BusinessMirror May 31, 2020

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A BOY flies a kite on the roof an apartment building during enhanced community quarantine to prevent the spread of the new coronavirus in Manila, April 28, 2020. AP/AARON FAVILA

‘TRANSFORMATION’

IN A PANDEMIC Majority of Pinoys rediscover spirituality, physical well-being amid virus spread, lockdowns

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By Roderick L. Abad

more frequently at 25.7 percent), the report added.

Over two-thirds of respondents say that they seldom smoke (more rarely at 15.7 percent and much more rarely at 50.4 percent), as almost 80 percent indicate they have been hardly drinking liquor, or alcoholic products (more rarely at 18.5 percent and much more rarely at 60.9 percent), according to the study.

“The ongoing pandemic naturally makes everyone feel helpless.

What’s good about the findings is that we saw how Filipinos turned to spirituality—which is a positive coping mechanism—in order to deal with the anxiety. It is interesting that vices only played a minor role in helping Filipinos through the ordeal of quarantine,” said PhilCare Associate Medical Director Dr. Ultra Tan.

Contributor

ONFRONTED by a deadly coronavirus that so far has infected millions around the globe, a good majority of Filipinos now have become more conscious not only of their health and wellbeing, but also their spirituality as they seek divine intervention to avert a contagion—perhaps of biblical proportions—from becoming much worse, a study has revealed.

Understanding the crisis “BAWAL Muna ang Tambay at Tagay,” says a sign posted outside a house in Barangay Addition Hills, Mandaluyong City, enjoining everyone not to loiter and drink. Amid restrictions on movement imposed by the government to prevent the spread of the disease, more people resorted to praying and exercise than to smoking and drinking to cope with the pandemic. BERNARD TESTA

WEARING a mask to protect herself from the deadly coronavirus, a woman prays at the Shrine of Our Lady of Grace in Caloocan City. According to legend, in 1412, the Virgin Mary appeared to a local woman in Faenza, Italy. Mary was holding broken arrows symbolizing protection against God’s wrath and promised an end to the plagues. BERNARD TESTA

PESO EXCHANGE RATES n US 50.7270

The PhilCare Community Quarantine Wellness Index shows that more than a third, or 76.7 percent, of its standard sample size of 800 respondents pray, well at least more frequently, than they did before the community quarantines (CQ) were put in place.

According to lead researcher Dr. Fernando Paragas of the College of Mass Communication at the University of the Philippines, Diliman, there is no one universal or uniform way to cope with the pandemic.

He bared that people do a mix of activities to adjust through quarantines, which in this research are categorized either as good or bad.

The first three focused positive coping mechanisms pertain to the spirit, the mind and the body, while the last two are centered on negative vices such as smoking and drinking.

Researchers saw the former group as the silver lining amid restrictions on movement imposed by the government to prevent the

spread of the disease.

“Spiritual activities like praying were the only activity performed by all respondents in ‘more frequently’ (manner at 30.3 percent and) ‘much more frequently’ [at 46.4 percent],” he noted.

Such religious act has been often practiced by the respondents compared to mental (much more frequently at 19.8 percent and more frequently at 31.4 percent) and physical exercises (much more frequently at 19.1 percent and

BY and large, Filipinos are very much aware of the pandemic that they are facing nowadays—the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19).

Based on the self-reported knowledge index of the research, Paragas said that their perceived level of understanding about the guideline for various CQ types is very high at 71.5 percent.

This is clearly represented by the calculated 1.45 composite score earned by all the respondents.

From the respective rules of each type of the lockdowns enforced in the National Capital Region (NCR) and other areas nationwide, the participants are very knowledgeable on those of the enhanced community quarantine, Continued on A2

n JAPAN 0.4714 n UK 62.5210 n HK 6.5434 n CHINA 7.1000 n SINGAPORE 35.7989 n AUSTRALIA 33.5762 n EU 56.2055 n SAUDI ARABIA 13.5074

Source: BSP (May 29, 2020)

NewsSunday ‘Transformation’ in a pandemic BusinessMirror

A2 Sunday, May 31, 2020

or ECQ (71.4 percent), general CQ (63.1 percent) and extended ECQ (61.4 percent).

The only place they are at ease going to is the supermarket—with almost half of the respondents (very comfortable at 11.6 percent and comfortable at 35.5 percent).

On preventive measures

Causes of concern

Continued from A1

THE study’s second index is prevention practices, which measures how well the respondents follow measures so as not to contract Covid-19.

Across the board, at least 91 percent of them agree that they abide by the preventive measures in place, according to the lead researcher.

From the list of “must” good practices to be followed at the onset of this health emergency, survey participants strongly agree that they wear a mask in public places (94.4 percent), practice physical distancing outdoors (89.5 percent), and leave the house only when needed (86.3 percent).

There are more people who use alcohol, or alcogel (92.3 percent) than those who wash their hands with soap for 20 seconds (88.3 percent).

“It is when returning home that we see a decline in the prevention practices,” Paragas said, noting that only about two-thirds change clothes when coming from outside the house (69.5 percent), or disinfect items they buy outside when running on some errands (68.6 percent).

Fear of going outside

MOBILITY mindset, the study’s sub-index on the level of feeling comfortable in moving out while under CQ, is not quite impressive, the survey shows.

“This is very important as we start moving again with the relaxation of CQ protocols,” he pointed out. “Once respondents are positively confident about their level of knowledge and adherence to Covid-19 preventive measures, we now see the aspects of their wellness start to waver.”

From the research outcomes, majority of the respondents say they are not comfortable in moving about while their barangay is in CQ. Their discomfort is strongest with going to the hospital (not comfortable at 19.5 percent and not very comfortable at 47.9 percent), followed by going to work (not comfortable at 25.3 percent and not very comfortable at 34.8 percent), or financial establishments (not comfortable at 22.1 percent and not very comfortable at 22.4 percent).

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REELING from the effects of the pandemic, the respondents appeared to be very anxious at the time of the interview, Paragas noted.

This is apparent in the Stress Points index, where 77.4 percent of them are very worried about the things concerning Covid-19.

Participants strongly worry about the health of their loved ones (81.4 percent), about the possibility of a “second wave” (82.3 percent)), and of getting Covid-19 (82.5 percent).

About three quarters of them, on the other hand, fret further when they hear about the number of cases (74.4 percent) and getting sick from diseases other than Covid-19 (75.4 percent).

Around two-thirds are very bothered about their family’s budget (65.3 percent), or being prepared should they get Covid-19 (63.5 percent).

Over half, meanwhile, worry about where to get food (58.5 percent) or where to buy medicines (54.8 percent).

Overall pulse

GENERALLY, Filipinos’ state of wellness amid the ensuing pandemic is considered average as clearly shown in the respondents’ overall composite score of 2.82. “[It’s] being neither good nor bad,” the lead researcher said.

“Respondents performed well in doing safety measures against getting Covid-19 and knowing the CQ guidelines. Conversely, their scores show that they are concerned about their thinking and feeling.

They have [comfortability issue] regarding being mobile during the pandemic, or [have] many worries about their family and health.”

Paragas and his team found the scores earned by the participants are not universal. He explained: “Respondents in EECQ report better overall wellness scores.

Those with more resources, as indicated perhaps by their income, education, occupation, and having an OFW [overseas Filipino worker] in the household, are better in terms of their state of wellness. While our scale is the simplest and most parsimonious that you can cull from our nominees of Likert Scale items, the two most important predictors of wellness are respon-

RESIDENTS of Bonifacio Street, in Barangay Dela Paz, Antipolo City, add humor to their lockdown experience. BERNARD TESTA

permarket, disinfecting purchases, mental exercising, worry over getting Covid-19, washing hands properly, smoking, comfort in going to the hospital, knowledge of ECQ guidelines, and spiritual activities.

“They are a combination of practices, knowledge, worries, mobility mindset, and coping mechanisms, indicating that wellness is indeed a holistic concept,” he stressed.

Key takeaways

A PIECE of paper containing a prayer is seen on a police helmet at a community quarantine checkpoint in Quezon City, April 1, 2020. AP/AARON FAVILA

dents’ stress points and mobility mindset, followed by prevention practices at third place.”

Among the 28 statements im-

plied in the research, the 10 most powerful predictors of CQ Wellness are as follows: Worry over food, comfort in going to the su-

APPARENTLY, there appears to be a new form of wellness nowadays because of the unprecedented health crisis the entire world faces today.

“National Wellness Indices cover physical, mental, nutritional, psychological, financial and medical factors. We see the same factors at play during CQ, but the measures for them have changed because of the survivalist aspect of the pandemic,” said Paragas.

He noted, for instance, that nutrition becomes less about eating a balanced diet, but about worries over where to get food and the level of comfort in going to the grocery.

Other than getting surplus monies, or investment, financial is now also about maintaining the same income before the pandemic could cover the family’s necessities, as medical, apart from having regular medical and dental checkups, currently espouses the level of peace in going to the hospital, or drugstore, as well as other health concerns in the family, he added.

“We have a long road ahead of us in terms of addressing mental health concerns,” Paragas said.

“We need to make people conscious of the holistic nature of coping with the crisis…. The centrality of socioeconomic indicators across the main index and the sub-indices shows we are all experiencing the pandemic, but according to the resources we have at our disposal.

Support mechanisms are, thus, particularly important even after the relaxing of CQ protocols.”

Moving results

AN elderly woman reacts to a masked figure put up to remind residents to stay home at Barangay Addition Hills in Mandaluyong City. According to research, most people are not comfortable in moving about while their barangay is in community quarantine. BERNARD TESTA

TAKING a cue from the results of the study, health-care maintenance organization PhilCare is moved to further raise the ante of providing quality service to the people.

PhilCare Vice President for Sales and Marketing Raymund Tiangco said the research outcomes just affirm their belief that they have to be responsive to the needs of the times, from the products

and services they offer to be in step with their customers’ sentiments, both online and offline.

“I think the survey really points us in the right direction of what those things are and what to recognize moving forward. So there’s still a lot of things that we can learn from the survey and we can expect that PhilCare will still be continuing its very adaptable stance on the pandemic and Covid-19,” he pointed out.

The company has blazed a trail in the use of prepaid health cards in the market in 2014. Continuously, the firm is taking on new innovations by leveraging on technology that improves the delivery of quality healthcare to the public.

The HMO launched its Wellness From Home workout videos as the lockdown across Luzon started in March. The videos, uploaded on PhilCare’s Facebook page, featured exercises taught by fitness experts to help followers achieve optimal wellness despite being unable to go out to exercise. The videos have so far reached 500,000 people, of whom 350,000 have viewed them.

PhilCare also offers its DigiConsult service, a timely response to the study’s findings wherein members need not leave their homes to be able to consult a doctor on the phone anytime. All they have to do is use their HeyPhil app, which can be downloaded on Google Play and the App Store. The firm is also working to have the service available to non-members the soonest.

For public health education, PhilCare commissioned studies measuring the overall state of being happy, healthy and successful among Filipinos in 2014 and again in 2019. Its just-released report was done in two phases. First was through phone calls to 400 randomly picked respondents from May 11 to 14—the final stretch of the EECQ in Metro Manila and several other areas. Another 400 were interviewed from May 16 to 20— the first days of the modified ECQ in Metro Manila and other areas.

“We believe that the findings of the PhilCare Community Quarantine Wellness Index serve as an eye opener to employers and policy-makers on how responsive they should be toward their respective stakeholders given that our way of life has dramatically changed. With these learnings, we hope to work together with various sectors in order for us to continue living healthy even amid the pandemic,” said PhilCare President and Chief Executive Officer Jaeger L. Tanco.

The World BusinessMirror

Editor: Angel R. Calso

Virus, heat wave and locusts form perfect storm in India

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EW DELHI—As if the coronavirus wasn’t enough, India grappled with scorching temperatures and the worst locust invasion in decades as authorities prepared for the end of a monthslong lockdown despite recording thousands of new infections every day.

This triple disaster drew biblical comparisons and forced officials to tr y to balance the competing demands of simultaneous public health crises: protection from eviscerating heat but also social distancing in newly reopened parks and markets.

The heat wave threatens to compound challenges of containing the virus, which has started spreading more quickly and broadly since the government began easing restrictions of one of the world’s most stringent lockdowns earlier this month.

“The world will not get a chance to breathe anymore. The ferocity of crises are increasing, and they’re not going to be spaced out,” said Sunita Narain of New Delhi’s Center for Science and Environment.

When her 6-year-old son woke up with a parched throat and a fever, housekeeper Kalista Ekka wanted to bring him to the hospital. But facing a deluge of Covid-19 patients, the doctor advised Ekka to keep him at home despite boiling temperatures in the family’s two-room apartment in a low-income neighborhood in South Delhi.

“The fan only makes it hotter but we can’t open the window because it has no screen,” and thus no defense against malaria and denguecarrying mosquitoes, Ekka said.

In a nearby upmarket enclave crowded with walkers and joggers every morning and at dusk—some with face coverings, some without—neighbors debated the merits of masks in an online forum.

In the heat, “it is very dangerous to work out with a mask. So a Catch-22 situation,” said Asmita Singh.

