also empowering the president to dissolve congress almost on a whim.

The result: Since 2016, Peruvians have lived through six presidencies, six impeachment trials, one congressional dissolution and one failed coup. Three of their former leaders are in jail, on allegations ranging from rebellion to graft. Over Peru’s first 179 years, it saw zero impeachment trials. Since 1993, there have been seven.

These rules of the game need to change,” Velarde said in a rare interview. “But how do you do that? In one case congress loses some of its power, in the other case the president loses some power.”

The worry is that without an overhaul of Peru’s political system,

it’s getting harder to attract investment for industries that are vital to Peru and the global economy, from copper to blueberries.

The consequence

SIX months to the day after former Peruvian President Pedro Castillo attempted to illegally dissolve congress before being impeached and arrested, that toll is clear.

The ensuing political volatility led to dozens of deaths and Peru’s first economic contraction since the pandemic. As Peruvians boycotted the economy in an attempt to force the resignation of Castillo’s successor, human-rights organizations say security forces engaged in extrajudicial executions in an attempt to quash the unrest and restart the economy.

Economic growth has slowed to a trickle after booming for much of this century. Investment in the construction of new mines is at a multi-year low and Peru is expected to lose its title as the world’s No. 2 copper producer by 2027. Mass

anti-government protests wrecked the economy earlier this year. Peru’s economic success earlier this century did not prevent its underfunded public health system from shattering during the pandemic, leading to the worst per capita death rate worldwide. Over 1 million more Peruvians are now living in poverty than a decade ago.

Peru’s woes offer a warning for Latin America, where impeachment attempts have grown more common from Chile to Ecuador to Paraguay. No country has experienced Peru’s cathartic presidential turnover. But its experience suggests that political instability can come at a cost for the economy and the most vulnerable.

‘Ungovernable’

MIRTHA VASQUEZ , who served as Peru’s head of congress in 2020 and prime minister in 2021 called the country “ungovernable”—a cri-

sis with increasingly tangible economic consequences. In the wake of mass protests against President Dina Boluarte in a country that loves to give it heads of state the boot, there’s no telling how long she’ll last.

‘A scream in the desert’ IN 1992, Alberto Fujimori, two years into a ten-year presidency, ordered the military to shut down congress and the judiciary, after accusing lawmakers of stalling crucial reforms. In an illegal-butnonetheless-popular power grab, he declared he would rule by decree and rewrite the constitution.

L ater that year, he won a majority in the new constituent assembly. That new congress soon got to work on a new constitution shaped by Fujimori’s vision: remaking the political system.

Before 1992, Peru’s 180-seat House of Representatives and 60seat Senate had to agree on the terms of impeachment before booting the head of state. But under Fujimori’s constituent assembly, lawmakers did away with the Senate.

W hat this meant for impeachment: In Peru’s post-Senate reality, firing a president would require only a single vote in the new unicameral parliament. Removal required a simple majority (This was amended to two-thirds after Fujimori’s own dramatic impeachment in 2000.) The new Constitution did retain one key feature of its predecessor: lawmakers only had to decide if a president had shown “permanent moral incapacity.” Whatever that meant was up to lawmakers to decide. The new constitution also set the president on a collision course with Congress. Under the old con-

stitution, the president could dissolve the lower chamber of congress, following three successful no-confidence votes in the same house. The new constitution lowered the threshold to two votes, which, the president could call at his discretion. Because the new system featured only one House, this meant that dissolving the Lower House effectively meant dissolving the entirety of parliament. Fujimori had dissolved parliament in 1992, albeit illegally—now, congress had made it legal.

These were nuclear weapons that were not meant to be used,” Velarde said.

‘Pardon him, che ’ IN 2017, Pedro Pablo Kuczynski became the first president to feel the sting of Peru’s ungovernability.

On the strength of his Wall Street experience, Kuczynski won the presidency in 2016 by 0.2 percentage points over Keiko Fujimori, Alberto’s daughter and the leader of the opposition-held congress. It soon fired Kuczynski’s education and economy ministers, and in December of 2017, a group of Keiko-led lawmakers initiated impeachment proceedings against the president, alleging he had done business with Odebrecht SA, a construction company known for bribing political leaders across Latin America. Kuczynski acknowledged a company of his had done business with them, but denied any involvement. Whatever the truth—the Constitution was not on his side.

With his fate hanging in the balance, Kuczynski told Bloomberg the notion of pardoning Alberto—an apparent quid pro quo in exchange for nixing his impeachment— crossed his mind. He said he had previously consulted Pope Francis on the possibility. “I said, ‘Your Holiness what do you think?’ Kuczynski recalled. “‘Pardon him, che,’” the Argentine Pope replied, using a word that translates to “dude,” Kuczynski said. (The Vatican did not respond to a request for comment.)

Kuczynski would be saved by a faction of Fujimoristas who, in a surprise turn, saved him by throwing their support behind him in the impeachment vote on December 21. On Christmas Eve, Kuczynski set Fujimori free. (A Peruvian court would later revoke Fujimori’s pardon after finding it illegal.) Three months later, lawmakers tried again to impeach

Kuczynski, alleging his relationship with Odebrecht went deeper than previously believed. In March 2018, he stepped down.

Kuczynksi’s successor, Martin Vizcarra, didn’t fare much better. In 2019 he dissolved congress, appearing to win a standoff over a slate of judicial appointments. But new lawmakers impeached and fired him in 2020. His successor lasted just six days on the job, due to massive unrest.

Kuczynski said he regrets not dissolving Congress, which would have avoided his impeachment. But he doesn’t think presidents should have such power or that congress should have the power to “fire a president without a proper impeachment process.” His dealings with Odebrecht are now the subject of a money laundering investigation.

‘Completely cuckoo’

SINCE Kuczynski became president, the average tenures of the top three ministers—prime minister, finance minister and mining minister—have halved. From 2001 to 2016, an era of historic expansion for Peru’s copper production, Peru’s mining ministers served an average tenure of 11 months; since 2016, it has shrunk to five months.

Such turnover means “the international investor loses its counterpart and needs to start over on a lot of things,” Gonzalo Tamayo, a former mining minister, told Bloomberg. Indeed: As of 2023, investment in the construction or expansion of Peruvian mines have dropped to the lowest on record. The country has some $53 billion in potential mining projects in the pipeline, but few are nearing the lucrative construction or production phases that bring with them large upfront cash investments, jobs and tax revenue.

Jaime Reusche, a Moody’s analyst who covers Peru, said the country’s mining sector looks quite different from seven years ago. “The political risk and political uncertainty and now the protests have put a halt on larger mining projects,” he said. Boluarte, whose term ends in 2026, now faces Peru’s first quarterly contraction since the pandemic, spurred by this year’s civil unrest. Impeachment is always a possibility. Given recent history, who would step up? That’s a question Kuczynski has pondered: “You have to be completely cuckoo to run for president of Peru.”

Beating the dreaded ESRD

Continued from A1

app. With it, NKTI transplant coordinators can now automate the entire process of orienting them prior to the procedure by instantly answering their queries in English and Tagalog, and also send quizzes to test the knowledge of both. If they do not complete their quizzes, the bot will also send automated reminders to follow up.

iterated. “So unlike a human, which can educate 10 people, this can educate thousands. And we can pretty much scale it to anybody that has the Viber or Facebook app.”

Dialysis command hub, kidney transplant manuals

Continued from A1

Another interesting feature of the program is that it enables patients and donors to enroll themselves into the platform by scanning a simple QR code. The bot then allows them to select either Facebook Messenger or Viber to receive their orientation process, which includes details about kidney transplant and donation, as well as educational quizzes. Should they have questions on the kidney giving and transferring process, they can ask the AI in both languages.

They will also receive education videos and interactive quizzes within their preferred chat platform. This ensures that donors and recipients can learn more about the kidney transplant and finish the orientation at their own time. What’s more, the AI helps to automatically score and triage quizzes to alert kidney transplant coordinators for patients or donors who fail their quizzes, and sends nudges to patients who have not followed up with their coordinators.

“It’s not intended to replace a doctor. But it’s really intended to help scale their knowledge,” she re-

THE inaugural ceremony of this year’s NKM, themed “Bato’y Alagaan Para sa Kinabukasan,” also kicked off various activities on kidney disease prevention awareness such as advocacy campaigns and lectures on organ donation and transplantation.

A lso unveiled during the event was the NKTI One Dialysis Command (ODC), a transformative platform that revolutionizes the transition patient-to-patient— from in-patient to outpatient— who needs care. With this innovation, patients and their families now have access to a directory of health-care sectors, where they can make inquiries, upload documents and book procedure slots in just few clicks.

The NKTI ODC is one system. It is an embodiment of training, a driver of progress and a sign of sustainability in every evolving landscape of healthcare. It is a testament to our commitment to improvement and sustainability. It is a powerful tool that enables us to provide care to ease the burden on those unserved by the healthcare system. Through these remarkable innovations, we unlocked the possibilities for our patients and pave the way for a more accessible, efficient and sustainable approach to

quality healthcare,” said Dr. Mel Hatra Arakama, head of Organ Transplant Unit at NKTI.

Meanwhile, the fourth edition of both the Kidney Transplant Recipient and Kidney Donor handbooks also had their debut at the event.

The former aims to guide patients with ESRD who are candidates for kidney transfer by introducing them to the process at NKTI, while giving them the basic and most vital information regarding the transplantation and answers on the most frequently asked questions on the subject.

The latter, on the other hand, seeks to empower and guide readers interested in becoming kidney donors. This manual answers FAQs in the simplest and most concise way so potential givers and their families can reach an informed decision regarding organ donation. “ They are really educational tools. We hope to do more since the thrust of NKTI is to educate and empower our patients. We want to do activities that are patientcentric. Because if you know about your illness, if you know why you’re taking medicines, then compliance is better,” Dañguilan noted. “

With better education, we feel that there will be more patients that will want to have a kidney transplant because kidney transplantation offers the highest quality of life and the highest patient survival among the options for end-stage kidney disease. Opt for kidney transplant. Do it early,” she stressed.

THROUGH 16 years of impeachments and scandal, Julio Velarde, Peru’s central bank’s president, has presided over a remarkably resilient economy. But the country’s constitution now threatens to undo those achievements.

A PROTEST against then-President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski’s pardon of former autocrat Alberto Fujimori in 2018. MAURICIO PALOS/BLOOMBERG

The World

Germany labor force shrinking, ending era of rising prosperity

By Alexander Weber & Andre Tartar

“That’s quite bizarre,” the 46-year-old executive said in an interview last month. But with the 200-strong workforce short of as many as 15 staff and financial penalties due if they failed to deliver, there was no other option, he said. For SchulteSuedhoff’s family-owned firm, Schuko, and thousands of others across Germany, such bottlenecks are becoming increasingly common and increasingly damaging.

“We could sell a lot more,” he added. “The main missing input is labor.”

According to modeling by a German government research institute, sometime round about now, the country’s 47 million-strong workforce is going to stop growing. Perhaps it already has.

And that moment will be the high-water mark of an economic super cycle that transformed a country ruined by war into a manufacturing powerhouse and one of the world’s richest countries. Whatever comes next, an era in which successive generations of Germans saw their living standards lifted by the steady expansion of the workforce is drawing to a close.

“Those days are over,” the development bank KfW declared earlier this year. “The foundation for further prosperity growth is crumbling.”

By William Clowes

AT a ceremony in November, the Nigerian government celebrated the discovery of as many as 1 billion barrels of oil in the country’s arid northeast, almost 1,000 kilometers (621 miles) away from the cruderich Niger Delta. The state’s partners in the multibillion dollar project in the impoverished, landlocked corner of the country is a company founded by two brothers from India. The siblings have built the largest independent oil company in Africa’s biggest crude producing nation even as India pursues them as criminals—accusing them of perpetrating “one of the largest economic scams in the country.”

N ow, as newly elected President Bola Tinubu sets ambitious targets for Nigeria’s hydrocarbons sector, companies created by the brothers, Nitin and Chetan Sandesara, seem poised for an increasingly prominent role—especially as international oil giants such Shell Plc and ExxonMobil Corp. retreat from the West African country.

“This discovery will provide a multiplicity of opportunity and great prosperity for Nigeria,” Tinubu said at the November event. Sworn in on May 29, he was the ruling party’s presidential candidate at the time.

T he selection of a firm owned by the family of the duo branded as fugitives by India to drill wells for the project is just the latest sign of how Nigeria has provided the brothers a haven, effectively insulating them from troubles back home. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government has accused the tycoons of absconding after defrauding public banks of more than $1.7 billion. Nigeria has refused India’s request to extradite them.

