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Sunday, May 1, 2022 Vol. 17 No. 203

P25.00 nationwide | 2 sections 12 pages | 7 DAYS A WEEK

Locator companies press for friendlier business climate in Subic Bay Freeport

SBMA officials inspect the ongoing construction of the Subic Main Gate bridge, a major infrastructure project designed to further economic growth in the Subic Bay Freeport.

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By Henry Empeño

there is not much incentive to do business in Subic anymore.

The manifesto was quick to point out, however, its good intention: to serve as a springboard for a rejuvenated push to establish Subic as the most conducive investment location in the Philippines.

“This document has not been prepared to single out any individual or group, or point an accusatory finger at anyone,” a disclaimer in the statement stated. “This is done to document certain observations and recommend solutions to ensure the long-term viability of the entire SBFZ and its locators.”

UBIC BAY FREEPORT—On March 2, a day after Malacañang installed a new chairman and administrator of the Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority (SBMA), officials of the Subic Bay Freeport Chamber of Commerce (SBFCC) paid a visit. But it was not just an ordinary courtesy call. For beyond the niceties of a social meeting, the business leaders brought with them an 11-page document that spelled out what purportedly ails the Subic Bay Freeport Zone (SBFZ) and what could be done to cure it.

Innocuously titled, “Summary of Feedback and Recommendations for the Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority,” the manifesto contained what could be the strongest indictment yet to come from the business community here in Subic.

Warning of an “alarming trend impeding sustained success” in generating investments and jobs in this former United States military facility, the SBFCC document pointed out that: (1) the system has become bureaucratic; and (2)

Concerns

SBFCC officials led by Chamber President Benjamin E. Antonio III (third from left) meet with SBMA Chairman and Administrator Rolen Paulino Sr. (middle) to present their recommendations for Subic’s economic recovery.

SBMA Chairman and Administrator Rolen Paulino Sr.

PESO EXCHANGE RATES n US 52.1580

“Essentially, the SBMA fulfills too many roles, mostly disparate, consequentially inconsistent with each other. In addition, playing all these roles imbues the agency with unbridled and unmitigated power and authority to do pretty much what it pleases, sometimes to the detriment of its stakeholders. While it may not be done on purpose, the capability exists, and is prone to abuse.”—Subic Bay Freeport Chamber of Commerce

THE SBFCC manifesto is a product of years of painful experiences, said SBFCC president Benjamin E. Antonio III, who is also CEO of Subic Water & Sewerage Co. Inc., the water utility firm here in Subic.

“The situation has deteriorated over the years, until it has become untenable,” Antonio told the BusinessMirror in an interview on March 30. “A lot of investors had already wanted to go out; parang walang aruga [It’s as if no one cared].”

Antonio said that the SBFCC, which counts about 200 big locator companies in Subic, consulted business locators and other SBFZ stakeholders about the local business climate and came up with an Continued on A2

n JAPAN 0.3986 n UK 64.9889 n HK 6.6474 n CHINA 7.8723 n SINGAPORE 37.6131 n AUSTRALIA 37.0374 n EU 54.7763 n SAUDI ARABIA 13.9062

Source: BSP (April 29, 2022)

NewsSunday BusinessMirror

A2 Sunday, May 1, 2022

www.businessmirror.com.ph

ROAD MAP TO RECOVERY Continued from A1

unequivocal conclusion: “Masyado nang mahirap kausap si SBMA [It has become too difficult to talk things over with the SBMA].”

The SBMA, he claimed, “is already out of touch with locator companies; it has no time to discuss the individual concerns of locators.”

“To generate jobs, you need happy locators,” Antonio pointed out. “If the SBMA mindset becomes customer-centric, then everything would follow.”

Antonio said the Subic chamber had meant to present the manifesto to former SBMA Chairman and Administrator Wilma T. Eisma, but events overtook this course when Eisma resigned on March 1 and was replaced by former Olongapo City mayor Rolen Paulino Sr. “Various stakeholder consultations and private sessions were held to put together this amalgamation of observations and recommendations,” the SBFCC said in its manifesto. “Hopefully, [it] may be implemented sooner rather than later, to improve the trust and confidence in doing business in the SBFZ,” the business group added.

Observations

THE SBFCC said the Covid-19 pandemic had further brought to light the ability and limitations of the SBMA in meeting the needs of Subic business locators.

“Businesses are now finding it ever-more difficult to survive.

When in the past, the situation has

been largely tolerable, current conditions have rendered them more untenable,” it said.

The foremost concern, the SBFCC said, was that “the current system is inefficient and bureaucratic,” thus making it difficult to do business in the Freeport.

A good case in point, the SBFCC said, was the processing of the Certificate of Registration and Tax Exemption (CRTE), which is required of all businesses operating in Subic.

“The SBFCC membership is unanimous that it has never heard of a CRTE released within three working days, even with complete documentation,” it claimed. “In addition, these gaps in CRTE issuance pose a risk with the tax incentives with the BIR, which is a major determent to smooth and continued business operations. In fact, the CRTE at times is used as a tool to force compliance.”

Aside from this, business locators reportedly complained of multiplying requirements; redundant requirements and processes; lack of a central repository of compliance documents; and too pedantic or literal interpretation of SBMA board policies.

Meanwhile, regulatory activities are often done by national government agencies, when the SBMA could have easily done these more quickly, and with a more contextual understanding of local issues, the SBFCC also observed.

Another key observation by business locators is that Subic “consistently underperforms compared

to other economic zones”; thus, the perception of a lack of incentives for businesses in the Subic Freeport.

In its statement, the SBFCC pointed out that: “A lack of investments and economic activity not only speak for the difficult position the geographical location the SBFZ is in, but also in the difficulty of the agency to identify, attempt to address and implement programs as to its USP or competitive advantage. No one will argue as to the immense economic potential of the SBFZ, but it simply remains comparatively untapped, underutilized and exploited by the wrong set of businesses.”

SBMA figures

TO be fair, the SBMA consistently reported growth even during the pandemic years under former Chairman and Administrator Wilma Eisma. In its 2021 yearend report, the Subic agency said it registered a revenue of P3.47 billion, capping 2021 with an 8-percent growth in income and other major accomplishments in key performance areas.

As to investment and employment generation, tourism, imports and exports, the SBMA recorded a total of 142,177 Subic Freeport workers as of December 31, showing an employment increase of 2.31 percent from 138,966 workers in 2020. SBFZ business locators, on the other hand, numbered 1,737 SBFZ as of yearend, “continuing a slight upward trend since 2019.”

Meanwhile, new investments, including expansions, to-

SBFCC officials and SBMA Chairman and Administrator Rolen Paulino Sr. open the “Subic Banchetto” food fair, a recent Subic chamber project to help drive tourism in the Subic Bay Freeport.

taled P17.29 billion, higher than the 2020 record by P15.74 billion, or 1,011 percent. The 2021 record even topped the prepandemic 2019 level by P8.05 billion, or 87 percent, with the bulk comprised by a P15-billion commitment from a business locator, which proposed to develop the SBFZ marshalling yard.

The SBMA also said the pandemic-hit tourism industry in Subic is recovering and has recorded a total of 7.3 million same-day visitors in 2021—also higher than the 2020 record by 2.18 million or 42 percent.

In terms of trade, Subic Bay posted a total of $1.58 billion import value in 2021, which was 49.53 percent higher than the 2020 import value of $1.12 billion, while export value reached a total of $1.37 billion, which was 32.42 percent higher than the 2020 export value of $1.03 billion.

However, using data from the Philippine Statistics Authority, the SBFCC noted that Subic has generated only P803.9 million in foreign investments in 2018, compared to P1.67 billion by the Authority of the Freeport Area of Bataan (AFAB); P7.14 billion by the Clark Development Corp. (CDC); and P1.19 billion by the Cagayan Economic Zone Authority (CEZA).

And while the SBMA generated P2.89 billion investments in 2019 compared to P340 million by AFAB, P1.25 billion by CDC; and P340 million by CEZA, Subic again lagged in the pandemic year of 2020 with P431 million, compared to P2.57 billion for CDC and P1.26 billion for CEZA, with AFAB generating the least at P395 million.

“The preceding two observations [bureaucratic red tape and lack of incentives] are shared sentiments by many,” the SBFCC concluded. These, it added, dissuaded “potential locators from investing, and existing locators from expanding or even staying.”

Root cause

THE consensus of the SBFCC membership, as well as other stakeholders in Subic, was that the underlying problem was too much regulation.

“The SBMA is playing too many conflicting roles, and has slowly gravitated to adopting its regulatory role the most,” the locators group said in its statement, noting that the Subic agency simultaneously serves as an investment promotion agency (IPA), lessorlandowner, service provider (for police, fire, and health services), client to some business locators, and regulator.

“Essentially, the SBMA fulfills too many roles, mostly disparate, consequentially inconsistent with each other. In addition, playing all these roles imbues the agency with unbridled and unmitigated power and authority to do pretty much what it pleases, sometimes to the detriment of its stakeholders. While it may not be done on purpose, the capability exists, and is prone to abuse,” the SBFCC said.

On the other hand, the SBFCC said that by wearing too many hats, the SBMA may have not paid enough attention to its most important mandate—that of generating jobs and employment opportunities.

“In order to achieve any mandate, the customer is valued. When any entity loses its customer-centric culture, it loses its raison d’être.

The agency may have overlooked this most critical of its mandates,” the SBFCC added.

“This is a systemic concern, and to address this, the SBMA needs to instead focus more on streamlining its operations, promoting growth, increased economic activity, and trade,” the Subic chamber of commerce concluded.

Recommendations

TO solve the perceived problem, the SBFCC proposed a campaign to make Subic a more customerfriendly and conducive business and tourism destination, calling it “Subic Smiles.” This, it added, should bring about a renewed push for investments and economic activity in the Subic Bay Freeport Zone.

Specifically, the SBFCC listed 18 recommendations, beginning with the following: for the whole SBMA, not just its Business and Investment Group (BIG), to undertake promotion of trade, commerce, and investment; for SBMA-BIG to focus on protecting the interest of locators primarily, with the traditional departments retaining the mandate to protecting the interests of the government; and for the SBMA to focus on its role as IPA and relegate to a secondary purpose its mandate to regulate.

The SBMA power to rescind leasehold rights and to withhold access of employees to the Freeport must only be used as a last resort, the SBFCC also said, and not be used as penalties for misdemeanors unrelated to the lease of the property; that an Internal Complaints Desk be established under the operation of the Internal Audit Service; and that the Regulatory Monitoring Unit (RMU) be reinstated.

It likewise called for the SBMA to revert to a windowbased permits and license system, similar to how the Department of Trade and Industry and local government units administer these vital services. It pointed out that the SBMA currently makes use of account officers (AO) assigned to each locator, but that these personnel themselves act as regulators, thus promoting “unhealthy relationships.”

The SBFCC also called for automatic renewal of permits, as long as there are no significant changes or violations by the locator, and as long as its lease is valid; development of an online license and permits application system; conduct of ARTA (Anti-Red Tape Authority) risk assessment to ensure more efficient business processes; and formulation of policies covering payables and receivables in the

processing of permits.

Similarly, the SBFCC urged the SBMA to connect with the online systems of national government agencies to verify documentation and compliance requirements; restore a customer-centric culture in the agency; and revert to the old method of routing requests and enforcing individual citizens charter to ensure that processing times are met, instead of dong it through the Accounts Evaluation Committee (AEC).

The locators group also asked the Subic agency to remain true to a single agreeable masterplan, and to aggressively market areas or parcels of land for the intended use under the plan; and to either undertake to regulate locators and prevent national government intervention in concerns which the SBMA can clearly understand, monitor and enforce compliance on their own—or hand over the regulation to national agencies.

