BusinessMirror October 17, 2021

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A broader look at today’s business n

Sunday, October 17, 2021 Vol. 17 No. 9

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

BOUNTY FROM THE HOLY PEAK

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By Manuel T. Cayon

Maramag of Maramag, Bukidnon, won the Robusta category. Both winners were entitled to send their representatives to Seattle, Washington, USA, to attend the Specialty Coffee Association Expo).

The Bukidnon office of the Department of Trade and Industry also offered the cooperative “a synergistic assistance to promote their coffee products through online marketing.”

RIBAL farmers and volunteer forest guards are reaping the dividends of a government-led agroforestry program in Bukidnon that aims to preserve the watershed and the forest ecosystem of Mount Kitanglad and to bring fruits, literally, to the labor of love for this sacred mountain.

Tribal ‘baganis’ COFFEE farm located in the foothills of Mount Kitanglad. PHILIPPINE COFFEE BOARD

One group, the Indigenous People’s Organization (IPO) of Inhandig Tribal Multipurpose Cooperative (ITPMC), is now able to sell their coffee bean yield to a local foundation in Malaybalay City, the Hineleban Foundation.

The beans, of high-grade Arabica coffee, are part of crops and plants that are marketable as food or building material, or for their hemp.

The preservation of the remaining forests and mountain ecosystems has evolved through the decades—from one of purely planting hard-wood trees under a reforestation concept, to the ongoing planting of a combination of crops and fruit trees and hardwood trees that are naturally growing on the mountain.

Agriculture and reforestation

AN 80-hectare agroforestry area in Barangay Dalwangan, Malaybalay City, Bukidnon, has become a highquality Arabica coffee producer in that part of the province when the area was awarded to the indigenous communities under the ITPMC.

It was part of the Asian Development Bank-funded Integrated Natural Resources and Environmental Management Project (INREMP).

Of the area awarded, 50 hectares were to be devoted to agro-

forestry and 30 hectares to be developed into a Community Tree Plantation.

The planted area is spread across 28 barangays of the city, located in the northeastern foothills of Mount Kitanglad Range Natural Park (MKRNP).

This strategy would equally protect Mount Kitanglad and give a source of food and income to the indigenous communities.

The INREMP, being implemented by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR), provided the tribal group with an all-weather plastic dryer worth P300,000 for quality drying of the coffee beans. The plastic dryer reduces drying time to produce highquality coffee with a longer shelf life, and allows them to dry the harvested coffee beans anytime.

The ITPMC members have existing coffee farms and the support extended by INREMP has allowed them to plant more, and other varieties of coffee. Their quality coffee was already fetching a price three times more than the regular buying rate.

(In 2017, a Facebook account by ProMindanao posted the triumph of the ITMPC in the Kape Pilipino Green Coffee Quality competition for the Arabica category; while Kape

PESO EXCHANGE RATES n US 50.6090

SEATED at the center of the Kitanglad Mountain Range is Mount Kitanglad, the fourth-highest mountain in the Philippines. MOUNT KITANGLAD RANGE NATURAL PARK

‘T

he area is [also] being promoted as an ecotourism destination given its rich historical value, presence of century-old natural forests, series of waterfalls, Rafflesia flower [the second largest flower in the world] and rare and endemic flora and fauna.’

—Daniel F. Somera, protected area superintendent of Mount Kitanglad Range Natural Park

BY August this year, the DENR successfully persuaded the Kitanglad Guard Volunteers (KGV), composed mostly of tribal protectors (known in many tribes as baganis or tribal warriors) to engage also in agroforestry aside from regular work in patrolling the 47,270 hectares of the mountain range.

The KGV, also based in the outskirts of Malaybalay City, was apportioned with 300 hectares spread at the foothills of the MKRNP to plant coffee, abaca and bamboo. The DENR tapped Forest Foundation Philippines and Holcim Corp. to be partners of the program for the volunteer forest guards.

“Despite the limited manpower assigned on Mount Kitanglad, the Protected Area Management Board has successfully tapped the cooperation of the upland communities to spearhead the community-based park protection,” a DENR communication quoted Daniel F. Somera, protected area superintendent of MKRNP, as saying.

The KGV has more than 400 volunteers who “now serve as contractors of the DENR’s National Greening Program,” the statement read.

“KGV started its humble beginnings with only more than a dozen members in 1995. They rose to more than 400 volunteers who proved their worth in the significant decline of man-made disturbances within the park. Their park

protection is also being reciprocated as they are given top priority in the provision of livelihood assistance,” Somera said.

Sustainable

THE INREMP program implemented by the DENR combines agroforestry (planting of fruit trees, dipterocarp or broad-leafed tropical trees, and vegetables) and assisted natural regeneration (maintenance of existing naturally growing trees) has been implemented by DENR in MKRNP, the statement added.

This resulted in the sustainable development of forestry area with 100 hectares of coffee trees, 100 hectares of abaca, 100 hectares of fuel wood trees, 100 hectares of rattan, and 50 hectares of bamboo.

The DENR has also partnered with Holcim Corp. in planting coffee, cacao and rubber. The Forest Foundation Philippines and the Coastal and Marine Ecosystems Management Program also contributed to the plantation efforts.

Seated at the center of the Kitanglad Mountain Range is Mount Kitanglad, the fourth highest mountain in the Philippines— with approximate height of 2,899 meters or 9,511 ft. The mountain range straddles part of Malaybalay City to the east, Lantapan to the southeast, Impasugong, Sumilao, and Libona to the north.

Around the mountain range are the tribal communities of the Bukidnons, Higaonons and Talaandigs, which consider Mount Kitanglad as home to ancestral spirits.

Mount Kitanglad was proclaimed a protected area in 1996 through Presidential Proclamation 896. Four years later, Congress enacted Republic Act 8978 that declared the Mount Kitanglad Range as a protected area.

The MKRNP was later entered into the list of heritage parks of the Asean.

Continued on A2

n JAPAN 0.4453 n UK 69.2179 n HK 6.5057 n CHINA 7.8581 n SINGAPORE 37.5326 n AUSTRALIA 37.5266 n EU 58.7115 n SAUDI ARABIA 13.4932

Source: BSP (October 15, 2021)

MOUNT KITANGLAD RANGE NATURAL PARK

There are dividends to be reaped from preserving, protecting Bukidnon’s sacred mountain

NewsSunday BusinessMirror

A2 Sunday, October 17, 2021

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Taiwan tensions raise fears of US-China conflict in Asia

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By David Rising | The Associated Press

ANGKOK—After sending a record number of military aircraft to harass Taiwan over China’s National Day holiday, Beijing has toned down the saber rattling but tensions remain high, with the rhetoric and reasoning behind the exercises unchanged.

Experts agree a direct conflict is unlikely at the moment, but as the future of self-ruled Taiwan increasingly becomes a powder keg, a mishap or miscalculation could lead to confrontation while Chinese and American ambitions are at odds.

China seeks to bring the strategically and symbolically important island back under its control, and the US sees Taiwan in the context of broader challenges from China.

“From the US perspective, the concept of a great power rivalry with China has driven this back up the agenda,” said Henry Boyd, a Britain-based defense analyst with the International Institute for Strategic Studies.

“The need to stand up to China is a strong enough motivating factor that not taking this fight would also be seen as a betrayal of American national interests.”

‘Reunification’ goals

CHINA claims Taiwan as its own, and controlling the island is a key component of Beijing’s political and military thinking. Leader

Xi Jinping on the weekend again emphasized “reunification of the nation must be realized, and will definitely be realized”—a goal made more realistic with massive improvements to China’s armed forces over the last two decades.

In response, the US has been increasing support for Taiwan and more broadly turning its focus to the Indo-Pacific region. US State Department spokesman Ned Price on Tuesday emphasized that American support for Taiwan is “rock solid,” saying “we have also been very clear that we are committed to deepening our ties with Taiwan.”

Washington’s longstanding policy has been to provide political and military support for Taiwan, while not explicitly promising to defend it from a Chinese attack.

The two sides came perhaps the closest to blows in 1996, when China, irked by what it saw as increasing American support for Taiwan, decided to flex its muscle with exercises that included firing missiles into the waters some 30 kilometers from Taiwan’s coast ahead of Taiwan’s first popular presidential election.

The US responded with its own show of force, sending two aircraft carrier groups to the region. At the time, China had no aircraft carriers and little means to threaten the American ships, and it backed down.

Stung by the episode, China embarked upon a massive overhaul of its military, and 25 years later, it has significantly improved missile defenses that could easily strike back, and equipped or built its own aircraft carriers.

The US Defense Department’s recent report to Congress noted that in 2000, it assessed China’s armed forces to be “a sizable but mostly archaic military” but that today it is a rival, having already surpassed the American military in some areas including shipbuilding to the point where it now has the world’s largest navy.

Counting ships isn’t the best way to compare capabilities—the US Navy has 11 aircraft carriers to China’s two, for example—but in the event of a conflict over Taiwan, China would be able to deploy almost the entirety of its naval forces, and also has landbased anti-ship missiles to add to the fight, said Boyd, a co-author of IISS’s annual Military Balance assessment of global armed forces.

“China’s concept of operations regarding Taiwan is that if they can delay the US presence in the fight, or restrict the numbers that they’re able to put into the fight because we’re able to hold their forward assets at some level of risk, they can beat the Taiwanese before the Americans show up in enough force to do something about it,” he said.

Taiwan’s own strategy is the

THE United Kingdom’s carrier strike group led by HMS Queen Elizabeth, and Japan Maritime Self-Defense Forces led by Hyuga-class helicopter destroyer JS Ise joined with US Navy carrier strike groups led by flagships USS Ronald Reagan and USS Carl Vinson to conduct multiple carrier strike group operations in the Philippine Sea, on October 3, 2021. After sending a record number of military aircraft to harass Taiwan over China’s National Day holiday weekend, Beijing has toned down the saber-rattling but tensions remain high, with the rhetoric and reasoning behind the exercises unchanged. US NAVY VIA AP

mirror image—delaying China long enough for the US and its allies to show up in force. It has significant military forces itself, and the advantage of fighting on its home turf. A recent policy paper also notes the need for asymmetric measures, which could include things like missile attacks on mainland China ammunition or fuel dumps.

Taiwan’s defense department’s assessment of China’s capabilities, presented to parliament in August and obtained by The Associated Press, says China already has the ability to seal Taiwan’s ports and airports, but currently lacks the transport and logistical support for largescale joint landing operations— though is improving by the day.

In a new strategic guidance policy last week, US Navy Secretary Carlos del Toro identified China as the “most significant” long-term challenge.

“For the first time in at least a generation, we have a strategic competitor who possesses naval capabilities that rival our own, and who seeks to aggressively employ its forces to challenge US principles, partnerships and prosperity,” the paper said.

China, over its National Day weekend at the beginning of the month, sent a record 149 military aircraft southwest of Taiwan in strike group formations—in international airspace but into the island’s buffer zone, prompting Taiwan to scramble its defenses.

On Monday, China announced it had carried out beach landing and assault drills in the mainland province directly opposite Taiwan.

Possible miscalculations

MA XIAOGUANG, spokesperson of the mainland government’s Taiwan Affairs Office, justified the actions as necessary, saying Wednesday they were provoked by “Taiwan independence forces” colluding with “external forces.”

“With every step the Chinese are trying to change the status quo and normalize the situation through this salami slicing,” said Hoo Tiang Boon, coordinator of the China program at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies in Singapore.

“They know Taiwan cannot do anything about it, and the danger is that possibility of miscalculations or mishaps do exist.”

Taiwan and China split in 1949 amid a civil war, with Chiang Kai-shek’s Nationalists fleeing to the island as Mao Zedong’s Communists swept to power.

Far-ranging ‘catastrophe’

IN a 2019 defense white paper, Beijing said it advocates “peaceful reunification of the country”—a phrase repeated by Xi over the weekend— but is also unequivocal in its goals.

“China must and will be reunited,” the paper reads. “We make no promise to renounce the use of force, and reserve the option of taking all necessary measures.”

Taiwanese President Tsai Ingwen, meantime, has been making the case for more global support, writing in the most recent edition of Foreign Affairs magazine that “if Taiwan were to fall, the consequences would be catastrophic for regional peace and the democratic alliance system.”

“A failure to defend Taiwan would not only be catastrophic for

the Taiwanese,” she wrote. “It would overturn a security architecture that has allowed for peace and extraordinary economic development in the region for seven decades.”

US law requires it to assist Taiwan in maintaining a defensive capability and to treat threats to the island as a matter of “grave concern.”

