BusinessMirror November 12, 2022

A broader look at today’s business

NO LIFE. NO BLUE. NO GREEN’

By Rory Visco

IN2013, typhoon Haiyan (known locally as Yolanda) took the lives of about 6,300 people, displaced over 6 million Filipinos, and in its destructive path left 28,689 injured, and 1.6 million homeless. Yolanda was a global upheaval that gained international attention and took meteorologists somewhat back to school since the typhoon was really unprecedented.

Th is was followed by another devastating typhoon called Odette (international code name: Rai) just last year. It managed to uproot 10.6 million people from their homes, with fatalities reaching a total of 457 lives, showing the value of early-warning systems and other disaster risk reduction measures put in place.

A nd last month, more or less two weeks ago, typhoon Paeng (international code name Nalgae) hit the country and dumped heavy rains and strong winds on several regions, with the Bangsamoro Au tonomous Region in Muslim Mind anao (BARMM) as the hardest hit, affecting almost 600,000 people.

In its wake, Paeng left around 154 people dead mainly due to flashfloods and landslides, cost ing P2.86 billion (and counting) in damage to agricultural crops, and caused enough damage that

the government declared 164 local government units under a state of calamity.

Water disasters

AROUND 20 typhoons enter the country on an annual basis, bring ing with them torrential rains and extreme levels of flooding, thus put ting the Philippines at No. 4 in the world most affected by water-related disasters. And these storms and oth er extreme weather-based events are expected to intensify as the Earth’s temperature goes higher due to global warming, presenting greater water risks to the Philippines.

A lthough the country is still very rich in terms of extraordinary biodiversity, an estimated 70 per cent of its forest cover was already lost over the last century. Water pollution is at unbelievable levels in many regions, primarily because of the lack of proper wastewater

treatment facilities that affect the health of many communities and ecosystems.

Vanishing resource amid plenty INADEQUATE and intermittent water supply continues to be a problem in many parts of the coun try, where an estimated one in 10 Filipinos, mainly in poor commu nities, has no access to improved water sources.

According to a report by global professional services com pany GHD titled “Aquanomics: The Economics of Water Risk and Fu ture Resilience,” on a global scale, weather-related events are seen to cause the biggest economic impact, 49 percent caused by storms and 36 percent due to floods, with glob al gross domestic product losses reaching from $0.1 trillion to $5.6 trillion between 2022 and 2050.

The study also showed the pos sible impact of extreme weather events on five critical sectors within the global economy: agriculture, banking and insurance, energy and utilities, FMCG (fast moving con sumer goods) and retail, and manu facturing and distribution. Though diverse, with very different types and levels of water risk, these sectors are all expected to face significant output losses in the years up to 2050.

Projected

loss

FOR the Philippines, the study pointed it could suffer an average annual GDP loss of 0.7 percent due to water risks like droughts, floods and storms, hitting the country’s agricultural and retail sectors the hardest. The study pointed that these rising threats need to be ad dressed now, focusing heavily on water recycling, desalination and smarter irrigation.

W hat’s alarming is that the study revealed the country’s ag ricultural sector is particularly vulnerable, with projected annual output losses of over 5 percent by 2030 and 8 percent by 2050. In 2020, the sector generated a gross value added (GVA) of about P1.78 trillion, or a 10.2-percent share of the country’s GDP.

Storms are also expected to have the greatest direct impact on the country’s economy at $47 billion, floods at $42 billion, and droughts at $3 billion. This is the first time that the economic impact of these three types of events has been calculated at a GDP and sec tor level.

Access and risks

ACCORDING to Rod Naylor, Global Water Lead at GHD, as three million Filipinos currently rely on unsafe water sources, and about seven mil lion lack access to improved sanita tion, water supply and sanitation

services should be key focal points.

He said the Philippine Wa ter Supply and Sanitation Master Plan calls for a total investment of around P1.1 trillion to be able to achieve universal access to wa ter and sanitation for all Filipinos by 2030. “No matter what size or sector, all businesses are depen dent on water as they require it to function. This makes water a con nector between sectors, crucial to enabling circular economies and global supply chains. It also means no sector is protected against op erational disruption in the face of water-related disasters.”

Naylor said with the study, they focused on economic impacts to help identify and unlock the so cial and environmental benefits of

tackling water risks head on, and explore ways where countries can adapt to change and build resil ience in their water systems. “With water risks on the rise, we need to adopt a proactive, holistic and inclusive approach in understand ing and addressing fast-developing challenges,” adds Naylor.

The study also indicated that investments related to flood man agement need to be targeted to ward building infrastructure in the right areas and working with nature to channel water away. He said this means conducting flood studies while building infrastruc ture out of flood zones as much as possible, which can be a challenge when retrofitting solutions in densely populated urban areas.

ROD NAYLOR: “No matter what size or sector, all businesses are dependent on water as they require it to function. This makes water a connector between sectors, crucial to enabling circular economies and global supply chains. It also means no sector is protected against operational disruption in the face of water-related disasters.”

THE Marikina River swelled to near-record levels on August 7, 2012, reaching a height of 20.6 meters and about 3 meters above its banks as heavy rains brought by the southwest monsoon, locally known as habagat, pounded the country.

Above, Angat Dam in Norzagaray, Bulacan. HRLUMANOG | DREAMSTIME.COM & BERNARD TESTA

In face of climate-change challenges, the most precious resource for earthly existence could either come too little or just a bit too much

What’s ‘Putin’s chef’ cooking up with talk on US meddling?

By The Associated Press

PRIGOZHIN has had many roles: Convicted felon and hot-dog vendor. Owner of a swanky St. Petersburg restaurant and holder of lucrative government catering contracts. Founder of a mercenary military force involved in Russia’s various conflicts.

YEVGENY

Prigozhin has kept a low profile over the years. But in recent months, the 61-year-old entrepreneur with links to Russian President Vladimir Putin has become more and more public with his activities, especially involving Moscow’s 8-month-old war in Ukraine.

This week, he gained new atten tion by admitting his involvement — previously denied — in the events that drew the scrutiny of US officials: meddling in American elections.

‘Putin’s chef’

PRIGOZHIN and Putin go way back, with both born in Leningrad, what is now known as St. Petersburg.

During the final years of the So viet Union, Prigozhin served time in prison — 10 years by his own admis

sion — although he did not say what it was for.

Afterward, he owned a hot-dog stand and then fancy restaurants that drew interest from Putin. In his first term, the Russian leader took then-French President Jacques Chi rac to dine at one of them.

Vladimir Putin saw how I built a business out of a kiosk, he saw that I don’t mind serving to the esteemed guests because they were my guests,” Prigozhin recalled in an interview published in 2011.

His businesses expanded sig nificantly to catering and provid ing school lunches. In 2010, Putin helped open Prigozhin’s factory that was built on generous loans by a state bank. In Moscow alone, his company Concord won millions of

dollars in contracts to provide meals at public schools. He also organized catering for Kremlin events for sev eral years — earning him the nick name “Putin’s chef” — and has pro vided catering and utility services to the Russian military.

In 2017, opposition figure and corruption fighter Alexei Navalny accused Prigozhin’s companies of breaking antitrust laws by bidding for some $387 million in Defense Ministry contracts.

Military connection

FOR years, media reports and West ern officials linked Prigozhin to a Russian private military contractor called the Wagner Group, a merce nary force said to have been involved in conflicts in Libya and Syria, as well as in under-the-radar military operations across at least a half-doz en African countries.

The group has also played a prominent role in fighting in Ukraine.

Prigozhin had always denied having anything to do with Wagner. But in September, he acknowledged being the founder of Wagner in a so cial media statement released by his companies’ press service.

He said that when fighting broke out in eastern Ukraine be tween Russian-backed separatists and Kyiv’s forces in 2014, he was

seeking to “put together a group [of fighters] that would go [there] and defend the Russians.”

He also admitted that Wagner “defended the Syrian people, other peoples of the Arab countries, dis advantaged Africans and Latin Americans.”

Video emerged recently of a man resembling Prigozhin visiting Russian penal colonies to recruit prisoners to fight in Ukraine. Asked about these visits, he didn’t direct ly confirm or deny it, only saying through his press service that he was once incarcerated and thus has been in a number of prisons.

Prigozhin has also spoken about the construction of a “Wagner line” — a system of trenches and antitank defenses — in Luhansk, one of four Ukrainian provinces illegally annexed by Moscow in September, and the creation of training centers for defensive militias in Russia’s Bel gorod and Kursk regions that border Ukraine.

Wagner also opened a business center in St. Petersburg to wide fan fare, and Prigozhin boasted it would become a platform for increasing Russia’s “defense capabilities,” prom ising to expand to other locations if successful.

Election meddling

IN 2018, Prigozhin and a dozen other Russian nationals and three Russian companies were charged in the US with operating a covert social media campaign aimed at fomenting discord and dividing American pub lic opinion ahead of the 2016 presi dential election won by Republican Donald Trump.

They were indicted as part of special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian election interference. Prigozhin was later sanctioned by the US Treasury De partment.

After the indictment, the RIA Novosti news agency quoted him as saying, in a clearly sarcastic remark: “Americans are very impressionable people; they see what they want to see. I treat them with great respect. I’m not at all upset that I’m on this list. If they want to see the devil, let them see him.”

The Justice Department in 2020 moved to dismiss charges against two of the firms, Concord Man

Putin saw how I built a business out of a kiosk, he saw that I don’t mind serving to the esteemed guests because they were my guests.” — Yevgeny Prigozhin

agement and Consulting LLC and Concord Catering, saying they had concluded a trial against a corporate defendant with no presence in the US and no prospect of meaningful punishment even if convicted would likely expose sensitive law enforce ment tools and techniques.

In July, the State Department offered a reward of up to $10 million for information about Russian inter ference in US elections, including on Prigozhin and the Internet Research Agency, the troll farm in St. Peters burg that his companies were ac cused of funding.

Prigozhin had denied involve ment in any of that — until Mon day, the eve of the US midterms. The press service of one of his companies posted on social media his response to a question from a Russian news outlet about allegations of such in terference.

“Gentlemen, we have interfered, are interfering and will interfere. Carefully, precisely, surgically and in our own way, as we know how to do,” the response read. “During our pin point operations, we will be remov ing both of the kidneys and the liver at once.”

Some Russian state-funded me dia described his remarks as irony.

In response, the White House called him “a known bad actor who has been sanctioned by the United States, the United Kingdom and the European Union,” and State Depart ment spokesman Ned Price said Prigozhin’s “bold confession, if any thing, appears to be just a manifesta tion of the impunity that crooks and cronies enjoy under President Putin and the Kremlin.”

Prigozhin reacted to Price’s re marks in English, saying, among other things, that the US has been “rudely meddling” with elections around the world for decades.

Sarcasm or boosting his profile? WHETHER sarcastic or not, the re

mark gained wide attention in the West. It also fueled long-brewing speculation that he is seeking a big ger role on Russia’s political scene.

Prigozhin said through his press service he doesn’t plan to “formalize his political status in any way.... And if I am offered this, I think that I will refuse.”

He has joined the strongman leader of the Russian republic of Chechnya, Ramzan Kadyrov, in pub licly criticizing Moscow’s military brass over its conduct of the war.

Some media reports suggested Prigozhin’s influence on Putin is growing and he is after a prominent political post. But analysts warned against overestimating his political significance.

He’s not one of Putin’s close fig ures or a confidant,” said Mark Gale otti of University College, London, who specializes in Russian security affairs, speaking on his podcast “In Moscow’s Shadows.”

Prigozhin does what the Kremlin wants and does very well for himself in the process. But that’s the thing — he is part of the staff rather than part of the fam ily,” Galeotti said.

Analysts say Prigozhin’s influ ence has grown but remains rather limited.

Tatyana Stanovaya, founder of the independent R.Politik think tank, in a recent Telegram post called Prigozhin “influential in his own way.”

A lthough Prigozhin denies it, Stanovaya said he meets regularly with Putin, especially recently. She added that he has close ties with certain security agencies and “with some of his functions, he can even claim the role of Putin’s private special service,” Stanovaya wrote.

She noted, however, that his influence “is indeed greatly exagger ated in the West” and is limited to a “narrow and peculiar” niche.

‘Vladimir

YEVGENY PRIGOZHIN serves food to then-Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin at Prigozhin’s restaurant outside Moscow on November 11, 2011.

Kremlin-connected businessman Yevgeny Prigozhin kept a low profile over the years, but he has been increasingly in the spotlight recently. He has admitted that he is behind the Russian mercenary force that reportedly has been involved in conflicts around the world, including Ukraine. AP

To fill gap in closed fishing season, DA clears 25K-MT fish importation

By Jasper Emmanuel Y. Arcalas

THE Philippine government has approved the importation of 25,000 metric tons (MT) of frozen fish for wet market consump tion, covering the closed fishing sea son months of November until Janu ary next year.

Agriculture Senior Undersecretary Domingo F. Panganiban issued Special Order (SO) 1002 Series of 2022 that outlined the guidelines on the imple mentation of the importation program.

The latest fish importation pro gram of the government would allow the entry of frozen roundscad, bigeye scad, mackerel, bonito and moonfish for wet market sale.

Panganiban explained that the SO was issued to provide clear-cut guid ance on the implementation of the approved certificate of necessity to

import (CNI) fish for wet market con sumption. The issuance of a CNI is re quired prior to any importation of fish for wet market consumption, based on existing rules and regulations.

The approved import volume would be allocated among registered import ers belonging to the commercial fish ing sector and to fisheries associations and cooperatives.

Under the rules, commercial fish ers shall corner 80 percent of the to tal approved import volume while the remaining 20 percent will be shared among fisheries associations and co operatives.

All the sanitary and phytosanitary import clearances (SPSICs) under the 25,000-MT fish importation program will be issued by the government be fore December 15, with their validity being 45 days from date of issuance.