Lastly, the SBFCC added that the SBMA needs to remain absolutely apolitical, and to give attention to concerns of Subic Bay Freeport residents.

To help deliver these recommended solutions, the SBFCC also urged the SBMA to lobby with concerned national government agencies in order to bring about better systems in terms of regulation, compliance, law enforcement, personnel qualification, and funding and subsidy.

Among the changes the SBFCC sought in its manifesto was the separation of the functions and positions of the SBMA chairman and administrator to bring about “true check and balance”; and the allocation to the SBMA of a third of the three percent national government share from Subic Bay Freeport operations to ensure that basic services are covered and to dissuade the agency from seeking new fees from Subic locators.

Roadmap to recovery

THE Subic Bay Freeport Chamber of Commerce manifesto was signed on behalf of Subic Bay Freeport stakeholders by 10 SBFCC officials led by Chamber President Benjamin E. Antonio III and Vice President Jake S. Oh. The manifesto, SBFCC officials said, “has been prepared as a reference by which the SBMA and other agencies and entities who are capable of influencing the direction of the Subic Bay Special Economic and Freeport Zone, may use as a roadmap to re-calibrate their operations and be responsive to the needs of their locators and the industry in general in these current conditions.”

In the same manifesto, the SBFCC acknowledged that the Subic Bay Freeport Zone “remains to be the ideal place to live and work,” as many rural areas are wanting in infrastructure needed to drive progress, and these are already available in Subic.

Thus, ensuring that Subic operates at its most optimal is the best use of these resources, the SBFCC said.

The World

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

China and US negotiate on-site audit checks as delistings loom

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eijing is discussing with American regulators the logistics of allowing on-site audit inspections of Chinese companies listed in New York, according to people familiar with the matter, a sign of progress in talks to keep US stock markets open to issuers from Asia’s largest economy.

Regulators on both sides are negotiating how to let a team of inspectors from the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board visit China so they can scrutinize auditing procedures and access the reports of a majority of 261 US-listed firms, the people said, requesting not to be named because the matter is private. The talks, aimed at preserving these listings and reviving fresh public offerings, include hammering out issues such as quarantine requirements, the people added.

The two countries have yet to reach a conclusive agreement on moving forward with the checks, the people said.

On-site inspections would kick off the process of satisfying the US that its inspectors will get the full access to audit papers required by legislation passed during the Trump administration. The negotiations gained urgency after the Securities and Exchange Commission began publishing a provisional list of companies that face being kicked off the New York Stock Exchange and Nasdaq Stock Market unless China becomes compliant. SEC Chair Gary Gensler has stressed that the law gives him little room for compromise.

Progress on a standoff that’s festered for two decades would demonstrate Beijing is serious about bolstering market confidence, and balancing national security concerns with the needs of businesses.

Chinese markets have slumped this

year, with the benchmark CSI 300 Index plunging 20 percent as a stringent Covid Zero policy and crackdowns on private enterprise combine to sap investor confidence. Worries about potential delistings have contributed to a 69 percent slide in the Nasdaq Golden Dragon Index of US-traded Chinese shares since the gauge peaked in February 2021.

“We continue to meet and engage with PRC authorities in an effort to reach an agreement, but speculation about a final agreement remains premature,” the PCAOB said in a statement. It had earlier said that any deal would be a “first step” and that the PCAOB would then investigate to ensure it is being followed.

The China Securities Regulator y Commission didn’t immediately respond to a fax seeking comment, while the SEC declined to comment.

Dozens of countries permit US audit inspections, giving American officials the go ahead to inter view local accountants and scrutinize the documentation underlying their work.

Mainland China and Hong Kong have refused, citing confidentiality laws and national security concerns.

The SEC is adding companies weekly to a provisional list that could face removal if a congressionally imposed deadline of 2024 isn’t met. They now include Baidu Inc., Weibo Corp. and Futu Holdings Ltd. It’s expected that the list will eventually cover all the Chinese stocks traded in the US including the largest of them, Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. China’s government is prepared to accept that some state-owned enterprises and private companies that hold sensitive data will be delisted, people familiar with the matter said previously. Bloomberg News

BusinessMirror

Sunday, May 1, 2022

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UN takes step to put veto users under global spotlight

By Edith M. Lederer

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The Associated Press

NITED NATIONS—The UN General Assembly took a first step Tuesday to put the five permanent members of the Security Council under the spotlight whenever they use their veto power, a move highlighted

by Russia’s veto threat paralyzing any action by the UN’s most powerful body on the Ukraine war.

A resolution adopted by consensus in the 193-member assembly amid a burst of applause does not eliminate or limit the veto power of the Security Council’s permanent members—-zthe United States, Russia, China, Britain and France.

But for the first time, the General Assembly will be required “to hold a debate on the situation” that sparks a veto in the Security Council within 10 working days. Precedence will be given on the list of speakers to the permanent member who casts a veto.

The assembly isn’t required to take or consider any action under the resolution, but the discussion could put veto-wielders on the spot and let a raft of other countries be heard.

Liechtenstein’s UN ambassador, Christian Wenaweser, who spearheaded the resolution, which had been in the works for two years, has said it aims “to promote the voice of all of us who are not veto-holders, and who are not on the Security Council, on matters of in-

ternational peace and security because they affect all of us.”

In presenting the resolution to the assembly Tuesday morning, Wenaweser alluded to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on February 24 and the Security Council’s failure to take action: “There has never been a stronger need for effective multilateralism than today, and there has never been a stronger need for innovation in order to secure the central role and voice of the United Nations.”

Amnesty International’s secretary general, Agnes Callamard, called the resolution “a first step towards increasing the cost of using the veto—and it could not have come soon enough.”

The resolution had about 80 co-sponsors, including the United States and the United Kingdom. But it also had detractors even though they didn’t break consensus, including Russia and close ally Belarus as well as current elected council members Gabon and India and other UN member nations.

The reform of the Security Council, which is charged under the UN Charter with ensuring international peace and security, has been debated for more than 40 years, and was front and center in comments by countries before and after the resolution’s adoption.

There is widespread support for revamping the council to reflect current global realities rather than the international power structure after World War II in 1945 when the United Nations was created. But rivalries between countries

and regions have blocked all attempts to reach agreement on the size, composition and powers of an expanded council.

The veto power of the five permanent members is one component on the reform agenda.

More than 200 different Security Council proposals have been vetoed, some by multiple countries, according to UN records. The subjects have ranged from the Korean War and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict to climate change, reporting on weapons stockpiles, and governance of a part of the Indian Ocean nation Comoros.

The former Soviet Union and its successor Russia have cast the most vetoes by far, followed by the United States. Far fewer have been cast by Britain, China and France.

US deputy ambassador Richard Mills said after the vote that the United States is “extraordinarily troubled

by Russia’s pattern of abusing its veto right over the past decade,” citing resolutions it vetoed ranging from referring Syria to the International Criminal Court, protesting Russia’s annexation of Ukraine’s Crimea peninsula and demanding Russia immediately halt its invasion of Ukraine.

British Ambassador Barbara Woodward, whose country has not used its veto since 1989, called the resolution “a step in pursuit of upholding international peace and security,” adding: “We prefer to win votes rather than use our veto to block council action.”

France didn’t co-sponsor the resolution and its deputy ambassador, Nathalie Broadhurst, said it does not believe the General Assembly can become the judge of the Security Council.

She said that is why France and Mexico have been promoting an initiative on the veto for several years.

It would require the five permanent council members to voluntarily and collectively suspend the use of the veto in the event of mass atrocities.

Saying the proposal is supported by 105 countries, she urged “all states, in particular the other four permanent members, to join it.”

Russia’s deputy ambassador, Gennady Kuzmin, called the veto “a cornerstone of the UN architecture” and warned that “without it the Security Council would become a rubber-stamping body, rubberstamping questionable decisions imposed by the nominal majority whose implementation would be hardly possible.”

Chinese counselor Jiang Hua said the resolution’s automatic triggering of a General Assembly meeting on the vetoed resolution “in practice is likely to cause procedural confusion and inconsistency.”

Ind ia and Brazi l, which have sought permanent seats on the Security Council for many years and are currently serving two-year terms on the body, both complained that the resolution doesn’t address the real issue of reforming the council.

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The World BusinessMirror

Sunday, May 1, 2022

Credit Suisse releases senior executives after quarterly loss

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By Marion Halftermeyer & Myriam Balezou

redit Suisse Group AG reported a bigger-than-expected loss, parted ways with three senior executives and warned that the full damage from one of the most turbulent periods in its history is yet to be accounted for.

The Zurich-based bank posted a net loss of 273 million Swiss francs ($284 million), in the first quarter driven by 703 million francs in total legal expenses as well as a charge related to Russian exposure. Wealth management results came in weaker than expected, and trading revenue suffered a bigger hit than most peers.

The sustained losses signal that the bank ’s own goal of making 2022 a period of transition to stability is at risk, following last year’s multi-billion dollar hits linked to Archegos Capital Management and Greensill Capital. That has prompted further bloodletting, with the departure of Chief Financial Officer David Mathers, chief counsel Romeo Cerutti as well as Asia head Helman Sitohang announced on Wednesday.

Credit Suisse shares fell as much as 1.7 percent after opening in Zurich on Wednesday. The stock has lost half its value since the beginning of March last year.

“We are very much focused on our strategy” of boosting the bank’s profitability, Gottstein said in an interview with Bloomberg Televisions Manus Cranny. By doing that “the valuation of this bank will go back where it belongs and so will this brand.”

In its outlook, the bank warned that it expects “continued significant remediation spend in risk,

compliance and infrastructure.”

The lender is also working through a string of legal cases from a Bermuda lawsuit involving a local insurance unit to upcoming battles with investors over the frozen supply-chain finance funds linked to Greensill.

Earlier this month the bank said investors in those funds should brace for a five-year fight with insurers and problem borrowers to get their money back.

The bank said it would hold a “deep dive” event for investors on risk, compliance, technology and wealth-management before second-quarter earnings this year.

Mathers said the bank is “working through a backlog” of cases, and would not expect to see the same level of litigation provisions every quarter as has been posted in this release.

In wealth management, the bank posted a before-tax loss of 357 million francs, worse than the estimated 22.7 million franc profit. The bank said volatile market conditions, client risk aversion and its own reduced risk appetite contributed to the loss along with the litigation costs. The bank saw net new client asset inflows of 7.9 billion francs, according to a statement on Wednesday.

“It’s good to see positive net new assets but it’s not something I’m jumping about as they’re still at a low level,” Gottstein said.

In the investment bank, which houses the business of advising on mergers and acquisitions, Credit Suisse reported $124 million in pretax profit, missing estimates.

The bank had already warned that capital markets activity had slowed in the quarter.

“Credit Suisse’s management changes can’t improve the difficult operating environment, though broadly positive Wealth and Swiss Private Banking net new assets—including 1.8 billion francs in Asia—should stem franchise fears. Reduced capital allocated to the underperforming investment bank shows strategy progress, though bank derisking, lower client activity and expense headwinds are likely to weigh further in this transition year. A 13.8 percent CET1 ratio provides a cushion, though less than in 4Q ,” said Alison Williams, Bloomberg Intelligence banking analyst.

Mathers, 56, will be leaving the bank once a replacement has been found, while Edwin Low takes over as head for the Asia-Pacific region from Sitohang, the current head, who is staying on as a senior advisor.

Ex-UBS Group AG top lawyer Markus Diethelm becomes the new chief legal officer, replacing Cerutti who will retire, according to a statement on Wednesday.

The bank also said Francesca McDonagh will become CEO of the EMEA region in October. That position had been held by wealth head Francesco de Ferrari on an interim basis.

