BusinessMirror October 24, 2021

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Global report shows PHL online sexual abuse jumped a whopping 265 percent amid Covid

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By Rizal Raoul Reyes

SIDE from pummeling the global and domestic economy, the Covid-19 pandemic has wrought another colossal damage. In its 2021 Global Threat Assessment Report, the WeProtect Global Alliance disclosed that the Philippines posted an unprecedented 265-percent jump in cases of online sexual abuse and exploitation of children.

Other countries on the “infamous” list are Australia with a 129-percent increase on reports of child sexual abuse materials discovered online, followed by Mexico reporting a 117-percent rise in reports of similar online abuse.

Moreover, the Unicef cited the Philippines as the “global epicenter of the livestream sexual abuse trade” in online sexual abuse and exploitation recorded during the March to May 2020 period, just as when pandemic lockdowns were imposed.

Meanwhile, the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) revealed a 106percent increase in reports of suspected child sexual exploitation to its Global CyberTipline.

“Findings show that the scale of child sexual exploitation and abuse online is increasing at such a rapid rate that a step change is urgently required in the global response to create safe online environments for children,” the report read.

“It shows that in the past two years the reporting of child sexual exploitation and abuse online has reached its highest levels with the US-NCMEC processing 60,000 re-

2019 to 2020. The organization cited an online group created by teenagers for the buying and selling of sexual images in the Philippines. It pointed out that economic factors may have fueled such a “trade.” The group had garnered 7,000 members by the time it was taken down.

Interestingly, the Internet has become a double-edged sword as it has also evolved into a tool for child sexual abuse online.

“The Internet has become central to children’s lives across the world, even more so as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic. Over the past two years, we have observed an increase in the scale and complexity of child sexual abuse online. This report should act as a wake-up call to us all; together we must step up the global response and create a safer digital world for all children,” Iain Drennan, Executive Director of WeProtect Global Alliance, said in a news statement.

Lingering hope

IAIN DRENNAN, Executive Director of WeProtect Global Alliance: “Over the past two years, we have observed an increase in the scale and complexity of child sexual abuse online. This report should act as a wake-up call to us all; together we must step up the global response and create a safer digital world for all children.” WEPROTECT.ORG

ports of child sexual abuse online every day,” the report added.

Covid culprit

WEPROTECT Global Alliance stressed the Covid-19 pandemic is a major factor behind the spike in reported incidents.

Meanwhile, the Internet Watch Foundation reported a 77-percent increase in child “selfgenerated” sexual materials from

PESO EXCHANGE RATES n US 50.8150

DESPITE the disconcerting findings, there is hope that advances in online safety technology and increased government engagement can help turn the tide on this global crisis.

WeProtect Global Alliance, a global movement of more than 200 governments, private sector companies and civil society organizations, is working to transform the global response to child sexual exploitation and abuse online.

The 2021 Global Threat Assessment Report details the scale and scope of the threat of child sexual exploitation online and aims to encourage action on the issue to reduce the risk to children and prevent abuse before it happens.

Cyberpsychology

FOR her part, Dr. Rani Sheilagh Dunn, a cyberpsychologist and member of the Global Foundation

for Cyber Studies and Research, told the BusinessMirror in an e-mail interview that cyberpsychology and recent research studies have found that rehabilitation of sexual abuse victims can be assisted by including evidence-based digital interventions such as the use of virtual reality (VR) for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

“This is one example of how cyberpsychology can help in relation to the exploitation and sexual abuse of children who would likely suffer from PTSD,” she said. In addition to utilizing nondigital-based treatment methods, including cyberpsychology, Dunn pointed out that validated, evidence-based cyber treatment is a component of a child’s overall treatment plan that capitalizes on the potential for technology to be used as a positive tool that could help in facilitating recovery.

Dunn underscored the important role of parents in teaching their children digital cyber hygiene. Aside from the parents, teachers should also be aware and be educated on digital technology so both parties can be aware of what the children are doing in cyberspace, understand and discuss what is appropriate and safe behavior online and know how to best support positive technology experiences and digital well-being for their children.

Cyberpsychology, however, is not a direct treatment for sexually abused children and it is not something that would be introduced directly to a child, she pointed out.

Dunn said the treatment of sexually abused children should always be under the guidance of qualified professionals and doctors working within this specialized and sensitive area.

“However, those who are working within this area can expand treatment by working with cyber psychologists who have exper-

tise related to this area to ensure they are providing scientifically validated cyber approaches, digital tools and technology use for a potentially more effective treatment that supports successful recovery for children who have experienced this trauma,” Dunn explained.

Dunn said the role of cyber psychologists became more important during the lingering Covid-19 pandemic as people became more intertwined with technology and many aspects of life moved into digital spaces that also brought many benefits as well as many challenges.

As a result, the role of cyber psychologists has become more prominent because the need to understand the human mind and behavior in the context of human-technology interaction was highlighted during the pandemic through “direct experiences of how vital it is to ensure our digital wellbeing and thriving.”

Proactive approach

TO address the rising challenges of mental health concerns caused

by Covid-19, the Department of Health, in collaboration with the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) RenewHealth, harnessed the power of digital technology to help Filipinos have a proactive stance in monitoring their mental health amid the Covid-19 pandemic.

Dubbed “Lusog-Isip,” the mobile app features screening and self-care tools, intervention programs and referral networks to help users navigate and manage their emotional and mental wellbeing. Lusog-Isip can be downloaded on AppStore and will soon be available on PlayStore. The launch was part of the recent National Mental Health Awareness Week commemoration.

Dr. Ma. Regina Hechanova-

Alampay, Chief of Party, USAID RenewHealth, told the webinar participants that the launching of Lusog-Isip is part of their five-year project that aims to help people who use drugs, people in recovery and their families obtain access to informal care, self-help, or community-based rehabilitation and recovery support to reduce and prevent drug dependence.

“Lusog-Isip is a very timely response to provide Filipinos with access to self-help tools and interventions. Furthermore, it is a response to the growing needs for mental-health services for Filipinos during the Covid-19 pandemic where face-to-face intervention is challenging,” Hechanova-Alampay explained.

In these uncertain times, Hechanova-Alampay stressed that mental health is as important as physical health. She added selfcare on mental health is now made easier with the Lusog-Isip app.

“It shows that we can actually do something about what we’re going through even with the current pandemic that we have,” Hechanova-Alampay said.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), the Philippine Special Initiative for Mental Health study conducted in the early part of 2020 showed that at least 3.6 million Filipinos suffer from one kind of mental, neurological and substance abuse disorder.

Frances Prescilla Cuevas, Chief of Mental Health Division of the Department of Health, said the partnership was anchored on the mental health pyramid, emphasizing that majority of Filipinos need self-care for their basic mental health service, noting that Covid-19 saw the rise in mental health and substance abuse cases.

“Lusog-Isip seeks to enable selfcare related to mental health and substance use,” Cuevas said.

n JAPAN 0.4458 n UK 70.1095 n HK 6.5357 n CHINA 7.9498 n SINGAPORE 37.7245 n AUSTRALIA 37.9436 n EU 59.0877 n SAUDI ARABIA 13.5481

Source: BSP (October 22, 2021)

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What happens if the world’s key metal exchange has no metal?

By Jack Farchy & Mark Burton Bloomberg

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HAT happens when the London Metal Exchange (LME) runs out of metal?

That’s the question the exchange is urgently trying to address for its flagship copper contract, which sets the global price for one of the world’s most important commodities.

TRADERS on the trading floor of the open outcry pit at the London Metal Exchange Ltd. (LME) in London on Monday, September 6, 2021. After 18 months away, brokers returned Monday to the red leather couches of the LME’s floor, where they set benchmark prices of metals such as copper and aluminum by screaming orders at one another. BLOOMBERG

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The problem stems from the LME’s physical nature: anyone holding a contract to expiry becomes the owner of a package of metal in an LME warehouse. On the other hand, anyone who has sold one must deliver the metal when the contract expires.

But with available copper inventories at LME warehouses falling below 20,000 tons—less than China’s factories consume in one day—traders are grappling with

the possibility that there simply won’t be metal available to deliver.

The dramatic drop in stockpiles that began in August and accelerated this month has sent the nearest LME contracts spiking to record premiums over copper for later delivery. That’s particularly painful for copper fabricators— companies that turn basic metal into things like wires, plates and tubes, and who tend to sell LME futures to hedge their price exposure.

But the emptying warehouses have also helped drive benchmark prices toward record levels and copper’s pervasive role in the world means that the jump in costs will add to wide-reaching inflationary pressure for manufacturers and builders. And while mounting threats to global economic activity are raising questions about the outlook for copper demand, inventories on Chinese and US rivals to the LME are also low.

Only a small fraction of the world’s copper ever enters an LME warehouse, and copper users tend to have long-term contracts with producers and traders rather than seeking supplies from the exchange. Nonetheless, the fact that exchange stocks are so low—and not just on the LME—shows that the market’s buffer has worn dangerously thin.

The LME brought in emergency measures on Tuesday evening to address the situation. Among them was a temporary change in rules allowing anyone with a short position who is unable to deliver copper to defer their delivery obligation for a fee.

“This is an unprecedented situation, and we haven’t seen anything like this in the recent history of the copper market,” said Robin Bhar, an independent consultant who’s been

analyzing the LME metals markets for more than 35 years. “These market actions are draconian, but they are needed.”

The LME has also started an inquiry, asking banks and brokers for information on their and their clients’ activity in the copper market over the past two months. Trading house Trafigura Group withdrew a significant proportion of the copper that’s been pulled from LME warehouses in recent months, Bloomberg reported Tuesday.

Trafigura responded by saying it had taken LME stocks to deliver to end users, emphasizing there’s strong copper demand that is outstripping available supply.

“Trafigura’s role is to ensure security of supply of commodities for its customers,” a spokesperson for the trading house said.

The LME’s actions are designed to avoid the catastrophic outcome where there simply isn’t the metal available to meet requests for delivery. By launching an inquiry, the exchange might make traders and banks think twice before requesting further deliveries.

And with its rule changes, the LME has attempted to defuse the possibility of a squeeze that runs out of control. It is allowing holders of short positions to defer their delivery obligations—by rolling their position to the next day. It also put a hard cap on how much more expensive copper contracts expiring in one business day can rise over those for a day later.

Finally, the exchange has tweaked its rules governing traders who hold a large proportion of available LME stocks. Ordinarily, traders in that position are forced to lend out their position to others in the market at a punitively low rate. But with

stocks so low, the LME is worried that that rule might deter traders from holding stock on the exchange.

Nickel spike

IT’S not the first time that the LME has intervened in its markets.

In 2019, the exchange launched a similar inquiry when a rush of orders to withdraw nickel triggered a spike in the nickel price. The market calmed, and the LME took no further action.

In 2006, amid soaring nickel prices, it imposed a $300 limit on the daily backwardation in the nickel market. And in 1992, when Marc Rich + Co. attempted to corner the zinc market, the LME imposed many of the same measures it has done in copper this week: placing hard limits on the backwardation and allowing holders of short positions to defer delivery.

The copper price retreated on Thursday, and nearby backwardations have eased from recent highs—perhaps an early indication that the LME’s moves have born some fruit. The key cash-to-threemonth spread declined to $295.75 a ton Wednesday, still an extreme backwardation by historical standards but down from a peak of $1,103.50 a ton seen on Monday.

Liquidity in LME contracts tends to be concentrated on the third Wednesday of the month: now traders are hoping for a period of relative calm. Still, the LME can’t change the reality that stocks are depleted across the global copper industry, with inventories on exchanges in China and the US also at historically low levels.

“The LME are in an unenviable position, with stocks being so low,” Bhar said. “Hopefully this will be seen as an attempt to cool a red-hot market.”

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

The World BusinessMirror

Sunday, October 24, 2021

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EU leaders brush off calls for hasty intervention to surging power prices

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everal European Union leaders warned against hasty intervention to address the surge in energy prices, as pleas for immediate action from some of the bloc’s poorer countries went unheeded.

Record power and gas prices were the first topic for EU leaders in their two-day summit that started on Thursday in Brussels, but the bloc’s ability to act is extremely limited.

While most countries have already cut taxes or approved subsidies to help households and companies, some want new measures on emissions, power and gas or even to scale down climate reforms.

“We need to distinguish significantly from the challenge we face in the fight on climate,” German Chancellor Angela Merkel told reporters before the meeting. “I

think that we should react in a level-headed way.”

