BusinessMirror October 08, 2022

INTO THE LNG WORLD

By Manuel T. Cayon

summer energy supply when households and industries use more megawatts of power.

the usually cool weather in the weeks past the cool December month.

THREE

terminal hubs will finally flash their signal to world suppliers to have their supply tankers set sail and dock their cargo of liquified natural gas (LNG) in the Philippines. This development would then increase the participation of natural gas in the utilization of this energy source for power and transportation in the country.

Energy World Corp. (EWC), an Australia-listed company, made the first official blast when it announced in September the final phase of the construction of its power station and the LNG terminal hub in Pagbilao, Quezon, after years of waiting for the completion of an interconnec tion facility being undertaken by a transmission company.

Th e Department of Energy (DOE), meanwhile, told a foreign news wire agency last week that “two other government-approved LNG import terminal projects in the Philippines are expected to begin commercial operations in early 2023.”

These are the projects of Sin gapore-based Atlantic, Gulf and Pacific (AG&P) and First Gen Corp (FGEN.PS) of the Lopez group.

The three projects expected to go online to the grid next year may at least help backstop, if not offer a long-shot relief, for Luzon, which faces a feared power short age in the summer months, a pros pect increasingly made dire by the

international impact of the energy tussle between Europe and Russia.

Last week, Europe accused Rus sian President Vladimir Putin of al legedly choking the LNG, coal and fuel energy supply line to Europe, a move supposedly timed for winter when fuel is badly needed to heat homes and fuel the operation of factories.

Summer woes

THE weather is also a factor in the Philippine energy projections.

Faced with fluctuating electricity supply due to aging power stations and weather-dependent hydroelec tric power—and now the steep price of oil and petroleum—Energy Secretary Raphael Lotilla said the delay in LNG projects has added to the strained energy situation in Luzon, especially.

The declining production in the Malampaya wells offshore the contested West Philippine Sea ren ders more problematic the task of securing more gas supplies.

A ll these, Lotilla said, would have an impact on the country’s

Only recently did the DOE said it may embark on encouraging households and private establish ments to consciously observe energy conservation behavior to help stave off a potential shortage in power supply in the summer of 2023.

It said the demand-side man agement would “play a key role in addressing potential power short ages in the country, especially dur ing the summer months.”

The DOE assured the public, however, that the country’s power reserve would likely remain suf ficient between now and the three months before summer, pointing to

The cue would be “educating the public on how they can help through their sustainable con sumption patterns to reduce the amount of energy that is needed to carry out the same levels of activ ity or to produce the same amount or volume of goods,” Lotilla told re porters earlier in Manila.

A nother stop-gap measure would be to address unutilized ca pacity or stranded power by fixing transmission constraints.

Russia-Europe tug of war THUS, the three LNG terminals and hub to come online next year

Continued

NewsSaturday

Fast-growing solar and wind are still concentrated in a handful of countries

By Nathaniel Bullard Bloomberg News

THERE is a succinct way to describe the development of the global power sector over the past decade: more of almost everything. More plants under construction; more generation from those plants; more renewables everywhere—but also more coal and gas.

The recently released 2022 Power Transition Trends report by energy research firm Bloom bergNEF shows signs of profound change underway in the sector.

Wind and solar now make up 11 percent of global power genera tion. Of the new power-generation capacity added in 2021, solar was 50 percent and wind was 25 per cent. At the same time, thanks to economic rebounds from the worst of the Covid-19 pan demic, last year also saw an un precedented spike in coal-fired power generation. It was up 750 terawatt-hours from 2020—a very big number, in between the annual power consumption of Brazil and Japan, the world’s 6thand 5th-biggest national electric ity consumers. The power sector’s carbon dioxide emissions also rose 7 percent year-on-year.

Geographical concentration

A DEEPER dive into the report data reveals some other impor tant dynamics at work. The first is that the development and con

struction of new power-genera tion assets is quite concentrated geographically. A small number of markets account for the vast majority of new capacity.

Wind is the most highly con centrated. From 2012 to 2021, the top 10 markets for wind power ac counted for 89 percent of all new capacity installed in that time.

Solar is only slightly more diffuse, with the top 10 markets in the same period getting 85 percent of all installations. China, the US, Japan and India were the biggest solar markets during that time; China, the US, India and Germany were the biggest for wind.

A nd then there is coal. Just two markets—China and India— made up a combined 78 percent of all new coal-fired power generation capacity in the past 10 years. China on its own had 62 percent of total installations, with 414 gigawatts (GW). India is the only other mar ket with even 100 GW installed. Vietnam and Indonesia, which each had 21 GW built from 2012 to 2021, run a very distant third.

A nother way to look at trends is by the number of countries where assets are being developed at commercial volume (which BloombergNEF classifies as greater than 1 megawatt of con struction in a year).

In 2012, more countries were adding hydroelectricity than ei ther solar or wind at commercial scale. Almost 70 countries built hydro in 2012; 55 built solar; and 48 built wind. Ten years on, hydro has shrunk to 47 countries; solar has more than doubled to 112, and wind is more or less the same, now being built in 53 countries.

Shrinking market for fossil-fueled tech MARKET activity for the three fossil fuel-fired technologies—oil,

natural gas and coal—is shrink ing. In 2012, there were almost 70 countries building oil-fired power, more than 60 adding gas, and 24 building coal. A decade later, oilfired power expansion shrank to 30 countries, gas-fired power to 42 and coal-fired power to just 15. Coal is a global climate problem; its expansion is also concentrated in a very few places.

O ne trend worth noting re lates to solar’s total market ex pansion. While development of projects is still highly concentrat ed, solar generation—the power produced by what has already been built—is becoming less so over time. In 2012, 10 countries generated 90 percent of all solar power, whereas last year, it was 80 percent.

Th is is certainly a good thing for solar power and the countries building it. Diversifying markets, with a wider distribution of local benefits such as reduced emissions and a buffer against variable fuel costs, is a solar feature.

It is also worth exploring why the number of active wind markets has expanded little since 2012. One reason is simply a matter of methodology. A 1-megawatt (MW) solar project—the threshold to be included in this BNEF report—has thousands of individual panels but is quite small. A single megawatt can be deployed on a roof, a fallow field or a small island.

Conversely, for wind, there ba sically is no such thing as a 1-MW project using today’s utility-scale turbines. One megawatt is a frac

tion of the capacity of a single turbine, with some new offshore ones under development having as much as 14 MW of capacity. To put it another way, solar scales down ward in a handy way for reaching small markets; wind scales up to reach big ones.

Given their different scales, it is a testament to wind power that it continues to create new markets. That means it is competitive on cost in more and more places, and also that the industrial expertise needed for its heavy engineering is diffusing as well.

A s for solar, it just keeps on going: more markets, at greater scale. This year, solar installa tions are likely to hit 250 giga watts and add a quarter to all ca pacity installed to date.

INTO THE LNG WORLD

Continued from A1 are seen as easing the public’s pain as it often reels from thin power reserves that may lead to frequent brownouts.

The lack of LNG production, or the lack of its extensive use in the Philippines, may be gleaned from the DOE’s tracking. Its last tracking was still in 2014 when it recorded total production of 1,410,142 measured in million standard cubic feet, or mmcsf. This was a far cry from the first record ing in 1994, when production was only 195 mmcsf.

Power generation was still the largest user, when in 1994 all the LNG’s produced volume went to power generation. In 2014, power used 1,332,420 mmcsf.

The DOE statement to the news wire outlet said the Philippines would need to import LNG to fuel gas-fired power plants with a com bined capacity of more than 3,000 MW, “as output from its Malampaya gas field in the South China Sea is expected to start declining this year and to be depleted by 2027.” Quoted was Laura Saguin, head of the De partment of Energy’s natural gas management division, in September.

EWC executive director Graham Elliott, for his part, told the Business Mirror that the LNG for their Pag bilao hub terminal will be initially sourced from the spot market, and may be supplied from the Middle East, Australia, Indonesia, the US or any other LNG-producing coun try. (Graham’s father, Stewart, is the chairman, chief executive officer and managing director of EWC.)

As the terminal operations stabilize, then we will enter into long-term contracts for supply from a range of producers to en sure that we have options to avail [ourselves of] the lowest-cost LNG in the market,” he added.

He said EWC had discussions with LNG traders and producers for many years, and “this dialogue puts us in a unique position to acquire LNG cargoes as and when needed.”

At present, he said, “There is a great demand for LNG to go to Eu rope, and as a result the price has gone very high.” But, he believes, “This is not going to be the situa

tion for very long, and at the time we require LNG cargoes for Pagbi lao the price will be closer to the long-term norm for LNG of around $10 per MMBtu.”

MMBtu stands for metric mil lion British thermal unit, a unit used to measure heat content or energy value. It is widely associated with measurement of natural gas.

Elliott said the first LNG cargo will coincide with the commission ing of its power plant, which he confirmed would take place at the end of April next year.

He disclosed as well EWC’s LNG production under develop ment in Indonesia. Once com pleted, he said, the facility would produce up to 2 million tonnes of LNG per year, with a possibility to expand the plant.

“This production can be a back stop for LNG to be delivered to the Pagbilao terminal or it can be traded in Indonesia or on the international market. Our Australian operations are being refurbished to provide gas into the existing Australian domes tic gas pipeline network.”

Other LNG terminals

THE DOE said AG&P’s project was previously scheduled for com missioning in July this year and, like the other LNG projects, were stranded with delays mostly out side of the control of project hold ers.

The DOE said it was informed that the terminal would begin op eration in the first quarter of 2023.

“We had some supply-chain challenges during the Covid period, [but now] we are working with multi ple suppliers,” Karthik Sathyamoor thy, president of AG&P LNG Termi nals and Logistics, was quoted as saying by a news wire service report at the sidelines of the summit.

He said AG&P will source LNG from the Middle East and Australia under short- and long-term supply agreements. The report said AG&P’s terminal would have a 5-million tonnes per annum capacity and would fuel the existing 1,200-MW Ilijan power plant in Batangas province.

The DOE report indicated that the Lopez-led First Gen Corp. is keen on completing, also by early next year, the construction of its LNG terminal in Batangas.

First Gen, through its subsid iary FGEN LNG Corp., told report ers earlier that it was developing the interim offshore LNG receiving terminal at the First Gen Clean En ergy Complex in Batangas City. The company has allotted $135 million this year for the LNG terminal.

Development plan

TO prepare the country to its exten sive use of LNG, the DOE said it has the Natural Gas Development Plan, or NGDP, with the partnership of the University of the Philippines Statisti cal Center Research Foundation Inc.

It told the state-run Philippine News Agency that NGDP would serve as a guide to policymakers, regulators and investors in the de velopment of the Philippine Down stream Natural Gas Industry.

The DOE said the NGDP blue print contains information on the existing legal framework, gas de mand outlook, ongoing projects, membership of the Technical Com mittee on Downstream Natural Gas Standards on Products, Facil ity, and Code of Practice, way for ward plans, and the GPDP techni cal and research products.

Petroleum and other oil prod ucts have their own downstream oil industry.

The DOE said other documents in the NGDP include the proposed regulatory process containing rec ommendations to government agencies and local government units involved in the natgas down stream industry value chain.

The NGDP would thus help the country advance the develop ment of the downstream natgas industry, “which includes the role of LNG in the country’s energy sys tem,” it added.

The DOE said the NGDP came at a time when its sole and biggest natural gas source from the Malam paya gas field was declining and was estimated to dry up by 2027.

“This NGDP is also timely in providing our prospective investors’ guidance and policy framework, le gal requirements and incentives in putting up LNG facilities and other infrastructure,” the DOE said.

The NGDP also aims to at tract investments in the country’s downstream natural gas industry.

CONTRACTORS

VMR predicts rise of NFT market to $231B by ‘30

NON-FUNGIBLE tokens (NFTs) are going to occupy a significant position in the market, with their value swelling to $231 billion by 2030, according to a report by Verified Market Research (VMR).

A t the 6th General Membership Meeting of the Philippine Marketing Association (PMA) on Thursday, Dennis Lim, general manager of LuponWXC, a communitybacked gaming and e-sports company, shared that a June 2022 report published by VMR predicts the booming of NFTs.

F or his part, Anotoys Collectiverse CEO and Founder Oscar Tan-Abing Jr.’s presentation during the event defined NFTs as unique digital assets that are stored in a blockchain network. These assets can vary from songs to game characters, but are most popularly known in the form of digital art pieces.

Tan-Abing noted that NFTs are the future of digital marketing citing the following reasons: build meaningful relationships with consumers; data quality and trust; privacy and ownership of data; complete control over products; track products throughout the supply chain with certainty; and facilitating easier and seamless financial transactions.

T he CEO of Anotoys highlighted that NFT is powerful because it is “so good at

authenticating things.”

Tan-Abing added that Filipinos are competitive in the NFT aspect because of their good ideas and talents.