Temperatures soared to 118 degrees Fahrenheit (47.6 degrees Celsius) in the capital New Delhi this week, marking the warmest May day in 18 years, and 122 F (50 C) in the desert state of Rajasthan, after the world’s hottest April on record.

India suffers from severe water shortages and tens of millions lack running water and air-conditioning, leaving many to seek relief under shady trees in public parks and stepwells, the ancient structures used to harvest rainwater.

Though many people continued wearing masks properly, others pushed them onto chins, or had foregone them altogether.

Cyclone Amphan, a massive super storm that crossed the unusually warm Bay of Bengal last week, sucked up huge amounts of moisture, leaving dry, hot winds to form a heat wave over parts of central and northern India.

At the same time, swarms of desert locusts have devastated crops in India’s heartland, threatening an already vulnerable region that is struggling with the economic cost of the lockdown.

Exasperated farmers have been banging plates, whistling or throwing stones to try to drive the locusts away, and sometimes even lighting fires to smoke them out. The swarms appeared poised to head from Rajasthan north to Delhi, but on Wednesday a change in wind direction sent them southward toward the state of Madhya Pradesh instead.

K.L. Gurjar, a top official of India’s Locust Warning Organization, said his 50-person team was scrambling to stop the swarms before breeding can take place during India’s monsoons, which begin in July. Otherwise, he said, the locusts could destroy India’s summer crops. AP

Sunday, May 31, 2020

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Chancellor Merkel seizes her chance to revolutionize Germany’s economy

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n a gloomy Friday in March, with the devastation of the coronavirus becoming clear, senior officials in Chancellor Angela Merkel’s government realized that extraordinary measures were needed to shore up Europe’s largest economy.

At breakneck speed, aides based at the Economy Ministry’s former Prussian estate on the Spree river in Berlin pulled together a rescue program totaling 600 billion euros ($660 billion) to prevent a collapse.

With infection rates surging and stringent restrictions on people and businesses, there was little time for debate and no serious opposition.

Yet behind the feverish crisis management was a deeper strategy that had been months in the making.

It had already been rejected as too radical for the political and business establishment when first proposed last year. But with the crisis as a catalyst, the package passed cabinet the following Monday and was law by the end of the week. It puts Merkel in charge of the most dramatic re-engineering of Europe’s biggest economy since the post-war reconstruction.

By the time she’s finished, the chancellor will have installed a kind of state capitalism in Germany that borrows heavily from France and is even informed by China’s success.

It will give officials in Berlin new powers to intervene in the economy: they’ll be picking winners and losers, seeding new industries and grooming national champions. Buying stakes in companies is no longer taboo, and the touchstone balancedbudget policy has been jettisoned to unleash the full power of the German balance sheet.

In other words, this week’s landmark 9 billion-euro ($9.8 billion) bailout of Deutsche Lufthansa AG— including the government’s 20-percent stake and the right to block unwanted takeovers—is only the beginning. More than just securing Germany’s air links to the outside world, the deal sets down a marker for how the Merkel administration

intends the economy to be run in the post-pandemic era.

The package was approved by Germany’s brand-new WSF Economic Stability Fund, which includes 100 billion euros of taxpayer money to directly invest and even buy out companies. The fund was created during that hectic weekend in March, but its origins and the broader strategy behind it were sketched out more than a year ago by Economy Minister Peter Altmaier.

Spurred by leading German executives’ alarm about the country’s struggles against foreign competition, Merkel’s former chief of staff took it into his own hands to craft a response. Writing some of the passages himself, he presented the resulting policy paper in February 2019—long before anyone had ever heard of Covid-19.

His industrial strategy called for enhanced government authority to invest in technology such as artificial intelligence, battery cells and clean energy. He wanted closer ties with industry to nurture homegrown global players.

The country will go “from a bystander of a process that’s already in full swing in the US and China into a shaper,” he said at the presentation.

The effort was buried in an avalanche of criticism.

Germany’s powerful Mittelstand of family-owned manufacturers attacked it as a paean to big business, while lawmakers from Merkel ’s Christian Democratic Union made it clear that they weren’t ready to give the government that much power.

European partners also fretted about the protectionist, Germany First undertones.

A ltmaier was forced to back down and in November presented a watered-down version—called

Robotic arms manufactured by Kuka AG fit doors to Volkswagen AG ID.3 electric automobiles on the automaker’s assembly line in Zwickau, Saxony, Germany. Krisztian Bocsi/Bloomberg

“Made in Germany: Industriest rateg ie 2030.” T he i n it i at ive was dead, until the coronavirus changed the game.

The new approach shows a country that is ready to make bold bets on its economic future, but true to Germany’s frugal traditions. In the Lufthansa deal, the administration—still battling with the European Commission for approval—is paying less than one-third the market price for its stake, which can be raised to 25-percent plus one share if the airline doesn’t pay a guaranteed dividend on the bulk of the funding.

“We have sent a convincing signal of support for the free-market economy. But this is also a signal that the German government is willing to defend the technological and economic sovereignty of this country,” Altmaier said after announcing the bailout.

Contours of the strategy will become more visible in early June, when Merkel’s administration unveils a much-anticipated economic stimulus plan.

Another sign of the government’s determination to change things up is the one industry that will come up short: autos.

Germany’s powerful carmakers were the main beneficiaries of stimulus spending after the financial crisis. There will likely be some incentives for car purchases this time, but Volkswagen AG, Daimler AG and BMW AG won’t get another sweeping cash-forclunkers program that bolsters profitable conventional vehicles alongside electrics.

In fact, Merkel canceled a meeting with leading representatives of Germany’s car industry scheduled for next Tuesday due to disagreements over the package. She has bristled at auto executives’ demands for the taxpayer to come to their rescue—a surprising snub from the so-called auto chancellor.

W hen she announced an end to stringent restrictions on the public earlier this month, she told the car companies they would have to pitch for funds like ever yone else, making them sound more like star t-ups rather than the titans of the German economy.

“It’s not like you can only talk about a restart of the economy if the state gives more money,” she said. “We will indeed need a stimulus program, but the initiative must come from the companies.”

The spending plan is only one piece of the puzzle. Strategic programs are either already under way or in the works, including measures to protect companies against foreign competition, to reduce dependence on overseas supply chains and to prop up local industry.

Key pillars of Merkel’s activist strategy

n 100 billion-euro fund to buy stakes in companies, to be increased if needed; German states encouraged to set up similar funds to safeguard local champions. n Takeover controls are being extended to give the government authority to block foreign purchases for “potential interference”. n Seeding burgeoning industries like artificial intelligence,

battery-cell production and clean energy; promoting local suppliers to reduce reliance on companies outside the EU. It’s a unique opportunity for Merkel to atone for past mistakes.

Even before the pandemic hit, Germany was stumbling. A reliance on carbon-intensive technologies, a spotty national digital network and a plodding bureaucracy revealed cracks in the chancellor’s management of the country’s export machine.

After the financial crisis, her strategy had been simply to steady the ship and get out of the way. But the world has changed significantly since then.

The transatlantic partnership with the US has frayed under President Donald Trump, and China is targeting Germany’s position as the world leader in advanced manufacturing. Beijing’s Belt and Road Initiative—an infrastructure program that ends at the inland port of Duisburg in Germany’s industrial Ruhr Valley—seeks to extend the countr y’s inf luence deep into Europe.

The Asian power has also been buying up German businesses including industrial-robot maker Kuka AG, and Chinese billionaire Li Shufu is the big gest shareholder in Mercedes-Benz maker Daimler. The concerns have caused Merkel to clash with European Union, demanding takeover law be changed to ref lect global competition rather than focusing on the impact within the bloc. A nd they have inspired the more protectionist provisions in A ltmaier’s plan.

Echoes of the activist strategy were there too in the proposal presented by Merkel and French President Emmanuel Macron to backstop a European Union recovery fund.

That plan included policies for an ambitious overhaul of the bloc’s economy as well as looser state-aid rules to help foster the creation of larger and greener companies. “ We have seen t hat ot hers, whether the United States of America, South Korea, Japan or China, have relied very heavily on global champions,” Merkel said. “I believe that this approach is the necessary answer.” Bloomberg News

AMD’s Lisa Su, Discovery’s Zaslav among highest paid S&P 500 CEOs

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ere are the highest paid male and female CEOs in the S&P 500 index for 2019, as calculated by The Associated Press and Equilar, an executive data firm.

The AP ’s compensation study covered 329 executives at S&P 500 companies who have ser ved at le a s t t wo f u l l con s e c ut ive fiscal years at their respective compa n ies, wh ic h f i led prox y statements between Januar y 1 and April 30. Some companies with highly paid CEOs do not fit these criteria.

Pay for c h ief e xec ut ives rose to a median of $12.3 mil lion last year, including sa lar y, stock and o t h e r c o m p e n s at i o n . M e d i a n means ha lf were larger, and ha lf were sm a l ler.

Compensation often includes stock and option grants that the CEO may not receive for years unless certain performance measures are met. For some companies, big raises occur when CEOs get a stock or option grant in one year as part of a multiyear grant.

Top female CEOs:

1. Lisa T. Su Advanced Micro Devices $58.5 million Change from last year: 338 percent Her pay vs typical company worker: 604 times, up from 165 Overall ranking: No. 1

2. Marillyn A. Hewson Lockheed Martin $24.4 million Change from last year: 14 percent Her pay vs typical company worker: 200 times, up from 191 Overall ranking: 22

3. Mary T. Barra General Motors $21.3 million Change from last year: -2 percent Her pay vs typical company worker: 203 times, down from 281 Overall ranking: 37

4. Virginia M. Rometty IBM $19.1 million Change from last year: 9 percent Her pay vs typical company worker: 354 times, up from 319

Overall ranking: 57

5. Phebe N. Novakovic General Dynamics $17.8 million Change from last year: -14 percent Her pay vs typical company worker: 157 times, down from 240 Overall ranking: 76

Top male CEOs:

1. David Zaslav Discovery $45.8 million Change from last year: -65 percent His pay vs typical company worker: 578 times, down from 1,511 Overall ranking: No. 2

2. Robert Iger Walt Disney $45.6 million Change from last year: -31 percent His pay vs typical company worker: 911 times, down from 1,424 times Overall ranking: No. 3

3. Shantanu Narayen Adobe Inc. $39.1 million Change from last year: 38 percent

His pay vs typical company worker: 266 times, up from 200 Overall ranking: No. 4

4. Reed Hastings Netflix $38.6 million Change from last year: 7 percent His pay vs typical company worker: 190 times, up from 178 Overall ranking: No. 5

5. Larry J. Merlo CVS Health $36.5 million Change from last year: 66 percent His pay vs typical company worker: 790 times, up from 618 Overall ranking: No. 6 Note: CVS Health says pay figures filed in its proxy are misleading, in part because of a recent change in how it reports executive compensation. It says Merlo’s pay was “relativelyconsistent”withthetwoyearspriorafter excluding some one-time events and that his pay ratio narrowed to 425 last year.

How AP and Equilar calculated CEO pay For its annual analysis of CEO

pay, The Associated Press used data provided by Equilar, an executive data firm.

Equilar examined regulatory filings detailing the pay packages of 329 executives. Equilar looked at companies in the S&P 500 index that filed proxy statements with federal regulators between January 1 and April 30, 2020. To avoid the distortions caused by sign-on bonuses, the sample includes only CEOs in place for at least two years.

To calculate CEO pay, Equilar adds salary, bonus, perks, stock awards, stock option awards, deferred compensation and other pay components that include benefits and perks.

Stock awards can either be timebased, or performance-based, meaning the CEO has to meet certain goals before getting them. Stock options usually give the CEO the right to buy shares in the future at the price they’re trading at when the options are granted. All are meant to tie the CEO’s pay to the company’s performance.

To determine what stock and option awards are worth, Equilar uses

the value of an award on the day it’s granted, as recorded in the proxy statement. For options, this includes an estimate of what the award could be worth in the future. Their actual value in the future can vary widely from what the company estimates.

Equilar calculated that the median CEO pay in 2019 was $12.3 million. That’s the midpoint, meaning half the CEOs made more and half made less.

Here’s a breakdown of 2019 pay compared with 2018 pay. Because the AP looks at median numbers, the components of CEO pay do not add up to the total. n Base salary: $1.2 million, up 4 percent n Bonus, performance-based cash awards: $2 million, down 6 percent n Perks: $215,230, up 6 percent n Stock awards: $6.5 million, up 7 percent n Option awards: $0 (More than half of the companies gave no option awards. The average option award was valued at $1.7 million.) n Total: $12.3 million, up 4 percent. AP

Sunday, May 31, 2020

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The World BusinessMirror

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Food aid for Africa’s hungry strained by coronavirus crisis

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atou Fofana used to be able to support herself, her baby daughter and two other children by selling spices and stock cubes on the outskirts of Abidjan, Ivory Coast’s biggest city. But measures to contain the coronavirus have reduced her earnings to about $2 a day, leaving her reliant on local food aid to survive.

The 39-year-old’s market stall was closed by authorities enforcing the country’s lockdown in late March, and trading hours remain restricted more than two months later.