The energ y crunch is exacerbating divisions among member-states at a time when the 27 nations are starting crucial talks about how to decarbonize their economies under the Green Deal. The EU wants to lead the global fight against climate change and set an example for other major emitters such as the US and China, but this summit will underline how far apart the members are in agreeing on their own energy transition.

The EU climate plan is “not in danger,” Belgium’s Alexander de Croo told reporters after the meeting. “But we need to have a long term perspective.”

French President Emmanuel Macron told fellow leaders that he expected the price hike to be prolonged, since there is nothing to signal a decline, according to an official who declined to be named on closed-door discussions. Macron said this reinforces the need for the EU’s plan to accelerate emissions reductions in the next decade, adding member-states must invest more to reduce dependence on fossil energies.

He also stressed the need for member-states to protect themselves against extreme volatility, mentioning transit routes, diversification and intensifying the climate plan, according to the official.

Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi called on the European Commission, the EU’s executive

arm, to propose as soon as possible a regulation on natural gas reserves, the official said. The aim should be that all EU members are equally protected, including from potential political pressure, Draghi added.

B y t he e nd of t h i s y e a r, t he com m i ssion w a nt s to propose a re for m of t he E U g a s m a r k e t , re v ie w i n g r u l e s on s t or a ge a nd s e c u r it y of s up pl y. It i s a l s o a n a l y z i n g a pro p o s a l b y me m b e r - s t at e s i nc lu d i n g Sp a i n a nd Fr a nc e t o c re at e a j oi nt pl at for m for purchasing emergency gas reserves, Energy Commissioner Kadri Simson said earlier this month.

W hile strengthening the energy supply security would help the EU in the medium and longer term, the current crisis is making things worse in the short term. It is pitting countries in the south and the east of Europe against the wealthier—and often more climate-ambitious—

Desperate Haitians suffocate under growing power of gangs

By Dánica Coto & Alberto Arce

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The Associated Press

ORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti— The video shows more than 30 men lined up in front of a crumbling structure in silence.

Their heads are bowed as a man walks between them and swigs from a small bottle. Someone exclaims, “There will be trouble in Port-au-Prince!”

Nearby, assault weapons are lined up against a wall, and twodozen handguns are scattered on the ground. Two large buckets are filled with bullets.

The men appear to be fresh recruits for one of Haiti’s most notorious street gangs, and the footage records their induction into the criminal underworld that increasingly rules the poorest nation in the Western Hemisphere.

The video is emblazoned with the name “400 Mawozo” and “400 good for nothings,” both references to the gang police say is responsible for multiple killings and kidnappings, including the recent abduction of 17 people from a US-based religious group.

The footage posted earlier this year is a gritty online brag that demonstrates the startling power of Haitian gangs as they seize control of more land and commit more crimes than ever before—all without a care. Their tightening grip on society threatens the country’s social fabric and its fragile, anemic economy.

“The situation is out of control,” said James Boyard, professor of political science at Haiti State University, who, like other experts, accused some politicians and business owners of funding gangs. “They made them too powerful. Now they are terrorized.

They didn’t know things would go out of control the way they did.”

Gangs control up to 40 percent of Port-au-Prince, a city of more than 2.8 million people where gangs fight over territory daily.

The street that belonged to one group yesterday may belong to a rival group the next day. Two leaders who previously shot at each other may form a brief alliance against a third before becoming enemies again.

T here a re dozens of ga ng na mes—K rac he Difé, Torcel,

Baz Pilot and 5 Secondes among them—but experts say only about 30 gangs are firmly established in the capital and surrounding areas.

The largest and most powerful is thought to be “G9 Family and Allies” federation of nine gangs, which is run by Jimmy Cherizier, a former police officer.

Gang violence waxes and wanes depending on the state of Haiti’s economy, its political situation and, at one point, the presence of United Nations peacekeepers. Currently, the country is still spinning from the July 7 killing of President Jovenel Moïse and a 7.2-magnitude earthquake that killed more than 2,200 people in August.

Those two events temporarily halted some gang activity, but kidnappings have surged in recent weeks. At least 328 kidnappings were reported to Haiti’s National Police in the first eight months of 2021, compared with a total of 234 for all of 2020, according to a report issued last month by the UN Integrated Office in Haiti.

The gangs’ growing power is most visible in the community of Martissant, which connects Portau-Prince with the southern part of the country and is ground zero for at least three warring groups.

The violence there has reached such extreme levels that many Haitians take hourlong detours to avoid the area, according to the local Le Nouvelliste newspaper.

Martissant’s abandoned police station is pockmarked with bullet holes, and bare-chested men with covered faces keep watch behind torched cars to ensure no one approaches.

In July, a gang opened fire on an ambulance and killed a nurse.

The following month, gang violence forced Doctors Without Borders to close its Martissant clinic.

On a recent Saturday, a group of armored police vehicles tried to cross the area and were shot at.

The body of a dead civilian lay on the ground for the rest of the day.

Until recent years, turf wars were usually between gangs, with civilians sometimes caught in the crossfire. Then in November 2018, more than 70 people were killed in La Saline, a seaside slum in Portau-Prince currently controlled by the G9 federation, whose leader was implicated in the massacre.

“Retaliation started escalating... so they started going after civilians,” said a top international official who was not authorized to speak to the media. “Now gang confrontations make no distinction between gangs and civilians.”

The same applies to kidnappings, which have targeted a hotdog vendor, priests, schoolchildren and wealthy business owners for ransom.

Experts believe much of this activity is driven by extreme poverty in a country where 60 percent of the population makes less than $2 a day and millions of people go hungry.

“Gangs are a way out, maybe the only way out of that situation,” Boyard said.

The country’s GDP dropped to -3.3 percent last year, the biggest decrease since the -5.7 drop that followed a devastating 2010 earthquake. In addition, the Haitian gourde depreciated more than 50 percent in the past year, and inflation remains above 10 percent, which has reduced purchasing power, said Haitian economist Enomy Germain.

This situation is comparable to the period that followed the 1991 coup that toppled former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, Germain said.

Experts blame Aristide for creating the current gang phenomena. After returning to power in 1994, they say, he disbanded the army and began arming people in slums, many of whom he had influenced during his time as a Catholic priest.

Some gang recruits start as young as 6 or 7 and by their late teens occupy high-ranking positions. Few survive to 30. Members often refer to themselves as “soldiers.” An armed man who identified himself only as James said he is a mechanic and joined the Baz Pilat gang “to protect the ghetto from rivals that enter to steal, kill and rape.”

Gangs also choke Haiti’s economy by blocking gas distribution terminals and major transportation routes—moves that prevent goods from flowing through the country. Many gas stations now remain closed for days at a time.

“I’m living in a chaotic country,” said Delmy Belmon, a 44-year-old manager at a hardware store. He said his children, ages 9 and 12,

can’t go outside to play and are old enough to understand what is going on.

“Whenever they are in the car, they are looking right and left, and when motorcycles approach the car, I can feel they are scared,” he said.

Violence is expected to worsen as Haiti prepares for presidential and legislative elections scheduled for next year. Political groups have long been known for paying gangs, according to the top international official.

“Any gang is open for negotiation and purchase,” the official said.

Haiti has roughly 9,000 police officers on the streets, a fraction of the number that would normally patrol a country of more than 11 million people.

Gangs outnumber police and carry more weapons. Earlier this year, they killed at least four officers and wounded several others following a botched anti-gang raid in the Village de Dieu slum.

Days later, police marched through the streets to demand the return of their colleagues’ bodies. The officers belong to a disgruntled sector called Fantom 509, which has been accused of killing people, setting buildings ablaze and even storming a jail to free imprisoned comrades.

Some officers w ith Haiti ’s National Police also have ties to gangs, Boyard said. “They support them, tell them how to move, when to go out and when to go in,” he said.

A spokesman for Haiti’s National Police did not return a message seeking comment.

Meanwhile, André Apaid, a Haitian businessman who owns a large textile company, declined to say whether he pays gangs but noted: “Business coexists with criminal and violent structures in order to survive.”

Gang activity is “a poison for an economy,” Germain said. “We cannot talk about economic recovery if we don’t have security, if people are kidnapped every day, if freight trucks are hijacked by gangs every day, if enterprises cannot freely carry out their activities.”

This story is part of a series, Haiti: Business, politics and gangs, produced with support from the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting

members in the north who argue the hike has nothing to do with European green policies.

The 27-nation EU toughened its 2030 greenhouse gas-reduction goal to at least 55 percent from 1990 levels and aims for net zero emissions by the middle of this centur y.

The Greek government has estimated that the crisis will cost consumers an additional 100 billion euros ($117 billion) in the 2021-2022 winter season.

With electricity bills at risk of double-digit increases, the EU’s plans to ban new fossil-fuel cars by 2035 and put a carbon price on dirty home heating are an even tougher sell. The European Commission’s proposal to extend emissions trading to heating and transport fuels has become the most criticized element of the July package to enact the new climate target.

T he EU ’s e x i st i ng c a r b on market, the Emissions Trading

System, is also blamed by countries including Poland and the Czech Republic for aggravating the energ y crisis. The government in Warsaw wants to restrict access to the market to some financial investors to curb speculation and prevent further increase of pollution costs.

In a gesture to placate Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babis, the summit communiqué underlined commission plans to look at possible speculation in the EU carbon market.

All the same, Finland defended the system and insisted investment in clean energy is the best long-term solution.

“We must not draw hasty conclusions, which could wreak havoc on the Emissions Trading System or otherwise worsen the situation,” Finnish Prime Minister Sanna Marin told reporters. “The big conclusion for the future needs to be more self-sufficiency and more renewables.” AP

Reports: Health problems tied to global warming on the rise

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ealth problems tied to climate change are all getting worse, according to two reports published Wednesday.

The annual reports commissioned by the medical journal Lancet tracked 44 global health indicators connected to climate change, including heat deaths, infectious diseases and hunger.

All of them are getting grimmer, said Lancet Countdown project research director Marina Romanello, a biochemist.

“Rising temperatures are having consequences,” said University of Washington environmental health professor Kristie Ebi, a report co-author.

This year’s reports one global, one just aimed at the United States—called “code red for a healthy future,” highlight dangerous trends: n Vulnerable populations—older people and very young— were subject to more time with dangerous heat last year. For people over 65, the researchers calculated there were 3 billion more “person-day” exposures to extreme heat than the average from 1986 to 2005. n More people were in places where climate-sensitive diseases can flourish. Coastline areas warm enough for the nasty Vibrio bacteria increased in the Baltics, the US Northeast and the Pacific Northwest in the past decade. In some poorer nations, the season for malaria-spreading mosquitoes has expanded since the 1950s.

“Code Red is not even a hot enough color for this report,” said Stanford University tropical medicine professor Dr. Michele Barry, who wasn’t part of the study team.

Compared to the last Lancet report, “this one is the sobering realization that we’re going completely in the wrong direction.”

In the US, heat, fire and drought caused the biggest problems. An unprecedented Pacific Northwest and Canadian heat wave hit this summer, which a previous study showed couldn’t have happened without human-caused climate change.

Study co-author Dr. Jeremy Hess, a professor of environmental health and emergency medicine at the University of Washington, said he witnessed the impacts of climate change while working at Seattle emergency rooms during the heat.

“I saw paramedics who had burns on their knees from kneeling down to care for patients with heat stroke,” he said.

“And I saw far too many patients die” from the heat.

Another ER doctor in Boston said science is now showing what she has seen for years, citing asthma from worsening allergies as one example.

“Climate change is first and foremost a health crisis unfolding across the US,” said Dr. Renee Salas, also a co-author of the report.

George Washington University School of Public Health Dean Dr. Lynn Goldman, who was not part of the project, said health problems from climate change “are continuing to worsen far more rapidly than would have been projected only a few years ago.”

The report said 65 of the 84 countries included subsidize the burning of fossil fuels, which cause climate change. Doing that “feels like caring for the desperately ill patient while somebody is handing them lit cigarettes and junk food,” said Dr. Richard Jackson, a UCLA public health professor who wasn’t part of the study. AP

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TheWorld BusinessMirror

Sunday, October 24, 2021

Top earner at Deutsche Bank reaps billions from Singapore

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o find the biggest moneymaker at the rarely-money-making Deutsche Bank AG, you need to travel 6,370 miles from Frankfurt to the 18th floor of a glass office tower overlooking the green waters of Marina Bay in Singapore.

There, Chetankumar Shah, a low-profile and publicity-shy banker in his early 50s, runs a team that oversees complex financing for clients ranging from Asian tycoons to an Indonesian conglomerate, while trading the distressed debt of companies including an Israeli shipping firm.