The Sandesara brothers, Gujarati businessmen who left India in 2017, deny

Without a major shift, Germany’s labor force will shrink dramatically in the coming years, undermining economic growth, boosting inflation pressures and posing especially tough challenges to the manufacturing firms like Schuko that are the backbone of Europe’s biggest economy. Over the next decade, the labor supply will shrink by 3 million people, or 7 percent, unless retiring Germans are replaced by a significant influx of migrants.

Just to stay flat, the country needs 400,000 newcomers a year. While this figure has been reached at various points in the past, refugees coming from countries including Syria and Ukraine have boosted migration to Germany. And after the experience of those years, voters are skeptical of promises that migration can boost growth. That was the claim back in 2015 but only around half of the refugees who arrived during that wave had found work five years later.

Schulte-Suedhoff compares the crisis to climate change: a slow motion, abstract disaster that policymakers have seen coming for years. And as with global warming, he says the proposed solutions appear inadequate.

“No attention is being paid to this topic,” he said. “The priorities appear a bit crazy.”

The working-age population in Germany actually peaked at

the end of the last century, but the country has managed to stave off demographic decline for some time thanks to the arrival of millions of immigrants and the rising number of women going to work. But both trends are now fading just as the post World War II baby-boomers are retiring.

That means the economy will be reliant on increasing the productivity of the workers it does have in order to drive expansion. As a consequence, overall growth is unlikely to exceed 1 percent for decades, according to projections from Bloomberg Economics.

The International Monetary Fund has a similarly grim outlook. “The headwinds from population aging are already there and will continue to accelerate in the coming years,” Kevin Fletcher, who headed a recent IMF mission to Germany, told journalists in May.

Germany faces a bigger demographic drag on growth than any of its western peers for the next decade, according to Bloomberg Economics. Only Japan—historically a more closed society with a lower rate of female participation and a faster aging population—is further along this trajectory than Germany.

The two main levers available to policymakers are increasing the number of workers and making

the most of those who’re already there. Both may prove very difficult. Migration has been a major boon for Germany’s economy and remains the likeliest way to shift the country’s trajectory. Labor Minister Hubertus Heil has pledged that the government will “pull out all the stops” to attract skilled workers. But the wave of immigrants from central and Eastern Europe is slowing as living standards in those countries catch up to Germany.

The country has seen an increase in visas for skilled workers issued in India, the Philippines and Indonesia over the past decade. Heil is traveling to Latin America with Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock this week as part of his efforts to recruit well-qualified people.

But immigration remains a politically treacherous issue and German society is struggling to integrate a million Ukrainians who arrived last year. Local officials say that schools are at capacity and there isn’t enough housing, while support for the anti-immigration Alternative for Deutschland has surged.  Officials and executives are also trying to persuade more Germans off the sidelines.

In Italy, which is set to be the next European Union country to run into serious demographic headwinds, only 40 percent of

O ther than the international majors such as Shell and Chevron Corp., the Sandesara family is the top exporter of oil from Nigeria. Its firms’ taxes contributed 2 percent of the Nigerian government’s revenue, Nitin said in 2019. An export system of transporting crude on barges to a floating storage vessel in the Atlantic Ocean—rather than relying on pipelines that are vulnerable to thieves— has enabled the family’s companies to maintain a consistent performance as other producers have floundered.

The brothers have hired the plugged-in former head of the Nigerian government’s oil regulator to head their energy operations, and concluded major contracts with the state. Two years ago, Sterling Oil sealed a separate deal with the NNPC for the commercialization of the gas within one of its oil blocks in a project designed to boost the anemic power supply in Africa’s biggest economy.

working-age women are economically active, meaning there is a pool of extra labor to draw on. But Germany has already drawn down that resource. The rate of female participation has jumped by about 10 percentage points in the past 30 years, bringing it in line with the US and above the other big EU countries.

One group that Germany might have more success in tapping is people of retirement age. While it’s made substantial progress since 2000, it’s been stagnating for the last few years. Less than 9 percent of Germans 65 and older are working, compared with nearly 20 percent in the US and about one in four older Japanese people. With the retirement age gradually rising to 67 by 2030, that number should increase, but only slowly.

Schulte-Suedhoff said his firm tries to persuade longstanding employees to keep working after they reach retirement age. “Thankfully, some are willing to do it,” he said. “Otherwise the situation would be even more dire.”

Even if Germany finds it hard to increase the number of workers, whether from abroad or by getting people to hold off retirement, future growth could still be driven by increasing how much each worker produces. For years, the not-so-secret edge of Germany’s powerful economic engine was its enviable productivity, powered by thousands of high-tech engineering and auto companies, from smaller Mittelstand firms to global powerhouses like Siemens AG and Volkswagen AG.

But after growing rapidly in the decades before the global financial crisis, Germany’s labor productivity has stagnated in recent years. It’s up less than 2 percent since 2015, compared to 8 percent in the US over the same period, according to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.

One factor behind that is how badly it lags other countries in

transitioning to the digital age.

The European Commission’s Digital Economy and Society Index ranks Germany 13th of 27 member countries in 2022, just barely above the EU average.

The ChatGPT phenomenon has sparked a fresh spate of optimism this year that artificial intelligence and robotics could help advanced economies like Germany manage their ageing populations. But Schulte-Suedhoff doesn’t think this will be a silver bullet.  New technology may increase productivity, but you still need skilled workers to service the robots and set up the digital infrastructure, he says, and that comes back to the country’s fundamental problem.

High-tech manufacturing and e ngineering industries that have long been at the heart of Germany’s competitive advantage and in the past they were served by a steady flow of qualified workers by the country’s vaunted vocational schools and apprenticeship schemes. But young Germans don’t want to learn those skills any more.

Already there are around 100,000 fewer applicants than available positions after a noticeable drop-off in recent years. More and more students are choosing to go to university instead, and the pandemic raised additional roadblocks to matching companies with potential candidates.

Schulte-Suedhoff can see the economic rationale for shifting his operations to a more dynamic manufacturing location like Mexico where he could tap into a ready supply of skilled workers, but he says that’s not for him. “I’m too patriotic,” he says.

Nevertheless, he’s pessimistic about the outlook for his country without a major change to respond to the challenges of demography.

“Otherwise we just have to limit ourselves economically and accept that growth is happening elsewhere,” he says.  With assistance from Arne Delfs and Zoe Schneeweiss/Bloomberg

cheating their lenders and say they are victims of political persecution. Having ventured into the Nigerian oil industry almost 20 years ago when they won two onshore licenses in the delta, the brothers— faced with problems in India—have shifted their focus to Lagos. They even applied for Nigerian citizenship, according to India’s Central Bureau of Investigation, or CBI, the country’s top investigating agency. I t’s not clear if they succeeded. The brothers’ lawyer a nd Nigerian authorities didn’t respond to queries on the matter.

While the brothers fight fraud charges and non-bailable warrants from India, the Sandesara businesses are flourishing in Nigeria. The African nation refused to arrest them four years ago saying the Indian allegations “appeared to be political in nature,” according to a letter published by the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project.

In India, the brothers’ private jet,

swanky cars and star-studded parties at a 60,000-square-foot farmhouse in Ampad village in Gujarat, routinely provided fodder for tabloids and social media sites, according to news outlet The Print. From a sanctuary on Lagos’s upscale Victoria Island, one of their Nigerian companies has continued that glitzy tradition, sponsoring annual Diwali celebrations that are the talk of the city’s small Indian community, even flying in Bollywood singers like Shreya Ghoshal to perform.

The family’s Nigerian oil and gas business— with the slogan “Success is Natural”—is thriving. The group’s subsidiaries—Sterling Oil Exploration & Production Co. and Sterling Global Oil Resources Ltd.—pump about 50,000 barrels of crude a day in the delta via contracts with the state-owned Nigerian National Petroleum Co. Another unit expects to bring a third block into production this year that will eventually raise total daily output to above 100,000 barrels.

“You are a very reliable partner because when you say things, you get them done,” NNPC Chief Executive Mele Kyari said of Sterling Oil, announcing the deal.

Indian authorities take a less rosy view of the Sandesaras’s practices.

B eginning in the 1980s, the brothers

Continued on A4

Workers at the Schuko manufacturing plant. Without a major shift in policy, Germany’s labor force will shrink dramatically in the coming years. BEN KILB/BLOOMBERG

Two brothers fighting fraud charges from India are flourishing in Nigeria

MUHAMMADU BUHARI, Nigeria’s president, during the commissioning ceremony of an oil refinery and fertilizer plant site in Lagos on May 22. BENSON IBEABUCHI/BLOOMBERG

AS his workers raced to meet a recent deadline, Andre SchulteSuedhoff did something he hadn’t done in more than 20 years—he joined the production line at his factory near Munster and spent his weekend screwing together air-filter equipment.

The World

Meet the 14-year-old who won the Scripps National Spelling Bee with ‘psammophile’

By Ben Nuckols The Associated Press

“Despondent is the right word,” Dev said. “I just didn’t know if I wanted to keep continuing.”

Look at him now.

Soft-spoken but brimming with confidence, Dev asked precise questions about obscure Greek roots, rushed through his second-to-last word and rolled to the National Spelling Bee title Thursday night.

Dev, a 14-year-old from Largo, Florida, in the Tampa Bay area, first competed at the national bee in 2019, then had his spelling career interrupted. The 2020 bee was canceled because of Covid-19, and in the mostly virtual 2021 bee, he didn’t make it to the in-person finals, held in his home state on ESPN’s campus at Walt Disney World.

Then came the disaster of last year, when he was forced to compete in the Orlando region

because his previous regional sponsor didn’t come back after the pandemic.

“It took me four months to get him back on track because he was quite a bit disturbed and he didn’t want to do it,” said Dev’s mother, Nilam Shah.

When he decided to try again, he added an exercise routine to help sharpen his focus and lost about 15 pounds, she said.

Dev got through his region.

He flexed his knowledge in Wednesday’s early rounds by asking questions that proved he knew every relevant detail the bee’s pronouncers and judges had on their computer screens. And when it was all over, he held the trophy over his head as confetti fell.

“He appreciated that this is a journey, which sounds very trite but is really quite true,” said Dev’s coach, Scott Remer, a former spell -

er and study guide author. “I think the thing that distinguishes the very best spellers from the ones that end up not really leaving their mark is actually just grit.”

Dev’s winning word was “psammophile,” a layup for a speller of his caliber.

“Psammo meaning sand, Greek?” he asked. “Phile, meaning love, Greek?”

Dev soaked up the moment by asking for the word to be used in a sentence, something he described a day earlier as a stalling tactic. Then he put his hands over his face as he was declared the winner.

“I would say I was confident on the outside but inside I was nervous, especially for my winning word—well, like, before. Not during,” he said.

Runner-up Charlotte Walsh gave Dev a congratulatory hug.

“I’m so happy for him,” said

Continued from A3

transformed a family tea-trading business into a Mumbai-headquartered conglomerate spanning oil and gas, health care, construction and engineering and owning one of the world’s largest manufacturers of pharmaceutical grade gelatin. By the early 2010s, the group said it was valued at almost $7 billion.

S ome of that expansion was bankrolled by a “well calculated economic fraud” that left the group owing more than 140 billion rupees ($1.71 billion) to public lenders including State Bank of India, Bank of Baroda and Union Bank of India, the CBI told the country’s Supreme Court a year ago.

Among ac cusations leveled against them include the use of “false and fabricated documents” to secure bank loans and the diversion of funds overseas. The same lenders also provided credit lines to the entity that owned the Nigerian oil business, the CBI said in a December 2019 charge sheet.

S tate-backed lenders, including Bank of India, won two judgments from UK courts—in 2018 and 2021—ordering Sandesara companies providing ser vices to Sterling Oil to pay almost $60 million after they defaulted on loans.

India’s Enforcement Directorate (ED), which investigates money laundering and forex violation cases, said in 2019 that it wanted to seize the brothers’ overseas assets, including a Nigerian oil field, four drilling rigs and a Gulfstream aircraft.

The group’s flagship business Sterling Biotech Ltd was sold to California-based alt-dairy firm Perfect Day Inc. in November for about $78 million in a transaction approved by India’s bankruptcy court.

F ollowing a petition by the Sandesaras to quash the CBI and ED cases against them, India’s Supreme Court paused proceedings last year. The brothers said they wanted to reach a financial resolution with creditors. But the investigating

agencies have said any settlement “cannot absolve the criminal liability of the accused.”

T he brothers, who told the court their Indian companies have repaid more than was disbursed to them in loans, say the agencies’ “sole aim is to browbeat, harass, harangue and humiliate” them, and claimed they were declared fugitives in “a grossly illegal manner.” They say the Modi government has a vendetta against the Sandesaras because of their ties to opposition and Muslim politicians, according to media reports that cite their filings in other court cases.