“You will see big companies, big tech companies going to the Philippines, because Philippines is a hot country. Number 1 in NFT adoption, Number 1 in gaming, blockchain games. You name it, because we’re a young population,” Tan-Abing added.

The chief of Anotoys also highlighted that Filipinos can showcase their talents globally in this aspect because, “Technically, whatever we do here, we could sell it globally as long as the community is connected.”

Mean while, Lim’s presentation also showed that the gaming market is expected to reach a value of $339.95 billion by 2027, registering a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 8.94 percent over 2022-2027.

A ccording to Lim’s presentation, the gaming market was only valued at $198.40 billion in 2021.

His presentation added that the digital world has changed the game for consumers, changing the way people discover and engage with brands.

B oth Tan-Abing and Lim noted that the Web 3.0 is the “next frontier,” as it looks into the “next big leap,” such as gaming, metaverse and NFTs. Andrea E. San Juan

POWER DISTRIBUTORS TOLD: HARNESS MORE R.E. SOURCES

By Butch Fernandez

SENATOR Sherwin Gatchalian goaded power distribution facilities Friday to contract more renewable energy (RE) sources, stressing this will benefit electricity

consumers amid global energy risks.

This, he noted, is “a significant increase in utilization” that the senator stressed should “prompt distribution utilities to consider contracting more renewable energy to deter fuel pass-through amid wild fluctuations” in

‘No extension of safeguard measures vs cement imports’

By Andrea E. San Juan

THE Tariff Commission (TC) has announced that safeguard mea sures against imported cement will no longer be extended, saying was “no significant overall impairment” in the position of the local cement in dustry that resulted in serious injury.

The tariff body released the find ings on the extension of safeguard measures against importations of ordinary Portland cement Type 1 and Blended Cement Type 1P from various countries on Thursday, October 6, on their web site.

The commission noted that dur ing the period under review from 2019 to 2021, the domestic industry maintained its market standing, in creased its mill capacities, stabilized its manufacturing costs and improved its profitability.

Further, the tariff body noted that the increase in its mill capacities was due to the successful completion of several of its committed capacity

fuel prices, as the “fuel cost pass-through mechanism allows recovery of fuel cost for power generation through electricity tariffs.”

The senator aired the call in the wake of the recent move of the Department of Energy (DOE) to increase the percentage of the utilization of RE for on-grid areas from 1 percent to 2.52 percent set to take effect in 2023.

“This is a significant increase in utilization and should prompt distribution utilities to consider contracting more renewable energy to deter fuel pass-through amid

expansion projects. In fact, it said, such increased capacities strength ened the domestic industry’s ability to supply a growing market.

“The domestic industry was prof itable as its income from operations bounced back in 2021 to pre-pandemic levels of P13 billion. Return on Sales was stable at 13 percent, attributable to successfully executed cost-cutting and productivity-enhancing industry measures,” the full report of TC read.

The TC said it has concluded the investigation in accordance with Re public Act (RA) No. 8800 or the Safe guard Measures Act.

With this, the tariff body said, “There was no significant overall im pairment in the position of the domes tic cement industry that constituted serious injury.”

Meanwhile, as for the finding that there was no threat of serious injury to the local cement manufacturers, the TC disclosed that imports of Type 1 and Type 1P cement increased by 11 percent from 2019 and 2020 and

wild fluctuations in fuel prices,” Gatchalian added, noting that the fuel cost pass-through mechanism allows recovery of fuel cost for power generation through electricity tariffs.

The development of RE resources, he noted, is central to the energy department’s sustainable energy agenda. In 2021, as RE accounted for 22.40 percent of the country’s energy mix, with coal-based power plants accounting for 58.48 percent, while oil-based and natural gas power plants contributed 1.52 percent and 17.60 percent, respectively.

by another 16 percent in 2020 and 2021 when safeguard measures were in place.

The TC also pointed out that in the first half of 2022, a volume of 3.51 mil lion metric tons (MT) was recorded, which it said was 7 percent higher than the 2019-2021 half-year average.

“There was no significant deterio ration in the overall position of the domestic cement industry during the period under review,” the tariff body said in its final report.

The commission also associated the downtrends in sales, production and market shares to the industry de cision to manufacture an additional product starting 2019, which is the Type 1T cement.

The tariff body also highlighted that inventory levels are not an ap propriate indication of the local ce ment industry’s position.

Therefore, the commission said it recommends that the imposition of the definitive general safeguard measure on importations of Ordinary

“The time is ripe for us to accelerate the development of renewable energy in the country,” Gatchalian noted, citing record prices of fossil fuel, as well as continuing concerns on the impact of climate change, “leave us with no other viable option but to vigorously pursue the development of green energy.”

G atchalian pointed out that today, a total of 998 RE contracts, generating around P270 billion of investments have been approved by DOE, noting, “Such contracts have an aggregate installed capacity of 5,460

Portland cement Type 1 and Blended Cement Type 1P would no longer be extended.

In accordance with RA 8800 or the Safeguard Measures Act, domestic producers, the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) Secretary or the President or the House or Senate Committee on Trade and Commerce, may initiate the safeguard measures as long as certain elements are estab lished in the investigation.

These elements should be present: they should be directly competitive products; there must be recent, sud den, sharp and significant increase in imports; there must be serious threat or injury (i.e. impacted overall per formance of the local industry), and the imported product directly causes the serious injury to the domestic industry.

The petitioners in the said in vestigation included Cement Man ufacturers Association of the Phil ippines, Republic Cement, Holcim Philippines Inc.

megawatts (MW) and a potential capacity of 61,613.81 MW. He added that the increase is also a mechanism designed to provide a guaranteed market for RE.

“Patuloy ang pag-angat ng renewable energy dahil na rin sa paggamit ng mga bagong teknolohiya. Ang pagtutulak ng DOE na taasan pa ang utilization percentage para sa renewable energy aydapatmakahikayatsa atingmgadistribution utilities sapagkontrata ng ganitong enerhiya para na rin sa energy security ngbansa,” Gatchalian added.

PBBM gets high approval in handling most issues, except inflation in survey

By Samuel P. Medenilla

PRESIDENT Ferdinand “Bongbong” R. Marcos Jr. got high approval in his handling of almost all major issues, except for those related to rising cost of living, according to the results of the new Pulse Asia Survey released last Thursday.

Of the 13 issues covered by the survey, Marcos got his lowest satis faction rating for controlling infla

tion, which was at 31 percent and was followed by poverty reduction at 39 percent.

This, despite the inflation rate slightly slowing to 6.3 percent last August from the 6.4 percent last July.

State statisticians reported the inflation rate accelerated again to 6.9 percent last month, but this was no longer covered by the latest Pulse Asia Survey, which was administered from September 17 to 21, 2022.

Meanwhile, the President got his highest approval rating, when it comes to calamity response with 78 percent.

Marcos has been visible in over seeing government response in the areas affected by the Abra earth quake in July and Tropical Storm “Florita” (international codename Ma-On) in August, and most re cently, Supertyphoon “Karding” (international code name: Noru).

His administration also got a

high approval rating for control ling the spread of Covid-19 with 78 percent, promoting peace in the country with 69 percent, protect ing the welfare of overseas Filipino workers with 68 percent, fighting criminality with 67 percent, and law enforcement with 68 percent.

The Pulse Asia Survey also showed the approval rating of Marcos for creating more jobs (59 percent), in creasing workers’ pay (59 percent) and fighting graft and corruption in government (58 percent), environ ment protection (57 percent), and defense of the country’s territorial integrity (52 percent).

The face-to-face interview sur vey covered 1,200 respondents nationwide and has a 2.8 percent error margin.

LTFRB chair Garafil steps down to become OIC press secretary

By Samuel p. Medenilla

FORMER Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board (LTFRB) chairperson law yer Cheloy E. Velicaria-Garafil has been assigned as undersecretary of the Office of the Press Secretary (OPS).

Executive Secretary Lucas P. Ber samin confirmed to reporters the new designation of Garafil on Friday.

He said Garafil would serve as the new officer-in-charge (OIC) of the OPS following the resignation of former Press Secretary Beatrix “Trixie” Cruz-Angeles last Tuesday.  Garafil herself in news statement confirmed this, where she also an nounced her resignation as LTFRB chairperson.

“I have accepted the offer to help in the Office of the Press Secretary as its Undersecretary and OIC,” Garafil said.

“This is a great honor and privi lege and I thank the President for this opportunity to once again work with him in his administration to serve the Filipino people,” she added.

President Ferdinand “Bongbong” R. Marcos Jr. announced last Thurs day he might appoint his new press secretary by next week, adding there were three shortlisted candidates for the said position.

Image of suspect in Percy Lapid slay case released

shooting happened.

D

EPARTMENT of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) Secretary Benjamin Abalos Jr. on Friday released the image of a suspect in the killing of veteran radio host Per cival Mabasa, also known by his radio name Percy Lapid.”

“Here, you can almost see his face, his appearance, his body, his built. I know it’s close, it’s just a little bit [he will be captured soon]. To the person in this picture, this is all I can say: Many people know you, many people are reporting, maybe you should sur render now,” Abalos told reporters in a press briefing held at the National Capital Region Police Office (NCRPO) headquarters at Camp Bagong Diwa in Taguig City.

Abalos said he believes the suspect is a “professional hitman,”considering the manner of shooting done to kill the victim.

He, meanwhile, urged the suspect to yield for his own safety.

“It is very important that you sur render because you think about those who gave you the order, maybe some one would do you harm. The best thing to do is to give up and let the police take over,” he added, speaking mostly in Filipino.

Abalos said the reward for informa tion on Lapid’s case has increased to P1.5 million as another individual named Alex Lopez also offered P1 million.

While noting that investigators are now in possession of “a lot more evidence,” Abalos declined to provide further details.

“Well, we are very much capable and the PNP is not only capable as could be gleaned in this morning’s press confer ence. They are very hardworking and they are very dedicated to their job. This will take a lot of hard work. We don’t want to show everything we’ve seen. There is more to it. We just don’t want to compromise the investigation. There is much more evidence that is held now,” he said.

Meanwhile, Col. Restituto Arcangel, commander of the special investiga tion task group on the case, said they obtained a CCTV footage showing the alleged gunman in front of the Las Pi ñas City Hall a few minutes before the

His cohort, the driver of the motor cycle, was also captured by the dash camera installed in the victim’s vehicle.

“In the video that was shown earlier, the marking on the T-shirt matched that of the rider caught by the dash cam behind the victim’s car seconds before the victim was shot,” he told reporters as he presented the video footage.

In the same briefing, Southern Police District (SPD) Director, Col. Kirby John Kraft, said the motive of the killing is still being investigated.

“Regarding what you said about the motive, our investigation is ongoing. All angles, the personal grudge, workrelated and any other possible motive, we are still studying them. We still have no definite motive at this time,” Kraft said in Filipino.

Arcangel said the family was not aware if Mabasa was receiving death threats before the incident.

Meanwhile, National Capital Region Police Office (NCRPO) Chief, Brig. Gen. Jonnel Estomo, ordered the five police districts in the region to coordinate closely with media personalities in their areas of jurisdiction to identify possible threats against them.

“This is in consonance to the pro nouncement of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. to ensure the safety and se curity of all media practitioners in the country and the same directive from the Chief PNP, Gen. Rodolfo S. Azurin Jr.,” Estomo said.

He directed all district directors and chiefs of police of the five police dis tricts of NCRPO to initiate a dialogue with all journalists, broadcasters, and media practitioners in their respective areas to determine imminent threats if any, and address their security concerns accordingly.

Estomo’s guidance implies detail of security if need be, depending on the gravity or seriousness of the assessed threat.

“We acknowledge the risks involved in the job of our media friends, hence, we are duty-bound to protect them,” he said.

He also ordered an intensified crack down against motorcycles and vehicles traveling without plate numbers.

DILG Secretary Benjamin Abalos Jr. shows a picture of one of the suspects in the killing of veteran broadcaster Percy Lapid during a news conference at the National Capital Region Police Office on Friday. The reward for any information on the killing of Lapid has also increased to P1.5 million.

PNA PHOTO BY LLOYD CALIWAN

Davao City centenarians feted in special program

By Manuel T. Cayon @awimailbox Mindanao Bureau Chief

DAVAO CITY—The city government honored 32 centenarians in a special program on Monday, with 11 of them able to attend the occasion held at a downtown hotel.

T he City Social Welfare and De velopment Office (CSWDO) said the rest of the identified and validated centenarians were represented by family members.

Mayor Sebastian Duterte, Vice Mayor Jay Melchor Quitain and Coun cilors Wilberto Al-ag, Tek Ocampo and Myrna Dalodo Ortiz went around from table to table to hand over the plaques and cash award for the centenarians.

Each awardee received a plaque and P100,000 cash.

Eligible for the award are those who turned 100 years old on Decem ber 2, 2021, the day the Ordinance Honoring Centenarians was passed.