Shah may not be a household name on Wall Street, but his global financing and credit trading group pulls in an estimated 3 billion euros ($3.5 billion) annually, accounting for about a third of revenue for the entire investmentbanking division, people familiar with the matter said. After working alongside former fixed-income veterans like Sajid Javid—now a British lawmaker—and SoftBank Group Corp.’s Rajeev Misra, Shah now heads a unit that’s the top money generator for the investment bank most quarters, the people said, declining to be identified as the details aren’t public.

His importance underscores how even after years of trying to retreat from volatile businesses, Deutsche Bank hasn’t been able to pull away from activities that pose risks if markets turn. Chief Executive Officer Christian Sewing is targeting revenue growth after a relentless cost-cutting drive, returning to credit-default swaps and possibly base metals trading. The firm’s primary regulator has already expressed concern about risks it’s taking in leveraged loans—a familiar refrain for a bank whose recent stumbles led to the highest legal bills of any European lender, resulting in losses for five of the last six years.

Und e r S h a h ’s l e a d e r s h i p, Deutsche Bank has cemented its role as one of the world’s biggest credit traders. His global empire i nc ludes t he d ist ressed- debt trading business that has long been a strength of Germany’s biggest bank, along with a lending unit that’s served as a growth area after many Wall Street rivals pulled back in the wake of the financial crisis.

“He was one of the pioneers that helped us create the markets business v ir tua l ly f rom scratch,” said Anshu Jain, the former Deutsche Bank co- CEO who worked with Shah for more than a decade and is now president of Cantor Fitzgerald LP. “C het a n h a s a mu lt i- de c ade track record of ver y good risk management.’’

Amid all the recent turmoil at the bank that led to a string of executive departures, including Jain and former CEOs John Cryan and Juergen Fitschen, Shah has been a constant. He’s outlasted six CEOs during his 15-plus years on the credit team, working as head or co-head for the last six years.

Despite the billions his team br ings in, Sha h avoids the limelight from his nondescript corner office in the heart of Singapore’s financial district.

He declined to comment or be photographed for this stor y. A vegetarian teetotaler who loves

cricket, Shah doesn’t even have a LinkedIn profile. He remains an “enigma” even to one banker who has worked alongside him for a decade.

Born in India, Shah studied at the prestigious Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad, one of just three students graduating with a medal for academic performance. He joined Deutsche Bank in 1994, initially trading Indian rates and treasury bonds in Mumbai, before eventually becoming head of global credit trading.

Shah moved to Singapore in 2005, joining many financiers attracted to the financial hub for its close proximity to other Asian markets. Lower taxes are also a draw for many bankers, as Singapore’s top marginal income tax rate of 22 percent is less than half the level of Germany.

At the time, Asia was taking on a more important role for the bank, which was expanding beyond its early roots after setting up a Singapore outpost in the 1970s to help German companies such as Bayerische Motoren Werke AG and Siemens AG expand in the region.

As head of global credit trading and financing, Shah reports to investment bank head Mark Fedorcik and Ram Nayak, who runs the fixed-income, currencies business. His team, spread across Hong Kong, New York and London, makes money trading distressed debt and offering private credit in sectors from real estate to renewable energy in Europe, Asia and the US, people familiar with the business say. It also houses a mishmash of Deutsche Bank’s more complex loans.

Globally, private credit has mushroomed to nearly $1 trillion in the wake of the financial crisis as many commercial banks cut back on lending. Deutsche Bank is among the biggest players in the space, joining the likes of Apollo Global Management Group Inc. Other investment banks—from UBS Group AG to Credit Suisse Group AG—provide similar credit, yet none rely on this business as much as Deutsche Bank to generate earnings. “Our credit business has been a consistent performer for the bank for many years,’’ a bank spokesperson said.

“It provides a wide range of banking services to clients including high quality secured lending.

This activity benefits from the bank’s rigorous risk management processes, diverse business portfolio and long experience of the credit market.”

Sweet spot

The team does transactions in Asia and elsewhere that other firms may be too ner vous to touch, fueled by confidence that they have a firm grasp of the risks involved, bankers familiar with the strategy said. Shah’s team provides the high-risk credit, sometimes back-stopped by derivatives that have so far kept losses to a minimum. The hedges offer credit protection for

Deutsche Bank offices in Singapore. Lauryn Ishak/Bloomberg

the loans provided by Deutsche Bank, often to cash-strapped yet asset-rich Asian entrepreneurs, said the people. The team also prov ides shor t -ter m f i n a ncing, known as mezzanine loans, earning interest as high as 15 percent, the people said. “There is an opening in the market, and Deutsche Bank fills it,” said Tom K irchmaier, professor at the London School of Economics, referring to the division run by Shah. “On the other hand, lending to people with illiquid assets is always a tricky business and it’s hostage to the state of the economy and country risk. One can’t hedge that easily.”

The bank has been building the division over the past year— it recently hired credit traders in Singapore from Australia & New Zealand Banking Group Ltd. and has also hired a few dozen traders over the last year on either side of the Atlantic. While some have been replacements, a number are new positions.

The lender’s clients have included Indonesia’s Lippo Group, controlled by the billionaire Riady family. In India, the bank has traded the debt of shadow lender Altico Capital India Ltd. China is also a growing market for the group. The bank is part of a joint venture with Huarong Rongde Asset Management Co., a unit of the troubled firm that was bailed out by Chinese banks in August. Deutsche Bank’s credit exposure in the world’s secondlargest economy rose about 50 percent in just four years to 11.8 billion euros in 2020, according to annual reports.

T hat lend ing boost comes as the country is embroiled in a credit meltdown over developer China Evergrande Group.

Contagion has spread to other real estate firms, sending junk bond yields to a decade high.

Deutsche Bank Chief Financial Officer James von Moltke said at a conference last month that any fallout from its property exposure in China is “manageable.”

Distressed debt

Distressed debt has been one of Deutsche Bank ’s biggest moneymakers over the years. In the aftermath of the credit crisis, it became one of the biggest creditors to the collapsed Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc., earning more than $1 billion as the positions recovered, a person familiar with the transactions said.

The firm got a further boost this week when a UK court ruled that Deutsche Bank and other holders of subordinated notes issued

by a Lehman subsidiary must be paid before other claims are satisfied. The bank’s credit business also pushed into Ireland as the country began to recover from the biggest real-estate crash in Western Europe, underscoring its appetite for risky deals.

More recent wins for Shah’s group include a long-shot bet on Israel i shipping company Zim Integrated Shipping Services Ltd. that’s put the lender on track for one of its biggest gains since the “Big Short” trades against US subprime securities more than a decade ago. With the container shipper riding the wave of record-high freight rates, Deutsche Bank ’s potential windfall could climb to almost $1 billion, Bloomberg News reported in June. From 2016, Deutsche Bank wagered less than $100 million on Zim’s bonds and bank loans that were trading at a heavy discount, and also bought equity.

Those investments surged, and the bank recognized 300 million euros of revenue from the bet in the first half of this year.

Part of Deutsche Bank’s push in countries including India has been lending to cash-strapped tycoons and for purchases of distressed assets. Before 2018, that business was dominated by shortterm funding from shadow banks and mutual funds, which have since retreated. India’s shadowbanking crisis and revitalized bankruptcy process are creating new opportunities for lenders including Deutsche Bank.

Risk management

Shah’s business is showing no signs of slowing. Fedorcik said recently that revenue from trading securities accelerated in August and the first weeks of September after a slow start to the quarter. He confirmed guidance that revenue for the division—which includes Shah’s unit—will be about 9.3 billion euros this year. The bank is scheduled to report results on October 27.

For Shah and his global team, the question now is whether they can keep the momentum going.

As Angela Gallo, a senior finance lecturer at the Bayes Business School in London points out, the risks of these trades are much like structured products from the global financial crisis.

“The market underestimates the joint probability of having both credit markets and collateral markets in distress, especially when the latter are illiquid markets,” she said. “If you add complexity to the mix, the opaqueness adds risks to any trading deals.” Bloomberg News

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Russia wants to protect planet and Gazprom at climate summit

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ussia will seek sanctions relief on green investment projects for state-run energy giants such as Gazprom at next month’s COP26 climate summit, as it comes under growing pressure to join a commitment to slash methane emissions.

“We are being urged to reduce methane leakages and yet we have Gazprom under sanctions,” Russian President Vladimir Putin’s climate envoy, Ruslan Edelgeriyev, said in an interview Wednesday at the annual Valdai Club meeting in Sochi. “Let’s take climate projects out of sanctions, so that Gazprom has access to green financing, access to technologies.”

Amid surging Covid-19 infections at home, Putin has opted not to travel to Glasgow for the summit. Edelgeriyev said he had pursued the sanctions exemption proposal with US Climate Envoy John Kerry, as well as at a pre-COP ministerial meeting earlier this month. “If we want to reduce emissions, then climate projects should not be sanctioned wherever they are—in Russia, Iran, Turkey, in America, in Britain,” he said.

Edelgeriyev didn’t elaborate on what specific sanctions he was referring to. Gazprom itself isn’t subject to the kind of sweeping financial restrictions that some other Russian energy giants are, though it does face limits on access to technology, goods and services related to oil production in some areas.

He indicated Russia could accept more ambitious climate goals if it gets what it wants at the summit. Its position underlines the difficulty of isolating climate change negotiations from wider geopolitical disputes, something the US has repeatedly said it wants to do. Gazprom was among entities sanctioned by the US and the European Union after Russia’s 2014 annexation of Crimea and support for separatists in eastern Ukraine.

Still, the worsening impacts of climate change are now “so obvious that even the most careless people can no longer dismiss them,” Putin told the Valdai meeting late Thursday. Geopolitical and ideological rivalries become “pointless in this context, if the winners won’t have air to breathe or anything to quench their thirst.”

Europe is looking to Gazprom to help ease an energy crunch that’s sent prices soaring, a crisis Putin has blamed in part on what he called a hasty EU switch to renewable sources. Russia’s now pressing for regulators to rapidly certify operation of its Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline to Germany to boost supplies, a project the US has relentlessly opposed.

Edelgeriyev said he isn’t calling for a wholesale lifting of sanctions, and that a special working group would decide what projects qualify. But if climate initiatives were exempted, he said, nations that find it difficult and expensive to meet their climate obligations could do so by investing in emissions reduction projects in Russia.

“We have had conflicts, we have conflicts and we will go on having conflicts, but the climate doesn’t care,” Edelgeriyev said, accusing Western states of double standards, including on Nord Stream 2 which he said would help Germany burn less coal and cut methane emissions as a new pipeline that’s less leaky than existing transit routes. Opponents say the pipeline is a political project designed to make the current transit route via Ukraine obsolete.

“Until there is an equal partnership Russia will not move, because we were deceived many times,” Edelgeriyev said. “And it cost us a lot.”

Methane pledge

The US and the EU are pushing for nations to join a Global Methane Pledge at COP26 to cut emissions of a component of natural gas that has more than 80 times the global-warming power of carbon dioxide. Russia hasn’t indicated if it will sign.

Edelgeriyev, a former prime minister of Russia’s Chechnya republic, said a suggestion Putin made in April for an international satellite system to create commonly agreed data on methane emissions has gone without response. Without transparent accounting methods, Moscow will be reluctant to sign up to the initiative to cut global methane emissions 30 percent by 2030.

What’s seen in the West as a cheap and easy way to cut greenhouse gas emissions would be extremely difficult for Russia, requiring the reversal of an energy strategy for production growth that implies higher, rather than lower methane emissions, he said.

Russia has shifted its position on global climate talks from deep skepticism to engagement in the past year. That’s largely because an EU plan to establish a carbon border tax threatened to damage the competitiveness of Russian exports, according to Konstantin Simonov, who heads the National Energy Security Fund, a state-funded think tank in Moscow.

A once marginal domestic climate change debate also has begun to grow. Russian climate scientists addressing the Sochi conference painted a bleak picture of the likely impact global warming will have, melting the permafrost covering 65 percent of Russian territory, moving arable lands north, collapsing buildings and infrastructure, reducing soil fertility and increasing the danger period for forest fires by up to 50 days per year in some regions.

Yet as the world’s largest energy exporter, Russia also remains suspicious of efforts to force the pace on a green transition that it sees as stacked to benefit others, according to Simonov. “We are going to have to have a very honest debate with the West about the terms of the fight against climate change,” he said.