Washington has recently acknowledged that US special forces are on the island in a training capacity, and it has been stepping up multinational maneuvers in the region as part of a stated commitment to a “free and open Indo-Pacific.”

They included an exercise involving 17 ships from six navies— the US, Britain, Japan, the Netherlands, Canada and New Zealand off the Japanese island of Okinawa earlier this month.

The so-called Quad group of nations—the US, Australia, India and Japan—on Thursday were concluding joint exercises in the Bay of Bengal, which Japan’s Defense Ministry said showed their resolve to uphold “fundamental values such as democracy and the rule of law.”

Washington also signed a deal last month in concert with Britain to provide Australia with nuclearpowered submarines, which China said would “seriously damage regional peace and stability.”

“The Americans are trying to bring in the allies on a united front,” said Hoo. “There’s a growing internationalization of the Taiwan issue.”

Right now, neither side’s armed forces feels fully prepared for a conflict over Taiwan, but in the end it may not be their decision, Boyd said.

“It’s not going to be up to the military,” he said. “It’s going to be up to the politicians.”

Bounty from the holy peak Continued from A1

The INREMP program

THE INREMP agroforestry concept forms a key component of a project to reduce and reverse the degradation of watershed caused by forest denudation and unsustainable farming, the DENR said, by generating livelihood for upland communities,

“A key component of INREMP is the establishment of agroforestry farms to showcase economically viable, socially acceptable, and environmentally sound production systems,” it said in its website.

This was intended to be an incentive to the local communities and the local governments around the protected areas, mainly four selected river basins in the country: Chico River Basin in the Cordillera Administrative Region; Wahig-Inabanga River Basin in Region 7 or Central Visayas; Upper Bukidnon River Basin in Region 10, where the MKRNP serves as the headwater source; and the Lake Lanao River Basin in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao.

“INREMP aims to address unsustainable watershed management in these four priority river basins by reducing and reversing the degradation of watersheds and associ-

ated environmental impacts caused by deforestation and unsustainable farming practices,” it said.

Moreover, the program sought to provide incentives to communities, local government units, and the DENR to improve natural resource management and to generate economic benefits through payments for environmental services, including water regulation, soil conservation, carbon offsets and biodiversity; income generation from sustainable use, management and processing of timber and nontimber forest products; improved resource productivity; and improved climate resilience in the selected watersheds.

This is a seven-year project of the ADB being implemented by the DENR.

Ecotourism aspect

FOR Mount Kitanglad, the INREMP has eyed ecotourism as an approach to the long-term sustainable development of MKRNP and UBRB. Somera said Mount Kitanglad “is a favorite trekking site due to its magnificent scenery and terrific landscape.”

To enhance Mount Kitanglad’s ecotourism potential, improvements have included a canopy walk, hanging bridge and biking and camping trails.

“Within the reserve is a nesting site of the Philippine Eagle which is probably the nearest eagle site in terms of proximity,” said Somera. “Within the park’s bufferzone is Cinchona Forest Reserve located in Kaatuan, Lantapan, Bukidnon. It was once a trial planting site of Quinine (covering 1,900 hectares) which is a known plant to cure malaria.”

He said climbers choose to reach the three highest peaks of the park: Mount Kitanglad, Mount Dulangdulang and Mount Maagnao.

Mount Dulangdulang has an elevation of 2,938 meters, which is the second highest mountain next to Mount Apo in Davao City.

Also along the trail are World War II buildings as part of the Japanese garrison.

“This area is [also] being promoted as an ecotourism destination given its rich historical value, presence of century-old natural forests, series of waterfalls, Rafflesia flower [the second largest flower in the world] and rare and endemic flora and fauna,” he added.

And of course, he said, another booming activity within the park “is ethno and agro ecotourism, to appreciate the rich culture of the Talaandig, Higaonon and Bukidnon tribes who dwell within the park.”

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

The World BusinessMirror

Sunday, October 17, 2021

A3

Wage theft hits immigrants–hard

By Susan Ferriss & Joe Yerardi

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The Center for Public Integrity

udelia Molina, a Mexican immigrant, was earning 10 cents for every garment she trimmed at a factory in Los Angeles, America’s clothing-assembly capital.

Her wage was so meager that she started putting in 11-hour days to drive up production. When she asked for a raise, a supervisor denied her request, so she quit in July 2017—and turned to a labor-rights attorney to help her file an unpaid-wage complaint with the California Labor Commissioner.

A year later, the state found that Molina was paid, on average, $199 a week, violating overtime law and rules that piece-rate workers earn at least the state’s then $10.50 hourly minimum wage. But Molina’s employer didn’t pay her the almost $23,000 owed, not including attorney fees.

Her best option was to apply to a state fund for cheated garment workers, a rare backstop California finances with business registration fees.

It took two more years before Molina received her check. Her former employer still hasn’t reimbursed the state fund, as required.

A 30-year resident of California, Molina got caught in a toxic cycle centuries old: Immigrants perform some of America’s lowest-paying, arduous jobs, and are among those most victimized by employers failing to pay them fairly. Even if they have support to file a lawsuit or a claim—with a state labor agency, as Molina did, or the US Department of Labor—they often settle for less to get money faster or must wait as cases drag on.

“They pay whatever they want to pay,” said Molina, now 58, referring generally to the worst of garment factory employers she’s had over the years. “What interests them,” she said, “is that the work gets done, and fast.”

Just like US citizens, any non-citizen whose job is covered under the Fair Labor Standards Act has the right to be paid overtime after 40 hours and the minimum hourly wage. But it’s not unusual for immigrant workers, documented or not, to face employer intimidation—which is illegal—when they assert their rights.

The US Department of Labor, which operates in all states, doesn’t ask victims of suspected wage theft if they’re immigrants. The agency plainly acknowledges that complaints are reviewed regardless of workers’ immigration status.

But a Center for Public Integrity analysis of Labor Department and US Census Bureau data found that industries with higher percentages of foreign-born workers had higher rates of wage theft.

Nationally, 16 percent of US workers are foreign-born. By contrast, 42 percent of all workers performing cut-and-sew garment assembly are immigrants. That’s one of the highest percentages of immigrant workers in the nation. Public Integrity’s analysis also found that the cut-and-sew garment industry had the second-highest rate of federal wage-violation cases over the last 15 years.

Other industries with significant numbers of immigrant workers and wage-theft problems include agriculture, building maintenance, hotel work, restaurant and other food services. In certain regions, immigrants and wage problems are also concentrated in construction, nursing homes, warehouses and car washes.

The AFL-CIO, the largest US labor organization, has long argued that a path to legal status for millions of undocumented workers is crucial to reducing wage theft that harms all workers. After years of deadlock, Democrats who control Congress are struggling to advance proposals for a path for some of the undocumented, most of whom have been here for years and are deeply rooted in families and local economies.

“Immigration is integral to the nation’s economic growth,” a seminal 2016 National Academy of Sciences report found, examining research on documented and undocumented workers. “If the American economy grows and requires more workers both to replace those who retire and to create new firms and industries, the primary source of labor will be first and second-generation immigrants.”

In Los Angeles, nobody disputes that undocumented workers are among the 45,000 Latino and Asian immigrants who sew clothing that ends up in many high-end chains and other retail stores. When the pandemic hit last year, some garment workers began sewing face masks and other crucial protective gear. Some 300 workers contracted the coronavirus themselves at one factory, Los Angeles Apparel, and six died.

“The pandemic highlighted the issue of the high level of immigrant workers, especially undocumented workers who were essential workers,” said Victor Narro, project director of the University of California, Los Angeles Labor Center. “What are we going to do for them now?”

Narro supports a path to legal status—and a bill that California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed Sept. 27 that will bar piece-rate pay for garment workers unless it’s additional to an hourly wage and part of a collectivebargaining contract. Staff at LA’s nonprofit Garment Worker Center, where Molina learned about her labor rights, lobbied for years for the bill. Center staff say that wage claims they’ve helped file showed an average pay of about $5 an hour—nowhere near legal thresholds. The law, in effect as of 2022, also extends broad wage-theft liability to retailers that contract with factories.

Narro hopes for more reforms to speed collection of unpaid wages.

“Justice needs to happen more on the front end,” he said, “and then all the way on the back end.”

A century of immigrant exploitation The struggle for fair pay in California echoes a time in the early 20th century, when immigrant garment workers from Europe fought for protections eventually enshrined in the 1938 Fair Labor Standards Act. Immigrants toiled in dangerous conditions that led to New York City’s

In this May 25, 2021, file photo, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas speaks with the media outside of the Little Haiti Cultural Center in Miami. Federal immigration agents will stop making mass worksite arrest of immigrants employees suspected of living in the US without legal permission. Mayorkas issued guidance on October 12, saying the agency would cease such targeted enforcement which has “not focused on the most pernicious aspect of our country’s unauthorized employment challenge: exploitative employers.” AP/Lynne Sladky 1911 Triangle Shirtwaist fire. Flames engulfed a building and 146 people died, 125 of them immigrant women and girls. Outraged workers fought for safety and child labor laws and developed momentum toward a national minimum wage. By the time standards were approved, though, immigration was plummeting, reduced by nativist policies with quotas and exclusions.

By 1970, with nativist policies lifted, legal immigration was again on the upswing. But between 1990 and 2007, the undocumented population tripled. That created an unprecedented pool of nearly 11 million people who are more vulnerable to workplace abuse—and who work in communities coast to coast.

Because of alleged abuse, US labor officials this past August obtained a preliminary injunction barring a Danbury, Connecticut, bakery owner from “retaliating, taking any adverse action, or threatening to take any adverse action” against employees. The Labor Department alleges that the owner of Padaminas NY Bakery told workers that he’d fire them or report them to immigration agents if they spoke with labor officials who were investigating the bakery’s employment practices. Bakery staff hung up when contacted by phone for a comment about the allegations.

In California, federal labor officials in May ordered an LA County contractor producing garments for the Anna Bella label to pay 10 employees a total of $5,846 in back wages. The department also ordered the contractor to pay $3,485 in penalties for “willful” violations related to bookkeeping and cash-only payments to workers.

Ruben Rosalez, the Department of Labor’s California-based West Coast regional director of wage and hour enforcement, said that while officials don’t inquire about immigration status, their probes often take them to businesses employing “a lot of people of color and large immigrant populations.”

“This is 2021,” Rosalez said. “To have minimum wage, federal minimum wage violations in the garment industry should be unheard of. But it’s not. It’s actually pretty common.”

US labor officials enforce the federal minimum wage of $7.25 an hour. If states or local jurisdictions have higher hourly minimums, state or local officials enforce those. Both enforce federal overtime law requiring time-and-half pay for work over 40 hours in a week.

Los Angeles County’s local minimum hourly wage became $15 as of July 1 of this year.

In its quest to deter wage theft, the Garment Worker Center spent years persuading California legislators to end piece-rate pay in factories and extend liability for wage violations to retailers. The California Chamber of Commerce fought back, calling the bill a “ job killer” and arguing that fashion companies will flee the state to find cheaper factories abroad and in other states. The chamber also argued that piece-rate pay is a benefit

for some workers.

But du r i ng for mer P resident Barack Obama’s administration, US labor officials investigated L.A. garment factories 77 times in a sweep, finding violations in 85 percent of factories and $1.3 million in unpaid wages.

Officials also researched the time and cost of producing garments and found that incentives for wage theft began with pricing: On average, the price per garment that manufacturers received from retailers was only 73 percent of the price needed to support paying workers even minimum required pay. In some cases, retailers paid $4 per garment rather than the $10 needed.

C a l i for n i a’s ow n st ate l a b or agency is robust, with staff who review complaints, and also conduct surprise inspections and investigations. Inspectors also work with the Garment Workers Center and other advocates to identify suspect businesses. That’s how state investigators recently discovered an alleged scheme to deprive restaurant workers of overtime pay. Immigrant workers at a series of Baja Fresh franchises in the LA area approached the local Restaurant Opportunities Center, an advocacy group. The center helped the mostly Latino workers prepare for an investigation by the state Labor Commissioner’s office.

The probe culminated in March with the Labor Commissioner issuing a citation to G & D Investments, Inc., which operates multiple Baja Fresh restaurants in the LA area, as well as seven related entities and their CEOs. The citation accuses them of rotating workers among restaurants to work double shifts in violation of overtime pay. The commissioner said the companies and their CEOs owe 188 workers a total of over $375,800 for minimum wages, overtime, penalties and damages. They have appealed the citation and a hearing is expected next. Baja Fresh and G & D Investments did not return multiple phone calls and e-mail messages seeking comment.

When workers contemplated complaining, “some people were very afraid,” said former employee Rocio Martinez, 30. She said managers often urged her to put in double shifts, and sometimes would make remarks that made workers feel powerless.