An Indian lawyer for the Sandesaras didn’t respond to multiple e-mails requesting comment. The group chairman and two directors of the Nigerian oil companies didn’t reply to questions sent by Bloomberg. The CBI, ED and the Sandesaras’ main creditors also didn’t address queries on the status of the proceedings against the brothers.

Ironically, even as the Indian government was building its case against the pair, their Nigerian companies supplied cargoes of crude worth almost $1.5 billion to India’s state-owned refineries in the seven years to January 2020, the brothers said in court filings.

With their troubles in India showing no signs of abating, the brothers’ ties in Nigeria are deepening.

In Indian court filings in September 2022, the brothers claim ownership of Sterling Oil, the subsidiary responsible for most of the group’s crude production, touting it as a “very prominent company of Nigeria.” An online registry for Nigerian natural resources companies lists another family member—Devak Patel, the 31-year-old son of Chetan Sandesara’s brother-in-law—as the owner. Patel didn’t respond to queries seeking clarity on the company’s ownership. Where the brothers currently spend their time is unclear. The ED accused them

Charlotte, a 14-year-old from Arlington, Virginia. “I’ve known Dev for many years and I know how much work he’s put into this and I’m so, so glad he won.”

The winner’s haul is more than $50,000 in cash and prizes. When Charlotte returned to the stage later to congratulate Dev again, he reminded her that the runner-up gets $25,000.

“Twenty-five thousand! What? I didn’t know that,” Charlotte said.

Earlier, when the bee was down to Dev and Charlotte, Scripps brought out the buzzer used for its “spell-off” tiebreaker, and Dev was momentarily confused when he stepped to the microphone.

“This is not the spell-off, right?” Dev asked. Told it was not, he spelled “bathypitotmeter” so quickly that it might as well have been.

“I practiced for the spell-off every day, I guess. I knew it might happen and I prepared for everything, so I kind of went into spell-off mode,” he said. “But I also was scared for the spell-off.”

Dev is the 22nd champion in the past 24 years with South Asian heritage. His father, Deval, a software engineer, immigrated to the United States from India 29 years ago to get his master’s degree in electrical engineering. Dev’s older brother, Neil, is a rising junior at Yale.

Deval said his son showed an incredible recall with words starting at age 3, and Dev spent many years participating in academic competitions staged by the North South Foundation, a nonprofit that provides scholarships to children in India.

The bee began in 1925 and is open to students through the eighth grade. There were 229 kids onstage as it began—and each was a champion many times over, considering that 11 million participated at the school level.

The finalists demonstrated an impressive depth of knowledge as they worked their way through a sometimes diabolical word list chosen by Scripps’ 21-person word panel, which includes five past champions.

This year’s bee proved that the competition can remain entertaining while delving more deeply into the dictionary—especially early in the finals, when Scripps peppered contestants with short

but tough words like “traik” (to fall ill, used in Scotland), “carey” (a small to medium-size sea turtle) and “katuka” (a venomous snake of southeastern Asia).

“There are a lot of hard words in the dictionary,” Dev said. “There are realms of the dictionary that the word panelists need to dive into and I think they did a great job of that today.”

With the field down to four, Shradha Rachamreddy was eliminated on “orle,” a heraldry term that means a number of small charges arranged to form a border within the edge of a field (she went with “orel”). And “kelep”—a Central American stinging ant—ousted Surya Kapu (he said “quelep”).

While sometimes Scripps’ use of trademarks and geographical names can anger spelling traditionalists who want to see kids demonstrate their mastery of roots and language patterns—and even the exceptions to those patterns—Scripps has made clear that with the exception of words designated as archaic or obsolete, any entry in Merriam-Webster’s Unabridged dictionary is fair game.

Dev is happy to be closing that book for now.

“My main priority is sleep. I need to sleep. There have been a lot of sleepless nights these last six months,” he said. “I need to sleep well tonight, too. There’s a lot more sleep debt.”

Ben Nuckols has covered the Scripps National Spelling Bee since 2012.

in 2020 of “shifting their base from one country to another to escape the clutches of law” and said they were presumed to be in Nigeria, the UK, the US or the UAE. They have also obtained Albanian passports, according to The Wire and other Indian media outlets. The brothers have neither confirmed nor denied the reports. Chetan signed an affidavit for the Indian court from Lagos in August.

Meanwhile, the Sandesaras’ participation in the new development in Nigeria’s north—a pet project of former President Muhammadu Buhari, who stepped down this month—may be yet another sign that their future lies in the West African country.

S terling Oil will carry out the venture with the NNPC and another public company controlled by Nigeria’s 19 northern states to bring oil production to the upper part of the country for the first time. Almost all of Nigeria’s crude currently comes from the Niger Delta and off its shores.

“It is to the credit of this administration that at a time when there is near-zero appetite for investment in fossil fuel energy, coupled with the location challenges, we are able to attract investment of over $3 billion to this project,” Buhari said at the November ceremony.

His successor Tinubu has promised to increase daily oil output by more than 60 percent to 2.6 million barrels by 2027 and to 4 million barrels by 2030 – an aspiration many analysts believe to be implausible. If the incoming government intends to achieve these goals, it will have to lean on independent producers such as Seplat Energy Plc and Sterling Oil since the likes of Shell and Exxon are trying to sell their onshore and shallow water assets.

A t the ceremony last year, Sterling Oil Chief Operating Officer Mohit Barot told Buhari that the company had secured funding to drill the wells and build a complex to produce fuel, fertilizer and electricity.

“We assure you, Mr. President, that we will deliver on our commitments and your expectations,” Barot said. “Today is just the start of our long journey together.” With assistance from Shruti Mahajan/Bloomberg

A little white pill, Captagon, gives Syria’s Bashar Assad a strong tool in winning over Arab states

By Kareem Chehayeb

The Associated Press

BEIRUT—A little white pill has given Syrian President Bashar Assad powerful leverage with his Arab neighbors, who have been willing to bring him out of pariah status in hopes he will stop the flow of highly addictive Captagon amphetamines out of Syria.

Western governments have been frustrated by the red-carpet treatment Arab countries have given Assad, fearing that their reconciliation will undermine the push for an end to Syria’s long-running civil war.

But for Arab states, halting the Captagon trade is a high priority. Hundreds of millions of pills have been smuggled over the years into Jordan, Iraq, Saudi Arabia and other Gulf Arab countries, where the drug is used recreationally and by people with physically demanding jobs to keep them alert.

Saudi Arabia has intercepted large shipments of pills hidden in crates of fake plastic oranges and in hollowed out pomegranates— even pills crushed and molded to look like traditional clay bowls.

Analysts say Assad likely hopes that by making even limited gestures against the drug he can gain reconstruction money, further integration in the region and even pressure for an end to Western sanctions.

The vast majority of the world’s Captagon is produced in Syria, with smaller production in neighboring Lebanon. Western governments estimate the illegal trade in the pills generates billions of dollars.

The United States, Britain and European Union accuse Assad, his family and allies, including Lebanon’s militant Hezbollah group, of facilitating and profiting from the trade. That has given Assad’s rule a massive financial lifeline at a time when the Syrian economy is crumbling, they say. The Syrian government and Hezbollah deny the accusations.

Syria’s neighbors have been the biggest and most lucrative market for the drug. As the industry flourished, experts say Damascus in

recent years saw Captagon as more than just a cash cow.

“The Assad regime realized that this is something they can weaponize for political gain...and that’s when production started being on a large scale,” said Karam Shaar, a senior fellow at Washington-based New Lines Institute.

Stopping the trade has been a top demand of Arab countries in their talks with Syria on ending its political isolation. Syria was readmitted last month into the Arab League, from which it was suspended in 2011 because of Assad’s brutal crackdown on protesters. On May 20, Assad received a warm welcome at the Arab League summit in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.

A possible sign of the behind-the-scenes trade-offs came on May 8, when airstrikes in southern Syria reduced the home of a well-known drug kingpin to rubble. Merhi al-Ramthan, his wife and six children were killed. Another strike destroyed a suspected Captagon factory outside the city of Daraa, near the Jordanian border.

Jordan was likely behind the strike, with Assad’s consent, say activists and experts. The strike came one day after the Arab League formally re-admitted Syria, a step Jordan helped broker.

“Assad gave assurances that he would stop the regime from supporting and protecting smuggling networks,” a former brigadier general of Jordan’s intelligence service, Saud Al-Sharafat, told The Associated Press. “For example, he facilitated the disposal of alRamthan.”

Jordan, he said, sees the Captagon trade as “a threat to both security and communal peace.”

In public comments, Jordan’s foreign minister, Ayman Safadi, refused to confirm or deny whether his country was behind the airstrikes but said it was willing to take military action to curb drug smuggling.

Arab states, many of which had backed the rebels trying to oust Assad, say they share the goal of pushing him to make peace. Ahead of the Jeddah summit,

Jordan hosted a meeting of top diplomats from Syria, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, and Egypt, and the long agenda included setting a roadmap for peace talks and the return of millions of Syrian refugees. But it was on Captagon where the gathering made the most progress. Syria pledged to clamp down on smuggling, and a regional security coordination committee was agreed on. Days later, Syrian state media reported that police quashed a Captagon smuggling operation in the city of Aleppo, discovering 1 million pills hiding in a pickup truck.

Jordan has intensified surveillance along the Syrian border in recent years and has raided drug dealers. Jordanian troops killed 27 suspected smugglers in a fierce gun battle in January.

Smuggling routes have made untangling drug networks more difficult. A member of an Iraqi militia told the AP that militias in Iraq’s desert Anbar province, which borders Syria, Jordan, and Saudi Arabia, have been crucial for Captagon smuggling. He spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to the media.

Syrian lawmaker Abboud al-Shawakh denied the government profits from the drug trade and insisted authorities are trying vigorously to crack down on smuggling.

“Our country is used as a regional transit route as there are border crossings out of the state’s control,” al-Shawakh told the AP. He alleged that only armed opposition groups are involved in Captagon dealing.

Syrian opposition groups are believed by many observers to have some involvement in drug smuggling. Western governments, however, accuse Assad’s relatives and allies of a direct role in Captagon production and trade and have imposed sanctions on a string of individuals close to Assad.

T he Associated Press writers Bassem Mroue in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, and Qassim Abdul-Zahra in Baghdad, contributed to this report.

Two brothers fighting fraud charges from India are flourishing in Nigeria

OXON HILL, Md.—Fifteen months ago, Dev Shah spent a miserable five hours spelling outdoors in chilly, windy, damp conditions at a supersize regional competition in Orlando, Florida, only to fall short of his dream of returning to the Scripps National Spelling Bee.

DEV SHAH, 14, from Largo, Fla., lifts the trophy next to Scripps CEO Adam Symson after he won the Scripps National Spelling Bee finals on Thursday, June 1, 2023, in Oxon Hill, Md. AP/NICK WASS

AN alternative to petroleum wax coatings that make fresh fruits last longer is now available from local startup HS InnoTech Inc. (HSII).

Manufactured by University of the Philippines Los Baños (UPLB)-based inventors, Fruitect consists of agricultural wastederived edible coating formulations that delay the ripening of mangoes and bananas.

With its Grants for Research towards Agricultural Innovative Solutions, the Southeast Asian Regional Center for Graduate Study and Research in Agriculture (Searca) supported HSII to start the operation of its pilot plant in UPLB in Laguna.

Awarded in 2022, the Searca grant funded the fabrication of support structures and test runs to produce up to 300 liters of Fruitect.

The pilot plant will produce the green delay-ripening formulation in liquid form, making it convenient for direct application onto whole fresh fruits.

Moreover, it will also be available as a wettable powder for easier packaging, distribution and longer shelf life. HSII is now exploring ways to cut production costs.

Dr. Veronica Sabularse and Dr. Hidelisa Hernandez, the inventors of Fruitect, said their technology, which is derived from peels and leaves, is a solution to two common agricultural problems—how to extend postharvest life and use agricultural waste.

Carabao mangoes stored at room temperature (28 degrees Celsius to 31ºC) turn ripe and sweet five to six days after harvesting, but when mangoes are coated with Fruitect, the fruits ripen after 10 or more days.

At cooler storage temperatures, the Fruitect-coated fruits ripen after 20 days.

Meanwhile, lakatan bananas stored at room temperature turn ripe and ready to eat six or more days after harvesting, while bananas coated with Fruitect start to ripen after 20 days.

“By preserving the freshness of fruits sold to consumers, the technology promises better earnings and improved livelihood of our local farmers,” the inventors explained.

Searca Director Dr. Glenn Gregorio noted the impact of the Fruitect technology, emphasizing that the “nature-based coating technology significantly contributes to reducing food wastage and preserving fruit exports.”

“We applaud the inventors who bring their technologies and innovation to the field and transform the agricultural industry,” Gregorio said.