“At the end of the month, my pockets are empty,” she says outside her home on a narrow dirt road in the eastern suburb of Bingerville. A recent package of rice from a nongovernment organization means she has food for a week, “but I still don’t know for next week, or the weeks to come,” she adds.

Fofana is one of millions of Africans joining the list of those struggling to afford basic foodstuffs as efforts to slow the spread of Covid-19 upend livelihoods from Ivory Coast to Kenya, Nigeria to South Africa. The United Nations’s World Food Programme estimates the number of people globally classed as acutely food insecure will double this year to about 265 million as the pandemic batters economies.

The majority of them are likely to be in Africa.

Efforts are under way by state authorities, NGOs and international

agencies such as the WFP to provide food across the continent, in the knowledge that weaker governmentsupport systems may increase the risk of a poverty boom when compared with Europe and North America. Yet the huge demand means the push is already showing signs of strain.

The coronavirus crisis could put a third of Africa’s 300 million informal jobs in jeopardy as countries impose lockdowns, with an associated ban on work deemed by governments to be nonessential, according to McKinsey & Co. Between 9 million and 18 million formal jobs could also be lost, the US consultancy said in a report published in April. Restrictions on the transportation of goods have depleted stocks and increased the price of food in many urban areas, while school closures have meant that millions of children who typically rely on state feeding plans are left at risk of malnutrition.

“African people are missing income to buy food,” said David Laborde, a senior research fellow at the International Food Policy Research Institute in Washington.

“We are dealing with a size of the

number of poor people in Africa that we’ve never seen before. You are losing your income if you are urban poor and the price of food is increasing, so you are trapped between the rock and the hard place.”

In Nigeria, President Muhammadu Buhari has approved the distribution of smuggled rice seized at the country’s land borders, while in Kenya, thousands of vulnerable households have been granted weekly cash stipends to sustain them during the pandemic.

In West Africa, which accounts for more than a third of all coronavirus cases in sub-Saharan Africa, the number of those in need of food assistance may double to 43 million in the next six months, the WFP has warned. In Ghana, the region’s second-largest economy, there have been widespread reports of food packages of such poor quality they have been left uneaten.

“Many, including myself, could not use the rice because there were stones in it and the beans had insects in them too,” said Grace Kai Ashong, 61, who lives with her four children and eight grandchildren in the poor and densely populated community of Bukom, a coastal suburb of the capital, Accra.

“This is all we had from government for the three-week lockdown period,” she said. “We did not crave for more as many of us felt insulted by the type of food they brought to us.”

The South African government is distributing hundreds of thousands of food parcels containing staples including corn, cooking oil and beans to help mitigate one of the strictest lockdowns in the world, which is now nine weeks long. But that may not be

nearly enough, according to Imtiaz Sooliman, founder of the Gift of the Givers Foundation, which has dispensed packages to dozens of communities across the country.

“People like plumbers, electricians and waiters don’t have reserves and are going hungry,” he said. “There could be 30 million hungry people in this country. Divide that by families of five, and you get 6 million food parcels you have to deliver.”

After President Cyril Ramaphosa acknowledged that food distribution can’t keep up with demand, authorities have been deploying aid through vouchers and cash transfers. But initiatives have been dogged by corruption allegations and claims of stolen parcels both in South Africa and elsewhere. In Uganda, officials handling food purchases have been charged in court for inflating prices.

As part of Ivory Coast’s lockdown measures, it was suggested that drivers weren’t allowed to leave or enter Abidjan without a valid Covid-19 test. That pushed up prices of corn, rice, fish and vegetable oil, the WFP found, while staples like yams are becoming scarce in some markets, according to traders.

The government estimates a total of 45,000 Abidjan households have received food assistance, out of 206,000 eligible for social welfare. “ The needs are enormous,” said Yves Adjani, an outreach worker with Apopoli, an NGO in Abidjan, which has been distributing food parcels to families like Fofana’s. “Even if we help as many as we can, there’s always more to be done.”

Bloomberg News

Cancer, Covid-19 a dangerous mix, new studies find

By Marilynn Marchione

AP Chief Medical Writer

N

ew research shows how dangerous the coronavirus is for current and former cancer patients. Those who developed Covid-19 were much more likely to die within a month than people without cancer who got it, two studies found.

They are the largest reports on people with both diseases in the United States, the United Kingdom, Spain and Canada. In one study, half of 928 current and former cancer patients with Covid-19 were hospitalized and 13 percent died. That’s far more than the various rates that have been reported in the general population.

Results were published on Thursday in the journal Lancet and will be discussed this weekend at an American Society of Clinical Oncology conference being held online because of the pandemic.

A second study in Lancet from researchers in England of 800 patients with various types of cancer and Covid-19 found an even higher death rate—28 percent. The risk rose with age and

other health problems such as high blood pressure.

The studies have big implications: More than 1.6 million new cancers are diagnosed in the United States each year, several million Americans are in treatment now and about 20 million are cancer survivors.

Dr. Jeremy Warner, a Vanderbilt University data scientist who led the larger study, said the results show the wisdom of measures that many hospitals have taken to delay or modify care for many cancer patients, and the need for people treated in the past to be extra careful now.

“If they don’t have Covid-19, they want to do anything they can to avoid getting it,” he said.

For Luciano Orsini, that meant postponing surgery at Fox Chase Cancer Center in Philadelphia for about a month to avoid having it when virus cases were rising there.

Orsini lost one kidney to cancer last year and was eager for this surgery to remove tumors on his sole remaining one. He was tested for the virus several times, including the night before his April 29 surgery.

“It was a little daunting” waiting,

he said. “I was constantly watching the clock.”

He’s now recovering at home in Sicklerville, New Jersey, and tested negative for the virus as recently as last week.

“The pandemic is posing incredible demands on the cancer care system” and the new studies show good reason for concern, said Dr. Howard Burris. He is president of the cancer society and heads the Sarah Cannon Research Institute in Nashville, Tennessee.

“We’re trying to minimize trips to the clinic” and telling older cancer patients and those with lung problems “to be extra vigilant, extra isolated, to stay at home, be careful with family members,” Burris said.

Nearly half of the patients in Warner’s study were receiving cancer treatment when diagnosed with Covid-19. The others either completed treatment, had not started it, been under observation or had cancer in the past. Researchers included all of these groups because some cancer treatments can affect the lungs or immune system years later and impact the odds of surviving coronavirus, he explained.

Men seemed to fare worse—17

percent of them died versus 9 percent of women. That might be because breast cancer was the most common tumor type in this group, and women with it tend to be younger and with fewer health problems versus many cancers seen in men that are typically diagnosed at later ages. Smoking also is more common among men.

The risk of death also seemed higher for patients taking the malaria drug hydroxychloroquine plus the antibiotic azithromycin, but this could be because sicker patients were given those drugs.

Of the 928 study participants, 89 took hydroxychloroquine and 181 took the combination.

The rate of death in patients getting both drugs was 25 percent, about double the 13 percent for the group as a whole, Warner said.

“We do not know if this is cause and effect,” and studies like this can’t prove such a link, he stressed. Use of hydroxychloroquine alone was not tied to a significantly higher risk of death, but there were fewer patients taking it this way. The study now has more than 2,000 patients enrolled and the next analysis will see if the trends stay the same, Warner said. AP

Masks can limit household spread before Covid-19 symptoms appear

F

ace masks can help keep the coronavirus from spreading within households—but only if they go on before symptoms appear, according to a study.

Masks were 79 percent effective at halting spread of the virus if at least one person in the home started wearing a face covering before anyone got sick, according to a survey

of 124 families in Beijing published in BMJ Global Health. Using disinfectant every day, opening the windows and staying at least 1 meter apart were also linked with lower infection risk.

The results support the idea that universal mask use could help keep people who don’t know they’re infected from spreading the

virus, the authors wrote. Families with members at high risk for transmission, such as medical workers, might consider wearing masks too, they said.

The families questioned in the sur vey i n c l u d e d 4 6 0 p e o p l e, w i t h h i g h e r - r i s k grandparents frequently under the same roof as children and grandchildren. Each

family had at least one confirmed Covid-19 case between late February and late March.

The survey also showed that spread within households is by no means guaranteed. About one in four of patients’ family members were infected, with such secondary transmission happening in about one-third of the families surveyed. Bloomberg News

In this April 16, 2020, file photo, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Dr. Robert Redfield, left, and Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, depart after accompanying President Donald Trump as he speaks about the coronavirus in the James Brady Press Briefing Room of the White House in Washington. Faith and science are both under unprecedented pressures during a pandemic that’s asked them to deliver comfort or certainty—while at times straining their relationship. But for some leaders of the US pandemic response, the two have worked in concert. AP/Alex Brandon

Faith and science work together for US infectious disease experts

By Elana Schor

N

The Associated Press

EW YORK—The relationship between faith and science has faced its share of strain during the coronavirus pandemic — but for some scientists leading the nation’s response, the two have worked in concert.

National Institutes of Health Director Francis Collins founded a nonprofit focused on “the harmony between science and biblical faith.”

Anthony Fauci, NIH’s senior infectious disease specialist, has said he isn’t active in organized religion but credited his Jesuit schooling with burnishing the values that drive his public service.

And Robert Redfield, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, describes his faith and his public health work as mutually reinforcing.

“One of the great things about faith is, you can approach life with a sense of hope—no matter what the challenges you’re dealing with, that there’s a path forward,” Redfield told The Associated Press.

The influence of faith on some of the government’s top coronavirus fighters illustrates its complicated connection to science. While tensions over public worship’s effect on public health arise amid the pandemic—with President Donald Trump declaring religious services “essential”—personal spirituality, in all of its forms, remains an unquestioned guidepost for some scientists guiding the US response.

Redfield said that during major crises he’s faced, such as his role responding to 2010’s Haiti earthquake and the death of his son, his faith had helped orient him toward the potential for “greater good” to arise from tragedy. Faith and science have not been in tension for him, Redfield said.

During the early weeks of the pandemic, the 68-year-old virologist was not as much of a fixture at the televised White House briefings as Fauci, his fellow Catholic.

But Redfield’s modesty is itself a facet of how his faith plays out in his public persona, as his longtime friend William Blattner put it.

Redfield sees people of faith as “not holier than anybody—we’re just who we are,” said Blattner, who co-founded University of Maryland’s Institute of Human Virology alongside Redfield and a third prominent AIDS researcher, Robert Gallo, in the mid-1990s.

“You don’t see him jumping up to the microphone. You see him speaking as he’s required,” Blattner said of his friend. Faith helps Redfield “filter out the noise and distraction” of the push to contain the virus, Blattner added, affording “him, and us, the ability to see more clearly.”

Redfield was tapped by Trump, while Collins and Fauci’s stints as government scientists predate 2016. Collins, for his part, was already a vocal advocate for communicating what he sees as

the consistency between religious belief and evidence-based science before he was named to lead NIH. After writing a 2006 book about his journey from youthful atheism to belief in God, the 70-year-old Collins founded the BioLogos Foundation to help further a dialogue about religion’s relationship to science. Since the pandemic began, he has received a major religion prize for his work.

“I see science as the most reliable way to study nature—and that includes this virus,” Collins said by e-mail.

“But science doesn’t help me with deeper questions like why suffering exists, what we are supposed to learn from it, what is the meaning of life, and whether there is a loving God who grieves with us at a time like this,” he added. “For that, I rely on what I have learned as a person of faith.”

Collins lauded the majority of American faith communities for treating the pandemic as an opportunity to live out their values by helping the vulnerable, adding that “most of that loving and altruistic behavior doesn’t get much attention.” He also offered careful criticism for the “occasional examples of churches who reject the scientific conclusions and demand the right to continue to assemble freely, even in the face of evidence that this endangers their whole community.”

Trump on Friday called for governors to allow in-person worship, vowing that “faith leaders will make sure that their congregations are safe as they gather and pray.” The president spoke as the CDC released recommendations for safe reopening of physical religious services, and faith gatherings that occurred this week largely operated with safeguards in place to help prevent the virus’ spread.

Fauci’s faith has shifted from the path of his Catholic upbringing to what he has described as a humanist belief system. The 36year veteran chief of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases told C-SPAN in 2015 that “I’m less enamored of organized religion than I am with the principles of humanity and goodness to mankind and doing the best that you can.”

While Fauci distanced himself from organized religion in that 2015 interview, he has described himself as Catholic and told CSPAN his Jesuit education had helped develop the “principles that I run my life by.” Those principles came into sharper view this month when Fauci recorded a video for graduates of high schools affiliated with the Jesuits, a Catholic order that focuses on service.

A f ter c it i ng “prec i sion of thought and economy of expression” as two watchwords, he invoked “social justice” as another value instilled by his Jesuit education. Fauci graduated in 1958 f rom New York ’s Reg is High School, a Jesuit institution.

Science

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

Disinfection cubicles for Covid-19 frontliners developed in PHL

T

o increase safety protocols for health-care workers, Filipino researchers are developing a disinfection technology called SaniPod, a self-containing cubicle similar to air showers meant for sanitizing frontliners as they exit Covid-19 patient wards.

With over 2,000 health-care workers now infected with Covid-19, the country continues to face a shortage of medical personnel amid the pandemic.