“You’d hear things like, ‘You can’t take a break. You’re illegal,’” she said.

“It was said like it was a joke. But it really wasn’t.”

Ripping off immigrant families Narro and other UCLA researchers have heard stories like these for years.

Multiple UCLA Labor Center reports have long warned of a “crisis” in wage theft that strips money from California’s immigrant families. A 2010 report estimated that low-wage, mostly immigrant workers in LA County lost an average of more than $2,000 annually, adding up to more than $26 million per week.

Reviews of claims for unpaid wages can take months, even years, state

officials admit. The process includes conciliation attempts, hearings and appeals that can spill into courts. And then, in the end, some businesses just don’t pay up.

Employer failure to pay garment workers was such a festering problem 20 years ago that California legislators created the Garment Restitution Fund, financed by $75 diverted from each manufacturer’s annual registration fees. Employers are notified to reimburse the fund.

But workers’ claims ballooned as flyby-night factories mushroomed in LA, and began competing for contracts by promising cheap production. By 2018, the fund was insolvent. With hundreds waiting for checks, legislators in 2019 transferred $16.3 million into the fund from other kinds of business fees and general funds.

California Labor Commissioner Lilia Garcia-Brower says the state needs to do better.

“Every day, a hard-working person provides their labor and are robbed of their wages,” she said at an event in Los Angeles in February. She said she’ll be working with the LA Sheriff’s Department to compel employers to pay up when a judgement is issued.

To take steps to press employers to pay unpaid wages, Garcia-Brower’s office does have a Judgment Enforcement Unit. The office also provides an online brochure explaining how workers themselves can try to collect their money. Victims can obtain a lien on an employer’s property, and hope they get a cut of profits if it’s sold one day. They can also try to enlist sheriffs to seize money. But both options, advocates say, require piles of paperwork and fees that are hard for immigrants to take on.

Challenges in other states, too Immigrants can face even more limits to obtaining unpaid wages in other states.

In Houston, Texas, the Fe y Justicia (Faith and Justice) Worker Center helps immigrants who’ve been cheated by negotiating directly with their employers. The Houston metro region is estimated to be home to half a million undocumented residents who perform an array of labor, including construction, dry cleaning, landscaping and warehouse work. When workers press for unpaid earnings, some employers try to get them to back down, said Jessica Lorena Rangel, manager of the group’s Community Consultation Legal Center.

“Employers fill their minds with stuff, like telling them: ‘You can’t do anything about me, you have to suck it up because of your status. You’re not even supposed to be working. I’m doing you a favor,’” Rangel said.

In a year’s time, the group received over 540 calls accusing employers of failing to pay at least $1.36 million in wages. Some victims turn to small claims courts, Rangel said, but face similar burdens as in California to collect. The Texas Workforce Commission accepts claims. But many immigrants rotate among construction and other worksites, and are considered independent contractors excluded from filing with the commission.

In Florida, another heavily immigrant state, no state agency is wholly dedicated to investigating wage theft or reviewing claims. The state labor department was abolished in 2002. Alachua, Broward, Hillsborough, MiamiDade, Pinellas, Osceola counties have anti-wage-theft ordinances with distinct versions of complaint procedures.

In Miami-Dade, workers are steered to a service that mediates disputes over, on average, about $1,800, according to Gregory Baker, an administrator in the county’s Office of Consumer Protection, where the program is housed.

“We don’t advocate on either party’s behalf,” Baker said. If employers don’t honor an agreement, it also falls on workers to seek legal remedies to collect.

In New York, unpaid workers can avail themselves of a state system

similar to California’s. But in the New York City metro area—home to possibly 1 million undocumented people—attorney Lou Pechman said that groups of workers are increasingly opting to file lawsuits in federal court.

Pechman is representing immigrant janitors who cleaned a Wayfair warehouse and distribution centers in New Jersey last year. Workers allege that their employer, New Jersey-based DME Janitorial Services, paid them between $12 and $16 an hour, with no overtime although they worked up to 90 hours a week. “Plaintiffs were essential workers during the pandemic, ensuring that the facilities that they cleaned were sanitized according to Covid-19 protocols and requirements,” the lawsuit filed in US District Court in New Jersey says.

In a court filing, the company denies violating wage laws and, among other defenses, says it acted “in an appropriate, business-like...manner [without] malice or intent to injure.”

‘Just telling the truth’ In California, garment workers’ stories speak to how crucial organizers have been in helping immigrants exercise their rights. After becoming a seamstress Audelia Molina rarely brought home more than $300 a week. Ten years ago, a coworker urged her to sign up for a labor rights program at the Garment Worker Center.

“I never got to study much in Mexico,” Molina said. “When I joined the program I began to lose my nervous feelings, my shame. I began speaking with more certainty.”

The mother of three grown children mustered moral support from family before quitting the job in 2017 that led her to file a complaint. A year later, she testified at a Labor Commissioner hearing about her former employer, Callaway Fashion, Inc. “One tells oneself, there’s no reason to get nervous because you’re just telling the truth,” she said.

A Labor Commissioner decision document says that Callaway Fashion and its owner didn’t respond to the complaint or appear at the hearing. The company’s corporate status was suspended by the Franchise Tax Board, but the state doesn’t say why.

To support her case, Molina submitted notes she’d kept documenting the days and time worked, production and various brands she sewed. A year later, the hearing officer ordered the factory and its executive to pay Molina over $39,300—for overtime and other violations and hefty damages.

The officer also ordered Callaway to pay Molina over $21,400 in attorney fees as extra punishment—a penalty the garment fund doesn’t pay out and that the employer hasn’t paid either.

California law does already allow for holding brands that directly contract with factories liable for unpaid earnings that are proportionate to work done for them, but workers must provide evidence of that link and work.

Before her hearing, Molina settled with the Jasmine Sportswear label for $900 and six other labels for over $6,600.

The hearing officer later ordered Kjen Apparel Inc., to pay her over $4,570 and Du North Designs Ltd., to pay her over $3,220.

Matthew DeCarolis, Molina’s attorney, said it’s not unusual for small factories such as Callaway to ignore wage complaints, and abruptly shut down or declare bankruptcy. DeCarolis is a staff attorney with LA’s Bet Tzedek law group, which offers free help to workers.

“I’ve had garment worker clients,” he said, “who showed up to work and literally overnight the factory had disappeared, all the machines and everything.”

Public Integrity called two numbers associated with Callaway Fashion that were disconnected.

This story was provided to The Associated Press by The Center for Public Integrity, a nonprofit news organization based in Washington, D.C.

Journey

»life on the go

A4

BusinessMirror

Sunday, October 17, 2021

Editor: Tet Andolong

Dauin for the Win

Scuba diving in Apo Island

Baslay Highland Brew Coffee

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Story & photos by Bernard L. Supetran

ig surprises come in small packages. Much like this adage, the unassuming town of Dauin in Negros Oriental is a small bundle of surprise even to jaded travelers.

Located just a few heartbeats away from the provincial capital of Dumaguete, this coastal municipality is famed for its tourism gem, Apo Island, which is sought-after for its world-class scuba diving spots and rich marine biodiversity.

Named by Sport Diver Magazine as among the world’s top 100 diving spots, it is habitat to over 650 species of fish and about 400 species of corals, as well as sea turtles, school of jacks, and other aquatic creatures.

Recognized as a government Protected Seascape and Landscape, the 74-hectare island was recently awarded by the Zero Waste Cities Project as the Philippines’s first “zero waste” island barangay because of its upcycling initiatives for plush toys and home furnishings.

This accolade provides an exciting dimension to the island’s charm both as an underwater and terrestrial natural wonder, and a unique learning experience for divers and non-divers alike.

Inspired by Apo’s success, the municipal government of Dauin will soon be adopting a parallel zero

Atmosphere Resorts pool

waste policy to reduce solid wastes and preserve its pristine charm.

Beyond this idyllic island, the town is a relaxing retreat with the dozens of resorts dotting its sleepy shores. Arguably the most noteworthy is the upscale Atmosphere Resorts, which boats of its worldclass facilities, bespoke amenities, tropical gardens, gourmet dishes, aquasports recreation, and yoga and spa services.

The resort also has an expansive and modern dive center which is a favorite among foreigners before the pandemic struck.

Also recognized as a wellness accommodation facility by tourism accrediting bodies, the sprawling resort pampers guests with an atmospheric resort experience that is second to none.

A boutique hotel which has captured both the diving and food market is Silver Reef Dive Resort, an artsy and environment-friendly lodging punctuated with its beachside payag native huts, paintings, indigenous crafts, and upcycled discards, which make intriguing conversation pieces.

Dome Residence Dauin

Built mostly of steel container vans, the resort is sought for its all-time favorites with premium gourmet ingredients, freshly baked breads, donuts, pastries, deli, iced coffee drinks, and cocktails.

On top of restaurant stuff, it also sells biodegradable bathroom and daily washing essentials in refillable pump bottles under the PLS (Plastic Life Sucks) brand as part of its advocacy of reducing plastic wastes.

The resort is also engaged in social entrepreneurship and envi-

ronmentally-sustainable projects with the community, as well as conservation of the town’s marine and coastal resources.

For a back-to-basics beach getaway with a dash of comfort, there is Dome Resort Dauin which has four 30-sq-meter tents with a comfy bed and private toilet and bath.

Just like a typical hotel room, the glamor camping (glamping) facility has a wide smart flat screen TV for in-house family entertainment, and 2 Japanese Tatami chairs which can double as an extra bed.

Silver Reef Dive Resort

With a theme for every dome, the most snapshot-worthy is the Hello Kitty dome which will be exciting playpen for little girls. Two beachfront domes, which sport classic and bamboo themes, have a private porch with table, chairs and lounge chairs for a front row seat to a kaleidoscopic sunrise and sunset.

What makes the dome a home are the solicitous German and Filipina couple owners who make guests like a part of the good old rural family. Guests can also do their own barbecue at the resort grill

for an authentic camping getaway.

An intimate family-oriented resort worth checking out is Munting Paraiso for visitors who want to be away from the busyness of scuba diving activities. Just like its name suggests, it is paradise in a nutshell with its landscaped gardens, ponds and comfy bedrooms.

A brainchild of the ageless business Bert Bravo, its tender steaks and wood-fired brick oven Bravo Pizza have become among the signature dishes in town.

Complementing the bevy of dive resorts for a ridge-to-reef ecosystem is Baslay Highland Coffee Brew which concocts organic coffee grown on the slopes of Mount Talinis. Guests can sip gourmet coffee farmed by the locals themselves, which have found their way in cafes across the Central Visayas region.

Nestled at an upland barangay, it is an inspiring success of a decadesold grassroots cooperative which has bonded together to protect and nurture the forest ecosystem, and offer a unique tourist experience along the way.

Moreover, for a no-frills artsy sojourn, Mango Tree Ecohostel will take you back to the basics of countryside living. A social enterprise of German tourists who have settled in Dauin, it is a cluster of native hostels made up of bamboo and other recycled construction materials.

With still so many homegrown restaurants, watering holes, yoga camps, and tourist establishments, a stay in Dauin is to always go for the win.

Science

BusinessMirror

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

National Scientist Dr. Ramon C. Barba, 82

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resh mangoes are now available all-year round. This significant crop development is credited to the research of National Scientist Dr. Ramon C. Barba, who passed away on October 10 at the age of 82.

Barba was known for his distinguished achievements in the field of plant physiology, focusing on induction of flowering of mango and on micropropagation of important crop species that have earned him national and international accolades.

President Benigno S. Aquino III, through Proclamation 783, conferred on Barba the Order of National Scientist on June 6, 2014.

It is the highest recognition given by the president of the Philippines to a Filipino man or woman of science in the country who has made significant contributions in one of the fields of science and technology. This award was created under Presidential Decree 1003-A on December 16, 1976.

Barba's pioneering work on the induction of flowering and fruiting of mango resulted in the change from seasonal supply of fresh fruits to its year-round availability.

The regularity of mango production became the key ingredient in the development of mango exports, which gave rise to an entirely new industry of processed mango products.

He developed the plant growth enhancer, FLUSH, which accelerates the growth cycle of the trees and advance their flowering and fruiting stages to assure continuous fruit bearing of mango trees.

The discovery guaranteed the regular or controlled flowering of mango trees and in many dry areas like Cebu and Guimaras, hence, the flowering period for the whole country was not just confined to March and April but has extended to several months, promising a supply of mangoes throughout the year.

This technology was patented not only in the Philippines but also in other countries, such as USA, England, Australia, and New Zealand. However, Barba did not collect royalty from the patent, making the ordinary farmers to freely use the technology.