That includes the potential use by Russian companies of carbon credits from the nation’s vast forests to pay carbon border taxes, something the EU’s current plans would rule out. Similarly the inclusion of nuclear energy, hydroelectric power and so-called blue hydrogen—made using natural gas—as green sources of energy, a question with broad implications for Russian companies and export revenues.

Putin has set a goal for Russia to achieve carbon neutrality by 2060 and further commitments at COP26 “will depend on the international situation,” said Edelgeriyev. “These two things don’t get along, sanctions and climate.” Bloomberg News

Science

BusinessMirror

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

Sunday

Sunday, October 24, 2021

A5

DOST inaugurates virology, vaccine lab

Science Secretary Fortunato T. de la Peña with Undersecretary for Research and Development Rowena Cristina L. Guevara (partly hidden, right) at the ribbon cutting during the launching of the Biosafety Level 2+ Laboratory of the Virology and Vaccine Institute of the Philippines at DOST-ITDI facility in Bicutan, Taguig City on October 12. DOST-ITDI photo

By Lyn B. Resurreccion

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he Department of Science and Technology (DOST) inaugurated on Thursday its initial Biosafety Level 2+ Laboratory of the Virology and Vaccine Institute of the Philippines (VIP) at its Bicutan headquarters in preparation for the big VIP facility that it is waiting to be built in New Clark City in Tarlac province.

Science Secretary Fortunato T. de la Peña and Undersecretary for Research and Development Rowena Cristina L. Guevara led the event, that was beamed online, together with other DOST officials and Industrial Technology Development Institute (DOSTITDI) executives and employees, on which facility the laboratory stands.

The start of a "world-class" VIP, as Guevara said in her message, de la Peña said it "marks another step" toward achieving the country's goal of pursuing "self-reliance and nurturing scientists capable of leading in various fields" and "providing more protection for our human health and disease-free animals and plants."

Both de la Peña and Guevara underlined the necessity for the establishment of the facility as they recounted the country's difficulties at the start of the pandemic in March 2020, having no advance laboratories and having to rely on overseas facilities.

"DOST makes sure that it also addresses any current and emerging viruses affecting the well-being and health of humans, animals, and plants," de la Peña said.

"If there's a lesson we've learned from this pandemic, it is to be proactive, Guevara said, that made the DOST, and its attached agencies— DOST-Philippine Council for Health Research and Development (DOSTPCHRD) and DOST-Philippine Council for Agriculture, Aquatic and Natural Resources Research and Development (DOST-PCAARRD) and DOSTITDI—"came up with the plan to establish our country's virology and vaccine institute that will arm and equip us to become more prepared."

"This pandemic has shown us how important it is to be safe and secure from these invisible biological agents called viruses," she added. "In doing virology research, it is essential to prioritize personnel safety and security."

She said inaugurating the Biosafety Level 2 laboratory at DOST-ITDI will provide the country's researchers a place to work on initial projects "safely and securely, while also ensuring the safety and security of the community and the environment."

She said that while waiting for the passage of the VIP bill to institutionalize and build the VIP facilities in New Clark City in Tarlac, DOST-ITDI, along with collaborators in the country and

DOST Undersecretary Rowena Cristina L. Guevara with DOST-ITDI staff at the launching of the Biosafety Level 2+ Laboratory of the Virology and Vaccine Institute of the Philippines.

Photo from the Facebook of Undersecretary Rowena Cristina L. Guevara

abroad, already started working on the initial projects of the VIP program.

She explained that the DOST-ITDI based laboratory is "just a part of our preparation" for the VIP. "It may not be as big as the facilities we are waiting to be established in New Clark City, but this is the start.

We need not wait for the VIP complex to be constructed before conducting the initial projects of the VIP," Guevara added.

As part of DOST's Big 21 in 2021, the new laboratory will enable researchers to work on different virology projects—from plant and animal to human virology—and eventually generate new knowledge and create technologies which are "Gawang Pinoy at Gawa sa Pilipinas'' this early.

In 2020 the DOST has already initiated the cataloguing of possible Philippine strains of Zika, African swine fever viruses, and cadang-cadang viroid through genome sequencing with ITDI as the implementing agency.

De la Peña said to be implemented to start the VIP program this year are eight foundation studies or projects with an initial fund of P284 million.

The projects cover human, animal, and plant virology and the research areas of diagnostics, therapeutics and vaccines, in order "to build the VIP's capacity and help resolve some of the pressing issues in our country brought by viruses."

15 Southeast Asian women win British Council STEM scholarships

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he British Council announced the 15 women from Southeast Asia who won in its inaugural global Women in STEM Scholarships Programme.

The winners took part in a global call for applications organized by the British Council, the United Kingdom’s international organisation for cultural relations and educational opportunities.

The 15 scientists from Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam will be travelling to the UK in autumn to start their master’s degrees in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) subjects.

The recipients will study at Liverpool John Moores University, University of Stirling and University of Glasgow in the UK. The scholarship program supports the global need for greater diversity in science, by supporting early-stage women researchers to access international study opportunities in the UK. The women can then pursue careers in STEM fields, as well as act as role models of the next generation of female scientists and engineers.

Women are traditionally underrepresented in STEM subjects globally and evidence shows the importance to science when there is greater diversity.

The initiative aims to support the growth of women in STEM, create more opportunities for women to excel in the field, as well as become role models for the next generation According to data from the UN Scientific Education and Cultural Organization, fewer than 30 percent of researchers worldwide are women and only 30 percent of female students select STEM-related fields in higher education.

“We are delighted to be able to support the career development of women in science through these scholarships, which supports closer educational collaboration and exchange between the UK and East Asia,” said Director Leighton Ernsberger of Education and English of the British Council.

“We sincerely hope that it will prove to be a pivotal moment in the careers of these women and open doors to many opportunities in the future. We also believe these women will act

A section of the Biosafety Level 2+ Laboratory of the Virology and Vaccine Institute of the Philippines with some researchers at the DOST-ITDI facility.

as role models to the next generation of female scientists,” Ernsberger said.

The post-graduate fully funded scholarship programme, launched globally by the British Council in partnership with 19 UK universities, is aimed at benefiting women from South Asia, Southeast Asia and the Americas who aspire to access the UK’s renowned STEM courses but lack the financial resources.

It has been awarded to women with a background in STEM, who could demonstrate their need for financial support and who wish to inspire future generations of women to pursue careers in STEM. Lizz Srisuwan from Thailand, who pursues a Master in Public Health at Liverpool John Moores University, said: “I want to work on health policies for transgender and genderdiverse populations to alleviate health disparities and inequities.” “ T he transgender and gender-diverse population have unique health needs and are usually unaddressed in standard health care,” she added. “They are usually unable to access health care for reasons such as fear of rejection, discrimination, stigmatisation, health policy barriers or legal gender recognition issues.”

The winners have emerged successful from a rigorous process alongside thousands of applicants to receive a fully funded study offer from one of the UK’s world-class universities that are among the world ’s leaders in STEM subjects.

Complete financial support including tuition fees, stipend, travel costs, visa and health coverage fees are provided by the scholarship, with special support for mothers and for those who need English language training. Many of the winners will be pursuing their academic ambitions in STEM at a UK university for the first time.

The second round of the Women in STEM Scholarships Programme for 2021-2022 will continue this year.

Opportunities will be available to applicants from the eight countries of Laos, Cambodia, Myanmar, Vietnam, Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines.

Two of the projects are in partnership with Saint Luke's Medical Center (SLMC) and Research Institute for Tropical Medicine (RITM), while another is for vaccine development in partnership with Baylor College of Medicine, the USA. The eight projects are: Isolation and Purification of Philippine Common Viruses with Medical Importance and Pandemic Potential for AntigenAntibody Studies; Combination Therapy: Lytic Bacteriophages and Plant Extracts against Multidrug-Resistant Bacteria; Detection of Food- and Water-borne Bacterial Pathogens using Phage-based Diagnostics; De novo synthesis of a Non-infective Zika Pseudovirus as Reference for Diagnostics and Vaccine Development.

Development of a Real-Time Polymerase Chain Reaction for Point-ofNeed Detection for African Swine Fever Virus; Development of a PCRbased detection kit for Tomato Yellow Leaf Curl Virus-Philippine strains; Antigenic Peptides as Potential Candidates for COVID-19 Vaccine (with SLMC); and Development of Antibody Test Kits for COVID-19 using Enzyme Immunoassay (with RITM).

Being a multidisciplinary research and development institution and the only DOST research group with the mandate of undertaking research activities on biotechnology, DOST-ITDI, with Director Dr. Annabelle V. Briones

Photo from the Facebook of Undersecretary Rowena Cristina L. Guevara

at its helm, is supporting the DOST's efforts on VIP. The virology team is supported by seven Balik Scientists who are virology experts. They are Dr. Teodoro M. Fajardo Jr., Dr. Myra T. Hosmillo, Dr. Leodevico L. Ilag, Dr. Christina Lora M. Leyson, Dr. Elpidio Cesar B. Nadala Jr., Dr. Lourdes M. Nadala and Dr. Homer D. Pantua, who have established their careers in Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States.

At the same time, 13 young professionals were hired to boost capacity to conduct virology research, along with DOST-ITDI staff from the Environment and Biotechnology Division and the Pharmaceutical Section of the Chemicals and Energy Division.

Besides t he BSL -2 faci l it y at DOST-ITDI, the DOST w ill acquire a t ra n sm i ssion e lec t ron m ic ro scope and confoca l laser scanning microscope, and other ana ly tica l equipment for R &D. Besides Guevara, being the undersecretary for Research and Development, the VIP is supported by Executive Directors Dr. Jaime Montoya of DOST-PCHRD and Dr. Reynaldo Ebora of DOST-PCAARRD. It should be noted that the VIP Bill was unanimously approved in the House of Representatives and is awaiting for the Senate's action.

The VIP facilities at Clark New City will house a BSL 3 laboratory, and maybe the 70th BSL 4 laboratory in the world.

"It will also accept local and foreign researchers in virology, diagnostics, therapeutics, and vaccine development. Engaging local and foreign Scientists will further boost Philippine capabilities in this field and improve our self-reliance on our resources," de la Peña said.

Recounting the development of VIP, the Science Chief said that in May 2020, the DOST discussed with the Senate the possibility of drafting a bill on establishing the institute and be able to respond to the needs of the country.

The Bases Conversion and Development Authority has allotted a 5-hectare lot in the New Clark Economic Zone in Capas, Tarlac, as the VIP site.

This state-of-the-art facility is designed based on World Health Organization guidelines for establishing virology laboratories to ensure compliance with biosafety and biosecurity protocols.

At the same time, the Department of Budgect and Management allotted a P50 million budget to the Department of Public Works and Highways-Bureau of Design for the VIP's detailed architectural and engineering design, which procurement for consulting services is currently ongoing.

UPLB names gumamela hybrid after DepEd's Briones

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OS BA ÑOS, Laguna—A new gumamela hybrid was named “Leonor Magtolis Briones” in honor of the secretary of the Department of Education.

The University of the Philippines-Los Banos (UPLB) named its new gumamela hybrid after Education Secretary Leonor Magtolis Briones as part of the university's Women in Public Service series, a news release said.

Briones thanked former UP president and National Scientist Emil Javier, the UPLB, the Institute of Plant Breeding (IPB), and the Southeast Asian Regional Center for Graduate Study and Research in Agriculture (Searca) for naming the new Hibiscus rosa-sinensis hybrid after her.

“Thank you very much, I know that [former UP] president Javier practically mobilized everyone.

Thank you Searca for making all the arrangements and the nominations. And, of course, thank you to the Institute of Plant Breeding,” Briones said during the ceremony inside the campus.

“For my birthday, this is an award which was not solicited at all. That makes it more precious and surprising,” Briones, who recently celebrated her 81st birthday, added.

The gumamela “Leonor Magtolis Briones” is colored sunset orange with delicate pink lines extending from the center, and yellow blotches of dotting its edges, the UPLB web site said.

Its pinkish overlay is more prominent early in the morning and disappears toward the afternoon.

The “Leonor Magtolis Briones” bears flowers all-year round but bloom only for one day.

This Hibiscus hybrid was developed by Agripina O. Rasco of

The gumamela “Leonor Magtolis Briones” is presented to Education Secretary Leonor Magtolis Briones (center) by members of the UPLB community, led by UPLB Plant Breeder Agripina O. Rasco (second from right). UPLB Chancellor Dr. Jose V. Camacho Jr. (second from left) presents Briones a portrait of a montage of her photo and a gumamela, while a gumamela enamel brooch is pinned by Dr. Merdelyn C. Lit (left), UPLB vice chancellor for Research and Extension and chairman of the Committee on Naming of Hibiscus, Mussaenda and Other Ornamentals. A bouquet of the gumamela hybrid is given by Dean Dr. Elpidio M. Agbisit Jr. (right) of UPLB College of Agriculture and Food Sciences, and a paper weight of gumamela montage is presented by Searca Director Dr. Glenn B. Gregorio. Searca photo the Institute of Plant Breeding (IPB), College of Agriculture and Food Science.