The Department of Science and Technology’s Philippine Council for Industry, Energy and Emerging Technology Research and Development provided initial funding for the development of Fruitect, which aimed to leverage nanotechnology in the creation of innovative materials intended for commercial use.

HSII has announced that it is ready to sell its formulation for carabao mangoes. Fruitect for lakatan banana will be for sale soon.

Biotech has benefits for PHL aquaculture, fishery industry

By Clement Dionglay Special to the BusinessMirror

THE Philippines is at the center of the Coral Triangle, the epicenter of marine biodiversity in the world and a global priority for conservation.

Marine resources such as coral reefs, seaweeds, fisheries and aquatic species live abundantly in the country’s waters. The Philippines is among the top 10 fish-producing countries in the world and the third largest seaweed producer globally.

However, according to OneOcean. org, the Philippine aquatic and fisheries industry faces challenges from overfishing, illegal and destructive fishing practices, coastal and habitat degradation, and siltation and pollution.

These factors could lead to declining fish stocks, loss of marine diversity, and loss of revenues and benefits from fisheries and coastal resources.

Scientists and researchers turn to biotechnology to help the aquaculture and fishery industry face such challenges. Aquaculture and fishery are important components of the local food supply. According to the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the application of biotechnology for aquaculture and fisheries includes genetic improvements and reproduction control, biosecurity and disease control, environmental management and bioremediation, and biodiversity conservation and fisheries management.

Biotechnology plays a significant role in enhancing productivity and efficiency in these sectors and offers solutions and opportunities that can benefit all.

In a recent webinar organized by the International Service for the

Acquisition of Agri-biotech Applications (ISAAA) Inc., Dr. Mudjekeewis Santos, Career Scientist IV at the Philippine Department of Agriculture (DA) National Fisheries Research and Development Institute, discussed the potential contributions of biotechnology to the local fish industry and the national economy.

Santos shared that the roadmap for the Philippines’ fisheries biotechnology, which started in 2017, is aligned with the FAO’s work and goals and is now focused on developing climate-resilient and diseaseresistant aquatic species.

The DA Administrative Order 26, 2021 guides the use of biotechnology in aquaculture and fisheries.

It covers technology development and innovation, research for development (R4D) biotechnology capacity-building, partnerships and fund generation, and technology commercialization and management.

However, unlike in crops and livestock, the use of advanced biotechnology tools in aquaculture is still in its infant stage.

Researchers from academic institutions in the country have used various conventional biotechnology

tools to develop products to improve the productivity of the aquaculture and fishery industry. Now available in the market, these include Juan Algae, a costeffective microalgal paste used as feed in milkfish hatcheries, and JAmp (Juan Amplification) Detection Kit for White Spot Syndrome Virus (WSSV) in shrimps.

Juan Algae, a microalgae paste developed by the University of the Philippines Visayas researchers, helps aquaculture farmers address microalgae problems during adverse weather conditions.

It reduces investment loss and provides an ample supply of hatchery commodities for nursery and pond aquaculture in milkfish and shrimp larvae.

The WSSV JAmp Detection Kit is an on-site platform that efficiently detects WSSV in shrimps, allowing for immediate control and preventive measures for disease spread.

Recently, genetic improvements of fish are now technically feasible and accelerated using molecular biotechnology tools.

In the Philippines, indigenous species breeding programs for

mudfish and jungle perch benefit from the application of modern biotechnology.

With the Philippine government’s enhanced support for the milkfish and shrimp biotech R4D program, priority projects include a database for these and other species and innovative tools, such as gene editing using CRISPR for the improvement of fish genetics. The priority traits are for increased food production, disease/pest control, and climate change resiliency.

As other products of innovative technologies in fish are already in the market in more advanced countries, they could positively impact the Philippine aquaculture and fish industry once they reach our shores.

The Philippines has to be prepared. Dr. Ramon Clarete, chief of party of Building Safe Agricultural Food Enterprises (B-SAFE) Project in the Philippines, said in his message at the webinar that the applications of biotechnology in aquaculture and fishery are key to achieving a food-secure Philippines. He added that the technology will only address these challenges if the government approves the regulations on the application of biotechnology on aquaculture and fish industries.

B-SAFE is a US Department of Agriculture-funded Food for Progress program.

As of this writing, the Joint Judicial Departmental Circular for Genetically Modified Animals and Products is already undergoing a public consultation process. Once approved, this Circular could motivate more R&D and enhance the commercialization of biotech aquaculture products for the benefit of the Filipino people. Clement Dionglay is Project Associate at ISAAA Inc.

PHL-built Maya-5 and Maya-6 cubesats launched to the Intl Space Station

MAYA-5 and Maya-6, the Philippines

new batch of locally developed cube satellites (cubesats) were successfully launched to the International Space Station (ISS) on June 5 at 11:47 pm PST, the Space Technology and Applications Mastery, Inno vation and Advancement (Stamina4Space) Program announced.

Maya-5 and Maya-6 were aboard the SpaceX Falcon 9 as part of SpaceX’s 28th commercial resupply mission.

The two cubesats, weighing approximately 1.15 kilograms each, will move along an orbit similar to the space station’s at an altitude of approximately 400 kilometers when they are released to space.

2nd set of PHL university-built cubesats

MAYA -5 and Maya-6 are the second set of Philippine university-built cubesats.

Similar to their predecessors, they provide local opportunities to acquire space technology know-how and hands-on experience in satellite development.

They are also geared toward increased utilization of domestic capabilities by transitioning to locally available components, fabricated boards and manufactured structural frames.

The two cubesats were built under the Space Science and Technology Proliferation through University Partnerships (STeP-UP)

project of the Stamina4Space Program.

The project was funded by the Department of Science and Technology (DOST) and is implemented by the University of the Philippines Diliman (UPD) and the DOST’s Advanced Science and Technology Institute (DOST-ASTI).

The development of the cubesats was part of the course requirements of the UPD Electrical and Electronics Engineering Institute (EEEI)’s nanosatellite engineering track. The nanosatellite track under the Master of Science or Master of Engineering program of the UPD EEEI is implemented in collaboration with the Kyushu Institute of Technology (Kyutech) in Japan.

It has scholarship support from DOSTScience Education Institute (DOST-SEI).

The second batch of STeP-UP scholars are composed of eight students who received scholarship support from DOST-SEI. They are Anna Ruth Alvarez, Joseph Jonathan Co, Ronald Collamar, Angela Clarisse Chua, Chandler Timm Doloriel, Khazmir Camille Valerie Macaraeg, Genesis Remocaldo and Gio Asher Tagabi.

How are Maya-5 and Maya-6 different from or similar to their predecessors?

THE Maya-5 and Maya-6 cubesats are a technology demonstration and educational

platform developed for remote data collection through Store-and-Forward mechanism, similar to their predecessor, Maya-2, from Kyutech’s Fourth Joint Global Multination Birds Satellite Project.

The cubesats share the same bus but differ in mission payload.

Maya-5 has the same mission payload as that of Maya-2, and Maya-6 has the experimental on-board computer mission payload, which controls the attitude determination and control system and Hentenna missions.

This milestone is the sixth successful launch to space of satellites that are made through the collaboration of the Philippines and Japan, including microsatellites Diwata-1 and Diwata-2.

The cubesats’ predecessors were:

1. Maya-1: Launched on June 29, 2018; ended mission on November 23,2020

2. Maya-2: Launched on February 21, 2021; ended mission on July 5, 2022

3. Maya-3 and Maya-4: Launched on August 29, 2021; ended Mission on August 4,2022

Space tech industry

STAMINA4SPACE Program Leader Dr. Maricor Soriano shared the importance of sustainability in terms of space science and technology development.

“Building our own cubesats and innovating together with local companies should pave the way for a space tech industry base. It is up to all three entities— government, academe and industry—to collectivel y sustain this,” she said.

STeP-UP Project Leader Engr. Paul Jason Co pointed out: “Such a milestone would not have been possible without the continued support from DOST and DOST-SEI, whose commitment to furthering our country’s SSTA [space science and technology application] capability has accelerated our country’s homegrown space scientists and engineers.”

DOST-ASTI Director Dr. Franz de Leon reiterated that “with the experience and knowledge that our scholars, scientists and researchers have gained, we will develop new power generation, which will bring in many more space technological breakthroughs not only to the country, but soon to the world.”

What’s next?

“ THIS milestone marks the second time that our country has sent cubesats that were locally developed into space. This shows beyond doubt that our country’s efforts to have a place in space is not a one and done deal,” Co added.

Once Maya-5 and Maya-6 are deployed, they will be operated through the Philippine Universities Ground Archiving and Data Reception station in UPD.

“UPD and EEEI will continue furthering

our local SSTA capabilities. We also recognize the hard work that the scholars have put in despite challenges during the pandemic. We are optimistic that your efforts will spur and encourage others to take the same path,” Co said as he discussed the future plans of the university.

De Leon brought up the value of inclusivity in terms of SSTA.

“To fully realize the benefits of space technology, it is essential to equip our researchers and scientists on how to process and utilize these satellite assets effectively,” he said.

“DOST has always advocated for inclusive science, technology and innovations driven by the needs of the communities. We will continue to do so by supporting projects, services, activities, and endeavors using emerging technologies for space science technology and innovation,” he said.

For her part, DOST-SEI Director Josette Biyo said: “We have always believed in the excellence of our scholars and we are very happy to see them accomplish great things and contribute in building the country’s capability in satellite development and in space technology in general, especially our second batch of STeP-UP scholars.”

“We continue to strive to pave the way for more talented young people to pursue STEM [science, technology, engineering and mathematics] and assure that space

science and engineering will always be a priority in the scholarship program,” Biyo added.

“As I follow the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launch today, I am filled with excitement and pride as a Filipino knowing that Maya-5 and Maya-6 cubesats are among its precious cargo, and that with those small satellites, our country continues to fare in space for science and innovation,” Philippine Space Agency (PhilSA) Director General Dr. Joel Joseph Marciano Jr., shared after the launching.

Maya-7, the next nanosatellite, is a 2U cubesat currently being developed through PhilSA’s Advancing Core Competencies and Expertise in Space Studies (Access) Nanosat Project, the Stamina4Space Program said. Access Nanosat kicked off in September 2022 and provides the opportunity for Filipinos to pursue a master’s degree with specialized courses in satellite engineering at the EEEI.

In this project, a team of select students and researchers are in the process of designing and developing the Maya-7 cubesat.

The Access Nanosat team is in close collaboration with the winners of the Nanosat Mission Idea Contest, who are developing their proposed mission payloads that will be subsequently integrated into Maya-7.

FILIPINO researchers have used conventional biotechnology tools to improve the local aquaculture and fishery industry. Now available is the Juan Amplification Detection Kit for White Spot Syndrome Virus in shrimps, an onsite platform that efficiently detects WSSV. These shrimps in Cascais, Portugal, did not undergo a biotech detection. ETIENNE

GIRARDET/UNSPLASH

THE launching of SpaceX Falcon 9 carrying the Philippines’ cubesats Maya-5 and Maya-6 to the International Space Station PHOTO CAPTURED VIA NASA LIVE STREAM

THE Batch 2 of STeP-UP scholars with Maya-5 and Maya-6 flight models at the foreground. They are: (top, from left) Ronald Collamar, Chandler Timm Doloriel, Joseph Jonathan Co, Genesis Remocaldo and Gio Asher Tagabi. (Bottom, from left): Angela Clarisse Chua, Anna Ruth Alvarez and Khazmir Camille Valerie Macaraeg. PHOTO COURTESY OF THE STEP-UP/STAMINA4SPACE.

THE completed Maya-5 and Maya-6 flight models. They are sized 1U (10 cubic cm) and weighing around 1.15 kilograms each. PHOTO COURTESY OF THE STEP-UP/STAMINA4SPACE

Fruitect green technology preserves fresh fruits

Pope explains why Catholics make the sign of the cross

to bottom, from left to right, like an embrace that never abandons us,” Pope Francis said.

“Yes, brothers and sisters, our God is a communion of love: This is how Jesus revealed him to us,” he added.

Pope Francis invited the crowd gathered in St. Peter’s Square to make the sign of the cross together.

“God is love. God is Father, Son and Holy Spirit, and he gave his life for us, so we make the sign of the cross,” he said.

The pope spoke on Trinity Sunday, a solemnity celebrated on the Sunday following Pentecost that dates to before the 10th century.

The tradition of making the sign of the cross dates back much further.

Saint Basil (329–379) wrote that the Apostles “taught us to mark with the sign of the cross those who put their hope in the Lord.”

gathered around the table, where life is shared.”

“But it is not only an image; it is reality,” he said. “It is reality because the Holy Spirit, the Spirit that the Father poured into our hearts through Jesus [cf. Gal 4:6 ], makes us savor God’s presence: a presence that is close, compassionate, and tender.”