Nowadays, many mango producing countries in Latin America, Africa, Asia and Australia have adopted the technology for their mango production. Furthermore, the technology has been successfully applied on other fruit trees, including cashew.

His outstanding works on plant micropropagation led major changes in the production schemes of several important crops.

Barba and his team at the Institute of Plant Breeding (IPB) at the University of the Philippines (UP) Los Baños developed the tissue culture protocol for banana in order to produce large quantities of planting materials that are robust and disease-free.

This allowed the annual replanting, which brought a major shift in banana production system, now a standard practice in large farms not only in the Philippines but also in other countries in Asia, Africa, and

Latin America.

He also established the tissue culture protocol for sugar cane that made possible the rapid production of large quantities of disease-free planting materials.

The technology became the standard practice in disease cleaning of sugar cane varieties that has become an integral part of sugar cane agriculture worldwide.

Together with his research team, they also developed micropropagation protocols for more than 40 important species of ornamental, fruit and plantation crops, aquarium plants, and forest trees including cassava, white potato, rattan, bamboo, ramie, derris, garlic, and shallot, in addition to banana and sugar cane.

National Scientist Barba completed his BS in Agriculture at the University of the Philippines College of Agriculture (UPCA) in 1958. He served as Assistant Instructor from 1958 to 1960 at the Department of Agronomy, Fruit Crops Section, UP Collage of Agriculture.

He pursued his graduate studies in the US from 1960 to 1962 at the University of Georgia for his Master in Science degree in Horticulture, and from 1962 to 1964 at the University of Hawaii with an East-West Center grant. He finished his Ph.D. in Horticulture in 1967.

Dr. Barba returned to the Philippines in 1968 and was appointed Assistant Professor in 1969, later resigned in 1975, and re-appointed as Professor I in 1981.

The founding director of IPB, National Scientist Emil Q. Javier, invited Barba to initiate and develop the Tissue Culture Laboratory, now Plant Cell and Tissue Culture Laboratory and its Tissue Culture Program.

Barba became its first program leader from 1975 to the late 1980s (without compensation) and has continued to serve as senior consultant on plant tissue culture and plant physiology to researchers and students.

He, likewise, held significant positions in different private institutions such as consultant at Quimara Farms on Mango Production (19691985) and project director of CORE Foundation (1984-1988).

He was also part-time director of research at Plantek, a biotechnology company in Singapore partly owned

by Tata of India and Sumitomo of Japan from 1985 to 1988.

He received numerous awards, such as The Outstanding Young Men of the Philippines for Agriculture by the Philippine Jaycees (1974), Rizal Pro Patria Presidential Award for Tissue Culture (1980), the Most Distinguished Alumni Award, University of the Philippines (2004), and the SearcaDioscoro L. Umali Achievement Award in Agricultural Development (2011), among others.

In 2004, Barba was elected member by the general membership at the National Academy of Science and Technology, Philippines, the country’s highest recognition and advisory body to the government and science community on matters related to science and technology.

Deadline for Indie-Siyensya film entries extended to Oct. 30

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cience filmmaking competition, Indie-Siyensya, is extending the deadline for the submission of film entries to October 30.

Organized by the Department of Science and Technology-Science Education Institute (DOST-SEI), the contest is open to all Filipinos who may join as individuals or in groups.

The contest's two categories are the “Youth Category” for high school, tertiary school and out-ofschool youth aged 13-20, and the “Open category” for college students, teachers, amateur filmmakers and even science professionals.

Entries must be short documentaries, which should have a running time of maximum of 10 minutes.

T he f i l ms mu st h ave t he theme, “The Scientist in Me,” which can be a documentation of personal experiments or explainers

of scientific phenomena relevant to communities.

“We want to give more time to our aspiring filmmakers and science communicators to craft their masterpieces. We also realize the challenge presented by the pandemic in doing films, that’s why we extended the deadline,” said DOSTSEI Director Dr. Josette Biyo.

The films will be judged based on scientific content, execution of idea and film techniques.

At stake are trophies and cash prizes worth P100,000 for the Best Film, P50,000 for the second prize, and P30,000 for the third prize.

Two entries, one per category, will also win Viewers’ Choice award with a prize of P20,000.

For contest mechanics and other information, interested participants may visit www.sei.dost.gov. ph or https://www.facebook.com/ dostseiindiesiyensya. S&T Media Services

Sunday

Sunday, October 17, 2021

A5

Enhanced nutribun sweet potato variant launched

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he Department of Science and Technology’s Food and Nutrition Research Institute (DOST-FNRI) launched on October 15 the new Enhanced Nutribun Sweet Potato variant in a virtual launch dubbed as “Ready, Set, Go! Enhanced Nutribun Sweet Potato.”

The DOST-FNRI reformulated the nutribun of 1970s to be the Enhanced Nutribun Squash variant which was launched in July 2020.

The institute also developed the Enhanced Nutribun Carrot variant that was launched in April.

Both the squash and carrot variants are the immediate response of the institute to curb the malnutrition problem among the Filipino children who were not able to have the school-based and communitybased feeding programs during this difficult time of the pandemic.

Moreover, the development of the carrot variant offers alternative option when supply of squash as raw materials becomes scares.

This time, the DOST-FNRI proudly launches another variant the Enhanced Nutribun Sweet Po-

tato variant.

The new variant is similarly a nutrient-dense bread product supplemented with yellow sweet potato as the raw material to improve its nutrient content.

It is intended for children but can also be enjoyed by all ages.

Similar with the earlier variants, the Enhanced Nutribun Sweet Potato variant is an excellent source of natural fiber, energy, protein, iron, calcium, potassium, and zinc and has zero trans-fatty acids and has no cholesterol.

Each serving (1 piece/165 g) has 507 calories, 356 milligrams of calcium, 17 grams of protein, 5 milligrams of iron, and 612 micrograms vitamin A. The Enhanced Nutribun Sweet Potato has a sweet, delicious, and

Science Secretary Fortunato T. de la Peña and Undersecretary Rowena Cristina L. Guevara lead the launching of the Enhanced Nutribun Sweet Potato variant. DOST-FNRI photo

milky taste.

Each bun weighs approximately 165 grams, when packed in polyethylene plastic, can last up to six days at room temperature.

The development of the Enhanced Nutribun Sweet Potato variant is part of the continuous efforts of the DOST-FNRI in providing more nutritious and delicious option for supplementary feeding programs.

Also, the country’s farmers can benefit from the additional demand for the raw materials of Enhanced Nutribun, such as squash, carrots and sweet potato.

Currently, there are 151 adoptors of Enhanced Nutr ibun

Squash variant, and 101 adoptors of Enhanced Nutribun Carrot variant.

The DOST-FNRI is calling on prospective technology adoptors, such as bakery companies, community bakeries, and other stakeholders to adopt the Enhanced Nutribun Sweet Potato variant.

This initiative can help make this nutritious bread more available and affordable nationwide.

Those who want to become partners and adoptors in the fight against malnutrition to achieve our goal of zero hunger can follow this DOST-FNRI technology transfer protocol: https://bit.ly/FNRITechTransProtocol. S&T Media Services

DOST-PTRI researchers developing greener bamboo textiles

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amboo textiles have become increasingly popular as part of a sustainable and eco-friendly solution to textile materials and manufacturing.

Because of this development, the Philippine Textile Research Institute of the Department of Science and Technology (DOSTPTRI), is initiating the establishment of sustainable technologies to create greener bamboo textile materials.

The DOST-PTRI Bamboo fiber extraction technology was developed in 2015. It has applied for intellectual property protection with the Intellectual Property Office of the Philippines for the technologies that include the mechanical, chemical and biological processes to pull out the fibers from the bamboo culm.

The extracted bamboo textile fiber is treated to obtain highly cellulosic textile fibers while preserving the inherent properties of bamboo, such as antimicrobial and UV-blocking properties.

The technology that is applied to natural extraction of different bamboo species in the Philippines—such as kawayan tinik (Bambusa blumeana), bolo (Gi-

Kawayan tinik (Bambusa blumeana) culms and pretreated bamboo textile fber

gantochloa levis), yellow bamboo (Bambusa vulgaris) abBamboo fibers.

Considerably mild and ecofriendly, coupled with the simplicity of the extraction and treatment technique, the technology makes it highly suitable for textile fiber processing in remote bamboo-rich local areas leading to economic gains for the bamboo textile industry.

A more popular commercial process of converting bamboo into textile material is through cellulose regeneration. The process makes the bamboo culms break down into chips, dissolved and extruded through spinnerets to produce fine staples or filaments.

In this synthetic technique, new fiber properties are introduced while the natural integrity

of the bamboo textile fibers is not conserved.

Also, the toxic and hazardous substances involved in the production of regenerated bamboo viscose fibers implicate the environmental downside of the process.

To promote the increased utilization of natural textile fiber processing from bamboo, the DOSTPTRI has been using sustainable and improved fiber extraction techniques for the bamboo species currently under study: laak (Bambusa philippinensis), anos (Schizostachyum lima [Blanco] merr.), and puser (Cyrtocholoa puser s. dransf.).

The greener and milder conditions in the transformation of bamboo culms into natural textile materials promote an

ecological and community-centered approach.

This puts the initiative squarely on bamboo farmers, farm owners, and textile fiber producers, and ensures that the socio-economic and environmental benefits of the bamboo textile fiber technology redound to the direct benefit of the many bamboo-rich rural communities.

This year, the Technical Working Group of Republic Act 9242 or the Act Prescribing the Use of the Philippine Tropical Fabrics for Uniforms of Public Officials and Employees and for other Purpose, has included in the proposed revised implementing rules the inclusion of other natural textile fibers, including bamboo, to help widen the scope of textile fiber sources and promote employment generation in the countryside.

This market represents 635,000 kg of treated bamboo fiber input material for the production of spun yarns that will meet just 25 percent of the requirements for government uniforms. This represents a huge potential and market opportunity for bamboo producers in the country. DOST-PTRI RDD and TTIPS/S&T Media Services

GMP training held for seaweed processors in Davao del Sur

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AVAO DEL SUR— Seaweed processors of Lawis Bato, Sta. Cruz, Davao del Sur, recently participated a Good Manufacturing Process (GMP) Awareness Seminar to promote the safety and quality of food products as well as to help small food processors earn the trust of consumers.

Led by the Provincial Science and Technology Center in Davao del Sur, the seminar was geared at capacitating beneficiaries of practical technologies, was made possible with the collaboration of the Provincial Governor’s Office-Public Employment Service Office (PGO-Peso).

Ex per ts from the Davao Fo o d a nd S a fe t y Te a m , Ev a

Jean Vi l laceran, R SI and Eng r.

Harleen Moya U. Jao, trained a tota l of 36 seaweed processors on va r ious topics, suc h as t he impor t a nce a nd pr inc iples of GMP in a l l fac i l it ies, how to lessen waste in t heir product ion, a nd ma ny more.

"This training is highly relevant especially that seaweeds processing is a major source of livelihood among families here in Lawis Bato, Sta. Cruz, Davao del Sur. By orienting the seaweed processors on the basics of GMP, we hope to improve the quality and marketability of our products, thereby leading to improve income for the community,” said PGO-Peso Head Rolly Impas.

S&T Media Services

Faith A6

Sunday, October 17, 2021

Sunday

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

Catholics have long been caring for environment before Pope Francis P

ope Francis led dozens of religious leaders on October 4 in issuing a plea to protect the environment, warning that “future generations will never forgive us if we miss the opportunity to protect our common home.”

The appeal, which calls for net-zero emissions, was released after months of meetings leading up to the United Nations’ November climate conference in Glasgow, Scotland.

The pope has voiced support for green policies before, including his 2015 encyclical letter to the entire Catholic Church “On Care for Our Common Home.”

But Francis is not the first Catholic leader to emphasize care for the planet. In fact, every pope for the past half-century—except John Paul I, who died after just one month in office—has addressed environmental issues in their official publications.

As a scholar whose research focuses on the medieval Church, I see many of these concerns deeply rooted in the history of the Catholic tradition.

Early tradition One of the basic beliefs of Christianity is that the material world was created directly by God and, thus, fundamentally connected with God’s goodness.

This is clearly expressed in the creation narrative in the book of Genesis, part of the sacred scripture shared by Christians and Jews.

As God completes each element of the world—day, night, land, sea, etc.—he sees that “it was good.”

On the sixth day, when God creates human beings in God ’s own i m age, t he y a re g iven “ dom i nion” or “rule” over everything that lives on the Earth.