“No SPSICs under this CNI shall be

deemed valid after January 30, 2023,” the SO read.

“The Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR) shall en courage the immediate disposal of the imported fish under CNI 25,000 MT to ensure that it will not overlap with the local catch by the end of the closed fishing season,” it added.

The SO stipulated that importers who are able to register within five working days from its issuance will qualify to participate in the importa tion program as long as they comply with the qualifications and require ments under Fisheries Administrative Order (FAO) 259.

The SO 1002 was signed and issued on November 10 by Panganiban. The order stipulated that it took effect immediately and will remain in force unless revoked in writing.

“The importers shall allow BFAR

Wage boards adopt cautious stance on pay increase call

By Samuel P. Medenilla

REGIONAL wage boards have adopted a cautious stance over the issue of a possible new round of wage increases, even as the country posted an improved economic growth rate amid the pandemic, ac cording to the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE)

In his speech during the 2022 Na tional Productivity Conference last Thursday, Labor and Employment Secretary Bienvenido E. Lagues ma said many establishments have yet to fully recover from the business disruptions caused by the pandemic.

“We will continue to use the exist ing tripartite wage mechanisms to help address the situation and we will do so prudently taking into account

the need to balance the interest and need of workers and employers, espe cially at this time when our economic recovery is still at the early stages,” Laguesma said.

The DOLE chief issued the state ment after state statisticians reported last Thursday the country’s economy grew by 7.6 percent in the third quar ter of the year from 7.5 percent in the preceding quarter.

High inflation

THE acceleration of inflation to 7.7 percent last month from 6.9 percent in September prompted demand for a pay hike to allow them to cope with higher prices of goods and services.

Citing data from the National Wages and Productivity Commission (NWPC), IBON Foundation reported

that high inflation has brought down the “real” value of the P570 minimum wage in the National Capital Region (NCR) to just P494 last month.

Laguesma said they are aware of the current plight of workers, but in stead of minimum wage adjustments, he proposed workers and employers should instead push for voluntary enterprise-based wage hikes.

“It is important to stress that the best mode of improving terms and con ditions of employment in a sustainable and responsive manner remains that which is founded on voluntary agree ments between workers and employ ers at the enterprise level,” the labor chief said.

“For this to realistically happen, la bor and enterprise productivity must continuously rise,” he added.

and PFDA Inspectors, BFAR quar antine officers, and law enforcers to conduct inspection and monitoring of the imported fish stored in the BFARregistered storage facility, and provide the DA-BFAR a weekly summary of stocks inventory for the information of the undersigned,” it said.

“All qualified importers shall strictly comply with Food Safety Stan dards provided under the law and rel evant regulations,” it added.

The importation rules do not al low transfer of allocation between importers and the SPSICs issued for the importation program are not ex tendable nor transferable.

The national government has been allowing imported fish in recent years, particularly during the closed fishing season, to augment local domestic fish supply and temper any possible price increases in the retail market.

Manila, Phnom Penh note common priority biz sectors for development

TRADE Secretary Alfredo E. Pascual said the priority sectors of Cambodia, which includes logistics, pharmaceutical manufacturing and the business process outsourcing (BPO) are aligned with the priorities of the Philippines.

“For the DTI (Department of Trade and Industry), note the sectors represented by our friends from Cambodia: logistics, hospitality, retail, pharmaceutical manufacturing, IT and business process outsourcing, and start-up development. These very well match our priorities back in the Philippines, too,” Pascual said.

On Thursday, the Trade chief joined President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. during the CEO roundtable meeting with Cambodia business leaders.

Pascual said the CEO roundtable meeting is an avenue for business leaders from both countries to “connect and seize a visible surge of development in both economies.”

Repr esenting Cambodia, Rithy Sear, chairman of the Worldbridge Group, a diversified business group firm in Cambodia, said that the two countries could learn from each other and work together.

By Manuel T. Cayon

DAVAO CITY—Christmas lanterns made by inmates would light up the streets here anew during the Christmas season.

The Museo Dabawenyo assigned to the task has started installing Christmas decorative materials, including the“parol”made by inmates at the Davao City Jail, all over the city.

The star-shaped lanterns are made of bamboo, and come in yellow, green and red, following the Pasko Fiesta theme, “Fairyland,” the City Information Office said.

Museo Dabawenyo Officer-In-Charge Winnie Rose Galay-Bulig said the city placed an order of 300 parols for this year’s Pasko Fiesta. She said the inmates were given monetary compensation by the lantern suppliers.

“Our theme for this year’s Pasko Fiesta is Fairyland. And then for our decorations, majority of them are new, and there are some that are recycled. And those lanterns that we see were made by inmates,” Galay-Bulig said.

Some of the decorative materials used last Christmas were covered with new materials to produce some of this year’s lanterns.

The city government has made it a tradition to buy Christmas lanterns from the city jail which was started in 2016.

The lanterns will be displayed in center islands of the major streets and in all 22 public parks in the city.

“We will also put Pasko Fiesta decorative materials in our pocket parks,” she said.

Other Pasko Fiesta decorations will be installed in city lamp posts, overpasses and flyovers. A 45-foot Christmas tree will also be assembled outside of City Hall, the information office said.

ABOUT 45 percent of dwellers inside the Mounts Iglit-Baco National Park (MIBNP) are destitute, and earn less than $20 a month or less than P1,000 a month, an official of the Department of En vironment and Natural Resources (DENR) said.

Neil Anthony Del Mundo, the Coor dinator of the Tamaraw Conservation Program and concurrent Assistant Protected Area Superintendent of the MIBNP said a socio-economic study conducted by the DENR revealed that the mostly-Mangyan communities are subsistence farmers and earn income by selling handicraft products, fire wood or charcoal.

The study, he revealed, was part of the overall effort they conducted to en hance the protection of the last remain ing Tamaraw population at MIBNP.

“That is why the challenge in pro tecting the Tamaraw and the Protected Area is huge,” he told the Business Mirror at the sideline of the ongoing Europe Asia and the Pacific (EAPAC) Regional Dialogue organized by the United Nations Development ProgramBiodiversity Finance Initiative (UNDPBIOFIN) held at the Conrad Manila Hotel in Pasay City.

Speaking mostly in Filipino, he asked: “How can you stop them from hunting or cutting trees if they have no means of livelihood other than the forest?”

The DENR’s Biodiversity Manage ment Bureau (BMB), as well as the MIBNP, is working with the UNDPBIOFIN to find a financial solution to

the problem besetting the conserva tion effort of the government in the Protected Area, the only remaining lush pocket of greens where around 600 tamaraw, a critically endangered species that is indigenous to the island of Mindoro, are concentrated.

According to Del Mundo, the TCP receives an annual budget of P4.5 mil lion, of which P3.5 million goes to the salary of the Tamaraw Rangers and other staff.

“The remaining P1 million goes to operational expense,” said Del Mundo.

During the pandemic, he recalled that the tamaraw rangers have nearly lost their jobs, leaving the Tamaraw and their habitat, completely unprotected from hunters.

He said through their participation in the regional dialogue, they hope to find a sustainable financing solution that would allow the TCP to hire more Tamaraw Rangers, and give them a fair wage or salary.

A tamaraw ranger starts with a P8,500 a month pay, it was learned.

Currently, there are only 24 tam araw rangers protecting Mindoro’s iconic land mammal. The most senior tamaraw ranger receives P15,000 monthly in salary but has been in the employ of the TCP for 34 years.

“We hope to have the funding to hire more, and hopefully, increase the sal ary they receive.” He added that hiring tamaraw rangers as regular employees would also be very helpful, as it will ensure job security and continuity of the ongoing protection and conserva tion effort at MIBNP. Jonathan L. Mayuga

“ Many of the same industries that the Philippines has excelled in can be developed here in Cambodia, not as competition to Filipino companies, but as complementary extensions of existing operations and supply chains; adding resilience and increased capacity to serve Asean and the global markets,” Sear said.

S ear also underscored the strategic location of Cambodia, as it is located between Thailand and Vietnam, two of the members of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP).

RCEP touted as the world’s largest trade pact, is a free-trade agreement (FTA) among Australia, Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, China, Japan, Lao PDR, New Zealand, Singapore, South Korea, Thailand and Vietnam.

RCEP r epresents 30 percent of the global gross domestic product (GDP).

“In t erms of serving the Asean domestic market, Cambodia is centrally located between Thailand and Vietnam. This provides an advantage for the distribution of goods manufactured in Cambodia, taking advantage of RCEP.”

D uring the roundtable meeting, Marcos told the business leaders that the country would be needing additional investments in the manufacturing sector.

“We are trying to build up the manufacturing side of the economy and that is why capital-intensive investments will be very, very important for us to be able to do that,” Marcos said.

The President said that investments in agriculture (mechanization and food processing); micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs); energy; and low-cost housing, are also being eyed.

Mar cos is currently in Phnom Penh, Cambodia to attend the 40th and 41st Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) Summits from November 8 to 13. Andrea E. San Juan

Some Mindoro mountain dwellers survive with ₧1,000 monthly income, study shows

300 lanterns made by inmates to light up Davao City streets

Army troops, Muslim insurgents forge truce after fighting kills 10

PHILIPPINE Army troops forged a ceasefire with Muslim guerrillas after 10 combatants were killed in clashes in a southern village and frantic efforts were made to prevent an escalation that could threaten a major peace accord, military commanders and

the rebels said Friday.

The sporadic clashes erupted Tuesday and Wednesday in Ulitan village on the island province of Basilan, where emergency talks arranged by government and rebel mediators led to an indefinite cease-fire agreement

late Thursday between Army forces and Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) rebel commanders.

The clashes left three soldiers dead and 15 others wounded, regional military spokesman Lt. Col. Abdurasad Sirajan said. A former rebel

commander, Dan Asnawi, told The Associated Press at least seven insurgents were killed and six others were wounded.

The conflict underscored the fragility of law and order in a southern region faced with a surfeit of loose firearms, private armies,

crushing poverty and a long history of violence.

Government and rebel mediators were “able to stop the fighting with a dialogue between both sides,” regional military commander Brig. Gen. Arturo Rojas said. “It was an unfortunate event since both sides incurred casualties.”

Military and rebel commanders at the scene of the fighting accused each other of violating the 2014 peace agreement, which eased years of bloody and extensive fighting between government forces and the Muslim rebel front, the largest separatist insurgent group in the south of the largely Roman Catholic nation.

Under the 2014 peace pact, the MILF dropped its secessionist demand in exchange for a more powerful and better-funded Muslim autonomous region called Bangsamoro.

The five-province Muslim region, which includes Basilan, is now led by former guerrilla leaders under a transition period ending in 2025.

A military crackdown against an armed extortion group in Basilan in September displaced Muslim rebels and their families from Ulitan village, where Army officers accused the insurgents of providing sanctuary to the extortionists.

The Muslim rebels denied the allegation and returned to their village this week with their firearms, which army officials said violated the peace accord because rebel weapons could only be kept in mutually designated Muslim rebel encampments, which did not include Ulitan, a civilian village.

The rebels accused some soldiers of looting their homes, an allegation the military denied, and the arguments sparked the clashes.

Under the cease-fire pact, the Muslim

rebels and their families would be allowed to return to Ulitan village but should restrict their firearms in their homes as they await “decommissioning”—a subtle term for the surrender of their firearms in exchange for livelihood packages—under the peace accord.

A security detachment to be manned by the military, police and the rebels would be established in Ulitan village to keep “lawless elements” out, Rojas said in a statement.

Nearly half of about 40,000 guerrillas have agreed to lay down their firearms and return to normal life under the peace pact. Thousands of other rebels have kept their firearms while waiting to be subjected to a years-long “decommissioning process.” The process has been delayed amid complaints that former rebels have failed to receive promised cash and other incentives from the government.

Amid this week’s clashes, Naguib Sinarimbo, the interior minister of the Bangsamoro Muslim autonomous region, and other officials expressed concern that the violence could escalate and asked the rival sides to stand down.

Western governments have welcomed progress in years of peace talks between Manila and Muslim rebels that have turned major battlefields into potential growth centers in the south in recent years, in the homeland for minority Muslims who live in some of the poorest and least-developed provinces in the country.

Had the decades-old Muslim insurgency continued to flare in the southern Philippines, there were worries that large numbers of Muslim insurgents could forge an alliance with outside militant forces and turn the south into a breeding ground for extremists. AP

By Andrea E. San Juan

THE Philippines and South Korea have agreed to further develop the supply chain and expansion of trade and investment during the recent second meeting of the Joint Commission on Trade and Economic Cooperation (JCTEC) in Seoul, according to the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI).

Trade Undersecretary and Board of Investments (BOI) Managing Head Ceferino Rodolfo highlighted the vital role of the JCTEC in boosting the relationship between the Philippines and Korea.

“From our inaugural meeting in 2019, significant strides have been taken to deepen our trade and investment relations and our long-standing partnership. We now have a free trade agreement on the horizon, which is yet another testament to our shared vision of achieving mutually beneficial outcomes for our countries,” Rodolfo said.

Recognizing the Philippines as a “valuable trade and strategic partner” of South Korea, Deputy Minister Dae-jin Jeong of the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy (MOTIE) underscored the JCTEC as a platform to review and discuss ongoing trade concerns and areas of interest for bilateral relationship.

The Philippines is the first country in Asean to establish diplomatic relations with Korea, and through the JCTEC, we hope to strengthen cooperation and expand trade and investment ties,” Jeong said.

In a news statement on Friday, the Trade department said both parties agreed to maximize areas for complementation in green metals and related industries such as electric vehicles and semiconductors, focusing on building stable and sustainable supply chains for critical raw materials for production and manufacturing.