The negative results and outlook come just ahead of the bank’s annual general meeting on Friday, at which some shareholders are set to increase pressure for more transparency into the collapse of the Greensill funds.

Trading miss

The investment bank missed out on trading revenues due to its limited exposure to areas such

as interest rate trading, which saw the most activity in the first quarter. Fixed income trading revenues were down 50 percent year on year, steeper than Wall Street peers, and equities trading revenues were down 47 percent, largely still due to the bank’s exit of prime brokerage services and lower cash trading volumes. Capital markets revenues fell 66 percent and the advisory business was down 14 percent, in line with the less-favorable environment for dealmaking.

Credit Suisse reported losses of 206 million francs on exposure to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. In line with many peers following the invasion of Ukraine, the bank has stopped all new business in Russia and is cutting its exposure to the country. Gottstein has said that about 4 percent of assets in the wealth unit were with Russian clients.

The wealth business, which is reporting as a global unit for the first time after being restructured late last year, reported new wealth assets of 4.6 billion francs, with the biggest contribution coming from Switzerland. Asia Pacific contributed 1.8 billion francs in net new assets. Swiss rival UBS Group AG reported $19.4 billion of net new fee-generating assets.

The bank saw weaker trading revenues from its wealthy clients, with transaction-based revenues down 22 percent on an adjusted basis and steeper than at UBS. Credit Suisse cited lower brokerage fees and structured product revenues due to the challenging market conditions in the first quarter.

UBS, which reported first quarter earnings on Tuesday, said it is seeing continued caution from investors in the Asia Pacific region amid global geopolitical uncertainty and Covid-related restrictions. It saw a net deleveraging of $3.1 billion of loans in Asia this quarter and overall transactionbased revenues for its wealth unit plummet 19 percent. Bloomberg News

Activist’s self-immolation stirs questions on faith

By Deepa Bharath & Colleen Slevin The Associated Press

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y n n B r u c e , a 5 0 - y e a r- o l d climate activist and Buddhist, set himself on fire in front of the US Supreme Court last week, prompting a national conversation about his motivation and whether he may have been inspired

by Buddhist monks who self-immolated in the past to protest government atrocities.

Bruce, a photographer from Boulder, Colorado, walked up to the plaza of the Supreme Court around 6:30 p.m.

Friday—on Earth Day—then sat down and set himself ablaze, a law enforcement official said. Supreme Court police officers responded immediately but were unable to extinguish the blaze in time to save him.

Investigators, who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity, said they did not immediately locate a manifesto or note at the scene and that officials were still working to determine a motive.

On Saturday, Kritee Kanko, a Zen Buddhist priest who described herself as Bruce’s friend, shared an emotional post on her public Twitter account saying his self-immolation was “not suicide” but “a deeply fearless act of compassion to bring attention to climate crisis.”

She added that Bruce had been planning the act for at least a year. She wrote: “#wynnbruce I am so moved.”

She got sympathetic responses as well as backlash.

Kanko and other members of the Rocky Mountain Ecodharma Retreat Center in Boulder, released a statement Monday

saying “none of the Buddhist teachers in the Boulder area knew about (Bruce’s) plans to self-immolate on this Earth Day,” and that had they known about his plan, they would have stopped him. Bruce was a frequent visitor to the Buddhist retreat center in the mountains near Boulder where he meditated with the community, Kanko said.

“We have never talked about selfimmolation, and we do not think selfimmolation is a climate action,” the statement said. “Nevertheless, given the dire state of the planet and worsening climate crisis, we understand why someone might do that.”

On Facebook, Bruce wrote about following the spiritual tradition of Shambhala, which combines Tibetan Buddhism with the principles of living “an uplifted life, fully engaged with the world,” according to the Boulder Shambhala Center. Bruce also posted praise for Vietnamese monk Thich Nhat Hanh, a leader of engaged Buddhism, around the time of his death in January.

Bruce’s act of sitting down and setting himself on fire was reminiscent of the events of June 11, 1963, when Thich Quang Duc, a Vietnamese monk, seated cross-legged, burned himself to death at a busy Saigon intersection. He was protesting the persecution of Buddhists by the South Vietnamese government led

by Ngo Dinh Diem, a staunch Catholic.

In a letter to the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., whom Hanh counted as a friend, Hanh wrote that he drew inspiration from the Vietnamese monk’s self-sacrifice, saying: “To burn oneself by fire is to prove what one is saying is of the utmost

importance. There is nothing more painful than burning oneself. To say something while experiencing this kind of pain is to say it with utmost courage, frankness, determination and sincerity.”

In Tibet, anti-Chinese activists have employed self-immolation as a form of protest. The International Campaign for Tibet says 131 men and 28 women— monks, nuns and laypeople among them—have self-immolated since 2009 to protest against Beijing’s strict controls over the region and their religion.

Buddhism as a religion does not unilaterally condone the act of selfimmolation or taking one’s life, said Robert Barnett, a London-based researcher of modern Tibetan history and politics.

“Killing yourself is considered damaging in Buddhism because life is precious,” he said. “But if a person self-immolates because of a higher motivation and it’s not out of a negative emotion such as depression or sadness, then the Buddhist position becomes far more complex.”

If self-immolation is done to help the world, it might be accepted as a positive action, Barnett said. He cited a story from the “Jataka Tales,” a body of South Asian literature concerning the prior incarnations of the Buddha in human and animal form. In that particular tale, an incarnation of the Buddha, in an act of selfless compassion, offers himself to an emaciated tigress who was so hungry that she was ready to devour her own cubs.

“But that kind of self-sacrifice is not encouraged, developed or talked about for normal people (other than the Buddha),” he said, adding that this is because of

“the immense difficulty of cultivating positive motivation in any situation, let alone maintaining it under stress or in conditions of extreme pain.”

Buddhism emphasizes emotional balance, inclusiveness, kindness, compassion and wisdom, said Roshi Joan Halifax, an environmental activist and abbot of the Upaya Zen Center in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

“What we’re seeing today among many people is hopelessness,” she said. “What we are called to do is not to be disabled by that sense of futility, but to transform our moral suffering into wise hope and courageous action.”

Despite the pessimism that some climate activists may feel, there is reason to remain hopeful, Halifax said.

“You see that people are waking up to the magnitude of the climate catastrophe,” she said, noting that countries and corporations are moving away from damaging practices and toward clean energy.

“I feel inspired and hopeful by our ability to change and adapt in this everchanging world,” she said. “My heart is heavy that (Bruce) did not have that kind of optimism.”

Those who knew Bruce saw a man who was kind, playful and idealistic—an avid dancer who participated in weekly events. He was also known for biking and embracing public transportation.

Bharath reported from Los Angeles and Slevin from Denver. Associated Press writer Michael Balsamo in Washington D.C. and researcher Rhonda Shafner in New York also contributed.

www.businessmirror.com.ph

Child care workers are quitting the industry for good in the US

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By Olivia Rockeman & Reade Pickert

ow pay, demanding work and a lack of benefits have driven child care workers out of the industry for good during the pandemic—creating ripple effects on the rest of the US economy.

Employment in daycare services remains more than 10 percent below pre-Covid levels, compared with just 1 percent for the labor market at large. LinkedIn data suggest many of these women—early child-care work is almost entirely done by women—moved to other jobs, primarily in education.

Sarah Mallett, 32, is one of them. She worked at an early childhood facility in Maine for almost nine years, struggling to pay her student loans with her hourly wages before ultimately leaving during the pandemic to teach in a public school.

“That was where my heart and soul was,” Mallett said of working with younger kids. “But when we shut down, and we hadn’t been working for three months, that’s when I knew I needed to shift my income and my security and find a way to get benefits.”

Staffing shortages—paired with the thousands of childcare centers that never reopened—leave about 460,000 families struggling to find alternatives, based on Wells Fargo & Co. estimates, keeping some of these parents, especially mothers, out of the labor force. As Wells Fargo economists put it in a note last month: The daycare industry’s challenges are making hiring more difficult and expensive for all sectors.

Covid-19 exacerbated pre-existing shortages in an industry known for its high turnover, causing hundreds of thousands of employees to lose their jobs when daycares shut down.

As the economy recovered, the tight labor market pushed employers from retailers to restaurant chains to boost wages to at least $15 an hour, extend benefits coverage and offer job f lexibility to lure applicants. The early child care sector is unable to compete financially. It means that, on average, people who take care of infants and toddlers often make a lot less than those who work at the local store or warehouse.

Providers say they can’t charge parents much more than they already do—households on average spend about 13 percent of their income on child care in the country. Pandemic relief helped some daycares increase pay temporarily. But without sustained government support, business owners say they can’t afford sustainable wage increases.

“You want to pay people what they should be getting but then at the same time that means you have to charge parents a whole lot more to be able to do that,” said Tieraney Rice, owner of Gilmore Prep Academy, a preschool based in Greer, South Carolina.

The average day-care worker earns about $12.40 an hour—or $25,790 a year, according to May 2021 data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. That’s barely above the poverty level for a household of three in the country, according to government data. Across all occupations, the average is $28.01 an hour.

In Maine, where the average hourly wage for child care workers is below $15, Tara Williams, executive director of the Maine Association for the Education of Young Children, said she’s seen early-childhood educators leave for national chains, convenience stores, hair salons and even to open a photography business.

“We have signs all over at big-box stores, retail, coffee shops, restaurants—everybody’s hiring—and all of the signs are showing $17, $18, $19,” Williams said. “And that often includes starting bonuses, benefits packages.”

An analysis by LinkedIn found that the share of US users who work in child care shrunk by 11 percent in 2020 and another 16 percent in 2021. During the three years that preceded the pandemic, that share had grown—albeit at a declining pace.

Excluding teaching roles, common next roles by people who exit the field include administrative assistants, sales and customer service. Some also took jobs as nurses or receptionists.

The impact on care quality is widespread. Two-thirds of earlychildhood educators said staffing shortages are affecting their ability to serve families, according to a survey by the National Association for the Education of Young Children earlier this year.

Advocates point to the need for government funding to help providers increase wages for workers who are often required to have a bachelor’s degree—and sustain their business operations.

The US is an outlier among developed countries, investing relatively little public money into the care of very young children.

The largely private system relies instead heavily on families’ spending at a time in their lives and careers when parents often have limited resources, according to a report by the Hamilton Project at the Brookings Institution.

Although reforming child care generally has bipartisan support, the federal government hasn’t been able to agree to new legislation.

President Joe Biden’s Build Back Better plan, which originally included $400 billion for child care and preschool, has been stalled by Democratic Senator Joe Manchin, who has offered a slimmed-down package that wouldn’t include child care.

Republican Senators Tim Scott and Richard Burr introduced a bill on March 22 that would reauthorize the Child Care and Development Block Grant, providing about $6 billion a year to subsidize child care for working families and improve reimbursement rates for businesses so they can recruit and retain staff.

The fate of that bill is still unknown, but if it passes it could expand child-care supply and help cover costs incurred by providers, said Cindy Lehnhoff, director of the National Child Care Association.

“There’s no question that this is not a crisis that will get better on its own,” said Charlie Joughin, a spokesperson for the First Five Years Fund, an advocacy group. “The only solution is significant and sustained funding from the federal government.”

Rachel Shelton, a former public school teacher and mother of two in Asheville, North Carolina, was working at the preschool both of her children attended heading into the pandemic. The preschool shut down in March 2020, ultimately closing permanently. Now she’s looking to leave teaching entirely.