He added: “The Holy Spirit does with us what Jesus does with Nicodemus: He introduces us to the mystery of new birth—the birth of faith, of the Christian life—he reveals the heart of the Father to us, and he makes us sharers in the very life of God.”

Surgeon: Pope Francis ‘well, awake, alert’ after operation

Speaking on the solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity, the pope highlighted how the simple gesture that Catholics are taught as children is a sign of the central mystery of Christian faith.

“By tracing the cross on our body, we remind ourselves how much God loved us, to the point of giving his life for us; and we repeat to ourselves that his love envelops us completely, from top

In his Angelus address, the pope reflected on a conversation between Jesus and Nicodemus recorded in the Gospel of John 3:16–18. Pope Francis noted how Jesus “revealed the heart of the mystery to him, saying that God loved humanity so much that he sent his Son into the world.”

The pope pointed out that one way to picture the Holy Trinity is to think of “the image of a family

“The invitation he extends to us, we might say, is to sit at the table with God to share in his love. This is what happens at every Mass, at the altar of the eucharistic table, where Jesus offers himself to the Father and offers himself for us,” he pointed out.

At the end of the Angelus prayer, Pope Francis prayed for the victims of a train crash in India that killed more than 280 people.

“I am close to the wounded and their families. May our heavenly Father welcome the souls of the deceased into his kingdom,” he said. Courtney Mares/ Catholic News Agency via CBCP News

Australia diocese ordains 1st Filipino priest in 30 years

FOR the first time in three decades, a Filipino was ordained to the priesthood for one of the oldest dioceses in Australia.

Fr. Andric Dean Taberdo, 28, was ordained for the northern diocese of Darwin at a Mass presided over by Bishop Charles Gauci at Saint Mary’s Star of the Sea Cathedral on May 24.

The bishop said Taberdo was a “local boy,” whose migrant family settled in Palmerston and who answered God’s call to serve his people.

“A priest is called by God to serve other people and help them in their role and mission in life. Let’s all keep him in our prayers so he can be a faithful

follower of Jesus,” Gauci said.

The Mass was concelebrated by the diocese’s bishop emeritus, Eugene Hurley, and several

priests from across the nation.

After his years of theological studies at the Melbourne Seminary, Taberdo received his

diaconal ordination at the same cathedral in October 2022.

Prior to his priestly ordination, he was a member of the cathedral parish team and helped ministered at the Saint Mary’s School and Saint John’s College, among others.

Taberdo, whose roots came from La Union province’s Agoo town, thanked God, his family and the bishops and priests who supported him throughout his religious journey.

Vice Consul Angela Laurente of the Embassy of the Philippines in Canberra was among those who greeted the new priest’s “historic” ordination.

More than 7,000 Filipinos live in Australia’s Northern Territory. CBCP News

France’s Mont-Saint-Michel abbey celebrates 1,000th yr

PARIS—France’s beloved spectacular abbey of MontSaint-Michel has reached a ripe old age. It’s been 1,000 years since the laying of its first stone.

The millennial of the Unesco World Heritage site and key Normandy tourism magnet is being celebrated until November with exhibits, dance shows and concerts. And now a presidential visit.

French President Emmanuel Macron went there on June 5 and delivered a speech in which he called on the French to “push themselves further” in global and existential challenges like that of climate change.

He drew a comparison with the abbey that has stood strong over time and embodies the “French spirit” of “resilience” and “resistance.” It was veiled rhetoric, coming one day before another protest against his contested pension reform law that has been passed.

Ever since former President François Mitterrand in 1983, France’s leaders have flocked to this symbolically important site to send out political messages. In

2007, former President Nicolas Sarkozy even launched his presidential campaign there. Macron’s presidential advisers had said of this visit that the “walls and the eternity of the Mount” seem to carry “the notions of resistance and resilience” of the D-Day landings that are being commemorated this week in the same region.

Macron also visited a new exhibit tracing the Romanesque abbey’s history via 30 objects and pieces, including a restored statue of Saint Michael.

Legend has it that the archangel Michael appeared in 708, duly instructing the bishop of nearby Avranches to build him a church on the rocky outcrop.

The exhibit, two years in the

making, opened last month. It covers the complex process of building what is considered an architectural jewel on a rocky island linked to the mainland only by a narrow causeway at high tide.

Four crypts were constructed on the granite tip along with a church on top. The exhibit explains how the original structure, built in 966, became too small for pilgrims, spurring on the builders to create the 11th-century abbey that stands to this day.

France has spent more than €32 million ($34 million) over 15 years to restore the building, and the work is nearing completion.

Authorities have also tried in recent years to protect the monument’s surrounding environment from the impact of mass tourism.

One of the most popular French destinations outside Paris, MontSaint-Michel island attracted 2.8 million visitors last year, including 1.3 million for the abbey. It was not closed to visitors for the presidential visit, but local authorities were taking measures to make it go as smoothly as possible. AP

VATICAN CITY—Pope Francis “is well, awake, alert, and already made his first joke 10 minutes ago,” Dr. Sergio Alfieri said June 7 during a brief news conference at Rome’s Gemelli Hospital, where Pope Francis is recovering following abdominal surgery.

Alfieri, director of the hospital’s abdominal surgery department, is the same surgeon who removed part of Pope Francis’ colon during an operation to treat diverticulitis in July 2021.

The surgeon told journalists that medically, there would be nothing preventing the pope from continuing with his planned travels to Portugal and Mongolia in August after his recovery.

The conditions treated by the surgery on June 7 and the prior operation of July 2021 were both benign and have been resolved, the surgeon said in response to questions.

“The pope does not have other illnesses,” he underlined.

Alfieri noted that Francis had been experiencing pain for several months due to an incisional hernia and decided on June 6 to undergo the surgery to correct it.

An incisional hernia is a type of abdominal wall hernia at the site of a previous surgical incision.

The surgeon said the hernia may have come about following past operations Francis underwent in Argentina, including for peritonitis, a redness or swelling of the lining of the abdomen often caused by appendicitis.

Alfieri said Francis was already cracking jokes and had asked him when the next surgery would be.

In a statement issued late Wednesday, Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni said, “Pope Francis is alert and conscious and thankful for the many messages of closeness and prayer that have immediately reached him.”

Pope Francis left for the hospital immediately after greeting pilgrims at his Wednesday general audience June 7.

At the start of the audience, he had prayed before a relic of St. Thérèse of Lisieux.

The pope was taken to Gemelli Hospital in a white Fiat 500 with tinted windows with a police escort.

The operation took place in the early afternoon and lasted three hours, the Vatican said.

Pope prayed before St. Thérèse relic before surgery

ONE of Pope Francis’s last gestures before undergoing abdominal surgery on Wednesday was to pray before a relic of St. Thérèse of Lisieux.

A relic of the French Carmelite nun, also known as St. Thérèse of the Child Jesus, was present on the platform in front of St. Peter’s Basilica during the pope’s weekly general audience June 7.

Before beginning the audience, Francis venerated the relics of

St. Thérèse in a moment of silent prayer. He also placed a single, white rose on the table in front of the reliquary.

Pope Francis was taken to Rome’s Gemelli Hospital for abdominal surgery at the end of the morning audience, shortly after 11 a.m. Rome time, the Vatican said. Relics of St. Thérèse’s parents, Sts. Louis and Zélie Guérin Martin, were also present at the meeting with the public. The relics of all three saints will visit different churches in Rome through June 16.

Pope plans to write apostolic letter on St. Thérèse

POPE Francis said on Wednesday he intends to publish an apostolic letter on St. Thérèse of Lisieux, “patroness of the missions,” to mark the 150th anniversary of her birth.

“She was a Carmelite nun who lived her life according to the way of littleness and weakness: She defined herself as ‘a small grain of sand,’” he said in St. Peter’s Square.

“Having poor health, she died at the age of only 24,” he added. “But though her body was sickly, her heart was vibrant, missionary.”

“Here before us are the relics of St. Thérèse of the Child Jesus, universal patroness of missions,” he said. “It is good that this happens while we are reflecting on the passion for evangelization, on apostolic zeal. Today, then, let us allow the witness of St. Thérèse to help us. She was born 150 years ago, and I plan to dedicate an apostolic letter to her on this anniversary.”

St. Thérèse of Lisieux was born on Jan. 2, 1873, in Alençon, France. Her mother died when she was four, leaving her father and older sisters to raise her.

She received papal permission to enter the Carmelite Monastery at the young age of 15, where she lived until her death from tuberculosis at the age of 24.

She was proclaimed a doctor of the Church by Pope John Paul II in 1997 and is the patron saint of missions.

Pope Francis reflected on the saint’s life as part of a series of lessons on evangelical zeal.

“She is patroness of the missions, but she was never sent on mission,” Francis explained in his catechesis.

“She recounts in her ‘diary’ that her desire was that of being a missionary and that she wanted to be one not just for a few years, but for the rest of her life, even until the end of the world,” he added.

St. Thérèse did this, he said, by becoming a spiritual sister to several missionaries, whom she accompanied through her prayers, letters and sacrifices from within the monastery walls.

“Without being visible, she interceded for the missions, like an engine that, although hidden, gives a vehicle the power to move forward,” the pope said. Hannah Brockhaus/Catholic News Agency

VATICAN—Each time that a Catholic makes the sign of the cross, it is a reminder that God is a communion of love, Pope Francis said.

woman makes

POPE Francis is greeted by hospital staff as he sits in a wheelchair inside the Agostino Gemelli Polyclinic in Rome on July 11, 2021, where he was hospitalized for intestine surgery. The pope is in the hospital since June 7 for abdominal surgery to treat an intestinal blockage, two years after he had his colon removed 33 centimeters (13 inches) because of inflammation and narrowing of the large intestine.

SHEEPS graze in the fields around the Mont Saint Michel on May 8, 2018, in western France. AP/THIBAULT CAMUS

Biodiversity Sunday

Editor: Lyn Resurreccion

Fighting the plastic menace

By Jonathan L. Mayuga

THE Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) celebrates June as the Philippine Environment Month with the observance of World Environment Day on June 5.

PHL bags 4 of 8 Asean green initiative project awards

JAKARTA—In celebration of the 50th World Environment Day, the Asean Centre for Biodiversity (ACB) awarded the first-ever Asean Green Initiative (AGI) winners—distinguished greening and reforestation program by individuals, organizations and the private sector across the region, ACB said in a news release.

The AGI program aims to encourage the planting of at least 10 million native trees across 10 Asean member states in 10 years.

It puts emphasis on native tree species for planting since they are likely to survive in their natural environment and are more sustainable in the long term.

Native trees are well adapted to the climate and soil, hence, they are more resilient and have a higher rate of survival. Planting and growing native trees could enrich biodiversity and help revive the natural interactions between organisms and species of both flora and fauna.

“Since its official launch in August 2021, the AGI was able to spark an ecosystem restoration movement in the Asean region that is built on sound scientific principles to reverse the significant decline of forest cover in the region which has been recorded at a rate of 8,000 km sq annually, from 2000-2020, or an equivalent of 160,000 km sq,” said Dr. Theresa Mundita Lim, ACB executive director.

“The AGI hopes to build momentum for more coordinated efforts from different sectors, including the youth and the education sector to help promote biodiversity literacy, contribute to building resilience against climate change impacts, future pandemics, and other global challenges,” Lim explained.

Before the announcement of the first AGI awardees, the ACB conducted a forum on ecosystem restoration, which gathered experts, representatives of development organizations, and officers of local and national governments in the field of environment, forestry, and natural resources.

The forum identified key issues and challenges, opportunities, and recommended actions for forest rehabilitation, and ecosystem restoration at the national and regional levels as well as opportunities for the expansion and collaboration of the AGI network of partners.

Participants also shared approaches and tools in ecosystem restoration that advance  community resilience, including livelihoods, ecotourism and incentives; as well as promotion of private sector partnerships, engagement of the youth, women, and Indigenous Peoples and local communities (IPLCs) in restoration initiatives.

Asean’s best 8

THE eight greening initiatives were recognized for their exemplary work in ecosystem restoration from Lao PDR, Malaysia, Singapore and the Philippines.

The awardees represent homeowner associations, national nongovernment organizations, local

and national government agencies and the private sector.

Collectively, the recipients have planted more than 1.4 million native trees in their respective areas.

They were chosen based on the following criteria: ecological soundness, socioeconomic impacts, sustainability, and compliance with governance and institutional mechanisms.