“ We are positioning the Philippines as a key player in the supply of critical minerals given our vast resources of green metals such as nickel, cobalt, and copper—inputs for the production and manufacture of electronic goods and batteries for electric vehicles. With Korea’s manufacturing capabilities especially in electronics, we hope to pursue a meaningful partnership in this area,” Rodolfo said.

T he trade official of South Korea expressed the same sentiment as he called on both countries to work together on pursuing the said endeavor.

In fact, he added, “We will engage in technical discussions to pursue our strategic partnership through the proposed memorandum of understanding (MOU) on core raw materials and critical supply chain cooperation. The Philippines ranks tenth worldwide in terms of mineral production and is especially rich in nickel, chromium, and copper.”

As for energy cooperation, the DTI said in its statement, “Both sides committed to establish a cooperation-based mechanism on renewable energy, energy efficiency and nuclear power.”

In r elation to expansion of trade and investment, however, the DTI revealed that the signing of the Philippines-Korea Free Trade Agreement (PH-KR FTA) might have to be delayed. The PH-KR FTA was expected to be signed this year.

“ The two nations acknowledged the continuing efforts of both sides in enhancing market access of key products, including the signing of the PH-KR FTA targeted in 2023,” the DTI said in the statement.

According to the DTI, activities to promote the utilization of the FTA through seminars and information sessions were also discussed during the JCTEC meeting held last October 18.

Further, both parties agreed to maintain active engagement on ongoing Official Development Assistance (ODA) projects and to explore other areas for complementation such as collaboration related to the Philippines’s Public Utility Vehicle modernization program.

DTI said the Philippines views the JCTEC as a platform to better identify opportunities, coordinate and streamline activities of shared interest leading to targeted benefits and productive outcomes, especially in trade and investments.

It added that once the FTA is in place, the Philippines envisions that the comprehensive scope of its Ecotech chapter will ensure that both sides will continue to benefit from complementation in

sectors and areas, especially in manufacturing and infrastructure.

priority

IN this handout photo provided by the Public Information Office, Western Mindanao Command (Wesmincom), Government Peace Implementing Panel Chair David B. Diciano, center, talks with Wesmincom acting commander Brig. Gen. Arturo Rojas, left, and Brig. Gen. Eduardo Gubat, acting commander of the Philippine Army’s 6th Infantry Division, and rebel mediators during emergency talks to discuss a ceasefire at southern Basilan province, Philippines on Thursday, Nov. 10, 2022. Philippine troops forged a ceasefire with Muslim guerrillas after 10 combatants were killed in clashes in a southern village and frantic efforts were made to prevent an escalation that could threaten a major peace accord, military commanders and the rebels said Friday. PUBLIC INFORMATION OFFICE, WESTERN MINDANAO COMMAND VIA AP

PHL, Sokor vow to further develop supply chain, boost trade and investments in 2nd JTEC meeting

Our

Solon cites need to establish geriatric hospital for elderly

By Jovee Marie N. Dela Cruz

WITH figures from the Longitudinal Study of Aging and Health in the Philippines (LSAHP) showing an upward trend in the number and percentage of senior citizens in the country, a senior lawmaker is pushing for the establishment of a geriatric hospital and additional senior citizen benefits.

Manila 6th District Rep. Bien venido “Benny” Abante Jr. said that Congress should be guided by the words of Psalm 71:9: “Cast me not off in the time of old age; forsake me not when my strength faileth.”

“In the twilight of their lives, our

senior citizens should be able to rely not just on their families, but also on the state. Having served as produc tive members of society, they have earned the right to rest, retire, and live the rest of their days free from sickness and stress,” he said.

Speaking last Tuesday at the Policy Priorities for Dignified Aging Webi nar organized by the Congressional Policy and Budget Research Depart ment, Abante said that the data from the LSAHP and the findings of a study on late-life depression “con firm what senior citizens advocates have long feared: that due to their age, Filipinos aged 60 and above are far less healthy and economicallysecure than the younger, working-

age Philippine citizens.”

He said the indicators in the stud ies presented at the CPBRD webinar “reinforce the case for better care, increased benefits, and special pro grams to address the concerns of our senior citizens.”

I feel that the greatest con cerns of most of them that need to be addressed with urgency are financial assistance, mobil ity, medical and health care, and recreational and health activities, which may ultimately address the issues of stress and depression among them,” said Abante.

T he lawmaker said that “the need to provide our senior citizens with specialized care due to their

inherent vulnerabilities is the ra tionale behind my decision to refile a measure that would establish the National Center for Geriatric Health and Research Institute—a health-care facility that is especial ly suited for the particular needs of our senior citizens.”

T he legislator was referring to House Bill Number 191, or the Geriatric Health Act, which also mandates the creation of regional geriatric specialty centers in DOHretained hospitals. A similar measure was passed on third reading towards the end of the 18th Congress, but it was not tackled in the Senate due to time constraints.

A side from HB 191, Abante also

filed HB 4543: An Act Increasing and Expanding the Benefits Granted to Senior Citizens.

In recognition of the services they have provided throughout their lives for our nation’s de velopment and being the living memory of our history, it is just appropriate to extend some spe cific benefits and privileges to all senior citizens, whether indigent or not,” the solon explained.

Under the proposed measure, senior citizens would be entitled to monthly stipends from P1,000 up to P5,000, depending on their age brackets.

HB 4543 would also mandate se nior citizens’ discounts of 30 percent

for the purchase of medicines; profes sional fees of attending physician/s; professional fees of licensed profes sional health providers providing home health-care services; medical and dental services, diagnostic and laboratory fees; actual fare for land transportation and domestic air transport services and sea shipping vessels; and funeral and burial ser vices for the death of senior citizens. According to the LSAHP, Filipinos aged 60 and older now account for around 8.5 percent of the country’s population, which translates to more than 9 million people.

Of this number, an estimated 57 percent struggle with daily living and mobility issues.

DUMAGUETE

By Low De Wei & Marika Katanuma

AT first glance you might think you’re looking at a photo booth on wheels or a golf cart.

But this is the kind of machine Japan’s Honda Motor Co. is hoping will snag the company a brand-new automotive audience—people who don’t want to drive.

T he car-maker says it’s consider ing a range of self-driving electric vehicles targeted at groups including elderly people who no longer drive but still want to get around and the younger, Gen Z crowd that is not interested in owning or driving tra ditional cars.

H onda said it expects growing demand for such casual vehicles, which it calls micromobility de vices, as taxi and home delivery services struggle with staff short ages and as more elderly people seek to remain socially active. The world’s third-largest economy is grappling with a decline in able workers due to an aging popula tion.

Bloomberg News

CITY—The

city government of Duma guete City has initially set aside P17.1 million for cash aid to 34,200 senior citizens, persons with disabilities (PWDs), and indigent residents under its yearly Pamas kong Handog program.

Cathy Aguilar, city information officer, said on Friday that each ben eficiary would receive P500 in cash, to be distributed through the differ ent barangays.

Mayor Felipe Antonio Remollo has approved the Pamaskong Han dog this year with the cash aid to be given in December on separate schedules that will be set by the vil lages, Aguilar said.

Senior citizens, PWDs, and indi gent residents are urged to submit their requirements to their respec tive barangay chairpersons before November 15 for the final list of re cipients from the city’s 30 villages, she added.

Pensioners and non-pensioners who are aged 60 years and above can receive the cash gift provided they submit the requirements.

However, those who are regis tered voters in this capital but are not residents here cannot receive the cash gift.

For a list of the guidelines and criteria for the Pamaskong Handog 2022, Dumaguete City residents are urged to visit their barangays or the City Social Welfare and Development

Office, Aguilar said.

Meanwhile, the Diocese of Duma guete through its Commission on Church Cultural Heritage is now pre paring for the installation of a marker by the National Museum declaring

Life is about moving without the ball

related but have no discernible causal connection.”

I have come to believe that somehow there’s an unseen force that arranges delightful encoun ters to happen.

the Cathedral Belfry here as an Im portant Cultural Property (ICP). Msgr. Julius Perpetuo Heruela, chair of the Commission on Church Cultural Heritage, said the marker will be installed at the century-old

to her first book, which is about cultivating individual creativity. I had also been waiting for Fate to drop it on my lap for years.

Both books cost me only P70, less than the cost of a hamburger.

By Nick Tayag

MY SIXTY-ZEN’S WORTH

L et me tell you what happened just a month ago. Before an ap pointment, when there’s enough idle time, I usually walk around the place rather than sit and wait at the designated venue.

Two lucky days in a row. Happy coincidence? Maybe. But they are just two of the many little seren dipitous incidents and accidents that have been happening all my life. And it’s all because I love to move around.

belfry of the Cathedral of St. Cath erine of Alexandria, also known as the Campanario de Dumaguete, on November 23.

We are happy that this has now come to fruition as it is really impor

under constraints and restric tions. How? Let your mind do the walking or moving by reading, surfing the Internet, and writing.

John F. Kennedy wrote his best selling book “Profiles In Courage” while recuperating from a spinal cord operation in a hospital bed for months with the help of his assistant Theodore Sorensen.

tant to recognize the Cathedral Belfry not only for its religious but historical significance to the people, the city, and the Church,” Heruela said.

34,200 senior citizens, PWDs to get Christmas cash gift in DumagueteHonda eyes senior citizens, Gen Z for self-driving car

T he National Museum had ear lier sent teams to inspect the watch tower, which was built sometime in the 1800s, to warn residents from Moro invaders coming to this capital city and nearby areas.

With its declaration as an Impor tant Cultural Property, the National Museum will now have the imple menting authority and responsibil ity for the maintenance of the belfry, Heruela said.

The belfry was declared as an ICP because it has unique cultural properties found locally, possessing outstanding historical, cultural, ar tistic, and scientific value, which ne cessitates the structure’s protection and conservation,” he added.

T he National Museum had made the declaration some time in 2020 but due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the official ceremony to mark this significant event had to be delayed, the priest said.

It was also originally timed for the celebration of the 400 years an niversary of the St. Catherine of Al exandria parish.

Heruela is hoping that the local government will issue an ordinance to help preserve the watch tower, considering it is the most popular landmark of the city and in fact is in the city’s seal or logo. PNA

MOVING

without the ball is a tactic practiced by great bas ketball players like Reggie Miller of the Indiana Pacers and Ste phen Curry of the Golden State War riors. Players like them excel at mov ing without the ball by creating space and making themselves available for the opportune moment to receive the ball and shoot it uncontested.

Even in soccer, moving without the ball is an important dimension of that game. Take Cristiano Ronaldo. He scores a lot of tap ins and it is often the result of his great movement, not just the creativity of his teammates.

In basketball or soccer as well as in life, you don’t always have to carry the ball. Many times, it’s better to move without the ball to open lanes and cre ate opportunities to score.

I f you’re a corporate executive or an entrepreneur, you need to leave your desk frequently and move around away from your office. As John Le

Carre, the novelist, wrote: “The desk is a dangerous place from which to look at the world.”

To free yourself up, devise a system in which your office teammates can cover for you. Setting screens is the bas ketball term for it. Learn to delegate. Pass the ball. Let others carry the ball as you move around unencumbered.

It’s really all about making your self available to new opportunities and ideas. An opportunity can be ev erywhere and somewhere and at some point in time, you will stumble on it.

When that happens, just like a good basketball player, you better have the receptivity and agility of mind to catch it and run with it. Availabil ity is the active goal. Another way of saying it is being at the right place at the right time.

Do you believe in a phenomenon called synchronicity? It is defined as “the simultaneous occurrence of events which appear significantly

O n that morning, I dropped by my favorite book bargain store, which happened to be nearby. The moment I got to the first shelf, I immediately spotted a treasure of a book: the second volume of William Manchester’s biography of Winston Churchill, entitled “Caged Lion.” I had been hunt ing for this volume ever since I finished reading the first vol ume: “The Last Lion.” But I gave up. Then suddenly there it was, conspicuously right on top of a pile of old books, waiting for me to snatch it away.

T hen next day, while waiting for someone to pick me up, I casu ally entered another branch of the said bargain book store that was also nearby, and as I was rummag ing through a disorderly stack of books, I unexpectedly dug out an other nugget, “The Vein of Gold” by Julia Cameron. It’s the sequel

W hen walking or moving around, it’s better to let syn chronicity take over. An intui tive trip can many times yield positive results. You might dis cover an obscure restaurant serv ing great food along the way or chance upon an acquaintance that is well connected and can open doors for you.

One real life synchronicity sto ry tells of a couple that decided to buy and fix up the house they were currently renting. They drove to the bank and started the process of taking out a loan. On their way back to the house, the husband decided to go a different, longer way back. He just felt like taking an alternate route. Along the way he spotted a woman putting up a “For Sale” sign for her house right as they passed by. They stopped. It was just what they wanted and they bought it!

You can move without the ball even when you are immobilized,

He did not waste his time and talent even when confined. He continued to move without the ball through his mind.

N ew technology is rapidly changing the world and you can’t stay long in one place. Moving without the ball is one good way to grow a business and get a step ahead of the competition.

You might even hit on an un contested space and create new demand, which is called in busi ness as “blue ocean strategy.”

The idea of Netflix probably came about because the founder was walking around and saw the way people were putting up with the inconvenience of renting a DVD in a rental outlet. So he created a new product: streaming service that puts the store right in your home. Similarly, the founder of Angkas motorbike taxi service saw an unmet need in daily commut ing and carved a new category in urban transport service and rode it to success.

Adapting and tweaking a prod uct is another way of moving with

out the ball. Business gurus call it “bricolage.” It’s a business con cept defined as taking materials that others had created and using them in a unique and productive way. The cloth rags sold to jeepney drivers by street hawkers are made from cloth scraps thrown away by garment factories. The kwek-kwek egg that is copiously consumed by commuters in street food stalls is the product of a restless mind who had the bright idea of giving it dis tinctive “mass appeal” by breading it and coating it in orange. Balotbalot restaurant has repurposed the lowly banana leaf to serve its meal items instead of the usual plastic plates. Abundantly avail able, the banana leaf is not only eco-friendly, it makes the food more appetizing to look at.