“As a society we just haven’t valued that work in the way that we do other professionals,” said Shelton, 36. “I’m not looking for jobs in that profession right now, and I wish it were different because I think I’m good at it, and I have good skills.” Bloomberg News

Science Sunday BusinessMirror

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

Sunday, May 1, 2022

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DOST strengthens STI ties with Australian institutions PhilSA Deputy Director General Dr. Gay Jane Perez (from left), PhilSA Director General Dr. Joel Marciano Jr., TAM Planners Architect Michael V. Tomeldon and PhilKoei International Inc. President Peter Samoza. PhilSA photo

Contract for PhilSA site master plan signed

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he Philippine Space Agency (PhilSA) will soon have its permanent home with the recent signing of the contract for the Comprehensive and Sustainable Master Development Plan for the 30-hectare site of the agency in Clark Special Economic Zone (CSEZ).

A joint venture consisting of TAM Planner Co., PhilKoei Intl Inc., and Nippon Koei LTD. will undertake the project, following the acceptance of their proposal, amounting to P52,654,504, as the highest rated responsive bid, a PhilSA news release said.

The PhilSA Official Site Development (POSD) committee that was organized last March ensured that the master development plan will remain aligned and responsive to the needs and requirements of the agency in line with its mandate, powers and functions.

Visioning and planning workshops between the POSD committee and the project consortium have begun since then.

The contract signing and workshops were significant steps in realizing the provisions of the Philippine Space Act, or Republic Act 11363, that was enacted in August 2019.

Under Section 17 of the law, the official site of PhilSA shall be within the CSEZ in the provinces of Pampanga and Tarlac.

The Bases Conversion and Development Authority, as the administrator of the CSEZ, has already identified the properties inside the New Clark City that will be assigned to PhilSA. The property shall include offices, meeting and assembly spaces, research and testing laboratories, and other structures and settings necessary for the operation of the country’s space agency.

PhilSA is currently holding office at the University of the Philippines Electrical and Electronics Engineering Institute in Quezon City. It is working on transferring to another temporary site within Quezon City to house its growing manpower and operations, the news release said.

Science Undersecretary for R&D Rowena Cristina L. Guevara (right) and Associate Deputy Vice Chancellor (International) Professor Charlie Xue of RMIT University show the MOU document for scientific cooperation that they signed DOST OUSECR&D Photo

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cholarships in agricultural research, biomedical engineering and for clinicians; joint research activities; memorandum of understanding (MOU) for new scientific cooperation and for the operationalization of existing MOUs; and learning about coral reef restoration, among others.

These were just some of the cooperation and partnerships the delegation of the Department of Science and Technology (DOST) obtained during its mission to Australia from April 17 to 23 that helped secure a revitalized bilateral relations of the Philippine Science department with Australian research institutions and universities.

The delegation that was led

by Undersecretary for Research and Development Dr. Rowena Cristina L. Guevara aimed to strengthen existing ties of the DOST with research institutions, such as the Australian Center for International Agricultural Researc h (ACIAR), t he Commonwealth Scientific Industrial Research Organization, and the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, a DOST news release said.

These include identifying areas for common interest, where resources and expertise of DOST

and partners can advance more in research and capacity building programs.

Several concrete collaborations, including a scholarship program with ACIAR, were discussed during the meetings. It will be formalized through an agreement to be signed by DOST with these research institutions.

The mission also reinvigorated the implementation of the existing memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Swinburne University of Technology, which include scholarships and sandwich programs in the field of biomedical engineering where the university has distinct advantage, among others.

The scientific visit also saw DOST forging new partnership with the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology University through the signing of a MOU for scientific cooperation.

They identified specific areas and modes of cooperation in scholarship programs and joint research activities in the fields of Food Technologies and Innovation and Digital Health.

The DOST delegation also discussed opportunities to operationalize its existing MOU with James Cook University.

During the meeting, the dele-

The DOST delegation to Australia—Undersecretary for R&D Rowena Cristina L. Guevara, DOST Assistant Secretary Leah J. Buendia, for International Cooperation; DOST-PCAARRD Executive Director Dr. Reynaldo V. Ebora; DOST-PCHRD Executive Director Dr. Jaime C. Montoya; DOSTPCIEERD Deputy Director Engr. Ninaliza H. Escorial, and DOST-SEI Director Dr. Josette T. Biyo— with Commonwealth Scientific Industrial Research Organization officials. DOST OUSECR&D photo

gation agreed to work in the areas of emerging diseases and tropical diseases, Internet of Things, agriculture and food security, and marine science.

The possible collaboration also included scholarship programs for clinicians.

The visit gave opportunity to the delegation to learn about the important work and innovation on coral reef restoration of the Australian Institute of Marine Science, the country’s tropical marine research agency.

The DOST officials also visited other universities, including the Queensland University of Technology, the Southern Cross University, Griffith University and University of Queensland.

The universities agreed to formalize institutional partnerships with the DOST through a MOU that will outline the parties’ areas of common interest and mode of cooperation.

With the delegation were DOST Assistant Secretary Leah J. Buendia, for International Cooperation; Executive Director Dr. Reynaldo V. Ebora, of the DOST-Philippine Council for Agriculture, Aquatic, and Natural Resources Research and Development; Executive Director Dr. Jaime C. Montoya, of the DOST-Philippine Council

for Health Research and Development; Deputy Director Engr.

Ninaliza H. Escorial, of the DOSTPhilippine Council for Industry, Energy, and Emerging Technologies Research and Development; and Director Dr. Josette T. Biyo, of the DOST-Science Education Institute, the news release said.

The DOST officials began their mission in Canberra, where they paid a courtesy call to Philippine Ambassador to Australia Hellen de la Vega.

The visit also gave them an opportunity to promote among Filipino scientists and researchers in Australia the DOST’s Balik Scientist Program that encourages Filipinos to return to the Philippines and contribute to the advancement of STI in the country.

Organized by the Philippine Embassy, a webinar gathered over 25 Filipino scientists and researchers who have distinguished themselves in their specific areas of work.

In addition, the DOST officials, in coordination with the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, met with State Level Officials from Australia’s Northern Territory, Victoria and Queensland to apprise each other of their work and possible alignment with DOST’s STI initiatives. S&T Media Services

UN agency report: 40% of Earth’s land is degraded A

new United Nations report warned that up to 40 percent of Earth’s land is degraded, it directly affects half of humanity, and threatens about half of global GDP amounting to $44 trillion.

The United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) flagship Global Land Outlook 2 (GLO2) report projected that if business as usual continued through 2050, additional degradation of an area almost the size of South America will occur.

It added that nations’ current pledge to restore 1 billion degraded hectares by 2030 requires $1.6 trillion within this decade, which is a fraction of today’s annual $700 billion in fossil fuel and agricultural subsidies.

The report said that as food prices soar amid rapid climate and other planetary changes, “crisis footing” is needed to conserve, restore and use land sustainably.

The report warned that the way land resources—soil, water and biodiversity—are currently mismanaged and misused threatens the health and continued survival of many species on Earth, including humans.

It said that if current land degradation trends continue, food supply disruptions, forced migration, rapid biodiversity loss and species extinctions will increase, accompanied by a higher risk of zoonotic diseases like Covid-19,

declining human health, and land resource conflicts At the same time, it pointed decision-makers to hundreds of practical ways to effect local, national and regional land and ecosystem restoration.

UNCCD’s evidence-based flagship GLO2 report that was five years in development with 21 partner organizations, and with over 1,000 references, was the most comprehensive consolidation of information on the topic ever assembled.

It offered an overview of unprecedented situation, and projected the planetary consequences of three scenarios through 2050: business as usual, restoration of 50 million sq km of land, and restoration measures augmented by the conservation of natural areas important for specific ecosystem functions.

It also assessed the potential contributions of land restoration investments to climate change mitigation, biodiversity conservation, poverty reduction, human health and other key sustainable development goals.

The report warned: “At no other point in modern history has humanity faced such an array of familiar and unfamiliar risks and hazards, interacting in a hyperconnected and rapidly changing world. We cannot afford to underestimate the scale and impact of these existential threats.”

The UN report warned that the way land resources are currently mismanaged and misused threatens the health and continued survival of many species on Earth, including humans.

GLO2 Report UNCCD

“Conserving, restoring and using our land resources sustainably is a global imperative, one that requires action on a crisis footing…

Business as usual is not a viable pathway for our continued survival and prosperity,” it said.

The report was released before the UNCCD’s 15th session of the Conference of Parties to be held in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire from May 9 to 20.

Ibrahim Thiaw, executive secretary of the UNCCD, said: “Modern agriculture has altered the face of the planet more than any other human activity. We need to urgently rethink our global food systems, which are responsible for 80 percent of deforestation, 70 percent of freshwater use, and the single greatest cause of terrestrial biodiversity loss.”

“Investing in large-scale land restoration is a powerful, costeffective tool to combat desertification, soil erosion and loss of agricultural production. As a finite resource and our most valuable natural asset, we cannot afford to continue taking land for granted,” he added.

Future scenarios

The report predicted the outcomes by 2050 and risks involved under three scenarios: n Business as usual: Under this situation, the continuing current trends in land and natural resource degradation will continue, while demands for food, feed, fiber, and bioenergy continue to rise.

Land management practices and climate change will continue to cause widespread soil erosion,

declining fertility and growth in yields, and the further loss of natural areas due to expanding agriculture.

By 2050 this will result in 16 million sq km continued land degradation (almost the size of South America).

There will also be a persistent, long-term decline in vegetative productivity is observed for 12 percent to 14 percent of agricultural, pasture and grazing land, and natural areas—with sub-Saharan Africa worst affected.

At the same time, there will be additional 69 gigatons of carbon is emitted from 2015 to 2050 due to land use change and soil degradation This represents 17 percent of current annual greenhouse gas emissions: soil organic carbon (32 gigatons), vegetation (27 gigatons), peatland degradation/conversion (10 gigatons). n Restoration: This situation assumes the restoration of around 5 billion hectares (50 million sq km or 35 percent of the global land area) using measures, such as agroforestry, grazing management, and assisted natural regeneration. The current international pledges measure 10 million sq km.

By 2050, this will result in crop yields increase by 5 percent to 10 percent in most developing countries compared to the baseline.

There will also be improved soil health that will lead to higher crop yields, with the largest gains in

the Middle East and North Africa, Latin America, and sub-Saharan Africa that will limit food price increases.

Soil water holding capacity will increase by 4 percent in rain-fed croplands; carbon stocks rise by a net 17 gigatons between 2015 and 2050 due to gains in soil carbon and reduced emissions.

Although biodiversity is seen to continue to decline, however it will not be as quickly, with 11 percent of biodiversity loss averted. n Restoration and protection: This scenario includes the restoration measures, augmented with protection measures of areas important for biodiversity, water regulation, conservation of soil and carbon stocks, and provision of critical ecosystem functions.

By 2050, these measures will see an additional 4 million sq km of natural areas (the size of India and Pakistan); and the largest gains expected in South and Southeast Asia and Latin America.

Protections will prevent land degradation by logging, burning, draining, or conversion.

At the same time, about a third of the biodiversity loss projected in the baseline will be prevented, and an additional 83 gigatons of carbon are stored compared to the baseline.

The report said avoided emission and increased carbon storage will be equivalent to more than seven years of total current global emissions. Lyn B. Resurreccion

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Sunday, May 1, 2022

Faith

Sunday

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

Bishops to Catholics: Pray the rosary until election day

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he bishops of the Ecclesiastical Province of Manila enjoined Catholics to unite spiritually to pray the rosary for the May 9 elections.

In a pastoral statement, they invited the faithful to recite the Marian prayer as families and communities from April 30, feast of St. Pope Pius V, to May 9, Election Day. With God, the bishops said, there is nothing to fear despite the “enemy’s daunting use of fake news, trolls and distorted history”.

“Let us again turn to our Blessed Mother and ask her intercession to help us vote what God desires for us,” read part of the letter signed

by Cardinal Jose Advincula, archbishop of Manila. .