Marlisa Gallo, CSWDO head, said they were happy to be able to hold the first awarding ceremony recognizing senior citizens who reached that age. Filipinos living to the age of 100 re mains a remarkable and somewhat rare feat as they make up less than 1 percent of the country’s population.

“Once you reach 100 years old,

this milestone often reveals how they have lived a healthy lifestyle. It is also heartwarming to see that these centenarians have family members who continuously take good care of them,” she said.

Aside from the cash assistance, the centenarians were given hotel room ac commodations so they can rest before the event. Some of them came from far-flung areas like Marilog District in the northern part of the city.

T he City Information Office said the family members of the cente narians have expressed elation that their parents were recognized dur ing the event.

This is really a great help and inspi ration for all because according to our neighbors and relatives they were en couraged to keep themselves healthy so that they could get the promised incentives,” said Reuben Corro, son of 102-year-old Emma Corro.

Corro said the ordinance for the centenarians makes him “proud to be a Dabawenyoasitonlyshowsthatthegov ernment really cares about the people.”

Jimmy Carter celebrating 98 with family, friends, baseball

By Bill Barrow The Associated Press

ATLANTA—Jimmy Carter, already the longest-living US president in history, turned 98 last Saturday, celebrating with family and friends in Plains, the tiny Georgia town where he and his wife, 95-year-old Rosalynn, were born in the years between World War I and the Great Depression.

H is latest milestone came as The Carter Center, which the 39th president and the former first lady established after their one White House term, marked 40 years of promoting democracy and conflict resolution, monitoring elections, and advancing public health in the developing world.

Jason Carter, the former presi dent’s grandson now leading the Carter Center board, described his grandfather, an outspoken Christian, as content with his life and legacy.

“He is looking at his 98th birthday with faith in God’s plan for him,” the younger Carter, 47, said, “and that’s just a beautiful blessing for all of us to know, personally, that he is at peace and happy with where he has been and where he’s going.”

Carter Center leaders said the for mer president, who survived a cancer diagnosis in 2015 and a serious fall at home in 2019, was enjoying read

ing congratulatory messages sent by well-wishers around the world via social media and the center’s website even before the actual birthday. But

Jason Carter said his grandfather mostly looked forward to a simple day that included watching his fa vorite Major League Baseball team, the Atlanta Braves, on television.

“He’s still 100 percent with it, even though daily life things are a lot harder now,” Jason Carter said. “But one thing I guarantee. He will watch all the Braves games this weekend.”

James Earl Carter Jr. won the 1976 presidential election after beginning the campaign as a lit tle-known, one-term Georgia gov ernor. His surprise performance in the Iowa caucuses established the small, Midwestern state as an epicenter of presidential politics.

Carter went on to defeat President Gerald Ford in the general election, largely on the strength of sweeping the South before his native region shifted heavily to Republicans.

A Naval Academy alumnus, Navy officer and peanut farmer, Carter won in no small part because of his promise never to lie to an electorate weary over the Vietnam War and the Watergate scandal that resulted in Richard Nixon’s resignation from the presidency in 1974. Four years later, unable to tame inflation and salve voter anger over American hostages

For life’s sake, leave the house!

held in Iran, Carter lost 44 states to Ronald Reagan. He returned home to Georgia in 1981 at the age of 56.

The former first couple almost immediately began planning The Carter Center. It opened in Atlanta in 1982 as a first-of-its-kind effort for a former president.

The stated mis sion: to advance peace, human rights and public health causes around the world. Carter won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002. He traveled interna tionally into his 80s and 90s, and he did not retire officially from the board until 2020.

Since opening, the center has monitored elections in 113 countries, said CEO Paige Alexander, and Carter has acted individually as a mediator in many countries, as well. Carter Center efforts have nearly eradicated the guinea worm, a parasite spread through unclean drinking water and painful to humans. Rosalynn Carter has steered programs designed to reduce stigma attached to mental health conditions.

“He’s enjoying his retirement,” said Alexander, who assumed her role in 2020, about the time Jason Carter took over for his grandfather. But “he spends a lot of time thinking about the projects that he started and the projects that we’re continuing.”

Alexander cited the guinea worm eradication effort as a highlight. Carter set the goal in 1986, when

their homes at least once a day are actually more likely to live longer compared to those who stay inside. This is the gist of the “Jerusalem Longitudinal Study” undertaken in Israel and reported in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society.

there were about 3.5 million cases annually across 21 countries, with a concentration in sub-Saharan Africa. So far this year, Alexander said, there are six known cases in two countries.

In 2019, Carter used his final an nual message at the center to lament that his post-presidency had been largely silent on climate change. Ja son Carter said the center’s leader ship is still exploring ways to com bat the climate crisis. But he offered no timetable. “We won’t duplicate other effective efforts,” Carter said, explaining that one of the center’s

T he conclusion is that older adults who leave the house every day face a lower risk of death, while those who rarely go outside have the highest mortality risk.

strategic principles is to prioritize causes and places that no other ad vocacy organizations have engaged.

On elections and democracy, per haps the most unpredictable devel opment is that Jimmy Carter has lived to see the center turn its efforts to the home front. The center now has programs to combat mistrust in the democratic process in the United States. Carter Center person nel monitored Georgia’s recount of US presidential ballots in the state in 2020 after then-President Don ald Trump argued the outcome was

University Medical Center in Jerusalem has this to say: “The simple act of getting out of the house every day propels people into engagement with the world.”

By Nick Tayag

SIXTY-ZEN’S WORTH

A fter monitoring 3,375 adults at ages 70, 78, 85 and 90, research ers correlated the frequency with which they left the house to the likelihood of making it to the next age milestone.

HAVE you heard about the adult son who told his 70-year-old parents to get out and leave?

He wasn’t being cruel, disrespectful or ungrateful. It turns out he was right to do so.

For normal people like us, being a “lakwatsero” (roamer) is in our nature.

In our adolescence and teenage years, we used to prefer staying outside, coming home only in the evening or late at night. We would never hear the end of it from our moms: “Hirap sa iyo, di ka makapa sa bahay, lagi kang nasa labas.” (The trouble with you is you’re never home.)

But then in middle age, our “lakwatse ro” life led to bad habits such as drinking

and smoking, eating a lot of fatty food, and we didn’t get enough sleep and rest, and so we developed all kinds of health issues as the years went by.

Now that we’ve retired and not get ting any younger, our families prefer that we stay at home and to go out only when necessary. No, it’s not because of the still ongoing pandemic, although that’s one excuse. It’s mainly because we are thought to be more feeble and vulnerable, physically and mentally. Staying put at home seems like the saf est option when it comes to avoiding illness or reducing the risk of injury.

Now here comes a new research sug gesting that elderly people who leave

For example, people at age 78 who left the house six or seven days per week have 70 percent chance to survive to age 85. Old folks at age 90 would make it to 95 if they leave the house 6 to 7 days a week. But even if you leave the house only 2 or 5 times a week, you have 60 percent chance of surviving to the next age bracket.

T he study also shows that se nior people who stay home most of the time tend to have higher rates of loneliness, financial difficulties, poor health, fatigue, poor sleep, less physical activity, bladder and bowel problems, history of fall ing in the last year, fear of falling, visual and hearing impairments, chronic pain and frailty.

T he link between leaving the house and longevity remained true even after the researchers accounted for medical or mobility issues such as chronic pain, vision or hearing impairment, diabetes, hypertension, heart disease and kidney disease.

A dditionally, these findings are also in keeping with previous research that showed people who spend more time outdoors tend to have lower levels of stress and im proved physical and mental health.

This tells us that it doesn’t mat ter if we have several health issues, even impaired mobility, but we need to go out of the house more often.

But the question is what exactly makes going outside beneficial to our well-being? Is there something out there that we should do after leaving the house?

T he answer is in two words: social engagement. When inter viewed, lead author Dr. Jeremy Jacobs of the Hadassah-Hebrew

Then he adds: “There’s something about interacting with the world outside that helps.”

Social interaction has already been linked to better overall health and well-being in seniors.

Now there are implications of this happy discovery of leaving the house and connecting with other people.

LGUs and urban planners must now think of ways to encourage older adults to leave their home more and to develop systems that help them do that. For instance, they need to consider design and build more walkways that are friendly for walking. In neigh borhoods with a big population of older adults, walkways with benches could encourage them to get out of the house and be social.

T here should be venues for group activities for seniors where they can participate in sessions that allow learning with social engagement such as painting,

rigged. Multiple recounts in Georgia and other states affirmed the legiti macy of Joe Biden’s victory.

“Certainly, we never thought we would end up coming home to do democracy and conflict resolution around our elections,” Jason Carter said. “[But] we couldn’t be this incred ible democracy and human rights organization overseas without en suring that we were adding our voice and our expertise...in the US.”

A head of the US midterm elec tions, the center has asked can didates—regardless of party—to sign onto a set of fair election prin ciples, including committing to the peaceful transfer of power. Among those who have signed commit ments: Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp, a Republican, and his Democratic challenger, Stacey Abrams.

C arter himself has mostly re treated from politics. For years after his 1980 defeat, Democrats steered clear of him. He enjoyed a resurgence in recent election cycles, drawing visits from several 2020 Democratic presidential hopefuls and, in 2021, from President Joe Biden, who in 1976 was the first US senator to endorse Carter’s presidential bid. With inflation now at its highest levels since the late 1970s and early 1980s, some Republicans are bring ing up Carter again as an attack line on Biden and Democrats.

dancing, and singing. In many universities abroad, seniors mix it up with young students in in tergenerational classes and serve as mentors.

To me, this is only the tip. It should be pursued farther with a study that will examine more deeply the effect on old folks of leaving the house, such as their sense of well-being or purpose. Another study could look at envi ronmental, social or psychologi cal factors that might foster or prevent going out.

For the moment, youthful dogooders can spare a moment to think about any elderly relatives, friends or neighbors who could do with some encouragement when it comes to getting outside. See what you can do to help them leave the house.

To my fellow lakwatseros now we have a good excuse to go to the malls more often. Like every day.

It also gives me an idea for a short film or a vlog about the ad ventures of a grand parent who never stays home, with a title like “Lolong Lagalag” or “Lolang Lak watsera.”

L eave and let live. Longer.

FORMER President Jimmy Carter and his wife former first lady Rosalynn Carter sit together during a reception to celebrate their 75th wedding anniversary on July 10, 2021, in Plains, Ga.

AP PHOTO/JOHN BAZEMORE

FEU Public Policy Center, YouthLed display state of K-12 history textbooks in new digital portal

ANonline interactive portal was launched primarily to mainstream the findings of a review on history textbooks.

On September 27 the Far Eastern University Public Policy Center (FPPC), in collaboration with Youth Leadership for Democracy (YouthLed), inaugurated an online portal publishing the findings of the center’s review on 14 K-12 Philip pine history textbooks used in Grades 5 and 6 by public and private schools in Luzon.

The review entitled “The Dilemma of Philippine History Textbooks” is part of FPPC’s “History Project” that aims to as sess and improve the content and teach ing of history in the Philippines.

Dr. Maria Serena Diokno, professor emeritus at the Department of History

in the University of the Philippines (UP)Diliman and a FPPC trustee, delivered a keynote presentation at the launch, un derscoring the state of Araling Panlipu nan textbooks for Grades 5 and 6.

“In truth, history textbooks are a global concern, and controversies hound [them] in many parts of the world,” re vealed Dr. Diokno.

With the Philippines as no exception, the review revealed that the textbooks contain “several examples of factual in accuracies—including unproven state ments that are presented as facts.”

She further underscored the need for more rigorous review of textbooks, espe

cially as “for many, textbook authors are invisible, thereby reinforcing the percep tion that social studies textbooks—be cause they appear authorless—are free of perspective, interpretation, and bias. Widely believed as these assumptions are, they do not frequently hold true.”

An open forum “#HearLiesTheTruth” that discussed findings related to the state of the Philippine education sys tem followed. It featured insights from Assistant Professor Dondy Ramos II, Assistant Professor Francisco Guiang, and Aaron Viernes who are also from the same department in UP-Diliman. They also shared ideas on improving the men tioned subject and its materials based on the findings.

“Supporting FPPC’s ‘History Project’ [via the online interactive publication is a way we contribute] to enhancing the country’s civic education,” YouthLed’s Chief of Party Natalie Christine Jorge shared. “Our shared vision with FPPC is for this platform to become a resource that will inform and inspire key educa tion stakeholders to enhance the ways we teach history among the youth.”

To learn more about the review, visit https://publicpolicy.feu.org.ph/.

US, private sector: Upskilled OSY ‘new work force’ for economic upturn

THE United States government, through the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), pooled more than 150 local partners to further employment, educa tion and entrepreneurship opportunities for Filipino out-of-school youth (OSY)— deemed as new drivers of economic re covery and inclusive growth.

