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Duterte admin showcases political will anew in Diwalwal massive cleanup drive

MERCURY STOPS RISING IN DIWALWAL

THE relocation area in Sitio Mabatas, Barangay Upper Ulip, Monkayo. MANUEL CAYON

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By Manuel T. Cayon

IWALWAL, MONKAYO, Compostela Valley—The Duterte administration’s cleanup drive covering massive areas—with Boracay and Manila Bay as the prime examples—has reached Mindanao, after the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) served the final cease-and-desist order (CDO) to small miners in the Diwalwal gold rush site.

SOLDIERS were tapped to secure the residential and mining site and to provide security to the enforcement teams headed by environment and natural resources officers. MANUEL CAYON

This is another testament to the government’s political will, as like in the other ambitious cleanups, to be affected are thousands of miners and their families, plus their “influential” backers.

The DENR and its concerned units are saving the waterways around the area from further mercury contamination due to the decades of small-scale mining in Diwalwal that was often marred with violence. This, to date, is the biggest clean-up drive in Mindanao by Environment Secretary Roy Cimatu, DENR Assistant Secretary Ruth M. Tawantawan said.

The move has been set in motion last week after both DENR field officers and local government officials served with finality the CDO that bans any further pro-

cessing of gold ores near canals and rivers, and inside residential areas in Diwalwal.

Going, going, gone

AS soon as the last of the 1,797 ball mills, which are used to crush rocks and stones, and the 31 carbon in-pulp (CIP) machines, used to separate the gold from the ore dusts by applying cyanide, has been removed from the active mining and residential areas of Diwalwal, the dredging of the Naboc River would begin, Tawantawan said.

The river is the main dumping waterway of these processing plants, which throw the mercuryand cyanide-laden water through the several tributary streams at the western slope of Mount Diwata Continued on A2

Long Thai crisis morphed coup leader’s career into politics

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By Grant Peck | The Associated Press

ANGKOK—Prayuth Chan-ocha became prime minister in a very Thai way: He led a military coup.

Now after five years of running Thailand with absolute power, he’s seeking to hold on to the top job through the ballot box. The military’s thinly veiled proxy party has put forward Prayuth as its nominee for prime minister after Sunday’s election.

“He knows he can’t be a dictator like this forever,” said Prajak Kongkirati, a political science lecturer at Bangkok’s Thammasat University. “He wants to gain more legitimacy and that’s why he’s holding the elections. He wants to return as a prime minister under normal politics.”

After toppling the elected government in May 2014 with a pledge

to “return happiness to the people,” Prayuth outlawed criticism of his regime and vowed the country would not have elections as long as there was dissent. He promised elections and then delayed them every year he was in power.

That’s given Prayuth time to smooth out some rough edges. He’s shed some awkward military stiffness, while still keeping a general’s swagger. He’s worn increasingly well-tailored suits—for which his wife takes credit—and, as pressure for an election mounted, largely transformed himself into the Thai equivalent of your typical babykissing politician.

He can boast some accomplish-

PESO EXCHANGE RATES n US 52.8010

IN this Thursday, August 21, 2014, file photo, Thailand’s Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha arrives for an anniversary ceremony for the 21st infantry regiment, Queen’s Guard, in Chonburi Province, Thailand. AP

ments during his time at the helm, most notably some cleanup of the aviation, fishing and wildlife industries—which had put Thailand at peril of foreign economic sanctions—along with stepping up the fight against human trafficking, which also risked trade retaliation.

Running the show has been fairly smooth though thanks to his government’s clampdown on opponents, the rubberstamp legislature he hand-picked and the law he enacted making all of his actions legal.

Should he remain prime minister after the election, he will be without what he refers to as his “special powers” and his patience could be tested as he has to deal with actual elected lawmakers who may be unwilling to dance to his tune.

“He has a strong personality— vigorous and direct. If he tries to become a politician, he could try to change but he would never really be able to change 100 percent,” See “Thai Crisis,” A2

n JAPAN 0.4765 n UK 69.2274 n HK 6.7286 n CHINA 7.8810 n SINGAPORE 39.1438 n AUSTRALIA 37.5468 n EU 60.0717 n SAUDI ARABIA 14.0807

Source: BSP (March 22, 2019 )

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Mercury stops rising in Diwalwal Continued from a1

mountain range, which straddles the provinces of Compostela Valley and Surigao del Sur. “The dredging would start immediately, but it would be contracted by private groups via bidding,” she said.

“That’s the initial discussion, so that it would be fair. Whoever wants to dredge Naboc, anyone who can separate and handle well the mercury, as well as the other minerals, is welcome to bid, Tawan­ tawan added.”

It would be conducted “definitely this year,” she added.

“Our patience ended [on March 14] and we would be filing charges against those who still resist, because it has been a long time already,” she said. The last grace period was given between October last year and March this year.

Every day of violation of the CDO would merit a fine of P200,000.

So far, there were no violent opposition to the teams of provincial and community environment and natural resources officers who served the order between March 15 and March 17 to the 316 owners of the ball mills and CIPs scattered in the various residential areas of Barangay Diwalwal.

The DENR said the dredging and clean-up of the Naboc River is crucial because it goes straight to the Agusan River, the country’s third-largest river basin, which drains into an estimated 12,000-square-kilometer area, including the Agusan Marsh, a wildlife sanctuary.

Fewer grumbles

EDGARDO BAYAWA, one of those served with the CDO, pleaded with serving officers from the local Mines and Geosciences Bureau and the Environmental Management Bureau, to allow him 10 more days at most to haul the unprocessed gold lying idle at a small tailings

pond, and to process the rocks that must be crushed and refined at the ball mills.

“It would take one day to crush and pulverize one sack of these rocks,” he said.

The serving officers were divided, though, with one assuring him that he could negotiate it with the higher officials.

Another small processor would rather stop his processing activities. “It is difficult to get gold from the ores. These few years, a gram of gold could be extracted from three to four sacks of rock ores. That’s how it is getting to be scarce.”

A company-sized unit of Army soldiers was tapped to secure the residential and mining site and to provide security to the enforcement teams headed by 11 community environment and natural resources officers (Cenros) and five provincial environment and natural resources officers (Penros).

They would serve the order to the more than 300 operators of 1,797 ball mills and 31 CIPs.

Still unused

THE relocation area has been prepared already in Sitio Mabatas, where a tailings dam was also carved out from within the 60-hectare area, a part of it hedged in by a cemented wall to contain the mines tailings. Additional wall would be constructed atop the existing wall, as the tailings would continue to build up through the years, Tawantawan said.

The Mabatas area is 5 kilometers to the west and down the slope of Barangay Diwalwal.

“The area has been there, ready, but it has not been used,” she said.

Last year, lawyer Alberto Sipaco, former regional director of the Commission on Human Rights and currently designated president of the Philippine Mining Development Corp., announced that the civilian infrastructure needed to transfer the processing equipment

and the facilities needed for residential occupancy were already installed.

The relocation in Mabatas is intended to remove the families from shanties perched atop the slopes with tension cracks developing underneath, although the main goal is to bring the processing mills away from the rivulets and streams that feed into the Naboc River, a tributary of the Agusan River.

The heavy contamination by mercury of the Naboc River eventually found significant traces into the Davao Gulf in the 1990s, and forced the government to clamp down on the wanton use of mercury and cyanide.

Toward the end of the 1990s and way into the decade of the 2000s, the Mabatas site was ignored, as miners and barangay officials argued that government has not constructed the necessary structures, like a tailings dam, and basic infrastructure for civilian occupancy.

The order to relocate the residents and the processing machines to Mabatas began a few years immediately after the government took over the small-scale mining operation in the 729-hectare Diwalwal mines in 2002. The National Task Force Diwalwal soon subdivided the scattered and violence-wracked control of the tunnels into cooperatives.

Malacañang also established here the offices of its corporate arm on mining, the Philippine Mining Development Corp., and the DENR’s corporate arm, the Natural Resources Development Corp.

Compliance

“THE mining operators have no other recourse but to comply,” Barangay Captain Pedro Samillano said.

The miners, he added, apparently held on to last-minute hope, as in the previous attempts, that the order would not be served.

“They called me up or sent text messages telling me that the DENR

THE relocation in Mabatas is intended to remove the families from shanties perched atop the slopes with tension cracks developing underneath, although the main goal is to bring the processing mills away from the rivulets and streams that feed into the Naboc River, a tributary of the Agusan River. MANUEL CAYON

has arrived in the area. They asked me what to do”.

“Of course, I told them to comply,” he said.

Tawantawan said it was different now. “It is the political will of the President that spelled the difference. It must be implemented and we made it clear that we now have to enforce it”.

Mining officials also said in their speeches shortly before going up to Mount Diwalwal that they would not like to wait for the third State of the Nation Address of President Duterte to call their attention to the mercury contamination in the area.

The DENR said in its briefer that the rehabilitation of the Naboc River “is one of the priorities of DENR Secretary Roy Cimatu.”

Cimatu and Gov. Jayvee Tyron

Uy did not attend the send-off program down in Monkayo poblacion.

The Uys own then one of the five major tunnel portals in Diwalwal.

The DENR said, however, that the Uys and owners of the other portals have yielded to the government’s relocation program and cleanup of the Naboc River.

Samillano said the national government must also do its share to help these people who would be displaced.

“About 70 percent of the Diwalwal residents and miners would be definitely affected with the sudden shutdown of the 1,797 ball mills and CIPs,” he said.

Diwalwal has a population of 10,400 and the barangay government still depends largely on internal revenue allotment, which reached P10 million last year. It earns about

Thai crisis… said Supparuek Tongchairith, a veteran military beat reporter for Thai Rath, the country’s largest-circulation newspaper. “Because his boiling point is low, if anyone pokes at him, he will explode. And for him to sit in the parliament, I guarantee, he will run into troubles.”

Prayuth’s situation is inextricably tied to Thailand’s last 13 years of political tumult.

In one respect he has been the instrument of the conservative forces in Thai society. They could not accept the rise of billionaire politician Thaksin Shinawatra, whose populist policies after being elected prime minister in 2001 threatened to unravel the country’s long-established power structure: Bangkok-oriented, devoted to the monarchy and safeguarded by the military.

Prayuth, 65, was born and raised in an army family at a military camp in the northeastern province of Nakhon Ratchasima.

He attended a military preparatory school and graduated from Chulachomklao Royal Military Academy, Thailand’s West Point.

Prayuth was already a senior figure in the army when it staged a 2006 coup against Thaksin, justifying the putsch as a way to stop alleged abuse of power, selfenrichment and corruption by the prime minister that had triggered large protests. Some suggested that Thaksin sought to usurp the monarchy’s place in Thai society.

Instead of easing tensions, the coup set off a bitter and often violent struggle for power between Thaksin’s supporters and his opponents.

Thaksin had his fortune and newly empowered poor and rural followers on his side; arrayed against him were the courts and the military, deeply loyal to the monarchy, which traditionally has been the country’s most influential institution.

It was in this period that Prayuth climbed the ladder to the top of the military hierarchy. As com-

P1 million a year, “but not on the share of these gold extracted from the mines, but from building permits and business taxes.”

He said the displacement’s effect would be hardest in the next three months. “With nothing to find work, or any source of income, these people would starve,” Samillano warned.

“Diwalwal would comply with this enforcement, but the government should also help because the people going hungry would be forced to take action.”

Monkayo Mayor Ramil Gentugaya also aired the same warning. He said the local municipal government would help the DENR and the national government enforce the regulations, “but we also appeal to the DENR: Please, no to large-scale mining.”

Continued from a1

mander of the First Army Region, he helped lead the bloody suppression of pro-Thaksin demonstrators in central Bangkok in 2010. In October that year, he became the army commander-in-chief.

After abandoning a sham effort to mediate between the Thaksin-backed government and its opponents who had been staging violent protests against it, Prayuth and the leaders of the other armed forces announced they were seizing power on May 22, 2014.

Prayuth and his junta spelled out their major tasks, including brokering national reconciliation and enacting reforms across Thai society to save the nation from what it said was the inherent corruption of politicians.

While the leaders of the 2006 coup restored electoral democracy after about a year in power only to see Thaksin’s allies bounce back, it quickly became evident that this junta had no intention of allowing any Thaksin-allied party from coming to power again. It was also clear that any attempts at reconciliation were going to be one-sided.

Under Prayuth’s junta, called the National Council for Peace and Order, many civil liberties were curbed and military courts judged civilian political offenders. Government critics were summoned, or sometimes snatched off the streets, for “attitude adjustment” at army camps, a week or so in detention at an army base with a stern lecture to elicit a promise not to do it again.

Longer term measures, such as a new constitution and election laws fashioned to handicap Thaksin’s political machine, were also enacted.

Prayuth, who was unanimously elected prime minister by his appointed legislature, has a famously quick temper and can bristle at anyone who questions him. Couple that with a sometimes off-color sense of humor and it can lead to verbal attacks, gaffes or just plain

bizarre moments.

He’s jokingly told reporters he would have them executed, quipped that he might behead a soap opera star who called for elections, flung a banana peel at a cameraman and given an entire news conference in which he fondled the ear of a nearby sound technician.

Since the coup, the general has also drawn attention for his songwriting, penning a number of sappy ballads with nationalistic lyrics.

Prayuth—who has twin daughters, now grown, who for a time were in a pop band called Badz—has at times taken on the role of tough-love dad, especially during his weekly primetime television broadcast aired on all major Thai stations, “Returning Happiness to the People.”

The monologues can last an hour and half and touch on everything from the moral responsibility of youth to tips on cultivating orchids.

Yet allegations of nepotism against Prayuth’s own relatives have led to uncomfortable accusations of hypocrisy. After the coup, a company owned by one of Prayuth’s nephews that had no track record of projects was awarded lucrative army construction contracts. Prayuth’s brother, also a former highranking army man, drew criticism when it was revealed that he made another son who had no military experience an army officer.

Of course the most glaring contradiction may be Prayuth’s own transformation.

As it became more likely he would seek to stay on as prime minister, he began allying with the very politicians he initially declared were the targets of junta reforms and launched government handouts that were nearly carbon copies of Thaksin’s populist policies.

Early last year he made it clear, telling reporters: “I am no longer a soldier. Understood? I’m just a politician who used to be a soldier.”

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2020 Tour de France begins with two road stages in Nice

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ETAILS have been announced of the opening two stages of the 2020 Tour de France, which gets under way in Nice on June 27 of next year.

ASO confirmed on Monday that the opening weekend of the 2020 Tour will feature two road stages, both beginning and ending in Nice.

While Stage 1 offers the sprinters a chance to race for the first yellow jersey of the Tour on the Promenade des Anglais, Stages 2 sees the Tour make a very early entry into the Alps.

The Col de la Colmiane and the Col de Turini will both feature ahead of a testing finale that includes the Col d’Èze and the Col des Quatre Chemins ahead of a fast drop into Nice.

It will be the second time that Nice hosts the Grand Départ. In 1981, the race began with a prologue in Nice, won by Bernard Hinault, before a road stage and team time trial on the second day.

The opening stage of the 2020 Tour will be 170 kilometers long and will be composed of two circuits centered around Nice. The first portion of the stage will see the peloton tackle two laps of a 50-km circuit.

After crossing the line on the Promenade des

Christian Prudhomme says the fabulous geography where Nice is situated is ideal for sensational cycling races.

Anglais for the second time, the bunch will then face into a longer, 70-km lap over the climb to Levens before a fast run-in to the finish in Nice.

It will mark the seventh time in a decade

that the Tour begins with a road stage. Prior to 2008, the Tour had started with a time trial on 40 consecutive occasions.

Stage 2 of the 2020 Tour includes from

the final two legs of this year’s Paris-Nice. The peloton will begin climbing after 45 kms with the 1,500-meter high Col de la Colmiane (16.3 km at 6.2 percent). After a fast descent, the race climbs the 1,607 meters high Col de Turini (14.9 kms at 7.3 percent).

The ascent of the Turini is unlikely to prove decisive given that it comes some 90 km from the finish, but it will offer a robust test ahead of a demanding finale in and around Nice. The Col d’Èze (7.8 kms at 7 percent) is scaled with a little over 30 kms to go. The peloton crosses the finish line on the Promenade des Anglais for the first time with 17 km remaining before climbing the stiff Col des Quatre Chemins with 9 kms to go.

“The fabulous geography where Nice is situated is ideal for sensational cycling races,” said Tour Director Christian Prudhomme.

“We’re ready to place a bet that on the Baie des Anges the riders of the 2020 Tour will give spectators and TV viewers a battle at the height of the azure surrounding that will welcome them.”

Prudhomme pointed out that 2020 will be just the seventh time that the Tour has begun in south-eastern France, and he said that the geography of the area offered a configuration that “immediately places the riders in front of the challenge of mountains.” Cyclingnews

‘More chapters to be written’ in Operation Aderlass

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erman authorities have confirmed that 21 athletes from five different sports and eight different countries are under investigation as part of the “Operation Aderlass” doping inquiry. At a press conference in Munich on Wednesday, state prosecutor Kai Gräber warned that there were “more chapters to be written” in the inquiry.

Operation Aderlass first entered the public domain during last month’s Nordic Ski World Championships in Seefeld, Austria, where five cross country skiers were arrested as part of the inquiry into the activities of German doctor Mark Schmidt.

Two Austrian cyclists have since admitted to wrongdoing as part of the inquiry. Stefan Denifl, formerly of Aqua Blue Sport, reportedly confessed to blood doping after being arrested by Austrian police. Denifl dissolved his contract with CCC in December. Two days later, Georg Preidler quit GroupamaFDJ after revealing that he had his blood extracted on two occasions late last year with an intention to dope.

Mark Schmidt, formerly a doctor at Gerolsteiner and Milram, was one of four people arrested last month following

a raid on his practice in Erfurt, Germany. Some 40 blood bags were seized at the time, and Gräber evinced confidence that the blood bags could be assigned to specific athletes.