The bishops then encouraged the electorate to vote for the candidates who will promote the common good, especially the poor and marginalized.

They also called for prayers for the Commission on Elections that they may accomplish their mission to conduct an efficient, fair and

honest election.

Church-labor group urges voters to choose pro-worker bets

A Church-labor organization called on voters to consider the labor agenda of candidates as one of the major factors in choosing whom to vote for.

The Church People-Workers Solidarity (CWS) said it is important for the public to know the labor programs of the candidates, especially those seeking for national positions.

“Voters must consider candidates that prioritize and advance the labor agenda,” said its chairman Bishop Gerardo Alminaza in his message for this year’s Labor Day. The San Carlos prelate also called on the nation’s future leaders to remain steadfast in their promise of protecting the rights

Bishops urge the faithful to ask for the Blessed Virgin Mary’s intercession by praying the rosary until the May 9 elections. CBCP NEWS

of workers.

He lamented, for instance, how the practice of contractualization remains rampant all over the country despite bold promises of candidates in the past elections to abolish it.

Contractualization, he stressed, undermines job security which further results in massive unemployment.

“They must immediately scrap anti-labor laws that perpetuate oppression and exploitation and

craft more laws that promote and protect the rights and dignity of workers,” Alminaza said.

The organization assured it will continue to link arms and stand in solidarity with the workers and other marginalized sectors of society.

“We will continue to remain vigilant especially after the election period in demanding prolabor policies,” the bishop added.

“We hope and pray that our future leaders will bring about genuine societal change; one that would benefit the least of our brothers and sisters in society,” he also said.

International Labor Day on May 1 is a public holiday in many countries like the Philippines.

The CWS said the country will celebrate this year’s labor day in the midst of “worsening socioeconomic and political crises.”

It said workers have barely recovered from the economic impact of the Covid-19 pandemic where millions of Filipinos lost their jobs.

The Philippine Statistics Authority reported a 6.4 percent unemployment rate in February, which roughly translates to around 3 million jobless Filipinos. CBCP News

Visitors view exhibits at the Manila Cathedral to mark its 41st anniversary as a minor basilica on April 27. PATRICK DOMINICK ROMERO photo

Manila Cathedral marks 41st year as minor basilica with exhibits

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ld-drawings and rare photos are on view at the Manila Cathedral.

The exhibit opened on April 27 after a Mass to mark the cathedral’s 41st anniversary as a minor basilica.

A basilica is designated by the pope and has a special spiritual bond with his office. It is also a place of pilgrimage for Catholics.

The collection includes some original architectural drawings and plans during the 1958 reconstruction by the Istituto Internazionale Di Arte Liturgica in Rome.

The exhibit also features, for the first time, the 3D-printed scale model of the cathedral created by Digiscript Philippines

and a timeline of the basilica’s history.

Those visiting the exhibit will also see the only two surviving images of molave wood that were originally enshrined at the cathedral facade.

Fr. Regie Malicden, the cathedral’s Rector, also unveiled a marker sculpted by Filipino artist Egai Talusan Fernandez.

The marker identifies the spot of the cornerstone laid in 1954 to start the rebuilding of the cathedral after the war.

Pope Saint John Paul II raised the Manila Cathedral to the dignity of a minor basilica on April 27, 1981.

The exhibit will remain open indefinitely. CBCP News

Iftar dinner: A meeting of friends for peace Statue of Saint Peter in the Vatican. VATICAN NEWS

Canon law on dismissal from religious institutes updated

An Imam (left) prays before the breaking of fast.

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Leading the “Iftar Friendship Dinner” are Elder Steven R. Bangerter, The Church Philippine Area Presidency; Amina Rasul-Bernardo, president of the Philippine Center for Islam and Democracy; Atty. Jehan-Jehan Lepail, deputy.executive directorof National Commission for Muslim Filipinos: and Dr. Dr. Pablito Baybado, Uni-Harmony Partners Manila coordinator.

Amina Rasul-Bernardo. president of the Philippine Center for Islam and Democracy, says that there can no progress and sustainable development if there is no peace.

Story & photos by Bernard Testa

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or the first time after two years of lockdown caused by the pandemic, an interfaith gathering was held for iftar, or the breaking of fast after sunset during the month of Ramadan.

The “Iftar Friendship Dinner” was cohosted by the Philippine Center for Islam and Democracy, Religions for Peace Philippines and The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (The Church) at The Church’s MTC activity center in Quezon City.

Guest from different religions, including Catholics, were feted with an evening of praise, food and meeting of old friends.

The Church’s Elder Steven R. Bangerter told the BusinessMirror that the best of humanity works when all of the religions are in solidarity.

“God has placed a spirit among us in the desire to help each other, especially during disaster and calamities. It is a wonderful event, how broadly the event comes across all religions,” Bangerter said.

The members of The Church, the

Elder Steven R. Bangerter, The Church Philippine Area President talks about one heart and one mind at the event.

Buddhists, Hindus, Christians and Catholic appreciate what the brothers and sisters in Muslim areas are doing in their community, specially during the pandemic; the service they render particularly for the poor and the needy, he explained.

As Philippine Area President, Bangerter said: “It is an opportunity for us to show respect to break their [Muslims’] day-long fast, to honor the physical and spiritual importance of their fast, to come with one heart and one mind to bridge an understanding of whatever doctrine between us.”

Uni-Harmony Partners Manila Coordinator Dr. Pablito Baybado said their members are in solidarity with the Muslim brethren in the celebration of Ramadan and their iftar.

For her part Amina Rasul-Bernardo, president of the Philippine Center for Islam and Democracy, said this was a very good event to be able to see old friends in the interfaith group that establishes peace and justice among Filipinos.

“This is a great way to celebrate, to make way to the right path. You try to cleanse you spirit and your soul, to make amends, and

Amina Rasul-Bernardo (center) with some law brethren.

The Church Elder Steven R. Bangerter (right) with his wife, Susanna Banterger (center) and Dr. Morteza Sabouri, cultural counsellor of the Embassy of the Islamics Republic of Iran. by ending the one month of fasting, and the Hariraya, the end of the fasting season, after May 3, the normal routine will be back,” Rasul-Bernardo told the B usiness M irror .

She expressed hope that the Muslims in the Philippines will have a leader to support the peace process, not just the Bangsamoro framework, a peace process with other groups. She was referring to the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in

Muslim Mindanao. ”This group of faith leaders recognises the importance of peace. We cannot have progress without peace. We cannot have sustainable development without peace. We cannot have a good quality of life without peace,” Rasul-Bernardo said.

The coming elections, a week after Ramadan, is very important for the Muslims and for other communities, she noted.

ATICAN—Pope Francis issued an apostolic letter on April 16 bringing Church law up to date on the rules for dismissal from religious institutes, in light of the updated penal law on sanctions related to clerical sexual abuse and other crimes.

The letter, known as Recognitum librum VI and issued motu proprio (on the pope’s “own impulse”) on April 26, modifies one sentence from canon 695 of the Code of Canon Law. The pope explained that the modification makes the line consistent with the major revisions made last year to Book VI of the code’s penal law, which classified some crimes differently and introduced new crimes.

The new text of canon 695 §1 says: “A religious must be dismissed from the institute for the delicts mentioned in canon 1395, 1397, and 1398, unless in the delicts mentioned in canon1395, §2-3 and 1398 §1, the superior decides that dismissal is not completely necessary and that correction of the religious, restitution of justice, and reparation of scandal can be resolved sufficiently in another way.”

The Code of Canon Law defines a religious institute as “a society in which members, according to proper law, pronounce public vows, either perpetual or temporary which are to be renewed, however, when the period of time has elapsed, and lead a life of brothers or sisters in common.”

Canon 1395 of the new code refers specifically to “a cleric living in concubinage” and clerics who continue in some other external sin against the Sixth Commandment (“You shall not commit adultery”), which causes scandal, as well a cleric who “forces someone to perform or submit to sexual acts.”

Canon 1397 of the Church’s law details the punishments for a person who commits homicide, gravely wounds another person, or procures an abortion.

Canon 1398 deals with clerical sexual abuse of a minor and the distribution of pornographic images of minors.

Pope Francis said that he made the change after hearing from the Pontifical Council for Legislative Texts and the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life.

The Pontifical Council for Legislative Texts is not itself a lawmaker, but assists the pope, who is the Church’s supreme legislator, in drafting and interpreting canon law.

With the change, canon 695 now refers to the appropriate canons in the revised Book VI of the Code of Canon Law, which came into force on December 8, 2021.

The reformed penal code introduced new crimes in the area of economic and financial matters to canon law, and moved the canons concerning the crime of sexual abuse of minors and crimes of child pornography from the section on “crimes against special obligations” to that of “crimes against life, dignity, and freedom of the person” in Book VI.

Courtney Mares/Catholic News Agency via CBCP News

Biodiversity Sunday BusinessMirror

Asean Champions of Biodiversity Media Category 2014

Sunday, May 1, 2022

Editor: Lyn Resurreccion

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Saving marine turtles one nest at a time

By Jonathan L. Mayuga

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he municipality of Botolan in Zambales province, approximately 255 kilometers (km) away from Manila, is known for hosting first-class beach resorts that lure beachgoers to enjoy the sun and the sand.

Other than tourists, Botolan is also frequented by beach lovers, but of entirely different species—the marine turtles.

Locally called “pawikan,” marine turtles find their way to the coasts of Botolan to nest and lay eggs.

Every year, between September and January, nesting pawikan—particularly the olive ridley, green turtle and hawksbill turtle—nest along the beaches of Botolan.

The two other marine turtle species are the leatherback turtle and the loggerhead turtle.

Endangered Most marine turtle species are already endangered because of illegal wildlife trade.

These long-distance swimmers are hunted in the oceans for their meat, shell and body parts. On beaches, it is the nest and eggs that are being hunted.

The seven known species of marine turtles are listed in Appendix I of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora.

This means they are all threatened with extinction. Trading of any species on this list is prohibited.

Hundred eggs, handful survive Female marine turtles lay hundreds of eggs in one nesting season.

However, only a few young turtles survive their first year of life and grow to sexual maturity for them to return to their birthplace to nest and lay eggs and become “mama pawikan” themselves.

Turtle eggs are vulnerable to predation. Lizards, snakes and even domesticated animals like stray dogs or cats are known to dig turtle nests to feed on the eggs.

Even newly hatched marine turtles fall prey to crabs, foxes and birds as they emerge from their nest and struggle to reach the shores.

Gathered “pawikan” (marine turtle) eggs that are ready to be transferred to a secured hatchery of the Pawikan Project in Botolan, Zambales. Photos by Pawikan Project Facebook page Worse of all, in coastal areas like Botolan, harvesting marine turtle eggs is a way of life for residents, further threatening their survival as a species.

One nest at a time At least one group, The Mead Foundation (TMF), is working to save marine turtles in Botolan and prevent their extinction.

Ben Mead, founder of TMF, is leading his team of conservation workers to save the pawikan, one nest at a time.

Through the TMF’s Pawikan Project, Mead is able to help empower the local communities who have stopped hunting marine turtle eggs and become protectors of this amazing creature of the sea.

One of the speakers during the recent online celebration of World Wildlife Day with the theme “Recovering Key Species for Ecosystems Restoration,” Mead gave a private sector perspective on the conservation of the endangered pawikan.

Holistic approach; livelihood creation Interviewed by the BusinessMirror on April 20, Mead said the pressure on natural resources in the Philippines requires a holistic approach to conservation. This is the reason TMF adopted species conservation across all time horizons, he said.