With the theme, “One In Motion: Shap ing a Shared Future with the New Genera tion of Workers and Entrepreneurs,” the USAID Opportunity 2.0 Private Sector Summit was the first nationwide faceto-face gathering of representatives from business, government, and civil society to craft policy proposals supporting OSY and sustaining the gains achieved in re cent years.

The summit introduced upskilled OSY as the “new generation of workers and entrepreneurs” who possess digital skills and entrepreneurial spirit to help firms meet the demands of the Philippine

By Jack Brazel Regional Director (Southeast Asia), Turnitin

IN the wake of the inequities laid bare by the pandemic, selfpaced learning has been a path way to overcome learning gaps in the Philippines.

Naturally, this change has pushed the education community to rethink and reevaluate the traditional class room setup, but it poses some chal lenges: for one, ensuring students have adequate teacher guidance when learning asynchronously, and navi gating the repercussions on academic integrity.

In a study involving 66 higher education students and nine faculty members in the Philippines, factors like lack of awareness, students’ in ability to manage their time, having a job, low self-esteem, and the desire for better grades were found to be key factors of academic misconduct among the sample. The question for institu tions and educators then is: How can we disincentivize academic cheating and empower students to take own ership of their learning?

‘Authentic assessments’

WITHOUT effective assessment de sign, students will fail to acquire the necessary knowledge, nor be equipped with the skills to apply them in the labor force. Chances for authentic learning and assessment in higher education is important to help them hit the ground running and thrive in their professional lives.

Through assessments that are fair, inclusive and closely aligned to learn

economy. Participants also highlighted the need for multisectoral collaboration through the Youth Development Alli ance (YDA)—a mechanism created by

the Opportunity 2.0 program for local stakeholders to coordinate programs, maximize resources, and drive policies that will benefit OSY.

“Arming this untapped work force potential with in-demand work and en trepreneurial skills will both boost eco nomic recovery and [assist in] achieving more resilient and inclusive growth,” said USAID Philippines Acting Deputy Mis sion Director Jennifer Crow. “As future employers and engines of economic activ ity, the private sector is a [key] partner in this effort.”

Since its launch in 2019, Opportunity 2.0 has engaged more than 850 privatesector partners nationwide comprising 23 business groups and organizations; 130 large companies; and 640 micro, small and medium enterprises. To date 15 cities nationwide have established YDAs.

Chaired by the city mayor, the alli ances are composed of government line agencies, local business associations, edu cation and training institutions, includ ing youth organizations driving youthfocused programs and policy-making.

Mike Policarpio

Globe, National Teachers College set up IT Academy for STEM delivery

GLOBE Telecom and the National Teachers College (NTC) have teamed up for the Globe IT (Information Technology) Academy program this school year, which aims to better equip teachers in the delivery of science, technology, engineer ing, and mathematics education, or STEM.

The Globe IT Academy seeks to further empower and enable schools for the enhance ment of STEM education delivery at all lev els—a crucial step in driving the country’s global education standing.

The academy’s program is responsive to the new administration’s call for the devel opment of competitive Filipino talent fit for an increasingly borderless employment landscape amid growing digitalization across the globe.

To get things running, Globe and NTC carried out in August a “train-the-trainers” certification workshop on progressive ap proaches to STEM delivery in the classroom. As main participant for the pilot launch, the college selected educators who will be spe cializing in math and science for both K-12 and college levels.

“As an agile and innovative teacher-ed ucation institution, [we are keen on] work ing with like-minded partners that offer relevant, disruptive, and game-changing professional-development programs,” said Dr. Edizon Fermin, NTC’s vice president for Academic Affairs. “Our partnership with Globe for STEM Teacher Training and Digi tal Citizenship is our way of ensuring the enhancement of the competence and confi dence of our teachers as they transition to the better normal.”

Globe intends to work with NTC in the long-term to expand the IT Academy pro gram to more schools, especially state col leges and universities determined to improve STEM delivery in the classroom.

“While there are [many highly-skilled and committed teachers in the country, their upskilling] to take on the modalities of learning should be addressed,” said Yoly Crisanto, Globe’s chief sustainability and corporate communications officer. “With today’s digital environment, students must be encouraged to be creative and engaged. This can be done if teachers are empowered with more technical teaching resources. Globe is committed to do its part to equip our educators through teacher training, tech support, and more.”

ing objectives, students are better motivated to succeed, and the result ing outcomes are better reflections of what they’ll need to accomplish in life beyond schooling. This approach also safeguards against the risk of miscon duct by helping students connect the dots between assessment tasks and their future aspirations, then taking ownership of their learning.

Institutions have an important role to play in empowering educators to design assessments that are impactful and support students through training opportunities, resourcing, and invest ment in tools to advance assessment practices.

Optimizing learning measurement

IT is generally agreed that effective as sessment design is founded on validity, reliability and fairness. Inevitably, in the rapid shift to online learning, flex ibility and agility are now also critical elements for the manner educators are thinking about learning and assess ment in hybrid environments.

Institutions should leverage on the momentum of new learning modali ties to better fit the needs of today’s classrooms, including flexible delivery of learning content, ongoing feedback and variations in assessment models such as incorporating more continu ous, low-stakes assessments to scaf fold the learner.

Adapting this way is key to overcom ing the lack of guidance that has ear lier affected students; more so during the self-paced learning they encounter today, which potentially seals bonds between students and teachers, as well as their peers.

Adopting a student-facing approach

through thoughtful assessment design avoids abstracted learning that has little practical value for learners, and hones their problem-solving and cre ativity and soft skills that will serve them in their careers. This approach can also be harnessed to foster ties and peer evaluation of students that mimic professional practice, leading to more impactful assessment outcomes.

Accommodating students’ agency as active learners throughout the as sessment process will further boost their resolve across their learning journey, and work to offset apathy that can jeopardize their performance and progress. Viewing appraisal as tied to daily learning practice may allow a paradigm shift in ways educators ap proach course material in the long-run, driving flexibility through frequent reviews and revisions that empower both students and educators.

But students do not always say, or even know, where they are strug gling, as it can feel overwhelming to communicate. Having insightful, ac tionable analytics can get to the crux of classroom challenges by helping inform educators of patterns in stu dent performance that indicate where knowledge gaps or mastery is occur ring across a cohort or course. They’ll gain visibility of the key concepts stu dents were able to grasp, which they did not, and whether tests are too easy or too difficult.

Given access to such student data insights then provides opportunities for educators and program administra tors to adjust assessments as needed. This can empower educators to alter their teaching methods, as well as cur ricula and ratings that will go a long

way to supporting learning continuity under self-paced learning.

Bridging assessment, learning outcomes

THE growth of self-paced learning and the push to be more inclusive of differ ent learning styles are critical to giving all students an equitable opportunity to succeed. The fairness and transpar ency involved in the above-mentioned approach can urge students to immerse themselves fully into course mate rial, which in turn, enables educa tors to accurately gauge performance and development. Grounding student evaluations in a continuous approach is certainly effective, but how can it be done realistically by educators who are often expected to do more in less time?

Diverse methods to grade students enable opportunities for effective teacher intervention. This can be achieved through tech-enabled feed back that promotes authentic, selfpaced learning. As a result, students gain confidence, while educators can better measure their level of knowl edge and how they apply it.

When institutions have such strat e gies in place, they can empower ed ucators to better support students throughout their learning journey. Effectively, this ensures institutions to safeguard their own standards and reputations but, just as crucially, can champion student success and wellbe ing. The benefits of this will be farreaching, giving rise to academic and research quality that lends itself to increases in the volume and value of Philippine research output, while fu ture-proofing the country’s economy and communities.

The academy is supported by Globe’s training partner Mano Amiga Phils., which empowers people and communities with education and development courses focused on enabling every person to achieve his or her fullest potential. It creates training pro grams based on the teacher’s skill level and the student’s learning needs.

Through training, teachers are able to look after the students and their well-being, while ensuring they are not just taking in information, but learning important life skills they will need to thrive and succeed in the future.

The recent workshop covered lessons on futures-thinking, an approach to strategic planning and design, and the use of socio emotional learning (SEL) as a teaching and learning tool to nurture critical thinking, better self-awareness, and building on many other interpersonal skills.

It also includes Globe’s Digital Thumb print Program, a multiawarded workshop series consisting of learning modules de signed for teachers, students, parents, and the general public to understand the impact of their online behavior, as well as ways to be safe and responsible whenever online.

“The Globe IT Academy Program and [its] partnership with the NTC are meant to be the start of many things to come,” Crisanto added. “Better delivery of STEM is [being valued by Globe and NTC with a great deal. We believe equipping our Filipino teachers is a vital] step toward addressing challenges the education sector is currently facing.”

Latest reports from the Programme for International Student Assessment and World Bank (WB) ranked the Philippines as one of the countries mostly struggling with basic literacy, basic numeracy, and STEM delivery.

The WB study showed that the country had the highest rate of learning poverty, with 90 percent of Filipino children aged 10 struggling to read simple texts.

Founded in 1928 the NTC is the first Phil ippine private school dedicated to teacher education. It has a long track record of com mitment to excellence in teaching, growth, and inclusion.

DR. DIOKNO

Aiding students in their learning journey vital for local universities

Tourism&Entertainment

Editor: Carla Mortel-Baricaua

RemembeRing my Time in Lviv

Iheardthe news about a possible invasion of Ukraine while I was in the country. I brushed it off as tough talk and as a bargaining position, some of the travelers I’ve met shared the same sentiments. Little did I know that around a month after I left the country in late January 2022, things were never going to be the same.

Upon arrival

I arr I ve d in Lviv at night from a failed attempt at staying over night in Ivano-Frankivsk, a small town along the way from Kyiv. The hostel I booked was closed when I arrived at their doorstep, maybe because it was winter, I thought to myself. I left the station and looked for the tram stop to reach the accommodation I booked in the old town and get indoors to escape the freezing temperatures. I boarded the first tram that arrived at the station. It took less than half an hour to reach the stop just outside the old town. I walked into the main street of the old town. The thick snow covered the roads outside the historic cen ter. Crowds of people with their friends, partners, or children lingered outside cafes and restau rants despite the freezing cold. I looked at the map on my phone to see if I was near my accommoda tion. a s a t raveler, I often wander

around aimlessly whenever I ar rive in a new city, despite having a map and directions. I realized I passed the entrance of the hostel a few times already. When I figured out my mistake, I followed a few people toward the walkway and saw the elevator and stairs lead ing up to the reception.

Old town vibe I aC qua I n T e d myself with Lviv’s charming old town as I explored its narrow pedestrian roads and went in and out of its churches. Lviv’s historic center looked more e uro pean compared to Kyiv’s looming Soviet influence. There I saw a mix of e a stern e uropean archi tectural heritage with influences from Italy and Germany. a s t alk of an invasion spread, there was no sign of any impending doom. Locals and tourists alike went about their routines of eating out, hanging out in cafes, taking self ies, and going to work or school.

I indulged in eating cakes and sweets, the specialties of the city when it gets too cold outside. The snow fell at different times of the day and at varying degrees. The white sheet covering the color ful buildings gave the old town a charming appearance. a l l these things and comings-and-goings all seemed so ordinary at the time, against the backdrop of chaos that would befall the country.

I didn’t understand a thing I Wa n T e d to try something new when I was in Lviv. I kept pass ing by the Lviv n a tional Opera whenever I went in and out of the old town. So, I decided to fi

nally watch a show. I have never seen an opera before that’s why the affordable tickets were hard to ignore. a f ter waiting for a few minutes, the show began. The actors were all singing, dancing, and gesturing as the story went on. The language was u k rainian throughout. I didn’t understand a thing, but I had a general idea of what was happening (isn’t that what life is like?). I applauded when everybody applauded and left when everybody left.

New friends

Be F O re I left Lviv, I met a few Turks and befriended them. It was convenient because they also

stayed in the same accommoda tion as I did. It was the day of my flight to Istanbul and I had time to spare. We went to a café and shared coffee and dessert. One traveled around e u rope when she was still a student, the other traveled out side of Turkiye for the first time, while the other has been to one other country before u k raine. It was difficult to communicate with each other when they weren’t flu ent in e n glish, and I didn’t speak Turkish. We resorted to hand ges tures, familiar words (where have you been to?, what’s home like?, etc., etc.), and Google Translate. a f ter a few shared stories, I was ready to leave. We said our good

byes and maybe see you again.

I checked out of my accommo dation and went to the bus stop. I waited for the bus that went to the airport along with other pas sengers. We all boarded as soon as the bus arrived. One by one (or in groups) people alighted go ing where they needed to go until only the passengers bound for the airport were left. a few minutes later, all of us alighted.

a s I l ooked back at those bits and pieces of my trip to u k raine, I can’t help but wonder: d i d the people I met have an inkling of what’s happening now? a r e some of them still there? When can we go back to the charming city?

IcONIc HONg KONg PeaK Tram asceNds THe PeaK agaIN afTer maKeOver

aS

t he travel restrictions in the country start to ease up, new adventures await for Filipinos who have been wanting to visit Hong Kong. One of the latest additions to Hong Kong’s thrilling tourist attractions is the new Peak Tram which rewards passengers with a stunning view of v ic toria Harbor.