While some nurses have been working for longer shifts to respond to the increasing number of cases, data reveal that there are only six doctors for every 10,000 Filipinos.

The infection has made it harder for the country’s health capacity, as nearly 650 doctors are already infected with Covid-19 as of May 12.

Besides wearing personal protective equipment (PPE), disinfection cubicles, such as SaniPod, will ensure that medical personnel are given an extra layer of protection from Covid-19, as the cubicles are more efficient than the existing sanitation tents in terms of disinfection success.

Funded by the Department of Science and Technolog y-Philippine Council for Health Research and Development (DOST-PCHRD), the technology uses advanced features—such as acrylic walls for easy cleaning and disinfection of external and internal surfaces when placed in highly contagious and dense areas in the hospital.

SaniPod cubicles are also installed with automatic motion sensors to activate the entrance and exit doors, with different disinfectants coupled with UV light and uses a foot sanitation

unit to disinfect the undersurface of shoes. This will decrease contact with the surfaces of the cubicle, leading to lesser chances of microbes staying on the surfaces.

Aiming to distribute more than 100 units to various hospitals after development, the technology can also provide psychological assurance to healthcare workers, and a means of disinfection for Filipinos if placed in highly dense areas where a lot of people congregate such as public markets.

It was developed by a team from the UP Diliman College of Engineering—Prof. Eduardo Magdaluyo Jr., Engr. Jason Pechardo and Precision/ Instrumentation Technician Edgar Argote—in collaboration with UPD Chemistry (Dr Fe Carino and Eiza YuRoberto), Microbiology (Joyce Ibarra), UP Manila College of Medicine (Dr. Cathy Co and Dr. E Wang) and College of Public Health (Dr. Maita Lota and Mary Ann Sison), SaniPod is one of the efforts under the Surgical Innovation and Biotechnology Laboratory (Sibol)., a University of the Philippines Manila College of Medicine program which collaborates with scientists and engineers from UP Diliman.

Dr. Edward Wang, professor at UP College of Medicine and Philippine General Hospital, leads the Sibol Program. His team recently formed the Sibol Covid Task Force to respond to the increasing need for medical devices amid the Covid-19 pandemic.

Sibol is supported by DOST-PCHRD and it aims to use locally sourced material and technology to produce much needed surgical and medical devices in the country. S&T Media Service

SM Foundation scholargraduates pass bar exams

BusinessMirror

‘W

hen you dream, dream big!” This statement from the late SM founder Tatang Henry Sy Sr. was instilled in the minds of SM Scholar alumni Jay-Ann Ditchella, summa cum laude Batch 2011, and Kerven Flores, cum laude Batch 2012. It inspired them to strive hard in life to achieve their dreams and give their respective families a more comfortable life.

Ditchella and Flores are Accountancy graduates from the University of Negros Occidental Recoletos and University of San Carlos, respectively. Both dreamt bigger as they pursue further studies to become lawyers.

After passing the Certified Public Accountant (CPA) licensure examinations in October 2011, Dichella started working for an auditing firm.

The job enabled her to help her parents with their household expenses.

She established a small business for her family and sent her two younger siblings to school.

Although she has already given her family a better life, there’s a part of Dichella that urged her to be better, thus, the decision to take up law.

“You have to dream bigger. At the end of the day, one should try to pursue his or her passion. Only then one can feel more fulfilled in life,” she said.

She studied law at the University of Negros Occidental Recoletos as a working student. She immediately took the bar examinations after finishing law school but failed to make

SM scholar alumnus, Atty. Kerven Flores

it. She tried again and made it on her second attempt.

“I gave it much thought after failing. At first it was depressing but I was determined to push myself even more after that failure. Now, I am glad I did not give up,” she said.

“Success is not achieved overnight. I planned and took it one step at a time, one goal at a time,” she added.

As for Flores, his family of five managed to get by with a small sarisari store as the only means of income. Through the SM scholarship program, he was able to finish his undergrad studies which opened opportunities for him.

After getting a teaching position at the University of San Carlos, he decided to pursue law studies and finished it while working at an accounting firm in Manila.

“I get so much satisfaction and contentment seeing my parents happy with what we all have become,” Flores said.

“I know it is a challenge to pursue law while working but I am determined to change the life of my family. I know that it will be difficult for me to sustain the expenses for my studies as we are not well off. I used this to inspire myself to push harder in order to change our economic situation,” he added.

Ditchella and Flores were among the 2,103 passers out of 7,685 who took the 2019 Bar examinations.

Their journey is an inspiration for other SM scholars who, like them, dream of a better life for their family.

Sunday, May 31, 2020 A5

Companies find cradle for the new normal

P5M grant; R&D in the time of Covid-19 and beyond

A

By Lyn Resurreccion

s the government is now easing the quarantine level in the country to enable more businesses to restart and for more people to return to work in order to allow economic activity amid the new coronavirus disease pandemic, the Department of Science and Technology (DOST) is already laying the groundwork for enterprises to succeed beyond Covid-19 through research and development (R&D).

Besides R&D, the DOST, through the “Cradle Challenge 2020,” will provide P5 million in grant to each viable enterprise “to enable them to create and execute innovative ideas under the new normal” Under Cradle, short for “Collaborative research and development to leverage the economy,” the research universities or research and development institutes (RDIs) will help solve the problems posed by the companies, Science Undersecretary Rowena Cristina Guevara said.

“We are calling researchers from the academe and RDIs, and Filipino private companies to collaborate and formulate scientific and technological solutions that will shape the new normal for businesses,” Guevara said during the virtual news conference with the theme “R&D in the time of Covid-19 and Beyond.”

Four thematic areas

SM scholar alumna, Atty. Jay-Ann Ditchella

Sunday

Guevara, the DOST Undersecretary for Research and Development, explained that Cradle has four thematic areas that will respond to the needs of the new normal.

They are Sustainable Supply and Logistics; Products of the New Normal; Reinventing the Workplace; and Services that Transcend Boundaries.

The Sustainable Supply and Logistics theme will handle projects on redesigning the movement of supply, and creating resilient value chain and logistics networks.

“How will they make raw materials resilient and will not lose their value? Is there a new delivery channel? Is there localized sources for the products?” she asked mostly in Filipino.

Projects under Products of the New Normal will reevaluate the wants, needs and the changes in consumerproduct interaction, reformulate and develop more resilient products to the post-Covid norms.

Guevara said: “They might need to reinvent the product to minimize health risks and exposure and have the

product to be remotely distributed.”

In Reinventing the Workplace, companies should develop solutions, practices and tools that will aid companies cope with the needed changes in the workplace.

“How will you make a workplace safe? How will you provide smart tools for remote work?” she asked.

Projects on Services that Transcend Boundaries involve engineering tools and innovative solutions that can protect the company and their client from health hazards, and enable them to effective delivery of their services.

Eight priority sectors

Cradle will support eight priority sectors that are linked to the thematic areas.

These are: pharmaceuticals and drug development; natural products; medical devices; information and communications technology, electronics and communication; sectors promoting import-substituting of products, metals and minerals; innovative food industries; animal health and livestock; and plants and crops.

Every sector will have two to three projects that will be provided with grants, and they are linked to the thematic areas.

Guevara explained: “For example, in natural products, what will be the new workplace or the new value chain?”

How Cradle works

The higher educational institute (HEI) or RDI will have to partner with a Filipino private company.

The private company should provide at least 20 percent counterpart funding.

“More important,” Guevara said, is the company’s “commitment to adopt the technology after the research is finished.”

She explained that the researchers and the private company should form a partnership team to formulate and develop their ideas and project concepts.

DOST Caraga researchers innovate filter for face mask. DOST Caraga

They have to write a proposal to the DOST and a draft business plan on how the project concept will benefit the company.

They have to submit the proposal and the following documents—joint endorsement letter; technology adoption certificate; proof of business registration; and business permits for the past three years—to the DOST esubmission platform at http://dpmis. dost.gov.ph.

For more inquiries they may send an e-mail to s4c.ousecrd@dost.gov.ph.

The companies may submit their proposals from June 1 to 30.

In the project timeline, the DOST will evaluate the proposals from July to August; the project proponents will start the program implementation on September 1; develop a prototype by December 31; produce a viable product

by March 31, 2021; and pilot testing on June 20, 2021.

DOST projects in answer to Covid-19

It should be noted that as early as midFebruary, the DOST has already lined up projects and researches to answer the country’s concerns against the new coronavirus disease.

Science Secretary Fortunato de la Peña told the virtual news conference that the projects were started to be implemented in March and are currently being used.

The Science Chief noted that the DOST initiative merited its agency, the Philippine Council for Health Research and Development (PCHRD), to be mentioned in a report by the World Health Organization as among the “models in the world in implementing national research systems.”

“I am very proud about that publication released by WHO. I congratulate the PCHRD and its partners, the National Research System, the Department of Health (DOH) and the National Institutes of Health in the University of the Philippines,” de la Peña said.

Among the researches and projects the DOST implemented were: the Covid-19 test kit developed by scientist Dr. Raul Destura from his original dengue kit.

“We were among the first countries in the world that developed a test kit for Covid-19,” de la Peña proudly said.

Another project is the specimen

collection booth that was requested by the DOH for the use of the frontliners; ventilators, which were fabricated even before Covid-19 pandemic came because of lack of ventilators in small public hospitals.

Also included are the Respirator Venturi Valves to connect the oxygen mask and respirator, to enable two patients use one respirator; the Go Clean disinfecting cubicle which treat health workers who leave Covid wards.

The telemedeicine device, RX Box, aids the frontliners so they do not need to go near patients often because it could check their vital signs—such as the blood pressure, temperature, electrocardiogram, oxygen saturation and pulse rate. The data are transmitted to the nurses’ station so they do not have to go to the patients.

There were also breakthroughs on the frontliners’ personal protective equipment. The REwear, a reusable, washable and rewearable face mask, is made of water repellant fabric based on the by R&D of the Philippine Textile Research Institute.

There is the mass production of face shields using injection mold technology made by Metals Industry Research and Development Center; and the ready to eat food developed by DOST’s Industrial Development Technology Institute.

Sustainable technology

De la Peña and Guevara emphasized the sustainability of the research projects implemented by the DOST. De la Peña said that as time passes and a new need arises, the companies convert their products to new ones.

“That is the spirit of innovation,” he said.

Guevara cited that the technologies developed by the researches are “deep and solid.”

She gave as example the Covid-19 test kit developed by Destura which was originally for dengue.

“But since the technology is very solid, he [Destura] was able to convert it. In 21 days we already have a [Covid-19] test kit. That is the essence of sustainability, wherein the technology platform could be used in another application,” Guevara told the virtual presser in mixed English and Filipino.

Entries to Seameo-Japan ESD award being accepted A

ll public and private schools in 11 Southeast Asian countries are invited to submit entries for the 2020 Seameo-Japan Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) Award with the theme “Addressing Plastic Problems for Transforming Communities.”

The Southeast Asian Ministers of Education Organization (Seameo) and Japan’s Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology established the award, in cooperation with the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (Unesco) Asia and Pacific Regional Bureau for Education, and the Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ Ltd. It is in support to the “United Nations Decade of Education for Sustainable Development.”

Now in its ninth year, the award aims to raise and promote positive human values among both teachers

and students as well as share best practices in ESD in schools across Southeast Asia.

In 2017, Labuin Elementary School in Pila, Laguna, won the Seameo-Japan ESD third prize for its program “Intensification of the School Garden in Improving Nutrition of the School Children.”

The school carried out the winning program as a pilot site of the School and Home Gardens project, led by the Southeast Asian Regional Center for Graduate Study and Research in Agriculture (Searca), one of the oldest specialist institutions of Seameo.

This year’s Seameo-Japan ESD theme is aligned with Searca’s goal to contribute to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 12 on Responsible Consumption and Production as set in its 11th Five-Year Plan (2020-2025).

Headed by Dr. Glenn B. Gregorio, Searca is intent on implementing the“Accelerating Transformation Through Agricultural Innovation” program in the next five years.

All schools in Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Indonesia, Lao PDR, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Timor-Leste, and Vietnam are invited to submit information on their respective programs and activities, particularly on their program or initiative related to plastic waste management practices.

They must indicate how the initiative transformed the community, and provide impactful evidence in reducing the plastic usage, improving the plastic waste management system, and cleaning the ecosystem of the community.

Moreover, Seameo said entries should demonstrate the community engagement with multisectoral

partners that create mutual beneficial partnerships, deepen student learning experiences, support student growth, and sustain the society.

“The school should clearly demonstrate the integration of the school initiative in all schools’aspects such as school policy, management plan, curriculum, teaching and learning practices, co-curricular and student activities, partnership efforts, community participation, and so on,” Seameo added.

The first prize for the winning school includes $1,500 and a fully sponsored study tour to Japan for four to six persons.

Participating schools must ensure that their entries for the 2020 Seameo-Japan ESD Award are received by the Seameo Secretariat based in Bangkok, Thailand,

by August 14.