T he thing is, you must not al low yourself to remain stagnant, whether in sports, business or in life. There’s a world of happy ac cidents out there waiting to be discovered and encountered.

One of the greatest basketball players of all time, John Havlicek of the Boston Celtics was Perpet ual Motion personified. He never stopped running and no defender could wear him down. His inspi ration to the rest of us was that if you always keep moving, sooner or later you’ll find an opening, ahead of the others.

T he more you move, the more points you score.

Editor: Angel R. Calso

RESIDENTS of Dumaguete City, Negros Oriental, who are senior citizens, persons with disabilities, and indigents sign up for the Pamaskong Handog cash

December,

this undated photo. The city government initially identified

individuals from these sectors to receive the

PHOTO FROM THE LUPAD DUMAGUETE FACEBOOK PAGE/CITY PIO

BusinessMirror

Local publisher CEO: Covid-19 hastened need for digital products

By Rizal Raoul S. Reyes

FOR

In its long and fruitful part nership with local publisher SC Mardison Corp., MCE has been able to promote quality educa tional resources to Filipinos across the country for almost two de cades now.

“We are very bullish [with the Philippine market; we will con tinue to invest in this] country.” Lim Soon Jinn, Digital Solutions and Commercial head at MCESingapore, told the BusinessMir ror during the recently concluded “MCE Global Conference: Agility in Education in the VUCA World” in the City of Manila.

For Lim, a major reason behind the positive outlook is the launch of the “Basic Education Develop ment Plan 2030” by the Depart ment of Education, aimed at im proving the delivery and quality of learning in the Philippines. This will help advance the country’s

path toward economic growth, Lim said, as he shared MCE’s observa tion that education has played a key role in national development.

“MCE wants to nurture the joy of learning in the classroom; [it encourages students to engage more in their classes by] asking the right questions…,” Lim added.

Ulysses Crisostomo, who is SC Mardison Corp. CEO, said the partnership with MCE has been very fruitful and productive, as the country’s top private schools continue to support educational resources such as textbooks, digi tal resources and professional de velopment services for teachers by the company.

SC Mardison Corp. is the dis tributor for MCE’s educational resources, which include a whole suite of textbooks, digital resourc es and professional development to support schools in implement

ing quality education. Ateneo de Manila University, De La Salle Uni versity, Xavier University and St. Scholastica’s College are just some of the schools in the Philippines that use such resources.

He highlighted that the re cently concluded conference on global education focused on ways educational institutions need to prepare and thrive in the volatile, uncertain, complex and ambigu ous world, otherwise termed as “VUCA.”

Part of SC Mardison Corp.’s commitment to promote qual ity education is in providing free training sessions to teachers at least four times a year. The level of training ranges from “beginners” for new or first-time teachers, “ad vanced,” as well as for Mathematics and Science, among others.

“They see the success and ef fectiveness of our educational re sources, and that’s why they contin ue to use them,” Crisostomo added.

One of the most well-received among MCE’s series in the Philip pines would be the “My Pals are Here! International” which follows the Singaporean learning method. For science, Science Matters is the leading textbook.

“We have a lot of materials based on [Singapore’s curriculum,

and…books on other international curricula such as those from the Cambridge Assessment Interna tional Education…] framework,” Crisostomo pointed out.

Further, SC Mardison Corp. has clients in cities such as Cebu, Iloilo, Bacolod, Davao, Baguio, and more. Grades 1 to 10 students use its distributed textbooks.

Crisostomo disclosed that SC Mardison Corp. had to find ways to sell them during the pandemic: “Luckily for us, we added digital products to our portfolio.”

He added, “I think the pan demic accelerated the need for digital products. Nevertheless, printed books are still in demand because students use [them for a year. We found out that the books we sell…have an impact. The peda gogy must have a sound impact. It must not only be something new, but should really help the teachers share their] knowledge.”

The CEO shared SC Mardison Corp.’s gratitude for its milestones, as it has managed to thrive and cater to the needs of the country’s leading schools.

“They stayed with us for a long time, and we were able to create a loyal customer base. We make sure that their needs are met,” he pointed out.

Pioneer AIM grads celebrate golden jubilee with book launch

RIGOROUS as it is to gain en try into the Asian Institute of M anagement (AIM), it doesn’t hurt to have enormous intellect and cojones let alone to survive.

AIM is explicit in its qualifica tions: “We look for candidates who p ossess the resilience and capacity to graduate from the Institution’s programs. Admissions test scores are one way to measure quantitative, verbal and reasoning skills necessary for successfully completing studies at the graduate level.”

It states further: “But the test measures only potential—although it wouldn’t hurt to have a lot of it. We also look at how applicants fared while taking earlier courses. Aca demic distinctions are noted favor ably, as these indicate the student’s l ikelihood to excel at AIM.”

Plainly, one has to be way aboveaverage to be even considered—some thing that Master of Business Man agement (MBM) Class of 1971 had in copious reserve.

“MBM ’71” is in itself a special bunch. Remarkable savants to be gin with, the classmates are actu ally pioneers, since they hold the d istinction of being AIM’s first graduating batch.

(For transparency’s sake, there was a class ahead; but “Batch ’70” was a hybrid MBM class from the Ateneo de Manila University, which makes MBM ’71 the first, true full batch of AIM.)

As 2021 neared, MBM Class ’71 made plans on ways to best com

memorate their golden anniversary. T hey weighed options, and on sug gestion of Written Analysis of Cases p rofessor Santi Dumlao, the class with the big cojones did as they are wont to do: They cooked up a “Soup No. 5”—metaphorically speaking. Or, more specifically, a “Soup No. ‘Five-Oh’” for the golden jubilee. Thus was the genesis of First Fruits.

“Not a traditional yearbook with class biographies; but rather, a col lage of life stories narrated by the c lass or their [surviving] families,” described batch member Rene Va lencia, chair of Omnipay Inc., lead i ndependent director of GT Capital, and EEI Corp.

The opus is a poignant narration of memoirs; of short and easy reads; with some pieces sent in honor of de parted batchmates such as those of C arlo Katigbak on behalf of his father Nick; Rufo Colayco for his brother Boy; Mariter and Alex—wife and son, respectively—for class presi

dent Art Macapagal; and Mariel, who p enned a “moving Valentine piece for husband Chito,” wrote batch mem ber Tony Samson, chair and CEO of Touch XDA, and director at PhilE quity Fund.

It was indeed a labor of love; a collaborative work led by its edito rial board of Dumlao, Samson and E mmy Lagniton-Hayward; advisory board of Dumlao, Anthony P. Gol amco, and Francisco H. Bautista; e xecutive committee of Renato C. Valencia, Tomas V. Apacible and Manuel G. La’O’; creative team of Marily Orosa, BG Hernandez, and Ermil Carranza; publisher Studio 5 Designs Inc.; and Managing Director Lagniton-Hayward.

Ever the professor, Dumlao proudly drew parallels from the Book of Deuteronomy, relating MBM ’71 to the Israelites who, at last reaching the Promised Land, paid back the “good things which the Lord your God has given.”

President Jikyeong Kang of AIM

similarly praised the school’s very own crop of “first fruits,” saying: “I am absolutely amazed…50 years later, you demonstrate that you are [still at the forefront of innovation. Your commitment, passion, zeal for life…they all come] from this won derful book.”

B ut then again, such are the ex pectations of any AIM product.

L ong has the institute been an assembly line for “alpha executives” destined to scale the high echelons of the corporate and civil service world, or leave it with an indelible mark.

Bringing to mind a Danish prov erb: “Too many captains will sink t he ship,” it is curious that with so many successful and strong-willed individuals, things still manage to get done.

“[At AIM,] we’re not just here to learn, pick up skills and values; but we’re here to make friendships that last a lifetime,” Kang said.

With First Fruits, the accom plished members of batch MBM ’71 h ave proven themselves ego-less and capable of working in concert. But more important, remain the best of friends. All while each of them helm the country’s many great ships and captain industries in the years that followed.

The book was launched on Octo ber 26 at the AIM facility, where the j ourney of MBM ’71 began. Batch members or their survivors attended in-person or online.

A copy is available for a goodwill price of P2,000 at the AIM Bookstore.

Service provider enables Pinoys to study in top global universities

FIL-GLOBAL IMMIGRATION SERVICES is currently conducting a nationwide roadshow featuring opportunities that await college students and those who just graduated from senior high school.

The service provider organized the expo to provide accurate information on the di verse opportunities and salient processes of applying for student’s visa enabling college placement abroad.

In the expo, universities and colleges from Canada, Australia, New Zealand, United Kingdom, United States, and other countries in Europe will be sending their representa tives to present and discuss the benefits of studying in their schools. Many are also of fering full or partial scholarships to quali fied students.

As an immigration-service agency, FilGlobal has some general pieces of advice an aspiring student-applicant should never take for granted: 1) Avoid errors in the ap plication, as all information required must be filled out correctly and completely; 2) Never attempt to submit fake or falsified documents, as embassy officers are highly trained in document verification. Serious consequences may ensue If some details are found untrue or saddled with questionable elements; 3) Give enough time in preparing the application. Rushing submissions may be prone to errors that will be too difficult to correct. This may unnecessarily prolong the application process, or may even cause worse consequences; and 4) Prevent delays by submitting required additional or sup

porting documents the soonest.

Fil-Global has more than 200 partnercolleges and universities. The likes of Niagara College with campuses around the North American country; Northeastern University, Canadian College of Technology and Business, and Centennial College in Vancouver, Arbutus College and Acsenda; British Columbia Insti tute of Technology and North Island College in British Columbia; North Alberta Institute of Technology in Edmonton; and Ryerson University in Toronto are just some of them.

I n Australia, some of the Fil-Global school partners are Blue Lotus College and Kings ton University in Melbourne, School Forms International College of Advanced Education in Darwin, Kapan Business School in Adelaide, Queensford College in Brisbane, Stanley

College in Perth, Western Sydney College of Parramatta in South Wales, and many more.

The nationwide expo has been conducted in Manila, Cabanatuan, Davao, Cavite, Tagay tay, Tagum, Cebu, Bohol, Baguio, Batangas, Pampanga, Laguna, Naga, Taytay, Surigao, General Santos, Bacolod, Malolos and Siqui jor. They will hold one today and on Novem ber 26 in Tacloban, Ormoc and Zamboanga on November 19, Boracay on November 25, Manila on December 3, and in other parts of the country on future dates.

In March and April almost 200 students have already received their visas via FilGlobal, and have either left, or are about to leave the country to attend their respective college or university in the said countries. Rizal Raoul S. Reyes

Fortinet donates to Manila schools 1,400 books on cyber security

By Roderick L. Abad

HELPING raise online-pro tection awareness among the youth, Fortinet Phils. has donated 1,400 complimentary copies of the children’s book Cy ber Safe: A Dog’s Guide to Internet Security to chosen schools in the City of Manila.

Coauthored by Renee Tarun, deputy chief information secu rity officer and vice president of information security at Fortinet, the learning material contains an easy-to-understand introduction to possible dangers for children when they go online for school, video games, and streaming video shows, among others.

According to Fortinet Phils. Country Manager Louie Casta ñeda, the Covid-19 public-health crisis has hooked youngsters to the “Web,” particularly when on line classes were implemented na tionwide during lockdown periods.

“Internet usage among children dramatically increased amid the pandemic, especially with the shift to remote and hybrid learning,” he said. “This [has] created additional threats that impact children’s pri vacy, safety and security…Because of children’s little understanding of these cyber threats, they may be more vulnerable targets for cyber criminals.”

Part of the company’s commit ment to educate the global com munity on cyber safety, the book serves as a means to address the industry’s skills gap. Castañeda noted: “Fortinet is helping incul cate good cyber security hygiene among children by helping teach them [on] how to behave, and keep

themselves safe online from an early age.”

Linking with the Department of Education (DepEd) in the City of Manila, the global provider of broad, integrated and automated cyber security solutions turned over 1,000, 300 and 100 copies of the book to P. Gomez Elementary School, Aurora A. Quezon Elemen tary School, and Ramon Avanceña High School, respectively.

“We are grateful for this col laboration with Fortinet,” Dr. Maria Magdalena M. Lim, CESO V-Schools Division superinten dent, said during the virtual turnover. “We hope these chil dren’s books donated to our schools here in Manila will help guide not only our students, [but also] their parents and teachers, so we can keep our children safe from cyber threats.”

Apart from the book-donation drive, the firm will also give free training through the Fortinet Training Institute’s “Network Secu rity Expert Certification” program, making the NSE 1 and 2 available to DepEd public-school teachers.

This initiative offers eight lev els of certifications—all pro bono, self-paced courses—ranging from beginner to highly technical cur riculum that helps develop and im prove foundational cyber security skills of all ages.

“The…book complements our award-winning training curricu lum,” added Castañeda. “We hope that through our collaboration and this initiative with DepEd-Manila, we can advance the cyber skill sets in children as well as teachers, creating a safer digital environ ment for all.”

THE Philippine School for the Deaf (PSD) in Pasay City officially opened the doors of its new student dormitory, as the Embassy of Japan formally turned over the two-story building in a ceremony last October 28.

The only government-owned institu tion for the deaf in the country, the PSD is a semi-residential school that can provide accommodation to students. However, due to the limited capacity of the dormitory, the school had to decline more than a half of applicants annually, as several students coming from distant parts of the country had faced serious challenges in arranging accommodation.

To address the issue, the Japanese Em bassy provided a grant amount of $156,127, or approximately P8 million, to PSD for the construction of a new edifice. Along with the renovation of its existing dormitory, the new structure expands the school’s capacity to accommodate close to 100 students.