Early Christians insisted that

the beauty of creation reflected God’s glory. But as Christianity spread throughout the Roman Empire, they had to defend this view of the basic goodness of creation when challenged by another religious viewpoint.

This movement—called Gnosticism, from the Greek word meaning “knowledge”—taught that the physical world was created not directly by God, but by a lesser spiritual being, out of malice or ignorance.

At best, the material world was a worthless distraction; at worst, an evil snare for human souls.

Gnostic teachers offered to teach their followers how to free their spirits from attachment to their physical bodies and the material world. In this way, after death they could return to the realm of spiritual reality and reunite with the divine.

Many theologians and bishops criticized this interpretation of their faith. Several wrote lengthy, detailed critiques of Gnostic teaching; at stake, they believed, was the salvation of souls.

T he most prominent of these was St. Irenaeus of Lyons, who lived in the second century A.D. On October 7 Francis announced that he would declare Irenaeus a “Doctor of the Church,” a title reserved for saints whose writings have had a profound impact on the life of the Church.

In Irenaeus’s treatise “Against the Heresies,” a passionate defense of the teaching of the scriptures and apostles, he states that creation itself reveals God and God ’s glory; the only higher revelation is Jesus Christ Himself.

At the beginning of the Middle Ages, however, Western Christianity was left w ith a lingering suspicion of “worldly things,” despite

A stained-glass window by Lucien Bégule depicting St. Irenaeus at the Church of St. Irenaeus in Lyon, France. GÊRALD GAMBIER/WIKIMEDIA via CBCP News this early stress on the basic goodness of material creation.

Benedictine tradition By the third centur y, some Christians began to seek a life more fully focused on God by remov ing themselves from society to pray and work together in communal groups.

This kind of monasticism swept across Western Europe during the medieval period.

The most influential of these monastic orders were the Benedictines, who balanced their lives between daily prayer services and work—which often involved agriculture and care of the surrounding environment.

Each monk or nun pledged to remain at the same monaster y for life, unless its abbot or abbess— the monk or nun in charge—ordered them to move to another.

Because of this, Benedictines became know n as “ lovers of place.”

Today, one Benedictine saint has become especially connected with environmental concerns: St. Hildegard

of Bingen, who died in A.D. 1179.

This German abbess was one of the most accomplished women of the Middle Ages. An expert on herbal medicines and botany, she also wrote religious plays, composed liturgical chants and hymns, and authored theological works and poems based on her mystical experiences.

She insisted that God loved the Earth as a husband loves a wife, and espoused a kind of “green” theology, called “viriditas,” condemning the harm that human activity could do to nature.

Hildegard has been acclaimed as an unofficial patron saint of environmentalists. In 2012, Pope Benedict XVI declared her a “Doctor of the Church,” like Irenaeus.

The Franciscan tradition St. Francis of Assisi, son of an Italian cloth merchant, has over the centuries become renowned for his love of the natural world. After time as a soldier and prisoner of war, Francis underwent a spiritual conversion.

Rejecting his father’s wealth, he chose to live a life of radical poverty and public preaching until his death in A.D. 1226.

Early on, male members of his ne w mend ic a nt movement , t he Franciscans, took religious vows but traveled from town to town with no fixed residence, begging for food and lodging.

One of Francis’s few documents is a poem, the “Canticle of the Sun,” which lyrically expressed his belief in the kinship between human beings and the rest of the natural world.

Even the Sun and the Moon are addressed as “brother” and “sister.” And as he lay dying, it is said that he asked to be laid on the bare Earth.

Legends about his preaching and miracles circulated widely, and some involved his concern for animals, treating them with the same dignity as human beings.

One story holds that he preached to birds and conv inced a v icious wolf to live in peace w ith nearby tow nspeople.

I n 19 7 9, Po p e Jo h n Pau l I I named St. Francis the patron saint of ecolog y because he “revered nature as a wonderful gift of God.” A nd in 2015, Pope Francis used the first words of the Canticle of the Sun, “Laudato si ’,” to open his encyclical on the environment and ser ve as its official title.

Although often overshadowed by the notion that the material world is only a passing distraction, reverence for a creation deeply loved by God has also been an important part of Catholic tradition. Contemporary teaching on the environment is only its most recent expression.

Joanne M. Pierce, College of the Holy Cross/The Conversation via AP (CC)

Negros Catholics, Protestants unite against proposed reclamation project

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UMAGUETE CITY— Catholic and Protestant leaders in central Philippines have shown their mutual concern against the proposed 174-hectare reclamation off the coast of Dumaguete City.

Despite the rain, church people in Negros Island have recently united in a call to prayer against the P23 billion project at the city’s iconic Rizal Boulevard.

In a statement, the faith leaders said that it is the responsibility of the Church as “steward of creation” to protect nature.

“The building of two artificial islands disrupts the ocean topography and burying of coral reefs that sustain life on land and in the oceans will cause incredible damage to the biodiversity, affecting generations to come,” they said.

Catholic Bishop Julito Cortes of Dumaguete, Bishop Allan Caparro of the Iglesia Filipina Independiente and Rev. Marlen Villaflor of the United Church of Christ in the Philippines were among those present in the ecumenical service.

They also raised concerns on the effects of the reclamation on local fishing industry.

“This will all the more damage and lead to unwarranted abuse of our God-given natural resources,” they added.

The church leaders also pointed out that the damage that the reclamation would cause “outweighs the good it intends to achieve.”

Various environmental groups and private individuals leading the opposition to the reclamation project also joined the activity.

Ryan Sorote/CBCP News

Mormon prexy: Church leaders speak ‘pure truth’

S Bishop Valentin Dimoc of Bontoc-Lagawe celebrates Mass to mark this year’s Indigenous Peoples’ Sunday at the Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church in Sagada, Mountain Province, on October 10. CBCP News

Bishop: Protect IPs, environment from planned Kaliwa Dam project

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church official marked this year’s Indigenous Peoples’ Sunday by urging Filipinos to protect the IPs and the environment from the “threats” posed by the planned China-funded Kaliwa Dam project.

Bishop Valentin Dimoc, head of the bishops’ Commission on Indigenous Peoples, said the P12.2 billion project “threatens the integrity and the way of life” of the Dumagat-Remontado tribes.

“They need to be protected because their lives are being threatened by this kind of project,” said Dimoc, who is also the Apostolic Vicar of BontocLagawe.

The prelate made the statement in his homily during Mass at the Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church in Sagada, a town in Mountain Province.

The Commission on Audit has earlier f lag ged the Metropolitan

Water work s a nd S e wer a ge Sy s tem for implementing the project w it hout proof of compl ia nce of env ironmental prerequisites and submission of necessar y permits.

T he IP Sunday concluded the Philippine Church’s observance this year of the Season of Creation, which started on September 1.

Dimoc pointed out that the celebration is also an invitation for the people to promote the protection and recognition of rights of indigenous peoples.

He said that when people respect the rights of IPs, they are also protecting the integrity of the environment.

“We protect the IPs, we protect the integrity of the environment. We exert effort to protect nature, we also protect the IPs,” the bishop added.

“This is what it means to celebrate the Season of Creation and conclude it with the IP Sunday,” he also said.

CBCP News

A LT L AK E CIT Y—The president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints urged members to listen to the faith ’s leaders when they seek “pure truth,” and expressed gratitude for those who have followed church g u id a nce du r i ng t he pa ndem ic, which has been to get vaccinated against the coronav irus.

P resident Ru sse l l M . Ne l son acknowledged at a church conference that the world is “still dealing w ith the ravages of Cov id-19 and its variants.”

A nd whi le he d idn’t mention vaccines specifically, he thanked members for follow ing the adv ice of church leaders, medical experts and government officials.

T he Utah-based faith has repeated ly encouraged its 16 million members worldw ide to limit the spread by getting vaccines and wearing masks. “ C o nt r a r y t o t h e d o u b t s o f some, there really is such a thing as right and wrong. There really is absolute truth—eternal truth,” said Nelson, speaking from inside a mostly empty conference center in Salt Lake City.

“One of the plagues of our day is that too few people know where to turn for truth. I can assure you that what you will hear today and tomorrow constitutes pure truth,” he added.

The conference took place again without full attendance due to the pandemic, but for the first time in two years leaders were back at the faith’s 20,000-seat conference center with several hundred people watching in person.

The church ’s well-known Tabernacle Choir at Temple Square was

also back in person. However, it had fewer members than normal to allow for social distancing, and all members had been vaccinated, the church said.

Leaders spoke at the prev ious three conferences inside a smaller building w ith no choir and no attendees. Those conferences were the first to take place w ithout full attendance in more than 70 years.

Most members of t he fa it h k now n w idely as t he Mor mon church are watching speeches during the two-day conference early this month on T Vs, computers and tablets from their homes around the world.

Before the pandemic, the event would bring about 100,000 people to the church ’s headquarters to listen to five sessions over two days.

The church push for people to get vaccinated has div ided the faith, similar to larger society.

Members who support the st a nce say t hey fea r t hat some Latter-day Saints who refuse to get vaccinated are allow ing their political v iews to supersede their loyalty to a faith that largely prioritizes unity and obedience.

Other church members are upset that their leaders aren’t letting them exercise their personal dec ision-ma k ing about vacc ines and masks.

About 65 percent of Latter-day Saints who responded to a survey earlier this year said they were vaccine acceptors, meaning they’ve gotten at least one dose or plan to soon.

A nother 15 percent identified as hesitant, and 19 percent said they would not get the vaccine, according to the sur vey this summer

from the Public Religion Research Institute, a polling organization based in Washington, and Interfaith Youth Core.

The sur vey found 79 percent of white Catholics and 56 percent of white evangelical Protestants identified as vaccine acceptors.

In Utah, where The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is based and members account for nearly two-thirds of the 3.2 million residents, a summer surge of the virus among unvaccinated residents pushed hospitals to near capacity.

Cases reached a peak in midSeptember before declining over the past few weeks, mirroring national trends. About 65 percent of Utah residents 12 and older have been fully vaccinated, according to state data.

Conference speec hes foc u sed on issues of spir itua l g uidance.

Several speeches were prerecorded by inter nationa l members of middle-tier leadership panels who couldn’t travel to the US due to the pandemic.

Erich W. Kopischke of Germany, pleaded w ith members to better understand mental health issues and avoid being judg menta l to ward those strug gling w ith such illnesses.

He spoke about his son’s struggle with panic attacks, anxiety and depression that prevented him from finishing his church mission and caused him to consider suicide.

Kopischke acknowledged that he and his wife worried about what others would think and were disappointed and sad their son couldn’t complete a mission.

Missions are considered a rite of

passage for young adult members of the faith, and coming home early has long caused anguish for young adults and their parents.

Kopischke said. “ We...need to care for our children by helping them learn to be content with their sincere efforts as they strive to meet appropriate expectations.”

Ulisses Soares of Brazil, who in 2018 became the first Latin American member of a top governing panel called the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, also encouraged members to be compassionate w ith others. “ We should never make harsh and cruel judgment of our fellow men and women, because we are all in need of understanding and mercy for our imperfections from our loving Heavenly Father,” Soares said.

Bonnie H. Cordon, president of the church ’s program for young women, told young members to always remember God ’s love for them. She was one of only three woman who spoke during the sessions.

“Remembering this love can help you push back the confusion of the world that tries to weaken your confidence in your div ine identity and blind you of your potential,” Cordon said.

Dallin H. Oaks issued a stern reminder for members to attend church regularly. He is the church’s second-highest ranking member as a first counselor to Nelson and member of the Quorum of the Twelve.

“If we cease valuing our churches, for any reason, we threaten our personal spiritual life, and significa nt nu mbers sepa rat ing t hemselves from God reduces his blessings to our nations,” Oaks said. AP

Biodiversity Sunday BusinessMirror

Asean Champions of Biodiversity Media Category 2014

Sunday, October 17, 2021

Editor: Lyn Resurreccion

A7

Seabed quarrying, offshore mining threaten coastal, marine biodiversity Zahra Mutiara, adviser to the GIZ Climate-Smart Land Use in Asean Project, provides an overview of the project and encourages participants to use the leadership program as an avenue to expand their network. Searca photo

Aseans hone leadership in climate-smart land use

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seans recently participated in an online leadership program to strengthen their coordination to develop and implement regional policies on climate change and sustainable land use.

Eight Asean member-states were represented in the recent second Asean Climate Leadership Programme (ACLP) that was conducted by the Southeast Asian Regional Center for Graduate Study and Research in Agriculture (Searca) and the Deutsche Gessellschaft für Inter nationa le Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmBH-Climate-Smart Land Use in Asean (CSLU) Project. The program have sessions until October 28.