UPLB started the Women in Public Service series last 2008, when gumamela hybrids are named after women who have contributed and served their communities and society. Briones will now be joining this long list of recognized Filipinas.

A distinguished teacher, public official and social activist for more than 50 years, Briones served as vice president for Administration and Finance of the UP System.

Before she was appointed Education Secretary, she was chairman of the Silliman University Board of Trustees, and regent and chairman-designate of the Universidad de Manila.

She has a wealth of experience

in administering public institutions. She was secretary to the Commission on Audit, vice president for Finance of the UP System, and she served as National Treasurer of the Philippines.

Her academic and professional competencies range from business administration, accounting, public finance, public policy and administration.

“The life, contribution, and experiences of Ma’am Liling in the academe and government service for more than 50 years, perfectly fit the Women in Public Service series,” Dr. Jose Camacho, UPLB Chancellor noted in his message.

Searca Director Dr. Glenn Gregorio lauded Briones’s efforts to ensure learning continuity and described how the Department of

Education supported and guided the institution.

“You could see here how Ma’am Liling has shown how resilient she is, teaching every one of us that learning should never stop,” Gregorio said.

“For a woman who continues to bloom brightly, we dedicate the Hibiscus rosa-Sinensis ‘Leonor Magtolis Briones’ to an excellent and radiant woman in public service,” said UPLB’s message to Briones.

The ceremony was also graced

by Dr. Merdelyn Lit, chairman of the Committee on Naming Hibiscus, Mussaenda and Other Ornamentals and vice chancellor for Research and Extension; Dr. Elpidio M. Agbisit Jr., dean of the College of Agriculture and Food Science; and Dr. Fe de la Cueva, IPB director.

Faith A6

Sunday

Sunday, October 24, 2021

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

CBCP: Synod must discern ‘signs of our times’ D

ioceses across the Philippines are preparing for the local consultation process for the Synod on Synodality that Pope Francis has called for the universal Church.

Local churches started engaging in the synodal process on October 17, during which parishioners will be encouraged to submit feedback to their diocese.

The pope launched the synodal process at the Vatican on October 9 to engage the entire Church in preparing for the Synod of Bishops’ next ordinary assembly in 2023.

The country’s Catholic bishops said that the Synod on Synodality is seeking to discern the “signs of our times” in order to respond to the calls of the present-day world.

They said the Church is trying to do so amid the challenges of Covid-19 pandemic, the scandals in the Church and in government, the secularism and materialism, and the “doubleedged” power of the digital world.

The bishops said they cannot brush off “the erosion of ethical values and idolatry of relativism,” the “antipathy and disdain against traditional institutions” like the Church, and the effects of “ecological abuse, terror and violence.

“In looking at the Church from the inside and looking at the Church with the entire human family, we cannot ignore the signs of our times,” they said in a pastoral message.

The bishops said the process will look at “two landscapes not with our eyes but with the eyes of the Lord.”

“The first is ‘How is our Church within?’” read the bishops’ letter, adding that the pope asks everyone to look at “How is this journeying together happening today in our local Church? What steps does the Spirit invite us to take in order to grow in our ‘ journeying together’?”

“The second is ‘How is the Church together with the entire human family?’ Are we still salt and light for the world? Is dialogue our way of life? How willing are we to listen with humility and respect despite differences? Have we become haughty or insensitive to the groans of suffering humanity?”

The bishops also identified three “tools” for the diocesan phase which will run until February 2022: sensitivity, time and conversion.

“We must become a Church that makes attentive and selfless listening its lifestyle. Sensitivity will gain for us a discerning heart to know the will of the Lord,” read the statement.

“It will win for us a deeper kind of perspective of persons and events, that we may go deeper than the eyes.

We see with our souls.”

“Time is greater than space. We can work slowly and patiently not obsessed with immediate results. We move with tenacity and clarity of convictions without anxiety but rather trusting in the Lord who walks with us,” it added.

Pope Francis (second from left) at the Mass to mark the start of the synodal process. Vatican News

What is the synod of bishops?

A Catholic theologian explains

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ope Francis opened a twoyear process called “a synod on synodality,” known as “Synod 2021-2023: For a Synodal Church,” on October 10.

In brief, the process involves an expansion of an established institution, called the “Synod of Bishops.”

This means that bishops around the world will consult with everyone from parishioners to monks, nuns and Catholic universities before coming together for a discussion in 2023.

The topic? How the church can learn to rely more fully on this kind of consultation-and-discussion process— how it can become more “synodal” in its governance.

Throughout the centuries, the Roman Catholic Church has held many gatherings called “synods”—but seldom one this sweeping in its potential consequences.

As a Catholic priest who studies theology, with particular interest in the role of lay persons and of local communities in the worldwide Catholic church, I will be watching this synod carefully.

In part, it is designed to make church governance more open and inclusive of all its members.

Coming together

Many people—even many practicing Catholics—may find the name “Synod on Synodality” and its purpose puzzling. What is a synod in the first place?

The word derives from an ancient Greek term that means “coming together” or “traveling together.”

Ancient Christians developed a custom of local leaders coming together to pray and make decisions about matters affecting all the Christian communities in a region.

They gathered in the faith that their prayers and discussions would

reveal God ’s will and the way to achieve it.

These gatherings came to be called “synods” and began a tradition of regional synods for bishops, as well as larger ones called “ecumenical councils.”

In principle, these were for all bishops around the world to discuss issues that were consequential for the whole church.

Over time, as the power of the papacy grew, ecumenical councils continued to be called, but regional synods diminished in importance.

After the Protestant Reformation in the 16th century, such gatherings of Catholic bishops happened infrequently, and only with express permission of the pope.

Meanwhile, even ecumenical councils became rare—only two were held in 400 years.

The most recent one, the Second Vatican Council or “Vatican II,” met from 1962 to 1965 and launched important changes in church law and structure.

One of Vatican II’s goals was to revitalize the importance of bishops as heads of their local churches and emphasize their cooperation with one another.

As a “college” under the leadership of the pope, the bishops are mutually responsible for the governance of the whole church.

To assist this revitalization, Pope Paul VI created a permanent structure for a Synod of Bishops, with a secretariat in Rome and a General Assembly gathered regularly by the pope.

Since 1967, the popes have brought this assembly together 18 times: 15 “Ordinary Assemblies” and three “Extraordinary,” in addition to a number of “Special Assemblies” involving particular regions of the world.

‘A Church which listens’

Pope Fra nc is h a s show n spec i a l

Cardinal Jose Advincula celebrates Mass to kick off the “diocesan phase” of the Synod on Synodality at the Manila archdiocese’s chapel on October 17. PHOTO COURTESY OF PCNE “We cannot proceed to be a synodal Church without conversion.”

After the diocesan phase that kicked off on Sunday under the theme, “For a Synodal Church: Communion, Participation, and Mission,” the bishops will prepare for a three-day assembly on the national level from March 7 to 9, 2022, “so that we can submit a national report to the Synod General Secretariat by April 2022.”

It w i l l be fol lowed by a cont i nent a l ph a se f rom Se ptember 2022 to Ma rc h 2023. T he f i n a l “u n i v e r s a l C h u r c h p h a s e ” w i l l c u l m i n ate i n t he X V I Ord i n a r y Genera l A ssembly of t he Sy nod of i nterest in the Synod of Bishops since the beginning of his papacy in 2013. The following year, he convened an “Extraordinary General Assembly,” outside the usual three-year cycle, on “the vocation and mission of the family.”

The assembly talked about controversial issues, such as welcoming to communion couples living outside church-sanctioned marriages. These discussions continued into an “Ordinary Assembly” in 2015.

The year 2015 also marked the 50th anniversary of the Synod of Bishops established during Vatican II. At a ceremony for the anniversary, Francis gave a speech that laid out his views on “synodality.”

The word “synod,” he reminded the audience, is about cooperation.

“A synodal Church is a Church which listens,” he said, pointing out that mutual listening has been the goal of much of the church’s renewal since Vatican II. “For the disciples of Jesus, yesterday, today and always, the only authority is the authority of service, the only power is the power of the cross,” Francis declared.

Since then, Francis has taken steps to give the church examples and a concrete framework for a more “synodal church.”

In 2018, he issued new regulations that encourage much wider consultation with members and organizations of the church at all levels as part of the synod process.

And in 2019, he followed up a “Special Assembly” for bishops of the Amazon region with “Querida Amazonia,” a kind of papal document known as an “exhortation.”

Here, he took the unusual steps of recognizing the authority of the synod’s own final document and referring important structural and procedural changes to their continuing work in their home churches, rather than to intervention by the Vatican.

Preparing for 2023

The current “Synod on Synodality” is the culmination of all this effort to bring a greater degree of openness, collaboration and mutual listening to the church.

Unlike previous synods, this one officially begins in dioceses all over the world, with opportunities for mutual consultation at every level and among many different church organizations.

When the General Assembly meets in 2023, its task will be to prayerfully consider how to move forward as “a more synodal Church in the longterm”—a church that “ journeys together.” William Clark College of the Holy

Cross/The Conversation (CC)

Bishops i n Oc tober 2023.

Archbishop Soc: Pray, synod ushers a ‘new church’ As Philippine dioceses opened the synodal process, Archbishop Socrates Villegas of Lingayen-Dagupan asked for prayers that it will lead the church to renewal.

Villegas said during a Mass that, first and foremost, “it must be the Church of Jesus Christ.”

“Let us pray that the two-year consultation in preparation for the Synod on Synodality will truly bring about the new Church,” Villegas said in his homily at the Dagupan Cathedral.

He said this also means that the Church should always choose Christ over ideolog y and must emulate Christ’s “all-embracing” and “allsacrificing” leadership.

“The Church cannot be yellow or red or pink because these things separate us. The Church of Christ does not choose any colors [because] Christ should be the center of decision making,” the archbishop said.

The world, he added, also needs a “Church that leads without being elitist” and “a Church that goes to the margins without being marginalized.”

“This is the dream Church. This is the Church that we want to be. This is the Church we want to become,” Villegas said.

“We cannot do it by ourselves. We can only do it by the power of God and the power of Christ working in our lives,” he added.

Advincula to Filipinos: ‘Your voice counts’ Cardinal Jose Advincula of Manila has called on the people to take part in the synodal process “no matter what your social, political, and economic, intellectual, or spiritual affiliation of our status is.”

Opening the synod ’s diocesan phase with a Mass for the Archdiocese of Manila, Advincula pointed out that Pope Francis wants the widest participation possible in the process of consultation and discernment.

“Your perspective as well as your experience of God can be part of the Synodal journey of the whole archdiocese,” Advincula said in his homily at the archdiocese’s chapel.

“In God’s family, you have a voice, and your voice counts,” he said.

Their consultation, he said, will involve not only the “church people” or those active in the church but “as many people as possible.”

He said this includes women, children, elderly, those in the business sector, government officials, the members of the LGBTQ+ community, the ordinary workers, among others.

The archdiocese, according to him, will also reach out to the people in the peripheries and even those who belong to other faith-based communities, and those who left the church.

“No matter how far you feel you are from the church and even from God, you have something to contribute,” Advincula said.

“We want to listen to you. We want to journey with you. We want to discern God’s will with you,” he added.

“Yes, an essential part of the synodal process is listening.”

“As we embark on this Synodal journey, I invite each one of you, each one to give value and time to listening,” Advincula added.

“Our consultations will be no other than listening to each other’s stories of faith and experiences in life,” he said. CBCP News

The façade and the interior of the reconstructed Nuestra Señora de la Luz (Our Lady of Light) Parish Church in Loon, Bohol. Photos from National Museum-Bohol

Quake-hit Loon church in Bohol restored

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he Nuestra Señora de la Luz Parish Church and convent in Loon, Bohol, was among two heritage churches and 19 heritage structures destroyed or damaged by the powerful 7.2-magnitude earthquake that struck Bohol on October 15, 2013.

Eight years after, the church, also known as Our Lady of Light Parish Church, was already reconstructed and restored.

T he Nationa l Museum of the Philippines (NMP) turned over the church to the Diocese of Tagbilaran on September 7, in time for the eve of the feast of Loon town’s patron, Our Lady of Light, and the nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the National Museum-Bohol said.