I n the ceremony, Economic Minister

Daisuke Nihei of the Embassy of Japan re iterated the importance of empowerment. He encouraged the students to pursue their dreams, and expressed his optimism for their success in the future.

N ihei led the ceremonial turnover, along with Assistant Secretary Christopher Law rence Arnuco of the Department of Educa tion and Vice Mayor Boyet Ding Del Rosario of Pasay City. Also in attendance were First Secretary Chihiro Kanno and Third Secretary Yumi Yamada from the embassy, other of ficials from DepEd Pasay City local govern ment unit officials, school principal and staff members, students and parents.

T he project was approved in 2019 by the embassy, as part of Japan’s official develop ment assistance through the Grant Assistance for Grassroots Human Security Projects. As the top ODA donor for the Philippines, the government of Japan launched the GGP scheme in the Philippines in 1989 to reduce poverty and help various communities en gage in grassroots activities.

global education-solutions provider Marshall Cavendish Education (MCE), the Philippines remains a “great market.”

PROFESSOR Santi Dumlao (third from left) poses behind the book First Fruits together with batchmates Freddie Burgos (from left), Tony Samson, Butch Bautista, Bernie Jiao and Rene Valencia.

DEPARTMENT of Education-Manila’s Public Schools District Supervisor Renato Felipe Jr. (from left) and Education Program Supervisor Amcy Esteban, with Fortinet Phils.’ Country Manager Louie Castañeda and Sales Manager Carlo Medina.

Japan extends dormitory capacity of Philippine School for the Deaf

Tourism&Entertainment

Editor: Carla Mortel-Baricaua

My brief interlude in barcelona

Iwasn’tthe only passenger trying to figure out how to buy a multiday ticket. Luckily, the staff at the station was helpful to first-time visitors like me. I got my ticket and waited for the train to arrive. I got on the next available train. There was only a trickle of passengers that boarded with me.

However, as the train moved closer to the city center, more and more passengers came and went. As the train approached my stop, I became eager and curious to dis cover what Barcelona has to offer.

Gaudi’s World

T H e most prominent attractions and buildings in Barcelona are works designed by Antoni Gaudi. Gaudi was a devout Catholic that used Christian symbols in his designs. He also frequently drew

inspiration from nature and or ganic forms.

When you think of Barcelona, the most likely landmark you would recall is the Sagrada Fa milia. When I saw it for the first time, my jaw literally dropped, no exaggeration here! Seeing it in person was a different experi ence. The details of the story of Jesus’ life and his family were depicted on the exterior of the church. The interior was just as beautiful. There were times that

I felt like I was in a forest while inside the Sagrada. Gaudi drew inspiration from the natural en vironment while using odd and non-linear shapes in his designs.

The Sagrada remains unfin ished with plans to complete it some years from now. Many other architects have left their own per sonal style on the Sagrada, but all have remained faithful to the vi sion of Gaudi. If you want to make a metaphor out of this unfinished project, the church may well be the symbol of the city, with the con tinuous reinvention of its people and their endless search for beauty that takes your imagination as far as you want to go.

The Sagrada isn’t the only Gaudi work that will grab your attention. Casa Batllo and Casa Mila are two other architectural wonders you’ll find while exploring Barcelona. Lluis Sala Sanchez commissioned the work for Casa Batllo. The con struction was completed in 1877.

The Batllo family bought the house in 1903. The casa has a distinct appearance with curved lines, an arched roof that looks like a dragon’s back, and colorful ceramic tiles covering its façade. The Casa

Mila grabs your attention with its wave-like exterior. Ironically, the Casa Mila faced scrutiny and criti cism at the time of its completion. Many critics said that it didn’t adhere to the style that ruled at the time. Fast forward to today, the Casa Mila is one of the most renowned buildings in the city.

City Walks B A rC e L o n A is a “walkable” city even for tourists visiting for the

first time. Whether I was travel ing alone or with a friend, I found myself walking around the city for hours, only stopping to eat or to soak in the views.

My feet took me to the Gothic Quarter. This neighborhood is part of the sprawling old city of Barcelona. The restored buildings, churches, and the only decadesold neo-Gothic structures stand proud among each other. This was a recurring theme of Barcelona

(and other well-maintained and restored cities in the countries I’ve been to). The city is in a constant state of reinvention while dipping into its past with an eye for today and the future. The narrow alleys connected with centuries-old pla zas and churches, like arteries con nected to the heart and other vital organs. These alleys eventually led to main thoroughfares such as La r a mbla where I found numerous cafes, shops, and restaurants. I sampled a few croquetas here, a few churros there, a glass of beer here, and a plateful of Catalan paella. I have no Master Chef-like knowl edge about food, I simply thought what I ate was delicious.

A few days in a new city is not enough to truly experience and know it. However, that’s all the time I had (3.5 days to be exact) when I visited Barcelona. I simply passed through. I did my best to see the city as a new acquaintance. I would love to return and see the city again. Maybe next time I’d get to slow down and not think about visiting an attraction. Maybe next time I’d run into an old friend and have lunch with them and walk around the city once more.

After two years of gathering and celebrating via laptop screens, the Hotel and Sales Marketing Associa tion (HSMA) 2022 Virtus Awards ceremony, n ow finally held face-to-face, was its most joyous edition yet, bringing together the best of the Philippines’s hospitality and tourism industry as they recognized their top sales and marketing professionals, as well as marketing campaigns.

Held at Okada Manila, the 2022 Virtus Awards recognized, as in previous years, three winners for its individual categories: for Outstanding Sales & Marketing Associ

f o r its Outstanding Marketing Cam paign award, recognition was given to N ewport World r e sorts (NW r ) f or its “I Love e ar th” program, which was estab lished as the resort group’s commitment t o sustainability after seeing the disrup

tion and impact of the Covid-19 pandemic. N W r houses five international hotels, a shopping mall, casinos, entertainment venues, and MIC e facilities, and as part of its post-pandemic plans, they are consoli dating and integrating all sustainability e fforts being carried out throughout the property complex under “I Love e ar th.” t h e program’s main innovation is the creation of the I Love e ar th Council, which quickly assessed and identified priority areas for collaboration. t h ese priorities have since become NW r s basis for its sustainability targets.

Congratulating this year’s winners, Virtus Awards chair r o se Libongco said that their achievement marked the start of their “odyssey” in the industry.

“ e v ery day forward is your opportunity to prove that you are the right winner. Watchful eyes are on you to continue to demonstrate excellence in purpose, plan, and action thereby educating others di rectly, inspiring by example, and convert ing others towards the philosophy of win ning until you form a like-minded army w ho will make your objectives doable, replicate them and eventually perpetu

ate your ideals of success,” Libongco said.

An d with the theme “Breakthrough 2022,” outgoing HSMA President Benjie Martinez said that this year’s winners are helping the industry break free from the pandemic by “embracing opportuni ties and relentlessly pursuing business f or [their] respective properties despite the challenges.”

Al so recognized at this year’s Virtus, which is now in its eighth year—its most auspicious, as Libongco pointed out— were the winners of 2020 and 2021, re spectively: Okada Manila e v ents e x ecutive e rika Denice Patajo and Hotel 101 Group MIC e Sales e x ecutive e ricka Joy Calamba (Outstanding Marketing Associates); e l Nido r esorts Senior Sales Manager Pio

Started in 2015, the Virtus Awards

HSMA

the support of Co-Presenters Department of to urism, to urism Promotions Board Philippines, Gold partners Atlantis and Okada Ma nila; Silver partners Dida tr avel, Crimson f i linvest, and Media Meter; Bronze part ners IDeaS, Maya Business, and Newport W orld r e sorts; Wine & Snack Partner e D I (Barefoot, Harveys, and PikNik).

Story & photos by Joshua Berida

ate, Jhune Niño Calinawan, Banquet Sales e x ecutive of Quest Hotel & Conference Center-Cebu; Outstanding Sales & Market ing Manager, Marie Antonnette de Belen, C onrad Manila’s Senior Sales Manager; and Outstanding Sales & Marketing Leader, Michelle Angeli Crudo, Director of Sales at Novotel Manila Araneta City.

Sanchez and JPark Island r e sort & Water park Mactan, Cebu Marketing and Com munications Manager Alexis John Aquino ( Outstanding Marketing Managers); Con rad Manila Sales- f t Director Bae e u n Joo and r o binsons Hotels and r e sorts’ Sales and Marketing Group Director Joselina de Mesa (Outstanding Marketing Leader).

is organized by

with

The Sagrada Familia is the iconic piece of architecture in Barcelona.

Ge T a glimpse of Barcelona’s ancient history by exploring the Gothic Quarter.

The city doesn’t seem to run out of beautiful buildings, one of which is the Barcelona Cathedral.

WaTC h the sunset at La Barceloneta. a

To ni Gaudi designed the La Pedrera or Casa Mila which finished construction in 1912.

Ca S a Batlo is another eye-catching piece of architecture that antoni Gaudi designed.

SPen d a few hours at Parc Guell and see Gaudi’s surreal aesthetic.

The Sagrada’s interior is just as beautiful as its exterior.

The Palau Guell is one of Gaudi’s architectural works in the city.

One of the stories that made its mark on the Liao couple was the one about the artist who traded one of his paintings for a kilo of rice.

“At the end of the day, we have to give dignity to our artists. That’s what drives us. That artist, his works are now in the home of a collector in Forbes Park,” said Jojo. The Liaos take pride in www.drybush. com being a fast and easy to navigate web site.

Today, www.drybrush.com exists alongside two physical galleries—one in SM City North Edsa, Quezon City and another in SM MOA Square, Pasay City.

“drybrush Gallery aims to attract new art collectors and at the same time support new and emerging talents, making us a conduit to the wonderful world of discovering art. drybrush Gallery aim to help customers buy new and unique pieces from Filipino artists to support our local art community. drybrush Gallery offers a wide variety of artworks from painting, sculpture art, photography art, and decorative plates to ensure that everyone will find the perfect artwork for their collections,” said the gallery in its web site.

Modern contemporary artist Lydia Velasco and her family were the featured artists in a visual art exhibit, called Salinlahi IV, at drybrush Gallery on the second floor of SM MOA Square at the Mall of Asia Complex in Pasay City.

Aside from Lydia Velasco, the artists whose artworks were showcased in Salinlahi IV  are Tessie Pecaña, Fely Reyes, Sarah Doringo, Daisy Carlos, Isidora Duran, Lon de Cruz, Isabella dela Cruz, Chie Cruz, Chigoe Cruz, Arlene Manalus, Lex Picaña, Michelle Molo, Phoebe Carlos, Kim Carlos, and Kris Ian Carlos.

“We are honored and privileged na pumayag si Ma’am Lydia. Ang request talaga namin, kasama ang

family. That’s the reason why she agreed,” said Jojo.

As an artist, Lydia Velasco was influenced and encouraged by her parents. Her father was a set designer for a movie studio while her mother was a homemaker who liked painting still works. In college, Velasco studied Fine Arts, Major in Advertising, and worked in various advertising agencies before founding her own company Lightmoves Photo/Design Inc.

She returned to painting when the company was stable and her paintings focused on women, celebrating their identity and freedom through her artworks. Art collectors in Japan, Singapore, Hong Kong, Germany, the US, and the UK purchase and collect her artworks. Her works have also been auctioned by auction houses such as Sotheby’s, Borobudur, Larasati, and Masterpiece.

The woman and mother figure in most of Velasco’s paintings—who has almond eyes and high cheekbones—is inspired by Velasco’s mother, who is her muse.

“Ang inspirasyon nanggagaling sa pagmamahal sa kapwa. Ayoko ng may naaaping tao. Pinaglalaban ko ’yan. Nagpipinta nga ako sa pader, sumasama ako sa rally [My inspiration comes from loving my fellow men. I don’t like it when people aren’t treated equally. I really fight for equality. I paint murals. I attend rallies],” said the 80-year-old Velasco.

The Velasco sisters—Lydia, Tessie Pecaña, Felicidad “Fely” Reyes, Daisy Velasco Carlos, and Sarah Velasco Doringo—share a fascination for flowers and love, which are often the subject of their artworks. Lydia’s own children—Chie Cruz and Chigoe Cruz—are artists and also part of Salinlahi IV  As artists, Velasco’s sisters have different passions

and styles.

Daisy Carlos’s love for fairytales and nature is evident in her works as they often feature images of women surrounded by birds, animals and flowers or being in a fantasy world.

Tessie Pecaña’s works are straightforward and her overall style leans toward classical realism, as she uses bold strokes, brilliant colors, and hazy and gentle edging that give her paintings an Impressionist touch.

Fely Reyes is a late bloomer when it comes to painting. She describes herself as a romantic who loves to paint flowers because of the love they signify.

Sarah Doringo is into acrylic pouring and applies different techniques to it such as combining colors, brush strokes, air blowing, swiping, and balloon marking.

“Tatlong generations ang nandito sa exhibit. Nakakatuwa kasi iba-iba ng styles. Sabi ko talaga mabigyan kami ng isang show para makita ng tao na lahat kayo ay mahusay. Kasi parang na overpower ko sila, ‘di sila makaangat. Sabi ko uumpisahan ko, gagawa ako ng exhibit na kasama kayo para makita ng lahat na magagaling kayo at ‘di lang ako ang kilala ng tao [There are three generations of artists in this exhibit. It’s so nice to see different styles. I’ve always wanted a show with them because my fame tends to overpower theirs. I want them to shine and I want people to see how good they are as artists],” said Lydia.

Aside from the physical art exhibit, the family’s artworks can also be viewed on the gallery’s web site. The artworks can be purchased online at bit. ly/3WQU1iM.

For viewing, payment, and other inquiries, you may contact drybrush via e-mail at curator@drybrush. com or at 0917-5652917. ■

Globe, NABU partner to help marginalized Filipino youth develop reading skills

into the Philippine market. We are confident that this partnership will help us solve the imbalance in children’s book creation and distribution,” said Tanyella Evans, Chief Executive Officer and CoCreator of NABU.