“The 21 athletes come from five different sports, of which three are winter sports,” Kai Gräber said on Wednesday, according to Sportschau.de.

Gräber did not name the athletes as the inquiry is still ongoing and declined to confirm whether the list of 21 names included German athletes. He added that transfusions were carried out in a number of different locations, including Germany, Austria, Switzerland, South Korea and Hawaii.

It was also announced that an additional arrest was made on Monday. The individual in question is alleged to have transported blood bags and assisted athletes in doping.

“The time frame is from the end of 2011 to 2019 in Seefeld,” Gräber said of the doping ring, adding that the number of transfusions carried out was in three figures. “We have here an exciting story with a lot of twists and the final chapter has not yet been written.” Cyclingnews

UCI backtracks on fines after riders threaten to protest

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HE International Cycling Union (UCI) has backtracked on applying stiff fines and ranking point penalties if riders arrive late at race sign-on after the peloton threatened to go on strike before the final stage of the UAE Tour.

The UCI changed the rules of the sign-on protocol for the 2019 season because riders often stayed on their team buses and arrived en-masse in the final minutes before the start of races. That

offered little interest to the local crowds and left race organizers embarrassed.

Riders were previously obliged to sign on at a specific time on the opening stage of a race.

Now race organizers can force teams to respect a time slot on every stage in the 70 minutes before a stage start.

UAE Tour organizer RCS Sport issued a daily schedule for the new World Tour race but several

TEAM SK TEAM IN T MEMBERS of Team Sky stay silent as the peloton at Tirreno-Adriatico welcomes news of Team Ineos.

failed to respect their time slots, sparking a strong reaction from the UCI commissaires.

The seven riders from Katusha-Alpecin, UAE Team Emirates, Groupama-FDJ and Astana were all fined 500 Swiss Francs ($495) and were docked 20 UCI ranking points. Each team’s sports director was also fined 1,000 Swiss Francs.

The day after the Bahrain-Merida riders were fined 500 Swiss Francs for signing on in non-competition clothing, even if the rule on clothing is not clear. They had an early slot in the schedule and so went to sign on in team-issue t-shirts and shorts.

The UCI has been hitting riders and team with a series of new fines, including for drafting behind team VINCENZO NIBALI says the Giro d’Italia is his primary goal ahead of the Tour de France.

cars in the race convoy after a crash or puncture and so riders were angry to also be fined for missing their sign-on slots but just a few minutes. Some took to social media to vent their anger, others were more organized.

Cyclingnews has been told that riders went as far as threatening not to start the final stage of the UAE Tour with only direct intervention from UCI President David Lappartient avoiding a public protest.

It was agreed the fines and ranking point penalties would be suspended with the rider’s CPA association due to sit down with the UCI after Milan-San Remo. The riders expected the scale of fines to be reduced and do not want to lose any of their hard-fought ranking points docked for minor offenses such as podium protocols.

RCS Sport continued to issue a time schedule for the sign-on at this week’s TirrenoAdriatico and riders appeared to generally respect their time slots even if their team buses were parked several kilometers away. No fines were issued in the opening stages of the Italian stage race. Cyclingnews

EAM Sky circled the wagons and stayed silent at Tirreno-Adriatico in the minutes after Ineos was confirmed as the new team owner and sponsor on Tuesday afternoon, with no sign of celebration among riders and staff.

The British team already has the biggest budget in the International Cycling Union WorldTour, and the budget is reportedly set to rise to €40 million in 2020 in the hope of continuing their domination at the Tour de France.

Some of their rivals operate on much less and are often left frustrated by Team Sky’s dominance, yet riders and sports director at Tirreno-Adriatico largely welcomed the news that Team Sky has been saved and will be known as Team Ineos from May 1.

“I think it’s great news,” Steve Cummings told Cyclingnews, despite not fully enjoying

his time at the team in 2010-2011. “The team is so successful and it’s been great for Britain in particular, and the growth of cycling in Britain. If that team had closed, it’d have had massive repercussions, so I think it’s really good and I wish them all the best. I’m glad they found a good sponsor.”

Elia Viviani is another former Team Sky rider.

He left to join Deceuninck-QuickStep to have more opportunities in sprints but has always been complementary about the British team.

“I had no doubt they’d find a backer because a big team like that will for sure find people to support and continue the product,” the Italian said. “It’ll have a new name, but it’ll be the same, and I say ‘good luck for the future’. I’m sure they’ll have top riders to continue to be successful.”

Max Sciandri, a former rider and now a

Nibali: This is the s

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INCENZO NIBALI (Bahrain-Merida) has had a fairly quiet start to the season, but the Italian said that his opening races were providing him with “the suffering I need.”

Nibali admitted that he would like to be going better at this point in the season, but with the Giro d’Italia and Tour de France double on his program this season, it has been difficult.

Nibali was one of a number of overall contenders that lost time on Stage 4 of TirrenoAdriatico, finishing 23 seconds down on the race leader Adam Yates (Mitchelton-Scott). He is now almost two minutes down in the general classification with a podium position a far-flung dream. Nibali said that it has been difficult to see his rivals go up the road, but he is trying to keep a positive perspective on it.

“This is the suffering I need,” he told La Gazzetta dello Sport. “As in the past, I would have liked to have started a little bit stronger, to anticipate the times with the races and training sessions.

irror CYCLING

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DAM YATES (Mitchelton-Scott) briefly vented his anger and disappointment after losing the Tirreno-Adriatico by one second to Primoz Roglic (Jumbo-Visma) but soon began to see the positive aspects of his performance.

Last year, Yates lost 36 seconds to Roglic in the same time trial (TT). This year he was 26 seconds slower than the Slovenian, going ever so close to overall victory and a surprise win. He has worked hard and improved his time trailing ability, finishing 48th, 39 seconds slower than stage winner Victor Campenaerts (Lotto Soudal).

Including the hundredths of a second of the opening team time trial (TTT) and the final 10-km TT, Yates lost Tirreno-Adriatico by 0.31 of a second.

“That’s how it is. As I said, 25 seconds was not a comfortable margin and that proved to be true,” Yates admitted, holding back his disappointment after the final podium ceremony alongside Roglic and third-placed Jakob Fuglsang (Astana).

“I thought I rode a good TT, I did the best I could. The power was good. I saved a little bit for the way home, but Roglic is a super time trialist, and on a course like this, I just can’t match him.”

Yates could have raced for time bonuses or fought to gain a few more seconds when he distanced Roglic, but hindsight doesn’t win bike races.

“You can always look back and see places where you could have gained some seconds, but that’s always after the race. During the race you make decisions and you make choices and you have to live with them,” Yates argued.

“If the course had been a little more technical or had a little bit of climbing in it, I maybe wouldn’t have lost as much time. This course doesn’t suit me at all. I was always

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No regrets for Yates after 1-second defeat at Tirreno-Adriatico leaking time throughout the course.

“Hopefully, they’ll put some mountain stages in next year’s race or get rid of this time trial. Then I can perhaps win it.”

Yates had described Tirreno-Adriatico as one of three goals for the spring but the one that suits him the least. He will now target the Volta a Catalunya and then the Itzulia

Basque Country stage race before resting up and preparing for the Tour de France.

Defeat always hurts, but it also offers valuable lessons for the future.

“This result leaves a bad taste in your mouth, but we did the best we could. This time it wasn’t good enough but there are plenty more races in the season. I’ve showed my condition is good,” Yates pointed out.

“I think we rode a super race. We won the TTT and went close to two stage wins, why shouldn’t we be happy?

We’ve shown that we can ride as a team and control the race, that’s all experience for races to come. A lot of the guys here will also do the Tour de France, and so we’ve been bonding here and getting things right. It’ll all help further down the line.”

Adam Yates also helped his twin brother Simon, who will face Roglic in the Giro d’Italia.

“I exposed a bit of weakness in him a couple of days ago and he has to do the same,” Adam suggested.

“He should just gain a bit more time before the TT.” Cyclingnews

ADAM YATES: That’s how it is.

19-year-old Belgian rider dies in elite race incident

SKY THEN, NEOS SOON directeur sportif at Movistar, wondered what Team Ineos will spend its huge budget on.

“They’ll probably buy Aston Martins for team cars, they’ll have space shuttle buses, jet packs...” Sciandri joked. “I’m actually glad they have a sponsor. A team like that should not end and should carry on for the good of cycling. You need quality, that’s what cycling needs.”

Mitchelton-Scott try to compete against Team Sky in the Grand Tours, and Simon Yates won the Vuelta a Espana after leading the Giro d’Italia until Chris Froome attacked on the Colle delle Finestre and went on to win the maglia rosa.

Senior Directeur Sportif Matt White was happy that Team Sky will survive and tried to put on a brave face about the British team’s everexpanding budget.

suffering I need “But this season is difficult, with a GiroTour double to prepare for. It is difficult to go strong everywhere. For me it is a pain to see so many riders end up in front of me, it’s not like I’m happy. The team knows what the path is and it’s normal to grow slowly.”

Having focused on just one of either the Giro d’Italia and Tour de France in the past two years’ Nibali is set for the Giro-Tour double this season. He has only done it twice before and has not done that since 2016 when he used it as his preparation for the Olympic Games in Rio. After missing it last year, Nibali wanted to go back to the Giro d’Italia this season, though the team was keen to have him at the Tour, as well. Nibali explained that he is putting his efforts into the Giro and he will see what comes when he goes to the Tour in July.

“The Giro was my choice, the Tour asked the team for it,” said Nibali. “If it was down

“It’s great for them and for the sport, it’s great that the biggest team in the sport will continue,” White said. “It would’ve been a real travesty and a bad mark on the sport if the team, who’s had the most success in the last decade, can’t find a sponsor.

“There’s a lot of big sponsors who’s entered the sport over the last couple of years who see there’s an incredible value to our sport, and so its great news all around.”

White knows that Mitchelton-Scott, despite being funded by the brands of wealthy Australian Gerry Ryan, will likely never have the same budget as Team Ineos are expected to enjoy. However, he likes the challenge.

“We can’t afford to buy the depth that Team Sky’s got, so you have a bit of Moneyball situation and you have to go looking for talent

to me, I would certainly have chosen a very different program.

“My goal is the Giro d’Italia, we will see at the Tour.”

Nibali’s Coach Paolo Slongo, who has been with him throughout his career, believes that his rider’s form is in a similar place to this time 12 months ago. He remains confident that there is room for improvement and questions if those that are going strong now can hold their form heading into the bigger goals of the season.

“Look, it’s not like we’re so far from last year’s form at this same time,” Slongo told La Gazzetta dello Sport. “The margins for improvement, on weight, training and condition are there. I also see that there are riders and teams that are going strong, it remains to be seen if they will be able to maintain this pace throughout the season, but for our goals, we are largely on course.”

Following the conclusion of Tirreno-Adriatico on Tuesday, Nibali will head to Milan-San Remo next weekend to defend his title. The Tour of the Alps in April will be his last race before he lines up at the Giro d’Italia in May. Cyclingnews

in other places, and develop talent, not just buy talent,” White explained.

“They’ve raised the bar, we are just trying to keep up with them. It’s made teams with less budget, which is nearly everybody, spend their money wisely and really scrutinize how they spend their money and so really target specific goals in the year.”

Cummings agreed.

“I think they’re leading the way and its up to the rest of the teams to catch up,” he said.

Sciandri now works as a directeur sportif for Movistar but pointed out that Team Sky’s budget often hurts their rivals.

“They set a high standard, and that’s tough for a lot of teams to match, almost impossible for some of the teams or some nations. Italy is completely nowhere in cycling right now.”

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PROMISING young Belgian cyclist, 19-year-old Stef Loos, was killed in a collision with a van during an elite race in Belgium recently after he and two other riders mistakenly went off course.

According to hln.be, Loos, his AcrogPauwelssauzen-Balen teammate Jonas Bresseleers, and Ruben Apers of the Lotto Soudal under-23 team were behind the front of the race when they went straight on at a junction where they should have taken a right turn during the Mémorial Alfred Gadenne elite amateur race in Melles, near Tournai in western Belgium, close to the French border.

Further on—after racing for a further 1.5 kilometers off course—they were hit by a van, with all three riders suffering injuries and subsequently taken to hospitals in nearby Tournai and Ronse.

Loos later died of his injuries.

Talking on Belgian radio, according to hln.be, Bresseleers said that he felt guilty

for having gone the wrong way, but couldn’t remember seeing anything in terms of signage or marshals.

“At the decisive junction, I was leading the group and Stef was on my wheel,” Bresseleers said. “Had I not gone the wrong way, it might never have happened. They said afterwards that we were no longer on the course because a marshal had sent us the wrong way or was no longer there. But we didn’t realize. We still thought that we were chasing the two groups ahead of us.

“It’s possible that a marshal made a mistake, but that’s rare. I don’t even know where we left the course, so I can’t say if there was a marshal. I really thought I was still on the course,” he said.

However, Race Director Gérard Verbrugghe told hln.be that the police had told him ahead of the event that a marshal wasn’t necessary at the junction where the course turned right.

“After all, that was not a point where

WaveCel replaces traditional EPS foam with layers of cells designed to move independently until the cell walls crumple and glide, dissipating both direct and rotational energy away from your head.

Trek, Bontrager release ‘most advanced helmet technology ever designed’

Cyclingnews

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rek and Bontrager have launched a revolutionary new helmet design— WaveCel—that has been released with four new helmets from the US brand.

WaveCel replaces traditional EPS foam with layers of cells designed to move independently until the cell walls crumple and glide, dissipating both direct and rotational energy away from your head.

Tested independently at the Helmet Impact Testing (HIT) facility of the Portland Biomechanics Laboratory, results showed Bontrager WaveCel helmets prevent concussion in 98.8 percent of crash tests at a 45-degree angle, potentially changing future helmet design entirely.

Construction of the WaveCel helmets retains some EPS foam, although the volume is reduced versus traditional designs. The flexible WaveCel construction then lines the inside of the helmet to disperse impact and rotational energy, while also offering a comfortable fit that flexes to individual head shapes.

Bontrager has launched four helmet

cars threatened to cross, since the riders had to turn right,” he said, with traffic in Belgium driving/riding on the right-hand side of the road. “So we didn’t put anyone there. A total of 182 marshals were needed for the entire race.”

Frédéric Bariseau, of the public prosecutor’s office in Tournai, told hln.be that the lack of a marshal at the intersection would now be investigated.

“There were arrows pointing in the right direction, but maybe that wasn’t enough. It must also be clarified why the group of riders in question did not stop when it was indicated that they had gone the wrong way. It is still too early to appoint a person responsible for the accident,” Bariseau said.

“The cycling community in Belgium suffered a devastating loss with the passing of Stef Loos,” the Belgian cycling federation posted on Twitter. “The thoughts of everyone at Belgian Cycling are with his family, friends and teammates at this sad time. Cyclingnews

models integrating the technology: the XXX WaveCel Road Helmet, the Blaze WaveCel MTB Helmet, the Specter WaveCel Road Helmet and the Charge WaveCel Commuter helmet. Both the XXX WaveCel and Specter WaveCel models will be used by the TrekSegafredo men’s and women’s teams for training and racing this season.

In a press release, Trek President John Burke said: “Trek is committed to making riding safer and more accessible for everyone. WaveCel is the most advanced helmet technology ever designed, and these helmets are a big step toward making riding a safer, more enjoyable experience for everyone.”

Bontrager and Trek say the WaveCel helmet liner adds around 53 grams of additional weight to the helmet—a marginal cost for the safety gains made.

The technology is exclusive to Bontrager for cycling applications. However, a spokesman for Bontrager explained to Cyclingnews that WaveCel has an array of potential applications

for other sports outside of cycling.

Trek and Bontrager say helmet designs have remained largely unchanged for 30 years.

However, the introduction of MIPS liners in recent years, which has been implemented by an array of helmet brands, has made some strides in reducing the effects of rotational impact when crashing.

The HIT study at the Portland Biomechanics Laboratory took MIPS technology into account in the testing with 60 Scott ARX helmets used. Twenty of the helmets retained traditional EPS foam, 20 helmets were fitted with a MIPS slip liner and the final 20 helmets were modified with WaveCel technology.

Five helmets from each design option were then subjected to oblique impacts onto an angled anvil at 30 degrees (4.8m/s), 45 degrees (4.8m/s), 45 degrees (6.2m/s) and 60 degrees (4.8m/s).

Focusing specifically on the percentage risk of an Abbreviated Injury Scale (AIS) level 2 Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI), WaveCel technology

reduces the risk in all tested scenarios.

Real-world scenarios will be very different from controlled crash simulation, but the study does claim that the majority of real-world oblique impacts of helmeted bicyclists occur at impact angles of 30 degrees to 60 degrees.

Each of the four new Bontrager WaveCel helmets received top-scoring five-star rankings in Virginia Tech’s helmet safety tests, which has been testing and rating helmets across industries to determine the products that will best reduce head injury risk for nearly a decade in association with the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety.

Safety and injury prevention is clearly the big story of the WaveCel range, but Bontrager know that aesthetic, performance and fit are all key aspects that also need to be considered.

Bontrager say all of their WaveCel helmets have also been extensively tested in the wind tunnel for air-flow performance and a Boa ratchet dial to the rear of the helmet offers a secure and customizable fit. Cyclingnews

A10 Saturday, March 23, 2019

The World BusinessMirror

Editor: Angel R. Calso | www.businessmirror.com.ph

China chemical plant blast kills 47, injures hundreds more B

EU offers short Brexit delay but sets strict limits

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EIJING—A massive explosion at a chemical plant in eastern China with a long record of safety violations has killed at least 47 people and injured hundreds of others, 90 of them seriously.