Faith

Sunday

A6 Sunday, May 31, 2020

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

‘No mask, no entry’ in Churches once government allows Masses to resume

C

atholic prelates last week said a “no mask, no entry” policy will be strictly implemented during Masses once the government allows Churches to reopen.

Fr. Reginald Malicdem, the rector of Manila Cathedral, celebrates Mass streamed online as a lockdown is imposed to slow the rate of the coronavirus disease spread in Metropolitan Manila, April 2. ROMAIN GARY LAZARO via CBCP News Balanga Bishop Ruperto Santos said his diocese will also limit the number of people that can be allowed inside the Churches.

“As we look forward to ‘new normal’ our Churches will open to all, but observing physical distancing with a designated seating capacity of just one-third of its total capacity.

Yes, ‘no mask, no entry,’” he said in an interview.

Santos said thermal thermom-

eters and hygiene items will also be provided to parishes.

“The Diocese provides two thermal [thermometers] for every parish, and a supply of alcohol. Anyone who will exceed [37 degrees Celsius] temperature will be asked to rest at home. We have informed through our web site, parish bulletins that our senior citizens and children below 20 are not to attend Holy Masses. They are excused,” he said.

Santos, however, said he does not see the need to have a logbook for those who will attend Mass.

“And in every Church, there is only one for its entry and exit. We will be strict for those who will attend, especially for above 60 and below 20 years of age,” he added.

W hile waiting for the government’s guidelines on the conduct of religious activities, Cubao Bishop Honesto Ongtioco said they are prepared to implement the Church’s guidelines as well.

“We still wait for government decree when we could start having Masses, but on our part we have prepared social distancing [and a] ‘no mask, no entry’ [policy],” he added.

Apostolic Administrator of the Archdiocese of Manila Bishop Broderick Pabillo said they will wait for the approved guidelines by the Inter-Agency Task Force on the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF-EID).

“All will have to have a mask. We are still waiting for the approval of our guidelines by NTF [National Task Force], then the IATF-EID. So far, they do not require registration of names but if they do we can find ways to do it,” he said.

The Catholic Church has earlier submitted its guidelines on the conduct of religious activities for the approval of the IATF-EID. Mass gatherings, including religious activities, are restricted to a maximum of five and 10 persons under the modified enhanced community quarantine and the general community quarantine, respectively. They remain prohibited under the enhanced community quarantine.

Many afraid to attend Mass due to coronavirus

Meanwhile, when a southern Philippine archdiocese resumed holding of public Masses last Sunday, the gatherings weren’t quite what Church authorities expected.

Archbishop Martin Jumoad of Ozamiz said the turnout at the city’s Immaculate Conception Cathedral was much lesser than the usual Sunday attendance.

“People are afraid to come to Church because of this pandemic.

Practically only a few attended our Masses when we opened the Church,” Jumoad said.

The prelate inaugurated the full opening of the cathedra l on May 17. Five other par ishes in the cit y held public Masses for the f irst time in t wo months, in the latest easing of coronav ir us restr ictions in the cit y.

Religious services were forbidden with the lockdown, which was eased in many parts of the country last week.

The archdiocese is holding Masses under strict new guidelines that were worked out between the Church and local government authorities.

The faithful will have to wear masks and observe physical distancing. The Churches also installed foot baths.

Ozamiz cathedral could accommodate around 1,500 worshippers.

“But in most Masses, Church attendance was only about 300 people,” Jumoad said.

“Still, it was good we did it and we hope next Sunday Church attendance will increase,” he said.

Monsignor Romualdo “Boy” Sosing, a native of Northern Samar, dies from coronavirus in New York on May 24. FR. MATT BROWNE

Another Filipino priest abroad dies to Covid-19 T

he first Filipino parish priest on New York’s Long Island has died after weeks of battling coronavirus.

Monsignor Romualdo “Boy” Sosing, a native of Northern Samar, died at a hospital on May 24, New York time. He was 67.

The priest was second term as pastor of the Holy Name of Mary Parish in Valley Stream when he contracted the virus in early May. “It is with great sadness that 6:15 tonight, Msgr.

Sosing, surrounded by his family, had passed and is now at peace,” the parish said in a Facebook post.

The Holy Name of Mary School (HNMS) also expressed condolences for the priest who served the parish since 2011.

“Monsignor Rom was a man of great faith, who believed in the power of prayer, especially the rosary,” said Pam Sanders, HNMS principal.

“He was a kind and gentle man, and he will

be greatly missed,” she added.

Ordained priest for the Diocese of Catarman in 1977, Msgr. Sosing served the Diocese of Rockville Centre since 2004.

Previously, he served as administrator of St. Luke’s Church, Brentwood, and associate pastor of Notre Dame, New Hyde Park and St. Dominic, Oyster Bay. Msgr. Sosing became a US citizen in 2013.

A Filipino missionary based in Spain had also succumbed to Covid-19 on May 1.

Augustinian Fr. Gilbert Luis Centina III, an award-winning author and poet, died in León city in northwest Spain. He was 72.

In the Philippines, the first priest to die from the disease was recorded in the Davao region.

Fr. Arnel Celis of the Diocese of Tagum died on April 27. He was the first Covid-19 death in Tagum City. CBCP News

PNA and CBCP News

U.S. worship houses slowly emerge from lockdown F

or the first time in two months, there was clapping, singing and fellowship inside Stithton Baptist Church in Radcliff, Kentucky, as members of the congregation returned to the sanctuary for Sunday morning services. There were also masks, hand sanitizer and social distancing.

On a weekend when President Donald J. Trump declared houses of worship essential and asked governors to reopen them, some congregants around the country headed for their places of worship with numerous precautions in place.

Those services in the US followed a frantic two days in which at least one governor reached an agreement with religious leaders in Minnesota to ease restrictions on in-person services while a federal appeals court upheld another’s continuing shutdown of such services.

For Stithton Baptist, the reopening wasn’t about restrictions, Trump’s declaration or the release of guidelines by the federal Centers for Disease, Control (CDC) and Prevention for reopening faith organizations.

On May 8, a federal court halted Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear’s temporary ban on mass gatherings from applying to in-person religious services, clearing the way for Sunday church services, with guidelines. Pastor Denver Copeland said his congregation has been meeting in the church parking lot for drive-in services since March 29 and hasn’t rushed back, even though his sanctuary space meets the 33 percent occupancy requirement.

“We just weren’t ready,” the pastor said.

They made their plans to hold in-person services three weeks ago.

Copeland said CDC release of religious guidelines “made it all the more legit” for the timing of their return to in-church services.

Muslims wearing face masks and in safe distance with each other attend the Eid al-Fitr prayers outside a mosque in Gaza City on May 24. Millions of Muslims worldwide marked a muted and gloomy religious festival of Eid al-Fitr, the end of the fasting month of Ramadan, a usually joyous three-day celebration that has been significantly toned down as coronavirus cases soar.

AP/Khalil Hamra

In a sanctuary which can legally accommodate 1,400, the normal Sunday attendance is 200. Every other pew was marked off to enforce social distancing and individual bags of masks, gloves and hand sanitizer were available at all three entrances that were left open prior to and after the service.

Tension over when and how to reopen houses of worship has varied depending on the state, as different areas set their own pace for easing pandemic stay-at-home orders.

While many announced they would resume in-person services on Pentecost Sunday, others joined Stithton in returning to their places of worship.

Faith Baptist Church in Palmhurst, Texas, west of McAllen, held an hour-long service.

The church announced its plans on its web

site on May 19, along with an extensive list of precautions, including urging members over 65 or those with immune system vulnerabilities to consider viewing the service online.

“We’re doing our best to follow what the government has asked us to do. But we also want to be able to try and have services so this is probably how it‘s going to be looking for at least a few weeks,” Tad Wychopen II, the assistant pastor, told the attendees.

During his message Senior Pastor R. David Harris also emphasized the cautious approach.

“Church gathering is important but at this point there’s still health issues and we still don’t know where things are going,” he said.

Many in the Muslim community took a different path in celebrating the Eid al-Fitr—the feast of breaking the fast—that marks the end

of Ramadan, when Muslims abstain from food and drink from sunrise to sunset.

Just like they did during Ramadan, many resorted to at-home worship and relied on technology for online gatherings, sermons and, now, Eid entertainment.

Sheikh Yasir Qadhi, resident scholar at East Plano Islamic Center in Texas, delivered an Eid sermon broadcast online from a mosque closed to the public.

Outside, his mosque organized a drivethrough Eid celebration, one of many at mosques around the country, for kids in cars to pick up goody bags while maintaining social distancing.

Over the weekend at least one standoff between a governor eased while another intensified.

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz announced he scrapped his 10-person limit on group gatherings and allowing churches to open at 25 percent occupancy if cer tain safety guidelines are met.

While the leader of the Catholic Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, Archbishop Bernard Hebda, welcomed the change, he said parishes should not open if they don’t feel they can meet safety measures.

The Roman Catholic and Lutheran ChurchMissouri Synod congregations had announced they planned to defy Walz’s previous order.

The battle over in-person services continued in California. A split 9th Circuit Court of Appeals panel upheld California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s ban on in-person services. He vowed to provide plans Monday for how religious institutions can reopen.

Many in California had already announced they would violate the state order and hold in-person services on Pentecost Sunday. AP

Beatification of Knights of Columbus founder Fr. Michael McGivney OK’d

V

ATICAN—Pope Francis approved a miracle attributed to the intercession of Fr. Michael J. McGivney this past week, paving the way for the beatification of the founder of the Knights of Columbus.

During a May 26 meeting with Cardinal Angelo Becciu, the prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, the pope authorized the congregation to issue a decree recognizing the miracle.

McGivney founded the Knights of Columbus in 1882. Today it is the world’s largest Catholic fraternal service organization, with nearly 2 million members in more than a dozen countries.

Born in Waterbury, Connecticut, in 1852, McGivney played a critical role in the growth of the Church in the United States in the latter part of the 19th century.

After his ordination in Baltimore in 1877, he served a largely Irish-American and immigrant community in New Haven.

A m i d a n a n t i - Ca t h o l i c c l i m a t e , h e established the Knights to provide spiritual aid

to Catholic men and financial help for families that had lost their breadwinner.

A news release from the Knights of Columbus on May 27 said the miracle recognized by Pope Francis involved an unborn child in the United States who was healed in utero of a life-threatening condition in 2015 after his family prayed to Fr. McGivney.

It added that a date would be set soon for the beatification Mass, which will take place in Connecticut.

Supreme Knight Carl A. Anderson said: “Fr. McGivney has inspired generations of Catholic men to roll up their sleeves and put their faith into action. He was decades ahead of his time in giving the laity an important role within the Church.”

“Today, his spirit continues to shape the extraordinary charitable work of Knights as they continue to serve those on the margins of society as he served widows and orphans in the 1880s.

“Fr. McGivney also remains an important role model for parish priests around the world and left us a transformative legacy of effective cooperation between the laity and clergy.”

McGivney’s sainthood cause officially opened in 1997 in the Archdiocese of Hartford, Connecticut. In 2008, Pope Benedict XVI declared the American-born priest a Venerable Servant of God in recognition of his life of heroic virtue.

In 2000, an investigation into a miracle attributed to McGivney’s intercession was completed. But in 2011, the Vatican ruled that the event was not miraculous in nature.

In 2012, another possible miracle was reported and placed under investigation.

Following his beatification, McGivney’s cause will require one more authenticated miracle before he can be considered for canonization.

He would not be the first member of the Knights of Columbus to be canonized. A group of six Mexican members of the organization were martyred during the Cristero War of 1926-29 and its aftermath.

The six are St. Luis Batis, St. Rodrigo Aguilar, St. Miguel de la Mora, St. Pedro de Jesús Maldonado, St. José María Robles, and St. Mateo Correa.

Catholic News Agency/CBCP News

A portrait of Fr. Michael J. McGivney, by Antonella Cappuccio. KNIGHTS OF COLUMBUS

Erika Bermudez becomes emotional as she leans over the grave of her mother Eudiana Smith after she was buried in Bayview Cemetery on May 2 in Jersey City, New Jersey. Bermudez was not allowed to approach the gravesite until after cemetery workers had buried her mother completely; other members of the family and friends stayed in their cars. AP/Seth Wenig

Funerals become lonely affairs amid pandemic

J

ERSEY CITY, New Jersey—Mohammad Altaf, the generous spirit. Eudiana Smith, the trailblazer. Servius Collin, the caretaker. All were taken by Covid-19. And in death, all were robbed of the funerals they deserved.

As the coronavirus pandemic worked its way beyond 100,000 US deaths, a wave of shaken families has had to honor the dead apart and in small groups during an era of social distancing.

Restrictions on gatherings are only now being loosened, and many have been forced to deny themselves the collective show of affection that helps the living cope with grief.

When Smith, a retired mental health professional who died at age 73, was laid to rest at a cemetery this month near her home in Jersey City, New Jersey, mourners watched from their cars as workers interred the casket.

Then, only one person at a time was allowed at her graveside.

“My mother was healthy and still full of life,” said her daughter, Erika Bermudez.

She called her mother a trailblazer, the first in the family to emigrate from Jamaica to the United States.

“I was robbed of the experience of being able to celebrate her life in a manner that would offer some kind of respect for the woman she was,” Bermudez said.