According to NMP Director-General Jeremy R. Barns, “To be entrusted with this project and successfully implement and complete has been one of the milestones in the 120-year history of the NMP.” Most Rev. Alberto S. Uy, D.D., bishop of the Diocese of Tagbilaran, accepted the reconstructed church together with Loon Parish priest Fr. Desiderio R. Magdoza and Fr. Milan Ted Torralba of the Commission for the Cultural Heritage of the Church.

Former Loon parish priests present during the ceremony included Fr. Joel Ruyeras and Fr. Ruel Tumangday.

The turnover culminated with the Rite of the Dedication of the Church and Pontifical by Bishop Uy “in thanksgiving to God’s faithfulness to His people, and the success of the project.”

Witnessing the event were Rep.

Edgardo M. Chatto of Bohol’s First Congressional District, Vice Gov. Rene L. Relampagos, together with the majority of the Sangguniang Panlalawigan of the province, representing Gov. Arthur C. Yap, and Loon Mayor Elvi Peter L. Relampagos.

The event also featured the unveiling of the marker of the National Historical Commission of the Philippines that declared the church in 2010 as National Historical Landmark.

Chairman Rene L. Escalante led the unveiling of the marker.

It should be noted that the Vatican has established a “bond of spiritual affinity” between the Basilica of St. Mary Major in Rome and two parish churches in Bohol—the Our Lady of Light Parish- Loon and Assumption of Our Lady Shrine Parish-Dauis.

This means that Catholics can make a pilgrimage to the two churches and enjoy all the spiritual benefits as if they were able to pray at the papal basilica.

The special bond also means that

special indulgences attached to the basilica can be obtained, under the same conditions, at the two churches under the Diocese of Tagbilaran.

The diocese has yet to announce the official declaration of this affiliation.

The Loon church and convent had been rebuilt several times from the 1780s until the early part of the mid-1800s.

The earlier structures had been built of light materials and were gutted by fire twice in the 19th century.

This prompted the construction of a stone masonry church, built between 1855 and 1864.

The building of stone masonry churches was the pinnacle of Recollect architecture in Bohol. It resulted in one of the grandest churches and its “crowning glory” in the Visayas: the Nuestra Señora de la Luz Parish Church.

The Loon Church Complex, which includes the Inang-angan stone stairway and the circular cemetery, was declared a National Cultural Treasure by the NMP on December 6, 2010.

As a National Cultural Treasure, the church complex was recognized as a cultural property possessing outstanding historical, cultural, artistic and architectural value highly significant and important to the country and the nation.

The Inang-angan stairway, also built in the 19th century, was significantly damaged during the 2013 earthquake. Restoration of the Inangangan was completed in 2016 and was the first quake-damaged heritage structure restored by the NMP in the province. Lyn B. Resurreccion

Biodiversity Sunday BusinessMirror

Asean Champions of Biodiversity Media Category 2014

Sunday, October 24, 2021

Editor: Lyn Resurreccion

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Bataan National Park Partnerships on DRR urged to attain resilience

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By Rizal Raoul Reyes

o enhance the Philippines’ preparations and capabilities against calamities and natural disasters, partnerships among disaster-risk reduction-centered organizations in the country and abroad is urgent, speakers at an online forum on DRR said.

“Over the past six years, Arise-Philippines has continuously undertaken programs and activities in line with its mandate to energize the private sector to advance the agenda for a disaster resilient Philippines,” said Hans Sy, chairman of executive committee of SM Prime Holdings and co-chairman of Arise-Philippines. Arise stands for Private Sector Alliance for Disaster Resilient Societies.

Sy spoke at the recent webinar titled, “Working Together Beyond Borders: A Webinar in Observance of the International Day for Disaster Risk Resilience.”

The forum was organized by SM Supermalls, in partnership with the Embassy of the Republic of Korea in the Philippines and Arise Private Sector.

The online event focused on the critical role that cross-border partnerships play in DRR strategies and initiatives, featuring key representatives from various organizations in the public and private sectors.

Sy said that for this year and relative to this year’s Target F of the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction (SFDRR), “we have started to reach out to international organizations and other governments represented here in the Philippines to pursue a more wideranging network of partners to reach our common objective toward disaster resilience for our country. This activity today is one of those efforts to achieve this target.”

Retired Vice Admiral A lexander Pama pointed out at the same forum the need for all the help the country can get to be able to overcome the hazards it faces.

“As a developing country that is extremely vulnerable to multiple hazards, we need all the help that we can get even as we’re hopeful and excited to engage in partnerships, particularly with possible partners from outside the Philippines,” Pama said.

Target F of the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction aims to “substantially enhance international cooperation among developing countries through adequate and sustainable support to complement their national actions for the implementation” of the framework by 2030.

Other experts at the webinar were Jaesang Hwang, country director of the Korea International Cooperation Agency (Koica) Philippine Office; Thanh Le, xounsellor for Development at the Australian Embassy in Manila; and Hans Peter Teufers, UPS Foundation‘s director of International Programs and chairman of Arise Global.

The Korean Embassy in the Philippines emphasized its long-term partnership with the country for DRR that it aims to achieve for developing countries. “[South] Korea and the Philippines have been working closely together to strengthen governance and infrastructure for disaster-risk

management at the local and central levels,” the South Korean Embassy said in a news statement.

It added that South Korea has also been working together with the Philippine government to enhance disaster preparedness for effective response to disasters.

“To attain this goal, Korea has contributed $410 million...[to help] in building stronger resilience and risk mitigation mechanisms in local communities, saving lives impacted by disaster,” the South Korean Embassy said.

Koica Philippines Country Director Jaesang Hwang underscored South Korea’s commitment to enhancing the Philippine’s preparedness for effective response to disasters and contributing to promoting partnership among various stakeholders from the government, civil society, private business and international organizations for disaster risk reduction.

Hwang said Koica has been implementing multiple projects with the Philippines Atmospherical and Geophysical Services Administration to develop and upgrade Flood Forecasting and Early Warning (FFEW) systems in five areas covering the National Capital Region, Bulacan, Rizal, Cavite and Laguna since 2007.

Through these projects the FFEW system accuracy is increased by 80 percent, the time for flood evacuation is lengthened by 60 minutes, and the time required for disaster response work is reduced by 78 percent.

For his part, Australian Counsellor for Development Than Le urged businesses and communities backed by local government and community-driven approach to be disaster-risk resilient.

He presented the Australian government’s Project SHIELD, or the Strengthening Institutions and Empowering Localities Against Disasters and Climate Change, wherein the National Resilience Council, a leading Arise Philippines member, is a partner implementor.

Marco Toscano-Rivalta, chief of the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction-Asia and the Pacific, called upon businesses to join the movement in creating a more disaster resilient region.

“We encourage businesses in the region to take the opportunity of the International Day for Disaster Risk Reduction to work together beyond borders. Only then can we address the range of risks that threaten economic growth and the achievement of the sustainable development goals, and we can make true progress toward a safer and more resilient world,” he said.

Liza Silerio, vice president for Corporate Compliance at SM Prime and the program director for SM Environment and Sustainability, urged stakeholders to join the global DRR movement as “each and every one of us plays an important role in addressing disasters and climate change impacts,” she said.

“Climate change is happening and is expected to worsen, so we have to act collectively. More importantly, we need to further harmonize on initiatives by governments, the private sector, and the international cooperation, and complement existing action plans to achieve a disaster-resilient society,” said Silerio, who is also an Arise-Global board member.

A park in the jungle

Picnic sheds are among the tourism facilities developed in Bataan National Park.

BNP Protected Area Management Office photo

By Jonathan L. Mayuga

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bout 130 km and some twoand-half hours drive from the country’s most famous landmark, the Luneta Park in Manila, the Bataan National Park (BNP) in Bataan province is considered as one of Luzon’s popular tourist destinations.

It serves as home to a variety of unique and endangered plant and animal wildlife and boasts of tourism facilities developed over the years, which make it stand out as a natural park.

The more than 20,000 hectares park is covered with tropical jungle and mountain terrains with unique geological features like rivers, springs and waterfalls.

Bataan’s oldest

First proclaimed as a national park in 1945 through Proclamation 24, BNP is one of the oldest protected areas in the Philippines.

Its status as a protected area was reaffirmed by President Duterte when he signed Republic Act 11038, also known as the Expanded National Integrated Protected Areas System Act (Enipas) on June 22, 2018, being one of the 97 legislated protected areas listed under the law.

The protectors of BNP expect regular funding to boost the number of Bantay Gubat from 15 to 30, and a workforce that is specially dedicated to running and managing the park.

The park is shared by a total of 19 barangays from the six municipalities of Bagac, Morong, Abucay, Samal, Orani and Hermosa in Bataan.

Not to be confused, the Bataan National Park, is a natural park because of its vast expanse, said Don Guevarra, the chief information officer for Central Luzon of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR). He explained that with its around 20,000 hectares qualifies BNP under the natural park category.

Key biodiversity area, old growth forest

Along with the Subic Bay Forest Reserve, the BNP was declared a key biodiversity area (KBA), as well.

A site overview of the two areas stated that the Subic Bay Forest Reserve and the Bataan National Park are “KBA’s of international significance.”

The reason is that in the BNP is the remaining residual old-growth forest

in the Zambales Biogeographical Zone. “[There are] notable flora and fauna found in BNP, such as dipterocarp species, endemic and threatened species [like the] green-faced parrot, Philippines warty pig, Philippines brown deer, mountain rose and fire orchids,” states a profile of the BNP obtained by the BusinessMirror from the DENR Central Luzon.

Major watersheds

In Bataan, protecting and conserving the BNP cannot be overemphasized. It is a major source of fresh water that supplies farms and provides a life support system for the diverse wildlife that thrive in the park.

Freshwater shrimps and native snails and different species of frogs are commonly found within the park.

Likewise, a total of seven watersheds are found within the area.

T hese are t he Morong R iver, A lmacen, Talisay, Bagac, Kabayo, Sutuin and Bayand ati watersheds. Combined, they cover a total of 22,976.58 hectares of the allimportant watershed area.

Rich biodiversity

Birds of prey are often spotted in the BNP, a proof that the area has plenty of prey to choose from for these highflying feathered hunters.

The BNP also hosts a still undetermined population of palm civet cats and cloud rats, and was found to be home to a still unknown population of large flying fox, the largest fruit bat in the world.

One unique find in the BNP is the rafflesia (Rafflesia manilllania), a unique plant with large, pungentsmelling flower that blooms only every 10 years.

Tourism potential

The BNP has a vast tourism potential because of the many recreational activities and ecotourism products and services it offers, including trekking and hiking, nature photography and viewing, camping, bird watching, picnic and swimming.

It also boasts of tourism facilities that attract visitors. It has the BNPMarine and Terrestrial Training Center in Sitio Looc, Barangay Banawang in the Bagac side of the park, and a picnic shed in the same area.

A similar facility is also available for tourists in Sitio Binutas in

The endemic Rafflesia manillania, a unique large and pungent flower that blooms once in 10 years can be found in BNP. BNP Protected Area Management Office photo Barnagay Tala, in the Orani side of the park, together with railings and path walk.

Natural attractions

The BNP boasts of a long list of natural attractions from scenic mountain peaks, unique waterfalls, unique ecosystems like caves, and all-time favorites, the lovely beaches.

It has a total of 14 waterfalls, which are all tourist magnets for nature trippers. Trekkers also climb Mt. Natib Peak, the highest peak in the BNP at 1,253 meters above sea level.

For many, the Looc beach, Matikis gulf, thermal spring found within the old caldera, the Tawawa hotspring and Bakyas hto-otspring are also not-bemissed attractions in the park.

Partnership for conservation

Interviewed by the BusinessMirror via Zoom on October 18, Merliza Torre, the Community Environment and Natural Resource Officer of Bagac, Bataan, said a key to protecting and conserving the BNP is the partnership with various people’s organizations and community-based groups.

One partnership that stands out, she said, is that for the National Greening Program (NGP).

“Bataan was a logged area and was subjected to deforestation. Although logging has already stopped because it was declared a park, stopping extractive activities remains a challenge,” Torre, also the BNP’s concurrent Protected Area Superintendent, explained.

Continuing threats

The unbridled development in the bustling province of Bataan, according to Torre, is becoming a big problem. Encroachment, she said, is hard to control, considering the vast expanse of the protected area.

This, she said, can also be attributed to industrialization in the province, which naturally attracts migration.