Starting a u gust 27, the Peak Tram— a s ia’s oldest

cable car and a must-see attraction in Hong Kong— have reintroduced its thrilling rides with a revamped tramcar, terminus ushers, and improved amenities.

The new Peak Tram dons the classic “Peak Tram Green,” paying homage to its history and earlier generations in the 20th century. With 210 passengers, it offers a 75-percent increase in capacity.

What’s more is that its wider windows allow an unhindered, panoramic view of the worldfamous skyline of Hong Kong.

In addition to the modern style of the tramcar, the tram termini has undergone renovations, offering five engagement zones for passengers to enjoy. a s t hey enter the Central Terminus, visitors are welcomed by the eye of Infinity, a 10-meter-tall sculpture

featuring a constantly evolving light display that embodies Hong Kong’s spirit of ascension.

Meanwhile, Go Wild a t T he Peak showcases the diverse wildlife found at the Peak with a wrap-around, full-immersion video experience. The centennial history of the Peak Tram since 1888 comes alive in dynamic experiences at The Beating Heart, a n I con is Born, and Once u p on a Tram.

Story & photos by Joshua Berida

O N e c an enjoy the night scene around Lviv’s old town.

T H e House of s c ientists has picture-perfect interiors.

T H e quirky cafes in Lviv can tickle your fancy.

fO r world-class opera and ballet, go to the Lviv National Opera.

T H e colorful buildings dot the scenery in Lviv.

T H e overlooking view of Lviv after a soft snowfall is charming

U K r a I NI a N s r egularly go to church regardless of the day of the week.

T H e beautiful interior of one of the churches in Lviv.

Capturing life’s precious moments, with a few technical adjustments here and there

quality. This process is also easier for me.

For me, the vivid colors offered by the Hero11 Black was welltested in BakeBe, where you could bake and decorate your own cakes.

All the other rooms more or less use a few colors.

USED to be a notorious “vertical video maker” when smartphones and other gadgets weren’t as adaptable as they are now. You know those videos with black sides? I used to take a lot of those. They weren’t really nice to view and I think they had lower resolution than videos shot in landscape mode.

Thankfully, smartphones and other gadgets are now friendlier to “vertical video takers.” Because honestly, who has the energy to remember that one should always shoot horizontally? Social-media platforms also change quickly. Vertical short-form videos for Instagram, YouTube Shorts, TikTok, and even Facebook are what the younger audience are into these days.

We are at an age where everything is content. Even the GoPro, which people associate with high-action videos, is great for shooting Instagram Reels. This used to be an alien concept to me until I saw this in a forum. Set your GoPro to 24-30 fps for optimal quality and minimal video size. You can use a selfie stick, tripod, body strap/head strap to capture the footage for your Instagram. You can use the GoPro app to share the footage on Instagram.

GoPro Philippines formally launched the Hero11 Black (now available) and two other cameras—Hero11 Black Creator Edition and Hero11 Black Mini—which will be available soon at The Dessert Museum in S Maison Mall, Conrad Hotel.

The colorful interactive confectionary showcase was the perfect place to test the Hero11 Black, which features a new, larger sensor that delivers the highest resolution, impressive 10-bit color depth, the highest level of video stabilization, and widest field of view ever featured natively in a Hero camera.

The camera’s updated 1/1.9 inch sensor delivers over 1 billion colors in a 10-bit color video at up to 5.3K resolution at 60 frames per second. The camera also delivers 27-megapixel photos boosted from 23 megapixels from the Hero 10 (this answers the question of whether the GoPro is good for taking still photos). What I normally do for stills though is just extract them from the videos, which are of higher

At BakeBe, they use more colors and this, to me, is more difficult to photograph but the Hero11 Black did so with flying colors.

The new sensor of the Hero11 Black also allows users to select an 8:7 aspect ratio video for the largest vertical field of view ever on a GoPro.

Cropping the 8:7 footage in the GoPro Quik app lets users simultaneously create high-resolution content for Instagram, TikTok and YouTube, so you save time and effort. I sound like such a techie saying these things but it’s really easy to do it.

This is a big deal for content creators and social-media influencers (who used to make huge adjustments as they cross-posted to different socialmedia platforms), as being able to capture video or photos and make aspect adjustments is a big deal. GoPro also made using filters more seamless, thanks to the Quik app.

For shooting first-person view of users engaging in activities such as running, biking, and even swimming (the Hero11 Black is waterproof up to 10 meters), the Hyperview mode is available with the updated sensor that lets users capture the widest 16:9 field of view native to a Hero camera.

Other features include HyperSmooth, GoPro’s image stabilization software, which is now at 5.0, and the company’s Enduro battery being bundled as standard (it was an accessory before). The Enduro battery, according to GoPro, dramatically improves camera performance in cold and moderate temperatures, extending recording times up to 38 percent in Hero11 Black. Enduro comes in-box with

HyperSmooth 5.0 technology with in-camera 360-degree Horizon Lock also keeps your footage steady if your camera rotates a full 360degrees during capture. There are three new Night Effect Time Lapse presets that make capturing pro-quality Star Trails, Light Painting, and Vehicle Light Trails effortless. Meanwhile, TimeWarp 3.0 now captures at 5.3K, an impressive 91 percent leap in resolution from 4K, and an incredible 665 percent more than 1080p.

Users can also enjoy simpler camera control with Easy and Pro modes. Easy Control mode (this is what I use) features a more streamlined and less intimidating interface while Pro Control gives you full control over the camera and its different settings.

Hero11 Black is available for P29,990. The Hero11 Black Creator Edition will be priced at P41,990 while the Hero11 Black Mini will be available for P23,990. I would honestly love to test the Hero11 Black in a concert setting. This is not allowed for obvious reasons but imagine all the videos you could take if it were allowed.

SMEs must adopt LCNC platform for greater competitiveness

BY RIZAL RAOUL S. REYES

SMALL-and-medium enterprises (SMEs) have been urged to adopt low code, no code (LCNC) because it is a close fit for business, and to enjoy cost savings when compared to hiring an external vendor team.

Gibu Mathew, vice president and general manager of Zoho Asia Pacific, said LCNC platforms will empower entrepreneurs by allowing them to build and design applications visually with a simple drag-and-drop interface. A low-code platform or development platform, besides providing a guided user interface (GUI)-rich development environment, borrows heavily from visual programming principles to simplify, augment and democratize traditional programming activities. In fact, a low-code platform like Zoho Creator can help accelerate your current software development cycle by 10x times

Mathew said the acceleration of digital transformation in business continues to put pressure on MSMEs (micro, small and medium enterprises), which make up to 99.51 percent of businesses in the Philippines, to adapt to the latest technology and consumer behavior. Right now, Mathew pointed out that several businesses have not realized their

digital potential as barriers, such as low digital skills, lack of funding, complexity in executing digital transformation, and policy gaps continue to hinder growth. “This has forced businesses to hire or outsource their digitization needs to third-party developers and third-party software—a tedious and expensive exercise. Low code, no code platforms are changing all of these,” he said.

According to Gartner, by 2024 80 percent of technology products will be built by non-IT users, including citizen developers, business technologists and artificial intelligence. The shift to low code, no code platforms is only natural, since it has provided businesses with a low-cost alternative to expensive outsourcing but still achieve a high percentage of solution needs.

“The availability of templates allows businesses to rollout application prototypes in hours for quick feedback, which is impossible to achieve with a team of vendors and third-party vendors. This unique approach thereby allows businesses to fail-fast and iterate to get closer to an ideal solution,” Mathew said.

Mathew said an LCNC approach provides improved cost efficiencies and shortened production cycles, allowing the business to become more

profitable and innovate with a faster-to-market window. Moreover, the LCNC platforms also automate repetitive tasks and workflows, allowing business to provide tailored experiences from marketing content, notification and promotional offerings to customers at the right time.

He added that LCNC also allows businesses to have a base standard in terms of data security and user experience on the initial rollout of a solution release. “Building and ensuring high data security without compromising on ease-of-use is very important for the successful adoption of applications in the organization,” he said.

From a user experience design perspective, Mathew said an LCNC comes with industry best practices in terms of user interface design, data accessibility built-in giving businesses a jumpstart for their new applications which would not be the case if you decide to build a custom application from scratch.

Mathew said businesses will experience birth pains in the initial stage as they have difficulty in hiring the right talent to operate their LCNC platforms. He observed the general trend in the ICT industry would have professionals taking the initiative to keep abreast with upcoming technologies.

$13.5 million new investment to digitize retail, restaurant SMEs in PHL, Asean

BY RODERICK L. ABAD Contributor

A TECH platform for restaurants and retailers in Southeast Asia, StoreHub has raised $13.5 million in fresh capitalization to bolster its operations in the Philippines and the rest of the region with the easing pandemic situation.

According to StoreHub CEO and Co-Founder Wai Hong Fong, businesses have to transform to adapt to the new normal as the economy reopens with the emerging post-Covid period.

“In line with this, the Philippines and the region have had to accelerate the adoption of digital technologies to meet the demands of the time. With ‘revenge travel’ and ‘revenge dining,’ retail and food and beverage business owners are looking for ways to improve operational efficiency and maximize their revenue per customer,” he said.

Leveraging on this, “StoreHub enables business owners to make more money and get more time for their families, or to expand even more,” he noted.

The pre-Series B funding round was led by 500 Global with participation from existing investors Vertex Ventures Southeast Asia and India, OSK and others. For the top investor, this capital raising activity is among the first of its many “really big bets” in top-performing companies.

“We joined their first round in 2016, with a small $150,000 check,” recalled 500 Global Managing Partner Khailee Ng. “Fast-forward to today, we have invested more than $10 million cumulatively on top of that.”

Considering that StoreHub already has approximately a quarter of customer size of big players like Toast, with a valuation of $10.5 billion, plus another estimated 2 million more prospective businesses in Thailand, Malaysia and the Philippines to go onboard its platform, “this in turn creates the playbook for ‘rest of world,’” he added.

“We believe StoreHub is incredibly valuable because it creates incredible value for so many more SMEs [small and medium enterprises],” Ng said. The tech startup was cofounded by Fong with Congyu in 2013, pioneering cloud-based point of sales (POS) systems in Southeast Asia. Since then, the platform has powered over 15,000 paying retail and restaurant outlets in the region and expanded its offering to include QR-based table ordering, loyalty, automated customer engagement and more.

StoreHub has processed more than 128 million transactions worth over $1.6 billion in gross transaction volume in 2021, or 40 percent higher than the previous year. The firm already had reached close to net profitability last year by growing average customer revenue throughout the pandemic.

New paying stores on the platform have grown five times from a year ago. They already have experienced a near break-even in acquisition costs within the first month.

In meeting the strong demand for online channel providers, StoreHub has been expanding its team accordingly, bringing in over 100 new hires in the last six months.

The company’s latest funding round will also be used to continue drive its growth and technology innovation to deepen the value of each customer.

Hero11 Black and Hero11 Black Creator Edition, and as a built-in Enduro

battery in Hero11 Black Mini.

The 433 and the grand giveaway

AND you thought things couldn’t get stranger.

We all have our lotto stories, most of them either about “almost winning” or “winning the jackpot,” but forgot to bet.

Well, last October 1, a total of 433 bettors will each have their own stories about winning the P236million jackpot prize of the 6/55 Grand Lotto.

All of them bet on the winning combination of 9-45-36-27-18-54 (strangely all multiples of 9) but, unfortunately, because of the number of winners, none of them became a millionaire as each of them will only be getting around P500,000. No prize money to sneeze at, sure, but….

That is still a lot of money, but the huge number of winners—a first in local lotto history, has sparked suspicions about the lottery’s integrity, even triggering calls for a congressional inquiry.

Economist Prof. Winnie Monsod tweeted: “The odds of being struck by lightning in a person’s 80-year lifetime are 1 in 15,300. That means we are 1,895 times more likely to get hit by lightning in our lifetime than winning the lotto.”

According to University of the Philippines Diliman Institute of Mathematics professor and OCTA fellow Guido David, the probability of having such a big number of bettors guessing the right combination is 1 followed by 1,224 zeros. The chances, meanwhile, of one bettor winning the Grand Lotto draw is one out of 29 million.

But David also pointed out that while surprising, it was not impossible to have multiple winners, especially since last Saturday’s winning combination was a mathematical sequence.

David said he doesn’t blame people who find it suspicious as even he was surprised by the result but added that getting such a string of numbers right is just as likely as any other six-number combination from one to 55.

But before you claim “only in the Philippines,” this is not the first time a lottery has seen an unusual pattern or sequence of numbers drawn. A BBC article said 20 people shared the jackpot in South Africa’s national lottery in December 2020, when the numbers 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, and 10 were drawn each winning 5.7m rand ($370,000); while during a March 2016 draw in the UK, more than 4,000 correctly picked five out of the six numbers—all multiples of seven—and each one ended up collecting a whopping £15 each.