Bermudez did her best, live streaming the ceremony to friends and family who couldn’t attend.

After Altaf, a car service driver and father of three young children, died in Brooklyn at age 48, two dozen men gathered at Al-Rayaan Muslim Funeral Services on May 17 for the traditional washing and prayer ceremonies.

“My brother, he’s got so many good friends, I was expecting maybe too many people would participate in the funeral,” said his younger

brother, Tariq Aziz. “But because of this kind of situation, it’s very risky.”

Still, Aziz said, he is grateful to have given his brother his last rites, as the devoutly religious man known among his fellow Pakistanis for generosity and kindness would have wished.

“People who passed away with this kind of disease, the people, they don’t want to touch it,” Aziz said. “We’re trying not to think too much. We just keep praying for him that his soul is at peace and rest.”

Both New York and New Jersey have, in the past few days, loosened rules that had previously all but shut funerals down by barring groups of people from gathering.

But even the new rules will require subdued funerals.

Groups of as many as 10 people are now allowed in New York as long as mourners stay 6 feet apart. Groups of as many as 25 people are allowed in New Jersey if the ceremony is outdoors, or 10 people if indoors.

Before his death last month at age 79, Servius Collin, of Newark, New Jersey, rarely missed gatherings of his tight-knit Haitian family, especially funerals.

His own would be a quiet affair.

Three of his children and two of their spouses gathered for a brief viewing at a Newark funeral home on April 30 to see him lay in a sharp suit, red paisley tie and fashionable fedora.

The family waited on the porch of the funeral home until the door was unlocked. They were ushered in and had about 15 minutes to pay their respects and take some pictures to send to relatives who couldn’t attend.

Diuene Collin said he felt as if his father had died “with no dignity.”

“I kept on saying,” he said, “if I knew my dad was going to leave me like this, that I would have spent more time with him.” AP

Biodiversity Sunday BusinessMirror

Asean Champions of Biodiversity Media Category 2014

Sunday, May 31, 2020

Editor: Lyn Resurreccion

A7

Conserving nature will prevent pandemics

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By Jonathan L. Mayuga

Mass death of birds, she said, may be linked to pathogenic diseases, which need to be investigated to prevent a possible outbreak that may lead to a pandemic .

Like birds, bats have been implicated to diseases, citing the case of Covid-19.

In Southeast Asia, Lim said there are 356 bat species, of which 30 percent are mainly fruit bats and nectar feeders, and around 20 percent are insect bats.

The rest, she said, feed on rodents and large insects. Almost 20 percent of all bat species are threatened.

ITH almost 5.7 million cases and more than 350,000 deaths globally as of May 27, the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) is indeed causing a global threat.

In the Philippines, there were almost 14,700 Covid-19 cases and almost 900 deaths during the same period as the country was preparing to downgrade the strict quarantine status, especially in Metropolitan Manila, that was imposed since March 15.

Recognizing the linkages of biodiversity and health, and the regional efforts to integrate biodiversity conservation into its Covid-19 response, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) is calling for nature’s conservation to prevent future pandemics.

Biodiversity and pandemics

The call was made during a webinar organized by the Asean Secretariat (ASEC) and the Asean Centre for Biodiversity (ACB), dubbed “Biodiversity and Preventing Future Pandemics,” on May 20. A panel of experts engaged the audience from the Asean memberstates about nature’s role in preventing future pandemics.

The activity was part of the efforts of ASEC and ACB to increase their communication activities and mainstream biodiversity across various sectors and disciplines before the International Day for Biological Diversity (IDBD) last May 22.

With the theme, “Our solutions are in nature,” the observance of the IDBD highlights the global call to citizens to re-examine their relationship with nature.

Nature-based solution

Since it is widely believed that the problem—severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARSCoV-2), which causes the Covid-19— came from wild animals, experts consider that the solution to the disease, as well as other future pandemics, should also come from nature.

Asean Deputy Secretary-General Kung Phoak, for Socio-Cultural Community, in his remarks, underscored the importance of nature-based solutions to prevent future pandemics through cross-sectoral collaboration

and multi-stakeholder engagement.

The Asean leaders have recently expressed risk concerns about the spread of the new disease and its effects on the wellbeing of the people and global socioeconomic development through the declaration of a special summit on Covid-19 response, he said.

Moreover, Kung said the Asean leaders have also emphasized the importance of a coherent, multisectoral, multi-stakeholder and wholeof-Asean community approach in ensuring Asean timely and effective response to the pandemic and future public health emergencies.

He encouraged individuals and communities to become “bio-literate” to adopt behaviors that addresses the root cause of future pandemic and zoonosis.

Covid-19 in Asean

Acep Somatri, director of the Bureau of International Cooperation of Indonesia’s Ministry of Health who spoke on behalf of Drg. Oscar Primadi, chairman of the Senior Officials’ Meeting on Health Development and Secretary-General of the Ministry of Health of Indonesia, said Asean has a total of 69,842 cases and 2,220 deaths as of the date of the webinar.

The latest report, he said, indicated an increasing rate of infection, in the region, with Singapore topping the list, followed by Indonesia and the Philippines.

The Asean mechanism and actions for coordinated Covid-19 response was put in place by the region’s leaders, who provided the policy and guidelines as reflected in several statements and declarations.

Health sector mechanism

Likewise, Somatri said Asean health sector mechanisms and platforms were mobilized as part of their response to the global pandemic.

Asean health ministers also lined up priorities in Covid-19 pandemic response—such as enhanced sharing of timely data and information, coordination for cross-border

Biodiversity means cure

The Mu Ko Ang Thong National Park is a protected area in Surat Thani province in Thailand. The 102 square kilometres archipelago is a protected area composed of diverse ecosystems, such as coral reefs, seagrass, mangroves and karst ecosystems. Asean Centre for Biodiversity

contact-tracing and outbreak investigations, enhanced cooperation in real-time capacity-building, sharing technical, material and financial resources, and enhanced collaboration in research.

When the coronavirus is defeated, the health ministers also agreed that they would be together in strengthening and institutionalizing regional mechanisms, and intensify cooperation in Covid-19 response.

Greater cooperation

ACB Executive Director Theresa Mundita S. Lim, a wildlife management expert, meanwhile, stressed the need for greater cooperation within the region and with other regional bodies and governments of the world to prevent future pandemics.

Providing a background on Asean biodiversity and zoonoses—or diseases which can be transmitted to humans from animals—Lim said two-thirds of known human infectious diseases are zoonotic, and 75 percent of new and emerging diseases are likewise identified with zoonoses.

Other studies, she added, even suggested that around 90 percent of diseases are linked to animal wildlife.

However, she said earlier that although studies to confirm the possible animal source of Covid-19 are still ongoing, some animals like bats, pangolins—the most traded wildlife on the planet—and even civet cats are being linked to the dreaded coronavirus.

Citing recent data that there may be around 1.7 million unidentified viruses believed to still exist in mammals and water birds that can

infect people, she expressed fears that Covid-19 may not be the last.

Biodiversity and Asean

Lim said biodiversity and health, including zoonotic diseases, are interlinked.

She said biodiversity loss often result in health problems.

“The decline of species can trigger the spillover of viruses that are dormant or inactive, leading to their transmission to both domestic animals and humans. This grim data should serve as a warning to all of us,” Lim said.

She explained that biodiversity encompasses not only plant and animal wildlife species, but the entire ecosystems—both terrestrial and marine ecosystems, including freshwater ecosystems.

While relatively small compared to other regions, Asean is one of the richest in terms of biodiversity, Lim said.

Asean represents only about 3 percent of the Earth’s surface area, but 18 percent of known plants and animals can be found in it.

It also boasts of rich marine and coastal species and ecosystems, having around 173,000-kilometer shorelines.

Link to wildlife species

Wildlife as a source of human disease is often indirect.

While wildlife is often suggested as the origin of a disease, it usually passes through domestic animals that act as “mixing vessels” or “disease bridges” for otherwise latent or dormant pathogens in wildlife reservoirs, Lim explained.

“Clearly, there’s a link to wildlife species and we are at risk because of this certain threats,” she said.

Lim added that wildlife trade is also an opportunity for contact between humans and wildlife.

Because of illegal wildlife trade, virus and diseases jump directly from wildlife to humans, without passing through domestic animals.

Hence, she said, increasing interaction between humans and wildlife also increases the opportunities for direct infection.

Besides trading, poaching and hunting, by keeping animals as pets or consuming them, are ways for virus and diseases to transfer.

Pressure on ecosystems, birds, bats

Lim said the pressure on ecosystems—by destructive development projects, land-use conversion, human encroachment of w i ld life habitats or ecosystems—add to the problem.

The same pressure is being experienced in marine areas by pollution and destruction of ecosystems, which increase the interaction between humans and animals, such as in the case of water birds.

Asean is gifted with diverse species of birds, a reason why the risk of coronavirus passing on to humans is possible.

There are 2,779 avian species in Southeast Asia, 56 are already critically endangered, 85 are endangered, and 184 are vulnerable.

For duck species, two are already critically endangered, two are endangered and five are vulnerable.

Biodiversity loss, eventually, result in the loss of sources of medicines necessary for the treatment of diseases, not only at present, but also in the future.

Among ACB’s initiatives, Lim said, is mainstreaming biodiversity, and working with Asean member-countries to protect and conserve the wilderness through the Asean Heritage Park (AHP) Program.

AHPs support the protection of the remaining important ecosystems in the region, which are also valuable habitats that act as refuge for wildlife.

Along with the AHP Program, Lim said ACB is focused on helping cause a transformational change in all levels of society through mainstreaming of biodiversity.

It is working with various sectors and is transitioning to a new, and hopefully a “better normal” situation through a change in the mindset and behavior, a new development paradigm and care for the environment in everyday decisions, she said.

During the webinar, Unnikrishnan Payyappalimana of the International Institute for Global Health of the United Nations University shared the highlights of the scoping study on the interlinkages of health and biodiversity of the ACB, in cooperation with UNU-IIGH, Kuala Lumpur and supported by Asean-EU Biodiversity Conservation and Management of Protected Areas in Asean.

Meanwhile, Tan Sri Zakri bin Abdul Hamid, a Malaysian resource economics and environmental valuation expert, said nature must not be forgotten while governments are saving human lives and rebooting the economy in their post-Covid 19 response.

“After all, the root cause of zoonotic diseases, such as Covid-19, is the destruction of wildlife habitats, a fact endorsed by most scientific community,” Zakri said.

World carbon pollution falls 17% during pandemic peak Globe taps stakeholders to decarbonize PHL’s econ K T ENSINGTON, Maryland—The world cut its daily carbon-dioxide emissions by 17 percent at the peak of the pandemic shutdown last month, a new study found.

But with life and heat-trapping gas levels inching back toward normal, the brief pollution break will likely be “a drop in the ocean” when it comes to climate change, scientists said.

In their study of carbon-dioxide emissions during the coronavirus pandemic, an international team of scientists calculated that pollution levels are heading back up—and for the year will end up between 4 percent and 7 percent lower than 2019 levels. That’s still the biggest annual drop in carbon emissions since World War II. It’ll be 7 percent if the strictest lockdown rules remain all year long across much of the globe, 4 percent if they are lifted soon.

For a week in April, the United States cut its carbon-dioxide levels by about one-third.

China, the world’s biggest emitter of heattrapping gases, sliced its carbon pollution by nearly a quarter in February, according to a study this past week in the journal Nature Climate Change.

India and Europe cut emissions by 26 percent and 27 percent, respectively.

The biggest global drop was from April 4 through 9 when the world was spewing 18.7 million tons (17 million metric tons) of carbon pollution a day less than it was doing on New Year’s Day. Such low global emission levels haven’t been recorded since 2006. But if the world returns to its

Empty lanes of the 110 Arroyo Seco Parkway that leads to downtown Los Angeles is seen during the coronavirus outbreak in Los Angeles, California, on April 26. AP/Mark J. Terrill slowly increasing pollution levels next year, the temporary reduction amounts to “a drop in the ocean,” said study lead author Corinne Le Quere, a climate scientist at the University of East Anglia.

“It’s like you have a bath filled with water and you’re turning off the tap for 10 seconds,” she said.

By April 30, the world carbon pollution levels had grown by 3.3 million tons (3 million metric tons) a day from its low point earlier in the month.

Carbon dioxide stays in the air for about a century.

Outside experts praised the study as the most comprehensive yet, saying it shows how much effort is needed to prevent dangerous levels of further global warming.

“That underscores a simple truth: Individual behavior alone...won’t get us there,” Pennsylvania State University climate scientist Michael Mann, who wasn’t part of the study, said in an email. “We

need fundamental structural change.”

If the world could keep up annual emission cuts like this without a pandemic for a couple decades, there’s a decent chance Earth can avoid another 1.8 degrees (1 degree Celsius) of warming from now, study authors said.

But getting the type of yearly cuts to reach that international goal is unlikely, they said.

If next year returns to 2019 pollution levels, it means the world has only bought about a year’s delay in hitting the extra 1.8 degrees (1 degree Celsius) of warming that leaders are trying to avoid, Le Quere said.