In ensuring the sustainability of TMF’s conservation programs, they are anchored on the economic viability and decoupled from short-term

Trained maritime police help collect marine turtle eggs from nests in the sand that will be transferred to a secured hatchery of the Pawikan Project. funding pressure.

More importantly, he said, the educ at ion a nd awa reness of a l l stakeholders as a key strateg y is c r it ic a l , hence, i nteg rated i nto TMF ’s approach to conser vation.

To make conservation efforts more sustainable, TMF has integrated livelihood creation to “give people the opportunity to make more sustainable choices and not have to resort to non-sustainable outcomes.”

“We apply a pragmatic and disciplined mindset, though the metric of success is impact and sustained outcomes,” he said, citing as an example the approach that covers both flora and fauna.

Secured hatchery Mead said they work with both government and other private sector partners.

“We try to strike a balance between working with government and other NGOs [nongovernment organizations] and private enterprises,” he said.

In partnership with the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) and its Biodiversity Management Bureau, NGOs and private groups, TMF initiated the Pawikan Project: Sea Turtle Conservation in Botolan.

It has established a secured marine turtle hatchery near Sundowners Beach resort in the area, where recovered nests are secured.

Only in its third year of operation, the Pawikan Project is already pick-

Freelance journalist is lone Filipino finalist in climate journalism awards

A

freelance journalist and lecturer at the Lyceum of the Philippines University (LPU) Manila has been recently selected one of the finalists in the second annual Covering Climate Now Climate Journalism Awards.

Jhesset Thrina O. Enano, who teaches journalism at the LPU Manila College of Arts and Sciences, has been shortlisted under the Emerging Journalists category of the 2022 CCNow Awards, a news release said..

Enano also works as a freelance journalist, writing on “interesting new angles such as the psychological toll of climate disasters.”

CCNow noted that “through excellent storytelling Enano captures the struggle and suffering of people confronting rising seas.”

Enano shared that she is “deeply humbled by this recognition of my work that amplifies our voices and our fight for climate justice here in the Philippines.”

“I’m thankful to my former editors at the Philippine Daily Inquirer, and more importantly, to my sources whose trust I carry with me always. I’ll continue telling stories of our planet and our people,” she added.

At the Inquirer, Enano wrote compelling stories and produced multimedia reports on the climate crisis,

Jhesset Thrina O. Enano biodiversity, natural hazards, and the interaction of communities with the natural environment.

Her previous assignments focused on human rights, local governance, criminal justice and education.

As an environment reporter, she was able “to shed light on the climate crisis, the environmental defenders, our country’s rich biodiversity, and the challenges that beset our planet and the people.”

Enano previously won Best Special Feature in the 2020 Catholic Mass Media Awards for her three-part series on wildlife trafficking and illegal trade in the Philippines published by the Inquirer in August 2019.

She was also a recipient of a story grant in 2019 from Internews’s Earth Journalism Network, where she reported on the impact of climate change

on the mental health of Filipinos.

She covered the 35th Association of Southeast Asian Nations summit in Nonthaburi, Thailand.

Her works have been published in local and international media. She has spoken on BBC Newshour and CGTN’s Asia Today on domestic events with global and regional significance.

Beyond her daily journalistic work, she also gives seminars and workshops on news, feature, environment and science writing to students, scientists and researchers.

CCNow is a project co-founded by Columbia Journalism Review and The Nation committed to bringing more and better coverage on the climate crisis.

The global journalism initiative now includes more than 460 partners worldwide, with a combined audience of more than one billion people.

The Emerging Journalist award goes to an early-career journalist (five or less years of professional experience) whose body of work shows exceptional promise.

This year’s finalists for different categories were chosen from 900 entries from 65 countries by an international jury of 90 distinguished journalists around the world.

Winners will be notified individually and will be publicly announced this September, the news release said.

ing up significant strides and has established best practices in sea turtle conservation.

Primary nesting area “Zambales is one of the primary nesting areas. All five sea turtle species [found in the Philippines] nest on its shores,” Mead said.

He said the entire coastline of Zambales is dedicated to conservation zones.

“There are still significant pressures from poaching that is why we adopted this approach of establishing a secure hatchery and stewarding the nesting of the pawikan,” he narrated.

In running and managing the hatchery, TMF is working closely with the DENR-BMB, Philippine Maritime Group and the Provincial Agriculture Office of Zambales.

Engaging with the youth “ We a l so engage w it h t he loc a l yout h. Consistent w it h educ ati ng a nd e xc it i ng t he yout h, we t hought it is a l so i mpor t a nt to work w it h t he com mu n it y,” he told t he BusinessMir ror .

“Initially, our strategy was to engage the youth and have them patrol the beach in the evening and identify the nesting sites and relocate the eggs to our secure hatchery; and release them upon hatching,” he said.

Mead said the TMF is also working closely with the local military and police, and is lately closely coordinating activities with the tourism office of Zambales.

The Mead Foundation’s Pawikan Project secured hatchery in Botolan, Zambales.

Incentivizing the community He explained that they understand that the local community in Zambales are affected by poverty. In the past, people living in coastal communities had searched for marine turtle nests to get the eggs, either for food or to sell them.

A pawikan egg costs around P7 each.

Harvesting of pawikan eggs is illegal. The only way to stop it is by offering the community an alternative livelihood.

Mead ex plained: “ T heir [residents’] interest in pawikan egg is because of lack of livelihood, opportunity and lack of food and various other reasons. So we shifted our approach to align with the community to work with us and pay them a reward for reporting.”

The approach proved to be very successful and has created a strong alignment with the community.

“We work at the barangay level as well as LGUs,” he said.

Increasing awareness Meanwhile, Mead said the move to increase the awareness of the community in Zambales is an ongoing process.

“We want to increase the number of hatcheries in Zambales. We require the partners not to touch [the nests].

We have trained rangers to perform that,” he said.

“Once the [presence of a] nest is reported, our rangers move in. Following the best practices, we move the eggs to our secure hatchery,” he explained.

In 2020 and 2021, the Pawikan

Project’s secured hatchery gathered a total of 3,432 eggs that were surrendered by the communities, he said.

Moreover, Mead noted that because the hatchery is secured and the eggs are undisturbed, they were able to ensure an 80 percent success rate in terms of pawikan hatching.

During the two-year period, he said a total of 2,743 eggs were hatched and later released to the wild.

Mead said the campaign was able to forge ties with three local government units and seven barangays in Zambales.

The project also continues to receive reports from the community about discovered marine turtle nests in different areas, with a coverage of approximately 20 km from their base of operation.

Way forward Mead said part of the project’s future plans is to scale hatcheries in Zambales and other areas in the Philippines.

“We are looking at Ilocos Norte, Davao del Sur and Bohol,” he said.

Meanwhile, to ensure financial sustainability, he said TMF is eyeing the establishment of a dive shop in these areas.

In the Sundowners Resort in Zambales, TMF established the Finn’s Diveshop. The income from its operation goes to conservation.

“It is our way of making sure that our conservation will not run out of funds, hence, sustain our effort to save the pawikan,” he said.

‘Women have important role in disaster resilience’

By Rizal Raoul Reyes

‘W

omen play a very important role in public life and in disaster risk reduction.”

This was the gist of the recent webinar on the importance of women in disaster resilience that was keynoted

by Mami Mizutori, United Nations (UN) Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Disaster Risk Reduction (SRSG DRR).

In her address, Mizutori emphasized that “women’s equal participation and leadership in public life, including in disaster risk reduction, is important and also essential in reducing disaster risk in achieving the United Nations sustainable development goals.”

The webinar was organized by SM Supermalls and its corporate social responsibility arm, SM Cares, together with the Women’s International Network on Disaster Risk Reduction (WIN DRR) and the private sector Alliance for Disaster Resilient Societies-Philippines (Arise-Philippines).

For his part, SM Supermalls President Steven Tan said: “As we learn today from various women leading in resilience initiatives, may this spark in all of us the strength to overcome adversity and a renewed drive to create a sustainable future for us all.”

Zamboanga City Mayor Maria Isabelle Climaco discussed how women can help build disaster-resilient cities. She also cited Zamboanga City as a place in developing women leadership in policy-making by appointing more women in executive positions.

Vasiti Soko, director of the National Disaster Management Organization in Fiji, said there is inclusivity in disaster risk reduction and empowerment of women in the DRR programs of the Fijian government.

Equitable access to services is Fiji’s battle cry to alleviate cultural discrimination and enhance productivity to rebuild opportunities after disaster, Soko said.

Ma. Rosalyn Mesina, UN Women WeEmpowerAsia Philippines country program manager, discussed ways on how to ensure gender equality in the promotion of DRR and resilience.

Among these are having women’s seat at the table, promoting womenled information dissemination, supporting sustainable women’s livelihoods and access to markets.

Meanwhile, Jazmin AguisandaJerusalem, Citizens Disaster Response Network national chairman, talked about women-led communitybased DRR and management, especially her experience during Typhoon Yolanda (international code Haiyan) while she was based in Palo, Leyte.

The organization she leads was able to mobilize the community three days after the typhoon and helped in the relief operations for thousands of households.

Branwen Millar, program manager of WIN DRR said that women’s participation is critical to effectively manage disaster risk and in designing, resourcing and implementing gender-sensitive disaster risk reduction policies, plans and programs.

With the establishment of WIN DRR, Millar said the UNDRR is a training ground for empowering women to attain leadership and enhance their role in decision-making in disaster risk reduction in the Asia-Pacific.

Atty. Pearl Turley, SM Cares Program head on Women and Breastfeeding Mothers, discussed during the panel discussion the necessity to teach the next generation that people should be taught to care for the environment to develop resiliency.

She explained that the future generations should be informed that they are only stewards of the environment and they have an intergenerational responsibility to it.

She added that SM is heavy in programs for the environment, sustainability and women. She said SM malls promote inclusivity where no one is left behind.

Sports BusinessMirror

A8 | S

unday, May 1, 2022 mirror_sports@yahoo.com.ph Editor: Jun Lomibao

NWSL embarks on 10th season, ready to move on from scandals

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HE National Women’s Soccer League embarks this weekend on its milestone 10th season with two new teams, a new commissioner and the determination to move on and grow after a series of scandals.

Angel City FC, with its starstudded ownership group, and the San Diego Wave, with former US national team coach Jill Ellis serving as the team’s first president, join the league this season and bring it to 12 teams.

Jessica Berman, a former executive for the NHL and the National Lacrosse League, was named commissioner of the league in March.

Berman believes the league is healthy as it moves into the next decade—and one of the indicators is the expansion.

“But there’s also the number of inbounds that I’ve received personally since the announcement on March 9, from prospective investors who want an expansion team, from brands who want to partner and invest in the NWSL in the sponsorship space, to third-party media support wanting to help to amplify the messages of growth for the league,” Berman said.

“There’s just an immense amount of what feels to me like pent-up demand for this league to be able to prove its value moving forward and it has me very enthusiastic about the future.”

Lisa Baird stepped down as commissioner last October after allegations of sexual harassment and coercion were brought against one of the league’s most prominent coaches, North Carolina’s Paul Riley.

Riley resigned and has denied the allegations. He was among five league coaches who either were dismissed or stepped down amid claims of misconduct. They included Louisville’s Christy Holly, the Reign’s Farid Benstiti, Chicago’s Rory Dames and the Washington Spirit’s Richie Burke.

Then, less than a week before Friday’s regular-season opener, Houston Dash coach James Clarkson was suspended pending results of league and team investigations after complaints of discrimination and harassment.

Berman said that while she is disappointed the NWSL continues to deal with such allegations, Clarkson’s suspension shows the systems put in place to protect players are working.

Berman officially took office April 20, so she’s still new to the job.