According to a joint report released by the United Nations Children’s Fund, the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, and the World Bank, titled “Where are we on Education Recovery?”, the Philippines is currently experiencing a “learning poverty” where an estimated 70 percent of 10-yearolds in low- and middle-income countries are unable to read or comprehend a simple story.

Their findings also showed how learning has become further exacerbated by the global pandemic, driven by the disruption to in-person schooling.

Through this partnership, Globe will serve as a distribution unit for NABU’s e-books throughout the Philippines to complement students’ learning.

Anyone can access the Nabu.org mobile app for free.

The NABU: Multilingual Kids Books app may be downloaded for free on Google Play Store and App Store.

Together, the two organizations are bringing more than a hundred Filipino books, with some translated into regional languages such as Hiligaynon, Bicolano, Ilokano, Cebuano and Maranao. NABU believes that helping children read in their local language first allows their confidence to grow. Having culturallyrepresented, original, and relatable stories in bilingual text increases the child’s motivation to read.

Over the next two years, Globe and NABU will seek to expand the platform’s reach by partnering with schools and learning facilities. NABU is also excited to hone the skills of Filipino creatives such as writers and illustrators to continue telling and creating more stories that reach a wider audience.

Digital-only banking platform launched to serve unbanked, underserved Pinoys

BY RODERICK L. ABAD Contributor

PER estimate, more than 41 million Filipinos still do not have formal bank accounts and are missing out on economic opportunities and financial security.

Now, UNO Digital Bank has launched its platform that solely operates online, bringing a convenient alternative financial service to both the unbanked and underserved markets.

“The opportunity for us to make better financial services is huge. But you always have to keep in mind what the customer really wants. You should look at trying to solve their problems and pain points in creating a product,”

UNO Digital Bank Founder, president, and chief executive officer Manish Bhai

said during the recent inaugural Philippine FinTech Festival and the World Fintech Festival Philippines.

UNO Digital Bank is one of the six licensed virtual banks by Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas and the first financial technology in Southeast Asia to get an outright online banking license.

The initial version of its mobile app offers various products like #UNOready High-Rate savings account. Accounts with an available end of day balance (ADB) below P5,000 have a base interest rate of 3.50 percent gross per annum (GPA), while those with P5,000 and above have a step-up interest rate of 4.25 percent GPA.

#UNOready Savings Account comes with a free life insurance with P50,000 coverage. This is automatically activated with a minimum P10,000 ADB. Also, it has a free UNO Virtual Debit Mastercard

(this is automatically activated with a P100 minimum deposit) to purchase and manage banking transactions.

#UNOboost Time Deposit earns a guaranteed interest of 6.5 percent, with terms from three to 12 months. Its opening balance is at least P5,000 and deposit is up to P2.5 million (or five tranches of P500,000).

#UNOearn Time Deposit adds another source of income with #UNOearn, a High-Yield Time Deposit that provides a monthly payout. It boasts of a guaranteed interest rate of 6.5 percent for a longer period to enjoy an additional income stream credited to the UNO Savings Account on a monthly basis. Terms are between 12 and 24 months. At least P5,000 is needed to open this account and deposit is up to P2.5

million (or five tranches of P500,000).

All deposit products are insured up to P500,000 per depositor by Philippine Deposit Insurance Corp.  Another innovation is UNO Digital Bank’s Numberless Card developed in cooperation with Mastercard. Its built-in chip contains all the customer’s card information with none of the usual details being printed on the card, thus making it secured from fraudulent transactions in case of misplacement or loss.

Downloadable for free at the Apple App Store and Google Play Store, the UNO mobile app can also be used to send and receive money. Cash in is free in over 7,500 outlets nationwide. It can also pay bills and scan to pay. UNO Digital Bank plans to expand its services with loans, insurance and investment products.

❶ JOJO and Joweeh Liao are the coowners of drybrush Gallery, which started as an online platform for Filipino artists.

❷ VISUAL artist Lydia Velasco

TIMOTHY CAMPOS

Apple taps Facebook veteran as information chief after departures

BY MARK GURMAN Bloomberg News

Apple Inc. has hired a startup founder and former Facebook executive to run its information systems group after departures in that department, according to people with knowledge of the matter.

Timothy Campos will lead the Information Systems and Technology department, better known as IS&T, which handles the infrastructure behind Apple’s online services, customer support and web site. Apple refers to the operation as its “nerve center” because it lets employees, suppliers and customers stay connected. The division reports to chief financial officer Luca Maestri.

Mary Demby, the current information chief, is retiring after this year, Bloomberg News reported earlier. Her deputy, vice president of software engineering David Smoley, is also retiring after a three-year stint. The people familiar with Campos’s hiring asked not to be identified because the move hasn’t been announced.

Campos held the chief information officer role at what is now Meta Platforms Inc. from 2010 to 2016. Before that, he had the same position at KLA Corp., a semiconductor company. Most recently, he co-founded Woven, a popular calendar app that was acquired last year by Slack Technologies Inc., which was later purchased by Salesforce Inc.

The changes add to management changes at Apple, which is facing the loss of some key executives. In addition to Demby and Smoley, the chief privacy officer, vice president of industrial design and head of the company’s online retail store are leaving.

Apple also parted ways with its vice president of procurement following his appearance in a crass TikTok video.

Apple shares were little changed in late trading Wednesday. Its stock is down 24 percent in 2022, though that’s a better performance than many of its tech peers have managed. The Nasdaq Composite Index is down 34 percent, and companies like Meta and Twitter Inc. have been laying off thousands of workers in the face of a sales slowdown.

realme 10: Best-in-class performance

efficient specs are complemented by a 50MP Color AI Camera, 200 percent Ultra Boom Speaker, and an eye-catching 7.95mm Ultra-Slim design. It will be available in either an 8GB+128GB or 8GB+256GB storage variant.

Should you dare to make the leap, or should you skip this instead?

AMAZON.COM Inc. is the world’s first public company to lose a trillion dollars in market value as a combination of rising inflation, tightening monetary policies and disappointing earnings updates triggered a historic selloff in the stock this year.

Shares in the e-commerce and cloud company fell 4.3 percent on Wednesday, pushing its market value to about $879 billion from a record close at $1.88 trillion on July 2021. Amazon and Microsoft Corp. were neck-and-neck in the race to breach the unwelcome milestone, with the Windows software maker close behind after having lost $889 billion from a November 2021 peak.

While technology and growth stocks have been punished throughout the year, fears of a recession have further dampened sentiment in the sector. The top five US technology companies by revenue have

with me if you want to live leap.” Well, this might as well be the tagline of the realme 10, which it dubbed the “segment terminator,” during its launch last Wednesday, November 9, 2022.

‘COME

This marks the first time that realme PH is joining the global launch, making it one of the countries to debut the realme 10. Something it deserves after being named the No. 1 smartphone brand for seven consecutive quarters in the Philippines.

■ NO LONGER ‘FLAGSHIP ONLY’: The number series has always captured the core of what realme is about and that is bringing leap-forward technology to its millions of users. Since it began in 2018, each product in the series has had at least one leap-forward technology that is the absolute best in its pricing— whether it was the quad cameras of the realme 5, the 67W fast charging tech of the realme 7, or the realme 9’s light-changing design, making those features no longer flagship only.

With the realme 10, it promises to be even more ambitious than ever by going all in on this leapforward mindset, promising a best-in-class product that focuses on three areas its fans care the most about—performance, display, and design, aiming to sweep the competition with this “terminator” phone.

Looking at the spec sheet, the realme 10 is equipped with a MediaTek Helio G99 Processor, 90Hz Super AMOLED Display, and a 5000mAh Battery with 33W SUPERVOOC Charge. These highly battery-

■ DESIGN AND DISPLAY: The realme 10 comes in its signature yellow box and ships with the unit, paper documents, sim tray ejector tool, a 33W charger, and a USB-A-to-C cable. Like the realme 9, it also comes with a darker plastic case which I’m not a fan of as it mutes the color of the phone.

The realme 10 is said to be the slimmest smartphone from the number series, featuring a 7.95mm Ultra Slim design. I’m a fan of the overall shape, with its iPhone-ish blocky vibe, but it’s more comfortable to hold because it only weighs 179g making it quite pocketable and the corner where the edges meet is slightly curved.

realme has been known for its unique finishes and this time its Light Particle Design intends to recreate the image of light particles colliding with each other in space. In reality, the Clash White variant is one of the most sparkly-glittery finishes we’ve seen playing with various hues of color from white, blue, pink, orange and purple depending on how the light shines on its back. If your significant other is wishing for something sparkly this holiday season, maybe he/she is actually hinting at a realme 10.

The Rush Black version has a dark blue that graduates toward black sprinkled with thousands of glittering particles. It’s the more mainstream choice if you want something a little more discreet.

The realme 10 has a side-mounted fingerprint scanner instead of an under-display one. It is not actually a big deal as both are equally useful and fast. Personally, I prefer this placement as it is easier to reach and more natural when holding the phone. It has no official IP rating, but the entire device seems to be sealed quite well with some basic insulation around the slots.

For the display, the realme 10 retains the same 6.4inch Super AMOLED screen as its predecessor with a similar 90Hz refresh rate, 360Hz touch response, and DCI-P3 color gamut. The 16MP selfie camera is located around its top left corner, which is perhaps the most unobtrusive location. It has Gorilla Glass 5 protection which offers supreme durability for slight drops and more than twice the scratch resistance compared to other types of glass used in this price segment.

■ CAMERAS: One of my biggest concerns with the realme 10 was its cameras. Coming from the 108MP triple camera setup of the realme 9, the 50MP + 2MP B/W sensor of the realme 10 might seem like an obvious downgrade. Despite the differences though, it still proved to be a capable shooter as realme found a way to optimize its software to be able to produce great-looking images. Photos have plenty of details and nice rich colors which make it very social media ready. You also get all the fun modes including a Street Mode for those artistic shots and a Night Mode to help boost brightness when lighting conditions are not ideal. When it comes to video recording, it can shoot at a maximum of 1080p at 60 fps. The only thing missing is an ultra-wide camera that would have made it even more versatile.

■ PERFORMANCE AND BATTERY: The realme 10 prioritizes powerful performance above all to give its users that flagship level feel when it comes to everyday use, and in that aspect it does an excellent job. The realme 10 is the first smartphone with the newest Mediatek Helio G99 chipset which is an upgrade from the previous Snapdragon 680 chip. It’s a 6nm chip with a 2+6 core CPU configuration (2x2.2GHz Cortex-A76 and 2x2.0GHz Cortex-A55) and a Mali-G57 MC2 GPU.

The realme 10 is the only phone in this price segment that can boast of an Antutu benchmark score of over 400,000 and that’s because the Helio G99 that’s been perfectly optimized for efficiency and power. To address slow app switching, slow app launching, and limited storage space, the realme 10 can have up to 16GB Dynamic RAM that’s optimized for efficiency. You already get a whopping 8GBRAM built-in that’s more than sufficient even for the most demanding games, plus you can allocate up to eight more GB of your phone’s memory. More RAM gives you more raw power to play with, allowing the realme 10 to run 18 apps at the same time for nextlevel productivity and multitasking. It also ships with either 128GB or 256GB storage expandable up to 1TB via external memory.

Everything just works smoothly, with no lag, no slowdown, and it can handle just about any game I installed on it without any problems. Just don’t max out the settings for the smoothest gameplay experience.

seen nearly $4 trillion in market value evaporate this year.  The world’s largest online retailer has spent this year adjusting to a sharp slowdown in e-commerce growth as shoppers resumed prepandemic habits. Its shares have fallen almost 50 percent amid slowing sales, soaring costs and a jump in interest rates. Since the start of the year, cofounder Jeff Bezos has seen his fortune dwindle by about $83 billion to $109 billion, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

Last month, Amazon projected the slowest revenue growth for a holiday quarter in the company’s history as shoppers reduce their spending in the face of economic uncertainty. That sent its market value below $1 trillion for the first time since the pandemic-fueled rally in tech stocks more than two years ago.

BLOOMBERG NEWS

The display size is ideal for mobile entertainment and the Full HD+ resolution (409ppi) is crisp and sharp. Watching videos, reading ebooks, playing games or just browsing your feed looks great thanks to its Super AMOLED display that produces deep blacks and vibrant colors.

One feature realme has been highlighting for the realme 10 is 200 percent Ultra Boom speaker, allowing you to play music at maximum volume, then taking that sound and doubling it through software. It does get very loud; unfortunately, it doesn’t sound as good as you’d expect. With only a single down-firing speaker, it’s severely limited with very little bass, and pushing it above 100 percent volume makes it very tinny and distorted. It’s a good thing they brought back the 3.5mm headphone jack so you can enjoy your audio better privately.

With the holiday season upon us, phone battery is life and the realme 10’s 5000mAh Battery can easily last a day of moderate use. It also has 33W SUPERVOOC Charge that can power the phone from 0 percent to 50 percent in only 28 minutes and fully charge it in just about an hour.

■ FINAL WORD: If you are on the lookout for a phone that prioritizes performance and battery, the realme 10 strikes just the right balance between price and features. Those looking for an affordable yet powerful phone should definitely check it out. It has a very good display, the Helio G99 processor is a workhorse, and realme has done a great job with software optimization. The Ultra Boom speaker is a nice gimmick and hopefully they can further improve it. As for the cameras, you get exactly what you’d expect from a realme midrange device—good details, vivid colors and fun modes. If you are looking for better cameras, you might want to hold off and wait for the realme 10Pro or realme 10Pro Plus which are definitely launching soon. ■

Amazon becomes world’s first public company to lose $1 trillion in market value

Muted Singles’ Day shopping festival expects slow growth

HONGKONG—China’s biggest online shopping festival, known as Singles’ Day, is typically an extravagant affair as Chinese e-commerce firms like Alibaba and JD.com ramp up marketing campaigns and engage top livestreamers to hawk everything from lipstick to furniture as they race to break sales records of previous years.