Zahra Mutiara, adviser for the GIZ CSLU Project, said ACLP aims to support Asean in strengthening its coordinating role to develop and implement policies that ensure the promotion of climate change mitigation and adaptation in the land use sector, a Searca news release said.

Searca Director Dr. Glenn B. Gregorio said the participants brought their diverse background and expertise into use as they embark on a leadership journey toward enhanced competencies, organizational skills and understanding of regional policy processes on sustainable land use, climate change mitigation and adaptation, and attainment of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.

The Asean participants were from Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam “They are being primed as competent and motivated leaders, who will champion the initiation and facilitation of complex change processes in addressing climate change in Southeast Asia,” he said.

Gregorio said the 15-day leadership program promotes climate-smart land use for implementing the Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs), a core component of the Paris Agreement.

The NDCs were committed by the 196 negotiating parties to substantially reduce global greenhouse-gas emissions and to strengthen those commitments over time.

The program helps strengthen the participants’ leadership skills in facilitating change processes and collective cross-sectoral transformative action in climate-smart land use.

“It will enable participants to enhance their contribution to promoting the implementation of climate-friendly and resilient land use practices to achieve NDCs within the context of Asean policies and priorities,” Searca said.

Mutiara said ACLP provides the participants with a review of climatesmart practices in the land-use sector and introduce them to tools and framework that can help them become more effective leaders during policy formulation and implementation.

She added that the program would serve as a great avenue for participants to expand their network at the regional level and, in the future, take proactive roles in facilitating crosscutting coordination in their respective national contexts as well as in the context of Southeast Asia.

Dr. Rex Victor O. Cruz, a professor at the University of the Philippines Los Baños Institute of Renewable Natural Resources, served as the program’s technical expert.

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By Jonathan L. Mayuga

nvironmental and antimining groups are up in arms against applications for seabed quarrying and offshore mining applications currently flooding government regulatory bodies.

Seabed quarrying is being eyed for land-reclamation or dump-and-fill projects in the pipeline.

The lifting of the “mining moratorium,” following the signing of Executive Order (EO) 130 by President Duterte on April 14, has now opened the floodgates for new mining projects, including massive extraction of magnetite sand in coastal and marine areas.

Both seabed quarrying and offshore mining involve the massive extraction of sand and other minerals, like magnetite sand.

Massive mineral extraction Silverquest Mining Resources Inc. (SMRI), an offshore mining firm, for instance, is eyeing the massive extraction of sand and other quarry materials in the municipal waters of Ternate and Naic in Cavite.

The firm is currently in the process of securing its environmental compliance certificate (ECC) for the P12-billion SMRI Government Seabed Quarry Project.

The dredging of mud, silt, sand and other materials from the seabed is for the 318-hectare Manila Waterfront Project, a five-year, P34.377-billion land-reclamation and development project of the local government of Manila and Waterfront Manila Premier Development in Manila’s South Harbor in Manila Bay. The project has yet to secure an area clearance from the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) which is the last and final permit needed to start seabed quarrying and mining that include offshore mining operation.

Strict regulatory process Seabed quarry projects, even by the government, however, go through the proverbial eye of the needle, because of the various laws, rules and regulations that include the Philippine Mining Act.

In May 2021, the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR) canceled a technical session with experts to discuss and formulate recommendations on the issue of two government seabed quarry permit applications in Tayabas Bay in Tayabas, Quezon.

The Tayabas Bay is an important fishing ground in Southern Luzon. It is also important as a staging ground of migratory waterbirds that pass through the East Asian-Australasian Flyway of which the Philippines is a part.

The BFAR also nixed in March 2021 a total of 13 similar applications permits requested by the DENR-Mines and Geosciences Bureau (MGB) which will be conducted by various project proponents within Manila Bay. BFAR Director Eduardo Gongona cited that Manila Bay is currently the subject of rehabilitation by the government as part of a continuing mandamus issued by the Supreme Court.

Direct impacts During a webinar on seabed quarrying organized by the group of Tanggol Kalikasan on September 30, Dr. Fernando Siringan of the UP Marine Science Institute said applications for seabed quarry should specifically identify the materials to be dredged or extracted.

Siringan warned that even sediments under the sea are home to important organisms that is part of the food chain in the ecosystem.

Coastal and marine, ecosystems, he added, are interconnected, such that disturbing an area have direct, as well as indirect impacts, to the network of ecosystems under the sea.

Siringan pointed out that the government, or the Environmental Management Bureau, as well as MGB, should first identify the living organisms in an area to be disturbed by the proposed quarrying or offshore mining operations.

“Sometimes, when we are along the coasts or we belong to the coastal community, we do not know the connection of the watershed, as the communities in the watershed that they are creating impact at the lowland and also to the coastal communities,” she said.

Gearing for battle The scenic Tayabas Bay is an important fishing and staging ground of migratory waterbirds.

TANGGOL KALIKASAN Photo

“They should know what are the direct benefits of the organisms in the ecosystems” to get the bigger picture of the impact of seabed quarrying in a particular area.

“In the food chain, what are their importance? The direct impact when you disturb an area, the sediment can also be the nesting ground of organisms because they are sometimes picky of areas to spawn,” he said in Filipino.

According to Siringan, corals will also be affected by seabed quarrying. Sediments may eventually be carried by ocean current and brought to areas with corals. Once covered with fine-grade materials, there’s a big chance that corals may die, he said.

Offshore mining Besides seabed quarrying, another serious threat to the country’s coastal and marine environment is offshore mining. Applications for various projects are expected to flood the doorstep of government mining regulatory bodies with the signing of EO 130.

In her presentation titled, “Impact of Offshore and Onshore Mining on Biodiversity in the Lingayen Gulf and Surrounding Waters and its Implication on the Socio-economic Activities in the Area,” Nilda S. Baling said among the threats of offshore mining is the disturbance of the seaf loor. The event was part of Tanggol Kalikasan’s Webinar Series on Offshore and Onshore Mining held on October 7, Baling, the chief and Supervising Env ironmenta l Management specialist of the Integrated Coastal Management and Partnership Section of the Coastal Marine Division of the DENR-Biodiversity Management Bureau (BMB), expressed alarm over the potential adverse impact of massive seabed quarrying and offshore mining.

“The scrapping of the ocean floor by machines can alter or destroy deep-sea habitats, leading to the loss

of species and fragmentation or loss of ecosystem structure and function,” she said.

A zoologist, Baling talked about the importance of keeping the coastal and marine biodiversity intact and discussed the DENR-BMB’s mandate on the management of coastal and marine resources.

Black sand mining The webinar was held as an offshore mining firm is seeking to extract magnetite sand in the Lingayen Gulf, stretching over five coastal towns in Pangasinan province.

The Iron Ore, Gold and Vanadium Resources (Phils.) Inc.’s proposed Iron Ore Pangasinan Offshore Magnetite Mining Project in the municipalities of Sual, Labrador, Lingayen, Binmaley and City of Dagupan is an environmentally critical project that involves the massive extraction of metallic and nonmetallic minerals, including oil and gas.

The company is eyeing to extract magnetite, also known as black sand, from a total of 9,252.4506 hectares of seabed areas, in the next 33 years at an annual extraction rate of 25,000,000 dry metric tons.

Ecosystems interconnectivity During the open forum, Baling, underscored the importance of protecting and conserving the country’s coastal and marine ecosystem.

Because of their interconnectivity, massive extraction of resources, she said, have direct impact to fisheries, underscoring the need for local government units (LGUs) to look into the potential impact of the proposed projects to the livelihood of coastal communities.

She said even the destruction of the environment in the highland can be felt in the lowland and agricultural ecosystems, the urban ecosystem, down to the coastal and marine ecosystem.

During the webinar, Jaybee Garganera, national coordinator of the antimining group Alyansa Tigil Mina, said they are gearing up for battle against seabed quarrying and offshore mining in the country.

The group has been stiffly opposing black sand mining because of its environmental and social impact on affected communities.

According to Garganera, they were blindsided by the offshore mining projects last year.

The river dredging issue, he said, raised red flags in late 2019 and early 2020 and said they were totally linked to coastal extraction activities.

“The offshore mining project was never presented to local communities.

We’re not sure if LGUs knew about this project,” he lamented.

He added that the DENR failed to disclose offshore mining projects in its database.

Even groups like Bantay Kita, Publish What You Pay-Phil. and EITI-Philippines were surprised by the influx of the offshore mining projects, they acknowledged the fact that media announcements and references were the only sources of information of offshore mining activities.

Garganera said: “With EO 130, we can expect more mining applications, faster approval of mining contracts and permits, and easier operations of mining projects. This project in Pangasinan is covered by this.”

Moreover, Garganera concluded t hat of fshore mining and blac k sand mining projects w ill expand, m a i n ly bec au se of t he dem a nd from China.

“While we may not have the paper trail, the logical end-buyer is China [with its big] demand for iron and nickel, as Indonesia has tightened its supply chain,” he said.

As such, Garganera said it is important to pin the campaign against offshore mining to the campaign platforms of candidates to the 2022 elections.

“Long-term, offshore mining will definitely contribute to climatechange impacts, especially to coastal areas,” he said.

Nestlé to plant 3.5M bamboos, trees in PHL T

here is no doubt that the country’s natural forest is in dire straits. In 2010, the Global Forest Watch pointed out that the Philippines had 13.2 million hectares of natural forest, extending over 62 percent of its land area.

However, there was a major setback in 2020 as the country lost 46,800 hectares of natural forest, equivalent to 27.4 metric tons of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions.

Nevertheless, the private sector, led by Nestlé Philippines, launched recently a new initiative to plant 2.5 million native bamboo clumps and a million trees over the next three years in the country. This reforestation supports Nestlé’s goal to plant 200 million trees by 2030.

Nestlé PHL Chairman and CEO Kais Marzouki told reporters in an online news briefing that the company is also planning to increase activities in regenerative agriculture.

The company also plans to deploy nature-based solutions to absorb greenhouse gases and contribute to

Nestlé.com photo

achieving Nestlé’s net-zero target by 2050.

Chris Johnson, executive vice president of Nestlé SA and CEO of Zone Asia, Oceania and sub-Saharan Africa, said developing and maintaining a healthy, robust forest system will help a lot in preserving the environment.

“We are facing a global climate emergency today. Forests stabilize the climate because they store significant amounts of carbon, maintain healthy water and soil systems, and provide habitat to plants and wildlife,” Johnson said.

“Millions of livelihoods also depend on healthy forests. Planting trees in areas where we source our ingredients helps protect and restore food systems. It helps our supply chain and the local communities that grow our ingredients to be more resilient,” he added.

A laistar Jones, major projects manager in Asia Pacific of One Tree Planted, underscored the importance of carbon insetting and the role of reforestation in tackling climate change.

Marzouki said Nestlé is partnering with One Tree Planted, a nonprofit

environmental organization focusing on global reforestation, and EcoPlanet Bamboo Group, which champions the industrialization of bamboo as a sustainable fiber source.

He explained that Nestlé recently kicked off its global reforestation program across the Americas that was supported in part by its ongoing partnership with One Tree Planted before expanding it to several countries.

Marzouki said the project is targeting Mindanao for the reforestation initiative. Nestlé sources coffee beans from the region.

He further said that planting bamboo native to the Philippines in this sourcing region, known as “insetting,” aims to absorb greenhouse-gas emissions, conserve local biodiversity, improve water quality and restore degraded soils.

Camille Rebelo, founder and CEO of EcoPlanet Bamboo, said bamboo is vital in forest restoration when it is planted in the right place and setting.

Marzouki said Nestlé’s reforestation initiative is a pillar of the com-

pany’s Forest Positive strategy, which looks beyond stopping deforestation, to protecting and restoring forests over the long term. It aims to make a positive impact on the critical agricultural areas where Nestlé sources its ingredients.

In addition, it contributes to advancing regenerative and equitable farming systems that help conserve and restore the world’s forests and natural ecosystems, while promoting sustainable livelihoods and respecting human rights.

Marzouki added that the company will continue in trailblazing in the private sector as a “Kasambuhay,” or a trusted companion for the environment, as a force for good.

In April, Nestlé Philippines made commitments in supporting the country’s Nationally Determined Contribution to reduce GHG emissions by 75 percent by 2030.

Today, 71 percent of Nestlé Philippines’s electricity comes from renewable resources, and 77 percent of its packaging is designed for recycling.

Sports BusinessMirror

A8 | S

unday, October 17, 2021 mirror_sports@yahoo.com.ph Editor: Jun Lomibao

Alpe d’Huez, cobblestones back for ’22 Tour de France

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ARIS—Next year’s Tour de France will see the return of the Paris-Roubaix cobblestones and take the peloton to the summit of the famed Alpe d’Huez mountain.