“There’s a lot I have to learn and a lot I want to do in a very short period of time and so figuring out our priorities and sequencing that plan is really, for me, probably is going to be the most challenging thing, and really setting realistic expectations for both myself and the board about what we can accomplish in the short, medium and long term,” she said.

The league’s preseason Challenge Cup tournament—named in a nod to the event held in a bubble in Utah in 2020, when sports were shut down because of the coronavirus pandemic—started in mid-March and is still ongoing. The format of the tournament is a bit odd because it stretches into the regular season.

The semifinals are set for next Wednesday with the Reign playing the Washington Spirit and Kansas City hosting the Courage. The final will take place on May 7.

Angel City made a splash with a founding ownership group that included celebs Natalie Portman and Eva Longoria, tennis star Venus Williams and soccer legend Mia Hamm. The club signed national team forward Christen Press as its first player.

Angel City will play in the league’s season opener, hosting North Carolina at Banc of California stadium in Los Angeles on Friday night.

The San Diego Wave roll into the league with two notable names: former US women’s national team coach Jill Ellis, who is the club’s first president, and coach Casey Stoney, the former English national team defender and coach for Manchester United’s women’s team.

The Wave’s big signing was forward Alex Morgan, but the team also has fellow national team player Abby Dahlkemper.

The Wave open the season on Sunday night in Houston against the Dash. AP

SAN DIEGO Wave’s Alex Morgan (13) is greeted by midfielder Taylor Kornieck during their match against the OL Reign during the first half of National Women’s Soccer League match in April in Seattle. AP

U

SA Track and Field (USATF) has signed on to use technology that will give athletes an additional method to anonymously report sexual abuse and other forms of misconduct.

The organization announced a deal Thursday with RealResponse, a company that serves around 100,000 athletes in nearly 1,500 pro, college, Olympic and grassroots sports organizations. USATF is one of four national governing bodies in the US Olympic domain to sign on—USA Gymnastics also has a deal with RealResponse.

“We prioritized an additional reporting system that is seamless, simple and safe,” USATF CEO Max Siegel said in a statement.

RealResponse allows users to report misconduct anonymously with a text and then allows organizations to easily follow up on reports without compromising the anonymity of the reporter. It skips intake forms and drop-down menus that populate many reporting apps.

Even since the creation five years

US player Haley Skarupa (front) demonstrates a drill during a hockey clinic presented by the Washington Capitals and the Professional Women’s Hockey Players Association in March in Arlington, Virginia. AP

GIRLS HOCKEY SHOWS

BIG POTENTIAL

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RLINGTON, Virginia— Megan Grenon stretched outside the rink before a rare showcase of women’s hockey in the Washington, DC, area when a young girl approached with her parents.

“Are you a hockey player? Are you playing today?” the girl asked.

“Yeah,” Grenon replied. “Are you here to watch me?”

Grenon plays for Calgary with the Professional Women’s Hockey Players Association, which has set a goal of establishing a sustainable professional league in North America after years without one. Grenon said she would be wearing No. 5 in white that day, and the young girl jumped up and down in excitement.

“You can cheer for me,” Grenon said. “You can cheer for whoever you want.”

Scenes like that are playing out more often across the country since the US women’s national team won gold at the 2018 Olympics and generated more exposure for the sport. There will be National Hockey League playoff hockey starting next week in Dallas, Tampa, Nashville, Raleigh and Washington, DC, where girls hockey has expanded over the past decade but still lags far behind traditional hotbeds like Massachusetts, Minnesota, Wisconsin and Michigan.

Because of logistical hurdles, from a shortage of rinks and ice time to a lack of college and varsity high school programs and the need for more education, growing girls hockey in nontraditional markets remains a challenge. The 3,177 female players aged 18 and younger registered by USA Hockey in Texas, Florida, Tennessee, North Carolina, Maryland, Virginia and the District of Columbia combined is still fewer

than in Wisconsin alone.

“It’s been like a slow buildup,” said Kush Sidhu, director and under-19 college prep team coach for the only top-tier junior women’s hockey team in Washington area.

“It’s always hard. It’s a struggle, I guess, but it’s a good struggle and we’re happy to do our part.”

The NHL’s Dallas Stars, Tampa Bay Lightning, Carolina Hurricanes, Nashville Predators and Washington Capitals are also trying to do their part to get participation numbers up in those areas—and similar efforts are taking place in Arizona and elsewhere around the league. The number of girls playing hockey in those states is up 71.3 percent from 2011 to 2021.

But the raw numbers still show a need for growth. Minnesota reported almost 13,000 girls playing hockey last year, and that total reaches 28,206 combined with Massachusetts, Wisconsin and Michigan.

USA Hockey regional manager of female hockey Kristen Wright, who spent five years as manager of girls player development, is proud of the sport’s rapid growth at the youth level in nontraditional markets and thinks it can be even better with more exposure and ice time.

“Some of the challenges that come with that are female role models: Convincing girls that hockey is for them,” Wright said. “They need to see it. You really need to see different female hockey players have female coaches and have that engagement there. And the other challenge, I would say, in some of those markets, there just aren’t as many ice rinks, so now instead of it being a soccer field that’s attached to your middle school or your elementary school, where you learned to run and kick a ball, well, you need to go to an ice rink.”

New technology to simplify sexual abuse reporting ago of the US Center for SafeSport, many Olympic organizations have had difficulty creating systems for simple reporting, the likes of which RealResponse offers.

Last year, the company, founded by former Rice basketball player David Chadwick, signed on the US Anti-Doping Agency, which incorporates that company’s technology with its own as a way of making it easier for whistleblowers to report doping.

Chadwick described the new deal as a way of giving USATF members “that safe and confidential and accessible way to come forward and communicate the issues that they’re dealing with.”

“And it positions USATF to be extremely responsive in a timely matter, to gather information, point to resources and to help prevent these types of tragedies from ever happening again,” Chadwick said. AP

ATHLETES race at the Drake Relays on Thursday in Des Moines, Iowa. AP

Nashville director of amateur hockey Kristen Bowness, Tampa Bay hockey development ambassador Kelley Steadman and Carolina girls’ and women’s youth and amateur hockey specialist Alyssa Gagliardi all cited a lack of ice rinks as one of the major hurdles. While watching a women’s hockey event at the Washington Capitals practice facility last month, Sidhu echoed those concerns.

“Where do we put new girls or new kids that want to play?” said Sidhu, who has coached girls and women’s hockey since the late 1980s and is director of the Washington Pride program in the DC area. “We’re pretty maxed out on all our ice time at every rink that we have, so that’s a bit of a challenge.

When you compare us to other big metropolitan areas, we’re still pretty low, infrastructure-wise, on rinks.”

Getting girls to get on the ice is the first step, and in a lot of places it starts with ball or street hockey. The Stars, Capitals and Hurricanes have all won the Stanley Cup, the Predators reached a final and the Lightning are back-to-back defending champions, and yet there can still be some hesitation for girls taking up hockey.

“I’ll go to schools and we’ll do ball hockey and stuff like that and so many girls are still so surprised that I actually played,” said Steadman, the Lightning’s hockey development ambassador who won two world championships with the US and played in the Canadian Women’s Hockey League and National Women’s Hockey League that has since been renamed Premier Hockey Federation.

“They’ll be like: ‘Oh, did you play, too? The boys played, but do you play?’ So here we’re still kind of in that grassroots (level) for some of these girls, where they’re not even aware of what women’s hockey is.”

Hence the need for programs like Canes Girls Youth Hockey and All Caps All Her, launched by the Carolina Hurricanes and Washington Capitals, respectively, last year.

The Capitals have seen an influx of youth hockey since Alex Ovechkin became the face of the franchise in 2005 and ushered in an era of success culminating with the organization’s first championship in 2018. While Capitals VP of marketing Amanda Tischler said the “Ovechkin Effect” is real in boosting participation, the team needed to go further than the learnto-play programs that were in place.

“What we were finding out is all these girls wanted to continue to play hockey,” Tischler said. “And there was this other age group of 10-14, which is why we recently launched an all-girls learn-to-play for that age group, as well as an all-female adult learn-to-skate and adult learn-to-play.”

Canes Girls Youth Hockey is similarly providing a pathway in North Carolina, where players can

go into a development program and play in house leagues or at the junior level to stay in the game. There’s also an under-19 team that can keep girls around longer instead of forcing them to leave the area to go to prep school for hockey.

“It’s cool to see it go from basically nothing to we’ve got kids coming into the sport at 5-, 6-years old and now they could stay here all the way to going to play college hockey,” Gagliardi said.

A lack of high school varsity girls and college women’s hockey programs in nontraditional markets is also an issue. Given the lack of one major women’s pro league, like the Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA) or National Women’s Soccer League, colleges provide the most consistent action aside from the Olympics every four years and the annual world championship.

USA Hockey started a national high school tournament to prompt more growth at that level. Wright said college programs are going west to places like Arizona, Colorado and Utah faster than they’re moving south, so more players are leaving home to stay on the ice and continue their advancement.

Bowness, whose father Rick coaches the Stars, has spent time with the Coyotes, Lightning and now Predators and put a lot of time into growing hockey in nontraditional places. While in Tampa, she said there was a junior varsity team that had to play against the boys and points out there’s a need for more girls in the pipeline overall.

“Right now I think it’s more of a numbers thing,” Bowness said. “We just need more girls playing in order to get leagues up and running.”

Haley Skarupa, who grew up in Rockville, Maryland, and won gold with the US at the 2018 Olympics knows all about a numbers game.

After being the only girl on her team as a kid, she’s impressed by the options available in the Washington area.

“They’re not limited just to that option to play boys hockey,” said Skarupa, who played for the Pride and is now an ambassador for the Capitals. “They can be on their own team with other girls, and that’s just grown so much.”

The Olympics and events put on by the Professional Women’s Hockey Players Association, Premier Hockey Federation, USA Hockey and the NHL are in place to spur more growth and yet, Wright said there are many pieces that need to come together on that front. Now, more than two decades since women’s hockey debuted at the Olympics in 1998, when college programs weren’t even in existence, generations of players are back in the community as role models and it could take years for the fruits of their efforts to take shape.

“Part of it is time,” Wright said.

“We don’t like to talk about time, but some of it takes time.” AP

BusinessMirror

May 1, 2022

Kick-start your online clothing resale gig

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YOUR MUSI

The Live Nation Philippines family

IS IT LIVE OR IS IT LIVE NATION PHL? The world’s leading live entertainment company officially launches Manila operations

Publisher

: T. Anthony C. Cabangon

Editor-In-Chief

: Lourdes M. Fernandez

Concept

: Aldwin M. Tolosa

Y2Z Editor

: Jt Nisay

SoundStrip Editor

: Edwin P. Sallan

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

Columnists

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

T

By Edwin P. Sallan

HE Philippine concert scene may once again return to its vibrant, pre-pandemic state with the recent launch of Live Nation Philippines, the Manila-based operations of Live Nation, dubbed as the world’s leading live entertainment company.

Live Nation Philippines is the result of Live Nation’s acquisition of Music Management International (MMI), considered as the country’s leading concert promoter responsible for bringing to the Philippines some of the biggest music acts in the planet including Bruno Mars, Ed Sheeran, Taylor Swift, Madonna, Guns N’ Roses, Coldplay, U2 and BlackPink.

Also part of Live Nation’s “strategic” acquisition of MMI Live is the appointment of the latter’s CEO as the Managing Director of Live Nation Philippines. Under Pascua’s astute stewardship, MMI Live was able to firmly put the Philippines on the global touring map of Asia, with one sold-out concert after another.

Annie S. Alejo Photographers

: Bernard P. Testa Nonie Reyes

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

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

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

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

817-1351,817-2807.