That level could still occur anywhere from 2050 to 2070, the authors said.

The study was carried out by Global Carbon Project, a consortium of international scientists that produces the authoritative annual estimate of carbon-dioxide emissions.

They looked at 450 databases showing daily energy use and introduced a measurement scale for pandemic-related societal “confinement” in its estimates.

Nearly half the emission reductions came from less transportation pollution, mostly involving cars and trucks, the authors said.

By contrast, the study found that drastic reductions in air travel only accounted for 10 percent of the overall pollution drop.

In the US, the biggest pollution declines were seen in California and Washington with plunges of more than 40 percent. AP

he Philippines is one of the most vulnerable to climate hazards in the world. While mounting risks have signaled a sense of urgency for all corporate players to actively build operational resilience, it also provides an immense opportunity for companies to tap into new ways of doing things for a sustainable future.

Globe Telecom Inc. recognizes this opportunity, and the company is facilitating individual customers and industries in the use of digitization and connectivity to reduce carbon footprint.

“It has been said that this is the last generation that can actually help save the planet.

Companies should make a very visible move toward environmental conservation. Not only companies but also this generation of employees should be the ones to initiate all this and make that important move for the future generations.” Ernest L. Cu, Globe president and CEO. Globe’s environmental stewardship is governed by its Environmental Sustainabilit y Polic y which defines the contours of the company’s environmental sustainability agenda.

Globe designs various initiatives to actualize the vision set in the policy and has so far achieved carbon neutrality for its select corporate offices.

It has deployed 6,948 Green Net work Solutions—such as fuel cells systems, direct current hybrid generators, free cooling system and lithiumion batteries; planted 627,226 seedlings since 2010 and encourages customers to join via donations to key partners; saved 655 tons of paper from 40.9 million customers who availed of paperless billing.

It has also recycled over 343,000 kilograms

of electronic waste mainly composed of broken mobile phones, computers, and other gadgets from its operations, employees, partners and customers and diverted over 10 percent waste from landfills.

Globe’s approach to waste management focuses on waste minimization at source, effective waste segregation and safe disposal of waste. It banned single-use plastics within its headquarters and embarked on an employee education campaign called Wassup, or “Wag Sa Single Use Plastic,” aimed at educating employees on the impacts of plastics to the environment.

Likewise, to decarbonize its operations and enhance clean energy procurement, the company shifted to buying power directly from power plants producing renewable energy in 2019, as well as engaged partners for potential implementation of renewable energy solutions like solar panels and fuel cells within its operations.

Globe also encourages employees to limit the use of motorized vehicles for business commuting through the introduction of telecommuting, flexible work arrangement and carpooling.

Meanwhile, Globe is dedicated to contributing to the preservation of the invaluable biodiversity of the Philippines through awareness building and social innovation and spearheaded a program focusing on marine biodiversity conservation.

All these initiatives are results of the company’s climate strategy that assessed various facets of its operations that are dedicated toward making meaningful contributions to anchor the Philippines’s vision to decarbonize the economy by 70 percent by 2030.

A8 Sunday, May 31, 2020

By Pat Eaton-Robb The Associated Press

H

ARTFORD, Connecticut—Connecticut’s policy allowing transgender girls to compete as girls in high-school sports violates the civil-rights of athletes who have always identified as female, the US Education Department has determined in a decision that could force the state to change course to keep federal funding and influence others to do the same.

A letter from the department’s civil-rights office, a copy of which was obtained Thursday

by The Associated Press, came in response to a complaint filed last year by several cisgender female track athletes who argued that two transgender female runners had an unfair physical advantage.

The office said in the 45-page letter that it may seek to withhold federal funding over the policy, which allows athletes to participate under the gender with which they identify. The policy is a violation of Title IX, the federal civil-rights law that guarantees equal education opportunities for women, including in athletics, the office said.

It has “denied female student-athletes athletic benefits and opportunities, including advancing to the finals in events, higher-level competitions, awards, medals, recognition, and the possibility of greater visibility to colleges and other benefits,” according to the letter, which is dated May 15.

The Connecticut Interscholastic Athletic Conference says its policy complies with a state law barring schools from discriminating against transgender students.

“Connecticut law is clear and students who identify as female are to be recognized as female for all purposes—including high-school sports,” the athletic conference said in a statement. “To do otherwise would not only be discriminatory but would deprive high-school students of the meaningful opportunity to participate in educational activities, including interscholastic sports, based on sex-stereotyping and prejudice sought to be prevented by Title IX and Connecticut state law.”

The federal decision carries implications beyond Connecticut, said Roger Brooks, an

attorney for the Alliance Defending Freedom, which represents the girls who brought the complaint.

“Around the nation, districts are going to want to be reading this, because it does have legal implications,” he said. “It is a first decision from the agency charged with enforcing Title IX addressing the question of whether males on the playing field or on the track are depriving girls of opportunities consistent with Title IX.” The decision by the civil-rights office names the conference, along with the school districts for which the transgender runners and those filing the complaint competed—Glastonbury, Bloomfield, Hartford, Cromwell, Canton and Danbury.

The office said it will “either initiate administrative proceedings to suspend, terminate, or refuse to grant or continue and defer financial assistance” to the conference and those districts or refer the cases to the US Department of Justice.

In its letter, the civil-rights office said that it notified the athletic conference and the school districts of its pending decision in February, but that later negotiations failed to result in an agreement.

“All that today’s finding represents is yet another attack from the Trump administration on transgender students,” said Chase Strangio, who leads transgender justice initiatives for the American Civil Liberties Union’s (ACLU) LGBT and HIV Project.

“Trans students belong in our schools, including on sports teams, and we aren’t backing down from this fight,” Strangio said.

The dispute, already the subject of a federal lawsuit, centers on two transgender sprinters, Terry Miller and Andraya Yearwood, who have frequently outperformed their competitors, winning a combined 15 girls state indoor or outdoor championship races since 2017, according to the lawsuit.

The ACLU’s lawyers for the transgender athletes have argued both are undergoing hormone treatments that have put them on an equal footing with the girls they are competing against.

Brooks said he hopes the judge in the lawsuit will take the Education Department decision into consideration.

Sports BusinessMirror

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

TRANSGENDERS’ SAGA CONTINUES

BLOOMFIELD High School’s Terry Miller (second from left) wins the final of the 55-meter dash over fellow transgender athlete Andraya Yearwood (far left) and other runners in the Connecticut girls Class S indoor track meet at Hillhouse High School in New Haven, Connecticut, in February last year. AP

One of the plaintiffs, Chelsea Mitchell, won two state indoor title races over Miller this year.

Mitchell, a senior, said Thursday that she is both happy and relieved by the Department of Education’s decision.

“It feels like we are finally headed in the right direction, and that we will be able to get justice for the countless girls along with myself that have faced discrimination for years,” she said. “It is liberating to know that my voice, my story, my loss, has been heard; that those championships I lost mean something.”

The plaintiffs sought to block the participation of Miller and Yearwood, both seniors, from spring track meets, which were later canceled because of the Covid-19 pandemic.

They were also seeking to erase all records set by the transgender athletes.

Connecticut is one of 18 states, along with Washington, D.C., that allow transgender highschool athletes to compete without restrictions, according to Transathlete.com.

Several other states have polices barring the participation of transgender athletes, and Idaho recently became the first to pass a law banning transgender women from competing in women’s sports.

The ACLU and Legal Voice filed a federal lawsuit contending that law violates the US Constitution because it is discriminatory and an invasion of privacy.

Boston Marathon canceled due to worldwide Covid-19 crisis

T

HE Boston Marathon was canceled after race organizers decided it was “not feasible” to hold the event this year because of the coronavirus pandemic.

The race was originally set last month, but was postponed to September 14 because of the pandemic.

Organizers now decided to cancel the traditional running of the world’s oldest annual marathon, but will replace it with a virtual alternative, according to The Boston Globe.

“The Boston Athletic Association [BAA], with our input and support, has determined that the traditional one-day running of the 124th Boston Marathon is not feasible this year for public health reasons,” Boston Mayor Martin Walsh said.

“There’s no way to hold this usual race format without bringing large numbers of people into close proximity,” Walsh said. “While our goal and hope was to make progress in containing the virus and recovering our economy, this kind of event would not be responsible or realistic on September 14 or anytime this year.”

The BAA announced plans for a virtual alternative between September 7 and 14 as part of a larger Marathon Week of virtual events and activities.

All entrants to this year’s race will be offered a full refund of their race fee and will be invited to run in the virtual alternative.

“Our top priority continues to be safeguarding the health of the community, as well as our staff, participants, volunteers, spectators, and supporters,” BAA chief executive Thomas Grilk said. “While we cannot bring the world to Boston in September, we plan to bring Boston to the world for an historic 124th Boston Marathon.”

In April, 60 wheelchair racers took part in a virtual version of the race after the event’s initial postponement.

The race, which started in 1897 and is traditionally held on Patriots Day, the third Monday in April, is part of the World Marathon Majors along with Tokyo, London, Berlin, Chicago and New York City.

It is estimated to contribute $200 million to the economy of Massachusetts.

Kenya’s Lawrence Cherono and Ethiopia’s Worknesh Degefa won the men’s and women’s elite races in 2019.

The United States has been the country worst affected by the coronavirus pandemic, with more than 1.75 million reported cases and more than 102,000 deaths.

Insidethegames

Chloe Daos and Thirdy Ravena are named Ateneo’s top athletes of the year.

BASKETBALL STAR RAVENA, SWIM ACE DAOS HONORED

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HIRDY RAVENA and Chloe Daos, two of Ateneo’s most dominant student-athletes in the scrapped University Athletic Association of the Philippines (UAAP) Season 82, were recently hailed as the Guidon-Moro Lorenzo awardees for the year.

Ravena became the first basketball player to win the Sportsman of the Year award since Nonoy Baclao shared the award in 2010 with judoka JR Reyes.

Swimming sensation Daos, on the other hand, hoisted her Sportswoman of the Year trophy, which she also won in her rookie year in 2018. The 20-year-old was also named this year’s Ambrosio Padilla Athlete of the Year.

The two stalwarts had a fruitful Season 82 campaign.

The 23-year-old Ravena was part of the national men’s team to the 2019 Fiba World Cup Asian Qualifiers and steered the Blue Eagles to an immaculate 16-0 sweep of the UAAP men’s tournament.

To cap his collegiate career, he also became the first-ever three-time Finals Most Valuable Player in the 82-year history of the league.

Daos, meanwhile, continued her dominant run in the pool, winning all seven of her events

during the four-day meet last October to increase her collegiate tally to 21 gold medals.

In her last swim for the season, she broke the five-year record of fellow Moro Lorenzo awardee Hannah Dato, clocking two minutes and 19.03 seconds to erase Dato’s 2:19.71 in the 200-m butterfly from the books.

The other nominees for the Sportsman of the Year awards were reigning two-time UAAP backstroke king Aki Cariño and men’s foil of fencing gold medalist Jaime Viceo. The two other finalists for the Sportswoman of the Year race were women’s badminton co-Finals MVPs Geva de Vera and Chanelle Lunod.

Daos also bested Romina Gavino and reigning two-time UAAP men’s judo middleweight champion Bernie Margulies.

The Guidon-Moro Lorenzo and Ambrosio Padilla Athletes of the Year awards are presented annually and are part of the Loyola Schools Awards for Leadership and Service.

The Moro Lorenzo award recognize athletes “who have shown excellence and utmost dedication in their sport.”

The Ambrosio Padilla award, on the other hand, goes to athletes who exemplify the ideals of the late senator of mens sana in corpore sano.

Baseball players want more games, no more pay cuts

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EW YORK—Baseball players appeared likely to propose more regular-season games this year while holding to their demand for full prorated salaries, people familiar with their deliberations told The Associated Press.

Washington pitcher Max Scherzer, among eight players on the union’s executive subcommittee, issued a statement late Wednesday night calling management’s proposal for more salary cuts a non-starter.

A day after Major League Baseball (MLB) proposed a sliding scale of salary slashing for a pandemic-delayed season with an 82-game schedule in ballparks without fans, the union held a conference call Wednesday that included

its executive board, player representatives and alternate player representatives, the people said.

They spoke on condition of anonymity because no details were announced.

Scherzer, among the sport’s highest-paid players, confirmed the call without divulging who was on it.

“After discussing the latest developments with the rest of the players there’s no need to engage with MLB in any further compensation reductions,” he said in a statement posted to Twitter. “We have previously negotiated a pay cut in the version of prorated salaries, and there’s no justification to accept a 2nd pay cut based upon the current information the union has received.” AP

Saving the children from a new battle in Marawi

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BusinessMirror MAY 31 , 2020 | soundstrip.businessmirror@gmail.com

YOUR MUSI

NATIONAL LIVE EVENTS COALITION FORMED

As mass gatherings remain prohibited, stakeholders aim to revive live event industry

By Stephanie Joy Ching

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HE live events industry was one of the first business casualties of the COVID-19 pandemic. Ever since the virus broke out last January 2020, events such as concerts, plays, weddings and other mass gatherings were quickly cancelled.