Thursday’s blast in an industrial park in the city of Yancheng, north of Shanghai, was one of China’s worst industrial accidents in recent years. State-run television showed crushed cars, blown out windows and workers leaving the factory with bloodied heads.

Schools were closed and nearly 1,000 residents were moved to safety as a precaution against leaks and additional explosions, the city government said in a statement posted to its microblog.

The blast created a crater and

more than 900 firefighters were deployed to extinguish the fire that burned into the night.

Windows in buildings as far as about 6 kilometers (4 miles) away were blown out by the force of the blast, which caused a magnitude 2.2 seismic shock.

A resident of the community of Chenjiagang about 5 kilometers from the plant said neighbors were injured by glass from windows smashed by the blast force.

“At the time of the explosion, I was almost deafened and I was ter-

ribly frightened,” said the woman, who gave only her surname, Zhi. Chinese President Xi Jinping, on a state visit to Italy, demanded “all-out efforts” to find and rescue victims, the official Xinhua News Agency reported.

“Relief work must be well done to maintain social stability. Meanwhile, environmental monitoring and early warning should be strengthened to prevent environmental pollution as well as secondary disasters,” the report quoted Xi as saying.

Local officials need to learn the lessons of a recent series of industrial accidents to preserve lives and property, Xi said, signaling a likely crackdown on safety at a time when many Chinese firms are being hit by a downturn in sales that is squeezing profit margins.

The higher death toll, raised from 44 but with no change in the number of injured, suggested rescue crews were still finding bodies at the blast site.

The Yancheng city government statement said 3,500 medical workers at 16 hospitals were mobilized to treat the injured, dozens of whom remained in critical condition.

The cause of the blast was under investigation and people responsible for operations at the plant have been placed “under control,” Xinhua said. It wasn’t clear whether anyone had been formally arrested.

State media said the State Council, China’s Cabinet, had been ordered to oversee the investigation.

China experiences frequent industrial accidents despite orders from the central government to improve safety at factories, power plants and mines.

Among the worst accidents was a massive 2015 explosion at a chemical warehouse in the port city of Tianjin that killed 173 people, most of them firefighters and police officers. That blast was blamed on illegal construction and unsafe storage of volatile materials.

In November, at least 22 people were killed and scores of vehicles destroyed in an explosion outside a chemical plant in the northeastern city of Zhangjiakou, which will host competitions in the 2022 Winter Olympics.

Thursday’s disaster occurred at a factory run by the Jiangsu Tianjiayi Chemical Co. Located among a cluster of chemical factories in Yancheng, it has a dismal safety record: In February 2018, China’s State Administration for Work Safety cited 13 types of safety hazards at the company, including mishandling of tanks of toxic benzene, the source of Thursday’s explosion.

T hose v iolations came despite the plant having racked up 1,790,000 RMB ($267,000) in fines since 2016 for violations of environmental regulations, according to a judgments issued by local county and city environmental protection bureaus. Those included improperly dealing with hazardous waste and evading air pollution supervision. AP

Venezuela is key topic between Trump and Caribbean leaders

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A S H I N G T O N —T h e political and economic crisis in Venezuela tops the agenda of President Donald Trump’s meeting on Friday with leaders from the Caribbean, a region that has been far from united in joining the US call for the ouster of President Nicolas Maduro.

Trump is hosting the leaders of Jamaica, Bahamas, Haiti, Dominican Republic and St. Lucia at his affluent Mar-a-Lago club in Palm Beach, Florida, to show his support for Caribbean countries that back democratic transition in Venezuela. The five have either denounced Maduro or have joined more than 50 countries in recognizing Juan Guaido as the rightful interim leader of the nation.

T he Trump administration considers Maduro’s government a dictatorship and says he was re-elected in an illegitimate election. The US has sanctioned scores of top Venezuelan officials and has blocked US banks from doing business with Venezuela, putting a financial stranglehold on the cashstrapped country. The country is in an economic meltdown and millions of Venezuelans have fled.

“As President Trump clearly stated, the toughest sanctions are yet to come,” national secu-

rity adviser John Bolton said in a tweet Thursday. “Unless Maduro’s usurpation ends, he and his cronies will be strangled financially.

The window is closing.”

White House press secretary Sarah Sanders says Trump will use the meeting to thank the leaders for their support for peace and democracy in Venezuela and discuss potential opportunities for energy investment. Nations in the Caribbean, however, have been split on whether to interfere in Venezuela.

For years, Venezuela has provided a reliable supply of oil to many Caribbean nations. They purchased the oil under the PetroCaribe arrangement, which gave them lowinterest credit terms, but have left them indebted to Caracas.

Sanders said Trump will also use the meeting to strengthen cooperation and counter “China’s predatory economic practices.”

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and other Trump administration officials have told countries that they should beware of Chinese investment opportunities.

It’s unclear how well Trump’s message will be received. The US has a long history of interventions—military and otherwise— in Latin America. And Trump has not always been kind to impoverished nations like some in the region.

Last year, while meeting with senators on immigration, Trump questioned why the United States would accept more immigrants from Haiti and “s--hole countries” in Africa, according to one participant and people briefed on the conversation. AP

RUSSELS—European Union leaders are gathering again on Friday after deciding that the political crisis in Britain over Brexit poses too great a threat to the world ’s biggest trading bloc.

In a move that underlined their loss of confidence in British Prime Minister Theresa May, the leaders set two deadlines for Britain to leave or to take an entirely new

path in considering its EU future.

At marathon late night talks, the leaders rejected May’s request to extend the Brexit deadline from March 29—just one week away— until June 30.

They agree to delay only until May 22, on the eve of EU elections, if she can persuade Britain’s Parliament to endorse the Brexit deal.

Failing that, May would have until April 12 to choose a new path. AP

North Korea bypasses sanctions with illicit oil, coal transfers

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ORTH Korea successfully evaded sanctions to import as much as seven-anda-half times the allowed amount of refined petroleum last year, according to the US government.

Its ports received at least 263 tanker deliveries of refined petroleum through ship-to-ship transfers, according to an update from the State Department, Coast Guard and Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control. If the tankers were fully laden at the time, North Korea would have imported 3.78 million barrels of fuel.

In addition to the refined products imports, the country has also resumed exports of coal through ship-to-ship transfers in the Gulf of Tonkin, the update said.

The enforcement of sanctions

is a key aspect of President Donald Trump’s effort to get Pyongyang to eliminate its nuclear program. The UN Security Council imposed sanctions, including bans on exports of iron, coal, lead, seafood and textiles as well as some oil-import restrictions in response to missile launches and nuclear weapons tests

by North Korea in 2017.

Separately, a North Korean news site blasted South Korea’s ministry dedicated to bringing the two Koreas together for working with the US on sanctions enforcement.

Uriminzokkiri, a North Koreanoperated website, on Friday called South Korea’s Unification Ministry “cowardly” and said it should “throw its 2019 guidelines in the garbage can” for accommodating the US policy. Bloomberg News

‘Dirtiest’ race ever drags Ukraine election into perilous waters

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HE gloves are well and truly off in Ukraine’s presidential election.

While the first of two spots in an almost certain runoff next month looks wrapped up, a battle for the other is raging between incumbent Petro Poroshenko and ex-Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko. Accusations are flying—everything from voter payoffs to wiretaps and shady donors. There’s even a decoy candidate among the field of 39 hopefuls.

Dirty tricks aren’t unique to Ukraine. They’re a common occurrence in ex-communist Europe and continue to fuel heated discussions over issues like Brexit. But Ukraine’s history of revolutions— it’s already had two this century— makes it different. Just ask Viktor Yanukovych, whose fraudulent election victory in 2004 was overturned by mass protesters. Having prevailed six years later, another popular uprising sent him fleeing to Russia in 2014.

“If voters lose trust in the declared winner, this could spiral into street actions and violence,” said Orysia Lutsevych, a research fellow at Chatham House in London.

Much of the jostling before initial voting on March 31—where TV comedian and political novice Volodymyr Zelenskiy leads polls—is playing out through law-enforcement agencies.

$40 each

THE Interior Ministry, which is considered more friendly toward Tymoshenko, has opened probes into voter payoffs in favor of the president, saying thousands of people are being given about $40 each, often from state and local budgets.

In turn, the Security Service of Ukraine, or SBU, seen as loyal to Poroshenko, is investigating Tymoshenko’s party over similar activities.

Tymoshenko says her rival is trying to “buy the election” and is using the SBU as his campaign headquarters. Poroshenko, who vehemently denies wrongdoing

and has raised pensions in the run-up to voting, calls all his opponents agents of Russian leader Vladimir Putin, labeling the election a contest between him and the Kremlin.

It’s not just over voter bribery that law-enforcement bodies are clashing. The Interior Ministry says it found SBU listening devices near the offices of Zelenskiy, who’s also favorite to win the April 21 runoff. The SBU says the bugs were part of a separate operation.

Campaign financing

ZELENSKIY himself faces accusations he’s a stooge of billionaire Ihor Kolomoiskyi, whose TV channel airs the comedian’s shows.

He denies the two are working together on his run for president.

Other tycoons are frequently listed as behind-the-scenes backers of his opponents. A report this week said Tymoshenko’s campaign received more than $5 million from a fugitive lawmaker, with large amounts disguised as donations from, among others, a supermarket cashier in a tiny village.

“The amount of political advertising has increased dramatically and far exceeds parties’ budgets,” said Oleksandr Sushko, executive director of the Renaissance Foundation, which promotes democracy and transparency. “Some explanations of where money is coming from are laughable.”

In one of the more bizarre developments, Tymoshenko—who denies campaign-financing irregularities— is facing opposition at the ballot box from a candidate called Yuriy Tymoshenko, whose initials and surname will look identical to hers on voting papers.

Prosecutors have detained two people trying to hand the candidate 5 million hryvnia ($183,000) to pull out.

“We see already now that this is the dirtiest and the most shameful election campaign ever,” said Oleksandr Biletskyi, who leads a party made up largely of veterans of the conflict with Russia in the country’s east. Bloomberg News

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Editor: Efleda P. March Campos23, 2019 • Editor: Efleda P. Campos A4 Saturday,

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Saturday, March 23, 2019

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DTI chief pushes for GSP with new Dutch ambassador

more products like chocolate from local cacao,” Lopez said.

Andre Driessen, director for International Enterprise Department of the Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said Dutch technology can help Philippine agriculture, water systems and the Manila Bay rehabilitation project.

Lopez lauded the opportune timing of the cooperation with the recently passed Rice Tariffication law. Under the law, an annual rice fund of P10 billion will be allotted for machines, seedlings, trainTRADE Secretary Ramon M. Lopez discusses the European Union’s Generalized Scheme of Preference Plus (EU-GSP+) ings and farm financing to local farmers. for the Philippines and existing and possible partnerships with Ambassador Saskia de Lang, the new Netherlands “Local rice production Ambassador to this country during a meeting on March 4 at the Trade and Industry Building along Gil J. Puyat Avenue in still accounts for 95 perMakati City. cent of the rice supply in the RADE Secretary Ramon M. Lopez pushed for concountry. Through farm support from the Rice Tariffication tinuing the European Union’s Generalized Scheme law, hopefully, we can bring that up to 97 percent. Technolof Preference Plus (EU-GSP+) for the Philippines and ogy has to set in for us to increase farm productivity,” Lopez discussed existing and possible partnerships with Ambastold Driessen and the Dutch ambassador. sador Saskia de Lang, the new Netherlands Ambassador to Driessen also offered their expertise in water techthis country. nology for water usage, marine construction and wasteIn a meeting on March 4, Lopez thanked the European water treatment.

Union (EU) for extending the GSP+ privileges and cited its The Philippines and the Netherlands are already formubenefits for the people in the countryside. lating the Manila Bay Sustainable Development Master Plan “The GSP+ is a major boon for farmers and fishers since through an agreement between the National Economic Dethe majority of the country’s exports to the EU are highervelopment Authority and the Dutch Embassy in the Philipvalue processed agricultural products like canned tuna, pines. The plan is envisioned as a guide for future projects coconut oil, cream and milk. We are also working to export and programs in the Manila Bay Area.

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EXPORT READY!

Exploring the Indian market resolved

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MONG the top export destinations of the Philippines is the vibrant, enormous and continuously booming market of India.

The South Asian republic has a population of 1.3 billion, making it one of the most inhabited countries in the world.

According to World Bank estimates, India will continue to be the fastest-growing major economy in the world, with

By Golda Kristy Grospe a 7.5-percent gross domestic product growth predicted in TIDS, DTI-EMB the next two years.

In 2018, India was the Philippines’s 15th trading partner out of 221 countries. The total bilateral trade surpassed the $2-billion mark, signifying robust economic relations between the two nations.

For the Philippines, however, much remains to be done in terms of pursuing opportunities which have not yet been fully explored because a wide deficit of $1.1 billion was also recorded in 2018. Exports to India, 62 percent of which were electronics and minerals, amounted only to $589.75 million, falling far behind imports, which totaled $1.69 billion.

To further boost exports to India, an Outbound Business Matching Mission (OBMM) to its financial capital, Mumbai, is already in the pipeline. Scheduled in August 2019,

it will be conducted by the DTI Export Marketing Bureau in collaboration with the Philippine Trade and Investment Center (PTIC)-India. This will be a follow-up initiative to the OBMM to New Delhi in 2017, which resulted in successful business transactions.

Focusing on Fast-Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG), which currently have limited exposure but have great potential in the Indian market, the mission will allow Filipino exporters to promote their products by directly linking them to potential business partners in India. It will also enable them to generate leads and take advantage of the Asean-India Free Trade Agreement (AIFTA) where India already eliminated tariffs for 94 percent of Philippine exports.

Activities of the OBMM will include business-matching sessions with major chambers of commerce, meetings with supermarket chains, market scanning and a networking visit to the 14th Annapoorna ANUFOOD India.

As conveyed by Anil Khaitan, president of India’s PHD Chamber of Commerce and Industry during the 2017 OBMM, “India and the Philippines—having several common shared values and various commonalities, like anti-colonialism, South-South cooperation, a strong democratic polity and the wide use of the English language—makes a very strong base for strengthening our relationship, but to date, the opportunities between the two countries remain relatively unexplored. It is an opportune time that we convert our political amicability into economic amicability.”

Exporters interested to participate in the OBMM to Mumbai, India, may contact the DTI-EMB Market Innovation Division at (02)465-3300 local 217.

Filipino cuisine at MFWF

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LL-TIME Filipino favorites such as kinilaw, sinigang, kare-kare and adobo were highlighted at Australia’s most important gastronomy event, the Melbourne Food and Wine Festival (MFWF).

Food lovers and guests were captivated by the flavors unique to the Philippines served at Rice Paper Sister—a place known for serving Filipino fusion in Melbourne, the country’s culinary capital.

The event called “Barrio,” a reimagined Filipino neighborhood feast, was held on March 12 and 13, and part of MFWF’s Global Dining Series that was organized

by Entrée.Pinays, a group of food-loving and enterprising Filipino women entrepreneurs.

The group collaborated with Filipino-Australian chef Ross Magnaye of Rice Paper Sister and award-winning Filipino chef Jordy Navarra of the popular Toyo Eatery in Manila. Restaurateur Nicole Ponseca of Maharlika and Jeepney restaurants in New York and author of I Am a Filipino: And This is How We Cook also flew in from New York to conduct a master-class demonstration of her own brand of authentic Filipino food, while Sydney-based food and travel writer Yasmin Newman, author of the critically acclaimed book 7000 Islands: Cherished Recipes and Stories from the Philippines also participated in the event.

The chefs presented an exquisite menu composed of kinilaw na talaba (raw oysters) and pritong isda (fried fish) for appetizer. Pork at buro and lumpiang Shanghai with vinegar and sweet chili sauce were served as the second course, pritong escabeche and sinigang na hipon for the third course, and kare-kare, lamb adobo and sinangag for the main course.

For dessert, they served cassava keyk at buko sorbetes, leche flan espesyal and chocolate dulce de leche with dilis.

Light and refreshing calamansi cocktails, along with wine pairing options, were also offered to the diners and finished off with a glass of Lavazza Kafa Forest Coffee liqueur.

The exclusive dining experience received enthusiastic reception and praises from the guests who were pleasantly surprised with the unique range of flavors presented from salty, sour, spicy to sweet and tasty. Some guests especially liked the pork at buro, a fried pork-belly dish with fermented shrimp and rice paste and local vegetables, while others who were uninitiated to Filipino cuisine quipped about their surprise and discovery at having (happily) survived the experience.

Over at our table where I hosted importers, strategic partners and businessmen to take part in the unique dining experience, my seatmate Natalie O’ Brien, former CEO of MFWF, loved the new dishes, ingredients, stories and memories shared by the chefs and guests.

Natalie is organizing a new major trade event, the Global Table, a series of internationally focused business events that will connect Australian traders and investors with business leaders from across the Asia-Pacific. Natalie shared opportunities for Philippine companies in this event, while I also discussed opportunities for cross-promotion, sending of business missions,

By Alma F. Argayoso Special Trade Representative, PTIC-Sydney

MARKET DEVT UPDATE and an Australian delegation to Ifex (International Food Exhibition) Philippines, an international food event showcasing Asia’s ethnic food and ingredients, to be held from May 24 to 26 at the World Trade Center in Pasay City.

Meanwhile, Neil Grimes, vice president of the Australia Philippines Business Council, said “tonight was a great example of what’s possible when people with a vision to exhibit their culture in a unique food experience deliver on that vision. This is a fabulous concept delivered in great Filipino style.”

Neil enjoyed not only the amazing food but also the foodie giveaways such as Auro chocolates, 7D dried mangoes and the products from my goodie bag, which prompted Neil to comment if my secretary of trade is aware that I bring along samples of Philippine products in my big bag for importers and potential buyers to try.