Well, if lotto isn’t your thing, maybe you’d have more luck in PLDT Home Rewards Grand Giveaway Year 2.

PLDT Home throws some love to its loyal customers with the return of the Grand Giveaway promo running until December 31, 2022. Over 200 new and existing PLDT Home customers can take home grander, more thrilling rewards and prizes

GLOBE Platinum collaborated with renowned contemporary and street artist Distort Monsters at the launch of the Platinum Series Hub for its first-ever popup store in celebration of the annual 917 #ExtraGDayEveryday in September.

Customers at the Bonifacio Global City (BGC) Amphitheater were treated to the live mural painting of Distort Monsters, who shared inspiration and motivation for his craft.

Globe Platinum also prepared a surprise game at the end of the program to drive customers to the Platinum Series Hub, which is open until October 30 on the corner of 26th Avenue and 9th Street in BGC, Taguig City.

At the event, visitors were invited to a Monster Hunt and to follow the trail of signages from the amphitheater to the Hub, and snap and share all four monsterized ‘0917’ online

from the monthly draws, and a chance to win Maya credits and P5 million cash (tax-free) in the grand draw. Winners for the grand draw will be announced on January 30, 2023.

Christmas comes early as PLDT Home will be giving away P100,000 Philippine Airlines e-gift cards to five lucky winners, plus a host of exciting prizes including Apple iPads, Nintendo Switch OLED consoles, Samsung Galaxy A32 5G phones, TP Link WiFi 5 Mesh devices, and e-vouchers from Shopee and GrabFood.

To join the Grand Giveaway, all you have to do is first enroll your PLDT Home account in the PLDT Home Rewards Program by visiting www.pldthome. info/grander2022. Next is to Earn Crystals. For every five Crystals earned, you get one raffle entry. You can also use these crystals to redeem discounts from their brand partners.

To kick off the Grand Giveaway promo, PLDT

Home Rewards has launched a new video featuring actress, singer, model, and Home ambassador, Gigi De Lana. In the new video, Gigi shows how subscribers can do it better and get a shot at a grander life by simply being a member of the PLDT Home Rewards program.

REV MAJOR RECAP

THE fighting game community (FGC) hype is truly alive as proven in the recently-concluded REV Major 2022. The event took place last September 17 and 18 at the SMX Convention Center Manila Function Rooms 4 and 5. With the return of onsite events, REV Major made this year’s installment a memorable one to the FGC as it prepared a wide array of tournaments, booths and tons of activities to choose from.

The various fighting game world tours ended up with a bang as different local and international players battled it out to be the ultimate REV Major

champion and go into the world tour finals.

REV Major 2022’s TEKKEN World Tour tournament finals was a head-to-head between two South Korean players, JeonDDing and Rangchu. JeonDDing won using the character Julia, and went on to claim the TEKKEN 7 title. CAG.Fenritti won the REV Major 2022 DBFZ tournament, earning tournament points on the road to the DBFZ World Tour championships. The ArcSys World Tour held in REV Major also had an intense fight with DaddyKing YuSeongCha winning the DNF Duel championship win and nth “gobou” claiming the Guilty Gear Strive tournament crown. Both champions will be invited to the world finals in March 2023.

The event was filled to the brim with more tournaments featuring more local and international players. Each one of them was eager to show their competitive spirit, and show off their expertise in fighting games. ■

Google discontinues Google Translate in mainland China

HONG KONG—Google has discontinued its Google Translate services in mainland China, removing one of the company’s few remaining services that it had provided in a country where most Western socialmedia platforms are blocked.

The Google Translate app and web site now display a generic search bar and a link redirecting Chinese users to its page in Hong Kong, which is blocked on the mainland.

Users reported not being able to access the service since Saturday, according to Chinese social-media posts. The translation feature built into the Google Chrome browser also no longer functions for users in China.

The Google Translate service was discontinued in China due to “low usage,” Google said in a statement. It is not clear how many users were using Google Translate in China.

The US technology firm has a fraught relationship with China. In 2010, Google pulled its search engine from the Chinese market after it became unwilling to abide by the country’s censorship rules.

China later moved to block other Google services such as its e-mail service Gmail and Google Maps. Chinese authorities typically block most Western social-media platforms and services, including those of Google, Facebook and Twitter as the government

seeks to maintain strict censorship rules. Chinese platforms must abide strictly by those rules and censor keywords and topics the authorities deem politically sensitive.

In 2017, Google made its translation service available on the mainland via a Chinese domain as it explored ways to offer services in the Chinese market. Its Google Translate service competed with other popular, homegrown translation alternatives provided by Chinese technology firms including Baidu and Sogou.

Google had explored launching a separate, censored search engine for China, but terminated the project in 2019 amid a global backlash. AP

with the hashtag #GlobePlatinum #OwnTheExtraordinary.

All successful hunters won a P500 discount off their exclusive and very limited Distort Monsters merchandise and wearable art.

To make their Platinum experience even more extra, guests shopped for exclusive Globe Platinum x Distort Monsters merchandise while grooving to live music by DJ David Ardiente and enjoying specialty drinks curated from premium bottles of Diageo’s Rare and Exceptional portfolio, Mortlach 12-Year-Old and Singleton 18-Year-Old.

Customers were able to use their Globe Rewards points to redeem the drinks during Happy Hour.

“We are delighted to provide our customers with exciting sensory experiences, introduce latest tech innovations, and allow them to feel how

it is to be a Platinum VIP, giving them access to exclusive and one-of-a-kind perks like this. We are also grateful to our partners for giving their 100 percent to make sure our guests enjoyed this very rewarding event,” said Kaisie del CarmenSan Pablo, Head of Globe Platinum Business.

The Hub also showcased Globe Platinum’s latest innovation and first-inthe-market Platinum ONE Plan. A lounge area was set up for anyone to test Globe Platinum’s Priority 5G network and UNLI Fiber, and inquire about the Platinum service from stationed Relationship Managers.

G Day is Globe’s annual tradition of giving back to its customers. Exciting rewards and surprises await everyone until October 30.

More information can be found at www.globe.com.ph/platinum.

Nursing shortage sparks bidding war as countries vie for talent

THE toll of nearly three years of Covid-19 includes millions of nurses broken by punishing hours and low pay, many of whom quit the profession and left hospitals dangerously short of critical staff.

Now with pandemic-related travel restrictions easing, countries from Germany to the United Arab Emirates and Singapore are stepping up efforts to lure foreign nurses and other medi cal professionals with promises of ex pedited visas and better pay.

Second-year nursing student Elaine Nicole Torres, from the Phil ippines, wants to help fill that gap— forecast by the International Council of Nurses (ICN) to widen to 13 million in the coming years. She’ll graduate at an opportune time, with the global health care staffing sector expected to grow 6.9 percent a year to $63 bil lion by 2030, according to Grand View Research.

“You’ve got this mismatch between the supply of nurses and demand for health care,” said Howard Catton, chief executive officer at the Geneva-

based ICN. “It has become much more competitive.”

Health professionals have been migrating for decades. The US and UK have the largest number of for eign-trained nurses among OECD countries, but they are more heavily concentrated in other nations. Be fore the pandemic hit, roughly onein-four nurses in New Zealand and Switzerland had studied abroad, the highest ratio among the OECD’s 38 member states.

No nation is better prepared to help the world staff up its hospitals and clinics than the Philippines, the single biggest exporter of nurses.

Germany’s government said it wants to recruit 600 Filipino nurses for hospitals and elderly care centers, offering qualified applicants free travel expenses, language training, a

bonus for passing exams on the first try and help finding accommoda tion, its embassy in Manila posted on Facebook September 5.

Singapore and the Philippines also opened talks last month on hir ing more Filipino nurses and other health-care workers.

The Philippines isn’t the only op tion, though. The UAE signed an ac cord with India in February, which include expedited approval for skilled workers, including nurses. In April, the UAE said it would offer “golden visas”—which allow workers to live in the Gulf nation for 10 years without a sponsor—to frontline “heroes” in the pandemic fight and others with critical skills.

That followed separate deals by the UK with Kenya, Malaysia and Nepal over the past year to hire unemployed health workers, with the potential to have some travel and training costs covered.

The World Health Organization (WHO) has warned of the poten tial risks from increased recruiting, particularly to developing nations. Historically, there have also been concerns about the human rights and working conditions of employees re cruited overseas.

At its annual assembly in May, the

WHO asked countries and institutions to ensure they are using ethical re cruiting standards so they don’t drain nations of critical personnel.

“Without such efforts, market-led and/or pandemic-driven economic demand for international health personnel may have direct or inad vertent consequences on access to health in other countries,” according to the WHO.

Indeed, the Philippines faces a shortfall of nursing staff, and there’s long-standing political debate over whether so many local nurses should be allowed to leave.

Maria Rosario Vergerie, officerin-charge of the Philippines Health Department, said that the country’s hospitals and clinics have a shortage of about 106,000 nurses, according to the Manila Bulletin. Vergerie wants to retain a cap on the number of healthcare workers allowed to go abroad at 7,500 a year.

But new President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. has said he plans to ease that limit. Filipino nurses who migrate typically earn far more than those who stay back to work in the domestic market and, with about 9 percent of gross domestic product coming from remittances, higher earning healthcare workers overseas can provide a local economic boost.

Most of the new nursing students, like Torres, have set their sights on foreign shores, with the overseas bidding war for staff seen as a ma jor factor boosting nursing school enrollment.

Phinma Corp., which operates sev eral schools in the Philippines, says the number of freshmen for its fouryear nursing program has jumped nearly 400 percent since 2019 to about 6,000 students, exceeding its project ed target for 2025. Another school, Our Lady of Fatima University, also says nursing enrollment is up.

Torres says her degree will open up opportunities for a higher quality of life, adding that she wants to work in a country with better health-care systems, hospital equipment and pay.

“It will be very difficult to stay” behind in the Philippines after gradua tion, said the 19-year-old, who juggles a six-hour round-trip to attend inperson courses at a university in Ma nila with online coursework at home.

Some experts are warning coun tries against trying to fix their healthcare staffing shortages with immigra tion policies alone.

“There’s a large population” of nurses in the Philippines, “but they will not be able to supply nurses for the rest of the world,” said Gaetan Lafortune, a senior economist at the Paris-based OECD. Governments must also spend more to increase wages and educate and train new nurses domestically, he said.

Australia is one nation pursuing both options. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s government is increasing its skilled migrant cap by 35,000 to 195,000. Domestically, the Victoria state government wants to boost the domestic supply of medical profes sionals, announcing a A$270 million ($175 million) package to “support the recruitment and training of 17,000 nurses and midwives to the health system” starting in 2023.

With so much demand, Torres and her classmates expect to have far more options in terms of countries they can work in after graduation, ac cording to Christopher Tan, the head of nursing school operator Phinma’s education unit.

“Previously students were more fo cused on working in the US and Can ada,” but their horizons are broader now, Tan said in an interview. “Our market has a very astute sense of the demand for work,” he added, referring to the students. “They’re usually two, three steps ahead of us.”

Chipmakers expect sharp drop in demand as recession looms

S

IGNS are piling up that the tech downturn may be deeper and longer-lasting than feared.

After years of record capital spend ing, chipmakers are warning on a weekly basis that demand is sputter ing. In the latest sign of trouble, Sam sung Electronics Co. and Advanced Micro Devices Inc. reported disap pointing results within hours of each other that widely missed projections.

Samsung—the world’s largest memory chip maker—reported a 32 percent dive in operating income, while PC-processor chipmaker AMD said it will miss its earlier forecast by about $1 billion. Analysts’ reac tions ranged from “breathtaking” to “Uff-da!”

Those numbers followed grim comments from memory makers Mi cron Technologies Inc. and Kioxia Holdings Corp., which are slashing spending and output in a bid to stabi lize plummeting prices. AMD shares fell, spurring losses in chip and PC makers from Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. to Lenovo Group Ltd. on Friday.

“It seems end demand has likely de teriorated markedly in recent weeks, and end customers appear to be ag gressively draining inventory,” Bern stein’s Stacy Rasgon said. The cut in AMD’s client-revenue “is admittedly a bit breathtaking.”

Weaker-than-expected demand for consumer electronics is hitting com panies along with surging shipping and materials costs. Cost-cutting has become the new norm across the tech industry, and businesses that hoarded chips during the pandemic are now opting to cancel or postpone orders and tap inventory.

The semiconductor industry is also grappling with export restrictions from the US government, which is ratcheting up pressure on its allies

to prevent shipment of cutting-edge chips to a growing list of Chinese com panies, as it seeks to contain the Asian country. That’s hampering business for chipmakers from AMD to Nvidia Corp. in the world’s biggest semicon ductor market.