The ACB listed the AGI awardees as the following:

Medium-Scale Initiatives:

n 101 up to 5,000 trees planted

n Lao Cherry Blossom Tree Project, Lao PDR

n Ayala Westgrove Heights Native Tree and Wildlife Haven, the Philippines

n Ayala Land Carbon Forest Project in Davao, the Philippines

Large-Scale Initiatives:

n Over 5,000 trees planted

n Habitat Rehabilitation Programme through Tree Planting Activities under Central Forest Spine (CFS) Management and Development Project, Malaysia

n Yayasan Petronas Tree Planting Activities in support of Petronas Walk4Trees Programme, Malaysia

n Ayala Land Carbon Forest Project in Cebu, the Philippines

n Binhi: The Greening Legacy, the Philippines

n OneMillionTrees Movement, Singapore

EU support WE have been supporting the center since it was founded in 2005 and through the Biodiversity Conservation and Management of Protected Areas in Asean [BCAMP] project, I’m very glad that we have supported the Asean Green Initiative,” said Thibaut Portevin, head of Cooperation of the European Union (EU) Delegation in Jakarta.

“The event today and the meetings in the coming days are a great opportunity to look at the results we have achieved together and to plan for future cooperation,” Portevin said.

German Ambassador to Indonesia, Asean and Timor Leste Ina Lepel, likewise expressed the unwavering support of Germany for the restoration efforts in the ASEAN region in her recorded message.

“As a long-standing partner of the Asean and the Asean Centre for Biodiversity, the Federal Government of Germany remains steadfast in supporting the Aseanregion in the conservation, restoration, and sustainable use of its wealth of natural resources and unique biodiversity,” Lepel said.

The event was supported by the German government through the ACB-GIZ Institutional Strengthening of the Biodiversity Sector in Asean II (ISB II) Project and the EU through the BCAMP Project, in cooperation with the Indonesian government, through its Directorate of Biodiversity Conservation of Species and Genetics, Ministry of Environment and Forestry.

With the theme “No to Waste: Advancing Circular Economy to Beat Plastic Pollution,” the DENR, under the helm of Secretary Maria Antonia Yulo-Loyzaga, highlighted the problem caused by plastic pollution and how the agency tasked to manage the country’s environment and natural environment, intends to fight the menace.

This year’s World Environment Day celebration theme is “Solutions to Plastic Pollution.”

According to the United Nations, over 430 million tons (MT) of plastic are produced worldwide every year, one-third of which are single used. It also reported that every day, the equivalent of over 2,000 garbage trucks of plastics are dumped into the world’s oceans, rivers and lakes.

Circular economy

IN a statement, the country’s DENR chief vowed to end plastic pollution in the country through a circular economy where all plastic applications are reused, recycled and responsibly managed during and after use, while enabling a lower greenhouse gas emissions plastic economy.

In January, Yulo-Loyzaga signed the implementing rules and regulations of Republic Act 11898, or the Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) Act of 2022.

It aims to address the mismanagement of plastic waste and uphold circularity by maximizing its material value, as it serves as the environmental policy approach and practice that requires producers to be environmentally responsible throughout the life cycle of a product, especially its post-consumer or end-of-life stage.

“But in banking on the support and cooperation of big companies in complying with the EPR Act, the Philippines still has a long way to go,” admitted DENR Undersecretary for Policy Planning, and International Affairs Jonas R. Leones.

Leones said that of the 4,000 big companies that are obliged by law to implement waste recovery and recycling under the law, only 600 have registered with the DENR.

The big companies have a minimum of P100 million capitalization, while small and medium enterprises are not obliged to implement waste recovery.

“That’s why we really need to intensify our information drive with the help of the media,” Leones told the BusinessMirror in a telephone interview on June 6.

Major plastic waste producer

THE Philippines produces a huge volume of garbage every year. It is known as the producer of more than one-third of all oceanic plastic waste in the world.

Despite the efforts of the National Solid Waste Management Commission (NSWMC) and the DENR, through the Environmental Management Bureau (EMB) to implement Republic Act (RA) 9003, or the Ecological Solid Waste Management Act of 2000, the volume of garbage steadily increased.

A Commission on Audit report in April 2023 said that more than 20 years after the passage of RA 9003, solid waste-management generation in the country has steadily increased from 9.07 million metric tons (MMT) in 2000 to 16.63 MMT in 2020.

Daily waste generation, according to the DENR, continues to increase.

From the 16 MT of garbage daily, the Philippines now produces 61,000 MT daily, or a whopping 275-percent increase.

Of the daily volume of garbage produced, Leones said between 12 percent to 24 percent are plastic, citing World Bank and Asian Development Bank studies.

Waste from single-use plastic is a major concern for the DENR because there is still no economically viable replacement for it.

Research and development

INTERVIEWED by reporters as part of the World Environment Day celebrations held at the Ninoy Aquino Parks and Wildlife Rescue Center, the DENR chief underscored the need for the government, academe and other government institutions to find a viable replacement for single-use plastic.

“It is difficult to find a replacement because of the durability [of single-use plastic] and [its lower] cost. We need to do research to identify the products to replace [it].

The challenge is up to the academe, of course, the government, but certainly, the producers that are using plastic products. They need to find a replacement,” Yulo-Loyzaga said.

Plastic waste as

fuel

ACCORDING to Yulo-Loyzaga, the DENR is looking at several solutions to plastic waste problems. It is closely working with several companies for the implementation of the EPR law. Another initiative, is using plastic waste as fuel, which is being considered viable.

She said the DENR is also looking at several cement companies that are willing to help address the plastic waste problem, and are now actually doing it.

There are also ongoing talks between some companies and local government units (LGUs) to supply plastic waste to companies that are looking to use it as fuel. At least 40 LGUs, she said, are already in talks with the DENR and cement firms for the purpose.

Ban single-use plastics

OCEANA Philippines, an international ocean conservation nongovernment organization, is calling on the DENR and NSWMC to ban single-use plastic in order to address the problems they pose.

“The government should have banned single-use plastic by simply listing it as nonenvironmentally acceptable product packaging [NEAPP]. If there’s no replacement for single-use plastic, the burden of finding [one] is supposed to be on the DENR and the NSWMC. They should have done the research to find an alternative material a long time ago,” said Atty. Rose Liza Eisma-Osorio, Oceana’s acting vice president and

legal and policy director.

Interviewed through telephone on June 7, Eisma-Osorio said after 20 years since the Ecological Solid Waste Management Act of 2000 was passed, the DENR has failed to come up with even a list of NEAPP that “is supposed to be updated annually.”

Microplastics in the air, water and everywhere

ACCORDING to Eisma-Osorio, a recently published scientific report found the presence of microplastics in the ambient air in Metro Manila that should direct the DENR, NSWMC and the Department of Health to move swiftly to prevent further damage to the health and well-being of the people.

“Microplastics are in the air we breathe and in the soil, freshwater and our seas. Our exposure to the dangers brought about by plastic pollution cannot be overemphasized. Plastic is an escalating crisis for the environment, health and climate,” she added.

“If we don’t act now to mitigate its impacts, when will the government move? Banning single-use plastic with the utmost sense of urgency is a must now more than ever!” EismaOsorio pointed out.

A study conducted by the DENR Ecosystems Research and Development Bureau found microplastics in all 10 study sites, with Tañon Strait Protected Seascape, the country’s largest protected seascape and major fishing ground, topping the list as having the highest density.

The other marine protected areas, Taklong Island National Marine Reserve and Apo Reef Natural Park, were also found to have microplastics.

“Studies on plastic leaking into the ocean that pose alarming risks to the food we eat are among the reasons we challenge the government to do its job,” Eisma-Osorio said.

Pressing environmental concern

ASEAN Centre for Biodiversity Executive Director Dr. Theresita Mundita

S. Lim said the surge of plastic waste has become one of the most pressing environmental concerns worldwide.

She said in a message on the World Environment Day that of the over 400 MT of plastic produced every year “more than half of [that] entered the market in the past 15 years alone.”

Lim said it is estimated that 80 percent of all marine debris in the oceans is attributed to plastic, and an estimated 11 MMT of plastics enter the ocean every year.

In the Asean region, plastic pollution has increased tenfold since

1980, citing a report of the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services.

Lim noted that about 20 percent of the global plastic production is attributed to the region, causing severe impacts on its marine ecosystems. She cited a study by “two Japanese universities which found out that about 40 percent of seabirds surveyed around the world have ingested toxic substances derived from plastic waste.”

Despite being endowed with rich natural resources, Southeast Asian countries with fast-rising urbanization and population growths, are considered significant contributors to the leakage of land-based plastic waste going into the seas.

“More than 31 MT of plastics, enough to fit in about 1,500,000 shipping containers, are generated annually in just six of the 10 Asean member states, and most of these plastics are of single-use,” she said.

Nature-based Solution ACCORDING to Lim, the application of nature-based solutions (NbS) as an integrated approach is indicated in The Asean Comprehensive Recovery Framework 2020 and is a viable solution to the worsening plastic problem.

“Nature-based solutions are adaptation actions that fully utilize ecosystem services and biodiversity benefits, and address both social, economic, and environmental challenges effectively,” Lim said.

With NbS, sustainable use and management of natural resources are ensured while providing for the needs of people, she added.

“Seaweed-based products, for instance, can be alternative materials to plastic. Palm-based products can be used as more sustainable packaging instead of styrofoam,” Lim said.

“Research and technologies may also be explored for riverine plastic captures, while instruments, such as blue financing, may be pursued with the help of nongovernment and private sectors in the region,” she explained.

Lim added that NbS examples can be fully integrated into important sectors, such as health, agriculture, infrastructure, biodiversity, tourism and others.

She pointed out that marine species, including microorganisms, are important indicators of a deteriorating ocean system.

“It is, therefore, vital for us to protect and monitor these as part of our early warning mechanisms to deliver timely action before the damages from pollution become irreversible and catastrophic,” she warned.

PILES of garbage, including plastic bags and plastic water bottles, are left behind at the Our Lady of Lourdes Grotto in San Jose del Monte, Bulacan, during the Holy Week. ECOWASTE COALITION

THE first Asean Green Initiative awardees with Asean Centre for Biodiversity Executive Director Theresa Mundita Lim (sixth from left); Director Ky Anh Nguyen of Asean Sustainable Development Directorate (fifth from right); and Dr. Badi’ah Achmad Said, deputy director, Directorate of Biodiversity Conservation of Species and Genetics, DG of Conservation on Natural Resources and Ecosystem, Ministry of Environment and Forestry (fifth from left). ACB PHOTO

SAUDI-PGA DEAL EXTENDS CROWN PRINCE INFLUENCE

By Ellen Knickmeyer The Associated Press

WASHINGTON—

After years of isolation over his human rights abuses, Saudi Arabia’s crown prince is elevating his standing in the United States in part by diving into American sports, business and culture.

A nd no example has been as striking as his bold entry into professional golf—the favorite sport of presidents and millions of other Americans.

Tuesday’s surprise announcement of a commercial merger between Saudi Arabia’s $650 billion sovereign wealth fund, the Professional Golfers Association (PGA) Tour and the European tour in the short run looks to end a messy legal battle between Saudi Arabia’s LIV Golf and the PGA.

But for the Saudis, it’s much more than a major business deal. It’s the latest and perhaps most dramatic move by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman to wield his kingdom’s oil wealth in reshaping his country’s economy and advancing Saudi influence regionally and around the world, while muting critics.

P rince Mohammed has assumed much of the duties and leadership of his aged father, King Salman.

No longer ‘sport of kings,’ horse racing fighting off challenges in long evolution

WHEN the crowd roared to a fever pitch at the 2015 Belmont Stakes to celebrate American Pharoah becoming the first Triple Crown winner in nearly four decades, the scene was a throwback to the days when it was common for the grandstand to be full and horse racing was squarely in the spotlight.

The moment was fleeting, as it was when Justify won the Triple Crown three years later.

The joy of such a lofty accomplishment—the Triple Crown has been just 12 times since the first one in 1919—was soon replaced by headlines mostly for the bad: Bob Baffert’s 2021 Kentucky Derby winner, Medina Spirit, failing a postrace drug test and the Hall of Fame trainer being suspended. Disturbing clusters of horse deaths—at Santa Anita in 2019 and most recently 12 more at Churchill Downs, prompting the storied track to close to investigate.

K nown in its heyday as the “Sport of Kings” when the likes of Seabiscuit, Man o’ War and Secretariat were stars featured first newspapers and radio reports and then newspapers, horse racing is long past its golden era, though the details can be complicated.

Betting and sales numbers are setting records and viewership for days like the Derby trails only the Super Bowl in the US but the buzz is limited and the total number of foals has fallen sharply over the past two decades, raising questions about where the niche sport goes from here in a crowded landscape.

We need to educate outside of

the industry in order to grow the industry,” said Eric Hamelback, CEO of the National Horsemen’s Benevolent and Protective Association, which represents thoroughbred horsemen in the US and Canada. “It won’t be what it once was. I don’t know that we can get back to the way it was. I think that we can continue to grow—at least on a steady, incremental basis.”