Fides Santos-Arguelles, cofounder and marketing director of Entrée.Pinays, said it is an important milestone for the Philippines to be invited in an international event such as the MFWF, but equally important is how we can sustain this activity to further put on the global map the cuisine that we love most.

Fides and her group are already thinking of what’s next for Entrée.Pinays and the opportunities for collaboration with the Filipino Food Movement, private sector, government agencies and other industry stakeholders.

As I mentioned in my previous article, I am excited to partner with Entrée.Pinays and other stakeholders to promote Filipino food and discussed with Fides the need to come up with a strategic road map to advancing the Philippines’s food-diplomacy agenda in Australia that will identify the gaps, needs, potentials and opportunities for trade, investment, tourism, agriculture and encouraging more Filipinos to take ownership and participate as entrepreneurs, whether it be as restaurateurs, franchisors or franchise owners of food businesses, suppliers of products and services and/or organizer of food events.

While the Philippines’s participation at MFWF was a resounding success, there is definitely more work to be done. One way of contributing to this development is to patronize Filipino restaurants and start a conversation about how we could better promote and mainstream Filipino food and cuisine.

I thank and congratulate Entrée.Pinays for this great initiative as well as the visiting Filipino chefs, writers, sponsors, guests and other supporters.

Mabuhay ang pagkaing Pinoy!

OurTime

A8 Saturday, March 23, 2019 • Editor: Efleda P. Campos A12

BusinessMirror

POEA: Japan needs 60K caregivers

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APAN currently needs 60,000 caregivers, the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) said.

POEA Administrator Bernard Olalia said private recruitment agencies will be processing the employment of qualified foreign workers under the new specialized skilled worker visa of Japan starting on April 1.

He said the new visa will have two classifications: one for semi-

skilled workers such as caregivers, with a five-year contract, and one for highly skilled workers with a chance to acquire an immigrant status after contract, also for five years.

Olalia said the workers are wanted in health institutions in the host country.

“The workers are needed mostly

in elderly care institutions since they have many senior citizens,” he said in a television interview.

Olalia reminded applicants to wait for their advice regarding the new visa since it was only set to be signed on March 19.

The POEA warned the public not to fall for recruitment agencies claiming they are accepting applicants for the new visa.

Olalia reported that Japan is also needing 300 foreign workers for different sectors, including in the food-service industry, construction, agriculture, manufacture of food and beverage, accom-

modation industry, building-cleaning management, machine parts and tooling, industrial machinery, fisheries and aquaculture, electric, electronics and information, aviation industry, automobile repair and maintenance, shipbuilding and ship machinery.

Olalia noted that though construction is included on the list, the deployment of workers in that sector will be limited since the infrastructure program in the country will also need laborers.

“We will be coming out with a regulation limiting the deployment of construction workers,” he said. PNA

It’s getting more dangerous to walk in America

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S you may have heard, since a lot was written about it a few weeks ago, pedestrian deaths are on the rise in the US. The Governors Highway Safety Association estimated, based on data from the first half of the year, that 6,227 pedestrians were killed in traffic accidents in 2018. This would be a whopping 50 percent more than were killed in 2009. Adjusted for population, the increase hasn’t been quite so steep, and seems like it might have halted after 2016. But after decades of declines, the turnaround since 2009 is still awful.

Among the explanations that have been trotted out: More cars are on the road, with vehicle miles driven rebounding after a big drop during the recession. More people are texting while driving, which wasn’t much of a thing before 2007, when the iPhone was introduced.

More people are driving sport-utility vehicles, which are harder to stop than cars, and two to three times likelier to kill you if they hit you.

Those all make sense. But why is it, then, that New York City has seen a decline in pedestrian fatalities since 2009?

The city embarked five years ago on a Vision Zero program to reduce traffic fatalities, so that may be a factor. But the bigger issue seems to be that densely populated, pedestrianpacked cities such as New York simply aren’t where the main problem is these days. Here are the 2017 pedestrian fatality rates for the country’s 20 most-populous cities, taken from a new report by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. (Note that the New York rate is lower than the rate for 2017 in the above chart, which I calculated using city data, indicating that the above chart may understate the city’s relative advantage in pedestrian safety.)

The most pedestrians are getting killed, then, in sprawling Sun Belt cities not known for having lots of pedestrians. In their suburbs, too.

Here, from another new(ish) report, this one by the advocacy groups Smart Growth America and National Complete Streets Coalition, are the 10 US metropolitan areas with the highest pedestrian fatality rates.

Where in these cities and suburbs are pedestrians getting killed? Not downtown or on residential streets, the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety found in a 2018 study. Most of the fatal accidents, and most of the increase, happened on arterials—those high-capacity roads of four lanes or more, often lined with strip malls, fast-food outlets and motels, that are such a defining (if less than universally admired) element of the modern American-built environment.

Pedestrian deaths have been on the rise along freeways, too—it doesn’t look like much in the above chart, but they’re up 33 percent since 2009, compared with a 64 percent rise in fatalities on arterials. Bloomberg News

CITRUS AVALANCHE Like any enterprising Grandma, Corazon Salazar, 76, from Calaocan Village, Santiago City, Isabela, continues to sell fresh citrus fruits at the city public market. She claims her equally elderly customers prefer locally produced citrus varieties grown organically which they believe could keep them healthy. SUZANNE JUNE G. PERANTE

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Ilocos black garlic displayed in recent Japan health exhibit

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ATAC CITY, Ilocos Norte— The black garlic product of state-run Mariano Marcos State University (MMSU) here has started going global after its successful debut in a prestigious Japanese exhibition.

In the Japan Healthy Lifestyle Exhibition held at the Trinoma activity center in Manila on March 9 and 10, Japanese firm Takara Inc. included the black garlic products of MMSU among its many garlic products exhibited during the event, which was organized by the Japan External Trade Organization (Jetro).

“We are really grateful to the Takara company especially its president, Kimio Takarada, for including our product in this prestigious Japanese exhibition,” MMSU President Shirley Agrupis said on Tuesday.

The company was one of the 40 Japanese exhibitors that participated in the exhibition that showcased various health-care products, healthy food, and elderly care products in Japan.

MMSU has partnered with Takara Inc. to boost the production of black garlic using local garlic varieties, such as Ilocos white, Ilocos pink and tan bolters.

Studies have shown that daily consumption of black garlic may lower the risk of cardiovascular diseases, helps destroy cancer cells in the body, boosts properties against infection, and reduces inflammation, because of its high amount of antioxidants.

The man who discovered Nora Aunor I

MET the man very casually while waiting for people interested in investing in a new TV show. He turned out to be a funny and spellbinding storyteller and conversationalist.

His name is Mar Lopez, one of the biggies of the D’ Big 3 Sullivans and Tatlong Pinoy(Bindoy,MarandDing)themusical trio known for their novelty songs during their heyday in the 1960s and ’70s.

He started his career as a performer when he joined the Top 3 with Apeng Daldal and Bebing Santos who became the top drawer of the Grand Opera House in Avenida Rizal.

Remember the songs “Butsiki” and “Magellan?” Yoyoy Villame sang them and they became big hits, but it was Mar Lopezwhocomposedthem.For“Butsiki,” Mar revealed the lyrics were nothing, but a meaningless compilation of names of hardware, commercial retail stores and restaurants he randomly wrote down on a piece of paper while walking around ChinatowninBinondo,Manila.The“Magellan” version of D’ Big 3 Sullivans is as riotous as Yoyoy’s and it’s a wonder why it didn’t make as big a splash.

It was Mar who also gave our pop culture such naughty songs as “May pulis, may pulis sa ilalim ng tulay,” “Pinagbigyan,” “Ang manok kong Texas,” among many. They are now embedded in the Filipino people’s memory from Manila and Cebu, to Los Angeles and Las Vegas, to Abu Dhabi and Riyadh.

I didn’t ask about his age because he is so zestful, but I reckon he is in his 80s. He said he works as an “auditioner” (his own term) of Tesda (Technical Education and Skills Development Authority) applicants for performers going abroad. His approval of a singing talent’s performance is the passport to high-paying stints in cities, such as Tokyo, Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, Bangkok and other cities outside the Philippines.

His gauge points as an auditioner are timing, rhythm and musicality, aside, of course, from voice quality.

He said that to be a great singer, one must master breathing to be able to

hold high notes and make them last.

Auditioning has been a main part of his professional career, in addition to composing songs in a jiffy and performing onstage with the D’ Big 3 Sullivans. As an auditioner, Mar claims to have given breaks to a gallery of big-time talents including Nora Aunor, Diomedes Maturan, Ogie Alcasid, the Apo Hiking Society, Sarah Geronimo and others whose names now has slipped from his mind.

It was during his days as an auditioner for the top-rated Tawag ng Tanghalan TV show when he discovered Nora Aunor (originally surnamed Villamayor) during a 20-minute train stop-over at Iriga station in Bicol. He was hearing applause somewhere and when he came closer to investigate, he heard the melodious voice, which was music to his ears.

After finding out about the girl with that voice (laging panalo sa local amateur contests), he told Nora’s mother to bring her daughter to Manila. From there, Mar Lopez got Nora to perform in Tawag ng Tanghalan, where Nora went on to be the undefeated champion. The rest is history.

Even today, Mar professes his admiration for Nora. “She is one of a kind.

She is a natural-born musical prodigy.

With just one hearing of a new song and in 20 minutes, she can perform it superbly even without rehearsal.”

Many of his compositions became top hits, for such artists as Eva Eugenio, Imelda Papin and other celebrities. I was surprised to hear that he was the composer of Nora Aunor’s “Pearly Shells.” The list of songs he composed is a long one and he can’t even remember them all.

One time, he heard a song and he was impressed with it. It turned out it was one of his compositions. But he said he never profited much from them. Many of his songs are performed, without him getting a centavo from his royalty fees, no thanks to Ascap, the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers.

But he just shrugs his shoulders.

“Bigay ko na sa kanila [I’ll just

By Nick Tayag

MY SIXTY-ZEN’S WORTH give it to them],” he commented. He is contented with knowing that his compositions are making people of all ages happy. What a generous heart.

He became animated when the conversation shifted to the days when he was buddy-buddy with the triumvirate of Buddy de Vera, Vic del Rosario and Orly Ilacad when they were still “nobodies” in the burgeoning days of the local recording industry. Their office then was a cheaply rented bare room somewhere in Avenida and Azcarraga with only one chair and one table. Mar claims that it was he who came up with the name Alpha Records, inspired by the name of the snack they used to eat at the ground floor.

Soon Vic and Orly went to put up Vicor Records. He partnered with Buddy to set up a new recording label, coming up with the name Mayon Records because Buddy de Vera came from Bicol.

All of them went on to reap profits from the compositions and the talents Mar discovered or auditioned, while Mar continued to beat his own career path.

Mar admitted he is nowhere their level in terms of financial status. But he said he is okay with that as long as he is recognized for his contributions to their success.

Besides being a composer, performer, comedian-actor, an auditioner and talent discoverer, Mar also dabbled in radio broadcasting as an anchor host of a radio program on dwIZ sometime in 2010. Mar is also an active member of the Film Academy of the Philippines, representing the entertainment guild as its president.

Itwaspropitiousthatwemetinameeting to discuss a show about innovation.

For Mar was, and, is indeed, an innovator in the entertainment field. His novelty songs paved the way for Lito Camo and other singers of mass-rousing ditties that children love to sing nowadays. His compositions changed the game.

Marisanatural-borncomedianandhe could have made a career as a comedian if only he had focused on it. All the while he was regaling us with one juicy anecdote after another, he was gesticulating with his hands, his mouth and his eyes as if he wereonstage.Hehadawayofmesmerizing us, making us guffaw as in “laughing out loud” with his tics and antics, and without us realizing it, one hour or so had passed.

It was a masterful act. In the sports lingo, this ole dude still got game.

But there is something more beyond the image of a comedian that Mar projects onstage and screen. Listen to his songs more carefully as I did after meeting him, and humor aside, you will discover a deeper sub-stream to his lyrics.

You will realize that the songs, in fact, are mini stories, full of trenchant social observations of the life and travails of the ordinary Pinoy, with moral lessons that affirm traditional old fashioned values.

Indulge me and google D’ Big 3 Sullivansandpresstheplaybuttonon“Buwaya sa Kalsada” (A day in the life of a jeepney driver), “ManokKongTexas”(thecockfight aficionado who loses everything), “Sugar Daddy” (lament of a dirty old man whose pockets are emptied by a materialistic girl who only wanted him for his money), “Senior Citizen” (an inspiring tribute to elderly people), “Negro” (a dig into the Pinoy’s racist attitude), “Utang ng Inay Mo” (a plea of recognition for the plight

In a study conducted by Agrupis, at least eight phytochemicals are present in black garlic—alkaloids, flavonoid, phenol, steroids, cardiac glycosides, carbohydrate, terpenoids and protein.

The black garlic products displayed at the Japanese exhibition were processed from the black garlic processing machine donated by the Japanese to MMSU last February.

Installed at the MMSU Food Processing and Innovation Center, the 100-kilogram machine is now being used for the university’s Black Garlic Research and Development Program, an initiative that aims to commercialize black garlic in Ilocos Norte and in the country.

“We are excited for this new endeavor that MMSU is embracing for the Ilocano people and the garlic industry in the Philippines as a whole,” Agrupis said, as she thanked Ilocos Norte Gov. Imee Marcos “for prompting me to work on this development project way back in 2015.”

The exhibition—which serves as venue in promoting various Japanese health products to Filipino consumers—was first held in 2015 in Yangon, Myanmar, and later on in Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi in Vietnam, Bangkok in Thailand, and in Jakarta, Indonesia.

Established in 1958, JETRO is a Japanese government-related organization that works to promote mutual trade and investment between Japan and the rest of the world. PNA

of struggling single mothers with a family to raise). Or take the most familiar of them all, “May pulis, may pulis…” which on the surface sounds like a whimsical, funny nursery song, but if you give serious thought to the words may bayong ang pulis sa ilalim ng tulay, you can see that the song is really a “nudge-nudge, wink-wink” way of hinting at police corruption, colloquially known as kotong in which bribes are surreptitiously handed in places away from the public eye.

Another seemingly bawdy song “Ang Buserong Mang Gusting” is actually a caveat against sexual psychopaths. And there are other appealing tunes of his that subtly convey social messages.

Funny or even bawdy, these songs reveal not a flippant shallow-minded clown, but a brilliant song composer with the astute, observant mind of a social commentator. Indeed in several of his songs, it hurts even as you laugh at the funny slices of life painted by his lyrics.

In fact, Mar’s other songs such as “Magellan” and “Tayo’y Magbugtungan” can be categorized as “educainment” music. They dish out mini lessons in history and social studies much more effectively than an hour of lecture by a classroom teacher.

This is one reason why his songs deserve a second hearing and why I believeMarLopezmustnotbeallowed to be discarded or cast off as just another “has been,” and swept off to the dustbin of our cultural past. You may disparage Mar Lopez as just a frivolous second-rate comedian, but mind you, his impact on popular culture is as equally, if not more, pervasive than other highly revered Filipino artists. It reminds me of Andy Warhol’s retort when critics bashed his silkscreen paintings:“Whynotthis?Can’tthisbe art, too?” From my humble 60-zen’s perspective, Mar Lopez deserves to be recognized as a living treasure of Philippine pop culture.

Editor: Gerard S. Ramos • lifestylebusinessmirror@gmail.com

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TRUMP’S LOSING HIS WAR WITH HUAWEI IN EUROPE: BALANCE OF POWER

PRESIDENT Donald J. Trump is failing to convince Europe to bar the Chinese tech giant Huawei from its telecom networks.

As Stefan Nicola reports, no European nation has banned Huawei despite US arguments that its equipment could be used as a back door for Chinese espionage, and its threats to cut off intelligence sharing if its advice was ignored.

The reason is simple: Huawei is the world leader in 5G, the ultra-fast wireless technology Europe’s leaders hope will fuel the growth of a data-based economy. The company last year filed 5,405 global patents, more than double those of Ericsson and Nokia combined.

While some European countries have aired concerns about Huawei, they have little choice if they want its 5G infrastructure, a point everyone will be aware of as Chinese President Xi Jinping starts a European tour tomorrow.

Trump initially took aim at Huawei over allegations that it violated US sanctions on Iran. Chief Financial Officer Meng Wanzhou is in Vancouver fighting US extradition. But critics say Trump’s real aim was to block China’s domination of the 5G roll-out.

As German Chancellor Angela Merkel said yesterday, she doesn’t believe in excluding a company “simply because it’s from a certain country.” BLOOMBERG

SCHOOL-IN-A-BAG contains modern learning tools and educational content. Teacher training and program support are also provided.

ALTERNATIVE Learning System (ALS) helped mother and son Jennifer and Elmer Alarcon continue their studies.

Technology helps make dreams come true PRIMETIME

DINNA CHAN VASQUEZ @dinnachanvasquez luckydinna@gmail.com

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ENNIFER ALARCON is a mother to 10 children and we know that cannot be easy. Forsaking her own desires to give way to what her family wants and needs is something that Jennifer does on an everyday basis.

She and her husband always look for ways to augment their large household’s income but these opportunities are scarce in the remote island of Lahuy, Camarines Sur, where they live. The Alarcon family and other residents of the remote coastal community can go to the Caramoan mainland, which is an hour and a half’s boat ride over slightly rough seas.

Working even further in Naga City requires another three hours of land travel through winding roads.

After being a kasambahay or househelp for several years, Jennifer eventually decided to stay in Lahuy Island and focus on taking care of her children. “Life here is very simple and I can say that we are happy.

It can get difficult at times, but the island and the sea provide us with vegetables and fish for our daily meals,” she said.

But there is one task that the 45-year-old homemaker used to consider as most challenging of all: Helping her children with schoolwork. Jennifer stopped attending school before finishing sixth grade.