Designed for complete riders such as two-time champion Tadej Pogacar, the route features two individual time trials and six mountain stages with five summit finishes.

Race organizers unveiled the route in Paris on Thursday in the presence of Pogacar and two-time world champion Julian Alaphilippe, marking the return of the traditional ceremony that was scrapped last year because of the coronavirus pandemic.

The women’s race will take place

FRANCE President Emmanuel Macron (center) and former National Basketball Association star Tony Parker talk with members of a team at a basketball playground in Tremblay-en-France just outside Paris on Thursday. AP

NEW FRENCH REVOLUTION AIMS AT 2024 P

ARIS—French President Emmanuel Macron said Thursday that the government will help fund 5,000 local facilities to allow more people to practice sports, especially in the country’s poorest areas, ahead of the Paris 2024 Olympics.

The announcement came hours before Macron was scheduled to play in a charity soccer match to raise money for the Hospitals’ Foundation, alongside former Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger.

The government will provide more than 200 million euros ($232 million) to help local authorities finance about 1,000 judo dojos, 1,000 city parks, some basketball courts and handball fields, small mobile swimming pools and other facilities by 2024, Macron said.

The move aims at remedying an “injustice,” he said. “It is often in the poorest...areas that these facilities are missing.”

The package will focus on funding sport practice in workingclass suburbs and rural areas.

Also Thursday, Macron visited a sports center along with French former National Basketball Association player Tony Parker, and the construction site of the future Olympic Village in Paris’s northern suburbs.

In a speech at the headquarters of the Paris 2024 Organizing Committee, Macron said the budget and schedule have so far been respected in the preparations for the Games.

He called for the Paris Olympics to be “inclusive” and environmentfriendly, and voiced hope that they will bring France “lots of medals, show our social and environmental excellence, create lots of jobs and housing.”

Macron has strongly supported the Olympic project since being elected in 2017, weeks before Paris was confirmed as the future host.

The city’s first Olympics since 1924 are set to have a budget of 6.8 billion euros ($7.9 billion).

International Olympic Committee (IOC) Vice President John Coates, meanwhile, said challenging China on its human-rights record as Beijing prepares to host the 2022 Winter Games is “not in our remit.”

There has been widespread criticism of Beijing’s treatment of Uyghur Muslims in the northwest China region of Xinjiang, which rights groups say amounts to genocide, as well as its crackdown on protesters in Hong Kong and its policies toward Tibet and Taiwan.

Coates, who is also president of the Australian Olympic Committee, said while human rights were an important part of the fundamental principles of the Olympics the IOC had to respect the sovereignty of the host country.

“The IOC’s remit is to ensure that there is no human-rights

N

money,” Irving said. “It’s not always about the money. It’s about choosing what’s best for you. You think I really want to lose money?”

Irving said he supported people who were and weren’t vaccinated and expressed appreciation for doctors. The All-Star guard didn’t give any indication that he was against being vaccinated, just that he was deciding not to.

“Once again, I’m going to repeat this. This is not about the Nets, this is not about the organization, it’s not about the NBA [National Basketball Association], it’s not politics,” Irving said. “It’s not any one thing.

“It’s just about the freedom of what I want to do.”

Irving hasn’t spoken to reporters since the Nets’ media day on September 27, when he appeared via Zoom and asked for privacy when questioned about his vaccination status.

The Nets are championship contenders and Irving said he didn’t want to miss the opportunity he has with them. General Manager Sean Marks said the team would gladly welcome Irving back under the right circumstances, and Irving made clear he was going to play again.

“No, I’m not retiring and no I’m not going and leaving this game like this,” Irving said. “There’s still so much more work to do and there still so many other [youngsters] to inspire, because I know they want to be better than me.”

SIMMONS DRAMA DRAGS ON

THIS much is known: Ben Simmons is back in Philadelphia.

But there’s no clear sign

KYRIE IRVING is giving up about half of his $35-million salary by missing the home games. AP

brutal finish. This is where Pogacar sealed the first of his wins in 2020 when he snatched the yellow jersey in a high-drama time trial on the eve of the race finish.

“There are a couple of opportunities for punchy riders,” Alaphilippe said. “What I can already tell you is that the echelons and cobblestones will make for a nice and spectacular first week.”

The peloton will visit the Swiss city of Lausanne before tackling the Alps. There, two summit finishes— the col du Granon at 2,413 meters above sea level, then l’Alpe d’Huez and its 21 hairpin bends—will prove a tough challenge for the peloton. The last time Tour riders climbed l’Alpe d’Huez was in 2018.

“We felt such a demand to come back there,” Tour Director Christian Prudhomme told L’Equipe newspaper. “From the resort itself, which systematically wrote us these past few years to bid. And from the public, which is very attached to these emblematic climbs.”

The crossing of the Pyrenees will offer no breathing space with daunting stages to Peyragudes and Hautacam. The final rankings will be decided on the eve of the final stage to the Champs Elysees, during a 40-kilometer time trial to the picturesque clifftop village of Rocamadour.

There will be a few opportunities for sprinters to shine, with six flat stages scattered across the 3,328-kilometer route, including one to the medieval city of Carcassone, where Mark Cavendish equaled Eddy Merckx’s all-time record of 34 Tour stage wins this year. AP

FRANCE’S Julian Alaphilippe attends at the presentation of the Tour de France 2022 in Paris. AP

abuses in respect of the conduct of the Games within the National Olympic Committee, or within the Olympic movement,” Coates told the National Press Club in Australia’s capital, Canberra, on Wednesday. “We have no ability to go into a country and tell them what to do.”

Coates said the IOC was “not a world government.”

“We have to respect the sovereignty of the countries who are hosting the Games,” Coates said. “The work the IOC is doing is to protect the Olympians and those involved in the Olympic [Games]—that’s within our remit.”

The Beijing Winter Games are scheduled to run from February 4 to 20, with the Paralympics set to follow from March 4 to 13.

The Chinese capital hosted the Summer Olympics in 2008. AP

Irving: Refusal to get vaccinated about ‘what’s best for me’ EW YORK—Kyrie Irving said Wednesday he didn’t want to lose salary or a chance to compete for a championship with the Brooklyn Nets, but was doing “what’s best for me” by refusing to get the Covid-19 vaccine.

The Nets decided Tuesday that Irving wouldn’t be with the team because he isn’t eligible to play in home games, where a New York mandate requires professional athletes on one of the city’s teams to be vaccinated to practice or play in public venues.

Speaking on Instagram Live, Irving said he loved basketball and wasn’t going to retire.

“I am doing what’s best for me.

I know the consequences here and if it means that I’m judged and demonized for that, that’s just what it is,” Irving said. “That’s the role I play, but I never wanted to give up my passion, my love, my dream just over this mandate.”

Irving would have been able to practice with the Nets and play in road games outside New York. The Nets will pay him for those but he is giving up about half of his $35-million salary by missing the home games.

“So what? It’s not about the

from July 24 to 31 and feature eight stages. It will start from the Eiffel Tower in Paris and head towards eastern France, with a prestigious finish at the Planche des Belles Filles, a classic stage of the men’s Tour in the Vosges mountains.

Back on the calendar next year, the Tour de France Femmes aims to become a permanent fixture on the women’s world tour after various failed attempts. A women’s Tour stage race took place from 1984-89, parallel with the men’s race before later being shortened.

The three-week men’s race will start from Copenhagen after a one-year delay because of the rescheduling of European Championship soccer matches in the Danish capital to last year.

The opening stage, a 13-kilometer time trial, will take place on July 1 and will be followed by two more stages on roads exposed to winds in the Nordic country before a transfer to the north of France.

A mouth-watering Stage 5 will tackle the treacherous Paris-Roubaix cobblestones, which are back on the program after a four-year absence. The race will then head to the Vosges for a mountaintop finish at the Planche des Belles Filles, where the first battle between overall contenders is expected to unfold.

The Planche has become a classic of the Tour de France in recent years with its

yet the All-Star guard is set to rescind his trade request and actually play for the 76ers.

Even Coach Doc Rivers— publicly, at least—says he’s unsure of the status of the trade demand, the latest wrinkle in the on-again-off-again relationship between Simmons and the Sixers.

“I don’t know. He’s voiced that, but we’ll see how that works out,” Rivers said Wednesday at team practice.

A rescinded request seems improbable, though Rivers said Simmons “was great, he was good” when the two met on Tuesday, a day after the threetime All-Star surprised the franchise by showing up to its arena during a preseason game to take a Covid-19 test. AP

Ivanovic, Pennetta lead 6 nominees for Hall of Fame

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EWPORT, Rhode Island— Grand Slam title winners Ana Ivanovic, Flavia Pennetta, Carlos Moya and Cara Black are the new nominees on the International Tennis Hall of Fame ballot for the Class of 2022, joining holdovers Lisa Raymond and Juan Carlos Ferrero.

The Rhode Island-based Hall announced the candidates Thursday.

The half-dozen nominees all are in the player category; there is no one in the contributor or wheelchair categories, which only come every four years.

Ivanovic won the 2008 French Open singles championship and reached No. 1 in the rankings.

Pennetta was the 2015 US Open singles champion and made it to No. 1 in doubles. Moya won the 1998 French Open title in singles and was ranked No. 1. Black collected 10 major trophies in doubles or mixed doubles and was ranked No. 1 in doubles.

Raymond and Ferrero were first nominated for the Class of 2021; players are eligible for three years before being dropped from the ballot. She won 11 Grand Slam trophies in doubles or mixed doubles and reached No. 1; he was the 2003 French Open singles champ and got to No. 1.

Fan voting begins Friday at vote.tennisfame.com and ends on October 31 and the top 3 finishers will receive bonus percentage points for their total count. Balloting by journalists, historians and members of the Hall of Fame will happen in the coming months.

The inductees will be announced early next year. The Hall ceremony

is scheduled for July 16.

US Open runner-up Leylah Fernandez, meanwhile, will not be part of Canada’s team for the Billie Jean King Cup finals next month.

Tennis Canada confirmed that Fernandez pulled out of the team’s roster for the November 1 to 6 matches in Prague and is being replaced by Carol Zhao.

The other members of the country’s squad are Rebecca Marino, Gabriela Dabrowski and Françoise Abanda.

Canada is scheduled to open the finals by facing 2019 champion France and Russia. The 2020 edition of the event was called off because of the coronavirus pandemic.

Fernandez is set to play for the Orange County Breakers in World TeamTennis, which runs November 13 to 28 at Indian Wells, California. She was eliminated in singles and doubles from the hardcourt combined Association of Tennis Professionals and Women’s Tennis Association tournament there this week.

“It’s been a long season,” she said after her loss Tuesday at the BNP Paribas Open. “We’re just going to see what the body says, what the mind says, and we’ll go from there.”

The 19-year-old Fernandez turned in a breakthrough performance at the US Open, making it all the way to the final before losing to another unseeded teenager, Emma Raducanu.

Fernandez arrived at Flushing Meadows ranked No. 73 and left at a career-best No. 28 after beating defending champion Naomi Osaka in the third round, followed by 2016 champion Angelique Kerber and top-five seeds Elina Svitolina and Aryna Sabalenka. AP

BusinessMirror

Not as good as we want, not as bad as we’ve heard

October 17, 2021

Teen mental health during the Covid-19 pandemic

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PhilPop 2021 DigiCamp integrates workshop-based approach to virtual edition

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ESPITE the challenges of adapting to a virtual setting, PhilPop 2021 DigiCamp: Music Breaking Borders has successfully integrated strategic innovations to its curriculum that would help aspiring singersongwriters enhance their skillset and be part of a progressive learning experience.

Facilitated by some of the Philippines’ most respected educators, artists, and music leaders via Zoom, the country’s premier songwriting competition continues to hold a series of

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lectures and workshops for a period of four months (from July to October 2021) to put a spotlight on the next generation of OPM stars and future music industry fellows.

“We wanted to give the fellows options, guides, and tools that could help them with the direction on their music journey. The additional skills that they learn from this could help them evolve as practitioners in the music industry and further fuel their passion and love for the craft of music. Lastly, it wouldn’t hurt to also encourage songwriters to learn how to write songs to make society a better place for everyone,” noted PhilPop Program and Marketing Manager Gab Cabangon.

Marlon Barnuevo, PhilPop finalist 2013 and one of the resident coaches, considers PhilPop 2021 DigiCamp: Music Breaking Borders as one with the most matured curriculum for a songwriting camp.

“Aside from the fact that most of the coaches came from the acclaimed Elements Songwriting Camp, all the past PhilPop bootcamps provided valuable knowledge that allowed the teaching contents to be refined into what we are currently delivering now,” he pointed out.