The biggest key to growth beyond horse racing’s aging constituency is safety.

Industry leaders point out the sport has never been safer, with horse fatalities down 37.5 percent since they started being tracked in 2009 thanks to advancements in testing, track surfaces and other areas. The federally-mandated Horseracing Safety and Integrity Authority (HISA) took over last year, and its medication and anti-doping program went into effect last month.

The deaths at Churchill Downs put the sport at what HISA CEO Lisa Lazarus called a “crossroads,” given the amount of negative attention. One silver lining, she said, is that she started to hear more support for the new agency from those within the business hoping for “genuine change.”

I’m feeling a real shift in support and recognition that we need to have unified rules, we need to have rigorous rules, we need to have clear standards,” Lazarus said, “and that we may not have a future as an industry if we don’t.”

The industry as it exists right now is extremely profitable.

In 2022, 14,525 thoroughbreds in North America were sold for

a cumulative value of over $1.2 billion, according to Bloodhorse, and over $12 billion was bet on races that were run for purses that added up to $1.31 billion. Zion Market Research recently estimated the industry produces $402 billion in revenue, with almost $794 billion possible by 2030.

Craig Bernick, an owner and breeder at Glen Hill Farm in Florida who is also part of the Thoroughbred Idea Foundation, cautioned that fewer bettors are actually involved than in decades past and that purse money is coming from casinos and other sources.

His said his biggest concern is that the sport has become more about breeding horses to sell them rather than run them, which has resulted in the best thoroughbreds having far shorter careers before going to stud.

It has to be about the racing,” Bernick said. “Racing of horses just needs to drive everything in the business. And I would say it doesn’t.”

A s a result, Bernick thinks the quality of horse racing has suffered, with owners and breeders having their needs satisfied and fans not getting the best entertainment.

How do we make this sport more appealing to the general public? And through that, everything else will grow because they’ll become consumers,” Bernick said. “They’ll become fans and become bettors. Pretty much every owner in history started as a fan or bettor. Yep. That’s really the way, ideally, the business would be driven.” AP

Wycoco, Chope dominate URCC 85: Underdog

ALLEN WYCOCO  survived an exhausting fight against Dondon “Rugbiboy” Serrano as Will Chope retained his crown in the Universal Reality Combat Championship (URCC) 85: Underdog recently at the DD Night Club along Tomas Morato in Quezon City.

Wycoco, a former amateur boxer based in the New Zealand who joined the Dyincredible Fighting and Fitness Center, banked on his superb boxing skills to exploit Serrano’s lack of stamina to score a fourth-round technical knockout win and keep the bareknuckle boxing welterweight belt.

My coach instructed me to use my boxing skills, use my footwork and clinch wisely,” Wycoco, 32, said. “I’m tired but he felt more exhausted than me so I countinued fighting.”

“ I salute Serrano for fighting with a lot of heart. I know he’s tired but he still wanted to fight. I caught him though,” he added.

Wycoco, coached by active mixed martial artist Rolando Dy, caught Serrano with various combinations

before the referee halted the fight with close to three minutes left in the fourth round.

It was Wycoco’s second straight victory. C hope, a former Ultimate Fighting Championship fighter, hardly sweat in disposing of Brian Paule with a rear naked choke right in the first round to keep the URCC welterweight interim title.

“I’m a man of my words and this is my 136th MMA professional fights. I did everything in the URCC for 12 years and I am thankful to Alvin [Aguilar],” said the 32-year-old Chope who improved his win-loss record to 42-19.

The URCC fight card organized by founding president Alvin Aguilar and co-owner and general manager Aleksandr Sofronov was supported by Crazywin and DD Night Club.

I n the preliminary fights, Rhyle Lugo defeated Richard Lachica at featherweight and Tokartzhy Ushqyn beat Dave Morata at lightweight both via second round technical knockout (TKO).

The commercial merger followed the kingdom’s purchase of the Newcastle United soccer team and staging of Formula One races and multiple other sports events.

O n Wednesday, Saudi Arabia’s most prominent US supporter celebrated.

Former president and current leading Republican presidential contender Donald Trump, whose golf courses and family have been a top beneficiary of Saudi investment, boasted that last year he had predicted a merger between Saudi upstart LIV golf and the PGA.

Trump had warned pro golfers at the time they would lose millions if they stayed loyal to the “very disloyal PGA.”

A “ big, beautiful, and glamorous deal,” Trump tweeted at the SaudiUS golf announcement. Trump’s golf courses were snubbed by the PGA Tour after his followers’ violent January 6, 2021, assault on the US Capitol, while rival Saudi golf tour LIV patronized Trump courses, for undisclosed sums.

R epublican Sen. Lindsey Graham, who in 2018 had promised a “tsunami” of opposition against

the crown prince over Saudi Arabia’s killing of US-based journalist Jamal Khashoggi, tweeted the PGA-LIV tour merger was “beyond exciting.” He noted it could benefit the golf industry in his state of South Carolina.

Saudi exiles in the US expressed disappointment. In the hours before the golf deal was announced, they had hosted a sparsely attended press call to try to bring attention back to the Saudi rights advocates, American citizens and family members still being held in Saudi prisons or banned from traveling.

I think what the Saudi government has been noticing so far is that using money for sportswashing is working out for them,” said Abdullah al Oudh, whose father, a popular cleric, has been in prison in Saudi Arabia since publicly expressing hope that the crown prince would end a now-mended rift with another Gulf state, Qatar.

They have used it once, twice, three times...to just whitewash their crimes. And it’s been working for them so far,” al Oudh said.

It all has marked a stunning turnaround in the global standing of Prince Mohammed, who became almost globally despised after the 2018 killing of Khashoggi, a Washington Post columnist who had written of the crown prince’s brutal ways.

The crown prince’s aides and other Saudi officials killed Khashoggi after luring him to the Saudi consulate in Istanbul. The US intelligence community concluded the crown prince had authorized the plot.

Then-presidential candidate Joe Biden pledged to make the crown prince a “pariah.” It’s a phrase that has been repeated in almost every Western article about the two since.

World leaders for a time shunned Prince Mohammed, leaving him standing awkwardly alone at summits as other leaders shook hands and smiled for photos. Global businesses briefly boycotted Saudi conferences.

Coming on top of Saudi Arabia’s invasion of neighboring Yemen, its failed blockade of neighboring Qatar, its brief detention of Lebanon’s leader, and intensified detention and torture of rivals, journalists and rights advocates, the Khashoggi killing stained Prince Mohammed’s reputation, indelibly.

I n the five years since, however, the crown prince has made his way out of isolation.

For starters, there has been no known repeat of high-profile killings like that of Khashoggi, whose apparent strangulation and subsequent dismemberment with a bone saw was recorded by Turkish surveillance.

The kingdom released the bestknown of the Saudi women jailed under Prince Mohammed for asking for women’s right to drive. That’s even though many other lesserknown Saudis, including US citizens or residents, remain in prison or under travel bans for peacefully advocating for more representative government or for commenting on Saudi government policy.

Me anwhile, oil production cuts by Saudi Arabia reminded Washington of Saudi Arabia’s key strategic attraction. Biden came calling last July and did an awkward fist bump with the crown prince, as his administration sought to repair relations and get oil flowing more freely again.

S hrewd Saudi diplomacy has played a part as well. Secretary of State Antony  Blinken visited  the crown prince, and Iran reopened its embassy in Saudi Arabia, the same day as Saudi Arabia’s stunning breakthrough in US sports. It made the day a showcase of the ambitious crown prince’s return to the global fold, even if no state dinners are likely for him at the Biden White House.

Tensions with the US remain over Saudi Arabia’s continued repression of Saudi dissent at home and abroad, the kingdom’s throttling back on oil production, its relations with Russia, and its resumed ties with Iran, in a deal for which China claimed credit.

CROWN Prince Mohammed bin Salman entry into professional golf—the favorite sport of presidents and millions of other Americans—is strikingly bold. AP

Regulators say FIFA made false claims on ‘carbon-neutral’ World Cup in Qatar

ZURICH—FIFA made false claims about last year’s World Cup in Qatar being carbon neutral, an advertising regulator in Switzerland said Wednesday.

F IFA was “not able to provide proof that the claims were accurate,” the federally recognized Swiss Commission for Fairness said in its judgment into complaints filed from five countries.

carbon-neutral tournament to the Swiss advertising regulator.

The Swiss commission in FIFA’s home city of Zurich evaluated claims that 3.63 million metric tons of carbon dioxide had been compensated for and all tournament-related emissions would eventually be offset.

Dan Ascano knocked out Gerardo Sismundo in the first round in a bareknuckle clash.

I nquiries about future fight events are available at URCC web site www. urcc.online or download the official URCC app https://apps.wix.com/placeinvites/join-lp/b4e05b90-55a0-40a88fac17ccf4a2c074?ref=pre_banner_top

Jerald Vellarde defeated John Vallega via unanimous decision at lightweight and Catherine Soria crushed Jessa Sarabia via third round TKO at women’s strawweight battle in the Philippine Mixed Martial Arts Federation bouts.

Tristan De Mena beat Shidjiroh Delantar (second round TKO) in light heavyweight bout and Paolo Cruz whipped Gemil Clarinio ( first round rear naked choke) in an amateur bantamweight clash.

T he slap battle saw Boy Kagang Jeffrey Castos beat Alex Tuazon Boy Tattoo via unanimous decision and Makahighlord Gerald Gabonada defeat Milarde Hugo Pongde via third round TKO.  ALLEN WYCOCO survives an exhausting fight.

The commission said it “advised FIFA to refrain from making unsubstantiated claims in the future.

Particularly the claim that the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar was climateor carbon-neutral.”

FIFA said in a statement it would analyze the recommendations and had the right of appeal. The ruling is not legally binding.

Q atar spent more than $200 billion on a decade-long construction program of mostly air-conditioned projects to prepare for hosting the soccer tournament in the gas-rich emirate. It relied on using hundreds of thousands of migrant laborers working in widely criticized conditions.

Seven of the eight stadiums used—including one with a facade of shipping containers later to be dismantled—were built in and around Doha. A new city, Lusail, was constructed, including the stadium that staged the World Cup final.

E nvironmental groups in Belgium, Britain, France, the Netherlands and Switzerland filed complaints about FIFA’s claims of a

F IFA had not proven the offsets “and did not set out a plan to define how it will further offset emissions,” the ruling said.

It was unclear to the [regulator] whether the promised level of [carbon dioxide] compensation was realistic at all,” it said.

FIFA acknowledged in a statement that “climate change is one of the most pressing challenges of our time.”

FIFA is also fully aware of the impacts that mega-events have on the economy, the natural environment and on people and communities, and has been making substantial efforts to tackle those impacts and, at the same time, to use opportunities to maximize the positive effects of its most iconic tournament,” the soccer body said.

T he 2026 World Cup will be staged in 16 cities in the United States, Canada and Mexico with 48 teams instead of 32. They will play 104 games instead of 64, though in stadiums already existing.

Q atar also will host the Asian Cup next year, with 24 teams playing the January 12 to February 10 tournament in eight stadiums, including six of the World Cup venues. AP

THE biggest concern is that the sport has become more about breeding horses to sell them rather than run them, which has resulted in the best thoroughbreds having far shorter careers before going to stud. AP

Publisher :

Editor-In-Chief :

Concept :

Y2Z Editor :

SoundStrip Editor :

Group Creative Director :

Graphic Designers :

Contributing Writers :

A DAUGHTER’S LOVE

Kat Darling pays tribute to late dad with single ‘A Summer Poem’

By Patrick V. Miguel

AFTER her father passed away, Kat Darling happened to have found his old poem. She came across “A Summer Poem,” written by her father, and did not think twice about making it into a song. She recalled, “Sabi ko, sobrang ganda nito, kailangan maging kanta ito.”

Her father Albert Moldero Maraña was a writer. He served as the chief editor in Adamson University’s publication, The Adamson Chronicle.

“I’m so mind blown by the thought that something that was created 60, 70 years ago, came to life again,” Kat reflected, as her single “A Summer Poem” was released last May 19.

Lourdes M. Fernandez

Aldwin M. Tolosa

Jt Nisay

Edwin P. Sallan

Eduardo A. Davad

Niggel Figueroa

Anabelle O. Flores

Tony

Jill Tan Radovan

Photographers :

Bernard P. Testa

Nonie Reyes

Y2Z & SOUNDSTRIP are

She originally planned releasing the song three years ago, on February 8, 2020—her father’s birthday. “Pero as you know, lahat ng plinano ko sa music, hindi nasusunod,” she said.

“I had zero budget to release the song… but now we’re here,” she added.

Kat said they encountered several problems during the production of “A Summer Poem.” She revealed, “may problems with production, may mga miscommunication na nangyari, budget totally.”