“I have always been embarrassed with the fact that I couldn’t read and write,” she admitted.

It was when her own children reached high school that Jennifer was again faced with a dilemma concerning education: In the hope of helping his parents, one of her sons, Elmer, decided to drop out of school before his senior year.

“He wanted to work and help boost our family’s income,” Jennifer said. However, Elmer’s dreams of uplifting the way of life for his entire family seemed impossible as he realized how better-paying jobs required him to, at least, finish high school.

Elmer pointed out another reason why he dropped out of secondary school: the distance from their noelectricity home in Sitio Lipata to Lahuy Island’s only high school required him to walk an average of five hours every day.

Elmer was then unsure about how things would improve not just for him but also for his family. This situation resulted in a lot of worries for Jennifer.

Fortunately, Alternative Learning System advocates reached out to residents of Lahuy Island.

ALS is the Department of Education’s (DepEd) flagship program that offers nonformal education to out-ofschool Filipino youth and adults who have failed to complete basic education.

“After a literacy mapping activity in 2016, our team discovered how Sitio Lipata had an alarmingly high number of dropouts, with some quitting school as early as elementary level,” said ALS mobile teacher Windel Alvarez.

The educator teamed up with Yellow Boat of Hope Foundation (Yellow Boat) for ways to transport mobile teachers to the small community, where they patiently taught elementary to high school lessons to adult learners ages 30 to 50 years old.

It has been more than three years since the Alarcon mother-and-son tandem both got into ALS, which the former said revived all her hopes of studying again. After passing the high-school level ALS Accreditation and Equivalency Test (ALS A&E),

How to lower chances of employee theft: 5 things to know

BY JOYCE M. ROSENBERG The Associated Press

Elmer is set on enrolling in a city college.

When asked about the course he plans to take, Elmer shared that he is keen on becoming a teacher.

Aside from benefiting from the ALS methodology, learners are expected to gain even more knowledge from mobile technology, innovative 21st-century teaching pedagogy and extensive multimedia resources. This is due to the recent joint donation of Yellow Boat and wireless services provider Smart Communications (Smart) of School-in-a-Bag digital learning kits.

Intended for remote schools and communities with limited electricity and Internet connection, Schoolin-a-Bag comes in a water-resistant backpack that generally contains a solar panel and battery, teacher’s laptop and tablet, Smart pocket Wi-Fi, projector, DVD player, TV and student tablets.

The latter are pre-installed with educational content that include Learn Smart literacy apps developed in partnership with the DepEd and academic institutions nationwide: the Bahay Kubo Filipino app, Kaalam Cebuano app, Ta’allam and Tahderiyyah Arabic apps, and Matigsalug app for the Matigsalug tribe of Davao and Bukidnon.

Teachers also receive training and program support from Smart and local DepEd officials.

“Since we do not have electricity here in Sitio Lipata, we also received solar panels,” said Windel.

“With these new technologies, I hope students get encouraged to stay in school and finish their studies,” said Elmer. Since the program’s launch in 2016, a total of 112 School-in-a-Bag packages have been donated to various learning institutions nationwide, 83 of which were turned over in 2018.

To date, the program has benefited over 30,000 students and more than a thousand teachers in communities all over the Philippines.

Those interested in School-in-a-Bag may e-mail learnsmart@smart.com.ph. ■

NEW YORK—Small businesses can reduce their chances of employee theft or limit their losses by implementing technological controls, and checks and balances in their daily operations.

The thin staffing at many small businesses can make them vulnerable to theft. So can small companies’ tendency to have less sophisticated technology practices.

Here are five ways companies can protect themselves: ■ Make sure that responsibility for finances doesn’t rest with only one person, says Doug Karpp, a senior vice president with insurer Hiscox. At the least, “business owners should have their bank statements sent to their home instead of the business, and given to their accountants to review,” Karpp added.

■ When a staffer quits or is fired, their access to the company’s computer system and e-mail should be cut off immediately. Any passwords they use should be changed. Owners may also want to consider having the staffer leave the day they give notice.

“All the things that go hand in hand with the termination of an employee in a large company, a small company needs to think of, too,” says Shira Forman, an employment attorney with Sheppard Mullin in New York.

■ Watch out for suspicious behavior that could be a tipoff about stealing, says Rick Gibbs, a consultant with human resources provider Insperity. For example, consider a staffer who never takes vacation or days off. While they could be dedicated, they could also be trying to make sure that no one else gets to fill in for them and see what they’ve been doing.

■ Surveillance cameras can discourage staffers from stealing property, Gibbs says. Even if a camera is not a deterrent, the owner can see who the thief was.

■ If an owner suspects or is aware of a theft, they should consult with an attorney or HR provider to decide the best cause of action. They should also take steps to limit or stop the damage. In the case of a technologically savvy staffer, an owner needs to be sure the employee isn’t in a position to harm the company’s systems, Forman says.

technology for the firing of the printer—the software we use to place the ink on the surface. Third is the ink formulation and its manufacturing.

“Many of our competitors rely on technology from second parties, but Epson printers are built from the ground up using original core technologies. This enables Epson to reflect customer needs directly to its products, as we seek to achieve our goal of constantly creating products that exceed customer expectations.”

For those in the business of printing on textiles, digital printing allows them to offer customers a unique service—small runs. Designers aren’t locked into 2,000 or more pieces at a time, and it’s now affordable for printing professionals to offer smaller

one-off runs.

“Smaller fashion designers do not want to produce large runs for most of their designs; in most cases, they want to do limited pieces of the same design.

They cannot do this with traditional screen printing.

But digital printing gives them that option,” says Soh. Regardless of the size of the run you’re after, the SureColor F-Series is the right digital printer for your business needs.

“Big or small run, it doesn’t matter. The F-series can be used by a one-man company or a single designer who just wants to process everything themselves. It can also be used by big factories who produce thousands of garments a day.”

Textile printing: Should you embrace digital?

AS with most industries, today’s textile printing industry is undergoing massive changes thanks to advancements in digital technology. What do you need to know about digital printing?

Digital textile printing offers massive benefits when it comes to cost, creativity, efficiency and simplicity. For those still working with traditional screen printing, is the move to digital the right one for your business? How do you go about finding the right printer?

According to Epson Singapore Senior Presales Engineer Jeffrey Soh, initial investment in the right printer allows your business to enjoy the benefits of the digital revolution while also leaving you agile

enough to embrace further advancements. This idea is evident with Epson’s SureColor F-Series (bit. ly/2HIyAvZ). “The philosophy behind the F-Series is that when you buy this printer, it is a one-time investment that can be upgraded in the future,” says Soh. Epson ensures this because they’ve designed every key component of the F-Series printers. The print head, printing software and ink are unique to Epson and work seamlessly to create bright colors that can be applied to any fabric.

“The technology is owned by us—we produce it and understand it,” says Soh. “There are three core components in this printer. First is the print head that is designed and built by us. Second is the

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Apple refreshes iPad lineup, with larger entry-level model NEW YORK—Apple has unveiled a new iPad that’s thinner and slightly larger than its current entrylevel tablet.

The new iPad Air will cost $499 and sport a screen that measures 10.5 inches diagonally. That compares with the standard, 9.7-inch iPad, which Apple will still sell for $329.

Apple has higher-end Pro models starting at

$999. The new iPad Air has several features found in older Pro models, but not the latest. For instance, the iPad Air has a home button with a fingerprint sensor, while the latest Pro ditches that to make more room for the screen.

Apple is also refreshing its 7.9-inch iPad Mini for the first time in more than three years.

In the past, Apple has sometimes used older

chips in the Mini, saving the latest technology for the larger models instead. This time, the Mini will have the same chip as the Air, along with support for the Apple Pencil stylus. But the Mini won’t have an optional keyboard attachment, unlike the new Air and Pro models.

The Mini will cost $399, more expensive than the larger, but older 9.7-inch iPad. AP

HONOR SETS STAGE FOR ARRIVAL OF NEW BUDGET SMARTPHONE

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A CYBER ATTACK that leads to down time and lost data can be more costly for smaller companies than for larger businesses, an average of $763 per affected computer or other device versus $470, according to a 2018 study by the Poneman Institute, which researches data protection. AP

THE midrange smartphone game in the Philippines just got more exciting as global smartphone e-brand Honor announces the arrival of a newcomer equipped with a strong design and a large battery built for the fast-paced and multifaceted Filipinos—the Honor 8C. Set to be released by end of this month, Honor 8C (www. hihonor.com) with 6.26 inch display is packed with power, equipped with a Snapdragon 632 chipset and 4,000 mAh battery rated by international reviews to last up to two days on a single charge. All this power is housed in an eye-catching body inspired by which they call “Cat’s Eye” design.

All in all, it’s looking like the Honor 8C is a steal having both aesthetic and advanced performance for an entry-level phone. The device will officially launch in the Philippines on March 27 and will be available in Honor authorized brand shops and kiosks starting March 30.

For aficionados, it’s never too early to get a head start on getting their hands on their own Honor 8C. From March 25 to March 29, Honor will be holding a preorder promotion at authorized brand shops and kiosks. Come March 30, each Honor 8C purchase will come with three exclusive freebies: Sports Armband, Honor Gift Kit and Honor Travel Kit.

6 things small businesses can do to improve cyber security

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BY JOYCE M. ROSENBERG The Associated Press

EW YORK—Small businesses can be more vulnerable to cyber attacks than larger companies because they often don’t have sophisticated and comprehensive systems to protect themselves from hackers, viruses, malware and what’s called ransomware. And owners who are focused on customers and employees may not ensure that their defenses are up to date.

But there are things small businesses can do to improve cyber security. Here are six: ■ DON’T DO IT ALONE. Small companies, if they can’t afford their own in-house technology experts, should hire consultants who specialize in helping small businesses build and maintain their defenses.

■ THINK BEYOND YOUR SYSTEM. Companies can be attacked through other businesses or computer users including vendors and online storage services. Small

business owners should ask anyone who links into their computers about the steps they take to protect everyone’s data.

“It’s not OK to just contract with a firm. It’s also doing due diligence,” says Diana Burley, a professor at George Washington University’s Graduate School of Education and Human Development, whose expertise includes cyber security.

■ BACK UP EVERYTHING. When Marcos Francos’s company, Atlanta-based Mighty Clean Home, was attacked by ransomware, his files were rendered inaccessible. But because he had backed up all of his data, he didn’t have to pay the ransom demanded by cyberthieves to unlock the files, and he was able to restore his system. The best way to back up files is on an off-site system that continually creates new versions of all of a company’s data.

■ STAY CURRENT. Software and hardware manufacturers routinely issue updates and what are called patches to improve security. Every device at a

small business needs to have all updates and patches downloaded and installed.

■ GET AN EIN. Owners need to guard against a stolen identity from affecting their business accounts.

So instead of using a Social Security number for business, they should have an Employer Identification Number (EIN). It’s easy to obtain one from the IRS web site, www.irs.gov.

■ BEWARE OF PHISHING SCAMS. These are invasions that are often delivered by e-mail with links or attachments. Owners and all employees need to be aware that cyberthieves are sending e-mails that look legitimate; when the links or attachments are clicked on, destructive malware enters the computer or network. Barry Kelly, CEO of technology consultant Kelser Corp., has training e-mails sent internally to staffers to help them sharpen their ability to detect phishing e-mails. That includes Kelly himself.

“I got caught three months ago” and clicked on one of e-mails, he admits. ■

SAMSUNG SHOWS A NEW WAY TO GO WIRELESS

AND so all the wire cutting continues. Now in stores is Samsung’s newest in-ear companion, the Galaxy Buds.

Enjoy clear and smart audio powered by acoustic specialists AKG to deliver rich and high-resolution live sound. This results in a crisp user experience without any of the unnecessary background noise. Apart from premium acoustics, the Galaxy Buds make talk time easier through its speech enhancement feature and its Adaptive Dual Microphone technology to switch between inner and outer mics. Its Quick Ambient Mode allows sounds from the environment to stream in without removing the device.

The new Samsung Galaxy Buds (www.samsung.com/ph) are ergonomically designed using advanced and lightweight materials to ensure a comfortable and snug fit all day. It lets users play music for up to six hours and talk on the phone for up to five hours on a single charge. The buds can be charged wirelessly or be powered by a Galaxy S10 smartphone through the Wireless PowerShare technology.

Available in black and white, the Galaxy Buds seamlessly connect to any Galaxy device in an instant via Bluetooth.

Users can switch between any screen and wearable in a matter of seconds so they don’t miss any of the action. When not in use, its slim and compact design makes it convenient to store in a pocket or bag.

Nokia joins PLDT’s 5G pilot testing

BY RIZAL RAOUL S. REYES AFTER a long silence in the Philippine telecommunications network environment, the Finns are back.

The Espoo, Finland-based Nokia was recently tapped by PLDT’s wireless subsidiary Smart Communications Inc. to lead in piloting the deployment of fifth-generation (5G) wireless broadband technologies and services in schools.

In a memorandum of understating signing held in Makati City, the three companies will work together to determine world-class and enterprisedriven 5G institution’s stand-alone solutions, such artificial intelligence, drones, Internet of Things applications, for educational institutions. The tests will be done through the combined capabilities of the PLDT-Smart 5G Technolab in Makati and the Nokia Technology Center in Quezon City.

5G SA relies solely on 5G for data transmission, and allows the full benefit

of 5G capabilities to be tested and demonstrated. In contrast, 5G NSA (nonstandalone) combines the use of 5G and existing 4G/LTE resources to transmit data.

“As the country’s leading and most trusted technology enabler, PLDT and Smart are excited to work with Nokia and academe in realizing our 5G vision,” said Ernesto R. Alberto, PLDT-Smart chief revenue officer in a press briefing.

The MOU also covers deploying 5G SA technologies and innovative products and services, such as 5G handsets and applications, for example.

“By working with partners like Nokia in unlocking the full potential of 5G for Filipino enterprises and customers, we are putting the Philippines at par with the rest of the world in preparing for the deployment and adoption of 5G,” said PLDT-Smart Chief Technology and Information Advisor Joachim Horn.

Jae Won, head of Asia Pacific and Japan at Nokia, said the company is optimistic

on the partnership with PLDT and Smart on the pioneering effort of deploying 5G SA. He said this will pave the way to the introduction of services like realtime remote control of robotics and

autonomous driving of transport vehicles in the areas of Industrial Revolution 4.0 with new technologies like Network Slicing and Ultra Reliable and Low Latency Communications.

Smart and Nokia first explored 5G in 2016, when they achieved speeds of 2.5 Gigabits per second (Gbps) using 100 MHz with latency of just 1 millisecond over a “live” network—the first in the Philippines.

In June 2018, Smart rolled out its 5G Technolab in preparation for the deployment. It is the company’s flagship facility for the research and development, standardization, and testing of 5G, which is designed to be a sustainable environment for innovative services.

Furthermore, PLDT and Smart have recently launched the country’s first Smart 5G cities in Makati and Pampanga, after firing up the Philippines’s first 5G cell sites in the Clark Freeport Zone and at the PLDT headquarters in November last year. In the same month, they also successfully made the country’s first 5G-to-5G video call between the two 5G Smart cities. Ericsson and Huawei were the partners in the 5G testing in Makati and Pampanga.

BusinessMirror

www.businessmirror.com.ph

Saturday, March 23, 2019 A11 A15

/

SYMANTEC, FORTINET PARTNER FOR CLOUD SECURITY SERVICE

A HUGE study suggests the Apple Watch sometimes can detect a worrisome irregular heartbeat.

But experts say more work is needed to tell if using wearable technology to screen for heart problems really helps. AP

SYMANTEC Corp., the world’s leading cyber-security company, and Fortinet, a global leader in broad, integrated and automated cyber-security solutions, have entered into expansive partnership agreement to provide customers with the industry’s most comprehensive and robust security solutions. Fortinet’s industry-leading Next-Generation Firewall (NGFW) capabilities are planned to be integrated into Symantec’s cloud-delivered Web Security Service (WSS). Additionally, Symantec’s industry-leading endpoint protection solutions are also planned to be integrated into the Fortinet Security Fabric platform. The technology partnership provides essential security controls across end point, network, and cloud environments that are critical to enforcing the Zero Trust security framework.

WSS, a leader in Secure Web Gateways, is a simple-touse, cloud-delivered network security service that provides protection against advanced threats, provides access control, and safeguards critical business information for secure and compliant cloud application and Web use. The integration of Fortinet’s industry-leading FortiGate Next-Generation Firewall with Symantec’s WSS will result in the most comprehensive set of cloud-delivered threat prevention capabilities in a single service offering on the market today.

Facebook says service hindered by lack of local news NEW YORK—Facebook’s effort to establish a service that provides its users with local news and information is being hindered by the lack of outlets where the company’s technicians can find original reporting.

The service, launched last year, is currently available in some 400 cities in the United States. But the social-media giant said it has found that 40 percent of Americans live in places where there weren’t enough local news stories to support it.

Facebook announced on Monday it would share its research with academics at Duke, Harvard, Minnesota and North Carolina who are studying the extent of news deserts created by newspaper closures and staff downsizing.

Some 1,800 newspapers have closed in the United States over the last 15 years, according to the University of North Carolina. Newsroom employment has declined by 45 percent as the industry struggles with a broken business model partly caused by the success of companies on the Internet, including Facebook.

The Facebook service, called “Today In,” collects news stories from various local outlets, along with the government and community groups. The company deems a community unsuitable for Today In if it cannot find a single day in a month with at least five news items available to share.

There’s not a wide geographical disparity. For example, the percentage of news deserts is higher in the Northeast and Midwest, at 43 percent, Facebook said. In the South and West, the figure is 38 percent.