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: T. Anthony C. Cabangon

Editor-In-Chief

: Lourdes M. Fernandez

Concept

: Aldwin M. Tolosa

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: Jt Nisay

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: Edwin P. Sallan

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

: Niggel Figueroa Anabelle O. Flores : Tony M. Maghirang, Rick Olivares, Darwin Fernandez, Mony Romana, Leony Garcia, Stephanie Joy Ching

This does not only affect event planners and performers, but everyone from audio-visual technicians to freelance workers in the industry. Even after the already Modified Enhanced Community Quarantine (MECQ) is lifted or further relaxed into the General Community Quarantine (GCQ), mass gatherings including live entertainment shows will still be prohibited, making the live events industry one of the last to fully recover from the economic

Pauline Joy M. Gutierrez Columnists

: Kaye VillagomezLosorata Annie S. Alejo

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: 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

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effects of COVID-19.

In response to this, various sectors of the industry joined hands last April 29 to form the National Live Events Coalition PH (NLECPH). In a communique sent to SoundStrip, the NLECPH aims to “support the people behind the scenes and help” which in their estimate is the over two million “voices that make up the live events industry.”

Unlike other industries such as retail, where it “can get to a point

where it can reopen, mobilize and bring its staff back in,” the live events industry focuses on providing memorable experiences throughout the year—something that they can no longer do until government lifts or at least amend its restrictions on mass gatherings.

With their main source of income put on hold, NLECPH aims to unite planners, producers, agencies, audio, visual, lights and stage suppliers “without political agendas, hidden schemas or business interests.”

In order to do this, the alliance will focus on a collaboration with the government to make realistic safety plans for both the audience and the workforce. There is also an information campaign that aims to bring awareness for how large the sector is and how devastating COVID-19 truly is to the industry through the use of hashtags such as #WeCOUNT and #LiveEventsPH. Through these plans, NLECPH opens up doors for national conversation, ensuring that every individual within the industry is heard.

IC

soundstrip.businessmirror@gmail.com | MAY 31 , 2020

BUSINESS

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SoundSampler

by Tony M. Maghirang

Tripping with the modern sounds of our ASEAN Neighbors, Part 1 Picks of the litter: Intriguant’s “For Shadow.”

OFTRT’S “Sunset.” Zrina’s “Thoughts,” fzpz’s “Intake

Third Stop: MALAYSIA

Second Stop: INDONESIA

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VISITED digital platforms, I listened to contemporary music and I was conquered by new sounds, at least to my ears, coming from nearby ASEAN countries. I preferred compilation albums to easily sample the breadth of the country’s pop music landscape and in the end, a part of me got the feeling that we, the OPM nation, cannot fully lay claim to producing the latest and the best indie music on our side of the globe.

The proof is in the sampling so let me now tell you about my voyage of discovery.

First Stop: SINGAPORE

VA – Pick of the Lot Produced by indie pop-punx label Tired Records, this is a compilation of Singapore bands covering other Singapore bands. The main thrust is poppunk but surprise, surprise, there are lots of powerpop propulsion going on probably to subvert the usual notion that pop-punk is hardcore for wimps.

Musically, that is, because going by the titles of the tracks, there’s nothing remotely subversive about “Peaches”, “Cup of Tea” or “Loveless.” Still, there are

VA – RR2: It’s Alive The liner notes say melodic hardcore/pop punk is on the menu just like the label’s UK partner Real Ghost Records! Fortunately, the first three tracks are imbued with the spirited punch of premium power pop, followed by lots to tribute to guitarist Johnny Ramones chunky chord thrashings. Some of the bands may have real punky core able to dispense lyrical morsels around “Violent Dreams” or “Walter, We Do Live In A Rotten World.” Me, I take the label’s advice to heart. Just enjoy!

Picks of the litter: New Junk City’s “Coffee Mug”, Cubfires’ “Pace” and “Saturday Night Karaoke’s “Bam Bam Bam”

VA – Radioactive Vol. 1 My two left feet notwithstanding, I am greatly taken by this eclectic collection of original EDM anthems. For one, the tracks are arranged according to beats per minute, starting at 175 bpm for the opening track to 225 bpm for the 10th and final track. I would later learn that house/tech house/electro house are in 120-130 bpm realm while trance/techno/dubstep slot in the 130-150 bpm range. Additionally, I get to listen to metal riffs and pastoral embellishments in otherwise brutal quadruple time breakbeats. Plus, all of the sonic adventurous textures come in the service of a worthy cause: the preservation of primate orangutangs in Borneo.

Picks of the litter: Asteroide’s “A Saucerful of DMT” @200 bpm , Narxz’s “2 Phones” @ 225 bpm, Apple Maggot’s “Chernobyl” @ 194 bpm

VA – Holy Noise Shoegazer Compilation Yay! Shoegaze is in the house and in my years of covering music, it’s one genre that most avid music listeners and enthusiasts can’t come to easy terms with. Ignored by most, beloved by true fans like myself, shoegaze has unfortunately not taken firm roots in Pinoy rock, for some reason.

In this compilation, the indelible influences of UK stalwarts Ride, Catherine Wheel, MBV and Swervedriver are in full bloom. The enveloping heavily textured haze is all over most of the tracks that fizzle to mere synth wankering near the end.

I may have chanced upon a 2015 releases but shoegaze remains alive and well in Indonesia with new bloods Sunlotus and Rissau announcing an ASEAN tour this year.

Picks of the Litter: Black Mustang’s “Fade Away,” Kapsul’s “Martir,” Damascus’s “Slightest”

VA – Pop Sound Released by the UK-based Sound of Asia label, Pop Sound got me initially thinking the current pop sound of continent as interpreted by Malaysian musicians. Lo and behold, the participating artists remember the swinging sounds of the late 1960s/ early 1970s. Groove is the defining element as the diverse 15 tracks revolve around soul, mod and funk, with nary a Beatlesque or first Brit Invasion credit in this round-up and that’s all right by me, reminiscing about the sounds of my teen years while overcoming the language barrier.

Picks of the litter: Siti Zaiton’s “Malang Selalu,” Zaleha Hamid‘s “Jangan Mengharap,” Diah Iskandar’s “Bila Senja Mendatang” The Various Artists collections reviewed are available on most digital music platforms, especially bandcamp.

loads of fun moments across the album.

Picks of the Litter: Susurrus; “Anchor Forever,” Forests’ “Headless and Mindstrong,” Xingfoo&Roy’s “Warm.”

VA – Uploading Beatmakers and sound designers/producers round up this collection. Its general trajectory is eclectic electronica with the whooshing throbbing sound of a departing spaceship consistently in the background. Soul, hiphop, funk and trip-hop are part and part-parcel of the musical arc and one or two tracks pay homage to the crate-digging prodigiousness of DJ Shadow.

Saving the children from a new battle in Marawi

By Pauline Joy M. Gutierrez

mented in Marawi City, as well as in Sulu, Maguindanao, Lanao del Sur, Surigao del Sur, Bukidnon, and Misamis Oriental, or provinces that have been experiencing protracted conflict due to insurgency, terrorism, clan feud and tribal wars.

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hree years after Islamic Statelinked militants besieged the longembattled city of Marawi, young civilians still bear the brunt of the conflict.

The five-month warfare that started on May 23, 2017 left nearly 77,000 children displaced from their homes. Those who were able to flee the fighting, however, now face a new threat: the coronavirus pandemic.

“Children are more at risk of exposure to the disease as clean water and hygiene facilities remain a problem in transitory shelters,” said Aedrian Araojo, communications officer of Save the Children in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (SCPBARMM).

Along with other youth volunteers, the 27-year-old Araojo finds purpose in the current crisis by providing support to the youth and their families living in areas with fragile and limited welfare systems.

Lanao del Sur has already recorded at least nine confirmed cases of the coronavirus as of May 17, with four deaths and 40 probable cases. Meanwhile, there are over 25,000 evacuee families in the outskirts of the city and in different parts of the Lanao provinces, while internally displaced persons, or IDPs, live in clumps of temporary shelters, where physical distancing is difficult to practice.

“Add to this the loss of income and livelihood among parents that impact their capacity to provide for their children’s basic needs,” said Araojo, stressing that the economic hit on families makes reconstruction

Role of youth volunteerism in nation-building

“[The youth] can be critical agents of change who can contribute in promoting peace and economic growth of the country,” said Aedrian Araojo, communications officer of Save the Children in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (SCP-BARMM). and rehabilitation plans all the more urgent and necessary.

In the meantime, to ensure conflict-affected families have access to livelihood amid the global health crisis, new emergency employment schemes were put in place to complement existing initiatives by the national government, the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI), and SCP-BARMM. One measure that Save the Children has taken was the distribution of emergency kits such as hygiene kits and food vouchers to disadvantaged individuals. The global independent children’s organization also provided food assistance to medical and security frontliners.

Need for stronger support in education While SCP-BARMM responds to the problems presented by the pandemic, the group remains committed in providing children with a brighter future through education.

Save the Children is an independent global organization dedicated to helping the youth in need. Founded in 1919 by sociologist Eglantyne Jebb who was moved by the plight of children living in horren-

dous conditions in war-ravaged Europe, the group has been sharing its global vision in the Philippines since 1981.

Save the Children believes the education carries even more importance now in BARMM, where aside from dealing with the threat of Covid-19, the youth face rising cases of domestic- and gender-based abuses amid district-wide lockdowns, along with recruitment by various armed groups.

“We see education as a sustainable lifesaving support for the youth,” Araojo said.

“But given the situation, Save the Children had to recalibrate its objectives to make them relevant today.”

The SCP-BARMM is currently working with the European Union Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid Operations (ECHO) through the ReACh 2 TEACH program to ensure that young people will have access to education and protection from abuse and violence.

The project grants children from 46 schools with developmentally and culturally appropriate instructional and learning materials. Teachers are also trained to provide psychosocial support to learners facing violence due to armed conflict.

The three-year project is being imple-

In light of the recent third anniversary of the Battle of Marawi, Araojo calls on youth leaders to be more involved in issues within their respective communities.

He believes that more could be done to prepare a new generation of volunteers to help with societal challenges, such as bringing an end to the decades-long insurgency in Mindanao.

For one, he views conflict-affected children and youth in war-torn areas not just as mere survivors. Rather, “they can be critical agents of change who can contribute in promoting peace and economic growth of the country,” he said.

Araojo added that it is important to equip the young with the essential knowledge and skills and establish them as pillars to be the front-runners in achieving the national goal.

“We should provide them with platforms to speak up and give them opportunities to help,” he said, before focusing his call on the involvement of the youth to the peace process in Mindanao.

“We should involve them in projects that motivate out-of-school children and youth to return to school and protect them from the unlawful recruitment by armed groups,” he said. “We should mobilize them to become key actors in rebuilding a stronger and more peaceful Marawi.”

On the Cover Bailiya, 12, is one of the

beneficiaries of Save the Children Philippines’s education program. Read her story on the Save the Children web site at bit.ly/2X7U6Bz. Photo:

savethechildren.org.ph

Make distance learning safe, secure

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ver the past few months, educational institutions around the world have been forced to embrace distance learning.

Malicious actors and cybercriminals are fully aware that for many organizations, these are uncharted waters.

The movement to distance learning has created additional risk for institutions and created potential opportunities for the adversary, who are more motivated than ever to steal financial information, intellectual property, or simply be disruptive.

There are several simple steps every educational institution needs to consider implementing if they desire to set up and maintain an effective distance learning environment while keeping their cyber adversaries at bay. Here are some of them, presented by cybersecurity company Fortinet.

Provide strong authentication With advance-

ments in hardware processing power, cracking passwords can be done in a matter of seconds. Which is part of the reason there is a ton of stolen credentials for sale on the dark web, with more being added every day. It is essential, therefore, to enforce strong password policies (i.e., complexity, length and expiration), enforce account lockout after failed attempts to prevent password guessing, and

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leverage multi-factor authentication where possible to prevent the misuse of stolen passwords.

Protect Web applications Next to stealing credentials, exploiting vulnerabilities in applications is the easiest way for an attacker to breach your network. You must scan external sites for security flaws such as cross-site scripting errors and SQL injections. It’s equally important to encrypt the traffic between your learning systems and your users, whether faculty, students, or administrators, so information can’t be stolen in transit. In addition, deploying a Web application firewall (WAF) can protect Web application servers and the infrastructure from attacks and breaches originating from the Internet and external networks.

Manage third-party risk The third-party technologies that you use in your online learning environments can pose additional vulnerabilities and risk to your enterprise network. Whether it’s your learning management system May 31, 2020

or teleconferencing tools, regardless of whether they are hosted in the cloud or on-premise, you need to ensure you perform a thorough security assessment of the vendor and their products before introducing them into your network environment.

Monitor for malicious or unusual activities Organizations new to implementing distant learning will see a significant increase in devices and external network traffic connecting to their networks. The security staff needs to be aware of any unusual login attempts, unexplainable large data transfers, or other behaviors that seem out of the norm.

As we engage in distance learning, we need to ensure that we practice cyber distancing to protect ourselves from the adversary. Taking control by following these standard security practices is one of the best ways to effectively move us securely into this new distance learning norm.