“As you may have known, Bataan has a fast-growing economy and the protected area is not a gated park so the problem is the illegal occupancy,” she said.

Other major factors that cause the park’s degradation are industrial and infrastructure development projects in the Subic Bay Metropolitan Area, Morong Special Economic Zone and the Bataan Nuclear Power Plant.

The environment official also said the expansion of the large cof-

fee and mango plantations continues to threaten the BNP, aggravating the usual problem brought about by illegal logging and timber poaching, and the slash-and-burn farming activities.

‘Responsible ecotourism’

As tourism activities are being eyed as part of a long-term solution to the problems that threaten the BNP, Torre said they are closely coordinating with concerned tourism officers of the Bataan and the six BNP local governments.

More importantly, however, the DENR Central Luzon led by Guevarra is helping educate the various stakeholders of the BNP to observe environmental laws, particularly Republic Act 9003 or the Solid Waste Management Act. “We’ve seen the problem in many Protected Areas. So our IEC Program is also focused on having responsible eco-tourists,” says Guevarra, who noted that despite the pandemic, the garbage problem seemed to have worsened, because communit ies in and around the BNP have added face masks and face shields in their household wastes.

“It is sad because during our coastal and river cleanups, face masks and face shield are now part of the garbage we are hauling,” Guevarra said in Filipino.

Saving Manila Bay, too

“This year, we held a lot of online lectures with the barangays as targets because they are our frontliners. The lectures gave tips on reducing plastic waste, particularly single-use plastics that are threats to BNP’s [environment],” he said, He added that the campaign for environmental protection and conservation in Central Luzon is aligned with the ongoing Battle for Manila Bay campaign.

Guevarra said because responsible ecotourism calls for responsible waste disposal, the information, education and communication campaign revolves around keeping the BNP not only green, but more importantly, clean and ensure it is garbage-free.

“We are talking to barangays and the communities that there are ways to avoid single-use plastics. For instance, we tell them to bring a water canister and avoid bottled water. Also, we appeal to them not to use soft drink straws and plastic stirrers because these are one-time use that we can avoid using,” he said.

New policy on bamboo welcomed for development, climate mitigation

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takeholders welcomed the new government policy on bamboo, saying that it will encourage more Filipino farmers to grow bamboo in their lands, help local and national development, and contribute to climate change mitigation and adaptation.

The policy is the Department of Environment and Natural Resources’s (DENR) Department Administrative Order 2021-26 (DAO 2021-26)-Rules and Regulations Governing the Establishment, Harvesting, and Transport of Bamboo.

As a council with bamboo as one of its main focus commodities, the Philippine Council for Agriculture, Aquatic and Natural Resources Research and Development of the Department of Science and Technology (DOST-PCAARRD) welcomed the issuance of DAO 2021-26.

DAO 2021-26 to help bamboo entrepreneurs, plantation owners

DAO 2021-26 that was issued in August amended various policies on the establishment, harvest and transport of bamboo products with the aim of encouraging the development of bamboo plantations and promotion of sustainable use of bamboo as wood substitute.

Bamboo is durable, versatile and multifunctional, and can be used to make various products, such as furniture, handicrafts, construction material and chemical products.

It has high carbon capturing capacity compared to other plants, which makes growing and using bamboo very sustainable.

DAO 2021-26 removed the Certificate of Verification (CoV) as a previous requirement for harvesting and

transporting bamboo.

CoV was considered a factor that discourages investment in the bamboo industry due to tedious and lengthy application process, its short validity of only three days, and its high cost because its use requires multiple applications.

The new DAO 2021-26 requires only a one-time registration fee for a Certificate of Bamboo Plantation Registration, which has no expiration until the bamboo stand is declared unproductive.

Registration of tenured forest land holders and backyard farms is also exempted, if they are for personal consumption and transported within the municipality.

Backyard farms may also be registered for commercial production as individuals, provided they have steady and sustainable supply, or

they may opt to form a cooperative/ association, instead.

DENR will also help bamboo entrepreneurs in accessing technology transfer arrangements provided by DOST and concerned units.

DAO 2021-26 also provides incentives to bamboo plantation owners for development and processing enterprises, and outlines guidance on capacitybuilding, research and development, technology transfer, financial subsidy, and other support activities.

Contribution of DOST-PCAARRD in DAO 2021-26

With awareness of the importance of the bamboo industry and the issues surrounding it, a roundtable discussion (RTD) with various government agencies, private sector representatives and bamboo farmers of Laguna was held in

2016 at DOST-PCAARRD. The RTD highlighted the regulations for harvesting and transporting bamboo, specifically, the muchcriticized CoV requirement.

As a result, the DOST-PCAARRD supported a policy analysis project in 2017 to investigate the issue and provide scientific basis to create an enabling policy environment for the bamboo industry.

The project titled, “Creating an Enabling Environment for A Vibrant Philippine Bamboo Industry-Addressing Policy Constraints and Information Needs,” was implemented by the University of the Philippines Los Baños under the leadership of Dr. Ramon Razal, a professor in the Department of Forest Products and Paper Science of UPLB College of Forestry.

The study assessed the policies

surrounding bamboo resources and came up with a proposed draft DAO based on the result of regional workshops, RTDs, the National Policy Consultation Workshop on Bamboo, and conduct of cost-benefit analysis.

The document was presented and submitted to the DENR through the Forest Management Bureau in 2019.

Several recommendations of Razal’s team were adopted in the new DAO. This includes the registration of bamboo plantations that now serves as the only requirement for the cutting and transport of harvested bamboo poles, as opposed to the previous policy where a CoV was required.

CoV, as found by a 2017 study, was a disincentive to bamboo growers because acquiring it is expensive and time consuming. Farah Y. Sevilla and Monica B.

Castillo/S&T Media Services

Sports BusinessMirror

Russian triathlete 1st DQ from Tokyo, banned for 3 years

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unday, October 24, 2021 mirror_sports@yahoo.com.ph Editor: Jun Lomibao

FORMULA One racing is here to stay in the USA. AP

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AUSANNE, Switzerland— In the first formal disqualification of a Tokyo Olympics athlete for doping, Russian Igor Polyanskiy has been banned for three years, World Triathlon said on over the weekend.

Polyanskiy admitted doping with EPO, an endurance boosting hormone, ahead of the Olympics and is banned until during the 2024 Paris Games.

World Triathlon added Polyanskiy did not dispute his positive test in a sample taken at a training camp in Vladivostock, Russia, five days before he began competing in Tokyo.

The positive test was notified after he placed 43rd in the men’s race and helped the Russian Olympic Committee quartet finish 14th in the mixed relay. He was 31st in the men’s event at the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics.

He and the Russia team were disqualified and their Tokyo results annulled, World Triathlon said.

Because the 31-year-old Polyanskiy admitted the charge, he got a one-year reduction from the potential four-year sanction by a World Triathlon tribunal.

He is cleared to compete again on August 10, 2024, one day before the Paris closing ceremony.

A Russian volleyball player who won the gold medal at the 2012 London Olympics also has accepted a nine-month doping ban for a positive test which was apparently concealed eight years ago, the International Volleyball Federation said Wednesday. AP

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IGOR POLYANSKIY has been banned for three years until during the 2024 Paris Games.

Arthur Ashe mural defaced

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ICHMOND, Virginia—A mural of Black tennis legend and Richmond, Virginia, native Arthur Ashe was defaced with insignias associated with a white nationalist group, police said Thursday.

Officers called Thursday morning to the city’s Battery Park found the mural vandalized, police said.

“Hate will not be tolerated in Richmond,” Police Chief Gerald Smith said in a news release. “We are asking for the public’s help by being another set of eyes on the murals and monuments of Richmond.”

It’s the second time this week that a mural in Richmond has been defaced with such markings, police said. Police will monitor

monuments and murals citywide. If damage from vandalism is $1,000 or more the person or persons responsible can be charged with a felony, police said.

Crews painted over the vandalism and the city immediately contacted Sir James Thornhill, one of the artists who had worked on the mural in 2017, WRICTV reported. Officials expressed hope that the mural could be repainted in coming months.

“Those responsible for this, and other like-minded shameful and cowardly acts, will be held accountable,” Mayor Levar Stoney said in a statement. “Let me be clear: Hate will not be tolerated in our city.” AP

USTIN, Texas—When Formula One returned to the United States in 2012, in Texas of all places, the world’s highest class of international auto racing was taking a big leap in a country it had abandoned five years earlier.

A decade later, F1 is here to stay in the USA. The US Grand Prix on Sunday will fulfill F1’s original 10-year contract with the Circuit of the Americas, and the series has a new 10-year agreement for the Miami Grand Prix beginning next season. New American fans have been drawn to F1 by the Netflix docuseries “Drive to Survive.”

It’s taken a decade for F1 to establish its foothold, even without an American driver many have insisted the series needs to survive long term in the United States. The thrilling championship fight between Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen has been captivating and the sold-out crowd Sunday is anticipated to be the largest in race history.

“Huge, huge F1 fan,” Nascar reigning champion Chase Elliott told reporters Thursday while wearing a shirt supporting McLaren driver Daniel Ricciardo. “You know, it’s, it’s super fun to watch and they’ve got a lot of traction right now.”

The addition of Miami to the schedule beginning next May is expected to boost F1’s presence in North America to four stops: Montreal and Mexico City both return to the 2022 calendar, and Austin is among the 23 dates announced even as track President Bobby Epstein seeks a new multiyear contract.

“I’m pretty optimistic we’ll reach a new deal going forward,”

Epstein said. “The track has become the global brand we wanted it to be. The architects who designed it have been proven right, the city as a destination has been validated.

There were a lot of people who doubted and didn’t see why it would work in Austin. We’ve proven it’s succeeded.”

Epstein even believes there’s enough interest for more stops in the US Liberty Media, a USbased investment firm, has run F1 since 2017 and President Stefano Domenicali acknowledged the country is a “key growth market.”

Hamilton said he is excited about the expansion.

“It’s such a huge country,” Hamilton said. “Having just one race here for sure isn’t enough to really be able to tap into the sporting culture here and really encapsulate the fans and get them on the journey with us.”

Few would have expected the series to take off as it has.

The Circuit of the Americas was just rolling scrub land outside the Texas capital when F1 said it was returning to the United States five years after its eight-year run ended at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. It seemed risky to build a $300-million facility for the purpose of hosting F1 and its openwheel teams in a country where the Nascar stock car series is king.

Texas lawmakers sweetened the deal by allowing Epstein and race promoters to tap into state money to cover F1’s rights fees—a tab that runs more than $25 million per year.

Organizers applied for $35 million in state funds for this year’s race.

Epstein turned race weekends into full festivals with starstudded concerts that have featured Taylor Swift, Justin Timberlake and Pink. Billy Joel is

Saturday night’s headliner in the track’s massive infield.

Nascar driver Denny Hamlin, a three-time Daytona 500 winner, complained about the sparse crowd at last week’s playoff race in Fort Worth. He suggested Nascar copy the US Grand Prix’s party approach to attract more fans.

“I would love to see us kind of have more of an F1-style approach to a race weekend and how we host hospitalities, parties, just all those things,” Hamlin said. “There’s just got to be more to it then showing up and racing like we’re doing now.”

F1 drivers have praised the Austin track itself and seize every opportunity to enjoy the US while promoting the race. Sergio Perez kicked off the festivities last weekend with a demonstration in his Red Bull in downtown Dallas that drew more than 10,000 spectators. Charles Leclerc of Ferrari and Pierre Gasly of Alpha Tauri sat courtside for the NBA season-opener in Milwaukee, and Mick Schumacher, son of F1 legend Michael Schumacher and driver for the Americanowned Haas team, was on the pit stand for Stewart-Haas Racing at Sunday’s Nascar race.

“I can see the passion for the sport is growing here, which is great,” Perez said. “Even five years ago, it wasn’t as popular as you see now. I think Formula One is only going to get bigger stateside.”

What the American market is still missing is a victory—or even a podium—from an American driver or team.

There hasn’t been an American driver in F1 since Alexander Rossi’s limited run with Sauber ended in 2015. He moved to IndyCar, won the Indianapolis 500 as a rookie, and hasn’t returned to F1.

NFL kicks off responsible betting campaign

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TLANTIC CITY, New Jersey—The National Football League (NFL) is spending $6.2 million to help expand programs to prevent or treat problem gambling across the country.

The league is launching a responsible betting initiative aimed at getting fans to set limits

on their wagers, understand the risks of betting and know where to get help if things get out of hand. It is partnering with the National Council on Problem Gambling to improve the group’s nationwide help line, create new treatment programs and expand existing ones, and educate football fans who gamble on how

to do so responsibly.