“It affirms the fact that we have a real lack of original local reporting,” said Penelope Muse Abernathy, a University of North Carolina professor who studies the topic. She said she hopes the data helps pinpoint areas where the need is greatest, eventually leading to some ideas for solutions.

Facebook doesn’t necessarily have the answers.

“Everyone can learn from working together,” said Anne Kornblut, director of news initiatives at the company.

The company plans to award some 100 grants, ranging from $5,000 to $25,000, to people with ideas for making more news available, said Josh Mabry, head of local news partnerships for Facebook.

That comes on top of $300 million in grants Facebook announced in January to help programs and partnerships designed to boost local news. The company doesn’t plan to launch news gathering efforts of its own, Kornblut said.

“Our history has been—and we will probably stick to it— to let journalists do what they do well and let us support them and let them do their work,” she said. AP

Apple Watch may spot heart problem but more research needed

BY LAURAN NEERGAARD The Associated Press

W

ASHINGTON—A huge study suggests the Apple Watch can detect a worrisome irregular heartbeat at least sometimes—but experts say more work is needed to tell if using wearable technology to screen for heart problems really helps.

More than 419,000 Apple Watch users signed up for the unusual study, making it the largest ever to explore screening seemingly healthy people for atrial fibrillation, a condition that if untreated eventually can trigger strokes.

Stanford University researchers reported on Saturday that the watch didn’t panic flocks of people, warning just half a percent of participants—about 2,100—that they might have a problem.

But even among those flagged, “it’s not perfect,” cautioned Dr. Richard Kovacs of the American College of Cardiology, who wasn’t involved with the study.

People who received an alert were supposed to consult a study doctor via telemedicine and then wear an EKG patch measuring cardiac activity for the next week to determine the watch’s accuracy. Some skipped the virtual checkup to consult their own doctors; overall, about 57 percent sought medical attention.

Among those who got EKG monitoring through the study, a third had atrial fibrillation, according to preliminary results being presented at an American College of Cardiology conference in New Orleans.

A-fib tends to come and go, and a week of monitoring might have missed some cases, said Stanford lead researcher Dr. Mintu Turakhia. But if

the watch detected another irregular heartbeat while someone was wearing the EKG patch, 84 percent of the time it really was a-fib, he said.

“This study we believe provides very encouraging evidence that a device, the Apple Watch, can be used to detect a-fib and to point out to people when additional monitoring or testing may be needed,” said Dr. Lloyd Minor, Stanford’s dean of medicine.

Other cardiac experts said the study, which was funded by Apple, suggests screening with wearable technology might be technically feasible eventually, but needs lots more research.

“I would not advise this to the overall general population,” said Dr. Valentin Fuster, director of Mount Sinai Heart in New York and a former American Heart Association president, who wasn’t involved with the study.

Instead, he’d like to see it tested in seniors with risk factors like high blood pressure.

WHAT IS ATRIAL FIBRILLATION? A-FIB occurs when the heart’s top chambers, called the atria, get out of sync with the bottom chambers’ pumping action. Sometimes patients feel a flutter or a racing heart but many times they’re not aware of an episode. Sometimes the heart gets back into rhythm on its own. Other patients get an electric shock to get back into rhythm, or are prescribed blood thinners to counter the stroke-causing blood clots that untreated a-fib can spur. A-fib causes 130,000 deaths and 750,000 hospitalizations a year in the US.

HOW DO DOCTORS CHECK FOR IT? A-FIB is most common in older adults, and other

risks include high blood pressure or a family history of arrhythmias. But routine screening isn’t recommended for people without symptoms. Studies haven’t yet proved that early detection from screening would prevent enough strokes to outweigh risks from unnecessary testing or overtreatment.

HOW DOES THE APPLE WATCH CHECK FOR IT? A MOBILE app uses the optical sensor on certain versions of the watch to analyze pulse rate data. If it detects enough variation from beat to beat over a 48-hour period, the user receives a warning of an irregular heart rhythm.

The latest version of the Apple Watch also allows wearers to push a button to take an EKG and share the reading with doctors. Saturday’s study didn’t include watches with that capability.

DOES THE NEW STUDY SHOW MASS SCREENING IS A GOOD IDEA? NO. The study was designed to tell how the watch compared to a week of standard EKG monitoring—not if the wearer’s health improved because the screening uncovered the arrhythmia.

To prove if detecting a-fib early lowers risk of stroke would require years of study. And since the study didn’t have a comparison group getting routine EKGs, there’s no way to know if the watch missed heartbeat problems, giving a false sense of security, Kovacs said. The puzzling low numbers of alarms might be because most participants were young or middle-aged, not the seniors who are most at risk for a-fib, he said. ■

EU fines Google $1.7 billion for abusing online ads market

BY KELVIN CHAN & RAF CASERT The Associated Press BRUSSELS—European Union (EU) regulators have fined Google €1.49 billion ($1.7 billion) for abusing its dominant role in online advertising, the third big antitrust penalty they’ve given the Internet giant since 2017.

The latest punishment means the commission has now issued Google with almost $10 billion in fines from probes into various parts of the Silicon Valley tech company’s business.

In the latest ruling, Google and parent company Alphabet were found to have breached EU rules by imposing restrictive clauses in contracts with web sites that used its AdSense advertising business.

That prevented Google rivals from placing their ads on these sites, the EU’s competition commissioner,

Margrethe Vestager, said on Wednesday.

“Google abused its dominance to stop web sites using brokers other than the AdSense platform,” Vestager told a news conference as she outlined the results of the long-running probe.

The AdSense For Search service—known simply as AdSense—lets Google act as a middleman between advertisers and web site owners who want to make money by selling space for ads. AdSense allows Web publishers, such as newspapers and bloggers to place text ads on their web sites, with the content of the ads based on results from search functions on their sites.

The commission said Google has 70 percent of the European market for “online search advertising intermediation.”

Microsoft filed a complaint with the EU in 2009 about Google’s service and the commission formally launched its probe in 2016, although it said at the time

that Google had already made some changes to give customers more freedom to show competing ads.

Google “prevented its rivals from having a chance to innovate and to compete in the market on their merits,” Vestager said.

“Advertisers and web site owners, they had less choice and likely faced higher prices that would be passed on to consumers.”

Last year, Vestager hit the company with a record €4.34-billion ($5 billion at the time) fine following an investigation into its Android operating system. In 2017, she slapped Google with a €2.42-billion ($2.7 billion at the time) fine in a case involving its online shopping search results.

Google’s case highlights how the EU has led the way in promoting tougher regulation for the big tech companies. Besides cracking down on antitrust breaches by multinationals like Microsoft and Intel,

the EU has enforced tougher data-privacy rules that affect Facebook and other social-media companies.

Google’s senior vice president of global affairs, Kent Walker, said the company agrees that “healthy, thriving markets are in everyone’s interest.”

“We’ve already made a wide range of changes to our products to address the commission’s concerns.

Over the next few months, we’ll be making further updates to give more visibility to rivals in Europe,” Walker said in a statement.

Google, which is appealing both of the earlier cases, said ahead of Wednesday’s announcement that it has put in place remedies required by the commission. The company said in a blog post that it was making some tweaks to its shopping results.

It will also start asking European users of new and existing Android phones if they want to use another search service or mobile browser.

Editor: Editor:Gerard GerardS.S.Ramos Ramos• •lifestylebusinessmirror@gmail.com lifestylebusinessmirror@gmail.com

BusinessMirror Bu sinessMirror BusinessMirror

Saturday, March 23, 2019 A16

/ ESPORTS PIONEERS

The teams and organizers of The Nationals, the first eSports franchise league in the Philippines.

It’s gametime for The Nationals THE TECHNIVORE ED UY

whereiseduy@gmail.com

T

OMORROW, March 24, marks another milestone in Philippine gaming history as The Nationals, the first-ever eSports franchise-based model league in Southeast Asia, formally begins its inaugural season.

From the confines of local computer shops to the big stage, eSports has come a long way in the country but nothing as groundbreaking as the establishment of a franchise league.

Think PBA (Philippine Basketball Association) but for games.

Finally, we gamers can tell all those doubters and naysayers: “We told you so.”

For how many times have you heard people say that gaming is nothing but a “waste of time”? With the establishment of a professional league, gamers can finally say they are not just following their dream but also pursuing a career.

The five inaugural teams are PLDT-Smart Omega, Cignal Ultra Warriors, Bren Epro, HF Emperors and Suha-XCTN Punishers. The sixth team, STI, will be joining the league in June.

The teams will be competing in three of the biggest and most popular games in the country: Dota 2 on PC, Mobile Legends: Bang Bang on Mobile and Tekken 7 on PS4.

The five teams will participate in all three games spanning March all the way to October of this year, with all games played at the Gariath Concepts Studio, guaranteeing an exhilarating experience to the fans watching firsthand. STI will be fielding its team after the Dota 2 competition.

Each of the contested games will have two conferences in the first season. Each conference will feature a double round-robin group stage and singleelimination playoffs, where winners and the top performers per conference will advance to a season finale later on in the year.

The Nationals Commissioner Ren Vitug is optimistic the league will be able to provide a platform where talents can be nurtured. “I have witnessed many athletes gleaming with skill and potential drop out of the scene because the infrastructure was not there to support them. There are so many external factors that prevent them from being the best that they can be.”

Not only will the players be equipped with an adequate training facility, but they will also be serviced by a support group vital to their development as athletes. Included in the league-mandated team personnel are managers, coaches, fitness trainers, nutritionists, and counselors, to name a few. Enforcing this on a league has never been done in the country, and the league believes it is a necessary step for athletes to stay on top of the demanding nature of the sport, likewise conforming to international standard.

“A lot of people think that being an eSports athlete is easy, but players train as long and as hard as athletes would in traditional sports,” Vitug said. “It is highly competitive, and the dynamics are usually very unstable and ever-changing.”

Being a franchise-based league, The Nationals guarantees the continued existence of teams, providing stability and continuity for the local eSports calendar. Now, both athletes and teams have a more actionable goal that does not involve them going all or nothing on international events.

With this in place, they can actually have longterm planning and continuity, something not yet present in Philippine eSports.

“The stage is set, competition is ready, game faces on. If we do it right, it’s going to make a huge impact. These teams are participating for one huge undertaking, to build the right infrastructure in order to showcase the Filipino eSport athlete,” says The Nationals President Kevin Chung.

“We want to show the world that this in no longer a game. We are now e-games, we are eSports,” Chung says with passion.

The Nationals comes at the perfect timing with the Games and Amusements Board (GAB) recognizing eSports as an official sport last July 2017. This November, the 30th Southeast Asian Games hosted in the Philippines will feature eSports as an official medal sport. All three game titles in The Nationals will be featured in the upcoming SEA Games. This guarantees to be a highlight attraction for a country with 70 million of its population being online and 47 million of those being gamers.

Big name corporations are starting to invest in eSports today on a global scale, and it is not surprising considering the reach and attention it gets. For The Nationals, PayMaya will be the league’s Official Digital Payments Partner.

Rounding out the pioneering partners are The Nationals Official TV broadcast partners ESPN5 through 5Plus on free TV, and Cignal TV through eGG Network, and One Sports on Pay TV. Livestreaming on social media will, likewise, be provided by the league.

NO REASON TO BAN HUAWEI WE are just a few days away from the launch of the Huawei P30, one of the most highly anticipated smartphones of the year, yet Huawei continues to be

in the limelight for an altogether different and more controversial reason.

Over the past few months, the US has been exerting pressure on other nations that are considering using Huawei equipment in building its fifth-generation, or 5G, wireless networks.

Huawei, an employee-owned company, has strongly denied that it has ever spied for the Chinese government or would consider doing so.

According to reports, United States’s Ambassador to Germany Richard Grenell even wrote a letter to Germany’s economy minister warning that the US would limit its intelligence sharing with the country if it lets Chinese vendors like Huawei participate in building its 5G networks. Grenell argued that secure communications are vital for defense, and companies like Huawei could undermine that security.

But the US campaign versus Huawei seems to be losing rather than gaining support. The UK, Germany, India and the United Arab Emirates are among the countries who are unlikely to back the American effort to entirely ban Huawei from building their 5G networks. The UK, for instance, shared the United States’s concerns, but argued that the security risks can be managed by closely scrutinizing the company and its software. Germany, on the other hand, uses Huawei equipment for its 4G network and needs the company for 5G to make it backward compatible, and selecting another vendor might set the country back two years.

Some believe the US is doing it out of fear that it cannot manipulate Huawei— not fear of Chinese spying, but rather that Huawei will make US spying more difficult. Meanwhile, others say it is all about business as China has already invested far more in 5G technology than the US, and eliminating Huawei is one way to catch up. And for an issue that is really quite technical, isn’t it odd that the US has yet to present actual facts and, more important, technical evidence against Huawei?

So is there any reason to ban Huawei in the Philippines?

One senior Philippine official said Huawei is “not a security threat to the Philippines” and that the country has no reason to ban the use of its equipment.

In an interview with reporters, Assistant Secretary Allan Cabanlong of the Cybersecurity and Enabling Technologies of the Philippine Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) said there is no scientific basis to support the allegations that Huawei is engaged in espionage activity. “Right now, there is no evidence that Huawei is conducting espionage in the Philippines,” Cabanlong said, adding that “the Philippines cannot block something without any scientific or technical evidence.”

Cabanlong responded to questions on whether the Philippines should follow the United States’s call to

stop the use of Huawei equipment, especially its 5G technology, alleging it is embedded with backdoors that will allow the Chinese government to spy or provide Chinese government access to the data that flows through its equipment.

He also noted that the US has yet to share any evidence to prove its allegations against Huawei.

“If the US has evidence, then they should share it to other countries to prove it. As of now, there’s none, only information. They can share it with us through our interior channel so we could verify and have reason to block or ban Huawei.”

Because of the lack of evidence, Cabanlong says there’s no cause for alarm for Huawei—but that doesn’t mean his department and the DICT isn’t doing anything. “Rest assured, we will continue to conduct due diligence and monitor everything—not only with Huawei but all other contractors and equipment makers. We will examine and evaluate each one accordingly.”

He also detailed some of the new cyber-security measures that will be deployed by DICT to ensure the data coming in and out of the country are protected.

“This project is very important in our efforts to conduct due diligence on cyber security. We are building the platform so that we can test everything, especially if it’s a government project because we want to assure the public that the systems we are using, whether it came from China, the US or any other countries, are tested and safe to use,” said Cabanlong.

Cabanlong is also one of the pioneers of cyber security in the country and the author of the Philippines’s officially adopted cyber-security road map.

In 2017, the Philippines ranked No. 39th from among 193 countries in the Global Cybersecurity Index. The International Telecommunication Union (ITU) assessed the cyber-security efforts of 193 countries based on the following factors: legal; technical; organizational; capacity building; and cooperation.

The ranking shows the Philippines is already in the “maturing” stage, which is the second of three stages wherein the first stage is the “initiating” and the final is the “leading.” Furthermore, this means the Philippines has already developed programs and initiatives to work on its cyber-security efforts.

Cabanlong said that with the National Cybersecurity Plan 2022 in place, we should expect the ranking of the Philippines to be higher, and he believes we are on a par with our Asean neighbors when it comes to cyber security.

The NSCP 2022 was created in recognition of the “urgency” of protecting every single user of the Internet among Filipinos, the Philippines’s critical information infrastructure (CII), government networks, small and medium enterprises (SMEs), and also big businesses and corporations. ■

Envoys&Expats BusinessMirror

www.businessmirror.com.ph | Saturday, March 23, 2019 B1

Taking full stock of Pakistan’s fruitful 70-year ties with PHL

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By Recto L. Mercene

ODAY, the Islamic Republic of Pakistan is commemorating the 70th anniversary of the establishment of its diplomatic relations with the Republic of the Philippines.

For Dr. Aman Rashid, a priority of his tenure as ambassador is to establish a “sisterhood” status between two major cities of both countries.

“All ambassadors have a passion to leave a legacy; to establish peopleto-people contacts—particularly through a sister-city relationship,” he admitted during a wide-ranging interview inside the Pakistan embassy in Makati City. It is in the country’s business capital where he wishes to have the bond established with Karachi. “[They] have the same kind of culture: Both are cosmopolitan, [although] Karachi is older,” as he explained that the largest city of Pakistan traces its roots from ancient times.

The envoy pointed out that near Karachi is the primeval village of Mohenjo-daro, which typified “an old example of organized living like [the one we have] today. It was the

first capital of Pakistan.”

(History books have it that Mohenjo-daro [meaning, “mound of the dead men”] is an archaeological site in the province of Sindh. Built around 2,500 BCE, it was one of the largest settlements of the ancient Indus Valley Civilization, and one of the world’s earliest major cities, along with the civilizations of ancient Egypt, Mesopotamia, Minoan Crete and Norte Chico. Significant excavation has since been conducted in the locale of the city, which was designated in 1980 as among Unesco’s World Heritage sites.)

Dr. Rashid said he would like to follow President Duterte’s lead in promoting bilateral relations with friendly countries.

According to him, Pakistan and the Philippines both “have the same kind of economy and development.

[Our citizens have a good command of the English language.]”

As a tangible reminder of the ties that bind both countries, he revealed a plan to have a commemorative stamp issued for the celebration.

Since arriving 18 months ago, the ambassador has been in constant consultations with top government officials to improve trade relations between the two countries.

His aim, he said, is to hammer out a preferential trade agreement, “but the biggest hurdle for [our] country is to have trade links with Asean countries.”

Currently, Pakistan is considered as an Asean sectoral-dialogue partner; the diplomat, however, disclosed that they want to elevate this status.

Although Manila fully supports Islamabad’s desire to be a full-dialogue partner, Dr. Rashid admitted the difficulty “is in the internal arrangement [within Asean].”

Having been posted in the country since September 2017, he was witness to the Asean Summit in Manila and observed that it was very well organized.