“This downcycle is not merely driven by typical supply and demand dynamics. It’s different from the past cycles due to geopolitical risks,” said Heo Pil-Seok, chief executive officer at Midas International Asset Manage ment in Seoul. “The US government’s exports controls would further limit IT companies’ sales in China and a large chunk of demand for chips will be weakened. If AMD, Nvidia can’t sell their chips in China, memory makers’ earnings will deteriorate further.”

The companies themselves are bracing for a prolonged downturn. Samsung’s chip business head, Kyung Kyehyun, said he doesn’t see the mem ory market rebounding throughout next year. Kyung told employees at an internal event that Samsung cut its guidance for chip sales in the second half of this year by 32 percent com pared to a forecast in April, according to the Korea Economic Daily.

What Bloomberg Intelligence says PC demand will continue to be soft in Q4, given heavy PC processor inven tory as announced by chipmaker AMD. Won depreciation might not be enough to offset weak sales of memory chips and consumer electronics, such as TVs.

–Masahiro Wakasugi, BI analyst

“No party lasts forever,” Rasgon said. “It’s a cyclical industry. There were a few years of very, very strong growth” that prompted companies to ramp up capacity. “You build supply for demand that turns out not to be as real as you thought it was.” Bloomberg News

Economists see Argentina inflation surpassing 100 percent by December

ECONOMISTS in Argentina see prices increasing 100 percent by December, ce menting a view that the South American country is on pace to hold the world’s highest inflation rate among major economies.

The forecast, published Thurs day in the central bank’s monthly survey, is the first time private economists have projected tripledigit inflation, not seen in crisisprone Argentina since the early 1990s when hyperinflation ruined the economy. As of August, annual inflation stood at 79 percent.

During his nearly three years in of fice, President Alberto Fernandez has implemented price freezes, currency controls and import restrictions, but without a big picture economic plan that markets find credible. The cobweb of policies has failed to cool Argentines’ concerns about a ma jor currency devaluation since the government controls the official ex change rate with a dwindling amount of cash reserves.

While economists see the of ficial rate ending this year at Ar gentinian P173 per dollar, they forecast it reaching 310 per dollar by the end of next year, implying a faster pace of decline, according to the survey.

As a result, inflation expectations have worsened significantly. Last year, Fernandez’s proposed budget for 2022, which congress voted against, forecast 33 percent inflation. Even at the start of this year, private econo mists saw prices rising by 55 percent through December.

Other key takeaways from the central bank’s survey:

n Annual inflation by end2023 seen at 90.5 percent

n Monthly inflation seen at or above 5.9 percent through March 2023

n Argentine peso seen at 173.1/US dollar by end-2022; 310.4/US dollar by end-2023

n Economy seen growing 4.1 percent this year; 1 percent in 2023.

SHOPPERS purchase groceries at a market hosted by the Union of Popular Economic Workers (UTEP) in front of the National Congress building in Buenos Aires, Argentina, on July 14, 2022. Argentine consumer prices rose at the fastest pace in more than three decades in June, with worse expected after Economy Minister Martin Guzman quit this month.

The World

Russia charges jailed Kremlin critic Kara-Murza with treason

MOSCOW—Russian au

thorities have brought treason charges against a prominent opposition activist who was jailed for allegedly spread ing “false information” about Rus sia’s military operation in Ukraine.

The charges against Vladimir Kara-Murza Jr. stem from speech es he gave in several western coun tries that criticized the Kremlin’s rule, according to the activist’s lawyer, Vadim Prokhorov.

“These speeches did not car ry any threat to the country; it was public, open criticism,” Prokhorov told Russian state news agency Tass.

Kara-Murza denies committing treason, the lawyer said. If con victed, he faces a possible prison sentence of up to 20 years.

Kara-Murza was jailed in April on a charge of spreading “false information” about the Russian

military. The charge followed a March 15 speech he gave to the Arizona House of Representa tives in which he denounced Rus sia’s military action in Ukraine.

Russia adopted a law criminal izing spreading “false informa tion” about its military shortly after Russian troops rolled into Ukraine on February 24. Authori ties have used the law, which authorizes a prison sentence of up to 15 years for a convic tion, against dozens of people to stifle opposition to what the Kremlin calls “a special military operation.”

Kara-Murza, a journalist, was an associate of opposition leader Boris Nemtsov, who was killed near the Kremlin in 2015. He him self survived poisonings in 2015 and 2017 that he blamed on the Kremlin. Russian officials have denied responsibility. AP

US carrier, S. Korea warships start new drills amid tensions

SEOUL, South Korea—The nuclear-powered aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan launched a new round of naval drills with South Korean warships on Friday, a day after North Korea fired more ballistic missiles and flew warplanes in an escalation of tensions with its rivals.

The Reagan and its battle group returned to the waters near the Korean Peninsula after North Ko rea earlier this week launched a nuclear-capable missile over Japan in response to the carrier group’s earlier training with South Korean navy ships.

North Korea views US-South Korean military exercises as a practice to invade the country.

The latest two-day drills, which also involve US and South Korean destroyers and other ships, were taking place in international wa ters off the peninsula’s east coast. The drills are aimed at bolstering the allies’ defense capabilities and will involve training to escort the Reagan southeast of South Korea’s southern island of Jeju, South Ko rea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a statement.

“We will continue to strengthen our firm operational capabilities and readiness to respond to any provocations by North Korea,” the statement read.

North Korea may react to the new drills with more missile tests. The North’s Foreign Ministry said Thursday the carrier group’s rede ployment poses “a serious threat to the stability of the situation on the Korean Peninsula and in its vicinity.”

North Korea’s record pace of weapons testing this year is intended to expand its arsenal so that it can credibly threaten the US mainland and regional allies with nuclear arms, then engage in negotiations with the US from a stronger position as a recognized nuclear state. Its two ballistic missile launches on

Thursday were the North’s sixth round of weapons firings in less than two weeks.

The intermediate-range North Korean missile tested Tuesday was likely a Hwasong-12 missile which is capable of reaching the US Pa cific territory of Guam, observ ers say. Other missiles launched recently are short-range weapons that target South Korea.

North Korea is ready to con duct its first nuclear test in five years and is preparing to test a new liquid-fueled intercon tinental ballistic missile and a submarine-launched ballistic missile, Heo Tae-keun, South Ko rea’s deputy minister of national defense policy, told lawmakers earlier this week.

On Friday, Heo had trilateral video calls with his US and Jap anese counterparts to discuss North Korea’s recent missile tests.

They stressed the security coop eration among the three countries would be bolstered if the North continues its provocations, the South Korean Defense Ministry said in a statement.

On Thursday, naval destroyers of the three countries conducted one-day joint drills off the penin sula’s east coast to hone their abili ties to search, track and intercept North Korean ballistic missiles.

Last week, they held anti-subma rines exercises involving the Rea gan in the area.

North Korea also flew 12 war planes dozens of kilometers from the inter-Korean border, prompt ing the South to scramble 30 mili tary aircraft in response. There were no clashes.

The eight North Korean fighter jets and four bombers were be lieved to have conducted air-tosurface firing drills, South Korea’s military said. Yonhap news agency reported it was likely North Ko rea’s biggest warplane mobiliza tion for such an exercise near the border.

Biden: Nuclear ‘Armageddon’ risk highest since 1962 crisis

By Aamer Madhani & Zeke Miller The Associated Press

NEW YORK—President Joe Biden said Thursday that the risk of nuclear “Armageddon” is at the highest level since the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis, as Russian officials speak of the possibility of using tactical nuclear weapons after suffering massive setbacks in the eight-month invasion of Ukraine.

Speaking at a fundraiser for the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, Biden said Russian President Vladimir Putin was “a guy I know fairly well” and the Rus sian leader was “not joking when he talks about the use of tactical nuclear weapons or biological or chemical weapons.”

Biden added, “We have not faced the prospect of Armageddon since Kennedy and the Cuban Missile Crisis.” He suggested the threat from Putin is real “because his military is—you might say—sig nificantly underperforming.”

US officials for months have warned of the prospect that Rus sia could use weapons of mass de struction in Ukraine as it has faced

a series of strategic setbacks on the battlefield, though Biden’s re marks marked the starkest warn ings yet issued by the US govern ment about the nuclear stakes.

It was not immediately clear whether Biden was referring to any new assessment of Russian in tentions. As recently as this week, though, US officials have said they have seen no change to Russia’s nuclear forces that would require a change in the alert posture of US nuclear forces.

“We have not seen any rea son to adjust our own strategic nuclear posture, nor do we have indication that Russia is prepar ing to imminently use nuclear weapons,” White House Press

Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Tuesday.

The 13-day showdown in 1962 that followed the US discovery of the Soviet Union’s secret deploy ment of nuclear weapons to Cuba is regarded by experts as the closest the world has ever come to nuclear annihilation. The crisis during President John F. Kennedy’s ad ministration sparked a renewed focus on arms control on both sides of the Iron Curtain.

Biden also challenged Russian nuclear doctrine, warning that the use of a lower-yield tactical weapon could quickly spiral out of control into global destruction.

“I don’t think there is any such a thing as the ability to easily use a tactical nuclear weapon and not end up with Armageddon,” Biden said.

He added that he was still “try ing to figure” out Putin’s “offramp” in Ukraine.

“Where does he find a way out?” Biden asked. “Where does he find himself in a position that he does not only lose face but lose signifi cant power within Russia?”

Putin has repeatedly alluded to using his country’s vast nuclear ar senal, including last month when he announced plans to conscript Russian men to serve in Ukraine.

“I want to remind you that our country also has various means of destruction...and when the terri torial integrity of our country is

threatened, to protect Russia and our people, we will certainly use all the means at our disposal,” Putin said September 21, adding with a lingering stare at the camera, “It’s not a bluff.”

White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said last week that the US has been “clear” to Russia about what the “conse quences” of using a nuclear weapon in Ukraine would be.

“This is something that we are attuned to, taking very seriously, and communicat ing directly with Russia about, including the kind of decisive responses the United States would have if they went down that dark road,” Sullivan said.

Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said earlier Thursday that Putin understood that the “world will never forgive” a Rus sian nuclear strike.

“He understands that after the use of nuclear weapons he would be unable any more to preserve, so to speak, his life, and I’m confident of that,” Zelenskyy said.

Biden’s comments came during a private fundraiser for Democrat ic Senate candidates at the Man hattan home of James and Kath ryn Murdoch. He tends to be more unguarded—often speaking with just rough notes—in such settings, which are open only to a handful of reporters without cameras or recording devices.

Hospital chain attack part of cyber security concerns

CHICAGO—Diverted am bulances. Cancer treat ment delayed. Electronic health records offline. These are just some of ripple effects of an apparent cyber attack on a ma jor nonprofit health system that disrupted operations throughout the US.

While CommonSpirit Health confirmed it experienced an “IT security issue” earlier this week, the company has remained mum when pressed for more details about the scope of the attack. The health system giant has 140 hos pitals in 21 states. As of Thursday, it’s still unknown how many of its 1,000 care sites that serve 20 million Americans were affected.

Despite the lingering ques tions, the incident underscores the growing concerns surrounding ransomware attacks on health care systems with patient care at stake.

In Tacoma, Washington, Mark Kellogg told KING-TV that his wife, Kathy, had been scheduled to get a cancerous tumor on her tongue removed on Monday, but the procedure was put off sev eral days because of the cyberat tack. Virginia Mason Franciscan Health’s (VMFH) parent company

is CommonSpirit Health.

“Everything we do today is all on a computer, and without it you’re back to the stone age writing on a tablet,” Kellogg said.

In Iowa, the Des Moines Reg ister reported that the incident forced the diversion of five am bulances from the emergency de partment of the city’s MercyOne Medical Center to other medical facilities.

The incident forced both Mer cyOne and VMFH to take certain IT systems offline—including pa tients’ electronic health records— as a precaution.

Brett Callow, a threat analyst with cybersecurity provider Em sisoft, said the incident could be “the most significant attack on the health care sector to date” if all CommonSpirit hospitals and other facilities were affected.

Emsisoft has tracked at least 15 health care systems in the US affected by ransomware this year, which manage more than 60 hos pitals. Callow said data was stolen in 12 of the 15 instances, adding that those are almost surely un dercounts as some ransomware attacks aren’t widely reported.

Callow said one of the largest

known attacks within health care came in September 2020 when a ransomware attack struck all 250 health care facilities owned by Uni versal Health Services.

CommonSpirit’s incident could exceed that, depending on how many of its facilities were hit. That could mean the company faces large financial costs to get through the incident and recover.

Callow cited the loss of more than $100 million reported by Scripps Health tied to a 2021 ransomware attack that affected its five hospitals in California as an example.

Asked for more information on the incident and its effects on Thursday, a spokesperson for Com monSpirit said the health system could not provide more details. AP

Red Lions return to winning ways in NCAA hoopfest

SAN BEDA overpowered Arellano University, 96-61, to remain in top four range Friday in the National Collegiate Athletic Association seniors basketball tournament at the Filoil EcoOil Centre in San Juan.