A three-year effort will include in-game messaging, social-media outreach, broadcast, print and in-stadium messaging. Some of it will target people who are too young to legally gamble but may feel tempted to do so.

More than 45 million Americans say they plan to bet on NFL games

A MURAL of Black tennis legend Arthur Ashe is vandalized. AP

THE league is launching a responsible betting initiative aimed at getting fans to set limits on their wagers, understand the risks of betting and know where to get help if things get out of hand. AP

American businessman Gene Haas expanded into F1 in 2016 as the means to grow his machine tool building company internationally. He’s so far declined to develop an American driver and currently fields cars for Schumacher, a German, and Russian driver Nikita Mazepin.

Haas has chosen drivers with experience and financial backing, though the result is five winless seasons without a single podium.

Even worse, Haas has collapsed from a middle-of-the-pack team in 2018 to last place this season.

Michael Andretti, son of former F1 champion Mario Andretti, has openly said he’d like to expand the Andretti brand into F1 and is reportedly in discussions to take control of Sauber. The American even made inquiries about getting Colton Herta in an F1 car for Friday’s first practice session.

The 21-year-old Andretti star is currently in IndyCar and would be expected to move to F1 if Andretti gets a team. Herta tried the F1 development route and moved to London alone at 15, but was back in the US two years later when opportunities didn’t materialize. He landed in IndyCar and became the series’ youngest winner at 19—at the Circuit of the Americas—in 2019.

The pursuit of one of the 20 seats on the F1 grid is expensive and requires a massive commitment from drivers at very young ages.

Perez was a teenager when the left Mexico for Europe to train for F1. “[An American driver] would be nice to have, but from my perspective it is very hard to make it in Formula One,” Perez said.

“We are the ones who have to go out of our homes and we have to do that at a very young age.” AP this year, according to the American Gaming Association, the casino industry’s national trade group.

That’s an increase of 36 percent from last year.

“Sports betting is supposed to be fun,” said Christopher Halpin, the NFL’s executive vice president, chief strategy and growth officer. “We feel it is critical that the NFL uses the power of our voice to educate and encourage fans who choose to gamble to do so in a safe and responsible way. We also recognize that responsible betting programs across the country are under-resourced, especially as legalization spreads nationwide.”

Keith Whyte, executive director of the council, said the NFL’s funding will enable it to “exponentially” expand its advocacy, awareness and assistance efforts regarding problem gambling.

“We will be able to help so many more people as a result of this,” he said. “The NFL has set an example for the other professional sports leagues who also need to realize their obligation to address the downside of sports betting as much as they embrace the upside.”

Whyte said about 2 percent of the US population has a gambling problem, but among those who have gambled within the last 12 months, the rate is 5 percent. AP

BusinessMirror

October 24, 2021

What happens to your life stories if you delete your Facebook account?

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BusinessMirror OCTOBER 24, 2021 | soundstrip.businessmirror@gmail.com

YOUR MUSI

CROSSING BORDERS Valentina Ploy on how shared experiences allow her to connect with global audiences

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By Stephanie Joy Ching

ORN and raised in Italy but now residing in Bangkok, Valentina Ploy had always found herself drawn to music ever since she was a little girl. She was already writing songs at the age of seven and honed her passion from then on, eventually picking up both the violin and the guitar.

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: T. Anthony C. Cabangon

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

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For Valentina, music was a way of being honest with herself and her feelings, and soon it became a career path and a way for her to express her more vulnerable side.

Since 2019, she has been slowly but surely building her global fan base and has been particularly big with Filipino audiences as a result of her hit singles, “Love You Better” and “Really Wanna Know Ya.” “I didn’t expect it at all. it was

like magic for me,” she recalled when “Love You Better” first blew up in the country, “I was so, so happy to hear about it and I’m very happy that people are liking the song,” In addition, she has also earned the admiration of Filipino artists and went on to collaborate with of Alexa Illacad. Along withy Jayda, Jona, Kyla, KZ Tandingan, Lesha, Moira Dela Torre, and many other female recording artists from Southeast Asia, Valentina lent her talents for the groundbreaking charity single “Heal”.

“I didn’t expect it at all. it was like magic for me,” she recalled to SoundStrip when “Love You Better” first blew up in the country, “I was so, so happy to hear about it and I’m very happy that people are liking the song.”

Driven by a synthbased mid-tempo arrangement, the bouncy ballad resonated with a lot of fans thanks in large part to its unforgettable

line, “I don’t wanna love you more, I just wanna love you better.”

Valentina admits that she writes songs from personal experiences because she considers it the most natural way of expressing herself.

It’s no surprise then that her latest single, the intriguingly-titled “Drunk Sleeping in Taxis” is by her admission, an exploration of her fears of not being loved at her worst.

“This one, I wrote the chorus in my bedroom, it was about 2am.

Then the following morning I scrolled down my Instagram, you could hear the little clips of me singing the song, and it was just the chorus. I originally wrote a totally different verse, but then I got in touch with my producer and I asked him what he thought about it.

He was like ‘The chorus is so great, I love the concept and it’s very nice, but I think you can do better with the verses…’ So I left it there just sitting on my phone memos for, I think two months. ” she said.

After going through another vulnerable night, Valentina revisited the song, and this time brought English producer Richard Craker along. Together, they were able to recreate the somber atmosphere she was “hearing in her head” that is “a pop song but it still keeps the acoustic sound with synth pop elements.”

When asked what her secret was in being able to cross international borders, she believes that it is her honesty and authenticity that allowed her to connect with her newfound but passionate audience outside of Thailand.

“I just try to be very honest,” she admitted. “If you’re honest, real and open-hearted people will feel the same things you have felt because [the] share[d] experiences.”

“Drunk Sleeping in Taxis” is currently available in all major streaming platforms courtesy of What the Duck music.

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soundstrip.businessmirror@gmail.com | OCTOBER 24, 2021

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BUSINESS

EASY DOES IT

Global superstar Adele returns with brand new single, ‘Easy On Me’

ADELE Photo by Simon Emmett

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ASY On Me” precedes the November 19th release of Adele’s newest album 30, on Columbia Records. Earlier this week, Adele shared the news of her new album release date and inspiration with a personal note to her fans letting them know she was “finally ready to put this album out.”

The video for “Easy On Me,” shot last month in Quebec, finds Adele once again collaborating with Cannes Grand Prix winning director Xavier Dolan (Mommy, It’s Only The End The World).

“I was honestly hoping for this to happen,” noted Dolan.

“For me, there’s nothing stronger than artists reconnecting after years apart. I’ve changed.

Adele’s changed. And this is an opportunity to celebrate how we’ve both evolved, and how we’ve also both remained faithful to our dearest themes. It’s all the same, but different.” The video begins in the same house the pair used to shoot the video for Adele’s 2015 smash single “Hello.”

30 is the first new music from Adele since the release of her third studio album 25 in November

2015. The album is produced with former collaborators Greg Kurstin, Max Martin, Shellback and Tobias Jesso Jr as well as new collaborators Inflo and Ludwig Göransson. 30 is available for preorder at all physical and digital retailers globally.

In addition, exclusive configurations will be available at select retailers nationwide including a Target deluxe CD featuring three bonus tracks and a Walmart clear exclusive double vinyl.

An Amazon white exclusive double vinyl will be available globally. 30 and lead single “Easy On Me” will also be offered on cassette, exclusive to Adele’s D2C store while supplies last. The album will be available on all digital platforms.

What happens to your life stories if you delete your Facebook account?

By Michael Humphrey

I

Colorado State University

f the latest deluge of Facebook controversies has you ready to kick the app to the digital curb, you are not alone. There are plenty of good guides out there on how to do it right. Even Facebook makes it pretty easy to understand the nuances of saying “see ya later” (deactivating) or “never speak to me again” (deleting).

But before you go, you might want to consider this: What happens to your life stories?

For many people, a decade or more of updates, comments, photos, messages, tags, pokes, groups and reactions reside inside that particular digital sphere. And Facebook wants you to remember that. As one writer put it: “Facebook is obsessed with memories. It likes to make you nostalgic, and remind you of just how long you’ve used social media.”

As a researcher who studies life stories on social media, I know that’s an accurate assessment. This strategy drove Facebook to build a powerful and unique life narrative tool.

Millions of people have invested billions of collective hours building what scholars call a networked life narrative, in which people “co-construct” their social identities through their interactions with one another.

“Facebook is obsessed with memories. It likes to make you nostalgic, and remind you of just how long you’ve used social media.” Photo by Ronê Ferreira from Pexels Perhaps you’ve never thought about how archiving the small moments of your life would eventually amass into a large narrative of yourself. Or how interactions from your family, friends, colleagues and strangers would create meaningful dimensions of that story.

consume media on the app and how you have acted on the site over the years.

It’s also a pretty nifty set of files that you can view offline either through the folder system or using a web browser offline by opening the index.html file. You can also look at the data online through Facebook.

Deactivating versus deleting

Losing the connections

What happens if you decide to be done with all of that? If you deactivate Facebook, it is like putting that story into suspended animation. Much of what you did and said will either be removed or grayed out. If you reactivate it someday, most of it will be restored and on you go.

Delete the account, on the other hand, and “Your profile, photos, posts, videos, and everything else you’ve added will be permanently deleted. You won’t be able to retrieve anything you’ve added,” according to Facebook.

If all those memories you have stored mean anything to you, your last chance to keep it before deleting is to download your information. I suggest you do this once in a while anyway, because it reveals a lot about how you are tracked, how you

But to a surprisingly large degree, your downloaded narrative gets “de-networked.”

What do I mean by that?

Your posts are listed by date and time, but have none of the reactions and comments that followed. This is also true of photos and videos you have posted.

The same happens to the comments you made on other people’s posts. There is no reference to what you were commenting on because technically that is not your data.

The polls you have voted on do not have the context of the poll itself, only your answers.

The invitations you received are listed only by name.

There is a section of all the people you have interacted with on the app, but it’s just a list of names, dates and times.

There are dates attached to most everything, but none of the context—think personal and social news—in which those posts were made.

There are exceptions. For one, your messages are left in context, so you see the conversations you had. Another exception is that events are ordered by how you responded about attending.

And I have one caveat: I am gathering this information from my own data, so there might be other exceptions I cannot see.

Take a look around before walking out the door Still, what you ultimately download starts to feel like the scaffolding of a life, with the depth of those memories only activated by your own mind. That might be enough for you.

If the richness of your networked narrative means something, on the other hand, slow down. Take some time to dive into your account one last time—saving the responses you cherish, capturing the context where you can—before you say goodbye to Facebook for good. The Conversation

Meta? Horizon? Facebook renaming report sparks speculation

T

he report that Facebook Inc. plans to change its corporate name prompted a flurry of online speculation as industry followers rushed to register their guesses.

Suggestions on Twitter included simple ones like “FB” and a return to “The Facebook.” The Verge, which reported the plan on Tuesday, said the new name could have something to do with “Horizon” after a virtual reality platform the company has been developing. That would be a nod to Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg’s ambition for Facebook to eventually be known better for its metaverse—re-

ferring to the trendy proposition that the next evolution in online connectivity will be people living, working and interacting in an immersive virtual world—than its social network.

“Meta” is another contender put forward by, among others, Samidh Chakrabarti, the company’s former civic integrity chief. The web address meta.com currently redirects to meta. org, the home of a biomedical research discovery tool developed under the stewardship of the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, which is cofounded by the Facebook CEO. That suggests Zuckerberg has a head start on any other con-

4 BusinessMirror

tender looking to secure the ultimate name for a metaverse firm.

The aim of the rebranding would be to reposition Facebook as a metaverse company, The Verge said, with the marquee apps and services like Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp likely maintaining their branding under a new parent structure not unlike that practiced by Google and its parent Alphabet Inc. Facebook declined to comment on the report.

Supporting the Meta idea are several factors: Silicon Valley firms favor brief domain names as a mark of prestige, with Alphabet calling abc.xyz home. Any company named Meta would also be able

October 24, 2021

to lay claim to the term “metaverse” as its own rather than the generic descriptor it currently is.

In 2017, the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative acquired a company called Meta that developed artificial intelligence technology for searching scientific papers. It now resides at meta.org. A separate augmented-reality start-up with the same name was sold in 2019 to a buyer called Meta View, which planned to develop an AR headset. Its web site is metavision.com.

Facebook is planning to announce a name change by October 28, The Verge said. Bloomberg