The envoy pointed out, however, that because of a “preferential arrangement,” an external country could only become a full partner through joint ventures.

He explained that investing in the Philippines requires the full advantage of tariff concessions within Asean. Currently, his government is working on addressing that matter.

On local regulations

IN February Dr. Rashid related that Pakistan arranged for the arrival of a “very high-powered delegation comprised of 25 very senior industrialists [who] came over to discuss these things.” He accompanied the Pakistani investors to the respective Departments of Foreign Affairs, as well as Trade and Industry, as officials of both agencies had previously led a joint economic commission to Pakistan.

Among the businessmen he went with, one engages in cement manufacturing, while the other one is into pharmaceuticals. The latter wanted to place $50 million in the country to take advantage of the 100 million plus Filipino market, as well as the 600 million citizens of Asean.

Pakistan, Dr. Rashid claims, has one of the most developed pharmaceutical industries in the world, but cited the difficulties of their products in finding their way into the country because of its stringent regulations.

He said his compatriot-pharmaceutical investors should have been accorded with preferential treatment for business registrations, while having to forego layers of bureaucracy, as in the case of one Pakistani from the United States who developed an injectable ibuprofen and wanted to market the medical innovation in different countries.

But when he came over to the

Philippines, his party was informed that they have to first register with the Food and Drug Administration, and that there is a trial period for the medicine, which has to be first given to at about 3,000 patients. After such, an assessment has to be made, which is part of a long process.

The medical doctor that he is, the ambassador wondered why a proven analgesic drug needed to undergo such regulatory hurdles. (He pointed out that a multinational pharmaceutical company, which was involved in a recent controversy, was able to penetrate local medical institutions without going through the same process, “and yet, made Filipinos as guinea pigs for [its own] trials.”)

“The point is, there has to be some [form of] laxity; you can’t have too many stringent laws if there is an innovation proven [to work].”

The doctor-envoy politely commented on whether a strong lobby representing foreign drug manufacturers in the Philippines is behind the strict protocols against competitors: “The point is, there [exists] roadblocks; there are speedbreakers.”

He said there are already Pakistanis engaged in pharmaceuticals in the country—one of them an established expert practicing in Tagaytay City.

He said there are many Pakistanis willing to invest in the Phil-

ippine pharmaceutical sector so that the cost of medicine production will be reduced, “and you’ll get opportunities in cheaper medicine.”

Trade and tariffication

WHILE discussions were ongoing during their visit to different government agencies, Dr. Rashid took notice of some “unwelcome developments.”

“Unfortunately, there was also a change in the rice-importation policy of the government, [which is] the tariffication, in favor of the Asean [member-states].”

He was referring to February’s signing by Duterte of the rice tariffication law that will replace the present quota on rice imports with tax. (Local farmers had opposed the bill, as they feared it would result to the flooding in the market of cheaper rice from abroad. It will also reduce the government’s role in rice importation, as it will leave that role to the private sector.)

The envoy labeled this development as “unfortunate,” as it would render importing rice from Pakistan more expensive.

“There’s a big difference between Asean and non-Asean [membership],” he explained, as he noted that Asean members who wanted to export rice are levied at a lower rate, compared to those outside the bloc.

Continued on E2

Envoys&Expats

PAKISTAN >>Special Feature

79th National Day

B2

70TH ANNIVERSARY OF PAKISTAN-PHILIPPINES FRIENDSHIP

Saturday, March 23, 2019

www.businessmirror.com.ph

Knowing more about the ‘Land of the Pure’

D

By Trisha Jean V. De Leon

Independence Bill then took effect in 1947, which ended 200 years of British occupation.

ESPITE the 3,541-mile distance and three-hour time zone difference that separate them, the Philippines and Pakistan have maintained a tightly knit bond that has withstood the test of time.

Four years after World War II ended, a Philippine consulate opened in Karachi, Pakistan, in 1949, after which an air-service agreement was signed. These events marked the beginning of the bilateral relations between the two countries, which remain undeterred up to this day.

Nonetheless, the ties of the Philippines and Pakistan may seem to be unremarkable at best, but it actually is steadily and continuously growing. In fact, agreements and a number of memoranda of understanding have been finalized to boost trade and promote cultural exchanges.

The truth, however, is that Filipinos know little about the rich heritage of Pakistan, despite the similarities in their respective histories. To get to know this Islamic country even more, let’s have a quick rundown of some notable facts and historical events in Pakistan that mirror our own:

Martial law

THE similarities between the Philippines and Pakistan do not end with their history of colonialism. For instance, both countries have been under martial law. The only difference is that martial rule had been declared in Pakistan thrice.

Nonetheless, both countries now have a thriving economy, which the world has seen flourishing since their independence.

Geography, population, climate

LOCATED near the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Oman in the Middle East, Pakistan, which literally means “Land of the Pure,” serves as a bridge between the southern and southwestern parts of Asia. It shares borders with China, Afghanistan, Iran and India, making it a geographical battlefield. The Wakhan Corridor, on the other hand, separates Pakistan from its neighboring country, Tajikistan.

In terms of population, Pakistan ranks sixth in the world. It also bears the second-largest Muslim population worldwide after Indonesia.

When visiting Pakistan, expect to be greeted by its hot and dry weather. Some areas, however, are either temperate or harsh, depending on the topography.

Ancient civilization

300,000 years ago, stone-age hunters lived on the Potohar plateau and Soan Valley in Northern Punjab. A

Pakistan today

more advanced culture that flourished from 4,000 to 2,000 BCE was soon discovered after some excavations on the Balochistan plateau.

Concurrently, an early bronze-age culture emerged at Kot Diji in the Khairpur district.

Later on, these primitive civilizations reached their peak in the Indus valley cities, with Harappa being the most prominent, which already had mastered town planning and pictographic writing.

Peace, however, ceased after Alexander the Great led an invasion in the Indian subcontinent of modernday Pakistan. Eventually, Mauryans

from India gained control over the northern Punjab area, followed by Bactrian Greeks from Afghanistan and central Asian tribes.

British rule, birth

SIMILAR to the Philippines, Pakistan was shackled by colonial masters from the West for many years.

At the dawn of the 17th Century, European traders arrived on the subcontinent, and through the East India Company, the British became a powerful force. By 1857, the foreign invaders took direct control over the subcontinent.

In protest of Britain’s oppressive

rule, Mohandas Gandhi organized his first resistance campaigns at the beginning of the 20th century. By 1930s, the British government attempted to make some concessions to the Indian nationalists in fear of losing India to the Axis power. Nationalist leaders, on the other hand, dismissed the offers and proceeded with their “Quit India” rally to speed up drive the British out of the region.

Apart from the battle for independence, tension also brewed between Hindus and Muslims. After the war, the Indian National Congress accepted the creation of Muslimdominated Pakistan. The Indian

INTERESTINGLY, Pakistan now actively partakes in export trade. For instance, the Islamic country supplies substantial amount of textiles, rice, pharmaceutical products, sports goods, fruits, surgical instruments and leather hides to the Philippines.

Pakistan’s Tourism Development Corporation also reported that in 2017, almost 1.75 million tourists visited the said country. The revenue from tourism also contributed $19.4 billion to Pakistan’s economy, according to the World Travel and Tourism Council.

With its vibrant economy backed by a strong desire to reach its maximum potential, it shouldn’t be a surprise if we’ll get to hear more of Pakistan’s continued rise to progress, as well as a more robust diplomatic relationship with the Philippines, in the near future.

Taking full stock of Pakistan’s fruitful 70-year ties with PHL

AT last year’s Pakistan Day anniversary celebration, with the Department of Foreign Affairs’s Assistant Secretary Millicent Cruz-Paredes and Papal Nuncio Archbishop Gabriele Caccia NONOY LACSA

DR. Aman Rashid, Pakistan’s ambassador to the Philippines RECTO MERCENE Continued from E1

To “address” this new tariff imposition, he said non-Asean countries have to go through a “backdoor country.” But the biggest debacle in taking this route, he described, is the 28-day naval shipment to Manila: “It raises the tariff [further, as well as] the cost of transportation, [among] other things.”

Dr. Rashid noted that under the new rice tariffication law, Pakistan was treated as a special case and was given 40-percent rate for three years, lower than the 50 percent allowed for non-Asean member-countries.

Because of this, there is a pending memorandum of agreement (MOA) for the importation of 1.5 million metric tons of rice from his country, “but unfortunately it was delayed, as the policy is now subject for review.”

Under these circumstances, he pointed out that as far as rice exporters are concerned, delays of such kind have an immediate effect on business and, therefore, stakeholders have to find ways to survive.

Agricultural powerhouse

THE diplomat said Pakistan has signed a different MOA with Agri-

culture Secretary Emmanuel F. Piñol, which is “to develop the food chain and different aspects of agriculture: from grains, produce, to fruits: whatever agriculture-based elements are there under the sun.”

Asked the value of Pakistan’s surplus rice supply, the 58-yearold envoy said they export more than $3 billion of the grain. “After textile, rice is [our second-largest] export.”

He said he had been trying to convince the country to get its rice from Pakistan, because the latter produces the IRRI-6 variety—a product of the International Rice Research Institute in Laguna, but one that his country had successfully produced in abundance.

Dr. Rashid said he is aware that Filipinos like their rice sticky and fragrant—the kind of organic grain in the Philippines. On the other hand, Pakistan also grows the more expensive and fragrant rice variety, the basmati, which is loose when cooked and is not that popular among ordinary Filipinos.

“This is what I’m trying to convince the people in your government: That we are a very reliable partner, and we can be [relied upon when it comes to the] supply

of rice, because we produce a lot of it,” as he offered the fact that his countrymen’s main staple is wheat.

“We have ample supply of both.”

Overcoming hurdles

STILL, other issues that were discussed by the delegation with local government officials included the two-way traffic of goods and services between both countries.

He explained that businessmen have different orientations compared to diplomats like him, where for the former, predictability is an important element. One happens to be into textile manufacturing and is interested to do business here.

“We’re also producing cars and motor vehicles. Last year, exports from the Philippines have increased more than from Pakistan. But the hurdle is the tariff between Asean and non-Asean countries,” he reiterated, with some degree of frustration noted in his voice.

The Pakistani ambassador said that without these impediments, it would have been far easier for his country’s two main products, which are rice and seafood, to enter this country.

When Duterte announced the

massive “Build, Build, Build” undertaking for the country, the envoy admitted it opened plenty of opportunities, such as investments in cement manufacturing.

“And we are beginning to produce our cement also, but because of tariffs, it has become very difficult [to export to the Philippines].”

Concerning Kashmir

DR. Rashid also touched on the crisis that recently erupted between Pakistan and India, as both briefly engaged in a shooting skirmish in February.

Pakistan had previously claimed to have shot down two Indian jets and captured an Indian pilot after a dogfight over Kashmir, which ignited fears of an all-out conflict between the nuclear-armed neighbors.

Tensions remain high on the Asian subcontinent, where tens of thousands of Indian and Pakistani soldiers faced off along the disputed Kashmir boundary.

However, in a gesture of goodwill, Pakistan has repatriated the pilot, which demonstrates its willingness to diffuse the conflict.

Dr. Rashid said that, although the incident was an unfortunate one, he is thankful to a close friend,

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. “This is the first time I felt [the situation was handled between matured nations]. Pakistan likes to have good, peaceful, neighborly relations with them,” he said, in reference to India, which is five times bigger than his country.

Desire to move forward

THE Pakistani envoy considered the aforementioned MOA as a “landmark agreement,” and manifests the existing cordial relations between our two countries.

“I’m just trying to convey…that I think, there’s cordiality and desire from both sides to move forward, especially under Duterte, who is also focused on rooting out corruption, poverty and drugs.”

He said Pakistan echoes the Chief Executive’s advocacy, which is “to uplift the life of the average person.” He went as far as mentioning the plight of a previous Pakistani prime minister, who is now behind bars.

“These people are looters, and because of [them], we have a financial crisis due to corruption in the government. That is why we’re cutting [down] on our budget.

Hopefully things will improve, and so the focus [of our] country

is now in the right direction.”

On another front, the ambassador said the issue on tourism is also timely to be discussed. He said a female executive doing business in Pakistan has established a tourism-promotion information office in Lahore for Filipinos.

His country has recently established the China-Pakistan economic corridor, an ancient trade route that is now the flagship project of China’s “One Belt, One Road” (Obor) scheme, which cost $60 billion. The first phase of roads, highways and skyways have been completed.

Filled with excitement in trying to describe the place, the good ambassador said the area where the Obor will go through “is more beautiful than Switzerland, and [is] three times higher than the Alps.”

“We have the Himalayas, we have the seven highest mountains [on Earth],” he exclaimed, then added the place could draw in plenty of trucking tourism, mountain tourism and also skiing.

The area, he described, is “very nice, and it has opened the entire Pakistan for tourism because it’s [almost] heaven on Earth.”

Envoys&Expats

PAKISTAN >>Special Feature

79th National Day

70TH ANNIVERSARY OF PAKISTAN-PHILIPPINES FRIENDSHIP

Saturday, March 23, 2019

Project manager: Karinna “Bim” Mauricio

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Bilateral relations mark 70 years T HIS year the friendship of Pakistan and the Philippines has seen 70 springs. Official bilateral relations between the two countries commenced with the establishment of the Philippine consulate in Karachi on September 9, 1949, followed by the opening of the Philippine Embassy in Karachi in 1956 and the Pakistani Embassy in Manila in September 1957.

In 1954 both countries became alliance partners in the Southeast Asia Treaty Organization or Seato.

Pakistan’s relations with the Philippines form an important component of the former’s “Vision East Asia Policy,” which aims to enhance its collaboration with the region in diverse fields. The Philippines, a founding member of the Asean, has been a steadfast supporter of Pakistan’s efforts to strengthen institutional linkages with the regional bloc, including

the South Asian country’s membership to the Asean Regional Forum and the Asia Europe Meeting.

There exists commonality of views between the two countries on various regional and international issues that have translated into a reservoir of goodwill between their leadership and peoples. Both have been closely coordinating in promoting global interfaith dialogues.

They share concerns for global equity, fair trading opportunities and welfare of overseas workers.

Over that period, both coun-

DR. ARIF ALVI

President of Pakistan

tries have enjoyed resilient ties of friendship regulated through 25 cooperation agreements, as well as memoranda of understanding (MOUs) in the political, economic, commercial, defense, cultural and social fields.

Ten new draft agreements, MOUs/MOAs are currently under consideration of both countries to further expand the scope and

• 2019 NATIONAL DAY MESSAGE •

By Dr. Aman Rashid Ambassador of Pakistan to the Philippines I CONGRATULATE all Pakistanis living in the Philippines on the auspicious occasion of Pakistan Day.

Pakistanis all over the world celebrate March 23 with great zeal and fervor to commemorate the Pakistan Resolution, as it reminds of the day in 1940 when Muslims from the Indian subcontinent resolved to achieve a separate homeland where they could live in accordance with their religious values, culture and traditions in a just and free society.

The event gave renewed vigor to the political struggle of the Muslims of India, which culminated in attaining an independent state under the dynamic and inspiring leadership of Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah on August 14, 1947.

While celebrating the 79th anniversary of Pakistan’s Resolution Day, I can proudly say that despite numerous challenges, [we have] emerged as a strong and viable country showing progress in diverse fields: be it in economy, science and technology, social development, or sports.

Living far away from their homeland, Pakistanis are in many ways contributing toward the overall progress and prosperity not only of Pakistan, but also of the Philippines.

In fact, they act as a bridge between the two countries and are a contributing factor toward further strengthening our bilateral ties.

Pakistan accords great importance to its relations with the Philippines. This year carries a particular significance as it marks the 70 years of establishment of diplomatic relation back in 1949.

Both friendly nations are planning joint activities in 2019, in conjunction with the 70th anniversary of Pakistan-Philippines diplomatic relations, which we call as “70 Years of Friendship.”

Spanning over several decades, our relations have flourished in diverse fields and translated into a reservoir of goodwill, both in the public and private sector.

Pakistan accords great importance to its relations with the Philippines. Since my arrival in this beautiful country, I have personally experienced this goodwill, and I am sure my Filipino brothers and sisters must have experienced the same cordiality dur-

ing their visits to Pakistan.

I am particularly excited to apprise the readers of this message of recent developments in continuously upward-going trajectory of our bilateral relations: • The National Day Reception organized by the embassy in a local hotel on March 23, 2018 was attended by a large number of politicians, senior civil and military officers of the Philippine government, members of the local diplomatic corps, international and multinational organizations, as well as Pakistani community members based in Manila.

• Moreover, two widely circulated local newspapers, [which included the] BusinessMirror, published exclusive four-page supplements that contained articles about Pakistan-Philippines bilateral relations, Pakistan’s trade and economic potential, investment opportunities, as well as joint ventures in tourism and other industries.

• In October 2018 Pakistan and the Philippines signed a new memorandum of understanding for cooperation in the agriculture sectors of both countries.

• In November 2018 the Philippine military sent a big delegation comprised of representatives of all three forces and attended the international Expo of Pakistani Defense Products.

• Bilateral trade numbers augmented to $172 million during Fiscal Year 2017 to 2018, and witnessed a surge of 11 percent over the previous period.

• Pakistan and the Philippines have initiated feasibility studies to examine the possibility of a preferential trade agreement between the two countries.

Aside from the above, regular interactions at various levels between the two countries have afforded an opportunity to review our bilateral relations and open avenues to enhance our mutual cooperation in diverse fields.

A 22-member high-level delegation of Pakistan-Philippines Business Council visited Manila from February 26 to 28, 2019 as a follow-up on the decision taken at the conclusion of the inaugural session of the Joint Economic Commission held in Islamabad from of February 27 to 28, 2018.