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Live Nation Philippines managing director Rhiza Pascua and Live Nation Asia Pacific president Roger Field

For almost 30 years, MMI Live specialized in promoting large and intimate scale concerts and prior to the pandemic has averaged around 20 shows a year. Long before it metamorphosed into Live Nation Philippines, MMI Live has already been the preferred partner of Live Nation.

“We have a long-standing and successful relationship with MMI, and the launch of Live Nation Philippines is the natural next step in our committed growth in the Asia Pacific region. MMI adds another part to our network and our vision to deliver exceptional live entertainment experiences to music fans and more opportunities for artists to grow their audience across the world,” Roger Field, president of Live Nation Asia Pacific.

Prior to the pandemic, Live Nation operated more than 270 concert venues globally, where it also sells 500 million tickets in an estimated 40,000 shows and more than 100 festivals per year. With the easing Covid-19 restrictions, the company is now back to expanding its global footprint which includes the launch of Live Nation Philippines.

Although the launch did not officially announce any upcoming lineup of concerts, Pascua said that fans can expect at least two shows a month once Live Nation Philippines kicks off its maiden presentation at a date that is soon to be announced. “[With] the launch of Live Nation Philippines, the sky’s the limit, and we look forward to bringing even more of the globe’s biggest stars and connecting fans with the artists they love and the magic of live,” Pascua promised.

Pascua and Field did admit that K-Pop sensations BTS and English superstar, Adele are among the artists they hope to bring in the country even as they also intend to bring homegrown acts to other parts of the world via the Live Nation global network.

IC

soundstrip.businessmirror@gmail.com | MAY 1, 2022

BUSINESS

SUNDAY’S BEST

3

SoundSampler

by Tony M. Maghirang

From pop to rock to garage to polyphony

BARON

Father Of Disillusion

POLYPHONIC VISION

Sudden Pictures

CATHY HOBI

Readymade

THE album art draws from “La Barca de Aqueronte” circa 1887, Filipino painter Félix Resurrección Hidalgo’s interpretation of Dante’s Inferno. Baron, one-man band rock band from Pasay, captures that painting’s gloomy depiction of damned souls crossing the river Acheron on their way to Hades.

The musician’s choice of towering Black metal to push the envelope is at once spooky and bleak, raising the aesthetics of Alcest or Wolves in the Throne Room at their mournful heaviest. There’s supposed to be lyrics but they’re buried in an avalanche of thick noise broken occasionally by short, sharp thrash riffolas. A triumph of death-fixated misery!

Some painstaking effort is being made on this record to plug the enveloping sonics of UK shoegaze to the stirring sounds of typical pop and rock. On each track, the ethereal vocals enhances the heaven-ward uplift to the point that a soulful groove runs through the album, even to the titular track which borrows its pulse and beat from Trio’s “Da Da Da.” Fractured lyrics like “Now we’re here/ The world is standing still/Finding ways/To calendar the days” seem to fit a general agenda of springing a surprise at every turn. Sudden Pictures quickly becomes an appropriate nom de musique.

Garage house is usually far away from this corner’s preferred sound treat but hey, there’s always a first time. In this case, the pull has been triggered by a fading memory of DJ Cathy Hobi’s sensual lines in “No Place To Go.” On her first full-length though, the DJ from South Cotabato not only expands her musical palette but also goes beyond explicit lyrics. Musically, there’s clicking breakbeats, staccato basslines, siren wails, woe-is-me tones and a whole lot more on her fusion of UK garage and house. Lyrically, she’s got her mind on the fear of getting stranded, taking chances, the power of love, self-care and whoever’s listening. Meaning, she’s ready for wider acclaim beyond dance music fans.

PLACEBO

THE LINDA LINDAS

PAPERCUTS

Never Let Me Go

Their first release in almost a decade, Placebo’s latest album is a polished, extravagant reinvention of bedrock influences like David Bowie and Gary Numan. From Bowie, Brian Molko and band borrow the infectious hooks of their glam rockers. Gary Numan’s spirit is all over their cyber synth-pop. On top of it all, chief songwriter Molko puts his compositional skills to hypnotic, almost narcotic effect. The mix of screeching, psychedelic guitars, austere vocals and tribal rhythms invest tracks like “Chemtrails” and “Hugz” with nervous energy. It ain’t broke so Placebo simply updated their ‘90s grounded music with an in-thenow undertow.

Growing Up

By their moniker, L.A.-based girl group Linda Lindas could be easily shoved into the neo pop-punk slot. But by the racket they make, the four girls none of whom go by the name Linda revive something else – the likes of the Runaways, the Go Go’s and the Shangri-las. They remind of your parents’ radio-friendly pop-rock this time garnished with themes of teen love and adolescent anxieties, with college life looming just around the corner. Now, the Lindas do have songs titled “Fine” and “Racist, Sexist Boy” that place some sort of snotty statement to an otherwise handsome clutch of hearttugging pop delights. Listen to the true sound of this generation.

Check out digital music platforms, especially bandcamp, for the albums reviewed here.

Past Life Regressions

As a solo artist, Jason Quever, who’s worked with the likes of Beach House and Galaxie 500’s Dave Wareham, has adopted the name Papercuts to unleash his own take on haunting dream pop. He lays down the appropriate soundtrack to his latest album titled “Past Life Regressions” as he unspools the epic “I Want My Jacket Back” and the wonky chamber pop of “Live Free or Die” and “My Sympathies.” The easy touchtone would be the monumental Velvet Underground with Nico though the addition of farfisa organ and lush harmonies put Papercuts in finer company with the paisley underground.

Funny, his regression has taken the artist back to the future.

Kick-start your online clothing resale gig

By Dalia Ramirez

mailers and boxes, and printing labels at your local FedEx or UPS store instead of purchasing a label printer. Or, reduce shipping costs for buyers by bundling several items into a single shipment, which can motivate buyers to purchase more from your shop.

NerdWallet

W

ith the recent rise of resale apps like Depop and Poshmark, the idea of selling old clothes online is becoming more fashionable.

Many people have turned clothing resale into a lucrative side gig or even a fulltime job, gaining thousands of followers and making dozens of sales per week.

The secondhand-clothing market is projected to more than triple by 2030, according to a 2021 study by reselling platform Mercari and research firm GlobalData, as more fashion enthusiasts clean out their closets and search thrift stores to find valuable pieces to resell.

But whether you have a collection of band T-shirts or office attire, finding success on these platforms takes time and effort. Before diving into your closet, there are a few things to know.

You set your prices Unlike consignment and resale shops, you can price items yourself on an online platform. Before listing a piece of clothing, look it up on multiple platforms to find out what it’s currently selling for. Depending on age, condition and brand, prices can vary widely.

You can also take advantage of direct messaging to negotiate with buyers and use features on apps like Depop and Poshmark that let you accept offers and create multiitem discounts.

“Sales can be sporadic,” says Andres Castillo of Los Angeles, who sells rare designer

The social aspect is a priority

Communicating clearly with first-time buyers is essential, says online seller Fitsfinesse. “If you don’t build that relationship, then you won’t get sales and returning customers.” Cover and inside photos by Liza Summer on Pexels pieces through Depop, eBay and Instagram under the name Debonair Vintage. With rare or high-value items, it may take a while to find the right buyer, especially if you’re looking to break even or make a profit.

There’s a big-time commitment “I treat [reselling clothes] like my job,” says Eve Perez, a full-time student in Lebanon, Pennsylvania, who sells under the name Fitsfinesse and was featured in Teen Vogue in 2021 for her Depop success. She responds to messages daily, on top of taking product photos, sewing custom pieces, and packaging and shipping orders.

Communicating clearly with first-time buyers is essential: “If you don’t build that relationship, then you won’t get sales and returning customers,” she adds.

Although you have control over the prices, reselling online takes much more time and energy than selling to consignment stores. According to Depop, sellers who list consistently—around 15 items per week— sell more over time.

“It takes a lot of time and dedication,” says Castillo. Top-notch sellers have to learn to take eye-catching photos, under-

stand shipping rates, negotiate over text, and research brands and trends to make the most of their inventory.

Overhead costs add up Yes, you can set your prices—but there are a few overhead costs to factor in.

Online resale platforms charge commission fees, plus additional fees for shipping through the platform or accepting payments through a processor like PayPal. Depop takes 10 percent of every sale and eBay takes 15 percent; Poshmark takes $2.95 for items under $15 and 20 percent for items over $15.

PayPal, which integrates with Depop, Poshmark and eBay, charges another 3.49 percent plus 49 cents per transaction for payment processing.

On top of that, you’ll need to pay for packaging, label printing and possibly storing inventory including bins, hangers and shelves. Top sellers also recommend adding a personal touch in shipments, like free stickers, small accessories or a thank-you note. When all those costs add up, you may find that only higher-value items are worth listing.

You can cut costs by reusing shipping

The most successful online resellers have one thing in common: a strong personal brand. Finding your niche and building a loyal following is essential to long-term success on a resale platform.

“It’s like Instagram, but for selling,” says Perez, who focuses on curating a consistent aesthetic and marketing her shop on socialmedia platforms like TikTok. Castillo grew his business by catering to a very specific market: vintage designer collectors, specifically for Moschino and Chanel. He sells across several platforms, using his Instagram to rent pieces out to stylists for photo shoots and red-carpet events.

Though he targets a fairly small community, his narrow focus helps him reach his ideal buyers.

Other top sellers on resale platforms can be seen taking a similar approach, with shop themes ranging from band T-shirts to vintage gowns. “Lean into your personal taste,” says Castillo. Even if you don’t have a curated collection to sell, personalized packaging or a unique photo background can help your items stand out.

Both Perez and Castillo emphasize the importance of cross-linking social-media platforms to reach as many potential customers as possible. Creating a dedicated Instagram Business account and following other online sellers and designers can help drive buyers to your shop. Check popular pages for trendy hashtags and add those to your posts. Making the time to promote on social media can help transform your closet into some serious income. AP

Credit Consciousness Week: Here’s how you can reach your goals by being a good borrower

C

redit is not necessarily a bad thing.

Through credit, Filipinos can reach many of their goals such as launching the business of their dreams or providing a better home for their families. This is why it is crucial for Filipinos to become credit conscious and responsible in handling borrowed funds.

Security Bank supports the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) in celebrating Credit Consciousness Week 2022 from April 24 to 30, 2022, pursuant to Presidential Proclamation No. 568. This year’s theme is Wastong pag-utang, susi sa pagbangon ng bayan—a

call that highlights the impact of proper credit management to the growth of the economy.

Staying true to their #DitoPwede tagline, SB Finance, Security Bank’s consumer finance arm and a partnership with Thailand’s Bank of Ayudhya (Krungsri), is set on offering loans digitally and conveniently through their new zukì mobile app. According to SB Finance President and CEO Abbie Casanova, the idea is to eliminate the intimidation brought about by applying for a loan.

“Filipinos should have access to safe and easy loans to make their lives better,” she added. Here’s how borrowers can achieve

4 BusinessMirror

good credit health: n Financial education and sound advice from trusted financial institutions go a long way. This means knowing when or when not to take out loans and allotting funds for purposeful activities or items.

To help with this, Security Bank ensures that borrowers are well-informed of credit products according to their needs. “We ensure that our borrowing customers are aware of the requirements and the responsibilities of a good borrower, before they avail of a loan,” Maki Tingson, Security Bank’s Retail Banking Segment Head, shared.

May 1, 2022

n Be accountable, borrow wisely, and pay on time. Missed payments are recorded.

Remember to always pay on time so it does not reflect badly in your credit history. Your credit history is important in determining your chances of availing of future loans. n Update your bank records. Never miss a statement or payment by making sure that your records are updated! This way, you’re aware of all notifications and advisories from your bank.

Remember that while Credit Consciousness may be celebrated for one week, it should be observed all-year long.