This year, however, the shop ping festival is a much quieter event, with sales numbers ex pected to grow more slowly as consumers tighten their wallets amid an uncertain economy and the ongoing impact of Covid-19.

Singles’ Day—also known as Double 11 as it falls on November 11 annually—is typically closely watched as a barometer of con sumption in China, as consumers collectively spend billions on on line shopping platforms and mer chants offer attractive discounts and promotions.

Following a government-led crackdown on China’s technol

ogy industry last year, coupled with an economic slowdown and Covid-19 outbreaks, e-commerce companies have shifted their fo cus this year away from massive sales growth and high-profile marketing campaigns.

“The Singles’ Day market is more mature now and it’s impos sible to sustain high growth every year,” said Xiaofeng Wang, prin cipal analyst at market research firm Forrester Inc.

A Bain & Co. report on Singles’ Day this year found that 34 per cent of consumers planned to spend less this year compared to 2021. Only 24 percent indicated

that they would spend more.

Alibaba, China’s biggest ecommerce player which runs the Taobao and Tmall online shopping platforms, is also contending with rivals such as JD.com and Pinduo duo, as well as e-commerce offer ings from short-video platforms like Douyin, as consumers spread out their purchases across plat forms, the report found.

Notably missing from Alibaba’s online festival this year is China’s top e-commerce livestreamer Viya, who sold over $1 billion in products during a livestream marathon last year.

Viya, whose real name is Huang Wei, vanished online after she was fined $210 million for tax evasion late last year.

Another top livestreamer, Li Jiaqi, was also not prominently featured in Alibaba’s marketing campaign this year after he was caught in a scandal when a cake shaped like a tank was featured on one of his livestreams on the eve of June 4, the anniversary of the 1989 Tiananmen Square mas sacre in Beijing.

The scandals around these online celebrities have prompted some brands to shift away from partnering with them. This has led to a rising trend in using vir tual influencers—hyperrealistic, computer-generated characters— to attract consumers.

“It’s really risk control, as in the past few years a lot of celebrities have been caught in some scandals,” Wang said, adding that digital influ encers allow brands to avoid repu tation risks while bringing a sense of novelty to consumers.

One such virtual influencer is Ayayi, a female digital idol who has amassed over a million followers on social media platforms and is featured in a marketing campaign

this year by Chinese electronics brand Hai’er for Singles’ Day.

Some brands have also begun hosting in-house livestreams, according to Jacob Cooke, CEO of WPIC, a marketing firm that helps Western companies sell on line in China.

“It’s obviously a lot more costeffective than giving Li Jiaqi a 30 percent commission,” he said.

More merchants have simpli fied promotions this year, of fering price discounts instead of complicated coupon systems that were used in previous years, said Cooke, who added that some consumers are still eager to spend during the festival amid pent-up demand from not being able to travel overseas.

China is one of the few coun tries globally that still has strict entry restrictions, as it adheres to its “zero-Covid” strategy that has seen authorities lock down cities and test millions for the virus, adversely impacting both inbound and outbound tourism in China.

Amid Covid-19 outbreaks, fes tivities surrounding the Singles’ Day online shopping festival have also been toned down.

For the first time in eight years, Alibaba did not hold a massive gala the night before November 11. Previous galas featured super stars such as Taylor Swift, Mariah Carey and even Cirque du Soleil, and typically included a count down to the start of the Double 11 shopping day. The lack of fes tivities has not gone unnoticed by consumers.

“The gala used to feature top stars like Kobe (Bryant), (David) Beckham…but in just a few years it’s gone from its heyday to total silence,” said a Chinese user on Weibo. “It’s certain that the best era has now passed.” AP

Oil set for weekly loss as China’s Covid outbreak shakes outlook

OIL headed for a weekly loss of over 6 percent as China continues to grapple with swelling Covid cases, weighing on the outlook for demand.

Daily infections have climbed to the highest since April as China’s top leaders reinforced the need to stick with Covid Zero, although they urged officials to be more targeted with restrictions. Inves tors have been watching for clues on any relaxation of the policy, with markets whipsawed recently by rumors of easing.

Still, West Texas Intermedi ate rose on Friday, edging toward $86 a barrel amid broader market gains after slower-than-projected US inflation. That’s led to specula tion that the Federal Reserve could temper its interest rate hikes.

“Crude got some lift from the revival of Fed pivot hopes and increased risk appetite following

the softer US October inflation data,” said Vandana Hari, founder of Vanda Insights in Singapore. “But the growing Covid cases and lockdowns in China will limit price gains.”

Oil has lost about a third of its value since early June on concerns over a global economic slowdown and ag gressive monetary tightening by cen tral banks. The US inflation read also led to a decline in the dollar, making commodities priced in the currency more attractive to investors.

In a meeting of the new Politbu ro Standing Committee chaired by President Xi Jinping, the members called for “more decisive” and tar geted measures to curb the spread of the virus so as to resume normal life and production as soon as pos sible, according to Xinhua News Agency. Daily infections have ex ceeded 10,000 for the first time since April. Bloomberg News

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

Australian PM wants to ask China’s Xi to lift trade barriers

CANBERRA, Australia—Australian

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said on Friday he’d ask Chinese President Xi Jinping to lift billions of dollars in trade barriers if the two leaders hold their first bilateral meeting this month.

Albanese was speaking in Sydney before departing Australia on Friday for an East Asia Summit in Cambodia, followed by a Group of 20 meeting in Indonesia, then an Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum meeting in Thailand.

A face-to-face meeting between the Chinese and Australian leaders would mark a major reset in a bilateral relationship that plumbed new depths under the nine-year rule of Australia’s previous conservative government.

Beijing had banned minister-tominister contacts and imposed a series of official and unofficial trade barriers on products including wine, coal, beef, seafood and barley in recent years that cost Australian exporters AU$20 billion (US$13 billion) a year.

Albanese said a meeting with Xi was “not locked in at this point in time.” But China lifting economic sanctions was the first priority in returning to normal relations, he said.

“We have some AU$20 billion of economic sanctions against Australia. That is not in Australia’s interest in terms of our jobs and the economy, but it’s also not in China’s interest.” Albanese told reporters.

“Australia has world class products—in seafood, in meat, in wine, in other products that we export to China. It’s in China’s interest to receive those products, it’s in Australia’s interest to export them. So I’m very hopeful— we’ll continue to put our case that these sanctions are not justified, that they need to be removed,” Albanese added.

Asked what China wanted from Australia to improve relations, Albanese replied: “It’s not up to me to put forward their case.”

“What I want to see with the relationship with China is cooperation where we... maintain our Australian values where we must,” Albanese said.

Bilateral relations soured over issues, including Australian demands for an independent inquiry into the Covid-19 pandemic, a ban on Chinese telecommunications giant Huawei’s involvement in the Australian 5G networks on security grounds and recent laws that ban covert foreign interference in domestic politics.

China’s Ambassador to Australia Xiao Qian said in August that Beijing would discuss with Australia whether conditions were right in November for Albanese to meet Xi during the G-20 summit. Xi is not expected to attend the East Asia Summit.

China’s People’s Daily English-language newspaper reported this week that “signs of resetting bilateral ties have emerged” since Albanese’s center-left Labor Party came to power in May.

The White House has confirmed President Joe Biden will hold talks with Xi on Monday on the sidelines of the G-20 summit in Indonesia, their first face-to-face meeting since Biden became president in January 2021.

The meeting would come as competition for influence among South Pacific island nations heightens between China and the United States, with its allies including Australia, since Beijing struck a security pact with the Solomon Islands early this year that has raised fears of a Chinese naval base being established in the region.

Albanese said Australia has “strategic competition in the region” with China.

“China, of course, has changed its position. And it is much more forward-leaning than it was in the past,” Albanese said.

“That has caused tensions in the relationship, and we need to acknowledge that that’s the context in which the relationship exists,” he added. AP

Asean Latest: Leaders gather as China, US vie for influence

WORLD leaders are gathering in Cambodia for the first of three back-to-back summits in Asia as the region seeks to find balance between the competing interests of China and the US.

Joe Biden in bec oming the first US president to attend the Association of Southeast Asian Nations Summit since 2017, will push a vision for a free and open Indo-Pacific region designed to counter Beijing’s growing military and technological clout. Joining him will be Chinese Premier Li Keqiang in a likely preview of the American leader’s meeting with counterpart Xi Jinping at the Group of 20 summit in Indonesia.

Also on the agenda is the escalating violence in Myanmar, which has frustrated many in Asean as junta shows a reluctance to stick to an agreed peace plan. The military government hasn’t been invited to the summit.

Russia’s war in Ukraine is another issue that Asean member states say have driven up inflation. Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov is expected to attend while Ukraine Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba has already held meetings with some Southeast Asian leaders.

Here are the latest developments: Russian foreign minister to attend Asean summit (11:06 a.m.)

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov will be attending the summit meetings in place of President Vladimir Putin, the Khmer Times reported, citing the Russian Embassy in Phnom Penh.

There will be no Russian-Asean meeting.

Ukraine Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba is attending the summit in Cambodia and has signed a friendship pact with Asean member states known as the Treaty of Amity and Cooperation.

Cambodia warns of colossal challenges (8:20 a.m.)

Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen as the rotating chair of Asean opened the summit Friday, warning of “colossal challenges” and the prospect of conflict as relations deteriorate between the US and China.

“We should always be vigilant of the current social economic situation in Asean, as well as in the whole world remains fragile and divided,” he told leaders. “We are now at the most uncertain juncture.”

US to ‘talk clearly’ about Russia’s war in Ukraine at Asean (8:00 p.m.)

The US will talk clearly about Russia’s invasion of Ukraine that has affected the Indo-Pacific region in significant ways, including driving up food and fuel costs, said US Ambassador to Asean Yohannes Abraham.

“We have a shared commitment to sovereignty and territorial integrity with our Asean partners, and we will be speaking about those values over the course of these events,” he said at the briefing in Phnom Penh.

Ahead of summit, US pushes for more engagement (7:40 p.m.)

The US wants to focus on further building on the strong and mutually reinforcing coalitions to tackle shared challenges and seize opportunities, Assistant Secretary of State for the Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs Daniel Kritenbrink said in a briefing.

“President Biden’s visit to the region once again demonstrates the US commitment to working cooperatively with Asean members as well as our other allies and partners to address these global challenges through concrete actions, he said.”

Jokowi says region needs to be engine of growth (5:30 p.m.)

The biggest issues for the region are inflation and higher energy prices, Indonesia’s President Joko Widodo said in speech Thursday. Indonesia will be taking over as the Asean chair for next year.

S outheast Asia needs to continue being an engine of growth with a focus on supply chains, said Jokowi, as the president is popularly known. Indonesia wants to play its part by shifting from exporting raw commodities to processing as it wants to avoid the middle income trap.

“We also need to make an energy transition, the conflict in Europe has taught us many lessons,” Jokowi said.

Elon Musk warns Twitter’s survival at stake as staff quits

ELON MUSK warned Twitter employees Thursday to brace for “difficult times ahead” that might end with the collapse of the social media platform if they can’t find new ways of making money.

Workers who survived last week’s mass layoffs are facing harsher work conditions and growing uncertainty about their ability to keep Twitter running safely as it continues to lose high-level leaders responsible for data privacy, cybersecurity and complying with regulations.

That includes Yoel Roth, Twitter’s head of trust and safety—a previously little-known executive who became the public face of Twitter’s content moderation after Musk took over and who had been praised by Musk for defending Twitter’s ongoing efforts to fight harmful misinformation and hate speech.

An executive confirmed Roth’s resignation to coworkers on an internal messaging board seen by The Associated Press.

The developments were part of another whirlwind day in Musk’s acquisition of the social media platform. It began with an email to employees from Musk on Wednesday night ordering workers to stop working from home and show up in the office Thursday morning.

He called his first “all-hands” meeting Thursday afternoon. Before that, many were relying on the billionaire Tesla CEO’s public tweets for clues about Twitter’s future.

“Sorry that this is my first email to the whole company, but there is no way to sugarcoat the message,” wrote Musk, before he described a dire economic climate for businesses like Twitter that rely almost entirely on advertising to make money.

“Without significant subscription revenue, there is a good chance Twitter will not survive the upcoming economic downturn,” Musk said. “We need roughly half of our revenue to be subscription.”

At the staff meeting, Musk said some “exceptional” employees could seek an exemption from his return-tooffice order but that others who didn’t like it could quit, according to an employee at the meeting who spoke on condition of anonymity out of a concern for job security.

The employee also said Musk appeared to downplay employee concerns about how a pared-back Twitter workforce was handling its obligations to maintain privacy and data security standards, saying as CEO of Tesla he knew how that worked.

Musk’s memo and staff meeting echoed a livestreamed conversation trying to assuage major advertisers Wednesday, his most expansive public comments about Twitter’s direction since he closed a $44 billion deal to buy the social media platform late last month and dismissed its top executives.

A number of well-known brands have paused advertising on Twitter.

Musk told employees the “priority over the past 10 days” was to develop and launch Twitter’s new subscription service for $7.99 a month that includes a blue check mark next to the name of paid members—the mark was previously only for verified accounts. Musk’s project has had a rocky rollout with an onslaught of newly bought fake accounts this week impersonating high-profile figures such as basketball star LeBron James and the drug company Eli Lilly to post false information or offensive jokes.

In a second email to employees, Musk said the “absolute top priority” over the coming days is to suspend “bots/trolls/spam” exploiting the verified accounts. But Twitter now employs far fewer people to help him do that.

An executive last week said Twitter was cutting roughly 50percent of its workforce, which numbered 7,500 earlier this year.