This delegation was not limited to just importers and exporters of products, but also comprised of concrete joint-venture investments between Pakistani and Filipino partnerships, which included Royal Life

Pharmaceuticals that has invested more than $50 million in the Philippines.

Also, Auris Hearing Audiology Centers have invested about $900,000 in six branches. It has laid the fresh foundations of friendship, cooperation and investments for bilateral trade and cultural exchanges between Pakistan and the Philippines.

Speaking of such, the Philippines is considered a very important component of our “Vision East Asia Policy,” which aims at enhancing our relations with the whole region in diverse fields.

I am sure the coming months will witness increased exchanges between the two countries at different levels. I am confident that during my stay in the Philippines, I would receive the desired cooperation and support from the public and private sectors to facilitate my job further.

I earnestly hope and pray that with this envisaged cooperation, my tenure here will bear fruit, and bilateral relations between our two countries will flourish further in the years ahead.

As mentioned earlier, 2019 is witnessing the 70th anniversary of Pakistan- Philippines relations, and I am zealously working to materialize my dream of “twinning” Makati City or the City of Manila with the Karachi Metropolitan City of Pakistan as sister cities to further concretize the existing linkages between the two countries by enhancing people-to-people contacts.

In the end, I would like to express my sincere thanks to the leadership, the government and the hospitable people of the Philippines for their support and cooperation in the promotion of friendly and cooperative relations between our two countries.

Mabuhay! Long live Pakistan-Philippines friendship!

QUAID E AZAM MUHAMMAD ALI JINNAH Founder of Pakistan

strength of their relationship.

In 2017 a Pakistan navy ship paid a goodwill docking to the Philippines. President Duterte graced the vessel with an exclusive visit, accompanied by Defense Secretary Delfin N. Lorenzana as a special gesture of friendship with Pakistan.

Bilateral trade

THE Philippines is currently Pakistan’s 43rd-biggest partner; while Pakistan, the former’s 49th. The bilateral trade between them stood at $172 million in 2017 and 2018.

Main exports from Pakistan during that period included chemi-

IMRAN KHAN

Prime Minister of Pakistan

cals and compounds, rice, medical and pharmaceutical products, fruit and fruit preparations, made-up textiles, woven cotton fabric, medical and surgical instruments as well as appliances, knitted and crocheted clothes, cotton yarn, paper Continued on B6

Envoys&Expats

PAKIS

>>S

79th National Day

B4

Saturday, March 23, 2019 | www.businessmirror.com.ph

An emerging economic powerhouse

I

13.6 percent to the country’s GDP. Major sectors in industries include cement, fertilizer, edible oil, sugar, steel, tobacco, chemicals, machinery, leather, food processing, pharmaceutical products and medical instruments, primarily surgical, as it is one of the largest manufacturers and exporters of surgical instruments.

N 2016 a BMI Research report named Pakistan as “one of the 10 emerging economies with a particular focus on its manufacturing hub.”

The economy of the South Asian country is currently the 23rd largest in the world in terms of purchasing power parity, and 38th largest in terms of nominal gross domestic product (GDP).

Pakistan has a population of more than 207 million (the world’s sixth-largest), giving it a nominal GDP per capita of $1,641.

In 2018 the country’s economy grew by 5.2 percent, and its GDP in terms of purchasing power parity surpassed $1 trillion.

A developing country with a semiindustrialized economy, Pakistan is reckoned by research economists

nTEXTILE: The textile industry is the largest manufacturing sector in Pakistan. The country is the eighthlargest exporter of textile commodities in Asia. The sector contributes 8.5 percent to its GDP. In addition, it employs about 45 percent of the total labor force in the country, and 38 percent of the manufacturing workers. Pakistan is the fourth-largest producer of cotton, with the third-largest spinning capacity in Asia after China and India, and contributes 5 percent to the global spinning capacity.

At present, there are 1,221 ginning units, 442 spinning units, 124 large spinning units and 425 small units all over the country that produce textile.

as one of the “Next Eleven,” the upand-coming countries with a potential to be among the world’s booming economies in the 21st century.

Pakistan is currently undertaking ambitious economic reforms aimed at attracting foreign investments. Total volume of external trade during 2018 stood at approximately $77 billion. Primary export commodities include textiles, agricultural products, leather goods, sports goods, chemicals, carpets and rugs, as well as medical instruments.

Growth poles of Pakistan’s economy are mainly situated in the diversified economies of Karachi and major

Pakistan’s start-up ecosystem

urban centers in the Punjab region.

Major economic sectors nAGRICULTURE: The most important crops are wheat, sugarcane, cotton and rice, which together account for more than 75 percent of the value of total crop output. Pakistan’s largest food crop is wheat.

Between the fiscal years of 2017 and 2018, it produced 26,674,000 metric tons of wheat, which is more than all of Africa, and nearly as much as all

of South America. Pakistan has also cut the use of dangerous pesticides dramatically. Pakistan is normally a net food exporter. Food exports include rice, cotton, fish, fruits (especially oranges and mangoes) and vegetables. nINDUSTRY: Pakistan’s industrial sector accounts for about 20.9 percent of its GDP. In 2018 it recorded a growth of 5.80 percent. Manufacturing is the most vibrant subsector of industrial sector, which contributed

nMINING: Pakistan is endowed with significant mineral resources, and is emerging as a very promising area for prospecting and exploration of mineral deposits. More than 600,000 square kilometers of outcrops area demonstrate varied geological potential for metallic and nonmetallic mineral deposits.

Mining and quarrying contribute 13.19 percent in the industrial sector, and its share in GDP is 2.8 percent. Pakistan’s mining and quarrying sectors grew by 3.04 percent in 2018.

CPEC: Corridor of prosperity

W

HEN the start-up industry in Pakistan took off in the mid-2000s, the entrepreneurial landscape in the country has changed dramatically with the establishment of 52 incubators and accelerators.

More than 20 coworking spaces have also sprung up in metropolitan areas in the last three years.

Around 15 investment groups, which consist of investors from both within the country and abroad, are investing in Pakistani entrepreneurs, as the term “startup” has become a part of common parlance among the youth.

Interestingly, it is this last fact that is being cited as one of the biggest strengths of the country’s current ecosystem by most entrepreneurs, in-

cubation heads and investors. A large work force plays a crucial role in the economic growth of any country.

About 61.4 percent of Pakistan’s 207 million population falls in the working age group, and half of this population is below the age of 30.

Most domain experts believe this age bracket is the most conducive to start ventures as responsibilities are few, and as families usually provide a safety net.

A large underserved market has also been noted as one of the top opportunities for Pakistan’s start-up industry by investors and incubation heads. This market is not simply limited to broadband users, but a considerable population lies at the lower end of the social spectrum.

On the gender front, statistics show that 36 percent of female-inclusive founding teams were able to raise funding, compared to 31 percent of teams with no female founders. Keeping this in mind, policy-makers are now also taking active steps to restore gender balance in this sector.

The last few years have seen tremendous public sector support in promoting entrepreneurship.

The Higher Education Commission (HEC) has mandated the creation of Offices of Research, Innovation and Commercialization across all registered universities across the country.

In turn, ORICs facilitate business incubation centers and growth in this

sector. The HEC has also been assigned a 1.1-billion rupee fund to promote start-ups and innovation in the artificial-intelligence domain by the government. This has led to the creation of six AI innovation centers at universities across the country.

Beside the HEC, the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX), Federal Board of Investment (BOI), Planning Commission (PC) and other public sector bodies are also contributing to the start-up space.

At the fifth Punjab IT Board roundtable conference, the CEO of the PSX notified the finalization of a framework for the small initial public offering specifically for start-ups on the stock exchange.

The Ministry of IT, through its national technology fund “Ignite,” has launched five state-of-art technology incubation centers across federal and provincial capitals, in partnership with the private sector.

The Planning Commission, the highest body for national planning, also took its support a step further by announcing the Pakistan Startup Venture Fund, another billion-rupee money pool that will work in partnership with ecosystem support entities to identify and support the best innovations in the country.

Pakistanis at home and abroad need to actively channel their resources into nourishing this ecosystem to see it scale up to its true potential.

A

REGIONAL connectivity undertaking and a flagship project of China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) is an embodiment of the friendship, trust and understanding between the two countries that have stood the test of time since 1951, when Pakistan became one of the first countries to recognize the emerging giant that is China.

The project is expected to posi-

tively impact the lives of millions not only in the said countries, but also those in South, Central and West Asia. Rightly so, it has been termed as a “game changer.”

For Pakistan, CPEC is not merely an economic venture. It is an initiative to build a peaceful and interconnected region, with a vision of shared prosperity for all countries in the vast area.

The major features of the CPEC

are a deep-water port at Gwadar in southern Pakistan, as well as energy and infrastructure development projects and industrial zones.

BRI, of which CPEC is a part of, is expected for completion in 2030.

It will eventually connect the continent of Africa, the Middle East, as well as the regions of Central Asia and South Asia, spurring enormous economic activity and people-topeople contacts.

STAN

>Special Feature

70TH ANNIVERSARY OF PAKISTAN-PHILIPPINES FRIENDSHIP

www.businessmirror.com.ph | Saturday, March 23, 2019

B5

INVESTING IN PAKISTAN

R

ECOGNIZED by the World Bank as one of the top 5 countries receiving private infrastructure investment in 2017, Pakistan has attracted $11.96 billion worth of net foreign direct investments in the previous five years, from 2013 to 2018.

The size of its economy notwithstanding, Pakistan’s geostrategic location gives it access to the markets of more than 2 billion people in adjacent regions through land, as it borders booming China, landlocked Central Asia, capital and energy-rich Middle East, as well as progressing South Asia.

The China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, a framework of regional connectivity, will turn Pakistan into a regional hot spot for trade and energy, and a hub for investments in

the global value chain by connecting adjacent regions. This is expected to result in increased potential for investments, trade, energy interconnection, logistics and people-to-people contacts.

Pakistan’s investment policy is one of the friendliest in the world.

Key highlights are the following: nAll sectors of the economy are open for investments. nNo upper limits on the share of foreign equity allowed (except for a few, like airlines, banking,

agriculture and the media). nForeign investors are treated no less favorably than local investors, as their rights are guarded under the Foreign

Private Investment (Promotion & Protection) Act of 1976. nForeign investors in any sector can repatriate profits, dividends or any

other funds to the currency of the original investment. nThere is an open-admission system that does not require prescreening

and approval for foreign investors. nForeign investors are entitled to sell shares, transfers of ownership and deregistration. nForeign investors have the right to exchange the local currency into any other freely convertible foreign currency. nForeign investors are entitled to lease, own or transfer any land without any general limitation. nForeign and local investors are offered lucrative incentives in the Power Policy as well as the Security Package, with the standardized Implementation Agreement and the Power Purchase Agreement. nEstablishment, expansion, management, operation and protection of foreign investments are accorded fair and equitable treatments without discrimination. nThe Commercial Arbitration Act of 2011 gives rights to investors to resort to higher courts for dispute resolution. nThe Recognition and Enforcement (Arbitration Agreements and Foreign Arbitral Awards) Act of 2011 is in place for recognition of international arbitration.

Envoys&Expats

PAKISTAN >>Special Feature

79th National Day

B6

70TH ANNIVERSARY OF PAKISTAN-PHILIPPINES FRIENDSHIP

Saturday, March 23, 2019

www.businessmirror.com.ph

Bilateral relations mark 70 years

Continued From B3

and paper board, tobacco, leather and allied products, and cement.

Main imports from the Philippines included automobile machinery parts, ores, iron, steel and scrap, paper, cigarettes, transmission shafts, miscellaneous edible products, fruit and fruit preparations, essential oils, chemicals and compounds, fixed-vegetable fats and oils, clothing and semiconductors.

Political consultation talks

THE fifth round of the Pakistan-

Philippines Bilateral Policy Consultations was held in Islamabad at Foreign Secretary level on January 18, 2018. The two sides reviewed the entire spectrum of bilateral relations and identified opportunities and possibilities for further cooperation including in the fields of security, counterterrorism, economic development and trade, education, science and technology and agriculture.

Both expressed satisfaction with their ongoing collaboration at the United Nations and other

multilateral fora.

Joint Economic Commission

THE Inaugural Session of PakistanPhilippines Joint Economic Commission (JEC) at the deputy minister level

was held in Islamabad on February 27 and 28, 2018. During the two-day session, detailed meetings were held between experts of the two sides focusing on trade, investments, energy, agriculture, tourism, health, as well as other industries and matters of mutual interest.

An important decision of the meeting was to conduct feasibility studies on the possibility of a preferential trade agreement between the two countries.

PAK-PHL Business Council Delegation

A 22-member high-level delegation of the Pakistan-Philippines Business Council visited Manila from February 26 to 28 as a follow-up on the decision taken at the conclusion of the inaugural session of the JEC in Islamabad on February 27 and 28.

The Department of Trade and Industry’s Deputy Minister for Industry Development and Trade Policy Group Dr. Ceferino S. Rodolfo headed the Philippine side, which had laid the fresh foundations of friendship, cooperation and investments for bilateral trade and cultural exchange between Pakistan and the Philippines.

Consul General of the Philippines in Karachi Dr. Muhammad Imran Yousuf, who is also the patron

of Pakistan-Philippines Business Forum along with chairs of the both its chapters, participated in the delegation along with prominent businessmen of their regions.

The Pakistan-Philippines Business Council president in Manila Muhammad Aslam graciously made all logistical and recreational arrangements for the delegation and hosted a dinner.

Both sides duly acknowledged Ambassador Dr. Aman Rashid’s support.

He also graced as a cochairman for all

meetings. This visit created a new wave of exchange of ideas between the business communities of both countries.

This delegation was not limited to just importers and exporters of products, but also comprised of concrete joint-venture investments between Pakistani and Filipino partnerships, which included Royal Life Pharmaceuticals (which has invested more than $50 million in the Philippines) and Auris Hearing Audiology Centers, the latter having invested $900,000 in its six branches.

Mountain Dew levels-up thrills as it celebrates Pakistan National Day

L

AST Saturday, March 16, Mountain Dew staked its claim in the gaming world by holding the first-ever “Dew Day,” a one-of-akind event that brought together all kinds of gamers and thrill seekers.

As the brand known for fueling heart-pumping thrill chases, Mountain Dew simply took it to the next level. “Dew” upped its game as it welcomed gamers of all levels: professionals, enthusiasts, and newbies alike—to a space that allowed them to pursue this passion for the virtual.

Created in partnership with Road to SEA Games and Mineski Gaming Cafe, #DewDay was jampacked with enjoyable activities.

As a kick-off to the event, pro and celebrity gamers showed off their skills for fans at the event.

There were live matches played by crowd favorites , along with Alodia and Ashley Gosiengfiao.

Event attendees were also treated to live team matches among gaming greats, as Team Bren Esports duked it out with Team Cignal Ultra, while PB ESports AK battled it out with PB ESports

Doujin at the main stage area.

Gaming enthusiasts also took part in the action as they immersed themselves in fun activities that mixed real-world action with virtual thrills.

They battled with their favorite characters at the Tekken Free Play Zone and enjoyed an impromptu party with mini-games at the Nintendo Switch zone.

Those who were especially daring took to the wall-climbing zone that had an augmented reality

twist. To top it all off, Mountain Dew ambassadors James Reid and Nadine Lustre, along withBret Jackson, gave a special performance that wowed the crowd.

With all the exhilarating, adrenaline-filled fare, #DewDay left everyone’s heart pumped-up and ready to chase their next thrills.

Mountain Dew is available in all sari-sari and convenience stores nationwide. For more information, visit its Facebook page: mountaindewPH.

IN THE NAME OF ALLAH THE GRACIOUS THE MERCIFUL 2WORLD TRADERS INC.

MANUFACTURER IMPORTER, AND EXPORTER OF PHARMACEUTICAL AND VACCINES

Helping humankind with quality medicines 2WORLD TRADERS INC. was established in 1998, conducting the nature of its business in manufacturing, importing and exporting of pharmaceutical as well as biological products in the Philippines, particularly vaccines.

The company now has branches in Malaysia and Pakistan. Its goal is to please God Almighty “Allah,” the Creator of the Universe, by helping humankind with best quality brand of medicines and vaccines, and most affordable prices.

ABDULRAZZAQ SIDDIQ

PRESIDENT OF 2WORLD TRADERS, INC. PRESIDENT OF 2WORLD TRADERS SUBIC INC.

Message Salam Alaikum! (Peace be upon you all!)

Our goal is to serve our Creator and follow his commandments, one of which is to be good to all of his creations, especially to our human brethren. That is why we are manufacturing and importing best quality medicines and vaccines while distributing them at very low prices to save the lives of millions in the Philippines and all around the world.

One of the commands of God Almighty “Allah” in the Quran is to save the lives of human beings.

God Almighty “Allah” said in Quran 5:32: “Saving the life of a human is like saving the whole mankind.” So our mission is to save the human lives.

Congratulations to the people of Pakistan on its 79th National Day!

Our company’s genuine desire is to see a drug-free Philippines. Thus, we strongly support President Duterte’s war against illegal drugs, as they can paralyze the current generation, as well as the succeeding ones.

We encourage everyone to support the president’s campaign in ridding this country from illegal substances. Dealers and sellers are committing a crime against an entire nation, and they deserve to be penalized to the full extent of the law.

• 2WORLD TRADERS INC. #285 EL GRANDE AVENUE, BF HOMES, PARAÑAQUE CITY TEL. NO.(02) 820-3394; (02) 879-2926 | FAX NO. (02) 820-3394 | E-MAIL: 2WORLDTRADERS@GMAIL.COM • 2WORLD TRADERS SUBIC INC. OFFICE ADDRESS: GATEWAY HUB BUILDING, UNIT 202, LOT C-3 COMMERCIAL AREA, SUBIC BAY, GATEWAY PARK PHASE 1 SUBIC BAY FREEPORT ZONE