However, Kat said the biggest problem was in terms of the music itself. She shared that she used the app garageband. She told Soundstrip, “I made the song on garageband, using samples for free by garageband.”

So when she presented it to the production team, they all had a hard time translating her ideas into the final product of her single.

Despite the setbacks, Kat said proudly, “It all worked out.”

ngayon lang tayo lumalabas ulit.”

A party was held at 88Fryer, Quezon City, last May 19 to celebrate the release of her single “A Summer Poem.”

‘A tribute to him’ KAT said that she used to do music to make money. “I used to do it to make money,” she said.

But now, Kat fully embraced becoming an independent artist for the sake of creative freedom. She said it allowed her to explore multiple genres.

“

Ngayon ko lang naexperience maging creator talaga and that’s so much more fulfilling than the money,” she reflected. Asked what her father would have felt had he known she’s going to make “A Summer Poem” into a song, she said he would have been proud, mainly because of her independence.

“Sobrang independent lahat. I had zero money in my pocket, and ito ‘yung naging outcome niya My dad would not, in a million years, expect that I would do that for him,” she said.

She said that even if her father is no longer present, she could feel his spiritual guidance while working on the song.

Kat smiled and said, “After all, it’s a tribute to him on how great of an artist he was.”

“A Summer Poem” is available on all music-streaming platforms

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

Fax line: 813-7025

Advertising Sales: 893-2019; 817-1351,817-2807.

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

And despite the delays, Kat believes that now is the “perfect” time to release it.

She said, “Ngayon, it’s the perfect timing because it’s summer and everybody’s also going out of their houses, and

T. Anthony C. Cabangon

M. Maghirang, Rick Olivares, Patrick Miguel

KAT Darling

by Tony M. Maghirang

Of constants and variables

FOO FIGHTERS But Here We Are

THE untimely death of drummer Taylor Hawkins produces a timely tribute album from Foo Fighter chief Dave Grohl that’s one of a kind in staying true to their alt-rock roots and in lyrics that’s sympathetic and hopeful at the same time. Overall, there’s not a hint of the darkness of mourning throughout the record. Midtempo rockers such as “Hearing Voices” and “Beyond Me” are as much laments as joyful remembrances of past friendships. Anthemic eruptions like “Under You” and opener “Rescued” rue about lost opportunities to bond as blood brothers. “But Here We Are” repurposes the numbness of bereavement into something alive and kicking.

MONOCHROME

Gray Sky Manila

JUST when you thought post-rock has lost its appeal comes a Pinoy band that brings new colors in the genre’s fading glory. Swirling moody guitars keep “The Hand That Rules The World” gripping and mesmerizing while the long heavy “...And The Future Is Uncertain” projects the yin of noise and the yang of drone. “The White Fox Project” starts soft, as in jazz fusion smooth, yet midway, the band takes it to a tougher and more sinewy rock direction. There are still gems to uncover among post-rock’s lingering debris.

RHODA

DAKAR Version Girl

THE former vocalist of ska collective Bodysnatchers is now a solo recording artist and her latest release features ska/ reggae reinventions of mostly ‘80s pop and rock classics. It’s hardly Stars on 45 redux even if “What A Wonderful World” is among the lead tracks. It’s definitely not Sunday afternoon fare for Gen Xers either because Rhoda Dakar and company find things to cherish in the likes of Tim Buckley’s “Song To The Siren,” Bowie’s “The Man Who Sold The World,” and The Pretenders’ “Stop Your Sobbing.” Well. skatweaking “Love Hurts” or “As Tears Go By” may be fey for some ears but hey, you gotta love Ms. Dakar’s effort to make each track her own.

CREPUSCULAR DAWN The Fire Tomorrow

ON their skimpy bio-sketch, members of Crepuscular Dawn claim to have come together after stints with various Pinoy punk and hardcore bands. Their latest album, however, hardly reflects such rabid backgrounds since its ten tracks place the band closer to the more melodic side of guitar-based new wave. “Empire of Speed” recalls the Railway Children, “Leper God” radiates with that Goth aesthetics and “Tin Drum” is a return to rock and roll. In short, there’s a lot to be excited about their sound even if it masks words alluding to a world of thorns, magic and sorcery and fleeting existence. Their music is a Trojan horse, perhaps?

WHITE WIDOW

The God Uterus Dissolves

RIGHT off, here’s a fine companion to Lou Reed’s “Metal Machine Music,” a critically maligned album upon its release but now considered a classic benchmark in today’s post-everything music adventure. In a press release, the experimental sound duo White Widow’s “unconventional use of electronic sound and synthesizers creates jarring and outof-this-world aural experiences.” More than that, the cheerless, often violent sounds emanating from the duo’s new album provides a massive jolt against the more cheerless, callous music that pervade current playlists. It’s a chance to take a break from all the predictable fluff, even for half an hour.

ALFA MIST Variables

BRITISH multi-instrumentalist Alfa Mist started making waves among progressive jazz circles a few years back then he hooked up with pop and R&B producers to expand his musical horizon. Now, on his fifth recording titled “Variables,” Alfa showcases how he effortlessly transcended boundaries to make a serious mark on everything he touches. Opening track “Forward” is cool jazz now! with its excellent interplay of serpentine guitars and warm sax. Alfa then dips his intuitive jazz instincts into rap (“Borderline”), acoustic guitar driven pop (“Cycles”), hot Latin rhythms (“Genda”) and to the melancholic late night reverie of “Apho.” “Variables is an invariably entertaining body of work from a forward-looking artist.

SoundSampler

New restaurant platform wants every customer to get VIP access

By Kate Krader Bloomberg

This scenario is all-too-familiar to hungry diners in New York. Now, a new company, Blackbird, believes it can fix the problem with a loyalty program that lets diners accumulate points at independent restaurants. With enough points, stored on a blockchain, a diner can achieve the kind of status akin to airline and hotel programs. In the long term, it could mean discounts on checks and the invaluable perk of access to top restaurants. For now, it translates as free pastries, ice cream upgrades and, maybe, a drink at the bar.

“We are building the equivalent of the starbucks app for individual restaurants,” says Ben Leventhal, Blackbird’s founder and chief executive operator, referencing the coffee chain’s loyalty program that has more than 28 million active users.

Independent restaurants don’t have the resources to create their own programs,

Leventhal says, and Blackbird fixes that. It will also help operators identify valuable customers and repeat diners that they want to ensure get seats.

From loyalty to benefits to payments

“We want to attack loyalty, benefits and ultimately payments,” says Leventhal, who was also the co-founder and former

on Blackbird’s board. “Can we make more diners feel like regulars? We’re hoping that Blackbird pulls together POs [point of sale] and reservation data so we have a fuller understanding of our guests. That’s the value of Blackbird for us.”

This kind of information is increasingly important to restaurants as their profit margins plummet. Twenty-five years ago, they were between 15 percent and 20

‘Small fee’

The vehicle for accumulating rewards on Blackbird will be a token, or NFT, called $FLY, stored on a blockchain. (Those concepts were much buzzier when news of Blackbird first became public last summer; since the collapse of the crypto market, Leventhal doesn’t reference NFTs so much.) There’s no charge for diners to use the app; restaurants will pay a “small fee” (2 cents to 5 cents per check in) and a percentage of transactions. Points will be accumulated by both diners and restaurants. It’s not clear what restaurants can do with their points, beyond pay Blackbird fees. “Utility will evolve over time,” Leventhal says.

chief executive officer of resy, the gamechanging restaurant reservation platform that was acquired by American ex press in 2019. (The amount was not disclosed, but the platform was valued at over $53 million in 2017).

“every restaurant should be thinking about scaling brand and loyalty, but few have the resources,” says Gary Vaynerchuk, a co-founder of resy and an investor in Blackbird.

“Anything that attempts to create connective tissue between a restaurant and its guests is going to be positive for the industry,” says Marguerite Mariscal, CeO of Momofuku and Momofuku Goods, who is

percent; now they’re around 4 percent, according to IBIsWorld Inc. Although dining rooms are consistently full, operators are struggling to stay afloat.

“Places can’t raise their prices fast enough to keep up with costs,” Leventhal says. “You can’t ignore the disconnect between popularity and profitability.” even as sales go up, operators worry about keeping their doors open, because of rising costs.

Blackbird’s white paper acknowledges the success of myriad existing programs, like OpenTable and resy, but maintains that their benefit is to third parties and not the individual restaurants.

Blackbird quietly started operating in April with a handful of New York spots including the new soft-serve ice cream spot Bananas on the Lower east side, where multiple visits earn customers upgraded toppings. The company recently officially launched their app and announce partnerships with over 60 restaurants, mostly in New York, including the two Michelin-star saga and the cult favorite dining spot estela in soho.

Leventhal envisions a future when Blackbird will handle restaurant transactions, although he wouldn’t discuss how the finances would be overseen or audited. “We think there’s an opportunity to innovate on payments,” he says. “restaurants are paying very high percentage for credit card swipes. It should be much more seamless.” still, the question remains: Will diners opt for yet another restaurant program, when their digital wallets are already full of loyalty cards for chains?

Crosta goes outside the (pizza) box anew with imaginative omakase experience

By Jt nisay

Fresh off being hailed in Tokyo as the Philippines’ highest-ranking pizza joint in 50 Top Pizza’s APAC 2023 list, jumping from 32nd last year to 10th this year, Crosta Pizzeria served another crunchy innovation to the country’s pizza scene.

From offering daring creations that feature spinach artichoke in the crust or duck prosciutto and lobster as toppings, Crosta elevated pizza dining to another, sophisticated level by mounting an intimate 12-seater chefstable experience that ran from June 8 to 10 at One World Kitchen in Makati City. Branded as the country’s first pizza omakase, the showcase featured Japan’s #1 Pizzaoilo and Crosta head chef Yuichi Ito, alongside his sister Chef Naomi Ito.

“We always saw Crosta as an innovative pizza place—we don’t want to box ourselves in,” said Crosta coowner Ingga Cabangon-Chua during one of the previews of the pizza omakase.

The event advances Crosta’s goal of revolutionizing the country’s pizza industry. According to Cabangon-Chua,

it was something they talked about with Chef Yuichi when he joined the team in February.

“One of the first things we discussed was how do we shake things up here in the Philippines in terms of the pizza industry,” Cabangon-Chua said. “We want to keep pushing boundaries. We

want to do things that are new. We want to come up with our own stuff.”

That included bringing over to the Philippines Chef Yuichi’s concept of pizza omakase. Cabangon-Chua said that the Japanese-Filpino chef grew tired of simply putting cheeses on pizza during his tenure at The Pizza Bar on 38th at The Mandarin Oriental, Tokyo, as his culinary creativity craved something more. That’s when Chef Yuichi developed the concept that carried The Pizza Bar into the list of 50 World’s Best r e staurants, becoming the first pizza joint to make it to the prestigious list.

Filipino diners got to experience Chef Yuichi’s famed concept with Crosta’s three-day pop-up, with the slots selling out shortly after the announcement and its run ending yesterday. “Omakase” translates to “I’ll leave it up to you,” wherein the customer allows the chef to freely select and serve seasonal specialties.

s h owcased at Crosta’s event was Chef Yuichi’s penchant for applying Japanese techniques to carefully curated Italian ingredients. he featured premium imported and local ingredients

such as Kyoto Duck, Caviar and r o ck Lobster in a set where pizza was not the lone main attraction. e q ually worthy of the spotlight were Chef Yuichi’s inventive and explosive small bites and top-notch selection of fine wines.

“This is why we decided that an omakase was a very good experience. It was [Chef Yuichi’s] way of showcasing his talent and what he loves to do in the kitchen,” Cabangon-Chua said.

The Crosta co-owner added that the dining public can expect more of Crosta and Chef Yuichi’s creations, as the pizza omakase pop-up actually serves as a precursor for more things to come. s h e said Chef Yuichi is set to head a twoconcept-in-one space that they will be opening in the first half of next year, featuring his signature omakase and a more fast casual dining setup.

“Things are going to keep evolving as Chef Yuichi also sees what palate the Filipino market is looking for,” Cabangon-Chua said. “For now, we have more things lined up. It may not be another omakase, it might be a collaboration with another chef, but we are looking to do more interesting things.”

Chef Yuichi Ito, alongside his sister Chef Naomi, starred in Crosta Pizzeria’s sold-out pizza omakase pop-up at the One World Kitchen in Makati City from June 8 to 10. Photo by bernard te sta

It’s saturday night and you’re looking for a place for dinner, with no reservation. the restaurants are packed; even at nothot places, the wait time will be a couple hours, you’re told.

“Anything that attempts to create connective tissue between a restaurant and its guests is going to be positive for the industry,” says Marguerite Mariscal, CEO of Momofuku and Momofuku Goods, who is on the board of new restaurant platform Blackbird.