Our loss to JRU [Jose Rizal University] was really a humbling experience for all of us,” said Coach Yuri Escueta, referring to the Red Lions’ 80-83 defeat last Tuesday.

“Coming into that JRU game, I can say we were overconfident and we didn’t respect our opponent.”

With fire in their eyes, the Red Lions jumped to a 29-9 first quarter advantage and posted their biggest lead at 84-33 at the end of the third period.

JB Bahio had 13 points, eight rebounds and three assists with James Kwekuteye also scoring 13 points with eight rebounds, two steals and two assists before sitting out the entire fourth quarter for the Red Lions.

San Beda improved to 5-2 wonlost to trail College of Saint Benilde and Lyceum of the Philippines University—both 5-1.

Tony Ynot chipped in 11 points and five rebounds, while Justine Sanchez and Jacob Cortez had 10 points apiece for San Beda.

B ahio and Kwekueteye got a much-needed rest in the payoff period in preparation for the Red Lions’ game against the Blazers on Sunday.

Darell Menina had 10 points, four rebounds and three assists for the Chiefs, who fell to 4-4.

By Josef Ramos

JUVIC EMERGES RIVIERA CHAMP Sports

JUVIC PAGUNSAN

put an epic ending to a wild International Container Terminal Services Inc. (ICTSI)

Riviera Championship with a delicate par-putt from pinlength high on the first playoff hole as he foiled Tony Lascuña and regained the crown he emphatically won in stormy conditions at the Langer course in Silang, Cavite, three years ago.

Pagunsan set up the title-clinching putt with a brilliant blast from the frontside bunker of No. 18, the ball bouncing on the front of the green before resting some 8 feet short of the cup. But he slightly gained the upperhand as Lascuña, who overshot his approach on the tough finishing par-4 hole the way he did in regulation, chipped past the target, leaving him a longer putt to return.

He missed as the ball swerved to the right and Pagunsan gently and confidently stroked his putt that rolled straight before disappearing into the cup, punching the air with full-fisted glee to celebrate his unlikely return to the top podium of a premier Philippine Golf Tour (PGT) leg.

It was tough, and Riviera’s a tough course to play—the winds get rough and strong, and then they disappear… the greens are unpredictable, too,” said Pagunsan, who rallied with a two-under 34 at the back of the par-71 to salvage a 71 and force a playoff at five-over 289.

L ascuña missed clinching the title outright with a costly double-bogey miscue on the 18th for a 69.

It so happened that I got a break for me to catch up, I was 3- or 4-shots

down. On the last day, 4 down still,” Pagunsan added.

But a backside rebound after a wobbly two-over frontside 37 put the former Asian Tour No. 1 back in the hunt and his birdie on the par-3 No. 17 for the second straight day proved crucial to his comeback bid.

“ The birdie at No. 17 was key, then I saw Mr. Lascuña double bogey the last hole,” added Lascuña, who thanked ICTSI for keeping the pros busy with its series of tournaments in the post-pandemic.

The victory was worth P360,000 for the smooth-swinging Pagunsan, who bucked lack of practice after hitting town Monday following a stint on the Japan Golf Tour with Angelo Que last Sunday.

L ascuña took home P236,000 while Zanieboy Gialon carded a 73 and grabbed solo third at 290 worth P136,000.

It was a wild, wild finish to a tournament that has all the trimmings of such ending—with a stellar cast and on a wind-swept course that repels anything less than accurate shots.

Fidel Concepcion emerged the surprise first round leader, yielded it to Guido van der Valk in the next before regaining it in moving day Saturday. The Dutchman, however, wrested control early in the final round, fended off a slew of threats that came from at least five aces before wilting under extreme pressure, leading to a pair of double bogeys in the stretch.

Six shots behind after 54 holes, Lascuña got into the mix with three birdies in the first 10 holes, bounced back from a mishap on the tough par-4 No. 14 with back-to-back birdies

from the next to storm ahead by three heading to the final hole two flights ahead of the championship group.

But Langer proved again that it’s not over till the last putt is dropped as Lascuña hit the fairway bunker, forced to make a lay-up but overshot the firm green where the pin is strategically placed near the front side edge.

He circled the spot of his landing target but his chip shot curled past the hole and he muffed a pressure-packed 5-footer for a double-bogey.

I n a flight behind, Pagunsan four down with 18 holes to play, came out of a harrowing frontside stint that had him yielding three strokes in the last four holes at the front after a birdie on the par-3 No. 4. He even threw the ball into the hazard in disgust after missing a short par-putt on the ninth but regrouped at the back with

two birdies to rescue an even-par round and earn a shot at the crown.

Ramos, Agad vie in Asian weightlifting championships

ASIAN youth champion Rose Jean Ramos plunges into action against older and more seasoned rivals in the International

Weightlifting Federation (IWF) Asian Championships that start Saturday in Manama, Bahrain.

The Philippines has only two entries in the continental championships—

Ramos who’ll be competing in the women’s 45-kg class and Fernando Agad Jr. in the men’s 44-kg category— with Robert Colonia as coach.

R amos will face six opponents in her weight class headed by Vietnam’s My Phuong Khong and Indonesia’s Najia Khoirunnisa.

“ It’s going to be more difficult

BOLTS ADD TO DYIP’S WOES

Johnny O’ Bryant imposing his will over their hapless opponents.

than her last tournaments because of the presence of veteran weightlifters there, but I’m confident Rose Jean [Ramos] will be in the podium finish,” her Coach Allen Diaz told BusinessMirror on Friday.

The 17-year-old Ramos, also of Zamboanga City like Olympic champion Hidilyn Diaz Naranjo,

captured four gold medals in the women’s 45-kg category in Asian Youth Championships in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, last July.

Agad, 20, has six opponents in his category. Vanessa Sarno, a gold medalist in the Tashkent 2020 Asian championships and Vietnam Southeast Asian Games last May, skipped the Manama tournament to focus on the world championships in Bogota, Colombia, in December. Josef Ramos

Ancajas sets out for redemption in super flyweight title rematch with Argentinian

“PRETTY BOY”

JERWIN

ANCAJAS goes for the International Boxing Federation (IBF) super flyweight belt Argentina’s Fernando Daniel Martinez took away from him last February in their rematch on Sunday at the Dignity Health Sports Park in Carson City, California.

A ncajas, 30, faced weight issues and lost his title via unanimous decision to Martinez at the Virgins Hotel in Las Vegas.

“ I can’t wait to get in the ring.” Mark Magsayo, of Panabo City, said in Friday’s pre-match press conference. “Winning my title back is what all I have been thinking.”

I know I have what it takes and I’m going to prove it on Saturday night [Sunday morning in Manila],” added Ancajas, who stressed his now in better shape than ever.

The 31-year-old Martinez turned a drained Ancajas to a virtual punching bag during their first fight.

I was not in as good of shape in our last fight. I fought toe-to-toe because my legs were cramping,” Ancajas said. “Now I am fully prepared and we’ll be ready to get our belt back.”

I nternational matchmaker Sean Gibbons monitored Ancajas’s present weight at 114.6 pounds, an indication that he didn’t struggled to make the grade.

It will be the best version of Jerwin [Ancajas] that we’re going to see,” Gibbons told BusinessMirror , noting he’s expecting Ancajas to score a stoppage in the later rounds.  Ancajas has a 33-2-2 winloss-draw with 22 knockouts while Martinez is undefeated in 14 fights with eight knockouts.

“It’s going to be a hard fight, but being the champion is a responsibility that I take with humility,” Martinez said in the same press conference. “I have to keep my feet on the ground and make the fans in Argentina happy.”

Tokyo Olympics bronze medalist Eumir Felix Marcial goes for his third professional victory against American Steve Pichardo in a six-round middleweight fight in the Premier Boxing Champions promotion headlined is by the title fight between American super welterweight Sebastian Fundora and Mexican Carlos Ocampo.

A v ictory by Ancajas will make him the only legitimate Filipino world champion at this time. Josef Ramos

Pague defeats pal in Buglasan Open

MERALCO

needed a strong finishing kick to stave off any of Terrafirma’s upset effort as the Bolts played without head coach Norman Black to ram the Dyip, 105-92, in the Philippine Basketball Association Commissioner’s Cup Friday at the Smart Araneta Coliseum.

Black wasn’t at the Big Dome because of health protocols, but his Bolts didn’t disappoint with Bong Quinto effectively subbing for an injured Chris Newsome and import

We just had to work as one to fill up the absence of New [Newsome],” said Quinto, who scored eight of his 17 points in their fourth-quarter breakaway. “So as long as we’re playing as a team, we’ll be getting stronger and effective in offense and defense…and you saw the result today.”

A 26-16 finishing kick did the damage on the Dyip, who rolled to their fourth straigt loss in the Commissioner’s Cup and at 21st straight setback since last season’s Governor’s Cup.

O ’Bryant scored 31 points and pulled down 11 rebounds with four assists and three steals to lead Meralco, while Allein Maliksi made 18 points.

C hris Banchero finished with 12 points, five rebounds and seven assists for the Bolts, who improved 1-2 won-lost.

Terrafirma has been playing great against Magnolia and Rain or Shine,” Assistant Coach Luigi Trillo said. “They attacked our pick and rolls, and they took us one-on-one and hit a lot of threes, so we had to regroup [fourth period].”

‘Unreal and surreal’: Skiers slam Asian Winter Games host

LEADING World Cup skiers on Thursday questioned the decision to award a yet-tobe-built resort in Saudi Arabia the hosting rights of the 2029 Asian Winter Games, saying such a project could damage the sport’s image.

Sofia Goggia, the 2018 Olympic downhill champion, said she was “pretty much speechless” when she heard the announcement this week.

Because we are going down a sustainable way and they are building this cathedral in the desert. This is something unreal and surreal,” the Italian told The Associated Press in a video call from the headquarters of her Austrian equipment supplier Atomic.

Two-time Olympic medalist Aleksander Aamodt Kilde said the decision flies in the face of efforts to

combat climate change.

“ We need to look at the consequences: Why? What do we gain from it, where is this going, and how is it possible?” the Norwegian said. “We see that the world is on fire, it’s really hot summers, it’s going to go bad in the end if you don’t do anything. For producing snow, you need water, and water is also a problem out there.”

Saudi Arabia will host the Asian Winter Games in mountains near the $500 billion futuristic city project Neom. The Olympic Council of Asia picked the Saudi candidacy that centers on Trojena, which is planning to be a year-round ski resort by 2026.

The Neom megaproject is being funded by the Saudi sovereign wealth vehicle, the Public Investment Fund.

I cannot find the right and common sense in building up something where the snow doesn’t come,” Goggia said. “The world

cannot afford a loss of energy as the one would be involved to build this structure.”

Defending four-time overall World Cup champion Mikaela Shiffrin said she was too unfamiliar yet with the specific construction plans in Saudi Arabia, but added that, in general, “it makes sense to compete in places that have some level of infrastructure and some natural resources towards the sports that we are trying to do.”

K ilde, who was the 2020 overall World Cup champion called on the International Ski and Snowboard Federation to rethink “how we want to communicate our sport.”

“Of course, we need to travel, because we need to find snow. But it’s not just to fly around the world and to go to different places just to gain interest, we also need to gain interest in a natural and good environmental way,” Kilde said. AP

JOSE MARIA PAGUE beat doubles partner Norman Enriquez, 7-6 (3), 6-4, to capture the Buglasan Festival National Open tennis crown at the Praxevilla hard courts in Dumaguete City last Wednesday.

P ague proved steadier than Enriquez in a pendulum clash in the opening frame, pulling through in the tiebreak after a break-break exchange that tied them at 6.

The Zamboanga find then broke Enriquez in the second game of the second set then fought off the his rally to complete the victory worth P15,000.

It was a rousing win for Pague, who gained inspiration and motivation from his semifinal setback to seasoned and eventual winner Johnny Arcilla in the recent Puerto Princesa Open.

Mcleen Gomera and Kimi Brodeth, meanwhile, are the favorites in the premier 18-under class as action in the Palawan PawnshopPawanan Express Pera Padala (PPS-PEPP) Dumaguete City national age-group championships, part of the country’s longest talent-search put up by Palawan Pawnshop President and CEO Bobby Castro, got under way Friday also at the Praxevilla courts. For details, contact Bobby Mangunay at 0915-4046464.

Pague completed his big week as he and Enriquez survived Stephen Guia and Roy Tan, 6-3, 5-7, 10-3, in the semis then crushed Mclean Barraquias and Kenneth Banico, 6-2, 6-3, to nail the doubles title worth P10,000 in the week-long event held in conjunction with Negros Oriental’s premier festival celebrations.

Olympic downhill champion

SAN BEDA’S James Kwekuteye shoots over Arellano University’s Neil Tolentino.

JOSE MARIA PAGUE hoists his trophy after edging doubles partner Norman Enriquez.

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