“PhilPop has also successfully adapted the synchronousasynchronous method of delivering lectures, But what I had to adjust to, and what I sorely miss is the absence of face-to-face fellowship activities. In all the previous camps, it has always been a tradition to hold jamming sessions every evening over food and drinks. This form of fellowship is what’s missing in this year’s camp.”

In order to compensate with the need to make the songwriting mentorship more interesting, PhilPop coaches provided a workshop-based approach to give participants an inclusive and wellrounded perspective on different areas and fields in the music

YUMI

KRINA Cayabyab

industry such as songwriting, music production, digital marketing, and advocacy writing.

“I believe this virtual setting has given more flexibility and opportunity for the participants to sink deeper into their work and absorb discussions further, and make the most out of these in their own time, capacity, and space, Though it might be challenging in some circumstances, collaborating with fellow participants and meeting them virtually, I think, still achieved much of the DigiCamp’s objectives,” added University of the Philippines instructor and Baihana member Krina Cayabyab. a first time coach herself.

Award-winning R&B singersongwriter, producer, and composer Thyro Alfaro is generally satisfied with how the participants took the new format this year despite the prolonged period of remote learning. “I think they’re enjoying the process. I can hear it in their songs that they’re really applying what we’re teaching,” Thyro observed.

Yumi Lacsamana, another acclaimed pop/R&B multihyphenate and two-time PhilPop grand champion, echoes Thyro’s observation, pointing out how her mentees have managed to adapt easily in a virtual setting. “It’s not the same but it’s more challenging on their part collaborating with

MARLON Barnuevo

THYRO

the other fellows virtually. And the outcome is pretty good.”

Yumi emphasizes that some of her best moments during the DigiCamp as a mentor includes seeing the participants grow as artists and turn their songs into a fully realized material that has potential to be massive. “It felt like we’re not in a camp. It’s more of like we’re just in a video call talking to a friend and asking/ giving an advice.”

Notwithstanding some minor drawbacks of remote learning, the DigiCamp proves to be a gamechanging alternative for the traditional setup as it supported collaborative and higher-level learning through breakout room sessions, and fostered a virtual learning experience that allows participants to learn at their own pace. To quote Barnuevo, “If I were to gauge how much the participants were able to ‘step up and deliver’ through the quality of their most recent song submissions, I’d be proud to say that the entire PhilPop team has been very successful in meeting its goals.”

PhilPop 2021 DigiCamp: Music Breaking Borders is an initiative of the PhilPop Music Foundation, chaired by Mr. Manny V. Pangilinan. This year's virtual event is co-presented by MAYNILAD, SMART, MULTISYS, TUNECORE and BELIEVE.

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soundstrip.businessmirror@gmail.com | OCTOBER 17, 2021

BUSINESS

SoundSampler

by Tony M. Maghirang

‘My Universe’ and other new releases purposefully made to be groovy and danceable, portraying the freedom people all experience in authenticity and honesty in being who they are.

COLDPLAY & BTS, My Universe

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FTER months of speculation, the single “My Universe” featuring the much-anticipated collaboration between Brit band Coldplay and Korea pop powerhouse BTS has just been released.

The second single from Coldplay’s upcoming studio album, the bilingual track talks about love as grand as the universe. A series of “My Universe”-related new content including an official lyric, an Inside My Universe documentary, and an acoustic version of the song has also been unveiled.

DURAN DURAN – Anniversary

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RODUCED by Duran Duran along with British DJ/producer, Erol Alkan, the anthemic ‘Anniversary’, is the third song taken from the internationally acclaimed band’s forthcoming fifteenth studio album titled Future Past.

Speaking from London, Duran Duran bassist and founder member John Taylor said: “Anniversary is a special song for us. Obviously, we were conscious of our own impending 40th anniversary of making music together, but we wanted the song’s meaning to be inclusive in the broadest possible way. It was also fun to build a track with hints of previous Duran hits, they’re like Easter eggs, for the fans to find.”

BRYAN ESTEPA – Back To The Middle EP

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WO years on from the release of his sixth studio album, “Sometimes I Just Don’t Know” in 2019, Filipino-Australian artist Bryan Estepa returns with another set of soulful and melodic guitar pop for Lilystars Records, In authentic troubadour fashion, Estepa lets his songs take him to where it wants to go most of the time. “But by the end I did notice a leaning towards the idea of letting go and acceptance,” Estepa shares in a statement.

“Life throws us curveballs that we may not want or see coming, but then we ask ourselves how do we deal with them? There’s always a slither of light ahead.”

CURSEBOX, Puso At Diskarte

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HE first single off the Def Jam Philippines’ second compilation EP, Rhapsodicity, “Puso at Diskarte” brings together veteran and rising Filipino hip-hop artists—each offering distinct expertise and star power to the mix. Produced by Cursebox, the all-star collab documents the struggles of every hip-hop artist involved in the project and how they managed to survive the odds through determination, commitment, and hard work. All the participating artists penned their parts, with Allan Mitchell “Daddy A” Silonga, A&R Senior Manager of the label, co-writing some of the verses and the bridge.

AMIEL ABAN – Honest

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SPIRING Philippinebased musician, singer/ songwriter, and producer Amiel Aban describes his latest single “Honest” to be about frustration and freedom experienced from not being true to who you really are, He said that the song “encourages self-love, and self-discovery in a world where things, people, and wrong, choking standards try to dictate who we should be and what we should do.” Written and produced

by Amiel Aban, “Honest” is

the world looks and sounds,” Ms. De Rossi says, confident that local music can enjoy the same attention other art forms like cinema are getting. “All we need is to offer something pure, peculiar, and distinct. I think we can make it, too!”

AWOOO’s two inaugural artists, both women are Hya, the Fil-German chanteuse from San Carlos City and the SoCal-based singer-songwriter Alfa.

INDUSTRY BEAT Actress Alessandra de Rossi launches AWOOO Records

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RESH from the success of her directorial debut My Amanda in July, Alessandra de Rossi has taken things a notch higher, putting up her own label AWOOO Records.

AWOOO, which spells out to “A World Of Our Own,” is not so much about scratching a visionary itch but passing deserving talents the mic. “I think [Filipinos] really stand a chance in changing how

DOST To Map PH Music Industry

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HE National Research Council of the Philippines of the Department of Science and Technology (DOST-NRCP) will conduct new policy research on the Philippine music industry in support of the proposed House Bill (HB) No. 8101 or the Philippine Creative Industries Act. HB 8101, filed by Pangasinan 4th District Representative, Christopher “Toff” de Venecia, is pushing for the promotion, protection, and improvement of the creative economy, where music and the performing arts are important sectors.

The DOST-NRCP new policy research study titled “Musika Pilipinas: Research and Mapping Towards Understanding, Scoping, and Defining the Philippine Music Industry”, aims to provide a comprehensive baseline of the economic performance of the Philippine music industry of the country and the specific structure of its players, transactions and creative and production dynamics.

The study’s potential impact includes the social well-being of Filipino music artists and other stakeholders of the music industry; cultivate a sense of pride for Filipino composed music; and creation of stable jobs for musicians, producers, and music managers, among others.

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Not as good as we want, not as bad as we’ve heard

Teen mental health during the Covid-19 pandemic

By Kelly Dean Schwartz

disorders (part of mental health literacy).

Put directly, feeling sad or lonely is not depression; worry or nervous feelings is not anxiety. Literature that leads us to believe otherwise is unethical at best and clinically damaging at worst.

University of Calgary

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eadlines declare that isolation has caused youth mental health issues and that children’s mental health is being badly harmed by the pandemic. But are youth being impacted as negatively as the headlines would have us believe? Do we really have the data—past or present—to be making such declarations?

Measuring Covid-19’s impact Individual and meta-analysis studies are starting to appear in droves, and though helpful and informative, many are pre-prints (not peer-reviewed). Almost nonexistent are peer-reviewed studies that published reliable estimates of pre-Covid-19 youth mental health and used clinically valid measures to do so.

However, some notable exceptions include a study with Québec and Ontario adolescents and another with young adults in Québec, both of which found only modest

Accept honesty of their sadness, nurture their strengths

Most young people are responding to the pandemic in ways that are psychologically and developmentally normal. Pixabay and Canva increases in mental disorders like anxiety and depression during Covid-19 compared to pre-Covid estimates.

Important developmental and contextual factors are also often ignored when reporting the overall presentation of youth mental health. In our “Covid-19 Student Well-being and Resiliency Study” of over 1,500 Alberta students, the 15-18 age group reported more stress than the 12-14 age group. Females reported higher negative affect than males, and those whose families had experienced income loss and those with previous psychological diagnoses had unique stress and mental health profiles.

However, for all youth in our study—whether in the risk ranges or in the typical ranges of functioning— self-reported resilience support from parents, personal resources and com-

munities remained high and stable.

Normal response vs. mental health crisis What does this all mean? Although some youth are clearly reporting heightened negative effects of the pandemic on their social, personal and educational lives, in all areas we measured, over seven in 10 youth in our sample are responding to Covid-19 in ways that are developmentally and psychologically normal. This aligns with the Canadian pre-Covid longitudinal studies above.

In other words, contrary to the alarming headlines, the majority of youth are doing as well as they can!

But what about the other 30 percent?

Do their self-reported symptoms mean we have a shadow pandemic of youth mental health? Part of the answer might come in the language we use to understand mental

Pathologizing normal, healthy responses to adverse experiences promotes misunderstanding about mental illness, and communicating to children that their Covid19-related thoughts and feelings are akin to mental disorders might reignite a stigma that we have worked so hard to dismantle.

When youth hear constant messages that their sadness, frustration or worry are being interpreted as a mental disorder, this compromises the unique opportunity for youth to learn how to adapt and even thrive in the middle of a pandemic.

For those youth who need it, let’s get evidence-based help to them as quickly as we can and as close to their communities as possible, such as school-based services. But for the majority of youth, qualifying their lived experiences as clinically disordered only adds to their already heavy load of coping with Covid-19.

Our challenge moving forward will be to accept the honesty of their sadness and worry and to nurture their strengths of perseverance and resolve. In doing so, we can start to envision and build the changes in youth mental health promotion, prevention and intervention that are so desperately needed. And that is a headline we all can agree on. The Conversation

New research: Mental health declined, some people with depression improved

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epression and anxiety disorders increased by over a quarter globally in 2020, according to a recent review of 48 scientific papers. But although there’s been an obvious negative trend during the pandemic, deteriorating mental health hasn’t been inevitable, and people haven’t been affected equally.

In our recent study, we found that there’s variation in how the pandemic has affected mental health, and that for some, mental well-being actually increased under Covid.

We surveyed a nationally representative sample of around 4,200 Danish people in the autumn of 2020. Importantly, these people had already taken part in a population survey in the autumn of 2019, so we could compare their responses half a year into the pandemic with how they reported feeling just before it started.

For most, their mental health declined. The average score participants gave their mental well-being fell from 25.5 to 24.6 (on a scale ranging from seven to 35). At the same time, the proportion of people reporting low levels of mental well-being (indicative of poor mental health)

increased from 16.5 percent in 2019 to 20.1 percent in 2020. The decreases in mental well-being were similar across the sexes and age groups.

But surprisingly, we saw no decrease in mental wellbeing among people with longstanding physical or mental illnesses, nor people living with depression prior to the pandemic. In fact, for people who had depression beforehand, we saw an increase in average mental wellbeing, from 18.7 to 19.6.

This may seem counterintuitive, but there are several reasons why these people may have fared better. Prior crises have also been associated with improved social functioning in some people. This could be because the stress experienced can stimulate cooperative and trusting behavior, and this could potentially benefit those with depression.

For example, some depressed people may have found an opportunity to pass on their own coping experiences to others and support them in dealing with difficult circumstances, which in turn could have benefited their own mental well-being. Moreover, with people around

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October 17, 2021

them experiencing emotional distress in response to the pandemic, people with poor mental health may have felt less like a minority.

It’s also possible that the pandemic alleviated some social pressures and unwanted interactions with other people. At the same, more time spent with immediate family could have enhanced mental well-being.

That said, an important thing to note is that people with prior depression didn’t experience levels of mental well-being that were higher than everyone else’s, but simply an improvement relative to how they felt prior to the pandemic.

We still need to better understand how the pandemic resulted in declining mental well-being in the general population, and perhaps more importantly, how we can mitigate this under future pandemic conditions.

There’s also an important opportunity for us to investigate what specifically during the pandemic brought about these positive effects for people living with depression, to see if we can improve their lives and recovery after Covid has subsided. The Conversation