Musk told employees in the email that “remote work is no longer allowed” and the road ahead is “arduous and will require intense work to succeed,” and that they will need to be in the office at least 40 hours per week.

Twitter’s ongoing exodus includes the company’s chief privacy officer, Damien Kieran, and chief information security officer Lea Kissner, who tweeted Thursday that “I’ve made the hard decision to leave Twitter.” Roth’s resignation is a “huge loss” for Twitter’s reliability and integrity, said his former coworker and friend Emily Horne.

“He’s worked incredibly hard under very challenging circumstances, including being personally targeted by some of the most vicious trolls who were active on the platform,” said Horne, who oversaw global policy communications at Twitter until 2018.

“He stayed through all of that because he believed so deeply in the work his team was doing to promote a public conversation and improve the health of that conversation.”

Cybersecurity expert Alex Stamos, a former Facebook security chief, tweeted Thursday that there is a “serious risk of a breach with drastically reduced staff” that could also put Twitter at odds with a 2011 order from the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) that required it to address serious data security lapses.

“Twitter made huge strides towards a more rational internal security model and backsliding will put them in trouble with the FTC” and other regulators in the US and Europe, Stamos said.

The FTC said in a statement Thursday that it is “tracking recent developments at Twitter with deep concern.”

“No CEO or company is above the law, and companies must follow our consent decrees,” said the agency’s statement. “Our revised consent order gives us new tools to ensure compliance, and we are prepared to use them.”

The FTC would not say whether it was investigating Twitter for potential violations. If it were, it is empowered to demand documents and depose employees. AP

GILAS ALL HANDSOME IN JORDAN

By Josef Ramos

COACH

Chot Reyes and Gilas Pilipinas didn’t disappoint in Amman by dealing Jordan its first home loss, 74-66, Friday.

N ow, it’s off to Jeddah at the King Abdullah Sports City for the national men’s team’s second away game against Saudi Arabia in the fifth window of the International Basketball Federation World Cup Asia qualifiers.

We’re happy with the result, and for the game, we really focused on our defense...being able to stop their main players,” Reyes said Friday in an online interview. “We were able to hold them below 70 points, so I think that speaks well of our ability to defend.”

W ith Jordan done, Saudi Arabia will be a distinct assignment, according to Reyes. It won’t be a walk in the park, he said.

“ This will be a very tough match because we’ll be tired from all the travel and Saudi is playing at home, fighting for survival, as our ‘W’ versus Jordan has kept them in contention for qualification,” he said.

S audi Arabia led from start to finish in scoring an  85-54  rout of India also on Friday in Jeddah. The Saudis stayed in contention

with its second win in five games, while sending the winless Indians to the edge.

Gilas Pilipinas, behind Jordan Clarkson’s 23 points, blasted Saudi Arabia, 84-46, last August 29 at the Mall of Asia Arena in Pasay City.

Reyes said defense was the key to frustrating Jordan, which lost a FIBA home game for the first time since 2018.

T he Filipinos’ defense stood mighty especially in the final half where the Jordanians could only score a combined 27 points in both quarters.

Gilas improved to 4-3 wonlost, a record that actually doesn’t technically affect the team’s participation in the 2023 World Cup where the Philippines is seeded as primary co-host.

B obby Ray Parks scored 13 points, CJ Perez had 11 points and Scottie Thompson almost had a triple-double of eight points, 13 rebounds and eight assists at the Prince Hamza Arena where Gilas was cheered by Filipino overseas workers.

“ We knew it was going to be a tough game. We have very high respect for the Jordan basketball team and we have played them so many times already in the past,” Reyes said. “But again, our defense carried us to the victory.”

A hmad Al Dwairi led Jordan with

PSC to look into Amores-led NCAA brawl

THE Philippine Sports Commission (PSC) will form a fact-finding committee that will look into the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) seniors basketball brawl that, three days after the ugly incident on Tuesday, has bordered on the league including fans in its investigation and two “punched” players filing legal charges against Jose Rizal University’s (JRU) John Anthony Amores.

The PSC on Friday issued a resolution that aims to determine “appropriate actions to be taken by the Commission on all those who may have been involved in the incident.”

PSC chairman Noli Eala maintained that “violence has no place in sport” but stressed that “fair play is likewise one of the pillars of the sporting community.”

H e convened an investigation committee to investigate “all facts and circumstances surrounding the incident.”

SEVEN

from among close to a thousand participants set out for strong finishes in the Ironman 70.3 Puerto Princesa reeling off Sunday in Palawan.

Mervin Santiago and Aiken Ting expect to crowd the favorites in the overall individual competitions and in their age group (30 to 34) of the pun ishing 1.9-km swim, 90-km bike and 21-km run race over a top-notch course.

B oth are raring to flash the form honed by their stint in the Ironman World Championship in Kona, Hawaii, where Santiago emerged as the best-placed Filipino.

Yoejan Prudente, on the other hand, leads the 18 to 24 group and also eyes a top podium finish in the overall race together with John Nino Monte (2529), who both competed in the IM 70.3 St. George in Utah also last month along with female triath letes Alessandra Castañeda.

T he other athletes

7 world-honed bets spice up Ironman 70.3 in Puerto Princesa City

to watch are Mary Jane Baluyot (35-39), Nylah Bautista (45-49) and Celma Hitalia (55-59).

C astañeda was the first Filipina to cross the finish line at St. George.

But they will be as much tested as the rest of the 898-triathlete international field, including bets from 25 countries, are all set to grind it out in both the individual and age group competitions.

A total of 315 more are ready to mix it up in the men’s and women’s and mixed relays, which drew 59 teams composed of 177 participants.

The blue-ribbon event, organized by the Ironman Group/ Sunrise Events Inc., also marks the first time that

national team members Fer Casares, a gold medalist in triathlon’ mixed relay in the Vietnam Southeast Asian Games in Hanoi, and Bea Quiambao, a two-time winner of 5150 races in Bohol and Subic this

Sea Lions spikes way to Champions League semis

PGJC-Navy made short work of Santa Rosa, 25-13, 25-16, 25-21, Friday to become the first team to advance to the men’s semifinals of the Philippine National Volleyball Federation Champions League at the PhilSports Arena.

It’s all about teamwork and communication,” said Christian Marcelino, who led the Sea Lions with 14 kills. “Confidence can play a big role really for a team. I’m very thankful for my teammates because they do their roles as well as our coaches.”

Greg Dolor and Joeven de la Vega scored 13 points each for Navy.

Cecille Cruzada—one of two female coaches handling a men’s team in the Champions League, the other being

Sherry

So far, we are peaking,” said Cruzada, who steered the military team to a third place finish in the recent Spikers’ Turf Open Conference. “During training, we work overtime for our service receive and they performed well.”

Unbeaten in five matches, Navy will face at 5:30 p.m. Saturday either North Cotabato or Army Taguig City

for a place in Sunday’s final.

Jade Disquitado had nine points to lead the Lions, one of two best third-placed teams in the pool round.

The women’s semifinals is Saturday with Pool B winners CPSAntipolo City facing Pool A second placer Imus City at 3 p.m., right after Pool A topnotcher Quezon City and Pool B No. 2 University of the EastManila take the floor at 1 p.m.

I n the final day of pool play Thursday night, Casiey Dongallo dropped 11 of her 21 points in the first set while Jelai Gajero added 19 points, including three blocks, as the CAL Babies completed a three-match sweep of their pool with a 25-20, 2522, 25-14 rout of Davao.

year, will vie in an IM 70.3 setting.

A lso featured is Bamboo LODI Rafie Liego, who will compete in the 18-24 age group, while Hanoi SEAG medalists Raven Alcoseba and Andrew Remolino, along with Marc

Lago, will banner the Go for Gold squad in mixed relay competition, also tipped to go down-to-the-wire.

First-time host Puerto Princess has guaranteed not only a memorable racing experience for both local and foreign participants but also a “race-cation” of sorts with the City in the Forest offering scenic locations, including a number of world-class natural attractions.

Foremost is the Puerto Princesa Subterranean River National Park or the Underground River, a UNESCO World Heritage Site and holds a place in the new seven wonders of nature.

E ven before its maiden hosting is completed, Puerto Princesa is already looking forward to stag ing the IM 70.3 next year that will also mark the return of some of the world’s leading and rising pros.

For details, visit www.ironman. com/im703-puerto-princesa, puerto princesa70.3@ironman.com, or www. ironman.com for brand and global event series.

The committee is composed of Commissioner Bong Coo and PSC Executive Director Atty. Guillermo Iroy, Jr. They will invite representatives from the Samahang Basketbol ng Pilipinas, NCAA, JRU, College of Saint Benilde, officials of Filoil EcoOil Centre and other relevant parties involved in the mess.

Senators prompted the PSC to investigate the issue during a Senate committee hearing on the sports agency’s 2023 budget that was conducted way past midnight Friday.

A n NCAA inquiry committee, meanwhile, will invite two Saint Benilde fans—one of them a brother of player Mark Sangco— who are said to have heckled Amores before the brawl.

T he referees during the game as well as the security organization hired to maintain order during NCAA games are also included in the league inquiry.

Blazers Taine Davis and Jimboy Pasturan, on the other hand, filed charges of serious physical injury against Amores at the San Juan City Prosecutor’s Office.

A mores went on a punching spree in the Heavy Bombers losing game against Saint Benilde. He was suspended indefinitely by the NCAA and the JRU.

Paalam looking comfortable in bantamweight

coaches,” said Paalam after he convincingly beat Seidekmatov Sanzhai of Kyrgyzstan, 5-0, in Thursday’s semifinals.

Paalam hasn’t fought since last year’s Tokyo Olympics where he clinched a boxing silver along with women’s featherweight Nesthy Petecio, men’s middleweight Eumir Felix Marcial.

Marcus Jarwin Manalo said. “It was a convincing victory as he stuck to the plan for most part of the fight.”

The ABAP decided to let Paalam fight in Amman as a bantamweight— where he’s unseeded—to give way for Roger Ladon at flyweight. Ladon exited early.

The Tokyo Olympics flyweight silver medalist looked every inch comfortable in a heavier division— he has fought as a flyweight all his life.

I just trusted myself and my

THE United Kendo Federation of the Philippines (UKFP) will hold its first official promotional examinations (shinsa) since becoming a member of the International Kendo Federation (FIK) in 2020.

The examinations are set this Sunday from 6 p.m. at the Upper Deck Sports Center in Pasig City. They are open to all kendoka (kendo practitioners) based in the Philippines.

The event will gather 105 participants from all over the country, 77 of whom are aiming to earn kyu (colored belts in other martial arts) ranks and 28 will be aiming for dan (black belt degrees in other martial arts) ranks.

But he was remarkable in Jordan and kept the country’s colors afloat amid disappointments in other fronts—including Petecio who lost, 5-0, Kazakhstan’s Karina Ibragim in a semifinal bout.

We’re glad to see him in the finals again in a high-level competition,” Association of Boxing Alliances in the Philippines (ABAP) secretary general

Paalam—he beat Turkmenistan’s Muhanov Dovlet of in the round of 16 and South Korea’s Joosung Yoon in the quarterfinals, both 5-0—takes on top seed Makhmud Sabyrkhan of Kazakhstan on Saturday.

Hergie Bacdayan also fell from gold medal contention after she absorbed a 2-3 decision to Ruzmetova Sokhiba of Uzbekistan in a women’s middleweight semifinal. Josef Ramos

Shinsa exams in kendo up

K endo is a Japanese martial art that teaches sword fighting and can be considered Japan’s equivalent to western-style fencing.

K endoka spar with one another with bamboo swords (shinai) and wear protective clothing and armor (dogi and bogu) for safety.

By holding the examinations in the Philippines, the UKFP aims to alleviate the obstacles that prevented many of its members from taking the promotional event.

R epresented in the event are clubs from Cebu, Davao, Davao Kenyukai, Dumaguete, GA (Makati

City and Quezon City), Manila, Mission Hills and RSR. Eighteen sensei (teachers)—including Japanese and Singaporeans—make up the panel of judges.

Matsuda Shigehiro, director of the Japan Information and Culture Center of the Embassy of Japan in the Philippines, will observe the event and give a keynote speech.

Th is is the first national event that the UKFP is staging since the pandemic in March 2020. The group also aims to resume its national tournament and second edition of the shinsa next year.

18 points, 16 rebounds, 3 assists, 2 blocks and 2 steals, numbers that went to naught.

G ilas big man Kai Sotto and Al Dwairi traded highlights in what

was seen as a a marquee matchup in the paint.

T he Philippines was at its best in the last two quarters, limiting the Jordanians to only 10 points while

scattering 21 of their own in the third period.

G ilas drew a balanced offense with 10 players getting into the scoreboard.

JAPETH AGUILAR greets the Filipino fans at the Prince Hamza Arena. FIBA ASIA PHOTO

Ann Floresca of Baguio City— was satisfied with the way the Sea Lions are performing as they picked up where they left off after sweeping Pool A of the tournament supported by the Philippine Sports Commission, Rebisco, PLDT, Philippine Olympic Committee, Cignal HD, One Sports, Cignal Play, F2 Logistics and Amigo Entertainment.

SANTA ROSA’S Jade Disquitado rises tall and mighty at the net against Navy’s Peter Quiel and Joeven de la Vega.

PUERTO Princesa City Mayor Lucilo Bayron (third from left) flashes the thumbs-up sign to officially usher the city’s first hosting of Ironman 70.3 Sunday. With him during the event launch at Princesa Garden are (from left) Alessandra Castaneda, Mervin Santiago, Princess Galura, Maria Claire Adorna and Fer Casares.

CARLO PAALAM advanced to the Asian Boxing Confederation Asian Elite Men and Women Championships final of men’s bantamweight, a weight class he’s made to test in Amman.

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